Glory to Jesus Christ. I'm Mother Natalia, a Byzantine Catholic nun from Christ to the Bridegroom

Monastery, and this is Pines with Aquinas.

The day that this episode is being released should be September 1st and if so that means that today is for

Byzantine Catholics the liturgical new year so we start our liturgical calendar on

September 1st I don't actually know when Roman Catholics start their liturgical

calendar. I should be more well versed and better at breathing with both lungs, but I know that ours starts today.

As a fun fact, that means that the first of it, we have 12 major feasts of the year,

and since the typical year starts on on September 1st that means the first

major feast of the year is September 8th which is the the nativity the birth of the

the theotocos the the mother of God, Mary.

And then the last of the 12 feasts of the year

would be August 15th, the dormition,

the falling asleep of the mother of God, or her assumption.

And so I just think it's really beautiful that our liturgical year starts with her birth

and ends with her death, her assumption. But that's not what this episode is about. So this

episode is about new beginnings. I think that it's a good time of year for that because people are starting

maybe new school years and fall was starting in a few weeks and so we're entering into a new season.

But I also was thinking of new beginnings as it relates to a feast that we had just a few days ago.

And this feast I know is celebrated in the East and the West.

On August 29th, we commemorate the beheading of St. John the Baptist.

As another fun fact, just a piece of Byzantine trivia

that some of you surely know, but some of you surely do not.

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