Novena to the Transforming Light (Day 5, August 10)
August 10, 2026
Fr. John Colacino C.PP.S.
Day 5(August 10)
While Peter was still speaking,
a bright cloud covered them,
and a voice from the cloud said,
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
When the disciples heard this,
they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
“Get up and do not be afraid.”
And when they looked up,
they saw no one except Jesus himself alone (Mt. 17:5-8).
There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. (1 Cor 15:40)
It was the will of the Lord Jesus that Moses alone (although he was accompanied, it is true, by Joshua) should climb the mountain to receive the law. In the gospel too, out of his many disciples he limited the revelation of his risen glory to three: Peter, James, and John. Wishing to put no stumbling block in the way of his weaker followers, whose vacillating minds might prevent them from taking in the full meaning of the paschal mystery, he chose to keep his redemptive plan a secret, and repeatedly warned Peter, James, and John not to talk freely about what they had seen. Peter, in fact, did not know what to say. He thought of setting up three shelters for the Lord and his attendants. Then he found himself unable to bear the brilliance of the glory radiating from his transfigured Lord. Together with those sons of thunder, James and John, he fell to the ground. A cloud enveloped the three of them, and they were unable to rise until Jesus came and touched them, bidding them stand up and dismiss
their fears.
They entered the cloud in order to receive knowledge of hidden, secret matters, and there they heard the voice of God saying: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. What does This is my beloved Son mean? The implication is as follows. Make no mistake, Simon. Do not imagine God’s Son can be put into the same category as the servants who attend him. This man is my Son, neither Moses nor Elijah can be given that title, even though the one opened up the sea and the other closed the heavens. Both of them exercised dominion over the elements, but it was by the power of the Lord’s word that they did so. They were only servants; it was the Lord who made the waters into a solid wall, the Lord who caused the drought that closed the heavens, and the Lord who, in his own time, opened them to release the rain.
For evidence of the resurrection to be accepted, the combined witness of those servants is required; but when the glory of their risen Lord is revealed, the servants’ aureole is lost in shadow. Sunrise obscures the stars; the light of the heavenly bodies grows pale before the brilliance of the sun shining on this material world. How then could human stars attract notice in the presence of the eternal Sun of Justice and that divine radiance? Where are those luminaries now that used to shine so brightly in your sight on account of a miracle worked in the past? The whole created universe is darkness in comparison with eternal light. Let others hasten to make themselves pleasing to God by serving him, but this man alone is the true and eternal light in which the Father takes pleasure.(St. Ambrose of Milan)
We say that our dead have “fallen asleep” or “passed away.” What does this mean? This means that for the true Christian there is no death. Death was conquered by Christ on the cross. But there is a translation, i.e, a rearrangement of his condition, i.e. his soul is in another place, in another age, in another world beyond the grave, eternal, without end, that is what is meant by “falling asleep”. It is as if it were a temporary dream after which, by the voice of the Lord and the fearful yet wonderful trumpet of the Archangel, all the dead shall live and come forth each to his place: either to the resurrection of life or to the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:29). This is what the Christian means by translation. We should be ready for this translation, for the day of the general resurrection and judgment, for this indescribable world event, recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
This preparation for the meeting of the heavenly King before the dread judgment seat, after death, is essentially the person’s preparation throughout the whole of his life. This preparation means a change in all his thoughts, and the moral change of all his being, so that the whole man would be pure and white as snow, washing clean everything that defiles the body and spirit, so that he is adorned with every virtue: repentance, meekness, humility, gentleness, simplicity, chastity, mercifulness, abstention, spiritual contemplation, and burning love for God and neighbor.
Our preparation for meeting the heavenly King, and for the inheritance of eternal life in heaven, should consist of these things. The heavenly King desires souls adorned with immutable virtue, souls prepared so that the Very Lord Himself could abide in them. Do not marvel that the Very Lord wants to live in us. In fact the human soul is more spacious than the heavens and the earth, for it exists in the image of God. And if one removes sins from the soul, the Lord of all will settle in it and will fill it with Himself. “We will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:23), says the Lord about the souls who love Him.
And so, ye participants in the Christian feasts, and especially the present feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, ye who are brightly adorned with every virtue and translated to the heavenly kingdom, to Her Son and God, proclaim to each and every one about preparing their souls to be the dwelling place of the Lord, about continual repentance, and about the incorruptible adornment of Christian virtue. Let your death also be unashamed and peaceful, serving as the pledge of a good answer at the dread judgment seat of Christ. Amen.(St. John of Kronstadt)
Musical Selection
Hail, gladdening Light, of his pure glory poured who is the immortal Father, heavenly, blest, holiest of holies, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Now we are come to the sun's hour of rest, the lights of evening round us shine, we hymn the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit divine.
Worthiest art thou at all times to be sung with undefilèd tongue, Son of our God, giver of life, alone: therefore in all the world thy glories, Lord, they own.
Prayers
Christ, the Light that shone before the sun,
was on the earth in the flesh.
In a manner fitting His divine majesty,
He fulfilled His fearful dispensation before His crucifixion!
Today, upon Mount Tabor,
He has mystically made known the image of the Trinity.
For taking apart the expressly chosen disciples, Peter, James and John,
He led them up into the mountain alone.
Briefly, He concealed the flesh He had assumed,
and was transfigured before them,
manifesting the original beauty, though short of full perfection.
For He spared them as He assured them, lest seeing, they die.
Yet they saw as far as they could bear it.
He likewise called before Him the chief prophets Moses and Elijah,
who testified to His divinity:
that He is indeed the true brightness of the essence of the Father,
the Ruler of the living and the dead.
Therefore, a cloud covered them as a tent,
and there came the voice of the Father in testimony, saying:
“This is my beloved Son,
Whom I have begotten without change from the womb before the morning star:
I have sent Him to save those who are baptized
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and who confess with faith that the one power of the Godhead is indivisible:
Listen to Him!”
O Christ our God, supreme in goodness and the Lover of mankind:
shine upon us with the light of Your unapproachable glory
and make us worthy to inherit Your eternal Kingdom!(Orthodox Vespers of the Transfiguration)
Come, all you ends of the earth,
let us praise the most holy translation of the Mother of God:
for she has delivered her spotless soul into the hands of her Son.
Therefore, the world, restored to life by her holy Dormition,
in radiant joy celebrates this feast with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
together with the angels and the apostles.
Come, all who love to keep the feasts,
come, let us form a choir!
Come, let us crown the Church with songs,
as the Ark of God goes to her rest.
For today, heaven opens wide
as it receives the mother of Him Who cannot be contained.
The earth, as it yields up the source of Life,
is robed in blessing and majesty.
The hosts of angels, present with the fellowship of the apostles,
gaze in great fear at her who bore the Cause of Life,
now that she is translated from life to Life.
Let us all venerate and implore her:
Forget not, O Lady, your ties of kinship
with those who keep in faith the feast of your all-holy Dormition!(Orthodox Vespers of the Dormition)
