Thanksgiving for special days

Many years ago, I remember sitting on a bench in my grandparents’ backyard and listening to him talking to a friend who had stopped by for a visit. I overheard him say, “August is a good month to get work done. There are no holidays in August.”

Of course, this wasn’t important to a child of 10 or 11 but, a year or so later when I was an altar boy in our church, I realized that there were two special days in August: two Holy Days – Aug. 6, the Transfiguration, and Aug. 15, the Dormition, also called the Assumption of Mary.

Later when I joined the Orthodox Church, I discovered there...