Self-Sacrifice ☦⛪ Fr Stephen's Sermon at Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church, Brisbane

Tradition tells us that after Herod's massacre of the innocents, the infant St John was left alone in the wilderness when his mother St Elizabeth died forty days after their escape. There he was raised by angels, living in hardship until called out to preach repentance, emerging as a striking, hermit-like figure clothed in camel hair and eating locusts and wild honey. St John is a model of self-sacrifice. He could have left the wilderness at any time and lived comfortably among people, but he c