423. Речь Благочестивейшему Государю Императору Александру Николаевичу при вступлении Его Величества в Свято-Троицкую Сергиеву Лавру

(Said on September 6; published in the Moscow Vedomosti and in the Works of the Holy Fathers, 1855) Most pious Sovereign! If we were to say that we are delighted with the coming of You and Your August Family: this would be a word of the heart, but only because of Your condescension is it worthy of Your attention. We can say something that is completely worthy of Your attention and even sympathy. Our current spiritual Host, Reverend Father Sergius, rejoices at Your visit. For the saints in heaven, blissful in the love of God, still find joy in love for their earthly neighbors, when they see them striving to draw closer to God and can, by faith, promote this with their prayers. And so, from the heart of Sergius, accept the word of the meeting: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Ps. 117:26). Come under the roof of a strong prayerful ascetic for Russia and through Him and together with Him bring the prayer of faith and hope to the Holy Trinity. The power of prayer is the purest and most abundant source of sovereign and sovereign power. He who blessed the Grand Duke Demetrius for victory over the infidels, who labored invisibly and obviously for Russia in the disastrous days of the impoverished succession to the throne, who did not allow the Gauls, who devastated the capital, to reach his monastery, with the same love for the Tsar and the Russian Kingdom now raises his prayer hands in defense of theirs, as Moses once did in defense of Israel, with the same difference as the Heavenly the prayer book does not have weak hands like those of the earth. The Venerable Sergius sees your love for Him, exalted by humility, and with greater boldness he will cry out to “He who blesses the humble,” so that He may “give” You the “good” (Luke 1:52–53) that you ask for Yourself and for Russia. You might be interested in: