Complete works (Vol. 1-7)

Let us continue in prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). Volume 1 • Volume 2 • Volume 3 • Volume 4 • Volume 5 • Volume 6 • Volume 7 Conversation 1 (introductory) Go and teach all tongues, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) With God's help, we will expound to you, brothers, the most important teaching in our faith - the dogma of the Holy Trinity. Although there are among us who know this teaching well, who do not demand, but who teach (1 John 2:27) them; but there are very few of them; there are incomparably more who know not well, even less than bad; and the servant of St. the altar must teach everyone the teaching of faith clear and distinct. And for those who know it well, it is not a superfluous thing to repeat in their memory the teachings of faith familiar to them, just as it is not a superfluous thing to constantly see light with their eyes, or inhale and exhale air; because our teaching is even more necessary than visible light and air. “Remembering God,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, “is more necessary than breathing” 1. So, for everyone, the doctrine of God is necessary. Therefore, we will speak as if everyone here were equal in the degree of knowledge. But before we expound on the initial, royal and blessed Trinity, we will say, brethren, a few words about the importance and incomprehensibility of this teaching and about the humble simplicity of faith with which one must listen to it. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is so important that in the Christian faith there is no more important and lofty teaching than this; and all other human knowledge related to our earthly life and not relating to faith, if we take them together - in comparison with the knowledge of the one God worshiped in the Trinity - is also like a barely noticeable point; because God is the Source of all wisdom and knowledge, and the knowledge of God in the Holy Trinity is eternal life for rational creatures. Without the confession of the Holy Trinity there is no Christianity. We are called Christians, as everyone knows, from faith in Christ, the Only Begotten Son, and everyone who confesses the Son and the Father, according to St. John the Theologian (1 John 2:23), also has the Holy Spirit, about whom the Lord said: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (Luke 4:18). This means that whoever believes in Christ certainly believes in the Holy Trinity: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Without the confession of the Most Holy Trinity, we would have neither the Church, which educates us for heaven, nor the sacraments with which it sanctifies, strengthens and guides us into the land of immortality; Without the teaching of the Holy Trinity, the Last Judgment, the resurrection of the dead, and reward for everyone according to their deeds in the future life would be empty words for us. All this is necessarily allowed only when we believe in God the Father, Who is the eternal Love and Truth; - in God the Son, as the Redeemer of men, and - in God the Holy Spirit, as the Sanctifier and Comforter of believers. This teaching is so important. But it is also the most incomprehensible. Only out of condescension for our weakness did God deign to reveal the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity under the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and therefore we should not accept this Name (i.e., Father and Son and Holy Spirit) in the sense in which we accept it about people. Thus, the Son of God is also called the Word of God and Wisdom: but this cannot be said about people 2 . As for how there are three Persons in one God, how the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, this is beyond all understanding. The Trinity of persons of the Divine is the greatest mystery, hidden even from the many-eyed Cherubim, who constantly penetrate into the incomprehensible light of the Divine and from there they draw for themselves all knowledge and bliss. “But where is the secret,” says St. Chrysostom, there is great silence; where there is mystery, there the mind calls to itself faith” 3. Thus, brethren, our mind must necessarily humble itself and remain silent before the mystery of the Trinitarian Divinity, and, feeling our powerlessness to comprehend it, call upon faith to our aid. Humble simplicity of faith is necessary for each of us. Where are there no secrets? A person is a mystery to himself - both in his soul and in his body. Who satisfactorily explained, for example, how the human soul is connected to the body, how they mutually influence each other; How does sleep restore a person’s strength, etc.? This means that first of all a person must believe his own secrets. There are countless secrets in the nature that surrounds us: man knows so little in comparison with what he does not yet know - despite the successes of the natural sciences - that each of us must humbly confess with one of the ancient sages (Socrates) that we only know that we know nothing. Holy Scripture testifies that we barely understand what is on earth, and what we find in our hands with difficulty, and after this it adds, “And who can trace what is in heaven (Wis. 9:16)? So, if there are mysteries in ourselves and in the nature around us, and we must accept them by faith, without comprehending them with reason, then shouldn’t we believe all the more in the mysteries of heaven and especially in the highest mystery of the Trinitarian Deity? Can creatures comprehend the Creator? “I speak now (the words of St. Cyril of Jerusalem), and everyone speaks in due time; but as we speak, we cannot say this; How can I speak to Him who gave the word? I have a soul and cannot explain its properties, how can I express the One who gave the soul? For piety it is enough for us only to know that we have God” 4 and to humbly realize that no one knows God’s message, but the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:11). So, brethren, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we ask you in the future for your attention to the teaching about the greatest sacrament of the Christian faith. Let us remember that our eternal destiny depends on the correct knowledge of the tri-radiant Deity. This is the eternal life, that they may know thee the one true God, and whom thou didst send, Jesus Christ (John 17:3). Amen. In the Trinity I glorify one God: Father, Son and Spirit; A simple unit, an honest Trinity, a pre-primary beginning (Chants of the Lenten Triodion, Song 7, Trinity, l. 212) Last Sunday we promised to begin our conversation about the highest sacrament of the Christian faith - about the trinity of Persons of the Divine. With God's help, we now begin this conversation. In one God, according to the teachings of the Christian faith, there are three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity is consubstantial and indivisible. Already the very first words of the symbol of faith make it clear to everyone that although we believe in one God, at the same time we do not believe in one Person of God: because we call one God Father. “And the name of the Father,” says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “the very utterance of it already makes us understand the Son, just as having said the name of the Son, we immediately imagine the Father in our minds. For if the Father, then, without a doubt, He is the Father of the Son, and, if the Son, without a doubt, He is the Son of the Father. And believing in the Father and the Son, we must necessarily believe in the Holy Spirit, as consubstantial with the Father and the Son, and through the Son who appeared to people 6 . We honor the One God in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity, without merging the Persons and without dividing the one being of God: because there is another Person of the Father, another of the Son and another of the Holy Spirit. God the Father, God and the Son, God and the Holy Spirit, but not three Gods, but one God 7: Go and teach all languages, the Lord said to the Apostles, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). He did not say: in names, so as not to give a reason for the division of a single being in three Persons, but in the name, in order to show Their consubstantiality, or the unity of the being in the trinity of Persons. “As I sing Thee with my Being as the Unity, as I honor Thee with my Persons as the Trinity: Father and Son and Holy Spirit,” says one church book 8 . Due to the special importance of the teaching about the Most Holy Trinity for every Christian, the name of the three Divine Persons: Father and Son and Holy Spirit is used by the Church - both in church during Divine services, and even in the homes of believers during various prayers - very often, just as the name of a king is often used among his subjects, as a son very often calls his father; the one who has been blessed - his benefactor; friend - the name of a friend; slave is the name of his master. And our God, worshiped in the Trinity, in the primary and highest sense, for sure, brethren, is for us the King, the Father and the Benefactor (Mal. 1:6,14). Therefore, not to know and not to honor, as it should, the Divine Trinity on the part of a Christian would be both insane insolence and ingratitude. Every subject knows, albeit by name, his king; knows about his power, power and strength; reveres his sacred person; the benefactor often and with pleasure remembers and speaks about his benefactor. Even an ox knows his owner, and a donkey his master's manger (Isa. 1:3). How can we not know that over all people and over the whole world is the power, kingdom, power and glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? How can a person who has received from the Holy Trinity all the gifts, from life to the stream of air he inhales, not remember often and with due reverence about his triune Benefactor? About Him, says St. The Apostle about God, we live and move and we are (Acts 17:28). Thus, brethren, each of us certainly needs to know correctly and honor with reverent worship the royal and life-giving Trinity. And you have long been familiar with the great and eternally worshiped name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, because, as we said, the Holy Church very often, both in church and even in your homes, announces this glorious Name to you. It is only necessary to teach an explanation of what we hear about the triune God in the church or in homes. We especially often hear short prayers and short hymns to the Holy Trinity in church and in homes. Namely, we very often hear prayers: first of all to the Holy Spirit: the Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Soul of Truth. Since the third Person of the Holy Trinity, i.e. the Holy Spirit, teaches us to pray worthily to God (Rom. 8:26), strengthens us in serving Him, 9 and generally uplifts, grows, arranges the grief of 10 people who serve God worthily and thus completes our salvation, acquired for us by the Son of God; then St. The Church, at the beginning of every service, every prayer, calls on Him, the almighty Sanctifier; then - a prayer to all the Persons of the Holy Trinity together: Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. We hear this trisagion hymn - sometimes separately, but mostly together with the prayer: Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us - several times during all services. The Holy Church especially often loves to repeat it, imitating the silent appeal to God of the heavenly powers: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. By saying the prayer - to the Heavenly King - we are preparing for worthy prayer to the Lord God, asking the All-Holy Spirit to dwell in us and cleanse us from all filth, and by saying further prayers to the Most Holy Trinity, we are already praying in action, honoring with divine worship the Holy Comforter Spirit, Whom we asked to dwell in us and cleanse us from filth for worthy prayer to the triune God. After this, a prayer is read to the first person of the Holy Trinity - according to the commandment of the Savior, Who commanded us: hereafter ye pray: Our Father (Matthew 6:9) ... etc.; at the end of the prayer, the priest pronounces a doxology to the Holy Trinity, to show that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one being, and the kingdom, power and glory equally belong to the three Persons. Often we also hear an invitation to worship our King and God Jesus Christ: come, let us worship our King God, or, as further: come, let us worship and bow down to Christ our King, God. In addition, the priest and reader often send on behalf of St. The Church has one glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit with a common name for the three Persons: one name means that the three Persons have one essence. Thus, St. At each service, the Church invites us to prayer and worship of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity - sometimes together, as one of one honour, sometimes separately, to ask for the necessary benefits from one or another Person. So, when we hear the repetition of the same prayers to the Most Holy Trinity, pronounced by a priest or reader, or the Creed, let us not ignore them, much less get bored when they are read or sung. The Holy Church, - which constantly has before our eyes the trisagion Lord of our life, the Judge and our God - repeats them very often in order to root in our thoughts and hearts the name of the life-giving Trinity, so that we constantly breathe and live in prayer, praise and thanksgiving to Her. Let us follow St. The Church pronounces these prayers, doxology or thanksgiving to the all-containing Trinity. Giving due worship to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, three Persons in one being, let us try, for the glory of the triune God, to unite ourselves with one another in thoughts, desires and good deeds, which is what the Savior desired and asked in His last prayer to His Father: I pray not for these (the apostles) only, but also for those who believe their words for Me: that they may all be one: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us (John 17:20–21). Our faith, based on love for the Lord, and the unity of our nature, the unity of everyday needs and spiritual needs, call us to this unity. Even - one might say - the whole surrounding nature, the whole wonderful world of God, calls people to the closest, mutual connection. You see how it is structured in its flow and life and, with all the differences in its parts, it forms one consistent whole. This is how people should agree in their lives, and, despite the differences in their strengths and abilities, form one whole, flaunting both faith and love. There will be a time, or - better said - eternity, when all the countless multitude of righteous people who have departed from this life and still have to depart from it into eternity will be united in the next century by the most perfect unity of thoughts, feelings and aspirations for the glory of God and their own bliss. Still here on the land of St. The Church is trying to prepare us for this union through the unity of faith, hope and love. May we all be worthy to achieve blessed unity for the glory of the Triune God. Amen. We glorify not three Gods, but One Divinity; We honor three hypostases in truth. Unbegotten of the Father, and begotten of the Son from the Father, and proceeding from the Father of the Holy Spirit (Trinity of the Lenten Triodion, fol. 224 on vol.) Now we will talk, brethren, about the personal properties of the Divine Persons: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Since in God there is one being or nature, and there are three Persons, then in order not to confuse three Persons into one, it is imperative to know the difference between one Person and another. This difference must be only personal, but in no way significant, because in essence the three Persons have exactly the same properties. What is the personal difference between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as well as the Son from the Father and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son? God the Father differs from the Son and the Holy Spirit in that He has being, life from Himself, or, as Holy Scripture says, having life in Himself (John 5:26), i.e. He is not created from anyone, not begotten, and does not proceed; and He Himself begets, or - better said - begot the Son before all ages, and produces the Holy Spirit. That is why God the Father, in the order of Divine Persons, usually occupies first place and is called the first Person of the Holy Trinity. When we imagine, brothers, that God the Father gives birth to the Son, then this birth does not need to be imagined as similar to our human birth. We are born from sick mothers, and at birth we are usually separated from our mother. Divine birth is not like that at all. God is Spirit; in Him there are not and cannot be any parts that a person has: He has neither a head, nor arms, nor legs, in a word: nothing that a person has. Therefore, at the birth of God there can be neither suffering nor any separation. As the Spirit, God gives birth spiritually, incomprehensible to us, as He Himself, the Son and the Holy Spirit, knows; God begets or begat the Son before all ages, eternally; There was no time when the Father was not the Father of the Son, just as there was no time when He was not God. “When you hear about God giving birth,” says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “do not fall into carnal thoughts, do not understand the birth of corruption, so as not to become wicked. God is Spirit, and spiritual birth. Bodies are born from bodies, and for the birth of a body a certain continuation of time is required. On the contrary, the birth of the Son from the Father is without the mediation of time. Moreover, what is born to people is born imperfect, but the Son of God was born perfect. For what He now is, He was from the beginning, having been born without beginning. When we are born, we move from a state of infantile foolishness to a state of reason. Your birth, man, is imperfect. Your uprising happens gradually. But don’t think about that birth (of God) and don’t accuse Him who gave birth of weakness. The Son of God was born in every way like Him who begat Him; born - as Life from Life, Light from Light, Truth from Truth, Wisdom from Wisdom, King from King, God from God. Moreover, God the Father gave birth to Wisdom, but He Himself was not left without Wisdom, He gave birth to Strength, but was not exhausted; gave birth to God, but He Himself did not lose the Divinity, and did not lose anything, did not diminish, did not change; Likewise, the Begotten has no deficiency: the Begotten is perfect, and the Begotten is perfect; God who gave birth, God and the Begotten. To say that God the Father, by reflection, in time became the Father, is the greatest impiety. For God was not before without a Son and did not become a Father after - in time, but always has a Son, having begotten Him as He Himself knew before all ages, having begotten Him incomparably sooner than as words and thoughts are born among us. For when we pronounce words in time, we use time for this; but birth, accomplished by the power of God, has no time. God did not bring His Son from non-existence into being (as, for example, the Angels), did not accept into adoption a person who was not a son, but being the eternal Father, eternally and ineffably begat only one Son, Who has no brother. Not two beginnings, but one beginning - the Father - the Head of the Son" 11. Such is the birth of the Son from the Father and such is their difference. The Father begat the Son and gave Him Himself to have life in Himself (John 5:26); The Son was born and received life from the Father before all ages, without being separated from His being. When we hear that God the Father, having begotten the Son before all ages, also produces the Holy Spirit, then this work or - better - procession should be represented not sensually, that is, not in a human way, but spiritually, as only God knows, just as we must recognize Him as different from birth, although we do not know how birth differs from procession. The Holy Spirit also eternally proceeds from the Father, just as the Son was eternally born from the Father; - comes from, but is never separated from the Father. When the Comforter comes, says the Savior, consoling His disciples in the approaching separation from Him, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He testifies of Me (John 15:26). This is how Holy Scripture clearly teaches about the procession of the Holy Spirit of God from God the Father - and only from Him alone, and not from the Son together, as some teach. In our Creed about the Holy Spirit we read: (I believe) and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving One, Who proceeds from the Father. And here, too, there is no word: and from the Son. And this Creed is older than all the innovations admitted by the non-Orthodox into the teaching of faith, and in its most important places it is borrowed almost word for word from Holy Scripture; the whole thing is based on Holy Scripture. So, brethren, let us believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving One, who proceeds from the Father. Whoever adds from the Son will be a heretic, non-Orthodox. So we must believe on the basis that nowhere in Holy Scripture is there a single word about the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit and from the Son, although there are several places that speak of His temporary embassy into the world through the Son of God. Hearing that the Holy Spirit responds to the Life-giving, we must imagine that God the Holy Spirit, together with God the Father and the Son, gives life to every creature - rational and irrational, animate and inanimate: heavenly and earthly creatures received life from Him, especially Angels and people owe their spiritual life and success in it to the Life-giving Spirit of God. By the Holy Spirit every soul is alive and exalted in purity 12. This is the difference between the Holy Spirit and the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit proceeds, but is not born from the Father, he proceeds before all ages, just as the Son was born before all ages. There was never a time when the Father did not have the Spirit proceeding from Him. Although the procession of the Holy Spirit is different from the birth of the Son, we do not know what this difference is, because Holy Scripture has not revealed this. St. John of Damascus says: The Father is the Source and the wine of the Son and the Holy Spirit, but the Father is the only Son, and the Producer of the Holy Spirit 13. At the end of our conversation, it is not superfluous to recall that God the Father, who from eternity begot the Son, and who also from eternity produced the Holy Spirit, deigns to be called our Father. His Only Begotten Son tells us: Do not call your Father on earth: for one is your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 23:9), and he gave us the very prayer in which he commanded us all to call God the Father who is in heaven our Father. Let us not disgrace ourselves by deeds that are contrary to Him. Let us obey in everything the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Father by grace; Let us pray that His kingdom may be on earth, the kingdom of peace and love, that His will may be on earth as it is in heaven. Let us try to live in love, as children of one heavenly Father, and so let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Let children remember more often the Son of God, Who knows no other will but the will of the Father (John 5:19-30); let them also learn to obey their parents in everything - if the will of the parents is legal - and always honor them as our intermediaries in the divine gift of life. Nevertheless, both fathers and children, husbands and wives, elders and youths, let us worship the Trinitarian Divinity: the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit proceeding from the Father and resting in the Son 14 . Amen. Equal to the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit in faith to be, the Holy Trinity in one Divinity (Trinity of the Lenten Triodion, l. 54) Previously, brethren, we said that in one God there are three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit - that the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but not three Gods, but one God, only in three Persons. Then they showed the personal difference between Them, namely, that the first Person of the Holy Trinity or God the Father was not created from anyone, was not born and does not come from anyone, but has life from Himself and in Himself; The Son was born from the Father before all time, or before all centuries, spiritually, without any separation from the Parent - incomparably sooner than thoughts and words are born in us - was born incomprehensible to any of the rational creatures; The Holy Spirit also proceeds from the Father before all time, eternally and in a spiritual way, without being separated from Him. Now we must say that the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity are completely equal in dignity, so that between Them there is nothing first or last, greater or lesser 15, auxiliary or incidental, which did not exist before and what would enter after 16. God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are God in the full and proper sense - God is exactly the same as God the Father, with all the Divine perfections: all the Divine properties belong equally to the one, the other, and the third Person: all-perfection, originality, omnipresence, eternity, immutability, omnipotence, omniscience, the most perfect holiness, infinite goodness and justice - however, in such a way that not three all-perfect, original, omnipresent, eternal, unchangeable, etc., but one all-perfect God, divided only by Persons, and in essence and essential properties eternally One. Although the Son and the Holy Spirit have their being from the Father, One through birth, and the other through procession; but this is not an obstacle to Their equality between themselves and with the Father; because They have one being or nature - so that, as we said, in the Trinity there is nothing first or last, greater or lesser, but the three Persons are co-essential with themselves and equal. That is why Their name is often used in a different order: sometimes first the name of the Father, sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Holy Spirit. Here is one example in which the name of the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity is used before the first Person: Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, writes St. The Apostle to newly converted Christians, and the love of God and the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit with everyone (2 Cor. 13:13). The Son of God Himself speaks of His equality and consubstantiality with the Father like this: My Father works hitherto, and I work. Just as the Father raises the dead and lives, so the Son also wants them and lives (John 5:17,19,21). I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. I and the Father are one (John 14:10–11). The book of the Acts of the Apostles says that the same God is the Holy Spirit, like God the Father and God the Son. “It’s almost time,” says St. Apostle Peter to Ananias, who withheld part of the price for the sold village, “Has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?... You have not lied to man, but to God (Acts 5:3–4). St. Cyril of Jerusalem says in one of his teachings: “The Father has no other glory, nor does the Son have another: but one and the same, just like the Holy Spirit”; in another: “The Son always has royal dignity, sits with the Father, is God and Wisdom and Power”; and in another way: the Holy Spirit is honored with equal glory of the Divinity “with the Father and the Son: Thrones and Dominions, Principalities and Powers have need of him,” that is, let us add from ourselves, all the ranks of angels. “For there is one God, the Father of Christ, and one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the one God; there is one Holy Spirit, who sanctifies and adores all things, who spoke in the law and the prophets, in the Old Testament and in the New" 17 . So, brethren, the three Persons of the one God are completely equal to each other - and you have heard evidence of Their equality from the Divine Scripture and from the teaching of the Holy Father of the Church. But you can forget these testimonies, just as everything is often forgotten that through repetition is not more and more established in our memory. Therefore, we point you to evidence or teaching on this subject, which you can hear and repeat yourself very often. In the Church of God, during every service, everyone can hear the Symbol of the Orthodox Faith in which we confess the Only Begotten Son of God, as true God from true God, consubstantial with the Father, in Whom all things were, that is, everything was created, and the Holy Spirit, as the Lord, the Life-Giving One, is worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son - and with these words we recognize the perfect their equality among themselves. In addition, everyone present in the church hears how the priest, in his exclamations, or the reader in short doxologies and endings of prayers, on behalf of the entire Church, often sends out the same glory and honor to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Especially in the exclamations of the priest, both the unanimity and equality of the Divine Persons are clearly shown. As one God in three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are always mentioned together, with the exaltation of their common dominion, kingdom, power and glory, for example: “for Thine is the dominion and Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”; or: “For You are our God, and to You we send up glory: to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”; or again: “For You are the King of the world and the Savior of our souls, and to You we send glory: to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and so on. 18 Let us, brethren, always honor with the same and inseparable worship the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the One-Royal and Co-Throne Godhead. If we pray to the Heavenly Father, let us bring to our memory at the same time His Only Begotten and Consubstantial Son and the Holy Spirit of equal honor with the Father, proceeding from the Father, and we will worship the three Persons in one being. If we offer prayer to the Son of God, then by asking Him for the necessary benefits, or by bringing Him thanks for His benefits to us, we will send with Him glory to His beginningless Father with His Most Holy and Good and Life-Giving Spirit. And when we ask for good things from the Spirit of God, then again we will glorify His name with the Father and His Only Begotten Son. All three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, as independent ones, bestow on us - in addition to those common to all of them - special benefits, but, as Persons of the same essence, They also participate in the granting of benefits sent down from one or another Person separately, since They have one will and one desire. Every time, in every prayer, “Let us glorify the Father, exalt the Son, faithfully worship the Divine Spirit, the Indivisible Trinity, the Unity in essence, as Light and Light, and Life and Life” 19 . “Trinity of Unity, Father, Son and Living Soul, one Divinity, one kingdom, the hosts of the angelic hosts praise you from the everlasting Light, and we who exist on earth sing, bless and extol to all ages” 20 . With this conversation we conclude the teaching about the Holy Trinity, or about God as He is in Himself. In the following conversations we will talk about God as the Creator of the world. Amen. Conversation 5. About God - the Creator of the world By him (the Son of God) all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible; For thrones, for dominions, for beginnings, for powers: all things were created by Him and in Him (Col. 1:16) In the words of the Creed: I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible - we recognize and confess that God created the visible and invisible world - that He contains all created things in His power and controls everything, or in short: we confess God as the Creator and Provider of the world. So, let's talk - first about God as the Creator of the world, and then about God as the Provider of the world. When it is said, brethren, that God created the world; then, of course, through this, that: a) he was created by God, worshiped in the Holy Trinity, i.e. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, in the very Creed, God the Father is called the Creator, about the Son of God it is said that through Him all things came into being - and through Him all things came into being, - and the Holy Spirit is called the Life-Giving One, - b) created with one word or command: That was what he said; He commanded it, and it was created (Ps.32:9; Ps.149:5); - c) created, or in other words - brought him from complete non-existence into being; - d) He created out of His goodness alone, but not at all out of any need, because the all-satisfied and all-blessed God does not need anyone or anything; – e) that from the time of creation time began, or the flow, the succession of things one after another, and before the creation of the world there was no time; Until then there was only eternity, always constant, without beginning or end, or better to say, there was only the eternal God in the Holy Trinity. God first of all created the spiritual world - the intellectual and verbal forces of heaven, or the ranks of angels; then - the world we see and finally a person who in his soul belongs to the spiritual world, and in his body to the material world; that's why it's called a small world. First of all, therefore, we will talk, brethren, about the creation of Angels, and we will say precisely that they really exist and were created before the visible world: about their nature, number and degrees. Are there Angels? There are people who have the misfortune of rejecting the invisible world, the whole world of spirits, contrary to the clear evidence of Holy Scripture and the testimony of St. men who themselves on earth became like, in holiness of life and love for God, the heavenly Powers and were in fellowship with them. Who should you trust more? As in any other matter, so especially in this matter, of course, to the Holy Scriptures and the Saints of God. That Angels exist is beyond all doubt. Let's look into why some people say that there are no Angels. Because they do not see evidence of their existence; but they simply don’t want to believe: they want to see everything, touch it, in a word, experience it; meanwhile they do not see or touch them. These are people who are guided even in faith by their lower nature - feelings. But in this case, the very blindness of such people in some way proves that Angels actually exist. Thus, a blind man does not see the sun, moon and stars that adorn the sky and illuminate the earth; but this lack of vision only proves that he is blind. The luminaries shine regardless of whether he sees them or not. Also, the existence of Angels does not depend, of course, on whether we see them with the eye of faith, or - since we do not want to rise above the dust from which we are created and do not see anything further than the earth - therefore we ourselves do not notice traces of the existence of not only bright spirits, but also, perhaps, much more; Some people have so darkened their spiritual eyes that they do not even believe in the spiritual Sun, which enlightens and revitalizes everything. But this, brethren, is a serious illness of the soul, spiritual blindness. Let us ask holy and pious people about the Angels: and they will prove to us, clear as day, the existence of the spiritual world. However, whoever wants to be convinced of the invisible world of spirits from the visible will not be left without assurance from this side either: all that is needed is attention. Starting from a person to a blade of grass, everything testifies to the invisible. What thinks and feels in us is invisible. And in general, everything that we call the life of visible creatures, animals and plants is precisely invisible: because the visible withers, dries, decays, and collapses when the invisible leaves it. If the invisible, the spiritual constitutes the life of everything even on earth, then will we think that there is no special, vast world of the invisible, purely spiritual? Holy Scripture decisively confirms to us, brothers, the existence of a special world of spirits. Anyone who has read or listened to the books of the Old and New Testaments can have a true and clear understanding of Angels as servants of the King of Heaven. Let's give a few examples. For example: Angels, together with the Lord, visit Abraham (Gen. 18); Angels save Lot from dying Sodom (Gen. 19); Patriarch Jacob in reality meets on the way with regiments of Angels and in a dream sees them ascending and descending to the earth (Gen. 28 ch.); The Archangel of the Lord's power appears to Joshua and commands the miraculous conquest of Jericho (Joshua 5:14, etc.); Isaiah sees the Seraphim surrounding the throne of the Lord, and from one of them he receives fiery cleansing (Isaiah 6); Daniel the Prophet sees thousands of thousands serving the Old One of the day and thousands of those who stand before Him (Dan.7:10). An angel announces the seedless conception of the Savior (Luke 1:35); a whole army of Angels sings the birth of the Savior (Luke 2:13), etc. So the existence of Angels is certain. When were the Angels created? They were created before the visible world: there is an indication of this in the book of Job. It says that when the stars were created, His Angels were already praising God, which means they were already there before the creation of the world. When the stars were created, says the Lord, all My angels praised Me with a great voice (Job 38:7). The Creator of Angels is the Son of God, through whom all things were created. St. Apostle Paul testifies to this. By Him, that is, by the Son of God,” he says, “everything was created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, even thrones, if dominions, if there were principalities, if there were powers, that is, all the orders of angels, - all kinds of things were created by Him and about Him (through Him) (Col. 1:16). As for the nature of Angels: they, as we said partly above, are purely incorporeal spirits, greater in strength and power than us (Ps. 102:20; 2 Pet. 2:11). So, for example, one Angel once killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian army in one night (2 Kings 19:35); equally, they are more perfect in mind and will than we are, because they constantly walk in the light of the face of God. If Angels are represented on icons as winged men, then this, brethren, is because they appeared as men on earth to people, so that people would not be afraid of them, seeing in them their nature, their appearance; in fact, they do not have flesh, and, therefore, no bodily members: no head, no tongue, no wings, no arms, no legs, nothing corporeal; which is why they are called spirits everywhere in Holy Scripture - just as the Lord God is called Spirit, although He is a Spirit, more perfect than any created spirit. If Holy Scripture speaks of the language of Angels, of their glorification of the Lord, then this is said in a human way, so that we can understand to some extent the Angelic glorification. In fact, they glorify God not with their voice, not with their tongue, like we do, but in a spiritual, intelligent way. St. The Church speaks of their glorification as follows: “with the disembodied lips and the intelligent lips of the Angels, bring unceasing singing to Your unapproachable Divinity, Lord” 21 . For now, enough about Angels. Let us glorify and thank the Lord, who created the whole world, including us, solely by His goodness, and let us learn never to forget ourselves in life, remembering that we are called to life from complete insignificance, and have nothing in ourselves, nor around us, that is ours, but everything is God’s. Sometimes people dare to reject this or that truth revealed in Holy Scripture, this or that, the rule of Christian faith and life. Oh! If only they remembered that they themselves were so recently called out of insignificance. For example, they say: “I exist, I live; and Angels do not exist.” But let us count the years of our lives and ask ourselves: what were we before others began to count the days, months and years, and then we ourselves - the years of our lives? We were nothing, or better: we did not exist. What will we be after, when our body is separated from our soul? The body will turn into earth, that is, it will again be nothing for the senses, and the soul will be in the invisible place of the spirits of people who have departed from this life. What does our earthly life mean? For several years we were not there and in a few years we will not be again. This is a fleeting shadow of life. That’s where – in heaven – our life will be. No, it is more convenient to agree that we do not exist on earth, or walk on it like a ghost (Ps. 39:7), than to agree that Angels do not exist. In our very life, from our sins, we decay spiritually 22 and physically: can corruption be called life? Meanwhile, Angels, as pure spirits, by their nature are incorruptible and immortal. It is precisely about them, after the Lord God, that it should be said that they live. Yes, they live without any doubt and silently glorify their Creator, Whom we do not know how to praise with dignity. And they and we have the same purpose – to glorify the Creator. Let us learn from them to bring constant glory and gratitude to the Creator of the world for His infinite goodness to His creatures, for bringing them to life and bliss. Amen. Thousands of thousands serve Him, and we stand before Him (Dan. 7:10) In our previous conversation, speaking about the Angels of God, we did not say everything that we proposed to say about them; and precisely, they did not say how many there are and what order there is between them: because intelligent Forces must certainly have order. Now this is exactly what we will talk about, brothers. So, how many Angels of God, or all the powers of heaven? The question is important for us: because every believer upon baptism enters into the community of Angels (Heb. 12:22–24); and love and reverence for them prompts us to find out, although approximately, their number. Already from our previous conversation, we know, brethren, that Holy Scripture mentions the multitude of heavenly armies, counting them as thousands of thousands and tens of thousands of them. So, for example, one Prophet saw in his vision that when the Old Day, i.e. The Lord of hosts sat on His throne, then a thousand thousand served Him, and so did I stand before Him. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, speaking about the number of Angels and citing this passage from the book of the Prophet Daniel, notes that “about thousands of thousands and tens of thousands of those Angels - and not more - it is said not because this was the exact number of them, but because the Prophet could not pronounce a larger number” 23, i.e. our human numbers are not sufficient to bring all the Heavenly Powers under them. This means, brothers, there are countless Angels. And this should be so according to our very reason. On earth, which constitutes the most insignificant part of the entire visible creation of God, we count so many homogeneous, especially heterogeneous creatures that we are almost lost in their number, not to mention how many more we do not know. Shouldn’t there be incomparably more incorporeal Powers, for which, according to Holy Scripture, the whole heaven serves as their place of residence, although the Angels are not limited to a place as we are? “The land inhabited by us,” says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “is, as it were, a certain point located in the middle of the sky; therefore, the sky surrounding it has as much a greater number of inhabitants as it has a greater space” 24. Further, looking at a cloudless sky on an autumn or winter evening, we see an extraordinary number of stars - so that people who have been looking at the sky for thousands of years have previously been unable to count them due to their multitude and distance. If in the visible, material world, the omnipotent Creator showed His creative power, His greatness so infinitely, in such an immense number of heavenly bodies: then didn’t He show Himself more infinitely in the world of light spirits, didn’t He create a greater number of creatures similar to Himself so that they would glorify His perfections, enjoy His contemplation - and be blissful? The greatness of God is more striking, more obvious in the spiritual world: isn’t it there, isn’t it in the world of spirits, in their countless hosts, that the Lord Almighty, as a source of goodness, shines with eternal love? It was characteristic of the infinite, all-good Creator to reveal Himself precisely in the countless multitude of intelligent creatures. And the best of people wish - when possible - that as many as possible be blessed by them. Did the All-Good God not want this, and therefore did not do it, since His desire is at the same time a deed? But many things with the Lord are not the same as many things we have. Our numbers mean nothing to Him. Thousands and millions already seem like very large numbers to us; but our Creator does not have thousands and millions: with Him one is like a thousand and a thousand is like one, a million is like one and one is like a million, that is, both much and little are equally insignificant for Him. Our “without number” means a lot. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of Angels, considers all the Angels to be His ninety-nine sheep, and the entire human race to be one, only one sheep. How many Angels there must be! This is how the Holy Fathers understand 25 the Savior’s parable about a man who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. You see, brethren, that the Lord has His own, Divine account; because our human, limited account is not befitting Him when it comes to the number of His creatures. Yes, the Lord has an infinite number of creatures, beyond our numbers. There are infinitely many of them on earth, and even more in heaven! So, there are countless Angels. But with multitude there must be order. With the Wise Creator we see order everywhere: and in the sky - between the heavenly bodies, which rise and set in their own order, moving in a constant order and never leading each other astray, although they have been moving across the sky for thousands of years; – and on earth, both in inanimate nature and in animate nature; order and subordination are noticeable especially among some animals, not to mention people, for whom order and subordination to each other are contemporary with the beginning of the human race (Gen. 4:17). Moreover, there must be order, subordination between the Heavenly Powers. If people have orders, much more so do the celestials - and the earthly, human order is only the weakest imitation of the heavenly, angelic order. So, brethren, the Angels have their own rank: there are intelligent Thrones in heaven, on which God rests intelligently and through which He establishes His righteous vessels 26; - there are Dominions, Principalities and Powers, just as we have - on earth, in well-ordered states, there are kings on whom God pours out His grace, and through whom He rules the nations (Prov. 8:15), - there are dominions, principalities and powers. St. Apostle Paul speaks about the ranks of Angels like this: Thus, i.e. By the Son of God all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. What exactly is invisible that was created in heaven? – if there were thrones, he continues, if there were dominions, if there were beginnings, if there were powers, all things were created by Him and about Him (Col. 1:16). So, the Angels are divided by rank. How many ranks of angels are there? The Holy Church teaches that Angels are divided into nine faces or orders, and these nine into three orders. In the first rank are those who are closest to God, namely: Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim; in the second: Power, Dominion and Strength; in the third: Angels, Archangels, Principalities. All these ranks are found in Holy Scripture. St. Dionysius the Areopagite, a disciple of St. Apostle Paul, says that St. Apostle Paul himself divided the ranks of Angels this way. “All the Powers (ranks) of heaven,” he says, “Holy Scripture called nine separate names, and our Divine Holy Mentor (meaning Apostle Paul) divided them into three triple degrees” 27 . However, the doctrine of heavenly rank is generally mysterious and incomprehensible to our minds while we are on earth and see the objects of the spiritual world only like a mirror in fortune-telling (1 Cor. 13:12). It is enough for us to know only that there are countless Angels, incomparably more than the entire human race, and that they are divided according to degrees into lower and higher, closer to God and less close. In honor and glory of the All-Holy Spirit, the Life-Giving Lord, Whose descent upon St. Now we celebrate the Apostles; we add that the source of life and perfection for all the angelic ranks is He, the All-Holy Spirit, together with the Father and the Son, just as by the Holy Spirit every human soul is alive and exalted in purity, illuminated by the sacred and mysterious Trinity unity 28. What rule for our lives will we derive from the teaching about the number of Angels and their division into degrees? There are countless angels and they are all bright, intelligent, kind, strong spirits, but among them there are those higher and lower in their strengths and perfections; - and for their common good they subordinate themselves to each other in the most perfect way, the lower ones to the higher ones, these ones to the higher ones, these ones to the higher ones, etc.: each of the saints. Angelov knows his place and his rank. This is how it should be, brothers, between us. People also differ in their strengths and abilities. In order for them all to be happy, mutual subordination is absolutely necessary: ​​in society there must be higher and lower, rich and poor, strong and weak: because if all people were equal, no one would serve each other: everyone, in the present corrupted state of man, would be overcome by pride and people could even go so far as to begin to exterminate each other. You can also glean from here both knowledge and rules for piety. We often hear in church that the Church calls the Mother of God the most honorable Cherub and the most glorious - without comparison - Seraphim. Let us imagine, brothers, the greatness of the Mother of God. The world of spirits, we said earlier, is countless in the proper sense of the word, and they constitute a real, well-ordered, brightest world, gradually approaching God. The Angelic ranks closest to God are the Cherubim and Seraphim, the purest spirits, lightning-like, flaming with eternal love for God, shining with the light of God’s mind and pouring out wisdom to others 29 . In them God especially rests with His grace, as the Psalmist says: (God) ascended upon the Cherubim and flew (Ps. 17:11); or: sit on the Cherubim, appear (Ps. 79:2). But the Mother of God is more honest than the Cherubim, more glorious than the Seraphim themselves, moreover, without any comparison; because She not only carried in Her Most Pure hands the One who bears the whole world with one Word (Heb. 1:3), but also in her womb, and is the true Mother of God the Word. Let us understand, brothers, as much as we can, the greatness of the Mother of God, and we will honor Her according to her heritage, as the Lady of Angels and men 30. Let us not forget to honor the Angels with proper worship, as the friends of God, as the most perfect, rational creatures of God, in whom God primarily rests His grace. Amen. I will ascend into the sky, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, ... I will be like the Most High (Isa. 14:13-14. (Words of the Star)) Until now, brothers, we have seen all light and grace in heaven. The Lord God, worshiped in the Trinity, is the all-enlightening and all-life-giving Light. Angels of God are the second lights according to God 31, full of grace and living by grace 32. Now we will see that some lights became darkness and in the kingdom of the all-good, but just God, sin, or resistance to the will of God, appeared for the first time. You can guess, brothers, that we want to talk about evil spirits. Yes, - and part of the sky, or part of the inhabitants of the sky, was once darkened - and once darkened forever, for endless centuries of ages - with pride and resistance to God. In heaven, among the Angels of God, there was one great, luminous spirit - from its luminosity called the star - a spirit, one of the closest to God. I wish I could live and blissfully bliss the bright spirit - with such goodness, with such Divine generosity, adorned with all sorts of perfections - in the light of the Face of God. But no: he wanted to be an independent light, he wanted to be God himself; He said: I will ascend to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven; …I will be like the Most High (Is.14:13–14). And the Lord cast down the proud, stubborn spirit, which had darkened itself with unrepentant opposition to its Creator, from the bright sky: because what fellowship has light with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14)? Since the Lucifer was the leader of some subordinate spirits, he drew them along with him, revolting them too against the Lord of all creation. There are fewer inhabitants in heaven, although by no means fewer: because all the Angels are countless. Are there really evil, fallen spirits, some people ask and ask? That there are evil spirits is beyond all doubt. During the earthly life of Jesus Christ, they confessed Him through the mouths of demon-possessed people as the Son of God; - testified, as if involuntarily, that they were condemned by Him to eternal torment; - with their characteristic anger, truly hellish, they tormented people possessed by demons - and with the same anger they came out of them at the command of the Savior, in front of a large people. Once, having left two demon-possessed people at the word of the Savior in order to enter the pigs grazing nearby, they most obviously proved their shameful existence by the fact that the herd of pigs into which they entered, driven and tormented by their power, rushed all into the sea and drowned (Matthew 8:28-34). Holy Scripture directly calls them - sometimes evil spirits (Luke 7:21), sometimes unclean spirits (Matthew 10:1), sometimes spirits of malice (Eph.6:12), demons (Luke 8:30,33,35) or demons (Rev.9:20), and between them distinguishes one main one, or leader, whom he calls the devil (1 Pet.5:8), Satan ( Rev.20:2,7), prince of peace (John 12:31), prince of the power of the air (Eph.2:2), prince of demons (Matt.9:34). But besides Holy Scripture, experience also assures us of the existence of evil spirits. People who observed themselves - the state of their spiritual life - noticed that their soul, previously quiet and calm, like a majestic river flowing smoothly in its banks, was suddenly outraged by some hostile, evil force - and began to be vaguely agitated by the pressure of unclean thoughts and passionate desires; - they saw that inside them sometimes someone with force rushes towards the most fundamental, saving convictions of the mind, towards the most holy feelings; shakes faith at its very foundation, darkening and disturbing the mind and reason, so that in this darkness and confusion it is more convenient to steal the treasure of faith; imposes various nasty, evil and blasphemous thoughts when a person is disposed to have holy and sublime thoughts; - and it does this with such force that a person must sometimes defend in sweat and tears the most holy and life-giving truths of faith, his reverence for persons exalted and glorified in heaven and on earth and for objects holy and worthy of all reverence. In general, this evil force tries to present to man everything that is good and holy in a dark and unclean form, hiding everything that is bright and beautiful in darkness. Read various prayers compiled by the Church for different occasions, verses of the canons 33, or the lives of the saints, you will see there that the saints of God in their earthly life were in constant struggle with some kind of spiritual, hostile force that attacked them sooner and later and tormented them with painful struggle. How to explain this phenomenon in our soul? What kind of force is this, so freely creeping through the body into the soul and - alternately - leaving us alone, then rushing at us again - which comes from unknown where and where it goes? This is not only the depravity of our nature, it is not only that other law in our lives, warring against the law of our mind, about which the Holy Apostle speaks (Rom. 7:23). No: here the action of an extraneous evil force is noticeable, which counteracts the good force that is growing in us. This is precisely the action of the spirits of evil in high places. St. The apostle was so decisively convinced of the reality of this internal struggle with evil spirits that, as an experienced spiritual mentor, he asked newly converted Christians to put on spiritual armor in order to be able to resist the wiles of the devil. As if our battle is against flesh and blood, he says, i.e. not with our nature only corrupted by sin, but to the beginning, and to the authorities, and to the ruler of the darkness of this world, to the spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). The existence of evil spirits explains a lot in the fate and life of mankind: the fall of man, his corruption, atheism, polytheism and other vile vices. The very mystery of our redemption by the Son of God is based on the existence of evil spirits, because He came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). As for the nature of evil spirits, first of all, as spirits, they are incorporeal and therefore freely penetrate the soul of every person, by God's permission, instilling in him bad thoughts and wishes and in every possible way playing tricks on him 34 . Like evil spirits, they are extremely evil; It’s hard for us to even imagine how evil they are. Only in part, from their deeds in people and animals, can one conclude that they are evil. Thus, one demoniac, whom Jesus Christ healed, was often led by the demon to fire, so that he would burn, and to water, so that he would drown in it (Matthew 17:14–21). Another demon possessed had his tongue tied so that he could not say anything with his tongue. When the Lord cast out the demon, the dumb man immediately began to speak (Matthew 9:32–33). Another two demoniacs lived in coffins, in which the demons probably wanted to bury them alive, and they were so fierce and terrible that no one dared to walk the road where they were. From these two demon-possessed men, the Lord commanded the demons to come out and enter, as they asked, into the pigs. When they entered the pigs, they immediately drove them into the sea and drowned them (Matthew 8:28–34). The Lord, by the way, allowed them to enter the swine herd in order to show people the anger of demons 35. You can also see demonic anger in people full of wickedness and depravity, uttering blasphemies against St. faith and piety and church regulations, laughing at sacred persons and objects, because demons do not tolerate everything sacred. Demons especially thirst for the destruction of the human soul, and the devil, like a roaring lion, walks around looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). With their extreme anger, evil spirits are very smart for evil, because they initially received from God a mind that is higher than human and - because they live for a very long time, never dying and are increasingly inventing means - to put into action their malice, which is their life. In addition, they are very strong, as evidenced by the examples of those possessed by demons, who sometimes could not be bound by anything; and if they tied them up in moments of calm, they even broke the iron chains. But their power is more clearly visible over people who are wicked and possessed of passions, who are careless about their salvation, whom for negligence the Lord betrays into the power of the devil: hellish power with such power draws them to destruction that a person becomes a perfect slave of demons, doing everything that they inspire. This is the example of Judas (Luke 22:3–6; John 13:27–30). The fall of evil spirits is so great and cruel, their evil deeds in the kingdom of God are so destructive that they themselves can never repent and therefore they will face undoubted, endless torment in hell along with unrepentant sinners. St. Scripture repeatedly says that the Lord God is watching over them for the judgment of the great day of His second and glorious coming, after which they will be tormented forever and ever (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6). There are so many fallen spirits that they constitute a whole kingdom, according to the Savior: even if Satan were divided within himself, what would his kingdom become (Luke 11:18)? The majority of the Holy Fathers of the Church adhered to the idea that with Satan an innumerable number of spirits subordinate to him fell from heaven, without saying how many exactly 36. Brethren! Evil spirits were initially good and only later became evil through opposition to the will of God, which is why they were condemned to eternal torment for their stubborn pride. This danger of being subjected to eternal torment along with evil spirits can easily threaten us; and people are daring opponents of the will of God when, for example, they stubbornly do not want to recognize what the Word of God and the Holy Church commands to recognize, or with the intention of going against any commandment of God, placing their thoughts and rules above the Word of God or the statutes of the Church. The Lord God finally rejects such people from His presence, just as He rejected the proud star with the spirits subordinate to him. So, let us be afraid of pride, lest we become proud and fall into the judgment of the devil (1 Tim. 3:6), that is, lest we be subjected to the same condemnation as the devil. Unclean spirits instill in us false thoughts and evil desires, trying to distract our mind and heart from holy objects. Let us resist them in every possible way, not allowing bad thoughts and desires to take root in us. Demons are very evil - and their very life consists of doing evil. On the contrary, we, brethren, as the elect of God, let us be clothed with the belly of generosity, kindness, humility, meekness and long-suffering (Col. 3:12), - and let us understand one another in encouraging love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24), always remembering that evil will receive its due reward at the terrible judgment of Christ, just as no good will be left without its due rewards, and - thanks to God and the Father... He who delivered us from the power of darkness and delivered us into the Kingdom of the Son of Your love (Col. 1:12-13). Amen. This is what the Lord God says:...I created the earth and man on it, I established the heavens with My hand, I gave commandments to all the stars (Is. 45:11–12) The time has come, brothers, for us to talk about the creation of the visible world, which we look at every day, and which, out of habit, we value so little. Yes, we have looked at everything in the world of God, just like at home - at our household items. Meanwhile, this world is a wonderful creation of God: the infinite wisdom and ever-present power of the Creator is visible everywhere in it; everything in it is so beautiful, majestic and so beneficial for living creatures that St. The fathers, when looking at it, could not find enough words to praise the wisdom, goodness and omnipotence of the Creator - to describe the splendor and beauty of the world. And indeed, brethren, from examining the world, the omnipotence, goodness and wisdom of God are clearly visible to everyone - learned and unlearned: from the majesty of the beauty of creatures, their Creator is known comparatively, says Holy Scripture (Wisdom 13:5). But why do we need to know: how, where and why the world came into being? - In order to recognize its origin - with everything that is in it - from the all-good Creator, and the intention with which He created everything, to reverence the Creator, know the value of things and gratefully use everything that we have and that surrounds us; - so that, having learned what the whole visible world is, with all its accessories, with all its time, how transitory it is, - do not become attached with your heart to this fleeting life and its benefits; - and from the visible, changing, transitory world to ascend to the invisible, unchanging and eternal Kingdom of Heaven, for which we are appointed here to prepare. Let us begin, with God’s help, our conversations about the creation of the world. You see, brothers, that everything in the world is in constant motion: every day the sun appears in the east in the morning, and in the west in the evening; the month runs its course; both the sun and the month, obviously, alternately appear either underground or above it; sometimes they shine for us, sometimes for those below us; stars are also visible at one time in one place and at another time in another place. And these round, large bodies, by the mania of the Almighty Creator, walk around harmoniously, regularly, unchangeably. This movement of large round balls serves, brothers, as the basis for measuring time; This movement is, further, true proof that the world is not eternal, but received a beginning once. Thus, looking at the movement of the hour hand or the movement of the wheels in a watch, everyone concludes that the watch was made and put into operation by a watchmaker. The same should be said when looking at the movement of the world, i.e., that it received a beginning from the Creator and, together with the beginning, movement. And when the world has a beginning, it will certainly have an end. The Almighty Creator wanted the movement of these great balls, called planets (and our earth is also a ball) to contribute to the life of the world. So, brothers, the very movement of the heavenly bodies and our earth leads us to the idea of ​​their beginning. Everything was not always as it is now, but there was a time when there was nothing: neither heaven, nor earth, no visible creature. How did it all become? The Holy Prophet and Seer of God, Moses, revealed to us how everything came to be, and where all this multitude and variety of creatures came from. In the beginning, he says, God created heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1), and then he tells how He created everything in heaven and on earth. And the Lord God Himself, through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, says: I created the earth and man on it, I established the heavens with My hand, I gave commandments to all the stars (Is. 45:12). Let us listen to the life stories of Moses. – In the beginning God created heaven and earth. When - at the beginning? Then, that is, how His goodness pleased to give the beginning to the visible world. Create. This means: not made only from a ready-made substance, as for example. a sculptor, mason or carpenter produces various good and useful things from finished substances, but he created everything from nothing, brought everything from complete non-existence into existence. Let us marvel, brethren, at the wonderful omnipotence of our God, who made everything by His innumerable power and brought everything from non-existence into existence by the abundance of His mercy, 37 and let us fall to the dust before Him with a feeling of perfect humility and devotion to His will. Create heaven and earth. God first created the substance of the universe, and then began to gradually organize it. This substance was at first vague and discordant; everything was together here: earth, water, air, and fire; nothing was divided, nothing had the types and forms that we see now. The earth, it is said further, is invisible and unsettled (Gen. 1:2). Invisible - because, as St. Basil the Great says, the earth was immersed in the depths, and, due to the water spilled on its surface, could not be visible; It was called unsettled because it did not yet have the device that was made in the following days 38. Why was the earth at first ugly and unsettled, that is, why didn’t the Creator suddenly create it perfect? St. Chrysostom answers this like this: “The earth is a universal meal, and a homeland, and a nurse, and a mother, a universal city and a tomb; and our bodies are from it, and our residence and dwelling are on it, and after death we return again to it. So, so that the inevitability of using the earth does not force you to marvel at it beyond its dignity, and the multitude of blessings from the earth does not attract you to wickedness, God first shows it to you ugly and not comfortable, so that when you see its imperfection, you will marvel at the One who created it and put all this power into it; so that you may glorify Him who has arranged so many things for our convenience” 39. Further St. The writer of everyday life continues: and the darkness at the top of the abyss, that is, above the water that covered the whole earth, there was impenetrable darkness, darkness. And the Spirit of God was carried on top of the water (Gen. 1:2). The Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Life-Giving One, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, the third Person of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, hovered over this abyss and poured warmth and life into it, warmed and enlivened the watery nature. Thus, the world seems to be born out of water through the action of the Holy Spirit. Similar things happen at our birth, brothers. In the sacrament of St. Baptism, which is a spiritual birth, we are also born of water and the Spirit, as the Savior says: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). It is not known whether the land remained unsettled for long or not; How long was darkness over the waters; Only the Lord first of all created the nature of material light in order to destroy through it the previously existing disorder and disorder, and so that the work of His hands would benefit from the beneficial effects of light. And God said: Let there be light: and there was light (Gen. 1:3). The Creator said that there should be light, and there was light. So omnipotent is the Word of the Creator. Since the Lord God is infinite being, it is incomparably easier for Him to bring everything from non-existence into existence than for us to make something from a ready-made thing; and the world could not have come into existence otherwise than from non-existence, from nothing, because there was no other existence except God; and if it were, then God would not be God. And so, light was created out of nothing by God’s command. A wonderful creation, this light! Without it, the thing exists, and as if it does not exist, but the light reveals it. So, before there was light, the earth was there, but it was as if it did not exist: because no eye would have seen it, even if there had been one. And now it often happens on a dark autumn night, in unlit places, that everything seems to disappear: the sky, the earth, the water, the forests, the houses, and every object - and we see not only the beauty of the world, but absolutely nothing. It is not for nothing that the world itself is called light. Exactly, it can be called light: what kind of world would it be without light? All animals and plants themselves are designed in such a way that they cannot live without light; and besides, light gives everything such a good, attractive appearance, and without light it’s as if there is no world. Let us learn, brothers, to appreciate this gift of God - light, and also this light of our eyes - sight, without which we cannot see anything even in the light. But let us not be too attached to material light and the sense of vision; There are people who don’t see anything, they won’t believe it: if I don’t see it, they say, I have no faith. Look: the earth was in the beginning, but it was invisible because of darkness everywhere. Likewise, we do not see the spiritual world, but it exists. Light and eyes are given to us only for this visible world, and not for that invisible one; for that world a different eye is needed: the eyes of the heart are enlightened (Eph. 1:18), or a pure heart: the blessedness of the pure in heart, it is said that they will see God (Matt. 5:8). And we don’t see the human soul, but it actually exists. In a person, it gives life and beauty to the body, especially expression to the face; in him she is the main reason for everything he does; and after the soul leaves the body, all that remains is one ugly corpse, the dust of the earth. Having created light, the Lord God Himself testified that light is a good thing. And God saw the light as good (Gen. 1:4). And indeed, good. The whole world feels how good the light is. But, in addition to material light, there is, brethren, also spiritual light. This light and source of light is the Lord God, who lives in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16). Angels are also called second lights after God, as we said in the previous conversation. We value material light because we find it very necessary and useful for ourselves. But if we value sensual light, then we will recognize and appreciate intelligent light. That light, as you can see, is not constant: it appears and disappears and serves almost only for the body, which itself is not permanent, not eternal: but this light is eternal and therefore God gave us to see the sensory light in order to grant us intelligent light - at a time that He Himself determined 40; and the bliss and beauty of this intelligent light are such that we now cannot even comprehend it in its entirety; sins, passions and worldly cares prevent us from vividly feeling this light in our souls in real life; the clothing of the body also hides it from the soul. There was spiritual light in the world, but - alas! people did not accept it: The light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light: for their deeds were evil (John 3:19). In order to be worthy of being participants in the spiritual light, obviously, you need to put aside dark deeds, that is, sins. And God divided between the light and between you. And God called light day and darkness night (Gen. 1:5). Although God created light, he did not completely destroy the darkness that existed before the creation of light, because the continuity of light would be harmful to creatures, but only made a division between them, appointed an order, a sequence for both. But why then could there be day and night when there was no sun yet? Then, says St. Basil the Great, day occurred and night followed not according to the solar movement, but because the primeval light, to the extent determined by God, either expanded or contracted again 41. And there was evening, and there was morning, one day (Gen. 1:5), - not only the first, but also one, that is, the only one. It is so named in order to show its importance and superiority over other days, because it is the head of time, the beginning of days, contemporary with the world, as St. Basil the Great says 42. This time we will conclude the conversation with the first day of creation: it is enough if we keep this in mind. Let us remember that the whole world was created by God out of nothing, solely by His goodness, and, remembering this, revere Him and gratefully glorify Him. Amen. Who measured the sky in a span and a handful of water and the whole earth? Who put the mountains in measure and the hills in weight?... Look at the height of your eyes and see who created all this? (Isa.40:12,26) Now we will talk, brothers, about the second and third days of creation. What did the world become on the second day of its life, or what was created on the second day? The earth's core was still in the water and was not visible; but the light was already illuminating the unstructured, ugly substance of the world during the day. On the second day, the world begins to more and more, according to God's word, come into order out of disorder. God creates this visible vault of heaven, called the firmament in Holy Scripture - because the heavenly bodies seem to be fixed on it - and at the command of the Creator, the roughest parts of the water-like world substance tend to the earth and, connecting with it, open its outline, partly ascending upward, i.e. to other opaque bodies located in the heavenly space, for which the firmament was also supposed to open 43 . And God said, says the Holy Writer of Genesis: let there be a firmament in the midst of water, and let there be a separation in the midst of water and water: and so it was. And God created the firmament: and God separated between the waters that were under the firmament, and between the waters that were above the firmament. And God called the firmament the sky: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the second day (Gen. 1:6–8). This is what the great Moses says about creation on the second day. What did he want to say with the words: and God created the firmament, and God separated between the water that was under the firmament, and between the water that was above the firmament? The fact that on the second day God created the air space surrounding the earth and all the endless starry space, with huge, at that time still dark, celestial spheres, separated from each other by the greatest distances 44. On the same day, due to the presence of the Spirit of God over the waters, which poured warmth and life into them, the uneducated and unsettled earth began to show signs of life and the original structure: from the warmth, the water began to evaporate and rise upward - to the sky, clouds appeared and began to float through the air that day. From this day on, the globe began to make cycles. But there was still so much water on the earth that evaporation could not carry it up enough to open the earth’s core: it was still immersed in water. Thanks to the omnipotent Creator, Who created the air with His omnipotent word, pouring out such a thin, transparent, life-giving liquid, necessary for every animate creature and for all plants. Yes, brothers, without air, neither we nor animals could exist for even a few minutes: it is just as – and even more – necessary as food and drink: we breathe it every minute. Fresh air, when moving, is, in addition, an excellent medicine in cases of simple illnesses, at hand for everyone: it refreshes and strengthens our body. But air can also be a conductor of death sent by God for our sins: pestilences have their place and path in the air; without diluting the air, people sometimes also die of starvation, or at least often suffer hunger; That is why the Holy Church daily prays to the Lord, among other things, for the goodness of the air. In the air, brethren, you see and hear various phenomena, and, among other things, thunder and lightning. What often menacing spectacle do clouds present when, having thickened, they seem to spew out thunder and lightning? The sight of the sky, covered with black clouds and shaking the earth with thunder strikes and illuminating with terribly sparkling lightning, has always produced such fear in people that they - in paganism - placed a special god over these phenomena and called him the Thunderer and Perun. We, thank God, probably know that everything in the world is under the control of the Lord God alone and no outsider controls His kingdom. Some Christians thought and still think that this is Elijah the Prophet thundering. But, brethren, this is not done by anyone else, but by the Lord God, Who gave His laws to nature once and for all. This is very easy to figure out. Just as, for example, an earthquake or an eruption of fire-breathing mountains occurs without any extraneous person, so thunder-sweeping and fire-breathing clouds happen on their own, without an extraneous person, according to the same laws of the Creator who created the universe. Brothers! When we see clouds, we can remember the time when the Lord, in the darkness of His holy Angels, will come again to our dark earth for the terrible judgment of the human race; He will come on the clouds, as the Seer says: Behold, he is coming from the clouds, and every eye will see Him (Rev. 1:7); and at this time the righteous will be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). And there was evening, and there was morning, the second day (Gen. 1:8). It is already the evening of the second day of peace, and the earth is still not visible. On the third day of the world, the Lord formed special containers on the earth for waters and opened the face of the earth in certain places. On the same day, mountains emerged from the earth and were erected on it - because it was necessary to make vast and deep hollows for water; and in order to form them, obviously, it was necessary to move the earth and put up these mountain masses 45. The bodies of water are called seas, and the land is called earth. And God speaks, continues the Holy One. Writer of everyday life, may the waters under heaven be gathered together into one? and let dry land appear. And be it. And the waters under heaven were gathered into their congregations, and dry land appeared. And God called the dry land earth, and the gathered waters called the sea. And God saw that it was good (Gen. 1:9–10). So, that’s when dry land appeared: already on the third day. There are still no living creatures in the air or in the water, but on this day the land will produce amazing plants: from the rough earth, from sand, from clay, from silt, the most delicate, beautiful and varied types of herbs, flowers and other cereals will emerge, as well as all kinds of trees. But why is it - compared to the waters - there is so little land on earth, while there are so many creatures living on land? - two-thirds water, and only one-third land? Here, brothers, marvel at the wisdom of the Creator. Oceans and seas, serving as a home for a myriad of aquatic creatures, at the same time serve as reserve reservoirs for watering or irrigating the earth. You know how plants love water, how much they absorb it with their roots and carry it along the entire trunk and through all the branches and leaves; - that without water they cannot eat; You also know what an innumerable variety of plants, large and small. Imagine now, brothers, how much water is needed for every grass, flower, bush and tree - and where could it be obtained in such huge quantities if there were no oceans and seas, lakes and rivers? Thanks to these water reservoirs, the earth with its countless families of plants does not know a shortage of water: from the oceans, seas and other reservoirs of water, many evaporations rise daily; These vapors in the form of clouds flow around the earth in the upper layers of the air and rain on it, or fall in the form of dew and thus bring drink to every grass, flower and tree that themselves cannot go for a drink. We are not talking about the countless number of different animate creatures on earth and in the water - from humans to the smallest insects, invisible to the naked eye - and how much water they need; everyone wants to drink and eat; and the food itself is always more or less dissolved in liquid. Everything that lives certainly needs water. With all this, remember how much fire is hidden in the interior of the earth: and after this, no one will say that there is a disproportionate amount of water on the earth: there is as much of it as is needed for the well-being of all earthly creatures. The Creator created everything by number, measure and weight. Brethren! Although water is a soulless thing, it, obeying the word of the Lord, does what we sometimes do not do. You see that, according to the laws of the Creator, it rises up from various water reservoirs in the form of vapor, then descends as rain or dew onto plants that themselves cannot change places and - bring them a life-giving drink, or at least makes the air moist. So we will always serve our poor and weak brethren, giving them a word of consolation in distress, like a cool drink, or alms, whatever one can. And God said: Let the earth bring forth the old grass, sowing seed according to its kind and likeness, and the fruitful tree producing fruit, which has its seed in it, according to its kind, upon the earth: and so it was (Gen. 1:11). It's still day three. When the water warmed up and warmed the earth, and from this evaporations began to rise - and when, according to the word of the Lord, the water that covered the earth went into the containers indicated to it and thus dry land appeared with mountains, hills and valleys: - on the earth, also according to the word of the Lord, suddenly there appears an endless variety of herbs with seeds in each, containing in the smallest form a multitude of the very herbs or cereals that carry them stem; is also, together with barren trees, which contain only their seeds, and, every fruitful tree, by itself, without outside participation, produces beautiful and tasty fruits - also with a seed, depending on the type of tree - so that each type of tree had to reproduce itself and not mix with other trees, or be distorted in any way. This, brothers, is the beginning of our varied plant food, which supports our life and serves for our pleasure. When we eat it, we will remember that it is the work of the goodness and omnipotence of God; Let us know its value and measure, and let us not forget to always thank the Creator for it. And paying attention - on the one hand to the beauty of flowers, on the other - to the low value, neglect of them, let us remember the words of the Savior, with which He teaches us to hope in God's Providence: even if the hay of the village is swept into the oven this day and in the morning, God clothes it like this, isn't it much more than you, you of little faith? (Matthew 6:30) - and let’s not worry too much about clothing, especially about smart clothes. You can also learn humility at the sight of the beauty and tenderness of flowers and their rapid withering, at the sight of the beauty and harmony of trees and their fall under a man’s ax or from the pressure of the wind. The flowers are good and tender, but there is nothing to be proud of them: they are not our own, but God’s, and, moreover, they soon fade; The trees are beautiful and slender: but they have nothing to boast about: God planted them, and watered them, and made them grow. In the same way, beautiful people and majestic men, like wild flowers and slender trees, cannot boast of anything: God’s creation is their body: they have nothing of their own in it; God raised him and gave him food and drink for his nourishment; there is nothing to say about the soul: it is also all of God. Moreover, both flowers and trees fall equally, although some live less, while others live more. So people, no matter what they are, will all fall under the ax of death. But let's return to creation. The Lord God, we heard, said that the earth should produce plants: and it produced all plants according to their kind. Wonderful is Your omnipotence, O Lord! As You said at the beginning, so to this day every grain, every tree and tree obeys You! With the onset of spring, as soon as there is a sufficient amount of warmth for the development of plants: your soulless creature begins marvelous work in the modest unknown of the bowels of the earth, also on the stems and branches of trees, without noise, without knocking, correctly, gradually. Here they come into the light of God: not a single piece of grass, not a single leaf, not a single tree will go astray, will not forget the pattern (shape) given to it - and look: where does it come from: the grass on the ground or the leaf on the tree unfolds, becomes wider and wider, larger and larger, and finally the bare earth is covered with a beautiful, multi-colored carpet that attracts both the eye and the sense of smell, and the trees dress up in leafy, thick clothes and cover their members. So everything is done picturesquely, elegantly on our land from these plants! And all this comes as if from nothing, according to one word of the Lord, spoken once and forever. And we, brethren, do not we arise into being from the same non-existence? What are we in the beginning - in our father's loins (Heb. 7:10)? Isn’t it obvious through this that the Creator lets us know that in the beginning He brought everything from non-existence into being? Brothers, let us look at the plants and learn. How obvious and tangible is our Lord, our Almighty Father, in these plants! Every grass, every leaf, every flower seems to whisper to us: “The Lord is here!” Consider, brothers, the wise structure of plants and recognize God in them: almost all of you have plants at all times, both in winter and in summer. But it’s time to end the conversation; forgive its length, because it is difficult not to talk a lot about the wise deeds of the Creator. Amen. The sun sings to you; The moon praises you; The stars are present to you (Prayer for the blessing of water) The subject of this conversation, brethren, will be the creation of the heavenly bodies, which followed on the fourth day of creation, and how they fulfill their purpose in relation to the earth, as well as their size and distance from the earth. Let us listen to how the Holy Genesis writer Moses speaks about the creation of the luminaries in his book of Genesis, heaven and earth. Here's how he talks about it: and God said: let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, illuminating the earth and dividing between day and night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. And let them be enlightened in the firmament of heaven, as they shine on the earth: and so it was. And God created two great lights: the great light at the beginning of the day, and the lesser light at the beginning of the night, and the stars. And God set it in the firmament of heaven, as if it were to shine on the earth, and to rule day and night, and to separate between the light and between you: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day (Gen. 1:14–19). So, the sun, moon and stars were created 1) - to illuminate the earth, 2) - so that they produce days and nights and seasons on the earth and so that, thus, people could use them to calculate their earthly time, and 3) - so that they add signs or signs to recognize buckets or bad weather, wind and storm, location on earth or at sea. This is the purpose of the luminaries for the earth: no other purpose has been revealed to us. And how wonderfully and invariably this purpose is fulfilled! And God created two great lights: the great light at the beginning of the day and the lesser light at the beginning of the night. What a brilliant luminary is the sun! What a wealth of light there is from it and how wonderfully it shines on the earth! It illuminates several thousand miles in all directions at once so brightly that you can distinguish every grain of sand, every grass on the earth: the whole earth seems to be flooded with a sea of ​​light. But since light is a substance, then judge, brothers, how great the luminary must be, emitting so much light from itself onto the earth. Obviously, it (the luminary) is very large and incomparably larger than the earth, because if it were equal to or smaller than the earth, then the light on the whole earth would be incomparably scarcer. But now take into account the generosity of illumination and the space of this illumination, equal to the entire earthly hemisphere, and also the extent to which the light of a candle becomes weaker and weaker when we, for example, gradually move a book away from it: - and then judge how great the sun must be, which shines equally brightly, so that the enormous distance, showing it in a small circle, seems to mean nothing to the earth. From this it is easy for anyone to conclude that it is extremely large. It is known that the sun is several hundred thousand times larger than the earth. If it appears to be such a small circle, then, as we said, this is because of the amazing height at which it burns above the earth. It is 144 million miles away from the earth 46 . Scientists have found this out. What do our earthly distances mean in comparison with this distance? What kind of Creator must be, by whose will such luminaries move across the sky and at such a distance? Obviously He must be omnipresent and omnipotent; for Him all magnitudes are insignificant. But in us, brothers, there is a likeness of the omnipresent Divinity, and for our thoughts there are no such distances as there are for the body or for the feelings; and human thought can fly across immeasurable distances in an instant; and the more a person tries to live virtuously and holyly, the freer his thoughts are, the more he renounces the close bonds of the earth; but, on the contrary, a vicious, passionate man, and in thought and with his whole being, is as if chained to the earth: on earth are all his hopes and all his happiness. The sun is very bright, brothers, so much so that we have not seen anything brighter than it, and it sees the whole earth at once. But the eyes of the Lord are darker than the brightest sun (Sir. 23:27) and see at once the entire universe, everything hidden and secret in people: there is no place where one could hide from them. In general, the sun, moon and stars are beautiful; but their Creator is even more beautiful. “If the sky is beautiful,” says one of our native saints, “and in the sky there is a visible sun, a month and stars: oh, how most beautiful is He who created these beautiful things” 47! And why, brethren, does the sun set behind the earth and leave it in darkness, and then rise again over the earth? Why this morning and evening dawn and these golden clouds at dawn? – And this happens according to the omnipotent word or according to the laws of the Creator, who created the earth round, like a ball, and commanded it to revolve around itself and around the sun. Previously we said simply, without proof, that the earth is a sphere; and now the rising and setting of the sun, the dawn of morning and evening, and the golden clouds at dawn will prove to us that our earth is indeed a huge ball, like the celestial balls. You often see, brothers, that the Lord Almighty on icons is mostly depicted with a ball, on top of which there is a cross. This ball means the globe of the earth and is called an orb - from the fact that in ancient times Roman kings had the custom, on solemn occasions, to hold it in their hand 48 . Our Lord Jesus Christ holds the globe of the earth in his hand, as the King of heaven and earth, as the Almighty. We say this in order to show you that our earth is round, like a ball. But how is the spherical shape of the earth proven by phenomena during the rising and setting of the sun? As follows: if the earth were not spherical, but flat, then the sun would now disappear under the earth, or come out from under it and immediately leave us either in the complete shadow of the earth, or illuminate us with full light. Now, since the earth is round, we use the remnants of light from the sun even when it illuminates the sloping side of the earth, when the sun, so to speak, is under the mountain and produces dawn for us, like the glow of a huge fire. This dawn occurs because the rays of the setting or rising sun, illuminating the sloping side of the earth, at the same time illuminate the air located near the earth and surrounding it like water, and thus produce the light of dawn. Watching the dawn, we see from the gradual decrease in light - from the way it little by little becomes paler and paler from light pink - that the earth is truly round, and the sun seems to glide, step by step, evenly, in a circle. And it is known that this phenomenon occurs from the wheel-like rotation of the earth, from its roundness. Looking at the clouds at sunset, we also see; There are often several rows of them: one above, the others below. Look: the sun has set, and we no longer see it; only the tops of buildings still receive its last rays; Meanwhile, the lower clouds are still purple and the upper ones the same; but the lower ones have gone out, like hot iron removed from the fire, but the upper clouds are still golden; For them, the sun has not yet set: it’s already twilight here, but up there, it’s full light. But finally, these lofty, golden clouds also became dark, that is, they also became in the shadow of the earth: the sun sank low under the earth. How obvious it is from this that the earth is spherical! But why am I trying to prove to you that the earth is a sphere? In order to present to you in the most amazing form the omnipotence of God. The earth is a ball. But why did God make it spherical? So that it turns around itself and around the sun. So, the earth revolves in the air - in vast spaces, and, according to the church song, hangs on nothing. What force must hold her in the air with nothing! What force should carry it around the sun like a light ball? How insignificant our land is to the Lord God! How faithful and true are the words of the Lord: heaven is My throne, but the earth is the footstool of My feet (Is. 66:1), only a footstool! This is how it happens with the earth, and this is how it is structured. But according to the same laws, the heavenly bodies were created: and they are all also hung on nothing, or on nothing. Because Your works are magnified, O Lord, You have done all things with wisdom (Ps. 103:24). But what surprises us most is this luminous luminary. You have illuminated one lamp, O God, for the whole earth and its light is sufficient for everyone; no one has the need to demand - to move it closer to themselves, so that the light is brighter: everywhere and for everyone it shines equally brightly: king and subject, rich and poor, strong and weak, righteous and sinful. Not only does it shine, it also warms and gives life to everyone and everything; the gift is given to everyone equally: no one is offended. – In the sun, brothers, one can see the likeness of the one and all-good Lord and the one Church. The sun shines the same for the whole earth: and the spiritual Sun - the Lord God is also one for the whole world - in all parts of the world; one Gospel of the Lord in the whole world; one and the Church of the Lord, or one fold of the verbal sheep of the Lord; one Chief Shepherd Jesus Christ. Further, the sun is the likeness of the all-good God, whose sun shines on evil and good people. A wondrous spectacle of God's goodness! What doesn't the other one of us do sometimes? What sins, what evil deeds are there between people, committed both openly and secretly? Sometimes people live in complete oblivion of God. But the Heavenly Father commands His sun to shine equally on everyone: His sun will never forget to rise above us in due time. We - often - are still sleeping, but it (the sun), like a bridegroom from his palace (Ps. 19:6), has long appeared on our horizon and pours out its dazzling rays with all the generosity, delighting every animate creature, illuminating and enlivening everything. Let us, brothers, imitate the Heavenly Father, each according to our own strength, shining with a different light of our good deeds and warming with our participation the hearts of those in need of participation. When the sun disappears behind the earth, for the most part, immediately another luminary appears in its place - a smaller one and shines on the earth for the whole night. What an exact order in the shifts! What concern for our dark land! So that it does not become very dark when the sun moves away from us to another hemisphere, the moon immediately after sunset takes on the position of luminary, although not with the same light as the sun. Its light, as scientists have discovered, is 100,000 times weaker than a cloudy day, and in comparison with the light of a sunny day, the clearest moonlit night is 300,000 times darker 49 . It also illuminates a lot of space at once - more than one thousand miles; and therefore we must also conclude that it is both great and very far from us; however, it is much smaller not only than the sun, but also the earth and is only 360,000 miles away from the earth. When there is a moon, we usually see an innumerable number of stars in the sky, some of which are larger and others smaller. Many of you, brethren, do not know the secret of the starry sky, and there is no particular need for everyone to know it, but that is where all the infinite power of the Creator is revealed. And on earth - of all God's creatures - His omnipotence is visible; but the earth is only one grain of sand in comparison with the infinity of the sky. All the stars - each individually - are larger than our earth, and most of them, perhaps, are larger than the sun itself, and - not millions of miles separate our earth from them, but whole billions - such numbers that are rarely used anywhere in our country. These stars are beautiful; their light is quiet and pleasant!... And isn’t it here, isn’t it in this silence of the night, while contemplating the boundless majestic vault of heaven, when peace and joy pour into the soul - isn’t it here, brethren, when you are imbued with sacred awe, you will understand the thanksgiving and glorification offered by creation to its Creator?! The sun sings to you, the moon praises you, the stars are present to you!... All these round balls of ugly matter appeared, brothers, according to one word of the Lord, on the second day 50. Only then were they dark, but on this day light was given to them and they became light. We mean this both about the stars and the sun. “In the beginning, God created,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, “not this sunlight, but not contained in bodies and in the sun, and then given to the sun to illuminate the entire universe” 51. From this we can conclude that the body of the sun existed before light was given to it; as well as the bodies of the moon and stars. Looking at the starry world, you involuntarily think: what an abyss of God’s omnipotence and wisdom! What does our earth mean in comparison with heaven? What – are we people? Who doesn't say from St. Psalmist David: For I will see the heavens, the works of Your finger, the moon and the stars, which You founded. What is a man, since you remember him? Or the son of man, because you visit him (Ps. 8:4-5)? Holy Scripture has not revealed to us any other purpose of the heavenly bodies than their purpose for the earth. This purpose, as we indicated earlier, is: 1) to illuminate the earth - and we all see that they exactly fulfill this purpose, especially the sun and moon; 2) so that people keep track of time by them: let them be, it is said, in times, and in days, and in years. Let us now say in more detail about this other purpose. The seasons here refer to the seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. So, days and nights and seasons on earth come from the heavenly bodies, namely, from the sun and the moon. Days and nights come from the wheel-like rotation of the earth around itself. When the side of the earth on which we live turns downward, and the one below us turns upward: then we have night below, and day above; and when we again rise up, and those who are below us – down; Then it is day for us, and night for them. The seasons are like this: when the earth is in such a position towards the sun that it casts its rays on it directly, as rain falls from the clouds, or although not very indirectly, then it is very warm on the earth, that is, it is summer; as the slope increases in the incidence of the sun's rays, the earth becomes colder and colder: autumn comes; At this time, due to the uneven cooling of the earth, water and the air surrounding them, a lot of evaporation rises into the air from the seas, lakes, rivers and swamps: that is why there are almost continuous, heavy rains in the fall. Finally, the rays of the sun, deviating more and more from the earth, seem to glide only along the earth, barely touching it: that is why severe frosts set in, the days become short and the nights become long. At this time, for the inhabitants of the other earth's hemisphere, the days gradually increase, and the nights shorten and the heat reaches its highest degree. After this, the sun again begins to rise above our hemisphere more and more; its rays will begin to fall towards us more and more directly: melting will begin, spring will come. All these changes occur when the earth revolves around the sun, and this rotation takes place throughout the year. Thus, it is both dark and cold when the sun illuminates us little; and on the contrary, it is light and warm when the rays of the sun directly fall on the ground. The same thing, brothers, happens with the soul of a Christian. When the Source of spiritual light and life-giving warmth, Jesus Christ and the Life-giving Spirit, move away from it, then there is spiritual darkness and coldness in it; and when they approach her and act on her with Their grace, then suddenly light and warmth settle in her and she tastes wonderful peace and heavenly joy. There is also a third purpose of the luminaries: to serve as signs or signs of various states and changes in the air, as well as the position of the place of travelers on earth and in the seas. Thus, sailors usually notice stormy weather or silence by the known color of the rising or setting sun; and by the sun, moon and stars they determine their position in the sea; and even on a dry path, people walking in a deep, dense forest know by the sun and stars which way they are and where they need to go out. But, beyond our expectations, our conversation went on too long and it’s time to put an end to it. So, having given glory to God, wondrous in His works, let us put an end to our conversation here. Amen. Is it by your cunning that the hawk spreads the krill motionless, in vain to the south? Is it at your command that the eagle ascends?... (Job 39:26–27) In the first four days from the beginning of the world, according to God’s word, the sky with luminaries and the earth, surrounded by air, with land and - on it - various plants, also with containers of water, appeared. But there was no living creature in the air, on land, or in water. Already on the fifth day, God populates the waters with fish and various water reptiles, and the air with birds. This is how the Holy Genesis writer Moses tells about creation on the fifth day: And God said: let the waters take away the souls of the living creatures and the birds that fly on the earth, in the firmament of heaven: and so it was. And God created the great whales, and every living creature that moves along the waters, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind: and God saw that it was good. And I bless God, saying: grow and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day (Gen. 1:20–23). From the same water God created fish and birds by His omnipotent word. “The nature of water is one,” says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, “but from it fish and birds are born, and just as they swim in the waters, so do they fly in the air” 52. Yes, brothers, the Creator makes anything from the same substance. So, for example, “the same water from which fish and birds are born, in the vines,” says the same St. Cyril, “becomes wine that gladdens the heart of a person: in olives - oil that anoints a person’s face, also turns into bread, strengthening a person’s heart, and into all kinds of fruits” 53 . Thus, everything in the world is interconnected in the most intimate way, although at first glance this may not seem so. However, this is not so surprising: fish and birds are both, at least living, moving creatures; water, oil and wine, no matter how different they are, are the same liquid. But here’s what’s surprising: between plants and animals, which seem to have the least in common with each other, there is the closest relationship, namely: between plants there are animal-plants, that is, animals that are similar in structure to plants; they are propagated in the same way as plants, by grafting and planting offspring, and produce children just as a tree produces its branches 54 . Another may doubt that this is an animal; but the feeling and voluntary movement of such a strange creature will assure him that it is definitely an animal. Doesn’t this close affinity of all earthly creatures teach us, intelligent creatures, anything? Teaches close, friendly unity with each other. We see that everything in the world is connected by inextricable bonds: plants with animals, and both with each other: will we humiliate ourselves before the irrational nature - be separated from each other through pride, hatred and other passions? Let us show that we are rational, god-like beings; Let us unite with each other through pure love, which for us is a union of perfection (Col. 3:14); Let us not destroy the order of the Creator, Who bound all creatures by affinity for their well-being. And God created the great whales, and every living creature that moves along the waters, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind: and God saw that it was good. St. Moses - of the creatures living in the water - named only the whale by name, as the largest sea animal, as the king of all things in the waters. This whale, a resident worthy of the abyss of the ocean, is 15 fathoms long. And what does he eat? According to the wise dispensation of the Creator, he does not feed on great fish - otherwise, how much devastation the whales would have caused in the sea - no: he feeds only on worms and sea insects, which enter his mouth with a long stream of water 55 . What can we say about other fish breeds? Holy Scripture says that the waters carried away the souls of creeping animals according to their kind. There are countless numbers of these genera of fish and various aquatic animals: no one has yet counted them, and there is no way to count them due to the inaccessibility of the water depth. It is only known that there are countless species of fish and sea reptiles, and that they reproduce in huge numbers. Some fish lay several hundred thousand eggs, and others several millions, from which fish are born 56; - this is truly the word of the Creator: grow and multiply, and fill the waters! Yes, there are infinitely many fish in the waters; and with countless fish multiplying, it is natural that they die in countless numbers. What did the Creator do, what places, what cemeteries did he set aside for so many dead fish? Dormant fish serve as food and, as it were, a reserve granary for water creatures of another kind. In the sea, for example, there is, among other things, a worm that looks like an eel, which God ordered to find and devour dead sea fish. At the bottom of the sea, millions of such worms constantly reptile, devour every rotting body and thus protect the waters and air from the rotting of so many fish, and, consequently, from diseases that could therefore occur in people and animals, and in the fish themselves 57. Thanks to such a wise order of the Creator, the sea and all waters are teeming with healthy and cheerful creatures. Yes, contentment with life is visible everywhere among God’s creatures. If even here - in the waters - you would find something similar to war, to persecution; if you saw that some fish destroy others, devouring them, this does not mean that there, in the depths of the waters, there is unrest, that there are many unhappy inhabitants there: no, all this tends towards order, harmony and prosperity of the water kingdom; all this shows the amazing wisdom of the Creator. Since ancient times, God has shown people a means - to catch fish for food. The waters daily deliver the greatest abundance of food both to the huts of the poor and to the tables of the rich. Our Savior himself ate fish during his earthly life, as can be seen from the fact that St. The apostles carried fish and bread between their small travel supplies. One day, with His creative wave, He attracted such a multitude of fish into the net of the Apostle Peter, deliberately thrown into the sea, that the Apostles wondered how the nets were preserved: so obedient was the creature to the mania of the Creator! So majestically everywhere our Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself as the Creator. Let us, brothers, be grateful to the Lord for the fact that, without any merit on our part, He nourishes and satisfies us with all the good things. There is a great variety of aquatic creatures visible with the eyes - and it cannot even be compared with the number of such creatures, which, due to their smallness, cannot be visible with a simple eye: - with a magnifying glass you can see in one drop of water such a multitude of living creatures that the viewer can forget himself and think, is not a special world of creatures located before his eyes? Who, seeing all this multitude of large and insignificant creatures, does not ascend in thought to the infinite Mind, to the infinite Wisdom, Who alone called from insignificance to life an infinite number of the most diverse creatures and gave everyone the wisest structure, life and the sweetest feeling of being? For Thy works are magnified, O Lord, Thou hast created all things with wisdom; the earth is filled with Thy creatures (Ps. 103:24)! And (God create) every bird according to its kind. Together with fish, God created all breeds of domestic birds, birds of prey, songbirds and others. There are so many of these feathered creatures! Quite a few of them are still recognized and described, but new, unknown ones are still being discovered. Who will describe their beauty, their morals, customs, abilities received by them from the common Creator of all? Some of them also bring material benefits to humans, such as poultry; some serve him as food, while others amuse him with sounds. But an incomparably large part of them lives in freedom in the vast world of God, joyfully soaring in height, knowing only one Lord above them - God, not submitting to the vanity and pride of man. Yes, man, with all your greatness, with all your pride, you must admit with humility that the multitude of unreasonable creatures does not depend on you in any way, that there is one Master over them - God: He gave them different abilities, put in them different morals and customs; He gave birth to them; He feeds and raises them. In fact, is it by your cunning, for example, that the hawk has spread the krill motionless in vain to the south? Does the eagle soar at your command ( Job 39:26–27 )? Yes, - you will say, - this is not the work of my art: these are not my subjects: - that you and they have one Creator. – Birds, in order to obtain food for themselves and for their protection, are gifted with the most acute vision and therefore, as a rule, easily find food for themselves and discover danger. Our Lord Jesus Christ, pointing out to people the care of the Heavenly Father in delivering food to every bird, teaches us not to worry too much about food. Look at the birds of the air, He says, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. Don't you eat them better (Matthew 6:26)? Just as among the sea reptiles there are those who destroy dead and rotting bodies in the sea, so among the birds there are those who destroy dead bodies on earth, such as eagles, kites, crows and other birds of prey. The Savior Himself mentioned in the Gospel - in a parable - about this property of predatory eagles: if there is a corpse, He says, there the eagles will be gathered together (Luke 17:37). Such wise foresight everywhere, such wise circulation of life! In the world, nothing is wasted; everything lives or serves as a reserve for life. Fish and birds, as we have seen, are created from the same water, and just as these are born from testicles, so these are born from a watery egg. But there are even greater similarities between them. No matter how fast the flight of birds is, the swimming of many fish is not inferior to it in speed. Moreover, both of them float in liquids, although they are not of the same density. The wings of birds are the same as the swimming feathers of fish; and instead of feathers, which birds are equipped with, like warm clothing, fish use scales. There are aquatic birds, and there are also some aerial or flying fish. The swimming feathers of fish can bend and unbend, just like the wings of birds; swimming and flying occur in exactly the same way, only in two different liquids: we can say that a fish flies in water, just as a bird swims in the air, which for it is also like a large ocean, just as the sea for a fish is a kind of air. Birds living in hot places have beautiful feathers and fish in the seas - in the same places, they are decorated with brilliant flowers, namely: they are covered with gold, silver, azure, ruby ​​and emerald scales and, with the brilliance of the sun's rays, sparkle in the waters like precious stones. There are fish that move in huge herds from one sea to another; there are also birds that fly from one side to the other. – From such a striking similarity between heterogeneous creatures, we conclude, brethren, that there is one supreme Being who created everything, but not two, or several, as some have vainly said. From the varied beauty noticeable in creatures, which, despite all the diversity, is something united and common to all of them, we conclude that there is one highest Beauty, from which all beauty in the world comes. The whole world is one beauty, because one Supreme Sage created it. People will also be one beautiful herd, when God will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28), in the next century. Having created fish and birds according to their kind, the Lord God Himself testified that they were good, and then blessed them to grow and multiply: and I bless God, saying: grow and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth. It is remarkable that the Lord God blessed these living creatures for the first time, as he later blessed the first people. Here one can see the fatherly care and love of the Lord God for His living creatures. Having blessed them, he said to them: grow and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth. This means that the Creator at first created only the beginnings of fish and birds, their generations, and left their reproduction to them themselves, under His protection, just like the reproduction of the human race. And to this day, all genera of fish and birds, having multiplied to infinity, retain exactly the appearance, customs and customs of their genera, without in the least mixing with others. Every fish and bird and every reptile, as they were several thousand years ago, remain so today, with the properties that they received from the Creator in the beginning. Ancient and modern descriptions of fish and birds are the same. So, brothers, everything divine is durable and permanent! So firm and unchangeable are the laws of the Creator given to creatures, so unchangeable is the Lord’s definition of the Holy Church, that even the gates of hell, or all the power of hell, will not overcome it, and it will stand firmly until the end of time. I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18), said the Savior. These are the words of the same Creator, who, as it were, said about the world at the beginning: “I will create My world, I will give laws to it, and no power will ever shake it.” Let the mortal race rejoice, because it will always be possible for us to find salvation in the Holy Church - until the end of the world - and let it glorify the Creator of every creature. Amen. All the beasts of the oak trees, the cattle of the mountains, and the oxen are mine (Ps. 49:10) Have you noticed, brethren, with what gradualness the Lord God created this world visible to us? Let us repeat in a few words what was said before about creation. First, He created the liquid, water-like and unformed substance of the world out of nothing, and then - from this substance - He produced and organized the whole world with all the creatures in it in six days. On the first day He produced light: “For to the great Light, that is, to God,” says the St. Gregory the Theologian, “it was fitting to begin the universe with the creation of light, with which He destroys the darkness and the hitherto disorder and disorder,” in the second, the firmament with all the multitude of huge balls, then still dark, distant from each other by an immeasurable distance, and the air space surrounding the earth; on the third, he separated the water that covered the entire earth from the earth, commanding it to go into deliberately formed containers or depressions in the ground, and on the same day he commanded the earth to grow all kinds of fruitful and fruitless trees, all earthly fruits, all grains and flowers; in the fourth, he gave light and warmth to the sun to illuminate and warm the earth with its creatures, and also light to the stars; in the fifth, he commanded the water to produce fish and birds. All this was said in the previous four conversations. Now we will talk about the sixth and last day of creation, in which the animals of the earth and man, the crown of creation, were created, and precisely this time we will talk about the creation of the animals of the earth, about their division into domestic and wild, and about the benefits brought by both. And God said, says St. Moses: let the earth bring forth every living creature according to its kind, four-legged creatures and creeping things, and beasts of the earth according to its kind: and so it was. And God created the beasts of the earth according to their kind, and the cattle according to their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to their kind: and God saw that it was good (Gen. 1:24-25). And God speaks. We have already seen, brethren, several times, in previous conversations, how omnipotent the word of God is: He spoke - and it became; commanded - and the creature appeared. That speech, says the Holy Psalmist, came to pass; He commanded it, and it was created (Ps. 32:9). Now we will see once again the power of the word of the Lord. And God said: let the earth destroy the living soul. These words do not mean, brethren, that the earth itself had living souls, which God ordered it to produce or give birth to, but that God gave the earth the power to produce living creatures from itself, that is, animals were created by the omnipotent word of God, as, for example. from the staff of Moses God created a serpent, or - as He, according to St. John the Baptist, from a stone can raise up children for Abraham (Matthew 3:9). And so, every living creature comes from God or from God’s word - with its entire being - and also lives by the word of God, which supports all kinds of creatures in being: - food, drink, breathing and movement - these are the secondary reasons for the life of earthly creatures. Without God, without God's word, without God's will there is and cannot be any life, not only on earth, but also in heaven. His word brought forth all life, and by His word all life is sustained: He alone bears all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3), that is, by His mighty word. May the earth destroy the living soul. This means that the soul of animals comes from the earth and is something earthly, albeit subtle: - and therefore, after the death of the animal, it returns to the earth again. Only the human soul is immortal: because only in man - of all earthly creatures - is there reason, freedom and the desire for God, for immortality. This means that we should take care of her most of all and enrich her with good, saving deeds; about the body, as about the garment of the soul, built for us by the Lord God from the earth and necessary for us in its present form only until then, while we are on earth, do not take too much care: because, just as decayed clothing, burnt out from use and over time, disintegrates and turns to dust, so our body - the same perishable clothing, will necessarily disintegrate and turn to dust; and from rank, from beauty, from bodily strength, only land will remain. Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, the four-footed creature, the creeping thing and the beast of the earth according to its kind: and so it shall be. Here, one might think, the Holy Writer Moses called four-legged animals domestic or tame animals, and beasts - wild, forest animals. But has there always been a division of animals into domestic or tame ones, and wild or wild animals? weren't they all tame at first, although most of them were created to be forest dwellers? Man is the king of the earth; he was appointed the owner of all the creatures of the earth: and all things possessed must be submissive and submissive to the owner. “It’s true that at first all the animals were submissive to man and all were tame; and as man sinned and disobeyed God, the animals also left their obedience to man and ceased to be tame; Moreover, they became terrible for him. “As sin entered (into people),” says St. Chrysostom, “then honor (dominion over animals) was taken away from them; and just as good servants are afraid of their comrades, and bad ones are afraid of their co-servants: this is what happened to a man. As long as he had boldness towards God, so long was he afraid of the beasts; and as he sinned, he began to fear the last of his brothers, that is, the beasts” 58 . “But,” the saint continues, “God did not completely take away from man for his sin the honor of dominion over animals, nor did he deprive him of all power over them; no - He did not leave under the power of man only those animals that do not serve him so much for his worldly benefit; and those animals that are necessary, useful and provide us with many benefits in life - God left these animals under our control. He left the horses so that they would drag the plow, cut the ground, so that they would help us in our labors when transporting heavy loads, and share with us, when necessary, the battles and dangers; also - according to need or for our needs, they transported us from place to place; left herds of cattle and sheep to please our table, so that we would have enough stock to prepare clothes. He also left behind other breeds of animals that bring us considerable benefit in life. He condemned us for our sin to constant sweat and labor, but also commanded some dumb people to participate with us in labor, in order to obtain food and other needs for us, and sometimes he gives it to us without difficulty, allowing us to eat the flesh of animals. – How much we should be grateful to the Creator for this! We are accustomed to everything in the world and think little: to whom, to what Benefactor do we owe these gifts. The horse bears our burdens all its life; Our tables are often laden with dishes made from animal flesh; The entire human body - from head to toe - is dressed in clothing made of leather or animal hair: but how many words, or even secret feelings of gratitude do those who use all this have? - Very little. But even wild animals, despite the fact that they do not obey man, are useful to him: firstly, because they tangibly give him confidence in the power of the Lord and do not allow him to forget himself in pride and conceit. Just as thunder and lightning make us shudder and involuntarily recognize our insignificance before the almighty Creator, who speaks menacingly and majestically to us with the voice of visible nature, in the same way wild animals, especially terrible in their ferocity, make us tremble and make us think about their Creator, Who made them terrible for us - about the lost greatness of man and about his real insignificance. In fact, who will dream highly of himself at the sight of a fierce beast, living in the forests with complete independence, sparkling with fiery eyes and at a moment ready to destroy the majestic king of the earth? Both by his position and his appearance, he seems to say to a person: I do not belong to you, but to the terrible God; He gave me life; He feeds me, not you; You will not force me to serve you, like a horse or an ox. In fact, would you, for example, want a unicorn to work, or to sleep in your manger? Will you tie his yoke with a thong, and will he drag the reins to the ground (Job 39:9–10)? No, many wild animals do not live for you at all, man, so that you know that you now have very little, that with your sins you are limited to the extreme, that only righteousness can return you power over animals, like the Holy Prophet Daniel over lions, like many Saints over the same lions and other predatory animals. In addition, wild animals are also useful in that they provide people with clothing with their skins, and sometimes food with their flesh, and also - this is in the general order of nature - by devouring the corpses of other forest animals, which otherwise would contaminate the air with their rotting; prevent the excessive reproduction of some weaker, but harmful animals to humans, by eating them. As for poisonous reptiles, snakes, scorpions and the like: they are also useful to man in that they also remind him of his fall, guilt and death and make him tremble before Almighty God. - But why do we absolutely demand benefits from every kind of animal and reptile? God created them not for our benefit only, but also in order to show His wisdom and goodness in them. In fact, what wisdom of God is visible in the structure, form, morals and customs of different breeds of animals? For an attentive and thinking person, animals serve as living preachers of the wisdom of God. And look at the life of each animal - at their morals, customs, at their weapons of defense: - and you will see how they are all satisfied with their lives, glorify the goodness of God and say: the Lord is good to everyone, and His compassions are in all His deeds (Ps. 144:9). If you definitely want benefit from them, then you will find it in almost every animal; the most apparently insignificant creature brings us benefit. “From an ant,” says St. Chrysostom, “you can learn hard work; the bee has a love for cleanliness, for work and for others: she works every day and works not so much for herself as for us. And it is common for a Christian to seek benefit not for himself, but for others. As a bee flies around all the meadows to prepare food for another, so do you, man: if you have accumulated money, use part of it, as you please, on the poor; If you have anything other than an excess, be of use to those in need with your excess. And don’t we see that the bee is respected more than other animals, not because it works, but especially because it works for others? After all, the spider works and fusses and stretches thin fabrics along the walls, above any female art, but they do not respect him, because his work is completely useless for us: such are those who work and fuss only for themselves.”59 In general, one can learn quite a lot from the dumb; one in them can be imitated, and the other can be removed. For example: the ox and the donkey love their master, just as the Prophet says: the ox and the donkey know their master’s manger (Is. 1:3), and we will not be worse than these dumb ones - we will not turn away from our Lord, the Creator. “Dog,” we will further say from St. Chrysostom - although faithful, she is shameless: - let both qualities be a lesson for us: let us learn loyalty to ourselves, and eliminate shamelessness. The fox is cunning and treacherous: let us not imitate this vice. But, like a bee, flying through the meadows, does not take everything with it, but choosing what is useful, leaves the rest, so we will do the same: having examined the dumb breed, we will take for ourselves what is useful in them, and what good qualities they have from nature, we will improve them in ourselves with free will. This is why we are honored by God, that He has given us the opportunity - natural among the dumb - to do good according to our free will, in order to receive a reward for it. So, having taken from the dumb all the best, let us use it: man is the king of the dumb, and kings have in abundance whatever the best of their subjects has: whether gold, silver, precious stones, or magnificent clothes” 60. And God saw that it was good. After the creation of each day, the Lord God Himself testifies that His creation is completely in accordance with His goals and intentions, that everything is perfect and beautiful. And no mortal with a sound mind can say that there is anything not good or in order in the creation of the all-wise Creator; on the contrary, everyone will say that everything is harmonious and beautiful beyond words and reason. But it’s time to put an end to both this conversation and conversations about the creation of the world. In the next conversation, let’s conclude by talking about the crown of all creation – man. We have only touched lightly on God’s creation and have not explained very much that needs to be said and explained; but still they said at least something; and this something can be of great benefit to those who are attentive and thoughtful. Let us not forget most of all - one thing, that the visible world will end precisely because it is elemental, complex; only the invisible world, as simple, uncomplicated, is eternal and will never end. Therefore, we must primarily think about the invisible, look, according to the word of the Apostle, not visible, but invisible and strive for the invisible: the visible is temporary, but the invisible is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). Amen. From the beginning of creation, I created man and wife, I am God (Mark 10:6) Brethren! Do you remember that God created the creatures first? Since some probably do not remember, I will remind you that first of all the Creator brought into being those who were akin to himself by nature - spiritual creatures, invisible with our eyes, not subject to our senses - Angels, or the world of Angels, and then the visible, material creature, i.e. all the bright spheres of heaven, our earth with the waters, air and all the creatures living on it. Such diversity, such a multitude of the Lord's creatures! “Since the first creatures were pleasing to God,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, “He invents another world - a material one; and this is the harmonious composition of heaven, earth and what is between them - amazing for the beautiful qualities of each thing and even more worthy of surprise for the harmony and harmony of the whole, in which one to the other and everything to everything is in excellent proportion, serving to the completeness of a single world. And God Himself showed that He is able to create not only a kindred nature, but also a completely alien nature to Himself. Akin to the Divine are natures that are intelligent and comprehended by one mind (i.e. Angels), are completely alien - creatures subject to feelings (birds, fish, reptiles, animals), and of these latter, even further removed from the Divine nature - creatures that are completely inanimate and motionless" (plants, stones, earth, water, air, fire) 61. So, there was a time when the Son of God created a world that did not exist before. He said: and everything that pleased Him was accomplished in six days. “But when all this - earth, sky and sea - made up the world,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, “a spectator of wisdom, the mother of all, and a reverent king of the earth became needed, that is, a person became needed. Then the Son of God said: the vast sky is already inhabited by pure and ever-living servants, immaculate minds, good angels and hymns, silently singing My glory. But the earth is decorated only by irrational animals. Therefore, it pleases Me to create such a kind of creatures, which would contain both - a kind of creatures, intermediate between mortals and immortals, a reasonable person who would rejoice in My deeds, would be a wise secret of heaven, a great ruler of the earth, a new Angel from dust, a hymnographer of My power and My mind. So the Son of God spoke, and - creates a living being, in which both are brought into unity, that is, invisible and visible nature, creates, I say, man; and from the already created substance, taking a body, and putting life from Himself (which in the word of God is known under the name of the soul and image of God), he creates, as it were, some kind of second world, - in a small way; places on earth another Angel, a worshiper composed of different natures, a spectator of the visible creation, a secret place of the intuited creation, a king over everything on earth, subordinate to the heavenly kingdom - earthly and heavenly, temporal and immortal, visible and intuited.” Hitherto St. Gregory the Theologian 62. But let us listen to the Divinely inspired Moses himself about this. When the earth was already adorned with all kinds of unreasonable creatures, then, says Moses, God spoke: Let us make man in Our image and likeness, and let him have the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air (and animals), and livestock, and all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man, in the image of God created him: husband and wife created him. And God bless them, saying: grow and multiply, and fill the earth, and rule over it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea (and the beasts) and the birds of the air, and all the livestock, and all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth (Gen. 1:26-28). So, man was created in the image and likeness of God - created in order to own earthly creatures, to be a spectator of the works of God, to sing songs to God, to repay Him a debt of love and gratitude for bringing him and all earthly creatures from non-existence into being and in all this to find bliss for himself here - and at the end of earthly life to enter into the inheritance of the future life, into communion with God. And God said: Let us create man in Our image and likeness. To whom is this, brethren, the Lord God speaks before the creation of man; with whom does he consult; Who are these Persons equal to the Creator, in whose image He wants to create man? These are the two Persons of the Holy Trinity: the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. It is God the Father who speaks to Them 63 . So, brothers, man was created in the image of the Most Holy Trinity. That is why the Holy Fathers find in man, as it were, some imprint of the trinity of Divine Persons: mind, word and breath 64. And it’s not for nothing, brothers, that we love the triple number so much that we do many things in life up to three times. The number three is held in special reverence and use by all peoples, even non-Christian ones. By this they honor, without knowing it, the Holy Trinity; Through this, the human soul secretly recognizes God in the Trinity as its Creator. And may he have possession of the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air (and animals), and the livestock, and all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. This, by the way, brethren, is the image of God in man: just as God reigns over all creation - over heaven and earth and over all living creatures that inhabit heaven and earth: so man is appointed by God as the king of the earth or, as it were, as the vicegerent of the King of heaven. This is the first feature of the image of God, although it is now greatly distorted in us. In the previous conversation, we saw that man lost a lot of power over animals after sin, that many animals and reptiles are now even terrible for him. With all this, however, there is still some remnant of human power over animals: at least now, as the Holy Apostle James says, all the nature of animals and birds, reptiles and fish, is tamed and tamed by human nature (James 3:7). And this is done by the power of the human mind and will, which also constitute the features of the image of God in man; because the Lord God also has a mind, only an infinite one, and a will, only an all-holy and all-perfect one, so that the human mind and human will are, as it were, an imprint of the Divine mind, the Divine will. However, in the current state of man, his mind and will are corrupted, darkened by sin and passions, which is why the enlightenment of the mind and the formation of the will, directing it towards good, is usually called education, that is, the restoration of the image of God in man, although educators rarely succeed in completely directing the will towards good if it is completely corrupted at its very beginning, or in very early youth. – Further: man, for example, loves truth: and God also loves truth (Ps. 10:7) and commands earthly judges to judge justice (Is. 1:17); your heart is inclined to rational, conscious love: God is Love itself (1 John 4:8): He loves all His creatures, and our love, for example, for parents, for friends, and parents for us, is only a small resemblance to the love that the Lord God has for us. Earthly parents often forget their children, but God will never forget us, His children by grace: even if the wife forgets these, He says, I will not forget you. Behold, your walls are written in My hands, and you remain before Me forever (Is. 49:15–16). Your thought flies immeasurable distances in an instant: this is also the image of the Divine, which is omnipresent. In general, what is good and morally good in you is similar to what is in God. Therefore, the Lord God requires from man that he be completely like Him, like the image of the Original. Christ the Savior says: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). That is why no person, even a savage, can be without God; That is why man strives for God. Let us, brothers, strive worldwide to preserve the image of God in ourselves: in it is hidden the guarantee of our blessedness on earth and in heaven. – What is the likeness of God? The likeness of God or likeness to the Lord God consists in having a pure, bright, enlightened mind, such as the Prophets, Apostles and all the saints had; – the will that chooses truth and goodness; – the heart is pure, sincere, kind, simple. That is why the Holy Fathers, who tried and are trying more than anyone else to acquire such a mind, such a will and such a heart, were and are called reverend fathers, that is, fathers reverend to God. And blessed, brethren, are reverend people, no matter who they are: monastics or those living in the world: they will see God face to face: let us be like Him (i.e., God), says St. Evangelist John: for we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2); Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God, says the Savior Himself (Matthew 5:8). And since it is our common duty to become like the Lord, let us all take care, brethren, each according to our strength, to succeed in becoming like the Lord. And God created man, in the image of God created him: husband and wife created him. As the Lord advised in His tripartite council to create man, so He created him, that is, in the image of God - and he created not only a husband, but also a wife, because this is the general law of birth and reproduction of earthly creatures - through the male and female sexes; and man, although in soul he belongs to heaven, but in body he belongs to earth, and therefore he had to, in many other ways as well as in this, submit to the general earthly law. Husband and wife, it is said, create them. He created the man like this: he took dust from the earth and breathed into the face of the human composition the breath of life, that is, as St. Gregory the Theologian says, he gave him His Divine life, or sent into him the spirit, which is a stream of the invisible Divinity 65. And to be a man I live in my soul. From the earth and from the breath of the Divine, man became, by God's omnipotence. And the Lord created the first wife like this: he cast a frenzy on Adam, and he succeeded, that is, he fell asleep, and took one from his ribs and filled it with flesh in his place, i.e. the place of the taken rib, which remained empty, he filled with the same Adam’s flesh. And the Lord God created a rib, taking it from Adam, for a wife and bringing it to Adam. From a rib taken from Adam during sleep, God created the first wife - so that the human race would be all, as it were, one body, and so that people could more easily take care of and love each other. – Having created a wife, God brought her to the awakened Adam. Adam knew that she was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh; He called her a wife because she was taken from her husband and predicted that at all times husband and wife would be one flesh, so that a man would leave his father and mother for his wife, out of affection for her, no matter how strong and natural the love of children for their parents. This is how the first people were created. Now let’s pay attention to our body and soul and see what they inspire us with their origin, their structure; what should we do, how should we deal with them? The human body is created from earth. Here, brethren, is the truth that pacifies our pride: our body is from the land that we trample underfoot. In fact, from what does the body of a nascent baby in the mother’s womb nourish, develop and grow? - From the blood and juices of mothers. – Where did the blood and juices come from? - From the food taken by the mother, and the food comes from the earth. So, you see, brothers, that our body is formed from the earth. If people remembered this more often, how much would they reduce their pride, how many whims, invented for the decoration and pleasure of the body, would they abandon! Then, naturally, many would reason like this: I am earth and ashes (Gen. 18:27): why should I care for my body so much, worry too much about it - for its nutrition, clothing, when it will again turn into earth, when it will pay for all the labors and worries about it with one ugly decay and destruction? - In general, an attentive person, when considering the nature of his body - its structure, its purpose, its needs - easily comes to a humble opinion about himself. Our body is only a temporary, earthly house of our soul, created by the action of Divine omnipotence. Most people do not know this own home - its structure, the location of its parts - although a person lives in it on earth for several decades: our body feeds, grows, lives, but we don’t know how this all happens; we would not know when we need to eat and drink if hunger and thirst did not make us aware of this; we would not know how to strengthen our exhausted strength if nature itself had not shown us the means for this in a dream. In body, a person is a very limited, weak creature, and all of him is not his own, but God’s. But despite the fact that our flesh is weak and created from the earth, and the infinite wisdom of the Creator is manifested in it, we should not completely neglect our body: it is a beautiful, living instrument of our soul and a joint heir of the kingdom of heaven: together with the soul, our body will one day participate in eternal bliss. “If you want to know what is the wisdom of the One who created us,” says St. John Chrysostom, “think about what is made from clay: what else is there besides brick or tile? “And yet the great Artist-God from this substance - from which only bricks and tiles are made - could create an eye so beautiful that all who look at it are amazed and give it such power that it extends its gaze to such a great height of the air, and, with the help of a small pupil, embraces such great bodies: mountains, forests, hills, seas, and sky. And what about the pupil and the power of vision? If you consider only the eyelashes of the eye - this, apparently, is the most insignificant of all members - and in them you will see the great wisdom of the Creator of God. Just as the awns on ears of corn, protruding forward like spears, drive away birds and do not allow them to land on the fruit and break the still very weak stem: so in front of the eyes - the hairs of the eyelashes protrude like awns and spears, reflect dust, debris and everything that disturbs the outside from the eyes, and protect the eyelids from damage. We will see no less wisdom in the eyebrows. Who would not be amazed at their plight? They are not too protruding, so as not to obscure the eyes, and are not recessed into what is more appropriate; but protruding from above like a roofing canopy on a house, they absorb the sweat flowing from the head and prevent harm to the eyes.” Hitherto St. Chrysostom 66. And we will add to this from ourselves that the sense of sight is protected in the most careful way because it is the noblest and most active sense: through sight we most of all know the glory of God: for I will see, says the psalmist, the heavens, the works of Your finger, the moon and the stars, which You founded. What man is, remember him (Ps. 8:4-5). Hearing takes second place after it. And through it we know the glory of God, as well as who we are, why we were born and live, what will happen to us after death, and so on. This happens especially when in church we listen with attention to the reading and singing or preaching of the word of God. Through hearing we receive a lot of other different information. Speaking about sight and hearing, it is natural, brethren, to come to the conclusion that He who created hearing and sight certainly sees and hears everything Himself. In fact, plant your ear, won’t you hear? Or does he who creates the eye not look (Ps. 93:9)? ABOUT! He certainly hears and sees everything, even what we think and feel or will only think and feel in the future. Let us be careful in our thoughts, words and deeds. – Much more could be said about the wise structure of other parts of the body, the brain and its coverings, about the structure of the heart, etc., but it’s time to say a few words about the soul. What can we say about her? – If in the body God showed so much wisdom; then, of course, there is incomparably more in the soul, which is created in the image of God. Let's pay attention to the human mind. What did he not do in the world with his mind? He penetrated partly into the stellar world; he noticed and partly applied the laws of nature to his advantage; he invented thousands of different arts; created various sciences; In general, with his mind he does many great things. But, unfortunately, the strength and work of the mind of carnal people tends more towards increasing the comforts and pleasures of temporary life, and not towards facilitating man’s ascent to heavenly, eternal life: the carnal, sinful will has inclined the whole mind to the earth, while a Christian must philosophize most of all about heavenly things. A person, for example, flies in a hot air balloon and soars on it with his body higher than anything on earth; or walks on the water with a steam ship and with the enormous power of steam digs through the wet element; or the same force of steam makes incredible, living and bulky weights roll along the railway; also - in a few moments or minutes he conveys his desires or thoughts to people remote over long distances, or has finally found the opportunity to extract from the earth, with small means, the largest possible amount of fruit. All these discoveries do honor to the human mind, and - almost all - are very useful. But, it would be incomparably more honor for man if, with all these inventions, he groveled less on the earth - in evil; if, with the enlightenment of the mind, he remained less in the darkness of destructive self-thinking and passions, which are more rampant now than ever before, and soared to heaven, his true fatherland, contriving the means of salvation. You fly, man, in a balloon, but only for the short-term pleasure of the spectators, and not for their significant benefit. St. the pillars who rose on the pillars for feats of virtue, or the true monks who labored on the mountains and anywhere else, were far more honorable than you: rising from the ground in body, they rose in spirit - as much for their own spiritual benefit as for the benefit of humanity, which sometimes flocked from everywhere for instruction to the saints of God; and you either do not rise in spirit at all, or you rise only in body, and only when you fly. In the liquid element you make a quick path for yourself, or on land - on a machine driven by steam - you fly like an arrow: - honor to you, or - better - glory to the Lord, who enlightens the minds of men - to make many useful discoveries in nature, rich in secrets, and through them to make our difficult life more convenient. But, man, where is your speed of ascent to heaven, to your true fatherland? – You are fast on the earthly path; but how slow and often motionless - in heaven! No matter how fast your earthly path is, you will not be carried along it further than earthly abodes, further than the earth; and you have a very necessary path to the heavenly abodes and to endless life! You have found a means through a long wire and a lightning-like current of known strength in nature - despite the great spaces of the earth - to transmit your thoughts to others in a few minutes; - and this does you credit. But how high would your honor be if you, with similar or incomparably greater speed, more often raised your mind and heart to God - to God and did not become strongly attached to the earth - if you soared more often with your mind in the eternity that awaits you; if you, with the speed characteristic of the mind, were reborn in spirit, then to eternal torment, then to unimaginable bliss that has no end! And you rarely remember this. You make every effort to nourish your body, to decorate it with clothes, and always do more for it in this regard than you should; - Why is it that you care too little or even not at all about feeding the soul with the incorruptible food of the Word of God, the Life-giving Mysteries and prayer, about decorating the soul with the clothing of good deeds? In all this, only the earthly mind is visible; and a Christian should most of all philosophize on things above ( Col. 3:2 ). Let us remember more often, brethren, that we, by our nature, as St. Gregory the Theologian says, are earthly and heavenly, temporary and immortal; that here on earth we are only preparing ourselves and after death we will be transferred to another world. Therefore, we will not prefer the perishable, temporary, to the imperishable, eternal. Amen. Conversation 14. About the blissful state and the fall of the first people You were in the sweetness of God's paradise (Ezek.28:13) In a previous conversation, we said, among other things, brothers, that the first people were created in the image and likeness of the Lord God. And since the Lord God possesses the highest, infinite bliss - because He possesses to infinity everything that is needed for bliss - then the first people themselves, created in the image and likeness of the all-satisfied and all-blessed God, were at first also satisfied with everything and blissful, or completely happy. Yes, they had something to be satisfied and happy. Their mind was bright and easily knew everything around them: the Lord God Himself was the light of their mind, and the very first, most life-giving knowledge for them was the knowledge of the Lord God: their heart was full of love for God and for each other and blessed by this love; objects of worldly vanity, for example: wealth, fame, unnecessary worldly comforts, whims, amusements, which in no way satisfy the immortal spirit of man and greatly occupy the people of today's world, then did not have the slightest place in their pure hearts: peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17), unchanging, constant, dwelt in the heart of our first parents, and with peace and joy - the Lord God Himself. Their will was holy: it strove to cleave to the Lord God, it wanted to do only what was pleasing to Him. Like innocent children, the first people lived by God, were comforted by God, breathed by God: and the beginning and end of their thoughts and desires and deeds was the Lord God. In addition, the reason for their bliss was the most beautiful world, only created by the omnipotent word of God. And in the world - in this work of the wisdom and goodness of God - what was missing for spiritual and physical pleasures? – For the first people, the Lord God Himself deliberately prepared a most beautiful paradise, or garden, which was worthy of the ruler of the earth, and, among many beautiful and fruitful trees, planted a tree of life in paradise, the fruits of which had the amazing property of preventing illness and death so that a person would always be healthy and strong from eating these fruits and would never die in body. Finally, the whole earth was given over to the power of the first people with all the creatures on it. From only one tree out of all the trees in paradise, the Lord - under the threat of death - forbade people to eat fruits, and he did this only to test and strengthen their will in obedience and goodness, gifted with freedom, their devotion and submission to God. This tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying: From every tree that is in paradise, you shall carry food; but from the tree that you understand, good and evil, you shall not carry food from it; but if you eat one day from it, you will surely die (Gen. 2:16-17). It seems that the first people should have considered themselves happy that for all the gifts of God - offered to them with such love and generosity - they could offer to their Creator and Benefactor at least one obedience, which is better than sacrifice (1 Sam. 15:22), and thereby earn new and greater mercies of God. But neither gratitude to the Creator, nor the fear of death kept the first people in obedience to the Chief of their lives: they showed distrust of God, faithful and true in His words, and turned out to be very trusting of the creature that had fallen away from God - through pride and disobedience, that is, to the devil, the father of lies. The devil, having been cast out of heaven for opposing God, together with the lower spirits outraged by him (see demon.7), looked with envy at the bliss of the first people, who were less than inferior from the Angels. Knowing that people were created by the Lord free - that it was possible for them to incline towards evil, just as it was possible for fallen spirits to turn from good to evil - that for this it would be better to skillfully entangle and darken their mind and conscience, and captivate them with a false idea of ​​an incomparably higher bliss than in which they were - he decided to destroy them. And so an evil and crafty spirit made a mortal net for our first parents, prepared so skillfully that they, through inattention, did not even notice it until they got stuck in it. This is what the course of temptation was and how the fall itself took place. The devil entered the serpent, a cunning animal, and with his tongue he began his speech in paradise with Eve, who did not personally hear from the Lord the prohibition to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but heard only from her husband. And the serpent said to the woman, says the Holy Writer of Genesis: what did God say: Do not eat from every tree of paradise (Gen. 3:1)? – Note, brethren: with his first words, the devil tries to instill in Eve distrust of God, as if He were not true in His words, and to gain trust in himself; represents God as an ill-wisher, and himself as some kind of well-wisher, ready to serve. Brethren! Always be on guard of your thoughts and your heart: the devil even now begins to tempt every person who tries to live piously, pleasing to God, and especially at a time when a person is engaged in a pious deed 67, boldly slanderes people about God and tries in every possible way to steal faith in Him from their hearts (Luke 8:12). Even our Lord Jesus Christ, after baptism, was led by spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil, according to his humanity; here is proof that the devil's temptation falls on all people who are zealous for the fulfillment of God's commandments (Matthew 4:1-11). Beware of the primordial murderer: call more often for help on the Lord Jesus Christ, who defeated the devil and gave us strong weapons against him: His Name, terrible for demons, and the Life-giving Cross. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the wiles of the devil (Eph. 6:11). How can one recognize the intrigues of a murderer over a person? “By its fruits you will know it.” He, like a thief, comes to a person only to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), i.e. you will recognize the presence of the tempter with you by the loss of your spiritual treasures: spiritual peace, living, heartfelt faith in God, hope in Him and love for Him - by the spirit of blasphemy, murmuring, impatience, by the spirit of pride, envy, hatred, and other passions, by some involuntary doubt about the immutable truths of faith, destroying the soul, and so on. Let us pay attention to further words in Moses’ narrative about the fall of our first parents. To the words of the devil: Why did God say, You shall not eat from every tree of paradise? - in which one can see a strong desire to slander God, - Eve answered: from every tree of paradise we will eat: from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of paradise, God said, do not eat from it, touch it below, so that you do not die. Eve, refuting the first lie of the enemy, seems to say this: you are telling a lie, as if God did not command us to eat fruit from all the trees of paradise: no, we will eat from every tree of paradise, but the Lord God only said that we should not eat or even touch the fruit of only that tree that stands in the middle of paradise, so that we do not die. - And the serpent’s speech to the wife: - the devil continues the insidious conversation with the wife and also tries to instill in her distrust of God: - You will not die by death. For God knows that if you take away a day from him, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like a god, knowing good and evil. The slanderer, the father of all lies, launches a daring slander against God Himself, slandering Him Who is the Truth. The Lord clearly said: you will die, but the Devil says: you will not die; Moreover, in order to destroy the fear of death, which warned the first people from breaking the commandment, he promises them instead of death - life and divine omniscience: you will not die by death, he says, for God knows that if one day you take away from him, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like a god, knowing good and evil. - What about Eva? She listened to the conversation of the evil tempter, who skillfully laid a net for her pride - instead of immediately turning her ears away from his false words; she stared at the forbidden fruit: and the wife saw how good the tree was for food and how the eye wanted to see it; she does not think about the commandment of God, but thinks about her pleasure: she deliberately looks at what she should not look at - and thereby irritates the sense of taste; finally dreams of divine knowledge: it is red to understand. So what? Is it really only good, desirable and red forbidden wood? Blinded pride saw nothing more. Eve bowed to the side of the tempter: and she took some of the poison from his fruit, and gave it to her husband with her, and the poison. The temptation is over: the gold is darkened, the good silver is changed (Pl. 4:1), the bright image of God in people is darkened. Spiritual death, first of all, took possession of them and darkened the light of their minds in them, deprived them of purity of heart and with it peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17), and cut off from them, like wings, the best aspirations of their souls. And the eyes of both were opened, and they understood, as if the Nazis were besha: and they sewed together fig leaves and made girdles for themselves. The eyes of the first people were opened, but not like gods, but like sinful, mortal, unfortunate creatures: they opened in order to see their great misfortune, their mental and physical nakedness. Previously, when Adam and Eve were pure and innocent, the holiness of God covered them as if with clothing, and better than any clothing: and they did not know any nakedness, living in divine purity. When they separated from God through sin, they fell from His Divine communion: then, naturally, they felt their nakedness, that is, the painful feeling of being deprived of the clothing that was close to them - holiness, the source of which is God. – We, brethren, do not have this clothing of purity, holiness and good deeds: we too are naked, although we do not all understand that we are naked; covering our bodies with soft, elegant and expensive clothes, many of us take pride in them and dream that they are dressed properly, but they, like all of us, are naked: our souls are naked in the eyes of the Lord, although the body is decently covered. You are naked, says the Lord (Rev. 3:17), that is, naked spiritually. Let us take care, brothers, about the clothing of good deeds. If we do not acquire them, total and eternal darkness awaits us (Matthew 22:11–13). The Lord was not slow to expose the guilty. And at noon, Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord God, walking into paradise: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God in the middle of the tree of paradise. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: Adam, where are you? Where are you? Where have you fallen? And he said to Him: Adam said: I heard the voice of You walking into Paradise, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. The Lord, calling the guilty man to repentance, said that the reason for his nakedness was eating from the forbidden fruit. But Adam did not admit his guilt, but laid the blame on his wife and even on God. Woman, he says, even as you gave with me, you gave me from the tree, and it died; and the wife, in turn, is against the serpent: the serpent deceived me, and was poisoned (Gen. 3:1-13). This is the disastrous consequence of sin: sin makes a person proud, prone to lies, and stubborn. This happened to the first people; this has always been the case; it still exists now. Both adults and children are often ashamed to admit to the sin they have committed and refer either to human weakness, or to various circumstances, or to other people; you often see nothing but pride and stubbornness in the guilty person; You often meet such sinners (and we are all sinners) in whom neither humility nor awareness of their guilt before God is noticeable. – God save everyone from these satanic tares. Brethren! We are all sinners without a doubt, and if we say that we are not imams of sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). In moments of temptation or after falling into sin, there is only one salvation for us: humility, recognition of our guilt before God and heartfelt contrition for our sins. A proud sinner is disgusting in the eyes of God, and he does not deserve God’s mercy; on the contrary, he is pleased with the humble and God gives him the grace of justification. The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Since God is just, and the sin committed was the work of the free will of a person who turned out to be inattentive, ungrateful and distrustful before his Creator, and, moreover, since it was very easy not to break the commandment due to its ease of fulfillment: then God determined a worthy punishment for the first parents, and through them, for all people. To Eve, who was the first to be deceived, He predicted great sorrows and sighs, illness at the birth of children and submission to her husband; The Lord pronounced a curse on the earth for Adam for his sin and predicted excessive work, sorrows and sorrows, with which their daily bread would henceforth be combined, until they themselves returned through death to the earth from which they were created. And as the fruits of the tree of life they were now no longer worthy to eat, and they would only perpetuate their unhappy life and together - their evil: then the Lord expelled the first people from the paradise of sweets to cultivate the land, and to paradise he placed the Cherubim and a flaming weapon turned to guard the path to the tree of life. So, work and sorrow, illness and death have become the lot of humanity, according to the definition of the Almighty. – And this definition, as we all know, is strictly observed. “However, the Lord was not completely angry with us: out of His unapologetically merciful mercy, He left the sorrowful hearts of our forefathers with hope in the Deliverer, who was to save them and the human race from sin, curse and death. This Deliverer is the Son of God. Since He had to be born of a Virgin without a husband from the Holy Spirit, that is why He was called the Seed of the woman. This time our conversation lasted beyond measure. So, let us hasten, offering you a moral lesson from what has been said, to put an end to it. The first people fell into sin through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and pride (1 John 2:16). Hence the following rule for our life: do not at all indulge the sin-loving flesh, since it is our dangerous, domestic enemy, and - crucify it with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24), - do not look with lust at what is forbidden by the commandments of God, even if it was pleasing to see with our eyes, that is, we liked it. Let us remember the words of the Savior: if the eye of your right hand causes you to fall, remove it, and turn away from yourself: if you do, one of you will perish by your blows, and not your whole body will be cast into fiery hell (Matthew 5:29), that is, decide not to look at that which tempts you, - or: whoever looks at a woman to lust after her, already committing adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Let us love humility with all our hearts: it is the foundation of all virtue, and the Lord God despises it with favor, as the Most Holy Virgin teaches us this: The Lord, says She, will look upon the humility of His servant (Luke 1:48), and with all our souls we will hate all pride, like the fiend of the proud Satan: it destroys all virtue and makes a person infected with it, contrary to God and to people. With all our hearts we will believe in God and in His holy word, as well as in the Church, the guardian of the truth, and we will be afraid to believe, under fear of death, everything that others say against God and the Church. Amen. Conversation 15. About original sin No good thing lives in me, that is, in my flesh (Rom. 7:18). In a previous church conversation, we said, brothers, that the first people were initially innocent before their Creator and their Lord, and therefore blessed. The Lord God, the Source of all life, the Light of every mind, peace and joy for every pure heart, was always with them; had a home in their hearts; loved them and gave them indescribable peace and joy - and if the first people had remained forever in their innocence and in their bliss, then all people hitherto would also have been innocent and blissful. But Adam and Eve, as we have seen, did not preserve their innocence - they did not fulfill the obedience given to them by the Creator, and, dreaming of being greater than they were, they turned out to be proud, selfish and unfaithful and transgressed God’s Commandment. And just as through disobedience, pride and distrust of God, they moved away from Him, so He also moved away from them. And what kind of life is it without God, when all life - whether in heaven or on earth - comes from God, and without God there is no life? That is why, brethren, the first people, as soon as they sinned, felt disorder, confusion, sorrow and oppression in their souls: because according to the law of God's truth, sorrow and oppression are upon every soul of a person who does evil (Rom. 2:9): they suddenly noticed that their soul was darkened; their thoughts and desires were indignant; imagination and memory began to fade. Instead of the former joys and peace of mind, they now had to endure the most painful labors and all kinds of troubles; finally, they were threatened with painful old age, and after it, death. But, what is most terrible of all, the devil, who takes comfort in the suffering of man, has gained power over them. The very elements, i.e. air, fire, etc., after sin became hostile to them; from that time on, they began to feel the harmful effects of cold, heat, winds and bad weather. The animals became fierce and began to look at people as their enemies, whereas before, when people were innocent, the animals feared man as their king. Everything that happened after sin with the first people had to certainly happen - as indeed it did and now happens - and with all the people who multiplied from them: because all people were in Adam, like fruit in a seed; - and as the seed is, so is the fruit, or - as is the tree, so is the fruit; - as is the root of the tree, so are the branches. An evil tree cannot produce good fruit (Matthew 7:18). Among other consequences of sin, the offspring of the fallen ancestors suffered various diseases, which became more varied and severe over time; – further: people soon forgot that they were brothers and stopped loving each other; - not only that: they began to attack each other, be proud, hate, envy, deceive, torture and kill each other. This is how people became after the first sin. – The sinful state of our nature, with which and in which we are born, is called original sin, and all its bad consequences for people are consequences of original sin. When, brethren, you notice in yourself a weakness of mind, feel evil in your heart, or experience heart sorrows, bodily illnesses and various misfortunes: then humble yourself before the judgment of God’s truth and blame yourself for everything or the sin that has caused all the troubles in the world and with all the strength of your soul, hate this greatest evil. The consequences of original sin are worthy of tears, especially because human flesh prevailed over the soul, which should not have been the case; the best became subordinate to the worst; the flesh began to incline the soul to all sin, and the soul - the Divine breath - instead of dominating the flesh, it itself began to live in accordance with the sinful desires of the flesh. True, there remained in the soul the knowledge of God, the desire for Him, the desire to unite with Him: but all this was weak; Moreover, the flesh tried to drown out and put it to sleep as quickly as possible: - as a result, all people became extremely quickly corrupted - so much so that it was necessary to wash them off the face of the earth with flood waters. God spoke about the antediluvian people: My Spirit shall not abide in these men forever, for they are flesh (Gen. 6:3). But the evil of the flesh or carnal people was not destroyed by the flood, but only weakened, and therefore it spread quickly after the flood. In order to subordinate the sinful flesh to the soul, so that the soul does not fulfill the lusts of the flesh, a person must work hard: - throughout his entire life, he must endure the inevitable struggle between flesh and spirit. When a Christian tries to change his life for a better one, he will immediately notice that the flesh desires the spirit, and the spirit desires the flesh (Gal. 5:17) - that the flesh wants to subdue the spirit, and the spirit the flesh; the flesh wants to be proud and magnified, but the spirit, on the contrary, wants to humble itself; the flesh wants to be angry, angry, quarrel, take revenge in deed or word, but the spirit does not want this; on the contrary, he wants to forgive everything with meekness; the flesh wants to wallow in such matters that it is shameful to even talk about: but the spirit eliminates them and wants only chastity; the flesh wants to dissemble, flatter, lie, deceive, deceive and be a hypocrite, but the spirit hates this and wants to speak only the truth and act simply, without any cunning and hypocrisy; the flesh wants to hate a person, but the spirit wants to love every person; the flesh wants to live in idleness, to be lazy, but the spirit does not tolerate this; on the contrary, he seeks exercise in blessed labors; the flesh seeks carnivals and feasts, but the spirit is disgusted by them and wants either to live moderately or to fast; the flesh wants to seek honor, glory, and wealth in this world: but the spirit despises all this and strives only for eternal blessings 68; the flesh runs away from prayer or conversation with God, but the spirit only wants to live by prayer; the flesh strives to destroy faith in everything heavenly and live only on earthly things, while the spirit places all its pleasure in the contemplation of the heavenly and invisible. Such is the struggle of flesh and spirit, such is the contradiction in ourselves: one in us wants one thing, and the other wants another. And this struggle occurs in us as a result of original sin. Everyone, even great saints, noticed in themselves this strange struggle between flesh and spirit. So St. Apostle Paul says about himself: because I do not live in me, that is, in my flesh, what is good: for I strive to do what I want, but I do not find it to do good. It is not because I want good that I do it, but if I do not want evil, I do it. Even if I do not want to, I do this; it is no longer I who do this, but sin that lives in me (Rom. 7:18–20). St. Gregory the Theologian speaks about this strange contradiction in himself: “I endure the incessant anxiety of warfare between mutually hostile flesh and soul: I am the image of God and am drawn into sinfulness; the worst in me unfairly opposes the best; or I run away from sins and resist them, but not without difficulty, after many struggles and with only heavenly help. For there are two, as if there were two minds in me: one is good, and it follows everything that is beautiful; and the other is the worst and he follows the bad; one mind goes to the light and is ready to submit to Christ; and the other mind - flesh and blood - is drawn into darkness, and agrees to surrender into captivity to the devil; or one enjoys earthly things, seeks what is useful for himself not in the permanent, but in the transitory, loves feasts, quarrels, burdensome satiety, the shame of dark deeds and deceptions, follows the broad path and, covered with an impenetrable haze of unreason, amuses himself with his own destruction; and the other admires the heavenly and the hoped-for as real; in God alone he places the hope of life; but here, subject to various accidents, he regards everything as worthless smoke; loves poverty, work, and good cares and follows the narrow path of life” 69. Why did we say all this about original sin and its consequences in us? Why did we indicate this infection in people; Why did they bring to light this long-standing disease of the human race, which burdens and oppresses it, but which people did not have and do not have their own means to heal? - In order to show that for people, in their sinful depravity and in their distance from God, Divine help was necessary - as it is now necessary; – they needed, as they do now, a Divine Savior, without Whom they would have perished in their sins irrevocably, forever. The All-Good God promised this Savior to the first people, soon after their sin, and gradually prepared the human race to receive Him, as we will see later, through prototypes and prophecies, and finally actually sent Him into the world. By faith in this Divine Savior, people were saved long before His coming, just as they were and are being saved after His coming. This Savior of the whole world, the Son of God, the God-man Jesus Christ fulfilled for us all obedience to God, being obedient even to the point of death, the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8) and, having given people saving rules, He showed Himself in His life an example for our lives and gave us all the Divine powers, including life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3) so that with His grace we can overcome our passions and bad habits and inclinations. With His Most Pure Blood, shed for us and now offered on the altars of Christian churches, He renewed and is renewing our nature, corrupted by sin, so that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), that is, a true Christian becomes a completely new person, holy, pleasing to God. We, brothers, are called Christians; but this is what the Apostle says about true Christians: they are Christ’s, having crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24). Do we crucify our flesh with passions and lusts? Are we not satisfying her in everything? - Ah! We are satisfied in everything: we live carelessly, not using or using very little of the benefits that are so readily offered to us daily for our salvation in the Word of God and in the Sacraments of Faith. Brethren! Eternal salvation is desirable and priceless; and eternal destruction is terrible. But it is impossible to be saved without arming yourself against carnal lusts, being Christians in name only, and not in deeds. So, having called for help the Lord Jesus Christ, our Helper, our Almighty Savior, let us resist sin, let us not please the flesh through lust (Rom. 13:14), and let us begin to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). Amen. Conversation 16. About God - the Provider of the world He himself oversees all things under heaven... The Lord looks upon men (Job.28:24; Zech.9:1) We know, brothers, how this visible world and that invisible world, to which the Angels belong, were created; how, among other creatures of the visible world, man appeared; how at first he was sinless and blessed, and how later he sinned and suffered various misfortunes in this fleeting life, especially passions, sorrows, illnesses and death. We know that God created everything from nothing: everything that is above is in heaven, and everything that is below is on earth; We know that the Lord Godly brought the light-like beings of the heavenly armies into being also from non-being 70, that is, from nothing. God's world is vast and limitless! But no matter how great he is, no matter how limitless, apparently, for the Lord he, even now, when he already exists, is nothing more than a guardian in great glory, or like a drop of morning dew descending to the earth (Wis. 11:23). And it exists only because it is the will of God the Creator; because He provides for His creation. You created all things, - says the Revelation of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian, - and by Your will they were created (Rev. 4:11). So, brethren, in order for creatures created from nothing to be what God created them to be, it is necessary for Him to provide for them, that is, to preserve their life and the strength that He gave them, to direct them to a good end, so that He would help every good, and stop or correct the evil that occurs in rational creatures through removal from goodness and turn them to good consequences 71 . In a word: so that He would not for a moment abandon His creation with His wisdom, omnipotence and goodness. God's providence for the world is as necessary as a healthy soul for the body: while the soul is in the body, the body is alive and beautiful; everything in him is harmonious, in order: but as soon as the soul leaves the body, the body becomes dead, ugly: all its harmony, its beauty disappears; everything in it (the body) is destroyed and decays; It’s the same with the world: as long as God provides for it, as long as the Spirit of God revives it, there is life, beauty, order in everything, in small and great: in the movement of the luminaries and in the movement of the juices of the blade of grass; but as soon as the Lord takes His Spirit away from the world, then all life, all its beauty will disappear: I will turn away Your face, they will rebel, take away their spirit, and they will disappear and return to their dust. Thou shalt follow Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and renew the face of the earth (Ps. 103:29-30). Thus, brethren, the Lord constantly and with love provides for peace. Love everything that exists,” says the wise Solomon, “and disdain nothing that you have done; lower than hating what you have done. How would anything have remained if You had not willed it? Or, if it had not been named from You, would it have been preserved? Have mercy on everything, as is Your Essence, O Master of the soul (Wisdom 11:25–27)! The holy and righteous Job says that God Himself oversees all things under heaven, He is aware of all that is on earth (Job 28:24). Also, the Holy Scripture says that God cares for everyone (Wis. 12:13). And how can the all-good Creator not provide for His creation? And people make every possible effort to care for the upbringing and health of their children; and among animals we see the most tender care for the preservation of their children. If creatures are so concerned about their generation, will God leave His creatures without providence? To whom are they closer and more kindly, if not to Him? “How can,” says one teacher of the Church, “He who created it according to the abundance of His goodness not take care of His creation” 72? We will not talk here about how God provides for the Angels. This providence of the Lord about the creatures closest to Him is mysterious and little known to us. Is it to say that if the Angels were forever established in goodness and can no longer do evil, then the Lord God preserved them and keeps them adamant to evil for their love for Him 73 . Let us not dwell on the fact that God provides for the visible world. This industry is obvious. We see, for example, that the sun rises every day and, after the darkness of the night, illuminates the earth with the brightest light, then hides and takes away its light and, as it were, sends the moon and stars in its place, and then rises again: and this is enough for us to recognize the Providence of God over the world; in the movement of the heavenly bodies the finger of the Almighty is obvious. Therefore, every time, looking at the sun or other luminaries, you can joyfully and with a feeling of gratitude say: “Truly, the All-Good God provides for the world. It is He, the All-Good One, whose sun shines on the evil and on the good” (Matthew 5:45). We see that the fire shines, warms and burns; bread nourishes, water gives drink and quenches thirst; the air refreshes and enlivens; the earth produces plants and animals multiply: and this is enough for us to say: the All-Good God truly provides for the world. Otherwise, how could the elements, so wisely composed, not fall apart into their component parts; How could they have their actions if the all-wise Creator of the world did not support them in their very composition and did not keep them in order? How could animals, which in themselves are unreasonable and meaningless, or rational animals - such as people - live, grow and multiply? Moreover, looking at the magnificent spectacle of vegetation and seeing how many different types of grasses and flowers emerge and then form on the earth's surface; just as trees are covered with green leaves, and others with fruits, we have the most sufficient reason to affirm: “yes, there is God’s Providence,” plants reveal an invisible, wise power that clothes the very last flower in the same way that Solomon, the richest and wisest of all kings, did not dress in all his glory. This power is precisely the Spirit of God, the Life-Giving One. God clothes like this (Matthew 6:30). So, God's Providence for the material world is obvious. Let's talk about God's providence, which is closest to us: about God's providence for people, and let's say that the Lord God provides for kingdoms and peoples. Imagine, brothers, any state or possession with its authorities. How many authorities there are in it, from the sovereign to the last power! And do you know how necessary every power, even the lowest one, is in society? So necessary that it cannot be destroyed without damaging the society in which it is installed. Authorities, brothers, like bonds in buildings, hold together social life: without them, societies will inevitably fall. Who came up with these powers in societies; who installed them? The Lord God Himself established it. There is no authority except from God, says the Apostle, but the real authorities were created by God (Rom. 13:1). You see, brethren, how God provides for kingdoms and nations, how He wisely bound and cemented a multitude of people into one whole with authorities, especially with autocratic, royal authority. That is why whoever resists authority resists God’s command. In the same way, resist the authorities, it is said, you resist God’s command (Rom. 13:2). In addition to various authorities established above, God provides for people through the conscience of each person. Conscience is our unfeigned judge: it carefully watches our thoughts and desires, words and deeds: nothing can hide from it; and whoever does not force her, whoever obeys her, she guides him perfectly, rewarding or punishing him for every good or bad thought, desire, word or deed. The entire Holy Scripture serves as proof that God provides for people. Anyone who read it with attention and reasoning could not help but notice in it that God constantly provides for the human race and is the immortal King, Judge and Father of the human race, ruling its destinies according to His wise, good and unsearchable laws. But how, some will ask, can we explain the so-called random misfortunes that happen to people, if it is true that all-good Providence controls people? And they serve, brethren, as proof that the Heavenly Father cares about us, and especially about our eternal destiny. For example, let us assume that from apparently the most insignificant reasons a fire starts and destroys an entire city; or - from the same insignificant reasons, for example, from the slightest oversight - a huge ship with many people perishes in the waves of the sea; or people - sometimes because of the blind passion of one person - like animals, destroy each other in civil strife or in wars with other peoples. Short-sighted people, people of little faith, seduced by such apparently accidents, say: “Where is Providence here? This is a blind case." No, and here, brethren, we said, the wise Providence is hidden. Once in Jerusalem, during the earthly life of the Lord the Savior, a tower fell and crushed eighteen people with its fall; and at another time, the Roman governor in Judea, Pilate, in anger killed many Galileans and mixed their blood with their victims. Is this a coincidence? No, not random; all this was with the knowledge and permission of God’s Providence. The Lord asked His listeners about these two unfortunate events when they told Him about them - do you think that these Galileans are more sinners than all the Galileans, as if they were fasting? Or are they eighteen, and the pillar of Siloam fell on them, and beat them, do you think that they owe more than all those living in Jerusalem? And He Himself gave the following answer: Neither, I say to you, but unless you repent, you will all perish the same way (Luke 13:2-5), that is: no, these unfortunates were not more sinners before God than all those living in those cities: but the wise and all-good Providence allowed them to perish bodily, both for their sins and to cleanse them, and to admonish the living, so that they would repent of their sins and change their ways. life, from careless to cautious 74. So you, brethren, hearing about unfortunate incidents with people and seeing them yourself, must certainly keep in mind the said words of the Savior and accept these incidents as the work of God’s Providence for the salvation of people. A public calamity is an admonition for the people: and woe to the people who are not admonished by it. Brethren! The Lord, lovingly punishes us. Having punished our forefathers for their sins with sorrows, illnesses and death, will He not use sorrows, illnesses and other various means to admonish and cleanse our sinful souls that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matthew 10:28), but heal it from sins with the very suffering? Without a doubt, he will use it if all this turns out to be necessary. Therefore, do we see, for example, severe and prolonged illnesses in people, sometimes lasting for decades, examples of which we see in the Gospel, and even now we notice: let us thank the Providence of God, which cleanses the soul from sins with bodily illness and spiritual sorrow, in order to make it worthy of the incorruptible and eternal blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven. Diseases are sent by God for sins. “Behold, you are healthy,” says the Savior to the healed paralytic, “let him not sin, lest anything worse befall him (John 5:14). If we see the sudden violent death of people, let us understand it and say to ourselves: this is God giving us a lesson - to live carefully, in virtue, in remembrance of death and the terrible judgment of God. Whether a bloody war is raging somewhere, let us say to ourselves: it is clear that the sins of the people have become too great and God is punishing with war and admonishing the people to turn to faith and piety. Wars have always been the Lord's means (among other means) to punish the sins of the people and to admonish them 75 . In general, when you see misfortunes that happen to people, you need to remember that the greatest, the only terrible misfortune is sin, and all other misfortunes serve either to cleanse sin, or to worthy punishment for sin and to admonish people who see misfortune or hear about it. If sometimes great sinners are not punished here, and live happily, carefree, then one should not conclude from this that God does not provide for people, or does not provide for everyone equally. God does not punish such people here in order to punish them there - in another life. We must always remember that there are two lives for every person: one is the present, and the other is the life of the future century, which is spoken of in the Creed. If someone is not punished here for his sins, he will be punished there: another here suffers troubles, sorrows and illnesses, but there he will enjoy bliss. All this can be seen in the rich man and Lazarus, mentioned in the Holy Gospel: one was hard-hearted and had fun here all day long; and the other was righteous and sick, lying in front of the rich man’s gate, covered with purulent wounds. But the first of them was sent to torment after death - for carelessness about his soul and for inattention to the sick person, who was always before his eyes; and the latter, for the suffering he endured here, after death was carried away by the Angels to Abraham’s bosom - to the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 16:19-31). So, brethren, with undoubted faith in the Divine providence for us, let us surrender ourselves, each other and our entire life to Christ God the Savior, leaving Him to save us through the destinies known to Him, without remaining, however, idle ourselves. Amen. Conversation 17. About the redemption of the human race and its preparation for that ... We speak ... even as the prophets said that Moses would come (Acts 26:22) And now, brethren, we will talk about the Providence of God, but not about the general providence, but about the special, extraordinary 76 . We said before that God, who created the whole world out of nothing, has been taking care of it from the time of its appearance until now, watching over it from the height of His holy throne, preserving and supporting it with His omnipotent word, which is why He is called the Almighty; that, starting from Seraphim, the spirit closest to God, to the blade of grass, everything enjoys His providence or care. Now we will talk about the Providence that the Lord has for the lost human race, about the salvation of His intelligent sheep: because He, as eternal Love, does not want the death of sinners, but that they should turn and be alive (Ezek. 33:11). What is God’s special providence for us? “God so love the world,” says the Lord Jesus Christ, “for He also gave His only begotten Son to eat, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but may have eternal life (John 3:16), that is, God’s special providence for man is to redeem him from eternal destruction through the suffering and death of the Son of God, for us for man and for our salvation, who came down from heaven. Before God appeared on earth in the flesh, the Son of God, to live with people and teach them the knowledge of God and a holy, God-pleasing life, to suffer and die for them, a lot of time, many centuries passed. Why is this so? Because people, of their own free will, fell away from God, lost their way from their path, it was necessary to give them time to experience all the harm from self-will, from sin; it was necessary to let them know by experience how false the words of the devil are: you will be like gods (Gen. 3:5); it was necessary to give them time to experience their powerlessness in the fight against sin, so that they themselves with all their souls could wish for heavenly help in the face of the futility of their efforts. That is why the Heavenly Father postponed the descent of His Son to earth for several thousand years after the fall of the first people. And at this time people saw and experienced every evil and every calamity that sin, the murderer the devil, the evil human will or the righteous wrath of God could give rise to, so that in the end all people began to desire and wait for help from above - everyone learned by experience that it is evil and bitter to leave God (Jer. 2:19). So, brothers, without God or far from God, life is hard for a person. This is not even life, but some kind of ghost of life, or rather death. There is no need to explain how this happens: everyone who moves away from God experiences spiritual death and knows that it is very difficult. What soul of a person who does evil has not experienced sorrow and distress (Rom. 2:9)? When evil in the human race reached its extreme, when people experienced their powerlessness for good, they saw everything clearly and felt the need for a heavenly Deliverer from sin; when the torment of the enemy of the human race - the devil - also reached an extreme degree - then the fulfillment of times came, and God the Father sent His only begotten Son, in whom also He created the eyelids (Heb. 1:2), and He, the Most Merciful, not suffering to see the human race tormented by the devil 77, came to us on earth to save us and to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Meanwhile, long before the Savior came to earth, God was gradually preparing people to accept this Divine Messenger with His revelations and prophecies about Him, as well as prototypes, or preliminary similarities of what the Son of God had to do for the salvation of man. This is because prophecies and foreshadowing instilled in the people faith and hope in the future Redeemer, and, being exclusively the work of God, they irrefutably certified and continue to certify attentive and well-intentioned people in the Divinity of our Savior, to whom they relate. If He had come suddenly, not indicated to people before, then people would not have believed Him that He was the Son of God, despite His miracles, since there were many people who performed miracles by the power of God. Yes, and it happens among people that if a king or a king’s son wants to visit any cities or other places in the state, then the people are notified about this in advance, so that they prepare for his meeting and receive him properly. This is how it was done here. The coming of the Son of God to earth was announced long ago on earth, which was not done for any of the prophets or other saints of the Old Testament: an honor befitting only the King of all - God! Already to the forefather Adam, after he had sinned, God told him as a consolation that the Seed of the woman, that is, the God-man, who would be born of the Most Holy Virgin and of the Holy Spirit, would erase or crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), the seducer of men, the devil, who acted through the serpent. Then, after the flood, Abraham was told by God that his great, promised Descendant would be the Author of heavenly blessings for all the nations of the earth (Gen. 22:18); then Isaac, the son (Gen. 26:4), and Jacob, the grandson of Abraham (Gen. 28:14), were also confirmed; and in various rites of the Jewish faith or in certain events with the Jewish people and with their individuals over several thousand years, God ordained very many of the circumstances of the birth, life, suffering and death of the Son of God for the sins of people, while the Holy Spirit also for several centuries predicted about the birth, life, teaching, miracles, His death for the sins of the world and much more. So, for example, in order to first show people the unburned carrying of the fire of the Divinity of Christ in the womb of the Mother of God, the Prophet Moses was shown a bush that burned with fire and did not burn out (Ex. 3:2); in the same way - three youths in a Babylonian or Chaldean cave among a terrible flame were preserved unharmed (Dan.3). This very thing is explained by the church hymn during the All-Night Vigil service on Sundays or on the feasts of the Theotokos: the pious youths in the cave saved the Nativity of the Theotokos, then formed, now in effect (Cant. 8). In order to show in advance, in likeness, the suffering on the cross for us and the death of our sinless Redeemer, Jesus Christ, the Jews, in memory of their liberation from the work of Egypt, were commanded to slaughter the immaculate one every year on the feast of Passover, i.e. without any defects of the lamb and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Ex. 12); in order to show in advance the three-day stay in the tomb of the body of the Lord the Savior, Jonah the Prophet, according to God’s dispensation, stayed in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights (Luke 11:29–30); and in order to instill in people faith in the cleansing blood of the sinless one, by the will of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ, who was slain for all, the Jews constantly used the blood of goats and calves to sprinkle and cleanse people and things (Heb. 9:12–15); so that the people would first get used to believing in the saving, sufferings on the cross of the future Redeemer, the likeness of the Savior hanging on the cross was shown in the copper snake lifted up by Moses, so that the Jews, bitten by snakes in the Arabian desert, when looking at this image, would be healed (John 3:14). In addition, of the Prophets, the great Moses predicted that God would raise up for the Jews from their brethren a great Prophet like Him (Deut. 18:15); The Prophet Isaiah foretold that the Savior would be born of a Virgin (Is. 7:14); Prophet Micah - that He will be born in Bethlehem (Mic.5:2); The prophet Malachi predicted that the Savior would come to the temple of Jerusalem, newly built after the Babylonian captivity, and that a forerunner would be sent before him (Mal.3:1); The Prophet Zechariah predicted the royal entry of the Savior on a young donkey into Jerusalem (Zechariah 9:9); The Prophet Isaiah and King Prophet David predicted with such clarity the suffering of the Savior, as if they themselves were at the suffering of the Lord and stood at His cross and then described everything that happened to Him (Is. 53; Ps. 21). The Prophet Daniel, or better yet, the Archangel Gabriel foreshadowed the Prophet Daniel that there were only 490 years left before the coming of Christ the Savior (Dan.9). Thus, the most important circumstances of life, suffering, death, resurrection from the dead and ascension of the Savior into heaven were pre-written in the Old Testament in images and likenesses or predicted by the Prophets so that the life of the Savior with all his teaching and deeds was obviously the fulfillment of what was in the mind of God from eternity. That is why Christ the Savior said to His hasty brethren, who asked Him to reveal Himself to the world as soon as possible: My time has not come: but your time is always ready to eat (John 7:6): that is why He said to His Most Pure Mother at the wedding in Cana of Galilee in response to Her words: They have no wine: - what is there for Me and You, O woman? My hour had not come (John 2:3-4), although then soon this hour came and He performed the first miracle. Evangelists also repeatedly note that the Jews, despite repeated attempts to seize the Lord, could not do this with Him because the hour of His death had not yet come. I asked (the Jews) to have Him: and no one should lay hands on Nan,” says St. Evangelist John, “for His hour had not come (John 7:30, 8:20). “Are there not two ten hours of food in the day,” the Savior said to His disciples on the way to Judea, when they told Him that He could not go there, because the Jews had recently wanted to stone Him. - Isn’t there two hours of eating in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he will not be stumbled: for he sees the light of this world (John 11:9-10), that is, as if He were saying this: I know when the time of My death, My night, will come: now it has not yet come; and therefore, although the Jews seek My death, they cannot endanger My life: until My day is over, until then no one will kill Me. Everything, both favorable and unfavorable circumstances in the life of the Savior, were predicted long ago, and therefore even the most unfavorable circumstances in His life disarm all unbelief, so that all lips must be stopped and with their silence affirm the truth of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. If, for example, many did not believe in the Lord, it is not because little was done to make people believe in His Divinity: no, the Lord showed many good works to people from His Father (John 10:32). People did not believe the Savior because of the corruption of their hearts and only through this fulfilled what was predicted by the Prophet Isaiah: Lord! Who believes our hearing? And to whom did the arm of the Lord reveal itself? Or: Blind their eyes and harden their hearts, so that they may not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts, and they will be converted and I will heal them. This is the speech of Isaiah, when he saw His glory and the words about Him (John 12:37–41; Isaiah 52:1, 6:9–10). If many people hated the Lord, then this was not a matter of chance, that is, it happened not because it was possible for anyone sane to hate the most perfect Lord for anything, but because evil naturally hates good precisely because it is good and because this was also foretold long ago: that the word would be fulfilled,” He Himself said, “written in their law, that they hated Me ( John 15:25). “Have you not heard anything in the Scriptures,” He also said: “the stone, which is not in the order of those who created it, should this be at the head of the corner? This came from the Lord, and it is wonderful in your eyes (Matt. 21:42; Ps. 118:22). If the Jewish people, the high priests and scribes mocked Him, tortured Him, crucified Him, it was because the cup of His suffering and death for the sins of the world was prepared for Him by the Heavenly Father from eternity: people were only pitiful, although free instruments of the will of God. Brethren,” said the Apostle Peter to the Jews, “we know that out of ignorance they did these things (that is, they killed the Author of life, Jesus Christ), just as your princes did: But God, who foreshadowed the mouth of all His prophets to suffer Christ, do this (Acts 3:17-18). If the soldiers who nailed Him to the cross divided His vestments among themselves and cast lots for His clothing, then they did this, fulfilling the prophecy - that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saying: dividing My vestments for themselves and casting lots for My imatism (John 19:24; Ps. 21:19). When the Savior, hanging on the cross and languishing in the torment of mortals, said: I thirst (John 19:28), he said this so that, according to prophecy, they would give Him something to drink from his father, whose full vessel stood at the cross. Thus, everything that happened to Jesus was predicted by the Prophets in detail. That is why, to assure the Jews of His Divinity, the Savior pointed them to prophecies and prototypes about Him in the Holy Scriptures: “Test the Scriptures,” He said, “for in them you believe that you have eternal life, and they are the ones that testify about Me (John 5:39). These are the words,” He said to His disciples after resurrecting from the dead, “the same words spoken to you by those who are still with you, that it is fitting that all those who were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and psalms concerning Me should pass away (Luke 24:44). Throughout His entire life, the Lord did, in the proper sense, the works of the One who sent him, did His will and offered His teaching to the people, as He Himself often said (John 7:16; 8:28,55; 9:4; 10:37; 12:49–50), that is, He did what He taught, what and what was destined to be from eternity. You see, brethren, the Heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, used everything to assure people of His Divinity, and to convince us to obey Him in everything, as His beloved Son. This is My Beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased; Hear Him, He spoke from heaven (Matthew 17:5). You see how God loved the world, that He also gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but may have eternal life (John 3:16). Yes, brethren, there is eternal life, there is another life for which we were created and to which faithful, repentant Christians have the right through the intercession of the Son of God. But there is also eternal destruction, from which no one will be delivered unless the only Intercessor of God and men – the God-man, Christ Jesus – delivers. But He will not deliver those who do not obey Him, who do not live like Christians, like pagans, who do not know and do not fulfill His commandments, and who bear only the name Christian. Such people condemn themselves and deprive themselves of their inheritance in His kingdom. Not everyone says to Me: Lord, Lord, He will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but do the will of My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21). Brethren! Jesus Christ is the Beloved Son of God: Hear him. Amen. Conversation 18. About the appearance of God in the flesh Who wrote Moses in the law and the prophets, who found Jesus (John 1:45) The One about whom the Prophet and God-seer Moses wrote a lot in the Old Testament, about whom many other Prophets predicted, has finally come - the Reconciler of sinful humanity with the just God has come to earth. After a long wait for the Redeemer, joyful voices were finally heard on earth: the Messiah had been found; found Jesus, Who wrote Moses in the law and the prophets (John 1:41,45). The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and to those who sit in the land and the shadow of death, light has come to them (Matthew 4:16). In many parts and in many ways, God of old, who spoke from the Father as a prophet, in these last days spoke to us in His Son (Heb. 1:1-2), who, being God, became man for us, although He did not cease to be God. The sun of righteousness - Christ our God - has shone on earth. Where and how did our righteous Sun shine on earth? From the city of Bethlehem, from the Blessed Virgin Mary. We said before that God had been preparing people in advance, for a long time, to receive, to meet the luminous Sun of truth - Christ the Lord - in various ways, namely: prophecies about Him and various prototypes. And according to these prophecies, it was known to attentive people long before the Nativity of Christ that Christ would be born in the city of Bethlehem, among the Jewish people, in the tribe of Judah, from a pure Virgin of the royal family; It was also known that before the birth of the Messiah, Christ, His forerunner would be born. Now, when the time has come for the Son of God to appear on earth in our humble human form, everything has come true as predicted by the Prophets. And so, to one Jewish priest named Zaxapius, whose wife Elizabeth, having lived to old age, did not have children due to infertility, the Angel of the Lord appears in the church at the time when, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was censing in it. Let us listen to what message the Angel brought from heaven to the priest, what will of the Lord he announced to him? He brought good news to the holy elder, the news of the birth of a son from Elizabeth, and announced the name in advance: call his name John, he says. What's next? “And you,” he says, “will have joy and gladness, and many people will rejoice at his Christmas.” He will be great before the Lord... and will go before Him in spirit and in the power of Elijah (Luke 1). Do you hear, brothers, who we are talking about? About the Forerunner of the Lord, about His birth. And if God sends the Forerunner of Christ into the world, then, apparently, Christ Himself will soon appear; If the day of the sun appears, it is clear that the sun itself will soon rise. And so it was. Five months after the conception of the forerunner, Archangel Gabriel flew from the heavenly circles to Nazareth, where the Most Holy Virgin Mary lived, betrothed to Joseph the righteous to guard Her virginity and raised in the temple in the Holy of Holies, and entering to Her, said: Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with You, blessed are You among women. Here is the Annunciation of the Angels about the conception and birth of the Savior! The Most Holy Virgin, seeing the Angel, was embarrassed because of His words and thought about what this greeting would be like. The angel continues the gospel: do not be afraid, Mariam: for you will find grace from God. And behold, you conceived in your womb, and gave birth to a Son, and called His name Jesus. This one will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end. The Blessed Virgin says to the Angel: how will this happen if I don’t know my husband? The Angel answers Her: The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You, and the Holy One who will be born will be called the Son of God. The Immaculate Virgin said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be unto me according to thy word. Here I am, the humble servant of the Lord, be with me according to Your word. May the Spirit of God come upon Me and the power of the Most High overshadow Me for conception in the womb of the Eternal Son of God. I believe that what has been spoken to me from the Lord will be fulfilled. Already my soul feels the influx of the All-Holy, Life-giving Spirit of God and this overshadowing of the power of the Most High; My soul already magnifies the Lord, and My spirit rejoices in God, My Savior, that He has looked upon the humility of His servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will please, magnify, glorify Me - throughout the whole earth, at all times, until the end of the age: - and the mighty God has created all this greatness for Me; holy is His name. And His mercy to all who fear Him, throughout all generations, at all times. Meanwhile, the star of the Sun of Truth, soon after the Angelic Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, rose: the Forerunner, the all-holy fruit of a barren mother 78, was born. He was named John, according to the word of the Angel. The time has come for the Lord's great miracles. Everyone who heard about the miraculous conception and birth of John the Baptist said with deep thought: what will happen to this baby? And his father, Zechariah, punished before by God for disbelief with the gospel of the Angel by being mute for nine months and several days, received the permission of his tongue, was now filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesying, said about his son: you, as a child, will be called a prophet of the Most High: for you will go before the face of the Lord, prepare His way. Give the understanding of salvation to His people, for the forgiveness of their sins. – The great baby grew and became stronger in spirit, and lived in the desert until the very day on which he appeared to the people of Israel as the Forerunner of the Lord (Luke 1). Five months after the birth of John the Baptist, the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, was born, but not in Nazareth, but in the city of Bethlehem, as predicted by the Prophet Micah: and you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way least of all among the rulers of Judah, for from you will come a Leader who will shepherd My people Israel (Matthew 2:6); Micah 5:2). Due to the extraordinary gathering of people to Bethlehem to record their names at the command of Caesar Augustus, there was no place in the house for the Most Holy Virgin and Her righteous betrothed, who came from Nazareth also to record themselves, and the born Divine Child, after being wrapped in swaddling clothes, was laid in a manger. So great is the humility of the Lord – ours for the sake of salvation! Brethren! Let us not be idle spectators of such a free humiliation of the King of glory, who dresses in light like a robe, for whom heaven is the throne and earth is the footstool. This humiliation teaches us all a great, saving lesson in humility. It is not magnificent palaces, not inflated wealth, not honors, not the glory of this world that should occupy us, creatures immortal in spirit: no - meekness, humility before God and unquestioning devotion to His holy will should be the first desire of our heart and occupy our mind, so that they are visible in all our actions: pride has destroyed us, humility must save us. Let us offer the gift of meekness, humility and awareness of our spiritual poverty to Him who is rich for our poverty, so that through His poverty we may be enriched (2 Cor. 8:9). But amidst the extreme humility of the born Child of God, His glory also shines. The angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, who, as usual, were awake that night and guarding their flock, and said to them: “Behold, the great joy that is brought to you that is good news, which will be to all people.” For today the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, was born to you in the city of David; then he showed them a sign by which they could find and recognize Him: you will find, he says, a midwife lying in a manger. When the Angel said this, suddenly there was with him many armies of heaven, praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2)! Hear, brothers! Angels preach peace to the earth at the birth of the Lord Jesus. Is there peace in our souls? After all, the Savior brought us heavenly peace in abundance. Woe to us if we have no peace. This means that we do not come with faith and love to the Savior, Who says: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). This means that we are people of little faith, passionate, angry, proud, envious, peace-loving, vain. - Peace, brothers, I, a humble servant of Christ, preach the gospel to you! Come to the infant King of the world and with hearts full of heartfelt faith and humility, receive from Him peace for your souls with healing of your passions. After the Angels had departed to heaven, the shepherds hastily went to Bethlehem: they found Joseph, Mary and the Baby lying in a manger and were the first to worship Him. On the eighth day after birth, according to the custom of the Old Testament, the Lord was given the name Jesus, named by the Angel even before His conception in the womb; and on the fortieth day, when the Most Holy Virgin brought Him to the church of the Lord, placed Him before the Lord and made a sacrifice according to the law of the Lord, Elder Simeon, who was promised by the Spirit of God not to see death until he saw Christ, was honored to meet Him in the church and, taking Him in his arms, said: now do You let Your servant go, O Master, according to Your word, in peace: as mine eyes have seen salvation Yours (Luke 2:29–32). Thus, from the Holy Virgin Mother, our Lord Jesus Christ, God, born from God the Father before the ages, and Man from the mother’s being in time, born, a perfect Man, shone forth. Oh miracle of miracles! God, who contains the entire universe by His word, became man in order to raise man to the first blessedness. Heaven and the ends of the earth were terrified at this, - the Church of Christ sings, - as if God had appeared as a man in the flesh 79. Every angelic nature was amazed at the great work of God’s incarnation: because the inhabitants of heaven saw the unapproachable God, a Man approachable to everyone, cohabiting with people 80. Brethren! Seeing God, strangely made human, let us withdraw from the vanity of the world and place our minds on heaven (on the Divine): because for this purpose God came to earth, so that he would lead us to heaven 81. But why is this extraordinary condescension of the Son of God towards us? - someone will ask. Why did the Son of God take on human nature? – We answer: the incarnation of the Son of God was absolutely necessary for the salvation of people. In order to save a person, it was necessary to satisfy the truth of God for the sin of a person, but not a single person, not only for others, but also for himself, cannot give treason, (i.e., a ransom) and the price of delivering his soul (Ps. 49: 8-9), and the satisfaction of the infinite truth of God, infinitely offended by the sin of human disobedience, had to be also infinite. In addition, it was necessary to crush the power of evil in man, which removed him from God and constantly removed him further and further, without which it was impossible to unite him again with God (Wis. 11:25; Is. 59:2), Who abhors sin. And to destroy human sinfulness was an impossible task for a person, no matter who he was, because it is a deep corruption of human nature, innate to every person, and to destroy it meant the same thing as to renew, to recreate a person. Who could recreate man other than the Creator? And so, through the incarnation, suffering and death of the Son of God made man, satisfaction was brought to the truth of God for the sins of men, and through His saving teaching, or commandments, through His life, through His Life-giving body and blood and other sacraments, human nature was renewed, recreated, and recreated. The Savior, as a sinless God and Man, with all His earthly life and all His deeds in our stead, rendered perfect obedience to the will of God the Father, with complete renunciation of His will - he suffered all the sorrow and death itself awarded by the truth of God - and with such a sacrifice, infinite in its dignity, he completely satisfied Divine justice for all human sins, and just as Adam’s sin made all people guilty before God, so the righteousness of the God-man, as the second sinless Adam, makes them righteous before God through their faith in the God-man. – “Just as Adam, for his descendants, although they did not eat the fruit of the tree, became the cause of death, introduced into the world by Adam’s eating,” says St. Chrysostom, “so Christ, for those who believe in Him, although they did not have righteous deeds, became the Author of the righteousness that he gave to us all through the cross” 82. Brethren! Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has already deigned to fulfill all the Father’s vision for us, having accomplished our salvation through His teaching, His life, death for us and resurrection, and has already ascended with His humanity into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. But our salvation is not complete unconditionally. In order to be among those saved, we need to accept with all our hearts the saving teaching of Jesus Christ and act on it. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word,” says the Lord (John 14:23). It is also necessary for everyone, to the best of their ability, to imitate His life, which is the model of our life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me, and where I am, there will also be My servant (John 12:26). Having ascended from us into heaven, the Lord is always with us through His Divine omnipresence (I am with you all the days (Matthew 28:20)); with us is His miraculous, sweetest Name, His holy. the word, His life-giving cross and His saving sacraments. Let us call on, as often as possible, with living faith, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, says the prophetic word (Joel 2:32); Let us with faith and love use His saving sacraments for our sanctification and salvation, and resort to the invincible, incomprehensible Divine power of His Honorable and Life-giving Cross in all circumstances of our lives. With all this, let us not forget to always diligently read and listen to His word and pray to Him that He will dwell in our hearts by faith: when He dwells in us, then there will be grace-filled life in us, predetermining the future blessed life. Amen. Discourses on the Beatitudes of the Gospel Beloved brothers and children in Christ, incline your ear (not only the outer, but especially the inner, about which our Lord Jesus Christ said: having ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 11:15; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8); incline, I say, your ear to listening to the commandments of the Lord in order to achieve bliss. Man was created by God in the beginning blessed and for bliss, moreover eternal; but sin, which entered the world, that is, into all people, as one person, destroyed the bliss of people and subjected them to curses, various sorrows, misfortunes, illnesses and, finally, temporary and eternal death. Only the infinite love of the Creator God for His fallen creation, revered in the image and likeness of God, could again find a means to restore it and open the return path to the lost bliss. This means for the restoration of fallen man is the incarnation, life among men, Divine teaching and miracles, suffering, death on the cross and the resurrection from the dead of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ; and the return path to bliss is following His teaching, life, participation in His sacraments and obedience to the lawful shepherds and teachers of the Church. There is no other way to bliss, as He Himself says: I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me. I am the door: By me whoever enters will be saved (John 14:6, 10:9). How each of us longs for bliss! How everyone fears and runs away from sorrows and illnesses! Only, unfortunately, we thirst and seek bliss on earth, where it does not exist, and not in heaven, where it abides forever; We are afraid and run away from sorrows and illnesses, but for the most part they are, if not necessary, then useful for us, because they heal the immortal soul, which is suffering from many different passions. Indeed, what bliss is there in exile, in exile, in prison? For we are all expelled from paradise into this world for our sins, as if into prison. What is the bliss of those condemned to death? You will say: there are many innocent pleasures on earth that God Himself does not forbid the use of, for example, God Himself gave wine, which gladdens the heart of man, or revealed to people the art of playing the psaltery, harp, organ, tympanum and many other musical instruments; He himself taught how to compose choirs and rejoicings; He himself surrounded us with singing birds, as if calling us to joy and bliss; He himself spread before our eyes a majestic spectacle of nature, in which everywhere we see the joy and happiness of creatures, as if calling us to rejoice. Thus, by the goodness of God, there are some innocent consolations in this world, left to us, wounded by the sting of death, to ease our pilgrimage, our sorrows and sorrows; but these consolations must be used very moderately and not at all cling to them, but strive for the promised bliss especially through labor, vigil, prayer, abstinence, purity and all virtues, in which it is impossible to succeed without great sorrows and temptations. Our true, complete and eternal bliss, brothers, is in heaven, where the All-Blessed God lives in the unapproachable light, where the faces of the forefathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, the venerable and righteous and all saints are installed; where the Queen of heaven and earth, the Most Holy Theotokos, reigns together with Her Son and God. But the bliss here is earthly, carnal, illusory, fleeting, like a dream, often rude and unclean. Only true virtue anticipates heavenly bliss here on earth. So where can we find the true path to bliss? With guidance and fulfillment of what commandments can we achieve bliss? Under the guidance of the Lord’s nine commandments of beatitude, which He pronounced on the mountain aloud to His disciples and people, and which, for constant teaching and reminder to us, are sung or read daily at the liturgy, at the small entrance, when the royal doors are opened for the first time. They read like this (Matthew 5:3–12): 1) Blessed are the poor in spirit: for to them is the Kingdom of Heaven. 2) Blessed are those who cry: for they will be comforted. 3) Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. 4) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be satisfied. 5) Blessedness of mercy: for there will be mercy. 6) Blessed are those who are pure in heart: for they will see God. 7) Blessed are the peacemakers: for these shall be called the sons of God. 8) Blessed is the expulsion of truth for the sake of: for those are the Kingdom of Heaven. 9) Blessed are you when people revile you, and despise you, and say all sorts of evil things about you lying, for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is many in heaven. This is the path to true bliss! Next Sunday we will talk about why these blessed ones are sung or read at the small entrance, with the royal doors open, and we will show the meaning of the small entrance, the altar and the royal gates; for this serves to clarify and somewhat interpret the said beatitudes. And now I ask you to put on your heart the truth that we were created by God for eternal life and eternal bliss, that through sin we lost this bliss and were expelled from paradise, subjected to the curse of God, doomed to work, sorrow, illness and death, that now we are wandering in exile, looking for the fatherland from which we were expelled, and the lost bliss, that this fatherland and bliss are returning again us by the Heavenly Father through the intercession and merits of His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, under the condition of faith in Him and fulfillment of His commandments. Amen. Having begun last Sunday, with God's help, conversations about the paths to bliss shown to us by the Lord, and having said that these paths are the well-known nine sayings of the Savior about bliss, spoken by Him on the mountain, we promised to talk on the next Sunday about why these Divine sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ are read or sung at the beginning of the liturgy, at the small entrance with the royal doors open, and why before they sing the verse: remember us, O Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom; also - about the meaning of the small entrance, the altar and the royal doors. Why are the blessed ones sung or read at the small entrance, at the beginning of the liturgy? Here's why: the liturgy is the remembrance of the earthly life of Jesus Christ from His shrouds to the tomb, from the resurrection to the ascension into heaven. Altar means the Kingdom of Heaven, or paradise; the royal gates are the doors of heaven, or the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven: the opening and closing of these gates during the service means the opening and closing of the Kingdom of Heaven or paradise. The beginning of the liturgy means the beginning of the redemptive ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ to the human race, and the small entrance with the Gospel means His procession to preach the Gospel and His first Sermon on the Mount, in which He pleases those who fulfill His commandments and promises various rewards in heaven to those who struggle in this world for His sake. Seeing the open royal gates, like the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven, and looking with the eyes of our hearts at the Lord, mysteriously coming in the small entrance, it is natural for us, earthly wanderers, exiles from paradise, to pray to the Lord, like a prudent thief: remember us, Lord, when you come in Your Kingdom. Singing or reading the beatitudes of Christ at this time reminds us both of the appearance of Jesus Christ to preach to the world and of His first sermon on the mountain, and of what virtues each of us must have in order to be worthy of entering into the open heaven, into the paradise opened by the cross of the Lord. The Church tells us with this sacred rite something like this: you were expelled from paradise in Adam for your sins and lost the bliss for which you were created; Paradise was closed for you for many thousands of years, but now it has been opened again by the Son of God; force yourself to enter into it, for the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and strong seekers obtain it (Matthew 11:12); and in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, opened by the cross of the Lord, the following qualities and virtues are required of you: poverty of spirit, crying for sins, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, etc.; acquire them and you will be in heaven. This is the meaning of the small entrance with the Gospel and singing the beatitudes of the Gospel! Let us now begin to explain the first beatitude. “Blessed,” says the Lord, “are the poor in spirit: for to them is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Let us mentally transport ourselves to the Mount of Beatitudes, on which the Lord taught those gathered. Before Him stand His disciples and the common people, thirsty for His word. Because he feels his spiritual poverty, poverty, damnation, and with the richness of the mind and heart of Christ he wants to fill the poverty of his mind and heart; from the riches of His mercy receive the riches of forgiveness of sins and rest for your souls; enlighten your souls with His light; from the ever-flowing source of life and His grace, draw by faith the life-giving streams of His grace for your souls. These are the poor in spirit whom the Knower of the Heart pleases, who assimilate the Kingdom of Heaven; These are the humble ones to whom the Lord gives His grace! But why are there no scribes and Pharisees here, along with the people, these scholars and teachers of the Jewish people? Why are there no priests, elders, princes? Because they are not aware of their spiritual poverty, their wretchedness, their blindness and spiritual nakedness; they consider themselves righteous, who supposedly do not need to learn the word of truth from the meek and humble-hearted Teacher of Nazareth; they think that with their imaginary righteousness they have already pleased God and dream of taking first place in the kingdom of the Messiah. These are the proud ones, brothers, from whom true bliss and the Kingdom of Heaven are far away; pathetic, they do not realize that all their truth is unclean before God and is not worthy of the name of truth, because it is imbued with pride and vanity; - that they are the birth of vipers (Matthew 3:7), children of the wrath of God. I draw attention to you, brothers. Who are you who are coming here in St. church and humbly listening to the weak word of an ignorant preacher? Are there many among you who are wise according to the flesh, how many are strong, how many are noble? Are they not the buoys of the world, are they not, for the most part, weak and ill-born, my listeners? But take comfort in the speech of our Divine Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ: blessed are you, poor in spirit, for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven; for, conscious of your spiritual ignorance, your sinfulness, your infirmities and the blessings of God poured out on you, you have come now and always come to this church in order to be spiritually enriched in some way from the rich God: whether to receive forgiveness of sins, sanctification, peace and freedom of the soul, light and purity of thoughts, help on the further path of life, on Christian and everyday affairs; spiritual armor against invisible enemies, relief or healing of illness and mental sorrow, or to thank God for His blessings. Where are the nobles, the learned, the rich? There are very few of them. Why? Because many of them say to themselves: we are rich, we have become rich and we don’t demand anything. We are learned, from whom and what else can we learn; We have a lot of all sorts of blessings, we don’t know what we need to ask God for; We owe everything to ourselves, our minds, our works, our position in the world, our place; What and who should I thank for? We are sinners, they say, it’s true, but who doesn’t sin? This is how man was already created, they say, what is his fault? Although he was not created this way at all, but arbitrarily, through abuse of his will, he became and remains this way. This is how they think, how they judge, how the proud of this world speak, those who are fat, fat and fat (Deut. 32:15). The Kingdom of God is far from them. Woe to you who are filled now, says the Lord, for you will hunger; Woe to you who are rich, because you receive your consolation (Luke 6:24–25). Blessed are the poor in spirit: for to them is the Kingdom of Heaven. What is poverty of spirit? You have all seen and see the poor physically; therefore, in order to paint an image of spiritual poverty, let us first depict bodily poverty in order to explain the like to similar things. A beggar, as the word itself shows, is one who has nothing of his own, who expects everything only from the mercy of others: he does not have his own piece of bread to quench his hunger, and the usual drink for most to quench his thirst; has no shelter where to lay his head if they don’t give him money to stay for the night; does not have clothes, unless a compassionate person takes pity and buys them for him, or, although he has clothes, they are old, dirty, full of holes, worthless, which you don’t even want to touch; He is disdained by everyone, reproached by everyone; he is like rubbish, like some kind of dung, although another beggar in the eyes of God, perhaps, is like gold refined in a furnace. An example is the gospel Lazarus. Now let us apply these traits of a beggar physically to a beggar spiritually. A poor person in spirit is a person who sincerely recognizes himself as a spiritual poor man who has nothing of his own; who expects everything from the mercy of God, who is convinced that he can neither think nor desire anything good if God does not give good thoughts and good desires, that he cannot do a single truly good deed without the grace of Jesus Christ; who considers himself more sinful, worse, lower than everyone else, who always reproaches himself and does not condemn anyone; who recognizes the clothing of his soul as foul, dark, fetid, worthless, and does not cease to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to enlighten the clothing of his soul, to clothe him in the imperishable robe of righteousness; who constantly runs under the roof of God, having no security anywhere in the world except the Lord; who considers all his wealth to be a gift from God and for everything diligently thanks the Giver of all blessings and willingly gives a portion of his wealth to those who demand it. This one is poor in spirit, and such and such a poor spirit is blessed, according to the word of the Lord; because where there is humility, the consciousness of one’s poverty, one’s poverty, wretchedness, there is God, and where God is, there is cleansing of sins, there is peace, light, freedom, contentment and bliss. It was to such a poor spirit that the Lord came to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, as it is said: to preach My messenger to the poor (Luke 4:18), to the poor in spirit, and not to those who are rich; for their pride repels the grace of God from them, and they remain an empty and stinking church. Don’t people also willingly extend a hand of help and mercy to those who are truly poor and are in dire need of the most necessary things; isn’t God even more merciful about spiritual poverty, fatherly condescending to her call and filling it with His spiritual treasures? Fill those who hunger with good things, it is said (Luke 1:53). Are not the valleys abundantly irrigated with moisture; Aren't the valleys blooming and fragrant? Is it not on the mountains that there is snow and ice and lifelessness? High mountains are an image of proud people; valleys are an image of the humble: every wilderness will be filled, every mountain and hill will be humbled (Luke 3:5). The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). So, blessed are the poor in spirit, that is, those who consider themselves to be nothing, for those are the Kingdom of Heaven. Initially, the Kingdom of God, Heavenly, was within people, in their hearts, as the Lord said: The Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21); but then, as a result of the disobedience of the will of God by our ancestors, who listened to the tempter - the devil, it withdrew from the human heart, and sin with its culprit began to reign in the hearts of people, turning them from heavenly to earthly and enslaving them to earthly vanity; from the simple - evil, from the good - evil, from the humble - proud, from the pure - unclean, from the strong for everything holy, true, good - powerless for everything good and eager for all evil, so that, according to the testimony of Holy Scripture, man began to diligently attach the thought to evil from his earliest youth (Gen. 8:21). Only poverty of spirit or humility brings back into the heart of man the Kingdom of God, which was removed as a result of his conceit and pride, and all the saints of God were distinguished in this life by deep spiritual poverty. The Apostle Paul himself, caught up to the third heaven, called himself the first of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). The Holy Apostle James also places himself among sinners, saying: we all sin many times (James 3:2). St. Apostle John writes: if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8), placing ourselves among those who sin. But who were the apostles? Living abodes of the Holy Trinity, verbal organs of the Holy Spirit, friends of Christ, holy men par excellence. If they thought so humbly about themselves, then what should we think about ourselves? Shouldn't we say about ourselves in the true truth that we are the stench of sin, stinking churches of passions, alien to all true virtue, wretched, poor, blind, naked, and unceasingly pray to the Lord that He Himself would cleanse our souls and bodies with the Holy Spirit from the stench of passions and fill them with the fragrance of virtues and the shrine of the Divine Spirit? For without Him we cannot do anything good (John 15:5). Whoever wants to acquire true and deep humility must enter into himself as often and deeply as possible, bring to mind and impartially examine with his inner eyes all his sinful thoughts, desires, intentions, deeds from his earliest youth to the present; then we will see that we are drowning in the abyss of sins. Those who are literate can be advised to read more often, in addition to morning and evening prayers, which perfectly depict the poverty of our spirit, the great canon of St. Andrew of Crete, canons and akathists to the Savior and the Mother of God, the canon to the Guardian Angel and canons for every day of the week; Of course, there is no need to abandon the Gospel and the Psalter, which are the best school of humility. Can rich people be poor in spirit? Of course, they can, if they do not consider themselves great people just because they have perishable wealth and with the help of it they can do whatever they want. How can they be poor in spirit? When they sincerely realize that their wealth, and the wealth of the whole world, means nothing in comparison with an immortal soul, that it is a gift from God not only to us, but also to our neighbors: for the excess is given to us to help the poor; when they realize that with material treasures they are extremely poor and poor in spirit and will not be arrogant about themselves and trust in perishing wealth, but live in God, who gives us everything abundantly for enjoyment; They will do good, ... be rich in good deeds, they will be generous and social, laying up treasures for themselves, a good foundation for the future, in order to achieve eternal life (1 Tim. 6:17-19). Such was the rich Abraham; such was Job and many, both in the Old and New Testaments. However, since wealth presents many temptations to sin, those who desired Christian perfection, deep poverty of spirit and immutability on the path of salvation usually sold their property and gave it to the poor, while they themselves withdrew into silence to work for God completely and without entertainment day and night. Therefore, the Lord said to one rich man: if you want to be perfect, go, sell your property and give it to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me (Matthew 19:21). So, blessed are the poor in spirit: for these are the Kingdom of Heaven; It is not said: of them will be the Kingdom of Heaven, but there is; because already here - on earth - in humble hearts God rests and reigns, and in the future life He will reign in them forever and glorify them with imperishable glory. So, brethren, lay up here the riches of humility, so that you may receive the riches of glory there in heaven. Amen. Conversation 3 (on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son) On the rivers of Babylon, there is a gray horse and a mourner (Ps. 137:1). Blessed are those who cry: for they will be comforted. Now the Church offers us, her prodigal sons, the parable of the Savior about the prodigal son and to remind us that we are all captives and miserable slaves of sin, at the morning service she sang at the morning service the lamentable song of the captive sons of Zion: on the rivers of Babylon, there weeping and weeping, we will never remember Zion. Captured by the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the Jews portray us, brethren, as captives of the spiritual Nebuchadnezzar, the devil; the rivers of Babylon mean the rapid striving and entrainment of sin or the rivers of passions flowing from the mouth of the spiritual dragon, i.e. Satan, and dragging us into the abyss of hell; The bitter cry of the sons of Israel depicts the cry of spiritual slavery to the sin of the sons of the new Israel - true Christians. Since the days of fasting and repentance will come in a short time, the Church, wanting to gradually lead us into this feat, reminds us of our captivity and removal from our Heavenly Fatherland and of the need for all of us of bitter tears of repentance for our sins. Please accept with gratitude this reminder from your St. Mothers and begin, with God’s help, the work of internal repentance. On the rivers of Babylon, there weeping and lamenting, we will never remember Zion. The Israelites wept for earthly Zion, where there was their church to the true God and in it the ark of the covenant with the tablets of God, the stupa containing manna, and with the miraculously vegetated rod of Aaron. We must weep for our heavenly Zion - for the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, the true fatherland of Christians, from which we have been removed by our sins; about negligence in fulfilling the commandments of God, about our indifference to heavenly manna - the Body and Blood of the Lord and to what was done for us on the cross. And whose soul does not cry when this lamentable song is sung? Whose soul will not awaken from the sleep of sin? Whose soul does not feel that it is in captivity of the devil, every day in the vicinity of this fierce enemy and daily burdened by him with spiritual bonds of sins, sinful habits and passions, hurt by him, enduring various slander, misfortunes, torment? And so, feeling and experiencing all this, our soul sends to the Lord deep sighs of repentance for sins and cries with deep, bitter tears. O rivers of Babylon! O captivating passions! Where are you taking us? On the rivers of Babylon, there is a gray horse and a mourner. What should we do, brother sinners? What to do but cry, in the consciousness and at the sight of your misfortune, your sinfulness, your abomination, your extreme powerlessness to get rid of sin and misfortune? A weak, unreasonable and reckless child, having offended his parents or having fallen into trouble and misfortune, cries bitterly in front of them, and this evokes their compassion and help. So we, weak, foolish, prodigal children of the Heavenly Father, falling through weakness, ignorance and evil inclinations into sins and being subjected to various slander and misfortunes from the devil, must shed tears of repentance for the sins we have committed, tears of weakness, humbly asking for mercy, forgiveness and help. Passions and temptations are like rivers, as the Savior said: the rivers came and polled the church (Matthew 7:27), i.e. attacked a person, or as David says: save me, O God, as water came down to my soul (Ps. 68:2), and since these rivers flow inside us, we need to let out rivers of tears from our eyes, and then sins will not carry us away; for, together with tears, they, so to speak, will flow out of our soul and instead of them, rivers of living water will enter into it, that is, the grace of God, cleansing, sanctifying, enlightening, strengthening, consoling the tearful soul. However, in one hour we cannot cry out all our sins, because there are an abyss of them; we must cry a lot and for a long time, and not expect salvation from tears, but from the love of God, from the grace of Jesus Christ, who Himself wept with our tears for us, and promised to those who weep to grant freedom from sin and consolation in time and in eternity. Blessed are those who cry: for they will be comforted. “Blessed are those who weep,” says the Savior. But what does the world say? What do some of you say in your hearts? Blessed are those who laugh and have fun! No: woe to you who laugh now; For you will weep and weep (Luke 6:25), says again the Lord, Whom during his earthly life was never seen laughing, but was seen crying. How? To laugh and have fun when we are under the wrath of God, when we are going through a desperate struggle for life or death, when there is trouble everywhere, when all-destructive and seductive sin with such impudence and ferocity destroys everywhere the souls of men, redeemed by the blood of the Son of God; when this fiend of hell hourly threatens to plunge us into fiery Gehenna, ready to open? Is it time to laugh and have fun when temptations, vices, and falls are everywhere? or when some of our brothers are wasting away from illness, from hunger, all kinds of shortcomings, various misfortunes, or suffer from oppression, insults and hard-heartedness of their brothers, while others are insanely voluptuous, covetous, drowning in luxury and various vices? Yes, poor sinners! In such gloomy circumstances, spiritual and physical, fun and laughter are out of place, and the time for fun and laughter has not yet come for you: it will come after tears and sobs about sins in this life and after victory over sin. Blessed are you who weep now: for you will laugh, says the Savior (Luke 6:21). And truly, blessed are those who cry. If any of you has the gift of tears for sins, he knows from experience what a blessing it is to cry for the sins of one’s own or others; bliss is inseparable from the weeping of the Gospel, so that the one who weeps naturally receives consolation as a reward. However, there is worldly crying, the sadness of this world: powerless anger cries; humiliated pride cries; unsatisfied vanity cries; offended pride cries... and who knows how many vain tears there are? How many unsatisfied passions, how many cowardly ones - so many empty tears, but these are sinful tears, useless tears, tears extremely harmful for those who cry, for they cause the death of soul and body. The sorrow of this world makes death (2 Cor. 7:10). But what exactly should we cry about? First, weep for what you have desecrated and are constantly desecrating the image of God within yourself with your sins. Think, man: God has depicted Himself in you, just as the sun is depicted in a drop of water, you have been made, as it were, some kind of god on earth, as it is said, “You are naturally gods, and you are all sons of the Most High” (Ps. 81:6), and you daily throw into the dirt, stain this image with worldly passions, addiction to the world, unbelief, pride, hatred, envy, intemperance and drunkenness and other passions, and through this you extremely anger your Creator and irritate His patience. It is worthy and righteous to cry about this day and night. Cry! Secondly, cry because you only bear the name of a Christian, but do not fulfill the vows and obligations of a Christian given at baptism and live like a pagan, clinging to the earth and do not think about Heaven and about life there, which has no end, that, having been a Christian for such a long time, you still do not have the spirit of Christ, you are not conformed to Him in the least, you do not imitate His life; that Christ has not yet dwelt in you by faith and was not imagined in you, that you have not yet become a new creation, have not put on Christ, according to the Scripture: if you were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). Thirdly, cry because your heart is constantly trying to do everything contrary to the Lord; crying about his evil inclination, unrepentance, and lack of correction. We pray so much, repent, read, sing, so much we partake of the Holy Life-giving Mysteries, which can transform a heart of stone and make it soft as wax, and we do not change for the better through negligence. Oh, damnation! Oh, malice! O corruption of the heart! Oh, pride! Oh, earthly passions! Oh, the flattery of voluptuousness and love of money! - So, cry because, although you repent and pray, you do not bring to God fruits worthy of repentance, the fruits of faith and love, the fruit of meekness and gentleness, the fruit of abstinence, purity and chastity, the fruit of alms, etc. Cry internally when you feel a rush of unclean thoughts to your heart; cry when you are carried away by pride, anger, envy, greed, stinginess; cry and pray when you feel enmity and not love towards your enemy, for it is said: love your enemies... and do good to those who hate you (Matthew 5:44); cry before God with the inner cry of your heart, when you are carried away by the passion of drunkenness, love of money and covetousness, when resistance and disobedience to your parents or to your superiors and elders will confuse and carry you away; cry at the feeling of poverty and wretchedness of our nature, at the thought of the countless benefits of the Creator to us and about our ingratitude towards Him. May your tears be a weapon against all sin, and the Lord, seeing your humility, recognition of your weakness, your strong desire to keep yourself clean from all sin, will extend a helping hand and send you the Comforter Spirit, who will stop the violence of sin, extinguish the fire of passions and bring down the dew of grace into your heart. Cry for your sins, cry for people’s too; cry over the fact that many peoples have not yet come to know the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ and are in the darkness of paganism, worshiping creatures instead of the Creator; cry that the Christian faith is persecuted in infidel countries, and many of your brethren suffer under their yoke; weep for the unrighteousness that prevails on earth, from which all who want to live godly in Christ Jesus suffer (2 Tim. 3:12); cry about the violence and oppression of the rich and powerful, about the poverty and helplessness of the poor; cry that Christian love has dried up for many and in its place pride, lust and carnality in all forms have reigned; that many Christians fall from the heights of redemption and respect neither the Church, nor the Sacraments, nor its teachings. You will say: what is the use of my tears? - By this you will fulfill the commandment of the Apostle - to weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15): in general you will fulfill the commandment to love your neighbor, and in love is the whole law. And the benefit is that as a reward for your tears you will receive consolation from God and forgiveness of sins. Blessed are the weeping. What else should we cry about? We must also cry about our unpreparedness for the terrible and righteous test at the World Judgment. Many holy saints of God cried all their lives, day and night, at the thought of the Last Judgment and the subsequent eternal torment of the wicked; and we, as if we are some righteous people, are indifferent to this final terrible decision of our fate, or others still dare to reject the truth of the future judgment and Gehenna. Everything, brothers, has its time; a time to weep and a time to laugh (Eccl. 3:1,4). Now is the time to cry. And so, we will cry about our sins. Amen. Conversation 4 (on the Sunday of Orthodoxy) Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth. Before I speak to you, my brothers, about meekness and the blessedness of the meek, I must say a few words about this Sunday. It is called the week of Orthodoxy because today the triumph of the Orthodox Church is remembered and celebrated regarding the overthrow of the iconoclastic heresy, which dominated the Greek Empire for one hundred and twenty years, and was finally publicly rejected and condemned first at the 7th Ecumenical Council of Nicea, and then at the private Constantinople Council, in 842 A.D., under the pious Empress of Greece Theodora, under whom the current holiday of Orthodoxy was established. What the defenders of the veneration of St. did not experience. icons during the iconoclastic heresy: exile, and prison, and deprivation of property, and torture, and cruel executions! At St. John of Damascus had his right hand cut off, which, after his prayer before the image of the Mother of God and after the sleep that followed the flow of blood, miraculously grew back. Admired by the mercy of the Lady, he sang the song: In You, O Gracious One, every creature rejoices, which you just heard, and that miraculous image in front of which this miracle took place was called the Three-Handed One 83. But the two brothers Theodore and Theophanes, nicknamed the inscribed ones, suffered especially and unusually from the iconoclasts. The Patriarch of Jerusalem sent them to Constantinople to maintain Orthodoxy, and they courageously fulfilled this assignment, enduring many torments for their piety: they were sent into captivity three times, having previously been subjected to torture, and three times they were returned for new torture. Emperor Theophilus, an iconoclast, ordered that a shameful inscription be drawn with needles on the faces of the confessors and sent to Jerusalem. For a whole day the sufferers were tormented by the faces that were drawing on them; blood flowed in streams; Finally the inscription was finished. Departing, St. The sufferers said to the tormentors: “Know, all who hear, that the Cherubim, guarding paradise, when he sees this mark on our faces, will retreat before us, and the flaming weapon will give way, giving us free entry into paradise. For since ages there has not been such a new torment. And these inscriptions will be found on our faces even on the day of judgment, and you will be commanded to read them, according to what was said: Since you have made one of these least of my brethren, you have made me (Matthew 25:40).” This is the kind of suffering the saints endured for Orthodoxy. our fathers, who left us an example of how we should stand up for our right faith! Behold the divine meekness of the sufferers! Blessed are these meek ones: for the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, Whom they imitated in their meekness and patience, took away all their sins, giving them eternal peace and bliss; for they suffered for His name. Stand, brethren, courageously for your right, saving faith; honor St. with proper veneration. icons and turn away from those who consider them on a par with paintings and do not give them due respect; remember that on the icon the face depicted on it is graciously present and, during the veneration of St. icons, always raise your mind to the prototype, that is, to the face depicted on it. Now is the time to talk about meekness. Blessed are the meek, says the Lord, for they will inherit the earth. Previously, the Lord called those who weep for sins blessed, but here the meek. Why are the meek blessed immediately after those who weep? Because meekness is the fruit and consequence of contrition and mourning for our sins and weaknesses; grief over sins makes a person meek and gentle, like a lamb; and where there is meekness and kindness, there is always peace and bliss, for what is more precious and blessed than peace of mind? On the contrary, no one is more unfortunate than one who does not have peace and tranquility and is in constant confusion and fear; for then neither wealth, nor fame, nor any earthly good has a price, and with peace of mind, both in low life and in poverty, a person is content and happy. Blessed are the meek. But what is meekness, what does it consist of and what are its properties? In order for us to more accurately depict her, let us turn to the Gospel: there we will see a shining, beautiful and majestic image of her. This is how the Lord teaches meekness and depicts it: I tell you: do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him; and whoever wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your outer garment too... Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who offend you and persecute you; that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:39-45). Learn from Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29). From these words of our Divine Mentor you see, brethren, that meekness is a quiet mood of the soul, established in Jesus Christ by faith and love, calmly enduring all evil caused to us by people or the cunning of demons, not indignant or irritated by various oppositions and obstacles to our intentions, willingly forgiving human insults and in every possible way benevolent to our enemies, out of respect for their human and Christian humanity. dignity. A meek person never repays evil for evil, insult for insult; does not get angry, does not raise his voice in anger at those who sin and offend; he will not contradict, he will not cry, and no one will hear his voice (Matthew 12:19); the meek, being reproached, does not reproach, enduring suffering and misfortune from others, does not threaten with vengeance, but leaves it to Him who judges righteously to take revenge (1 Pet. 2:23). Here is a majestic image of meekness! This is her being! And how can we act differently, brothers, how can we be irritated, angry, take revenge? God, our common Father, before whom we sin without number, always deals with us in His meekness, does not destroy us, is long-suffering to us, and unceasingly benefits us. And we must be meek, forgiving and long-suffering towards our brothers. If you forgive man their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you,” says Jesus Christ. “If you do not forgive man their sins, your Father will also forgive you your sins (Matthew 6:14-15). In addition, we, as Christians, are all members of one body, and the members take care of each other in every possible way; Moreover, we are called sheep of the verbal flock of Christ - why is that? Because the sheep is meek, gentle, patient; so should we be. Only those of us belong to the flock of Christ who are meek and gentle, like lambs, and those who do not have the spirit of Christ, His meekness and gentleness, are not His. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His (Rom. 8:9). At the Last Judgment, only sheep will stand on the right side of the Judge, and the goats will be on the left, and the sheep will be brought into heaven, and the goats will be sent to Gehenna. And how absurd and unnatural is anger and rage! How, on the contrary, is meekness akin to our nature! Look at the face of the meek: how beautiful, clear, calm, imperturbable, attractive it is! What a spiritual fragrance a meek man diffuses in the souls; Looking at him, an angry person learns to be meek. But look at an angry, angry man: his face is restless, gloomy, ugly; one look at him sometimes irritates many (infecting the hearts of those looking at him as if with poison); the gaze involuntarily turns away from him - in order to calm down on someone else. Why does rage and anger occur? From our sinful pride, from pride, ambition and vanity, satiety, drunkenness, misogyny, love of money. Almost every one of you sees and knows that drunkards, proud, ambitious, money-loving, etc., lose their temper and get angry most of all: because of drunkenness, because of dissolute women, because of one offensive word, because of money - how many troubles and quarrels do there happen? If nothing else, then at least the harmful consequences of irritation and anger, and the beneficial consequences of meekness, force us to be meek, for meekness brings with it peace of mind and joy, as the Lord says: Learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). You see, as soon as we learn from the Lord to be meek and humble, then calm will immediately reign in our hearts, and with calm, joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). In addition, when the soul is in a meek mood, it is easy to do any task, but, on the contrary, when there is annoyance and anger, it is very difficult; and prayer, with anger at one’s neighbor, turns into sin and condemnation. Meekness brings us love, respect and favor from people; meekness makes prayer pleasing to God, appeases God towards us and brings forgiveness of our sins; anger, malice and intransigence humiliate the dignity of man and a Christian, deprive them of peace, love and respect for their neighbors and the favor of God and bring about various troubles and misfortunes. The examples of the apostles and all ancient Christians, especially St., encourage us to be meek. martyrs. Despite the unheard-of cruelty and oppression of the pagans, they never thought of taking up arms to defend themselves; for three centuries they suffered from them like lambs, following the example of His Divine Teacher, Who, being slandered, did not slander each other; while suffering, did not threaten, but handed it over to the Just Judge (1 Pet. 2:23). Let us take as an example the meekness of the saints today. Today the Church commemorates and celebrates the memory of 40 martyrs who died for Christ in Lake Sebaste. They were officers and simple warriors, undaunted on the battlefield, pious and knowledgeable in the Divine Scripture. When they refused to turn to the gods, at the suggestion of Prince Lysias, he ordered them to be stoned. This is not enough. Accusing the beating servants of impotence and negligence, he himself grabbed a stone and threw it at one of the martyrs and then ordered them to be put in a lake among the ice, pressing from everywhere, where they froze 84. They did not take up arms, did not resist and defend themselves, even though they could, but they endured everything with meekness for Christ, like lambs. An example especially for the military. Most of all, we should more often present the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, being meek and lowly in heart, most commanded us kindness and long-suffering, and Himself endured the cross and death for us. To avoid anger and irritability, you should not look at the sins of others, but at yourself, to know more about your heart, your mistakes and shortcomings; then we will learn that most of the strife and disagreement comes from ourselves, from our pride, pride, irritability, imprudence, self-will, distrust of others, and we will learn to be lenient towards others, forgive their weaknesses and shortcomings and be meek and patient with everyone. You must be able to control your heart at the moment of insult, suppress anger and displeasure in yourself at the very beginning, make it a law for yourself when insulted by others, not immediately speak and act, but allow yourself to calm down. “Let us stop evil at its first beginning,” says St. Basil the Great - destroying anger in souls by all means. In this case, we will be able, together with this passion, to cut off, as if at the root and at the beginning, most of the bad. Who reproached you? - And you bless; beat? - And you be patient. Does he despise you and respect you for nothing? “And bring to your mind the thought that you were made of earth and will be resolved into earth again.” Whoever protects himself with such reasoning will find that any dishonor is less than reality. Through this, you will make it impossible for the enemy to take revenge, showing that reproaches do not hurt you, and you will prepare for yourself a great crown of patience, when you turn the rage of another into a reason for your own wisdom. When the temptation to say a reproachful word confuses you, imagine that you must decide for yourself whether to approach God through patience, or through anger to surrender to the side of the enemy. Give your thoughts time to choose the good part” 85. But most of all, we must turn to God with sincere prayer, so that He will give us a spirit of meekness and patience and with His grace strengthen our heart in meekness and gentleness. For these virtues are gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are sent down from God to people worthy and capable of accepting them. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. What does it mean: they will inherit the earth? - This means that the meek will enjoy longevity and many other blessings in this life, like the meek and long-suffering Job, David, or the meek patriarch Jacob, like many saints who shone with meekness in the New Testament, and most importantly, that they receive the blessings promised from God to those who love Him on the land of the living, that is, in Heaven. May the most merciful Lord grant us all these blessings through His grace, generosity and love for mankind. Amen. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be satisfied. During the days of fasting and fasting, repentance and communion of St. For the Mysteries of Christ, the word about those who hunger and thirst for truth is especially timely. Who among you is righteous and who is not languishing in spiritual hunger? Who, therefore, does not seem to hunger and thirst for righteousness, that is, justification through faith in Jesus Christ, who does not thirst for righteousness, correction, spiritual renewal? However, despite our countless untruths, despite the deliberate time of fasting and repentance and communion of the Holy, Immortal, Life-giving, Terrible Mysteries of Christ the Savior, the real greed and thirst for truth is not noticeable in many, as can be judged by the cold and formal, without warmth, confession of many confessors, and by the failure of many to fulfill this Christian duty every year. Or shouldn’t we conclude from this that among us there are more righteous people than sinners? Hasn’t the Kingdom of God already come to us, hasn’t all connection with sins been terminated for us, aren’t we a chosen race, aren’t we people of renewal, not only in name, but also in deed? - Oh, if only it were so! Oh, if only they were all holy, as befits Christians who are called children of the Heavenly Father! But no. God forbid that I should deceive both you and myself. Among us there are few who hunger and thirst for truth precisely because among us there are many sinners sleeping in the sleep of sin, many spiritual dead, dead to truth, and, unfortunately, alive to sin; there are many sleeping consciences that need to be shaken and awakened; finally, there are many who do not know what the truth of God is, and what it means to be hungry and thirsty for the truth. So, fellow sinners, among whom I am the first, listen to the word about those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Oh, if this word would arouse in any of those present a hunger and thirst for righteousness, by the grace of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for truth. Have you seen those who hunger and thirst physically, or have you yourself experienced hunger and thirst? Why does this greed and thirst occur? Why do some people, for example, sick people, not feel the need for food and drink? I proposed these questions in order to better explain spiritual greed through physical greed. To a greater or lesser extent, we have all experienced hunger and thirst. Tormented by hunger or thirst, a person almost only thinks about how and where he can satisfy them as quickly as possible: and when he finds, or when they offer him food and drink, he satisfies his bodily needs with great desire and pleasure, and upon satisfaction he feels a pleasant joy that comes from replenishing the deficiency that was in certain parts of the body, and he feels strengthened bodily strength and vigor. If, for some reason, he cannot satisfy his hunger and thirst for a long time, he suffers greatly from this, and if he cannot satisfy him at all, he begins to swell and dies in terrible suffering. Such greed and thirst comes from bodily needs and from the lack in the body of those elements that it needs for life; Hunger and thirst are greatest in a healthy state of the body. On the contrary, a prolonged lack of hunger and thirst in a person shows his ill health and dangerous situation, as happens with seriously ill people: it comes from a disorder of the internal bodily organs. Now let's see what greed and spiritual thirst are - the greed of truth; Why does it happen, and why do many people not have hunger and thirst for truth, and is this a good sign or not? To explain spiritual greed and thirst, let us go back to the beginning of man, to his creation by God, and recall the history of his fall; because in the image of the creation of man and in his fall lies the reason for his greed and thirst for truth. How was man created? In the image and likeness of God, or, as St. Apostle, in righteousness and in the holiness of truth (Eph. 4:24), that is, man was created righteous, sinless, holy, and in him flowed a fountain of living water, since he was in union with God. Spiritual food and drink for man then was truth, or the ever-flowing Source of truth - the Lord God. Here is the element of the soul, here is its food and drink! In union with God, man did not know what it meant to hunger and thirst for righteousness, because he was abundantly satisfied with it. Thus, those who live in complete abundance have no idea about hunger and thirst. Man recognized hunger and thirst when, through sin, he lost righteousness and fell away from the Source of righteousness - God, in Whom he could find eternal satiation; when he turned from simplicity into wickedness, from goodness into malice, from humility into pride, from meekness into anger, from holiness into impurity, from the love of God into the love of this world and into self-love, from spiritual, heavenly love into carnal and earthly passions. The soul, having lost through sin its own element, truth, began to feel deprivation, hunger and thirst, sorrow and cramped conditions from the lack of food that was native to itself. Thus, having taken into himself, through carelessness or thoughtlessness, poison, and tormented by an internal fire, he hungers and thirsts for saving medicine or an antidote; So a traveler in a sultry desert, tired of travel and scorched by the sun's rays, thirsts for a cool drink. Oh, what a terrible poison - sin for the immortal soul, created in the image of the righteous and all-blessed God! What bliss and frenzy it sometimes brings a person into, with what scorching, crushing power it spreads throughout all the entrails and bodily components! Meanwhile, what? Many play with this fire, fan it, not suspecting that they are thereby accelerating their destruction. Brethren! Should I play with deadly poison? Should we play with fire? But if it is certain that all the descendants of Adam are born into the world with this sinful poison, if this poison has a disastrous effect on the soul and body of a person, if every person is given the inner voice of conscience, denouncing sin, then why do many not feel their sins and do not feel the greed and thirst for justification? This happens because a person, with his carnal (so-called liberal) wisdom and his constantly sinful, voluptuous, riotous selfish life, rapes and finally drowns out his conscience. This insensitive state of the soul is the sinful death of a person, which can go from temporary to eternal. It takes a strong shock to awaken the sleeping conscience; in order to awaken a sinner sleeping through a sinful death, it is necessary to open his blinded eyes of the heart, which do not see the whole multitude of sins and all the severity of God’s truth, which will judge him after death. Oh, give us, Lord, the hunger and thirst for truth here, so that through sincere repentance we can reject all untruth and prevent Your terrible and righteous judgment! For blessings, therefore, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Brethren! Let us open the book of conscience and impartially read in it all our sinful thoughts, desires, intentions, words, actions that we had, said and did; Let us imagine at the same time that we are standing at the terrible judgment of Jesus Christ, who knows to an iota not only words and deeds, but also our innermost thoughts, and who will judge us not only for our deeds, but also for every idle word; Who will reveal everything hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5), and with the strictest justice will reward everyone according to their deeds. Tell me, in all honesty, whether there is much pure good in us that would be worthy of the most holy and most luminous eyes of God; will there be much truth? How many pure thoughts, desires, intentions, speeches, and actions are there that come from living faith in God, from heartfelt love for Him, from reverence for Him, from gratitude to Him and from pure love for one’s neighbor? Will there be a thousand times more untruths? And for any deliberate, persistent untruth, not erased by repentance, the truth of God punishes with eternal torment. Therefore, having vividly imagined the multitude of our sins and the terrible judgment of God, for which the throne of the Judge is already ready - ourselves, standing before this court in the presence of all the heavenly ranks of angels and the entire human race - will we still remain indifferent to our sins, will we not desire with all our souls to spend the rest of our lives in repentance and virtue, for God and for eternity? Let us hasten without mercy to expose ourselves to the sins we have committed, we will feel their abomination, we will stop enjoying them, loving them and doing them. Let us remember the suffering of Christ the Savior and His death on the cross. What betrayed Jesus Christ to such suffering and such a painful, shameful death, which, however, He accepted voluntarily? God's truth. For whom and for what? For us and for our sins. And if the truth of God did this to a green tree, such as Jesus Christ was, then what will happen to dry trees, like us sinners? What will be our torment if we do not turn and repent? What, are you afraid, after this, my brother, of judgment and Gehenna? Will you after this hunger and thirst for God’s justification, so that God’s unwashed truth does not condemn you to eternal torment? Let us arise from the sleep of sin and correct ourselves. Oh, that all who are scorched and oppressed by the passions of life, as if tormented by intense hunger and thirst, would with all the strength of their souls desire God’s justification, the correction of their hearts and their entire lives, as the Gospel demands, as God wants, who constantly calls us to turn from the path of destruction to the path of salvation! Oh, if only those sick with the disease of schism who are in our city would hunger and thirst for the truth of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, unity with it, sanctification through its worship, sacraments and teachings in the word of God! Are they really not yet tormented by the saving hunger and thirst for the motherly, life-giving milk of the Church? They left the source of living water and dug for themselves broken treasures that could not hold water. How long is the division, how long is the persistence of superstition? How long will the mental wolf plunder and scatter the flock of Christ? The faithful sons of the Church enjoy here, in the church, from the ever-flowing Source of living water, and they, alas! They are constantly thirsty for the grace of God and will never be satisfied if they do not turn to the Mother who once gave birth to them, from whom they fell away due to ignorance, delusion and stubbornness. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be satisfied. How are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness satisfied? Just as those who hunger and thirst are satisfied physically. One who is physically satiated no longer feels hunger or thirst and feels the body reinforced by the food and drink he has taken; saturation of the soul consists in peace and tranquility of spiritual strength, as a result of heartfelt repentance of sins and cleansing them with grace, and in acquiring the power to do good, which we did not previously have when we worked for sin, and which Jesus Christ gives us - our Peace, our Truth and our Strength. Oh, if only everyone would come to know the incorruptible beauty and sweetness of virtue, and in tearful repentance for sins would be filled with the truth of God, deeply and irrevocably love it, hating the sinful path with all their souls. May the grace of God do this! Amen. Blessedness of mercy: for there will be mercy. I haven’t talked to you for a long time, my brothers! Five weeks have passed since I spoke here about the blessedness of those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God, or the justification of Christ. I think that in the worries and bustles of life, you forgot about what was said in that conversation, and not only in that one, but also in the previous ones. My duty is to remind you briefly of what was said before, so that you can thus lay down the divine commandments in your heart and remember them to do (Ps. 102:18), according to the word of the Psalmist. They spoke about the four commandments of the Lord for blessedness, of which in the first the Lord commands His followers spiritual poverty and humility. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for to them is the Kingdom of Heaven. According to this commandment, we must always think of ourselves humbly, considering ourselves filled with countless sins and infirmities, and incapable of any direct, pure good, without the help of God’s grace; to consider everything that we have not as ours, but as the gift of God; to thank God, the Giver of every good, for everything, and to resort to His mercy in everything. In the second commandment, the Lord calls blessed people who heartily lament and cry over their sins, voluntary and involuntary, promising them grace-filled consolation, consisting in the forgiveness of sins and peace of conscience. Blessed are those who cry, he says, for they will be comforted. This commandment of the Lord obliges us to always have before our eyes our sins, their vileness, our absent-mindedness and inattention to the commandments of the Lord, the great responsibility for sins before God, the Last Judgment and eternal fire prepared for unrepentant sinners, and inspires us to live in constant repentance. In the third commandment, the Lord pleases the meek, promising them the inheritance of the earth. This commandment of the Lord teaches us to always be meek and gentle, following the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was like a gentle lamb - he who was reproached did not rebuke, when he suffered he did not abhor, but committed everything to God who judges righteousness (1 Peter 2:23); teaches never to be irritated by anything and not to irritate or offend anyone, restraining outbursts of anger in every possible way; treat everyone kindly, patiently, condescendingly; overcome evil with good, correct the faulty with patience and admonition. As a reward for meekness and patience, the Lord promises the inheritance of the earth, that is, firstly, long life and prosperity here on earth: for meekness and restraint, or the destruction of outbursts of anger, constant complacency and tranquility greatly contribute to the health and longevity of a person, and secondly, a blessed and eternal life in the Heavenly Fatherland. In the fourth commandment, the Lord pleases those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, i.e. those people who, feeling themselves to be the greatest sinners and sincerely repenting, accept a firm and decisive intention to improve, voluntarily languish with greed and thirst for truth and holiness, or with the justifying and soul-satisfying grace of Jesus Christ, just as the hungry hunger for bodily food, and the thirsty for drink. Here is a summary of the previous conversations! Put everything that has been said in your heart and do as the Lord commanded, so that you will be blessed in your deed and receive the Kingdom of Heaven prepared for those who do God’s commandments. Now let's talk about the next one, that is, the fifth commandment of the Lord for blessedness. The Lord says: Blessed are the mercy: for these will be mercy. What does a sinner need most? God's mercy, non-penalty for our sins, continuation of God's long-suffering towards us, the granting of more time for repentance, the very awakening of the soul to repentance, forgiveness of sins, and in the end - pardon at the Last Judgment of God. That is why the Church, on our behalf, often says: Lord, have mercy! So, fellow sinner, if you have already recognized yourself as the greatest sinner, worthy of all condemnation and torment, if you have known the abomination and absurdity of sins, the immeasurable insult through them of the Lord God and the greatest responsibility for them; If you are hungry and thirsty for justification and mercy from God, then try to show the mercy that is possible for you towards your neighbors: Blessed are the mercy, says the Lord, for there will be mercy for you. For mercy to the brethren, you yourself will receive mercy from God; for temporary mercy - eternal mercy, for small mercy - infinitely great mercy: for you will not only receive mercy from eternal condemnation for sins at the judgment of God, but you will also receive eternal bliss. Anyone can conveniently show mercy to their neighbor, because mercy can be different, just as a person’s needs are different - spiritual and physical, how different is the position of people in society, their condition and title. The boss can show mercy through condescension, meekness towards those who sin, patience, attention to the merits of his subordinates and rewarding them; subordinate - constant service, obedience, diligence; a scientist can show mercy to his neighbors by enlightening the ignorant, imparting to society correct judgments about faith, about life, about the purpose of human existence on earth, about earthly goods, about death, about the truth of God, about eternal judgment, or by exposing social vices; a rich person can show mercy to his neighbor by donating from his property to the needs of the Church and its ministers, to charitable institutions, or by giving generous alms to the poor; the poor - by his gratitude and zeal in serving the rich, by his prayer for benefactors; the pastor - with sincere and unceasing concern for the salvation of human souls, with their unceasing teaching in the word of God, with constant readiness to fulfill parish needs, to give advice, instructions, and consolation; and the flock - with respect, obedience and gratitude to the shepherds, condescension towards their shortcomings and fervent prayer for them. The main works of bodily mercy, common to all, are the following: 1) to feed the hungry, 2) to give to the thirsty, 3) to clothe the naked, or those who lack necessary and decent clothing, 4) to visit the one in prison, 5) to visit the sick, serve him and help his recovery, or Christian preparation for death, i.e., call a priest for confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries. Christ's, 6) to accept the stranger into the house and calm him down, and 7) to bury the dead in poverty at his own expense, or with collected alms. All of these acts of mercy, except the last one, are mentioned by the Lord Himself when depicting His last Last Judgment. These are His words: When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory, and all nations will be gathered before Him; and will separate one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you accepted Me; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me (Matthew 25:31–36). From these words of the Lord, you see, brethren, how necessary and important—infinitely important—Christian charity is for us. It is necessary because without works of mercy it is impossible to inherit the Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world for those blessed by the Heavenly Father, and judgment without mercy will be for those who have not shown mercy (James 2:13); it is infinitely important because the mercy shown to one’s neighbor is shown personally to Jesus Christ Himself, according to the testimony of Himself: For since you have been created alone for these least of my brothers, you have been created together with Me (Matthew 25:40); for all people, especially Christians, are His lesser brethren, and Christians are also His members. The works of spiritual mercy are as follows: 1) to convert a sinner from error through exhortation, for example, an unbeliever, or a non-believer, a schismatic, or a drunkard, a fornicator, a spendthrift, etc.; 2) teach an ignorant person truth and goodness, for example, teach someone who does not know how to pray to God to pray, teach someone who does not know God’s commandments, teach them the commandments and how to fulfill them; 3) give good advice to your neighbor in a timely manner, for example, in a difficulty or in danger that he does not notice, in illness, in the event of someone’s malicious intent on whose life or well-being; 4) pray to God for everyone: pray for one another so that you may be healed (James 5:16); 5) comfort the sad: comfort the faint-hearted (1 Sol. 5:14); 6) not to repay or take revenge for the evil that people have done to us, and not to repay any evil for evil (Rom. 12:17); or annoyance for annoyance (1 Pet. 3:9) or do not take revenge on yourself, love, but give place to anger (Rom. 12:19), i.e. God's 7) forgive offenses from the heart, knowing and remembering that he who offends another, first of all offends himself, incurring the great wrath of God; that he offends at the instigation of the enemy; that we deserve to be offended by our sins, and finally, that God himself forgives us our sins and insults caused to His Majesty. This time we will dwell on this and finish our conversation by reminding you of one more thing, so that you remember these commandments of the Lord and try to fulfill them unfailingly: for a servant who knows the will of his master, and having neither prepared nor done according to his will, will suffer many stripes (Luke 12:47). Next time we will talk about the motives for mercy and how one should show mercy and give alms, and with what disposition of spirit. Amen. This time, my brethren, let us talk about the motives for mercy and about to whom and how and with what spirit mercy should be shown. Nothing is more characteristic of a true Christian than mercy or mercy towards one’s neighbor. - Why? - Because the Christian faith and the Church constantly proclaim to us about the infinite mercy of the Lord God towards people, which, constantly appearing throughout the world, was revealed especially in the sending down to earth by God the Father of His only begotten Son to save the world from eternal destruction - and in the foundation on earth of the Church of Christ or the society of the saved, which is most constant in the Christian race and especially in the seven Holy Sacraments, for example, in baptism, through which we all became children of God, or in communion, in which we so often become partakers of the very Body and very Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him eternal life. Each of us daily feels God’s great, immeasurable, manifold mercy upon himself. But if the Lord our God is so merciful to all people in general, and to us Christians in particular, then we should also be merciful to each other. The Lord Himself convinces us to be merciful to our neighbors, namely, by God’s mercy towards us. Be merciful, He says, as your Father in Heaven is merciful (Luke 6:36). The entire New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ primarily bequeaths to us mutual love and mercy; He teaches us this with various parables, for example, the parable of the merciful Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37), the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1–13), the parable of the unmerciful debtor with ten talents (Matthew 18:24–35) and many times directly teaches us mercy: as you go, you will learn what is: Mercy want, not sacrifice? (Matthew 9:13, 12:7); be merciful (Luke 6:36); sell your possessions and give alms (Luke 12:33); be blazi, merciful, etc.; He especially teaches us mercy through all the acts of the Savior between people, for all these acts were nothing other than acts of His mercy towards people. Above all this, mercy should especially be characteristic of a Christian because he is and is called a member of the Church of Christ, the members of which are His co-members, or members of one body with Him, and since in this body there are many weak members, or those undergoing various hardships and needs, then there is nothing more natural and fair than to sympathize, sympathize with a weak or needy member and help him, than which of the fellow members can, depending on the need of the member, according to the status and rank of the one who cares, shows mercy for the needy member. Just as the body is one, but has many members, says St. Apostle Paul, - so all the members of one body, although there are many of them, constitute one body, - so does Christ. For we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we have all been given one drink of one Spirit. The body is not made of one member, but of many... If one member suffers, all members suffer with it; if one member is glorified, all members rejoice with it. And you are the body of Christ, and individually members (1 Cor. 12:12-27). This is what should motivate each of us to the unforgiving and feasible fulfillment of the commandment of mercy, that is, firstly, God’s endless mercy towards the human race in general, towards Christians in particular and towards each of us in particular; secondly, the direct commandment of the Gospel, thirdly, the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, and fourthly, our very name as Christians, that is, members of Christ, members of His body. Add to this the feeling of mercy inherent in each of us, implanted in our nature by God Himself, which even prompts a savage to compassion for the suffering, and which should even more so be present in a Christian; and the very multitude of people like us, suffering various painful needs, the multitude of the poor, unfortunate, hungry, naked, sick, should not awaken in us a natural feeling of mercy? If we wish for ourselves compassion and help from others when we suffer illness, misfortune and need, then shouldn’t others, in all fairness, expect this compassion from us as well? As you want people to do to you, says the Lord, do so to them (Matthew 7:12). And the talents given to each of us by God for the common good, and not to please only our own pride, do not they motivate us to serve our fellow men in their need? Do you see how many incentives there are for mercy? Lord Jesus Christ and St. the men of the Old and New Testaments do not encourage anything so strongly as charity. The Lord says: do good, and give in return, without asking for anything: and your reward will be many, and you will be sons of the Most High: for He is good to the graceless and evil (Luke 6:35). “Look how divinely inspired men constantly instill mercy and how close it is to their hearts,” writes St. Gregory the Theologian. “They don’t proclaim it in such a way that they say something about the poor once or twice and then retreat; It is not that some mention mercy and others do not, or that some talk about it more and others less, as if it were not an important and extremely necessary subject. No - they all, and each one in particular, considering this commandment to be the main one or one of the main ones, zealously encourage us to fulfill it, sometimes with admonitions, sometimes with threats, sometimes with reproaches, and sometimes with merciful praise; and all this in order to strengthen its effect in our hearts by constant reminders of this commandment. No service is more pleasing to God than mercy, because it is most akin to God, to whom mercy and truth come, and to whom mercy must be given as a gift before judgment; - and the righteous Rewarder does not reward for anything with His love for mankind as much as for love for mankind” 86 . Pointing to the sameness of nature in us and in the poor, and with this mutual affinity of ours encouraging us to mercy, he says: “They received the same nature as us; The clay is made of the same thing that we are made of; or better - if we must mention the most important thing - they, like us, are gifted with the image of God and preserve it, perhaps better than us, although they have decayed in body - they are clothed with Christ alone according to the inner man; they have accepted the same pledge of the Spirit for preservation, they participate in the same laws, the words of God, covenants, meetings, sacraments, and hopes; Christ died for them equally, taking upon Himself the sin of the whole world; they are the heirs of heavenly life, although they are very much alienated from earthly life; they are buried in Christ and rise with Him; they suffer with Him, that they may also be glorified with Him. So, do not despise your brother, do not run past him, do not disdain him as uncleanness, as an infection, as something disgusting and rejected. This is your penis, although it has been twisted by misfortune. The beggar is left to you to eat (Ps. 9:35), as to God Himself, although you pass by him too arrogantly. You are offered an opportunity to prove your philanthropy, although the enemy turns you away from your own happiness. Learn from other people's troubles. Give even the smallest thing to the poor, and it will not be a small thing for the one who needs everything - and for God Himself, if the alms are within your power. Instead of a great gift, bring zeal. Have nothing? Comfort with a tear. Great healing for the ill-fated, when someone sincerely regrets him, the misfortune is greatly alleviated by sincere condolences... This is what reason, and the law, and our own experience, and the fairest of people teach us.”87 The first Christians, that is, those who lived under the apostles and after them, had everything in common: the rich and wealthy voluntarily donated their property and money, and what they collected was kept by the primates of the Church, who used it to support the poor, widows, orphans, the sick, the strange, those imprisoned and other needy people. “We have a kind of treasury,” writes one church teacher, “everyone every month, or whenever he wishes, contributes to it as much as he can and as much as he wants. These alms are used for the food and burial of the poor; for the maintenance of children who have lost their parents, for the elderly who no longer leave home and are unable to work, to alleviate the lot of the unfortunate who have been shipwrecked... Having one heart and one soul among ourselves, can we renounce the community of property?” 88 Finally, this should serve as an important incentive to charity, that it is very useful for the benefactors themselves; for it strengthens in them a sense of love for mankind, brings the purest joys to their hearts, attracts the love and affection of their neighbors to them and, most importantly, acquires for them the love and favor of God, comforting them with the hope of mercy at the Last Judgment of God and the hope of eternal bliss. “By showing the fruit of charity, you will gather it for yourself,” writes St. Basil the Great, - because the benefits of good deeds return to those who give. Have you given to the hungry? And what you give becomes your property, returning to you with an increase. Just as a grain of grain, falling into the ground, turns into profit for the one who threw it, so the bread thrown down to the hungry one subsequently brings a hundredfold benefit. God will accept you; Angels will praise you, all people will please you, no matter how many there have been since the creation of the world. Eternal glory, the crown of righteousness, the Kingdom of Heaven will be your reward for the good disposal of this perishable property” 89. St. Gregory the Theologian writes: “those are prudent who, not trusting present blessings, accumulate treasures for themselves in the future, and, seeing the inconstancy and changeability of human well-being, love charity, which will never change” 90. To whom and how should alms be given? Jesus Christ says: give to everyone who asks you (Matthew 5:42), which means that we must help and do good to everyone, without making any distinction about persons, status, origin, or religion. Everyone who is truly in need should be shown mercy. St. Gregory the Theologian says: “We must open the womb of mercy to all the poor and those who suffer for any reason; We must, as humans, bring tribute to charity to people, no matter what their need forces them to seek help, whether widowhood or orphanhood, or expulsion from the fatherland, or the cruelty of rulers, or the insolence of those in charge, or the inhumanity of tax collectors, or the greed of enemies, or the inventory of property, or shipwreck. For they all have the same right to regret, and they also look at our hands, just as we look at the hands of God, when we ask for something, and it is much better to extend our hand to the unworthy, rather than, for fear of meeting the unworthy, to deprive the worthy of a good deed.”91 One must help not out of vanity and pride, not out of a desire for gratitude and reward, but disinterestedly, to please God and out of love for one’s neighbor. “Alms, infected with the disease of vanity, are no longer a work of mercy,” writes St. John Chrysostom - but boasting and hardness of heart: for by this you publicly ridicule your brother. Almsgiving does not consist in giving money, but in giving with a Christian sense of mercy" 92 . One must do charity and help voluntarily, willingly, sincerely, cordially, with respect and unfeigned love for the poor, without any indignation, annoyance or contempt. Give each one according to the disposition of his heart, says St. Apostle Paul - not with grief and not with compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7). Break your bread for the hungry and bring the bloodless poor into your house (Is. 58:7), and do all this cordially, says St. Gregory the Theologian; have mercy, it is said, with good will (Rom. 12:8); thus, your readiness will increase the price of your good deed. For what is done with sorrow or out of need cannot be pleasant; when providing benefits, one should rejoice and not complain” 93 . “Giving alms does not just mean giving,” says St. John Chrysostom - but with zeal and joy and with a feeling of gratitude to the recipient. So, if someone does not give with such a disposition, it is better not to give. For this is not alms, but a waste... After all, that’s alms when you give it with joy and think that you yourself receive more than you give” 94 . Further, we must do good from our own property, and not from someone else’s, to which we have no legal right, and from property acquired by honest labor, and not by theft, deception and untruth; and in order to give sufficient alms, you need to limit your expenses, for example, not buy unnecessary and expensive things that you can easily do without; for this is the theft of the property of the poor, since our surplus belongs to them. We must do good and help constantly, without weakening in our zeal from the difficulties and obstacles encountered in the performance of this duty. St. Chrysostom says: “Alms, it is said, and faith, do not fail in you. It is not said: do a good deed once, twice, three times, ten, a hundred times, but at all times: let it not leave you, it is said” 95. When giving alms, one must distinguish the truly poor from the poor only by appearance; you need to help according to your strengths and means; prefer the poorer to the less poor; the most worthy to the less worthy; their closest and relatives - to strangers. For this purpose, some of the Church Fathers advise that the giving of alms should be entrusted to experienced people. But we should not be too inquisitive and picky about the poor, so as not to deprive those who are truly in need of our help. “For there is no example,” says St. Chrysostom - so that those who are too picky in such cases would ever accept a saint. But most often he falls for deceivers. Therefore, I beg you, let us do everything in simplicity” 96. Finally, one should not think much about one’s good deeds, but consider oneself only as a dispenser of God’s gifts. “You will never be more generous than God,” says St. Gregory the Theologian, - even if you sacrificed everything you have, even if you gave yourself along with your property; for the very thing in order to give oneself to God is what a person receives from Him. No matter how much you pay Him, even more will remain on you, and you will not give anything of your own, since everything is from God” 97. And so we will say at the end of our conversation: the blessings of mercy: for there will be mercy. Oh, what a great reward for mercy towards one’s neighbor - to be shown mercy by God in a universal and terrible trial before the whole world and to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven prepared from the foundation of the world. Amen. Blessed are those who are pure in heart: for they will see God. In this commandment, the Lord, pleasing the pure in heart, inspires in all of us to strive to acquire a purity of heart, which is the container of life, as Scripture says: Guard your heart with all care: from these comes life (Prov. 4:23), and on which depend our joys and sorrows, contentment and discontent. Are there any who live on earth who are pure in heart? In the New Testament, in the Kingdom of grace, of course, there are pure-hearted people, known to the Lord, as it is said: the Lord knows Him who is (2 Tim. 2:19), and sometimes appear to people, such as the holy saints of God, glorified by God during their lifetime with the gifts of insight and miracles, and all are gentle and humble in heart. If the Lord pleases the pure in heart, then without a doubt there really are such; but purity of heart in people is very, very rare, like pure gold is rare, like precious stones are rare; are rare now, but they were even rarer in the Old Testament, when the people of Israel lived under the law, and not under grace, and when the majority of people were mired in idolatry. All people are conceived and born in lawlessness; only the grace of God takes away these iniquities and makes some worthy ones his chosen vessels, purifying their hearts and souls. Behold, I will touch this to your lips, and he will take away your iniquities and cleanse your sins (Is. 6:7), - said the fiery Seraphim to Isaiah, the chosen prophet, touching his lips with a burning coal, - and through this touch the sinful impurity of the man of God was taken away. Oh, that the pure would come from the unclean, - exclaims Job the Long-Suffering, and continues: not one (Job.14:4)! Where does this general sinful impurity in people come from, when they are created in the image and likeness of God, and God is Most Pure and Most Holy? From the devil, my brethren, from the devil, who is most often called in Scripture an unclean spirit, and in church prayers, precisely when exorcising an evil spirit, an alien, foul and disgusting spirit. It was he, this unclean spirit, having become, after his fall from God, an unclean vessel of all the uncleanness of sin, from the beginning with his unclean breath the hearts of the first people were defiled, and deeply infecting their entire being, soul and body, with the uncleanness of sin, transmits this uncleanness, like hereditary corruption, to all their descendants, even before us, and will defile, especially the careless and unbelievers, until the end of the world, as said St. Angel St. to the Apostle John in the Apocalypse: the time is near. Let the unrighteous still do injustice; let the unclean one still become unclean; let the righteous still do righteousness, and let the holy one still be sanctified. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his deeds (Rev. 22:10–12). So, uncleanness of the heart comes from the devil, or from the first fall of man, after which all people became, as it were, his captives and slaves. And this sinful impurity is so great, so deeply ingrained in human hearts, so difficult to get rid of it that even the holy saints of God, who all their lives were vigilant over all the movements and thoughts of their hearts, at times felt within themselves a kind of influx or storm of evil, nasty and blasphemous thoughts and prayed to the Lord and the Most Pure Mother of God to tame these fierce and unclean waves, to quench this demonic storm; - so great that some men, who had already ascended to the heights of purity and holiness, quickly fell into the sin of impurity; - so great that despite our frequent prayers, the grace of the Sacraments and our teaching in the word of God and all the punishments with which God visits us for our sinful impurity, it still remains in us and will live with us until the grave, and in others, to the shame of mankind, it is revealed before the very grave with particular impudence and shamelessness. To the unclean, everything often appears unclean, because his mind and conscience are defiled. The Lord, the Knower of Hearts, says that from within, from the human heart, come evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, extortion, malice, deceit, lasciviousness, the envious eye, blasphemy, pride, madness - all this evil comes from within and defiles a person (Mark 7:21-23). This is what impurity of heart consists of! This is a thorny thorn that gores a person internally, giving him no rest; obstacles, against which it is cruel for a person to go, and yet he often goes against them willingly; this is a dark cloud and darkness in the soul, hiding from a person the true and saving path of God, along which a person must go to his destined goal; These, finally, are sinful scabs that cover and corrode our heart. To cleanse the heart, great labors and sorrows, frequent tears, and unceasing inner prayer are needed; abstinence, reading the word of God, the scriptures and lives of the holy saints of God, but most importantly, frequent repentance and communion of the Most Pure Mysteries and daily self-examination; reflection on how pure man was created in the beginning, and how the filth of sin entered the world; about the likeness and image of God in us, and about our duty to become like the Prototype - the Most Pure God; about our redemption by the priceless blood of the Son of God, about our sonship in Christ Jesus, about the commandment for us to be holy in all our lives (1 Pet. 1:15); thinking about death, judgment and fiery hell. Great tribulations are needed, we say, because they heal the disease of sin and burn away the thorns of passions. Through many sorrows we must enter into the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), says St. the Apostle Paul, and all the saints endured great sorrows to acquire purity of heart, and no one was crowned without sorrows: some endured many different torments from persecutors; others voluntarily tormented and depressed themselves with fasting, vigil, physical labor, lying on the bare ground; They were constantly vigilant in prayer, and with its fragrance they repelled every nasty attack of sin; often received communion from St. The Mysteries, as the most powerful means for cleansing, sanctification and renewal of soul and body; They constantly studied the word of God and occupied themselves with the thoughts of God. For others, despite all this, tears constantly flowed from their eyes, such as St. Ephraim the Syrian. We especially need sincere, deep tears, for they cleanse the filthiness of the heart. Give me tears, O Christ, drops that cleanse the filth of my heart, the saints of God pray to the Lord 98. From the eyes of the tears flowing incessantly, give me endless currents, washing me all over, from top to foot, - we pray in the canon to the Guardian Angel, - as if he clothed a robe whiter than snow with repentance in the palace of God below 99 . Tear drops, please give me grace, pray to the Lord, St. Angel, as if by those, my heart will be cleansed and will see God 100. And everyone who has cried over their sins knows from experience that tears greatly contribute to the purification, peace and bliss of the heart, for with them, so to speak, sin flows out of our souls; after them there comes silence and tranquility of conscience and some kind of spiritual fragrance and joy: a person with intelligent eyes sees God in himself, cleansing all his iniquities and unspeakably merciful to him. Then a person will experience experimentally how blessed, calm and contented the pure in heart are, for they are not tormented by their conscience, they are not tormented by the sins that were forgiven them by the infinite mercy of God, and they feel internally that they rest in God, the Source of bliss, and God rests in them. Blessed are the pure in heart. So, a pure heart is an abundant source of peace and everlasting joy; when looking at everything good, at every creation of God, the pure in heart rejoices and rejoices internally, because in all creatures he sees the imprint of the goodness, wisdom and omnipotence of the Creator; - he is blessed in himself, for both the purity of his heart and, in general, the felt real mercy of God rejoices him, and he is even more comforted by the future promised blessings, which no eye has seen and no ear has heard (1 Cor. 2:9), and the pledge of which he has in his heart. On the contrary, those who have an unclean heart are pitiful: for them it is a source of constant sorrow, although apparently they are having fun; a source of misfortune and fear, because sins and passions, like worms, suck at their hearts, their conscience denounces them, giving them no peace, and the secret premonition of God’s Judgment frightens them. Blessed are those who are pure in heart: for they will see God; blessed, a hundred times blessed are the pure in heart, especially because they will see God face to face in the age to come; for it is characteristic of the pure to see the Pure, just as it is characteristic of the pure eye to see the light. If we still feel very blessed in this life, when, having left everything earthly, we devote ourselves completely to prayer and talk with God, like children with their father, although we do not see Him with our eyes, but only, as in a mirror, fortune-telling - if in this still life we often seem to melt spiritually with tenderness, due to the living sensation of the presence of God - then what can we say about the righteous or the pure in heart when they see God in that age face to face? face, when will they see the One who is the Source of eternal light and bliss for all orders of angels, for all forefathers, prophets, apostles, hierarchs, martyrs, saints and all saints, in whom every creature in heaven and on earth lives and rejoices? Oh, truly it will be unspeakable bliss, endless sweetness, - where (in heaven) those celebrating the unceasing voice, and the endless sweetness of those who behold Your face, the ineffable kindness 101. So, my brethren, let us all strive to acquire a pure heart - through tears of repentance, vigil, prayer, abstinence, frequent teaching in the word of God, and let us hasten to reject the blindness of passions from our hearts - so that we may see Christ God, the Savior of our souls. “Christ, the true Light, enlighten and sanctify every person coming into the world, may the light of Your face be marked upon us, may we see in it the unapproachable light, and straighten our steps to do Your commandments, through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother and all Your saints” 102. Amen. Blessed are the peacemakers: for these shall be called the sons of God. The Lord, pleasing the peacemakers, inspires us all to seek peace and adhere to it; for without peace, according to the Apostle, no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14), Who is our Peace, as it is said: For He is our peace, having made both one (Eph. 2:14), and Who for this purpose came down to earth to restore peace on it, and established in His Church the word of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19). So, those who want to receive eternal bliss must be peacemakers. How to fulfill this commandment? Firstly, each of us, brethren, must not allow passions to disturb ourselves, but reflect at the very beginning the motives of passions and in every possible way observe ourselves in a peaceful disposition, as the Apostle commands: be at peace within yourself (1 Thessalonians 5:13); and the God of love and peace will be with you (2 Cor. 13:11). What causes quarrels, discord, and disagreements between us? Because we have not learned to restrain the impulses of passions in our hearts, eradicating them at the very bud; have not learned to be peaceful within ourselves, in the depths of our souls. Why is each of us obliged to acquire a peaceful spirit, that is, to bring ourselves into such a state that our spirit is not disturbed by anything. One must be like a dead person or completely deaf and blind in the face of all the sorrows, slander, reproaches, and deprivations that inevitably happen to everyone who wants to follow the saving paths of Christ. And who will not say that people who have acquired such a mood of spirit are truly blessed, because they have acquired divine grace, the source of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17), and are not indignant at anything contrary? St. Theophylact of Bulgaria says: “peace, like unto man, and in the soul from passions, the mother is of divine grace, and gives birth to this in us; But an indignant soul, and making war with other people, and with itself, I do not think, should be worthy of divine grace” 103. Many of us know this truth from our own experience. So, let us, my brethren, take every effort to acquire a peaceful mood of spirit; let us gain peace from passions, and we will acquire divine grace, which will make us blessed and children of God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for these shall be called the sons of God. By pacifying ourselves, we must, secondly, be peacemakers regarding our neighbors; we must act friendly to everyone, not give reasons for disagreement and prevent it by all means, if it happens because of something, for example, because of an insult, someone’s injustice, or because of someone’s encroachment on our property or rights - by all means try to stop this disagreement, even if it would be necessary to sacrifice something that belongs to us, for example, our property, our honor, or primacy, unless it is contrary to our duty, service, and is not harmful to anyone; We should try to reconcile others who are at war with each other, if we can; and if we cannot, then pray to God for their reconciliation, for what we are not able to do, then God is able to do, Who can make even a brutal heart into a lamb. He who has learned the full importance of peace in a person’s life - church, civil and family, natural and grace-filled, and the extreme harm of disagreement and discord, from which everything comes into disorder, will try by all means to act in harmony with everyone, and will help preserve peace and harmony between people: for the Lord has called us into peace (1 Cor. 7:15). A special responsibility to be reconcilers lies with the pastors of the Church, who, by the way, are appointed to reconcile everyone with God and with each other. They must extinguish family disagreements, disagreements between husband and wife, parents and children, and all kinds of titles and conditions of people, and they especially have a great reward - the name sons of God, if they diligently try to establish peace and harmony between people. They have the duty to reconcile with the Church those who suffer from the disease of schism and those who unrighteously enmity against her, and in general all those infected with the satanic spirit of enmity against this heavenly and immaculate Mother, and who are moving away from her, and through that from God Himself. They must firmly instill in such people that we are all brothers, children of the one Heavenly Father, redeemed by the blood of the one Lord Jesus Christ and called to inherit the one Kingdom of Heaven, and therefore must live in mutual love and harmony, and adhere to the one house of God - the Church of God, which gave birth to us in one font and nourishes us from one Chalice. Behold, what is good, or what is red? But let the brethren live together... For there (where there is agreement) the commandment of the Lord is blessing and life forever (Ps. 132). Truly, peace and harmony are a great blessing for us: they bring us closer to God and bring His blessing down to us and give us the love and respect of people. Without peace and harmony with others, it is impossible for a person to have peace and harmony within himself, for disagreement and discord with others suppress noble and meek feelings in us, and little by little make us cold, insensitive, cruel, wild, ferocious, not human and not Christians, depriving us of inner peace, happiness and all well-being. St. Gregory of Nyssa, praising the peace and harmony of people, says: “Of all that people strive to enjoy in life, is there anything sweeter than a peaceful life? Whatever you call pleasant in life is pleasant only when it is connected with the world. Let there be everything that is valued in life: wealth, health, wife, children, home, relatives, friends; let there be beautiful gardens, places of cheerful feasts, and all the inventions of pleasures... let all this be, but there will be no peace - what good is that?... So, peace is not only pleasant in itself for those who enjoy the world, but also delights all the blessings of life. Even if some misfortune happens to us, as usually happens to people, during times of peace, and it is more tolerable, because in this case evil is tempered by good... Judge for yourself, what kind of life are those who are at enmity with each other and suspect each other? They meet gloomily and abhor everything in each other; their lips are silent, their eyes are averted, and the ears of one are closed to the words of the other. Everything that is pleasant for one of them is hateful for the other, and on the contrary, what is hateful and hostile to one is liked by the other. Therefore, the Lord wants you to multiply the grace of the world in such abundance, so that not only you yourself can enjoy it, but so that your life serves as a cure against the illness of others... He who prevents others from this shameful vice shows the greatest benefit, and can rightly be called blessed, he does the work of God’s power, destroying evil in human nature, and instead introducing the communion of good things. The Lord calls the peacemaker the son of God because he who brings such peace to human society becomes an imitator of the true God. The Giver and Lord of goodness completely destroys and destroys everything unnatural and alien to goodness. He commands similar activity to you; and you must extinguish hatred, stop enmity and revenge, destroy quarrels, drive out hypocrisy, extinguish the smoldering memory of malice in the heart and introduce everything opposite in its place... love, joy, peace, goodness, generosity, in a word, the whole collection of good things. So, isn’t he blessed who gives away divine gifts, who imitates God in his gifts, whose benefits are likened to the great gifts of God” 104? However, there are cases when disagreement is better than peace, and it is necessary to neglect the world itself: such is the world of lawless people, about which David speaks: being jealous of the wicked, the peace of sinners is in vain (Ps. 72:3), when everything goes according to their desire, when they become rich in property and unrighteousness of all kinds, when they receive awards and distinctions, flourish in health, etc. “Let them not think,” writes St. Gregory the Theologian, - as if I were saying that every world should be treasured. For I know that there is wonderful disagreement, and the most destructive unanimity, but we must love a good world that has a good goal and unites with God. But when it comes to obvious wickedness, then one should rather go to fire and sword, rather than partake of the evil brew and share with the infected” 105. “Then peace is especially established,” writes St. John Chrysostom - when what is infected with disease is cut off, when what is hostile is separated. For through this only it is possible for heaven to unite with earth. For the doctor will then save parts of the body when he cuts off an incurable member from them, and the military leader will restore calm when malicious like-minded people are brought into discord. This is what happened during the Babylonian pandemonium: the evil world was destroyed by good disagreement, and peace was restored... Unity of mind is not always good: even robbers agree.” 106 So, blessed are the peacemakers, that is, firstly, those who pacify themselves from passions and suppress them in themselves, and try in every possible way to maintain good peace with their neighbors; secondly, those who always try to reconcile the warring parties by all means in their power. They will be called the sons of God, that is, they will be honored with the greatest honor in the face of all Angels, all men, for there is no higher honor than for a mortal man to be called the son of the immortal and blessed God and to become immortal and blessed himself, and to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, becoming an heir of God and a joint heir of Christ. The very bliss of the peacemakers will be inexpressible and especially great, since they themselves established in people the greatest good of the world, and contributed to both the temporary well-being and eternal bliss of people. Let us, my brethren, all be peaceful and peace-loving, and let us not, on occasion, give up reconciling those at war, diligently resisting the machinations of the spirit of enmity, which is intensifying to spread it everywhere. In the name of the Lord I ask each and every one of you for this. And for this, be grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Blessed is the expulsion of truth for the sake of: for those are the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they revile you, and ridicule you, and say all sorts of evil things about you lying to Me for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is abundant in heaven. Until now, our Lord and Hero of God Jesus Christ has blessed those who fulfill His commandments, namely: those who are humble about themselves, weeping over sins, zealous for meekness and gentleness, hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of Christ, diligently doing works of mercy, tirelessly plucking from their hearts the thorns of passions and establishing peace in themselves and in the people around them; in His last two sayings about beatitude, in the eighth and ninth, He pleases His followers for the persecutions to which they have been subjected before, and will continue to be subjected for the sake of their faith and virtue, and comforts them with the sweetest promise of eternal bliss and great reward in heaven, which has an infinite abundance to reward them for all reproaches, sorrows, misfortunes, the hardships and torments that they endured and will endure for His name. Blessed, - he says, - drive away the truth for the sake of: for those are the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when they revile you, and condemn you, and say all sorts of evil things against you who lie to Me for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is abundant in heaven. Blessedly expel the truth for the sake of it. By truth here we generally mean the Christian faith and life according to the commandments of Christ; This means that blessed are those who are persecuted for faith and piety, for their good deeds, for constancy and steadfastness in faith. But why does the world persecute true faith, piety, truth, which are so beneficial for people, bringing unity, mutual love, good morals, peace, silence, order into scattered human societies? Because the whole world lies in evil (1 John 5:19), people have loved evil more than goodness (Ps. 51:5), and the prince of this world, the devil, who works in the sons of disobedience, hates the truth with hellish hatred and persecutes it, since it serves as a reproof of unrighteousness, pricks its eyes, oppresses it. Evil, depraved people have always hated and persecuted the righteous, and will continue to hate and persecute. Cain hated his righteous brother Abel, persecuted him for his piety and finally killed him; The beastly Esau hated his meek brother Jacob and persecuted him, threatening to kill him; The unrighteous children of the patriarch Jacob hated their righteous brother Joseph and sold him secretly to Egypt so that he would not be a thorn in their side; The wicked Saul hated the meek David and persecuted him until his death, encroaching on his life; The Jews hated the prophets of God, who denounced their lawless life, and beat some of them, killed others, stoned others, and finally persecuted and killed the greatest Righteous One, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, the Sun of righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul, listing different types of persecution for the sake of righteousness in the Old Testament, and partly in the New, says: others (i.e. the righteous) were tortured without accepting liberation in order to receive a better resurrection; others experienced insults and beatings, as well as chains and prison, were stoned, sawn apart, tortured, died by the sword, wandered in mantles and goatskins, suffering disadvantages, sorrows, and bitterness. Those of whom the whole world was not worthy wandered through deserts and mountains, through caves and defiles of the earth (Heb. 11:35–38). So the righteous were persecuted in the Old Testament before the incarnation of the Son of God and with His incarnation - St. Forerunner and Archdeacon Stephen; and after His resurrection and ascension to heaven, the Faith of Christ met terrible persecution in the world from Jews and idolaters: Christians were beaten into stocks and thrown into prison, crucified on crosses, given over to be torn to pieces by wild beasts; they were cut with a sword, drowned in rivers, tormented with iron claws, wheeled; they cut off their hands, or gradually all the members of their bodies; pierced with spears, doused with boiling tin or oil, or dipped into boiling cauldrons, burned in hot frying pans, or in red-hot copper oxen; not to mention the curses, ridicule, beatings, and slaps in the face to which confessors of the name of Christ were subjected. This is the kind of persecution that was inflicted on Christians in the world! The followers of Christ crucified had to fight not only with people, with their wickedness, ignorance and malice, but with the whole hell, with Satan and his hasty power, for the countless persecutions were raised against the Church of Christ by Satan himself, using wicked people as his tools. Blessing the martyrs, the Church sings: you are the gates of hell, which opened against the church and closed 107. If it were not for the gospel word of the Lord Jesus Christ, of which not one iota would perish, strengthen the martyrs, if not for His word: blessed are they to cast out righteousness for the sake of, and do not fear from them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul (Matthew 10:28), blessed are those who always reproach you, etc., if His grace had not strengthened them, then who among them could have endured such terrible things? persecution, such inhuman torment! That is why the Lord comforted all His faithful followers in advance, with His blessing and promise of the greatest reward in heaven, the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, and He Himself endured the most severe torment and death in advance, leaving us all an example of courage and patience in the persecution for the truth. Blessed is the expulsion of righteousness for the sake of: for these are the Kingdom of Heaven... Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is abundant in heaven. He said something like this: do not be discouraged and do not despair, My faithful followers, who proclaim My truth to people in word and deed and with irresistible firmness, who stand for My truth, for My commandments, to the point of exile and death; I will be your support, your strength, your consolation, your inner bliss in all your sufferings, misfortunes and sorrows, in all tortures and torments for My name. Just as the suffering of Christ in us abounds, so our consolation abounds in Christ (2 Cor. 1:5), because in all sorrows, exiles, torments, I myself will be within you, my kingdom will be, the kingdom of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whether they expel you from the fatherland, but to whom God Himself has become a Father through Me, the fatherland is heaven, as the Apostle says: our life is in heaven (Phil. 3:20), or as it says in My prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven, for where the Father is, there is the fatherland; in heaven is the Father, there is the Fatherland, there all His children will gather. Whether your property will be taken away from you, but the one who follows My footsteps has a better property, eternal, in heaven, and not a transitory property on earth, like a dream; - they will deprive you of your honorable name, ranks, distinctions, but they will not deprive you of the name of a Christian, the name of the children of God, the title of heir of God and joint heir of Christ, the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and these names and distinctions are more honorable than all worldly names and distinctions; whether they will deprive you of life itself, but do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; Fear ye rather than him that is mighty, to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). And the word of the Lord came true exactly: the exiles and martyrs for the name of Christ, even in earthly life, with all the persecutions, sorrows, deprivations, torments, triumphed over their persecutors, rejoiced and had fun, going to fierce torment, as if they were going to take the kingdom, had a royal spirit, royal greatness, invincible patience, and with their faith and their patience they put all their tormentors to shame - kings and hegemons, - and after death they inherited the Kingdom of Heaven by deed and now reign with Christ, according to His word: to the one who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also conquered and sat with My Father on His throne (Rev. 3:21). This is how the word of the immortal King Christ, His all-effective grace, strengthened them; This is how strikingly the power of Christ was manifested in these weak vessels! This is how miraculously the holy heavenly faith of Christ is planted on an earth filled with polytheism and wickedness! Oh, truly our faith is an everlasting, wondrous miracle, a miracle of the power of God, accomplished in weakness, for now it performs great miracles in all true believers, renewing their dilapidated and corrupted by sin nature - soul and body, helping to endure with courage and gratitude great sorrows and misfortunes, which, without faith in Christ, could suppress the spirit and crush the body; helping to tame inner turmoil and passions that could sink the fragile boat of the body and extinguish the spirit. Where is the impudent unbelief that rejects the miracles of faith and explains them by the natural laws of nature? Oh, who is the great God like our God? You are God, you work miracles: you said Your power among people (Ps. 76:14-15). God is marvelous in His saints (Ps. 67:36)! Love everything, my brothers, righteousness, and hate unrighteousness or sin of every kind; express the holy truth directly and boldly, and rebuke unrighteousness with meekness and patience, so that righteousness may reign as it should, and unrighteousness may be put to shame and eradicated, and not raise its head high with insolence—let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness (2 Tim. 2:19). People will be offended by your truthful speech; will they not love and favor? So what? You will be unpleasant to people (like an eyesore), but you will be the mouth of God, the apple of God’s eye; however, even here all honest and truthful people will respect you, and in heaven the Angels and all the saints will bless you, and will joyfully accept your soul into the heavenly settlements when it is separated from this mortal body, for the inhabitants of heaven do not look without sympathy at our local deeds of virtue and at our struggle with sin and untruth, but with great participation and sympathy, as members of the one body of Christ, like the Lord testified, saying that there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7), or, as the Apostle says, if one soul is glorified, all people rejoice with him (1 Cor. 12:26). And how calm the conscience is, how pleased a person is when he expresses the holy truth, and how tormented his conscience is when he is ashamed or afraid to express it when necessary! But why, for the most part, does untruth multiply and boldly raise its head, if not because they give it free rein, as they say, and do not expose it! However, prudence does not always require telling the truth to everyone: 1) there is no need to declare one’s truth when the matter does not concern us, when there are people for this purpose called by their position to tell the truth; 2) when we foresee that the word of truth will plunge us into obvious danger, and absolutely no benefit will come from our word. Then it is better to secretly pray to God, so that He Himself will enlighten the unrighteous and guide them on the path of righteousness, or send powerful and capable people to expose untruth! And virtue requires moderation and prudence, so that without prudence, virtue is no longer virtue, or loses much of its value. Blessed are you when they revile you, and ridicule you, and say all sorts of evil things, against you lying, for my sake. Are there even now reproaches and persecutions for the truth, for the faith of Christ? There are and will be until the end of the world; because the Kingdom of God has not yet come in all its power for many, and for the majority it has not yet come at all; there is still a lot of wickedness and untruth in Christian societies themselves; Satan is not yet bound and freely goes around the earth and passes through the heavenly places, and now, it seems, he is most savage against those who hold the right faith, knowing that there is little time to have (Rev. 12:12). Only now he persecutes not with torture, not with executions, but with unbelief, imaginary progress (movement forward), liberalism, simply - freethinking, indiscriminateness to faith and daring denial of faith; slander, ridicule, blasphemy, slander, or proud inattention and contempt. Pious people are now called names of bigots, routinists, backward people, with narrow views; the Christian faith is called the faith of the mob; Christian compassion - weakness and nervous irritability; alms - stupid extravagance; external prayer - hypocrisy; delight and joy in prayer - idiocy (almost madness); on the contrary, the wide unbridledness of the flesh or licentiousness, the gratification of all its countless lusts - modern progress; alienation from home and public prayer, rejection of all rituals in faith, a life that is not similar to Christian, or Jewish, or Tatar, or pagan, but some kind of animal, alien to any obligations of faith, is considered a well-known tone, a sign of a modern person (and a cosmopolitan, for whom the fatherland is the whole world, but no faith). Agree that it is very unpleasant for any believer to live among such people, and happy is the one who does not live among them; and whoever lives, endure persecution, ridicule, barbs, however, do not be silent, but know how to give an answer about your faith, about your hope, so that wickedness will be put to shame, answer the fool according to his madness, so that the wise will not appear in himself (Prov. 26:5). How else does untruth, the wickedness of the present time, persecute truth and piety? Inattention to the works and merits of the pious and truth-loving, depriving them of fair, due honor and reward, while the ingratiating and bribery untruth too generously ascribes to itself the glory, honor, and wealth of this world. And it’s not surprising. Whoever seeks what gets it. The truly pious and righteous do not seek glory from men, seeking glory from the one God, although they do not shy away from it for the glory of God and for the joy of those who fear God, when it reaches them; but the people of this world, whose treasure is on earth, covet it and acquire it. Those who willingly give away their own to those in need, and therefore are not rich, but these people constantly try to increase their wealth, rightly and unjustly, and therefore they become richer. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is abundant in heaven. As the righteous endure reproach, persecution, and deprivation on earth for their righteousness, their reward in heaven increases; here they are often deprived of everything, there they will receive everything in abundance: incorruptible glory, an incorruptible crown, an unfailing treasure, unceasing joy, an endless Kingdom, which may the Lord give us all to receive through the grace and generosity and love of His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Teachings and words for the feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ Sermon on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers Now put aside everything: anger, rage, malice, slander, and foul language of your lips; do not tell lies to one another ( Col. 3:8–9 ) My brethren, let us now talk, following the guidance of St. Apostle Paul, for our spiritual benefit, about how to avoid the vices now indicated that are dominant in us. The Apostle fatherly exhorts the newly enlightened pagan Christians, the inhabitants of the city of Colosse, to put aside (that is, to reject from themselves, completely throw away, just as we throw away dirty and stinking clothes): anger, rage, malice, slander, foul language of the mouth, lies, and first of all, He commands to mortify the earthly members, that is, passions that have become a long-term habit in them, as if natural members: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust, or anger and covetousness, which is idolatry; for, he says, for their sake the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience (Col. 3:6). So, let's talk about how to avoid anger, rage, malice, slander, foul language, and lies. Whose passions are generated in us? The spirit of malice, and a person carried away by these passions and working with them, is the pitiful play of the devil. A Christian is obliged to dominate these deadly passions, not to succumb to them, and to uproot them from his soul. That is why we became Christians and members of the Holy Church, to fight passions and defeat them. What would our Christianity be, its saving, renewing, perfecting power for man, if we had not curbed anger, rage and had not desecrated our soul and mouth with lies, slander and foul language, or our body and soul with lusts and corruption, being carried away either ourselves or also by attracting others? If we paid for anger with anger, for rage with rage, for slander with slander, we would be real pagans, bearing only the name of Christian without meaning or strength, even worse than pagans, who sometimes curb anger through reason and the strong character of the will. But we must respond to the anger of our neighbors with meekness and gentleness, without getting angry or irritated; against malice - with kindness and heartfelt prayer, may the Lord soften the heart of our enemies and correct them with His grace; in case of mistakes and malfunctions of your neighbors, be forgiving, patient and long-bearing with them. After all, evil, anger, rage are illness and free madness of the soul, its ignition with hellish fire, is, as I said, the product of the chief of evil - the devil. We must strictly condemn ourselves for the angry movements of our hearts or for the evil and unclean thoughts and desires that arise in us, and not at all give them a place or outcome in ourselves, suppressing and killing them at the very beginning. We must also love our enemies, for this is what the Lord commanded: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you (Matthew 5:44), and He Himself was the first to fulfill His words; for although He was reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, he did not threaten, but handed it over to the righteous Judge (1 Pet. 2:23). The faith of a Christian should turn wolves into gentle lambs, or brutal morals into meek ones, and unclean ones into immaculate and pure ones. How will we prove obedience, faith and love for our Savior, who redeemed us with His suffering and death and gave us all the strength for holiness and pious living, loyalty and devotion to Him, His teaching, and true, unfeigned love for our neighbor, if we do not extinguish passions and are carried away by them? How can we deny ourselves, according to the teaching of Christ, if we do not deny every passion from our hearts? They offend you, scold you innocently, hate you without any good reason on your part; God be with them! You pray for them, saying: God! Let them go, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34), enlighten the eyes of their hearts, blinded by the primordial enemy; they do not know my sincere, good intentions, my extreme needs. And what inner triumph, what joy there is in the soul when we overcome evil and sin in ourselves and in others - with the grace of God, patience, prayer, kindness, or extreme struggle with internal and external evil and temptation! Then the Christian becomes a winner, and the Angels invisibly rejoice with him, as a Christian hero and martyr. But let’s take the opposite case as an example: what if you cannot bear the insult, error, severity, disobedience or malice of your neighbor and you will respond with insult for insult, evil for evil, or succumb to a tempting thought? There will be a quarrel, confusion, enmity or a frantic flame of passion, a soul-consuming fire will engulf both sides, or you alone, and the consequence of this will be moral devastation of souls, deprivation of grace, torment of conscience, sorrow, oppression, heart wounds. It hurts, you say, for your pride to endure insults from others. But it’s good for the soul; With grief she cures the disease of self-love. And it is painful to endure insults as long as the soul suffers from pride and pride - and when it is healed of these ailments, then insults and curses will be like infantile arrows. I dwelled on the sins indicated by the Apostle because they strongly dominate among us, especially slander or curses and foul language among common people and among the so-called lower ranks. It’s a shame to hear the rotten words of our common people and these lower ranks; and an educated or generally modest woman or girl, although do not walk along some streets at all, due to the extreme offensiveness to the ears of peasants or soldiers. These ignoramuses brazenly and impudently swear by their birth, the very thing that should be most respected for us, something that should be revered and that, out of reverence, we should always honor and sanctify with the secret of silence. So, my lost brethren, from now on completely stop swearing, and since this most often happens to drunk people, then stop drinking and becoming like dumb beasts; since neither drunkards nor troublemakers... will inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), and endless, joyless torment, prepared from God’s justice, undoubtedly awaits them. But why else does a Christian need to put aside anger, rage, malice, slander, foul language, lies, and to this, fornication, uncleanness and covetousness? Therefore, answers the Holy Apostle Paul, that you have put off, that is, in baptism and repentance, the old man with his deeds, that is, iniquities, passions, vices, and have put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge in the image of Him who created him (Col. 3:9-10). So, here is one last reason: in baptism we threw off this stinking, devilishly woven, vile robe of the soul, and put on the pure, bright robe of the truth of God. How will we dress in shameful clothes again? So, we need to put aside rage, anger, malice, swearing, foul language because they are the product of the devil, deprive a person of the grace of God, combine a person with the enemy of God, make him a playground for demons, disgrace and torment a person, do not bring any benefit, and cause an abyss of harm, destroy mutual peace and love and good relationships; it is necessary to leave them for the sake of our Christian calling, for the sake of the fact that we have put off the old man in baptism and become children of God and members of Christ, members of each other, and together one body, and must live in love, adorned with goodness, meekness and humility; Meanwhile, with the aforementioned passions we disgrace our Christian calling, we bring reproach on our most holy and all-saving faith from non-believers, and through us the name of God is blasphemed. Let us, with God's help, beware of these outrages. Amen. Lesson for the Sunday of the Holy Forefather A certain man made a great supper, and called many people. And he sent his servant at the hour of supper, saying to those who were invited: Come, for the whole essence is already ready. And we began to deny everything together (Luke 14:16–18) Today, my brothers, the Gospel parable was read about a very rich and hospitable man who hosted a magnificent evening or dinner and invited many to it. Only, despite the kindness and hospitality of this dinner host and the richness of the dinner itself, those invited, as if by agreement, all began to refuse for various, however, very disrespectful reasons. One responded by saying that he had bought land and was going to see it; another that he bought five pairs of oxen and goes to test them; the third, that he got married and therefore cannot come. This parable or, as it were, a riddle needs to be solved. That's what it means. The rich and hospitable man who gave the feast is the Lord God; a big dinner or feast is eternal bliss in heaven; those invited or invited to a feast are you and me; the slave sent with an invitation to the feast is not a simple slave, but the Son of God Himself, who took on the form of a slave, that is, incarnated and became a man for our sake, the Son of God. Oh, what an honor for those invited! – you involuntarily exclaim. The Only Begotten Son of God himself invites us to the great supper of the kingdom of heaven; but those invited refused on various pretexts. Don't you notice that the parable is aimed squarely at many of us, if not all of us? Let's explain. Here we are now standing in the church, everyone was listening to mass. Mass is a sample of the future supper, and is itself a great supper, for the Lord offers us His most pure, life-giving body and His most pure, life-giving blood as food and drink under the image of bread and wine. I alone, and then more out of the duty of priestly service, dined with the Lord, and all the others present here did not approach God’s supper; but let us assume that this was done out of consciousness of unworthiness. But very, very many do not come to mass, even to participate in the Divine Supper with their eyes, ears and spirit; and they do not come very often because of empty reasons: some due to negligence and laziness, some because of some worldly pursuits or vanity, but all in general due to some kind of frivolity, due to some very superficial, easy and careless attitude towards our most important work on earth - the matter of our spiritual education and salvation, and due to various earthly attachments and sinful habits, in a word, they tie themselves hand and foot. feet and do not want to come to the church - to this kingdom of God on earth, to this wondrous, all-saving, all-life-giving, all-joyful supper of God, at which the Son of God offers us such wonderful meat and drink - His own Life-giving body and His own life-giving blood - this is the sacrament of rebirth and immortality. The Kingdom of God has approached us, descended from the heights of heaven, entered our churches, our very homes, so that no one can say: who will ascend to heaven to bring Christ together? Or who will go down into the abyss to raise Christ from the dead (Rom. 10:6-7)? For Christ is both in our mouths and in our hearts, especially when we partake of His Holy Mysteries: so what? – And the very proximity of the kingdom of Christ does not convince us to take two or three steps to come to the call of the Church to the Holy Liturgy. – If we do not appreciate such great gifts of God, offered to us with such love, with such condescension here on earth, in these churches and in homes, and do not want to get a taste of them, then how can we prepare ourselves for the inheritance of eternal ineffable blessings, the firstfruits of which the Lord offers us here as a guarantee and assurance of the future? What should we do in heaven when we do not find the sweetness and consolation of being in the church, listening to the word of God, or participating in the Supper of the Lamb? Think: to what degree of dullness we have reached in our sins, how they have darkened us, bound us, killed us, depriving us of spiritual understanding, spiritual taste and spiritual freedom; We, as it were, convulsively, involuntarily, out of habit, extend our eyes, our ears, our lips, our arms, our legs, and all our feelings only to earthly things, to earthly goods, and turn away from heavenly goods; whereas those deceive us only for a moment, but these are eternal and truly life-giving. What, brothers, do we need? Faith and spiritual meaning or understanding, delving into the essence of the matter and, most importantly, repentance: for we were blinded, and drowned out, and overpowered by our sins. Repent, says the Lord, for fear to bring the Kingdom of Heaven near (Matthew 3:2), and go quickly to the supper of God, to the supper at which the table of immortality is offered, the table of unspeakable sweetness. Amen. Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Forefather Come, for the whole essence is already ready (Luke 14:17) Today's Sunday is called in the church order the week of the Holy Forefathers, because the Holy Church, before the approaching feast of the Nativity of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, finds it fair to honor the memory of His Forefathers according to the flesh: Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and others; The Sunday following this is called the week of the Holy Father, that is, those closest in time to Jesus Christ in the flesh (and primarily the Holy Father of God Joachim and Anna). Today the Church is supposed to read the Gospel about those called to the supper, because Jesus Christ, whose coming in the form of a slave to earth or His birth we will soon celebrate, is that servant sent from God according to humanity, who continually invites us to the great supper. By the great supper we mean the future blessed kingdom, which very many Saints have already been rewarded with; it is called supper or supper because it will come at the end of this short and changeable age; great because the bliss will be indescribably great; and by those called to this supper we must mean, brothers, Christians, because all of us, from the time the sacrament of baptism was performed on us, have been written in the book of life, from which, however, we can very soon be erased if our deeds are inconsistent with our calling. But let us tell this formidable and instructive parable in the words of the Gospel. One man made a big dinner and invited many. And when the time for dinner came, he sent his servant to say to those invited: go, for everything is already ready. And everyone, as if by agreement, began to apologize. The first one said to him: I bought land, and I need to go and look at it; please forgive me. Another said: I bought five pairs of oxen and am going to test them; please forgive me. The third said: I got married, and therefore I cannot come. And when he returned, that servant reported this to his master. Then, angry, the owner of the house said to his servant: go quickly through the streets and alleys of the city and bring here the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And the servant said: It has been done as you ordered, and there is still room. The master said to the servant: go along the roads and hedges and persuade them to come, so that my house may be filled. For I tell you that none of those who are called will taste my supper, for many are called, but few are chosen (Luke 14:16-24). Here is a terrible parable about those called to the supper, about the many called and the few chosen. The man who established the supper is of course God the Father, and the sent servant is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who took on the form of a servant. The apologies of those called mean various excuses from fulfilling the commandments of Christ due to various worldly addictions. The city beggars are a simple people who, in their simplicity, are more capable of listening to and following the Gospel. The people whom the master sent to search along the roads and hedges are those joining the Church from pagans and various tribes and faiths. The meaning of the parable is that God calls everyone to His heavenly kingdom: but very many will lose it for their addiction to worldly goods, for their unbelief, for their lawless and unrepentant life. Now let’s apply this parable to ourselves. Do not very many of us refuse the supper of the kingdom of heaven, one way or another, under various pretexts, not in words, but in deeds? The image of the visible kingdom of God on earth is the Church of God and worship in the Church of God with its Sacraments. Don’t many Christians leave the churches of God and the service of God, some because of various worldly vanities, some simply out of laziness, some out of lack of faith and freethinking, some due to various passions, for example, for the theater, for gambling, for feasts and fun, and so on? And in fact, among Christians, even in our God-protected city, there are so many who justify the words of the Gospel now read; and they respond to the Lord’s call to the Great Supper with deeds: I can’t come, I ask You, forgive me, and even, as if in opposition to the Lord Himself, who invites His servants to the Great Supper, they invite, and even in print, Christians and, moreover, during fasting, to a worldly, vain supper, for example, to horse races. Where is there even a shadow of reverence for His saving institutions on earth? Where is the respect for church statutes? – What do the preparations for the great Christian holiday and these spectacles have in common? But let's leave them. Let us turn again to ourselves: don’t you and I sometimes all, one way or another, refuse the Great Supper? Are we not resisting the Lord, who calls us into His kingdom to enjoy spiritual, eternal, perfect blessings? Oh, how often we resist the Lord, who thirsts for our salvation! Which of us keeps His commandments perfectly? Who keeps himself carefully from all sin? Who tries to practice every Christian virtue, or who is a Christian, although he practices primarily and diligently in one virtue? We all slumber and sleep spiritually. When will we wake up? Then, when a voice is heard: Behold the bridegroom is coming! Come forth to meet Him (Matthew 25:6). Let us arise, let us arise, my brothers and sisters, from the heavy sleep of sin and let us be awake, sober, constantly testing our faith and our deeds: is faith in Christ alive in us, or has it not died long ago? Are our deeds good, meaningful, Christian? Can we give a good answer to them at the judgment of Christ? Let us especially beware of being partial to worldly, so-called goods: for addiction to them extinguishes the lamps of our souls, cools our hearts towards God and neighbor, and is the cause of many sins. So, be careful: soon the Messenger of the Heavenly Father, His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, will come to us from heaven to earth, in the form of a slave, in the swaddling clothes of the poor. Why will he come? Invite us to the great supper prepared by the Heavenly Father in His kingdom. Do not be ashamed of His wretched shrouds, and when He invites you, leave for the sake of His kingdom your addiction to wealth, to luxury, to worldly amusements; Don’t someone say: excuse me, I don’t want to listen to You, I don’t want to leave my addiction, I don’t want Your poverty, I don’t want to be merciful, I want to live in luxury, I want to grow richer in myself; for this will mean renouncing God, eternal bliss and showing daring resistance to God. So, soon the servant sent from God after becoming man, the Son of God, will come to us to invite us to God’s supper: go: everything is ready. Let us then answer Him in word and deed: let us go, Lord, let us go. Our hearts are ready! Amen. Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Father He (Jesus Christ) is our peace (Eph.2:14) A great holiday is approaching for all Christians - the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ from the Most Pure, Blessed Virgin Mary; the holiday of the greatest, wondrous and all-saving event, many times predicted by the prophets, destined in various images and likenesses for the people of the Old Testament. Soon the Holy Church with the Angels will sing: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14). But where, someone will ask, are the blessings of God’s peace, heavenly silence on earth, when wars have not stopped on it from the beginning until now, when the earth has so often been and is now a terrible disgrace of slaughter and bloodshed; when human passions, both during war and in peacetime, continually produce storms and turmoil both in the masses and in individual human individuals? Where are the blessings of the heavenly world, brought to earth by the incarnate Only Begotten Son of the beginningless Father, by the quiet Light of His holy glory? – Angels undoubtedly proclaim the truth. Peace has been brought and given to the earth; but since this heavenly, holy, priceless treasure requires a reliable guardian, preserver and distributor, so that people, in the outbursts of their passions, do not drive it out again from the earth: then the King of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, left the world to His Church, or to the comfortable, grace-filled society of those who believe in Him, especially to the faithful shepherds of His flock, and He instructed the Church through them to give saving peace to all who seek it. What is the peace brought to earth by Jesus Christ? The fact that God, through His only begotten Son, was reconciled with people; that the indestructible barrier between Him and lawless people has been destroyed, the curse has been destroyed, the sinful handwriting has been torn to pieces, death has been completely struck down; Saving grace has been given to everyone who wants it, all Divine powers have been given... to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:2–3); free access to God was opened to everyone, the full opportunity was opened to everyone to receive the forgiveness of sins, to become saints and, among all the storms and worries of the sinful world, to be calm. Come to Me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28), that is, come to Me by faith and repentance, all who are weary and burdened with sins: and I will take away the burden of sin from you, I will drive away the storm of passions, I will turn the storm into silence - and you will know by your experience that I have brought peace to all, - those who desire and seek peace, - under the condition of faith in Me and unfeigned repentance. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light (Matthew 11:30). And so, the peace brought to earth by Jesus Christ and sung by the heavenly angels is contained and preserved on earth in the grace-filled kingdom of Christ or in the Church of God; here all sincere believers and sincerely repentant sinners can draw it in abundance. Don’t you hear how often the Church, in the person of the clergyman, teaches peace to all those who are present, who, in turn, send the good wishes of the world to himself? Oh, how blessed and sweet is the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ given to the Church and all the faithful. Truly, a soul that has been rewarded with the peace of God experiences heavenly bliss in communion with God. And who among us would not desire this world? After all, sins and passions rage disastrously in the souls of sinners, tormenting, oppressing, scorching, tearing apart, so to speak, the poor soul. Come, sinners like me, to Christ the Savior with faith and unfeigned repentance, and He will give you peace. I have repeatedly been subjected to a destructive, deadly rebellion of passions: and each time, in countless cases, I received from the Lord quick deliverance and freedom from the spiritual storm and blessed heavenly peace. This is the kind of peace the incarnate Son of God brought to earth. The sinful world does not know and does not seek this peace, which is the forerunner of eternal peace in heaven. The people of this world know the earthly world, the charming, momentary world - a world that comes from the success of self-interest and acquisitions, from the success of self-love, ambition, carnality and voluptuousness; peace that comes from the charm of spectacles, from the satisfaction of feelings of revenge, etc. and so on. This is not God’s world, but a carnal, sinful, devilish world. This is not the kind of peace the Son of God brought to earth. That is why He Himself says: peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, I give to you (John 14:27), that is, I do not give you the peace that the world that lies in evil gives (1 John 5:19). So, in order for all of us to joyfully and sincerely sing soon with the Angels: glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, let us be reconciled with God, with our conscience, with people in unfeigned repentance; then we will cheerfully glorify the blessings of the world of God, just like the Angels themselves who possess this peace. Amen. Book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1) Today the Holy Church celebrates its week-long holiday - the Resurrection of Christ and together celebrates the Nativity of Christ; therefore, during the all-night vigil the Gospel about the Resurrection of Christ was read, and during the Liturgy - about the ancestors of Jesus Christ according to humanity. The liturgical Gospel begins with the words: the book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. Let us dwell on these words and make them the subject of a real word. What are they telling us? The fact that the Son of God is the only begotten, consubstantial, co-eternal with God the Father, all-good, all-powerful, the hypostatic Wisdom of God, who created the world and everything in the world, the Almighty Himself, containing all visible and invisible creation, having assumed human nature, entered into kinship with people, created by Himself in His own image and likeness, but who sinned in an impudent manner disobedience and extremely corrupted due to countless crimes; The Son of God became the Son of man, that is, a man similar to us in everything except sin, without ceasing to be God without beginning and omnipotent; the full - exhausted Himself, the rich - became poor, the inviolable being - became touchable to us for the sake of our salvation. What kindness! What mercy, what extreme condescension! What voluntary impoverishment! Having accepted our nature, impoverished by sins, He is born in poverty, from a poor, albeit royal family, and the Most Pure Virgin, in a wretched den! Human! Awaken from your sinful slumber and think about what God’s wondrous looking at you means, this wondrous exhaustion of the Son of God for your sake, and respond to the loving voice of God towards you. What is he saying? He says: I came to seek and save you, a lost sinner (Matthew 18:11). Repent, correct the ways of your heart, correct all your behavior, be renewed, put aside the oldness of sin, love righteousness and hate iniquity: for only those who fulfill His commandments are akin to the Son of God. Just call on Me with all your heart, and I will help you in everything; in My Church I have laid down all the means for your salvation; use them with all care and you will be saved comfortably. The book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Jesus Christ in the flesh came from Abraham and David. What great ancestors! What venerable names! Abraham was a friend of God, to whom promises were given from God that the Savior of the world would be born from his seed (Gen. 22:18); from him the Lord made nations, according to the promise, like the sand of the sea and like the stars in the sky, so numberless (Heb. 11:12). David was the King of Israel, a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), meek and gentle, who also had a promise of the birth of the Savior of the world from his descendants. And so the Lord fulfilled His promise: the Son of God was truly born according to humanity from the tribe of Abraham and David. You, children of Abraham by faith and children of God by the grace of Christ, try to imitate the great ancestors, the forefathers of Jesus Christ. Abraham - in faith, simplicity, hospitality, obedience to God and cutting off one’s will from all worldly attachments, in hospitality, friendship, constancy in faith, hope and love, in patience and long-suffering. David - also in faith, hope, meekness, gentleness, in repentance, in fervor of love, in prayer, praise, thanksgiving and in patience in sorrows and troubles. The book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. - Hearing about the kinship of the Lord in the flesh and in the spirit with Abraham and David and with other forefathers, among whom there were not sinless people, remember brother, remember sister, that the Lord entered into a close relationship with you: He became not only our God and Savior, but our Brother in humanity, for it is said: He is not ashamed to call them to the brethren (Heb. 2:11). He became ours of the same blood and body, so that we are members of Him, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. 5:30); and when we are alienated from Him by our sins, He again invites us to restore unity with Him, calling us to repentance and, who sincerely repent, again accepts us into spiritual communion with Him, communicating to us His Holy Spirit, for Him we cry out to God, Abba Father (Rom. 8:15)! He renews the union with repentant sinners in an indescribably loving manner, giving us His flesh and blood to eat and proclaiming with immeasurable meekness and love: take, eat: this is My Body; and: drink of it, all of you: this is My Blood of the New Testament (Matthew 26:26–28). What condescension, what salvation, what an honor to eat the Most Pure Body of the Lord Jesus Christ and drink His Most Pure Blood! This is the highest honor! This is a marvelous salvation! For every time he who sincerely receives communion, being dead in spirit, is quickened, freed from sins, sanctified by the Holy Spirit and deified with glorious deification. Remember, Christian man, your relationship with the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation, and try in every possible way to hold yourself worthy of your calling, flee sin in all its forms, resist all sin, as a faithful warrior of Christ, be zealous for holiness in all your life, as it is said: be holy in all your life (1 Pet. 1:15). He who sins and does not repent with all his heart is related to the devil, the murderer. The Holy Forerunner of Christ John called such people brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7), and the Lord Jesus Christ said about the Jews: you are of your father the devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father (John 8:44). May God deliver us all from such a terrible relationship with sin and its culprit. So, no matter how many times you sin, immediately repent in secret before God, break your alliance with the devil and restore your alliance with God at certain times before your spiritual father. Amen. She will give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus: For He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) Beloved brethren, the world-saving holiday of the Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ is approaching. The Holy Church has been celebrating this wonderful sacrament for several days now - in Her daily services, in spiritual songs. In them, the Church reminds us of our birth from God, of the loss of sonship through sins; about his return through repentance; about our mutual spiritual kinship and the spirit of love and mutual assistance. But, so that we do not celebrate this great holiday of God’s boundless love for us and God’s extreme condescension only according to the carnal, but to celebrate spiritually, let’s talk a little about why God became man, remaining God, and what does God’s incarnation require of us? Having posed these two questions, I answer the first of them, in accordance with the words of the Archangel Joseph, the betrothed of the Blessed Virgin: for this purpose God became man in order to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). That is why He is called Jesus, which means Savior. So, for our salvation, the Lord came down to earth and became man to restore the fallen image of God in us; The Son of God became the Son of man in order to make us sons of God from the children of wrath and eternal destruction, as St. Apostle says. John the Theologian, that we may be called children of God (1 John 3:1); man is God, and he will make Adam God 108. Oh, the ineffable love of God! Oh, the untold bounties of the Lord! And He, the most good one, did this: He deified humanity in His chosen ones, cleansed them from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, sanctified them, glorified them, raised them from corruption to eternal life, and honored them with a blessed presence before the terrible throne of His glory. He deified you and me, brothers; He regenerated us by water and the Holy Spirit, sanctified us, adopted us as sons, gave us the promise of eternal life and eternal blessings, surpassing all description, all imagination - and as an assurance, as a guarantee of future blessings, He gave us here, in our hearts, the Holy Spirit: God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6), says the Apostle, - He feeds us with His flesh and blood, this guarantee of immortality, for the Lord says: He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:54). So, behold, my brethren, the feast of the Nativity of Christ reminds us of our birth from God, of our adoption to God, of our deliverance from sin and the promise to live for God, and not for sin, not for flesh and blood only, not for the world that lies in evil (1 John 5:19), not for the corruption here, but for the incorruptible inheritance of heaven (1 Peter 1:4). So, you, who are preparing to celebrate the Nativity of Christ, ask yourself: is that spiritual birth from God, which we all received in baptism, intact in you, do you always value your adoption to God, the shrine of the Spirit that you received in baptism, have you approached God with faith and love, like His beloved children, have you loved each other, as the children of God should, have you hated all-ugly sin, all-evil, all-destroying—have you loved truth and all virtue? Have you loved the incorruptible, eternal life prepared in the land of incorruption, to which He who has now come to our corruptible land is calling us all? These are the questions that we must pose to ourselves now and resolve not only with our minds, but especially with our hearts and deeds. – And in general, we should not allow ourselves to celebrate or see off any Christian holiday without deep reflection about what its essence is and what its purpose is, and what our duty to it is, that is, we must know the Christian meaning of every holiday. And then every holiday will be soul-saving for us. Otherwise, the enemy of our salvation will rob us and turn the holiday of God into a holiday of flesh and blood, into a holiday of lawlessness, as often happens. Having resolved the first question: why did God become man, we came to the solution of the second: what does the incarnation of the Son of God require of us? It requires us to remember and sacredly honor our own birth from God, and, if it is desecrated and suppressed by our sins, to restore it with a tearful bath of repentance; so that they restore and renew the fallen image of God in us or the broken union of grace, truth and holiness with God. The incarnation of the Son of God requires from us especially mutual love, humility, mutual help and mutual services: for how can we not love each other, seeing such love from God for us? How can one not humble oneself, seeing such humility, such humiliation, free for our sake, of the Son of God? How can we not serve one another in every way, when the Son of God Himself came to serve us and give His life as a redemption for many (Matthew 20:28)? Let us, brothers, prepare gifts for the newborn King, like the Magi, and instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh, we will bring Him faith, hope and love. Amen. She will give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus; He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) Thus, in a wonderful dream, the Angel of the Lord announced to Joseph, the imaginary father of the wonderful Child, the Eternal God Jesus Christ: “Do not be afraid,” he said, “to accept Mary, your wife, that is, betrothed to you only for safekeeping; for that which is born in Her is of the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus: for He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:20-21). The power lies in the fact that the righteous elder Joseph, not knowing the divine secret of the Ever-Virgin, conception from the Holy Spirit, thought about Her unworthily, considering Her to have been robbed of marriage and intended to release Her from Himself secretly in order to avoid criticism. But, as soon as He thought this, the Guardian Angel of St. The Virgin, appearing to Him in a dream, brought Him out of bewilderment, dispelled His doubts regarding the purity and immaculateness of the Most Pure and Immaculate One, declaring that the fruit conceived by Her was from the Spirit Himself - God, the Creator, the Life-Giving One and the illuminator of all, and that He who was born of Her, as sinless and all-holy, had already sanctified His Mother for ever and ever with the Holy Spirit, having made Her more honorable than the Cherubim and more Glorious than the Seraphim without comparison, as having surpassed them in purity, and will save those who believe in Him from their sins. The thoughts that overwhelmed Joseph’s soul were driven away. He was confirmed unshakably in the faith of a wondrous birth and received a wonderful Mother and Virgin; She gave birth to a firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus, as was foretold by the angel. As a sinner, I greet sinners like me with the wonderful gospel of the Savior and the coming of the Savior into the world. What joy could be more pleasant than the joy of the Savior - for us, who are often overcome by sadness and sorrow for our sins, which give birth to death, for the patterns of sin are death (Rom. 6:23). Having received from the Creator the greatest gift of life, we all want to live, and live not only in time, but in eternity; but this is eternal life, so that we may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3); for He is the true God and the eternal life (1 John 5:20). Life appeared, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you this eternal Life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us (1 John 1:2). I want to talk to you, beloved brothers, about the name Jesus, about its meaning and power, and about what kind of sinners He came to save. The name Jesus means Savior. This name was given to Jesus Christ because He came into the world to save sinners - that He has the power and strength to save from sins all who believe and repent in Him and bring them into the kingdom of heaven, into eternal life. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12), says the Holy Apostle, except the name of Jesus Christ. For He alone is the Lamb of God, who, by the will of God the Father, took upon Himself the sins of the world, suffered and died for us in order to deliver us from eternal torment, destroyed the all-evil hell, brought eternal prisoners to the eternal light, rose from the dead and corrected death, gave us resurrection and eternal life, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God and the Father and again coming with glory to judge the living and the dead. So, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15); He is the Doctor of those who suffer from passions and iniquities, mental and physical ailments; - but He came to save sinners who repent and who diligently desire correction and renewal; humble sinners, crying over their sins, zealous for meekness and gentleness, hungry and thirsty for the truth of God or justification in Christ; those who strive in mercy towards their neighbors in order to obtain for themselves, by faith in Christ, great and rich mercy both here and at the Last Judgment - striving to acquire purity of heart through constant self-examination, repentance, and tears of tenderness; those who take care of peace with their conscience, with God and their neighbors; zealous for the truth and ready for all kinds of suffering for the sake of Christ. Christ came to save such people, and will save them. But for the unfaithful and unrepentant, the proud, the crafty, the evil, those living in uncleanness, the intemperate, the deceitful, the perjurers, the unmerciful and the hard-hearted, He came to judgment. I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see will be blind (John 9:39). Let us all hasten to repent, so that we may be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ is ready at all times to save repentant sinners – and he does. Amen. Book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1) In this Gospel we read the genealogy of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. A wondrous miracle, a wondrous sight of God’s goodness over the fallen human race! The only begotten Son of the heavenly Father, omnipotent, co-originating, Creator of the world, source of light, wisdom, self-good, infinite, enters into kinship with the human race, the Son of God becomes the Son of man, the Brother of men, the Brother - I will say closer - yours, mine. Oh, goodness, oh, generosity, oh, immeasurable condescension! Oh, free impoverishment! What fruits from such a relationship of the Son of God with us are for us, what does such a high, noble relationship of ours with God require from us, what qualities, what deeds? Let's talk about this now. We, my brothers, are called Christians, that is, children of Christ, members of His most holy body, as the Apostle says: You are His body, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. 5:30), members of His Church. Don't you see that we are adopted into the closest kinship with the Son of God, through His incarnation. But if in the world those who are noble, or noble by blood, want to have noble relatives and do not want their relatives to dishonor their nobility with some immoral actions, although it is only external, temporary, from this world; then tell me, what kind of nobility in thoughts, feelings, desires, intentions, in words, in actions does the Only Begotten Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), a perfect Participant of the Father’s shrine, infinite holiness, require from us? Yes, brethren, our relationship with the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, requires from us great nobility and good behavior in life; It won’t be too much if I say that Christians should live on earth like angels in the flesh - and that’s why virginity in the Christian world is of high importance. But purity and chastity are not the only virtue required of us by kinship with the Son of God. Simpleness of heart is required of us: if Your eye, that is, the heart, is simple, your whole body will be bright (Matthew 6:22), i.e. all life; kindness of heart, humility, and kindness are required, as the Savior said: learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29); Mercy towards others is required, as He said: Be ye therefore merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful (Luke 6:36); abstinence is required: take heed to yourselves, says Jesus Christ, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness (Luke 21:34); What is required is impartiality towards earthly goods: food, drink, clothing, the glory of this world: do not worry about your soul, what you eat or what you drink, nor about your body, what you put on, for the soul is greater than food and the body than clothing; seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you (Matthew 6:25,33); patience is required: in your patience gain your souls (Luke 21:19); obedience, submission of Christians to the Church, for the Lord said: tell the Church about the one who has sinned, and if he disobeys the Church, make you like a pagan and a tax collector (Matthew 18:17). You see what properties our kinship with the Son of God incarnate for our sake requires of us! Let us value our kinship with Christ and let us not consider anything in the world more valuable than this kinship - no ranks, no worldly distinctions, no worldly nobility, no wealth, nothing: for everything in the world is transitory, everything is temporary, and most importantly, everything is vanity, if a person who has the blessings of the world - nobility of origin, high rank, or wealth, or worldly education - does not have faith in Christ and does not follow the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel the kingdom of God, the eternal, holy, blessed kingdom, then he will not correspond to his Christian title. Let us take care of acquiring holiness, as the Lord said: Be holy, as the Lord your God is holy (Lev. 11:44, 19:2), or, as the Apostle says: Have peace and holiness with everyone except them, that is, without whom no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). Let us acquire, with the help of the grace of Jesus Christ, simple-heartedness - this is a quiet disposition of the soul, called meekness, which does not allow one to be irritated with anyone or anything, not to become embittered; We acquire humility, which always humiliates ourselves and elevates others, calls ourselves sincerely the first of sinners, and even though our conscience does not reproach him for any sinful act, however, he does not justify himself by this either: I know nothing in myself (I know), but I am justified in no way (1 Cor. 4:4); Let us acquire mercy for the poor, who are not only our brothers, but also the brothers of Jesus Christ; Let us not be ashamed to call those whom Christ, the Son of God, is not ashamed to call brothers and sisters (Heb. 2:11); let us cast aside our vain and deceitful grandeur, which humiliates the nobility of our soul, and which the devil teaches us, and give a helping hand to those whom the goodness of God, equally as us, has made partakers of His grace, all the gifts of Christianity, and to whom further, before the rich, has appropriated the kingdom: has not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom, which he promised to those who love Him (James 2:5 ); wealth puffs up, thickens, hardens the heart and removes it from God: because the heart of a rich man is attached to wealth, and not to God; and poverty, endured for the sake of God, humbles and softens the heart, often shedding tears of repentance at the thought that we are rich in sins and terribly poor in God, His grace, which will help to dwell in the body and in the heart involved in sin, attached to earthly goods. Let us acquire constant abstinence, and especially during the fasts established by the Church. The Holy Church established to prepare us for the worthy celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ by fasting for fourty days; and this fast must also be strictly observed, like a great one. If anyone has not abstained until now: from now on, at least for the rest of the week, curb your belly for the sake of saving your soul: for gluttony earthens, so to speak, the soul, makes it very accessible to various passions and incapable of holy reflections about God, about His economy of our salvation, about the mystery of the coming of the Son of God to earth, about our final goal on earth, about the need for virtue, about the resurrection of the flesh, about eternal judgment, about eternal bliss, etc. And fasting, together with prayer, cleanses, enlightens, humbles and strengthens the soul. May God grant us all to meet the upcoming holiday of the Nativity of Christ with dignity, in peace and with heavenly joy. - One more word: in order to honor, as it should, the feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, for the sake of us who were poor, so that through His poverty we may be rich (2 Cor. 8:9), - let us, each according to his strength, show mercy to the poor before the holiday: let some give to the beggar for shoes, some for rags, some give rent for housing, some give for bread. When we see the poverty of our neighbors, let us think that we ourselves are the deepest beggars in our souls (Rev. 3:17), for who among us is not sometimes aware of pride, and malice, and envy, and ill will, and stinginess, and the love of money with covetousness, or greed and gluttony, and others - and the impurity of the flesh, vile fornication? You see, my brothers, that we ourselves are being consumed by poverty, more terrible and shameful than the poverty of the physically poor. Who knows, maybe the soul of another beggar in the eyes of God is higher than all of us and, like gold in a furnace, shines before Him. This is hidden from us. Let us not despise any of them, despite their sometimes unseemly appearance. Let us leave judgment to God, and we ourselves will condemn ourselves for various passions and addictions, for excess in food, drink, clothing, room decoration, etc. This will be much more useful. Let us not forget the following words of Jesus Christ: once upon a time the many will be first and last, and the last will be first (Matthew 19:30). May these words humble our pride and inspire each of us to take care of acquiring poverty of spirit, that is, humility: for blessed are the poor in spirit, for of them is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:3). Amen. With these words begins, beloved brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel. A book, i.e. a list, a list of the kinship of the ancestors of Jesus Christ according to humanity, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham; it names all the fathers according to the flesh of Jesus Christ, starting with Abraham, who lived more than two thousand years before the birth of Christ, and to whom was given a promise from God that the Savior of the world would be born from his seed, and ending with Joseph, the betrothed of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from whom Christ God was born; – The Lord was first called the Son of David, and then Abraham, because the people expected in the Messiah or Christ the descendant of King David, the Son of David according to the prophecies, and because the Blessed Virgin Mary was actually by birth the daughter of King David, according to her father the righteous Joachim. Archangel Gabriel, preaching the good news of the conception of the Son of God from Her, said that God would give Him the throne of His father David (Luke 1:32). At the end of this Gospel, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Blessed Virgin is also narrated. So, beloved brothers and sisters, God Himself took upon Himself our nature and our infirmities, except for sins; God Himself became man, without ceasing to be God, and communicated His Divinity to our humanity, so that we became, by His ineffable mercy, sharers of the divine nature. Wonderful relationship! Wonderful nobility of man! God became our Brother by His incarnation: and therefore He is not ashamed to call us brethren, saying: I will proclaim Your name to My brethren (Heb. 2:11-12); He, the God-man, even calls those who fulfill His commandments friends: You are My friends if you do what I command you (John 15:14). Thus, by the grace and gift of Christ God, we have become partakers of the divine nature, friends of God, and not strangers. But what duty does this relationship with God impose on us? – If the Lord has shown us such infinite condescension, such mercy, such good deeds, then, of course, we, for our part, must sacrifice something to God; for our faith is a holy covenant and an eternal, indissoluble union of souls with God, and in the covenant, certain conditions are invariably observed on both sides. On our part, to maintain and strengthen our union with God, it is required, brethren, sincere, constant, firm faith, unchanging trust in God and sincere, unfeigned love for Him, or the fulfillment of His commandments; love for each other, expectation of the fulfillment of His promises, such as: the resurrection of the dead, the future judgment and righteous reward to everyone according to the deeds and life of the next century; What is required is sincere, constant repentance and correction of life, an immaculate life, kindness, meekness, humility, abstinence, purity of soul and body, works of mercy, in general - a holy life. The Apostle Peter teaches: as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts that were in your ignorance; but, following the example of the Holy One who called you, be holy in your actions. For it is written: Be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:14–16). So, if God united with us and became man, then we will avoid sin in every possible way, shun all lawlessness; for what does light have in common with darkness, righteousness with lawlessness, Christ with Belial or the devil (2 Cor. 6:14-15). Only he will be forever united with God who sincerely hates all sin and loves all righteousness. In such thoughts, with such and similar feelings and heartfelt dispositions, we will look forward to the upcoming great holiday of the Nativity of Christ. Amen. Lesson on Christmas Day Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, because today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, has been born to you in the city of David (Luke 2:10–11) I greet you, beloved brethren, with the indescribable gift of God’s love and mercy for us sinners - with the appearance of the Son of God on earth, who came down from heaven according to the all-good will of God our Father for the sake of salvation, and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. Christ was born - glorify; Christ came from heaven - welcome; Christ is on earth - ascend. So, Christ is on earth, and you ascend from the earth with your thoughts and hearts to heaven; for Christ came for us to lead us from earth to heaven, to the eternal abode of paradise. For this reason, the high God came down to earth, so that he may lead us to heaven, 109, our holy mother, the Church, tells us. Sing with joy people the Nativity of the Savior Christ. But so that our joy may be more sublime, clearer and firmer, let us reflect, brethren, on the greatness of Him who was born of the Virgin; and to this we will add how we can meet Him worthily. So, who is this Baby, whom the Most Holy Virgin Mary holds in Her Most Pure hands? This is God, the Existing One Himself, who brought everything from non-existence into existence, who by His power supports all creation and by His providence builds the world. This is the highest Artist, Who, having created all visible creation from the four elements, composed an annual circle of four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. This is the Creator and God of spirits and all flesh; All the angelic powers tremble with him; The sun sings him; The moon praises him; The stars are present to him; The light listens to him; The abysses of water, and air, and the abysses of hell tremble; All water sources work for him. He spread out the sky; He founded the earth; He fenced the sea with sand; He decorated the earth with flowers; He produces all the grain and all the fruits of the earth; He poured out the air for the creatures to breathe; He forms babies in the wombs of mothers; He is the Nourisher of every creature! He is served by angelic forces; The faces of the Archangels worship him; out of fear of His unapproachable glory, the many-eyed Cherubim and six-winged Seraphim, standing and flying around His throne, cover their faces... This God, indescribable, beginningless and unspeakable, has now come to us on earth, taking on the form of a slave. Amazing miracle! God took on the nature of man's slave and became exactly like us, except for sin. Why such condescension, such extreme humiliation? For our sake of salvation, (responses the Church). We perished under the dark power of the devil, we sat in fear and the shadow of death; we were kept in hellish bonds... And so the most merciful Master, who created us at the beginning in His image and likeness, unable to bear to see how the devil torments the human race by removing it from God, by darkening its mind and heart, by attachment to earthly things, by various sins and iniquities and by the charm of idolatry, came to sovereignly deliver us from the work of the enemy. Oh, our most merciful Lord! For the sake of our salvation, now born in a den and reclining in a manger, we glorify Your unworthy servants, Your saving providence for us, and we worship Your Most Pure Mother in the flesh, who served such a terrible sacrament. But how should we, brethren, take advantage of such a sublime gift of love and mercy to us from the Heavenly Father for our salvation? How can we worthily receive the Son of God? What do children do when their parents bring them some precious, beautiful and brilliant gift? They throw away their old toys and cling with all their hearts to this precious and wonderful gift, not counting their old favorite things at all. What does a merchant do when he searches for good beads and finds one bead of great value (Matthew 13:46)? He goes and sells everything he has and buys it. This is what we, beloved brethren, should do: in Bethlehem, in a den, the only begotten Son of God reclines, having taken on human flesh and become incarnate for the sake of our salvation; there lies our precious bead - Christ. Just as children leave their former amusements at the sight of a new and precious gift, so we will try to leave our attachments to earthly things, characteristic of only foolish children, and cleave with all our hearts to God, the Source of life. Like a merchant looking for good beads and finding one valuable bead, he goes and sells everything he has and buys it: so we will exchange all earthly goods for one precious bead - Christ. Let us all honor, with the Apostle, the rubbish, that we may receive Christ (Phil. 3:8), and let us dwell Him in our hearts. The gift is priceless: it is worth exchanging the whole world for it; for, having acquired Christ, we acquire eternal life and eternal bliss; and having lost Him, we will lose everything, we will not see the eternal life, and the wrath of God will remain on us forever and ever. So, brethren, be wise on things above, not on earth ( Col. 3:2 ). Christ is on earth, ascend with your thoughts and hearts to heaven, and do not cleave to earthly things, do not serve carnal lusts. Otherwise, woe to us for our negligence about salvation. The more means of salvation were given to us, the more will be exacted from us for negligence about salvation, for unwillingness to use these means. How can we escape from the wrath of God (Luke 3:7)? Oh, how many are careless about the salvation of the Holy Mother of the Church, to our great regret! How many perish by will, who reject the Savior and by their deeds impute His descent to earth, His life on earth, His teaching, His miracles, His suffering and death for us. The proud and following their arrogant mind impute His descent to earth as nothing, considering His coming unnecessary in the blindness of their proud mind and heart; non-believers place His coming at nothing; those who are devoted only to earthly things with all their hearts, those who love money, those who are envious, those who are at enmity, those who are drunkards - they place His descent on earth into nothing; all uncorrected and unrepentant sinners impute His coming to nothing. But woe to those who trample on the Son of God with their lack of faith and unbelief, and addiction to earthly things, the eternal fire of Gehenna will devour them: all the unfaithful will have their share in the sight of the burning fire and bogeyman (Rev. 21:8). Now I see you in everything as pious and celebrating the Nativity of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, if only everyone would spend the coming holiday in abstinence, purity, thought of God, in works of mercy, and not in drunkenness, carnal impurity, not in idle talk, in idleness and lasciviousness, not in gluttony and other various sins. Brethren, it is time for us to celebrate the holidays wisely, piously, and not madly, not in wickedness of any kind, not in a pagan way. May the Lord protect us all on this holiday from every sinful deed. May our holiday be pleasing to the Savior, so that the born Child Christ may appear as our Savior through faith in Him, through our repentance and through our good deeds. Amen. Word on Christmas Day For this reason, God came down to earth and raised us to heaven (Akathist to the Mother of God, Cond. 8) These words of the church song indicate the purpose for which God the Word came to earth in the flesh - precisely that purpose, so that man, created for heaven and fallen and killed by sin, enslaved by earthly passions, would be raised to heaven again under the just condition that he, realizing his extreme error and the ruin of his chosen path, turns with all his heart to God, from whom he fell, repents with all his heart, rejects worldly passions, will love God and live heavenly on earth, as far as possible with the help of divine grace. This is the purpose of the coming of God to earth in the flesh that we now celebrate. He came to turn away from us the extreme dishonor of sin and passions, to which we enslaved ourselves of our own free will, to deliver us from the disastrous slavery of the devil, from righteous damnation and eternal death, to revive us by the grace of baptism, to adopt us and give us the Holy Spirit, with whose help we could live on earth worthy of our high calling - children of God. And divine intentions, divine plans regarding our rebirth, sanctification and renewal were accomplished in people, that is, in the multitude of saved people who obeyed the voice of God calling them to salvation, and followed the saving path. Countless saints have justified with their lives the divine plan for the salvation of mankind. Divine wisdom was justified from her children (Matthew 11:19). This wondrous divine plan of salvation is being accomplished even now in all who are submissive to the loving voice of God, calling them to salvation and to the eternal inheritance prepared for them in heaven. The Lord founded His Church on earth, to which He entrusted the heavenly, saving teaching, His saving sacraments, gave His teachers and shepherds, to whom He entrusted the guidance of redeemed humanity to heaven. But how many understand and accept this wise and at the same time simple plan for our salvation? How many people accept the means to their salvation given by God? How many people renounce worldly addictions that darken and bind the soul? How many people value the name of Christians and children of God; How many people think about the heavenly inheritance prepared for them by the goodness of the heavenly Father for the sake of His only begotten Son? We see that modern man has fallen extremely deeply, has become completely immersed in sensuality, has bound himself entirely to worldly passions and sensual pleasures, has perverted the order of life indicated by the Creator, and thus not only does not follow the divine plan of our salvation, but, as far as this plan concerns him, destroys it. Such will be the fruits of a reckless life. A person who tramples on God’s gifts with such recklessness and such audacity is deprived of all God’s promises and gifts. Look attentively at the life of modern man, how unnatural it is, not to mention how ungraceful it is, and how it is not led in a Christian way. Look how he perverted the very pleasures of the senses. For the sense of smell and taste, and partly for breathing itself, he invented and burns almost constantly a pungent and odorous smoke - bringing this, as if a constant censer, to a demon living in the flesh - infects the air of his home and the external air with this smoke, and first of all, he himself is saturated with this stench - and here is the constant coarsening of his feelings and his heart; The constantly consumed smoke cannot but affect the subtlety of the heartfelt feeling: it imparts to it solidity, coarseness, and sensuality. The womb became an idol; Many people do not keep fasts at all, considering them burdensome; feasting and drunkenness became constant phenomena; money has become a positively modern idol, and in order to easily acquire it, people do not neglect any means, no matter how ignoble or dishonest they may be; all thoughts, worries, amusements, including play, in a word, pleasures, searches, intentions, enterprises, even teaching, are directed towards the earth; There is no mention of heaven, of the heavenly title, of heavenly teaching and life in many homes. Man has become all the earth, all dust! Meanwhile, God came down to earth precisely to raise man to heaven. Adam, where are you (Gen.3:9)? Christian man, where are you? How deep you have fallen! What darkness did you enter into voluntarily? Arise, come into the light of God, know your divine nobility, your heavenly title, return to God, give up sensuality, which deadens the spirit, begin to live according to the spirit of virtue, kill carnal passions, repent and unite with God, so that He will take you to heaven and seat you with Him on the throne of His kingdom. Speaking about the earthly, passionate, unworthy direction of people’s lives, I do not lose sight of the many bright sides in the lives of many Christians and the virtues of truly Christian people, but this is a weak minority. God grant that this minority is superior to the majority. Amen. Word for Christmas The word became flesh (John 1:14) The Word became flesh, i.e. The Son of God, co-originating with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, became man, incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. A wondrous, terrible and saving sacrament! The Beginningless One - took on a beginning according to humanity, the incorporeal one - became a flesh-bearer, God - a man, without ceasing to be God: unapproachable, whom the Seraphim and Cherubim tremble, covering their faces, - accessible to everyone in the form of a slave. Why and for what purpose is the Creator’s condescension towards His criminal creatures; – to humanity, which of its own free will fell away from God, its Creator? According to the greatest, unspeakable mercy of the Master towards His creation, Who could not see the entire human race, created by Him, endowed with wondrous gifts, enslaved to the devil and forever doomed to suffering and torment. And the word became flesh! In order to make us earthly heavenly, sinners saints; to lead from corruption to incorruption; from earth to heaven; from slavery to sin and the devil - into the glorious freedom of the children of God, from death - to immortality; to make us sons of God and seat us on the throne as royal children. Oh, the immeasurable mercy of God! Oh, the ineffable wisdom of God! Oh, a miracle that horrifies not only the human mind, but also the angelic mind! Let's give glory to God! With the coming to earth of the Son of God in the flesh, after He sacrificed Himself for the sinful human race, instead of the curse that was first pronounced by God, people who believe are given the blessing of the Heavenly Father; they receive adoption as sons and the promise of an everlasting inheritance of life; To humanity orphaned due to sin, the Heavenly Father returns again through the sacrament of rebirth, that is, through baptism and repentance. People are delivered from the most painful and deadly power of the devil, from the torment of sin and all passions; a human being is adored for the sake of the immeasurable mercy of the Son of God, and his sins are forgiven seventy times seven; sinners are pardoned, the unclean are cleansed, the defiled are sanctified, the weak are healed, the dishonored are given immeasurable honor and glory; the darkened are enlightened by the divine light of grace and reason; The human mind has been given the mind of God - the mind of Christ imams, says St. Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 2:16); to the human heart - the heart of Christ; the corruptible is immortalized, naked and wounded by sin and passions is adorned with divine glory; the hungry and thirsty is saturated and quenched - by the word of God that nourishes and strengthens the soul and the Most Pure Body and Divine Blood of Christ; those who are inconsolable are consoled, those who were raped by the devil are delivered and are being delivered. What is required of us, brothers, in order to take advantage of all the grace brought to us from above to earth by the Son of God? What is needed, firstly, is faith in the Son of God, in the Gospel or in the saving heavenly teaching; true repentance of sins and correction of life and heart, communication in prayers and sacraments; knowledge and fulfillment of the commandments of Christ. Virtues are needed: Christian humility, almsgiving, abstinence, purity and innocence, truthfulness, simplicity and kindness of heart. Let us bring these virtues, brother and sister, as a gift to the One who was born for our salvation - instead of the gold, frankincense and myrrh that the Magi brought to Him, as a King, as God and as a Man who came to die for us. This will be the most pleasant sacrifice from us to God and the Baby Jesus Christ. Amen. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14) This is a song to God made man, the Infant Christ, sung by a host of Angels on earth at His Nativity. The song is short, but its meaning and meaning are wise and rich in content. It contains and reveals to us the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of the world. Every angelic nature was amazed at this mystery, according to the Church. But where is the peace on earth that the Angels announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem? In Jerusalem itself, the city of David, in which there was a church to the living God, there was no peace, and when the wise men who came from the east to Jerusalem asked: where is the born King of the Jews, then from this one news both King Herod and all of Jerusalem with him came into confusion. There was no peace in the world power of Rome at that time. Contemporaries describe in gloomy colors the moral decline of peoples, the distortion of the image of God in people. All kinds of filth and lawlessness were happening. Idolatry replaced service to the One God. Lawlessness, shame, satiety, drunkenness, constituted earthly blessings and the goal and aspirations of humanity. Enmity, civil strife, and disorder reigned everywhere. Pride, inhumanity, and all types of vice corrupted social and family life. In subsequent times it was no better: terrible persecutions against believers in Christ over the course of three centuries flooded the entire earth with the blood of Christian martyrs: brother betrayed brother, father betrayed his wife and children, children of parents to torture; human relationships, blood ties, kinship, everything was desecrated and trampled upon. In Jerusalem itself was the abomination of desolation. And in our times, societies and kingdoms are shaken, international and internecine disagreements and wars, heresies and schisms continue; conspiracies, criminal, harmful teachings, intensifying to overthrow centuries-old state institutions and the foundations of community life: family, civil and religious. Villainy extends its sacrilegious hand to God’s anointed ones, to whom God himself has entrusted the nations; the monsters want to establish unbelief on their sacred ashes, to destroy the state, family and law under the guise of equality and brotherhood. Where is the peace on earth proclaimed by the Angels? Where is the peace brought by the God-man to earth? Where is the peace that proclaims the Gospel and the preaching of the Apostles, carried by them from end to end of the earth, between all nations and kingdoms? There is no one in the world: the whole world lies in evil, said the Apostle (1 John 5:19). This is the mystery sung by the Angels: with the coming of the Son of God, peace reigned on earth, first in the small chosen flock: in His Church, in the Apostles, to whom He repeatedly taught this peace, and then in the entire kingdom of grace or His Church, which spread throughout the whole earth. Yes, brethren, the Lord founded on earth the whole kingdom of the world of God, an eternal, universal, well-ordered kingdom, with laws, statutes, sacraments, with an order of service, rules of life, mutual relations; this kingdom is the holy, Orthodox Apostolic Church, in which peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father always rest. True, the Church of God on earth has always been under the cross, always persecuted, embittered; but nevertheless, she always possessed an inner, grace-filled peace, even in the midst of the greatest persecution; because God has always been and will be in her, delivering her from all disasters, according to His word that the gates of hell will not prevail against her (Matthew 16:18); and therefore, every true believer and fulfiller of the commandments of Christ, every truly repentant sinner has within himself the peace of Christ, which no external disturbances of this world can disturb, unless he, of his own will, again enters the path of iniquities and sin. Therefore, if the kingdoms of the earth and civil societies in general wish to achieve and establish peace brought to earth by the King of truth, peace and love, the Lord Jesus Christ, then they must be in close union with the kingdom of the Lord, or with His holy Church on earth, must obey the commandments of Jesus Christ and the statutes of His church; and if they are violated, immediately correct themselves, after sincerely realizing their mistakes and iniquities. Members of the state who profess the Christian faith must be good, honest and sincerely devoted members of the Church. Violation of this union between the Church and the state, or its citizens, neglect of faith, commandments and the Gospel give rise to unbelief and all sorts of disorder in society, all sorts of vices, plunge society into moral or political impotence, and deprive it of heavenly blessings. Our fatherland, great Russia, has always been in close union with the church, and only in this union has it grown, strengthened and ascended to a high degree of power and glory. May God grant that this union of the state with the Church, with this kingdom of peace, continues uninterruptedly, then Russia will always be the kingdom of peace, and God’s blessing will rest on it; then no sedition in Russia will be terrible, because it will not find a place or shelter anywhere. May Christ the Lord reign in our hearts and may peace and goodwill reign with Him. Amen. Lesson on the third day of the Nativity of Christ - Resurrection Now we have two holidays: the holiday of the Nativity of Christ is joined by the holiday of the Resurrection of Christ; one holiday is annual, and the other is weekly. In both holidays, beloved brethren, our own Christian triumph is hidden: Jesus Christ was both born and resurrected - for us: born in order to die for us and rise again. Such is the love of God the Savior for us: He gave Himself to us, just to make us blessed forever, just to bring us into the abode of the Heavenly Father. The life of our Lord Jesus Christ - from His birth to His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, is, so to speak, a mirror in which everything that happens and will happen to His followers is reflected, or in other words - His entire earthly life is a model of our life as it should be. Therefore, His birth is, as it were, our birth - and it is, exactly, only for us - His resurrection is our resurrection. Through the birth and resurrection of the Savior, we are all, beloved, called to eternal life, to an incorruptible inheritance, kept in heaven for our sake. Without the Savior, without His birth, our birth would only be a curse, so that our resurrection without Him would be a condemnation to eternal torment. By His birth, Jesus Christ sanctified our birth, lifted up our horn; through His resurrection He rejoiced us with the hope of our resurrection. Christ has risen from the dead, becoming a firstfruits to those who have died (1 Cor. 15:20), that is, he laid the foundation for our resurrection. Here is our triumph in the birth and resurrection of Christ! But why do we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Christ once a year, and the Feast of the Resurrection many times, and one of them - annually - so lightly, with such solemnity, that its light seems to outshine all other holidays? – To solve this question, let’s take another one to explain it. Is it necessary to assure a person several times that he was born? It is not necessary, because everyone believes it without certainty. Does a person need to be assured many times that he will be resurrected? It is necessary, because since there will still be a resurrection and we have it only in hope, then we need to resurrect more often, revive our fading faith in the resurrection and hope in it; and even more so, the fewer examples of resurrection we see before our eyes, while examples of birth are always before our eyes. To this reason we must add the fact that the year represents the human age, and since the Son of God, Jesus Christ, became the Son of man, and the flightless one was subjected to the measurement of earthly years, then once a year we remember all the great events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, as once they actually happened, and this single memory is enough to revive our faith in them - and the Resurrection of Christ, in addition to its all-bright, annual celebration, is also celebrated many times a year - in order to more often revive in people faith in the general resurrection, which is the great triumph of our faith, because Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection; “You will be resurrected with Christ,” says the Apostle (Col. 3:1), that is, it is as if you were resurrected together with Christ. So, glory to the Lord who was born for our salvation, and glory to Him, who rose from the grave and raised us with Himself. What should I say to you in conclusion? Everyone remember with each coming resurrection that you will rise again and, having risen, appear at the judgment; and therefore, everyone should take care to arrange their lives in such a way that at that terrible judgment they will not be put to shame and sent into utter darkness, and so that the holidays of the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ will not condemn us in that century for our inattention and disrespect for their verbs. Amen. Lesson for the Sunday of the Nativity of Christ A voice was heard quickly in Rama, weeping and weeping, and much crying: Rachel weeping for her children, and not wanting to be comforted, for they were not (Matthew 2:18; Jeremiah 31:15) The Holy Church now honors the memory of fourteen thousand infants beaten by King Herod in Bethlehem and its environs. This bloody event was predicted 500 years ago by the prophet of God Jeremiah in these words: a voice in Rama was heard quickly, crying and sobbing and crying: Rachel wept for her children, and did not want to be consoled, as if they were not. By Rama or Arimathea we mean the entire area stained with the blood of infant martyrs, and by Rachel, who was the wife of the patriarch Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, we mean all the mothers whose babies were torn out by Herod’s executioners and slaughtered. A terrible, inhuman spectacle! This is what a person’s unbridled passions, his pride, pride, ambition, lust for power, anger, envy lead to! - And, generally speaking, no matter what atrocities the earth has not been filled with, this is the abode of the human race during its almost eight thousand-year existence! History reveals to us terrible pictures of terrible atrocities in ancient and modern times. In our times, the atrocities of Turkish Muslims against Christian children, fathers and mothers are still fresh in our memories. O earth, earth soaked in human blood, filled with indescribable atrocities, until you cry out to God for vengeance on the evildoers? How long will you stand and not undergo fiery purification? – How long will God’s truth not pay final retribution to the villains who have stained their hands with the blood of so many victims of inhumanity? – But the truth of God assures that the blood of all the righteous will soon be required, starting with the blood of Abel, and begs us who are impatient to endure a little longer (see Rev. 6:11). But when I talk about Herod’s murder and murders in general, which filled the whole earth with horrors, I bring to mind spiritual murder, of which we are all more or less guilty: this is the murder by each of us of our soul, and often our body by our sins, or the murder of the souls of our neighbors, through temptation, or by teaching others to sin. Who among us is not guilty of this spiritual murder? Which of us is free from passions, sinful habits and inclinations? Who has not killed his soul or the soul of his neighbor with pride, or pride, or guile, lies, or envy, or gluttony, satiety, drunkenness, or love of money and stinginess, or hardness of heart, or carnal impurity, or anger, or suspicion, or partiality, or laziness and negligence about salvation, unbelief, etc.? So, my brothers, we often kill our own souls or the souls of our neighbors with countless sins and negligence about correcting our hearts, our lives, our morals. And this spiritual or mental murder, with which we kill our souls, created in the image of God, is even more guilty than bodily murder; because here the soul, which has to live forever, is killed, and there only the body, which will rise in the general resurrection. The souls of the infant martyrs, beaten by Herod, all rest in the bosom of Abraham, are consoled in the kingdom of heaven, and in due time their bodies will be resurrected - but the soul of Herod is in eternal torment, and Herod, having beaten the innocent infants, killed his soul with his shameful passions even before they were beaten, and soon his body, which experienced terrible torment before his death. So, let us not be the murderers of our souls, these priceless souls, redeemed by the infinitely dear sacrifice of the Blood of the Son of God - let us revive and preserve them, we will adorn them with repentance and virtue. What can we say about modern murderers and suicides? This is a terrible sign of the age, a terrible time of unbelief, depravity, falling away from God. Murders and suicides are frequent everywhere, and human life is not valued at all: it has become petty, empty, insignificant, aimless! But what can we say about the regicides who, in their madness, attempt the most precious life of the kings of the earth themselves? If it is terrible and inhumane to kill an ordinary person, then to kill the king, the head of state, the father of millions of subjects, the patron of the Church of God, for whom she always prays with the greatest love and maternal care, day and night, that the Lord may hasten to Him in everything and subdue under His feet every enemy and adversary - to attempt the life of the king is the most disgusting crime, and whoever touches him touches the apple of the eye of God. Our Russian ancestors always revered their kings, as God’s anointed, and were ready to endure anything, any disaster, rather than raise a daring and sacrilegious hand against their king. And fair enough. The heart of the King, according to Scripture, is in the hand of God, and even if it delights, ... there it will turn away (Prov. 21:1). Do not touch My anointed, says God (Ps. 104:15). So, let us not kill our souls with our sins, let us revive them through diligent repentance, if we have killed them, while we still have time for repentance, and we will always have an aversion to the very thought of murder and suicide; Let us have disgust for people who attempt regicide. – One God is the Lord of life and death; He alone has the power to both kill and give life. The Sovereign is your shield, the keeper of our security; both of the entire Russian land, the Faith and the Orthodox Church, and, in particular, the guardian of the security and peace of each of us. Amen. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) Finally, we waited for the feast of the Nativity of Christ and worshiped the eternal Child with the Most Pure Ever-Virgin Mother, and sang with the Church God’s extreme compassion and condescension towards us, for the Son of God became the Son of man in order to save perishing man. But we have not yet done a great thing by worshiping the divine Infant, for many of us worshiped only with the body, and worship of the body without worship of the spirit is a sacrifice far from pleasing to God; and His ineffable compassion and condescension towards people, in fact, was sung by the Church, and not by us: we were only listeners. I want to ask you and myself: are we doing anything on our part in response to such an unspeakable condescension of the Son of God to us? For such an extreme and astounding exhaustion of the Son of God for the salvation of perishing humanity requires, my brothers, an urgent and intensified work of salvation from us. The Incarnation of the Son of God, I use a comparison, is like a strong and reliable rope given from heaven by the Heavenly Father to us who are perishing in the abyss of sin. Whoever grasps this rope with all his might and holds on to it throughout his earthly voyage, despite strong waves and gusts of wind, will not drown in the abyss of sin, but will reach the quiet haven of heaven; and whoever neglects this saving rope, who, fearing the winds and waves, weakens in spirit and lets go of the tangled rope of faith, hope and love, whoever falls away from the Church of Christ through schism or unbelief and heterodoxy and a corrupt life, will perish forever. Therefore, I will say with the Apostle: let us hold fast the confession of hope without wavering: for He who promised eternal life is faithful. Let us be attentive to each other, encouraging each other to love and good deeds. Let us not forsake meeting ourselves together, as is the custom of some; but let us exhort one another, and all the more so as the Day of Judgment is seen approaching. For if we all, having received the knowledge of the truth, sin voluntarily, then there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrible expectation of judgment and the fury of fire, ready to devour our opponents. If he who rejects the law of Moses, in the presence of two or three witnesses, is punished without mercy with death, then how much more severe punishment do you think will be guilty of the one who tramples on the Son of God, and does not consider holy the Blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and offends the Spirit of grace? We know Him who said: Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord. And one more thing: The Lord will judge His people. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:23–31). Please note, my brethren, that the incarnation of the Son of God, His coming to us on earth, or better yet, the Christian faith, is, so to speak, a saving rope, which we must grasp and hold on to with all our might from the beginning to the end of our lives. This means: each of us must believe with all our hearts in Christ as our only Savior from the devil and from sin, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which it is fitting for us to be saved (Acts 4:12); with all your heart to adhere to His Church, the only ship of salvation, and not to be seduced into schism: for a schismatic, as a disobedient to the Church, is imputed to God as a pagan and a tax collector; to constantly study the Word of God and the commandments of Christ, and to rule your life according to the commandments; try by all means to correct the thoughts, aspirations and inclinations of the heart; adhere to constant repentance before God; to visit the temple of God without laziness, to unite with the Lord in the sacrament of communion for the cleansing of sins and to receive spiritual strength in the fight against sin, and to live in mutual love and in all virtue. This is what the incarnate God the Word requires of us! – The Incarnation of the Son of God is the only extraordinary means that God, in His eternal counsel, determined for our salvation. And what does a dangerously ill man do on the edge of his grave, when a skilled doctor offers him the last and most powerful means of saving him? The patient accepts it with joy, although with effort, and thus is often healed. And we are all dangerously sick spiritually - because we are all sick with sin, this terrible illness that corrupts a person’s entire being, soul and body, we are sick so much that, like patients with consumption, we often do not realize our dangerous illness and do not imagine the eternal death that follows it; we dream that we are healthy - and just as crazy people imagine that they are not only healthy, but that they are kings, and generals, and princes, or something similar, so we, not jokingly, often imagine ourselves not at all what we really are, and in one way or another we disguise ourselves - we imagine ourselves to be God knows what great people, whereas in the thing itself we are great sinners. So, what can we do, brothers sinners, when the heavenly Doctor, with such love, with such selflessness, offers us such a strong and extraordinary medicine for our salvation - His incarnation, His incarnation, His humiliation, His teaching and miracles, His cross and His death? “Nothing more than urgently and with all diligence to use this medicine and live according to the instructions of this heavenly Doctor, and not live as carelessly in this world as we lived, especially not to spend these holy days carelessly.” For some, like madmen, dressed up in different costumes that are not typical for their faces, walk like ghosts from house to house, allow themselves to laugh obscenely, and turn such a great and holy holiday into sinful idleness and service to Satan. When will we celebrate the Lord's feasts in a decorous and holy manner, as Christians should? When will these immodest fun stop? when we remember whether to keep holy the Sabbath or the day of rest (cf. Ex.20:8), to rest from the works of sin with the rest of the Lord: for every Christian holiday should be a Sabbath to the Lord; When will the Lord rest in us, having no place to lay our head in our hearts, because of our constant slavery to sin? Oh, how we constantly humiliate our human dignity, which the Son of God so exalted and deified with His incarnation! At least we would be ashamed, at least horrified to do such shameful things and humiliate our nature on days like these on which we celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God! In the presence of the king of the earth, we are ashamed and afraid to indulge in immodest amusements, especially vices, or to stain his portraits with dirt; but now, in the presence of the heavenly King, who has taken our image, we shamelessly and fearlessly distort and stain His living image, our souls, with the dirt of passions; many indulge in drunkenness, gluttony, uncleanness, and inappropriate amusements; the living put painted masks on their faces, women dress in men's clothes, and men in women's clothes, contrary to the words of scripture: let not a man put on a woman's robe, nor let a man's utensils be on his wife (Deut. 22:5). At least these people were ashamed, at least they blushed for their deeds! And there is no shame! Oh, shameless faces! Oh, images of the enemy! I pray to all those present here, as I pray to God, to admonish the disorderly and not to accept them into your home, to frighten them with God’s terrible judgment. Beg all the disorderly to spend these holy days of God - holy, for among us is God in the flesh. God is with us: understand, O Gentiles, and submit, ... for God is with us (Is. 8:8-10). Amen. Herod, seeing how he was quickly reproached by the wise men, became very angry and sent and killed all the children who were in Bethlehem and in all its borders... Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet will be fulfilled, saying: a voice was heard in Rama, weeping, and wailing, and much wailing. Rachel weeping for her children and not wanting to be consoled, as they are not (Matt. 2:16–18; Jer. 31:15) This, beloved brethren, is the main content of the Gospel read today. The beastly and ambitious Herod, who sought the death of the born Savior of the world, seeing that the Magi laughed at his wickedness - they did not inform him, according to the condition made with him, about the place of birth of our Savior - in rage at them and the divine Child, he sent his executioners to beat all the babies in Bethlehem and its environs, from two years old and below according to the time that he found out from the Magi, hoping, among other things, to kill Christ; - and imagine - innocent babies, numbering up to 14 thousand, were inhumanly killed. The houses and streets were filled with crying and sobbing, and the soul-piercing cry of fathers and mothers who had suddenly lost their dearest babies. – This is the bloody, terrible sight the Holy Church is remembering this week: we remember the violent death of 14 thousand infant martyrs for Christ, we sympathize with the pitiful crying and sobbing of mothers and fathers. – It would seem that the faithful children of the Church of Christ will also sympathize in these days with this misfortune of people like themselves, unheard of in the history of the human race, and will not spend time in frivolous games and amusements and in unbridled laughter, in fulfillment of the Apostolic commandment: weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). But in reality, what do we see? These days especially, due to some devilish action, we indulge in frivolous games and amusements and laughter; Nowadays, especially, like some kind of general disease, the game of artificial faces is rampant: some self-moving statues, true idols in appearance, and of course in soul, go from house to house like Herod’s executioners, who invaded the houses of the unfortunate Bethlehem parents to kill innocent babies - arouse the idle, and, consequently, sinful curiosity of idle people, unbridled laughter, and fear in innocent children; they speak incoherent and crazy words in an artificial, deceptive voice, like real idols, and turn the holy holidays of the Lord into true satanic holidays. – Are these Christians, a holy people, renewed people? Was it for this reason that the Church prepared us for this great holiday with a forty-day fast, so that her children would laugh so boldly and sacrilegiously at the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God? – Is this why the current Gospel tells about the flight of the Savior into Egypt from the hands of the bloodthirsty Herod, so that some Christians would idly and frivolously run from house to house in the form of idols, while others would gladly accept these idols? - Be horrified, beloved brethren, at your devilish deeds. I say: devilish, because these masks blaspheme the natural face of man, the human face of our divine Savior, which He took upon Himself for the sake of our salvation, is blasphemed. Was it for this reason that the Son of God, the Creator of man, diminished Himself, taking on the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of humanity, and being found in the likeness of man (Phil. 2:7), so that those who call themselves Christians would disfigure their natural, God-created face with artificial faces and use them for deception, idle curiosity and ridicule? Was the idolatrous charm abolished by Christ so that the Christian of later times could restore it again, and moreover, on such holy days? Christian brothers! Don’t you yourself call these great and holy days Christmastide? How dare you conduct them not only unholy, but in an excess of sin? – Don’t you notice that you serve the devil, who laughs at holy days, through your frivolity? ABOUT! who will mourn enough for this frivolity and madness of Christians, just as the fathers and mothers of Bethlehem once mourned their babies beaten by Herod’s executioners? But then the innocent babies were sprinkled with their blood and became heirs of the kingdom of heaven. – And today’s lawless Christians are killed spiritually by the devil and are drawn by him to the abyss of hell. Fathers and mothers cried for them. For these the Church is sick and crying; Angels and Saints mourn and cry for these. Brethren! Let's give up pagan life: we will be Christians not by name alone, which will not bring us any benefit, but by deeds; let us give up our idolatry and idolatry. Otherwise, alas, we will be condemned not only as idolaters, but much worse, as Christians who have humiliated Christ and trampled on their Christian faith, which there is nothing more honest and dearer in the world. Amen. Lesson for the Week before Enlightenment The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths upright (Mark 1:3) When expecting the arrival of a king somewhere, they usually take care to prepare his way, that is, to level or clear the road. If the king is expected to arrive in a city, they usually sweep the streets, whitewash or illuminate the houses, and hang flags as a sign of greeting to the dear guest; if the arrival of the king is expected in the village, then its inhabitants all dress in clean, festive clothes, go out into the street, and persons elected from the society bring bread and salt to the distinguished visitor. This is what happens when meeting an earthly king. But we, brethren, are about to meet the heavenly King: for Christ, the King of heaven and earth, is coming to every Christian soul to dwell in it and establish His kingdom in it, the kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of heaven. What should we do? How to meet such a Visitor to our souls, such a King? “Prepare,” says the Prophet, “the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” The Spiritual King must prepare the spiritual path. In the east, to meet kings, roads were straightened and leveled so that the path for the traveling king was as straight, smooth and comfortable as possible; and now we have railways almost everywhere, and not only for the Tsar, but for all of us, they make the path straight and even, like on glass. Let us take this straightness and smoothness of earthly paths as an example and likeness for the spiritual path. We await the coming not to the city, but to our souls of the heavenly King Christ. Let us make the spiritual path straight and smooth, that is, let us remove from our souls all crookedness and roughness of sin: for your streams are crooked, says the Prophet, your ways are stubborn and sharp (cf. Is. 40:4). How do we delete it? Sincere repentance for sins, correction of heart and life and good deeds. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2). Let the one of little faith remove the crookedness of his unbelief or lack of faith and may he acquire the simple, unsophisticated faith of the saints, or the faith of God, about which the Lord said: have the faith of God (Mark 11:23); let the proud one remove his pride and acquire God-loving humility; let him who is at enmity leave his enmity to his brother, and let him humble himself and henceforth live lovingly, heeding the commandments of the Apostle: love one another diligently with a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22). Let the fornicator wash away his uncleanness with tears of repentance and let him not return to it in the future, like a dog to his vomit, and let him live chastely, remembering that our bodies are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:30; 1 Cor. 6:19); let the intemperate and drunkard leave his intemperance and henceforth be zealous for abstinence: for drunkards will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), and drunkenness is idolatry. Let the lover of money and the hard-hearted towards the poor leave his passion for this dear or precious land as a crooked and rough path, on which he himself is often wounded internally, and which blocks the way into his soul for the King of Heaven: for what kind of communication does the Merciful have with the hard-hearted, the Lover of Mankind with the lover of money, the King of Heaven with the dust of the earth? So, let the money-loving and the stingy prepare the way into their hearts for the King of Heaven with alms and generosity to the poor. Let us all take away wickedness from our souls and acquire the God-loving simplicity of virtue. This is how to prepare the way for the Lord; This is how to make His paths straight! When we prepare the way for the Lord in this way: He will, without a doubt, come to us and dwell in our hearts, as He himself promised: I will dwell in them and walk around (2 Cor. 6:16), and in us there will be the kingdom of heaven still here on earth, the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen. Word for the Week before Enlightenment And he preached (John), saying: He who is mighty for me is coming, after me, He who is not worthy, bow down, loosen the strap of His boots. Because when you baptized with water, he who baptized you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:7–8) Happy new year of the goodness of the Lord, I greet you all and wish you all, from a sincere heart, renewal in spirit, in faith, in hope, in love, in all life so that everyone can be a new creation, according to the Apostle: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ has passed; Another bright holiday of Enlightenment is approaching - the Baptism of Christ, which took place 30 years after the birth of Christ. From this time on, Jesus Christ had to enter into His open, glorious service for the salvation of the human race. To prepare people for the reception of such a glorious King of heaven and earth, the Creator of ages, the only begotten, co-originating with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Son of God, a great herald and prophet, the Forerunner of the Lord and the Baptist John, a man of extremely strict, righteous and holy life, was sent. He was commanded by God in the desert in which he lived to go to the banks of the Jordan and there preach to the flocking people the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. This great Forerunner and angel in the flesh was foretold by the prophet Malachi, whose memory was remembered on the third day: behold, I send My angel before Thy face, who will prepare Thy way before Thee (Mal.3:1). And then John appeared, baptizing in the desert and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the whole country of Judea and the people of Jerusalem came out to him, and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Mark 1:4-5). Sinners like us were baptized by John; but why, you ask, was the sinless, most holy Lord baptized by John? - In order, my brothers, to sanctify the waters for us with His baptism and to establish and legitimize for us the sacrament of Holy Baptism, through which we are all cleansed from the filth of sin and reborn into a new spiritual life of grace - we are sanctified and become children of God, a holy people, a royal priesthood, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ. You see how many and what great gifts we become participants through baptism! Remember this and cherish, firmly cherish the fact that you are a baptized people, the people of God and Christ, and conduct yourself worthy of the high title of Christian, living in virtue and avoiding all sin. So, this is why the sinless Christ Jesus was baptized by John; This is what and how great a gift was given to us all from God in baptism, and how we should value it and how worthy we should be of it! John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance to the people who came for the forgiveness of sins, and the people confessed their sins to him. This, brethren, is where our repentant confession begins. John was commanded by God to accept the confession of sinners. Priests are also given the power by the Lord Jesus Christ to confess and loose or bind repentant sinners. St. Evangelist Luke narrates that John the Baptist sternly, strongly, accusatoryly and harshly said to the people who came to be baptized by him: brood of vipers! Who inspired you to flee from future wrath? Produce fruit worthy of repentance and do not think of saying within yourself: “We have Abraham as our father”; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Already the ax, that is, the mortal ax, lies at the root of the trees (under the root of the tree we mean human life): every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:7-10). Why did John the Baptist so strictly and sharply, although with great love, rebuke the people and force them to repentance? Firstly, because he himself was the greatest righteous man, he deeply loved God and the truth of God and hated untruth, being zealous for the truth; and secondly, because the people, due to their deep moral corruption, due to their extreme untruth and lawlessness, had a need for a strict and harsh word, just as those infected with Anton’s fire require cauterization and cutting or sectioning. Here it is also necessary to note that John was a seer and saw the depth of the hearts of the people who came to him, all their disgusting untruth and deceit; and therefore he could not speak to the unrighteous otherwise than strictly, in order to frighten them and correct them with fear, therefore he did not value their origin from Abraham, saying that the omnipotent God could raise children for Abraham from stones; and brings to their memory the mortal ax, ready to cut down the days of life, as barren trees are cut down. Now I ask myself and those like me a question: why are we, preachers of repentance, weak and extremely lenient towards repentant sinners, almost to the point of indulgence in all kinds of sins? Because sinners themselves did not love truth with all their hearts and did not hate untruth and do not have divine zeal for truth. We quickly lay our hands on the heads of sinners with the grace of permission and forgiveness and often share in the sins of others, contrary to the apostolic instruction: do not quickly lay your hands on anyone (1 Tim. 5:22). My brothers, be strict with yourself, with your weaknesses and sins, examine yourself more strictly, more accurately, and demand a strict confession for yourself in order to quickly improve, and so that we, for the weakness of confession, do not be condemned by God as being careless about repentance. How did the preaching of the great preacher John the Baptist affect the people? It had a very saving effect: the people woke up, woke up from their sinful sleep and asked them: what should we do? John pointed out to him works of love and mercy, which serve as the best fruit of repentance: he who has two coats, He says, give to the poor, and he who has food, do the same (Luke 3:11). To publicans, covetous people and soldiers, who also demanded his instructions on works of repentance, he answered - first: do not demand anything more specific to you - and to the second: do not offend anyone, do not slander, and be content with your salary (Luke 3:13-14). Thus, John demanded from everyone the fruits of repentance, and calling the truly repentant the wheat of God, and the unrepentant - straw or chaff on the universal threshing floor of God, he threatened the latter with unquenchable fire, and about the former he said that the Lord would gather them into His eternal granary after His universal terrible judgment, which he calls likewise - the winnowing of bread on a shovel in the threshing floor. This is how John prepared the people to accept the universal Savior Jesus Christ. For us, Jesus Christ has already come a long time ago, and we only annually remember His wondrous, saving appearance and the wonderful, saving events from His life. But, brethren, from us, who have tasted the ineffable blessings of Christ, were baptized in the Holy Font and become children of God, the fruits of repentance, the fruits of love and mercy for each other are all the more required. The Spirit of Christ's grace is mutual love: this I command you, that you love one another (John 15:17). Amen. Today's Sunday is called, beloved brothers and sisters, the week before Enlightenment or, all the same, before Epiphany, before Baptism. From the Gospel today we are supposed to read the first chapter from Mark, from verses 1 to 9. The Gospel contains prophecies or predictions of the prophets of the Lord Malachi and Isaiah that just before the coming of the Lord to earth in the flesh, that is, before the first, and not the second coming, a Forerunner will be sent who will prepare His way; in Malachi the prophet, whose memory is celebrated today, this Forerunner is called an Angel ( Mal. 3:1 ) of God, after the angelic, holy, impassive life of John the Baptist; and in another prophet - Isaiah - it is called a voice crying in the wilderness, that is, the Jordan, saying: prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight (Isaiah 40:3). The Gospel further says that these prophecies were fulfilled, for indeed, just before the appearance of the Savior to the world, the great prophet and Forerunner of the Lord John appeared, baptizing in the desert and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the inhabitants of the country of Judea and the people of Jerusalem came out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Mark 1:4-5). Next, John's lifestyle is described, his exalted, divine character, his complete impartiality to everything that we are seduced by, to which we sinners passionately cling; - it is said that he wore the simplest, roughest, harshest, and not soft and thin clothes - made of camel hair and a leather belt around his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey, that is, raw vegetation at hand, and honey from wild, not domestic bees. And He preached to the people this: He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptized you with water, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:7-8). Here is the entire Gospel of this Sunday. Let us delve deeply and think about him for our common spiritual benefit and pay attention to the predictions of the two prophets about John the Baptist - what they predicted about him, about his position in the kingdom of Christ. He, they say, will prepare the way of the Lord, he will cry aloud to the people: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight; This is what he did, and this is how he prepared the people to receive the Lord. The words are very important, you need to understand them, interpret them thoroughly in order to understand their meaning and do business based on them. Their meaning is this: I, the Forerunner of Christ, preach to all of you, great and small, people of every rank and condition, sex and age, that the King of heaven has come to earth, the only begotten Son of God, Christ God, who in everything is like us in humanity, except for sin, to which He has nothing to do; He came for the salvation of each of us, and He wants to enter everyone’s spiritual home, into the heart, where His throne should be, as our King and God; but you, people, are not ready to accept Him because of your sins, because of your spiritual impurities: for others, the path to the heart is blocked by ignorance or unbelief; another has anger, envy, pride; in this case - greed, stinginess, hard-heartedness towards neighbors and lack of mercy; for another - voluptuousness and prodigal uncleanness; for others - intemperance, drunkenness, foul language; for others - incorrect, clouded by passions, false scholarship prevents them from believing and accepting the Lord with a sincere heart - learning about which God said through the prophet: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and reject the understanding of the prudent (Is. 29:14); For some, spectacles and games prevent them from accepting the Lord into their spiritual home, because other people are addicted to them and they have no place in their hearts for the heavenly Visitor and Savior of our souls; In general, various passions and vanities of life greatly hinder us from receiving and hosting the Lord. Prepare the way for the Lord: - first, sincerely believe in Him, secondly, sincerely repent and completely cast off your sins, your passions, sinful habits, inclinations, evil lusts, cleanse yourself, wash yourself, correct yourself, decorate your souls with virtue - simplicity, meekness, humility, kindness, abstinence, purity, mercy, mutual sociability, friendliness, hospitality and hospitality, truth, faithful service, honest trade, honest work, obedience to parents, the king, superiors, good teaching, diligence, good behavior. This is the meaning of the prophetic words and the sermon of John the Baptist. – It is my duty to address you with the same words: Christ, the Heavenly King, has come to us on earth and wants to enter the spiritual home of each of us. Let us prepare to immediately accept Him: let us repent sincerely, leave behind our sins - evil, envy, pride, intemperance, drunkenness, foul language, fornication, hard-heartedness and stinginess, and adorn our souls with faith, love, meekness, mercy, self-control, truth, obedience, mutual respect and communication: - and the Lord will come to us along the path prepared for us, the straight paths - and will dwell in us and will live and walk in us, as it is written in the Apostle: I will dwell in them, and will walk in them, and will be their God, and they will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:16,18; cf. Lev. 26:12). Amen Word on the day of the Holy Epiphany of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ Today, beloved brethren, the Holy Church has offered us a very edifying reading from the Apostle, namely, from the letter of the Holy Apostle Paul to Titus. This is the reading: Brothers! The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, teaching us that, having rejected ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live chastely, righteously and piously in this present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, to deliver us from all iniquity and to purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good works. Speak, exhort and reprove this with all authority, so that no one despises you. Remind them to obey and submit to authorities and authorities, to be ready to do every good work, to speak evil of no one, to not be quarrelsome, but quiet, and to show all gentleness to men in all things. For we too were once foolish, disobedient, erring, we were slaves to lusts and various pleasures, we lived in malice and envy, we were vile, we hated each other. But when the grace and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Tit. 2:11-15, 3:1–7). Here is today's reading from the Apostle. The Apostle speaks of grace or mercy and the power of God, that is, of Christ, saving for all people, not excluding anyone who receives this grace. If this saving grace had not appeared through Jesus Christ and only in Him, then no one, not a single person, would have been saved, and everyone would have perished forever in sins: for sin naturally gives birth to death - temporary and eternal. But now saving grace has appeared to all people, and all who believe and submit to it can be saved; no one can make the excuse of impossibility or inability. This saving grace is found in the Church of Christ; adhere to it, fulfill its instructions and commandments, participate in its sacraments and Divine services, and you will certainly be saved. So, the saving grace of God requires of us that we, having rejected ungodliness, i.e. coldness and alienation from God, self-love and all sorts of worldly and carnal lusts, tried to live righteously, chastely and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Speaking about the present age, the Apostle means another age, a future one, which has no end, as can be seen at the end of this reading, and in the words that follow now; for further he says that we must all expect the blessed hope, that is, the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, the life of the next century and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, meaning by the appearance of the glory of Christ His second coming in the terrible glory of the Heavenly Father, when all the nations and tribes of the earth will see His eternal glory and cannot help but recognize Him as God, although then He will be for many only an Avenger and terrible God I judge. The Apostle further says that Jesus Christ gave Himself for us, i.e. Having appeared into the world in the form of a man, he fulfilled for us all the truth of God, taught us piety, suffered, died and rose again for us, and gave us all the strength for a righteous life in order to deliver us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good deeds. So you and I, brothers and sisters, have the happiness of being a special people - the people of Christ. But, I ask, are we really a special people in life and deeds, are we zealous for good deeds? Are we not hasty and zealous for sin? - Quite often. - But may God save us from haste to sin in the future, may this not happen to any of us. Further, the Apostle reminds us of the good deeds that Christians must perform, namely, obedience to superiors and authorities, readiness for every good deed, for example, self-sacrifice out of love for God and neighbor, mercy and mutual help - about not slandering, not scolding, not blaspheming others with abusive words in anger and malice - not being grumpy or contentious, unyielding, but quiet and meek towards everyone. For this, the godly Apostle confesses the great mercy of God over himself, that the Lord saved him not for the works of righteousness that he had previously done, for he too was once foolish, i.e. when he was still a persecutor of the Church of God, disobedient, lost, a slave of lusts and various pleasures, he lived in malice and envy, he was vile and hated Christians - but by His mercy the Lord took him out of the abyss of destruction and washed him in the bath of regeneration, that is, baptism and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which the Heavenly Father poured out on him abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior - so that, being justified by His grace, both he and all Christians may become, according to the hope, heirs of eternal life. So, away from us the dark senselessness in matters of piety, characteristic of unenlightened pagans walking in darkness and the shadow of death, let us cast far away from ourselves disobedience, lusts and various unauthorized, stupid and rude pleasures, malice and envy, all sorts of vile deeds and hatred of each other; and we will live in love and mutual assistance and in all piety and purity; Let us be a special people, zealous for good deeds. Let us always remember that a holy life is required of us - our life must differ from the life of Mohammedans and Jews, like heaven from earth; we must live on earth heavenly, as children of God, our love for God and neighbor must be ardent, unfeigned, selfless, firm, constant; we must constantly maintain purity and chastity, abstinence, create all truth, hate lies; show meekness and patience to everyone. – Have peace and holiness with everyone, for they will see the Lord except no one (Heb. 12:14). Amen. Word for the Day of Epiphany The beginning of today's reading from the Apostle points us to the appearance in the world of the grace of God, saving for all people, and its end - to eternal life, which will be inherited by all those who in this life hasten to take advantage of the grace of Christ for their salvation (Titus 2:11-15, 3:1-7). So, listen, Christians, incline your ears, sinners like me! We have now been sent down from God, the Father of generosity and all consolation, saving grace or saving power, with the help of which we can all be saved, and not one of us will perish, if only we diligently use it in time. This grace teaches us and together helps us to reject ungodliness or various worldly passions and lusts to which we have enslaved ourselves, to live chastely, righteously and piously in this short, preparatory age, in anticipation of the blessed hope and the manifestation of glory, i.e. the second glorious coming of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us as a cleansing and humbling sacrifice to God the Father, suffering and dying for us - in order to deliver us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good deeds, as a Christian people should be, that is, we are all Orthodox Christians. But are we really like that? Are we a special people from all other non-Christians: Jews, Mohammedans, idolaters? Are we zealous for good deeds? Are there not among us Christians the same or greater sins as among non-Christians? To our shame, they are found everywhere; I will not name these sins, because they are obvious to everyone, obvious to everyone. Looking at our lives, or at some who call themselves Christians, you sometimes think: are these people of renewal, Sons of God, royal priesthood, Christians, a special people, different from others? - But alas! It’s scary to say - special, but only in the wrong sense, special - because of ignorance, because of rudeness, because of insolence, because of unbelief, because of drunkenness and debauchery, because of disrespect and contempt for the gift of life, the greatest, invaluable gift of God, because of disrespect for chastity, because of loose morals, because of disrespect and ingratitude for parents, for God-appointed authorities, - because of disrespect for the gift of speech, madly, unchastely and seductively squandered in the press and in mutual communication. Let us come to our senses, Christians, and look around where we are going! What do we say and do? – Where is our guiding light? Where is the Gospel by which we must live? Do we listen and read it diligently? – Do those who have received education remember what they read, what they learned from this holy book of books? The uneducated, illiterate and illiterate are often more eager to hear and fulfill the Word of God than the educated; and the educated are often worse than the uneducated, because they distort their education, giving it a purely secular, worldly, and not Christian, not church, not spiritual character; They read only secular books and never the Gospel and other spiritual books. And without spiritual reading, as well as without Divine services, without participation in the Christian sacraments of confession and communion, without deeds of Christian virtue, can Christian life develop, prosper, and strengthen? So, Christians, let us try to be truly Christians - a special people, by striving for truth and holiness and to eternal life, to which we are called - by zeal for good deeds, and not for vicious ones. Next, the Apostle Paul instructs Bishop Titus, to whom he is writing his epistle or letter, to remind Christians to obey and submit to the authorities and authorities, to be ready for every good work, not to slander anyone, not to be quarrelsome, but quiet, and to show all meekness to all people. This admonition must be addressed loudly and with special force at the present time to many lost and perishing Christians, who boldly rebel against the trampling of the authorities established by God and the most sacred life of God’s Anointed. But where are they? How will the word of the Church, the word of Christ, reach them? They also reject the Church. But the word of God in its action and in its very procession and distribution is not limited. It will reach them too, and may it enlighten their darkened meanings and hearts. But you, brethren, beware of such, and submit uncomplainingly to the authorities and authorities and be ready for every good deed; leave off slander and foul language - abuse and quarreling; be meek, quiet in everything, following the example of the quietness and meekness of Christ. Brothers and sisters! If we have been given from God the grace and special power of God for salvation and for a holy Christian life, then we will be exacted much more severely at the Last Judgment of Christ if we neglect the grace of Christ and live in negligence. Let us always remember the grace given to us, let us diligently cultivate in ourselves the guarantee of grace, let us always remember that eternal life awaits us ahead if we use grace for the glory of God and for our salvation, or eternal torment, certainly eternal torment, if we reject the grace of God. Amen. Word for the Week on Enlightenment The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, and to those who sit in the land and the shadow of death, light has come to them (Matthew 4:16; Isaiah 9:2) This is how the prophet Isaiah once spoke, foreseeing by the Spirit of God the coming into the world of the non-evening Light - Christ. Five hundred years after this prophetic vision, people sitting in darkness actually saw a great light, and a great light actually shone on those sitting in the land and canopy or shadow of death. But what is this darkness and what is this light that the Prophet speaks of here? – The darkness mentioned in this prophecy is spiritual darkness, much worse than ordinary darkness; the darkness of ignorance of the true God, the deep darkness of superstition and idolatry. Before the appearance of the luminous Sun of Truth on earth, all idolaters, and once our Russian ancestors, all people, excluding the people of God, the chosen people, the Jews, were enveloped in such and such spiritual darkness. These people, sitting in darkness, saw, with the coming into the world of the Son of God, that great light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not embrace it (John 1:5), they saw that life-giving Source of all light, which is Christ the Lord, who by His coming to earth dispelled the deep darkness of ignorance of the true God everywhere and called people out of darkness into the wonderful light of the true Divine knowledge. And what, my brothers, were the terrible consequences for the human race from this dark night of ignorance that covered the ancient world for so long! Running through the time before the birth of the Savior, we meet here people who are led in life and faith by their own darkened minds and corrupted hearts, by their passions, immersed in wickedness and depravity. At that time, according to the word of the Prophet, they were likened to foolish cattle and became like them (Ps. 48:13), among them there was no one who did goodness, there was not even one (Ps. 13:3). Faith in the one true God, the Most Holy Being, had no place, with the exception of the Jewish people, among the people of these times. The glory of the incorruptible God was changed into the likeness of the corruptible image of man, and birds, and four-footed creatures, and creeping things (Rom. 1:23). People did not know their Creator and gave due honor to Him to various creatures, which themselves must serve their Creator. Instead of worshiping and serving with fear and trembling the Lord and Judge of the world, man bowed to the creature, said to the tree: you are my father, and the stones: you gave birth to me (Jer. 2:27). Having been so grossly mistaken in their faith in God, people were no less mistaken about themselves, believing that the purpose of their lives was to enjoy - as many do now - only corruptible and fleeting goods, not knowing why they were called to live in the world, not knowing about the dignity and high purpose of their soul. That is why they had a wicked and depraved life, similar to the life of senseless cattle. The devil, this primordial enemy of human salvation, has exhausted all his hellish cunning, all his evil efforts in order to pave the way from his dark region for all vices into the poor human race, which loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19). According to the word of the Apostle, people at this time walked in uncleanness, in lust, in drunkenness, in goat-speaking, in covetousness and in abominable idolatry (1 Peter 4:3). And this wickedness, this debauchery made them the sons of destruction, the prey of hell. There was no deliverer; he hasn't shown up yet. The best of the people of that time, however, sometimes rose significantly above their contemporaries with some purity of their thoughts and feelings, some knowledge about the true God, about the purpose and purpose of the human soul, and therefore they even tried, in their own strength, to please Him. But they were not alien to errors and vices of a different kind, inseparable from the everywhere darkness of idolatry. And most importantly, they could never, through their own efforts, achieve proper knowledge of the true God; they did not have faith in the future Redeemer of men, which alone justified a person before the court of God’s truth; there was no light that enlightens every person coming into the world (John 1:9), and therefore there was no opportunity for salvation for them. These, my brothers, are the truly terrible and deplorable consequences of this terrible night of ignorance! But now comes the predetermined end of times. The corruption of people has reached the last extreme. Man himself feels complete powerlessness and exhaustion in the fight against sin and strongly desires and expects help from above - and the merciful God sends His Only Begotten Son to earth to give omnipotent help to completely exhausted and needy humanity, to disperse the thick darkness that covered humanity and to illuminate those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death with the light of His God-Mind. Behold, He resolves the coming condemnation of the primordial Adam 110, whose crime cast all his descendants into this darkness, and Himself, as God, not needing purification, cleanses fallen man in the Jordan, in which, having killed the enmity that separated man from God by an impenetrable abyss, He gives people peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7). They are enlightened by holy baptism and are already beginning to taste that spiritual, heavenly peace that the Savior promises to all those who work and are burdened in this world. People are no longer led by their own passions in their lives and, like lost sheep who have again received the good Shepherd, they follow His voice and walk in Him. Instead of the former likeness to cattle, the lost likeness of God now appears in them in all its purity and strength; instead of the distorted image of God, there appears an image restored in all its majesty, so that people are made a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy tongue, people of renewal (1 Pet. 2:9) - and become capable of demonstrating virtues in their own lives. Faith in the one, true God is spreading throughout cities, entire kingdoms, and throughout the world. Already the Apostle of Languages ​​thanks the Lord God for the fact that the faith of Roman Christians is preached throughout the world (Rom. 1:8); already the other Apostles greet their numerous Churches with joy with the knowledge of the Light of truth. All peoples try to worthily worship the one, incorruptible, invisible God and, having come to know His infinite greatness and holiness, they no longer change His glory into the likeness of the corruptible image of man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things (Rom. 1:23). People now know themselves well, their soul, its heavenly origin and high purpose in the future; they know that God has given us eternal life to eat, and this life is in His Son (1 John 5:11); that great and precious promises have been given to us, so that through them we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Pet. 1:4). The world, lying in evil, with the coming to earth of the Source of all good, begins to gradually emerge from the depths of evil. The darkness is passing, and the true Light is already shining (1 John 2:8); people in joy rush to be enlightened by Him and seek to enjoy His saving fruits. The works of the devil are destroyed; the days of his dark dominion over the world are over; heaven has reconciled with earth; the kingdom of God has come near for people; instead of children of wrath they are called sons of God. Man has been granted all Divine powers, including life and piety (2 Pet. 1:3), and it depended and now depends solely on his will to be either a member of the heavenly kingdom or a prey of hell. Such are truly the most salutary and comforting consequences of this heavenly Light, which shone upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death! My brothers! At our very entry into the world, we are enlightened by holy baptism; From birth we bear the sacred name of Christians, we are called sons of light. It seems that none of us wants to count ourselves among those poor people who once sat in darkness and of whom there are still some; no one thinks of himself that, despite the high title of Christian, he remains in darkness, especially the so-called enlightened people - with the modern gloss of education. But, brethren, the Word of God also points out among us those who, even though they are Christians, remain in darkness. Who are these unfortunate people? These are those of us who hate our brother (1 John 2:9)! Yes, brethren, this is a truly bitter truth, and it seems difficult to believe that, in the light of God’s knowledge, we should remain in darkness. Nevertheless, however, this is an undoubted truth. Not to mention whether we accept with our mind and heart and with all our soul all the dogmas of our holy faith, whether we try to multiply with our good deeds the grace imparted to us in the sacraments of the Church, or whether we criminally abuse these sacraments and thus, therefore, condemn ourselves to remain in darkness, because we do not do works of faith; - without talking about all this, let us listen to what Christ’s beloved confidant John says this time, and whom he places in darkness: Say to yourself in the light of being, says the Apostle of God, but hate your brother, who is still in darkness (1 John 2:9). All of us, brothers, are in Christ with each other! Who will not agree that the sin of hatred of one’s neighbor is almost the most common, very often, much more often than other sins, repeated among us? How many different types of this sin are there? Do not envy, blasphemy, slander, murder and many others stem from one main root - hatred? Yes, these sins reign most in the human race. If we add to this the fact that love for one’s neighbor is closely connected with love for God, so that whoever, according to the Apostle, does not love his brother cannot love God, then we agree that all those who hate their neighbors remain in darkness until now. Terrible truth! What should we do, brothers, so that in all justice we may belong to the flock of Christ, to the people walking in the light? What means will we choose for this? Mental illnesses, as well as physical illnesses, are mostly cured by means that are directly opposite to them. Therefore, a real disease - hatred - can and should be treated in the same way. If hatred of our neighbor is the reason that we remain in darkness, then love, a virtue completely opposite to hatred, can put us in the light. Love is the beginning and soul of all virtues, and therefore the one who has it will do everything necessary to remain in the light, to fulfill the whole law, because love, as the Apostle Paul says, is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:10). And whoever fulfills the law of Christ is a grateful son of God, and, therefore, a son of the gracious Light. Christ the King, Holy Light, turn those who praise You from darkness of ignorance to faith! Enlighten us with Your commandments and the light of Your face, and grant Your peace to us who cry out to You from the darkness of sin. Amen. The current Sunday day is called the week of Enlightenment, or a week's day on which one should not engage in ordinary everyday affairs, worldly, earthly, but do the work of saving one's soul - according to Enlightenment, that is, after baptism, which both before and now was and is called Enlightenment, because through baptism spiritual light is given from God to our souls, the light of knowledge of God and piety, a sign of which hitherto are lamps or wax candles lit at the font, as well as lit candles in the hands of the recipient and recipient. This spiritual, imperishable, eternal light, communicated to our souls, is Christ our God Himself, the true Light, enlightening every person who comes into the world; Spiritual darkness is sin, or the culprit and leader of sin, the prince of darkness, the devil, darkening and seducing the human race with sin, teaching every sin and dragging a person into eternal destruction. In accordance with this meaning of this Sunday, the Gospel is read at mass about the coming of Jesus Christ from the city of Nazareth, where He lived and was raised, into pagan Galilee, to the people sitting in darkness in the land and the shadow of death, and about their enlightenment, as the prophet Isaiah predicted 700 years before the coming of Christ to earth, saying: the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali are on the way seaside, beyond the Jordan, pagan Galilee, the people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those sitting in the land and shadow of death a light dawned (Matthew 4:15-16; Isaiah 9:1-2). And as spiritual enlightenment is accomplished through sincere repentance of sins, which are real darkness, eternal darkness and eternal torment, then the Lord, who settled in this land of darkness and the shadow of death, began to preach and say: repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). So, true repentance drives away the darkness of sin, sin and the culprit of sin, the devil, who lives and reigns in the hearts of sinners, and establishes in the heart of the believer and the repentant the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of Christ. This is the content and meaning of the current Gospel; it speaks of our spiritual enlightenment, of repentance for sins, of the closeness to us now, with the coming of Christ God to earth - the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of grace, which is His Church - this kingdom of grace on earth - in which all Divine powers are given to us for life and piety (2 Pet. 1:3): therefore, the word today should be about Christian enlightenment. Are we all enlightened Christians? Do we all live in constant, sincere repentance, like eternal sinners, guilty of God’s judgment, or do we add sins to sins? Are we diligently trying to do the good deeds for which we were created, or are we fussy, grinding and chasing the dreams of our hearts? I asked myself and you these questions in order to show that true Christian enlightenment consists in knowing oneself or that: who are we, and what are we for? What we were in the beginning when we were created by God; what we have become by committing sin, and what we must certainly be; further, true Christian enlightenment consists in sincere, active, and not empty, formal, false repentance, served by many of us every year on the indicated days and not subsequently accompanied by the fruits of repentance - a good life, deeds of truth, mercy, abstinence, purity and holiness, a zealous desire for Christian perfection, according to the scripture: be you perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48 ); further, in order to show that true Christian enlightenment does not consist only in literacy, or the study of various sciences relating to the earth and what is on earth, or to heaven and celestial mechanics, and not even in the study of the actual Christian science of knowledge of God, because you can be literate and a theologian and not have true enlightenment in your soul, you can even be, as happens in reality, a person completely darkened by the darkness of passions; and it, i.e. Christian enlightenment consists in enlightening the eyes of the heart with the light of the Gospel of Christ, in removing with the help of the grace of Christ through repentance and prayer from all darkness of passions, in removing from oneself wickedness, unbelief, self-love, conceit, malice, pride, anger, hatred, envy, condemnation of others, hard-heartedness and greed, in removing from idleness and vanity, or from harmful the art of passing and killing time, for example, in playing cards and various shows such as theaters and circuses; from untruth and covetousness - from an unclean, adulterous life, from reading empty books, which may contain skillful cunning fabric and wordplay and the art of language, but in their essence do not contain any edification and leave only regret for the time spent on them. So, Christian enlightenment, beloved brothers and sisters, consists of sincere faith in Christ, self-knowledge, unfeigned repentance and removal from evil, and the constant pursuit of Christian virtue and perfection for the sake of eternal bliss in God and with God. If you have realized that you are dirt and dust, that you are the stench of sin, that you are a sinner always worthy of God’s punishment; if you are kind and simple-hearted, meek, humble in heart, peaceful and peace-loving, patient and selfless, love the truth, stand for it and despise untruth; if you are sincerely benevolent, merciful and compassionate; if you are temperate, sincere, respect purity and innocence, hate idleness and idle amusements, and study day and night in the fulfillment of the Gospel - this wise, life-giving, righteous, eternal science of science; then you possess incorruptible Christian, and not illusory worldly, enlightenment that disappears like a meteor, and you are not far from the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of God is already within you (Luke 17:21); What God forbid we have time to congratulate ourselves on. Amen. Today, beloved, I want to offer you my word on the Apostolic and Gospel readings set for this Sunday, called the week of Enlightenment, that is, after the Baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Reading from the Apostle, specifically from the epistle of St. The Apostle Paul to the Ephesians had the following content: Brethren, writes the Apostle, each of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore it is said: He ascended on high, took captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And what does “ascended” mean, if not that He had previously descended into the nether regions of the earth? He who descended is also He who ascended above all the heavens to fill everything. And He appointed some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be shepherds and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. 4:7-13). Here ends the reading from the Apostle. It talks about various grace-filled gifts to Christians, necessary for the salvation of the soul and in order for them to be mutually useful to each other, as members of the great body of the Church of Christ. Who gave these grace-filled, spiritual gifts? The Lord Jesus Christ, about whom it was predicted in this sense by the prophet-king David: having ascended to the heights, that is, to heaven, he captured captivity, that is, the captivity of the enemy, warrior and destroyer of the human race - the devil, captivity - which he owned for more than 5000 years - and gave gifts to people. What gifts exactly? The Apostle speaks about these gifts in his letter to the inhabitants of the city of Corinth, converted to the Christian faith from pagans and Jews: I do not want, he says, brethren, to leave you ignorant about spiritual gifts... The gifts are different, but the Spirit is the same; and the services are different, but the Lord who works in the servants is one and the same; and the actions are different, but God is one and the same, producing everything in everyone. But everyone is given the manifestation of the Spirit for their benefit. To one is given the word of wisdom by the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to others gifts of healings by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. Yet all these things are done by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each one individually as He pleases (1 Cor. 12:1-11). Here we are talking about special, extraordinary gifts of grace that were given by the Holy Spirit to the first Christians for the speedy spread and establishment of the Church of Christ between Jews and pagans. But many of these gifts of God have not become scarce even now, just as they will not become scarce until the end of this age; for the Lord says: Behold, I am with you to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20); and if He is always with us, then His gifts are always with us. So, each of us has been given so much grace from God that with its help everyone can save his soul and be useful to others. No one is deprived of the gift of God; therefore, each of us must work out our salvation with fear and not be excused by inability or impossibility. The Apostle further speaks of the omnipotent power of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, on earth and in the underworld, that He fills everything with Himself as unlimited; and that He is the omnipotent Head of the Church or Christian society, and He appointed in the Church some as apostles, others as prophets, as they were in the primal Church, others as Evangelists, others as shepherds and teachers, for the perfection of saints, that is, for Christians to achieve a holy life, for the work of service, that is, in the Church, for the Body of Christ, that is, believers; for we are all one spiritual body under the Head - Christ, until we all come into the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13), of course, not physical, but spiritual. So, the all-holy, all-powerful, all-wise Lord, who indescribably loves us, founded on earth a Church or a society of believers in Him and in this Church he established, among other things, a sacred order or church hierarchy, i.e. shepherds and teachers: bishops, priests and deacons to guide Christians to holy life, to perform Divine services and sacraments, to preach the Word of God and to govern the believers. Listen, brothers, to your shepherds, accept from the heart their soul-helping advice, instructions and admonitions, and sometimes penances, and do not separate from the Church, lest the enemy and sin overcome you; beware of communicating with schismatics, blasphemers of the Holy Church and its shepherds, who have neither real shepherds and teachers, nor the Holy sacraments, nor grace-filled powers for salvation, and who are like lost and lost sheep, wandering in strange pastures, unfenced, without shepherds and without nutritious and saving food, hungry and miserable, prey to wolves and eternal destruction; especially the imaginary leaders of the schismatics. Tell them on behalf of the Church that they are perishing through knowledge or ignorance through their stubbornness and ignorance and through removal from the Church of Christ, from its true shepherds and teachers. – Everyone adhere sincerely and firmly to the Church of God, the only saving, immaculate one. If anyone says that the shepherds do not satisfy us, do not give us verbal food, do not feed us with words of faith, then I will answer this: urgently demand from us this spiritual food, without which the soul dies of hunger. We are always ready to preach the saving Word of God to you, just listen with your heart and try to fulfill what you hear. I also repeat: adhere with all your heart to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, and the Lord will always be with you. Now a word on the Gospel reading. In the Gospel today we read that our Lord Jesus Christ, after His baptism and temptation in the desert from the devil over humanity, and after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, withdrew from Nazareth, where he was raised, to the seaside city of Capernaum, to the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, to the Galilean pagans, as was predicted by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before Christmas. Christ, - and brought with Him the Divine light; The people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those sitting in the land and shadow of death light dawned (Matthew 4:16; Isaiah 9:2). We do not envy you, Galileans, but we rejoice with you, for we ourselves, former pagans, have long been worthy of accepting the Christian faith, through the Equal-to-the-Apostles Russian Prince St. Vladimir, and have been illuminated abundantly with its heavenly light; The only question is, do we have sufficient fruits of the faith of Christ - are we saved through it, are we perfected - do we bring Christ the fruits of repentance and virtuous living? Are we being sanctified, are we living holy? – The solution to these issues lies on the conscience of each of us. The Apostle implores us all to act worthy of the calling to which we have been called. – Further, Evangelist Matthew in today’s Gospel narrates that from the time of his settlement in Capernaum, Jesus Christ began to preach and say: repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). Why did the Lord begin his sermon with a word about repentance? Because sinners need nothing more for salvation than repentance and faith; Without repentance, pardon and reconciliation with God are impossible: for sin is the greatest enmity against God; darkness that does not allow the communication of the light of God; impurity that does not allow the Most Pure God to dwell in the heart. Repent, says the Lord, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, because God Himself came to earth in the flesh to seek and save the lost (Matthew 18:11); It was not we sinners who first approached God, but God Himself who approached us with the strongest love and took pity on us who were perishing. In fact, reason and consider: can the Kingdom of Heaven be even closer to us, as after the coming to earth of the King of Heaven Himself, the Only Begotten Son of God? Look: He, unapproachable to angels, walks the earth, deals with sinners, is accessible to everyone; He teaches, works miracles, eats and drinks with people, calls those faithful to Him His brothers and friends; grieves with our sorrows, suffers with our illnesses; takes upon himself our ailments and illnesses; rejoices in our joys, suffered for us and died for us, in order to save us from eternal suffering and put to death our universal death, in order to deliver us from the righteous curse of God and grant to all reconciliation with the Heavenly Father and His eternal blessing. – And not only then – He is always close to us, according to His promise: behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). He is close to us in the Church, in which He eternally abides: in its hierarchy, in its Divine services and sacraments, in God’s Gospel Word, in the wonderful gifts of grace, - and personally, by His very Being, both in His omnipresence, and especially tangibly, life-giving and miraculously in His Most Pure Mysteries, in His body and blood, in which all of His essentially rests Divinity and humanity. In these St. In the Mysteries He enters our homes, communicates to the sick, miraculously healing their mental and physical ailments. He is close to all who live in faith, truth, peace and mutual love. The Kingdom of Heaven is so close to us! Why is it so, so far away for some? - Because they themselves are very, very distant and do not want to get closer to Him through repentance and faith. So, all of you, repent sincerely, and the Kingdom of Heaven will draw near to you and dwell in you, and make you blessed on earth and in heaven. Amen. Lesson for the Week of Enlightenment From there Jesus began to preach and say: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near (Matthew 4:17) After baptism in the Jordan River by John and after temptation in the desert from the devil, Jesus Christ solemnly revealed Himself to the world, beginning to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and performing countless miracles for the benefit of needy people. His first word to sinful people was a word about repentance and the approach of the kingdom of heaven. From there Jesus began to preach and say: repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near. For what could be the first word from the Savior to sinners if not a word about repentance and strict, sincere self-condemnation and recognition of complete guilt before the all-holy God? And what word, first of all, could be addressed to those who have departed immeasurably from God and His life, His righteousness, if not the joyful news about the approach of the kingdom of God to them? For what is the kingdom of God? This is also the kingdom of Christ, or Christ Himself, who came in the flesh, the kingdom of truth and holiness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins; sonhood or adoption of us sinners - through faith and baptism and other sacraments - to God; boldness before God; removal from all earthly attachments and looking up to God; ardent love for God and neighbors; strength and power over passions and over demons, who constantly plot intrigues over people and seek to plunge them into all sorts of sins and destroy them; The kingdom of God is a constant ascent from virtue to virtue, from earth to heaven, from corruption to incorruption, from death to immortality, from temporary and disappearing life to life that has no end. Since in the beginning we were created immortal in our souls, with the capacity for immortality and in the body, and deviated into death, destruction, and corruption through our own fault: through sin, through the abyss of our sins, it is clear in itself that when we are again given the opportunity for justification, sanctification and immortality in Christ, our justification must be accomplished through repentance of sins, through constant repentance, through the multitude, the abyss repentance, so to speak. As many times as you fall into sins, you will rise through repentance and be saved, says the Prophet. Repent! Without repentance it is impossible to be worthy of the Kingdom of God: for what fellowship is there between light and darkness, righteousness with lawlessness, Christ with beliar (2 Cor. 6:14–15)? “Your sins separate you from God (Is. 59:2), says the Prophet Isaiah. Like connects with like. And the whole order of nature is structured this way: the homogeneous tends to the homogeneous. It’s the same with people. A sinner, as long as he remains stuck in sin, is a child of the devil, for through sin he carries his likeness in his soul and strives for every sin. Thus, an evil person is like the evil devil; evil is the likeness of him, the chief of evil; envious - the likeness of the primordial envier, who, out of envy, destroyed the first people; unclean - the likeness of the unclean and all-filthy devil, who taught and teaches people all uncleanness and abomination; the wayward and adversary of good is a similarity to the first adversary of God. You cannot work with God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). We must sincerely condemn everything in ourselves that is bad and contrary to God, sincerely hate every sin, every passion, every malice, every earthly passion, and carefully move away from evil. Then the Lord, seeing in us the fight against evil and love for good, will hasten to us, recreate His likeness in us and with favor, as the all-good and loving One, will dwell in our hearts. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and I will come to him and make my abode with him (John 14:23). – This is how the Kingdom of God approaches us! It comes to us, inhabits us - through sincere repentance and fulfillment of the will of God. Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near. The Kingdom of Heaven, or the grace of Christ our Savior, secretly and openly follows us everywhere during our earthly life and is ready to move into us, into our hearts, if it finds in us the disposition and readiness for it. Behold, I stand at the door (of the heart) and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me (Rev. 3:20), says the Lord. Grace everywhere, at all times, seeks the salvation of the sinner, for our salvation was bought at a price (cf. 1 Cor. 6:20, 7:23). With you and at home in solitude, she secretly illuminates your mind, your heart, at times disposing it to repentance or to gratitude for the countless blessings of God - she talks with you on the road, knocks on you both in public meetings, and during your mental and physical labors, and everywhere she is ready to open her holy motherly arms to you, if only you would come to your senses, feel, believe, soften, and become enlightened. – And many, many are saved secretly and openly by the grace of God, extracting them from the abyss of sins in various ways known to God alone. The Kingdom of God is always so close to us, and salvation is so convenient for us everywhere, if only we wish to live by faith and value our salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ, through His incarnation, through His life on earth, through His teaching, miracles, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, poured out on the earth, or better yet, on the Church, the entire abyss of His grace: enlightening, merciful, cleansing, sanctifying, renewing, affirming, guiding, saving; poured out a whole sea of ​​grace; Come everyone and draw the water of salvation as much as you want. Draw water with joy from the fountain of salvation, cries the Prophet (Is.12:3). “Whoever believes in Me,” says the Lord, “will have rivers of living water flowing from his belly (John 7:38). Such were Chrysostom, Basil, Athanasius, Gregory, who flowed out rivers of blessed teaching. - Now, in the times of the New Testament, not like in the times of the Old Testament, - and visible signs and containers of the kingdom of God - the churches of God are everywhere; they are even placed in public and sometimes private houses - among noble people; The Kingdom of God is established, so to speak, under the roof of our houses. What is more convenient? – Come and draw the grace of salvation that flows abundantly in the Church. Use the grace of repentance, approach the Mysteries of Christ with tenderness and boldness; study the dogmas and sacraments of the faith in church and at home; listen and read scriptures; Sing, praise, give thanks to the Lord, speaking to yourself in psalms and songs and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:119), and behold, you are in the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God is in you. “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” says the Lord (Matthew 28:20). And He is truly with us always, in every place He hears, has mercy, saves us, cleanses our sins, sanctifies, revives, heals ailments, delivers from the snares of the devil, helps in labor, comforts the poor, the mourning, the sick, either Himself invisibly, or through His Saints, and through good people - He has mercy on everyone, but also reproaches everyone, admonishes and punishes, as God and the righteous Judge, searcher of hearts and bellies (Ps. 7:10). – The Kingdom of God is so close, the kingdom of heaven on earth: it lives with us, knocks on our doors, enters those who wish and repent and brings its pure, incorruptible, life-giving benefits of truth, peace and spiritual bliss. But, if the kingdom of heaven is so close to us and is so ready to always embrace us, to dwell in us, then we will be irresponsible before God if we ourselves move away from the Kingdom of God, if we reject it from ourselves with a daring hand. God is not mocked (Gal.6:7). “There is a certain fear of judgment, and a fire of jealousy, ready to devour one’s opponents,” says the Apostle Paul (Heb. 10:27). Brethren! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near. Amen. Teaching on the Day of the Presentation of the Lord Now you are releasing Your servant, O Master, according to Your word, in peace (Luke 2:29) The real feast of the Presentation of the Lord is so called because the righteous elder Simeon, who lived in Jerusalem, met the fourty-day-old Infant, the Lord Jesus Christ with His Most Pure Mother, in the Jerusalem Temple, took Him in his arms and said: now let Thy servant go, O Master, according to Thy word in peace; For mine eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people: Light in the revelation of the tongue, and the glory of Your people Israel (Luke 2:29-32). This old man was marvelous both in his holiness, for the Holy Spirit always abided in him, and in his enlightenment and in his old age - he was three hundred and sixty years old. We can say that, beyond the law of nature, God’s grace miraculously preserved him for so long. This is what church history tells about this St. Elder. When Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, who lived almost 300 years BC, the founder of the glorious Library of Alexandria, wanted to translate the Bible from Hebrew into Greek, he sent a request to the Jewish high priest. The high priest chose from among the Israelites seventy men who were wise and skilled in both languages. Among them we find the righteous Simeon. While translating the book of the prophet Isaiah, when Simeon reached the prophecy: behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son (Is. 7:14), he doubted and stopped, reasoning with himself - how can a virgin give birth to a child? Then he took a knife and wanted to erase the prophecy in his manuscript. Suddenly an Angel of the Lord appears to him and, holding his hand, says to him: believe what is written. You yourself will see the event of the greatest sacrament, for you will not see death until you see Christ the Lord having to be born from the Most Pure Virgin. Having established himself on the words of the Angel and the Prophet, from that time Simeon awaited the coming of Christ with ardent desire: he lived righteously and chastely and constantly prayed to God. When the born Savior, after fourty days, was brought into the church by the God-gracious Mother, then Simeon, knowing from above that this Child is the promised Savior and His Mother is the Holy Virgin, on whom the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, with reverence and joy accepted the Lord into his arms and uttered the spoken words. Then, having given thanks to God, who had given consolation to Israel, he gave up his spirit. That is why the Lord so unusually continued his days, that is, in order for him to live until the summer in which the flightless, beginningless God was born in the flesh. We have happiness and bliss no less than Simeon, even more; for with our lips and hearts we accept the Lord Jesus Christ when we partake of His Mysteries. On what occasion was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord established? For it was not established shortly after the Lord’s ascension into heaven and after the descent of the Holy Spirit, like some other holidays: Easter, Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension and Pentecost, but almost 500 years after the Nativity of Christ. Here's the occasion: during the ill-fated year of Justinian's reign, in the last days of October, a pestilence broke out in Constantinople and surrounding countries and raged so strongly that finally 10 thousand people died every day, and in some places there was such desolation that there was no one to bury the dead. And in Antioch, in addition to this plague, terrible earthquakes continued, repeated several times, destroying houses and churches, and many people died under their ruins. By the way, the church building collapsed when Euphrasius, Bishop of Antioch, made a bloodless sacrifice in it. The city of Pompeopolis was half destroyed, and the other half was swallowed up by the earth with thousands of inhabitants. To avert this wrath of the Lord, according to the special revelation of a certain saint. man, the solemn celebration of the Presentation of the Lord was established. And as soon as, on the 2nd day of February, they began an all-night vigil with a procession of the cross, at that hour the plague passed, the pestilence ceased, and the earthquake was tamed. This is the kind of wrath of God that our iniquities, our unbelief, our negligence about salvation, our ingratitude, ill-will and hard-heartedness bring upon us and upon the earth itself. Oh, terrible monster - sin! Oh, all-destroying monster - sin! Let us run at all costs from this hundred-headed hydra, the snake. Let us kill the sins within ourselves! Let us continually repent. Beloved, without fasting, repentance and prayer, like a warrior without weapons, a Christian cannot defeat the sin that lives in him. Amen. Now do You let Your servant go, O Master, according to Your word, in peace: for mine eyes have seen Your salvation (Luke 2:29–30) Thus, before the end of his life, the holy elder Simeon proclaimed, taking in his arms the forty-day-old Child, our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom, according to the custom of the law that remains with us, the Most Holy Virgin Mary brought into the church. Joyfully He held in His arms the One who contains all creation; Elder Simeon joyfully looked at his approaching death, because in his arms he saw the One who reassured him in safety and blissful life and after death. But we are not jealous of you, righteous elder! We ourselves have your happiness - to lift up not only the Divine Jesus in our arms, but with our lips and hearts, just as you always carried Him in your heart, not yet seeing Him, but devouring Him - and not once in your life, not ten, but as many times as we want. Who will not understand, beloved brethren, that I am talking about communion of the Life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ? – Yes, we have greater happiness than St. Simeon; and the righteous old man, one might say, embraced the Life-Giver Jesus in his arms as a sign of how those who believe in Christ in the future, all the days until the end of time, will lift and carry Him, not only in their arms, but in their very hearts. Not only in their arms, I say, because the clergy who celebrate the Divine Liturgy and in their arms lift Him up with their hands during each Liturgy, and then - oh, immeasurable mercy - they embrace Him in the embrace of their hearts! O Jesus, the Son of God, an abyss of goodness and generosity! How do You not scorch us, unclean in heart and lips, always unworthy of Your Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries? But what am I saying? You scorch our unworthiness when we do not bring to You, reclining on the throne, firm and unshakable faith and contrition of heart, but you also immediately revive us, give us peace and joy when we are corrected from the disease of doubt and lack of faith - for You are the Truth and will not allow even the slightest shadow of doubt to be in us unpunished. So, we lift up the Lord, like Simeon, in our arms every liturgy, and you, at least most of you, are granted the happiness of lifting up your Savior only once or several times a year, and then always after worthy preparation for this? God grant that everyone approaches such a terrible sacrament with proper preparation. One must be surprised at the lack of faith and coldness of Christians towards Christ, the Giver of Life and their Lord! The source of immortality flows daily: come prepared and drink - especially since many are sick in spirit and body, have a lot of free time, and many spend it in idleness. And what do we see? Despite the fact that we all feel in our souls the burden of sins and passions, our guilt, our repentance before God, our powerlessness in the fight against passions - we come to the Lord, who offers Himself daily as food for the faithful and is ready to show all help to the needy and burdened. We see, and even then not always, almost only unconscious infants drinking from the immortal Source; and even those sometimes - alas! - brought to St. There are no fathers, no mothers, no nurses, no grandmothers, but women taken, as they say, from the wind, sometimes beggars. What inattention to the greatest shrine! Lord Life-Giver Savior! What have we come to? – You come out every day to meet us at the gates of Your church, and we respond to You with indifference and even the most senseless negligence. How long do you tolerate our untruths, our coldness, our insensitivity, our pride? The Lord is patient with us, brethren, not even though some may perish forever, but that they all may come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), that sooner or later they may turn from their insensibility. Thus, most Christians coldly greet the Lord in the church - in His Holy Mysteries, they rarely approach the Holy Mysteries - to taste their Lord, but at least, even in their illness, or before their death, like Simeon, they all wanted to joyfully lift up the Lord and see His salvation. - No: many run away from Him even in illness and, when they are offered immortal food and drink and together with the all-healing healing of the Body and Blood of the Life-Giver, they put it off until the future, which they cannot have at their disposal, probably, because our life is in the power of God; and many have the secret thought that they receive communion only as if before death. Christ God! Didn't You say with Your Most Pure lips that You came to earth so that people would have life, and have it in abundance, and not to destroy them? The Son of Man did not come to destroy the souls of men, but to save (Luke 9:56). I came to death, and they had belly, and they had more (John 10:10). And in St. In the mysteries do you not grant life to all who receive them with faith? Don’t you often miraculously heal diseases? Don’t you always resolve and cleanse us from sins? How long will we be foolish, unfaithful and blind? And with what joy would each of us say before death after a worthy reception of St. Thy mysteries: now dost thou release thy servant, O Master, according to thy word, in peace, from this short-lived, vain age, as my eyes have seen thy salvation, here in the first fruits, and I hope that I will see it accomplished there, in eternity. Now, even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me (Ps. 22:4). Receive my spirit in peace. But behold, brethren, the meeting of the Lord will come for all people - for Christians, Jews, Hagarites and pagans, that is, for the entire human race: if you have not learned here to meet Him meek and humble, how will you meet Him in unapproachable glory? Where will we end up then? Where will I end up with my current carelessness and coldness towards the Lord? Will not the sons of the kingdom be cast out into utter darkness, where there will be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42)? The apostle says it will be. How do we escape, i.e. from future torment, about the careless salvation that the hedgehog has conceived, say from the Lord those who heard it in us (Heb. 2:3)? Brethren! In order for us to joyfully meet the Lord at His second, glorious coming, let us learn to meet Him here - annually on the feast of the Presentation and on all holidays and Sundays, and especially in the Holy Mysteries, that is, we will approach the Holy Chalice with great faith and a contrite and humble heart. For those who are accustomed to meet Him worthily here, in the present century, there will be no fear in meeting Him at His second and glorious coming. God! Although you may come again to judge the universe with righteousness, deign me too to place You on the clouds of my Judge and God, so that I may endlessly glorify and sing Your praises with Your beginningless Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever 111. Amen. Teaching on the Transfiguration of the Lord The Holy Church now celebrates - and we celebrate with it - the bright feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor and the glorification of our human nature in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will repeat in Russian speech the Gospel or the all-joyful gospel of the Evangelist Matthew about the present day, telling about the event of transfiguration. “At that time, Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain alone. And He was transfigured before them: and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. At this Peter said to Jesus: Lord! It's good for us to be here; If you want, we will make three tabernacles here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice from the cloud, saying: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to him." And when the disciples heard, they fell on their faces and were very afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said: Arise and do not be afraid. Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus. And when they came down from the mountain, Jesus forbade them, saying: Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man rises from the dead (Matthew 17:1-9). Here is the end of the Gospel story. So, the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ consisted in the fact that during His prayer on Mount Tabor, as another Evangelist complements this legend, His face suddenly shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light (Luke 9:29; Mark 9:3). At this time, the ancient prophet and legislator of the Jewish people Moses and the prophet Elijah appeared to the disciples, who had once been taken alive to heaven in a chariot of fire and on horses of fire; They appeared in glory, that is, in heavenly light, and talked with the Lord about the coming suffering and about His death on the cross in Jerusalem, as Evangelist Luke complements this legend. Why did the Lord show the Apostles His heavenly glory, the lordship of His Divinity as much as they could contain, no more, because otherwise they would not have survived? Man cannot see My face, God said to Moses in the Old Testament, and remain alive (Exodus 33:20). In order, again and again, after countless miracles, to show them in the most obvious way His Divinity and His oneness with the Father, so that they would not waver in faith during His suffering and death, but would understand and understand that He suffered and died voluntarily, for the sins of the world - and boldly preached about Him to people that He is truly the Only Begotten Son of God, the eternal Creator of the visible and invisible, or angelic world. Why did the prophets appear, Moses, who lived before Jesus Christ for one and a half thousand years, and Elijah - almost a thousand years? And what is the glory for? – They appeared to testify to the Apostles that Jesus Christ is the one predicted by the prophets of old, the true Messiah, the Savior of the world, possessing the living and the dead, and to instruct the disciples in the urgent need of His suffering and death for the redemption of the world. They appeared in glory in order to assure the disciples that the same or even greater glory awaited them for their exploits on earth as the disciples and friends of Christ. – The prophets talked with the Lord about the terrible suffering of the Lord for us in Jerusalem; and Peter, who did not know what he was saying, wanted to enjoy bliss on Tabor in the presence of the Lord: it is good for us to be here, says, Lord: let us make three tabernacles, i.e. tents of green branches - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. No, Peter the Apostle, it is not the place or time for you to be blissful here; but I insist that you endure severe suffering and the most blasphemous death. Didn't you hear what Moses and Elijah talked about with the Lord during His transfiguration? Not about bliss, but about the suffering and death that He had to endure. But Peter himself did not know, as it is said, out of great joy and happiness what he was saying. It was necessary to enlighten him and the other disciples from above, and Peter had not yet finished his words when a voice was heard from heaven: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to Him (Matthew 17:5); that is, do not follow what pleases you, what is pleasant, but listen to Him, My beloved Son. – What did He say so recently? – If anyone wants to come after Me, deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow Me (Luke 9:23). This is where you need to obey Him. And we, brothers and sisters, should not seek joys and bliss on earth; here is not a place or time for bliss, but a place and time of tearful repentance and purifying sorrows. Bliss will be there in heaven, but there will be endless centuries for all those who truly believed and labored here. The disciples were afraid of the voice of God because they were still imperfect and earthly. The Lord took away fear from them with His touch and the word: Do not be afraid. Opening their eyes, they saw only the Lord and in his usual form. When descending from the mountain, He did not allow them to tell the people about this vision until He rose from the dead, why? - Because the Lord had to suffer and die for the salvation of the world and you and me, brothers, and he did not want His Divine glory to be glorified before suffering and the end of the work of redemption, and to give us an example of humility, so that we would not seek glory from people, but from God. So, brothers and sisters, let us not seek joy and bliss or vain glory on earth, but let us constantly change for the better through deep and unfeigned repentance, firm and unceasing and diligent doing of good deeds - let us endure with patience and hope the sorrows, adversities, and sufferings that are sent. – If we live this way, then a wonderful transformation will come for us, when the Lord will transform our humble body so that it will be consistent with the glorious Body of Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:21), as the Scripture says. This will happen after the general resurrection of the dead. Amen. Word on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord Be transfigured before them (Jesus): and His face shine forth like the sun; And His robe was white as light (Matthew 17:2) Now we remember and celebrate the glorious Transfiguration of the Most Pure Flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. This transfiguration took place in the presence of three earthly witnesses - the Apostles Peter, James and John. Jesus Christ, as usual, went up the mountain to pray, like a man, to the Heavenly Father. While He was praying, His Divinity suddenly shone through His body: His face became as bright as the sun, and His clothes, from the inner light of the Divine and from the light of the body, became white like light - so white that no whitener could make them so white. Moses and Elijah, the ancient great Prophets, appeared; they spoke to the Lord. What were they talking about? – They talked about the suffering that the Savior of the human race had to endure for the sake of our salvation in Jerusalem. His exodus was spoken of, even though He wanted to die in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). The Apostle Peter, seeing the Lord and the Prophets in such glory, said to the Lord: Lord! It is good for us to be here; If you want, we will make three canopies (tents) here: one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice was heard: This is My Beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased: Hear Him (Matthew 17:4-5). The voice was from God the Father. Hearing the divine voice, the disciples of the Lord fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. The Lord came up to them, touched them and said: stand up and do not be afraid. They lifted up their gaze: there was no one else but Jesus Christ. When they began to descend from the mountain, the Lord told them not to tell anyone about the vision until He rose from the dead. So, imagine, beloved brethren, the glorious sight of the Most Pure Flesh of the Lord, shining like the sun on Tabor - and enjoy longer, longer this heavenly spectacle; imagining it, triumph in your spirit and rejoice: it is our human face that shone in such glory, in its closest unity with the essence of God the Word Himself. Triumph and rejoice in the hope that if you are obedient to your Lord in this temporary life, follow His Divine commandments, then He will one day transform your bodies with the same glory - so that they will be consistent with His glorious body; The Lord Himself assures us of this when He says that the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43); and St. Apostle Paul, who says that the Lord will transform our humble body so that it will be consistent with His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). – But why did the Lord transfigure himself in glory on Mount Tabor and only in front of His three disciples? Brethren! The Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer for us and be so humiliated and humiliated that if His disciples, before His suffering, had not been confirmed by various signs and wonders in their faith in Him as the Son of God, they could have been tempted regarding His face, fallen away from Him and scattered, each in his own direction. It was necessary to assure them by some amazing miracle that He is truly the Father’s radiance, light from light, the Son of God, who will willingly suffer for us. By such a miracle, by the way, the Lord chose to transfigure His body on the mountain: and behold, His face shone like the sun, and His clothes shone like light, and God the Father Himself spoke from the cloud: This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased: Hear ye Him (Matthew 17:5). So, the disciples of Christ, by the transfiguration of the Lord, were prepared in advance so that they would not be tempted by the suffering and death of their beloved Teacher and Lord. – As for why the Lord was transfigured only in front of three disciples, this is for the reason that according to the law, three witnesses were enough to verify any truth. Brethren! The Lord also bequeathed to all His followers sorrow and suffering in this world: in the world you will be in sorrow, He told His disciples before His suffering (John 16:33); If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Matthew 16:24). So, endure without complaint all the sorrows God sends to you. But do not be afraid of suffering and sorrow, for they will lead you to eternal joys in heaven; just as the Lord, after His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection, entered into the eternal joy of the kingdom of heaven and according to His humanity. Just as gold in a crucible is purified and enlightened, so the human soul in the crucible of sorrow and suffering is also purified and enlightened. And this is why the Lord left many different sorrows for His followers in this adulterous and sinful world; they serve as a great benefit for the sufferers themselves and as a deposit of their future eternal bliss. Your sorrow will be turned into joy, says the Lord (John 16:20). – Which of the saints, starting with the Most Blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ to the last righteous man, did not grieve in this life and did not enter the kingdom of heaven through sorrow. Nobody. All entered the kingdom of glory through many sorrows. – So, spiritual sorrows transform us, cleanse and enlighten our souls. And this is also why the Lord, coming to our free passion for the sake of salvation, was transformed in glory: He wanted to show all His followers who had to suffer for Him that their suffering would lead them to heavenly glory, that they themselves would be enlightened, like the sun, in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43). What else does the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord oblige each and every one of us to? He obliges us all to transform ourselves internally. There is no need to talk about how everyone needs to transform, change themselves for the better; just look impartially, each one into your own heart, look at your thoughts, desires, intentions, undertakings, words and deeds - and it will immediately become clear how necessary it is to immediately begin to transform your heart. What fills our hearts almost every day and hour? Knowing all the secrets of human hearts, the Lord Jesus Christ says that from the human heart come evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, extortion, insults, deceit, flattery, deceit, the evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness (Mark 7:21-22). And each of us, attentive to himself, cannot help but admit that his heart almost constantly gives rise to sinful abominations: lack of faith, doubt, self-love, coldness towards God and neighbor, anger, condemnation, gloating and malice, envy, pride, arrogance, disobedience, false shame, contempt, addiction to earthly life and insatiable greed for earthly things. benefits, often combined with resentment towards one’s neighbor (namely, greed for money, for food and drinks, especially for wine and various sweets, also for shameful deeds, addiction to clothes and shiny jewelry); laziness, especially in every matter of salvation, and idleness with all idle activities, such as: cards, smoking, playing musical instruments that is completely useless for the soul, elevated to a scientific art, dancing and reading books filled with idle talk, oral idle talk and foul language, etc. Until now, almost every one of us has thought very, very little, and some have not thought at all about heavenly things, but have thought everything about earthly things, and had in themselves not the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of this world, cared about the body and despised spiritual needs; He valued earthly, perishable things dearly and neglected heavenly and eternal things; he was filled with self-love and had little, little love of God and brotherly love. Who, after this, will deny that each of us needs to immediately begin to transform our hearts and our lives, which were hitherto contrary to the Gospel? So, brothers and sisters, for the glory of the Lord who was transformed on Tabor, calling upon His grace for help, let us begin from today to transform our heart dispositions and our vain lives. Let no one be afraid of the difficulty of this transformation; The grace of God is omnipotent, let us continually ask God for it; let's say: Lord! Without You we cannot do anything (John 15:5); Correct our steps to do Your commandments. Let us not forget that the Kingdom of Heaven is acquired through effort, and only strong seekers acquire it, according to the words of the Lord Himself (Matthew 11:12). Let those of little faith work to acquire faith by diligently reading the Word of God and the lives of the Saints; let him who is cold in love for God and neighbor ask God for love: for every gift is perfect, much more, the most perfect gift of love is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17), and let him exercise himself in love; the proud and arrogant one, let him put aside his pride and arrogance and with all his heart, let him devote himself to humility; evil and contemptuous, let him put aside his malice and contempt and look at each and every one with respect and love; let the envious one leave his envy; stingy - his stinginess, lazy and careless - his laziness and negligence; idle - your idle activities; lover of money - his love of money; drunkard - drunkenness; a glutton is his gluttony; thief - your thief; the fornicator is his own fornication; vain - vanity, everyone - all evil. When we behave in this way, then we will worthily, like true followers of Christ, celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. Then, having been transformed and spiritually enlightened on earth, we will be enlightened like the sun in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43). Amen. Teaching on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord And He was transfigured before them (the disciples): and His face shone like the sun, and His robe was white like light (Matthew 17:2) This is how the Lord was transformed according to His humanity at Tabor. And this gives us to know that He can miraculously transform and enlighten us, our nature darkened by sin and the passions of life, our soul and our body, just as He really transforms, transforms, enlightens. You don't have to look far for examples. They happen every day to every praying and sincerely repentant believer. I will ask each of you: tell me, what happens to you when you, burdened with some sin, come to this church, approximately, with sincere repentance and fiery prayer to God and His Most Pure Mother? Or, when some strong sorrow and melancholy oppresses you: and with tears will you pray to the Lord so that He will ease it, destroy it, drive it away? Didn't you notice soon after that a great change in your soul? You sincerely repented of your sin, condemned yourself, reproached yourself, looked soberly at your disapproving thoughts, feelings, actions, gave your word to change: your sin was forgiven, you became calm; your soul is light, free, quiet and grace. “And if you greatly grieved and yearned for something,” and expressed your sorrows and misfortunes with submission to the will of God before God or the Mother of God, the joy of all who mourn, “tell me, did you not soon feel a change in your soul?” Peace and quiet tenderness settled in your soul with hope in the fatherly providence of God, and you left after your prayer comforted and encouraged. - This means that there is a transformation in each of us, - that is, from sincere, diligent prayer we are amazingly transformed for the better; and we become calm and sober from the sins that intoxicate us; - truly, sins, whatever you don’t take, will make us drunk - and we will feel disgust for sin, and we will leave sin behind, and we will feel a disposition towards virtue and we will become closer to God. Otherwise it is sin, the evil one would completely remove us from God if we did not pray, did not repent, and did not experience sorrows. But we, brothers, are people of little faith, weak in prayer, and in deeds of virtue, and in us, therefore, the spiritual change or internal transformation is not as noticeable, not as bright and glorious, as in the holy saints of God. Here in them the grace of God accomplished a wonderful transformation, renewal, and enlightenment. They were people subservient to us, but look what the grace of God made of them with their faith and fervor for God, with the mortification of everything carnal and sinful in them; from sinful people, they became like holy angels, from weak ones - strong by the grace of God, from humble ones - glorious, and many - from stinking vessels of all sin, from vessels of the devil - all-fragrant vessels of God's grace and all virtue. This is the miracle of transformation that the grace of God produces in people. And these are only the beginnings, only a faint shadow of that glorious transformation that the Lord will accomplish over those who love Him at His second terrible coming, when He will carry out the final judgment on the world; then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). It is this transfiguration, this glory for today’s feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord that I wish and pray to all of you, my brothers, from the Lord. Only in conclusion of my short word, I wish in advance for myself and all of you to be transformed in souls, and namely: to change self-love and love of peace for love of God, love of voluptuousness and love of money for brotherly love and mercy, hostility for love, cruelty for meekness, pride for humility, envy for goodwill, intemperance for temperance, foul language and idle talk for good talk and God's praise, vanity for good deeds, uncleanness for holiness. Amen. Word on the Day of the Ascension of the Lord Now the Lord, when He spoke to them, ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19) The Holy Church now excites all earthly beings to joy and says: all nations clasp their hands for joy, for Christ has ascended, where he was first 112, that is, all nations clasp their hands for joy: because Christ has ascended to where he was before, i.e. to the sky. So, on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, all Christians should rejoice. What is there to be happy about? - It would seem that it was rather necessary to grieve and grieve, because our sweetest Savior Jesus Christ left us with His visible presence and ascended to heaven, from where he will come again, but he will come as a formidable Judge of all earthly beings. No, on the day of remembrance of the Ascension of the Lord there are more reasons for joy than for sadness. Let us only consider why the Lord ascended into heaven from us. “The Lord ascended from us into heaven not in order to sadden us with His departure, but in order to arrange what was most beneficial for us.” His whole life, all his deeds were for our benefit, for our salvation; in the same way, His ascension was for our good. Just as, loving us, He came down to us from heaven and, having lived with people, laid down His soul for them on the cross, so loving us He ascended into heaven, benefiting us. Thus He Himself spoke to His disciples: It is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; and if I go, I will send Him to you (John 16:7). So, the Lord ascended to heaven in order to send instead of Himself equal to Himself - the Comforter of the Holy Spirit, Who would comfort the Holy Apostles and all true Christians in their sorrows, troubles and persecutions. - This is the first reason for joy. Come, come, Lord Jesus, and send us the Comforter! Further, the Lord ascended from us into heaven so that He could look down on us from on high, like a Father on his children, like a Shepherd on his sheep, like an Eagle on his chicks, like a Leader on his army, so that he could see everyone and consider the needs and requirements of each of us, and give help to everyone. Like some king, having gathered his numerous troops for war and wanting to see all his regiments, he ascends to a high place - a mountain or some building, and looks from above and arranges them, and when he sees that they are victorious, he rejoices over them; and if he notices that they are overcome, he sends them ambulance: so our Lord, the King of kings, having His Church militant on earth, that is, His faithful Christians, ascended to heaven, as if on a mountain, so that from above he could see the feat of everyone and weave crowns to those who struggle, and give the hand of ambulance to those who are exhausted, - in order to restore the fallen and make them stronger against enemies, and to believe in those who persecute us obstacle. The Holy First Martyr Stephen struggles in a suffering feat, the Jews stone him, and our Lord, having opened heaven, looks at him from the height of His glory - so that the sufferer, seeing this, exclaims: I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). The Lord ascended from us into heaven in order to, like the sun, shine upon us all with His grace from the heights of heaven. Just as the sun, having hidden in the west, produces night darkness throughout the whole of heaven, and when it rises and rises to the heights, then darkness runs away from all under heaven, and the rays of the sun illuminate the universe with wondrous light: so our mental Sun is Christ, until, living on earth, as if in the west, He showed His luminous Divinity to people, until then there was darkness of ignorance throughout the whole earth God; and when, shining from His tomb, He ascended into heaven, then the lightning of His Divinity illuminated the universe and His name became famous from the east of the sun to the west, throughout the whole earth - the whole universe was enlightened by the knowledge of God. The Lord ascended from us to heaven in order to arrange our way to heaven and to be our Leader to the mountainous countries. There was no path to heaven for man until the Lord’s ascension to heaven; “No one ascends into heaven except he who came down from heaven,” says the Lord (John 3:13). He who descended is also the One who ascended above all the heavens (Eph. 4:10). So before no one could ascend to heaven, although he was righteous and holy; and when our Lord, clothed in human nature, ascended to heaven, the path to heaven was made for the entire human race, and the souls of the saints followed Christ along this path. forefathers and prophets brought out of hell; Apostles, saints, martyrs, confessors ascended to them; Even now, worthy ones ascend to them - righteous people who follow Christ’s footsteps; Now everyone knows the path to heaven. Just don’t be lazy to ascend to it, Christians! So the Lord ascended from us into heaven - in order to open the doors of heaven for us - for unrestricted entry there. Our forefather Adam was about to close the door of heaven to the entire human race, and at the door of heaven stood a Cherub with a flaming weapon; Adam, I say, closed paradise and the entrance to life, but opened only the entrances to death and hell; but the Lord did the opposite: He closed the entrances to death and hell, and opened heaven - and first of all to the thief, to whom he said: today you will be with me in heaven (Luke 23:43); then to everyone; and, finally, He opened heaven itself with His ascension. What are the joyful reasons for the Ascension of the Lord from us into heaven. Next, the Lord ascended from us into heaven to intercede for us before God the Father. This is what the Holy Apostle John the Theologian says: if anyone sins, the imams intercede with God the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and this cleansing is for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). So, we, sinful people, will not despair of our salvation, but will be trustworthy: we have a good Intercessor for us to God the Father - Christ our Savior Himself, Who intercedes for us, but let us not be lazy and, at the intercession of Christ, send our warm prayers to the Heavenly Father; - yes, the Lord Jesus Christ intercedes for us to God the Father and propitiates Him. But who is he interceding for? About sinners. What sinners? About the penitents; and for them He propitiates His Father; but he does not propitiate unrepentant sinners, because they crucify the Son of God within themselves for the second time with their grave sins, by their obstinacy in unrepentance, and they trample on the blood of the Son of God with their unrepentance. So, be afraid, sinner who remains unrepentant, lest God’s punishment suddenly befall you and you be consumed from the land of the living, and be condemned along with the murderers who crucified the Son of God. Finally, the Lord ascended from us into heaven, so that in heaven he could prepare for us a place where we would live forever and co-reign with Him, our Lord. So He Himself says: I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself; yea, where I am, you also will be (John 14:2–3). What a joyful reason for the Ascension! The Lord ascended from us into heaven to prepare for each of the righteous and pious people a place in heaven, as well as for us sinners, if we turn and repent with all our hearts. Where is the place for the Apostle Peter, who rejected the Lord and wept bitterly over it afterwards, where is the harlot wife who wept at His feet, where is the prodigal son, where is the publican, where is the thief: there will be a place for us; Let us only weep bitterly for our sins, like Peter, let us fall at His feet with repentance, like the harlot, let us turn to Him, like the prodigal son, let us humble ourselves, like the tax collector, let us be crucified with Him, like the prudent thief. Let us repent and we will be saved. Let us all rejoice in the Ascension of our Lord and Savior. Amen. Be wise on things above, not on earth, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God ( Col. 3:1–2 ) Beloved brothers and sisters! Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ascended from earth to heaven. Let us also follow Him. For for this purpose He came to earth, lived, taught, worked miracles, did good to people in every possible way, suffered, died and rose again, and ascended again to the Father and sat down at His right hand in order to lift us up to heaven. For this reason, the high God descended to earth, so that he may lead us to heaven 113, says the Holy Church. But how to follow Him to heaven? – To live as He lived, to imitate Him to the best of your ability, to follow His teaching and life means to follow Him. Let us hate all lawlessness, let us love truth and virtue, and let us love God with all our hearts. Let us be humble, low-minded, meek, kindly, temperate, hardworking, like bees and ants, pure in soul and body, sincere and unhypocritical, courageous and patient, faithful and honest, simple-hearted and peace-loving, merciful and compassionate, impartial to anything earthly, i.e. let us use earthly gifts with thanksgiving the Generous Giver, as His gifts, necessary for us in temporary life; - reasonably and with extreme caution, without clinging to them with your heart, like to disappearing smoke. Following this path, we will acquire an active living faith, trust, unfeigned love for God and neighbor, we will love every virtue, honoring in this an eternal, unshakable acquisition and actually trying to succeed in every virtue, and we will follow Christ, and Christ God will lift us up to the same place where He Himself. “Where I am, there will my servant also be,” He Himself said in the Holy Gospel (John 12:26). So, remember more often about Christ, Christian, how He lived, loved people, taught them most of all - love, holy, heavenly love, how out of love for you, His lost sheep He came down from heaven, how He worked for you, walked the earth until tired and exhausted, how He suffered for you before the cross and on the cross, in order to save you from your sinful passions and sensual addictions of life, in order to bring you to reason and put on the path of salvation; - how he died in agony for you and rose again with the glory of the Divine; - and little by little, love for God, your Savior, will rise in your heart; you will turn away and lag behind sin, which has caused so many troubles on earth and is now bringing countless troubles upon us, and you will love the holy and life-giving law of the Lord; and you will fulfill it to the best of your ability; You will rise with your thoughts and heart desires from earth to heaven, and then with your mind and heart you will live more in heaven than on earth - and the Lord, seeing you ready and worthy of His co-creation, will take you to Himself. Where I am, there will My servant also be. - This is how the saints reached their heavenly fatherland. At first, little by little, and then a lot, they hated sin with all their souls, passionately loved the one Lord with all their hearts, sought Him alone, found Him, placed Him in their hearts and ascended with Him to heaven. Amen. Word for the Day of the Ascension of the Lord For this reason, the high God descended to earth, so that he may raise us to heaven (Akathist to the Mother of God, Kontakion 8) Although man was created in body from the earth, he was created for heaven. The earth was given to man as a temporary home, as a place of preparation for a higher, heavenly life. But the destructive violation of the first commandment by the first people inclined both soul and body to the earth and perverted the entire mental, moral and physical structure of human life. Earthly aspirations, temporary, bodily, legal and illegal, took precedence over heavenly, eternal, spiritual aspirations. Human nature and human life have become perverted and corrupted, and the human race has corrupted its nature and ruined the divine gift - its soul, which God Himself breathed into its nature in paradise. In order to renew the physical and mental nature of man again, to purify, sanctify and direct him onto the path of salvation, it was necessary for the Son of God Himself to descend to earth, to become a man - and with His word, His life, and His example to show him the true path of life, and with His blood to renew our nature corrupted by sin in order to ascend it to heaven. For this reason, the high God descended to earth, so that he may lead us to heaven. The Apostle says: if you have been raised with Christ, then set your mind on heavenly things and not on earthly things (Col. 3:1-2). And the Lord raised into heaven countless councils of saints after His resurrection from the dead and after His ascension into heaven, freeing from hell all who believed in Him and all who later lived on earth, who believed in Him and labored truly for the sake of His name even to our times and days. Countless souls of people who lived on earth in faith and piety and were redeemed and justified by the blood of Christ are now installed in heavenly villages. And you and I, beloved brothers and sisters, have been shown the way there, and we must urgently strive there with all our thoughts, desires, intentions, concerns, and deeds. We must not apply our minds and hearts to dust and dirt, but to God and His eternal truth, to His eternal kingdom, for which He created us, redeemed us, and included us in His Church on earth. Finger is earthy, i.e. body, and to God – heavenly, i.e. soul; the body, this earthly church, will collapse and turn to earth, and the soul must return to God, who gave it, says Scripture (Eccl. 12:7). So, do we always strive diligently to go to the place where Christ God, our Hope, our Life, has ascended? Do we strive with our thoughts, desires, and deeds? - If our thoughts, desires, words, deeds are only worldly, carnal, earthly, - if both in reality and in dreams we are most occupied and control our heart, our soul by abdominal and generally carnal pleasure, or only earthly acquisitions and self-interest, only earthly benefits, earthly treasures, distinctions, speeches only earthly, then we are still earthly, have not loved Christ, our Redeemer, and do not rush to Him, to be with Him forever, to see Him face to face; – we also love a world lying in evil, we are also slaves of sin, and not sincere servants of Christ. The Apostle says: if anyone loves the world, there is no love for the Heavenly Father; for everything that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from this world. And the world passes away, and its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17). So, for whom the womb is God, he is not yet God and works in vanity and corruption, for whom selfishness and acquisition, excess, is the goal of life and the passion of the heart, and love for God and neighbor, help and alms to those in need are an extraneous matter; for whom earthly treasures, decorations, distinctions, advantages, conveniences serve as the edge of desires and the duty of the heart - he is not yet Christ, does not love Christ with all his heart, does not strive for Him, does not want to see Him and live with Him forever. – If we want to be with Christ, then let us try to strive in heavenly virtue, in faith, in hope, in patience, in meekness, humility, kindness, mercy, abstinence, purity and chastity. God! Having ascended from us to heaven, lift us, earthly ones, with You and shake off from our hearts the extreme cares and worries of life, the strangling passions! Grant us, before leaving here, to acquire the skill of every virtue, so that we may appear before You in this imperishable robe. Amen. Teaching for the Day of the Ascension of the Lord Magnify, my soul, who ascended from earth to heaven, Christ the Giver of Life 114 So, our Lord and Savior ascended from earth to heaven. – Why did He ascend to heaven, why didn’t He apparently remain with us until the end of time? Firstly, by His ascension from earth to heaven He showed the image and path of our ascent from earth to heaven, secondly, in order to send down to us the consubstantial and one-powerful Spirit of the Holy Comforter; thirdly, to prepare a place for His faithful followers. The Lord, by His ascension from earth to heaven, showed us the image and path of our ascent to it. The Lord was an example for us in everything: an example of holiness, meekness, humility, kindness, patience, unceasing prayer, dispassion, complete love for God and humanity, unquestioning obedience to His heavenly Father; He needed to serve as an example for us in this too, that is, an example in ascending to heaven. For why did the Son of God come to earth? To take us to heaven. – So, my brothers, while living on earth, try to ascend more often to heaven with your mind and heart, to where our Lord and Savior ascended; do not cleave to anything on earth, for the earth is not a fatherland, but a place of wandering, a place of struggle and exploits, and earthly blessings are not our life, not objects of love of our heart, but only necessary aids for our flesh; try to always be in spirit above the earthly, all earthly things; do not immerse yourself in them, do not merge with them; and the one who has an addiction to them is immersed in them and merges with them. Now this addiction to earthly life, to its pleasures, and at the same time the alienation of hearts from the high heavenly fatherland has especially intensified among Christians: Christians forget the purpose of their life, they forget the Christian title, Christian duties, the vows given at baptism to be fulfillers of the commandments of Christ all the days of their lives. - Ascend, my brothers, ascend from earth to heaven, to your true fatherland, the eternal fatherland; look with intelligent eyes at the ascendant; this is your path to heaven, a path that was previously impassable from the prince of the power of the air - the devil and his hasty power of the spirits of evil, and now has become free for those who believe in the Lord and keep His commandments; this way, many Christians - ascetics of piety - have already ascended to heaven. The Lord ascended from earth to heaven in order to send down to us the consubstantial and only powerful Comforter of the Spirit. - The Lord Himself spoke about this before His suffering to His disciples like this: if I do not go, that is, if I do not ascend to the Father, the Comforter will not come to you: if I go, I will send Him to you; and when He comes, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, and He will remember to you all that has been spoken to you (John 16:7–8; 14:26). And so, soon after the Ascension, the Lord sent to His disciples and apostles and to everyone who then formed the small flock of Christ the Divine Spirit, who filled them all with extraordinary gifts: holiness, wisdom, the gift of tongues, purest and fiery love, zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of human souls, peace, joy, boldness, dispassion for all earthly vicissitudes, dispassion for everything earthly, love for heavenly. So, accept the Comforter of the Spirit, may He be with you forever, and may he guide you into all truth, but remember that Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven and sent down the Comforter of the Spirit, is never separated from us in His Divinity, but remains persistently, crying out to those who love Him: I am with you and no one is against you. Finally, the Lord ascended to prepare His followers a place in heaven. I am going to prepare a place for you, He says to His disciples (John 14:2); seeing from the holy heavens all the spiritual exploits of His followers and evaluating them according to their merit, He prepares reward for everyone, as a righteous Judge, and each of us will receive his: sow with poverty, and with poverty you will also reap; and sow for a blessing, and you will also reap a blessing (2 Cor. 9:6). Another is the glory of the sun, and another is the glory of the moon, and another is the glory of the stars; some flesh is cattle, some fish, and some birds; both the heavenly body and the earthly body: but one is the glory of the heavenly, and another of the earthly (1 Cor. 15:39-41). So it is in court: everything will be appreciated. So, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended in order to prepare each of us his place, to take us to Himself. I will take you to Myself, so that where I am, you also will be (John 14:3). Are we really better off on earth and not in heaven? Oh no, no! Away with all the delights of the world! Amen! The Lord has vouchsafed us, my beloved brothers, to celebrate and celebrate the all-saving holiday of Easter; deigned us to wait for His all-joyful, Divine Ascension and to worship Him, ascending from earth to heaven. But let us not, my brothers, spend the Lord’s holidays only in idleness and sins, but in the thought of God and in the virtues characteristic of Christians; Let us ponder - why does the Holy Church solemnly remember and glorify the wonderful and saving deeds of Christ, what does she want to teach us by telling us about His life, teaching, miracles, deeds, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension? Now, on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord from earth to heaven, the Holy Church wants to instill in us that we, too, should more often flow with thoughts, faith, hope and love, desires, sighs from earth to heaven - to where the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). If you have been raised with Christ, then seek those things that are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; Set your mind on things above, and not on earthly things, says St. Apostle Paul (Col. 3:1-2). But what does it mean to think about things above and not about earthly things? – Let us now think about this for the glory of Him who ascended from earth to heaven and for our spiritual benefit. What does it mean to think about things above and not about earthly things? - This means living with your body on earth, and soaring in heaven with your thoughts; means to have nothing to do with the sin that reigns in the world, or with the lust of the multi-passionate flesh, with the lust of the eyes and the pride of life; despise the pleasures of the belly and loins, - diligently cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, creating holiness in the fear of God, - according to the words of St. Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 7:1); it means to love the Lord who loved us with all our hearts, with all our thoughts, with all our strength; always think about Him, remember His life, His teaching, commandments, miracles, suffering and death for us, with all your heart always be where He is, fulfill His commandments and consider fulfilling them a great happiness, according to the word of the Psalmist, who considered keeping them a great reward. To think about heavenly things means to love truth with all your heart and for the sake of truth to be ready to endure persecution, ridicule, slander, reproach - to hate lawlessness, no matter how much it tempts us with any earthly benefits, for example, wealth, honors, pleasures. To think above, to think above, means to always manage to love your neighbor as yourself, sincerely, unhypocritically, not according to the earthly and sinful calculations of pride, greed, carnality and man-pleasing, that is, not because such and such a person brings us benefit, benefit and pleasure, or we like, or our relative, friend, buddy, fellow countryman, acquaintance, a comrade, a peer, a co-worker - or a kind person, smart, rich, cheerful, healthy, beautiful, etc., but if he is not like that, if he does not benefit you at all, and does not please your pride or your corrupted taste, if he is not a relative, not a friend, and not an acquaintance, but a direct enemy, etc. - to love only for God, for the sake of God’s commandments, for the sake of the fact that he is a man, one with your nature, from the same blood with you - Adam, and even much, incomparably more, higher - from the flesh and blood of Christ: for we are His members from His flesh and from His bones (Eph. 5:30). This means that when you love, you should not look at their faces, but honor everyone equally, not be servile and affectionate towards some, but be proud and arrogant before others, or blaspheme and scold others angrily for guilt and not for guilt, remembering that we are all equal before God, that we all have the same nature and all have common infirmities, weaknesses and stumbling blocks. To think about heavenly things or to philosophize on heavenly things means not to cleave to anything visible, earthly, as perishable and temporary, but to cleave to the heavenly as to the eternal, according to the word of the Apostle: we look not at the visible, but at the invisible: for the visible is temporary, but the invisible is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18); - means not to love money, not to collect for oneself, but to become rich in God by good deeds; - do not cling with your heart to earthly beauty, sweetness, joy, to earthly well-being, but to the beauty, sweetness and joy of heaven and to eternal life. To think about things above means to always walk in the presence of God, in the remembrance that He sees, hears, and will reward all our thoughts, feelings, lusts, words and deeds on the day of judgment. To think about heavenly things means to despise so-called entertainment and games, worldly amusements, combined with sin, distracting from God and leaving only emptiness in the heart. To think about things above means to think and reason not in the image of this world, which thinks and reasons and acts evilly, perversely, and ungodly, but to think, reason and act according to the mind of God is holy and pleasing to God. To think about things above means not to seek worldly honor, glory, as vain, often unrighteous, enchanting and enchanting the soul, but to seek the honors of a heavenly calling, for, says the Savior, how can you believe when you receive glory from each other, but do not seek the glory that is from the One God (John 5:44)? To think about heavenly things, finally, means to think and firmly believe that our fatherland is in heaven, to await the second glorious coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for the judgment of the living and the dead, it means to patiently carry out the labors and exploits of a wandering earthly life, in anticipation of a reward from the righteous Giver. This is what it means to think about heavenly things. Let us, with God’s help, try to think and do as the word of God teaches us, and we will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension in a God-pleasing manner. Amen. Word on the Day of the Holy Trinity Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Cor. 3:16) What is today's holiday? The fact is that our Lord Jesus Christ, who ascended from us into heaven, although He did not leave us, sent, according to the promise, on the fiftieth day after His resurrection from the dead from God His Father - from the Holy Spirit - the third person of the Most Holy Trinity to the apostles and other believers who were with them in the Jerusalem upper room, in which they remained in unanimous, fervent prayer. God the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giving One, who proceeds from God the Father, and is worshiped with Him and the Son and is always glorified together, descended on the Apostles and others in the form of tongues of fire; why they were suddenly reborn, illuminated, enlightened, became wiser and began to speak in different languages, which they did not know before, about the great deeds of God; but let us listen to how St. Luke the Evangelist, the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, reports about this greatest event. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all with one accord together. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as if from a rushing strong wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And cloven tongues as of fire appeared to them, and one rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now in Jerusalem there were Jews, pious people, from every nation under heaven. When this noise was made, the people gathered and were in confusion; for everyone heard them speaking in his own language. And they were all amazed and amazed, saying to one another, “Are these not all Galileans who speak?” How do we hear, each of us, our own dialect in which we were born... we hear them speaking in our own languages ​​about the great deeds of God? And they were all amazed, and perplexed, they said to each other: What does this mean? And others, mocking, said: they got drunk on sweet wine. Peter, standing with the eleven Apostles, lifted up his voice and cried out to them: Men of the Jews and all who live in Jerusalem! Let this be known to you, and listen to my words: they are not drunk, as you think, for it is now the third hour of the day; but this is what was foretold by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh... And on My servants and on My handmaids I will pour out My Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on earth below (Acts 2:1-19; Joel 2:28-30) ... Then, the Apostle Peter, having mentioned in his speech how the Jews unrighteously and wickedly treated the Lord and Christ Jesus, killing him on the cross by the hands of the pagans, and how He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, poured out what they themselves see and hear. When the people listened to the entire speech of the Apostle, they were moved and said to Peter and the other apostles: “What should we do, men and brethren? Peter said to them: Repent; and let each one of you be baptized into Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit... And those who gladly received his word were baptized and were added that day to about three thousand souls (Acts 2:37-41). This is the story of the great event that we are celebrating today. This event is immeasurable in importance, fruitfulness and salvation for the entire Christian Church: this day is the day of the actual foundation of the Christian Church, or the Christian society of those saved in Christ; on this day the first shepherds, the Apostles, were consecrated by the Holy Spirit, from whose succession we, your shepherds, received the grace of the priesthood; On this day, the saving sacraments that are performed to this day in the Church through your priests received their effect. The apostles and other believers were given the gift of speech and wisdom for preaching the Gospel to all nations and an abundant gift of wondrous miracles, with which they, both at that time and subsequently, attracted to faith in Christ and saved many human souls. From that time on, the Holy Spirit entered the world, another Comforter besides the Lord Jesus Christ, equal to Him, equal in glory and co-essential with Him and God the Father. Jesus Christ, having accomplished the work of saving the human race - through His incarnation and life on earth, through His preaching, countless miracles, benefits to the suffering, through suffering, death and resurrection from the dead - ascended to heaven to the Father and instead of Himself sent from the Father the Spirit-God, may He arrange the work of human salvation, for the three persons in God are consubstantial and inseparable, and each equally participates in the salvation of the human race. And so the desert of the human race flourished, as the Church sings, and from this event, which we celebrate today, the Holy Spirit, having revived it, showed sovereign, fruitful and irresistible power in the militant Church: in the exploits of the apostles, martyrs, hierarchs, strengthening them with joy and joy to courageously endure countless hellish sufferings for Christ and performed in them and through them innumerable miracles. From this event the Holy Spirit through St. the apostles and their holy successors, spread the preaching of the Gospel throughout the world and through this preaching grew and expanded the Church throughout the universe; made St. wise Fathers to overthrow all the errors of heretics, compose God-wise scriptures and preserve our faith holy and immaculate to this day. The Holy Spirit made saints and glorified with miracles and incorruption of relics countless numbers of people who pleased God and to this day contributes to the salvation of each of us. My brothers! Without the Holy Spirit there is no true life in a person, there is no peace in the soul, there is no light of God, there is no truth, holiness, true joy and bliss. Without the Spirit of God there cannot be in us and there is no true faith, hope and love, holy simplicity, purity of heart, no true virtue - and there is no salvation. Let us always earnestly pray to God the Father, so that he will not reject us from His presence and may not take His Holy Spirit away from us. Amen. Lesson on the Day of Pentecost Now we celebrate the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - the One God in three Persons: the Father, who sent His Holy Spirit in the form of fiery tongues on the holy disciples and apostles, the Son - who begged the Father to give the apostles and all who believe in Him another Comforter, consubstantial with Himself, and - the Holy Spirit, who descended on the disciples of Christ. In church language, the current holiday is called the Feast of Pentecost, because our Lord Jesus Christ, having ascended into heaven, sent down from God the Father to His Apostles the Holy Spirit on the fiftieth day after His resurrection from the dead. You have heard more than once, brethren, the short church hymn at the all-night vigil, that by the Holy Spirit every soul is alive and exalted by purity 115. Yes, brethren, we are all made alive and raised up in holiness by the Holy Spirit. This Life-Giving Spirit is now, as always, near us, because He fills the universe with Himself; but in order for Him to dwell in us, to revive our souls, deadened by sins, for this we must each cleanse our hearts with prayer, sincerely desire to partake of His holiness, His life, and diligently try to receive Him. When the All-Holy Spirit sees hearts ready to receive Him and thirsting for His acceptance, then He Himself will purify them with His inspiration and dwell in the church of your body: do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you (1 Cor. 6:19)? And whoever now neglects to cleanse the heart, that is, does not abstain from thoughts of evil and earthly passions, will not be worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit, will not receive life-giving power in his heart and will remain dead in sins. Have all the grief in your minds and hearts, and, having cleansed yourself with prayer and heartfelt contrition, firmly hope that you will be worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit: you will hear His breath in your heart - a subtle, sweet, calming, joyful breath, and from the church you will take away such a treasure that you will not receive in the world for any treasures; because He is not in the world. Try, brothers and sisters, in the future, when you come to church, to cleanse yourself at home with prayer and heartfelt repentance; and thereby prepare yourself to receive the Holy Spirit in the Holy Spirit. church during the service. Turn your ears to these words of mine, accept them with your heart; for otherwise your visits to the church will be fruitless if the Holy Spirit has no place in your hearts; and the Holy Spirit cannot in any way communicate with the filth and darkness of sin. The Holy Spirit is always with us until the end of time, and His acceptance can be achieved both in the Church during Divine services and at home during prayer, especially in the sacraments of the Church always, as you sincerely wish! Let us pray with one mouth and one heart to the Holy Spirit: Treasure of good things and Giver of life, come and dwell in us 116! Amen. Homily on the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Venerable Cross of Christ God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16) My brothers, this Sunday is abbreviated as the week before the Exaltation, i.e., the Exaltation of the Honorable Cross, and today we are supposed to read the Gospel about God’s endless love for the perishing world or the human race and about sending it the Savior - the Only Begotten Son of God. The Gospel reads in Russian like this: No one ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven and is in heaven. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. – Here is the end of today’s Gospel (John 3:13–17). Let us interpret it, with God’s help, according to the wisdom of the Holy Orthodox Church. No one has ascended to heaven, says the Lord, except the Son of Man who descended from heaven, that is, Jesus Christ who is in heaven. - None of the people ascended to heaven, because sin did not allow anyone to ascend to the most pure, bright, righteous heaven, on which is the throne of the Lord God Almighty, and for sin the sacrifice of the cross has not yet been offered for sin, from the beginning of the world until the coming of the Son of God to earth, to redeem the world from sin, to reconcile people with God, angry with iniquities, for the purification and sanctification of those who believe in Him and for the opening of righteous judgment God's heaven, imprisoned by human sins. The sky was inaccessible to any people. It became available to the righteous and repentant sinners only from the time of our death on the cross, for our sins, of the Son of God. The Lord Himself said about this: from now on you will see heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51). This mystery, this joyful news that heaven is now open to us, is announced to us every day by the opening of the royal doors at Great Vespers and the All-Night Vigil, and especially at the Liturgy - when the royal doors are opened at the small and great entrance when the Holy Gifts are brought out for communion. So, no one ascended to heaven until the death of the Son of God on the cross, and from the time of His death and resurrection, heaven became open to all believers - and after death all those justified by the Most Pure Blood and grace of the Son of God are free to enter into it. So, I will also say: the kingdom of heaven is open, paradise is open again, try to enter it by faith, repentance, and virtue. Now the Cherub with a flaming sword does not stand at the door of heaven, prohibiting entry into it. And how many people have entered heaven since the death and resurrection of the Son of God - until now! Countless. And we will not follow their example there. But it is necessary, we must go, fight our way with all our might - if we don’t get out, then we’ll end up in hell - nowhere else. Go, go quickly, cheerfully, firmly, without looking back. The days are evil (Eph. 5:16), and they are short (today I am alive, but tomorrow, perhaps, they will put them on the table in a large corner). And what does this mean: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life? Here the Lord points to the action of the Prophet Moses in the Arabian desert, namely to the ascension of a copper snake onto a tree, at the command of God, so that the Jews mortally bitten by snakes would look at this copper snake and be healed. This ascension by Moses of the copper serpent on the tree transformed the ascension, elevation to the cross of the Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ and His victory over the tempting serpent or the devil and our deliverance by the cross of the Savior from eternal death, for the seed of the woman, i.e. Christ, had to erase the head of the serpent (see Gen. 3:15), i.e. the devil under the image of the serpent who deceived Eve. Look, sinner, what a terrible bloody sacrifice was required by the justice of God to redeem you from sin and eternal destruction: the most painful, most blasphemous death on the cross of the Only Begotten Son of God. And you still live carefree, unrepentantly, sin without fear, do not correct yourself, do not shed tears of repentance, do not care about good deeds, crucify the Son of God within yourself?... But for those who trample upon the blood of the Son of God there is no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrible expectation of judgment and the fury of fire, ready to devour their opponents (Heb. 10:27). Fear, tremble, sinner! God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Thus God loved the world, that is, with an infinite love that surpasses all reason, for he gave an infinite sacrifice for our sins - His Son, co-throne with Him, God the Father, co-originating, co-natural. Oh, the wonderful, glorious, sweet, eternal love of God! If God had not given His Son as a sacrifice for our sins, then the whole world would have gone into eternal torment, and no one would have been saved. All who are saved were saved by the blood and death of the Son of God, all are justified by His grace; the saints became holy by His holiness, truth, wise by His wisdom, strengthened by His power, adorned by His incorruptible beauty, achieved incorruption by His incorruption; all those who are being saved now are saved only by the blood of the Son of God, or by water and blood, for from His pierced rib flowed blood and water, meaning two sacraments: baptism and communion; for without baptism and communion no one will be saved - of course, and without repentance and other sacraments. The Lord Himself says: repent, if you do not repent, you will all perish (Luke 13:3); If you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day (John 6:53–54). – Whoever has faith and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16). For God did not send His Son into the world, as the Gospel says earlier, to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17). But how do we read in the Creed: I believe in the Lord, who will again judge the living and the dead with glory; and the Gospel says that God the Father gave all judgment to the Son (John 5:22)? The current Gospel speaks of the first coming of the Son of God - for the salvation of the world, and the Creed speaks of His second coming; the first time the Lord came to save the world, and the second time he will come to judge the world. - And now, indeed, anyone who desires salvation can be saved through the Son of God, and if now, during earthly life, with such an abundance of grace, with such sure and all-powerful means to salvation, a person neglects salvation and lives unrepentantly and fearlessly, then after death and at the terrible judgment of Christ he will be judged without mercy. Save yourself, brothers, while there is time. We will lose time and we will destroy salvation. It was said to the careless virgins: Truly I say to you, I do not know you, although they knocked and said: Lord, Lord, open to us. - Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man will come (Matthew 25:11-13). Amen. Teaching on the Day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection (Troparion of the Holy Cross) The cross of the Lord is erected! How many important memories, sad, terrible and at the same time joyful, awaken in souls at the sight of the erected cross of Christ, at the mere sight of the cross! The God-man, the Only Begotten Son of God, was crucified on it, deigning to redeem the human race from eternal torment through His suffering and death on the cross; he was stained with the Most Pure Blood, of which a single drop is purification for the world! For three hundred years he was hidden in the ground; for three hundred years the Church of God, believers in the Lord, were under a terrible cross; For three hundred years the earth was flooded with the blood of Christians: they were crucified on crosses, and often upside down, cut, burned, drowned in whole crowds, torn apart in pieces. The swords became dull and the hands of the executioners weakened - so many heads, arms and legs, and various members of Christian bodies had to be cut off. This is how Satan armed himself against the Church of Christ, acquired by the blood of Christ! The blasphemous and terrible death of Christ on the cross was, as it were, a forerunner and indication of the death of His faithful servants. O terrible mystery of the cross! - O all-destroying sin, which brought down the Son of God Himself to earth, may He become incarnate and suffer in His flesh for us! O immutable, eternal truth of God, which demanded such a terrible sacrifice for the sins of the world! – Glory to Thee, most righteous Master, who punishes sin and has mercy on repentant sinners! So – repentance and repentance! No one is stuck in a single sin! - Bring ardent repentance immediately, so that you may bow to the mercy of the merciful God and not perish in your sins! Three hundred years of persecution have passed - and the persecution is over. The pious Tsar Constantine appeared on the royal throne of the Roman Empire, with his mother Helen; He favors Christians, accepts the Christian faith himself, zealously honors the Crucified One, and not only allows, but commands everyone - both the clergy and his clergy, the army and the people - to reverently worship Christ. Churches were erected and praise and thanksgiving flew to the heavens. - Queen Helena forced herself to find the cross of the Lord in Jerusalem, and it was solemnly raised from the ground, erected and - oh joy! The Life-Giving Cross raises up the dead, for soon after being found, placed on a dead man, the cross revived him, heals the sick, drives away demons, a sick woman was healed by placing it on him. For who was raised to the cross? Himself the King of glory, Himself the Creator of heaven and earth, the Only Begotten Son of God. For whom? For the sinful world and for you and me; although we were not in the world then, the Lord knew that we would be, and what kind of damned sinners we would be, and therefore he suffered for all of us; You and I have added a lot, a lot of bitterness into the cup of His suffering. Amazing miracle! The King of Truth, Almighty God, having taken upon Himself human flesh, suffered execution for us, for our sins! And what kind of punishment? The most diarrhea, painful! O terrible mystery! O sacrament that brings forth tears of tenderness and gratitude! For how can one not be horrified at the sight of the execution not of a criminal, but of the greatest Righteous One, meek, humble, kind, merciful, who has performed countless good deeds to people and has not committed a single evil? It was not in vain that the sun darkened, the earth shook, the veil of the church was torn, stones disintegrated, coffins were opened, and the dead were resurrected! All insensitive nature shuddered and sympathized with the Creator of everything. But the stony-hearted Jews had no compassion! And the frivolous people shouted, walking around the cross and saying: Oh! Destroying the church and creating in three days! Save Yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross (Matthew 27:39–40). O dearest Redeemer of the whole world! People did not know that You were burdened with the sins of the whole world; - what do you endure, innocent and sinless, execution for us! They did not know that God Himself enters into a fight with hell and crushes its power, and wants to remove from hell the souls kept in its bonds for centuries, and to save us from its terrible torment! Oh, how dear to God are the souls of men, redeemed by the blood of His Son! How precious are souls nourished by His flesh and blood! Oh, what a bliss it is to taste the Most Pure Body and Blood of the Lord and God our Savior Jesus Christ! Oh, how terrible and destructive is sin, for the cleansing and eradication of which the death of the Son of God was necessary, and the death of the cross! Oh, how certain is the eternal punishment prepared for the unrepentant! For if they did this to the green tree - Jesus Christ, then what will happen to the dry and barren one? How miserable are sinners who, in their blindness, do not know the full destruction of sin! How terrible is hell, pitch darkness and gnashing of teeth, Tartarus of the underworld, torment with demons! Brethren! Let us repent soon, let us hate sin, love righteousness, let us cling with our hearts and lips to the cross of the Lord and cry out earnestly: Lord! He who suffered for us and shed His Most Pure Blood, and who died on the cross, through their destinies, turn us all to the path of salvation and save us! Amen. Beloved brethren in Christ! We now celebrate the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. When Patriarch Macarius, one and a half thousand years ago, erected in the presence of Queen Helena and a multitude of people the Life-giving Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, which had been found by the Queen, - then the Queen and all the people, looking at it with reverence and as if seeing the Savior hanging on him, all bloody and in unspeakable torment, living out the last hours of His suffering life for us, - fell prostrate with fear and love and cried out unanimously: Lord have mercy! Brothers and sisters in the Lord! Before us now is the Cross of our Savior. Let us remember and imagine, as vividly as we can, the Lord of Glory crucified for us and shed tears for our sins, with which we daily crucify the Lord; let us shed tears about our disobedience to our Savior, about our earthly and material wisdom and neglect of heavenly things, about our many different worldly passions, about the lack of love for God and neighbor, about our pride and all the other passions that stem from it, about our idleness, laziness, and from the bottom of our hearts we say with tears: Lord, have mercy on us! Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who shed His blood for our salvation, have mercy on us, those of little faith, the proud, the angry, the envious, the money-loving, the stingy, the peace-loving, the carnivorous, the gluttonous, the lazy, the careless - especially about our salvation, the sad, the cowardly, the murmuring, and turn the hearts of all of us to You, our Giver of Life. - so that we do not love anything in the world and do not seek more than You, more than the eternal blessings of Your kingdom, purchased for us by Your blood. God! Nail our flesh to Thy fear. God! Turn our hearts away from the charms of this world. Amen. Word on the Day of the Exaltation of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved the power of God is (1 Cor. 1:18) The word of the cross or the word about the Cross, what is it? This is the word about the salvation of a world perishing in sins through the suffering and death of the Only Begotten Son of God; this is a word about God’s endless love for the world, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16); this is a word about the infinite truth of God, which demanded an infinite sacrifice for the countless and grave sins of the world and for the infinitely insulted holiness of the Divine by creatures created in the image and likeness of God, for the desecration of the most holy laws of God; for the corruption by sin of the animate tabernacles of God, the souls and bodies of men. The word about the cross, further, is the word about the granting of eternal life to all believers for the sake of Christ who suffered, died and rose again; a word about crucifying the flesh with passions and lusts; a word about the mutual love of people for each other; about selflessness for the sake of love for God and neighbor; a word about enduring sorrows, illnesses, reproaches, slander, persecution, and torment for the sake of Christ. This is what the word cross means. How can such a word be, was and is foolishness for people who are perishing and the power of God for those who are being saved (see 1 Cor. 1:18)? “We’ll talk about this today in honor of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of Christ.” Lord, bless this word, and may it be a power for salvation for me and for all those who listen to me. Who are these lost ones, for whom the word about the cross of Christ is madness? – The Holy Apostle calls perishing those who did not believe his sermons, Jews and pagans, who were tempted by the teaching about the crucified God - the Messiah and the new Christian teaching, which condemned all human sins and iniquities, all carnal passions and demanded true repentance, correction and complete renewal of the lives of all who believed in Christ: be renewed in the spirit of your mind (Eph. 4:23); He who is in Christ is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), says the Apostle. - Why was the word about the cross foolishness or madness for them? – Because they were devoted with all their hearts and all their being to sin, sinful habits, passions, customs, a corrupt mind, they loved lawlessness and despised the truth of God, they changed the truth of God into a lie (Rom. 1:25); and faith in Christ crucified, which demanded a holy life, contrary to their passions, which received in them the power of habit and the law of sin, condemned all this and seemed to go completely against their desires, their whole life, and the word about the cross did not fit into their concepts, since it contradicted the entire structure of their life and customs. How could God endure such suffering and such death, they said? – Why is this suffering and death? Why the cross, this blasphemous execution of slaves endured by Christ? Couldn't the salvation of humanity have been accomplished otherwise than by such a shameful death? Such and similar questions circulated in their hearts and heads, they could not solve them in their darkening from passions, and so the teaching about Christ crucified was temptation and madness for them, and with fierce hatred they persecuted all the followers of Christ, as harmful dreamers, as subjected to dangerous delusion, as stubborn enemies of the state and pagan gods, as contrary to them because of their different way of life, and instead of in order to be saved by faith in Christ crucified, they perished in their unbelief and in their hatred of Christ crucified and His followers, remaining in sins, adding sins to sins and not having, due to unbelief, a Deliverer and Savior. Now another question: how is the word about the cross for us who are being saved the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18)? – For us, who have experienced and are constantly experiencing the saving power of the cross of Christ, the solution to this issue is very easy. Who was the victim on the cross? – Son of God, God’s Power and God’s Wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24). For whom did he suffer, die and be buried? - For us, so that our passions, which have killed us, may be put to death by the Cross, in order to trample upon the devil who has trampled upon us, and to destroy hell, which held men, in order to put to death our death by His death, so that we, the enemies of God, may be reconciled with God and made righteous from sinners and by His resurrection give eternal life to all who believe in Him. For this reason, the omnipotent God underwent infirmities and sufferings and death itself according to the flesh, in order to heal our infirmities, for by His stripes we were all healed (Is. 53:5; 1 Pet. 2:24), so that we, who believe in Him, could be given invincible strength in the fight against sins, against demons, against temptations, in persecutions, in torments, in order to turn our death into a restful sleep. And look, what was the power of the cross of Christ in the Apostles, in the martyrs, in the Christian ascetics? “They drove away demons with the sign of the cross, healed diseases, took away the power of poison, crushed idols, tamed animals, turned fire into cool dew; with the sign of the cross they disarmed and defeated enemies; tamed the movements of passions. The cross was the power of God in all the sacraments, as until now it serves as a seal and miraculous power in all the sacraments; The cross is sanctification of air, water, earth, all earthly elements; our houses, fields, meadows, and fruits of the earth are consecrated with it; The cross begins or sanctifies the battle with the enemies of faith and fatherland; The cross defeated invisible and visible enemies; The cross delivered from mortal danger; The cross raised the dead. When the cross of Christ was found by St. Queen Helena and placed it on a sick woman near death, she suddenly became healthy, and when it was placed on a dead man, he came to life. And now all true believing Christians, who use the sign of the cross with faith and reverence, very often experience its saving power; they are healed from sorrows, from passions, from illnesses. Ask all sincere believers about the power of the Cross, which they experience every day. They will tell you that the cross of Christ is for them an everlasting triumph, an everlasting victory, a joy; that faith in the Crucified One is their life, deliverance from all worldly troubles, justification, sanctification, correction of life, that the thought of the Crucified One is inseparable from their breathing, since for them it is always life-giving, joyful, and comforting. Let us try to delve deeper into the mystery of the cross, into the mystery of God’s endless love for us and to love God and our neighbor with all our hearts; Let us learn in practice self-sacrifice and mortify our carnal passions - and then we will all learn by experience that for us, too, the cross is God’s power and God’s wisdom. Amen. Lessons for the week of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Mark 8:34) The Lord assigns each of us to bear our own cross. If anyone wants to come after Me, He says, let him take up his cross, that is, the cross of various misfortunes and sufferings, and come after Me. Yes, to achieve the kingdom of God, the cross is necessary for everyone, and without the cross, or, what is also, without sorrow, without hardship, no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord paved the way for us to heaven with the cross, and we must go there with the same cross. Through many tribulations it is fitting for us to enter the Kingdom of God, says the Apostle (Acts 14:22). The way is narrow, lead us into the belly, says the Lord (Matthew 7:14). “But why, it seemed, not to expand the path to the kingdom of heaven, to make it easier, why not to eliminate various sufferings from it? How many would then be going to heaven? The long road would then seem to be full of people hastening to heavenly Jerusalem, just as it is now full of people going to hell. But to say this means not knowing the essence of the matter, not knowing oneself, not knowing what the kingdom of heaven is. It is an impossible task, brethren, for there to be a broad and smooth path to our heavenly fatherland. Why it is impossible to have a wide and smooth path to the kingdom of heaven, but must be narrow, cramped, or - which is the same thing - a cross, sorrowful, I will explain to you now, beloved brothers and sisters, on the basis of the Word of God. The path to the kingdom is narrow, or - which is the same thing - the way of the cross lies to the kingdom of heaven because we are sinners, and extremely sinful; sin was born to us from the womb, we live in sins; we are saturated with sin, so to speak, sin moves us, we breathe with sin, so to speak, we eat and drink with sin, we talk with each other with sin, we carry sins into the churches of God, we think about sinful things in the church of God - and everything and everyone in us is sin, and purity and holiness are either not in us at all, or a few of us, with the grace of God, are only beginning to gain by careful observation of our with the heart, with fasting, prayer and almsgiving. But God, brethren, is the infinite Holiness, and created us in the beginning righteous and holy; man arbitrarily fell into the defilement of sin, just as you and I also arbitrarily defile ourselves with all sorts of sins; God, being righteous and holy, cannot help but abhor all sin, all iniquity: an abomination to Him and one unrighteous thought (Prov. 15:26). The wicked one will not dwell in You, says the Holy Scripture, the wicked will abide below Your eyes (Ps. 5:5-6), nothing vile or unclean will enter the Kingdom of Christ God (Eph. 5:5), says the Scripture; but to be accepted into the kingdom of heaven means the same as to be accepted into communion with God and with His saints, as the Holy Apostle John the Theologian says: that you also may have fellowship with us: our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3). Therefore, in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, or to be accepted into communion with God, one must certainly be cleansed of sins, and for this one must be cleansed gradually during earthly life. Is it an easy task, brethren, to cleanse your heart from sinful defilements? Isn’t it an easy thing to not allow sin to nest in our heart, when it has, so to speak, grown into it, become, as it were, second nature, when we (often) love sin as our child, as a part of ourselves; If we don’t love, because sin torments us and the passions of our hearts torment us, then how long after repentance do we not return to them again? Only until a new case occurs. – So, everyone’s experience testifies to all this. This, brethren, is the reason for the way of the cross to the kingdom of heaven. Yes, sin has taken deep and wide deadly roots in us, and it is necessary to use a lot of pious labors, a lot of effort in resisting the sins that defile our soul; to endure a lot of sorrows, to shed many tears of heartfelt repentance and heartfelt contrition, to endure a lot of persecution of the unrighteous from the people of this age, also from the spirits of wickedness in high places, opposing all good, we must endure a lot of sorrows willy-nilly, we must fast and pray a lot, we must endure a lot of heavy blows to the heart in order to drive sin out of its nest; - and what to do? After all, sin is not someone else’s, but our own child, the product of our will, receptive to evil. If we did not have our own free will, there would be no sin, and there would not be such difficulties in reaching the heavenly fatherland. But then there would be no paradise for us then, there would be no eternal bliss. How can anyone be blissful without putting in, without using any attention, effort, labor, patience to preserve the commandments of the Creator, to maintain fidelity to Him? It’s a shame to eat free, undeserved bread, but it’s pleasant and healthy to eat bread from labor. Is it possible to enjoy eternal bliss without the labor of self-examination, self-purification and pleasing the all-holy, all-perfect, all-loving Creator and our heavenly Father! So, do not blame the Creator, brethren, you - earth and ashes - do not say to the Skudelnik, you are clay: why did you create me (Rom. 9:20)? Why did he give us freedom? He gave us the will in order to give you the opportunity to earn endless bliss with your free will; and how great will our bliss be when we realize that it is not only the mercy of the Master, but also deserved by us? Imagine how the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints and all the saints rejoice - those who have reached the Kingdom of Heaven through the Cross, through labors and sorrows, and do not be lazy and each of you work to cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and create holiness in the fear of God; do not be discouraged when you are subjected to various sorrows due to your sins, but pray and thank God for everything; Say: I have found sorrow and sickness, and I have called on the name of the Lord (Ps. 114:3). Obey God, but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw closer to God, and he will come closer to you. Cleanse the sinner's hand, correct your double-minded hearts. Suffer and weep and weep: let your laughter turn into weeping, and your joy into lamentation. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you (James 4:7–10). Don’t give yourself the slightest room for sin, but crowd it out and drive it out of your heart as much as possible; resist him, if necessary, to the point of bleeding, crucify your flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal.5:24): and this will mean that you took up your Cross and followed the Savior. And the Savior will in due time seat the crusaders on the throne of His kingdom, as He Himself promised: to the one who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also conquered and sat with My Father on His throne (Rev. 3:21). May none of us, brethren, be afraid to take up our cross, deny ourselves, that is, all our sinful, corrupt things, and follow the Savior. Amen. Words and teachings for the feasts of the Mother of God There are no other imams of help, no other imams of hope, except You, the Lady: Help us, we rely on You, and we boast in You: For we are Your servants, let us not be ashamed (Common Kontakion to the Theotokos) Word on the Day of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Church It was even more ancient to foretell the prophetic class... Let us truly praise Mary the Virgin Mary; Today he is brought into the Holy of Holies to be educated by the Lord (Ikos at Matins) We now celebrate, brethren, the solemn memory of the Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos. What does this introduction mean, why was it made and by whom? – The holy and righteous Godfathers Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Blessed Virgin, being childless for a long time, prayed to God to give them a child, and, if God would give it, they promised to dedicate him to God for life and service in the church. God heeded their prayer and gave them a daughter, Mary. Until he was three years old, the baby lived in his parents' house, and at the fourth year they brought him from the city of Nazareth to the city of Jerusalem and brought him into the Temple of Solomon. Here the high priest Zechariah received Her, who led Her into the Holy of Holies of the church, where only the high priest could enter once a year. From that time on, the Blessed Virgin lived at the church with other virgins dedicated to serving God until she grew old, learning to read the Holy Scriptures. scriptures and handicrafts, and having free entry into the Holy of Holies for prayer, to which she devoted most of her time, and here she often received food from the Archangel Gabriel. So, the Most Holy Virgin Mary was brought into the church to be educated by the Lord. But each of us, brethren, has a duty, in addition to the occupations of our rank, to be educated and to raise our children, with a worldly upbringing, for the Lord. The necessity of this education for heaven, for the Lord, is obvious to everyone from the fact that the Creator created us for another life in the future century, which will have no end, completely different from the present, temporary life. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). Military art, trade, industry, agriculture, earthly sciences and arts, earthly affairs are only necessary on earth, and, like everything earthly, they will pass and end, just as heaven and earth pass by (Luke 21:33). But since our unearthly, eternal soul cares too much about earthly and fickle things due to long-standing sinful depravity, forgetting about the constant, eternal heavenly fatherland, we must try in every possible way so that it does not get carried away completely by worldly worries, cares, affairs and the temporary sweetness of sin and does not forget about another life; it is necessary in every possible way, with the help of God, to direct her to heaven, to acquaint her earlier with the light there and the needs there, to educate her according to heaven, to force her to breathe in advance, so to speak, heavenly air. This is what education means for heaven, for the Lord. In order for heaven to accept us in the future, it is necessary here on earth for everyone to put into their souls something native to heaven, otherwise there will be no place for us in heaven. The Most Holy Virgin was brought into the church and left there until a certain time precisely in order to make Her akin to heaven, since the church is the best place for this. The Heavenly King accepted Her and moved into Her womb because she was prepared to receive Him by spiritual upbringing, because Her natural good dispositions and inclinations were fully developed and established here so that her soul became akin to the pure inhabitants of heaven, having been purified by the Holy Spirit. In heaven there can only be something akin to heaven. The wicked will not dwell with God; the wicked will abide below His eyes (Ps. 5:5-6). What exactly is needed in the spiritual education of each of us for heaven? It is necessary, firstly, to accustom the mind to turn more often to heaven, to God, to eternity prepared for us and awaiting us. Since for a layman this is not an entirely easy matter, especially if he lives in constant worries about everyday things, or in contentment and well-being; Because what the mind is used to doing with love is what it is most easily turned to, then for this it is necessary to visit the church of God more often, read the Holy Scriptures, and also talk with people experienced in spiritual life. The Holy Church is the best educator of a Christian; the generously gifted Lord placed in it all the means for our spiritual education; All Divine powers, including life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), are given to us in it. But we must also reflect on ourselves from time to time that everything earthly is too impermanent and passes away extremely quickly, leaving only emptiness in the heart of a person devoted to the world; that our soul is eternal and needs to be taken care of. It seems to us that life here is quite long and many people think that it is given for pleasure and therefore they catch pleasure, rush to have fun before time is gone, leaving the eternal, heavenly needs of the soul without any respect or care. How much misconception there is here! Life here seems quite long due to our limitations, our blindness, myopia; experienced people say that our earthly life is nothing more than a vapor that only appears and disappears. What kind of life is yours, asks the Apostle James, because there is a couple that appears for a little while and then disappears (James 4:14)? And all people who have lived to an advanced age usually say that their entire past life is, as it were, a past dream. If our soul is eternal, and everything earthly quickly passes, without saturating it at all, then it is easy for anyone to conclude from this that real life is not given for pleasures, which are nothing more than the bait of a sinful world, like a snare in which ethereal, cruel fishers catch our soul, although one cannot reject innocent pleasures, which, however, have their own time and measure. Real life is given to us to reveal our spiritual powers in harmonious harmony. Secondly, it is necessary to acquire a pure, contrite and humble, simple heart; soft and gentle, which would easily feel the poisonousness of every sin, which would hurt from everything that is disgusting to the most holy Lord and with its pain would bring out tears that cleanse the filth of the heart; it is necessary to accustom him to sincerity and to sincere love for all people and, in particular, to compassionate love for the poor and unfortunate. God will never despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19), and the pure in heart will see God in the future life, and in the present life only the pure in heart are able to sincerely love God and their neighbors. Simplicity and sincerity of heart are dear to God. The Holy Apostles were chosen not from among the wise and reasonable people of this age, because for the most part they are very difficult, but from infants, that is, from people who, in their concepts, simplicity and innocence, are like infants (Matthew 11:25). Earthly wisdom is sometimes ashamed of the simplicity of the Gospel; but this simplicity is the very wisdom that all people must learn if they value eternal salvation. Yes, from the Gospel and the Apostolic Epistles we all need to learn simplicity and sincerity, purity and love. Unless you are converted and become like little children,” says the Savior, “you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). Finally, thirdly, one must acquire love for virtue or for a holy life. There is a lot of evil in the world, and it has been completely in evil (1 John 5:19) since the time of the first sin; Therefore, people who are by nature evil and crafty, prone to sin, must take care to avoid opportunities for sin and look for opportunities to do a good deed. And there is an opportunity for everyone, in every rank, to do a good deed. Every title from God and the conscientious fulfillment of his duties is already a good deed, although you can find an opportunity to do many other good deeds. We need good deeds for our future life. The Lord God has such a law that all people, like plants, which have the innate ability to produce fruits from themselves and thereby be useful to living creatures, must also certainly give from themselves the fruits of good deeds; otherwise, He threatens us with whipping, as in the parable one gardener wanted to chop a barren fig tree, or with binding into sheaves destined for burning. The world is God's threshing floor. On this threshing floor there is wheat and tares, i.e. virtuous people, pleasing to God and useful to people; and vicious people, unskilled in every good deed, contrary to God, and sometimes of little or no use to people. But the word of God is true that only the wheat will be gathered into the heavenly granary, that is, into the kingdom of heaven, and the chaff, or unusable grass, will be burned with unquenchable fire, or the fire of eternal torment (Matthew 3:12). So, brethren, with the worldly affairs of our calling, let us be educated for heaven, just as we will give spiritual education or direction to our children, with a worldly upbringing. Holy Mother of God! Help us in this important matter and constantly strengthen us in our intention and in our labors of education for the Lord, for eternity. Amen. Word for the Day of the Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Angels, seeing the entry of the Most Pure One, were surprised: how the Virgin entered the Holy of Holies (Chorus of the 9th Song of the Canon) Today, beloved brothers and sisters, we have two holidays: the Resurrection of Christ and the Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos; one holiday is a week, the other is an annual holiday; one of the Lord, the other of the Theotokos. The subject of our word will be the feast of the Mother of God. When remembering the sacred event that St. The Church now triumphs solemnly, our whole being must be imbued with joy and awe. For what do we remember and celebrate today? Presentation of the three-year-old Youth, the Blessed Virgin Mary, into the Church of God, so that She might be nurtured by the Lord in the Holy of Holies, that is, to prepare for the habitation of God. Oh, unspeakable joy! For the Lord Himself wants to enter, through the young Virgin, purified by the Spirit, into the closest union with people and pour out on them His immeasurably great blessings, surpassing all understanding, namely: to enrich human poverty with the Divine, to clothe our nakedness, to make the ugly beautiful, to cleanse the unclean, to enlighten the darkened, to renew the corruptible, to make the weak strong. But trepidation is involuntarily combined with joy. For the beginningless, great, unapproachable and terrible God for the very Angels enters into the closest communion with weak human nature, the Most Holy One with sinners, although they are cleansed by repentance. So, let us meet the Lord coming to unite with our mortal nature, we will meet him with joy and trembling, with joy because of the greatness of God’s good deeds, with trepidation because of our sins. In honor and glory of the Most Blessed Mother of God and for our edification, we will talk about how Her introduction into the church took place, and then about the high significance of the church for us and that we ourselves should be churches of God. It is known that the Blessed Virgin Mary was born from barren parents Joachim and Anna, who, already in old age, asked God for this Most Blessed Daughter with fervent prayer, moreover making a vow to dedicate their child to God. And so, when the Blessed Virgin was three years old, Her righteous parents, fulfilling the promise they had given to God, solemnly brought Her into the Temple of Jerusalem. The ancient Fathers of the Church, glorifying the introduction of the Mother of God, tell in sacred songs how St. Joachim and Anna gathered their relatives and friends in Nazareth. Young virgins with candles in their hands walked in front of the Holy Maiden; She was led by her parents, followed by friends and family. Thus they walked from Nazareth all the way to the temple of Jerusalem. The high priest Zechariah and the priests serving in the church met them with prayers and singing. St. The virgin was placed on the first step of the church porch, and, to the surprise of all those present, she, supported by no one, walked firmly up the fifteen steps and stopped only at the top. The high priest introduced the Most Pure Virgin into the Holy Place, where only one high priest entered once a year. The Mother of God, according to the Church, was introduced into the lawful church, as the animated church of the great King. The righteous parents brought gifts and sacrifices to God and then, having accepted the blessing of the priests, returned with their relatives to Nazareth. St. Virgin Mary settled at the church. There, in separate rooms, lived young virgins dedicated to God, as well as widows who served in the church, like Anna the prophetess; wanderers and strangers also lived here. They were joined by St. Anna, mother of the Mother of God, widowed shortly after the introduction of the Blessed Virgin; but she did not live long with her Most Holy Daughter; soon after her husband, she also gave up her spirit to God. The Holy Virgin was brought up under the supervision of older pious maidens, experienced in St. writing and handicrafts. She worked incessantly, prayed often, and loved reading holy scripture. In this way She prepared for Her high purpose. The Church calls Her the beautiful Dawn, from which the Sun of Truth shone. All of Her, says the sacred song, dwelling inside the church and nourished by heavenly food, was sanctified by the All-Holy Spirit. When the Most Pure Virgin came to the age at which virgins raised in the church usually returned to the world and entered into marriage, the priests wanted Her to act in the same way. But the Most Pure Virgin revealed to them Her desire - to devote Herself to God and not to marry. Then, at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they betrothed Her to the elderly Joseph, a relative of Her parents. He became the patron of the Most Pure Virgin and respected the vow given to God. The icon of the introduction of the Mother of God into the church represents the three-year-old Holy Virgin entering the steps of the church. This, first of all, should inspire us with the desire to bring children more often into the church of God, from an early age to accustom them to prayer and listening to the Holy Scriptures, so that they too grow in piety and rise higher and higher on the steps of good deeds and pious thoughts. But this holiday teaches us all to deeply respect the church of God and love staying in it in prayer, praise and thanksgiving. The church is the earthly sky; in it is the throne of God, on which the King of glory sits invisibly and accepts our worship, our prayers, tears, sighs, sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving; the church contains our highest, spiritual, eternal interests; from it comes purification, sanctification and renewal of our souls and bodies, here the spring of living water flows incessantly - the word of God is read and the most gratifying truths are preached, nourishing and delighting the mind and heart; here sweet, heavenly, soul-shaking chants are sung; here all saving sacraments that renew us are performed; here the life-giving currents of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ constantly flow, pouring into those who receive them a wonderful, divine life, cleansing, sanctification, renewal; here the greatest church and civil celebrations are celebrated, the subject of which is our salvation and bliss in God or the prosperity and deliverance of the fatherland or its sovereign rulers from troubles and evils; here we find consolation in sorrows, light in perplexities, strength in weaknesses. Here we hear about the wondrous exploits of St. saints and friends of God, our prayer books before God and we learn to imitate them according to our strength. Here, in the church, we learn the vanity and insignificance of all earthly goods and the fact that virtue alone never dies; here, finally, we feel like members of the single spiritual body of Christ’s Church and citizens of heaven, we anticipate heavenly bliss. After all this, how can we not love the church, this border between earth and heaven; this is a heavenly school where we are educated for heaven, for God; this medical clinic, where our mental ailments, sins and passions are treated; this source of living waters, where the purest spring of life flows? The Church of God is consecrated into the dwelling of God and the place for the celebration of the heavenly Mysteries and Divine services so that we ourselves can build from ourselves, from our hearts, a church of God not made by hands; for, according to the word of scripture, a Christian is the church of God; Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Cor. 3:16)? You are the churches of God alive, it says, just as it is written: I will dwell in them, and will walk in them, and will be their God, and they will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:16-18). So, let us finally recognize our high dignity and purpose, with which the Lord our God has honored us; Let us continually educate ourselves into a habitation for God, let us cleanse ourselves by repentance from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and let us create holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1). Amen. Word for the Day of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Church We celebrate the introduction into the church of God of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where She was raised in the Holy of Holies of the Lord! A significant holiday: it teaches us a lot. The church is the village of God on earth, the house of God - here the immense, boundless God is, as it were, embraced, descending from His infinity into the small container of the church, the intangible is touched and tasted, I mean, in the Mystery of Communion. The Church of God is the earthly sky, it is the line connecting heaven with earth; here a person knows and feels that he is the image of God; that he is only a guest and a stranger on earth, that he, in fact, is a resident of heaven; that he is a member of the Church of God or a God-established society of those being saved; that he is a child of God. Here, in contrast to the sinful world, he sees only sacredness, truth, love and mercy in the faces depicted on the icons and hears in all the readings and chants - and nothing sinful, as in the world; here, as in heaven, together with the Angels he glorifies the Lord, His eternal glory, His goodness, love for mankind, generosity, His power and kingdom. According to this significance of the church, it is necessary for a Christian, as his integral element, just as for a fish the element is water, for a bird it is the free air in which it flies and with which it lives and breathes; here he learns the truth, prayer, for only here he learns the true knowledge of God and himself; here he learns to love God and neighbor; here one learns holiness and all virtue, just as one learns to turn away from sin with all one’s heart; here one learns to despise the temporary and perishable and strive for the imperishable and eternal in heaven. That is why the righteous parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the most pious spouses, who themselves loved the church of God, fulfilling their promise, brought their blessed three-year-old daughter Mary into the house of God - to be raised by the Lord in the dwelling of His glory. And here She was taught by God Himself and the Angels; She was constantly in prayer, reading the word of God, contemplating God and working hard. She was so immersed in prayer, contemplation of God and reading the word of God that she often forgot about food and the Archangels brought her food. So Her righteous spirit was higher than the needs of Her Most Pure body! It was here that She was inflamed with seraphim love for God and became worthy, by grace, to be the Mother of God. Brothers and sisters! Let us also diligently come to the church of God, learn in it our Christian duties, holiness, truth, mercy, patience, obedience, devotion to the will of God, abstinence, non-covetousness, we ourselves will try to be the churches of God. Amen. Teaching for the Day of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the Church Today the Blessed Virgin is introduced into the Holy of Holies to be raised with the Lord (Ikos at Matins) The parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, righteous Joachim and Anna were barren, and greatly lamented their childlessness. But they had strong faith in the almighty God of Israel; they prayed earnestly for the resolution of infertility and the granting of a child to them, and did diligent alms. Faith, fervent prayer, fervent almsgiving, strict and constant piety, their promise to dedicate the gifted child to God, bowed to the mercy of the gracious God, and He gave them the blessed fruit - the Blessed Virgin Mary. Their joy and fiery gratitude to God for such a wonderful gift of His mercy was indescribable. One can imagine how diligently they cared about Her upbringing in the spirit of the law of the Lord, how they were consoled by the sight of the future Mother of the Lord, the future Queen of Angels and men. Now, in this modest dwelling of Joachim and Anna, all the favor of God rested. Until the age of three, the righteous parents raised their Child at home, and at the end of it they decided to fulfill their vow exactly and dedicate Him to God, like the once righteous Anna, the mother of Samuel the prophet. The introduction of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the church was carried out solemnly, accompanied by the face of pure virgins carrying lamps, which signified that She would carry the Fire of the Divine, unburned in her womb, would be the Mother of Light and She Herself would be the purest light. The High Priest Zechariah, who was at that time in the Temple of Jerusalem, at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, together with the priests, went out to meet Her and solemnly introduced Her into the Holy of Holies of the Church, and allowed Her to enter without restriction into this then impregnable village of the glory of God. Having brought songs of praise and gratitude to God, the parents of the Blessed Virgin left Her at the church, under the supervision of the older virgins who also lived at the church, and She soon learned prayer, reading, writing, and needlework. Living mostly in the Holy of Holies, She was constantly under the shadow of the shrine of the church. The Spirit of God rested on Her, purifying and sanctifying Her into the church of the Lord. Soon Her parents died; Now She devoted herself inseparably to the Lord with all her heart, and, while doing handicrafts, most of all devoted herself to prayer and reading St. scriptures, and this shows that She was constantly in a holy mood. She forgot about food, and the Angel of God brought Her heavenly food. This is what St. now remembers and solemnly glorifies. Church, for our edification. Through this holy feast of St. The Church, first of all, teaches parents a lesson to bring their children to church more often and generally raise them in a strict Christian spirit. Why? Firstly, because children are the property of God, children of God, reborn and sanctified by the Holy Spirit in the Holy Spirit. font, and must be brought up in the spirit of St. Church, in piety and holiness; and God will require parents to account for their upbringing, like their Father and like their God; and secondly, because nowhere can children learn sincere piety, sincere love, praise and gratitude to God and love for their neighbors so well, so graciously and successfully, as in church, where the Holy Spirit, the true Educator, especially rests and teaches them through everything: through the gaze, through the ear, through the lips - in the Holy Communion. Mystery, and directly and directly affects their pure, impressionable soul. Having become accustomed from their earliest youth to the house of God, to the house of shrines, prayer and praise of God, and often resounding with the praises of God, little by little they themselves will be infused with the Spirit of holiness and piety, will receive an aversion to sin and the temptations of the world, their soul will be tempered - let's put it simply - strengthened in a holy disposition, and now the child will emerge as a good Christian or Christian woman, and a family man, and an honest citizen. Of course, children should not learn piety in church alone, but at home, in school, and the parents’ home and school should also be a school of piety for Christian children, along with other sciences and arts. God's things to God, Caesar's things to Caesar (Matthew 22:21). The Christian education of the mind, heart and will should be the main concern of parents and educators. This is an undeniable truth. A Christianly raised child will not sadden his parents with ingratitude, disobedience, self-will, debauchery, extravagance and riotous living; will not encroach on his life because of failures in the pursuit of pleasure and self-interest; will not mock the shrine; will not reject the eternal truths of faith and morality; He will not, with his thoughts and actions, shake the foundations of family, religious and social life, as unfortunately happens now with some young men and old people. All disorders and crimes in the family and society arise from the lack of faith in God in criminals, which is the root of all good and order, and due to their alienation from religion and from the Church. He who moves away from the Church moves away from the light, moves away from God and falls into the impenetrable darkness of human passions. But all who separate themselves from You will perish, says the Prophet (Ps. 72:27). The Church is both a school of Christian faith and piety, and a rich treasury of grace and all the sacraments, it is also a house of spiritual food, which is the Life-giving body and blood of Christ and the word of God with prayer, and the physician of our souls and bodies; she is the best teacher of repentance, correction and Christian perfection. For there are great saints in it. men have left us in their teachings, reflections, or in short poems sung in church, or in their biographies, the best examples of repentance, correction and all Christian virtues; she is the best teacher of prayer; in her litanies she teaches us to love everyone as ourselves, and to pray for everyone as for ourselves; it expands our heart with the spirit of love so that there is room in it for all-encompassing love. She teaches to pray for the whole world, for the Sovereign and his royal house, for all authorities - spiritual and civil; for the army, for those sailing, traveling, the sick, the suffering, the captives - for everyone; she teaches to ask God for a perfect, peaceful, sinless, holy day; – an angel of peace, forgiveness and forgiveness of sins, all that is good and beneficial for the soul; – spending time in peace and repentance, a Christian end of life and a good answer at the Last Judgment. How all this should have a saving effect on an attentive young man or girl - and what a wonderful person they would later develop into! So, because the Church is the teacher of all virtues that liken man to God. But, it goes without saying that if children should go to church often, then adults should certainly, because the church is a house of prayer, and everyone needs to pray; she is a God-enlightened teacher and neither kings, nor philosophers, nor the best orators, nor any of the highly educated people, not to mention mere mortals, are ashamed to learn from her. Amen. Homily on the day of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Church Let us truly praise Mary the Mother of God: today it is possible in the Holy of Holies to be taught to the Lord (Ikos at Matins) Today is the day, my brothers, St. The Church celebrates the solemn introduction into the Temple of Jerusalem of the three-year-old Youth Mary, the blessed daughter of the righteous parents Joachim and Anna, to be raised by the Lord. Zechariah, the elder high priest, met Her in a sacred manner, accompanied by young virgins, and led Her, at the inspiration of the Spirit of God, into the innermost part of the temple, into the Holy of Holies, where once a year the High Priest himself entered and where the Lord Himself dwelt, the Holy of Holies, for She was to be His Mother according to the flesh. How did the Most Blessed Virgin spend her time in the church? Taught by the Holy Spirit Himself, through the virgins, in Hebrew writing and prayer, She spent time in prayer, reading the word of God, as you see in the icon of the Annunciation, in contemplation of God and handicrafts. Her love for conversation with God and for reading the word of God was so great that she forgot about food and drink - and the Archangel, at the command of God, brought Her heavenly food, as the Church sings in its stichera for this holiday. What a wonderful example for fathers and mothers and their children, for Christian virgins and young men! And they are obliged, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, as slaves of the heavenly Queen of the Mother of God and the Head of the mental creation - the Church to which they belong, to imitate, in their strength, Her ardent love for God, Her zeal for reading the word of God, for prayer, contemplation of God, abstinence, hard work! If we do not want in vain to be called spiritual members of the Church of Christ, this holy House of God, whose Queen and Mother is the Most Holy Virgin Theotokos, then we should also be wise in the same way as in Her, the Queen Mother. May Her children be with Her by the grace of the one spirit! Let them learn from Her how to love the Lord, their Creator, more than anything else in the world, more than father and mother, more than all their relatives; how to diligently study in the word of God - which, unfortunately, is not visible among the so-called disciples and disciples of Jesus Christ - with what heartfelt fervor of love to pray to the Lord, how to surrender to Him with all your heart, how to entrust your entire destiny to His all-wise and all-good Providence, what purity, meekness, humility, patience to always put on, adorn yourself - instead of the vain adornments of this adulterous, sinful world, who does not know the extent of luxury and sophistication in bodily attire - how to love cohabitation with God and with the saints more than living in the villages of sinners (Ps. 83:11). Since the Most Holy Virgin was brought into the church to be educated by the Lord, let us now talk about the benefits and necessity of visiting the church of God, as the house of God, and the place of our education for the heavenly fatherland. We are called Christians and are all called by Jesus Christ to the heavenly fatherland - to be heavenly citizens, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. Our title is very high, our duties are also very important; We must have an exalted, holy, meek, humble spirit. Who will show us what our Christian title and responsibilities are, and what kind of spirit we should be, how to behave in different circumstances of life? Who will teach us the strength to live according to the spirit of Christ - holy? The Church provides all this to us; we can receive these spiritual powers in the church of God through the sacraments. A heavenly, unearthly spirit hovers here; here is the school of Jesus Christ, in which future heavenly citizens are educated, here you receive heavenly lessons from the Divine Mentor Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Gospel, and heavenly food and heavenly drink, and spiritual, heavenly clothing, and spiritual armor against the enemies of salvation; here you receive heavenly peace, which is so necessary in our spiritual pursuits, in our spiritual education, and strength for spiritual labors and the fight against sin. Here we learn sweet conversation with our heavenly Father and with the Most Pure Queen Theotokos, with the Angels of the Lord and the saints, we learn how and what to pray for. Here you will find examples of all Christian virtues in the saints glorified daily by the Church. Here, gathering together in the house of God, as children of one heavenly Father, as members of the mystical body of Christ, we learn to love one another, as a member of a member, as members of Christ, as Christ Himself. You see how useful, how necessary it is for a Christian to visit the church of God, this God-established school of faith and piety, this sacred treasury of Divine powers for life and piety (2 Pet. 1:3), the treasury of all the sacraments of Christ! But the benefit and necessity of visiting the church of God for a Christian is revealed more clearly by comparing the church with the vain world, in which we love to worship more than in the church. What do you meet in the world and what in the church? In the world, there is vanity, charm, and vice at almost every step; in the church - only truth, shrines and every virtue; in the world - decay, sin, death; in the church - the incorruptibility of the saints and eternal life; outside the church you see the objects of worldly vanity, feeding the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16), you see what people are constantly seduced and captivated by and from which they neglect the commandments of God - their Creator and Savior; for example, here - in this house, there is a whole variety of fabrics of all colors: these fabrics are the object of adoration of the daughters of men; They live by them, are animated by them, rejoice in them, but not by God; Immediately, various items made of silver and gold amaze with their brilliance, captivating the gaze of admirers of everything brilliant and beautiful; in a word, wherever you turn your attention in the world, you almost see only decay, vanity and sin; everywhere - earthly and worldly things, and empty and vain conversations, and vain deeds - nothing almost reminiscent of heaven, of God, of life there. Only in the homes of pious people do icons of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Most Pure Mother and His saints remind those who understand that we are Christians and members of Christ, members of His kingdom, that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century, in which we will unite with the Lord and with the saints, having cleansed ourselves here from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. So you see what a difference there is between the church or house of God and between the world. You see how useful and necessary it is for a Christian to visit the church of God in order to educate himself for the heavenly fatherland, in order to instill in himself the spirit of Christ, to form in himself heavenly, holy morals! For where, besides the church of God, will you hear the word of God; where, besides the church, they will teach you the sacraments of faith; Where will you get the strength to live like a Christian? Everything is in the church and from the church. Love to visit the church of God and prepare yourselves as a church for God, and you yourself, like stone, are built alive into a spiritual church, a holy sanctuary, offering spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5). Parents, educators, relatives of children - let them more often and without fail take or send them to church on all Sundays and holidays - for public prayer, and not to the theater, not to evenings, where so early the youth learn what they should never have known. In the church they will often hear the name of the Lord; will learn the great truths of the creation of the world and man, the fall and redemption of man; they will know the Savior, the Mother of God, they will learn the names of the saints, about the resurrection of the dead, the future judgment, about the future life and the eternal torment of sinners, and they will learn from the Spirit of God to be good Christians, and this is the most precious thing in the world. Amen. Today St. The Orthodox Church celebrates the bright triumph of the Entry into the Church of God of the three-year-old Youth, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her holy parents Joachim and Anna, having had no children for a long time and diligently desiring to have a blessed fruit, prayed to the Lord for this day and night, promising to dedicate it to God. The Lord gave them holy seed, a glorious daughter, whom they named Mary. The Lord God was pleased to destined this holy daughter of theirs to be His immaculate and brideless Mother. With the birth of the blessed daughter, the Lord filled with every blessing and grace both Her parents Joachim and Anna and their entire house. When She was three years old, they solemnly, preceded and accompanied by pure virgins, with burning candles, led Her, brightly adorned, as the bride of the All-Tsar and God, to the Temple of Jerusalem, to be raised by the Lord - and the High Priest Zechariah, at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, blessed the Young Lady, and led Her into the Holy of Holies of the Church, where no one could enter except the High Priest, and then only once a year. She was always allowed to enter this place of residence of the glory of God without any restrictions. The Holy Angels were surprised how the Holy Virgin entered the Holy of Holies 117, where they themselves contemplated the glory of God with fear. Here She was completely filled with the Holy Spirit. - Here, at the church, under the guidance of pure virgins, - but especially of the Spirit of God Himself and the Holy One. Angels, - She soon learned prayer, reading and writing, handicrafts characteristic of a woman, and so completely devoted herself to God that, while engaged in prayer, St. contemplation and reading the word of God, she forgot about food and the Archangel brought Her food. When Her time in the church ended and She had to leave it, and meanwhile Her parents had died long before that time, the high priest, obliged to sacredly keep the pledge given to him from God, entrusted Her to the custody and care of the 84-year-old elder, righteous Joseph, under the guise of betrothal; It was in his house that She spent Her angelic, heavenly life, where She was soon honored with the Archangel's gospel of the conception and birth from Her of the Savior of the world, the only begotten Son of God. Notice, brothers and sisters, how much the church of God means to a person, what a wonderful effect it can have on children raised in the fear of God, and on everyone who lives in faith and piety. The church is the earthly sky; in it is the throne of God - our Creator and Savior: He, with special grace and power, always abides in the church; here, according to His promise, His eyes and His heart are open all the days (1 Kings 9:3) to see those coming in and going out, praying, repenting, weeping, mourning, as well as those rejoicing in the Lord, praising Him, thanking Him. Good and faithful Christians feel His presence in the church, often experience His fatherly gaze and favor, feel close to His heart and Him in their hearts. Here, in St. In the church, we ourselves become temples of the Holy Spirit, through the sacraments, prayer, and the word of God. Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? So, fathers and mothers, educators, relatives, take your children to the church of God more often and go with them yourself; all Orthodox Christians, visit without laziness, diligently, the house of the Lord God Almighty and pour out your hearts, your repentant feelings, your tears, your prayers before Him; ascend to Him in thanksgiving and praise. But, contemplating the wondrous shrine and incomparable greatness of the Blessed Virgin, who became the Mother of God Himself, for us from Her incarnated and made human, I ask myself and you a question: what made Her so beloved to God the Creator, where is the root cause of Her so wondrous, terrible and at the same time saving greatness for the human race? Why did the All-Creator Himself become incarnate from Her, and, being eternally God, became man in everything like us, except for sin? First of all, I answer that the Lord loved Her for the purity and God-like beauty of Her inner spiritual church, or for the seraphim purity and beauty of Her soul, for the divine beauty of His image and likeness in Her. Her humility magnified her: she looked upon the humility of her servant, she says herself through the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:48). And the Creator became incarnate from Her in order to restore His fallen image in us, for we are all, remember, created in the image of God, but all of us, starting with the first man, are in a disastrous and terrible state of the fall of sin, and, willingly and unwillingly, we daily distort the image of God in ourselves, committing all sorts of sins, desecrating it, and through this we strongly, gravely anger God, moving away from Him, falling into demonic darkness, darkness, malice, envy, pride, into the filth of all sin and we are in danger of falling into eternal destruction. It was possible to restore the image and likeness of God in us no other way than through the incarnation of the Son of God, healing like with like. So, God became incarnate to restore in us the fallen, desecrated, desecrated image of God, and, having become incarnate from the Most Pure Virgin, made Her His Mother, and by grace, ours, the Creator Himself wanted to become for all of us the perfect example of man, the greatest righteous man, and, having redeemed us with His suffering and death from sin, curse and death, He gave us through faith and repentance and etc. the sacraments of grace and power to become, with the assistance of our zeal for virtue, perfect and righteous. For this purpose, He founded His Church on earth, to which He entrusted His grace, His teaching, His Divine powers and powers and His sacraments, and gave us shepherds and teachers, so that the man of God might be complete, ready for every good work (2 Tim. 3:17). So, pay the most careful, most zealous attention to the image of God, according to which our soul was created: - this is what is especially dear and dear to God in us, and why we should all be kind and dear to each other; dear to God is our soul, His image, His living portrait; and we must be kind to each other, especially for the sake of the image of God in us; and the image of God consists in truth and holiness (Eph. 4:24), in the light of reason, love, in meekness, gentleness, humility, purity, patience, in the free pursuit of every virtue, in immortality or the eternal abiding of our souls. So, here is the first guarantee of the greatness of the Mother of God and the reason for God’s greatest favor towards Her - Her purest image of God and likeness of God in soul and body; – further, the reason for Her greatness as the Mother of God is the boundless love of God for His fallen image in people, and its restoration through close communication with humanity and its elevation to primitive perfection and eternal bliss. Thus, the Mother of God became, according to the expression of the Church, the crucible through which the Lord purified the fallen human race, the ancient or golden cup of heavenly manna, Christ, who nourishes, cleanses and renews us with His Most Pure body and blood. So, Christians, I repeat, let us zealously take care of everything about restoring the fallen image of God in ourselves and preserving what has been restored by always paying attention to ourselves and diligent repentance and Divine communion; will maintain a constant connection with the Prototype, that is, God, by unceasingly looking to Him, prayer, reading the word of God, keeping His commandments, thanksgiving, glorification; in the community - simplicity and sincerity, meekness, humility, kindness, abstinence, cleanliness, cheerful, hardworking life, sincere goodwill towards everyone, mercy and mutual help, forbearance, patience, sociability, readiness for every good and useful deed. The Lord gave infinitely much to man, creating him in His image and likeness, subduing all earthly creation to him, becoming man Himself, remaining God, exhausting all of Himself for our salvation, giving us His Most Pure and Life-giving body and blood - all the wonderful means to life and piety. But to whom much is given, much will be required (Luke 12:48). Let us take care to increase the guarantees of God’s grace given to us and bring God the fruits of righteousness. We must admit that we have become corrupted, we forget our high rank and purpose, and now God apparently punishes us with various disasters - premature deaths, scarcity of earthly fruits, pestilence, harmful infectious diseases, high prices, hunger, insects, exhausting wars, frequent fires, untimely winter and therefore untimely ice drift and extremely great losses from it. God! Through the prayers of the Most Pure Ever-Virgin Mary, Your Mother, enlighten, convert and save us all. Amen. The maidens will be brought to the King after Her, Her sincere ones will be brought to You: they will be brought in joy and joy, they will be brought into the church of the Kings (Ps. 45:15-16) We celebrate, my brothers, together with the Resurrection of Christ from the grave, the Presentation into the Church of the three-year-old Youth, the only-begotten daughter of the righteous parents Joachim and Anna, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be raised by the Lord. When the Virgin Mary was three years old, Her parents hastened to fulfill their vow to God in order to dedicate their child to Him; For this purpose, Joachim and Anna gathered their relatives to Nazareth and invited the virgins, and, accompanied by them, St. The Virgin Mary went to the church of God. The procession of the young Lady Mary was solemn. She was decorated with royal splendor; She was preceded by pure virgins with many lit lamps and singing psalms; all of Jerusalem, amazed at such an extraordinary procession of the three-year-old Maiden, came out to meet Her. Just before the church, She was met by the priests, and when Her relatives placed Her on the first of 15 steps leading to the church, She, strengthened by the power of God, She Herself ascended to the highest step and stopped there. The High Priest Zechariah received the Most Holy Virgin and, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, led Her not only into the church, but also into the Holy of Holies, a place in the church inaccessible to ordinary people, and where he himself could only enter once a year. Her parents made a sacrifice of gratitude to God and returned home, and the Most Holy Virgin was given in the church to the monastery of virgins, under the supervision of the oldest virgins. Here, away from the world, She little by little prepared for Her destiny. Her main occupation was fasting and prayer, handicrafts and reading the word of God; She often entered the Holy of Holies to pray and read the word of God. In this place, inaccessible to others, She entered into communication with the Angels, talked with them and received food from them. Thus passed the years of infancy and adolescence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For our edification, let us now talk about the fact that we must urgently go to the church of God, especially on Sundays and holidays, and, going to church, change from day to day for the better. As long as man was innocent and holy, there was no need for a church: the Lord apparently appeared to the first people in paradise and talked with them as with children, instructing them in every good deed; but when people sinned, the Lord expelled them from paradise and deprived them of His direct vision, because people, infected with sin, pride, pride, rebellion, became unworthy of visible communication with their Creator and Lord; only the chosen ones, that is, the saints from the people of subsequent times, were awarded theophany, like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Elijah and a few others. But pious people, always feeling the need for God, for His special, so to speak, tactile closeness to them, were looking for a special place, as if a point of contact between Him and them - where they could feel, feel His presence. And the Lord condescended to the desire of His saints: He showed them His special presence in known places and signs, like Abraham under the oak of Mamre, Jacob on the way - in an empty place; Moses in Mount Horeb, then in the miracles of Egypt and especially on Mount Sinai; then He was pleased to dwell in the Tabernacle of Testimony, built at His command and according to the image shown on the mountain to Moses in the Arabian desert; - after that in the Temple of Solomon. The Lord Himself clearly announced about the Temple of Solomon that in it there would always be His all-seeing eyes and His heart (1 Kings 9:3), and He would accept the prayers of all those who came to Him; Only before the destruction of Jerusalem and the church for the iniquities of the Jewish people, who completed their atrocities by killing the Messiah, did the Lord completely abandon and leave the Jewish church, and, according to legend, a voice was heard: let us leave from here. So, even in the Old Testament, the church was a place of the special presence of God and, so to speak, the point of contact of the Jewish people and other people with God; but in the New Testament the church received special meaning - for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself always dwells in it, not only invisibly, but also visibly in His Divine, Life-giving and Terrible Mysteries - His body and blood; Angels and all the saints are invisibly present in the church. Hence, a Christian church has a particularly important and saving significance for a Christian, as a place of the invisible presence of the Lord, as a house of prayer, as a place for performing all the sacraments, and in particular, the sacraments of the Body and Blood of the Lord. So, if you, a Christian, feel the need for God, for special closeness to Him, for close communion with Him, then come more often to the church of God; here you will feel, touch the special presence of God, the special, gracious, mysterious, spiritual breath of the Life-giving Spirit; here you will get a special prayerful mood, you will throw off the burden of earthly vanity from your heart, the darkness from your spiritual eyes, the burden of sin. Here everything breathes with Divine grace, from the liturgical readings and singing and rituals, and from St. icons and from everything, from everything; - everything cultivates in our spirit faith, hope and love - and the aspiration of a future eternal life. Here we all gather, without distinction of rank and condition, gender and age, we recognize and feel ourselves as children of the one Heavenly Father, redeemed by the priceless blood of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ, as brothers, as members of Christ and members of His Church, as branches of a single vine - Christ, as sheep of a single Shepherd - Christ, as heirs of the kingdom of heaven. This is the motivation to go to the church of God - the strongest motivation! Whoever does not go to the church of God, little by little loses faith, hope and love, which the church of God so beautifully and strongly cultivates in us through its worship, sacraments, rituals, teachings - he loses the consciousness that he is a Christian, a member of Christ, a member of His Church and the heir of the future kingdom - he plunges in spirit and body into the vanity of this world, becomes a carnal, vain man, a playground of various passions, careless about his soul and pleasing God, and quickly approaches his destruction. Therefore, the first Christians, knowing from experience the importance and benefit of church meetings, often gathered together for prayer and to celebrate the sacrament of communion - constantly, it is said, they remained in the teaching of the apostles, in fellowship and breaking bread and in prayers (Acts 2:42). Subsequently, the council established the rule that if anyone was not in the church meeting for two or three Sundays in a row, he would be excommunicated from the Church; and the Apostle Paul wrote in his epistles that Christians should not abandon their meeting, as is some custom, but attend it, and even more so, as soon as they see the day of judgment approaching (Heb. 10:25). And how many people go to the theater instead of church! Those who go to the theater little by little lose the character of Christianity in their lives and their life becomes essentially not Christian, but purely pagan; they become essentially pagans, although they bear the Christian name; their prayer is not sincere; they don’t like the temple; they are not interested in divine services, the Christian sacraments are treated only formally, outwardly, without the participation of the heart; sins and passions are not curbed, but are considered natural manifestations of nature; others idolize their minds; they don’t believe in miracles; they do not recognize the resurrection of the dead and the future judgment, and they also do not recognize retribution for deeds; in a word, they take on a pagan image of both thoughts and actions. Those who sincerely attend the church can never fall into such gross errors, because the Church constantly enlightens them, guides them, corrects them, strengthens them with its worship and sacraments. So, brethren, diligently visit the church of God, this earthly heaven, this paradise of God, but while visiting it, try to change for the better, in the image of the inhabitants of heaven; cut off your sins and adorn yourself with every virtue, as befits a Christian. Amen. Homily on the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary The sacrament that took place on this day amazes not only human, but also all angelic, high minds. They are also perplexed, how God, without beginning, immense, unapproachable, descended to the form of a slave and became a man, without ceasing to be God and without in the least diminishing the glory of the Divine? How could the Virgin contain the unbearable fire of the Divine in the Most Pure Womb and remain unharmed and remain forever the Mother of God incarnate? So great, so wonderful, so filled with Divine wisdom is this sacrament of the Annunciation by the Archangel to the Blessed Virgin and the incarnation of the Son of God from Her! Rejoice, ye earthly beings, rejoice, especially faithful Christian souls, but rejoice with trepidation before the greatness of the sacrament, as if covered with the filth of sin; rejoice, but immediately with sincere and living, deep repentance, cleanse yourself with the grace of God from the filth of sin. Magnify with pure hearts and lips the Mother of God, exalted and exalted above all creatures, Angels and men, exalted by God Himself, the Creator of every creature, and remember that the mystery of the incarnation and incarnation of the Son of God took place for our salvation from sin, the curse righteously spoken to us at first from God for sins, and from temporary and eternal death. With fear and joy accept the Lord, who is coming to us to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in our hearts and souls, the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17) - and hate God-hating sin, malice, impurity, intemperance, pride, hard-heartedness, unmercifulness, selfishness, carnality, all unrighteousness. Christ came to earth for this purpose, so that he would lead us to heaven 118. And so we, nailed to the earth by worldly passions, will lift up our heads and lift the eyes of our hearts to heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ wants to take us all. Mountains of the heart! It is enough for us to crawl with our thoughts and hearts on the earth, like worms. It is true that we are insignificant worms because of our sins, although our souls are created in the image of God, which we have distorted with our sins, and which we absolutely need to restore through true repentance while we are alive; It is necessary for this image of God to shine in us like the sun, as in the beginning, when Adam and Eve were just created. This is why life is given to us; That is why its flow continues; That is why we are numbered among the Church of God and participate in its services, sacraments and fasts. Look how the image of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God shines! What wondrous virtues and perfections! But She is also a human... What raised Her to such an incomparable height, made Her so glorious and great, higher than the Cherubim and more glorious than the Seraphim? The three greatest virtues: humility, purity and fiery love for God, alien to any earthly, material love. She herself confesses that the Lord looked upon the humility of His servant (Luke 1:48). Love and deeply plant in your heart, Christian, God-loving humility; Acquire purity of heart through all-out efforts throughout your life - through fasting, prayers, contemplation of God, tears, and especially through frequent and worthy communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ; love God, your Creator and Savior, with all your heart and do not prefer anything in the world to His holy love; Always meditate on Him and on His wonderful deeds; Live and breathe it; Feed your soul with it; put on Him; With it, be cleansed, enlightened, sanctified, strengthened, adorned, boasted, comforted; With it, defeat the temptations and slander of enemies visible and invisible; whatever you do, do everything with the thought of Him and for His sake; Wherever you are, be with Him everywhere, just as He is always with us, He is everywhere and fulfills everything 119. If you love the Lord in this way, then the Lord will be magnified in you, and the Lord will magnify you, as St. Church: I will glorify those who glorify Me 120. Hate, Christian, abase yourself, destroy all sin, and the Lord of glory will be magnified in you, and you will be great before God and people; love humility and the Lord will exalt you. Amen. Sermon for the Day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary The day of our salvation is the main thing, and the manifestation of the sacrament from the ages: the Son of God is the Son of the Virgin (Troparion of the Feast) Beloved brothers and sisters! The present day is the beginning of our salvation from sin, which entered the human race through our ancestor Adam; now the greatest mystery of God has been revealed, predestined by God before all centuries: the Son of God, beginningless, omnipotent, the Source of wisdom and reason, the Source of goodness, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Creator of Adam, becomes the Son of the Most Pure Virgin and the Virgin becomes the Mother of God; God becomes man, without ceasing to be God, in order to restore man from the fall, from sin, to deliver him from death and eternal torment, and to make the sinner a saint. Oh, wonderful mystery, beyond all reason! Oh, the unspeakable goodness of God! Such immeasurable mercy was given to fallen man, worthy of all punishment! Yes, mercy is truly Divine, immeasurable, but mercy, however, is for sinners who truly repent; and for the unrepentant, the greater the condemnation will be because they, having trampled such great gifts of God with their lawless lives, did not want to repent sincerely. So, God is made man in order to make man god; to make the earth heaven, through the renewal of humanity, through the planting on earth of the Church of God with heavenly teaching, with heavenly sacraments, with members of the Church living heavenly on earth, which were all the saints of our Orthodox Church: apostles, saints, martyrs and martyrs, reverend men and women and all the saints. But how was it possible, you say, to make a sinner a god through the communion of the Divine? Don’t ask how it is possible, all things are possible with God (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27). Such a transformation is not possible for man, but everything is possible for God. However, there is a reason why this was possible. Man was created at first in the image and likeness of God, that is, right, pure, holy, rational, free, immortal; To put it simply, the primordial ones were living portraits of the Divine, but through sin they lost their rightness and became sinful, unclean, in the image of the devil who deceived them. Man fell away from God and joined the enemy, to whom he sold himself for forbidden fruit, but fell through the deception of the devil and, therefore, deserved compassion and deliverance. In order to unite the image with the Prototype again, to bring him into a living union, the Lord wanted to redeem the lost one, to come to his aid in the form of a man, to enlighten his darkened state, to teach him and give him grace and power to do the will of God, which is our holiness, and in the fulfillment of which our life is temporary and eternal, - to redeem him from sin, curse and death, and for this - to suffer and die for him, to conquer ours through His death according to the flesh. death and grant resurrection to all the fallen. And so the Son of God became the Son of man - and creates the sons of men as sons of God through the grace-filled sacraments of His Church, through spiritual teaching and the guidance of shepherds. So, brothers and sisters, appreciate as much as possible all the greatness of God’s mercy towards us, revealed in the incarnation of the Son of God, and try to become worthy of this mercy through sincere, unceasing repentance, try to live worthy of the high, heavenly calling of a Christian; try to avoid all sin and live in virtue, truth and holiness; live heavenly on earth - in meekness, humility, love, kindness, obedience, patience, doing good, in purity and chastity, abstinence - in all righteousness and truth. Remember that God came to earth for this purpose, so that He could lead us to heaven. The holy saints of God, who were previously obsequious people to us, constantly remembered this, tried to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and create holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1) and - they ascended to heaven, and rejoice with God and the Angels, and will rejoice forever and ever. Let us also constantly remember this and act like the saints, and the Lord will take us to heaven, to the land of immortality and eternal bliss. Amen. Since time immemorial the mystery has been revealed today, and the Son of God, the Son of man, is born; man is God, so that he can make Adam God (Stichera on Praise, Tone 2) A wondrous mystery, unimaginable by the minds of mortals, is remembered and celebrated today by the Holy Church: the incarnation and incarnation of the Creator of centuries and worlds - the Son of God. The incontainable God is contained in the pure womb of the Virgin Mary; the ethereal incarnates; the beginningless begins; the impregnable becomes approachable; The Word perceives the flesh; the infinitely great is diminished, and the boundless is defined; God is one with men and is not ashamed to call them names among the brethren (Heb. 2:11). Thus, from the ages, from the beginning, a mystery hidden and unknown to the angels is now revealed, and the Son of God becomes the Son of man, so that having received the worst, i.e. our nature, to give us incomparably better things - sanctification, renewal and deification. It is time to exclaim in delight: let creation rejoice, let all nature celebrate joyfully, i.e. both the entire human race, awarded such honor from God, and all creation, heaven and earth, seeing God, who, out of immeasurable compassion, descended to the creature and took upon Himself the nature of the creature, for the sake of its salvation. Oh, an incomprehensible mystery, a joyful mystery that delights every spiritually aware soul, but at the same time a terrible mystery! For the reason for such condescension, such exhaustion, is our sins. Only the all-good, all-wise and all-powerful God could have invented such an extraordinary means for the salvation of a lost person and thus humbled Himself in order to heal us by His example from pride and all sins and teach us humility and obedience and all virtue. A mystery, I say, joyful and delightful to the soul! How we are all, brothers and sisters, honored by the incarnation of the Son of God from the Most Pure Virgin, exalted, joyful, comforted! God is with us: He became our Intercessor, Redeemer, Savior; The Mother of God became our Mother by grace, Intercessor, Intercessor, Protector. Imagine what would happen to people if the Son of God had not condescended so wondrously and so kindly to us, darkened sinners, thousands of times ill-fated because of sin and enmity with God! How poor, pitiful, joyless, inconsolable humanity would be in the face of its countless misfortunes! And now, what an everlasting consolation for believers and those who repent in the Son of God incarnate for our sake! He is the hope, purification, sanctification and salvation of all repentant sinners; protection of the offended; comfort to all those who mourn; encouragement to the discouraged; peace for the weary and burdened; the reward of those who struggle, the light of those who are darkened; strength of the weak; Helper in good works; Companion in spiritual warfare; the joy of all the righteous; eternal life for all who believe in Him; Believe in Me, even if he dies, he will live,” says the Lord (John 11:25). But the incarnation of the Son of God is both a terrible and instructive mystery, if we think about what reduced the Son of God to such self-exhaustion and to which we, people, are called and committed by the incarnation of the Son of God. On the part of God, the reason for the incarnation was infinite love for us, His creatures, the love of the Prototype for His living, verbal image, fallen, perishing, for we are His image; and on our side - our sins, our terrible fall, our inevitable eternal death. So, what is required of us by the incarnation of the Son of God? Immediate, sincere, unfeigned and firm repentance of all sins, correction of the heart and a righteous, holy life. Be holy, for I am holy, the Lord your God (Lev.19:2). Depart from the midst of the corrupt and separate yourself, and do not touch uncleanness, and I will accept you. And I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:17-18). What exactly is this that the Lord Jesus Christ requires of us, i.e. holiness and truth, you can be convinced of this every day by the very prayer of the Lord, Our Father, in which He, the Lord, teaches us, first of all, to pray that we may live holy and righteously, according to the will of God, and not according to our own: Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth (Luke 11:2-4; Matt. 6:9-10). So, this is the indispensable duty that the incarnation of the Son of God imposes on us, brothers and sisters: to live righteously and holy, reverently and honestly, and to shun all sin, all unrighteousness and impurity. Otherwise, we will be unworthy of the Son of God and His kingdom and will prepare ourselves for the gravest condemnation both here and in eternity. Amen. Word on the Day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary I will sing the rejoicing of Toya’s Dormition (Irmos, canto 1) Brethren, what does it mean that the Church calls the death of the Mother of God not death, as we usually call the death of people, but dormition, or that it is all the same - tranquility or peaceful sleep, and not only does not mourn, does not cry at Her grave, but on the contrary sings joyful, solemn songs of Her exodus? The fact that the Most Blessed Mother of the Lord did not really die, as people usually die, but seemed to fall asleep for a short time in a peaceful sleep after the grave sorrows of life, and that Her tomb, which was for Her the door to the heavenly kingdom, hides a lot of joy for a Christian; from this tomb, as from the tomb of the risen Lord, heavenly incorruption blows upon us, or better said, this tomb immutably promises us immortality in the soul and incorruptibility in the body, destroying the fear of death in us. Glory to the Conqueror of death, the Lord Jesus! Before His coming, death was very terrible for man because it stole its spoils irrevocably, and there were no means of getting rid of it, since sin, with which death was strong, spread like a flood of the sea and nothing was able to stop this flood; Meanwhile, they knew that people abducted by death were kept as captives where they usually went after death. There were, however, two or three examples where two of the people did not experience death at all, and one, through prayer and tears, received a reprieve from her when she had already raised her murderous hand on him and she was not ordered to touch him for another fifteen years. But what did these two or three examples mean in comparison with the millions of people who died? The same as a drop in the ocean. Moreover, the last example was not entirely comforting for people because King Hezekiah could not completely get rid of death, but only begged for a reprieve from it, and the first two - Enoch and Elijah were considered inimitable in the holiness of life, for which they were taken to heaven alive. What do we see now, after the appearance of the Lord in our flesh and after the victory He won over sin and death? All the horror of death disappeared; it became like a peaceful sleep, after which the joyful morning of the general resurrection will come. As each of us overcomes the sin that still lives in us - and now we have been given all the means to overcome it (2 Peter 1:3) - the fear of death also disappears so that the triumphant conquerors of sin joyfully greet the bed of death and no longer die, but as if fall asleep in a peaceful sleep. “Now,” says St. Chrysostom, - The Lord crushed the gates of hell and destroyed the very face of death. But what am I saying: the face of death? He even changed the very name of death: for it is now called no longer death, but tranquility and sleep.” We see the most obvious example of triumph over death in the Most Pure Mother of the Lord. She bowed down in the grave only for a brief rest of the flesh. We say, for the sake of brevity, because, according to legend, on the third day after Her death, Her Most Pure body was no longer found in the tomb; it was resurrected and taken to heaven, where, together with its soul, it began to enjoy heavenly bliss. Behind the Mother of God we see the apostles and martyrs who greet death with joy, as the greatest friend who, in return for the fleeting blessings of the present world, or in return for its troubles and sorrows, gives them the eternal joys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Behind them we see all the saints who also looked at death with joy, seeing in it the end of earthly labors and the beginning of heavenly glory. The Holy Church tries to instill in us the same fearlessness towards death, exhorting us to drive away the fear of it by gradually eradicating sins in ourselves, and now she does not call her dead anything other than the deceased, i.e. as if asleep, because immortal life in the next century is now so undoubted for us and our right to it is so true that we cannot or should not look at death otherwise than as a dream. Glory to the infinitely good God! Previously, they wept over the dead for a long time and inconsolably, and it was even commanded to shed tears directly over the dead: child, says the God-enlightened sage, over the dead man, shed tears, and as one who suffers evil, begin to cry... Create bitter mourning, and warm mourning, and create lamentation, as it deserves (Sir.38:16-17); and now, instead of a funeral lament, we sing a song: hallelujah or praise God, praising the Divine wisdom and goodness, which made death a transition to immortality. Brethren! The title of heavenly communicant, you saw on the icon of the all-honorable and glorious Dormition of the Mother of God, how She rests peacefully: what calmness and reflection of heavenly joy on Her face! It’s like a dream, a short transition from earth to heaven. Let us ourselves learn to make our death a peaceful sleep through zeal for virtue and contempt for vice. As long as sin reigns in us, so long will death be terrible for us, because, for sure, the death of sinners is cruel (Ps. 33:22). Sin is the cause of death: the patterns of sin, it is said, are death (Rom. 6:23). Let us overcome sin within ourselves as much as we can, as the cause of death. It is only very difficult to defeat it at first, but then it will be both easy and sweet, since as the suffering caused by the fight against sin increases, the consolation of Christ in us will increase (2 Cor. 1:5), and the Lord, who said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30), will surely make the labors of ascetics light and life-giving. Moreover, what is obtained through labor is valued more highly and we enjoy it the more. We were created for work, not for bliss and inaction. Yes, heavenly glory, which has no end, is without a doubt worth the hard work of a lifetime. This incomparable bliss, this kingdom of glory is not given for nothing. The Kingdom of Heaven, it is said, needs, i.e. it is acquired by force, and those in need take it away (Matthew 11:12). Is it not because we are so lazy to conquer our passions and evil inclinations because we have little faith in the life of the future century? But it is as undoubted as our real life. Will not the One who gave us the firstfruits of life here on earth give us full, perfect life in heaven? Yes, this must inevitably be, and it is more difficult not to be than to be. And the true word of God assures us of this: all who are in the tombs, it says, will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard, they will live, and they will come out, having done good, to the resurrection of life, and having done evil, to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). Brethren! Eternal life beyond the grave is beyond any doubt. But there is also not the slightest doubt that it can be twofold: for the righteous it is blissful, and for hardened sinners it is painful. Death is the limit, the boundary between present and future life, and we do not know how far or close it is from us. Let us always be ready to stand on this formidable border between two lives. Amen. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, which you have from God, and you carry it with your own? (1 Cor. 6:19) In the renovated church, dedicated to the name of the Mother of God, we, brethren, celebrate the feast of Her all-honorable, glorious Dormition. The Lady of the world, Who deigns with Her spirit to be present in this holy church, is of course pleased with the zeal of the church decorators, who sacrifice their corruptible, fleeting goods to Her imperishable, world-wide glory, and She, not needing anything, accepts perishable gifts, according to Her characteristic goodness, in order to turn them into the benefit of the donors. The Church, for its part, also blesses this zeal and will always pray to God for the sanctification and glorification of those who love the splendor of the house of God with divine power. Paying attention to the celebrated event - the Dormition of the Mother of God, who for Her purity became the church of the Divine and this renovated church, you come across the thought of a church of a different kind, about which the Apostle speaks: or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, which you have from God, and carry your own? In honor of this celebration and for our edification, let us now talk about the need for spiritual decoration of our church. Not only our material and man-made churches are churches. The entire universe is a miraculous, majestic church of God: everything in it, silently, although not equally intelligible to everyone, glorifies the Creator, from the greatest creation to the most insignificant - from the sun to the blade of grass. Out of His infinite goodness, the King of the whole world deigns to be closely present in these man-made churches. These are churches par excellence, churches in the proper sense. Finally, the bodies of pious people are also churches of God: don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit living in you? - the Apostle wrote to the pagans converted to Christianity. The church not made by hands does not need our hand-made decoration; it was decorated differently from the beginning of the world by the Author of all wisdom. The last two types of churches need decoration on our part, although not in the same way. The decoration of real churches is made up of icons or paintings, gold, silver, carvings, paints, but especially pious people who are zealous for the church and learn in it the law of the Lord. There is also another decoration for them, but it is not ours, but God’s, this is the name given to the church and the relics of the saints. Decorations for bodily churches are good deeds, for example, chastity and purity of heart, abstinence, meekness, liberation of the bodily senses from slavery to corruptible and fleeting things, or the eradication of the lust of the flesh, the lust of self and the pride of life (1 John 2:16), the use of the members of the body to do good. To spiritually decorate the church of your body, to spare nothing for this decoration, is the most important thing for a person, for this he should live! The justice of this thought is evident from the special importance of the body of a Christian; after the Lord redeemed us with His honest blood, our bodies became members of Him and temples of the Holy Spirit, and we are no longer ours, but God’s, because we were bought at a price. Thus, we must present our weapons of righteousness to God and our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God (Rom. 6:13; 12:1). The validity of this thought is also obvious from the fact that other churches, namely churches, or churches made with hands, as material, perishable, temporary, will eventually come to an end, and the church of our body, even if it is ruined for a while, we imams are a creation from God, a church not made by hands, eternal in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1). Man will need his bodily church in that century, because when there will be neither this earth nor this sky, but everything else, new, his body will remain with him and, living in it, man will have to praise God forever. Only God forbid that each of us has to praise. Therefore, no matter how good the churches of God on earth are, no matter how glorious the fate of the builders and decorators of the churches, they are nothing more than just a means for us, earthly pilgrims to the heavenly fatherland, to learn here to make our own bodies temples of the Holy Spirit in order to be strengthened in them for the further journey. For your zeal for the church you will receive reward from God. But if you want your good deed to be more complete, more perfect, come here more often, and listen carefully to how the holy people of God and especially the Mother of God became a fragrant church of holiness and purity, and learn from them to make your body a beautifully adorned church in which the All-Holy Spirit of God could dwell; receive here reinforcement for the remaining, and perhaps even barely begun, path to the kingdom of heaven: pray, lament your sins, repent, partake of the Life-giving Mysteries and go away in peace to do good deeds. Has God helped you to decorate His church? Glory to Him, who gives us gold and silver and everything needed to decorate the church; thank Him with all your heart that He, the All-Containing One, was pleased to accept your gift from you for your own benefit. And you cannot thank Him so worthily as if you take care of decorating your own church. What kind of decoration is this, you ask? We have already indicated this above. Keep yourself clean, use all your members to do good, do not become attached to earthly things, and you yourself will be decorated with a church and will properly honor the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, and you will fall asleep in the peaceful sleep of death, like She, the Most Pure One. To give you motivation, encouragement and example for these virtues, look to the Immaculate Mother of God, whose glorious Dormition we now celebrate. There was not and will not be a single wife purer and more holy than Her among all the wives who have been and who will be, and for this the Creator of the world looked with favor on the Most Pure Virgin and dwelt in Her fertile womb. That is why Her God-receiving body, like a church of purity, tasted death for a very short time and soon rose to blissful immortality. If you also want to become a magnificent temple of the Holy Spirit, worthily celebrate this holiday and see the church of your body in light and bliss together with your soul in heaven, keep your body clean, keep your heart pure. Chastity and purity of heart especially attract to us the Spirit of God, Who is the most perfect holiness and purity. How much has the Mother of God done and continues to do to this day? For about 19 centuries, the Church has been pleasing Her, and at this time how much help has She provided to distressed people, often in imminent danger? Who doesn’t know the names of the Mother of God: Kazan, Smolensk, Iverskaya, Tikhvin and many others, given to her only in our fatherland? These names are eternal evidence of the good deeds of the Mother of God towards people. Try, too, man, to extend a helping hand to those in need whenever there is an opportunity and opportunity, willingly and generously, and you will provide your bodily church with one of the best decorations. And is it necessary to talk about the complete impartiality of the Mother of God to earthly things? She was completely alien to the world. She thought only about Her Divine Son and about the kingdom that He proclaimed. Let us, first of all, take care of the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything necessary for temporary well-being will be given to us. Brethren! Who among us would not want to fall asleep in such a sleep of death as the Mother of God fell asleep! However, it must be said that this was a death unparalleled in its calm and painlessness; unprecedented also because death only briefly touched Her God-receiving body. It is known from legend that on the third day the body of the Most Pure Virgin was no longer found in the tomb, it united with the soul, and began to taste the bliss of heavenly life with Her. May God grant that we may be rewarded with at least a somewhat similar death from the Lord. In order for us to die painlessly and peacefully, we must now learn from the tomb of the Blessed Virgin how to keep the church of our body in constant cleanliness and good decoration throughout our lives, how to work less against corruption, which strikes us so cruelly when our body lies lifeless in the tomb, and how to store up for ourselves more of the incorruptible treasure of virtue. Brethren! If we want, as we should, to honor the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, then we will honor it in no better way than if we each decide to prepare our body for the day of death, clean and adorned with virtue. But we don’t know when we’ll die, which means we have to work at it constantly. And to encourage ourselves in this important matter, let us remember that although the church of our body will be destroyed for a time by death, we are imams, a creation from God, the church of the body is not made by hands, eternal, in heaven (2 Cor. 5:1). If we keep her pure until the day of death, we will rejoice with her in heaven for endless ages. Amen. Word on the Day of the Dormition of the Mother of God And after death you are alive, forever saving, O Mother of God, Your inheritance (Canon. Irmos. Canto 9) These words, beloved brethren, are the truth and the deed. Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos lives even after death, and live for God even after death (Luke 20:38), and the Most Holy Virgin Mary especially, as the Mother of the Belly; and that She is alive even after death is clear to all believers from the fact that even after death, at all times, in all places on earth, She constantly saved and is saving Her heritage - Orthodox Christians and even non-Orthodox Christians. The earthly death of the Mother of God is very comforting for us, brothers; in Her death we all clearly see the immortality of our soul after death. Since, especially in the present time, people have become very fleshy and very, very many do not think at all about the immortality of their soul, and even many do not believe in the immortality of their soul, let us now talk, on the occasion of the celebration of the Dormition of the Mother of God, about the fact that we, without any doubt, are immortal in our souls. How will I clearly prove to all those of little faith the immortality of the human soul? There are so many proofs of the immortality of our soul, brothers, that I don’t know where to start. I'll start with this. The human soul is the breath of the Divine, it is the image and likeness of God, as it is said: Let us create man in Our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26); and God is immortal, which means our soul is immortal. The human soul is, as scientists say, a simple, uncomplicated being, which means there is nothing in it to collapse and die; she undoubtedly lives even after physical death. Proof of this is the writings of people left after their death, their wills, transmitted orally or in writing, their instructions; the departed speak to our mind and heart even after their death - and their words are heeded, their words are fulfilled by families, villages, cities, kingdoms, the whole world. Let us take as an example the writings of the apostles and our God-bearing fathers. The apostles lived before us more than 1800 years ago. But their writings teach, console, guide in the Christian faith and life of people all over the world, as it is said: their message went out into the whole earth, and their words went out to the ends of the world (Rom. 10:18), people of all ages and will be the light of the world, the salt of the earth until the end of the age. By reading or listening to the word of God preached by the apostles, we, living people, receive a new, better, grace-filled life for our souls, although they themselves have died and have not taught us visibly for a long time - in their bodies. What does this mean? The fact that they are always alive in God, and when we read or listen to their writings, we talk, as it were, face to face with them themselves, with their souls, which are always close to us in God. So about St. John Chrysostom knows that when he read the writings of the Holy Apostle Paul and was engaged in their interpretation, the Holy Apostle Paul himself talked with him and revealed to him the true meaning of his messages. The venerable and God-bearing Fathers of the Church, who lived many years before us and left us their prayers, hymns, entire Divine Services, various rules and regulations of the Church, still pray with us, sing the praises of the Triune God, performing sacred acts with us invisibly, govern our spiritual life, our church celebrations. What else can be said about their writings? How much spiritual benefit - light, strength, peace, sweetness, life - do they bring to our souls? What kind of life do they pour into our souls - they are apparently outdated and no longer seem to exist? ABOUT! They live even after death; and just as their word does not die, much less their souls, which gave birth to such a word, also do not die. If their word is immortal, then of course the soul, the culprit of the word, is also. I will further prove the immortality of the soul by the fact that Christ the Lord God and Man, risen from the dead, laid the foundation for our blessed resurrection with His resurrection. This example speaks most clearly and powerfully about the immortality of our soul. Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His human nature, inseparably united with the Divine, lives after the resurrection from the dead forever and ever: and he was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, says He Himself (Rev. 1:18). But He took upon Himself humanity for us, and not for Himself, and whatever He did, He did in order to give us an image, that is, to teach us, to show us an example, in order to actually show what awaits us in the future. So, if He was dead and is now alive forever and ever, then after death we will live forever and ever. – Truly alive forever and ever; He, in His own words, is with us all the days to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20); He has always saved, is saving and will save us until the end of time. He saves us in the sacrament of repentance; unites with us in the sacrament of communion, cleansing our sins, sanctifying us, giving us peace, joy; He protects us with water and the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of baptism; strengthens and revitalizes our spiritual life through the sacrament of confirmation; heals from bodily illnesses through the healing of mental infirmities in the consecration of oil; by the Holy Spirit he appoints shepherds to His holy church in the sacrament of the priesthood; blesses marriage in the sacrament of marriage; He, our Savior, performs all the sacraments by His Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, and Christian believers and attentive to the voice of their hearts know from experience His power, in the Holy Spirit. sacraments given to them. Christ the Savior constantly, daily, without number, saves us from sins and passions through our prayer. The abyss of salvation for countless Christian souls comes from Him every hour, every minute, and with the eyes of the heart all those who are saved see His salvation, and thank Him and glorify Him for the abyss of His love for mankind, for the abyss of His mercies. He lives constantly in the hearts of people faithful to Him and is for them a Source of spiritual light, strength, peace, and consolation. If He, who became man for our sake, was alive in our spirit even after physical death and went down to hell to preach victory over death there and to deliver the souls of people who were awaiting His coming with faith, if after death and resurrection from the dead He lives in human spirit and body forever and ever and constantly reveals in us His omnipotent, Theanthropic power, then after our death we will be alive in our souls forever and ever: there is no God dead, but alive: for this is why we all live (Luke 20:38), and after the resurrection of our bodies we will live forever in our bodies. The Immaculate Mother of Spasova, like her Son and Her God, is also alive after death not only in soul, but also in body; and as the most merciful and all-powerful Mother of all Christians, she also saved, saves and will save in all ages all those who turn prayerfully to Her with faith, hope and love in all sorrows, sins and illnesses, praying for all of us Her Son, Christ our God and creating for all to be saved, in Her sovereign protection those who flee. The power of Her prayers has been and is being experienced by all Christians who turn to Her with prayer in spirit and truth, which is why we sing in our prayer service to Her, our Intercessor: “Let us never be silent, O Mother of God, from speaking Your power unworthy: if You had not stood before... Your servants always save you from all kinds of evil ones." 121 She, the most gracious Mother of the Heavenly King, is always with us, if only we were with Her, that is, if only we believed undoubtedly and firmly in Her closeness to us at all times. Just call on every Christian to Her in sorrow or illness with faith, and you will see what miracles She will work on your soul. So, beloved brethren, believe without any doubt in the immortality of the human soul after death. May the Mother of God, living even after death and saving Her inheritance forever, assure you undoubtedly of this great truth. And believing in the immortality of your soul, remember that after death we will all one day appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that everyone may receive either good or evil for what they have done with their body (2 Cor. 5:10). Therefore, pray to the Queen of Heaven, may She pray to Her Son, so that He would open to you the humane wombs of His goodness, and, despising your countless sins, turn you to repentance and reveal you as skillful fulfillers of His commandments; pray to Her that She will always stand before you as merciful and compassionate and loving of mankind, in your present life being a warm Representative and Helper, driving away the invasions of demons from you and instructing you to salvation; during your departure from this life, you would have preserved your souls, and would have driven away the dark faces of crafty spirits far from you; on the terrible day, she would have delivered you from eternal torment and made you heirs of the ineffable glory of Her Son and God, which, may God grant to us all to receive through Her intercession and intercession, through the grace and generosity and love of Her only begotten Son, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, to Whom is due all glory. Amen. Homily on the Day of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Virgin stands today in the church and from the faces of the saints invisibly prays to God for us (Kontakion of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, tone 3) At the beginning of the tenth century, in 910 AD, under the Greek Emperor Leo the Wise and Patriarch Tarasius, in the Blachernae Church of Constantinople, during the all-night vigil, the Mother of God once appeared to the eyes of the chosen people with the faces of Angels and Saints. Covering the upcoming people with Her honest omophorion, She prayed to Her Son and God for their salvation from enemies who threatened the capital with destruction, and the people with slavery and death. Through the intercession of the heavenly Intercessor, the enemy was driven out and the city was saved. In memory of the merciful patronage of the Mother of the Lord and our fatherland, the Orthodox Russian Church, from ancient times, established the annual celebration of the Intercession of the Mother of God. The Russian kingdom has existed for over a thousand years and it is difficult to list how many times the heavenly Intercessor covered it from troubles with Her prayerful intercession with the Lord Almighty. But, having so much patronized the whole fatherland and people, She extends Her sovereign cover to cities and towns and to private individuals. Every Orthodox Christian knows this, because the cities, villages and lives of many pious Christians are full of examples of Her protection and intercession. In honor of the holiday and for your and our edification, let us talk, brothers, about how necessary for us is the prayerful intercession of the Mother of God for us. We are far, far from understanding, brethren, how necessary the prayers for us of the Most Pure Mother of the Lord are, and in order to see this necessity, we need an eye or mind much purer and brighter than ours. Only our most tender mother, pure in meaning, the Holy Church, sees in the whole world how necessary Her intercession for us before God is for us, and therefore, every time she begins to pray to God with us, she certainly calls on Her, chosen among wives, higher than the creatures of heaven and earth, and at Her intercession asks either to grant us some benefit, or to save us from some misfortune, so that it is difficult to find a prayer without the name of the Most Pure Mother God's. And fair enough! Being the Mother of God the Word, therefore, being closest to the throne of the Divine, She, naturally, can do a lot to benevolent or to propitiate the Master. We are sinners and unclean, but She is Most Pure; How can we not have mercy on us unclean people for Her prayers, if only we wish to be cleansed and do not add sins to sins again? We are proud with our impurities, but She is so humble with all Her virtues, with all Her greatness; How, looking at Her humble prayers, can we not have mercy on us proud and stiff-necked people if we humble ourselves before God and before Her! Our Lady is exactly like an indestructible wall between God and people; She deflects most of the thunder of heavenly justice, ready to punish ungrateful sinners. Only behind such a wall are we often safe, while we think that our safety is a consequence of the ordinary order of things. But let us come closer to the position of man on earth in order to see more clearly how necessary the prayerful intercession of the Mother of God is for him. Since the time when man lost his innocence, bliss and immortality, to this day he presents a terrifying picture of the calamities tormenting him, internal and external, mental and physical, so that it is impossible for anyone not to see that some kind of yoke lies heavily on all the sons of Adamlih, from the day of their departure from the womb of their mother until the day of burial in the mother of all (Sir.40:1), i.e. into the ground. Having long ago lost his blissful state, man now weakly believes in the heavenly bliss promised to him, does not want to understand that real life is not life in the proper sense, because it is nothing more than preparation for life in heaven - and therefore gives himself complete freedom here, often making his life a disgrace of violent passions; plays with it like a toy, not being curious to know what will happen to it when it breaks, in general - does not use it as the common sense of everyone prescribes, which says that the life of a rational being must certainly have a reasonable, spiritual goal. On the other hand, living mostly in illnesses, sorrows, in troubles, in exhausting, but useless worries for the soul, one is often overwhelmed by their burden, not finding relief and consolation for oneself. How necessary and how gratifying it would be in such a pitiful situation to find in heaven a person who would have the most sincere, tender love for us, would have great power with God and through his intercession would help us, through our prayer, through the illumination of our minds with his heavenly light, to tear ourselves away little by little from the earth, guide us to salvation, prevent temptations and temptations, or help overcome them and soften the cruelty of our sorrows, illnesses and others misfortune! Christians have such a bright face - the Mother of God. The most chosen of all the wives of the world, whatever, where and whenever they may be, She naturally sympathizes with people, as subservient to them, sympathizes more not only with each person individually, but more than all people together, because not a single human heart is capable of loving all people with such love as the Mother of God loves us. Only the purest heart can love all people, and no one had a purer heart than Mary. Sometimes we love some unfortunate person, but we cannot help him. In this case, the illness of compassion is accompanied by a new painful feeling: the inability to help the unfortunate. This cannot happen with the Mother of God. If She wants to help the unfortunate person who turns to Her intercession with living faith, then she cannot help him. As the Mother of the omnipotent Son and God, She, in a way, is omnipotent Herself. God determined to have mercy on us infinitely for Her prayers, more than for the prayers of all other saints, according to the very height of Her service to the sacrament of redemption, and therefore He listens to every prayer of His Most Pure Mother, since every prayer of Her is holy and pleasing to Him. So, whether you want to save your souls from eternal destruction, free yourself from slavery to passions, complacently and easily endure the illnesses, sorrows and disasters of life, all of you, brothers, turn diligently in prayer to the Mother of God, ask yourself for Her high assistance, Her consolations, ask fervently, persistently, as if you saw Her before your eyes in Her divine glory - and you will surely receive Her help; She will surely overshadow you with Her cover. You will see it yourself, feel it, touch it, it will be so easy for you, so peaceful, so fun. And if you don’t get it, blame yourself; it means you prayed insincerely, unworthily. Who, brethren, should intercede for us more, who should listen to our prayers more, if not the Mother of God? Although She is now in heaven, in all heavenly glory, She is from us, from our sinful earth; lived here, like us, and also experienced a lot of sorrows; How could She not listen from there and stand up for Her own? Just don’t, brothers, you should never forget that She is the Most Holy One and does not love lawlessness. Therefore, asking God in our prayers for Her intercession for us, let us try to be far from all sin, as uncleanness, which turns away from us both the eyes and ears of the heavenly Intercessor and brings heavenly wrath upon us. Let us all, with a pure heart, run to Her sovereign protection in our misfortunes, sorrows and illnesses and place undoubted hope in Her. In the midst of the disasters of life, let us prepare for a place where there are no troubles, where there is eternal joy and eternal peace, and the Queen of Heaven will be pleased to save and cover us from troubles and guide us to the eternally quiet heavenly haven. Cover us, O Lady, with Your honorable cover, and deliver us from all evil, praying to Your Son, Christ our God, to save our souls. Amen. Word for the Day of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary For the Mighty One has done great things for Me (Luke 1:49) We celebrate today, beloved brethren, the Protection of the Mother of God. This holiday was established by the Holy Russian Church for the solemn, grateful remembrance and glorification of the benefits of the Mother of God, miraculously provided to the Orthodox Christians of Constantinople at the beginning of the 10th century after the Nativity of Christ, in 910, under the Greek Emperor Leo the Wise. Then it was a difficult time for the Greeks: the Saracens with large forces attacked the unarmed capital of Greece and threatened it with complete destruction. Seeing no help from anywhere, the residents of the capital flocked in large numbers to the Blachernae Church, in which the robe of the Mother of God was kept, and fervently prayed to God and the Mother of God. In the church there were, by the way, two saints of God - St. Andrew, the holy fool for Christ's sake, and Epiphanius, his disciple. Suddenly St. Andrew had a wondrous, divine vision: he saw under the very arches of the majestic church the Queen of heaven and earth, with many Angels and saints, standing in the air, shining like the sun, with an omophorion in her hands, also shining, and praying to Her Son and God for the whole world and for the salvation of the city and those living in it. The viewer of the vision pointed out to his disciple this divine spectacle and said to him: “Do you see, brother, the Queen of the world, praying for people?” He answered: “I see, father, and I am horrified.” This vision was immediately reported to the king and patriarch; the news soon spread throughout the entire church, everyone rejoiced and were filled with great hope for the help of the Mother of God. A prayer of thanksgiving was immediately offered to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother, first in the church, and then by many in other places. The next day the enemies were scattered without any bloodshed, and the Greeks won complete victory through the intercession of the Mother of God. This is the miraculous intercession that St. The Church, and with it we, its children. May all Christians, of every age and gender, simple and noble, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, know about the great intercession of the Mother of God, not only about the past and now celebrated, but also about Her intercession that continues continuously in all times and generations, everywhere where Her holy name is faithfully and constantly venerated, and let everyone resort to Her intercession with zeal, with repentance and faith. For general edification, let us now talk about the divine greatness of the Mother of God, about the greatness of Her humility, love and mercy for the human race, especially for the Christian race; Her incomparable - according to God - holiness and truth; about Her boldness before God; Her Divine power, Her heart knowledge and wisdom. Contemplation of all these wondrous qualities in Her should increase in us reverence and love for Her, trust in prayers, piety and fear of God in all our lives, mutual love, mercy, humility, patience, obedience and other Christian virtues. How great Her humility can be judged by the height and greatness of Her divine calling, for by the greatness of humility the Lord raises the elect to the height of greatness. Mainly for humility She became the Mother of God: look upon the humility of Her servant (Luke 1:48), She said to Elizabeth by the Holy Spirit. This humility was in Her, one might say, the seed of all Her highest virtues, all divine beauty, the most ardent love for God, gratitude and unceasing devotion to God, Her patience, uncomplaining enduring of sorrows, Her incomparable purity, unparalleled condescension towards people who sin. How great is Her love and mercy for the human race, especially for the Christian race, is evidenced by all the centuries of Christianity that have passed before us. The history of the Church over the space of almost 19 centuries gives us numerous, very touching, touching examples of Her intercession and protection of sinners, worthy of the great wrath of God, but pardoned only through Her prayerful intercession. Not to mention many other examples of Her intercession, let us at least say how many times Constantinople, during the reign of the Greek emperors, was saved by Her obvious intercession; how many invaluable blessings the Mother of God showed to Russia, both at the beginning, during the planting of the Christian faith in Russia and especially during the construction of the Church of St. Sofia in Kyiv, and then - during the rule of the Tatars over Russia and after the overthrow of their yoke to this day - it is impossible to list. The brevity of time does not now allow us to go into detail describing many of Her mercies to our fatherland, to various places and people in our fatherland. The many different names given to the miraculous icons of the Mother of God at the place of the appearance of Her mercies only partially testify to the multitude of Her benefits to our Fatherland; but all Her blessings, like the stars in the sky and like the sand on the seashore, are absolutely innumerable. Glory Russia, - glorify every faithful son of the Church, Your heavenly Intercessor, the Mother of God, for Her mother’s continuous mercies to Russia and to you. It is only through Her intercession that Russia is still intact, powerful, and glorious. We can safely say that if Russia always strictly adhered to piety, if all Russians were firmly devoted to their faith and the Orthodox Church, its greatness and prosperity would increase from year to year, and its peace would have no limit, according to the word of scripture: and His peace has no limit (Is. 9:7). Why should we be afraid then, having such an Intercessor, whose love and power have no limits? But our sins, our passions, our infidelity, our wickedness, often make us unworthy of Her holy protection, and we become exhausted, weakened by our own passions and untruths. She, all-holy and all-righteous, cannot patronize lawlessness and lawless people, but patronizes only sincerely repentant sinners and those who live piously. Oh, if we could vividly imagine the greatest holiness of the Mother of God and the Queen, how we would fear and beware of sin, which She hates immensely! How we would care about virtue! Let us present here an image of Her holiness and divine fragrance in the description of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, an apostolic disciple, who was honored to see Her in Jerusalem, three years after his conversion to Christianity. “When I was introduced into the presence of the god-like, most radiant Virgin, such a great and immeasurable divine light enveloped me from without and inside, and such a wondrous fragrance of various aromas spread around me that neither my weak body nor my spirit itself was able to endure such great and abundant signs and the firstfruits of eternal bliss and glory. My heart fainted, my spirit fainted from Her glory and divine grace. The human mind cannot imagine any glory and honor higher than the bliss that I tasted then, unworthy, but honored by mercy and blessed beyond all understanding! This is what holiness, what glory dwelled in the Mother of God even on earth, before Her relocation to heaven! Let us more often imagine Her immeasurable holiness, and we ourselves will try to live holy, as the Lord God requires of us: be holy, as the Lord your God is holy (Lev.19:2). What can we say about the boldness of the Most Pure Mother of God before God? If the boldness of Moses before God was great, the boldness of Samuel and Elijah the prophets, or the New Testament saints of God - the Forerunners, apostles, martyrs, hierarchs and especially St. Nicholas, then the boldness of the Mother of God is incomparably greater. Standing face to face with Her Son and God, as the Mother and Queen of heaven and earth, She always intercedes for the entire Christian race, and Her intercession is never in vain, for it is always favorable to God. So, let us, Christians, always sincerely, in repentance, with good hope, turn to the intercession of the Mother of God for us sinners, as the Church does every day. – As for Her strength and power, She, as the Mother of the Creator of heaven and earth, can do everything, and there is no limit to Her power, for She is invested with all divine power. Finally, let us not remain silent about the greatness of Her wisdom and knowledge of the heart! As always, forever and ever, clothed in the Sun of truth - Christ God, who leads all the secrets of human hearts - and She knows the hearts of all; and Her knowledge is limitless, just as God’s knowledge is limitless; and Her wisdom, enlightened by divine wisdom, embraces all things, sees all saving goals and all the wisest means to goals. Let us all, with a pure heart, always resort to the protection of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, so that through Her we will receive from God all the benefits and the final goal of all benefits - eternal life in God and with God. Amen. The Virgin stands today in church and from the faces of the saints invisibly prays to God for us; The angels and the bishops bow down, the apostles and the prophets rejoice; For our sake the Mother of God prays to the Eternal God (Kondak of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos) The Orthodox Russian Church now cheerfully triumphs in all corners of the earth the loving Protection of the Mother of God, that is, Her all-powerful intercession and deliverance of Christians from troubles and misfortunes. From the very beginning of the Christian faith, the Mother of God became the Patroness of Christians and the all-powerful Representative for them before Her Son and God. Even during Her earthly life, having visited Mount Athos, which was the seat of the pagans, who had the good fortune to hear from Her the secret of the incarnation of the Son of God from Her, She, before Her departure from Athos, said: “Let this place be My lot, given to Me by My Son and My God. I will be the Intercessor of this place and a warm Intercessor for it before God.” And truly, St. Mount Athos, worthy to become the lot of the Virgin Mary Herself, according to Her promise, remains forever the object of Her love and care. Countless experiences of past centuries justify the promise She made; She does not cease to provide for her and clearly pours out Her bounties in signs and wonders from Her holy icons and especially in the wonderful protection of the Athonite monks from the savage Muslims. And not only on Athos, but everywhere where the Christian Orthodox faith illuminates people, through all centuries, Her wondrous cover is visible on Christians, in Her various benefits. Her wonderful mercies in Greece and Russia are especially remarkable for us. The basis for the current holiday of the Intercession was a miraculous event in Greece, in the Blachernae Church of Constantinople, in the 10th century after the Nativity of Christ, under the Greek Emperor Leo the Wise. Constantinople was accidentally attacked by Saracens in superior numbers; The Greeks were not ready, and were unable to repel the enemies from the walls of the capital. And so they turned with fervent prayer to God and the Mother of God in Her church. There was an all-night vigil on Sunday, which was October 1st. And now, to the gaze of the holy saints of God who were in the church, St. Andrew the Fool and his disciple Epiphanius were presented with a wondrous sight: they saw in the air the Mother of God with a host of Angels, prophets, apostles and saints, praying for peace, and overshadowing Christians with Her cover or omophorion. Granted this vision, St. Andrei asked Epiphanius: “Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady of all, praying for the whole world?” - “I see, St. “Father,” answered Epiphanius, “and I am horrified.” The inhabitants of Constantinople, hearing about this miracle, were filled with joy and hope, and soon the enemies were driven away. The Russian Church, from its very foundation, established a holiday in remembrance of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, and to this day reverently sings: “The Virgin stands today in the church and from the faces of the saints invisibly prays to God for us.” How many times and wonderfully the Mother of God covered the Russian land from the beginning of Christianity to the present day, how much she saved Russia and its individual cities and villages, Her miraculous icons serve as obvious proof of this: Vladimir, Smolensk, Kazan, Iverskaya, Tikhvin, Znamenskaya and many others. Anyone who wants to know about the wondrous signs of mercy and grace-filled power and intercession of the Lady from these icons is referred to the prologue, a church book, which describes the appearances of these icons and the miracles from them, which are extremely beneficial for the Russian people. Now, in honor of the holiday, we will talk about prayerful communication between the heavenly and earthly Churches and what is required of us for worthy communication with the heavenly Church. The heavenly Church, that is, all the saints of God, Angels and men with the Virgin Mother of God, and the earthly Church, that is, all Orthodox Christians, constitute one body, one kingdom of Christ, with the Head and King almighty Christ; There is a close connection between the earthly church and the heavenly church, a constant and immediate communication. St. ap. Paul writes to the Ephesian Christians: you are not strangers or aliens, that is, in the Church of God, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's own, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:19–20). From the words just given by St. ap. Paul, you see, brethren, in what a close union there are Orthodox Christians living on earth, struggling for their salvation - with all the saints in heaven; we constitute with them one Church, one cathedral - which is also stated in the church canon of St. To the Archangels: You, who ineffably united the heavenly Christ on earth, and made one Church of Angels and men, 122, that is, who constituted one Church, one assembly of Angels and men, we unceasingly magnify. You are one body and one spirit, writes the Apostle to the Ephesian Christians, just as you were called to one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all (Eph. 4:4-6). This communion of Christians living on earth with the heavenly Church, that is, with the Mother of God, with the Angels and saints, is expressed daily in prayers to them and glorification of them. Pay your attention, lovers of God, to the daily, internal spiritual life of the Church, to the daily Evening, Morning and Liturgy services, what does it consist of in its changing and unchangeable parts, what is it in its essence? – It is a constant, never-ending prayerful, laudatory and grateful communion with the heavenly church: every day we are in prayerful communion with the Lord, the Head of the Church, with the Mother of God and with all the saints. But, if we are truly sincerely in communion with the saints every day, in the Church of God or at home and among our activities, then undoubtedly the Lord Himself, the Mother of God, the heavenly Powers and all the saints are also in communion with us; It cannot be otherwise. Because the Lord Himself was pleased to form one Church, one body of celestial beings and earthly beings living in Christ. We can say without hesitation that if we pray piously and fervently and live piously, then with us always and everywhere, especially in church, especially during reverent prayer, are the Lord Himself, the Mother of God, and St. Angels and St. saints of the Lord, in a word, the whole heavenly Church. And what does the current feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, Who appeared in the air in the church with the faces of Angels, apostles, prophets, saints and martyrs, mean, if not God’s revelation of St. Andrew the Fool and his disciple, what usually always happens, although unseen in Christian churches, where Orthodox Christians piously gather and unanimously and fervently pray - i.e. That is, that the Mother of God always graciously attends invisibly church meetings of Christians and with Her mercy covers all those who pray piously, as the elect often saw this, and that the faces of the saints are also present with Her. Thus, truly, beloved brethren. And what does this oblige us to do? To a reverent and holy life and to always reverent prayer, both in church and at home, especially in church. In fact, if we are always, as members of the Church of Christ, holy, immaculate, in such a holy community, where complete abomination of all uncleanness of sin reigns, where only the holiness and truth of God is fragrant, then how else can we remain in sins, how can we not correct ourselves immediately, how can we stink of passions, how can we not succeed in every virtue? Imagine that one of you or all of you was called by the king, queen, princes to their royal chambers for the royal supper in order to talk and dine with you: tell me, how would you behave in their presence, talking with them face to face? Would you not be extremely reverent, careful, reserved, in all your feelings, words and actions? Isn’t this what happens to us when we go to church to pray? We come to the church, as if to a royal palace for a supper with the King of Heaven and the Queen of heaven and earth, to talk with Them, to rejoice with all the saints, to pray to the Lord and the Mother of God for the forgiveness of sins, to glorify and thank our Creator and the King of all creation: how should we behave in the church? Is it not with extreme reverence? Is it not with sincere repentance and sincere love and gratitude that we were allowed into this royal palace? Yes, beloved brethren. So, let us all be jealous of spiritual and physical purity, of humility and kindness, of mercy and sociability with each other, of non-covetousness, of abstinence and chastity; May we all be rooted in faith, hope and love. Having prayerful communion every day with the Lord, the Mother of God and with the saints, let us try to be holy ourselves in all our lives: it is written beforehand: Be holy, even as I am holy, the Lord your God (1 Pet. 1:15–16; Lev. 19:2). Amen. Today, faithful people, we brightly celebrate, overshadowed by Your, O Mother of God, coming (Troparion to the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos) We celebrate the worldwide Protection of the Most Blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reason for the celebration of the worldwide, wonderful Protection of the Mother of God was the following event in the Greek Orthodox country. During the reign of Leo the Wise, at the beginning of the 10th century, precisely in 910 after the Nativity of Christ, fierce enemies - the Saracens - suddenly attacked Constantinople. The Greeks, not seeing salvation from anywhere through ordinary, earthly means, unanimously turned with a fiery prayer for salvation to God and to the Mother of God in the Constantinople Blachernae Church, in which the robe of the Mother of God was kept. This was on the 1st day of October. The Sunday all-night vigil was going on. Among those praying in the church were two saints of God: St. Andrey, the holy fool for Christ's sake, and his disciple Epiphanius. Their eyes saw the following touching, wonderful vision: in the air, under the arches of the church, they see in the heavenly light the Most Holy Virgin Mother of God, surrounded, like a crown, by prophets, apostles and Angels, praying for a sinful world and covering Christians with Her honest omophorion, the sign of Her Son, the eternal Bishop. St. Andrew asked his disciple: “Do you see, brother, the Queen and Lady of all, praying for the whole world?” - “I see, St. “Father,” Epiphanius answered him, “and I am horrified.” This miracle was first glorified by those praying in the church, then throughout Constantinople. The inhabitants of Constantinople, having heard about this comforting sign, were filled with joy and hope that God, through the prayers of the Intercessor, would deliver them from their enemies. Indeed, soon after the vision, the enemies were defeated and driven away. This is the wondrous heavenly phenomenon that served as the basis for the Feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in our Russian Church. Thanksgiving to St. Church, that she perpetuated the memory of this event, this miracle of the intercession of the Mother of God for her children, and from year to year glorifies it in her solemn chants. Involuntarily, my brothers, every believer is filled with tenderness and grateful tears, hearing or reading about such quick hearing and such quick intercession by the Mother of God of the inhabitants of Constantinople who were in trouble. As soon as they unanimously cried out to heaven for help, help was ready. The Lady hastened to prayer and hastened to plead with Her Son and God for those who groan and are sick. And our Orthodox fatherland, my brothers, has always seen above itself, both in former and present times, the wondrous, maternal cover of the All-Tsarina Theotokos, and almost each of us has seen it above us in countless calamities. For who among us has not often and very often been in mental and physical trouble and misfortune? This world seems to be a world of troubles and sorrows due to our sins. There are so many of them everywhere! Let us be grateful and heartily glorify us, my brothers, on this day of celebration of the universal Protection of the Mother of God, Her special Protection both over our fatherland and over each of us, so that in the future we, many sinners and unworthy, will be rewarded with Her merciful protection and intercession. The mercies of the Mother of God shown to our fatherland in old and new times are countless. In the history of our Church and our fatherland, we see Her maternal cover constantly spread over Russia; at Her inspiration, the Grand Duchess of Russia Olga, a pagan, leaves the idols and goes to know Christ and the faith of Christ - to Constantinople, where princes Askold and Dir were called to faith by the miracle of the Mother of God, and where there was the miraculous robe of the Mother of God, whose glory was known to Olga. And so Olga, the pagan, becomes Olga, the blessed one, and, returning to her fatherland, she places the Christian faith on the throne with her and spreads it in the Russian land; and her grandson Vladimir, following her example, also becomes a Christian from a pagan, after his ambassadors, having been in Constantinople to test their faith, told him that they had never seen such beauty in a temple and did not experience such pleasure from worship as in Constantinople, and thought that they were standing in heaven, and not on earth. Vladimir became not only a Christian, but also an apostle of the Russian land. Again, this after God is the work of the Mother of God. Let us again glorify Her saving Protection over our Fatherland, and Her innumerable mercies towards it, for the grace of calling us from the darkness of unbelief into the light of true knowledge of God. Then, in the further fate of the Russian Church and the Russian land, how many amazing examples do we see of Her maternal and royal industry! Many times She saved the Russian land and individual cities from the Tatars, Poles and other enemies, and at the beginning of this century from the formidable hordes of Napoleon. Read the stories about the miraculous icons of the Mother of God: Vladimir, Kazan, Znamenskaya, Iverskaya, Tikhvin, and others: there you will see how many wonderful benefits She, the all-merciful, showed to our fatherland. It is impossible to list all the experiences of Her mercy. Let us not forget, my brothers, the mercies of the Queen of Heaven poured out on our fatherland: we owe everything to Her for our present church and civil existence. And each of us personally, let us remember the mercies of the Mother of God poured out on each of us at different times of our lives in one way or another; how She, the Lady, quenched our sorrows, dispelled the cloud of despondency, destroyed sorrows, healed illnesses, drove away the enemies' attacks, extinguished the flame of our passions, delivered us from sins, saved us from drowning, from fire, from sudden disasters in which we faced either trouble or death, and helped in various good deeds. Let us remember, and thank, and glorify Her, according to duty, our zealous Intercessor for all Her mercies poured out on each of us individually. Let us also thank with all our souls that She has hitherto covered and interceded with Her motherly prayers for each of us, directing us on the path of repentance and correction, although we should long ago have been cut down by a mortal ax, like dry trees that do not bear good fruit. Brethren! Now remembering the miracles of mercy of the Mother of God, which She showed to our fatherland and to each of us, let us honor this holiday with mercy towards the poor: for the Mother of mercy is especially pleased in us, Her servants, mutual mercy. In the name of the Queen of the Mother of God, I invite you, beloved brethren, to make whatever donations you can for the poor, and may the Lord Himself reward you according to each one’s zeal. Amen. Where do I get this from, so that the Mother of my Lord may come to me? (Luke 1:43) The holy and righteous Elizabeth, the wife of the priest of Jerusalem Zacharias, the mother of the Baptist, having been honored with a visit to the Most Holy Virgin Mary, shortly after the Archangel Annunciation to the Virgin, exclaimed in amazement when meeting with Her: where does it come from for me that the Mother of my Lord came to me? It was not what surprised Elizabeth that her relative, Mary, came to her, but that the Mother of the Lord Himself came to her, whom she saw with the eyes of her heart incarnate from the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin, for Elizabeth now saw the entire abyss of the distance between the Matter of God and between herself, an ordinary woman, and as if involuntarily exclaimed: where does it come from for me that the Mother of my Lord came to me? But righteous Elizabeth herself also serves as the solution to this question: why did the Mother of the Lord come to her? Because she, Elizabeth, was righteous, like-minded, of one mind with Mary, meek and humble, a zealot of abstinence and purity, patient, and completely devoted to the God of Israel. That is why the Mother of the Lord came to her - to share with her the inexpressible joy of the Incarnation. My brothers! The spirit of the Most Holy Theotokos Mary is the same to this day as it was then, during Her earthly life, only with Her glorification it has become even higher, wider, more perfect. The same sociability with the faithful and pious; the same quickness in sociability, the same readiness to pour out on others the grace given to Her by God. How then, after the Archangel’s Annunciation, She hastened to the city of Judah, and entered the house of Zechariah, and greeted Elizabeth and filled her with joy and the future Forerunner of Christ carried in her womb; so now, and in all past times, She, the Most Blessed and Most Gracious, hastened and hastens everywhere, to all ends of the world, to the prayerful invocation of Her by believers, enters our churches, monastic monasteries and the homes of pious Orthodox Christians, or better yet, always dwells in them with Her gracious icons, and fills our hearts with light, peace, joy and gladness; protects us from our enemies, extinguishes our passions, brings down the dew of God’s grace into the souls of the faithful, guides us on the path of salvation, saves us from troubles, sorrows, misfortunes and illnesses, so that those worthy of Her help and intercession cry out with joy in their hearts: where does it come from for me that the Mother of my Lord came to me and so clearly saved me? So She once came with many Archangels, Angels and saints to the Blachernae Church during the all-night prayer of believers who were in trouble from the enemies of the fatherland, and praying with them to Her Son and God, covered them with Her honorable omophorion and protected them from enemies who fled from the walls of the city. Has something similar to what once happened in the Blachernae Church in Constantinograd happened in Russia? It happened, it happens with us too. Just as those who were in that church were vouchsafed a miraculous visit to the Mother of God, so we, sinners and unworthy, are vouchsafed; they were vouchsafed Her honorable protection and intercession from our enemies; we too are rewarded. The history of the Russian Church and the lives of many pious Christians present many examples of the clear intercession of the Mother of God, especially the history of the time when Russia was under the yoke of the Tatars, or when she was fighting a patriotic war with the French and the Twenty Nations. Who was our chosen commander then? Our Most Holy Lady. This is the image of the Sign of the Mother of God - what does it remind us of? – About the miraculous protection and intercession of the Mother of God from enemies. But this is the image of the Vladimir miraculous icon. What is he telling us? About the protection of the Mother of God on the Russian land from Tamerlane and Akhmet. And how many other miraculous icons of the Mother of God! And everyone is a silent witness to Her miracles and the ever-present protection over us. Let us not stop running, my brothers, into Her sovereign protection; May we always know our Queen and Lady, Her blessed power, Her speedy protection and salvation. And in order for us to always be rewarded with the grace-filled visit and help of the Mother of God, for this we need, firstly, a living faith in Her presence, that She is right here, in front of us, for in the Holy Spirit all of heaven is close to us, all its inhabitants, if we ourselves live spiritually - faith in Her highest, motherly goodness, mercy, good-will and quick obedience, in Her most perfect holiness and also - Her righteous severity towards living unrepentantly and incorrigibly; secondly, you need awareness of your sins and abhorment of them, a firm intention of correction and holy restraint during the prayer itself, non-distraction, complete concentration on the subject of prayer; thirdly, a sincere desire for grace-filled help from above, a zealous invocation of Her name, or a warm prayer from the depths of the soul for help and salvation. And so necessary for us, brothers and sisters, is the protection and salvation of the Most Holy Theotokos! Everyone knows that our life is not filled with joys alone, on the contrary, it is sometimes full of grave sorrows that completely suppress the soul, or does not flow in righteousness and holiness, even if we strongly desire it, but in sins and iniquities. The Holy Church depicts people in one sacred place. songs addressed to the Mother of God, burdened with sins, misfortunes, sorrows and illnesses, from which no one powerfully, after the Lord, can save them as quickly as the Most Holy Theotokos; “Otherwise,” says the Church on our behalf, “there are no imams who sin to God in troubles and sorrows, ever deliverance, burdened with many sins,” and again: “we are not imams of other help, not imams of other hope, except You, Lady: You help us: we hope in You and we boast in You: for we are Your servants, let us not be ashamed” 123 . She calls Her the joy of all who mourn, the Representative of the offended, the Nourisher of the hungry, the consolation of the wandering, the haven of the overwhelmed, the Visitor and healer of the sick, for those in trouble, protection and intercession, a rod for the blind and old, an abyss of goodness and generosity, the most swift Intercessor of the sorrowing 124. All these names are taken from the cases themselves. The Most Holy Lady gives many different benefits especially to those, I repeat, who ask Her for help with faith, reverence, hope, love, according to the word of the Lord, who says in the Gospel: ask, and it will be given to you: seek, and you will find: press, and it will be opened to you (Luke 11:9); not because this petition was necessary for Her, for She knows our needs before our petition, but because it is necessary for ourselves - for the confirmation of our faith, hope and love for God and His elect - for our purification, and so that we ourselves, through contact with God and His saints, become chosen and holy, because whoever turns to someone more often becomes more and more like that. So, Christian, if you are overwhelmed by sorrows, or immersed in sins, or you are despondent from any everyday hardships, misfortunes, or suffer from someone’s insult, call with faith and hope, from the depths of your soul, the Most Holy Theotokos for help, and you will soon see with the eyes of your heart and feel in your heart that with the help of the Lady the storm of sorrow has passed, has subsided, the violence of sin the thorns of passions have been cut off, your enemies have been transformed from wolves into lambs, and in surprise you will exclaim to yourself: where did I come from, that the Mother of my Lord came to me, and with such goodness, so quickly heard and saved me? So, truly, it happens, my brothers! Yes, Christians, for all of us the protection and intercession of the Mother of God is necessary; but this need is especially felt by those of us who are trying to lead a Christian life, who have entered into a struggle with our multi-passionate flesh, with the world, with its corrupt customs and rules, and with the spirits of evil; for you will agree that where various passions attack you and tear you apart like hungry wolves stealing a sheep from the herd, where at the slightest mistake you can receive deep spiritual wounds from your invisible enemies, or drown in the swamp of sin, where you are surrounded on all sides by temptations and iniquities that are almost being committed with your own eyes - there you need, you really need, quick help from above in order to keep yourself undefiled from the world and not wounded by the enemies of salvation. Oh, how then the heavenly help of the Mother of God is valued, how earnestly and faithfully Her all-holy name is invoked, what joy comes from Her gracious visit, what fiery gratitude ascends to heaven! Where, from where do I get this, the one who has received the help of the Lady cries out, that the Mother of my Lord has come to me? So, my brothers, the Most Holy Theotokos is our speedy protection and intercession! Do not be lazy to diligently call on Her holy and much-chanted name in need, sorrow, situation and in every misfortune and misfortune; or when sins and passions of dishonor carry you away and you cannot stand on the path of goodness, duty, honor, then call upon the Virgin Mary with a strong cry of your soul, as if standing before Her face to face and conversing with lips to Her Most Pure lips - and you will surely and soon receive Her help. All who live in faith and piety testify to this, all the saints. The people of God whose lives are described to us, or who left their inspired creations, especially church prayers and chants. Let us conclude our word with a prayer to the Mother of God: “Show Thy quick protection, and help, and mercy to Thy servants, and the waves, O Pure One, tame vain thoughts, and raise up our fallen souls to the Mother of God: we know, we know, O Virgin, that thou art able, that thou canst, and that thou desirest.” 125 Amen We will never be silent, Mother of God, 126 of Your strength to speak unworthy: if You had not stood before us begging, who would have delivered us from so many troubles? Who would have kept them free until now? We will not retreat from You, Lady: Your servants always save you from all evil ones (Troparion to the Theotokos) The Holy Orthodox Church celebrates today the honorable Protection of the Mother of God, that is, Her merciful and all-powerful intercession of the faithful from troubles and misfortunes and all evil. It celebrates with dignity and righteousness, because through Her protection Christians have been and are being honored by God with countless and immeasurably great mercies, completely free of charge, solely by the mercy of the Lady, by Her strongest love for us sinners and unworthy. To strengthen our hope in the mercy of the Lady Theotokos, for our edification and consolation, let us revive in memory at least some examples of the merciful, all-powerful and wonderful patronage of the Mother of God to the Russian land and the Russian people during the time of Tatar rule over Russia. I do not now mention the almost universally known miracle of the intercession of the Mother of God of the Orthodox kingdom of Greece, which She, Preblagaya, revealed in the 10th century A.D., under Emperor Leo the Wise in the Blachernae Church of Constantinople, after Her all-powerful prayer there in the concelebration of Angels, prophets, apostles, hierarchs, martyrs and other saints, and which served as the beginning of the celebration of this day. At that time, the Saracens, who threatened the Greek capital with destruction, were driven out and scattered like dust by Her all-powerful wave. It is closer for us to remember those miracles of the Protection of the Mother of God that our fatherland has been and continues to be honored with, or which our cities and villages have been honored with. Let us recall some of the miracles of protection and intercession revealed by the glorious icon of the Mother of God, called the Vladimir icon. In 1395 AD, almost 500 years ago, the formidable Mongol conqueror Tamerlane entered Russia, threw it into confusion and spread terror everywhere. With the general despondency of the Russians, Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, son of Donskoy, led his troops to repel a strong enemy and stopped behind Kolomna on the banks of the Oka River. Meanwhile, the Muscovites, frightened by hearing about the countless hordes and ferocity of Tamerlane, fervently prayed for deliverance from the invasion of foreigners, shed tears in front of the altars and fasted. The prince, not relying on his own strength, resorted to the all-powerful help of the Mother of God. Countless multitudes of people cried and with hope sent prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos. The prayer of faith was heard and hope was not put to shame. On the very day when the Russians fervently prayed to the Queen of Heaven, Tamerlane suddenly left the banks of the Don, where he had stood for two weeks, and instead of going to Moscow, he went back. Such a sudden change in Tamerlane’s intentions was not a matter of chance or military considerations, but a matter of the gracious help of the Mother of God. On that very day and hour when the residents of Moscow greeted the icon of the Mother of God, brought from the city of Vladimir, by order of the Grand Duke, Tamerlane was dozing in his tent, and suddenly saw a great mountain in front of him in a dream; from its top many saints walked with golden rods in their hands; above them, in a radiant radiance, a Woman appeared, of indescribable splendor and majesty, surrounded by darkness of lightning-like warriors. She prayed with her hands outstretched, and then turning Her gaze to Tamerlane, threateningly commanded him to leave the borders of Russia; at the same time, due to Her mania, the lightning-fast warriors surrounding Her rushed towards Tamerlane. Tamerlane trembled and woke up in fright, then he called his nobles and told them his vision. The conqueror’s story horrified his nobles, and in trembling bewilderment they asked each other: what does this terrible dream mean? The wisest of them said: this majestic Wife must be the Mother of the Christian God, and She, of course, now intends to help them, because they honor Her as their Intercessor. So, we will not defeat them, said the Mongol Khan, for if he sends only one of those coming to Her, he will defeat us so that we will not find a place to run to, and he ordered his troops to go back from the borders of Russia, to the surprise of the Russians and the Tatars themselves. Was this not the obvious patronage of the Queen of Heaven not only for Moscow, but also for our entire fatherland, which was threatened with devastation from an enemy incomparably stronger than Mamai and Tokhtamysh? The news of Tamerlane's removal was received with indescribable joy in Moscow. Having confessed the mercy of God, everyone exclaimed: it was not our commanders who drove him away, it was not our armies that frightened him, but an invisible force sent fear and trembling upon him. By the wrath of God he withdrew from the Russian land. And the Grand Duke, falling to the ground in front of the icon of the Mother of God, thanked Her with tears of joy and said: “Thank You, shameless Intercessor of Christians! You showed us Your great mercy, and beyond hope you gloriously delivered us, our city and all of Russia from godless enemies.” St. Kirill Belozersky wrote to one prince: “And what did you write to me about the glorious miracle of the Most Pure Mother of God, Her miracles are more glorious than the words and meaning. Through the prayers of the Most Pure Theotokos, His Mother, the Lord poured out such mercy on this last generation that we, who have seen the glorious and great miracles of the Most Holy, Most Pure Lady Theotokos, can only rejoice in heart and soul that He has vouchsafed us with His Most Pure Mother, with such signs and wonders, to deliver the Christian race from the invasion of foreign enemies.” Should we continue the story of the miraculous intercession of the Russian kingdom by the Most Pure Mother of God? It is joyful and joyful to remember Her wonderful cover spread over our fatherland. Therefore, we will not be silent about speaking more about Her powers, and telling about some more striking examples of Her intercession. At another time, Akhmat, the khan of the Tatar horde, moved towards Russia, threatening to ruin all of Rus'. A miracle happened: two armies - Tatar and Russian - fled from each other, not persecuted by anyone. The Russians stopped, but Akhmat went to his uluses without doing harm to Russia. This was the work of the Mother of God, according to the chronicle. It happened, in times of trial, that God and the Most Holy Theotokos wanted to leave the Russian people for their iniquities to the will of their enemies, but the saints of the Russian land bowed to the mercy of the Lord and His Most Holy Mother, and the enemy army took flight again by the will of God and the Most Holy Theotokos. So one day, Makhmet, the Tatar Khan, having invaded Russia, subjected it to a terrible disaster: he set all our villages on fire, captured a countless number of inhabitants, sold them into captivity in droves, starved the weak and elderly, and desecrated the shrine of churches everywhere. Everything foreshadowed a pitiful fate for the residents. But then one of the residents of Moscow, the holy fool Elder Vasily, praying at night with tears at the doors of the cathedral Church of the Assumption, suddenly hears a strong noise inside the church, and sees that the doors of the church have opened and the miraculous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God that was in the church has risen from its place; a voice was heard from the icon: “I will leave the city with the Russian saints,” and with this voice the whole church was filled with flames, which then instantly disappeared. The threat began to be carried out; Saints Peter, Alexy, Jonah were already carrying the icon out of the city, but Saints Sergius of Radonezh and Varlaam of Khutyn begged the saints to appease God’s justice with their intercession; They began to sing a general prayer service, said a prayer to the Most Holy Mother of God and, after the dismissal was completed, overshadowing the city with a cross, they returned with the miraculous icon. The danger from the enemies has passed. Makhmet retreated from Moscow without harming it. And this salvation of Russia was the work of the intercession of the Mother of God. For Her new patronage and mercy, new signs of gratitude were expressed by Muscovites 127. Here are amazing examples of how the Mother of God miraculously covered the Russian land in ancient years! And now how many miracles do we see of Her protection and intercession? Who among the pious has not felt Her blessed cover over him, Her immeasurable mercy in sorrows, illnesses, and difficult circumstances? Now, by the grace of God, we do not have external enemies, but internal enemies, the most crafty and evil, our passions and the spirits of evil in heaven are always with us. Who drives them away with an invisible force and, after the confusion and storm and fiery arrows they bring into the soul, suddenly produces silence and coolness in it, and, driving away the evil forces, restores and renews in it the power of goodness and meekness? – Isn’t it the Queen of Angels and men, interceding for us with Her omnipotence before Her Son? Who still helps our army in battle? Who saves our Tsar from death and keeps the entire Russian kingdom safe from war and strong? Isn’t she the Queen of heaven and earth, constantly and Orthodox glorified by the Russian people? For the scepters of the kingdom are confirmed by Her prayers, according to the inspired word of the Church. Who delivers us from troubles, temptations, sorrows, misfortunes and all harm? She is the Mother of our God, She is the all-merciful Queen. And who can count how many people who flow with faith and prayer to the Most Holy Virgin have received consolation and healing from Her? It also happens, however, that those who come running to Her with prayer for help and healing are not heard. According to the remark of reverent observers of the wonderful benefits of the Queen of Heaven, this most often occurs because those praying do not care about fulfilling the duties of chastity and purity. From this it is clearly seen that those who call for help to the Most Pure Virgin, the Treasure of purity and angelic chastity, especially need to take care of maintaining the purity of their hearts and lives. The lesson is very important for all Christians who come under the all-honorable protection of the Mother of God. Let us conclude with the following moral lesson. From heaven - from God and the Queen of Heaven we receive protection and protection in our disasters; let us ourselves strive to heaven, let us often lift up our eyes to grief, from where our help comes, moving away from stifling worldly passions, as befits those awarded the heavenly title. Seek what is above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, and where His Most Pure Mother is; think about things above, and not about earthly things (Col. 3:1-2). Taking advantage of the love and care of the Queen of Heaven, let us imitate Her mercy, let us ourselves live in mutual love, and let us provide each other with protection and protection in necessary cases, for we are members of the one body of Christ and members of each other (Rom. 12:5), and the Mother of God is also our Mother and Queen by grace; let us learn to sympathize with those in need, to have mercy on poverty and helplessness; let us take care of the purity of soul and body, for She is Most Pure, and we are vile before God because of our sins; She is good-hearted, we are evil-hearted; She is merciful and compassionate; we are unmerciful, hard-hearted and uncompassionate. We see the poor and have no compassion for him; we see a sick person and do not sympathize with him if he is not a close relative or a friend; We see the sinner, and do not admonish him. Many people say: he is a stranger, God bless him, we don’t care about him. How! Don't you care about your dick? Are you not making every possible effort to care for the sick members of your body? Don't you heal them in every way? And your neighbor is your member. Isn’t it common for all of us to have a common Head - Christ, who comes to judge the living and the dead and has to reward everyone according to their deeds? Isn’t it our common duty to admonish one another, as the Apostle says, so that we encourage one another to love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24)? Our love itself is mostly hypocritical: we love in our own way, and not according to the will of the Lord, we love only those who love us, only those who please us, often only according to the flesh, out of self-interest, according to earthly and carnal views and calculations, in a pagan way, and not in a Christian way. Who is skillful towards his enemies in love, in blessing those who curse, in doing good to haters, in prayer for his persecutors? Holy Lady! Teach us all the love of Christ and do not take away Your Protection from us for the multitude of our sins: for, although we are sinners and transgressors, we all take refuge under Your roof with faith and hope, and do You know no other intercession. Amen. Teaching on the day of the Kazan Mother of God O zealous intercessor... pray for all Thy Son, Christ our God, and cause all to be saved, in Thy sovereign protection of those who come running (Troparion of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God) Do you all, beloved brothers, always fervently pray to the Mother of God? If any of you does not pray to Her, or does not pray with all your heart, I beg them from this very day to begin to pray to Her with all zeal, for the Lady is the speedy Intercessor for all Christians who resort with faith to Her protection and intercession - She does not shy away from anyone, does not neglect anyone; In order to be worthy of Her intercession, you only need firm faith in the power of Her prayer and humble, sincere prayer. What misfortune has befallen you, or spiritual sorrow: hurry quickly to prayer to the Lady, and do not seek consolation in some earthly consolation - in theaters, circuses, evenings, all the less - do not resort to wine to ease your grief, to forget the misfortune, as many do. Theaters, circuses, entertainment with wine or other things are new misfortunes, only unnoticeable at first, because they are seductive. Sins or passions torment you, or bad habits possess you - resort to the most merciful Mother of all - the Queen Theotokos; pray to Her like this: All-powerful, Lady Theotokos, I am possessed by such and such passions and sins, You can do everything, Your prayer is omnipotent with Your Son and God, protect me, protect me from myself, from my sinful passions and habits; - with all my heart I wish for correction and salvation for myself, - but without help from above, without intercession from above, I can’t do anything: I’ll take a step forward, and then retreat ten whole times, and the power of the enemy pushes me away from the Lord. I am wretched, poor, and poor, and blind, and spiritually naked; help me, cursed and poor and blind, I pray to You with all my soul. I believe that You hear every sigh of my heart, every word that comes from my heart, and You graciously intercede for all who diligently seek Your help and who are not ultimately deceived by sinful flattery. Intercede, save and have mercy on me, a sinner. So let us pray to the most merciful Queen Theotokos - and we will certainly be worthy of Her protection and intercession. Amen. Zealous Intercessor, Mother of the Lord Most High! Pray for all of Your Son, Christ our God, and grant to all to be saved, those who seek refuge in Your sovereign protection (Troparion of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God) Hear, brothers and sisters, what St. The Church is about our Most Holy Lady, the Queen Theotokos: she sings: “Our zealous Intercessor, pray for all of Your Son, Christ our God, and cause all to be saved, in Your sovereign protection for those who come running.” These words of the Most Holy Mother of the Church about the Most Holy Mother of God are the purest truth, they say what happens incessantly in reality, for the Most Holy Theotokos, in Her motherly love for us, stands for us before the Throne of God day and night: pray for us day and night, St. says to Her. The Church is in midnight worship, and the scepters of the kingdom are confirmed by Your prayers. Each of you has seen and sees often that the Most Holy Theotokos is depicted on icons either with both hands stretched out in prayer to Her Son and God, or with one hand stretched out in prayer to Him, for in this latter case she holds Her Almighty Son on the other hand, holding the whole creation by a handful 128 . This visible image clearly shows us the invisible work that is constantly taking place in the spiritual world, in heaven, the vigilant prayer for us before God of the Mother of God; for in heaven they do not know the rest of the night, as we have on earth; there is eternal day, eternal wakefulness, eternal all-joyful praise of the Creator, unceasing prayer for us. Oh, how comforting, my brothers, to think and be sure that in heaven there is such an everlasting, zealous and never-sleeping Intercessor and Intercessor for us sinners before God! What cannot She intercede for the Christian race, which always blesses, glorifies, magnifies Her? Yes, everything can be sought, however, only by those Christians who have not fallen asleep in sinful death, who themselves with faith stretch out their hands to Her with a prayer for help, or in the prayer of doxology and thanksgiving, who themselves try to live a Christian life, to fulfill Christ’s commandments and, although they sin due to human weakness and some kind of oblivion, they soon rise up, recognizing the flattery of sin, and again take up good deeds for your salvation. The prayers of the Mother of God help such Christians a lot, but the prayers of the Mother of God are not effective for those who are careless in prayer and in every good deed, who through negligence fall from one sin to another, from one vice to another, for the gifts of God's grace are perceived by us through faith, through our own desire and search for them: God does not cast His pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet (Matthew 7:6). However, what am I saying is not valid? - No, even for them the prayer of the Mother of God is valid, for She asks Her Son for them too, so that He will suffer for them even more - will they not wake up from their sinful sleep, will they not recognize the abyss of evil in which they are mired, will they not wish for heavenly help, will they not sigh to God? And how many She raised with Her prayers from the depths of sin! – An example of this is the Venerable Mary of Egypt, who from the greatest harlot became the greatest righteous woman, equal to the angels. It was the prayers of the Mother of God that made her wake up from her sinful sleep, flow to repentance and decide to change her life. My brothers! The Most Holy Theotokos is our Queen and Mother by grace; She is the loving Mother of our All-Creator and Savior, according to His humanity; no one loves people more than Her, after the Savior; no one hurts about them more than She, no one cares more about their eternal salvation; How can She not pray motherly for them, so that they do not rush into hell and the fire of Gehenna forever? And - I’ll add, how can we not pray for ourselves, how can we not take care of ourselves, about our eternal salvation, eternal bliss, and if She is the Queen and our Mother and the Mother of God, then let us honor Her according to her heritage, not only with our lips, but especially with our deeds - meekness, humility, abstinence, purity, obedience to God, observance of His commandments, devotion to His will, patience. She is the Head of mental creation, i.e. She is the first in holiness and greatness in the Church of Christ, like the Queen, but we are also members of the Church of Christ, although weak; Let us try to behave worthy of such a great Leader of ours - let us be jealous and, in our strength, imitate Her meekness, humility, purity, devotion to the will of God, patience, love for God and neighbors. Let us not forget to run more often into Her sovereign protection with faith, hope and love, and She will unceasingly intercede for all who come running with faith in Her sovereign protection - all in adversity and sorrow and illness, burdened with many sins, coming and praying to Her with a tender soul and a contrite heart before Her Most Pure Image with tears and irrevocably, - undoubtedly - relying on Her hope; She provides deliverance from all evils and bestows useful things on everyone, for She is the divine protection of Her servant. Amen. The first word about Theology. Explanation of the Sunday and Feast Gospels, St. Petersburg, 1806, p. 6. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Sixth Catechetical Teaching, p. 102, ed. 1824 Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Sixth Catechetical Teaching, p. 131. Creed of St. Gregory the Wonderworker. Trinity Triodion Lenten, l. 29 See Prayer in the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great before the consecration of St. Gifts Degrees, first antiphon of the 6th tone, Glory Catechetical Teaching 11, pp. 190,188,200,191,196 and 197. God. St. John of Damascus, in Russian. lane pp. 41–42 Stichera for Great Vespers of Pentecost, Tone 2, Glory Ogl. instructive 6, p. 91; 4, p. 62; 16, p. 348 Postn. Tr. page 13 on reverse Trinity Service on November 8th s.s. Ethereal. To the forces, in lit. poem. voice. 2. Tame the sea of passions, raging with a choking storm, Lord Christ. Ogl. instructive 15, p. 332 in Russian. lane Eg. St. Cyrus. Jer. at 15 ogl. instructive p. 332, etc. Day God. Right Ts. Ch. 2, p. 3, Ps.9:5 Oh heaven. Jer. Ch. 6, page 2 Days God. Ave. Ts. Ch.2, p. 3 Kan. English storage poem. Ch. 2 Verse. and can. Free strength 1 Canon to the Ethereal Forces, Song 5, Verse. 3 Eg. see channel Eng. Storage clause 3, art. 4 Katih. Rev. Phil. part 1, page 32 Explained Sunday and celebration St. page 75 St. John. Ladies. exact izl. faith book 2, ch. 4 Demon. Zlat. 19, page 387 vol. 11 Req. they say wife born at 40 days Notes on the book of Genesis, pp. 18, 19 Catechetical conversations of Archpriest John Yakhontov, Conversation 6, About the fifth day of creation. God. St. I. Dam. book 2, chapter 9, about the waters St. Dim. Height. Op. Part 2, page 618. The first to introduce this was the Roman Emperor Augustus (Isid. lib. 17 in Gretzero – de Sancta Cruce – citatus). Only under him and the following Emperors before Constantine the Great there was no cross on the empire: it was erected on it by Constantine Equal to the Apostles (Niceph. lib. 7 cap. 49 in praef. sua historiae). When the Emperor was depicted on coins or anything else, then under the ball in Roman language they often signed: ruler of the earth, or, more precisely, ruler of the globe (rector orbis). Gretz Catechetical conversations of Archpriest John Yakhontov, On the fifth day of creation. Creation Holy Father year. 2, book. 3, p. 143. Kir. Jer. ogl. instructive 9, page 158 The book "The Spectator of God's Works in the Universe." The book "Majesty to God in all kingdoms of nature." Demon. Zlat. by chance lower Tsar., Art. 11. Demon. Zlat. by chance lower Tsar., Conversation 11. TV Holy Father, year 2, book. 4, pp. 156, 157 TV Holy Father, year 2, book. 4 Demon. Zl. by chance lower king stat. 10 Various prayers, canon verses and chants are full of evidence of this. St. Quiet crow. about due Christ. Art. 58 Creation St. Gr. God. book 4, pp. 305, 306 in Russian. lane Theodore. against. Er., book. 5, ch. 10 We called the sacrament of atonement providence on the basis of many of our church books. So, for example: the sacrament of atonement is called a saving thought in the prayer to the Sweetest Jesus (at the end of the canon and akathist); in the akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos: also in other places in the canon and in various liturgical books. When counting the years from the Nativity of Christ, it is also said in some books: in the summer from the saving providence such and such. Vodosvyat. they say before baptism Kan. Prev. p. 7 Bogorod. Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, Kontakion 9. Akathist to the Sweetest Jesus, Kontakion 8. Plot. on the last to Rom. demon 10, p. 207, in Russian. translation Letters about St. Mount Athos., letter 17. Taught. Thank you Frequently III, p.64. You. Vel. in Russian per., vol. 4, pp. 168–169. Creation Grieg. God. in Russian lane Word 14 is about love for the poor. Grieg. God. about love for the poor. You. V. demon. to the words: I will destroy the granaries; in Russian lane Part 4 pp. 88–89. Grieg. Theologian about love for the poor. Grieg. God. in Russian lane Part 2, page 6. Grieg. God. in Russian lane Part 2, page 44. Zlat. on the last to Philip., demon. 1, art. 25. Grieg. God. in Russian lane Part 2, page 25. Last to St. communion song 3, art. 1. Kan. Eng. storage song 8, v. 4. Prayer at the end of Matins before Vzbran. Voivode. Feof. Bulgarian. prev to Ev. from John Grieg. Nis. word about blessedness in Christ. Thurs. 1842 May pp. 164–165, 169–170, 177–178. Grieg. Theologian sl. about the world, in Russian lane vol. 1, p. 237. Kan. Eng. and holy to all. poem. Ch. 6. A verse in praise of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Akathist to the Mother of God Cond. 8. 1 Irmos of Epiphany. Song 5. Last to Holy Communion. Prayer 3. Simeon Metaphrastus. 1st stichera on “I cried to the Lord” on the Feast of the Ascension. Akathist to the Mother of God. Kontakion 8. On the Thursday of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Zadostoynik, Voice 5. Epistle of Tarasius, Patr. Constantinople to Pope Adrian of Rome, Helmsman 1 part ch. 36. Ed. 1787 Canon of prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos. Troparion to the Mother of God. Voice 4. Glory. Canon Archangel and Angel. Song 9. Theotokos from the services. all day long. Borrowed from the book. "Tales of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, called Vladimir." Moscow, 1865 Holiday Circumcision of the Lord, stichera on the Lord, I cried.