Words, teachings, conversations

Contents From the publisher Sermons for the church year Joy of the world: Reflections on the day of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary The power of the cross*: On the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Your cross Exaltation of the Cross Cross life: A word on the day of the Exaltation of the Lord Cross Cross life Day of St. Sergius Bright Veil over the world*: Word on the day of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos Intercession of the Mother of God Bright Veil: Smart sky Day Archangel Michael Church of the church* Ascension to Christ: At the Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos Entry into the church with the Most Holy Theotokos And the Word became flesh: The Word for the days of the pre-celebration of the Nativity of Christ The sky is a nativity scene*: The Word for the Nativity of Christ From afar we came*: The Word for the Nativity of Christ The Gifts of the Magi* The Sign of the Cave of Bethlehem*: The Word for the Nativity of Christ The Word for Christmas Christ To the Russian soldiers on the day of the Nativity of Christ Star of Bethlehem Great Joy God is with us, the Most Pure Motherhood*: Dedicated to Russian mothers Eternity and time*: Word for the New Year Word for the New Year Flaming coal*: After a hundred years Water leaping into eternal life *: Word for the Eve of Epiphany Dividing heavens* Word for the Epiphany Feast of theology: Day of the Council of the Three Ecumenical Great Teachers and Hierarchs - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, January 30. Meeting of the Lord in the Church* Now you release Your servant, Master. Week of the Last Judgment* Doors of repentance* About bright sorrow*: On the eve of Great Lent On the rivers of Babylon we are there, sad and weeping. If I forget you, Jerusalem, my right hand will be forgotten! On the eve of Great Lent On the eve of Great Lent On the eve of Great Lent “And forgive us our debts” Forgiveness Sunday Word on the week of the Raw Fat Crucified with Him two villains, one on the right hand Word at Matins on the week Sermon on the Cross on the 5th week of Lent Archangel’s voice* Passionate Annunciation* Annunciation - Holy Sepulcher Reigning of the Cross* Blessed is the coming king of Israel! – Reflections on the day of the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem Hosanna in the highest! – Homily on the day of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem Supper of the Lamb Homily on Good Friday: Lamentation of the Mother of God at the Holy Sepulcher Live as you die This is the Blessed Saturday* – Reflections before St. shroud About the feat of joy: On the eve of St. Easter Let us rejoice divinely!* Trampling death upon death*: Diptych I II Christ is Risen Three Glories – Triptych: Annunciation – Entry of the Lord – Easter of Christ Easter Word: On the week of Antipascha (on the week of Thomas) Mary the Myrrh-Bearer Joy of Separation* On the Ascension Joy in Sorrow: (John 16:20) – Through the Ascension to Pentecost After the Ascension... Pentecost we celebrate the coming of the Spirit*: A Word on the Day of Pentecost A Word about Pentecost Perfect Joy We celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit Sermon on the Day of the Holy Spirit On the Day of the Holy Spirit On the Sunday of All Saints Call of the Apostleship*: A Word on the Day of Remembrance of Sts. chief apostles Peter and Paul June 29 Magnificent glory* (2 Peter 1:17) Holy Rus': On the day of the celebration of all saints who have shone forth in the Russian land Ascension of the Mother of God: On the eve of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary On the day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Word on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Baptist and Herodias: Reflections on the day of the Beheading Forerunners Word on the fifteenth week* Visions and revelations of the Lord: Word on the nineteenth week Words and conversations on various occasions Conversations on the Lord's Prayer (Yalta New Council. Autumn 1921) 1st conversation 2nd conversation on the Lord's Prayer (Yalta New Council. October 31, 1921) 3rd conversation on the Lord's Prayer (14 November 1921) 4th conversation on the Lord's Prayer (November 28, 1921) 5th conversation on the Lord's Prayer (January 9, 1922) 6th conversation (January 23, 1922) 7th conversation Conversations on the Divine Liturgy 1. Where is God? 2. I am always with you 3. “Peace be with you!” 4. Thy will be done 5. For everyone and for everything! Come with the fear of God, faith and love! A Word about the Comforter The Power of the Church Christianity - faith in the Holy Trinity The Two Kingdoms Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42; John 11:1-32) Church and City The Joy of the Cross Words about Patriarch Tikhon 1 (Word spoken before the prayer service for His Holiness the Patriarch in the Church of St. Nicholas in Prague, May 27, 1923) 2 3 Word at the prayer service before the annual act of the Faculty of Law Before the beginning: Word spoken at the liturgy, at the congress of the Council of the Sursum corda Movement! Do not be horrified, but stay awake In the sorrow of those days In the days of God’s visitation The Word at the funeral of Fr. Alexandra Elchaninova (Alexandro-Nevsky Cathedral in Paris, August 14–27, 1934) Priest Fr. Pavel Florensky For the funeral of N.A. Struve Word at the burial of P.B. Struve Appendix Preface to the collection “The Joy of the Church” In 1938, at the insistence of friends, Fr. Sergius Bulgakov published a small book of his scattered sermons, previously published in various publications, under the general title “The Joy of the Church.” This volume includes all the sermons, words and teachings of Fr. Sergius, both published and, for the most part, unpublished. In the 20s and 30s Fr. Sergius rarely wrote down sermons, but after throat surgery (1939), he could no longer deliver sermons and distributed them in the form of typewritten sheets to the circle of friends who came to his early liturgies at the Sergius Compound. This feature explains the abundance of sermons of the forties. Among the admirers of Fr. Sergius, in particular, with Fr. Georgy Serikov, mother Feodosia (Solomyants), sister Ioanna (Reitlinger), mother Blandina (Obolenskaya), T.V. Elchaninova preserved these sheets. In their archives, older words were also found that Fr. Sergius pronounced the priesthood in the first years in Crimea, before his expulsion from Russia (January 1, 1923), or in Prague before moving to Paris (1926). Outside the collection, only unfinished sermons or notes left in the notebooks of Fr. Sergius. Many people worked on compiling the collection. The initiative belongs to Archpriest. Georgy Serikov. The first classification of sermons was carried out by Rev. Boris Bobrinsky. The publishing house expresses its deep gratitude to both. Sermons for the Church Year Joy of the World: Reflections on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary The very event of the Nativity of the Ever-Virgin is silent in the Gospel. It remains under the cover of Divine humility. And if the birth of the Forerunner was foretold by the archangel and told in the Gospel, then, on the contrary, nothing is said about the birth of the one who will be blessed by all generations, and only a dull and late tradition wove a pious narrative around this event, which, of course, does not have the power and persuasiveness that would be characteristic of the Gospel. The Lord and the Most Pure One herself wished to hide her completed nativity from the world, and the Church only somewhat lifts this veil in liturgical hymns, confessing the power and meaning of what happened, although also not fully explaining everything that happened. In the troparion of the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, it is explained as the joy of the entire universe about her from whom the Sun of Truth, Christ our God, shone, so that all the power is attributed to the future birth of God, and not to herself, now being born. Of course, the incarnation is the most important and at the same time self-evident consequence of the currently celebrated event; in the light of it, it is explained as a necessary condition for the incarnation of God, namely as the Mother of God, which gives sanctification beyond all measure to the Mother of God herself. “In her God has prepared a holy throne on earth for himself” (verse, I cried to the Lord), “Today the Virgin and Mother of God Mary, the endless palace of the heavenly Bridegroom is born.” “Behold, God’s holy place has appeared manifestly... the luminous paradise is brightly flourishing, the intercessor of paradise, the assimilation of men to God” (canon; Canto 9 of the pre-festivities). “Queen of all, the abode of God, the divine abode of the everlasting Nativity” (verse, in verse, glory). “Today God rests on reasonable thrones, a holy throne has been prepared for himself on earth, having established the heavens with wisdom, making the heavens animated by love for mankind” (verse, I cried to the Lord, Great Eternity). “The predestined tabernacle of reconciliation to our God now begins to be” (canon, paragraph 8). “Today God has prepared a holy throne upon the thrones of reason, having established the heavens with wisdom, a heaven animated by love for mankind, from the barren root to grow a life-giving garden for us, our Mother” (kontakion of the holiday). In all these and similar hymns, the Church glorifies God, who has prepared for himself an animated throne, the Mother of God coming into the world, so that the whole event is explained in the light of the coming incarnation. The Incarnation, in its importance and uniqueness, like the sun and the moon, extinguishes the meek and humble light of the Nativity of the Mother of God herself. In the light of the sacrament of Body and Blood, as the fruit of the Incarnation, Mary is also called the “Offering of Divine Bread” (canon, paragraph 4), as she gave her flesh and blood to the Son. However, the celebrated event of the Nativity of the Mother of God remains in full force and in itself, as the appearance of the Ever-Virgin into the world (as her conception itself is especially celebrated). What does it mean and what kind of praise befits her, the Ever-Virgin Mary? The church rite of the holiday answers this question sparingly in words and restrained in expressions, but weighty and polysemantic, full of mysterious and theological meaning. The Ever-Virgin Mary is called “Joy to the whole world”, is the joy of the whole creation: “For with every joy they rejoice and are renewed, heaven and earth rejoice together,” “Let heaven and earth rejoice, let them rejoice: for God’s heaven was born on earth, this bride of God is born of promise” (sedalen). “Virgin, heaven and the throne of God and the friend of purity, proclaiming joy to the whole world” (verse, in verse.). “Let the whole world celebrate: behold, the queen and the immaculate bride of the Father has grown cold from the root of Jesus” (ibid.). This birth and this joy about it has been predetermined from eternity in the eyes of God. “Today the barren Anna gives birth to the Virgin of God from all generations, pre-elected into the dwelling of all the King and Creator of Christ God, in fulfillment of the divine providence” (verse, I cried to the Lord). She is the Queen of all, called the abode of God, “worldwide joy has dawned upon us from the righteous” (stichera on verses). “Behold, as before the womb, the foreseen, Mother of our God, a vessel of virginity, is born. “Then the world is born and the world is renewed with it, the Church is born and adorned in its splendor, a holy church, God’s companion, a virgin vessel, a royal palace: in it is the glorious indescribable union of the natures that have come together in Christ, the perfect sacrament performed.” “Even before the God of our reconciliation the predestined tabernacle begins to be.” What is this joy to the world about and what is the power of this election? In her perfect holiness and purity: “Above the angels on earth, a young woman is born, in holiness and purity without reasoning” (Canon of the Pre-Feast Day, paragraph 4). “The one and only one who introduces Christ into the universe”, “For the sake of purity, the church of God is animated” (verse, in verse). Therefore, she is both “The endless palace of the heavenly Bridegroom” (kontakion) and “The Queen and immaculate bride of the Father” (verse, in verse). So, here it is testified that the Ever-Virgin is, first of all, “ordained,” “predestined,” and “pre-chosen.” Her coming into the world is defined in God's eternity as “God's place” in creation, above the angels. It was initially included in the Creator’s thought about creation, as the most holy focus and throne of God. At the creation of the world, after each day, “the Lord saw that it was good,” and about the entire creation it is said: “And God saw everything that He had created, and it was very good” (Gen. 1:31), but its focus still remains what is contained in it, and the appearance of which we now celebrate: “Oh, you are beautiful, my beloved, you are beautiful” (Song. 1:14, 4:1), and she, “The Bride of the Lamb” answers Him: “Oh, you are beautiful, My beloved, and dear” (Song. 1:15). The coming of the Son into the world and His incarnation as a man is usually associated with the need to save the human race from the consequences of Adam’s sin, for which the “Oracle” was intended to serve. But Adam’s sin was not connected with necessity, it was a matter of his freedom, its abuse. However, if he had resisted the temptation of the serpent and had not fallen along with his descendants, then would the saving incarnation of God not have taken place and the “Prophesied One” would not have served this cause of God and therefore might not have come into the world at all; or, having come, remain outside this service? Obviously, the following thought should be completely rejected: the Named One was named regardless of the fall of Adam, for she was called to this service by herself, and not by Adam, just as the One who was to be born from her would not have left the world deprived of union with himself through incarnation. She appeared to the one who was worthy and capable of being called to this highest service by her very creation. The Lord creates the world and its humanity according to His thought and will, with His wisdom, His omnipotence, in His image and likeness. But differently He creates the world, inanimate and even animate, but devoid of the spirit of the Divine, that is, angels and man, into which He puts the breath of His being. This breath gives life to human nature, at the beginning of freedom, free, and therefore personal and, therefore, different acceptance and implementation of God’s thoughts about creation. In the creation of free beings, therefore, both God’s thought about each of them and the image of its assimilation on the part of the creature itself have power. And in this supertemporal self-determination of the creature, standing on the verge of time and eternity, its destinies and way of participation in the life of the whole world are predetermined. And in relation to the Most Pure and Most Blessed One, according to the testimony of the spirit of God given to the Church, the divine plan and its human perception were united in complete accordance. Therefore, the now celebrated event appeared to the pre-established ones - the coming into the world of the Most Blessed One. What is God's thought about her? What did the Creator want to create when he called this creation to life? The Spirit of God answers: not a separate, private, one-sided and therefore still meager image of the existence of the world, but embracing all its fullness and wisdom, all the power of chastity, which has as its condition all the indivisibility and boundlessness of God's giving, in other words, the purity of the creature from creatureliness, its obedient transparency for the perception of the revelation of the Divine, the very ever-virginity of the bride. The Church gives us the opportunity, with an almost silent movement of her lips, to further comprehend the One who was named before the womb in God’s plan, before birth in the world. It was with the celebration of the Nativity of the Mother of God that the Russian Church combined the celebration of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, in the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral. This holiday, as applied to this understanding of it, refers to the Mother of God, as the focus and glory of God’s creation, as the holiness of humanity, called and able to fulfill this calling to God-manhood through the Mother of God. But the Mother of God, before her motherhood, as a condition for its acceptance, must demonstrate in herself all the power of perfect chastity and ever-virginity, as the realization of the Wisdom of God and Glory in creation. And as this living and personal manifestation of God in creation and through creation, it is also the joy of the world, the universal joy given to all creation, and it is with this joy that the earthly and heavenly Church now rejoices. It is worthy of note that in the icon image of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, characteristic of the Kyiv church, she is depicted either as a Church (according to the text of Proverbs 9:1: “Wisdom built herself a house and established seven pillars”), or as the Most Pure Virgin with prayerfully raised hands, “Oranta” (according to the altar image of the Kyiv Cathedral), as in some of her other icons (“Tenderness”). So she appeared, in response to their prayerful call, Rev. Seraphim and Rev. Sergius, and this is precisely her image that is characteristic of the now celebrated Nativity of the Virgin Mary. She is the joy and glory of the world and its direct goal. The world was created in its inner being as a manifestation of the Wisdom of God, its power in creation, which consists precisely in the completeness of self-giving. Wisdom itself, embodied in the world, is the Word of God, the Logos, but the wisdom that receives Him and embodies Him through the influx of the Holy Spirit is the Ever-Virgin. She is “God’s place” in God’s world, God’s throne in the church of creation, chosen from all generations. The last words also reveal its central significance in the life of all humanity. Like the wisdom of God in creation, it unites in itself, mysteriously but vitally, the threads of all humanity. Her coming into the world was prepared by its destinies, both, first of all, in the bosom of the chosen people, who carried her within themselves, and beyond. So, the Most Pure Virgin Mary reveals all the power of human holiness in its highest achievement and completeness. She is therefore “the most honest cherub and the most glorious without comparison seraphim.” In this holiness she appeared worthy to give human nature to the Lord, and since it is taught to us in the communion of His body and blood, she is the “Offering of Divine Bread.” Why is holy humanity given to us in the image of the feminine obedient nature, and not in the power of the masculine principle? But man, as the new Adam, is revealed to us in Christ, truly God and truly man, in whom “all the fullness of the Divinity dwells bodily,” i.e. humanely. On the part of created humanity, it is fitting for the Virgin Mary to be shown obedience, humility and purity of the feminine nature, so that in both the fullness of humanity is revealed. At the same time, the true humanity of the Virgin Mary embodies the true humanity of Adam, however, in its sinful weakness after the fall, and only on this somewhat damaged tree should a healthy branch sprout, and a fragrant flower bloom on it. In this sense, the Virgin Mary, in the fullness of her humility, did not separate from us in our infection with sin, although she did not know sin in her personal existence, sick, but personally not subject to the sin of humanity. Therefore, if the Church glorifies the Ever-Virgin in her immaculate conception, then in doing this she does not want to separate her from the common trunk of the panhuman tree, but only testifies to her personal sinlessness even in humanity burdened with sin. The Immaculate Conception, in all the power of this word, is characteristic only of the single conception of the Lord God-Infant. She is “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev. 12:1) - the image of the incarnation. She is the wife who prepares herself for the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7), she is the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven from God (Rev. 21:9–11), having the glory of God. And she, who comes into the world now in her birth, but who left it in her dormition, will come into the world in the glory of her Son, which is the Holy Spirit resting on her. And today is revealed to us in its meaning as the initial approach to the world and humanity of the Holy Spirit, descending on her in the Annunciation, as the conception of God, and in her Dormition, as her glorification. The whole world and all humanity were created for the sake of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and her Son. Your Nativity, Virgin Mary, Joy to the whole universe, [for you are the created wisdom of God] From you will shine the Sun of Truth Christ Our God [Wisdom and Word of God]. And having broken the oath I gave a blessing And having abolished death, he gave us eternal life. Power of the Cross* 1: For the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Now the “worldwide exaltation” of the Cross of the Lord is taking place, today the cross is “erected and the world is sanctified” (the luminary of the Exaltation), and the faithful are called to venerate the blessed tree, on which Christ was crucified. We worship the tree of the cross and pray to the most holy life-giving cross, we appeal to it, we call on it: “thou art my shield of power, tripartite to the cross of Christ, sanctify me with thy power, that with faith and love I worship and glorify thee” (canon of the venerable Cross). “Rejoice, life-giving cross, invincible victory for piety, the door of heaven, the affirmation of the faithful, the fence of the church... invincible weapon, resisting demons... grant the world great mercy" (verse by Leo)." The Cross of Christ, hope for Christians, guide for the lost, refuge for the overwhelmed, victory in battle, affirmation of the universe, doctor for the sick, resurrection of the dead, have mercy on us” (verse, gospel). “In you, the blessed and life-giving cross, people will firmly celebrate with immaterial faces” (sedalen). “Invincible and incomprehensible and divine power of the honorable and life-giving cross, do not forsake us sinners” (great eternal prayer). “O glorious and life-giving cross of the Lord, help us with the holy Lady Theotokos and with all the saints forever. Amen". (Prayer for sleep to come.). But no matter how much we reverence the honest and life-giving tree of the Cross of the Lord, are we really tree worshipers who pray to the tree as a living being, as some kind of intelligent entity? Do we pray to the tree, albeit blessed, here, or to the divine power and mystery of the cross, which appeared to us in this tree? Worship of the tree of the Cross of Christ is truly united for us with the veneration of the cross, in the heavens of existence, an incomprehensible, divine power. From the image of the tree of the cross, our mind is raised to the prototype of the heavenly cross, inseparably united with it, just as His divine and human nature were inseparably and inextricably united in Christ. The heavenly cross of the Lord shone on earth in the tree of the cross, the instrument of our salvation. Together with the creation of the world, the tree of the cross was sown in it - cedar, and song, and cypress; On the day when the earth was commanded to bring forth every plant, the wood of the cross was prepared. But this wooden cross is a sign of the eternal cross, the revelation of the mystery of the cross. The sign of the cross is inscribed all over the world, for it is, in the words of the church song, the “four-pointed force” that binds the “four-pointed world”, like “height, depth and breadth”; and it is also inscribed in the human image, in the cruciform outstretching of hands: Moses and Joshua in prayer with raised hands represented the Crucified One on the cross. The image of the body, as it were, already calls for the tree of the cross, for it is a cross, which has its center in the heart. But with the image of the cross, the Creator inscribed His own image in the world and man, for, according to the testimony of the Church, the cross is “God’s image, signifying the world.” What does this sign announce? It proclaims the love of God and, above all, the love of God for creation. The world was created by the power of the cross, for God’s love for creation is cross-like. The world is saved by the cross, by the love of the cross, and the world is blessed by the cross, overshadowed by the power of the cross. But the mystery of the cross penetrates deeper and higher, for the image of the Trinitarian God, the Trinity in Unity, is hidden in it. The Church teaches that it is “a sign of the incomprehensible Trinity, a three-part cross, for the Trinity bears a trinitarian image.” The cross is a revelation of the Holy Trinity, and the power of the cross is Divine power. And when, prayerfully appealing to the incomprehensible and invincible and divine power of the honest life-giving cross, we pray to the divine power of the honest life-giving cross, then we pray to the Life-Giving Trinity Itself, in the Unity of existence, Its one divine life and essence. The cross is God Himself in revelation to the world, the power and glory of God. God is love, and St. The cross is nothing other than the love of God. Godmother's love. The strength, fire and nature of love is in its godliness, and love cannot be uncrossed. The cross is the sacrifice of love, for love is sacrifice, self-giving, self-denial, free exhaustion for the sake of the beloved. Outside of sacrifice there is no acceptance, no meeting, no life in and for another; There is no other bliss of love than in sacrificial self-exhaustion, which is rewarded with reciprocal fulfillment. The cross is the reciprocity of love, but it is also reciprocity itself. There is no other way of love, its knowledge of wisdom, except through the godfather. The Most Holy Trinity is the pre-eternal godliness, as the sacrificial reciprocity of the Three, a single life generated by free self-giving, triple self-denial, melting in the divine ocean of sacrificial love. The three-part cross bears the sign of the Holy Trinity. Why is this so? Three opposing lines intersect in the cross; they go to each other from three different points, but when they intersect they become one in the heart of the cross, in its intersection. So it is in St. For the Trinity, the divine life of the Trinity is an eternal meeting, reciprocity in self-giving and each finding itself in other Hypostases. There are no boundaries and limits for love, and there are none for sacrifice. Self-exhausting to be resurrected in another - such is the bliss of love. He who loves also loves the cross, for love is the cross. And real Love - God in the Eternal Cross - denies itself for the sake of His love. The three points that define the lines of the cross are images of the Three Divine Hypostases existing within themselves, and the point of their intersection is the single life of the Three, the Trinity in Unity in the reciprocity of the cross. And the bliss of divine love is the sacrificial bliss of the cross, and its power is the cross. And if the world was created by love, then by no other power than the power of the cross. God the Love creates it by lifting the cross again in the revelation of His love for creation. By creating the world with omnipotence, the Creator makes room in it for created freedom, as if diminishing Himself, limiting His omnipotence in favor of created things, and becomes exhausted for it. The world was created by the cross of God's love for creation. But creating the world by the cross, God, in the eternal council, determines by the cross to save it from itself, from destruction in its creation. God loved the world so much that from eternity he gave his Only Begotten Son for the sacrifice of the cross for the salvation of the world, and called him to rebirth through death on the cross and resurrection. God is looking for a friend in creation, another self, with whom He could share the bliss of love, to whom He could impart divine life, and in the immensity of His love for creation, He does not stop at its sacrifice, sacrificing Himself for the sake of creation. The infinity of God’s sacrifice for the sake of the world and its salvation surpasses all understanding. The Son is humbled to the point of incarnation, taking on the form of a slave and being obedient to the point of death on the cross: the Father does not spare the beloved Only Begotten Son, but gives Him up and Himself sends Him to the cross; The Holy Spirit accepts the descent into a fallen and hardened world, resting on the Anointed Christ, dwelling in His Mother and filling the Church with Himself. Together with the sacrifice of the Son on the cross, this is the sacrifice of the entire Holy Trinity, consubstantial and indivisible. Only the Son was incarnate and suffered on the cross, but in Him the sacrificial love of the entire Holy Trinity was revealed - the Father who sent Him and the Holy Spirit who rested on Him and on His suffering Mother. The cross was prepared in the world by God for God and therefore was represented in the Old Testament by many signs and types. And the cross appeared for the world as a tree of salvation, as a victory that conquered the world; Therefore, the sign of the cross will appear victoriously in heaven at the second and glorious coming of the Son of God, and in the heavens of heavens the Holy One will shine. The cross that St. Petersburg was honored to see. Andrey the Holy Fool for Christ's sake. Demons tremble before the sign of the blessing cross. The cross is a burning fire for them. Why do they tremble with this fire of love? For they hate love, they are darkened by selfishness, they do not want the way of the cross; They are united into their legions by the power of common hatred, but not love. The fire that cheers and delights becomes an unbearable flame for them. The cross is a figurative outline of the Name of God, working miracles and revealing powers, like the Name of God revealed to Moses. The cross is a commemoration of the Most Holy. Trinity, the sacred sign of God-Love, burning dislike, malice and hatred. This Heavenly Cross was revealed to us, humans, in the cross of Christ, in that all-blessed tree, the image of which we worship and kiss with fear. We are imprinted with it as soldiers of Christ, we wear it on our chests and in our hearts. For a Christian is essentially a crusader. As in the heart of St. Ignatius the God-Bearer, according to legend, they found the mark of the sweetest Name of Jesus, so in the heart of a Christian lies the cross of the Lord, with which it burns, wounded forever. A Christian lives in God, and to the extent that he participates in the love of Christ, His cross, its heaviness and sweetness. Worship of the cross and rejoicing in it are not an external commandment for him, but an internal command: whoever wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and come after Me. We can worship the cross only by virtue of our communion with it. He who fears the cross and in the depths of his soul does not want it, falsely worships it and deceives his conscience. Therefore, this day’s holiday is sweet, but also formidable and severe; the Church has clothed the day of its celebration in deep fasting. The cross shines in the sinful depths of our heart, it enlightens them, but also exposes them. Our sinful, selfish nature fears him and resists him. Why deceive yourself? The natural man fears the cross. And yet, you need to overcome this fear and grow the tree of the cross in your heart, lifting it up and worshiping it. You need to put your own money, along with the passing Simon of Cyrene, under the weight of the cross of Christ. Everyone must ascend to his own cross, so as not to leave it, and thereby create the erection of the cross in himself, and join in its worldwide erection. The commandment of the cross, for each his own, given by the Savior, is not severe torture, but the great mercy of God towards man. This is a commemoration of God’s love for man and his great veneration. God wants to join His highest creation to His joy and bliss, to His godliness. The primordial Adam, still in sinless ignorance of good and evil, was given the opportunity to know the sweetness of the cross through obedience to the commandment of God about not eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In paradise the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grew (Gen. 2:9). It was the heavenly sign of the tree of the cross: renouncing his will, doing the will of the Heavenly Father, a man was crucified on the tree, and it became for him the tree of life, full of eternal bliss. But with the whisper of the evil serpent, the ancestors rejected the cross, they came down from it, committing self-will, showing disobedience. And the tree became mortal for them, giving them knowledge of sin and evil, which led to expulsion from paradise. But onto this tree of the cross, from which the first-created Adam descended, the New Adam, the Lord, the Son of Man and the Only Begotten Son of God, ascended; He ascended to the cross in order to draw everyone to Himself (John 12:32), for there is no other way except the cross to the paradise of sweetness. And the ancient serpent tried to tempt him, saying to the Crucified One through the mouth of his novices: come down from the cross! But the new temptation was rejected, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil again became the tree of life, the “life-giving garden,” and those who eat its fruit partake of immortality. And in every person, while he is given the time to live, the seed of ancient Adam lives, he hears within himself a silent whisper, which is echoed by natural weakness and infirmity: come down from the cross, do not suffer. The world is hostile to the cross, enraged by the word of the godfather, love for the world is hatred of the cross. But love for God is also love for the cross of the Lord, for how can a stubborn, stiff-necked heart love if not through the piercing of the cross? Sweet are Your wounds in my heart, O sweetest Jesus, and there is no greater sweetness for it! “Oh, the most glorious miracle, the breadth of the cross and the length of heaven are equal, as God sanctifies everything with divine grace.” Amen. And he called the people and his disciples, He said to them: whoever wants to come after Me, deny yourself and take up your cross, It is difficult and scary for each of us to talk and even think about the cross. And yet it was precisely this that Christ spoke about so persistently and repeatedly, making it a condition for following Him. He who does not take up and carry his cross, “is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38) and “cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27), and “if anyone wants to come after Me, deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Luke 9:23; Matthew 16:24). And to this is added an even more terrible and so cruel-sounding word: “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37-38), and whoever “does not hate his father and mother and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and indeed his own life, cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). To renounce love for your most beloved to the point of hatred, in order to take up your cross yourself for the sake of love for Christ - such is the inexorable voice of God’s truth, from which the carnal heart shudders, knowing how to love only with carnal and selfish love. But Christ’s love for us, as our reciprocal love for Him, is higher than human love. The latter must yield to it, as a lower value to a higher one. The Teacher of love does not want our hearts to be hardened, but only the correct balance in keeping the commandment of love: first and second, love of God and neighbor. But what does this terrible word mean: “your cross”? Which of us, in our carnal selfishness, wants the cross, and does not deny it, does not ask God for well-being, peace, health, salvation, affection, peace? Sometimes he receives them, but he also inevitably loses them, one way or another, sooner or later, in life or death, each in his own way. The cross is our destiny, a fate that befalls us despite or against our wishes. And everyone has their own: the crosses are innumerable in their diversity, just as human destinies are innumerable. Diseases of the body and soul, poverty and hunger, enslavement and the disasters of war, desecration of the sacred and spiritual darkness, loneliness and failure, suffering for loved ones, for whom we are ready to give the last drop of blood, death and mortal separation... In the face of your cross, you can experience fear and trembling, resist, complain, murmur, curse, as even the righteous Job cursed the day of his birth and the night of his conception. And the Lord inexorably commands: to take up your cross, and accept this evil fate of yours as your cross, and follow Him. We know and love only ourselves, but He loved everyone and knew everything when He said it: present, past and future. And He himself was surrounded by those who were constantly sick and grieving, the poor and embittered, and He also foresaw these great disasters in the future, about which He himself said that the time would come when “there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world and will not be” (Matthew 24:21). And yet, in the face of all these coming disasters, He persistently proclaimed that everyone would take up their cross and follow Him as some higher truth about life. He also knows our terrible days, when death soars in the air and on the sea, on land and underground, and illnesses decimate life, and when the mind darkens and the heart breaks from torment. Life is a cross, and its cross is torment. He not only knew everything, but outlived everything, accepting into his humanity, into the wounds of the cross, into his mortal languor, everything, everything... Our cross is also His cross, He precedes us and bears it with us. The truth and fullness of His incarnation includes the universality and all-humanity of His cross. And in our agony on the cross He is closer to us, just as we ourselves in our suffering become closer to God, if only we do not plunge into the darkness of despair and fear, but listen to His heavenly gospel. The Heavenly Father himself sent his Son to the cross for us and with us. For the cross is the love of God and its blessing. The cross of the crucifixion is also a sign of victory and glory beyond this life, and now may the power of the cross show us its light and joy. But these promises sound dead in a deadened heart, and from everyone what is required is a feat of love and faith, an effort to feel Christ within oneself. This is the erection of the cross of Christ in our heart, and it is accomplished by faith and love, hope and prayer. But for this we must always live in Christ and with Christ, follow Him, betraying ourselves, each other and our whole life to Christ God. And then the cross, this grave fate and evil fate, will shine in us as a holy sign. To the extent that this love for Christ lives in us, we believe His word, for it is the word of love, the light that disperses the darkness that surrounds us. And in this light, the cross of Christ becomes for us a sign of God’s love for suffering humanity. God, having become a man for our sake, left heavenly peace in the descent of heaven in order to be crucified on the cross with us and for us, but also in order to resurrect us with Himself in the resurrection. We worship Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection. The exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, as a church triumph, is the memory of its discovery and its nationwide worship. But its great spiritual significance is that it is also a commemoration of our life in all its strength and content. Our life itself is or can, and therefore should be, such an erection for each of us of his own cross. But because of this, the very thought of this plunges us into confusion and trembling, for it calls us to the thought of God on the cross. The commandment of Christ calls for bearing the cross, with all inexorability and even seemingly merciless severity. But only on this path of following Christ is the joy worthy of man, the bliss of His closeness, given. The cross is given to each one, in return for taking it, according to the word of the Lord: “Take up your cross.” This “own cross” is, first of all, life’s lot, human destiny. It is diverse and changeable. It carries joy and sorrow, inspiration and exhaustion, needs and worries, labor and hardship, illness and loss. A person is its victim against his will, more often in spite of it, from a coincidence of circumstances, an accident, rarely favorable, but more often fatal and unkind. Under the weight of his fate, a person grumbles, complains, becomes exhausted: he “does not take up” his cross! Christ calls each and every one to his willing, free acceptance, his exaltation. Through this, cruel fate becomes his own sacrifice, in the image of Christ. What is the power of this image? The Cross of Christ from time immemorial was prepared for Him as His given destiny, as He himself announced to His disciples. The Cross of Christ weighed heavily on Him with all the weight of the sin of the world. This cup was bitter, so He also prayed to the Father at the hour of its approach: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, however, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Submitting to his lot, He testified to his submission to the will of the Father, his acceptance of the cross: “If this cup cannot pass from Me, lest I drink it, Thy will be done” (Matthew 26:42–44). But the will of the Father was irrevocable, and the Son freely accepted this will, thereby he himself accomplished the spiritual erection of his cross, which was followed by crucifixion and death on the cross. The mystery of the saving cross of Christ lies in its acceptance of the weight of the sins of the whole world. It revealed redemptive power as a universal sacrifice. We now dare to celebrate it, just like our own triumph, a church holiday. But Christ calls his chosen ones to share with Him on the paths of life, in their destinies, in accepting and bearing their own cross. Christ did the will of the Father, which he knew was given to Him. But how can we erect our own cross and, first of all, recognize it, not only as an external coincidence of circumstances, but also as God’s will for us? How can we discern his just measure and God’s thought about us? It becomes a matter not only of obedience, but also of creative effort and inspiration. A person on this path is not given infallibility; on the contrary, he is faced with errors, biases, evasiveness, and self-indulgence. He painfully has to look for his right path. Christ himself showed us and commanded the image of right election in his prayer: “Not as I want, but as You want.” But He knew this election, but we have to painfully search for it in order to distinguish in our own self-determination right from wrong, humble from arbitrary, divine from human. Moreover, our life does not consist in a simple election and a one-time decision along the paths of our entire life, it is a series of multiple and varied events. It is all the ascent of the cross throughout life, leading to its exodus on the cross in the “Christian death of our life.” We must seek the right path through prayerful effort, with hope in God’s help, which is promised to us: “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find” (Matthew 7:7). Since our fate is externally given to us, we remain not free in choosing it, but what is required of us is the feat of faith to accept the will of God in its incomprehensibility and its visible severity. For God is Love, and His judgments are just. If our will still has to choose and seek our decision in the creative feat of life, we must pray to Christ that He will direct our mind and will with His good Spirit on the right path. God listens to man who seeks his ways. He will not leave him unanswered - through a word, a sign, an event - although he himself must seek the hard-won self-determination on the cross. The erection of the cross is not only a church triumph, but also our own work. Such is the Christian life, accomplished in the bearing of the cross and the feat of the cross. But there are different events and periods in it, both in the lives of individuals and in societies, peoples, and humanity. And it seems to us that our present life is especially exhausted under the cross, now sent by God, for everyone in their own way: persecuted and persecutors, militants and those suffering from war, for all peoples, especially the chosen people and our homeland. And it seems that the heavier the cross, the higher the election! Let us bow under the cross that is sent to us, let us erect it spiritually with faith and love, hope and humility, with the desire to deny ourselves in the Name of Christ and accept our destinies as the commands of God. And that cross should become a sign of spiritual victory, joy, thanksgiving, triumph. For such hard-won, for the cross, joy, we dare to ask the Lord himself who crucified on the cross for us and who is crucified with us today. Amen. The Cross of Life: A Word on the Day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross Today is the celebration of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord and our worship of it. This triumph expresses the very essence of the Christian faith, the sign of which we bear on ourselves, the death of Christ on the cross and His glorious resurrection: “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection.” The Crucifixion and Resurrection, Good Friday and Easter of Christ are united here in a single glorification, each with its own inspirations and revelations. The sorrow that clothes him in fasting is combined with the greatest victorious triumph. The shadow of the cross and its burden falls over the world, and its light shines in it. So one day he will shine in the heavens, as a victorious sign of the new coming of the Son of Man into the world. We are simultaneously drawn to the church to venerate the Cross of the Lord, to partake of its church triumph, co-erecting the cross, to surrender to the rapture of prayer for it, but at the same time we are tempted, we lower our eyes to the ground, and we are spiritually afraid of its presence. Spiritual laziness and our indifference call us to flee from contemplating it, it crushes us, cuts our weak shoulders, fills our lives with unbearable torment. And the more we plunge into the depths of human life, the more unbearable it seems. Such is the contradiction that we bring in our souls to the foot of the Cross of Christ. This holiday, in its spiritual joy, brings us face to face with the crossness of our entire lives, which is not in vain overshadowed by the sign of the Cross of the Lord. The Cross of Christ, raised by the God-man for the salvation of all, is the love of God for the world, revealed not only in the creation of man, but also in his salvation. God himself shared his godfather's destiny with the world, became man and was crucified. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (John 3:16). The Father himself sends the Son to the cross. For there was the inquiring cry of the Son on the Cross: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). And He heard the silent answer of the Father - “My Father, if this cup cannot pass from Me, lest I drink it, Thy will be done” (Matthew 26:42). The Cross was given to the Son by the Father and was accepted from Him. The Father's love, resting on the Son with the Holy Spirit, hid in the darkness of the Gethsemane night, as well as in the light of Calvary's day. But she hid herself for the sake of love, triumphant in her sacrifice, so that through this she could shine in her power and glory. And the contemplation of sacrificial love fills the soul with reciprocal love, thanksgiving and triumph - the erection of the cross in our hearts. It gives us inspiration to share this celebration, to say to the Father our response about the godliness of our lives: if possible, let it not be our lot, but if impossible, then let Your will be done. But send the strength and will to accept and bear our cross, ignite your heart with “the love of Your cross,” grant the patience to which You call: “With your patience save your souls” (Luke 21:19). And not only that: the cross is not only a matter of Christian patience, but also a feat of faith; the word about the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing” (1 Cor. 1:17), “for the Jews it is a temptation, and for the Greeks it is foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:23). In the face of the human mind, it is not only incomprehensibility, but also evil, because it is suffering. How can we love suffering or worship meaninglessness? But this is precisely what the Exaltation of the Cross means, it requires us to overcome human nature - which does not want the cross and resists it - in the name of our love for God and God’s love for us. The wisdom of this age promises us happiness on earth, overcoming godlessness. She calls us not to erect the cross, but to its abolition. However, a crossless and vain life is empty, devoid of depth and wisdom, that spiritual dignity that is acquired through suffering. Therefore, the cross is for us the highest gift of God’s love. We must recognize and accept crossness as our participation in the Cross of Christ, for the Cross of Christ embraces all the crosses of all humanity, in it everyone will find their own cross, and in it the answer to the mystery of their life and its destinies. This feat of love and faith on the cross, as the highest achievement of human life, consists of only one thing: not as I want, but as You do, and Thy will be done in all its incomprehensibility for us. This should be the only answer to everyone and for everyone about himself. But even this understanding is still the easiest and simplest in our questioning about the cross. It is both easy and difficult for everyone to make this sacrifice of love for themselves and on their own behalf and say: Thy will be done. But the “word of the cross” in its foolishness and madness requires from us an even greater sacrifice and greater boldness of faith: to say this for everyone. The veneration of the cross, performed today, is its worldwide erection, its acceptance on behalf of the whole world. This is the meaning of the celebration, which we will not diminish. Everyone carries in consciousness and conscience the answer about his own destiny, but it is also included in the destinies of all humanity, unless we separate ourselves from it in selfishness, narrowness of heart, in its petty-bourgeois limitations. We share the fate of the world, its sorrow, its crossness. And precisely in our days, a war unprecedented in its destructive power and cruelty, with innumerable disasters, an insane outpouring of cruelty, godlessness and all kinds of idolatry, we are sincerely exhausted and honestly perplexed: how is this possible? Where is God and is He the one who sends his world to ruin? Reason and conscience seem to tell us that the Supreme Mind was powerless not only to create the world, but also to bring it out of this hell, or He is simply absent, and the world is a combination of random, meaningless causes. But then the human mind itself is called upon to replace it, and it calls us not to erect a cross, but to overcome the crossness of life. If in the face of the incomprehensible suffering of only one man, the righteous Job, his friends were perplexed, his wife called him to blasphemy: “Blaspheme God and die!” (Job.2:9), - what can be said in the face of everything that is happening now, and does the word of the cross sound like confusion, irresponsibility or insensibility? And even overcoming the cross of life in the future does not reconcile with the evil that has already happened and is happening in the personal destiny of each of us, and even less is it capable of reconciling with the universal death that takes away everyone’s life. But the erection of the Cross contains not only a question, but also an answer, for in it the worship of the Cross is combined with the glorification of the resurrection of Christ. This gives an answer about the Cross, the only, comprehensive, worthy one: Christ’s death on the cross was the power and foundation of His resurrection, which contains the power of the future co-resurrection and salvation of all mankind. This is the sermon of the Feast of the Universal Cross of the Exaltation. Only this one thing, the word of the cross, can be the answer to the meaning of the meaninglessness of everything that happens in the world, but it must be pronounced not only with the lips, but also with the heart, with all the power of love and faith. The crossness of the world can only be accepted in God, as God’s will for the world, its good permission, it must be recognized in the Cross of Christ, as God’s love for the world. The Cross of Christ unites in itself all the crosses of all humanity, for which it contains redemption. The Passion of Christ contains in itself all human sufferings, except for sinful ones, for each of them surpasses itself and responds to it with the power of Him. The love of God loves every creature and does not forget every person in his destiny. It has no boundaries and is strong against all powerlessness. But this truth can now be revealed to us to the extent of our own love for Christ, and through this in the knowledge of the Divine love for the world and for man, revealed by Him. The Creator himself, the Word of God, took upon himself and outlived all torment within himself, becoming a man. This is the secret of God's love for the world. But it also contains another secret - the salvation of the world and man from evil, with the expulsion of the prince of this world. Evil and suffering entered the world not from God, who created the world “for good,” but from created freedom, from sin, which entered creation from the spiritual world and spread to all humanity. The world is sick with sinfulness and suffers from it. He became the kingdom of the prince of this world. But he has already been defeated by the Cross of Christ, and this victory, his expulsion from the world, will be revealed in the coming age of resurrection. Therefore, the destinies of humanity in its godliness are good, because they lead to goodness, to the triumph of goodness worthy of man, to the Kingdom of God. This is the truth that Christ proclaims through his death on the cross and resurrection. The baptism of the Cross of Christ is the baptism of all baptisms, but its power is the resurrection of Christ, which contains within itself the general resurrection. Christ calls us to this feat of faith: “Do not let your hearts be troubled; believe in God and believe in Me” (John 24:1). This is how He taught his disciples just before his death on the cross, which was both the greatest suffering and evil in the world, but also the source of universal salvation. And this was not the only thing the Lord proclaimed to his disciples. He anticipated them, and in their person all of humanity, about what lay ahead of him in the future, about the crossness of his entire path. He did not seduce him with the ghost of earthly prosperity. He said: “You will also hear about wars and rumors of war. See that you are not horrified, for this must be done. But this is not the end” (Matthew 24:6ff.). “And if those days (the great tribulation) had not been shortened, no flesh would have been saved” (Matthew 24:27). “Then they will hand you over to torture and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake... and because iniquity abounds, the love of many will grow cold; but he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). With these and many other words, the Lord preceded the path of the whole world about the cross. This same sorrowful path is prophetically revealed in the Revelation of John. Before his cross, even those who have departed to the next world are tempted, just as we are now tempted, and cry out: “How long, O Holy and True Master, do you not judge and take revenge on those who live on earth for our blood?” (Rev.6:10). But they were also told to calm down, “until their fellow servants and brothers, who will be killed like them, will complete the number” (Rev. 6:11). The same will remain the “calm” of the godfather for us. What do these prophecies about the future mean, why are they given? They testify that all future destinies of the world are known to the Lord and allowed by the wisdom of God as the path to universal salvation. They are given so that our hearts will not be troubled or afraid, for Christ does not leave his peace in his ways. And we must believe that He is with us now and until the end of the century in all our destinies. Therefore, when we worship the Cross of Christ, in it we also worship the godliness of the whole world, its suffering, for it is the Cross of Christ, accepted by Him Himself for its salvation together with all humanity, in everything except sin. It - godliness - is the path, and there is no other path that all humanity can take to the triumph of the Kingdom of Christ. Therefore, in our days, no matter what the present and future trials awaiting us, we must be Christians, bear the cross of our destiny in Christ, like the cross of Christ He placed on us. Amen. And, bearing his cross, He went out to the place, called frontal, in Hebrew Golgotha. (John 19:17) And they forced someone passing Simon the Cyrene... bear His cross. (Mark 15:21) Life is a cross, and everyone is given their own cross, as a special destiny on the cross. It manifests itself differently and affects everyone at different times, but it cannot be avoided in this world. Self-delusion that a self-satisfied, crossless life is possible in this world, poisoned by sin and aggravated by mortality, with all its manifestations, is in vain. Such a dream is childish self-deception, and, moreover, unworthy of a person. A sinful life cannot and should not be cloudlessly happy, just as a mortal life cannot be completely blissful. The world will not tolerate such prosperity in anyone. The Son of God Himself, the only sinless one, was destined to bear his cross in order to be crucified on it. And not only was it given to Him to carry His cross to the place of crucifixion, but also a passer-by who happened to be returning from the field, Simon of Cyrene, was forced to do so. This clearly showed how unexpectedly and inevitably the bearing of the cross befalls us, like some kind of fate or blind chance. However, in fact, it is no coincidence that the cross for passing Simon turned out to be the cross of Christ. After all, our personal cross is the same, or at least can appear, for each of us. We ask ourselves: how, and in what sense, on what basis is this identification of our crosses with the cross of Christ accomplished? Is it an error or a substitution? Of course not! But eyes are opened to him only through the free acceptance of one’s cross as the cross of Christ and in following Him, according to His word: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:34). Taking up the cross here is conditioned by self-sacrifice in subordinating one’s will to the will of God, in accepting one’s destiny as God’s determination. Our fate does not depend on us, it even rapes our will, sometimes like an evil, incomprehensible and painful fate that falls to our lot, regardless of whether we want it or not, whether we agree to it or rebel against it. However, at the same time, we are not deprived of our freedom, since it is still up to our will to accept or not accept fate as a cross, to take it, or, although powerless, to reject it. Our external fate poses to our free will the question of our attitude towards it. What is the very power of this taking up of the cross? How is it accomplished internally? This happens through seeing the cross of Christ in him - this cross of all crosses, this fate of all human destinies. Such vision also turns out to be “following Him.” But how is this possible, and what does it mean? - such is the bewilderment that involuntarily arises in us. Doesn’t Christ in his earthly life already have his own personal destiny, moreover, confined to a certain space and time and unique in its own way, just as the personal destiny of each of us is unique in its special cross? On the other hand, is it possible to follow Him when He is no longer with us on earth? Obviously, the call of Christ should not be attributed to external following - which is impossible - but to internal, to special inspiration in His image - which is what the Apostle says: “Let us have the same feelings that were in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). However, such understanding is not enough. The cross, characteristic of each of us, is in fact the cross of Christ, as it was for Simon of Cyrene, who in this sense, of course, was not an accidental cross bearer. Christ is all-man in His humanity, and He shares with us our human destinies, which are thereby accomplished in His own humanity. He himself testifies to such self-identification with all people (of course, only except for sin) in his conversation about the Last Judgment, in its questions and answers. The fabric of all-human life contains within itself the knots of all its personal destinies, which thereby belong to the humanity of Christ, are connected with it, and are received into it. However, individual people exercise their affiliation differently. In it the wounds of Christ on the cross can be torn apart through disobedience, but self-giving to Christ through love and faith is also accomplished. Christ accepted his cross as the will of the Father, true, right, holy. The same is our crossness, it is a single cross, like a single cup, which is given to us together with Christ, in His Gethsemane struggle and Calvary forsakenness taking place with us and about us. His atoning sacrifice, once offered, is always offered “for all and for all,” with all of us and for all of us, if only, by betraying ourselves to Him, we crucify and offer ourselves together with Him. His Gethsemane prayer is also from us, since it is also our prayer: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). But it is precisely against this that a tempting whisper rises within us about not accepting the cross: “Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:42). But we are not given the opportunity to step down from our cross, to disobey it as fate and necessity. Only the manner in which it is accepted and carried depends on us. We are free to accept it together with Christ, as He accepted it: “Thy will be done”! Then he becomes a revelation of the good will of the Father, and his sorrow is overcome, even if all his burden remains. Or the person does not accept his cross. This is how a struggle on the cross takes place in the human soul, which can and should be crowned with victory on the cross. However, there remains, perhaps, defeat with immersion in the darkness of despair and fight against God. In the life of each individual person, special times and seasons of the cross come, but they also come for human societies. Now the whole world is ascending to the cross, fear and exhaustion and bewilderment are seizing souls. How to understand and accept this cross of his - with Christ or without Him? A feeling of abandonment by God and loneliness in the world is generated in the hearts, as if the sky is closing. Screams and complaints resound in souls, like Job’s on his bed of sorrow: “Why are you fighting with me? Is it good for You that You oppress, that You despise the work of Your hands?” ( Job 10:2–3 ). But Job, who appeared on his bed as a prototype of the Redeemer, overcame temptation by the power of faith and submission to the will of God, by complete and selfless surrender of himself to it, not yet knowing, but only seeing through faith the coming Redeemer (Job 19:25–27). We already know Christ and know His way and the commandment to accept the cross. It is not easy, this commandment, because its fulfillment requires force. It demands from a person his whole heart and will. It is not limited to short periods, but extends to all times of life. God honored man with his image, but this image here on earth, in this century, is Christ, crucified with us, for us for man and for our salvation. He is for us the answer to our questioning, he is a promise and hope. Now our faith in Christ and our love for Him are being tested. We must look to Him, remember Him, believe in Him, and in Him find peace for our souls. The image of accepting and bearing the cross is the only measure of Christian dignity, for Christ himself said about this: “Whoever does not take the cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). Amen. Five and a half centuries separate us from the blessed death of St. Sergius (1392). How everything has changed since then, what a historical distance separates us! And yet he still remains for us not only a spiritual leader and heavenly representative, but also a friend and loved one, as one who has known the depth of our grief and has become akin to us in it. For he too was the son of timelessness, and in his own way no less than us. Now the Russian land is filled with enemies of the faith of Christ, but then didn’t it languish under the Tatar yoke, and weren’t they forced to renounce the faith with the worship of fire and idols in the Basurman horde? We are separated by spiritual wounds in a foreign land, we are disintegrating in civil strife, but what was Rus' like then under the weight of captivity, and what were the internal strife then? We have experienced and are now again experiencing the disasters of wars at home and in foreign lands with all their cruelty, but wasn’t he also a witness to the battles and even an inspirer of the struggle for the liberation of the homeland, as if a spiritual comrade-in-arms of the Battle of Kulikovo? We now, exhausted by separation, strive to gather under his banner in order to be preserved spiritually, but didn’t the monk also gather the small flock around him into a monastery that was destined to become the focus of the Russian revival? And if we now live in ignorance of the coming day, and a dark veil hangs before our eyes, then did not his abode live in great poverty and deprivation, and did not it repeatedly stand before the final impoverishment? And if we sometimes become exhausted from mutual blasphemy and discord, was he not forced to leave his own monastery for the sake of brotherly blasphemy? And if we drag out the lot of expulsion from our homeland with the anguish of refugee, then didn’t he also have to experience it, at least temporarily, together with his brethren, fleeing from the Tatar raid? Our misfortunes now seem to us unprecedented, but this is only an optical illusion due to the distance, and if we look more closely at all the features of the life of the monk, we will see how great was the measure of the suffering of his co-suffering heart. And although there were no external weapons of destruction at that time, the passions of destruction were no less, just as the Kulikovo Slaughter was no less fierce than the battles that are taking place before us. Later times also have greater maturity in good and evil; the past seems naive and childish to it. But each time has its own measure, and this measure was fully fulfilled in the days of the monk. And on his path of trials, he won the crown of righteousness and became the leader and healer of his homeland. His spiritual power manifested itself in the sphere of church, state, and all folk creativity. What was the saint’s feat, and what and how can we follow him now, in such changed conditions of life? Outwardly, he was associated with the special circumstances of his time, but internally he fully retains his guiding significance even today, for the human spirit in turning to God does not depend on the time in which it realizes its creative aspirations, and in this spiritual creativity we are called to follow the path of the saint, to be inspired by his inspiration. In his humble image we will not find those deliberate gifts for which we are glorified by human greatness; he edifies us with the greatness of the Gospel, about which it is said: “Whoever wants to be greater among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first among you must be your servant" (Matthew 20:26-27), "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). Such greatness is not free, like natural talent: it is achieved by the feat of faith and prayer, by fulfilling both commandments of the Lord about love for God and neighbor. The life of the saint tells of miracles and signs and revelations, of concelebration with angels, of the appearance of the Most Pure One, of communion from the chalice of Divine fire. However, the most wonderful and most amazing thing is his own feat of boundless self-abasement, humbly bearing the burdens of his brothers, constant self-sacrifice. And we ask ourselves: can we think about imitation of him, measure ourselves by this measure? Does such greatness, inaccessible to us and frightening to us, edify us? However, there is one and common path of Christian life for everyone, and, looking at its perfecter, we must place its beginning in ourselves, according to the words of the Apostle: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have attained, but rather, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). And then he adds: “Imitate me and look to those who walk in the image that you have in us.” Imitate him, following the apostle. Paul, the reverend also calls us a silent example. And it is precisely in the despair of our life, in all its hopelessness, that this feat of prayer and faith must be accomplished. We remember good times before the present timelessness, but how can we overcome its burden, how can we overcome our despondency? We know with our minds and confess with our lips that human destinies are built by God's providence, and our destinies are the works of God. We are required to translate the mental abstraction of this knowledge into living reality, to see the hand of God above us. The saint teaches us this feat of faith, for his life also represents an unbroken chain of victorious trials. What would have happened to our homeland if Dimitri Donskoy had not found in him the encouragement he needed for his feat of arms, or if the monk himself had not withstood the internal and external upheavals in the life of the monastery, which was destined to become a real nursery of the Russian spirit? And is not a similar test of faith now befalling his children in their homeland and in exile, in humiliation and misery, like a piece of wood carried from one shore to another, without shelter and shelter, in the face of all the incomprehensibility and horror of destinies, both ours and the whole world together? We are required to stand spiritually, preserving in our hearts what has been given and entrusted to us. This requires from us the last, exhausting effort of faith, but it is she who promises us God’s help. And on this way of the cross of faith, the image of the saint shines before us. The monk has long been expelled from his monastery, as Tokhtamysh once was, but we live under his banner, like his small flock. And for our monastery the same spiritual task remains: to maintain trust in Providence, to maintain faith and hope. Many times the mercy of God miraculously saved us through the prayers of the saint, but our paths in the future remain unknown. Until this mercy is taken away from us, we are called to go through our turn, to strive in the monastery of the monk in the life of God, which is prayer, like the heavenly wings of the soul, and in the thought of God, the contemplation of the mysteries of God, which is imprinted in theology. May the thunder and roars of heaven and the underworld not drown out this heavenly voice, and may we not lose the silence of prayer and the inspiration of divine wisdom. May our journey be completed according to the word of the apostle: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). May the saint bless our labors in the coming year of the Lord favorably. Bright Protection over the World*: Word on the Day of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos Today the Russian Church is celebrating an event that happened in ancient times and not in Russian soil, but in a distant foreign land - in the Greek Constantinople more than 1000 years ago, when there was no Russian Church. This event took place in the Blachernae church, in the presence of a large people, but visibly it was only two friends of the Lord, blessed Andrew, a fool for Christ, and young Epiphanius, his disciple. Both saw how the Queen of Heaven and Earth herself was present in this church, praying for peace and people, and how she overshadowed those praying with her most holy omophorion. Apart from them, no one in the church was honored with this wondrous and terrible vision, and through them the Church learned about the joyful appearance of the Mother of God, which “today we brightly celebrate people of good faith.” Who was this Andrew, the blessed chosen one, to whom the Mother of God showed Her visit? In the great city of royal Byzantium, St. Andrei seemed the most wretched, poor, and ill-born. Under the shadow of free foolishness about the Lord, he hid his bright spirit and gracious wisdom from people. He was a stranger in Byzantium, since childhood he was sold into captivity from the Slavic, Scythian, our native people. Having been beloved by his master Theognostus, he received Hellenic education in his house and showed a special ability for book writing, which is why he was awarded the honorary position of scribe (notary). But his wisdom called him from worldly knowledge to the thought of God, and the wealth of gifts attracted him to spiritual poverty. Following an inner call, supported by a miraculous vision, he laid all his gifts at the foot of the cross, clothed in strange and ridiculous madness. And rich garments were hidden under the beggar’s rags, and spiritual beauty was hidden under scabs and filth. He took up the feat of foolishness along with the feats of fasting, poverty, homelessness, and tireless prayer. And this madman, this strange one, this holy fool, was chosen by the Mother of God to her secret places in Blachernae. It turned out that the patriarch and none of the episcopal, priestly and monastic ranks were elected, the king with all his nobles was not elected, none of the learned and intelligent men with whom Byzantium was so rich, nor any of the eminent men of the reigning city were elected. But the Mother of God chose this Andrei, who belittled himself more than anyone else, who fooled himself more than everyone else. To be led astray by the mind, having renounced it for the Lord, to rise above the mind itself in holy foolishness - this feat made the bearer the chosen one of the Most Pure One. St. Andrew was even earlier honored with knowledge of the mysteries of God, for, like the apostle. Paul, he was raptured to the third heaven, in the heavenly abodes he saw the honorable Cross and bowed to Christ in His glory. It was also the abode of the Mother of God, but She herself was not there then, for the Lady came to earth to show mercy for people. But, not seeing Her in heaven, the blessed ascetic was honored to see Her on earth, in the Blachernae church. And he saw Her not alone, but together with the reverent young man, his friend Epiphanius. This young man loved the foolishness of his mentor, he chose for his edification not glory, not wealth and splendor, not intelligence and learning in a magnificent and royal city, but humility and the immeasurable love of the cross, for this reason he was not separated from his friend in the great and terrible vision. That was at the end of the life of blessed Andrew. Being present at the all-night vigil in Blachernae in the last watch of the night, he saw how the Mother of God entered the church through the royal (western) doors, surrounded by the armies of heaven and many holy people, supported by the hands of her relative John the Baptist, the greatest of those born of a woman, and the beloved disciple of Christ, John the Theologian, adopted by her on the cross by the Lord, these two great Ioannov. She approached the pulpit, and St. Andrei asked Epiphanius: “Do you see the Lady and Queen of the world?”, to which he answered with trepidation: “I see, father, and I am horrified.” The Mother of God, bending Her knees, prayed for a long hour, shedding Her God-like and most pure face with tears. The Mother of God prayed on her knees, the Lady and Queen of the world cried for him. Having finished the prayer on the pulpit, She approached the altar and here again prayed for her people. At the end of the prayer, She took off the veil that shone like lightning from Her head, and with great solemnity spread it over the people, and both saints saw this brilliance of the glory of God while the Most Pure One remained in the church, and it became invisible only after Her departure. The Holy Church loved this vision more than others and celebrates it as a great and joyful revelation about the Light Cover over the world, about the great love of the Mother of God. For not only in the Blachernae Church 1000 years ago did the Mother of God pray tearfully, but she prays now and here, and always, and everywhere, and until the end of the century. And not only over those present then in Blachernae did Her honorable omophorion extend, but also over the entire human race, and over the whole world, and over us sinners, the overshadowing and saving Veil of the Mother of God shines, although we do not have eyes that are worthy to see this. The Mother of God mediates between earth and heaven. She is the intercessor of the world, lifting its prayers to the Throne of the Glory of God. She is love and mercy, mercy and pity, forgiveness and intercession. She doesn't judge, but she feels sorry for everyone. She is not the truth of the court and not the court of truth, but maternal intercession. And at the Last Judgment of Her Son, She prays to the righteous Judge for forgiveness. The sin of the world and the sorrows of the world wound the all-loving heart, to anger and sin She responds with love and tears, weapons and now passes through Her heart. Our Lady cries for peace. What is this mystery? Queen of Heaven and Earth, existing in heaven with the Son, superior to creation, most honorable cherub and most glorious without comparison seraphim, She on Whom the Holy Spirit himself rests, She cries for peace! The world itself cries for itself with Her tears. His suffering and sorrow are also Her sorrows, his sobs are also Her tears. Oh, miracle of miracles! Oh, wonderful mystery! How is heavenly bliss combined with earthly sorrow? Oh, blessed ladder that connects heaven and earth! Preciously existing above every creature, She receives the glory of God through her Son, but does not leave the earth - the power and glory of the human race. She is the mother, She is the heart, She is the untouched earth. She lives with us in Her miraculous icons, She is close to us, Her children. What is this cover spread over the world by the Mother of God? This is the glory of God that crowned the Ever-Virgin ascended into heaven, this is the Holy Spirit who descended on Her, this is the power of God descending into the world and sanctifying it. This is the salvation of the world and people by the grace of God, this is the dispersion and victory of the spirits of evil in heaven, not powerful to bear Her bright image, this is the salvation of sinners from enemies, this is the sanctification of the elements and all creation, this is heaven descending to earth. This is the Queen of heaven, the real citizen of the world, this is the Mother of God, the real mother of every Christian soul. This is the joy of creation, this is the joy of joy, the unbridled bride, this is the power of chastity, the virgin heart of creation, this is the bliss of love, inconceivable, inexpressible. If human eyes could see the light of the Mother of God in the world, they would clearly know the mysteriously taking place transformation of the world. If the tears of the most pure eyes ripened, the stiff-necked hearts would tremble and melt. There cannot be such a stony heart that it does not soften before this love, merciful for him: for anger - love, for sin - tears, for blasphemy - forgiveness, for enmity - blessing. But they don’t see, they don’t know, our eyes are closed for the time being. They will be revealed on the edge of this world and on the day of judgment. The world suffers, the created heart cries, the crucifying soul faints in abandonment to God on the cross. But the world is not left in its sorrow, man is not alone in sorrow. The mother’s heart is wounded and torn, and the Mother of God cries for us with us. The tearful prayer of the Most Pure One is with us and for us. Let us know whose heart we hurt with our sins, whose tears wash our falls. But let every creature know that it is not forgotten by the Mother, to Whom every human soul is close. What is greater than this consolation? The Russian land loved the day of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, revealed to a Slav in distant Constantinople. And not there, but in a distant land, at midnight they began to joyfully sing and bless the overshadowing of the world by the Mother of God. Our people bowed their souls to this wondrous phenomenon, churches were erected throughout the Russian land in the name of the Intercession of the Mother of God, and they bowed the knees of their hearts together with the kneeling Mother of God praying. Now, in their great sorrow, the Russian Orthodox people overshadow themselves with Her Protection. She shows Her love for the chosen people of this people, She showed them Her visage, Her feet sanctified our land for the sake of the saints of God. And now in troubles and sorrows, doesn’t She hear groans and sighs, doesn’t She listen to crying and sobbing? We believe and know that even today the Merciful One will come with prayer and weeping for the Russian fate. Will the Russian heart heed this cry of the Mother of God? Does Her know prayer and consolation? Does it know Her cover over the Russian land? Yes, he listens and knows when he bows in prayer before the Most Pure One. She did not leave the Russian land, although she was allowed satanic trials. With a quiet voice - in the appearance of Her miraculous Sovereign Icon - the Mother of God announced in the initial time of temptation that She is now the Lady and Queen of the Russian land and supports it in Her Dominion. She told the faithful heart that our land had been saved by Her Theotokos’ power, although the path of this salvation had not yet been revealed. She meets those who are now coming from great torment in the bosom of death and delights them with Her appearance. She makes wise her chosen ones, who are in great sorrow. She saves our land from destruction. She confirms Her martyrs and confessors. She admonishes the shepherds. She leads the Russian Church to great light. Let our spirit of wretchedness not be embarrassed by arrogance, She chose to reveal Her honest Cover to the wretched, She revealed Her glory to the holy fool. Now, as in the past, the joy of the Protection of the Mother of God and Her prayer for peace burns in the hearts of the faithful. Prayer is omnipotent. The Lord said: “Ask and it will be given to you.” And if the prayer of a sinful person works miracles, then the prayer of the Mother of God is omnipotent, with which the Holy Spirit herself prays, resting on Her. And if we believe that even today the Virgin stands in prayer, then we know that everything that happens to us is happening for good, and may the Mother of God implore us with great patience for the salvation of our souls. May the joy and light of the protection of the Mother of God shine over us and in us, in our hearts and in our country. Amen. The Russian Church and Russian piety deliberately loved this holiday. In it one sees an image of maternal love, care and affection in heaven, which are so dear and necessary to the Christian world, always, especially in our terrible times: how dear it is to know that in heaven the Mother of God herself is praying and crying for us. However, we always know this, and we constantly resort to her, to her prayer and intercession. The peculiarity of this holiday is that in its images a certain doctrinal truth is told to us, which is not contained in other celebrations. This day is the appearance of her covering, which is, as it were, her high priestly omophorion. He overshadows her head, and she overshadows the world with him. This is how this wondrous vision is described: The Mother of God appeared to the blessed one. Andrew and his disciple Epiphanius, accompanied by the Forerunner and the apostle. John, surrounded by many saints. She approached the pulpit (as it is related in the life of Blessed Andrew), “and as they looked, the Mother of God, bending her knees, prayed for a long hour, shedding tears on her God-like and most pure face. Having finished her prayer here, she went up to the altar and prayed here for the people ahead. At the end of the prayer, she took off the great and terrible veil that shone like lightning (maforium or omophorion), which she had on her most pure head, and, holding it with great solemnity with her most pure hands, spread it over all the standing people.” Doesn’t this appearance of the Mother of God’s omophorion testify to some kind of high priesthood? She shares it with the great High Priest Himself, His Son, Who with His sacrificial blood entered the heavenly sanctuary, sacrificing Himself. But if so, then what could the high priesthood of the Mother of God mean? How does she make her own sacrifice together and next to Christ? Obviously, she is not a sacrifice of blood, like that offered by her Son, but a sacrifice of tears. The Most Holy One remains in the world, standing at the cross even when the Son gives up the ghost, “purchasing by His blood eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). But it must be said about His Mother that she participates in His grief at Gethsemane and the cross, when “an instrument pierces her soul” (Luke 11:35). With sacrificial love she accepts the Son's passion on the cross as free, in obedience to the Son, with whom she, in her humility, agrees with the will of the Father. In her person, together with the God-man, all humanity, which was received from her by Christ, suffers and is redeemed together. She not only involuntarily participates in Christ’s sacrifice, being doomed to this, but she also freely determines herself to this, in accepting His ways. And when His blood flows from the pierced rib, it comes in tears of blood. Her presence on Golgotha, His standing at the cross is not just a random coincidence, which might not have happened, but it is necessary for the completeness of the sacrifice, and He could not remain on the cross alone and alone, only in the middle of two thieves, being abandoned by the Mother who gave Him her humanity. And if the Most Pure One said to the angel who preached the gospel to her: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word,” then this was said not only for that hour, but for all times of the Incarnation: not only about the conception of God, but also about the death from her of God incarnate. And the rank of the Mother of God thereby becomes the rank of the high priest, although it does not offer its own sacrifice, but His sacrifice, but nevertheless brings itself together with Him in it. And by the power of this high priestly service, she, together with the Son and following Him, puts on the omophorion according to the order of Melchizedek, which includes not only the high priesthood of Christ, but also the Mother of God. But the Great Priest with His sacrifice ascends from the cross into heaven with glory to sit there at the right hand of the Father. And this high-priestly glory of Him is communicated to her, for she too, after her dormition, ascends to heaven in glory, with which her omophorion, the heavenly co-high priest, shines. She “did not leave the world in her dormition,” but performs her intercession for us in heaven, sacrificing there her maternal love for sinful and suffering humanity, prayer and tears for peace. She overshadows him with her omophorion, gives him not only a maternal, but also a high priestly blessing. This is the dogmatic truth, which, if not understood in the mind, was felt in the heart by the God-loving people, but now the time has come to clearly realize it. In heaven, at the heavenly altar of the Lord, worship is performed, the sacrifice of the Lamb is offered, in the heaven of heaven, in the bosom of the Father, but also in created heaven it is performed by the human high priest, the Mother of God. But holy humanity also prays with her, following her and concelebrating with Him and with her. Such was the vision of the blessed. Andrew, and this is the revelation given to him. And for us, now sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, it contains great consolation and encouragement. For we are not alone - the Most Pure One herself prays for us and cries in her prayers, we are under her heavenly cover. And there is not only this visible sky, desecrated and darkened by the black wings of the instruments of death, with a deafening roar of Satan, but also the invisible sky, where the Most Pure One prays for us with her saints. “And every creature that is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and everything that is in them, I heard saying: To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever” (Rev. 5:13). Light Veil: Smart Sky There is a sky above us with blue and deep transparency; it is filled with countless stars, flaming lights. Only those who languish in caves and dungeons do not know heaven, those who shield themselves from its miraculous dome with the shelter of their hearth. In the vastness of the fields, on the mountain peaks, the sky opens to man, and then the stars light up in the soul and the rays they send penetrate into the heart. But there is also a spiritual sky, which opens in the transparency of the god-like immortal spirit. However, it is also unknown and invisible to us when transparency is covered with heavy black clouds swirling over our passionate nature. And only when that thick veil is torn, the deep blue sky appears to us, with the eternal luminaries kindled in it. Those whose soul is purified and the air in it is clear, see and know this heaven, which is mockingly and viciously rejected by people with clouded souls and frozen hearts. The ascent is long and winding and its feat difficult, but those who have risen to the heights see the sunrise and its majestic sunset, the luminaries are close in the mountain air, and, descending from the peaks of the ascents, they tell us about what they saw at the heights. So Moses, the seer of God, on his illuminated brow brought the glory of God along with the teaching of the commandments of the Lord. One of such intelligent visions, which are accessible to the pure and holy soul of an ascetic, has been captured for believers today by the Holy Church. To Saint Andrew the Fool in the church, during prayer, during the all-night vigil, the heavens opened, and he saw the Mother of God praying for people and extending her bright veil over the sinful world and falling man. This vision was also a vision. His disciple Epiphanius, who became familiar with the spiritual glory of the monk, was also given the opportunity to see him. And the holy Church testified to us the unattractive truthfulness of this vision, establishing a solemn celebration of the great event in the lives of believers. When the Mother of God left the earth to her Son and the heavens that received her closed, the Christians, without any special revelations or deliberate testimonies, comprehended with their hearts who they now had in heaven - the highest of all creatures, the most glorious seraphim without comparison, but also the closest to the human race, truly the Daughter of man, but at the same time the universal Mother. For the Mother of the God-Man and All-Man, the new Adam, is also the mother of all humanity, and the maternal heart pierced by a weapon, which has experienced all human sorrow, which has experienced Calvary, hears every prayer and feels every sorrow. There are no words to express the greatness and height of this Mother, but also her closeness and accessibility to the human creature. Therefore, unanimously, in sacred delight, the Holy Church sang a prayer to the Mother of God: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us!” There is no closer to God from the entire created world of the Mother of God. She led the entire human race - a mysterious ladder of ascent from the lower to the higher. She intercedes for all humanity, she brings a prayer for all those who call on her - the leading and the ignorant. It is noteworthy that all veneration of the Mother of God arose not from the written word, but from the revelations of a loving heart and its direct evidence. The entire teaching about it was woven from a cloud of prayerful incense, as a reproach to those petrified hearts that do not want to believe if they do not see written evidence. But the Mother of God herself gave the confirmation of herself that is necessary for a loving and believing heart. She showed herself praying for her people with tears and spreading her veil over them, covering everyone with the veil of her head. This is the vision of Rev. Andrew, therefore, was a dogmatic event in the church consciousness. For the first time after the Assumption, the life of the Mother of God was revealed after her ascension to heaven, a life of love, prayer and vigil. Raise your heads higher, praying to the Mother of God, for she hears your prayers and makes them her all-powerful prayer. She prays incessantly - not for herself, for what does she have to pray for in her glory, but for us. Her most pure face is watered with tears - not for herself, for what can she shed tears about in her heavenly joy, but for us, the sorrowful, the weak, the unfortunate. She overshadows and protects us with her cover; above this sky stretches her Mother of God sky, her bright cover. She extended her veil, which covered her sacred head and fell over her shoulders, over the world, like a bishop’s omophorion, a symbol of the power of prayerful love and supreme power. Leave fear, you faint-hearted, throw away despondency, you who are despondent, you are under her cover, you are under her protection! May hearts rejoice with the joy of the Mother of God. This joy now lights up our cold heart in the church at the joyful sounds of sacred chants. But let us think about what is happening in heaven and what we do not see, but what the Church sees and knows through the Holy Spirit. If each of us had his eyes opened, like Blessed Andrew’s, and he would see and be horrified with his spiritual eyes, what joy, what jubilation our hearts would be filled with, what a cry of joy this church would resound! But there is no need to tempt God and demand signs even with our thoughts, for even without this we have no less certainty than direct vision. And, not in vain with our eyes, but believing with our hearts, may we join in the joy of the Intercession of the Mother of God and, being in its shadow, cry out: Rejoice, our joy! Accept us too under the shadow of your omophorion! The memorable event took place in Constantinople in the Blachernae Church, in the Byzantine Empire, at the beginning of the tenth century, but its celebration, which was not retained by the Greek people, was received with some special prayerful delight by the distant northern people, who were then still in paganism. For the Russian people, the Day of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary has become one of the most revered holidays. The living feeling of the Intercession has become especially dear to the Russian soul. Rev.'s vision Andrei became especially desirable for the Russian people, and he, having loved this vision, expressed and expresses his love with a joyful and solemn celebration of this event. There are no accidents or whims in the spiritual realm. The cover of the Mother of God is spread over the whole world, but it is known and felt with varying strength, and the Russian Orthodox people were given the opportunity to see it with spiritual eyes. And, obeying this unaccountable call of his heart, he began to build churches consecrated in the memory of this event, and his image became one of his favorite icons. That's how it was. Is there now? This question burns and torments the Russian heart. Has the spiritual heaven been preserved for us, which is now closed from us by bloody fumes, poisonous miasmas, the stench of corpses and the fumes of blasphemy in which we are suffocating? If we do not see the luminous cover, does this mean that it does not extend above us? Let us not succumb to the intimidation of evil forces! Let this blasphemy be far from us! Our Lady is where human grief and suffering are. She sheds tears, praying for a sinful world. She sheds tears over sinful Russia. And if we are plunged into the immense abyss of grief and trials, the closer her prayers are to us, the denser her ray cover is spread. The Mother of God will not leave the Russian people at their cross, on their Golgotha. And let this cowardly thought be far from us that the entire Russian people have become victims of evil spells. No, and now, as in ancient times, the miraculous appearance of St. Andrew, and now the mental sky opens to a pure heart, and, washed with tears and purified by suffering, it listens to the Mother of God’s prayer. Let us entrust ourselves to her prayer, let us protect ourselves with her bright cover! The darkness has already trembled before the unfading light, the light fights and defeats the darkness! The celebration of the day of Archangel Michael and all the holy angels - our heavenly guardians, representatives and patrons has arrived. We pray to them again, may they protect us with their prayers and cover us with the shelter of their wings. Again we confess our faith in the holy inhabitants of heaven, standing at the throne of the Lord, servants of God, protecting the world and all creation in it, in this life and in the future. Now we deliberately confess our faith that the holy angels arrange the earthly destinies of peoples according to the will of God, in war and peace, in joy and sorrow, in the collapse of kingdoms and the destruction of nations, as well as in their salvation. We believe that in these days of disasters and trials we are not abandoned by their help, and the angelic armies fight for us and with us, the powers of heaven with the powers under heaven, and there, in heaven, the earthly destinies of peoples are determined. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and his angels fought against them” (Rev. 7:7). The war happened once, but it is still happening. It is unknown to whom and how and in what way help and victory are given in heaven, only we humans are not left alone in our earthly destinies, which, even if they are decided on earth, are not done by human forces alone. Such a thought gives peace of mind regarding what is happening in the world, even if its current fate and upcoming achievements remain unclear to us. “And at that time Michael will rise up, the great prince who stands for the sons of your people,” as it was announced to the prophet Daniel about Israel about all nations, “and a time of trouble will come, such as has not happened since people existed until this time. But at that time all of your people who are found written in the book will be saved” (Dan.12:1). We do not know to what time the foreshadowed here refers, whether to ours or to another, distant from us, but the early achievements are similar to it and prefigure the later ones. But whatever they are, these prophetic insights also apply to us: Michael the Archangel with the other holy angels watches first of all over the destinies of his people, and then of all people, and therefore even now let our hearts not be troubled. These are the revelations about the angelic world that are given to us in the Word of God and proclaimed by the Church. We listen to them with some consolation, but also with considerable embarrassment. We perceive them as if only with our minds, powerlessly and coldly. They sound abstract to us and do not enter our hearts, and in life they are so easily forgotten - and if not always and not by everyone, then often by many. In confusion and some shame, in the consciousness of our sin, we appear before our guardian angel and all the holy angels on the day of their prayerful memory. But why is this so and why? Are we not strong enough to overcome the exhaustion of faith, to break through the dark region of the spirits of wickedness in high places to the light of heaven? But help is sent to those who seek it, and strength is given to those who ask. Our grief lies in the fact that we live with earthly feelings and thoughts, but are called to carry heaven within us and spiritually perceive the heavenly powers in it. In our worldliness and spiritual decline, we are not able to celebrate the day of the holy angels with our hearts, we do not perceive their approach, along with the strength and strengthening that we expect from it. What to do and how to help yourself in this decline. And can we help ourselves? But if we ourselves cannot do this, then may they, the holy angels, help us, to whom we lift our spiritual eyes with a prayer for help. However, this will not happen without us ourselves, without our will and effort. This must be desired, thirsted for and hungered for the spiritual world. You need to yearn for him, and not be fed up with the satiety of this world. In response only to this insatiability, the Lord gives His promise: “They will be satisfied.” Love for angels is kindled by the heartfelt thought of them, comprehension of their nature, and prayer to them. Most people do not have leisure for this, just as they do not have divine wisdom; they consider it unnecessary for piety. But is it really possible that in all the wealth of thoughts and revelations that are given by the Church about angels, there is not at least one thought that will make the heart tremble and boil, as if remembering that heavenly world from where we came to earth? Wouldn't it be the thought of a guardian angel who does not leave you even when you leave him and forget? Wouldn't this be a thought about the angelic praises, which the Church proclaims in psalms and hymns? Will we not awaken through contemplation of the beauty of the world, in the transparency of which angelic wings are seen? Or through shock from the formidable forces of nature, cowardice, flood, the horrors of war, for in them too the action of God’s servants is invisibly and incomprehensibly manifested? Let us seek the closeness of angels and the power of prayer. Our prayer can not only be poor, dry and scattered, but also selfish. Through it we seek our own, we want the fulfillment of our will, the satisfaction of our needs. Let our petitions for earthly and human things not be condemned - “Ask and it will be given to you,” but there may be another way of prayer, with a passage to angelic prayer, praise, glorification and love, their inspiration. That is, love is not worldly, but heavenly, it calls and leads us to the Sun of Love, to the throne of the Trinitarian God. On this celebration of the angels, let our hearts move towards them and hear their response in the spirit. Holy Archangel Michael with all the holy angels! Help people who are suffering, let them know you, teach them to pray, so that we can shake off the fear of our life, and let it be strengthened by faith and hope! Visit us in our earthly needs and troubles, but also illuminate our hearts with heavenly light! Before conception, Pure One, you were sanctified to God, and having been born on earth, the gift was now offered to Him, fulfilling your fatherly promise, in the divine church, as a real divine church. (Sedalen in the 2nd verse) Today the church is animated and the great King enters the church, He is prepared for a heavenly dwelling: people rejoice. In these words St. explains. Church event of the Entry of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the church. St. told us nothing about him himself. Gospel. But through St. We learn from tradition that the Most Pure One, as a three-year-old youth, was brought to the church by her parents, in fulfillment of the promise they made at Her conception, accompanied by virgins with candles in their solemn procession. She was met at the entrance to the church by the high priest Zacharias, who, unconsciously obeying the command of God, led Her into the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest had access, and once a year with cleansing blood. The Virgin Mary remained in the church, being in the communion of angels, until the time of her betrothal to the righteous Joseph. “Then Gabriel was sent quickly to You, All-Immaculate One, bringing You food, the whole Heavenly One was amazed, seeing the Holy Spirit descend into You” (verse). Understanding the meaning and power of the event, we ask ourselves what in it constitutes the reason for the church celebration as one of the twelve holidays? in what way is it fundamental in the construction of our salvation? First of all, the Entry into the Church has a preparatory meaning in the life of the Holy Virgin herself - in a life entirely aimed at the one greatest service - to accommodate the Mother of God. “Sanctified before conception,” sanctified “by the Holy Spirit indwelling her,” the Most Pure One had to separate from the filth of the sinful world and its corruption and approach the angelic world to communicate with it. It was inappropriate for Her to remain among the corrupt world, and only a consecrated church was worthy to become Her dwelling. The introduction into the church, as a withdrawal from the world for the sake of angelic communication and repose in God, is an image of monastic initiation, the acceptance by the First Nuns of an angelic image, which She, as the Mother of God, however, had to surpass, for She appeared as both the most honest cherub and the most glorious without comparison seraphim. On her earthly path, She consecrated with Herself the image of monastic standing before God, which in the hiddenness of the heart is equally necessary and can become accessible to varying degrees to every Christian, both monk and non-monk. This event, further, has force for the entire Old Testament Church, and in it for the entire human race. The Old Testament church was the only God-bearing place on earth, like the “tabernacle of testimony,” the house of God. Here man was given the opportunity to have a meeting with the Divine. The glory of God filled the tabernacle and Solomon's temple at the dedication, and the Holy of Holies contained the ark of the covenant, overshadowed by the wings of cherubim, where the voice of God was heard (Num. 7:89). However, the church, foreshadowed by God in all the details of its structure, represented only a representative preview of the coming theophany in the world, as “an image of the present time” (Heb. 9:9). Man himself was destined to become the true place of the indwelling of God, the church of God, and this sacred church, containing the Inconceivable One, appeared to the Virgin Mary in the Mother of God birth of Her Son. The ancient Old Testament church is abolished with the appearance of the animate church, but this abolition does not mean abolition, but the fulfillment of the prototype in the appeared Image: “in the church of God the Virgin clearly appears and proclaims Christ to everyone.” The Virgin herself is the church within the church, its true Holy of Holies, God's animated ark. The appearance of the Virgin in the church is therefore the end and fulfillment of the Old Testament, for the entire life of the Old Testament Church was determined by the preparation of the Most Holy Virgin, and the church itself, together with the law and sacrifices, was one of the grace-filled means of education given by God for the sake of this preparation. The introduction of the Most Holy Theotokos into the church therefore marks the boundary of both covenants, Old and New, for, in fulfilling it, it completes the first and opens the last. The Virgin entering the church is herself prepared for a heavenly dwelling; in Her a place on earth is found where heaven can bow. But, raising our thoughts to what is above, let us not forget what is below. The Most Holy Virgin, the church of the Divine, was and remains truly human with all the properties of human nature, although without personal sinfulness. And Her service was also human, and Her heavenly heights were achieved through the sacrificial path, which for all, as the only one, was indicated by Her Son. And in this Her dedication to the church, She made the first sacrifice - daughterly love, which corresponded to the sacrifice of parental love. The introduction of the Virgin into the church was also a farewell to her elderly parents, who, according to legend, died before Her departure from the church to betrothal to Joseph. Here the image of love for God is revealed to both the Daughter and the parents, and he himself must speak to the heart of every Christian. Entering the church, the Most Holy Virgin brought into it Her pure and holy childhood, and to Her childhood She calls, first of all, all childhood into the church. This call addresses the entire Christian world and, of course, our Russian childhood. He again awakens in the Russian conscience a sense of responsibility and concern for the Christian education of our children. But the Virgin in the church calls to the church not only children, but also everyone who honors Her, but is there a Christian soul that does not honor the Most Pure One? And not only to enter the church for prayer, but also to protect and sanctify our entire life, we are called by the meaning of this day’s celebration. Many virgins with lights of faith escorted the Virgin to Her sacred home, and throughout the centuries and peoples all of Christianity joins this procession, for Christian life is this constant procession to the church and entry into it. Russian people, living in dispersion, children and youths, youths and young women, men and elders, heed the call of the Mother of God, gather from the dispersion to the church, to our true home. The Virgin Mary is in the church, and may Russian hearts hear Her call! Ascension to Christ: On the Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary In its grace-filled silence, the celebration of entering the Church of the Ever-Virgin is approaching. This event is marked in the Gospel only by significant silence, as if it never happened. We are not surprised at this, for we already know with what sacred silence the mystery of “the humility of the servant of the Lord” is surrounded, and we humble ourselves in advance in obedience to it, no matter how the searching thought and loving heart ask for at least a little about it. It is given, sparingly, only by church tradition. And this sacred silence does not impoverish, but enriches the soul, it fills it with a feeling of the inexpressibility and indescribability of the solemn ascent of the Ever-Virgin to Mount Zion, into the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Jerusalem, and from this spiritual fullness the heart rejoices. Without the testimony of the Gospel, we are prophetically called upon with spiritual eyes to contemplate this heavenly ascension, in which the Virgin Mary is accompanied by the Old Testament Church and greeted by the faces of angels by the New Testament Church, for the Ever-Virgin herself is this covenant of God with people - old and new and eternal, and the high priest, according to the order of Abraham, transfers the received treasure to the one coming into the world High Priest, according to the order of Melchizedek. But how difficult it is to perceive what is hidden in this silence! - to perceive not idlely and inactively, but with a creative effort. And how inconspicuously absent-mindedness and emptiness creep into its place. How easily the silence in souls is frightened by the thunder of war and the clamor of external events, and in the souls, along with fear, care reigns with the many difficulties of the day, with all its tenacity. And the day of the holiday turns out to be a weekday. The church is empty, how many, against their will, are deprived of even that which requires only the least effort - participation in the liturgical celebration of this Mother of God day, which is already illuminated by the first lights of the coming Nativity of Christ: “Christ is born, glorify!” And on this day the gloomy “no time” or “no time” overtakes us, and attending a divine service becomes for many an unaffordable luxury. Isn’t this external powerlessness replaced by internal powerlessness? And non-presence is oblivion? Is silence a waste of the soul? It is no longer given to us to accompany the Mother of God ascending into the church. This is how the victory of the prince of this world is achieved! May this victory be snatched from him by spiritual joy, which does not fly away, but, in spite of everything, is miraculously given to a sensitive heart both in the days of world war and in the midst of the world marketplace. For “the spirit breathes where it wishes, and you hear its voice, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8). The image of the procession to the church of the God-chosen Virgin stands before us and calls us to ourselves and to follow us. Where and why is this call? – From the world to God! The Young Lady ascending to the church leaves the world with all its blessings in order to surrender to a life other than in the world. And this otherness is her monasticism - first with her stay in the church, and then outside it... What can each of us hear for ourselves in this call? We do not dare to claim the completeness and sublimity of this feat, but there is no other way to God. It is by no means only monastic service, but necessarily embraces every dedication of oneself to God in secrecy, for the first commandment of Christ about love is addressed to everyone: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37). The light of this love for God burns in the human heart, and with it we are called, together and following the Ever-Virgin, to make our own ascent. It burns within us with an uneven light, now flaring up, now fading. In our freedom we have the power to devote ourselves to God, but we can also withdraw into ourselves, surrender to the world and become dead in it. The world does not easily give up what it takes possession of. Therefore, a spiritual struggle always occurs in a person for his Holy of Holies, and we are called to it with all our strength, with all our irreconcilability. This should be our vital participation in the presently celebrated event. Not only co-rejoicing, but also co-asceticism. For the Mother of God, ascending the steps into the church, also ascended to her feat on the cross. And the forces of the world cannot deprive us of this freedom in choosing our own path with their violence if we do not surrender to it spiritually. The Mother of God’s ascent from the world is answered by the Divine descent to the world. There is a meeting between God and man, a divine-human union is established. The entry into the church of the Ever-Virgin is not just one of a series of events in her life, but it takes place outside of time, as an emergence from darkness, the rooting of creation in God. It contains the great shrine of human childhood with all the possibilities and hopes hidden in it. From the depths of the past, from the fence of the Garden of Eden, which is hidden from the primordial man after his fall, the path of ascent to the Holy of Holies leads to the Cave of Bethlehem, the place of the Birth of God. It ends with the promised future church on Mount Zion and “holy Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Rev. 21:10). But humanity must first begin its ascent to God, so that He responds with His descent to him. This anticipation took place in the Mother of God, introduced into the Holy of Holies by the Old Testament high priest and having the capacity to contain the Incontainable One in her “most spacious womb of heaven.” The Creator asked His creation, which answered Him not with a word, but with a movement, in sacred silence. This image of the most holy childhood, dedicated to God, in all its defenselessness, but at the same time irresistible, seizes the heart with sweet power. To renounce him, to betray him in oblivion or blindness would mean to deprive oneself of the shrine and one’s own childhood, which, in addition to consciousness, is stored in the depths of the soul. And this shrine of our own soul is connected mysteriously and inexpressibly with the knowledge that now “in the church of God the Virgin clearly appears and announces Christ to everyone.” Let's try to respond with a reciprocal effort to this call of the holiday, sounding in our soul. Let us be moved by thought and will, let us sanctify ourselves through prayer, let us be inflamed with love for the One who ascends through the earthly church into the heavenly one and brings us with her. Let not our immobility, which inevitably becomes resistance, but the effort towards spiritual ascent be the response of our soul. Amen. Entering the Church with the Blessed Virgin Mary What does the Church celebrate as the Entry into the Church of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God, what is the power and meaning of this celebration? First of all, here we remember her dedication to God through her entry into the Church, and through that her first consecration. Her parents, the holy and righteous Joachim and Anna, whom the Church calls “godfathers,” seem to return to God the child given to them in their old age by the miraculous grace of God, sacrificing to Him their only and dearest. Instead of the sacrifices under the law, the blood of lambs and calves, here is brought to the Church the one in which all the power and fruit of the Old Testament holiness and piety were manifested. For this reason, God made a covenant with his chosen people. At the same time, here the highest sacrifice of parental and daughterly love is offered to God, and thus, truly, the fulfillment of the law and the prophets is accomplished. And a girl of infancy is not infancy in spirit. She freely does what she is called to do - the servant of the Lord. She renounces the world and all the sweetness of parental love, the consolations of the family hearth. She wants from now on to belong to God and, in commemoration of this, she is introduced into the Church made by hands, through which she herself will become a church not made by hands, the Mother of God, appearing as the human gate for the entry of the heavenly - the incarnation. It is called to become the Church of the Church through sanctification by the Holy Spirit, and in it and through it the whole universe is sanctified and appears as the focus of the city of God, which is so described by the seer: “But I saw no church in it, for the Lord God Almighty and His church and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22). And all this - the beginning and end of the construction of our salvation - is predetermined and concluded in this heavenly entry into the Church of the Virgin Mary, who, obeying the unaccountable command of the Holy Spirit, surpassing the Old Testament church law, and even contrary to it, is introduced into the Holy of Holies by the High Priest, thereby testifying to the beginning of the New Testament, to the approach of the Kingdom of God. Just as straight lines lead from any point on a circle to its middle, so each holiday, testifying to the Incarnation, in its own way contains its entire integrity, teaches about the joyful truth of our faith, is its triumph. But not only the doctrine is contained in the holiday, but also prophecy with special prayerful inspiration, and we are called to reveal and implement it in ourselves. And it applies to our entire life, in its past, present and future. First of all, with grateful memory of the past, we contemplate with spiritual eyes how in the procession to the Church of the Virgin Mary, together with and after her, a great multitude descended and were brought into it, thousands of people from all tribes and languages, among them from our native people, starting from the time it was called and illuminated by the light of the Christian faith. The path to it also leads through the Old Testament Church, into which God’s chosen girl entered and consecrated it: this is the universal church holiday of Old Testament piety. A Christian who reflects on the truths of his faith should therefore carry in his heart a grateful memory of the Temple of Jerusalem as the prayer center of the world. Therefore, the prayer of this holiday should also include a prayer appeal to God for help in troubles and for the salvation of the people whose forefathers created this Church. Let our prayerful love be directed to the present, to those who are even now called to participate in the procession to the church. If, due to blessed faults, they are now absent from it, may the Most Pure Mother of God herself help them and lead them along with them. Such is modern humanity, which to this day in a huge part has not yet been enlightened by the light of the Christian faith, or - to our sorrow - has lost it, rejected it, or has been forcibly devastated. Here both our thought and concern turn primarily to our people, and deliberately to Russian youth at home and in exile. This day is revered as the holiday of the youthful Movement to Christ, the conversion of minds and hearts to the Christian faith. Here, in exile, it initially showed bright hopes. Nowadays they have already faded from the corrupting influences of our time, its temptations and temptations. However, our main prayer relates to the countless victims of spiritual persecution of faith that took place in our homeland. Childhood and youth are spiritually devastated by him, deprived of sacred things, because they do not know it. They languish in the darkness of paganism and yearn for light. May the Schoolmaster of God herself help them and us in this, may she call and lead them with her to her holy church, may the spiritual Christian revival of the Russian land be accomplished. Let our prayer ascend about this, with the prophetic hope of the future and the clairvoyance of the present, for we believe that the calling of God, like the gifts of God, have remained immutable. Knowing this now is for us a deliberate duty and a feat of faith tested in temptations. Since ancient times, our people have carried within themselves a calling to holiness, and may they show the world holy Rus', preaching the Gospel to them along with other Christian peoples and confessions. From the thought of our people in their bitterness, we turn to these other Christian languages, although separated from us by different confessions, but united in love for Christ and the Mother of God. May the Most Pure One heal church schisms and unite Christian confessions in a single procession following Her. Further, the thought turns to all humanity, to peoples who still do not know Christ, who do not know the Church of the Old Testament and the New Testament, who languish in darkness and the shadow of death. When the hour of their conversion comes and they are called, the Most Pure One will lead them with her to the Church of the Lord, such is our hope. Let us not close or harden our hearts to them, for the word of Christ is addressed to us in the person of the apostles: “Go, all of you, learn languages!” Finally, there still remains a special call and deliberate prophecy of the holiday, which is superior in strength and significance even to it - this is a prayer for overcoming bitterness and for the salvation of “all Israel” in the “little remnant”, as it was immutably promised by the great Apostle of the Gentiles (Rom. 9:9). The Most Holy Daughter of Israel was accompanied by other daughters on her procession to the Temple of Jerusalem, and the High Priest of the Old Testament officiated at her. The Old Testament Church met the one through whom “the light and revelation of tongues and the glory of Your people Israel” appeared to the world - Christ, but she brought Him her best gifts, which she had prepared over many centuries of her existence: Godfathers, God-receivers, the Forerunner of Christ, as well as those who were chosen and called to become chief apostles and equal-to-the-apostles. The Old Testament merged into the New and was transformed in it. And yet, on the paths that followed, the most terrible event in the history of the world took place - Israel did not accept Christ, was torn away from Him, and to this day remains in ignorance, bitterness and blindness. The procession to the Church, following and together with the Most Pure One, remains interrupted for him to this day. However, the great apostle prophesied, “that bitterness has come to pass in Israel until the full number of the Gentiles is come in” (Rom. 11:25), “for the gifts and election of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29). And if such is the prophecy, then there should be prayerful hope for it, precisely in the face of what is now happening in the world. Christians should know and believe that the celebration of the entry of the Mother of God into the Church will one day become universal and will be accomplished in its entirety, through her prayer and guidance. This is the commandment of faith, prophetically given to the contemplation of this day, no matter how it may seem contrary to modern times. “Faith is the revelation of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). It confirms us in fidelity, in the firmness of Christian hope, in spiritual courage. May the Most Pure One not reject us now, and may she not, due to our unworthiness, separate us from the number of those who enter with her and behind her into the Church of the Lord, in the bright joy of the feast of her entry. Amen. And the Word became flesh: The Word for the days of the Nativity of Christ ...the Son of Man who came down from heaven, who is in heaven. Genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. Jesus was, as they thought, the son of Joseph... David... Abraham... Adam, The star of Bethlehem rises in the spiritual sky. She announces “great joy that will be to all people” (Luke 2:10), and with a reciprocal trembling of the heart we listen to the heavenly gospel. We hear it with our inner hearing, it is fulfilled in ourselves. Peace and goodwill descend from above into our souls, torn and confused. We bring ourselves, in our weaknesses and sorrows, to the manger of the born Baby, and we hope that He will not reject us, we believe in Him alone, we love Him, and now we again approach the mystery of the Incarnation. Christ is born into the world. May He be born in us, in our hearts, hopes, throughout our entire lives... The Son of God became the Son of Man. How could this happen? The Son of God does not know an earthly father; He took on humanity from His Mother, the Virgin Mary. His incarnation is prepared by her coming into the world; it combines two events: the conception of the Son of God from the Virgin Mary is preceded by her conception from the holy God-fathers. Both celebrations in the current (1940) year seem to look like one another: the pre-festive Sunday days are dedicated to the memory of the conception of the Mother of God from Righteous Anna and the holy forefathers and fathers of Christ, as a single accomplishment, separately glorified. The incarnation of the Son of God is His acceptance of human nature, not in any limitation, but in its integrity. He perceived the fullness of humanity, from which no one is excluded, in which we are all co-humans with the “Son of Man.” No other name is applied to himself by Christ in the Gospel more often than this name “Son of Man.” He is our half-brother, for “of one blood God made the whole race of man to dwell upon the face of the earth, having appointed predetermined times and the limits of their habitation” (Acts 17:26). One humanity is not a random and disorderly combination of individual units, but an integral body consisting of many members. Each person, like the people, is given his own purpose, a predetermined place and time, but everyone finds themselves and their fulfillment in Jesus, in whom “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11). The Son of Man, in his incarnation, together with his flesh, accepts times and seasons for his earthly life. St. testifies to this. The Gospel in the genealogies of Christ as the son of Abraham, the son of David. And this series of ancestors, confined to the chosen people of God, connects Him in earthly origin and with the entire human race, from its very creation (Luke 3:38). Such election is a direct work of God, to which we must bend our minds and will. But not only the Gospel genealogies, but the entire Old Testament, directly or indirectly, tell us about His earthly ancestors; all of it is, in this sense, a widespread genealogy of Christ. Rebellion against it inevitably leads to the rejection of the Bible with all the revealed content of not only the Old Testament, but also the New. However, believing in the truth of the Word of God, we are called to comprehend it in life, in all its richness and complexity. The Old Testament, representing the basis for the New, is not rejected, but is fulfilled by the latter, freed from limitations and conventions. And, first of all, we ask ourselves: is the genealogy limited only to the chain of God-fathers named in it and does it mean the human belonging of Christ to only one people in its limitations and falls, about which the prophets never cease to lament in their denunciations? Is election merely an arbitrary and biased selection of one people from all humanity, or is it a difficult and responsible service? The Lord has given a clear answer to this. When His earthly relatives, “Mother and brothers,” came to Him to see Him, this was His answer: “Whoever does the will of My Father is My brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). He seemed to abolish earthly genealogy, since it is based only on the unity of blood, and not spirit. Therefore, it is natural that some of His relatives by blood appeared to be those whose broadcasts went throughout the entire earth, to all ends of the universe, while others rejected Christ and His Church, as they still do today. We hope that the Lord is long-suffering and abounding in mercy, and He does not err in His choices. He announces through the apostle of tongues (Rom. chapters 9-11) about the coming conversion of his people, before which His glorious coming will not take place. But not one, but all peoples are chosen and called to the Kingdom of God, they are brothers in Christ, and are thereby included in the book of His kinship, which in its power extends to all generations, both before and after the Nativity of Christ, until the very end of the age. In the face of the universal brotherhood in Christ, all people are called to the “honor of the high calling.” “Go and learn all languages,” this is how the Lord sends His disciples to preach. There is an earthly difference of blood and peoples; it is now even affirmed as the basis of human life. But it must be overcome by unity in Christ, which everyone is called to realize. The Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ therefore teaches us about human brotherhood and the equality of all before God. His revelation requires from us a special feat of faith in what we now exclusively need, faith in the victory of the Kingdom of God in the world, despite the apparent evidence to the contrary. It is as if the victory of the prince of this world with his cunning and power is being achieved. But in heaven a voice proclaims to the world: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and he will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). “Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ” (Rev. 12:10). We do not see this, but we are called to comprehend by faith the unseen and hoped for, in spite of transitory and false appearances. We do not know when and how the Kingdom of Christ will open on earth. On the contrary, we are told about the onset of difficult trials in its anticipation, as a test of our loyalty. At the same time it is said: “Rejoice, the heavens and those who dwell in them, but woe to those who live on the earth and on the sea” (Rev. 13:12). We accept with humility the destinies of God, for they will appear as salvation for the world. The ways of Providence are unknown to us, but they are known to Christ, the King of the world. For us, the Lord’s prayer remains unchanged: “Thy Kingdom come!” “And the Word became flesh.” Everything human irrevocably belongs to Christ, the God-Man-King. And to Him we dedicate love and inspiration, the creativity of life with the boldness of faith, the joy of hope and praise of glorification. Christ is born, praise! Amen. The sky is a nativity scene*: A Word for the Nativity of Christ “God is loving” (John 3:16). With His love, God called this world out of the darkness of insignificance and imprinted His image on it in man. He called Him to be His friend and to enter into the joy of His love. God gave him the whole world and He came to talk to him in Eden. Man had to respond with love to enter into his glory, and God gave man a commandment to show love for Him. But man did not know his Lord, having heeded the flattery of the tempter, and showed weakness, betrayal and falling away. He wanted to become a god without the help of his Creator; he hoped to receive divine power from eating the fruit. Man rejected life in God and thereby lost himself, his glory, his integrity, his royalty. The forces of the world rose up within him and outside him and around him, he became a weak prisoner of his body, guilty of death. And the mortal disease spread with irresistible force throughout the human race and throughout creation. The man found himself expelled from paradise. The heavenly lights turn pale and go out, and a thickening darkness descends over the world. There is no escape. Although the world is cleansed by the flood and the filth of sin is washed away by its waters, it again covers the earth. Will the Creator destroy the sinful world by His power? or will he leave it to decompose on its own? Will the world remain the property of the seducer, the prince of this world, who stole God’s creation from the Lord? But the Lord did not create the world and man for destruction, and He did not fear his weakness, nor forsake him in his sin. When creating the world, the Lord, in His eternal counsel, foresaw its fall; at its creation, He already outlined the paths of salvation. “God so loved the world that He also gave His only begotten Son to eat” (John 3:16). Creating the world in the name of love with His omnipotence, God saves it, completes its creation with love, the sacrificial power of love, the power of sacrifice on the cross. God called the world and man from the emptiness of non-existence, from the darkness of nothingness, so that the Divine himself, in order to save man, would descend to this nothingness: the eternal, all-blessed God to become flesh, to become human, to bear human weakness, except for sin, to save the world from sin, to experience all the torment of sin, all the power of weakness, to accept all the burden of world sorrow and defeat evil in Himself and By yourself, for the salvation of the world and man, for their new creation through the power of sacrifice, the Cross. The Lord in His omnipotence can create and destroy worlds, and our world was called out of non-existence by His omnipotence. But to save the fallen world, to establish it in divine life, to eternally defeat the weakness of existence and give it the power of eternal life - this is the work of God’s self-denying love. The Son of God, the Word, by whom all things were, creating the earth with His word, creates in it for Himself the Bethlehem den and Golgotha. Creating plants, in them He creates for Himself both the thorn and the tree of the cross - cedar and pine and cypress. By creating man, He creates for Himself a body for torment, and at the same time His future tormentors. The creation of the world by the Word already carried within itself the destiny of God’s sacrifice on the cross. God's love for creation is immeasurable and incomprehensible, it surpasses all thought. What else can the mind come up with? What remains to be sacrificed that would not have been sacrificed? God leaves His all-bliss and unites Himself with the world. The Son of God, the Creator, gives Himself to boundless suffering and death itself, drinks the bitterest cup of world suffering together with His Mother. The Father gives the Only Begotten Beloved Son, the Holy Spirit sanctifies this Father’s and Son’s sacrifice with His sacrificial love. And this immeasurable, incomprehensible sacrifice is a gift of infinite love, for the world is not needed for God in the fullness of His life. The world is created by God in His free love for creation. God is looking for a friend in man to introduce him to His love, and for the sake of this connection He makes His sacrifice of love. God not only creates man, but He Himself unites with creation and becomes man. God becomes human, uniting His Divinity with humanity with an incomprehensible and inextricable connection. Heaven is combined with earth, “The King of Heaven appears on earth for his love for mankind,” “The Most Essential is born like a child.” The Nativity of Christ is a new creation of man not by omnipotence, but by sacrificial love. God incarnates in free self-exhaustion, “taking on the form of a slave.” He hides His divine power and freely limits it to human measure, to the extent that human weakness can bear it. He overcomes this weakness from within, without destroying human nature, and, being a true God, remains a true man. And this is now born as a child in Bethlehem of Galilee from the Virgin Mary. The Lord enters the world in the deepest human humility, in poverty and wretchedness. He has no shelter under human shelter; in the cold of a winter night, the cave and the manger warm Him, and the world does not know about the completed mystery of the Birth of God. We are shocked and at the same time amazed by this image of humility, but it is the only image of true greatness. What can our world give that pleases Him? What will be offered to Him as a worthy place for His birth? Are the Babylonian cities their own, drowning in sins and corruption? Are the gilded chambers, created by violence and selfishness, our own? Is it your own wealth and luxury, bought through death and suffering? Is it their nobility and pomp, with their vain pride? How petty everything human is, sinful, unworthy and insignificant before the holiness of this birth. What an insignificant grain of sand is every human pedestal for approaching heaven! The Lord silently put aside every human claim to approach His inaccessibility and took nothing for His greatness. He also wanted, in the image of His birth, to secretly reveal the meaning of His coming into the world. The Lord chose for Himself in the world only that which remained purest from the defilement of sin. Of all the kingdoms of the world and its countries, the land of Judah was chosen, a royal inheritance in the promised land, consecrated by the church and worship, chosen by God for the settlement of the chosen people; the prophets proclaimed about this land and the city of Bethlehem, which was completely insignificant for the world. The cave - it was wretched in human eyes, but it was pure from human sin, for people did not live in it. The Lord, who had no shelter on earth, also at His Nativity withdrew from all habitation. The starry firmament above the nativity scene is more worthy of beholding its Creator than any human roof. The ox and the donkey at the manger, the animals who suffer with man for man’s sake, in their ignorance of sin have departed less from their original purpose than fallen man himself, their ruler. The Lord preferred dumb animals to the proud and vain words of the wisdom of this world with its pomposity and arrogance. Of the people, only the Mystery Herself, pre-elected, promised in paradise and prepared from the entire human race, was honored to be present at the terrible sacrament of the birth of the Word, and Her Guardian, the righteous elder Joseph the Betrothed, from the blood of the chosen royal family of the Savior’s ancestors, the living bearer of His human genealogy. And only two, Mother and Betrothed, matured and knew the Divine birth. But this is enough, for Mary is the very personification of the Church in the human race, She is its head and Glory. The betrothed was the bearer of all Old Testament piety, the personification of the Old Testament Church. This is the one who, out of the entire human race, alone was graciously prepared to be present at the Nativity of Christ. Great things are born in secrecy, and the greatest mystery of the incarnation took place under the cover of a winter night and God's sky, far from man, in secret from the world. And the world did not notice the divine birth at all. His life flowed smoothly and complacently, as if nothing had happened. And due to the great humility of this birth, in the self-abasement of the Lord, no earth-shattering signs occurred in nature. The heavenly bodies did not move, the curtain in the Jerusalem temple did not tremble, the dead did not rise from the grave, the idols in the churches of human idolatry remained motionless. The world was blind and deaf to what had happened, busy with itself and its own affairs. However, God’s creation could not help but be shaken in the depths, could not help but feel the Bethlehem birth: nature, the human race and the angelic council, and they all bowed before the Child. The heavenly bodies saw Him, for in their round dance they recognized a new star - Bethlehem: in it nature listened and responded to what had happened. Did the cave, the sky - the den, as well as the animals that stood here nearby, mute, wordless witnesses of the Birth of the Word, respond in their own way? There is no doubt, and they answered in their own way, for the church hymn testifies that “the earth brings a den to the unapproachable”: this den, and the manger, and the cattle in it, is the offering of the earth, its presentation before the Lord. The angels of God saw the birth and sang praises in the heavens. People also saw him, those who were honored to appear as representatives of the human race in the worship of the Divine Infant: these were the shepherds of Bethlehem, who in the simplicity of their hearts saw the angels and heard their praise, and these were the wise magicians from the east, who with their minds saw a new mysterious star. And the simplicity of heartfelt faith and the wisdom of the believing mind were united in the worship of Bethlehem. The Lord rejected neither the first nor the last, and together called them to His greatness. But the earthly Caesar remained motionless on the throne, just as his entire entourage did not tremble. The wise men of this world, immersed in their wisdom, did not notice anything, although the best of them expected a new birth. However, the evil envy of this world took notice and moved to destroy Him. From the rulers of this world, Herod recognized the new birth and responded to the Bethlehem event with a terrible crime, flooding his country with the blood of infants. Satan, in the person of Herod, makes his first attack for his power in the world. The sons of light have bowed down, but the sons of darkness are also raging. This is how the division of this Bethlehem den took place: not peace, but a sword, but division. – Truly Bethlehem is the anticipation and image of Golgotha, the Nativity scene is the already beginning Golgotha, the beginning of the way of the cross. Nativity scene - a coffin in a vertograd; shrouds - funeral shroud, St. the paten with the image of the Child as a slain lamb, there is also the Bethlehem manger, over which “the star of the hundred came above, where the child was born,” and the tomb where the Body of Christ was buried by the handsome Joseph. Gifts of the Magi: gold - for the kingdom, but not of this world, Lebanon - to God, but who has humbled himself, having taken the form of a servant, myrrh - for burial, in the image of the world of the myrrh-bearing women. And the very first days of the Savior’s earthly life were marked by flight to a distant and alien land, persecution, poverty, and trials; began a life of sorrows and hardships, a single and continuous way of the cross. In the pre-holiday services, the Holy Church with particular force brings together the Nativity of Christ and the Passion of Christ; she introduces modified hymns of Holy Week into Christmas singing and thus silently edifies about the inner closeness of Bethlehem and Golgotha. The king of glory is humiliated, God, out of love for the world, becomes its victim. Oh, the wondrous mystery of the Nativity of Christ on the cross, the immeasurable love of God for his creation! However, St. refers only to the pre-celebration, to prayer preparation. The Church mourns Holy Week, but now it calls for rejoicing, for the celebration of the salvation of the human race: now is the Easter of Bethlehem, the Lamb of God is born, taking away the sin of the world. Now God is reconciled in Him with His creation. Now Christ’s peace is being sent to earth, given by Him to the disciples. Now God’s blessing to people, taken away by the power of sin, is returning. And this is evidenced by the singing of angels in heaven: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The favor of God was taken away from man who did not stand in his truth, but rests on Him who is true God and true man, in whom man is restored in his truth, He is the Son of God and the Son of Man, in whom the Heavenly Father is favored, and in Him and through Him favor comes to people. He brought His peace to earth, and it remains with those who love Him always, in these days of persecution and sorrow. Christ became the new Adam, He is a true man and all-man, in Him is the fullness and foundation of humanity. The Nativity of Christ has taken place for all mankind; in every person Christ is present with His mysterious power, although so many do not know this, just as the world did not know about His birth from the Virgin in the den. His birth must also take place in our spirit. The soul must recognize it within itself, the den of Bethlehem; wild passions, tormenting like beasts, having subsided, must give way to meekness and humility of the bull and the ox under the jugular. Reason must bow with the Magi before the sun of truth, rising from the heights of the east; open eyes must see the faces of angels. May the Nativity of Christ be accomplished in our hearts too, for without this birth it will remain deaf, indifferent and cold. Christ was born, God became man in each of the people, we are all involved, we all personally participate in the mystery of His birth. Let us also join in His joy. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace of good will toward men. Amen. We have come from afar*: A Word for the Nativity of Christ And she gave birth to a firstborn son, and gave birth to him, and laid him in a manger: for there was no place for them in the monastery. People walking in darkness have seen a great light: you who live in the land and shadow of death, the light will shine on you. We came from afar to worship the Child Christ - not from the land of the Magi, but from the darkness of our own souls, from the darkness of sinfulness, from gray poverty, led by a wonderful star that lit up within us, obeying its mysterious and powerful call. And we approached the sacred and wondrous nativity scene, above which the Star of Bethlehem stands as a heavenly guardian on the azure vault of the bowed sky. From afar we saw a bright den and the heavenly radiance above it, but it became difficult and scary for us to approach the shrine, and for a long time we did not dare to raise our eyes, so heavy deadness and caustic shame suppressed our soul. Isn’t it better to return to darkness, to plunge again into the darkness of your soul, and from the burden of the path, from the difficulty of this approach, to once again take refuge in the muteness of numbness? But no, it’s already late, we can’t hide and don’t want to close our eyes to what sparkled in them. People living in darkness and the shadow of death, we have seen a great light, and it attracts us irresistibly. With difficulty we raised our eyelids to see, but now we can no longer look away from our eyes. Before us is the Divine Child, in the charm of human childhood: in beauty, purity and innocence, along with a divine luminosity unknown to the world. This light enters the heart, fills our being, cheers and enlightens, and we stand before the manger of the den in its radiance. And we already see in this light how divine wisdom shines in the eyes of the Baby, and divine omnipotence is hidden in His children’s hands, and divine love, sacrificial, merciful and saving, flames in His heart. He is so high and at the same time so close to us; His human nature also contains holy, eternal Humanity, clothed in the old Adam. “The word became flesh.” God became our co-man, the youth Emmanuel was born among us - God is with us. The Sun of truth and reason itself looks at us, and we ourselves look at this Sun. And yet we are not blinded or burned by it, but we see, enlightened, and - we love, we love, we love... Our whole being dissolves in this light of sacrificial love. His Mother bent over the Child, and when we worship Him, we also worship the Mother. It is She who gives Him to us for worship, does not push Him away, does not protect Him from our unclean, coarse, sinful gaze. She is a young Virgin, and at the same time the Mother of Her Child, the holy Virgin Motherhood. And She does not stand between Him and us, does not want to block access to Him - neither the wise men, nor the shepherds, nor even us in our sins. What is Her love, immeasurable, complete, and yet bestowing, free from selfishness? We do not know love that is not selfish. Self-love is inseparable from all human love; its absence is so incomprehensible to us, so inconceivable, that our mind is amazed. Who is She? Most Holy One, in the sacrificial holiness of Her sacrificial love... Our heart burns, and our eyes open to this wretchedness of the royal palace, God's Church in the den. For the King of Kings, who came into His world, a cattle cave and a manger instead of a child’s bed on a winter night, instead of royal decoration, poverty with abandonment and complete insecurity: from cold, from hunger, from demonic and human malice. Royal gifts are brought to the manger, the singing of angels thunders in the heavens, but Herod is already sharpening his weapon, the spirit of malice is rushing about in fear and confusion, the creature seeks to kill the Creator, the world wants to destroy what is higher than the world. Vengeful hordes of enemies are moving from everywhere, they are becoming more insidious, embittered, and irreconcilable. They want to take away the Bethlehem den from humanity, they strive to fill up the Bethlehem manger in human memory, and more skillfully and even more evilly than Herod, they want to destroy the Child and His Mother. What about He and She? He shines before us with a divine smile and blesses us with His childish right hand. With the humility of defenselessness and sacrifice, She selflessly gives up Her Infant, the King of the Jews, Who remains unknown to the world except those who come to Him. And in the winter cold of the cattle den, the flowers of paradise bloom. Our heart, expanding, itself becomes a den. In it also the Child is born and placed in a manger, and we become one with the Most Pure Mother, the humanity into which He is born. All creation worships the infant Creator. The starry world sends Him a radiant star. The angelic world in heaven praises. The human world, the wise men and the shepherds, together with us, humanity of all times and peoples, worships Him. The animal world, all nature exalts Him. The praise thunders throughout the universe, originating from the angels. This is a song about the greatness of God and the glory of man. God made peace with the world and showed favor to it. This favor of God towards men is Emmanuel, the God-man. God became man so that man could become god by good pleasure. God is born in man. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men! And having come to the church, the boy saw His matter with Mary, and fell down and worshiped Him: and, opening her treasures, she brought Him gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. They came, the wise Magi, to the church and worshiped Him, and opened the treasures of their wisdom and brought Him gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh, all the gifts that a man coming to God has and can bring to God who has come to men. They appeared to Him as if on behalf of all humanity with human treasures, which exist only to become gifts brought to Christ. Together with them and after them, we now enter the church and see the boy with Mary His Mother and worship Him in the wisdom and joy of giving thanks. What do we bring and what can we bring from the poverty of our love, from the emptiness of our soul, from the illusory nature of our life? Are we really standing empty-handed, confused and embarrassed, or, what’s even worse, distracted and indifferent? But no, it won’t! We want to bring Him gifts, and we have them, for it was He Himself who made us rich, having made us poor. He created us according to Himself, and these are His gifts that we must find in ourselves by opening our treasures. And we are not deprived of the Lord, and we are called to bring him gold, and frankincense, and myrrh - gold as for the King, frankincense as for God, and myrrh as for the Man who tasted us for death. Gold... In the dark depths of the earth lies its sparkling glory, its ringing fullness, its stainless purity. This is like a transformed earth, this is a revelation of the dark depths in which the radiance of light lurks. Through hard work, persistent patience, this gold is extracted little by little until it is collected in such quantity as to illuminate it with its light, to gild it with its radiance. Such are the depths of the human spirit, in which and from which man, through his creativity, extracts intelligent beauty and clothes the world with it. This gold belongs to the King of Glory, and people must bring Him our own glory given by Him, the gifts of the Holy Spirit given by Him. Each person has his own gift of the Holy Spirit, his own glory hidden in him, his own gold, and he must find it in himself so as not to enter the church in vain, not empty-handed. Let us bring to Him the creative impulse of our spirit and its fruit. Lebanon... Fragrant incense ascending to the sky and dissipating in it, like a human soul ascending to its heavenly homeland. The soul is winged, it participates in the angelic armies, singing in heaven the glory of God on high, it flies to the throne of God in its prayers and contemplations. The angelic nature of the human spirit is this Lebanon of the soul hidden in his heart. A person does not know what riches he has, what treasures have been given to him, until he himself experiences them, bringing them to Christ the Infant of God. The eyes of the Child, looking into the eyes of our soul, open it to us, and it kindles with the reverence of love, like a censer before You... But we must rise from the sleep in which we are, we must go on a long journey, not along the boundaries of the earth, but along the stars, in order to find the church of our spirit, in which Christ rests in the manger of the poor, and, having worshiped Him, bring him our frankincense. And every soul is called to be this fragrant censer, every soul has its own prayer, knows its way to the sacred church... May she not be afraid of her smallness, for in this church of hers Christ himself rests, wrapped in swaddling clothes; let us worship Him... And myrrh... The funeral myrrh of love, brought to love, souls - myrrh-bearers, burying the Beloved Bridegroom, and themselves dying with Him in their hearts. Yes, we must bring Him not only life, but also our death, die with Him in order to be resurrected with Him... The wise Magi knew that His Nativity was also the beginning of the mortal path to Calvary, and that the manger is a symbol of the tomb. The path of love is sacrifice, and the price of sacrifice is death. He was born on earth for death, and His whole life is a sacrificial slaughter. But our path is not different, and we must bring to Him our death, our dying with Him... “Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself,” and whoever wants to come to Him, let him bring to Him his own death, the determination to live in His death and to be resurrected by His resurrection... Doesn’t this sound like sorrow on this jubilant day, in the light of glory and in the singing of angels? But these gifts of ours are expressions of the greatest joy, the bliss of love. For “love is strong as death,” for love is life, and love is death, the death of our selfish, dead self. Death in Christ is life, there is resurrection with Him. May our gifts be pleasing to Him, may He look mercifully on us who have come to Him, may He point His hand at us as His brothers, His Mother, Him and ours. For our sake, a young boy was born, the eternal God. Amen. The Sign of the Cave of Bethlehem*: A Word for the Nativity of Christ Who is in the image of God... Having humbled ourselves, we took on the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of humanity and being found in the image of a man. An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds in the field, keeping watch over their flock at night. The glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were afraid with great fear (Luke 2:8-9). This fear was an involuntary movement of their hearts, for who among people is capable of not trembling before the appearance of the Glory of God, not being afraid before the appearance of the celestial being, alike a shepherd and a king, a simpleton and a sage? However, the heavenly phenomenon did not call the shepherds to fear. They had to overcome fear, for man is not called to respond to the accomplished theophany with awe from the incommensurability of the Creator with the creation, but with what stands behind this awe and above it: the joy of love. "And the Angel said to them: Do not be afraid." He removed the shackles of fear from them, freeing their spirit for the joyful acceptance of the good news: “Do not be afraid, I bring you great joy that will be for all people: for today a Savior has been born to you in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord.” Great joy, joy forever, was announced by an Angel that night: God’s love for the world was revealed, goodwill towards people, God appeared in the flesh. Have these shepherds heard before about what was written in the sacred books about the aspirations of the tongues, about the coming Messiah, or did they just hear about this for the first time? However, they knew with trembling hearts that a great thing had happened: Christ the Savior was born in the city of David, the Lord descended from heaven to earth, became incarnate and “became man.” Did a vision of His unearthly greatness, glory, omnipotence, the dazzling light of the Epiphany flash through their thoughts, or did their thoughts become numb in the powerlessness to contain the inconceivable? But they did not have time to stop contemplating what was revealed to them, for further came the revelation, the word of the heavenly messenger was calling them: “Here is a sign for you: you will find a Child wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). This was the sign of God coming to earth: a baby in a manger. Not in royal palaces, and not on a golden bed, and not on the throne of glory does the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Prophet and the Wonderworker recline, but like a Baby in a manger. Only as a kind of madness for human understanding could such a “sign” of God coming to earth enter into consciousness: it tears apart the fabric of thought, overthrows human wisdom, and contradicts reason. However, heaven itself descended to the aid of human powerlessness and left no room for empty speculation. The bewilderment was extinguished without being born: “and suddenly a great host of heaven appeared with the angel, praising God and crying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:13–14). The shepherds were given an answer from above, and human bewilderment fell silent in the face of heavenly revelation. And they took this revelation they had accepted into the cave, where they came to worship “the Child lying in the manger,” and here they told about what they had learned about the Child, and “all who heard were amazed at what the shepherds told them” (Luke 2:18). They were the first heralds of the good news of Christ, His first apostles. Before the fishermen of Galilee, the shepherds were told from heaven the secret of the incarnation, the self-abasement of God for the sake of men: the sign of God as a baby lying in a manger... And now we also approach the cave of Bethlehem to worship the Child and spiritually contemplate above it a cloud of quiet light of holy Glory, the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit resting on the Son of the Father. And for us this sign of God incarnate retains all its power: a baby in a cave manger, in cold swaddling clothes on a long winter night. And our thought at first faints before a contradiction that is inconceivable in the mind: the Creator of the worlds Himself does not have shelter for Himself, which the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth have. The Almighty appears before us in the form of a defenseless Baby. The very flame of life in this Baby seems to fluctuate, threatened by the earthly wind and cold, from the wary malice of the mighty of this world, the guardians of its law. God in the form of the Child does not accept worship from His high priests, who are not able to recognize Him in His humiliation and - in the hardness of their hearts and the impoverishment of their minds - will reject Him and hand over to the condemnation of death, and will hate Him. The mind of the world, which illuminates with light every person coming into the world, is not noticed and not understood by the servants of the mind. The most beautiful of the sons of men, the Image of God in the God-Man, is not noticed by the servants of beauty. As if even nature itself, created by Him, remains indifferent to what is happening in Bethlehem, the cold stars look into the night sky in their beauty and are not moved by the heavenly round dance to worship Him, except for only one Star of Bethlehem, and as if a blade of grass did not move to bow to the Creator who descended from heaven. Isn’t all this defenselessness and fragility of the Baby’s life in a hostile world, all the danger and, as it were, insecurity of His existence, and, therefore, the work for which He was sent into the world, terrifying? And this victorious, triumphant stupidity of self-righteous evil - isn’t it laughing at the Baby lying in the manger, Who came to “conquer the world”? And yet, despite everything, the Baby in the manger is a sign of God incarnate, the born Christ, the Savior of the world. And the heart begins to understand the sacred mystery of the sign. Yes, this is exactly it, the sign of God incarnate. It is not in external signs of greatness, no matter how amazing and unique they may be. For God is omnipotent, and signs from this world cannot add anything to the Creator of the world, and His own sign consists precisely in the absence of any sign, in His nakedness from His own glory, in the humiliation, weakness, defenselessness, and poverty of the Baby lying in the manger. Only God is capable of such humiliation, only God can show such love for creation: “Having humbled myself, I have accepted the form of a servant,” only God can achieve such a victory over the world. This victory over a world lying in sin should not be achieved by the forces and means of this world, but is a complete denial of all its power: no concession to the world, even in its rejection, as if not noticing it. Victory over the world lies in defenselessness, in persecution, in suffering, in death. But all the forces of the world, all the means of his power are not capable of extorting their recognition and worship from Him. “Get away from me, Satan, you are an offense to me,” this is the only answer, filled with unearthly dignity, to the prince of the world from the Savior of the world, who now silently rests in the manger of wordlessness, as if already foreshadowing his silence at the interrogation of the high priests and at the trial of Pilate and mortal silence in the tomb. This world does not know such a manifestation of God, such a victory over the world, and it continues not to know it. But the time will come for him to recognize it, when “all the tribes of the earth will mourn and look at the nan, his perversion,” and the victory of the meek King will be revealed, entering the city of Salim in Glory. To this day the dark winter night still continues, with the sign of the Child lying in the manger. And the world will stagnate in indifferent disregard of Him, gloat in malicious contempt, or, what is even more evil, in hypocritical worship of Him. And to us, who come to worship the Child lying in a manger, in the midst of a soul-evil world torn apart by anger, what is the law of life, what wisdom is given by a miraculous sign, to what are the inhabitants of heaven now calling those who come to worship Christ? They call to accept in the heart His humiliation, His persecution, His crucifixion, as the only sign of Christian life, its strength and victory. For the best self-testimony of Good is its defenselessness against the power of evil. The best evidence of Truth is silence in the face of many-verbed lies. The highest manifestation of Beauty is unadorned with vain adornment. The power of God overcomes by itself, but not by the power of this world. There is no power of God for the world, it does not see or know it, it laughs at it. But Christians know that the sign of the Son of God is worldly powerlessness - the Baby in the manger. And there is no need to gild the cave, for the gilded cave is no longer Christ’s. There is no need for earthly protection, for it is unnecessary for the Christ Child. There is no need for earthly greatness, for it is rejected by the King of Glory, the Baby in the manger. But we need a genuine revelation of God-Love. We need an image of all-forgiving meekness, praying for His enemies and tormentors; we need an image of the way of the cross to the Kingdom of Christ, to the overthrow of evil by the victorious evidence of good. We need an image of freedom from the world. And we who are powerless are strong, in the kingdom of this world we want to serve the Kingdom of God, we believe, we call and wait for it. For we have known the sign of the Child in the manger, Strength in powerlessness, Victory in humiliation. May our heart also be this bestial cave of ours, in which we carry the divine sign of the cross. By them reigns the King of kings, the Child in the manger. In Him and with Him we are forever united by His incarnation. We call him Emmanuel - God is with us. Word for Christmas Behold, the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call His name Immanuel, as it can be said: God is with us. God is with us! He did not only approach and did not reveal himself only from on high, but remains with us, among us, as one of us, Man, God and man, Immanuel. He now lies in a manger in a cave, we are approaching it to worship Him, to rejoice at His coming. There is not and cannot be greater joy for a person than to meet Emmanuel, God and Man, the Infant of God. This is perfect joy, given by the Holy Spirit into our hearts. But perfect joy is the joy of the Mother of God, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, is the Holy Spirit Himself and hypostatic Love itself, is the love of the Mother of God for the Infant God. And if we can enter the cave of Bethlehem, then we need to join the love of the Mother of God, to Her joy, which is the joy of the Nativity of Christ. The Most Pure One was destined from her birth for his desire. She carried this hope for the Epiphany of Christ in her heart as her personal secret, in boundless self-giving of love. She loved Him, not yet conceived, already before the Annunciation. She loved Him in a new way at the Annunciation, with the power of love in the Holy Spirit, by His influx. The handmaid of the Lord conceived Him in her womb, and today she receives the Born One who came to earth, in her arms a trembling, living Child: “She gave birth and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes” (Luke 2:7) with her own hands and “laid him in a manger.” How reverent is this love for Emmanuel, God and Man, love from the creature to the Creator, but also from man to co-Man, from the Virgin Mother to the Child Son. The Church puts into the mouth of the Virgin Mother the wondrous words of this awe: “You bear the image of Adam, who is all-perfect in the image of God and want to hold on with your hands, supporting all creation with Your power, pure and immaculate, proclaiming to you: how I wrap You in swaddling clothes like a baby, how I nourish You with my breasts, who nourishes everything more than You In my poverty of mind I will be amazed at what I will call You my Son, Your servant who exists today. I sing and bless You, who gives great mercy to the world!” But fear is overcome by love, for perfect love overcomes fear. He is overcome with the joy of love. This love of the Virgin Mother for the Child and of the creation for the Creator expands into the love of all humanity, the love of the Church for the Head, for the Bridegroom of the bridal chamber. This is universal, all-encompassing love, which is accessible to the human heart as perfect joy. Such love does not fit into words, it is silent, closed in itself. The Most Pure One remains silent in the silence of the holy night, but hears the heart that knows the sound of the joy of love perfect in the universe, in all worlds, in all creation. It thunders in the angelic world, the armies of the disembodied sing a song of praise in the sky: glory to God in the highest! And it resonates in the hearts of human humility: shepherds bring the Mother news of heavenly glory. And high minds shine, worthy to see the star in the east and be led by it to worship the King of Heaven in the form of the King of the Jews, to bring Him the fullness of human gifts. The joy of the universe about the One born in the cave is revealed, and, silent, Mary “composes all these words in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Her joy, inexpressible in words, her love, inconceivable in the world, is silent. And in the light of this love, in the radiance of this joy, earthly threats melt away, earthly homelessness is invisible: the poverty of the manger and the wretchedness of the cave, the earthly cold and the coldness of hearts, human indifference and malice. Isn’t this a ghost when Emmanuel lies in a manger in swaddling clothes, God is with us! And we approach the joy of Bethlehem, pollinated by the dust of the earth, in its fears and worries, frightened and exhausted, with a soul cooled in the longness and cold of the winter night. How can we forget ourselves, shake off the dust of the earth from our souls? How can people enter the cave in order to be illuminated by its light, so that people can approach the God-Man? But the door of heaven is open for us. We are called to enter into the joy of the Mother of God, to ignite our hearts with her love. She is a person, just like we are people, and She holds Emmanuel in her arms. There is no other path to joy than love, and there is no other path of love except through self-giving: may our soul appear in the image of the servant of the Lord, may the miracle of love be accomplished in it. And she will be overshadowed by the Spirit and become God-bearing, and Christ will be born in her. Our heart will be the manger of Bethlehem, the earthly throne of the King of Heaven. Before His meek majesty, earthly fears and anxieties will dissipate. The riot of passions will subside, obedient to the spirit, like those humble animals in the cave of Bethlehem near the manger of the Child. The “light of reason” will shine in the mind, the simplicity and humility of the shepherds will shine in the hearts, heavenly bells and the song of praise will sound in the soul. Dark shadows will melt, doubts about the indifference and hostility of the world will cease. As for him, when we carry the highest certainty in our hearts, when an ever-present light shines upon those sitting in the darkness, when an unearthly, perfect joy is revealed to us. The heart embraces the born Baby in the hands of the Mother of God. It loves her with love, it rejoices in her joy. This love of the servant of the Lord is completely sacrificial. The Most Pure One comes joyfully with the Child, obedient to the highest command. She hears in her heart all the verbs about Him and about her. May our love be like her, believing, submissive, rejoicing in everything, peaceful, benevolent, the perfect joy of love. there is good will in men. To Russian soldiers on Christmas Day Christ is born, praise! Christ from heaven, come down! With such an appeal the Church of Christ now addresses all Christians, including you, dear brothers, Russian soldiers. Again she announces to the world what was spoken by the angel who appeared to the shepherds on the night of the Nativity of Christ: “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people, for today a Savior has been born to you in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10). At the same time, the glory of the Lord shone around them, along with the appearance of angels praising God. The sign of what has happened is “a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And the shepherds said to each other: “Let us go to Bethlehem and see what happened there, which the Lord told us about.” Was hearing really not enough for them and they needed a new certificate? However, they followed him and saw the promise - “when they saw it, they told about what they had heard and seen, and those who heard were amazed at what was told to them.” Oh, how blessed were these few chosen ones, to whom it was given to hear and see what many prophets and righteous people would have desired (Matthew 13:17), but they were not given that, just as it was not given to us. “Great joy” was announced for everyone, but according to the incomprehensible vision of God, only in the feat of faith is the Lord revealed to those who have not seen, so that “they would not faint in faith and not shake the promise of God through unbelief, but would remain strong in faith” (Rom. 4:19–20), and “Christ may dwell in the hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:16–17; Heb. 12:2). Therefore, even now we ask ourselves: are we in the faith? How does the Christian world greet the night of the Nativity of Christ, those at war and those not at war? and how do you, Russian warriors, meet him on the battlefield, in a land unborn, but in our homelessness, sheltering us and thus making us akin to ourselves? Our soul is now shrouded in a caustic fog of doubt and bewilderment. Many centuries have passed since that night in Bethlehem, but how were the Christian promises realized in them? The Kingdom of God has approached people; have they themselves responded to this approach? Doesn't the chill of a winter night with its ghostliness reign in our hearts? Doesn't the story of the event in Bethlehem begin to seem to us just a memory of distant childhood? Are we able to look for the star of Bethlehem in the sky, which now flashes only with the fires of guns? Isn’t the universe spiritually empty for us, and – we repeat – what remains of our faith? This is how a chilled, confused, saddened mind asks itself, this is the poison of deadening doubt. And let us not condemn this questioning, and, if we cannot avoid it on the way to the holy cave, let us meet it with dignity, face to face. What is this apparent persuasiveness of his? If we could believe in the overcoming power of God before, then what can destroy this faith in us now? And vice versa, this is the only way one can and should gain one’s faith, through overcoming trials and temptations. Let us ask ourselves: what happened then when the angels proclaimed peace on earth and goodwill to man? and how then did the world greet the coming of the King of the Jews, the Son of God, who took on human nature? How did he perceive the accomplished God-manhood, for the sake of which the world was created? This happened in the secrecy of the mystery of God, and apparently the world was not shaken by it. Only a few shepherds discovered what had happened, and only a few magicians comprehended the power of the star that appeared in the east. In the dead of night, in the cold of winter, nature met the approach of its Creator, the earth brought Him a cave of cattle, and the Roman Caesar with his legions and the Roman kingdom remained in indifferent ignorance. They also did not fear the King of kings and the Lord of lords, just as they do now. Greater contempt could not have been shown from them to the One Born of the Virgin, and only the insignificant ruler of Judea emerged from indifference, moved in fear and malice to the crime of infanticide, seeking to kill Christ in order to protect himself from Him. The Holy Family was left to flee to a distant country, enduring the misfortunes of wandering. And yet, in the face of all this, the singing of the angels in heaven did not stop. It appeared louder than the thunder of heaven, for it swept across the whole world, along with the whispers of the shepherds who told about what had happened; they are spiritually audible to us both to this day and forever and ever. It was like that from the beginning. So what now? What has happened in the world over the centuries for the cause of Christ? An indisputable answer cannot be given to these questions, for the secret of times and seasons and the image of leavening the dough are hidden from us. However, a huge path has been traveled in Christianity, deep maturity has been achieved, although overshadowed by human sins, falls and apostasies. The gospel has been preached before the face of all nations, although it has not yet reached the ears of many of them. For centuries, the world has been brought up by the Church of Christ, although the prince of peace raises his battle against it, in the midst of which, however, the truth of God is served. And humanity is no less, but more prepared now, in the days of war, with its great trials, to heed with the heart the gospel of Christ’s peace than in the days of an imaginary peace, in which “sudden destruction befalls” (1 Thess. 5:3). Having lost faith in the human world, we seek the peace of Christ. And the severity of military duty, with the inevitable readiness to accept death and wounds, the forced migration of peoples, in poverty and deprivation, involuntary isolation from the homeland and our orphanhood - doesn’t all this bring us closer to the spiritual world than it was in times when, under the cover of visible calm, enmity and unpeace were hidden, now exposed... And in the current shock, is not freedom of the spirit achieved, inaccessible while the soul was bound by earthly the benefits of which he is now deprived? The hand of Providence lifts us above the earth, and we must respond with a counter spiritual ascent. The heart of man is truly a cave of sacred mystery, known only to himself, and this is the mystery of Christ. Let us enter this Bethlehem cave and hide in it, at least for a short moment. It is enough to hear with the hearing of the heart the singing of angels in heaven and to see with the spiritual eye the manifestation of the glory of God. What happened on the radiant night of God’s glory will forever remain given and accessible to man, if only he himself begins to approach the sacred secret, his dear treasure hidden in the heart. Don’t slander yourself as if it were a ghost of a child’s imagination that fades away over the years. Even a ghost would be dear if it softens the heart and melts its cruelty. However, deception or self-deception remains involuntarily powerless, which the soul, ripe for the truth, abandons, albeit with tender sadness. But this is not a ghost here, but a self-testimony of the truth, once recognized forever. And we must bow with our souls before these mangers; they are our own humanity, into which the Lord moved in, having received it. In this we recognize the immeasurable humility of God, who humbled Himself, and in the sacrifice of His love did not abhor our stiff-neckedness and sin. And just as it was in the golden days of our childhood, so it will be now, when they seem to have so sadly and irrevocably passed for us. But Christ coming to earth did not pass us by, nor did the night of His Nativity pass by, just as it will not pass at all times until the end of the century... The world was never worthy of accepting Christ, but He descended to it, and now condescends, as always, in all the horrors and crimes of our lives. This makes him more audible and closer to us than in other happiest times. Or is He not stronger than all the forces of warring evil? And therefore, unabashedly, with boldness, sing to Him: “Christ is born, glorify! Christ from heaven, come down! For our sake, the Young Child, the Eternal God, was born.” The Day of the Nativity of Christ is marked by a solemn service in our churches, and this church celebration is dear to us. But you, on the battlefield, will not have it available; you will have to come to terms with this deprivation. However, know that people did not have it that night of Bethlehem, but the angels performed it in heaven, as they do now. May it be given to you to touch heavenly worship with your heart. In at least a brief moment, bowing in contemplation of the mysteries of God, call on the Name of the Born Christ with His Mother. He will answer the call of the hearts calling Him, and She will send you her maternal affection. And in this touching of hearts one recognizes the peace on earth announced from the angels and goodwill among people who are now at war, but let them not be hostile, and, although in confrontation, it is not fitting for a Christian to wage war in fierce hatred. May the homeless find their home in the cave of Bethlehem, in their hearts; and let the homeless know freedom from the melancholy of exile in the acquisition of eternity. Through the blood of our heart, may the sky be opened with its inhabitants, and may the star of Christ shine in the sky of heaven, above the throne of the Most High. These are the invisible and inaudible miracles that may the Lord send on this night to those who love Him. Dear brothers! We have nothing to please you with that which is enjoyed on earth, just as we cannot free you from the trials that are now your lot, we must believe, not without the will of God. But we still have the common joy of our faith, which no one has the power to deprive us of, for everyone is proclaimed the great joy of the birth of the Savior of the world, His new approach to us. However, we involuntarily ask ourselves: how is the meeting of Christ combined with standing in the face of the enemy, to which you are now called and doomed? This is the question now fatal to the Christian conscience. Yes, it is compatible if we take care of ourselves in Christ, if we remain Christians even in war. The will to victory in its elasticity is justified only by the correctness of the goal, but should not be hatred of the enemy. And this becomes possible for us to the extent that we carry in our hearts Christ who is born and suffers with us. Is the commandment of love for one's neighbor abolished by war and replaced for soldiers by another, opposite law? On the contrary, like the first commandment, about love for God, it is deliberately affirmed in all its difficulty - “Your commandment is great” (Ps. 119:96). Observance of Christian feelings is even more necessary here, because it is more difficult than in everyday life. There were different warriors: those who found it in themselves to torment Christ, revile and scourge Him, but also those like the centurion, who glorified God in contemplating the death of Christ (Luke 23:47), or Cornelius, pious and fearing God (Acts 10:1-2). This could have been the image of military piety even in the pre-Christian world; it still strongly cultivates and strengthens Christian valor. The meeting of the born Lord requires from each of us a sacrifice to Him in what we possess, and from the warriors the appearance of the Christian face in the test of the military destiny on the cross. Let the angelic praise be sung even now from the depths of the earth, from the cave of human hearts: God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son... so that the world could be saved through Him. ...The wise men from the east came to Jerusalem and said: Where is he who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and came to worship Him. How is the world now welcoming the born King of the Jews? Does he also see His star in the east, and rushes to worship Him? Or, on the contrary, following Herod and all his alarmed entourage (Matthew 2:3), does he want to abolish the very memory of Him, in the contemptuous indifference of iron Rome, in the self-indulgence of the wisdom of this age? Many centuries have already passed, and another year has passed, but has the coming of the Son of God into the world become closer, is it more palpable to the minds and hearts of men? And as if the only answer to this is given by a bloody feast of a soul-evil world, torn apart by civil strife, and the star of Bethlehem is hidden in the smoke of deadly weapons. It is not the angelic song about peace and goodwill in people that is heard in the world, but only the loud calls of war, its cries and groans. The cold night chills the hearts, and an involuntary question is born in the souls: does humanity retain the power of what happened - soon two thousand years ago - in Bethlehem of Judea? Was not the coming of God to earth in vain, from which He ascended again to heaven? Might not the celebration of the Nativity of Christ itself seem unnecessary now? But this would have been the victory of Herod, and with him the prince of this world, if fear and cowardice had prevailed in us, if our faith in the King of the Jews, who was born in Bethlehem, had wavered. Let Him appear to the world not in power and glory, but in powerlessness and humiliation. But this is the only way the appearance of God-Love on earth can be: in the wordlessness of the Word, in the silence of an infant, in the hiddenness of a cattle cave. This is how the greatness of God appears before us, before which the arrogant claims of earthly self-aggrandizement are destroyed. All the squalor of the cattle manger, earthly powerlessness in the cave of the hidden Divine Child, the flight to Egypt to save life, all this speaks to the heart louder and more unmuffled than earthly thunder and human cries. The cave is more luminous than the earthly chambers. And now, on the holy night of Christ’s Nativity, as then, the silence of silence testifies to the indestructible power of the King of the Jews, who conquers all the princes of the world. Not on the battlefields, but in the cave of Bethlehem and on Golgotha ​​in Jerusalem, the rapists were forever defeated and “death was extinguished by victory” (Is. 25:8). "Death! where is your sting? Hell! where is your victory?!” ( Hos. 13:14 ; 1 Cor. 15:54 ). The waves of human life change, its hurricanes sweep through. The bearers of human glory and earthly greatness, sages and conquerors, rulers and legislators, one after another, one after another, have taken turns claiming and claiming world power. But in the face of this universal oblivion, only the meek power of the baby lying in the manger remains undefeated and invincible, His true power over the world, the royal power in the hands of the Infants... Let it still remain hidden. In the fullness of time it will be revealed to the whole world, just as it is already being revealed in our hearts now. One day He will come into our world as the King of kings and Lord of lords, and before Him every knee will bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth... Let the world still mock the victorious triumph of our faith and laugh at its madness. For our triumph is not human, just like our victory. It has in itself that power of persuasiveness and self-evidence that human greatness is not given the opportunity to achieve, no matter how much it seeks for it. The spiritual contemplation of the star of Bethlehem is a holiday and triumph of our faith. Faith is born from love and gives birth to it. Is it possible to love a force that generates fear, makes one tremble before oneself, chills hearts with its cruelty? No. One can only love the love now presented in the manger, revealed in the humility of God. Love is the only venerable force; to it and to it alone belongs power, greatness, and victory, always - as now - conquering the world. Therefore, our heart expands and trembles with victorious triumph, cognizing the truth of life revealed to the eastern sages, the Wisdom of God embodied and made human. For the clairvoyance of love and the knowledge of faith, our triumph remains the same now as in past centuries. It is not even smaller, but larger than ever before. For the power of the world is becoming more and more angry, its voices are heard more and more loudly, its claims to command human souls appear more and more nakedly. The prince of this world demands worship more and more urgently. But to the hearing of faith, the voices of angels sound in heaven more and more solemnly and victoriously. They glorify the King of Heaven, the God-man, resting in a manger, crucified on the cross, sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven and again coming with glory. Amen. On the day of the Nativity of Christ. 1940 And the angel of the Lord said to them: I bring you good news of great joy... today a Savior has been born, who is Christ the Lord. This great joy is announced to us by the angel even now: “Christ is born - glorify!” May our hearts be illuminated by it, and may we listen to the singing of the angels, bringing the gospel from heaven. What is it about? “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” This is how it sounds in cities and villages, over battlefields, over the sick and captives, over everyone and everywhere. May this spiritual rejoicing appear as an all-conquering joy, even if for a brief moment and for one moment, may it illuminate the darkness of hearts with the joy of Christ. And this will already be the victory of Christ over the prince of this world with his darkness, and let it not be taken away from us. Christ the King reigns, and the hour of the revelation of His kingdom will come. This joy does not light up in separated and lonely hearts, but, penetrating them, it unites: the wisdom of the wise men and simple-minded shepherds, husbands and wives, elders and babies and all those who are touched by the inspiration of faith with its joyful feat. For faith is “the revelation of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen” (Heb. 2:1). Through it we see what is invisible with our bodily eyes, through hope we recognize the unknown, and through spiritual creativity we replenish what is weak. What was the worldly evidence then, on that night when the glory of God shone upon people, the angelic gospel burned through their hearts, and the “King of the Jews” was born (Matthew 2:2)? The throne for the King of kings was a cattle manger in a wretched den on a winter night. And He was greeted on earth by the earthly king Herod not with joy, but with blind fear, which found its outcome in the beating of infants, with new crying and maternal weeping of Rachel for her children, and the King himself, born in Bethlehem of Judea, was doomed to secretly flee to a distant country along with his Mother. But neither the blindness nor the negligence of the world, intoxicated with its domination and victories, frightens us. They do not reach heaven, and they cannot weaken the gospel of the angels. In the face of the external domination of the prince of this world with his arrogant victories, there is a different authenticity, not of this world. It testifies to God's love and favor towards people. She calls to wake up from a heavy sleep and its dark visions. She talks about the illusory nature of this world, which imagines itself to be authentic and unique. She exposes the temporality and imaginary nature of his transitory existence, with his victories. She gives inspiration to come to our senses on this holy night from his suffocating rule over us. Didn't the heavenly messenger, who proclaimed the joy of the Nativity of Christ, know the earthly Herods and the babies they beat, the tears of mothers, the cold and gloom of a winter night? But, knowing all this, he proclaimed the victory of light, the joy of salvation, the spiritual triumph of freedom. May we also recognize it, who are now listening to him, going towards the one who came into the world and again the one who is to come, and Christ who is always with us. Fear and embarrassment before the prince of this world are overcome by this triumph. It often seems that such a triumph of the prince has never happened before. But in this fear, faith and the measure of spiritual knowledge are tested. Doesn't it mean that the darkness thickens before the sunrise, and the winter night darkens before the spring solstice? We celebrate the victory of Christ that began in the squalor of Bethlehem and took place on the Cross of Calvary. We are called to recognize it by faith, in spite of imaginary evidence, for the exposure of which its time and timing will come, and perhaps the hour is already approaching. We meet His King, the Infant God, coming into the world and worship Him. Christ from heaven - hide it. Christ on earth, ascend! And the angel said to them: I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For today a Savior has been born to you in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord. This great joy, the joy of all joys, is the coming into the world of the Lord who came down from heaven—God incarnate with us! The only thing similar to it is the coming into the world of “Another Comforter”, sent by Christ from the Father in his place, on the day of Pentecost. In the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, the human heart is called to contain this divine joy, to expand to it. And it knows no other limit for itself except in our weakness; it has to increase from measure to measure forever and ever, in the present and future life. In our earthly lot, we, as if submitting, surrender to it in our rejoicing, but at the same time we are called to the feat of joy, as a feat of faith. This was already the case with the shepherds of Bethlehem, who were announced by an angel about the Nativity of Christ. “The glory of the Lord shone around them,” and “they feared with great fear” (Luke 2:9). And they did not immediately enter into the joy given to them. But only after going to Bethlehem did they return, “glorifying and praising God” (Luke 2:20). For that joy was not earthly, but divine, not sensual, but spiritual. It was necessary to ascend to it, comprehending what had happened in humility and trembling of heart. Likewise, the Magi, who in the wisdom of their hearts had long awaited the coming of the Lord and who recognized Him in the appearance of the stars, set off on a long journey, overcoming the difficulty and obscurity of it, guided by a mysterious star. And only when they saw the star stopping over the Baby, they “rejoiced with very great joy” (Matthew 2:10). Thus the feat of their joy was accomplished in the feat of faith. Both for the heartfelt simplicity of the shepherds and for the wisdom of the Magi, the feat of joy and its work were equally necessary. In vain does it seem to us at a distance of time that then this joy of the Lord’s coming into the world, the divine joy about him, thanks to these signs of the holy night, was more accessible than to us now, deprived of these signs. However, even then they were hidden and accessible only to the feat of faith. And then, except for the appearance of angels to the shepherds and the Star of Bethlehem to the Magi, nothing in the world spoke of what had happened. The “sign” of Christ’s coming into the world, promised by an angel, for the shepherds was that they decided to go to Bethlehem to see what had happened there, and when they arrived, they found Mary and Joseph and the Baby lying in a manger (Luke 2:16), the King of the Jews, not in glory, but in poverty and squalor. And when, in the face of this humility, they told what was announced to them by the angels about this Child, their story appeared wondrous and, as it were, new to those who heard it: they “marveled” at him. Even the Evangelist said about Mary herself (Luke 2:19) that she “kept all these words in her heart,” and she had previously heard the promise of the same birth from the lips of Gabriel, the archangel of the Annunciation. Not through heavenly thunders, but in the whispers of caves, the coming of the God-Man into the world was announced. Outside the cave of Bethlehem, no one knew anything. The world then did not notice the coming of the Lord in its distraction, insensibility, and spiritual petrification. And only the satanic malice of the prince of this world moved his obedient instrument, Herod, to find out from the magi about the birth of the King of the Jews, seeking to destroy Him. Therefore, the accession of the “King of the Jews” began by fleeing to Egypt along with His Mother. The Nativity of Christ, glorified in heaven by the singing of angels, was greeted on earth with the murder of the infants of Bethlehem. Then the Child, together with the Mother, hides in obscurity for a long time, until the time of his open ministry, which ended with the crucifixion of the “King of the Jews.” Therefore, this sacred silence itself, shrouded in ignorance and mystery, the coming of Christ into the world, is a true spiritual miracle, more stunning than earthly miracles, but it was also the most effective sermon about Him. And now the world greets Christmas night not in sacred silence, but in the thunder of an earthquake, in the condensation of the horrors of the mutual destruction of humanity. The world does not hear the heavenly singing of angels, does not seek to worship the Baby in the den, does not want or is unable to notice His coming. It seems that it has become unnecessary for the world, which only knows how to turn to hell on its own. This is the terrible reality that chills the heart on the winter night of the world, as if without dawn. However, if it is always and at all times possible and necessary to talk about the feat of joy as a feat of faith, now this receives special power when the darkness gathering over the world wants to extinguish the Star of Bethlehem and Christ is crucified again from the frenzy of human enmity. And now we can and should preach and confess the joy of theophany and rejoice in it under the threat of war, which was foretold by Christ: “You will hear about wars and rumors of war. See that you are not dismayed” (Matthew 24:6). The celebration of the Nativity of Christ should now be a spiritual victory of faith in spite of earthly evidence. Along with earthly warfare, spiritual warfare takes place in heaven, and in the world the gathering and tension of spiritual forces takes place invisibly, not yet receiving tangible manifestation. Earthly powers are looking for their own earthly leaders, but we, Christ’s, gather around the King of kings, the Heavenly King. Our response to the signs and seals of the “beast and the false prophet,” about which Revelation precedes us, may be the sign of the cross of Christ: by this victory, God is with us. God is with us, who came down from heaven into the world for our sake and became man for our salvation. From His birth He has been with us and abides in us by the Holy Spirit, according to His true promise: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Our inseparability from Christ is experienced and confirmed on the bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ, when the Church sings: “Christ is born, glorify!” And we must step into its power. The Nativity of Christ is not only the greatest unique event in the life of the world, but also the forever continuing coming of Christ into it. When He lived among us and His most pure feet walked on this earth, and His face was seen by human eyes, there was joy and revelation from His earthly presence. However, the time has come for separation from Him through His death on the cross. Although after His resurrection the Lord again appeared to the disciples, after forty days He ascended to heaven, He left this world. But the Lord, leaving the world, blessed his disciples, and with them all of us, with his promise: “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you” (John 14:18), “I will come again and take you to myself” (John 14:3). Likewise, the angels on the Mount of Ascension said to the apostles: “Why are you standing and looking at heaven! This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). And the disciples accepted this promise, they agreed to live in this expectation. After the ascension, they “returned to Jerusalem from the mountain” (Acts 1:11), and a different life began for them, although spiritually both with Christ and in Christ through the coming of the “Another Comforter” sent by Him, but already deprived of His earthly sojourn. Our love still asks about this departure of Christ from the world, on the feast of His first coming into the world, thinking about His return. Have the holy apostles, and we along with them, stopped “looking at heaven” in sacred expectation and prayerful questioning? Have they forgotten, and we along with them, the promise of the angels who announced not only the first coming of Christ at His Nativity, but also His future return to the world? No, we haven’t stopped and haven’t forgotten, we can’t and don’t want to forget. But century after century passes, and people increasingly forget how to “look at heaven,” waiting for the Lord. They are not separated from Him, for He never leaves the Church with his spiritual, mysterious presence. And that joyful and persistent desire to meet Christ in the world to come, which inspired the first Christians, was gradually replaced by the reverent fear of the Last Judgment of Christ at His second coming, this saving feeling for humanity wallowing in the abyss of sins. However, another promise remains sealed. And on this sacred and saving night of the Nativity of Christ, His first coming into the world, which He did not disdain in His love, may this bold joy not be silent in us about the very coming of the Lord into the world, the first, but not the last. And, drowning in sins, we will not cease to look forward to this new coming of Him, as the boundless and inexpressible joy of His new meeting. We know that then “all the tribes of the earth will mourn,” in fear and trembling before the terrible judgment of Christ. But doesn’t the apostle of love, John the Theologian, also tell us something else: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; he who fears is not perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). And on the night of the Nativity of Christ, when the angels in the sky proclaim peace on earth and God’s favor to people, this joy about the coming of the Lord into the world timidly and boldly may merge with the humbly loving whisper of the soul, its silent calling: “Hey, come again! Do not leave us orphans, come to us, openly and mysteriously, in your approaches and appearances, and in your final return to the world.” Should we, the damned, now, in the days of Antichrist’s rampage in the world, cry out and think about this? However, should we and do we dare to quench within ourselves this longing of the bride-soul for the Beloved? Isn't it our very life? The Lord did not come into the world for the sake of human dignity, but to save the lost sheep, which He honored with His image. And in His promises He foreshadows that His new coming will take place in the last terrible times. But even in the dark we do not go blind, but we thirst for light all the more intensely. And not from sinful weakness, but from the fidelity of our love, we seek Him, in the simplicity of the soul of the shepherds, in the contemplation of the Magi, in the prophetic voice of events, in the new revelation of life born of them. Let this be our answer in the face of a flood and an earthquake: not fear, not despair, not loss of faith, but the last hope. The darker and more terrible the world becomes, the closer God is, His eternal light. When the paths of earthly salvation are not visible, then heaven speaks, and from there it comes... Therefore, the triumph of the Nativity of Christ for us merges with the Paschal joy of His resurrection, and the praise of the angels - with their promise of the future coming of Christ, His return to the world. Hey, come, Lord Jesus! Most Pure Motherhood*: Dedicated to Russian mothers On the morning of the Nativity of Christ, the Holy Church venerates the Cathedral of Our Lady. Glorifying the Begotten, he honors the One who gave birth, and pleases Her holy motherhood. The birth of the Divine Infant was a wondrous miracle, “an unspeakable Christmas of the seedless conception,” more manless and painless. But true human motherhood was also revealed in him. As a true Mother, Mary carried in her womb (Luke 11:27) the child Christ, and when “the time had come for her to give birth,” Mary “gave birth to her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger” (Luke 2:6–7). She nourished Him with her breasts (Luke 11:27), She protected His life in flight to Egypt (Matt. 2:14). She cared for Him in His youth (Luke 2:41–51), She was near Him at the beginning of His signs at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1–5). And when He left Her for the sake of serving His Father, She wants to see Him (Matthew 12:46–47), and She does not leave Him even during His exhaustion on the cross (John 19:26–27). She, according to the church image, received His lifeless Body from the cross, together with the handsome Joseph and the righteous Nicodemus, and together with the wondrous myrrh-bearing women sought to anoint the Body of Jesus. She, also according to legend, was the first appearance of the Risen One, and She was with the apostles during His ascension into heaven. The connection between Mother and Son, which began with pregnancy, was not interrupted for a moment, not only through life, but also through death, for after the honest Dormition She was reunited in heaven with Her Son and remains with Him forever and ever. St. wraps himself in sacred silence. The Gospel of the Joy of Her Motherhood. Can one speak of the joy of having a Divine Son? And only once was it said about Her: “But Mary kept these words, composing them in Her heart” (Luke 2:2), and these words were about the appearance of angels proclaiming the glory of God. But truly, in the joy of motherhood, the Mother of God stands at the head of all earthly motherhood. However, She also stands at his head in maternal grief. For not only the words of the shepherds about the appearance of angels and about glory in the highest were composed by the Most Pure One in Her heart, but also other words and perplexities of the doubting Joseph even before the birth of the Son, and a prophetic broadcast about a weapon that has to pierce the soul, and the harsh, not yet entirely clear words of the Son, found with great sorrow in the church: Why did you need to look for Me? or did you not know that I must be concerned with the things that belong to My Father? (Luke 2:49–51). And soon the meaning of these words was revealed in harsh reality, and the Son left the Mother to give Himself to His service. When She once gave herself up to the human desire to see Him and speak with Him, she heard a stern, inexorable word: pointing with His hand to His disciples, He said: Here are My mother and My brothers (Matthew 12:48), and thereby as if he had broken the indissoluble bonds of carnal motherhood. And the Most Pure One composed these words in Her heart. The Mother heard from Her Son only the name: wife! at the first miracle in Cana of Galilee (John 2:4), and at his last breath on the cross (John 19:26). The Son left His Mother for the duration of His earthly ministry. She did not see His miracles, nor the Transfiguration in glory, nor His royal entry into the holy city. But She was not removed from the place of execution, standing at the Cross, she experienced the agony of the cross and a terrible death, from the sight of which the sun was darkened and the earth shook. And such was not only the hearing, but also the deed itself. The maternal sorrow of the Ever-Virgin immeasurably exceeds any maternal sorrow, just as Her birth exceeds any human birth. The higher and purer and more sinless a being is, the more acute and painful is its suffering. The sorrow of the One Sinless One, who grieved to the point of bloody sweat in Gethsemane for human sin, is inexpressible, but the sorrow of His Mother for Himself, for His suffering, is also inexpressible. The weapon pierced the heart of the Mother already at the very birth of Him, the Savior promised by the archangel, in this wretched poverty, in a cave, among animals, when people refused to house the Son of Man, as if signifying that in His entire life He would not have a place to lay His head. This heart suffered both from the prophetic offering of the Magi, who combined the gravestone myrrh with gold and frankincense, and from the words of the righteous Simeon, who condemned Her to the way of the cross along with the Son; and from Herod’s bloody fury and hasty flight to Egypt, and from parting with the Son, Who sacrificed not only His filial, but also Her maternal feeling as a sacrifice to serve the Father; and on this entire mournful path to Golgotha, which stretched out for three whole years and was filled with labor, bitterness, and dangers; and finally at Golgotha. Here the word fails, but the Church proclaims to us the “cry of the Mother of God” before the Cross. Who will measure the torment of the Mother from the torment of the Son on the cross, which she contemplated to the end? Who can measure the darkness that fell upon Her when the darkness of the grave covered Her Son? Who can measure the sorrowful bewilderment that oppressed the Mother when the lips of the Word fell silent, the eyes of the Light of the world closed, the One about whom Gabriel proclaimed descended into the darkness of hell, the angels of Bethlehem sang the glory? It was death without death and before death, it was a bloodless crucifixion, and the sting of the weapon dug in and turned in the cold heart. In order to become inseparable in glory, you need to appear inseparable on Golgotha, and in order to go from earth to heaven, you must first complete the path of the cross to the end. And this is holy motherhood, this image of the Mother is the highest that is given and accessible to human motherhood, the Mother of God Golgotha. What is the strength of this feat, what is its holiness, what is the motherhood of this motherhood? The mother loves her birth as herself and more than herself, for she is ready to give her life for it: she collects all the rays of her love at this point. But can a person give such love to creation, and a mother to her birth? Doesn't man then reign in the heart instead of God? Doesn't this love become blind, selfish, dead, godless? And from His own Mother, God desired maternal sacrifice, self-immolation, sacrifice of His motherhood. The Most Pure One spoke to the archangel in response to the question heard in Her word: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to Me according to Your word.” The word of the servant of the Lord resounds throughout Her entire life on the cross, and it merges with the word of the Son: “Not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). Sacrificial submission to God, readiness and determination to accept everything and give everything for the Lord, and His very birth - this is the power, and the mystery, and the holiness of the Mother of God. There is no murmur, no complaint, not even tears in this tearless suffering. The Mother of God is silent at the Cross, and in this silence on the cross one can hear the words once said: behold the handmaid of the Lord. But in this secrecy, the Mother of God received the first appearance of the Risen One. Lord, and was the first in creation to pass from earth to Heaven. In Her cathedral, the Most Pure One gathers the entire Church, but deliberately the Virgin Mother now gathers virgins, mothers, virginity, and motherhood under Her roof. The Mother of God is the Virgin, the Unbrided Bride. She reprimands the virgins of the heavenly Bridegroom, those who will be brought after Her, choosing the path of virginal love for God without love for man. The Ever-Virgin is the head of the monastic clergy, the Abbess of the Abbess. But the Mother of God now gathers into Her cathedral all mothers, those who come along Her sorrowful path and those who are saved by the cross of motherhood (1 Tim. 2:5). She is the Mother of mothers, the glory of motherhood. And you, Russian mothers, come to Her today. And you participated in the sorrow of Her motherhood, and you gave up your children for higher service, and you stood at their cross among the crucifiers, and you plunged into the darkness and shadow of death of eternal separation, and you were deprived of your children, those Bethlehem babies whom St. The Church honors them as martyrs of Christ. Your lot is sorrowful, but it is bright and glorious, for it is the lot of the Mother of God. The ray of your cross is buried in the light of the Cross of the Mother of God. She is with you in your sorrow. She will sympathize with you and shower you with heavenly blessings. And you, future mothers called to motherhood, you who stop in confusion on its threshold and strive in your weakness to evade it, know that this is the path of the Mother of God. You turn away from Her path, you refuse Her suffering, but through this you lose the communication of Her joy, perfect joy. Come, let us worship the Baby and His Mother reclining in the manger, let us glorify Her honest and pure Motherhood. Eternity and Time*: A Word for the New Year To the Creator of all creation, having set times and seasons in Your power, bless the crown of the summer of Your goodness, O Lord. Every moment of life is already a new beginning of a new period. But the human imagination is looking for clear edges in the current time, and in the midnight hour of the conventional New Year, when a new page in our life is turned over for our consciousness, we experience the immobility of time, we feel it, as if our heart has stopped beating. We see the face of eternity in time, we look with wide open, frightened eyes into the stream of time rushing before us, with fear and hope that in its stream we will be destined for new happiness and a new life. God gives time, and in it our life, with its freedom and creativity, in it the future is hidden, the world is created, the unknown is revealed, the fulfilled, the hoped for. Therefore, we greet each other with this new life: happy new year, new happiness. However, time has two faces for us: past and future, birth and dying. Time erases the writings of life, plunges them into oblivion: “there is no memory of the past, and even of what will be, there will be no memory left for those who come after” (Eccl. 1:11), Ecclesiastes mourned; “Everything flows,” cried the ancient sage. Everything is covered by the waters of oblivion, both within ourselves, outside of us, and after us. However, this oblivion is also only temporary, for time contains eternity and is contained by it, and nothing disappears, having once sparkled in time. In the depths, under the surface of the water, everything that descended there is stored in the eternal memory of the world. Our time is written in the book of life, and it will open again over time, in the life of the next century. And the judgment of eternity will be pronounced by Truth on the basis of this book. Time, current and transitory, belongs to the highest reality. Time is the robe of eternity, the thought of God, the work of God, the accomplishment of God, which in the fullness of time will become transparent to eternity. But now for us, time during its course is bordered by the shores of non-existence: in the past - the time before our birth, in the future - the yawning darkness of death. Every year, like every day, can be the last for a person, and the end will inevitably come for him. Our creatureliness trembles at this thought. But this horror is not worthy of a Christian, and it does not correspond to the nature of time. For although we are subject to time, time is subject to God, and through time the destinies of God are accomplished over us. In times and seasons the work of God's Providence is accomplished, the Wisdom of God is realized. The book of our time with its present and future is open to God, for “I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13). And yet we, as human beings, consider time to belong to us. We now wish each other well, greet each other with a new life, a new year, a new happiness. Are these wishes appropriate and reasonable? But as long as we live in time, it is for us the only given way of our life, and why shouldn’t we give room to human hope, which is better than hopelessness? We must love and honor the life given by God, and in life something new always opens up for us, for such is the nature of life. And it is not out of unworthy curiosity or greed for novelty that we wish each other a new life, but because life truly is an inexhaustible new thing. It does not repeat itself, as the ancient Ecclesiastes thought in despondency (Eccl. 1:9–10). However, such an attitude is still pagan and earthly for us, which “the pagans also seek” (Matthew 6:32). Christians must, in addition to this, strive to comprehend the will of God, which is accomplished in us, and to surrender ourselves to this will, even when it does not coincide with our human will: “not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). We need to prayerfully seek the strength within ourselves to accept the will of God, both in our personal life, and in the life of our homeland, and the whole world. At this hour, our thoughts, like our prayers, reverently unite us with our near and dear ones, now distant from us, separated from us by the cruelty of power - and with our homeland, desecrated, tormented and exhausted under a heavy yoke. We pray to the Lord for the return of our loved ones and for the salvation and liberation of our homeland, we ask that the Lord quickly show His mercy and that hour comes. So we pray from our human heart, but in this prayer we must turn our gaze to heaven: Thy will be done! Thou weighest times and seasons, and may Thy decree be fulfilled! The gates of the future are open before us, and through them we pass from time to time, into eternity. It, earthly time, will no longer be with our death, and even more so with the death of the whole world, after which its transformation will come. He will be gone when the Lord comes. Time leads us to Him, to His coming to us, at this point it curls up, it is that truly new, new life for us and a new heaven and earth, which we are waiting for. And the hour of midnight, when the old year ends and the new one begins, tells us about another midnight hour: “Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight.” And loving this life, drinking tea and wanting something new from it, we must look beyond its boundaries. Christian faith, hope, love cannot ultimately linger in time, but strive for that which is beyond time, which is the foundation of times. And our New Year’s prayer contains, like the beating of a Christian heart, a Christian call and appeal: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” ( Rev. 22:20 ). At the hour of the New Year, the need is naturally born in us to meet our loved ones, spend it with them, and exchange mutual good wishes and greetings. But the Church calls us, first of all, to appear before the face of God, to accept the New Year as a gift of God’s mercy, to experience it in God. In the New Year, the revelation of eternity intensifies. We do not see light, although we only distinguish everything visible in it. We do not recognize eternity, since we know times and seasons, but in its light only we feel the supertemporality of our existence, as rooted in eternity. Turning times and dates tell us, first of all, about our birth and death, about entry into the world and departure from it, about the facets of life in its temporal limitations. It is even painful for us to calculate the time of our flowing and flowing life; at the same time, we are overcome by embarrassment, but at the same time we also experience a feeling of lightness when contemplating this flow, as freedom from time, soaring above it. We participate in eternity in every moment of life. “The Kingdom of God is within you,” as the power of eternity and its revelation, the touch of the Divine. We are children of God, bearing within us the image of the Heavenly Father, eternal, above temporary existence. Living in time, we carry within ourselves this image of eternity, such is the contradictory nature of our created existence, but also the freedom of the children of God. We celebrate the New Year in prayers, which are the breath of our life. What should we pray for at this hour? We have a common church prayer in which we all unite, just as everyone has their own personal, special prayer. The Lord said: “Whatever you ask in faith in prayer, you will receive” (Matthew 21:22), such is the miracle of faith. And we know, however, that we do not dare to pray for everything with all boldness. First of all, there is much in us that we should not pray for at all, such is all the sinful, selfish, low things in us that control the soul, but which we cannot bring to the judgment of God, which is the conscience of prayer. And there is the self-willed, which, even if clothed in the image of prayer, does not ascend to heaven, but descends to the earth, like dry leaves falling from the tree of life. And not every prayer, although heard by God, is fulfilled according to our desire, as we want it. The wisdom of God and the will of the Heavenly Father rule the world, and not every desire and prayer of ours is subject to direct fulfillment. There has never been a prayer more omnipotent than that of the Son of God to his Father - and this was His prayer in Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). And this prayer of the Son was not fulfilled by the Father, for the cup did not pass, could not pass Him. But then the Son prayed a second time: “If this cup cannot pass from Me, lest I drink it, Thy will be done.” And He taught us by example to pray like this always and about everything, to add to every prayer, even good and righteous, “but Thy will be done,” no matter how harsh, unpleasant, or inappropriate it may seem to us. Let us, first of all, wish each other this readiness to accept the will of God, with Christian courage, patience, hope, faith, conquering fear, exhaustion, and despair. So let us pray now in the face of everything that is now happening in the world. After all, even then, when angels sang in heaven about peace on earth and goodwill among men, Herod was preparing the massacre of Jewish infants for the sake of killing the King of the Jews, who had to be saved by fleeing to Egypt. And the King of the Jews reigned in the world, through crucifixion on the cross, such was His victory, and He, sitting in glory in heaven at the right hand of the Father, He is still crucified with His humanity. There is no peace and there never was in this world, and is it not in vain that peoples hope to achieve earthly prosperity at the present price? These are our incessant questions in this hour of the New Year. As then, a tempting word sounds in the souls of people: “Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusted in God, let him now deliver Him, if He pleases Him” (Matthew 27:42–43). But the silent answer of the Father, heard by the Son, was such that He had to drink the cup of the cross to the end in order to save the world through the cross. Each of us is given our own cross, and only those who endure to the end will be saved... However, even in this vale of sorrow, earthly consolation is also given after the test. Wars give way to peace, civil strife to harmony, enslavement to liberation. We prayerfully call upon all this for our long-suffering homeland, to which may our thought, love, and hope be infinitely devoted in the coming summer. The providence of God leads us through the present and future to the Coming Christ, to His Kingdom coming in power. In the light of the future, our temporary earthly struggle is extinguished. From the captivity of temporality, we must hope for victory over it and, at the New Year’s hour, especially call upon the coming Christ, praying the early Christian prayer, which is the prayer of all Christian prayers: “Hey, come Lord Jesus!” Amen. Flaming coal*: In a hundred years And one was sent to me from the seraphim, and in his ore there was a burning coal, and with his pincers he was taken from the altar... The Russian Church is now celebrating the centenary of the death of the great chosen one of God, the messenger of heaven, Rev. Seraphim. Like the heavenly Seraphim in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, who touched the human heart with tongs with coal from the heavenly altar, this earthly Seraphim touches hearts, whether they will ignite from the heavenly coal. The great Seraphim rises to the heavens above the earth and from above overshadows the Russian land with the blessing of his prayers. The Monk Seraphim is almost a contemporary of us, dear and close to us in our earthly fatherland, in language and in all customs. It is wonderful and significant that in our time his appearance turned out to be possible, just as he himself always admonished, warning against the delusion that only in ancient, distant times could the saints of God rise up. Not only in words, but by himself, he convinces that God at all times reveals His grace to those who want to accept it through deeds of faith and love, through the effort of the heart and will. At different times of his life, he performed many great feats: a desert monk, a strict recluse, but also a loving elder, a stylite and a worker; it seemed that he surpassed human measure on all the paths of his ascetic ascent, and his life was one of unceasing prayer and contemplation of God, knowledge of God and vision of God. Like the ancient prophets from among his people - Amos, the shepherd of Tekoa, or Joel, the son of Bethuel, or the priests Ezekiel and Jeremiah, or others - among his people he became, as it were, a New Testament prophet, proclaiming the Kingdom of God. The work of the prophets was not only expressed in foretelling the future or denunciation and preaching, but first of all and most of all - in the manifestation of God through man. A prophet is not one who is able to think about God, but who by himself, in life, proclaims about Him, through whose mouth God speaks. And the great saint, who manifests God on earth, thereby becomes involved in prophetic service. Before the onset of great, never before experienced tests for faith, the Lord sent his prophet to our homeland to teach people faith and prayer by example, to show them the living God in heaven. What is most necessary, and at the same time most difficult, for a Christian now? What seems from the outside the simplest and as if it goes without saying: faith and prayer, breaking through to heaven from the world with faith and touching it with the wing of prayer; and this is the root of our love for God. And those who saw St. Seraphim and conveyed this vision to us - mostly in silent language - through it themselves tremblingly touched the sky, were spiritually imprinted by his radiant face, and were confirmed by him, like us now, in our cowardly faith. It’s as if he made his ascent for us and with us. Not verbal teachings about monastic rules, which are relative and applicable only to a certain way of monastic life, and not general teachings written down from memory, but this living image of the overwhelming ardor of faith and boldness of prayer is an inexhaustible treasure for us. And if they saw him marvelously rising above the earth in his prayer and working miracles with it, then the most marvelous miracle was he himself with a heart flaming with love. This vision is filled with light and joy; it also penetrates the darkness of hell into which we are now plunging. The Monk Seraphim, with the most difficult feat, sought the grace of the Holy Spirit, the acquisition of which he taught as the main goal of Christian life - and this feat was crowned by heaven, for from the beginning the saint appeared as his deliberate chosen one. History also knows great ascetics whose feat remains hidden in God and not crowned in earthly life; others in the prophetic ministry, with the preaching of reproof and repentance, pass through the world and leave it, not knowing their reward - and such were the great desert dwellers and even the prophets, and the great Jeremiah, and the greatest Forerunner among those born of women. But this was not the lot of the saint, for he knew, “poor” Seraphim, how great he was with God, how strong his boldness was before Him. The strength and triumph of Orthodoxy were revealed in him on the eve of great trials for him. The divine secrets of heaven and earth were revealed to this chosen one. As a young deacon, at the very beginning of his common monastic path, he saw the Lord Jesus in the host of His saints, during the small entrance to the liturgy, like the great Paul the Apostle and Stephen the First Martyr. Many times he saw the inhabitants of heaven - the heavenly forces who invisibly serve with us. It was given to him to ascend to the heavenly abodes, to the heavens of heavens, in the power of the wondrous Paul. It was given to him to know the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the radiance of the glory of God and even make it available to his “servant” (Motovilov). That light of Tabor, in which the Lord revealed His glory through the action of the Holy Spirit to His disciples, and the Lord shows it to His chosen ones, the Monk Seraphim was also able to reveal it to his spiritual friend, to whom he showed the image of the transfiguration of the world, a new creation, a new heaven and a new earth, through the action of the Holy Spirit, here on earth. The Spirit-Bearer himself, the monk, appeared as a deliberate chosen one of the Spirit-Bearer of the Most Holy Theotokos, who announced about him that he was “from Our race,” and she appeared to him, along with the Forerunner, the Chief Apostles Peter and John, the martyrs and saints, twelve times in his life - as She did not appear to any of the saints. She showed Her will to him, and in earthly affairs he did it, acting on Her direct instructions. She herself descended to earth for him, and the “feet of the Queen of Heaven” walked along her. While living on earth, the blessed old man was in that communion with the heavenly world and those who have departed into it, which is promised for those who reign with Christ in the first resurrection, just as he was in communion with the natural world, he lived “with the beasts” (Mark 1:13), and the beasts obeyed him. Having completed the path of repentance to the end, the monk was filled with the peace that the Lord left to His disciples: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved,” he said to those around him, and this peace flowed from him. And the monk knew that heavenly joy that Christ left to His disciples: “let your joy be in you, and let your joy be complete” (John 15:11). He showed the face of the victorious Christian faith, joy forever. And this Christian joy is Easter joy. At different times of the church year, he equally greeted those who came to him with an Easter kiss: Christ is risen! That joy in the Holy Spirit, which we are given to experience on Easter night, shone in his soul and sang its Easter song, as during his posthumous uprising before the Russian people at his Sarov celebration. His appearance was white, like the snow-white robes of the angels of the resurrection: “to him who overcomes... I will give a white stone” (Rev. 2:17). From under the black monastic robe of the angelic image angelic wings protruded. The monk demonstrated the fulfillment of the first commandment, about loving God with all his heart, with all his strength, with all his mind, but he also fulfilled the second commandment, which is similar to it, about loving one’s neighbor, truly showing their inner “similarity,” their identity and inseparability. Such people do not always appear on the historical paths of monasticism, which is why there is even a temptation to oppose them: is not withdrawal into saving selfishness, it sometimes seems, oblivion of one’s neighbor? The monk showed both in the greatness of his image: both leaving people and returning to them, sacrificial love for God together with sacrificial love for one’s neighbor. Having completed the fullness of the hermit’s feat, the monk returns to serving his loved ones, he becomes “another” to them, their friend: an elder, a man of prayer, a healer, a comforter, a prophet, for from the top of Sinai he descended to the people, and the light of the seen glory of God illuminated his face. He acquired the gift of love for people - not human sensitivity, for human love can be weak, blind and partial, but spiritual, jealous. And in this love, a revelation about man became known to him, how God loved and honored him, putting in him His image and the highest joy of His Wisdom, which abides in the sons of men (Proverbs 8:31). Seeing the image of God in every person, with spiritual joy about him, the wondrous old man met him with heavenly greetings: my joy, rejoicing over him. These bright, touching, heavenly words - they conceal within themselves a whole teaching about man, they reveal the love of God and the joy of God about creation. Man is a wolf to man, says demonic wisdom; Man is joy to man, says Christian wisdom. On the eve of the greatest desecration of the image of God in man and the greatest violence and mockery of the human person, the monk glorified the man, he enriched him with the rays of his love and, as it were, blessed him for future suffering. And he himself became our joy for the Russian people, for the heart lights up with joy at the thought of the white old man, “poor Seraphim,” in white clothes, with a cross on his chest and his right hand pressed to his heart... The saint's own life is hidden at the heights of his spirit. It rises like a snow-white peak, covered with a cloud and incomprehensible, only demonstrable to man in certain phenomena. This mystery was not always understood by everyone, and not everyone, even the worthy and glorious of his contemporaries, was aware of it. Humanly, the saint’s life passed in a simple Russian environment, in the life of a secluded Russian monastery and in the customs of Russian monasticism, which he himself wanted to preserve and increase, being especially jealous of the women’s Diveyevo hermitage, “the lot of the Mother of God on earth.” And according to human understanding, these abodes seemed unshakable and indestructible to him. However, the time for inviolability has already passed. The monk had in his spirit mysterious insights about the terrible destinies coming for the homeland and the Church, as well as about their future glory, which has not yet been revealed. They sometimes brought out his tears and incomprehensible, mysterious and fragmentary speeches to those around him. These words referred to this not completely and not fully understood future, for even in the prophetic insights of the future, the prophets of Israel, given by the Spirit of God, had content that surpassed their own, humanly limited, understanding, for themselves not fully understandable and acceptable. And in the same relationship between the prophetic and the human, in the mixture of the distant and the near, we should understand the other words of the saint in the form in which they were preserved to us in the feasible, or even impossible, transmission of those who heard them. We see now that his monastery and Diveyevo itself have been destroyed and desecrated, the ditch where “the feet of the Mother of God trod” has been crossed, and it is as if the promises of the saint have not been fulfilled. Believers remain in painful bewilderment, trying in vain to avoid noticing what has happened, so as not to give free rein to temptation. But is it possible to resist the will of God with untruth and insincerity, forcing events? God allowed what happened. However, the words of the seer and the thought hidden in them remain true. For it is now clear that these insights should not be attributed to the visible and tangible inviolability of the inheritance of the Most Holy Theotokos, but to a spiritual, transcendental and transhistorical reality. Truly, the “feet of the Mother of God”, having touched, sanctified the earth, and there is Her chosen race on this earth under the heavenly guidance of the saint, and the destroyers will not take this faith away from us. In the unattainable heights resides the city of saints, from where flows the source of future joys and inspirations, new life and creativity. And if in this new Russia there will be no former earthly walls and stones left, and even the way of life and way of life in which the reverend’s earthly life took place has been destroyed, then that light of Tabor from the Holy Spirit, which was revealed through him on Russian soil, will remain in the world, it calls and leads us to new life and inspiration... “When I am gone, come to my grave... As if you were alive, speak to me, and I will always be alive for you.” This covenant sounds in our hearts. The monk himself wanted to be a kind of leader of ours, and to him we can speak in our own language about the needs of our days. You can tell him in sighs what he himself did not know in his earthly life, for it was limited by the universal limitations of man, but what is now known to him and clearly in the light of the face of God, in the Holy Spirit. We believe and hope that even today Reverend Seraphim, together with Rev. Sergius of Radonezh and other saints, are together with the Russian people in their sufferings and trials, quests and discoveries, hopes and inspirations. The monk was given a promise about Christ's Easter in the middle of summer, about the sweetness of Easter hymns, about the new joy of the resurrection. Christ is Risen! Water leaping into eternal life*: Word on the Eve of Epiphany The Lord created water above the firmament and below the firmament, and separated the water from the dry land on earth. She is the primordial element of the world, flowing and all-filling, transparent and all-penetrating, watering and washing, life-giving and entertaining. Water surrounds and is surrounded by the earth; in dry land it finds its border, and at the same time its foundation: water cannot be established without dry land, and earth without moisture crumbles to dust. Water extinguishes fire, as an opposite and repelling element, and yet remains in conjunction with it, for water softens the heat of fire and fire diminishes the effect of water, and from their combination the moist warmth of life is generated. Fire and water conceal within themselves the death of the world - in the general flood and the last fire, in which heaven and earth will pass away with noise, but they also renew it through washing and purification. Baptism is performed by water and spirit, the Holy Spirit and fire. The fiery tongues of Pentecost also descended on the water element. This happened in the baptism of the Lord. The elements of the world felt the Epiphany of Christ and trembled at Him. The sea “ran,” the water element moved, in vain of the approaching Lord, receiving Him into itself and for a brief moment covering His Most Pure Body. The Church testifies to the trembling of the water element with the psalm words (prokeimenon): “I saw the sea and ran, the Jordan returned back. Why are you the sea, that you ran away, and you, Jordan, that you returned?” - “Today nature is sanctified by waters, and the Jordan is divided and its streams return, the Lord is baptized in vain” (troparion). In the baptism of Christ, not only a small part of the Jordan, but also all the waters, nature is sanctified: it received within itself the Inconceivable One and covered the Inaccessible One. The waters received the incarnate Word, the Son of God, but together with Him the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, sent by the Father, took place here - a cleansing action of the entire pre-existing Trinity. The blessing of the Jordan was fulfilled by the power, action and influx of the Holy Spirit, which the Holy Church still requests for the consecrated waters. The spirit in the form of a dove, descending on the baptized Lord, also descended on the baptizing water and made in the Jordan new grace-filled spiritual water, jumping into eternal life. “You sanctified the streams of the Jordan, sending down Your Holy Spirit from heaven” (Trebnik). The Lord said to Nicodemus about this water: “Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot lead into the Kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The water of the Jordan became holy and consecrating, for the baptism of the Lord was the beginning of the baptism of the human race. The Jordanian event was not transitory, disappearing without a trace, but the power of the Baptism of the Lord abides in the Church, and the grace of the Jordanian consecration of water also abides in it. Every Christian baptism is baptism in the waters of the Jordan, for the baptismal waters are sanctified by the blessing of the Jordan. And the great consecration of water, now performed on the eve of Epiphany, was originally such a consecration of baptismal waters for those preparing for enlightenment and on this day usually approaching St. baptism The sanctification of waters by the power and action and influx of the Holy Spirit is an amazing secret action that penetrates the water element throughout the world. When St. the cross is immersed in water, with the utterance of final prayers, the element receiving consecration trembles and trembles, although this movement is not visible to our eyes. But for human needs, only a small part of the water element is taken away for consecration, and it becomes the companion of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. water, the great agiasma. What does the consecration of water, this supposedly soulless and dead element, mean? But she is not like that before the Lord, for nothing is dead for the Lord, God did not create death, and the creature became dead only for man, who subjected it to his own sin. Doesn’t the psalmist also appeal to inanimate creatures to praise the Lord (Ps. 149:7–10)? Doesn't the prophet (Daniel) call upon all creation to sing and extol the Lord? Doesn’t St. testify today? Church: “The sun sings to you, the moon praises you, the abysses tremble for you, the springs work for you”? And therefore, the water element, receiving the action of the Holy Spirit, becomes a spirit-bearing substance, and eating it is called a kind of “communion: Create a source of incorruptibility, a gift of sanctification, a remission of sins” (Trebnik). The consecration of the waters is a mysterious preview of the life of the future age, when God will be all things in all. This is the water of the age to come, the fountain of living water (Rev. 21:6), from the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and the Lamb. This is the sea of ​​glass seen by the seer, mixed with fire (Rev. 15:2). This is the spiritual element of the new heaven and new earth, the kingdom of the next century. There is no limit to the all-penetrating action of the Holy Spirit, just as there is no limit separating man from the elements of the world, for he himself is their living concentration, and all of them are like his external, expanded body. Through the consecration of water, man is sanctified, for for the sake of human salvation the Son of God, who baptized in the Jordan, became incarnate and immutably became man, and for the sake of man, water consecration is performed. It is happening, “so that all who draw and partake may have it for the purification of souls and bodies, for the healing of passions, for the sanctification of houses, and for every good benefit.” It is spiritual medicine given to a person to preserve his mental and physical strength, to protect and improve his entire life. Let the one of little faith not doubt, saying to himself: is it necessary for the Holy Spirit to dwell in this water when our souls are accessible to Him? But isn’t it madness for a person to deny his dual composition? Does he have a soul without a body? Wasn't the Son of God incarnate? And isn’t He communicated to us in the most holy Sacrament of Communion under the guise of bread and wine, and, uniting with us spiritually, He also unites physically, giving us His Body and Blood to eat? Therefore, a person also needs the communion of holy water to receive the Holy Spirit, to receive the blessing of the Jordan. In this lies the power of deification, the unity of divine and created nature, divine condescension and human acceptance of God. And not only does the person himself partake of it, but he also sanctifies his entire life, home and clothes and all his belongings with it, to drive away all slander from visible and invisible enemies. In holy water, great grace and helping power are given to the faithful. The Holy Church exhorts us to eat it reverently and sprinkle it for sanctification in all places, even “stingy” ones (Typikon). Those who drink the holy water of Epiphany notice that it usually retains its taste and freshness for a long time. Today is the light and sparkle of the waters, today is their transparent mirror image, today is their sweet murmur ringing, today is the thirsty desert rejoicing, today is rain falling from heaven and watering the earth, so that it may give birth and vegetate, today dry lips are moistened. The voice of the Lord cries out on the waters, saying: come, receive all the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of the fear of God, the revealed Christ. Behold, Lamb of God, take away the sin of the world, the Baptist of the rivers, in vain of Christ coming to him. Christ appeared today to the universe. From silence and obscurity, where He grew in obedience to the Mother and the named father (Luke 2:52), He reveals Himself to the world. And this holiday is the Epiphany of the Lord. It was already accomplished at His Nativity, when the angels sang about God’s good will toward men, just as now, when the Father Himself testified about His Son: I am well pleased in You (Luke 3:22). The Church brings both celebrations together, like the Epiphany of the Lord, preparing for them in harmony in the forefeast. Along with the joyful pre-festive chants, the melodies of Holy Week sound in them, recalling that Baptism, like the Nativity of Christ, is a prelude to Golgotha: the Lamb is being prepared for the slaughter. Appearing to the world is already the beginning of the path to disappearance. The Lord, who became man, took upon Himself human nature, except for sin. He preserved his ages, times and seasons inviolate. He remained as a child, grew and became stronger in spirit, ascending to the fullness of strength, “and the grace of God was upon Him” (Luke 2:40). “He increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). His perfect sinlessness and holiness made human weakness and inclination toward sin impossible for Him, but He preserved the gradual development and maturation of spiritual powers characteristic of man. The Lord did not commit violence against human nature, but gave it all freedom of development, overcoming its weaknesses from the inside and overcoming their temptations. The Gospel remains almost completely silent about this mystery of the adolescence and youth of the God-man. The event in Jerusalem, when Joseph and Mary, having lost the 12-year-old Youth, found Him in the church, opens the mysterious curtain, and we see that the determination was already ripening in the Youth to sacrifice even His filial feelings to the Father, and despite the parental anxiety, He answers them: “Why did you look for Me? or did you not know that I must be concerned with the things that belong to My Father?” (Luke 2:49). Coming to the age of a perfect husband, the Lord in His humanity reached full maturity and determination to offer Himself as the Lamb of peace to His Father and thereby fulfill the will of the Father. The God-Man from the Infant of God became the perfect Man of God. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, He was sanctified by the Holy Spirit from birth: as the Son of God, He was inseparably united with the Holy Spirit by the love of the Father that rested upon Him; in His human nature He was blessed with His gifts. But for the complete deification of human nature, the infusion of the Holy Spirit into this nature was necessary, and this took place in the Epiphany. The Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove on Jesus and remained in Him as evidence of the Father’s favor. The Baptism of the Lord was, as it were, a Pentecost for the Lord, the descent of the Holy Spirit on the God-Man, preceding the general Pentecost of the world, the sending of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and in their person on the entire Church. After Baptism, the Lord became the perfect Messiah, the Christ of God, who directly applies to Himself the prophecy of Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (Luke 4:18). His Body became the very Body and Blood of Christ, which He communed with His Disciples at the Last Supper. Here, as it were, the final transformation of the human being in Him into perfect God-manhood took place. The Lord approached this accomplishment of His incarnation when He said to John: “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). The truth of the law was that sinners had to be baptized as a sign of completed repentance and bring it at the same time. The Lord had no sin and had no need for repentance, therefore, according to the testimony of the Gospel, He immediately came out of the water. But having become the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, He wanted to accept the image of repentance, degrading and abasing Himself to it in immeasurable humility and obedience to the Father. And this acceptance of the slave's face was a sacrifice to the Father and the fulfillment of His righteousness. But another meaning was hidden in these words: it was necessary to fulfill the truth about the baptism of John itself, and to transform baptism with water, which was powerless to revive fallen man, into the bath of regeneration, baptism with water and spirit. In Christ, the baptism of John, preformative and preparatory, became a true saving baptism. The God-man was baptized so that all humanity would be baptized in Him and with Him, so that the baptismal waters might be sanctified by Him. In the Baptism of the Lord there was also hidden the image of His saving death and stay in the tomb: as we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into His death. Revealing Himself to the world, the Lord also revealed the image of our salvation through His death and resurrection. If the Nativity of Christ was the first Theophany of the Son of God, who through His incarnation showed obedience to the Father in His Divinity, then His Baptism became the final Theophany, in which the God-Man showed obedience to the Father in His humanity. But the Epiphany of the Word, inseparable from the Father and the Holy Spirit, was at the same time the manifestation of the entire Holy Trinity. The Incarnation, which directly relates only to the Son, to the Second Hypostasis, presupposes the participation of the other Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. When Jesus came out of the water, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father cried out for Him, testifying to His beloved Son. With Christ and in Christ the entire Holy Trinity appeared to the world, “the trinitarian worship revealed.” And just as human baptism, according to the direct command of Christ, is performed in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, Her power appeared here at the baptism of Christ. And, like the Pentecost of man, the Pentecost of Christ becomes the day of the appearance of the Holy Trinity. The Lord Jesus appeared today to the world as the Christ of the Lord: Thou hast appeared this day throughout the universe, and Thy light, O Lord, has appeared upon us in the minds of those who sing: Thou art come and thou hast appeared, the unapproachable Light! Word on the Baptism of the Lord “Today the waters are sanctified by nature and the Jordan divides and its streams return, the Lord is baptized in vain.” Today a miracle occurs - water, through the influx of the Holy Spirit, becomes a force of grace. The meaning of the event: what is the water element? What happened at Jordan? Properties of water: liquid, all-soluble water, over which the Spirit of God hovered, then, divided into “above the firmament and below the firmament,” the first is life and (the second) is everything that destroys and washes away everything at once: the flood. Water is the abyss of life and is the grave, immersion. Water is a transparent, luminous nature, murmuring and quenching thirst: the “glass sea” of the Apocalypse, “the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from God and the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1). Water is a teaching that flows into eternal life (conversation with the Samaritan woman, Pentecost). Healing water is Bethesda and washes away sins. Water of baptism, a request for repentance, a symbol of washing and renewal. The coming of the Lord, the trembling of John and Jordan: to fulfill all righteousness - to give power to the water by your death through the influx of the Holy Spirit. It was possible to make this water available only after the resurrection: all power was given to Me, coming... baptizing... Baptismal water is the sacrament of baptism. But also nutrition, quenching thirst, anointing, washing. Is not the consecration of waters witchcraft over dead matter? But who said that she is dead and does not heed the Word of the Lord, who commanded her, does not hear the Lord according to the word of God, does not have her angel of the waters (Rev. 16:5), she is alive, but isn’t spiritual consolation enough, why the substance? But is man alien to matter and is it not human? Just as bread and wine are nature, communion, so water is the communion of the Jordan. Man is neither spirit nor flesh, but spirit incarnate, and the Lord immutably became incarnate and gave us St. water washing His pure body! Heaven and earth rejoice, as the Church usually sings, but now the water element rejoices, celebrating its consecration. The water of the Jordan is the water of the future age, transformed and transformed, when God will be all in all, and now, still in this age and this body, we touch the world of the future. Feast of Theology: Day of the Council of the Three Ecumenical Great Teachers and Hierarchs - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, January 30. On this day the Church commemorates ecumenical teachers and great theologians. It is therefore dedicated to the glorification of theology, as a service of the Church, as a special way of love for God, which must be exercised not only with all the heart and all the soul, but also “with all the mind” (Matthew 22:38). It is a special spiritual gift, for, among other gifts, the Spirit gives “the word of wisdom and knowledge” (1 Cor. 7:7), and, accordingly, “God has appointed others as teachers” in the Church (1 Cor. 27:9). Not everyone is called to teaching, but all Christians are entrusted with teaching, observed as church tradition, the sacred dogmas of faith: “You received gold, give gold” (Vincenty of Lerinsky, Common. 1, 22). Let them not think that knowledge and observance of dogmas is characteristic of only a few and can generally be separated from piety. St. Cyril of Jerusalem says: “The image of piety consists of two things: pious dogmas and good deeds. And dogmas without good deeds are not pleasing to God, and deeds done without pious dogmas are not acceptable to God” (Catech. 4, 2). Confession of the Ap. Peter, revealed to him not by flesh and blood, but by the heavenly Father: “You are the Christ the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), as well as the commandment of Christ’s baptism “in the Name of the Holy Trinity,” is contained in expanded form in the Creed, read during the sacrament of baptism and at the divine liturgy before the sacrament of the Eucharist. We observe Christian life continuously permeated by the dogmas of faith, both individually and collectively. The symbol of faith in its content is revealed in the system of theology, although this revelation is not equally accessible to everyone, just as it occurs to varying degrees for different eras. “Perhaps someone will say that there should be no advancement of religion in the Church of Christ? It must certainly be and, moreover, the greatest. Who is so envious of people and hateful of God that he decides to reject this?.. The blooming time of childhood and the mature age of senility are very different from each other, but the same people who were previously children become old... everything (in them) already existed in the embryo, so that later nothing new is discovered in the elders that was not already hidden in children... Thus, the dogmas of heavenly philosophy should be strengthened over time, smooth, clean, but they should not be changed, they should not be cut off, they should not be disfigured” (Vincenty Lerinsky, Common. 1, 22). So, the Church knows the special gift and ministry of theology, as a vital, effective observation of divine truth in the unity and continuity of church tradition, as inspired theology - speculation and contemplation, sacred creativity - not from nothing or from one’s own wisdom, but coming from the treasure of the general Church. Not everyone is called to this work, but everyone needs it and it concerns everyone - one way or another, sooner or later - in its fruits, and it expects feats of special zeal from all its servants, so that they do not turn out to be wicked and lazy slaves, and let it not be said about them: “Cursed is everyone who does the work of the Lord with negligence” (Jer. 48:10). The “ecumenical teachers and saints” teach us not only their theology, which has a guiding significance for their time and retains authority for all times in the history of the Church, but even more so about theology itself. They represent the power and source of theological inspiration. And first of all, the most important thing in these images is that the universal teachers are saints, glorified by the Church. All Christians are called to holiness, they demonstrate it to the extent of Christian life, and without any touch of this holiness or acceptance of this sanctification from the Church, it would be fruitless to begin theology, for such will appear dead. However, accomplished holiness is measured by God and revealed to the saint of his Church after the end of this life, and therefore no one could approach theology if revealed and recognized holiness were required of him in advance. But what is required of everyone on this path is the will to holiness, its observance through the acceptance and assimilation of the sanctifying power of the Church. This means, first of all, that the beginning and source of theological inspiration should be a life of prayer, nourished and nourished by the sacraments of the Church, life in Christ with the desire to acquire the Holy Spirit, living and personal love for God. True theology can only be in this sense a story about this life, presented only in a special language of concepts, a recording of personal spiritual experience, and the fire of this life should warm its writings, and its reflection should radiate from them. And it is no coincidence that the universal teachers were also saints, performers of the sacraments in the presence of the throne of God, who proclaimed to them what God had told them from the depths of the holy altar. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the ecumenical teachers, with their sublimity and the strength of their pastoral theological work, are also liturgists, bearers of prayerful inspiration. Not to mention the fact that the names of two of them are associated with a special presentation of the divine liturgy that bears their names - St. Basil the Great and John Chrysostom (and even purely editorial work to shorten the most ancient liturgies could not, of course, remain only formal, but required special insight into their spirit). And how many individual prayers or sequences owe their existence to their own inspiration. The theology in them turns into a prayer hymn, and the latter again flows into theology - a highly important and significant feature. However, let us not be blind to other features of their theology, so as not to detract from it by an excessive and one-sided opposition of divine and human energies, reaching the point of a complete gap between them. It is known that they all passed through “Athens”, and in a sense did not break with “Athens” as a school of human knowledge, cognitive effort, mental labor, from which those who come to theology sometimes so easily and mistakenly free themselves, blinded by the brightness of their own spiritual experiences, sometimes exaggeratingly mistaking them for spiritual revelations. The Lord wants us to love God with all our understanding, and not just the edge of a superficial mind that avoids effort. We can say that the universal teachers show us the image of a scientific conscience, which commands us to learn everything that can be known, and to study everything that is accessible to study, in order to deepen the chosen question. If theology in a certain sense can be a science and is such, then it is responsible for fulfilling all the requirements of scientific responsibility (“criticism”), of course, in that which is subject to science, in particular in the study of monuments of church tradition: first of all, in a comprehensive study of the Word of God, also in taking into account written and monumental, liturgical and iconographic data. And since this area of ​​study develops, is enriched and refined in history, the fulfillment of this duty does not allow us to linger at the level of past times, but requires us to fulfill the scientific duty of our time. Finally, there is one more feature, no less precious in the image of universal teachers. All of them, each in their own way (especially St. Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom), are not only thinkers and scientists, but also artists of thought and words, who transformed theological contemplations into achievements of art, poetry of concepts (as some define philosophy, and to an even greater extent this definition is applicable to theology). In their work one can feel not only prayerful, but also artistic inspiration and tension. Let us remember the irresistible beauty and the special, thanks to this, penetration of the Words of St. Gregory the Theologian, which not only convince, but also captivate, let us remember the religious lyrics of his poems, in which his fiery soul sought to express itself. Let us remember the verbal art of the “Chrysostomed” preacher, to whom it was given to praise St. Easter, to express its triumph not in human, but as if in superhuman language, in a word truly inspired by God. Let us recall the beauty of the priestly prayers in the liturgy of Basil the Great, in which sublime theology is combined with the stunning majesty of verbal expression and prayerful inspiration. This testifies that the artistic gift can also be dedicated to theology and bring its riches to it, for church inspiration is inseparably linked with the artistic in its service to the heavenly beauty of the Kingdom of God, in its quest. That is why theology is also carried out through artistic images of icon painting. Theology is often accused - and not always unfairly - of prosaic dryness, as well as of “scholastic” deadness, and truly “scholasticism” is the prosaism of theology. However, this is not only not an inevitable property of theology, but only a weakness of some theologians, a feature of its decadence. And this is not the image of theology that our ecumenical teachers give us. For genuine theological speculations always spring from the inspired contemplation of a mind shocked by a heavenly vision, from a heart melted by heavenly fire. And yet, this fiery coming from the Holy Spirit is combined in the majestic images of universal teachers and with spiritual sobriety and ascetic self-control, that special gift of measure and measure, without which the abundance of gifts can threaten chaotic fragmentation, wealth becomes the cause of poverty. In particular, it is known that they - each in their own way - in their hierarchical ministry were active organizers of church life, guardians of the church system, compilers or guardians of church rules, as well as for monastic community life. For what is internal is not canceled out by what is external, and what is small is not diminished by many. On the contrary, only one who is faithful in little will be faithful in much. With their lives and works, the “universal teachers” glorified the feat of thinking about God, as the path to knowledge of God, about which the Incarnate Word himself said: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). Meeting the Lord in the Church* The Young Child was born on earth - the eternal God in a wretched den, but He had a place in the Church, for the Church was built for Him. And He was brought to His Church, where He was pleased to dwell in His Name (1 Kings 8:29). But He appeared there not to receive worship, but to serve many, in the form of a servant, in the humility of the wretchedness of the flesh, covering the radiance of His Divinity. He arrived here as a son under the law, obedient to the law that He Himself gave to Moses, showing by Himself the image of obedience: for He did not come to break the law, but to fulfill it. His Mother came to dedicate her firstborn Son to God, to give God the Son to God the Father, and to offer an expiatory and cleansing sacrifice. At the birth of the Child, She did not know sin, but just as He, the sinless one, came to receive the baptism of repentance from John, so She, in Her immaculate Nativity, came to offer a sacrifice for sin, having in her arms the One who was truly the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. “Christ, entering the world, says: “You did not desire sacrifices and offerings, but you prepared a body for Me... Behold, I come to do Your will, O God” (Heb. 10:5-7). Not for glory, but for sacrifice, the Lord is brought to His House, which was to receive the Inconceivable One. And the veil of the Lord’s humiliation was so thick and impenetrable that the Church did not recognize or notice its Lord the Infant, lost with His Mother among the multitude of those making daily sacrifices. The curtain of the church was not torn from end to end, the High Priest did not come out to meet Him who was coming in the Name of the Lord, and the Holy of Holies was not opened to reveal the throne of the King of kings. Everything remained motionless and indifferent, just as the world around Him remained motionless and indifferent, both near and far, on the night of His Nativity in the den. “In the world there was no peace, and the world knew Him not.” However, the meeting of the Lord had to take place in the Church, the Old Testament Church had to worship Him, which all lived only in the hope of “good things to come” (Heb. 10:1). He should have been recognized by Old Testament humanity, which, in the person of its prophets, patriarchs, and confessors, peered for thousands of years into the darkness of the times to come, the tea of ​​light and the revelation of tongues. It was necessary for the One Born in the Den to be accepted and recognized by the human race, for the salvation of which He appeared, in the person of God’s chosen ones, and not only when the Forerunner who baptized Him testified about Him, but already here, on the threshold of life and on this threshold of the church. The Old Testament Church had to worship its Savior and God who entered the Church in the shadow of deep humiliation. And this worship, this meeting took place. Among God's chosen people a blessed old age was prepared to meet the Lord. An entire life of asceticism, prayer and faith was devoted to this expectation, so much so that the prayer for release from the world merged with the prayer for this meeting. And this prayer was heard, and righteous Simeon was promised by the Holy Spirit not to see death until he saw the Lord. For this purpose, it was not the bearer of the priesthood who was chosen, for the priesthood could not make this meeting without being abolished in the face of the Bishop according to the order of Melchizedek: the high priest should have taken off his turban and breastplate, and the sacrifice itself would have ceased in the face of the Sacrifice Itself, and the veil of the church would have been abolished ahead of time. But this still had to be preserved until the fulfillment of times. And therefore, the elder of the prophetic ministry was chosen to meet the Lord, by the special overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, who brought him to the Church on the appointed day and hour. And he, having met the God-man, took Him in his arms, blessed Him and said: now you let him go. The hour of his departure from the world had struck, for they saw his hoped-for salvation. His farewell song was a divinely inspired confession of faith in the Savior, sounded for the first time on earth, so that, the evangelist said, Joseph and His Mother marveled at what was said about Him. And to Her, Mother, Simeon gave a prophetic word with blessing. But what kind of meeting, what kind of greeting, what kind of worship befitted the Mother of the King of Kings, Who, while still a virgin, appeared in this church, was met by the High Priest and elevated to the Holy of Holies? And lo - now She, lost in the crowd with Her beggarly sacrifice, hears from the prophet a menacing and inconsolable word of prophecy about the coming cross of Her life, about the weapon that will pierce Her heart, along with the nails tearing the hands and feet of Her Son. Together with Simeon, Anna the prophetess, an old woman departing from the world, also met the Lord, just like the entire Old Testament Church. And she prophesied, praising the Lord. The meeting took place. The Old Testament world completed its work, through the mouth of Simeon it spoke its now absolved. But the church and the legal rite had yet to maintain their former appearance, until the time had come for it to be abolished and make way for a new worship of God in spirit and truth. The Mother and Child, who returned to Nazareth, had to flee to Egypt to save themselves from the fury of Herod: Simeon’s prophecy had already begun to be fulfilled... Let “now you let go,” the song of seeing the Lord, sound in our soul at that hour when, on the brink of this life, it will enter the spiritual world. May this introduction be the “meeting” of the Lord and His Mother, which our believing and loving soul longs for and longs for in this life! Amen. Now dost thou release thy servant, O Master This farewell to the life of the righteous Simeon the God-Receiver, awaiting his end in the calm of faith, sounds to us like a pre-sunset blessing. His eyes saw the promise, “they saw the Christ of the Lord.” This was not given to any of the great prophets, who for centuries prophesied about the coming of the Lord to earth and hoped for Him, and the wondrous old man himself only for a brief moment emerges from the darkness of the Old Testament, illuminated by the light of the Epiphany, in order to hide again in it. However, in the memory of our hearts his word will always be preserved: “Now let us go,” as a call, but also combined with a silent reproach. Shouldn't it awaken in us some kind of competition in the desire to become like it? If through his life the righteous Simeon could carry this hope of “the consolation of Israel,” then shouldn’t it be inspired by great hope for each of us? And doesn’t the Lord exhort this, calling everyone to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? For outside such a quest, it is only a series of meaningless days in their random alternation. But such a justification for life cannot be given by any temporary successes or private achievements, but only by the highest goal, which does not even fit into earthly time, but goes beyond it, like the beginning of a new century. A person has a calling to serve a higher goal in constant effort and tension. However, such a goal, which gives direction to all human life, can either be lost or replaced. This may even reveal some kind of human wisdom, but not coming from above, but earthly, demonic, spiritual (James 3:15). She is content with the middle, and even if she does not sink to the lowest, she does not strive for the highest. It does not contain the bright “now you let go.” The Lord speaks about such spiritual blindness in the parable of the rich man, who, even on the eve of his death, was planning to build new granaries for the future harvest. “But God said to him: You fool! This very night your soul will be taken from you.” “So it will be with everyone who lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich in God!” (Luke 12:19–22). What is achieved on earth is taken away in death, and what is unattainable here in its fullness and power, the Kingdom of God, it only remains beyond the borders of life. Therefore, we must seek the unattainable and serve the unattainable. However, our soul is afraid of this. Doesn’t this depreciate everything that we love on earth, with its pleasures and pleasures, even if they are short-term? Isn't she forbidden in her natural love for life? However, let there be no fear, for there is no room for reluctance. We will give attention and care to the needs of the earth with all their truth, but they should not occupy a primary place in the soul, remaining only steps of ascent. The unattainability of higher goals in their entirety does not eliminate the fact that a person in his own place has his own personal business, which is entrusted to him by God, included in the path of all-human life by Divine providence. This task of life, which is different for everyone, cannot be avoided by citing weakness. “From everyone to whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48), but every deed is of equal importance before God: “You have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things” (Matt. 25:21). It is said to everyone in the same way: “When you have done everything commanded you, say: We are slaves, worthless, because we have done everything that we were supposed to do” (Luke 17:10). What a person does on earth will always remain small and insufficient for himself. It should not give room to proud complacency. However, even at the same time, the consciousness of a responsibly performed, although not fully fulfilled, duty may remain. Therefore, a person himself must respect his own work, if God himself calls for it, endowing everyone with talent in his own measure. And what is accomplished by the creative effort of every day of work, as well as throughout life, at the end of it a person brings to the judgment of God, saying: “Lord, you gave this talent to me, but I acquired other talents with them” (Matthew 25:20-30). But woe to those who remain with the personal consciousness that they have been left with their gift unused: “Here is yours!”, but without any profit, whether it be some special gift, or humble labor in bearing one’s cross. In all situations this calling can be realized, which will be the basis for God's judgment, and everyone goes to meet his own “now you forgive.” Blessed is the one who will be given the opportunity to know his justification at the judgment of God and to say to himself this word of the wondrous old man, and may it serve as a call to each of us to unlaxly walk the path of life, in the promise of a bright end, until its measure is fulfilled. Amen. The Holy Church, in her love, uses various means to touch our heart, softening it and frightening it. And on the eve of the Great Pentecost, she calls us to repentance, placing our thoughts before God's forgiveness and God's judgment, God's mercy and God's righteousness. Last week, with the parable of the prodigal son, she proclaimed the forgiveness of sins and the joy of forgiveness, which happens in heaven for a single sinner who repents. The father runs out from afar to meet the prodigal son and invests him with all the honors and glory of his sonship. Forgiveness is proclaimed to every sinner, no matter how prodigal his sin may be, if only he sighs to the Lord for forgiveness: the thief is forgotten his entire life, full of atrocities, the harlot is forgotten about the incitement of prodigal sin, the publican is forgotten about his greed. And as if the law of forgiving love is that the greater the falling away, the greater the sin of the repentant sinner, the greater the joy of God’s forgiving love, the greater the love itself: “to whom little is forgiven, he loves little” (Luke 7:47), the Lord said to the woman sinner in the house of Simon the Pharisee. It is as if Divine goodness itself caresses a person, consoles him in his sins with the closeness and availability of forgiveness to every sinner, no matter how great his sin. But now the Church announces to us about the Last Judgment of Christ, about the unwashed court of truth, at which the answer to every word and deed will be asked, and at which, on the basis of temporary life and deeds, the verdict on eternal destiny will be made. Both repentance and forgiveness are available in this life while time continues, but this age and its time will end, and our deeds will be indelible and incorrigible in the tablets of our hearts and in the eternal memory of the world, and these records will be read, and in them there will be judgment on us. God’s mercy does not cancel His truth and God’s wrath against sin and sinners, and, now hoping for the forgiveness of sins, we must know about the inevitability of appearing in judgment, which is why the Church calls us every day to pray for a “good answer” at the Last Judgment Judgment of Christ. The Lord revealed to us this secret of His view of the world, to the extent that we can accommodate it, in terrible and soul-shaking images. According to the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord ends His last speech, spoken to the disciples before suffering, in which He revealed to them the future fate of the world and the end of the century, with a word about the Last Judgment, about what will happen after this death. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away (Matthew 24:35), said the Lord, who speaks the truth, and only the King and Judge Himself could tell us about His deeds, as much as we can comprehend. These divine verbs were spoken not to satisfy our curiosity or even inquisitiveness, but to enlighten our hearts. We need to know this for the sake of our salvation, so that we do not hear words of rejection. And this word is addressed to each of us. The Lord separates the sheep from the goats at the Last Judgment, and each of us, like the apostles who asked the Lord about the traitor, asks: Am I not, Lord, am I not one of those who will be placed on the left side with the goats and will hear the word of rejection? Is there a madman who, in his thoughts, would place himself at the right hand, although in prayer and hope he prays to the Lord for this? He would condemn himself by self-exaltation, as well as by despair. “I tremble at the terrible day of judgment,” but I also “hope in the mercy of Your mercy.” And just as in the ancient icons of the Last Judgment the poor soul, judged in trepidation, awaits its verdict, not knowing what it will be, so now the Lord has imprisoned us all in ignorance about our own fate and about the fate of our neighbors, even those closest and dearest to us. We do not know ourselves and do not see, as the Lord knows and sees us: “Lord, did they not prophesy in Your Name, did they not perform miracles in Your Name? And He will say: go away, I don’t know you.” The Lord announced to us in all the severity and severity of God’s punishing truth about the possibilities, one of which will become an irrevocable reality for everyone at that hour of God’s judgment, but until then, while we walk the path of our salvation, not one of them has yet become, but is only just becoming a reality. Eternal life with Christ, in His Kingdom, prepared from the creation of the world, or eternal separation from it, hellish death? So, not in order to frighten, but in order to call for spiritual wakefulness (Matthew 25:12), for a responsible and strict passage of the earthly path, the Lord spoke the prophesied parable of the Last Judgment. It applies to each of us, each one will appear before the terrible judgment seat of Christ, and let each one heed His word about this. There are no perfect righteous people among people, just like there are no perfect sinners; we are all gray mixtures of good and evil, at the same time we belong to the sheep and the goats. However, someday there will be a division - not only of good and evil in the depths of every human soul, but also between people. The Lord will sum up life with its mixture of good and evil, and what prevails in the soul will become the only dominant one: some will become sons of the kingdom, and their garments will be white, others will share the lot of Satan with the hopeless darkness of hellfire. He who has ten talents will be given another ten talents, but from him who has one talent and does not increase it, this last one will be taken away. The Lord reveals what determines a person’s fate, what his salvation or death depends on, and this is for all people from all nations, and even those not enlightened by the faith of Christ. This beginning, this power of life is love, the deeds of love and the path of love: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and the prisoner, and this is not only physical, but also spiritual. These questions of the Lord encompass the entire area of ​​relationships between people, all the possibilities of love. However, the question involuntarily arises: is not the whole Christian life reduced to charity? Does this mean that right faith, Christian hope, fulfillment of church statutes, adherence to the teachings of faith, and prayer are not important for salvation? Or does this mean that heresies, schisms, and unbelief do not matter if there are good deeds? No, all this is required of a Christian and will be imputed to the right Judge, but separated from love, without love, it becomes the dry virtue of an arrogant Pharisee or the eldest son in the parable of the prodigal. A merciful heart is what God wants from us: be merciful like your heavenly Father. If there is no love in a person’s heart, everything that he has is dead and of little value, according to the words of the apostle: “If I speak in the tongues of angels and men, but do not have love, then I am a ringing brass, or a sounding cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries, and have all knowledge and all faith, so that I could move mountains, but do not have love, then I am nothing. And if I give away all my goods and give my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1-3). “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). God-love is known by love, and without this knowledge of the heart, all paths of knowledge of God remain powerless and ineffective. But love itself is a gracious gift of God, the highest of God’s gifts, the gift of likeness to God. Our selfish, sinful heart knows only the commandments and the deeds of love that agree with them, but not love itself, only the path of love, which we force ourselves to follow by doing the commandments. But the Lord does not ask us about what we cannot bear, what we cannot have without the grace of God, He asks us about deeds of love for our neighbor, about the will to love, about wanting it. And He counts the very intention as fulfillment; He accepts deeds of love as love. So, the Lord asked each of us whether there is love in us, and if not love, then the deeds of love, the will of love, the love of love, or whether our heart is dead in its selfishness and therefore becomes the lot of that selfish person to whom we are likened, sharing his lot - Satan and his angels. The law of love is implanted by God in the human heart, it is the seal of God in it, the image of the Triune God of consubstantiality in man. But the words of the Lord at the Last Judgment also contain another thought: love for one’s neighbor is also love for Christ, it contains it within Himself. Our only neighbor, to whom all deeds of love and all love relate and can relate, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And we love the Lord Himself in man and through man, without knowing it, and we impress upon Him, the Creator, deeds of love. The righteous deny this in their humility: “Lord, when did I hunger for the sight of You and drink of You?” (1 John 25:37). Sinners also deny themselves in their blindness and bitterness. The truth that the Lord accepts love remains closed to natural human consciousness. The Lord again confirmed here the truth of the Old Testament that there are only two commandments in which “hang the law and the prophets”: the first is love for God, and the second is similar to it, love for one’s neighbor. You cannot love God without loving your neighbor. “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20)? But it is also impossible, while loving your neighbor, not to love Christ in this and through this. The Lord reveals this truth to the world in His parable about the Last Judgment. He says here to all peoples, both those who know Him and those who do not know Him in earthly life, both baptized and not baptized, that their true love for their neighbor, expressed in deeds of love, contains both intimate love for the Lord and His secret knowledge. These are wings on which you can fly high. And if the eyes of their hearts remain closed in this life, then, according to His word, they will open, and they will see that, not knowing Christ, they served Him and loved Him and are now justified by Him. Here is the secret of God's mercy for those who remain in this life ignorant of the Lord. But here is another secret revealed to the Church, namely, that in the Incarnation the Lord became the New Adam, a true Man, living in the human race, as a vine lives in its births, and therefore establishing true humanity in every person. Christ lives in every person, there is the power of Christ, every person in the eyes of love is the image of God, the image of Christ, there is Christ Himself living in him. The Lord left heaven to descend to our humiliation, and, having become incarnate, He forever united human flesh with Himself and said through His apostles: Behold, I am with you until the end of the world. In one of the apocryphal legends, the words of the Lord are conveyed: cut a tree - I am there; break a stone - I am there. But in his speech about the Last Judgment of Christ, the Lord clearly says: every person, whatever he may be, is “one of the least of My brothers” (Matthew 25:40), and what was done to him was “done to Me.” I am in them, and they are I. Each person is close to his neighbor, all people are neighbors to each other, but there is one neighbor to all neighbors - the Lord Jesus Christ. Each person, already only as a person, is embraced by the humanity of Christ and contained in the love of Christ. And by loving a person, we love the Lord. Therefore, the word of the Lord about His Last Judgment, terrible for human consciousness, may it be for us now, while the Lord gives us time for repentance with this life, not as a word of intimidation, but as a meek call of repentance and love. It is not given to us to know God’s eternal judgment over us, but in our will there still remains that which serves as the basis for this sentence. And therefore let our hearts hear that commandment in which the law and the prophets hang: Thou shalt love thy Lord and thy neighbor as thyself. And while this love is not in our hearts, the image of the final judgment of Christ is terrible for us, and the one who is meek and humble in heart, who accepted the pain of the cross out of love for man, seems to him a formidable and inexorable punishing Judge. But for the eyes of believing love, He is our Savior, Divine Love itself. Love for God contains the fear of God, so that we do not offend Him by violating His will, but, according to the word of the Apostle of love (1 John 4:17-18), “love reaches such perfection in us that we have boldness on the day of judgment, because we act in this world as He does. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” The last word of the Lord at his farewell conversation with his disciples, preserved for us in the Gospel of John, was this: “I give you a new commandment: love one another.” But the last word of the Lord before his closest disciples on the eve of the Last Supper, told by the Evangelist Matthew, in his speech about the Last Judgment, is the same commandment of love. Not with intimidation, but with exhortation and conviction, the Lord addresses all people passing through their earthly lot: love one another, for only love passes into eternal life. Or, according to the ap. Paul, and prophecies will cease, and tongues will be silent, and knowledge will be abolished, and love will cease to exist (1 Cor. 13:8). Amen. Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver! The church is now praying for the opening of the doors of repentance. What are these doors? Where are they? How often do we complain and sigh that we do not know repentance, that we cannot, do not know how to repent. The heart remains empty and cold, even when we seek repentance, and our consciousness is drowsy. And yet we know that there is no salvation apart from repentance. It is impossible to approach the Kingdom of God apart from him; there is no living faith outside of him. It is the salt that salts it. How can we tap into its power? Repentance in us begins with the conscious vision and knowledge of our sin: for I know my iniquity, and I will take away my sin before me (always), this is how the soul testifies to itself in the repentant cry of the psalmist (Ps. 51:5). It is possible for a time not to be at all aware of sin, remaining in its captivity. The soul is enveloped in a deep sleep, similar to death, and if it does not wake up, it will turn out to be the sleep of real spiritual death. While people remain ignorant of sin, in their pagan blindness, they hate the word sin itself and become angry at the thought of it. Although vaguely, the soul feels that there is hidden condemnation of its entire past path, there is a call for renewal: repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1:15), and inertia and selfishness resist this call in us. Without entering into repentance, a spiritual person cannot be born into a spiritual person. And here it is, the first door of repentance: knowledge of one’s sin and behavior of oneself in the power of it. In the darkness of the soul, a ray suddenly lights up, and in its light a person sees himself before the face of God. The eye of God sees us through our conscience; it is God’s self-witness in the human soul. Conscience judges us with a righteous, incorruptible and undeceitful judgment, and this current judgment of it is, as it were, a preliminary to the Last Judgment of Christ. She is the greatest gift of God’s love, with which God honored man, for what is “most necessary for conscience” (in the words of the great canon of St. Andrew of Crete)? Through conscience we see ourselves in the light of God's truth: for you may be justified in all your words and overcome the judgment of You (Ps. 50:5). Every person, even not only Christians, but also pagans, according to St. Paul has been entrusted with this priceless gift of God. But the first movement of the soul, when it sees itself in the light of conscience in its sin, is the desire to hide from the face of God in the shade of trees, like our ancestors in Eden, when they saw their nakedness. Calm self-satisfaction and proud self-satisfaction leave a person; in their place are shame, embarrassment, even fear of what has been revealed to a person about himself. This is a difficult and dangerous hour before dawn, because cowardly despondency and deep self-disappointment usually await here. However, the power of repentance further draws us not to an inactive contemplation of sin, but to an effective struggle against it. It forces us to seek liberation from sin, purification. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my womb, the soul prays along with the psalmist (Ps. 50:12). From here the work of repentance begins, without which salvation cannot take place, and it has a beginning, but does not know the end, for it extends to a whole life. Without this work, there is no actual work of repentance, only the dream of it remains. And behold the second door of repentance. Woe to us who limit ourselves only to the knowledge of sin, but, alienating this work, shy away from direct struggle with it, for such a person has no excuse for his sin (John 15:22). But self-knowledge leads to self-reproach, and self-reproach to new self-knowledge: the abyss of the heart opens wider and wider, new sins are revealed in its memory, and at its very bottom the serpent of original sin coils. Attention to oneself and spiritual work do not, however, lead to relaxation or decline. It strengthens courage, renews the strength of the soul, and invigorates its nature. One who repents of sins makes an invisible effort and remains in spiritual tension, which is reflected in his entire life. And he has his consolations, for the Heavenly Father gives him generous gifts in the sacrament of repentance, gives him the joy of forgiveness. Reward me with the joy of Thy salvation and strengthen me with the sovereign spirit, the repentant soul again prays with the psalmist (Ps. 50:14). The feat of repentance is the heart of all feats, which is why great ascetics combine it with the grace-filled flowering of all spiritual powers. In repentance, the original nature of man is freed from the distortions of sin. In order to show the sinner the saving fruit of repentance, the Lord granted remission of sins in the sacrament of repentance. In him, the former becomes the non-existent, the wounds of sin are healed by the power of Christ. However, only that which is blotted out by a person in his heart is condemned and fought. A person himself must unfold the sad pages in the book of his life, so that they may be blotted out by the grace of the sacrament. Unrepentant and not erased. True repentance is useful for everything: it gives healing and health, peace and joy, humility and courage, sobriety and vigilance. Through enmity with sin, it strengthens love for God and testifies to it. We always need the power of repentance, but St. The Church singled out and blessed St. for deliberate days of repentance. Pentecost. And now our souls are called to him with prayer: open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver! About bright sadness*: On the eve of Lent There is a spiritual sense of the difference between church times. It’s as if we breathe different air on weekdays, or Sundays, or on great holidays. And absolutely exceptional in our lives is the time of Great Lent, bright and repentant, joyful and difficult. Solemn seriousness and special lightness enter the soul when it surrenders to repentance. She then rises above the level of everyday life and breathes the rarefied, invigorating air of the mountain peaks. Great Lent gives you a sense of responsibility for your life, a vision of yourself before God in the light of eternity, along with a keen sense of consciousness of sins, as if a terrible judgment against yourself. The light of Lent penetrates the twilight of our soul. The joy of knowing the spiritual will give birth to “sadness like God”, calling for the work of repentance, exhausting and difficult, but also healing and saving. It is not in vain that on the very eve of Lent, on the week of Cheese Fat, we remember the expulsion of our first parents from paradise. This feeling of lost paradise accompanies the days of Lent. We remember paradise in the purity of golden childhood, as the original element of our soul, and, not knowing it, we yearn for it. The soul is woven from contradictions in the state of its fall, and this feeling intensifies to pain when it goes deeper into itself. And this sharpness of contradictions is the burning power of repentance. It is in the repentant self - denial in its given state, and, however, it is inextricably linked with the memory of heavenly purity in primordiality. It is the suffering of the prodigal son, darkened by sin, and yet in it he preserves the memory of his father’s house, the seal of his sonship with God. During the days of Great Lent, the Church dresses in dark vestments and, as it were, returns to the Old Testament. Prayerful words of repentance are constantly repeated in it. And yet we enter Great Lent through the rite of forgiveness while singing Easter hymns, and the darkness of sin is cut through in us by the light of Christ’s Resurrection. The entire spiritual aspiration of Great Lent is determined by this connection with the coming Easter. In general, it should be said about each of the church times that it is determined not only by itself, but also by its entire connection with other times, and it would be infidelity if we perceived it outside of this connection, as the only and self-sufficient one. And it is especially important to know this regarding Great Lent, as a special image of our self-awareness in repentance. In its intensity, in all the horror and disgust before our sinfulness, we feel within ourselves the power of evil, the power of non-existence, the depth of insignificance. And the more acute this feeling is in us, the more blind we become in the surrounding darkness. The nature of repentance is connected not only with the burden of sin, which is always unbearable, but also with the acute awareness of its unsuitability, with the pain of the contradiction that tears us apart. Repentance in its depth is like death, which is terrible and merciless, irresistible and murderous. Like a dark shadow, it is accompanied by a pale companion of despondency and despair, against which the Church deliberately warns on days of repentance, when the soul seems to be locked in the prison of sin (see John Climacus) and suffocates in it in sadness and horror. The spirit of despondency slyly whispers to a person that he all belongs to sin and insignificance, along with the whole world. Taking an excuse from sin and repentance, the slanderer (the devil) slanders both the world and man. And in the name of repentance, this slander is sometimes mistaken for the entire power and truth of Christianity, which seems to be exhausted and limited by the special nature of Lent. However, what is true repentance, what does it presuppose and include? It is, first of all, a difference, a distinction between good and evil, darkness and light: “and the light shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). The blackness of darkness without light is invisible and imperceptible. To repent of evil, you need to see good and, moreover, love it, feel its power, believe in it. True repentance is born from spiritual strength, not weakness. It is least of all the tearful and cowardly selfishness, the selfish feeling of a slave afraid of the scourge of his master. It will be born from man’s love for God and for man, for himself, as the Image of God. If repentance is connected with the feeling of death, it is only in the sense that mortal memory is a constant verification of the image of temporality in the face of eternity, but not a denial of its meaning. You cannot spiritually run away from death, trying to forget about it, but you also cannot live in the name of death, for this is blasphemy against life. And death can and should be joyful, like the spiritual spring of Great Lent, for it too is life. Christ united life and death in His incarnation, trampling down death with death. This sermon brought and brings a lot of evil about darkness without light, about repentance without hope, about the insignificance of creation without its eternal abiding... And for this non-Christian state of mind, the pretext is taken from Great Lent. But let these slanderers of life be silent, for Great Lent is also the gospel of Easter, and its sadness is only the path to the joy of the Resurrection, and it is called a “luminous” and “bright” fast. And not only the call to repentance contains the sermon of Great Lent, but also the gospel from which repentance itself will be born. It is about the Sonship of God of man bearing the image of God. It is about God-manhood, in which God forever united Himself with man and with the world. This is told to us not only by the bright triumph of the Divine Eucharist, of common communion, to which Great Lent leads us in the “fasting”, and not only by the non-evening lights of Sunday days, but by the deliberate commemorations of these days, which permeate the long night of Great Lent. These signs specifically testify to the primordial nature of man with his original closeness to God, which is violated, but not destroyed by sin. And it is these bright signs that give us what we need to complete the repentant feeling. They provide it with that inner support, outside of which it loses its true meaning. Let us listen to this language of sacred symbols. The first Sunday of Great Lent, the “Week of Orthodoxy,” is dedicated to the triumph of icon veneration, celebrated, of course, not only as a historical remembrance, but also in its dogmatic meaning. Recognition of the depiction of Christ on the icon testifies that the God-man Jesus, uniting in Himself two natures, divine and human, has one inseparable image, moreover, not just human, but also divine-human. This means that the image of God is the Prototype for man, and man has the image of God in himself: “I am Your ineffable glory, even though I bear the burden of sin.” In the days of repentance, when a person seems to lose faith in himself, he is simultaneously reminded that the image of God in him is the basis of his existence, indestructible by sin. By repentance she is called upon to reveal within herself this prototype that exists within him. Human nature is not emptiness and insignificance, but contains within itself the basis of sonship with God. And this should be the internal basis of his repentance. Second Sunday dedicated to the memory of St. Gregory Palamas, is the dogmatic testimony of the Church about the deification of man by Divine grace. Is that grace-filled illumination that was given to ascetics on the paths of their “smart work”, unceasing prayer, a true manifestation of the Divine and can a person truly become worthy of receiving the Divine light? This again speaks of God's participation as the goal that leads the repentant sinner on the path of repentance. Finally, the third Sunday of Great Lent, the veneration of the cross, is the triumph of our redemption. We worship the Cross as an instrument of our salvation, at the same time combining this worship with the contemplation of Christ’s resurrection. Just as the bitter waters of Marrah are sweetened by the tree thrown into them by the command of God by Moses, so the contemplation of the cross of Christ delights the bitterness of the penitential feat. But the symbol of the cross also tells us about what is above: it “bears the Trinitarian image of the Trinity.” It marks the mystery of mutually hypostatic love in the Holy Trinity, which is the sacrificial self-denial or self-exhaustion of each of the Hypostases, but at the same time its life in the others: “the trinity in one and the one in trinity.” And God, Love of the Cross, created man in His image, inscribing in him the image of the cross. And this image of God’s love for man on the cross is also depicted as man’s reciprocal love for God. What other sign can magnify a person more? But as if in order to balance these joyful signs in the human soul with a call to repentance, on the fourth and fifth Sundays of Great Lent, the Church places before our spiritual gaze stern and majestic images of ascetics and preachers of repentance, who have walked the path to the glory foretold to man: St. John Climacus and St. Mary of Egypt. However, this is not the last word of Great Lent addressed to the human soul. It ends with the glorification of the Mother of God (“akathist”) and the Lazarus Resurrection, which already connects Great Lent with Holy Week. The name of the Most Holy Theotokos is also commemorated on the Feast of the Annunciation, which usually falls during Lent. The Church places before our contemplation the height and holiness of St. Mother of God. But She, the grace-filled vessel of the Holy Spirit, the Mother of God, who gave humanity to the God-man, is also the Mother of the human race. She belongs to him, as his offspring, his glory and holiness. She testifies with herself how much has been given to man by God, what he is called to by Him, where his ascent on the paths of God-manhood leads him. The Church again and again assures the repentant sinner of his sonship with God and of his glory. In such illumination one goes through the painful path of repentance. This is the path of faith - faith in God, in His mercy for those who repent, and faith in a person who is inherent in sonship with God. And the more strongly the first is experienced, the more vital the second is felt. Therefore, repentance is not a person’s self-relaxation, his renunciation of his human powers and calling, but is his strengthening in true humanity. He returns to life, to work in the name of God, to love for man and to God’s world from the mountain peaks, where he breathed the cold and clean air of repentance, to bright deeds and inspirations. On the rivers of Babylon we are there, sad and weeping These words sounded again, the words of a song in exile. We heard them in our homeland, we were shocked by the wondrous beauty of these artistic images; our soul melted, we dreamed about them, but we did not understand their real meaning. With such force they were torn out two thousand years ago from the hearts of God’s people - crying for everything that was lost, crying for the altar, crying for the shrine, for opposition to the work of God... Now we are in the same position. The Jews were in Babylon for decades, entire generations died, they lost everything: their homeland, shrine, language (they returned with the Aramaic language, which Christ spoke). But they did not lose faith and love (this cannot be lost) and with this they returned. In good times and in our homeland, this song was sung to us so that we would remember and seek the city of God, heavenly Jerusalem. Then we did not understand this, but were only touched by the beauty, but now we understand and feel it, since we ourselves are in exile. Not having a homeland means always being sick. Remember that in Babylon, in the land of exile, most died, some physically, some mentally, forgetting Jerusalem. (Ten tribes perished, only two remained). Death is not the death of the soul, but disincarnation...lost the body. So those who have lost their homeland seem to have died: they both live and do not live, as if they did not have a body. (They cannot truly take part in foreign life.) This is the lot of exile, the same exile is suffered in our homeland by those who do not agree with the fury of anger, with the destruction of altars - they are also exiles there. There they are deprived of times and deadlines, deprived of Holy Week... Where should we take our grief, where should we turn, what should we expect? We will never return to our homeland in the true sense of these words. Those who return will also be there “in a foreign land.” We will have to endure a lot to indulge in work there in the consciousness that this is our body. Our homeland is a shrine, the place of the Holy City, built among the walls of Babylon. This song is at the same time a lament for the earthly fatherland and the heavenly fatherland - and we are deprived of both. Our feat is to live the fullness of Russian life and our faith and love for God. Exhaustion of faith is weakness and judgment against oneself, until the Last Judgment. And faith is love. Do we really love our homeland because we were masters there and life was good? No, love must be sacrificial. We should not dream about happiness, not about well-being in connection with the thought of returning to our homeland, but we must pray like the prodigal son: no longer worthy to be called a son, but accept him as a mercenary. If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand be forgotten! When the stars in the firmament rotate according to the daily time, the luminaries stand above our head, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, sometimes completely hidden. Likewise, this song evokes different feelings in us at different times in our lives and is perceived differently by us. Maybe we cried over her in the days of happy childhood, moved by the sadness of this inspired song, the wondrous beauty of these perfect images - maidens hanging harps on coastal trees. Then it was sweet and irresponsible to perceive this great work. Currently, the constellation stands directly above our heads and this song is sung about ourselves and about our homeland, aggravating our pain and raising questions for us. Jews were in exile for about fifty years - this is a change of almost two generations. It was not those people who returned to their homeland who went into exile, but a new generation. But it was the same Israel, but in the minority, in poverty, and he did not come empty-handed, but with what he acquired in exile. During this time, Israel had its greatest prophets: Jeremiah, who had previously predicted God's punishment, wept at the ruins of Jerusalem; in captivity, Ezekiel prophesied about a new church and church piety, laying down laws to protect it; Daniel saw world history with prophetic eyes. During this same time, Psalm 136 arose, which we hear today. During the captivity, Israel matured in the wisdom and knowledge of its faith, became enriched and enlightened, and enshrined the law in writing. In Babylon, Israel was among the most powerful, most enlightened, and most corrupt people. Many could not resist these temptations and remained there; others, having left, regretted the waste of Babylon. But those who went with Ezra and Nehemiah brought their faith to their homeland and strengthened their people in law and piety, which, with further development and growth, gave full flowering and led to the birth of the Virgin Mary. No one can measure himself against the chosen people, but God does not abandon us with his help, does not deprive us of our guardian angels. What should we do, in what feelings should we strengthen ourselves in order to return to our homeland with dignity, who is destined for this? Most worthy is the feeling that is expressed in the last words of the song: “Blessed is he who has and will dash your babies against the stone,” but this feeling is deadening. (And these words can serve as some temptation if you do not understand them spiritually). If you measure yourself by the constellation of this song, you need to have the strength of faith, you need to remember that Israel, which emerged from Babylon as a small people, later became the universal Israel spiritually. How to say this, how to draw it for yourself? It is impossible to say: I want to be wise, holy, kind... This can only be had as an inner eye, as love, as a desire for heavenly Jerusalem... We have approached “Mount Zion and the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem and ten thousand angels; to the solemn assembly and church of the firstborn, who are written in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Testament...” (Heb. 12:22-24). Let us not tell ourselves that only the wise and strong can create a connection with the heavenly homeland and the earthly homeland; and we are small and weak, we just need to survive, gritting our teeth to go through all the trials. Let us remember that in spiritual standing there is always a vision of the sky; we cannot shield ourselves from it (to the extent of our vision, we can see both the sky and the stars)... Some will return to our native holy land, while others will remain and become like the peoples among whom they live. What will they come back with? Let us remember the parable of the two sons. The father loved the younger one, not for his sins, but for his humility, faith and love. The eldest considered himself closest to his father, but there was no love in him, there was no God. Will we meet the lost brothers left in their homeland with the words: “Blessed is he who has and will dash your babies against a stone” (feeling of revenge)? Or like the eldest son who did not want to enter the supper so as not to be defiled? Or like the younger one, with humility? Let us remember the words we heard yesterday and which are sung at tonsure: “Open the arms of the Father, I strive: I have wasted my life fornication, I look at the unexpendable riches of Your bounties, O Savior, do not despise my now impoverished heart. For you, Lord, I call with tenderness: those who have sinned, Father, go to heaven and before You!” This is a call to monastic feat - humility and love. Sunday 4 February 1934 On the eve of Lent As we fast, brethren, physically, we also fast spiritually. For this difficult time, the time of Great Lent is coming. It was established by the Church for many times, in all their diversity. The regulations of the fast remain unchanged, as if without noticing it, in spite of it. But in the rapid flow of time, and in all the diversity of life, in essence, we always feel the spirit of Great Lent in a new way, and we strive to feel it especially now. Gone are the days when Lenten periods passed by in a measured and calm manner. We have been plunged into the sea of ​​life, boiling from a world fire, placed before trials and temptations that our ancestors did not know, although none of them was free from their own difficulties. Now it is especially necessary for us - each in his own way - to ask ourselves how he should carry out the commands of Lent. Is there something in them that is weakened and even falls away, eliminated by modern life, and that, on the contrary, receives a special, as if new, strength? First of all, the harsh demands of bodily abstinence sound weaker to our contemporaries, who have long ago, against their will, been plunged into a state of impoverishment and need. What, according to the Charter, should be a feat of abstinence, in our everyday life is involuntary. Therefore, more flexible and lenient requirements are applicable here, corresponding to the special conditions of our time, and the Pharisaic observance of the letter, according to the word of the Lord, is no longer useful: “The Sabbath is for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Of course, it should not be used as a plausible pretext for complete liberation from bodily fasting, because abstinence can be carried out in different ways. If a person sincerely and conscientiously seeks how to apply it, he will find the proper measure and degree. However, if, due to the force of circumstances, bodily abstinence loses its primary significance as a free activity, the more important the commands of “spiritual fasting” become, as a special effort of thought and will in the corresponding direction. Let the duration and frequency of Lenten services be beyond the power of most of us, with the exception of very few exceptions. Our tension can relate to constant remembrance of God, to examining ourselves in the light of conscience, to spiritual self-collection, to deepening into our spiritual world. Seeing yourself in your sins before the face of God is repentance. It seeks grace-filled liberation from the severity of sins through the sacrament of repentance, to a repentant meeting with Christ: “Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, receiving your confession”... And this repentant meeting also leads to a marriage meeting with Christ, to the reception of the Heavenly Bridegroom into the soul, unknown to Him, in the sacrament of communion. Repentance gives birth in the soul to a new thirst for such union and bestows new joy from it. Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, in connection with repentance, should be the main event of our life during the days of Great Lent, once, or, better yet, repeated. All this creates the special inspiration of Lenten time, with its spiritual delights. It can and should appear not only as sadness for God, but also as bright joy about Him. Along with the life of God during Lenten life, thought of God must also find a place in it, albeit in short bursts. No matter how small our spiritual leisure time left by a difficult life may be, they do not exclude the possibility of lightning-fast insights, special Lenten revelations about God and man, about the Redeemer and redemption, about sin and salvation. They are also evoked by the services of Great Lent, with their deliberate theological intensity. The consciousness of our removal from God to a distant country becomes more acute in us, along with the call for the return of the prodigal son to the Father’s roof. In a certain spiritual transparency one can see the depth of heaven, in its azure one can feel the closeness of God. There is a special spiritual miracle of Lent, which we experience, often without realizing it at all - the childishness of the soul finding the open arms of the Father. Spiritual awakening increases from strength to strength, reaching its peak with the completion of Great Lent, with Holy Week, which is the miracle of all the miracles of Lenten. Christians forget, and more often than not, do not trust what they are called to in their spirituality. Absentmindedly and cold-bloodedly, they listen to spiritual things, as if they were something extraneous, alien and inaccessible. But it is for her that the soul should burn and be jealous, hope and believe. And in our days of need and confusion, war and disaster, this is the main task of the Lenten feat: to spiritually overcome one’s lack of faith, to know God in an earthquake and storm, to find the joy of faith. God is with us. This is why Great Lent was given to us as a time of great spiritual work of the hidden. “And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6). Amen. Lent is approaching. But we involuntarily ask ourselves: how will we meet and spend it in our days of great and all kinds of confusion? The soul is pinched by dear memories of the past in the “father’s house”: the dreams of a golden childhood resurrect its bright images before us. Then, in our distant homeland, in the transparency of the approaching spring, long, gentle bells sounded to us, they called us to church, and we obediently followed them. Quiet tenderness filled the soul, solemn importance and simplicity, all the spiritual beauty melted it. Listening to them, it was as if both nature and life stopped in silence: the soul was washed and brightened in its repentant work. Such is the childhood of a soul that preserves the memory of Eden, which it lost. This was echoed by the entire rule of life on holy days: bodily abstinence with prolonged rites of worship, persistence in prayer with “fasting,” ending with the sacraments of repentance and communion, like a new birth. But where are these brighter days now for many, if not most, and will they come? So we involuntarily ask ourselves, with anxiety and pain, about our suffering brethren. The Church invariably preserves the memory of them in the regularity of its times and seasons, but has not spiritual spring been taken away from us - here with our homeland, but also there, in our homeland? A heavy dark cloud of despondency and bewilderment fell on the souls: not peace, but disastrous wars, not church tenderness, but persecution of sacred things, not abstinence, but exhausting soul and body poverty, not repentance, but heart-wrenching care, not a succession of divine services, but another sequence with its own times and seasons: such is life now. As if only the worldly, deadening and drying, exposing the soul, tearing off its bright robes, triumphs in her. And then the church melodies with their verbs begin to sound differently, not inspiring, but tiring, as if not reaching the ear. This requires unknown leisure of soul and body. In the face of this way of life, which seems to be experiencing itself, bitterness and irritation rise in the souls, almost hostility towards what the soul was previously nourished and warmed by. What's happening to us now? Is there any other exodus from here than into oblivion, into the “far off land” of the prodigal son? Such are these feelings and thoughts that weigh on the heart, like the “spirit of idleness and despondency,” for victory over which the Church teaches us to pray during Lenten days. How to overcome it, how to resist this spiritual disintegration, not with your own human weakness, but with the help of God? Where can I find words of response, victory, consolation, revival? Dear brothers and sisters, they exist, these words were spoken long ago and for all times, for all conditions of life with its events. And they were said by the Lord Jesus, said and repeated many times: “It is I, do not be afraid! Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Believe in God and believe in Me.” Christ is always with us and the same. God does not forget or abandon us when we leave Him, and there is no partiality in Him. He leads everyone in a special way, characteristic of him, has mercy, chooses and calls, and now we are called and chosen by Him no less than in the days of prosperity, and we must prove ourselves worthy of this election, with which we are honored by God. We are called to a special feat of faith, courage, “patience and love.” We must learn and accept much through little, joy through sorrow, not in a lot of talking, but prayerfully find its pearl at the bottom of our soul. Only the publican’s prayer is available to us, in its brevity, but also in its power; let those who are still called to this pray more fully for us. If the free feat of fasting abstinence is taken from us, let patience and brotherly love be imputed to it. Above all, let us demonstrate the strength of faith and its courage. If much has now been taken away from us from what was previously given, but not suffered, then now, when this free gift is no longer there, the Lord allows us to suffer for Him and with Him, such is His Lenten call to us. Therefore, let us not be embarrassed by the smallness and brevity of our prayer in church and in our cells, if it is not due to our laziness. She can become great before God and the publican: he prayed “standing in the distance, not even daring to raise his eyes to heaven.” This is the Lenten feat required of each of us, this is what we cannot shy away from: the memory of God in our hearts, contrition and sighing for our sins in our hearts, a sense of responsibility for our lives. The grace of fasting, which is not taken away from us even now, gives us that transparency in the spirit in which we see ourselves in our sins, but instead of calming pleasure, it wants from us a courageously suffering heart, in accepting our cross, in following Christ. God gives, to everyone in due time, what they need. Let us enter into the power of Great Lent with repentant self-knowledge and its creative inspiration. Woe are our hearts! Amen. The gospel of heavenly spring sounds again, the doors of repentance are opened, the soul is called to weeping on the rivers of Babylon as Great Lent approaches. Are these calls reaching us? Does their quiet grace touch our hearts? Are we still able to respond to them? This is how we involuntarily test ourselves in our numbness, confusion and spiritual fear. More than once in recent years it has seemed to us that the measure of sins and suffering is overflowing and the last times are approaching. The lot of humanity seems to be becoming increasingly difficult, and our weak souls are exhausted under the weight of unbearable trials. And yet the Lord, prophesying about the last times, still adds: “He who endures to the end will be saved!” (Matthew 24:13). This means that there should be no limit to Christian courage and long-suffering, which conquers everything, with such inexorability the Christian conscience commands us to do this. Even if we begin, while complaining, to count the burdens of life, its sorrows and horrors, we will still not exhaust the inventiveness in evil of the spirits of evil and their servants and will only plunge ourselves into a state of fear. And this is what the “world rulers of the darkness of this age” want, a spiritual victory over us, but this is precisely what we should not allow over ourselves. In the past, spiritual life was naturally accessible to us, but now we are called to a difficult and courageous struggle for its very existence in us. We are now required to make continuous efforts for both external and internal self-preservation. However, the fate of the world invariably remains in the power of God, the tolerance of evil knows its limits, and God’s providence knows the ways of man. He seals with his seal his chosen ones, from all tribes and languages, and the angels of God together with us will overcome the armies of the enemy. This is our faith. God knows our weakness, and we must be tempted by it even now. Man himself does not have his own scales, which are in the hands of Him who sits on the throne, and this measure is different in days of prosperity and times of trials. The great can appear insignificant, just as the small can appear great. Therefore, we ourselves should equally not tempt ourselves with unbearable demands, just as we should not indulge ourselves in spiritual laziness. We know how difficult spiritual life is now, and how rare and inaccessible its inspiration is. Sometimes it seems to us in despondency that we are being forsaken by God, but we ourselves fall into petrified insensibility, prayer grows cold, love becomes impoverished, and gray dullness reigns in our souls. But it is not God who leaves us, for He is always close to us, but we leave Him, we do not seek to know His closeness, to establish ourselves in it, precisely when it is most needed, for it is most difficult. We remember what a gift of grace, how easily and joyfully this feeling of God’s closeness was given to us, what a spiritual triumph these days of the approach of Great Lent and immersion in its saving waters were for us. Now few people have access to these consolations, only for brief moments. However, the beggar values ​​the last mite that he still has, no less, but perhaps more fully and more than his former wealth. Now our patience and loyalty are being tested. But - says Christ - “do not be afraid of anything that you will have to endure” (Rev. 2:10). To us, the faithful now, as certain chosen ones, sealed with the seal of God, called to great longsuffering, His love and promise are addressed: “Those whom I love, I rebuke and punish. Therefore, be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19). So, even now, entering the days of Pentecost, let us not be afraid of our weakness, but joyfully be inspired by at least the crumbs that fall to us from the spiritual meal, and greedily catch them. The Chrysostomed preacher of the joy of Easter calls to her those who fasted and those who did not fast, who came not only at the early, but also at the last hour, and let everyone not be afraid now of their spiritual poverty. It is possible for everyone to immerse themselves in themselves, standing before God, albeit for a brief moment. Almost everyone has the opportunity to participate at least in a small and rare way in the prayer feast of the Church during the weeks of Lent, if only they seek and thirst for it. And everyone is called to cleanse themselves in these days by repentance and sanctify themselves by communion with Christ through the communion of His body and blood. You just need to sincerely desire it, and this demand on yourself is not eliminated by any external obstacles, but only by internal self-elimination and self-exclusion. Let this evidence of our faithfulness to Christ be small, but He promised us: “You have been faithful in small things, I will put you over many things: enter into the joy of your master!” (Matthew 25:21). Therefore, as Great Lent approaches, let everyone ask himself how he responded to this calling and what he can offer to God as a spiritual sacrifice - no more than what he is able to do, but no less, for the Lord loves with a jealous love. He said: “To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away” (Matthew 25:29). And He promised us: “And just as you have kept the word of My patience, I will also keep you in the time of temptation that will come to the whole world to test those who live on the earth... hold fast what you have, so that no one takes away your crown!” (Rev.3:10). Amen. “And forgive us our debts” There are sacred times and seasons of the church year. There is a special grace of these times. We experience this either consciously or unconsciously. Another is the air of weekdays or the air of Sunday, another is the air of Christmas, Lent, Easter. When the soul approaches fasting, it brightens and rejoices. We, who undeservedly had the good fortune to spend our childhood years in our homeland, in the promised land, remember how we spent fasting there; we remember the resolution of winter, early spring, the ringing of bells... It was natural for us to observe fasting; all our lives we listened to these rare Lenten ringings. And even in the greater and more distant heights of Christian life, monasteries were closed during Lent and ascetics went into the desert. The fast was carried out in prayerful contemplation and standing. What about us? We, who live here in the Compound, by the grace of God, have the opportunity to fast properly, but all of you who are in the land of exile do not have this opportunity. To breathe this air of fasting, you need special thoughts and efforts. And for those who remained in their homeland, where the atheism brazenly triumphs, it is even more difficult. We need to carry Lent in our hearts; it consists not only of fasting and church services. Today's gospel text (Matthew 6:14–21) answers this. The Lord foresaw times when it is impossible and unwise to fast outwardly, but let our hearts be open, and let the grace of fasting flow into it. Those who fast should not judge those who do not fast. Observe what you can, the main thing is that there should not be excess. If you have already decided in advance that fasting is impossible, this is wrong. Intemperance is a violation of fasting. The law of forgiveness, the will of God for forgiveness, is irreducible and obligatory for everyone. In the Lord's Prayer: and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors - “as” does not mean “also,” but “since.” This is God's law and internal necessity. Maybe there is no need to ask not to be punished for sins; we are not asking for this, but for forgiveness, for reconciliation with God, so that we are renewed. Can we accept God's forgiveness if we ourselves do not forgive, if we cannot accommodate it? Then it will only be a “court and condemnation” for us. Our sinful nature is like that of an animal, where wrath and destruction reign. We must make a great effort - God wants from us what is unnatural, and we are in an unnatural state. We sometimes think that forgiveness is reconciliation with evil, but this is not so. Precisely, those who are indifferent are easy to forgive. The Lord denounced the Pharisees, Herod, and prayed for those crucifying them. This shows that you can be irreconcilable and forgive, but you must not carry evil in your heart, not have a sense of vindictiveness, you must separate evil from yourself. We all need forgiveness, look into your conscience - we are all infinitely guilty of each other, but we will only see this once in the light of conscience. So that today's rite of forgiveness is not just a ritual, one must realize oneself - today is the memory of expulsion from paradise: “And Adam sat against paradise, crying out...” One must feel expelled from paradise. Paradise is our treasure, a lost paradise that we have been given to seek and find. Merciful Lord, have mercy on us fallen ones! Forgiveness Sunday. February 26, 1933 The week is about Forgiveness, and the Church commands us to think about forgiveness. What does it mean? What are we asking for when we ask for forgiveness of our sins? Do we, like lazy and crafty slaves, ask to be freed from deserved punishment? This happens in civil life, where the guilty are sometimes released from punishment, but it is different in spiritual life, here the law is inexorable. Yes, if we asked so, we would be unworthy of forgiveness, and we ask not for this, but for the Lord to blot out our sins, to make them non-existent, so that what is real would become invalid. Christ made everyone his own, redeemed everyone, and thereby acquired this power - to cover, to make our sins seem non-existent. Forgiveness is God’s love for us; He does not seem to see our sins. But the law is that if we do not forgive, then the Lord does not forgive us. The will of God is the will of the Creator, who created us in His own image - and He created us in such a way that if we do not forgive, then forgiveness remains invalid for us, we cannot accommodate it and God cannot forgive us. How is this possible? We must do towards our neighbors what we want from God for ourselves - to cover their sins with love. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father covered everything with love for the younger son, but the eldest acted exclusively according to the law, but without love. God hates sin, but He covers it with His love. This godlikeness is required of us for forgiveness. But a stiff-necked and callous heart that wants forgiveness only for itself cannot be forgiven. This is a commandment to love those who hate; it is necessary to perform a moral miracle - to make a bitter, hating heart forgiving. God helps us forgive. What does it mean to forgive the reigning evil? Doesn't this mean reconciliation with evil? Due to the coldness of our hearts and cowardice, we understand this and close our eyes. But you need to open your eyes and forgive with strength and tension. We must, while loving the sinner, hate sin; we must separate our forgiving feeling for him from our hatred of evil. Others ask how to forgive the Bolsheviks? The answer to this is the words of the crucified Christ. There must be intransigence with what cannot be reconciled, but we must not carry evil in our hearts, otherwise we become poisoned, become infected ourselves and become like them. This commandment is difficult to understand. Many may not have personal enemies, but if this is so and we have no crimes tormenting our conscience, unnoticed sins settle like dust on the heart. An inescapable sin is failure to do: why didn’t they visit, feed, clothe... Love is greedy and sometimes unsatisfied. You can always find a lack of attention, a lack of sympathy. If we knew how to love, our whole life would be bright. On the day when we will not be able to look not only at the Judge, but also at each other, we will understand how guilty we are before everyone for what has not been done. But it may even be good for us if we are sinful and humble, like the tax collector, and do not have the thoughts of a Pharisee. This will cause sincere repentance. Let every remnant of this day be spent in thinking about all this; then for him the evening farewell will not be a simple ritual. The farewell kiss will be an act of faith. A word in the week of Cheesecake Blessing of the Church on the path of repentance and the commandment of forgiveness. The Gospel teaches about forgiveness in the Lord's Prayer, the parable of the unmerciful servant, the commandment to forgive seventy times seventy times, to reconcile before offering a gift, such is the will of God to the apostles about forgiveness, since God forgave in Christ. Forgiveness is God-likeness in man, the image of God; and in this God gives and creates the very possibility of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a condition for our forgiveness. God's wrath at unforgiveness; it creates the impossibility of forgiveness, because there is unrepentance. Repentance is a movement of the heart towards God and, through this, liberation from sin, humility; unforgiveness is captivity by malice, turning away from God, victory of evil and the devil, temptation by evil and moving away from God. What is this power of forgiveness, what is it and what is it not? Its counterfeits: 1) indifferent indifference to good and evil or oblivion under the pretext of forgiving non-condemnation: in ch. Matthew 17, where there is a parable about forgiveness seventy times seven and a parable about a debtor, a parable about rebuking a brother and rejecting him even from the church. Just as God does not put up with evil and sin, although he forgives them, so neither should man; 2) impunity for evil and non-resistance to it. Evil and sin require punishment, first of all, for the criminal himself and for the entire society, and any fight against evil, if necessary, even armed. Forgiveness should not allow evil to develop and sin to triumph. What kind of forgiveness does the Gospel speak of? It talks about what happens in the human heart, about covering the evil and sin of others with love, just as God covers our sins. When we are forgiven, there is not only the imputation of sin, but also the special joy of freedom from it, forgiveness. Likewise, our forgiveness consists in freeing the heart from reciprocal malice, vengeful feelings, hatred, and the power of Satan. This is victory over the power of evil in oneself. The image of forgiveness is our Lord. But didn’t He, being without anger, judge, didn’t He call the Pharisees hypocrites, spawn of vipers, Herod a fox, didn’t expel the traders from the church, and won’t He judge at the Last Judgment? He was kind in His suffering: Father, forgive them. Satan called Him to take revenge on his enemies: “come down from the cross,” but this would have been the victory of evil. The church sings: “Lord, gentle, glory to You!” And, however, the punishment of God was fulfilled over the holy city and over the women and daughters of Jerusalem, and over those who called His blood on their children. The truth of God was accomplished, but the victory of good was through the silent Lamb, led to the slaughter. Forgiveness is the removal of anger, victory over Satan, the triumph of love for one’s enemies, which the Lord teaches us. Where there is no forgiveness, there is no love, and he is far from God. Forgiving is unnatural. The entire created world is driven by vengeance, and the law of truth, but not yet love, was the Old Testament law: an eye for an eye. Forgiveness is a work of God's grace in us, which, however, is never given without our will. But to want forgiveness, to pray for it, to strive for the One who is meek and humble in heart, who does not quench smoking flax, although he can burn the whole world to ashes... Everyone has scars and wounds in the heart, the will to forgive, aversion to anger. In personal life and in civil affairs. In relation to our homeland, we must combine intransigence towards villainy with invincibility towards villains. Otherwise, revenge will take the struggle and punishment further than is worthy, and will poison you with new malice. Constant self-examination, asceticism of condemnation and punishment. Your personal life and personal enemies. Separate anger from righteous anger, forgive if you cannot stop the anger, or cannot condemn yourself, do not give in to the intoxication of anger. Whoever cannot find the right path, whoever cannot become, let him look around and see his own malice and be horrified by it. And this may already be the beginning of forgiveness. Two villains crucified with Him, one at the right hand Now, on the day of veneration of the Cross of the Lord, it is appropriate to dwell on the teaching of the Cross. In general, this teaching is immense, but we will now dwell on the words: “If anyone wants to follow Me, let him take up his cross.” There are two principles in taking up one’s cross: 1) taking up one’s own free will, personal choice, and 2) accepting the cross. Taking up the cross is difficult and sacrificial, but there is also joy in it. This is the highest revelation of human freedom, the highest heroic ascent. Freely taking up the cross is a creative act of man. But besides the free taking of the cross, there is also its acceptance, there are external conditions, fate, fate, inevitability. We have the image of accepting the cross on Golgotha, where all the world’s sorrow, all the innumerable and inexplicable grief of mankind, is accepted by the Lord. It is not easy to accept the cross as fate. One cannot even imagine the abyss of evil that exists in the world. The universe is so distorted by the fall of creation that it is sometimes difficult to recognize the wisdom and justice of God. (There are religions that believe that the world was created not by a good, but by an evil God - the feeling of world evil is so strong in these religions!) Job, in the depths of his suffering, experienced this difficulty, but he pleased God more than his reasonable, sensible friends. Man was not created for suffering, but for joy. And the Church prays: “Oh, He will deliver us from all sorrow.” In the Gethsemane prayer for the cup, Christ did not want suffering (“If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me”), but accepted it (“But Thy will be done!”). However, there are sorrows and sufferings in the world, and their waves rise high and cover a lot. What is happening now in our homeland, and in other places... The answer to this is three crosses on Calvary, exactly three, and not one cross of Christ. Next to Christ were crucified two dark, unfortunate creatures, called “evildoers” in the Gospel, who obviously lived in sin and committed crimes. Here they are crucified and exhausted physically and mentally. They are dying. Their souls ask about what is happening, they ask: is there a God (“If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!”). If He is God, then He would deliver them and abolish this cross. The evangelists Matthew and Mark say that both reviled Christ. Both have the same intense rejection of their own and Christ’s suffering. Both have a perplexed question: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Good must be strong and must not be defeated. According to the Gospel of Luke, the meaning of what was happening was revealed to one of the thieves; he realized that there was justice in his fate, since he had committed evil, but the One who was crucified with him had not. Probably, in the face of the Savior he saw all-conquering love leading to the acceptance of the cross. If God is good and wise, then why is there suffering in the world? – God answered this question with the cross of his Son. The Son is crucifying love, acceptance of the will of God. Creation does not have the strength to comprehend the will of God - this is the feat that, without knowing, we believe and love. Christ himself came into the world and suffers and dies in peace. “You have forsaken Me!”, but He says: “Today you will be with Me in Paradise,” - this is the answer that the world was not created for suffering, but for bliss, to which it goes through the cross. The answer to the world's sorrow is the Son of God hanging on the cross. Christ in his suffering included the suffering of all humanity. “Today you will be with Me in paradise” is not the answer that rational human consciousness is looking for, but it is the answer that God wants this and is leading us to this. How this will happen, you will never know or understand. We must believe without knowing, without seeing, without understanding, and quietly retreat into the arms of a loving God. This faith should be a feat of all human life. “Whatever I find, that’s what I’ll judge.” The power of the cross is for us the power of faith, and faith is nourished by love for Christ, faith that consoles and resurrects. “We worship Your Cross, Master, and we sing and glorify Your holy resurrection!” Cross Worship Week 1933 Homily for Matins on the Week of the Worship of the Cross There is not and cannot be a symbol that would have greater significance in Orthodoxy than the honorable cross: we place it over the church and erect it in the church, we have it on the throne and wear it on our chests, we constantly sign ourselves with the sign of the cross. The veneration of the cross finds a sufficient explanation for itself already in the meaning that the cross of Christ has as an instrument of our salvation, that “blessed tree on which Christ was crucified” (stichera to the Cross). By worshiping the saving passion of Christ, we also worship the life-giving tree of the cross. Our Lord not only himself was crucified on the cross, but also calls all his faithful to accept the cross and bear it. The Teaching of Christ calls for a free sacrifice of self-denying love; it determines the spiritual measure of every person. The cross has not only a moral, but also a cosmic meaning for the Church, for in the four-pointed unity of the cross the universe with all its ends is signified. The Church attaches to the “invincible and incomprehensible, divine power” (Great Compline) of the cross and an even more mysterious and lofty meaning: “it bears the image of the Trinitarian Trinity” (canon of the Cross), the seal of the eternal life of the Divine. The unity of the nature and life of the three Hypostases in the Holy Trinity is realized by the self-denying mutual love of the Hypostases, and this power of love is the sacrifice of the cross, which triumphantly triumphs with perfect divine joy. The Trinity God is the eternal love of the Three as One and One in Three, and the trinity of love is the image of plurality. God created man in His image and endowed him with the gift of love. The cross is not only inscribed in the physical image of a person, but also inscribed in his heart, which is the focus of this image of the cross. A person becomes a person, fulfills the measure of his humanity in the multi-unity of church love, where everyone is one - the body of Christ, the Church. The Holy Cross is its emblem. But the creation of the world was also accomplished by the power of the cross of God’s self-denying love for creation. God freely limits himself in his unconditionality, giving space to the world with its self-legitimacy and originality. By creating man free and capable of falling, God thereby lifts up the cross of his salvation. “God so loved the world, as he gave his only Son to eat” (John 3:16). The Lamb of God is destined to be slain for the world before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20) and at a certain time comes into the world to be crucified on the tree of the cross for its salvation. And, at the second glorious coming of the Lord, the first thing that will appear to the world is the sign of the Son of Man in heaven” (Matthew 24:30), i.e. honest cross. Therefore, St. appears to man from everywhere. cross: in heaven and on earth, without and within, before creation and in creation, in this age and in the future. The Holy Church continually worships the venerable cross: the daytime services of Wednesday and Friday are marked with deliberate chants of it. But, in addition to everyday services and special memories (August 1, etc.), the Church has two special celebrations, when the cross is solemnly carried from the altar to the middle of the church for kissing and worship. The first is the holiday of the “World Exaltation” of the Cross, which is usually associated with the acquisition of the life-giving tree by Queen Helen. This day (September 14) is one of the great twelve holidays. The second celebration of the cross takes place now, on the third Sunday of Great Lent, “the veneration of the cross.” Its special significance, first of all, is to give the Orthodox in the labors and exploits of the Holy Pentecostal period encouragement and consolation in the contemplation of the cross of Christ. The second, no less important, focus of this holiday is on the resurrection. The Lord's Way of the Cross through Golgotha ​​leads to the resurrection, and those who follow Him along the Way of the Cross move toward bliss in the resurrection. In the sorrow of the cross, the light of resurrection shines. Therefore, in the current hymn, the Church combines the cross and resurrection. “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection.” Sermon for the 5th week of Lent The first three Sundays of Great Lent call us to contemplate the mysteries of God: St. icons, Tabor light, cross. The 4th and 5th are dedicated to the veneration of human images: John Climacus and Mary of Egypt. This forces us to focus our attention on the human side of the Lenten feat. On the path to God - the ladder to God - man is not allowed to remain motionless. It moves up or down, forward or backward. God calls forward and upward. We seem significant to ourselves if there is no comparison with others. But in our Church we have snowy peaks, and against their background we see our smallness. The strings of our soul are always touched by the spiritual world. And the soul must respond to these touches and ascend. Sometimes it’s a gradual ascent, sometimes it’s a turning point in life when a voice calls. We need to listen to him, just as the apostles listened to the Savior and followed Christ. In the name of holy obedience, this voice requires holy madness. We must be able not to miss the hour of this call and madness. A ladder of unequal steps. And there are those that can only be entered in madness. It happens that a person is given a step to which he must become a feat of faith. You can be overthrown if you do not accept God's will for yourself. Life flows in time, and a person must respond to the movement of the river of life with a movement of the heart and the will to believe. “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.” Unbelief and cowardice are driven out by prayer and fasting. Prayer shines for us. Fasting is work on yourself. The Kingdom of Heaven requires force. Asceticism requires everyone to overcome weakness and lack of faith. There must be consciousness in the soul of the ladder of our life. But the ladder is a transition from earth to heaven. She opens the heavenly mansions. We must love earthly life, but also remember the laddering feeling, the laddering nature of life. When people encounter death, they feel it, but it is always necessary. We see this in the great ascetics John Climacus and Mary of Egypt, whose heads go to heaven. “And there will be... on earth the despondency of the nations and bewilderment... People will die out of fear and anticipation of the disasters coming to the world...” (Luke 21:25-26). But why only despondency, and why bewilderment? After all, only what is accessible to fire burns, and what is shaken is what, not having its own strength, clung to the soul like bark. And the soul gains freedom of repentance. Time and time again the failure of the earthly kingdom is demonstrated, which is affirmed by the specter of prosperity and spiritual enslavement. Don’t the upheavals of the earthly city signify some kind of liberation from its spiritual shackles, from that superfluous and false that enters into human life as its foundations. In response to our fears about this, the Lord calls: “Do not be alarmed, but stay awake.” “When you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is at hand” (Luke 21:31). “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God and believe in Me” (John 14:1). Christians know the consolation of faith even in inconsolable times. And yet the Lord warns against the excessive ease of consolation, in which the true feat of faith is replaced by the superstitious hope of a quick deliverance. With all his might, the Lord confirms: “All this must come to pass; but this is not the end yet” (Matthew 24:6); on the contrary, “no one knows about that day or hour: neither angels, nor men, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). And can people, possessed by confusion and fear, determine that the measure has already been fulfilled and the times and dates for the Second Coming of the Lord have arrived? It is not faith that speaks, but fear, not prophetic inspiration, but human confusion. In response to this, the Lord said: “Watch and pray, for you do not know when this time will come” (Mark 13:33). “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mark 13:26). The Lord said about the time of flight to the mountains for those in Judea (Mark 13:19) “then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now and will not be.” But even then the end has not yet come; its coming is determined not by the measure of misfortune, but by the fullness of accomplishments for the Kingdom of God. Other of these accomplishments are indicated in the word of God: first of all, the preaching of the Gospel throughout the entire universe as a witness to all nations, after which the end will come (Mark 13:10). This also includes the conversion and salvation of Israel after the full number of the Gentiles has entered (Rom. 11:25). But even this is not the end. Therefore, we are still in the middle of the path, although we do not know how far this middle is from the end. What remains for us is the Future, filled with promises that have not yet been fulfilled. However, with all this, the Lord calls us: “When these things begin to come true, then look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). “Take the likeness of a fig tree: when its branches become soft and put out leaves, you know that summer is near. So, when you see all these things coming true, know that it is near, at the door” (Matthew 24:32–33; Mark 13:28–29; Luke 21:29–31). And the last, final word of the entire New Testament sounds like a prayer call: “Even so, come Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20) - with the answer of the Called One: “yea, I am coming quickly.” Amen". However, we cannot help but wonder whether we are not standing here before a contradiction that has no place in the word of God? [...] With what reverence we should contemplate the first appearance of Christ to the world and listen to the first words of His preaching, bringing the gospel to the world. And equally important in it is not only what is directly indicated in it, but what is completely silent about, and precisely about what we, the vain sons of this world, seem to be the most necessary and important, about the structure of our earthly life. The Lord did not reject or condemn our worries and labors in the search for our daily bread, as in the entire creation of this earthly city. This includes the general guiding word of the Lord: render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but only to the extent that this is consistent with serving God. You are commanded to seek, devoting all the strength of your soul, only the Kingdom of God and its truth. The sons of the Kingdom of God are called to this, first by the Forerunner of Christ, and then by the Lord himself: repent, for it has come near. What is required of us is not only the erasing of individual sins, but a general change in the entire path of life, with constant examination and re-evaluation of ourselves in the light of conscience, our deeds, thoughts, desires before the face of God. Such dedication of oneself to God, the removal of one’s sinful humanity requires intense and painful effort, “it is forced by force” (Matthew 11:12). It is necessary not only for monastics, but for everyone, and, moreover, on all paths of life. Moreover, it concerns not only external activities, which are as different as earthly ministries, but the inner man, his innermost self-determination. Everyone is required to dedicate everything they do to God, to do it in His name. On the contrary, everything that cannot have such a blessing must be rejected and expelled from life. The Lord calls us to unceasing spiritual reflection in St. Gospels. It is significant that Christ’s own earthly ministry begins with His temptation from Satan in the desert. The Lord, Truth itself, the Son of God, does not resist temptation, in which a positive and clear choice of the true path is revealed, with the rejection of the false one. Satan offers earthly power and glory on one condition only: fall, worship him, becoming an obedient instrument of the prince of this world. And in response to this temptation, an unwavering answer is given: “Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and serve him alone” (Matthew 4:10). The decision was made regarding the entire earthly path, from the mountain of temptation to Golgotha. Having revealed it to the world, the Lord comes out to preach the “Gospel of the Kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14), for it has “drawn near.” But why did the Lord allow Satan to approach him with his tempting questions and even answer them? For our sake and our understanding. Satan, in his madness, thought to tempt the Lord, but He revealed the fullness of His humiliation to the end, even before accepting human temptation: “just as He himself endured temptation, having been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). For temptation continues over the human race until the end of the age, although it has once and for all been weakened. Our race is tempted both in caring for our daily bread, and in our power over the forces of nature, and in the power of the earthly kingdom. These temptations lose their power if a person keeps the memory of God in his heart and first of all seeks His will, but they immediately manifest it because they take possession of the human heart. Each time has its own special temptations. Such a fatal temptation for our days is the temptation of godless self-affirming power, “Caesar’s” as God’s - whether this be the imaginary superiority of blood or social status with spiritual enslavement. The temptations of the tempter now receive special power: “I will give you power over all these kingdoms and their glory, for it has been given to me and I will give it to whomever I want. Therefore, if you worship me, then everything will be yours” (Luke 4:6-7). And the one who is overwhelmed by the thirst for power, seeking to worship himself, worships the tempter. But confessors of the name of God, in the face of this temptation, then and now, invariably answer: Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone. Render to Caesar only what is Caesar's, not unconditional, but limited, relative obedience. This is how the Christian martyrs answered the Roman Caesar, this is how they answer now in the face of the godless authorities in our homeland, and only in this way can Christians always and everywhere relate to the claims of earthly power to the fullness of worship, in which the calls of the tempter are triumphantly invoked and repeated. For the first commandment of God says: “I am your Lord, and you shall have no other gods before Me” and “you shall not make for yourself any graven image” (Ex. 20:1–2). Amen. The day of our salvation is the main thing and the manifestation of the sacraments from the ages. The blue vault embraces the dark earth, and in its transparent depths the heavenly lights burn. And there is a blue sky in the soul of God's creation, in which the Light shines, enlightening every person coming into the world. On the days of the Mother of God, churches are clothed in blue vestments, and human souls exude azure, bringing it to the feet of the Mother of God, under Her heavenly cover, to the glory of the Ever-Virgin. The infinite world space, its emptiness revealing that non-existence from which the world was called into being by the Almighty, is penetrated to the depths by His light. It accepts and preserves the thickening light, the dark emptiness of nothingness is clothed in heavenly azure, colorlessness is clothed in color. The blue depth of the sky is a direct image of God’s creation: the non-existent received the light of being, the creative Word, and nothing became the world, God’s creation, God’s love rests on it, blessed rays pour into it. She is the image of the grace-filled enlightenment of creation, that deification, by the power of which the insignificance of creation is clothed with the beauty of Divine Glory. And in this thickened, condensed blue, the luminaries, lit from the single Light of lights, light up. The blue light of heaven signifies God's condescension to the world, the creation's acceptance of God's gifts, and God's meeting with creation. The world is supported by the power of God, and streams of divine love continually flow into it. The world was created for the sake of man, but man was created for deification. And everything that happens in the life of the world has significance as preparation for the complete blessing of man. But this fullness was fulfilled, the blessing was realized on that day and hour when the archangel was sent from heaven to the Blessed One with the message of the Incarnation, when the heavenly whiteness of the celestial sparkled on the blue cover, when the message of the Annunciation was heard and accepted by the Blessed One. Then the preordained thing was fulfilled from the beginning - the phenomenon of the sacrament from the ages: the Holy Spirit descended on man in the person of the Most Pure One, and the Power of the Most High, the Word of God, overshadowed Her, dwelling in Her. The ladder between heaven and earth was established, man received the power to become god by grace, for the God-man was conceived in the womb of the Blessed One. The Annunciation, the main thing of our salvation, is also the beginning of the Epiphany, for in it the saving action of the entire Holy Spirit is revealed. Trinity through the Holy Spirit sent from the Father, the conception of the Son of God from the Virgin. This day is a prelude to St. Pentecost, for creation in the person of the Blessed One was honored in him with the reception of the Holy Spirit, not only in the visible image of a dove or in the vision of tongues of fire, but in the tangible action of conception by God. That day also revealed the power of the Incarnation, for Mary became the Mother of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. From the creation of the world, creation was destined for the Annunciation; it awaited and thirsted for it. The all-good God wanted it for her, who from eternity accepted in His divine council the creation of man in His image and likeness. Through the fall of Adam and Eve, the direct path to him was lost, his image changed, but God’s love could not be weakened by human weakness. In paradise after the Fall, the Lord spoke a word about that Woman, the seed from Whose will erase the head of the serpent. This word is the definition of God, the power invested in the world and man by the Lord. Since then, man and the whole world began to expect the appearance of this wondrous Wife. God Himself, through His wise election and gracious guidance of His chosen faithful paths, led people towards the Annunciation. Thousands of years passed until the human race approached the day of fulfillment, and on the tree of the human race, from its chosen branch, the color of the planting of paradise shone. The unknown Nazareth of Galilee housed the pre-elected Virgin, and the Virgin’s name was Mary (Luke 1:27). The world fulfilled its destiny, the human race reached its flowering, the Lord grew a God-bearing branch in His garden, She appeared on earth who “found grace from God” (Luke 1:30), worthy to meet the gospel archangel. In the sixth month after the conception of the Forerunner, who had already entered the world as a herald of Christ, Gabriel was sent to “enter Her” (Luke 1:28), delivering the gracious message. However, that message still had to be accepted and heard by man. The Lord inviolably honors the freedom of creation, therefore the Annunciation was addressed to this freedom, by its power it could be accepted or not accepted, heard or not heard, the answer is preceded by a question, the good news from God awaits fulfillment in man. No creature, either on earth or in heaven, was capable of giving the necessary answer, of receiving the message of the Annunciation, except the Virgin Mary alone; she was not and could not be addressed to anyone other than Her. When the archangel addressed Her with the word, the time had come to decide the destinies of men, the destinies of all creation. At this moment, which constitutes the core of human time, the eternal destinies of man were determined by the decision of the Questioned One, the invisible movement of the heart, the will of Her will. In ancient times, Adam and Eve decided the fate of the human race; they were given obedience to the commandment to stay on the path of direct movement towards sonship with God or to turn away from it in the Fall. Now the new Eve - Mary, Her human self-determination was given to accept or reject the incarnation: what was eternally decided in heaven must be fulfilled on earth. There was not and could not have come in the life of the world another more decisive moment. The Annunciation is the ultimate and final manifestation of God’s love for the world, God’s condescension, but in it the ultimate and final respect of God for creation in its freedom was also realized. The Incarnation could only come about through free and loving acceptance of God. The Creator asks the creature for consent, seeks in it the will to incarnate. The human race answers to the Archangel through the mouth of Mary, just as the old Adam, together with the ancient Eve, answered the tempter for their entire race. In Her, the Blessed One, all the strength and all the will of a person to accept God, all his possibility, is concentrated. But at the same time, the freedom of choice or inclination of the will in one direction or another remains inviolable, as it was given to Adam and Eve in the hour of temptation. The Blessed One was prepared for this hour with all the spiritual gifts that human nature is only capable of receiving, both in the godly life of all Her ancestors, and in Her own God-consecrated life. But grace does not force a person, does not strike his freedom, and for it the possibility of seductions and temptations with which Satan tried to tempt the Only Begotten Son of God Himself remains available. The Most Pure One unblemishedly accepted the good news, the Annunciation was fulfilled, the union of the heavenly and earthly, the divine and the created, the deification of human nature and the incarnation of the Divine was accomplished. And then the angel left Her (Luke 1:38), and the Virgin Mary from that hour became the Mother of the Lord (Luke 1:43). According to legend, the entering archangel found Mary reflecting on Isaiah's prophecy about the birth of Emmanuel from the Virgin (John 7:4). In Her great humility, She thought about how blessed the last servant of this wondrous Woman was, wanting to be her and through this to join the great sacrament. The Lord listened to the voice of Her heart and looked upon the humility of His servant (Luke 1:48). The determination to give herself completely to the service of the Incarnation burned in Her heart with heavenly fire, the movement towards the Annunciation took place in Her spirit when an angelic greeting touched Her ears. She was not embarrassed by the angelic appearance, as the Old Testament men were embarrassed by it, for, while staying at the church, she was in angelic communication and, of course, knew the language of angels. But She “seeing him was troubled by his words” (Luke 1:29), because this was his greeting, not yet heard by any human being, by any creation: “Rejoice, you who are greatly favored, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). And with the effort of Her humility, She wanted to penetrate into the hidden meaning of these words, “considering what this kiss will be like” (Luke 1:29), what exactly it means. That was Her silent response question to the archangel, and it was immediately answered: (Luke 1:30-33). The Archangel already openly, openly testifies to Her that She Herself is the chosen one whom She only wanted to serve, for She Herself in the womb receives and gives birth to the Son. And the news of conception is accompanied here by a sacred naming: “You shall call His Name Jesus,” - the great, terrible and sweetest Name, before Whom every knee bows, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, by which signs and wonders are performed, and the world is saved. The name, as the spiritual seed of conception, is named in the message of God’s conception. About the One who is being born, the archangel says what was diligently read by Mary in the prophecies spoken by the Holy Spirit - the ancient Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel and Micah with other prophets reveal in the word of the archangel the charters in which the good news is written, now being fulfilled. And the Virgin Mary understood and accepted the long-known content of the archangel’s message; She no longer asks about it, when she again answers with the question: “How will this happen if I don’t know where my husband is?” (Luke 1:34). The mystery of single conception and single birth from the Holy Spirit, unknown even to the angels, certainly exceeds the measure of human understanding, and even to Her, the performer of this sacrament, it could only be revealed now, at the hour of fulfillment. For the Virgin Mary, the unshakable law of life was Her ever-virginity. She did not see any deviation from it, but the inalienable law of human nature was also birth through a husband. Therefore, this perplexed question inexorably arises: how will this happen? This is not lack of faith or denial, but bewilderment of human nature itself, which does not know the superhuman, divine conception, and at the same time this is a direct question about the Virgin Mother prophesied by Isaiah. And now the angel responds by directly revealing the mystery of the Incarnation, which is also the mystery of the Holy One. Trinity - the Holy Spirit descending on Mary, the Son begotten of Her, and the Father who eternally begets the Son and brings forth the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the Power of the Most High will overshadow You: in the same way, that which is to be born holy will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). And in confirmation of this, which is possible with God, although impossible for man, the archangel tells Her the secret of the conception of the Forerunner “from Elizabeth, who is called barren, because with God every word fails” (Luke 1:36-37). The Annunciation, as the revelation of the good news about man, has taken place, everything has been said from God, and now the time has come for a response from man. In this answer the destinies of the whole world will be weighed and determined, and the inexplicable meaning of this last answer is contained in the heart of the human race. There was only one, the only true answer, which the Most Pure One had to choose from the innumerable possibilities of different answers. All the temptations of human nature - from its weakness and limitations, from pride and self-delusion - stood in the way here, giving rise to these opportunities for every person. And first of all, the temptation of lack of faith: is it easy for human nature to desire faith in a manless birth, not to doubt that every verb will not fail with God? But even the slightest doubt, almost insurmountable, was enough for the good news to be rejected and the Annunciation not to take place. And further, the temptation of pride: if Dennitsa became proud of his closeness to God, was unable to bear his abundant gifts and fell from heaven, then how natural it was for weak human nature to become weak under the weight of the gift of this only election, “without comparison” superior to that of the seraphim. But it would be enough, even if only in an invisible movement of the heart, to turn this gift towards oneself, to admire oneself in it, and the good news would no longer be accepted, the Annunciation would not take place. And further, the temptation of weakness: isn’t it natural for human nature to want peace and well-being for oneself, rejecting this terrible election, in which all life is a feat of self-denial, the way of the cross? But it would be enough only in one’s thoughts to be afraid of the feat or to desire for oneself the benefits of one’s service, and the good news would not be accepted, the Annunciation would not take place. But it happened. Mary's answer turned out to be the only true answer that corresponded to the question. The most pure adage: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let Me be according to Your word” (Luke 1:36). The good news became reality. More cannot be said than is said in these few words, it cannot be said more truly, more precisely and more briefly, with the elimination of everything superfluous, unnecessary, inappropriate, than what was spoken by the Most Pure One. But this word was advertised by Her and every creature rejoicing in Her, the angelic council and the human race, together with all created nature, sensitively perceiving and hiding in hearing the mystery of the Annunciation (“the bird does not build a nest” on this day, according to the testimony of the Russian Orthodox people) advertised this word. Every human soul, opening to the reception of the Holy Spirit and the discovery of the born Christ, spoke and speaks with Her now. Mary gave herself entirely to God, She became completely transparent to the Holy Spirit, open to His indwelling, to the deification of the creature in Her. And in the thickened blueness of the created sky, the most heavenly throne of the Word of God was erected, and the womb of Mary was more spacious than heaven. And “the angel departed from Her” (Luke 1:38). The world became different after the Annunciation. Earth and heaven, divine and human, distant natures united, man received the power to become God by grace, for God became man. The creation of the world and man was for the first time fully realized and internally completed. The Spirit of God, hovering over the waters, descended into created nature, the conception of the Son of God and the Son of Man was completed. The day of our salvation is the main thing and the manifestation of the sacraments from the ages. This year the Annunciation of St. The Mother of God was celebrated on the week of the veneration of the cross, and the sweet song of the “Archangel voice” was combined with the strict hymns of the Cross - joy and sadness in one harmony. At the very first impression, the soul seems to be embarrassed by this difficulty: isn’t the very essence and power of each of these celebrations weakened here, isn’t an internal split introduced into the celebrating soul? Don’t we have here a liturgical conglomeration of two large and complex services, with an interruption of the meanings and powers of both celebrations? Or is this year given to us a deliberate and wondrous combination of them, like a special feast of the Annunciation of the Cross, although it requires special tension and inspiration to accommodate it? In any case, our church self-consciousness must answer this question in the affirmative: the word of the cross and the message of the annunciation are inseparable, and the Church, isolating them in celebration, does not contrast them, but applies it to the natural limitations of human receptivity, giving the opportunity to worship both, to be satisfied with both separately. However, this division is applicable, but not essential. This idea is expressed in one of the ancient Russian editions of the icon of the Annunciation, striking in its boldness of inspiration. This icon is called the Passionate Annunciation. 2 Archangel Gabriel appears with a cross (eight-pointed) to the Mother of God, who is already holding the Baby in her arms, who seems to be thrown away from this phenomenon. And the following inscription (top right): “Speech of the Holy Mother of God to the archangel: O archangel, you have already proclaimed joy before, when you conceive in the womb and give birth to a Son, His kingdom will have no end, but now I see you holding the cross, I am wounded by the womb. I remember Simeon’s prophecy: your bo, Lord (?), imperishable (?) heart will pass through. The archangel answers: It is fitting for the Son of Man to suffer much and to be crucified and to rise on the third day.” – Isn’t this a direct icon of the current holiday? However, what kind of cross, second Annunciation is this being spoken of here in picturesque images? Neither the Gospel nor tradition told us anything about him. Or is it more natural to see here in deliberate images the revelation of the meaning of the Annunciation, which usually remains hidden from attention? He slips away like a shadow melting in the rays of the Annunciation. This is the Annunciation, like the message of the cross. In the words of the archangel, the Blessed Virgin heard the full power of his message and comprehended its depth. He found Her, according to legend, reading the book of the prophet Isaiah, but from it She learned that “The Servant of God will be humbled more than all the sons of men. A man of sorrows, He will be wounded for the sins of the world, just as a lamb will be given to the slaughter and will suffer execution as a propitiation sacrifice for His people” (Is. 53:1-12). With the wisdom of Her most pure heart, the Virgin comprehended that He who was given to save His people would save them with His blood, and this consciousness entered Her along with the message of the Annunciation, and to this She also responded: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” and thus bowed her neck under the Cross of Her Son, who appeared to Her as her own cross. And this hidden message of the Annunciation is revealed in his Passion Icon, and it is deliberately indicated by the current feast of the Annunciation of the Cross. The Annunciation is a direct testimony of God's love for the world. Love is sacrificial by nature, the power of love is a measure of sacrifice. God's love is immeasurable and inexplicable in its sacrificial crossness. God, existing in the Trinity, in the mutual love of the Three Hypostases, eternally denies himself, for “God is love”, and the “incomprehensible divine power of the honorable and glorious Cross” is the power of God’s life - all-conquering, immeasurable love in the depths of the Most Holy Trinity itself, God-Love - eternally the cross - lifts a new cross for the sake of love for creation. He gives an existential place to the world along with Himself, He denies Himself for the sake of the world, freely limiting himself in order to allow the creation in its limitations to find itself in slow and difficult development. The world was created by the cross of God's love. He is saved by the cross, for the self-sufficient world, due to its created weakness, contains within itself the possibility of sin and falling away from God, which, once accomplished, irresistibly draws it to disastrous disintegration. And in response to this opportunity, God, in his eternal council, is already raising the cross of sacrificial love in the incarnation for the salvation of the world. “God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son to eat” (John 3:16). The Son is sent into the world to “take away the sin of the world” in order to suffer this sin even to death on the cross. And the fulfillment of this eternal council is accomplished by the power of the love of God on the cross. What reveals the power of the Cross in heaven is on earth, in the sons of men, the joy of the Annunciation, for there is not and cannot be true crossless joy. But the Annunciation itself contains the message of the cross, and a heavy cross it falls on the Most Pure Virgin herself, “the servant of the Lord,” who now renounces everything personal and entrusts herself to the power of the Lord. She accepts the weapon that pierces Her heart - in the entire life of Her Son and in His death on the cross. The Way of the Cross of Her Son is also Her own; She is crucified with Him at His cross. The joy of the Annunciation is accomplished through the cross and finds its foundation in it. But where is this joy? - the cowardly heart will doubt, - when the only direct fulfillment of the message of the Annunciation is the cross? And, however, the cross, voluntarily or even involuntarily accepted, is the only direct path to the joy of salvation, to the establishment of the kingdom of God in hearts and throughout the world. His sorrow is no longer in the victorious joy, but in it the latter has its strength and truth. The cross is a sign of victory that will appear in heaven on the day of the Second Coming of the Son of God. He is an eternal testimony of God's love for the world, as well as our love for God and man. He is the power of love. This love is true joy, victorious, triumphant joy forever. Therefore, the Annunciation of the Cross is purely an Annunciation, for in it the beginning, the middle, and the end are preached, both the path and the goal. And in it the Archangel’s voice - “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with You” - naturally passes and merges with the veneration of the cross, in all his mind: “We worship Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection.” Annunciation - Holy Sepulcher Belly, how you die, how you lived in the grave. (Praises on Great Saturday, article 1) The blueness of the heavens shone with the message of the Most Pure Archangel, but the sun was eclipsed, the Lord of all beholding is dead. The thought is torn and the heart cannot contain what is now being remembered: the joy of the Annunciation and the deepest sadness of the Great Heel. Liturgical celebrations crowd one another, and a solar and lunar eclipse occurs simultaneously. The sun has hidden its rays, and the moon is extinguishing its tremulous light. Isn’t there something violent and contradictory in such a combination, before which our hearts are embarrassed and even tremble? Doesn’t the sadness of the Holy Sepulcher contradict the joy of the Annunciation, and doesn’t the soul seek to separate them, at least for the duration of the celebration, so as not to lose anything and fully accept both? However, this is what the voice of our weakness tells us, but the Church now wants from us strength and tension in order to accept joy in sorrow, as was given to the Mother of God herself. The Annunciation was the first descent of the Holy Spirit, hypostatic Joy, onto the earth through His overshadowing of the Mother of God: “Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.” The archangel greeted the Virgin Mary with such joy. And, by the power of the consent of the Most Pure One, the Holy Spirit descended on her, and with Him the Son also descended. She conceived from the Holy Spirit, became the Mother of Emmanuel, and in heavenly triumph all creation trembled, saying through the lips of the Most Pure One: “Behold the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to Your word.” And that was an unspeakable joy, a joy forever: to accept the Lord who came to earth, to become the Mother of God. For this is why the world was created, for the fulfillment of God-manhood, for “the joy of the Annunciation, the virgin triumph.” “Rejoice, joyful one, the Lord is with you, rejoice, receptacle of the incontainable Divinity: for the heavens cannot contain him, the womb can contain the Blessed One, rejoice, joy of the world and the joy of our race” (stichera in lit.). But this joy is not worldly joy, which seeks human pleasure and flees sorrow, for its path is the cross. What the archangel asked the Virgin about related to the acceptance of the cross of the Mother of God, which she knew to the depths of her prophetic chastity. She knew the full power of questioning and answered it: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” The Annunciation was the news about the cross of the Son and about the standing of the Mother of God, and she gave her consent to the archangel. The King of the world is coming into the world to reign in it, but His Kingdom will not be of this world. He will not descend from the cross to subdue his enemies who demand this descent from Him; He will accept death in order to defeat it with it. His Mother is called to this same path in order to become the Queen of Heaven. But the crowning of this Kingdom will take place in anticipation of the death of her Son on the cross. And the word of the Most Pure One also refers to this: “Let it be done to me according to Your word.” If we accept the Annunciation as the joy of the world, according to its power, then for her herself it was, first of all, the acceptance of an instrument that pierces the heart - through the entire life of her Son and in His death on the cross. Spiritually, she had to be crucified with Him and taste His death as her own. She was not given the opportunity to taste it physically, but that was no less the reason for her suffering. The Church in her hymns reveals the secret of this Annunciation on the Cross. “Where, my Son and God, is the ancient annunciation, which Gabriel spoke of the King of Thee, the Son and God on High: now I see Thee, my sweet light, naked and wounded as a dead man? - Deliver me from illness, now accept me with You, my Son and God, so that I, Master, will go down to hell with You and I, do not leave me alone, for I no longer tolerate living without seeing You my sweet light. “I will not rise from Thy grave, my child, nor will I cease to weep tears, Thy servant, until I go down to hell: for I cannot endure separation from You, my Son.” “Joy will never touch me from now on, sobbing in the immaculate words: My light and my joy will go into the grave: but I will not leave Him alone: ​​here I will die and be buried with Him.” (Lamentation of the Mother of God, creation of Simeon Logothet: canto 7, troparions 1–2; canto 8, troparion 4). “Woe is me, O Son, the unsophisticated one, weeping and saying: in Him we trusted as in the King, I now see myself condemned to the cross. “Gabriel will proclaim this to me when you gather together, speaking about the eternal kingdom of my Son Jesus.” (Matins Vel. Sub., article two, verses 119–120). “Oh, God, and the Word, and my joy, as I endured Your three-day burial, now I am tormented in my mother’s womb.” (Article 1, verse 60). These are the features that describe the spiritual dying of the Mother of God. And only from the depths of this sorrow, from the grave, is the answering voice of the Son heard, giving the joyful hope of the fulfilled Annunciation: “Do not weep for Me, Mother, see me in the tomb... I will rise and be glorified...” (canon Great Sub., canto 9, irmos). The message of the Annunciation, spoken by the archangel, is announced for fulfillment through the lips of death - from the grave. Already in the service of the Annunciation it is said about what is fully narrated here, about the exhaustion of the Son of God: “He placed himself in exhaustion, with the favor and advice of the Father.” (Stichera on the litany of John the monk). From what has been said, it follows that this combination of the feast of the Annunciation and the Great Heel, although difficult to perceive by our weak nature, nevertheless it more fully reveals the full power and meaning of the Annunciation, as well as the joy of the Lord’s tomb, from which the light of the resurrection shines. In this joy of the cross lies all the strength of our faith - in the rising from the tomb of Christ and with Him Christ... The moving feast of the Annunciation falls between Thursday of the 3rd week of Great Lent and Wednesday of Bright Week. Each of these days, coinciding with the Annunciation, brings its own color to its complex coloring, and thus gives it each time its own special additional shade. The greatest difference between these additional tones, of course, occurs when the Annunciation falls on one of the days of exceptional significance, such as the week of the veneration of the cross (as was the case several years ago), the week of Vai, the “standing” of Mary of Egypt with the Great Canon, Great Thursday, and, the sharpest contrast, Great Heel and St. Easter. It is in this year that the heavenly azure of the Annunciation is covered with the dark robe of Pentecost and is dressed in the great sadness of the Great Heel. The rays of the Annunciation morning break through only through the dark clouds. This exactly corresponds to the great cloud and difficult trials of our time, when “the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that when she gave birth, he would devour her child” (Rev. 12:4). However, in response to this anger, the song of the Servant of the Lord is heard: “Bring down the mighty from the throne, and let the rich let go of their vanity” (Luke 1:52–53). Praise the people and the pagans accordingly, the King of the angels has now ascended to the lot and is coming, although he will smite his enemies on the cross, as he is mighty. For this reason, the children also cry out a song: glory to you, the conqueror who has come, glory to you, the Savior Christ, glory to you, the blessed one, our only God. Today the Lord comes to reign in the holy city, according to what is written by the prophets: rejoice greatly, daughters of Zion, rejoice, daughters of Jerusalem: behold, your king comes to you, righteous and saving, he is meek and always on the saddle and the young stallion (Zechariah 9:9). Now we celebrate the splendor of the kingdom of Christ, which He deigned to reveal when He came in free passion, in anticipation of His eternal kingdom, of which there will be no end. Having humbled Himself to the form of a servant, covering with human flesh the brilliance of the Divinity, the Lord also closed His kingdom, becoming lower than the sons of men. But before His passion, to assure the disciples, to strengthen their faith during His suffering, as a testimony to Himself, the Lord showed His glory to the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, as they could contain it, and now in the royal procession from the Mount of Olives He reveals Himself as the King and Lord, the Ruler of creation, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth. The Lord is the King of creation. In the prophetic promises and pious beliefs of Old Testament Judaism, He is dreamed of as a King, whose kingdom is an eternal kingdom, a kingdom of truth, peace and holiness. He was proclaimed as a King by the Most Pure Archangel (Luke 1:32–33) and so was announced to the shepherds (Luke 2:11), the Magi sought to worship Him as the King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2), and they presented Him with the royal gift - gold. His appearance was preached by the Forerunner and by Himself as the approach of the Kingdom of God. He taught the Gospel of the Kingdom. The blind, the demon-possessed, the apostles (Nathanael) called Him the Son of David, the King of Israel, and He never rejected this name from Himself. On the contrary, He Himself calls Himself the King in the speech about the Last Judgment. At the trial of the Sanhedrin and Pilate, questioned with persistence, reproaches and spells, He did not reject, but confirmed that He is the King. But in what way was His kingdom manifested during the days of His earthly ministry? The Lord worked miracles, thereby testifying to the subordination of creation to Him. But He did not exercise His power over people, leaving them free to love Him or hate Him, serve Him or be at enmity against Him. He testified that He is meek and lowly in heart, the prophetic saying applies to Him that He will not break a bruised reed and will not quench smoking flax (Matthew 12:20; Isaiah 41:3), and He promised the Kingdom of Heaven to spiritual poverty. He taught that His disciples should not be like the kings of the nations who rule over them, but the greater should be like the younger and the ruler as the servant (Luke 22:25-26). The Lord directly rejected the earthly kingdom with which Satan tempted Him, promising Him the kingdoms of the world, and then the Jews inspired by Him. They wanted to one day make Him king after a miraculous feeding (John 6:15), but He withdrew from Them, and even during the passion and crucifixion, the question of His kingdom remained constantly worrying them, sometimes in a positive, sometimes in a negative sense. They said, either angrily or with hope: “If He is the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him” (Matthew 27:42). The Lord rejected His earthly kingdom and did not want to make His irresistible power an instrument of power. When ap. Peter wanted to protect Him with the sword, He stopped him and said: “Or do you think that I cannot now ask My Father, and He will present Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). With the visage of a slave, humiliated and belittled more than all other people, the Lord obscured the splendor of His kingdom. And when Pilate asked Him about the kingdom, He answered: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 26:36) and also added: “Now My kingdom is not from here”... This kingdom is still invisible and, as it were, does not exist for people, they do not know the divine power of the King of those who reign in the shadow of humiliation. But this humiliation was the image of true accession. Meekness and humility of heart were the path to the Kingdom of God, the sign of victory was the cross, its place was Golgotha, and on His cross, by the will of Pilate and according to God’s vision, there was an inscription: King of the Jews. The victorious procession of the Lord to reign in heaven and on earth, to the glory that He, according to His Divinity, had before the creation of the world, was the ascent to Jerusalem in free passion, and the crucifixion was His victorious crowning. Therefore, unconsciously, beyond their knowledge, the Jews all the time asked themselves and Him whether He was a King or not a King. coming to free passion and free death, the Lord reigned over the world, winning the main, decisive battle with the last enemy - death, trampling death with death. In His glorious resurrection, His Kingdom was revealed over the world, and therefore the passion of Christ is His true crowning of the kingdom, His final impoverishment for our sake is His enthronement, the path to Calvary is the path to victory. The Lord never ceased to be God, hiding His Divinity with human flesh, never ceased to be a king and ruler, although He covered His kingdom with the visage of a slave. But He did not leave the world without showing it His Divinity and His power: on Mount Tabor the world was covered with the radiance of His Divinity, and the disciples saw Him in His glory, which He had before the creation of the world, and from the Mount of Olives He showed His royal power: the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem was, as it were, a new, second transfiguration in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ before His suffering. He showed His power and glory to His disciples, so that “when they see Him crucified, they will understand His free suffering” (kontakion of the Transfiguration), and before His suffering, “Assuring the general resurrection before His passion, You raised Lazarus from the dead, O Christ our God.” The Son of David, the King of Israel, the King of Zion and Jerusalem, the King of the next century, going into free passion and leaving this world, revealed himself as king on this earth and in this holy city. He made a royal entry into Jerusalem, and this manifestation of His royalty pleases St. Church on the current holiday. She calls all the faithful today to meet the coming King. “Come today, we, the new Israel, even the Church of the tongue, let us cry with the prophet Zechariah... for behold, your King comes to you meekly and we will save you” (verse, I cried to the Lord). The Lord revealed His royalty, and people bowed down before her, they met the King, spreading their clothes, with wreaths, signs of victory, with jubilant hosanna: “The All-Holy Spirit, who taught the apostles to speak in other strange tongues, commands those unskilled Jewish children to call: Hosanna in the highest, blessed is the coming King of Israel” (lit. verse). The meek and saving King reigns not through fear, but through love, like the Beloved Bridegroom of the Church. The event of entry is inseparably connected with the event of the resurrection of Lazarus. This was the greatest sign in a series of miracles of the Lord; He revealed Himself as the ruler over death and, on the eve of victory over death, as a prelude to this victory, He called four-day-old Lazarus from the grave. It was not only the fainting of life in Lazarus, like that of Jairus’s daughter, about whom the Lord said: “The girl is not dead, but sleeps”; Here the Lord Himself directly said: “Lazarus is dead,” and the church hymn says about his resurrection: “Your voice is heard, O Lord, in the depths of hell.” A wondrous and terrible miracle, the manifestation of the Lord’s power over the world beyond the grave, was performed by the Lord for the sake of the one whom the Lord Himself calls in the Gospel of John His friend (John 11:11) and whom his sisters call: “You love him, it hurts” (John 11:3) - only about the beloved disciple of Christ the same words are said in his own Gospel: “disciple, Jesus loved him.” And about the entire family who lived in Bethany, it is said: “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus” (John 11:5) - and this is not said about anyone else in the Gospel. And the death of Lazarus caused the deepest excitement in the Wonderworker Himself; just before performing the miracle, He was grieved in spirit and became indignant, and Himself shed tears (John 11:35), so that the Jews themselves were amazed, saying: “See how He loved him” (John 11:36). And, performing a miracle, the Lord spoke of it as a manifestation of the glory of God (John 11:40). This was a tangible manifestation of the Kingdom of God, a thunderous revelation of it, and it shook hearts: “for his sake many of the Jews came and believed in Jesus” (John 12:11). And this shock of hearts was an external and internal reason for hearts to open to the Lord, according to the words of the evangelist: “That is why the people met Him, because they heard that He had performed this miracle” (John 12:18). The hearts of the people strove for Him, but He Himself went to meet this aspiration. The Lord deliberately arranges His solemn procession to Jerusalem. He sends two disciples from Bethany, from the Mount of Olives, to bring a donkey and a foal tethered from the village, and teaches them how to answer their owner, that the Lord needs them, and the unknown owner lets them go unquestioningly; All three first Gospels speak about this detail. The kings of the earth made their victorious entrance on horses, the Lord, the meek and saving King, makes his entrance on a humble donkey, and the young colt on which He sat and on which no one had sat before signifies the coming Church of the Gentiles, and the donkey under the yoke, his mother, signifies the Jewish Church under the law, she also participates in the procession. The Lord usually hid His glory from people, He forbade telling about His miracles and often retired to another place after they had happened. Now it’s not the same: in front of a multitude of people He performed the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus, revealed His glory, and after this miracle He not only remains here, but He Himself wants a solemn appearance to the people, He Himself commands that this celebration be arranged. This triumph is unique in the events of His earthly life, just as unique, but at the same time abiding, like His glorious resurrection. And this event is so important and significant that it was specifically predicted by the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9), and this prophecy is remembered by the evangelists Matthew and John. And when the Lord mounted the donkey and moved towards Jerusalem, the disciples, and then the people, were overcome by a certain jubilant inspiration of delight. “As He drew near to the descent of the mountain, the whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a great voice in all the powers that they had seen, saying: Blessed is the coming King in the Name of the Lord: peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:37–38). And when the Pharisees asked Him to forbid them, the Lord answered them strictly and decisively: “I tell you that if they remain silent, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40). The disciples were joined by a multitude of people who spread their clothes and tree branches along the road, showing royal honors to the Coming One, and greeted Him as the desired Messiah-King: Hosanna to the son of David! blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! (Matthew 21:9). “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:10). Children joined them, also exclaiming: “Hosanna to the son of David!” (Matthew 21:15), and when the chief priests and scribes were “indignant” and “said to Him, Do you hear what they say? Jesus said to them, “Have no one borne any praise, for out of the mouth of a child and of those who piss you have uttered praise” (Ps. 8:3; Matt. 21:15–16). The Lord did not forbid this glorification; on the contrary, He accepted royal praise and royal honors as due and due. The Lord made the royal entrance, He entered the Holy City as the Messiah-King. And when He entered Jerusalem, “the whole city shook, saying, Who is this?” (Matthew 21:10). The scribes and Pharisees, petrified in their insensibility, were in helpless confusion, for they feared Him, because all the people were amazed at His teaching (Matthew 21:26) and “consistently listened to Him” (Luke 19:48). The king entered Jerusalem and the church (Mk. 11:11), and “having seen everything there,” in the church he healed the blind and lame who came to Him, as a testimony of His power, and with authority He expelled the merchants from the church (Matt. 21:12). Before the people was the King whom the prophets had waited for and promised. The Lord on this day of His royal entry had full power in Jerusalem; on this day He was the King of His people. He did not want to use this power and by the evening of the day he left the city, going out to Bethany, for it was not for the sake of possessing earthly power that He showed His royal power, but He showed it. Just as on Tabor the glory of the Divine suddenly became visible, so now His all-conquering and all-conquering royalty has become palpable. The human race suddenly saw and felt it, first the disciples, then the people, and finally the Jewish children. And what won them over? not fear, not weapons, not external splendor, but meekness and humility, combined with manifest omnipotence. In the image of humility, the power and glory of God suddenly became palpable - as the church hymn testifies, “the vestments were laid out for Him, knowing that He is our God” (lit. verse, self-titled). So the soldiers who came to take Him, “when He said to them, “It is I,” retreated back and fell to the ground” (John 18:5), unable to bear the greatness of His appearance. If the Lord had desired earthly power in that day, nothing could have opposed Him; hidden hatred, and the enemies said to each other: “Do you see that you don’t have time to do anything? the whole world follows Him” (John 12:19). Judea would have been at His feet, followed by Rome and all the kingdoms of the earth, but that was not why the Lord came into the world. His royal victory led Him beyond this world. The Lord walked toward victory over the world through the cross, through free passion on Calvary. He entered Jerusalem for this passion, as He had repeatedly preceded His disciples, and, moving towards victory over the world and foreshadowing it, He made His royal entrance. The feast of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, which opens Holy Week, is a prelude to Easter, a kind of pre-Easter, the appearance of the victorious King, who came not to be served on earth, but to serve many, for “now His kingdom is not of this world.” And yet - an incessant voice whispers in the soul - the Lord, on the day of His royal entry and here, on the sinful earth, in Jerusalem, was the King, on this day and hour, here, in the vale of sin and suffering, the Kingdom of Christ was revealed. The world was not able to carry it within itself and hold it, and this Kingdom wins only on the path of the cross, in confrontation, sorrow and persecution. But the world was honored to see him, albeit in anticipation of the victory over the prince of this world, in victory over death. And the world remembers this phenomenon, it knows that the entrance of the Lord took place in Jerusalem, that the Lord was for a short time the King on earth. And with this He illuminated and sanctified the earthly kingdom, making it a participant in His Kingdom. In organizing its earthly life, in search of right citizenship, the human race wants not to be separated from Christ, not to surrender to the power of the beast and Caesar, but to have Him as King and Lord, to create a sacred kingdom in His earthly servants. The Lord is the King, and He has His kingdom on earth and in heaven. And earthly kings and earthly kingdoms are anointed from this sanctification; they want to be not without Christ, but with Christ. The human race thirsts for the Kingdom of God on earth, for it has been revealed in the world, and of the deeds of Christ, the manifestations of His Glory on earth, not a single one remains powerless, not a single ray of light in the world, a ray of Tabor light, is extinguished, and the glory of the royal entrance of the Lord remains on earth. However, a Christian must know that the earthly kingdom does not have an abiding city, it is only a prototype and a preliminary, through it our spirit breaks through to the eternal Kingdom of God. The Lord left the city of His reign to enter it for suffering, for eternal victory, and He also calls the faithful. Love your native land, love your fatherly kingdom, but through it strive to where the Lord, who is entering the holy city today, leads us, to the eternal kingdom through Golgotha, to bearing His cross. And the Church now sings about this carrying of her Cross. Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us, and we have all taken up our Cross with the verb: Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Amen. Blessed is the coming king of Israel! – Reflections on the Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem Christ is coming, coming to Jerusalem, like a King, riding on the foals of a donkey, pagan put speechlessness under the yoke of the Father. (Canon of the 2nd Monday Vaiy, paragraph 1, tr. 2) The Feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem has its own external and internal characteristics. Outwardly, it is the threshold of Holy Week and, as it were, merges with it, just as in its forefeast (vai week) it merges with the remembrance of the resurrection of Lazarus. This connection is also reflected in the troparion of the holiday, which speaks not of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, but specifically of the resurrection of Lazarus. “Assuring the general resurrection before Thy passion, Thou didst raise Lazarus from the dead, O Christ God.” What appeared, according to the Gospel of John (John 12:18), as the external basis for the solemn meeting of the Lord by the people, is credited as the very force of the celebration. This holiday, the only one of all, does not have an after-celebration, unless one considers Holy Week to be such. But internally, this holiday is fused with the thought of free passion and with the procession to the cross, and the royal greatness here is the victory of the cross, the trampling of death measured: “on the throne of the cherub and on the lot, seated for us for the sake of and to the passion of free will, today you hear children proclaiming hosanna...” Christ is the King, but His kingdom is not of this world, and He reveals His Kingdom in the world through meekness and obedience to crucified love. The cross is His weapon, the cross on it is His victory. He is the Lord of creation, the Creator and Provider, the Wonderworker and the Resurrector, He is the King of kings, but He seeks yet another kingdom in creation - not omnipotence, but love, not power, but sacrifice, not subjugation, but conviction: “not by war, not by force, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). And the sign of His victory is the cross - the scepter of the suffering God, under the shadow of which everyone is called: “Today the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us, and having all taken up Your cross, we say: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest” (verse, I cried out to the Lord for a holiday). The Lord entered the world, was born as the King of the Jews, and as such He accepted death on the cross. The Star of Bethlehem, which announced the birth of the King of the Jews, led the chosen ones, the wise Magi, to worship Him, and the answer of the world was Herod’s fury: the massacre of infants. It was intended for the born King, but His time had not yet come. It came for Him when He himself made His royal entrance, “for our sake he came to the slaughter by will.” And He Himself confessed himself as King before Pilate, and this confession was sealed in the inscription on the cross and was revealed in power and glory in the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, in His second coming and the Last Judgment He calls Himself: King (Matthew 25:34). His star, having lit up brightly in the sky, quickly falls and goes out in the strict and majestic sorrow of the great days of the Passion of Christ. During the earthly ministry of Christ, every manifestation of His royal power over the world in miracles shocked those who saw it, although it did not always awaken good feelings in them. Usually the Lord himself forbade the disclosure of His miracles. There was a case when, after the miraculous feeding of the people, they wanted to “come and accidentally take Him and make Him king” (John 6:15), but He withdrew. And usually, although He never denied His royal dignity as the “Son of David,” He hid His royalty under the image of His humility. However, before His passion, the Lord acted differently: having performed the stunning miracle of resurrecting a four-day-old dead man in the presence of the people, He not only did not shy away from the people’s triumph, but, on the contrary, seemed to go towards it. He himself sends the apostles to bring a donkey and a colt and, sitting on them, solemnly enters the Holy City, met and greeted as a King: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:38). This was a nationwide appearance of the King of the Jews, and the Lord on this day was truly the King in Jerusalem. This event, due to its importance, was predicted in the prophecies that were revealed before the eyes of the inspired evangelists: “Rejoice greatly, daughters of Jerusalem: behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and saving” (Zechariah 9:9). The Church also points to this in the parimitic readings selected for the holiday: in addition to the prophecies of Zechariah and Zephaniah, Jacob’s blessing is read here on Judah as a royal root: “a prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his bowels” (Gen. 49:10). The Lord wanted to reveal Himself as a King before His free passion, and in fulfillment of this desire He made His royal entrance, not in the image of conquerors and rapists, but as the conqueror of death, a meek and saving king, conquering hearts, beloved and reigning with the power of love. This phenomenon was directly to encourage and reassure the disciples before the terrible test of faith during the free passion of Christ, to pay attention to and condescend to their human weakness. However, it also has independent significance, for without such a phenomenon the fullness of God’s incarnation would not have been revealed in the world. In this regard, the current holiday has an affinity with the Transfiguration of the Lord, which is also characterized by an appeal to free passion (“that when they see You crucified, they will understand free suffering,” kontakion of the Transfiguration). The Lord hid the light of His Divinity with a veil of flesh; He “took on the form of a servant,” and there was in Him “neither form nor majesty” (Is. 53:2). However, humanity had to see His Divinity, at least in the person of the chosen disciples, and He appeared before them in glory on Mount Tabor. The earth saw His ever-present light. Likewise, His royal greatness, as the King of kings, which always remained hidden in the Teacher, who had no place to lay his head, had to appear with his own eyes on earth - as a testimony to the truth. This earthly appearance of the Heavenly King took place at the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem; the Church, due to the importance of the event, distinguishes it as the twelfth holiday (although, it would seem, it would be so natural to connect this holiday with the resurrection of Lazarus). The twelfth feasts, which relate to the main events in the work of our salvation, have not only a memorial, but also a fulfilling meaning. Their power remains in the life of the Church and acts in it. The Light of Tabor, revealed at the Transfiguration, according to the teaching of the Church, remains visible and is now worthy of it. Christianity knows on earth not only persecution, sorrow and the torment of the cross, but also victories and overcoming. Isn’t the Church’s educating and heart-taming influence in the world, which has manifested itself at all times of its existence, evidence of this? Isn’t this a manifestation of the power of the King Christ, although not of this world, but also over this world? The mysterious prophecies of the Old and New Testaments contain promises not only about the coming of the Kingdom of God beyond this world, but also about its manifestation in this life. It does not therefore become a kingdom from this world, but, however, it is not powerless in this world. On the contrary, it must be revealed to the world in the utmost strength in which it is only capable of containing it, as a testimony to the truth of Christ, even before its end. And it was revealed to the world at chosen times in its history, at its blessed hours. But who will dare to say that these hours have already passed forever and that the power of the Royal Entry of the Lord has exhausted itself, that its effect is only behind, and not ahead? And won’t such a word turn out to be just human cowardice, which seeks to hide from fulfilling its duty under the shadow of the cross? It won't happen! Therefore, may the day of the Feast of the Entry of the Lord appear to us as a source of joyful vigor and Christian hope, may our strength be renewed for work in the heirloom of Christ, for work for the Kingdom of God both within us and outside of us, here on earth! For on this earth people spread out their clothes and cried: Hosanna! And Christ passed through the earthly path, and we ascend with Him to His glory. Work for the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling! Hosanna in the highest! – Sermon on the day of the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem When the Lord, before His free passion, made a royal entrance on a donkey into Jerusalem, the Jewish people greeted Him with exclamations: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the Name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the Name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! (Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9; Luke 19:38; John 12:13). And at the same time, according to the word of the Gospels, they remembered the ancient prophecies about this, addressed to the daughter of Zion, the Jewish people: “Behold, the Lord declares to the end of the earth: say to the daughter of Zion: your Savior is coming... And they will be called a holy people, redeemed from the Lord, and you will be called a sought-after city, a city not forsaken” (Is. 62:11-12). “Rejoice with joy, daughter of Zion, rejoice, daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King is coming to you” (Zechariah 9:9). The disciples, as well as the people, rejoiced that the promises of the prophetic books were now being fulfilled, God was giving the kingdom to holy Israel and reigning in it. And only the Lord himself knew what this accession meant. He anticipated the disciples about what would happen on these days: “You know that in two days the Passover will take place, and the Son of Man will be crucified” (Matthew 26:1). He also knew how soon the jubilant “Hosanna to the King of the Jews!” will be replaced by cries of soldiers full of angry contempt: “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:37; Luke 23:38; John 19:20–21), with spitting and beating His head with a cane. And on the cross will be confirmed the mocking “inscription of His guilt: King of the Jews” (Mark 15:26), “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:37; Luke 23:38; John 19:20–21). But also the people themselves, expecting their own kingdom along with His accession, remained blind to their own fate, which, however, the King of Israel knew: “And when he approached the city, looking at it, he wept for it. And he said: Oh, if only on this day you knew what serves your peace. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with trenches and surround you, and oppress you, and ruin you, and kill your children within you, and leave not one stone upon another, because you did not know your time” (Luke 19:42-44). He wept amidst the general rejoicing about the coming sorrow of his people. Therefore, the joy of the holiday without any transition (“after-feast”) is replaced by the sadness of Holy Week, and its bright promises seem to be forgotten in the gloom of the future, remain unfulfilled and have not even begun to be fulfilled. That is why this day always leaves us in some kind of joyful, but difficult bewilderment of the heart. Nowadays, in the face of everything that is happening in the world, this bewilderment is shocking, like a painful contradiction, as if laughing at our faith. Christ, in his ascension and glory, is hidden in heaven, but He remains with us, crucified, reviled, suffering in all His humanity. The King of Israel, in the teaching of modern madness, is separated from his people, just as he himself is also denied his King. The prophecy of Christ about the destruction of the holy city, as well as about the beating of its children, has already been fulfilled, but its measure has not yet been fulfilled, for even now it continues with new bitterness. And when we now call, Christians, to rejoice at the accession of the King of Israel, is this sincere in us, and not self-deceptive and deceitful? However, no, it is precisely to the testimony of our faith, despite all immediate reality, all the evidence of the present day, that she calls us. For the Word of God and the revelations of faith, calling for its exploit, are irrevocable. We must contain in our hearts, if not all the fullness, but at least presentiments and harbingers of the truth she promised, so that it lights up and is inspired by them. “Let not your heart be troubled,” says the Lord, anticipating our confusion in advance, “believe in God and believe in Me,” and “the Holy Spirit, the Comforter... will remind you of everything that I have told you.” If Christ lives in us, and we are in Him, then we receive from Him confirmation of the truth of His words by the Holy Spirit. This contains the mystery, the power, and the authenticity of the revelation that is given to us by this holiday. He is prophetic, proclaiming two truths of faith. And the first of these truths testifies to the reign of Christ in the world. Christ, who remains in His incarnation in the form of humiliation, reveals himself as the King at the royal entrance. This appearance of Him is an image and foreshadowing of that reign, when He will come as King of kings and Lord of lords, at the general judgment and resurrection of the dead. This will be on the brink of the next century, but let this lightning of the coming coming of Christ, which once flashed in the world at the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, now illuminate frightened and gloomy hearts with its light, and let our “hosanna” resound in us as the first and all-Christian prayer: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” The second truth, proclaimed by this holiday, refers not to the future age coming after His Second Coming, but also to this human life, in His incarnation. The Lord took on human nature in the chosen and prepared people. He was met and welcomed into the world by the chosen prophets and apostles from time immemorial. He sent the latter to teach and baptize all languages, and the apostles cried out: “Hosanna!” when He entered his city as the King of Israel. It was to this Israel that prophetic promises were given that the kingdom of Christ would be revealed on earth. This same promise, which has not yet been revealed in its meaning, was confirmed by the Lord with his solemn, royal entrance. The world is the kingdom of Christ, it does not belong to the prince of this world, his beast and false prophets, although to this day it remains in their possession. And Christ entered the holy city as the King of Israel. This testifies that He did not want to be separated from His people, He did not diminish, but confirmed with all its power the prophecy about His kingdom on earth, like the throne of David, His father. But this will happen when His people recognize the hour and bow before Him as King and God, according to the true apostolic promise (Rom. 9:11). The Lord will not come into the world in His Second and Glorious Coming before His reign on earth has been accomplished in its anticipation. The Lord was pleased to reveal and commemorate both promises in one and the same event, the appearance of Christ as the king of Israel on earth, and His new coming in the glory of the King of Heaven. But there is nothing that the thought and reality of our days are more opposed to than this double promise. The people chosen by God to show Christ to the world are persecuted and reviled, as if contrary to all the prophecies about them. Another word of promise about Israel remains unfulfilled. The bright hour of his conversion, which will be salutary and joyful for all nations, remains hidden in the future. However, the word of God will not pass by, and in this we will find consolation and guidance. We Christians do not believe in the kingdom of the prince of this world, although he now reigns; but we look forward to the kingdom of God coming in the power of all its promises. The Lord taught us to always pray: “Thy kingdom come!”, which is the will of God in heaven and on earth. The feast of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem calls us to Christian courage of faith. “Come, and this day we, all the new Israel, the church from the outset, will cry out: Rejoice, daughters of Zion, preach, daughters of Jerusalem, for behold, your King is coming, gentle and saving to you. “Hosanna in the highest, blessed is the coming King of Israel!” (verse, on velik, vespers). Amen. The holy days of the Passion of the Lord are approaching, and our hearts anxiously await them. They are all desired and awaited: the resurrection of Lazarus, and the royal entrance of the Lord, and the last words and speeches of the Lord, and the majestically stunning events of the end: Gethsemane and Golgotha, death on the cross and burial. Memorably they take place before us, we contemplate and experience, love and pray, cry and worship them. But there is an event in this series that is now not only remembered, but also accomplished, happening. We participate in it, being present at it, together with Christ. It is the focus of both Lent and Holy Week, the entire church year, and the entire life of mankind and the whole world: that is the Lord’s Supper, the wedding feast of the Lamb, His farewell meal with people on earth, according to His word: “I will no longer eat this Passover with you until it is completed in the Kingdom of God, and I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until it comes” ( Luke 22:16–18). This Supper, once accomplished, is established for all times, is created in His remembrance, which is not only our human memory of that, but also the whole power of the Lord’s presence and our communion from Him. “For you are the one who offers and offers, accepts and distributes, O Christ our God” (mol. in Cherubim). It was secret and intimate, this farewell meeting of the friends of Christ, the Apostolic Twelve, not excluding the betrayer, but it was not closed and limited in relation to those absent from it. “Drink everything from her!” (Matthew 26:46), the Lord called, addressing not only the apostles, but also all of us. “The upper room, large and furnished” (Matthew 14:15) was then prepared for the Lord’s Supper, but it is expanding for everyone who comes to it, and we now fit in it, we are spiritually co-present together with the holy apostles, although after them. And He Himself gives us, with His most pure hands, through the hands of a priest, His Body and Blood “for the remission of sins.” And we all heed the commandment - “Do this in remembrance of Me,” “until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:24–26). Take into your hearts, Christians, the power of the command and the strength of the promise: everyone is called to the feast of faith. Let Christians, having been divided over the centuries in doctrine and life, have lost the ability to come together to the feast of faith, but the cup of Christ remains one and Christ alone calls and Himself communes to all who unite in the triumph of faith. And the upper room of the Last Supper, containing everyone, becomes the center of the world and all creation. The earth and the sky, the sun and the moon, all the stars and heavenly powers are worshiped in it, heeding the words of the Lord. And the Last Supper, once performed by the Lord, continues at all times on all altars and for all who come with the same power as it was then accomplished. That is not a passing moment in the life of the world, but an always preserved memory, all-time, the most important, most necessary and most saving event. Our earthly events and upheavals, destruction and restoration, everything earthly is insignificant, powerless and empty before the gift of the Lord, given and taught in the humility of the upper room of Zion. This is how we must think and feel, in the face of such an accomplishment, we must place ourselves before the altar of the Lord. Let us not fear the inconceivable, for we are called to it by the Lord. He Himself came to earth “took on the form of a servant, becoming in human likeness” (Phil. 2:7). He Himself humbled Himself before us, placing the heavenly sky into the cave of Bethlehem and the upper room of Zion. He puts His divine-human nature into the bread and wine of communion. The King of the world entered into it as “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29), a servant who washes feet and gives an example, so that we also do the same “as I have done to you” (John 13:15). All temporary earthly greatness faints before true heavenly greatness. But it remains the mystery of the Last Supper, the greatness visible with the eyes of faith. The Lord did not want to tie and force our freedom here, striking it with fear and signs, but protected it in its entirety. To believe and not to believe, to love and to enmity is left to human self-determination. In the face of the holy apostles, and with them the whole world, “knowing that his hour had come to pass out of this world to the Father... Having loved those who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1) and even to the humility of the Last Supper. Having loved Him with reciprocal love, we will love Him to the end. And if our heart remains powerless and cold, then may He Himself help us to love Himself with His love. May His Most Pure Mother help us, who with the silent power of Her love is present with us at the Easter meal of the slaughter of the Lamb. Christ, passing from the world to the Father, mysteriously remains in it, according to His promise: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20), until He comes clearly in His Theanthropic face. But the mysterious presence is equal in strength to the obvious one. And if then His coming will be a terrible judgment for the sinful world, then His present presence in the Holy Gifts is already for us a judgment of our conscience over us: “Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment upon himself, without considering the Body of the Lord... he will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:27-29). However, let us not be tempted by the fear of our unworthiness. Let no one ever consider himself worthy of the gift of Christ, but let him trust in Divine redemption, for love triumphs in him. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear... Let us love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:18-19). Light and life are in the upper room of Zion, at the Lord’s Supper, “night” is outside it (John 13:30). Christ came to sinners to save us, and He Himself calls us now: “Come with the fear of God, faith and love!” Amen. Homily for Good Friday: Lamentation of Our Lady Light, peace and joy from the Holy Sepulcher in contemplation of God's destinies, God's love and wisdom. The exposed powerlessness of evil before the inflexible and self-legitimate good, the victory of death over death, the acceptance of human destiny to the end and the passage of the shadow of death, the descent into hell and preaching to the dead, the glorious resurrection. The triumph of faith in the contemplation of the mysteries of God's revealed ways. But for the completeness of accomplishment, the path and reality of each step are needed. Being on this side, in this world, with the accomplishment still taking place, we experience horror and sorrow: the Light of the world has been destroyed, malice, limitation, self-interest triumphs - the world is empty, the sun has darkened, the luminaries have been eclipsed, the earth has shaken with horror. And in the souls of people: betrayal, betrayal and cowardice, indifference, aimless blasphemy and anger. The most pure body was presented with the possibility of torture and the torment of the cross, the most pure soul accepted all the bitterness of human sin, madness and cowardice, the spirit frantically searched for God, who had abandoned Him. And in this exhaustion - from here on - it was accomplished. It is given to humanity to experience this fate, since it is worthy of this name, and on behalf of all humanity His Most Pure Mother, who gave Him the flesh suffering on the cross, maternally experiencing the passion of the cross, His suffering, His loss. But here there is more than just suffering for the beloved Son, there is also bewilderment, temptation, a test of faith. The Church puts into the mouth of the Mother of God her bewilderment, bordering on the desire for death, and therefore despondency and despair. The death of the Righteous and the triumph of evil is the world’s sorrow for all humanity, which is the cry of the Mother of God. This is not personal, but general, all-human sorrow and bewilderment, from the righteous Job to the present day. Who was not destined in life to stand before the incomprehensible and seemingly meaningless and evil principle, when the soul freezes and God becomes distant? This is in personal destinies, in all the endless suffering and death of people - from illnesses, from sins, from malice, from accidents - all the incomprehensibility of life, and this is in the life of nations, for Christ lives and suffers and dies in his humanity: the terrible fate of our homeland, blasphemy, fight against God, the triumph of evil, violence, contempt for the sacred, cruelty and atrocity! Is it possible to understand and accept this with the human mind without becoming exhausted and perplexed? We on this side don’t know, don’t see the point. And in everyone’s way stands this Golgotha ​​struggle, which the Most Pure One experienced in her heart, on behalf of humanity. The Lament of the Mother of God, “Don’t cry for Me, Mother” is a silent conversation of the soul with God: the closed, dead eyes of the Savior and the wide-open pupils of the Mother. In the depths of sorrow the answer is heard, in the abyss of darkness a light lights up: “I will arise and be glorified.” This sounded earlier in the heart as a victory of faith, as spiritually recognized self-evidence, despite the evidence of feelings. Bewilderment and grief are fraught with different possibilities; they are at the cutting edge of life and death. In one direction - the despair of Judas and the indifference of betrayal, in the other - victory, the only one possible only on this path. This victory took place in the soul of the Virgin - suddenly, over despair, the highest evidence before the lowest, she heard “in secret” what was said in her heart. This was the victory of faith and obedience to the Father's will, manifested not only on the cross, but also at the cross, in the human race. And this is the path of the entire human race, the path of the Church: to maintain faith in victory despite external humiliation, in truth despite external incomprehensibility, in good despite the external force of evil, to see the light in darkness, to live in spite of external evidence. The path of the Church is the path of sorrows, persecution, need - the kingdom is not of this world - but this is the only path to the victory of faith, to salvation from despair and despondency, this is the path of the Mother of God. And the tomb of Christ becomes even more sacred for us in a new way and according to our humanity: it is like this, for in it is the source of life, not only of completed salvation, but also of the unceasing struggle of the feat of faith that is being accomplished, through dying to resurrection. A grain of wheat, unless it dies, will not bear fruit. Sergievskoye Podvorye. 1929 The women who had previously “followed Christ from Galilee, serving Him” (Matthew 27:55; Mark 15:41; Luke 23:55) now “with many others who came with Him to Jerusalem” (Mark 15:41), stood at the cross (John 14:25), while others “looked on from afar” (Matthew 27:55–56); Luke 23:49; Mark 15:40). They saw how His most pure body was taken down from the cross by Joseph and Nicodemus, anointed with spices, wrapped in a clean shroud (John 19:39–40) and buried in a new tomb (John 19:38–41; Luke 23:50–53; Mark 15:42–43). Mary Magdalene and Mary of Joseph “sat opposite the tomb” (Matthew 27:61) and “looked where they laid Him” (Mark 15:41; Luke 23:54). After that, having spent the night “in peace, according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56), they, in turn, “prepared incense and ointments” (Luke 23:56) and with them hastened to “look at the tomb (Matt. 28:1) and anoint the body of Jesus” (Mk.16:1), “while it was still dark” (John 20:1), “very early” (Luke 24:1), “at sunrise" (Mark 16:2). Then they were privileged to hear from the angel the news of the resurrection of Christ. Our souls burn with delight, contemplating this love and fidelity passing through trials. These hearts, torn by torment in the face of Jesus’ death on the cross, did not become petrified or frozen because of it; on the contrary, they retained all the vitality of their love. Now, as before, they rush to serve Him, already a lifeless dead man, in order to bury Him with dignity. They are not stopped in this impulse by fear of the guard assigned to the tomb, or timidity about their weakness, how they can roll away the stone from the tomb (and “he was very great!” Mark 16:4). Grief turned out to be unable to weaken their will. On the wings of love they rush to the tomb, and the first among them is the one who, during the life of the Lord, was worthy to anoint Him “for the day of burial” (John 12:7; Matt. 26:12; Mark 14:8), Mary Magdalene. The call and command of love silenced other thoughts, other desires, but Christ responds to them through the sending of an angel, the messenger of the resurrection, and then with his own appearance. How poor our world would be if it were deprived of the joyful contemplation of this feat. Just as our winglessness even now inspires, this movement of loving hearts towards the Holy Sepulcher overcomes the lethargy of the heart with inspired recklessness. The Church blesses them, calling them myrrh-bearing women along with Joseph and Nicodemus, to whom it was given to perform the burial and be the first to anoint the most pure body of the Lord. The searching thought involuntarily asks itself: how was it? How did the languid hours of this endless night pass for them in boundless sorrow? But the Gospels do not directly talk about this. All that is said here about the myrrh-bearers is only that “on the Sabbath they remained in peace, according to the commandment.” But this applies only to external observance of the commandment. And what is said about their internal state is only revealed by a brief hint in the Gospel of John, in the story of Mary Magdalene. She, coming to the coffin “early, when it was still dark,” became convinced that “the stone had been rolled away from the coffin.” Then she runs to tell Simon Peter and the “other” disciple (John himself): “They have taken the Lord away from the tomb, and we do not know where they laid Him.” The disciples also then ran to the tomb, saw its emptiness, the “other” disciple immediately believed in the resurrection, but after that they “returned to themselves again.” But Mary did not return. She “stood at the coffin and cried,” and even then “saw two angels sitting in the coffin.” To their question: “Wife, why are you crying?” she answered: “They took away my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid Him.” The shock of grief did not leave her even at this appearance, and it was so overwhelming that she did not even recognize the Lord who had appeared, mistaking Him for a gardener. His bna also asks: “If you carried Him out, tell me where you laid Him, and I will take Him” (John 12:15). And only when the Teacher’s call “Mary!” reached her ears, then only, with a joyful cry of “Rabbi,” she rushes to His feet to “touch” them. Such was this numbness from grief that neither the hours of Saturday rest nor the impressions of Sunday morning, with the emptiness of the tomb, the appearances of angels and the mysterious “Gardener” himself, could free Mary from it. But what happened to Mary, the same thing, even if to a lesser extent, happened to the other wives, who in the morning came to the tomb with funeral lamentations. And yet, this holy sorrow still remained limited in the extent of its comprehension, still human, just like joy. The Lord forbade even the latter to express itself in a natural movement: “Do not touch Me”! He explained to Mary Magdalene the mysterious power of his ascent to the Father, which still remained incomprehensible to her in her human feeling. Only after this admonition does she go to tell her disciples that she “saw the Lord.” The Lord chooses her to become the first preacher of the resurrection of Christ (to which neither Peter nor the “beloved disciple” himself were called). We have a similar testimony about this election from the Evangelist Luke (Luke 24:4-8) - having heard from the angels about the resurrection, “and returning from the tomb, they announced it to the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and others with them, who told the apostles about this.” At the same time, faith and clairvoyance of love anticipate even the apostolic comprehension: “And their words seemed empty, and they did not believe them.” With the same command, the angel sends myrrh-bearing women to the apostles and in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 28:1-5): “And go quickly, tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead.” “And they ran to tell His disciples.” (The same is in Mark 16:5–7, 9–11). This is how the myrrh-bearing women perform their wondrous service to Christ. They fearlessly accommodate in their hearts events that were so difficult to accommodate in the hearts of the apostles (except for John). There is one feature that testifies to the whole difficulty of their feat; this is at the first end of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:8). Here it is stated about them: “When they came out, they ran from the tomb, they were seized by trembling and horror, and they did not say anything to anyone, for they were afraid.” However, at the second end of the Gospel of Mark this is no longer said, but it is directly reported that Mary Magdalene went and announced the appearance of the Risen One to those with Him (Mark 16:10). Obviously, that fear turned out to be transitory and was overcome by them, and this makes us appreciate even more the sacrifice of the ministry of the myrrh-bearing women, with Mary at their head. But now let us ask ourselves about what the evangelists are silent about: where was the Most Pure One on this night of resurrection? Was she with the myrrh-bearing women, with whom she stood at the cross, contemplating Christ’s death on the cross and His burial? However, no, the Gospels now do not call it with them. She is not among the apostles, and even with her beloved disciple, who received her into his home according to the command of the Lord (John 19:27). He alone, without her, together with Peter only, goes to the tomb, here to believe in the resurrection. From here on, they begin to speak about the Most Pure One of the Gospels only in the language of silence. The veil of his mystery hides from us what happened on that night of resurrection with the Mother of God. Only some church hymns give vague indications about this. They testify, first of all, to the full power of maternal grief, in which she shares the mortal struggle of the Son. She also shares their human sorrow with the myrrh-bearers. “The Lamb, visibly drawn to the slaughter, followed Mary, tormented with other wives.” This is a mortal longing for her: “Now take me with You, my Son and God, so that I, Master, will go down to hell with You and I, do not leave me alone, for I no longer tolerate living without seeing You, my sweet light, but I will not leave Him alone, here I will die and be buried with Him.” However, in this sorrow uniting with the apostles and myrrh-bearers, the Most Pure One is already separated from them. In it the mystery of the Theotokos revelation is accomplished through the unity with the Mother of the resurrected Son. Christ's stay in the tomb is accompanied by His descent into hell, in it all the great mystery and power of Him - preaching in hell, the appearance after death and the ministry of Christ. Was this known and shared by His Mother? The Church remains silent about this, perhaps because this mystery, which took place outside the earthly circle, remained unknown to the Most Pure One herself, before her honest dormition. However, if not all knowledge, then foreknowledge of what is happening in the descent into hell, it could be available to her, together with the knowledge of the resurrection of Christ taking place in the world and for the world, which she had already experienced in her Son. And the Church testifies to this knowledge of Sunday joy, characteristic of the Mother of God, although in restrained words. From the darkness of the tomb the light of resurrection shines. “Don’t cry for Me, Mother, see me in the grave... I will rise and be glorified,” she hears in the silence of the grave. “Oh, how the abyss of generosity is hidden from You, the Lord said to the Mother in secret: for although I will save My creation, I willed to die, but I will also rise again.” And the Mother answers: “I sing Thy mercy, O lover of mankind, and I worship the riches of Thy mercy, Master, for Thy creation was saved, Thou didst lift up death, O Most Pure Speech.” From this we understand why the Most Pure One was not with either the myrrh-bearers or the apostles on the night of the resurrection, for she is above even this rank. When they were still in the grip of sorrow, she was already in the joy of the resurrection taking place; his gospel sounded in her soul, earlier than that of the angels. But with this sacred secret she retreats into the deepest shadow of silence, in which she remains on Sunday night: “for the Lord has looked upon the humility of his servant.” Amen. “Stomach, what was it like dying? How did you live in the tomb?” Yes, Life in the Grave. His wounded body was given over to burial... After death, burying love approached the Crucified One: “The noble one hides You terribly, O Savior... And is horrified by Your terrible image.” “A man who is red with kindness above all others, as if he is a sightless dead man, the nature of which adorns all.” “I laid the measures of the earth in a small tomb that dwelt.” “Contain a handful of earth, mortified in the flesh, now hidden under the earth.” “You hid yourself under the earth like the sun now, and you were covered by night.” “Oh strange wonders! About new things! The Giver of my breath rushes lifeless, we bury him with Joseph’s hands.” “My sweet Jesus and saving Light, how you hid in a dark tomb!” The Mother of God and the Myrrh-Bearers bowed over the Dead Man in quiet sadness: “Woe is me, the light of the world! Woe to me, my light, my beloved Jesus!” In sacred horror the powers in heaven lowered their wings, the prophets bowed their prophetic charters in trepidation, and the entire heavenly and earthly Church bowed. The believers quietly and reverently approach, bow before the Sepulcher in deep thought, their faces glowing with love, and raise their lights in the blazing multitude of lights at the Sepulcher. In solemn silence the mystery of the death of God, His sabbatification, is accomplished. Together with them, we, the poor and the last, dare to approach the “Blessed Sepulcher: for we receive within ourselves, like a sleeping Creator, the Divine repository of life is revealed,” and to this sabbath of the Creator of the world: “Today you have sanctified the seventh day, which you blessed in ancient times with rest from works... This is the blessed Saturday... the day on which you rest from all Your works The only begotten Son of God." Let us stand timidly with those present at the Tomb; they will not reject us, for love burns in us too, for we also brought Him the candle of our dark life, we lay flowers with all our love and touch His wounds with tears of our hearts... But where does this quiet joy come from here, in a place of sadness, and, instead of torment of the heart, this solemn peace, and instead of darkness, a quiet radiance of light? Where does this bliss of sorrow come from, and how does the horror of being taken down from the cross give way to the triumph of accomplishment? DONE! Yes, here the victory on the cross took place, and it is evidenced in our hearts by inexpressible joy, the joy of being taken down from the cross, the triumph of this death on the cross and wounds: the jubilant fullness of this sacrifice of love, which bore everything and gave everything, and life itself... And just a few hours ago the whole world was experiencing the spasms of death. The sun darkened, unable to bear the world's despair, and the veil of the church, created for the consecration of the earth, was torn, after the murder of Christ was committed on it, the Giver of Life tasted death on the cross. There has never been and never will be such despair in the world, the extinction of all meanings, in rebellion against God and His Christ. The creature rebelled against the Creator and wanted to kill Him, to give triumph to the prince of the world, and He surrendered to this death, did not resist it... And on Him, meek and humble in heart, who brought the revelation of divine love to the world, all the hatred, alienation, misunderstanding, indifference, cowardice, betrayal, betrayal, cruelty and malice that surpassed all measures fell upon Him. They reviled Him, tortured Him, scourged Him, tore His body with nail wounds and, finally, hung Him on the cross to die in terrible agony, in abandonment and loneliness, as the lot of despair in all His work and in all humanity. The disciples fled, Judas betrayed, and Peter denied, and only one remained at the cross. The people who listened to His teaching, who accepted the gifts of His miracles, turned to Him with hatred, and the few faithful were only able to respond to what was happening by beating their chests and crying. And the last sorrow that overflowed the cup of His suffering was the torment of the Mother, whose heart was pierced by a weapon, piercing into the dying heart of the Son - her exhaustion on the cross: Now receive me with You... May I go down to hell with You and I: don’t leave me alone, I can’t stand life anymore, not seeing You, my sweet light... Joy will never touch me from now on, sobbing in the words Immaculate: My light and my joy will go into the grave: but I will not leave Him alone, here I will die and be buried with Him... Such was this night of the world and its agony. Mortal spasms stopped the heart of the world, and it seemed that only death, immersion in the darkness of non-existence, could put an end to it. And death came, the end of suffering. But it did not become a triumph of non-existence, but was a victory of life. Her darkness is illuminated by radiant light, her dead silence is filled with full-voiced silence, her sorrow is extinguished in the radiance of Life in the grave. And the army of the church bows down and celebrates the triumph of the victorious, for having given everything to the end and accepted everything to love, it crowds around the Mother of God. She already knew, in the depths of her suffering, that she would go through the only path to the final victory of Life over death. Oh, how the abyss of generosity is hidden from You, God said to the mother in secret: I want to save my creature, I wish to die, but I will also rise again. Don’t cry for Me, Matya, see me in the grave... I will rise again and be glorified. Sabbath peace, the final certainty, reigns in the heart, and it becomes clear to him what is happening there, beyond the gates of death, from this tomb: Jesus Christ, King of all, Why did you come seeking for those in hell? Or free the human race? Truly, He came to earth to save the human race: You descended to earth to save Adam: and on earth I did not find it, Lord, Like a grain of wheat, it went into the depths of the earth, the abundant one rewarded this class, raising up men who were from Adam. Double-branched, life-giving grain it is sown into the bowels of the earth with tears today, but having vegetated, the world will rejoice. Yes, You have filled all with Your glory; You have descended into the underworld of the earth: For my composition in Adam could not hide from You, and was buried, having decayed and renewed me, Lover of mankind. The most pure church is destroyed, but it restores with itself the fallen tabernacle, to Adam the first the second Adam, alive in the highest, down even to the repositories of hell. The Lord, who is in the tomb, goes through the path of the afterlife, sacrificial love, the non-evening light of the Epiphany illuminates the darkness of death. At the Holy Sepulcher we touch upon the mystery of death. The light of this tomb illuminates every Christian death as a repose in the Lord. Bright silence and speaking silence, the revelation of death is announced at the tomb of loved ones, and the body, calmed from the heat of the earth by heavenly coolness, sends us news of an otherworldly world. And the sign of this life in death, like dying in life, is the cross of the Lord, life on the cross and death on the cross. Like a lion sleeping in the flesh, O Savior, like a certain skimen young rebelled, putting off old age of the flesh. 3 This is the Blessed Saturday* – Reflections before St. shroud Today is secretly the great Moses prefigures the verb: and God bless day seven. This one is blessed Saturday, this is the day of rest, and the night night from all his works, the Only Begotten Son God, looking at the death of the flesh (Stichera of Great Saturday on the Lord I cried) The Lord is in the tomb, and we are at this tomb. Once more God rested from His work and tasted the Sabbath rest. Heaven and earth stood in trepidation at the Lord's tomb. In this solemnity of silence, the intelligibility of silence, the lightness of sadness, our poor soul contemplates, cries, and prays. People once killed God who came to earth, but to this day they are constantly killing Him. In the face of this tomb there is no place for powerless self-defense, for its light penetrates the entire innermost soul, and we see in this light our weakness, anger, and fall. We humans drive thorns into His Brow, one and all, by deed or inaction. Or are we better than those who abandoned Him then, denied Him, doubted Him, tortured and crucified Him? We were not destined to have this test, outwardly we passed it, but this did not make us free from criminal complicity: in the person of those who rejected God, blind and bitter, the human race committed deicide, in captivity to the prince of this world. The Lord is a lover of mankind. He came to save His creation, to call to life the fallen and dying grain in the ground. God came to us, such as we are, to deicides, murderers and suicides, and tasted death on the cross for our sake. Should man kill God? are not legions of angels ready to defend Him? Will not every creature be consumed by His wrath? But He remained defenseless before the murderers and did not resist death. The Father sent and the Son went to accept death. The mind is torn by contradiction and exhausted by mystery. The Lord is a lover of mankind. In His image He created man for His glory; He loved his pristine incorruption above all creatures. But how is love possible for fallen man, in whom the gaping insignificance of the creature is exposed? How can you love me? And yet the Son of God came to fallen man, to me and for my sake, and He died for me and with me, in order to save me, like every person. The measure of God's love and condescension is inconceivable for us, for God imprisoned everyone in disobedience in order to have mercy on everyone (Rom. 11:32), and for everyone and for everyone the Lord will rest in the tomb. This coffin is a revelation of God’s love for man, it is a gift of its insatiable sacrifice: to give everything for love, so that nothing remains ungiven. “Greater love can no one have than he who lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). And behold, the Creator, having assumed human nature, lays down His life for His creation. The Lord created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day from His works; this is the first Sabbath of God’s rest. The Lord gave originality to the world in man, who through his freedom can fall away from Him; the Lord inclined His omnipotence to this freedom. The world of God rebelled against God and remained outside of Him. To save the world, to return it to Himself, God Himself descended into the world and became human. God Himself became a creation by uniting with it. God accepted the suffering of human life. He was exhausted by the weakness of human flesh (Matthew 26:42), He suffered from human sin and demonic malice (Matthew 17:17), He experienced the human sorrow of mortal nature (Matthew 26:38; John 11:33–35). Apart from sin, He knew everything human. God did not leave man in death; He passed through its gates with him. God died as a man for the sake of man, and this is presented to us “in the fleshly tomb.” The greedy nothingness from which man was created, exposed by sin, opened its mouth and brought death into creation. Human nature became mortal, but God did not resist this mortality for Himself. Hell received God himself upon the bait of mortal nature. Nothing, total darkness, after the creation of the world once again appeared before God, and He illuminated this darkness with the light of His resurrection. The circle of creation has closed. The work of God is completed with the salvation of the world - not in the omnipotence of His power, but in the omnipotence of sacrificial love. A new Sabbath rest has arrived: the Lord, who rested from the works of creation, also rested from the works of salvation. This coffin, the imaginary victory of death, is a victory over death. There is no darkness of death, for in it lies the light of resurrection, the bright peace of divine Sabbath. The gates of hell are open, the path is passed and sanctified, for He is with us in death, and in it we are not abandoned by Love. The death of God... It is the highest gift and the ultimate sacrifice from the God of love to the God of truth. God, as the Creator, is responsible to Himself for His creation. In creating the world, He offers for it from eternity the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Acts 13:8). God loved the world so much that He did not spare His Son for it (John 3:16). God made peace first with His omnipotent Word, and then with the death of the Word on the cross. The Father sends the Beloved Son to her, and He freely comes to do the will of the Father, anointed with the Holy Spirit. The mind becomes numb before the sacrifice of God’s love, which creates peace and crucifies itself for it. Divine love, eternally sacrificial in itself, pours out its sacrifice to the world; all creation, above and below, is horrified by this unbearable sight. And in this self-repentance of God, an immutable answer is given to the question about all human sorrow and suffering: God’s sacrifice for the world is greater than any human sorrow, and it is the sacrifice of saving love. May the sorrow for the world subside at this tomb, may the murmur of the human heart be silent! But how can God, the eternal and most blessed, suffer and die humanly? This is why He became a man, joined His creation, in order to make his life His life, to help him not from the outside, but from within, in himself, and, first of all, to take upon Himself all created weakness, all human suffering. He became our brother to make us, like Him, sons of God. He accepted our suffering, mortal body in order to glorify it with Himself. Along with the fullness of humanity, He accepted the sin of this humanity in His devotion to God. The One Sinless One did not know the poison of sin, but He knew all its power through His human nature, one with His brethren. He knew the full weight of suffering from the sin of others through the immensity of His compassionate love. In His Person He united everyone, in His nature He contained everything that came into being through Him (John 1:3). God can neither reconcile with sin nor forgive it, leaving it without His wrath. But God Himself, who became man, offers God as a sacrifice of propitiation and atonement all of His human nature: His most holy soul, which tasted spiritual death from the weight of sins, and His most pure body, which tasted death on the cross. He accepts co-suffering with a person and suffering for a person. In the night of Gethsemane, which crowned His life on earth, by the power of compassionate love He experienced the grief of all human sin in the present, past and future, in all its disgusting and painful nature. He took into Himself all the remorse of human conscience and the deadness of sin, and from the depths of it He prayed to the Father with a strong cry, with tears (Heb. 5:7). It was the weeping, groaning and praying conscience of all mankind, responsible for every sin that weighs on it. No one can lift this weight except the One Sinless Man and God. But lifting it upon Himself, He weakened sin for the sinners themselves, He shielded man from the angry Face of God, reconciling him with God, propitiating God. Every human sin is mourned in the darkness of the Gethsemane night and plunges into it. But sin, flowing from all sides into His sinless soul and tormenting it with its opposition to God, rebelled with all its power against Himself, who had taken up residence in the kingdom of sin. His blind servants were furious with Christ in order to completely destroy Him from the face of the earth. There is an internal necessity in this confrontation; the Lord prepared His disciples for it, anticipating to them that He must be delivered into the hands of sinners and be killed by them. Victory over militant evil is impossible without its confrontation. And the Lord tasted the full cup of suffering: the cowardly betrayal of friends and the fierce hatred of enemies, the coarse ferocity of warriors and the refined mockery of leaders, the cold cruelty of the law and the frenzied bitterness of the people were dissolved in it, and above all this was the last bottomless sadness of loneliness in a duel with the evil of the whole world and its prince: “My God, My God, this world you have forsaken” ( Matthew 27:46). But all the most terrible torments of soul and body could not yet be fulfilled without the last, and at the same time the first, enemy of human nature—death—attacking Him. It did not exist as a necessity for His sinlessness, but He freely accepted it in order to offer His life as the highest and final sacrifice to God. No one takes (My life) from Me, but I myself give it (John 10:18). He gives it as evidence of the boundlessness of God’s sacrificial love, as a victory over death. The body and blood, in which our life is, is our complete and exclusive property. To give them up, to break His Body and shed His Blood, means to give Himself away. In death on the cross is the fullness of the power of God's incarnation. Skin for skin, and for his life a man will give everything that he has (Job 2:4), says Satan about Job, and here God gives His Body and Blood for human nature. God dies, tramples death with death... The love of God has exhausted all its sacrifices. Completed (John 19:30): in creation there is salvation, in condemnation there is redemption, in rejection there is reconciliation, in death there is resurrection. God has rested from His works and calls man to Himself into divine rest, so that he may move towards the path of salvation and not harden his heart. “For the Sabbath has been abandoned to the people of God. But he who entered into His rest rested from his works, even as God did from His own” (Heb. 4:9-10). About the feat of joy: On the eve of St. Easter ...and lo Jesus met them and In the darkness before dawn, amid deep sorrow, during a great earthquake, the news of the resurrection sounded: “Rejoice!” It was announced then by the risen Lord himself, and He proclaims it now. What do we, who have forgotten how to rejoice, need for this word to resound victoriously in our hearts, and not remain dead and cold for it, as if not trusting itself and ashamed of itself? Called to meet the Risen One, how shall we say, “Truly He is Risen!”? We entered the days of Great Lent not without spiritual confusion and not without difficulty. Now they are already expiring, having been completed in different ways. Everyone in their own way was given the opportunity to touch with their hearts and be spiritually beneficial to St. Pentecost. From it we take away the quiet lights from which we must kindle the candle of the Resurrection of Christ. Whether we have worked hard or little spiritually, Christ calls everyone to the feast, so that “he may now receive a denarius”: those who worked from the first, and from the third, and from the sixth, and from the ninth, and from the eleventh hour. For He “accepts the last as well as the first,” so that all may enter into the joy of their Lord. “Let no one weep for misery... let no one weep for sins.” The Lord Himself descends with luminous joy into the heart that opens to Him. And may it be revealed! But even on Sunday night a stone was rolled at the tomb of the Lord, a seal was attached, and a guard was posted. We feel even now the heaviness that has crushed the heart and sealed the tomb with the Body of the Three-Day Dead. It fell upon us from the unbearable, it seems to us, burden of life, from the cruelty of the military guard, from the insurmountable sadness in the heart. Everyone is exhausted in their own way: some from anticipation of future troubles, others from those that have already come; some from infirmities and circumstances, others from sorrows and deprivations. There is something in everyone’s soul that deadens and darkens it on the eve of Christ’s Resurrection. One involuntarily recalls the lightness and lightness of the days of the past, when the joy of Easter victoriously entered the world in its bright robes, in the rejoicing and generosity of grace. It seemed then that we worthily accepted what belonged to us, and that we ourselves were bright and joyful, resurrected and resurrected. All we could do was celebrate that gift, the more magnificently, the more appropriately. Nowadays this pomp seems distant and alien, cold and unnecessary to us. The soul has become not enough of it, and only the external is powerless, it seeks something else and more - the power and light of the resurrection, the joys of its freedom, the trampling of death with Christ and in Christ. We call and wait for Him: may He himself come closer and tell us his REJOICE! so that our hearts will tremble from it. What is needed for the power of Easter joy, for victory over death? What does it conquer in us? What do we need to do in ourselves and on ourselves in order to accept this joy given by Christ, to respond to this call? In response, we must demonstrate the feat of joy, rising to it on the wings of freedom, and free ourselves, even for a brief moment. Then joy itself will flash upon us, its wave will overwhelm us, its light will illuminate us. We are slaves now. We are enslaved by fear and sorrow, confusion and coldness, routine and dryness, joyless everyday life. We are slaves of the prince of this world, no matter what he may wear, slaves of the world, and we are only trying to cover ourselves with ineffective robes of pomp. But on the path to joy one must break the chains of slavery, and its freedom is found in God. In Him you can forget from the world with its sorrow, from its very existence, having heard the call of Christ: “Do not be afraid, it is I!” And you need to become deaf and blind for the world, in order to free yourself from it, even for a brief moment, becoming, as it were, outside of it, and immerse yourself in the Divine being. Such is the nature of Easter joy. Then, even now, our Easter joy will be victorious and dazzling, as in the past, as in the times of the first Christians, when the prayer was poured out: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” ( Rev. 22:20 ). But this must be desired - with all the strength with which “the Kingdom of God is constrained, and those who use force delight it” (Matthew 11:12). It is sinful and cowardly for us to think that we are deprived or abandoned by God. He knows no partiality. But we are chosen and called to the joy of Easter not because we are rich and sought after by the mercy of God, but because we are poor and diminished, pitiful and unhappy. The strength of our joy is not in prosperity, but in adversity - it is truly independent and free, like the joy of achievement, Easter on the blood, next to Calvary, the hard-won victory of our faith. Let it briefly sparkle in us and soon fade away, but the brighter and more joyful will be the appearance of the Risen One. The darker the night in which Christ is resurrected, the brighter His eternal radiance. My joy will be in you and your joy Come... divine joy... Let us partake of the Kingdom of Christ. (Easter. Can. p. 8, tr. 1st) On Easter night, when the procession of the cross, having gone around the church, stops in front of closed doors, a temporally elusive, but spiritually significant moment of a certain perplexed, questioning silence passes through the souls: “who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb” (Mark 16:3)? and will the tomb appear empty, for Christ has risen? And when the doors open before the sign of the cross and we enter the church sparkling with lights while singing the jubilant Easter hymn, our hearts are filled with joy, for Christ has risen from the dead. And then the Easter miracle takes place in our souls. For we “see the resurrection of Christ.” “Having purified our senses,” we see “the shining Christ” and “let us approach the coming Christ from the tomb like a bridegroom.” We then lose consciousness of where we are, come out of ourselves in stopped time, and enter into the Sabbath “rest of the people of God” (Heb. 4:9-10). In the radiance of the white ray of Easter, the earthly colors fade, and the soul sees only the “unapproachable light of resurrection”: “now everything is filled with light, heaven and earth and the underworld.” On Easter night it is given to a person in anticipation of experiencing the life of the next century, entering the kingdom of Glory, the kingdom of God. The language of our world does not have words to express in them the revelation of Easter night, for it is the secret of the future age, whose “language is silence.” The perfect joy given on this night according to the promise of the Lord is the Holy Spirit, revealing to us, by the will of the Father, the risen Christ. The Holy Spirit is the real joy in the Holy Trinity, the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, and He is the joy in us about the resurrection of Christ. Through them we see the risen Christ, He is the Light of Christ’s resurrection in us. Easter is not for us one of the holidays, but “a holiday of holidays, a triumph of celebrations.” All twelve great holidays give us knowledge of the Kingdom of God in the affairs of God, as the events of this century, but Easter is not a memory of such an event, for it is addressed to the century to come. Easter is on earth the threshold of the appearance of glory, for which Christ prayed to the Father in His high priestly prayer - the heavenly Jerusalem, which at the fulfillment of times, according to a prophetic vision, descends from heaven to earth: “Shine, shine, shine the new Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” Easter is eternal life, consisting in knowledge of God and communion with God. She is truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. There was the first word of the risen Lord in his appearance to the myrrh-bearing women: “Rejoice” (Matthew 28:9), and His word in his appearance to the apostles: “Peace be with you” (Luke 21:36; John 20:19, 29). The life of the future century is not a simple negation of this century with its destruction, but the perpetuation of everything that is worthy of it, just as eternity is not the oblivion or abolition of time, but the stopping of its changeable run. The glorification of the creature in the resurrection is accomplished by the power of God, but in its own life through the feat of self-denial. For the Resurrection of Christ occurs by the power of His free suffering and death on the cross: “Trampling down death by death.” Victory over death is accomplished from within, by death itself. The life of this world is completely exhausted in the exhaustion of the death of Christ, just as death, fully known and experienced, is already powerless to hold Him (Acts 2:29), for it itself is exhausted in Him: “Where is your sting, O death?” (1 Cor. 15:55), “death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54). Resurrection is not the creation of new life, but victory over death in death itself, eternal life rising from death, “Christ proceeding from the grave like a bridegroom.” The Resurrection of Christ is therefore also the perpetuation of His saving death, which crowns His redemptive passion and the entire path of incarnation. The Resurrection of Christ is the Cross, for it is accomplished by the Cross, by the power of the sacrificial act of love and obedience. “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we sing and glorify Your holy resurrection.” In the trampling of death, in the victory of resurrection, the cross is the foundation and power of resurrection joy. The bliss of paradise preserves the memory of enlightened and overcome suffering, just as light is victory over the “darkness at the top of the abyss,” just as God’s world envelops “empty and formless land” with beauty and structure. This age, while preserved, passes into the future and is transformed into it, just as the earthly body of the Lord Jesus was transformed in the resurrection. The body of the risen Lord retains the nail wounds and the pierced rib, as evidence of its self-identity; in this unity of life of this and the next century, the power of Christ’s resurrection is revealed. The image of resurrection is inscribed in nature, and its seal is in its spring resurrection. From the ground after the winter torpor, spring rises living sprouts, new shoots emerge from it with sharp needles, and they are filled with the juices of life. Spring dresses itself in the colorful clothes of resurrection under the life-giving rays of the sun. And every spring of nature prophesies about the coming spring of the whole world. The death of nature is overcome by the warmth of life, and the Easter of nature naturally gives way to the Christian Easter. And just as winter leads to spring along its difficult path, so in Christian life the days of Lent and Holy Week are introduced into the Holy Week. Easter. Sometimes people want to avoid this path without experiencing or experiencing Holy Week. But their feelings remain unopened, there is no candle in their soul to kindle the Easter light. For “yesterday I was buried with You today, I am resurrected with You, I was crucified with You yesterday.” Blessed is he who can repeat in his heart these words of the Easter song. Joy is the crown of sorrow, a great light shines in darkness and the shadow of death, death is defeated by death, and Easter celebration is the spiritual fruit of sorrow and Lenten feat. After winter sadness, the Groom calls his soul-bride: “Arise, my beloved, my beautiful, come out” (Song. 2:10). The rays of light of Christ's resurrection penetrate the entire universe. In it the dead are alive for us, and we send them Easter greetings, like the news of the resurrection, which they know in their own way. It is not just the animate and rational creature that receives the power of resurrection, but the entire universe is resurrected in the body of Christ, rejoicing in the joy of Easter. “Let the heavens rejoice with dignity, let the earth rejoice, and let the whole world, visible and invisible, celebrate.” To the prophetic eye, the leaping joy of Easter is clearly in nature: the “playing” sun, the air, the waters, and the plants are illuminated by the rays of divine joy. The resurrecting human spirit cannot find outside itself a dead nature that has not risen with it, and it calls it to Christ’s resurrection. Easter is Eucharistic joy. The Lord did not separate from us at the Ascension, but left us a connection with Him in St. communion. Eating the bread of heaven and the cup of life, we perceive the appearing Christ and then glorify Him with the hymn of resurrection. “Oh, great and sacred Easter of Christ, oh, wisdom and word of God, and power! Give us the opportunity to partake of You in the unfading days of Your kingdom.” The Easter celebration is already this non-evening day, and the joy of Easter is related to the joy of communion. Believers are filled with Christ, the Lord is close to us, He appears to us as He appeared to the apostles before the Ascension. Easter is a deliberate sacrament given to the Church by the Holy Spirit for the knowledge of the risen Lord: “having seen the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the Lord Jesus.” Easter is joy in the Church; by its power we find ourselves in the Church, in the one life of one body, the body of Christ. What usually remains only a call and a promise now appears as the highest reality. Church joy allows us to see each other in God and through this rejoice in our neighbor, as is characteristic of a lover about his beloved. Easter fills us with the Holy Spirit, who is the joy of love. This gift is given to spirit-bearing men as a reward for their deeds. In the soul of the Rev. Seraphim always shone with Easter, and he greeted those who came with the Easter greeting - “Christ is risen, my joy.” And in us, gloomy and gloomy and stingy with affection, on this night the heart opens to the jubilation of love, in the Easter kiss and the welcoming gospel: Christ is risen! In this light, personal grievances fade away and bad feelings disappear. Is it possible not to forgive those who love, and isn’t forgiveness the highest joy of love? It likens us to God forgiving the prodigal son and crowning him at the wedding feast. Easter is common forgiveness in the joy of love. In its fire everything melts and unites. “Resurrection day, and let us be enlightened by triumph, and embrace each other. Rtsem, brethren, and we will forgive those who hate us entirely through the resurrection.” The heart burns with the joy of love, with which it burned in the two disciples when they saw and heard Him walking with them on the way. Even now He is among us, invisibly visible. Amen. Trampling death upon death*: Diptych Love is strong as death. “God so loved the world that he gave his Son, that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16). The Son stripped himself of the glory of the Divine, “descended from heaven,” became human and bore the entire burden of life in a sinful world. He remained obedient to the will of the Father in preaching and in doing, in suffering and in patience. “The Lord has laid on Him the sins of us all” (Isa. 53:6). Exhausted under the weight of these sins, the Sinless One cried out: “My soul is sorrowful even to death,” “if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.” But the cup has not passed. “It pleased the Lord to smite Him, and He gave Him up to be tormented” (Is. 53:10). And this was the mortal cup. The Father sent the Only Begotten to die for his people, and the Son went to accept this death. The God-man died - “for everyone and for everything”... The death of God does not fit into our thought, but tears it apart. For God is Life, and Christ Himself called Himself Life, and behold, Life in the tomb. “Stomach, how are you dying”? In the death of Christ we worship the ultimate mystery of the Incarnation, the sacrificial self-humiliation of the Divine, and it is the power of God’s love for man. This death is exhaustive completeness, and therefore the limit for the sacrifice of love, associated with the end of its suffering. The latter would otherwise become “eternal” torment. The sacrifice of Christ knows no boundaries for itself. The Son gave all of Himself, His entire life, to sacrificial obedience, and yet its unlimited duration would contradict its fullness, for with it everything could not be given, but the Son had to give it all. The sacrifice of Divine love does not tolerate restrictions: God so love the world... Only death could accommodate this fullness of the sacrifice, it includes everything, including the sacrificer himself. But wasn’t death unnatural for the One Sinless One, for God did not create death, and it entered the world through sin? Death had no power over the Sinless One, but it could be freely accepted, tolerated as the violence of the prince of this world. And the more deadly this death was. Her mortal sorrow - “My soul is sorrowful even unto death” - was the sorrow of all sorrows and the sickness of all diseases. To accept death, God had to put off the Divinity, as if he had ceased to be God.... “My God, My God, He has forsaken Me!” - such is the cry of the cross of the dying God, - God abandoned by God. As if the Holy Spirit Himself, the Giver of Life, had to “leave” Him in order for this death to “come to pass.” Adam's sin was deadly for the whole world of which he was the center. And the death of the God-man, who gave up his spirit on the cross, was also a new death of the whole world and judgment on this world, it was the fullness of death: the sun darkened, and the earth shook, and darkness fell on the earth in the hour of exhaustion on the cross. It was like the death throes of the whole world. The death of the old Adam was the fruit of his selfhood, which separated him from God; he could no longer hold life within himself by his own strength, death became a bitter necessity for him. But the Son of God, having conquered the deadly self in His human nature, had power over life. “No one takes it from Me, but I myself give it; I have power to give it” (John 10:18). The God-man Himself freely accepts death in sacrificial self-immolation. In it, “having been completed,” everything is given over to the love of the world, and there is nothing more to give and nothing more to accomplish. This free death is love that has conquered selfhood. The solemn rest of Blessed Saturday begins. The first Saturday of God crowns the accomplishment of creation, the second Saturday of God in the tomb crowns the sacrificial exhaustion. The separation of the soul from the body in death is unnatural to human nature; it is a negation, inferiority of life - and not only in the anguish of dying, but also in the sorrow of mortal peace. Life in death is “hell,” and the death of the God-man was also a “descent into hell.” But for Him over whom death was deprived of power, but was only allowed by free acceptance, and the descent into hell was a continuation of His ministry. The sun rose in the midnight land, in the darkness and shadow of death. “When you descended to death, immortal belly, then you killed hell with the brilliance of the Divine.” The word of Life sounded in hell, the disembodied shadows heard the gospel of Christ. The sun also makes its way in the land of sunset. During his three-day stay in the tomb, the Lord tastes death along with the human race and shares it with him. And this death is not a sleep of inaction, but ongoing service, uninterrupted obedience to the will of the Father. This death is love. In the tomb of Christ the self is mortified, the sting of death is abolished, death dies. This death of the Immortal is the overcoming of death, for the power of death is selfhood, and the death of Christ is love. Love is as strong as death, but it is stronger than death. How is death possible that God did not create? There is no death, for there is only life, living life from the Life of the Giver. Death belongs to non-existence, “from” which, or “on top of” which God created the world. Non-existence is overcome in creation by the creative power of God. However, it raised its head, having received a place for itself in creation, and thus non-existence became relative existence in the created self, which willfully fell away from God. And this power of non-existence, its life in creation, is death. The creature closed itself off from the fullness of the Life-Giver’s gifts and thus fell into mortality. Death has become the cruelest fate of the entire human race, which cannot defend itself against it through its resistance, through its self-affirmation. She became a dire necessity for him. But the death of Christ was not a necessity and was not the fruit of self-affirmation. On the contrary, it was a free death, accepted by love in order to save the human race. Such death carries an internal contradiction, it loses its power and right; it crumbles at its core, which is self-affirmation; love conquers the self of the creature. And therefore “death could not restrain Him” (Acts 2:24). Free death already conceals within itself the power of resurrection. It is the final victory of the spirit over the inertia of matter. A spiritual person is free and therefore omnipotent, because God Himself returns the power of life to him, and he is worthy and able to accept it. Therefore, “God raised up His Son Jesus” (Acts 3:15). In the face of impending death, although freely accepted, it was genuine and unspectacular in its deadening power, and He was abandoned by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. But this was a saving abandonment, for it opened the way for the saving feat of death. For the one who achieved the last victory of love for God and man, showed the last obedience to the will of the Father, this abandonment was both the last test and the last victory - the victory of death over death. He who accepted voluntary death after being abandoned by God receives from the Father the power of the Holy Spirit in resurrection (Rom. 10:9, 6:4). This sending down of the Holy Spirit after abandonment, as if in compensation, is a new creative action of God in the world, a new creation that was not possible unilaterally, by the power of God’s omnipotence over man. It required the participation of man himself, which was accomplished in the person of the God-man. It was necessary for the One who is Risen from the dead to also be the Resurrectionist, to appear capable of experiencing the resurrection by the power of His spiritual victory over death through its acceptance. The Resurrection of Christ was a divine-human action—of God in man and man with God. The Resurrection is an image of Christ's Pentecost, the descent of the Life of the Giver of the Holy Spirit onto the Divine dead. In the original sin of the old Adam, the Spirit of God leaves man, and death befalls him. The New Adam took upon Himself this abandonment, but in His death the Spirit of God returns to man; and the life of resurrection becomes his property. In Christ, all humanity of the old Adam dies together in order to be resurrected with Him, to find new life. He receives this new life at Pentecost, which, among other gifts, contains within itself the power of the coming general resurrection. Pentecost is the power of Christ's Resurrection, it is eternal life given by Christ. “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall live” (1 Cor. 15:22). Christ is risen from the dead, and through death he has corrected death... Now everything is filled with light, heaven and earth and underworld. When the blessed myrrh-bearing women “ran with fear and great joy to tell the disciples about the appearance of the angel, behold Jesus met them and said: Rejoice!” (Matthew 28:9). And when the Lord, having appeared to the disciples, stood in their midst, He said: “Peace be with you!” (Luke 24:30), and once again He repeated this word at His new appearance (John 20:19, 26). The risen Lord brings peace and joy to the world. And this is the fulfillment of His farewell promise when departing for the passion of the cross: “about perfect joy, which no one will take from you” (John 15:11, 22), and about peace in Christ (John 15:33), which He leaves us: “Not as the world gives, I give to you” (John 14:27). It was not easy for the disciples, “weeping and sobbing,” confused and confused, to accept the news of the resurrection of the Lord, and even in the face of Him Himself, who appeared to them, this difficulty still remained insurmountable, “they, confused and afraid, thought that they saw a spirit” (Luke 24:37). It was necessary to visually and sensually certify that this was not a ghost or a spirit, which “does not have flesh and bones, as you see with Me” (Luke 24:39). Obviously, even the greeting of peace does not immediately reach their hearts (Luke 24:36). And yet, peace and joy in Christ appeared for them as a true proof of the resurrection. After the resurrection, the Lord no longer lived with the disciples, as before him, but only appeared to them for short periods, again hiding from them, and after His ascension these appearances ceased altogether. And then, no longer seeing Him with their own eyes, but moved by the Holy Spirit, sent down by Him from the Father, they went out to the universal preaching of the Risen Christ. In the same way, we, like all Christians before us and after us, believe and confess faith in the risen Lord, who remains inaccessible to touch and invisible to the eyes. And without this, the power of Christ’s resurrection remains in us as the highest reality. If we did not have His manifestation to our eyes and fingers, then we now have His spiritual manifestation, and our mouths are filled with the testimony of this spiritual miracle. Mysteriously and invisibly, He approaches us on the bright night of Easter and gives His peace, as the world does not and cannot give, and complete joy in Himself. The Lord, even after His Ascension, mysteriously remains with us, and now appears with such spiritual clarity, as if we see and feel His approach, we are listening to the voice of His blessing. And in this spiritual appearance of Christ, the future is revealed, announced by the Lord: our general resurrection and His new coming into the world, after which we will always be with the Lord. Our heart is touched by Divine love, bringing joy, peace and blissful tranquility, and it rushes towards Him, into the world of the coming Lord. Three Glories – Triptych: Annunciation – Entry of the Lord – Easter of Christ Human hearts must now expand to accommodate three joys, three triumphs, three accomplishments, which in this time of horror and sorrow, like a heavenly constellation, shine into darkened souls, so close to one another. God, in His mercy, consoles us with special consolation, and we must strain the strings of our souls so that they resound in response with the consonance of doxology and thanksgiving. They are different from each other, these sounds of heavenly joy, but they are also akin, uniting with each other into a wondrous triad. You can endlessly remain in contemplation of them separately, and then each of them seems to be superseded by one another, completely filling the soul with itself; but it is also possible to combine them in a single comprehension, as a revelation of God’s love. And we are called to this collective comprehension by this heaven-sent rapprochement in time, the special power of which we must be imbued with. I. – THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared at the first Pentecost, as the descent of the Holy Spirit onto human nature in the Virgin Mary and the beginning of its universal deification. Together with the very creation of man, this sacred day and hour was destined when the great archangel would be sent with good news to her worthy, the most holy Ever-Virgin Mary. The world has been prepared for the coming into the world of this new Eve in all centuries of human existence, as well as for her wedding hour of the Unbrided Bride, the Mother of God. And now it has come. Gabriel, the archangel evangelist, proclaims the will of God to the Most Pure One and awaits her response. The destinies of the human race must be predetermined in it, just as they were once determined in paradise by the disgusting movement of the darkened heart of Eve the first. But Mary’s response said about the acceptance of God’s will for her: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.” And with this word, the fate of man once again changed, human salvation was decided: the Ever-Virgin became the Mother of God, she appeared as the gateway for the entry into the world of the Son of God, His incarnation. And no one in the world then knew about what happened in the upper room of Nazareth. Only Elizabeth, the Yuzhika, was given knowledge of this by the Holy Spirit. But what happened in the sacred upper room, and what, and what secret of God’s vision did the “Servant of the Lord” accept in humility? With her prophetic heart she saw everything that she accepted and what God’s will was for her. She knew the entire way of the cross of her Son being born, and Gethsemane, and Golgotha, and the cross “accomplished,” as well as her own destiny, along with His crucifixion and her co-crucifixion, with a weapon that would pierce the mother’s heart. But then His glorious resurrection was also revealed to her, together with her glorification as the most honorable cherub, above all creation, a living vessel of the Holy Spirit, a spirit-bearer. She recognized and accepted her Annunciation on the Cross and her glory on the Cross about humanity, for humanity and together with humanity. The sacred mystery was accomplished... The beginning and end of our salvation were announced. II. – It was accomplished by the coming into the world of the Son of God. The path of His earthly ministry, for us as humans and for our salvation, inexorably and unswervingly led Him to the cross. He was all bearing the cross, which ended in death on the cross. Such was the saving will of the Father, which became the will of the Son. And this was the only way to the salvation of the world, to His victory in it. He did not cease to teach about this in his earthly life, calling for people to follow Him, as well as about his future glory. And preparing to depart from the world, He especially wanted to put into the hearts this truth about the glory of the cross and the reign of the cross in this world, and not only with words, but with a certain action that would be imprinted on souls and testify of Him as a King, now freely coming to the cross in His royal procession. The Lord makes the royal entrance into the royal city, in the solemn, but at the same time humble manner of a procession on a donkey, but in the glory of the coming King of Israel in the Name of the Lord, in commemoration of the kingdom of the future age of resurrection. Here, just as in the Annunciation, although the sign was revealed publicly, its secret remained hidden from the world. So incommensurate was what was revealed in comparison with what it meant, the sign with the revelation. Therefore, immediately after its triumph, it plunges into silence and soon goes out in the darkness of the Gethsemane night and the sorrow of the Calvary crucifixion, and for the world, in its blindness and deafness, only the last remains. During the days of passion, the Church reminiscently experiences this sorrow, dies with Christ, tears up with the Most Pure One, however, in the depths of her heart she carries the promised good news of the resurrection. She knows that Christ is the only King of the world, who reigns in it, despite all the futile efforts to counteract the prince of this world and his servants. III. - And behold, it comes, a saving resurrection, a feast of holidays, a triumph of triumphs. We contemplate it now even from afar, coming from the heights of the east. Before its light, the human word is silent, it is powerless to express the joys of joy, even before its onset the heart cannot accommodate its triumph. But the Church has been entrusted with God-inspired verbs, through the mouths of its great hymnals, to glorify the resurrection of Christ, to rejoice along with the heavenly faces when, on the night of Christ’s resurrection, heaven, earth and the underworld rejoice. Just as the lights of the night go out in the light of the sun, so in the face of the Easter of Christ, other festivals, both great and small, seem to fade away. However, as they approach it, they also retain their growing glory, for they all speak about one thing - the salvation of the human race and its coming resurrection in Christ, for “God so love the world.” And just as we know, while still in winter’s distance from the sun, that the spring equinox is coming with its warmth and light, so now, even from here, from the blue of the Annunciation, we anticipate the radiance of the Easter light, this manifestation of an everyday spiritual miracle. Eternity is immeasurably deeper and higher than temporality with its topical variability. She remains inaccessible to the latter. However, our souls, which are constantly captured by its waves, become muddied by its muddy waters, are within the reach of temporality. Now, perhaps more than ever before in human life, we stand before events of satanic cruelty and horror, their dimensions chilling the heart. And no one knows what sorrows may still darken even the holy days of Easter. Therefore, only the miracle of God's mercy can save us. Satanic darkness moves towards the light of resurrection, just as in ancient times, it strives to devour it. A vague fear of it penetrates human hearts and wants to extinguish the Easter joy in them. This is not the first time in our lives in recent years that we have experienced this struggle of darkness against light, despair against joy, despondency against hope. Likewise, now we are called to spiritual battle for the joy of Easter, to spiritual feat. We now have to perceive the gracious gift of Easter joy through spiritual effort, through the feat of not only prayerful fasting, but also vigilant and courageous fasting. We are called to victory over the fear of death through the power of faith in Christ's resurrection. “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling upon death by death”... He trampled upon our own death, which we must be ready to meet with dignity, Christianly, when it is sent to us by God. This death, now always ready to devour us, is defeated by the resurrection of Christ, weakened by it. We must combine the feeling of mortality and dying with victory over death, freedom from the fear of it. How can we fit into this weak, fearful heart our feeling, which is so alien and contradictory to it, if not to surrender to natural graceless fear? But even if this is unnatural, exceeding the measure of our created nature, however, what is impossible for humans is possible for God, and the grace of God is strong, overcoming human fear. Let us pray for it to the risen Christ, as a spiritual miracle, a miracle of Easter joy in response to the threats of the prince of this world, his intimidation. Let us keep in our hearts the source of joy that illuminated the Christian martyrs, for we too live in martyrdom. And in our Easter kiss, with which we greet each other, we will put the fullness of our faith, love and hope and Christian knowledge, which contains everything in itself, remembered on these great and holy days. Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord! Easter word: On the week of Antipascha (on the week of Thomas) Christ is risen from the dead by death Heaven deserves to rejoice, let the earth rejoice and celebrate world, all visible and invisible: Christ for the sun rises, eternal joy. How can we express Easter joy? What word is worthy and strong to reveal her frenzy, coming from our own nature? The tongue is wordless and the word is silent, but joy sings and flows in the world and in ourselves. It testifies to the accomplished resurrection of Christ and to the life of the next century as a kind of self-evidence: “From death to life, and from earth to heaven, Christ God has brought us... We celebrate the mortification of death, the destruction of hell, the beginning of another eternal life... For truly this sacred and all-celebratory night of salvation and the luminous, luminous day of the uprising is the herald... Come, new grapes birth, divine joy... Let us partake of the Kingdom of Christ..." With breathtaking breath, in a stream of speech, we strive to tell about the miracle of the resurrection that took place. This miracle shocks us for the first time and with a unique, non-repeating force on Christ’s night, when we listen to the news of the resurrection from angels and men. She takes us into her power and takes us away from this world, makes us different from ourselves, as if already co-resurrected with Christ and living the life of resurrection. And we want to establish ourselves in this new world and at this height, to remain forever in a frenzy, rising higher and higher, trembling stronger and hotter... However, then we only repeat this self-testimony, from day to day, and from hour to hour, hoping that it retains and confirms its strength in us... The grace of the holiday still gives us this joy, which shines in the church and in our hearts when we listen to the singing of Easter hymns and respond to their invocative cries of “Christ is risen” with our “truly risen.” However, repetitions soon lose their first, immediate force. The soul does not fly to another world, but remains on earth. The holiday becomes just one of the holidays, even being the first of them. The joy in us weakens and seems to subside. And so the day approaches when the open Royal Doors in the church are already closed, and the sky is closed for us, although the days of Pentecost still continue. At the end of them, our life returns to normal, until the new Easter takeoff... The Christian Church was born in the joy of the resurrection, in the appearance of the Risen One to angels and men. The apostles testified to the resurrection of Christ: “God raised Him up, breaking the bonds of death, because it was impossible for it to hold Him” (Acts 2:24). The Risen One appeared here on earth to many, until he ascended into heaven and disappeared from the earth, so that there, in heaven, he could “beg” the Father to send us “Another Comforter” (John 14:16), who “will abide with us forever, teach us everything and remind us of everything.” And the Lord gives another promise: “I go to prepare a place for you, and when I go and prepare a place, I will come again and take you to Myself” (John 14:2-3). The Lord has repeatedly promised this new, second coming in glory as the King, Judge and Resurrector of the dead. This promise is deeply rooted in the hearts of Christians. On Easter night they respond to the message “Christ is Risen!” with his “truly risen!”, and on Easter week, in early Christianity, the answering prayer of the Church of Christ was: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” ( Rev. 22:20 ). The first Christians prayed this prayer, they were inspired by it, it gave the strength of martyrdom and confession, as well as Easter joy. The prophetic words of Revelation were repeated many times that “the time is at hand” (Rev. 1:3, 22:10), and the image of this age is passing away, its end, renewal and transformation are approaching. The coming of Christ seemed to them not terrible, but joyful, like the joy of Easter today. But just as this latter fades away in us, so this prayer “Hey, come!” has now become quiet and, as it were, forgotten, which should become the first prayer, along with the prayer to the “Another Comforter” the Holy Spirit: “Come and dwell in us!” And now, when the soul sings “Christ is risen from the dead,” is there still room in it for another prayer, “Hey, come!” Or does it merge with the first one and be absorbed by it? The joy that is proclaimed on the night of Christ passes even beyond Christ’s resurrection. It took place here on earth in this age, but was completed by the ascension into heaven. From the accomplishment that opens on Easter night, we are separated by the entire fullness of centuries, past and yet to come, as well as the whole life of the afterlife. The bright resurrection of Christ through all facets of world achievements is prophetically penetrating and containing everything within itself. And that’s why even this Christian prayer “Hey, come!” here it seems to fall silent, for it is fulfilled in anticipation of the prophecy: Christ risen in us and with us. We have experienced and experienced this joy of His spiritual appearance. But after that, with new strength and acuteness, we begin to feel His ascension into heaven, which is a removal from us. It is saving and does not leave us orphaned, but returns us to our earthly existence, which also includes the afterlife. This is where the early Christian prayer “Hey, come!” was born. The joy of the resurrection gave way for the disciples to bewildered contemplation of how “the Lord was lifted up before their eyes, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.” In response to this bewilderment, “as they looked at the sky during His ascension, two men in white clothes suddenly appeared to them and said: “Men of Galilee! Why are you standing and looking at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you see Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:10–11). In response to this, the prayer “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” arose in our hearts. It appeared then as if it were a continuation of the Easter doxology. She became the inner force of inspiration that builds the Church. And it cannot stop or die out until its very fulfillment, until the promised coming of the Lord. Therefore, in our hearts, along with the fading of the Easter celebration, this prayer should sound more fully, like the prayerful soul of the Church. However, in her life, in her earthly destinies, we do not observe this, and we even see completely the opposite. It seems to be forgotten, loses its power, becomes unnecessary, insignificant. It is absent from our prayerful self-awareness. What does it mean? What does it indicate? Is it about the excessive fullness or deficiency of our consciousness, which requires creative replenishment? When we love, we long for our beloved: to see him, to feel him, to know him, to live with him. This thirst permeates and animates our own lives. From it will be born the power of Christianity in history; it will defeat pagan worldliness and Antichrist malice. The hope of Christ coming into the world is also the joy of Easter that is active in us. On Easter night it is given to us with grace, but in order to become the life-giving force of our entire life. And it cannot fall silent in us when the Easter hymns fall silent; it must sound more confident and victorious in our lives. “For to this end Christ died and rose again and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:9). We are called here on earth to the feat of creative faith. In the days when the resurrected Christ appeared to the disciples, the unbelieving Thomas was among them, who wanted for himself bodily proof of the resurrection, and the Lord in His appearance descended to this weakness of his. However, Thomas himself overcame his lack of faith and confessed his faith with even greater strength: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). The Lord said to him: “You believed because you saw Me. Blessed are those who have not seen, but have believed.” The post-Easter week about Thomas calls us to this blessed feat of faith. She turns our hearts to the unceasing prayer call of Christianity: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” Jesus says to her: Mary! She, turning, says to Him: “Rabbi!” - What These two days of Sunday after Easter seem to look at each other: the week about Thomas the explorer, who seeks to test the testimony of faith by touch and only after that opens the doors of his heart, and the week about the Myrrh-Bearers, who showed love and faith before the cross, at the cross and after the cross, who showed themselves to be more faithful than the apostles themselves, except for the beloved. And among them the first is Mary, who at dawn of Sunday “stood at the tomb and wept” and even then was rewarded with the appearance of two angels in the life-giving tomb. She was a myrrh-bearer not only because she carried myrrh, but her very heart exuded this myrrh of fidelity and love for Christ. It was she who anointed Jesus for burial at the supper in Bethany (John 12:1–8), and she, along with other wives, now came again to anoint His buried body. And He appeared to her first after the resurrection, after the Mother of God. And it is the apostle of love and the beloved disciple John the Evangelist himself who tells about this phenomenon, by which the risen Lord called out of darkness and revived a soul weighed down with sadness. She was in such despondency that she did not recognize, did not distinguish the favorite features of the One who had appeared. Her eyes were held in the same way as those of those two disciples who spent the whole day on the road with Him, without recognizing Him. They opened up for them through the burning of their hearts only at the hour of parting. Likewise, Mary did not recognize Him until she heard His voice and words, filled with the affection and power, love and revelation that she knew so well. But there was only one word: Maria! He only called her by name, but like a fiery arrow, that calling word pierced her heart. She also responded to him with only one word, which, however, said everything about what He was for her: Rabbi the Teacher! Teacher of life, wisdom, love... Among all the stories about the appearances of the risen Christ, this short story is especially striking in its power, combined with its brevity. Only Christ could call the human soul, call it by name, for He knows and gives all names. “Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that was” (John 1:3). And each soul carries within itself its name, as the sacred secret of its existence, its creation and defining calling. By him she has to be named and called by Christ, either in this life or in the resurrection, when the commanding voice will be addressed to her: Lazarus, get out! This name is old and new, of this age and the next. The former is known, but “no one knows the new, except he who receives it” (Rev. 2:17). It imprints Christ’s love for His creation, but it will also reveal His reciprocal love for the Creator. In it that personal meeting with Christ takes place, during which the myrrh-bearing soul exudes the myrrh of love. The Gospel story fills the soul with sweet awe, and not only as a precious memory of an event in the life of all mankind in the person of the wife who “loved much.” It refers to each of us, and not only to the luminous image of love and fidelity that is revealed to the world in this female soul. The human soul in love for Christ is femininely revealing, like a bride meeting the Heavenly Bridegroom. She seeks Him in this world from his helikeepers: “If you carried Him away, tell me where you laid Him, and I will take Him” (John 20:15), until we hear the inviting response: “Mary!” Guided by the Holy Spirit, she is the one about whom it was said to the beloved, for the lover, the disciple-seer of the secrets: “Both the Spirit and the bride say: Come! Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” Amen. And they bowed to Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. At the Last Supper, the Lord said goodbye to His disciples before His free passion. But this farewell did not only refer to the death of Calvary. The Lord spoke then about the fact that He was going to His Father to prepare a place there for the disciples (John 14:3), and that it was better for them that He should go, otherwise the Comforter would not come to them. And he also said: “If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said: I am going to the Father” (John 14:28). All these words spoke not of the immediate separation in suffering and death, but of the final separation in the Resurrection of Christ. The disciples could not contain all these words then (John 16:12), but through many sorrows and after new revelations that they had from the risen Lord, they approached the Mount of Olives, matured in order to accept the Ascension and rejoice in the joy of separation from the Lord. Isn’t this how the Lord always leads and educates the human heart from the temporary to the eternal, from possession to separation for the sake of acceptance? Why did the Lord ascend? Why didn’t he stay to live among us, appearing to us, edifying, working miracles, reigning over us? Why - repeating the question of the apostles on the way to Olivet - did He not restore the kingdom of Israel at this time (Acts 1:7)? These questions are prompted only by our weakness, lack of faith, and desire to rely on external force, but not by the needs of our salvation. The Lord came to save us from the power of the world, but not to give us over to it completely. And He ascended, just as He became incarnate, for the sake of our salvation, for its fulfillment. Moreover, there was an internal necessity for the completion of the work of Christ in His incarnation. The Lord could not remain on earth longer than the 40-day period during which the mysterious final glorification and preparation for the Ascension of His resurrected Body took place. Just as He prepared for forty days in the desert for His earthly service, so forty days passed before His Ascension. While the Lord remained on earth, the work of salvation and the deification of human nature was not yet completed. The Lord came “to unite the heavenly ones on earth” (kontakion), for this He descended from heaven and became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, but, being the true God, “the only one of the Holy Trinity,” He also had to go through the reverse path of His descent. The heavens that opened for His descent to creation had to open for the return ascent of the Flesh-Bearer. If the Lord remained on earth and did not return to heaven, this would mean that human nature has no way to heaven, and He who received him would thereby be separated from the Holy Trinity, as if remaining powerless to deify and glorify human nature. A cowardly thought leads to such blasphemy. But the Son of God received “power over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to all” (John 17:2), and therefore He prays in the high priestly prayer of the Father, “that He may glorify Him with the glory which He had with Him before the foundation of the world” (John 17:5). This is said about the coming Ascension. “Now I come to You and say these things in the world, so that they may have complete joy in heaven” (John 17:13), - the joy of the Ascension. Ascension into heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Father means complete and final salvation and deification of human nature: there is no separation of heavenly and earthly, for in heaven God sits on the throne, wearing human flesh. The Ascension is the power of the Nativity of Christ, for it marks the indissolubility of divine and human nature. Ascension is the power of the Resurrection, which would not have been completed if the Risen One had not acquired for Himself the power to ascend to heaven with His most pure flesh. The Ascension is the glorification of human nature: “and Your glory, which You gave Me, I have given to them... Father, whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given to me, because You loved Me before the end of the world” (John 17:24). This is what the ascension of Christ means in God’s love for the world. But not only does the Ascension of Christ complete the redemptive work of Christ, but it paves the way for the descent into the world of the Comforter Spirit, for the creation of the Church of Christ on earth. The Ascension is the foundation and anticipation of Pentecost, “The Lord has ascended into heaven, that He may send the Comforter to the world” (stichera on the Lord I cried). The Lord preceded His disciples at the Last Supper: “You have no food, but I am coming. If I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you: if I do go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7), and He confirmed the same thing to them just before His Ascension: “Receive the power that the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8). The mystery of the life of the Holy Trinity is incomprehensible to man, as is the connection between the sending of the Holy Spirit and the Ascension of Christ. However, the significance of this mystery in the matter of our salvation has been revealed to us. The Holy Spirit carries out through the Church the work of saving people accomplished by Christ, and the beginning of this fulfillment became possible only after the complete completion of this work. Until the Ascension has taken place, the time has not come for the descent of the Third Hypostasis; the path for it is paved only by the Ascension. The Holy Spirit had to be poured out on the Church as the Body of Christ, glorified and deified. And the Holy Spirit Himself makes the heavenly earthly, imparts the power of this deification to all creation. Therefore, the significance of the Ascension on the path of building our salvation is immutable. And, celebrating the Ascension of Christ, with a loving and grateful heart we glorify God’s love for His creation, which knows no bounds, for for the sake of its salvation, the Son of God leaves His glory, humiliates himself to the form of a human, but having redeemed this human form, he raises it to His glory. The mind is amazed at the immensity of God's love, glorifying human nature by sitting at the right hand of the Father, in the bosom of the Holy Trinity, in the person of the incarnate Son of God. But even in the separation itself, God’s love for people was manifested. By depriving them of external communication with Himself, the Lord protects their freedom. He does not want to bind them with Himself, He does not want to be an external authority and infallible ruler for them. He retained for them all the freedom of will, faith, love, and those who seek in matters of faith only the orders of external superiors resist Christ’s Ascension. But He promised to be with us always, now and ever and forever and ever. He allows Himself to be seen with the eyes of faith, to be tasted in the Body and Blood of Christ. He sent down to us from the Father the Comforter Spirit, who teaches all truth and reminds us of everything He said. The mysteriously ascended Lord dwells with the faithful in His Church, lives in them. “I will not leave you, sires: I will come to you. It is still a little while, and no one in the world will see Me, but you will see Me: for as I live, you will live too” (John 14:8-19). This is what the Lord says in the person of the apostles to all believers. But they must love the ascended and already invisible Lord more than everything visible with the eyes, and they must seek Him by lifting the cross of renunciation. When the disciples were talking among themselves about what these incomprehensible words of His meant: “Soon you will not see Me, and again soon you will see me again,” - how you can see the invisible, ascended Lord - He said to them with special force: “Amen, amen, I say to you: you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” Like a woman giving birth, “you also have sorrow now: but when I see you, your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:20, 22-23). And for the sake of this complete joy, for the sake of love for the Lord, one must be ready to follow Him, towards His Ascension: “their desire will be resolved and to be with Christ,” as the Apostle Paul testified of himself. The Lord ascended from us not in order to hide from us, but in order to draw us to Himself, to lift us up behind Him: “And if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Himself” (John 12:32), says the Lord. Love for the distant and for the neighbor, for the Ascended One and Living in us, love as the secret of the soul, the hiddenness of the heart, as the ongoing sacrament of communion with God is given to us by the Bright Ascension of Christ. Oh joyful separation, oh bright meeting! As He ascended, the Lord left the world and the human race different from what they were when He descended to them. That land then was a land of curses, and the human race was the children of wrath. But this earth bore Him, witnessed His Transfiguration, kept Him for three days in its bosom, and was enlightened by His Resurrection. And the human race has been given “the power to become children of God, who believe on His name” (John 1:12). The blessing of God is given to the creation: “He brought them out from Bethany and raised them up to His ores and blessed them. And when you had blessed them, you departed from them and ascended to heaven” (Luke 24:50–51). The Lord ascended blessing: He blessed His disciples and in their person the human race, He blessed the earth and waters, the air and all their fulfillment. And that blessing will rest upon a world saved, redeemed, and blessed again. The world remembers and cherishes this blessing. The disciples of Christ walked a long and difficult path, which led them, together with the Teacher, to the Mount of Ascension. There was a time when they wanted to build three tabernacles to hold Him there and stay with Him. It happened when they, horrified by the coming suffering, left Him in fear and confusion, surrendered into the hands of sinners, and after His death they remained “weeping and weeping,” so that the Lord Himself, appearing to them, “reproached their unbelief and their hardness of heart” (Mark 16:10–11), and their doubt was difficult to overcome even at the appearance of the Risen One (Matthew 28:17). But during these forty days, when “He appeared to them and spoke about the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3), opening their “mind to understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45), the Lord raised them to a higher comprehension of His ways and prepared them for His Ascension, for the final separation. True, as the last echo of faded dreams, their question still resounds when He preceded them about the upcoming baptism with the Holy Spirit: “Is it not at this time that You are restoring the Kingdom of Israel?” and a strict rejection of the question itself - “it is not your business to know times or seasons” - was His answer. But this was already a fading shadow of the past, the last temptation through which the disciples passed. And when the Lord ascended, and along with the Ascension the last hope for the earthly kingdom was supposed to fade away, “they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:52), they had already grown to the point of joyful separation. They lost the earthly appearance of Christ in order to meet Him and look forward to Him in heaven, according to what was said to them by two men in white clothes: “This Jesus, who was taken up into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). When we look at heaven, our soul expands and thinks about heavenly things. She feels the trace of the ascending Lord in the heavens, she thinks with fear and trembling, but also with great joy about His coming appearance. Our prayer, by faith of those gathered today at the Mount of Olives, may there be one with the primacy of the Church, which alone has looked forward to the coming of the Lord: Hey, come, Lord Jesus! Ascend into heaven, Lord! Teach us yourself to pray for Your coming, send Your Spirit crying in our hearts, ignite us with Your love. Teach me to cry to You: Hey, come, Lord Jesus! The land is empty. The heavens closed. The apostles became orphans, no longer hearing the sweetest voice of the Lord. There was a silent wait. - What? – The descent of the Holy Spirit, promised from the Father. This wait in our human language is calculated as ten days, during which preparation for receiving the Holy Spirit takes place. This preparation takes place not only on earth, but also in heaven. The ascended Lord said: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever” (John 14:16). Having ascended from earth to heaven, the Lord sits there at the right hand of the Father, He begs the Father to send the Comforter, thereby completing the work of our salvation. This happens in heaven, in the depths of the Holy Trinity - we cannot penetrate further into the mystery of the Holy Trinity. What's happening on earth? - The church is silent. She was ordered to wait. But the Church is never silent, even in its silence. What happens to the apostles during this ten-day period, and what should now happen to us - in the Apostolic Church? The apostles were unanimous and remained in the prayerful composure of their souls. Among them they also had the Spirit-Bearer - Mary, the Mother of God (Acts 1:14). The Acts of the Apostles also indicate another feature: at this time they chose the twelfth apostle instead of Judas Iscariot, so that there would be one who had witnessed the teaching from the first days (Acts 1:21-22). The twelfth apostle was chosen to bear witness. The thought of the apostles was centered around the mystery that the Lord was on earth and went to heaven. The content of the ten days was prayerful contemplation of this mystery - the mystery of the Incarnation. Now the Church teaches us the same contemplation of the mystery of the Incarnation. We celebrate today the memory of 318 St. Father of the First Council of Nicaea. We must focus our thoughts not so much on them themselves, but on what they established - on the dogma of the Incarnation. In the light of this dogma, in contemplation of the mystery of the Incarnation, we must await the onset of Pentecost. Pentecost will come because God descended to earth and united with humanity in the Second Person of the Holy Trinity and He has to unite with it in the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Today's Gospel (John 17:1-13) - the high priestly prayer of the Lord - is the most solemn place in the Gospel, because it is the glorification of humanity by God. In Nicea, the dogma of the Incarnation was solemnly established and the Creed was compiled - our greatest treasure, which contains this dogma. Today's Sunday is the Feast of Nicaea. What was established at Nicaea is the property of the entire Christian world. It is common to think that dogma is only for theologians, but the Church teaches us today that this dogma is necessary for everyone, necessary for our salvation. This is not an abstract, but a life truth. If anyone is damaged in this dogma, then he is damaged in all his faith. We are all now mentally looking at heaven in anticipation that the Lord will send us a Comforter. Joy in Sorrow: (John 16:20) – Through the Ascension to Pentecost Sorrow is caused by separation, leaving a wound in their hearts. It is the more painful, the stronger the love, the more murderous, the higher, more expensive, more beautiful the beloved. But even if it is still possible to distinguish and compare the images and degrees of love, then it was not and could not be more sacred, more soulful, more selfless than that love with which, despite all their human weakness, the disciples loved their Teacher. Seeing His face, hearing His voice, feeling His presence was the highest joy and bliss that is only available to people. Didn’t He himself once tell them about this: “Blessed are your eyes that see and your ears that hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, but did not see, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear” (Matthew 13:17). And, however, the time came when this bliss had to end for them too. At first, the disciples were given the opportunity to taste all the sorrow of His death, and now, on the Mount of Olives, they were faced with a new, already final separation from Him. The very thought of him was so out of place in their consciousness that they did not understand what was said about it and began to ask about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, about His earthly triumph, when a new orphan awaited them with the removal of the Lord from this world. In bewilderment, “they looked at the sky,” which received the ascended Lord “during His ascension” (Acts 1:10), and the church hymn even depicts their sorrow in this way: “We are filled with sobs of tears of sorrow, sobbing the verb: Master, do not leave us orphans!” (Verse, I cried to the Lord). However, this grief of the disciples was only a tribute to weakness in the great calling and bright promise given to them. They returned to Jerusalem “with great joy” (Luke 24:52). What they heard in the farewell conversation, on the eve of the Teacher’s passion, entered their consciousness, it was imprinted in the memory of the beloved disciple and through him it was told to the world: “I will ask the Father and give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever” (John 14:16), “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.” “The world will see Me no more, but you will see Me, for I live and you will live.” “Whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him, and I will appear to him myself.” “Now you have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. And on that day you will not ask Me anything” (John 16:22–23). These words of the Lord sounded like heavenly good news in the hearts of the disciples who accepted the blessing of the ascending Lord. They have achieved higher understanding if they have found the strength to rejoice without seeing the Lord. Upon returning to the upper room of Zion, they “continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:13–14), but also in the care of serving the cause of Christ, through the election of a new apostle among them. Enveloped by it, they were already turned from heaven to earth to begin their ministry here. It was in this unanimity that they greeted the coming of the “Another Comforter,” sent to them by the Son from the Father. They then realized that separation from the Teacher was a matter of the same saving love of God as His coming into the world, according to His word: “It is better for you that I go, for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you, but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). The Father sends into the world, after the first Comforter, the Son, and “another” - the Holy Spirit. From both there is a single consolation. Not two, but one about one, as a testimony of the love of God, in the revelation of the Holy Trinity. “Another” Comforter, instead of the Son of God himself, who ascended into heaven, has to testify about the Son (John 15:26). “He will guide you into all truth. He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and proclaim it to you.” “He will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I said to you” (John 16:26). This reminder will not only be a word or a thought, but also the deed itself, a life revelation. In the Comforter Spirit, the disciples will have the presence of the ascended Lord Himself. Through Him there will be a living connection and unity with Christ. That is why He proclaims to them, as His last promise: “Behold, I am with you to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Pentecost was accomplished in the person of the apostles of Christ for the entire Church. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are inherent in her until the end of time. Christ lives in it and acts in the grace-filled sacraments, acceptable to every believer according to their faith. But not only this mysterious presence of God in the Church is given at Pentecost, but also its special call and promise addressed to the entire Christian world. This is the New Testament calling to prophetic inspiration, in the boldness of Christian freedom, in the Holy Spirit. In this, and only in this one thing, was the promise of Pentecost through the mouth of St. Petra. He spoke to the people in the words of the prophet Joel: “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and sons and daughters, young men and old men, male and female servants, will prophesy” (Joel 2:28–29). The Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Son of God are not abolished, but are fulfilled in the New Testament. They accept new power and Pentecost, a new orientation towards the future (John 16:13). This announcement of the future is contained in the writings of Christ’s beloved disciple John, it is captured in the visions of his Revelation, but it is also comprehended in the creative revelations of life, acceptable in the insights of the Spirit of Truth. The Church lives and breathes this inspiration. When it becomes weak, then she also becomes weak. The Father, who is revealed in the Son through the Holy Spirit, does not diminish his gift and does not take away the promise, regarding which all people are equal - last and first, past and future, just like us, the present. The Holy Spirit, who descended into the world from the Father, abides in it, and through Him the power and Truth of Christ. The mystery of Pentecost is, first of all, the hypostatic coming into the world of “Another Comforter,” the Holy Spirit, invisible and intangible for us, but vitally known and directly revealed. In Him and with Him, Christ returns again, comes spiritually, having ascended in the flesh from us into heaven. The Comforter, in His coming, returns Him to the world. This return is different from Christ's earthly stay with people. We no longer see Him with our bodily eyes. However, it has all the power of spiritual reality for us. After all, in our human life we ​​are able to feel without seeing with our eyes, being deprived of direct communication with our loved ones, separated from them by distance, even when they leave this world. Man has this gift of spiritual knowledge that transcends space and time. Moreover, this spiritual communication with Christ through the Holy Spirit should not cause bewilderment. In this sense, the Ascension was overcome, surpassed by Pentecost. And yet, in our memory of the Mount of Olives, we cannot forget that feeling of orphanhood and loneliness in the world that the holy apostles, and with them all of us Christians, experienced at the Ascension of Christ. Humanity has acquired not only spiritual communion with the Lord, but also recognized Him in bodily form, in which He “has lived with men.” It cannot and does not want to forget about this lost fullness of communion, which was again promised to it in the appearance through the angels after the separation of Olives: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come again in the same way as you saw Him ascend into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Therefore, we continue to look at the sky with silent questioning whether He is coming again. And it gives rise to an involuntary prayerful call in the souls: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” It initially sounded in the Church, inspired by the Spirit of the Comforter himself, according to the testimony of the seer John: “The Spirit and the Bride say: “Come!” (Rev. 22:17), and in response, “He who testifies says: “Surely, I am coming quickly.” Amen". The Church once again answers this with her prayer: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” Therefore, although we are now already after Pentecost, we still feel ourselves in the ten days after the Ascension, after the departure of the Lord and in the hope of His coming again. Without such a feeling, our current celebration would remain meager, and our inspiration for it would be incomplete. At Pentecost, perfect joy is given in the Lord in the Holy Spirit, but it does not free us from sorrow over His removal from the world. This is attested prophetically in the Old Testament hymn of the Bride’s love for the Groom: “On my bed at night I looked for the one whom my soul loves, I looked for him and did not find him. I will get up and walk through the city, through the streets and squares, and will look for the one whom my soul loves” (Song. 3:12). Pentecost, therefore, imparting spiritual intimacy with Christ, in its own way revives in us the feeling of His removal from the world, with the expectation of His new coming. This will be the Last Judgment for our sinfulness, before which the soul trembles, but also the joy of meeting in our love for Him, and it is not in vain that the Apostle of Love told us that “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). Pentecost calls us to meet Christ, to the world of the future, although its times and dates remain hidden from us. But even earlier than that, at all times of our earthly life, the Lord is with us in the Holy Spirit in all its paths and accomplishments. He ascended into heaven and received glory from the Father, however, not in order to leave us, to forget about us, but in order to complete his saving work with victory in the world over the power of the enemy, to prepare his Kingdom and return in it with his saints and thereby “prepare a place” for us. “I go to prepare a place for you, and when I have prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself” (John 14:13). The Lord reigns in the world all the days of its existence, in all its destinies and the struggles of the enemy forces with the power of Christ. And, according to the immutable promise of prophecy (Rev. 20:1-15), the time will come when He will reign on earth with His saints and His kingdom will shine for some time, even before the end of this age, before the last rebellion against Him. Therefore, Pentecost continues today in its strength. And to us, and to our times, as well as to all others, the word of the apostle remains addressed. Peter on her day. Do we hear it now, does it reach our inner ears in our days, in the face of what is now happening in the world? How to combine the wild revelry of the forces of destruction with a bright promise? Doesn't it seem like a naive and powerless dream in the face of human cruelty and the daily destruction that threatens each of us? Isn't it in blatant contradiction with reality? Does what the world lived with until now remain valid, before the onset of these unprecedented, unprecedented disasters? – We cannot help but ask ourselves this way, testing our faith with all sincerity and responsibility. But, first of all, the thickening of darkness and the accumulation of disasters in human life is unexpected and incomprehensible, or is it entirely contained in Christian prophecies about it, and therefore the terrible is not yet incomprehensible. The Lord himself persistently warned his apostles about this: “Behold, I myself told you in advance...he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:25, 13). And the Apostle Peter, in his word on Pentecost, included in its promises the following words of the prophet Joel: “And I will show wonders in heaven and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and smoking smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes” (Acts 2:19). This same word remains addressed to us even now, not in order to instill fear in us, but in order to free us from inner fear even when it involuntarily freezes our hearts. Christians are forewarned that they will be destined to meet and see off Pentecost in blood, fire and smoke. And yet, all this will appear before her powerlessly. Prophetic insights and promises must remain rejoicing and unquenchable in us, victorious and not exhausted in the feat of faith and hope, Christian courage and patience. But how can we realize this in ourselves, how can we achieve this? Even if this is impossible through human effort alone, we still have hope in the saving power of God, which is accomplished despite our weakness. Christ is constantly with us in these days. The darker the night, the closer he is to us. He invisibly and mysteriously fights, together with angels and saints, against the beast and false prophets with their hordes. He reigns now, when God's terrible destinies are being carried out on earth. Then “loud voices are heard in heaven saying: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will reign forever” (Rev. 11:15). This is the highest reality that the prophetic ear of Pentecost must heed, and such may our celebration be today. Amen. Now we are in the ten days after the Ascension until Pentecost. What does this ten-day period mean? What happens during this sacred time in heaven and on earth? Christ is in heaven, begging the Father to send the Spirit. He himself spoke about this in his last conversation. What is this supplication? These days are also necessary for Himself, for, having been resurrected, He goes through the path of His glorification. He walks the path to Glory to send down the Comforter Spirit to us. But this is a mystery, before which let us bow our hearts reverently, and let us turn to what happened on earth. The apostles returned with joy to Jerusalem and stayed in the Jerusalem upper room. They were constantly in unanimity. The entire Church, whose life is unanimity, is concentrated here. They were in prayer and supplication. This prayer was an outpouring of delight and, together, their gathering together after the joy of separation - in the sacred anticipation of Pentecost. They were imbued with the rays of Ascension, its awe. But what is most amazing is that they were with the Mother of the Lord. This is mentioned only once throughout the Acts of the Apostles. Who could be united around, if not around the one who was His Mother. The indescribable holiness of which was in her. The Holy Spirit gathered the Church around the Mother of God, with Her He pleased and consoled her. Everything that we know about the ten days of the Church is, as it were, covered with the veil of the Most Pure One. And even if this had not been written, we would have guessed it and seen it with our hearts. The following describes the election of the twelfth apostle. We see how the apostles have already matured: at first they wanted to directly see the earthly glory of the Messiah; but now they are not in a hurry, but are waiting; and the Holy Twelve Apostles, in whom the Church prepared for itself completeness, is restored in the patience of accomplishments. And finally, what did not abide, but what was absent: the apostles had not yet broken bread, for the Holy Spirit had not yet descended, giving the power to the Church to perform this greatest of sacraments. What is offered to us gathered in this ten days? The Church draws our attention to the First Ecumenical Council, which established the Divinity of Christ, and, turning to this greatest historical event, the Church, as it were, turns our gaze away from the direct events of these days. But it is natural to confirm in this bright time that the Lord is God, that He is on the path to Divine Glory. And finally, the last question: how can we enter this sacred ten days? After all, we have received, we already have the Holy Spirit, He was given to us in the Church and by the Church. But we cannot yet accommodate this gift. We are always waiting, “in prayer and sobriety.” We must firmly fulfill our calling in trusting in the Lord, always seeking completeness. And we must, overcoming laziness of spirit and despondency, walk our path in composure and prayerful expectation. Everything has been given to us, but we still fail. And therefore we wait in faith and hope. But hope does not disappoint. Amen. We celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit*: Word on the Day of Pentecost The Lord created man in His image in order to have him as His friend, to associate him with His divine life, indwelling him, to make him a god by grace. When man, through the Fall, deviated from the path to his destiny, the Son of God took on human nature, and, having atoned for human sin, he returned to him the lost opportunity. The divine nature in Him and through Him was completely united with the human. But the work of redemption accomplished by Christ was to bear fruit in salvation, to be realized in a new life, which man had to join in receiving the life-giving Holy Spirit. After the departure of Christ from the world, in which He, however, remains inseparably, as the perfect God-man, the Holy Spirit had to descend into the world. The descent of the Holy Spirit is in direct connection with the incarnation; we can say that it constitutes his goal, as Christ explains to his disciples: “let me go to the Father” in order to send down the Holy Spirit and baptize the disciples with Fire. The Incarnation of Christ gives us unity with Christ, an immutable basis for participation in divine life, but only the reception of the Holy Spirit realizes this life in us, mysteriously and ineffably reveals in us the unity and interpenetration of human life and divine life. We call inspiration in the human sense such a state when a person feels in himself the presence of new forces, as if flowing from his higher being; without losing himself, he feels as if he is different, finding new, unexplored possibilities in himself. But this inspiration, which reveals to man the hidden or dormant powers of his own spirit, is only an image of when a person receives the Spirit of God and, being imbued with it, is adored by it, and through this becomes one with Christ living in man. The descent of the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of the work of Christ and the fulfillment of God’s plan for man, for he was created as a temple of the Holy Spirit, together with the natural world, of which he was appointed to be the head and soul. The worldwide Pentecost in the Upper Room of Zion was anticipated and prepared from the very creation of the world, always life-giving by the Holy Spirit. At the very creation, when the still ugly and empty earth was called into being, “the Spirit of God rushed upon the top of the abyss,” and this was the first natural Pentecost in advance. And the second, already human, Pentecost was when God, creating man, Himself “breathed into him the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7). “Every soul is alive by the Holy Spirit,” testifies St. Church . The first-created man was created spirit-bearing, although he lost his gifts due to the Fall. However, even in sin, the grace of the Spirit of God is not completely taken away from it. It is also given to him through his natural spiritual powers, for, although it was eclipsed, the original image of God was not lost in him. According to the special vision of God, in the chosen flock, in the Old Testament church, he was given the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit in various ministries: in the priesthood, eldership, kingdom, prophecy, warfare, art. The life of the Old Testament church is filled with grace. And yet, the gap between God and man remained insurmountable until the coming of Christ, and the gifts of grace were the actions of the Holy Spirit, only, as it were, enriching man from the outside, but unable to penetrate his being and make him a temple of the Holy Spirit. However, through grace-filled upbringing and slow ascension, man prepared to receive God, and finally the time came when a being appeared on earth capable of receiving the Holy Spirit and becoming a church of the Divine - the Most Pure Virgin. And the Holy Spirit descended on Her at the Incarnation, the Mother of God Pentecost was accomplished. But she, although she gave the Virgin Mary the strength to become the Mother of the Lord, still left for the Most Pure One herself the opportunity to participate in the all-human Pentecost of Zion. The fullness of Pentecost was accomplished over the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ at His baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and this descent of Him on the New Adam already contained the basis for the coming general Pentecost. But for this it was necessary for the fullness of not only the redemptive feat to be accomplished, but also the glorification of human nature in the ascension to heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Father. Only from there, having completely deified and glorified the fullness of human nature, does the Son of Man from the Heavenly Father send the Holy Spirit to all humanity, just as the Holy Spirit abiding on Him was sent down on His human nature. And this was His last promise to the apostles, expressing the fullness of His work before the Ascension: “wait for what was promised from the Father... you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4–5). The descent of the Holy Spirit was an event that took place in a specific place and time. He is described in D. Ap. St. Evangelist Luke: “And suddenly there was a sound from heaven, like a stormy breath... and the nations appeared to them divided like fire, sitting on one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:2-3). The descent of the Holy Spirit took place in a tangible and even visible way for everyone, and the effect of this descent on those who received the Holy Spirit was just as clearly noticeable, for they felt like new people and acquired the gift of speaking in different languages. During the Pandemonium of Babylon, which was the ultimate expression of the falling away from God, of human warfare against God, this division of languages ​​appeared, by the will of God, but at Pentecost it is healed. The Holy Spirit unites all languages ​​in the Church, for in Christ Jesus there is no Greek or Jew. Each of the apostles received a separate tongue of the one Holy Spirit, for, according to the explanation of St. ap. Paul, “There are diversities of gifts, and diversities of ministries, and diversities of activities, but it is the same Spirit, and the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone to benefit” (1 Cor. 12:4-7). And in the primal Church, the gifts of the Holy Spirit were so abundant that there even appeared mutual zeal for these gifts, as al. portrays. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:1–31, 14:1–40. And the descent of the Holy Spirit during the laying on of the apostolic hands was always a tangible thing, as various examples testify: on the Samaritans (Acts 8:15–17), on the eunuch (Acts 8:39), on the pagan Cornelius and his house (Acts 10:44–47), on the Ephesians (Acts 9:2–6). And if, due to our sinful weakness and according to the special vision of God, in the future life of the Church, as in our days, these gifts from the outside do not always become perceptible, this does not change their power and effectiveness. The tongues of fire that descended on Pentecost remain in the world, and we, the Christian race, live by the effective power of Pentecost, for it is the abiding Church of Christ. Everything that is performed in the Church—sacraments, prayers, mysteries—all these are the fiery tongues of Pentecost that are in the world. And all church holiness, spiritual gifts and achievements, are accomplished by the power of Pentecost. And at the heights of holiness, the languages ​​of Pentecost become palpable among us: the face of St. Seraphim of Sarov shone like the sun when he showed the presence of the Holy Spirit to Motovilov. But don’t the faces and eyes of people even now shine at the hour of their prayerful admiration, clearly testifying to the Holy Spirit resting on them? Each of us has been given the sacrament of Pentecost, but we must warm up its gift, acquire it through labor and effort. Pentecost, continuing invisibly and visibly, does its work in the world and the human race. The Holy Spirit living in the Church creates in it the Body of Christ, the kingdom of saints, awaiting the coming glory. Not only man, but all of nature is destined for this glory. On Pentecost, the sons of Israel set up tree tabernacles, and now Christians bring flowers and herbal potions and tree branches to the churches. Through them, all nature becomes involved in the church of the Upper Room of Zion and participates in Pentecost. All creation awaits, according to the word of the Apostle, the revelation of the glory of the sons of men, awaits the transformation into a new heaven and a new earth, the world Pentecost, which is coming beyond the general resurrection. The Holy Spirit, who now lives in the Church and makes it the Kingdom of grace, He will also complete the Kingdom of Glory, and God’s face will be imagined in all creation, there will be all God in all. But this coming kingdom of Glory will be the fulfillment of what has already been accomplished by the work of Christ, through the descent of the Holy Spirit into the world. The Lord has already united with His creation, deified it and abides in it. We also call the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit the day of the Holy Trinity, as if the second theophany. God the Father, revealed in His Son, is also revealed in the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and is sent by the Son. God is trinitarian love, mutual love of the divine Hypostases, and love for creation, which appears in divine condescension. And now this divine condescension is fully revealed: the Lord created the world, but also dwelt in it, the Father by the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. The Holy Spirit must reign it is fitting, to sanctify, to strive creature: God is consubstantial (Degrees on the 3rd week of Easter. After the Ascension of the Lord, the apostles expected the fulfillment of the promise of the descent of the Comforter. And on the day of Pentecost, when they were all with one accord together, suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty 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” (Acts 2:2-4). This event was the birth of the New Testament Church, the first sign of which was preaching in all languages, addressed to all nations. The tongues of fire that descended to earth at Pentecost, remaining on it, always remain. Having rested on the apostles, they were handed over by them as gifts of grace to their successors. Each member of the Church receives his gift of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation, receives his “seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit,” and this is his personal Pentecost. To such an extent was this acceptance of the Holy Spirit, expressed in various gifts, evident and palpable in the apostolic age that they knew directly whether the gift of the Spirit had already been given (Acts 8:14, 9, 19:2-6). The entire life of the Church, moved by the Holy Spirit, is a continuing Pentecost, it is that new, grace-filled life about which the prophet Ezekiel spoke: “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:26). The new, blessed, supernatural is infused into natural human life. Natural human inspiration is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, it becomes divinely inspired. The Holy Spirit proclaims Christ in man, for “He will take of what is mine and will proclaim it to you” (John 16:13–14), according to the word of the Lord, does not testify of himself, but of the name of Christ, of life in Christ living in his humanity. The work of Christ is effective for the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit. Life in the Church is the Holy Spirit, living in her and testifying about the Son, and in Him about the Father. The Son and the Holy Spirit are inseparable in eternal existence, in the self-revelation of the Father, for the Holy Spirit rests on the Son, revealing Him to the Father. Also in time we have the revelation of the Father in the Son, accomplished by the Holy Spirit. He is an inexhaustible source of divine inspiration in the Church, which he preached about on the day of Pentecost in the words of the prophet Joel ap. Peter: “And your sons will prophesy, and your daughters will see visions, and your old women will dream dreams” (Joel 11:28; Acts 2:17). The Holy Spirit is an inexhaustible source of spiritual gifts that the Church imparts in her sacraments; He is the God-bearing breath of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the Church itself in its power, by Him it is assimilated to the Son as the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, so that in the Son it may submit to the Father, so that God may be all in all. The image of the Holy Trinity is imprinted in the Church by the Holy Spirit, therefore Pentecost is the feast of the Holy Trinity, the universal Epiphany. Its anticipation was at the Annunciation, when the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, but thereby the Holy Trinity was also revealed: the sending Father, the descending Spirit, the begotten Son. Theophany was also accomplished in the baptism of the Lord with the descent of the Holy Spirit and the Father's testimony about the Son. The Ecumenical Epiphany took place on Pentecost, and not only for human nature, but also for the entire creation, which has its head and center in man; To commemorate this, we bring flowers and decorate churches with branches, thereby making all nature a church. We also recall the Old Testament image of the Epiphany - the appearance of the Holy Trinity in the form of three angels. But this does not exhaust the content of the Feast of Pentecost. The great luminary also has a small one as a companion; The next day, sanctified by the name of the Holy Spirit, also leans against the day of Pentecost. Like this lesser luminary, pale, although not extinguished, in the rays of the greatest, the feast of the Holy Spirit is celebrated inconspicuously and, as it were, secretly: not among the great, twelve feasts, the Lord's or the Theotokos, but only around them. This day is not marked by its own service, which would reveal the greatness and holiness of the holiday, in contrast to Pentecost. But we must understand the meaning and power not only of the Church’s verbs, but also of its silence. This holiday, like a sealed icon, or a sealed book, is a silent mystery that will be revealed beyond this age, when the universal Pentecost will become manifest to all creation and God will become all in all. Then we will also know the own face of the Third Hypostasis, the Holy Spirit, whom we now know only in His grace-filled gifts. The Church in the Feast of the Holy Spirit gives hope and promise. We love the Lord Jesus Christ with a personal love, knowing Him in our own person. But we do not know the Holy Spirit’s own face, and therefore we are deprived of the opportunity to love Him with personal, knowing love, although our heart wants to love Him. We rejoice in nothing so much and we do not thirst for anything more in the world than the personal manifestation of holiness, when a fiery tongue clearly lights up over a person. And then the Face of the Holy Spirit itself shines in his face. We foresee it most clearly in the face of her who became the most pure vessel of the Holy Spirit, in the most blessed Virgin Mary, although, knowing her human face before glorification, we only foresee her glorified and heavenly face. Nevertheless, although we do not know the Holy Spirit hypostatically, we pray to Him personally, we turn to Him. For the reason stated above, the number of direct prayer appeals to Him is relatively meager, but we know one exhaustive prayer, which we repeat every day, and with special solemnity on the day of His feast: “To the Heavenly King.” In this prayer, the Church gives a brief teaching about the Holy Spirit. Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of Truth. As God, the Holy Spirit is equal in honor to the other persons of the Holy Trinity, and in this sense is the King of Heaven, like the Son and the Father. By his personal nature, He is the Comforter, the love and joy of the love of the Father and the Son in the Holy Trinity. He is also the joy of creation, for he heals its ulcers, making it himself. And as He rests on the Son, who is Truth, He is the Spirit of Truth, revealing it in God and in man. God is Spirit in His nature, equally both Father and Son. However, the Holy Spirit, who completes the revelation of the Father in the Son and thereby seals the inner life of the Triune Divine Spirit, is the Spirit of the Spirit, His self-inspiration. Who is everywhere and fulfills everything, a treasure of good things and a giver of life. This expresses the attitude of the Holy Spirit to creation - the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, together with His life-giving power. “By the Holy Spirit,” the Church sings, “every soul is alive.” We know about the Word that “all this happened”; It is the mental, verbal basis of all existence, which is fulfilled, quickened, and becomes original - by the Holy Spirit. Divine action can only be good, for no one is good except God alone (Matthew 19:17), but the highest good, the good of all good things, given from Their treasury, is Life. And if the Word is Life, as its beginning, then the Holy Spirit is life-giving itself. Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from all filth, and save, O Good One, our souls. In these pleading words the prayer addresses our needs. Do we not fall into contradiction here with what was said above about the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit? Is the prayer for the indwelling of Him Who is present everywhere by His power appropriate? However, this presence alone is not enough for us. Grace does not force a person, but awaits its free acceptance, the opening of the heart, which becomes the throne of the Kingdom of God within us. Even demons cannot hide from the omnipotence and omnipresence of God, but we also need a reciprocal movement of our love for the Creator, so that He lives in us not only by His power, but also by the will of creation, the consent of the love of the Creator and creation. And by prayerfully calling for the coming of the Comforter, we open our hearts to Him, and in response to this, the fire of the Holy Spirit burns our sins and thereby melts and saves our souls. Living in the Spirit, by His gifts, we also accept the bold hope, although beyond the boundaries of this century, to know the Holy Spirit himself in His own hypostatic face. And comforted by His consolation, we hope to see the Comforter himself. Amen. ...may My joy be in you, and your joy will be complete. Pentecost, together with the day of the Holy Spirit in the mysterious silence about Him, is a holiday of joy. Every holiday has its own special joy, but this holiday is about the most hypostatic Joy in God descending on earth, and it is the Holy Spirit. The joy of being is the highest gift of the Creator to creation in the immensity of life, in wisdom and beauty. “Let the sea splash and what is in it, let the field rejoice and all that is in it, let all the trees of the grove rejoice together before the Lord” (1 Chronicles 16:32-33). In the joy of being that fills him, all creation is called to the blessing of the Lord (Dan. 3:57–90). The joy of nature overflows into human hearts; flowers, branches and herbs are brought to churches to commemorate it. But the highest joy of creation is revealed in human love, in the gift of mutual admiration. For the Wisdom of God herself, who was an “artist”, rejoicing in the face of the Creator over all creation, “there was joy in the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:30–31). Only to them, along with the fullness of the image of God, was given this joy of mutual love with all its many faces, an inexhaustible source of joy in the human image. But all the natural faces of human love do not yet contain and express its highest gift, spiritual love. They can even darken it and counteract it. Man is called to love in God, and such joy of love is a gift of God’s grace, which is received by man’s reciprocal effort, self-giving, and spiritual achievement. The Lord, in his farewell conversation with his disciples, promises to give them His complete and fulfilling joy. What is this joy of Christ? What is its accomplishment, and together with its perfection and completeness? It differs from the fleeting joys of the world in that no one will take it away from those who know it (John 16:22). It is the joy of victory, which is found in sorrow, born under the cross: “You will be sad, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20), the joy of the cross. Its prototype is given in heaven. In the life of the Holy Trinity, Her Divine trinity is affirmed by the sacrificial self-exhaustion of the Hypostases in mutual love. God is trinitarian sacrificial Love, which is crowned with joy filled and perfect. The image of this joy on the cross is brought into the world by the Son of God. His descent from heaven and all his earthly ministry, with humiliation until the acceptance of death on the cross, is the fulfillment of perfect joy, which He himself accepts in heaven in his glory and communicates to his disciples through the sending of the Holy Spirit to earth. The last word of the Lord in the world, spoken on the cross in His mortal exhaustion, refers to this accomplishment: “It is finished!” (John 19:30). The joy of the cross was accomplished in its power, although it did not yet shine forth in the glory of victory over the world. This is the promise of the Lord. But what does He predict to His disciples about their earthly destinies at this hour of parting? Not earthly joys, but sorrows, not the glory of the world, but enmity and persecution, together with their own spiritual exhaustion. And only by going through these trials will they know the consolation of the Comforter, the gracious joy in Him and the peace of Christ. Christian joy does not shy away from temptations; on the contrary, it needs them, and even “receives them with great joy,” the apostle teaches (James 1:2). “When we are grieved, we rejoice” (2 Cor. 6:10) with the joy of the cross, the joy of victory. After Pentecost, those who saw the apostles in their sacred frenzy asked in bewilderment if they were “drunk on sweet wine” (Acts 2:13). They received from the Holy Spirit in divine joy the knowledge of the “future” promised to them by Christ, and perfect joy filled their hearts. A touch or even just an approach to this joy is given only by the feat of faith in the Lord: “Having not seen Him and not having seen Him before, but believing in Him, you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pet. 1:8). She shines in the faces of the saints, and her gift reveals the measure of our spiritual ascent. However, the higher, although it itself does not fit into the lower, but, surpassing it, contains it within itself. Therefore, earthly, created images of love and joy about it are not destroyed and are not forbidden by perfect love, but in its light they find their justification. Resistance to the world refers to that which opposes the will of God in it according to its condition, but not to its very primordial existence. The love of God rests upon all creation, and all creation “waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:20–23). The Feast of Hypostatic Joy gives us a gracious foreshadowing of the coming transformation of the world, which will take place in the appearance of the Lord and has already been accomplished in the coming of the Comforter. The human heart even now rejoices in the joy of all creation. Let us also pay attention to ourselves. In the face of the greatest sorrow that awaited the disciples, along with the foreshadowing of it, the Lord gave them the commandment of perfect joy, which has not been canceled, but applies with all its force to us now, in these terrible days. Does this call and promise of the Lord reach our ears with all its power and truth, or, not containing them, do we only internally protect ourselves with them from the final horror, from the utmost despair? Does “the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith, prevail in us” (John 5:4)? If we know the fear and exhaustion of faith, as they were known even to the apostles of Christ on the night of Gethsemane, then the renewal that the world needs is accomplished from above in the fire of trials. The grain of God's wheat dies not to death, but to new birth in the earth. With the courage of patience, hearts are tempered and open to eternal joy. We are coming to spiritual victory. The Lord said: “In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And may this only Conqueror of death grant us now the joy of the Comforter. Amen. We celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit May I now be forgiven for this word about myself, a word of thanksgiving about the greatest mercy of God shown to me, and about the joy of the Holy Spirit on the Day of the Holy Spirit. A quarter of a century ago, on this day, I was given the acceptance of the priesthood in the city of Moscow with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, by the right hand of St. Theodore of Volokolamsk, during the days of the sacred Moscow Council and its Supreme Church Administration, to which I belonged unworthily. Through this, the doors of church service opened for me. I joined the clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate during the days of my stay in my homeland, but I will not cease to belong to it spiritually even now after exile, being outwardly rejected from it. I confess myself to be a clergyman of the Russian Church, and through it the Orthodox Church, as well as the Universal Church of Christ, for whose reunification in all its parts, now divided, I hope. There is one body of Christ, just as there is one Holy Spirit, the Comforter who came into the world. On this unforgettable day with a grateful heart, I remember first of all my friends and brothers, who on that day gathered in the Moscow Church of the Holy Spirit to share with me the triumph of spiritual marriage. I see their faces before me, among them first of all the co-servant of the Hieromartyr Priest Paul, as well as many who are in the world, as well as those who have departed from it. With grateful memory and love I remember all those who were given to me as prayer partners on my pastoral path, in my homeland and in exile. Their images shine in my heart, their names burn in my memory, filling it with prayerful gratitude and spiritual delight. I gratefully bless them, uniting with them both in life and separating according to the will of the Lord. I hope that now those whom “You gave me” are with me in prayer, and may this boldly spoken word about myself be forgiven, on the great day of Pentecost. WE CELEBRATE PENTECOST AND THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit came and took possession of the world today. “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” (Acts 2:2–3). And “when this noise was made, the people gathered together and were in confusion... and they were all amazed” (Acts 2:6-7). An event in a small house quickly became an event for the entire holy city, and then for the entire earth; it began to spread its power throughout the world, throughout the entire Church of the Universal Church, and even to this day. Even now we are shaken in spirit by the Spirit of the coming and ask ourselves: how do we now experience the coming of the Spirit, together with the apostles and like them, together with the whole Church and the Christian world, together with the natural world, with all created being? How can we measure and define this TOGETHER, this blessed unity, and realize ourselves in it? How did the world accept this coming of the Holy Spirit, and does it continue to accept it? How does he answer it? The Spirit of God is received by the spirit, albeit human, but spiritually. He is alive and active, he seeks and thirsts, he perceives by taking. Spiritual thirst is needed for the gates of Pentecost to open, according to the word of the Lord: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink!” (John 7:37), “And with joy you will draw water from the fountain of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). “This He spoke about the Spirit, which those who believed on Him were to receive” (John 7:39). If you thirst, seek the Spirit of God, want spiritual life, then the waters of salvation will open, “out of your belly will flow springs of living water” (Joel 13:18). The Spirit has come into the world, but does His source reach us, do we thirst for it? Or is his spiritual triumph now becoming too much for us? Alas! The world responds to Pentecost with the pandemonium of Babylon, the noise from heaven with the roar of air and earthly weapons, the divided tongues resting on each, with the hellfire of teachings of hatred and division of satanic pride and violence. The world is burning and being destroyed, not transformed. He is not inspired by the outpouring of the Spirit, but is suffocated in a frenzy. Isn't he dying from this soullessness? Such is our bewilderment, such is the despair, such is the sorrow, such is the confusion now after Pentecost, which is being replaced by the global flood... Such questions are sincere and justified in their own way, it is impossible to hide from them, and where and how? And in this case, where is the power of our celebration and what are we celebrating? And to this we respond with a firm and unshakable confession of our FAITH IN PENTECOST, as an accomplished, inalienable EVENT for eternal times. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, came and moved into the world, abides in it, sanctifies and illuminates it. His light and presence are mysterious and invisible, such is the nature of the spirit. His action may be imperceptible, and, being in us, he can hide in humility and humiliation until he reveals all his power and glory, and appears in his victorious obviousness. But we already know Him and therefore through His tea, He reveals Himself to us in His being and presence, He CAME AND Dwelled in us. We carry this knowledge and revelation within ourselves, we testify to it triumphantly, we boldly affirm it, we confess it as our faith, as knowledge, as accomplishment... When God created the world, each day of creation was evidenced by its accomplishment in beauty and perfection, as GOOD GREAT. The world is sealed in him by the Holy Spirit, the Pentecost of creation, it is inseparable from the world, like its joy about itself. Before this GOOD GREEN of the world, world sorrow is powerless, even if it still darkens it. For behind this joy of the creation of the world comes its transformation, which will conquer and eliminate its shadows, revealing it in perfect joy. Such is the power of transformation, not only of the natural, but also of the spiritual world. Man will appear in his purity and glory under the action of the Spirit of God, who has come into the world and is hidden in it. And with the power of this knowledge we “CELEBRATE Pentecost” as an event in us, inseparable from us, as our complete joy, and we proclaim it with rejoicing. The feat of Pentecost consists of this proclamation for each of us. The Lord did not give us the carnal, worldly, human evidence of Pentecost, which awaits us only in the coming century, but He gave us the power to achieve it, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we are called to patience in the struggle of this faith, its hope. But we are not called to this only feat of struggle for our spiritual existence; we are called to another and greater inspiration of Pentecost, its prophesied gift, insight into the future through the present, in spite of it. The Apostle Peter, in his Chief Apostle's sermon about the descent of the Holy Spirit, explained its event in the words of Joel's prophecy: “And it shall come to pass in the last days,” and these days are drawing near for us even now, “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your elders will dream dreams. And on My servants and on My handmaids in those days I will pour out My Spirit, and they will prophesy” (Acts 2:17–18; Joel 2:28–32). Of this joy of prophecy and its inspiration, a promise is made and every creature, sons and daughters, old and young, is called to it. Let defiance of the present, irreconcilability with it and faith in the future inspire us. The command of Pentecost is the creative aspiration of our spirit, which is different for everyone. It resists the blindness and bitterness of the present, it calls for the future, which comes and will come through all the trials of the present, about which the prophet speaks not in vain: “The sun will turn into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes” (Joel 2:20). But it will come. Pentecost does not promise us peace and triumph on earth, neither does Christ promise us them, but calls us to struggle, to creative work, gives its promise and triumph. Therefore, there must be not only faith, but also the WORK of Pentecost, its transforming power in the world, according to the word of Christ: “He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will also do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am coming to My Father” (John 14:12), for “the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have told you” ( John 14:26). Let everyone guard himself in his spiritual being, such may the promise of Pentecost be: “For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord your God will call” (John 2:39). Christ sent us “another Comforter,” the Spirit proceeding from the Father, so that through His presence on earth he himself would be intimately present in the world after his departure to heaven. But this hiddenness of His will remain only for a time, just like the hidden action of the Spirit. Behold, Christ comes into the world in His Glory, and this Glory is the manifestation of Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, who abides in the world, comes with Christ in reality. He will then appear not only in the form or AS WELL of a strong wind and tongues of fire, but in all his power and glory. And towards this coming of both Comforters, the Son and the Spirit, our prophetic hopes, our creative inspiration, our whole life are directed. They have already come into the world, but they are also coming into it. We pray to Them and call Them: Comforter, Soul of truth, come and dwell in us! Sermon on the Day of the Holy Spirit Yesterday, when the divine glory of the Holy Spirit was revealed to us, we sang: “We magnify You, life-giving Christ, and honor Your all-holy Spirit, whom You sent from the Father as Your divine disciple.” But in the descent of the tongues of fire we did not see the Spirit itself; His Hypostasis is closed by mysterious silence, for It will be revealed only in the future century. But we know His place in the Holy Trinity. He is love that unites, love in the Holy Trinity and also love in us and among us. The Lord says that we should have love among ourselves and complete joy, for what joy is greater than love. Love according to the new commandment is church love, it is the love of the Holy Spirit. Let us turn to what is currently silent in the Gospel. We have heard the testimony of a Church in which there is love: “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I, Christ, am in the midst of them.” But how can one be gathered in His Name if not by the uniting and inspiring Holy Spirit. Through them we know Christ, we love Him and each other. And this love is church love. And it cannot be in our hearts if there is another love there - love from the world, and not “burning of the heart.” Love is silent, it cannot be expressed in words, and yet it is about the word, about the Logos, about which evidence has appeared from heaven. In the Holy Spirit He quickens and makes words effective. Love is not silent, although it itself is silent. Therefore, even now the Church is silent about the Spirit, but this victorious and conquering love burns. Before the upcoming events, I would now like to express that the spirit of unity is taking place all over the world, even outside our churches. There are two big events coming up this summer that we are called upon to participate in. May the Lord grant the Orthodox to accomplish the work of love and unity, just as it is being accomplished now on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit and as it was accomplished at the Councils: “It has pleased the Holy Spirit and us...” Amen. Beloved! We are children now God, but it has not yet been revealed that we will. We only know that when hidden, we will be like Him, because that we will see Him as He is. It has not yet been revealed... Therefore, even today, on the day of the Holy Spirit, we remain silent about the mystery of the future age, as well as about Himself. And yet we approach it reverently, for we have already received the Spirit in the gift of Pentecost, and by Him we live. No matter how meager this life may be, His tongues also burn over us, and from them our hearts burn, just as they burned on the way to Emmaus among the disciples who listened to Christ’s teaching (Luke 24:32). And now do we not heed His teaching about the Holy Spirit? He left his last, farewell conversation, addressed to his disciples, forever and for everyone. In it we also heed His promise about the Holy Spirit and the revelation about Him. Its endless depths are revealed for all times, both this century and beyond, as in the paths of each of us’s own lives. And in this immensity and inexhaustibility, the heart hears and chooses life-giving and close verbs that strike it. The Word about the Spirit was a self-revelation of Himself resting on Christ. It both inspires and pleases, always in a new way, just as now we hear blessed words: about joy in sorrow and about the friendship of Christ... In the face of approaching sadness, which is sadder than there is, and has not been and cannot be, on the eve of the passion of the cross, abuse, strangulation, rejection, crucifixion and death, the Lord teaches “perfect joy,” given by God and worthy of man. This is the call and promise given to us. The world lives in deep sadness; sometimes it seems to us that there has never been greater sadness than the one we contemplate. However, if it is the widest in its flow, then it is not the deepest, like the one that awaited the disciples when “His hour had come.” But even then Christ spoke to his disciples, and He continues to speak to us about spiritual victory, about joy accomplished and complete. But this joy is accomplished in sorrow, just as victory is achieved in struggle. “You will be sad, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20), “You now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). Do not look for carefree joy, that happiness on earth that the sons of this age are looking for. Only the joy of the cross, gained through suffering, is worthy of a person, not in self-love, but in sorrow “for God’s sake” (1 Cor. 7:10). Such is the joy of a woman giving birth, forgetting her suffering in the face of the born fetus. But everyone is given birth, if not physical, then spiritual. God leads us through darkness to light, through sadness to perfect joy. How to know it in order to live in it, with it and for its sake? It is given by the Holy Spirit, in whom Christ comes to us, such is His promise. May the divine joy perfect on the day of the holiday of the Joy of all joys touch us, even if only for a moment, may we preserve it within ourselves, carrying the memory of Him through life even to the end. And another farewell word of Christ, His “new” commandment, pierces the heart: “Love one another,” and through this “you will abide in My love” (1 Cor. 15:9). The Lord calls such people not slaves, but his “friends.” The power of love for us comes from Divine love, from the Holy Spirit. Love is becoming scarce in the world, hearts are drying up, as if its gift is being lost, we are powerlessly shuddering from inner cold. But the word of Christ at the Supper is also addressed to us, it also calls us and judges us. However, it also contains the promise of the Comforter’s consolation. He will remind and teach, give new strength, in the ray of this consolation hearts will light up again... Just as we rejoice in love when we see it in a living form, in it we contemplate the manifestation of the Spirit. Before the great sorrows and temptations coming to our homeland, such an appearance was given to her in the form of the spirit-bearing husband St. Seraphim, who through heroism acquired the joy of the Lord and the love of a friend of Christ. We eagerly peer into his enlightened features, listen to the unearthly sounds of his speeches, strive to comprehend his blessed secret. And it seems that most of all it is revealed to us from his two words of greeting, glowing with joy about the Holy Spirit. And the first is “Christ is Risen!” - Easter greetings, with which, according to his life, he always greeted everyone. What may seem strange and excited was evidence of that unearthly joy of the resurrection of Christ, which always reigned in his soul and poured out of it. Another word of affection that he addressed to his spiritual friends was: “My joy!” It was not a word of external affection, under which people often hide indifference or even an unkind feeling, it was evidence of personal love, which gives joy for a loved one. It was not impersonal and indifferent to everyone; he addressed everyone with a personal attitude towards him. Every person has his own personality, he loves, just as we are loved in his own way, the soul conducts its own conversation with each, in its own special voice. Love is many-sided, but not faceless, diverse, but not uniform. In the fullness of the gift of love, its perfect joy, this personal joy of spiritual vision and meeting, which was expressed in the words of the monk, is also included. She awakened, or rather already anticipated, a reciprocal movement of hearts. Hence the glory that he had during his lifetime. He had and showed different gifts, but of them the very first and universal one, which was equally dear and necessary for everyone, is the gift of love and the joy of it. We are not only captivated, but perhaps even more confused by this image if we do not slide our attention past it; he awakens in us the consciousness of his own poverty. But this is a living image of the fulfillment of Christ’s commandment and His promises of perfect love and joy. The Lord addressed his word to everyone, and no one can reject it from himself. He knew and knows everything about each of us, and yet he addresses his promise to send the Comforter, may he be with us forever; both here and now, do we hear Him or not, do we know or do not know? We now ask the Father about His gift, about His coming in the Name of Christ, that He may reveal the power of God in us, free us from slavery to this world, arouse our hope and announce to us “the things to come,” about which the Lord said: “In that day ask Me nothing” (1 Cor. 16:23). Out of our weakness, we ask Him together with the disciples, and we are perplexed, embarrassed, and even leave Him. And we want to preserve and show fidelity to Him until the last test, to preserve in our hearts the memory of the revelation and inspiration of this day, in its ineffability. Comforter, Soul of truth, come and dwell in us. Today the memory of all saints is being celebrated. In this world, the Church represents the unity of all saints in its entirety. There are many saints who are not glorified, but who are included in the total number of “all saints.” Here are all, both glorified and not glorified, who will shine in the future. All this is timed to coincide with Pentecost. The gift of the Holy Spirit sanctifies the Church. The main question before us is: what is holiness? Individual deeds and virtues merge into one vague idea that this person has the “power of holiness” that distinguishes him from others. “This is a holy man,” we say. But this judgment would be incorrect if it were only human. Holiness from God. It is God who is holy in men. But what does it mean that the Lord is holy? We cannot talk about this, but remain silent... Speaking about the holiness of God, we would have to include in it goodness, power, and wisdom... However, the holiness of God is somehow communicated to us. And our calling is to be saints. And if we are called to holiness, we are thereby called to God, that is, we are called to be taken out of the world. We know that among the “holy” members of the Church there were also sinners, but still they were part of one whole... Our weaknesses and sinfulness are sanctified, like cobwebs or dust in the rays of the sun. This should give us hope that our sinfulness will not be an obstacle... The Holy Spirit is looking for a living place in us through which He could enter us and, having entered, reign. Call of the Apostleship*: Homily for the Day of Remembrance of Sts. the supreme apostles Peter and Paul on June 29 The Church now commemorates the two supreme apostles Peter and Paul, but in the person of them and the entire apostolate (it is not for nothing that the next day, June 30, is dedicated to the memory of the “Cathedral of the 12 Apostles”). They seem to personify both sides of the apostolic ministry: the hierarchical one in the person of the elder of the Apostolic Council, Apostle. Peter, and the teaching staff in the person of St. Paul, who worked more than anyone else in preaching the Gospel. And between them there is clearly the presence of Christ’s most beloved disciple, the apostle of love, the “elder” John (although his memory is celebrated in a special way). All the apostles (except Apostle Paul) were “witnesses” (Acts 1:8) of the earthly life of the Lord, called to proclaim what they “heard, what they saw with their own eyes” (John 1:1-3). The coming of the Lord into the world to fulfill times and seasons was prepared on earth. All those who were honored with this election were waiting for him, ready to meet him, starting with the Forerunner and the righteous Joseph the Betrothed. Among them were the chosen ones of the chosen people of God, humble fishermen, but future apostles. The Lord chose and called them, made them witnesses of His miracles, and revealed to them the secrets of the Kingdom of God. He sent them to preach, endowing them with the gift of healing and power over demons even in the days of His earthly life; He commanded them to preach the Gospel to all creation after His resurrection. He sent down to them from the Father the Holy Spirit, and in this fullness of gifts in them He revealed the fullness of His Church. In fulfillment of the command of the Lord, “their message went out into all the earth and their words into all the ends of the world.” The Church pleases St. the apostles, as the chosen ones of Christ, and “honors the illnesses and labors” of them, raised “for the gospel of Christ.” Now let us ask ourselves: what exactly in the apostolic ministry belongs only to the apostles personally, and what is entrusted and bequeathed to them and the entire Church, which they represented in the Upper Room of Zion on the day of Pentecost? First of all, the fullness of all the gifts concentrated in the personality of each of the apostles, of course, is not transferred entirely to any of the members of the Church. In this sense, their gifts and service were unique and indescribable. The apostles combined in themselves, with the totality of hierarchical powers, the gift of prophecy, miracles, and preaching. They embody all the power of the Church, its authority and conscience, which is why they will appear on the Day of Judgment sitting on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). And, of course, their exclusive personal advantage that they all “saw the Lord” cannot be conveyed. However, the entire fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their person is entrusted to the Church, is stored in it and is communicated to the members of the Church, although no individual person can have it in the same way as the holy apostles had it (and only the Roman high priest now imagines having these gifts even in greater fullness than all the individual apostles, precisely like the Apostle Peter, with whose person he identifies himself). First of all, the general hierarchical succession is preserved through episcopal ordination with the power of sacrament. This is the so-called apostolic succession of the hierarchy. Further, the power of communicating the gifts of the Holy Spirit, performed by the apostles over every baptized Christian through ordination, and now through sacramental anointing, is also transmitted. The Church has the gifts of healing, and power over demons, and the power of prophetic ministry, but these gifts are no longer transmitted successively and continuously, but are given at times pleasing to God, to persons chosen for this purpose. And finally, the Church also contains an apostolic ministry, which consists of preaching and confessing the faith. This is, first of all, apostleship: “And when you went away, you all taught languages” (Matthew 28:9); “Go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). To whom does this commandment of the Lord directly apply: whether only to the apostles who directly stood before Him, or, through them, to all members of the Church without any limitation. One can, of course, understand these words in the first, narrowed sense, relating them only to the divinely established hierarchy and explaining the preaching of the word as its exclusive advantage. Undoubtedly, this interpretation has its own grain of truth, consisting in the fact that the hierarchy receives through ordination a deliberate duty and a special gift of church preaching, in particular, in connection with worship, from the height of the church pulpit. However, it would be an exaggeration, reaching the point of willful distortion of the words of the Savior, to completely exclude with this interpretation the calling of every Christian to preaching, which is, first of all, confession, for the word of the Lord is addressed to everyone: “Whoever confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). St. the martyrs, who confessed their faith before the rulers of this world in the midst of torment, were also the most effective preachers, and similarly, we can say that every Christian, called by words and deeds to confess the Lord and thereby preach Him, is called to the apostleship, although the ways and modes of this preaching are different, just as the gifts are different. It can be said that among the various gifts of the apostleship, some, namely hierarchical powers, are acquired only by a few, while others, like prophecy and miracles, in the overwhelming majority of cases are not inherited at all, constituting the property of only isolated exceptions, but the gift of preaching and the duty of confession are communicated to all. All Christians participate in the calling and ministry of the apostleship, and, therefore, in its gift; all anointed by the Spirit constitute the people of God, the royal priesthood, all have the call of the apostleship. This is evidenced, first of all, by the presence of the rank of equal apostleship, which, of course, means service similar to the apostle. And this rank is applied by the Church regardless of whether the person honored with it is a bearer of church rank. There are both men and women in this rank: Tsar Constantine and Grand Duke Vladimir, St. Cyril and Methodius, along with Queen Helena and Grand Duchess Olga, Myrrh-Bearer Mary Magdalene, First Martyr Thekla and St. Nina. They, being in their rank, entered into the feat and work of the apostleship, of course, not in what constitutes the apostolic property, but in the fact that confession, and thereby the preaching of the faith of Christ, is accessible to all Christians, and therefore obligatory. The Supreme One addresses his word to everyone: “Be always ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15). Here at the same time it is said that the word of confession is given only in response to questioning, as well as that one must always be prepared for it. This readiness, however, is not always applied in life. However, it was clearly evidenced in the early Church, when Christians were led to trials and killed for the Name of Christ, and it is also constantly evidenced in our days in our homeland, where the confession of faith has become no less responsible than in early Christianity. But even outside of direct external persecution of faith, it is always in a state of more subtle persecution with ridicule, contempt, even indifference, and its confession for the most part is a kind of moral martyrdom, but at the same time preaching. Moreover, such preaching cannot be limited to spiritual self-defense alone, because it must flow from active love and concern for our other brothers who do not know Christ. And if previously this sermon had in mind mainly external paganism, now it is also addressed to paganism arising in the Christian environment, to the fight against God and the fight against Christ that is happening all over the world, and above all in our fatherland. A Christian cannot treat this onslaught of unbelief, the preaching of anti-Christianity with indifference, or even only defensively; he must strive to wage an offensive struggle against it, because this is not a struggle only for an abstract doctrine, but also for living souls. And he must conduct this counter-preaching in relation to the requirements of the place and time, to be everything to everyone, so that “someone may be saved” (1 Cor. 9:22). Look at the Apostle Paul himself, how differently he preaches the epistle to the Hebrews from, say, the epistle to the Ephesians. Look how different even the preaching of the Gospel is, for example, between the Evangelist Mark and the Evangelist John the Theologian! The preaching of the Gospel is the seed of eternal life, which is clothed in various [...] veils in the Jewish synagogue and in the Athenian Areopagus. And for our time we must seek our own cover for it in order to show it worthily. The consciousness of modern humanity is dependent on its scientific achievements, it is suppressed by them, and the duty of modern preaching, modern apostolate, among other things, is to, having lifted the spiritual yoke of its scientificity over the centuries, to bend it to the cross, and also in the light of science to reveal the light of the truth of Christ. Modern apostolate in this sense requires deliberate labor to prepare for it. Of course, the light of Christianity remains unchanged at all times, no matter how the concepts of the century change, and, on the other hand, the differences in the spiritual ages and states of man always remain in force. Therefore, even now there remains a place for different forms of confession and preaching. A mother teaching prayer and the truths of faith to her child, a humble old woman who involuntarily infects everyone who sees her with the image of her piety, a humble shepherd working in silence and patience in a spiritual field, perform the same apostolic work as a learned theologian, armed with true knowledge against false knowledge, combating with the light of Christ the imaginary light of that enlightenment, which is darkness. Apostolic zeal embraces all means and all possibilities, and everyone is given his own gift and his own ministry. St. the apostles, having themselves received the word from the Word, handed over to the Church the succession of the word, which is preached in it until the end of the age, and all Christians are ministers of the word they received. May the power of this ministry increase in the Church of Christ, through the prayers of St. the supreme apostles Peter and Paul! Amen. Magnificent glory* (2 Peter 1:17) The Day of the Transfiguration of the Lord (August 6) stands, as it were, outside the general order of the Lord's holidays, corresponding to the sequence of events in the earthly life of Christ. The place for it was chosen as if by chance, timed to coincide with the consecration of the fruits. But the latter is, of course, not essential for this particular holiday. The deeper meaning of this seemingly external nature of the holiday can be seen in the fact that the very event of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in its internal meaning, points to the life of the future century, outside of our time. It speaks of the kingdom of glory, the transformation of the world, which is evidenced by it in some anticipation, in a vision from here. “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” This was the involuntary testimony of the apostle. Peter in the face of this vision of “the kingdom of God coming with power” (Mark 9:1). He wanted to hold on to something that, although it existed in this century, did not actually belong to him. Only at the coming of the Lord in glory will we “be so always with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). And here, on Tabor, the miraculous vision went out, and the apostles, descending from the Mount of Transfiguration, felt themselves again in the unenlightened region of the prince of this world, among the demoniac, the sick, and those of little faith. The Transfiguration of the Lord testifies to us of the glory of the coming age, revealed in the parousia. 4 However, it itself is included in the fabric of the events of the gospel history and the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus. A careful reading of the Gospel narrative convinces us precisely that this event is a facet in His life, similar to the one with which Christ appeared to the world in Baptism. The latter, on the human side, reveals the matured will of Christ for His service; it is, as it were, dedication to it. The first is evidence of the matured will to suffer, to ascend to Jerusalem to die on the cross. For some time now, the Lord has been more and more persistently beginning to prepare his disciples for this, who, due to human weakness, resist this saving will. This preparation also includes the power of the Transfiguration: “that when they see You crucified, they will understand free suffering.” But this manifestation of the glory of Christ, which is revealed in the Transfiguration, testifies to His glorification, already accomplished through this determination. When at the Last Supper the Lord mysteriously precedes His impending death on the cross with His disciples, He also testifies to the pre-fulfillment of Glory. Events cast light from the future into the past and into the present, already fraught with this future. And in this sense, before His passion, the Lord speaks of glory: “now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (John 13:31). Likewise, here, even before that, on the Mount of Transfiguration, who appeared from the afterlife, also illuminated by the foretaste of the coming glory, Moses and Elijah, talk with Him about His exodus to Jerusalem to suffer. And the Father accepts the will of the Son to suffer already for its accomplishment and sends down “magnificent glory” after the overshadowing of the cloud. Just as at the Baptism of the Lord, when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, the Father’s voice of adoption came from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), the same voice of adoption is heard here “from the cloud” of glory, i.e. at the new manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit, and at the Transfiguration. The voice of the Father from heaven before the passion of Christ about His coming glorification can be compared with this: “I will also glorify and again I will glorify” (John 12:28). The Father crowns the sacrificial will of the Son with glory and confirms it as if by a new adoption. The Transfiguration of the Lord, understood in this sense, is the spiritually accomplished self-sacrifice of the Son, according to the will of the Father - filial: “Thy will be done.” But what new thing, which had never been seen in the world, was discovered on Mount Tabor? What did this mountain, and the air, and the sky, and the earth, and the universe, and the astonishing disciples of Christ see? What was this light that shone upon the apostles? This was a clear action of the Holy Spirit resting on Christ and transforming creation in Him. This was the preliminary appearance of a “new heaven and a new earth,” a transformed world illuminated by the beauty. This was, like the Epiphany, a revelation of the entire Holy Trinity - the Father, who sent down His Spirit on the Beloved Son, and in Him on all creation with which Christ was united by accepting human nature. This was a manifestation of something whose onset is associated only with the Resurrection of Christ and the coming general resurrection. The Kingdom of God is prophesied not only in word, but also in deed itself. The Light of Tabor was a genuine divine light, and not just a visual perception of the apostles, but in essence it was as if ghostly. This was the same light of the overshadowing of creation by the Holy Spirit, which was seen and revealed by God’s chosen ones, spirit-bearing men, certain Holy Mountain dwellers, St. Simeon the New Theologian and Rev. Seraphim of Sarov today. They also lit their candles from the Tabor light of the Transfiguration. The Church has devoted special attention to explaining this truth. Its preliminary dogmatic disclosure was given in the definition associated with the so-called. Palamite disputes (in the Church of Constantinople in the 16th century). Indirectly, this dogma about the Light of Tabor, as a genuine manifestation of the Divine, is also a dogmatic testimony about the power of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which revealed to people the “ever-present light” of the Divine (troparion of the Transfiguration). This dogmatic definition contains not only the particular thought that in the Transfiguration of the Lord the disciples saw the true radiance of the Divine, but also an even more general truth, namely, that the light of the Transfiguration has already penetrated the world and remains in it. The prelude to the world transformation took place, through the power of Christ's incarnation and Pentecost of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit now acts in the world through grace, which is found in the entire life of the Church, in Her mysterious gifts. But He is also present in the world with Glory, which until the end of this century remains hidden, but by the will of God it reveals itself now to God’s chosen ones, just as the light of the Transfiguration was revealed to the three chosen for this by Christ from among the apostles - Peter, James and John. The Holy Spirit descended into the world, and the glorification of the world has already been accomplished, although it has not yet been revealed. However, in the light of Tabor, like lightning, this true future image of the world sparkles for the chosen ones. The world appears in its transformation. But what does this transformation mean? Is it some kind of change in the image with the abolition of the previous one, or its true revelation in glory, in the captivating, because convincing, manifestation of Beauty? “It’s good to be here,” “it’s good to be here.” But this is exactly how the world was created by God’s vision, although until now it has not yet been revealed to human contemplation. However, it has already been revealed on Tabor. And this contemplation of the imperishable, original Beauty is the joy of joy, “Perfect Joy.” That is why this holiday is a special day of anticipation of joy, a holiday of Beauty. Beauty does not yet reign in this world, although it reigned in it through the Incarnation and Pentecost. She follows Christ along the path of her crucifixion, beauty is crucified in the world. She is the beauty of the godmother, in relation to which the “exodus” to passion is spoken of. But she is beauty. And we celebrate the holiday of this Beauty of the Cross on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord. “May Your ever-present light shine upon us sinners too.” Amen. Holy Russia: On the day of celebration of all saints who shone in the Russian land Save, Lord, Your people, The church celebration of Holy Rus' is a prayerful confession of our fidelity to our homeland in a time of immense humiliation and spiritual corruption that befell it. Holy Rus' has now become a hotbed of godlessness and lies, cruelty and slavery. And the question involuntarily arises in the soul: where is this glorified holiness? Where were the great gifts bestowed on her by God hidden? On what can we base our allegiance? Isn’t this decades-long demonic possession similar to spiritual death? Did her high calling still remain, or did the Lord take it away in his righteous anger, move the lamp, and “repent that he had created them” (Gen. 6:7)? This is our cry Jeremiah, the sad thought that lies on our hearts in the face of Russian timelessness. Let us seek enlightenment and encouragement in the Word of God, which reveals human destinies, and in them, comprehension of our own destiny. It shows us the image of a people chosen by God himself to serve the cause of the incarnation of God, to show the world the supreme holiness of the Mother of God, to give human flesh to the God-man himself. The people of God were entrusted with the scriptures - the Law and the Prophets. God Himself revealed himself to him on the top of Sinai and led him in the desert in a pillar of fire. He was given all the fullness of knowledge of God and communication with God, which was only available to the Old Testament; in it the heights of his holiness were reached from Moses to the Baptist John. And at the same time, what is this image of the chosen people in their stiff-neckedness, in their worship of the golden calf at the very foot of Sinai, in their deadening ritual belief and incessant falls and apostasy? The books of the prophets are filled with accusations of all this. But this infidelity corresponded to all the vicissitudes of his external destinies, as they are depicted in the Bible and they are revealed in the annals of mankind, even to this day. And yet, despite all this and in spite of everything, the people of God fulfilled their calling, revealed Christ to the world, and God’s election remained irrevocable even after his betrayal of Christ, according to the testimony of the great apostle of the tongues Paul, who himself, being “a Jew of the Jews” (Phil. 3:5), turned to preaching among the tongues that were not chosen, but called to Christ. For, according to his prophetic clairvoyance, even in the fallen people there is preserved a “sacred remnant” that will be “saved,” and this salvation is expected by the world to complete the universal accomplishment of the work of God in it. And every people, called by God to its work in the world, conceals within itself a certain sacred remnant, in which and for the sake of which it is called into existence, as its flesh. And at all times of their existence, the Russian people know it within themselves, called to a great spiritual accomplishment, to the revelation of Holy Russia, without which the Church does not yet show the world the fullness of its gifts. The workers of Christ learned about this election of God and told their brothers, each in their own way, on the paths of spiritual holiness, creative achievement, and prophetic inspiration. And do we still need a new ID? And yet, even in the face of the sorrowful present, we have evidence of God’s vision that the Lord did not abandon his people. Such are his great sufferings, which do not allow him to build his life on a lie and to calm down in it, especially the incessant martyrdom endured by Christians from the enemies of the cross of Christ, together with the persecution of the Christian faith, unprecedented in duration and cruelty. The sign of the cross, “by this victory,” shines over the Russian Church. We are shocked by the great number of those who have fallen away from the Church in persecution and spiritually suffocated before their birth, and the Christian martyrs and confessors, whose names are written in heaven, are inconspicuous in the humility and quietness of their feat of faith. How great is the feat and high is the destiny of this sacred remnant of the elect, who endure to the end and thereby are saved. Let each of us resurrect within ourselves these bright images, known to everyone, in their gentle radiance. The Lord Himself knows the times and timing for the manifestation of His power. Was it not He who answered the prophet Elijah of old, who was jealous and grieved in the face of the falling away from the faith of the sons of Israel: “I have left among the Israelites those whose knees did not bow to Baal and whose lips did not kiss him” (1 Kings 19:18). In the same way now the Lord responds to our impatient lack of faith. May our spiritual loyalty to Holy Rus', our homeland, remain. She feeds on our love. But from love faith is born and affirmed, and faith shines into the future with hope, with prophetic clairvoyance of future destinies. “Faith is the revelation of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable,” according to the word of the apostle (Rom. 11:29), but they require fidelity from those who are called. Amen. Ascension of the Mother of God: On the eve of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Feast of the Assumption is the Mother of God Easter, and its devotees should greet each other on the days of its celebration with a mutual Easter greeting: “The Most Pure One is Risen! “Truly he is risen!” She was resurrected, resurrected by her Son by the power of the Holy Spirit hypostatically resting on her, and was ascended to heaven, where she remains at the right hand of her Son. Pious contemplation, amazed at this image of the glorification of the Mother of God, naturally presents itself with the question: what does her ascent to heaven represent? According to church tradition, the tomb of the Most Holy Theotokos, opened at the request of the ap. Thomas, no longer contained her body, resurrected and ascended to heaven. “The coffin and its killing cannot be withheld.” And the appearance of the Most Holy Mother of God in heaven, surrounded by angels, according to the same legend, on the same third day after her burial, is evidence of her heavenly ascension. The Queen of Heaven resides in heaven, although she “has not left the world.” What is this sky like where she resides? Is it an angelic heaven, where the holy angels dwell? No, for it is higher than the angelic heaven, like the abode of her who is “the most honorable cherub and the most glorious without comparison seraphim.” Is it a heavenly heaven where the souls of saints dwell in anticipation of their resurrection? Also no! For the Most Pure One has already passed the time of bodily resurrection and now remains in heaven in her glorified body. Is this the heaven of heavens above all creation, in which the Trinitarian God dwells, existing in the Holy Trinity, and in which her Son sits at the right hand of the Father after his ascension? And also no, for, although the holiest of all creation, it is still a creation of God, which has no place in the abodes of all the Creator. But where is her heaven, her place of glory? This place - as far as it is appropriate to talk about “place” here (of course, in a conditional sense), is defined in earthly, human language as “sitting at the right hand of the Father.” The God-man took into his hands her most pure soul from her deathbed, so that, having resurrected her bodily, he would lift her up with him into heaven, until she could be ascended as His Mother, who gave Him her human nature, “who shed for Him the scarlet robe from her most pure blood.” And where the Son is, there is His Mother. “To you, according to the Lord Bose, we confess the Lady Theotokos, the true Mother of God” (prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos, priestly prayer book). “There is no other highest for me on earth and in heaven, like you according to my Lord God Jesus Christ” (ibid.). “Seated at the right hand of the Son” means the union of the Mother of God with the Son in His glorified human nature, assumed by Him in His incarnation. The Ascended Lord, the God-Man, entered the bowels of the Holy Trinity and sat down at the right hand of the Father as God, “the only one of the Holy Trinity,” having completely deified his human nature. The God-man could raise his humanity into the divine life as glorified, but also completely spiritual, free from the flesh. The human body itself, carnal and created, remains, as it were, beyond the bounds of God’s heavenly sky. This does not mean that the Lord disembodied, as if taking off the clothing of His flesh; on the contrary, this clothing of His humanity unites Him with creation, as “he who came down from heaven and became incarnate.” However, He remains in heaven after His ascension not in the flesh itself, but by the power of incarnation, in this sense a spiritual body, and not a physical one. At the same time, He is turned to the world and united with it by the human corporeality of His incarnation. The Lord thus resides above the world and above it, however, maintaining his connection with the world, which is realized in the divine Eucharist. The Lord offers himself in communion to partake of His earthly, fleshly body and blood in His holy mysteries. This is His completely deified and glorified body, which in the life of resurrection will be communicated to all human flesh: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). But even now, in her resurrection and ascension, the Most Pure One has already shone forth as “the Woman clothed with the sun,” in the glory of the already glorified humanity of her Son. She anticipates in her humanity all the glory of the future century, like the glory of the Transfiguration of the Lord, in which He now dwells in heaven. Therefore, the honest Dormition is also that transfiguration of her in glory, which she was not given to see in its anticipation on Mount Tabor. This is what her sitting at the right hand of the Son signifies. It is her entry into the glory of His humanity, as far as it relates to His humanity. The Mother of God gave her Son human nature, her body and blood, but the Son returns him to her glorified by divine glory and power, completely deified, so that the Son and Mother already become one in this deification, with the absence of any barrier between them. And the connecting force of deification is the Holy Spirit, resting hypostatically not only on the Son, but also on His Mother, the Spirit-Bearer. The Holy Spirit is the Glory of God, uniting the Father and the Son, and also adopting to the Father the divine daughter, the Mother and the unmarried Bride of the Son. Therefore, the celebration of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos in its entirety, as including the resurrection, ascension and glorification of the Most Pure One, is also a deliberate feast of the Holy Spirit, His descent into creation and the fullness of His acceptance by the world in the person of the Mother of God. This feast of the Holy Spirit, destined to be revealed in its fullness in the future century, now remains hidden, as if under the cover of some sacred mystery. The Mother of God in her heavenly glory is not only the glorified creation in heaven, but also Christ’s humanity on earth, His Eucharistic body and blood. As the only one of the Holy Trinity, the Lord, ascended, is removed from the created world in His Divinity. But in His humanity, which is more motherly than God, He remains united with the world, abiding in it, “always, now and ever and unto ages of ages.” At the Last Supper, before his passion and resurrection, although in anticipation of them, He communed with his disciples with his earthly, human body, taken from the world and united with it, like bread and wine. And this was the humanity of the Mother of God (although she was not directly present at the Last Supper). Likewise, now the Body and Blood of Christ, into which bread and wine are given, is the glorified humanity of the Mother of God, and it is also the humanity of the Son. The Son and Mother in the Divine Eucharist constitute a kind of dual unity, as an abiding connection of the birth of God. It is not for nothing that the “memory” of the Eucharist includes the entire earthly life of the Savior from the Nativity (of course, presuming as its predecessor the entire earthly life of the Mother of God with the Annunciation inclusive) to the glorification of the Mother of God in her honest Assumption. And the thought that the Church conceals when it teaches us to pray for the gift of St. communion not only of the Communicator himself, but also of His Mother, as he also calls for thanksgiving to her for accepting this gift. “For your sake the Lord of hosts was with us, and through you we knew the Son of God and became worthy of His holy Body and His most pure Blood” (prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos). “I thank you, for you have made me worthy, an unworthy partaker, of the most pure Body and the honorable Blood of your Son” (prayer of thanksgiving after holy communion). This means that, by partaking of the Body and Blood of the Son, we commune them from His Mother in her heavenly glory, which is the glory of her honest Dormition. At the Dormition you did not forsake the world to the Mother of God... the Church testifies to the Most Pure One. How can we understand this assurance dogmatically? And first of all: what happens at death to every human being, how does his relationship to the world change and be redefined? Is death a departure from the world, its abandonment? You can answer this question: yes and no. A dying person leaves the world in the sense that life in the body, in all its fullness, ceases for him. But where he goes, the afterlife, still does not take the dying person out of the world in its creatureliness; he belongs to this world, although only in a damaged, decorporalized, only soul-spiritual way of being. However, this, as it were, disincarnation is not a departure from the world with its life and entry into a premium, heavenly region. The afterlife, differing in its state (hell and heaven), still remains a created life in the world, and this is most clearly confirmed by the temporary nature of this state. The fullness of the return to life is carried out together with the bodily resurrection, which is to come for all the dead on the day and hour determined by God. And the resurrection of the dead, although it is also a general transformation - not only of our bodies - but also of the entire visible world, is precisely the complete and final rooting in the life of this world, in which the risen Lord dwells with us forever after his second glorious and terrible coming. Nevertheless, the afterlife state, with all the deterioration of life in it, is also a way out of the world due to non-participation in its visible life, and in this sense it can be considered a abandonment of the world (not in the metaphysical, but only in the natural, empirical). This was even the death of the Lord, like the state of mortal sleep: “Sleeping in the flesh as if dead.” His stay in the tomb, of course, is not limited to mortal peace, due to the complexity and dual nature of His divine-human nature. On the one hand, it is being separated from the body: “In the grave carnally, in hell with the soul like God, in paradise with the thief” - all this is still in the world, albeit the afterlife. However, on the other hand, it is said that “you were ever present on the throne,” i.e. in the supremely divine existence, in the Holy Trinity, as “the One of the Holy Trinity.” Such duality, corresponding to the duality of natures in Christ, divine and human, is characteristic only of the God-Man, who dwells in the world as a man, and as God, above the world and above it. This is unusual even for the Mother of God, who is entirely human and in this sense completely belongs to the created world, in life and death. And therefore, the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos is not and cannot even be “the leaving of the world” in the exact sense after her death, since death does not take created being beyond the boundaries of the world, but only limits its limits and possibilities. It makes him temporarily, as it were, extra-worldly, but not super-worldly. And in this sense, the Dormition of the Mother of God is no different from any death of a person. However, the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, unlike any human death, is the non-abandonment of the world in a special and only sense, namely that “her grave and death cannot be withheld.” She rose from the dead, being resurrected by her Son and ascended by Him, ascending “from earth to heaven.” The Ascension of the Mother of God was not the abandonment of the world as a region of created existence for divine life, but only communion with it in the fullness of deification. However, the deified creature still remains a creature belonging to the world. But the state of the resurrection and ascension of the Mother of God in her glorification makes her inaccessible and super-peaceful to the world, as if she were removed from the world and completely absent from it. Thus, she belongs to the world, remaining above it in her condition. But this height and glorification of her does not negate her essential unity with the world, of which she represents the pinnacle. Therefore, she retains for herself all the earthly garments of her creaturely existence. The gates of death, through which she “left the world,” did not close for her, and death does not have its conquering power for her: “like the Mother of the Belly, you appeared to the Belly.” And, therefore, she belongs to the world, being above it in her super-worldly state, as the queen of all creation. Can she separate herself from the world, withdrawing from it in her super-worldliness, for which the opportunity is given by the very power of her glorification? This present possibility here is excluded in advance by the nature of the one to whom this heavenly glory is given. This property is entirely and inseparably inherent in the Mother of God; it is her love. She loves everyone in her Son, who unites in herself the fullness of everything in everyone, and she loves everyone in her all-human being, like a mother, uniting them in her heart and in her nature. There is no one and nothing that remains alien to this love, even if this being itself does not open up to it in return. All the same, Mother of God’s love embraces everyone and knocks with a gentle call on the door of every heart. This idea is figuratively expressed in a story from the life of St. Andrey. The heavens were opened to him, in which, however, the Mother of God, who was always present in them, was absent, for she descended to earth to her people. Being in heaven - therefore, above the world - she lives in the world and with the world, in maternal care for it, truly as the soul of this world and its heart. This is where another consequence comes from. Being in heavenly glory and blissful unity with her Son, but also remaining in unity with the world, the Mother of God tastes the highest heavenly bliss, which, however, dissolves with the sorrow and suffering of this world. Her heart is pierced by a sword even now, and she cries for peace and with the world, as was told to the same blessed Andrew in the vision of her Veil spread over the world. She lives with us, and this closeness of hers to the world, humanity and nature, to each of us, constitutes a certain secret of revelation about the Mother of God who exists in the world. This presence of the Mother of God, who drinks with us all the bitterness of the cup of life, must be accepted in the most literal sense, as the Church teaches in expressive images, in order to inculcate this thought in us all the more deeply in all its power and truth. On the deathbed, as in illness, on the battlefield and over the raging abyss of waters, in the joy and sorrow that life consists of, it is always with us, merciful and saving, inspiring and joyful. She is the joy of joy, the spirit-bearer, for joy is the Holy Spirit himself, who reveals himself to us in her. This mystery of the co-existence of the Most Pure One in the world and above the world applies not only to the Mother, but also to the Son, who from us “ascended in glory” and, however, remains in the world with the suffering person, crucified with him, and in the co-crucifixion of His cross is the Mother of God. This is the almost inconceivable mystery of the co-crucifixion of both of them to the crucifying world, and, moreover, until the end of the age. There is no opposition here, earlier or later, before or after, before glorification in the Ascension or after it, there is the mysterious and the saving together: in the unfading glory of heaven and earthly suffering... The mystery of the Mother of God is most naturally revealed in silence, if you only want to listen to it. If the Lord reveals about himself alone that He hungers in the hungry and thirsts in the thirsty, has compassion for all human suffering, does this mean that His Mother remains indifferent, abides in her heavenly glory, far from the world in her height? Or does she, “unceasing in prayer,” turn to the Son even before He is moved to his miraculous help with the intercession: “they have no wine,” the wine of life with its cheerfulness, joy, inspiration, but they have sorrow, they are crucified?.. While the Mother of Jesus remained on earth, her love was, as it were, limited to earthly flesh, just as Jesus on earth limited his service only to those who met Him on His path. But all boundaries have already been removed with His ascension into heaven and in His universal ministry, for which “all power in heaven and on earth was given to Him.” And this same universality of service, albeit in its own way - in the image inherent in the Mother - is now given to her, in her honest Assumption, in which she is called together with the Son to the wedding feast of humanity, to the Easter of Christ, in her Assumption, the Easter of the Theotokos. On the day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary is accompanied by a special rite of her burial, which is now celebrated in our church. This rite corresponds in the content of the celebration to the union of the Dormition of the Mother of God (as the departure from this world) and her ascension into heaven to the divine Son. Mother and Son, Groom and Bride are now united in their heavenly glory, and this union is expressed in the very plan and structure of the succession. Quite clearly and deliberately, it is built in the likeness of the burial service of the Savior, and its hymns are changed only in relation to the Mother of God, so that we are present, as it were, at the Matins of the Theotokos on Holy Saturday. This similarity gives special beauty and solemnity to the burial rite of the Mother of God, its chants and sacred texts, with the inclusion of three funeral articles with the verse of Psalm 118 and the solemn procession with the shroud of the Mother of God around the church. But greater and more significant than these liturgical beauties of the rite of burial of the Mother of God is its doctrinal content, in which the Church confesses the dogmatic truths relating to the Mother of God and her honest Dormition. The main of these truths relates to her glorification, for the Dormition of the Mother of God is also her heavenly glory. The Church expounds this teaching in restrained and brief images, and this rite is one of the most important dogmatic sources for it. The Dormition of the Mother of God is, after her three-day stay in the tomb, a glorious resurrection and sitting at the right hand of the Son. Therefore we sing now: “To the divine palace, the Groom calls you, the bride of God, Bride of God!” “To the throne of God, where the light of the Trinity is terrible and unapproachable, you reached and rested, O Virgin, truly.” “Your pure body, O Virgin, did not see corruption in the tomb, but you passed with your body from earth to heaven.” “The God of glory, your pure Son, receives you with glory like a mother and places you at your right hand.” “Clothed and adorned with grace, now you appear to God as the queen and Mother of God.” “O joy unspeakable, oh honor immeasurable, Miriam reigns with Jesus her Son in heaven and on earth.” In such words the Church testifies to the resurrection and ascension to heaven of the Most Holy Theotokos. This does not mean that she entered the Holy Trinity with her Son, but, as “who deified the nature of mortals,” she remains spiritually and physically in close proximity to her Son, above all creation. She is buried with Him: (“God is buried and the Mother of God; God is in the dark and the Mother of God”), and with Him she is resurrected bodily, and with Him she “reigns in heaven and on earth.” Therefore, her honest Dormition is praised by all creation - angels and men. And now we, unworthy, follow her coffin in her heavenly ascent. Queen of heaven and earth. You did not leave the world in the Dormition. You see in what sorrow the world performs your honorable burial. You yourself know what awaits him tomorrow. We now bring to the bright joy of your grave all the sorrow and darkness that surrounds us. Be with us now, queen of heaven and earth, our merciful Mother. We bless you all, O Ever-Virgin Mother of God, and glorify your Dormition! This sermon was written in a women's monastery in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, where, resting after a serious throat operation, Fr. Sergius performed his first liturgy after his illness on the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God. This is how he himself speaks about this in one of his private letters: “...On the day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Mother of God released me from penance. At the invitation of my dear Father Euthymius, who had been thinking about this since my arrival, I celebrated the Divine Liturgy with him that day. Of course, he ruled the entire deacon part and a significant part of the priestly part - I have neither the voice nor the breath for this (and, apparently, I won’t), but I pronounced all the Eucharistic exclamations, performed the sacrament and gave communion to everyone. Such was my bliss!”... Homily on the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary In Your glorious Assumption the heavens rejoice, and the angels rejoice armies, but all the earth rejoices. The Dormition of the Mother of God for humanity is her death, which for anyone who dies is the sorrowful separation of soul and body. But she did not know sorrow at the hour of her death. She had already previously accepted this mortal sorrow together with her Son, dying with Him at the cross. She was overcome and defeated in the light of His resurrection, when she saw the Risen One in His glory. Therefore, when He left this world, ascending from earth to heaven, she also did not experience sorrow, for she knew that this was His heavenly glorification. She lived through earthly sorrow until death, along with her own life. She remained on earth no longer for herself, but for the Church, for which she was a bright joy and spiritual focus. When the hour of her separation from the world came, the universal decree of God had to be fulfilled over her: “You are earth and you will go back to earth,” and she gave up her spirit into the bosom of her Son. She “resigned herself to the belly of the mother of the belly,” and her Dormition was a real triumph of life in the Holy Spirit for the spirit-bearer. Her most pure body, which bore within itself the Savior of the world, did not know incorruption. She rose from the dead by the power of Christ's resurrection and ascended into heaven by the power of His ascension. “The angels saw the Dormition of the Most Pure One and were amazed at how the Virgin ascended from earth to heaven.” Therefore, we celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God as the Pascha of the Theotokos. However, is it appropriate for us humans to rejoice over this separation from the Mother of God at her dormition? Do we rejoice when we lose our loved ones and our mother in death? Or can there be no greater sorrow for us than this separation? And therefore, doesn’t it involuntarily occur to us how much more joyful the earth and this world were when the Most Pure One lived in it? Therefore, wasn’t it more natural for her to stay with us on earth forever? But by asking this way, we ourselves do not understand what we want and what we are asking for. The Dormition of the Mother of God was a work of her love for us that was beneficial to the world. In him, she wanted not to be separated from all human nature, which she gave to her Divine Son. Having become the Mother of God, she remained truly a person for whom death is the law of life, the inevitable fate of original sin. However, death was defeated in her dormition, for in it she was resurrected by the power of the resurrection of her Son. In her face she foreshadows the entire human race, which she brings together in its general resurrection. This resurrection was for her an ascension into heaven in divine and “godly” glory, and it was as saving for humanity as her stay on earth was saving. It is a continuation of her work. In him and after him, she remains in no less, and even greater, proximity to him than she was here on earth. Now she is the Mother of all humanity, always and everywhere and forever and ever. “When you fell asleep, you did not forsake the world, O Mother of God,” the Church sings, and we must understand this truth of revelation. The Most Pure One, being in heaven as “the most honorable cherub and the most glorious without comparison seraphim,” is still not separated from our created world. Her Son, ascended into the premium heaven and sitting at the right hand of the Father, is above the world, but the Most Pure Mother of God belongs to him, residing on its highest side, like a completely deified creation, “a ladder to heaven.” She lives in peace and with the world, and that is his great joy. And this special closeness of hers is known and felt for us, and, above all, prayerfully. She is for us “unceasing prayers and immutable hope in intercessions.” She mercifully makes her closeness to people feel in her miraculous icons and in her appearances, which mortals are honored with. And this connection between her and the world in her Dormition and her non-abandonment is a kind of silent, mysterious, but unshakable dogma of her church veneration. However, even this is not enough to express the fullness of our hope for her. For we not only have a sense of her closeness to the world, but we cannot help but hope for a personal meeting with her in this world, which she truly did not leave. When we are separated from a creature that is close and beloved to us, then what other thought most excites our heart, fills it with sweet charm, if not the hope of meeting him again? And we, however, lose it when the line of death passes between us, cutting off this hope. But the Dormition of the Mother of God is not a mortal separation from her; in it she did not leave the world. The Lord, leaving the world in His ascension, promised to come again to it “in the same way as we saw Him ascending into heaven” (Acts 1:11) in His second and glorious coming. And as if as a guarantee of this promise, He taught Christians to look forward to this meeting prayerfully. They are taught by the Church to prayerfully call upon His saving help for us in the Jesus Prayer, to seek mysterious communion with Him in the communion of His Body and Blood. But we have been given the hope of a new meeting with Him, to carry in our hearts a call, longing, hope; we have been given a prayerful invocation, which is the first and last, first Christian and all Christian prayer: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). But don’t we have a similar hope about the meeting of the Most Holy Theotokos, her new coming into the world and her return to us? And above all, this meeting awaits us, as far as we deserve it, at the hour of death, beyond the boundaries of earthly life. She passed through the gates of death in her honest dormition, and, we believe, those who ascend upward on this path meet her there. Therefore, the Dormition of the Mother of God becomes especially close to us through the revelation of death, our relatives, as - we believe - our own, awaiting us. We also believe that the Most Holy Theotokos, who does not leave us in her Dormition, is close to the afterlife. She leads him and educates him together with the holy angels, motherly love and care for the coming resurrection, with her help souls grow to the measure of perfect age, ripen for the resurrection. But now, doesn’t it sometimes seem to us, in our lack of faith, that the Mother of God has abandoned the world in these times of terrible trials, when humanity, like beasts, is bleeding to death? However, it is now that her approach to him becomes more noticeable, the way is being prepared for her descent into the world, a new coming into it. We must believe and confess that the Mother of God, through her Dormition, is approaching the future meeting with him. The Lord comes into the world at His Second Coming not alone, but with all the angels and saints, but the Most Pure One comes at the head of this heavenly descent. We must carry the hope of this wedding hour of the Bride and Mother of Christ in our hearts. And if we always pray to her: Most Holy Theotokos, save us, then in a reverent whisper we now add this Easter prayer of her honest Dormition: Hey, come, Most Holy Theotokos! Amen. The Baptist and Herodias: Reflections on the Day of the Beheading of the Head of the Forerunner The Church experiences the memory of the beheading of the head of the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John as joyful sorrow, the triumph of the martyrdom of the greatest prophet: “Having suffered for the truth, rejoicing” (troparion to the Forerunner). What greater triumph could there be for a prophet than mortal suffering for the truth? What other glory is there for the Forerunner than to appear as the Forerunner in martyrdom, in anticipation of sharing in the suffering of the Lamb of God, which he preached? A natural death would be an unnatural humiliation for the Forerunner of the Lord, who accomplished his work on earth, and the truth should have demonstrated its power by victory over death, thereby exposing the powerlessness of evil. That is why the hearts of believers are filled with triumph on this day, and the scarlet drop of blood on the cold blade of the sword shines like an Easter ruby. But all this is at the thought of him. And at the thought of us, of that world that could not tolerate the greatest of the prophets in its midst without destroying him? – A cold blade pierces a heart full of shame and sadness. Is it able to accommodate this triumph of the prophet over death, or is it running from this thought, afraid to dwell on it? But in order to have a part in this triumph, one must embrace and experience all the horror of this death, its cruel incomprehensibility and apparent meaninglessness. How did it happen, this criminal and base murder in the darkness of a dungeon? Who was beheaded by the sword of the “speculator”? This is the one whose coming into the world was foretold for centuries by the prophet, and whose coming Christmas was announced at the altar by the Archangel Gabriel, the minister of the Annunciation, and what happened filled the hearts of Israel with trembling. The great prophet arose with a sermon of repentance and a call to baptism, and to this call, together with the people, Christ approached, confessed by him as the Lamb of God. It was He himself who testified about the Baptist as the greatest of people born of a woman - then, when this greatest languished in Herod's prison, forgotten and abandoned by everyone - but not by the hatred of Herodias. The warrior she sent cut off the head of the Forerunner and brought it to the palace on a platter, amid a drunken feast. And the earth did not shake, and hearts did not tremble when this unknown death took place, and only the disciples buried his body. These are the beginning and the end, in which the luminous appearance of an angel merges with the black shadow of the bloodthirsty Herodias... Why this thirst for the blood of the Forerunner, what is its direct reason? - Not from the keepers of the Old Testament law, and not for preaching repentance, and not for testifying about the Lamb of God, - John was killed not for his service as Baptist, prophet and Forerunner. Of course, the prophetic inexorability in denouncing lawbreakers, the truth that does not bend before the powerful of the world, incurred the wrath of Herodias and ignited a vengeful feeling in her. However, how random and even insignificant in comparison with the real work and ministry of the Forerunner is this clash, and what a discrepancy with the greatness of John in this vindictiveness caused by the family troubles of the regional king! Was it possible for the wretched soul of Herodias to comprehend the true greatness of the one whom she decided to eliminate, all the uniqueness of the service of the greatest of people? Herod, who in his own way revered John, had a distant and vague idea of ​​this greatness, but not his enraged concubine, who appeared as an instrument of Satan, to a certain extent like a stone falling on the head of a passerby and causing his death. Did those rude soldiers who crucified Christ (probably among many others who were crucified) realize what they were doing and whom they were crucifying, or did they “not know what they were doing”? Isn’t it therefore fate for them, as if by a random lot, that it was they, and not anyone else, who were the performers of the most terrible, but also the most saving deed for the world? And these victims of their ignorance, if they bear the weight of this sin, it is no longer as their own, but as all-human, or even universal. Herodias, with her malice, her vengeful will, is more sinful than these warriors, just as she is more sinful than her daughter and the warrior who was destined to directly carry out this execution. But in all the guilt of the prophetic murder, her dark consciousness is guilty only to the extent that she was really able to accommodate. According to human understanding, the very meeting with the Forerunner and the fatal collision with him is also like fate and a terrible test for her, for how many base, ambitious and cruel in their vindictiveness Herodiads pass through the world without encountering such a temptation on their way! “According to the highest understanding, such a meeting is a mystery of God’s vision, and together - a mystery about the human soul and its destiny. The evil deed of Herodias, being her personal sin, and therefore her personal fate, thereby expands into a universal sin in which all fallen humanity is involved - if not in deed, then in thought, feeling, tolerance, cowardice, indifference. No one wanted John to die, but everyone allowed it. Who was guilty of the crucifixion of Christ: only the warrior-crucifixors, or the seduced people with cries of “Crucify Him!”, or the keepers of the law in the “Seat of Moses”, with legalistic narrowness of heart and slavery of the spirit, or, finally, all those who were contemporaries of Christ and therefore could have been direct or indirect participants in the Calvary accomplishment? Or are all people co-crucifiers of Christ - through their coldness, sinfulness, selfishness, and hardness of heart? We consider ourselves free from guilt not only when we overcome temptation, but also when we are not personally exposed to it and, at most, are “outside spectators” and condoners of evil. However, God sees the secret of hearts and judges not by the external, but by the internal. The sin of the world seems to choose special carriers for itself, making them its victims, and they, terrifying us with themselves, force us to forget about universal sin and responsibility, as if focusing the latter on themselves. The world could not bear the holiness of the Forerunner, just as it could not contain the One Sinless One, and it sought to throw them out of itself one way or another. And if this internal inevitability finds personal executors, then is it appropriate to place all the blame for this matter on them, and deny ourselves not only from them, but also from our share of participation in this guilt, from our responsibility? If human life were exhausted by this visible temporality, then there would be no mystery, and the murder of the greatest of those born of a woman, the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John, at the evil whim of an empty and depraved queen, would be a hopeless sadness, losing that highest expediency, the name of which is the Providence of God. And at the same time, all of life, in which the most valuable and sacred is helplessly destroyed by baseness and insignificance, would become a meaningless play for Satan. What else can be said about the world and life if we consider them only from time, in the face of the death on the cross of the Sufferer, betrayed, abandoned, tormented and dying in the agony of the cross with the cry: “My God, my God, have you forsaken me?” Isn’t the whole world darkening in this abandonment of God, and isn’t the final, ultimate victory of evil taking place? But we know what is happening outside of this visible world, for in the darkness of Golgotha ​​we see the light of the Resurrection. And we also know that in the death of the Forerunner not only the victory of truth over lies occurs, but also his new ministry is revealed. The Church lifts the edge of the veil over the mystery of this death: “thou preached the good news to those in hell of God manifested in the flesh.” For this purpose he preached the gospel and needed this death caused by the malice of Herodias. The Forerunner's preaching in hell prepares for the appearance and preaching of Christ Himself beyond the grave. We do not even yet comprehend the entire dogmatic content of this thought, clothed in the language of symbols, but the soul trembles at its significance, for it offers hope for the salvation of pre-Christian and non-Christian humanity. There it is impossible not to recognize Christ, just as the crucifiers did not recognize Him, not knowing what they were doing, and as if drawn by an unknown fate: “They will look upon His blood” (Zechariah 12:10). There, beyond the brink of death, Herodias awaits a new meeting with her victim, when for the first time she comprehends what she did, who she beheaded, and is horrified by what she did - as well as by her fate, which sent her this meeting in life, burdened her weak soul with such an atrocity. But then, when, in the horror of late repentance, she recognizes her victim, she will thereby enter into her heart with a sharp sting of love, repentant and already forgiven in this repentance, or, on the contrary, knowing, she will become hardened in final anger, accepting full responsibility for the murder she has committed and is now, as it were, committing again. The veil will fall, and the secret of the heart will be revealed along with the secret of fate - that highest expediency, now unknown to us, which desired this meeting on the paths of life of the Baptist and Herodias. Word for the fifteenth week* Drawing your mind and heart to the words of the Lord, imprinted in His St. In the Gospels, we find in them, in the source of Divine Wisdom, inexhaustible and always newly revealed content and teaching. In them, as in the deep blue of the sky, new stars, kindled by the Divine Thought, light up for us and illuminate our life, path, and destiny before us. “The words of the Lord are pure words, silver is kindled, tempted from the earth, purified by the sevenfold” (Ps. 11:7). Each word of the Lord is fraught with immeasurable meaning, radiating in all directions, and individual rays of this meaning illuminate our soul. One cannot sufficiently interpret or exhaust the Eternal Book, but one can and must always fall to its life-giving waters. Such stars of eternal life, visible to the naked eye, burn and sparkle in the present Gospel: (Matthew 22:35–40). The lawyer wanted to tempt the Lord with a question about the greatest commandment in the law. His thought was double-minded and insincere: he thought in advance that no matter how the Lord answered him, he would object to Him and argue with Him, but this means that he himself did not know such a greatest commandment, and could not know it, because to him, a lawyer, all commandments seemed equally important and greatest. Violation of the law in any commandment was considered equally disastrous. And the law of Moses contained ritual, moral, and social decrees, and to them the lawyers created a fence of the law, about which the indignant prophet speaks: “They became the word of the Lord: commandment upon commandment, commandment upon commandment, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little” (Is. 27:10, 13). The lawyer who tempted Him wanted to draw the Lord onto this shaky ground by questioning Him. With His answer, the Lord overthrew this pathetic device. To the question posed by human cunning, the Wisdom of God answered the question, the word of wisdom, which exhausts all the commandments and determines the whole life of a person. Whom did the lawyer want to tempt? The One whose Word and Wisdom gave this very law and the commandments for the filial education of the chosen people - “in the law of the shadow and the scriptures we see the image of faithfulness.” And in this law, among its many and varied prescriptions, Divine Wisdom also included that commandment, which is not one of many commandments, along with all, but is the one and only all-commandment, which embraces, fills, and justifies everything. And this one commandment, although written in the law, but also, as it were, hidden among its many commandments, is indicated by the finger of Divine Wisdom Herself. This “first and greatest commandment” in combination with the “second similar to it” is such that without it all other commandments lose their meaning and become burdensome and unnecessary, as the prophet Isaiah testified to this in his sermon: “Why do I need your multitude of sacrifices?.. smoking is disgusting for me, new moons and Saturdays, holiday gatherings I cannot tolerate: lawlessness and celebration... and when you stretch out your hands, I close my eyes from you; and when you multiply your prayers, I do not hear” (Is. 1:11-15). But all these institutions were given by God, they seemed as sacred and indestructible as our current worship. And yet the Lord counted all this ritual piety into nothing for the hardness of the heart. And then our Christian conscience involuntarily and confusedly begins to ask itself: could these words also apply to us, proud, perhaps, of our ritual piety? And the more intently she wants to delve into what the Lord Himself reveals as the immutable foundation of all our salvation. This commandment is simple, clear and accessible, it contains in a nutshell the whole law and all the wisdom of life, invested in us by the creative Wisdom of God: love God, love with all your being: “with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Love God whole and inseparably, with all the strength of your soul: with your heart, in which there is the focus of an undivided spiritual life and from which good and evil thoughts emanate, and with all the feelings of passionate human nature, which can be dedicated to God and transformed from carnal lust to spiritual life; and with all the thought, with all the powers of the knowing, understanding mind, which, stripped of satanic self-deception, becomes the “mind of Christ”, enlightened by the Holy Spirit “into all truth”; and with all the strength of one’s will, which is directed not towards self-affirmation of pride and not towards fulfilling one’s lust, but towards fulfilling the will of God. No power of the human soul is separated from the love of God, and none is condemned to non-existence by this detachment, and none is killed: all God-created human nature with all the powers of the God-like spirit is called to the love of God and is blessed to it in the inseparability of the human being. And the whole life of a person, in which these gifts of his are revealed: the mind, passionate nature and will, which dominates the human heart, the seat of love, are called to the love of God. In all his life, deeds and creativity, a person must seek the love of God, create and live in the name of God, not for himself, but for the Lord. His whole life can and should become a single work of this love, no matter what it is revealed in: everything for the Lord, nothing without the Lord. Love for God is not one of the deeds or one of the tasks of a person, existing along with others, it is one single content of all life, capable of filling it all, comprehending it, sanctifying it. Everything is established on it, and nothing exists outside of it. Dedication and sanctification of all human life in all its manifestations, doing everything for the glory of God, or, even more sharply, everything for God and nothing for oneself, in one’s own name - this is this commandment, not particular, but universal, not temporary, but eternal. But this commandment fills us with confusion and fear, and we are unresponsible before it, for we know all our weakness, all our unworthiness, all our uncalledness to such a commandment. And yet they are called by God Himself, Who is Love and Wisdom. He put it into our hearts and into our entire being, not as an externally given law and prescription, but as an internal necessity rooted in the very nature of our God-created nature. For Himself, for His love, God created and called man, and the human soul cannot rest until it finds itself in the love of God. For her, spiritual life is love for God, and outside of this love there is no other life - but there is only death. This commandment contains everything that is sublime in man, it is truly human, as the highest calling, and no other love, no other goal is unworthy of it. Only such a truly human life in the love of God is worthy of a person, and he is honored by the calling to it by the commandment of God. And only everything that is connected in life with the love of God lifts a person from a natural animal life, even where there is service to the “unknown God” after darkening the knowledge of the true. Therefore, the commandment of love for God is not an external command that could not exist; it is the inner law of life for man, created in the image of God and called to the love of God. In it there is life and bliss, outside of it there is death and hellish torment, emptiness and insignificance. And yet, we fear the commandment of God’s love, we are embarrassed and ashamed, for we realize how it exposes our emptiness and spiritual laziness. Should we, cold, hard-hearted, calculating, and lacking in faith, heed this commandment? And yet, can we, dare we reject this commandment from ourselves? Doesn’t our heart also burn and inflame with love for the Lord when it is filled with thoughts of Him? The nature of love is such that you can never love enough, love is insatiable, it always flares up and demands more, it never fits into the human heart, it is always not enough, it is always dissatisfied with itself, it is always lost in the emptiness of its heart. The Lord honors His creation by giving man an inconceivable commandment: love God with all the strength of your soul, be holy, for our heavenly Father is holy, be merciful, for your heavenly Father is merciful, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. They seem terrible, addressed to our emptiness, they seem strange, addressed to our insignificance, they seem inappropriate in the face of our laziness and idleness. However, why should we be afraid if these commandments are given to us by our heavenly Father? God gives us an unfulfillable commandment in order to fulfill it with His gracious power, not without us, but for us. For what is impossible to man is possible to God. There is no need to be afraid of the impossibility of human forces to achieve what exceeds them, but you need to want what is possible for man. The commandment to love God does not mean that with one desire we should accomplish in ourselves, contain this inconceivable love; it wants from us the feat of this love, its labor, its path, the struggle with our sinful, lazy, passionate, selfish, proud human nature. Tireless and unslothful work, resistance to sin, vision and conduct of oneself in one’s sins, unceasing memory of God and sanctification in His name of all deeds and movements of our soul, unceasing heartfelt prayer, struggle with sinful deeds and thoughts - this is the unpaid debt of love for God. Deeds of love and the path of love indicated by St. Paul in ch. 13th 1st Cor., is our work of the Lord. Our spiritual weakness and laziness, our sinful nature resists the love of God, but this love - and a Christian must remember this - is always mutual, for he who loves or wants to love God will always recognize His reciprocal love for man. Love for God never remains unrequited and flares up with the flame of fire that the Lord came to bring to earth. Love is a miracle. But how can you love God? We can still love a person, although few, close and dear, we are attached to various goods, carnal and spiritual, because we have seen and know them. But how can we love – and with all-encompassing love – God, whom we do not see and do not know and, at best, only believe, constantly strengthening our faith in the fight against unbelief? Is it possible to love an abstract thought? And yet Truth itself knew when it proclaimed the first and greatest commandment as the exhaustive truth about life: both faith and knowledge of God are revealed to love, for both faith and hope will pass away, but love alone endures. Man is given to love God, he is called and created for this love, invested in him by God Himself along with the image of God, but he must want this love by seeking God, doing the commandments, devoting all his work and doing to God, by tirelessly and unremittingly exerting the forces of a vigilant spirit. And this love, like any love, exists in the image of a single love, only in it does it find its meaning and purpose. She is unselfish, she seeks God only for God and not even for the sake of salvation or any spiritual benefits, for love is not self-interest. And yet the nature of this love and its power are such that it contains within itself salvation, bliss, and eternal life in the knowledge of God, for this knowledge is given only by love. Love for God is a feat of life, it is work, it is a path of ascension that knows many steps. The path is endless, and each step is as far from the highest goal as the previous one, and like a drop of water differs from the immeasurable abysses of the sea. But the path is important, the stepwise ascent is important, for the divine descent is taking place towards it, and the candle, barely flickering in the heart, is lit from the flame of Divine Love. Love for God is hatred of the world, which is in evil, a fight against it in one’s own heart, a dividing sword. And yet, love is a fire pouring out from an inflamed heart to everything within its reach. Love for God, like a kind of stormy breath, rushes to that which bears His stamp, to all of God’s creation, especially to man, the crown of creation, the image of God in him. This is only the revelation of love, its direct consequence: another commandment similar to it - similar, i.e. essentially the same. It is easier and more natural for us to love a person than God, because we see a person, but we do not see God, at least in our fallen state (for our ancestors saw Him before their fall). And love for man can also be in us through love for God, if it is done for the Lord, and not with resistance to Him, because then it is only a disguised struggle against God. Love is inseparable and united, as is revealed at the Last Judgment, where the Lord attributes all good and evil deeds done to man directly to Himself. Loving God, it is impossible not to love a person with true, non-animal and non-passionate love, without loving him in God, without loving God in him. And this is an endless path, this is eternal life, here in time, destined to begin. And the Lord points out this same connection to the lawyer who tempted Him in the present beginning of the Gospel, when with a series of questions he forces us to admit that He Who is considered the son of David, but David is called, by inspiration, Lord, is God and Man (Matthew 22:41-46). And in this question lies the answer why there is such a connection between God and man and why the second commandment is similar to the first. God revealed himself to people through the incarnation of God in Christ the Savior, in whom the divine and human nature, God and Man, were inseparably and inextricably united. And loving Christ, we love in Him God in man and man in God, and this love is inseparable and unconditional, for this is also the love of God Himself - the Heavenly Father for God and together for Man, the incarnate Son of God. The Lord gives us - all together and each individually - the commandment of love, as if not noticing what we so painfully and embarrassedly notice, how unworthy we are of this commandment, how inapplicable it seems to be to the darkness and coldness of our life, to the poverty of our hearts. But the Lord, in the immensity of His love and His condescension for creation, turns His commandment precisely to us as we are, knowing and seeing us better than we ourselves. He consoles us with this call, testifying that the infinitely great exists in the infinitely small, and in a drop somehow the power of the entire ocean is present. Love of Love gives faith, hope, and joy in the Lord, the sweet fruit of hope. But since the commandment, when conceived, gives birth to sin, the Lord, with His commandment of love, shows us in all its strength our sin against love. He awakens in us a conscience of love, which judges us, but not only judges, but also corrects, and there is nothing that conscience needs most. Therefore, the Lord truly answered the lawyer’s question; He gave a single commandment that contained everything. May we be judged by the conscience of love before we appear before the judgment of Love, which will then say with the voice of Truth: go away, I do not know you. But let us be among those whom a demanding conscience has protected from self-delusion and who will humbly answer the call of Love: Lord, when did we see You suffering and love You? Visions and Revelations of the Lord: A Word for the Nineteenth Week I'll move on to visions and revelations The Lord's. I know a man in Christ which is fourteen ago years (I don’t know whether I’m in the body or whether I’m outside the body I don’t know, God knows) I was delighted before third heaven... caught up into paradise and heard words unspeakable, which to man This is what Saint and Great Paul told us about in the apostolic reading of this (19th) week. But does it sound to us, is it perceived by our inner hearing? Naturally, this story arouses in us surprise and admiration for the great apostle, the hidden man of God. However, is this a sufficient response to it, can the reciprocal movement of our soul stop there, or must it necessarily go further, but where and in what direction? Are we stuck in weakness, or are we called to strength? Do we feel fear and embarrassment, or inspiration of delight? We confess that the first movement of the soul is in us the desire to hide from what has been told to us, and, as it were, to protect ourselves from it in our lazy peace and spiritual idleness, to remain as we were. This was the first word of Simon Peter in the face of a miraculous catch of fish: “Depart from me, Lord! because I am a sinful man,” for horror seized him and all those who were with him from this fishing” (Luke 5:8-9). His first movement was to defend himself from the sign of calling (Luke 5:10-11) and not to follow Christ for a new catch - not of fish anymore, but of men. Such are we all in our human weakness, and the Apostle Paul testifies to this about himself: “I do not boast in myself, except in my weaknesses,” although the power of God is perfected in them, and the power of Christ dwells in them. And the apostle contrasts this weak man in himself with this chosen one of God ascended to heaven. The Apostle in himself contemplates the works of God with amazement and, moreover, calls us, to whom he told about them. Why and why he told - not only about the labors and illnesses of his apostles, but also about this secret secret of his, and not only to the Corinthians, but through them to all of us. Is it just to shock our imagination with the greatness of his chosenness, to confuse us, or to call us to follow himself, and not only in weakness, but also in power? However, don’t such words about the wondrous deeds of God sound crazy when applied to our wretchedness, which we know in ourselves? Yes, this is madness for a person in weakness, but in it the power of God is perfected, before which the power of man always and invariably faints and is exhausted: whether Paul, Apollos or Cephas (1 Cor. 1:12), “for the foolish things of God are wiser than men, and the weak things of God are stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25). Will we measure ourselves by the measure of the great apostle, and our contacts with the other world by his visions and revelations, which we cannot comprehend and do not even dare to approach? It won't happen! However, in all our smallness, is it not given to us the knowledge of the Divine, which is called grace, a gift of grace. And aren’t these touches of the Divine also inexpressible verbs for us, “caught up into the third heaven and paradise,” when we bow the knee spiritually and open the sanctuary of the heart? For heaven is open to us by Christ and unspeakable words sound in His Church - if you have ears to hear, let him hear! And in the Church the rapture into paradise and the third heaven takes place - come and see. Are the holy sacraments not performed in the Church? Are we not called to perfect union with Christ at the Lord's Table? Isn’t the power of Pentecost communicated to each of us in Confirmation, just like in other church sacraments? And isn’t all this the power of God, which is made perfect in our weakness? We learn about all this in the lessons of the doctrine, but often we perceive them only with our mind and memory, and yet this is not only a thought or teaching, but a living reality itself, to which the Apostle now calls us through the narration of his visions and revelations. And are they the only ones given to this great apostle as evidence of the truth of his apostleship (1 Cor. 9:1)? No, he is not the only one, and he is not the only one even with all his greatness. Has not the beloved disciple, the seer of secrets, seen the open heaven, the throne of God and Him who sits on it, and the Lamb? And aren’t the church chronicles full of stories about visions and revelations of the heavenly world to holy people, about the appearances of the Most Pure Mother of God with the apostles and saints, about the appearances of Christ himself, as He appeared to the apostles? Paul on the road to Damascus? What was revealed to him was given not to him alone, but to the Church and “those who strive” for the rapture of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 11:12). Here it remains to repeat the words of the apostle: “Do you look at the person? Whoever is confident in himself that he is Christ’s” (2 Cor. 10:7). Not in order to separate from us and to exalt himself over us, the apostle told us about the grace of apostleship given to him, even in himself, which is accomplished in human weakness, in which the power of Christ dwells, but in order to draw closer to us and call us to follow him: “I beseech you, imitate me, as I imitate Christ” (1 Cor. 4:17; Phil. 3:17; 2 Thess. 3:7). But the Apostle Paul calls not only to imitate himself, but also to all the mentors that the saints are for us: “Looking at the end of their lives, imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). He calls us to this spiritual boldness. But will it not appear in us only as fruitless insolence if we begin to measure ourselves by their measure, immeasurably exceeding our own, and compare our smallness, our insignificance with those who have accomplished the feat of faith, “looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2)? Doesn’t fear overwhelm us, and doesn’t legal humility, knowledge of ourselves as we are in our sin, resist us? However, let us not use imaginary or even genuine virtue to hide our true sin of spiritual laziness, coldness, and indifference. For we all, as Christians, are called to press toward “the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14), and “God does not give the Spirit by measure” (John 3:34). God gives the gift of grace, but only to those who seek it - through faith, prayer, labor, every effort: “Seek and you will find!” (Matthew 7:7). And do we apply this moderation and prudence in relation to those who have shown madness and immensity in their spiritual boldness? What should we look for? Do we know and can we search for what we don’t know? However, this seems to be a sincere bewilderment, isn’t it also just an excuse to preserve our peace of spiritual immobility and inaction. Are we as poor and deprived of the Giver of spiritual gifts, the God of mercy and generosity and love for mankind, as we imagine? Or is it the scourge of oblivion that strikes us here, the lack of spiritual attention? Is it true that among believers there is at least someone who has not met God along the paths of his life, who has not been touched by the breath of the Spirit of God? Let each of us, in the recesses of his soul, in the face of his conscience, answer this himself, and let his answer not be, for it cannot be negative. Considering life, in its joys and sorrows, prosperity and shocks, in sorrows and trials, when the heart is cut open and the soul is opened, when a person is called before the face of God, will we not discover in our own lives “rapture” into heaven and hearing “unspeakable verbs”, no matter how dim and dull it may be? But we don’t believe in ourselves, we run away from ourselves, we forget and are forgotten, and yet we need to keep a treasure in our soul, remember that there is its pearl. And this memory is a sacred pledge in seeking the Kingdom of God, an anchor of salvation from destruction. And now, in the days of disastrous trials, we must strictly preserve this memory of how the mercy of God was revealed to us, and a personal meeting with Christ was given, as it was with Paul on the eve of his conversion: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It’s hard for you to fight against the pricks!” (Acts 9:4). And is it necessary to look for any special incidents in life in order to feel the closeness of God, to recognize in the soul the touch of God’s grace. For the Lord reveals himself not only in storm, fire and earthquake, but also in the “breath of thin cold,” in the silence of the soul, in its silence. Isn’t the rapture to paradise a reverent approach to a shrine - in a sacrament or fervent prayer, especially in the greatest gift of God’s love, in partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, to which we are called to approach with “the fear of God, faith and love”? And what is given to us in this gift is rapture not only into the third heaven, but into the very heaven of heavens, to the throne of the Lord... Therefore, let us heed the word of the Apostle Paul, not with distracted and not cold ears, as a story about something distant, alien to us, lofty, and terrible, but as something most dear and necessary, and close to each of us, which he entrusted to us for our benefit, encouragement and consolation. For even if we are weak, the power of God is made perfect in weakness. Let us not hide from it in weakness, but let us also be distracted by it through our own efforts. Amen. Words and conversations for different occasions Conversations on the Lord's Prayer (Yalta New Council. Autumn 1921) What is prayer? Standing before God, striving towards God - “We have hearts” - turning to God, the effective state of our entire being - mind, heart, will. Not a thought only about God, not a word, not a dreamy excitement, but a striving for living God, for life with God and in God. This is the main meaning of prayer, and without it there is no faith. Great saints are great and prayer books. Of these, the Most Holy Lord was also the first great man of prayer: he always prayed, but more often he went to the mountain to pray and prayed “in communion” (thus, on the eve of the election of the disciples, on the night of the Transfiguration, on the night of Gethsemane). If you want to know the spiritual measure of a person, you need to know his prayer. How do we pray: wandering thoughts, absent-mindedness, coldness, laziness, verbosity, self-interest, lack of faith?.. The Lord taught to pray with complete faith (the parable of the unjust judge), the words of the Sermon on the Mount: ask and it will be given to you. And truly, it is always given, even if the request itself is not fulfilled, for prayer itself is good: “Always pray!” The content of the prayer: 1) doxology - all nature, the heavenly powers praise God, 2) thanksgiving - “we thank the Lord” - the Eucharist, 3) a petition for all the needs of the human spirit and body. Prayer always has content: man is a verbal being, and the word is combined here with heart movement and prayerful work, and volitional aspiration. There are different stages of prayer: from petition to contemplation and admiration (Apostle Paul, ascended to the third heaven and hearing ineffable verbs). But correct prayer is not an easy matter: “We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be expressed” (Rom. 8:26). And the Lord himself foreshadows the verbosity: “When praying, do not say unnecessary things, like the pagans; for they think that because of their many words they will be heard” (Matthew 6:7). There may also be misdirected prayer, leading to false pleasures, performed without proper humility and leading to spiritual deception. Therefore, the art of prayer is the most difficult, and those who incessantly pray with “smart deeds” should seek an elder for guidance. Therefore, the prayer rules of the saints of God are so dear to us. The Holy Church has a vast collection of fragrant prayers, overshadowed by the influx of the Holy Spirit, for every season, for every need. This treasure of church inspired prayers, which the Church knows, is priceless, and those who do not appreciate and reject this treasure for the sake of their own inventions, like sectarians, are insane. And yet, everyone, just as he has his own destiny, has his own needs, and his own prayer, and he can do it next to the church, being careful, however, not to be like the pagans in his verbosity or even in his sinful petitions. However, more often and more naturally, a person does not know how to pray, and asks to be taught how to pray, to be given a prayer rule. Should we be surprised if the apostles, already in the first days of their walk with the Teacher, seeing His unceasing prayer and striving to learn from Him, hearing also that John had taught it to his disciples, turned to the Lord with a request (“It happened that when He was praying in one place and stopped, one of His disciples said to Him: Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1). The disciples repeatedly turned to the Teacher with unfulfilled requests, which He rejected: they either asked to burn disobedient cities with fire, or to seat one on the right hand, the other on the left, or to renounce suffering. But the Lord heeded this request, for he immediately answered: “When you pray, say like this”: Luke 11:2 (according to Matthew 6:9, even without a special request, in the Sermon on the Mount he said: “Pray like this”). And he gave us the Lord's Prayer - this is a precious treasure, a miracle of miracles, this is “an abbreviation of the whole Gospel” (Tertullian). Just as, gazing into the depths of the sky, we discover more and more new stars, so it is impossible to comprehend the entire content of the divine prayer, which the greatest men of spirit have interpreted and will continue to interpret, and from them we light a timid candle. The Lord's Prayer is reverently preserved by all religions. It is the only common prayer of the entire Christian world. He who rejects it does not pray with the Lord. At every prayer, private and general, it is read or sung, especially during the Holy Eucharist, when on the holy throne is the slain Lamb and its Teacher, surrounded by ten thousand cherubim and saints. - (Singing Our Father). Father The Lord is above the name and therefore is not exhausted by any name, and therefore His names are innumerable. How to name Him, how to call upon Him, how to address Him. The thought is exhausted and the word is powerless to choose a Name from the infinity of words. And behold, the boldest and sweetest thing is heard: Father. If only we could come to the ruler of the universe with the awe of our smallness, and suddenly recognize in the almighty almighty the Father, as His Son taught us. For the first time in the world this wondrous name of God was heard: Father. At Sinai, at Horeb, the name Jehovah was revealed to Moses in thunder and lightning, and then a number of other sacred and great names of God: Adonai, Zebaste, the Holy One of Israel, etc., but not this wondrous Name. Only the Son, who came to reveal the Father, could reveal it and bring it to the world. A premonition of this name flashed in the Old Testament, and even in paganism (Zeus the Father, Brahma, Marduk), but here it is overshadowed by crude anthropomorphic ideas. The Father is, first of all, that Son, Who taught Him to call Him that: God the Father of God the Son. From Him, according to the word of the Apostle, is all human fatherhood. We poorly understand paternity, for we are fathers, sons, and brothers, and moreover, paternity for us is associated with birth from the flesh. The Lord is the Father. People love their best self in their son, they give everything to him, they want to see themselves in him. God the Father has betrayed, revealed, and revealed everything in the beloved Son, therefore no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son. And when the Son appeared in the world, the Father was also revealed. The Son of Man made His brothers and sisters sons of God. We are the race of God and the sons of God if we cry to God: Father. What joy, warmth, peace is served. Your heavenly Father will give good things to those who ask Him. If we trust that there is a Father in heaven who hears us, what peace should there be in the heart and what love for Him. How can we dare to call Him that? 1) by birth: the whole world was created by the word of God and only man was created, but God breathed into him the breath of life, a particle of the Divine (Gen. 2:7), of whom this is also the generation... the race is more than God (Acts 17:29); according to rebirth: when God sent His Son to become man, He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: I will proclaim Your name to the brethren, in the midst of the Church I will sing praises to You (Heb. 2:11-12). The Son adopted the fallen Adam, redeemed him with His blood and regenerated him with a new birth in baptism: he gave them the realm to become children of God... who... were born of God (John 1:12-13). God is the Father by virtue of paternal care for the human race, as it is revealed in the Word of God. But this sonship must be kindled by feat, otherwise it extinguishes in the soul. What kind of person should we be when we stand before God and call upon Him as Father? Is this accompanied by an evil, selfish, low feeling? Can the ungrateful, evil, vindictive, cold be the sons of the heavenly Father, the race of God, the brothers of the Savior, who said: My brothers and My Mother are doing the will of God? 2nd conversation on the Lord's Prayer (Yalta New Council. October 31, 1921) Our . Not My Father and not their Father, but Our Father. Mine separates: mine means not yours, not his: repulsion of egoism, which is impossible in the face of God: do not love your neighbor, how can you love God, how can you pray to Him with a cold heart. However, mine is inescapable from life and from prayer, and the first example is the Lord Jesus Christ, who taught the Lord’s Prayer, He Himself prayed My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from Me, and constantly spoke about My Father. This means that He - and only He - is truly the Son of the Father, the only begotten, and we are sons by adoption, like His brethren, sons in Him and through Him: Our Father, because for Him is My Father. His Mine = ours. Further, mine is necessary in everyone’s personal relationships: My Lord and my God - escaped from the infidel Thomas; “I will get up and go to my father and say: father,” says the prodigal son. Everyone must have a personal meeting with God, repentance, tears, salvation, feel their Father in God, their Savior in Christ, everyone comes to Him with their personal prayer for the salvation of sinners, from whom I am the first. So, ours does not exclude, but presupposes mine, but it inevitably expands into ours, this is the secret of religion, the connection of people, conciliarity. Ours does not mean not mine, but: mine, and yours, and his, and theirs, and not in their separateness, but in their unity: ours is the plurality of mine, the many I am in fraternal unity, as after the ascension the apostles: “enduring with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14). People praying together form a unity in spirit and truth, a church union. “If two of you on earth agree to ask for anything, it will be done for them by My Heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:19), the two are already us, ours is the mystery of the Church and the power of prayer (prayer of the 3rd antiphon in the lit. John Chrysostoms: “who has granted us the prayers of this common and agreeable one, and who has promised to give us the prayers of two or three who agree in My name, even now Thy servant fulfill his request for the benefit." What is the scope and power of this: from two or three to all, the whole Church: the ancient rite of church brotherhood and the custom of twinning, the Lord’s Prayer at the wedding of two into one, in the family, at the celebration of the Eucharist, at any prayer. Quantitatively - ours can have a different volume, qualitatively it is always the Church, one in the other, many in one (like three youths in the fiery furnace, “as with one mouth I will girdle and bless God” (Dan. 3:51). Our Father is a call to churchliness, to churching, to brotherhood. So the Church is pan-humanity and all of humanity. The Christian understanding of God in comparison with the pagan: languages - faiths, national, isolating, this is even the Old Testament - with the chosen people. Only in Christianity “let us learn all languages”, in Christ there are no Greeks or Jews. All humanity is one in its root - the new Adam, one essence and power of humanity, only multifaceted. Humanity is Christ, the Son of the Father, and in Him we are sons, and He is our Father. This is true brotherhood and equality. destinies and situations, but, looking up, we are distracted from everything. Truly those who pray are all equal before God and all are brothers, like children of one Father, and no one dares to call Him, relying on their wealth, intelligence, beauty, etc., My Father (but not theirs), without falling into the madness of the Pharisee. What does equality and brotherhood mean, which is talked about so much in the language of this world? Equality is a lie, for people in the world are unequal, and their equality could only consist in their differences - suum cuique, but the envious preaching of equality wants precisely to equalize them in unequal things. What does equality rest on, other than envy and difference, is brotherhood, but brotherhood is not equality; but what is brotherhood based on - on descent from an ape, on universal co-apecy? But can we really call piglets from the same pig brothers, and aren’t we just talking about people? You cannot introduce brotherhood by eradicating fatherhood and sonship, which is what modernity is doing. People are sons, and therefore co-sons, brothers, and not monkeys, but of one Father. This is the only way to honor a person. Therefore, only in the Church can there be equality and brotherhood, as an expression of church love, and love is rooted in ours: “that they may all be one: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21). This is what ours and we mean. Judge what the Lord is calling us to, teaching us to pray the Our Father. What kindness, simplicity, peace, love He expects from us. Like you are in heaven. Here are strange, ringing verbs: in heaven. Above - but then, according to the word blessed. Augustine, birds are closer to God than us (or airplanes), “let us leave the sky to the sparrows” - atheism mocks. Is there a heaven of heavens and heavens, or is the earthly world the only one. What to believe: evidence of feelings or faith; What: to love this world or to philosophize on heaven? Faith in God in all religions was born from a living sense of heaven, the non-uniqueness and inauthenticity of this world. There is something that is higher than the world, but is known to a person who finds it in his soul as a basis: as truth, goodness, beauty. Is all this worldly, human, or supermundane? Is there only the world or that which is above the world, God? Next to spiritual people, seeing them, it is impossible to ask about this, just as they do not ask carnal people. The human soul knows and yearns for its heavenly homeland (“Angel”), it belongs to two worlds, and our faith teaches us: “We are not the imams of the city that is here, but we are seeking the one to come.” And heaven answers man, and a ladder of prayer and faith is erected. But constant effort is required: “woe we have in our hearts.” So, heaven is the spiritual principle in man, revealing to him the reality of the spiritual world. Man is a spiritual being with a spiritual homeland. By calling on the heavenly Father, a person testifies that the father according to the flesh is not his true father: “and do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). From the heavenly Father “every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph. 3:14–15). This does not reject the shrine of earthly fatherhood (protected by the 5th commandment), but indicates that earthly fatherhood exists only in the image of the true, heavenly one, and, having different fathers in the flesh, we have one Heavenly Father. We also distinguish from birth according to the flesh a spiritual birth, or more precisely, a rebirth from a spiritual father: “my children, for whom I am again in the throes of birth,” the apostle says more than once. Paul, how he gave birth to spiritual children in pain. Therefore, there is a double paternity: heavenly, eternal, and earthly, temporary, in soul and body, from father and mother, and there are cases when this connection is dissolved by spiritual birth, for example, in monasticism. So, by confessing the heavenly Father, a person recognizes himself as an embodied spirit. Heaven is the spiritual world - angels, saints. Mother of God and Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. Calling on the heavenly Father, Our Father, on behalf of the Church, we join the heavenly, glorified Church, forming one world: “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem and ten thousand angels, to the solemn council and church of the firstborn who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous who have reached perfection” (Heb. 12:22–23 ). Proskomedia: 9-piece prosphora. So, the invocation is addressed to God in every place and at every time: worship in spirit and truth, and not in the temple of Jerusalem. The universal dome is heavenly. God is omnipresent and eternal, quick to obey, high and close. Creator of worlds and father. He exists in the Trinity. Desperate Hypostasis. First Person of the Holy Trinity. One calling, without any requests, is already prayer, naming, name. Prayer by the Holy Spirit: Abba, Father. The Jesus Prayer invoking the name of Jesus. God Himself is present in the name. The power and mystery and meaning of prayer. The human heart becomes heaven and the throne of God. “Do you not know that you are the church of God and the priests in it?” 3rd Discourse on the Lord's Prayer (November 14, 1921) Hallowed be Thy Name. What to ask God for: about yourself, about your needs - no, about God in us: for in heaven and on earth, hallowed be the Name, the Kingdom come, Thy will be done. And the first word, our petition: let ἁγιασθήτω be holy: it speaks of holiness. What is holiness? The nature of God and everything that comes from God. What is heard most often in prayers? Holy is the Lord our God - glorification of holiness. Vision of Isaiah: the seraphim call out to each other and say: holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts (Is. 6:1-3), and John saw the same thing: the four living creatures have no rest either day or night, crying out: holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come (Rev. 4:8). And we also join this doxology of the angels at the divine Eucharist, when we remember the heavenly armies, “singing the song of victory,” and the secret prayer of the priest: “with these blessed powers, O Lord, more loving of mankind, we cry out and say: holy and holy art thou, and thy only begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, holy and holy art thou, and magnificent is thy glory.” Even in the Old Testament, the Lord proclaimed Himself to His people: “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2, 11:44–45), and besides, the Apostle calls in the New Testament: “follow the example of him who called you, the Holy One, and be holy in all your actions” (1 Pet. 1:16). In the High Priestly Prayer, the Lord prays: Holy Father. Keep them in Thy Name... sanctify them unto Thy truth, and for them I will sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified unto the truth” (John 17:17, 19). Just as holiness is the nature of God, so sanctification, the flowing power of holiness, is the nature of the Church: the container of holiness and the power of sanctification. Everything in the Church is sacred: the church, the altar, objects, prayers, sacred rites, sacraments, sacraments. And churching is sanctification. The Church is a school of holiness, a nursery and a union of saints. Saints are the name of believers, saints are earthly citizens of heaven: God is marvelous in His saints, He rests in His saints. In the face of eternity, the question is not about intelligence, not about strength, but about holiness. You are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you. The powerlessness of human holiness in itself and the omnipotence of grace. Therefore, the first meaning of Hallowed be Thy Name means: Let the Holy One sanctify us. Church, may her gifts of grace be poured out, may we know the Lord, may we love Him, may we live in Him, may we be sanctified by Him. But the Lord does not want to make sons of Abraham out of stones: everything can be sanctified, but not a person, who must dedicate himself to God and thereby sanctify himself. What is required of a person is the feat of ascension in holiness and to holiness. Holiness is not only the peak accessible to the elect, but also the general, the only path of Christian life. We all move either towards holiness, or from holiness, or we sanctify, or we blaspheme. Therefore, the second meaning: let it be holy - let us hallow; both in heaven and on earth: the cherubim, but also we with these blessed powers. The doxology befitting the holiness of God is the main work of the heavenly powers and is so persistently and constantly proclaimed at our angelic worship. Third meaning: let us praise the Name of God. The worship of both angels and men is, first of all, doxology. Your name is τὸ ὄνομα σου. What Name is this talking about? Isn't this just a descriptive expression equal to You? Is this not what the third commandment means: do not take the Name of God in vain - a frivolous mention of the Name of God. However, both the commandment and the first petition speak of the terrible mystery and power of the Name of God, with which the sacraments are performed in our Church, which before the sacrificed Lamb we, believers, are called “with one heart and one mouth to glorify and glorify Your all-holy and magnificent Name.” (The catechumens - and they too glorify the all-honorable and magnificent Name with us). No, this is not just a paraphrase. For the Lord in the Old Testament speaks through the mouth of Solomon about the church that he created “for the name of the Lord God of Israel” (1 Kings 8:16–20) and about which the Lord said: “I have sanctified this church that you have built, that My name may dwell there forever” (1 Kings 9:3). And in the Farewell Conversation the Lord says: “I have revealed Your Name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world” (John 17:6). What Name did the Lord reveal? After all, He showed us the Father, whom no one knows except the Son, and to whom He reveals. According to the mysterious interpretation of this petition, St. Maximus the Confessor, the Name of the Father is the Son: the mystery of the Holy Trinity is spoken of here: in the invocation of Her first Person, in the first petition for the Son. And then this petition means: may Thy Son be glorified, who sanctifies us and sanctifies Himself in sacrifice for us. But the holiness of the Son is that He is sacrificed for the world, the Calvary sacrifice atones for the sin of the world and saves. The mystery of redemption is spoken here in secret. But the power of Christ operates in the Church, it is His living Name in the world. And therefore: hallowed be Thy Name = hallowed be the Church of God in heaven, as on earth. Let the churching take place in us, let the living fullness of the forces operating in the Church flow into us and sanctify us. How can the sanctification of the Church, which is holy and immaculate, be expressed? But the Lord’s Name is holy and most holy, nevertheless, let it be hallowed. And the Church of God is rooted in history, has earthly destinies and eras. She is founded in paradise, before the Fall, she lived in the Old Testament, she is founded in the baptismal waters of the New Testament. She knew many times: early Christianity, martyrdom, asceticism, conciliar creativity. Her earthly destinies are secretly carried out in the Apocalypse. And now the destinies of the Church are being accomplished in us and through us and above us, in heaven and on earth. In the sky there is a struggle between Michael and the heavenly armies against the dragon and his army, and at this time godlessness is raging on earth. Fullness is maturing and the hour of glory of the Church, the manifestation of its power on earth, is approaching. And we pray about this: hallowed be Thy Church. The name of God is the blessing of God, everything holy is sealed with it: praying for it, we pray for the eradication of everything unclean, godless, nasty, for the sanctification of all life: our homes, our work, statehood, economy, culture, that everything may be done in the Name and glory of God; may the differences between the Church and life be destroyed, that “separation” of the Church from the state and society, the life of which atheism seeks, - may God be all in all. Everything that is worthy of being can be in the Name of God, and what cannot be is not worthy of it. The soul is one and a person is undivided, although he can breathe with part of the lung, instead of the whole. The Spirit breathes where it wants, and God gives the Spirit without measure. So, the first is therefore the most important, urgent, irrevocable petition from us to God, the Holy and Most Holy, for holiness and sanctification, for His glory, the Father and the Son, for the glory of His Church, for universal sanctification and for our holiness. Be holy, for I am Holy, the word of the Lord thunders, and no matter how we twist, we cannot help but hear and understand it. Be perfect as your heavenly Father, so says the Son. Our heart trembles, feeling itself before the Last Judgment of this call, but it also trembles joyfully, giving itself up like a child to the Lord’s Prayer. He, the Knower of the Heart, knew His creation, knew to whom he spoke, and He was not an idle talker, He did not give empty and unfulfillable commandments. He sees your and our hearts, sees their darkness, coldness and emptiness, but also sees our faith and hope, and love, and our desire to become closer to Him, even if by a hair, to rise above ourselves even if a grain of sand. And He gives us an invigorating helping hand, teaching us to boldly pray: hallowed in us, by us and through us, hallowed be the name of the Christian. 4th Discourse on the Lord's Prayer (November 28, 1921) Second petition: Thy kingdom come. What is the Kingdom of God? The most common expression: the Gospel itself is the Gospel of the Kingdom: the sermon of John and the Savior opens with a call: repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 3:2). The preaching of the beatitudes is the preaching of the Kingdom of God: blessed are the poor in spirit, for of them is the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20). The Lord says that He was sent to preach the Kingdom of God (Luke 4:43) and sends the apostles to do the same (Luke 9:60). He explains the mysteries of the Kingdom of God covertly, in parables, and directly, appearing after the resurrection for 40 days, He explains the mysteries of the Kingdom of God - and He commanded to seek the Kingdom of God first of all, and everything else will be added (Matthew 6:33). He indicates the path to the Kingdom of God in repentance and effort: “The Kingdom of God is in need and the needy women take it away” (Matthew 11:12). The Kingdom of God is the goal of peace and the end of everything, and it itself has no end (Creed). At the Last Judgment the Lord will say to the blessed of His Father: come to the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:4), as He said to the prudent thief who asked Him: remember me, Lord, when you come into Your kingdom (Luke 23:42), and none of those “unregenerated by water and the Holy Spirit will enter the Kingdom of God” ( John 3:5), as “the fornicator, the wicked, and the covetous” have no inheritance there (Eph. 5:5). The Lord in parables likened the Kingdom of God this way: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in the field, but the enemy came sowed up the tares, but at the harvest there will be division (Matthew 13:24–30). The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed (Mark 4:30–32), leaven (Luke 13:21), a seed thrown into the ground (Mark 4:26–29), a treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44), a merchant looking for pearls (Matthew 13:45–46), a net (Matthew 13:47–48). Asked by the scribe when the Kingdom of God will come, the Lord said: “The Kingdom of God will not come with observance, below they say: here or elsewhere. Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 27:20–21), and the apostle teaches: “For the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). But the Son of Man will appear in His glory like lightning from east to west. From the comparison of texts, two meanings of the Kingdom are clear: within us and throughout the whole world, or the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory. The Kingdom of God is created within us by repentance and the grace of God, by the assimilation of the life salvation of Christ. This world is the domain of the prince of this world, and in it we are strangers and strangers, but if God reigns in us, and we have Him in us, then the peace of Christ, which surpasses all thought, descends into the soul, and by giving up everything and losing everything, we have more than anyone else, as the Lord testified to the disciples. The Kingdom of God is the Church of Christ, and the Kingdom of God in us is the measure of our churching. But in us and through us the Kingdom of God must penetrate into life like leaven. People of this century are looking to transform society from the outside, Christians from the inside, however, although the world lies in evil, and this evil is intensifying, good must fight evil and the Kingdom of God is built in the world. The second meaning of the Kingdom of God is the coming in Glory, the end of the age, when the Son will transfer the Kingdom to the Father, having conquered all enemies. Only the Father knows the time of this, and “it is not your business to know the times and seasons which the Father has appointed in His authority” (Acts 1:7), when God will be “all in all.” John the Theologian also speaks about the 1000-year Kingdom of Christ and the first resurrection, and those who come to life “will be priests of God and Christ and will reign with Him 1000 years” (Rev. 20:6). Different understandings of this text. The Church's condemnation of the crudely sensual understanding associated with Judaism, the hope for the appearance of a white ray in history. What does the prayer call mean here: let him come. Firstly, may we embark on the path of repentance and acquisition of spiritual gifts; secondly, may the Church of Christ be glorified on earth, may it expand and reunite those who have fallen away and lost; thirdly, that the fullness of times may come, is equivalent to the prayer: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus” - the prayer of early Christianity, which already from the middle of the 2nd century was replaced by the prayer de mora finis. Is this prayer for the end of the world within our power? And yet it is also required of us. So, prayer for the consecration of the Name is preceded and completed by prayer for the coming of the Kingdom of God, both in heaven and on earth: in heaven the Lord reigns entirely in angels and blessed souls. We proclaim: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. In heaven there was an attempt to destroy the Kingdom of God by the fall of Satan, but he and his slanderers were cast down by Michael and his angels after the war (Rev. 12:7-11): “now is salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the domain of His Christ, for the slanderer of our brethren was cast down, slandering them before our God day and night.” And at that hour when a great earthquake occurs - before the very end of the world, “a great voice was heard in the heavens, saying: “This is the kingdom of peace of our Lord and of His Christ, and he will reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15), and during his earthly ministry the Lord said: “My kingdom is not of this world; If My kingdom had come from this world, My servants would have fought, lest I should be delivered up to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). How will the Kingdom of God express itself in us in this world with victorious power? Not by external overcoming of the reigning evil, but by its internal powerlessness - he who conquers the body is powerless over the spirit: the victory of patience, suffering, internal, will also become an external victory. The seer saw the Heavenly Jerusalem descending to earth: “And nothing will be cursed any more, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will serve Him” (Rev. 22:3). The second petition of the Lord's Prayer, according to the testimony of St. Gregory of Nyssa, in some ancient copies of the Gospel of Luke, had an important variant: “Let Your Holy Spirit come and cleanse us,” that is, the Kingdom of God is directly equated with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the hidden and deepest meaning of this petition speaks of the third Hypostasis, there is a prayer for the Comforter Spirit, whom the Son sends from the Father. Thus, in the invocation and the first two petitions, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is hidden: the Father, revealed in the Son and reigning in the Holy Spirit. 5th Discourse on the Lord's Prayer (January 9, 1922) Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth. The will of God is accomplished always and everywhere by the power of God’s omnipotence. The creation of creatures, their preservation, management is the work of God’s providence, general about the world and man and private about each of us: “Are not two birds valued for assarium, and not one of them falls to the ground without the will of your Father. But the hair of your head is all numbered” (Matthew 10:29–30). But the Lord, in creating the world, gave place to human created will and freedom, which He does not encroach on, and the third petition says that our free will should be consistent with God’s, so that the latter would be created not apart from us, but by us. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is the guiding example: “I came down from heaven, not that I should do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 6:38). “My purpose is that I may do the will of the Father who sent Me and complete His work” (John 4:34). “Being obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8). “Even if the Son was born, let him learn from these, even if he suffered obedience” (Heb. 5:8). The eternal meaning of the Gethsemane prayer: “Father, if you wish to pass this cup away from Me, then not My will, but Yours, be done!” (Luke 22:42). The fate of us and our loved ones, the fate of an entire society, a people, the world, is bearing the cross and self-sacrifice. Oboedientia activa and passiva: creation of the Father's will and obedience. "As in heaven." Heaven is the angelic world created in the “beginning.” Angels are disembodied spirits, the most perfect of human souls, as standing closer to God, although limited, like creatures, by nature, intelligence, strength and power. An infinite number of angels... Parable of one of the 100 lost sheep: Luke 15:5; Matthew 18:12 ... The ranks of angels. Triple hierarchy: three ranks and nine faces: thrones, cherubim and seraphim, powers, dominions, powers, principles, archangels and angels... The ministry of angels: doxology, their participation in our worship, instruments of God's providence over the world... Messengers of God's will ἄγγελοι, guardians of the elements, man... Participation of angels in the Old Testament (messengers of God at Sinai)... In the New Testament: servants of God. Guardians of entire societies, churches and individuals. “Their angels behold the face of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). The Fall of Lucifer and the War in Heaven (Michael and the hosts cast down Satan). The perfection of angels, now not allowing for a fall, and the irreparable fall of demons. The relativity of evil for man due to the limitations of human judgment... The roots of evil in the spiritual world are the fall of Satan, and in the natural world - in the fall of man. The Lord guides for good, keeping the own nature of the world and man intact... “Thy will be done as in heaven and on earth” - can, in its hidden meaning, be attributed to the Church-Sophia. She is the Desired, Longed for, Bride of the Word, Θέλημα. On earth and in heaven there is the unity of the Church, triumphant and militant... The Church is glorified... The Church is eternal both in place and in time. She is one. If the invocation and the first two petitions contain the mystery of the Holy Trinity, then the third contains the mystery of the holy Church, which the Lord redeemed with His honest Blood. And the Gethsemane prayer was a prayer on behalf of the earthly Church: Let it be. Fourth petition: Give us this day our daily bread. A person’s first request for himself is a prayer for daily bread, by which a person’s work is sanctified. God gives food to man: “Remove vanity and lies from me, do not give me poverty and wealth, feed me with my daily bread, so that when I am full, I do not deny You and say: Who is the Lord? and so that the poor will not steal and take the Name of my God in vain” (Prov. 30:8-9). “The eyes of all trust in You, and You give food in due season, You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing according to Your good pleasure” (Ps. 145:15-16). Where does the need come from? The Word of God reveals that the earth is cursed, and by the sweat of his brow he gives bread. Man is doomed to poverty and labor. The fourth petition blesses a person’s work: “He who labors shall not eat.” The apostle exhorts to do “your own work, to work with your own hands, as we commanded you” (1 Thess. 4:11). “Whoever tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but whoever imitates the idle will be satisfied with poverty” (Proverbs 28:19). But there is no need to give your heart to worry: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat and drink, nor about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 4:25). “Do not worry about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:38). Worry quenches God's word in the heart, like the thorn seed in the parable (Matthew 13:22)... Temptation in the wilderness and the Lord’s answer: “Man does not live on bread alone”... – “Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and other things will be added!”... Modern teachings about food... What should guide a person in his work? – The need for necessities: “It is a great gain to be pious and content. Having food and clothing, we will be content with this” (1 Tim. 6:6-8). The love of money is the root of evil and troubles... What does it mean: “Don’t worry about tomorrow”?.. What do you mean by daily bread? - Everything necessary for life, that is, food, shelter, clothing, health... Then there is spiritual bread, about the hunger that the prophet speaks of. Amos: “I will not give you a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the Word of God” (Amos 8:11). Food is the Word of God (“Like newborn babies, love the pure milk of the word, so that you may grow from it for salvation” (1 Peter 2:2), the grace of the Holy Spirit (“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink! .. this is the speech of the Holy Spirit” - John 7:37-39), the main thing is holy communion, the bread of life, “My flesh is truly meat and my blood truly there is beer" (John 17:55). "I am the bread of life" (John 6:53). "Our daily bread." We cannot turn to our Father asking for “my” bread! This is a call for mutual assistance, something that will be asked at the Last Judgment. “Essential” – ἐπιούσιον – today’s or urgent... “Today” – today, according to the interpretation of St. Maximus the Confessor, this century. “So whether you eat or drink, do everything to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 6:6). 6th conversation (January 23, 1922) Fifth petition: and forgive us our debts... After asking for benefits, we ask for the removal of evil. And the first petition is for the forgiveness of our sins. At St. Matthew (Matthew 6:12): “Forgive us our debts.” At St. Luke (Luke 11:4): “forgive us our sins.” We are infinitely indebted to God for everything and can only pay in return with love and fulfillment of the will of God. But in reality, after original sin, we are unpaid debtors to the sinfulness of our entire nature. First of all, we must recognize our weakness... (Rule 129 of the Council of Carthage on the meaning of the words: “leave to us”)... Heretics and sectarians:... “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10). Just as we go to confession, so we should be in prayer before the omniscient, righteous God; every prayer should be a publican’s prayer. You need to see yourself and recognize yourself, be horrified at yourself and hate your sin, but also recognize the non-payment of debt and the weakness of nature. But then what is the outcome other than despair?! A natural person fluctuates between indifference, sleep of the soul and despair. But the Lord brings him to his cross and teaches him to pray to the Father: “Forgive the debt!”, “Do not impute sin!” We ask for injustice. But God’s love is higher than human measure: “He has imprisoned all in disobedience, so that he may have mercy on all.” The fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer speaks of the mystery of redemption, of the mystery of the Calvary sacrifice, by which all human debts were paid, a priceless sacrifice was made, and we are called only to partake of its power. The Lord, who himself does not know sin, gives this prayer as the High Priest, “and offer and offer.” Is it possible to forgive a sin and make it a non-sin? It is forbidden. But you can make it non-existent, erase it, by carrying its bearer through death and resurrection - baptism and repentance. The Lord makes our sins, as it were, his own fault, like the Creator, and accepts their burden upon himself and pays for them. Divine truth, which does not know reconciliation with sin, is satisfied, and man is entrusted with only what he can bear - repentance. A person cannot be saved from sin by his own efforts (“Wretched man am I, and who will deliver me from this body of death”), but he must be saved from sins by repentance. The fifth petition is a call to repentance, a prayer for it... for salvation - to the Savior. It testifies that there is salvation if we repent. But it also points to the nature of repentance: its condition is forgiveness of one’s neighbors. The Lord speaks a lot and persistently about this: Matthew 6:14–15 ... Parable of the Cruel Manager: Matthew 18:23–25 ... Why is forgiveness of one's neighbor connected with repentance? Because unforgiveness testifies to the absence of true repentance: it sees itself in the saddest light, and seeing its guilt before God and everyone, calls for mercy. The Lord pitied sinners and did not despise or push away anyone. Intransigence to sin and forgiveness of the sinner. The height of the commandment of forgiveness is likeness to God: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” “Be merciful, for your heavenly Father is merciful.” We are not omnipotent and cannot help our neighbor, but we control our hearts, and no one without us and for us can reconcile and forgive. And this petition speaks of our debts. Why? Would it be appropriate to talk about my debts here? But, as before, the Lord teaches us to pray for others, to provide them with prayerful love and help. We pray for each other, for loved ones, for all the living, those who love and hate us, we also pray for the deceased who cannot answer us, we seem to participate in the payment of their debts. And together we confess the bondage of all in sin (universal “karma”). Everyone is to blame for everything and everything... The burning of the heart for loved ones and for all of creation and the tears for creation among ascetics, the softening of hearts... May this be the main and common prayer of the Russian people! Do not lead us into temptation. This petition does not mean a request for release from the test: “If you are not tempted, you know little” (Sir.34:10). “Have all joy, my brethren, whenever you fall into various temptations” (James 1:2), “knowing that the temptation of your faith makes patience perfect; “God tempts you to lead you away, if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 13:13). Temptation is a test that can be disastrous... The temptation of righteous Job... The temptation of Christ the Savior in the desert and in the Garden of Gethsemane... “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; having been skilled, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12). “When tempted, let no one say: God is tempting me. For God is inaccessible to the temptation of evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted, drawn away and enticed by his own lust” (James 1:13–14). Examples of two apostles: Judas and Peter, in the temptation of betrayal and renunciation. Satan entered into the first; regarding the second, the Lord said: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has succeeded in sifting you like wheat: but I have prayed for you, so that your faith may not fail, and you, having turned, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32). God does not tempt, we ourselves are tempted. “Therefore, whoever thinks that he is standing, let him watch so that he does not fall. The temptation that has come upon you is nothing less than human: and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will also provide a way out of the temptation itself, so that you can endure it” (1 Cor. 10:12-13). “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” Temptations are allowed to test our faith: “In this you rejoice, having now grieved a little, if necessary, through various trials, so that the testing of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, although tested by fire, may result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). “As silver and gold are tempted in the furnace, so is the chosen heart of the Lord” (Prov. 17:3). Temptations are allowed to test our love (Deut.13:3)... our obedience (Deut.8:2)... non-covetousness (Job.1:9-12). Where does temptation come from? – From the lust of the flesh: “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh; They oppose one another, so that you do not do what you would like” (Gal. 5:17). “For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I can desire, but I cannot do good. For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil that I do not want” (Rom. 7:18-19)... Damage to the flesh by original sin... Weakness of the flesh and inclination to sin... The temptations of youth and old age, health and illness, excesses and deficiencies... Rules are crutches for the soul... Asceticism of the body. Posts... Prayer... Next... Temptation comes from the world: “Do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world.” The world is our passions, standing before us as an external organized force. Any activity can be a walk with God, or it can also become a temptation. The main thing is pride and vanity, vanity and distraction, fear and despondency. Historical and personal trials: loss of loved ones and property, health and life itself. Temptations come from the devil, who, like a roaring lion, seeks to devour us. His role is revealed by the Word of God. Its effect is obvious - on ascetics and saints - and hidden (modern denial of the devil and insensibility). The temptation of occult science - spiritualism and the like, in which a person is asking for temptation. Temptations continue throughout a person's life, because throughout his life he grows and changes. Means of struggle: a) – spiritual fasting and prayer; b) – patience: “He who endures to the end will be saved!” (Matthew 10:22); c) – memory of death and eternal torment. “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation!” (Matthew 26:41). You need to take care of yourself and be attentive to your life and hope for God’s help. Conversations on the Divine Liturgy Where is God? This is how the human mind and conscience now asks itself in the face of what is happening in the world. If God exists, then how does He allow this? If He is love, then how can He not have mercy on the human race? If He is omnipotent, then why does He not abolish this with His power? If he is wise, then why doesn’t he show the way out of the dead end into which humanity has wandered? We remain alone in the horror of life without God. And there is no answer to our unanswerable questions, as if He does not exist or He has nothing to answer to them. If He exists, then it remains, like Job, to compete with God about His peace, which seems to be a terrible mistake of the Creator, or this state of His also testifies to His powerlessness. So we question each other gloatingly and hopelessly, in the consciousness of some kind of right to do so and our rightness. However, let us ask ourselves why we only now, in the face of all these horrors of war and all the lies in the world, became concerned about the existence of God, so much so that we began to question him? Why did we remain indifferent to Him while our life rolled along a smooth road, without dangerous shocks and potholes? Were we then so close to God that the current bewildered questions could not arise in us, and everything seemed clearer in the world than now? Or, on the contrary, it was then that we truly forgot about God, we simply did not think about our relationship to Him, and were in a carefree and unconscious godlessness. Yes, this is exactly how it was for many of us - if not for all, at least at certain times of our lives. And therefore, haven’t we now at least begun to think and remember about Him more? These questions powerfully arose before us about the world, about our life, about good and evil, about everything about which our soul is now restless, tormented and exhausted. It was as if a ringing sound had burst into our ears from above. We rush around, listening to this ringing, not yet understanding where and what it is calling for, what it is talking about. However, we are still looking to understand this call. But where should we look for an answer if not from the Teacher, who Himself is the Way, Truth and Life, in His words and deeds: how did He Himself in His earthly life experience the terrible thing in the world, similar to what we are now experiencing? His life was filled with communion with God and prayer to the Father; He sought only to do His will, to be one with Him. Before His knowledge of God the malice of the evil world was powerless. However, there came a time in His life when He was silent, not answering the questions put to Him, even to the surprise of those asking (Matthew 26:63, 27:14). And after this silence he cried out with a great voice, dying on the cross: “Either, Or! Lama sabachthani! - “My God, My God! Why did you leave me!” and with this cry he gave up the ghost (Matthew 27:46–50). And he was given, along with the approach of death, to experience the irresponsibility, the silence of heaven. And for Him, life appeared in its God-forsakenness, in which death and the position in the grave appeared possible. However, without stopping there, our faith further teaches us: He trampled death underfoot in order to ascend into heaven when resurrected. However, is this so? What kind of abandonment of our world can we think about when He Himself, leaving us, assured us: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age!” (Matthew 28:20). This means that He is with us in everything and always (except for our sins and crimes), with us now, and in this fratricidal human madness. He suffers with us and for us, but with us and for us he prays to the Father. No, we are not abandoned by Him, we are not alone on earth. He forever reunited the earthly with the heavenly. He abides on the throne of glory, not leaving our vale of death. If this is so, then nothing is afraid of the last fear, nothing is sorrowful of inconsolable sorrow. He knew about them because He Himself said, leaving us: “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid; believe in God and believe in Me... I go to prepare a place for you, and when I have prepared a place, I will come again and take you to Myself” (John 14:1-3). Will come to take us. And not only will he come in the future, but he will not leave here either: always, now and ever, and forever and ever. But this means that our meeting with Him can be felt and recognized already here and now. It is accomplished by the feat of our faith, our aspiration towards Him. He answers it with His coming. For this purpose He commanded to create His “Remembrance” in the divine Eucharist. In it Christ comes to us, and we to Him. She is the promised meeting and His presence with us. But for this, we first of all need to vitally understand and assimilate what the divine Eucharist contains, what it means, what we absent-mindedly pass by in ignorance and incomprehension. What exactly is, or rather, what the Divine Eucharist should be for us, as our prayer and worship, as our life in Christ and with Christ. We must ask ourselves about this in order to heed the call and promise of Christ given by Him through His disciples to the Church. Amen. When Christ was on earth, He walked through the country of Judea, “teaching in the synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people... and a great multitude followed Him” (Matthew 14:23–25). In these blessed days of the life of the world, anyone who wanted could see and hear Him. The Lord Himself spoke to the disciples about this: “Blessed are your eyes that see and your ears that hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, but did not see, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear” (Matthew 13:16-17; Luke 10:23-24). Don’t many of us involuntarily remember this in these days of world sorrow: “Oh, if only we could see Him and knew where to meet Him! With what joy and hope we would join everyone who follows Him!”... However, with these words the Lord did not want to belittle the prophets and righteous people, but, on the contrary, to exalt them. They, having neither seen nor heard Him on earth, now see in heaven, Whom they foresaw in the days of their lives, teaching about Him and prophesying even before His coming into the world. But like them, we are also not deprived of His closeness even after His departure from the world. For, as He departed, He Himself confirmed this: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” and if always, then that means now. How can we sense His presence, where can we look for Him? It can no longer be known by external senses. Certainly. But according to His will, the Lord can now appear, like Saul, who heard a voice from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me!” (Acts 9:4). Let us hope that one day the other Sauls, who are now persecuting Him, will hear Him. However, the promise of joyful fellowship with Him does not refer exclusively to the appearance of judgment and wrath. Where can we look for Him? Isn't it in the church? Even in the Old Testament church, which during its consecration was filled with the Glory of God in the cloud (1 Kings 8:10), Solomon prayed there: “Let Your eyes be open on this church day and night, on this place about which You said: “My name will be there” (1 Kings 8:29). “And the Lord said to him: “I have heard your prayer and your request. I have consecrated this church that My name may abide there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there always” (1 Kings 9:3-4). But what is said about the Old Testament church has even greater force in relation to the New Testament. And not only in a man-made church, but also in the church of our hearts, our prayerful meeting with God takes place through the power of the Name of God, the sweetest Name of Jesus. According to the testimony of those who do the Jesus Prayer, Christ visits our hearts, and His Name is, as it were, the place of His spiritual presence. But He promised us even more - His direct presence, presence in the world through “memory,” not only mental or spiritual, but vital, filled with the power of reality. This is exactly what His presence in the Holy Mysteries is. Before the Chalice of Christ, those who approach it confess their faith: “For truly you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world”... Let our hearts and minds contain all the power of this confession and its truth. Don’t we have here the fulfillment of our innermost and ardent desire - a meeting with Christ and union with Him? True, this meeting is not obvious, but mysterious, accessible only to the eyes of faith. However, its reality is no less than Christ’s stay on earth, before and after the resurrection. The mystery of the Eucharist is that the bread and wine here, by the power of transformation, are the Body and Blood of Christ, in them Christ dwells in the fullness of His incarnation and incarnation. This miracle of God’s love is performed at the divine liturgy, which through this becomes the place of Christ’s presence on earth. And before the Chalice, are we not united in Christ? About the early Christian Church, the image of which is the guiding one, it is said: “They continued constantly in the teaching of the apostles, in fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayers” (Acts 2:42). It is even said about their unanimity and mutual love: “The multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32), and: “No one from outside even dared to approach them” (Acts 5:13). And our communion in the Eucharist must also result in an internal rapprochement in which mutual alienation is overcome. If we have lost the feeling of such unity, then liturgical communion still leads us to it. Our heart involuntarily expands through participation in the sacrifice “for all and for all,” both in its boundless breadth and in a specific aspiration, in the memory of a loving heart about the living and the departed. A glimpse of the joy of such unity is given to us during the days of common communion, during the weeks of Lent, on Holy Thursday, on the day of the establishment of the most holy sacrament by Christ. These feelings must be constantly cultivated in us, growing along with the understanding of the full power of the great sacrament. Amen. Darkness thickens over the world, and a black melancholy falls on the heart. Such is the silent cry that spreads over the earth, such is the tearful complaint, the cry of a person for himself in the face of ongoing disasters. And it seems to him that what is happening in the destinies of the world happens unexpectedly, due to someone’s mistake and malice. Let this even be so in particular cases, but is not the general foreshadowing of Christ, addressed, without indicating time, to everyone, forgotten, at least indicating such a possibility? The Lord spoke thus to the disciples on the Mount of Olives about the “end of the age,” in other words, about all times of human life without limitation, until its very end: “When you hear about wars and rumors of war, see that you are not horrified, for all these things must come to pass” (Matthew 24:6). “And this is not the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in many places. All this is the beginning of disease” (Matthew 24:6–8). The main disaster will be the impoverishment of love in people: “and they will hate one another... and because iniquity will increase, love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:10-11). What does this “must be” mean? Should there be something that freezes the heart and empties the soul? What kind of inevitability of all this, as if pre-established, is the Lord talking about? But He Himself did not give an answer to this, leaving it to our understanding. He only added one thing: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13), “and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14), the end as a certain fullness of earthly accomplishment, after which “will be the Coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27). With this, the Lord responds in advance to both complaints and exhaustion. He calls for the courage of patience. What kind of patience does the Lord want from us? Is it a slavish, powerless numbness in fear and despondency, hopelessness and despair in front of something and from something from which it is humanly impossible not to despair? Or is it something completely different, it is the acceptance of God’s destiny in Christ and with Christ, Who prophesied it and Himself received it from His Father in exactly this way: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, however, not as I want, but as You do!” (Matthew 26:39)? And He Himself repeated this prayer three times for patience in the struggle of Gethsemane. He then lifted the burden of the sorrow of the whole world in His humanity. He accepted it for all times and peoples, whose destinies he prophesied on the Mount of Olives, and in His humanity He shares it with us. For this is precisely what His prophecy meant. He would not have prophesied if He Himself had not experienced, accepted, and made all human suffering His own, through His compassion with him. But how can we bring His compassion, His closeness, His love, His saving help closer to us? But He Himself showed the way to this: “Do this in remembrance of Me,” in which He will remain with us all the days until the end of the age. This same “memory” is His own presence in His holy Gifts, in the divine Eucharist. We must know that through it we are approaching Christ Himself who suffers with us. We are not abandoned by Him in His ascension to heaven; He remains with us co-human, just as He was on earth. His Gethsemane grief and saving passion seem to continue in the world, and, Seated at the right hand of the Father, He is with us, the God-man, but also a co-man with men. We are approaching Him, just as the crowds of people were approaching then, crowding around Him, each with his own torment, with his own temptation and weakness. He knows everyone who touches Him, how He felt the bleeding woman who touched Him and in this touch received strength and healing. But it should not remain as if accidental and only a bodily touch of the crowding crowd, but a free movement of faith and hope, our inner aspiration to Christ. We must seek a meeting with Christ, thirst for it. And if we remain cold and indifferent in days of prosperity, then our hearts open with suffering and are warmed by fellow-suffering with Christ. The Lord hears the cry of our heart, and we can hear this hearing of Him, even in any prayer through the invocation of His Name, especially in the sacrament of the Body and Blood, His saving incarnation. He gave us this meeting as a gift of “remembrance,” not only through the communion of His holy Mysteries, but also in spiritual communion, prayerful presence at the Divine Liturgy. May our thoughts and sorrows, perplexities and questions, doubts and exhaustion be turned to Him, and the storm of our hearts, fear and confusion will be calmed by the mysterious, ineffable feeling of His closeness, which will become all the more palpable the more persistent our prayer: “Lord, save us, we are perishing! And he says to them: Why are you so fearful, you of little faith?!” (Matthew 8:25–26). The divine liturgy remains the same in its eternal immutability; only the human waves flowing to it change. But let it be known where to look for divine strengthening, peace and consolation, and how to look for it: with a frenzy of faith, a cry of love, an effort of hope, and prayerful contemplation of the Mysteries of Christ. “And Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them: Peace be with you. Having said this, He showed them His hands and His side” (John 20:19-20). Amen. Every person is destined to experience trials, “blows of fate”: injustice and human cruelty, separation and grief, loss and illness, and all sorts of other sorrows. And he is easily inclined to consider himself unjustified and offended, as a victim of a cruel and incomprehensible lot. He carries this feeling in his heart and is poisoned by it. Indeed, it is not easy to accept what is incomprehensible and scary to us. Didn’t righteous Job himself cry out to Him: “The terrible thing that I was terrified of befell me, and that which I feared came to me” (Job 2:25), and “he cursed his day” (Job 3:1), although he himself had just said to his wife: “Shall we really accept good from God, and not accept evil?” ( Job 2:10 ). So hard was his lot, although the apostle praises him for his long-suffering: “You have heard about the patience of Job” (James 5:11). But Christ Himself, having perceived the fullness of human nature, knew to the depths and all the burden of its test. And it is said about Him that “in the days of His flesh He offered prayers and supplications with strong crying and with tears to Him who was able to save Him from death” (Heb. 5:7), “and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44), so that an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him, and being in the struggle, He prayed more diligently.” What was the struggle and this prayer about? It was like this: “Father, oh, that You would deign to carry this cup past Me!” And He called his disciples to the same prayer: “Rise and pray, so as not to fall into temptation” (Luke 22:46), for “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). Even for the God-man, the inevitable destiny was one that the holiest human nature opposed. However, the All-Good Father did not free His Son from this destiny. Only after going through the struggle of Gethsemane was it given to Him to overcome the “weak flesh” and in the fullness of love and humility, saying three times: “If this cup cannot pass from Me, lest I drink it, Thy will be done!” (Matthew 26:42). In the God-Man, two wills, divine and human, were united in agreement, inseparably and unmerged. The decision of the divine will did not need to be sought through special effort; it was His own filial will. But she had to completely persuade the human will to agree with herself, which, “having diminished himself,” together with the flesh, the Son of Man took into himself. But He did not resist her with His divine omnipotence. The latter was silent, leaving complete freedom of self-determination to the human will, until this latter itself bowed to the divine will, which is the Father’s will: “I seek the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Together with the Son of Man, for every person there is the same struggle and choice, inevitable and saving: to accept or not to submit to our fate, in which the will of the Father is expressed for us. Such a decision is not often made in a brief moment, but can extend over many years, sometimes throughout a lifetime. The decision of Christ in the conflict of Gethsemane was expected by the Creator and creation, heaven and earth, the council of angels and the human race. However, when it was accepted for everyone, forever indestructible, now it is no longer expected of each of us. But it is expected from us by Christ Himself, who once answered for Himself and for everyone: “Thy will be done!”... Now He Himself bends with His humanity to our exhaustion, He wants His answer to become ours, He will suffer with us in the darkness of our Gethsemane night, expecting from us the most difficult victory - over ourselves. “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). He extends a saving hand to the drowning man, which he must accept. But how? How can we truly call on Christ to unite with Him, to know His saving power? Of course, this happens in every heartfelt invocation of Him, but with exceptional power and reality in the saving “remembrance” of His incarnation, in the sacrament of Body and Blood, in the divine liturgy, in which He is sacrificed “For all and for all.” This universality contains our troubles and sorrows, struggle and exhaustion, but also victory over our weakness. The Lord becomes close to us in communion not only verbally, but also spiritually. Now and ever, as if descending from heaven, He suffers with us in His earthly stay and does not disdain our smallness. And we, with faith and boldness, must fall back to Him with sorrows and bewilderments, doubts and cowardice. Invisibly, in unknown ways, He approaches us, visits our soul, heals it, resurrects it, gives it peace and heavenly joy, like drops of dew refreshing it. New forces of life appear in us, a new will to bear our cross after Him and with Him. Therefore, Christians, bring your own crosses to Christ, who is present in His holy Mysteries, and to His cross, seek His grace-filled overshadowing and help in prayer, especially in the Divine Liturgy, in which “the death of the Lord is proclaimed, until Christ, our life and joy, comes.” Amen. In the liturgy, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is offered, “this is done in His remembrance.” This is not only the human memory of her, but she herself, mysteriously continuing through the offering by the hands of the priest, who in him reveals himself as “a Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is “both the one who offers and the one who is offered” (as they say in the secret prayer on the Cherubim). God's love for the world and man, revealed in the Incarnation, continues to reveal itself to the world today in this universal sacrifice made for all people and for all human existence, on behalf of all creation, by the Son of God who assumed human nature. She is at the same time a sacrifice of His love for the Father in the eternal life of the Holy Trinity, as well as the Son of Man on behalf of humanity and all creation. In this sense, with Christ, in His God-manhood, we offer it to God. We must accommodate the fullness of this truth into our weak and limited consciousness. But can we talk about the universal power of this sacrifice if it is limited in space and time, and the members of the Church participating in it constitute only a small part of all humanity? Does this whole other part of Him belong to Christ, or does it remain alien to Him, ignorant or denying Him? From the outside it may seem that this humanity is not Christ’s, wants to belong to itself, and through this is given over to the power of the “prince of this world,” although internally undermined, it still continues. However, despite this imaginary evidence, humanity remains united in its nature and destinies. It is undividedly accepted by Christ in His God-manhood. For us it is still a mystery, hidden in the beyond, how and when this unity of the human race will be revealed and realized, and the sacrifice is now made only by Christians on behalf of the Church. However, its power and effectiveness extends to all humanity, which will also appear at the Last Judgment in this multi-unity. And just as in Adam’s original sin it all comes together, so in the Incarnation of God redemption is given to him, albeit in all its diversity. This is the joyful promise and hope of our faith. But there is also another bright side to it. Together with Christ we also participate in this sacrifice, we offer it with Him as a “mental and bloodless service.” And in this at the same time our love for both God and man is expressed prayerfully. This is praise and thanksgiving to God, combined with every offering related to our human life. However, it is beyond our strength to pray for peace and for all humanity, as was the prayer of Christ in the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane. Our heart is limited, as is our consciousness. It barely contains the prayerful memory of those few who are given to our prayerful love and care. We pray for them with every prayer and petition, realizing all our limitations, but also all the uniqueness of their meaning. We offer it to Christ himself, who is presented to us in His holy Gifts. And this prayer - we know this from experience, with the special fire that Christ brought to earth, ignites our heart. This need to capture our love in prayer is also expressed externally in named commemoration of both the living and the dead, which is given a special place in the rite of proskomedia. Thus, in the reverent memory of a prayerful heart, our entire life in all the diversity of its needs and events is united into some unity. Of course, at the same time, we should distinguish what is appropriate and worthy to pray for, so that we do not become like “the pagans, praying, saying unnecessary things” (Matthew 6:7), however, with our prayer we also feed our love. Pray for those near and far, for those who love and those who are at enmity, and through this the secret fabric of our mutual love is woven before the face of the Lord. And this love of ours merges with the love of our Lord for us, for our sake the man who came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit. Amen. Come with the fear of God, faith and love! 5 The same Divine voice that proclaimed through the lips of the priest, the performer of the sacrament: “Take, eat and drink from it, all of you,” now calls to begin. The Lord calls everyone who is coming, and only the people themselves do not heed this and, remaining motionless, find blessed guilt for this self-excommunication from the Chalice. And if we do not dwell on certain legal exceptions, this immobility of those called upon mainly finds its basis in the sincere consciousness of their unworthiness. Such a consciousness, naturally, should call for repentant cleansing, so that we will not be deprived of this greatest gift of God’s love, however, only on one condition, if confession of sinfulness, for which there is a cure in the sacrament of repentance, does not cover up the evil conscience here with indifference and spiritual immobility. Before us, in fear and trembling, the many-eyed cherubim and six-winged seraphim hide their faces, who, however, come before Him, who comes to sacrifice and be given as food to the faithful. And now He himself commands us to overcome the fear of our unworthiness. Coming to the Chalice, we prayerfully confess this unworthiness, realizing that we cannot surpass it, and if we imagine ourselves having overcome it, then we become even more unworthy. And yet, there is a right path, worthy of overcoming our weakness, and the Lord himself shows it to us. For he calls us to move forward in faith, fear of God and love. The Divine Eucharist, as the most holy sacrament, is, first of all, a feast of faith, which is “invisible notification” - confidence in the invisible. We are present with the eyes of faith in the upper room of Zion, together with the holy apostles, in unity with the entire Church, heavenly and earthly, Christ himself invisibly stands before us and communes us, and the bread and wine, which are visible with bodily eyes, are His Body and Blood. Our faith is weak and our eyes are blind to see, and yet let us be moved to see and hear His calling and commanding words. Let us begin today with this thought, with this inspiration, for faith is the breath of the Church, its knowledge. The clairvoyance of faith brings us face to face before Him before whom the heavenly armies tremble, and we are also seized with fear and trembling. Therefore, let the fear of the Lord be in us the beginning of wisdom (Ps. 110:10), in which we stand before the Lord. And won't he stop us? Do we dare to begin? Do not the words of Isaiah ring true for us: “Woe is me, I am lost... My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts!” (Is.6:5), presented to us in holy communion. However, the Lord calls us not only to fear in the feat of faith, but also to love. He calls us to approach with love, of which the apostle of love thus testifies to us: “There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). In love, he is overcome by joy, because in it there is the joy of meeting the Beloved, spiritually perceiving His closeness to us. Isn’t this what the Old Testament Song of Songs of Love speaks about: “On my bed at night I looked for the one whom my soul loves, I looked for him and did not find him. And when I found the one whom my soul loves, I grabbed hold of him and did not let him go until I brought him to my mother’s house, into the inner rooms of my mother” (Song 3:1, 4). May the Divine Eucharist become this joy for us. It is natural for a person to love joy, to seek it, to rejoice in it. Therefore, work for the Lord with fear and rejoice in Him with trembling, see Him with the eyes of Faith! There is much that must be said here that is important and necessary, forgotten and unknown. However, all words about the Spirit will remain poor and dead, devoid of the Spirit itself, His unutterable groanings and prophetic verbs. And the creature cries out, prays to the Spirit: “Come and dwell in us”! Exhaustingly calling, fadingly thirsty. The Comforter is near, He is in the world, but not with the world, in us, but not with us... He is invariably accessible and clearly known in His breath, in His mysterious presence. Through the sacraments of the Church He gives us living communion with God. He preserves it and guides it, by His power it is the highest reality for us, which is not taken away and will not be taken away from us - joy forever, the light of eternity in the world below: the Spirit who descended from heaven, sent down by the Son from the Father, revealing the Father and the Son. But united with the divine in us—“inseparably and unmerged”—is the human, which has the potential to be deified, to become divine-human. And how sad and even scary it is, this human thing, how it alienates the Spirit and runs away from Him, fears and does not want Him: and the guardians of the sacred fire, having the piety of the church, but alien to the piety of creative life, as well as completely ignorant of the sacred, its embittered detractors and deniers, sometimes not alien to the piety of life and the quest for creativity. The arrogance and bitterness of the Pharisees and Sadducees: soullessness in the name of spirituality and blasphemy of the Spirit for the sake of the flesh are united in quenching the spirit and the humiliation of prophecy: custodianism, preserving the vain and false, stagnation, elevated to the law of life, and joyless prosaism, this leprosy of false spirituality, - on the one side, and demonic warfare with the humanistic self-deification, animal indifference to the spiritual and immersion in the flesh - on the other. The tongues of fire that flare up in the darkness are extinguished angrily and powerlessly go out. The night of the world yawns with the darkness of emptiness in the kingdom of the beast and the false prophet. But the world itself is already shuddering from this spiritual emptiness - and it thirsts for inspiration, seeks prophecy, divine-human revelation about humanity, about the world and man. He knows and preserves the Divine, but does not know and does not know how to find the Divine-Human. And if God does not help, then man will not be saved... But God has already saved, for he came into the world and became a man... And, ascending from the world, he sent the Holy Spirit from heaven and gave Pentecost. The Holy Spirit abides in the world, He is given to us, and woe to us if we are not in the Spirit. But we pray and tea for a new gift of a united Pentecost, a new answer to unanswered questions, new creativity, new inspiration, a life-transforming one, calling us to meet the coming Christ. Not having the Spirit, we thirst for Him and faint for Him. Without Him, our entire historical era is shaking with mortal spasms. But, mysteriously watered by the Spirit in the sacraments, with them and in them the tea of ​​the new sacrament of life, the gift of the Comforter who has come and remains with us. And in its agony, the world knows Consolation and longs for the Comforter, like God’s Love for the world, and loves Love. He loves Love in its deeds, in its gifts, which are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And our insatiable love wants to love Love itself - not only Its power, but also its face, the hypostatic face, unknown to us, unmanifested, undiscovered. And our love seeks the reflection of this face, its appearance. She seeks and finds: in the known and unknown, earthly and heavenly glorified face of the Spirit-Bearer, the Bride of God and the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, the glorified Queen of Heaven, who in her dormition did not leave the world, but (as the hypostatic Love of God, the Holy Spirit) - abiding in the world and together - above the world. Our eyes are blind to see this Glory in heaven, and yet we expect its revelation, its approach to the world, for in glory the coming Christ will draw near. Then the fullness of God-manhood will appear: Jesus-Mary, the Logos and the Holy Spirit, revealing the Father. This fullness of revelation is promised to the weary creation. With lofty minds and purified hearts, let us rise in the morning with lighted candles to meet him - God-manhood. Both the Spirit and the Bride say: come! And let him who hears say: Come! The Lord proclaims at the beginning of his sermon (meeting with the Forerunner): “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:23). What is this Gospel of the Kingdom, how is it realized and what is denied? The image of this fulfillment is revealed to us in the ministry of the Lord and, above all, in His “temptations” from the devil, to which He was deliberately led by the Holy Spirit into the desert. Here the “prince of this world” tempted Him to replace the Kingdom of God with a kingdom from this world, taking advantage of the latter’s means: earthly wealth, the protection of earthly power and signs of imaginary greatness - and all of them were rejected by the Lord. He went out to his ministry - naked from all earthly instruments of dominion over souls and the people here - in order to reign in the world, making it the Kingdom of God, and the only victorious instrument of His reign was the cross on which He was crucified, He, the King of the Jews. And the path of His Kingdom in the life of the Church is marked by this bearing of the cross, “a temptation to the Jews, madness to the Greeks”: persecution and constant co-crucifixion with Christ, together with co-resurrection with Him. The life of the Church was also beset by “temptations in the wilderness.” The tempter stands relentlessly before her. Throughout church history, they received the power of deception through wealth, the protection of power, and the captivity of souls with false signs. All these temptations lay like black shadows, in all their diversity, in the luminous church church. They are still thickening today. Some temptations give way to others. Earthly riches and the protection of the authorities are taken away from the Church, which in our days either directly and openly persecutes the Church, or gives it the Judas kiss of imaginary protection for its own purposes. The Church stands before her tormentors, having taken off her clothes, like Christ being scourged before the crucifixion. Although this removal of vestments has not yet been completed, it is already taking place. And so other members of the Church, in confusion, fear, selfishness, again clutch at these rotten tools of the earth’s dust, trying to keep them from blows, kissing them, bowing before the “most Christian” rulers. But this only serves to disgrace the Church. The city of saints is increasingly surrounded by the armies of militant anti-Christianity, as if triumphant in victory both in thought and in life. It seems that the Church is powerless and unarmed before its enemies, and its very existence is in danger - Christianity seems to be leaving the world. Unbelievable fear and despondency enter the souls of many in the face of modernity. And there are two tempting outcomes for this despondency: one is the broad path of renunciation of Christ, which many follow: “I began to swear and swear: I do not know the man of whom you speak” (Mark 14:71), - or, leaving Him, to flee, as was the case with the disciples, on the night of Gethsemane - into the kingdom of darkness in the world. But along with direct renunciation of faith, there is another way of the same thing: namely, the loss of faith in its power, in the victory that has conquered the world. Christians begin to live in fear, all their desire is limited only to the effort to hold out until the imminent end of the world. A special decadent eschatology of despair and fear of history is developing, which appears entirely in the power of the Antichrist. This mood sometimes affects even strong and prophetic souls (as, for example, Vl. Solovyov in his dying story about the Antichrist). This loss of Christian courage threatens modern Christianity with historical impotence, since it is overwhelmed by this lack of faith. But the Lord, having hidden from people the times and dates of the end of history, thereby called everyone at all times to the feat of faith and historical action. No one is allowed to know and no one is allowed to say that history has already ended internally. On the contrary, we see that it continues, and therefore there is also a historical future, and therefore, tasks in history and our duty in it remain. “Like an eagle” the youth of the Church is renewed, and it reveals its new revelations according to human conditions in theanthropic ways. We must believe in the power of the Church and by faith accept it in ourselves, in the world, in history. We must search and find what we still have to accomplish in history. Whatever hour of history, early or late, we enter to work in the heliport of the Lord, we are called to this, and no one has the power to free us from this calling. Nothing can be a sufficient reason for this, and a cowardly flight from history and abandonment of one’s creative post cannot be justified. Christian courage gives us that self-control which enables us to see things in their true light. In this light, we become able to notice not only the persecution of Christianity and its damages, but also its victories, its expanding influence, the newly arising tasks before it. And in the face of all this, we come to a different conclusion, completely opposite to historical fear: at the present time, even more than before, the positive power of Christianity is being revealed in the world, although it is still not fully revealed. We are already becoming capable of predicting the future from the present, looking from today to tomorrow. Yes, Christianity is being persecuted. However, we must take a closer look at these persecutors of his in our days. Are they all true enemies of the cross of Christ? These are truly representatives of the spiritual philistinism, indifferent to any higher values, who live according to passions and lusts and seek in life only an increase in the opportunity to serve them. And such are those who sell the pearl of the Kingdom of God for the sake of earthly goods, or replace it. These are those who consider faith itself only as a means or for strengthening the “totalitarian”, i.e. a pagan state, or to preserve the nationality, or even to maintain culture. All of them remain powerless before the temptations of the prince of this world and are enslaved by him. But we are not talking about these sons of this century, but about those persecutors of Christianity, those Sauls who are waiting for their insight and conversion and are capable of it. The social movement of modern times, with its “humanism”, paganized, but by no means pagan in essence and origin, was born from the spirit of Christianity, inspired by the commandment of social love, justice, and philanthropy. This social love, a precious asset of our time, did not exist in the ancient world with its legalized slavery and denial of the equal value of the human person. The preaching of social truth, which is now heard in the pagan camp, actually belongs to the Christian gospel. Of course, until now the hearts of its servants remain blinded in their unbelief, they do not want to know this gospel, they serve it only in its practical application. But are they not seduced by our sins precisely against this gospel, by human betrayals of the truth of the Gospel, by actual atheism under the guise of piety, which is so mercilessly exposed in St. Gospels? In their godless and anti-religious museums, you never know, along with the insane rebellion against heaven, the cruel and bitter truth about these betrayals of Christians to Christianity? Perhaps it was they who blocked the path to faith with a heavy stone for weak, but sincere and straightforward souls. There is no need to close your ears to the words of truth, even if they are testified by enemies and in an enemy language. The peoples have now emerged from a state of immobility and enslavement; they are looking for the paths of truth. This quest partly already contains forgiveness of those errors that befall them along this path. Even in their silence they turn their questions to the Church. Does the Church hear them? But she must hear them, and she begins to hear them. The Church itself is entering a new, creative and therefore joyful era in its history. And first of all, a new spirit and new freedom are given to her by her current persecution in the world, which is a much more fitting state for her than the patronage of the prince of this world. The Church, conscious of its originality, separates itself from the world-power forces with which it has been associated for too long; it truly becomes a kingdom not of this world. If damage and ruptures, losses and falling away are felt even more now than spiritual conquests, then we must remember that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church, and the Lord is able to call hardened hearts to faith, to resurrect and clothe dead bones with flesh. And this endowment, this awakening of Christianity from centuries-old immobility in the prevailing guardianship, is what we are witnessing today. We breathe the joy of awakening spring. And first of all, it is expressed in shifts in religious thought, in Christian consciousness: in doctrine, in theology, those questions have already arisen that have long been asked by life, inscribed by the finger of Providence on the tablets of history: questions about the world and about man, about human creativity and the Christian community, about the power of the Church - they all seek resolution for themselves in the light of the dogmas of Christianity. We live in an era of awakening dogmatic tension in Christian thought, which distinguished the creative eras of church history. Questions that have risen imperiously from the very depths of Christian consciousness and are imperiously posed by life can neither be removed, nor silenced, nor prohibited. They imperiously demand permission, according to our faith, according to the promise: “Seek and you will find, press and it will be opened to you.” We live in an age of gathering dogmatic storms. We have a duty to preserve in full and undistorted the treasures of faith entrusted to us; we are called to not only not bury them in the ground, but to multiply them, to reveal them as a living tradition living in us. From the deepened dogmatic consciousness will come new practical calls and inspirations. In this way the Church will be strong; in her freedom she will call her children from the west, east, and north, and south. And we are now seeing another joyful sign of church renewal. Throughout the Christian world, the desire for Christian reunification is awakening with renewed vigor. Its division begins to be recognized as a sin and the greatest disaster. The wounds of church schism hurt in our hearts. Religious psychology itself is changing significantly, losing its sharpness and militant bitterness towards dissidents. Our church prayer “for the unification of all” begins to sound louder in our hearts. Of course, Orthodoxy for us is the church truth in fullness and purity, but we learn to find the rays of this truth even where it is not contained in this fullness and purity, and in the union of church love and church friendship we strive to reveal it and increase it. The “ecumenical movement” that has begun in the world, the unction of “churches” about the Church, is a great sign of our time. Participation in this movement imposes great duty and responsibility on everyone involved in it. If, due to our sins, it remains fruitless and unsuccessful, the wrath of God will befall the lazy and wicked servants. The bright vision of the universal Church, which has one mouth to glorify the Lord and proclaim the truth of God, will be taken away from us, and a black shadow will again fall to the earth. And this same universal movement has the task of proclaiming the social truth of Christianity, returning to it what belongs to it, what has been admired from it. There is a struggle against the spirit of the Antichrist, which has deceptively reigned in the public. This is the bright, promise-filled calling of the Church in our day - to become “a light for the enlightenment of the tongues.” And if we hear this calling, then a new future will open up before history. It is too early to announce the end of world history and the approaching coming... not of Christ, but of the Antichrist. The latter can only become the fruit of our lack of faith and cowardice. But just as in the life of each of us there should equally be a place for life, and dying, and the memory of the hour of death, and creative plans, so in thoughts about history, readiness for an unknown end must be combined with the consciousness of historical duty, the search for a real path towards the Future. The wise virgins with flaming lamps must meet the Bridegroom. “The kingdom of God is forced by force.” It is required in each of us by the power of our personal achievement - faith and prayer, repentance and inspiration. Without this personal movement towards God, the power of the Kingdom of God, which is within us, does not come to us; our heart must become the throne of God. But this movement does not linger in our personal lives (which would be un-Christian egocentrism), but the Kingdom of God, which is within us, is also between us, among us, in our human communication, in history, and here it is a joyful and tragic movement towards the new solemn entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, towards His coming into the world, in parousia: “When this begins to come true, then bow down and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” ( Luke 21:28). Such is the power of the Church. It is not ours, but God’s, but it is accomplished in us and by us in our weaknesses. And one cannot only be tempted by weaknesses; one must also know this strength. The path of a Christian is to bear the cross for Christ. This is also the way of history. Christian hopes do not speak about happiness and harmony on a sinful earth, but about the last division of light and darkness, about the last struggle in the world, at a time when it awaits the day of its end and transformation by the power of God. But this division must fulfill its measure to the end, and in it all the power of the Kingdom of God, manifested on earth, must be realized. The leaven of Christianity leavens the dough of history. And in this consciousness, in this calling, we must find the source of Christian vigor, hope, joy, life, energy. And Peter said: “We have left everything and followed You.” Jesus answered: “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for My sake and the gospel’s sake, but will receive now in this time, through persecution, a hundred times more... and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30). Christianity - belief in the Holy Trinity We call ourselves Christians, applying to ourselves the saving name of Jesus... “And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38), such was the call of the apostle. Peter immediately after Pentecost, when the foundation of the Church of Christ was laid on earth, and “the disciples of Christ began to be called Christians” (Acts 11:26), first in Antioch, and then throughout the world. However, our Lord, sending the apostles to preach the Gospel to all languages, commanded them to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), and thereby established that all Christians, disciples of Christ, must believe in the Holy Trinity, and this immediately became the general confession of the Church. It has become self-evident that one cannot profess faith in Christ as the Son of God without believing in the Holy Trinity. For the Son is inseparable from the Father, whom He shows, and Christ is the anointed one of the Holy Spirit, who rests on Him. However, in my mind, with one breath in the name of Jesus, we name the entire Holy Trinity. And conversely, whoever does not believe in the Holy Trinity cannot be a Christian in the sense that the Lord, the holy apostles, and the primacy of the Church gave this name. This is a truth that is often obscured or even lost in the modern consciousness, and yet should shine in it like the sun in the sky. But is this truth accessible to a person, does he need it vitally? Doesn't it exceed the measure of human comprehension, therefore remaining fruitless for him? These are the doubts that are often heard these days and further lead to distortion or denial of this fundamental truth of Christianity. These doubts and questions should be answered with the most decisive rejection of them. We vitally know the truth about the Holy Trinity, for we bear Her image in our own spirit, in its life and structure. And to the extent of our life in Christ, it reveals itself to us as the deepest and most intimate thing in a person. What exactly can the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, one Divinity in three equally divine Persons, mean for us? Doesn’t our mind faint at this thought, as if from an unbearable contradiction, for it knows only three, or only one, but here it must think of the trinity, this super-number of the Divine? Isn’t it therefore more attractive for him to have a simple and accessible thought: God is one, just as He was revealed to Israel in the Old Testament: “The Lord our God is one” (Deut. 6:4). After all, from his own experience, a person knows only a single, and not a triple or multiple personality. However, let's think about it, is this really the case? Is the human personality so self-contained and isolated? When a person realizes his I, he never knows it alone and isolated, but always implies, next to himself, other personalities or other selves: this is you, he, you, they, and it itself mysteriously merges with them into we, dissolving and being included in some multi-unity, although not getting lost in it. What power is given to our self to vitally overcome both our loneliness and our selfish limitations, going beyond ourselves, beyond our own limits? This power is love. In love, the fullness of his personality is revealed to a person, together with others, while selfish self-affirmation is not the triumph of the personal principle, but its devastation. The truth about the personal principle is contained in the words of Christ: “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). But this property of the personal principle in man is only evidence of his divine Prototype, in accordance with which he was created, namely the Holy Trinity. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Can we think of God-Love as a lonely, limited person in his selfishness, which is unbearable for us even when applied to ourselves, or here it already seems self-evident in advance that the divine Person cannot be limited in his individuality. According to revelation, God is the Holy Trinity in Unity or Unity in Trinity. This trinity is a triune eternal act of mutual divine love of three Persons in one God, there is love. Love is an effective and sacrificial self-denial for life in another and others, the perfect joy of sacrificial love. Moreover, each divine Hypostasis reveals itself in its own way and lives in other Hypostases: the Father speaks His divine word not Himself, but through the Son, who, Himself being the divine Word, has it not as His own, but as the Father’s Word. And the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, not with His own love, but with the Holy Spirit, Who, Himself being Love, has it not as His own, but as the Love of the Father and the Son. Limited human love, although it takes a person out of his limitations, does not completely overcome it. Divine love knows no boundaries, and therefore the divine Persons, remaining themselves, are completely identified in the threefold trinity. “I and the Father are one” (by the Holy Spirit), says the Lord (John 10:30). “The Father is in Me and I in Him” (John 10:38) (again, of course, by the Holy Spirit). No human love, of course, ever realizes that fullness, the image of which we have in the Holy Trinity. However, precisely this kind of love, in which each person finds himself in all others and everything in each, is that image of multi-unity that was given to us from eternity in the Holy Trinity, as the very basis of our life. But this image is imprinted not only in our personality, but also in its life self-determination, which is accomplished simultaneously in self-denial and self-affirmation. We then realize ourselves most in our personal gifts, when we devote ourselves to a higher super-personal goal, putting our work into the common treasury. For humanity has a single destiny, a single creativity, and its historical continuity is based on this. Without this, individual actions of individuals, unrelated to each other, would drown in emptiness. But this unity of life of integral humanity is also comprehended by us only in the light of the Trinity dogma. God, existing in three Persons, has one essence, one life, one wisdom, one Divinity. However, at the same time, each divine Person has this life and this wisdom according to his personal properties. The special features characteristic of the Trinity Hypostases are not abolished, but are manifested in the single self-revelation of the Divinity, His wisdom. And this same trinity is manifested in the actions of God as the Creator, Provider, Redeemer and Savior of the world. Here, in this trinity of life and revelation of the Divine, the prototype of our own creative self-determination is imprinted for us. So, we see that the truth about the Holy Trinity is not distant and alien for us, but the closest and most necessary for our personal self-awareness. But it is the same for our life self-determination. As a living personal multi-unity, humanity is called to creativity, which is carried out by the concerted efforts of individual individuals with their special gifts and callings, and yet they all add up to a certain whole, and in it these personal traits seem to go out, or, rather, light up with a new light. “You are the body of Christ, and individually members” (1 Cor. 12:27). The members are not the body, but the body consists of members that are such only as part of the body. This is the path of human life and creativity in history. And this image of our existence, externally perceived by us blindly and unconsciously, again shines for us in the light of faith in the image of the Trinitarian Deity. We have been given, through life’s struggle, by “doing the commandments” of Christ, to comprehend this image, to approach the knowledge of the Holy Trinity, according to the word of the Savior: “Unto him We will come and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). Christians are called by Christ to be the abode of the Holy Trinity, and the Lord sent disciples to baptize all languages ​​in the name of the Holy Trinity. This means that the entirety of humanity with its many different gifts is destined to become this abode, to manifest this image. Both personal and national gifts are worthy of this purpose, for they all have to be dedicated to one shrine, given to one task: all in all and for all, for in the fullness of time “God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). The difference between personal and national gifts in the natural world separates, but in the spiritual world they mutually replenish, like different members of one body. Of equal importance is the spiritual and cultural difference between the Western, European-American, and Eastern Orthodox world, of which I come to you as a messenger. The West has been given the opportunity to demonstrate, first of all, active Christianity, which here, in this country, is often even understood as a commandment and inspiration for social work. Since ancient times, the East has been, and to some extent still remains, the most contemplative. The theology of the Gospel of John, the Ecumenical Councils, the prayerful depths of contemplative asceticism - such is his predominant destiny in history. But nothing in it has the right to exist in one-sidedness and self-affirmation, and, on the contrary, everyone is called to the heliport of the Lord with their deliberate talents. Now the time is coming when the work of the universal unification of Christianity comes next. “All tongues,” which are sealed with the name of the Holy Trinity, are called to the marriage path of faith and service. Both sisters, Martha and Mary, were honored with the personal friendship of the Lord. In Christianity there is priestly, prophetic and social, “royal” ministry, which are all needed for the Kingdom of God. We are different members, but of one body. May our prayer communication today be a small image of that great universal unity of the Christian world, which is tea. Amen. And the devil said to Him: I will give you power over all kingdoms and their glory, for she is devoted to me, and I give to whomever I want her... Jesus answered him, “Get away from From that time Jesus began preach and say: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. With deep reverence we must contemplate the first appearance of Christ to the world and listen to the first words of His gospel. It is equally important both what is directly contained in them, but also what is kept silent about, even if it seemed most necessary to us, the vain sons of this world, namely about the structure of our earthly life. The Lord did not reject or condemn our worries and labors in the search for daily bread, as in the entire creation of the earthly city. This includes His general guiding word: render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but only to the extent that this is consistent with serving God. But to seek, devoting all the strength of the soul to this search, is commanded only to seek the Kingdom of God and its truth. The sons of the Kingdom of God are equally called to this, first by the Forerunner of Christ, and then by the Lord himself: repent, for it has come! What is required of us, along with the erasing of individual sins, is a general correction of the path of life with a constant examination of ourselves in the light of conscience, a re-evaluation of our deeds, thoughts, and desires in the face of God. It requires constant and sometimes painful effort from us, “The Kingdom of God is taken by force,” and only “those who use force delight it!” (Matthew 11:12). Moreover, this concerns not only external works, which are as different as earthly ministries, but also the entire inner man in his innermost self-determination. We are required to dedicate everything we do to God, to do it in His Name. The Lord calls us to unceasing spiritual reflection in the Gospel of the Kingdom. It is significant that Christ’s ministry on earth begins with His temptation from Satan in the desert. The Lord, the Truth itself, does not resist such temptation; in it a positive and, moreover, clear depiction of the true path of life is accomplished, along with the rejection of the false one. Satan offers Christ earthly power and glory, but on one condition only: “If You worship me, then all will be Yours” (Luke 4:7). But to this temptation an unshakable answer is given: “Get behind me, Satan, it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only” (Luke 4:3). The decision has been made, and, moreover, regarding the entire earthly path - from the mountain of temptation to Golgotha. But why did the Lord allow Satan to approach Him with his tempting questions and even answer them? For our sake, the Lord humbles himself and wants our admonition. Satan, in his madness, thought to tempt the Lord, but He revealed the fullness of His humiliation to the end, even before accepting human temptation: “Just as He Himself endured temptation, having been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). For the temptation of Satan over the human race continues until the end of the age, although it has once and for all been weakened. The human race is tempted by concern for its daily bread, and power over the forces of nature, and the power of the earthly kingdom. These temptations lose their power if a person keeps the memory of God in his heart and “first of all” seeks His will, but they immediately gain it, to the extent that they take possession of the human heart. And besides, each time has its own special temptations. Such a fatal temptation of our days is the temptation of godless self-affirming power, “Caesar’s” instead of God’s, whether this self-affirmation is based on the imaginary superiority of blood or a social system with constant enslavement to the spiritual. And those who are overwhelmed by the thirst for power, seeking self-worship, worship the tempter and serve him. Confessors of the Name of God in the face of temptation - before, as now - invariably answer: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone,” “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” - not unconditional, but limited, relative obedience, only according to the law of God. This is how the Christian martyrs answered the Roman Caesar, this is how they answer now in the face of the godless authorities in our homeland, and this is the only way Christians can always and everywhere relate to such claims of earthly power for the completeness and unconditionality of their worship, in which the ancient seductions of the tempter are repeated. The commandment of God says: “I am the Lord your God, and you shall have no other gods before Me, and you shall not make for yourself any graven image” (Ex. 20:1–2). Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38–42; John 11:1–32) Nowadays, due to the disasters of war, many who are not directly involved in it, most of all wives and mothers, are destined to experience difficult trials in caring for their daily bread, persistent and inexorable, everyday and petty. Souls are exhausted in the consciousness of their emptiness, which they experience as their sinful falling away, but also as abandonment by God. Some are still examining their conscience in confusion and fear, but many others are numb in a state of hopelessness. And those who until recently felt themselves to be rich in God, now see themselves in spiritual poverty. The word of Revelation is fulfilled on us: “You say, I am rich and have need of nothing, but you do not know that you are miserable, and pitiful, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). What can conscience answer in the face of its disastrous over-concern, voluntary and involuntary? Let us seek admonition from the Lord, in His holy Gospel, and it will be given to us, if not directly, then indirectly, in the story of two sisters, Mary and Martha, who “received Him into her home” (Luke 10:38). Both of them were in special friendship with the Lord, for it is said about them that “Jesus loved Martha and her sister” (John 11:5), as well as their brother Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead. The Lord did not reject the hospitality of Martha, who sought to receive the Guest with dignity, and therefore took care of many treats. Just as naturally, she had a desire to attract Mary to her aid, who, instead, “sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to His word” (John 11:39). Martha allowed herself to be tempted by this, albeit natural and even righteous, selfishness of her sister and turned with a complaint to the Teacher in the hope of finding in Him support for her seemingly just desire: “Lord, or do you not need it, that my sister left me alone to serve? Tell her to help me." However, Jesus in his answer stood up not for Martha, but for Mary and “said in response to her:“ Martha, Martha! You care and worry about a lot (treats), but you need a little or (even something) one thing.” With these words, the Lord wanted to moderate Martha’s caring zeal and thereby calm her down. 6 About Mary, He added, taking her as if in his defense: “Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her” (John 11:42). The Lord did not want to deprive Mary of her blessed inheritance, which seemed to Martha an undeserved advantage. What is the main idea of ​​this short answer? First of all, it obviously does not contain rejection or even only belittlement of Martha in her service to the Lord; on the contrary, He accepted it along with His other services, which were generally different and diverse. The fulfillment of Martha’s desire, according to the word of the Lord, can be achieved in another way, namely by simplifying her treats. Then she herself will have the opportunity to enjoy the Teacher’s conversation, and Mary’s help becomes less necessary. The Lord did not want to deprive the latter of her advantage in “her chosen good part”, not because, of course, she alone received recognition and blessing from the Lord (as this is often, however erroneously, understood), but for a special reason, although not directly stated here. It is only clear that not out of selfish indifference to her neighbor, in this case to her sister - Mary herself “chose for herself” this good part - but out of deliberate inspiration, which could not be resisted. The Lord blessed both sisters equally, although on different grounds, with his visit. Both their gifts and their callings are different. But the Lord did not belittle either one or the other in his love. This becomes especially clear from the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, “the brother of Martha and Mary,” and when the Lord approached their village, Martha was the first to “hear that Jesus was coming, and went to meet Him, but Mary sat at home” (John 11:20). It is also noteworthy that both sisters turn to Jesus with exactly the same confession of their faith in Him, precisely with the words: “Lord! If You had been here, my brother would not have died.” But Martha also adds to this a fiery confession of faith, equal in content to the apostles: “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you... Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life... do you believe this? She says to Him: Yes, Lord! I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who comes into the world” (John 11:25–27). Such was the “good part” of Martha here. Mary again received her good part even later, namely by becoming the myrrh-bearer. She had the appearance of the Risen One and was called by Him by name. From these comparisons it is obvious that both sisters, despite all the differences in their gifts and ministries, were united in their love for the Lord and faith in Him, as well as in His reciprocal love for them. And this was the only thing needed, equal for both. How can we apply this answer from the Gospel to our present life in its questions? When does the Lord love us more and do we show our love for Him? Is it in humiliation or in spiritual glory? When were we more able to serve Him: then, when we had the opportunity to sit at the feet of the Teacher, and in this closeness we seemed to ourselves fuller and more inspired in the creativity of our lives, or now, when our destiny is to serve Him in patience and humility, in involuntary or voluntary self-sacrifice, when the burden of responsibility and care, and the vanity of petty and “regular” things weighed down on us? The latter is justified for us insofar as it is applied for the sake of love for one’s neighbor, this “second” commandment, which, however, according to the Teacher’s word, is “similar” to the first - about the love of God, it contains and in this sense is identical and inseparable from it. Not everyone and not always is given the sweetness of the first service that the heart asks for, but there is another image of it, long-suffering, joyless, uninspired - this is much-caring care. “All members of the body (according to the word of the apostle, 1 Cor. 12:25) should equally care for each other.” And if the Lord so insistently calls us to freedom from worrying “about tomorrow,” placing it on the Lord, in order to strengthen our faith and trust in Him, then this does not mean irresponsible idleness, for there is a legitimate concern not about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34), in all its infinity, but about today, it is “enough” for each day, insofar as it corresponds to it. The apostle speaks about this, for each in his own way and in his own special sense: “Let him who does not work, let him not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). But there is a work of faith and a labor of love and patience of trust in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 1:3). If this work and care of this day now becomes so burdensome, then this is God’s will for us, which we must accept in humility and submission. However, we must firmly remember that there is also a measure here, a distinction between “the many, the few and the one,” indicated by the Lord for Martha, and in her person for each of us, regarding the combination of responsibility and freedom from care. Regarding compliance with this measure, we must constantly examine ourselves before the judgment of our conscience. The closeness of God or abandonment by God is determined not by the ease or difficulty of the burden of life, but by how we carry it, how we keep within ourselves at least the last remnant of spirituality, prayer life and faith. In these difficult times, we are called upon to show our loyalty to the Lord in the fight against despondency, the oppression of worries, the twilight of the spirit, and in spiritual self-preservation. The Lord said: “He who is faithful in a little will be faithful in much” (Luke 16:10). Therefore, do not look for this much, if it is taken away from us according to the will of the Lord, but inexorably demand from yourself the little that is feasible, which will be counted as a lot by the Lord and He will send spiritual consolation and joy to Mary into the long-suffering heart of the much-caring Martha. Amen. The introduction of the Most Holy Theotokos into the church appears to me in the form of a solemn procession following Her, with the lights of faith, and all nations have joined this procession throughout the centuries, just as we are joining it now. But this image is complemented for me by another, further one - the procession from the church of those entering it, also with lamps already kindled from the fire of the church, for a hundred hail, for its work. On this day of the celebration of the Church, it is appropriate to dwell on the relationship between what happens in the church and outside the church. The introduction of the Most Holy Theotokos means, first of all, Her removal from the world with its filth, into the dwelling of God, for communication with the angels and standing before God, “to be brought up in the Holy of Holies.” It is in this sense a call from the world with its vanity and sins to the church and abode of one’s soul for contemplation of God and prayer: “Woe are our hearts!” However, in addition to this religious-ascetic meaning, entering the church of the Most Holy Theotokos, according to the teachings of the Church, also has a sacred and mysterious meaning. It means the protection of the church, which is, at the same time, its abolition. The Mother of God herself appeared here as a true church not made by hands, for the Holy Spirit dwelt in Her, and She contained in Her womb the incontainable God the Word. Her appearance in the Old Testament church, which had only “a shadow of future blessings, and not the very image of things” (Heb. 10:1), was already the fulfillment of this image, but thereby the abolition of this Old Testament church. The church veil was torn, clearly exposing this abolition, when from the cross it was said: “accomplished,” but it already happened when “the Virgin entered the Holy of Holies with glory.” A living church not made by hands has appeared in the world - a man about whom the Holy Spirit speaks: “Do you not know that you are the church of God,” and this “church of God is holy, and this church is you” (1 Cor. 3:10–11)? “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19)? The sky bowed to the earth, and it appeared as a church in man. The Old Testament church was the only place on earth where a person met with God, in the Holy of Holies: “above the mercy seat I will appear in a cloud” (Lev.16:2), - a place where a person could offer a sacrifice to God until it was canceled by the sacrifice of Christ (Heb.10:9–10, 12). The New Testament church, which is called to worship not on this mountain and not in Jerusalem, not in any specific place, but “in spirit and truth” (John 4:21-23), no longer knows the church in the Old Testament sense. It also has churches, but they are no longer confined to a specific place, and their indefinite plurality also limits their significance in comparison with the Old Testament church in its uniqueness. The temple for us is not a “tabernacle of meeting,” but a place of common prayer (“synagogue”) 8 and the performance of the sacraments. And – should I say? – the church of this church, in the throne and in the antimension, is St. power, i.e. Human. The most holy sacrament has been performed on the relics of saints since ancient times. And no matter how important the church is for New Testament Christian piety, it does not occupy the place in it that was characteristic of the Old Testament church: the destruction of the latter was also the end of the Old Testament church. Nowadays, the enemies of the Christian faith are destroying churches, causing great sorrow and pain to Christians. But can they destroy the true New Testament church - man himself, his heart, which is the true throne of God? This Christian church is inaccessible to the destruction of Christ-fighters. The first church could not yet have its own churches, but that is why it no less shines with Easter joy for the whole of Christian history. But not only in the primal Church, which is the historical image of paradise on this darkened earth, but also in the true garden of God, in paradise, there was no church, for all of paradise was a church where God came to communicate with man (Gen. 2:15-22), where the first parents could hear “the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen. 3:8). And what is even more significant, there is no church in the holy city of Jerusalem, descending from heaven to earth, in the fullness of time, according to the vision of the Seer: “And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them” (Rev. 21:3). “But I did not see a church in the city, for the Lord God Almighty is its church and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22). All life will be filled with the vision of God when “God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). Therefore, the church and church piety have only a passing conditional meaning, which will pass when all human life becomes full of spirit and strength. When we think about entering a church in order to be strengthened there spiritually by prayer and the grace-filled gifts of the Church, we must also remember about leaving it, for Christian piety does not end at the threshold of the church, on the contrary, it begins here in a new way. The world is not only a place of sin and corruption, but it is also God’s field, in which, along with the tares, good wheat grows, and the owner wants us to honestly and fully use all the talents given to us - Christian creativity. The inspiration of good received in the church must also be brought into life outside the church, so that it too becomes consistent with the church. The “churching” of life, which is so often talked about among us, is this removal of the boundaries between the church and life, which are sometimes considered immutable. With the light of eternity, which lights up in our souls in the church, we must illuminate the current time, human life, which can, and, therefore, must become church life, the City of God. All living things have the ability of spontaneous movement, and as much as Christianity is life, it is also movement, movement along the stars of eternity. And if we talk about ourselves as a “Christian Movement,” then we are committing some kind of equivocation, because we cannot remain motionless in Christianity. It must be an inspired impulse, a creative movement, a striving from church to church, towards the future, which is, according to Christian promises, the appearance of “a new heaven and a new earth, in which truth lives.” The world strives for this outcome and fulfillment, and the Christian Church moves towards the Coming Christ. And the intensity and sincerity of this movement determines the actual measure of our entry into the church, our church churchness, which seeks to pour out over the whole world and drown it in this flood. May our “Movement” be involved in this pan-Christian movement. There is a superstitious sign that finding a cross means expecting some kind of trouble, something terrible; to give a cross is to bring misfortune upon the one to whom it is given. But there is also a wonderful custom - people, as a sign and assurance of the greatest closeness, exchange crosses, become cross brothers, and this closeness is even greater than the ties of kinship. The first sign is an image of a false, unworthy attitude towards the cross; the second custom reveals that inner side of the cross, with which it touches the depths of our souls and hearts. What is the cross and bearing the cross? Not only among people who are alien to the cross, but also among us Christians, the thought of the cross is often associated with the idea of ​​something terribly cruel, which must be endured in the order of obedience, which rests on the shoulders and cuts into them. This is not a Christian thought, not a Christian attitude. The cross is a sign of victory, the power of victory, the cross is joy, inspiration. The Lord said: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). These words, like all the words of the Lord, like all the words of the Gospel, cannot be understood in the sense of an external law proposed for disciplinary or utilitarian reasons. If sometimes for entire epochs such an understanding of the cross prevails, then this is a sad deviation away from Christ, bordering on enmity towards Christ, a fall into the teaching of the Manichaeans, who spoke of victorious evil. The law of the cross is in essence the law of our entire inner life, a law that helps this life, connected with the very structure of our spirit. The Savior’s words in this regard mean that whoever does not take the cross will not be a man of deep life, will not be a person who knows the wealth of inspiration, the delights of creativity: whoever does not take the cross will never know the joy of dedication to a higher goal. If we even turn to the life of non-Christian people, then in it we will find knowledge of the mystery of the cross, knowledge of its power. What is the subject of respect and admiration even among pagans? Undoubtedly, not a calm, trouble-free existence, but heroism, creativity, asceticism, the conquest of something new, the determination to sacrifice oneself for this. People here bow before the One Worshiped One, although they do not say “We worship Thy Cross, Master,” and do not know whose cross it is. How is this inner inevitability of the cross for everyone, as the only path for everyone who wants to live, and not just exist, expressed in the lives of even non-Christians? The fact is that only he can become rich internally who knows how to give up less for the sake of more, who is ready to suffer in order to achieve this more. How much effort is made to achieve random, illusory successes. In these efforts, a person is in danger of perishing and becoming exhausted, since only feat and suffering in the name of a truly great goal truly nourishes and enriches. In this work, intense labor for a higher goal, inevitably associated with the experience of suffering, a special depth grows. And this depth is not given by anything other than suffering. When meeting foreigners, due to our experience of suffering, we often involuntarily feel that they, despite their many superiorities, are still children: they have not experienced something that a person can and should experience in order to achieve true depth. If we compare these generally human manifestations of bearing the cross, as the law and basis of spiritual growth, internal content, and the Christian understanding of bearing the cross - what are the similarities and differences? The similarity is that the deep content of life is bought only at the cost of effort and sacrifice; the fullness, the richness of life is inevitably bought, redeemed, exchanged. This point is preserved in the Christian acceptance of the cross. Christ wants us, taking all of life in its complexity, to decisively and fearlessly follow Him along the path He indicated. In this moment of the inevitability of sacrifice, the determination to achieve feat, there is a similarity between the universal human law of the cross and the acceptance of the cross of Christ. What's the difference? From the point of view of modern pagan ideas, Christ’s service was a heroic service: He gave his life for an idea. But Christ performed His ministry not in the name of an idea, but in order to accomplish the will of the Father, to establish the Kingdom of God, Christ performed His ministry for the sake of God. The thought of God, of the will of God, of this First Value, the highest of all values, is fundamental in the ministry of Christ. Christ freely subordinates his will to the will of the Father, for her sake he drinks the cup of suffering, and he calls us to this too. Through this, the law of the cross not only corresponds to the natural human aspects, but is also sanctified by the fact that in the Christian acceptance of the cross everything is sacrificed to Heaven, to God. But then something new is revealed in the doctrine of the cross. Serving ideas makes human life richer and deeper, but only wearing a cross makes a person especially close to God, makes him like Him. Man is the image of God. We confess this with every movement, with every conscious appeal to God, but few people think that the image of God is the cross. “God is love,” and love is evidenced by sacrifice, accomplished in sacrifice. Without sacrifice there is no love. The life of the Holy Trinity is sacrificial love, the mysterious self-denial of each of the three Hypostases of the Holy Trinity in the infinity of love. In the bearing of the cross, the Lord deigns to touch us with this love, as he gives us the power of sacrificial love. If the cross is the Divine path, It cannot only be the cross of torment, Calvary, It must also be illuminated by the highest divine joy. When ap. Peter, on behalf of the disciples, said to the Lord: “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; What will happen to us?”, The Lord Jesus answered them: “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the coming of being, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:27-28). This image contains the idea that the cross gives not only torment, but also joy. And St. The Church sings: “We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy Resurrection.” The Resurrection is given by the cross of Christ and its light shines above the cross and through the cross. He always appears in the illumination of a victory that has conquered the world, a triumph that conquers on the way of the cross. Joy through the cross is the only true joy, in no way inalienable from a person, since only what has been suffered through the bearing of the cross has depth and is part of Divine joy. In the life of the next century, the cross is not only a symbol of suffering, but also a symbol of heavenly joy. Christ, who comes to judge the world, will come with wounds on his hands and feet. This testifies that the joy of the next century will be the joy of the cross, the joy of sacrificial love that overcomes suffering, so that suffering becomes joy. This is also contained in the doctrine of afterlife bliss. How to understand the very bearing of the cross? As passive submission or as active creative acceptance? What in bearing the cross should belong to personal freedom and what to the fate of a person, to what he has no control over, what is simply given to him? The words of the Lord Jesus Christ indicate the path of activity and creativity - “whoever wants to follow me, let him take up his cross and follow me.” “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.” “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29–30). We can talk about the cross of the Church, the nation, the people. Through personal cross-bearing a connection is established with all of them, a person participates in bearing the yoke of Christ. Faith wants from us not only personal salvation, not only concerns about the snow-whiteness of my individuality, but creative work for general salvation. Therefore, acceptance of the yoke is expressed in the expansion of the heart, which at the moment of inspiration is not aware of submission to boundaries. Taking up the cross is, first of all, a creative arrangement of one’s life, an active and free feat; subsequently it can be expressed in the obedience of monasticism, but the determining, central thing in it always lies in the moment of free taking. There should be no simplification here. All religious tasks must be posed in the greatest complexity, in the greatest difficulty. The parable of the talents says that to bury your talent is to act like a lazy slave. In free feat, in free creative work, all talents given by God must be applied and revealed. Discovering one’s talent, serving one’s calling in the name of God often constitutes one’s personal cross. Therefore, bearing the cross can never be a passive acceptance of external inevitability; it is always associated with the responsible creative choice of one’s path, one’s work, and is accomplished through freedom and in freedom. The cross combines the taking of a personal cross and the yoke of, so to speak, “fate,” i.e. what we find, what is given to us as the fate of our Church, people, state. What is the yoke of Christ? The yoke of Christ in taking upon himself the sin of the world and through taking on sin - suffering. Acceptance of the yoke of Christ means an endless, boundless expansion of the heart in love to all human crosses. Taken to the limit, this is an unsolvable problem. But the Gospel commandments are both fulfillable in small things and have infinite content. Everyone who bears the cross accepts the yoke of Christ. Through accepting the cross, he escapes the isolation of only personal fate, participates in bearing all the crosses in the world, for the sorrowful path connected with the cross is not passed because God needs to torment us in order to lead us to bliss through the corridor of suffering. Sacrifice, renunciation, suffering are necessary for ourselves, since they are the basis of joy. The making of the cross is an eternal remembrance of the entire path as a whole: the links of the path of the cross begin on earth, in the human heart, and go to heaven. Therefore, they can give inspiration, a force for life greater and more genuine than anything in life. In every matter, and especially in the name of Christ, we are sent and given a cross. It is difficult and we are afraid, but this should not blind us to the fact that the cross is first and foremost a joy. Serving the truth requires submission, strength, and sacrifice, not because the world is a creation of an unreasonable blind will, but because the world is in a state of sinful falling away from God. The sacrifice is easily accomplished in the intact world, becomes supernatural, supernatural in the sinful world and in this sense truly natural. The forefathers in paradise had their own cross - the commandment not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She seems childish to us, but she corresponded to the uncorrupted childish state of her ancestors. But in our state we are already an arena of passions. Therefore, not only by virtue of the law that there is no great deed without bearing the cross, but also because every step along the path of good in a world that has fallen away from God is accompanied by thorns, the cross for us must inevitably be a feat, sacrifice, suffering. But not only this, for the word of the Lord about receiving glory remains valid. The image of the joy of the cross is the image of the most dazzling joy in the world: the joy of martyrs, people who died with a smile, who truly knew heavenly joy. This joy - the joy of bright satisfaction - is experienced by all who work in God's field, if their work is blessed. The cross is the highest calling, the inspiration of man. The joy of the cross is the power of the cross that overcomes the world, and this power is sacrificial love. 1 (Word spoken before the prayer service for His Holiness the Patriarch in the Church of St. Nicholas in Prague, May 27, 1923) if he lays down his soul The last hours of our Holy Father at Calvary are approaching. A new and terrible crucifix is ​​being prepared on the Russian Golgotha, the highest cross is being erected, covering the Russian sun with its shadow. Holy Rus' and Orthodox Russia are crucified on this cross. “Crucify him, crucify him!” - cry the executioners of the Russian faith and the Russian people. Choking in blood, they thirst for it more and more, and thirst for the most precious, pure and holy blood. They could not calm down until they drank in the sacred blood of the Royal Family. And now they cannot rest until they drink in the blood of our Holy Father. Pathetic victims of their own madness, they pronounce judgment and sentence on themselves. Blind instruments of satanic frenzy, they are blinded by their ghosts, and the best of them imagine performing service for God. Let our Lord pray for them: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. But just as those sons of wickedness appeared as executors of God’s destinies from the foundation of the world, so now in the hands of God the tormentors of the Church whiten her vestments, perform her praise, crown her with the most glorious of all crowns of thorns. And it was they who raised the humble and yesterday still unknown father of our Patriarch Tikhon to such a height of veneration that cannot be achieved by any means of this world. For if you ask who among the Christian hierarchy is now the most revered - not by hierarchical position, but by spiritual authority, the answer will be undoubted: Patriarch Tikhon. The age of little faith is looking for signs that are not given arbitrarily to those who cannot see and hear. But for those who have eyes and ears, our days, as always, are filled with signs and wonders, and one of the most striking miracles and signs, revealed by the grace of God to the Russian Church in the days of persecution and tribulation, is undoubtedly Patriarch Tikhon. And everyone, who wanted and did not want the patriarchy, came and loved him. The Patriarch was given the opportunity to express those features that constitute the deepest and most sacred properties of the Russian Church: humility, meekness, dovelike purity combined with childlike clarity and joy in the Lord. Humility and meekness are the greatest strength in the world, for it is the strength of Christ. That is why Patriarch Tikhon was not noticed until he was called, for he did not notice himself, but the Queen of Heaven noticed him. It soon became clear that this humility is humility, which is based on selfless faith in God and trust in His ways. And meekness is the spiritual fruit of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And this cheerful joke, to which he responded with a kindly laugh when people are angry, is that childish purity, without which it is impossible to enter the Kingdom of God. There are no extraordinary gifts that people boast of in their human weakness: learned wisdom, words, but there is the wisdom of love, which does not seek its own, does not rejoice in untruth, but compassionate truth. There is an irresistible force, but a force not of this world, not intrusive, not fussy, not demanding, but silently attracting and conquering. The Patriarch became a father, a joy, a consolation, only not for the sons of destruction. But when did the world, after the fall of the ancestors, manage without Cains and Judas! The Patriarch somehow became the undeniably spiritual head and leader of the entire Russian people, a living symbol of their spiritual unity, the spiritual holder of their inalienable rights. And how could the enemies of the people, his executioners, not hate him, and at the same time not fear him, how could they not seek his death?! They have been waiting for a long time and preparing for the hour when the exhaustion of the people will give them this opportunity, and the sons of wickedness turn out to be skillful in the deeds of their wickedness. The election to the patriarchal throne in a time of disastrous turmoil inevitably meant the sacrifice of this chosen one. The burden of power is always a burden of responsibility, always associated with the sacrifice of personal life and personal freedom. But here this presupposed a direct sacrifice for the homeland and the Church, as he expressed it in his first message. The election, by a significant coincidence, took place when Moscow was wounded by battle and conquered by its current enslavers. And the internal consent of the victim to the slaughter was necessary, the consent that was spoken of by the prophet, who foresaw the only Sacrifice of sacrifices, the Son of God, crucified for the sins of the world: “Like a sheep led to the slaughter, and like a lamb without blemish, the one who shears it is silent.” Such a lamb, who gave himself up as a sacrifice in the image of Christ, was the most holy patriarch from the first day of his ministry, and this is how he accepted the staff of St. Peter. Dare I speak about what I saw, but I saw it in his face, in his prayerful eyes, when he stood on the dais of the Assumption Cathedral in the sacred and reverent hour of his prayer, when the Kremlin was already surrounded by a raging mob and rude rebels. And then, I know this, he prayerfully surrendered himself to the Heavenly Father, and, I believe, his prayer was accepted. One thing is certain: this is how he ascended the patriarchal throne, and this is how I saw him and knew from day to day those months when I had the opportunity to see him. It is scary to approach the mystery of the struggle of Gethsemane, to peer with a spiritual and loving gaze through the walls of the prison to its torment on the cross. But I testify without hesitation that it is not fear for himself and his life that can exhaust him. For this fear had no power over him from the first day of his ministry. This was somehow immediately and joyfully felt by everyone: the patriarch does not know fear, and this ignorance of fear gives him freedom and courage. And more river: the patriarch seemed to be looking to become a sacrifice for his people, causing these cases. Apparently, he had a hidden thought and desire with his life to buy freedom for the people, to fulfill the cup of the people’s suffering and patience. And these terrible months of the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth year his life hung by a thread, and how many times the hair was ready to break, how many times they expected his imprisonment or even murder on a certain day and hour, fluttered around him, but he himself remained calmly clear and joyful. Therefore, if the weakness of body and spirit, inherent in human nature, does its work - after all, the Son of Man testified that “My soul is sorrowful unto death” - then this is not the main torment of the great sufferer. More terrible than death are betrayal, abandonment and betrayal: the betrayal of a disciple, the flight of the apostles, the renunciation of the first of them. And before the executioners of the body, the spiritual executioners came to him, those thieves and robbers who penetrated the sheep not through doors, but somewhere else. And these vile executioners, sent and obedient to their masters, came to carry out spiritual execution, to deprive him of his sacred dignity, which is immeasurably more precious than life. In anger the Lord looked at them and laughed at them, and in anger the free Russian Church looks at this atrocity, but there, in the Garden of Gethsemane, there is no one who could wipe away his sweat and testify to this lie: abandoned and alone, just as the Russian Tsar, ruler of millions, was abandoned and alone. But he did not and will not give up his power, entrusted to him by the Queen of Heaven, to earthly villains, thereby testifying to his rightness: the act of a band of robbers is contrary to the laws, both divine and human, written and unwritten. It is not this judgment of the sons of men, slaves of lies, but the impartial judgment of God that the activist fears. And if we dare to penetrate into his suffering heart, then we will see his most terrible and severe Gethsemane sorrow in this: the burden of historical responsibility is terrible. The Church is experiencing great disasters and temptations, the church ship is threatened by a squall, and is it not the fault of the helmsman, who, although not of his own free will or theft, took the helm. His wrong movements and mistakes - were they not the ones who caused these dangers and misadventures? Contemporaries and history pronounce such judgments about every figure, and they, some brazenly and arrogantly, others thoughtfully and mournfully, are also pronounced about the helmsman of the Russian Church. We do not dare to anticipate the judgment of history, but we will also express our conjecture: in this regard, Patriarch Tikhon was doomed to become an atoning sacrifice for his people, for he took the place of the helmsman at a time when it was impossible to hold the helm in his hands. There are situations that exceed human strength, and such a situation was created by the entire past and present of the Russian Church and the Russian people. During a squall, attempts to control are powerless. And yet everyone must fulfill his duty to the end and, if necessary, die at his post, for this is the victory here. The owner of the sacrifice will take into account everything that was needed and how everyone did it for his harvest. What is required is not deeds, but loyalty. And His Holiness the Patriarch retained this fidelity and thereby rendered a great service to the Russian Church. The centuries-old enslavement of the Church, which penetrated from the outside and inside and weakened the muscles of church power, lay and remains a heavy oppression on Russian church life. By the will of God, the Church received freedom, but it is not easy for someone who had neither the skills nor the taste for freedom to become free, and, moreover, in the midst of a historical storm and spontaneous upheavals. Naturally, some go into new slavery, driven by fear or self-interest, and enter into an alliance with a government that is directly hostile to the faith of Christ, while others sigh over the meat of Egypt and take their sighing for the voice of the church itself. It is necessary to protect the freedom and dignity of the Church in every possible way, and Patriarch Tikhon did this. I remember how, at the opening of the new Higher Church Administration (now defunct), he said in his opening remarks that we are experiencing a joyful time... We were amazed to hear these words about the time of sorrows and persecution and did not immediately understand what they were saying. And this fearlessness before the power of this world, and together with the readiness to defend the freedom and dignity of the Church from harassment - both from the Moscow authorities, as well as from some foreign assemblies - explains the firm and definite course of action of the patriarch. Of course, for greater success, the patriarch needed employees, but they rejected him, either by evil violence or by their own will. Our helmsman was doomed to be a victim of timelessness, but his wisdom, loyalty and feat lie in the fact that he guided his ship by the stars, and not by false coastal lights. The Patriarch, in his torment of Gethsemane and in his humility, may not know how much Orthodox Russia loves him, but in his humility he knows that the Church must pass inexperienced through all the trials on the path to freedom, without entering into a deal with the prince of this world. And behold, the light was lifted up to the candlestick. The meek and quiet light of the great martyr flows throughout the world, and he speaks to everyone about faith and love for God, awakening throughout the world the holiest, most cherished feelings and quiet thoughts. Isn’t this the “mission” of Russian Orthodoxy, its effective preaching? People of different Christian confessions pray for him, and the hearts of all Christians unite in loving concern for him. And isn’t this the most effective sermon, and at the same time a kind of anticipation of the unity of all in Christ, the union of all, which we prayerfully seek. Before the greatness of the patriarch’s feat, the heads of people who are far from the faith of Christ bow, and Patriarch Tikhon calls these hearts from his prison to it, and this apostolic work continues to give its, although now unknown, fruits. Isn’t it a miracle of God’s mercy to the Russian land and to the Russian Church that the one who is now invested with such power in all his humiliation is the High Hierarch of the Russian Church... This is how we testify, for this is the truth and we must testify to the truth. And due to human cowardice, a feeling of self-satisfaction and self-exaltation rises in us. For in fact, it was so easy and natural, reasoning in a worldly way, to be proud and boast that we belong to the Church, which has the head of Patriarch Tikhon, and to the people, who have him as their spiritual leader: one is the sower and the other is the reaper. However, our incorruptible conscience tells us something completely different. Let everyone ask himself, is he worthy of such a father, is he a son to this father? Didn’t he and is he betraying this father, if not by cowardice, abandoning his post for the sake of his own safety, indiscriminate and irresponsible words and actions, then, at least, by indifference to the highest spiritual and church interests, by seeking his own, not God’s. Which blows caused more suffering to the Lord: the scourges or strangulations of the soldiers, or the flight of the apostles, the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter? And just as then, on the night of Gethsemane, the apostles could not overcome their sleep during His prayer, so now are we awake prayerfully, or is the heavy slumber of indifference closing our eyes. We pray for the patriarch, but let it not be a prayer ritual, but also a secret breath, a spiritual feat, a tedious effort. And for this prayer there is no barrier in distance or in prison walls, for it, like fragrant incense, ascends to the throne of God. After all, we remember how the Apostle Peter was freed from prison by the power of prayer. What a prayer it was that did this! She performed a miracle, and if we do not perform it, then our prayer is meager and weak. It is not necessary for every prayer request of ours to be fulfilled - God knows what we need, but true, fervent prayer contains within itself the guarantee of its being heard, it has in itself a certificate. Our filial, human prayer for the patriarch could be other than that God would save him from his enemies, preserve his life, free him and show him on the throne of his bishopric. But as we approach the martyr’s bed of the new Hermogenes with trepidation, we hear in our hearts that his own prayer is a different one. He prays not for himself, not for his life, which he has long been ready to give and, in essence, has already given for the Church and his homeland, but for this Church and this homeland, he prays that the Lord will make him wise in his service and show him his right path, teach him with his justification. His prayer is the prayer of the Son of God, which He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and which He gave to everyone worthy of the high lot to become a sacrifice for their friends: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by from Me, not as I will, but as You will.” Speech of the Lord: always speaks (the devil) I lie, he speaks from his own people, for lies are also the father of lies. Until now, we usually began to pray for our Holy Father with a sorrowful heart, in quiet thoughtfulness, but with a calm soul. And only for the first time are our hearts and souls now confused. The ominous whisper, previously quiet, becomes louder, and we are all worried about strange and incomprehensible news - supposedly about a new and unexpected expression of the will of our patriarch, which gloating already calls his renunciation. Let our hearts not be troubled, oh, how many times in our terrible times have we had to admonish ourselves with these words of the Savior, and let them not be afraid. Let us question our conscience, test our consciousness in order to face even the most bitter and terrible reality. What happened? From the patient, exhausted by endless torture, in a state of exhaustion, with the help of the necessary advisers, the signature on a document was torn out, which, by its very content, exposes his deceit, in order to testify to the whole world about the “repentance” of the patriarch. For anyone who has not lost common sense and conscience, it is clear that the greatest violence, extortion and lies have been committed here. The weakness of the flesh, mortal exhaustion and, obviously, deception were used by the executioners for their vile purposes - to make a lie to the whole world and, at the same time, to commit a new outrage against the Church. You need to know all the details in order to judge how this happened. But those in whose souls condemnation stirs before this terrible and fatal event, let them remember the words of the Savior: “He who is without sin, let him throw a stone!” Whoever feels capable, in exhaustion and mortal anguish, almost on his deathbed, in the powerlessness of dying, to resist torture, let him be like Ham, who gloated over his father’s nakedness. Oh, how much easier and more joyful it is to accept martyrdom and be crowned in glory with it. But who knows how many of those whom we glorify as martyrs would have endured long-term, endless torture? Who among those standing close to the patriarch did not know that he did not know the fear of death and even seemed to be calling for it, in the hope that with his blood he would buy the liberation of the people! When those around him trembled for him before the quick and inexorable denouement, he remained bright and joyful. But knowing this, the less we can believe and be tempted by the new atrocity, the new violence inflicted on him. If they take the hand of a dying person and move it to sign, is such a signature valid, or is it a blatant, unscrupulous forgery? And if, after a long prison torture, with complete excommunication from the whole world, a change of opinion is suddenly announced, then does this have any credibility and significance? The statement of the patriarch, whether really or imaginary signed by him, is only a new crime of the sons of lies, slander against our patriarch, which is powerless to stain the martyr’s whiteness of his robe. The patriarch’s imaginary statement has no meaning, it does not and cannot express the thoughts of the patriarch, because it contains an obvious and undeniable lie, which they want to attribute to the patriarch. The Lord assigns his cross to everyone, but He allows only His chosen ones to suffer for Him, to suffer not only death, but also what is sometimes worse: reproach and all sorts of slander, and evil violence: “When you grow old, you will bind you and lead you away, even if you didn’t want to...” Such was the lot of our patriarch. The Lord called him to the highest service of the Church and made him the helmsman of his ship in Russian soil in such a storm that would inevitably break the rudder and knock it out of the hands of the helmsman. The Russian patriarch, whoever he was, was doomed to be a victim of timelessness, a failure through no fault of his own, in our days, when, after centuries of state tutelage, the Church was destined to be released on the terrible night that fell on our homeland. And the patriarch was obedient to his destiny, he wanted to be a victim and, truly, he appeared as a sacrifice for the Russian Church. What did he will, what did he want for the Church, what principles did he have as a confessor? He wanted to protect the freedom and independence of the Church from Caesar and from Belial; he sought, above all, to preserve the dignity of the Church, not giving the bride of Christ to any rapist, to anyone who would like to use her for his own private, earthly purposes. And this, and only this, determines all the speeches of the patriarch. He never belonged to any political party, as is now attributed to him in the statement compiled by the rapists. He did not at all reject or oppose Soviet power as such, in the name of preferring another form of government as such. On the contrary, as the current authority, according to the word of the apostle, he himself recognized and called to obey it (and in his messages, in particular from September 25, 1919) and resisted it only when this authority committed acts hostile to the Church and faith, and therefore to the Russian people; according to the word of the apostle, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). This, and precisely this, prompted the messages of 1918 and 1922. The “anathema” to violators of the peace of the church and encroachers on the people’s faith and sacred things was not directed at all against the Soviet government as such, but against its militant atheism. The Soviet government launched a campaign against the people's faith and people's shrine. She has committed and is committing a number of blasphemies and godless acts, such as the opening of relics, public blasphemy, in general she is fighting against the Christian faith, and only on this basis did she collide with the Church, and her leader raised a fearless voice in defense of the faith, against the Antichrist obsession. If the Soviet government did not touch the shrine of the people's faith, it would have completely loyal subjects in the patriarch and the Russian hierarchy. Why were these fabrications needed? Why was it necessary to force an imaginary repentance for something that never happened, to explain the patriarch’s speeches against the Soviets with political motives that he never had? Why these vulgar and false accusations of counter-revolution and adherence to a certain political party, if not to deceive, to avert one’s eyes, to give plausibility and justification to what one is beginning to be ashamed of, i.e. persecution of faith? The Patriarch stood guard over the purity of church affairs, far from any politics, even in such conditions when this enslavement became inevitable due to political despotism. When, in conditions of complete church freedom, abroad he saw a desire to connect the Church with a political party and make it an instrument for this latter, he applied the most decisive measures to the first hierarchs guilty of this, abolished the corresponding authority, and is it possible, in the face of this fact alone, to speak about the political intentions of the patriarch? Therefore, if this is now attributed to him on his own behalf, then this only testifies to how far this document is not a valid expression of the will of the patriarch. It should be rejected, even if it existed in reality, as satanic violence and lies. The Patriarch, as the head of the Russian Church, has never been an organ of a political party that wants to impose on the people what they do not want, do not love, do not believe. The Church then only fulfills its highest mission - to preserve and educate the spiritual strength of the people - if it itself guards freedom and independence. The Russian Church is now in chains, and they are also placed in the hands of our patriarch. But, despite imaginary, forcibly extracted statements or confessions, for us remains an unchanged source of teaching and his activity as the head of the Church, the direction that he wanted to give to church life, namely the desire for church freedom. And we must accept this covenant with renewed vigor, those who, not through their merits, perhaps rather due to weakness, are destined, once abroad, to live in conditions of church freedom. And we must educate ourselves in this freedom, we must guard it from encroachments, no matter where they come from, for voluntary enslavement in the eyes of God is many times more evil than forced enslavement, there is spiritual fornication, which is in vain given the appearance of marriage. Let us pray for the Russian sufferer, our patriarch, that the Lord will strengthen and make him wise, and may he preserve him from evil violence, circumstances and deception. And may she keep her holy Church immaculate and free. May He strengthen our faith and our fidelity, and may He give strength to both our Father and all of us to drink our cup to the end with believing prayer. “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by, but not Mine, but Thy will be done!” 17/30 June 1923 Prague. It is difficult for contemporaries of great events to comprehend them in their full meaning; this requires historical distance, and it is difficult for us now to see in all its grandeur the image of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. To perceive the great, we also need corresponding strengths of the soul, spiritual tension. The feat and suffering of Patriarch Tikhon are so unique and enormous that they defy a cold and cursory review. “Take the boots from your feet, for this place is holy land!” Our speech is confused and exhausted, having as its subject the struggles of Gethsemane and this Golgotha. In the history of the Church there are few images so tragic, according to worldly reasoning, and so clearly marked by the finger of special election and anointing according to our faith. The patriarch was called to become the helmsman of a church ship, when a real hurricane approached, tearing the sails, breaking the oars, tearing the steering wheel out of the hands of the steward. Never before, unprecedented in history, a cloud of Antichrist persecution against the Church stood in the Russian sky when the patriarch, by the election of the Russian Church and the command of the Queen of Heaven, ascended to the ancient patriarchal throne, with the staff of Metropolitan Peter in his hands. There was no place for ignorance or carelessness; it was possible to take up this post only by looking straight into the face of the elusive enemy, in complete self-control and sacrificial readiness. Even just in order to maintain clarity of thought and presence of mind, it was necessary, already ascending the throne, to make the Gethsemane decision, to give oneself and one’s life to the Father, to say in one’s heart: “Thy will be done!” Metropolitan Tikhon had to die internally in order for the patriarch to live. And, it seems, this sacrifice was made on that morning of November 21, 1917, when in the Kremlin, destroyed by cannons, the celebration of the table was taking place, and, it seems, I saw this with trepidation and horror in the eyes of the patriarch when he ascended to his patriarchal throne and prayed to the Father for help. And what happened in the secrecy of the Gethsemane night left an indelible mark on his spirit, which passed through the fire of sacrificial purification. What amazed and captivated everyone who had the opportunity to see him in the patriarch was a kind of royal freedom associated with the absence of fear, fearlessness in his personal destiny. Then, when vague fear, against the will, entered souls in the face of a constant threat, the patriarch was bright and calm in the face of real, genuine danger. Moreover, it was as if he wanted martyrdom, if it was needed for the Church and the homeland, as if he was calling for it. And this freedom gave unexpected clarity of judgment and action. However, he was not given martyrdom in these first, turbulent years of his patriarchate. For him, martyrdom would have been an easy and joyful sacrifice. But not a short and sweet moment of martyrdom, but the cross of a long and sorrowful confession was placed on his shoulders. The name of this cross is responsibility for the fate of the Church, a terrible, inexorable and merciless responsibility, for it clearly exceeded the strength of a human being. The rudder is knocked out and broken, but the helmsman remains at the stern of the ship, and he is responsible. The terrible burden of power is that it cannot and has no right to ever remain inactive, not even when there is no freedom of action and its very possibility. The patriarch found himself in this position - shackled hand and foot and yet remaining at his helmsman post - almost from the first months of his election. All that could be preserved by the helmsman here was freedom of spirit and independence of judgment, not to be shaken internally, and then the shackles of the Antichrist and his malice would be powerless. And the patriarch, as if already beyond the boundaries of earthly life, retained this freedom and fidelity, was the helmsman of the church ship in a storm, in the darkness of general fear and hopelessness. God gave him clarity of spirit and a kind heart that endures everything, endures everything, hopes for everything. With charming gaiety and childish laughter and gentle jokes, he defended himself against the gloom and fear in which those around him were exhausted. He was bright in the darkness and brought light with him: his appearance brought joy, his smile lit up in hearts. The beginning of patriarchal rule coincided with the restructuring of relations between the state and the Church. The state was determined on the basis of militant atheism and the fight against all faiths, primarily Christian. The Antichrist attack on the Church was first expressed in the deprivation of all property and general rights from the Church and the destruction of a countless number of church institutions. The first months and days of the patriarchal administration were endless tearful funerals of the old with crying and screams of victims who had nothing to help. Then began direct persecution of the Church, the murder and imprisonment of bishops, clergy and laity. At the same time, the state declared itself hostile to all faith and forbade teaching children the law of God. The strangulation of church enlightenment was accompanied by an unprecedented in the world spill of godlessness and corruption, forcing one to remember antediluvian humanity. Even the time came for the robbing of churches and prosecutions, the blood of martyrdom was shed and the patriarch was imprisoned. Church Judas and Living Church members spoke out. The struggle against the Church has changed from external to internal. A daring attempt was made to overthrow the patriarch, and the helmsman faced a new tornado, a new test. In prison, the patriarch was doomed to learn about the new martyrdom of his faithful and about the triumphant, insolent mastery of wolves and thieves in the church fence. In this terrible, gloomy time, in the darkness of prison, the patriarch shines for the whole world, he is the support, hope, hope of the Russian Church, the Christian Church throughout the world prays for him. And the Lord was pleased to heed the prayers and snatch him from the jaws of Belial, from the hands of the executioners. The Confessor appears on his patriarchal throne, ready to take up the rod again. But at the same time, a new sacrifice, a new test, a new feat of self-restraint and self-sacrifice awaited him. When the danger of death threatens at sea, even valuable cargo has to be thrown into the sea in order to save the most precious. It is not easy to make such a decision, which is associated with the willingness to accept full responsibility for it, but sometimes it becomes inevitable to accept it. And when, by the will of God, the lot of martyrdom is replaced again by the lot of confession, he was faced with the need to concentrate all his forces on one thing - the exposure and destruction of the false church, leaving everything else, and subordinating his course of action to this one main goal. This required new self-definitions that are difficult to understand and still confuse some today. The Patriarch could not, of course, change his attitude towards those actions of the Soviet government, which represent an unheard of and ferocious persecution of everything holy and are inspired by satanic hatred of God, antichrist malice towards Christ. The Patriarch, in the face of the whole world, condemned these actions of the authorities, and, at first, when no one yet believed the reality of this monstrous and unnatural system, and the Patriarch was ready, at least with his life, to liberate the people. When the protracted and long-term nature of the illness of Russian statehood began to become clear, and the patriarch considered it necessary to recognize this duration, reckon with it and, submitting to the fact, as the early Christians submitted to the fact of Nero’s power, he concentrated all his attention and energy on exposing and eradicating the living church schism. This narrowing of the front, involuntary and obvious, inevitable, cost the patriarch some decisions and verbal gestures towards Soviet power, and, of course, in the kingdom of lies and violence one can never achieve the truth and learn the true course of events. Therefore, here we have to judge only by the general meaning of the fact, but not by the text of those documents that are published on behalf of the patriarch. In this apparent compliance of the patriarch one should see his new and final pastoral sacrifice for the sake of his sheep: instead of martyrdom, external dying and the ignominy of reconciliation. But this new sacrifice, this foolishness for Christ’s sake, seems to have magnified the name of the patriarch even more: the people accepted with their hearts what was born from the heart of a lover. Truly, love believes everything, covers everything. And the fettered patriarch in fettered Russia became a beacon for the whole world. He exalted his Church to the candlestick; never before, in all the times of the Russian Church, has she been so exalted and glorified in her saint as in these days of sorrowful trials, and there has been no name that would be called with great respect throughout the Christian world as the martyr-confessor, the head of the Russian Church. And this apostolic work, this meek and quiet light of Orthodoxy attracts and conquers, creates the great work of the world mission of Orthodoxy, calls everyone to unite. And the work of Saint Tikhon gives its fruits, still unknown to the world. Isn’t it a miracle of God’s mercy towards the Russian Church and the Russian land that such power was given to her in all her external humiliation: the martyr’s head of the martyr’s Church... Such is the feat. But the deed is worthy of the feat. What is it, this matter? The Patriarch was the guardian of the Russian Church, the guardian of its dignity, supremacy and freedom in the most terrible time of trial. He taught us to treat the Church as the only highest self-sufficient value, which cannot be subordinated to any utilitarian, even the most lofty, considerations. Churchliness, pure, never corrupted churchliness - such was the self-determination of His Holiness the Patriarch. The Patriarch was the guardian of the purity of faith and the inviolability of the church system and the guardian of its internal independence, equally from national-political and demagogic-socialist passions. The Patriarch took the reins of government at that transitional moment when the Council restored the principles of conciliarity, which had been obscured in consciousness over the previous centuries. It was necessary to again educate church society towards conciliarity, to freedom in obedience and obedience in freedom, without which there is no true conciliarity. I remember how the new bodies of higher church government established by the Council were formed; On one of the difficult days, when a black cloud hung over himself and the Council, the Patriarch said in his opening speech: “We are now experiencing a joyful day of the implementation of a new church system.” This is how he saw the facets of what was happening in the Church. He looked forward, not back; towards, although not secured, but a new future. The new system was not allowed to be realized due to persecution and constant oppression. However, the patriarch, the angel of the Russian Church, stood firm at his post. Being with the patriarch became a sign of the position of the Church in relation to the state system; defined as complete separation and isolation. This was and is, undoubtedly, the gravest damage and narrowing of the meaning of the Church, but it was necessary to accept it in order to preserve the internal independence and self-sufficiency of the Church. And the comprehensive, complete, even excessive in its implementation, union of Church and state, which was consolidated in the person of the sacred anointed of God, has now given way to a kind of extra-state apoliticality of the Church, which must be preserved in its own integrity, without giving up its treasures for any lentil stew of party or state patronage. The Patriarch saved the Church from excessive rapprochement even with the white movement, since it expressed only a part, or only certain circles of the people, who for the most part had not yet recovered from or outlived Bolshevism. But he, with all the power of his personal influence, saved the Church from being captured by the dark element of the living church, this product of servility, opportunism, confusion, careerism, servility, lack of faith and spiritual decay. Although living churchism, nurtured in the secret recesses of the checks and maintained from there all the time, does not and did not represent any spiritual force, it is a phenomenon of decomposition, but its danger and harmfulness, under the given circumstances, for the Church, with the shamelessness and impudence of its agents and with the complete coherence of Orthodoxy, was extremely great. It cannot be considered eliminated even now, because from an acute state it has passed into a chronic state, and socialist counterfeits of churchliness will always be fabricated in Soviet Russia, but the main wave has already broken, in a direct battle with the Church, living churchism was put to shame, and His Holiness the Patriarch defeated it, in prison, in chains, but strong in his faith, his intransigence and the boundless trust and love of the people. After the release of the patriarch, it fell apart, like smoke disappears and like wax melts in the face of fire, surviving only in the form of government hirelings of the false synod. And this is the work of His Holiness the Patriarch. It is difficult to even calculate the disasters that would have befallen the Russian Church if this movement in it had not met an indestructible rock, against which it crashed in its run. We stand too close to the patriarch to measure the significance of his work; it will only be revealed in the future, at a distance. In him the Russian Church lost a living symbol of church unity, and at the same time national unity. If hitherto the Russian people bore the name of their kings, then in these terrible days they were the people of Patriarch Tikhon, in whom he had a spiritual leader. Now this Moses was recalled, not having seen the promised land, and his people were left in the desert without a leader. Who will God point to this place? This is the will of God, but there is also a covenant of the patriarch to his people, for whom he gave everything, to be worthy of their saint. We should not be driven by cowardice and confusion, but by strong faith in the ways of God. Let everyone ask his conscience whether he was worthy to be the son of his holy father, did he crucify with him when he crucified for his people, did he sacrifice in his heart when the patriarch, like a lamb, was led to the slaughter in the image of the Sacrifice of sacrifices, once and forever offered? There is a grandiose and mysterious symbolism of sacred times, which somehow appears in the life of the patriarch. He ascended the throne during the singing of the irmos of the week of Vai: “Come up to Mount Zion and preach the good news,” and in the same week his ashes were buried in the reigning city of Moscow. The Lord entered Jerusalem as a meek king, He revealed Himself as a king, the son of David, but this happened only when He came to Jerusalem for the crucifixion. The procession to the donkeys was also a direct procession to Golgotha; glorification and wearing of vestments is the path to crucifixion. The Lord calls and leads His chosen one along this path. Accession to the patriarchal throne was for him the path to Calvary; the height of rank was for him only the burden of service on the cross. Now he prays for the Russian Church and the Russian people, may he be faithful to the sacred tradition, may he keep the shrine of Orthodoxy in purity, may he love God more than his life. Word at the prayer service before the annual act of the Faculty of Law “Every scribe who is taught of the kingdom of heaven is like a master who brings out of his treasury old and new” (Matthew 13:52). “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1). Not human speculation, but the divine consolation of the Word of God. Lazarus stinks for four days - Russian land - and Martha cries: “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:4), and the sons of the dispersion, on the rivers of Babylon, their organs depleted. The destinies of God are a kind and loving hand that punishes - who can say that he is without sin before his homeland? - and edifying. Before our eyes is an example of the exile of the chosen people, thrown into the seductive pagan Babylon and remaining in this exile for centuries. A few returned with Ezra and Nehemiah to build the church. What happened to those who survived in exile? They accepted the ministry and calling according to their age: the Lord raised up prophets who revealed the universal meaning of the faith of their ancestors. The youths, including Daniel, Azariah, Ananias and Misail, were apprenticed at court, which did not prevent them from keeping their covenant with God. The visions and prophecies of the prophet Daniel already concern the kingdoms of the whole world, just as the words of God were shown to Ezekiel in exile on the Chebar River. The people of God, returning home, received a new temper, age, value and strength, they grew towards the days when their chosen ones will hear the preaching of the Kingdom and will be sent to all nations by the hour when the words of Truth will thunder on Mount Gerizim: about worshiping God in spirit and truth. The people of God appeared as that scribe, taught by the Kingdom of Heaven, who brings forth from the treasure old and new, the value of which is renewed like an eagle. May this also be with us, who are now walking a path whose goal is unknown from below. The way to the Promised Land with the tabernacle of the covenant, if only a few enter it. You need to have open ears and seeing eyes, and at the same time unshakable loyalty. No one knows how grain grows except the Sower, and what is done with clay except the Potter. But there will be an ascent to a new measure of universal spiritual age, a historical coming of age, which is therefore so hard to come by. Wings are breaking through, and the exiles loyal to Zion and Jerusalem, if they return with Ezra, will be the builders of the church. There is one terrible exile - self-exile, - separation from Christ, but “who will separate us from the love of God: tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?.. neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" ( Rom.8:35, 39). Each person must be an ascetic, seek feat and obedience, but everyone must have a common feat of prayer: “Watch and pray so as not to fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Prayer is the most important thing; believe in the power of prayer to protect and save. Prayer works miracles, and it is a test of conscience; let us do only what we can ask of God in prayer. And it is good that the holiday of enlightenment is sanctified by prayer, begins in the house of prayer, confessing true enlightenment. Let there be a holiday of enlightenment of Christ. “See therefore: is not the light that is in you darkness?” (Luke 11:35). “I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). In the light of this glory, the hearts light up and the rays of the mind come to life. It is necessary to observe the order of the soul, the harmony of the spiritual world, and this is provided that above all and above all is love for Christ, Truth above all truths, Truth above all truths, the King above all kingdoms... Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and so on will be added in Christ, to Him be glory, honor and worship, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Before the beginning: The word spoken during the liturgy at the congress of the Movement Council “I am the light of the world, enlighten every person who comes into the world.” We are accustomed to looking to the Gospel reading for answers to our confusion. We do this on these important and difficult days that fall on the week of the man born blind. We are looking for light, and we see and know this light in Christ, to whom we want to offer our whole life. We want to walk in the light. The property of light is that the source of light itself is not visible, the sun is not visible, but everything else is seen in light, and depending on it we see reality, we see it in one light or another. And the light of Christ for every person is one light. If the eye is clean, then the body is clean, and so in the light that is in you, everything is seen. If there is light in you, then there is no darkness. Today's Gospel tells us about the clay that Christ put on the eyes of the one being healed, who became sighted after he washed in the Pool of Siloam. We need careful examination to see if we are walking in the true light. The task of the Movement is to save souls from dark enlightenment, to return them from false light to the true one. This false light lives in us in pride, in pessimism, in self-affirmation, in our passions. We need the Pool of Siloam to wash away our infirmities; we need to work on ourselves so that Christ may reign in us. The Lord said to himself that He was meek and lowly in heart. We need to cultivate meekness and humility in ourselves. How to educate this? No one can, and at the same time everyone can, to the extent of their own efforts, draw closer to Christ. But false light closes the way, false light from the delusions of the mind, from the addictions of the heart. We must attain the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ? Everything that we truly know, we know in Christ, by Christ’s power. But the mind of Christ may be absent from us, from our knowledge. Instead, there may be the mind of serpents, inspiring us: “And you will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” This pride of mind removes us from the mind of Christ. The Lord commands us to be meek as doves, for He Himself is meek. Our mind is raised to the mind of Christ, salted by humility and meekness, by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, let us not deny the mind, let us not deny knowledge! “Children,” says the apostle, “do not be infants in mind.” And we will have a will, a will directed towards Christ. You need to have a religious will, you need to educate it calmly, for a long time, persistently, in order to give it to one goal - following Christ. Our passions always want to take possession of us; will is a stone dam against which passions are broken. The Lord honored us with the weight of the cross; This is especially difficult nowadays. We cannot master ourselves. Our sins, of which we repent, are from the pride of our mind and from the bad manners of our will. Of course, Christian love shines above all before us. It’s even hard for us to talk about this Christian truth, it convicts us so much. And without love there is no Christianity. Before the face of Christ we must say that we have no love in our hearts. Love is a gift, but love is not only a gift, but also work. Love does not exalt itself, does not be proud, does not do everything that you yourself do not want for yourself. This is the love that we are all capable of, which is in our will - to hold back our bad word or deed. Don't do it. This is a labor of love. It is difficult to convey to what extent I am ashamed when I see love among non-Orthodox people and when I do not see love among Orthodox Christians. What can we boast about? Church divisions, your own internal divisions? One may wonder: “If salt loses its saltiness, then what salts the world with?” “You are the salt of the earth!” - this is a word about Orthodoxy, for it is the fullness of truth. God's calling is irrevocable. And if we are unworthy of it, but are called, we will know that this calling is immutable. And if we still turn out to be unworthy, and this calling is taken away from us, then this will be the terrible judgment of Christ over us. Let this not happen, Lord! Amen. Dear brothers! I would like to meet, to spiritually feel each other in these terrible days of trials, of God’s judgment, so that together, shoulder to shoulder, we stand before Him and give an answer about our hope. The tidings of death are now sweeping over the world. Nations are heeding this call of eternity in the face of the destruction of what until recently seemed indestructible. History again shows its tragic face, prophetically revealed in Revelation, but forgotten in the idyllic times of “progress.” And what will we bring to God in response to these calls of eternity, with what will we meet the Bridegroom at the hour of midnight, what word will be on our lips in the face of death? Will it be a cry of fear: “Save us, we are perishing!” (Matthew 8:25)? But “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25), the Lord answers. Let there be no fear before the terrible. A personal end is approaching for many, which, all the same, sooner or later, must finally be comprehended, but it is not the end of all earthly existence, but at most the edge of a historical era, with the pangs of a new birth. History is not ripe for its end, its fullness has not yet arrived, and it is not given to us to know its times and timing. However, we are not told about the end, but even earlier: “You will hear about wars and rumors of war. See, do not be horrified, for all this must happen. But this is not the end" (Matthew 24:6). Contemporary events bear the stamp of historical inevitability, but we still remain in history and must understand what is happening in the light of its tasks and dictates. Our historic house is burning, but not dying. He knew many fires in the past, just as many of us have already gone through the fires of our home, having experienced its destruction, and, however, history took its own further path. No matter how the current conflict of peoples is resolved, this is not the end of Europe, but only another crucible of history. The constellation of Europe will not fade away, even if it changes its image. European peoples, like individuals, find themselves at the mercy of fate, which carries them along until the flame is exhausted and goes out. However, even in this fate of war, a person retains his spiritual personality and creative freedom, his humanity. Along with military warfare, spiritual warfare is being carried out, a new self-determination of Europe is forged on the historical anvil, its new soul is invisibly and mysteriously born in death, as the historical fruit of the European catastrophe. What will this fruit be like? Will there be a further paganization and savagery of the world, its de-Christianization, or, on the contrary, a new spiritual birth, the triumph of Christianity? No one is called upon to answer this question except the participants in the story themselves. However, one thing is certain: in what is happening, a certain judgment is being carried out on the European world and its “crisis” is designated as a free creative choice: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse” (Deut. 30:19). The salvation of Europe and with it the entire Christian world, and then of all humanity, which until now is not yet Christian, but already anti-Christian, can only come from a new conversion to Christ. Christ becomes closer to the human heart in days of trials rather than prosperity. He is always with us, “always to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), but this closeness is more noticeable on the bed of sorrow and on the battlefield than in the abodes of the world. If He Himself testifies to His presence with the hungry and thirsty, the sick and the prisoners (Matthew 25:35–36), then does He now leave those who are killed, the vulnerable, the tortured, in deprivation? Or will he now sympathize with suffering humanity on the battlefields, together with his Most Pure Mother? Here is the mystery of faith, revealed to the human heart, evidenced in spiritual contemplations as a kind of evidence. War, like any test, not only hardens, but also deepens a person, puts him in the face of eternity and God, transferring consciousness from the horizontal to the vertical dimension of history. Man remains free even now in his freedom not to heed the revelation of eternity and even to establish himself on the path to further worldliness and nihilism, instead of opening his heart to the calls of the otherworldly world, but Christ is now knocking on human hearts in a new way. History finds everyone in their special place and makes its own special demands on everyone. And, as members of the Fellowship, who have dedicated themselves to the cause of church unity, we ask ourselves, how can we participate in this spiritual and creative self-determination, fighting and not fighting, as soldiers of the army of Christ? Can we tell ourselves that now the time has come to stop, to stop our work due to its untimeliness, inappropriateness as a matter of peace in days of war? Or, on the contrary, what is required of us is a kind of new spiritual mobilization for spiritual warfare in order not only to preserve, but also to multiply those spiritual treasures that were entrusted to us in a responsible sense of our recognized unity in the Church. We had many joyful revelations from him in the days of yore, but will the giving right hand of the Lord really become scarce now, in the days of great upheavals? Even the military division of nations, which places them as opponents, is not able to abolish this unity in Christ, which He Himself gives to those who call Him, although it now has no possibility of visible detection. Militancy is temporary and earthly, but unity is eternal and transcendental. And this church unity is even more required where there is no opposition or confrontation for it and Christians stand together in mortal danger before the face of Christ. If hearts and eyes are turned to heaven even in the midst of warfare, then church unity is achieved in war. But we must firmly remember that it is not accomplished apart from us, but through our effort, freedom and creativity. We, members of the Fellowship of church unity, are called to its work not for a period, not temporarily, but forever. We have bound ourselves with a vow in spiritual warfare, as if we had taken a spiritual-military oath, and we can never deviate from our duty. Let not even the European war take us by surprise spiritually, but let it also become a church unction. And our consciousness must further deepen and our tasks expand. And I would like to say what the soul especially asks for in these days of strife, new conquests: the further expansion of our ties with the brothers of the Roman Catholic Church and their deepening. We know to what extent this does not depend on us, at least in the form in which this unity is understood there. But let’s do what depends on us, what we can do while remaining ourselves, standing before the single altar of Christ. Let this Eucharistic unity permeate our hearts in the face of Christ, who suffers for us and with us on the battlefield. In divided Christianity, we feel ourselves primarily as members of certain confessions into which Christianity is divided, but in Christ we find ourselves in the unity to which He calls us: “That they all may be one” (John 27:21). This commandment should ring like a heavenly bell in our hearts. The paths of providence are inscrutable, they lead us to new tasks and achievements, but let our will be indestructible. God works miracles, and we will trust in the miracle of God, the miracle of Christian unity. In response to the black miracles and signs of the Antichrist, let the sign of the cross of Christ shine forth: “By this you conquer.” Do not be dismayed, but stay awake ...You will hear about wars and military rumors Look, do not be horrified, for all this must be. But this is still So stay awake because you're not Do you know what time your Lord is? will come... Be prepared, for in which you don’t think for an hour, the Son will come Revealing to the disciples, as well as to all of us, the picture of future troubles and trials, the Lord exhorts not to be horrified, but to stay awake. And now we hear about wars and rumors of war, but we are horrified by them, and not with the fear of God, but with human fear. It is natural for a person to be horrified by the terrible things that happen around us and to ourselves. The imaginary strength of the way of life, in which, as in the days of Noah before the flood, people “ate, drank, married and encroached,” is now exposed in its corruption. Cities and powers that seemed indestructible are collapsing, and human souls are collapsing with them. What seemed high and mighty in them is exposed as weakness and cowardice, and what they thought themselves great at turns out to be self-blinding. Along with external horrors, spiritual devastation befalls us - disappointment and despair: “Depose the mighty from the throne.” True values ​​hidden in humility are always more difficult to identify than deceptive ones. Nowadays a general self-examination is taking place, which was beyond our power in the days of prosperity, but against our will is being carried out in this time of trial. It is not easy, for it is, as it were, a preliminary to the Last Judgment, in the light of conscience and self-knowledge. Its spiritual fruit is so far only despondency, as it is said: “And there will be despondency and bewilderment on earth...” (Luke 21:25-26). But why only despondency and why bewilderment? After all, only that which is accessible to fire burns, and that which, not having its own strength, clung to the soul like bark, is shaken. And outside of it the soul gains freedom of repentance. Time and time again the failure of the earthly kingdom is demonstrated, which is affirmed by the specter of prosperity and spiritual enslavement. Don’t the upheavals of the earthly city signify some kind of liberation from its spiritual shackles, from that superfluous and false that enters into human life as its foundations? In response to our fears, the Lord calls: “Do not be alarmed, but stay awake! When you see these things coming true, know that the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Luke 21:31). “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God and believe in Me” (John 14:1). Christians know the consolations of faith even in inconsolable times. And yet the Lord warns against the excessive ease of consolation, which replaces the true feat of faith with the superstitious hope of a quick deliverance. With all his strength, the Lord confirms: “All these things must come to pass, but this is not the end yet” (Matthew 24:6); on the contrary, “about that day and hour no one knows: neither angels, nor men, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). And can people, possessed by confusion and fear, determine whether the measure has already been fulfilled and whether the times and dates of the Second Coming of the Lord have arrived? It is not faith that speaks, but fear, not prophetic inspiration, but human confusion. In response to this, the Lord said: “Watch and pray, for you do not know when this time will come.” “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mark 13:26). The Lord said at the time of the flight to the mountains to those in Judea (Matthew 24:21): “Then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, and never will be.” But even then the end had not yet come. His coming is determined not by the measure of misfortune, but by the fullness of accomplishment for the Kingdom of God. Other of these accomplishments are indicated in the Word of God: and first of all, the preaching of the Gospel throughout the entire universe as a witness to all nations, after which the end will come (Mark 13:10). This also includes the conversion and salvation of Israel after the full number of the Gentiles has entered (Rom. 11:25–26). But even this is not the end. Therefore, we are in the middle of the path, although we do not know how far this middle is from the end. What remains for us is the future fulfillment of promises that have not yet been fulfilled. However, with all this, the Lord calls us: “When these things begin to come true, then look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). “Take a similitude from the fig tree: when its branches become soft and put out leaves, then you know that summer is near; So, when you see all these things coming true, know that it is near, at the door” (Matthew 24:32–33; Mark 13:28–29; Luke 21:29–31). And the last, final word of the entire New Testament sounds like a prayer call: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” ( Rev. 20:20 ) with the response of the Called One: “Yes, I am coming quickly! Amen". However, we cannot help wondering whether we are not confronted here with a contradiction that has no place in the Word of God. How can we understand that we are simultaneously called to watch for signs and to hope for the approaching end, and at the same time we are guarded against this? Obviously, this requires the correct measure of observation and its corresponding image. The world is heading towards its terrible and salutary end, although its arrival remains hidden in ignorance. Truly, our hearts should burn with longing for the marriage supper of the Lamb. But this prayer must be offered in great humility and saving patience. Isn’t this feeling similar to our preparation for the hour of death, because it too is a personal end for everyone, followed by a meeting with the Lord. Isn’t its approach also indicated by obvious signs, like the buds of a spring olive tree? However, the day and hour of our death remains unknown to us. We must always remember him, but it is already a sinful boldness to call upon him in prayer; only our heavenly Father knows him. The great apostle testifies to this: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21), “I have a desire to be separated and to be with Christ, because this is incomparably better, and remaining in the flesh is more necessary for you. And I know for sure that I will remain and abide with you all” (Phil. 1:23–24). The apostle does not want to have his own will in this, but surrenders himself to the will of God. Therefore, we must not close ourselves with fear from the signs of the approaching end, watch them with greedy eyes, and, however, not exaggerating our ability to comprehend them, and, seeing the approach, not imagine its occurrence. But most importantly, we must be alert in spirit, like the prudent virgins who prepared oil for the lamps to meet the Bridegroom. The desire to meet the Lord must always burn within us, with the consciousness of the temporality and frailty of this world, with the hope of the future century. This is the song of the soul, which sounds incessantly, at all times, in great and small, in trials and accomplishments. Blessed is the servant who will be found vigilant. Amen. Comfort, comfort my people, This is what God said to the ancient prophet in the days of the people’s tribulation, and this is what God now tells us about who is called to teaching. For now this inquiring groan sounds and spreads over the earth, wide-open, perplexed eyes look at us, people are looking for human consolation in their sorrow. But does the comforter himself have it - in the face of the terrible present and the even more terrible future? How are such disasters possible, what do they mean, and where is the will of God in what is happening, so they ask the question of Job. If God lives in heaven, then isn’t there a dark, hostile force at work on earth? Deadly doubt, cold despair and dull desperation creep into the hearts. Life is unpleasant and the world seems hateful. But where can you find answers to unanswerable questions, overcome their toxicity, and protect your heart from them? For these bewilderments of the questioners are true and sincere, in the pain of the heart and the powerlessness of the mind. And it is not even the personal fate of each of us that is being asked; this has already been said: “Whoever will save his life will lose it” (Luke 17:33), but about the fate of all humanity, which is shuddering in convulsions. Who should we now ask, who should we turn to, except to the Teacher Himself: did He Himself know about this and tell His disciples, anticipating and preparing everyone for the inevitable and terrible future? Or, is the evil one whispering to us, and He was mistaken, did not know, and He Himself gave in to an impossible dream? However, it is easy to weaken the tempting question: Yes, He knew all this and told His friends about it. And, therefore, this permission of God corresponds to the inner necessity of human life, it leads to good, such is the evidence of our faith, which we are called to heed in all its incomprehensibility. It is not earthly happiness and its joys that He promised to the disciples, but through them to all humanity, but sorrows and trials: “For when they say, ‘peace and safety,’ then destruction will suddenly befall them” (1 Thess. 5:3), but “through your patience save your souls” (Luke 21:19). The fate of the world towards its end becomes more and more terrible and incomprehensible, suffering more unbearable, the darkness thickens, although it is cut through by luminous lightning of an unearthly light. The Gospel does not indicate exactly how these last terrible days will come, and whether it will be one limited time, or, stretching out and, as it were, repeating itself, it generally determines the fate of the world and humanity after Christ. But this tension of evil and suffering can become such that “if those days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved,” and only “for the sake of the elect will those days be shortened,” and “then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the age and never will be” (Matthew 24:21-22). We also do not know and cannot even know whether this final sorrow has already arrived, as it may seem to our fear, which we should not succumb to. However, the whole world is already in sorrow, from which our hearts can tremble. This weakness of faith in the face of trials manifested itself even in the elect, in the apostles themselves, to whom Christ said: “You will all be offended because of Me this night!” (Matthew 26:31), but isn’t a similar night of peace approaching even now? If now we are exhausted from coldness of heart and calculating selfishness, then it was also said about this in advance that due to the increase of lawlessness, love in us will grow cold. But at the same time, we are all called to courageous patience: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12–13). And the Lord with special force confirms the immutability of what was predicted: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). We involuntarily look for ourselves in these anticipations, for clues to our own destinies. Will they serve as a justification for our own fear of life, or, on the contrary, will they be an assurance that even in this storm Christ remains close, telling us, as He once did to His disciples: “Be of good cheer, it is I, do not be afraid!” (Matthew 14:27), and in our cowardice he exhorts: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt!” (Matthew 14:31). And more than that: in the face of all the horrors and shocks, He calls for special cheerfulness: “When this begins to come true, then bow down and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near!” (Luke 21:28). And the more terrible things are around, the more joyful and free the heart can be, the closer Christ is, if only we ourselves are with Christ. And it is precisely in spite of the fury of the Antichrist that the manifestation of the Kingdom of Christ on earth is approaching, promised even before the end, as well as the fettering of Satan for a thousand years even before the last battle (Rev. 20: 1-3). This is our Christian consolation, and we know no other way, since we are Christians. And isn't that enough? By the mercy of God, it is given to us in great and small ways along the paths of our lives. The Lord invisibly but tangibly extends a helping hand to a drowning person when we call on Him with faith. And let us not be tempted even by our sinful weakness, human weakness. What we are now exhausted from: over-concern and fearfulness, coldness of heart and absent-mindedness of prayer, despondency and selfishness, all this has fallen like a heavy cloud on us, as well as on the whole world. In other times, free from trials, we ourselves seemed more worthy and stronger than now. But God himself honored us with these trials, although we are not aware of this choice of ours. The test of faith was sent to the apostles themselves, and it is now being sent to everyone, so that we may persevere in it to the end. When darkness thickens on earth and the kingdom of the beast triumphs, angelic trumpets sound in the heavens and victorious voices are heard, as Revelation testifies to us. Along with earthly sadness, the heavens are opened to us, another, unearthly, higher reality is revealed by the grace-filled power of the Church, which abides with us and in us. The world is still protected by the heavenly army and the Protection of the Mother of God is spread over it, all the saints pray with us and for us, the saints of the Russian land do not abandon it in its struggles, internal and external. The “remembrance” of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, performed every day on earthly altars, has not been and will not be taken away from the world. The inexhaustible power of grace is poured into the world in the sacraments and sacred rites of the church. It contains the word of the Holy Gospel. And when we ourselves, in moments of grace, touch with our hearts the heavenly world, we are assured that we are not lost and not abandoned in our world, in which Christ abides by the Holy Spirit, and He tells us in our misfortunes and troubles: “Do not be afraid, it is I!” Listen to Him. Amen. May my right hand be forgotten, if In the disastrous time of war, the Lord remembered our homeland and visited our people in battle. His destinies are now weighed on the scales of God's judgment. Long years passed, during which the peoples healed their wounds, gathered new strength, in cold oblivion about his destinies. He lived alone in poverty, exhausted under the yoke of godless power, its bestial cruelty, in the legacy of the nation-wide war. Our homeland was abundantly watered with blood and tears from the power of the rapists. They encroached on her entire life, not only on her ancient tradition, but also on the great shrines of the Christian faith. The Orthodox people were turned into a herd of dumb people, deprived of holy baptism, forcibly returned to paganism and even below it - for the pagans know God, have their own worship of God, and here, for the first time in all times of human existence, a great people was raised without faith in the existence of the Most High. For this purpose, they tortured him with all kinds of torments, executed him with all kinds of executions, lied to him with all kinds of lies, kept him, as the people of God were once kept in slavery in Egypt, but Moses was not there to bring his people to freedom. There was only one thing that was not given to the corrupters of souls - to weaken the very body of the people. It continued to grow in order, like Samson, to break its rotten shackles. Although shackled, our people retained their place on earth, growing and expanding, alert to their future destiny. Now a new book of his existence is opening. But in her first letters the unexpected and terrible are outlined - trouble follows trouble, danger now threatens the freedom of the people, their identity. The Russian land was beset by a foreign invasion, and the sword of conquest was raised over it. Cities and villages, hitherto desecrated by the godless power, become his military prey. External and internal enslavers unite in a threat to the integrity and existence, independence of our homeland. In the face of mortal danger, we lift up our hearts to Rope with a prayer for her salvation and mercy. You, Lord, do as you want, let Your will be done over us, but from the depths of our hearts we cry to You: free our homeland from godless power, protect it from conquest and division, captivity and conquest. Living in dispersion and exile, we lost our homeland, did not accept the seal of the “beast” and did not worship him. In this irreconcilability, we affirm our truth before our conscience. But we do not agree to equate the beast, which has taken possession of our homeland for the time being, to her and to renounce her, and the state of her illness cannot be distinguished from her very existence. Its shrine remains unshakable for us even in humiliation. In evil rulers we know its first enemies, harming life, but powerless to threaten its very existence. They are now uniting with foreign forces seeking to take away or diminish its place on earth, given by God, bequeathed by our ancestors. And therefore, our highest duty is to remain faithful to our homeland, not to change it in thoughts or deeds, not to wish the enemy to take possession of our homeland. The conqueror seeks his own, but not ours, and he will not do for us and for us what only we ourselves are called to do. God chooses the instrument of his will. May His holy will be accomplished over us, but may God’s permission be accomplished over us without our participation, without our spiritual betrayal. Staying in dispersion is purely godly in the days of people’s trials; it dooms us to remain in inactive contemplation until we find ourselves clearly called to build on our native land. But even while enduring this painful lot, we should not become someone else’s tools. We are confused by the temptations of personal self-interest, the hope and desire to receive what was lost from the hands of the conqueror, thereby laying a new foundation for internal civil strife. We must understand that it is not freedom, but a new conquest that brings with it the sword of the conqueror, and we should not rejoice at it as something desirable. Let us suffer in a foreign land, outside our homeland in this terrible hour of her life. However, this cannot be overcome by imaginary, deceptive participation, as an obedient instrument of someone else’s will. We maintain freedom of spiritual self-determination, in our prayerful coming before God. We believe that it, even being deprived of external manifestation, is a creative force with which we invisibly and mysteriously influence the destinies of our homeland and the whole world, until we are called to direct and obvious service. But this calling should not come from the conquerors, but come from the depths of our homeland. She alone is free to accept and not accept invited and uninvited servants. Until then, what remains for us is spiritual self-observation and prayerful standing before the Lord, may He save and preserve our homeland from new enslavement, external and internal, through which He communicates our destinies. May He grant her freedom through the prayers of the disembodied heavenly forces and all the saints who have shone in the Russian land. They showed an image of loyalty to the Russian shrine in its trials under the Tatar yoke, in the Polish invasion, the invasion of twelve languages, the violence of the atheists... They are with us even now in times of terrible trials. If I forget you, Jerusalem, be forgotten, my right hand! Word at the funeral about. Alexandra Elchaninova (Alexandro-Nevsky Cathedral in Paris, August 14–27, 1934) “Let my prayer come to the Lord, and before Him let my eye water. Oh, if only man could compete with God, like the son of man with his neighbor” (Job 16:18-20). Job's cry on his sick bed bursts forth from his heart in front of this tomb. That is the cry of the human heart before the tomb of a dear person, over whom the destinies of God have been accomplished. Not from the malice of people, not from the cunning of enemies, but by a serious illness, he was torn from our midst in the flower of strength, maturity, and wisdom. Death hovered over him like a predatory kite, and human efforts were powerless to drive it away. The prayers raised for him by so many who loved him were powerless, the fiery love of selfless care was powerless, science and the art of medicine were powerless. Death sometimes seemed to move away from him, but then approached again, until finally, with inexorability, he abducted his victim. The right hand of the Lord weighs heavily on him, and what can a person do against the will of God! The destinies of God are inscrutable, for we see their accomplishment only in a limited way from this world and the present time, without seeing the whole. But when they are accomplished, then a person can either submit to them in powerlessness, slavish obedience and fear, or he can - and must - bow before them as before the will of a loving Heavenly Father, whose will is love. The ways of this love are incomprehensible, but it demands from us, precisely in its incomprehensibility, the feat of faith, which is “invisible notification.” The terrible and incomprehensible things in life must be brought to the foot of the cross, on which the One Sinless One, the Son of God himself, died a shameful death. He also prayed to the Father: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me,” but this prayer was not heard, and He bowed before the loving sentence of the Father: “Not Mine, but Thy will be done,” and in this filial obedience the salvation of the world was accomplished. And now we must bow our hearts in the feat of faith in the image of Christ the Savior. And not only to us, although we love him, but still distant, but also to those close to him, whose hearts are cut by this loss - cut for life. A person needs to look for strength in his heart to say: Thy will be done. Our faith requires this of us. And only in this way will we find ourselves in the same spirit and in the same faith with our beloved shepherd who is present here, who believed so much and prayed so much. For thirty years I was destined to know him and love him and admire him. From afar, like many of his friends, he came to the Church, and from Athens his path went to heavenly Jerusalem. From secular education he came to church enlightenment. He went through the highest secular school, studied at the highest theological school, and himself belonged to the circle of people of refined thought. He was a friend of those of whom Russian religious thought can be proud, and participated in all their work and feats. It was a fatal, decisive time in the history of the Russian people. In Russian educated society, a movement towards the Church began, and representatives of this movement, friends of the deceased, together with him themselves then began the struggle against the bearers of atheism. Societies and circles of zealots of faith and Christian life arose. This was already secular shepherding, the preaching of faith in the midst of a society run wild in godlessness, and, perhaps, the most difficult and responsible; and he, the future shepherd, gave himself to her before his shepherdship. Quantitatively, it was a handful against the majority, the spirit of which, living in it, says about itself: “My name is legion, for we are many.” “And it was given to the legion to win, and it continues to win.” This is evidenced by what is happening in our homeland, just as our dispersion is a sign of the victory of the legion. In all this work of gathering spiritual strength against godlessness and indifference, externally covered by faith, the deceased was an unchanging and irreplaceable worker and collaborator, a humble and devoted performer of what was entrusted to him. His name should therefore be inscribed in the history of our church education, as well as the newest movement of Christian thought in Russia. This was also facilitated by his personal qualities and the special charm of his youth. When he appeared with his radiant and affectionate gaze, hearts opened to meet him. Even then he had a special calling and gift to be an educator and teacher of childhood and youth. His friends knew how irresistible his influence was, how attached his students were to him. This is how we lived until a storm broke out, which scattered us in different directions, and now some are no longer there, others are far away. In these distant years, he devoted himself entirely to his original calling - the work of education. But it was interrupted, and the ongoing hurricane carried us into the land of dispersion. And when here, in dispersion, we met again nine years ago, it was clear that the matter of education, even in the highest sense, could no longer fully satisfy him. It had to be raised to its highest foundation, to the Church. His soul longed for priestly service. And this thirst was quenched. The merciful hand of our archpastor extended to him with love, and he became a priest, standing before the throne of the Lord in the fear of God. He was a reverent priest, for whom the celebration of the Divine Eucharist was truly the highest joy and inspiration. And he combined this new and higher inspiration with his previous gift and calling, and became a pastor-educator, a skillful and loving leader of souls. How many souls are crying now for him, for their spiritual father. It is also natural that he found himself among the friends and spiritual leaders of the Christian Youth Movement, which suffered an irreplaceable loss in it, having lost one of its few, alas, leaders from among its pastorates. Images of existence are imprinted on the sensitive plate, and they say that everything that happens in the world is imprinted in the world ether. But spiritual images are also imprinted in the hearts. And the spiritual image of Fr. Alexandra, imprinted in the hearts of his flock, lives as a good seed for those who now silently cry for him. Silently, like him, for he was modest, silent and meek, alien to the search for success or any posture. With this directness and sincerity of his heart he was accessible to everyone. His soul was especially open. In his image there is something evangelical, evangelical and childish, something about which Christ said: “If you are not like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” He was meek and humble in heart in the image of the One who spoke these words about himself. There was genuine humility in him and the non-judgment that flowed from it. And the wisdom of this humility, the wisdom of meekness, gave him special power over young souls. There was something in him from the Mother of God family. This day of his burial is the pre-celebration of Her bright Dormition, and a ray from the azure of her feast now shines over this tomb... There was something in it of the humility of the Most Holy Theotokos, which is a living and perfect image of effective humility. About Her is silent in the annals of history and extremely little is said in the sacred books, but Her power over souls is known to the heart. With her silent presence on the day of Pentecost and throughout her life after the ascension of Her Son, among the apostles and believers, she was the spiritual focus of the Church. The Most Holy Theotokos spoke to St. Seraphim that he is from her family, he who has acquired that indescribable peace in the heart that Christ gives us. And the monk said: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.” And this peaceful spirit overshadowed the deceased, it gave him the strength to kindly accept those thorns of life that inevitably come across on the path of every person. That is why it is so difficult to tell about him to those who did not know him personally, that he himself never stood out in the first places, humbly and quietly remaining in the shadows, as if trying to be invisible. And he even left the world quietly and unnoticed, as if trying not to bother him. We know and feel how many of his friends and spiritual children are now not among us, whose hearts are aflame with prayer for him. These hearts are open to God, but they are also visible to him, because for him now there are no earthly distances, and he hears their cries and prayers for himself. Now for the last time he participates with us in the divine liturgy on earth, but “just as you have placed your servant on earth in the church, so also in your heavenly altar” he stands, “your priest, O Christ, priest and bearer of the divine sacraments.” They now see what was visible to the seer: “And behold, a great multitude of people, which no one could number, from all tribes and peoples and languages, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation is to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 8:2). And now the Church prays for him: “In faith, and hope, and love, and meekness, and purity, and in priestly dignity, you rested piously, ever in memory. In the same way, the eternal God, for whom you worked, will Himself place your spirit in a holy and red place, where the righteous rest, and you will receive forgiveness and great mercy in Christ.” With the saints, rest, O Christ, the soul of your departed priest. Amen. Priest Fr. Pavel Florensky The other day we received direct confirmation of the news of the death of the great Russian theologian and thinker, priest Fr. Pavel Florensky. He died in Solovki, after a 10-year exile to remote places, from Eastern Siberia to the White Sea. Of all my contemporaries whom I was destined to meet during my long life, he is the greatest, and the greatest is the crime of those who raised their hands against him, dooming him to something worse than execution, but to long-term painful exile and slow dying. He departed, illuminated by the aura of more than a martyr, but a confessor of the name of Christ in the Antichrist persecution. Therefore, this death fills the soul not only with stunning sorrow, as one of the darkest events of the Russian tragedy, but it is also a spiritual triumph, as one of those about which the Seer of Secrets is told: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on; to her, says the Spirit, they will rest from their labors, and their works will follow them” (Rev. 14:13). I am destined here, in a foreign land, to now testify to those who did not know him about the greatness and beauty of his spiritual image. But never have I felt the powerlessness of my word to such an extent as in the face of this duty of mine. Father Pavel was for me not only a manifestation of genius, but also a work of art: his image was so harmonious and beautiful. It takes a word or a brush or the chisel of a great master to tell the world about it. Moreover, he himself was not only born this way, but was also his own product of spiritual and artistic taste. The features of his external face are captured in the famous Nesterov portrait - blessed calmness and enlightenment, the image of a kind of celestial being, who, however, was a son of the earth, experienced and overcame its hardships. There was no idyllic naivety and primitiveness in him at all; this could have been said about him: “Oh, don’t wake up sleeping storms, chaos is stirring underneath them.” But he loved her, this native land, like the all-human mother, the ancient Demeter, but at the same time he knew and honored her as the holy Land of God, the Most Pure and Most Blessed, which he worshiped so much. (See his dedication of the “Pillar”: “To the All-Fragrant and Most Pure Name of the Virgin and Mother”). From the outside, he was rather of a delicate and fragile build, but he had great endurance and ability to work, partly achieved through enormous ascetic training. I witnessed this ascetic self-discipline of his, as well as his laborious scientific feat: he usually spent his nights at work, going to bed only at 3-4 o'clock in the morning, but at the same time maintaining all the freshness of his mind during the day, and the same can be said about his eating regimen. And all this was in him not only the voice of his spiritual element, but also a matter of iron will and self-control. Weak by nature, in those years when I knew about him (alas, our separation was already a quarter of a century old), as far as I remember, he was never sick at all, leading a life full of ascetic deprivation. When Fr. Paul appeared anywhere, he naturally attracted the attention of at least sighted people, both before his priesthood and especially after it. There was something oriental and non-Russian in his face (his mother was Armenian). Spiritually, I saw in him most of all an ancient Hellenic, and at the same time also an Egyptian; He carried both spiritual elements within himself, being, as it were, a living revelation of them. In his appearance, in his profile, in the reflection of his face, in his lips and nose, there was something from the images of Leonardo da Vinci, which always amazed. But together... Gogol. I remember how we, who knew him and were present at the opening of the monument to Gogol in Moscow (Ern, A. Bely, etc.), saw him for the first time after the veil that covered him was removed, and gasped: “Pavlusha!” (that’s what his friends and peers called him, schoolmates at the Tiflis gymnasium, now both retired: V.F. Ern and Father Alexander Elchaninov). And with this appearance, which one cannot pass by without noticing it, there was nothing provocative or arrogant about her. It was the same in his voice and in his speech: Shakespeare’s words (Hamlet about Ophelia) always asked for him to be spoken: he had a gentle, quiet voice, great charm not only in a woman, but in this case also in a man. However, this voice also had the hardness of metal when required. In general, the most basic impression of Fr. Paul had the strength to know and control himself. And this force was a certain primordial nature of a genius personality, who was given originality and self-sufficiency with complete simplicity, naturalness and any absence of internal and external posture, which is always a pretense of internal weakness. And in the paths of spiritual development and self-determination we observe in Fr. Pavle these same features. It can be said in a certain sense that Fr. Paul made himself, following his own path. He was born and raised in a cultured family (his father was an educated engineer), and he was brought up in the atmosphere of Beethoven and Goethe, but without religion. Being a spiritual aristocrat by upbringing, he was to a certain extent also an esthete. After graduating from the gymnasium, where he amazed teachers with his mathematical abilities, then already research ones, he entered the mathematics department of Moscow University, after which he was retained at several mathematical departments (and for a long time later Moscow physicists and mathematicians could not forget the gifted student). Instead of all this, Fr. Paul, dramatically changing his path in life, entered the Moscow Theological Academy as a student (at Trinity Sergius), accepting obedience to a new scientific and theological work, and at the same time a religious feat. When and how the religious revolution took place in it, I do not have exact data. I recognized him after him. In a scientific guise, Fr. Pavel was always amazed by his complete mastery of the subject, alien to any amateurism, and in the breadth of his scientific interests he is a rare and exceptional polylogist, the full extent of which cannot even be determined due to the lack of complete data for this. Here he most of all resembles the titanic images of the Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci and others, maybe also Pascal, and among the Russians most of all V.V. Bolotova. I knew him to be a mathematician and physicist, a theologian and philologist, a philosopher, a historian of religions, a poet, a connoisseur and connoisseur of art, and a deep mystic. The last years before exile Fr. Pavel gave lectures in Moscow on electricity and the theory of perspective. They say that even during his exile in Solovki, with his all-consuming inquisitive mind, he studied seaweed. If it is impossible to verify this, let it be a myth that naturally arises around a person who is also mythical in his own way. And all this wealth of gifts, and, obviously, achievements, is hidden, and perhaps buried by barbarity, the spiritual invasion of the Huns on Russian soil, crushed by the cast-iron press of “Soviet power” along with millions of human lives. I don’t know what has survived from his scientific and literary heritage, but even then, during the years of our common life, that is, a quarter of a century ago, I knew that he had several ready-made studies on his desk (about names and renamings, various philosophical and theological courses, mathematical and other works). In general, he had little interest in their publication. But I personally believe that the book “The Pillar and Ground of Truth,” which deservedly glorified his name in theology, is still a youthful work, and not at all his last and only word of all that he took with him to his distant grave. However, in the creative world, nothing disappears from genuine spiritual values, even what perishes here on earth, “their deeds follow them,” their seed sprouts in the next world... However, everything that can be said about the exceptional scientific talent of Fr. Paul, as well as about his originality, by virtue of which he always had his word, as a kind of revelation about everything, is still secondary and insignificant if you do not know the most important thing in it. The spiritual center of his personality, the sun by which all his gifts were illuminated, was his priesthood. V.V. Rozanov, who, having once learned about. Paul, then could no longer tear himself away from him, as from the source of life (I know that Father Paul kept a huge and significant correspondence with him, in which they plunged together into the mystical depths of the Jewish question), he once wrote me a letter about him, also absolutely brilliant in strength and expressiveness (I don’t know if it survived in Moscow). I only remember one word from it. As his most significant definition, V.V. Rozanov said: he is ἱερεύς (p. 512) (precisely in Greek), priest. And that's exactly how it was. Priesthood Fr. Paul, like everything in his life (besides what satanic anti-Christian malice had done to him), was also his own self-determination, which, from the outside, seemed to be completely contrary to his entire life situation. Neither his engineer father nor his gymnasium or university teachers dreamed of such foolishness as a cassock. It did not even necessarily follow from the fact of entering the Theological Academy, but such was his inner voice, election and calling. In itself, it had no examples in the history of the Russian intelligentsia. The latter still knows of isolated cases of acceptance of the priesthood associated with the transition to Catholicism, in aristocratic and secular convertism, but not at all in homespun, peasant Orthodoxy. We can say that Fr. Paul, by his example, first paved this path in our days precisely for the Russian intelligentsia, to which historically, of course, he still belonged, although he was always free from “intelligentsia” and was at enmity with it. With his ordination, he actually made a well-known challenge to her, of course, without thinking about it at all. Therefore, the same paths, but after Fr. Paul, people of well-known spiritual and cultural character have come. They go with him and after him, sometimes consciously, and sometimes even unconsciously. Until now, the priesthood has been hereditary among us, belonging to the “Levitical” blood, along with a certain psychological way of life, but in Fr. Paul, culture and churchliness, Athens and Jerusalem met and were united in their own way, and this organic connection in itself is already a fact of church-historical significance. What was Fr. looking for in the priesthood? Paul? This was not a calling to shepherding and teaching, although, of course, he did not deny them, but first of all and most of all an attraction to stand before the Throne of the Lord, to serve the liturgical-Eucharistic service. First about. Paul sought, perhaps somewhat abstractly and ideologically, to obtain a village parish near Sergiev Posad, but then he received for himself a small house church of the Red Cross community in Sergiev Posad, where he was entrusted with the department of spiritual philosophy, (here too the routine turned out to be stronger than the essence of the matter, and Father Pavel was removed from the departments of purely theological ones), but then he received for himself a small house church of the Red Cross community in Sergiev Posad, of course, until 1918 the year from which his priestly homelessness began. After this, obviously, his priestly ministry could not but be interrupted sooner or later. However, Bolshevik Moscow also remembers him giving scientific lectures in a cassock and wearing a cross. I won’t say exactly the year of his ordination, but it seems to have been around 1910. Shortly before his ordination, his marriage took place, which was unexpected in its own way for his loved ones. His ascetic path initially led him to monasticism, but then asceticism in the monastery gave way to asceticism in the family. He became the head of the family, a caring and gentle father of several children. Separation from them and worry about them, obviously, was also his special cross in exile. In his ordination, Fr. Paul stepped over the obstacle that for us, the “intellectuals” who returned to the Church, so to speak, was the dependence of the Church on the state, Caesar-papism. In his exceptional earthiness - despite and even despite his half-Russian blood - Fr. Paul was, or rather, wanted to be politically rather conservative, although this in him was combined with an apocalyptic and eschatological sense of life, “not having a city that abides here, but seeking the one to come.” At a time when the whole country was delirious with the revolution, and also in church circles, one after another, albeit ephemeral, church-political organizations arose, Fr. Paul remained alien to them, either because of his general indifference to the earthly dispensation, or because the voice of eternity generally sounded stronger for him than the calls of temporality. The renovationist movement among the Russian clergy, which later degenerated into the Living Church, never found an echo in Fr. Paul, no matter how much he suffered from all the inertia of our church life. His Christianity was also not “social”, although at that time various currents of it arose around it. But this was least of all a simple guardianship in him; this outer shell was connected with the fiery burning of the fiery spirit, although with a quiet light emanating from it. Therefore, he was not shocked by the change in the relationship between Church and state that came after the revolution. He remained internally free from the state, from which he did not seek anything either before or after the revolution, equally alien to any servility, both to the authorities above and below. We can say, without fear of paradox, that Fr. Paul passed through our catastrophic era, spiritually as if not noticing it, as if not paying attention to its external revolutionary nature. This indifference was also expressed in his loyalty to “obedience to all authority,” a paradoxical “priesthood.” However, at the same time, you need to know the full true extent of his love of freedom, which was equally able not only to obey, but also to disobey, of course, in what was essential and important for him. Having become a priest and having assumed the full responsibility of all canonical and hierarchical discipline, Fr. Paul remained free and alien to blind obedience for fear, and not for conscience, recognition of its “infallibilitas”. He remained free in his theology, which, however, was organically imbued with his churchliness and was inspired at the altar. He did not live to see the direct persecution of sophiology that came later, but, of course, he was ready to accept it with all its consequences. When the persecution of the worshipers of the Name of God (“name-glorification”) began, Fr. Paul gave his theological strength to support the theologically helpless but mystically right movement of the name-glorifiers. I could also confirm his spiritual fearlessness on the basis of some biographical data. In general, one can apply the German expression to him: nur für schwindelfreie möglich, and he remained schwindelfrei in his priesthood. It was characteristic that he could be found not only in the cell of Abba Isidore, among the elders of Zosima Hermitage, among Bishop. Anthony, who lived in retirement in the Donskoy Monastery, but also in various houses of our then Moscow “Florence”, writers and poets, sometimes where it seemed difficult to expect this, he was a welcome guest and a night interlocutor. For all his ecclesiastical and liturgical nature, he remained completely free from both hypocrisy and stylish “priesthood”, knowing how to be interested in things on the merits. Therefore, he did not find a real place for himself in the academic environment with its special atmosphere. While remaining completely far from theological “modernism,” that is, rationalism, he was, of course, not alien to it in the best, true sense, recognizing that each era of history has not only the right to exist, but also the law of its life, the special requirements of its creative perception, as a result of which loyalty to its tradition does not turn into inert guarding. When the theological academies were closed by the Soviet government, together with Fr. Pavel began to actively discuss the project of establishing a free “religious-philosophical” academy according to a modified and expanded program, and for this implementation they were looking for means and opportunities. However, life responded to these projects with cruelty in its own way, for Fr. Paul's imprisonment, which ended in confessional death, for me - lifelong exile in a foreign land. Such were the ways and orders of God's Providence. But in our current Parisian undertaking, which arose in the cultural ruins of Russian life, I would like to see, of course, if not completeness, then at least some faint reflection of our Moscow plans, and in what is conventionally called “Parisian theology”, to find principles that are related to the inspirations of Fr. Paul, and his spiritual participation with us, as it were. However, full flowering and fruiting is possible only on its native soil and under its sun, and a greenhouse plant, torn from the soil, even if it grows, inevitably withers. Father Pavel had an organic sense of homeland. Himself a native of the Caucasus, he found the promised land for himself at the Trinity of Sergius, loving every corner and plant in it, its summer and winter, spring and autumn. I cannot convey in words that feeling of the homeland, Russia, great and powerful in its destinies, with all its sins and falls, but also in the trials of its chosenness, how it lived in Fr. Pavle. And, of course, it was no coincidence that he did not go abroad, where, of course, a brilliant scientific future and, probably, world fame could await him, which for him in general, it seems, did not exist. Of course, he knew what could await him, he could not help but know, the fate of his homeland spoke too inexorably about this, from top to bottom, from the brutal murder of the royal family to the endless victims of government violence. We can say that life seemed to offer him a choice between Solovki and Paris, but he chose... homeland, although it was Solovki, he wanted to share his fate with his people to the end. O. Pavel organically could not and did not want to become an emigrant in the sense of a voluntary or involuntary separation from his homeland, and he himself and his fate are the glory and greatness of Russia, although at the same time its greatest crime. A quarter of a century has already passed since we parted with Fr. Paul, leaving the Moscow church after our last joint liturgy. And everything that is said above about him is the essence of impressions only of the first decades of this century, already a distant past. Nevertheless, I do not feel that I remain in some kind of ignorance about him, because for me the past years lived together have allowed me to forever preserve in my soul this image, as if cast from bronze, like a monument. But, of course, it is beyond our power to tell about it without seeing it or feeling it directly. In order to talk about a genius, who is a kind of miracle of nature, you must be one yourself, or at least have the ability to imagine his image through the power of feeling. Let us hope that there will be those who will collect precious grains of memories of him over the past quarter century, although they will all face the same insurmountable difficulty: the real creativity of Fr. Paul is not even the books he wrote, or his thoughts and words, but he himself, his whole life, which has already gone irrevocably from this century to the future. And only those who believe and know that the life of creativity continues beyond the grave, that it is also possible to participate in the life here, have the Christian hope of meeting it in the eternal homeland, in intelligible Russia, in the coming century, in which nothing truly valuable is lost, but is multiplied, and the deeds of the righteous follow him... The memory haunts me, and at the same time the omen of future events and accomplishments. This is our portrait, painted by our mutual friend M.V. Nesterov (who also passed away from this life this year) on a May evening in 1917, in the garden at the house of Fr. Pavel. It was, according to the artist’s plan, not only a portrait of two friends made by a third friend, but also a spiritual vision of the era. Both faces expressed the same comprehension for the artist, but in different ways, one of them as a vision of horror, the other as peace, joy, and victorious overcoming. And the artist himself first had doubts about the appropriateness of the first image, so much so that he made an attempt to remake the portrait, replacing horror with idyll, tragedy with complacency. But the falsity and unbearability of such a replacement were immediately revealed, so the artist had to restore the original vision. But the image of Fr. Paul turned out to be something he immediately found; there was artistic and spiritual self-evidence in him, and he did not have to be changed. It was an artistic clairvoyance of two images of the Russian apocalypse, on this side and on the other side of earthly existence, the first image in struggle and confusion (and in my soul it related specifically to the fate of my friend), the other to the victorious accomplishment that we are now contemplating... He found his resting place. This is the Christian faith and Christian hope. But the world seemed to be empty without him for those who knew and loved him, becoming dull and boring, and the departed one was calling for him to follow him from the world. “I looked,” says the seer, “and behold, a great multitude of people, which no one can number... stood before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands... These are those who came out of the great tribulation... they abide before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His church... and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes...” (Rev. 7:9-17). And we believe that in their face one can see the priest of God Paul, the martyr and confessor of the Name of Christ. For the funeral of N.A. Struve 10 Dear friend and my spiritual daughter! During the days of Easter joy, your husband, children, grandchildren, friends, everyone who knew and loved you, are separated from you, and everyone who knew you loved you. I also testify to this now in front of your grave, as a friend throughout your entire life. You are now bringing to the judgment of God the work of your whole life, as a wife and mother and as a faithful daughter of your people, whom you served on all the paths of your life. Your husband’s business is also your business, which continues and will continue after you leave. You taught in word and deed love and loyalty to our homeland, and you bequeath now, in the face of its unknown future destinies, to serve it as you yourself served. But you teach by your example something even greater and higher: love and fidelity to the Church of Christ, to which you were devoted with all the zeal of a loving heart. You raised in your family ministers of the church in the priesthood and beyond, and may your image, the prayerful connection with you in the next world be a bright blessing for them. You met death approaching you with Christian humility and quiet joy. You loved life as the highest gift of God, and it was revealed to you even here that another new life awaits us beyond the grave, where the light of resurrection shone, and Christ rose from the dead, trampling down death through death. In the light of Easter joy, we now part with you, in the Christian hope of a new life and a new meeting. Eternal memory to the servant of God, the newly deceased Antonina. Amen. Word at the funeral of P.B. Struve Now, at the hour of the last farewell, your bright image rises in all its majesty in my grateful memory. Almost half a century has passed since the beginning of our acquaintance, when our friendship began, which lasted for many years and was illuminated by some kind of farewell affection precisely in the last days of your life. I look at it with my spiritual gaze, starting from the end of the last century: the first meeting in both Russian capitals, and many further ones in foreign countries and at home. I see you in the Moscow church on the day of my priestly ordination, just as I now contemplate your tomb now in the priestly presence before it. I remember the common path of our life and its works, our convergences, as well as our divergences, which, however, could never extinguish in my soul the personal reverence and involuntary surprise at your spiritual appearance and your talent. We were destined not only to be contemporaries and life companions, but also to become co-workers, to share a common destiny, which was the spiritual destiny of our entire homeland on the paths of its self-awareness and self-determination. At the same appointed hour of Russian history, we set out on a common path, this long and difficult path of liberation from the darkness of atheism, which we ourselves were deceived by, which we professed on behalf of false knowledge. And you and I at the same time - each in our own way - overcame it in the search for the living God - on the paths of thought, knowledge and faith, publicly bringing that repentance about which the Forerunner of Christ said: “Repent and believe in the Gospel!” (Mark 1:15). And it seemed then that we were also given the opportunity to become the forerunners of spiritual revival in the circles of Russian educated society. This preaching of the return of prodigal sons to the bosom of the Father was then the work of life for the numerically few crusaders who raised this cross of struggle against the spiritual indifference and prejudice that reigned in his circles. But - alas! – our business was not crowned with quantitative success. In any case, for the time being, we were swept away by the violence of militant atheism. However, the spiritual battle was fought and it remains unforgettable. Let it not be forgotten that you stood in the forefront of these crusaders, with all the independence and fearlessness of thought that has always been characteristic of you in everything. You were one of the first to pronounce the Name of God with faith and fear of God among those who have long been accustomed to indifference and blasphemy. Therefore, you belong to the number of teachers to Christ for the educated Russian society of our days. Along a long and winding path, you yourself came into the bosom of the Church of Christ, which now sees you off to eternity as its son. Because of this, you became one of the most responsible figures of Russian education in your literary activity, protecting and collecting its true creative values ​​for decades - at home and abroad. You were “the guardian of the house of Israel,” according to the prophetic word, both at home and in exile. And this service of yours to the God of truth must now be witnessed before your tomb, which is the best test of values, true and imaginary. We will not remain silent here about what your personal creativity was dedicated to. In your person, Russian science is glorified worldwide, and you have been repeatedly crowned by scientific courts in your homeland and abroad. The breadth of your field of research, as well as your knowledge, together with the mental freshness that remained until your last days, amazed everyone who came into contact with you. You were born a scientist both by heredity and upbringing, and you have multiplied your natural gifts through the constant feat of scientific work, which, as your personal calling and creativity, is the joy of your life. However, this alone is not the work of your life, with which you appear before the judgment of God. The main service of a person is that which requires sacrifice for itself, like the first and greatest love, and such love for you was not only science, but, even before it, your homeland. Your life's journey, from beginning to end, is therefore a series of sacrifices in the name of your homeland. Being by origin, by way of thinking, by spiritual appearance, the offspring of a non-Russian, foreign root, you showed a crystal clear image of a selflessly loving son in our terrible and fateful years, you showed faith and fidelity, honor and honesty, unbending firmness in an age of cowardice, hesitation, ambiguity, betrayal. Therefore, your personal life became a series of wanderings, persecutions, homelessness, in which trouble lurked at every turn, but the Higher Will saved you from it. You are destined to end your life on the rivers of Babylon, from where until the end you hoped to return to the promised land. And your last scientific work in a foreign land was devoted to the search for the fate of the Russian people in ancient times. And our homeland will not forget and glorify your name when it begins to count and remember its faithful sons. May it be appropriate at this hour of your transition from time to eternity to admonish you with the apostolic word: I have fought the good fight, I have completed my course, I have kept the faith, and now a crown of righteousness is being prepared for me. Preface to the collection “The Joy of the Church” Some of my friends turned to me with a request for permission to publish my scattered words in a special collection, which were published from time to time in different publications, mainly in the Sergius Leaves. Although I myself had never thought about such a meeting, I did not consider it possible to resist such a desire. Unfortunately, the mark of fragmentation and incompleteness lies too clearly on this collection. This is partly explained by the fact that I never had the opportunity to systematically teach throughout the entire church year. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of them remained unwritten, even in the form of notes. In fact, most of the words in this collection owe their origin to the student fraternity of Rev. Sergius. The latter, from time to time, over the course of a number of years, approached me with a request to write this or that word for the Sergius Leaves, and I invariably considered it my duty to follow this call. As I submit these words to print, I cannot help but feel deep dissatisfaction with their external form. The word in general is perhaps the most difficult and, for the present time, completely unfound literary form, in which the content of exceptional significance must be clothed in worthy clothing. Those high - for their time and in their kind - examples of the written “word” that we have (Metropolitan Philaret, Arch. Innokenty, Archpriest R. Putyatin, etc.) have already lost their guiding significance now, and the lack of an appropriate style, usually replaced by rhetorical bombast, is painfully felt at the present time. And therefore it often turns out that a word that is tolerable in oral pronunciation cannot be captured in writing. An ideal sermon should be a work of religious art, like an icon or a sacred hymn. However, in the face of such a demand, one can only experience embarrassment and a feeling of dissatisfaction, which is further intensified by the inability to give enough strength and attention to even the available improvement. Nevertheless, despite all its imperfections, this collection has the right to exist, since it also finds a sincere and truthful, albeit pale, reflection of life in the Church. This is, according to the Lord’s promise, “perfect joy” given to us in the living experience of the Church. There are two worlds for a Christian and two lives in them: one belongs to this world of sorrow and suffering, but the other secretly takes place in the Kingdom of God, in the jubilant city of heaven. All events, gospel and church, celebrated at different times of the church year, are not only remembered, but take place in us, since our soul touches this heavenly world. They become the highest reality for us, a source of unceasing triumph, perfect joy. The Heavenly Father, the Lord made man, the Holy Spirit who descended from heaven to earth, the Most Pure Virgin ascended to the heavenly world, the heavenly armies and the faces of the saints - all become close to us in the living experience of the Church, and this property of the heavenly to the earthly is the great triumph, the joy of the church. And since it is here, albeit in an imperfect word, what human word can be perfect for this purpose? - is not falsely testified, then this testimony can find access to hearts, and they will sound, perhaps, with a response of good news... Hallowed be Thy Name! I dedicate this collection of words to that brotherhood of St. Sergius and the association of the Orthodox Cause in Paris, to which it - in different senses - owes its origin. Sergievskoe Podvorye, Paris, Sermons that appeared in the collection Joy of the Church (Paris, 1938) are marked with an asterisk. Likhachev. Materials for the history of Russian icon painting. Atlas vol. 1, table. P. 11. No. 264: “Passionate Annunciation” (author’s collection, icon described in N.M. Postnikov’s catalog under No. 972). All texts are borrowed from the Holy Saturday service (canons and praises). This is the Greek name for the Second Coming of the Lord in glory. This is how this exclamation is read in full according to the Greek service book. In the Slavic translation, “love,” unfortunately, was omitted, and the exclamation itself lost part of its content and power. There is one inaccuracy in the Russian and Slavic text that makes it difficult to understand it correctly, namely, here we read: “You care and fuss about many things, but only one thing is needed.” In fact, this is not what is said, but something else. This essay reproduces from memory the main content of the speech given on the day of Entry into the Church in 1930, at the annual celebration of the Christian Student Movement. “Synagogue” – (Greek) general meeting, “coming together.” Ed. From a conversation with Rev. S. Bulgakov at a meeting of the Paris Commonwealth, according to the recording of listeners. Nina (Antonina) Aleksandrovna Struve, born. Gerd (1867–1943, Paris) – teacher, wife of P.B. Struve.