New menacing words about the truly terrible Judgment of God, coming and approaching

Contents Part 1 Word I Word II. February 25, 1907 Word III. April 16, 1907 Homily IV Homily V. In the 3rd week of Lent - Worship of the Cross Homily VI Homily VII Homily VIII. On the great and holy heels, Word IX. Wake up, drunkards! Word X. Service Fr. John in St. Petersburg Sermon XI Sermon XII. Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Word XIII. The kingdoms of the earth waver and fall from unbelief and lawlessness Word XIV. On the day of remembrance and celebration of the sacred anointing and crowning of the most pious Sovereign, Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich of All Russia, Sermon XV. For the birthday of the Most Pious Empress Alexandra Feodorovna Slovo XVI. On St. Day Pentecost or the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles Sermon XVII. On the week of Vai, or on the day of the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem, Homily XVIII. On the great heel of the Word XIX. On the day of the sacred anointing and crowning of the Most Pious, Most Autocratic Great Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich Slovo XX. Regarding the departure of some persons from the bosom of the Orthodox Church to Catholicism or another heterodox religion, or Pashkovism, Tolstoyism and Shtunda. Word XXI. About the end of the world and the terrible judgment of God Homily XXII Part 2 Homily I. On the day of the glorious Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos Homily II. On the day of the accession to the All-Russian ancestral throne of the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich Slovo III. About fasting and prayer Words and thoughts about vodka, tobacco and foul language, extracted from the teachings of Fr. John of Kronstadt Homily V. On the day of the glorious Transfiguration in the flesh of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ Homily VI. On the day of the glorious Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos Homily VII Homily VIII Homily IX. On the day of the transfer of St. of the relics of the blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, who was in 1724 under Emperor Peter the 1st, from Vladimir to St. Petersburg Sermon X. On the 15th week after Pentecost Sermon XI. On St. Day Archangel Michael of God and other ethereal heavenly powers Word XII. On the day of remembrance of the Holy Glorious Apostle Andrew the First-Called Homily XIII Homily XIV. On the day of the glorious Ascension in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ Homily XV Homily XVI. On the day of the glorious Exaltation of the honorable and life-giving Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem, Homily XVII Homily XVIII. On the day of the glorious Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, Sermon XIX. On the day of the glorious Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, the Word. Delivered on December 6, 1907 in Kronstadt St. Andrew's Cathedral “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I, John, saw the holy city Jerusalem, new, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them; they will be His people, and God Himself with them will be their God, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will be no more death; there will be no more crying, no crying, no sickness; for the former things have passed away. And He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he says to me: write, for these words are true and true. And he said to me: it is done! I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give freely from the source of living water; he who overcomes will inherit all, and I will be his God, and he will be My son” (Apoc. 21:1–7). I greet you, brothers and sisters, with an unusual new greeting: a new heaven and a new earth. Don’t be surprised and don’t say that it’s too early to congratulate you on something that doesn’t exist yet. But the word of God is true and the seer John preaches the good news about the new heaven and the new earth as real; for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away; and the sea is no more (Apoc. 21:1). Heaven and earth will pass away, says the Lord, but My words will not pass away (Matthew 24:35). Look how the world is coming to an end; look what is happening in the world; everywhere there is unbelief, everywhere an insult is caused to the infinite, all-good Being; everywhere there is blasphemy against the Creator, everywhere daring doubt and disbelief, disobedience; everywhere in the world there are weapons and threats of war; in many places in Russia and other countries there is acute famine; everywhere there are death threats, everywhere murders, everywhere theft of treasury and private property; everywhere there is a loss of desire for high, spiritual interests, for the entire almost intelligent world has lost faith in the immortality of the soul and its eternal ideals, or the desire for God-like perfection, about which the Lord says: be you perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48); everywhere there is one desire to satisfy animal passions; greed for self-interest and enrichment in a predatory manner; indiscriminate drunkenness, disrespect for marriages. Look and judge for yourself: the world has completely corrupted and is in need of decisive renewal, as it once was through the global flood. The last times have come, about which the Apostle Peter says: in the last days there will appear insolent scoffers, walking according to their own lusts and saying: where is the promise of His coming? (i.e. as if there will be no coming of God at all). For since the fathers began to die, from the beginning of creation, everything remains the same. Those who think this way do not know, the same Apostle continues, that in the beginning, by the word of God, the heavens and earth were made of water and by water: therefore the world of that time perished, being drowned by water. And the present heavens and earth, contained by the same Word, are reserved for fire for the day of judgment and destruction of wicked men. One thing should not be hidden from you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow in fulfilling his promise, as some consider slow, but he bears with us for a long time, not wanting anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance. The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and then the heavens will pass away with a noise, and the elements, having flared up, will be destroyed and the flared elements will melt. However, according to His promise, we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. So, beloved, looking forward to this, strive to appear before Him undefiled and blameless in peace, and consider the long-suffering of our Lord to be salvation. Therefore, beloved, being forewarned of this, beware lest you be carried away by the error of the wicked and fall from your own affirmation, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Pet. 3:1-18). Word II. February 25, 1907 “The Lord is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the nations in His truth” (Ps. 95:13). I had occasion to attend earthly sessions called district courts. The furnishings of the main ship hall are impressive. Large portrait of the Emperor on the wall; tables, seats; heterogeneous audience, docks and defendants themselves, tense anticipation of the judges. Now the doors open; the herald loudly says: the trial is coming! members of the court come out with the chairman; sit down; the court record is read; the defendants are announced; the jurors are seated; witnesses are called; an oath is read - to tell only the truth. The investigation of the case begins. All this is decorous, in order - and makes an impression on the public. This is the situation of the earthly, human court. For the defendants it is somewhat scary. After determining the degree of guilt of the defendants and a meeting of judges, a decision is made and announced - punishment or freedom from trial. This is the earthly court in a brief outline. Human judgment presupposes God's judgment, just as the internal judgment of conscience presupposes the eternally righteous Lawgiver and Judge of God, who has placed the law of conscience in every person. The judgment of judges is the judgment of God. Judge righteously, says Moses to the judges of Israel, for the judgment of God is (Numbers 25:5). Judges are people, and defendants are the same sinful people as those who judge, and judges tend to make mistakes and sometimes judge not rightly, but crookedly - to justify the guilty and condemn the innocent. This is not the judgment of God: it is right, precise, eternal. The prophet says: The Lord will judge the world in righteousness, and the nations in His truth. Now let us delve into the description of God’s terrible judgment, the final judgment of people for all eternity. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy Angels with Him, says the Evangelist, then He will sit on the throne of His glory, and all nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right side: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:31–34). What is the kingdom of heaven for? For love of God and neighbor, for works of mercy, as the Divine response reveals. Then he will also say to those on the left side: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). For what? For dislike of God and neighbor, for selfishness, for insane blind attachment to earthly goods and for neglect of spiritual, eternal goods, for unbelief, coldness, ingratitude towards the Creator and trampling on his righteous laws, as shown by the same answer of the righteous Judge. And these,” says the end of the Gospel of the day, “will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matthew 25:46). Here, in brief words, is a description of God’s terrible, final judgment on people of all times and all places on the earth’s planet. To make a greater impression on the souls of this terrible, terrible judgment, let us go into some details. The evangelist preaches that the Son of Man, i.e. Christ will come to judgment in His glory and all the holy Angels with Him and will sit on the throne of His glory. Let us pay attention to the words: He will come in His glory. Can you imagine this terrible, unprecedented glory of the beginningless, omnipotent Creator Judge, by whose word everything was created - all Angels, heaven and earth, and by whose word everything is contained, in being and wonderful harmony, to whom everything obeys? At Tabor, He showed His three disciples in a small form the radiance of His glory, and even then they could not bear it, falling on their faces to the ground. The Lord, who had already ascended into heaven, appeared to the Apostle John the Theologian, on the island of Patmos on Sunday, in His glory, commensurate with the capacity of the mortal eyes of the Apostle, and when I saw Him, says John himself, I fell at His feet as if dead; for His face shone like the sun in its power. And He laid His right hand on me and said to me: Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last and the Living; and he was dead, and behold, he is alive forever and ever, Amen; and I have the keys of hell and death (Apoc. 1:16–18). This is how He appeared on earth to the chosen disciples, reviving, and not striking, with His light and showing little of His Divine nature and incorruptible, incomprehensible light. Now imagine in what glory He will appear to all peoples of all ages, so that everyone will immediately see His terrible, unbearable, Divine glory and, without any hesitation, will be convinced of His Divinity and Divine power - including the Jews who crucified Him and who hitherto did not believe in Him and cursed at Him! In what, I say, terrible glory will He appear at His second coming, in order to at once take away from all nations every possibility of unbelief and force them to recognize His Divine power? In addition to His own, natural, eternal glory, He will be surrounded by the terrible glory of all the countless angelic powers, strong in strength and terrible in their heavenly glory. Here will appear intelligent flaming thrones, and many-eyed cherubim and terrible seraphim, whose glory even righteous people could not see. How will unrepentant sinners and the Jewish unbelieving multitude feel, who pierced Him and are still persecuting Him in the person of faithful Christians! The seer John answers: Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn before Him. Yes, amen (Apoc. 1:7). Pay attention to these final words: she and amen, i.e. Surely, this will surely happen. In what position then will our present, past and future unbelievers, the so-called intellectuals, and all the decadents appear - unbelievers and malicious writers who have made the printed word an instrument of slander, deception, temptation, trade and mockery of every sacred thing and of well-intentioned people? What they mocked, what they rejected here, what they mocked will be too real (real) before them. The obvious truth will amaze them, make them dumb, unresponsive; - and in what they considered themselves irresponsible, they will see themselves guilty and responsible; for the word of the Lord will not pass by, that for every idle word that people speak, they will give an answer on the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). At that trial the king and the warrior will appear together; rich and poor; old and young; the scientist and the ignorant; man and woman are of equal dignity; each one will either be glorified or put to shame by his own deeds (Matthew 12:37). Then eternity will open for people who did not believe in it, in all its terrible grandeur and horror; and for believers and devotees of the Lord - in all the desired beauty and glory and indestructible bliss. As long as we have time, we will use it for repentance and correction. Amen. Word III. April 16, 1907 On Monday, April 16, Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev served the presanctified liturgy in the Ioannovsky Convent, which he founded, with the participation of the monastery clergy. The large monastery church was full of pilgrims who had gathered to pray during the service of the highly revered shepherd and receive his blessing for the worthy conduct of the holy days of Holy Week, each of which has long been called great. And truly, these days are great because of the extraordinary events that took place in them. Therefore, on the first of these days, the Holy Church fills our ears with a special proclamation, addressing it to us on behalf of the Lord Himself: “The Lord coming to free passion, spoke to the Apostles on the way: behold, we are ascending to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is betrayed, as it is written about him. Come, we will accompany Him with purified thoughts and be crucified, and for His sake we will be dead to worldly passions, so that we may live with Him and hear Him crying: I no longer ascend to earthly Jerusalem to suffer, but to My Father and your Father and My God and your God, and I will exalt you with Me to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the kingdom of heaven” (Stichera on Great Monday). We have brought this sacred song here because it contains sublime admonitions for Christians to mortify their worldly passions and clear their minds of them on these great days; for just as with eyes full of dust it is impossible to see well the greatest and most obvious objects, so with a mind filled with unclean thoughts about earthly goods it is impossible to contemplate the divine greatness of the sufferings of Christ. Further in this hymn there is a call for us to unite in the spirit of faith and love with the Lord and with cheerful thought follow our Savior, heeding His words, sharing His feelings, with fervent prayer, constant sobriety and strict abstinence, assimilating His saving suffering. In view of such a positive content of this stichera, the priest sang it several times in a special touching melody; and then other stichera. The Gospel of this day (Matthew 24) speaks of the second terrible coming of the Savior. On this topic at the end of the liturgy, the priest spoke a word, the essence of which we briefly convey here. – The Lord speaks in the Gospel about his future glorious and terrible coming to judge the human race; at the same time, it also indicates signs of the approach of this coming; devastating wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, cooling of love in many people due to the increase of iniquities, and such terrible disasters during which no flesh would be saved, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. The Lord still spares the world for the sake of His chosen ones whom He knows; although we already clearly see in modern life the fulfillment of many signs of the proximity of the Last Judgment. Lately people have become so corrupted that they have lost all shame and conscience; all kinds of lawlessness are in plain sight: envy, hatred, slander, blasphemy, pride, all kinds of intemperance, robbery, murder testify to the cooling of Christian love. People do not recognize that they are responsible for their sins, do not recognize the soul created in the image of God and in the likeness, and have become spiritual dead - a corpse stinking of all kinds of sins. And where the corpse is, there the eagles will gather, says the Savior (Matthew 24:28). What kind of eagles are these? These are demons, as well as people who fulfill their evil will and tempt these little ones to commit all sorts of crimes and vices. All spiritual dead inevitably become the prey of the devil and his angels. Therefore, everyone needs to be sober and watchful in order to always be ready for the Last Judgment, so that the great day of the Lord does not find us spiritually dead. And the Holy Church these days awakens us from the sleep of sin with such a sublime proclamation: "Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant, he will find him vigilant; but he who is not worthy again, he will find him despondent. Take care that my soul is not burdened with sleep, lest you be put to death and the Kingdom be shut up without; but arise, calling: holy, holy, holy, O God, have mercy on us through the Mother of God.” Amen. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes with glory to judge the living and the dead (7 parts of the Symbol of Faith). So who's talking? This is what every Christian says. But if everyone is a Christian, then, without a doubt, so am I and each of you. So, brothers and sisters, do you sincerely believe that Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge of all earthly beings, will come to judge all people: the living and the dead, who will all come to life either for eternal bliss or for eternal damnation? Are you ready to meet the universal Judge and answer at the Last Judgment of Christ in every deed and word? Are there any good things happening to you? – Why ask more? From the life and actions of Christians it is clearly clear that they have forgotten about the righteous Judge, about the Last Judgment, about eternal life, and every day they are rapidly rushing towards eternal destruction, which they cannot even imagine. They rush to receive their consolation on earth, only to lose it forever - in heaven. The concern is how to kill precious time, how to spend it pleasantly, but no one cares about spending it with benefit for the soul, in order to prepare for the outcome of their affairs (Proverbs 24:27). Our earthly joys are almost continuous. Many of us live as if we don’t have to die and give an account of our lives. What does it mean? Does this not happen because they think to repent only before death and receive complete forgiveness? Of course, God does not reject those who come to Him at the tenth hour, that is, those who turn to Him with all their hearts. But if your heart was far from God during the greatest part of your life, do you think that you can easily move it towards God, arouse in it feelings of repentance before death? No, brethren, Christian death is a reward for true Christians. Repent, if possible, throughout your life, and you will be greeted by a peaceful death with sincere repentance. So, get ready for judgment, for terrible judgment, for righteous judgment, for the only and final judgment, after which there will be either eternal bliss or endless torment. Do not be surprised that I speak so decisively: after all, we are very close to the eternal fire, and many, perhaps this very night, will extort your soul from you (Luke 12:20); and you are in hell, in torment... in this flame. So, prepare for the judgment from today: do good deeds until you have time; the night of death will come when no one can do anything (John 9:4). We've been working pretty hectic. It's time to look at the poor soul with the eyes of trial. Attend Church, sigh over your sins; wait with her in fear for the great day of judgment. The Church constantly thinks about judgment: in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening; every day, early and late, she reminds her children about this great day, which decides the fate of the entire human race, and her children’s thoughts are occupied with what pleasantly turns their heads for a few minutes, cheers their hearts, passionate about earthly joys. The Lord, Truth, Life, thunders with His voice about His Judgment, which is sure to take place, commands us to watch and pray at all times in the spirit (Mark 13:33; Luke 21:36), in order to make us worthy to avoid the terrible fate of the condemned; The apostles assure that the Judge is before the door (James 5:9), but it’s as if we don’t even want to hear about it. Others think and even say: what a terrible judgment! The Lord is merciful: He will have mercy; after all, we sin more out of weakness, and not out of malice, that only through mercy will we receive mercy (Matthew 5:7); that judgment without mercy will be to him who has not shown mercy (James 2:13). Where are your works of mercy when you obviously only care about yourself? Brethren! God forbid that anyone should appear where the rich man was, having fun every day. If we find ourselves there, then it will be too late to ask for a drop of water from there to cool our tongue, it will be too late to send from there to our relatives, so that they do not come there too (Luke 16:19-31). Watch, for you do not know the hour of the day, in the same place the Son of Man will come (Matthew 25:13). Amen. Homily V. In the 3rd week of Lent - Worship of the Cross “I do not desire to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. 6:14).” So the Apostle of the Gentiles wrote in his letter to the newly baptized Gentile residents of the city of Galata, who were jealous of the injustice of Jewish circumcision, i.e. he says, you boast in vain about circumcision, which is now unnecessary and abolished, as having a temporary, transformative significance, but I boast only in the cross, with which God has given me and all the faithful all the good things, victory, blessing, salvation and eternal life. On the third Sunday of Great Lent, at the morning Divine Service, the Church solemnly brings out from the altar the cross for the reverent worship of the faithful with touching hymns depicting the mystery of the cross or the surpassing all angelic and human minds of the good deeds to the human race of the Lord of glory who was crucified and died on it according to His will. This most touching rite is done with the intention of strengthening and comforting truly fasting Christians in the feat of fasting and prayer and in those acute temptations to which ascetics are exposed from evil and crafty spirits who attack with special force those who fight them. As if the crucified One Himself says to those praying: For your sake I fasted and prayed for four decades of days and nights, and defeated your common enemy, who crushed and killed you; strive, you too, courageously and patiently, and you, too, defeat him with My help; - for this generation of demons is overcome only by prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29). I voluntarily endured the cross and death for you, and with the cross I destroyed hell and death and rose from the dead, laying the foundation for the general resurrection of the human race - and I gave you My cross as a faithful weapon and invincible victory and victory over invisible enemies. Remember with gratitude My suffering and death, which I endured with love for you, and do not forget the benefits of the cross and its power, which destroyed hell and gave blessing and life to humanity and opened the imprisoned heaven. This is why a cross is brought out in the middle of Lent and there is veneration of it or, more accurately, of Him Crucified on it. With love, with fear and gratitude, we must all remember the voluntary suffering of Christ for us and diligently crucify ourselves to Him, or crucify our destructive carnal passions, which make us enemies of God and ourselves and miserable slaves of the devil, who is trying to cast us all into the abyss of hell. These words are not empty: the devil and hell, but real beings or real forces. No one else, but the Lord God and Man Himself defeated them, and He alone can deliver people from their power and torment. Believers and sincerely repentant will be saved from them, and unbelievers will perish for unbelief and bitterness. How do our intellectuals, ill-intentioned writers, and many teachers and students feel about this holy and life-giving instrument of our salvation - the cross? They, out of ignorance and frivolity, do not want to honor the cross and do not bow to it, and do not consider it necessary for themselves - this means that they have overlearned and entered from the Christian light into the impenetrable darkness of demons: they became proud with satanic pride and forgot the One who, being God, humbled himself for us to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8), in order to give us a model of humility and patience and an example of obedience to God and earthly authorities. Without faith, humility, patience and obedience, no one will please God and will escape His terrible, truthful judgment - eternal fire and terrible Tartarus. But, however, half-educated and overeducated people do not believe in a personal, righteous, omnipotent and beginningless God, but believe in an impersonal beginning and in some kind of evolution of the world and all creatures; they believe the ravings of the heretic Tolstoy and the likes of non-believers, and not the true God, and therefore they live and act as if they will not give an answer to anyone in their words and deeds, idolizing themselves, their mind and their passions. To the free is will, and to the insane is madness, for God shrouds the wisdom of this world (1 Cor. 1:20), but the truth of the Lord abides forever and not one jot, and not one tittle will pass from the law until every word of the Gospel is fulfilled to the last (Matthew 5:18). He Who is the Most Eternal Truth cannot lie. Apparently, the day of the second coming of Christ will soon come, for the apostasy from the faith predicted in scripture has arrived, although the man of sin, the son of perdition (Antichrist), who opposes and exalts himself above everything called God and that which is holy, has not yet been revealed... The mystery of lawlessness is already in action (even in the times of the apostles), only it will not be accomplished until the one who now holds back is taken from the environment (Autocrat, removal whom a certain public desires), - and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the spirit of His mouth, and will destroy by the appearance of His coming the one whose coming, according to the work of Satan, will be with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception of those who are perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth (do you hear why?) for their salvation. And for this (do you hear?) God will send them the influence of error, so that they will believe lies, so that all who did not believe the truth (the Gospel and the church), but who loved unrighteousness, will be condemned: but now the truth has disappeared, and untruth is everywhere, both in the press and in life. – I will finish the word with the words of the Apostle: we must always thank God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, that God from the beginning, through the sanctification of the Spirit and faith in the truth (after all, you believe the truth?), chose you to salvation, to achieve the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and our God and Father, who loved us and gave us eternal consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and deed (2 Thess. 2:3-17). Amen. “The Lord abides in all, His throne is prepared for judgment: and judge Him to judge the world in righteousness, judge to judge people in righteousness” (Ps. 9:8-9). On this Sunday, the church has a solemn remembrance and service of the terrible future judgment of Christ for the entire human race, which will take place at the end of the world. And this judgment will take place soon, as the righteous Judge of all Himself testifies. Behold, I am coming quickly and My reward is with Me, to reward everyone according to his deeds (Apoc. 22:12). And there is nothing more certain and inevitable, as well as more immutable than the truth that there will be a general judgment of the human race, at which the fate of all people for all eternity will be finally decided. God is the Creator and Lawgiver, and the King of every creature, who gave immutable laws to all creatures. By fulfilling these laws they exist and remain in prosperity, but through violation they become poor, corrupt and destroyed. Laws are given to heaven and earth, the sun, moon and stars. I commanded all the stars (Isaiah 45:12), and through their firm fulfillment they exist in orderly order for so many thousands of years, proclaiming the glory of God. The heavens will tell the glory of God, but the firmament will proclaim His handiwork (Ps. 18:2). Man, the rational creation of God, the king of earthly creatures, was also given by the Creator firm and immutable laws, deeply laid in the depths of his being, in his conscience and heart, and he is obliged to fulfill them, as a rule of life, as a sacred and immutable duty of the creature towards its Creator. The good of his life depended and depends on the fulfillment of these laws: closeness to the Creator, union with Him, peace, joy, immortality, and their violation entailed all sorts of disasters - destruction of the union with the Creator, confusion in the soul and body, darkness, sorrow and cramped conditions, curse, illness and death. It was not long before the first people were faithful to God through the fulfillment of this commandment and were blessed by their union with Him. The union was treacherously broken, man sinned and disrupted the wondrous harmony of his god-like nature, corrupting the mind, heart and will, desecrating his conscience, fell into unpayable debts to his Creator and subjected himself to the terrible judgment of God's truth. The terrible judgments of God began to be fulfilled over the human race, immediately Adam and Eve were the first to hear from the Creator Himself the terrible judgment of curse and death and the expulsion from paradise of sweets for cultivating the earth, and then the Lord condemned the first world of people to destruction by a flood; the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah - to be destroyed by fire and brimstone rain, then civil strife and bloody wars of nations, crop failures, pestilences, earthquakes opened up, as punishment for sins, and through all times, even before our ill-fated time, the Lord reveals His terrible judgments over nations, as well as over individuals. Our real bloody war with the pagans is also God’s righteous judgment for our sins. The approach of the final, worldwide, terrible judgment of God is accelerated by the terrible spill of evil on earth. At present, all untruths cover the earth like the sea; There is no end to human self-will, the doors are wide open to all errors and vices. The laws of God have been trampled upon; creatures have forgotten their Creator; sinful people in their pride imagine themselves innocent; defiled by all kinds of uncleanness, they forgot their uncleanness. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's manger (Isa. 1:3), but Christians have rejected Christ their Savior, who redeemed them with His blood from curse and death. From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no healthy place in society: the whole head is covered in ulcers, the whole heart is withered; ulcers, spots, festering wounds, not cleansed and not bandaged and not softened with oil. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a small remnant, then we would have been the same as Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah... (Is. 1:6-9). But these words of the prophet go directly to our time: Among the people, one will be oppressed by another, and each by his neighbor; the young man will brazenly exalt himself over the old man, and the common man over the noble (Isa. 3:5). Our young intellectuals have perverted all social and educational order: they took upon themselves the work of politics and the courts, without being called to this by anyone; they undertook to judge their bosses, teachers, the government, and almost the kings themselves; they tried and condemned, with their head Leo Tolstoy, the most universal and terrible Judge Christ God, coming with glory to judge the living and the dead; they boldly condemned St. the church of Christ, not having filth or vice, or anything from such (Eph. 5:27), its teaching, saving sacraments and ministers of Christ. Truly, the day of the coming of the terrible Judge to judge all people is near, because the predicted apostasy from God has already arrived and the forerunner of the Antichrist has already been revealed, the son of destruction, opposing and exalting himself above everything called God, or the shrine; the mystery of lawlessness is already in action, only it will not be completed until the one who now restrains is taken out of the way - and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of His mouth, and will destroy by the appearance of His coming the one whose coming, according to the work of Satan, will be with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception of those who are perishing because they did not accept love of truth for your salvation. And for this God will send them acts of delusion, so that they will believe lies (and believe the liar Tolstoy), so that all who did not believe the truth, but loved unrighteousness, will be condemned (2 Thess. 2:4, 7-12). Listen and read, modern faithless intellectuals, these words of the Holy Spirit: they apply to you. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to reward everyone according to his work (Apoc. 22:12). Amen. The second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is usually called the Last Judgment: and justly, because at it the living and the dead will be judged. The judgment is terrible: for it will terrify every creature, heavenly and earthly, invisible and visible. The heavenly creatures will be afraid: for the powers of the heavens will be moved. Terrible to the earth: for the earth will shake in its very foundations. At the second glorious coming of Christ to earth, the loud voice of the Archangel and God’s trumpet will be heard by everyone; this sound, or, better yet, thunder will announce the whole universe: the dead will rise, having heard it, and will flow to judgment. Here, firstly, there will be great fear for sinners, when the voice of the trumpet commands each soul to enter its body - into that body which, having once turned to dust, now, by God’s command, will again receive its composition and its members. For, like a seed sown into the ground, although it decays, it vegetates in due time and first returns to the grass, then the ear, and bears fruit, according to the word of the Lord: if a grain of wheat falls on the ground and does not die, then alone it abides; If he dies, he will produce much fruit (John 12:24); so the human body, having died and decayed and become dust, in one moment receives the vegetative power from the trumpet voice and becomes a body again and in a minute is revived by its soul. At that time, I say, there will be fear for the sinful soul, released from the prisons of hell to the body to unite with it; - because when she approaches her body, she will see it completely different from what it was before - in this life it was plausible, beautiful, pleasant, but then it will be ugly, disgusting, disgusting, like some kind of monster; and before it is cast into hell, it will already carry within itself the beginnings of eternal torment and will itself be like a living hell. The sinful soul, having seen all this, will be horrified by its body, as if it were a fiery place of torment; will abhor it as an unbearable abomination, and will not want to enter it. Then another fear will take over the sinner - from the discovery of all his nasty, sinful deeds and from indescribable shame; since, upon the sinner’s rise from the grave, all his sins are immediately revealed, and clearly, in front of the whole world, all those nasty deeds of his, which he previously did secretly from everyone in a hidden place, in the darkness of the night, will appear. Then the very words of the Gospel will be fulfilled: nothing is hidden, and it will not be revealed; If you speak a word in your ear, it will be preached on the housetops (Luke 12:2–3). A thief spoke into the ear of a thief, a fornicator to a harlot, consulting on sin; and then these nasty words will sound like a thunderous trumpet, in the hearing of the whole universe! ABOUT! what a shame it will be for us sinners! But we will be especially shamed by those who, having been sinners similar to us in this life, then corrected themselves through true repentance and were deemed worthy to be among the saints, while we remained without repentance. What can we say about those who in this life are considered good, truthful and holy, while condemning others? Will they not be extremely ashamed when those whom they condemned and laughed at and considered as sinners will see in glory as righteous, and they will see themselves ashamed and, like Antichrists, cast into the abyss, because everyone who condemns his brother is Antichrist. To the fear that comes from exposure and extreme shame, a new fear will be added when sinners see those whom they hated, persecuted, saddened, insulted, beat, tortured, and killed in this life! They will hear how these latter cry out to God: Judge, Lord, those who offend us, take revenge, Lord, righteous Judge! Repay them for the evil they have done to us! Every righteous person will then say to his offender or murderer: why did you offend me? Why did you persecute, torture me and kill me without mercy. With bitter repentance and lamentation the sinners will then say: These, who were once held in laughter and reproach, are counted among the sons of God, and their lot is among the saints (cf. Pres. 5:1-5). Above all this, a special and strong fear will be brought upon sinners by the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge and terrible Avenger, who can stand the face of His wrath? and who can resist His fury in anger? (Nahum 1:6). From such an angry and terrible face, what do we sinners expect to hear? Nothing other than this voice, which is more terrible than all thunder and lightning, namely: You will render me cursed into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and His angels (Matthew 25:41). Behind all this, dark demons will come and drag sinners away, the very sight of which is more terrible than any torment. They will approach and drag you into the hellish abyss, eternal fire, and into Tartarus and into the never-ending, endless worm. Let us, sinners, always have in our minds this fear and horror that is about to befall us on the day of judgment, and we will be afraid of torment, from which fear no tongue can utter, no mind can comprehend. Let us fear His terrible judgment, let us fear and stop sinning. Let us remember our last more often: death, hell, judgment, so as not to sin. Let us appease the terrible Judge with tears, repentance, and alms before our departure, so that we may be freed from the fate of the condemned and be counted among the justified. Amen. Word VIII. On the great and holy heels “Behold, man!” (John 19:5). This is how our sinless and most holy Lord Jesus Christ was mocked, ulcerated, and martyred! What need does the impassive God have to suffer so terribly from people in His flesh? What need did the God-Man Himself have to endure these seemingly hellish torments on earth? There was no need, brethren, for God to expose Himself to such dishonor and such suffering on earth: His self-sacrifice was completely voluntary - and He could not be incarnated, not suffer and not die. Only then would we all, as sinners and as enemies of God, be forever captives and slaves of the devil, and would all perish forever; then there would not be these two sides: right and left, it would not be said: the righteous will go into eternal life, and sinners into eternal torment (Matthew 25:46), but there would be one terrible definition for everyone - eternal torment. And it’s scary to think about! But the Lord, in His infinite mercy, not tolerating the sight of the human race tormented by the devil, came to free us from slavery to him and from eternal torment. And in order to free us from the work of the enemy, to whom we have given ourselves up and are giving ourselves up, He wanted to become for us, in humanity, the most obedient servant of His heavenly Father, to whom we have become and are now constantly disobedient - and in human flesh and human soul, with human powers, supported by the Divine, to defeat the devil the tempter, to whom we so easily surrendered into captivity and are now surrendering ourselves through our sins; further, in order to free us from the eternal torment of hell, which, in fairness, our immortal souls, captured by the devil, should have been subjected to, He, the eternal God, wanted to endure our eternal torment Himself as His human being. And so, as you see, as you hear from the Gospel, He endured these torments for us. He endured all the shame and all the cruelty of torment from people and from demons in order to get us out of hell, where without the Savior we would have to suffer forever. – But Christ got us out of hell, and we ourselves are going to hell (Reader! Let’s listen to Fr. John and, if we stand on the wide path, the end of which “looks to the bottom of hell,” let us turn abruptly and diligently onto the narrow and cramped path (gospel): we walk fearlessly, closing our eyes, so as not to see the light and so as to quickly rush into it. Many of us fearlessly indulge in all kinds of sins and do not think of correcting ourselves, as if Christ were a servant of sin and as if He would lead everyone, even unrepentant sinners who have not changed in heart and deeds, into heaven. Incomprehensible hard-heartedness and insensitivity possesses many of us. During the suffering and death of Christ the Savior, all creation trembled with fear - the earth shook, the stones disintegrated, the dead were resurrected, but our souls do not tremble with fear at the sight of the suffering and death of the God-Man, at the memory of the eternal and fierce torment that we would have been subjected to if the Lord had not suffered and died for us. Our hearts do not fall apart, do not soften, and do not part with lack of faith, unbelief, hardness of heart, pride, anger at our neighbor, envy of his well-being, condemnation, gluttony, overeating and drunkenness, stinginess, love of money, and carnal impurity. How many people are there who, even in this sacred and terrible time, do not stop working for the devil and harboring malice against their neighbor; envy each other; they think about silver coins, about theft, about drunkenness, about uncleanness. How many are there who, as soon as they wait for the holiday, immediately get drunk and indulge in revelry and corrupt the church of their body, which was, albeit for a short time, the Church of the Lord after receiving and partaking of the Holy Mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord! But what am I talking about - about the holiday? Don’t we see, even before the holiday, even now, when we remember the suffering of Christ for us, people drunk and indulging in debauchery? They are a lawless people who now bless Christ with their lips, but tomorrow or today they will blaspheme Him with their deeds. Oh, ungrateful, insensitive, senseless, stony-hearted people who today seem to sympathize with Christ and are crucified with Him, and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow they will crucify Him! But how long will this be with us, brothers? How long shall we remain hypocrites? (Fr. John rightly calls hypocrisy the state of a person when his deeds and words do not agree with the Spirit of the Gospel, resting in the teachings of the Orthodox Church). How long shall we work for the devil and insult the Lord in the most sensitive way? This is what, brethren, - if our stony hearts do not disintegrate with their many different malices, their addictions, their impurities, if we do not take away from them their lack of faith, unbelief, coldness, gluttony and drunkenness, philandering, malice, pride, envy, laziness and idleness and other passions - then we will once be condemned by those stones that disintegrated during the death of Christ. If we do not repent and turn to God with all our hearts, we will fall into that hell from which the Son of God came to deliver us. Yes, brothers, it is true! Unless you repent, you will all perish! (Luke 13:3). How much do you think that the worst one will be worthy of torment, having trampled upon the Son of God, and having taken the blood of the cherished defilement, by it he was sanctified, and rebuked the Spirit of grace? We have spoken: vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of the living God (Heb. 10:29–31). Amen. Word IX. Wake up, drunkards! “Weep and howl, all you who drink wine!” (Joel 1:5) “Do not get drunk with wine, in which there is fornication” (Eph. 5:18). What should we, brethren, be shepherds of the verbal flock, what should we say to the people? Drunkenness got the better of them. You cannot walk a step without encountering a drunk, at any time - on holidays and weekdays, in the morning, during the day and in the evening, and even at night. – What should we do? The mental wolf, the devil, destroys Christians with greed for drinking wine and brazenly plunders the heritage of Christ. Brethren! On behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for us on the cross, I beg you, stop drinking. What happened to you? Have you forgotten God? Have you forgotten your Lord Jesus Christ, who comes with glory to judge the living and the dead? The Cross of the Lord is not on you at all. Do not shepherds tell you by the word of God that drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), and that they will certainly go into eternal fire if they do not correct themselves from their drunkenness? – Are you not worthy of the communion of the Holy, Most Pure, Heavenly, Immortal, Life-Giving and Terrible Mysteries of Christ for the remission of sins, for the sanctification of soul and body and the correction of your life and affirmation! And after that you dare to anger your Savior like that? Is it so uncontrollable to indulge in intemperance? Trample into the dirt the most pure and life-giving Mysteries, which the heavenly powers look upon with fear and trembling! – You are laughing, it’s scary to say, at the suffering of your Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom heaven and earth and all that is in them tremble! Are you laughing at the sacrament of repentance, at the remission of sins, which cost our sweetest Savior such terrible suffering on the cross and a blasphemous death? - Christian brothers! Have pity on yourself, I beg you, stop drinking. Live like Christians, called to the heavenly kingdom, into which nothing foul or unclean can enter. Be sober, be vigilant, stand firm in the faith, take courage, be strong. Crucify your flesh with passions and lusts. Know - I loudly repeat to you - soon the Lord Jesus Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead: He will come to deliver drunkards and all unrepentant sinners to eternal torment, unquenchable fire, and to take fasters and abstinents and all those who have crucified their flesh with passions and lusts, for His sake awakening the harsh life in the earth, all who live according to His commandments, into the kingdom of heaven. Brethren! Look at the sky, at the face of the earth! This one is almost constantly covered with rain clouds, but this one is completely filled with water. Why? Because of our sins, the world of God armed itself with vengeance on God’s enemies. Because the fogs of sins and passions wander in our heads - because our hearts are heavy with gluttony and drunkenness and the worries of this life (Luke 21:34). So, in nature, many unfavorable phenomena are now noticed: either drought, or untimely rains. In this I see the groan and tears of nature about all kinds of our untruths. Oh, cry heaven! cry earth! The Creator is angry - very angry with us; but we don’t want to see this; we don’t want to understand, feel. Brethren! How long will we provoke the Lord? Are we stronger than Him? - I beg you, brothers, stop drinking! I ask everyone: admonish, ask, beg each other not to indulge in drunkenness! Threaten drunkards with the judgment of God here and in the next world. Shame them, keep them from drunkenness, and the Lord will bless you with health and peace and prosperity in your affairs. Amen. Word X. Service Fr. John in St. Petersburg Having solemnly celebrated the Divine Liturgy in his Ioannovsky Monastery, Fr. With an inspired sermon, John encouraged the sisters of the monastery and numerous pilgrims who longed to receive Holy Communion. The Mysteries of Christ from the hands of the holy shepherd. “I am the bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I will give, my flesh, is what I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). I brought you, dear sisters, these words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said that He Himself is the bread that comes down from heaven, bread such that whoever eats it will not die, but will live forever, bread that must be eaten in order to live and live forever. Wonderful words, full of endless love and goodness, showing the endless power of the One who speaks these words. What kind of bread is this? What exactly should you eat? The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world, says Christ. So, according to the word of Christ: heavenly food is His flesh, which must be eaten; the heavenly drink is His blood, which must be drunk. The Lord, as the Almighty Creator, deigned Himself to create His flesh and His blood in the womb of the Virgin, to become a perfect man, without ceasing to be God, and to this day deigns to transform, by the almighty action of the Holy Spirit, wheat bread into His true body and wine into His true blood. What can't God's power do? In what ways can God's wisdom not reveal the source of salvation? And we feel this, because after receiving St. Through the mysteries we receive reinforcement, consolation, purification, sanctification, renewal, peace of mind, joy, spaciousness of heart, boldness. And if the Lord is the true Bread, then we should desire this Bread not only once a year, but, if possible, every month, every week, even every day. Why is this so? Because this is our daily bread, for our soul, and since we need our daily bread every day, we also need heavenly food - the Body and Blood of Christ - every day. Therefore, in the Lord’s Prayer we pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Here, by bread we mean not only ordinary wheat or rye bread, but also Divine Bread: the Body and Blood of Christ - this true daily bread, i.e. serving for true existence, for true life, so necessary for life that it is impossible to do without it, because, in addition to the body, for the maintenance of life which requires daily bread, a person has a soul, which is incomparably more expensive and more important than the body: it also requires food, only different than for the body. If we take ordinary bread every day, then who will forbid us to eat Divine Bread? When I say this, what comes to mind is the custom of many to fear St. Mysteries, especially, for example, during illness, as if St. Communion serves only as a farewell to the afterlife, and not for the healing of soul and body and the remission of sins. In this delusion there are very many who are accustomed to living a carnal life, the life of rich people, a life of entertainment, feeding their body, and not the soul, in a word, a vain life, who rush after worldly benefits, and forget God; for them it is scary to even think about uniting with the Source of life, with Jesus Christ Himself. I myself had to see in many this fear, this alienation of oneself from the life-giving and life-giving source of salvation, and I was surprised, because no one and nothing will bring greater benefit, better consolation to the suffering one, like St. Communion. There are people who, only out of need and necessity, begin to receive the Holy Mysteries once a year. This is also not good, because they are already fulfilling their Christian duty as if under pressure, out of necessity, forgetting that after Communion they soon fall into sins again and thus, moving away from God, remain in death, because sins produce death. Blessed are those who often approach Holy Communion with sincere repentance and sincere examination of themselves! Such people can improve day by day, can come to the consciousness of their sinfulness and use the rest of their real life for what it was given to us by the mercy of God - for cleansing and healing themselves through repentance and faith from all sins. That is why I cited these words of the Savior: I am seven Bread that came down from heaven. If the Lord calls Himself Bread, then we should feed on Him as often as possible, saturate ourselves with this Divine Food for immortal life. I’m not saying that everyone who is just in the church needs to receive communion, no, but those who are preparing for this, then others, careless, careless towards faith, the church, towards the salvation of the soul, looking at them, are imbued with feelings of reverence for God and His Holy Church. And thank God that in this St. In the church there are communicants among you who often approach such a great shrine and find in it consolation for the soul and health for the body. It hurts my heart when in many churches the call of the deacon carrying out St. Gifts to the people: “come with the fear of God and faith,” - sometimes there is no one willing to accept them. For many this is an ordinary sight, but for me it is an unpleasant sight, because the Lord calls everyone to Himself, these words apply to all Christians: “Take, eat My Body... Drink My Blood, all of you,” - and now many of us not only do not take communion, but also blaspheme against the Holy Mysteries... Such is Leo Tolstoy and all his followers - our so-called intelligentsia. This is how crazy many people have reached! How will they respond when the Lord calls them to His Last Judgment, or on the day of death - to give an account of their words and deeds? What will they feel, damned ones, at that time! Oh, unfortunate ones! Take heed: what terrible condescension and exhaustion! The Only Begotten Son of God laid down His Life for us on the cross, after the most severe and painful suffering that evil people could imagine! He, the Merciful, offers His Own Flesh and His Own Blood, for the sake of the sanctification of soul and body, for the sake of the closest union with God, to the believers in Holy Communion. Our job is to accept from Him with humble faith and grateful love such gifts of His goodness as the mystery of His Most Pure Body and Blood. This is a wonderful – heavenly gift that cleanses, heals and saves us! And how all despisers of God’s gifts will be punished! And you are blessed, although many scold me for this, but they are foolish, like those who preach that whoever receives Communion a lot will go crazy. I considered it necessary to say this, protecting the purity of the Gospel of Christ, in order to warn you against these persons who have not tasted and have not understood the inscrutable riches of God’s grace, which lies in the greatest Sacrament given to us. Amen. On January 29, Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev, during the liturgy at the Ioannovsky Convent he founded, delivered approximately the following edifying teaching. Take, eat, this is My Body (Mark 14:22). This is the commandment of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, and the commandments are given to us so that we fulfill them. Therefore, try, dear brothers and sisters, to fulfill this commandment of Christ, like all other commandments. Without the Communion of the Holy Mysteries, a person cannot have true life within himself, because from the first Adam all people have been damaged at the very root, have lost a blessed life, and cannot begin this life without the help of Divine grace. The all-good and all-wise Creator of the world did not leave people without his help; He deigned to save them through the incarnation of His Only Begotten Son, His life on earth, saving teaching, countless miracles, suffering, death and resurrection; institution of St. The Church in which he placed pastors, gave it His teachings, the Sacraments, and through them communicates to the believers all Divine powers for a pious Christian life on earth and for an eternal, blissful life in heaven. The Holy Apostle Peter says: From His (Jesus Christ) divine power has been given to us everything we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and goodness, by which were given to us great and precious promises, so that through them we might become partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Pet. 1:3-4). The Lord makes us partakers of His Divine nature especially through the Sacrament of Communion, in which believers are united with Christ, becoming one spirit, one flesh with Him; He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him (John 6:56). He who is united with the Lord is one Spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). This is how great the significance of this Sacrament is for us! Take, eat, this is My Body... Drink everything from it... This is commanded to everyone. Do not forget the commands of the Almighty Creator, who with one word created the whole world and keeps it in wonderful order, harmony, and beauty. Only people, blinded by proud madness and worldly passions, have lost order, do not want to obey the Creator and indulge in all sorts of lawlessness. Look what is being done now? We are all amazed by the multitude of terrible iniquities that are committed by madmen without any fear of earthly or heavenly judgment. Why is this? Because people have lost faith in God, do not believe His word, do not obey St. The Church, which is the Pillar and Ground of the Truth (1 Tim. 3:15), do not use the grace-filled sacraments for their purification and salvation. That is why all evil reigns in the world. But Christians, called to heavenly life, to union with Christ forever, must themselves rule over sin, cut off carnal lusts and be diligent about the immortal soul, feeding it with food akin to it, in order to become partakers of the Divine nature. Without the communion of the Holy Mysteries, we would be spiritually dead, we would be walking statues, although alive in body. Therefore, it is extremely necessary for everyone at a certain time to partake of the Holy Mysteries with repentance for sins, with faith, zeal, and ardent gratitude to God, who constantly benefits us. Tell me, what even more can be given to us? What the heavenly Father is not ready to give you, if He did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32), and this Son, to Whom was given all power in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), which He will not give to us, if He gives His most pure Body and Blood as food for the faithful. Truly, this alone surpasses everything taken together that we receive from God! And you, having received Holy Communion, of course, feel the power of grace within yourself, experience inner peace, satisfaction of the whole being. After Communion, I experience on myself the great power of God’s grace. What peace, light, sweetness, what boldness, joy, lightness of soul! The Lord in His Blood drowns all my sins, delivers me from all evils, sorrows and illnesses, and bestows all blessings: light and strength, peace, joy and perfect life. Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and his life-giving Mysteries! And today we performed St. Liturgy and have prepared a Divine meal for you. With the fear of God and faith, approach, unite with Christ and let Him reign over you. Amen. Word XII. Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Let the world weep bitterly with its ancestors: the fallen with the fallen for sweet food (Title verse of the Synaxarion). Two words to the first people: the word of God the Creator and the word of Satan, and their consequences for the human race. Today St. The Church remembers the lamentable expulsion from paradise of Adam and Eve for their disobedience to the Word of the Creator and for trusting the false word of His enemy, the devil. Oh, word, word, how important, strong and effective you are in your consequences! Here is one word of the Creator that brings everything from non-existence into being - a countless world of bright, intelligent, holy, good, strong in strength and blessed, immortal spirits; then, immense in space, thought, imagination and vision - the material world or, more correctly, countless bright solar and star worlds, including our small world - the earth with all its elements, with all the kingdoms of nature, and finally man - a rational-sensual animal, in the image and likeness of God, right, joyful and blissful, royal for the whole earth; plants for him, for this earthly king of creation - a paradise of sweetness, promises blissful immortality in the body - with the condition that he keeps only one commandment, fulfills faithfully and unquestioningly one word of the Creator - as the King and Giver of Life - not to touch the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so that for obedience and humility, for loyalty and devotion to His holy will, he receives an eternal reward favor and immortality. It would seem that one should only willingly and joyfully fulfill the easy commandment of the Creator and Benefactor out of sheer gratitude to Him, and especially since the Creator protected the commandment with the threat that they would die for failure to fulfill it. The crafty tempter appears, envious of the bliss of men, the evil spirit fallen by pride, the star, and speaks his crafty word to Eve: you will not die, but you yourself will be like gods, knowing good and evil; do not believe God - eat the forbidden fruit. And what effect did the flattering word have on Eve? She considered the word of the Creator false and the word of the devil true; tasted the forbidden fruit and at the same time entered into a moral union and combination, commonwealth with the enemy of God, taking into herself the poison of sin and death - she persuaded Adam to listen, passing on to him all her sinful infection - and they declared enmity to God, and at the same time they lost His grace, light, life, peace. The poison, the abomination of sin infected the entire being of the first people. They became indecent to God and unworthy of His presence with Him. The truth of God demanded the expulsion of criminals from the bright, blissful home of paradise, and from the cohabitation of angels, and the formidable Angel of God expelled them, instilling them in heaven to mourn their frivolous fall. May the whole world weep bitterly with its ancestors: the fallen with the fallen for the sweet food. Verbal creatures, people! I address all of you, as a member of the human family, with the question of what these two words mean: the word and commandment of the Creator to the first people, and the false word, tempting of the murderer-devil. Notice the consequences for people of both words. What are they essentially? One word is living, creative, cheerful; the other is flattering, dreamy, darkening, deadening. What was and still is the consequence of people’s obedience to the word of the enemy or the following of a sinner to all the suggestions of disembodied enemies and all passions? Isn’t there all sorts of turmoil in the world - unbelief, atheism, lack of authority, self-will, envy, sedition, murder, theft, theft, drunkenness, foul practices, all kinds of violence, mutual hostility of nations, idolatry, countless disagreements in faith and the most absurd delusions? And what are the consequences of obedience to a person who believes the word of God, the commandments of God, the Gospel and the holy God-established Church of Christ? Faith, all truth, all social order, meekness, obedience, self-control, wisdom, courage, goodness, mercy. Obedience to the word of God leads to silence, peace, all order in the world, family, political and economic; to obedience to spiritual and civil authorities. To these two words - the word of God and the word of the incorporeal enemy, we all still obey; We listen to one or the other. Having obeyed the murderer-enemy at the beginning and still obeying him, the human race fell into endless madness, it exchanged life for death, light for darkness, beauty for ugliness, wisdom for madness, incorruption for corruption; peace for the constant rebellion of passions, truth for lies, courage for constant fear, wealth for poverty, for man in the beginning was rich in divinity, and having lost God, he lost everything and became morally poorer than any beggar, be he a king or a commoner, a nobleman or a simpleton, rich or poor, a priest or a layman, a scientist or an ignoramus, a merchant or a farmer, a man or a woman. Through sin all have fallen short of the glory of God; all became poor, all took off the garments of righteousness, all fell from incorruption into corruption, all became weakened in soul and body; everyone was clothed in the darkness of countless passions; everyone is guilty before God; everyone is subject to God’s righteous, impartial judgment that awaits each of us, and everyone must humbly cry out: merciful Lord, have mercy on me, the fallen one. Amen. Word XIII. The kingdoms of the earth waver and fall from unbelief and lawlessness “Let us, having received an unshakable kingdom (the Church), preserve grace, with which we will serve God acceptably, with reverence and fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28–29). Russia and the Church solemnly celebrate today the birth of the Tsar crowned by God for the All-Russian Kingdom and pray to the King of Kings for a prosperous state, victory, i.e. long life, peace, health, salvation of Him, our earthly King, and that the Lord would prosper and help Him in everything and subdue every enemy and adversary under His feet. We live not in a peaceful, but a restless and seditious time, a time of anarchy and godlessness, a time of daring violation of the laws of Divine and human; during the senseless reeling of minds that have tasted a little earthly wisdom and dreamed of themselves beyond measure: for knowledge boasts, according to the word of God, but love edifies. It is obvious to everyone that the Russian kingdom is wavering, teetering, and close to collapse. Why is it that the Russian kingdom, so great, which was so strong, powerful and glorious before, has now become so weakened, weakened, destroyed, shaken? Because it has departed from the solid and unshakable foundation of the true faith, and the majority of the intelligentsia has fallen away from God, Who alone is the eternal and unshakable power, by Whom heaven and earth have been firmly held in wondrous harmony for so many centuries. This is why our kingdom is wavering; And is the Russian kingdom alone, occupying a sixth of the earth, reeling from godlessness and anarchy? No, all the kingdoms of the earth waver and shake, having abandoned the true faith; and some kingdoms and cities that existed before Christ and after Christ have completely fallen from the disgrace of the world for unbelief and lawlessness. And the longer the adulterous and sinful world exists and succeeds in iniquities, the more and more it weakens, decrepit and wavers, so that by the end of the world it will completely become a corpse and a smoking brand, which will completely decay from the last terrible, universal fire: for the earth and all the works on it will burn up, according to the apostle, and we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth, according to the promise God, on whom righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:10, 13). We, Russians, Orthodox believers, as children of the Christian Church, upon receiving the sacrament of Baptism, approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, to heavenly Jerusalem and ten thousand angels, to the triumphant council and church of the firstborn written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous who have reached perfection, and to the Mediator of the new covenant, Jesus, and to the sprinkling of blood (Christ’s blood), who speaks better than Abel. “See,” says the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews, “do not turn away from the One who speaks.” If (the ancient Jews who were with Moses) who did not listen to the word spoken on earth did not escape punishment, then much less will we escape if we turn away from God speaking from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth and who now made the following promise: once again I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. The words: once again - mean a change in what is shaken, as if it were created, so that what is unshakable may remain. So we, having received the kingdom of heaven, will keep grace, with which we will serve God pleasingly with reverence and fear. For our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:22–26, 29). I cited the above words of Paul from the Epistle to the Hebrews because they also apply to us, the Russian people, who have departed from God and from the New Zion, the Church of Christ, founded on the indestructible Stone-Christ, on which whoever falls will be broken, and on whomever He falls, he will be crushed (Matthew 21:44). There is no doubt that all Russians who have fallen away from the faith and the Church will be broken like clay pots (meager vessels, Ps. 2:9), if they do not turn and repent, and the Church will remain unshakable until the end of the century, and the Monarch of Russia, if he remains faithful to the Orthodox Church, will be established on the throne of Russia until the end of the age. Hold fast, Russia, to your faith and the Church and the Orthodox Tsar, if you want to be unshakable by people of unbelief and anarchy, and do not want to lose the kingdom and the Orthodox Tsar. And if you fall away from your faith, as many intellectuals have already fallen away from it, then you will no longer be Russia or Holy Russia, but a rabble of all sorts of infidels seeking to destroy each other. Remember the words of Christ to the unfaithful Jews: the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a tongue (people) that produces its fruits (Matthew 21:42–43). Amen. Word XIV. On the day of remembrance and celebration of the sacred anointing and crowning of the most pious Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich of all Russia “Those My enemies,” said the Lord, who did not want Me to reign over them, bring them here and kill them before Me.” (Luke 19:27). We remember and celebrate the day of the sacred anointing and crowning of our Most Pious Sovereign. These two or three years of his reign were vague and full of internal sedition, and the very royal crown with purple was almost stained with blood recently. Lethal weapons are already ready. Unsleeping Providence preserved the life of the King. On this occasion, I allow myself to be transported mentally to the ancient sacred history of the Jews and talk about one event that is suitable and similar to our sad state, which happened during the time of the judges of Israel. Among the judges of the Jewish people was, by the way, Gideon, raised by God to govern and protect them from foreigners, famous for his faith, courage and love for his fatherland, who was engaged in agriculture. With God's help, he saved the Jews from the warlike Midianites, who wanted to subjugate the Jews to their pagan, godless yoke. When he died in old age, he left behind 70 sons, since he was a polygamist; in addition, he had a son by his maidservant, Abimelech. - After the death of his father, Abimelech came to one city of his land, and begged his relatives - on his mother's side - to try to win over its inhabitants in his favor, making it clear to them that it would be unprofitable for them to obey the seventy sons of Gideon, but it would be better to recognize the power over themselves in the one who is close to them in kinship. And the inhabitants of that city (Shechem), the Jews, had already introduced the service of the pagan deity Baal, and managed to build a temple for the Phoenician deity, called Baal-verif, i.e. guardian of alliances and oaths. Among these people, apostates, Abimelech found adherents. They called him their brother and gave him money from the church of their god. For a small sum, he hired idle and homeless people, came with them to the house of his deceased father, and beat the brothers on one stone, with the exception of one younger brother Jotham, who managed to hide. After that, all the inhabitants of the city gathered in one place and there, near an oak tree, they installed Abimelech as king. At this very time, on the nearby mountain Gerizin, Jotham suddenly appeared and shouted in a loud voice: “Listen to me, inhabitants of Shechem, and God will listen to you.” When there was silence, he continued: “Once upon a time the trees decided to anoint a King over themselves. And they said to the olive tree: Be our King. - The olive tree answered: Will I part with my obesity, which is used to honor gods and people, and will I begin to tremble over the trees? The trees said to the fig tree: Come, reign over us. - The fig tree answered: Will I part with my sweetness and my beautiful fruit, and will I begin to tremble over the trees? The trees said to the vine: come and reign over us. - And the vine answered: Will I part with my juice, which makes glad the gods and people, and will I begin to shake over the trees? Finally, all the trees said to the thorn tree: come and reign over us. “The thorn tree said: if you truly anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge under my shadow (and what kind of shadow does the thorn tree have?) - if not, then beware lest fire come out of the thorn bush and consume the very cedars of Lebanon.” “So, think about it, did you act justly when you made Abimelech king, and did you reward Gideon and his house as they should?” (now we have the Romanov house). Then for your sake my father put his life in danger and delivered you from your enemies, and you killed seventy of his sons and made Abimelech, the son of a slave, king! Let fire come out from Abimelech and burn you." Having said this, Jotham ran away and hid from his brother. Abimelech actually burned in the city tower the inhabitants who were hiding from his threat for disobedience; and Abimelech himself was killed by a woman who threw a piece of a millstone at him. Thus, the curse of Jotham befell both the Shechemites for wickedness and Abimelech for fratricide (Judges 9). Sons of Russia celebrating the royal anointing! Will not the righteous punishment of God also befall our traitors who attempted to kill our Tsar, anointed by God for the kingdom, whose ancestors, once anointed by God for the kingdom of Russia, exalted him and elevated him to the level of the foremost power in the world? – And what would we become, Russians, without the Tsar? Our enemies would soon try to destroy the very name of Russia - since the Bearer and Guardian of Russia, after God, is the Sovereign of Russia, the Autocratic Tsar, and without him Russia is not Russia. May God protect Russia and the Tsar of Russia, if not for the sake of the Russians, who have become unworthy due to their great sins, then for the sake of the Orthodox Church, for the sake of all the saints and for the sake of all the miracles that were revealed in Russia in previous centuries, through the intercession and intercession of the Mother of God and the holy Russian wonderworkers, of whom the Russian Church and the Russian land are not scarce. Amen. Word XV. On the birthday of the Most Pious Empress Alexandra Feodorovna “From Your presence my destiny will come forth” (Ps. 16:2). Today we have a celebration in memory of the birthday of our Most Pious Empress, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and a nationwide prayer of gratitude to the Lord God for Her health and the fulfillment of God’s good destinies in Her life. Did She think, in her tender girlish youth, that She was destined by God to be the wife of the All-Russian Emperor and the mother of the August Children and, among them, the Heir to the Throne? And something that never even occurred to Her, happened in due time according to the all-good will of the Creator and Provider. - But, with the joys of childbirth and the sight of the August Children, She had sorrowful days in recent years together with the Sovereign Spouse; they continue and we don’t know when they will end. Russia is in turmoil, suffering and tormented by a bloody internal struggle, by the terrible high cost of everything, by godlessness, anarchy and the extreme decline of morals. The fate is sad, leading to gloomy thoughts. But the all-good Providence will not leave Russia in this sad and disastrous state. It righteously punishes her and leads to rebirth. God's righteous destinies are carried out over Russia, as they were carried out in the previous centuries of its existence - under our ancient great princes and kings. Russia is beset by troubles and misfortunes. It is not in vain that He who rules all nations skillfully, wisely, and accurately places on His anvil all those subjected to His strong hammer. Be strong, Russia! But also repent, pray, cry bitter tears before your heavenly Father, whom you have angered immensely. At the beginning, I quoted the words from the psalm: from Your face my destiny will come (Ps. 16:2). This truth is important. Our life, the life of kingdoms and peoples, is controlled by the Lord, who created us for eternal existence. Earthly life is preparation, training for a future, endless life. This is the final goal of each of us, like every people, every tribe. We are predestined to eternal citizenship, to an eternal kingdom in communion with God, with the angels, with the best of men, with God's elect. We must learn here heavenly morals, prayer, faith, thanksgiving, love and devotion, purity and integrity. Where do we have these virtues? We are defiled by all kinds of sins; you need to be washed, cleansed, enlightened, strengthened, white as snow. Is it possible to achieve this without suffering, without tears? To do this, the Lord, like a skilled doctor, subjects us to various temptations, sorrows, illnesses and troubles in order to purify us, like gold in a crucible. A soul, entrenched in sins of all kinds, does not easily lend itself to cleansing and healing, but with great compulsion and patience, and only through a long experience of patience and suffering, it masters virtue and begins to passionately love God, Whom it was alien, having learned all kinds of carnal sins. – This is the purpose of the troubles and sorrows sent to us by God in this life! They are needed both by individuals and by entire people mired in wickedness and vices. The Russian people and other tribes inhabiting it are deeply corrupted; the crucible of temptations and disasters is necessary for everyone, and the Lord, who does not want anyone to perish, burns everyone in this crucible. To the point! If we recognize our sins, turn to faith, repent, change for the better, with God’s help, then the Lord will turn His bright Face to us and have mercy on us, and give us blessing, abundance and peace. - And if not, then we will melt in our troubles. Amen. Word XVI. On St. Day Pentecost or the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles “When the day of Pentecost had come, all the apostles and believers were with one accord together, and 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, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts. 2:1–4). History and meaning of the holiday. Most Holy Trinity, grant me your word for Your day! May my word, mortal man, be worthy, as far as possible, of Your holiness, goodness and truth, Your wisdom, Your mercy and bounty towards the fallen human race; Your unapproachable light, Your beauty! This is how I begin the word on the great day of Pentecost, or the descent of St. Spirit on Christ's Apostles and on all believers, namely, with all possible praise to the Trinity. And you, brothers and sisters, children of the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, listen to him with attention. The subject of the word is the highest, just as the Lord God, without beginning, trinitarian in Persons and one in His essence, is exalted above all His creation. In common parlance, this day is called Trinity Day, because on this day St. The Trinity is God the Father, who sent the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, at the intercession of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who proceeded from the Father and through the Son descended on the Apostles and made them wise to speak about the great deeds of God in different languages, which they did not study and which they did not know. The Holy Spirit enlightened and revived the Apostles and the entire congregation in the upper room so that they became new people, cleansed from all sin, from all passion of the flesh and spirit, sanctified and confirmed unshakably in faith, hope and love, with complete Divine freedom given to them through Christ by the Holy Spirit; and became able to spread the sermon about Christ the Savior to all ends of the world and instill faith in Him; for without faith it is impossible for anyone to be saved and begin a new life; If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). In order to comprehend, as it should, the real holiday of Pentecost or the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit - the all-good, omnipotent Creator, Enlightener, Renewer and Comforter of the verbal creation - let us remember, according to the guidance of the word of God, how man was created by God in the beginning and what he became after his free fall. Although everyone knows a thousand thousand times, let us repeat what is also known, that man was created in the image and likeness of God with an immortal soul, with free will and with two possibilities - to be established forever in holiness and obedience to the Creator through the fulfillment of any commandment, and forever not to sin and not to die, and with the possibility of transgressing the Creator’s commandment and being subject to sin and death and all the countless harmful consequences of self-will, and from being good, simple, become evil and crafty; for God alone can never fall and change. The Creator’s commandment was violated: man fell into disobedience and wickedness, split into two, began to feel a painful inclination to all evil and unnatural indifference and coldness, ingratitude towards God, who poured out all kinds of mercy on man for soul and body. Man had to temper himself, just as a clay pot is tempered in fire, through fulfilling the Creator’s commandments and remaining firm in devotion to Him, but he did not withstand the tempering and test, did not want to withstand it, and broke - he became evil and mortal, and so became all of humanity that descended from him. Each person began to feel within himself war and the onslaught of sinful passions, enmity towards God the Creator, opposition to His laws, a tendency towards all lawlessness: people began to quarrel with each other, to fight with each other, and so that evil would not soon become universal and people would not destroy each other, the Lord confused the languages ​​of men; They did not understand each other and were forced to go in different directions. Man fell through the cunning seduction of the murderous serpent, like a young-minded, inexperienced man, and was subjected to the terrible disasters of sin, curse and death. Out of love for mankind, the Creator Himself wanted to be His Redeemer and Savior and to take upon himself the sin of the human race under the condition of man’s faith in his Redeemer and obedience to Him. The Lord, as the wise Physician of His creation, heals like like; The Creator takes upon Himself the image of man, remaining God; grows and lives with people - communicates, unites with them, talks with them, enlightens them with the Divine word, teaches them with parables and simple commandments, heals illnesses, raises the dead, casts out demons; as God, who commands all the elements of nature, suffers for the sins of people, as if guilty, being innocent of anything, not a single sin, in order to pay the debt to God’s justice; with his righteousness and his suffering he conquers death and rises from the dead, assuring everyone of the future general resurrection, and after a forty-day stay after the resurrection, and repeated tangible appearances to his disciples, he ascends to heaven and receives power over humanity over the whole world. Gloriously and wisely the Lord completed the work of His heavenly Father. His especially most important task was to prepare his disciples as messengers to the world, as educators and teachers of the human race - like the salt of the earth, like the light of the world - and for three years He taught them the great work of His holy embassy and the salvation of people. Upon His ascension into heaven, it was necessary to send them the Holy Spirit, precisely in the form of tongues of fire, in order to enlighten them, boil away their sin, strengthen them in truth, deify them and make them pillars of faith and His Church. And this greatest miracle happened on the day of Pentecost, i.e. after fifty days after His glorious resurrection and on the tenth day after His ascension into heaven - and from that time the Holy Spirit abides in the Church of Christ and will be in it until the end of the age, to powerfully accomplish the salvation of believers. He accomplishes in all of us believers the wonderful work of salvation, as far as anyone has faith and zeal. Who among you does not know this, does not feel this? Who has not experienced the grace of forgiveness of sins, consolation in hearts and conscience, after heartfelt repentance of sins, after performing a good deed and after communion of the holy, life-giving Mysteries? And this is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Who has not experienced consolation and joy when performing Divine services in an orderly and reverent manner, or when listening and reading the word of God? Who has not experienced the renewal of grace? For by the Holy Spirit every verbal creation is renewed, cleansed from the filth of sin and sanctified. Celebrate with joy this great day of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and on the Church of Christ and try to be worthy members of it. To the Holy Spirit - every all-saving wine: if this one breathes (inhales) according to his property (worthiness), he will soon take up from earthly things, he will lift up, he will lift up, he will arrange grief (Antidyum). Amen. Word XVII. On the week of Vai, or on the day of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem Precise and strict, the truth of God, revealed in the cross. “Now is the judgment of this world: now the prince of this world will be cast out: and when I am lifted up from the earth (on the cross), I will draw everyone to Me” (John 22:31–32). We celebrate the holiday of Vai, or the solemn last entry of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, for all-redemptive suffering and death. This entrance took place in an extraordinary way, accompanied by disciples and a multitude of people and gentle children - not on a horse, but on a young donkey, covered with the disciples’ clothes. The people cut green tree branches, held them in their hands and threw them at the feet of the Traveler and exclaimed: Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel! (Luke 19:38). The reason for such an enthusiastic meeting was Jesus’ resurrection of the four-day-old Lazarus from the dead, as proof that He, Jesus, with His cross and death would destroy death and hell, and deliver all humanity from eternal death. Glory to You, Christ, coming to free passion and death for the sake of our salvation! And so today we remember the march of the meek and humble David to single combat with the spiritual Goliath - Satan, who captivated the human race and was defeated by Christ. David defeated him with a stone from a sling in the name of the Lord God; and now the Lord himself, whose image was that stone, defeated the mental Goliath - Satan with the tree of His cross, His suffering and death on the cross, voluntarily and redemptively raised for us. It is impossible not to notice here the internal, causal connection between the tree of disobedience (in paradise) and the tree of obedience (the cross) on Calvary. The tree of disobedience plunged humanity into decay; tree of obedience, i.e. The voluntary suffering and death of the God-man for people obedient to him led them to incorruption and heavenly life. Now is the judgment of this world, the Lord said to the people before His sufferings; now the prince of this world will be cast out, i.e. from people who believe and are devoted to Christ, and when I am lifted up from the earth (on the cross), I will draw everyone to Me (John 12:31–32). What a terrible and strange sight! The adulterous and sinful world judges unrighteously, enviously and maliciously its Creator and the righteous Judge of the entire human race, and He, the Lord and Savior, the righteous Judge, by the very humiliation, patience and obedience of His heavenly Father, obedience even to death, judges the world mired in sins, and the prince of this world - Satan, and delivers humanity from its villainy, giving him a ransom for the lawless - His innocent soul and body - descends through death into hell, binds Satan himself and all his minions, destroys the fortress of hell and leads his prisoners out of this eternal prison, and all believers to the freedom of the kingdom of heaven, opening a paradise of sweetness to all the faithful. Fiery weapons no longer guard the gates of Eden; for on them the tree of the cross (the union of heaven and earth) found a glorious union; the sting of death and the victory of hell are crushed: for the Lord appeared to the prisoners of hell, exclaiming to them: enter paradise again (Triod, week of the cross, ikos according to 6 cantos). Thus, through the cross of Christ, judgment was revealed to a sinful world. What court? All the unbelieving high priests, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, all the then and now proud unbelievers, rich and arrogant in earthly wisdom, learning and nobility, pronounced and pronounce judgment on themselves, condemning to the cross or denying the Righteous One, the Benefactor of mankind, who performed countless beneficial miracles and signs - and when His cross will appear from heaven at His second coming - then they will look at Him Whom they pierced, horrified by their malice and insolence (John 19:37). Those who believe and are obedient to the Gospel will see for themselves the complete forgiveness of their sins for the sake of the wounds of the Savior, like a prudent thief, and those who do not believe and are bitter, unrepentant will see eternal condemnation for themselves and a terrible kind of aspiration and a fire of jealousy that wants to devour their opponents (Heb. 10:27). What do the words of the Savior mean when I am lifted up from the earth, i.e. to the cross, will I draw everyone to Me? These words will be quite clear when we remember how Saul, who later became Paul the Apostle, the most zealous of all, was drawn to faith in Christ by the invincible power of the Crucified One; then Archdeacon Stephen the First Martyr and then the countless number of followers of Jesus Christ in the east and west in all nations. Remember the countless number of martyrs who joyfully endured all kinds of torment for their faith in Christ and ended their lives in various torments. Remember the ascetics who lived like desert cities, living like angels in the deserts of Egypt, Thebaid, Athos, Sinai and many others. What divine, wonderful, saving power of the Crucified One drew to Him all this countless multitude of people who believed and knew and loved Him with all their hearts and with all their soul! This is what the Crucified One accomplished with His atoning suffering and death! And without the cross, the world would have perished - because then there would not have been this all-redeeming power that attracts God. Only by the cross is the world saved and saved. - And therefore, all unbelievers and those who have now fallen away from the cross and from the Church of Christ will perish without any bewilderment if they do not turn, like children, in the simplicity of faith, to Christ, as God the Savior and Giver of Life and the righteous Judge of the whole world. Before it is too late, turn all unbelievers to faith, to repentance in tears and contrition of heart. No one would be late! Perhaps tomorrow, man, the judgment of the Creator will follow you. Amen. Word XVIII. On the great heel “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Matthew 27:46). Thus proclaimed the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus, crucified for the sins of the world, who voluntarily suffered and, at the cost of His suffering and death, redeemed him from the righteous curse of God and eternal death. This is a bitter cry not only of Him, but of the entire human race. Our race, according to God’s justice, was destined to be abandoned by God, deprived of His grace and life, and to be cast into eternal torment. It’s terrible to imagine even for a minute the torment of hell; terrible is the eternal separation from God, the Source of life. Terrible is the bubbling of the eternal fire, which scorches terribly and never burns its victim. The screams of tormented sinners in hell are terrible, unbearable. Recalling this terrible abandonment of sinners and giving Himself as a ransom for them to the justice of His Father, He, the Lamb of God, raises the last voice from a heart filled with sorrow: My God, my God! Why did you leave me? those. left Me to all the cruelty of torment? But, glory to Your passion, Lord! You accepted not only the execution of the cross, from the Heavenly Father, in order to save us from eternal punishment, but also abandonment from Him, i.e. a test of all the cruelty of torment that we, sinners, had to undergo according to the truth of God. For this reason, we will not be abandoned by the goodness of God if we believe and trust in You to the end, but we will be accepted into eternal joyful fellowship with You in the next century. Let us take a lesson from the cross and the innocent Sufferer on the cross, Whom heaven and earth and all that is in them tremble, and Who could in an instant turn heaven and earth into nothingness, into oblivion, if only He wanted. - What lesson? A lesson in obedience to our Savior, a lesson in self-sacrifice, i.e. rejection, old, godless man with all his passions deeply rooted in us. If you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me, He tells you (Matthew 16:24). Cut off your sins with all their roots - lack of faith and unbelief, pride, envy, fornication and all passions, all these hellish, wild, deadly vegetation, which, through your negligence, the first apostate and adversary planted and raised in you, and then sow your heart field with all sorts of seeds of good - faith, humility, repentance and all kinds of good deeds. Learn this lesson firmly, fulfill it, and you will inherit the kingdom of heaven with the repentant thief. Word XIX. On the day of the sacred anointing and crowning of the Most Pious, Most Autocratic Great Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich “The kingdom is the Lord’s, and he is Ruler over the nations” (Ps. 21:29). Is Russia the kingdom of God? From year to year, the church and Russia gratefully remember and brightly celebrate the day of the sacred anointing and crowning of our most pious Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich - and glorify the Lord, who placed on Him honor and greatness, in the words of the prophet king, and on his head a crown of pure gold (Ps. 20:4). Royal anointing is a sign of the outpouring of the grace of the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Lord, on the anointed person - and wisdom and strength to govern his subjects. This sacred rite is God's institution. About David, anointed to the kingdom by Samuel the prophet, it is said in the history of how he was sealed with oil, and the Spirit of God began to hover over him. King David himself says this about the gracious effect of the sacred anointing and the power of God communicated through him on him. God girds me with strength and arranges for me the right path, makes my feet like a deer’s, and places me on my heights, teaches my hands to fight, and my arms crush the brass bow; You have given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me, and Your mercy magnifies me. You widen my step under me and my feet do not falter. I pursue my enemies and overtake them, and I do not return until I have destroyed them; I smite them and cannot rise, they fall under my feet, for You have girded me with strength for war and have brought down those who rebelled against me under my feet. You have turned the rear of my enemies to me, and I destroy those who hate me. I scatter them like dust before the wind, like street dirt, I trample on them. You delivered me from the rebellion of the people, you made me the head of the foreigners; a people whom I did not know serves me; according to one rumor about me, they obey me; foreigners caress me; the foreigners turn pale and tremble in their fortifications; As the Lord lives, and blessed is my protector! Exalted be the God of my salvation, the God who avenges me and subdues the nations for me and delivers me from my enemies! For this I will praise You, O Lord, among the foreigners; and I will sing to Your name, majestically saving the king and showing mercy to Your anointed David and his descendants forever (Ps. 17:33-51). You see what power the sacred anointing or, more precisely, the pouring of oil on his head had for King David, and what God was for him as the king of the chosen people. God controlled, so to speak, all the steps, all the actions of David - through him He reigned over Israel; The kingdom of David was, in truth, the kingdom of the Lord. But David was also a king after God’s heart (Acts 13:22), as God Himself testified to this, and was the true shepherd of the Jewish people, as a king and at the same time a prophet, constantly teaching them the right faith and strict piety with his famous God-inspired psalms and harmonious Divine services; He waged frequent wars with internal and external enemies, defeated them all, and brought a peaceful reign to his successor Solomon. Is it possible to say about our fatherland of the present time that it is the Lord’s kingdom and the Lord is the Ruler of the Russian people? - According to the right Christian faith, apostolic, undamaged by human wisdom, according to the Orthodox rite of Divine services and sacraments, according to the power of signs and wonders performed from the relics of the glorified saints of God and miraculous icons, and in general according to the countless signs of God's mercy that are performed to this day over faithful Christians and - according to the good, pious life of not a small number of true Christians, among Russians - Russia can be called the kingdom of God. This, however, is only on one side. On the other hand, due to the godlessness and wickedness of many Russians, the so-called intellectuals, who have lost their way, have fallen away from the faith and revile it in every possible way, have trampled all the commandments of the Gospel and allowed every kind of debauchery in their lives - the Russian kingdom is not the kingdom of the Lord, but a wide and free kingdom of Satan, deeply penetrated into the minds and hearts of Russian false scientists and half-educated people and all those who live widely according to their desires passions and according to the false, perverted concepts of one’s own mind that has gone on strike, despising the Reason of God and the revealed Word of God. And therefore, look what is happening in it at the present time: there is a strike of students and workers everywhere - in different institutions - people; the noise of parties aiming to overthrow the real monarchical system established by God, the everywhere dissemination of daring, insane proclamations, disrespect for the authority of the authorities established by God, for there is no authority except from God, but the authorities that exist are created by God, according to the Apostle (Rom. 13:1); children and youth imagined themselves to be the bosses and arbiters of their own destinies; marriages have lost all meaning for many, and divorces on a whim have multiplied to infinity; many children are abandoned to their fate by unfaithful spouses; Some kind of nonsense and arbitrariness reigns. Is this the Orthodox kingdom, is this the kingdom of the Lord? Finally, an unpunished transition from Orthodoxy to any faith is allowed; meanwhile, the same Lord whom we confess, in the Old Testament, determined the death penalty for those who rejected the law of Moses (Heb. 10:28). Every kingdom divided against itself will be desolate, says the Lord, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand (Matthew 12:25). If things go like this in Russia, both atheists and anarchists - madmen will not be subject to the righteous punishment of the law, and if Russia is not cleansed of many tares, then it will be desolate, like the ancient kingdoms and cities, wiped off the face of the earth by the justice of God for their atheism and for their iniquities (Babylonian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek-Macedonian). May God rise again and may His enemies be scattered, and may those who hate Him flee from His Face; As smoke disappears, let them disappear; As wax melts before the face of fire, so let sinners perish at the face of God, and let righteous women rejoice (Ps. 67:1-4). Amen. Word XX. Regarding the departure of some persons from the bosom of the Orthodox Church to Catholicism or another heterodox religion, or Pashkovism, Tolstoyism and Shtunda. The press started talking about cases of betrayal of Orthodoxy on the part of certain individuals. These cases, fortunately, are quite rare, indeed of the kind that cannot but outrage the believing conscience of Orthodox Russian people, who place devotion to the faith of their fathers above everything, above personal happiness, above even life itself. And it is not even these isolated cases of falling away from Orthodoxy that upset believers so much—evil has always been and will be in the world—as the indifference with which our society treats these cases. Moreover, there are people who even try to justify such apostasy and hypocritically talk about freedom of conscience, the search for truth, etc. This is no longer consistent with anything and, indeed, cannot but deeply upset every believer. And so, to the joy and consolation of the Russian people, the Kronstadt shepherd Father John, known and revered throughout Russia, on February 24, 1897, uttered a threatening, accusatory word against all apostates from Orthodoxy. We consider it our pleasant duty to introduce you to this highly significant word. Do persons who were by birth, baptism and upbringing in the Orthodox Church and who are leaving, or who have gone, into Catholicism and some other non-Orthodox religion, or into Stunda, Pashkovism and Tolstoyism, are aware of everything that they leave, and what they accept, and to what extreme and to what deprivation they reach? Let us establish a certain point of view on the Orthodox Church and on other faiths and sects. What then? Is the church and the Orthodox faith really just a name without historical significance and without the full force of truth and vitality - or is it a solid and unshakable building of the Heavenly, Eternal, All-Wise and Almighty Architect-God, like a mountain, great and wonderful, on which and in which the Lord Himself and the Head of the Church - Jesus Christ - lives and acts incessantly for the salvation of all the faithful? Is there only one name - the Orthodox Church, without real Orthodoxy and without the greatest, indescribable power, invincible by any forces of hell? Isn't it inherent in constant triumph over all the machinations of visible and invisible enemies and over human tricks and absurd fables? Does the Orthodox Church stand alone in the world, without glorious and loud witnesses of its truth and Orthodoxy, its wonderful life-giving and saving power, even to our time? Isn’t it not the All-True and Almighty, All-Saving Head of the Church – Christ, who constantly stands for us, filling it with glory and salvation and His invincible power? Isn’t the Most Holy Lady Theotokos always with us, constantly exuding miracles of mercy to Orthodox believers and earnestly praying? Are not all the Apostles and Prophets with us and with us with their divinely inspired writings, the pure meaning of which we have not violated one iota? Are not all the Martyrs with us and for us, those who preserved the good faith and completed their feats and were crowned by the Hero of Christ with crowns of glory and incorruptibility? Are not the great universal teachers and saints for us and not with us - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory the Wonderworker, Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom? Isn’t it with us and not for us - the adamants of Orthodoxy - the reverend fathers: Anthony the Great, Athanasius of Athos, Paul of Thebes, Isaac of Dalmatia, the golden stream of Orthodox writings and honey-flowing songs, John of Damascus, and our Russian reverend fathers: Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk, Sergius of Radonezh, Zosima and Savvatiy Solovetsky, Varlaam Khutynsky and all our other wonderful reverend fathers? Do those who renounce Orthodoxy, and those of our intellectuals who consider any faith, even Mohammedan and Buddhist, to be indifferent - do they know what the pillars of Orthodoxy were, all our faithful holy princes: Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir, who chose the Orthodox from all Christian faiths, especially St. blessed prince Alexander Nevsky, denouncer of Latinism, Daniel and Roman of Galicia, St. Mikhail Chernigovsky and Mikhail the blessed prince of Tver? Is the recent glorification of the newly-minted saint and wonderworker of Chernigov Theodosius an empty spectacle? Aren’t the all-Russian saints, who are incorruptible and resting incorruptible, not still glorious among God and people: Peter, Alexei, Jonah and Philip, the Moscow wonderworkers, and the whole multitude of Russian saints and saints glorified by God: Nikita, John, Moses and Euthymius of Novgorod, Demetrius of Rostov, Mitrofan and Tikhon of Voronezh and others? And Seraphim of Sarov, glorified by God during his lifetime with the appearances of the Lord and the Mother of God, standing in line for open glorification - is he not a witness to the truth and salvific nature of our faith and church? Finally, I will say: isn’t the whole history of the Church for us from the beginning to the present? What other faith can boast of so many witnesses to the truth? But whoever renounces Orthodoxy renounces communion with all the saints, who, by the way, are called saints because they have preserved the holy dogmas of the faith and demonstrated it in practice; he who renounces the Orthodox faith, for this very reason, also renounces communion with the Head of the Church Himself - Christ. I also ask everyone and everyone who hesitates in St. Orthodox faith: are we abandoned by the miraculous and saving power of God? Are we not constantly saved in our St. faith and the Church. And which of the Orthodox, reasonable and enlightened, who have learned through experience the salvific nature of their faith and its satisfaction to our entire being, will leave their Orthodoxy and move to some other faith? There is only one true and all-saving faith in the world - the Orthodox faith; it is such in history, in its truth, in its very essence, full of light and vitality - which cannot be said about other religions; for in them the truth is mixed with false human wisdom, institutions and rules that are contrary to Revelation and greatly complicate the salvation of souls. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away, says the Lord (Matthew 24:35). Meanwhile, in heterodox faiths, many of the Lord’s words are distorted (about the Holy Spirit, about both types of communion, about the primacy of the church). Let us firmly hold on to St. Church and their Orthodox faith. Only the Orthodox Church is the pillar and affirmation of the truth, for the spirit of truth rests eternally in it, constantly and loudly testifying to this world about its truth. Word XXI. About the end of the world and the terrible judgment of God Service Fr. John of Kronstadt. Having celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Ioannovsky Convent, the deeply revered shepherd Fr. Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev (Kronstadt) offered the pilgrims a conversation during the day's Gospel reading (Luke 9:23–27). If anyone wants to come after Me, says the Lord, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me (v. 23). For whoever wants to save his soul (i.e., the soul of the old man) will lose it, and whoever loses his soul (i.e., a corruptible life full of passions) for My sake will find it (v. 24). For what good does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world (or, for example, conquers it, like Alexander the Great or Napoleon), but damages his soul and destroys himself (v. 25). For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the Glory of His Father from the Holy. Angels (v. 26). I tell you that there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God (v. 27). The Gospel reading of the current liturgy depicts the characteristics of a true follower of Christ. Whoever wants to follow Me must deny himself, i.e. their passions: pride, deceit, pride, condemnation, envy, fornication, intemperance, drunkenness, greed, ambition, hypocrisy, hard-heartedness. To renounce everything earthly, unclean and sinful, to renounce worldly addictions is not an easy task, but on the other hand, the heavenly reward will be great, eternal, eternal reward, eternal glory, the kingdom of peace, spiritual wealth, the sight of the eternal beauty of God. Whoever follows Christ will inherit eternal heavenly bliss and will be honored to see the ineffable beauty of God, which all the Angels of God cannot get enough of. It is not easy for a carnal, worldly person to deny himself; he will not dare to do this, but rather will decide to follow his flesh and blood, to drink the cup of earthly pleasure to the end. The Lord warns: if you want to be saved, if you want to be blissful in heaven with all the saints, do not live according to your own will and according to the inspiration of your passions, renounce your sinful and unstable will and in everything submit to the will of God, always holy and good. Then you completely unite yourself to Christ, because it is impossible for Christ, the source of goodness, to unite with an evil, unkind, unrighteous, partial person; What kind of communication does light have with darkness, does Christ have with Satan (2 Cor. 6:14–15)? None. Therefore, Christ the Savior announces in advance that whoever thinks to save his soul by avoiding self-sacrifice will lose it. What kind of soul are we talking about here? And about the one who pleases herself, caresses, cherishes, pampers, pampers, amuses herself with games, luxury, wealth, pleasures of all kinds. What does it mean to save your soul here? It means not touching the passions of the soul, leaving them alone, letting them live and grow stronger. And everything that a person invents that is pleasant, cheerful and luxurious in life, all this serves to his destruction: his soul dies from wealth and luxury, which attracts it to self-pleasure, to vanity, pride, curiosity, because faith, grace and everything that makes up true life become impoverished in it. On the contrary, he will save, preserve his soul for eternity - who will fight against passions and other inclinations and die for the sake of truth. Such, for example, are the martyrs who, for Christ, to preserve faith in Him and love for Him, lost their life for the earth and acquired it for another life: they received eternal rewards from the Lord God. Here, the destruction of the soul means the destruction of passions and the mortification of sin in oneself and all sinful lusts. It is difficult to eradicate them - they have taken deep roots in us: it is difficult for a drunkard to part with drunkenness, for a proud person - with ambition, for a lustful person - with fornication, for a lover of money - with money, but it is necessary to part with it, otherwise it is impossible to become a true follower of Christ - a follower not only in words and in name, but also in reality. The Lord intensifies his speech and says that there is no benefit for a person even in possessing the whole world if he destroys his soul: with the blessings of the whole world he will not redeem his soul from eternal destruction. What glory was Alexander the Great, Napoleon and others, and everything disappeared like smoke, everything passed like a dream, because their souls perished in one in drunkenness, in the other because of blinded pride, in the rejection of God. Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, says the Lord, will the Son of Man be ashamed of him when he comes in the Glory of His Father with the holy Angels (v. 26). What a terrible retribution for those who are ashamed of Christ for their false, criminal shame! What awaits in the future those who deny Him to destruction with their lips, deeds and their whole lives? And Christ the Savior is rejected before the holy Angels and before the face of the Heavenly Father himself, when he appears as the Judge of the world with power and much glory, to reward each according to his deeds. All apostates from the true faith and the Orthodox Church, who allow themselves to laugh at everything that St. tells us, will be subjected to such shame. The Gospel, which is sealed and confirmed by the death on the cross of the Son of God. I tell you that there are some of those standing here, during whose lifetime the kingdom of God will come among people and who will see the second and terrible coming of Christ. Here, of course, St. the Apostle John the Theologian, who was miraculously reposed and lives to this day on earth and in heaven; this is his reward for his love and devotion to Christ and the torment that he endured for the sake of Christ. So, for all followers of Christ, self-sacrifice is necessary: ​​to renounce one’s self, one’s passions: envy, wickedness, pride, quarrels, condemnation, intemperance, drunkenness, covetousness, negligence, laziness, disobedience; we need to eradicate them in our hearts and especially in you, dear novices, who took up the cross and followed Christ. Take for edification the Gospel reading of the current liturgy. Bear your cross patiently, deny yourself, assign yourself to Christ, be Christ’s, be wise in Christ, know that the soul is the most precious treasure and value this treasure: do not get carried away with earthly blessings, believing in a reward in heaven. Amen. The next day, after returning from the trip, Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev again served the liturgy in his Ioannovsky convent, to the general joy of all its inhabitants; at the end of the service, according to his custom, the highly revered shepherd spoke an edifying word on the text from the day's Gospel. We present approximately this word here. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened” (Matthew 13:33). This is a parable; in it the Lord Jesus Christ depicted the great spiritual power of Christianity, which can transform and perfect a sinful person. The fact is that the soul and body of man, having been created at the beginning pure and righteous - in the image of God and in the likeness, subsequently received a terrible leaven - pride, envy, wickedness, disobedience, negligence, greed, lust for power and all uncleanness. But the Lord God, in His ineffable mercy, gives us His grace, with the help of which every person can again become close to God, a saint. This is what the Lord reveals to us in the parable of the leaven. Who is meant by the image of a woman here? Of course St. the Church of Christ, in which, by the will of God, the Holy Spirit lives and acts and is communicated to all Christians through the sacraments and prayers, sanctifying and reviving believers. What do the three measures of flour mean in which the woman put the leaven? They mean three mental powers: mind, heart and will. All these forces are infected, permeated with sin, like paper soaked in oil. In this form, the soul is disgusting to God; it is not God's, but the devil's. Pay attention to what happens in the soul, watch yourself: will there be many holy thoughts, pure desires and good intentions? Few, very few. And you will see a great many sins, for fallen man sins every day, every hour with little faith, self-love, pride, envy, greed, gluttony, impatience, irritation, bitterness, disobedience, self-will, prodigal sins, despondency and cowardice. Judge for yourself how deeply sin has taken root, countless in all human beings. However, I am not saying that all people are like this. There are, of course, people who care about salvation, who tear out all weeds and all passions from the spiritual field. We're not talking about them. I'm talking about people in general. And I am a sinful person, although I am trying to achieve holiness, as far as the Lord will help. So, your three spiritual powers are badly leavened, but you need to leaven them with the grace of the Holy Spirit; the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). In the saints you can see an example of how the church put this leaven in them. Here is St. Seraphim of Sarov. He was a sinful man, but with the assistance of God's grace, all the bad leaven in him was removed; he became a saint, a quick helper and a prayer book for our souls. Truly, in the holy church there is completeness and abundance of means for a beneficial educational effect on people. Spiritual leaven - Divine grace imparted to a Christian through the Sacraments, prayer, reading the word of God, has great power. It can bring every Christian believer to a high degree of perfection. And you, dear sisters, try to accept this good leaven into yourself and, having before you the example of St. Seraphim and other saints, do not weaken in your labors for your salvation. The revival and complete transformation of the old man into the new spiritual man cannot take place without struggle, for much depends on the will of man. And the woman mentioned in the parable waited patiently until everything was leavened. The leaven worked, but did not show such strength that three measures of flour immediately soured. And be patient, not slackening in your good deed. After all, give free rein to the old man, let go of the spiritual reins, then a storm of passions will flood and drown you. Look at people devoted to various passions: they become miserable slaves of the murderous enemy. Again I say this not for condemnation, but for general edification, in order to warn you against imitating non-believers. Such people are pathetic. When faced with temptations, deprivations, and troubles, they are in distress, like a ship at sea in a strong storm, and perish if they do not repent and turn with all their souls to the Lord Jesus Christ, for He teaches our hands to fight and our fingers to fight (Ps. 144:1), and for victory over the enemy He has given us His Name, His cross, grace and His power. We will resort to him, our Savior, in difficult circumstances of life and at all times; to the foot of His cross let us bear the burden of our sins; looking at the example of His most holy life, we will learn to walk His life path; then, even among sorrows and hardships, our soul will be at peace, for thus says the Lord: come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28–29). Amen. Sermon I. On the day of the glorious Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary “Worldwide joy from the righteous Joachim and Anna arose to us, the all-sung Virgin, even for the sake of purity the church of God is animated, and one truly Theotokos is known.” (On the stichera of the pre-festive service). Before I begin my wretched word about the Nativity of the Mother of God the Word, I pray to this Eternal Word to give me the mind to glorify, according to my strength, or rather, by the grace of God, the real great Christian holiday, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, destined by the Creator of centuries to be the Mother of the Son of God according to the flesh. I compare in my thoughts two virgins: the pristine virgin Eve, when she had not yet known communication, and the real Most Pure Virgin and Ever-Virgin Mother of God Mary. The first virgin became the free cause of universal sin, curse and death and all the troubles to which we are still subjected and from which we suffer terribly; the second - according to God, became the cause of righteousness, blessing and life, with which God the Word, born of Her in the flesh, blessed us. The first was created from the rib of Adam, for the sake of the unity of origin from the same blood of the human race, the second Virgin - the culprit of this triumph, was born by faith, fervent prayer and alms of barren, elderly parents, the righteous Joachim and Anna, for the destruction, by the goodness of God, sin, curse and death, for God the Word, born of Her in the flesh, destroyed all-evil sin in believers and cast out the curse and death, giving blessing and eternal life. Here are two opposites - the progenitor of the human race, Eve, and the Representative of Christians, Ever-Virgin Mary! Wonderful works of God's providence for the human race! The righteous people are also wonderful, bringing forth in the world, by the grace of God, truth, peace, blessing and eternal life, among whom the Most Holy Virgin Mary takes precedence. God’s mercy towards the human race is marvelous, restoring it from its fall. By Her Nativity, the Most Holy Virgin Mary united God the Word with men and united our nature, rejected by sin, with heaven and brought the human race into communion with the angelic, bright, all-blessed world, and made earthly people inhabitants of heaven. Through the incarnation of God the Word from the Most Holy Virgin, humanity was granted by God a tuna of countless blessings, which it did not even dare to think about, mired in all the impurities of sin. People have been given from the Lord, who suffered voluntarily for the sins of the world, the bath of rebirth (baptism), all-saving repentance, the all-enlightening Word of God, teaching all piety; the Church was founded with consecrated shepherds; Communion of the Most Pure Body and Blood of the Lord was given, cleansing all sin and renewing our nature, corrupted by sin, beautifying and fragrant believers and humble souls. The salvation of a person is made dependent on faith, repentance and good deeds of a person, and without faith in Christ the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, and without unfeigned, fruitful repentance, salvation is impossible; believers have been given an all-powerful Intercessor and Representative. I look at the world lying in evil, or, closer, at Russia, which received from God a precious inheritance from its ancestors - the Orthodox faith, and which, through incomprehensible frivolity, has abandoned its faith and fallen into all sorts of troubles: I am horrified and grieved, seeing how it suffers and will suffer again if it does not turn with all its heart to the faith of its fathers and to the Orthodox Church, behind which so many righteous people have been saved. For lack of faith, drunkenness and debauchery follow troubles after troubles, the greatest, incommensurable troubles: a shameful war, impoverishment of the people, revolution, hunger strike, cholera, two rebellious Dumas, of which the second, through some of its representatives, almost destroyed the Royal Family. These are God's punishments for apostasy and indiscriminate debauchery. Our very holy holidays, which should raise our minds and hearts to heaven, have turned into satanic holidays, holidays of flesh and blood and all sorts of senseless and harmful passions. When there are no Jewish holidays, the Lord abhors our holidays. I cannot tolerate your festive gatherings - lawlessness and celebration (Isaiah 1:13), says the Lord through the prophet Isaiah. Let's fear God. Let us delve into the meaning of our holidays and raise our minds and hearts to grief - to God, to heaven, to the mountainous fatherland. Word II. On the day of the accession to the All-Russian ancestral throne of the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich “The Lord looks down from heaven and sees all the sons of men. From the throne on which He sits He looks down upon all who live on earth; He created the hearts of all, and looks into all their affairs” (Ps. 32:13-15). Do you, dear brethren, believe in this uncreated, all-seeing, eternal, terrible Eye, which created two eyes for all living creatures, so that they could see with them everything close or distant and have freedom of movement, obtain food, avoid danger to their lives and rejoice in the joy of life? This all-seeing, terrible Eye, which created the light, the sun and all kinds of lights, all the eyes of creatures, constantly looks day and night at all people in the universe and at each person in particular, and delves into all thoughts and feelings, and into all their affairs - into the affairs of kings and subjects, rulers and subordinates, learned and simple, rich and poor, good and evil. The Guardian of Israel does not slumber or sleep, I mean the new one, i.e. Christian Israel, or the Church of Christ and Russia, containing the Orthodox faith of Christ. From the throne on which He sits, He looks down on everyone living on earth, and judges the entire universe with just measures. We will all give him an account,” said St. ap. Paul (Heb. 4:13). To whom much is given, much will be required of him, but the little deserves leniency, as the ignorant. Today we remember and solemnly celebrate the accession to the All-Russian throne of our Sovereign. Who places the kings of the earth on the throne? He who alone from eternity sits on a fiery throne, and alone, alone in the proper sense, reigns over all creation - heaven and earth with all the creatures that live on them. The kings of the earth are given royal power from Him alone; He crowns them with the royal diadem. He alone appoints kings and deposes (replaces according to the word of scripture); therefore, the Tsar, as having received the royal power from the Lord, is and must be Autocratic. Shut up, dreamy constitutionalists and parliamentarians! Get away from Me, Satan! “You are a temptation to me: because you think not about the things of God, but about the things of men,” the Lord said to Peter, the one who argued (Matthew 16:23). Depart too, you who oppose God's command. It is not for you to dispose of the thrones of the kings of the earth: away are the daring ones, who do not know how to govern themselves, but bicker with each other, and have not done anything significantly useful for Russia. The Lord gives power, strength, courage and wisdom to the king to rule over his subjects. But may worthy helpers approach the throne, those who have God’s right conscience and the fear of God, who love God and His Church, which He Himself founded on earth - and may all who have a seared conscience, who do not have right, wise and well-intentioned advice, flee from the throne, as was recently the case with the first traitorous minister. Delve into the words of the prophet and King David, you, especially those who are going to the third State Duma and preparing to be advisers to the Tsar, whose power occupies a sixth of the world - and study comprehensively its needs and needs, the illnesses and wounds of the Motherland, its countless treasures of land and water, which foreigners use so much, due to the lack of enterprise of the Russians - and be His right hand, His eyes, sincere and faithful, active well-wishers and advisers to Him, at the same time God-fearing and unchanging to faith and fatherland. God calls you to this great work - the improvement and pacification of the fatherland. At the same time, remember that the earthly fatherland with its Church is the threshold of the heavenly fatherland, therefore love it fervently and be ready to lay down your soul for it in order to inherit eternal life there. “Our Father,” we say, “who art in heaven.” Do you see where our Father, the Lord God, dwells in all eternal glory? In heaven; there is our fatherland. He who is faithful to God is also faithful to the King. Let me remind you of the words of the psalmist, prophet and king: The Lord looks down from heaven and sees all the sons of men. From the throne on which He sits He looks down upon all who live on earth; He created the hearts of all and looks into all their affairs (Ps. 33:13–15). Therefore, everyone will be judged strictly. Amen. Word III. About fasting and prayer Father John served the liturgy in his Ioannovsky convent, with the participation of the local clergy. At the end of the liturgy, according to his custom, not to leave those praying without a word of edification, the highly revered Fr. The archpriest delivered approximately the following edifying teaching. Wisdom built Her own house (our monastery and the church in it), hewed out its seven pillars, slaughtered the sacrifice, dissolved wine in Her Chalice and prepared a meal for Herself, sent Her servants (Apostles and Priests) with a high sermon: if anyone is foolish, turn here, and to the weak-minded she said: come, eat My bread and drink the wine that I have dissolved; leave foolishness and live and walk in the way of understanding (Prov. 9:1-6). These words were spoken a thousand years before the Savior came to the world. The wise King Solomon, the son of David, wise by the Spirit of God, predicts in them about our great well-being, great happiness and treasure - the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. The Old Testament kings, forefathers, prophets did not have such happiness as to personally see the Lord Jesus Christ, but we have this happiness, this ineffable mercy of God, because we ourselves (priests) perform this wonderful Sacrament, we ourselves receive communion and we give you communion after your sincere repentance. This is how the Wisdom of God conceived to save us through the Cup, in which is our purification, our renewal, our life, our salvation, great happiness and bliss. It is remarkable that the wisdom of God, through the mouth of Solomon, gives this instruction to everyone: if anyone is foolish, turn here (to Me), and to the weak-minded she said: go, eat my bread and drink the wine that I have dissolved; leave foolishness and live and walk in the way of reason. All sinners are possessed by feeblemindedness. Let's take a drunkard, or a lazy, prodigal, hoarder of wealth, let's take any sinner, how reckless and stupid they all are, because they constantly work for their passions and die in their passions. For them it is extremely necessary to eat the most pure Body and drink the life-giving Blood of Christ, which will teach us to flee from wickedness and all sin, and to live in simplicity, truth and all virtue. Therefore, the all-wise Solomon says: everyone approach the Holy Chalice, abandon all foolishness and walk in the path of reason. Now let us explain the Gospel we heard today (Luke 5:33–39). One day they said to Jesus Christ: Why do John’s disciples fast often, but yours eat and drink? But how could they not eat and drink - they were great workers, and the Lord, sending them to the work of evangelism, did not order them to take with them neither bag, nor bread, nor boots... Jesus Christ says that His disciples do not fast while the groom is with them, but the days will come when the groom is taken away from them, then they will fast. The Lord foretells here Wednesday and Friday, established for fasting from the very first days of Christianity; Wednesday - in remembrance of the tradition on this day of Jesus Christ for suffering and Friday - in remembrance of the terrible suffering, the Savior's Death on the Cross on this day, as well as in order to cleanse our thoughts and hearts and make them more capable of understanding our spiritual poverty and dependence on God. On this occasion, the Lord spoke a parable: No one puts patches on old clothes after tearing them off new clothes; otherwise he will tear the new one apart and the patch from the new one will not fit the old one (Article 36). By old clothing the Lord here means His disciples, who were old until they were renewed by the descent of the Holy Spirit. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and flow out on its own and the skins will be lost (in the East, grape wine is stored in wineskins). But new wine must be put into new wineskins; then both will be saved (Vv. 37-38); those. The Apostles will understand the teaching of Christ in all its depth when they are completely renewed, when the Holy Spirit descends on them, and now they needed indulgence regarding fasting and prayer for the sake of their great labors according to the gospel of the Holy Gospel. They, of course, prayed and fasted even now, but less so than John’s disciples, who did not bear the heavy labors of the Apostles, and therefore could more easily devote themselves to the feats of fasting and prayer. We Christians, as new people, are commanded to fast; therefore, we should not worry much about feeding the belly, excesses in food and drink, or delicacies, because all this hinders the achievement of the heavenly kingdom. Our duty is to prepare for heavenly life and take care of spiritual food, and spiritual food is fasting, prayer, reading the Word of God, especially the communion of the Holy Mysteries. When we do not care about fasting and prayer, then we are filled with all sorts of sins and passions, but when we feed on spiritual food, then we are cleansed of them and adorned with humility, meekness, patience, mutual love, purity of soul and body. Amen. Words and thoughts about vodka, tobacco and foul language, extracted from the teachings of Fr. John of Kronstadt and other preachers Look attentively at the life of modern man, how unnatural it is, not to mention how ungracious it is, how unchristianly it is lived. Look how he perverted the most sensual pleasures. For the sense of smell and taste, and partly for the breath itself, he invented and burns an almost incessantly pungent and odorous smoke - bringing this, as if a constant censer, to the demon living in the flesh - infects the air of his home and the external air with this smoke, and first of all, he himself is saturated with this stench - and here you have the constant coarsening of his feelings and his heart by the constantly absorbed smoke cannot but affect the subtlety of the heart feelings; he gives it fleshiness, roughness, sensuality. The womb has become an idol; Many people do not keep fasts at all, considering them burdensome; feasting and drunkenness became constant phenomena; money has become a positively modern idol, and in order to easily acquire it people do not neglect any means, no matter how ignoble or wicked they may be; all thoughts, worries, amusements, including play, in a word, pleasures, searches, intentions, enterprises, even teaching, are directed towards the earth; There is no mention of heaven, of the heavenly title, of heavenly teaching and life in many homes. Man has become all the earth, all dust! Meanwhile, God came down to earth precisely to lead us to heaven. Adam, where are you? (Gen. 3:9). Christian man, where are you? How deep you have fallen! What darkness did you enter into voluntarily? - Arise, come into the light of God, know your divine nobility, your heavenly title, return to God, - throw away sensuality that deadens the spirit, - begin to live according to the spirit of virtue, kill carnal passions, repent and unite with God, so that He will raise you to heaven and seat you with Him on the throne of His kingdom. Speaking about the earthly, passionate, unworthy direction of people’s lives, I do not lose sight of the many bright sides in the lives of many Christians and the virtues of truly Christian people, but this is a weak minority. May God grant this minority to surpass the majority. Amen. One day, while studying in my kindergarten, I heard that not far from me a 68-year-old old man was terribly using foul language. I began to convince him to give up this bad habit, but the foul-mouthed man became so close to it that when he left me, he continued to use foul language. Soon I met him near his house - and he, remembering my remarks, now seemed ashamed of me. I took this opportunity and started a conversation with him. “Tell me, please, what upset you so early and so much today, that in my eyes, in view of the church of God, you cursed so terribly?” “Oh, father,” he answered, “how can I not be upset when there was almost the entire herd of horses in my spring field?” “Yes,” I said, this, of course, is offensive to the owner; but why would you defile the lips with which you say prayers and partake of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ? “My words, unfortunately, did not fall on the old man’s heart. On the same day, he again began to spew out shameful words, not at all expecting the disastrous fate that befell him that same day. Upon my return home from the parish, they told me: “Father, Pakhomych is dying.” “What happened to him?” “They say that he got caught in a field, his stomach was pierced by a plow and plowshares.” I immediately went to the unfortunate man - he groaned terribly: his stomach was so ruptured that his entrails were visible in it - however, in the midst of mortal suffering, he still had so much strength to tell me about his misfortune: “When you left me, the patient said, I went to plow; began work without prayer and continued it without prayer. I made five or six furrows - I see that the horse is not walking the way I would like - and I approached her with foul language and hit her, and she suddenly somehow crushed me under her, I could not cope, and fell under the plow on the coulters, on which she dragged me from the field home for a quarter of a mile; on the road, my dear brother met me and took me off the coulters.” Truly, the disastrous fate that befell this man was worthy of extreme condolences; but at the sight of that uncomplaining submission to the will of God, with which he endured the most severe sufferings, as cleansing for a soul defiled by a sinful habit, it was impossible not to bless the Lord with him, whose goodness, saving us from eternal destruction, leads us in every possible way to repentance. Indeed, the repentance of this poor sufferer was deep and sincere: having confessed and received the Holy Mysteries, he remained alive for a whole day and until his last sigh he constantly repeated the words of prayer. Sermon V. On the day of the glorious Transfiguration in the flesh of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ Before all ages and the existence of the world, the Son God the Word, dressed in light like a robe, transformed before His disciples, shone more than the sun, the Word; Moses and Elijah appeared to You, telling You the Lord, dead and alive, and Your glorifying ineffable look and mercy and much mercy, by which You saved the world perishing by sin (Stichera on praise). Sons and daughters of the Orthodox Church and members of the Body of Christ, of which He, Christ, is the living, life-giving and wise Head - what bright holiday are we celebrating today? You will say: we celebrate the Transfiguration of Christ. How and why was Christ transformed? Listen to how St. tells about this. Evangelist Matthew: On one of the days of His Divine sojourn on earth, the Lord took separately three chosen disciples: Peter, James and John, and led them alone to a high mountain, and was transfigured before them: and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white like light. And then Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. At this Peter said to Jesus: It is good for us to be here: if you want, we will make three tabernacles here; one for You and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and there came a voice from the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were very afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said: Arise and do not be afraid. Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus alone. And when they came down from the mountain, Jesus forbade them, saying: Tell no one about this vision until the Son of man rises from the dead (Matthew 17:2-9). Why was the Lord transformed so fearfully, majestically and divinely? Firstly, in order to show the lightning of His eternal Divinity hidden under human flesh, His unapproachable light; secondly, in order to reveal the lordship of His second terrible coming in the glory of His Father; thirdly, to show the brightness of the future glory - in heaven of the Apostles and all those who truly believe in the Lord and are devoted to Him with all their hearts; fourthly, in order to confirm the disciples in faith in His eternal Divinity, so that they would not doubt Him when they see Him in reproach, humiliation and suffering in the flesh, suffering on the cross for the sins of the human race; fifthly, the Lord was transfigured in glory and commanded the prophets Moses and Elijah to be with Him in His glorious transfiguration, also in the light, in order to announce the general resurrection of all people from the dead for the future judgment. For this reason, Moses and the undying prophet Elijah appeared from the dead, taken alive, as if to heaven in a chariot of fire. This is why Christ was transfigured before the three chosen disciples. They were to testify to this to the whole world after the resurrection of Christ from the dead. What instructive lesson does the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord give us? Don't we all need to be transformed and change? Don't we need a change from worse to better, from sin to truth and holiness, from our negligence and coldness towards God - to hot repentance and tears; from indifference to the holy faith - to fervor of faith and love for God; from absent-mindedness and inattention to ourselves - to strict thoughtfulness in our state of mind, don’t we need to quickly put aside our dark, sinful passions that chain our hearts to the earth and remove us from God; excessive care for the flesh - about its pleasures, decorations, habits and inclinations, and don’t we need to acquire the skill and habit of every virtue, about which we care so little - while this is the only thing we need? Let us also be transformed internally, to the glory of the Lord, and we will continually practice repentance, putting aside our sins and decorating our souls with all kinds of good deeds. This will be the most pleasing celebration of His glorious Transfiguration for the Lord. Amen. Word VI. On the day of the glorious Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary Let us sing the universal glory, which vegetated from man and gave birth to the Lord, the heavenly door, to Mary, the Virgin, the disembodied (angels) song and the faithful Christians (glorification). This is why heaven and the church of the Divine will appear (Dog. I). Thus, the Great Church hymn-writer, the golden-stringed Damascus, glorifies the Most Holy Virgin Theotokos, whose all-honorable Dormition we now solemnly remember and glorify. Let us, as it were, say so, with joy and reverence glorify this Virgin and Mother, who came from the human race and gave birth to God incarnate: for She became heaven and the church of the Divine. We now celebrate Her honorable repose. The predetermined end of Her long-suffering earthly life came, and She fell asleep for three days, both mortal and life-giving sleep. One could then say about Her: The maiden is not dead, but sleeps. - Yes, She rested for three days, like Christ God, Her Son, and on the third day She was resurrected and raised in glory to heaven to reign with the Son, the end of the poor. O most blessed fate! O endless joy! Dignified and righteous. For She, the Most Pure One, would only seem to rejoice on earth as if she had no sin, but She suffered all her life for Her only begotten Son, all her life she feared for Him, because of many enemies - kings, rulers, false scientists, and warriors, treacherous, flattering, envious, money-loving people. But, finally, the earthly life of the God-Man ended; after suffering and death, the Crucified One rose again: His eternal glory began. He also sat down according to humanity at the right hand of God the Father. But for His Mother the time of glory had not yet come; She was left to live on earth in the house of Her adopted Apostle John and to be a witness to the wonderful successes of the Christian faith and its all-saving power in believers. She died almost in old age. And what, how glorious was Her Dormition! With what light did Her most pure Face shine. What a wondrous, indescribable, incomparable fragrance there was from her most pure, ever-virgin body, as St. writes. Dionysius the Areopagite, who was at Her burial! What sweet, angelic singing was heard by the faithful! How divinely inspired St. especially glorified Her Dormition. Hieromartyr Hierotheus, apostolic disciple! Glorious end of the Ever-Virgin's glorious earthly life! Why does the Holy Church annually remember and celebrate the greatest events of the Christian world - the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ, Baptism, Presentation, Entry into Jerusalem, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, Dormition of the Mother of God, etc.? In order to kindle and strengthen our faith, our Christian hope, our gratitude and love for God and the Mother of God, our unashamed Representative before God; to remember and not forget our heavenly fatherland, and not to have an attachment to the life here, only preparatory and educational, temporary and transitional. If there were no these Christian holidays, then Christians would forget that they are Christians, called to the heavenly fatherland; they would not know why they live in the world, why they were assigned to Christian society or to the Church of God; what is the purpose of their life, why do they need to believe in Christ and who is Christ, why do they believe in St. Trinity and who is the Holy Trinity! Many ignorant people really do not know who is Christ and who is the Trinity, and who is the Mother of God? They wouldn’t know why they need to pray to God, receive Holy Communion. Christ's mysteries! Church holidays explain all this to the people if they go to services - and make them aware of God's providence for us, teach us to love and thank God, repent of our sins and always keep in mind the future life in heaven, which has no end - and prepare for it, according to the word of the Apostle: our residence is in heaven, from where we wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:20). So let us celebrate the Dormition of the Mother of God spiritually, preparing diligently and ourselves for the transition from this temporary life, like a dream of a disappearing life, to the future, faithful and firm word of God promised to all faithful Christians. Most Holy Theotokos, save us! Amen. Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev served the liturgy in his St. John's Monastery with the participation of Priest. Simeonovskaya Church A.M. Kosukhin and the monastery clergy, and for the edification of the sisters of the monastery and pilgrims, he delivered approximately the following teaching on the daily Gospel. (Luke 9:44–50). The Lord said to His disciples: put these words in your ears: The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand this word, it was hidden from them, so they did not comprehend it, and they were afraid to ask Him about this word. (The disciples of Christ were still imperfect at that time and did not understand the mystery of our salvation through the suffering of the Son of God). The thought came to them: which of them would be greater? Jesus, seeing the thoughts of their hearts, took the child, set him before Him and said to them: whoever receives this child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives him who sent Me; for whoever is least among you will be great; that is, he who humbles himself most of all is great before the Lord, and on the contrary, he who exalts himself will be humiliated. Pride is the beginning of all sin. The sin of Adam and Eve, who did not listen to their Lord, who listened to His saving and beneficent commandment, is the reason that the human race is still confused in all kinds of sins; All disasters come from pride, and the current cruel war also comes from pride. - Therefore, we must beware of pride, we must humble ourselves, consider ourselves lower than others. An example of humility is the Lord Jesus Christ. He, being the all-perfect God, humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death on the cross (Phil. 2:8). It was not in vain that the Son of God humbled Himself to such an extent. His suffering was necessary to save us from pride and all other sins. If the Son of God had not suffered for us, no one could have been saved; Satan would have swallowed everyone up in his mouth and made them participants in eternal torment; however, even now all those who live in sins and do not repent of them will go into eternal torment. Remember this firmly and humble yourself before others, as the Apostle Paul instructs: doing one another great honor (Rom. 12:10). Further in the Gospel it is said that the Apostle John said to Jesus Christ: Mentor! We saw a man casting out demons in Your name, and we rebuked him, because he did not walk with us. Jesus said to him: Do not forbid, for whoever is not against you is for you. With these words, the Lord shows that He values ​​faith in Himself in every person, not only in the apostles. Therefore, we must be lenient towards those who perform certain signs in the name of God. In conclusion, I want to draw your attention to the madness, absurdity, ugliness, corruption and destruction of sin. To save us from sin, the Son of God had to humble Himself to the extreme. He deigned to be born in a shepherd's manger, since there was no place in any house for His Birth; suffered persecution from Herod and the Jews; lived in poverty, not having anywhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20); walked from city to city, from village to village; taught, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God to everyone; He did good to everyone, healed those who were sick with various ailments, and sympathized with everyone; He wanted to save everyone and, having accepted the curse for the sins of all people, deigned to endure the most terrible, most blasphemous and painful execution on the cross. This is how sin is disgusting to God! This is what a great sacrifice God’s truth demanded for human sins! It is impossible for a sinner to be reconciled with God without faith and repentance. Only faith in the Redeemer and sincere repentance can reconcile us with God for the sake of the suffering of the Son of God. Otherwise, we would all be in rejection of God, and in friendship and in the power of the devil. What follows from this? We must beware of all sin, hate sin, no matter how sweet it may be. We must remember that it is sweet only for a minute, and then what bitterness? So that we can wash away this bitterness of sin, the Lord gave us the sacrament of the Holy Mysteries. Only for the sake of the Blood of His Son does the Lord God reconcile with us, forgive, cleanse, sanctify and unite with us. Try to be kind to God, sincerely repent of your sins, flee from all sin, be saved by faith and repentance. Amen. Upon returning from Moscow, Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev proceeded to the Ioannovsky Convent, which he had founded, in the main church of which he served the liturgy with the participation of the priests of the Simeon Church M.D. Kalinnikova and A.M. Kosukhin and the local clergy. At the end of the liturgy, Fr. John addressed numerous pilgrims with an edifying teaching on the day's Gospel with approximately the following content. At that time, the 12 Apostles came to Jesus Christ and said to Him: let the people go so that they can go to the surrounding villages to spend the night and get food, because here we are in an empty place. But he said to them: give them something to eat. They said: We do not have more than five loaves and two fish; Should we go buy food for all these people? For there were about five thousand of them. But He said to His disciples: Seat them in rows of fifty. And they did so, and seated everyone. He, taking five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven (as a sign that all mercies come from heaven, from our heavenly Father), blessed them, broke them and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. And they all ate and were filled; and the pieces that remained with them were gathered into twelve baskets (Luke 9:12–17). In connection with this Gospel we have heard, let us glorify the ineffable mercy towards us of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which He deigned to come down from heaven, be incarnated by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and live on earth, not having anywhere to lay my head, in everything like us as a man, except for sin; Let us glorify His great mercy, by which He deigned to walk the earth with His most pure feet from city to city, from village to village, to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, to perform countless miracles, to feed the hungry, as He miraculously fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, after which twelve boxes of the remaining pieces were collected. Let us glorify the mercy of God, according to which He feeds us not only with ordinary earthly bread, but, what is most amazing and touching of all, feeds us with His Blood for our renewal, cleansing and salvation. Our Lord has so loved us; through communion He brought us so close to Him that it is no longer possible to bring us closer. Let us glorify the mercy of God, by which He Himself deigned to teach people to do good to them and performed countless miracles, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength to the weakened, cleansing to the lepers, the ability to speak to the dumb, and even raising the dead. Let us marvel at the ineffable love of God, according to which the Lord Jesus Christ, being the beginningless and all-perfect God, deigned to endure countless torments, the most blasphemous execution and die on the cross for our salvation; because no one would have been saved without these torments of the Son of God, everyone would have been handed over to eternal torment, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; This is not the fire that we all know, but a thousand times more terrible; All adulterers, thieves, drunkards, murderers and suicides, all proud unbelievers and all generally unrepentant sinners will now be consigned to this fire, because our sins are hated by the Lord. From sins come all illnesses, all misfortunes and disasters, all wars, like the current cruel war, from which blood flows like a river; From sins occur earthquakes, pestilences, fiery eruptions from the bowels of the earth, from which entire cities perish. The very earth groans and aches because of our iniquities and does not produce fruit due to rain or cold weather. Therefore, we will be afraid of sins, which place an indestructible barrier between God and us and bring upon us the wrath of God if a person does not repent of them and does not try to make amends for them. The Gospel says that Jesus Christ broke bread and gave it to the disciples to distribute to the people (v. 16); Now, during the Liturgy, we (Shepherds) divide the Lamb of God into parts and give it to the believers, but not as ordinary bread, but as the Most Pure Body and Blood of Christ, because the Lord Himself says about them: Take, eat, this is My Body... Drink of it, all of you, this is My Blood... Let us marvel at this goodness of God, by which He feeds us with Flesh and His blood, translating them through the legally appointed shepherds of the church. For the Creator of all things, everything is possible, just as it is possible to transform water into wine, so ordinary bread into His Most Pure Body, and wine into His Most Honest Blood. How much mercy and condescension the Lord shows to the human race! How immeasurable is God’s love for us sinners! What kind of mother, what kind of father loves their children so much? Truly, this love is many times greater than any earthly love, because He, our Lord, puts in the hearts of parents and love for their children. For such love of God, we must love the Lord God with all our hearts, diligently fulfill His commandments and be afraid of offending Him with our sins. Amen. Word IX. On the day of the transfer of St. relics of the blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, who was in 1724 under Emperor Peter the 1st, from Vladimir to St. Petersburg Rejoice today, the Russian people, rejoice the principalities and powers: behold, flesh of flesh, and power of your power, the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky rejoices from the Angels in heaven, and all his relatives and authorities, and under the message of those who exist, convenes a spiritual celebration; and prays to the Lord for everyone. (Glory to the stichera litia). On what occasion, dear brothers and sisters, were the relics of St. Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky from the city of Vladimir to St. Petersburg? Upon the conclusion of a much-desired peace with Sweden by Sovereign Peter the Great in 1721. He was pleased, after establishing his new capital of St. Petersburg, for its holy decoration and greater glorification of the exploits of the holy prince, to transfer His incorruptible and miraculous relics from the city of Vladimir - which was done with due honor. The Emperor himself with his entire house, the ranks of the court and the entire synclite with the consecrated cathedral came out to meet those who arrived with the water of St. relics, they brought them and placed them in the newly created St. the monastery of the life-giving Trinity - Alexander Nevsky and conciliarly indicated to celebrate this event annually on August 30th for eternity. The memory of His repose is celebrated on November 23rd. Here is a short story about the family and its life. The faithful and Christ-loving Prince Alexander was the son of the Grand Duke of Russia Yaroslav, the great-grandson of the Grand Duke Vsevolod, the son of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, who enlightened the entire Russian land with St. baptism. When his father Yaroslav ruled the Vladimir region, and St. Alexander lived and ruled in Novgorod; our border neighbors, the Swedes, and their king came by the Baltic Sea to the mouth of the Neva on ships, with a large army, with the intention of capturing our Izhora country, Ladoga, Great Novgorod and all of what was then Russia. Having stopped with his ships at the mouth of the Neva, the king, proud of his military strength, sent his ambassadors to Novgorod to Prince Alexander with the following words: if you want, submit to me - if not, then know that I am already within the boundaries of your land and will soon capture it. The Grand Duke, not having the preparedness of the assembled army and the ability to quickly inform his father Yaroslav about his danger, - he himself, alone, placed all his hope in God, with a prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos and calling for help from the relatives of his passion-bearers Boris and Gleb - without mustering military force, he went out with a small military squad against the numerous army of the Swedes. Arriving at the Neva River, he took up arms not far from the enemy. Under the Grand Duke there was then one pious governor of Izhora, Philip; to whom the night watch was entrusted, and at the same time ordered to secretly find out the number and strength of the enemy. Seeing a large enemy army and being in bewilderment and fear, Philip returned to St. Alexander to tell him what he saw. When he walked along the shore of the bay, at sunrise, he saw a ship near the shore and among it standing magnificent men in scarlet (red) clothes, putting their hands on each other’s shoulders, and the rowers were sitting, covered as if with fog. One of the mysterious men said: Brother Gleb! Let us quickly go and help our relative against his enemies; and the other answered: good, brother Boris! Hearing this, Philip, in fear of what he had seen and heard, immediately hastened to tell the noble prince everything that he had seen and heard, and the prince, having heard this, glorified God and the Most Pure Mother of God and St. martyrs Boris and Gleb. And when Alexander’s squad entered into battle with the enemies, then a great many of them were killed, and St. Alexander himself wounded the Swedish king in the face; and all the struck Swedes, in small numbers, fled shamefully. Thus, the noble prince, with the help of God and the Mother of God and St. martyrs Boris and Gleb, won a glorious victory and liberated the Izhora country and Veliky Novgorod from enemies, and from this victory he was nicknamed Nevsky. We won’t talk about his other victories now, so as not to prolong the words. Glory to God, who gave Russia such a wonderful prince in faith, courage, wisdom and piety, a warrior and undaunted winner! Why couldn’t we now defeat our pagan enemies with our brave army? Let’s say it without hesitation: from unbelief in God, the decline of morality and from Tolstoy’s senseless teachings, do not resist evil, following which Port Arthur surrendered to capitulation, and military ships into shameful captivity with all their equipment. What a glorious teacher for the entire Russian army and for all military and other authorities, St. blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky! But which of the intellectuals now reads about his exploits and who believes the miracles told? It is from this lack of faith and from our proud, arrogant mind and arrogance of our military strength that we suffer all sorts of defeats and have become a laughing stock for the whole world! A terrible lesson was given by God to the Russian intelligentsia, who do not believe in God and idolize themselves. Learn, Russia, to believe in God Almighty, who rules the destinies of the world, and learn from your holy ancestors faith, wisdom and courage. Amen. Word X. On the 15th week of Pentecost Today’s Gospel begins like this: “One of the Pharisees, a lawyer, tempting Jesus Christ, asked Him: Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:35–46). A lawyer from the Pharisees asks the eternal lawgiver Christ, without recognizing Him as such: Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? - The question is very important, because the correct solution is extremely necessary for all of us to know and implement, since the eternal life of a person depends on its fulfillment, - and the Lord resolved it in the most positive way: love God and your neighbor (Matthew 22:37, 39). But, offering such an important question to Christ, the Jewish lawyer does not believe in Jesus Christ as a true legislator, recognizing Him only as a teacher. Therefore, at the end of this Gospel, the Lord asks him and the Pharisees: What do you think about Christ? Whose Son is He? The Pharisees answered that He was the Son of David. He says to them: How then does David, by inspiration, call him Lord? If David calls Him Lord, how can He be His Son? And no one could answer Him a word, and from that day no one dared to ask Him (Matthew 22:42, 46). The righteous word of the Lord had such a decisive effect on the Pharisees that they, amazed by the obvious truth, did not dare to ask Him anymore. And our current learned Pharisees, officials, professors, teachers of higher and secondary educational institutions, Tolstoyans, are they convinced by the obvious truth of the Gospel and the countless miracles of Christ the Savior that He is truly Lord, Creator and Savior of the world? - No, they are not convinced. Why? Because they went crazy and believed Tolstoy’s and Jewish lies; If they believed Baal as God, can they believe the true God? No, because the evil one has darkened the eyes of their souls. But the Lord will come in His terrible glory at His second coming, and then everyone will believe, but it will be too late. Then there will be reward, not competition. Now let's move on to the lawyer's question: What is the greatest commandment in the law? The Lord answers: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself. A completely natural, just and vital commandment: love God and your neighbor. The Lord loved us before we loved Him: He loved us before we were; thought about us - and created us; if he had not thought, we would not exist. And how many blessings did He give us when He created us? – no number; mentally go through the time from your conception until now; go through, as much as you can, everything that you have used and are using from God’s natural and common gifts, air, food and drink, the life-giving luminary, social position, the development of your abilities, the circle of relatives and good acquaintances, friends, etc.; but especially remember: how many invaluable gifts you have received through the faith of Christ; they truly have no number; and after all this - tell me, do you feel the need in your heart - to believe in God, to love and thank Him, to repent before Him of all your sins, with which you offend Him every minute? – The Lord loved us with eternal love, righteous and holy, and, having given us so many blessings in this life, He prepared for us an endless life, full of countless priceless joys in the next century, together with the angels and holy saints. Tell me, after this, how should we love Him? Exactly, with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind. What about us? Sometimes we don’t even want to understand how immeasurable His love and kindness are for us. We have loved ourselves beyond measure, the adulterous and sinful world, our flesh, its fleeting pleasures - our hearts have clung to all vanity. Foolish ones, we love what we should despise, and we do not love the Lord, our eternal belly, our Savior, our all-generous Provider, our food-giver and light-giver. They abandoned the Lord, the Fountain of living water, and dug for themselves leaky wells that cannot hold living water. That is why we suffer in every possible way and there is no end to our misfortunes. What is the main thing that prevents us from loving God and having complete devotion to Him? Namely, our pride, our passion for earthly things called good. Therefore, the main commandment is our self-sacrifice. - If anyone wants to come after Me, turn away from yourself and take up your cross and follow Me (Luke 9:23). He commanded His Apostles: do not take with you either a scrip, or bread, or a copper belt, and do not have two clothes (Mark 6:8), so as not to have attachment to anything, but to give yourself with all your heart to God and His providence and strive for heaven and for our eternal fatherland and most of all care about the salvation of human souls. And they loved God with all their hearts and devoted their whole lives to Him, even to the point of death, suffering for Him with joy. Here is an example of love for God and neighbor. Let us try, dear brothers and sisters, to love Him in this way. Amen. Word XI. On St. Day Archangel Michael of God and other ethereal heavenly powers We unceasingly glorify You, Christ, who in wisdom united heaven with earth and formed one Church of angels and men (Stichera at Little Vespers). We celebrate, dear brethren, the bright holiday of the lightning-like Archangel Michael and other ethereal heavenly Powers. The history of the establishment of this holiday by the Church is long and we will not tell it; Those who want to know it, let them read about it in the church book “Cheti-Minea”, and now let’s talk about the countless spiritual world of angels, about their properties, about their rank and order and about the immeasurable goodness of God, which included us, Orthodox Christians, in this angelic Council and made up one Church of angels and men, and then about our duty to honor them in dignity and imitate them in strength, as the future to our fellow citizens in the heavenly fatherland; for which we earnestly pray to the Lord God, our common Creator. St. Cyril of Alexandria says (see Macarius’ Theology on Angels): if our earth, this one point between the worlds, carries such a countless multitude of people and all kinds of creatures, then how many times more inhabitants does the immaterial sky, great and immense, have within itself the number of inhabitants? Angels have a spiritual, immaterial, subtle, immortal nature, free from all corruption, but limited, not like the Lord Himself, the Spirit - everywhere existing and one, beginningless and filling everything. He brought the angels from non-existence into being, sanctified them with His word, and for their inflexibility towards evil, He confirmed them unfallen by the Holy Spirit (i.e. they can no longer fall into sin); their nature is full of wonderful, unflickering light, holiness, goodness, beauty, wisdom, strength, immortality, fiery love for the Creator, and for each other, and for people, whose salvation they rejoice and wish to have them as their eternal citizens in the country of eternal light and incorruptibility, peace and joy. St. Dionysius the Areopagite, a disciple of the Apostle Paul, raptured by the Holy Spirit to the third heaven, heard from him a mysterious teaching about the angelic world, wrote it down and passed it on to the church (Dionysius the Areopagite on the church hierarchy). The angelic world is divided into nine orders, and these are each divided into three orders. The first and most luminous angels (Michael and Gabriel), like the bright dawn of the Beginningless Trinity, stand directly before the flaming throne of God, are illuminated by His impregnable light and provide enlightenment and knowledge of the mysteries of God to the ranks that follow them, and the lower ranks are governed in a worldly manner by the higher ones. Such heavenly citizenship, such a worldly, holy, blessed, blessed Council of celestial beings is called the heavenly hierarchy, in accordance with the earthly hierarchy or the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church. Let us marvel at God's all-good and wise providence, His immeasurable goodness, destining us for endless co-creation and bliss together with the angels in our future fatherland and forming one Church of bright and incorruptible angels, and chosen and worthy people. What bliss, indescribable in any language, awaits Christians faithful to God if they remain faithful to their Christian calling to the end. In order to be worthy of eternal cohabitation and a blessed life with the angels in heaven, we must try to honor them, imitate their holiness, humility, love and complete devotion to God, sublimity of thoughts, abstinence, prayer and fasting, mercy and sympathy for each other, ardent mutual love. The sacred, divinely inspired spectators of the mysteries of God and angelic visions, prophets and evangelists, saw the angels in a mysterious vision turning their faces towards each other in a friendly manner and chanting the Holy Trinity in agreement. This teaches us to treat each other with ardent love and live in unanimity, diligently serving the common Creator of all. Glory to the immeasurable goodness of God, which has prepared for us an eternal kingdom, a kingdom of unflickering light, unshakable peace and bliss, together with countless councils of angels. Let us use the little time here to excel in Christian virtue in order to inherit this endless bliss, which may the Lord vouchsafe us all with His grace, generosity and love for mankind, the intercession of the Most Pure Mother of God and the intercession of the honest, incorporeal heavenly forces, especially the luminous, lightning-like ones, Michael and Gabriel and the holy Angels, our guardians. Amen. Word XII. On the day of remembrance of the Holy Glorious Apostle Andrew the First-Called “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You hid this (the matter of the incarnation of God the Word) from the wise and prudent (i.e., those who imagine themselves to be such), but revealed it to babes (i.e., the simple-hearted and those who do not philosophize). Yes, Father, for such was Your good pleasure” (Matthew 11:25–26). The Orthodox Church today solemnly celebrates the day of repose of the Holy First-Called Apostle Andrew, half-brother of the Holy Apostle Peter. For the beginning of the word of God for this day, I took the significant words of the Lord Jesus Christ, addressed by him prayerfully to the Heavenly Father, in which He, Jesus Christ, thanks and glorifies Him for the fact that the greatest mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, which requires the simplicity and purity of the human heart to perceive it, He hid from the crafty and proud sages of this age - the scribes and Pharisees, and revealed it to the simple to the hearts of the apostles, and to simple and humble hearts in general. And I want to tell you today precisely that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5) and reveals to them the greatest divine mysteries for the salvation of many. In general, the work of Christian preaching, in its greatness and wisdom, is such that, first of all, it requires from the listener simplicity of faith and complete devotion to it, as God’s true, saving, immutable work. Evil unbelief is not tolerated in the work of God, for if a person doubts when he hears it, God will not be pleased with him; he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, tossed and broken by the wind; let such a person not think that he will receive anything from God. Now, pay special attention to the first word of God’s sermon, announced by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary about the incarnation of the Son of God from Her: and think - what humble simplicity and trust it demanded from the Most Pure Virgin - and she did not doubt or contradict the heavenly evangelist with a single word, despite all the extraordinaryness of the words of the annunciation. The Archangel heard from Her only a word of obedience and devotion to the Lord: behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word (Luke 1:38). And the work of God's incarnation was accomplished according to the word of obedience to Mary. What if She did not believe and began to philosophize and doubt, like Zechariah, the father of the Forerunner, who heard from the Archangel about the birth of a son from him? Then the matter would not have been accomplished. But Zechariah also believed, punished with deafness for unbelief, and was honored to give birth to the greatest son among all the wives born. – So the Apostles, called to the great apostolic feat, did not contradict the calling Lord in the least, but immediately showed complete obedience and remained faithful to their Savior for the rest of their lives. - Compare the scribes and Pharisees with the Apostles and with the hypostatic eternal Wisdom - Christ: how much you will immediately notice in these scientists of this century of wickedness, pride and malice, envy, pride, untruth, hypocrisy, greed, revenge, stubbornness! Was it possible, tell me, to entrust them with the work of preaching the Gospel and revealing the greatest truths of the kingdom of God? A spiritual man - and such were all the scribes and Pharisees with the high priests - does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, because he considers them foolishness and cannot understand them, because they must be judged spiritually (1 Cor. 2:14). Only such divine simpletons and at the same time wise men, spiritual philosophers and leaders, like the apostles, could receive from God the Word Himself, the Hypostatic Wisdom Himself, the Divine sermon about the renewal of people through the incarnation of the Son of God. And how the scribes and Pharisees tried to destroy the great work of Christ at the very beginning through all kinds of persecution and encroachment on His wonderful life of Christ, and they already dreamed that they had completely ruined His work when they killed Him on the cross! But it was then, when He was ascended to the cross, that the true redemption of mankind began, according to the word of the Lord: when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me (John 12:32). The apostles, who were scattered during the time of suffering, after the resurrection of Christ were especially confirmed in their faith in Him, and with great power they testified to everyone about the resurrection of Christ and the completed work of redemption of the human race. Nothing and no one could destroy or darken the great work of Christ; and the work of the Apostles triumphed more and more. – This is what simplicity of faith in God, complete trust and devotion to Him does. The Lord entrusted to us, Russians, the great saving talent of the Orthodox faith, through which many faithful were saved in the centuries preceding us, and even in our time. I ask you and myself: are we multiplying the talent of the Orthodox faith entrusted to us? Are we trying to live by faith? Do we try to justify our Christian calling by good works? Are we producing the fruits of repentance? Do we try to adorn ourselves with every Christian virtue? “Everything is dozing and sleeping.” I all took a nap and fell asleep (Matthew 25:5). Need I say or remind you what is happening around us in society, in higher educational institutions, in the press, in legislative institutions, etc. Arise, Russian man, rise from the dead and Christ will illuminate you (Eph. 5:14). Amen. On Saturday, May 5, Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev served the liturgy at the St. Petersburg St. John's Convent, with a large crowd of pilgrims. 4 more priests and 2 deacons took part in the service. At the end of the Divine Service, the venerable pastor delivered approximately the following teaching. Today is the last day of St. Thomas' week. In the evening, on the day of resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to his disciples with the doors closed. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord and received from Him the power to bind and solve the sins of people. But the Apostle Thomas was not among them at that time. When the other disciples told him that they had seen the Lord, Thomas had the courage to answer: unless I see in His hands the wounds from the nails, and put my finger into the wounds from the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe (John 20:25). And this unbelief of Fomino, by the will of God, served as the clearest evidence of the truth of the resurrection of Christ both for the Apostle himself and for all Christians. Condescending to the weak faith of Thomas, the Lord again appeared to His disciples on the eighth day and said to the unbelieving disciple: Put your finger here, and look at My hands; give your hand and place it in My side, and do not be an unbeliever, but a believer. Then Thomas, convinced of the truth of the resurrection of Christ and His Divinity, exclaimed: My Lord and my God! Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; Blessed are those who have not seen but believed (vv. 27–29). We, brethren, are among these, called blessed by the Lord, when, without seeing the Lord with our bodily eyes, we nevertheless firmly believe in Him as the Creator, Redeemer and Most Righteous Judge and live according to this faith, especially when we partake of His Most Pure Body and Blood and through Communion, although invisibly, we really unite with Christ. Then we are truly blessed, for through Communion the Lord cleanses us, sanctifies us, strengthens us, enlightens us, and unites us with Himself forever. The Divinity of Christ for a worthy communicant is so clear, palpable, obvious that he, having received communion, boldly says along with Thomas: My Lord and my God! After Fomina follows a week dedicated to the remembrance of other true witnesses of the resurrection of Christ - the myrrh-bearing wives. For their fiery love for the Savior, they were the first to be honored with seeing the risen Christ; The Risen One appeared first of all to the myrrh-bearing women: Go, tell the disciples; go tell my brothers (Mark 16:7; Matt. 28:10). In addition to these faithful witnesses of the resurrection of Christ the Savior by the power of His Divinity, the Holy Church presents to us countless other witnesses in the person of holy Hierarchs, martyrs, saints, righteous people and all the saints honored by the Church in daily Divine services. The very word martyrs (in Greek - martyri) means witnesses, because with their firm confession, perfect devotion to the Lord, unshakable courage in the midst of severe suffering, they testified to their faith in the Divinity of Christ and His redemptive providence for people. And not only in the first times of Christianity, but throughout many centuries even to this day, we have many witnesses who, with their lives, convince us of the truth and saving power of our faith. It would seem how disbelief could exist with such an abundance of witnesses! Meanwhile, in our days, many unbelievers have appeared, both from the intelligentsia and from the common people, led by the example of unbelievers onto the false path of destruction. How did atheism and all kinds of false teachings appear? This is explained by the fact that many have fallen away from the Church, do not want to read and listen to the Word of God, and are carried away by the spirit of this age, which easily enslaves the careless and inattentive to various passions. And so people are caught alive in the net of the enemy, they themselves are dying and they are dragging others to destruction, they are weakening the foundations of the family, society and state, they want to shake the royal throne and bring complete disorder and anarchy into the country. The main reason for all this is lack of faith. - God! By their destinies, turn those who are mistaken to the path of truth and salvation, because a terrible punishment awaits the one who tramples on the Son of God and does not consider holy the Blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and offends the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). Dear brothers and sisters! Be faithful followers of Christ, having before you so many examples of holy life in the person of the Apostles, Prophets, Saints, Martyrs, Reverends and Saints. Having such a cloud of witnesses around us, let us lay aside every burden and the sin that besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:1-2). Strive diligently, brothers, for your salvation; do not slumber, lest the last day find you sleeping: watch, because you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man will come (Matthew 25:13). Amen. All those present at the Divine Service listened with great attention to the words of their beloved mentor, for in his speech one can feel strong faith, deep conviction, holy zeal for the salvation of all, ardent concern for a better future for our dear fatherland. And we thought how good it would be if the Holy Faith of Christ again triumphed over unbelief, as in the first centuries of Christianity, when it was a bright, soul-penetrating feeling, a passionate conviction, to which they selflessly surrendered, for which they laid down their lives. According to the testimony of the Apostle, without seeing the Lord, they loved Him and, believing in Him, rejoiced with inexpressible and glorious joy (1 Pet. 1:8). In our times, this spirit of Holy conviction is extremely rare. We have lost this Christian worldview, which transforms the whole person and under the influence of which the Christians of the first times lived. Oh, where now are these pure impulses of the soul, where are the bright delights of the heart, holy moments of fervent prayer, heartfelt feelings of blessed peace? If we do not have enough strength of spirit to organize our whole life according to the teachings of Christ and, walking evenly and measuredly, to ascend from strength to strength, from perfection to perfection, let at least occasionally, under the influence of holy impressions, a bright feeling, a good impulse, victory over passion appear in us. At least for a while, these feelings will bring light and joy into our busy soul and allow us to experience the sweetness of a different, better existence. Thanks be to the Lord God, who now sends us these holy impressions through His chosen ones. Word XIV. On the day of the glorious Ascension according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ “He who descended, he is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, to fill all things” (heaven and earth) (Eph. 4:10). The above words were taken by me, beloved brothers and sisters, from the epistle of St. Apostle Paul to the inhabitants of the pagan city of Ephesus, converted to the Christian faith. He says that Christ God, who descended in the flesh to earth for our salvation, after completing His great work, ascended again to heaven, or above all heavens, but ascended as God in the flesh, or as God and together as Man in two natures, but in one Person, inseparably, inseparably, unmerged. The Apostle also shows the reason why the Lord did not remain on earth, but ascended to heaven. The reason is to fill with Himself everything - heaven and earth, to be the Head of heaven - all the angels, or powers of heaven, principalities, powers, thrones, cherubim and seraphim and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the future (Eph. 1:21), and together with the Head of the earthly Church, which He acquired with His Blood, and which He united to Himself, becoming Its head. Christ ascended into heaven, but did not leave us, His children, but always remains and will remain with us until the end of the age, according to His word. He ascended in order to, instead of Himself, send down to earth, or to His Church, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Most Holy Trinity, co-originating, life-giving, equivalent, equal in glory, all-holy, all-good, all-righteous, all-powerful, wise, all-powerful - so that He would take a clearly solemnly equal part in the salvation of those redeemed by the honest Blood Christ's human race. If Christ had remained on earth, then the Holy Spirit would not have come to earth, as Christ Himself announced, and this was impossible due to the equality of the Persons of the Holy Trinity and their equal action and assistance. Just as the entire world was created by the hypostatic Word of God the Father with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, so the redemption and salvation of the human race had to be accomplished with the indispensable assistance of the All-Holy Spirit. Glory to Your all-good, all-wise and all-saving providence, Most Holy Trinity, our God, Father, Son and All-Holy Soul. What thoughts and memories does the Lord’s ascension into heaven lead us to? - To sublime, all-joyful thoughts and memories. Before Jesus Christ ascended from earth to heaven, He had to descend to earth, to be conceived, to be incarnate, to be born by the Holy Spirit from the Blessed Virgin, to be a Child or Child of God, to be called Jesus, to gradually grow up, to reach adolescence and manhood, to be baptized by John in the Jordan, to be subjected to temptation from the devil for the sake of our salvation, to defeat him, to put him to shame him, magnified by his power and reign on earth, - it was necessary for the God-man to preach the word of God to people, to have fellowship with them, for the sake of their salvation, to eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners, to talk with harlots and fornicators in order to make them chaste, to have fellowship with tax collectors and Pharisees, to admonish and convict them, to heal all kinds of diseases, to raise the dead, - to demonstrate His Divine power over all the elements, winds, waters; to demonstrate His power over evil spirits and the entire kingdom of Satan, power over death; it was necessary to endure all sorts of untruths from evil people, to suffer and die on the cross, to descend into hell, to destroy it, to take his many-man wealth, to deprive Satan of all the power that he boasted of and which he thought he would have forever, it was necessary to overcome the sting of death and resurrect the dead and rise from the dead as a conqueror of hell and death. Before ascending to heaven, He established saving sacraments: baptism, repentance and the sacrament of the sacraments - the Last Supper, or communion of His most pure Body and Blood as a sign of His boundless love for people, unceasing communication, for the purification, sanctification, renewal and deification of our nature, restored from the deepest fall and corruption. Before His ascension into heaven, He founded on earth His Church or the Divine society of people saved in Christ, united by one faith, the law of God, Divine service, the hierarchy and the sacraments. These are the thoughts and memories that the glorious ascension of Our Lord into heaven leads us to. Having laid the foundation of the Church, He left its further structure to the apostles with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, which they were to receive on the great day of St. Pentecost. And the Church of God, planted on earth, flourished like a crown, and increased by the grace of the Holy Spirit a countless number of saints from every people and tribe, from every human rank and condition, of both sexes; especially in the first centuries, the earth became heaven due to the countless number of saints who shone in the Church in the faces of the apostles, saints, martyrs, in the faces of the venerable saints. fathers, unmercenary, righteous and all saints. The Church of Christ on earth was and is the greatest miracle; in it a marvelous renewal of humanity took place and is taking place; sincerely believing people became heavenly angels, adorned with all heavenly virtue. They adorned the Church both with their holy life and with immortal, godly creations, which still delight our ears and edify the faithful children of the Church. Glory to You, ascended with glory, Christ our God, who has not abandoned us, who acts in us and saves us. Amen. On July 17, Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev returned to St. Petersburg after a two-month journey to his homeland. In the last two weeks, the highly revered shepherd visited Mt. Yaroslavl, where he served liturgy in the house church of the Yaroslavl governor, spent some time with him and headed to the mountains. Rybinsk. Here, with Archbishop Tikhon of Yaroslavl, he served the liturgy in the cathedral church. The residents of Rybinsk diligently invited their dear guest to share a festive meal with them, but the priest, feeling somewhat unwell, departed straight from the cathedral to his ship and headed to the mountains. Ustyuzhna to my longtime zealous admirer Ya.M. Pozdeev. Here about. John received the following touching telegram from Rybinsk: "We are heartily grateful for your prayerful participation in our spiritual celebration, deeply grieving over your physical inability to share a meal with us. We unanimously proclaim for your precious health and send you gratefully warm greetings, may the Creator, a highly Christian Russian prayer book, protect you for many years to come. Archbishop Tikhon, Archpriest Sergius Bogorodsky, headman Kozma Eltekov, numerous Rybinsk admirers.” From Ustyuzhna, the priest arrived for the second time at the Vaulovsky monastery, where he spent a whole week, celebrating the Divine Liturgy every day and teaching the sisters and pilgrims a good, Christian life. Returning to St. Petersburg, the priest, first of all, proceeded to his Ioannovsky Monastery. In the altar before St. At the throne he glorified and thanked the Lord for a happy journey and a safe return, for which daily prayers were offered in the monastery throughout his journey. Then he greeted the members of the clergy, the sisters of the monastery and pilgrims, read the daily stichera and canons, and the solemn liturgy began, at the end of which the priest delivered the following edifying teaching. Let us explain the parable that we heard today from St. Gospels: The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; while the people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away (Matthew 13:24–25). Who is the good seed? Of course, believers, pious people who love God and each other, and are zealous for a virtuous life. The field in which this seed is sown is the world. While people were sleeping, the enemy the devil came and sowed tares in the minds of people, i.e. pride, envy, deceit and all sorts of other sins, sowed and left as if nothing had happened. And so, when the greenery came up, then the tares also appeared (v. 26). Sin enters people and possesses them due to unbelief, laziness, negligence, addiction to this world - games, amusements, pleasures, expensive clothes, wealth, etc.; because of them, a person does not care about pleasing God and about his spiritual education, which is necessary above all. Angels who hate sin, marveling at the dominance of evil in the world, say: Master! did you not sow good seed in your field? Where does the tares come from! He said to them, “The enemy man has done this.” And the slaves said to him: Do you want us to go and choose them? (27, 28 art.). The Lord created all people in His image and likeness - good, pure, righteous. What have we become? Who is to blame for the fact that there is so much chaff in us? As has already been said, this comes from our inattention and negligence, which our enemy uses to sow tares. It would seem that vicious people need to be plucked out from among pious people and destroyed; however, the Master did not allow His servants to pull out the tares. He said: no, so that when you choose the tares, you do not pull up the wheat along with them, leave both to grow together until the harvest (verses 29-30). Angels are not omniscient; God alone knows everything; He knows that many can still turn from bad people into good people, from lazy people into diligent people, from sinners into righteous people, or that virtuous people can come from them. That is why the Lord does not destroy immediately, but tolerates vicious people for a while - thieves, drunkards, adulterers, gamblers, revolutionaries. When it is fully revealed that good fruits can no longer be expected from such people - repentance and correction, that they will not become good wheat, then, by the command of God, they will be cut off with the scythe of death and thrown into eternal fire: at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: gather up the tares first, and bind them in bundles to burn them; and put the wheat into my barn (v. 30). If the Lord sees that people are successful spiritually, that they are humble, meek, patient, self-controlled, merciful, pure in heart, truthful, loving God and their neighbor with all their souls, then He fulfills their good desires in this life, crowns them with His mercy and bounty, and in the future life prepares for them eternal peace and bliss. Try, dear brothers and sisters, to become a complete grain of wheat or an ear of wheat (I am making a comparison), so that you all may receive eternal life, eternal joy. Amen. Word XVI. On the day of the glorious Exaltation of the honorable and life-giving Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem, found in the depths of the earth by Queen Helen Equal to the Apostles, almost three hundred years after the crucifixion of the Savior of the world on it About two thousand years ago, a terrible crime was committed on earth by people out of malice and envy, from which the sun darkened, the earth shook, the rocks cracked, the tombs of the dead opened and the dead came to life, came out and entered the city, appearing to many in Jerusalem. This atrocity is the murder by the Jews of the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, who wanted to voluntarily accept upon Himself from God’s justice execution for the sins of the world. This murder was carried out by execution on the cross. It was the most shameful execution, painful, invented by the people of the then godless world for slaves who were valued below any dumb animal. And so the cross was the instrument of execution of the God-man. And this cross, which was previously cursed, became, after the crucifixion and death of the God-Man on it, a blessed tree for Christians, because through it the curse of God that was upon us was destroyed, and a blessing was given to all believers; through him, universal death was defeated and resurrection and rebirth (secondary existence) were given to the human race. This tree of the cross was hidden by the Jews deep in the ground and, to greatly desecrate it, a pagan temple was built over the place of its hiding, so that the burial place of the life-giving cross fell into oblivion. When the Christian faith triumphed over paganism and Judaism and the wise Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine and his mother Helena appeared on the throne of the Caesars, the thought came to this queen - to find the real cross on which the Lord Jesus Christ shed His atoning blood and died. After a long search, one elderly Jew, who knew according to legend the place where the cross was hidden, revealed to the queen its location - and it was found and solemnly carried out of the ground and was recognized as the cross of Christ by the miracle that occurred from it - the resurrection of the dead on which it was placed. Then, at the request of the queen, he is shown to the people, i.e. was erected on all four sides by the hands of Patriarch Macarius of Jerusalem. The people cried in joy and repentance and repeated many times: Lord have mercy! That is why we celebrate the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord and repeat many times: Lord have mercy! Since the Lord endured the cross for the sins of each and every one of us, we must all diligently repent of them, cry and say: Lord have mercy, because we all sin without number. But why are we saved from sin, curse and death by the cross, and not in some other way? Why was it necessary to execute on the cross according to the flesh of the Son of God Himself? Let's think about this. The reason why the righteous destinies of God required the execution of the Son of God on the cross according to the flesh is explained in one of the church songs for this holiday. This song reads like this: come, all nations (peoples), let us worship the blessed tree, whereon eternal truth has been (fulfilled, satisfied): for the forefather Adam was deceived by the tree (through eating the forbidden fruit), the devil was deceived by the cross (having ignorantly killed not a simple man, but the all-righteous God-man, innocent of sin and death), and falls, overthrown by a strange (pathetic) fall, painfully holding in his claws man created in the image of God; by the blood of God the poison of the serpent is washed away and the oath of righteous condemnation of man is destroyed when the all-righteous Jesus was condemned to death on the cross by the unrighteous judgment of the Jews; for it was necessary to heal through the suffering of Jesus on the tree of the cross the wound of crime through Adam’s eating of the tree forbidden in paradise, and through the innocent suffering on the cross of the passionless God-man to destroy the passions of the condemned (Adam and all humanity). Glory, Christ, to Your wise care (providence) for us, by which You saved us, as the only Lover of Mankind. (The stichera of the holiday on “I cried to the Lord”). This church song, composed by an inspired hymn writer, is imbued with sincere and deep meaning. Let us try, with God's help, to clarify it somewhat. The primordial couple’s disobedience to the easiest test commandment of the Creator and Benefactor - to fulfill which, moreover, all means were given, and frivolous obedience to the crafty enemy of God - the verbal serpent, and entering into an alliance with him - rejected man and humanity from God to an infinite distance and subjected him to the yoke of sin, righteous damnation and eternal death. Man incurred an unpayable debt to the Creator, trampled upon all His good deeds, appeared ungrateful, proud, evil, having assimilated the spirit of his new master - the devil. Humanity found itself in terrible captivity with its entire triple being of the soul - mind, heart and all its will; he was completely taken possession of by the dark, hellish power: for what communication is there between light and darkness, righteousness with lawlessness (2 Cor. 6:14), pride and disobedience with humble obedience? – Fallen humanity had to be redeemed, according to God’s love for mankind, from terrible captivity, from sin, curse and death. But who could redeem the countless human race, like the sand of the sea, except God Himself? No creature could redeem, no intercessor, no angel, for every rational creature, although righteous like an angel, is righteous not by itself, but by the grace of God, and does what it must do. Only one righteous, perfect God-man Christ, the Son of God, could redeem people with His infinite truth, but for this it was necessary for Him to become Man, uniting him inseparably and innumerably with the Divinity, in one Person - it was necessary to fulfill all the truth according to humanity and for humanity; enlighten him, teach him repentance and fulfillment of the will of God; give them grace upon grace, suffer for people, voluntarily accepting execution for them, die, and by His innocent death deprive the power of the one who has the power of death - the devil, defeat the death that people brought upon themselves by daring disobedience, and resurrect His humanity from the dead, and give everyone the greatest gift of resurrection! This is God's immeasurable mercy for the fallen human race! Here is the truth of God, satisfied with the appropriate price! How did the devil bring such terrible suffering on the cross and the death of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, when this suffering and death should have finally defeated him, the enemy of God, destroyed hell and its terrible prison and erased the very head of the serpent? The devil went mad with anger and pride and prepared for himself the all-powerful Conqueror of death and hell, and had to release all the captives, whom he hoped to hold forever in his tormenting power. Thus, the tree of the cross destroyed sin, which entered the world through the tree of disobedience, and paid off humanity’s debt to the truth of God through the innocent suffering and death of the Son of God. People have been given the greatest good - repentance and grace, which disposes a believer to repentance, and all the means have been given to become a new creature in the Lord, to become a righteous person, reaching heaven with the angels. Take advantage, sinners, of the mercy of God, the merits of the Son of God on the cross, and be immediately saved through repentance and works of mercy. Behold the bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant, for he will be found vigilant. Watch and pray so that you do not fall into misfortune. Amen. On Tuesday, October 29, those living and serving in the Ioannovsky Convent were fortunate enough to be consoled by the ministry of the dear founder and patron of the monastery, Archpriest Ioann Ilyich Sergiev. For three and a half months, due to illness, the priest did not serve in his monastery. Not only those living here, but also outside pilgrims, who in previous years had become accustomed to his more frequent services, were eagerly awaiting the day when they would again see the dear and good shepherd, hear a word of edification from him, and be honored with the Holy Communion. Tyne. And now the wish came true. By the beginning of the liturgy, in addition to the nuns, many pilgrims had gathered, although only the evening before it became known about the proposed service. When, after prolonged cloudy and cold weather, the clear sun appears, then all living things become vigorous and cheerful; Sunlight and warmth have a very beneficial effect on the life of the whole world. Something similar could be observed among the admirers of the dear priest, who themselves experienced the beneficial meaning of his prayer. Everyone is in a festive mood. Feeling an unearthly joy within themselves, everyone looks at the face of the elder ascetic, shining with virtue and heavenly peace, offers up fervent prayers with him, and at the end of the liturgy listens with great attention to his edifying teaching, approximately the following content. I will begin my sermon today with the words with which the Lord Jesus Christ began His Divine sermon, coming out after baptism to serve the human race. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Luke 4:17). Let us understand the essence of true repentance, to which the Lord God calls people. Repentance is a state when a person has fully come to the consciousness of his sinfulness, when he grieves in his soul, clearly imagining the abyss that is ready to swallow unrepentant sinners. Repentance is necessary for every person, because we all sin a lot (James 3:2); our sins are numerous, like the sand of the earth, like the stars in the sky; they sent out ramifications in all directions of human beings. Therefore, a sinful person moves away from God to an immeasurable distance, walks in darkness, becomes a slave of the devil, an heir to eternal torment; he is a spiritual dead man. And, on the contrary, whoever turns to repentance begins to resurrect and draw closer to God. Further, since we sin voluntarily, we must repent voluntarily, without expecting any coercion to do so. Sincerely, with a contrite and humble heart, in the face of the omniscient God, without mercy for your old man, to sort out your life and your many sins, impartially condemn yourself for them, sincerely desire correction from the sins and passions that daily entangle our soul - this is true repentance! Of course, the feeling of repentance does not appear suddenly because of the numerousness of our sins. In addition, belonging to true, soul-saving repentance is a change from sinful aspirations to good Christian feelings and aspirations: our souls have become barren, or have begun to bear bad, bitter fruits of darkness and sin; we must make them fertile, bearing the fruits of virtue. Produce fruits worthy of repentance (Luke 3:8). Repentance is a great gift of God’s goodness to sinner man, for through it man, who has immeasurably moved away from God, again enters into a blissful union with Him. Man, of course, could not get so close to God if God Himself had not approached us. But now the Only Begotten Son of God Himself came to us, took on human nature in order to heal like with like, became like us in everything except sin, in order to more conveniently teach people, talk, do good, perform miracles, suffer for the sins of people and open the entrance to the kingdom of heaven. Imagining how God has approached us, and we must draw closer to Him, rise from the sleep of sin and from darkness to the light, we must be renewed and cheerfully, firmly, diligently fulfill the commandments of God. Only in this way can one approach God and be in union with Him. Otherwise, what kind of communion does righteousness have with lawlessness, what does light have in common with darkness, what kind of agreement is there between Christ and Belial? (2 Cor. 6:14–15). So, dear brothers and sisters, take advantage of repentance, pray that the Lord will enlighten the eyes of your hearts and help you to see the abyss of sinful man’s distance from God. However, I do not find that all of you are as far from God as unbelievers are. You unite with God through faith, fervent prayer, teaching in the word of God, and the Holy Communion. Tyne; therefore, you are no longer far from God - may He dwell in you with His grace, may He live in you, may He instruct, may He comfort you amid the sorrows and disasters of earthly life! Look how close the Lord God has come to us! Countless faces of angels are amazed at how the Lord approached us through the sacrament of Communion. Here we are, clergy, by the grace given to us, we performed this sacrament, we ourselves received communion, and we are preparing to teach you the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Think what goodness, what closeness of God: “Take, eat, this is My Body... Drink of it, all of you, this is My Blood of the new testament...” says the Lord. And a believer feels that he is partaking of the true Body and Blood of Christ, for the Holy Mysteries in their very essence are true, life-giving, enlightening, renewing for the soul and body of those who partake with faith and zeal, active repentance. The Lord wants to bring us closer to Himself with other countless gifts of His goodness. For example, He provides an endless variety and abundance of the fruits of the earth, with countless varied tastes. And in these gifts He shows His extreme condescension, loves, caresses us, like the kindest father, wanting to attract everyone to Him. Non-believers do not want to see the wise actions of Divine Providence in all this. In their blindness, they reach the point of madness, deny the very existence of God and claim that everything happens through blind evolution (the doctrine that everything that is born happens by itself, without the participation of Creative Power). But anyone who has reason will not believe such crazy nonsense. A believer looks at everything through faith, which is based on Divine revelation. Here he will find a clear answer to all his questions; here he can receive the most faithful instructions on how to live to please God and save the soul. From this wonderful source - the word of God, we will draw for ourselves instructions for good Christian life and activity, we will recognize the good and perfect will of God and draw closer to God through repentance and acts of virtue, we will strive to unite with Him forever in the kingdom of heaven. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Amen. Word XVIII. On the day of the glorious Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Let us truly praise Mary the Mother of God: today she is brought into the Holy of Holies to be brought up to the Lord (Lunar of the Feast). The Holy Church now celebrates the glorious entry into the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This event was foreseen and predetermined by God before all ages - and before the creation of the angelic worlds, before the existence of heaven and earth - just as the fall of a third of the angelic world and the fall of the human race were foreseen and allowed by God: for God has known from the ages, according to the Apostle, all His works (Acts 15:18). By the infinite goodness of God, the light, gifted with wondrous, god-like beauty and immortality, countless personal angelic minds of different ranks and orders were called by the word from non-existence to being, and one of them, who took precedence over all Dennitsa, was distinguished from all by his especially great mind, lightness (which is why he was called Dennitsa), strength and beauty; he was in particular closeness to God, and this Dennitsa, who dreamed of himself, of his perfections, instead of thanking God, from Whom he received everything, became proud, wanted to be equal to God and establish his own apostate kingdom, dragging a third of the angelic world with him. Pride blinded him: he remained adamant and unrepentant in his intention, like those carried away by him, and the goodness of God abandoned him and all those who fell away, and they turned entirely into anger, pride and eternal darkness - they took in the consuming and painful fire, the eternal rebellion - and declared war - to whom? To God Himself and other faithful and good angels - and when man was created and was subjected to the test of loyalty and obedience to God - the former Lucifer, appearing in the form of a serpent to Eve, the first wife, deceived her and her husband, and made them rebellious against the Creator and Benefactor. In the person of our ancestors, the fall of the entire human race took place. God is faithful to Himself and abides eternally and unchangeably in His holiness, truth and goodness, and the creation from being faithful, God-like, blessed, turned willfully into unfaithful, evil, evil and fell away from Him, subjecting itself to the righteous wrath of God, curse and death. Man was pitifully robbed by the serpent, deprived of God's likeness, left with some remains of the image of God, disfigured, pitiful, and became a slave of the devil and was subjected to all kinds of sinful corruption, especially idolatry. But even in the fallen human race, in future generations, great treasures were hidden, namely in some of his future descendants: in Enoch, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, David and among all and, especially, in the Virgin Mary, whom God foresaw from eternity and whom He chose to fulfill His Divine intentions - for the salvation of the human race. What does the goodness of God do to save perishing humanity? For salvation, one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity Himself desired to become Man, to fulfill all the obedience of Adam and Eve and all mankind, to fulfill all the truth of God, to take upon Himself human sins, curse and death for them, in order to crush death with His Theanthropic death, overcome its sting, rise from the dead and give everyone resurrection and eternal life. Wonderful are the works of Your discernment, O Lord our Savior! And so, in the eternal council of God, it was determined for the Son of God Himself to become man, without ceasing to be God, and to accomplish the will of His Father for the salvation of the human race. – But who could serve as the instrument of incarnation? All people were sinners and the All-Righteous could not be born of sinners. What fellowship is there between light and darkness, between righteousness and lawlessness? (2 Cor. 6:14). The Incarnation takes place supernaturally, for where God wants, the order of nature is overcome. By the will of God the Father, a pure Virgin, purified by the Holy Spirit, is chosen for the incarnation of the Son of God, raised from infancy in the Holy of Holies of the church and, upon reaching adulthood, the disembodied evangelist St. is sent to her. The Archangel is to announce to Her the conception in Her virgin womb through the influx of the Holy Spirit of God - the Son of God, according to human nature. The Holy Virgin faithfully and obediently accepted the gospel - and the Son of God was conceived in her and, after the time of womb, was born from Her as the Infant of God, undergoing the usual law of human growth. This is the miracle of God’s miracles, the greatest of all, incomprehensible, saving, but at the same time the terrible mystery of the incarnation of God the Word, with His Word creating the human race hitherto. This is why the pure Virgin was chosen from all generations, solemnly introduced into the church as a three-year-old girl, and there she was raised by the Holy Spirit into the Mother and dwelling of God the Word. Rejoice, faithful Christian race, at such condescension of God towards the fallen human race. Celebrate with all your pure hearts the Entry into the Church of the Mother of God and with your lips and hearts praise and exalt the Mother of God, the Intercessor of faithful Christians and our Intercessor before Her Son and God. Be faithful to the Church of God and be educated spiritually in the church of God for the reign of heaven. Hate sin, which was and is the cause of temporary and eternal destruction, and create righteousness and holiness in the fear of God. (2 Cor. 7:1). Amen. Word XIX. On the day of the glorious Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ Sing to the Lord who was born of the Virgin, sing the song of the heavenly host, earth-born, clasp your hands: for God is in men (Stichera of Little Vespers). May it not seem strange if, in these godless times, I ask everyone today the following question: which of the Christians, the so-called intellectuals, is keenly interested, from a spiritual point of view, in the current great holiday of the Nativity of Christ? But the event that took place about 2000 years ago was unique in its greatness and salvation for the human race, the only one, I say, in the destinies of God and in the history of mankind: only once did God become human, once came to earth for our salvation, and the second time he will come to judge the living and the dead. I ask everyone this question because now many, many have ceased to be interested in this event (and are interested only for the sake of idleness), we, ministers of the faith, sincere believers and enjoying the saving fruits of the faith of Christ, must resurrect and awaken a high interest in faith in this event and in its Creator, our Lord Jesus Christ. Human unbelief will not abolish and will not shake even more zeal for her and for her protection from unbelievers. It awakens in us immense surprise at the infidels and endless pity for their frivolity, stupidity, lack of character and corruption. A Christian man, who at birth received in his heart the seed of faith in God and was raised in faith, will never fall away from faith, the sweetness of which he has experienced a thousand times. And so I repeat the question: which Christian is sincerely interested in the current holiday of the Nativity of Christ? The earth today has been honored to receive God incarnate; The Most Pure Virgin gave birth in the flesh to the eternal Creator of heaven and earth, holding with his omnipotent hand all creation - visible and invisible, gave birth to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, the Lamb of God, who took upon himself the sins of the world. But what is the birth of an immeasurably great, uncreated Being on earth? Immeasurable humility and immeasurable poverty, in denunciation of human pride. Dennitsa fell with pride, Adam and Eve fell with pride, who dreamed of being gods and boldly disobeyed the commandment of God. Jesus Christ, as the almighty Doctor of the human race fallen by pride, through the very circumstances of his birth in a wretched manger, from a pure but poor Virgin, of the royal family, wants to heal us from the disease of pride and teach us a lesson in humility. And throughout His entire life He taught us humility and self-sacrifice. He is swaddled not in gold-woven or light clothes, but in rags that the poor Virgin could prepare; He is installed in a manger, and not in the magnificent palaces characteristic of the kings of the earth. Oh, voluntary misery, oh voluntary poverty of Him who possesses all the treasures of the earth, all the luminaries of heaven, Who stands with trepidation at the councils of angels in heaven! This is how and with what the Doctor of humanity heals our worst disease - pride, the beginning of all sin. Kings of the earth, surrounded by the splendor of your dignity, come mentally to Bethlehem, bow your crowned heads to this manger, in which the true and eternal King of kings reclines - and lay your crowns at their foot, humble yourself and admit that you are made of dust and will return to dust - and confess before Him, the humble Child, that from Him power and authority over the nations has been given to you, that you are His helpers and through Him your thrones are held; that without faith in Him, your rulers are like split goats on which you cannot rely. Scientists of this world, ranting from pulpits in high institutions of the state and all sorts of others; you, teaching and studying, especially in higher educational institutions, but for God the very last and rejected in the spirit of rebellion and disobedience to the authorities, I send you too to the manger of Bethlehem, cast aside your pride before your Creator and Savior and the only true teacher and humble yourself before the One who brought peace to earth from the Heavenly Father and goodwill to people who are guilty of the earthly Caesar. Do not forget that He says about the rebellious proud, that He is the Rock on which whoever falls will crush him (Matthew 21:44). Who taught you disobedience and senseless rebellions, which did not exist before in Russia and in other states? Return to humble faith, to the Gospel of peace, to the Church, from which you madly fell away, just as Satan and the fallen angels once fell away from God. Woe to the rebels and the disobedient, like Korah, Dathan and Abiron. I am addressing my priestly speech to you, whether you want to listen or not, but I am telling you as a sincerely believing brother. Stop being crazy. Enough! It’s enough for you and Russia to drink the bitter cup full of poison. Happy holiday! Amen. Word. Delivered on December 6, 1907 in Kronstadt St. Andrew's Cathedral It is narrated in one ancient hagiographical legend that listeners and admirers came from all sides to a certain pious elder-ascetic, asking for prayers, advice, and blessings. Many asked him many things, and he answered each and every one according to the measure of the Spirit given to him. Only one young man, always visiting the elder, sat at his feet in silence and did not ask him anything. One day, the elder, noticing this, finally turned to the young man with a question: why is he silent and does not ask him anything? The young man replied: “My father! For me it’s enough just to listen and look at you!” The Elder of Kronstadt - you know who I’m talking about - doesn’t he remind us and repeat before our eyes for decades this ancient elder? The need to find and kiss a shrine, to worship it, to be in its sanctifying and uplifting communion lives ineradicably in the human soul. Among the Russian Orthodox people, this need is especially heightened; it fills and shakes the entire soul of the people, dominating all its other interests and demands. And here, to the wonderful old man, holy and freedom-loving Rus' has been turning its gaze for so many years. Some came to him in person, prayed and pray with him, received advice and blessings, and often received the gift of miraculous help. No matter how many there are, they, compared with all of Russia, are a barely noticeable part of the people. All the others, like a young man before an ancient elder, only contemplated this wondrous vision of our time and rejoiced at God’s grace resting in him, and kindled faith and hope, and were satisfied with his abundant spiritual meal of words, prayer, unceasing teaching - the teaching of his life, deeds, love, generosity, burning faith and burning word coming from his lips him. From the land of deep midnight, where, in the struggle against harsh nature, fleeing from enemies, Russian people found a haven of freedom and a school for strength of spirit and character, our lamp shone. The great-spirited saints Tryphon and Theodoret, Zosima and Savvaty, Herman and Cyril and many others once grew up there. Filled with their spirit, the great prayer-book pastor in simplicity of faith and humility has stood here for more than half a century - on the edge of the Russian kingdom, at the midnight capital, at the end of the Russian land, at the sea itself, shining like a beacon on broken worldly ships among worldly storms and everyday anxieties. Here, in this holy church, for half a century its very air trembled with the voice of prayers and sighs of the All-Russian shepherd and prayer book; here his first tears of priestly prayer were shed; here his pastoral sorrows and joys ascended to God; here around him there were so many spiritual delights of faith, hopes, so many events and cases of revival, repentance, salvation, joy and consolation, so many miracles of divine grace - that in truth one should say in the words of the Lord to Moses at the burning bush: cut off the boots from your feet, the place on which you stand is holy (Ex. 3:5). For so many years, invariably and unceasingly during the day, deep at night and deep in the morning, in the still present darkness, he stood here and taught and prayed - and God gave him the joy of seeing how the city, known in earlier times only for fornication and vice, turned into an all-Russian revered place, into a place of pilgrimage, as the effect of his ministry was felt more and more widely. For a long time and gradually his lamp flared up until it shone throughout all of Russia and far beyond its borders as a rule of faith, an image of meekness and abstinence, a teacher, until our All-Russian shepherd acquired high humility and rich poverty. The waves of unbelief rose proudly in the 60s, there were cruel storms in the church: heresies arose; Tolstoy grew and fell... Father John fearlessly and incessantly exhorted, instructed, scourged, exposed the vice and pride of unbelief and heresy; he stood as an indestructible pillar of Orthodox churchliness, in himself, in a living example, showing and proving the strength, vitality and effectiveness of the Holy Church, which is capable of growing such a gracious shepherd in its depths. He kindled the sacred fire in thousands of souls; he saved thousands of devastated hearts from despair; he returned a thousand perishing children to God and to the church fence; he attracted so many outstanding people to pastoral service who, precisely in the personality of Fr. John managed to see, appreciate and love to the point of oblivion the beauty of the priesthood... Now they, often already standing at high levels of the hierarchy, come to the Elder of God and bow before him humbly to the dust of the earth. Yesterday and today we were witnesses of this (Both priestly archpastors are the spiritual children of Father John and were called to the priesthood; the day before, Metropolitan Vladimir of Moscow came to visit Father John and express his love and veneration to him). And in recent years, when our drunken, rotten and godless, peopleless, suicidal revolution was brewing and erupted with pus and stench, we saw a terrible sight. The fierce robbers spared nothing, they spared neither the faith nor the people's shrines. And the great elder, the luminary of our church, “the father of the fathers’ glorious beauty,” the honor of our shepherding, the man of whom every country and every nation would be proud—this elder, in front of everyone’s eyes, ascends to the cross of suffering, indulges in reproach and reproach; his honor, his glory, his influence are pecked by black crows. Vile gossip spread; newspaper scoundrels, press robbers, verbal hyenas and jackals, gravediggers of other people's honor, crawled out of their dirty holes. The Jewish press attacked Fr. John. They need to destroy the people's faith; the conscience of the people must be emptied; it is necessary to push people onto the path of crime; it is necessary to take revenge on the man who for so long and successfully strengthened faith, cultivated love for the Tsar and the homeland, castigated all the traitors, our Judases and destroyers of the homeland, starting from Tolstoy and ending with the fiends of the revolution... The unbridled press first began to persecute and disgrace him. I remember two years ago, returning from Siberia to the northern capital, along the entire railway line these sheets, drawings, poems - mockery of John of Kronstadt... Then for a short time the persecution weakened, but now all this dirt is again united into one common stream. Black crows gather in clouds over Russia, and the first thing they try to peck with their predatory beaks is shrines and saints, to undermine the authority of respected persons, to undermine religious reverence, on which every duty, every order, every life that is truly worthy and truly human is built. We do not care about what the author of a mediocre stage concoction, designed to fleece simple-minded people, actually wanted to express - a fleecing that he castigates, however, not in himself and his own kind, as he should, but in others. Perhaps, as he assures, he really wanted to portray in a repulsive form the fanatical sectarianism and religious charlatanism, at least covering itself with the name of Fr. John: after all, evil can hide behind not only the name of a revered shepherd, but even the name of Jehovah (Jehovah's Witnesses) or Jesus (Jesuits); after all, in other areas of thought and life in general, Satan is often transformed into the image of an angel, and haven’t we seen how robbers, rapists and traitors of the people, serving the destruction of Russia for Jewish money, act under the banner of brotherhood, equality and especially “people’s freedom” or the good of society (socialism)? So, we are not talking here about the play and its content, we are talking about what vile servants of the stage, lackeys, corrupt and groveling servants of the base instincts of the crowd and the diabolical revolution made of it on stage. On stage, instead of sectarian scourging, atrocity or deception, to the horror of the Orthodox, the life and furnishings of our Orthodox monasteries and churches are depicted, and our valiant shepherd, popularly revered, about whom the popular faith has long pronounced its verdict that his life is glorious and his dormition will be with the saints, is unambiguously depicted in a buffoonish form. And this is at a time when, in his declining days, weakened by a painful illness, weakened by bodily strength, barely moving, he still performs among believers his, perhaps, the last feats of prayer and piety on earth, when he is unable to defend himself, when we tremble for every day and hour of his life, when this holy lamp is barely warm and is about to go out, this pure God’s candle will burn out. Does he really have no protection? Are we really going to leave him alone in the midst of our crowds? Is he really given over to be torn to pieces by spiritual dogs, to be tortured and abused by these robbers? “But why are you telling us about this?” - perhaps you ask in anguish and grief and bewilderment. "For what"? But then ask why a loving son cries next to his torn father or mother! Why, in great grief, having left the crying and, apparently, having calmed down, seeing our loved ones, those who sympathize with us, silent among strangers, here, among our own, we cannot restrain our grief and tears and cries? So now, in this church, at the sight of this multitude of worshipers, children and admirers of Fr. John, let us pour out our grief, cry our tears! And then, on this day of the church-civil holiday, I would like to say through you, through all this great multitude of people, from this church to all of Russia: oh, preserve the shrine and the saints! Take care of your spiritual treasures! Protect, defend them from those pigs who trample them underfoot! Or do you not know that the lips of the righteous drop wisdom, but the tongue of the wicked perishes? Or don’t you believe that wherever annoyance comes, there will be dishonor - and we saw this in all these efforts of freedom and the “liberation movement”, full of nothing but anger and annoyance? Or do you forget that by the blessing of the righteous the city will rise, but by the mouth of the wicked it will be dug up? Or has it ceased to be an immutable truth that the righteous hold on to the kingdom of man, that their seed is holy, that righteousness exalts the people, and the tribes are brought down by sin? Or do you think that because you beat the prophets like the deicide Jews, your house will not be left empty? Or will you have a new John of Kronstadt every year that you don’t value him? You will not humiliate God and the holy thing, you will not spit on the sky - the spitting will return to the heads of those who spat; but you yourself, you yourself - what answer will you give? What will our descendants say about us? How justly do they judge us for the fact that we could not and did not want to protect the saint, did not protect him, did not protect him with a fence and wall of love - and this at a time when thousands of those miraculously healed by him are alive and among us, thousands of those revived by him? Then how will we respond to God, and will not His just and terrible judgment be carried out on us, that if we do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then if someone rises from the dead, we will not believe? Then have we not reached the point of blasphemy against the Spirit, for which alone, according to the judgment of even the most embodied love, which declared forgiveness for all blasphemy and all sin, there is no forgiveness either in this life or in the future? Then our kingdom will not survive on earth, and our people will not live. With love for our elder, prayer for him, manifestation of national and public indignation towards the offspring of black crows and all theatrical evil spirits, we must take up arms in defense of our trampled shrines. And for you, vile blasphemers, the prophetic word of that very righteous man, whom you are now slinging mud at, is ready for you. As if in anticipation of grief, just three years ago, Fr. John wrote in his diary: “I thank You, Lord, my God, that You called me into the communion of Your Divine Table, made me Your table companion and interlocutor, so as to recline, as it were, on Your breasts, or more precisely, to have You inside my breasts and in my heart. What honor You have bestowed upon me, what dignity, what love, what communication! What will I bring to You for this and what will I repay, O most gifted, immortal King?! But what a regret that Your servants and fellow diners of Your Divine Table are now neglected and reviled by the people of this age; how they revile Your priests and Your Church, and Your holy word, which the Holy Spirit spoke! And how long do You endure them, until You humiliate them, who have humiliated You, our God, and blot out their name from among the living! May their memory perish noisily. Wake up!” (Archpriest John Sergiev “From the diary for 1904”). Amen. Archpriest John Vostorgov. Archpastors at the sick Fr. John of Kronstadt. On December 5th, by train, at 10 a.m., we left for Kronstadt along the Baltic Railway in order to visit the ailing Kronstadt pastor, highly revered and dearly beloved by all Orthodox Russia. John Ilyich Sergiev - His Eminence Vladimir, Metropolitan of Moscow, His Eminence Seraphim of Orlov and Hermogenes of Saratov, accompanied by pastors and laymen from admirers of Fr. John, including Fr. Archpriest I.I. Vostorgov, V.M. Skvortsov and others. The trip was supposed to be made as a completely private pilgrimage to the fading physically great church lamp and people's favorite shepherd. But the news that spread throughout Kronstadt that distinguished hierarchical guests would arrive in the city raised the local clergy and government officials and society to their feet. At the station, a gendarmerie officer met the archpastors and greeted the saints on behalf of the chief port commander, and reported that a solemn meeting awaited the Eminence at St. Andrew's Cathedral. At the ringing of the bells, the archpastors entered the cathedral, which was fully illuminated and filled with a multitude of people and representatives of society; here, with orders and in uniform, were the Governor General General Ivanov, the head of the port and the Governor of Kronstadt, Admiral Nikonov. The cathedral clergy met the bishop in full vestments, and the cleric of the cathedral, Archpriest Popov, addressed the High Reverend Metropolitan with a wonderful speech, in which he vividly expressed and strongly emphasized the following idea: the cyclone of liberation unrest that swept through Rus' swept especially fiercely over Kronstadt and drove here quite a few black ravens, greedy for all kinds of abomination, not sparing anyone and nothing that benefits the revolution and the overthrow of the authorities revered by holy Russia. The speaker asked the bishop for prayerful help and intercession in the fight against the “black crows” - the heroes of our seditious times and thanked him for his high attention to the sick Fr. John. “Black predators usually flock there,” the bishop answered approximately, “where the corpse is, and equip themselves where the prey is... Kronstadt has always been and is, thanks to the pastoral deeds of faith and mercy of the now ailing elder-shepherd, - in the eyes of all true Russian, Orthodox believing Russia, a place where a beacon is lit, where the star of faith and zeal for the Church of God shines... Driven by the tailwind of a violent time, the "black crows", God willing, will soon scatter - they will not find prey here. The prayer of faith of a faithful minister of the church has been and will continue to be a beacon of salvation for those who are overwhelmed here by the misfortunes of our troubled time, free from faith and conscience.” Having venerated the cross and accepted the sprinkling of St. water, the saints proceeded to worship St. icons and St. throne, and the singers, dressed in ceremonial kuntushas, ​​quietly sang “Worthy” for the entrance. Let us note, as an innovation that makes a pleasant impression, that the female singers were also dressed in ceremonial kuntushas. The deacon pronounced the ektenia, and then proclaimed many years, including to the guests of the archpastors. The Most Reverend Metropolitan himself said the last many years: “to the clergy, the mayor, the military commander and all the Orthodox inhabitants of this city.” Having blessed the people, the archpastors and those accompanying them went to the house of Fr. John. The dear father soon came out to the distinguished guests and visitors, but not with the same quick and cheerful gait. Father John is very tired from illness; he has turned grey, his face is long and thin, and has a pale yellow, waxy color, indicating a debilitating fever. Wonderful blue eyes no longer sparkle with their former liveliness, but have a fading gaze, although they are full of the same captivating kindness and affection. The voice is much softer and does not have those sharp, torn notes that were previously heard from overwork. Hearts of those who love Fr. John felt that severe infirmities were exhausting the great elder, the shepherd of Orthodox Russia, and the days of his life were unlikely to be long. Some of the visitors could not hold back their tears, kissing, perhaps for the last time, our dear priest. – I sincerely thank you, distinguished guests, most eminent archpastors, for remembering me a little and visiting my infirmities - in particular, I kiss your love, most eminent bishop!.. General Ivanov and Admiral Nikonov arrived. The Metropolitan seated the ailing elder next to him on the sofa. Father John asked to bless the tea and the snack served. He himself poured and served a glass of wine to all the guests and proclaimed the health of the “distinguished dear guests.” His Eminence the Metropolitan wished health to the sick man, his dear master, and many years of life for the good of St. churches. Everyone sang together and from the fullness of a loving heart: “many years,” which apparently deeply touched the sufferer. Father John sat with the guests for more than half an hour - he talked animatedly about his years (he is now 79 years old), about the few living fellow archpastors, - he talked about his painful illness, which did not give him rest for more than 15-20 hours either day or night. And only during the divine service, which he again, contrary to the demands of the doctors, began to serve in the early morning, did nature allow him to weaken for about two hours. Strength is especially weakened by lack of appetite and complete inactivity of the stomach - he cannot take anything solid. Despite the demands of doctors, as an unshakably zealous guardian of church institutions, Fr. John flatly refused fast food, even in the form of medicine. “I thank my Lord for the suffering sent down to me to purify my sinful soul,” Fr. humbly said. John, finishing the sad story of his illness. - Revives St. Communion. Feeling weak in strength, he retired to his cell. Archpriest Popov invited the high pilgrims-archpastors, officials and all those present to his apartment for a meal. Here is a venerable colleague of the highly esteemed Fr. John expressed deep gratitude to the Metropolitan for visiting the sick elder and Kronstadt, which deeply honor in the Moscow Archpastor the worthy successor of the great Moscow saints, prayer books and mourners of the Holy Russian land. The Metropolitan answered with a deeply captivating speech about worthy bearers of the “sound Russian mind.” After the meal, the Eminence Metropolitan again visited Fr. John, who came out wrapped in a fur coat, with a clearly expressed feverish process. Fr.’s wife was also here. Joanna, a weak old woman like him. Vladyko recalled his visits to Fr. John of Moscow, - asked to cover with his love, if at any time lack of leisure prevented him from providing him with spiritual attention, and asked to pray both in this and in the future life. The elder, apparently moved by the saint’s affection, said: “What you, holy master, ask of me, I have always carried in my heart and will preserve until the end of my days a special love and veneration for your shrine.” Having said goodbye, the Bishop went on a visit to the Governor General and the Governor, and left for St. Petersburg at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by the red ringing of the bells of St. Andrew's Cathedral. You might be interested in: