Teachings and words for the feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ

Contents Teachings on St. Sunday Father Homily on St. Sunday father Lesson on the third day of the Nativity of Christ - Sunday Lesson on the week after the Nativity of Christ Lesson on the week before the Enlightenment Word on the week before the Enlightenment Word on the day of the Holy Epiphany of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ Word on the day of the Epiphany of the Lord Word on the week after the Enlightenment Lesson on the day of the Presentation of the Lord Lesson on the Transfiguration of the Lord Word on the day of the Transfiguration Word on the day Transfiguration of the Lord Word on the day of the Holy Trinity Teaching on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord Lesson for the Sunday of St. Father He (Jesus Christ) is our peace (Eph. 2:14). A great holiday is approaching for all Christians - the feast of the Nativity of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ from the most pure, brideless Virgin Mary; the holiday of the greatest, wondrous and all-saving event, many times predicted by the prophets, destined in various images and likenesses for the people of the Old Testament. Soon St. The Church with the Angels will sing: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14). But where, someone will ask, are the blessings of God’s peace, heavenly silence on earth, when wars have not stopped on it from the beginning until now, when the earth has so often been and is now a terrible disgrace of slaughter and bloodshed; when human passions, both during war and in peacetime, continually produce storms and turmoil both in the masses and in individual human individuals? Where are the blessings of the heavenly world, brought to earth by the incarnate Only Begotten Son of the beginningless Father, by the quiet Light of His holy glory? – Angels undoubtedly proclaim the truth. Peace has been brought and given to the earth; but since this heavenly, holy, priceless treasure requires a reliable guardian, preserver and distributor, so that people, in the outbursts of their passions, do not drive it out again from the earth, then the King of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, left the world to His Church, or to the well-ordered, grace-filled society of those who believe in Him, especially to the faithful shepherds of His flock and the Church, He charged through them to give saving peace to all who seek it. What is the peace brought to earth by Jesus Christ? The fact that God, through His only begotten Son, was reconciled with people, that the indestructible barrier between Him and lawless people was destroyed, the curse was destroyed, the sinful handwriting was torn to pieces, death was struck on the head; Saving grace has been given to everyone who wants it, all divine powers have been given for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:2–3); free access to God was opened to everyone, the full opportunity was opened to everyone to receive the forgiveness of sins, to become saints and, among all the storms and worries of the sinful world, to be calm. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28), i.e. come to Me by faith and repentance, all of you weary and burdened with sins, and I will remove the burden of sin from you, drive away the storm of passions, turn the storm into silence - and you will know by your experience that I have brought peace to everyone - those who desire and seek peace - under the condition of faith in Me and unfeigned repentance. My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:30). And so the peace brought to earth by Jesus Christ and sung by the heavenly angels is contained and preserved on earth in the grace-filled kingdom of Christ, or in the Church of God; here all sincere believers and sincerely repentant sinners can draw it in abundance. Don’t you hear how often the Church, in the person of the clergyman, teaches peace to all those who are present, who, in turn, send the good wishes of the world to himself? Oh, how blessed and sweet is the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ given to the Church and all the faithful. Truly, a soul that has been rewarded with the peace of God experiences heavenly bliss in communion with God. And who among us would not desire this world? After all, sins and passions rage disastrously in the souls of sinners, tormenting, oppressing, scorching, tearing apart, so to speak, the poor soul. Come, sinners like me, to Christ the Savior with faith and unfeigned repentance, and He will give you peace. I have repeatedly been exposed to a destructive, deadly rebellion of passions, and each time, on countless occasions, I have received from the Lord quick deliverance and freedom from the spiritual storm and blessed heavenly peace. This is the kind of peace the incarnate Son of God brought to earth! The sinful world does not know and does not seek this peace, which is the forerunner of eternal peace in heaven. The people of this world know the earthly world, the charming, momentary world - a world that comes from the success of self-interest and acquisitions, from the success of self-love, ambition, carnality and voluptuousness; peace that comes from the charm of spectacles, from the satisfaction of feelings of revenge, etc. and so on. This is not God’s world, but a carnal, sinful, devilish world. This is not the kind of peace the Son of God brought to earth. That is why He Himself says: peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: not as the world gives, I give to you (John 14:27), i.e. I do not give you the peace that the world that lies in evil gives (1 John 5:19). And so that we can all joyfully and sincerely sing soon with the Angels: glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, let us be reconciled with God, with our conscience, with people in unfeigned repentance; then we will cheerfully glorify the blessings of the world of God, just like the Angels themselves who possess this peace. Amen. Lesson for the Sunday of St. father The book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). Today's St. The Church celebrates its week-long holiday - the Resurrection of Christ and together celebrates the Nativity of Christ; therefore, during the all-night vigil the gospel of the resurrection of Christ is read, and during the liturgy - about the ancestors of Jesus Christ according to humanity. The liturgical gospel begins with the words: the book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Let us dwell on these words and make them the subject of a real word. What are they telling us? That the Son of God is the only begotten, consubstantial, co-eternal with God the Father, all-good, all-powerful, the hypostatic Wisdom of God, who created the world and everything in the world, the Almighty Himself, containing all visible and invisible creation, having assumed human nature, entered into kinship with people, created by Himself in His own image and likeness, but who sinned in an impudent manner disobedience and extremely corrupted due to countless crimes; The Son of God became the Son of man, i.e. a man similar to us in everything, except for sin, without ceasing to be God, beginningless and omnipotent; the full - exhausted Himself, the rich - became poor, the inviolable being - became touchable to us for the sake of our salvation. What kindness! What mercy, what extreme condescension! What voluntary impoverishment! Having accepted our nature, impoverished by sins, He is born in poverty, from a poor, albeit royal family, and a most pure Virgin in a wretched den! Human! Awaken from your sinful slumber and think about what this wondrous looking of God for you means, this wondrous exhaustion of the Son of God for your sake, and respond to the loving voice of God towards you. What is He saying? He says: I came to seek and save you, a lost (Matthew 18:11) sinner. Repent, correct the ways of your heart, correct all your behavior, be renewed, put aside the oldness of sin, love righteousness and hate iniquity, for only those who fulfill His commandments are akin to the Son of God. Just call on Me with all your heart, and I will help you in everything; in My Church I have laid down all the means for your salvation; use them with all care and you will be saved comfortably. Book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. Jesus Christ in the flesh came from Abraham and David. What great ancestors! What venerable names! Abraham was a friend of God, to whom promises were given from God that the Savior of the world would be born from his seed (Gen. 22:18); from him the Lord made nations, according to the promise, like the sand of the sea and like the stars in the sky, so numerous (Heb. 11:12). David was the king of Israel, a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), meek and gentle, who also had a promise of the birth of the Savior of the world from his descendants. And so the Lord fulfilled His promise: the Son of God was truly born according to humanity from the tribe of Abraham and David. You, children of Abraham by faith and children of God by the grace of Christ, try to imitate the great ancestors, the forefathers of Jesus Christ. Abraham - in faith, simplicity, hospitality, obedience to God and cutting off one’s will from all worldly addictions, in hospitality, friendship, constancy in faith, hope and love, in thorns and patience; David - also in faith, hope, meekness, gentleness, in repentance, in fervor of love, in prayer, praise, thanksgiving and in patience in sorrows and troubles. Book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. - Hearing about the kinship of the Lord in the flesh and in the spirit with Abraham and David and with other forefathers, among whom there were not sinless people, remember, brother, remember, sister, that the Lord also entered into a close relationship with you; He became not only your God and Savior, but your Brother in humanity, for it is said: He is not ashamed to call them on the brethren (Heb. 2:11); He became ours of one blood and body, so that we are members of Him, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. 5:30); and when we are alienated from Him by our sins, He again invites us to restore unity with Him, calling us to repentance, and those who repent sincerely, He again accepts into spiritual communion with Him, communicating to us His Holy Spirit, for Him we cry out to God, Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15)! He renews the union with repentant sinners in an indescribably loving way, giving us His flesh and blood to eat and proclaiming with immeasurable meekness and love: take, eat: this is My body and: drink of it, all of you: this is My blood of the New Testament (Matthew 26:26, 28). What condescension, what salvation, what an honor to eat the most pure body of the Lord Jesus Christ and drink His most pure blood! This is the highest honor! This is a marvelous salvation! For every time he who sincerely receives communion, being dead in spirit, is quickened, freed from sins, sanctified by the Holy Spirit and deified with glorious deification. Remember, Christian man, your relationship with the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation, and try in every possible way to hold yourself worthy of your calling, flee sin in all its forms, resist all sin, as a faithful warrior of Christ, be zealous for holiness in all your life, as it is said: be holy in all your life (1 Pet. 1:15). He who sins and does not repent with all his heart is related to the devil, a murderer. Such people are St. The Forerunner of Christ John called brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7), and the Lord Jesus Christ spoke about the Jews: you are your father the devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father (John 8:44). May God deliver us all from such a terrible relationship with sin and its culprit. And so, no matter how many times you sin, immediately repent in secret before God, break your alliance with the devil and restore your alliance with God at certain times before your spiritual father. Amen. Teaching on the third day of the Nativity of Christ - Sunday Now we have two holidays: the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ was added to the Feast of the Nativity of Christ; one holiday is annual, and the other is weekly. In both holidays, beloved brethren, our own Christian triumph is hidden. Jesus Christ was both born and resurrected - for us: born in order to die for us and rise again. Such is the love of God the Savior for us: He gave Himself all to us, just to make us blessed forever, just to bring us into the abode of the Heavenly Father. The life of our Lord Jesus Christ - from His birth to suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, is, so to speak, a mirror in which everything that happens and will happen to His followers is reflected, or in other words - His entire earthly life is a model of our life as it should be. Therefore, His birth is, as it were, our birth - and it is, exactly, only for us - His resurrection is our resurrection. Through the birth and resurrection of the Savior, we are all, beloved, called to eternal life, to an incorruptible inheritance, kept in heaven for our sake. Without the Savior, without His birth, our birth would only be a curse, so that our resurrection without Him would be a condemnation to eternal torment. By His birth, Jesus Christ sanctified our birth, lifted up our horn; through His resurrection He rejoiced us with the hope of our resurrection. Christ has risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of those who have died (1 Cor. 15:20), i.e. marked the beginning of our resurrection. Here is our triumph in the birth and resurrection of Christ! But why do we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Christ once a year, and the Feast of the Resurrection many times, and one of them - annually - so brightly, with such solemnity that its light seems to eclipse all other holidays? – To solve this question, let’s take another one to explain it. Is it necessary to assure a person several times that he was born? It is not necessary, because everyone believes it without certainty. Does a person need to be assured many times that he will be resurrected? It is necessary, because since there will still be a resurrection and we have it only in hope, then we need to resurrect more often, revive our fading faith in the resurrection and hope in it; and even more so, the fewer examples of resurrection we see before our eyes, while examples of birth are always before our eyes. To this reason we must add the fact that the year represents the human age, and since the Son of God, Jesus Christ, became the Son of man and was subjected to the measurement of earthly years, then once a year we remember all the great events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, as once they actually happened, and this single memory is enough to revive our faith in them - and the Resurrection of Christ, in addition to its all-bright, annual celebration, is also celebrated many times a year - in order to more often revive in people faith in the general resurrection, which is the great triumph of our faith, because Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection: you will be resurrected with Christ (Col. 3:1), says the apostle, i.e. It is as if you were resurrected together with Christ. And so glory to the Lord who was born for our salvation, and glory to Him who rose from the grave and raised us with Himself. What should I say to you in conclusion? Everyone remember with each coming resurrection that you will rise again and, having risen, appear at the judgment; and therefore, everyone should take care to arrange their lives in such a way that at that terrible judgment they will not be put to shame and sent into utter darkness, and so that the holidays of the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ will not condemn us in that century for our inattention and disrespect for their verbs. Amen. Lesson for the week of the Nativity of Christ A voice was heard in Rama, crying, and sobbing, and much crying: Rachel weeping for her children, and not wanting to be consoled, as if they were not (Matthew 2:18; Jeremiah 31:15). The Holy Church now honors the memory of fourteen thousand infants beaten by King Herod in Bethlehem and its environs. This bloody event was predicted 500 years ago by the prophet of God Jeremiah in these words: a voice was heard in Rama, crying, and sobbing, and much crying: Rachel wept for her children, and did not want to be consoled, as if they were not. By Rama or Arimathea we mean the entire area stained with the blood of infant martyrs, and by Rachel, who was the wife of the patriarch Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, we mean all the mothers whose babies were torn out by Herod’s executioners and slaughtered. A terrible, inhuman spectacle! This is what a person’s unbridled passions, his pride, pride, ambition, lust for power, anger, envy lead to! - And generally speaking, no matter what atrocities the earth has not been filled with, this is the abode of the human race during its almost eight thousand-year existence! History reveals to us terrible pictures of terrible atrocities in ancient and modern times. In our times, the atrocities of Turkish Muslims against Christian children, fathers and mothers are still fresh in our memories. O earth, earth saturated with human blood, filled with indescribable atrocities, until you cry out to God for vengeance on the evildoers? How long will you stand and not undergo fiery purification? – How long will God’s truth not pay final retribution to the villains who have stained their hands with the blood of so many victims of inhumanity? – But the truth of God assures that the blood of all the righteous will soon be required, starting with the blood of Abel, and begs us who are impatient to endure a little longer (Apoc. 6:11). But when I talk about Herod’s murder and murders in general, which filled the whole earth with horrors, I bring to mind a spiritual murder, of which we are all more or less guilty; This is the murder by each of us of our soul, and often our body, by our sins, or the murder of the souls of our neighbors through temptation, or teaching others to sin. Who among us is not guilty of this spiritual murder? Which of us is free from passions, sinful habits and inclinations? Who has not killed his soul or the soul of his neighbor through self-love, or pride, or deceit, lies, or envy, or gluttony, satiety, drunkenness, or love of money and stinginess, or hardness of heart, or carnal impurity, or anger, or suspicion, or partiality, or laziness and negligence about salvation, unbelief, etc.? So, my brothers, we often kill our own souls or the souls of our neighbors with countless sins and negligence about correcting our hearts, our lives, our morals. And this spiritual or mental murder, with which we kill our souls, created in the image of God, is even more guilty than bodily murder; because here the soul, which has to live forever, is killed, and there only the body, which will rise in the general resurrection. The souls of the infant martyrs, beaten by Herod, all rest in the bosom of Abraham, are consoled in the Kingdom of Heaven, and in due time their bodies will be resurrected - but the soul of Herod is in eternal torment, and Herod, having beaten the innocent infants, killed his soul with his shameful passions even before they were beaten, and soon his body, which experienced terrible torment before his death. And so let us not be murderers of our souls, these priceless souls, redeemed by the infinitely dear sacrifice of the blood of the Son of God, but let us revive and preserve them, we will adorn them with repentance and virtue. What can we say about modern murderers and suicides? This is a terrible sign of the age, a terrible time of unbelief, depravity, falling away from God. Murders and suicides are frequent everywhere, and human life is not valued; so she became petty, empty, insignificant, aimless! But what can we say about the regicides who, in their madness, attempt the most precious life of the kings of the earth themselves? If it is terrible and inhumane to kill an ordinary person, then to kill the king, the head of state, the father of millions of subjects, the patron of the Church of God, for whom she always prays with the greatest love and maternal care, day and night, that the Lord may hasten to Him in everything and subdue under His feet every enemy and adversary - to attempt the life of the king is the most disgusting crime, and whoever touches him touches the apple of his eye God's Our Russian ancestors always revered their kings, as God’s anointed, and were ready to endure anything, any disaster, rather than raise a daring and sacrilegious hand against their king. And fair enough. The heart is a king, but the scripture is in the hand of God, and even if it delights, it will turn away (Prov. 21:1). Do not touch My anointed (Ps. 105:15), says God. And so let us not kill our souls with our sins, we will revive them through zealous repentance, if we have killed them, while we still have time for repentance, and we will always have an aversion to the very thought of murder and suicide; We will have disgust for people who attempt regicide. – One God is the Lord of life and death; He alone has the power to kill and to give life. The Sovereign is our shield, the keeper of our security, both of the entire Russian land, the faith and the Orthodox Church, and in particular the keeper of the security and peace of each of us. Amen. Lesson for the week before the Enlightenment The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord: make His paths upright (Mark 1:3). When expecting the arrival of a king somewhere, they usually take care to prepare his way, i.e. level or clear the road. If the king is expected to arrive in a city, they usually sweep the streets, whitewash or illuminate the houses, and hang flags as a sign of greeting to the dear guest; if the arrival of the king is expected in the village, then its inhabitants all dress in clean, festive clothes, go out into the street, and persons elected from the society bring bread and salt to the distinguished visitor. This is what happens when meeting an earthly king. But we, brethren, are about to meet the heavenly King: for Christ, the King of heaven and earth, is coming to every Christian soul to dwell in it and establish His kingdom in it, the kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of heaven. What should we do? How to meet such a Visitor to our souls, such a King? “Prepare,” says the prophet, the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. The Spiritual King must prepare the spiritual path. In the east, to meet kings, roads were straightened and leveled so that the path for the traveling king was as straight, smooth and comfortable as possible; and now we have railways almost everywhere, and not only for the Tsar, but for all of us, they make the path straight and even, like on glass. Let us take this straightness and smoothness of earthly paths as an example and likeness for the spiritual path. We await the coming not to the city, but to our souls of the heavenly King Christ. Let us make the spiritual path straight and smooth, i.e. let us remove from our souls all crookedness and roughness of sin: for your streams are crooked, says the prophet, and your ways are obstinate and sharp (cf. Isa. 40:4). How do we delete it? Sincere repentance for sins, correction of heart and life and good deeds. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2). Let the one of little faith remove the crookedness of his unbelief or lack of faith and may he acquire the simple, unsophisticated faith of the saints, or the faith of God, about which the Lord said: have the faith of God (Mk. 11:23); let the proud one remove his pride and acquire God-loving humility; he who is at enmity, let him leave enmity to his brother, let him humble himself and live lovingly from now on, heeding the commandments of the Apostle; love one another diligently from the bottom of your heart (1 Pet. 1:22). Let the fornicator wash away his uncleanness with tears of repentance and let him not henceforth return to it, like a dog to his vomit, and let him live chastely, remembering that our bodies are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:30; 1 Cor. 6:19); let him who is intemperate and a drunkard leave his intemperance and henceforth be zealous for abstinence: for drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), and drunkenness is idolatry. Let the lover of money and the hard-hearted towards the poor leave his passion for this dear or precious land as a crooked and rough path, on which he himself is often wounded internally, and which blocks the way into his soul for the King of Heaven: for what kind of fellowship does the Merciful have with the hard-hearted, and the Lover of Mankind with the lover of money, or the King of Heaven with the dust of the earth? - And so let the money-loving and the stingy prepare the way into their hearts for the King of Heaven with alms and generosity to the poor. Let us all take away wickedness from our souls and acquire the God-loving simplicity of virtue. This is how to prepare the way for the Lord; This is how to make His paths straight! When we prepare the way for the Lord in this way, He will, without a doubt, come to us and dwell in our hearts, as He Himself promised: I will dwell in them and walk around (2 Cor. 6:16); and within us there will be the kingdom of heaven still here on earth, the kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen. Word in the week before the Enlightenment Today's Sunday is called, beloved brothers and sisters, the week before Enlightenment or, all the same, before Epiphany, before Baptism. From the Gospel today we are supposed to read the first chapter from Mark, from verses 1 to 9. The Gospel contains prophecies or predictions of the prophets of the Lord Malachi and Isaiah that just before the coming of the Lord to earth in the flesh, i.e. before the first, and not the second coming, the Forerunner will be sent who will prepare the way for Him; in Malachi the prophet, whose memory is celebrated today, this Forerunner is called an Angel (Mal. 3:1) of God, after the angelic, holy, passionless life of John the Baptist; and in another prophet - Isaiah - it is called the voice of one crying in the wilderness, i.e. Jordan, who said: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight (Isa. 40:3). The Gospel further says that these prophecies were fulfilled, for indeed, just before the appearance of the Savior to the world, the great prophet and Forerunner of the Lord John appeared, baptizing in the desert and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the inhabitants of the country of Judea and the people of Jerusalem came out to him, and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Mark 1:4-5). Next, John's lifestyle is described, his exalted, divine character, his complete impartiality to everything that we are seduced by, to which we sinners passionately cling; - it is said that he wore the simplest, roughest, harshest, and not soft and thin clothes - made of camel's hair and a leather belt around his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey, i.e. raw vegetation at hand, and honey from wild, not domestic bees. And he preached to the people this: He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down to untie. I baptized you with water, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:7–8). Here is the entire Gospel for this Sunday. Let us take a closer look and think about him for our common spiritual benefit and pay attention to the predictions of the two prophets about John the Baptist, what they predicted about him about his position in the Kingdom of Christ. He, they say, will prepare the way of the Lord, and will cry aloud to the people: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight; This is what he did, and this is how he prepared the people to receive the Lord. The words are very important, you need to understand them, interpret them thoroughly in order to understand their meaning and do business based on them. Their meaning is this: I, the Forerunner of Christ, preach to all of you, great and small, people of every rank and condition, gender and age, that the King of heaven has come to earth, the only begotten Son of God, Christ God, who in everything is like us in humanity, except for sin, to which He has nothing to do with; He came for the salvation of each of us, and He wants to enter everyone’s spiritual home, into the heart, where His throne should be, as our King and God; but you, people, are not ready to accept Him because of your sins, because of your spiritual impurities: for others, the path to the heart is blocked by ignorance or unbelief; another has anger, envy, pride; in this case - greed, stinginess, hard-heartedness towards neighbors and unmercifulness; for another - voluptuousness and lustful impurity; for others - intemperance, drunkenness, foul language; for others, incorrect, false scholarship, clouded by passions and prejudices, prevents them from believing and accepting the Lord with a sincere heart - scholarship about which God spoke through the prophet; I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and destroy the understanding of the understanding (Isa. 29:14); For some, spectacles and games prevent them from accepting the Lord into their spiritual home, because other people are addicted to them and they have no place in their hearts for heavenly things. Visitor and Savior of our souls; In general, various passions and vanities of life greatly hinder us from receiving and hosting the Lord. Prepare the way for the Lord: - first, believe in Him from the heart, secondly, repent from the heart and completely cast off your sins, your passions, sinful habits, inclinations, evil lusts, cleanse yourself, wash yourself, correct yourself, adorn your souls with virtue - simplicity, meekness, humility, kindness, abstinence, purity, mercy, mutual sociability, friendliness, hospitality and hospitality, truth, faithful service, honest trade, honest work, obedience to parents, the king, superiors, good teaching, diligence, good behavior. This is the meaning of the prophetic words and the sermon of John the Baptist. – It is my duty to address you with the same words: Christ, the Heavenly King, has come to us on earth and wants to enter the spiritual home of each of us. Let us prepare to accept Him immediately: let us repent sincerely, leave behind our sins - evil, envy, pride, intemperance, drunkenness, foul language, fornication, hard-heartedness and stinginess, and let us adorn our souls with faith, love, meekness, mercy, self-control, righteousness, obedience, mutual respect and communication: - and the Lord will come to us along the straight path prepared by us paths - and he will dwell in us and live and walk in us, as it is written by the Apostle: I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:16, 18; cf. Lev. 26:12). Amen. Word on the day of the Holy Epiphany of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ Today, beloved brothers, St. The Church offered us a very edifying reading from the Apostle, namely from the epistle of St. Apostle Paul to Titus. This is the reading: “Brotherhood! The grace of God has appeared, saving for all people, teaching us that, having rejected ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live chastely, righteously and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us in order to deliver us from all lawlessness, and to purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good works. Speak this, exhort, and reprove with all authority, so that no one despises you. Remind them to obey and submit to rulers and authorities, to be ready to do every good work, to speak evil of no one, to not be quarrelsome, but quiet, and to show all gentleness to all people. For we too were once foolish, disobedient, erring, we were slaves to lusts and various pleasures, we lived in malice and envy, we were vile, we hated each other. But when the grace and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Tit. 2:11-15, 3:1–7). Here is today's reading from the Apostle. The Apostle speaks of the grace or mercy and power of God, i.e. Christ, saving for all people, not excluding anyone who would accept this grace. If this saving grace had not appeared through Jesus Christ and only in Him, then no one, not a single person, would have been saved, and everyone would have perished forever in sins, for sin naturally gives birth to death - temporary and eternal. But now saving grace has appeared to all people, and all who believe and submit to it can be saved; no one can make the excuse of impossibility or inability. This saving grace is found in the Church of Christ; adhere to it, fulfill its instructions and commandments, participate in its sacraments and Divine services, and you will certainly be saved. And so, the saving grace of God requires of us that we, having rejected ungodliness, i.e. coldness and alienation from God, self-love and all sorts of worldly and carnal lusts, tried to live righteously, chastely and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Speaking about the present age, the apostle means another age, a future one, which has no end, as can be seen at the end of this reading, and in the words that follow now; for he goes on to say that we must all look forward to the blessed hope, i.e. the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, the life of the next century and the appearance of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, meaning by the appearance of the glory of Christ His second coming in the terrible glory of the Heavenly Father, when all the nations and tribes of the earth will see His eternal glory and cannot help but recognize Him as God, although then He will be for many only an Avenger God and a terrible Judge. The Apostle further says that Jesus Christ gave Himself for us, i.e. Having appeared into the world in the form of a man, he fulfilled for us all the truth of God, taught us piety, suffered, died and rose again for us, and gave us all the strength to live a righteous life in order to deliver us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good deeds. So you and I, brothers and sisters, have the happiness of being a special people - the people of Christ. But, I ask, are we really a special people in life and deeds, are we zealous for good deeds? Are we not hasty and zealous for sin? - Quite often. - But may God save us from haste to sin in the future, may this not happen to any of us; on the contrary, let us be hasty to every good deed. Further, the apostle reminds us of the good deeds that Christians should perform, namely, obedience to superiors and authorities, readiness for every good deed, for example, self-sacrifice out of love for God and neighbor, mercy and mutual help - about not slandering, not scolding, not blaspheming others with abusive words in anger and malice - not being grumpy or contentious, unyielding, but quiet and meek towards everyone. For this, the godly apostle confesses the great mercy of God over himself, that the Lord saved him not for the works of righteousness that he had previously done, for he too was once foolish, i.e. when he was still a persecutor of the Church of God, disobedient, erring, a slave of lusts and various pleasures, he lived in malice and envy, was vile and hated Christians - but by His mercy the Lord took him out of the abyss of destruction and washed him in the bath of regeneration, i.e. baptism and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which the heavenly Father poured out on him richly through Jesus Christ our Savior - so that, being justified by His grace, both he and all Christians would become, according to hope, heirs of eternal life. And so away from us is the dark senselessness in matters of piety, characteristic of unenlightened pagans walking in darkness and the shadow of death, let us cast far away from ourselves disobedience, lust and various unauthorized stupid and rude pleasures, malice and envy, all sorts of vile deeds and hatred of each other; and we will live in love and mutual assistance and in all piety and purity; Let us be a special people, zealous for good deeds. Let us always remember that a holy life is required of us - our life must differ from the life of Mohammedans and Jews, like heaven from earth; we must live heavenly on earth, as children of God; our love for God and neighbor must be ardent, unfeigned, selfless, firm, constant; we must constantly maintain purity and chastity, abstinence, create all truth, hate lies; show meekness and patience to everyone. – Have peace and holiness with everyone, for no one else will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). Amen. Word for the Day of Epiphany The beginning of today's reading from the Apostle points us to the appearance in the world of the grace of God, saving for all people, and its end - to eternal life, which will be inherited by all those who in this life hasten to take advantage of the grace of Christ for their salvation (Titus 2:11-16, 3:1-7). - And so listen, Christians, incline your ears, sinners like me! We have now been sent down from God, the Father of generosity and all consolation, saving grace or saving power, with the help of which we can all be saved, and not one of us will perish, if only we diligently use it in time. This grace teaches us and together helps us to reject ungodliness or various worldly passions and lusts to which we have enslaved ourselves, to live chastely, righteously and godly in this short, preparatory age, in anticipation of the blessed hope and the appearing of glory, i.e. the second glorious coming of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us as a cleansing and reconciling sacrifice to God the Father, suffering and dying for us - in order to deliver us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good deeds, which is what a Christian people should be, i.e. We are all Orthodox Christians. But are we really like that? Are we a special people from all other non-Christians: Jews, Mohammedans, idolaters? Are we zealous for good deeds? Are there not among us Christians the same or greater sins as among non-Christians? To our shame, they are found everywhere; I will not name these sins, because they are obvious to everyone, obvious to everyone. Looking at our lives, or at some who call themselves Christians, sometimes you think: are these people of renewal, sons of God, royal priesthood, Christians, a special people, different from others? - but alas! It’s scary to say - special, but only in the wrong sense, special - because of ignorance, because of rudeness, because of insolence, because of unbelief, because of drunkenness and debauchery, because of disrespect and contempt for the gift of life, the greatest, invaluable gift of God, because of disrespect for chastity, because of loose morals, because of disrespect and ingratitude for parents, for God-appointed authorities; - due to disrespect for the gift of speech, insanely, unchastely and seductively squandered in the press and in mutual communication. Let us come to our senses, Christians, and look around where we are going! What do we say and do? – Where is our guiding light? Where is the Gospel by which we must live? Do we listen and read it diligently? – Do those who have received education remember what they read, what they learned from this holy book of books? The uneducated, illiterate and illiterate are often more eager to hear and fulfill the word of God than the educated; - and the educated are often worse than the uneducated, because they distort their education, giving it a purely secular, worldly, and not Christian, not church, not spiritual character; They read only secular books and never the Gospel and other spiritual books. And without spiritual reading, as well as without Divine services, without participation in the Christian sacraments of confession and communion, without deeds of Christian virtue, can Christian life develop, prosper, and strengthen? And so, Christians, let us try to be truly Christians - a special people, by striving for truth and holiness and to eternal life, to which we are called - by zeal for good deeds, and not for vicious ones. Next, the Apostle Paul instructs Bishop Titus, to whom he is writing his epistle or letter, to remind Christians to obey and submit to the authorities and authorities, to be ready for every good work, not to slander anyone, not to be quarrelsome, but quiet, and to show all meekness to all people. This admonition must be addressed loudly and with special force in the present time to many lost and perishing Christians, who boldly rebel against the trampling of the authorities established by God, and against the most sacred life of God’s anointed. But where are they? How will the word of the Church, the word of Christ, reach them? They also reject the Church. But the word of God in its action and in its very procession and spread is unlimited. It will reach them too, and may it enlighten their darkened meanings and hearts. But you, brethren, beware of such, and submit uncomplainingly to the authorities and authorities and be ready for every good deed; leave off slander and foul language - abuse and quarreling; be meek and quiet towards everyone, following the example of the quietness and meekness of Christ. Brothers and sisters! If we have been given from God the grace and special power of God for salvation and for a holy Christian life, then we will be exacted much more severely at the Last Judgment of Christ if we neglect the grace of Christ and live in negligence. Let us always remember the grace given to us, let us diligently cultivate in ourselves the guarantee of grace; Let us always remember that eternal life awaits us ahead if we use grace for the glory of God and our salvation, or eternal torment, certainly eternal torment, if we reject the grace of God. Amen. A Word a Week on the Enlightenment The current Sunday is called the week of Enlightenment, or a week day on which one should not engage in ordinary worldly, earthly affairs, but do the work of saving one’s soul - according to enlightenment, i.e. by baptism, which both before and now was and is called enlightenment, because through baptism spiritual light is given from God to our souls, the light of knowledge of God and piety, a sign of which to this day is lamps or wax candles lit at the font, as well as lit candles in the hands of the recipient and recipient. This spiritual, imperishable, eternal light, communicated to our souls, is Christ our God Himself, the true Light, enlightening every person who comes into the world; Spiritual darkness is sin, or the culprit and leader of sin is the prince of darkness, the devil, who darkens and seduces the human race with sin, teaching every sin and dragging man into eternal destruction. In accordance with this meaning of this Sunday, the Gospel is read at mass about the coming of Jesus Christ from the city of Nazareth, where He lived and was raised, into pagan Galilee, to the people sitting in darkness in the land and the shadow of death, and about their enlightenment, as the prophet Isaiah predicted 700 years before the coming of Christ to earth, saying: the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, on along the seaside path, beyond the Jordan, Gentile Galilee, the people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and light dawned on those sitting in the land and shadow of death (Matthew 4:15–16; Isaiah 9:1–2). And since spiritual enlightenment is accomplished through sincere repentance of sins, which are real darkness, eternal darkness and eternal torment, then the Lord, who settled in this land of darkness and the shadow of death, began to preach and said: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). And so, true repentance drives away the darkness of sin, sin and the culprit of sin, the devil, who lives and reigns in the hearts of sinners, and establishes in the heart of the believer and the repentant the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of Christ. This is the content and meaning of the current Gospel; it speaks of our spiritual enlightenment, of repentance for sins, of the closeness to us now, with the coming of Christ God to earth - the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of grace, which is His Church, this kingdom of grace on earth - in which all Divine powers are given to us for life and piety (2 Pet. 1:3): therefore, the word today should be about Christian enlightenment. –Are we all enlightened Christians? Do we all live in constant, sincere repentance, like eternal sinners, guilty of God’s judgment, or do we add sins to sins? are we diligently trying to do good deeds, for which we were created; or are we fussy, grinding and chasing the dreams of our hearts? I asked these questions to myself and to you - in order to show that true Christian enlightenment consists in knowing ourselves or who we are, and what we are for? what we were in the beginning when we were created by God; what we have become by committing sin, and what we must certainly be; further, true Christian enlightenment consists in sincere, active, and not empty, formal, false repentance, which many of us perform every year on the indicated days and is not subsequently accompanied by the fruits of repentance - a good life, deeds of truth, mercy, abstinence, purity and holiness, a zealous desire for Christian perfection, according to the scripture: be you perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect ( Matt. 5:48), - further, in order to show - that true, Christian enlightenment does not consist only in literacy, or the study of various sciences relating to the earth and what is on earth, or to heaven and celestial mechanics - and not even in the study of the Christian science of knowledge of God - because you can be literate and a theologian and not have true enlightenment in your soul, you can even be, as happens in reality, a person completely darkened by darkness. passions; and it, i.e. Christian enlightenment consists in enlightening the eyes of the heart with the light of the Gospel of Christ, in removing with the help of the grace of Christ through repentance and prayer from all darkness of passions, in removing from oneself wickedness, unbelief, self-love, conceit, malice, pride, anger, hatred, envy, condemnation of others, hard-heartedness and greed, in removing from idleness and vanity, or from the destructive art of passing and killing time, for example, in playing cards and various shows such as theaters and circuses; from untruth and covetousness - from an unclean adulterous life, from reading empty books, which may contain artful cunning fabric and play on words and the art of language, but in their essence do not contain any edification and leave only regret for the time spent on them. And so Christian enlightenment, beloved brothers and sisters, consists in sincere faith in Christ, in self-knowledge, in unfeigned repentance and removal from evil, and in the constant pursuit of Christian virtue and perfection for the sake of eternal bliss in God and with God. If you have realized that you are dirt and dust, that you are the stench of sin, that you are a sinner, always worthy of God’s punishment; if you are kind and simple-hearted, meek, humble in heart, peaceful and peace-loving, patient and selfless, love the truth, stand for it and despise untruth; if you are sincerely benevolent, merciful and compassionate; if you are temperate, sincere, respect purity and innocence, hate idleness and idle amusements, and study day and night in the fulfillment of the Gospel - this wise, life-giving, righteous, eternal science of science; then you possess incorruptible Christian, and not illusory worldly, enlightenment that disappears like a meteor, and you are not far from the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of God is already within you (Luke 17:21); With which God forbid we have no time to congratulate ourselves. Amen. Teaching on the Day of the Presentation of the Lord Now do You let Your servant go, O Master, according to Your word, in peace (Luke 2:29). The real feast of the Presentation of the Lord is so called because the righteous elder Simeon, who lived in Jerusalem, met the fourty-day-old Infant, the Lord Jesus Christ with His most pure Mother, in the Jerusalem Temple, took Him in his arms and said: now do You let Thy servant go, O Master, according to Thy word, in peace: for as mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before face of all people: a light for the revelation of the tongue, and the glory of Your people Israel (Luke 2:29–32). This old man was marvelous both in his holiness, for the Holy Spirit always abided in him, and in his enlightenment and in his old age - he was three hundred and sixty years old. We can say that, beyond the law of nature, God’s grace miraculously preserved him for so long. This is what church history tells about this St. old man When Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, who lived almost 300 years BC, the founder of the glorious Library of Alexandria, wanted to translate the Bible from Hebrew into Greek, he sent a request to the Jewish high priest. The high priest chose from among the Israelites seventy men who were wise and skilled in both languages. Among them we find the righteous Simeon. While translating the book of the prophet Isaiah, when Simeon reached the prophecy: behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son (Is. 7:14), he doubted and stopped, reasoning with himself - how can a virgin give birth to a child? Then he took a knife and wanted to erase the prophecy in his manuscript. Suddenly an Angel of the Lord appears to him and, holding his hand, says to him: believe what is written. You yourself will see the event of the greatest sacrament, for you will not see death until you see the one who is to be born of the most pure Virgin Christ the Lord. Having established himself on the words of the Angel and the Prophet, from that time Simeon awaited the coming of Christ with ardent desire: he lived righteously and chastely and constantly prayed to God. When the born Savior, after fourty days, was brought into the church by the grace of God, then Simeon, knowing from above that this baby is the promised Savior and His Mother is the Holy Virgin, on whom the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, with reverence and joy accepted the Lord into his arms and pronounced the spoken words. Then, having given thanks to God, who had given consolation to Israel, he gave up his spirit. That is why the Lord continued his days in such an extraordinary way, i.e. in order for him to live until the summer in which the flightless, beginningless God was born in the flesh. We have happiness and bliss no less than Simeon, even more; for with our lips and hearts we accept the Lord Jesus Christ when we partake of His Mysteries. On what occasion was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord established? For it was not established shortly after the Lord’s ascension into heaven and after the descent of the Holy Spirit, like some other holidays: Easter, Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension and Pentecost, but almost 500 years after the Nativity of Christ. Here's the occasion: during the ill-fated year of Justinian's reign, in the last days of October, a pestilence broke out in Constantinople and surrounding countries and raged so strongly that finally 10 thousand people died every day, and in some places there was such desolation that there was no one to bury the dead. And in Antioch, in addition to this plague, terrible earthquakes continued, repeated several times, destroying houses and churches, and many people died under their ruins. By the way, the church building collapsed when Euphrasius, Bishop of Antioch, made a bloodless sacrifice in it. The city of Pompeopolis was half destroyed, and the other half of it was swallowed up by the earth with thousands of inhabitants. To avert this wrath of the Lord, according to a special revelation to some St. man, the solemn celebration of the Presentation of the Lord was established. And as soon as, on the 2nd day of February, they began an all-night vigil with a procession of the cross, at that hour the plague passed, the pestilence ceased, and the earthquake was tamed. This is the kind of wrath of God that our iniquities, our unbelief, our negligence about salvation, our ingratitude, ill-will and hard-heartedness bring upon us and upon the earth itself. Oh, terrible monster - sin! O all-destroying monster - sin! Let us run at all costs from this hundred-headed hydra, the snake. Let us kill the sins within ourselves! Let us continually repent. Beloved, without fasting, repentance and prayer, like a warrior without weapons, a Christian cannot defeat the sin that lives in him. Amen. Teaching on the Transfiguration of the Lord The Holy Church now celebrates - and we celebrate with it - the bright feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor and the glorification of our human nature in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will repeat in Russian speech the Gospel or the all-joyful gospel of the Evangelist Matthew about the present day, telling about the event of the Transfiguration. “At that time, Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and led them up to a high mountain alone. And He was transfigured before them: and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. At this Peter said to Jesus: Lord! It’s good for us to be here; If you want, we will make three tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice from the cloud said: 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 nothing 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 17:1-9). Here is the end of the gospel story. And so the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ consisted in the fact that during His prayer on Mount Tabor, as another evangelist complements this legend, His face suddenly shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as snow (Luke 9:29). At this time, the disciples appeared: the ancient prophet and legislator of the Jewish people Moses and the prophet Elijah, who was once taken alive to heaven on a chariot of fire and on horses of fire; they appeared in glory, i.e. in the heavenly light and talked with the Lord about the coming suffering and about His death on the cross in Jerusalem, as the Evangelist Luke complements this legend. Why did the Lord show the Apostles His heavenly glory, the lordship of His Divinity, as much as they could contain, no more, because otherwise they would not have survived? Man cannot see My face, God said to Moses in the Old Testament, and remain alive (Ex. 33:20). - In order, again and again, after countless miracles, to show them in the most obvious way His Divinity and His oneness with the Father, so that they would not waver in faith during His suffering and death, but would understand and understand that He suffered and died voluntarily, for the sins of the world - and boldly preached about Him to people that He is truly the Only Begotten Son of God, eternal, Creator of the visible and invisible world, or angelic. Why did the prophets appear, Moses, who lived before Jesus Christ for one and a half thousand years, and Elijah - almost a thousand years? and why in glory? – They appeared to testify to the apostles that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, the Savior of the world, predicted from ancient times by the prophets, possessing the living and the dead, and to instruct the disciples in the urgent need of His suffering and death for the redemption of the world. They appeared in glory in order to assure the disciples that the same or even greater glory awaited them for their exploits on earth as the disciples and friends of Christ. – The prophets talked with the Lord about the terrible suffering of the Lord for us in Jerusalem; and Peter, who did not know what he was saying, wanted to enjoy bliss on Tabor in the presence of the Lord: it is good for us to be here, says, Lord: let us make three tabernacles, i.e. tents of green branches - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. No, Peter the Apostle, it is not the place or time for you to be blissful here; but I insist that you endure severe suffering and the most blasphemous death. Didn't you hear what Moses and Elijah talked about with the Lord during His transfiguration? Not about bliss, but about the suffering and death that He had to endure. But Peter himself did not know, as it is said, out of great joy and happiness what he was saying. It was necessary to enlighten him and the other disciples from above, and Peter had not yet finished his words when a voice was heard from heaven: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to Him (Matthew 17:5); those. do not follow what pleases you, what is pleasant to you: but listen to Him, My beloved Son. – What did He say so recently? - If anyone wants to come after Me, deny yourself, and take up your cross, and follow Me (Luke 9:23). This is where you need to obey Him. And we, brothers and sisters, should not look for joys and bliss on earth: here is not the place and time for bliss, but the place and time for tearful repentance and purifying sorrows. Bliss will be there, in heaven, forever and ever for all who truly believed and labored here. The disciples were afraid of the voice of God because they were still imperfect and earthly. The Lord took away fear from them with His touch and the word: “Do not be afraid.” Opening their eyes, they saw only the Lord and in his usual form. When descending from the mountain, He did not allow them to tell the people about this vision until He rose from the dead; Why? - Because the Lord had to suffer and die for the salvation of the world and you and me, brothers, and He did not want His Divine glory to be glorified before suffering and the end of the work of redemption, and to give us an example of humility, so that we would not seek glory from people, but from God. And so, brothers and sisters, let us not seek joy and bliss or vain glory on earth, but let us continually change for the better through deep and unhypocritical repentance, firm and unceasing, and diligently doing good deeds - let us endure with patience and hope the sorrows, adversities, and sufferings that are sent. – If we live this way, then a wonderful transformation will come for us, when the Lord will transform our humble body so that it will be consistent with the glorious Body of Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:21), as the scripture says. This will happen after the general resurrection of the dead. Amen. Word on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord Be transfigured before them (Jesus): and His face shone like the sun, and His robe was white like light (Matthew 17:2). Now we remember and celebrate the glorious Transfiguration of the most pure flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. This transfiguration took place in the presence of three earthly witnesses - the apostles Peter, James and John. Jesus Christ, as usual, went up the mountain to pray, like a man, to the Heavenly Father. While He was praying, His Divinity suddenly shone through His body: His face became as bright as the sun, and His clothes, from the inner light of the Divine and from the light of the body, became white like light - so white that no whitener could make them so white. Moses and Elijah, the great prophets of old, appeared; they spoke to the Lord. What were they talking about? – They talked about the suffering that the Savior of the human race had to endure for the sake of our salvation in Jerusalem. The speaker is His exodus, which He wanted to die in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). The Apostle Peter, seeing the Lord and the prophets in such glory, said to the Lord: Lord! it is good for us to be here; if you want, we will make three canopies (tents) here: one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice was heard: This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased: Hear Him (Matthew 17:5). The voice was from God the Father. Hearing the divine voice, the disciples of the Lord fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. The Lord approached them, touched them and said: stand up and do not be afraid. They lifted up their gaze: there was no one else but Jesus Christ. When they began to descend from the mountain, the Lord told them not to tell anyone about the vision until He rose from the dead. And so imagine, beloved brethren, the glorious sight of the most pure flesh of the Lord, like the sun shining on Tabor, and enjoy longer, longer this heavenly spectacle; imagining it, triumph in your spirit and rejoice: it is our human face that shone in such glory, in its closest unity with the essence of God the Word Himself. Triumph and rejoice in the hope that if you are obedient to your Lord in this temporary life, follow His divine commandments, then He will one day transform your bodies with the same glory - so that they will be consistent with His glorious body; The Lord Himself assures us of this when He says that the righteous will be enlightened like the sun in the kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43); and St. Apostle Paul, who says that the Lord will transform our humble body so that it will be consistent with His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). - But why did the Lord transfigure himself in glory on Mount Tabor and only before His three disciples? Brethren! The Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer for us and be so humiliated and humiliated that if His disciples, before His suffering, had not been confirmed by various signs and wonders in their faith in Him as the Son of God, they could have been tempted regarding His face, fallen away from Him and scattered, each in his own direction. It was necessary to assure them by some amazing miracle that He is truly the Father’s radiance, light from light, the Son of God, who will willingly suffer for us. By such a miracle, by the way, the Lord chose to transfigure His body on the mountain, and behold, His face shone like the sun, and His clothes shone like light, and God the Father Himself spoke from the cloud: This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased: Hear ye Him (Matthew 17:5). And so the disciples of Christ, by the transfiguration of the Lord, were prepared in advance so as not to be tempted by the suffering and death of their beloved Teacher and Lord. – As for why the Lord was transfigured only before three disciples, this is for the reason that according to the law, three witnesses were enough to verify any truth. Brethren! The Lord also bequeathed to all His followers sorrow and suffering in this world: in the world you will suffer (John 16:33), He told His disciples before His suffering; If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Matthew 16:24). And so endure without complaint all the sorrows God sends to you. But do not be afraid of suffering and sorrow, for they will lead you to eternal joys in heaven; just as the Lord, after His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection, entered into the eternal joy of the Kingdom of heaven and according to His humanity. Just as gold in a crucible is purified and enlightened, so the human soul in the crucible of sorrow and suffering is also purified and enlightened. And this is why the Lord left many different sorrows for His followers in this adulterous and sinful world; they serve as a great benefit for the sufferers themselves and as a deposit of their future eternal bliss. Your sorrow will be turned into joy (John 16:20), says the Lord. – Which of the saints, starting with the Most Blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ to the last righteous man, did not grieve in this life and did not enter the Kingdom of Heaven through sorrow? Nobody. All entered the Kingdom of Glory through many sorrows. – And so, spiritual sorrows transform us, cleanse and enlighten our souls. And this is also why the Lord, coming to our free passion for the sake of salvation, was transformed in glory: He wanted to show all His followers who had to suffer for Him that their suffering would lead them to heavenly glory, that they themselves would be enlightened, like the sun, in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43). What else does the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord oblige each and every one of us to? He obliges us all to be transformed internally. There is no need to talk about how necessary it is for everyone to transform, to change themselves for the better, just look impartially into your own heart, look at your thoughts, desires, intentions, undertakings, words and deeds - and it will immediately become clear how necessary it is to immediately begin to transform your heart. What fills our hearts almost every day and hour? Knowing all the secrets of human hearts, the Lord Jesus Christ says that from the human heart come evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, extortion, insults, wickedness, flattery, deceit, the evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness (Mark 7:21-22). And each of us, attentive to himself, cannot help but admit that his heart almost constantly gives rise to sinful abominations: lack of faith, doubt, self-love, coldness towards God and neighbor, anger, condemnation, gloating and malice, envy, pride, arrogance, disobedience, false shame, contempt, addiction to earthly life and insatiable greed for earthly things. benefits, often combined with insult to one’s neighbor (namely, greed for money, for food and drinks, especially for wine and various sweets, also for shameful deeds, addiction to clothes and shiny jewelry); laziness, especially in the important matter of salvation, and idleness with all idle activities, such as: cards, smoking, playing musical instruments that is completely useless for the soul, elevated to a scientific art, dancing and reading books filled with idle talk, oral idle talk and foul language, etc. Until now, almost every one of us has thought very, very little, and some have not thought at all about heavenly things, but have thought everything about earthly things, and had in themselves not the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of this world, cared about the body and despised spiritual needs; He valued earthly, perishable things dearly and neglected heavenly and eternal things; he was filled with self-love and had little, little love of God and brotherly love. Who, after this, will deny that each of us needs to immediately begin to transform our hearts and our lives, which were hitherto contrary to the Gospel? And so, brothers and sisters, for the glory of the Lord who was transformed on Tabor, calling on His grace for help, let us begin from today to transform our heart dispositions and our vain life. Let no one be afraid of the difficulty of this transformation; The grace of God is omnipotent, let us continually ask God for it; let's say: Lord! Without You we cannot do anything (John 15:5); Correct our steps to do Your commandments. Let us not forget that the Kingdom of Heaven is acquired through effort, and only strong seekers acquire it (Matthew 11:12), according to the words of the Lord Himself. Let those of little faith work to acquire faith by diligently reading the word of God and the lives of the saints; cold in love for God and neighbor, let him ask God for love: for every gift is perfect, much more, the most perfect gift of love is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (Jas. 1:17), - and let him practice love; the proud and arrogant one, let him put aside his pride and arrogance and with all his heart, let him devote himself to humility; evil and contemptuous, let him put aside his malice and contempt and look at each and every one with respect and love; let the envious one leave his envy; stingy - his stinginess; lazy and careless - his laziness and negligence, idle - his idle pursuits, a lover of money - his love of money; drunkard - drunkenness; a glutton is his gluttony; thief - your thief; the fornicator is his own fornication; vain - vanity, everyone - all evil. When we behave in this way, then we will worthily, like true followers of Christ, celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. Then, having been transformed and spiritually enlightened on earth, we will be enlightened like the sun in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43). Amen. And He was transformed before them (the disciples) and His face shone like the sun, and His robe was white like light (Matthew 17:2). This is how the Lord was transformed according to His humanity at Tabor. – And this gives us to know that He can miraculously transform and enlighten us, our nature darkened by sin and the passions of life, our soul and our body, just as He really transforms, transforms, enlightens. You don't have to look far for examples. They happen every day to every praying and repentant sincerely Christian believer. I will ask each of you: tell me, what happens to you when you, burdened with some sin, come to this church, approximately, with sincere repentance and fiery prayer to God and His Most Pure Mother? Or, when some strong sorrow and melancholy oppresses you: and with tears will you pray to the Lord so that He will ease it, destroy it, drive it away? Didn't you notice soon after that a great change in your soul? You sincerely repented of your sin, condemned yourself, reproached yourself, looked soberly at your disapproving thoughts, feelings, actions, gave your word to change: your sin was forgiven, you became calm; your soul is light, free, quiet and grace. – And if you greatly grieved and yearned for something, and expressed your sorrows and misfortunes with submission to the will of God before God or the Matter of God, the joy of all who mourn, tell me, did you not soon feel a change in your soul? Peace and quiet tenderness settled in your soul with hope in the fatherly providence of God, and you left after your prayer comforted and encouraged. – So, it means that transformation happens in each of us, – i.e. from sincere, diligent prayer we are amazingly transformed for the better; and we become calm and sober from the sins that intoxicate us; - truly, sins, no matter what, will make us drunk - and we will feel disgust for sin, and we will abandon sin, and we will feel a disposition towards virtue and we will become closer to God. Otherwise, evil sin would completely remove us from God if we did not pray, did not repent, and did not experience sorrows. But we, brothers, are people of little faith, weak both in prayer and in deeds of virtue, and in us, therefore, the spiritual change or internal transformation is not as noticeable, not as bright and glorious as in the holy saints of God. Here in them the grace of God accomplished a wonderful transformation, renewal, and enlightenment. They were people subservient to us, but look what the grace of God made of them with their faith and ardor of love for God, with the mortification of everything carnal and sinful in them; From sinful people, they became like holy angels, from weak ones - strong by the grace of God, from humble ones - glorious, and many - from stinking vessels of all sin, from vessels of the devil - all-fragrant vessels of God's grace and all virtue. This is the miracle of transformation that the grace of God produces in people. And this is only the beginnings, only a weak shadow of that glorious transformation that the Lord will accomplish over those who love Him at His second terrible coming, when He will carry out the final judgment on the world: then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). It is this transfiguration, this glory for today’s feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord that I wish and pray to all of you, my brothers, from the Lord. Only in conclusion of my short word, I wish in advance for myself and all of you to be transformed in souls, and namely: to change self-love and love of peace for love of God, love of voluptuousness and love of money for brotherly love and mercy, hostility for love, cruelty for meekness, pride for humility, envy for goodwill, intemperance for continence, foul language and idle talk for good talk and God's praise, vanity for good deeds, uncleanness for holiness. Amen. Word on the Day of the Holy Trinity Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Cor. 3:16). What is the current holiday? The fact is that our Lord Jesus Christ, who ascended from us into heaven, although He did not leave us, sent, according to the promise, on the fiftieth day after His resurrection from the dead from God His Father - God the Holy Spirit - the third person of the Most Holy Trinity to the Apostles and other believers who were with them in the Jerusalem upper room, in which they remained in unanimous fervent prayer. God the Holy Spirit, the life-giving one, who comes from God the Father, and is worshiped with Him and the Son and is always glorified together, descended on the Apostles and others in the form of tongues of fire; from which they were suddenly reborn, illuminated, enlightened, wiser and began to speak in different languages, which they did not know before - about the great deeds of God; but let us listen to how St. reports about this greatest event. Luke the Evangelist, writer of the Acts of the Apostles. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together with one accord. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as if from a rushing strong wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And cloven tongues as of fire appeared to them, and one rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now in Jerusalem there were Jews, pious people, from every nation under heaven. When this noise was made, the people gathered and were in confusion; for everyone heard them speaking in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Are not these all Galileans who speak?” How do we hear, each of us, our own dialect in which we were born... hear them speaking in our own languages ​​about the great deeds of God? And they were all amazed, and perplexed, they said to each other: What does this mean? And others, mocking, said: they got drunk on sweet wine. Peter, standing with the eleven Apostles, lifted up his voice and cried out to them: Men of the Jews and all who live in Jerusalem! let this be known to you, and listen to my words: they are not drunk, as you think, for it is now the third hour of the day; but this is what was foretold by the prophet Joel: and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; and on My servants and on My handmaids I will pour out My Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below...” (Joel 2:28–32). Then, the Apostle Peter, having mentioned in his speech how the Jews unrighteously and wickedly treated the Lord and Christ Jesus, killing him on the cross at the hands of the pagans, and how He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, poured out what they themselves see and hear. When the people listened to the entire speech of the Apostle, they were moved and said to Peter and the other Apostles: “What should we do, men and brethren? Peter said to them: Repent; and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit... And those who gladly received his word were baptized and were added that day to about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:1–41). This is the story of the great event that we are celebrating today. This event is immeasurable in importance, fruitfulness and salvation for the entire Christian Church: this day is the day of the actual foundation of the Christian Church, or the Christian society of those saved in Christ; on this day the first shepherds, the Apostles, were consecrated by the Holy Spirit, from whose succession we, your shepherds, received the grace of the priesthood; On this day, the saving sacraments that are still performed in the Church through your priests received effect. The apostles and other believers were given the gift of speech and wisdom for preaching the Gospel to all nations and an abundant gift of wondrous miracles, with which they, both at that time and subsequently, attracted to faith in Christ and saved many human souls. From that time on, the Holy Spirit entered the world, another Comforter besides the Lord Jesus Christ, equal to Him, equal in glory and co-essential with Him and God the Father. Jesus Christ, having completed the work of saving the human race - through His incarnation and life on earth, through His preaching, countless miracles, benefits to the suffering, through suffering, death and resurrection from the dead - ascended to heaven to the Father and instead of Himself sent from the Father the Spirit - God, may He arrange the work of human salvation, for the three persons in God are consubstantial and inseparable, and each equally participates in the salvation of man kind. And so the desert of the human race flourished, as the Church sings, and from this event, which we celebrate today, the Holy Spirit, having revived it, showed sovereign, fruitful and irresistible power in the militant Church: in the exploits of the Apostles, Martyrs, Hierarchs, strengthening them with joy and cheerfulness to courageously endure countless hellish sufferings for Christ and performed in them and through them countless miracles. From this event the Holy Spirit through St. The Apostles and their holy successors spread the preaching of the Gospel throughout the world and through this preaching grew and expanded the Church throughout the universe; made St. wise Fathers to overthrow all the errors of heretics, compose God-wise scriptures and preserve our faith holy and immaculate to this day. The Holy Spirit made Saints and glorified with miracles and incorruption of relics countless numbers of people who pleased God and to this day contributes to the salvation of each of us. My brothers! Without the Holy Spirit there is no true life in a person, there is no peace in the soul, there is no light of God, there is no truth, holiness, true joy and bliss. Without the Spirit of God there cannot be in us and there is no true faith, hope and love; holy simplicity, purity of heart, no true virtue - and there is no salvation. Let us always earnestly pray to God the Father, so that he will not reject us from His presence and may not take His Holy Spirit away from us. Amen. Teaching on the Day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection (Troparion of the Holy Cross). The Cross of the Lord is erected! How many important memories, sad, terrible and at the same time joyful, awaken in souls at the sight of the erected Cross of Christ, at the mere sight of the Cross! The God-man, the only begotten Son of God, who deigned to redeem the human race from eternal torment through His suffering and death on the cross, was crucified on it; he was stained with the most pure blood, of which a single drop is purification for the world! For three hundred years he was hidden in the earth, for three hundred years the Church of God, believers in the Lord were under a terrible cross; For three hundred years the earth was flooded with the blood of Christians: they were crucified on crosses, and often upside down, cut, burned, drowned in whole crowds, torn apart in pieces. The swords became dull and the hands of the executioners weakened - so many heads, arms and legs, and various members of Christian bodies had to be cut off. This is how Satan armed himself against the Church of Christ, acquired by the blood of Christ! The blasphemous and terrible death of Christ on the cross was, as it were, a forerunner and indication of the death of His faithful servants. Oh, the terrible mystery of the Cross! - Oh, all-destroying sin, which brought down the Son of God Himself to earth, may He become incarnate and suffer in His flesh for us! Oh, the unchanging, eternal truth of God, which demanded such a terrible sacrifice for the sins of the world! – Glory to Thee, most righteous Master, who punishes sin and has mercy on repentant sinners! And so - repentance and repentance! No one is stuck in a single sin! - Bring ardent repentance immediately, so that you may bow to the mercy of the merciful God and not perish in your sins! Three hundred years of persecution have passed - and the persecution is over. The pious King Constantine appeared on the royal throne of the Roman Empire, with the mother Helen; He favors Christians, accepts the Christian faith himself, zealously honors the Crucified One, and not only allows, but commands everyone - both the clergy and his clergy, the army and the people - to reverently worship Christ. Churches were erected and praise and thanksgiving flew to the heavens. - Queen Helena forced herself to find the Cross of the Lord in Jerusalem and it was solemnly raised from the ground, erected and - oh joy! The Life-Giving Cross raises up the dead, for soon after being placed on a dead man, the Cross revived him, heals the sick, drives away demons, a sick woman was healed by placing it on him. For Who was raised to the Cross? Himself the King of glory, Himself the Creator of heaven and earth, the only begotten Son of God. For whom? For the sinful world and for you and me; although we were not in the world then, the Lord knew that we would be, and what damned sinners we would be, and therefore he suffered for all of us; You and I have poured a lot, a lot of bitterness into the cup of His suffering. Amazing miracle! The King of Truth, Almighty God, having taken upon Himself human flesh, suffered execution for us, for our sins! And what kind of punishment? The most diarrhea, painful! Oh, a terrible mystery! Oh, the sacrament that brings forth tears of tenderness and gratitude! For how can one not be horrified at the sight of the execution not of a criminal, but of the greatest Righteous One, meek, humble, kind, merciful, who has performed countless good deeds to people and has not committed a single evil? It was not in vain that the sun darkened, the earth shook, the veil of the church was torn, stones disintegrated, coffins were opened, and the dead were resurrected! All insensitive nature shuddered and sympathized with the Creator of everything. But the stony-hearted Jews had no compassion! And the frivolous people shouted, walking around the cross and saying: O, destroyer of the church and builder in three days! save yourself. If You are the Son of God; come down from the cross (Matthew 27:39–40). O dearest Redeemer of the whole world! People did not know that You were burdened with the sins of the whole world; - what do you endure, innocent and sinless, execution for us! They did not know that God Himself enters into a fight with hell and crushes its power, and wants to remove from hell the souls that have been kept in its bonds for centuries, and will deliver us from its terrible torment! Oh, how dear to God are the souls of men, redeemed by the blood of His Son! - How dear are souls nourished by His flesh and blood! Oh, what a bliss it is to partake of the most pure body and blood of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ! Oh, how terrible and destructive is sin, for the cleansing and eradication of which the death of the Son of God was necessary, and the death of the cross! Oh, how certain is the eternal punishment prepared for the unrepentant! For if they did this to the green tree - Jesus Christ, then what will happen to the dry and barren one? How miserable are sinners who, in their blindness, do not know the full destruction of sin! How terrible is hell, pitch darkness and gnashing of teeth, Tartarus of the underworld, torment with demons! Brethren! let us repent soon, let us hate sin, love righteousness, let us cleave with our hearts and lips to the Cross of the Lord and cry out earnestly: Lord! who suffered for us and shed His most pure blood, and died on the Cross, with their own destinies, turn us all to the path of salvation and save us! Amen. You might be interested in: