A complete year's worth of words, teachings and conversations

Contents Homily for the week of the veneration of the cross Homily for the fourth week of Great Lent Homily for the fifth week of Great Lent Conversation on Great Monday Homily for Great Wednesday Homily before the shroud on Great Friday Homily for Holy and Great Friday Homily for the week of St. Thomas Homily for the week about Thomas Homily for the week about Thomas Homily for the week about Thomas Homily for the week of the holy myrrh-bearing women A Lesson for the Week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Wives and Righteous Joseph A Word for the Week of the Myrrh-Bearing Wives A Word for the Week about the Paralytic A Word for the Week for the Paralytic A Word for the Week for the Samaritan Woman A Word for the Week for the Samaritan Woman A Word for the Week for the Blind Man A Word for the Week of the Holy Fathers A Lesson for the Sunday of All Saints A Conversation for the Third Week after Pentecost A Lesson for the Third Week after Pentecost A Lesson for the Fifth Week after Pentecost A Lesson for seventh week after Pentecost Word for the eighth week after Pentecost Teaching for the ninth week after Pentecost Conversation for the twelfth week after Pentecost. About the Rich Young Man A Word on the thirteenth week after Pentecost A Word on the fifteenth week after Pentecost A Word on the week after the Exaltation and on the fifteenth week after Pentecost A Teaching on the sixteenth week after Pentecost A Word on the seventeenth week after Pentecost. About the power of faith, hope and patience in prayer Word for the eighteenth week after Pentecost Word for the twentieth week after Pentecost Word for the twenty-first week after Pentecost. About the different effects of the word of God on human hearts, according to the difference of hearts. Teaching on the twenty-second week after Pentecost. Teaching on the twenty-third week after Pentecost. Teaching on the twenty-fifth week after Pentecost. About the Good Samaritan Word for the twenty-sixth week after Pentecost Lesson for the twenty-sixth week after Pentecost Lesson for the twenty-seventh week after Pentecost Lesson for the twenty-eighth week after Pentecost Lesson for the twenty-eighth week after Pentecost Lesson for the twenty-ninth week after Pentecost Lesson for the thirty-second week after Pentecost Word for the thirty-second week after Pentecost Lesson for the Week of the Cross “We bow to Thy Cross, O Master, and glorify Thy holy resurrection” (Troparion of the Holy Cross). The Holy Church, taking the life-giving cross of the Lord from the depths of the altar from the throne and offering it for the worship and kissing of the faithful, what thought does it have? That thought, so that her true children, who go through the field of fasting and struggle with their many-passionate flesh and with the devil, who during fasting especially kindles his arrows in their flesh, - looking at the cross and vividly imagining the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, our salvation endured by Him in His most pure flesh - would be strengthened through this to fight against their flesh, with its passions and lusts, and so that They did not regret crucifying her in her passions and courageously fought against the enemy, who was attacking us with many different temptations. See how the Lord tells us this from the cross, what I endured for you, assumed by Me for your salvation in My most pure flesh, untouchable by any sin: will you refuse to crucify various passions and lusts in your flesh? Can't you bear some of the bitterness of fasting? Will you not tolerate deprivation of sweets for a while in order to tame the flesh, which, the more you delight and satiate it, the more it becomes enraged? Will you not tolerate the fiery arrows of the enemy when I have allowed him to pierce My divine flesh with all kinds of arrows? This is the thought with which the cross is now brought out for worship and kissing. So, do not lose heart from fasting and from the fight against passions and the devil; but fight courageously, calling for help on the One who suffered for us and defeated our enemies with the cross, and win. Amen. Homily for the fourth week of Lent Today, beloved brothers and sisters, the Gospel story from Mark was read about the healing by Jesus Christ of a demon-possessed deaf and dumb boy, for whom his father prayed, through the expulsion of the evil unclean spirit that was causing the unfortunate youth deafness and dumbness. “The spirit is dumb and deaf”! The Lord said to the unclean one, “I command you, come out of him, and do not enter him again. And crying out and shaking him violently, the evil spirit came out; and the boy became as if dead, so that many said that he had died. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up; and he stood up." But listen, how angry the demon who tormented the boy was. The father of this youth told the Lord that wherever the demon grabbed him, he threw him to the ground, and the unfortunate man foamed at the mouth, gnashed his teeth, and became completely numb. The same happened the time his father brought him to the Savior. And when the Lord asked the father, as if not knowing, although, like God, he knew everything: “how long ago did this happen to him?” He said that since childhood, and added that the demon had thrown him into fire and water many times to destroy him; and asked the Lord to have mercy on him and his son, and to help, if he could. Jesus said to him: “If you can believe a little, all things are possible to him who believes.” And the unfortunate father of little faith exclaimed with tears: “I believe, Lord! help my unbelief." You see what power the Lord attributes to faith and to the believer: “all things are possible to him who believes,” He says. A believer can cast out demons and heal all kinds of diseases. And how powerless and pitiful is the unbeliever! He cannot control himself and cannot overcome his sins, but, like a slave, he serves them and is tormented by them. Since the unfortunate father first brought his demon-possessed son to the apostles and they could not cast out this demon from him, they privately asked the Lord: “Why couldn’t we cast him out?” The Lord said to them: “This generation cannot emerge except through prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:17–29). This is praise from the Lord for fasting and prayer. This is the gospel basis of fasting. Why did those who call themselves followers of the Gospel banish fasting from the community, as if it were unnecessary! Is it not because passions and iniquities and demons of various kinds have multiplied among us now that some of the Christians have broken off the union with the Church and rejected prayer and fasting as unnecessary work and live in the likeness of dumb animals, driven only by various lusts, while others - in their anger, foaming at the mouth, like true demoniacs, rushed to all sorts of atrocities: murders, suicides, arson, mines, explosions, etc. Yes, beloved brothers and sisters, such people have reached such a terrible frenzy precisely because of unbelief, intemperance, uncleanness and all the harmful consequences of this unbelief. The meek evangelical faith does not preach murder, regicide, undermining and explosions - it says: let every soul obey the powers that be. For there is no authority except from God: the real authorities were created by God, and that one must obey them not only out of fear, but also out of conscience (Rom. 13:1, 5), and commands us to pray for the king and for all who are honored by authority, so that we may live a quiet and silent life in all godliness and purity (1 Tim. 2:2). Lord, enlighten the eyes of these unfortunate demoniacs of our ill-fated times, blinded by malice, who are rebelling against the God-appointed authorities, so that they may know what a terrible abyss they are digging under themselves, what a terrible hellish abyss they are ready to fall into. In the old pre-Christian times, some unfortunate Jews rebelled against the established authorities - against Moses and Aaron, reproaching them for imaginary lust for power, and only grumbled: and what befell them, what punishment of God? - The earth opened up under them, and - they descended alive into hell with their families; and others, less guilty, were burned by fire that came from the church (Num. 16:1-35). That's how serious a sin it is - rebellion against your superiors. What awaits our nihilists, what is God's judgment? It is all the more terrible because they trampled upon the great gifts of God. For who are our nihilists and terrorists? Baptized people, Christians, reach such fury - such murders and suicides, such satanic atrocities! Oh, why were they born? Why didn't they die in their mother's womb? It would be better if they were not born. It is so ungrateful, so wicked, so insane to trample on the gifts of God - the grace of baptism, confirmation, communion of the body and blood of the Lord - this is truly terrible! Oh, unfortunate parents of such children! What shame they must endure! Brothers and sisters! Let us with all our hearts cling to the faith and the Church of God, this only saving ark, saving from the worldwide fiery flood, which in due time will befall all the lawless. Let us adhere to the sacred institutions of the Church, which lead us to salvation, let us constantly fast and pray, and be zealous in the service of God! The devil, the enemy of our salvation, does not sleep, but like a roaring lion, he walks around us, looking for someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8), and how many he has devoured! Fasting and prayer with zeal, with humility, with faith and love are a powerful weapon against the devil and against all the passions that war within us. Amen. Sermon for the fifth week of Lent Beloved brothers and sisters! I want to tell you today and somewhat explain today’s reading from the Apostle and the Gospel. From the Apostle - there was a reading of part of the letter of the holy Apostle Paul to the Jews about the cleansing power of the blood of Christ the Savior, who offered Himself as a sacrifice to God the Father for the sins of the whole world (Heb. 9:11-14); and from the Gospel - the story of the Evangelist Mark was read about how the Lord Jesus Christ predicted in advance to His twelve apostles, including Judas the traitor, that He, our Lord, “will be betrayed to the bishops and scribes of the Jews, and they will condemn Him to death, and hand Him over to the pagans; and they will mock Him, and beat Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him; and on the third day he will rise again." Further, in the Gospel it was read about the inappropriate request of two disciples - brothers James and John - that they should take first places when Jesus Christ was glorified, and how the Lord meekly convicted them, saying that the path to His glory is the path of the cross, suffering and death; about the indignation of the other disciples at the claims of James and John and about the instruction that the Lord gave them all on this matter, namely, that whoever wants to be greater than others would be the servant of all, and whoever wants to be first would be the slave of all, just as He Himself did not come to be served, but to serve and give His soul as a ransom for many (Mark 10:32-45). Now let's return to the Apostle. So, the holy Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews, says about Christ that “He, the High Priest of good things to come, once entered into the sanctuary with His Blood, and obtained eternal redemption (for all who believe in Him); and if in the Old Testament the blood of bulls and goats, which were sacrificed, and the ashes of a heifer, through sprinkling, sanctified the defiled, so that the body might be pure, then how much more will the Blood of Christ, Who by the Holy Spirit offered Himself blameless to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works - i.e. from sins for which death is a dowry - to serve the living and true God.” So, the meaning of the apostolic reading is that if the transformative blood of the Old Testament, the blood of sacrificial animals, sanctified the defiled, so that the body was pure, then how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse our conscience, our soul and body, from all sin. And the Apostle John the Theologian says that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin (cf. 1 John 1:7). So, let no sinner lose heart, no matter how sinful he may be, but hope to receive forgiveness and cleansing of all his sins; for we have a Savior, by grace always present with us in His Church, especially in the Holy Mysteries, Who condescended to cleanse us from all sin, if only we would believe in Him, sincerely and irrevocably repent and partake with faith and love of His most pure body and blood. Thus, the now remembered Saint Mary of Egypt was originally plunged into the abyss of evil, into the depths of depravity; but repentance, faith and love, feats of fasting and prayer, communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ cleansed her, made her holy and equal to the angels. Let us also imitate her faith, zeal in repentance and prayer and in love for God, her thirst for communion of the body and blood of Christ - and the Lord will cleanse us from all sin, for with the Lord is mercy, and with Him is much deliverance: and He will deliver us from all our iniquities (Ps. 129:6). In the Gospel of this day, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the instruction that we should not seek primacy and superiority over others from forms of ambition and self-love, but would seek the only honor pleasing to God - to serve others for salvation, just as Christ God Himself came not to be served, but to serve Himself and give His soul for the ransom of many. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant; and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave of all (Mark 10:45, 43–44). Bear each other's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2). Amen. Conversation on Good Monday Today, beloved brethren, at the morning service three parables were read: the first - about the barren fig tree, the second - about a father who had two sons; one, to his father’s request: “child, go today, work in my vineyard,” answered: “I don’t want to,” and then changed his mind and went; another, in response to the same request, said: “I’m going,” and did not go; and, finally, the third parable is about a homely man who, having a vineyard, surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, gave it to the workers and left, and then, when the time came for harvesting the fruits, he sent his servants to the workers of the vineyard to receive the fruits. The workers, in their bitterness, beat some of the slaves, killed others, and finally killed His Only Begotten Son (Matthew 21:17–44). Let's talk this time about the first parable. “Having spent the night in the village of Bethany, in the morning the Lord,” says the Evangelist Matthew, “returning to the city of Jerusalem, became hungry; and seeing a fig tree along the road, he approached it and, finding nothing on it except some leaves, said to it: Let there be no fruit from you henceforth forever. And the fig tree immediately withered. Seeing this, the disciples were surprised and said: how did the fig tree suddenly wither? Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but if you also say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” it will happen. and whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive.” A barren fig tree by the road with only leaves is me and you, beloved brother and sister. The Planter of our life, the Lord Jesus Christ, hungry for our salvation, often comes to you and me, early and late, to satisfy the hunger of our soul, to become the bread of life for it. And - alas, almost always finds in us only worries about everyday things - only leaves; The fruits of faith, all-powerful care for the salvation of our souls, are non-existent. Meanwhile, each of us was planted on earth to bear spiritual fruit. What are these particular fruits that every person, especially a Christian, should bear? The holy Apostle answers this as follows: spiritual fruit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, mercy, faith (Gal. 5:22). Here, brother and sister, are the fruits we must certainly bear to the Planter of our lives, the Lord Jesus Christ, every day. Now look, everyone: are you a fruitful fig tree or a barren one? If fertile, good, move forward; bring more and more fruits to the Lord, so that He may feed you with them in eternity; if you are barren, tremble: you are threatened by the curse of the Lord of your life, and perhaps very soon He will say to you: let there be no fruit from you henceforth forever. And you will immediately dry up; all your spiritual powers will die out; Your faith, hope and love will completely dry up, and every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into eternal fire (Matthew 3:10). These words are true and clear as day. They will be fulfilled without fail, for heaven and earth will pass away, just as days, months, and years pass by, but the words of the Lord will not pass away (cf. Mark 13:31). So, brother and sister, ask yourself: do you daily bring to the Father of your life the fruits of good deeds, and most importantly, do you have the queen of virtues - love - ardent love for your Creator and love for your neighbor as for yourself? Do you want to know what deeds love shows itself to be? The holy Apostle Paul will answer you for me: love is patient, merciful, love does not envy, love does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. He covers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. Love never fails. Love is so necessary for a Christian that if he speaks all the languages ​​of men and angels, but does not have love, then he is like ringing brass, with all his eloquence and verbosity, or like a sounding cymbal. If he has the gift of prophecy and knows all the secrets and meaning of all the scriptures, and even, what is most amazing, if he has all faith, so that mountains will move from place to place because of his words, but does not have love, then he is nothing: all his knowledge is in vain, all his labors without love (1 Cor. 13:1-8). Why do we need love so much? Because God Himself is love (1 John 4:8), and we are created in His image, and God abides in the Christian man. Or do you not know that Christ is in you? unless you are unskilled by nature (2 Cor. 13:5). Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you (1 Cor. 3:16)? Whoever has ardent love for God and neighbor has in his soul other fruits, numbered by the Apostle, joy in the Holy Spirit, peace, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, faith: for in love, as in a seed, all virtues are contained: for where there is love, there is God, all-perfect perfection, eternal kindness, infinite goodness, infinite omnipotence. He who has ardent love for God also has faith such that he can move mountains, as the Lord said: and whatever he asks in prayer with faith, he will receive (cf. Matthew 21:22). So, if we do not want to dry up like the fig tree cursed by the Lord or like the grass and be thrown into eternal fire, let us try, beloved brethren, to bring the fruits of good deeds to the Planter of our lives while we have time, strength, means, and opportunity. Perhaps the time will come when you would like to do good, but it will be impossible. Now is the time, imams, let us do good to everyone, especially to those close to us in the faith (Gal. 6:10). Amen. Brethren! This day is the day of betrayal for the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Faithful souls who know how to appreciate and feel the greatest self-sacrifice for our salvation, our common Lord and friend! Mainly from this day forward, guard your heart in the most careful way for Him alone and do not let anything worldly, corruptible, or any passion take possession of you. Prove that you also know how to respond to love with love, that you are true Christians and out of love for Christ you can stay vigil with Him, i.e. to watch over your heart, even for a few hours, in which He alone drank the cup of heavenly wrath for us. Bring by faith into your hearts Christ the Lord, who suffers for us, suffer there - in your heart - together with Him; Bring your sins to memory, lament and, if you can, cry for them. Cry to yourself (Luke 23:28), says the Lord. Send your sighs and tears to Christ, and this will be the most pleasant sacrifice to the Lord who suffers for us: you will soon feel in your heart His favor towards you for the gift of your heart: peace in your soul, surpassing all understanding (Phil. 4:7), and heavenly quiet joy will tell you that your sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart has not been humiliated, but has been accepted by the Lord on His heavenly and mental altar. Having cleansed yourself from sins this evening in the sacrament of repentance, if anyone has not yet cleansed yourself before, tomorrow you will be honored to partake of His body and blood: may this supper of love unite you with Him who commanded it to be celebrated in His remembrance, may it always remind you of His boundless love for us and may it give you the strength to spend the coming great days holy, in the spirit of fiery love for the Lord, who laid down His soul for us. Amen. Teaching before the Shroud on Holy Friday “Behold, the Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Behold, my brethren, the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself our sins, my sins, the sins of each of you. Here is the incarnate only begotten Son of God, tormented by human envy and malice! What humanity! Oh, how gloomy and disgusting is the picture of human malice! Let us fall down before Him in confession and weep before the Lord, who created us and at the end of the ages suffered and died for us. With fear and love, let us fall with our hearts and lips to these plagues - with fear: for until now our sins stink before Him and cry out for punishment for us; - with love: for these plagues and His death were raised by Him out of inexpressible love for us and, naturally, call us to love! Behold, Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world. How gratifying these words are for the soul of a believer! In them lies our strong hope for the infinite mercy of the Heavenly Father, who was reconciled with us lawless people through the sacrifice of righteousness offered on the cross for our sins, i.e. the endless sacrifice of His Son. How many times have we sinned in one day and hour, not to mention the sins of our entire accursed life! How our sins tormented us! But now we repented with faith and hope of our hearts, looked up to the Savior, sighed, shed tears over our sins; and they are cleansed, washed, forgiven; we have found peace, freedom, joy. What does it mean? This means that the Lamb of God, every day, every hour of all the days of our life, takes away our sins, takes away, cleanses, forgets them, saving us from eternal condemnation for them. Who hasn't experienced this? And that’s why, in front of such a bloody, soul-shaking spectacle, we stand reliably, and although with sadness, it is a sadness imbued with tenderness, joy and some kind of solemnity: for we are sure that in this Dead Man lies the life of all living, reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life. Throughout the entire universe, with the most reverent tenderness, Christians now bow to the wounds of the Savior and tenderly kiss them, and everywhere, with all the hearts of believers, the life-giving power of the saving suffering and death of the Lord is felt: for He continually and everywhere takes away the sins of all repentant sinners, has mercy, cleanses, renews, and saves. O our Savior! From how many spiritual deaths You saved me and each of us. I confess today, at this hour, before this pious assembly, O my Savior, Your mercies, revealed to me, a sinner more than all people, that You saved me from countless spiritual deaths, saved and are saving me from all sorrows, from all falls. And only by Your mercy have I hitherto not been in the pit of destruction, for I will say with the prophet David: mortal diseases have overcome me, and the sweat of iniquity has crushed me: the diseases of hell have overcome me, entrapping me in the snares of death. And always in my sorrows I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God (Ps. 17:5-7): and He always bowed mercifully to the cry of my heart, showed me His wonderful salvation, forgave my sins, destroyed my sorrows, and brought me out of terrible narrowness into the openness. Behold, Lamb of God, take away my sins! Behold, Lamb of God, take away your sins! Come, let us kiss the wounds of this Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world, with tears of repentance and with love. But You, O innumerable Grace, Lord of heaven and earth, send Your blessing upon us, awaken in us sincere repentance and unfeigned love; Be patient with the world perishing in sins, and with Your amazing signs awaken it from the heavy sleep of sin. Amen. Word on Holy and Great Friday “My God, my God, have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). Thus, he who was nailed to the cross cried out for the sins of the world, and therefore for you and me, brothers and sisters, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus. My God, My God! Why did you leave me? - He cried out according to His human nature, which has weaknesses and not sins. But how could God the Father, who sent Him into the world to save the world, abandon His only begotten, His beloved Son? The Divinity was inseparable and will forever remain inseparable from the human nature of Jesus Christ. This abandonment means, beloved brethren, that human nature in Jesus Christ was exposed to all the torment, all the horror of the sufferings on the cross, all the terrible, mortal grief that He experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane before His capture by a gang of villains led by Judas Iscariot. He then began to be horrified and grieved and said to his disciples: My soul is grieved to death, stay here and watch with Me (Matthew 26:38). Imagine what the physical torment was, what was the sorrow of the all-righteous and all-loving sensitive soul of the God-man, who suffered execution for all human sins, for the sins of Adam and Eve and all their descendants without exception, and therefore for you and me! And you and I, brothers, are great sinners and are guilty of countless punishments for our countless iniquities. Judge, I say, judge, what was the sharpness, bitterness and burningness of the torment of the cross, what was the spiritual sorrow of the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, how hard it was to be abandoned by God, i.e. providing His humanity with all the bitterness of suffering, His soul with all the overwhelming, boundless, terrible sorrow. After this, you will understand in what state the soul of the God-man was hanging on the cross when He cried out: My God, why have You forsaken Me? Yes, she was, together with His most pure body, in a state of terrible, unimaginable and indescribable suffering. Know from here, man, whoever you are, the bitterness, absurdity, ugliness, abomination, madness, disgusting, painful, deadly nature of sin; know how unnatural it is for us, uncharacteristic of our divine nature, created in the image of God; and how they abhor the all-holy, all-perfect, all-good Divinity - and after this, judge, everyone, how we should deal with sin, which seduces us and defiles and perverts our nature - corrupting it, plunging it into eternal dishonor, into eternal sorrow, into eternal torment, if we do it, i.e. We will not hate sin with all our souls if we do not repent of our iniquities, if we do not completely turn away from sin. Imagine, imagine what would happen to us if the only begotten Son of God had not suffered for our sins and did not satisfy the righteousness of God - and if God had left us forever with His grace? Oh, one imagination, one light idea of ​​it chills the blood and plunges the soul into trembling. Oh, if only I and all sinners would always remember this abandonment of unrepentant sinners by God, especially when sin tempts us, and everyone would flee from sin more than from a snake, - than from a bloodthirsty beast, - than from a cruel enemy! Oh, then there would be many more people being saved; then the earth would not be struck by terrible disasters for the sins of man: crop failures, floods, destructive earthquakes affecting thousands of human lives, widespread diseases, damage to fruits, destructive fires. Then it would be God's paradise, abounding in truth and all sorts of natural gifts of God. Then there would be peace and security on earth; there would not have been these terrible atrocities, among which we recently saw the most terrible of the terrible - the brazen and vicious murder of a peaceful and loving king, meek, in broad daylight. Oh, how the world is now filled with lawless men and iniquities! But how long will it continue to exist, this sinful world, this earth - the dwelling place of sin, stained with the blood of innocent victims, this accumulation of all sorts of abominations? Isn’t the time of worldwide fiery cleansing already approaching? Yes, it is, of course, already close. If the apostles in their time spoke about its nearness, then we can speak even more decisively about the closeness of the end of the age. Brothers and sisters! While we still have time, let us approach the Savior of the world with ardent repentance and kiss His wounds endured for us with love and tears. Let us love truth, let us love mercy, that we may receive mercy. Amen. Beloved brethren, now the bright week has passed and taken with it our deeds to the throne of the heavenly Lord and Judge: there, brethren, there now are our deeds. I say this in order to terrify with the fear of heavenly judgment those who spent the holiday of the Holy Resurrection of Christ unworthily and in a non-Christian manner, and to console those who spent it in abstinence and spiritual joy. How did many people celebrate and spend the holiday of Bright Resurrection? I would not like to bring to mind the bad deeds of men, but we must remember them and condemn them on behalf of God, along with the persons who committed them. The all-bright holiday was greeted after the bright Easter service with dark deeds: intemperance and drunkenness, fights, foul language and every kind of sin. You might think that we fasted before the holiday only in order to rush with greater greed into all carnal sinful deeds, so that with greater shamelessness and impudence we would indulge in all lawlessness. Alas! woe, woe to us! All those who celebrated the holiday with intemperance and drunkenness, adultery, foul language and other similar carnal deeds, lost all the benefit that they received (if only they received) from fasting, lost the benefit from repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries, trampled them under their feet like foolish animals, lost the favorable time for salvation given to us by the mercy of the Lord - and will no longer turn back this time. Behold, now is the time favorable, behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2), it was fitting to tell you during holy fasting: for then only did you approach the saving bath of repentance and the all-cleansing of the faithful Mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord. From now on, your confession and communion have been postponed until a future fast, and who knows whether the Lord will vouchsafe you or not to confess and receive communion? Who knows whether you will not die in those very iniquities with which you again defiled yourself after the bath of repentance? How painful, how pitiful, beloved brethren, that so soon you turned out to be traitors to Christ and gave yourself over to the side of the devil in order to serve him, the original murderer, the author and teacher of all sin! You, I tell you in the words of the Savior, and I, too, am a great sinner, you are of your father the devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father (John 8:44). What remains for us to do, beloved brothers? – Pray and cry about your sins. Cry over the fact that many of us celebrated the holiday not in a Christian or even human way, but like vile idolaters and like wild animals who were not allowed to eat for a long time, who were not fed their favorite food for a long time; to cry because the greatest, soul-saving sacraments of Christ - repentance and communion - have been trampled underfoot and they have been imputed to nothing; cry that the time given for salvation was recklessly lost. Let us weep and pray to the Lord, so that He will not be completely angry with us, and will not destroy us with our iniquities, 1 but will turn us to the path of repentance and make us skillful fulfillers of His commandments. Let us firmly decide from now on not to indulge in intemperance and drunkenness and all the sins that result from them, and with tears we will ask the Lord to strengthen us with the grace of the Holy Spirit in our intentions and good deeds. Brethren! Let us all shed tears, for we all unworthily celebrated the greatest feast of the Lord and we all angered our Lord: this is not how, this is not how we all truly need to celebrate the feasts of the Lord. We must meet them with spiritual joy in the Lord about our deliverance from sins and eternal salvation through Christ, the Son of God, through works of mercy, abstinence from passions, and visiting the church of God in spirit and truth. The one who truly celebrates the resurrection is the one who himself rose from dead works for works of virtue, for faith and Christian love, who trampled on intemperance, luxury and all passions. Brethren! Let us celebrate the feasts of the Lord as Christians, and not as pagans! Amen. So our feast of feasts has passed: the royal doors in the churches of the Lord are closed, and the service has become less solemn than it was on Bright Week. What, brothers, has this holiday left in our souls? After all, Christian holidays pass in their regular order before us not in order to leave our souls idle, but in order to abolish, free us from the worries and affairs of everyday vanity, in other words: the Lord gives us holidays for this reason, so that we temporarily stop thinking, caring, rejoicing or grieving about everyday things, about earthly, fleeting things, and think, care, and rejoice about heavenly, eternal things. This is precisely why the past holiday was given to us. The all-bright feast of the Resurrection of Christ is for this reason that the Lord has vouchsafed us to see in it the firstfruits of the general resurrection of the entire human race on the last day of the world: Christ has risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died (1 Cor. 15:20), says the Word of God. For us, after all, the Lord suffered, died, was buried and rose again: and His death, burial and resurrection are, as it were, our own death, burial and resurrection. That is why we sang at matins on Bright Week: yesterday I was buried in You, Christ, today I am risen to You 2. Yes, we will certainly all rise again and we all have tea, i.e. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead. This is as certain as it is certain that tomorrow will be a day. Has this ever occurred to you, have you thought about it during the holiday? But I definitely had to think about it. All great holidays are church holidays, and the holiday of Easter especially reminds us of our redemption through Jesus Christ from eternal death and of our resurrection for the life of the next century. But whoever believes in his resurrection from the dead prepares here for the future life, tries to live according to the commandments of the Lord, honors the Lord’s feasts and is extremely careful not to offend their holiness by deeds of carnal uncleanness. What did we do on this bright holiday, among us Orthodox Christians? And it’s shameful to talk; but it is necessary to speak. Out of the bright days of Easter week, Christians turned, to the greatest sorrow of the holy mother of the Church, into dark days, days worthy of tears and lamentation. Very many celebrated not the holiday of the Resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection from dead deeds, but the holiday of the demonic resurrection in their souls. Lent for the devil was defeat, death, because he ran away from many souls and, as it were, died for them after heartfelt repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries; and on the feast of Easter he rose again in very many souls. How was he resurrected? Through satiety, drunkenness, riotousness and other vices to which drunkenness leads and to which many Christians indulged. This is how Christians love Christ; This is how they celebrated the greatest holiday of the year! What benefit do such people have in the name of Christians? Many pagans live better than them and, without a doubt, are more worthy than them in the eyes of God. Gentiles and non-Orthodox people living in our city are surprised at their behavior on such a great holiday and say: here are you Christians, here are you Orthodox! They celebrate like true pagans, and what a holiday! This is what Gentiles and non-Orthodox people say about us. But what does the Lord Himself say about our holidays, or more precisely, about our celebration? My soul hates your holidays, and I will not endure a great day, says the Lord, that I will quickly be satisfied, for whom I will not endure your sins (Isaiah 1:14). Brethren! Who have we become like? How far have we forgotten? And the word of Scripture is fulfilled on us with all its power: a man who is in honor without understanding, is likened to foolish cattle, and becomes like them (Ps. 49:13, 21). Christ the Lord honored us with His name, washed us with His blood, made us chosen people, with a holy tongue (1 Pet. 2:9); but we have boldly, madly neglected the mercy of God and dishonored ourselves with various indecent acts. Do not flatter yourselves, brothers; neither drunkards, nor thieves, nor molesters, nor harlots, nor adulterers will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Yes, if you do not stop behaving this way, especially on holidays, which according to the commandment of the Lord must be kept holy, then you will not see the kingdom of God. Brethren! It is extremely necessary for us to be more prudent and more attentive to ourselves on the Lord’s feasts. The Lord will severely punish us for our unreasonable celebration. We must celebrate our holidays not according to the flesh, like idolaters, but according to the spirit, although physical celebration, if it happens together with the spiritual, is allowed and is not contrary to the Lord, but in this case it should never go beyond the boundaries of moderation. God is Spirit (John 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:17); Our soul, redeemed by the Savior, is spirit: therefore our holidays should be more spiritual than carnal. He who celebrates only according to the flesh celebrates not God, but his idol, his womb, or, what is the same, the demon of intemperance. God save everyone from such holidays! An abundance of carnal foods is allowed to Christians on holidays for the glory of God, that is, so that we eat and drink with moderation, thanking God, who with spiritual joy sends us bodily consolation in the variety and sweetness of foods and drinks, so that our joy does not lack. But spiritual joy on a holiday should always be higher than physical joy; but with us it’s the other way around. It is said in the commandment of God: remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Ex. 20:8); in our New Testament language this means: remember Sunday, do not forget its holiness and try to sanctify it yourself with your good deeds. God! grant us to always remember Your commandment about the celebration of holidays, to keep it sacred and to please You with spiritual celebration. Amen. “To him (Thomas) the friends of the disciples said: I have seen the Lord. But he said to them, “If I do not see the mark of the nails in His hand, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I have no faith” (John 20:25). Beloved! The holy Apostle Thomas, with his unbelief and the most sincere faith that followed him in the risen Lord, teaches those of little faith and all non-believers to sincerely believe in Jesus Christ. He especially teaches faith to people - Christians of the present time, who are very, too cautious in faith and are very afraid that they will not believe what they think may actually not be, and do not believe much that actually is. All such people are beautifully taught by the example of the Holy Apostle Thomas; - The Lord intentionally allowed him to doubt His resurrection from the dead so much precisely because He, as God, saw in the future time many unbelievers who needed to be convinced of His Divinity by the example of a person similar to them in unbelief: and such and such a person is Saint Thomas. He does not believe that Jesus Christ, as God, was resurrected by the power of His Divinity, although all ten apostles unanimously told him: I have seen the Lord, and promises to believe this only when he sees the wounds from the nails on him, when he puts his hand into the marks of the nails and into His ribs. Look what the unbelieving Apostle Thomas wants: he wants to put his hand into the wounds of the Lord and into His pierced side. This seems like too much. But what won’t the Lord do for us? Having endured the cross and death, He will also endure this unbelief of Thomas, if only everyone firmly believed that He, our Lord, had risen. And so, beloved, the resurrected Life-Giver condescends to the desire of the unbeliever: He deliberately appears to the apostles when they were all together, and Thomas with them, and says to Thomas: bring your finger here, look at My hands; raise your hand and place it in My side; and do not remain in unbelief, but believe. Thomas answered Him: My Lord and my God! After this, the Lord said to him: You believed when you had already seen Me; Blessed are those who, having not seen, believe (John 20:19–29). Beloved! many of us act like Thomas. Do we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as we should, wholeheartedly and consistently? We can probably say that we don’t believe so sincerely. Our life confirms this. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ more only when we see Him, i.e. when we take advantage of His obvious mercies towards us, when we receive from Him permission for our sins, when the good and easy yoke of Christ is upon our soul; when our affairs are going well, when we are healthy, prosperous in everything. But when passions torment our souls and our souls bear a heavy burden of sinful flesh and the devil, when heartbreaks, bodily illnesses, failures in work and in business in general make our life painful, then we very often lose faith in the Lord the Benefactor and often dare to think that there is no loving Father and Provider above us - God. Thus, the fickle human heart is ready every time to sincerely believe in the Lord in favorable circumstances and is capable of unbelief in sorrowful and unfavorable circumstances, while the truth of the Lord remains unchanged forever. The Lord is always the same Lord, whether He has mercy on us or punishes us. The Lord Jesus Christ is yesterday and today, the same and forever (Heb. 13:8). Remember the Lord who rose from the dead. He is eternally unchanged. Let us take every possible care to ensure the constancy and immutability of our faith. Let us often remember the Lord who rose from the dead. Let us remember that we will all rise in the general resurrection from the dead and at the Last Judgment of Christ we will give an answer about our lives - and then we will go either to eternal bliss or to eternal torment. Amen. “And Thomas answered and said to Him: My Lord and my God” (John 20:28)! So decisively did Thomas believe in the resurrection of the Lord from the dead when he touched His wounds on his hands and His wound in his most pure rib: You are my Lord and my God! those. who, by the power of His Divinity, defeated the death of the fallen Adam and granted resurrection to the entire human race. You are the conqueror of hell; You have again opened the doors of paradise to the fallen human race restored by You! This is how the previously unfaithful Thomas believed! Is this how we now believe in the risen Lord? Do we have evidence that we really believe? Do we feel the divine actions of our Savior in ourselves and on ourselves? Here we not only, like Thomas, touch our Savior, but taste His most pure Body and Blood. So what? Do we feel His Divinity at this time as the Apostle Thomas felt it by touch? Does our soul then cry out internally, like the Apostle Thomas: My Lord and my God! those. I see that You are in me, my Lord and my God, and I in You; for You have taken away the burden of sins from me; broke the bonds of sin and death within me; healed my spiritual ulcers; miraculously revived my soul and body, giving me divine peace, boldness, light, strength, and all blessings. Thus the Lord is now known tangibly by all who truly partake of His most pure Body and Blood. This is our bliss, our joy, our strength! We do not envy Thomas, who touched the Lord after His resurrection and became convinced by touch and convinced the whole world with his blessed unbelief in the resurrection of our sweetest Lord! We ourselves constantly touch and see the Lord, we see Him with the eyes of our hearts and always feel Him within ourselves. May God grant that everyone has such tangible faith. May God grant us all to live and act by faith, and to love the Lord as the Father who loved us, and to love one another, as He commanded, and to keep His commandments. Amen. Word for the Week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women “Last Sabbath, Mary Magdalene and Mary bought spices for James and Salome, so that when they came they would anoint Jesus” (Mark 16:1). The current Sunday in the rite of the church is called the week of the myrrh-bearing women, that is, those disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ who, after His death on the cross on the third day, early in the morning, came to His tomb with aromas and peace, i.e. fragrant ointment for anointing His life-giving body. Among the myrrh-bearers, all the Evangelists first mention Mary Magdalene, from whom the Lord, before His suffering and death, cast out seven demons; behind her is another Mary, the mother of the Apostle James and Josiah; Salome, mother of the apostles James and John the Theologian; Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, Susanna, and Martha and Mary, sisters of Lazarus. All of them were so sincerely devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ that serving Him was considered their highest duty and greatest happiness; all of them, except Martha and Mary, were companions of the Lord Jesus Christ during His travels through Judea and Galilee preaching about the kingdom of God, learned from him faith and holy life and, possessing sufficient means of life, served Him in earthly needs from their estates. And Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, without accompanying Him, often received Him into their home and here they expressed their love, devotion and gratitude to Him in caring meals and diligent attention to His word. During the last visit of the Lord to the Lazarus family, Mary’s grateful love was poured out in the fact that she, taking a pound of pure spikenard precious myrrh, poured it on the head of the Lord Jesus and thus, even before the death and burial of the Lord, she entered into the rank of myrrh-bearers. The Lord said about her: wherever this Gospel is preached throughout the world, what she did will also be told in memory of her (Mark 14:9). This powerful prophetic word of the Creator of centuries is being fulfilled to this day when the Gospel is read in all churches in glorifying her zeal for Jesus Christ, like the other myrrh-bearers. In all fairness, the Holy Church honors their memory, paying due tribute to the praise of their faith and ardent love and devotion to the Lord, Who was incessantly pursued by the envy and malice of the high priests and scribes and elders of the Jews. The Holy Church, through the example of the myrrh-bearers, teaches us sincere faith, ardent love and unchanging devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ throughout our entire lives, in every state, among all the vicissitudes of the world, in happiness and misfortune, in sorrow and joy, in wealth and poverty, in health and illness, in silence and storm of soul. Nowadays there is no need for myrrh to anoint the most pure body of the Lord Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven, just as then, in the days of earthly life, for Him, in fact, it was not necessary, for the divine body itself emitted a wonderful fragrance of the Divine, as a source of fragrance, holiness and incorruptibility for all who believe in the Lord. But, since we ourselves are the body of Christ, and individually members (1 Cor. 12:27), then we all need to bring Him as a gift, in our own person and in the person of our neighbors, the ointment of virtue, the ointment of faith, hope and love; the world of meekness, humility, kindness and obedience; abstinence, purity and chastity; – holiness and sublimity of thoughts and feelings; – alms and mutual assistance; – non-covetousness and generosity; - the world of patience and generosity, justice and fidelity, impartiality and righteousness. Let's talk about this in more detail. I said: instead of the myrrh-bearing world, we will bring to the Lord the world of virtues and, firstly, faith. The faith of a Christian, personal, living faith based on the Gospel, is true peace for the Lord: He has always been and is now comforted by the simplicity of faith in people and generously rewarded and rewards with miraculous gifts those in whom he found it: your faith will save you: go in peace (Mark 5:34); go, and as thou hast believed, thou shalt receive it (Matthew 8:13); According to your faith it will be unto you (Matthew 9:29), He said to those who believed. But unbelief, on the other hand, greatly upset the Lord and withdrew the gifts of His goodness from people. O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you (Matthew 17:17)? He spoke to the unfaithful and those of little faith, and unbelief tied, so to speak, the hands of the Almighty. The Holy Evangelist Mark notes that Jesus Christ in His Fatherland (Nazareth) could not perform any miracle, only laying His hands on a few sick people and healing them. And he marveled at their unbelief (Mark 6:5–6). Believe undoubtedly, Christian, in the Lord, in His goodness, omnipotence, wisdom, omnipresence; ask, without hesitating in the least, what you need, and you will receive: everything, says the Lord, that you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive (cf. Matthew 21:22). So, let living faith be your peace in the Lord. Bring Him this ointment of faith every day as a gift; Confessing your sins, remove yourself from the works of darkness, do the works of light, and faith with repentance will justify you and show you as a partaker of eternal glory. Conquer and dispel the doubts that arise in you and are brought to your soul by spirits of wickedness or by unbelieving people, dispel the unbelief that dominates the world, as if man was not created in the image of God, as if there is no economy of human salvation, as if there is no resurrection, immortality and judgment, as if the fate of a person after death will be similar to the fate of an animal, as if with the death of a person everything will end. Hold fast to the Gospel and the Church, this unshakable pillar of truth, which even the gates of hell will not prevail forever: and you will be blessed by your faith. Combine with faith your trust in God’s mercy, in His providential care for you and for all people, for the fulfillment of the promises and prophecies of the Divine in the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures are about the resurrection of the dead, about the Last Judgment, about reward for the righteous and sinners. Combine love and good deeds with hope. Hoping to receive great, incorruptible, endless blessings, move away from all sin and create holiness in the fear of God, for without holiness no one will see the Lord; being worthy of mercy from God, be merciful yourself: and this will be like your peace to the Lord. If your passion, your evil skill and the spirit of malice incite you to anger, rage, envy, disobedience, do not give in to evil; overcome evil desires; master the passions; do not be angry, do not be irritated with your neighbor for guilt or without any guilt; do not envy, do not be jealous of those who commit lawlessness; willingly obey those who have power over you, even if what is commanded is contrary to your sinful inclinations; do not give the devil even one foot in your heart; maintain love for your neighbors, a meek and quiet disposition of spirit: and this will be from you true peace, a fragrance to the Lord, and the Lord, who rests in humble hearts, will rest in you too. – If your belly, greedy for food and drinks, is struggling with you, often dragging you towards excesses, forcing you to bring fat sacrifices and libations to it every day, especially if you are overcome by drunkenness, take a firm decision, with God’s help, not to servile it anymore, since it turns you away from love and service to God and your neighbor, makes you a slave of the devil and corruption, and reduces you to the level of dumb cattle; fight stubbornly, even to the point of sweat and blood, with your passions and lusts, for they too are extremely stubborn. Remember more often the words of the Apostle: meat is meat to the belly, and the stomach is meat: God will bring to naught both this and this (1 Cor. 6:13); or: the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but truth and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 14:17), and be abstinent, eating as much food and drink as is necessary for strengthening, vigor, and health; and - bring abstinence instead of peace as a gift to the Lord: and the Lord will give you the Spirit of His grace. - Or you are overwhelmed, disturbed by unclean thoughts and feelings, lawless, voluptuous movements of the flesh: take care - do not allow this stench of sin to reach your heart, for an unrighteous thought is an abomination to the Lord, as the Scripture says (Prov. 16:26); fight, drive out passionate thoughts, do not allow the unclean, hellish fire to engulf you; keep your soul and body in shrines: and now you will bring the Lord as a gift the myrrh of purity and chastity; and the Lord will crown you for your chastity, like Joseph the chaste. Try to have a soul elevated above worldly passions; remember her divine nobility (the image and likeness of God), her heavenly fatherland and do not be defeated by coarse, unclean earthly lusts that disfigure her face. Express the nobility of your soul mainly in deeds of love: if you see a hungry person holding out his hand to you with a pitiful look, do not regret giving him bread and stew: and the Lord will accept this from you instead of peace; if you see a naked person, put it on: He who received the custody of His body from Joseph of Arimathea will accept it from you as a gift. Take part in the situation of the sick person, visit him, serve him; or bring the stranger into the house and give him rest: and the Lord will say to you at the Last Judgment: you did this to one of My brothers, you did this to Me: inherit the kingdom prepared for you (cf. Matthew 25:40, 34). Or are you stingy and selfish? But what self-interest is greater and richer than that self-interest, how to save your soul for eternal life, a soul that is more valuable than the whole world? So, give your treasures or part of them - this decay, smoke, dust - to Christ in the person of the poor and buy a soul, its salvation through alms, bring Christ the ointment of mercy, so that He will give you His ointment of salvation. How many different types of virtues with which you can please Christ! But suppose that you yourself are haunted by envy, ill will, slander and slander and various intrigues of enemies: be patient and be generous; look at the example of Christ the Savior, who endured much more for us; Do not have the baseness of spirit to respond to your enemies in the same way; conquer evil with good, hatred with love, ill will with a sincere desire for good: and your feat will be greater for the Lord than the feat of Nicodemus, who, despising the reports, threats and hatred of the enemies of Jesus, came together with Joseph to remove the body of the Lord from the cross and brought aromas to anoint the most pure body. -Are you the boss? Lead with care, enter into all matters yourself; Do not rely on helpers in everything, so that no one gets offended or untruthed; be fair and accessible to everyone, like a father; for you are placed high not for yourself, but for others, so that everyone can see you more easily and the sooner they can find you and find cover and protection in you. Such service of yours, along with your other good qualities and deeds, will be a true fragrance to the Lord, Who for our salvation Himself took on the form of a servant and offered Himself as a sacrifice of fragrance to His Father. -Are you a judge? May your judgment be just, swift, and equal for all; do not lean towards the side of the rich and powerful who are unjust, and do not deprive the insignificant and poor people of justice, oppressed by the unjustly rich. Then the Lord will cover your sins and untruths with His righteousness when you repent of them, and will not send you away to another side. -Are you a merchant? Conduct trade honestly, according to your conscience, give from your surplus to the poor: and the Lord will bless you for your honesty and alms and accept them as the fragrance of the world. -Are you an official, an official? Be faithful to the oath you have taken, diligent in your work and satisfied with your condition; fulfill the duties of a Christian to the best of your ability: and you will not lose your reward from Him from Whom is the whole order of nature and the order of civil societies and Who Himself was subject to the authorities. – Let us all serve Christ with sincere faith and love, serving each other with all our hearts, so that we all may be worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit and be a pleasant aroma to the Lord, completely freed from the stench of sin. Because of worldly passions and lusts, let us not foolishly fall from the heights of redemption to which the grace of God has placed us, but let us ascend to the honor of the heavenly calling, in imitation of the holy myrrh-bearers, who, having labored temporarily for God with faith and love, inherited the heavenly fatherland, live even after the death of the body and are glorified by God in heaven and on earth. Amen. Teaching on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women and Righteous Joseph “Amen I say unto you: Wherever this gospel be preached in the whole world, it is said, And do this in remembrance of her” (Matthew 26:13). This week, beloved, our holy mother Church remembers the holy myrrh-bearing women and the handsome Joseph, who took down the body of the Lord from the cross. How good it is to serve the Lord Almighty with all your heart, no matter what! What a reward this man receives from the generous God! The reward is within yourself - in your conscience, the reward outside of you - in the grateful memory of people, but what is higher and dearer than all is the reward in the memory, in the eternal memory of you of the Lord God Himself and in eternal glorification from Him in heaven! Here is an example from the gospel story. Once, when our Savior was in Bethany - in the house of Simon the leper, a woman approached Him with a glass of precious ointment, broke the vessel and poured myrrh on His head, and anointed His feet, which she wiped with her hair. The whole house was filled with the fragrance of peace. When others were indignant at the waste of the precious ointment, the Lord praised her and said: She has done a good deed for Me: having poured this ointment on My body, she has thus prepared Me for burial. Truly I say to you: wherever this gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what she did will also be told in memory of her (Matthew 26:6-13). This prophecy of the Savior, as you see, is being fulfilled to this day throughout the whole world, wherever there are churches of the Lord; Every year her praiseworthy zeal for the Lord is praised in the ears of the whole church and will be praised until the end of time. So, beloved, it is good to serve the Lord with all your heart, with great love! The memory of you will be preserved throughout all centuries until the end of the world! Your memory will be eternal in heaven; Eternal joy and glory to you in heaven! Moreover, even on earth it is so pleasant for you, as it is not pleasant for any of the people who do not serve the Lord with all their hearts. Proof of this are all the saints - apostles, prophets, saints, martyrs, saints and righteous ones. They served the Lord with all their hearts on earth - and from century to century they are glorified on earth; eternal glory to them in heaven. But let us move on to the myrrh-bearing women and to the handsome Joseph. All the holy myrrh-bearing wives, who came to the tomb of the Savior out of great love for Him - to anoint His buried life-giving body with aromas, are also glorified in all the churches of the universe - and also according to the dispensation of the Lord, who rewarded their love and zeal with eternal memory of them in people, but especially with His memory in His heavenly kingdom and eternal joys in heaven. The names of these holy women according to the Gospel are as follows: Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James the little and Josiah, Joanna, or Anna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, Salome and some others. But Saint Joseph the graceful, who served the Lord by removing His life-giving body from the cross, is also blessed with divine songs from year to year, from century to century, and will be blessed until the end of time throughout the whole earth, and, as you all see, his venerable name shines in golden letters on the Shroud of the Lord in all churches. How he shines in heaven, how he will shine at the second coming of the Lord to earth! How good it is to serve the Lord! The memory of the saints, who served Him with faith and love, passes and will pass from century to century, and no one will ever blot out, will be able to blot out their memory among people; and in heaven to them be glory eternal. And what if we, beloved, could also participate in the glory of the holy myrrh-bearing women and in the glory of the holy righteous Joseph - what if we, too, did something similar to what they did, if we also brought myrrh to the Lord, although not the same as the myrrh-bearing women brought, but no less valuable; - What if we could do something similar to the work of the righteous Joseph? How glad we would be for this! After all, the Lord is the same yesterday and today, the same forever (Heb. 13:8). It is possible, beloved, for us too, not just once or twice, but many times, to do deeds very similar to the deeds of the holy myrrh-bearers and righteous Joseph, and therefore we can expect a reward equal to them. In the Gospel of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ there are words that are very comforting for us, priceless for us, true, like her and the amen: since you have made one of these least of my brethren, you have created for me (Matthew 26:40). What can we do for the lesser brothers of the Lord Jesus? – To feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked or those who do not have necessary and decent clothing, to visit the sick, to help him recover, to visit prisoners in prison, to bury the dead in poverty (Matthew 25:35–36), i.e. Our love for our neighbors is myrrh for the body of the Lord. Christians are His body. The Church is His body (cf. Eph. 1:22–23; Col. 1:18), says the apostle. This is where our world is. Let us take this ointment to the least brethren of Christ, as if to the Lord Himself, and we will walk with it as long as there is breath in our mouths: and the Lord will certainly accept this spiritual ointment into His heavenly and mental altar, into the stench of a spiritual fragrance and will reward us for it with His eternal memory and will accept us into the eternal peace and glory of His heavenly kingdom. Let us each do good deeds according to our strength, and whoever is deprived of the opportunity to do deeds of mercy, weep for his sins, for the fact that you often anger the Lord with them - and your tears will be peace for the Lord; It is as if you will anoint His body with them, and the fragrance from them will spill into your soul, and the Lord Himself will descend into it, and smell the fragrance of your heartfelt contrition for your sins, and will give you forgiveness of sins, and will make you an heir of the kingdom of heaven, according to what is written: blessed are those who mourn: for these will be comforted (Matthew 5:4), i.e. there in heaven. I will also say something very comforting for the pious. Those of you who bury the dead in poverty and piety and pray for the repose of their souls - those, as if Christ Himself were taken down from the cross along with Joseph, as if His most pure body were buried, and they will have a reward in heaven, and the Lord will say to them: since you have created only these least of these, you have created for Me; you have buried at your own expense such and such a poor and wretched person: you have done this to Me: come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). This is the edification and consolation that the week of the myrrh-bearing women and righteous Joseph brings to us, beloved! Imitate the myrrh-bearers and righteous Joseph. Amen. Word for the Week of the Myrrh-Bearing Women Today the Gospel was read about the burial of the dead and life-giving body of Christ by Joseph of Arimathea, about the passage of the myrrh-bearing women with spices to the Holy Sepulcher to anoint the body of Christ and about the joyful good news to them of the Angel sitting in the tomb about the resurrection of Christ. There is an instructive lesson to be learned from this present Gospel for men and women, rich and poor, high and low. The rich and noble Joseph the noble serves as a good example of faith and zeal for Christ for all the rich and noble, who even now can in various ways demonstrate and prove their faith and zeal for Christ spiritually or materially, although not personally to Him, but to His members, His lesser brothers, the poor and unfortunate, the sick and sick, immersed in ignorance and vices, dying in squalor and misery; and the myrrh-bearers serve as a good example of the zeal and ardor of love for Christ for all women, who even now can, in various ways, according to their strength, means and circumstances, express their ardent love for Christ, who died and rose again, through various virtues, for example: sympathy and condolences for the mourning, fidelity to their Christian and family responsibilities, mercy for the poor, etc. Joseph with Nicodemus, the prince of the Jews, and the myrrh-bearing wife served Christ God a little and for a short time and inherited eternal life, eternal bliss for little labor, and are eternally blessed on earth for their zeal and love for Christ. Such is the power and glory of virtue! She lives forever and is forever glorified, while unrepentant vice and lawlessness are given over to eternal torment and eternal ignominy and damnation. Example - Judas the traitor, who, because of the love of money, betrayed his Lord to the lawless and ungrateful Jews; then, an example of this is the high priests themselves, the elders and learned people of the Jews - the scribes and Pharisees. Oh, the absurd love of money that corrupted and destroyed the soul of the former disciple of Christ and wonderworker! Oh, the blind envy and hatred of the leaders and scholars of the Jews, who did not recognize the Lord of glory and the greatest Benefactor, and gave over to unimaginably terrible suffering and a painful and blasphemous death! Oh, kind, compassionate and grateful souls of Joseph and Nicodemus and the holy women! With what love did you serve the Strange One, who came into His own and was not accepted by His own Lord, the Son of the beginningless Father, who created everything and governed everything and for the sake of His immeasurable love wanted to save everyone! The Church deserves to bless you in all ages! All pious Christians of all times remembered and remember you with love and surprise and, of course, will remember and glorify you until the end of the world. Let us, brothers and sisters, do good to everyone while we have time (Gal. 6:10), and we can do it, and in every possible way avoid dishonorable, shameful sins and passions that dishonor and destroy us forever. Let us love Christ as He loved us—let us love one another. Amen. A word a week about the paralytic On this day, the story from the Gospel of John was read about the healing by the word and command of Christ of the paralytic in Jerusalem, who was at the sheep pool. Here were “a great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, the withered, waiting for the movement of the water; for the Angel of the Lord from time to time went into the pool and disturbed the water, and whoever entered it first after the water was disturbed was recovered, no matter what disease he was suffering from.” The paralytic healed by Jesus Christ remained at the designated font for thirty-eight years. “Jesus, seeing him lying down, the evangelist narrates, and learning that he had been lying there for a long time, said to him: Do you want to be healthy? The sick man answered Him: Yes, Lord; but I do not have a person who would lower me into the pool when the water is troubled; when I arrive, another has already descended before me. Jesus says to him: get up, take up your mat and walk. And he immediately became well, and took up his bed and went. It was on the Sabbath day. Therefore the Jews said to the healed man: Today is Saturday; You shouldn't take the bed. He answered them: He who healed me said to me: take up your bed and walk. They asked him: Who is the man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk? The healed one did not know who He was, for Jesus hid himself among the people who were in that place. Then Jesus met him in the church and said to him, “Behold, you are made well; Don’t sin anymore, lest something worse happen to you. The man went and announced to the Jews that the one who healed him was Jesus” (John 5:1–15). This Gospel presents us with many instructive and moral things. The miraculous font or pool in Jerusalem represented the Christian baptismal font, in which they receive healing from mental illnesses, i.e. from sins, not one, not two, but all immersed in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit according to the faith of them or their successors; - and it is no longer the Angel of the Lord, but the Holy Spirit Himself, the life-giving Lord, descends into the font and sanctifies the water and gives it the grace of renewal, revitalization, healing of mental and physical ailments. Who interceded and gave us this font of grace for rebirth, cleansing and sanctification? - Jesus Christ. Without this font, we would be eternally indecent, unworthy not only of adoption by God, but also of the view of God; for the Lord God is the purest Spirit and abhors all uncleanness of sin. Let us all carefully preserve the spiritual robe of baptism, the robe of purity and incorruption, and the betrothal of the Holy Spirit, which we were awarded at baptism; and if we have already defiled this clothing with various sins and passions, then let us take care to cleanse ourselves with sincere repentance and spend the rest of our life in repentance and virtue and preparation for eternity; for we are all called by the Lord to holiness and righteousness (Eph. 5:9) and to eternal life. The unfortunate paralytic was sick for thirty-eight years, lying on his bed, and could not be healed because he was helpless and did not have a person who would immediately lower him into the pool when the water in it was disturbed by an Angel; Only the Lord, taking pity on him, immediately healed him, saying to him later: Behold, you have recovered, sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you. This paralytic person represents all of mankind, suffering from sin, who have suffered from sinful relaxation for so many thousands of years. One Christ God, the only righteous and holy one, who sacrificed Himself for us to God the Father to deliver us from sin, can heal us from sinful weaknesses, these forerunners of eternal death to which unrepentant sinners will be subjected; but for our complete healing from sin, He requires only perfect repentance, which, although it is a matter of our free will, is at the same time the greatest gift of God’s goodness to us. So, relaxed and depressed sinners, let us bring to God complete, sincere repentance, proven and justified by good works, so that we may be granted mental and physical health from Christ God, and most importantly, eternal well-being and bliss in the future life, for which we have been redeemed by the suffering and death of the Son of God. Only warm, ardent repentance cleanses sins and gives our heart health, peace, tranquility, light, strength and strength - boldness and joy; Only the lacrimal font heals us from the terrible, malignant disease of sin. Let us cry over our sins. God! Grant us tears that cleanse the filth of our hearts, 3 so that we may please You with them. What prevents you from repenting and shedding tears for your sins? These means of salvation are always with you, if only you have faith in Christ, trust in His mercy, invincible by all our sins. There is no need now to wait until the water in the pool is disturbed, and now this pool, which at one time was the image of our baptismal font and tearful font of repentance, no longer exists. Now you can be healed in your lacrimal font every day and hour as soon as you repent. Our sweetest Savior Himself stands at the doors of your heart and knocks on them, so that you will open the doors to Him through your repentance: and He will come to you and heal you, and strengthen and comfort you. Behold, I stand at the door, says the Lord, and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me (Apoc. 3:20). Glory to Thee, our all-merciful Savior, every day and hour, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Listen, my brothers, to the word for today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. This reading speaks of the healing by the Apostle Peter in the name of Jesus Christ of the paralytic Aeneas, a certain man in the city of Lydda, and of the resurrection from the dead by the same Apostle Peter in the city of Joppa (Jaffa) of one virtuous Christian woman named Tabitha, through prayer and the command to stand up (Acts 9:32–42). What is noteworthy about this reading? – The strong faith of the Apostle Peter in Christ the Savior and the divine, life-giving power of Christ are worthy of note. Peter sees before him a paralytic man who has not moved for eight years, and immediately heals him in the name of Jesus Christ. Aeneas! he says to the sick man, Jesus Christ heals you; get out of your bed. And he immediately stood up. The word was followed by deed. What a power of faith in Christ God! What power is the name of Christ! It instantly revived dead limbs and gave them the strength of youth! But what a close union of Peter with Christ! What Peter wants, the Lord also wants! What Peter commands, the Lord also deigns, and the Lord immediately fulfills it. This is how closely Peter, who denied Christ, was united with Christ through repentance and faith! This is what unshakable faith I had in Him! What fiery love! Glory to the mercy of Christ, which accepts repentant sinners! Glory to the divine power of Christ, working miraculously in those who believe in Him! But look further at how Peter works miracles by the power of Christ. So two people come to Peter to ask him to come to the same house where the deceased was. Peter got up and went with them; he is led into the upper room where the deceased Tabitha lay, asking him with tears to perform power in the name of God. Peter sends everyone out and, bending his knees, prays to the Life-Giver Christ God for the granting of life to the deceased and, turning to the body, says: Tabitha! stand up. And she opened her eyes and, seeing Peter, sat down. He gave her his hand and raised her; and calling the saints and widows, he brought her before them alive. See what miracles Petrov’s strong faith works! See what miracles the Life-Giver Christ God, risen from the dead and living forever and ever, performs through His faithful disciple! What will some of today’s people, called Christians, who are ashamed of the name of Christ and His saving sign and dare to equate Him only with an extraordinary person, not believing in Him as God, say to this? Didn’t all His words and deeds manifest and still manifest in Him the living and omnipotent God, as they will not cease to manifest until the end of the age? - For just as it is impossible for the sun not to shine and not to give life to nature, so it is impossible for Christ the Savior not to work miracles in His Church - not to give life to those who believe in Him. And to this day He performs an innumerable number of miracles with those who believe in Him, both in their souls and in their bodies, cleansing all sins of those who repent, driving away fierce sorrows from their hearts, giving peace, joy and boldness to their hearts, help in all kinds of needs, healing various diseases. All who live by faith know this from experience; and for this reason their faith is firm, and no one and nothing can shake it. Stand before us, you of little faith and unfaithfulness, and say that you once saw an unfaithful person in Christ, that you renounce Him and His Church in words and deeds and speak your absurd words into the wind? - But you believers, be established in your faith from day to day; study in it every day; try to follow the rules of faith, so that your faith does not grow cold, but burns and warms, cleanses, sanctifies and enlightens your hearts constantly; for the spirit of unbelief strives to shake faith in all hearts; Temptations for faith appear everywhere from people who are foolish and corrupt in mind and heart. Live by faith, fulfill church statutes; pray unceasingly with your mind and heart; call often on the sweetest name of Christ our Savior; attend divine services at the appointed times: and you will be with God, and God will be with you, and He will help you in everything, and especially in the most important thing - to live piously, in the fear of God, and save your soul. Amen. A Word a Week about the Samaritan “Jesus answered and said to her (the Samaritan woman): If you knew the gift of God, and who it is, say to you: Give me something to drink; you would have asked Him, and would have given you living water" (John 4:10). Now, during the Liturgy, the Holy Gospel was read about the conversation of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Samaritan woman from the city of Sychar about living water, or about the grace of the Holy Spirit, necessary for every person, - also about the worship of God in spirit and truth, and after the woman left - about the conversation of the Lord with His disciples about spiritual food, about spiritual fields and spiritual harvest. Today's Gospel thus speaks of many spiritual subjects that are very important and instructive for each of us. Let's talk this time, with God's help, although about the first two for our edification and salvation, i.e. about living water and worshiping God in spirit and truth. For greater clarity and intelligibility of the conversation, let us repeat part of the Gospel we read. “The Lord comes,” says the holy evangelist John the Theologian, to the city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the plot of land given by Jacob to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, weary from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about six o'clock (in our opinion, twelve to noon). A woman comes from Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her: Give Me something to drink (for His disciples went into the city to buy food). The Samaritan woman said to Him: How can You, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? for Jews do not communicate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her: if you knew the gift of God, and Who says to you: Give Me a drink, then you yourself would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. The woman says to Him: Master! You have nothing to draw from, but the well is deep: where do you get your living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and who drank from it, and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again; and whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. The woman says to Him: Master! give me this water so that I won’t be thirsty and won’t have to come here to draw. Jesus says to her: Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered: I have no husband. Jesus says to her: You said the truth that you have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband; That's right what you said. The woman says to Him: Lord! I see that You are a prophet” (John 4:5–19). Here we will pause reading the Gospel and talk about what we read. In what simplicity we see here the God-man, the Creator of heaven and earth, holding all creation with His hand, the King of angels and men! Tired, like a man, of traveling across rocky ground under the hot, burning sun, He sits at the well and talks, like a simple traveler, with a woman, moreover, a Samaritan woman, according to the current name - a schismatic, moreover, with a sinner who had an unlawful partner. Having come to the world to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance, the Lord wants to convert this sinner to repentance, and through her, many of her compatriots, and what does the all-wise Creator and Savior of men, who became like us in everything except sin, do for this? Regarding the water-bearing, He begins to talk with the woman about living water, or about the grace of the Holy Spirit, cleansing sins, quenching the thirst of the immortal soul, scorched by sins, extinguishing the fire of passions and the fire of hell, reconciling the soul with God. And how wisely and at the same time simply He leads her to the consciousness of sins, the need for repentance and renewal of life; how wisely he leads her to faith in Him as the true Messiah! As the Knower of the Heart, knowing her entire past life, full of sins, the Lord carefully, gradually awakens her conscience and forces her to confess her sins and thus feel with all her heart her spiritual poverty and misfortune, the need for faith in the Messiah-Savior, the thirst for God’s mercy, the justification of God, the thirst for purity and chastity, the thirst for enduring, eternal life. And so the Samaritan woman was caught in the saving faith. She believed in Jesus Christ and attracted her fellow citizens to the faith; repented of her previous deeds, began a virtuous life and developed such a fiery, holy love for the Lord that - as sacred tradition tells - she was not afraid to later confess His name before Jews and pagans and endure many sufferings for His sake - and received the crown of martyrdom under the persecutor of Christians, the Roman emperor Nero 4. Her name was Photina. So, the Samaritan woman was actually honored to receive from the Lord living water flowing into the eternal belly, or the grace of the Holy Spirit, which cleansed her from sins, quenched the thirst of her immortal soul, created in the image of God, poured into her heart living faith and fiery love for the Lord, strengthened her in the confession of His holy name and in the terrible torments she endured for Him and made her a partaker of life eternal. Is it clear now, after all that has been said, that there is living water, about which the Lord talked with the Samaritan woman at the well, and what saving effects it produces in us sinners? Living water, or the grace of God, is the saving power of God, acting in man for salvation through faith in Christ, disposing him to repentance and tenderness; - a power that confronts sin and conquers sin - a merciful, healing, cleansing, sanctifying, reconciling and uniting man with God, arousing and inflaming the human heart with love for God and neighbor; - a power that enlightens, comforts and spiritually nourishes, recreates and renews, perfecting the whole person, in others - miracle-working and insight into the innermost and secret. A person who has found grace from God manifests it in himself through various virtues: living faith, hope and love, sincere constant repentance, deep humility, quietness and meekness towards everyone, gentleness, self-control, purity, righteousness, contemplation of God, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, obedience, patience, holy boldness and zeal for every virtue. The Holy Apostle Paul writes about grace to his disciple Titus, bishop of the Church of Crete: The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, teaching us that, having rejected ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live chastely, righteously and piously in this present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from all things. lawlessness, and purify for himself a special people, zealous for good works (Titus 2:11–14). This grace, saving all people, is needed by all of us, my brothers. The source of this grace, the well of this living water is our Lord Jesus Christ or the holy Orthodox Church, onto which He abundantly poured out the Holy Spirit. Streams of life constantly flow within it in the Word of God, in the holy sacraments, in Divine services, especially during the celebration of the liturgy. Come, all of us, to draw here the free water of eternal life. Let us all seek grace more than all earthly treasures, as the saints sought it, who, in order to receive grace, despised the world lying in evil, with all its charming, fleeting blessings, despised and exhausted their many-passionate flesh in order to cleanse, sanctify, strengthen and elevate the sorrowful soul, suppressed and darkened by carnal addictions, in order to triumph over passions and lusts, love God, truth and holiness and eternal life with all your heart; for two masters cannot work. The Lord calls His grace living water, in contrast to dead water, with which the culprit of death and all evil, the devil, diligently tries to poison all people. This dead water, which many greedily drink, seduced by its apparent sweetness or considering its very bitterness to be sweetness, is sin in all its countless manifestations: pride, unbelief, heresy, schism, superstition, deceit, hypocrisy, anger, rancor, irritability, vindictiveness, ill will, malice, envy, gloating, blasphemy, sedition, disobedience to authorities, condemnation, gluttony, delicacy, gluttony, especially drunkenness, fornication, uncleanness, insolence, disobedience, blasphemy, stinginess, love of money, covetousness, hard-heartedness, theft, lies, deception, deceit, idleness with idle pursuits, laziness, neglect of the soul, unrepentance, cowardice, despondency, demonic fear, despair, etc. These are sources of dead water, flowing along with those in whom they flow - into eternal destruction. There is a cure for this dead water - repentance and humble faith combined with fervent prayer - at home and in church and with fasting; – communion of the body and blood of Christ, an all-powerful, constant struggle with one’s passions and vicious inclinations, diligent reading of the Word of God, stories about the lives of saints and their soul-saving writings; - remembrance of death and judgment and one’s wretchedness and insignificance. But let us continue reading the Gospel about the Lord’s conversation with the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman says: “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain (meaning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by fathers); and you say that the place where one should worship is in Jerusalem. Jesus says to her: Believe Me, that the time is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You do not know what you are bowing to; but we know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews. But the time will come, and has already come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father seeks such worshipers for Himself. God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman says to Him: I know that the Messiah will come, that is, Christ; when He comes, He will tell us everything. Jesus says to her, “It is I who speak to you” (John 4:20–26). After this, the woman left her waterpot at the well, hurriedly went into the city and announced to everyone about the wonderful Seer, and many of the Samaritans, seeing Him and hearing His word, believed in Him. What does it mean to worship God in spirit and truth? - It means to believe that God in every place and in every place sees and hears those praying to Him, sighing to Him, repenting to Him, thanking and glorifying Him - and not in a certain place, for example, on some mountain, as the Samaritan woman thought, or only in the church, although without a doubt in the church God is closer to us, according to His own promise: where there are two, or three gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20), and especially because of His holy Mysteries celebrated here; - to bow in spirit and truth means to pray to God in communion with the Church with all your heart, with all your thoughts, with all zeal and reverence, with living faith, with firm hope - and not just uttering words without meaning and feeling, or nodding your head and moving your hand without living thought and living feeling. This last is not prayer, but only a lifeless shadow of prayer; it does not appease, but angers God. May God deliver each of us from such prayer. – Let us all learn to worship God in spirit and truth: by praying, we will bring to God the fruits of prayer: unfeigned repentance, correction of the heart and whole life, we will be zealous for every virtue. This will be the worship of God in spirit and truth. Amen. Today’s Gospel reading from John presents us with a wonderfully touching sight, beloved brothers and sisters! The beginningless, omnipotent, terrible in glory, unapproachable to the Angels, the Creator of heaven and earth, who took upon Himself human nature for the sake of saving people, sits at the well of Samaria and meekly talks with a woman, and even with a well-known sinner in the city - and what is he talking about? About what is needed by every person - what is most needed by each of us - about living water, or about the grace of God, quenching the thirst of the immortal human soul, scorched and exhausted by sins, about living water, cleansing human sins, giving a person the strength to live chastely and holy - and catches this daughter of Adam for salvation. Yes, I repeat, a wonderful and touching sight is presented to our eyes in today’s Gospel! The entire angelic nature marveled at the extreme condescension of the Creator of Angels and men, seeing His Lord, unapproachable in His divinity, a man accessible to all, conversing, eating food and drink with the sons of men, healing all their infirmities, enduring ingratitude and slander from many, and at the end of it all, the cross and death. But let us listen to the very story of the Evangelist John. “It was necessary,” he says, “for the Lord to pass through Samaria. So He comes to the city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the plot of land given by Jacob to his son Joseph (the same one who was sold by force, abuse and hatred by his own brothers to a foreign side, to Egypt, about two thousand years before Christ, and until our time about four thousand). Jacob's well was there. Jesus, weary from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about six o'clock (according to us, about twelve o'clock). A woman comes from Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her: Give me something to drink. (For His disciples went into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him: How can you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink? for Jews do not communicate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her: if you knew the gift of God, and Who says to you: Give Me a drink, then you yourself would ask Him, and He would give you living water. The woman says to Him: Master! you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: where do you get living water from? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well, and who drank from it, and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again; and whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life. The woman says to Him: Master! give me this water so that I won’t be thirsty and won’t have to come here to draw. Then Jesus says to her: Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered: I have no husband. Jesus says to her: You said the truth that you have no husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband; That's right what you said. The woman says to Him: Lord! I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that the place where one should worship is in Jerusalem. Jesus says to her: Believe Me, that the time is coming when you will worship the Father, neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You do not know what you are bowing to; but we know what we bow to, for salvation—i.e. Christ is from the Jews. But the time will come, and has already come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father seeks such worshipers for Himself. God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. The woman says to Him: I know that the Messiah will come, that is, Christ; when He comes, He will tell us everything. Jesus says to her: It is I who speak to you. At this time His disciples came and were surprised that He was talking to a woman; however, not one said: what do you require? or: what are you talking to her about? Then the woman left her waterpot and went into the city and said to the people, “Come, see a man, who told me all things that I have done: is not this the Christ?” They left the city and went to Him. And many believed in Him through the word of the woman, who testified that He told her everything that she had done... and they asked Him to stay with them; and He stayed (with them) there two days. And an even greater number believed at His word, and they said to that woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we ourselves have heard and known that He is truly the Savior of the world, Christ” (John 4:4-30, 39-42). So, the subject of the current Gospel is living water, or the teaching of Christ about our salvation and the kingdom of God in us, that teaching that you constantly hear in the Gospel and in Divine services; living water, or the saving grace of God, which through faith dwells in us and acts savingly in us, enlightening our heartfelt eyes, showing us sin in all its disgusting nakedness, abomination and destruction, inciting us to touching and complete whole-hearted repentance, cleansing sins, sanctifying us, reconciling us with God, comforting us with the hope of eternal pardon from God, strengthening and approving us in the fight against sin, against the devil, against passions, against the temptations of the world, protecting and saving us; this living water of Christ, or the grace of God, lies especially in the sacraments of the Church and is taught to all who sincerely participate in them. Another subject of the Gospel is prayer in spirit and truth and in every place, i.e. sincere prayer, from the bottom of my heart, at all times; for it is said: pray without ceasing (1 Sol. 5:17). But if there is living water that revives a person’s soul, water whose eternally flowing Source is the Lord Jesus Christ, then there is, of course, also dead water that kills a person’s soul forever and ever; this dead water is sin in all its forms, for example: drunkenness, prodigal uncleanness, foul language, riotousness, malice, envy, greed, hard-heartedness and unmercifulness, pride, unbelief, laziness and negligence about one’s salvation, despondency, despair and other sins, the beginning and source and teacher of which is the devil with his demonic army. So, brothers and sisters, do not come lazily, but diligently study the Word of God in the holy churches of God, pray with all your heart in spirit and in truth; bring heartfelt repentance for your sins, eat from the immortal Source of Christ; - correct your morals; turn away from sins; try in every possible way to walk the path of Christ’s commandments - achieve holiness in all your life, and you will finally inherit eternal life by the grace of Christ our God - just like that Samaritan woman about whom today is narrated in the Gospel; for she left her sinful life, began to do works of repentance, works of righteousness, believing in Christ with all her heart, loving Him with all her soul. According to church tradition, she became a martyr for His name. Amen. Today, beloved brethren, the Gospel of John was read about the healing by Jesus Christ of a man blind from birth: you have heard this divine story. The Lord, the Light of the world, performed this great miracle in this way: by spitting on the ground, He made clay from the spitting, i.e. a solution of earth with moisture, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, saying: Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which means: sent). He went and washed, and came seeing (John 9:6–7). But, more importantly, this blind man received his sight with his spiritual, not just his physical, eyes. He believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of the world, to the shame of all the wise and prudent among the Jews, who did not believe in the Lord despite all the multitude of His miracles, which clearly testified to His Divine omnipotence. This circumstance, i.e. The unbelief of learned and noble Jews in Jesus Christ as the God-man gives me reason to talk with you briefly about spiritual blindness, which is much more dangerous and more worthy of regret, and sometimes tears, than physical blindness. Vision is the noblest member of our mortal body and it gives a person the greatest benefit and pleasure, as each of us knows, and to lose sight means to lose almost half of one’s life: not to see the sun, not to see anyone or anything, not oneself, not others, not what is around us, not to see the beauty of heaven and earth, not everything that is in heaven and on earth and on the sea, and this almost means the same thing as being dead. But, brothers and sisters, a person, gifted by the Creator with a rational soul, capable of cognizing the truth, which is its life, and through pride, willfulness and stubbornness do not want to know it, going against his mind and conscience and God and people - isn’t he a most unfortunate blind man, unfortunate by his own free will, maliciously unfortunate, who himself voluntarily uses for evil the greatest gift of God to man - reason and free will, distinguishing him from all dumb animals, is he not the most ungrateful animal before his Creator, reproaching His wonderful gifts to His rational creatures? Isn’t there a voluntary fool or madman who has perverted God-given wisdom into madness and calls good evil or good evil and evil good, sweet bitter and bitter sweet? And such were the Pharisees and scribes and the high priests and elders of the people of Israel during the earthly life of Jesus Christ; seeing the miracles of Jesus Christ performed among the people, the most beneficent miracles, hearing His wise, saving teaching and seeing His completely righteous, holy, exemplary life, they attributed the miracles to the power of demons, perverted the meaning of His words, reviled Him as a madman and possessed and a flatterer or a deceiver, and finally, as a rebel villain, they put to shameful execution the most holy of all. saints, the Son of God. This is terrible mental blindness! Isn't she worthy of all disgust and bitter tears? For a person whose soul is blinded by pride and stubbornness is the most unfortunate, like a sure prey of hell, like a satanic fiend, imbued with the pride and malice of his father the devil. This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, when a person, out of pride and stubbornness, does not want to believe the obvious truth, proven by obvious miracles. There is no forgiveness for such a person either in this or in the next century (cf. Matt. 12:32), not because our sins defeat God’s love for mankind, but because the person himself perishes in pride, stubbornness, malice, lies and unrepentance. What gives birth to such blindness in a person? Why is she? - From extreme pride, pride and conceit, from a malicious disposition of the heart, from envy and from constant satiety and satiety. Eat and be filled: fat, thick, wide: and forsake God who created it (Deut. 32:15), says the Scripture. There are many such free blind people, sons of perdition, in our time, just as there have always been. In our time, these free or liberal blind people are produced either by free, not according to the reason of the Gospel, teaching that everything in the world happened by itself, by nature, that man, as a child of nature, disappears with his death, that supposedly there will be no resurrection and judgment and another endless age - or liberal conversations and, in general, community and conversation with frivolous, unbelieving people, or a contented, carefree, cheerful life, full of daily lawlessness and vices, in which the last Christian spark is extinguished. Even the hardened, blind souls are engendered by embitterment and despair, disobedience to existing authorities, a frantic, absurd intention to stand on their own, to carry out their absurd ideas or plans and intentions. Such are today's anarchists or nihilists who, in their blindness, think of re-creating and revolutionizing society in their own way, imagining that their plans are the best and will bring the greatest benefit to the people - almost a golden age. The damned themselves go straight to hell and do nothing but evil and dirty tricks, but dream of some benefit to the people. What good can you expect from them? A tree is recognized by its fruits, and nihilists by their hellish deeds. God, save the Orthodox people from such leaders! Brethren! flee from this blindness and from all blindness that is born from sinful passions: self-love, conceit and pride, malice, envy, waywardness and stubbornness, drunkenness and intemperance, greed, fornication and lewdness, despondency and despair. Amen. Word for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers “And now Thou, Father, glorify Me with Thyself with glory, for before I had peace there was no peace” (John 17:5). In the current seventh week after Easter, the Church remembers and glorifies the 318 holy and God-bearing fathers of the first ecumenical council, convened in the Greek city of Nicaea by Emperor Constantine the Great on May 20, 325 after the Nativity of Christ, to confirm the true teaching about the Son of God, shaken by the false teaching of the heretic Arius, who rejected the Divinity of the Son. God, and other like-minded people. Among the other holy fathers present at the Council of Nicaea were: Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Saint Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and accompanying him the young deacon Athanasius, a native of the city of Alexandria, whom Alexander greatly respected for his extraordinary gifts, for his intelligence, deep theological education, directness, courage, power of speech and for his high Christian life; Subsequently, he himself was elected archbishop of the city of Alexandria, after the death of Bishop Alexander. Also present at the council were Saint Paphnutius, Bishop of Thebaid in Egypt, Paul, Bishop of Neocaesarea, Spyridon, Bishop of Trimifunt, a great miracle worker, and Bishop of the island of Cyprus, Saint James of Nisibius, also a miracle worker, and others. All 318 fathers were from different countries. But, despite the extreme difference in the countries from which they came, the languages ​​they spoke, and the customs that these holy fathers adhered to, those who arrived at the council, with a unanimous confession of faith, testified that the teaching of Arius and his accomplices, who dared to deny the eternity of the Son of God and His consubstantiality with God the Father, is new, contrary to the apostolic teaching, alien to the church faith. The holy fathers equally testified that the symbol of faith they composed at the council, beginning with the words: I believe in one God the Father, Almighty... and known to all of you, is the universal faithful preacher of the apostolic Orthodox teaching, which is the faith of the entire Church and the tradition of the fathers. – This symbol, later supplemented at the second ecumenical council, sets out the apostolic teaching about the Holy Trinity: about God the Father, Creator of the world and Pantocrator; about the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the only begotten Son of God, born of God the Father before all ages, as Light from Light, true God from true God, uncreated, consubstantial with God the Father and Creator of all; incarnate, crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended into heaven and again coming to judge the whole world; and about the Holy Spirit, about the Church, about one baptism, about the resurrection of the dead and the future life. The Nicene Ecumenical Council is a God-wise preacher of the divine glory of the Most Holy Trinity, consubstantial and inseparable, and, in particular, the glory of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the God-Man. This faith, says Saint Chrysostom, the apostolic faith, stopped the lips of heretics and, like an unshakable wall, repelled all their intrigues. The Council of Nicea also determined that all Christians should celebrate the bright holiday of Easter not on another day of the week, but on Sunday - on the first Sunday after the spring full moon, as it is known that our Savior was resurrected on the first day that followed the Jewish Passover. The council also introduced possible uniformity in the rites of Christian celebration, deciding, among other things, by its 20th rule not to kneel in churches on Sundays and throughout Pentecost, in order to depict the resurrection of Christ by the very position of the body. In the Gospel at the liturgy, the Church pronounces the intercessory, or priestly prayer of the Son of God for the glorification of Him with eternal glory through the spread of the true knowledge of God in the world, for the protection of believers from hostility, their sanctification, unity among themselves and with God and their eternal bliss. In this prayer, Jesus Christ fully revealed His divine glory, calling Himself the Son of God, eternal, consubstantial and consubstantial with God the Father, Lord of all flesh, born of God the Father, the source of eternal blessed life for all. Reading the Gospel on Saints Sunday teaches believers to turn to God in prayer in all matters, and the more important they are, the more they oblige us to prayer. When He prayed, the Savior raised His eyes to heaven. If the Son of God combined external prayer with internal prayer, bowing his knees at times, raising his hands, lifting up his eyes to grief, then how necessary and important it is for us to accompany internal prayer with external signs or rituals, testifying to the abundance and liveliness of heartfelt feelings: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34), says the Lord. Brothers and sisters! thanks to God and our holy Orthodox Church - we were all born in the true faith, we firmly believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as well as in the Holy Trinity - God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; - and most of us, with our own experience, with our minds, souls and hearts and with our whole being, have experienced and known and are constantly experiencing and learning that Jesus Christ is the Giver of Life and God and our Savior: for He continually reveals to us and in us the signs of His goodness, truth and holiness and almighty power - He revives us for every hour and minute, us, mortified by sins, has mercy on the repentant, cleanses, sanctifies, pacifies, consoles, enlightens, strengthens, heals mental and physical infirmities, miraculously helps in our affairs and crowns them with the desired success; - directs our spiritual feet to the fulfillment of His commandments and even here gives us the opportunity to anticipate the beginnings of eternal life in heaven. May we all steadfastly hold to our saving faith, fulfilling its holy commandments and statutes, and may the Lord Jesus Christ be for us the beginning and the end of all our desires, thoughts and all our deeds, for to Him is the glory and power forever and ever. Amen. Lesson for All Saints Sunday “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Now we celebrate the memory of all the saints who fought the good fight of faith and virtue on earth and moved to heaven - for eternal peace and joy. The annual return to us of the present feast of memory of all saints is, brethren, nothing other than the many times repeated appeal of the departed saints to us, living on earth and struggling with the enemies of salvation for the sake of the future incorruptible kingdom, an appeal to follow in their footsteps. They tell us: you, our little brothers, strive without laziness for the future kingdom, just as we strived; let no obstacles stop you on the path to salvation, just as nothing stopped us; be courageous, firm in the fight against your lazy and sinful flesh, against the lures of a deceptive, fleeting light, against the machinations of the invisible enemy the devil, remember constantly that the kingdom of heaven is acquired through effort and only strong seekers will inherit it (Matthew 11:12), which through many sorrows you must enter into it (cf. Acts 14:22). We fought a lot, endured a lot, and for that we now rest in eternal and indestructible peace. You too will endure many struggles: eternal peace will come for you too. Living on earth, we heard the words of our Savior and Reposer: come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and with faith and hope you hastened to His call, came to Him, endured everything for Him and now have received from Him the promised rest; follow also: He will rest you in the bosom of His eternal love. But what? While the Master Himself and all the saints unanimously call us to eternal rest: we barely or completely pay no attention to their unanimous invitation and become attached to the earth with all our might; – we become attached to covetousness, carnal pleasures, and the search for temporary honors. How few people there are who would always have a future life in their thoughts and strive for it with all the strength of their souls! The primordial enemy has entangled Christians in his net because of their addiction to the blessings of the earth and extreme inattention to the benefits of their souls - having tied up their minds, imagination and hearts, so that they would no longer think or imagine or desire future blessings, which the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and has not risen in the heart of man (so they are superior to everything that is subject to the senses), which God has prepared for those who love Him ( 1 Cor. 2:9). So he closed heaven from them and turned them completely to earth: on earth they seek all kinds of pleasure and bliss and all blessings, and not in heaven, for which they were created and redeemed by the most pure blood of Jesus Christ. But there is no peace for the heart on earth: from earthly pleasures, after short-term carnal pleasure, the heart becomes empty, sad, and languid - and this is because it was created for life in God and for enjoying the pure, spiritual joys of the kingdom of heaven, and not for the earth and the enjoyment of earthly, perishing goods. In Me have peace (cf. John 16:33), says the Lord, i.e. Apart from the Lord, there is no true peace of heart anywhere on earth. Let us not forget, brethren, to more often recall the end of the holy confession (symbol) of our faith: “the tea of ​​the resurrection of the dead: and the life of the age to come” and to kindle in our hearts the faith that the general resurrection of the dead will certainly take place and reward for each person’s deeds will follow immediately. Behold, I am coming quickly, says the Lord, and My reward will be with Me, to reward everyone according to his work. Blessed are those who do His commandments, so that their territory may be upon the tree of the living, and the gates may enter into the city, i.e. to the heavenly city of Jerusalem (Apoc. 22:12, 14). Brethren! Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4), says the Apostle James. Therefore, do not love the world, nor what is in the world: for all that is in the world is carnal lust, and the lust of desire, and the pride of life. And the world passes away, and so does its lust: but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15–17). Cling your heart not to what is visible, but to what is invisible: what is visible is temporary, but what is invisible is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). Amen. Conversation on the third week of Pentecost “The eye is a lamp for the body: if your eye is simple, your whole body will be light; If your eye be evil, your whole body will be dark” (Matthew 6:22–23). The words of the Lord are a true lamp for us on the path of life: so are the words of the gospel now read; you just need to think about them more carefully. Let's think about it. The lamp of the body is the eye, says the Lord, i.e. the eye or eye is a lamp for the body; Why is it not said: eyes, but an eye? Because here the Lord does not mean the bodily eyes, but the spiritual eye, or our heart, which controls both the bodily eyes and with two eyes sees objects not double, but individually. So, by eye we mean the heart in which conscience is implanted, or the internal law indicating what is good and what is evil; that is why it is said: eye, not eyes; By body we mean our entire inner life, thoughts, desires, intentions, all our deeds that we do during our earthly life. This means that the meaning of the Savior’s words will be this: the heart or conscience is a lamp for a person on the path of his life, in all his thoughts, desires, intentions, words, in all his deeds. Further, the Lord says: so, if your eye is simple, then your whole body will be light: if, that is, your heart, your conscience, will be simple, pure, then all your thoughts, your desires, your deeds, intentions, your undertakings will be bright, right, pure; if your eye, your conscience, is evil, then your whole body will be dark, i.e. all thoughts, desires, intentions, undertakings, your whole life, all your deeds will be dark, wrong, crafty. So if the light that is in you is darkness; then what is darkness? If your heart, which was given to you from the Lord instead of a lamp, through your negligence has become darkness itself, then what will your whole life, all your deeds be like? Isn't this how it happens in life? Don't we see constant examples of this? Let's take an example from life. Let’s take a person with a simple heart, with a straight conscience, with a direct outlook on life, with an evangelical outlook, and a person with an evil heart or an evil conscience and partial to the world, to the flesh. All the actions of the former are imprinted with justice, diligence, straightforwardness of character, and goodwill towards one’s neighbor. The actions of the second bear the stamp of untruth, deception, hypocrisy, cunning, deceit, and insults of the other. The first is satisfied with very little and is not consumed by a thirst for much, for example, does not desire a luxurious table, many elegant and expensive clothes, - a thirst for wealth, a wide and richly decorated home, etc.; he has his daily bread and stew, a few changes of clean and decent clothing, a constant, although perhaps not rich, income or salary, or money earned through hard work, honest trade, industry, handicrafts, a healthy home, although not wide, without rich furniture: he is satisfied and thanks God; He doesn’t want more, because he considers it unnecessary; if he sees a small surplus, he would rather give it to his neighbors in need, but will not use it for any of his own whims. But look at the life of another person with an evil heart and an indirect, evil conscience. He is dissatisfied with nothing: his table is not a table, clothes are not clothes, housing is not housing, furniture is not furniture, and when the cup is full he wants it to be even fuller, his own is not enough for him, he must seize someone else’s, even with offense to his neighbor; for him this food is not good, he needs better, or his daily bread and stew are not enough, he needs wine, although there is no need for it at all; Yes, not just a little, that wouldn’t be a problem, otherwise someone needs a lot to get drunk; these clothes are not good, they are out of fashion, they need to be better; this housing is not so spacious and comfortable, it needs to be wider; this furniture is not good, we need new one; This income, this salary, this income is not enough, he needs more - and he can hardly be satisfied with anything: everything seems to be good with him, there is enough of everything - the man is well-fed and satiated, dressed luxuriously and whimsically, and he has a lot of excess - but he is still dissatisfied; Another, with his means of living, and even with less, and enough for himself, will have enough to spend on food and clothing for his neighbors in need, but he has little for himself and nothing for others. Why? Because his heart is deceitful, darkened, unreasonable, insatiable, passionate. Why is it like this? – Because he does not know the commandments of the Lord or does not want to know, he is not guided by the light of the Gospel of Christ. Because he does the will of his blind, passionate flesh and his thoughts. No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be zealous for one and neglect the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. What are the two masters here who cannot be served at the same time? One is the Lord and God, the other is wealth or our sinful flesh, in which the devil operates, trying to chain it to the world. Obviously, it is impossible for God and the sinful flesh to work together: precisely because God demands from us holiness, the unwavering and precise fulfillment of His will, and the flesh constantly incites us to sin - to gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, envy, enmity, covetousness and love of money, laziness, etc. How to reconcile serving God and the flesh? Obviously it is impossible, the word of God directly says that those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24) - and by no means serve the sinful flesh, do not please it. Do not please the flesh through lust (Rom. 13:14), says the holy Apostle Paul. And it always happens that whoever pleases his flesh is negligent about pleasing God, about the salvation of his soul, about his correction, about a virtuous life, he does not correct his heart, does not strive in spirit for the heavenly fatherland, but is completely chained to the earth, to earthly pleasures. He who loves his sinful flesh does not love God, His commandments seem burdensome to him, he does not love his neighbor: he does not care about his salvation, because he does not care about his own; will not help him in need, because he loves himself too much and would rather fulfill his own whims than give up his property for the needs of his neighbor. Therefore I say to you, continues the Lord, do not worry about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing? Inappropriate, unreasonable, too much concern for food, drink, clothing, is very, very harmful to Christian life: it is what the Lord previously called serving mammon. This wrong concern of ours about food, drink and clothing turns, so to speak, our whole life upside down: instead of caring mainly about the soul, about its cleansing, correction, sanctification, in general, about salvation, we worry every day about pleasing our greedy belly, and about what to wear, and leave the soul - this immortal being created in the image and likeness of God - perishing alive in sins in neglect, without correction, or even - daily we add sins to sins; we satiate and satiate the body, but leave the soul to starve; We decorate the body, but disgrace the soul; We revive the body, but kill the soul. Therefore, the Lord, denouncing our folly, says: Is not the soul more than food, and the body than clothing? If the soul is obviously greater than food, then why do you leave the soul without care, worrying about something as insignificant as food and drink: for food is for the belly, and the belly is for food; but God will destroy both (1 Cor. 6:13). Or again, isn’t the body bigger than the clothes? If the Lord gave you more, i.e. body, then will he not take care to give less, will he not take care of covering it - and will he not give you the means to cover his nakedness, as he covered the nakedness of Eve and Adam? Are you not worrying about empty things, leaving the most necessary, the only thing you need? Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you much better than them? The Lord points to birds to us, those of little faith, in order to show the never-slumbering, unceasing providence of the Heavenly Father for all the creatures of the earth, Who from the beginning of the world until now has not ceased and does not cease to preserve and nourish every creature - and especially - the crown of all creatures - man, created in the image and likeness of God, and so that by the example of birds who are always well-fed, although they do not sow or reap bread, we We were convinced to rely with certainty on the providence of God. Of course, these words of the Lord do not teach us to sit idly by and only hope in God, but teach us to practice blessed labors and, while laboring, hope for God’s blessing, for success in business, for the gift of everything we need. Further, the Lord says: and which of you, by caring, can add even one cubit to his height? Doesn't everything depend on God? If our body in all functions - both in nutrition and in growth - depends on God, as the work of His hands, His wisdom, goodness, omnipotence: then isn’t our food also dependent on Him? Doesn't He also provide food for our growth and strengthening? Why do we consider food as if alien to His providence? Oh, truly His providence feeds not only us, but also every worm, every insect! And why do you care about clothes? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like any of them; But if God clothes the grass of the field, which exists today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, God clothes it so much more than you, O you of little faith! In words: what do you care about clothes - the Lord teaches us not to have an addiction to clothes, as he previously told us not to have an addiction to food and drink. It is impossible not to take care of clothes at all: we must take care that our clothes are decent and clean; should, whoever should, engage in spinning, weaving, sewing. The Most Pure Virgin Mary Herself wove and sewed with Her most pure hands, as is shown by the Savior's tunic, woven by Her virgin hands. But the incessant worries about outfits that spin our heads are completely contrary to the spirit of the Gospel: they make us vain, petty, and give rise to unchastity and pride in many. If beautiful clothing were necessary for us, like its flower is necessary for any cereal, then the Heavenly Father would not leave us to dress us a thousand times better than roses and lilies or peacocks; but it is known that our clothing is a temporary covering, or a temporary bandage on a wound: because clothing appeared as a result of sin, when people recognized their nakedness; Is it worth decorating bandages on a wound? Shouldn’t we be concerned about how to heal the wound as quickly as possible, i.e. How can I quickly cleanse myself of my sins? Is it reasonable to sew expensive bandages on these sinful wounds and still boast of these bandages as something laudable? Isn’t that why there is more of a sinful stench? Let us remember that in baptism we all received the robe of incorruptibility, the robe of the righteousness of Christ. Let us take care of this garment of truth; We will keep these clothes; Let it be our decoration. If we preserve it, then in the next century the Lord will clothe us with the robe of glory, clothe us with eternal light, as He Himself dresses with light, like a robe. So, I will end the conversation with the words of the Savior: do not worry and do not say: what shall we eat? or what to drink? or what to wear? because the pagans seek all this; and because your heavenly Father knows that you need all this. Hear: according to the word of the Lord, all those are pagans, not Christians, who worry about what to eat and drink or what to wear, but do not think about the works of God, about fulfilling His commandments. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Every master, master, feeds, waters, and clothes his servants: how much more will the Lord God feed and clothe us if we are His servants. If those who serve Him, those who do not know Him, He feeds and clothes, how much less will He forget those who serve Him. Amen. Sermon for the third week after Pentecost “The lamp for the body is the eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye be evil, then your whole body will be dark” (Matthew 6:22–23). The meaning of the gospel read today can be presented in abbreviated form as follows: the human soul is darkened by the darkness of countless sins and therefore is in extreme poverty, threatened, in case of unrepentance and non-correction, with eternal torment. Meanwhile, people least of all think and care about the enlightenment and salvation of their soul, and put all their care into the short-lived and fleeting body and bodily benefits: food, drink, clothing, housing, to the obvious, disastrous detriment or harm of their soul. In this Gospel, the Lord meekly exposes this foolishness of ours and teaches us to take care of the soul first and foremost: is not the soul greater than food (Matthew 6:25)? and to seek primarily the kingdom of God, which is within us (Luke 17:21) and should be, as in those created in the image and likeness of God, and the truth of God, since we live in all unrighteousness, burdened with countless sins. For clarity and persuasiveness, the Lord makes comparisons from visible things in His speech. Takes our eye and our body as an example. The lamp for the body says there is an eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye is bad, then your whole body will be dark. So, if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness? By eye or eye we should mean our heart or mind, by body our being, our life, for which the heart is the same as the eye for the body. If a person’s heart is pure, his conscience is clear, then our whole being is pure and bright, all life is holy, all deeds are good and impeccable. If the heart is wicked and unclean, and the conscience is wicked, then the whole being is wicked, all life is wicked, all thoughts, feelings, and actions. So, if your heart, your conscience, is already darkness, then what should your whole life be like, how dark, bad, evil, disastrous it should be? Clear? Yes, because we are all convinced of this by life experiences: we see it either in ourselves or in other people. No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other; or he will be zealous for one and neglectful of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Saint Chrysostom explains these words of the Savior this way: God once and forever said that serving God and mammon cannot be combined together. Therefore, don’t say that both can be connected. For when Mammon commands to steal someone else’s property, and God commands to give away one’s own property; when God commands to lead a chaste life, and mammon - to live a prodigal life; when mammon commands one to get drunk and be satiated, and God, on the contrary, commands one to bridle the belly; when God commands us to despise real worldly goods, and mammon to cleave to them heartily; when mammon makes one marvel at marbles, walls and carpets, and God despises all this and honors true wisdom: how then do you say that the service of God and mammon can be united together? Therefore, the Savior adds: do not worry about your soul, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing? ... and a little lower he says: the pagans are looking for all this; Your heavenly Father knows that you need all this. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. From the connection of the speech, it is obvious that the Lord does not forbid taking care of acquiring or procuring earthly goods for life food, for paying duties, but only prohibits excess, exclusive care for earthly things - a care that absorbs a person completely and removes him from God, from the church, from Divine services, from fulfilling the Christian duty of fasting, confession, communion of the Holy Mysteries, from works of mercy - a care that does not allow him to think about eternal life, about future eternal fate. Brothers, Christians! Let us philosophize more about heavenly things than about earthly things, where Christ sits at the right hand of God (cf. Col. 8:1–2). After death, we will not need anything earthly: neither food, nor clothing, nor money, nor houses, but we will need only love and deeds of love. The belly is trash and the belly is trash; God will abolish both this and that (1 Cor. 6:13). Amen. Homily for the fifth week of Pentecost Today during the liturgy, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, the Gospel of Matthew was read about the Lord casting out demons from two very ferocious demoniacs. What does it teach us? – Firstly, the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the omnipotent Creator and Ruler of all creatures, visible and invisible, Angels and men, every animate creature and the demons themselves, who in the beginning were created good, but then themselves fell into malice and wickedness, fell away from God and were cast out of heaven into the underworld; secondly, it teaches the truth that without God’s permission demons cannot cause evil to any creature, and if they are allowed by God to torment people, then they are allowed to punish and admonish people who sin, for their various untruths and sins and for their correction, as can be seen from the instructions to the demoniac from the Lord after healing him, according to the legend of the Evangelist Luke; thirdly, it teaches the truth that there will be a resurrection of the dead and a terrible judgment from the Lord for all people living and dead and all evil spirits and a worthy reward for all: for evil spirits - eternal fire, in keeping with their spiritual, incorporeal nature, like all unrepentant sinners, and for righteous people and those who truly repented - an eternal life. The demons say to the Lord through the demon-possessed: what do you have to do with us, Jesus, the Son of God? You came here ahead of time to torment us. You see, the demons also believe in Him as the Son of God and as their future terrible and righteous Judge, who has prepared eternal torment for them; but today’s nihilists surpass demons in their madness, because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, nor in the Church, nor in the immortality of the human soul, they do not believe in the resurrection, nor in the future judgment, and do not recognize the existence of Angels and evil spirits; That is why they are such desperate people, capable of all kinds of evil - murder, arson, kidnapping - do not recognize God-appointed earthly authorities and do only the devil and their own destructive will. Fourthly, the Gospel teaches that the power of every breath, every life is in God's hands; and to whom the Lord wants, He gives life, and from whom He wants to take, He takes away. Thus, possessed people could have died from demonic malice in one minute, but the Lord did not allow demons to destroy them, but only to torture them for their admonition and correction. He allowed pigs to be destroyed, perhaps as a punishment for the unbelieving inhabitants of the Gadarene country, just as now, for example, the Lord allows the death of livestock to punish and admonish people so that they would repent. In order not to fall under the influence of demons, let us, brethren, flee from sin and strive diligently to acquire every virtue: for the Lord created us for good works, which were prepared beforehand, that we might walk in them (Eph. 2:10); Not only should we not sin, but we should also try to be holy, as befits Christians, children of God, called to holiness and incorruptibility. Be holy, as I am holy, the Lord your God (cf. Lev. 19:2), says the Lord; or: be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), says Jesus Christ. Let us remember, brethren, the lesson offered by the present gospel, and apply it to life; for this is why the Gospel is read, so that we may learn and be corrected while we have time to learn and be corrected. Amen. Homily for the seventh week after Pentecost “Two blind men approached Him (Jesus Christ), and Jesus said: Do you believe that I can do this? Speak to Him: Yes, Lord. Then I will touch their eyes, saying: “Awake you as I believe” (Matthew 9:28–29). This is the amazing power of faith in the Lord! By faith alone in His omnipotence, two blind men instantly receive their sight. This was read about today in the Gospel (Matthew 9:27–31). So, I repeat: what the power of faith! What a precious treasure is sincere, firm and undoubted faith in Christ, if through it you can receive all kinds of benefits from the ever-flowing Source of all benefits - the Lord God! In fact, who among us has not received from the Lord, if only he approached Him with sincere faith and sincere repentance, all sorts of mental and physical benefits, and moreover, many times in one day? Christians, who always live by faith and are accustomed to turning to the Lord in all their needs, loudly testify that by their faith the Lord performs in them, in their inner world, and often outside them, countless miracles of His goodness and power, that they transform mountains with God’s grace, not the mountains of the earth, although they obey the believer, but mountains of sorrows and the burdens of the enemy that fall on the soul, that they heal their infirmities with it. mental and physical, overcome passions, are cleansed from the filth of sins, receive moral strength that they did not have before, and achieve all righteousness. But if faith is such a good for a person, then why doesn’t everyone have it? Why doesn’t everyone try to acquire this treasure, the most precious of all earthly treasures? Why are there more non-believers than believers? After all, God is impartial and is ready to lavish His treasures on everyone, on everyone who diligently desires and seeks. Many do not have faith, do not have faith because of their ignorance and because they do not seek it and do not ask God for it diligently: for faith is the gift of God. Others do not have faith because of pride, an arrogant mind, or - because they have turned with all their minds and all their hearts to the world and the flesh, and not to God and His holy law - they do not value faith as something unimportant, which they can easily do without - and, finally, because they do not cleanse their hearts with sincere repentance: for faith cannot dwell in an unrepentant heart, like the pure daughter of heaven. That is why sincere, firm and unfeigned faith is considered a merit to a person, and for its sake the Lord imparts to him countless benefits. And that is why the Lord Jesus Christ sought faith in people and for their faith forgave their sins, performed miracles, namely: healed all sorts of diseases, raised the dead; Yes, he gave the same power to His apostles, commanding them to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers. Why did the Lord require faith as a condition for receiving His benefits? Faith of the heart in a person serves as hands or lips to receive God’s gifts: what hands or lips are in a person’s body, then is faith in the soul; faith is a tool and means for accepting God's mercies. Faith is the mouth of the soul: open your mouth with prayer and repentance, and your soul will be filled with grace. In order to destroy a person’s soul, the devil closes the lips of the heart, so that a person does not talk with God, does not pray, does not ask Him, does not glorify, does not thank Him; It is clear that we must, as often as possible, open the lips of our hearts, rekindle our cooled faith, and every now and then turn to God with the prayer of faith: for we are all damned, poor, blind and naked without God. And here is another reason why the Lord requires people to have faith in God. After the Fall, people became darkened and fell into ignorance about God, fell away from God, from His commandments and began to honor creatures instead of the Creator; they even considered demons to be gods and served them as gods, although demons caused them all sorts of evil. Correcting such a disastrous delusion of people and wanting to lead everyone to the knowledge of the true God, the Creator of everything, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Creator and Ruler, appeared in the flesh, revealing His divine omnipotence to everyone by deeds, and demanded, as a due tribute, faith in Himself, as in the Almighty Creator, for us for mankind and for our salvation, He came down from heaven - that’s why He asks the blind before performing a miracle: Do you believe that I can do this? those. Do you believe that I am the Creator, who appeared for you in the flesh, and when I heard an affirmative answer, I said: according to my faith, be you? And his eyes were opened. Let us, brethren, undoubtedly believe that even now the Lord is near (Phil. 4:5) to us, that He is yesterday and today, the same forever (Heb. 13:8): all-good, all-powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, knowledgeable of the heart, all-merciful, all-generous, good and quickly obedient, comforting, gracious, and, like children, we will approach Him in our prayers with faith in repentance, like sinners, with hope and boldness: and we will accept from Him all mercy. God! add faith to us and heal our heart blindness, the blindness of our sins and passions, which have especially intensified in this corrupt time. Amen. Homily for the eighth week after Pentecost “When I was late, His disciples came to Him, saying: The place is empty, and the hour is already past; Let the nations go, so that when they go to the village they will buy meat for themselves. Jesus said to them: “They don’t demand that you take it away, but give them food” (Matthew 14:15–16). One day the Lord sailed on a ship alone to a deserted place to pray: the people, hearing about this, followed Him from the cities on foot. Coming out of the boat, Jesus saw a multitude of people and had compassion on them and healed their sick. When evening came, His disciples came to Him and said: This is a deserted place, and the time is already late; send the people away so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves. How? What are you saying, apostles of Christ? – For the people to leave their Lord for the sake of food and drink and deprive themselves of His conversation, sweeter than honey? Wasn’t it He who said: “Do not worry about your soul about what you eat or what you drink... is it not your soul who eats more food?” Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:25, 33). Oh, no, the people will not leave the Lord: what do they care about food and drink? Food and drink are always with them; but the Lord in the flesh is not always, but He Himself is food and drink for them; look how they greedily listen to His every word, how they gaze into His divine face: oh, this is true pleasure for them - to see and hear the Lord Himself - and they forgot about food and drink. Yes, He Himself will arrange a wonderful meal for them. This gospel teaches us that listening to the word of God and, in general, caring for the enlightenment, sanctification and strengthening of the immortal soul is most precious to man, and that food and drink are secondary things and will be added to the person who seeks the kingdom of God and His righteousness: for the worker is worthy of food (Matthew 10:10). So in the desert, the Lord fed everyone with a wonderfully prepared meal for the labor of listening to His word. Further, the Gospel teaches that we should share our last good with our neighbors who need it, and should not have the least bit of greed and stinginess, and that a person needs very little in order to satisfy hunger and thirst - only daily bread and something more juicy; that various delicacies and drinks do not constitute our daily sustenance and can only be consumed occasionally; otherwise they will relax our body and soul. Our soul, brothers and sisters, is immeasurably more precious and noble than the body: it is the image of God, that is, to put it simply, like a portrait of God, and is immortal; endowed with reason and free will, with the ability to be sanctified by the grace of God, to ascend higher and higher on the steps of virtue, to become more and more like God, to become deified and to achieve the greatest bliss in God. The body is earth and decay and must certainly die and turn to dust from which it was taken; at the resurrection of the dead it will rise again as a spiritual body. Meanwhile, our soul is in a state of the most miserable fall, in a state of darkening, removal from God and slavery to the devil, sin and passions. She perishes in sins and can perish forever, tormented in unquenchable fire. What do we all need to be more concerned about during this temporary wandering on earth? About the enlightenment of the soul, about its salvation, about drawing closer to God, from whom we have departed through sin, about the truth that we have trampled under foot, to which we have become alien, about holiness in all life and the rejection of evil life: that’s what it’s about; and then about food and drink and clothing - but take care of it moderately, impartially, as if it were secondary and temporary items. Let us not, brothers and sisters, pervert God’s order; Let us care more about spiritual enlightenment, saturation, consolation, salvation, and then about earthly, so-called goods - food, clothing, housing. Amen. Sermon for the ninth week after Pentecost What was the gospel read today? Did you listen to it with attention, did you understand it, did you keep it in your memory, did you put it on your heart, did you apply it to yourself? And all this should be done. What was the gospel about? About the Savior's prayer in solitude; about His walking on the sea as on dry land; about the fear of His disciples when they saw a man walking on water; about how the Savior encouraged them; about Petrova’s request to come to Him on the water and about the Lord’s permission; about Peter's lack of faith and fear; about drowning; about the salvation of a drowned person by the life-giving Right Hand; about the Lord’s reproach to Peter for his lack of faith; about calming the wind; about the disciples' confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of God (Matthew 14:22–34). Here is the whole gospel: and everything is clear and understandable! Now we need to apply from it, what is possible and should, to each of us. After all, the Gospel was written for our edification, consolation and salvation. And the first thing you need to apply to yourself is prayer. The Lord, according to humanity, often prayed in solitude, at night. We should certainly pray, at all times. Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune (Matthew 26:41), says the Lord. We have many sins; there are many mental and physical needs; there are many temptations; That’s why you need to pray unceasingly, of course, most internally. And on holidays it is open in the church. Further, what is edifying and comforting in this gospel is that Jesus Christ, seeing the disastrous voyage of the disciples of Swankh, whose boat was being beaten by strong waves in the middle of the sea, went to their aid and, as the Creator and Lord of the sea, walked along the ridge of the sea as if on dry land. Seeing a man walking on the sea, which seemed impossible to them, they considered Him to be a ghost and cried out in fear. But the Lord, who came to their aid, reassured them, saying that it was He and that they had nothing to fear. “And we, brothers, floating in the sea of ​​life, are often rushed by the opposite winds of temptation and various passions, and we, like the apostles, are often in poverty. Let us not forget in the hours of temptation and trouble that the Savior is near (Phil. 4:5) and is ready to save us, if only we would cry out to Him for salvation with faith and sincere repentance for sins. We are often frightened by the ghosts that the evil one presents to us; we are confused by the machinations of the crafty adversary. But let us cry to the Lord with all our hearts: and all the ghosts will dissipate, and the opposing winds will subside. This is always the case with believers, and so it will be. The boldness of the Apostle Peter is remarkable. Encouraged by the words of the Lord, he asks permission to walk to Him on the water, as if forgetting for a while the difference between himself - a man - and between the God-Man. The Lord, however, does not reject boldness and says: go. And a wonderful miracle! An omnipotent command sustains Peter as he walks on the water: he walks on the water, marveling at himself. But Petrov’s boldness did not last long: seeing the strong wind, he got scared and, starting to drown, shouted: Lord, save me! Jesus immediately stretched out his hand, supported him and said to him: you of little faith! why did you doubt? Do not be surprised at Peter’s lack of faith: at that time he was not yet renewed by the life-giving, fiery breath of the Holy Spirit and therefore showed human weaknesses. Therefore, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, Saint Peter was above all doubts and had the faith of God, with which he raised the dead. And we ourselves will take care of our faith. Peter just began to drown and immediately cried out for salvation: Lord, save me! But many of us are completely drowning in sins, but do not come to the Savior and say: Lord, save me. How close is the Savior to all of us? Just look to Him, brother, with the eyes of your heart with faith, hope that He is right here in front of you, and will save you, if you really want salvation - He will save you, He will certainly save you; you will see for yourself how he will save you, you will see, of course, with the eyes of your heart. Now, brother or sister, learn from the Apostle Peter, with the same faith and hope as he, to cry out to the Savior in troubles, sorrows, in sins: Lord, save me, and you will certainly be saved. That’s what the Savior is for, to save us sinners. And when He saves you, then you too will say: Yes, truly You are the Son of God, and worship Him with love. Amen. Conversation on the twelfth week after Pentecost. About a rich young man One rich young man approached the Savior and asked Him: “Good Teacher! What good thing can I do to have eternal life? He said to him: Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. If you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments. He says to Him: which ones? Jesus said: Do not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; don't steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; and: love your neighbor as yourself. The young man says to Him: I have kept all this from my youth; what else am I missing? Jesus said to him: if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me. Hearing this word, the young man went away sad, because he had great possessions. Jesus said to His disciples: Truly I say to you, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven; And again I tell you: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When His disciples heard this, they were greatly amazed and said, “Who then can be saved?” And Jesus looked up and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God it is possible” (Matthew 19:16–26). Let us explain this part of the Gospel, with God’s help, as briefly as possible. A rich young man, having learned from experience the vicissitudes of earthly temporary life and at the same time the benefits of possessing earthly blessings, desired eternal life, eternal bliss, approaches the Source of life and asks Him: Good Teacher, what good thing can I do to have eternal life? Who among us would not desire to inherit eternal life? “Nothing horrifies us more than death, like separation from all the pleasures of life, and nothing attracts us more than life, and life that has no end, an all-blessed life.” So, let's listen carefully to the conversation of the rich young man with the Savior and see what is needed to inherit eternal life? The Lord does not answer his question directly, but remarks to him: Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. How are You not good, Lord? Aren't You God, aren't You the co-beginning Son of the beginningless Father - God? Are not You and Your Father one? What does it mean that the Lord, as it were, denies from Himself the name good, when He, He Himself, is eternal Love and Goodness? The Lord removes from himself the title of good, not as God, but as a man: since the young man turned to Him as only a good Teacher, as an ordinary person, and not as God, then the Lord answers him as a man, and not as God; for none of the people can be called the ever-flowing source of goodness, goodness itself: for there is only one Self-Good One eternally, uniquely - only one God. This is how we must understand the words of the Lord: why do you say good things to me? No one is good except God alone. Next, the Lord directly answers the question of the rich young man: if you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments, do you all hear, beloved brethren? To inherit eternal life, it is necessary to keep the commandments of God, and without keeping them it is impossible to inherit eternal life. Whoever created those things will live in them (Rom. 10:5). Not everyone who says Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven; but do the will of My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21). What commandments? the young man asks the Lord; Jesus said: Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself. Place these commandments of God on your hearts, the fulfillment of which leads to eternal life. Thou shalt not kill, i.e. not only do not kill anyone, do not take life, but also do not offend anyone, do not humiliate, do not condemn, do not slander, do not be angry with anyone in vain, do not curse, do not harbor hatred or ill will towards anyone, do not wish harm, misfortune, or death to anyone; do not kill in any way - cruelty, beatings, flattery, cunning, deceit, persecution; Do not kill others with any material weapon, much less yourself. Treasure the peace and well-being of everyone as if it were your own. Thou shalt not commit adultery, i.e. Do not have in your heart any carnal, unclean, sinful, animal love for a person, do not transgress the limits of love indicated by God, and do not look at anyone’s face with lust, with an unclean thought, not only do not allow yourself to have a sinful connection with any person. Thou shalt not steal; and in order not to steal, do not want to live luxuriously, lightly, richly, cheerfully, being content with the small and necessary. Honor your father and mother; in your father and mother, honor and love God, who through them gave you existence and upbringing, honor them as the culprits of your existence after God, the culprits of your happiness, and love your neighbor as yourself: what you want for yourself, wish for others; What you don’t want for yourself, don’t wish for someone else. As you want people to do to you, do so to them (Matthew 7:12). The young man says to Him: I have kept all this from my youth; what else am I missing? Jesus said to him: if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me. It seems that after such words of the Lord - the good Teacher - the young man should go and sell his property and give it to the poor in order to have his treasure in heaven; then come and follow the Savior. But no: these are not Peter and Andrew, not James and John, the fishermen of Galilee, who followed Christ immediately after their calling by the Lord and left everything. Wealth confused and confused the young man. Suddenly he felt a sorrow in his soul, hitherto perhaps unknown. His heart ached and ached, sensing the imaginary deprivation of his pieces of silver and gold and various possessions; and in all this is his soul, his life, his hope; With all this, his hardened heart was firmly, firmly united. What about the rich young man? Where has your courage gone, with which you approached the Savior of men? It was wealth that destroyed her, or her addiction to it: it weakened her, plunged him into shame, sorrow and despondency. Such is the soulless mammon! She plunges those addicted to wealth into such shame, humiliation and confusion! Hearing the word of the Savior, the young man - alas - walked away with sadness; because he had a large estate. So much for love for your neighbor as for yourself, of which the young man only boasted, saying to the Lord: “I have kept all this from my youth.” As soon as the matter of distributing money to the poor was touched upon, my heart began to ache; and the eternal belly became not sweet; and it became unpleasant to be together and talk with the good Teacher; and he, full of shame and confusion, walked away, withdrew from the good Teacher. The Lord, as the Knower of the Heart, saw in advance, without waiting for the outcome of the case, the young man’s passionate attachment to wealth and now only called it out in order to show the young man himself what kind of snake he carries and warms in his heart, eating away at his life and destroying all the noblest aspirations of his soul, and how necessary it is for him to shake this snake from his heart so that it does not kill him at all. All who are sick with the love of money, apply these words to your heart and leave the stifling love of money! Something similar to what the rich young man stumbled on still happens to many of us today. Some people think about themselves, and others say about themselves that they love their neighbors, and when it comes to helping their neighbors, for example, they need to lend money or give a tax to a beggar, or invite a stranger to their house, feed and drink, comfort and reassure him, and so the heart turns back from the neighbor - it becomes not nice, and often even disgusting to the eye, and the heart only says: come in, come in, my dear, I care about you no business; You are not my matchmaker or my brother; such and such an acquaintance or relative is lying sick: I don’t want to visit or talk; someone has fallen into trouble or misfortune: somehow his heart is alienated; in happiness he was a friend, but in misfortune he was not. So much for loving your neighbor as you love yourself. We have everything in abundance for ourselves, for all our whims there is money and everything; for the neighbor - no, although the neighbor is our member; for oneself there is enough money for everything: there is money for a rich table, there is money for wine, there is money for rich clothes, there is money for cards, there is money for tobacco, and for the theater and for all kinds of whims, but for your neighbor - not; It’s a pity for him of everything: a pity for a penny and a pity for decent clothes and shoes - as if the beggar is not like us in everything, as if he is a soulless statue, as if he needs nothing. If we live like this, then we will surely no longer deserve eternal bliss: we have not accepted the truth for love, in order to be saved (2 Thess. 2:10). Jesus, regarding the sadness of the young man about separation from his wealth and his removal from the Lord, said to His disciples: Truly I say to you, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; and again I tell you: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. Why is this? Because wealth for the rich is an idol to whom he bows, on whom he hopes, in him, and not in God - because it hardens his heart, his soul, making it a slave of corruption, incapable of the love of God. Therefore, the apostle writes to his disciple Timothy: forbid the rich in this world not to be arrogant, nor to put their trust in perishing wealth, but in God who lives, who richly gives us all things for our enjoyment (1 Tim. 6:17). Hearing the Savior’s words about the difficulty of a rich man entering the Kingdom of Heaven, His disciples were greatly amazed and said: So who can be saved? And Jesus looked up and said to them: With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. This means that the rich should not despair of their salvation, just like the poor; We just need to use our wealth for the benefit of ourselves and our neighbors, consider it not our own, but God’s good, which was given to us not for us alone, but also for others, for those who themselves, due to illness or for some other reason, are not able to get themselves the necessary food, as well as the necessary clothing or shelter. Let us all, to the best of our ability, share our goods with the poor and needy, so that we may have treasure in heaven and, by the grace of Christ God, receive eternal life for this small mercy towards our brothers. For mercy will yield mercy (Matthew 5:7). Amen. Homily for the thirteenth week after Pentecost Today during the liturgy, beloved brothers and sisters, the parable of Christ the Savior was read from the Gospel about the owner of a house who planted a vineyard, surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower and, having given it to the winegrowers, went away. When the time for fruit approached, he sent his servants to the vinedressers to take their fruit. The vinedressers seized his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than before, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying: They will be ashamed of my son. But the vinedressers, seeing their son, said to each other: This is the heir; Let's go, kill him and take possession of his inheritance. And they seized him, took him out of the vineyard and killed him. So, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers? The high priests and elders, to whom this parable was told, said to Him: He will put these evildoers to an evil death, and he will give the vineyard to other winegrowers, who will give him the fruit in their own time. Jesus says to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures: the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner? This is from the Lord, and is wonderful in our eyes (Ps. 118:22-23). Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a people bearing the fruits thereof (Matthew 21:33–43). This ends today's Gospel reading. What does this parable mean? And firstly, who is the owner of the house who planted the vineyard? The owner of the house is God, the Heavenly Father; vineyard – Jewish Church, i.e. all Jews who lived before Christ and during Christ; the fence of the vineyard is the law of God given to the Jews; a winepress, or a vice, a trough, in which they trample grapes, expelling the juice, means the altar, around which they slaughtered animals to be sacrificed, and on which their blood was poured, as a sign of the atoning blood of the Son of God shed for the salvation of the world; the tower in the vineyard means the temple of Jerusalem; the vinedressers are the high priests and elders of the Jews; the fruits of the vineyard are the fruits of good deeds, which the Lord expected, both from the high priests and scribes themselves, and from the common people who were entrusted by God to their leadership; the servants sent by the owner of the garden to the vinedressers for the fruit are the prophets of God, whose denunciations the Jews did not like so much, and whom they beat, killed and stoned; the owner's son is the only begotten Son of the Heavenly Father Jesus Christ, whom the high priests, elders and scribes, having nailed to the cross with the hands of lawless pagans - the Romans, killed. The cornerstone, or main stone at the foundation of the building, rejected by the builders, is Jesus Christ, who became the Head of the Church of God and the true Shepherd, Redeemer, Savior and Visitor of our souls. Taking away the kingdom of God from the Jews means depriving them of the benefits of the true faith - depriving them of the church, the priesthood, true worship, their fatherland and all the fruits of grace - which is all that happened to them and continues to this day. However, this parable in some parts or words can and should be applied to us: for the Gospel is given for all times and peoples and, precisely, must be applied, firstly, to us priests, not talking about other rulers and teachers of the people, and to the flock entrusted to us by God to guide them to a virtuous life and to salvation and the kingdom of heaven. The parable of Christ teaches that shepherds, just as they themselves must bring to the Lord and the Beginning of the Shepherd the fruits of good teaching and all virtue and serve for the flock with the rule of faith, the image of meekness, abstinence, mercy, non-covetousness, sincere goodwill towards everyone and concern for pleasing God and the salvation of the soul, and those entrusted to them by God for guidance to faith and virtuous life, constantly teach the law of God and Christian virtues, so that they too bring God the fruits of virtues and live godly, working with fear for their salvation and awaiting the fulfillment of Christ’s promise about His second coming, the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and eternal life or eternal torment. It is known that faith or lack of faith and unbelief itself, as well as the life and behavior of the flock, depend very much on the lifestyle of the shepherd, on his zeal or negligence in fulfilling his high and holy pastoral duties, as well as the life and behavior of his flock - and as he (i.e., the shepherd) is, so is the parish, according to popular rumor. The shepherd is instructive and pious, and his flock is pious and God-fearing. So, beloved brothers and sisters, if we do not want the terrible word of the Savior spoken to the Jewish high priests and elders and the Jewish people to be fulfilled over us, so that the kingdom of God is not taken away from us, i.e. God's gracious help, hastening us in everything - so that we do not fall into the abyss of unbelief and depravity and all sorts of vices - and not be deprived of the benefits of community and all abundance and contentment, earthly and heavenly blessings, and not fall into poverty and destitution of body and soul - in which many people are stuck - let us hasten to bring to God the fruits of true repentance, correction of life, constant care for the only thing needed, i.e. about the salvation of immortal souls redeemed by the blood of Christ - and every virtue according to one’s strength. Amen. Homily for the fifteenth week after Pentecost Our Lord Jesus Christ in this Sunday's Gospel, in His answer to the question of one Pharisee-legalist, offers for fulfillment by all people two essential commandments of the entire law of God: about love for God and neighbors. “Thou shalt love, he says, the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 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 22:35–41). There are few words, but there is great power in them, their meaning and application to life are extremely extensive; there are few words, but it is extremely important and necessary to understand them, to understand them in their entirety and their meaning. Let us explain them with God's help. Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This means: love God and His eternal truth so that there is no place for sin and untruth either in your heart, or in thoughts, or in words, or in deeds, or in your whole life - love truth and hate lawlessness; for what do truth and lawlessness have in common, do light and sinful darkness, Christ and beliar, i.e. the devil? Nothing. For even one unrighteous thought in the soul is an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 16:26), how much more an evil, crafty, unclean word or deed! Therefore, whether you pray to God, whether you repent, whether you give thanks, or whether you do anything else for God’s sake, always pray with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength; bring repentance with all your heart, with all your mind, with a decisive aversion to sin, with a sincere readiness to love and do things pleasing to God and saving you; do everything you do for God - with all your soul, with all your strength and understanding. If you offer any sacrifice to God, offer it with all your heart with all zeal and willingness. Whether you need to stand against the temptation of sin or keep the truth, the law - stand against sin with all your strength, with all your heart and mind, and stand for the truth to death, like the great prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John, celebrated today, who suffered to death for exposing the incestuous cohabitation of King Herod with the wife of his brother Philip - and you will receive the crown of life. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? It means to love him as yourself, without distinction of rank, condition, gender, person, to wish him every good thing, as for yourself, to do with him as you would like to be treated with you - to feel sorry for him, to pray for him, to help him in any way you can - when he is mistaken, sins, hurts, needs what is necessary for life - for example, in work, in food, clothing, money - in a kind word, in consolation and encouragement - because this often means a lot and can have a beneficial effect on a person’s life. To love your neighbor as yourself means to try and pray for his salvation, just as pious people try and pray for their salvation - to desire salvation for both the living and the dead, to pray for both those and others; There is no greater love for our neighbors than if we ardently wish and pray for salvation for them as well as for ourselves. If you do something for your neighbor, do it as you would for yourself - sincerely, truly, fairly. By doing this, we will first of all attract God’s blessing to ourselves; for with the measure you use, said the Lord, it will be measured to you (Luke 6:38), and all the good done to your neighbor will be returned to us a hundredfold, if not in this, then in the next century. Amen. Homily for the week of the Exaltation and the fifteenth week of Pentecost “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me” (Mark 8:34). On this Sunday, called in the church order the week after the Exaltation of the Cross, it is prescribed by the church charter to read the gospel about self-sacrifice and cross-bearing, required by the Gospel from everyone who wants to follow Christ (Mark 8:34-38). So, let’s talk about this now for the glory of Christ and for our enlightenment and salvation. Whoever wants to come after Me, says the Lord, must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. The Lord does not force anyone to follow Him, but leaves everyone to the free will - to follow or not to follow Him, whether to live for Him, for truth and holiness, for an eternal kingdom with Him, - or - for themselves, for the flesh and to please their passions, the adulterous and sinful world and - the devil, and for eternal shame and torment. The Lord leaves our free will intact; for he wants us to voluntarily, according to the conviction of our hearts, love Him, fulfill His commandments and turn away from absurd, destructive passions; and not as slaves, under coercion and involuntary servitude. But how can we not follow You, sweetest Jesus, our eternal Life, our breath, our Light, our Joy and Bliss! Whoever follows You irrevocably, here also anticipates heavenly bliss and will certainly inherit eternal bliss with You. This is an immutable, all-joyful truth, striking, so to speak, in the eyes of everyone with its obviousness. So the apostles, martyrs, saints, righteous people and all the saints of ancient and modern times followed Christ with joy, willingly sacrificing for the Lord all the blessings of the world, their very lives - and did not sin in their hope, were not deceived in their hope, inherited an unshakable, eternal Kingdom. Why don't most people follow Christ? Due to unbelief or lack of faith, due to addiction to temporary life and its fleeting benefits, due to pride and arrogance of worldly education, not enlightened by grace - due to the impurity of a passionate heart and due to the established inclination of the will to pursue only earthly goals; due to spiritual ignorance; due to the lack of development of taste for spiritual goods, which require preparation, exercise of thought and heart in spiritual subjects, such as: in prayer, contemplation of God, reading the word of God and in works of Christian love and mercy and teaching the flesh to abstain. But what is deprived of, what wonderful blessings, what peace, what spiritual sweetness, what spiritual light, what bliss, a person who does not follow Christ, but follows only his sinful desires, habits, passions, inclinations? What in the world can replace Christ, the immortal Belly? Nothing. No treasures, no pleasures and joys. Deny yourself, says the Lord further, and take up your cross and follow Me. Deny yourself, this means - renounce your sinful will, your vicious inclinations, inclinations, passions, in a word - all sin that lives in you, acts, binds you, darkens, defiles, humiliates and dishonors you, preventing you from following Christ to heaven - strive for true repentance, for pure virtue and Christian perfection and doing you a slave of corruption and death, perverting your nature, created by God in truth and holiness, preparing for you eternal separation from God and eternal torment. Yes, brothers and sisters! It is absolutely necessary to deny yourself. If we impartially, with a clear conscience, delve into ourselves, into our conscience, into our heart, into our deeds, into our idleness and into our whole vain life, then now we will find that for the most part we think, and wish, and say, and do not what is essential for us; not according to the intention and will of our all-good and wise Creator and Lord, but contrary to His intentions, according to our own perverse, vicious will. Look carefully into your heart. What is it doing? What does it love? What does it gravitate towards? Is it towards your Creator, towards goodness, towards truth and holiness, towards true well-being and bliss, towards mutual love and help? No. Hearts are mostly occupied with themselves, imbued with selfishness. How many passions are there in one heart! How many sources of death! Every passion is a source of death: for each can kill a person forever, if he does not repent and change, and does not abandon it. So, man, deny yourself. But it's hard; passions have become your second nature. What to do! And cutting off members of the body can be very painful, but when it is necessary, they give an arm and a leg and even an eye to be cut off. You need to do the same with your passions. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you (Matthew 5:30), i.e. not the hand of the body, but the passion that is in your soul, which has become, as it were, your hand, i.e. as if it were your natural member; it will be painful for you, like crucifixion, but for that it will be saving and will lead you to eternal life; you will get rid of the all-destructive poison - sin, from the power of the devil, from the fire of hell. Take up your cross and follow Christ, i.e. do His will, His commandments, statutes, advice. And warriors in war firmly follow the commander’s instructions in order to win, and they win; You too will win if you follow Your almighty Leader - Christ. For whoever wants to save his soul, says the Lord, will lose it. What does it mean to take care of your soul here? This means not touching the passions of the soul, leaving them alone, letting them live and grow stronger and control our mind and our heart and our will, in a word - soul and body; live unrepentantly, without thinking about death and eternal judgment. To take care of yourself in this way means to eternally destroy your soul, to lose it. It should be noted that the Lord, in saying this, meant primarily the time of persecution for faith in Him and the cases of confessing His name before the persecutors: for there were some Christians and those who, in order to preserve temporary life, wealth, honors, renounced Christ and the Christian faith and thereby lost their soul, perished through their renunciation, through addiction to earthly goods. But even now there are many who, excessively loving temporary life and its blessings and carnal life, refuse to follow Christ, fulfill His commandments, live contrary to the duties of their calling and do not repent of it - and thus lose their soul for eternity. And whoever loses his soul for the sake of Me and the Gospel, says the Lord in today’s Gospel, will save it. Here again we mainly refer to the cases of martyrs who, for Christ, in order to preserve faith in Him and love for Him, voluntarily lost their property, ranks, relatives and their very lives, and thus saved their lives for eternity, for Christ and His eternal kingdom. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul? This is said to clarify the previous thought, i.e., that it is better to lose all wealth, honors, relatives, life itself according to the flesh, than to destroy your soul forever through renunciation of God, in order to preserve temporary life and temporary benefits that are soon leaving us. The soul is incomparably dearer than the whole world, as created in the image of God and destined for immortality, and nothing can redeem it from eternal torment unless we redeem it here through faith in the merits of the Redeemer, in the atoning blood, courageous confession of His name and a good life. For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, says the Lord, in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels. Здесь говорится о необходимости дерзновения или смелости и мужества при исповедании Христа, Сына Божия, о непощадении жизни своей для Христа и о последовании Его воле, потому что если кто здесь почтет за стыд следовать Ему, исполнять заповеди Его, или постыдится следовать постановлениям Церкви Его, ради угождения миру, плоти и диаволу, – того не признает своим и Сын Божий во второе пришествие Свое и на страшном суде Своем. A terrible word, brothers and sisters! Let us throw away false shame and laziness towards piety, towards attending Divine services, laziness towards reading the word of God and teaching in it, let us deny ourselves, let us abandon the gratification of the multi-passionate flesh, the evil-doer of the world and the ruler of the world - the devil - let us take up our cross and follow Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, our King and The Lord, who prepared for us the Kingdom in heaven from the foundation of the world. Amen. Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday of Pentecost Have you heard, beloved brethren, from the Gospel now read, the Savior’s parable about the talents? This parable is very instructive. Everyone needs to know its meaning and remember it always. Incline your ears. This is its meaning. It talks about slaves to whom a master traveling to a distant place entrusted his estate: and to one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one, to each according to his ability (Matthew 25:14-30). Please note. These slaves are us people. This lord is our Lord Jesus Christ, our Creator, the Distributor of talents, who ascended from us into heaven, who sits at the right hand of the Father and who will again come to earth to judge the living and the dead. Possessions or talents are mental strengths and abilities, as well as physical strengths, which God gave us and with which in this century we do everything, which we put into circulation and through which, according to our skill and diligence, we increase our spiritual wealth. Talents should also mean that service in society that God has entrusted to each person, depending on his abilities, or the material wealth that someone has. According to the meaning of the parable, whoever has received more talents from the Lord must naturally do more good for others, must improve himself more in the present life, for the future life - and whoever has fewer will be required to give less account. They will demand from an ordinary person: whether he worked conscientiously and conducted his affairs; Did the rich man not accumulate his wealth through deception, cunning, intrigues or games, interest, did he live himself and raise his children in the fear of God? Did you fulfill the Christian duty of prayer, was you sanctified by the sacraments, did you give alms? Everyone will bear his own burden. The priest will be required to account for his service, teaching and life: did he teach faith and good life to his flock, did he educate them for eternal life? But listen further to the parable. He who received five talents (the weight of silver) from the master went and began to work and acquired five more talents with them; the one who received two acquired the other two, and the one who received one took and buried his master’s talent in the ground, i.e. lived his whole life in reckless, unforgivable laziness, ate, drank, had fun, enriched himself with all possible means, just to live here happily; but I didn’t care about that life, about faith, about prayer, about good deeds. It is clear that his talent is buried in the ground, since our talents, i.e. our heart, our mental abilities, are not an earthly treasure, but a spiritual one, and they should not lie in the ground, not only be used for earthly things, but with their help we need to become accustomed to heavenly, holy morals and acquire eternal life. Do not hide for yourself treasures on earth, where worms and aphids decay, says the Lord, and where they dig up and steal; hide for yourself a treasure in heaven, where neither the worm nor the aphid corrupts, and where the thieves do not dig up or steal (Matthew 6:19–20), (i.e., do good deeds not for the earth and earthly, worldly benefits, but for heaven, for God, for eternity). So, honor, brethren, to the servants who received five and two talents and increased the master's property; - shame, extreme shame for someone who received one talent and, out of laziness and stubbornness, buried it in the ground. And there are many of these people unworthy of the name of man who bury their talent in the ground, who only drink, eat, have fun, deceive, steal, and so on. But look what awaits those and other slaves: the time has come to give an account of how the master’s silver was used. The gentleman comes, i.e. The Lord, having ascended to heaven, comes to the Last Judgment to demand an account from His servants. His servants appear, to whom talents have been entrusted. The one who received five talents comes up and shows the Master ten talents; then the one who accepted two comes and shows four. The Lord, approving each of them for their increase, says: well, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in little things, I will put you over many things: enter into the joy of your Master; then those who have accepted one talent come up, and then what? “Having done nothing in the absence of the Master, when this Master came, the lazy servant speaks impudently to Him, calling Him a cruel man, who reaps as if where he did not sow, and gathers where he did not squander. Isn’t that what they say, brethren, all lazy, unkind, unfaithful Christians, who, in excuse of their unforgivable laziness to work for good, to educate themselves in the spirit of the Christian faith, lay their blame on faith, on the Church, on the Lord Himself, calling the precepts of faith difficult, inconvenient to fulfill, and daring to call the good Lord somehow cruel, demanding the almost impossible! O lazy slaves! Look at your brothers who received five and two talents: they will reprove you. How have they multiplied their talents, how come they do not say anything like this to their Master? But look, brethren, what the lazy servant next says to the Lord: since You are such and such a Master, he says, I was afraid and went and hid Your talent in the ground: here is Yours. In the ground: where is it? where, if not in your sinful flesh, having exhausted your strength and ability to satisfy your passions. Come, brothers, to the tomb of the lazy man and sigh heavily, heavily; here you will see his only talent buried in the ground; He did nothing for heaven, he took everything with him to the ground. You said the truth, poor man, a man worthy of eternal tears! But here is the verdict of the righteous Judge for him and those like him: wicked and lazy servant! You knew that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter: therefore you had to give My silver to the merchants; and I, having come, would have received Mine with profit. How can the Lord not demand from Christians the profit of good deeds, when He gave all the treasures of His helping and all-effective grace to help them? How can He not demand profit from a Christian - for his own eternal bliss, when the Lord’s tree bears abundant fruit every year, when the grain brings profit to the field? Truly, the Lord requires a worthy profit: and it is a sin, a grave sin for a Christian not to create the fruit of virtue in life and to remain a barren fig tree, only occupying space in vain. Listen, finally, to the judgment of the lazy servant: The Lord says: therefore, take his talent and give it to him who has ten talents; For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; and from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. But throw the worthless slave into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Fear, brothers, embraces the soul when you think that among Christians there are many lazy slaves who live carelessly, in pleasure, and do not at all think about this terrible, eternal outer darkness, where incessant weeping and gnashing of teeth awaits them. God! do Your will with us! We pray to You that all lazy servants may turn to You in repentance and virtue. If not, then they are truly worthy of Your terrible but righteous judgment. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! Amen. Homily for the seventeenth week after Pentecost. About the power of faith, hope and patience in prayer Now we have read, my brothers, from the Gospel of Matthew the story of the persistent petition of the Canaanite woman to Jesus Christ for her demon-possessed daughter (Matthew 15:21–28). This Canaanite mother is instructive for us, brothers and sisters! Love for her daughter, who was cruelly suffering from demonic tormenting power, prompted her to seek salvation for the unfortunate one from the divine, omnipotent Wonderworker - and she did not lag behind the Benefactor and Savior until she received what she asked for, although there were difficult temptations to her faith and boldness! Apparently she was refused once, twice, three times, but she was not embarrassed; I didn’t despair, I didn’t say: no, I won’t ask or bother you anymore, apparently I’m unworthy; but she still had firm hope in the Wonderworker. At first, the Knower of the Heart did not answer her a word to her request - in order to arouse in her the strongest faith and hope and the most ardent prayer, for from obstacles, faith and hope with prayer receive more and more strength and strength in others, they become more inflamed, while in those of little faith and faint-hearted they weaken or are completely extinguished. Indeed, the Canaanite woman did not weaken in faith, hope and prayer, but began to ask and shout even more strongly, following the Lord and the disciples, so that they began to intercede for her so that he would let her go. The Lord, as if not wanting to listen to either her or the disciples, says that He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, i.e. to the Jews, to whom were given promises, revelations, prophecies about His coming into the world and the salvation of people through Him. Despite the secondary refusal, she approaches the Lord Himself, bows and says: Lord! help me. Notice how great her faith, hope, and boldness are! Being a pagan, she confesses Him as Lord, the Son of David, the almighty King of spirits, trusts in His infinite goodness, which embraces not only Jews, but also pagans, and as a servant of the Lord, or better, as a daughter of the Father, she boldly says: Lord! help me. When the Lord said: it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs, meaning by dogs the pagans who did not know the true God, to which this woman belonged, she was not at all offended by such a name, realizing that she was worthy of such a blasphemous name, and said: so, Lord! but the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. Such faith, such hope, humility, and patience were pleasing to the Savior. He praised her for her great faith and said: oh, woman! Great is your faith, may it be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at that hour. Yes, such a mother deserves applause! The Lord found the same faith in one Roman centurion, also a former idolater, who had a beloved servant near death, healed by the Lord at the request and great faith of the centurion - and in his praise the Lord said: I have not found such faith in Israel either (Matthew 8:10). After this, I will tell you all, brothers and sisters: learn to believe like this, hope like this and ask the Lord or the Mother of God like this, with such courage and persistence, as the Canaanite woman asked for her daughter, as the centurion asked for his servant: and you will receive it as you wish, if it pleases God and is for your benefit. Ask, says the Lord, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). The Canaanite woman represents our soul; her possessed daughter is our many-passionate flesh, raging with different passions every day. In what trouble the Canaanite woman and her daughter were in, you and I are in the same trouble. Since my youth, many passions have fought me, but stand up for me and save me, my Savior! (Antiph. 4th chapter.) Why do passions, these demons operating in the hearts, often so brazenly dominate people, torment, torment, and shame the people possessed by them? Because these people do not have strong faith, do not pray fervently and persistently, and do not have a strong desire to get rid of them. Oh, who would send us such a mother as the Canaanite woman, who would pray for us to the Lord with the same faith, hope and love as she did for her daughter, so that for the sake of her prayer the Lord would have mercy on us and drive out our passions from us, healing us from our furies? For our flesh is angry with evil. But brethren, we have no match for the Canaanite woman, we have a Prayer Book and an unashamed and most merciful Intercessor, the All-Good and Most Pure Mother of our God, who is always ready to intercede before Her Son and God to deliver us from the rage and fury of passions, if only we would always come to Her with faith and hope, in repentance, from a sincere heart, with prayer for help. Her intercession is omnipotent, faithful, trustworthy, for She is the Mother of the Lord Himself and the Creator of creation, and Her Son and God, as a debtor to the Mother, will fulfill every request of Her for us. We will always resort to Her, in Her sovereign protection. But we ourselves will refine and increase our faith in the Lord, our trust and our love for God and our neighbors, and constantly resort in repentance to the Lord Himself, like that Canaanite woman; for the Lord has given us all the right to boldly turn to Himself: ask, and it will be given to you; and one more thing: whatever you ask in prayer in faith, you will receive (Matthew 21:22). So, brothers and sisters, great is the power of faith! The stronger our faith, the greater the saving power of God it attracts to a person, and there is no sin, there is no such great sorrow or misfortune from which faith could not save. She cleanses sins, relieves passions, drives away demons; heals sorrows, heals illnesses, delivers from death; raises the dead; transforms enemies into friends, sinners into righteous people; she removes mountains; she does all sorts of miracles. One citizen in a certain city, living by faith and waging a stubborn battle with the passions, like a warrior of Christ, told me in a conversation with me that with daily and hourly prayer of repentance and faith he almost constantly admires from God the power that saves him from all sins and passions, that despite countless temptations and internal falls, he is in the end always the conqueror of passions and a banisher of demonic dreams and obsessions, a destroyer of the wiles of demons - in a word, that by the grace of God and by the faith of God given to him, he is a constant miracle for himself. This is what the prayer of faith, the prayer of repentance means! This is how we believe, this is how we pray, and this is how we conquer our passions! Amen. Homily for the eighteenth week after Pentecost “And behold, he created a multitude of fish; and was torn to pieces by cutting them off” (Luke 5:6). My beloved brothers, today we read the Gospel of Luke about the Lord Jesus Christ preaching the word of God from a boat - at Lake Gennesaret - then about the Lord’s command to Peter the fisherman to cast a net at the depths and about the unusually great catch of fish, from which the nets broke and the boats began to sink - about the horror of the fishermen at such a wonderful catch, about Peter’s feeling of the divine power of Christ and a deep sense of his infirmities and the calling of Peter from a fisherman to a fisher of men and his immediate following after Him (Luke 5:1-11). The following of Peter is a miracle of Christ. Let us congratulate the simple, humble and hardworking fisherman Peter on his promotion to the apostolic rank and to the rank of fisher of men, and also to the other fishermen James and John and Andrew, for at the same time they all followed Christ and became His disciples and apostles and perfectly fulfilled their saving work, catching the human race from the depths of sinful delusion and vanity, each in its own measure. But let us turn to the divine face of the Savior: I am surprised and delighted by the bright, wonderful image of the divine power of Christ, as the Creator of all creation and the Savior of men; and His human image is absolutely beautiful, as if alien to any shortcomings; for His whole life was perfect in humanity, but now I pay special attention to His Divinity. Here I see dumb fish obeying Him, and at the wave of His power, they filled the fishing nets; I immediately see unquestioningly obeying His power and the verbal creature - people who, according to His word, left everything: their homes, their relatives, and their honest and cheerful trade, and followed Christ, who did not have anywhere to lay their head - which is also the greatest miracle. – Here and in another case I see that He knows all human hearts, all our thoughts, intentions and deeds; that He has perfect knowledge of everything past, present and future. There I see Him as the King of the hosts of angels, slavishly singing His incarnation and serving Him as the Creator at His birth and during His earthly life; here I see Him as a formidable, omnipotent Lord of evil spirits, trembling His powers and emanating from people possessed by them, according to one word of Him or according to the word of the apostles, to whom He gave power over demons; here I see His divine power over water and air: for the water silently carries Him on its ridge; the waves calm down in an instant from His single word, the storm also subsides in an instant with His word; here he rebukes the fire that is raging in a living organism, and the fire immediately stops; here, with His power, He shakes the whole earth like a leaf of a tree, and crushes the ancient stone rocks; there the sun extinguishes in the middle of the day - and deep darkness covers the whole earth, there He reveals His divine power over every disease, healing absolutely every ailment and every weakness in people, either in a word with the touch of His life-giving hand, or in just one word; here I see Him as the Lord of the belly and death, for example, when I see the four-day-old, stinking corpse of Lazarus, emerging from the tomb at His word, completely healthy and strong, or a dead youth rising from the tomb; there I see Him as the Resurrectionist from the dead of the entire human race and the righteous Judge of the living and the dead and the Father of the future, the endless age, the King of the endless kingdom; Everywhere from His words and deeds I see that every creature, animate and inanimate, obeys Him, I see dominion over the entire universe, over the living and the dead, over all-destroying hell itself; but what especially pleasantly surprises me is that He instructs sinners who believe and sincerely repent from countless sins, like a harlot, like a publican, like a thief, and on the path of salvation, on the path leading to eternal life, and confirms it, and saves from the curse of the righteous and from eternal torment, and transforms sinners into righteous people. This is all the miracles above and beyond. For for the salvation of sinners He came into the world, became a man, labored His most pure feet, taught Himself, worked miracles, suffered, died and rose from the dead; For this purpose, He chose the apostles and sent them into the world to catch people from the abyss of destruction, clothed them with Himself, made them wise and girded them with power from above, giving them the Holy Spirit and the power to work countless miracles, drive away demons and destroy all their dreams and fears; For this purpose, He founded His Church on earth, entrusted it with His divine word and gave it His saving laws, hierarchy, worship, sacraments, all divine powers for life and piety (2 Pet. 1:3) and the whole order. Glory and thanksgiving to the Lord for His saving, wonderful and all-good Providence! This is what I wanted to tell you today about the gospel read today, i.e. to present to you, to the best of my ability, on the basis of the Gospel in wondrous light and greatness, the divine, wonderful, all-wise, omnipotent and all-saving power of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to arouse and strengthen in yourself and in you faith in Him, hope in Him and ardent love, reverence and gratitude to Him as to the eternal God; in order to awaken zeal for the salvation of their souls, reverence and zeal for the Holy Church, for her servants, called from Him and invested with His authority - for the saving statutes of the Church, for Divine services and for the entire divinely established rite. Now I pay attention to the words of the Lord spoken to Peter after he, horrified by the unusually large catch of fish and the creative power of the Savior, said to Him: get out of me, Lord! because I am a sinful person. What did the Lord say to him about this? - He said: do not be afraid; From now on you will catch people. What do these words mean? They mean this: do not fear Me, Peter, although I am the Creator and the beginningless and omnipotent God, who created and contains the entire universe with My word; I did not come to frighten and destroy you, My verbal sheep, kidnapped by a mental wolf, but to have mercy and save. The serpent of the abyss - the devil - has caught My dear creation, created in My image and likeness, into his destructive nets; I came Myself to catch people, like dumb fish, with My saving, grace-filled net from the depths of sin and destruction into My grace-filled and glorious kingdom. Go: I make you My fellow worker; be a fisher of men; preach to them the word about the kingdom of God; about overthrowing the yoke of sin through repentance, about mercy and forgiveness for those who repent, about reconciliation with God. This is what the Savior’s words to Peter mean! From here, note the high rank of apostle and the rank of the apostolic successors: bishops, priests and deacons. They are your shepherds and teachers, co-workers with God; their main task is to save human souls from sin and eternal destruction, to enlighten them with the light of the Gospel of Christ, to instruct them on the path of virtue, to guide them to the eternal fatherland. Honor them, pray for them, so that they may rightly rule the word of truth, may the Lord clothe them with truth and holiness, and have them in special love for their work. Nowadays there is a cooling towards the shepherds; This is an unkind sign of the present time, when the faith of the majority of the people is in decline, when the morals of Christians have become extremely weakened and corrupted, the zeal for the salvation of souls has faded among many, and the exclusive love for temporary life and various passions have become the beginning of the whole matter, of all life. Through the prayers of Your holy apostles, Lord, have mercy and save us all. Amen. Homily for the twentieth week after Pentecost Today we read the Gospel of Luke about the Lord’s resurrection of the only son of a widow from the city of Nain, who, out of great sorrow, wept greatly over the loss of him. The lover of humanity took pity on her and said to her: don’t cry. And he came up and touched the bed; - at the same time the porters stopped, and the Lord said to the dead man: young man! I'm telling you, get up. And oh, miracle! the dead man got up, sat down, and began to speak; and Jesus gave him to his mother. And everyone was seized with fear, and they glorified God, saying: A great prophet has arisen among us, and God has visited His people (Luke 7:11–16). This concludes today's gospel. A short read, but how much instructive and edifying there is in it! what a wonderful, amazing and inspiring story! the young man rose from the dead according to the word of the Life-Giver and was handed over alive to his bitterly weeping mother, who accidentally received her invaluable treasure, the support of her old age, the light and joy of her eyes. What a divine power that overcomes death, which has held humanity so tightly in its terrible bonds for many thousands of years! What divine mercy, which returned the dearly beloved child to maternal love! This miracle of the resurrection of the young man, my brothers, was performed as an image of the future resurrection of all the dead and for the confirmation of our faith and our aspirations for the general resurrection. Let us remember and rejoice in the fact that by Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, death was defeated, changed to sleep, and we were all granted resurrection, which will certainly follow at the time determined by God. But, sons of the resurrection! Remembering our future resurrection, let us strive without fail to resurrect us all to joy and eternal life, and not to shame and eternal reproach, as Daniel the prophet says; so that after the resurrection you will be worthy to stand at the right hand of the Lord, and not at the left, and to hear not a threatening voice that sends you into eternal fire, but a voice calling you to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. We will try, according to our strength, to imitate the mercy of our Lord, to console the sad as best we can, to visit orphans and widows, especially the poor and helpless, to help the poor, to alleviate the difficult condition of the unfortunate. For alms, according to Scripture, delivers from death and cleanses all sin (Tobit. 12:9). We recognize that each of us has his own dead person, namely, his soul dead because of countless sins in a living body, just as the Lord in one place called some people dead, although they were alive in the body, saying to a certain person who wanted to follow Christ, but first bury his father: let the dead bury their dead (Matthew 8:22; Luke 9:60), and you go and proclaim the Kingdom God, or as the Lord says to one head of the Church: you bear a name as if you were alive, but you are dead (Apoc. 3:1). Yes, every sinner has a dead soul, which can perish forever, without ceasing to exist, but remaining endlessly in terrible torment. This dead soul of a sinner in this life can only be resurrected by Jesus Christ alone - through faith and heartfelt repentance. And this great miracle - the resurrection of the souls of sinners - the Lord often performs; sometimes in one day and even one hour the same soul calls from death to life, dying through its sins and passions and rising through sincere repentance. Oh, how many great miracles the Lord performs daily in the souls of believers and repentant sinners - so many that, due to the multitude, these miracles sometimes seem to be very ordinary internal phenomena! Oh, the abyss of God's mercy! Oh, inexhaustible sea of ​​miracles of God’s goodness and long-suffering! – Glory to You, Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, take away our sins, destroying our spiritual death and giving it life by Your ineffable goodness! But, sinners, let us not abuse God’s mercy, adding sins to sins, remaining stagnant in the same sins for many years, but let us hasten to bring sincere, unchangeable repentance—we will overcome our evil inclinations and habits by the grace of God and bring to the Lord fruits worthy of repentance. So He has been waiting for good fruits from us for so long; let us hasten to repentance, I say, lest he cut us down like a barren fig tree and cast us into unquenchable fire. Amen. Homily for the twenty-first week after Pentecost. About the different effects of the word of God on human hearts, according to the difference of hearts Today, beloved, the Gospel parable of the sower and the seed was read; about the unequal quality of the ground on which the seed fell, and about the different fate of the seed. At the end of the Gospel reading, the parable is explained by the Lord Himself, at the request of His disciples (Luke 8:5–15). Pathetic man! poor man! How many obstacles he has in the most important matter, in the matter of saving his soul! Then he himself tramples the saving seed of the word of God, which can make him wise for salvation - he tramples either intentionally, consciously, mockingly, or through frivolity, negligence and ignorance; - then the all-world villain and destroyer of the human race, the devil, steals the saving word; - that petrification and hardening of the heart does not allow him to be saved; then thorns or various worries, passions and pleasures of life, wealth, pose insurmountable obstacles to his salvation. Only a few, with a kind and good heart, with a true mind, evaluate how their salvation should be and patiently use the given means for salvation and are saved. Many are called, but few are chosen. Wonderful thing! But what is this finally?.. Who is to blame for this absurdity, for this free death of people? Man himself is to blame for trampling, and often learning to trample on a daily basis, the wonderful, great, countless gifts of God. The Lord God, who created him in His image and likeness, in truth and holiness, gave him all the opportunity, all the means and strength for life and piety. Man, through laziness and ignorance, through negligence and stubbornness, through an unreasonable addiction to this life, like a shadow passing by, rushes headlong into destruction, pushing away the right hand of God that saves him. Who is to blame for death if not the person himself? You will say: it is impossible, or at least difficult, to escape! But countless numbers of people subservient to us were saved; but now only a few are being saved. - It's hard to escape! Do you really want to receive eternal life without difficulty, in blissful union with God, with the Mother of God, with the Angels, with all the saints? - really, without the labor of self-purification - with the help of grace - without the labor of prayer, vigil, without alms, without meekness, without humility, without abstinence! To acquire earthly blessings, we do not consider it superfluous to work - and we work, often with all our strength, but to obtain eternal bliss we give up. And it’s not that the work of salvation is extremely difficult: My yoke is easy, and My burden is light (Matthew 11:30), says the Savior. Yes, with God’s help, it becomes gradually easier, although at first it is made difficult by the persistent struggle with sin. But isn’t sin also an extremely difficult matter, as unnatural, alien to our divine nature? Isn't sin painful? If we work while sinning, how can we not work - doing the truth, saving the soul from sin? There the end is death, but here is eternal life. The patterns of sin are death; The gift of God is eternal life (Rom. 6:23). This parable of the sower and the seed was told not only to encourage listeners with a kind and good heart to more zealously fulfill the word of God and to greater improvement in virtue, but also to force distracted, careless, hard-hearted and possessed of passions people to perk up and listen attentively to the word of God and work out their salvation with fear. The grace of God can change every heart for the better - create a miracle of salvation for every person, if only the person himself believed, wanted to be saved, sought salvation, knew the abyss of his sins and what abyss they tear between those who sin arbitrarily and between God; If only he submits to the grace of God that saves him and does not push away the saving right hand of God. There were and are thousands of examples of the salvation of such people who were previously absent-minded, frivolous, hard-hearted, and subject to all sorts of passions. They heeded the word of God, did not resist, followed it, and were saved and are now blissful in the Kingdom of Heaven. Nothing is impossible for God: He can save even a hardened sinner; can lift him from the bottom of hell to the heights of His kingdom and eternal bliss, like a prudent thief, like Mary of Egypt, drowning in the abyss of sin. If only the person himself desired it, asked for it and zealously strived for salvation; for the Lord does not want to forcefully draw us to salvation, so that salvation itself, as forced, does not become contrary to him: for we value only what we ourselves have loved as worthy of love, what we ourselves have longed for, what we have become akin to, what has become our treasure, our nature, as it were. And this is precisely Christian virtue, this is the Kingdom of God: it must be known, loved with all your heart, adopted here on earth, rooted in your heart so that it completely penetrates your entire soul and leaves no place in the heart for all-destructive and all-flattering sin. Christian! give up your disastrous absent-mindedness, your unbelief, inattention, negligence, your laziness towards salvation; do not trample on the wonderful gifts of grace; read or listen diligently to the word of God, which opens the way to salvation for you; fulfill it with utmost wisdom and strength; conquer your hard-heartedness and petrification; soften your heart like wax - with the fire of the grace of the Holy Spirit and tears of repentance; pluck sinful thorns from your heart, although it is regrettable and painful, for they have become your second nature. You cannot, you say, but the grace of God is omnipotent: it will help you easily complete the whole work of your salvation. Speaking about the seed of the word of God, which feeds the human soul, I also remember the earthly, perishable seed, the grain seed - about the current crop failure of cereals, about the high cost of bread, the unprecedented high cost: and the crop failure occurred from the destruction of grain seeds by insects and worms or from drought. What are these troubles caused by? - From our sins. We do not bring to the Lord our God the fruits of repentance and correction of our accursed life; The Lord also takes away from us the fruits of the earth, for which we did not know how and did not want to be grateful to Him, did not want to do His will and became evil, crafty, proud, untruthful, incontinent, idle and foul-mouthed, selfish, cruel, stingy, unmerciful, unclean. Obviously, the rod of paternal justice hangs over us. God punishes us with crop failures, fires, floods, exhausting wars, destructive pestilences and diseases. But will we come to our senses, repent, and correct ourselves? Haven’t we become hardened, haven’t we completely petrified our hearts? God forbid! Where will the Kingdom of God be on earth then, if it does not exist in Christians who call themselves Orthodox, in the land of Orthodoxy, where there are so many pledges of Orthodox shrines precious to God; so many holy relics of God's saints; so many miraculous icons, so many magnificent churches; Where is this heavenly service on earth? Or will the kingdom of God be taken away from us and given to a people who produce its fruits (Matthew 21:43)? Oh, let us not be ashamed forever; May the Lord correct us with a rod of punishment and may He not deprive us of His mercy and His Kingdom. Amen. Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost The current gospel, on the one hand, denounces and admonishes the luxurious, pampered, arrogant and hard-hearted rich people, having fun all day long and not caring about pleasing God, about true food and true, unceasing, heavenly joy of the spirit and about mercy for the poor; on the other hand, it pours heavenly consolation into the soul of the poor unfortunates in this world, despised by their rich brothers, forgotten in their wealth and pleasures. The Lord Jesus Christ, whose every word is truth, depicts the fate after death, the eternal unchangeable fate of both: the unbearable torment of such rich people - in the flames of Gehenna and the consolation of the poor like Lazarus - in the bosom of Abraham, in the villages of the righteous; cites the rich man’s request for help from Abraham and Lazarus and the rich man’s decisive refusal of this help, apparently the most insignificant; speaks of the impassable abyss between hell and heaven, between the place of torment of sinners and the place of bliss of the righteous; then he talks about the rich man’s new request to Abraham to send Lazarus to the house of this rich man’s father to testify to the five brothers, like him living in luxury, idleness and joy, about the existence of terrible torments for sinners after death, and about a new refusal to satisfy this request as unfounded and unreasonable. Let us all draw a lesson for our lives from this gospel - let us condemn the vanity, the madness of our lives, our lust, our covetousness, our pride, our ingratitude before God, our hard-heartedness towards our neighbors. Nowadays, more than ever, the passion for elegant, luxurious, and riotous clothing - for every day of life - has intensified. Fashions turn the heads of many girls and women, and many effeminate men, occupy their entire soul and do not allow them to think about the only thing needed - about saving the soul from sins and passions - from the fire of hell, about bowing to the mercy of the righteous Judge, who wants to judge the universe in righteousness, through tears of repentance (Ps. 9:9); about acquiring faith in the Lord, about changing the life of a pagan to a Christian one, in accordance with the Gospel. The passion for carnal fun, especially for drunken, tavern, theatrical, and spectacular fun, also prevails today among professed Christians; Drunk people are often seen at almost every step; theaters are filled with idle spectators who love to spend time easily, playfully, and even on Sundays and holidays, which must be devoted entirely to thinking about the greatest deeds of Divine Providence regarding us and thanking the Lord for it. My God! how great are our untruths! We are negligent about pleasing You, our Creator, Savior and Judge, about fulfilling Your saving commands, in which our life and well-being are temporary and eternal - we are negligent about the salvation of our souls, for which there is nothing more precious, for which You came down from heaven, suffered, died and rose again - and who do we please? Flesh and the devil, flesh that is alive today, but tomorrow, perhaps, will be dead, cold, motionless, stinking. We do not spare anything for carnal pleasures, but for our brethren - for the poor we spare a few kopecks. But, brethren, “God endures to the end, but He torments without end.” We will not escape from the judgment of the fire of Gehenna if we do not give up our festivities, our drunkenness, our passion for dressing elegantly and do not take care to satisfy the hunger of our soul, not the hunger of bread and not the thirst for water, but the hunger of the world of God, holiness, the truth of God, the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ. Now the current gospel announces in advance the fate after death of all revelers; they will be in flames, in torment, in terrible torment, without hope of ending it. He who has ears to hear, let him hear and hasten to correct himself: for death is near to everyone, and with it judgment: for man alone must die, and then comes judgment (Heb. 9:27). But what do I hear from these revelers? Very many of them do not believe that after death there is such terrible torment, and they think that all their leprosy will be in vain, that nothing will happen after death. So the rich man mentioned in the Gospel, thrown after death into the fire of Gehenna, asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to assure him that there is terrible torment after death for all unrepentant sinners; This means that they, like him, lived carelessly, among other things, due to lack of faith in the righteous reward of everyone after death. No, friends, do not be deceived: God is not deceitful in His threats and promises; there has never been a lie in the mouth of the Lord; many of His holy words were fulfilled exactly; the rest will also be fulfilled. It is impossible for the Lord not to reward those who diligently fulfill His commandments, for example, the commandments about patience, abstinence, meekness, humility, purity and chastity, and not to punish those who fearlessly resist Him and constantly desecrate the image of God in themselves - through intemperance, impurity of the flesh, excessive covetousness, pride and other passions. The fire of Gehenna is ready. Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10). And this tree is barren - who? An unrepentant living sinner; and this fire is not our fire, earthly, weak, but the fire of Gehenna, a thousand times fiercer: for everything there is incomparably superior to everything here; The fire here, compared to the fire in Gehenna, is but a shadow. You will say: this is terrible. Yes, it's terrible. From such and such a terrible fire, from such and such terrible torment, the Son of God came to save us; and what terrible torment did this salvation cost Him, the sinless and most holy God-man? And even after this we dare to live carelessly - and even not to believe that there is fire of Gehenna. What will we believe after this? My brothers! let us leave intemperance and luxury, carelessness about our soul, about the soul that has no price; let us despise temporary pleasures, which disappear like a dream, but plunge us into eternal torment if we do not correct ourselves, and let us spend the rest of our lives in repentance, in abstinence, in blessed labors. Amen. Sermon for the twenty-third week after Pentecost “When He (Jesus) came out to the earth, a certain man from the city, whose name was demons, was taken away from many years, and was not clothed in a robe, and did not live in the church, but in tombs” (Luke 8:27). Coming ashore, Jesus met a man from the city who had been possessed by demons for a long time, and who did not wear clothes, and did not live in a house, but in tombs. In this Gospel, the holy evangelist Luke told us the story of the Savior’s expulsion of many demons from a demon-possessed man. How pitiful this man was! he did not dress in clothes and lived not in a house, but in coffins, i.e. in tomb caves; For a long time, demons tormented him so much that he beat himself against stones, and his neighbors, saving him, “tied him with chains and bonds, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert.” Jesus Christ “asked” the unfortunate man: “What is your name”? not because, of course, he didn’t know: for what could be unknown to the Omniscient? and therefore, to make it known to people how many unclean tormentors there were in man. “He answered and said, Legion; because many demons entered into him. And they asked Jesus not to command them to go into the abyss,” i.e. to hell “Right there on the mountain there was a large herd of pigs grazing: and the demons asked Him to allow them to enter into them. He allowed them" to show that man is infinitely more valuable than animals. “The demons came out of man and entered pigs; and the herd rushed down a steep slope into the lake and drowned. The shepherds, seeing what had happened, ran and told the story in the city and villages. And they came out to see what had happened; and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and were horrified. Those who saw them told them how the demoniac was healed. And all the people of the Gadarene region asked Him to leave them, because they were seized with great fear. He got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had come out asked Him to be with Him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your house and tell us what God has done for you.” He went and preached throughout the whole city what Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:27–39). Are there people possessed by us in our time? There are, and many: both real, obvious demoniacs and implicit demoniacs; of these latter, firstly, those who are demon-possessed are those who blaspheme the saints of God, the Church of God and strongly turn away from it and from God’s word; who blaspheme holy icons, holy relics, the sacred order and persons ordained to this order, those who consider holy fasts and fasting according to the rules of the Holy Church unnecessary; our Pashkov schismatics and old schismatics; secondly, to some extent, those who, contrary to the Gospel, experience and common sense, claim that there are no evil spirits can be called possessed: this persistent disbelief in evil spirits is real demonic possession, because it goes against the truth, against the revelation of God. The Lord came to earth precisely in order to destroy the works of the devil and save his man from violence. If there is no devil, then there is no Christianity, then the coming of the Son of God into the world would not be necessary. But this is ridiculous. And the experience of each of us and common sense, the history of the lives of saints and the history of all peoples confirm us in the existence of evil spirits. Further, one can, but in fairness, call people possessed by evil, angry, violent, drunk, foul-mouthed, abusive, envious, ill-intentioned, having secret or open enmity and hatred of their neighbors, gloating; stingy, money-loving, living in prodigal uncleanness; crafty, deceitful, offenders, hard-hearted and unmerciful, finally, people with strong carnal passion, and all unrepentant sinners. For, tell me, where can so many such evils come from in man, who is created in the image and likeness of God? Obviously, from the devil, who is the author in man, by the will of man, of all evil. The sin you create is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning (1 John 3:8). So, let us eradicate from our hearts all passions, all sin, all evil, so as not to in any way give room to the devil in ourselves; do not give room to the devil (Eph. 4:27), says the apostle; resist him, and he will flee from you (James 4:7), says the apostle James. Be sober, be vigilant, your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks around looking for someone to devour; resist the firmament by faith (1 Pet. 5:8–9). Amen. Sermon for the twenty-fifth week after Pentecost. About the Good Samaritan In the gospel read today (Luke 10:25–37), our Savior God solved a very important question for all of us: what should we do to inherit eternal life? This question was proposed to the Lord by some Jewish lawyer, who said: “What must I do to inherit eternal life”? The Lord pointed him to the law given to the Jews by God through Moses: “What is written in the law? how do you read? He answered and said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus said to him: You answered correctly; do this and you will live,” i.e. forever. “But he, wanting to justify himself,” i.e. Considering himself, like the other Pharisees, a righteous man who fulfilled the law as he understood it, one-sidedly, incorrectly, he said to Jesus: who is my neighbor? believing that only a Jew should be considered a neighbor, and not every person. With the parable of the man wounded by robbers and the merciful Samaritan, who took the most heartfelt and active part in him, the Lord showed that every person should be considered a neighbor, no matter who he is, even if he is our enemy, and especially when he needs help. So, this means that in order to receive an eternal life, you need to diligently fulfill the two main commandments - to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. But since the whole law consists of these two commandments, it is necessary to explain them so that we know well what love for God and neighbor consists of? So, with God’s help, let’s begin the explanation. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, i.e. with all your being, with all your strength, surrender yourself to God - devote yourself entirely to Him, without any lack, do not divide yourself between God and the world; Do not live partly only for God and His law and partly for the world, for the multi-passionate flesh, for sin and the devil, but devote yourself entirely to God, be all of God, all holy, in your whole life. Following the example of the Holy One (God) who called you, be holy in all your actions (1 Peter 1:15), says the holy Apostle Peter. Let us explain this commandment with examples. Suppose you are praying to God. If you love God with all your heart, then you will always pray to Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind; you will never be absent-minded, lazy, careless, or cold in prayer; During prayer, you will not give room in your heart for any worldly cares and worries - you will put aside all worldly cares, you will cast all your sorrow on the Lord, for He cares for you, as the apostle says. Try to understand prayer, God’s service completely, in all its depth. If you love God with all your soul, then you will sincerely repent to God of your sins, you will bring Him deep repentance every day, for every day you sin a lot. You will repent, i.e. condemn yourself for sins with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your mind; You will expose yourself with all merciless severity, with all sincerity, and you will offer to God a full confession, a sacrifice of a complete burnt offering of sins, so that not a single sin remains unrepentant or unmourned. Thus, to love God with all your heart means to love with all your heart and with all your strength His truth, His law, and with all your heart to hate all unrighteousness, all sin; with all your heart and with all your strength to fulfill the truth, to do good, and with all your heart and with all your strength to shun evil, i.e. any sin, not to give room in the heart for any sin for one minute, not for one moment, i.e. not to agree with it, not to sympathize with it, not to put up with it, but to constantly, eternally be at enmity with sin, to fight with it and, thus, to be a brave and victorious warrior of Christ God. Or let’s take another example: let’s assume that you are being persecuted for piety, for truth, for virtue; if you love God, then you will not for a moment deviate from piety, from truth, from virtue, even if this devotion to truth entails the loss of any benefits; since truth itself, or fidelity to God and His truth, is the greatest benefit for us, and God can reward fidelity to His truth a hundredfold both in this and in the next century. An example of this is Joseph the righteous, the son of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob, and many righteous people in the New Testament. So, to love God with all your heart means to fight according to God, according to His righteousness with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. Thus, according to God, according to His truth, the holy fathers and holy martyrs fought, especially in the fight against heresies and schisms. This is zeal for God. Also, to love God with all your heart means to direct all people with all your might to God, to His love, to His praise, to His eternal kingdom, so that everyone would know Him, love Him, and glorify Him. This is also zeal for God. Having explained, to the best of our ability, the first commandment, let us now explain the second: love your neighbor as yourself. What does it mean to love your neighbor, i.e. every person as himself? It means to honor another as you would like to be respected, not to consider anyone a stranger, but your own, your brother, your member, and a Christian as a member of Christ; consider his good, his salvation as your good, your salvation; rejoice at his well-being as if it were your own, grieve over his misfortune as if it were your own; try to save him from trouble, misfortune, poverty, sin - just as I would try to save myself. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15), says the apostle. We must bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not please ourselves; Let every one of you please his neighbor for good to build up (Rom. 15:1-2). Pray for one another that you may be healed (James 5:16). To love your neighbor as yourself means to respect him as yourself, if, however, he is worthy of it, not to think about him unworthily, basely, without a reason for this on his part, not to have any evil towards him; do not envy him, but always be kind, condescend to his shortcomings, weaknesses, cover his sins with love, as we want them to condescend to our shortcomings. Bear with one another out of love (Eph. 4:2), says the apostle, not returning evil for evil, or annoyance for annoyance (1 Pet. 3:9). Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you (Matthew 5:44). If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him something to drink (Prov. 25:22; Rom. 12:20), says the Old Testament scripture. To love your neighbor as yourself means to pray for the living and the dead, relatives and non-relatives, acquaintances and strangers, for friends and enemies - all the same, as for yourself, and to wish them as much good, the salvation of the soul, as you do for yourself. This is what the Holy Church teaches in her daily prayers. To love your neighbor as yourself also means to love everyone without partiality, regardless of whether he is poor or rich, good-looking or not, old or young, noble or simple, healthy or sick; whether it is useful to us or not, a friend or an enemy, because it is all the same of God, all in the image of God, all are children of God, members of Christ (if Orthodox Christians), all our members: for we are all one body, one spirit (Eph. 4:4), all have one Head - Christ God. So let us understand and try to fulfill the two main commandments of the law of God, and we will inherit eternal life by the grace of Christ God. Amen. Homily for the twenty-sixth week after Pentecost In the Gospel we have just read, my brothers, you heard the Savior’s parable about the crazy rich man who, having received from the generous God many fruits of the earth, wanted to turn them solely to his own pleasure and did not think of sharing them with his neighbors in need; who dreamed that he would live in this world for many years, and did not think that, perhaps, that same night his soul would be torn out of his body and caught up to judgment before God, the impartial Judge of our life. The Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke this parable, offered the following moral teaching to the people who listened to Him: “Do not worry about your soul, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will wear: the life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Look at the ravens: they neither sow nor reap; They have neither storehouses nor granaries, and God feeds them; How much better are you than the birds? And which of you, by caring, can add even one cubit to his height? So if you can’t do even the slightest thing, why are you worrying about the rest? Look at the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory did not dress like any of them. If God clothes the grass in the field, which is there today and thrown into the oven tomorrow, then how much more so than you, you of little faith! So do not look for what you will eat or what you will drink, and do not worry, because the people of this world are looking for all these things (and you are of another world); but your Father knows that you have need; seek above all the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you” (Luke 12:22–31). Let us pay attention to the madness-filled words of the rich man: having received a good harvest in the field, he reasoned with himself: what should I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits. Here is a crazy concern: where to collect a lot of fruits. Why do you need to collect them in storage, hoard them, and perhaps let them rot? Did the Lord give birth to them so that they would lie in bins and rot? Or is it just so that you alone can enjoy them? Is it not so that you share the gifts of goodness with your heartfelt goodness to your poor brothers? or that from the gifts of mercy you should do works of mercy? Do you really live alone in the world? Does everyone thrive in wealth like you? Don't you see the hungry, half-naked, driven out of their homes for non-payment of money that they do not have; Don’t you see the sick, the crippled, the lame, those disfigured by illness, who all need your help? Why are you mad, saying: I have nowhere to gather my fruits? How can there be nowhere? Here are the granaries for you: the hands of the poor: teach the gifts of God’s goodness, given to many, to many poor people and receive for this from the Lord forgiveness of sins and great mercy; By doing this, you will act in accordance with the will of God, for the Lord gives us abundance to help the poor: for the mercies themselves will obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7); you will delight and make many happy; you will accumulate for yourself a wonderful reserve of gratitude and blessings of the poor and suffering, which will serve as your salvation and the guarantee of your prosperity on earth and eternal prosperity in the future life. Are not many of us, my brothers, involved in the sin of this rich man? Each of us who accumulates a lot of money, a lot of clothes, a lot of expensive and often unnecessary dishes in our storehouses is like this rich man and is guilty before God of being hard-hearted towards the poor. How will you appear to the righteous Judge and Creator, whose gifts you have squandered madly and of the gifts of goodness and mercy you have not done, perhaps, a single act of mercy, but have used everything to satisfy the insane lusts of your flesh? Do you drink a variety of drinks, eat all sorts of delicacies, but spare the poor one’s bread? Or do you lose dozens of rubles at cards, but don’t give even a few kopecks to the poor? Or do you even make so-called slides out of silver and gold dishes, and allow the poor to shake from the cold? Or you spend a lot of money on exquisite clothes prescribed by fashion, but you pass by a beggar dressed in rags with contempt, as if you were already a special, higher being than a beggar in thin clothes. Or do you have several houses and collect a lot of money from the tenants - and you save this money for who knows who, or do you spend everything only on yourself, are you luxurious, and are you satiated? I am afraid, horrified for you: what will happen to you after death, when you will not be able to take anything with you and when the Judge will demand from you deeds of love and mercy? Let’s listen further to the rich man’s crazy speeches: “And he said: This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and I will gather there all my bread and all my goods, and I will say to my soul: soul! You have a lot of goods laid up for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry” (Luke 12:18–19). Oh, how are these words of the rich man and similar thoughts of the present rich people like him unpleasant to the Lord, Who sends us His blessings not so that they lie in barns, but so that they are used by people for food and pleasure, to the glory and thanksgiving of the Lord? To what extent does a person become addicted to the earth and to earthly life, that he forgets God, the generous Giver of all blessings, and becomes, like a stone, hard-hearted towards his neighbor, who is of the same nature with us and of the same blood! Hear what the hard-hearted rich man says to his soul: soul! you have a lot of good things lying around for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry! Evil and malicious soul! The whole purpose of life is to rest, eat, drink and be merry! Don't you notice that this is in the spirit of our time and modern people! And now the good of life lies in inventing various kinds of recreations, pleasures, amusements, eating, drinking and having fun? Oh, poor souls! You have completely lost your common, evangelical sense! Were you created just to eat, drink and be merry? Is this your calling? Is it not to cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and create holiness, pleasing God? Isn’t it the cross of sorrows, isn’t it the cross of stubborn struggle against sin, bequeathed to you by your Savior? Isn't it crying for sins? Isn't it abstinence? Isn't it a narrow and thorny path? And you just want to relax, eat, drink, have fun! This is paganism, idolatry; there is nothing Christian here! A Christian philosophizes on things above, not on earth (Col. 3:2). And how can we distribute our pleasures over many years? How can we assign ourselves long years of life? Insane! says the Lord, this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared? and adds: this is what happens to those who store up treasures for themselves, but do not become rich in God (Luke 12:20–21). In fact, we should not worry about the future: we have the Heavenly Father Himself as a vigilant Guardian for us, Who knows what we need, and Who wants us to ask Him for our daily bread only today - for this day, Who wants our heart to be given exclusively to Him, the Source of life, the God of our heart, and not to earthly sweets, not to our enemy - the deceiving devil earthly delights and taking possession of our thoughts and hearts through the passion for earthly things it produces in the heart. Oh, how hard, how unbearable is this yoke of earthly addictions! How suffocating it is! Let us despise the pleasures of the flesh, and let us enjoy the spirit forever in God! Let us accumulate for ourselves a supply for the future life through works of mercy; let us not accumulate for ourselves, but grow rich in God; Let us not worry about what to eat or what to drink or what to wear, but let us seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness: and all this will be added to us. Amen. Sermon for the twenty-sixth week after Pentecost Today we have read the Gospel from St. Luke about a crazy, proud rich man who collected only for himself and did not give from his wealth to those in need (Luke 12:16-21). This is a parable; therefore, its meaning is obviously much broader than it seems at first, and by a rich person we should mean people of every rank, title and status, endowed by God with all good and material contentment, and not just landowners and people of tax status; Likewise, a good field harvest should mean not only natural, plant products, i.e. wheat, rye, etc., and all material contentment: a rich inheritance, a large salary received from the state treasury, rich income delivered by some place or position, direct or indirect, open or secret - good, profitable trade, good income from renting out houses, profitable craft, etc. Thus, this parable, like a net, captures very many and, in a word, all those who have good means of living. What does our divine Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ, want and demand from us in this parable? He wants and demands from us that we not only personally use the gifts of God for our own pleasure, to satisfy our only animal needs, habits, passions and lusts, but that we share, certainly share, our goods, according to our means, with the poor and needy, of whom there are so many everywhere; because the Lord sends us all kinds of material contentment not for us alone, but through us - and for our neighbors. You have many gifts of God, given to you as much for you as for the common good, and they lie without any benefit, and you turn the source of God’s blessing into a source of curse; you swear at the goodness and generosity of God, you are a friend of the common envious and enemy of the devil: for you are an enemy of God and people, because you destroy many with your hard-heartedness. This truth, which seems strange to many, is so clear that it speaks for itself, and a person who looks directly at the matter, who does not have his own preconceived thoughts and false beliefs, has no need to explain and prove it: for all of us, rich as well as poor, noble and simple, educated and uneducated, are all neighbors to each other, as descended from the same blood, members of one great family of God, members, if not of one church, then of one states, members of one common fatherland, we have one king-father, who cares equally about the welfare of all his subjects, for whom the top desire is that everyone, in general, should be happy and prosperous, everyone should work for the benefit of society and each for his own. But our extreme pride, according to which we are accustomed to consider our material goods exclusively ours, a false view of our relations with others and a strictly judicial, one-sided view of our neighbors who require our help, go against this truth, and many, many say: what is mine is only for me and for no one else, others do not care about it, although it is obvious that such a belief is false and extremely inhumane, i.e. not humane. Let us prove, on the basis of reason and the word of God, its inconsistency and then draw the conclusion that we should not only collect for ourselves, but also become rich in God, i.e. to be rich in mercy, righteousness and, in general, good deeds. First, throughout nature, throughout the visible world, we notice reciprocity and sociability. The sun from the heights of heaven illuminates, warms and revives the whole earth, all creatures, there is no number of them; the air penetrates everyone and everything - we all breathe and feed on it every minute; winds, alternately blowing from all sides, produce beneficial changes in the air in different places, cleanse and make it healthier; Rivers, irrigating the different areas through which they flow, bring many different benefits to people and animals. Bees collect fragrant, healthy and nutritious juice from flowers, put it in honeycombs and form honey, which is used by many people; The silkworm spins cocoons, or silk threads, and humans use them for their products. People of science and art, crafts, agriculture, trade, industry share their treasures with other people; the army lays down its life for the faith, the king and the fatherland; everything and everyone is in interaction and communication. But you have large sums of money, which would be enough to feed a thousand people, what good is it? Will only property, money, bread, clothing, housing, be our only property, and we will not willingly share it with our needy brothers? Have mercy, my brothers, this is contrary to our nature and reason. Just as all of nature shares its treasures and riches with us, so we must mutually share our wealth with each other for the common good. Secondly, since we all, since Christians, constitute a joint of the spiritual body of the Church, the Head of which is Jesus Christ, and the Pilot or Ruler is the Holy Spirit, therefore we are obliged to take spiritual and material care not only about ourselves, but also about other members of the body, according to the word of the Apostle Paul: if one member suffers, all members suffer with it; if one member is glorified, all members rejoice with it. And you are the body of Christ, and separately members (1 Cor. 12:26–27). The church and the state are a living organism, but there are members in it that are sick, weak, incapable, or have no labor and cannot obtain it. If so: then how can a rich man not take care of the poor - a rich man of every rank: a spiritual man, a merchant, a man of secular or military rank, a scientist or a leader in any rank, or a rich artisan? And in this case, higher or high-ranking persons, as more educated, should set an example for the lower ones, according to the word of the Apostle: We must bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not please ourselves (Rom. 15:1). If strong, noble, high-ranking persons or the rich please only themselves, without caring about the poor and weak, then what can people do in their favor, albeit with good intentions, desires, enterprises, but not strong in power and capital? Here, for example, in Kronstadt we have a poor, unprivileged class of assigned philistines who have neither business, nor money, nor food, nor clothing, nor housing, nor the slightest moral voice to defend themselves, but who could be useful if people who are respected by the authorities paid paternal attention to them. Tell me, what will happen to them in the end if the strong in the city do not pay attention to them? Or will they have to wither away and die prematurely from hunger and cold, or will they resort to illegal means of acquisition in order not to die of hunger? And if the noble and rich do not want to give them what they need for life from their granaries or from their rich treasuries, then, at least, we need to jointly take care of housing them and keeping them busy with labor according to their strength, and generally assisting them. After all, they are also Christians, like us; subjects and children of the same sovereign as we are; members of the same society as we are. Meanwhile, they, our members, due to some strange negligence and hard-heartedness of society, remain to this day without any charity. O pride, o pride, o hard-heartedness, o devouring self-interest of people arrogant with their false enlightenment! What does scientific enlightenment mean without Christian love? Nothing. The wisdom of this world is foolishness before God (1 Cor. 3:19). Humble yourself, arrogant mind, before the teaching of the Gospel and before the poverty of Christ, come down from your pedestal, stand lower, approach these poor, whom Christ Himself is not ashamed to call His brethren, and extend a helping hand to them; Don’t just collect for yourself, don’t just satisfy your own whims, but also be rich in God in good deeds, which even after death will follow you. So, both nature and reason and the word of God inspire us to be sociable with our neighbors in our property, pliable, without grumbling, without stinginess, willingly, with zeal, meekly and humbly, complacently helping the poor, as brothers in Christ and as members of civil society. Amen. Sermon for the twenty-seventh week after Pentecost “When Jesus saw you, he invited you, and said to her: Woman, you have been released from your illness. And put your hand on it, and stretch out your arms and glorify God” (Luke 13:12–13). Jesus Christ taught in one of the Jewish synagogues on Saturday. There was a woman who had had a spirit of weakness for eighteen years: she was bent over and could not stand upright. Jesus, seeing her, called her and said to her: woman! you are freed from your illness. And he laid his hands on her; and she immediately straightened up and began to praise God (Luke 13:10–13). Regarding this Gospel story about the Savior’s healing of a crumpled woman, I want, for His glory and for general edification, to talk now about faith in Jesus Christ as Creator and Savior, because there are among you, probably, although only a few, those who are shaken by the winds of doubt and unbelief of the age, who are confused by blasphemies against the Lord from people darkened in their senses and hearts. Listen, beloved! The whole Gospel is the purest light of divine truth; in it the Divinity of the Savior shines everywhere, brighter than the sun. Without referring you this time to countless other places, I will point to the Gospel story just read about the Savior’s healing of a crumpled woman through the word and the laying on of hands. This illness in the sick woman’s body was the work of Satan, who bound her, by God’s permission, probably for her secret sins; The Savior specifically said that Satan had bound her for the past eighteen years. How not to glorify the omnipotence of the Lord! He just said: woman, you are freed from your illness, and laid his hands on her - as she, who had been in a crouched state for eighteen years and did not have the slightest opportunity to stand upright, suddenly straightened up and began to glorify God from the miracle that was evident over her. You see: the word of the Savior suddenly became deed; laying on of hands is healing. That speech came to pass; He commanded (Ps. 149:5) and the weak one became healthy. Who here does not see the Creator, whose word everything obeys, whose word never fails? This here does not see the Creator, whose hands created us and formed us (Ps. 119:73)? Who does not see here that we are with the Lord like a potter's vessels, which are as easy for Him to recreate as to break? Like the vessels of the poor, it is said, I will crush (Ps. 2:9). Who here does not see the God of spirits, the God of Satan himself, who is bound by the sovereign word of the Savior with eternal bonds of darkness and is reserved for the judgment of the great day of judgment and only with the permission of the Lord can do dirty tricks among people in their flesh, as well as in the soul, as punishment for their sins? Thus, you foolish sons of the age, who say in your hearts and with your tongue that Jesus Christ is not God (Psalm 13:1), come to your senses; you speak lies into the wind; You listen to your father the devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father, but he is a murderer from time immemorial and does not stand in the truth, for there is no truth in him; Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own people, for lies is the father of lies (John 8:44). Beware: otherwise he will kill you forever. Honor the Son of God, so that He will not be angry, and you will not perish on your way; for His anger will burn quickly (Ps. 2:12). But, Lord Jesus Christ, God of spirits and all flesh! I see your countless miracles, like the miracle over the crouched woman - over believing sinners. Who are we all, brethren, if not crouched, like this crouched woman, about whom we spoke in this Gospel? Are our souls not twisted by countless sins so that it is difficult and ashamed for us to look at heaven with the eyes of our hearts because of the multitude of our iniquities? Do we feel the whole bitter truth of these words? Oh, it was strongly felt by one lawless king, who subsequently brought heartfelt repentance to God for the sins of his life. I'm talking about Manasseh, the king of Judah. He said: I am bound (crooked) with many iron bonds (by iron bonds meaning the tightness and burden of sin), so that I cannot lift up my head, and therefore I now bow the knee of my heart before You, begging You for goodness 5 . So, we are all, beloved brethren, mentally crippled by our sins; We are all, like four-legged animals, bent to the ground and look only at the ground, we think about earthly things, we seek earthly things, we cleave to earthly things with all our hearts and do not look to heaven - to God and the Savior, the Source of our life, we do not look with faith and hope to our true fatherland, to the place of our eternal rest and bliss, for which we must all live here with fear, each doing our own salvation; for our life is in heaven (Phil. 2:12, 3:20). And so the Lord sovereignly heals us, crippled by sins, and sets us straight - when we seek it through prayer and repentance - on the straight path of His commandments, on the path leading to eternal life. Which of you, brethren, has not experienced this great miracle of the Savior’s goodness and mercy many times in your life? Who has not laid down the burden of his sins before His holy icon in church during confession and after communion of the Holy Mysteries and left Him relieved and calmed, straightened out and invigorated? Who did not then feel in himself a kind of new life and this extraordinary lightness in his heart? ABOUT! You are light and fast like a deer when the Savior removes the heavy burden of sins from you; You then feel in yourself an abundance of life and self-satisfaction, but for now it - this burden of sin - is on you, until the Savior touches your sinful heart to remove this burden from you, how heavy it can be, how crumpled you are internally; You have melancholy, despondency, darkness in your heart and in your mind - you are all tied up, as if chains were put on you, and indeed - sins are spiritual chains; “Everyone is burdened with the captivity of his sins,” says the word of God. It is in these works of the power and goodness of Jesus Christ that we all, beloved brethren, cannot recognize the Savior and God: for who can forgive sins if not God alone (Mark 2:7)? Who can revive except the Life Giver? Contrast this with all the crazy freethinkers you happen to meet here or elsewhere; tell them: Jesus Christ always revives us, He alone and no one else - it is obvious that He is the Giver of Life; He always saves us from our sins - He alone and no one else - it is clear that He is the Savior; sincere, heartfelt faith in Him is the peace and sweetness of our heart; His yoke for our soul is always very, very good and His burden is very, very light (Matthew 11:30); - I would always carry such a yoke and such a burden; It is clear that He is our God, carrying us like chicks under His wings. Let us all turn, as often as possible, to the Savior, and we will always find in Him the Physician of our souls and bodies, we will always find in Him life for our soul’s impoverished life, and we will always cheerfully glorify our God the Savior. Amen. Sermon for the twenty-eighth week after Pentecost “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Luke 14:24). Now the gospel is read about the Master of the House calling His servants to the great supper He had prepared, about the reckless disregard of those called for this supper, about inviting to the place those who refused - the poor, the wretched, the blind and the lame, and all kinds and ranks of people - and about the terrible sentence of the Master that not one of those invited will taste His supper (Lk. 14:16–24). Let us apply this gospel to ourselves. Those called to the great supper by the owner of the house are all of us: through baptism, anointing with holy myrrh, churching and communion of the body and blood of Christ, we are all in fact called to the inheritance of eternal blessings, inscribed among the citizens of heaven; therefore, the Supper of God is undoubtedly and immutably prepared for you and me. All we have to do is go for it, not stubbornly refuse and thereby not offend the most gifted and most good Lord, the Lord of our life, who, out of His infinite love, has prepared for us eternal blessings. But this is where we begin to resist, to deny under various pretexts. True, none of us directly verbally refuses to go to the supper; but on the other hand, many Christians renounce it through their actions, namely: their lack of faith, their unrepentance, their persistence and indifference in sins, their friendship with the multi-passionate flesh, their addiction to corruptible earthly goods and so quickly passing pleasures, which sometimes do not allow even a minute to think about God and the soul, much less to love with all our hearts God, who loved us immeasurably and for our salvation did not His Son who was spared. And without repentance, without correction of heart and life, it is impossible to enter God’s supper. For repentance is the only means of cleansing the defiled conscience and soul of a sinner, it also provides wedding clothing in which to be at the supper - only sincere repentance imparts to the soul a disposition and desire for the blessings of the heavenly supper. Without repentance and cleansing from the filth of sin, the sinner has neither the desire nor the desire for eternal blessings, just as a seriously ill person has no desire and desire for food. How did you come here without having wedding clothes, i.e. spiritual purity, it will be said to every unrepentant person; and, having tied his hands and feet, they will throw him out into the outer darkness (Matthew 22:12–13). The Supper of God is a property, the lot of only the elect, who sincerely hated sins and, to the best of their ability, loved the truth and God. Contrary to the words of the Savior, others open the entrance to the supper of the kingdom of heaven to everyone without exception, claiming that God is merciful and will have mercy on everyone, and thus people populate heaven, of course, in their imagination only, with unrepentant drunkards, and fornicators, and thieves and molesters, and social villains and murderers, bribe-takers and covetous and covetous people, thinking that God will save us and against our will and what He can do as a clear sun, without everyone’s own participation and sincere repentance, and a blasphemer and a villain, a thief and an adulterer, and a hard-hearted money-lover and an arrogant offender, and a thief of public property, who has sent many families or individuals devastated around the world. No, brethren, God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7); The wicked will not dwell with Him; the wicked will remain lower in the sight of God (Ps. 5:5-6). The Lord declares the way of the righteous, and the way of the wicked will perish (Ps. 1:6) along with his travelers or libertines. Let the wicked, it is said, be lifted up, and not see the glory of the Lord. Others completely reject both heaven and hell and preach the complete destruction of the personality and self-consciousness of man, although they themselves see and know from science that in nature there is actually no death and destruction, but in it everything is almost reborn, changes, is transformed, passing from one type of being to another, and therefore, all the more, man, the king of creation, the best creation of God on earth, cannot be destroyed. Obviously, both of them utter impudent blasphemy against God, rejecting the truth of God, His infinite truth and holiness, the Lord’s faithfulness to Himself and the faithfulness and immutability of all His verbs. One jot, or one tittle shall not pass from the law, until they all shall be (Matthew 5:18), i.e. Until one iota everything will be fulfilled. And here on earth, decent, honest people do not allow people who are more or less dishonest into their homes, but before the face of God, whose darkness is many times brighter than the sun, they bring in all sorts of unrepentant sinners, and, it seems, they completely forget about the holy saints of God, the most devoted friends of God, who, out of love and fidelity to Him and His law, endured all sorts of labors, struggles, temptations or countless torments from the wicked - friends of God who endured the greatest, incredible feats of self-purification, self-correction and sanctification by the grace of God; They settle together the godless Nero and the holy apostles Peter and Paul, not to mention other godless tormentors who trampled upon all virtue and all rights of mankind. They, it seems, would be ready to place together both the regicides, these monsters, and the most devoted servants of the king, to the point of being ready to lay down their lives. But what kind of fellowship is there between righteousness and iniquity, light with darkness, faithful with unbeliever, Christ and Belial (2 Cor. 6:15)? Not the slightest; an impassable abyss, an indestructible barrier between one and the other. Man voluntarily became like senseless cattle, being honored by the image and likeness of God, and in such a bestial state he died; or a person stained himself with countless vile deeds, and so he died: and the doors of heaven are opened to him. What consistency is there? No, everything written in the word of God will be fulfilled. Do not flatter yourself: neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor defilers, nor the greedy, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Amen. Today the Gospel was read about the great supper arranged by the Heavenly Father, or about the kingdom of heaven, prepared from the foundation of the world for men, and about the invitation from Him to this great supper, or into the kingdom of heaven, people of every rank. Those invited all began to refuse, and all for empty reasons: one bought a field and went to see it; another took five pairs of oxen and went to test them; the third one got married and did not want to go to the royal supper because of his wife. Isn’t it true that those invited showed great impudence and inattention to their King and the supper He had prepared? Therefore, you will agree that the verdict of the King who hosted the supper is quite fair - about those invited to the supper. What's the sentence? Next: not a single man of those called will taste My supper: for many are the calling, but few are chosen (Luke 14:24). Who are these invited ones? Many, many of the Christians, perhaps even of you and me. We are called the Church, the community of those called, that is, to the supper of the kingdom of heaven. You and I have all been called through baptism into the kingdom of heaven, we have all pledged to fulfill the commandments of Christ, the statutes of His holy Church - but which of us goes, as one should go, into the kingdom of Christ? Who is diligent in keeping His commandments? All or most of us are attached to the world, to wealth, to pleasures, to vain honors; there is no concern about the kingdom of heaven, about pleasing God, about the soul, about its salvation from sins, about holiness, about the renewal of the soul; live your soul in old sins, and if not, add new ones; You can call yourself a Christian and allow yourself pride and hatred, envy, gluttony, gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, self-will, stubbornness, lies and deception, idleness, absent-mindedness, slander, idle talk, slander, revenge. This is how we, called into the kingdom of heaven, adopted as sons of God, think and live. And we often hear the word of God; We often hear in the Gospel the word about repentance and the threat of the Lord that if we do not repent, we will perish, the word about judgment, about alms, that we may receive mercy, but we all live in uncorrection. Through this very thing we refuse the royal invitation to the supper. But what if, perhaps, the Lord has already pronounced His righteous verdict about us - not a single man of those called will taste My supper? Terrible. However, there is still time to come to your senses and correct yourself: the doors of repentance are still open, you can still leave behind addictions to worldly pleasures, although from time to time this will all become more and more difficult, you can still leave absent-mindedness and focus on your soul and its eternal destiny. - Let's hurry. But what can we say about those who, at the call of the Church, do not come to church even on Sundays and holidays to participate in the divine supper arranged here by our Savior, or do not come even once a year to partake of the divine supper? And the fact is that if it is difficult for them, and not easy, bitter, and not sweet, to be at this supper, which is so convenient to come to now, then it is clear that it is more difficult and bitter for them to go to that heavenly supper, to the kingdom of heaven. And it is difficult because their heart is attached to earthly things - to earthly vanity, to earthly blessings; for them silver and gold are dearer than the Lord's supper; food and drinks are more valuable than conversation and fellowship with the Lord; more expensive than skiing, theaters, idle talk of secular books, etc. and so on. There is no need for such people to be at God’s supper: how can they be with the Lord God when they did not want to be with Him here? How could they be there with the Angels and with the saints when they did not like to be in their community in this church? How can they enjoy heavenly bliss when they had no idea about it here either and did not develop a spiritual taste, spiritual acceptability for this bliss; when they spent the whole century in passions and addictions, the fruit of which is torment and eternal fire? - Impossible. - God! Before we even die completely, save us! Amen. Sermon for the twenty-ninth week after Pentecost “Have you not been cleansed for ten? where is nine? Why didn’t you find yourself returning to give glory to God?” (Luke 17:17–18). Today the gospel was read about the Savior’s healing of ten lepers, of whom only one returned to thank the Lord for the healing. But what kind of disease is leprosy, from which the Lord healed the ten lepers mentioned? In our area there are no such diseases: they occur in the east in hot countries. However, we have a disease somewhat similar to leprosy - this is smallpox, when it happens in the strongest degree, or a disease resulting from unclean life. Those suffering from leprosy usually have their whole body covered with bark and wounds, their eyes become purulent, their whole face and tongue swell, and an unbearable stench comes from their mouth and whole body. Finally, when the disease reaches its extreme, all the hair on the head falls out; wounds eat the body to the bones and become covered with worms; the bodily members fall off, and the patient, exhausted by suffering, dies. Anyone who showed signs of this disease was considered unclean and was obliged by law to immediately appear to the priest, who would decide whether he had leprosy. If it was she, then the patient, due to the extreme contagiousness of this disease, was excommunicated from his own family and driven out of the city or village. Those expelled retired to the forests, built huts there and lived, eating what their relatives brought them. This is the terrible, malignant, contagious disease from which the Lord healed the ten lepers mentioned above, of whom only one Samaritan turned out to be grateful before the divine Wonderworker. Surprised by the ingratitude of the nine healed, we will turn to ourselves and see if we are better than these nine and are we like the tenth? We all suffer from spiritual leprosy, i.e. sins; before the purest and brightest eyes of God, all people are full of spiritual leprosy and uncleanness, such as: pride, condemnation, vanity, vanity, lack of faith, hardness of heart, evil, wickedness, fornication, intemperance, laziness, partiality, hypocrisy, envy, foul, crafty and blasphemous thoughts. This sinful leprosy penetrates people to the bones and brains, infects the entire nature of man, soul and body, infects constantly. We also have a Physician for this leprosy, the same Lord Jesus Christ, Who is always ready to heal us from it. Are we better than these lepers who came to the Savior for healing and, stopping in the distance, loudly cried out to Him: Jesus Mentor, have mercy on us? Do we have as much faith and care for our spiritual integrity, for our mental health, as these lepers? The Holy Church daily raises a voice on behalf of all of us who suffer from sinful leprosy: Lord, have mercy! and sometimes many times at a time; what? Is it from the depths of our hearts that we offer this short but necessary prayer? After all, the Holy Church took this prayer from the lepers and applied it to us, spiritually lepers. Yes, this prayer is necessary for all of us, like breathing, like food. Sinking continually, we must continually repent, acknowledge our guilt and ask for mercy from the Lord and not be arrogant: for God opposes the proud (James 4:6; Proverbs 3:34). Each of us must take care of our salvation and not neglect our spiritual leprosy, not put off our repentance for long days that may end today or tomorrow - every day diligently repent in secret before God, asking for forgiveness, and at least once a year show all our leprosy in confession to a priest who has been given the authority from God to resolve and heal spiritual leprosy. This is one thing, but here is another obligation for us: when, after the prayer of repentance or after the sacrament of confession, we feel that our spiritual leprosy has been healed, has passed, and we have become healthy in soul, we must be grateful for this to our Savior, Who is now constantly healing us, and out of a sense of gratitude and out of respect for the truth, we must beware of sins and stumblings in the future. This feeling of gratitude and this fear of sin will dispose the Benefactor to greater good deeds in the future and will make our soul softer, more sensitive, more vital, more righteous, and firmer in virtue. Let us imitate the tenth of the lepers, who, feeling healthy at the word of the Savior, returned to the Benefactor and thanked Him with deep feeling and heard from Him that faith alone saved him, and not any merit, not virtue. So, since we are all full of internal leprosy, then, like the ten lepers, let us all cry out from our hearts: Jesus Mentor, have mercy on us! Lord, have mercy! and we will continually cry out in secret: Lord, have mercy! Amen. Sermon on the Thirtieth Sunday after Pentecost “And a certain prince asked Him (Jesus Christ), saying: Good Teacher! that having created an eternal life, I will inherit?” (Luke 18:18). This very important, vital question, proposed to Jesus Christ by one of the leaders of the Jews, was resolved later in time, in the space of centuries, by the holy saints of God in the most positive, decisive and worthy of general imitation way: by diligent fulfillment of the commandments of Christ, contempt for this vain life here and for the multi-passionate flesh, extreme diligence about the soul, an immortal being, and an irrevocable desire for eternal life. There are countless examples of this in ancient, middle and modern times. But let us listen to what answer Jesus Christ gave to the prince or ruler of the Jews to his question: what, having created the eternal life, will I inherit? The Lord “answered him: You know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. He said: I have kept all this from my youth. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing: sell everything that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Me.” When he heard this, he was saddened, because he was very rich. Jesus seeing that he was saddened, said: How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard this said: who can be saved? But He said: What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:20–27). With these words the current gospel ends. From what has been said it is clear that anyone who wants to inherit eternal life must keep the commandments, the essence of which is love for God and neighbor. The Jewish leader, apparently, observed them and was not far from the kingdom of God, but in reality it turned out that he lacked one and very important feat, namely, to leave the addiction to wealth, which was the idol of his heart, removed him from God and made him hard-hearted towards the poor, and because of which he could not sincerely love either God or his neighbor. This is what passion for wealth means! It is deeply rooted in a person’s heart and imperceptibly undermines his spiritual life, like a tree worm. A person devoted to the passion for covetousness is, apparently, also pious, always prays to God, although superficially, maintains outward chastity, honesty in relations and affairs with neighbors and fellow citizens, averts lies and slander - he is not averse to alms, although in his view of it, in his concept and taste, or out of vanity; - when a great sacrifice is required from him, requiring his self-sacrifice and deprivation of something - when heavenly truth demands from him that he destroy the idol that he diligently served, which he always cherished, perhaps without noticing it, then it turns out that he is entirely in the power of this idol, i.e. covetousness. Then he suddenly grows cold towards God and his neighbors; then eternal life, which he previously thought about and desired, is not so dear to him; then the passion for wealth turns out to be like a cancer in him, a well-known disease in the body, which has deeply cut its deadly roots into his heart and is destroying him. All the virtues that he previously did are drowned out and, as it were, die, like grain seeds drowned out by bad grass. This is what is called, according to a well-known popular saying, “a cask of ointment and a fly in the ointment”: how one passion infects all good deeds and destroys them! - And when there is such a danger to the immortal soul from covetousness, then it is obvious that it is necessary to eradicate it through zealous alms, contempt for luxury, moderation in everything, fasting and prayer, - convincing oneself of the vanity and perishability of everything earthly, of the incomparable superiority of eternal, imperishable goods - over perishable goods, rough, like smoke, disappearing. Therefore, my brothers, we must fulfill not one, not two or three virtues only, but all, if possible, so that we may be perfect and not lack any virtue. May you be perfect and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:4), says the holy Apostle James. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), says the Lord in the Gospel. When the rich young ruler departed from the Lord with sadness, and the Lord said that it is difficult for those who trust in wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven, the disciples of the Lord asked their Teacher with surprise: who can be saved? He said: what is impossible with men is possible with God. This means that God can, with His grace, soften and heal the heart of the covetous rich, enlighten the eyes of the heart, blinded by self-interest, convincingly present to his mind and heart the perishability and insignificance of earthly wealth and eternity, the incomparable beauty and sweetness of the blessings of the heavenly kingdom, which he can receive in exchange for earthly blessings - and the impossible will become possible for him - he will generously give alms to the poor, whom he had previously neglected, will excel in every virtue, ascend from strength to strength, and thus be worthy of eternal life. The apostolic reading of this day serves as a continuation and explanation, a development of the Gospel; it sets before us the whole face of Christian virtues: mercy, goodness, humility, meekness, peace, long-suffering, forbearance and forgiveness, and the head and root of all virtues - love. It reads like this: clothe yourselves, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, with mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving each other if anyone has a complaint against anyone: just as Christ has forgiven you, so have you. Above all, put on love, which is the sum of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body, and be friendly. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all wisdom; teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord ( Col. 3:12–16 ). So, if we want an eternal life, let us renounce the attachment to temporary life and temporary blessings, until the time has come to leave them out of necessity, and let us put on love for God and neighbor, which is the totality of perfection; Let us maintain peace with everyone, without which no one will see God (Heb. 12:14), and learn unceasingly in praise in the church and at home. Amen. Homily for the thirty-second week after Pentecost The current gospel, beloved brethren, teaches us by the example of the chief publican Zacchaeus the good science of giving alms to the poor, repenting in deed, and not just in word, and satisfying our neighbors for the offenses we have done to them (Luke 19:1-10). It teaches everyone, both rich and poor, the science of active repentance, the science of generous and feasible alms to the poor and retribution of the offended to acquire the great and rich mercy and favor of the Lord and the eternal salvation of the soul. Zacchaeus was a publican, tax farmer, or tax collector from his fellow citizens; and tax farmers often collected taxes, not without sin - and not without a greater sin - they squeezed, so to speak, taxes from the people, often through all sorts of oppression and untruths, just to take twice, three times more than what they themselves paid to the Roman officials appointed from Rome to collect - and as much as possible to enrich themselves at the expense of the people's needs. And Zacchaeus, for this reason, was very rich and was very unloved by the people, who called him a sinner. But this sinner is marvelous, O Lord, in everyone! - with the coming of the Lord to Jericho and to the house of unrighteousness, he woke up, learned the ugliness and destruction of the love of money, profit, untruth with hardness of heart, and sincerely repented to the Lord of all his untruths and became righteous. God! He said, I will give half of my property to the poor, and if I have offended anyone in any way, I will repay him fourfold. Oh, the blessed voice of the repentant publican, who felt all his bliss from visiting his house as the first Goodness and the Source of bliss for rational creatures! How suddenly the publican was reborn! The one who before this knew only the art of making money and getting rich, now suddenly learned the good science of giving and distributing and carefully unwinding the ball that he had previously diligently wound. May this serve as an example to you and me, brothers and sisters! Even now, my brothers, among us Russians, although not specifically among us, there are cruel tax collectors, flattered by easy money and unrighteous enrichment, but it is extremely unfortunate that they are not like the Gospel tax collector. Zacchaeus, who had acquired unrighteously, distributed it all to the poor, of whom there were quite a few at that time, not only in ours, and whoever he offended, he returned to him fourfold, and our tax collectors, who are soon making much more than Zacchaeus, enrich themselves only and do not think of distributing what they have unjustly acquired to the poor, or even - what insolence and pride - they laugh at those who give or distribute to the poor, in their opinion, not deserving of a piece of bread; - you see, - all these parasites and drunkards are beggars, every one of them seems to be; it’s true - it’s easier to condemn everyone, - after all, it takes a long time to sort it out - to distinguish a real beggar from a fake one. Let us assume that among the poor there is not without sin, all people are sinners, and among them there are actual drunkards and parasites. But I will say the word to these strict judges - not mine, but the Lord's, what will they say to him? With the judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you (Matthew 7:2). Are you pure and righteous before God, judging the lesser brethren so strictly? And you, I would tell them, are eternal conscientious workers, abstinent, chaste, uncorrupted to the depths of your heart, uncovetous, your wealth was acquired by righteous labors, your conscience does not convict you of lies, untruths, bribes, idleness, idle games that feed self-interest, envy, vanity, rivalry, mutual enmity and hostility, feasts, in all luxury, etc.? And you dare to raise an eyebrow and condemn the lesser brethren to go on hunger strike and almost starve to death? But do the poor have an iron nature, made of steel, and not servile and weak, like all of us, that they are not allowed to drink, eat, or warm themselves in a warm corner, after being frozen in the cold for several hours? No, our publicans are cruel, although they were born and raised in the Christian, heavenly, loving faith, and live and enjoy its innumerable benefits. But do they use it? The Gospel tax collector shines as a bright star of active repentance and mercy: we must imitate him. May the all-good and all-powerful Lord soften our hearts and the hearts of all wealthy and wealthy people. It has become common practice to only scold the beggars, despise them, call them parasites, but no one bothers to give them work and business, or no one wants to give them clothes so that they can work in the cold. Is it really possible to help grief with abuse and contempt? Come to these poor people with active help: clothe them, feed them, give them something to do - and you will see that they will work with joy. Or - without further hassle - give financial assistance to the parish trustee for the construction of the House of Industriousness, so that they can build it and establish permanent work in it, so that our and your parasites do not eat bread in vain, and take care to give them all feasible work - and there will be no parasites. All of them, by the way, are the fruit of our hard-heartedness, inattention, our pride and self-indulgence - not only they are to blame for their idleness, but also society. Tell me: what would you do if you found yourself in their midst, if you took their place? May God deliver everyone from their fate, and may the lucky ones of this world thank God for the fact that, with all the multitude of their sins, voluntary and involuntary, they live in contentment, luxury, that all the benefits flow to them like a river - may they repent of their vain life, in their games and amusements; but let them not forget that when they are very warm and light and nourished and cheerful, many, many are very cold and hungry and extremely sad. Amen. Mol. evening, wed. trop., glory. Easter. can. canto 3, trope. 2. Follow to St. parable, song 3, cf. trope. 1. see Synax. per week about Samar. 2 Paralip. they say Manasseh. You might be interested in: