Priest Alexander: Spiritual life begins with repentance.
Absence of repentance paralyses spiritual life. We can approach God only
through repentance.
Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on February 20, 2016
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The publican from the Gospel teaches us to
repent. He teaches us not to look at other people, not to observe how they live
and behave, but look inside ourselves instead.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 21, 2016
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The Lord never seeks to punish or kill a person;
He wants to save each one of us.
Sermon after a Liturgy on the Day of the Iveron
icon of the Mother of God (February 25, 2016)
Priest Andrew: If one does not control himself, he comes
to be proud; he
takes the liberty of judging
others and showing off his imaginary merits. Therefore, the Lord has to take
something away from that person so that his soul wouldn't die of this satanic
pride.
***
The Lord sends us difficulties and diseases; we
have to put up with various temptations and stumbling blocks in our lives,
because our proper standing before God is born out of it, and a new person is
born.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 21, 2016
Priest Valery: We come and ask the Lord to give us his
gifts. We should never give up and lose hope: keep asking day and night. We do
not know when our petition is granted; this is beyond us. We ask, and the Lord
manages everything for us, for He knows everything, including the time required
to grant our petition; He knows the future; He knows our depths that are hidden
from us, so He knows what is beneficial and what is harmful for us.
***
The Lord has granted us free will. It is a great
gift and at the same time it causes a lot of pain and sorrow. If we use it in a
wrong way, freedom may turn into a double-edged sword — you can defend truth
and purity with it, or you can cut yourself, wound or even kill someone.
Sermon after a Liturgy in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs
on February 20, 2016
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Everyone meets God. The question is whether this
meeting will be a happy or a sad event.
***
It often happens that our mind is distracted,
our will is suppressed, and the world rages around us. You seem to have become
strong enough at last, you've almost managed to climb the rock of faith, but
another wave comes — and it washes you back into the sea again, and you have to
climb that rock one more time.
The entire life of an Orthodox person goes from
a downfall to a downfall. It would be great if the gaps between these downfalls
would become bigger every day, and downfalls did not last too long. That is, if
you fall, you should immediately rise up and keep going towards God, not away
from Him.
***
We need to become humble, to be able to accept
from God the moments in life that we sometimes do not like and that we consider
to be roadblocks on our way. In fact, such moments are the checkpoints that
determine our coming closer to God. The closer we become to God, the better we
see how far we are from Him. It should not make us depressed. On the contrary,
it should make us hope for God's mercy.
Sermon after a Moleben on February 4, 2016
Archpriest Andrew: On the one hand, we have the letter of
Law, and on the other hand, we have the Life-Giving Spirit. How do we combine
them? We can get rid of all the letters and abide by the spirit, but what kind
of spirit it would be? There are various spirits out there.
We can forget about the Spirit and live
according to the letters — they will instruct us and guide us. However, this
will prevent us from being creative in our perception of God. Everyone has
their own experience of knowing God.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 21, 2016
Just a couple of words from the heart, «God have
mercy on me a sinner». This prayer is so accessible! It is vital, perhaps, to
everyone at the time when they cannot read anything anymore, when they cannot
think clearly: they can still utter these words. And these words may be saving.
***
People sometimes come and say, «We don't know
what to do. What would you recommend: should we get married or divorced, become
a nun or go to America to earn money? What should we do?»
«What does God tell you?»
«I can't hear him, I don't understand what He says».
«Then you should stop and search for God's
word». God is not silent, He is talking with us all the time! We do not talk
with him always; in fact, we seldom talk with him. Nevertheless, He talks with
us all the time.
Sermon after an Akathist to St Elisabeth on
February 21, 2016
One of the main cures for death and illnesses
that we can use is the Name of the Lord — calling upon his Name.
***
If we trust God, we are aware that we will not
lose a single hair without his will. If we start to doubt, it is bad because we
keep worrying and being frightened, and we suffer from anxiety: what will
happen, what will this or that illness result in, what will the end of the
story be? I can tell you that the story will end with the resurrection of the
dead! This is what our history will end with.
Sermon after the Akathist to the Pantanassa icon
of the Mother of God on February 19, 2016
Priest Sergius: It is crucial to look at yourself without
any illusions, without the rose-colored glasses. However, seeing yourself as
you really are is a difficult task. We prefer extremes. Either people take a
superficial look at themselves, moving along a beaten path, and they do not
care about things that happen in their souls at all; or they start paying too
much attention to it and see that everything is wrong. As a result, they are
unable to move on because they see no way out.
We should find the middle ground between these
two extremes: seeing our sins and weaknesses and at the same time seeing God
who came into this world for the sake of everyone, including me. He came to
save me. This God's love towards us must motivate us to keep going, to move on
every day.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 22, 2016
Priest George: Apostle Paul constantly reminds us in his
Epistles of the unity of the Body of Christ, the organism of the Church, where
each member has their own functions. He expresses the very essence of
Christianity in the contemporary world — the unity of all in Christ. We must
ponder on this unity of the Christians, where there are no outcasts, there are
no «less honorable» ministries; no one is forgotten by the Church.
Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on February 22,
2016
The Resurrection of Christ radically changed the
life of all humankind, once and forever. The Lord opened a new life, a new
reality for us. He became the Head of a new elect people — the Church of
Christ, the renewed humanity.
***
Even a life that was totally desecrated by sin
may be changed if a person trusts God and opens his heart to him, if he allows
God to enter his life and change it.
***
We are not allowed to know when it happens. What
we need to have is a living relationship with God that serves as an antidote to
mistrust and fear. It will help us to comprehend the inner power and freedom
that the Lord has given to us. We can only be Christians when we are free,
including freedom from fear, which degenerates our spiritual life and hampers
proper relationships with God and our neighbors.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 23, 2016
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