Priest Sergius: We meet God every day, every
minute of our lives. We should be careful because we often fail to notice or
appreciate this meeting. People expect something grandiose: Angels' trumpets,
thunderclaps, and thunderbolts flashing around. Sometimes God touches a person
with a quiet word in a difficult or sad situation… This is also an encounter.
Thanks to this encounter we become living human beings. A man without God is a
mannequin: he might look fine — wearing a suit and a tie — but his eyes will be
empty. We should be different: even if we do not have a tie, our eyes ought to
shine with joy.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 15, 2016
______________________________________________________
Priest George: Humility isn't spinelessness.
Humility is one's desire to be as magnanimous and open as possible, in spite of
the others' shortcomings, sins and weaknesses, so as to become a lens through
which the light of the Kingdom of God may shine on other people.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 18, 2016
______________________________________________________
Priest Andrew: As we pass through trials that
are inevitable in our lives, we should learn to love and serve our neighbors,
and to trust God. We should learn to accept everything that the Lord gives us
here with humility and gratitude, so that we do not persist in our sinful ways
but grow spiritually and become freer. We are chained by the sin; we are
attached to earthly things and our habits. When one tries to live spiritually,
he breaks free of the chains that led him to losing God.
When a person is free, he becomes open for God,
and the Lord dwells in him, which makes that person happy. That was how saints
achieved this joy: as they went through life trials, they broke free of the
bonds of their own sins and became happy even here. The Kingdom of God was
already in their hearts. This is the path that the Lord blesses us to tread.
Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on February 13, 2016
_______________
_______________________________________
 |
| Learn more about St.Elisabeth Convent |
Archpriest Sergius: Christ adds something new to
the Old Testament Law, and it is the Law of Love. This is the Law we will try
to follow fearlessly.
***
God gives us the most important thing — the
Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in which we receive God himself, and He drives
away all demons, and nothing can do us any harm. Many people are afraid that
something could harm them, politics or similar things. For a Christian, it does
not matter at all. What is really important is staying loyal to God and never
giving up on Christ.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 14, 2016
______________________________________________________
The Lord came into this world to transform
people into temples of the Holy Spirit, so that each person could become such a
temple. In this case, even those who destroy churches won't destroy these
temples inside human souls because they are consecrated with the grace of the
Holy Spirit. We have received Christ Himself into these temples, and He has
made them holy.
***
We can witness everything that Jesus told his
disciples about: nations rise against one another, and kingdoms against
kingdoms, states go to war; we hear about earthquakes, and we hear about new,
previously unheard diseases. Naturally, these are the signs of the end times.
When will the end come? Let us hope that the merciful God will give this world
some time to repent, so that people would come to human-built churches, and so that
these churches could be the places where the temples of our souls could be
consecrated and where we could meet God. If encounters with God cease to
happen, the world will also cease to exist. Therefore, let us be looking
forward to these encounters; let us meet God more often; let us come to church
in order to sanctify ourselves with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 19, 2016
_________________________
Archpriest Andrew: We have a habit of
complaining: everything is not okay, we ache all over, people are bad, enemies
are everywhere. Perhaps, we should try a different approach: how nice
everything is, how many good people there are around me, how much love I have
received from God! I must be grateful for everything I have today.
Sermon before a Confession on February 13, 2016
______________________________________________________
Are we going to climb trees, like the publican
did, to see Christ? Should we? Or we shouldn't? Perhaps, if we don't become
like children, we will never meet God. If we are very clever, smart and
rational, if we calculate everything: «What will people think or say about me?
I don't want to be a fool in anyone's eyes, God forbid! People should think
good about me». This is our human approach. God's approach is different. If we
live with God, and Christ is the purpose of our lives, people will spit on us,
they will persecute and rebuke us; they won't love us. But we will humble
ourselves down and know the reason behind it, and be aware that God allows this
to happen for our salvation.
***
We want to combine the incompatible: Christ (His
life, His love, His humility) and this world. This is impossible. Orthodox
people aspire for the heaven, where laws are different.
***
Our journey to Pascha(Easter) is not a path
towards a special date, marked with red in the calendar. It is a journey into a
new life, where it does not matter anymore who you are. Hence the exciting
words of Elder Silouan: whether you are a worker or a king, a patriarch or a
church gardener — it does not matter; your heart is the only thing that
matters.
***
How do we become free? This world has raised us to
depend slavishly on financial standing, ranks, and property… A sinful word, a rumor,
or a reproach, and that's enough — we have betrayed Christ. Sins are
incompatible with God.
***
Someone asked me, «What is the most difficult
thing in life for you?» — and I replied, without hesitation, «Communion». You
receive the fire, and you are not ready for it — and it will burn you and make
you ache. However, God's love cleanses and sanctifies us through communion. It
has cleansed us through confession, although we have not even started to repent
properly; it has sanctified us through the Holy Sacrament of Communion,
although we do not realize it at all. The Lord heals us and makes Abraham's
children out of stone.
Sermon after a Liturgy on February 14, 2016
______________________________________________________
«I don't want anything at all… I'm fed up with
everything… I'm bored of living», people say. Why are they bored? Because human
beings are not made for this temporary life — the eternity is their true
destiny. They are not made for this earth that has lost its connection to God
and has turned into a huge graveyard. They are made for the Heaven. A man is
not a monkey: he is an icon. We should radiate the light of love that shines in
the lives of those who live near us.
When a person is filled with light, his eyes are
bright, and he sees everyone as if they had that light, too. It is very good to
be around such a person because he can see beauty in you.
We all know that we are utterly spoiled. So if
anyone says, «Listen, how good, how kind you are, how loving you are!» — people
really change, even if it lasts no longer than a second.
***
We have consecrated candles today. A candle
symbolises the fire of the Holy Spirit. The brighter it shines, the quicker it
dies. Likewise, if a person lives and shines, if he does not spare himself, if
he is generous, if he understands that the more he gives away, the more he
receives, then his life will be extremely bright. Such a person serves God all
the time and makes people warm.
Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on the Eve of the Meeting of the Lord
(February 14, 2016)
______________________________________________________
One can see himself and God in his life differently. When a person lives as
he pleases, he puffs his I up to such an extent that God
becomes small. On the contrary, when a person begins to see his sins and learns
to humble down, to obey, to be patient and grateful for everything, God becomes
bigger and bigger and bigger. Finally, the person perceives himself as a small
grain of sand but this grain of sand is in God's hands. This is our strength.
God's power is made manifest in weakness.
***
I would like this flame, this sparkle of God's
love never to die out in our hearts, so that we could always remember this
beauty and this light that entered our lives and became their meaning and their
purpose, regardless of anything that happens, even in the darkest periods of
our lives.
***
Poisoned by sin, people have a distorted
perception of everything; they see everything not in the light of love but in
the sinful darkness they are used to; thus, they are afraid to get out and see
God's light. For a Christian, it is impossible to live in darkness and within
the boundaries set up by people; his immortal soul cannot breathe within them.
This is why we come to church: to hear that we must lift up our hearts, lift
them up to God. We must realize that the main treasure that will never be
de-valued is in the heaven. What we will keep there are the riches of our good
deeds that will intercede on our behalf before God on the Judgment Day.
***
It is so important for us to come to this Holy
Chalice that contains eternal life and the love of Christ in its entirety.
Behold, this is our encounter with God. It happens at every Liturgy, this unity
of man and God. This is the beginning of immortal life, which we should get
ready for. Today, we are mortal, subject to pain, sin, and wounds; we grudge
and are depressed all the time. We do not want to live like that. Certainly,
you get what you bargain for, you only get what you really need.
Sermon after a Liturgy on the day of the Meeting of the Lord (February 15,
2016)
CONVERSATION