By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok
We may
find it difficult to be agile but we can at least wake up. The Lord is near. He
gives us even more strength than we need. We should not waste it on sins, on
bad thoughts, bad words, or daydreams, but use it to do good instead. Doing
good means that we should serve and help the people around us with good words
and thoughts. This is what a God-pleasing life is about. I would like to wish
all of us to lead a God-pleasing life like that. If we want to do it, we have
to be on the lookout for the enemy’s tricks. The sin can be cunning. It may
tell a person that “that’s the way to go, it would be the right thing to do.”
Does God have anything to do with justice? God only has love. I would like this
Bright Easter Week to last forever but we will have to die for the sin and come
alive for God for this to come true. I believe we will be able to do it because
Christ has gathered, purified, sanctified all of us and gave us his love that
had trampled down death. It is this love that we should be carrying with us all
year round but let us begin today by not uttering a bad word, not thinking a
bad thought, and by thanking God for everything and for all. (Sermon
after the Divine Liturgy on April 17, 2017)
***
The
Resurrection of Christ is our hope. It is more than a mere distraction; this is
something that will be with me for real. My life on this Earth won’t last
forever. Sooner or later my last day will come. I am blessed to have the
experience and the knowledge about the fact that there is no death but there is
the true life which overcomes death. Easter is not just a holiday; this is
really the joy that we have and that we should live with in spite of all
problems that we might have in our lives. This is why I would like all of you
to go to your homes rejoicing with your Easter cakes. I wish all of us to come
home from church being filled with grace and love which is so hard to find in
this world. The true love does not seek anything. It does not demand anything
in response. This is the simple love of Christ that we all have now. It is for
this reason that the Lord has established our Church and built our Convent, so
that we could learn to love one another. Certainly, this is a very difficult
subject. However, our mark for the final exam that each of us will have to take
when she dies and her soul comes to God, depends on how we study today. The
Lord will simply ask, "Do you love Me?" We have a lot to change in
our lives in order to be able to say “I love you, I want to learn to love you,”
like Peter who also sinned by betraying
Jesus. In order to do that we have to struggle with egotism and all the sins
that dwell in us and prevent us from loving each other. I would like to wish
all of you to abide in love during these Easter days. (Sermon during the consecration of Easter food
April 15, 2017)
***
There’s
no law against living a good life. We Orthodox have a good and enjoyable life.
Have you ever seen such beauty and sweetness anywhere? Have you ever heard
chants like these? We have reached the most important point where there is no
more death and where we will live forever. How will we live? If we lead a bad
life, can you imagine what our eternal life will be like? It will be eternal
death. This is why we should lead a good life. In order to do so we must never
offend anyone, always respect other people, not judge anyone, never make anyone
unhappy, and see only good things. It would be nice if we had inner peace and
stood our ground. When we are led by feelings, when we are worried, anxious,
and go to extremes, we lose strength and start to live badly.
We live
as we deserve. Someone taught his children to love and respect him, and as a
result, there is peace, love, and not a single rude word in his household. On
the other hand, there are people who are rejected by everyone because no one
can endure them. That is why, my dear friends, we mustn’t blame anyone else for
our failures. Let’s correct our lives and change them. Christ accepts each one
of us into his embrace, regardless of whether we fasted or not, whether we
prayed or not, whether we are good or not. He loves everyone. How can we say
anything against such love?
***
Do not
lower the bar of love to a mere “justice”. Do not reduce the expectations to
the point where we begin to say who owes whom. I owe everyone. Do not trust
this world that tricks you into believing that everyone lives like that and
that you should conform to them. Do not follow suit. You must seek Christ and
follow him. This will be the surest and the most correct path.
***
We have
thirty-nine days of Easter ahead of us. We must rejoice during all these
thirty-nine days. You hurt all over, you are deceived, no one needs you — but
you must rejoice because Christ is risen. This is where the power lies. I would
like us to be very strong because our Lord is strong. He is strong in his love,
which does not act like human love. Humans could say, “Who deserves communion?
No one.” However, God allows everyone to take communion because He loves all of
us very much. Where sin abounds, grace will much more abound (cf. Romans 5:20). (Sermon
after the Divine Liturgy on April 16, 2017)
By Fr. Valery Zakharov
The Great
Lent and the Resurrection of Christ are a sequence of sorrow and joy. They are
the real life, the road that we have to walk here on earth in order to get
prepared for the eternal life. Of course, this road is not easy and smooth, and
we are not as astute as we would like to, but each one has her own measure. The
measure of God’s love is infinite. We lay our hopes on this love, and we hope
that it will give us the chance to make our way, to stumble along, to crawl
into the Kingdom, which we anticipate as the Promised Land and the source of
eternal bliss, no matter what. It would be great if we learned to share this joy
with those who are around us here. I think that learning to share is the key to
success. We have already learned to receive, now we should try to share what
we’ve got, but be prudent in doing so. The gifts that the Lord gives are
priceless. You should not cast pearls
before swine but if you see that a certain person can accept what we have to
say, we should say the word that will awaken her. It doesn’t even have to be a
word: you can support someone, raise their spirit, and help them to get better
and look at God by simply looking into their eyes or thinking or praying about
them. (Sermon after the Divine Liturgy in the
Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on April 16, 2017)
By Fr. Andrew Malakhovsky
Every
person is called to the Kingdom of God. Every person must try to take off and
get closer to the heaven – the Kingdom of God – as his spiritual practice. This
is a difficult task because one must always be like a bird. A bird cannot fly
with folded wings. A bird flies until it flaps its wings. As soon as it folds
its wings, it goes down. Similarly, human beings have to toil in their
spiritual life all the time. May the Lord help us to realise that we cannot
just fold our wings because we will fall down immediately, and the earthly
cares will swallow us up and cover us entirely. Let’s remember that we are
destined for the Heaven. (Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on February
1, 2017)
St. Elisabeth Convent
April 21, 2017
CONVERSATION