The Catalog of Good Deeds

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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«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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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)

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste

March 9/22

The holy, glorious and right-victorious Forty Martyrs of Sebaste are a group of Roman soldiers who became martyrs for their Christian faith in 320. Ss. Cyrion (Quirio), Candidus, Domnus, Hesychius, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Eutychius, John, Santhias, Helianus, Sisinius, Angius, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecdicius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Gorgonius, Theophilus, Dometian, Gaius, Leontius,

Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valerius, Philoctimon, Severian,
Chudion, Aglaius, and Meliton.

Order Icons from the Catalogue of St,Elisabeth Convent

St. Constantine the Great issued an edict in the year 313, granting Christians religious freedom, and officially recognizing Christianity as equal with paganism under the law. But Licinius, his co-ruler and a pagan, continued to persecute the Christians of the East. He also purged Christians from his own army, fearing mutiny.

According to St. Basil, forty soldiers who had openly confessed themselves Christians were condemned by the prefect to be exposed naked upon a frozen pond near Sebaste on a bitterly cold night, that they mightfreeze to death. Among the confessors, one yielded and, leaving his companions,

sought the warm baths near the lake which had been prepared for any who might prove inconstant. One of the guards set to keep watch over the martyrs beheld a supernatural brilliancy overshadowing them and at once proclaimed himself a Christian, threw off his garments, and placed himself beside the thirty-nine soldiers of Christ. Thus the number of forty remained complete. At daybreak, the stiffened bodies of the confessors, which still showed signs of life, were burned and the charred bones were cast into a river so that Christians would not gather them up.

Three days later the martyrs appeared in a dream to St. Peter, Bishop of Sebaste, and commanded him to bury their remains. The bishop, together with several clergy, gathered up the relics of the glorious martyrs by night and buried them with honor. 

(Source: http://orthodoxwiki.org/)

On the first Sunday of Great Lent the church commemorates the “Triumph of Orthodoxy” which is also known as the Week of Orthodoxy. This feast originated in the 9th century in light of the final victory of the faithful over the heresy of iconoclasm. Nowadays, this feast signifies the victory of the orthodox over all heresies, false teaching and schisms. It is a feast day of the Truth and the victory of Christ over all the weaknesses and mistakes that go against the teachings of the church.

The iconoclasm heresy originated in the 8th century in present day Greece and very quickly spread throughout the Christian world. Christians were persecuted for painting, venerating and simply having the holy icons. In fact, many were martyred, imprisoned and killed.

The seventh Ecumenical Council (787) reaffirmed the need and importance of venerating icons. However, persecutions continued until 843 when a pious empress supported the final triumph of Orthodoxy over the iconoclasm heresy. Since then, a special service was created in honor of this victory in orthodox cathedrals when a bishop is present on the first Sunday after the start of the Great Lent.

Many people were ready to give up their lives while defending the holy icons. So what is an icon? What is its meaning? All of these questions are answered in a talk with Father Sergious, who is in charge of the icon-painting studio and icon painting school at St. Elisabeth Convent.

What is an icon and how can one describe an icon using only three words?

The first word is “picture”. Since an icon is indeed a picture of a person, a human. Nevertheless, not every picture is an icon. Initially it can be very difficult to establish the necessary requirements for a picture to be referred to as an icon and to determine what is and what is not an icon. For example, if we take The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt, the painting is essentially not an icon.

However, the painting expresses a theological and very profound love of God towards man in comparison to some of the more contemporary images of the same biblical event. Of course, according to the church canons we cannot place this painting into the iconostasis of the church or serve and venerate it. Still, from the point of view of a “picture” there is a definite and concrete theological perspective that the painting does indeed contain.

Very often in the fragments of icons, mosaics, or frescoes one could see emperors, empresses, as well as rich donors praying in front of the Lord or the Mother of God. What is more interesting is that the image is created in accordance with the church canons.

This is because even the most “correct” and canonical icons can include images of regular, earthly and secular people. Such people are not in the center of the icon because Christ is and must be the center but these people can still be depicted as they are turned to Christ. Therefore, even regular people have the right to be pictured, even if he or she is still alive. From this, you can see that an icon is much more complex than originally perceived.

An icon is a picture, along with the presence of the Image of God, but this Image cannot be captured, it cannot be grasped by any human logic and it cannot be contained in any amount of words or paragraphs which say which icon has this “image” and which does not.

If an icon is present then God is present as well.

“The idea of a New Testament icon, as interpreted by the Holy Fathers, is to properly express, clearly explain as much as possible through artistic expression, the truth of God’s incarnation. The image of Jesus is the image of God. (L. Ouspensky “Theology of the Icon”)

If we take this quote and look at the icon of Christ from the Zvenigrod Deesis - an image that is undoubtedly an icon, then we can conclude that here the icon expresses the dogmatic truth of incarnation with extreme precision and fullness that is not easily accomplished. There can be no argument here and I think that while looking at the image one can start to assert that if such an icon exists, then there is a God (Father George Florensky said something very similar: “If there is an icon of the holy Trinity then there is a God.)

The height of such artistic expression, that is presented to us, also prompts us to think that masterpieces cannot reach such levels alone, without God and the acknowledgement of his existence. Here, while looking at this icon (Christ from the Zvenigrod Deesis) the incarnation of God is expressed with such emphasis that you do not always see in contemporary icons. Icons may have all the canonical aspects, gold leaf plating and other features but you do not always see the most important aspect, the truth of our Lord’s incarnation - is not there.

An Uncontainable Combination

Everyone knows that artistic forms of expression existed long before the time of Christ. Ancient art forms are still unattainable…but these masterpieces generally depicted secular, human beauty which was often very generic, distant and cold. For example, take the image of Aphrodite. The image is one of beauty and harmony but at the same time, she is not alive, not real and therefore very distant to the everyday person. These art forms either depicted false idols or gods and the beauty was rather fictional and unattainable rather than being real and personal.

Christ comes into the world that appears to be beautiful but also deceitful because the world that our Savior comes into is filled with sin. Christ is able to show us true beauty. Beauty that is very human in one sense and the beauty that each one of us can feel. That same beauty is also filled with the Devine. An icon is also a phenomenon and a true wonder of the world because it processes the Devine and at the same time is made up of earthly materials such as wood and paint. Even the person who paints the icon is typically an ordinary human and not always a saint.

You see, in a way an icon repeats this unique paradox - where the uncontainable and combinable is combined, the same way as it is in Christ. It is difficult to imagine God and Man in one. It is hard to comprehend because everything human is always limited in understanding but everything related to God is grand and uncontainable. The icon also connects the Devine and the human aspects and we in turn can see its beauty, its phenomena and its complexity. Once again, since we can not explain God in a few paragraphs we cannot in the same way explain an icon and its mystery. This is why we need to look further and more in depth. The ability to understand and interpret an icon comes with the experience of every individual meeting with God and their individual connection to their Maker. This is because our entire life is a path towards meeting the Lord and so our closeness to God is proportional to our ability to feel the beautiful mystery of the icon.

We need each other

It is almost as if all the iconographers are in essence doomed: when we sit with our paintbrushes and we feel a colossal pressure of sin, our personal and that of the rest of the world. It is difficult for us because we need to depict the Truth of our Lord’s incarnation. Maybe people no longer need this Truth. It is very important to have people in this world who are in need of this truth and the Image of God. If we have people like that then we will still be able to do something. Even if we are “overeducated” and we have the most ideal sketches in front of us: We will not be able to do anything.

Why did Andrei Rublev paint icons the way he did?

It is because in his time people needed God. People could not live without God. This was his real inspiration that enabled him to depict Christ. Only this. It was not his personal talent, which without a doubt he did possess as an artist. Moreover, he was quite talented, may I add. Nevertheless, along with the talent there was a desire to be with God. In addition, if we can talk to people about God, show them the true beauty of the icon, maybe this might help people get back to the one main beauty - which we see in Christ.