By Fr. Valery Zakharov
How can
we love God if we don’t love even ourselves? If we loved ourselves, we would do
all the things that we do differently: we would consider the consequences. We
often don’t care about the consequences of what happens to us. It is almost as
if we are riding a bicycle downhill without brakes. The wind is fresh, of
course, but when we encounter an obstacle, we are unable to stop. However, we
climb that hill over and over again, for the hundredth or a thousandth time.
Still, the experience that we get every time makes us hope to change for the
better, to become more careful, attentive, and cautious. Over time, if the Lord
allows us to live to an advanced age, we will start to treat things that happen
around us with greater circumspection. Or won’t. At least, we would like to. (Sermon
Before the Confession in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on
December 9, 2016)
***
Of
course, we are far from being humble, from being in the relationship with God,
but we know that He loves us — He has made it clear more than once. Our task is
to respond to his love. This is the original condition of the human beings.
Repentance
means getting rid of the dirt that covers our hearts and blocks us from seeing
God and changing our lives. At the same time, we should live for the sake of
our neighbours because the Lord said that they are a test for our love. (Sermon
Before the Confession in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on
December 16, 2016)
***
Some
people say that we Orthodox want to humiliate and restrict ourselves due to our
faith. On the contrary, we attempt to exalt ourselves to be like Christ, to be
holy.
When we
see our sins — that’s God’s gift: we confess them, and the Lord cleanses us.
Those who can’t see their sins abide in darkness and are satisfied with it. (Sermon
Before the Confession in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on
December 23, 2016)
By Fr. Sergius Khrapitsky
The Holy
Fathers tell us: Wine… maketh glad the heart of man. Sure, each person has
their own understanding of what it means to be glad. Some people think it means
debauchery, while others consider being glad as being free from depression,
when they stop being idle and start acting, helping their neighbours, their
wives and children. One needs an impulse to do so. This small droplet, this
Holy Communion, that we have received today gives us that impulse. It contains
the meaning of our current and future life, i.e. Jesus Christ. (Sermon
After the Divine Liturgy on May 18, 2017)
By Fr. Demetrius Basalygo
Each time
we participate in the Sacrament of Sacraments, the Eucharist, the Divine
Liturgy, we become the Body of Christ. We are in anticipation of the glory to
come. We are already in that glory, we already enjoy this divine life, we are
already sitting to the right side of God the Father, we are already exalted to
the Heaven with Christ. This is what happens in the Church. This is what the
Church is all about. (Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on May 26,
2017)
By Fr. George Glinsky
God’s
Kingdom is not something we are still waiting for: it is already revealed in
the Church, which is nothing other than the statement of the crucial fact that
God has defeated death. This is God’s victory over the sin and a new road for
the entire human race. (Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on December
22, 2016)
By Fr. Alexander Pashkovsky
We should
be careful with food. We should not buy excess food, if possible. Instead, we
should help someone because there are those who are poor and needy. (Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on May 17,
2017)
By Fr. Artemius Tonoyan
You can’t
lie a little, sin a little, love a little. You either love or you don’t. You
either lie or you don’t. (Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on May 21,
2017)
September 11, 2017
St.
Elisabeth Convent
CONVERSATION