On February 14, on the 37th Sunday after Pentecost, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple. On this day we also celebrated holy day of the Meeting of the Lord which had been transferred to Sunday. Despite a very cold weather, a sufficient number our parishioners attended the church.

Following the Gospel readings the Rector preached a homily in Russian. In that homily he combined the main themes of the Gospel lessons assigned for this Sunday (Lk. 19, 1-10) and for the feast of the Meeting of the Lord (Lk. 2, 22-40). Fr. Igor said that both Gospel readings tell us about a meeting between a sinful man and sinless God. The whole purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into our world was to make such a meeting possible. If Adam turned away from God and was expelled from God’s glory and from constant communication with God, Christ did reconcile sinful man with sinless God. Zacchaeus, a publican and a public sinner, wished to see the Lord, made an effort climbing on a tree, and Jesus blessed him and proclaimed salvation for him. Righteous elder Simeon also expected to encounter the Lord, the Messiah, and Jesus being a small Child, made that encounter come true. We need to serve the Lord and to remember that our own meeting with Him may happen every moment. This is so because, according to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, every moment, every day in our life is the best for our salvation. God’s Providence arranges thus. And our encounter with the Lord is possible any time because we any time we may leave this earthly life, like Simeon did after seeing the Chris of God. Therefore, we need to be ready for such a meeting all the time, to make efforts like Zacchaeus and to expect like righteous Simeon.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector and the altar servers came before the icon of the feast and performed the rite of Glorification singing the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Meeting.

After that the Rector had a short sermon in English explaining his homily previously preached in Russian.

Following the service Rector and parishioners had an opportunity to continue their celebration at the trapeza table where they enjoyed delicious meals and interesting conversations.