On February 15 Russian Orthodox Church celebrates a great holy day of the Meeting of the Lord. Priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at St. George’s Church. In his sermon after the reading from the Gospel, he preached about the meaning of this important feast.
He said: “The history of salvation may be called the history of the meetings with the Lord, the history of our encounters with our God and Creator. Thus, the name of today’s feast sounds very meaningful. We celebrate a meeting of our Lord with Himself in His Temple. We also celebrate a meeting of the elder Simeon with his Savior. When righteous Simeon took the child Jesus into his arms, a new era began; the era of the meeting between God and His children”.
Fr. Igor also stressed the importance of being prepared to meet the Lord. “We all know that our meetings with the Lord can take place every time when we participate in the Church services, especially in the Divine Liturgy. However, such meetings do not happen for many, even if they come to the temple. Why? Because they come unprepared, destructed or unworthy. Even if they think that they may get something out of their visits to the church, such thoughts may be in vain. For instance, if the people come to the church just to light a candle and then leave, they do not get much out of their visit. An encounter with the Lord does not take place,” he said.
Fr. Igor concluded his sermon with the following words: “Let us imitate the holy people like righteous Simeon and Anna the prophetess… and await our meeting with the Lord, let us be prepared for it, so our expectations will not be in vain.”