On April 7, on the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served Vespers and Divine Liturgy in our temple. Before the service our Warden, Olga Roussanow beautifully adorned the festal icon stand with the flowers. Following the readings from the Sacred Scripture Fr. Igor preached a homily in Russian. The English translation of that homily is as follows:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today’s feast is called the Annunciation. We celebrate the announcement made by the Holy Angel to the Blessed Virgin Mary. That announcement contained a very special message: Mary will conceive and bring forth a Son who will be the Messiah. In other words, it was bringing of the Good News. This announcement became a declaration that through Mary the Savior is coming to the world. Therefore, today the Church sings in the festal troparion, “Today is the beginning of our salvation”. But apart from that greatest meaning of this feast, we should note that it was also a moment of decision making. The Blessed Virgin had to accept the good news of being chosen to become the Mother of the Savior. Thus, today is also a celebration of the free will”.
“We humans are blessed by the Creator to have a free will. The Angels are much more limited in that. In the beginning of the world they could make a choice: either to follow God or to reject Him. After that the Angels made their decision and are not able to change it. Their nature does not allow them to choose. Holy Archangel Gabriel sent to the Blessed Virgin Mary to bring Her the news of Annunciation, had no choice – he had to follow God’s command. But we humans have a choice all the time. We live making decisions. We exist making choices. When we get up in the morning, we decide on which foot we will stand, what we are going to do first. We may choose what to have for breakfast. We may choose to go to work or to stay home. And today, as we see, many our parishioners made a choice not to come here to the church. Some had a real excuse, for which I am aware. But I don’t know about everyone’s reason not to come. In any event, it was their decision”.
“Thus, our life is full of choices. There may be little choices and great choices. We may decide what to eat for breakfast – a little, everyday choice. And we may decide whether to be a good person or a bad person – a great life choice. We will live by the results of our choices”.
“The Most Holy Theotokos made Her greatest life choice in today’s holy event. She accepted the God’s blessing to become the Mother of the Savior. If we carefully read today’s Gospel lesson, we may see that She had a conversation with the Angel (Lk. 1, 26-38). Mary questioned him about God’s plan and how it is going to be fulfilled. The Angel answered Her questions and explained the most important parts of that plan. He also mentioned such a detail that even Her relative, Elizabeth, who was considered barren and who was of old age, has conceived a son. So, Gabriel was persuasive, and Mary could make (what we call it) an informed decision. And She did, She decided to work with God in fulfilling of His plan of salvation. She said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Lk. 1, 38)”.
“Now, thinking of the Blessed Mother’s choice, we can recall the first choice of humanity in paradise. Who made that first choice? The woman. Eve decided to eat the forbidden fruit. Who conversed with her? The Angel. But that angel was Satan. He was also persuasive, and she made a decision to listen to him and to disobey God. Now, in the event of the Holy Annunciation, many things are similar but the choice is completely different, and the result is the opposite. Mary, the New Eve, converses with the Angel of God and decides to obey the Lord. Eve started the history of our curse, and Mary started the history of our salvation. Woman is the one who gives life, and the first woman brought spiritual death. Now, in the Annunciation, woman, the Holy Virgin, brings spiritual life and a promise of life eternal”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! All of us, men and women, are always confronted with lots of choices. Nowadays we often hear about the woman’s right to choose whether to have child or not. Certain people say that they belong to a “pro-choice” movement. Certain women shout, “My body – my choice!” Of course, they do have a choice. But it is a choice between giving life and killing. A choice between being a mother and being a murderess of your own child. We do have to choose – all the time. As we said, big decisions and small decisions”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! We, as Christians, are given a special opportunity to make the biggest decision, the most important spiritual choice of our life – to choose salvation, the Good News of Christ, to choose life in Him. Or, we may choose the opposite – being away from God, to disregard His Gospel, to end up spiritually dead. An awareness of such two choices is especially clear to us during Lent. If we attempted to spend it appropriately, doing more prayers, observing fast, receiving more Sacraments, attending the church – then we better realize that such choices are always in front of us. And if we make certain decision, we have to live by its results. Adam and Eve made their choice, and the whole humanity became cursed. The Most Holy Mother of God made Her choice, and the human race became blessed”.
“The Good News is that as long as we live here in this world, we may change our decision, we may override our past wrongs, we may make a new and right choice. Angels can’t do that and the souls of the departed cannot, but we, the living, still can. Therefore, let us first understand the choice, let us study what it will entail. Again, the Most Holy Theotokos did that, She had to understand the implications of Her decision. To help Her understand She spoke with the Angel. Now, to help us to understand, we have the Church, we have the Holy Gospel to do the explanation. Let us learn from them. Then, having learned of the joyful proclamation of salvation, let choose life over death, salvation over damnation and eternal blessedness with the Lord and His Blessed Mother in heavenly paradise!”

The choir director performed hymns of the festal canon during preparation for Holy Communion.

After the dismissal the Rector performed glorification in front of the festal icon in the middle of the church singing the troparion and kontakion of the Annunciation. Then he congratulated the faithful on the great feast.