On August 23, on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost, Archpriest Igor Tarasov, Rector of St. George Church served the Divine Liturgy in our temple.

Following the Gospel reading he preached a homily in English. He explained the Gospel story about a young man who asked Jesus what to do to have eternal life. The answer of Christ was, “If you want to enter into life, keep the Commandments” (Mt. 19, 16). So, in order to be saved we need to keep the God’s Law. But if the young man in today’s Gospel have kept the Commandments, most of us do not. The young man wished to go further and asked what is lacking. Jesus told him to give up his wealth. This was too hard for the young man because he was attached to his possessions. Thus the Lord said that it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God (Mt. 19, 23). When the Apostles were astonished and asked, “Who then may be saved?” (Mt. 19, 25), the Lord proclaimed that things impossible with men are possible with God (Mt. 19, 26). Fr. Igor further preached that without God we cannot do anything for our salvation. We need God’s help, His divine grace. But this does not mean that we can sit back and let God do the work for us. We need to cooperate with Him. And we need to keep the Commandments and live a Christian life. If we do our part, God will do His part. If we do what is possible, God will do what is impossible.  Since we still celebrate feast of the Transfiguration, this holy event teaches us that through Christ we are able to become the partakers of His divine nature, to become divine being human. Thus, the grace of God can assist us in our own transfiguration to become able to be with God in the eternity. And He will make us worthy to enter into His eternal Kingdom.

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector called the parishioners to make a good preparation for the holy day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God which will be celebrated next Friday.