On January 21, on the Sunday after the Theophany, the Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple.

Following the Gospel lesson he preached a homily in Russian on the assigned reading (Mk.1). He pointed out that our Lord Jesus Christ in the very beginning of His ministry preached the repentance because such is the necessary beginning of following the Lord and Savior. Repentance must be understood in the Greek language of the New Testament as a “reform of one’s life”, a full conversion, and not just as a fervent prayer or contrition for our sins. Faithful need to learn how to repent and confess their sins. But it is impossible to repent by our own power, without God’s help. Our sinful nature does not permit us to do so. And the enemy is always offering us a “broken mirror”, a false image of ourselves. We need to reject that broken mirror and to look at ourselves in a true image. Then we will be able to reach the Kingdom of God preached by our Savior.

The choir prayerfully performed liturgical hymns during preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector preached a short sermon in English addressing main thoughts of his Russian homily.