On May 13, on the Sunday of the Blind man, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our parish temple. Following the reading from the Holy Gospel he preached a homily in Russian.

The Rector addressed the words of our Lord Jesus Christ pronounced in the Gospel lesson: “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn. 9, 5). To confirm those words the Lord granted sight to the man born blind. Jesus is the Light of the world, not only for the blind whom He healed but for all of us. We are called “out of darkness into His marvelous light”, as holy Apostle Peter says (1 Pet. 2, 9). And holy Apostle Paul calls us “the sons of light” (1 Thes. 5, 5).
But are we really worthy of such a great calling and of such a great name? Alas! Many of us know little about the truths of Revelation and thus remain in darkness. Others, even if they know those truths, have a little faith and thus they close their spiritual eyes to the light of Christ. And others engage in the fruitless works of darkness by committing sins.
Those of us who were born in Soviet Union have some excuse: that society desired to raise us atheists, to educate us in spiritual darkness. But here, in America, we see another movement: the society which once was based on Christian values, now keeps rejecting them and leading people into spiritual darkness. And the people themselves easily agree. It looks like they blind themselves on purpose. They leave the Church, live a secular and non-religious life.
Was it supposed to be this way? Was the light of Christ granted to us, so we stay in the darkness? Did we become Christians to live like pagans? Therefore, we need to do everything possible to live in the light of Christ. If we are in spiritual darkness because of our ignorance of the truths of Revelation, let us learn them. If we are in darkness because we don’t firmly believe in those truths, let us pray, so the Lord may strengthen our faith. And if we are in darkness due to our sins, let us convert and repent. Let us appear the sons of light not only by name but by the very life in Christ!

The choir prayerfully performed hymns assigned to the Sunday of the Blind man and Paschal Aposticha during the preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector preached a brief sermon in English conveying the main ideas of his Russian homily.

On the occasion of Mother’s Day the Rector congratulated all our ladies and extended his heartfelt wishes to them. Traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta!”) was proclaimed.

The Rector also expressed his gratitude to all our parishioners, especially our ladies who did a lot of work to prepare for our Patronal feast of St. George celebrated last Sunday. The guests of the Parish, including His Grace, Bishop John were very pleased with our celebration and a warm welcome.