On September 8, on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost, as well as feast of the Encounter of the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, we had a nice celebration at our parish temple. The Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy.

After the Gospel lesson the Rector preached a homily in Russian. He was interpreting the assigned reading from the Gospel of Matthew (Mt. 19, 16-26). He pointed out that the first important thing for our salvation is to keep the Commandments. This is sufficient to enter the Kingdom of God, as our Lord stated. Only if we are not breaking the God’s law, we may consider more heroic ways of piety. Some people wish to be very advanced in their devotions but forget to do the basics of spiritual life – to keep the Commandments. On the other way, our sinful nature makes us very unsuccessful in keeping the God’s law. All of us violate it, at least sometimes. Thus we cannot be saved without divine grace. This is why the Lord says: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19, 26). We cannot be saved without God and His help.

At the Litany of Fervent Supplication the Rector added a petition for health and recovery of our parishioner Raisa who had been hospitalized that morning.

The choir nicely performed hymns dedicated to the Mother of God and Her Icon of Vladimir during preparation for Holy Communion.