On April 18, on the Fifth Sunday of Lent our parishioners gathered for the liturgical celebration in our temple. Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! We have come to the Fifth Sunday of the Great Fast. It is dedicated to commemoration of the Venerable mother Mary of Egypt, a holy woman who is an example of how a person can change his or her life. St. Mary of Egypt started her adult life as a harlot, a lose woman in the great city of Alexandria in Egypt. But some day when she happened to come to visit Jerusalem, she experienced a strange feeling: some unknown force prevented her from entering the holy church. Mary understood that it happened because of her sinfulness, she converted, she turned her life around. The rest of it she spent in the desert, living in the wilderness, repenting her sins. For many years no one knew about her. Only some time before her death she met a priest-monk whose name was Zosimas. He was astonished seeing such a great ascetic. He first was not able to recognize what kind of being she was – a human or some ghost. Then he was amazed by her life and ascetic endeavors. St. Mary asked him to meet her again in one year and to bring her Holy Communion. They met again and Zosimas gave her Communion. Soon after that Mary fell asleep in the Lord and a year after Zosimas discovered her uncorrupted body. Many times we can hear that people don’t change. Venerable Mary of Egypt is a perfect example of how the human life may be changed in Christ, with the assistance of God’s grace. Being a harlot, leading a licentious life, Mary changed and spent the rest of her years in repentance, in a very simple way of life, in constant prayer and fasting. She is also a reminder that there is no sin that cannot be cleansed by sincere repentance”.
“Today’s Gospel reading tells us about our Lord Jesus Christ predicting His holy Passions and death. In this way on this Sunday we should be prepared to spiritually revive the events of the sufferings of our Savior. We also heard that two of His disciples, James and John, asked their Master for a favor. They wanted to be given the honorable places, the important positions in the Kingdom of heaven. Our Lord pointed out to them that their attitude is wrong. He said that in His Kingdom, in order to be great one must be serving others, and whoever desires to be first should be a slave of all (Mk. 10, 43-44). In other words, our Lord proclaims some different social order according to which greatness and leadership consists of serving. Again, we hear some interesting, maybe surprising things. Holy Gospel is full of such surprises. When we read it we learn that a publican becomes justified, a prodigal son becomes forgiven, a harlot gets the remission of sins. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted, and the last will be first”.
““Behold, I make all things new” – said the Lord (Rev. 21, 5). This is why His teaching is called the New Testament. And according to the New Testament God becomes united with humanity, redeems it. He becomes the Son of Man who comes “to serve and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mk. 10, 45). In this new reality of salvation the sick are healed, the blind see, the lepers are being cleansed, the dead rise. And the sinners are being forgiven. St. Mary of Egypt after being also very sinful becomes not only forgiven but blessed with holiness for her sincere repentance and reformed life”.
“Today’s Sunday should teach us to be the right followers of the New Testament, the disciples of Christ who expect to enter into His Kingdom and to take the places which God prepared for us. In order to be worthy of those places, let us serve one another. And if we stumble, make mistakes or commit sins, let us remember that it is not desperate. Any person is able to change his or her life. If we sincerely repent and turn away from those sins, as holy Mary of Egypt did, God will forgive all of them and will bless us, bestow upon us His grace and will invite us to His Kingdom giving us the honorable and desirable places in the eternity”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

The choir prayerfully performed penitent hymns during the preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector made the announcements about the future celebrations of the Holy Week and Pascha and regarding the importance to receive the Holy Mysteries of Penance and Eucharist in these special days of Lent.

After the Divine Liturgy the Rector performed the Sacrament of the Anointing of the sick. All persons who desired to receive that Mystery participated in the service and were anointed with the blessed oil.

On April 11, on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, St. George Parish held a nice liturgical celebration. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple. After the Scripture readings he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today’s Sunday continues to lead us in our spiritual journey of the Great Fast. Today the Church wishes us to commemorate Holy Father John Climacus, or John of the Ladder, a holy monk who lived in the monastery on Mt. Sinai and became an author of the book called “The Ladder of Divine Ascent”. This book is known as a guide for spiritual life. And today’s reading from the holy Gospel of Mark is telling us what is important for the life to be spiritual. The important thing is to have faith. Faith helps people to acquire many gifts. Today’s Gospel tells that faith helped a father of a young man possessed by a demon. Due to his father’s faith, he was made whole by our Lord Jesus Christ”.
“Lack of faith becomes the reason for many troubles in the world. People who have a very shaky and small faith are easy to be drawn away from the right perception of everything around them. This is why we have so many problems in the society, so much immorality in the conduct of the people. I have recently read that in India a man whose wife died, decided to marry a rat because he believed that his wife’s soul was in that animal. These people there are not Christian and believe in many idols. Therefore, due to their wrong perception of spiritual world they may do such odd things. But this country, America, had been founded by Christians. They were not Orthodox but they did believe in Christ and read their Bible. And what happened to that country? Nowadays the American people are lacking faith and therefore, they are not having a right view of many things. We are now told that we can marry a person of the same sex. We are told that a child can change his or her sex. I suspect that in the near future we will be told that a person can marry an animal. And this is not really surprising because the statistics says that now less than 50% of the American people belong to some church or denomination. More than a half of the population has no strong ties with any religion. It happened in this 21st century although before, in the 20th century, about 70% of the Americans did belong to some denomination. Thus the problems and immorality in the society are caused by the lack of faith which is now so widespread”.
“The world populated with people having insufficient faith resembles a chaos. People suffer in that world because they lack faith. This is why our Lord Jesus is shown losing His temper in today’s Gospel and exclaiming: “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?”(Mk. 9, 19). And when faith is lacking, the people and the world becomes driven by the evil forces, because they have no difficulty to overcome them. The example of the young man possessed by such evil force in today’s Gospel has to show us what may happen to the people lacking faith and not living a spiritual life. They may become prisoners of evil and have no possibility to free themselves”.
“On the other hand, if people have faith, all things become possible. God’s power is being then released through peoples’ faith. And our Lord seeks to elicit such faith from us, as He was seeking to find it in the father of the possessed young man. We read that the father was not certain about his faith in Jesus. He pleaded with the Lord: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!”(Mk. 9, 24). What was that? It is a faith, but faith seeking God’s help. The presence of a doubt does not mean the absence of faith. Christ honors whatever faith we have, as long as it is sincere. He then will increase our faith when we sincerely desire Him to do so”.
“The two essential expressions of faith are prayer and fasting. Our Lord stresses today that the evil force may not be driven away without them. Remember, two weeks ago we were talking about four friends who brought the paralyzed man to Jesus? We said that prayer, fasting, repentance and participation in the life of the Church are those friends bringing us to the Lord. Today we have to repeat it again saying that prayer and fasting are our first friends to help us, to make us whole, to bring us to the Lord and to protect us against the evil”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us practice prayer, endure in fasting and thus drive away our enemies and get closer to our Lord Jesus Christ whose saving Passions we are now anticipate to celebrate. Let us cherish and hold our faith, so we could not be called “faithless generation”. Let us rather understand that our faith may not be great, but let us sincerely ask the Lord to increase it through His divine grace. Let us exclaim with the father of the young man: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” Then He will help and make our faith strong and making wonders. And thus, let us persist in our spiritual journey toward His Holy Resurrection”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

The choir prayerfully sang hymns in honor of Venerable John of the Ladder and the Psalm 33 during preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the Liturgy dismissal the Rector preached a short sermon about the past feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God and made some announcements.

On April 4, on the Third Sunday of Lent we had a nice celebration at St. George Church. On that Sunday the Orthodox Church venerates the Holy Cross.

Before the reading of the Hours the Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov solemnly transferred decorated cross from the altar to the middle of the church and placed it on the stand.

Following the Hours the Rector served the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! On the Third Sunday of Lent when we are in the middle of our spiritual journey towards the holy Resurrection, the Church gives us an opportunity to venerate the holy Cross. The tree of the Cross stands on our way now in order to give us some rest, some comfort, some encouragement for our pilgrimage to the Holy Pascha”.
“The tree of the Cross reminds us that our Lord Jesus Christ offered a perfect sacrifice for us when He died on that holy tree. It tells us that He redeemed us, substituted for us in the punishment He underwent instead of us. He accomplished our salvation for us. We do not have to do anything about it. Our Lord did everything for us. St. Paul talks about that in today’s Epistle lesson calling Christ the High Priest “who has passed through the heavens (Hebr. 4, 14).  As the high priest who offered sacrifice for the people, Jesus offered a highest sacrifice being the Son of God. But if a high priest could do it entering the holy place in the temple, Jesus could offer it passing through heaven, being the Son of God. That makes such sacrifice the highest possible. This is a great comfort and consolation in all the troubles we may encounter in our lives. This is why St. Paul goes on saying: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need” (Hebr. 14, 6). Thus, the big part is done: we are saved. It is now time for us to do our part which is much smaller”.
“Today’s Gospel lesson tells us about our part. It consists of denying our very self, taking up the cross and following Jesus. We may say that it does not appear to be a “small” thing to do. And it is not. But it is much smaller than what the Lord Himself accomplished for us. He redeemed the whole world. We are called to finish, to confirm it for ourselves only. At this point we may be frightened by the words such as ‘denial’, ‘taking up the cross’ and so on. But let us think about them”.
“‘Denying himself’ does not mean that a man must renounce to be himself. We are not called to refuse to be who we are. But we are expected to reject the things which are transitory, unnecessary and pertaining only to this world. These are the things we will lose anyway when we will pass to the eternal life. Especially we need to reject passions, sins and wrong inclinations. Since those things very often become our nature, the Lord uses the expression “denial of himself”. We must refuse to follow what is wrong in our nature, to renounce it”.
“‘Taking up the cross’ means to do what we are doing anyway. Our earthly life is carrying a cross. Everyone has his own cross to carry. We may carry it in a lousy way or we may carry it with dignity. Jesus wishes us to carry our crosses with dignity. It means to accept the cross, to endure and to be obedient to the will of God. Again, the holy Cross of Jesus should be a great comfort for us while we are carrying our own crosses. We should remember and understand that His Cross was much heavier than ours and much harder to carry. It had a weight of all our sins. We carry only our own”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us take a rest under the holy tree of the Cross, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, let us obtain help from our merciful Lord Jesus Christ and let us continue our journey denying ourselves, taking up the cross and following Jesus. Let us follow Him into the eternity”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

The choir prayerfully performed the hymns dedicated to the Holy Cross during preparation for Holy Communion.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy Fr. Igor made some announcements and greeted Paraskeva Kosmidis on the occasion of her birthday presenting her with a bouquet of flowers and proclaiming a Polychronion on her behalf.

Following that the Rector and the altar servers came out of the sanctuary before the stand in the middle of the church and venerated the Precious Cross.

After our services the Rector and parishioners enjoyed a lenten luncheon generously prepared by Paraskeva Kosmidis who celebrated her birthday.

The Gospel of Mark (2, 1-12):

At that time Jesus entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

Евангелие от Марка (2,  1-12):

Во это время пришел Он в Капернаум; и слышно стало, что Он в доме. Тотчас собрались многие, так что уже и у дверей не было места; и Он говорил им слово. И пришли к Нему с расслабленным, которого несли четверо; и, не имея возможности приблизиться к Нему за многолюдством, раскрыли кровлю дома, где Он находился, и, прокопав ее, спустили постель, на которой лежал расслабленный. Иисус, видя веру их, говорит расслабленному: чадо! прощаются тебе грехи твои. Тут сидели некоторые из книжников и помышляли в сердцах своих: что Он так богохульствует? кто может прощать грехи, кроме одного Бога? Иисус, тотчас узнав духом Своим, что они так помышляют в себе, сказал им: для чего так помышляете в сердцах ваших? Что легче? сказать ли расслабленному: прощаются тебе грехи? или сказать: встань, возьми свою постель и ходи? Но чтобы вы знали, что Сын Человеческий имеет власть на земле прощать грехи,– говорит расслабленному: тебе говорю: встань, возьми постель твою и иди в дом твой. Он тотчас встал и, взяв постель, вышел перед всеми, так что все изумлялись и прославляли Бога, говоря: никогда ничего такого мы не видали.

 
Homily of the Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov:

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! On the Second Sunday of Lent we read the Gospel story about healing of the paralyzed man and we honor St. Gregory Palamas, a Holy Father who lived in the 14^th century. The Scripture reading of today is telling us a number of things. First of all, it is about a spiritual effort, a labor which must be performed in order to receive God’s favor and to acquire salvation.
Holy Evangelist Mark tells us today that when our Lord Jesus Christ was in Capernaum and He stayed in a house, so many people gathered there to hear His teaching. Then four men came carrying a paralytic. They could not approach Jesus because of the crowd, so they uncovered the roof where He was. Then they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. These men took a great effort to bring their friend to Jesus, they labored to achieve that goal. And, as a result, the Lord saw their faith and healed their friend. This has to teach us that any spiritual achievement and, above all, our final salvation, requires a great work on our part.
If last Sunday we mentioned the heresies, we have to say that a great heresy of our times is to believe that salvation can be acquired without labor. Many people live with such a wrong attitude that if you are so-called “good person”, you may end up in heaven without special spiritual works like penance, prayerful life or attending the church services. Positive thinking and nice attitude by themselves will not save you. They may only help you in your work, but that work must be done. Any person who did not start making spiritual efforts is like a paralytic. We are all more or less spiritually disabled, paralyzed. Only a great spiritual labor will make us healthy and successful. That labor consists of prayerful life, fasting, penance and participation in the Church life. Only these things will heal our spiritual paralysis.
Therefore, let us look at them as our four friends who may bring us to Jesus, as those four friends brought to Him the paralytic in today’s Gospel. Again, those our four friends are prayer, fasting, repentance and participation in the life of the Church. It is impossible to be saved, it is impossible even to get closer to the Lord without having those four friends. May all of you look at yourselves and see whether you are friendly with those things. Very often we realize that such friendship is not always and fully maintained. But let us admit that it must be. No other force will bring us to the Lord’s grace, His favor and to our salvation except the power of the spiritual works.
The Saint whom the Church wishes to honor on the Second Sunday of Lent, Holy Father Gregory Palamas, archbishop of Thessalonica, is known for his writings and teachings where he instructed that people, being subject to sin and imperfection, have a chance to become holy through the works of spirit: through prayer, fasting and penance. He also teaches that men are able to achieve a highest level of spirituality and become so holy, that he may be worthy to see the uncreated light of God, the same light the Apostles saw on Mt. Tabor when Jesus transfigured before them. Such light is from God, thus it is not created, but comes from Him. This may sound very remote from our daily life, especially if we do not practice much spirituality. But this is how much any person is able to reach if he or she will take an effort, to do the work, to perform a labor.
Dear brothers and sisters! Let today’s Second Sunday of our great spiritual journey towards holy Pascha teach us to take spiritual efforts, to use help of the four friends, prayer, fasting, repentance and Church life, and to strive for achieving holiness and salvation.

On March 21, on the First Sunday of Lent, also known as celebration of the Triumph of the Orthodoxy, St. George parish had a nice liturgical service. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. After the Scripture readings he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! On the first Sunday of Lent we commemorate the victory of the true faith over the heresy of iconoclasm. It happened in the 9^th century when a wrong teaching prohibiting to venerate the holy images was defeated and condemned at the 7^th Ecumenical Council. For that reason today’s Sunday is known as Sunday of Orthodoxy. The feast itself was introduced to mark the victory over the iconoclasm. But at that point in the history, after those seven Councils, the Church completed its proclamation of the Christian teaching. The Church formulated and defined all main truths of faith in the decisions of those Councils. This is why we call that victory not the triumph of the veneration of the icons, but the triumph of Orthodoxy”.
“It does not mean that no more heresies emerged after this triumph. On the contrary, much more of them appeared following the 9^th century. But today’s feast means that all the heresies are condemned in advance by the teaching of the seven Councils”.
“In today’s world we may see two main heresies. The one is the wrong understanding who Jesus Christ is, and another is the new iconoclasm, refusal to venerate the holy icons”.
“Some modern heretics call Jesus Christ the Great Teacher; they like His teaching, but they do not consider Him the Son of God.  Even if they admit that He is God’s Son, they still refuse to believe in His miracles and His resurrection. For instance, they often interpret the resurrection of the Lord in the spiritual sense only and deny the resurrection of His Body. All these errors of thought were condemned b the teaching of the seven Councils”.
“If Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, born from the Holy Spirit and the ever- Virgin Mary, and if He did not rise from the dead, then no salvation of the human race took place. Then we remain in sin and death has the power over the world. Then our life has no sense”.
“But we believe that the life has a great value because our Lord Jesus Christ – the Son of God who became man – saved us from the sin and death. And today the Church celebrates the victory of that saving teaching”.
“Another modern heresy is denial to venerate the holy images. Such a wrong conviction can be seen in all the Protestant denominations. Some of the preachers of that heresy call the icons idols. This is not new in the history. They just repeat the mistakes of the ancient iconoclasts”.
“Modern iconoclasts have pretty primitive philosophy. They say that Ten Commandments prohibit to worship the man-made images. The ancient Greeks had more sophisticated grounds to deny the icons. They believed that the matter is evil, thus God cannot unite with the evil things. They went further saying that the Son of God could not unite Himself with the human nature, to become man. But the Holy Scripture clearly states that all created by God is good. God did not create evil. The matter is good because God made it. Our flesh is good, our environment is good, the whole universe is good. The Son of God united with what is good”.
“Thus God who became man can have an image. His human nature can be shown on the holy icons. The true Christians venerate our Lord Jesus Christ, His Blessed Mother and the Saints who are pictured on the icons, and not the wood and paint. In this way we worship the true God who became man and venerate the image of His Incarnation. Jesus Christ for us is a true God and true Man, not an idol. By proclaiming the veneration of the icons the Church protected the truth of the Incarnation”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us listen to the Church saying to us today: “Come, let us venerate the holy images of Christ, His Pure Mother and Saints, and let us reject the evil faith of those who proclaim bad tidings””.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

The choir prayerfully performed the 33rd Psalm during preparation for Holy Communion.

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector performed prayer service of the Sunday of Orthodoxy solemnly declaring the Orthodox faith and proclaiming eternal memory to the champions of that faith and the polychronion to the Church hierarchy and Orthodox Christians.

At the conclusion of the service the Rector preached congratulated the parishioners on the completion of the first week of Lent and wished them to continue an endeavor of further observance of the fast. He also made some announcements.

On March 17, on Wednesday of the first week of Lent the Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Compline with the reading of penitential Canon of St. Andrew of Crete.

This Canon is composed as a conversation of a person with his own soul. It reveals that often we imitate sinners mentioned in the Scripture but do not wish to follow the steps of the righteous ones. It also calls us to bring the fruits of repentance and not to exalt ourselves.

Following the service the Rector preached a sermon in which he pointed out that the Canon of St. Andrew is all the time referring to the Sacred Scripture. It mentions the just men or the sinners described in the Bible. Ven. Andrew was very well familiar with the Scripture. Unfortunately, many people, even the believers, are not so knowledgeable about the Bible. Thus such people listening to the reading of the Canon may not fully understand its references. That fact urges us to read and study the Sacred Books. However, any faithful Christian, even if he does not know the Bible, can understand the most important message of the Canon – to repent. Repentance is the most important matter taught by that Canon and the most important feature of Lent.

On the Cheesefare Sunday the Church commemorates the exile of Adam from paradise. This day is also known as the Forgiveness Sunday because Orthodox Christians ask mutual forgiveness before they begin the spiritual journey of the Great Lent. On this day, on March 14, St. George parish had services in our temple. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Services were attended by Abbot Eutychius (Dovganyk), the ROCOR cleric, who prayed in the sanctuary. After the reading from the Gospel the Rector preached the following homily:

 “Dear Father, dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Tomorrow we will start Lent, a time of fasting. Today, on the Cheesefare Sunday, as we prepare for that, we commemorate the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise. It is a proper time to make such commemoration. If we reflect upon that most sadly event in the history of mankind, we observe that the only commandment given by God the Creator to man was related to fasting. The first man was allowed to eat the fruits from all the trees in the Garden of Eden but was not allowed to eat only from one tree. However, Adam and Eve refused to fast. As a result, they were expelled from paradise. Therefore, the day of expulsion may be compared to today’s day. After being excluded from blessedness, the mankind had to start a very long period of living in the fallen state, a long time of being cursed, sick, unhappy and needy. That period ended with the salvation accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ becoming Man and dying for us on the cross. It completely ended by His glorious Resurrection. In the same manner, Lent is a pretty long time of our labors, struggles and efforts, both spiritual and corporal. It will also end with our reviving of the holy Passions of the Lord, His saving death on the cross and His holy Resurrection. Lent will end when the Holy Week will come, and we will stop fasting with the celebration of Pascha”.
“Although these aspects of the Cheesefare Sunday are very important, the Gospel of today does not mention that. It speaks about three other things. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself gives us instructions for this saving time of Fast. He provides us, as some modern priest said, with the “three recipes for Lent”. These are the recipes of forgiveness, fasting and laying up treasures in heaven. While some of us may think what kind of meals we will cook during Lent when many of our regular types of food are not allowed, we may consider those three spiritual recipes not for our table, but for our way of living”.
“First recipe is to forgive others their faults against us. Every day we should remember about our duty to forgive because we remind ourselves reciting the Lord’s Prayer. We declare: “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. We should then know that if we forgive, then the Lord will forgive us. He confirms this in today’s Gospel: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt. 6, 14-15). Why should we forgive? Because after Adam whom we commemorate, no man is perfect, everybody makes mistakes, commits sins. If we do not forgive, we are not honest with ourselves. We are proud and extol ourselves. Then God will despise us for that, as we heard in the parable of the Publican and Pharisee. Forgiveness is the expression of humility, an acknowledgement of our sinful state. It is also an expression of love. If we forgive, God will forgive us”.
“The second recipe is fasting. It is important. The Lord did not say that fasting is not needed. But He teaches us that it must be spiritual, not just for the body; it must be profound, not superficial. Recently we spoke of the fasting done by the Pharisees. The Lord criticized this type of fasting. He calls us for the spiritual, profound and fruitful fasting. Fast by itself is not the goal, but the means to attain the goal which is spiritual life”.
“The third recipe is to lay up treasures in heaven. It is a good financial advice. Many people care very much about collecting earthly treasures, making good investments, preserving their material wealth. Our Lord Jesus Christ declares all this to be unreliable. He reminds us that all material wealth and earthly treasures may be destroyed or taken away. Finally, no one will be able to carry them into eternity. Thus, it is unwise to invest in those things. We should rather invest into things we may carry into eternal life. And these treasures laid up in heaven would be our good deeds, our works of love, our endeavors of faith. They will be laid up and wait for us in heaven where we will be blessed according to them”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us take and use those three recipes for Lent in order to achieve a right to worthily celebrate Holy Pascha after it, and also to have a right some day to enter again into the paradise which is God’s eternal and heavenly Kingdom”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

During preparation for Holy Communion the choir prayerfully performed the hymns of repentance.

Following the Divine Liturgy the Rector performed Vespers with the Rite of Forgiveness. After the singing of the Great Prokimenon he changed his priestly vestments to the Lenten color of black.

After the Vespers dismissal the Rector preached a sermon in Russian regarding the meaning of Lent. He stressed that fasting should strive to perfect our spiritual state and to make us become closer to God. We should realize where is our true place: on one hand we are sinful and should be aware of that. On the other hand, man was created to live with God in paradise. Therefore, our Lenten journey should be directed towards God and His Kingdom. After finishing the sermon he asked for forgiveness bending his knees. The parishioners also knelt down and asked their pastor for forgiveness. Then each one of the faithful could come to the Rector to kiss the cross and to express the forgiveness.

Following the services of this special day Fr. Igor, Fr. Eutychius and parishioners joined at the Blini Luncheon. All of them enjoyed delicious meals, especially the blini, nicely prepared by our ladies and different kinds of fish. A toast to Fr. Igor and his recovery from the illness was raised. The Rector also raised a toast wishing everybody a good and fruitful fast.

The Annual Parish Meeting of St. George Church was held on Sunday, March 7, 2021, following the Divine Liturgy. Parish Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov presided.

Church Warden, Olga Roussanow read the minutes of the last Annual Meeting held in 2020.

The Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov had a speech. He made some introduction stating that the last year was difficult because of the pandemic. Our church was closed for a month in April. However, later we began to function and we have got 3 new parishioners. And all of them are very active.

Then the Rector reported on financial situation. He stressed that in the last year our parish received a number of generous donations that made its revenue higher than in the past year. Most of them were made by some of our new generous parishioners. In addition, we collected special donations for the renovations in our temple. Those renovations were made and the new floor installed in the altar and ambo area. But the cost was totally covered by some benefactor, so the parish did not spend anything on the renovations. For that reason the said renovations were not even indicated in the financial report. That assistance does not mean that our parishioners should not generously support the church. We know that some of them did offer their time, labor and assistance in performing different parish activities, for which we all should be grateful. But financially members of the church should still be active in supporting it.

After accepting the financial report, the parishioners discussed the election of the parish Treasurer. For several years the duties of the Treasurer were temporarily performed by the Rector. At this point the Rector proposed to elect our new but very active parishioner, Emilian Suric, to become the Treasurer. That proposal was unanimously supported and Mr. Suric was elected.

The Rector and the Warden then reminded the parishioners of their duty to pay the parish dues of 2021. Several members made their membership contributions right away.

It has been brought to the members’ attention that our church would need a person supervising the sale of candles. After some discussion, Phoebe Ching-Huei Li volunteered for that obedience.

Having discussed some other matters the meeting was adjourned.

On March 7, on the Meatfare Sunday, our parish family gathered for a beautiful celebration at St. George Church. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today’s Sunday is dedicated to the commemoration of the Last Judgment. This event is going to occur in the future of the world, at the end of it. Usually we commemorate something which already took place. But today we ought to reflect upon something which is going to happen some day. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself told us that at the end of this world He will come again to judge the living and the dead. In today’s Gospel lesson we heard the words of the Lord describing how that final and dreadful judgment is going to happen”.
“First of all, we have to notice that the Last Judgment will be for everyone. The Gospel says that “all the nations will be gathered before Him” (Mt. 24, 32). It should be understood that not only nations, but all the people personally will be summoned to that judgment. No one will escape this adjudication. Therefore, we should not believe some false teachings attempting to say that some people will not appear at the Last Judgment. Everybody will be there”.
“Further, we should consider that all human kind will be divided in the two large groups. One group will be blessed and invited to the Kingdom of God prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Another group will be cursed and condemned to the everlasting punishment. Therefore, the eternal life which will start after that is going to be completely different for those two parts of the human race. The one part is going to enjoy the blessedness of heaven and paradise, yet the other will be tormented in hell”.
“Because the Last Judgment will be for each one of us and because it will end by either total blessing or total condemnation, it was called the “dreadful” judgment. And the Church wishes to remind us about that inevitable event, so we may prepare for it during the course of our earthly lives. But in today’s Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ desired not just to declare that the judgment will take place. He also told us in advance what kind of evidence will be considered there. After listening to the Gospel we realize that the main criteria according to which we are going to be saved or condemned will be whether we practiced the works of love and mercy towards the others. Our Lord lists those main works: feeding of the hungry, giving a drink to the thirsty, taking in the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick or a prisoner. He also says that doing those things to one of the least of these His brethren equals doing these things to Him. By these words our Lord teaches us to love our neighbor and to consider such love equal to our love of God, to our faith. And it is not accidental that the Lord is not talking about faith or prayer or other spiritual works to be considered at the Last Judgment. First of all, He requires our love and compassion towards “one of the least of these His brethren””.
“Whom should we consider those “least of His brethren”? We should see them in everybody who is in need. Again, the Lord gives us a list. These are the hungry, the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick or the imprisoned, all the people in need, in trouble, in pain. Generally speaking, this is the whole human race, all our fellow men and women. The final sentence at the Last Judgment and our eternal destiny will depend on whether we fulfilled the works of love to these least brethren. Therefore, let us not delude ourselves thinking that when we fail to do something good, it was not done against God Himself. Let us stop thinking that when we refuse to love, to help or to be nice to someone, we just fail to please a man, not God. The Son of God became Man in order to care for everyone, so He wishes us to imitate Him in such a lovely care”.
“There is an ancient story of some king who dressed as a poor and simple person and used to walk on the streets of his capital city. That king was observing how his subjects live, what they do and what they say. He also looked at how they behaved, how they treated each other. So, the people did not recognize their king because he was disguised as a plan person, a poor man. And some of them treated him badly, but some were nice to him. In the same way our Lord Jesus Christ is our King in disguise. He is in a symbolic, spiritual sense because He says that if we do something good or bad to our brethren, we do it to Him. Thus when we see someone in need, let us remember the story of the king in disguise”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Let us, therefore, prepare for the Last Judgment of the Lord by fulfilling the works of love, doing them for our neighbors and thus doing them for the Lord. Let us earn for ourselves a place at the right side of the Son of Man who will judge us on the last day. Let us work now to become worthy of the eternal Kingdom prepared for us at the foundation of the world”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

Since there were no services for the departed performed on Meatfare Memorial Saturday, the Rector added the Litany for the deceased to the Liturgy with commemoration of those who had fallen asleep.

The choir prayerfully performed penitential hymns from the Lenten Triodion during preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector preached a brief sermon in Russian concerning the commemoration of the departed and made some announcements.

After the liturgical service the Annual Parish Meeting was held.

On February 28, on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son, after a three-week break our parish family gathered again for the divine services at our church. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov, had recovered from the coronavirus and was able to serve the Divine Liturgy. After the reading from the Holy Gospel he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today is another Sunday preparing us for Lent. It tells us about the Prodigal Son, giving us a perfect example of repentance. “Open me the doors of repentance,” – the Church is praying these days of the preparation for the saving time of fast. It is for us now to understand how much important is to practice repentance”.
“If last Sunday we could say that most of us could not relate to the Pharisee and to the publican, because those two men are the examples of some extreme way of life, today we should acknowledge that all of us resemble the Prodigal Son. We are all like him. This is due to the whole condition the human kind has – the condition called sin. As the Prodigal Son from today’s Gospel parable, the human race journeyed to the far country, away from God. And it is able and it should come back to the Father’s house”.
“The Almighty and all-merciful God is the Creator of man. Man is God’s most final creation. We were made according to the God’s image and likeness. Thus, we are the children of God, and God is our Father. We were created good and perfect, and we could eternally stay at our Father’s house, in paradise. But like the younger son in today’s parable, we left our home. Enjoying the free will, an ability to choose, having our portion of the Father’s inheritance, we decided to leave Him. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were driven away from paradise to a far land of sin. The whole human race became remote from God and wasted its precious possession, the divine gifts of grace, through the sinful life. It had to endure all kinds of misfortunes, just as the Prodigal Son had to be starving in the far country. But the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ came to that land of misery and redeemed the man who was enslaved by sin. He came to restore the fallen image of God the Creator in us. He showed us the way of coming back to the Father’s house. And He ensured us that the doors of that house are now open to us. More than that, the loving Father is expecting us and is willing to run to meet us and to embrace us! Now, through Him, we acquired back the right to call God “the Father” and use the Lord’s prayer beginning with the words “Our Father””.
“To complete such a safe return home, we need to follow our Lord’s instruction of repentance. Only the doors of repentance will lead us to the Father’s house. There is no other way. And the image of such repentance is shown in the conduct of the Prodigal Son. We first need to come to our senses, as the Prodigal Son “came to himself”, and realize our sinful state. Then we have to come to a decision to repent, to return to the Father. Then we must arise, we must act upon our resolution. And we must return, come back, repent, confess our sins and ask forgiveness. We have to humble ourselves and declare: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son!” (Lk. 15, 21). Then, the all-merciful Lord will accept our repentance, will embrace us with His love, enrich us with His grace and order to begin a celebration in our honor”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us begin loving and practicing the saving deal of repentance. Let us seek the doors of returning to the Father’s house, our home and hope to meet our loving Father at the steps and to enjoy His eternal blessing”.

During the time of the preparation for the Holy Communion the choir prayerfully performed the hymns from the Lenten Triodion which begin to be sung on this Sunday, starting with the words “The door of repentance open to me, o Giver of life…”.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector spoke about his past illness. He expressed his gratitude to the parishioners for their prayers for his recovery, for their concern, as well as for their patience. He also made some announcements regarding our schedule in March.