On February 22, on the Cheesefare Sunday, the Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. After the reading from the Gospel he preached a homily:

“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. God told Adam and Eve that they may eat the fruits from any trees, but may not eat the fruit from one tree. This was the only commandment and it was about fast. 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.”
“The 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 lay 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.”

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. Following the Vespers dismissal Fr. Igor preached a brief sermon about Lent in the Russian language. He emphasized the need of forgiveness as a sign of love and honest attitude towards human sinful state.

The Rector 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 forgiveness.

After the services of this special day the Rector and parishioners joined at the Blini Lunch. We enjoyed delicious meals, especially the blini.

On February 15, Meatfare Sunday and feast of the Meeting (Presentation) of the Lord, St. George parish family gathered together after a one Sunday break which was taken due to the Rector absence. This time Archpriest Igor Tarasov returned and served the Divine Liturgy. Following the Scripture lessons he preached a homily in the Russian language. In his sermon the Rector spoke about the meetings men may have with God. One such encounter will happen after our earthly life. Another will take place at the Last Judgment which is commemorated on this Sunday. And today’s feast is called the Meeting of the Lord and remembers the encounter of a man named Simeon with the Son of God, the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem. In all those three instances man encounters His Lord and Creator. Fr. Igor called the parishioners to lead spiritual life in order to meet the Lord more often. Such short meetings may occur when we participate in the life of the Church, when we receive the Sacraments, especially Holy Communion.

A Litany for the deceased was offered during the Divine Liturgy because our parish did not have any service for the departed on the Memorial Meatfare Saturday.

Upon the Liturgy dismissal the Rector and altar servers performed the rite of glorification in front of the festal icon in the middle of the church. They sang the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Meeting of the Lord.

On January 19th Orthodox Church celebrates great feast of the Theophany, or Baptism of the Lord. Our parish had a beautiful celebration of that holy day conducted by our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov. He served the Divine Liturgy in our temple. Following the Gospel lesson the Rector preached a homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate Holy Theophany, or Baptism of the Lord. This holy day is not so simple in its meaning, it has more aspects than Nativity. On the Nativity we have one great idea expressed by the Angel announcing that holy event to the shepherds: “There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior…” (Lk. 2, 11). In today’s feast we may find more ideas, aspects and meanings. Although we celebrate a certain event, namely the Baptism of the Lord performed by St. John, that event is not so simple. When we hear today’s reading from the Gospel we may see that Its aspects are several.”
“Today we will talk about one of those aspects. We will discuss how our Lord Jesus Christ in His Theophany descended upon the nature and upon this world. He had no need to be baptized for St. John baptized people who repent. Jesus had no reason to repent, He was without sin. But He comes to the Jordan River and requests Baptism. Recently, celebrating His Circumcision we were also wandering why the Infant Jesus needed to be circumcised. Now we may ask why He wishes to receive Baptism. St. John was also wandering about it. But the Lord said to him: “Permit it to be now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt. 3, 15). Baptism was necessary for Jesus to “fulfill all the righteousness”, to make the purification of humanity His own, to wash away the sin of men, to grant regeneration. To give us a new life Jesus descended upon this world, entered the waters of Jordan. St. Gregory of Nyssa says, “Jesus enters the filthy waters of the world and when He comes out, brings up the entire world with Him”.”
“This coming of the Lord into our world is very beautifully described in the troparion we sing at Vespers on the Theophany Eve: “Thou Who didst create the world art made manifest in the world, to give light to those who sit in darkness…” Our Creator appeared in the world He created, manifested Himself as a part of that world to make the world better. He Who was in heaven came to the earth. He Who is the Most High descended into the lowest spheres. He Who is All-Holy came to the filthy and sinful environment. It happened “to fulfill all the righteousness”.”
“In a similar way when we bless the water these days, that holy water is being sprinkled all over. It falls on the altar, on the icons in the temple, but it also falls on the floor. Furthermore, we bring it outside the temple, we bless houses and different objects. When a priest comes to your house he becomes a resemblance of Christ coming into the world. Although a priest is a simple man he represents Jesus. He brings a sacred thing to your abode. Our homes are no temples. But the holy water falls there, even on our floors. The grace of God descends upon us as Jesus descended into the filthy waters of this world. Creation had been blessed. In the same way we and our homes receive His blessing.”
“But there is one thing we should realize and remember. If creation cannot fully respond at the blessing of the Lord, if waters, earth, animals and plants are not able to make a choice about the grace they receive, we can and we are able to choose. The creation glorifies God in its way. Today, during the Blessing of water we will pray to the Lord: “The sun hymns Thee, the moon glorifies Thee, the stars assist Thee, the light obeys Thee, the deeps shudder before Thee, the springs serve Thee”. But our response to the Christ appearance could be much stronger. For we are created in His image and likeness and we have a free will. The dirt on which the holy water today falls accidently will remain the dirt. But a sinful man may change after receiving the grace of God, no matter how filthy and dark might be his soul. He may repent, turn away from that filth and darkness.”
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, let us be grateful for this great appearance of the Most High to the universe and let us act upon that reception of His grace saving to all men.”

After the Prayer behind the Ambo the Rector performed the Great Blessing of water.

Following the Liturgy dismissal the Rector and the altar servers came before the icon stand and performed the rite of glorification singing the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Theophany. Then Fr. Igor congratulated parishioners on the occasion of the great holy day.

On January 14, on the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord, and memory of St. Basil the Great, St. George Church had a nice celebration. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. Following the readings from the Gospel he preached a sermon in Russian. An English version of that sermon is as follows:

“Today we celebrate a double Church feast, the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, and memory of St. Basil the Great. In addition, if we lived according to the Old Calendar in our secular life, today we would have the New Year’s Day.”
“Circumcision of Child Jesus was performed according to the Law of Moses. That law followed by the Jews, by the Church of the Old Testament, provided that each baby boy had to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. This was the sign of the covenant between God and His chosen people. Thus, Jesus was no exception. He had to undergo that procedure. He had to receive that sign of the covenant. But many today’s Christians tend to wonder why we celebrate that event as a feast. Certainly, there are reasons for that. One of the main reasons is that our Savior had to follow all the laws given by God to His people in order to be a true Man and then to be able to redeem us. But there are a number of other thoughts about that.”
“Let us, for instance, refer to the interpretation given by holy Father Andrew of Crete. He wrote that the eighth day is the completion of the week, and the beginning of the new. He noted that a child completes the week of his life, and is perfected on the eighth day, being granted a name. Jesus was given His name meaning “God who saves” and also being numbered with the perfect. The eighth day is the beginning of infancy, while through the period of the week Jesus was a baby, now the child begins to learn. The eighth day leads on to the things of infancy: to crawl and to stand, and to speak, and to think. The week comes to completion, and the eighth day signifies perfection. Circumcision again signifies the name-giving, which the child undergoes on the eighth day.”
“St. Andrew of Crete further reasons that Circumcision is not without reason. For Abraham of old, whom God commanded to have the first circumcision, dwelt among the idols of his father, being part of his creation, until the true Creator gave him a sign of a people set aside until His coming. So this was a sign of a future renewal that may be granted to men. Circumcision removes a covering of flesh, and grants an eighth-day sign to the members. Circumcision declared that the presence of Christ was coming, and that He would grant rebirth through the Spirit. By the seal of circumcision, the people were granted divine correction from idolatry, and the ceasing of destruction through the worship to the idols. The former things were a symbol of the new. The rules of the Old Testament were images of the New Testament precepts.”
“St. Andrew also notes that Jesus Christ was the eighth Law-giver from Adam. Because Adam first received a law, and secondly Noah, and Abraham third, and Moses fourth, and David, regarding the Kingdom and the Tent of Glory, was the fifth law-giver. And Ezra, following the captivity of Babylon, for a second time gave the law to the nations that had transgressed it, and was the sixth. John the Baptist, who preached a baptism of repentance to the people, and purification through the water, was the seventh law-giver. Jesus Christ was the eighth.”
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us adhere to the precepts of the New Testament Church which cherished the reverence towards this feast of the Lord’s Circumcision. There are reasons for the Church to do so. Today we touched only some of them.”
“And another occasion to celebrate today is the memory of the holy Father among the Saints, Basil the Great. This was a holy man who lived three centuries after Christ but who wished to follow Jesus the way as His contemporaries, His Apostles did. He led a holy life of an ascetic. He was a hard working Church leader and a good pastor of the souls. He also was very specific about different Church rules and customs. He systemized them, he spelled them out in his writings. So, his role in our tradition in some way resembles our Lord who followed the law in His Circumcision, so all righteousness may be fulfilled (Mt. 3, 14).”
“Dear brothers and sisters! Let us also follow the laws of our Church, the Church of the New Testament of Jesus Christ. Let us adhere to her holy traditions and not miss them in our lives. Let us imitate our Holy Father Basil in his zeal and righteousness, so we may be blessed by the Child Jesus who was born for us and who had to undergo Circumcision on the eighth day to fulfill the law for us, to redeem and save us!”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector and altar servers came before the icon of St. Basil and performed a rite of glorification singing the troparia, kontakia of both feasts, as well as the magnification of St. Basil.

The Rector congratulated faithful on the occasion of that great feast.

On January 11, on Sunday after the Nativity, we had a nice liturgical celebration in St. George Church. Our parish Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. After the Gospel lesson he preached a homily in English:

“Sunday after the Nativity is dedicated to St. Joseph, the Sponsor of the Holy Family, and to king David and holy Apostle James the Brother of the Lord. We know from the Gospel of today that when the joy of the Birth of Christ was over, when the wise men departed, the angels returned to heaven and shepherds left the cave, righteous Joseph had to begin his work of protecting the Holy Family. For him, as well as for the Blessed Mother of God, the miracle of Christmas ended and a hard and dangerous life began.”
“For many of us it is a similar feeling when Christmas is over. The holy days ended, and we have to think about our daily life. Some people rush to take off the decorations. Although our tradition leads us to the other two winter holy days (St. Basil’s and Theophany), we feel like something big is already finished. The radiant days of celebration have passed and the gray and boring time of our daily cares approaches again. Now it is very important not to lose the spirit of Christmas. Again, our beautiful and holy tradition helps us with that. It prolongs our celebration with two more holy days. It tells us to keep the decorations and the tree until February. But more important is to keep Christmas within our hearts, to be aware of the fact that “the Child was born to us, the Son is given to us” (Is. 9, 6) and God is with us. We have to remember that “for our sake the Young Child is born, God before ages”. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt within us (Jn. 1). If God is with us, no one will overcome us.”
“God will give us the power to conquer all evil in our daily life. Our every day existence seems to be a constant fight for survival. But it was the same for the little Infant Jesus. He had to flee to Egypt, flee for His life. He had to stay there for some time, to be a refugee, a foreigner. Even when He could come back to His homeland, He had to avoid coming to Judea where the son of Herod was ruling, but went to Nazareth in Galilee. We say He did, the Child Jesus, but we know that all this was done by His Sponsor and protector, holy and righteous Joseph who was the head of that household. St. Joseph did a great job protecting Christ; he literally saved the Savior of the world. Despite all the difficulties and dangers of the evil world around him, Joseph, being helped by the grace of the Lord and assisted by the angels, could accomplish his task of preserving Jesus for the human kind.”
“Dear brothers and sisters! Following actual Christmas celebration we are having a similar task. We have to preserve faith in Jesus, the real spirit of His Birth for ourselves and for the other people, even for the generations to come. St. Paul says in today’s Epistle: “When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace to reveal His Son to me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles” (Gal. 1, 15-16). God’s grace calls us to preach Jesus among other people by our life and actions. This will make us the protectors of faith, similar to St. Joseph. Let us imitate holy Joseph in his humble readiness to obey the will of God, in his bravery before the misfortunes of life and in his caring and loving protection of the precious gift he was entrusted – the Holy Infant Jesus and the Blessed Mother of God. Let us practice this kind of attitude in our daily life, so this life will become a joyful continuation of the miracle of Christmas.”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector congratulated our parishioner and altar server Joseph Kay on the occasion of his name day, the memory of Righteous Joseph the Spouse of the Mother of God. Traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta”) was proclaimed.

Following the service Rector and parishioners continued their celebration enjoying delicious meals and a nice company at coffee hour.

This Christmas the Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov celebrates 25th Anniversary of his ordination to the Holy Priesthood.

A quarter of a century ago, on January 7, 1990 Fr. Igor was ordained a priest by His Grace, Bishop Vladimir (now Metropolitan of Chisinau and All Moldova). Our Rector performed his priestly ministry in Moldova and Ukraine. In 1994 he came to the United States. Since 2007 he serves in the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA being our parish priest.

On this Christmas of 2015 Archpriest Igor was congratulated on the occasion of his Silver priestly jubilee. On Christmas Eve Fr. Igor received a phone call from the Chancellor of the Patriarchal Parishes, Archpriest George Konyev who took that opportunity to greet the jubilarian. On Christmas Day, following the beautiful Divine Liturgy in our temple, the Rector was congratulated by parishioners. Church Warden and Choir Director Olga Roussanow proclaimed the greetings from all the members of the Parish and presented Fr. Igor with a bouquet of flowers and a nice gift. In their greetings St. George’s parishioners wished Fr. Igor good health and further successful ministry for the glory of God. Traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta”) was also proclaimed in honor of the Rector.

Let us wish Fr. Igor God’s help, all the blessings and many more years of serving the Holy Orthodox Church!
                                  Fr. Igor Tarasov after his ordination in 1990

On January 7 Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas, feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. On that special day St. George Parish had a very beautiful celebration. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. Following the Scripture readings he proclaimed Christmas Sermon of the Venerable Father Isaac the Syrian:            

“This Christmas night bestowed peace on the whole world; let no one be threatened. This is the night of the Most Gentle One – let no one be cruel. This is the night of the Humble One – let no one be proud. Now is the day of joy – let us not revenge. Now is the day of Good Will – let us not be mean. In this Day of Peace – let us not be conquered by anger. Today the Bountiful impoverished Himself for our sake. So, rich one, invite the poor to your table. Today we receive a Gift for which we did not ask. So let us give alms to those who implore and beg us. This present Day cast open the heavenly doors to our prayers. Let us open our door to those who ask our forgiveness.”
“Today the Divine Being took upon Himself the seal of our humanity, in order for humanity to be decorated by the Seal of Divinity.”

Upon the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector and the altar servers came out of the sanctuary and performed the rite of glorification before the icon of the Nativity singing the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the feast.

Following that Fr. Igor preached a short homily in Russian and congratulated parishioners on the occasion of the great holy day of the Birth of our Savior.

After the Rector’s sermon Parish Warden and Choir Director Olga Roussanow congratulated Fr. Igor on the occasion of his 25th Anniversary of priestly ordination. A traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta”) was sung. A group photo was taken.

After the service our Rector and parishioners continued celebration of Christmas at our favorite Pier 25A restaurant.

On January 4, on Sunday before the Nativity, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple. Following the Gospel lesson he preached a homily:

“Sunday before the Nativity in some way repeats previous Sunday, dedicated to the Holy Forefathers. The Holy Fathers whom we honor today are the blood relatives of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we sing again the troparia and kontakia of the Ancestors and commemorate the Old Testament Saints. Today’s Epistle lesson enumerates many heroes of the Old Testament telling us that all their achievements were due to their faith. Thus faith becomes a very important theme of today’s celebration of the anticipation of the Birth of Christ.”
“If we reflect upon the last passages of today’s Gospel reading, we may notice that faith was very crucial for St. Joseph when he had his doubts about the Virgin Mary being pregnant. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Joseph and Mary were betrothed, but before they came together, Mary was found with the child of the Holy Spirit. We may easily imagine what kind of thoughts crossed the mind of Joseph. The words from the Akathistos of the Annunciation call his feelings “the inner storm of doubtful thoughts”.  He was thinking that Mary deceived him although She was raised in the Temple of Jerusalem. But the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and revealed that Mary conceived from the Holy Spirit, and that Her Son will be called Jesus, which means the Savior. Thus Joseph was instructed that Mary is a holy Virgin and She will bear the Son of God. Although the way of revealing this to Joseph was very adequate for the divine Revelation (it was told him in a dream), he needed a strong faith to believe in that. We learn from the Gospel that St. Joseph not only believed in the Most Holy Virgin Mary and Her mission, he also acted in accordance with that belief serving and protecting the Most Holy Mother of God and the Child Jesus. This was the same kind of belief the Old Testament patriarchs, prophets and other heroes of faith had.”
“Same faith has to be imitated by the generations of the New Testament followers of Christ. The Birth of Christ teaches us to believe in things which are very hard to accept using only our human mind. It tells us that our Lord was born from the Mother without human father. It tells us that He was the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. It tells us that His Mother was a Virgin. She was a Virgin before His Birth, She was a Virgin during His Birth, and She remained a Virgin after His Birth. Virginal conception and permanent virginity of Mary are the truths of Christian faith. Our mind has difficulties with comprehending that. But we always have difficulties with comprehending God. His being and nature are ineffable. Same with the events of the Nativity – they are ineffable.” “For the Son of God to become man He had to unite Himself bodily with our nature, to be born from a human mother. But that could not be any woman. Divine Providence elected a representative of the Jewish nation, an heir of David, an immaculate Virgin. She became a living Tabernacle in which the very God had His place. Therefore, that person could not be a common woman living according to the corrupted human nature. She had to be without sin, an immaculate ever-Virgin. Thus, the virginity of the Most Holy Mother of God can be explained, but it is still a truth which is difficult to understand. We need faith, a strong faith.”
”Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us cherish our faith and act upon it to make things impossible possible, to accept the miracle of the Birth of Christ and to be saved by Him.”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector briefly explained in the Russian language his homily preached previously in English. He also called the parishioners to properly prepare for the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord.

On December 28, on the Sunday of the holy Forefathers, St. George parish had a nice liturgical celebration. The Divine Liturgy was served by our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov. After the Gospel reading he preached a homily in Russian. The English version of it is as follows:

“Today’s Sunday is dedicated to the Forefathers of the holy faith and all the Saints of the Old Testament. This time of the year when we are living in spiritual expectation of the Birth of Christ, we commemorate a number of the Old Testament prophets. For instance, on December 30th we are celebrating memory of the Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Youths. They were the confessors of faith of the Old Testament. But we also have this special Sunday glorifying these people altogether.”
“In the 6th century before Christ the holy city of Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonian king Nabechnazar who captured four noble Jewish young men: Daniel, Ananias, Azarias and Mishael. They were brought to Babylon where the king wanted them to become his servants. They were supposed to adopt the local customs and language. So, it became a time of a great test for their faith in one and true God. When the king ordered them to be fed from his own table, Daniel did not wish to eat the unclean food and convinced the king’s official to give them all, him and the 3 youths, just fruits and vegetables. After ten days the Jewish captives looked better than the ones who ate the king’s food.”
“This example from the Sacred Scripture of the Old Testament is telling us how good  could be fasting and abstinence from unhealthy food. In our days, people like different kinds of diets and ways of losing weight. There are made up special systems of nutrition, different kinds of diets which are supposed to make a person healthier. But more often these are the strives of vanity, aiming to make the body more beautiful, or a tribute to a fashion, or in a better case, a desire to strengthen one’s health and make one’s earthly life longer. But Sacred Scripture gives us a simple recipe of a healthy life. It tells us that a self-rejecting and voluntary fasting of the holy Youths, a refusal to eat the unclean food was beneficial for their body and made their health stronger. More than that, that abstinence stimulated their mental and spiritual abilities. Therefore, moderation in food in combination with faith and with a desire to please God may always be beneficial for a person. This is our Orthodox understanding of fast as a saving abstinence from excessiveness and not just simple refusal to eat certain food, as it happens with most of the modern diets.”
“This Old Testament example also tells us that you can preserve your faith even in difficult circumstances. The holy Youths did.  They were made servers at the Babylonian king’s court. Once the king ordered to erect a huge idol made of gold and commanded all his subjects to worship that man-made image. The three Youths refused to do it because they kept the true faith in one God. The king got very angry and ordered them to be thrown into a fiery furnace. But a great miracle happened: the three young men were protected by God and the fire and heat did not harm them. This is an example of the true confession of faith shown by those three youths. In a mystical way those three Youths were the prototype of he Holy Trinity, as well as of the virginal conception and birth of the Son of God by the Holy Virgin. This is one of the examples of the faith of the holy people who lived before the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and who were confessing the true faith in one God and were expecting the Messiah, the Son of God to come into the world.”
“We are now living in a time of the expectation of the Christ coming too. Now we are preparing for the great feast of the Nativity. We buy presents, adorn our homes and churches before this holy day. We also live in a time of the expectation of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not know the time of that coming, but we believe that it is going to happen. This state of expectation demands us to be faithful to Christ. He became the Author and Finisher of faith, as St. Paul says (Heb. 12, 2). All the faith of the Holy Forefathers, the patriarchs, kings and prophets of the Old Testament was completed in Him. He is the Son of God who initiated the faith and He is the Savior who perfected and completed it. All the time of the holy people of the Old Testament was spent in expectation for the first coming of Christ and in preparation for that coming, for the wonderful appearance of God in the world which started by His Birth in the manger in Bethlehem. Now, being Christians and living after that coming, being the Church of the New Testament, we have to keep, cherish and preserve our faith.”
“It is not easy to preserve Christian faith in today’s world. Only sin ensnares us so easily, As St. Paul says (Heb. 12, 1). But it was not easy for Daniel and the three holy Youths also. But they did and endured. It was not easy to preserve our faith in our old country  the times of persecutions, in the times of Communism. But our parents and grandparents did. And they endured.”
“Therefore, let us listen to the Holy Apostle Paul and “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12, 1-2).”

Following the Liturgy dismissal the Rector expressed his gratitude to those parishioners who cleaned the church grounds from the leaves and decorated the temple for Christmas holidays.
He also congratulated our parishioner Moses Dunetz on the occasion of his birthday which fell on Sunday dedicated to the holy Forefathers, one of whom was Prophet Moses, a patron Saint of Mr. Dunetz. Traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta”) was sung.
The Rector also briefly explained in English the main ideas of his homily which was previously preached in Russian.
Finally, since we live by the new calendar in our daily and secular affairs, Fr. Igor wished everybody a happy and healthy New Year.

On December 21, on the 28th Sunday after Pentecost, the Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple. After the Scripture lessons he preached a homily:

“Today’s Gospel lesson tells us about ten lepers who were healed by our Lord Jesus Christ. We heard that only one of them came back to Jesus to give thanks. Other nine did not show any sign of gratitude. Thus today we should speak about gratitude or thanksgiving.”
“When we obtain something which is good for us, it is expected that we are grateful for such a favor. This is a natural way of responding to a good done for us. People are expected to be thankful for small favors. And, of course, we should really appreciate greater things done for our benefit. But, unfortunately, gratitude is not practiced all the time and by everybody. For that reason our Lord Jesus Christ pointed out to His disciples that only one out of ten lepers who were cleaned came back to thank. He wished to teach us to be grateful.”
“Thinking of those ten miserable people suffering from the leprosy, a terrible disease, considering their pain and their loneliness, because they were outcasts of the society, we should understand how great was the blessing that our Lord granted them. He healed them from that terrible illness, He cleansed them from that shameful condition, He restored their health and their status in the society. Therefore, we should be surprised and very disappointed after hearing that most of them, nine out of ten, did not come to give the Lord thanks. Jesus also showed the same feelings. He asked: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?” (Lk. 17, 17). The Gospel tells us that the one who did give thanks to the Lord was a Samaritan, a foreigner, if not an enemy of the Jews. Why the other nine did not show a natural sense of gratitude, and only one foreigner and outcast did?”
“Wondering about that we may remember that even animals can be grateful for the good things people do to them. St. Gerasimus who lived in the desert near Jordan, once met a lion who had a splinter in its paw. The animal was wounded and suffered. It looked at the Saint and seemed to be begging for help. St. Gerasimus took the splinter away from the paw, washed and bandaged the wound. He left the lion, but the animal followed him to the monastery. The grateful animal spent the rest of its life near the Saint being a guardian of the monastery and even carrying the water instead of a donkey. After the holy elder died, the lion became very sad and died soon beside his grave. Thus this animal acted better than those nine men who were healed by the Lord Jesus, but did not offer thanksgiving. It seems that they should have remained sick; their misery was better for them than happiness. Their healing made them forget their direct duty to give thanks.”
”But we should leave those nine cleansed lepers alone and ask ourselves whether we are not like them? And if we will be honest with ourselves, we would acknowledge that sometimes we aren’t better. If we look around, we should see that we enjoy many blessings given by God. The first gift is our own life. God called us to existence. If not His will we would not exist at all. And nothing in our life is independent from God. “In Him we live and move and have our being”, says the Scripture (Acts 17, 28). Since we believe and confess that God is the Source and Giver of life and of all goodness, we should be always grateful to Him for the different generous and abundant gifts He is bestowing upon us. And since now we are approaching celebration of the Nativity, we may recall that one of God’s most precious gifts to us is the gift of Himself being born for us. God became Man, was born in a cave of Bethlehem as a gift of our salvation! And we must appreciate such a gift, we have to be grateful for it. But we often take those God’s gifts for granted or even forget them. If we are accustomed to say ‘thank you’ for very small, very trivial things, why are we not giving thanks to God for all His blessings, for our life itself?”
“Dear brothers and sisters! Let us follow the steps of the grateful Samaritan and let us, in our thoughts, fall down before Christ, giving Him praise and thanks for all His mercies bestowed upon us sinners. Let us be thankful to God for everything!”

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector said a few words in the Russian language explaining his sermon preached previously in English. He also called the parishioners to prepare for the Nativity by spiritual efforts and receiving the Sacraments.