On December 19, on the holy day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker our cathedral church in Manhattan celebrated its Patronal feast. His Grace, Bishop John of Naro-Fominsk led the Divine Liturgy on that occasion. Bishop John was co-served at the Liturgy by a number of clergy including the Rector of St. George Church in Bayside, Archpriest Igor Tarasov. 

Despite the feast falling on a civil workday, a large number of faithful flocked to the temple. Our Parish Warden Olga Roussanow was among those who came to the cathedral to participate in that celebration.

At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy Bishop John preached a homily and greeted the parishioners on the occasion of the patronal feast. His Grace also congratulated Archpriest Nikolai Babijtchouk, Rector of the Church of All the Saints of Russian lands in Pine Bush, NY on his name day and presented him with a set of priestly vestments. 

After the Liturgy His Grace, clergy and the faithful continued their celebration of St. Nicholas feast at the luncheon held in the cathedral hall.

On December 14, on the 27th Sunday after Pentecost we had a beautiful liturgical celebration at St. George Church. The Divine Liturgy was served by our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov. Following the reading from the Gospel he preached a homily in Russian language. The English translation of that homily is as follows:

“Today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke repeats for us a story of a young ruler who had a conversation with our Lord Jesus Christ. They spoke about a way of inheriting eternal life. A couple of months ago we heard and discussed the same story written in the Gospel of Matthew. Therefore, today we should speak about some other aspects of the same conversation.”
“The young ruler started his questioning of Jesus by referring to Him as to the “Good Teacher”. The Lord corrected him right away and said: “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, but One, that is God.” (Lk. 18, 19). By these words Jesus wished to stress His humanity and to teach the young ruler that no man can be really called good. Only God is really good. God is the source of all goodness, He is the only perfect being. Thus, no one else can be considered truly good. St. Dionysius Areopagite wrote that the primary name of God is “the Good one” because it is impossible to say about God what is primary or secondary in Him – essence or goodness.”
“The truly and perfectly good God gives His goodness to the creation. When He created the world He said that the world is good (Gen. 2, 31). God is not a cause of evil. Evil came to existence as a result of the free will of the creatures – some angels and man. Interestingly, the Muslims believe that God is a source of both good and evil; as such, God is not just the good one, but the evil one too. Our Christian faith differs from the Islam and confirms that God is infinitely good and cannot be the source of evil or misfortune. All evil phenomena in the world originate not from God, but from the evil will of the people, as well as from the activity of the evil spirits.”
“When man broke the only commandment given by God, the whole earthly creation became cursed and open to the attacks of the evil forces. Evil became part of our nature. Evil began to permeate the whole creation. But God’s goodness is still accessible to us. A desire to do good is implanted in our hearts, as well as the evil inclinations. This is why it is a Christian understanding, a teaching of the Gospel and of the Holy Fathers, that the way of salvation is a hard work to make our sinful nature similar to divine nature. It is a constant fight between good and evil inside of our heart. This is why it does not sound very Christian when we hear the people saying something like “I am a good person”. No, we are not. God is the only good. We may only strive to be like Him. We are sinful, therefore not totally good. And we are to be even worse without God’s help.”
“The young ruler in today’s Gospel had a great difficulty to follow Jesus because he was too much attached to his wealth. This is why Jesus said that it is very hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. But any person, not just a rich one, has something he would not give up easily. And such a thing, to which we are attached to here on earth, keeps us away from heaven. It makes us attain less of the goodness. In such a helpless state of attachment to the earthly things we need a special, supernatural assistance to be saved. And God is giving us such assistance which we call the divine grace. This is why Jesus says that things impossible with men are possible with God.”
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters,  let us live obtaining the divine grace, the only help we can receive for our salvation. Let us grow in goodness to become closer to God, the source of all good. Let us remember our weakness and unworthiness in order to obtain the power of divine grace and then become worthy of the good and loving Lord Jesus Christ and inherit His eternal Kingdom.”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector congratulated our altar server Andrew Malyshew on the occasion of his past name day. The traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta”) was proclaimed.

Following the service the Rector and parishioners enjoyed delicious food and a nice company at the coffee hour.

On December 7 St. George parish family celebrated 26th Sunday after Pentecost and a minor feast of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. There was a Divine Liturgy served in our temple by the Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov. After the Gospel lesson he preached a homily:

“Today’s Gospel lesson tells how our Lord Jesus Christ healed a sick woman who was bent over for 18 years. Again, our Lord shows His great and life-giving power, the power of God. But we should also note the reaction of certain people to the manifestation of that power. Instead of recognizing Jesus as the Lord and Savior, the leaders of the Jews try to find any possible fault in Him. In this case they are angry that He performed a healing on the Sabbath day. Jesus responded to such accusation and named His accuser very accurately. He called him a hypocrite.”
“Our Lord Jesus Christ always addressed the problems in a proper way and named the things accurately. He never used diplomatic ways to express His feelings. The so-called “political correctness” was foreign to Him. Nowadays people are fed up with political correctness. This is so not because it is so bad, but because it is a form of hypocrisy. It does not call things accurately. You don’t need to use “political correctness” in order to be just nice to others. It had been known for centuries – how to say things in order to avoid offending people. And it was not called “political correctness” but politeness and not being rude. And it was always based on our love of the neighbor, not on an intention to be “politically correct”. Basically, we have to be nice to others but we also have to call things accurately. Our Lord Jesus called the things how they are and avoided lie and hypocrisy. On the contrary, hypocrisy was the tool of His enemies.”
“Therefore, today’s Gospel may teach us to avoid the hypocritical attitude. That attitude was very much followed by the Pharisees and scribes, other leaders of the Jews who wished to appear very pious, worthy and virtuous but very often led a different kind of moral and private life. They said very good words but were doing evil things. This is called hypocrisy. Our Lord very often suffered from their attacks, accusations and criticism. And He responded to those attackers very often. The holy Gospels are full of Jesus’ chastising the scribes and Pharisees. Those words are commonly used along with the word “hypocrites’. Later on in many European languages, languages of the Christians the very word ‘Pharisee’ became a synonym of the word ‘hypocrite’. Jesus also called them the “fools and blinds”,” foolish ones” (Lk. 11, 40), called them “the cups clean outside, but their inward part is full of greed and wickedness” (Lk. 11, 39) called them “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Mt. 23, 27). Jesus warned His disciples from the “leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy” (Lk. 12, 1).”
“As our Lord Himself told, the Pharisees paid attention to the small and insignificant things, but missed the important ones. They “strained out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Mt. 23, 24).  They paid the tithes on mint and rue, but did not pay on their large possessions. They made up different ways of avoiding the real acts of love and charity, but made a big deal out of someone’s failure to fulfill certain rituals. For instance, once Jesus did not wash before sitting to eat with the Pharisees and they noticed that and accused Him.”
“Dear brothers and sisters! Let us not follow the way of the Pharisees and hypocrites, but remember things which are really great and important. Let us beware of the hypocritical attitude, the leaven of the Pharisees. Remember that hypocrisy begins when a person is not doing good, but only shows a likeness of good. Then such a person may wish to confirm his image of a benefactor without doing a charitable work., or having a personal profit from that charity. If such things are practiced and planned, we are dealing with a hypocrite whose heart is filled with lie and deceit. Good things must be done sincerely, from the heart, for the glory of God and without thinking of people’s reaction. Our Lord Jesus Christ wished to help the sick woman on the Sabbath day and did that good and worthy thing without considering what others would say about it. Let us imitate Him and not His enemies to be worthy of His Kingdom.”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector briefly explained in Russian language his previously preached sermon to the Russian-speaking parishioners.

On December 4 the Church celebrates great holy day of the Entrance of the Most Holy Mother of God into Temple. St. George parish family had a beautiful celebration on that day. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. Following the Gospel reading he preached a homily in Russian.

In his sermon the Rector expressed his joy from seeing some children in the temple who were brought by their parents. He told about the history of the feast and stressed the importance of the temple in the life of any Orthodox Christian. We are receiving the most important spiritual and sacramental comfort in the church. Most of us were baptized in the temple, not at home. We come to the church to confess our sins and receive Holy Communion. Those who are married, received God’s blessing for their marriage in the church through the rite of Crowning. And finally, the remains of every Orthodox Christian should be brought to the church for the proper Christian funeral. cannot Our salvation depends on how we attend the temple. Those who say that they can pray by themselves, personally or can listen to the services from TV, radio or Internet staying at home, are mistaken. They cannot receive enough spiritual comfort and divine grace without being physically in the church building. We have to love and cherish our temples and attend them. We also have to bring to the church our children. It is their home where they should feel comfortable. However, children should be taught to behave well in the church understanding that this is the holy house of God.

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector and altar server came out of the altar and performed the rite of glorification before the icon of the feast, singing the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Entrance.

On November 30, on the 25th Sunday after Pentecost St. George Church’s Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. Following the Gospel lesson he preached a homily in the Russian language. The English translation of that homily is the following:

“Today we listened to a pretty brief Gospel reading about a rich man who was a fool because he put all his trust in his possessions rather than in God. He laid treasures for himself, instead of becoming rich toward God. So this is a parable our Lord wished to use to teach us how important is to grow our treasures in heaven, not on earth.”
“Among all kinds of opportunities and privileges a man has in his earthly life is a right to own. We have a right to have property. Some people have a lot in their possession, some people have very few. But we all have an ability and natural right to own things. Those things belong to us although, and we have to realize it, they may not belong to us forever. Either we survive them or they survive us. And if they survive us, we no longer possess them. We are not able to take them along when we die. Thus this right is temporary and it is a gift from God. God gives us such right very generously. And we should see that right as an opportunity to give it away. Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy) said, “The ownership is beautiful only because you can give it away, make a gift, take it off. A man needs to have something in order to have a right and joy to share it, to give it.” Thus the sense of ownership seems to be created to help us to fulfill the God’s will, to help the others.”
“We have to admit that such attitude toward the sense of ownership is not always practiced. People may often be in a slavery of greed and avarice. Those are the mortal sins. The right sense of ownership which urges us to share has to be taught. We have to learn this right attitude. Therefore, our Lord wished to give us a colorful example of how a person with a wrong sense of ownership ends up. He ends up to be called a fool. And, on the contrary, people who had possessions but shared them with others were blessed and are considered wise. They gather their treasures in heaven and get rich toward God.”
“The world is full of the examples of rich fools and wise people who share. Many contemporary politicians lead their nations into bloody wars for their personal gains or in order to strengthen the positions of their parties, groups and clans. If they succeed through sacrificing many human lives, that kind of success will not help them in the eternal life. What they accomplished to benefit themselves will not follow them into eternal life.”
“Also in many Church communities, in many parishes some people do not wish to share their wealth with the parish. They could expect more than they were given. Now many parishes are facing the end of their life, but some of them now blame others but not themselves. What they earned during lifetime will not follow them into eternity, but what they could have done for this church would.”
“It is better to give than to receive,” – says St. Paul. And this is a motto of those who having wealth, or just having something, give it to the others, share with the others. Thanks to them we have a lot of things accomplished around us. These are the riches which make their owners wise and blessed by God. St. Paul says: “Let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”(2 Cor. 9,7).”
“Dear brother and sisters! Thus let us learn to have a right attitude and sense of ownership and let us put our trust in God, so any unexpected thing will not find us unprepared, but we will acquire a treasure earned in eternity.”

Following the Liturgy dismissal the Rector briefly explained in English his previously preached homily. He also reminded parishioners of the Nativity Fast which began on November 28. The Rector stressed that this fast is especially calling us to be generous in almsgiving and helping the needy. Christmas season is about giving and sharing.
Fr. Igor also called the parishioners to practice spiritual life. “Of course, nowadays we do not encounter such great champions of faith as it was long ago. Today, for instance, the Church commemorates St. Gregory the Wonderworker. When he came to be a bishop in his city of Neocaesarea, there were only 17 Christians living there. But when he died only 17 non-Christians remained in that city. We cannot hope that we could do the same. Now we gather here in this church and sometimes there are 17 of us. Sometimes, like today, it is even less. We cannot hope that after us there will be only 17 non-Orthodox in Bayside! But at least, we can do something to make our parish live and to make it grow at least a little. Our spiritual and active Christian life may help us to achieve such a goal,” – said Fr. Igor.

After the service the Rector and parishioners enjoyed delicious meals and a good company at the coffee hour.

On November 23, on the 24th Sunday after Pentecost, we had a beautiful celebration in our church. St. George’s Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. After the reading from the Holy Gospel he preached a homily:

“The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us about the new teaching our Lord Jesus Christ brought to the world. That teaching did not reject the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament. In fact, Jesus is referring to the Law of Moses in today’s Gospel lesson while speaking with the Jewish scholar of law. But our Savior wished to introduce the new principle into that law. He preached that all kinds of laws and regulations must be subjected to the highest law, the law of love. This is why He is teaching us that love surpasses everything and has no boundaries.”
“In today’s parable we see that love towards a fellow human being has to be beyond the national, religious or social differences. A man fell among the thieves and laid wounded and half dead on the road (presumably this was a Jewish man). He did not receive help from the highest and respected members of the Jewish society: from a priest and from a Levite who happened to be there and passed him. But a Samaritan, a stranger, almost an enemy to the Jews, had compassion and took a good care of the wounded man. This shows us what the Lord desired to tell the scholar of law: that a neighbor to a man is anyone in immediate need, even a supposed enemy. Since we are all humans and since we are all created as the image and likeness of the infinite God, we all are neighbors to each other. We all owe love to each other.”
“Unfortunately, due to the sin and corruption of humanity, we are divided in numerous ways: by race, nationality, ethnicity, faith, politics and many other reasons. Those divisions are inevitable in that state of corruption. God Himself would not bless the unity of such humanity, being sinful and proud. As the Scripture tells us, God divided people confusing their languages when they attempted to build the Tower of Babel, to create a world domination without God’s blessing. In a similar way in our days people building a global community without religious and traditional moral principles will not have God’s blessing and will not succeed. Instead of creating a godless human unity based on the low instincts and pride, our Lord Jesus Christ proposes us a unity based on love and understanding of our imperfection. This is a unity of helping each other regardless who we are, Black or White, from this or from another country, of this or of a different ethnic background, are born somewhere or not. We are called to love the neighbor, and that neighbor may be anyone who would need our help, our care, our compassion.”
”A good example of such mercy and Christian love is the activity of the sisters of Mercy founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Although those nuns are no Orthodox, they show a good example of Christian life and attitude. They assisted all people in need, no matter what faith or race they belonged to. Sometimes they helped those Hindus who hated Christ and wished to use violence against Christian missionaries.”
“We may say that every Christian community is called to practice the love of a Good Samaritan. At the same time we should understand that our human nature is weak and wounded by sin, so nothing we can really accomplish without God’s help. Symbolically, the Good Samaritan is Jesus Christ who came to help the humanity wounded by sin and robbed by the devil. We are in fact wounded and sick spiritually. Only divine grace shown in the parable as the treatment given by the Samaritan (bandaging the wounds, pouring on oil and wine) may help us to heal. This is why, by the way, the Church uses oil mixed with some wine in the Mystery of the Anointing of the sick. In the times of Jesus people did not have advance medications to treat the wounds. They used oil and wine to make the wounds better. This was done by Good Samaritan in today’s Gospel lesson. But in a symbolic way, our Lord did it to the human race. And the oil and wine are His divine grace, the grace of healing spiritual wounds of humanity.”
“Dear brothers and sisters!  Let us strive practicing love of our neighbor, helping them and doing it in the name of the Lord and under the holy cover of the Church.”

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector briefly explained his English sermon in the Russian language. He also reminded parishioners that next week we begin the Nativity, or St. Philip’s Fast. This year it starts right after the Thanksgiving Day. Fr. Igor wished everyone a nice and happy Thanksgiving celebration but warned the parishioners before excessive eating which may violate the first days of fasting.

On November 16, on the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, along with Sunday resurrectional celebration St. George Church marked one of the days that commemorate our parish Patron. On that day the Church remembers consecration of St. George Church in the city of Lydda. Thus it could be considered a little Patronal feast of our Parish. As usually, our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. Following the Scripture lessons he preached a homily in Russian. The English translation of that sermon is the following:

“Today’s reading from the Gospel of St. Luke again shows us the divine power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He heals a sick woman and raises a little girl from the dead. Again we see how the Lord was bringing healing and life to the world full of illness and death. So, today we will try to look at the death of the young people, to reflect upon it in some spiritual sense.”
“We all know that an elderly person will die for sure, but a young person may die also. Death is capable of taking a young and healthy girl who could have all life ahead of her in the same way as it may take an aged gray-headed man who has a long life behind him. The children’s mortality is not so high any more in the rich countries as it used to be, but it is still a problem for the poor nations. Children our days still die because of diseases, poverty and starvation. Young people die also because of drugs, crimes and fatal accidents. Any of such deaths looks very cruel, merciless and unreasonable. But what is more troubling is spiritual death of the young generation.”
“In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus came to the house of Jairus whose daughter just died, took the little girl by the hand and called saying, “Little girl, arise” (Lk. 8, 54). When we read this story in another Gospel, of St. Mark, we can learn those words in Aramaic language, for St. Mark gives us the exact words of Jesus in the original: “Talita, kum”(Mk. 5, 41). It is interesting that nowadays there is a singer in Ukraine who took those words as a stage name. We can only hope that she really knows and understands what those words mean. And they mean that the young person should arise, wake up.”
“In the same way our Lord is willing to give a hand to the modern young girls and boys and to tell them to arise from spiritual sleep or death. Many of them are in that state because of the world surrounding them. Today’s children and young people are often born to the parents who himself do not practice spiritual life, live in sin and away from the life-giving source of divine grace which is the holy Church. Those young people are raised in a spirit of this world. But even if they are growing up in a good religious environment, the world is attacking them all the time. Those attacks come from television, radio, magazines, friends, even from school. In our days we also have computers, the internet. How can you escape all these attacks of the evil influence? You can’t take your children away and live in a wilderness. But even there you would not be immune. A holy elder who lived in the desert once had to visit a city and to take a young monk along with him. Being in the city they encountered a harlot who approached them and said to the elder, “You have been working on this young man for many years to teach him a holy life, but now I can destroy all your work in a couple of minutes!” The elder responded that he believes her because it is much easier to roll down from the hill than to climb it.”
“A strange thing is happening: instead of avoiding evil things we are being drown to them due to their attractiveness. St. Paul described that saying, “What I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (Rom. 7, 15). If this is a problem for an adult, how much more difficult it is for children who are tender, inexperienced and spiritually weak? The problem exists because of the sinful state of the humanity. Unfortunately, in our days the very word ‘sin’ is not taken seriously. Meanwhile the concept of sin is very important in any religion. And basic rules of religious morality may be found in any secular ethics. Here we should have a common ground even with those who do not believe in God, but still wish good to our society and to the young generation. But instead of fulfilling the task of proper upbringing of children this society does the opposite. The radio, television, books and internet instead of teaching the youngsters to adhere to the moral norms, teaches how to violate them.”
“Our Lord Jesus Christ is always ready to take the young people by their hands and to say, “Arise”. But He wishes to act through us, dear brothers and sisters!. We should try to become those hands of Jesus and take those youngsters and bring them to spiritual life. We may argue and say that we often have no control over them and over the whole situation in the world. That’s true. But remember that there is nothing impossible with God. Let us try what we can and able to do, especially as the Church. Sometimes we will succeed and it will appear that the young person is not dead, but asleep. If so, she can be risen back to life.”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector congratulated faithful on the little St. George’s Day. He further explained the content of his homily preached in Russian to the English-speaking parishioners.

Fr. Igor also expressed his condolences to Joseph and Sophia Kay who lost their four-year-old nephew Zaza.

Following the service the Rector and parishioners enjoyed the delicious meals and a nice company at the coffee hour.

On Friday, November 14, St. George Church Warden and Choir Director, Olga Roussanow attended a meeting of the Bishop’s Council of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA. Olga is an alternate member of the Council elected in April of this year.

This meeting will mark Bishop John’s first Bishop’s Council meeting since his appointment as Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA in August of this year. A number of different issues had been discussed. The detailed information can be found on the Patriarchal Parishes website at http://mospatusa.com/news_141114_1.html.

On November 9, on the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost, parishioners of St. George Church gathered for Sunday celebration. The Divine Liturgy was served by the Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov. After the reading from the Gospel he preached a homily:

“The Gospel reading of today shows us again how great was the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, this was the power of the Almighty God. Jesus is the Son of God, He is all-powerful God Himself. He healed the sick, cleaned the lepers and raised the dead. Today’s reading from the Gospel of St. Luke tells us that He also drove away the evil spirits.”
“God is the only one who has the power over the creatures of the invisible world, over the angels and demons. He created them and He may control them. In today’s Gospel story we hear that the unclean spirits who possessed the poor man in the country of Gadarene feared the Lord Jesus and acknowledged His power. When the possessed man saw Jesus, he cried out and said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!”(Lk. 8, 28). In these words the demons stated that they despise God, but fear Him and that they recognize Jesus to be the Son of the Most High. Further they beg Him not to torment them before such time comes. Jesus casts them out and permits them to enter the herd of swine. Thus the power of evil is not unlimited. God is the only one who has unlimited power, not the devil. In fact, the devil must obey God when God demands it.”
“Our Lord Jesus Christ was a great Conqueror of all evil. He fought any kind of evil things in the life of man: illness, disease, and death. He also fought directly the evil spirits, as it was described in today’s story. Some modern thinkers or scientists may say that the case shown in that story is about mental disease and not about a demonic possession. Our Christian interpretation is just the opposite. We say that every evil thing happening to a man is some kind of demonic possession. Every illness or disease, every pain or suffering, and finally, every death is a result of human condition called sinfulness. And every sin is slavery to the evil forces. If we commit sins we turn away from God and from the good, we turn to the evil and please the devil. He becomes happy because of that and feels important. A similar thing happens when we become sick or injured. The evil force receives its little victory, maybe for some time. Thus every bad thing in the world is some kind of the devil’s triumph. But such triumph may never last long.”
“Since God is almighty and all-powerful, He has the last word to say. Our Lord Jesus Christ manifested that power of God by fighting the evil things in human life, by crushing the enemies of the human race and by destroying the power of the devil. But He also wishes that we may cooperate with His power and become His co-workers. The man freed from demonic possession wished to do so by following Jesus. He begged Jesus that he may stay with Him. But the Lord gave him another task. He told him: “Return to your own house and tell what great things God has done for you” (Lk. 8, 39). Jesus elects this person to become the preacher of the Gospel. And we read that the man “went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.”  (Lk. 8, 39).Thus the man freed from the demons became the first apostle, first successor of Christ for this pagan city, for his countrymen who had no faith in true God.”
“We should also become co-workers of our Lord in doing good things and affirming his almighty power over evil. We may do so by living a Christian life, by trying to please God and by referring to God in all our needs and tribulations. If evil attempts to overcome us by sickness, pain, passion, imperfection, or fear of death, let us turn to the almighty Lord to help us and to destroy the evil forces. He is the only one who may do so. He is the only one who may destroy our enemies and grant us true happiness.”

Following the Liturgy dismissal the Rector preached a short sermon in the Russian language to stress the main ideas of his homily preached previously in English.

On November 2, on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. Following the Gospel lesson he preached a homily:

“Today’s Gospel reading is teaching us about death and life after death. The parable about the rich man and Lazarus is about life beyond the grave. It is very much on point today since yesterday the Church celebrated Memorial Saturday, called the Demetrius Saturday. We had to pray for our deceased relatives and other people who departed from this life. Since we did not have a service yesterday, we are going to take a litany for the deceased during today’s Liturgy. We will commemorate the Orthodox Christians who departed from this earthly life. We may recall that these days of fall also Western Christians commemorate the deceased. Today is Catholic Day of the dead, and yesterday was feast of All Saints. Both these days are used to remember the departed. We also know that a couple of days ago many people celebrated Halloween. It also has a connection to the life beyond the grave. But that connection is not Christian. It is a pagan celebration which is reintroduced in the American society. And, of course, we, Orthodox Christians should not participate in that celebration which is rather pagan and satanic. Thus it is very good that today we have to listen to the Gospel lesson talking about life beyond the grave and giving us a Christian, an Orthodox understanding of that.”
“Today we heard what happened to the rich man who lived a good and happy life, but ended up in a place of torment after death. And we heard what happened to a poor beggar named Lazarus who, when he died, was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.”
“As every Gospel lesson, this one contains a lot of thoughts and a lot of important spiritual ideas. First of all, the name of the beggar in the parable. Usually, our Lord Jesus Christ did not give names to the persons in His parables. But here He says that the beggar’s name was Lazarus. This is not famous Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead or any other known man. We assume that the person is made up. But the Lord wants us to remember his name. The name Lazarus was popular among the Jews. It means “God the Helper”. A poor but just man, a humble and faithful person whom Lazarus was could hope that when he dies God will help him. “The Lord is my Shepherd” – we hear in the Psalm (Ps. 22, 1) read by the Western Churches at funerals. We, on the other hand read Psalm 90 at our memorial services which starts with the words “He who lives in  the help of the Most High” (Ps. 90, 1). In any time, in any place and in any circumstances God helps and leads His people.”
“Another important aspect of today’s parable is that everyone will be judged after death and receive his proper reward. The rich man received torments in hell while Lazarus received eternal happiness on Abraham’s bosom. Here we should note that neither poverty nor riches, in themselves, may gain us salvation or condemnation after death. The rich man goes to hell not because of his wealth, but because of his hardness of heart. His wealth and luxury became only his aids to be indifferent to Lazarus and to his needs, however those riches could become the aids to help Lazarus. Wealth itself does not lwead tp eternal condemnation. Many rich people became Saints. Even today we celebrate the memory of the Great Martyr Artemius. He was a wealthy man, a high-ranked official of the Roman Empire, a general of the imperial army. St. Artemius lived when Christianity became recognized religion in the Empire. He served holy Emperor Constantine. But later, the new Emperor Julian decided to restore paganism and to reject Christianity. In a similar way our modern American society tends to restore pagan culture and to forget its Christian roots. One of those aspects of restoration of paganism is celebration of Halloween. In the 4th century Emperor Julian, called the Apostate, also desired to make Roman society forget about Christian faith. But St. Artemius disagreed. He publicly rebuked the Emperor and refused to renounce Christ. For that he became tortured and executed. St. Artemius was tormented for Christ in this life but received a crown of a Martyr in the eternity. His wealth and a high position did not close the gates of heaven in front of him, for he used that position to defend holy faith.”
“In the same way the rich man in today’s parable could use his wealth to deserve eternal blessedness. He could use it to help Lazarus. But he did not. He did not even notice the poor beggar. Since help from men never really came to poor Lazarus in his earthly life, his only Helper became all-merciful and loving God. Once again we may see why Jesus calls the poor man by this name, “God the Helper”. Helped by God after death Lazarus finds himself on Abraham’s bosom. But again this happens not because Lazarus was poor, but due to his humble faith and righteous life. His poverty could become a great temptation for Lazarus. He could become angry with people or with God for his position; he could be evil, deceptive and become a criminal. But he did not. Thus not riches or poverty save or condemn us, but our deeds, our use or misuse of them.”
“The last aspect we may touch today is that we all should prepare for the hour of our death and secure our salvation. The rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to the five brothers of him who are still alive. He wishes to warn them that if they will continue to live with a hardness of heart and indifference toward the needs of others, they will also end up in that place of torment. But Abraham refuses. He says that the living have Moses and the Prophets whom they should hear. He goes further saying that if they “do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.” (Lk. 16, 31). This is a harsh sentencing. If we who are living do not hear the Law of God, do not keep His Commandments, do not follow the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, do not observe the holy traditions of the Church, then we are not going to be persuaded even by a miracle, even if someone will rise from the dead. The fact of a miracle will not convince us to change our life. Only faith is able to inspire us to repent, to turn away from hardness of heart, to do the works of mercy and charity. Only faith and life according to that faith will prepare us for the time of our death. And only faith implemented in the deeds of righteous and humble life will secure our salvation.”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector had a short sermon in the Russian language conveying the content of the homily preached before in English.

After the liturgical celebration, the Rector and parishioners enjoyed delicious meals and a good company at the coffee hour.