On October 26, on the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, our Parish had a nice liturgical celebration. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. Following the Scripture readings he preached the following homily:

“Today, in addition to the Sunday celebration, we honor the Holy Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council. This was the last Council known as Ecumenical which means that this was the gathering representing the whole Universal, Ecumenical Orthodox Church. It defined our faith in veneration of the holy icons. This last Council proclaimed that the images of Christ, of the Most Holy Mother of God, and of the Saints have to be venerated among Orthodox Christians. We do not worship the icons because only God can be worshipped, but we do venerate the images of God incarnate and His Saints.”
“Another feast that we celebrate today is directly related to the veneration of the holy images. Today the Church has a minor feast in honor of the icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, the Icon of Our Lady of Iveron. As many other imagеs of the Theotokos, this icon became miraculous. And thus it confirmed the faith proclaimed by the Holy Fathers of the 7th Council. It manifested that the icons are very important and helpful in the life of the Orthodox people. Today’s celebrated icon was known to be saved from the unfaithful persecutors by some woman, a widow in Nicaea, the same city were later the 7th Council took place. That woman placed the icon upon the waves of the sea. We know that most of the icons are written upon the wood. So, that woman decided to rely on the mercy of God and on the power of the Theotokos to preserve the icon. So, the icon was thrown into the sea. Later it found its way to Mount Athos, a holy place where many Orthodox monks are living in endeavors of ascetic life. The icon was discovered in the water because the monks saw the pillar of light shining upon that place in the waters. This ocon became miraculous on Mt. Athos and it was kept in the Monastery called Iveron.”
“In the 17th century a copy of that icon was requested by the Orthodox Christians of Moscow. It had been made and brought to Moscow at the time of Patriarch Nicon and the Czar Alexey Mikhailovich.  The icon showed a number of miracles for the city of Moscow. Thus it very revered in that city and in the whole Russian Church.”
“Today’s first Gospel reading tells us a very famous parable of the sower who went out to sow his seed. We all understand that the sower is a preacher of the Word of God, a missionary who is spreading the good news of the Christian faith. The sower should also be understood as our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He came to sow the seed of His teaching and His salutary faith. The parable is telling us about different kinds of soil where the seed falls. Those kinds of soil are different kinds of people’s souls receiving the preaching of the Word of God.”
“Our Lord Jesus Christ explained the parable Himself, and we heard that interpretation. We have to admit that there is nothing we can add to His interpretation of His own parable. All the attempts to add or complete our Lord’s interpretation would be just paraphrasing what He Himself said. This is why today we should reflect about possible examples of the souls receiving the Word of God, examples of the soil taking in the seed from the divine Sower.”
”The seed on the wayside can be compared to the people who occasionally hear the preaching of the Gospel, are generally familiar with Christian faith. But somehow that word does not get to their souls. Jesus says that the devil takes away the word out of their hearts. There are many people in such a position in today’s world. We may see them even coming to the church to baptize the kids or to get married. They listen to you, but they do not really get the message.”
”The seed on the rock are the people who had no chance to know about true religion before, but one day they found it. They convert, become very interested in their faith. Jesus says that they receive the word with joy. Yes, they are happy and excited and they often become more zealous and pious than those who were born and raised in that faith. But the danger is that they have no root, as Jesus points it out. Not all of them will stay in the faith. Any temptation, any problem, any misunderstanding may turn them away from their acquired religion.”
“The seed fallen among the thorns are many regular people who may know their faith, who often consider themselves practicing believers and members of the Church. However, they are too much preoccupied with their earthly lives. They care too much about earthly achievements, material possessions, carriers, jobs, pleasures of life. This always leads to the neglect of what is spiritual and everlasting. Riches and pleasures, but sometimes just everyday cares and problems are choking the seeds of faith in their hearts just as the thorns choke the seeds of some plant. These people never have time for God, for a prayer or for the attendance of the church. Or if they do “squeeze” God into their busy schedule, they are not able to receive His grace or appreciate the richness of His teaching. Their faith becomes formal and official, but not deep and real. So they “bring no fruit to maturity”, as Jesus says.”
“Finally, our Lord says that the “good ground” are those who “keep the word and bear fruit with patience”. The key words here are to keep the word and to be patient. Keeping means preserving true faith, holy rites and customs, salutary traditions of the Church. It means not changing or altering them. And being patient means to endure in that religious life, to persevere in the works of faith and piety. Only people who do that may truly receive the Word of God, keep it and grow the seeds of divine teaching and then bear abundant fruits of faith, virtue and holiness.”

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector said a brief sermon explaining today’s feast in the Russian language. It was especially interesting because among our parishioners we have a big family from Moscow and a family from Georgia as well. At both those places Orthodox Christians love and honor the holy Icon of Our Lady of Iveron.

On October 19, on the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, Archpriest Igor Tarasov, Rector of St. George Church served the Divine Liturgy in our temple. Following the Gospel reading he preached a homily in Russian. The English version of that homily is as follows:

“Today we celebrate 19th Sunday after Pentecost, but the Gospel lesson assigned for today is from the 20th Sunday. Today we also celebrate feast of the Holy Apostle Thomas. This is why we had two Epistle and Gospel readings.”
“St. Thomas was one of the Twelve Apostles of Christ. Today’s second Gospel lesson tells us about him when he doubted the Lord’s Resurrection but came to believe. After seeing a proof that the Lord was truly risen from the dead, after seeing the Lord’s risen body, after examining the wounds from the nails and from the spear, Thomas believed. This faith made him a fervent preacher of the Gospel. His life account says that St. Thomas went very far to the East and ended up in India where he founded Christian Church. Even today a number of Christian communities in India trace their origin from St. Thomas. Although most of them are not within the Orthodox Church, they bear witness of Christ before the pagan or Muslim society of India.”
“Today’s first Gospel lesson tells us about rising of the son of the widow of Nain. This story can be found only in the Gospel of St. Luke. It shows that our Lord Jesus Christ had a great compassion towards people. Here we have a woman who first lost her husband and now was burying her only son. In the society of those days such a woman was predestined to live a poor and miserable life. Her husband was taking care of her. When he died, her son remained her only provider. Now she lost him. This is why Jesus seeing the funeral procession and being probably told about the situation, felt for that woman so much, as every kind man would feel. But Jesus goes further than that. He comes forth and says to the widow: “Do not weep”. And He touches the coffin and says to the dead young man: “Young man, I say to you, arise.” He performs the miracle and the young man comes back to life. In that we see the difference between Jesus and any kind man. Jesus is not just a kind man, He is the Son of God, He is the Lord.”
“As the Lord Jesus Christ performed great and astonishing miracles. One of them is described in today’s Gospel. Raising the dead young man was done by Jesus to show His power over life and death. Such a power could be possessed only by the Lord of the universe, only by God who created life and who is giving it to His creatures. We also remember that Jesus raised Jairus’s daughter and Lazarus. All these events had to demonstrate the power of God given to Jesus. Finally, Jesus was Himself risen from the dead. But we should note that all three raisings of the people described in the Gospels were acts of resuscitation which is different from resurrection. They were brought back to life, but would eventually die again. But their new life manifests Christ’s divinity, and gives assurance of His Resurrection and ours, a transformation to glory. Those miraculous acts also glorify God as the Giver of life and His Son, Jesus who would be specially glorified in His Resurrection.”
“This miracle teaches us that our Lord is the Master of our life and our death. He is the source of our existence. He created us and bestowed His gift of life on every one of us. However, this gift does not seem to be enduring forever. More than that, it seems to be vulnerable and perishable. Many unpleasant things threaten that gift: illnesses, accidents, crimes, wars, stresses and so on. They all may endanger our life and cause its termination. We try to preserve that precious gift, but we often fail. Realizing such a condition we should not despair. God gave us another precious gift – a gift of faith. It is supposed to make us strong and wise during the course of our earthly life. It has to teach us to make right choices and to believe that earthly life is not the only life we possess. We believe that eternal life of the soul awaits us after death. We also believe that eternal life of the risen body awaits us after the resurrection of the dead.”
“Our faith tells us also that earthly death came to existence due to the sin of our ancestors. Adam and Eve did not have to die. God explicitly said to them when they will die: if they would eat the forbidden fruit. After eating that fruit Adam died spiritually and became subjected to physical death of the fallen and corrupted body. Only our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man could trample death by His Resurrection. He destroyed that enemy of humanity. No one else could do it, but God. No one else could give the son of the widow back to his mother. And no one else after death can give our soul to our body again. Although death still exists and takes its toll from the sinful mankind, we all live and die with the great hope for the eternal life with God and for our own resurrection with Jesus. One day He will come and say to every one of us: “I say to you, arise.” And we will. We will begin everlasting life.”
“Dear brothers and sisters! As Jesus spoke to the dead young man in Nain, he also speaks to us in many different ways. To St. Thomas Jesus spoke saying, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing” (Jn. 20, 27). And to us He says, either “Arise” when we fall into a sin, or “Be believing” when we doubt or fall into despair. Therefore, let us cherish our faith in order to be prepared to the eternal life announced to us in today’s first Gospel lesson. Let us prepare for it by good works of faith, hope and love.”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector said a very brief sermon in English to convey the main ideas of his previous Russian homily.

The Rector and parishioners continued their celebration at the table enjoying delicious refreshments at the coffee hour.

On October 12, on the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy after coming back from his leave. Following the Scripture readings he preached a homily:

“Today’s reading from the Gospel of St. Luke presents us a very difficult advice our Lord Jesus Christ gives. He says: “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return” (Lk. 6, 35). It seems to us that it is something unnatural, not normal to love bad people, especially those who are against you, your enemies. It is also strange to hear that we have to lend without hope of receiving back. These words may seem to be weird, strange and even stupid. However, these are the words of the Lord, the words of Jesus. And if we recall the whole life of our Lord here on earth, we may realize that He acted that strange way. Jesus did not hide from His enemies, did not run away from the danger being apprehended and killed. When He was taken by His enemies He said nothing to avoid being crucified. And when He was tortured and crucified He prayed for His enemies and executioners: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Lk. 23, 34). Therefore, if we think that a commandment to love the enemies is a strange and unnatural, let us remember that Jesus Christ gave us an example of that.”
“Having such an example of our Lord Himself we still may wonder how it is possible for us to love our enemy or to lend without hope to receive back. And it is really a difficult question. In today’s Gospel lesson our Lord tells us: Just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise” (Lk. 6, 31). This advice does not raise any questions in our mind. We know and it seems to be natural to do what you expect the other people to do to you. This is called a “golden rule” which was always in the hearts of men and which was stated by many great thinkers. Our Lord here repeats that golden rule. But stating again that natural order of things Jesus goes further and says: “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them” (Lk. 6, 32). The sinners love those who love them and do good to those who do good to them. But when someone does something bad to them? They hate that person. The sinners behave like capricious children: if parents let them do whatever they want, they love them; but if they say ‘no’ to such a child they hear right away: “I hate you!” Our Lord tells us not to be like those children, but to be mature. Thus, if someone does something wrong to us, we should not jump into conclusions. But even if it is obvious that someone is our enemy, let us at least try to act as the Lord did. Let us try to love them. It is very hard. But was it easy for Jesus to humble Himself to the death on the Cross?”
“Another thing that we should keep in mind is that our enemies are also human beings. And every human being can make mistakes. We make them also, and we may also cause trouble to the other people. But God loves all of us. Today we heard the words that God is “kind to the unthankful and evil” (Lk. 6, 35). Sometimes we wonder why God allows bad things to happen and let bad people to live, sometimes live long lives and even prosper. It is because God is kind. We are all His children, good and bad. “And He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt. 6, 45). We also commit sins, and when we do so, we are not quite good. No, we are evil. But God forgives us when we repent. Being the children of God, we should love each other. God does it to us. He awaits our conversion and repentance if we do something wrong. If we do not repent at all, then God will judge us at the end of times. But not now.”
“Therefore, let us not judge our enemies at this point but let us wait for the Last Judgment of the Lord. Let us ask God to give us a soft heart to love our enemies in order to be similar to our Lord Jesus Christ who loved His enemies and prayed for them. Let us also pray for them, so the Lord will grant us according to our prayers.”

Upon the Liturgy dismissal the Rector congratulated our parishioner, Maria Malyshew, on the occasion of her past name day and wished her a special God’s help in her life as a young mother. Traditional “Mnogaia leta” were sung.

Following the dismissal Fr. Igor also announced that our parish property sustained some loss after the two recent windstorms. The falling tree branches damaged our gate and the gutter of the church building. Since we are facing some spendings for repair, the Rector asked the parishioners to show generosity in supporting the church. He also expressed his gratitude to Alexandru Surdu who performed voluntary work at our church property helping to remove the branches from the fence and the church roof.

On September 7, on the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, Archpriest Igor Tarasov, Rector of St. George Church, performed liturgical celebration in our temple. Following the reading of the Hours the Rector served the Divine Liturgy.
After the Gospel lesson Fr. Igor preached the following homily:

“Today’s Gospel reading tells us a parable about evil tenants of the vineyard. This parable was told by our Lord Jesus Christ a few days before His suffering and death, in the beginning of the time we call the Holy Week. The story was addressed to the leaders of the Jewish people, to those who did not accept Jesus as their Messiah and who wished to destroy Him. We may have different ideas flowing from this parable, but let us simply see what our Lord wanted to say to His opponents.”
“The landowner in the parable is God the Father. He planted a vineyard which is Israel, the holy nation of God, the Church of the Old Testament. The tenant vinedressers are the leaders entrusted with the care of God’s people. According to the parable they did not wish to give the owner His share of grapes. God sent His servants to them. Those landowner’s servants are the Prophets, sent by God in the times of the Old Testament to proclaim His word. The tenants beat and killed the servants. The Jewish leaders persecuted the Prophets and really killed some of them. Since those God’s servants were mistreated and not listened, God sent His Only-begotten Son. The leaders might honor the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. But in their envy and impiety they murdered the Son as well. Our Lord Jesus Christ was cast out of the holy city of Jerusalem and crucified, just as the landowner’s son in the parable was cast out of the vineyard and killed.”
“At the end of His story Jesus is asking the listeners: “When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”(Mt. 21, 40). The answer was that he will punish those wicked people and lend the vineyard to other vinedressers who will render him the fruits in their seasons. Leaders of the Jews were punished. Very soon Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and the Temple destroyed. The Jews had to scatter everywhere in the world. But it is not so important how God punished them; it is His right and privilege. What is important for us is to be the new and worthy tenants of God’s vineyard.”
“Now the Church of the New Testament is God’s vineyard. The new tenants are the people rendering the fruits in their seasons, the new people of God. We are called to be those people. After the parable Jesus said to the Jews: “Therefore I say to you, the Kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to the nation bearing the fruits of it.” (Mt. 21, 43).  That sentence is not included in today’s reading, but it follows in the Gospel right after. The Kingdom of God is now given to us. But we must bear the fruits of the Kingdom and to render the fruits in their seasons.”
“What fruits we are talking about? There are lots of them. As laborers in the vineyard of the Lord we are called to honor God, to serve Him, to love our neighbors, to worship God in a right way, to keep the Commandments, to be obedient to the Church. All our deeds and choices are the fruits we render to the true Owner and Master of the world. What kind of fruits do we render?”
“Dear brothers and sisters! Let us bring forth good and best fruits of our piety, love and virtue. And let us beware of the attitude of the evil tenants which is now overspread in the world. Many people now forgot about God, His Commandments and about true worship of Him. They ignore the servants of God whom He sends to remind them of their duties. They would be capable of murdering His Son again if He came to tell them the truth. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us spend our life watchfully to be good tenants in the Lord’s vineyard.”

On August 31, on the 12th Sunday after Pentecost, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy.
Following the Scripture readings the Rector preached a homily in Russian language discussing and interpreting the Gospel lesson.

After the Liturgy dismissal Fr. Igor made a number of announcements concerning the schedule and parish events in the coming month of September.

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

On August 28, holy day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, we had a nice celebration in our temple. St. George’s Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. Following the reading from the Gospel he preached a sermon:

“Celebrating today’s feast of the Dormition, the Falling-Asleep of the Most Holy Mother of God, we celebrate Pascha of the Theotokos. In the same way as for our Lord Jesus Christ, His greatest holy day is His Resurrection, Holy Pascha, so for His Blessed Mother, Her glorious Falling Asleep is Her Pascha. It is not exactly Her resurrection, but definitely Her passing from earthly to heavenly life. Also, celebrating that feast we come to the ending of the Church year. We are reminded that the liturgical year begins in September with the Birth of the Mother of God and ends with the feast of Her Falling Asleep.”
“Today’s feast also explains to us the origin of the hymn that we sing to the Mother of God: “More honorable than the cherubim, beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim”. These are not simply beautiful words that a pious Church writer composed, they have an origin in a spiritual revelation.”
“This feast reminds us of how our Lord from the Cross entrusted the care of His Mother to the Apostle John the Theologian. Tradition tells us that us the Holy Virgin, when She was about 60 years old, was visited by the Archangel Gabriel, who long before had announced to her the conception of Christ in her womb. He now announced to Her that in 3 days She will fall asleep. When it did happen the Apostles were miraculously brought to Jerusalem to make their farewells. The Virgin gave away all her earthly possessions to poor widows as she made ready for her burial in Gethsemane, next to Her parents St. Joachim and Anna and also Her spouse St. Joseph.”
“Tradition further tells us that the Most Holy Mother of God comforted the grieving.  Her house was filled with light, Her face shone and Her body was fragrant, as Christ came with the Angels to take Her soul, as we can see from the icon of this feast. We are reminded how Her soul was taken up by Her Son, together with the cherubim and the seraphim, and now we understand the origin of our hymn: “More honorable than the cherubim, more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim”. We remember how the Apostles, singing in procession, took Her body to the tomb which then they sealed.”
“We recall that Holy Apostle Thomas arrived later and wanted too to make his farewell; and so the tomb was unsealed and found empty except for the burial clothes and the wonderful fragrance. And from the very beginning we Orthodox have piously taken this to mean that the body of the Holy Virgin was so pure that it too had been taken up to heaven, and that is why we have nowhere any bodily relic of the Mother of God.”
“And we understand by this that the first in the Kingdom of heaven after Christ is the Holy Virgin. We understand by this that even given the weakness of human nature it is possible for our bodies to attain to utmost holiness. The Mother of God is, after Christ, the first-fruit of the Resurrection and shows us the way to the life of the Resurrection.”
“Of course there are people who will tell you that none of this is written in the Bible. But for us Orthodox the Holy Scripture is only part of the ongoing Revelation of the Holy Spirit, which we call the Tradition. We are not dead to the Spirit, the Spirit speaks to us still, with ever more revelations about the life of the coming Kingdom.”
“We began by saying that with this feast we come to the end of the Church year. It reminds us of the ending of human life on earth. It is indeed our destiny to die; it is the only certain thing in this life; every day that passes we draw one day nearer to our deaths. However, whatever our destiny, our ambition is not to die, but rather to fall asleep, in the manner of the Virgin, and have our souls taken to heaven by the holy Angels, that death might become a mere passage from mortal life to immortality, from this life to eternity in the everlasting Kingdom of Christ and all His Saints.”
“This is why, dear brothers and sisters, let us pray to the Blessed Virgin to pray for us and to save us!”

Following the Liturgy dismissal the Rector and the altar servers came out of the sanctuary and performed the rite of glorification in front of the icon of the Dormition. They have sung the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the feast.

On August 24, on the 11th Sunday after Pentecost our Parish community had a nice liturgical celebration. St. George’s Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our church. After the Gospel reading he preached the following homily:

“Today’s Gospel lesson tells us a parable about a cruel and unmerciful lender who himself owed ten thousand talents to the king, but did not wish to forgive his fellow servant a debt of one hundred denarii.”
“This parable teaches us how kind and merciful is our Lord. In this parable He is shown as a kind king who forgives a large debt and releases his servant. The servants in the parable are us, people. We are the servants of God. And our Lord constantly forgives us our debts, our transgressions. We have a lot of them in our life. Just think how many sins a person commits during the lifetime? But if he or she sincerely repents and asks forgiveness, God in His compassion forgives all of them. However, the compassionate Lord is expecting from us a similar compassion towards our neighbors, all other people. It is no accident that the Lord’s Prayer has the words: “and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”. God’s forgiveness of our sins depends on our forgiveness of the sins of others against us. If we will act like an unmerciful servant, the Lord will justly condemn us for our transgressions. And our Lord finishes the parable with the words: “So My Heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses” (Mt. 18, 35).”
“Unfortunately, we do not always remember that God’s command to forgive from our heart the trespasses of our brothers. During the course of our lifetime we may see many times how people fight, argue and hate each other because of the fact that someone offended someone and there is no forgiveness. Some people do not wish to forgive. It is sad, but they may finally receive a due condemnation from our Lord at the Last Judgment.”
“We should also note the huge difference between our trespasses against God and the trespasses of our neighbors against us. We commit sins every day. And every sin is an offense of God’s majesty, His infinite goodness. Thus we owe God the whole lifetime. And our lifetime is full of sins, full of lesser or greater transgressions. At the same time, another servant owed his fellow servant one hundred denarii. And that was an average wage for one hundred days of labor. Perhaps, it was much, but it may not be compared to ten thousand talents owed to the king. Ten thousand talents was a very large amount of money, the amount someone could never earn even in the course of a lifetime! But we often make a big deal out of trespasses of our brothers against and do not wish to forgive. God forgives us terrible iniquities while we do not wish to forgive insignificant shortcomings.”
“An example could be how we carelessly omit the church services during the week. It is not a very direct example, but it does illustrate how different are our trespasses against the Lord and the trespasses of other people against us. Many religious people come to the church on Sundays, and thank God that they do. But many of them do not come on other days, when we celebrate some feasts. Many parishioners may have an excuse if they are busy during the week, if they are working. But in many instances our parishes are full of elderly people who are retired and could visit the temple on weekdays. If they don’t come on great holy days, they commit a grave sin of neglect. But many may not realize that. However, if someone did not come to them on the occasion of their personal celebration, they would be offended. They would be not easy to forgive. Some may not forgive at all – depending on a personality. But God forgives us our trespasses if we do repent.”
“Thus, having in mind the parable on a merciful king and unmerciful servant, let us be understanding towards the shortcomings of our neighbors and forgive them their trespasses. For God forgives us ours. Let us be compassionate towards other people and excuse their defects. For God excuses our shortcomings and forgives us. Let us be kind and forgive if our neighbors offend us. For the Lord is kind and forgives the offenses and iniquities we commit against Him if we repent. Let us do that, so the Lord may be merciful to us and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector reminded parishioners about the approaching great holy day of the Most Holy Mother of God – Her Dormition. He called faithful to prepare for this feast and to attend the church on that important occasion.

On August 18, Vigil of the Transfiguration of the Lord, St. George Church’s Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served Great Vespers of the feast in our temple. This service was scheduled instead of the festal Liturgy because our Rector was summoned to serve in St. Nicholas Cathedral.
Following the service Fr. Igor preached a sermon:

“Feast of the Transfiguration is one of the very important among the holy days. Today we celebrate a miraculous change which was manifested by our Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples on the Mount Tabor. Taking Peter, James and John to that high mountain, He transfigured before them. As the Gospel states, “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light” (Mt. 17, 2). Before that they knew Jesus to be a great Teacher, a wonderworker, the Messiah promised by the Old Testament. But they did not fully realize that He was the Son of God and God Himself. At the Mount Tabor Jesus revealed who He really was. Thus the Apostles could see the glory of the true God, the light shining from the divine nature.”
“No one ever saw God. God’s essence and nature is incomprehensible to our limited mind. However, God revealed Himself and showed some part of His nature to certain holy people. In the times before Christ, God appeared to Moses and Elijah. Holy Prophet Moses could see God. God appeared to Moses as the burning bush or a cloud. But God also showed Moses Himself in a special, mystical way, as the Scripture tells “from behind”, because a man cannot see God and live. Holy Prophet Elijah was also blessed by seeing God who revealed Himself in a breath of the calm wind. These were the men of the Old Testament whom God blessed with His appearance. And it was not accidental that those two holy men appeared on the Mount Tabor to converse with Jesus when He transfigured before His disciples. Moses and Elijah represented the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament which were fulfilled in Jesus.”
“With the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world, God revealed Himself in a very comprehensible and accessible way. He became man, so we could see God in our form. And Transfiguration of our Lord had to teach His disciples of the mystery of the union of human and divine natures in Christ.”
“There are many different ideas about God. Some philosophers or other intelligent people may imagine God to be some universal force or some worldly order. But such God is not personal. We believe that God is a Person, the one to whom we can refer, with whom we can speak. And in Jesus Christ who became one of us, a partaker of the human nature, we find such personal God much easier. Also, through His taking up the human nature and interweaving it with His divine nature, we may become the partakers of the divinity. As we all created in the image of God, through Christ we may acquire the likeness of God.”
“This is what is called by the Fathers the process of deification or theosis. Human nature becoming divine. This teaching was elaborated by the Holy Fathers of the III and IV centuries, especially by St. Athanasius of Alexandria. Interestingly that this teaching is not very much remembered or used by Protestants and Roman Catholics, by Western Christians. It is known that today’s Western world likes to talk about the dignity of man and to extol humanity. But this is a secular way of praising the human nature, the so-called humanism. It desires to serve man and to forget about God. It strives to praise human nature with all its weaknesses and passions, a nature corrupted by sin. Our Eastern Church adheres to the teaching of the Fathers which extols human nature in a Christian way. We say that man is called to become like God not by being proud and sinful, but through the pious life, through the partaking of divine nature, through the acquiring of divine grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. What could be more honorable for a man than an idea of becoming like God? But that way of deification is the way of piety, spiritual and sacramental life in our Lord Jesus Christ, life in which we hear the beloved Son of the Father. It is the way of Transfiguration, a movement from below to above.”
“We know that many people are concerned about progress. At least, for the last century, the notion of progress became very popular and important for our society. Many things and even values are being sacrificed in order to follow progress. But progress is a movement ahead, a movement forward. But what we, Christians, really need is a movement from below to above. And this is not progress, but Transfiguration! This was noticed a century ago by our New Martyr Hilarion (Troitsky). We need Transfiguration, not progress. This process will lead us above and will help us to recognize our true destiny – to be with God in heaven and to become partakers of the Divine.”

After the Vespers the Rector performed traditional blessing of fruits.

Next day, on the feast of Transfiguration of the Lord, Fr. Igor celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas Cathedral. Following the Scripture readings he preached the same homily as at Vespers on the night before, but in the Russian language. 5 of our parishioners came to the Cathedral to participate in festal Liturgy. After the service Fr. Igor blessed fruits for the multitudes of the Cathedral parishioners.

Our Rector and five our parishioners continued celebration of the feast having a luncheon at the nearby restaurant.

Due to the absence of some clergy in St. Nicholas Cathedral this week, our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov is summoned to serve there.
Therefore, there will be no service in our St. George Church on Sunday, August 17 and on Tuesday, August 19 (feast of the Transfiguration).
Instead, there will be Vespers of the feast served on the eve of the Transfiguration, August 18, at 7 pm. Vespers will be followed by the traditional blessing of fruits.

                                    His Grace, JOHN, Bishop of Naro-Fominsk
                    Our new Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA

On Wednesday August 6, the new Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, His Grace John, Bishop of Naro-Fominsk, arrived in the United States.

With the peal of bells and the traditional greeting of bread and salt, Bishop John entered St Nicholas Cathedral for the first time as a Bishop and presided at the Thanksgiving prayer service. His Grace was co-served by the cathedral clergy and some priests from the Patriarchal Parishes.

Representatives of the ROCOR were also present.At the conclusion of the prayer service, on behalf of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Archpriest George Konyev greeted Bishop John and wished him God’s unending mercy and love in his archpastoral service in the United States. His Grace thanked all those gathered for their prayers.