On July 24, on the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, feast of the Holy Equal to the Apostles Princess Olga, the Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate the 6th Sunday after Pentecost and feast of the Holy Equal to the Apostles Princess Olga. Today’s Gospel reading is a continuation of the story about our Lord Jesus Christ told last Sunday. A week ago we heard that Jesus was asked by the people of the country of Gargesines to leave their region. Thus “He got into a boat, crossed over and came to His own city” (Mt. 9, 1). This was the city of Capernaum which served as our Lord’s headquarters. Now we hear of another miracle Jesus performed: healing of the paralytic. The Gospel lesson of today tells us about the divine power of our Lord Jesus Christ. It shows us three signs of such a power Christ had as the Son of God”.
“First power is that He knew the secrets of hearts. Hearing that Jesus grants the paralyzed man forgiveness of sins, the scribes who were present there start thinking that Jesus is blaspheming. But Jesus reads their minds and argues with them openly. Only God can fully know the secrets of our hearts, only God can read our minds. Second power is that Jesus could grant the forgiveness of sins. No one but God can forgive sins. The scribes were correct in that. But they had no faith that Jesus is God. Thus He has a power to forgive sins. Here we see the third sign of the divine power of Christ – that He can heal the disease merely by His word”.
“Today’s Gospel lesson may also teach us about our reception of the divine power coming from our Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to be His Church, a gathering of people which constantly practices the reception and acquiring of that power. And in order to be the Church we need faith”.
“Recently we celebrated feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. And we read the Gospel which was also about faith necessary for acquiring the divine power from Christ. When Jesus asked His Disciples what they would say about Him, St. Peter expressed their faith and confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt. 16, 16). That kind of faith of the Apostles made them able to receive the Holy Spirit and to become the Church. And that very faith allowed the Apostles to receive from Christ the power to bind and loose the sins of men. The Lord is telling Peter, “And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt. 16, 19). If in today’s Gospel lesson the people are amazed that Jesus forgives the sins of the paralytic, then according to another passage in the same Gospel of Matthew, a similar power is possessed not only by Christ, but also by His Church, personally by the Apostles. And that power the Apostles transmitted to their successors, the Bishops. And by today Christ continues to forgive our sins, but through His Church, through the power He gave to her because of the faith of His Disciples”.
“Celebrating today the memory of the Holy Princess Olga, we call her Equal to the Apostles. This is because she was introducing Christian faith to her country. But this is also because she had faith equal to the faith of the Holy Apostles, the same faith that St. Peter had when he confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. That faith was able to receive divine grace and the power of Christ to plant the seed of Christianity in the land of the ancient Rus’. If we recall the icon of St. Peter and Paul that we had in the middle of the church on their feast, we should remember that both of them are pictured holding a model of the church. And today the icon of St. Olga we have is similar: Olga is shown holding a little church in her hand. In this way we are taught that she was Equal to the Apostles, had the Apostolic faith and wished to establish the local Church in her land”.
“But Olga was not able to make Rus’ Christian because she did not have enough support from the people. Her faith was more personal than collective. It could not grow to the level of the faith of the local Church. But St. Olga began to saw that seed of Christian faith. First of all, she was able to teach that faith to her grandson Vladimir who later fully embraced it and baptized his people, established the local Church of Rus’”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, in order to receive the gift of the life-giving, healing and forgiving power of Christ, we need faith. We need such a faith that Jesus saw in St. Peter and in all His Apostles. Faith that we may see in St. Olga, Equal to the Apostles. Similar faith was seen in those people, the paralytic’s friends who brought him to Jesus. Their collective faith became a reason for Christ to perform the miracle of healing. And collective faith of the Apostles became a reason of granting them the power to bind and loose the sins of men. The same faith makes us the Church of Christ. And then not only on St. Peter but on all other Christians believing in Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord founds and builds His Church. He founds it on a rock of faith. And we are called to be such a rock”.
“May our faith save us! The faith of Christ, the faith of the Apostles and the faith of the Holy Equal to the Apostles Olga. May that holy faith save us!”

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication the Rector had a petition for the suffering country of Ukraine and its people. He also added a commemoration of the “suffering Ukrainian land” at the Great Entrance.

Before the Holy Communion the choir prayerfully performed hymns dedicated to St. Olga.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector congratulated our Warden and Choir Director, Olga Roussanow and our parishioner Olga Knyazeva on the occasion of their name day handing them the Theotokian prosphora. Traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta!”) was proclaimed.

The Rector had a brief speech in Russian. He commended Olga Russanow on her great work for the Church stating that due to her active participation in the parish life our community is functioning and doing well. However, we need more active participation on the part of other members.

Following the Liturgy the Rector and parishioners had a luncheon at the nearby Veranda restaurant to celebrate the name day of our two Olgas. The greetings and toasts were raised in honor of them and final Polychronion sung at the conclusion of the meal.

On July 17, on the 5th Sunday after Pentecost, feast of the Holy Royal Passion-bearers of Russia, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our parish temple. After the readings from the Sacred Scripture he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today’s Gospel concerns the casting out of demons from two possessed men. It further tells us that the demons entered into a herd of swine and then it tells us of the suicide of those swine. We can learn some things from this Gospel reading. We should note that the people in the country of the Gergesenes who owned the swine were disobeying the Jewish law. The law of Moses forbade to eat pork, thus it did not encourage to raise the pigs. Pigs were considered unclean animals. However, we read in the Gospel that those people in the country of Gergesines did raise them. The interpreters of the Scripture say that many of those people could be not Jewish but some of them were but disobeyed their religious precepts. In addition, we read that they begged Christ to leave their area, virtually chasing the Son of God away. That makes us think that the disobedience of these people explains why two of them became possessed. Thus, dear brothers and sisters, we learn that disobedience of God leads to misfortune”.
“Today we commemorate the Holy Royal Passion-bearers of Russia who were brutally and unjustly murdered on this day more than 100 years ago. The last Russian Tsar Nicholas was killed along with all his family, with his wife and minor children. Some our brethren holding monarchist views would see the connection between that sad event and the idea of the sorrowful results of disobedience of God. To a monarchistic person, submission to the monarch is a form of obedience to God because in such a view, a king, an emperor is a God-appointed person to rule the country, a person sacred and anointed to kingship. Therefore, disobedience to the Russian Emperor and, moreover, murdering him, could be viewed as the reason for all the misfortunes happened to the Russian nation and to all the nations living in the former Russian Empire after that”.
“But if we alienate ourselves from that monarchistic view, we may still see that, in fact, many troubles and sorrows occurred in the former Russian Empire following the death of the last Tsar. Those misfortunes took place because the inhabitants of that land turned away from God. Murdering of the royal family was only one of the facts showing that apostasy. Many other things followed that turning away from God and Orthodox faith. Many sorrows fell upon the people populating the former Empire after forgetting the precepts of Christian religion and morals. There were famines, wars (one of which was fratricidal), abuses, persecutions of the different social classes, economical problems. The people became possessed by godless attitude and resembled that herd of swine driven to the steep place and throwing to the abyss”.
“Only during the last three decades the godless power ceased to exist and there was a hope of spiritual revival. Some people there began to return to their Christian roots, to the true faith. Many churches were reopened and built. But, unfortunately, it did not truly become a massive process of conversion, of repentance. In many instances, it was rather superficial and even hypocritical thing. And so, the recent new sorrowful events, the new war started by Russian authorities demonstrated that the people are still very much away from God and from His law”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! The lesson of today’s Gospel is not only about Russia. It is also important for every nation. If a nation lives in true Christian faith, cherishes right values and obeys the God’s law, then it enjoys a relatively good and prosperous life. It becomes blessed by God. But if a nation lives in the darkness, it suffers from many misfortunes. Such a darkness can be either paganism or atheism or any false religion. Nations living with the false beliefs, with the wrong values become corrupted by sins and iniquities; they experience social tension, wars, economic problems, abuses and crimes. Unfortunately, this now happens to the American nation. God is driven away from our social and political life. Prayer and Christian spirituality is chased out of our schools. False moral values became accepted by our society and the law of God abandoned. American nation now resembles those swineherd of today’s Gospel who felt sorry for the swine perished in the lake and begged the Son of God to leave their city. Isn’t that a shame?!”
“Therefore, let us learn from today’s Gospel to be faithful to God, to obey His law and to cherish the true moral values given to us by the Lord. Let us spiritually belong to that Christian family held by the Holy Orthodox Church. In this family we will be blessed by God, protected by the Most Holy Theotokos, by the intercession of the Saints, including today’s Saints, the Holy Royal Martyrs of Russia. And further we may become saved and inherit eternal life promised to those who know the true God and His Son, Jesus Christ”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication the Rector had a petition for the suffering country of Ukraine and its people. He also added a commemoration of the “suffering Ukrainian land” at the Great Entrance.

The choir nicely performed hymns dedicated to the Holy Royal Martyrs during preparation for Holy Communion.

On July 12, on the feast of the Holy Major Apostles Peter and Paul, the Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our parish temple. The service was attended by Deacon Matthew Keil along with his big family. Fr. Matthew read the 6^th Hour and performed the reading of the Epistle at the Liturgy. After the readings from the Sacred Scripture our Rector preached the following homily:

“Today we celebrate feast of the Holy Major Apostles Peter and Paul. We finished St. Peter’s, or Apostolic fast, and now it is time to rejoice and celebrate the Apostolic feast”.
“Almost everything about those two men was different. They had different background, different level of education, different personalities. The ways they came to believe in Christ was also different. We may recall that Holy Apostle Peter was one of the twelve Disciples called by our Lord Jesus Christ to follow Him. St. Peter was one of the first-called. He left his fishing nets on the banks of the Sea of Galilee and followed Christ. He was with his Master almost until the end of Jesus’ mission. We know that Peter showed some weakness, got scared when Jesus was taken into custody. He renounced His Teacher three times. But we also know that later Jesus forgave His close Disciple and entrusted to him the care of the Church. Very different was the way of St. Paul. He was first the persecutor of Christians, an enemy of Christ, one of the zealous Pharisees wishing to destroy the Disciples of Jesus. Paul did not follow Christ while the Messiah was on the earth. He persecuted His Disciples after Jesus ascended into heaven. Yet Paul was made worthy to become a major Apostle. Being on his way to the city of Damascus Paul received a revelation from God. It completely changed his life. He turned into a zealous follower of Jesus whom he persecuted before. Paul became a hard laborer in the field of Christ, a fervent preacher of Christianity, an Apostle of the Gentiles”.
“As I said, almost everything was different about those two men. Yet one thing they had in common – their firm and profound faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This faith made them holy, it made them capable of so many endeavors. That faith finally led both of them to the same purpose – to be with their beloved Teacher, Lord Jesus Christ. It made them die for Christ on the same day in the capital city of Rome, the very day we celebrate their memory today. This is why the Church does not separate those two holy men. We almost never honor them separately, for you do not hear about any Orthodox temple dedicated to St. Peter or St. Paul separately. Only in Rome where they both ministered and martyred, there are two different basilicas of St. Peter and of St. Paul (which are presently Catholic). And we know that there is St. Paul Cathedral in London (which is Protestant)”.
“Holy Scripture can tell us about the labors and endeavors of the Holy Apostles. Today’s Epistle lesson enumerates many works made, many tortures undergone and many dangers experienced by St. Paul (2 Cor. 11, 21-12, 9). St. Paul without praising himself, but very specifically describes that saying that compared to other Apostles he is “in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often” (2 Cor. 11, 23). He then says that he will not boast in these heroic things. But he is trying to say that his true worthiness is that he was caught up to the third heaven, to paradise and “heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12, 3)”.
“All labors, endeavors and sufferings of St. Paul, as well as of St. Peter and of all the Holy Apostles had one true and final purpose – to be caught up to heaven, to paradise and to rejoice in blessedness with their heavenly Teacher, Lord Jesus. Let us also, dear brothers and sisters, imitate the works and endeavors of the holy Disciples of Christ. We should also deem ourselves to be the disciples and followers of Jesus. Otherwise, what are we really doing here, in the church, why then we are called Orthodox Christians? This is why we are holding fast before their commemoration, to remember their hard labors and their sufferings for Christ. But sufferings end, and time of reward approaches. Thus, in the life of a Christian, time of tests and sufferings ends and the time of blessedness in heaven may begin. But to achieve that goal, we have to be the followers of Christ, the Apostles of our days. Let us then live, labor and die like Holy Apostles, like St. Peter and Paul!”

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication the Rector had a petition for the suffering country of Ukraine and its people. He also added a commemoration of the “suffering Ukrainian land” at the Great Entrance.

The choir nicely performed hymns in honor of St. Peter and Paul during preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector and the altar servers performed the rite of glorification in the middle of the temple singing the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Holy Major Apostles.

On July 10, on the 4th Sunday after Pentecost we had a nice celebration at St. George Church. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today the Gospel lesson tells us about the healing of the servant of the Roman centurion. That servant was probably a slave but we learn that the centurion cared about his slave, did not consider him expandable. According to his faith the Lord granted his servant healing”.
“And in today’s Epistle lesson Holy Apostle Paul is reasoning about such thing as slavery. Recently we celebrated Independence Day, an American national holiday commemorating acquiring freedom and sovereignty of this nation from the slavery to the British Empire. But even after getting independence the American society knew such thing as slavery. In a number of American states people had other men and women as slaves. The society had to undergo a painful process of Civil War to end that shameful practice of slavery”.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles lived in the ancient times when slavery was a normal thing. It became especially spread after Rome became an empire. Every fourth person living in the capital city of Rome was a slave. Slaves had no rights, they were considered a property of their masters. They could not make any important decisions for themselves. They could be punished, tortured or killed by their masters without any consequences. They were bought and sold”.
“Today we commemorate Venerable Sampson who is honored as an unmercenary physician. St. Sampson who was named the Hospitable lived in ancient Rome and he owned slaves. When he inherited his father’s property, he decided to follow the Gospel advice and to give up his wealth. One of the things he did was giving his slaves freedom”.
“This is why, dear brothers and sisters, when St. Paul was writing his Epistle to the Christians in Rome, he had to consider this reality. And in today’s Epistle he uses the terms “slaves”, “slavery” and “freedom” to be better understood by his listeners. Let us then try to understand the main ideas of today’s reading of the Holy Apostle”.
“Our main slavery is a slavery to sin. It started when man sinned and became fallen. The mission of our Lord Jesus Christ was to set us free from that slavery. His mission was successful. All who follow Christ and become baptized are freed from sin of Adam and are given a right to become admitted to the society of Saints. Now we no longer belong to the devil, to the sin, but to Jesus Christ who is our Lord and Master. This is why St. Paul says in today’s Epistle lesson, “Having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6, 18). God means righteousness and justice; God means goodness and truth; God means holiness and purity. This is why, if we now belong to Him, speaking in human terms of the times of St. Paul, we are “slaves of righteousness”. We are slaves of God’s holiness, of His goodness, of His truth and His love”.
“St. Paul further reasons that being enslaved by God demands to fulfill His will. St. Paul says, “For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and a lawlessness…, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Rom. 6, 19). If we wish to belong to Jesus Christ, then our life has to be a service to righteousness and acquiring of holiness. We cannot betray our Master by serving other masters such as our passions, sins and the devil”.
“We should add here that belonging to Jesus Christ, becoming a slave of righteousness is totally voluntary thing. We embrace that kind of service voluntarily. If we truly understand that such slavery is our true home and our true dignity, we accept it and live by it being happy. We also understand that we Christians are by far better off than so called “free men” in the world. St. Paul teaches us in today’s lesson that the fruit of slavery to Christ is holiness and eternal life. But the fruit of being free from Christ is death. He says, “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life” (Rom. 6, 21-22)”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, humanity needs to choose. As two thousand years ago when St. Paul lived, so today, men have to choose between slavery to righteousness. In fact, such slavery will real freedom and independence. Jesus Christ by His sacrifice on the cross, by His Redemption accomplished for us, made this choice possible. But it is up to us which slavery to choose. It is our voluntary choice which master to submit. Either we choose our Jesus Christ, the Son of God to be our Lord and Master and to become slaves of righteousness, or we may choose to become or continue to be slaves of sin. There is no other option. We may be deluded by sin to think that if we are free from religious and other traditional rules, then we are truly free people living according to our own will. Many people fell for that. In our times people who wish to be free from the Church, from the traditional values are deluded. They think that they are free, but they are miserable slaves of their own passions, sins and eventually, the slaves of the devil and death. A very painful example is the raise of the gay movement. In our times, American cities hold so-called gay parades which they even call the “parades of pride”. Homosexuals show their pride of being lawless in their lifestyle. Sinners show that they are proud to sin. And every mayor of our city participates in that shameful action putting a disgrace on this city and on its leadership. Well, they can show that but all of them should be aware of the words of St. Paul, “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6, 23)”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Our presence here, in this holy temple is supposed to show that we made a choice to be slaves of righteousness. Let us then serve our only Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us present our members not as slaves to uncleanness for lawlessness as many people do, but as slaves of righteousness for holiness. This slavery will bring us eternal life. This slavery will make us truly free, free from sin. It will make us truly independent, independent from the tricks of the devil. If we do differently, we may inherit eternal death. Let us remember the words of St. Paul: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6, 23).

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication the Rector had a petition for the suffering country of Ukraine and its people. He also added a commemoration of the “suffering Ukrainian land” at the Great Entrance.

The choir nicely performed the hymns to the Most Holy Theotokos.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector made some announcements and greeted Johanna Pugliese on the occasion of her name day, the memory of St. Johanna, one of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. Traditional Polychronion was proclaimed and the Thotokian prosphora presented.

After the Liturgy the Rector performed the memorial Litia to commemorate his grandfather Yuri Tarasov on the occasion of his 110^th birth anniversary. Olga Roussanow also asked to add the commemoration of her deceased family members.

Following the services the Rector hosted a memorial lunch at the nearby Chinese restaurant.

On July 7 our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov visited St. John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Church in Little Falls, NJ. That parish celebrated its Patronal feast on that day, the Nativity of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John.

F. Igor served the Divine Liturgy headed by the Rector of the parish, Priest Alexey Paranyuk. Hieromonk Stephen (Bushman) was present and prayed in the temple.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy Fr. Igor preached a sermon greeting the parishioners on their Patronal feast. He also pointed out that Orthodox faithful should attempt to relate to the Holy Forerunner. The Gospel says that St. John the Baptist, from the beginning of his life, lived in the wilderness.  We are nowadays also live in the wilderness, a spiritual wilderness which is our country. If we get out of the church, of course, we would say that there is no such thing as wilderness around us. There is a vibrant civilization. But, in fact, it is spiritual wilderness because most of the people around us are not religious or pious, plus most of them are not Orthodox. That is why we need to consider that and to relate to St. John. He was preaching in the wilderness, and we should also. We may not even say much but we need to show a Christian way of life – that could be a preaching.

Following the liturgical service the clergy and the parishioners had a potluck luncheon in the parish hall.

On July 3, on the 3^rd Sunday after Pentecost, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our parish temple. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! The Gospel lesson of the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost is a part of the famous Sermon on the Mount which our Lord Jesus Christ preached at the beginning of His ministry. Today’s fragment is dealing with the right preferences, right priorities we should have. Our Lord knew our attachment to the material goods, so He teaches to care more about the true good which is the Kingdom of God. He says: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mt. 6, 33)”.
“Why we should not be anxious about material things? Because they are temporary and they pass. They are given to us to help us but not to dominate over us. Today we commemorate St. Methodius of Patras. He wrote, “Because we, as the people, are worthy to lord over the things created for us, so we should not appear worse than the things created… It is foolish to be enslaved by those over whom we acquired the power””.
“And why we should be anxious about spiritual things? Because they never change and lead us to the blessedness. Spiritual values determine our place in the eternity. Through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “the many dwellings” are prepared for us in heaven. There we will forever enjoy the good things which “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered to the heart of man” (1 Cor. 2, 9). Those blessed things which belong to the Kingdom of God should be valued more than worldly, bodily pleasures, and we have to strive for those eternal things with all our soul in order to be happy after our earthly life”.
“When the Lord said “Seek first the Kingdom of God”, He meant not only life after death, but also our earthly life. Spiritual values have the greatest importance also for our earthly existence because they show us the true sense of life. God is a perfect and the happiest being. He is love, joy, peace and the source of happiness. And only a person who becomes close to God, can enjoy the true happiness, peace and pleasure. The one who became the temple of the Holy Spirit, who has God in his heart, always feels peace in the soul, the full satisfaction in life and the spiritual joy. Jesus said: “The Kingdom of God is within you”(Lk. 17, 21). It means that blessedness, happiness may be within us if we are close to God”.
“How can we acquire that state of blessedness, the Kingdom of God within us? Jesus tells us to seek that Kingdom and “His righteousness”. That means that we need to seek the God’s righteousness: how to please God and how to justify ourselves before Him. Those things we may acquire if we live in piety and justice. The All-Holy God indwells only in those who strive to imitate Him in their righteousness and piety. Only those people are granted the spiritual goods – peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. How can enjoy peace and joy those who attempt only to earn, as much as possible, wealth or power? How can have peace those who dream only about the pleasures of flesh, or about food, or alcohol, or drugs? Do you think that those who unjustly earned a lot of money, enjoy peace or sleep well? Why those powerful people are surrounded by the bodyguards?”
“If we will care about spiritual treasures, the Lord will bestow upon us earthly well-being, in addition to the spiritual goodness. “All these things shall be added to you” – says the Lord, meaning that we will have material wealth. Earthly goodness is the result of the spiritual, righteous life. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, we have to decide to live as Christians, according to the precepts of God. We may live in this world and achieve awards along with the great Saints. St. Macarius says: “God does not look whether you are a virgin or a married woman; a monk or a lay person, but He seeks only a heartfelt desire for good deeds. Make such a resolution, and salvation is near you, whoever you are or wherever you live.” Thus, let us remember the commandment of God: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you””.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication the Rector had a petition for the suffering country of Ukraine and its people. He also added a commemoration of the “suffering Ukrainian land” at the Great Entrance.

The choir nicely performed Psalm 33 during preparation for Holy Communion.

After the dismissal the Rector made some announcements.