On July 29, on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost we gathered for the Divine Liturgy at St. George Church. Service was celebrated by our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov. On that Sunday we also honored the Holy Fathers of the Six Ecumenical Councils.
Following the readings of the Gospel Fr. Igor preached a homily. He pointed out that the lesson from the Gospel of Matthew for that day has a number of aspects:
“First of all, we should note that this was an enormous crowd of five thousand men plus women and children. We notice how they followed Christ on foot in the heat of the day into the wilderness and without food. What faith and devotion we see here, when there are Orthodox who claim to be unable to come to church on Sundays in their cars, because the church is too far from their beds!”
“Secondly, we can see that this miracle took place not for the personal vanity or glory of the Savior, but out of pity for the people. Each miracle of Christ is an act of love performed out of compassion.”
“Thirdly, we see also how before He performed the miracle, Our Lord took up the five loaves and fishes, and then looked up to heaven and thanked the Father and blessed the food. Here He sets us Orthodox the example of praying before eating. How many Orthodox often forget even to make the sign of the cross before eating! And yet the Savior Himself, ‘by Whom all things were made’, asks for the blessing of the Father before eating.”
Fr. Igor also said that in this miracle we see how Christ not only feeds us with material food, but also with spiritual food, for, as it is written in the Holy Scriptures, man shall not live by bread alone. Holy Fathers of the Six Councils whom we commemorate today were given us and confirming spiritual nourishment of the true faith leading to eternal life. The second Gospel lesson of today says: “And this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent” (Jn. 17, 3). To live eternally we need spiritual nourishment which the Church is giving us.
At the end of the Liturgy Fr. Igor congratulated our Warden and Choir director Olga Roussanow on the occasion of her past name day and led us in singing “Mnogaya leta!”
After the service parishioners and priest enjoyed our delicious refreshments.

On July 22nd, on the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, priest Igor Tarasov, Rector of St. George Church served the Divine Liturgy in our temple.
After the Scripture readings Fr. Igor preached a homily on the lesson from the holy Gospel of the day. He said: “Today’s Gospel is about healings of the blind men and of a man who was demon possessed. There are many similar stories of healing in the holy Scripture. And we should notice that each time our Lord Jesus Christ performs the miracle of healing He asks: “Do you believe? Do you believe that I am able to do this?” When our Lord asks these questions he is knocking at the door of the hearts of men. He is looking for an opening to be let in, so that not only healing, but salvation may occur. This is described for us in the Book of Revelation of St. John where it says “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him” (Rev. 3, 20).”
Fr. Igor pointed out that we should also knock at the door of our Savior by praying and asking Him to help us and then by confirming that we do believe in His power.
“All too often we seek after God through miraculous signs of His action in creation and fail to see the spiritual miracles that occur around us. St. John Chrysostom speaks of this in the following manner: “Do not therefore seek signs, but the soul’s health. Seek not to see one dead man raised; nay, for you have learned that the whole world is arising. Seek not to see a blind man healed, but behold all now restored unto that better and more profitable sight; and do you too learn to look chastely, and amend your eye.”
“So my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, seek not after miracles. Seek rather after salvation for Christ is knocking at the door of your heart. Open the door of your hearts to Him that you may enter into the New Creation and receive the spiritual miracles that will change you and the world around you. Through this change you will be able to respond truly: “Yes, Lord, I believe” and to receive according to our faith.” – said Fr. Igor.
Parishioners enjoyed our common trapeza following the Divine Liturgy.

On July 15th, on the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, Rector of St. George Church, priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at our temple. On this day, feast of the Deposition of the precious Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God is celebrated.
Following the reading of the Gospel Fr. Igor discussed the Divine Liturgy. This was his last talk on the meaning of the main Orthodox service. He interpreted the conclusional rites of the Liturgy: Prayer behind the Ambo, the Final blessing and the Liturgy Dismissal.
After the celebration of the Liturgy Fr. Igor preached a short sermon about today’s feast in the Russian language. He recalled the history of the feast of the Deposition of the Robe of the Holy Theotokos. This happened in the 9th century when the royal city of Constantinople was besieged by the enemies. A fervent prayer of the inhabitants and the intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God through Her precious relic saved the city from the invaders. Those invaders were our ancestors, Eastern Slavs. They received a generous contribution from the city and departed. But they also wished to embrace Christian faith. Their leader, prince Askold of Kiev, became a Christian and attempted to introduce Christianity in the ancient lands of Rus’. Unfortunately, his plan was not fulfilled. But since that time our ancestors began to be acquainted with holy Orthodoxy, and Christian temples began to appear in Kiev. This was the result of the miraculous intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos who protected Christians in Constantinople and also enlightened our pagan ancestors.
Following the service our parishioners enjoyed our delicious trapeza.

On July 12th, on the feast of the Holy Major Apostles Peter and Paul, the Rector of St. George Church served the Divine Liturgy.
After the reading of the Gospel Fr. Igor preached a short homily in English, and after the Liturgy dismissal he repeated his sermon in the Russian language. He pointed out that although Holy Apostles Peter and Paul were two very different men who had a number of disagreements regarding pastoral matters and ways of preaching the Gospel, they both were united in the same faith, the faith of Christ and of the Apostles. “That same faith was expressed by St. Peter in today’s Gospel lesson. When our Lord Jesus Christ asked His Disciples who they think He is, Simon Peter answered: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. This was the right answer. This was the true faith held by the Apostles. And due to that faith the Lord said to St. Peter that on this rock He will build His Church, so the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Simon’s faith was firm and solid like a rock. Thus Simon acquired the new name – Peter meaning ‘the Rock’”
Fr. Igor also discussed the wrong interpretation of that Gospel passage done by Roman Catholics. They find here a clear confirmation of their teaching that the bishop of Rome being the successor of St. Peter must have the power over the Church and is supposed to be the head of the Universal Church. We, Orthodox, do not agree with such a simplistic interpretation. The Church of Christ is built upon all the Apostles and upon their faith expressed by St. Peter. And the Head of the Church is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And He wishes now to build His Church on us, its members, and on our firm faith. “Let us then keep and cherish our holy Orthodox faith and let us pray that our Lord Jesus Christ through the prayers of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul may preserve us in that faith and piety!” – finished his sermon Fr. Igor.

On July 1st, on the 4th Sunday after Pentecost our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at St. George’s Church.
After the Gospel lesson Fr. Igor lectured on the Divine Liturgy and was telling about the rites of the Communion of the faithful. He pointed out that today’s custom to receive Communion under both species and from the chalice on the spoon developed some time around 10th century AD. In the early Church people received Communion right from the altar and took the Body of Christ by hands and then received the Blood of Christ drinking from the chalice. Nowadays this is done only by clergy in the sanctuary while lay people receive Communion in the nave and from the priest holding the chalice and distributing the Body and Blood of Christ with the spoon.
This Sunday we had some more people attending our temple due to the absence of Sunday Liturgy at the Holy Annunciation Church in Flushing.
After the Liturgy Fr. Igor and parishioners enjoyed our common trapeza prepared by our good cooks.

On June 10th, on the Sunday of All Saints, or on the 1st Sunday after Pentecost, our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at St. George’s Church.
During his homily after the Gospel lesson Fr. Igor continued his talks on Divine Liturgy. The present topic was about the Lord’s Prayer. The priest initiating that prayer by the congregation exclaims: “And vouchsafe us, o Master, that boldly and without condemnation we may dare to call upon Thee, the Heavenly God as Father and to say”. He asks to be worthy to refer to the Almighty God as to our Father. Fr. Igor said: “We have to say that it was a new thing in the time of Christ, to refer to God as to the “Father”. Nobody has done this before Jesus. Nobody could dare to call God his Father. But Jesus did, and He called God His Father using an Aramaic word “Abba” meaning “Daddy”, an intimate word for one’s father. This is why many Jews were amazed and scandalized that Jesus called God His own Father, making Himself equal to God. But Jesus was God and had a right to do so. But what about us? The Lord wanted to teach us also to refer to God as to our Father. Why? Because God created us and loves us and also because through Jesus Christ Who, being the Son of God, became the Son of Man, all of us became members of God’s household, children of God through adoption… The words of the Lord’s Prayer are simple but important. They express the praise of God and petitions for our main spiritual and earthly needs.” Fr. Igor further shortly interpreted the main prayer of the Christian people.
After the Liturgy Fr. Igor and parishioners had our common meal outside of the church.

On June 5th Rector of St. George Church, priest Igor Tarasov and the Church Warden, Olga Roussanow attended a lecture of a well-known Russian Orthodox theologian and missionary, Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev. The meeting was held at the hall of St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in New York.
Fr. Andrei Kuraev is a famous modern theologian, an author of the number of books and articles and a professor of the Orthodox schools of high learning in Moscow. It was his first visit to the United States.
The lecture was organized by the Youth Department of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and gathered around one hundred people, most of them young. Fr. Igor Tarasov asked the first question regarding Fr. Andrei’s view of the present state of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia, as well as in the world. To answer that, Fr. Andrei gave a long and detailed speech on the situation in the Church life, changes in dogmatic, liturgical, disciplinary and social aspects in modern Orthodoxy. He named a number of challenges the Russian Church faces on today’s world, including secularism, Islamic expansion and the lack of spiritual demands among the Russian people.
Fr. Andrei answered many more questions, some of them being interesting. For instance, when asked whether salvation is available only to the Orthodox Christians, he pointed out that only God can grant salvation. It is also an individual thing. “Let us not worry about salvation of other people, but about whether I am going to be saved,” – said Fr. Andrei. One of the most memorable statements Fr. Kuraev made at this meeting was the following: “Everyone should do the right thing at his or her position, work and serve the Lord and neighbor, and let God worry about everything else”.
At the conclusion of the lecture Fr. Igor and Olga Roussanow purchased the books of Fr. Kuraev and personally expressed their gratitude for his coming to New York.
 

On June 3rd, on Pentecost Sunday when the Church celebrates the great holy day of the Most Holy Trinity, we had a solemn service at St. George’s Church. Before the celebration, according to our pious custom, our temple was decorated with the greenery. Our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov celebrated the Divine Liturgy and Vespers with the kneeling prayers.
After the reading from the Gospel Fr. Igor preached a homily. He pointed out that the story about the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles is presented in today’s Epistle reading. The Gospel of today tells us about our Lord preaching about the future gift – the Holy Spirit which was not yet given, saying: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (Jn 7, 37). Fr. Igor stressed that the important word here is “thirst”. He said: “People who thirst for spiritual life need to come to Jesus and He will give them the gift of the Holy Spirit, the “living water”, so they themselves will become the source of that water flowing from their hearts. If we are thirsty in our physical life, we need to drink. And if we do, we enjoy drinking and quench our thirst. Nowadays it is a common belief that you need to drink a lot of water in order to be healthy. It is doubtful, but many people follow that, and you see many young people walking with the bottles of water and drinking all the time. Such people probably do not enjoy drinking and do not really thirst. They act according to their rational thinking. Similar things happen with spiritual matters. You need to thirst, to strive for spiritual things in order to live spiritually. But it has to be a real thirst, a true desire coming out of your heart. Otherwise you use your mind to be spiritually “filled”: you go to the church, or belong to the Church because you know that it is good for you. But you do not really enjoy it. Church services are boring for you, thus you wish to miss them. Or if you receive Sacraments you do it because your mind tells you that it is good. Many Christians (especially in the Western Church) receive Communion frequently, even every day. But do they really thirst for that? Do they really prepare for that? Aren’t they like those people drinking water all the time without being really thirsty? Therefore, you need to thirst for the church services, for the Sacraments, for prayer. You better receive the Sacraments less frequently, but with more preparation and more spiritual joy.” Fr. Igor noted that he does not wish to discourage faithful to receive Communion frequently, but wants them to have a real desire and proper preparation for each reception of the Eucharist. For some individuals it means to partake not every week, for some it may still be every Sunday.
“Today is the birthday of the Holy Church of the New Testament,” – said Fr. Igor. “The Church includes all its members: Saints, living and departed. And it is living due to the Holy Spirit abiding and dwelling in it. Let us then ask the Holy Spirit, the Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of truth to come and dwell within us and to cleanse us from all impurity and to save our souls!”
After services of the feast Rector and parishioners had a luncheon at our favorite Pier 25A restaurant. We enjoyed delicious meals and a nice company.

On May 27th, on Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Council, we had a Divine Liturgy celebrated in our church. The Liturgy was served by our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov.
After the Gospel lesson Fr. Igor continued his lectures on the Liturgy. This time he explained the meaning of the petitions of the Litany before Communion. That litany (or ektenia) is also called the Litany of Asking (or Beseeching). In that litany we ask the Lord for a number of things which represent our different needs. To the priest’s (or deacon’s) appeal “Let us ask of the Lord” at the end of each petition, the choir (or the congregation) responds: “Grant this, o Lord!” Fr. Igor pointed out that the needs described in those petitions are, first of all, spiritual needs. In the beginning of the Liturgy and even later, in the course of the service, the priest may pray for the earthly things like peace, unity, for the people traveling, for the sick and so on. Now, at this point when we are preparing to receive holy Communion, we are asking to grant us spiritual blessings. We need them to be worthy to receive the Eucharist. Fr. Igor further described the petitions and their meaning in detail.
After the Liturgy parishioners enjoyed delicious trapeza on the church property.

On May 24th of this year we celebrated great holy day of the Ascension of our Lord. Our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov served solemn Divine Liturgy at St. George’s Church.
After the reading of the Gospel Fr. Igor preached a homily. He reminded that this year feast of the Ascension falls on the day of St. Cyril and Methodius, the Enlighteners of the Slavs. It is the name day of His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill. The mission of the two holy and Equal to the Apostles brothers was very important for the Slavic people who received the translation of the Scripture and main liturgical books in their language.
Further, Fr. Igor preached about the Ascension of the Lord. He noted that Ascension could be viewed as a sad event because the Lord is leaving His Disciples. But the feast is, in fact, very joyful. There are at least, three reasons for that. First, the Lord does not leave the Apostles as orphans. He promises to send the Holy Spirit. That promise was fulfilled in 9 days. Secondly, we should be glad for the Lord who accomplished His mission of Redemption and now is returning to His Father, to be in heaven, at the right hand of God. Jesus goes where He was from the beginning. And thirdly, He goes to heaven to prepare there a place for us. “Thus, having a place reserved for us in heaven, let us try to collect for ourselves treasures in heaven, not on earth”, – said Fr. Igor.
At the end of the Liturgy the Rector proclaimed the Polychronion (singing of “Many years”) to His Holiness, Kirill, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’.