On February 15 the Orthodox Church celebrates great feast of the Meeting of the Lord. On that day we had a nice celebration at St. George Church. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov performed the Divine Liturgy.. Following the reading from the Holy Gospel he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate great holy day of the Meeting, or Encounter of the Lord. The Epistle lesson assigned for this feast is telling us about the great difference between the Old Testament priesthood and the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the event of the Meeting of the Lord we see that Jesus being an infant was presented in the Temple of Jerusalem. By doing this His holy parents fulfilled the command of the Law of Moses. Since Jesus was the first-born Son of His Mother, according to the Old Testament law He had to be offered to God. His parents had to come to Jerusalem, to the holy Temple and to perform a ritual, a sacrifice for Him. This was one of the many commands of the Old Testament law. Other commands anticipated that certain people, only from the tribe of Levi, called the Levites, could be the servers at the altar of the Temple. All the priests and servants of the Lord had to be the heirs of Aaron, the brother of Moses. Thus, there was a special priestly cast among the Jews of old”.
“When our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, He was born to the family which was not the heirs of Aaron. The Blessed Mother of God and Her spouse St. Joseph were from the tribe of Judah. No one from their tribe could be a priest in the Temple. But we all know that our Lord exercised a power of a priest. He did it by offering Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind when He voluntarily agreed to suffer and die for us. His Holy Passions and His death became a redemptive sacrifice for all of us. Jesus is our High Priest who entered the Holy of the Holies, not of the physical and earthly Temple, but mystically, sacrificing His own blood before God the Father. We may also add that He Himself established the Holy Sacraments, performed the first Divine Liturgy at the Last Supper. Jesus is our High Priest, the highest priest of the New Testament”.
“The contrast between priesthood of the Old Testament and the priesthood of Jesus Christ is described in today’s Epistle lesson. St. Paul teaches that Jesus’ priesthood is “according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 7, 17). The latter was a mysterious figure in the Old Testament. He appears in the book of Genesis as a priest of the High God, and at the same time as the king of Salem (meaning the king of peace). He meets Abraham, then offers the sacrifice of bread and wine, then he blesses Abraham. Abraham is giving him one tenth of his possessions, the tithes (Gen. 14, 18-20). Nothing else is said about this figure. He has no relatives, his birth or death is not mentioned in the Scripture. But we see that he was considered superior to Abraham and to his heirs”.
“Since the Old Testament priesthood of the Temple was limited to the special cast, to the heirs of Aaron, it inferior to the priesthood of Melchizedek. And the priesthood of Christ is like such priesthood. As Melchizedek had no earthly genealogy, so is Christ because He was born of a Virgin. Because He is God who became Man, His priesthood can really change the mankind. At that point, the Old Testament priesthood consisted of mere men, thus it could not really transform mortal and corrupt humanity. Sacrifices of the Levitical priests had to be repeated while the sacrifice of Christ was offered once and for all”.
“St. Paul also convinces the Hebrews that since Abraham met Melchizedek long before the Temple priesthood was established, then the priesthood of Melchizedek is superior to the Levitical priesthood (Heb. 7, 9-11). Jesus arose as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek when He obeyed the law of Moses, but being God, He also transcended the law and established His eternal priesthood”.
“This is why, dear brothers and sisters, celebrating feast of the Meeting of the Lord we are instructed by St. Paul that the ritual performed over the Infant Jesus in the Temple, as well as all other events of this glorious holy day – all these actions show that the new and eternal High Priest, a priest according to the highest order appeared in Jesus Christ. He was born, He was circumcised, He was presented in the Temple. By this He showed His obedience to the law of Moses. But He went further by His death for us. So, He became our High Priest who could make all of us redeemed by His holy and unique sacrifice”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

The choir prayerfully performed festal hymns of the Meeting during preparation for Holy Communion.

After the dismissal the Rector greeted the faithful on the great feast.

Because it was a working weekday, not too many parishioners came to the temple but the service was attended by Deacon Matthew Keil from the ROCOR Synodal Cathedral along with his big family.

On February 13, on the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, the 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 of Christ! Today’s reading from the Gospel tells us a parable about two men who went up to the Temple to pray. One of them, who was a public sinner, went home justified. Yet another who was viewed as a just man was condemned. Why? It happened because of their attitudes: the publican had the right attitude. He was asking God for mercy in repentance for his sins of which he was aware. On the other hand, the Pharisee had the wrong attitude. He was not asking for mercy. On the contrary, he was proud and satisfied with himself. He was under the illusion of being righteous. And he had this illusion only because he fulfilled all the outward observances of his religion. His piety was all for show, it was all outward and did not come from his heart. We may say that the Pharisee did the right things, but he did them for all the wrong reasons. Thus, his works were in vain”.
“The error of the Pharisee was to confuse the means with the ends. Our end, or goal, is to find salvation. There are many means to salvation. These means are prayer, fasting, giving alms, receiving the Sacraments, being helpful to other people. However, we should not think that those means to salvation automatically save us, merely because they are outwardly observed”.
“The outwardly observance by itself is necessary. We have to worship God outwardly, not just in our hearts. Moreover, we can worship and pray to God everywhere, but there is one place where we can be particularly close to Him, and where it is easier to speak to Him in prayer. Such place is the holy temple. Only in the temple we have the divine services and most of the Holy Mysteries. Nowadays because of the pandemic many churches were closed for some time and held their services remotely, online. That damaged people’s piety and lowered people’s participation in the services. In the communities that practiced such worship for a relatively long time, many parishioners did not return to the church when their church was reopened. Thank God, many our Orthodox churches did not follow that way and became opened as soon as possible. Yes, you can pray anywhere, you can listen to the divine services on TV or online but it will never substitute your real, physical presence in the holy temple and your real participation in the services. Some progressive pastors and church leaders, even among some Orthodox, even discussed a possibility to partake of the Sacraments online. They permitted to discuss the option to receive Holy Communion remotely. Of course, it is a very wrong thinking”.
“Dear brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel reminds us that the best place for prayer and worship is the holy temple. Both a sinful publican and a seemingly righteous Pharisee came there to offer their different prayers. Therefore, let us not withdraw from the holy church, from the place of grace and blessing”.
“It is though anticipated that many people may say that by attending the church we do the outward observance, just like the Pharisee. During my life I heard a lot of people saying that going to church is not making you a good person, that many of those who attend the church are not so nice in their lives. Thus, we are often accused of being like that Pharisee from today’s parable. It may be true: some people could be like that. But it does not make the holy temple needless. It does not make the Sacraments unnecessary. It does not make the divine grace flowing from the Holy Church a waste. Again, the error of the Pharisee was to confuse those blessed means with the sacred goals. We have to come to church and participate in divine worship with a believing and willing heart, not just outwardly or automatically”.
“The publican had a right attitude because he was sincere in his repentance. His error was in his sins and his lifestyle. But since he was aware of his unworthiness, he was blessed by God”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Learning from today’s Gospel parable, let us imitate the publican in his repentance and his inner humility and faith. Let us avoid the proud and self-deceptive attitude of the Pharisee. However, let us resemble that Pharisee in his outwardly actions – in his prayers, fasting, giving alms and tithes. But may those outwardly acts be the fulfillment of our inner feelings of piety and love towards God and neighbor. Let us outwardly be like the Pharisee but inwardly be like the publican. Then we will be true worshipers of God, the God who is merciful to us, the sinners and who loves mankind!”

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

During preparation for Holy Communion the choir prayerfully performed hymns from the Lenten Triodion which begin to be sung on this Sunday, starting with the words “The door of repentance open to me, o Giver of life…”

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector made the announcements regarding future celebration of the Meeting of the Lord and about the next privileged (compact) week. He also congratulated Lilia Snaychuk on her past birthday and proclaimed the Polychronion on her behalf.

On February 6, on the 33^rd Sunday after Pentecost, feast of the New Holy Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, we had a beautiful celebration at St. George. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our parish temple. After the reading from the Holy Gospel he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate Sunday of Zacchaeus and feast of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. Our first Gospel reading is the one that finishes our ordinary Pentecostal cycle and begins the period of our preparation for Lent. It tells about a sinful man, a chief tax collector who had a desire to meet Jesus. As a result of that meeting, he converted and showed his true repentance”.
“The Gospel story tells that our Lord Jesus Christ noticed Zacchaeus who climbed the tree and told him to come down because the Lord wishes to visit his home (Lk. 19, 5). Although Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector, a great and a public sinner, Christ desired to come to his house. That happened because our Lord “had come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Lk. 5, 32). And Christ was expecting that Zacchaeus will truly repent. And, as we heard in the Gospel, he did. Zacchaeus exclaimed, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold” (Lk. 19, 8)”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Usually, we hear that if people say they repent, they go to confession and then we may not notice any other action on their part. But true repentance means changing your life and it also means correcting the wrong you have done. Zacchaeus decided to give half of his possessions to the poor. His wealth was the result of his wrongdoings and sins. Thus he wishes to distribute at least half of it. Further he decided to restore fourfold the goods that he have taken by false accusations. Tax collectors were corrupt and evil: they accused the people of owing the taxes and robbed them taking the money for themselves. Now the chief publican decides to compensate those whom he defrauded, and to compensate them fourfold. This is true repentance and this is salvation. That is why the Lord proclaimed, “Today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham” (Lk. 19, 9)”.
“Zacchaeus was a son of Abraham who acquired salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are the sons and daughters of the Holy Rus’ – many of us by birth, some of us spiritually – but all of us are children of the Russian Church who strive for salvation through the same Christ. Honoring today our New Martyrs and Confessors, we should keep in mind that our salvation depends on our own choices and decisions. The Holy Gospel tells us that Christ called us, the sinners, for repentance. Thus we have to repent. It tells that we have to be faithful to God, and we should. Our New Martyrs and Confessors also made their choices and decisions. They remained faithful to the Lord and to His Holy Church. They suffered and many of them died for Christ. Through their endeavors our Russian Church had been blessed and given the new life in our days”.
“Speaking of the New Martyrs and of the history of our Church in the previous century, you cannot avoid talking about politics and making judgments. Therefore, forgive me today for being political and judgmental. Every Christian soul understands that the godless powers that took over the Holy Rus’ in the 20^th century, were the evil forces, the enemies of Christ that persecuted the Holy Church and its faithful members. What is less understood is that more than 3 decades after those evil forces ceased to exist, we do not see that all the wrong is corrected. The governments of the countries which are now existing on the lands of historical Rus’ superficially condemned the actions of the persecutors. However, we do not see their true repentance, a repentance of Zacchaeus. It is no secret that many of the political leaders of those countries themselves used to be Communists or affiliated with repressive structures. In some way, they resemble Zacchaeus. Some of them did show the allegiance to the Church, began attending certain services, some received Sacraments. But none of them made their governments show true repentance”.
“We have to admit with sorrow that if Zacchaeus compensated those whom he offended, the Holy Church was not compensated. Many temples, monasteries and property were given back. But not all of it. And in many places they are given for rent, not for ownership. We have to note with regret that instead of unceasing repentance about the Soviet past, that past is now praised by the modern leaders while the true history is falsified. For instance, some time ago the authorities in Russia banned the historians from researching the KGB archives, the cases of the New Martyrs. And at this time it is difficult to find the materials for new glorifications of more persons who were martyred in those days”.
“But if the governments and the leaders are not concerned about salvation, we should be. Each Russian Orthodox Christian, on individual level, should be concerned about being the son or daughter of the Holy Rus’. We need to repent, we need to change, we need to restore if we did some wrong. Once I heard a confession of an old woman. She told me that when she was young, she used to dance at the village club. The club was in the former church building, and the youth was coming there to dance. In her old age her feet were sick, and she was convinced that it was a punishment for her dancing. But she did repent, so I was very happy for her soul. I believed that on that day when she repented, salvation has come to her life”.
“Some other people did not repent. I knew a young woman who used to work at the planetarium that was also in the church building. It was a beautiful temple with a dome, so the attendees were looking at the stars and planets inside that cupola. Now, thank God, that cathedral is returned to the Church, and I even served there a couple of times. So, that young woman was giving the guided tours in that place. She never truly worried about that and later she was brutally killed in her young age. Another person who worked there was having her desk in the altar area. She also died a terrible death”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! I am telling you these stories not to scare you but to convince you that God is never defiled or defeated. His enemies are. And if we sin, it is us who are defiled, defeated and humiliated. But we have a cure – true and sincere repentance. May the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of our Church pray and intercede for us, so we may become true children of the Holy Rus’. May their heroic lives inspire us to be faithful to our Church, so salvation may come to us, to our house, to our country, to our lives!”

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

The choir beautifully performed the magnification and the stichera of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church during preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the Liturgy the Rector performed a memorial Litia for all the deceased who perished during the times of godless persecutions of Christian faith in Soviet Union.

After the service the Rector greeted Anton and Maria Malyshev on their past name distributing the Theotokian prosphora among them. He also congratulated Andrew Malyshev on the occasion of his birthday. Traditional Polychronion was proclaimed on behalf of each one of them.

Following our services the Rector and some parishioners stayed for the coffee hour and enjoyed delicious refreshments and a nice conversation.

Last Sunday, January 30, we had no service in our church due to the snow storm on Saturday. Our Rector was not able to arrive in New York. However, by his blessing, a group of our parishioners volunteered to come to the church property to remove the snow.

A commendable work of shoveling the snow was performed by the Malyshev family (Andrew, Maria, Anton and little Elena), Liana Sukhishvili, Emilian Suric, Richard Beltran and his mother Maria.

We are very grateful them for the work done for the benefit of the Church. God bless our cheerful helpers!

Our Sunday service on January 30 is cancelled due to inclement weather.

On January 23, on the Sunday after the Theophany, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our parish temple. After the reading from the Holy Gospel he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate Sunday after the Theophany. We read the short Gospel passage telling us that our Lord Jesus Christ began His saving ministry (Mt. 4, 12-17. Let us talk about that Gospel lesson”.
“First we read: “When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee” (Mt. 4, 12). Very soon after he baptized the Lord in the Jordan River, St. John the Baptist was incarcerated. He suffered not precisely for Christ but for preaching the truth about king Herod Antipas. Later the Holy Forerunner was put to death for that, so in his troparion we sing, “having contested for the truth, thou joyfully preached in the hades…”. We should recall that Jesus proclaimed about Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14, 6). Jesus Christ is the Truth because He is God, therefore if someone is preaching the truth and is suffering for the truth, he suffers for Christ. Of course, it has to be the truth, not some idea which someone considers to be true. Many people are unfortunate to suffer for things which are not truth. But if someone is upholding real truth, he is serving God and suffers for that. And we have to admit, many people preaching the truth are persecuted and put in prison”.
“So, Jesus hearing that St. John is in prison, departed to a different region where He could safely begin to proclaim His preaching. That region was Galilee where Christ grew up. But we read that He left His town of Nazareth and came to the lands in Galilee that were populated by the Gentiles, the regions of Zabulun and Naphtali. This is why the Gospel says, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned” (Mt. 4, 16). The heathens dwelling in those regions, living in the darkness of their false religion and superstitions, were given a blessing to hear the preaching of Christ. The true Light has down upon them”.
“Dear brothers and sisters, the Light of Christ is shining upon all of us. It is accessible for the whole humanity. It is noticeable that in this time of the year we observe that we see more light. Today the Church commemorates St. Gregory of Nyssa, a great Father of the Church. He was the brother of St. Basil the Great and he was a prominent theologian and philosopher. He wrote about this season: “Today the darkness begins to grow shorter and the light to lengthen, as the hours of night become fewer…. Realize that the true Light is now here and, through the rays of the Gospel, is illumining the whole earth.” So, celebrating the feast of the Theophany we see that even nature reminds us of the light overcoming darkness. And in spiritual sense, our celebration reminds us that the true Light, Christ our God, is now shining for all of us”.
“However, not every human being becomes enlightened by Christ. Sadly, we observe that a lot of people ignore that light or even turn away from it. Some even attempt to block that light from shining upon others. The way St. John the Baptist was persecuted, nowadays many of those who love the truth and the light of Christ are being persecuted. But that true Light cannot be overshadowed. And if we truly wish to live by that light, the light of Truth will enlighten us and will show us in the true state – the way we are”.
“If we come to a dark room, we cannot see whether it is dirty or clean. But when the sunlight is coming to that room, all the dust and filth becomes visible. In the same way, spiritually, the light of the Truth, the light of Christ, reveals our sins and passions. And if we want to please God, we will begin cleaning. That cleaning is called the repentance, to which both St. John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus called the humanity”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! In order to clean the house, we need to do some work. In order to clean the soul, we need to repent, to perform spiritual labor. Last Sunday we were talking about that. In order to begin something, we need to prepare and to get rid of everything that stands on our way. For the soul, for the spiritual life, such work is repentance. It is a conversion; repentance, metanoia – a “change of mind”, as it is literally translated from Greek. To repent means to change your mind, your way, to change your person. It is to be honest with yourself and to see yourself in a true light, the way we really are. It is to be truthful. It is to suffer for the truth”.
“Only by such a true repentance we may be successful in our spiritual efforts. Only by being truthful with ourselves and by acknowledging our sins we may become mature in spirit. As Holy Apostle Paul says in today’s Epistle, then “we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4, 14)”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Let us follow the command of our Lord and work spiritually to repent. Let us attempt all the time to cleanse ourselves from sins and defilement. Let us frequently confess our sins to the Lord in the presence of a God’s priest. Let us be loyal to the truth and the truth of Christ will surely save us and lead us to the Kingdom of Heaven which is always at hand since the true light of Christ has dawned upon us!”

The choir performed festal hymns of the Theophany during preparation for Holy Communion.

Following the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector made some announcements.

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

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today we celebrate the great holy day of the Baptism of the Lord, also called the Theophany. At today’s Liturgy we sing the communion hymn which repeats the words of today’s Epistle, “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men” (Tit. 2, 11). Theophany means the appearance of God. It occurred when our Lord Jesus Christ came to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. This was the moment when Christ revealed Himself to the universe. But St. Paul says that God has appeared to all men through His grace that brings salvation. The whole mission of our Lord Jesus Christ was to bring salvation to the human kind. This is why He appeared by bringing the way of salvation, by bestowing His saving grace”.
“Celebrating Baptism of the Lord we renew our own baptismal vows which oblige us to be faithful to Christ and to renounce the evil one. Our Baptism was the door which opened to us the saving grace of the Lord. But this was supposed to be just the beginning of our salvation. Now we have to preserve that grace and to obtain it more and more. In today’s Epistle St. Paul clearly says that “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (Tit. 2, 12).  “The present age” about which St. Paul is saying is the time we live, the time between the two comings of Christ. It happened to be relatively long. More than two thousand years mankind is living in that time, in that “present age”. And we may say that this time is becoming more and more difficult. People abandon faith, denounce religion, go astray from the traditional moral values. The climate is changing and the diseases spread. Some wise people say that it happened all the time in those two thousand years, that there were periods of disasters and periods of decline of faith and morals. But since we live now, not some centuries ago, it seems that our age is so unfortunate. But we are here to endure all these tests”.
“Every year living in that time we commemorate the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God celebrating these winter feasts of the Nativity, of the Circumcision and of the Theophany. Thus we honor and remember the first coming of Christ. It began with His glorious Birth in the Cave of Bethlehem, it continued when the Child was given the name Jesus, the name of the Savior. And it did completely reveal itself when Jesus Christ appeared to the people at the Jordan”.
“The grace of that first coming is still with us. We should live by it. Our life “in the present age” has to be sober, righteous and godly, as St. Paul says (Tit. 2, 12). It means it should be spiritual and just. Striving for what is spiritual and avoiding what is sinful is not very easy. Our corrupted nature makes it very difficult. However, we are not left alone in that. We are no longer on our own. “The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared” (Tit. 2, 11). It is available to us. It may help us. What seems to be impossible with men may become possible with God (Lk. 18, 27). With His grace many things are possible, including our salvation”.
“This “present age” is also important as time of the expectation of the second coming of Christ. St. Paul says that we are “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2, 13). If we honor and commemorate the first coming of Christ, His Incarnation, we should remember and expect His second coming. We do it not by celebrating or holding feasts, but by our everyday Christian life, living for Christ and “being His own special people, zealous for good works,” as St. Paul says in today’s reading (Tit. 2, 14)”.
“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Let us then live in our present time, celebrating and honoring the first appearing of the Lord, His Theophany and expecting His glorious second Coming. Let us live soberly, righteously and godly. The Divine grace which appeared with Christ to all men will definitely help us in that. It will make us His own special people, zealous for good works. It will then save us all!”

The choir prayerfully performed hymns of the feast during preparation for Holy Communion.
After the Prayer behind the Ambo the Rector performed the Great Blessing of water.

Following the Liturgy dismissal the Rector and the altar servers came before the icon stand and performed the rite of glorification singing the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Theophany. Then the Rector greeted the faithful on the great holy day and briefly instructed on the use and keeping of the holy water.

On January 16, on the Sunday before the Theophany, our parish gathered for a nice celebration in our temple. Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! On Sunday before the Theophany we read the beginning of the Gospel of St. Mark. We hear about the preparation for the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ to the world. That preparation was made by God sending St. John the Baptist who is called the Forerunner. He was “running before”, he was a predecessor who had to prepare the way for the Lord”.
“By the way, today we commemorate Holy Prophet Malachi who revealed the God’s prophecy about St. John 4 centuries prior to his life: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You” (Mal. 3, 1). These same words are written by Holy Apostle Mark in today’s Gospel. Prophet Malachi was one of the 12 Lesser Prophets of the Old Testament. In fact, he was the last Old Testament Prophet. Sometimes we say that St. John the Baptist was the last Prophet of the Old Testament and the first Prophet of the New Testament. But to be precise, Malachi was the last one among the prophetic men who was writing about the coming of Christ. And he was writing about the messenger who was supposed to be sent before Christ to prepare His way, prophesying about John the Baptist. But the very name Malachi meant “my messenger” or “my Angel””.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Today’s Gospel story spiritually teaches us that in our own lives we also have to prepare the ways for the Lord. Holy Forerunner John was calling the people to get ready for the coming of the Savior. He said, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight” (Mk. 1, 3). Thus we have to take our own part in that preparation. How can we do that? Let us see what we do to prepare for the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Partaking of the Holy Communion is, in fact, coming of Christ into our life – physical and spiritual coming. So, what we do to get ready for that coming? Usually, we read the rule of prayer, we fast from midnight. But we also examine our conscience and decide whether we need to go to confession. For many of us reception of the Eucharist is connected to another Sacrament – the Mystery of Penance. Very often we need to repent before we partake of the Holy Communion. Even if we choose not to go to confession, we absolutely need to show repentance for our sins before we dare to approach the holy chalice. And our prayers before Communion contain a lot of words of repentance. Therefore, prayer, fasting and repentance are the preparation to unite with the Lord”.
“Sometimes we complain that we do not feel the real help from God, or we say that we are not really exalted by our spiritual works. Today’s Gospel should open our spiritual eyes to see our spiritual state. In order to acquire God’s help and divine blessings, we need to be prepared. We need to do some spiritual labor. St. John the Baptist was calling us to such a labor saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Mt. 3, 2). Spiritual labor is to see our sins, to become aware of them and to confess them, as those people did – the people who were coming to St. John the Baptist. He baptized them, he immersed them into the waters of the Jordan River, so their sins were symbolically washed away. But he was telling them that his baptism is just a preparation for the Baptism of Christ. St. John was saying, “I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk. 1, 8)”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! We now have the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ who is giving us various gifts of the Holy Spirit through His Holy Church. And in order to be spiritually comforted, strengthened and to have God’s blessings and help, we have to work spiritually, we have to prepare our souls for being along with the Lord”.
“The two great holy days, Nativity and Theophany, being united together, make up a joyful season which is called “Sviatki” in Russian. In the ancient Church these two feasts were celebrated on one day, so the Incarnation of the Son of God and His appearance to the world were honored together. That ancient feast was called the Lord’s Theophany. The Armenian Church is still doing that. Although it is formally considered fallen from the fullness of Orthodoxy, it is spiritually close to us and is keeping many ancient traditions of Christianity. And we, who have the two separate holy days, the Nativity and Theophany – we should remember about their spiritual connection to each other”.
“In fact, we have the three important feasts of this season – Christmas, Circumcision of the Lord and His Holy Baptism. They all are linked together. On Christmas day we commemorate the Birth of Christ. On Circumcision we remember that Christ was given His special human name – Jesus, meaning “God the Savior”. And on the feast of Theophany, or Baptism, we commemorate His appearance to the world”.
“When we celebrated Christmas, we recalled that when Christ was born into this world, He found no place in human dwellings. The homes of men, as well as the hearts of men were closed for the Lord coming into the world. But now the Church begins to call us not to repeat what the most people did at the time of the Birth of Christ. Through the lips of St. John the Baptist the Church calls us to open our hearts, to prepare the ways for the Lord, so the Lord would be with us not only at the time of preparation for the feast of His Baptism, but in all our life. By the words of the Holy Forerunner the Church teaches us to follow Christ, to live by His blessed Commandments and to enter the holy Kingdom of God that He brought to us that no one who believes in Him would not perish but had eternal life!”

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

The choir performed Psalm 33 during preparation for Holy Communion.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector made announcements regarding coming holy day of the Theophany.

Parish Warden and Choir Director, Olga Roussanow greeted Archpriest Igor Tarasov on the occasion of his past 56th birthday and expressed good wishes to our pastor on behalf of all the parishioners. Traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta!”) was proclaimed to Fr. Igor. Then the Rector thanked her and parishioners for their greetings.

After the service a delicious luncheon was served in honor of Fr. Igor’s birthday. The Rector and parishioners had a chance to enjoy tasty meals and a nice company. The luncheon was attended by Abbot Eutychius (Dovganyuk) who also greeted Fr. Igor. To adorn the feast, the choir singers performed the Polychronion in a special way and a Ukrainian Christmas carol.

On January 9, on the Sunday after the Nativity, our St. George Parish family gathered again for a nice celebration. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple. After the Gospel reading he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! On this Sunday after Christmas we have to learn what happened very soon after the Birth of Christ. Today’s Gospel lesson is telling us that after the departure of the Wise Men the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt because king Herod was looking for the Child Jesus to destroy Him (Mt. 2, 13). So, right after the joy of having Her first-born Child, Blessed Virgin had to run and hide. This gives us a very common picture of the life in this sinful world. The fallen human nature, human envy and hatred do not allow to live peacefully, but, on the contrary, spoil the lives of others and tend to destroy it. It is common that some people have a lust for power and wealth, and tend to oppress others while other kind of people are oppressed and deprived. Some persecute while others are persecuted”.
“The Christmas story is about those different kinds of people. In fact, it is about all kinds of them, it represents the whole human world”.
“King Herod represents all human corrupt rulers who desire to preserve their power at any cost. Herod knew that the Messiah was to come into the world. However, his own power was more important for him than salvation of his own people. And when Jesus was born and the Wise Men came to search for him, Herod became very disturbed (Mt. 2, 3). Instead of being excited about the Birth of the Messiah, he was worried that this little Child could take over his throne. Today we hear from the Gospel that Herod became angry after being deceived by the Wise Men who did not tell him about the place where the Child Jesus was. So he sent to kill all the infants in Bethlehem from two years old and under (Mt. 2, 16). The history of mankind is full of the examples of many Herods who sacrifice their own people, who shed innocent blood in order to strengthen their power. They do not care for spiritual matters but only use them to support their dominion. They falsify the elections to stay in their office, they use military and police force to keep their power”.
“But the Christmas story is not only about Herod. As we said, we also see other kinds of people. We see the shepherds. They become worthy of the appearance of the Angels who proclaim the joyful news to them – that the Savior is born. And the shepherds rush to the cave to worship Him. This is an example of simple, sincere and pious people who are blessed by God. We should now recall that from the beginning of humanity God loved the shepherds. Righteous Abel was a shepherd and God blessed his sacrifice. Thus shepherds are the devout people who sincerely love God”.
“In the story of the Nativity we see the Wise Men. These were the astrologers, the scientists of their age. Our tradition often refers to them as to the Three Kings. So, they could be the rulers in their own countries, just as Herod. They were serving false gods, practicing magic and sorcery, but they were looking for the truth. And being led by the star of Bethlehem they found the true Savior of the human race, the Child Jesus. Thus those wise men represent the scholars who look for the truth, who search for God. As the kings, they also represent the rulers who are seeking justice and do care about spiritual matters, the rulers who maintain the religious and moral values in their countries”.
“Today’s Gospel tells us about the Holy Infants killed by Herod in Bethlehem. They became the first Martyrs for the newborn Christ. They represent innocent children murdered by other people. First of all, they represent the unborn children killed in the mother’s womb, the victims of abortions. Yes, this is also part of the Christmas story. And in our festal joy we should not forget about that bitter truth, about such a terrible crime taking place in our world”.
“Finally, we see the Holy Family. Especially, the head of the household, righteous Joseph the Spouse. He humbly fulfills his duty to care and protect the Holy Family. Being advised by the Angel of the Lord he accepted Mary when She was pregnant. Now, again, advised by the Angel he takes the Child Jesus and His Mother and flees to Egypt. We may only imagine how hard it was for him and for the Holy Family to leave their native country and to go to the different land. But they did so in order to preserve the future Savior of the world. Therefore, St. Joseph represents a worthy and decent man who is fulfilling his obligation of taking care of the family, who protects his spouse and his children. And the Holy Family fleeing from Herod represents the persecuted in the world. Especially, it represents the persecuted Christians who are even now, in our times, are in fact persecuted and discriminated. They are persecuted in the Middle East or China; but they are in a different way persecuted in our own country”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, the Nativity story shows us the human race in different types of people. And we need to imitate some of them and avoid the attitude of others. We need to imitate the shepherds in their sincere trust to God, in their simple but fervent faith. We need to imitate righteous Joseph in his readiness to obey the will of God and in his care for the Holy Family, for the Child Jesus. Like him, we need to preserve Jesus, preserve Him in our hearts and let no one to destroy Him. We need to imitate the wise men in their love for knowledge but combined with the search for spiritual truth, the longing for God. And when they found God, found the Child Jesus they presented Him with the gifts. We also should give the Lord our own gifts – gifts of material nature like gold, gifts of spiritual nature like incense and gifts of moral nature like myrrh. But we have to avoid the attitude of Herod, the attitude of sin, evil desire and lack of love. Like those Wise Men who did not return to Herod, we should avoid being in contact with such people or such powers in the world, but to worship the true God, our Lord Jesus Christ born for us in a manger but who will rule the universe and redeem it!”

The choir prayerfully performed different beautiful hymns of the Nativity during preparation for Holy Communion.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector made some announcements.

On January 7 the Russian Orthodox Church observes feast of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, also known as Christmas. Our St. George Church had a nice celebration of that holy day. 

On January 6, on Christmas Eve, our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the All-Night Vigil. That service consists of the Great Compline, Matins and the First Hour. 

On Christmas day, January 7, our Rector served the Divine Liturgy. Despite the snowfall that occurred that morning, most of our parishioners came to the temple to participate in the divine service of the great feast.

Following the Gospel lesson the Rector proclaimed the Christmas Sermon of Venerable Isaac the Syrian.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, the Rector had a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease.

During the preparation for Holy Communion at the Liturgy the choir beautifully performed different liturgical hymns of the Nativity.

After the Liturgy dismissal the Rector and the altar servers performed the rite of glorification singing the troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Nativity before the festal icon in the middle of the church. Then the Rector greeted the faithful on the occasion of the great holy day of the birth of the Son of God. He preached a sermon concerning the two aspects of the feast.

First, as the Rector pointed out, we should reflect upon the Incarnation of God – that God became Man. Jesus Christ became one of us, completely the same as we are, except sin. And when we think of that, we may say that our human nature is corrupt, so it is natural for us to be sinful. However, as the Holy Fathers, especially Venerable Maximus the Confessor, stressed, sin was not a part of human nature at the beginning. Thus it was completely right and understandable that Christ assumed our nature without sin. This idea should encourage us to strife for perfection in Christ.
Secondly, we should note that the Nativity of Christ happened almost in secret. It was not known to the most of the world. The Holy Family came to Bethlehem due to the census conducted by the Ceasar and the Virgin Mary did not intend to give birth there. The Holy Family was not known in that area and it found no place to stay, just a cave serving as a stable. When Christ was born there, only the shepherds enlightened by the Angels came there. Later the wise men arrived being led by the mysterious star. And Herod learned later and was disturbed. No one else knew about that event. In the similar way, we, Orthodox Christians, sometimes feel when we celebrate Christmas according to our calendar, in this country. Most of the people here have already celebrated. And they did it in the opposite way: many had their Christmas party before December 25. We should celebrate today and be merry after, not before Christmas. And we do it in our way being a minority in the society. But we should be encouraged by that also, keeping in mind that we, in some way, resemble those to whom the Birth of the Savior was revealed. And we should remember that at the second coming Christ will come openly and His coming will be known to the whole universe.

After the Rector’s sermon the parish Warden, Olga Roussanow had a speech in which she congratulated Archpriest Igor Tarasov on the occasion of his 32nd Anniversary of priestly ordination. Traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta!”) to Fr. Igor was proclaimed.

Our celebration continued at the trapeza table where a tasty luncheon was prepared by our parishioners. Everybody enjoyed delicious meals and a nice company. Several toasts in honor of Fr. Igor were raised by parishioners and the Polychronion to our pastor was sung again.