Today, we celebrate a momentous feast — Ascension. Everything connected to God, Who came into this world, we experience within the Church. This is not a mere repetition; it is reality, it is eternity, where there is neither past nor future, but everything exists in the present. Man lost God and found himself on Earth. Paradise was also a place of God until sin entered it. And the church is heaven on Earth, as defined by the Fathers.
Therefore, we ascend whenever we come to the church. We detach ourselves from all worldly cares. We are alone with God. This means we are already in heaven. Just now, everyone was in heaven. Perhaps some have already descended. Maybe some thoughts, some worries, some earthly anxieties have pulled us back down, and we are no longer in heaven but on Earth. And if there are any grievances or bad thoughts — then we are already below the Earth. This is why Ascension is so important to us.
The Lord has shown us where to direct our minds. Not to crawl upon the Earth, not to search for something we might find here — some happiness or fortune smiling upon us. No, here there are only bones, only a communal grave where each buries the other. But there, life is eternal, everything is genuine.
Thus, we get entangled in various worldly circumstances. Each person has their own. We constantly descend, and the soul suffers greatly from this — even if a person does not understand it because the soul needs heaven. The Liturgy is, of course, beyond time and space. It is a service that already makes us partakers of the new eternal life.
How will it be in paradise? It will be like this. Everyone has embraced God. And now everyone has love in their soul. We have no bad thoughts or feelings. We are all united in Christ right now. This is how it will be eternally in paradise. And people will not need to procure food for themselves, nor will they need any comforts or material values. Because everything exists in God, and we may already have experienced this in our lives.
I don’t know about others, but I remember when the Lord touched me, there were no more barriers, no divisions of any kind. Everything was beautiful because Christ was in the soul.
And the Kingdom of Heaven is when we see God in everyone. Do we see God in everyone right now? Of course, we do. And do not doubt it; God is in all of you. You are so beautiful. You need to accept this, understand it, and leave here in the name of the Lord without losing Christ. Then we will be in heaven. It seems we are on Earth, yet not on Earth at the same time. It seems you live by laws where there are some papers exchanged for goods and services, traffic rules, and other laws. But for those who are in Christ, these laws no longer exist. They are for the dead. Let the dead bury their dead. But we have a different law — the law of love. If we are allowed to suffer, we say: “The Lord allows this out of love so that we do not become arrogant and continue to labour.”
Feast of the Ascension of the Lord at St Elisabeth Convent in Minsk
If someone deceives or offends us, we do not look at them with anger or malice but with pity and compassion: “They do not know what they are doing.” Why is this necessary? Who needs it? We begin to live; we create our world. This world was given to us by the Lord. And in this world, we must live in God’s realm, not in the devil’s domain where everyone fights each other, and humanity degenerates. It is already happening. Many people now agree that there should be no boundaries and no restrictions. “Live as you wish, do whatever you want.” You are your own master. We might as well set up incubators. You know, like chickens! There’s a difference between a hen and a rooster with their love, eggs, and chicks, and an incubator that churns out thousands of chicks.
This is how the devil wants the world to be. No families, no love. Satisfy your lust, indulge your sin. This is the ideology of the Western world. And no one can do anything about it. Even the best people weep and say, “We can’t do anything.” But we live with God in holy White Russia.
I can share a thought from a sister that touched my heart deeply. Remember 2020? The pandemic. Easter arrived, but in Moscow, Kiev, and beyond, photographs circulated of churches standing empty. But in our Convent in Minsk, there was always a full church. Her words echoed with a powerful truth: our collective prayer had become a shield against the storm of war, leaving our land mercifully free of shelling. There would be bombs exploding here by now, but God had mercy on ‘White Russia’. Isn’t that a profound thought? I was truly struck by it. Indeed, Lukashenko was the only leader who did not close the churches in his land. The only one in the world. And so we continue to live.
We will live with God. We don’t need those sick, insane people trying to erase the memory of God from people’s hearts. Still, I think our time for repentance has not yet come. But it will. Imagine a high-rise building in the evening; who knows what happens in those apartments? Now imagine such a building where everywhere, lamps are lit, incense burns. Wherever you go, in every flat, there is prayer. Can you picture that? Imagine people at the market discussing deep theology, as they did in Constantinople. They weren’t concerned with the price of potatoes or tomatoes. They were more interested in theological questions — how to properly glorify God, and how to organise our worship life.
Just imagine what life was like back then, the heights they reached! When John Chrysostom preached, the whole city came to him, even non-Christians, because he had the spirit within him. And everyone felt this spirit. If you have this spirit within you, thousands around you will be saved, without needing to prove or explain anything to anyone, argue or quarrel. Be in the spirit; then your words will be heard even by those close to you. Of course, as it is known, a prophet is not without honour except in his own home, but they will hear if it is said in the spirit. Happy feast day, beloved!
