Priest Valery Zakharov: How can we love God if we don’t love even ourselves? If we loved ourselves, we would do all the things that we do differently: we would consider the consequences. We often don’t care about the consequences of what happens to us. It is almost as if we are riding a bicycle downhill without brakes. The wind is fresh, of course, but when we encounter an obstacle, we are unable to stop. However, we climb that hill over and over again, for the hundredth or a thousandth time. Still, the experience that we get every time makes us hope to change for the better, to become more careful, attentive, and cautious. Over time, if the Lord allows us to live to an advanced age, we will start to treat things that happen around us with greater circumspection. Or won’t. At least, we would like to.
Sermon Before the Confession in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on December 9, 2016
Of course, we are far from being humble, from being in the relationship with God, but we know that He loves us — He has made it clear more than once. Our task is to respond to his love. This is the original condition of human beings.
***
Repentance means getting rid of the dirt that covers our hearts and blocks us from seeing God and changing our lives. At the same time, we should live for the sake of our neighbours because the Lord said that they are a test for our love.
Sermon Before the Confession in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on December 16, 2016
Some people say that we Orthodox want to humiliate and restrict ourselves due to our faith. On the contrary, we attempt to exalt ourselves to be like Christ, to be holy.
***
When we see our sins — that’s God’s gift: we confess them, and the Lord cleanses us. Those who can’t see their sins abide in darkness and are satisfied with it.
Sermon Before the Confession in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on December 23, 2016
Archpriest Sergius Khrapitsky: The Holy Fathers tell us: Wine… maketh glad the heart of man. Sure, each person has their own understanding of what it means to be glad. Some people think it means debauchery, while others consider being glad as being free from depression when they stop being idle and start acting, helping their neighbours, their wives and children. One needs an impulse to do so. This small droplet, this Holy Communion, that we have received today gives us that impulse. It contains the meaning of our current and future life, i.e. Jesus Christ.
Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on May 18, 2017
Archpriest Demetrius Basalygo: Each time we participate in the Sacrament of Sacraments, the Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy, we become the Body of Christ. We are in anticipation of the glory to come. We are already in that glory, we already enjoy this divine life, we are already sitting to the right side of God the Father, we are already exalted to the Heaven with Christ. This is what happens in the Church. This is what the Church is all about.
Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on May 26, 2017
Priest George Glinsky: God’s Kingdom is not something we are still waiting for: it is already revealed in the Church, which is nothing other than the statement of the crucial fact that God has defeated death. This is God’s victory over the sin and a new road for the entire human race.
Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on December 22, 2016
Priest Alexander Pashkovsky: We should be careful with food. We should not buy excess food, if possible. Instead, we should help someone because there are those who are poor and needy.
Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on May 17, 2017
Priest Artemius Tonoyan: You can’t lie a little, sin a little, love a little. You either love or you don’t. You either lie or you don’t.
Sermon After the Divine Liturgy on May 21, 2017
