Category Archives: Homily/Sermon

Homily/Sermon

The Annunciation and the Divine Peace

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

On such a beautiful day, under blue Welsh skies, bathed in sunlight and surrounded by the new green leaves of spring, by blossom and birdsong, it is so easy to forget that in some parts of the world, our brothers and sisters are celebrating this feast of the Annunciation not to the sound of nesting birds and neighbours mowing their lawns, but rather to the sounds of sirens, gunfire and explosions. Yet, wherever there are Orthodox parishes and people, the feast will be celebrated, bringing light and hope to the suffering faithful as they celebrate the conception of the Saviour as the hope of the nations, Who brings light in the darkness, and to Whom we pray for “the peace from above.”

In the Imperial City, the Emperor and Equal to the Apostles, Saint Constantine built the temple of ‘Agia Irini, the Church of the Holy Peace, dedicated not to the Holy Martyr, but to the Divine Peace, for which we pray in every Liturgy.

This feast of the Annunciation inaugurates that Divine Peace, in the reconciliation between fallen humanity and God, and not only between heaven and earth, but even between the heavenly heights and the depths of Hades holding the righteous dead of the Old Covenant, who were held captive there. 

In his verse homily on ‘The Descent of the Angel’, the great Syrian Father, Jacob of Sarugh celebrates the Annunciation as the peace treaty made between God and humanity, and between heaven and earth.

In the conversation between God’s ambassador, the Taxiarch Gabriel and the Theotokos as the representative of the entire human race, Mar Jacob sees the restoration of “the peace from above”, that will become Incarnate in the Person of the Saviour, the God-Man, the Theanthropos, who will be the living sign of this reconciliation and the peace treaty that will be signed with His Blood, sealed by His last breath, with the words “It is done!” The earthquake and eclipse of Great Friday, and the tearing of the Veil of the Temple will be the heralds of this peace like no other, even as He descends into Hades and shatters its gates, and the chains and shackles of death, bringing light to those in darkness and raising his ancestors-according-to-the-flesh in his own resurrection.

This peace treaty begins today, as the Theotokos, after listening to the message of the Archangel, gives her consent to the plan and will of God, as she humbly says, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.”

Hidden from the eyes of the world, the Prince of Peace came to dwell within her Ever-Virgin womb, and though the Cross, the Invincible Trophy and Weapon of Peace (Kontakion of the Cross) was far off, the new Life hidden within womb of the Mother of God was already the Bridegroom going to His voluntary Passion, as we describe Him in the services of this Holy and Great Week, and the meaning of this Passion, of the Cross, the nails, the spear and death was to establish “the peace from above, and the union of all”, for which we pray in the Litany of Peace.

This “peace from above” is not the cessation of earthly conflict, be it war in Europe, Palestine, the Middle East, or any corner of the world. It is realised in the end of the enmity caused by the rebellion of man against God, the conquest and vanquishing of hell and death, the reconciliation of creation with the Creator, of man with God, and of children with their Heavenly Father.

Though man may fight against man, regime against regime, nation against nation, the reality of this Divine Peace cannot be changed, and when the Risen Saviour appeared to the Apostles, His first words (the deeper meaning perhaps not apparent or obvious) were, “Peace, be with you!”

Even now, as we pray for earthly peace, and for those (including the relatives of our own parishioners) who suffer the losses, pains and vicissitudes of war, let us celebrate the Divine peace-treaty made this day, and contemplate the words of the divinely inspired, Jacob of Sarugh.

The Descent of the Angel

The Watcher had descended while Mary was standing in prayer;

he gave her the greeting which was sent to her from the Most High:

‘Peace to you Mary, blessed one, our Lord is with you;

Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your virginity.’

Then when she heard it, she was prudently reflecting

On what might be the cause of this unusual greeting.

The Watcher said: ‘Do not be afraid, O full of mercy,

The Lord has chosen you that in your virginity you might be his Mother.

‘Behold from this time you will solemnly conceive;

you will give birth to the great One whose Kingdom is without end.’

Mary said: ‘How then will what you say happen

Since man has never been known to me, how will I bring forth?’

‘You have announced a Son to me but I am not conscious of marital union;

I have heard of nativity but I see no marriage.’

That moment was full of wonder when Mary was standing,

Conversing in argument with Gabriel.

One humble daughter of poor folk and one angel

Met each other and spoke of a wonderful tale.

A pure virgin and fiery Watcher spoke with wonder:

a discourse which reconciled dwellers of earth and heaven.

One women and the prince of all the hosts

Had made an agreement for the reconciliation of the whole world.

The two had sat between heavenly beings and earthly ones;

they spoke, attended to and made peace for those who were wroth.

Maiden and Watcher met each other and conversed in argument on the matter

Until they abolished the conflict between the Lord and Adam.

That great strife which occurred amidst the trees

came up for discussion, and it all came to an end; there was peace.

An earthly being and heavenly one spoke with love;

the struggle between the two sides ceased, and they were at peace.

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Surrounded by the violence, the madness, and the conflict of the world, may the Divine Peace make its home within our hearts and minds, as we abandon ourselves into the embrace of God’s love, Love which become a Person and was Incarnate in the womb of the Virgin-Mother on this Great Feast, as “the crown of our salvation, and the manifestation of the mystery that was before the ages.”

This mystery is the pre-eternal wonder of God’s ineffable, immeasurable, and sacrificial love: the love that came like the father of the prodigal son, to search for us when we were lost and estranged in spiritual exile, and took on human flesh when a young mother in Nazareth surrendered herself to God’s will, and said “yes” to becoming His instrument of reconciliation and the peace between heaven and earth.

Let us try to forget disagreements, arguments, conflicts, the negative memories of the past, and struggle to love and forgive, however hard that may be, so that we may aspire to “the peace from above”, however difficult our struggle may be.

We must pray continually, seeking to continually forgive, continually asking for forgiveness, confessing our weakness and insufficiency, and creating (by humility) a place within our hearts for that peace to make its sacred home.

Unless we at least try to do this, this feast and all it represents will have no meaning, resonance or spiritual significance in our lives.

Amen.

Christ is Born! Nativity Greetings.

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Dear brothers and sisters: Christ is Born!

As we celebrate the feast of the Lord’s Nativity, we contemplate the Lord’s birth in the darkness of the night, and like the shepherds and magi, as they draw near to the new-born Saviour, we are surrounded by great darkness, though it is a spiritual and moral blackness that envelops us in our lives.

As I reflected in my homily, the icon of the Nativity shows the Infant Lord and His manger before a gaping black hole, a cosmic spiritual void and mouth of hell… the entrance to the depths of spiritual darkness, devoid of God and hope.

Darkness surrounds the Nativity, and in the icon, we see both shepherds and wise men journeying through the night: the former arriving from the near locality and the latter ending a longer and more perilous journey.

For us it is not the darkness of the night sky, in which the magi watched the stars, or the physical darkness of the Judaean night in which the shepherds watched for wild animals or thieves, guarding their flock by the comforting defence of their nighttime fire, but spiritual-darkness, uncertainty and fear that surrounds us.

Not wolves and lions, but a myriad of spiritual dangers and forces wait to attack us on every side, and we face so many pressures, worries and anxieties in everyday life. But, though we may not be able to change the exterior spiritual darkness of our confused world, it is for each us to decide whether to be watchful and vigilant, to seek the Light of the World, new-born and laid in the manger, or to abandon ourselves to the danger-filled blackness of the spiritual night.

Through this darkness, the Lord calls out to us, “Fear not!” and it is the Incarnate Saviour, Himself, who has become the messenger/angelos that brings the tidings of joy and true peace, possible in the hearts of the faithful, even in the most terrifying, violent and threatening of times.

It is the Saviour Himself who has become the day-star from on high, guiding us through perils and dangers, and dispelling the fearful shadows for those who seek Him and rejoice in His birth.

Knowing that He remains Emmanuel – God-with-us – we are called to rise up and hasten to Him, to bow down and worship Him, and like the shepherds and magi, to put aside everything that previously seemed important and pressing.

The magi left behind all that was familiar, secure and comfortable, in order to seek Truth, willing to face risks and dangers to arrive at the place where they would find that Truth and offer Him their gifts as they bowed down and worshipped Him.

The shepherds willingly left the light and security of the fireside and the protection of the sheep-fold to stumble through the darkness to search for the Light of the World.

Like them both, we must struggle through the night to bring not only the gifts we have, however great and noble, or more likely poor and humble, as well as our anxieties, problems and fears, and to forget the darkness and danger that surrounds us as we behold the Saviour and long-awaited Messiah, and contemplate the wonderful fulfilment of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” Let us then heed the words of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians and, despite the darkness of the world, “live as children of light.”

Amen.

A Homily On The Lord’s Descent Into the Jordan

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, greetings as we celebrate the Baptism of Our Lord, and God, and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

The celebration of the Lord’s Baptism, is central not only to our Christian year, but to the very fabric of our Orthodox spirituality, and our understanding and experience of God’s immanence through His sanctification of creation and the gift of His grace.

Whilst the focus of the Christian west on the Lord’s Cross and passion constantly overlooks His baptism, we Orthodox Christians joyfully and enthusiastically celebrate the Theophany in the Jordan as a crucial act in the Saviour’s redemptive work, and which the Church Fathers saw as central to the economy of salvation.

Whilst the Lord’s Cross and passion is the altar of His sacrifice, His descent into the Jordan and baptism by John, is the mystery by which humanity is reclothed in the robe of glory, which Adam wore of old, but lost through his rebelliousness and disobedience.

Theophany is Christ’s baptismal calling to us, through which both individual Christians and their corporate totality, the Church, are betrothed to Christ the Bridegroom, Who mercifully deigned to come to find that which was lost.

St Jacob of Sarug uses Adam’s name and person to represent the whole human race, and in his surviving homily on the Lord’s baptism, He poetically places words into the Saviour’s mouth, as He speaks to John of His baptism being crucial to His descent, incarnation and redemptive mission.

“Our Lord said, “I am not lacking, but in one thing: the recovery of Adam who was lost by me is sought by me.

Allow me to descend to seek Adam, the fair image, and when I shall find him, the whole of my desire will be fulfilled…

In this recovery my desire will come to perfection,

because Adam is needed by me to enter into his inheritance.

Therefore, allow me to descend to cleanse the image that has become faded…”

We are struck with the fact that the Creator’s immovable and unfading love for humanity is such that it impels Him to search and to save.

Having created Adam and Eve as not only the apex of creation, but as the primary recipients of His absolute and all-perfect love, that love demands that humanity is cleansed, and that the divine image and likeness is restored in God’s lost sons and daughters.

How daring to suggest that even though He lacks nothing, the divine will of salvation is manifested in the Saviour’s voluntary “need” to seek the lost, to restore the inheritance of eternal life to his fallen children.

Christ’s descent into the Jordan is an integral part of this restoration of Adam (humanity), and a foreshadowing of His descent into Hades.

This is reflected in the hymns of the feast, in which water is the symbol of spiritual chaos and a place of unrestrained forces, and darkness that mirrors Hades.

In ode four, the second canon of matins speaks of this, and significantly celebrates Christ’s descent into Jordan as not only for the deliverance of humanity, but for the redemption of ALL creation.

“That He might bring His own back to the life-giving pastures of paradise, the Word of God falleth upon the lairs of the dragons, and destroying their manifold snares, he assaileth him who hath bruised all mankind, and, imprisoning him, delivereth creation.”

As He is immersed in the Jordan, in a reversal of the normal spiritual operation of baptism, Christ Himself sanctifies the waters, as they are cleansed by Him, and He establishes the Baptismal Mystery as the rebirth and regeneration of those who follow Him, in the establishment of spiritual order and harmony and the subjugation of chaos and lawlessness.

Just as Christ came down from heaven at the Annunciation, to enter the womb of the Mother of God, so by His descent, the waters of Jordan, become a womb in which humanity is born anew through baptism in the Name of the Trinity, Which is gloriously made manifest as the Only-Begotten Son ascends from the waters, the confirmatory voice of the Father is heard from heaven, and the Holy Spirit descends in the likeness of a dove.

In the verbal iconography of his metrical homily, St Jacob portrays Christ speaking of fallen humanity:

“I am making them enter into the moist womb, so that it will conceive them / and give them the new birth without birth pangs.”

Through the consecration of the Jordan through the Lord’s descent into its waters, the font becomes the spiritual womb in which new life in Him is conceived, as we the faithful are reborn as a new-creation through our joining to Him: in our descent into His death and our ascent in the power of His Resurrection.

Even before the great commission, in which the Lord charged the Apostles to preach to all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, our baptism was established and sanctified by His own baptism for our sake, and for our salvation.

As St John Chrysostom reminds us, a significant difference between the baptism of John and that established by the Lord in His consecrating entry into the waters, is that the Jordan calls us not only to a baptism of repentance, but to baptism of new life in Christ.

As the third ode of the canon tells us,

“The Master draweth to Himself the divinely fashioned nature of man, which had been overcome by the tyranny of greed; and He restoreth mortal men, granting them a new birth, and accomplishing thereby a mighty work; for He is come to cleanse our nature.”

Our very human nature should be changed by the Mystery of Baptism, and our post-baptismal self should be that of a person radically changed by our mystical descent into Christ’s death, and our ascent in the power of His resurrection, which later sealed the inner meaning of this Holy Mystery, as He went to His voluntary passion.

We should each have put off the old man, to be reclothed in glory, having “put on Christ”, and this glorious Theophany should call us to reflect upon whether this is truly the spiritual reality of our lives, particularly for those who were baptised in infancy and are unable to remember life before their baptism.

As those betrothed to Christ through baptism, and as children of His resurrection, do we really seek to live as a new creation, with lives spiritually and morally set apart from the fallenness, brokenness and dysfunctionalism of the world?

If we find ourselves lacking, then enlivened, fortified and raised up by this glorious Theophany, we must rouse ourselves to action, repentance and newness of life – blessed and set aright as we share in God’s sanctifying grace, partaking of the Holy Water blessed upon this feast, mindful that at its sanctification, we have prayed…

“That these waters may be sanctified by the power, effectual operation and descent of the Holy Spirit…

That there may descend upon thse waters the cleansing operation of the super-substantional Trinity…

That He will endue them with the grace of redemption, the blessing of Jordan, the might, operation, and descent of the Holy Spirit…

That the Lord God will send down the blessing of Jordan and sanctify these waters…

That this water may be unto the bestowing of sanctification; unto the remission of sins; unto the healing of soul and body: and unto every expedient service…

That this water may be a fountain welling forth unto life eternal…

For those who shall draw of it and take of it unto the sanctification of their homes…

That it may be for the purification of the souls and bodies of all those who, with faith, shall draw and partake of it…

That He will graciously enable us to perfect sanctification by participation in these waters, through the invisible manifestation of the Holy Spirit, let us pray to the Lord.”

Take heed to the last petition!

We are not idle bystanders, but are called to be participators in this feast; to not be onlookers, but to spiritually stand on the banks of the Jordan as we enter into the cosmic spiritual renewal to which the Church calls us each and every year.

Let us be in awe, that the Creator of the land, the rivers and seas, the sun, moon and stars, of the angelic hosts and the race of men should humble Himself beneath the hands of the Forerunner for the healing, restoration and raising up of each of us.

Let us be in awe, that the worship of the Trinity should be made manifest in the glorious Theophany of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together.

Let us fall down in humility, penitence and the fear of God, filled with awe that in this feast we have truly seen that “God is the Lord,and hath revealed Himself to us!” calling us to rush to the renewal of Jordan in our temples and parishes and partake of His Grace!

With the fear of God and Faith draw near!

Amen!

On the Feast of the Circumcision of Christ

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Troparion, Tone I: O Jesus, Who in the highest dost sit with Thine unoriginate Father and the divine Spirit upon a fiery throne, thou wast well-pleased to be born on earth of Thy Mother, a Maiden who knew not man; wherefore, thou wast circumcised as a babe eight days of age. Glory to Thine all-good counsel! Glory to Thy dispensation! Glory to Thy condescension, O Thou Who alone lovest mankind!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

As we celebrate the eighth-day circumcision of the Infant Saviour, we see His merciful willingness to suffer for us, even as a new born child whose innocent blood is shed in His self-emptying and self-denying humility.

Thus, we behold not only the reality that the Only-Begotten Word has been made man, clothing Himself in human flesh, born in Bethlehem and laid in the manger, but we see that within the first days of His earthly life, He willed to be subjected to pain and the shedding of blood – a fore-shadowing of His Cross and Passion, even though His earthly birth was so few days ago.

He suffered even in His infancy precisely because He chose to become incarnate – showing that His flesh and blood, and human nature are not an illusion and mere semblance of humanity, but that as the New Adam, He is truly clothed in Adam’s flesh, by which – as Lamb of God – He will redeem us by that same precious blood, restoring His image in the first-parents and the subsequent generations of those who follow Him.

Moreover, as the seed of Abraham, whom He not only created, but called from Ur and promised that he would become the father of a multitude, He conforms Himself to the circumcision that He Himself, as Yahweh the Lord, demanded of Abraham and his descendants.

The God-man, subjects Himself to the Law which He, Himself has given!

The Saviour Who will be obedient to the death of the Cross, is obedient to the Covenant He Himself established with the great patriarch, of whom He would later say, “Before Abraham was, I am.”

What paradoxes we see.

He Who created Adam and Eve, lies as a helpless Child to be circumcised with the shedding of blood and the pain of fleshly suffering.

He Who visited Abraham at the Oak of Mamre and promised him a son, not only becomes his child in the flesh, but subjects Himself to the sign of His human descent from the father of the covenant.

He Who spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush, and gave him the Law upon Sinai is now speechless as a babe – the Eternal Logos without words in the silence of submission to the Law.

He Whom Ezekiel saw borne upon the heavenly chariot-throne, seated upon the four-faced cherubim, and the wheels-within-wheels, full of eyes, is now circumscribed within the body of an eight day old child, borne in the arms of Joseph, a vulnerable baby before the knife of circumcision.

Just as the Incarnation itself is a scandal to the impious and infidels of the world, so this circumcision is also a scandal to the world, but its shocking reality is a demonstrative sign of God’s condescending and limitless love, and a challenge to modern day Docetism – that heresy which denies the Incarnation, reducing the Lord to a spiritual being with the mere appearance of a human being, nothing more than spectral avatar, whose flesh is nothing more than a symbol.

No! This feast shouts loudly that Christ’s humanity is real, as He bleeds human blood, just as He would on Golgotha.

It also challenges the sickly, saccharine, Victorian “Away in a manger”sentimentalisation of the Incarnation and Nativity, by contrasting it the with the vocation of the Word made flesh, Who came to be a sacrificial Lamb and sheep for the slaughter, and with the spiritual violence of Golgotha, the conquering of hell and the victory of the Cross.

The real baby who bleeds on the eighth day, will grow up to be the Redeemer of mankind Who bleeds upon the Cross, shattering the gates of Hades and opening the gates of heaven not only to the children of Abraham, but to all of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, as heirs of paradise and children of the promise.

With the circumcision of the Infant Saviour, and the shedding of His blood, the journey of redemption and the Way of the Cross begins.

O Jesus, how precious is Thy blood!

Amen.

Restoring Adam’s Robe of Glory

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From St Jacob of Sarug’s poetic contemplation of the Nativity: The Archangel Gabriel speaks to the Mother of God of the restoration of Adam’s glory, as Christ comes to redeem and perfect the robe of humanity.

“I am not stripping you of your glory, as happened in the garden;

I have brought a cloak so that you can cover your forefathers who was stripped bare.

I am not weaving for you a garment of shame from leaves.

I have brought a garment of glory for Adam to be clothed in it.

My Lord is true and I am announcing the truth to you

and since you asked me, “how will it happen?” hear and understand.

The Holy Spirit will come to you in a holy manner

And the power of the Exalted One will abide upon you lovingly.

The Fashioner of babes will fashion for him a body in you and clothe himself (in it);

The Unbegotten Son shall be conceived in your virginity.

The maker of the world’s interweaves a garment in your pure womb

and prepares himself a cloak of flesh on the web of your womb.

The power of the Exalted One will abide upon you while not being belittled

and from your purity he will take a body to become a man.”

 

The Victory of the Holy Martyrs

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

This tenth day of the Nativity Fast is blessed by the double celebration of two Great-Martyrs – St Catherine of Alexandria and St Mercurius – who both lived during the first age of martyrs, resisting the paganism of the Roman Empire with the light and truth of Christ.

As an aristocrat and the daughter of the Roman consul of Egypt St Catherine was a product of the learning and culture of Hellenic antiquity. Educated to the highest standards of the classical world, she mentally outstripped even the greatest philosophers engaged to debate with her, when she disgraced her father’s house by not only rejecting the most learned, desirable and richest suitors – including the Emperor Maximian himself – but by publicly declaring her Faith in Christ, her only suitor and bridegroom.

Given over to the authorities by her own father, St Catherine learned the brutal truth of the Lord’s words in today’s Gospel for the martyrs, “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.”

Rejecting all of the temptations of marriage proposals and worldly comforts, defeating the “wisdom” of the pagan philosophers, her unshakeable, steadfast and immovable faith in Christ sealed her fate and the victory of Christ in the martyrdom following her placing her own head upon the executioners block.

St Mercurius, who lived a half century earlier, gained the reputation of being an outstanding, celebrated soldier, but this was not enough to protect him from the Roman laws against Christianity, after the emperors Decius and Valerian issued a law ordering all Roman citizens to worship the pagan gods and condemning Christians to death. 

As yet unknown as a Christian, St Mercurius proved himself a great leader in the Roman war against the Barbarians, for which he was made a military commander by the Emperor, placing him in an ever more noticeable public position in Roman society.

Mercurius refused to participate in the mandated offering of sacrifices to the pagan gods, and was summoned before the emperor. But he was neither threatened nor daunted by this, and openly declared himself a Christian, throwing down his soldier’s belt and mantle at the emperor’s feet, repudiating his military honours and his place in Roman society.

For this rebellion, the Great-Martyr was stretched over fire and lacerated with knives. So great were the cuts and lashes to his body that the blood from his wounds extinguished the flames. Yet after each bout of tortures, when his tormentors threw him back into the prison close to death, the Lord granted Saint Mercurius complete healing. 

These continued miracles showed the impious pagans not only God’s power, but also the power of the Great-Martyr’s faith in Christ.

Having been condemned to death, St Mercurius was granted a vision of the Lord, promising him a quick release from his sufferings, granted by his beheading at Cappadocian Caesarea, after which his body exuded myrrh which healed the sick.

How foolish and weak these great saints must have seemed to the Romans who mocked, tortured and martyred them… just the latest Christians consumed and seemingly destroyed by the death-machine of the pagan Roman Empire. Had the Romans kept statistics, they would have seen the sheer numbers of Christians martyrs as the evidence of the futility and uselessness of Christianity. Yet, the death of every martyr was another nail in the coffin of classical pagan civilisation, for every martyrdom was the victory of Christ over the earthly manifestation of the Kingdom of Satan.

In the same way the death of every new-martyr of the Soviet yoke brought the end of Communism and the collapse of the Iron Curtain closer. The blood of the martyrs was lethally poisonous to the Marxist system, just as that of the first martyrs was to paganism.

Every martyrdom and the passions and miracles that preceded the death of the saints not only manifested the power of Christ, but drew countless pagans into the net of His Gospel, confirming the words of the Gospel: “You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.”

When St Catherine broke the torture-wheel, rather than being broken by it, the empress Augusta, the imperial courtier Porphyry and a vast number of soldiers confessed their faith in Christ, sealing their own martyric fate, and further hastening the crumbling demise of pagan Rome. The historian Lactantius declared that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, but the self-same blood was also deathly poison to paganism.

The Faith and courage of the martyrs awoke those imprisoned in the darkness of paganism, declaring what we have heard from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

“Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”

The courage, unshakeable faith and example of the martyrs must also call us to arise from our spiritual sleep and our worldly complacency.

Since the first age of martyrs, the Church has seen wave after wave of recrimination: from heretics, from Muslims, from Communists, from politicians. 

In the 20th century and beyond, in the new age of martyrdom and renewed persecution for the faithful of the former Soviet block, the Balkans, the Christians of the Holy Land and Islamic regimes, believers quickly shared in the experience of the faithful of the Old Israel, described by St Paul in his letter to the Hebrews:

“There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated –  the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the earth.”

The twentieth century saw believers shot, drowned, burned alive, frozen to death, starved, buried alive, tortured to death, thrown from cliffs. In Gulags, prisons, concentration camps, gaols, political headquarters, and even hospitals and childrens’ homes, the KGB, Securitate, Ustashe, Stasi, Islamists, Zionists, and various terrorists have continued the assault of hell against Christianity, but all in vain, as the gates of hell cannot possibly overcome the Church.

On the back of the systematic persecution of Orthodoxy in Ukraine by the agents of western powers, we see the demonisation of Orthodoxy in the western world itself, with propaganda attacking coming from political elites in the USA, from the Czech government, and in the Baltic states.

We see the storm clouds gathering and know that persecution could be on the horizon for believers who thought this could never happen in western democracies, and never happen to them, calling us to now heed the Lord’s words, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness…”

But, all those living the Christian life are continually called to wrestle against worldy powers in living according to the Law of God.

In doing so, we must be close to the matyrs, by reading their lives, praying to them, seeking their help, and keeping heir memory alive by sharing it, so that those their steadfast examples of courage, faithfulness and strength may encourage us and others in the Faith, helping us to remain strong and resilient in defending Christian truth and being willing to face the consequences of confessing Christ and he Gospel. Perhaps, in the future, our own experiences will be held up as a testimony.

This can only be possible with dedicated Christian living, founded on prayer, spiritual life and struggle. We must head the words of St Paul to the Ephesians and “Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”

Not all of the martyrs were military saints, as indeed St Mercurius was, but they were all spiritual warriors, and we are all called to be so, not only those who suffer for Christ, but ALL believers in simply LIVING for Christ. We are ALL called to “take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand”

We are ALL ordered “gird your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”

We are ALL commanded “take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And…the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

This is our call to spiritual arms in a dedicated, active Christian life, whether our future vocation will be to sufferer for Christ, or not, as we are called to be witnesses and to resist acquiescence to the world.

Because we believe; because we have hope; because we have faith and know that Christ has already gained the victory, even though it is daunting, we need not fear, but rather “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”

His might was shown in the victory of the martyrs, and by submitting our lives to Him, we can allow His might to be shown in us, who not only love the martyrs, but seek to imitate them in their righteousness and holiness.

Holy Great-Martyrs Catherine and Mercurius, pray to God for us!

Amen.

The Endeavour For Unity

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Ephesians 4:1-6: Brethren: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, as we enter this period of the Fast, in today’s first Apostol reading, Saint Paul, charges us to struggle for peace and unity, united in our Christian calling and in a singular hope in ONE Lord, ONE faith and ONE baptism. 

Calling us to be humble and patient with one another, the Apostle calls us to endeavour to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”, and in that very word ENDEAVOUR, he acknowledges that this pursuit and maintenance of unity may sometimes be a challenge, but it remains a challenge that we must always pursue, for if we reject the need for that unity, let alone attack that unity, we REJECT one Lord, one faith and one baptism. We essentially cut ourselves off from the fellowship of the Church.

In his experience of human nature, St Paul was a realist, and in the infant Church he battled against disagreement and division, with his travels and letters not simply being to preach the Gospel and strengthen the local churches, but as part of the struggle to preserve, maintain and – when needed – restore unity in the local congregations, making it clear to the first Christians that in Christ, division was NOT a choice or option, given that we indeed, have one Lord, one faith and one baptism.

St Paul began his letter to the Church in Ephesus by calling himself “the prisoner of the Lord”, a motif he echos in other places, making clear that as a willing captive for Christ, he is not the master and he does not make the rules. Rather, as a prisoner for Christ, he willingly obeys the Lord’s commandments, and subjects himself to the orders he receives from the Saviour, and for Christians to live in harmony, peace and unity is one such order.

In this Apostol, he is writing to the Church in Ephesus, but he also addessed fractious Christians and local Churches in other parts of the ancient world.

He encouraged the Church in Corinth, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”  1 Corinthians 1:10

It is striking that later in the same letter to the Corinthians, Paul is very blunt (something we know him for), calling them immature in strong terms: “I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ” before a very direct correction: “You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?”

St Paul tells them to stop being babies and grow up, and start living according to their Christian calling, to stop being willful and worldly, and that fractiousness, jealousy and quarrelling is not worthy of a Christian.

He speaks in such strong terms, because unity and peace are essential qualities and characteristics of the Church, which is not simply an earthly institution, but also a divine one, called upon to be the theandric (i.e. Divine-Human) Body of Christ in the world, and this unity finds its origin in its founder in Whom was united both Divinity and humanity.

Starting from the Holy Mystery of Baptism, each of us called to unity – be one with Christ. Through that same baptism, each and every Christian believer is called to not only be united to Christ, but united to one another in Him: Christ not simply as our hope, but as our identity, because having been baptised in Christ, we have put on Christ. If we share this identity in Christ, we should be one.

In baptism and Faith, reflecting the Cherubic Hymn, each of us is called upon to have put aside worldliness, and to have put on Christ, so that the division, jealousy and quarrelling of which Paul speaks can have no place in the Church. 

How can we be one in Him if we argue, judge, gossip, condemn, vie for power, influence?

When we argue, cause division and militate against the unity of the Church we reject the vocation to which the Apostle refers at the beginning of today’s Apostol: “I… beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called…” and we show that we are not prisoners for Christ, but prisoners of the world and its passions, ambitions, and agendas. We show that our baptism has no meaning. How can this be squared with hope in ONE Lord, ONE faith and ONE baptism?

The foundation of our essential unity must be peace: peace with God, peace with our own conscience and peace with one another, and the theme of peace and unity present themselves at the very beginning of the Divine Liturgy, the most important expression of the Christian life, and our relationship with God.

In every Liturgy, the deacon calls us to pray in peace, something which is totally impossible of we do not strive for the peace and unity of the Church,  and without peace of mind and heart, and without peace with our brothers and sisters, we are not worthy to stand before the Altar of God, as the Saviour Himself made clear in Matthew’s Gospel, commanding us, “Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

It is in unity with one another, with peace of both heart and mind that we must not only attend the Divine Liturgy, but even stand before the Lord in prayer, for only then can our prayers have meaning. 

The creed is the liturgical sign of the unity of which Saint Paul speaks, and for which he laboured among those who were divided, but liturgical statements sung by a congregation led by its deacons will have absolutely no spiritual currency and meaning unless we have first heeded the deacons words before that first, “I believe…”

“Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess…”

In the bond of love and unity, we are called to no longer be individuals, but to confess the Symbol of Faith as the Church, doing so not simply with one mind, but with one mouth, as we say not “We believe…,” but “I believe…”

Having prayed together, chanted the creed together and offered and shared the Holy Gifts together in our first parish Liturgy of the Advent Forty Days, we begin this journey to the Nativity as a community,  and must do mindful that not simply peace and unity, but reconciliation is the very meaning of the Nativity of Christ. The appearance of God-Made-Man was to bring the greatest unity other than His own Incarnation in the union of His two-natures: the reconciliation of heaven and earth, and God and man, but also in our shared identity in Christ to bring this unity to redeemed humanity in the Communion of Saints.

If we cannot heed the Apostle Paul and struggle for spiritual unityduring our earthly lives, then what relevance can either the Nativity Fast, the celebration of the Nativity, or even the Christian Faith have for us? What can Christ mean to us if we fail to work for the peace and unity of the Church

St John records the prayer of the Saviour before His betrayal, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us…”

By trying to live in love and peace with one another, being compassionate and merciful to one another, forgiving one another, seeking to understand oneother, struggling with our differences, and endeavouring – as St Paul says – for unity, we will be saying “Amen” to this prayer of the Saviour, even if our labour for unity is sometimes difficult.

Let us abandon ourselves to be prisoners in Christ, that He may work in us and through us, and that in our weakness, He may be our strength, and our unity.

Amen.

The Good Samaritan and the Inn as an Image of the Church

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, forgive the briefness of these words sent to spare our tired Father Mark having to write a homily after his travels and demanding week.

Our Gospel reading today begins with the question that is the very reason for the Saviour preaching His parable of the Good Samaritan: “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Sadly this was not a sincere question, but a prideful and crafty attempt of a young pharisee to entrap the Saviour, and elicit an answer at odds with Jewish teaching.

The Lord, of course, saw through this scheming and had the seemingly clever young man answer his own question by declaring the answer, based on Jewish teaching in the Torah: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind…”

But that is not the whole answer. There is one more phrase, which does not come from the Torah – “…and thy neighbour as thyself.” This was the Saviour’s own addition to the Old Testament Commandment, showing us that the pharisee had already heard the Lord’s preaching, and was here quoting the Saviour Himself, but this is possibly simple a ruse, so that he can then add, “But who is my neighbour?”

The Jewish answer to the pharisee’s essential question highlights the vast gulf between the consciousness of the Israelites as a people set apart, superior, above and distinct from all other nations, and the new radical challenge of the New Covenant of the Gospel, superceeding the Law: the Old Covenant seeing neighbourly duty and obligation only towards those elect by race, circumcision and Torah… and the New Covenant seeing no distinction between Jew and Gentile, with the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

Christ is clear in this parable that our neighbour may be a person that we have met and encountered for the first time today; is not simply the known and familiar person with whom we feel comfortable and safe; those whom we like and are happy to be with; those who share our views, faith or socio-political outlook; those who speak our language and belong to our ethno-cultural world.

The parable’s initial challenge is that of recognising our neighbour, but we can easily miss the significance of the end of the parable, particularly after the departure of the Samaritan, when the inn becomes the place of healing and recovery, in which care, and acts of mercy and compassion continue at the command of the Samaritan, even though his journey has taken him away. We often fail to recognise this essential detail, and only concentrate on the acts of mercy performed at the road-side.

We should turn to the interprestation of the parable by the Church Fathers to bring us to this point.

The Church Fathers are very clear that the robbed and beaten man in the parable represents Adam, the first-father – and by extension each and every human being – on that dangerous downward descent from the spiritual heights of Jerusalem to the depths of Jericho, representing rebellion, sin and the passions.

The road which is the place of ambush and attack in the parable is humanity’s perilous downhill journey and spiritual descent that has been rebeliously trodden since the Fall.

The beating and violence inflicted on the unsuspecting victim on this road is understood as that of the demons, attacking and assaulting humanity as it turns its back on spiritual living and obedience to God.

Yet, despite the fact that the victim of the attack in the parable is travelling in a clearly wrong direction of spiritual rebellion and exile, he is not condemned or judged by the Samaritan, the image of Christ the Saviour and Healer, Who like the Samaritans of the Holy Land was an outsider and figure of contempt to the Jewish establishment.

His washing of the victim’s wounds with oil and wine is symbolic of the economy and work of salvation, pointing towards the chrism of the baptismal rite and the oil of unction, and the wine indicative of the Divine Liturgy and the Eucharist.

The representatives of the Old Covenant, the priest and Levite, who had passed  on the other side of the road before the arrival of the Samaritan, were not only cold and negligent in their lack of mercy and compassion for the man lying wounded and beaten in his own blood, but were actually symbols of the impotence and powerlessness of the Old Covenant to help or heal fallen humanity.

The Temple, its sacrifices, rites and clergy could do nothing to redeem or heal fallen Adam and his descendents. Their prayers, liturgies and sacrifices were temporary and limited. They could bring no lasting reconciliation between God and man, and heaven and earth. They could bring no lasting forgiveness of sins.

They had no oil and wine as tokens of the healing, redemptive and restorative power of the God-Man we see in the Samaritan. This healing could only come from Him, as the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The Samaritan’s symbolic acts of mercy and compassion in the roadside cleaning of wounds with that self-same oil and wine, and their bandaging, is only the beginning and initiation of the healing process for the man left lifeless as though he were dead

We must contemplate what the Samaritan, representing the Saviour, does next:

“And [he] set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.”

As this is a parable, filled with symbolic sigificance, what is the significance of the inn, which is essentially the place of healing, convalescence and restoration for broken, wounded humanity, represented by the bloodied, robbed and beaten man?

The Church Fathers are clear that this is an image of the Church, to which the Saviour entrusts those Whom He has sought out and saved. The Church is the spiritual hospital in which Saviour’s salvific-work continues, and this essentially places responsibility and the work of Christ on each of us, to ensure that the Church, as the household of God, really is a place of spiritual care and healing.

So, when the pharisee asks, “Who is my neighbour?” And the Lord answers with the parable, we are not simply called to recognition of whom our neighbour is by the selfless action of the Samaritan at the roadside, but also by contemplating the inn as the spiritual hospital of the Church, in which each and everyone of us is called to be like the inn-keeper, caring for the wounded, the broken, and the needy, with the Saviour promising us our reward when He comes again.

This places great responsibility on each of us, based on recognition of our neighbour and our willingness and duty to be like the inn-kepper in our care towards those entrusted to us by the Lord, and requiring us to act with love, mercy and compassion: welcoming them and caring for them, in the His Name, not forgetting that the heavenly inheritance spoken of by the pharisee in this parable DEMANDS that we love not only God, but our neighbour.

This is our collective and individual challenge as the Inn of the Church, and when Christ entrusts us with people who are damaged, spiritually or emotionally broken, anxious, fearful and perhaps finding no meaning in earthly life, it is not only our calling, but our God-given duty to be like the inn-keeper to dutifully and solicitously care for them, to bring them to the health and wholeness which Christ brings through salvation and the Grace of the Holy Mysteries.

This was the great labour of St John of Kronstadt, that great inn-keeper treating the bloody, beaten and crippled charges that Christ sent to him in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg – generously caring for the most tragic elements of society: the poorest of the poor, the homeless, orphans and widows, the maimed and disabled, alcoholics, drug addicts, prostitutes and criminals trying to turn around broken and shattered lives.

Like the pharisees, there were those in pre-revolutionary society that looked on with disgust and horror, that St John should take care of these disreputable and sinful outcastes representing the dregs of society. Was not St John bringing the wrong sort of people to the Church, dirtying it by their presence, and driving others away by bringing “the wrong sort of people” to the Church? (Sadly familiar complaints that we have heard with our own ears!)

Yet, the Gospel makes clear that to talk and speculate about whom our neighbour is without accepting the absolute imperative that we MUST love them is to totally miss the point of why the Lord even told this parable.

To love our neighbour is the absolute condition for the heavenly inheritance, and we must love by making the Church a place that is welcoming, loving, merciful and compassionate, in which people feel welcome, secure, safe and wanted.

To refuse to do so, to judge, to exclude, to condemn, to be cold and unwelcoming, to resent the newcomer, to not want “the wrong sort of people” who are different to us, is to actually reject the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom and rebeliously reject the Saviour’s words.

We are not the Old Israel, superior, set apart, and above all nations. We are the New Israel making no differentiation according to race and language, baptising all men and women in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, preaching and declaring the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers, and welcoming all who hear the words of Christ, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”, not only offering – in His Name – a place of rest, but also a place of spiritual healing and restoration, caring for them as those whom the Great Samaritan has brought to us, saying, “Take care of him”.

As the Church and household of Faith, and Christ’s spiritual hospital, let us do so with gladness, compassion and mercy, loving and recognising our neighbour, in obedience to the Saviour of our souls, Who will reward us when He comes again.

Amen!

The Mother of God, the Fulfilment of the Temple’s Types

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Visit of the Kursk-Root Icon to Warminster – 17 November

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, greetings on this wonderful occasion on which the ancient Kursk-Root Icon rests beneath the roof of our much-loved spiritual home of the Chapel of St Lawrence, which – in its original fabric, of which the tower remains – is more or less contemporary with our cherished wonderworking Hodegetria of the Russian Church Abroad.

It’s always inspiring to hear today’s section of the Epistle from St Paul to the Hebrews, and to contemplate the furnishings of the Temple, which the Church has historically recognised as very specific prophetic images of the Most Holy Mother of God.

The forshadowings and prophetic signs of the Mother of God, and her role as a mediatrix of our salvation was not only proclaimed in the words of the prophets, but also in the sacred imagery of the Old Covenant, especially in the ordering of the Tabernacle and the Temple: in the seven-branched candlestick, the Table of Shewbread; the golden Altar of Incense, and the gold-covered Ark of the Covenant containing the golden-pot of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the Law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and topped with the Mercy Seat, overshadowed by the carved and gilded cherubim,

Through types, signs and symbols, these prefiguring, prophetic images of the Old Covenenant, reveal the place of the Mother of God in the Lord’s unfolding Economy of Salvation, and the allegorical and typological reading of Divine Scripture also reveals the vast gulf between our Church’s ancient approach to Biblical interpretation and understanding, and the anti-traditional hermeneutic, by which reformation-thinking and reform theology robbed believers of the rich, multi-layered understanding of God’s Word, already established in the Judaism of late antiquity .

In all of these images listed in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we see a relationship between the sacred items and that which they contained or held, for they were all functional, designed with a purpose, to hold or reserve sacred things, and to perform a God-given sacred purpose. The items mentioned, carved or cast and covered with the purest gold, were not simply ornaments, but were each revealed by God as part of the worship central to the covenenant-relationship between Him and the Old Israel.

Beyond the first veil, the great seven-branched menorah was fashioned with oil-cups in the form of almond blossoms, which were filled with the olive oil that fed the wicks whose flames filled the Holy Place with Light – a prophetic image of the Mother of God as the lampstand that bore Christ the Light of the World.

The Table of Shewbread bore the sacrificial Bread of the Presence, the sign of God’s dwelling in the midst of His people, the bread-offering filled by God’s with “infectious holiness” and grace – just as the Mother of God, as the Mystical-Table, bore Christ, the Bread of Life, Who Himself proclaimed, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)

Though its exact position is debated, the golden Altar of Incense stood in the Holy Place for the morning and evening incense-offerings, whose smoke filled not only the Holy Place, but also perfumed the area around the Tabernacle and the Temple. The incense rising from the altar was a sign of unity and reconciliation between man and God, and the union of the physical and spiritual worlds.

The Mother of God has long been seen as a noetic altar, which by its sacrificial nature encapsulates her self-offering for our salvation, sacrificing her whole life in order to bear the Saviour Who is both our Great High Priest and Sacrifice for the Life and Salvation of the World. We pray, each evening, “Let my prayer arise in Thy sight, as incense; and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.”  …and turn to the Mother of God as our intercessor, as she ever offers prayers for her children, lifting up her hands in intercession to the Saviour as a living sacrifice of prayer.

Beyond the second veil, the Ark, was the most holy furnishing of both Tabernacle and Temple, and the earthly throne of God’s abiding Presence in the midst of His people. He spoke from between the cherubim which overshadowed the Mercy-Seat, and this was the place of Divine-Human encounter, when the High-Priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement.

The Mother of God became both the new Ark of the Covenant and Ark of the New Covenant, in which the Almighty Creator dwelt, hidden within the Holy of Holies of her womb, as we see in the Kursk-Root Icon, and then nurtured and raised by her, whose lap became an earthly throne of the King of all, the Mercy Seat of the world. The Mother of God became not simply a place of Divine-Human encounter, but a place of the Divine-Human union in the Incarnation of the God-Man within the chosen sanctuary of her womb, nursing the Saviour at her breast, and nurturing Him in His childhood and youth.

The contents of the Ark of the Covenenant – the jar of manna, the tablets of the law and the budded staff of Moses – were all prophetic-images of Christ, the Heavenly Bread, the Giver of the Law, and the bud from the root of Jesse, but we should recall that at the time in which the holy apostle Paul wrote to the Hebrews, the original temple furnishings had all been lost in the Babylonian exile, and the Holy of Holies contained absolutely nothing, and was nothing more than a dark, empty cube. There was no Ark of the Covenant, no earthly Divine Throne, no Mercy Seat, and no manna, no stone tablets of the Law of Moses, no staff of Aaron.

According to God’s Economy, this bare absence was necessary, so that the Holy of Holies could be restored and reconsecrated through the Entrance of the infant Theotokos, as He prepared for the coming of the Messiah and the passage of His blessing and election from the Old Israel to the New Israel.

The first Ark, and the vanished sacred relics were superceded as the infant Mother of God was led into the Temple, walked through the Holy Place, and was taken beyond the Second Veil into the Holy of Holies, which received the true Ark of God’s Presence, the Ark of the New Covenant, who would be more honourable the cherubim, and truly more glorious than the seraphim, the Living Temple and Mystical Paradise.

The world needed no gilded acacia chest reliquary, no Mercy Seat, no relics of the first Passover journey from Egyptian captivity to the freedom of the promised land, for the world received the Theotokos, in whom God would dwell in the flesh, and come as the new Paschal Lamb, to lead us from death to life and from earth to heaven.

The types and shadows of the Old Testament passed away; the Temple with its liturgies, sacrifices, priesthood rites and rituals was abolished, having served its purpose.

It would soon be destroyed, having no further role in the spiritual life of the world: an anomaly tied to those from whom the vineyard would be taken, and given to the new Israel of God, the Old Israel having forsaken its birthright and the inheritance of the forefathers, patriarchs and prophets, with the promise of Christ’s Kingdom now offered to all believers regardless of language, race and nation. As the New Israel of God, Christ’s Church, would unite all who approach in Faith.

The Kursk-Root Icon, is an icon of this new reality and fulfillment, an icon of the inclusivity of God’s salvific plan: an icon of both oldness and newness, looking back, but also forward,with the surrounding prophets turning to Mother of God with the scrolls of their prophecy, looking forward to the Incarnation, and a new era in the relationship between God and man, and to the passing from the Old Covenant to the new.

We will soon begin the Advent Fast, looking forward to the Nativity, contemplating the prophecies of the Old Testament and looking forward to their fulfillment in the Incarnation of the Saviour, and week-by-week we will pray the Advent Moleben before the Icon of the Sign, contemplating Emmanuel within the womb of the Mother of God, the great Sign forespoken of by Isaiah:

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son,

And shall call His name Immanuel.

(Isaiah 7:14)

…and it is as that great Sign that we behold her in her ancient Kursk-Root Icon, surrounded by the prophets, who guided the people of the Old Covenant through the long Advent of the Old Testament centuries. We contemplate this wonderworking icon as the representation of the cosmic changing point summed up in those wondrous words of St John’s Gospel… “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” John 1:14.

When we celebrate the birth of Christ, and the union of God and Man in the Incarnate Saviour, we will celebrate the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, the abolition of the Temple and its rites, and the beginning of God’s new relationship with humanity, as one Who has enterered Creation: God Who is not only truly with us, but through the selfless offering and obedience of the Mother of God in the Incarnation has truly become one of us

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined.

For unto us a Child is born; to us a Son is given.

And the government shall be upon His shoulder, and of His peace there will be no end.

And His name shall be called the Messenger of Great Counsel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the World to Come.

God is with us! Understand this, O nations, and submit yourselves! For God is with us!

(from the Song of the Holy Prophet Isaiah)

Through the Mother of God, the New Ark, whose sacred Icon stands before us, the Great Sign raised up in the spiritual darkness of the old Israel to usher in a new age; through her selfless giving and living-sacrifice; though her boundless love and conformity to God’s sovereign will; and through the Nativity whose celebration we will soon anticipate… we can truly exclaim with great joy, that thanks to her, “God is with us!”

Amen.

A Word on the Autumn Feast of the Kazan Icon

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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters, greetings for the autumn feast of the Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God, when we commemorate the deliverance of Moscow from the Polish occupation of 1612, during which our Holy Patriarch, St Germogen, met a martyric death by starvation, but not before he had given instruction to the faithful to fast and pray, and for the Wonderworking Icon to be brought from Kazan to Moscow by the army, headed by Prince Dimitriy Pozharsky.

Muscovy had been laid to waste by the Poles, who mocked the Orthodox Christian Faith, burning towns and villages and despoiling and desecrating churches and monasteries, just as the Tatars had done centuries before.

The Time of Troubles saw confusion, anarchy and fear in every aspect of national life, which was undermined and eroded, even spiritually.

This is why the most needful thing for the people to acquire in order to overcome occupation, enslavement and such great sorrows was the repentance to which the Hieromartyr, Patriarch Germogen, called them.

It would be in spiritual renewal and newness of life, re-centred on living in the power of the Holy Trinity, according to the Gospel and the Law of God, in spiritual union with the Most Holy Mother of God, and the saints, that liberation and freedom would be found.

In our own Time of Troubles, fraught with political, educational, ideological, financial and technological tyranny and attacks on our spiritual life, on the Holy Church and the people of God, our hope, answer and liberation lies in behaving exactly as in 1612: in prayer, fasting, assiduous and active spiritual labour and spiritual life.

The true Christian life is one of resistance and swimming against the tide, refusing to bow down and give in to the spiritual tyranny of sin.

This God-centred life will bring down God’s blessing and Divine Grace, and in this obedience to the Will of God, the Mother of God (as the perfect and primary example of spiritual obedience) will come to our aid, as our Champion Leader and Invincible Protectress, to whom has been given power by her Son, according to the will and counsel of the Holy Trinity.

Let us not despair in the sea of the fallen world’s madness, but have great hope, joy and resolution to resist sin, temptation and godlessness, as children of the Resurrection, walking in the Light of Christ!

Let us repent, with faith and compunctionate hearts, heeding the words of St. Dimitriy of Rostov about the events of this feast:

“The Mother of God delivered from misfortune and woe not only the righteous, but also sinners, but which sinners? Those who turn themselves to the Heavenly Father like the Prodigal Son, make lamentation beating their bosom, like the Publican, they weep at the feet of Christ, like the Sinful Woman washing His feet with her tears, and they offer forth confession of Him, like the Thief upon the Cross. It is such sinners whom the All-Pure Mother of God heeds and hastens to aid, delivering them from great misfortunes and woe.”

Let us turn to the Father with resolution, determination and the heartfelt desire to correct all that is wrong and dysfunctional in our lives, knowing that not only is the Heavenly Father joyfully awaiting us, but that the Mother of God will be with us and go before us, step by step, protecting and interceding for us on that wonderful, salvific journey of spiritual-return!

Let us be comforted by her maternal protection, but not as some sort of vague, warm, rosey-tinted, sentimental idea… but understanding that her protection is powerful, mighty and invincible, and let us ensure that we turn to her, as children worthy of her protection and help, emulating her humility and obedience, living as the Lord wishes us to live, and knowing that the He will exult the humble and meek, and will give them spiritual victory over their adversaries.

Amen!