We praise and thank God for deserving us to pray and offer sacrifices to the Lord together today in the church of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. We praise and thank St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and St. John of San Francisco, for through their prayers we expect mercy from God. Today the Church celebrates the memory of the venerable and God-clothed fathers, those who shone on Mount Athos and all the saints who shone on the land of Russia. I congratulate everyone on this significant day.
May their prayers help all the Orthodox nations. From today's Gospel reading, the Savior tells us that the poor in spirit, or the humble, will inherit the kingdom of heaven, thereby indicating to us what kind of person we should be. The evil one can reach the peak of all virtues and corrupt them with the poison of pride, and humility is the virtue that stands highest among other Christian virtues and which the evil one can never reach, because the Lord Himself rests on it... And this, those holy fathers and mothers, whose memory we will celebrate today, knew and lived with the Lord's humility... You probably remember St. The words of King and Prophet David from the Psalm: „For you have saved the humble people, and you have humbled the proud“ (Ps. 17:28). So, let us pray to the Lord to grant us humility so that we may love one another in God. Let us pray to the fathers and mothers who shone on Mount Athos and in the land of Russia, that the Lord may not deprive us of mercy and grace, and may we remember that our true homeland on earth is heavenly Orthodoxy…
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all!!!
Amen!!!
With Christlike love, Priest-Nun Ioane (Kavsadze).
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Russian Orthodox Church Abroad,
(St. John Maximovich's Cellar) June 21, 2009
