Sermon of Archpriest Alexander Abramov, the feast of the Intercession of the Holy lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary.
- The Protection Cover
- Bishop Basil (Rodzianko): Pokrov – Russian holiday
- Miracle on the Cover
- Under Cover of the virgin: the rules of life of a large family
- Come Cover the whore’s head will cover?
In continuation of their way He entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house; she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus ‘ feet and heard His word. Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him, saying, Lord, or You not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? tell her to help me. Jesus said to her: Martha! Martha! you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken from her.
LK. 10: 38-42
When He had said this, one woman, raising his voice, said to Him: blessed is the womb that bore You and the Breasts that fed You! And He said, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
LK. 11: 27-28
Almost every time you fire a celebration of the Mother of God, we hear the gospel about Martha and Mary. And two verses from the 11th Chapter of Luke is about how a woman of the people said to the Saviour: “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the Breasts from which You eat”. And He answers: “Much more blessed who hear the word of God and keep it.”
We can say that it is very rare we have moments when we are blessed. Happy and serene. All the time there are certain circumstances that make us nervous, irritated, trying to protect his world, wasting it. And very rarely we focus. Very rarely on the surface and inside of us all well and happy.
And here is a tragic fork. The Saviour says, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. The word of God we hear, we are not taken. We can hear him in the temple, there are Holy Scriptures, there is a mass of interpretative literature. No one can say that we are deprived of the word of God. And at the same time, we are not blessed. We rarely happy to the end. So the point of this fork is that the word of God we hear but do not collect it. Do not observe and do not act in accordance with it. For us it is not absolute. We provide external signs of reverence to the Scriptures, but in a situation of choice — the closest interest what he said about this Christ — we are suicidal we the nearest interest. Our whole life becomes an experience of choosing their own partially understood interests.
We do not take the trouble to try a little bit to look beyond the horizon, where a different perspective, happiest, blessed. We do not see beyond their noses. And it is necessary to look, to try to think of the spiritual mind. It may be Christ His will to us is not forcing, but trying to save us from the endless series of mistakes? Seeing as we run up to hit my forehead against the wall, He tells us: “You wait to run, wait for the wall”. And we say: “there is No wall, we know where to go”. It’s up, of course. But then, gentlemen do not need to blame the destruction of our foreheads.
We Cover holiday we celebrate as a memorial of That Which God’s word is heard and kept it. For Her the possession of God’s commandments and following them was not something foreign and painful, and internal necessity, like breathing. The man says, “I forgot to pray.” Sounds nonsense for a Christian, as if “I forgot to breathe”. It naturally should be.
And we celebrate the day of the Intercession as the day The one Who teaches us to defend their own lives, the lives of loved ones not through the endless pursuit of external security: secure housing, assets, to protect family uncertain way — and the highest safety, protection of the Heavenly. On this day, I think, like the lens are collected and commemoration days of various icons of the Mother of God in which It manifests Itself to us to protect.
Everything will be based on one. Do you believe that they — the Queen of Heaven, and saints — can protect you? Or are you just in case, put two iron doors, alarm system, agree with the police? Someone who believes that the Intercession of the Mother of God protect him, may live in a house whose walls are made of Newspapers, and nothing will happen.
From the book “whosoever will may come. Conversations on Sundays and feast the gospel reading,” published in the publishing house “Nikea”