Homily on the Day of the Repose and Second Uncovering of the Relics of Saint Seraphim of Sarov (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh)

Homily on the Day of the Repose and Second Uncovering of the Relics of Saint Seraphim of Sarov

By Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

(Delivered on January 2/15, 1978)

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Next to the icon of Saint Seraphim of Sarov, whose memory we celebrate today, there lies in our church, under glass, a small scrap of cloth. It is a gift received several years ago: a fragment of the shirt that Saint Seraphim was wearing when he was attacked by robbers in the forest and beaten by them nearly to death. He could have defended himself; he was strong in body and unbreakable in spirit; he was armed with a heavy axe. But after the image of Christ — Who, like a lamb before its shearers, is silent; after the Old Testament image of Christ, the Man of Sorrows, Who accepts not only humiliation but also blows and wounds and death, giving Himself up without resistance, and through this receiving the power to forgive — so too Seraphim gave himself into the hands of the robbers. To the shedding of blood he believed in Christ; to the readiness to pour out his blood and exhaust his life he believed in Christ.

Homily for New Year's Eve (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh)

AT THE GATE OF THE YEAR

December 31, 1981

By Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

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

Before we pray, I should like to introduce our prayers so that when we pray, we do it more effectively, with one mind and with one heart. Year after year I have spoken of the New Year that was coming, in terms of a plain covered with snow, unspoiled, pure, and called our attention to the fact that we must tread responsibly on this expanse of whiteness still unspoiled, because according to the way in which we tread it, there will be a road cutting through the plain following the will of God, or wandering steps that will only soil the whiteness of the snow. But a thing that we cannot, must not forget, this year perhaps more than on many previous occasions, is that, surrounding, covering this whiteness and this unknown as with a dome, there is darkness, a darkness with few or many stars, but a darkness, dense, opaque, dangerous and frightening. We come out of a year when darkness has been perceived by all of us, when violence and cruelty are still rife.

Homily on the Nativity Fast and Holy Communion (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh)

Homily on the Nativity Fast and Holy Communion 

By Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

(Delivered on November 30, 1986)

During these days of the Nativity Fast, which lead us to the celebration of the Lord's Incarnation, the Church, through the words of Christ Himself, warns us sternly and clearly. In today's Parable of the Foolish Rich Man, Christ speaks of barnfuls of material wealth; yet we are all rich in very different ways, and not necessarily primarily in material terms. How firmly we rely on our relationship with God, what a reliable support we find in the words of the Gospel – the words of Christ Himself, in the teachings of the Apostles, in our Orthodox faith! And the longer we live, the more thoughts and knowledge we accumulate, and our own hearts become increasingly richer in feelings in response to the beauty of God's word.