All-night vigil

Orthodox Christians traditionally celebrate Epiphany on January 18 and 19. This day has its own history dating back to ancient times, and church canons have been closely intertwined with folk beliefs for a long time.

The feast of the Baptism of Russia is usually celebrated on July 28. This event, according to historical research, dates back to 988. However, the adoption of the Christian faith in Russia was not a short-term action, but a long process that required rethinking by the inhabitants of the pagan state of new forms of life and interaction.

History of the holiday. Baptism

In Greek, the word "baptism" means immersion. This is how a cleansing bath is carried out for a person who has decided to accept the Christian faith. The true meaning of the water ritual is spiritual cleansing. According to Christian tradition, on January 19, Jesus Christ was baptized, and on this day, the Epiphany is celebrated, when the Almighty appeared to the world in three forms.

In the Baptism of the Lord (the history of the holiday tells so), God the Son passed the Sacrament in the Jordan River at the age of 30, where the Holy Spirit appeared to him in the form of a dove, and God the Father let know from heaven that Jesus Christ is his son . Hence the second name of the holiday - Epiphany.

On January 18, according to the Orthodox tradition, it is customary to fast until the removal of the candle, which follows the Liturgy, accompanied by communion with water. The feast of the Epiphany, or rather, its eve, is also called Christmas Eve, which is associated with the custom of cooking wheat juice with the addition of raisins and honey.

Celebration traditions

Baptism is a holiday whose traditions are associated with the extraordinary ability of water to heal, and it can be taken from the most ordinary reservoir. Even the one that is supplied to the apartments of our houses is endowed with this property. For healing, it is necessary to take consecrated baptismal water on an empty stomach in a very small volume (a teaspoon is enough). After taking it, you need to wait a while before eating.

Healing properties of baptismal water

Baptism is an Orthodox holiday and, according to the Christian faith, holy water is the most effective cure for all diseases. To get rid of bodily and spiritual ailments, you need to drink it hourly, deeply believing in the healing power. Women on critical days cannot touch holy water, it is possible only in exceptional cases, for example, in case of a serious illness.

In Orthodox traditions, the history of the holiday is well known. The Baptism of the Lord endows water with miraculous power. A drop of it can consecrate a huge source, and it does not deteriorate under any storage conditions. Modern research has confirmed that Epiphany water does not change its structure without a refrigerator.

Where to store baptismal water

The water collected on the day of the Feast of Epiphany should be stored in the Red Corner near the icons, this is the best place in the house for it. It must be taken from the Red Corner without swearing, at this moment one cannot quarrel and allow oneself impious thoughts, the sanctity of the magic drink is lost from this. Sprinkling the house with water cleanses not only the home, but also family members, making them healthier, more moral and happy.

Epiphany bathing

Traditionally, on January 19, on the feast of the Epiphany, water from any source has miraculous properties and the ability to heal, therefore, on this day, all Orthodox Christians collect it in various containers and store it carefully, adding, if necessary, in small drops, for example, into a glass of water. As you remember, even a small portion can consecrate huge volumes. However, the Feast of Epiphany is most widely known for mass bathing. Of course, not everyone can decide on this. Recently, however, baptismal bathing has become increasingly popular.

diving are held in a hole carved in the shape of a cross, which is called the Jordan. Having plunged into cold water on January 19 on Epiphany, an Orthodox holiday, a believer, as the saying goes, gets rid of sins and all ailments for a whole year.

When is it customary to collect water

People go to church for holy water on the morning of January 19th. There is a sign that you need to take it first. This makes the behavior of some parishioners unacceptable for the temple, because in a sacred place one cannot push, swear, and fuss.

Consecrated water can also be collected the day before, January 18, on Epiphany Christmas Eve. Services in the church continue on this day. As the priests say, the water is consecrated in the same way on January 18 and 19, so the time of collection is not reflected in its healing properties. If it is impossible to go to church, you can use an ordinary apartment water supply. It is better to draw water from the tap on the night of January 18-19 between 00.10 and 01.30. This time is considered the most favorable. When and where to swim on the feast of Epiphany? Regarding bathing, the church notes that it is not a canon of Christianity, but simply has become a tradition. You can plunge into Epiphany both on the night of January 18-19, and on the morning of the 19th. In each city, special places are organized for this holiday, you can find out about them in any church.

On the acceptance of baptism in the Orthodox tradition

In the Baptism of the Lord (the history of the holiday tells about this), God first appeared to the world in three hypostases (Theophany). Few people think that communion with the Lord is an important event in the life of every Orthodox Christian. On the day of baptism, a person is adopted by God and becomes a part of Christ.

After passing the rite of baptism, a person is accepted by the Orthodox Church and ceases to be a slave of Satan, who can now tempt him only with cunning. After gaining faith, you can visit the temple and pray, as well as use other Sacraments of the Orthodox faith.

The adoption of Baptism by an adult is done consciously, so the presence of godparents is not necessary. A future Christian must definitely get acquainted with the basics of the Orthodox faith and, if desired, learn prayers.

When it comes to babies, they need godparents, who in the future should take care of the religious development of the child and, of course, pray for him. They should be an example of morality for their godchildren.

Before the Sacrament is performed, everyone who will be present in the church is recommended to fast and refrain from worldly entertainment. Babies themselves do not need any preparation.

Now in every church there is a record for baptism, where you can also find out what you need to take with you. Be sure to prepare a consecrated cross and, if desired, a baptismal set, which includes a shirt, cap, diaper. A cap is not required for boys.

After the ceremony, you will receive a "Certificate of Baptism". Keep it, if your child decides to enter the spiritual school, it will definitely be required.

It must be said that the baptism of a child is a holiday that is given increasing importance in Russia every year.

Folk customs and traditions associated with Baptism

The Feast of the Epiphany is, of course, less popular than the Nativity of Christ, but it is very rich in various rituals. Here is some of them.

On this day, it is customary to release doves into the sky during worship, which is a symbol of the Spirit of God, who appeared on earth in the guise of this bird. Also, this ritual "lets go" of the Christmas holidays.

Be sure to consecrate water in churches. On the eve of Epiphany, a cruciform hole is cut out in the reservoirs, while the cross is placed close to it and sometimes decorated. Water is baptized with fire, for which the priest lowers a burning three-candlestick into it.

To wash away sins during baptismal bathing, you need to plunge headlong three times.

In the old days, young people had fun on this day, riding on carousels and skating. Also, the guys and girls caroled - they went around with songs and congratulations at home, and the owners gave them treats.

After this holiday, fasting ended. Young people again began to gather together for festivities, where they could choose their soulmate. The period from the end of Epiphany to Great Lent is the time when a wedding could be played.

It is not customary to work on Epiphany and eat a lot.

Signs and beliefs

To agree on a wedding on this day - to a happy life for a future family. In general, any good deed begun on this day is blessed.

Snow in Epiphany - to a rich harvest.

The sun on this day is to be a bad harvest.

To wash with ice and snow on this day is to be beautiful, sweet and comely for a whole year.

On Epiphany night, dreams are prophetic.

Girls that evening gathered together and wondered.

Epiphany divination

The most popular, of course, fortune-telling on the betrothed. There are a great many ways to find out the name and see the future husband, some of them are quite creepy: with mirrors, candles, "spiritual circles" and the alphabet.

Almost every modern girl knows about divination by the groom according to the method of Tatyana Larina: to find out the name of the betrothed, you need to go outside at midnight and ask the first man who comes across his name.

And here is a very funny fortune-telling for the fulfillment of a wish. You ask a question, having a good idea of ​​what you are asking about (the question really should be important to you, but if you do it for the sake of a joke, then the answer will be untruthful), and then you scoop up grain (cereals) from a bag. Next, pour everything on a plate and count. If the number of grains is even, it will come true, if the number of grains is odd, it will not come true.

The start time of the festive service in honor of the event of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan River may vary (the rector of the parish has the right to set the start time of the service). Most often, the service on this day is performed in the likeness of the service of the Nativity of Christ, starting at 11 pm on January 18th. At the same time, the all-night vigil is connected with the central service of the daily circle - the liturgy. In some churches, the vigil service starts at 5-6 pm, and the liturgy is served on the feast itself at about 9 am.

The Epiphany service begins with Great Compline, most of the prayers of which are read by the reader. However, in this part of the service, the choir sings the chant of the prophetic words of Isaiah that the Savior, "the mighty God and the Ruler," who will be called Emmanuel (meaning - "God is with us"), appears in the world. The chant itself is called according to the first words of the prophecy - "God is with us." Of the festive chants of Great Compline, it is worth highlighting the troparion and kontakion of the Baptism of the Lord.

Compline turns into litiya - part of the service, during which the priest reads a prayer for the blessing of wheat, vegetable oil (oil), wine and bread. At the end of the litia and the festive stichera, Matins begins, which is sent according to the usual charter of vigils on the great Orthodox holidays.

At Matins, after singing the troparion and reading three times, the choir sings the hymn "Praise the name of the Lord", called the polyeleos. The very name "polyeles" from the ancient Greek language is translated "many mercy." This hymn glorifies the great mercies of God to man. Further, the clergy and the choir in a special hymn (magnification) sing of the now baptized Christ.

The polyeleos is followed by the reading of the gospel conception about Christ's acceptance of baptism from the prophet John in the Jordan, a festive canon. At the end of Matins, the choir performs a festive great doxology, which is customary to sing according to the rule at all solemn services.

At the end of Matins, the first hour is subtracted. If the liturgy is combined with a vigil, then the third and sixth hours follow the first hour, during which the priest at the altar in the altar performs the proskomedia, preparing the substance for the sacrament of the Eucharist.

The liturgy on the day of the Baptism of the Lord is distinguished by solemnity. At the very beginning, the choir sings short baptismal antiphons, the ancient hymn dedicated to the Savior, "Only Begotten Son", repeats the troparion of Baptism several times (the main chant of the celebration, reflecting its essence).

Further, the following of the liturgy is performed according to its order. After the end of the service, believers do not go home, because water is blessed on the feast of the Baptism of Jesus Christ. Most often, the rite of the great water blessing is performed in the temple, but there is a practice after the liturgy to bless the water directly at the sources.

After the completion of the blessing of water, believers collect holy water and go home in peace, spiritually triumphing in honor of the great Christian holiday.

WORD FOR THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

01/18/1999.

Such a great prophet that all the inhabitants of the countries of the Middle East went to him: Judea, Israel, and Samaria. But he, surrounded by attention and reverence of the people, who listened to his every word, and wanted to fulfill it, so that even the king, who has great power, listened attentively to the admonitions of the prophet, nevertheless, he said about himself: "I only sent to prepare the ways of the Lord. He who comes after me, I am not even worthy to untie the strap on his sandals" (Luke 3:16). Why did this great prophet say so?

Dear brothers and sisters! The answer to this will tell us our spiritual life experience. We also know with our minds what is good and what is evil. Most of us know the commandments of God and know how we should act in life. We hear it. But each of us knows how we actually keep these commandments of the Lord. And each of us knows how we actually act in our lives. And each of us knows how difficult it is to resist temptations and temptations and to stand in the truth.

John the Baptist had the gift of the Spirit to convict people of their evil deeds, so he was not even afraid to speak to the king about his unrighteous life. John the Baptist had the gift of calling people to correction and repentance. But in fact, only God alone has the power to correct a person, sanctify him, change him. Only God can forgive us our sins. Only God can sanctify and cleanse us. Only God can lead us into eternal life. And that is why John the Baptist said of himself: "I baptize you with water, but one will come who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16).

And the Epiphany takes place in the Jordan. God Trinity, Incomprehensible, One in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit - appears to the world in order to save the world. The Son of Man descends to sinners to the depths of their fall, and together with them takes on a visible image of repentance, in order to help us, sinners, to repent. It is not enough for us to hear how to do it. We know this, but we do not have the strength to correct ourselves. And now the Lord becomes a man in order to be with us, and by the power of His Divinity to correct us.

We know that we need to repent, but we do not have a genuine Spirit to repent ourselves, and now the Holy Spirit descends in a visible way on the Savior Jesus Christ, so that it descends on each of us when we turn to prayer, then when we come to the temple of God, when we desire to do good deeds. The Holy Spirit helps us, the weak, the weak and the sinners.

We know what the will of God is, but the voice of conscience, like the voice of the Heavenly Father, Who prophesied in the Jordan: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17), now resounds in our souls, sanctified Holy Baptism. For you and I are baptized in the name of the Incomprehensible God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

That's why John the Baptist said of Christ that he was not worthy even to touch His shoes. For the greatness of the Son of God lies in His greatest service to the human race. One of us may try to serve a few people, to help them. One of us can try, and for the sake of love even lay down his soul for his friends. But only the God-man could suffer for each of us, for each of us. Only the God-man can bear the sins of each of us. Only the God-man, the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, gives us the true grace of changing our lives and our salvation. For He united the Divinity and humanity, and through Him we became celestials, for He opened for all those who believe in Him the eternal Heaven, eternal life, gave us salvation.

And you and I only need to be faithful to Him, to keep the holy Orthodox faith, not to deviate from it, to come to the temples of God for prayer, in everyday life to ask for His grace so that we can follow in His footsteps.

Dear brothers and sisters! We have now gathered in the temple of God and have the great happiness that John the Baptist dreamed of. For now Christ is with us. And we not only touch the edges of His shoes - no! – we partake of Himself, His Most Pure Body and Life-Giving Blood. And He is with us, sanctifying and strengthening us. And He saves us, saves us from evil, sin, spiritual death, and grants us His eternal and holy Kingdom and eternal life.

Glory to our Savior forever and ever. Amen.

01/18/2001 Baptism of the Lord. All-night vigil.

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

"Incomprehensible Lord, glory to Thee!" - with such incessantly repeated words, the Holy Church now glorifies the great miracle - the Epiphany.

God beyond any human understanding; God, Whom it is impossible to know only with one's mind; God, Who can be felt and loved by the human heart; God, Who created this world and created man in His image and likeness, God comes into the world created by Him in order not to leave a person perishing, in order not to let a person become a slave to sin, in order not to give a person to die, but to revive him and give him eternal life.

The mystery of the Epiphany is incomprehensible. – How can the infinite be embodied in the finite? How can the eternal be in time? How can the incomprehensible be comprehended?

But in this lies the greatness of our God, something that is impossible for man, something that is impossible by the laws of nature created by Him, is possible for the One God in the Trinity - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Lord Jesus Christ, having become incarnate and becoming a Man, comes to the Jordan. Thirty years have passed since the Incarnation. Thirty years since the Divine Word, unrevealed to the world, dwelt among people. And, thirty years after the birth of Christ, Christ reveals himself to the world. And just as His Birth was humble and incomprehensible for those who used to measure everything by the limits of human greatness, so the appearance of Christ to the world is incomprehensible for those who consider everything according to the laws of pride and exaltation, power and vanity. Jesus Christ comes to the sinners who are standing on the banks of the Jordan; comes and becomes one of them, desiring to enter the Jordanian waters together with the sinners.

There is no sin in Him, but He takes our sins upon Himself and therefore comes to us. How ugly and terrible is sin! The holy fathers - visionaries, ascetics - saw this ugly mask of sin, a terrible, terrible mask. We are spiritually blind and therefore do not see this. But what does the Lord do? - He does not disdain our abomination with you; He does not shun our sins with you; He does not disdain our spiritual impurity; He becomes one of us and becomes with us so that none of us perishes.

This, dear brothers and sisters, is the mystery of the Epiphany. It is in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ for each of us. For us, the Lord came into this world. For us He was born. And now, in the waters of Jordan for our sake, so that we know the path of faith and know the One True God, the face of the Holy Trinity appears - the Son of God, standing in the waters of Jordan, the Holy Spirit descending on Him, and the voice of the Heavenly Father: "This is My beloved Son ".

Dear brothers and sisters! You and I have the greatest happiness, we are children of the Church of Christ, we are in unity with our Savior. Let us glorify Him, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who did everything for our salvation. Let us pray to Him that we never deviate from His saving path. Let us pray to Him that we never depart from Him who came to us and for us. Let us glorify Him, let us glorify the great God, Who has done everything for our salvation - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Amen.

January 18, 2002.

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

Today is a great holiday of great spiritual significance.

Our temple has the name of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.

Trinity - our God - an incomprehensible Being: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

God is the Creator of the world. God created man in His own image and likeness; and you and I, people, have in ourselves the image of the Divine - you and I have an immortal soul. We, people, have in ourselves the likeness of God - we have free will, i.e. we ourselves are free to choose between good and evil; and no one can force us to make any choice by force. Even God cannot forcibly make us good, because then we will not be god-like people. For only in our god-likeness is there a difference between man and the entire surrounding world created by God.

Sometimes people say that it is enough to believe in God, as they put it, "in your soul"; meaning that one can have the idea that somewhere far away there is a God who does not touch our life in any way, and we are free to do what we please. And when people say that “I have faith in my soul,” they are actually trying to find self-justification for their unbelief and their life without God.

Is life possible without God? - It's not possible! Because God Himself is the source of life. From Him flows the life of the whole world and the life of man. The one who tries to live without God is like that madman who would want to rip out his heart and try to live without a heart.

But this crazy thing happened. It happened when even the first man rejected unity with God and preferred his own will to the will of God; and obeyed the slander of the devil, and wanted to become a god himself, but instead received death.

Through sin, that is, through apostasy from God, death came into the world. But God, who created the world, loves His creation, this is the property of God, for God Himself is love. And He cannot see the suffering of a man subject to death; and He incarnates and comes into the world.

Most recently, we celebrated the feast of the Nativity of Christ - the birth of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ according to the flesh. Now an attentive person can see how similar the divine service of Holy Baptism (Theophany) is to the divine service of the Nativity of Christ. And indeed it is! Because the meaning of these two holidays is one thing: God came into the world to save us.

And so, now let us remember those who say that one can believe in God without any deeds, believing in Him only in the soul. If this is so, then why did God, in order to incarnate, first dwell in the womb of the Most Pure and Blessed Virgin Mary for nine months? Why then, like us humans, was he born, and they swaddled him, wrapped him up, took care of him, hid him, when the mad Herod wanted to destroy him? Why did he then undergo education? Why then did He live to be thirty years old and only after that revealed Himself to the world on the Jordan?

Then, dear brothers and sisters, it is impossible to heal the sick at a distance. The doctor, in order to heal the patient, must examine him, touch him, listen to him, and then treat him. We are all seriously ill - sick with sin. And we have no idea how disgusting the ulcers of our sins are. But the Lord doesn't just touch us. He becomes one of us, the God-Man, in order to save us.

Couldn't it have been possible simply by the word of God to create another person who would not sin if God created the world with His word?

Yes, you certainly may! But it wouldn't be us, god-like people. This is how unreasonable owners act in their cruelty when they first get a dog, for example, and do not educate it in any way. And when she starts to rush at everyone and bite, they kill her and start a new one, thinking that she will be better.

God, who created man, sees our sins, when we, at times, much worse than dumb animals, throw ourselves at each other in our rage.

Now let’s answer the question: “Is it possible to believe only in one’s soul, without showing faith in any way by one’s deeds, without doing anything in order to live according to God in this world?” And if this is possible, then why then God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes and stands together with sinners, and descends into the Jordan?

No, dear brothers and sisters, we have no other way to live with Christ than to live as He commanded us. Yes, indeed, we believe in God in our souls, but by our deeds we show our faith and by our lives we testify to our faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, when the Lord descended into the Jordan, the Epiphany took place - the appearance of the Holy Trinity. We hear about him all the time in the hymns of this holiday: the Son standing in the waters of the Jordan; the voice of the Father: “This is my beloved Son, but I am well pleased with him,” and the Spirit, “like a dove descending on him.”

Light shone from the Jordan. From that time, after the completion of thirty years from the day of His Nativity, the Lord Jesus Christ began His preaching of the Kingdom of God on earth.

Dear brothers and sisters! And now we have come to the temple of God to hear this sermon about the triune God, to hear the sermon and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to be always with us, to heal us and save us. We have now come to the temple of God in order to receive the blessing of our faith, which is in our hearts, to always confirm with our deeds and our lives.

Amen.

January 18, 2004.

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

Now we are spiritually adhering to the great event - the Epiphany. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity consubstantial and inseparable - One Divinity has now appeared on the Jordan. The Son of God, incarnated in a human being, the God-Man Jesus Christ descends into the Jordan River, and a miracle is performed. The visible image for people is that which cannot be comprehended by the mind. The Son stands in the waters of the Jordan, the Spirit, like a dove, descends on Him, and the voice of the Heavenly Father6 "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

The miracle of the Epiphany was given to us so that we always know and remember that God is with believing people. So that we always remember: God is with us, and we are not afraid of anything. God is with us, and therefore our sins are washed away by the grace of God, the sacrifice of the Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. God is with us, and therefore we are given the power to have faith, to have hope, to have love. God is with us, and therefore we can overcome any temptations and applications of the enemy of the human race. God is with us, and therefore we have no reason for despondency and insane sadness, which deprives a person of peace. God is with us, and we know that temporary life is a small segment of our existence, and eternal life is prepared for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. God is with us, and therefore we endure sickness and hardship, knowing that this is only a temporary test for our flesh. God is with us, and therefore we have consolation in our sorrows, troubles and misfortunes. God is with us, and therefore the joy in the Lord is with us, the strength of prayer is with us, spiritual life is with us, with which we are saturated, as with spiritual bread, as with living water, which our souls will drink. God is with us, and we are filled with gratitude to the Lord for bringing us into this world, for giving us the opportunity to live and for revealing to us the light and the path of truth in life. God is with us, and we know that He will never leave us, He will always help us out, He is always waiting for our conversion, He graciously looks at our repentance.

What a joyful day today is the Epiphany of the Lord. Sinners came to John the Baptist to confess their sins. But John the Baptist said: “I am baptizing you in water, but He is coming after me, whose shoes I am not even worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." – And now we stand with you in the Church of Christ, baptized with the Holy Spirit, born of water and the Spirit, sealed in the name of the great God – the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Now we rejoice in the fulfillment of the words of John the Baptist, for the fire of faith burns in our hearts, warms us, warms those who are close to us.

Let us glorify the Lord, let us ask Him that this fire will never go out in our hearts, that our faith will save us.

Amen!

01/18/2005.

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

This holiday has two names. One name reflects an event that took place two thousand years ago, described in the Holy Scriptures. This event is the Baptism of the Lord.

John, a prophet sent by God, prepared human hearts to receive the gospel of salvation; he was preparing people to accept the Lord Jesus Christ the Savior of the world and follow Him. He urged them to repent, to change their sinful life, to make efforts for their correction and by their deeds to show the change in their life, because if a tree does not bear any fruit, it is cut down. So John the Baptist called for fruits worthy of repentance.

So, the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to John at the Jordan. There was no sin in Him. He didn't have to change the way of His life. But He came and stood together with sinners in order to help sinners to change, and correct, and be saved. And this event - the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan along with sinful people - is now remembered by the Holy Church.

But this holiday has a second name, which explains the mysterious essence of this event, incomprehensible to the human mind, but acceptable to the believing soul. When the Lord descended into the Jordan, the Epiphany took place in a visible manner. God is invisible and incomprehensible; God who created the world; God is in whose power both times and space, without whom nothing exists that exists; Whom we can neither see with our own eyes nor imagine with our minds, appears in the Jordan in the mystery of His Divinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit appear at the time of Baptism in the Jordan. The Son stands in the Jordanian waters, counting Himself among sinners, for the salvation of all. The Holy Spirit descends on Him in the form of a dove. And the voice of the Heavenly Father: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Behold, dear brothers and sisters, the appearance of the Trinity was in the Jordan. God reveals Himself into the world so that people would believe in Him and follow the path of salvation. God reveals His secret to people, “so that none of those who believe in Him perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God reveals Himself so that people have support in their lives and know that with God they will not only spend a temporary life, but they will also have another life - eternal life, devoid of sorrows, sorrows and sorrows.

During the feast of the Nativity of Christ, we empathized with the appearance of the Son of God, the incarnate true God and true Man, to the world. During the feast of the Epiphany, we empathize with how He Who was a helpless baby, swaddled in a manger, born in a miserable environment, shows the Trinity glory of the Godhead, for He begins to preach salvation to people and begins the work of saving us all.

Dear brothers and sisters! Now, having gathered in the temple of the Lord, let us lift up prayers to the Triune God - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that the Epiphany will also take place in our lives. So that God always abides with us, so that we never depart from Him, so that we follow the path that Christ the Savior commanded us, so that we, at the call of John the Baptist, repent of our sins and live with our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

01/18/2006.

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

Today we are celebrating the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which also has the name of the Epiphany of the Lord. This feast, in its liturgical content and in its worship, is very similar to the feast of the Nativity of Christ, because the meaning of both feasts is the same. This meaning lies in the fact that you and I rejoice that God has come to us to save us. When we celebrated the Nativity of Christ, we remembered how the Virgin Mary, in a miserable environment, gave birth to the Divine Infant into the world. The fact that this is God incarnate, except for the Virgin Mary, Her betrothed Joseph, the Angels, perhaps no one else knew. We now know that then God became incarnate and was born into the world for our salvation. And the Lord Jesus Christ began to accomplish the work of man's salvation when He was 30 years old. It was from this age, in the ancient world, it was considered that civil adulthood begins, and a person has the right to teach others. Since Jesus Christ was true God and true man, He fulfills all the laws of human nature – as they say in Slavic, “human nature” – in order to open the way to salvation for us.

John the Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist, and “forerunner” means “one who goes ahead,” was sent by God to preach to people the imminent coming of the Savior into the world. The Lord sent him to prepare people's hearts to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. And he preached, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2). And as a sign of repentance, that is, a change in life - in order to accept Christ, you must change your life, you must cast aside your sins, realize them, repent of them and desire to live with God - this is what is called repentance, - as a sign of repentance, John the Baptist immersed people into the Jordan, the river that flows in Palestine. And he said that he baptizes in water, but the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire will come. Many people, tormented by conscience, seeking true salvation, came to John the Baptist and revealed their sins to him, and he immersed them in the waters of the Jordan.

Crowds of sinners gathered near the preacher of the soon coming of Christ. And here among these sinners comes One Who is sinless in His essence. The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, comes. No one yet knows His Divine nature. It was revealed only to John the Prophet that on whom he sees the Holy Spirit descending, He is the Savior of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ comes, so that he will plunge Him into the Jordan. “How can I do this? he asks. “I need to be baptized by You!” But the Lord says to him: "Leave, we must fulfill all righteousness." And the truth is that the Lord Jesus Christ, having taken upon Himself human flesh, having become one of us a man, wants to take on Himself the sins of all of us, and therefore He stands together with sinners, and therefore He descends together with sinners. to Jordan. And this is the truth of God that the Lord wants to fulfill: He wants to save us from sin, deliver us from sin, purify us and give us eternal life.

And when Jesus Christ descends into the Jordan, John the Baptist immerses Him, and then what is called Theophany takes place. What was previously unknown to people becomes clear to them - the appearance of the Holy Trinity on the Jordan occurs: the Son of God - the Lord Jesus Christ stands in the Jordan River, the voice of the Heavenly Father is heard: "This is My beloved Son, listen to Him" ​​- Spirit The saint, like a dove, descends on the Son of God. The appearance of the Holy Trinity: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - was on the Jordan, and from that moment the Savior of the world begins to carry out His service to the human race for our salvation.

So, now we glorify God, who revealed to us the mystery of the Holy Trinity in the Jordan. Today we glorify the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to deliver us from sin. Now we rejoice that we are not alone in the world, we are not alone with our sins, passions, shortcomings - we are together with God. God is with us, who came to us so that we would not perish. God is with us, who gave us His Holy Church, through which we receive everything necessary for a genuine, real life. A loving God is with us, not punishing us for our sins, but humbly descending with us into the waters of the Jordan in order to sanctify, purify, and make us worthy of the great Kingdom of God.

Let us lift up praise to Him, glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity consubstantial and indivisible, our God.

To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

01/19/2006.

Today we turn to the Lord God so that the Lord sanctifies our entire human being with the grace of His Holy Spirit. The life that God gave to us depends on us, how we will manage it, how we will manage it with our own will. And here we are today, praying to the Lord God that through the grace of holy water - the gift of the Holy Spirit, you and I will be strengthened in going the right way, I hope we received this grace and received the strength that is given to us through the gift of the holy water.

This holy water has been known since ancient times as the great agiasma, that is, the great shrine that the Church gives to people. This great shrine is a memory of the appearance of God by the Holy Trinity on the Jordan.

The appearance of the Holy Trinity is a great miracle, because the very understanding of how the One God is simultaneously Trinity in Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is incomprehensible to the human mind. Because we do not believe in three gods, but in One God. How this happens, we cannot understand, however, we feel with our hearts, because we have a certain semblance of the Trinity in our own being: after all, every person has a mind, has a heart, that is, feelings, and has a will. And sometimes the mind, it happens like this, a person says one thing, feelings say another, and with his will he strives to do something third. And tell me, please, what are these three beings in one person? No. It is in man that the trinity is reflected by God, because man is created in the image and likeness of God. Only in the Trinity is everything one; Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in undivided love and unity. So Jesus Christ said: "I and the Father are one." And for us, for people, that's the trouble, that sometimes our three-part being contradicts itself. That is, we understand with our heart that this is bad, but the mind orders us: “Do this,” and we force ourselves with our will. This state of a person is called the loss of chastity. It arose because sin came into the world. If there were no sin, then our mind, our feelings, and our will would be one. This is what happens with holy people who have achieved perfection, achieved chastity, they are integral in their consciousness, in their feelings and in their actions. We don't. We, unfortunately, often do things that we later regret, or often do things that we never even thought of, or say things that we would never want to say.

So, the appearance of the Holy Trinity took place in the Jordan: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we, sanctifying ourselves with this holy Jordanian water, also ask God - the One, but the Trinity in persons - that this discord disappear from our being, so that there are no contradictions in us between our feelings and our thoughts and our actions. That is, we ask the Lord, by His grace, to restore the unity of our god-like being.

Today, most of you have partaken of the Most Pure Body and the Life-Giving Blood of Christ. This is the pledge of the Kingdom of God, the pledge of eternal life. We alone, by our own efforts, cannot recreate what sin has destroyed. But Divine power can do it. The grace of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, can accomplish this. The gift of the Holy Spirit does this.

So, now we glorify the One God, but the Trinity in persons, who appeared on the Jordan, when the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, stood in the Jordan River, and the voice was from heaven “This is My beloved Son” from the Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit, like a dove descended upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray to the One God, but the Trinity in persons, so that the unity of our souls reigns with you; so that our mind is attached to the Lord God and His good commandments, and our heart to burn with faith, hope and love, and our will to lead us to good deeds and deeds.

Amen.

01/18/2007.

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

Now the Holy Church triumphs, joyfully rejoices. Today, the Holy Church calls on all the faithful to worship God, who has come into the world for our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, incarnated from the Virgin, the God-man, starting from His Baptism in the Jordan, brings the preaching of repentance into the world for the salvation of all people. The mystery of the Holy Trinity appeared on the Jordan, for the One Who created the whole world, the One Who created man, the One Who gives life to the whole world, the true and incomprehensible God, appears Himself on the Jordan to save you and me - people who have lost communion with God. To save us sinners, because through our sins we have fallen away from communion with God. Through his sins, man departed, turned away from God, severed his connection with Him, which means that he lost the source of life in himself.

Jesus Christ is One from the Holy Trinity, that is, the Son of God. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is incomprehensible to the human mind, but in the love of God, in the love of man for God and God for man, and the love of man for man, this mystery can only be spiritually known. What did the people who gathered to listen to John the Baptist see, calling them to improve their lives and telling them: “Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand!”, telling them to change their lives, plunging them into the Jordan, so that through the external rite of cleansing their bodies they would think about the One Who can purify their soul? What did they see when they heard from John the Baptist that he was not even worthy to untie the shoes of the One who follows him, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and the fire of faith? They saw a man standing in the Jordan, the incarnate Son of God, true God and true man. They heard the voice of the Heavenly Father: "This is my beloved Son, listen to him." They saw the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descending on the Son of God. It was the Epiphany - the appearance of the Holy Trinity: the Father speaking, the Son standing in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descending from the Father.

Dear brothers and sisters! Today we glorify the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ. He did not hesitate to come to us, sinful and vile. He came and stood with the sinners who were waiting for repentance. And He Himself did not need repentance. But He knows that without Him we can do nothing. Without Him, without Jesus Christ, we cannot repent; We don't have these powers. Without Him, without Jesus Christ, we will not be able to improve, nothing will work out for us. Without Him, without our Savior, we will not overcome sin and will not get rid of the consequence of sin - eternal death. He gives us deliverance from the power of sin over our souls. He forgives us and cleanses us, baptizing us truly with the Holy Spirit and the fire of His faith.

We are all baptized by the baptism of John by a non-representative – that is, prophetic – baptism. Not! We are baptized in the name of the One who appeared in the Jordan - we are baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Holy Spirit is upon us, for we are anointed and sealed with the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are truly the royal priesthood. We are Christians, having in our name the name of our Savior Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Great is the name of a Christian! Great is the call to be a Christian! And now the Holy Church reminds and proclaims to you and me of our greatest spiritual calling, that we are Christians, that we were baptized into Christ, that we have put on Christ, that in our life we ​​must follow and strive follow Christ. Of course, we see our shortcomings, we see our unworthiness, we see our mistakes and we see our sins. But we believe that our Savior our Lord is powerful to cleanse us of our sins, correct our shortcomings, and give us the strength to be spiritually strong.

Dear brothers and sisters! On the day of the Theophany of the Lord, on the day when the sinless Lord descended into the Jordan River to be baptized by the hand of John the Baptist, we will glorify God, One in three persons: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, - we will glorify God who created the whole world Let us glorify God, who created us in His image and likeness, who gave us an immortal soul and the opportunity to live in love and kindness. Let us glorify God, who did not leave us, but came to us in order to save us with you, so that we would not perish, but have eternal life.

Let us glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - the Trinity of the same essence and inseparable. Amen.

(01/18/2008 Holy Theophany. The Baptism of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All-Night Vigil.)

The great holiday today is the feast of the Epiphany, the spiritual meaning of which lies in the fact that God wished to come to us in our lives, realizing that without God we will not be able to cope with our lives. Without God we cannot correct our shortcomings, without God we cannot overcome our calamities, without God we cannot do anything good in our lives, without God we cannot learn to love, hope and believe. Without God, real life does not exist at all. Without God there is no life, but only its miserable likeness - the end of this likeness can be terrible. Because earthly life is a small segment, and we are waiting with you, each of us with you is waiting for a whole eternity ahead, and how we live this small, small segment of earthly life depends on how we live eternity. It's hard for us to imagine, but it's true. And this law was revealed to us by God, pitying us, loving us, striving to help us.

We remember a great historical event - how our Lord Jesus Christ came out to preach. Until recently, we celebrated the Nativity of Christ, saying that God appeared into the world as a helpless baby. Yes, it is true, God became incarnate and lived first as a helpless baby, then as a child, then as a young man, and this time of His life is hidden from us, because He went through this life period in order to be a Man always, in all His periods and cases. life. But at the age of 30, Jesus Christ goes out to preach and reveals Himself to the world. Hence the name of this holiday - Epiphany. He reveals Himself to the world in order to save this world. John the Baptist, who came and was sent by God as a prophet to prepare the way for the Lord Jesus Christ, spoke about repentance - that is, about changing a person's life, his way of thinking, his way of feeling. He called people to repentance and figuratively pointed out to them what needed to be done. As we wash the body of dirt with water, so John the Baptist immersed people in the Jordan, indicating that they should cleanse their souls from the dirt of sin. But only John the Baptist did not have the power to cleanse human souls from the dirt of sin. No man has that kind of power. This power belongs only to God. Only God can cleanse our souls with you.

And now Jesus Christ, the incarnate God-man, comes to the Jordan. The prophet John is horrified and says, “How can I baptize You? How can I lay my hand on Your head? Who am i?" “But Jesus Christ requires him to do this, because He, our Savior, Christ, wants to be with us. He, sinless, wants to be with us sinners. He, the immortal, wants to be with us mortals. He, the righteous, wants to be with us, the unrighteous. For what? In order to save us.

And this is the greatness, and joy, and holiness of this holiday. God comes to us in our life. Although we do not deserve it, although we are unworthy, although we are sinners, God loves us and comes to us in order to save us.

The visible sign of today's holiday is holy water - the Great Agiasma, which we have just consecrated. According to our faith let it be to us. Now one has to hear a lot of different explanations and comments regarding holy water. Alas, I even had to see - literally yesterday I saw how on TV they showed how people plunged into the hole to the sound of an accordion, and this was called some kind of cleansing of sins. Oh madness! As if physical water could purify a person from sin! Only faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ can purify a person. Only with faith does a person immersed in water receive grace, only with faith does one who drinks the Great Agiasma receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Without faith, nothing is possible in the Church of Christ. Only by faith does the Lord give us grace.

Let us, dear brothers and sisters, seek the faith of Christ, let us preserve the holy Orthodox faith, let us strive to make this faith kindle in our hearts, in our souls. The feast of Baptism was arranged not for the sake of hardening the body, but for the memory that God can appear in our life if we believe in Him. I wish you all that the Epiphany happens in the life of each of us, that God is with each of us, and we are with God. And then truly our life will be full and true. “Draw water with joy,” says the prophet (Isaiah 12:3), referring to spiritual joy. May spiritual joy in the Lord be with you.

From practice, we know that all people cannot immediately get water and leave at the same time, and as a humanity we all strive to be faster, well, we were brought up in such a way that it seems that if you push through the queue faster, then you are done. Think where you stand, brothers and sisters! It is not often that we have to be in the temple of God. So what if you're standing in line for water? You forget that you are standing in line. You will remember that you are standing in the temple of God. Use this time to pray. Remember your sins and repent of them. Ask the Lord God in your soul for blessings for good deeds. Remember your relatives and friends, everyone, and pray for everyone so that they too come to faith and truth. Remember those who have died, who have left this life, in your hearts. And when you stand with prayer, maybe you will want to stand even longer, and not run away from the temple of God. Use this grace-filled time that the Lord has given you now, bringing you to the temple of God for inner, sincere and pure prayer.

Dear brothers and sisters! Today is a great and holy day. By His Baptism, the Lord Jesus Christ showed His greatest humility and love for us. He measured Himself, the God-man, with us, sinful people, unworthy of His mercy. He did not disdain us, but came to us to save us. Let us glorify His Epiphany! Let us ask His mercy, let us ask that in the life of each of us there will always be our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Now, after the cross is given, you will draw water and carry it to your homes, I will remind you that this holy water should be taken with faith, with prayer, it is a custom for Orthodox Christians to keep it in the house for a whole year, after morning to partake of prayers little by little with this water. It must be borne in mind that it can be diluted in any other water. Usually even Christians, when they are sick, or when difficult circumstances, be sure to take this water, the same water is sprinkled on houses and outbuildings, whoever has it, and cars, and any things are sanctified with this water, and all this is done with faith. May the merciful Lord and Mother of God bless you. Happy holiday!

(01/19/2008 Holy Theophany. The Baptism of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Liturgy.)

I congratulate you on the great feast of Epiphany! For when Christ began His preaching, He came to John at the Jordan River in order to be baptized by him. Not because Christ needed cleansing from sins, but the baptism that John performed was a representative, symbolic act, meaning that people need Divine cleansing. No, Christ Himself did not need it. But we we need cleansing with you. Us we need forgiveness of our sins. Us we need the presence of God in our lives. And that's why Christ came to those sinners who were in the Jordan, and together with them to each of us. To each of us, sinners, Christ came to cleanse us.

When the Lord descended into the streams of the Jordan, a miracle took place - Theophany. Mysteriously appeared God the Incomprehensible in the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For the Son stood in the waters of the Jordan, and the voice was of the Heavenly Father: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and the Spirit in the form of a dove descended on the Savior.

Dear brothers and sisters, we also tea the Epiphany in our lives with you. Each of us needs the Lord, each of us needs the Epiphany in our life. Everyone needs God to come to us and sanctify us. Each of us needs God to come to us and forgive us our sins, cleanse us, strengthen us, give us the true path of life. Each of us needs the Lord to comfort us, so that the Lord will support us. And all this we receive with you in the Holy Church, for the Church truly is the Epiphany in this sinful world of ours with you. For the Lord created His Church on earth to dwell in it with us all the days until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

Now a visible sign of the grace of God is the great agiasma - holy water, which we have just consecrated together. It symbolizes the waters of the Jordan, when Christ descended and sanctified all the waters of nature. Water is the basis of the life of a physical person, and of the whole world. And by performing this consecration of water, the Holy Church shows that Christ came into the world in order to sanctify us all: not only to purify our soul, but also to sanctify our body. For this is why the Lord became incarnate, and the entire physical world in which we live can be transformed by the grace of God. After all, the Apostle Paul himself says that the world is still suffering and groaning because of our sins (see Rom. 8:20-23), that is, nature and even dumb animals suffer because of human sins. So, the Lord blesses the whole world with His coming, and holy water marks this sanctification.

However, nothing in the world is accomplished in the spiritual sense without human faith. Faith is the engine of salvation. By faith heaven is opened to man. By faith a person decides to follow Christ and follows Him. Similarly, holy water has its beneficial effect when there is faith in the heart of a person, or at least the desire for faith. Just as one drop of today's holy water can sanctify at least an entire ocean, just as at least one drop of today's holy water can sanctify an entire dwelling, so if we have even a drop of faith in our hearts, then our whole life will be sanctified by this faith.

Taking holy water during the year on an empty stomach, we ask the Lord to strengthen faith in our hearts. According to our faith, it is given to us, and this holy water happens to us in the healing of our souls and bodies, driving away the forces of evil, in strengthening our determination to live according to the commandments of God.

Dear brothers and sisters! I congratulate you on the great feast of Epiphany, the Epiphany of the Lord. God grant that the Lord abides in our life, in the life of each of us, that the Epiphany is constant in our lives, that our life is sanctified by the presence of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

(19.01.2009 Epiphany.)

I heartily congratulate you, dear brothers and sisters, on the great feast of the Baptism of the Lord - Holy Theophany.

May the Lord always be in our hearts! We are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We are born for eternal life. The door to salvation is open before us in Holy Baptism. The Lord Jesus Christ calls us to follow him so that we follow in His footsteps, according to His good commandments. Today, on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Holy Church calls on you and me to remember our vows given to you and me at the baptismal font, to remember that we should live in faith, hope and love.

The holy water that we receive today, on this great feast, is a blessing for you and me to be Orthodox people. So that we sanctify every day of our lives with holy faith. So that everything we do in our life is for the glory of God. So that all our actions are performed so that the name of the Lord is glorified in this world.

Today is a great holiday, a joyful and holy holiday, a holiday of renewal, enlightenment, purification. And we, having made this prayer, rejoice in the Lord and ask Him that we always walk purified and enlightened by the Holy Spirit; We ask the Lord that the grace of God will always be with us. And holy water is this great agiasma, as a visible blessing for you and me for a holy, pure and bright life.

I heartily congratulate you, dear brothers and sisters, on this holy holiday. May the Merciful Lord and Mother of God bless you. Amen.

(01/18/2010 Holy Theophany. Baptism of the Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. All-night vigil.)

I heartily congratulate you, dear brothers and sisters, on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, on Holy Theophany! May the Lord grant you, Who did not disdain us sinners, and came to us to save us, and wants to live our life together with us, taking upon Himself our sins, our iniquities, our ulcers, our sorrows, our illnesses - taking everything upon Himself, He wants to save us, may the Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ grant us a state of clear mind, so that we know the path of salvation with you and follow this direct path, which John the Baptist spoke about, so that we follow this path for our Savior Jesus Christ.

His simple and good commandments: we must love each other, we must forgive each other offenses and sins, we must remember that we are all created in the image and likeness of God, that we have immortal souls, that God is our Father, we must we follow the Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ, whose will we can learn by reading the Holy Gospel, and in order to understand it, the Holy Church gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, and for this we need to go to the temple of God, pray, participate in the Holy Sacraments, and then the Lord will guide us through this life.

I sincerely congratulate you on this great holiday. I wish each of you, dear brothers and sisters, the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord, who was baptized in the Jordan, bless each of you with health, strength, strength, and reason. May the Lord bless your families. May the Lord bless your family and friends, children and grandchildren, fathers and mothers, grandparents. May the Lord bless all those with whom you associate. May the Lord bless those who love us and may the Lord bless those who hate us. May the blessing of God abide with us in that holy water, which we will now all take and carry to our homes - may this real blessing of God abide with our homes, in our families, with our relatives and friends. Remember, brothers and sisters: it is given to us according to our faith. Keep the holy Orthodox faith, and it will sanctify us, it will strengthen us, it will give us strength in any life situation.

Happy Epiphany! May the Merciful Lord and Mother of God bless you all.

(01/19/2010 Holy Theophany. Baptism of the Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. Liturgy.)

I heartily congratulate you, dear brothers and sisters, on the great feast of the Baptism of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ - Holy Theophany! God came to us to save us. God does not disdain our sins and does not reject us, but cleanses you and me from our sins. God heals our souls sick with sins. God revives us, who are dying spiritually from our passions, from our vanity, from our foolishness. Today is a great holiday, testifying to the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for us, people, for us, fallen sinners, whom He wants to raise, change, correct, cleanse.

Today we solemnly and joyfully pray and worship the incomprehensible God, in the Trinity, manifested in the Jordan. For the mystery of the Trinity was already revealed at the beginning of the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He, Christ, the God-Man, descended into the Jordan in order to join people who confess their sins, although He Himself did not have the slightest sin, but in order to save us He comes to us: then the heavens opened, and the voice was of the Heavenly Father, and the Son of God, standing in the water of the Jordan, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on Him. This was the appearance of the Holy Trinity: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the incomprehensible God, One, but Trinity in Persons.

Today we prayed and blessed the water. This water is considered in the Orthodox Church a great shrine. Its Orthodox Christians use it with prayer and receive by faith the healing of spiritual, mental and bodily ailments. With this water they sanctify dwellings, with this water they strengthen themselves in faith, hope and love. Christians keep this water in their homes all year round, draining it little by little and drinking it to the glory of God, to strengthen the soul and body.

Dear brothers and sisters, this water is a sign of the visible presence of God in this world. But every Christian knows God with his soul. May God grant each of us to know our Lord and Savior with our soul. May God grant that we always abide with Him, who came to us for our salvation. Let us never depart from the Lord. Let us strive to learn His good commandments. Let us strive to learn to live with Christ and in Christ. And this can be taught to us by the Holy Church, which He founded on earth, through His blessed Sacraments, through His prayer, through the reading of the Holy Gospel and the word of God - through this we are strengthened in faith, hope and love.

Dear brothers and sisters, I sincerely congratulate you on the holiday! May God grant you all strength and strength, spiritual joy, may God grant success in all your good deeds, may the Lord bless your families, may the Lord bless your labors, may the Lord bless your relatives and friends. Having scooped holy water, carry it into your houses and sanctify everything. But remember that in sanctifying the external, we must also sanctify the internal. We need to sanctify our souls with the Holy Spirit, we need to enlighten our souls with the light of the Holy Gospel, we need to soften our souls with prayers to the Lord.

I congratulate all of you on the holiday. On today's holiday, I want to especially note and thank our choir, they tried very hard, well done. Three services were great in a row, but without one mistake you held them solemnly, as befits on this great holiday. Thank you, dear ones, God help you and continue to praise the Lord with your talents.

Again and again I congratulate you on the holiday. May the Merciful Lord and Mother of God bless you.

(01/18/2011. Theophany. All-night vigil.)

"God with us!" (Isaiah 7:14). - This prophecy, fulfilled on the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, we hear again after the feast of the Nativity of Christ. Then we spiritually rejoiced about the birth into the world and the incarnation of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we remembered how He, as a small child, came to a miserable manger to be born in a den. Now we again remember this prophecy, because thirty years after His birth, the Savior of the world came out for His public preaching to accomplish the work of saving each of us. And the Lord began this work of salvation by coming to the place where the most repentant sinners gathered. He came to the place where people, realizing their shortcomings, realizing their weakness, realizing their inability to fulfill the law of God, realizing that they could not be corrected without God's help, came to the prophet John the Baptist, and he preached to them, saying that after him the greater one is coming, who will baptize everyone with the Holy Spirit and the fire of faith (cf. Matt. 3:11).

"God with us!" – we know this because we belong to the Church of Christ, because the Church of Christ is nothing but a community of repentant sinners. You and I come to the Church of Christ because we see and realize our own weakness and foolishness. We come to the Church of Christ because we understand that our personal, individual, separate forces will never be enough for us to change anything in our lives. We come to the Church of Christ because we know that God is here, who said that he would be with us “always until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). You and I are united in the Church of Christ because we know that the Savior of the world founded it on earth for this purpose, so that you and I would not perish, but have eternal life.

Christ was born in a wretched environment, so that no one saw or understood His Divinity, except for the Most Pure and Most Blessed Virgin Mary, who knew the secret of the Blessing of God, even those who came and worshiped Him did not fully understand Whom they bowed to. On the Jordan River, Jesus Christ revealed the mystery of the Trinity Deity, revealed the mystery of the economy of salvation. And to whom did he reveal it? – Again: not to the wise and philosophers, not to the rulers and mighty people of this world, not to the proud and connoisseurs of the Law – He revealed Himself to sinners who were aware of their sins and wished to correct themselves. He miraculously discovered the manifestations of the Holy Trinity. When He descended into the water, in order, like other sinful people, to show the image of humility and repentance, the heavens opened, the Spirit, like a dove, descended on Him, and the voice of the Heavenly Father was heard: “This is My beloved Son, but I am well pleased with Him” (Mt. 3, 16, 17).

“The appearance of the Trinity was in the Jordan,” is how the Holy Church sings today. And truly, the mystery of trinitarian love, the mystery of the Godhead, incomprehensible to the human mind, the One, but Trinity in Persons, is revealed on the Jordan River because through this the preaching of the salvation of all mankind begins, the feat of salvation begins, which is performed by the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters! Today we, with the Church of Christ, joyfully jubilantly sing: “God is with us!” Let us rejoice in this, brothers and sisters! Humbly recognizing our unworthiness, asking for the gift of repentance before God, let us ask the Holy Spirit, Who would guide us to correction. Let us strive to live the life of the Church of Christ, which leads us to eternal life. Let us glorify God, who revealed His secret to us on the Jordan, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! To him be glory forever and ever! Amen.

(01/18/2013 Epiphany of the Lord. All-night vigil.)

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

Quite a bit of time has passed since we spiritually rejoiced and sang praises to the born God-child, the Lord Jesus Christ. The main idea of ​​the Christmas services was that God is with us - through the Nativity of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ. The born God-Infant Jesus Christ did not show His Divine Being to the world for 30 years, thereby showing us that He came into the world not to destroy the laws that were given by God for people, but to fulfill them. And the law, which was given even through the prophet Moses, said that a person's coming of age, when he can teach, preach, begins at the age of 30. And now we are celebrating a divine service, which in its inner content is very similar to the Christmas service. For here the same main thought is heard: "God is with us." But now we are already remembering another event: how 30 years after His Nativity Jesus Christ revealed His Divinity to the world, how 30 years after His Nativity He went out to preach publicly. And the circumstances of this going out to preach were special, so special that we now celebrate them as a great twelfth holiday.

Because the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ began with the appearance of the Holy Trinity to the world. Before that, the world did not know the mystery of the Holy Trinity. In the Jordan it was opened. But this appearance to the world of the Holy Trinity happened because Jesus Christ, the God-Man, completely subordinated His human will to the will of God. And His Divine will was in unity with the human will.

He came to save us sinners. And so He came to start preaching to the real sinners - to those people who recognize themselves as such, to those people who repent. These people gathered to listen to the sermon of the prophet John the Forerunner and Baptist. They came to him to confess their sins. They came to him because they were looking for a way to salvation. And John the Baptist said to them: “I baptize you with water, but one will come who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. I am not even worthy to untie the strap on His boots” (see Mark 1:7-8). And suddenly the One about whom John the Baptist so prophesied is among those who have come to repentance. He came along with sinners, came to immerse himself in the waters of the Jordan, although He did not need this immersion, for He was sinless. But God so loved the world that He gives His Only Begotten Son, so that none of those who believe in Him perish but have eternal life (see John 3:16). And therefore Christ comes directly to us, sinners, and does not disdain us. And when John tries to contradict Him and says: “I need to be baptized by You; how will I baptize you?" - Jesus Christ answers him: “Leave it; we must fulfill all righteousness” (see Matt. 3:15).

What is this fulfillment of truth? What truth did the Lord Jesus Christ come into the world to fulfill? The truth is that man is the image and likeness of God. The truth is that man was not created for death, but for eternal life. But the man himself replaced this truth with a lie that he heard from the enemy of the human race, the devil, and this lie made a nest in his heart. Because the devil said to the man: "If you don't listen to God, you yourself will be like God" (see Gen. 3:5). And the man decided that he could live without God. And destroyed his own essence. Because without God there is no life, without God there is only decay and death, malice and hatred, sorrows and misfortunes, sickness and death. And so Christ comes into the world to fulfill the truth - to change the essence of man. To do this, He incarnates and becomes a Man, and comes to those sinners whom He wants to save. And with them enters the waters of the Jordan.

And here the mystery of the Trinity is revealed to everyone - both to John the Baptist and to you and me. The Son of God stands in the waters of the Jordan, the Spirit, like a dove, descends on Him, and the voice of the Heavenly Father: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (see Matt. 3, 17). The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit appeared on the Jordan as a sign that God is with us, as a sign that we have salvation, as a sign that heaven is now open to us. The Gospel says: "The heavens were opened" (see Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10). And now we rejoice and thank God, who came for our salvation, God, Who became Man, in order to deify us, and unite us with God, and return to us what we have lost - the image and likeness of God and the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal Paradise .

Dear brothers and sisters! Let us glorify the Savior of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who entered the waters of the Jordan humbly together with sinners, so that we, sinners, could be led to eternal life. Amen.

(01/19/2013. Baptism of the Lord. Liturgy.)

I heartily congratulate you, dear brothers and sisters, on the feast of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Theophany. This holiday has three names. Baptism - according to the event that we read about in the Holy Gospel, when the Savior of the world came to the Jordan, to those people who repented of their sins, and stood up together with sinners, thereby starting His saving feat of His preaching, for He came “not the righteous, but call sinners to repentance” (see Matt. 9:13). And not just from afar the Lord speaks to you and me, because we are also sinners, He came to us. Not from afar the Lord speaks to us, and commands, and commands, no. He is next to us, He came to us and became one of us. And more than that: we become partakers of Him through the great Sacraments of the Church, especially through the Sacrament of the Most Pure Body and Life-Giving Blood of Christ the Savior. The Lord came into the world to save us. The first name of the holiday is Epiphany, we heard about this event several times in the gospel narrative during today's worship.

The second name of this holiday is Epiphany, because during baptism the mystery of the Holy Trinity appeared. God is one, but trinity in Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit - the Trinity is consubstantial and indivisible. Not three Gods, but One God, but trinity in Persons. So, on the Jordan, the Son of God stood, immersed in water, the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended on Him, and the voice of the Heavenly Father: “This is My beloved Son.” Thus, the Epiphany took place. Through this Epiphany, people still have the opportunity to know that the truth that you and I contain in our hearts is not human, but God-given, Epiphany. Jesus Christ, having been incarnate, abides with us all the days until the end of the age, as He said after His three-day resurrection (see Matt. 28:20). This is the joy of the Epiphany. God not only reveals His secret, God dwells with us. And he will abide with us, only you and I should not turn away from Him, and we should open our hearts to Him, and then our hearts can be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

And the third name of this holiday is Enlightenment. On this day, in the ancient Church, people were usually baptized, who during the year were preparing for Holy Baptism by the proclamation. Enlightenment is that state of a person when the grace of the Holy Spirit touches his soul. “Thou hast appeared today to the universe,” we sing in kontakion, “and Your light, O Lord, is upon us.” The Light of Christ enlightens us. And the meaning of this holiday is that we, having cleansed our hearts, live in the light of Christ. And the visible sign of the grace of God in our life is the blessed water - the great agiasma, which we have sanctified today, praying with you. This is a sign of the light of Christ, which should always be with us in our souls, in our lives. Therefore, we take holy water home and store it there, and drink it, and illuminate all things at home, and we always turn to it as a visible sign of the grace of God and the light of Christ, which enlightens every person coming into the world. But again, in order for this light to shine in us, we need to make an effort: we need to open our souls, we need to try to live according to the good commandments of God, that is, to walk in the light of Christ.

I heartily congratulate you on this great and holy holiday, which we have celebrated with you in prayer today. May the Lord enlighten our souls, may He strengthen our faith in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, may He grant us eternal life, which begins now in our temporary life. May the Merciful Lord and Mother of God bless you. Happy holiday!

(01/18/2014 Epiphany of the Lord. All-night vigil.)

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

God sends His prophet to call people to repentance. John the Baptist two thousand years ago, following the word of God, called out: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (see Matt. 3:2). And many people turned to repentance and came to the great prophet, and he immersed them in water with the words: “I baptize you with water, but the One who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit is coming after me” (see Matt. 3, 11; Mark .1, 7–8).

Dear brothers and sisters! Today we spiritually triumph and celebrate the remembrance of the great event - the Baptism of the Lord. The Lord came to the Jordan to plunge into its waters. Why did other people come to the Jordan? Repent of your sins and wash your body as a sign of repentance in the hope that God will wash your soul as well. Why did Christ come to the Jordan? For He did not need to repent, being true God and true Man, in the sense in which man was conceived, that is, without sin; He did not need to wash His soul, for His soul was one with God. Why does He plunge into the Jordan?

First, because of His love for you and me. We sinners need the washing of our souls. And the Lord descends to us to help us wash and cleanse our souls. And secondly, if we listen to the words of the divine service now being celebrated, we hear many times that the Lord comes in the Jordan to sanctify the waters. Moreover, this morning and now on Epiphany night we will perform the rite of the Great Blessing of Water. Water does not wash the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it washed the bodies of previous sinners, but Jesus Christ sanctifies the water by His immersion. What for? Why would He sanctify water if He came to sanctify human souls? What does it mean?

But a person is made up of a soul and a body. And the human body lives, obeying the laws of the material. And man, having fallen away in soul from God - once, back in the time of Adam, fell away with his body from God. And the nature of the human soul became corrupted, distorted, became corrupted by sin, and all nature was corrupted - corrupted because of the sin of man. And this corruption continues to this day. Not only the inner human world was damaged by sin, but the outer, material world was also damaged by sin. And so, the Lord Jesus Christ descends into the waters of the Jordan, so that the material world in which we live with you can also help us correct it. He sanctifies the water so that we understand that everything in our life should be holy and sanctified. We want our soul to be holy and pure, and we need to keep our body in moral purity. We wish our soul to be together with God, which means that our attitude towards nature created by God should also be the same. The Lord sanctifies the whole world for us so that we understand that the body for us is not an enemy prison in which our soul is imprisoned, no, our body must be ready for the resurrection and eternal life in the Lord Jesus.

Therefore, everything that the Lord has blessed is holy, and everything depends on our relationship with you. From the same thing we can make an instrument of sin, and from the same thing we can make an instrument of righteousness and truth. This applies to any things that we use in everyday life. Usually they cite as an example a knife with which one can commit crimes and with which one can not only cook delicious food, but also carve, for example, beautiful figures and make works of art, such as, for example, our carved iconostases.

And so in any case. The thing is that the Lord, having come to you and me, opened the doors for us to a pure and holy life. From now on, no one can forcibly plunge us into the mud of sin. This is our choice, where we will plunge - into a fetid puddle of sin, and we will wallow there and dirty everyone around us with mud, or into the pure Jordanian waters, sanctifying our soul, cleansing it, and sanctifying and transforming the world in which we are with you we live: and our home, and the place where we work, and how we communicate with everyone, and what surrounds us. What surrounds us? After all, sometimes we ourselves are afraid to enter the entrances of our houses. And who arranged this filth for us, into which a person sometimes enters and pinches his nose? Yes, we ourselves. This is the mirror of our soul.

Therefore, of course, today's holiday should teach us that it is impossible to say: "I have a pure soul!" - and at the same time do bad things and treat this world badly. No. Whoever has a pure soul strives to make everything around him pure, beautiful and righteous. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ came to us in the world, and we have now heard the Church proclaim: “God is with us!” - so that we can transform, purify and enlighten both our souls and our bodies, and the world in which we live. Amen.

(01/19/2014 The Baptism of the Lord. Divine Liturgy.)

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

Today we have spiritual joy - the joy that the Lord gives us. For today's holiday is so special that it even has three names. The first name is in fact the gospel event that we remember, this name is the Baptism of the Lord.

It must be borne in mind that when we are now talking about Baptism - the Baptism of an infant or an adult - we are talking about the fact that a person accepts the Orthodox faith and is immersed in water with the invocation of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But the Lord Jesus Christ just established this Baptism in the waters of the Jordan. The fact is that John the prophet was sent to prophesy about Christ, who was to come for our salvation, and about how the Lord would open the doors to eternal life for us. And John the Baptist foreshadowed, that is, prophetically performed the rite, if I may say so, of washing: he immersed people in water as a sign that as the body is cleansed of water, so they must cleanse their souls. And so Jesus Christ came, and stood up together with sinners, and also receives this Baptism from John.

This is the first title. The second name is Epiphany. Because this Baptism, which Jesus Christ received, turned out to be not the same as for all people. Because during this immersion in the water, the manifestation of the mystery of God took place. We are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is our Trinity God. It is incomprehensible to the human mind: not three Gods, but one God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And the Epiphany took place in the Jordan. The Son of God stood in the water of the Jordan, a voice came from the heaven of the Heavenly Father: “This is My Beloved Son, but I am well pleased with Him,” and the Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended on the Son of Man (see Matt. 3, 16-17) . You see - the appearance of the Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And from that time on, those already believing in Jesus Christ, the disciples of Christ began to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Christ Himself commanded them so. He, the resurrected one, told them: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (see Matt. 28:19). And now we have Baptism into eternal life from the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Trinity. Hence the name of the second - Epiphany.

There is a third name for this holiday, it is called Enlightenment. Because in the ancient Church, by this time, people who wished to be baptized were preparing, undergoing an announcement, and on that day they were solemnly baptized in the church, that is, they were enlightened. We now also, you know, have a certain order, and when they want to baptize a baby or people themselves come to Baptism, they first have an announcement with them - that is, conversations about faith. After that, they are baptized. And why is this name, Enlightenment, important for us, who have already been baptized? So that you and I do not forget those vows that we gave at Baptism. That our souls may be enlightened by the light of truth, that we may walk in the light of Christ. Because to live in the commandments of God is to walk in the light, and to live without God is to walk in darkness.

Hence the name - Enlightenment. And, as a sign of this Enlightenment, blessed water is heard - a great shrine, in Greek agiasma. We sanctify ourselves with it, we accept it, we drink it for the health of soul and body. Pious Christians store this water for a year. It can be diluted as much as you like. There is a good custom when, after the morning prayer, on an empty stomach, they taste this holy water, when, during an illness, they sprinkle it with prayer. With this holy water we consecrate our dwellings, things - everything with which we live and with which we communicate. This water is given to us for the sanctification and enlightenment of our souls with you.

Behold, dear brothers and sisters, what a wonderful holiday we have now met with you. God grant that we have with you the fruits of our Baptism - and we are all baptized people - were true, good, real; so that God always abides in our lives with you, and we firmly keep the faith in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. May God grant that our souls may be enlightened by the Spirit of God. Amen.

(01/18/2015 Epiphany of the Lord. All-night vigil.)

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

How the Lord loves us! Although, if we look at ourselves, it seems that we are completely unworthy of this love. What is God's love for us? It lies in the fact that the Lord knocks on our hearts so that we hear and realize, and unite our free will with His Divine will. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world for our salvation, and He opens the way to this salvation for us, reveals to us the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God - we only need to hear and perceive it, and follow Him, for the Lord cannot save us against our will, because we we are god-like with you, because we have an immortal soul, created in the image of God and in the likeness of God, and it cannot be held captive by anyone, and should not be captive, unless we ourselves give it captive to evil and our lusts, and our sins - then our soul is captured. And now the Lord is knocking on our hearts. How? The current holiday - called "Theophany" - is very similar in content and, moreover, in ancient times they were even celebrated simultaneously, with the feast of the Nativity of Christ, very similar both in worship and in spiritual meaning. There is only one meaning: God came into the world, God is with us, God came to save us - here it is, the main meaning!

But how insistent is the Lord Himself in conveying to our consciousness the need for us to respond to His call for salvation! Look: when the Divine Infant was born in a cave, how many believed that the Savior was born? Yes, we know from the Gospel that the shepherds came and bowed because the angels told them; we know from the Gospel that the ancient wise men, sorcerers, astrologers found their way to the Savior by the Star of Bethlehem, brought rich gifts to Him, and they worshiped Him; we know how righteous Joseph served the Divine Infant and how the Most Pure Virgin Mary laid everything in her heart, serving her Son and our God. – But we have no other evidence that people accepted the birth of the Savior into the world. On the contrary, we have evidence that He did not even get a place in human dwellings to be born, we have evidence that the external authorities in the person of King Herod wanted to destroy Him and did not stop at the unheard-of murder of countless babies - but the Lord came to the world to save us! For thirty years, Jesus Christ grew, being a true Man and being in obedience to His earthly parents, but at the same time, being the true God Who came for our salvation! And there is no evidence that He manifested His divine humanity. As if His coming into the world was hidden, a limited number of people knew about it, well, maybe even the wise men from Solomon's temple, to which the twelve-year-old boy Jesus came and talked with them like a mature man who knows Scripture, knows the answers to tormenting spiritual questions.

What does this mean? What does this hidden period mean in the life of Jesus Christ, and what does it mean for you and me? Faith in the heart of a person also increases. Of course, we know examples when at one moment a person becomes a Christian, or at one moment brings repentance, as, for example, it was with the Christian martyrs, when their tormentors saw steadfastness in faith, here is an example of the forty martyrs of Sebaste, and when one of them frightened, refused - then the warrior who was carrying out the task of the commander suddenly shouted: “I am also a Christian!” - and went up into the lake with the martyrs - this is instant faith! Of course, on the cross the thief instantly repented and said: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom!” (see Luke 23:42). These are separate examples, however, as in the Gospel we read about separate examples when they worshiped the infant Lord Jesus Christ! But most often in our daily life, faith grows, it must be protected, protected in our hearts! Just as Joseph and the Virgin Mary guarded and guarded the still little God-child Jesus Christ, raising Him the way it happens in ordinary human families, so you and I need to keep, protect, nurture and educate faith in our hearts so that it strengthens and becomes harder!

And now, we see again the appearance of God, which occurs thirty years after birth - the thirty-year-old Jesus Christ comes to the Jordan! In fact, no one would have listened to Him before, because earlier in the ancient Jewish world, thirty years was considered the age of majority, and it was from that time that a man had the right to preach in synagogues and interpret the Holy Scriptures. And so, Christ comes to the Jordan. For what? To start Your public ministry and start Your salvation preaching! How persistent Christ is in reaching out to our souls! If on the day of His birth Angels from heaven sang and announced that the Savior of the world was born, then on the day when He came in a crowd of sinners that stood on the banks of the Jordan River, and when He descended into the water with them, although He did not need in what purification, then he revealed to the world an incomprehensible being - the One God: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! It was no longer Angels who announced this, but the Lord Himself reveals to us the manifestation of the Holy Trinity - the incomprehensible eternal God! The Son of God stands in the waters of the Jordan. The Holy Spirit, like a dove, descends on Him and the voice of the Heavenly Father is heard: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (see Mt. 3:17). – The appearance of the Trinity was in the Jordan! Now the essence is revealed to the world, for the sake of which Christ came into the world. The bottom line is this - He came to save sinners! After all, let us think in the same way, why did Christ need to be born and incarnate and become a man? Why did God have to go through the entire journey of man from the womb to life as a baby and a teenager and a young man? Why should God come along with sinners who sought to wash His soul through external washing in water - why should he enter? John the Baptist himself is perplexed, it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit Who is in front of him and he says: “How can You ask me for baptism? How can I touch You – should I be baptized by You?” And Christ says: "Leave it - we must fulfill all righteousness!" And what is the truth? And the truth is that Jesus Christ came to take our sins upon Himself and free us from the power of sin and make our souls free again, so that we could live with God, and God live with us! That is why today we heard this hymn from the prophet Isaiah at the beginning of the service: “God is with us!” (Isaiah 7:14).

Truly, brothers and sisters, we are happy now - God is with us, He saves us! The Holy Church testifies to this, and the current feast itself, the appearance of God on the Jordan River, testifies that we sinners, if we believe in the Lord and follow Him, we will not perish, and He will save us! From this day on, Christ began his sermon, and, repeating the words of John the Baptist, who already said this, he says: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” (see Matt. 4:17). So you and I are praying that we correct ourselves, change - that is, repent! And the holy water, which these days is sanctified as a sign of a change in our soul, should wake up our conscience so that we carefully look at ourselves and see where we do not correspond to the name of Christians, so that we can be true Christians, and the Lord has done everything for this. He opened everything to us - He opened the sky for us! Let us glorify our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world for our salvation, who did not disdain to be baptized in the waters of the Jordan River in order to reveal to us the Mystery of the Great Trinity: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Amen.

(01/19/2015 The Baptism of the Lord. Divine Liturgy.)

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

Today, on this Holy Night, we have made a prayer to the Lord, following the example of the ancient Church, which devoted such great holidays as now, namely the night time for fervent appeal to the Lord. We hope that our prayers are accepted by the Lord, and our prayer work will be blessed by him!

Today is a great and highly spiritual holiday! It even has several names in the church calendar. The first name is the Baptism of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ! This is a historic event. Strictly speaking, the Greek language does not call Baptism, but Immersion, because John the Baptist, who immersed people in the Jordan, thereby predicted only the future Holy Sacrament, which the Lord would give to His apostles when He sent them to preach His Word and said to them: “ Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!” (Matthew 28:19). But it was on the Jordan through the immersion of Jesus Christ in the water of this river that the beginning of this rite itself happened! Why is this historical event important for you and me - the Baptism of the Lord? The fact is that John the Prophet and Forerunner calls people to repentance and correction, and those in whom the conscience was awakened, and they felt themselves sinful in the face of God - they came to John and asked him for help in correcting their lives! And as a sign that they should prepare their hearts to receive the word of God, John plunged them into the Jordan, showing that just as the body is cleansed of dirt through water, so the soul must be cleansed of the dirt of sin through the grace of the Holy Spirit! An amazing thing: the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who does not require any purification, comes and stands together with others to enter the waters of the Jordan! Why is He doing this? Because He came to save us sinners! He does not despise us, although we, perhaps, due to our sins are worthy of contempt - He loves us, He desires our salvation! Just as everyone was waiting for the immersion in the Jordan, so He was with everyone. The high theological spiritual significance of the Baptism of the Lord lies in the fact that the Lord came to us sinners, to correct us, to purify us, to save us!

The second name of the holiday is Theophany, because when Christ descended into the Jordan River, the Revelation happened! We heard today in the Gospel: The Holy Spirit, like a dove, descended on Christ, the Son of God, and the voice was of the Heavenly Father: "This is my Beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased." – There was a manifestation of the Trinity on the Jordan, and this manifestation of the God of the Trinity – mysterious and incomprehensible – is spiritual joy for us! The Mystery of the Deity has been revealed to us: God is one, but trinity in persons! Not three Gods, but one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Theophany is spiritually important for us also because a person also has three compositions in himself: he has a mind, he has feelings, and he has a will! And these three compositions: our mind, feelings and will - these are not three different things, they are, as it were, trinity, but a single whole - this is me, this is a person! The trouble happens when we have a discord in our soul: when the mind understands that one thing needs to be done, and its feelings lead to another, and the will still happens to the third! This kind of discord is called unchastity, and it just happened to a person after the fall! And so, the feast of the Epiphany - the appearance of the One God, but the Trinity in persons - indicates to us what we must unite in ourselves: so that our mind, our feelings and our will are subordinated to a single life path, which our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us!

Today's holiday has a third name - this is Enlightenment! You heard today at the liturgy instead of “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us!” was sung "You have been baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ!". In ancient times, they didn’t baptize every day, but people were first prepared, carried out ketichization, we now also have catechesis in our church, but it’s probably not enough - only three conversations are offered to listen to those who wish to be baptized, and even then, many of these burdened, thereby showing the frivolity of the attitude to the Sacrament of Baptism. And in ancient times, in order to go through the Sacrament of Baptism, they prepared for half a year and even more - and a year, and two - listened to edification about the Commandments of God, about the Law of God, because they approached the Sacrament of Baptism very consciously, but on such holidays as today, Baptism was performed for those who were preparing for it, an announcement was made - and this was Enlightenment for people - They received the Light of the Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Dear brothers and sisters, although we are all baptized, we still need enlightenment! Our souls have not been sufficiently taught the Law of God, the Commandments of God, the rules of the Church - we need to educate ourselves! To do this, we should strive to be in the temple of God, strive to read the Holy Gospel. The name of the holiday "Enlightenment" calls on all of us to enlighten our souls with the light of the Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ!

Such is the spiritual wealth that the Holy Church now offers us! Let us rejoice in our hearts! The Lord gives us a visible blessing - each of us will receive holy water! May this holy water serve to enlighten our souls, enlighten our minds, guide us on the path of Truth, so that we always remember that we were baptized into Christ, put on Christ! To Him be glory forever and ever! Amen.

Happy Holidays Orthodox Christians! God bless you for united prayer! May the Merciful Lord and Mother of God bless you!

Priest Theodore Ludogovsky - about the course and the most striking places of the divine service of the Epiphany.

Initially, the Epiphany was a two-pronged holiday, the content of which consisted, firstly, of the event and, secondly,. Later, as we know, Christmas separated from Epiphany and became an independent holiday (the ancient unity is preserved only in the Armenian Church). But even now these two major Lord's feasts of the fixed annual circle remain closely connected with each other.

The prefeast of the Epiphany lasts four days, beginning immediately after the one-day feast of the Circumcision of the Lord, which takes place, in accordance with the gospel chronology, on the eighth day after Christmas. However, we come across one of the first mentions in the liturgical texts of Theophany nine days before the start of the feast - on Christmas Eve. At the ninth hour, the stichera sounds (at the direction of the Menaion, it is sung by the canonarch, “in the middle of the church”):

Today is born from Virgo
support the creature with the whole hand.
Swaddled, as if earthly, weaves
Even as a being, God is inviolable.
Reclining in the manger
establishing Heaven with a word in the beginning.
It feeds on milk from the nipples
Even in the desert manna rainy people.
Magi calls
church groom,
accepts these gifts
Son of the Virgin.
We bow down to Your Nativity, Christ;
we worship Your Nativity, Christ;
We worship Your Nativity, Christ:
Show us also Your Divine Theophany.

As we can see, this stichera, obviously written on the model of the famous Good Friday stichera “Today it hangs on a tree ...”, considers Christmas as an event, in its meaning and significance closely connected with the Epiphany, just like in the Great Heel hymn in as such an event in relation to the crucifixion is considered.

The Divine Liturgy on the eve of Theophany has the same structure as on the eve of Christmas: the hours are pictorial, and in the afternoon (such is the requirement of the charter) - the liturgy of St. Basil the Great, beginning with the reading of proverbs.

An experienced parishioner may add that the service of Great Saturday is organized according to a similar scheme - with the difference that the pre-feast of Easter, which is Passion Week, has a longer duration, and because what is nearby in the services of Christmas Eve and Theophany, is spaced apart here. different days: the hours are read on Great Friday (but the liturgy is not performed on this day), and the liturgy of St. Basil the Great, preceded by Vespers with 15 paroemias, is served in the evening on Great Saturday.

After the liturgy, on the eve of the Epiphany, a great consecration of water is performed. As a matter of fact, the feast has already arrived: the festive vespers and the first, most solemn, liturgy have been served. Therefore, there is no violation of logic in the fact that the charter prescribes to bless water before the vigil (and, even more so, before the liturgy). However, the established parish practice is such that the hours, and with them the vespers and liturgy of St. Basil, we serve on the morning of January 5/18, and therefore this service is not perceived as a holiday service. From this naturally follows the desire to bless the water twice: once - "as expected", and the other - "for the holiday itself."

The All-Night Vigil on Theophany, as well as on the Nativity of Christ, consists of Great Compline, which includes litia, and Matins. In the morning there are two festive canons inscribed with the names of the greatest Byzantine hymnographers: the first belongs to St. Cosmas, Bishop of Mayum (Comm. 12/25 October), the second - St. John of Damascus (December 4/17). (Note that the canons for Christmas are the same authors).

After the sixth ode of the canon, as usual, kontakion and ikos. We have become so accustomed to this fact that for us these two hymns (and along with them the sedalen or ipakoi after the third ode and the luminary or exapostillary after the ninth) have already become an integral part of the canon. Meanwhile, our "modern" kontakion and ikos are in many cases remnants, fragments of a hymn belonging to another genre, which is also called kontakion.

In the case of Theophany (as well as in many other cases), the kontakion has a very definite author - the famous Roman the Melodist (Comm. 1/14 October). The stanza “Thou hast appeared today as the universe ...”, which we now call kontakion, is the introductory stanza (proimium) to his poem “On the Baptism of Christ”, and the ikos “Galilee of pagans ...” is the first of the ikos (stanzas) of this poem.

The afterfeast of the Epiphany, not counting the first day of the feast, lasts eight days, the giving takes place on January 14/27. And after a little over two weeks - prefeast, which again brings us back to the event of the Nativity of our Savior.

The Orthodox feast of the Epiphany is celebrated on January 19. Why is this holiday extremely important for Christians? The thing is that on this day Christians remember the event recorded in the Gospel - the baptism of Christ. This happened in the waters of the Jordan River, where at that time the Jews were baptized by John the Baptist or the Baptist.

history of the holiday

The Orthodox feast of the Baptism of the Lord is also called Theophany as a reminder of the miracle that happened: the Holy Spirit descended from heaven and touched Jesus Christ as soon as he emerged from the water after immersion and a loud voice said: “Behold my Beloved Son” (Matt. 3:13 -17).

Thus, during this event, the Holy Trinity appeared to people and it was testified that Jesus is the Messiah. That is why this holiday is also called the Epiphany, which refers to the twelfth, i.e. those celebrations that are designated by the doctrine of the Church as events connected with the life of Christ.

The Orthodox Church always celebrates Epiphany on January 19 according to the Julian calendar, and the holiday itself is divided into:

• 4 days of pre-feast - before the Epiphany, in which liturgies dedicated to the upcoming event are already heard in the temples;
• 8 days of afterfeast - days after the great event.

The first celebration of the Epiphany began in the first century in the early apostolic church. The main idea of ​​this holiday is the memory and glorification of the event in which the Son of God appeared in the flesh. However, there is another purpose of the celebration. As you know, in the first centuries there arose many sects that differed in dogmatic principles from the true church. And the heretics also celebrated Epiphany, but they explained this event differently:

• Ebionites: as the union of the man Jesus with the Divine Christ;
• docets: they did not consider Christ a half-man and spoke only about His Divine essence;
• Basilidians: did not believe that Christ was a half-god half-man and taught that the dove descended was God's mind that entered into a simple man.

The teachings of the Gnostics, who had only half-truth in their teachings, were very attractive to Christians, and a large number of them turned into heresy. To stop this, Christians decided to celebrate Epiphany, along the way explaining in detail what kind of holiday it was and what happened at that time. The Church called this holiday Theophany, confirming the dogma that then Christ revealed himself to be God, being originally God, One with the Holy Trinity.

In order to finally destroy the heresy of the Gnostics about Baptism, the Church combined Epiphany and Christmas into a single holiday. It is for this reason that until the 4th century, these two holidays were celebrated by believers on the same day - January 6, under the common name of Epiphany.

For the first time they were divided into two different celebrations only in the first half of the 5th century by clergy under the leadership of Pope Julius. Christmas began to be celebrated on January 25 in the Western Church, so that the pagans would turn away from the celebration of the birth of the sun (there was such a pagan celebration in honor of the sun god) and begin to cling to the Church. And Epiphany began to be celebrated a few days after, but since the Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas in a new style - January 6, then Epiphany is celebrated on the 19th.

Important! The meaning of the Epiphany remained the same - this is the appearance of Christ as God to his people and reunion with the Trinity.

Icon "Baptism of the Lord"

Developments

The Feast of Baptism is timed to coincide with the events that are set forth in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew - the Baptism of Jesus Christ in the waters of the Jordan River, as it was written by the prophet Isaiah.

John the Baptist taught the people about the coming Messiah, who would baptize them in the fire, and also baptized those who wished in the Jordan River, which symbolized their renewal from the old law into the new one that Jesus Christ would bring. He spoke about the necessary repentance and washing in the Jordan (which the Jews used to do) became a type of Baptism, although John did not suspect this at the time.

Jesus Christ at that time began his ministry, He was 30 years old, and he came to the Jordan to fulfill the words of the prophet and announce to everyone about the beginning of His ministry. He asked John to baptize Him too, to which the prophet, very surprised, replied that he was not worthy to take off his shoes from Christ, and He asked him to be baptized. John the Baptist already knew then that the Messiah himself was standing before him. Jesus Christ replied that they should do everything according to the law so as not to embarrass people.

During the immersion of Christ in the waters of the river, the sky opened up, and a white dove descended on Christ, and everyone nearby heard the voice "Behold my Beloved Son." Thus, the Holy Trinity appeared to the people in the form of the Holy Spirit (dove), Jesus Christ and the Lord God.

After that, the first apostles followed Jesus, and Christ himself went into the wilderness to fight temptations.

Holiday traditions

The Epiphany service is very similar to the Christmas one, since when the Church adheres to strict fasting until the very blessing of the water. In addition, a special liturgy is served.

Other church traditions are also observed - the consecration of water, the procession to the reservoir, as did the Palestinian Christians, who went in a similar way to baptism to the Jordan River.

Liturgy on the day of the Epiphany

As on any other important Christian holiday, a festive liturgy is served in the temple, during which the clergy put on festive white robes. The main feature of the service is the blessing of water, which occurs after the service.

On Christmas Eve, the liturgy of St. Basil the Great is served, after which the font in the church is blessed. And at Baptism, the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is served, after which communion is performed and the water is re-blessed and the procession to the nearest reservoir for consecration is performed.

About other significant Orthodox holidays:

The troparions that are read tell about the division of the Jordan by the prophet Elijah and about the baptism of Jesus Christ all in the same river, and also point to the fact that believers are spiritually renewed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scriptures are read about the greatness of Christ (Act, the gospel of Matthew), the power and authority of the Lord (28 and 41, 50, 90 psalms), as well as about spiritual rebirth through baptism (prophet Isaiah).

Episcopal Service at the Baptism of the Lord

folk traditions

Today, Orthodoxy resembles the mixing of two rivers with clean and muddy water: clean is doctrinal Orthodoxy, and muddy is folk Orthodoxy, in which there are extremely many admixtures of completely non-church traditions and rituals. This happens because of the rich culture of the Russian people, which is mixed with the theology of the church, and as a result, two lines of traditions are obtained - church and folk.

Important! Knowing folk traditions is worth it, because they can be separated from the true, church ones, and then, knowing the culture of your people is simply a must for everyone.

At Baptism, according to folk traditions, the end of Christmas time fell - at this time the girls stopped fortune-telling. Scripture forbids divination and any witchcraft, so Christmas divination is only a historical fact.

On Epiphany Christmas Eve, a font in the temple was consecrated, and on the 19th, reservoirs were consecrated. After the church service, people went to the hole in the procession and after prayer dipped into it to wash away all sins from themselves. After the ice-hole was consecrated, people collected water from it in containers to take the consecrated water home, and then dipped themselves.

Bathing in an ice hole is a purely folk tradition, unconfirmed by the doctrinal teaching of the Orthodox Church.

What to put on the holiday table

Believers do not fast at Epiphany, but do it in advance - on Epiphany Christmas Eve, the eve of the holiday. It is on Epiphany Christmas Eve that it is necessary to observe strict fasting and eat only lenten dishes.

Articles about Orthodox cuisine:

On Epiphany, you can put any dishes on the table, and on Christmas Eve only lenten ones, and the presence of sochi is mandatory - a dish of boiled wheat grains mixed with honey and dried fruits (raisins, dried apricots, etc.).

Lenten pies are also baked, and everything is washed down with uzvar - dried fruit compote.

water for baptism

Water has a special meaning during the Epiphany holiday. People believe that she becomes pure sanctified and holy. The church says that water is an integral part of the holiday, but you can consecrate it with prayer anywhere. Priests bless the water twice:

• on Epiphany Christmas Eve a font in the temple;
• water brought by people to temples and reservoirs.

In the troparion of the Epiphany, the necessary consecration of the dwelling with holy water is recorded (a church candle is also used for this), but swimming in the hole is a purely folk tradition, optional. You can consecrate and drink water for a whole year, the main thing is to store it in glass containers so that it does not bloom and deteriorate.

According to Tradition, all water on the night of Epiphany is sanctified and, as it were, acquires the essence of the waters of the Jordan, in which Jesus Christ was baptized. All water is sanctified by the Holy Spirit and it is considered holy at that moment.

Advice! It is recommended to drink water during communion along with wine and prosphora, as well as to drink several sips every day, and especially on sick days. It should be remembered that, like any other object, it is consecrated in the temple and requires a respectful attitude towards itself.

Is it holy water for baptism

Priests answer this question ambiguously.

The consecrated water brought to temples or in reservoirs before bathing, according to the Traditions of the elders, is consecrated. Traditions say that on this night the water becomes like the water that flowed in the Jordan at the moment when Christ was baptized there. As Scripture says, the Holy Spirit breathes where he wants, so there is an opinion that at Baptism, holy water is everywhere where they pray to the Lord, and not just in the place where the priest performed the service.

The process of consecrating water itself is a church celebration that tells people about the presence of God on earth.

Epiphany hole

Swimming in the hole

Previously, on the territory of the Slavic countries, the Epiphany was called (and continues to be called) "Vodohreschi" or "Jordan". The Jordan is the name given to an ice-hole, which is carved with a cross in the ice of a reservoir and which was consecrated by a clergyman for Baptism.

From ancient times there was a tradition - immediately after the consecration of the hole, to swim in it, because people believed that in this way it was possible to wash away all sins from oneself. But this refers to worldly traditions,

Important! Scripture teaches us that our sins are washed away by the Blood of Christ on the Cross and people can only receive salvation through repentance, and swimming in an icy pond is only a folk tradition.

This is not a sin, but there is no spiritual meaning in this action. And bathing is only a tradition and should be treated accordingly:

• it is optional;
• but the performance can be held reverently, because the water was consecrated.

Thus, it is possible to swim in the hole, but this must be done with prayer and after the festive service in the Church. After all, the main sanctification occurs through the repentance of the sinner, and not through bathing, so do not forget about personal relationships with the Lord and visiting the temple.

Watch a video about the feast of the baptism