Australian and New Zealand Diocese (ROCOR)

ПАСХАЛЬНОЕ ПОСЛАНИЕ
Высокопреосвященнейшего
ИЛАРИОНА,
Митрополита Восточно-Американского и Нью-Йоркского,
Первоиерарха Русской Зарубежной Церкви.

Преосвященные собратья-архипастыри, боголюбивые иноки и инокини, дорогие о Господе отцы, братья и сестры!

ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕСЕ!

Какая-то дивная сила таится в этих словах и проникает всю душу, ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕСЕ! Какие радостные для христианской души слова! И есть-ли в человеческом языке более радостные слова, чем эти слова. (more…)

Paschal Epistle of His Eminence, Hilarion,
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Your Eminences, fellow hierarchs, God-loving monks and nuns, priests and deacons, beloved in the Lord brothers and sisters!

CHRIST IS RISEN!

A wondrous energy lies hidden in these words and penetrates the whole soul: Christ is Risen! How joyous are these words for the soul of a Christian! Can more festive words than these be found in the entire human language? (more…)

Пасхальное послание
ИЛАРИОНА,
митрополита Восточно-Американского и Нью-Йоркского,
Первоиерарха Русской Зарубежной Церкви.

ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕСЕ!

Праздников праздник и торжество из торжеств наступило для нас, собратья-архипастыри, досточтимые отцы, возлюбленные о Господе братия и сестры! Воскресение Христово все мы встречаем с великой радостью и не скрываем своих чувств: «веселимся божественне, яко воскресе Христос, яко всесилен»! (more…)

Paschal Epistle
of His Eminence
Hilarion,
Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

Christ is risen!

The feast of feasts and triumph of triumphs has arrived for us, brother archpastors, right honorable fathers, brethren and sisters beloved in the Lord!  Let us all greet the resurrection of Christ and not hide our feelings: “Let us be divinely glad, for Christ hath risen as One omnipotent.”

O wondrous and blessed night!  O night so full of joy for every Christian!  The risen Christ “changed the lamentation of the myrrh-bearing women into joy” on this night.  And He does the same for us!  This night of splendor proclaims to us His arising.  And now this “prophetic night” renews us to the depths of our soul.  And it gives us the certain hope that our departed ones, and we ourselves, will arise on the last day of the world to “celebrate the eternal Pascha in the never-waning day of the kingdom of Christ.” (more…)

Paschal Epistle of His Eminence
HILARION,
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Now are all things filled with light: heaven and earth, and the nether regions…
Let all creation celebrate the arising of Christ,
in Whom we are established.
(Paschal Canon, Ode III)

Dear archpastors, pastors, monastics,
and all the faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad!

CHRIST IS RISEN!

By the mercy of God we have reached the end of the period of the Great Fast, when we strove to purify our souls and thoughts by fasting and prayer, preparing ourselves for the great and triumphant feast of the Pascha of the Lord, the radiant Resurrection of Christ, the feast which the Holy Church calls the “Feast of feasts and Triumph of triumphs.” For Pascha is not only the commemoration of the most noteworthy event in the history of the world; it is the essence and meaning of our present and future life. (more…)

Пасхальное  послание Высокопреосвященнейшего
ИЛАРИОНА,
Митрополита Восточно-Американского  и Нью-Йоркского,
Перовиерарха  Русской Зарубежной Церкви

Ныне  вся исполнишася  света: небо же и земля, и преисподняя…
Да  празднует убо  вся тварь востание  Христово,
в Немже утверждается.
(Канон  Пасхи, песнь 3)

Возлюбленные  о Господе архипастыри, пастыри,
монашествующие и все верные чада Русской Зарубежной Церкви!

ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕСЕ!

Милостью  Божией завершились дни Великого поста, когда мы старались очистить свои души и помыслы постом и молитвой, готовясь к великому и торжественному празднику – Пасхе Господней, Светлому Христову Воскресению; празднику, который Святая Церковь именует «праздников праздник и торжество из торжеств». Ибо Пасха есть не только воспоминание самого значимого в истории мира события. Она есть суть и смысл нашей нынешней и будущей жизни. (more…)

Archpastors and brethren, most honorable fathers, & all Orthodox children of the Russian Diaspora, beloved in the Lord!

I congratulate you with all my heart on the all-glorious and divinely salvific feast of the Nativity of Christ and the impending New Year!

Each year the feast of the Nativity of Christ enters into our hearts with ineffable spiritual joy—the joy that came to earth when the angel of the Lord announced the birth of Christ the Savior to the simple shepherds of Bethlehem. The feast of the Nativity also fills us with radiant joy through the profound content of its divine services, which illumine our souls: the deeply edifying and divinely inspired hymnody of the Nativity and the readings taken from the prophecies.

Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky) wrote thus of the miracle of the birth of the divine Infant: “The heavens proclaimed the birth of God on earth, yet this proclamation was magnificent and silent, because the stars were the heavens’ mouth. This event, which the whole Christian world now celebrates, at the time passed almost completely unnoticed.” and this was probably because everything that is great takes place in stillness and mystery. (more…)

Возлюбленные о Господе собратья-архипастыри, всечестные отцы и все православные чада Русского Зарубежья!

От всей души поздравляю вас с преславным и богоспасаемым праздником Рождества Христова и наступающим Новолетием!

Каждый год праздник Рождества Христова входит в наши сердца несказанной духовной радостью. Радостью, которая пришла на землю, когда ангел Господень возвестил простым вифлеемским пастухам весть о рождении Христа Спасителя. Рождественский праздник светло радует нас и глубоким, озаряющим душу содержанием своих богослужений: глубоко назидательными боговдохновенными рождественскими песнопениями и пророческими чтениями.

Священномученик Иларион (Троицкий) так писал о чуде рождения Божественного Младенца: «О рождении Бога на земле проповедовали небеса, но эта проповедь была величественной и молчаливой, потому что устами небес была звезда. То событие, которое теперь празднует весь христианский мир, оно прошло в свое время почти совсем незамеченным». И это верно, потому что все великое совершается в тишине и тайне. (more…)

27th Sunday after Pentecost – the Holy Forefathers.

Homily From “The One Thing Needful,” Sermons of Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)

Last week’s Gospel about the rich man who had a good harvest was like the finale to the cycle of the Gospel readings of Pentecost. It portrayed a man who had devoted all his concern to one thing: to the care of his temporary, earthly welfare. In order to keep his good harvest he destroyed the old barns, built new, larger ones, and said: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Lk. 12:19-20).

What’s the matter? Why such a sentence? The answer to this question is given in the Gospel reading for this Sunday. It tells how the Lord prepared a feast and invited many people, in other words, everyone. And this rich man was one of those invited to the feast of God. However, he was so preoccupied with his living arrangements that he forgot about this “calling,” about the feast to which he was invited. Never did he expect that his “calling” would be fulfilled that night. This is why God said he was a fool. (more…)

26th Sunday after Pentecost – the Rich Man.

Homily From “The One Thing Needful,” Sermons of Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko)

The Gospel for last Sunday related to us the parable about the Merciful Samaritan and finished with these words: “Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise” (Lk. 10:37). And today’s Gospel — how does it end? “But God said unto him… This night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Lk. 12:20)

Here are two different ways. They both bring us to our last moment — to death. But there is no death, but rather eternal life. This means that these different paths bring us to the mysterious passage, to the meeting with eternity. All of us have to meet this “mysterious something.” And this meeting will prove to be the most important moment of our entire life on earth, basically what we have lived for. There aren’t even words in our language to express it; but today’s Gospel and also last Sunday’s Gospel give us some indications of this moment, this meeting. At the end of one way will thunder the terrible word, “Fool!” (Lk. 12:20). At the end of the other way, the Gospel does not even give us the word which we will hear, but says only: “Go, and do thou likewise!” This means, only do the same, act in the same way! And you will receive what no words can express. (more…)