In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, one God, amen. Sprasnikum.
A blessed feast to all of you, brothers and sisters,
community of St. Seraphim. It is a joy to be
here with you on your winter feast. And on this
rainy day, here you're all gathered together
under the changed circumstances even of 2021.
Thanks be to God. One of the things that you
get to see when you visit a parish, from the
outside, is kind of the tenor and the feel of
it, and you can tell it instantly. Just like
when you go to a person's house that you visited
for the first time, you can kind of get the sense
of the household right away. Coming back after
some time and coming back into your parish during
the pandemic, it's beautiful to see how much
love and how much cohesion there is. And so I
just want to commend you for that. Because when
people are gathering together after many, many
services, after having the rains and listening
in their cars and gathering outside when it's
raining right now, that is a beautiful thing.
And so it may not feel like the parish is running,
but it is going together. And it's beautiful
to see. So God bless you. I'm a little envious
that you have a fantastic saint like St. Seraphim
as your patron. What a heavenly patron. Somebody
who, by virtue of being consecrated to his patronage,
cares and prays for each and every one of you.
He can't help but do this. This is your saint.
This is your feast day. This is the day where
you appeal to him and ask for his blessings and
his prayers that God would give you more of the
Holy Spirit. And what of that Holy Spirit did
we hear today in this gospel? We heard in Matthew
chapter 3, verse 11. We heard John the Baptist
say these words. He who is coming after me is
mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy
to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with fire. The last phrase in Greek. It's
the Piri that I want to focus on for a little
bit this morning. The fire of the Holy Spirit.
The gift that is given to us in the baptism that
is coming, in the Feast of Theophany, and in
so many other areas. You know, Father Lawrence
and I, in happier days, in 2019, we went together
to Greece and had some days on the Holy Mountain.
Mount Athos, and had a wonderful pilgrimage.
And one of the highlights of that pilgrimage,
I'm sure Father would agree, was getting to have
some time with one of the abbots of Vatopedi,
where we were staying for so long. And this abbot
is a wonderful abbot, and because of the restrictions
this past year, he's been able to do some things
online and using electronic means to minister
to people. And not that long ago, I was watching
one of his talks online, and this phrase struck
me. People were asking him questions, like hundreds
of people would line up online, raise their electronic
hands, and ask questions. And one of the questions
was from a young girl in Romania, and people
were asking her, what job should I take, where
should I move, and so forth. But this young woman
asked a question to the abbot, and it was this.
She asked, Yeronda, how do I address my anxious
thoughts? How do I address what is like a panic,
a serious panic in my mind, and it's there continually?
That's a very difficult question, right? To be
asked from somebody halfway around the world.
And his reply was instant and so beautiful. He
said this. He said, say the prayer, and by this
he means the Jesus prayer, and burn those thoughts
with the Jesus prayer. When you say the prayer,
you burn the intrusive thoughts. He shall baptize
you with fire and the Holy Spirit. When you say
the Jesus prayer, you burn those intrusive thoughts.
Wonderful Saint Seraphim, the one who lit a candle
for all those who asked him to pray, right? Whose
cell was aflame with all those candles. Wonderful
Saint Seraphim who would ask, I'm glad he didn't
do it this morning, who would ask his monks,
what were the epistles and what were the gospels
that you heard in this morning's service? And
the monks, if they didn't know the answer, would
get a rather stern rebuke. And Father Seraphim
would say to them, you must not be like charred
logs, right? Your souls must be aflame with the
Holy Spirit. Be attentive to the words of the
gospels and the words of the epistles. These
are spirit -bearing. These are fire -bearing.
And we hardly even notice this. It's incredible.
Even this week I saw a quotation from the deceased
abbot in Arizona, another year in Ephraim. He
said, when you say the Jesus prayer, it is like
an atomic bomb going off in the heart of the
devil. How powerful the words of our prayers.
How powerful the relics of our saints. How powerful
the holy water. that we're going to bless in
just a few days. It is a tremendous gift of God
to have an icon of St. Seraphim right in the
center on your analoi there with a relic of the
saint. The monks in Arizona tell a story about
how somebody who was demon -possessed was brought
into the church to have the prayer said for him.
And when they brought out the relics from the
altar, it was especially the relics of St. Joseph
the Hesychast that burned him the most, they
said. He couldn't stand it. He cried out without
even knowing these titles. He didn't know anything
about the monastery. The Panagia of Arizona,
I cannot bear that icon. And that St. Joseph,
he burns me. He didn't know who St. Joseph the
Hesychast was. But the devils do. What power.
What power in these relics. What power in these
saints. in the words of the Gospels, in the Jesus
prayer. More recently, in 1982, in the monastery
of the Onisiu on Mount Athos, there was yet another
man who was beset by devils. And for weeks and
weeks, the monks would pray for him, but he was
the type that would stamp and move his body,
continually stamping, thrashing about. They'd
even try to tie him to no success. And then one
day, one of the fathers decided to put some of
the holy water from the monastery into the jug
of water that they gave to this man to drink
because he was continually exhausted, continually
tired. And the man drank the holy water. He says,
this burns me. I don't want this. And he cast
away that holy water. Why do I tell you all these
stories? Because it's not only in the ancient
stories of the Orantic Con of the Desert Fathers
that we read about the power of these prayers,
the power of these holy items, the power of the
Holy Spirit, but you and I ourselves, how often
is it, how often is it, my brothers and sisters,
that we kind of slouch towards our prayer corners
in the morning or evening prayers, and we think,
I wonder if this prayer does anything, right?
I wonder if this prayer has any effect. Or we
struggle to say an akathist for somebody who's
in need. And we wonder, does God even hear our
prayers? But this is the Lord who has given us
the Holy Spirit and has baptized us with that
same Spirit and with fire. Those words of the
prayers, even the morning prayers, are of fire.
The young woman who asked the abbot in Vatupedi
how to take care of those intrusive thoughts,
she was not a great ascetic, right? She wasn't
a saint. Simply the objective words of those
prayers have the grace of the Holy Spirit within
them. And those are our prayers. Every one of
us can say them. When we say the Jesus Prayer,
there is an objective quality to the power of
that prayer. When we pray the liturgy, the prayers
of St. John Chrysostom and of the saint we celebrated
yesterday, St. Basil, the prayers of their anaphora.
are objectively filled with the Holy Spirit.
That's why you don't have an afro prayed or ad
-libbed by your local parish priests, right?
The prayers of the saints, whether they're written
in our morning prayer books, whether they're
written in an akathist, whether they're written
in an epistle or a gospel, the prayers of those
saints are fire -bearing words of the Holy Spirit.
Whether we care or not, whether we notice or
not, whether we perceive that or not, whether
our minds are attentive or not, they are still
of that quality. That's what they are inherently.
One monk asked St. Sophrony of England in Essex,
he said, what is it like when you pray the divine
liturgy? And St. Sophrony told this young monk,
he said, when I pray the prayers of the divine
liturgy, the Holy Spirit showed me that it was
like fire was coming out of my mouth. Such is
the grace that is given to us in these God -breathed
prayers. That's what the Holy Spirit gives us.
There is a reason, brothers and sisters, there's
a reason why on the Feast of Pentecost, the descent
of the Holy Spirit upon his church comes in tongues
of fire. Our Lord says in the Gospel of St. Luke,
he says, I came to send fire on the earth and
how I wish it were already kindled. Today on
this great feast of St. Seraphim, whose very
name means, it's a plural name, the Burning Ones,
we're reminded of the grace of the Holy Spirit,
the fire that Christ has given to every single
one of us. in those prayers of the saints, in
these writings, in this liturgy. May St. Seraphim's
prayers enkindle a love and a warmth in our hearts
for him, for the Church of Christ, and for each
other, and especially for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Spraznikum.