On Sunday, the feast day of the “Unburnt Bush” Icon of the Mother of God, Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas celebrated the divine services in the Trinity and Annunciation Cathedrals of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery. Before the late-morning liturgy, the archpastor presided at the services of the akathist to Venerable Seraphim of Sarov and the traditional Sunday paraklesis.

During the liturgy, Rev. Fr. Sergiy Kazantsev, clergyman of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese, delivered a sermon where he drew the attention of the congregation to today’s Gospel passage. In it, the Lord answers the question of the Pharisee what commandment is more important than others: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Fr. Sergiy noted that true love of God and neighbor is a way of sacrifice. But how can we receive such a measure of love? Faith and life in Christ and union with Him through the Church sacraments grant it to us.

 At the end of the Divine Liturgy, Hegumenia Sergia, the abbess of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery thanked Metropolitan Georgiy on behalf of the entire monastic family for his archpastoral prayers during the Divine Liturgy and wished that the Lord, through the prayers of the Most Holy Mother of God, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, all the saints of Diveyevo and all the saints gives strength to His Eminence as he carries out his archpastoral labors, and presented him with prosphora.

 The head of the Nizhny Novgorod Metropolitanate congratulated everyone who came to pray with Sunday and addressed the flock with the hierarchical address:

 “Today we prayerfully honor the “Unburnt Bush” Icon of the Mother of God. But why do we call the Most Holy Mother of God this way? Let us turn to the history of the Old Testament. As he was in the desert, Prophet Moses saw a vision of a bush on fire. So, through the Mother of God, God entered the world. The Creator of all things visible and invisible became Man. The Most Pure Virgin, like the Unburnt Bush, received the Inconceivable One, the Creator of the entire universe.”

 At the end of the service, the faithful walked in a procession around the Holy Kanavka.