18 January 2022 года

The Eve of Theophany

The Eve of Lord’s Baptism is a special day for the Holy Church. Great joy spreads today over the earth: by His boundless love for the human race as His creation, the Lord sanctifies water for us today.

On the Eve of Lord’s Baptism, the Royal Hours, Divine Liturgy, Great Vespers and the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great were celebrated at the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery. Upon their conclusion, Rev. Fr. Alexiy Kurnosov of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery performed the rite of Great Blessing of water.

As we bless the water, we trust that the grace of God permeats not only the human mind and soul, but also physical matter as God created this world filling it with His divine power.

With this grace, the water we use every day, still preserving its physical and chemical properties, is sanctified today as it is imbued with special Divine energy. The Holy Church prays during the Great Litany of Great Sanctification of Water: “And confer upon it the grace of redemption, the blessing of the Jordan, that this water may be sanctified by the power and operation and descent of the Holy Spirit,” “That this water may become a gift of sanctification, a deliverance from sins, unto healing of soul and body, unto the sanctification of their homes, and unto every expedient purpose.”

These petitions and prayers about the consecration of water are testimony to the manifold work of the grace of God bestowed upon anyone who “draws and partakes” from this holy vessel with faith.

This day allows us to grasp why the holy relics and holy icons, being a part of the material world, also deliver the spiritual power as well. For God has willed it to be so! In the person of His Son, He descended into the waters of Jordan and was baptized not only with the Spirit but also with water. Therefore, the spiritual and the material worlds unite as one anytime and anywhere the grace of God holds sway. On the Feast of Theophany, we also direct our prayers to the eternal God the Creator asking that He wouldn’t abandon His creation without the power of grace that was revealed to men and the whole creation through the redemptive deed of His Son.