On August 1, on the eve of the memorial day of Elijah, the Prophet of God, Met. Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas presided at the Vigil service held in the Trinity Cathedral of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery. Bishop Elijah of Balakhna and Bishop Konstantin of Dalnekonstantinov, the vicars of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese, concelebrated His Eminence.

After the service, Met. Georgiy congratulated the faithful with the day of remembrance of Elijah the Prophet of God and talked about this great saint who lived during the Old Testament days. Ahab, the king of Israelites, took on promoting the pagan culture among his subjects. Prophet Elijah condemned the Israelites saying that they rejected faith in true God and they will receive punishment. It may seem that it is the thing of the long-gone past and there is no danger of any kind of idolatry these days. The truth is that the people of modern times are the salves of passions and they worship gods of their own making, big and small. We can resist the temptations of idolatry if we carry at least a small measure of Prophet of God Elijah’s great faith.