On the occasion of the great feasts of the Circumcision of the Lord and the Holy Hierarch St. Basil the Great, His Eminence Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas presided at the late-morning Divine Liturgy service in the Dormition Cathedral of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery. His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill of Stavropol and Nevinnomyssk prayed in the altar.

Following the Old Testament law, our Lord Jesus Christ underwent circumcision that was established for all male infants as a sign of God’s covenant with the holy Forefather Abraham and his descendants. During the ritual, the Divine Infant was given the name Jesus, just as the Archangel Gabriel declared on the day of the Annunciation to the Most Holy Mother of God.

According to the commentaries by the church fathers, the Lord, the Creator of the Law, underwent circumcision to give the men an example of faithful fulfillment of the divine ordinances. The Lord was circumcised so that later no one would doubt that He was made of human, not an illusory, flesh.

During the Small Entrance, the clergy were bestowed with the hierarchical awards. Rev. Fr. Vladimir Kargin, the senior priest of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery, as well as Presbyters Fr. Daniel Gatin and Fr. Sergiy Eriskin, were bestowed with the right to wear gilded pectoral crosses. Rev. Fr. Anthony Chikin was awarded the right to wear kamilavka.

Two choirs sang during liturgy, the monastery choir headed by Nun Elena (Tsarakhova) and the school choir headed by Nun Palladia (Boldina).

The students of the monastery school, joined by teachers, attended the liturgy. At the end of the service, the children sang the Nativity hymns and read the verses. In his sermon, His Eminence Georgiy thanked them for the performance and said: “You are so fortunate for being introduced to the Orthodox tradition and spiritual life since childhood, because when man is with God, he is joyous and finds success.”