12 June 2022 года

Conciliar hierarchical service on the patronal feast of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery

Today, the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery celebrates its major patronal feast day. In honor of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, the council of archpastors lifted prayers at the monastery. Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas presided at the late-morning Divine Liturgy. Concelebrating His Eminence was Bishop Innocent of Sormovo, the Vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese.

On this day, we celebrate the triumph of our faith: the Holy Church proclaims True God worshiped in Trinity to the whole world and sings glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit – the Trinity One in Essence and Undivided.

This feast is the crown of all church feasts. God founded the Holy Church of Christ on Pentecost two thousand years ago in far-away Jerusalem, Judea. The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, descended from the bosom of the Father to earth and rested in the shape of tongues of fire on the heads of the holy Apostles. That’s how the Holy Church originated inside the first Christian church of the Upper Room on Zion and spread to fill the earth and heaven, the visible and invisible world, until it became the Universal Church.

Following the communion, Rev. Fr. Alexiy Kurnosov of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery said that today’s Gospel event surpasses our human understanding: God is willing to share His power with His creation. One would think, said the preacher, that our hearts will rejoice at this and direct our aspirations towards becoming the receptacle of God’s grace. But, as human history of two thousand years tells us, many of us do not even have a drop of this grace inside, because we are distracted by our interests and desires that go against the will of the Creator.

Father Alexiy reminded that Venerable Seraphim of Sarov pointed out long ago quite clearly that the main goal of the Christian life was the acquisition of the Holy Spirit; the way to lead the God-pleasing life is to follow this goal.

He pointed out that even during the Savior’s earthly life, people often rejected and persecuted Him because His teachings called for them to disregard their interests and self-will. Similarly, we often feel weak in our life and have no resolve to submit our will to God, so we say in our hearts, “Lord, depart from me, we can’t bear to be with You.” At the conclusion of his sermon, Father Alexiy wished that, as we overcome our selfness, we will call upon God: “O Lord, the Holy Spirit, come, abide in us and cleanse us from our impurities that lie deep between You and us.”

At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy and during the Great Vespers, Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas and Bishop Innocent of Sormovo read the kneeling prayers asking the Lord to grant the grace of the Holy Spirit and bestow His abundant gifts on us.

Hegumenia Sergia, the abbess of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery heartily thanked Metropolitan Georgiy and Bishop Innocent for beautifying the monastery’s patronal feast by presiding at the services. Matushka Sergia wished the archpastors that the Lord bestows upon them the abundant grace of the Holy Spirit to carry on their labors and presented with the prosphoras, prayer beads, and the icons of the Holy Trinity.

The ruling hierarch congratulated the worshippers with the day of the Holy and Life-Giving Trinity. On this day, fiftieth following the Lord’s Resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles in the shape of tongues of fire, so they began to speak different languages and received the gift of discernment.

The head of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese pointed out that the gift of spiritual eldership, or the gift of discernment, is the greatest among the deeds. Venerable Seraphim acquired this gift and left the command that the true meaning of the Christian life is in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. So today, with one mouth and one heart, we call upon the Lord: “O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere and fillest all things; Treasury of Blessings, and Giver of Life – come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.”