In line with one of the commands left by Venerable Seraphim, a Small Paraklesis service to the Mother of God was served at the Trinity Cathedral before the late-morning liturgy today.

If translated from Greek, Paraklesis means “a fervent prayer.” The service of the Paraklesis to the Most Holy Mother of God offers prayerful supplications to gain consolation and courage. “We have no other helper, we have no other hope, except You, O Lady, Who gives us a helping hand, as we place our hope in You.” In its prayer, the Church pleads with Her Who by the grace of God has become the protectress of the whole world and every Christian soul.

As everyone prayed to the Queen of Heaven, the “Milk-Giver” icon to the Mother of God has been brought in the cathedral. It felt as if our prayer has found a quick and speedy response.

It is an old-style icon and, before 1927, it belonged to the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery. After the monastery’s closure, the sisters took it to Murom. In the 1960s, one of the Diveyevo sisters, the icon’s guardian, gave it to Prot. Georgiy Melnik-Davidyuk, with the request to return it to Diveyevo once the monastery is reopened. Following it, father moved from one diocese to another and his last place of service was the Church of Savior-on-Waters in Murmansk. On behalf of Fr. Georgiy’s heirs, Nina Semenova delivered the “Milk-Giver” icon from Murmansk today.

After the paraklesis, the sisters sang the troparion and kontakion before the newly recovered icon, while Presbyter Vladimir Kargin, the senior priest of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery, read a prayer to the “Milk-Giver” icon of the Mother of God.