19 August 2024
Dear friends, today we celebrate one of the twelve great feasts — the Transfiguration of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We remember how the Saviour 'took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray', and as He prayed, His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as snow. When it happened, the Apostles felt such a blessed feeling that could not be described in earthly words other than 'it is good for us to be here'.
The Gospel tells us that not long before the miracle on Mount Tabor, the Apostle Peter confessed Jesus as Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Saviour said about the founding of His Church, against which the forces of evil would not prevail. He also revealed to His disciples that He would be betrayed and crucified and would rise from the dead, and that everyone willing to be saved and inherit eternal life would have to humbly take his own cross onto his shoulders and follow Him.
And, lo, in His Transfiguration the Lord opens the Apostles' eyes to see His Divine glory for a short time, lets them see Him as Heavenly and True, strengthens their faith on the eve of His sufferings, and shows all of us what we are called to ideally — to be transfigured, to reach Theosis, and to be enlightened by the eternal Tabor light, which no darkness can comprehend.
We can see gleams of this light today as well — in the eyes of a loving and compassionate man, a man who has just been cleansed from his sins through repentance and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, a man who does good to his neighbour, and a man who steadfastly professes his faith.
Man needs true and strong faith to gain this eternal and life-giving light. Thus, he needs the Church of Christ, outside which salvation is not possible. That is why our Church is now subjected to attacks and persecution again — the Light of Tabor is disliked by darkness, which does not want to release people from its slavery.
Dear brothers and sisters!
I wholeheartedly greet you on the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord and want to share my certainty that the Lord will definitely preserve His Church. We ourselves should try to remain in her, retain faithfulness and strength of spirit, and solidify our unity.
It is in the transfiguration of the soul that the meaning of the entire human life is. This is the only priceless treasure which can be obtained on earth and taken with oneself into eternity. Give us, o God, the strength to pacify our minds, purify our hearts, tirelessly go towards Your saving light, be enlightened by it, be filled with it, and share it with the world.
Happy Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord!
All related news We remember how the Saviour 'took Peter and John and James and went up into a mountain to pray', and as He prayed, His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as snow. When it happened, the Apostles felt such a blessed feeling that could not be described in earthly words other than 'it is good for us to be here'.
The Gospel tells us that not long before the miracle on Mount Tabor, the Apostle Peter confessed Jesus as Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Saviour said about the founding of His Church, against which the forces of evil would not prevail. He also revealed to His disciples that He would be betrayed and crucified and would rise from the dead, and that everyone willing to be saved and inherit eternal life would have to humbly take his own cross onto his shoulders and follow Him.
And, lo, in His Transfiguration the Lord opens the Apostles' eyes to see His Divine glory for a short time, lets them see Him as Heavenly and True, strengthens their faith on the eve of His sufferings, and shows all of us what we are called to ideally — to be transfigured, to reach Theosis, and to be enlightened by the eternal Tabor light, which no darkness can comprehend.
We can see gleams of this light today as well — in the eyes of a loving and compassionate man, a man who has just been cleansed from his sins through repentance and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, a man who does good to his neighbour, and a man who steadfastly professes his faith.
Man needs true and strong faith to gain this eternal and life-giving light. Thus, he needs the Church of Christ, outside which salvation is not possible. That is why our Church is now subjected to attacks and persecution again — the Light of Tabor is disliked by darkness, which does not want to release people from its slavery.
Dear brothers and sisters!
I wholeheartedly greet you on the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord and want to share my certainty that the Lord will definitely preserve His Church. We ourselves should try to remain in her, retain faithfulness and strength of spirit, and solidify our unity.
It is in the transfiguration of the soul that the meaning of the entire human life is. This is the only priceless treasure which can be obtained on earth and taken with oneself into eternity. Give us, o God, the strength to pacify our minds, purify our hearts, tirelessly go towards Your saving light, be enlightened by it, be filled with it, and share it with the world.
Happy Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord!
