The incident that happened to Sibiryakov tells us that charity, perhaps more than all other virtues, attracts God's mercy to a person, returns Grace, drives away despondency and brings peace and joy to the soul. Therefore, brothers and sisters, when the evil spirit of despondency comes upon us, when it is difficult for us for a long time, let us not sit idly by, but try to do some good deed, for example, give money to the homeless, help the sick or lonely elderly, send help to prisoners, go to an Orthodox fair and donate as much as we can to monasteries, churches under construction, or orphanages. And then we will see that Grace from God will again come into our souls, which, like a bright light, will dispel the darkness of sorrow, drive away despondency and give the soul the strength to continue on the Christian path, without stopping or turning aside. Amen.

On the Basic Attributes of God

All of us Christians believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. And do we imagine who our God is, what His attributes are? What kind of God do we believe in? Alas, we do not always have a clear idea of this. Meanwhile, our faith must certainly be meaningful, and we must have at least the basic concepts of God. How can we know anything about God?

To this question, a wise man replied that God had given us two books from which we could learn about Him, the first book being the Bible and the second being the book of nature. The most important of them for acquiring knowledge about God is the Bible, because in it the Lord Himself personally reveals Himself to us. On the basis of Biblical Revelation, the Holy Fathers created a true, pure, irreproachable Christian theology. What does it say about the basic attributes of God?

First of all, our God is the God of the Trinity. The One God is triune in Persons, He is the Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and all three of them are one God. Why are the three Persons one God? Firstly, because They are one in Their mutual Divine love. Secondly, because all the Three have one common Divine nature. The Holy Fathers made the following comparison: if there are three lamps burning in a room, then the light with which they fill the room is one and the same in its nature and in its action, although it comes from three different sources. And thirdly, the Persons of the Trinity are one, because they are not separated by anything: neither by Their will, nor by Their action, nor by space, nor by time.

The next attribute of God is omnipotence. Our God is God almighty. This means that He is not bound or limited in His actions and can do absolutely anything He pleases. Just as a writer has complete power over his novel, over its plot and the fate of his characters, so the Lord has power over His creation, that is, over everything that exists in the universe. A writer in a novel has power over the life and death of his characters, he can, for example, make it so that some hero, falling from an airplane, will not crash, but will remain alive and continue to act in the novel. In the same way, the Lord in His work (and His work is our real world) can do whatever pleases Him. And there is nothing surprising in this, because the Lord Himself established the laws of the material world, and therefore He can violate them whenever He wants. However, He has full respect for natural laws and does not violate them often.

The next of the basic attributes of God is omnipresent. God is everywhere, and there is no place where God is not present. At the same time, one should not think that God is spread out in space like air or radio waves. No, for His presence He needs neither place nor volume, but by His powers and energies God is wholly present in every point, in every place, in every thing. These Divine forces and energies in our world support everything, penetrate into everything, animate everything, govern everything, renew everything.