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From the publisher

Probably, the name of Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin) [1] is already familiar to many. Some read a collection of his sermons published by the publishing house of the Moscow Representation of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, others read the words on the "Great Christian Feasts", the brochures "Mysticism of Earthly Time" and "The Icon "Glory of the Georgian Catholicos Church"". Someone came across his teachings in Orthodox prayer books. However, most of Fr. Raphael's works remain unknown to a wide range of readers. Meanwhile, his work – sermons and conversations, teachings and articles – is an outstanding, bright and original phenomenon in modern Orthodox literature. Our time is a period of the return (or simply coming) to the Church of a huge mass of people, those who were torn away from it and from the very faith in God by years of apostasy and oblivion. However, even having come to the Church, many still remain as if in front of "closed doors." The life of the Church is hidden, it cannot be "examined", it is necessary to merge into it, to live it. But everything in it is new and unfamiliar and so different from what surrounds us in this world. Sacraments and rites, hymns and words of prayer - all this amazes with its majestic, unearthly beauty. But their true meaning, their very essence, often remain undisclosed, incomprehensible. It is even more difficult to come to a correct understanding of the inner, spiritual life, the principles of asceticism and Orthodox asceticism. The Holy Scriptures, the works of the Holy Fathers – this is the key to understanding the life of the human spirit, its heavenly destiny, indicating the path to the knowledge of God and communion with God. However, how many questions arise in the soul when reading books? The word of Scripture often appears to us to be obscure, hidden, and the life of the Fathers and their teaching are unattainably lofty and unique... And then nothing is more helpful than the word of a priest, pastor and spiritual father, strengthened by the experience of one's own podvig and filled with love for those who hear it. Sometimes it is a word of teaching, sometimes of admonition, often of consolation. But it is always necessary, life-giving and joyful, relieving and cheering the soul, dispelling the darkness of sorrows and enlightening the eyes of the heart. An example of such a word is in the sermons of Fr. Raphael. All of them were pronounced at different times and on different occasions, but there is something in common in them that unites them: the author uses every opportunity to direct the path of his listeners to the Heavenly Jerusalem. It is as if it leads and reveals a new, spiritual world to those who listen to it. In these sermons one can find, perhaps, everything – from denunciation and indication of the means to cure the vices of the modern world to practical lessons in the struggle against demonic enemies and our own passions. The liturgical life of the Church, and the innermost life of the human heart, the paths by which man goes to God or moves away from Him, are successively revealed to us. From explaining the meaning and significance of the church sacraments, Fr. Raphael proceeds to reveal the mystery of approaching God through unceasing prayer. He constantly reminds us: we, Christians, are not only called to eternal, heavenly life, but we are already people taken as an inheritance (1 Pet. 2:9) and therefore not our own (1 Cor. 6:19). And our very home, where we live, even though we are bodily on earth, is the Church. "The house in which the Father," as Fr. Raphael repeats, is God Himself. The Mother is the Most Holy Mother of God. Angels and Saints are our elder brothers. And we ourselves are brothers and sisters to each other." Here we are safe, protected from any enemy. No one is able to kidnap us, to tear us out of the church fence, so long as we ourselves do not leave it. And those who are outside, hearing the voice of the pastor, should hasten to enter it. Unfortunately, we have no opportunity to report anything about Fr. Raphael himself, about his life – we do not have the author's blessing to publish any biographical materials about him. ^

The Way of a Christian

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Brothers and sisters, in the Gospel read before the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, brief in its size, but infinitely profound in its content, in its inner mystical meaning, the Lord says: "No one ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven and is in heaven" (John 3:13). The Son of God, incarnated from the Virgin Mary, became the Son of Man. Having descended to earth, He dwelt with the Father and the Spirit in His Divinity. Many philosophers wanted to comprehend the mysteries of the universe, many religions promised to reveal to us the secrets of eternity and salvation. But the Lord resolutely said: No one ascended into heaven... only... The Son of Man. Therefore, the only true teaching is the teaching of Christ the Savior. Other religions and philosophies are mere dreams of the human mind, mere shadows of truth, not truth. The Lord says: No one has ascended into heaven... Consequently, the founders of other religions – Buddha, Zoroaster and many others, without ascending to heaven, descended with their souls down to the depths of hell and there drew their inspirations and revelations. From the words of the Savior we can see that all other religions that claim to be true are lies and the offspring of the spirit of lies. There are people who say: "All religions are the same, believe in what you want, just do good and you will be saved." But Christ said: "All that have not come before Me are thieves and robbers" (John 10:8). Robbers and murderers take away a person's life, false teaching takes away his eternal salvation. There are people who say: "We are Christians, but at the same time we recognize the presence of truth in other teachings, we do yoga, we go to Krishnas, etc. In this way, we deepen the faith, as it were." Brothers and sisters, if medicine is mixed with poison, it will turn into poison. Truth mixed with falsehood becomes falsehood. In today's Gospel we hear the testimony of Christ Himself, the Son of God Himself, that no one was in heaven, but only the Son of Man, He alone – God Who took on human flesh. Other religions that claim to be the truth, to reveal some unknown mysteries – this is all satanic delusion. And where there is a lie, there is the father of lies. Further in the Gospel, which we have heard today, it says: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John 3:14). When the people of Israel were in the wilderness, there were many poisonous snakes in one place where they stopped. These snakes hid in the sand, in the crevices of the rocks, attacked people. Their bites were fatal, thousands died. The camp of the Israelites, filled with corpses, began to resemble a cemetery. And then, by Divine revelation, Moses made a serpent out of brass and lifted it up on a pole. As the Holy Fathers say, this pole had the shape of a cross. Moses ordered it to be raised above the camp, so that all the people could see the image of the serpent, and the one who, after being bitten by an echidna, had time to look at the cross with the copper serpent, did not die. The Holy Fathers explain that here is a prophecy, here is an omen of the Cross of Jesus Christ, and the serpent is sin and a demon defeated on the Cross. Earthly life is like a path. And we're walking among spirit serpents and scorpions. Snakes are demons, poison is sins. If we have time to look at the Cross, and to "look" means to repent from the heart, then we will not die, we will be saved, if only our repentance is sincere. The Lord says that everyone who believes in Him has eternal life. We believe in Jesus Christ, we call ourselves Christians, but will we all be saved? The Lord speaks of another – deep faith, of faith that becomes the rule of our life, the inner content of our soul. This is the faith in which, reading the Gospel, we perceive every word as light and truth. In this reading of the Gospel, we perceive what is written as the words of the Lord, addressed to us personally. The believer who lives by faith will be saved. It is said in the Gospel that we have heard today: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God is Love. The creation of the world is an act of Divine Love. Great mercy, brothers and sisters, and the very creation of man! The Lord gave us the ability to pray, to converse with Him. The Lord did not abandon mankind, which had fallen into sin. The Lord has revealed to us the infinite distances of spiritual perfection, He has revealed to us the Heavenly Kingdom! And most importantly, the greatest love of the Lord is His Cross. The cross is the sun of love. Brothers and sisters, the Cross and the Crucifixion are the foundation of our faith, they are the foundation of our life. If we do not sacrifice ourselves for others in our daily lives, our faith is extinguished, our hope is lost, and our love dies. In order to be believers, we must always try to sacrifice something for others, to help others, to bear their crosses. When we strive for our own happiness, but forget about others, then we do not achieve happiness, our soul remains empty and cold. Even if we have experienced all the pleasures of this world, we will still feel dissatisfied, sad and dead, as if we were covered with some kind of black veil. Those who give their lives for the sake of others are the happiest people, and especially those who bear the cross of martyrdom. In the life of the Holy Martyr Perpetua, a Roman aristocrat, her story is recorded. She was thrown into the dungeon, into the prison, where decomposing corpses lay with the dying. A Roman patrician, whose feet did not touch the ground, which was carried down the street by slaves on stretchers, now lay in a dirty, stinking prison among the corpses, and she wrote: "Never have I been so happy as now, when I suffer for Christ, this prison seems to me paradise itself!" The Lord said: "I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:47). The first coming of Jesus Christ was the coming of the Redeemer, with Him salvation was revealed to us. God's mercy is ineffable, incomprehensible for us – evil and sinners. Our sins before God's mercy are pebbles before the abyss of the sea, which will swallow them up. God's love is the flame in which a person's sins will be burned, in which the soul itself will become pure as gold. If only we had the will to be saved. The Lord has promised eternal life to those who believe, to those who believe in Him. The book "Spiritual Meadow" tells how a robber was executed and a certain monk went with a crowd of people to the place of execution. The condemned man saw this and asked: "Father, why do you not sit in your cell, but have come here?" He answered: "My brother, I suffer from insensibility, I forget about death, and therefore I have come to the square to see how you are executed, so that my heart trembles, so that I feel that death awaits each of us." The thief said, "Father, don't you know that since Christ came, no one dies? This means that this thief brought such repentance in his last days that the Lord made him feel before his execution that he was forgiven, that eternal life was open to him. Brothers and sisters, but at His Second Coming the Lord will come as Judge! The Patericon tells of a certain abbot who asked God that in eternity all his brethren, whom he loved more than the father of his children, would be with him. And so in the neighboring monastery there was a feast. According to the existing custom, the monks of the monastery where this abbot also went there. The brethren went ahead, and he himself was delayed, leaving the monastery last. He had already walked some part of the way, when he saw: a man was lying on the road, bleeding, crippled by a beast, and crying, asking for help. The abbot was surprised: "Did not the monks pass here shortly before me and did they not see you?" "We saw it, but they said that they were on foot and could not help me in any way." And then the elder-abbot put the crippled man on his shoulders – he could not walk at all – and carried him to the village, where they could help him. The burden was heavy, but only he felt how the weight diminished with each step. And then it disappeared completely, the person he was carrying became weightless, invisible. The hegumen stopped in bewilderment and heard the following voice from heaven: "You constantly pray for your disciples, that they may be vouchsafed eternal life, but you have one thing to do, and they have another. If you want your request to be granted, persuade them to do as you do. I am the Righteous Judge: I reward each one according to his deeds." Brothers and sisters, the Apostle Paul says: "Behold, now is the day of salvation" (2 Corinthians 6:2), that is, today we must begin repentance. When grace touches a person, he must immediately begin to repent, to change his life, without postponing it until the next day. Here is an example of how a well-known prostitute in Alexandria repented. She decided to first sell what she had and give it to the poor. But her repentance was so strong that she could not bear the very sight of the house where she lived and sinned. She left it and everything in it, without even closing the door behind her, and went to a monastery to lead a monastic life there. She reached the very gates of the monastery, knocked on them and fell dead. And the abbess of the monastery had a vision: demons and angels approached this dead woman. The demons said: "She has served us all her life, she has destroyed so many souls and has done nothing good!" The angels answered: "This sinner repented with all her heart, and the time of death does not depend on man, but on God." Thus the Lord accepted her repentance, although she had not yet had time to accomplish any feats and good deeds. But this no longer depended on her, such was the special Providence of God, and, perhaps, here the Lord wanted to show all His mercy. By the power of her fiery, sincere repentance, she gained the Kingdom of Heaven only in a few hours. What if she had postponed repentance for a few days? It is possible that her resolve would have been shaken and her soul would have been lost forever. Brothers and sisters, remember: the Lord promised us that if we repent today, He will forgive us. But the Lord did not promise that we would live to see tomorrow! Amen.

On the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Brothers and sisters! Today is the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. The history of the Tree of the Cross dates back to the time of the ancient patriarchs. The holy forefather Lot, the nephew of the great saint of God Abraham, being for a long time in the land of Sodom, corrupted and cursed by God, lived blamelessly and holy. But finding himself with his family in solitude, in the wilderness, on Mount Zoar, he fell into a terrible sin and, bringing repentance for his crime, he besought Saint Abraham, that he would ask forgiveness for him from God. Abraham gave Lot three dry branches—of a pine, a cedar, and a cypress—and said, "Plant them side by side and water them every day with the water of the Kidron Stream. If these branches blossom, then the Lord has forgiven you." Lot did so [1]. Every day he went to the Kidron Stream, collected water in a clay vessel, in a jar with a wide neck, and carried it up the mountain. Thorny bushes blocked the way, and therefore his body was wounded by thorns and needles. But one day he met a stranger in this deserted place. He asked Lot, "Will you give me water to drink?" Lot answered, "I have commandments from my parents: to receive a stranger, to give drink to the thirsty, and to feed the hungry; drink, my brother." He took the jug and drank. When Lot came to the place where he had planted three branches, he saw that the jar was empty. The stranger drained the huge vessel in one gulp. After a while, he met Lot for the second time and asked again: "Let me drink." Lot hesitated what to do, but he could not break the commandment – give the thirsty one to drink – and again gave him water to drink. And again the jug was empty. And he watered the branches only with his tears. And then he went to Abraham, told him about a strange stranger. Abraham listened, and folding the two branches crosswise, said: "Cover your pitcher with this, and when you meet that stranger, say, 'Take it and drink,' and see what happens." And so Lot did. The stranger took the jug again, but when he opened it, he saw the cross and disappeared with a scream. Abraham later said to Lot: "It was a demon. Remember what the dark spirit fears." ... And three years later, the branches bloomed and miraculously united into one tree, which surprised everyone who saw it. King Solomon himself is said to have said of him, "Blessed is the tree through which the nations shall be saved." When the Jerusalem Temple was being created, it was decided to use the trunk of this tree for construction. The tree was cut down, but either the work was already completed, or the builders did not know how to use it, only it was abandoned near the walls of the temple. And then it was turned into a small bridge over a stream that flowed nearby. This is how people walked along it for centuries. It was trampled under the feet of thousands and thousands of people and was covered with a layer of centuries-old dust and dirt. When Jesus Christ was given over to be crucified, His enemies decided to make a cross out of this tree in mockery of Him. And the Lord carried the Cross, as if signifying that He had taken our spiritual dirt on His shoulders and wiped it away. After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, His Cross, together with the crosses of the thieves, was buried in a deep ditch. Since then, no criminals have been executed on Golgotha, and the enemies of Christ, in order to desecrate this place, threw garbage and sewage on the hill. However, this did not prevent Golgotha from becoming the greatest shrine and place of pilgrimage for the first Christians. In the second century, a false messiah named Varkochba raised a rebellion against Rome. He decided to put to death all the Christians living in Judea, who, of course, did not accept him as a savior and messiah. And they were forced to leave their homeland to save themselves. Thus, the place where the Cross of the Lord was kept was forgotten. And only after the accession of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine the Great did the search for him begin. The emperor sent his mother, Saint Helena, to Palestine. She was told that an elderly Jew, Judas, knew where the Cross was kept. At first he did not want to point out this place, but then, being compelled, he discovered it. In the ditch there were three crosses: Jesus Christ and two thieves crucified with Him. Crosses were alternately placed on the body of the deceased, who was carried past Golgotha at that time. And when the Cross of the Savior touched the deceased, he immediately arose and came to life. Also, from touching the Cross, many other miracles were performed. Nails lay near the Cross. The nails of the robbers were rusty and crumbled to dust when they were touched. The nails with which the Savior's body was nailed were like new and glittered like silver. At the same time, during the reign of Emperor Constantine, a huge magnificent church of the Resurrection of Christ was built in Jerusalem on the site of Golgotha and the burial of the Savior. Part of the Golgotha Hill was demolished, and the cave where the body of Jesus Christ lay was inside the temple. Above it (already in the temple itself) a small chapel was built, the altar of which was the bed that once received the lifeless body of the Savior. The place where the Cross stood is outlined and the words are written on it: "Come, let us worship His footstool!" At the end of the sixth century, the Byzantine state, of which Palestine was a province, was ruled by the pious Emperor Maurice. But he committed a grave sin before God. During the unsuccessful war with the Scythians, several thousand Greeks were captured. The barbarians asked for a small sum for them, but Maurice did not send the money in time, and they killed his soldiers. This caused discontent and indignation of the army. The commander Phocas rebelled against Maurice. And when he came to Constantinople with his army, Maurice, abandoned by almost everyone, asked his attendants: "Who is Phocas?" One of the courtiers answered: "He is a well-known coward!" And indeed: Phocas ordered the death of not only Maurice, but also his family. In front of the emperor's eyes, his children were killed one by one. And Maurice repeated: "Glory to Thee, O Lord, and glory to Thy righteous judgments: what I deserve, that I receive, if only Thou wouldst save my soul." And when the nurse wanted to give her son to be killed instead of the youngest, still suckling child Maurice, the emperor forbade her, saying: "May the will of God be done!" Phocas was a cowardly and cruel tyrant. Having reigned with the help of troops and fearing that the troops would also depose him, he took the path of destroying his own people. The country was disintegrating, the army was halved. The Persian king Khosroes took advantage of this, who invaded the borders of Byzantium and, practically without resistance, seized its provinces, including Palestine, where he destroyed the shrine and took the Life-Giving Cross to Persia. It seemed that Byzantium was threatened with complete destruction. And then the governor of North Africa, Heraclius, rebelled against Phocas. With his army, he took Constantinople. Phocas, seeing no possibility of resistance, began to shout: "Long live the Emperor Heraclius!" What empire have you left me?" and ordered him to be executed. After that, the emperor Heraclius turned to the clergy for help, and the Church gave him everything it had. The emperor gathered a large army and, concluding an alliance with the Khazar khan, invaded Persia himself and won a number of brilliant victories. This was not enough: his sons rebelled against Chosroes, killed their father, made peace with the Byzantines and gave away the wood of the Life-Giving Cross. Heraclius himself carried the Cross to the Jerusalem Temple on his shoulders, but was stopped by an invisible force and could not move. In amazement, he asked the Patriarch: "What is this?" The Patriarch answered: "You are following the path by which Jesus Christ left Jerusalem, but He came out wearing a crown of thorns, in clothes stained with His blood! And you are walking in a royal crown adorned with jewels." Then the emperor Heraclius put on rags, took off his shoes and went barefoot to the Jerusalem temple, carrying the Cross. And he entered the church without hindrance. But soon another thunderstorm broke out. The Arabs, who were then more powerful than the Persians, opposed Byzantium. Emperor Heraclius suffered several defeats and, leaving Jerusalem, said: "Palestine, farewell forever!" Later, the Orthodox no longer owned Palestine and Jerusalem. The rule of the Arabs was replaced by the rule of the Turks. The Western Catholic Christians, the Crusaders, liberated Jerusalem for a time, but they began to persecute the Orthodox, and therefore the Lord abandoned them. In the battle with Sultan Sala al-Din on the Mount of Beatitudes, where the Lord delivered His Sermon on the Mount, the Crusaders were defeated: two hundred knights surrounded the Cross and all two hundred perished. Only when the last of them fell dead were the Muslims able to seize the shrine. After a while, for a large ransom, they returned the Cross to the Christians. Gradually, it was divided into parts and sent to all corners of the world as a sign that the Lord had come to save everyone, that His grace, like the rays of the sun, illuminated the whole world. Brothers and sisters! During the time of Emperor Constantine, a part of the wood of the Life-Giving Cross and one of the nails were sent to Georgia. At first, the Tree was kept in the Manglis temple, and then parts of the Life-Giving Cross were embedded in two crosses, one of which was located in Mtskheta, and the other in Jvari. The cross with a particle of the Golgotha Cross is still in the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, on a pillar on the left side, opposite the altar. As for the nail from the Cross of the Lord, the Georgian king Archil, having left for Russia, took this shrine with him. After his death, the Georgian king Vakhtang IV, who also emigrated to Russia, asked Empress Anna to remain in the possession of the Georgian princes, for which he received permission. At present, the nail is in the Sion Cathedral, kept in its altar. Brothers and sisters! There are many shrines in Georgia: the Lord's tunic, particles of the Life-Giving Cross, a nail, the relics of saints, part of the relics of the Holy Great Martyr and Victory-Bearer George and even the head of the Apostle Thomas. Some, however, ask: "After all, the Apostle Thomas was martyred in India, how did his holy head end up in Georgia?" The fact is that at the end of the IV century, part of the relics of the Apostle Thomas was transported to Byzantium. The Byzantine government sent a whole fleet to take this shrine from India. Then, probably during the fall of Constantinople, when many shrines from Greece were taken to neighboring countries, the head of the Apostle Thomas was transferred to Georgia. Already in the XVII century, the Russian traveler - Hieromonk Arseny (Sukhanov) saw it in one of the Georgian monasteries, which he wrote about in his book "Pilgrim". Golgotha, the place where the Cross of the Lord was located, the enemies of Christ tried to desecrate. In the II century, Emperor Hadrian built a pagan temple in the name of the pagan goddess of love Venus, where vile rites took place. However, brothers and sisters, it is impossible to desecrate a holy thing, just as a man cannot extinguish the light of the sun with his spit. A shrine cannot be desecrated, just as gold covered with dirt does not lose its value. The book "Spiritual Meadow" tells how a monk, who accidentally entered an empty cave, saw an angel praying there and asked him: "Who are you?" The angel answered: "Once there was a sacred altar here, and I was sent by God as the guardian of the throne of this temple. A long time has passed, and since the altar was destroyed, there has been no one here, but I guard this place, for it is holy." And how many holy places there are in Georgia, how many ancient temples! Of some of them only ruins or stones remain, but the grace of God rests on them, and they exude an invisible spiritual light, which we can also partake of, if we approach with faith, reverence and love. Brothers and sisters! I congratulate you on today's feast – the Exaltation of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord – and wish you to bear your cross, the cross of your life, the cross of redemption with patience and love, looking with your mind's eyes at Christ the Savior crucified for us. Amen. According to legend, on the place where Lot planted these branches, the future tree of the Cross of the Lord, the Cross Monastery was later erected. – Auth. ^

On the feast day of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian