The One Living, the True One blessed the word, podvig, tears and sacrifices of His apostles. The seed they sowed bore good fruit. This fruit is that now faith in one God seems to us simple and natural, and polytheism ridiculous and insane.

I am the Lord thy God, and thou shalt have no other gods besides me. This is God's first testimony about Himself, God's first revelation of God to people about God, and God's first commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods besides Me, the Lord commanded, for if thou worshipest other gods, a double destruction shall befall thee. The first is the belief in false, non-existent gods. The other is that reverence and love, which should belong entirely to the One One, you will give to idols. And then your faith in the One will be darkened and your love for Him will grow cold; He, insulted and humiliated, will depart from you. And you will become an atheist, even if, having many gods, you consider yourself pious. For the atheist and the idolater are one and the same: both without the one, living, true God.

Faith in one God, the one, living, true Creator, is the faith of the humble and reasonable, for the proud deify either the creature or themselves; Pride gives birth to madmen. The more humble a person is, the more rational he is, the more vain, the madder. The Lord opposes the proud, but gives grace and understanding to the humble. The more a humble person humbles himself before the Lord, the more the Lord gives him reason. Reason is the light that leads to the one, living, true God. Blessed are those who have reason to see the corruption of the world and man. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the Lord will exalt them to the highest knowledge – the knowledge of the existence and majesty of the Most High God.

This is your faith, Christ-bearers, the faith of your fathers, humble and reasonable. Let it also become the faith of your children, from generation to generation, until the end of time. Faith is unashamed, Orthodox, salvific. Your fathers were saved by her, they were not ashamed of her, and she was not ashamed of them. Truly, faith in one God, one, living, true, faith is the faith of the educated, of those who bear within themselves the image of God. He will not be ashamed either at the Last Judgment, he will not be ashamed either before the righteous or before the angel, but he will receive glory and be called blessed.

... The Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible

With fear and trembling, let us look behind the half-open veil of eternity... It is opened not by a weak human hand, but by God Himself, the one, living, true God. If in His mercy to men He had not done this, who else would have dared? All the minds of men, all the powers of the heavens, would not have moved it by a hair's breadth. Three rays of light stretched out to people who bear the image of God in themselves. And the educated trembled with heavenly joy, for He revealed Himself as incomparable, that is, equal only to Himself. The One, the living, the true One revealed Himself as the Father, Almighty, and Creator.

Your anxious thought hastens to ask: Whose Father? Since when has the Father? The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Father. Before the creation of the world, He was the Father. Before times and temporal creatures, before the angels and the powers of heaven, before the sun and the moon, before the dawn and the moon, the Father begat His only begotten Son. And, speaking of the Eternal, do we dare to pronounce the word "when"? He is the eternal God, the eternal Father, there is no "when" in Him, He is beyond the wheel of time.

The Almighty reveals Himself first as the Father, and then as the Almighty and Creator. This is obvious to you, educated. His parenthood refers to His co-eternal Son, and His omnipotence and creativity to the created world, visible and invisible. First the Father, and only then the Almighty and Creator. In eternity, no one could call God Father, except His Only-begotten Son.

And in time? And no one can in time. Listen to the ancient history of the human race and accept it in your hearts. It will give joy to the soul and light to the mind.

Since the creation of the world, since the expulsion of Adam from paradise for the grave sin of disobedience to the Creator, no mortal has dared to call God his Father. The wondrous chosen ones called Him by His greatest names: Almighty, Judge, Most High, King and Lord, only not by the Father, by a sweet name.

The best in the human race felt themselves to be the creation of the one omnipotent Creator, the vessel of the Divine Potter, but they never imagined themselves to be children of the Heavenly Father. This right was given to people only with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it was not given to everyone, but to those who accepted Him. And to those who received Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the power to become children of God (John 1:12). That is, the adopted received the right to turn to the Lord: Abba, Father! (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:14-16).

Adoption, the gift of God's mercy, was revealed and brought to people by Jesus Christ at the very beginning of His earthly ministry. He revealed to the people that from now on they could call God their Father, saying: Our Father who art in heaven! (Matt. 6:9). And since then, millions of youths and elders throughout the world have been crying out day after day: Our Father!

Demons do not dare to call God Father, it is difficult for unrepentant sinners to pronounce the sweet word: Father! Only the righteous and penitent are given the right and boldness in their prayers to exclaim with all their hearts: Our Father! But those who rise up against the Lord and His law, whether in thought, word, or deed, will not utter the comforting and sweet word: Father!