Thus, the Church, as if on behalf of the Mother of God, or, rather, the Mother of God, with the voice of the Church, calls upon us to weep for Her Son and God lying in the tomb — mountains and hills and a multitude of people.

On Great Saturday, the divine services of which combine both the tomb and the Resurrection, when we are still standing before the tomb of Christ and at the same time hear the Gospel narrative that the Myrrh-bearing Woman did not find the Body of the Lord in the tomb, the Church with great boldness calls out, addressing first to the angels, and then to the heavens and waters, to the sun, the moon and the stars of heaven, to fire, frost and heat, to dew and frost, and, finally, to the sons of men: "Sing to the Lord, and exalt Him for ever."

And all this is not for adornment, not for style, not for this or that expression of abstract concepts, for before the tomb of the Savior the lips are silent, for in this very service we sing: "Let all human flesh be silent, and let it stand with fear and trembling, and let it think of nothing earthly in itself."

No, this is the belief of the Church. The Church believes that man is inseparably linked with God's creation: if he rejoices and rejoices, if he is purified, then all creation lives and rejoices together with him in the same spiritual rhythm.

Divine services do not have an exclusively human character, relating only to people – they are performed for the whole world and find a response throughout the world. This is the side of the greatest importance.

On the day of Theophany, when nature is sanctified today, water throughout the world is sanctified by the Jordanian blessing and sanctifies all who drink it – all believers and non-believers, people and animals.

When you enter the church, you first of all feel that you are part of the material nature – you are the most perfect of all creatures, the crown of creation, but you are inseparably connected with all the rest of creation, and when you perform divine services, you perform them precisely as a part, as the crown of God's creation.

There is one remarkable passage in the divine services of the day of Theophany, in which this connection is so really expressed that it can appear to a person of little faith as a great temptation: at the end of the hours, the troparion is sung, which is addressed to John the Baptist.

The Holy Church is aware that the Baptism of the Lord, which was once on earth and is now being performed again in the Church, is imminent, the great consecration of the Jordan is imminent, and not the partial blessing of water in the church. Who should be called to celebrate the celebration? Of course, the one who did this before, who baptized the Lord. "Thy hand, which touched the Most Pure Lord, Thou didst show us with it and His finger, lift up for us to Him, the Baptist, as having much boldness: for Thou hast borne witness to the pains of all the prophets from Him. And thine eyes, having seen the packs of the All-Holy Spirit, as having descended in the form of a dove, lift up to Him, the Baptist, and do mercy to us: and come, stand with us, seal the singing and begin the celebration."

If one believes in this seriously, and the Church has nothing in her liturgical experience that we are rich in, that the temporal world is rich in, that she takes only that which is eternal, that which is active, that which is holy, if one believes in all this together with the Church, then with what great trepidation and reverence must one approach the divine services!

In another place, on the day of the Meeting of the Lord, we ask that the daughter of Phanuel, i.e. Anna the Prophetess, come and stand with us:

O daughter of Phanuel. Come, stand with us...

The recent feast in honor of Gregory the Decapolites says in one of the troparia of its canon the same about the memory of the saints:

"Today the synod of fasting and venerable saints rejoices with us, the Apostles and Martyresses will celebrate the patriarchs and prophets in thy memory, O blessed, and with them remember those who revere thee faithfully, O Wonderful."