HOMILY ON THE DAY OF THE MEETING OF THE LORD. HOMILY ON THE DAY OF THE TRANSFER OF THE RELICS OF ST. NICHOLAS. HOMILY ON THE DAY OF THE NATIVITY OF ST. FORERUNNER AND BAPTIST OF THE LORD JOHN. HOMILY ON THE FEAST DAY OF ST. PRINCE VLADIMIR. HOMILY ON THE DAY OF ST. OF THE PROPHET ELIJAH ON PRAYER. HOMILY ON THE DAY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD ON THE SPIRITUAL LIGHT.

HOMILY ON THE DAY OF THE TRANSFIGURATION OF THE LORD. HOMILY ON THE DAY OF THE DORMITION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD. HOMILY ON THE DAY OF THE REPOSE OF ST. APOSTLE JOHN THE THEOLOGIAN. HOMILY ON THE DAY OF ST. OF THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST LUKE. SPEECH AT THE FUNERAL OF ARCHIMANDRITE TIKHON. SERMON AT THE PANIHIDA ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF ARCHIMANDRITE TIKHON. WEEK 20. ABOUT THE RESURRECTION OF THE SON OF THE WIDOW OF NAIN.

MEMOIRS OF ST. LUKE. The history of the book that you, dear reader, hold in your hands, is not like the history of most books that have been published before and are published now. Its author, then Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea, and now St. Luke, did not prepare for publication his sermons, read from the episcopal cathedra in 1949-1952.

After all, in the years of official atheism, it was dangerous to even dream of publishing original theological works, especially apologetic (defending faith from godlessness). It was a reckless feat of the archbishop that he addressed his flock with such a bold verbal word of God's truth. But his grateful listeners could not reconcile themselves to the fact that this priceless word would be kept only in their hearts.

They wanted it to penetrate the souls of as many people as possible, through thorns, through space and time. And God gave them such an opportunity. As in the distribution of St. Luke's book "Spirit, Soul and Body", the faithful became associates of their beloved archpastor by implementing "samizdat". But in this case, they did not just reproduce the written text.

From week to week, from month to month, from year to year, they took shorthand (after all, at that time a tape recorder was the greatest rarity), retyped sermons on a typewriter. And it was risky, since all the cars were registered under numbers in the NKVD. They bound these sheets on home bookbinders with such love and care that no official publication of either that time or later had ever been honored.

On the binding of one of the volumes of such "samizdat" that has come down to us, the Holy Cross is even imprinted. And this, too, threatened with severe punishment in atheistic times. And one more important detail. This manuscript has come down to us thanks to works of mercy. It was carefully kept by the nun Elizabeth, who was vouchsafed not only to be personally acquainted with St. Luke, but also to become a patient of the outstanding surgeon Voino-Yasenetsky.

He saved her life by operating on her for purulent appendicitis. The nun lived to a ripe old age in a squalid hut without amenities, and for the winter she was usually taken to live in her comfortable apartment by the servant of God Tamara, who sang with her in the choir of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Simferopol, where the relics of St. Luke have rested since 1996. In gratitude for the shelter, the nun left Tamara before her death the most precious thing she had – the typewritten volume of the VI Sermons of Archbishop Luke in Simferopol, 1949-1952.

Tamara, who is still a parishioner of Holy Trinity Cathedral, gave our diocesan publishing house the opportunity to reprint the manuscript and publish it in the form of a book, which can now be read by thousands of people. The lively voice of our dear hierarch, blessing his faithful flock, resounds from the pages of this wonderful book. We were given the opportunity, as it were, to be present at the sermons that he, like everything he did in his great life, read with boundless love for our All-Merciful Savior Jesus Christ and for the people who are so in need of the Word of God.

Glory and thanks to the Lord for everything! METROPOLITAN OF SIMFEROPOL AND CRIMEA HOMILY ON THE SUNDAY OF VAI We are now celebrating one of the greatest events in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ – His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is necessary that all of you understand what the meaning of this feast is, that you understand what is the meaning of the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, for when someone first becomes acquainted with the Gospel, his thought stops at the chapter that tells about the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, stops with surprise, even with bewilderment, for they have read in many other places of the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ always and unfailingly rejected all honors from Himself, all exaltation, for He was meek and lowly in heart.

He forbade the demons, whom he cast out from those possessed by them, to divulge that they knew who He was, that they knew that He was the Son of God. Almost always He also forbade those healed by Him to divulge about the miracle. When Saint Peter confessed Him as Christ, the Son of God – the Messiah, then Christ said to him: "Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed these things unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven."

The Apostles knew, but the Apostles were also commanded not to divulge to anyone that He was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. Thus, everything that had existed before, as it were, stood in some contradiction with the Lord's entry into Jerusalem. Never before had we seen the Lord except walking on foot; here they saw Him sitting on an ass for the first time. He had never been seen to shy away from all honors, but now He accepted them. What did it mean?

Why has the way the Lord Jesus Christ acted changed now? Why had He never before, in three and a half years of His preaching, allowed anyone to divulge that He was the Messiah, the Savior of the world? Why did He Himself never speak about this? Why? Because the time had not yet come to reveal it to the people, because it was not the right time for Him to reveal Himself as the Messiah.

What would have happened if He had rushed to reveal His messianic dignity? You know how fiercely the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees fought against Him. Could they have tolerated then, at the beginning of the Savior's earthly activity, that He proclaimed Himself the Messiah? No, by no means! This would only increase their hatred and enmity against Him, and would lead to an early, untimely death at their evil hand.