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.

Then, before the Lord's entry into Jerusalem, the time had not yet come to declare Him to be Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah. And now it's here. The Lord knew when to reveal His dignity as Christ to all the people, and the Lord's entry into Jerusalem had just that purpose: to reveal Jesus as Savior, Son of God, and Messiah. How, in what form, was this great work accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ?

Not with great glory, not with the glory that the Messiah would have received if He had been what the Jews believed and expected Him to be; if the purpose of His coming had been only to reign forever over the people of Israel, to place them above all other nations, and to become an earthly king. After all, the Saviour said at Pilate's trial in response to Pilate's question whether He was a king: "Thou sayest... My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36).

If He had sought the kingdom of this world, if He had desired to be the Messiah, the great king that the people of Israel had been waiting for, then, of course, He would not have entered Jerusalem in such a poor, humble form. Were there not a great number of rich and noble people among those who believed in Him, among those who deeply revered Him, who could, at His first hint, furnish the entrance to Jerusalem as if it were the entrance of a king: give magnificent horses, chariots that would accompany crowds of people, as they accompanied great generals in Rome, who won glorious victories over their enemies? They were awarded the so-called triumph.

This triumphant procession was full of great glory, full of brilliance. The triumphant stood on a luxuriously decorated chariot drawn by four magnificent horses, holding high his proud head, crowned with a laurel wreath, and received from everywhere signs of admiration and glorification. The troops marched ahead with thunderous music. And behind the chariots were the chained kings and leaders of the kingdom that the triumphant had conquered.

And could the Lord Jesus Christ have made His entrance in this way? Oh no, oh no! All earthly glory is insignificant and vanishes like smoke, and all those who were honored with a triumph in Rome have long been forgotten by people. There is another glory, immeasurably higher than the glory of triumphants: there is the glory of valiant humility, meekness, and virtue, for these great spiritual qualities are immeasurably higher than all the merits of military and civil and all human glory, insignificant before the glory of the meek, humble, full of love and virtues.

The Kingdom of Christ was not of this world, it was the Kingdom of God. And his glory had to be the glory of God. And He gained this glory in His humble procession on a donkey, on which He sat, not proudly raising His head, but lowering it low and watering His holy cheeks with streams of tears. It was now opportune to reveal Himself to the people of Israel as the humble and suffering Messiah, as the servant of Jehovah, as the Lad Who is quiet and meek, Whom the Heavenly Father holds by the hand, Who "shall not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax" (Isaiah 42:3). Such was the Lord's entry into Jerusalem.

Let us think about it, would anyone who had been in the place of the Lord Jesus at that moment of His glorious entry into Jerusalem, who would have aspired to earthly glory and honors, to royal power, would not have used the rapture of the people caused by the greatest miracle of the resurrection of the dead on the fourth day after death – would he not have used such enthusiasm of the people in order to truly reign?!