Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!

The Вaptism of Rus. Kiev. 988

Today Patriarchal Parishes in Canada celebrate the traditional Day of Orthodoxy in this country. Why is it so that the starting point of Orthodoxy in Canada is not considered to be the construction and consecration of the first church on this land or the arrival of the Orthodox Rusins or Ruthenians of Galicia and Bukovina to Canada, but the day when the first Divine Liturgy was served on this place? For us, Orthodox Christians, the answer is quite clear: because where there is no Liturgy, there is no Church! We may arrange and rearrange the nice green twigs, but would never make a live tree out of them. Only “where two or three are assembled in the name of Christ”, in order to commit that what He “commanded to do till the end of times”, – to serve Divine Liturgy, which, by itself, is the continuation of the Last Supper, there only would be He with them, and there would be His Church, His Kingdom, and the eternal life in Him.

During the Liturgy we bring with gratitude to God not only our prayers, bread and wine, water, candles, money for supporting the church and the poor: we, first of all, sacrifice to God ourselves. Our Lord Jesus Christ also gives Himself to us through His Body and Blood: for we would be able to connect most closely to his Flesh and Blood only if we partake of Them, if They become ours. The regular meal that people eat every day converts into the human body. At the Eucharistic meal a man himself converts into the substance that he eats. While eating the Body of Christ, a person must transform his body into the Body of Christ. While taking Communion, we do not convert this Food into our body, as happens with any other food, but, on the contrary, turn ourselves into this Food, as it occurs with iron, that is being placed in the fire. Through The Holy Gifts we are sanctified: “Holy Gift – for the holy!” After partaking of the Eucharistic bread, we become the part of Christ’s Church and the immortal part of His Body! This is the greatest miracle of the Sacrament of the Divine love – Eucharist! If we do not participate in the Liturgy, we voluntarily wean ourselves from Christ and His Church.

This year the centenary of establishing Orthodoxy in Canada through serving the first Divine Liturgy on its land, coincides with the celebration by our Church the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus. I would like to point out at a very important fact: notice, that the adoption by Grand Prince Vladimir in 988 the Christian faith is not called most generally the “Baptism of the Russian people”, but – the “Baptism of Rus”. The whole Russian land was sanctified by this great sacrament. When we pronounce the word “neighborhood” in Russian, it sounds as “okrestnost” – which means “a christened land”, the land in the center of which is the Cross of Christ and which is sanctified by it and by the prayers of the Christians who worship the Cross. From the time of establishing Orthodoxy in it the Russian land has been sanctified by the churches that were resurrected and memorial Crosses that were worshiped in it.

 In the past Russian people even made a prayer with an appeal to the land: “Oh, Russian land!” and called it “Holy Orthodox Motherland…” Through the Baptism of Rus many corners of the universe, on which, during the later centuries, Russian Christians set foot, were also sanctified. Among those lands is our Canada…

From the first ancient Russian Chronicles, “The Tale of Bygone Years”, it is known that St. Vladimir on His spiritual journey to become an Orthodox Christian went through many temptations. It sometimes happens to our own children and grandchildren, too…  Though his grandmother – Saint blessed Princess Olga – was a fervent Christian, Vladimir himself in his youth was a pagan, and only close to the end of his life the Providence of God revealed to him the falsity of pagan idols… From among four faiths that he considered – Islam, Judaism, Catholicism and Orthodoxy – he chose the one that unified and strengthen Russian land and granted her eternity…

“There we were, like in Paradise… – in such words the ambassadors of Prince Vladimir described for him what feelings they experienced during the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Sophia, the Wisdom of God, in Constantinople. – We did not know whether in the Heaven, or on earth we were, for there is no on earth such a spectacle and such beauty as we saw, and we do not know how to tell about it … And we will never be able to forget that beauty … ” So childishly naïvely and ingeniously, but wholeheartedly embraced Russian people the Orthodox Faith through the Divine Liturgy, that they attended and in which they witnessed the transformation and sanctification of souls, performed by the Holy Spirit during this Sacrament.

The Church, Russian orthodox people and the historians have named St. Equal of the Apostles Prince Vladimir “the Great,” for what he had done for our land was, indeed, very important and substantial. As we sing in the church hymn of Glorification of this Holy Prince, he had “trampled the idols,” completely destroyed them, and “all Russian land he enlightened by the Holy Baptism.” Saint Vladimir, truly, is the godfather of all Russian people and every one of us. All the good things in our culture and traditions stem from the event that we celebrate today. Nowadays, as before, our Prince, the Baptist, verifies the strength of our faith and our loyalty to the ideals of our Holy Russia. He reminds us about the most important thing – about our belonging to the Church of God, about our Baptism, about the necessity to live according to the rules of our faith, about the necessity of constant studying of the Holy Scriptures.

In the message of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill on the 1025-anniversary of the Baptism of Russia he notes that “for the quarter of a century since the beginning of the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988, we restored and built tens of thousands of churches and hundreds of monasteries … With proper humility we admit the fact that the world history does not know such a grandiose and rapid religious revival as the one that took place in the space of historical Russia over the past 25 years. We give our heartfelt thanks to God, Who is the Lord of history, for the grace which was revealed to our people! We heartily thank all those who responded to the Calling Grace of God and made this recovery possible. However, much still remains to do, for the Lord is expecting from us the new fruits. And the chief among them should become the unity of our faith and life, the affirmation of the Gospels’ truth in our words and deeds. Holy Russia will be alive as long as it holds to the choice made by the Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir; will still be alive, while it retains its spiritual unity, while we remember and honor through prayers our common Saints. And if we preserve our common heritage and our spiritual relationship – we have the future. ”

I congratulate you all with the Celebration of the two great Feasts- the Birth Day of Orthodoxy in Canada and the Day of the Baptism of Russia! I prayerfully wish that through the intercession of our Baptist – Saint Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir, we all study how to appreciate the spiritual pearls that we possess – our Orthodox faith, which we received as a result of his God-enlightened choice. We should preserve and cherish in our hearts as the greatest treasure this “priceless gems of Christ”! Let, according to his prayers, the true faith and the living relationship with the Holy Church strengthens increasingly in our lives, which might be achieved only through the conscious participation in the Divine Liturgy. Let us be always and everywhere true and faithful to the precepts of our spiritual father Saint Vladimir!

Strengthen, O God, the Holy Orthodox faith and all Orthodox Christians in Rus, in Canada and around the world forever and ever! Amen!