Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                  SUNDAY OF ALL SAINTS
                     June 9, 1996
                           ----

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Today  we  are  keeping  the  Day of All Saints, of all those who have
heard  Christ  speak,  whose hearts and minds have been set afire, and
went out into the world to bring to the whole world the good news. The
news  that  God  has  so  loved the world, that He has entered into it
never  to leave it, and that in His Resurrection He has taken all that
is  the  world - in His Flesh the whole visible world, in His soul all
the  human  world  -  and  has established it on the right hand of the
Father.

This  is  not  only the glory of the Church, it is a call addressed to
each  of  us. To-day we are called by the Gospel, we are encouraged by
the Epistle, so to love God as to become truly His disciples, and that
means  that  our  faith in Him must be and become, day after day, more
truly  faithful,  so that seeing us, seeing how we live, seeing who we
are,  people  could believe that Christ has come to save the world and
is worth following as a Master and as a Friend.

St  James, speaking to people of his time said: If you want to show me
your  faith  without your works, I will show you my faith by my works…
Let  us  then  go into the world to bring to a world which is in great
misery  now,  in distress that it has lost its way, the good news. Not
only the news that God has come and is in our midst, that He has shown
us  the  way,  that  He  is  the  way  and He has given an example for
everyone  to follow, not in a slavish way, not as a hireling, but with
the  joy  that following this way means that we are fulfilled and that
life is deep in us and it can flow on to others.

This  is  the message of to-day's feast. In the next two weeks we will
keep  more  particularly  the  feast  of the Saints of Russia, and the
feast  of the Orthodox Saints of these islands, - people of our blood,
our  flesh,  our  kin.  Let us think of them and let us try to live in
such  a way that they may rejoice that they have a following worthy of
Christ and worthy of their lives. Amen.

                           ----
* All texts are copyright:   Estate of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
                            ---
           Metropolitan Anthony of  Sourozh Library
           http://www.metropolit-anthony.orc.ru/eng/

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