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In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Congratulations to you, dear brothers and sisters.
Today is the feast of the Protection of Our Most Holy Lady. It is a very interesting feast which is celebrated almost only by Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Moscow Orthodox Church. But most of all it was respected in the Old Russian Orthodox Church.
How did this feast appear?
In ancient times, Andrew was taken from Ukraine to slavery. He was very intelligent, spiritual. And the owner, who had bought Andrew in Greece and was a Greek, he saw that he was clever servant. So, he decided to teach him, in order, he became the doctor, because every host needed a doctor. So he sent him to learn. And he became a very good doctor and all people loved and respected Andrew, he was honored and glorified.
But Andrew was spiritual. That is why he thought that people around were glorifying him too much. The Lord said: "Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets" (Luke, VI: 25,26). That is "Grief to you when you are praised now, because then it would be difficult for you to stand before God, because you got your fame here on the earth. You will not get it in heaven". He thought for a long period of time over these questions: Was it all good that he did? He tried to be a good Christian, but there was lot of praise, love to him. And his owner honored him because he was a valuable man, valuable specialist, and was very smart.
And Andrew doubted whether it was good. He reads that "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!" And those words said the Savior - Jesus. And Andrew was not persecuted, and people did not say all kinds of evil against him. And the Lord says: "Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven" (Luke, VI: 22,23). And he had impeccable reputation. And, of course, that he had a lot of doubts whether he was living in a right manner, or he takes the glory of the human race, of sinful people, whom God will be ashamed of when He came in glory to judge the living and the dead. It seems that he refused from the glory of God.
And he had a dream. He saw the Angels went down from the heights, from the kingdom of heaven, and each of them had a crown, which was adorned with precious gems. The crowns were beautiful. He asked these angels: "Can I get these crowns?" Angels answered: "You can have all these crowns".
"What are the crowns?" They told him: "If you serve to God - you will get a crown of patience, and this one is a crown of persecution". And Andrew said: "I want to have these crowns, but I am afraid of the devil". Angels told him: "Do not be afraid of him, he moves very slowly. If you redeem quickly, he will not catch you. He does not have time to adjust against you people so quickly to break you in your faith. You will grow in spirit, faster than they."
And Andrew ventured on this exploit. Do you know what he did when he woke up in the morning? He came to the well; he took off his clothes and cut them into pieces in the public eye. And the clothes were very expensive. He cut clothes before the people who went to draw water in the morning. And people think that Andrew is possessed by the evil spirit. What has happened to him? He was a good, normal man and then he began to cut his clothes.
And this message was spread through the city and the owner heard it. The owner was disappointed. They decided to help Andrew. They tied him and put in the church in order he lie there for three days because the devil cannot be in a person who stays in church. The devil has to leave the person if the person is being possessed not for a long time; this is not a place for him. And all people prayed for him. They prayed for him every day that he started to doubt and said: "What am I doing? Are my deed are accepted by you, God?" And again in his dreams he saw Apostle John whom God loved so much. John said to him "Your feat of service is accepted by God, He accepts that you are persecuted, belied and that people say all kinds of evil against you and do not love you. "He accepts your feat of so called "foolishness for Christ". But it should be a real "foolishness for Christ" when for people you are mad but inside you are wise. And you will be free next morning. And when the morning came they untied and set him free. "He may go"-they said. In other words, God gave them this thought that they have to leave him.
And Andrew was walking around the city and begging.
He had terrible clothes, rags. And everybody drove him away, it was unpleasant to look at him. They remembered that he was clever, and now he became insane. And some on compassionate grounds gave him bread. He ate as much as he needed and gave the rest to people. But for they not to guess that he was smart and did it in his smart mind, he took the bread and throw them at people. And they said, "What a fool, he throws bread." They picked up and ate the bread.
People even gave him money - pennies. They thought that maybe he would buy something to dress. He also threw those pennies to people, as if he was angry at them. And they said "What a fool." They collected money and used it. And so they did not praise him for they did not know that he was doing it deliberately, giving them money. And so he went on.
People are so arranged in fact: If I have given - let everyone know about it, if I have done good deed - let everyone know about it, and praise me, let everyone carry me in arms. So you do not get glory in heaven, because you have already got it on the earth. And Andrew is the example we should follow in reality.
And in those times there was severe frost in Greece, even trees were frozen through from the roots to the top became fragile and fell down. So Andrew started to look for some place to warm up. At first he went to asylum for the poor. But the poor said: Go away from us, you stink terribly! And Andrew being very sad went away. Of course he was sad, he cried and felt cold. And then he got into doghouse. But a dog also could not have stood the smell from Andrew and go out from its kennel to severe frost only not to be with him. Andrew started to cry and say: I am so sinful, even a dog does not want to be near me. He felt very cold and started to pray: Lord, take my soul, I am going to You, my mission on the earth is already finished.
When Andrew was praying he suddenly felt warm. He opened eyes and saw Archangel Gabriel who with the branch from the Kingdom of Heaven, with which he had come to the Mother of God (how the holy tradition says) touched Andrew's body and said: Accept reviving of a body. Andrew felt warmth at once, good warmth. And then Archangel said: Follow me. And Andrew followed him. And here Andrew tells what he saw. The same as Apostle Paul says: "Know a man ... who was caught up to the third heaven-whether in the body or out of the body I do not know" (2 Corinthians, XII: 2). Listen, what Andrew told:
I was caught up to the first heaven. And on the first heaven there was the Cross of the Lord out of the light, multicolored and brilliant and the special grace proceeded from it. And when we approached the Angel was the first to come up, bowed down before the Cross and kissed it and then blessed me with the hand to come up too. I came up, kissed it and felt such grace and such joy I had never experienced in my life. And I did not want to move away from the Cross. But the Angel said to me: We have to go. And I followed the Angel walking on the vault of heaven and we entered the pillar of fire. When I entered the pillar of fire, Angel said to me: Do not be afraid. You won't be burnt out, this is the Holy Spirit. Then we were lifted up to the second heaven in the Kingdom of Heaven and I saw there many holy souls, their dwellings and all of them were filled with calmness, joy, love. They came up to me, hugged me and kissed me, congratulated me on my visit to the Kingdom of Heaven.
There was a great joy, the beauty that could not be described on the earth -fountains, greenery, and the like. You can describe what you want, dream and imagine the most incredibly beautiful things, but still you cannot understand what beauty is there. After this the angel said: "We have to go." Once again, we entered the Pillar of Fire and went right to the third heaven. And on the third heaven, there were two cherubims and the curtain. And the cherubims opened the curtain with their fiery hands. And I saw Jesus Christ sitting on the throne in front of me. He looked at me with his loving eyes and told me three words (which Andrew could not tell to no one then). And then the Lord said: "Your mission is to go back to Earth and continue the ministry to which you have been called." And I began to ask Him: "Lord, if I could see Mother of God, because I already saw all the Saints, and You?" Jesus said: "Mother of God works on Earth, helping people, you will see her there." And we with the angel quickly descended on the earth. I woke up, felt my body, which was lying on the frost for ten days and could turn into an icicle. But I woke up completely healthy and full of energy.
And Andrew continued to be a fool for Christ. And one day he was praying in the temple of Mother of God of Blachernae. And in those times Greek were attacked by the Saracens, the enemies of Greeks who wanted to destroy Greek temples. They attacked Greeks very often. So the people having locked themselves up in the temple prayed. They were praying to God, begging for His help. They also addressed to the Most Holy Lady that she prayed her Son for them.
In those times Andrew also had a disciple and he was also a fool for Christ and a very spiritual man. And they together saw the Most Holy Lady, Apostle John, John the Baptist and other Apostles to enter the temple. They entered the temple and came up to the altar. They kneeled and prayed. The Mother of God and the Apostles were praying to God for Greek people in order to God forgave their sins and drove off the enemies who had attacked Greek fairly but the Greeks prayed for their defence. And then the Mother of God stood up and took off the veil from her head and stretched it above all the people. And Andrew said: Epiphanus, do you see what I see? Epiphanus answered: Yes, I do and I am stunned.
So then the Saracens retreated and the Greeks were released from their enemies.
Andrew came from Ukraine so this story reached Ukrainian lands. And the Ukrainian Church started to celebrate this feast. And we always celebrate it.
If, for example, in the USA there are 100 orthodox parishes then 47 of them are deicated to the Protection of Our Most Holy Lady. That is the patron saint's day for the half of all the parishes in the USA. The same is in Canada. So, every Christian in the world searches for the protection of the Most Holy Lady.
We know, that Ukrainian cossacks also respected this feast very much. They believed that the Most Holy lady protected them with her veil. That is why the cossacks celebrated that feast in a particular manner, rejoicing that the Holy Virgin defended them. Today the cossacks also follow their old traditions and treated this feast with the due respect. I hope to God, the modern cossacks will purify their community and will recognize the true Church when it enters in its force. And it will enter.
And we also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary: "Mother of God, you hear us, you are still with us, guard us with thy holy omophorion from all evil. Defend our Ukraine from the evil that moves against the world for the sins of the world. Help Church of God of thy Son Jesus Christ to rise from its knees, to stand up and gain strength to serve the salvation of mankind who lives in Ukraine, lives outside of Ukraine, lives around the globe. "
May God and Mother of God protect you with the holy omophorion. If you go somewhere, or you have any kind of business, ask: "Mother of God, defend me with your holy protection as I worry too much, I am very afraid, give me thy invisible protection against enemies of this world or the evil of this world". Whatever it is, but if you really ask so, crossing yourself (at least mentally, when you're among people), the Mother of God will help you.
So I congratulate you all on the occasion of the Protection of Our Most Holy Lady. We all have respect for the Mother of God, who gave birth to our Lord Jesus Christ. Because she has lived on Earth, she has a great love for us earthlings, and has more power to help us.
Glory to Jesus Christ.
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