Posted on: July 6, 2025

Posted by: Chris Thurber

Written by: Bishop Demetrios

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   ✟   Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is a great blessing for me to be with you at this parish for the first time as a bishop, and to convey to you the blessings of my elder, our Metropolitan Demetrius, who has been traveling in Europe for the past month. With his blessing, and at your kind invitation, I have the joy of praying with you today as we celebrate two great feasts: the feast of Pentecost and the feast of this church’s patron saint, St. John the Russian.

It was on the feast of Pentecost that the simple disciples and fishermen were filled with the Holy Spirit—the same Spirit who established the apostles and filled what was lacking in them. That same Spirit has worked, and continues to work, through the Saints—such as St. John the Russian. In him we see not only physical bravery, as a soldier of an earthly king, but also spiritual bravery—as a soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ.

After being taken captive by the Ottomans, he bravely confessed that he would obey in all things except denying his faith. For he knew the teaching of our Lord, who tells us not to fear those who can kill the body but cannot harm the soul, but rather to fear Him who can cast both body and soul into hell.

Just as the martyrs cannot endure torments without the grace of the Holy Spirit—and therefore cannot display true bravery without God’s help—so too do the righteous servants of God, who by subjecting their own will and passions to the will of God, undergo a kind of voluntary martyrdom. It was his faith in Christ that made this servant of Christ understand that it is better to suffer temporary death at the hands of unbelievers than to suffer eternal death at the dread Judgment to come. And the Lord, who glorifies those who glorify Him, glorified His faithful servant not only after death but even during his lifetime.

Who can fully recount all the struggles and labors St. John endured for Christ? All his prayers and tribulations were known only to the Lord. How can we not marvel at his humility and wisdom? Knowing that nothing happens without God’s permission, he served his earthly master with the understanding that even his slavery had been allowed by God for his salvation. As we heard last night during the reading from his life, he did not consider himself worthy of his own room, but—imitating our Savior—chose to sleep in the manger of the stables alongside the animals, preferring humility over comfort.

Not only did he love his master, but he strove to please him as if serving Christ Himself. We remember from his life how, through the prayers of the humble servant John, the Lord worked a wondrous miracle—sending a plate of food to his master who was traveling on pilgrimage to Mecca. Such was the boldness of this servant of God.

And what can we say, dear brothers and sisters, when we so often grumble at the smallest temptations? But those who see God’s providence in all things understand that every situation is an opportunity for spiritual profit.

St. John’s life was not an easy one, but we see the fruit of his faithfulness even three centuries after his repose. If you travel to the island of Evia in Greece, you can venerate his incorrupt relics, which remain to this day a source of miracles. Through them, we are given a glimpse into eternity—a mirror showing us the blessed state that awaits the saints and faithful servants of God.

Human logic and worldly wisdom are confounded before a saint such as St. John the Russian, whom God has glorified with the incorruptibility of his relics. Let us therefore strive to imitate his virtues, and let us ask for his prayers and intercessions, that we too may be made worthy to glorify Christ in our own lives, just as he did.

We would not be mistaken to say that he is with us today. When we gather to commemorate the Saints, as we do now, they listen to our prayers and are present with us through the grace and boldness that God has granted them. As our Metropolitan says, the Lord wants us to pray to the Saints so that, through their prayers, He may help us. In this way, He glorifies those who glorified Him during their earthly life.

We ought to build a relationship of friendship with the Saints and make use of this great treasure that we, as Orthodox Christians and members of the Church, have been given. The more we pray to them and befriend them, the more they will help us on our spiritual path to salvation and manifest their presence in our lives and in our parish. The more we call on them, the more they protect us from the enemy, who relentlessly seeks our destruction.

They are ready to help—we only need to reach out and make use of every help available to us, especially as we strive toward the most important goal of our life. That goal is not merely to pray, fast, or give alms. These practices are not ends in themselves, but means toward the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.

St. Seraphim of Sarov compares the practice of virtues to a kind of spiritual currency used to invest in the eternal riches of grace. He says: “You know very well what it means to acquire money… The acquisition of the Holy Spirit is also capital, but grace-giving and eternal.” He urges us to trade in the virtues—prayer, fasting, almsgiving—for the priceless gift of the Spirit. Which investment brings the greatest return of grace? If prayer, then pray; if almsgiving, then give.

These virtues bear little fruit if not centered on Christ. But when they are done for Christ’s sake, they draw down the Grace of the Holy Spirit and transform us. We become living icons of Christ and true partakers in the great feast of Pentecost—not merely commemorating it historically, but truly participating in it, just as the apostles were transformed, or rather perfected, when they gathered in prayer and unity, awaiting for the descend of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

Having said all this, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not be content with outward observances alone, but let us labor inwardly—struggling against sin, forgiving from the heart, and clinging to Christ in prayer. Let us make the Church not only the place where we go to pray but the very center of our lives.

Through the prayers of the holy and wonderworking John the Russian, may the Lord grant us the courage to confess Him in word and deed. May He grant us a share in the grace poured out at Pentecost, and may we be found worthy, one day, to stand with the Saints in that Kingdom which has no end.

To Christ our true God, be glory, honor, and worship, with His unoriginate Father and the All-Holy, Good, and Life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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