(celebrated in Ukraine on Oct. 14)

In relation to this feast, Jesus says in the Gospel: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” (Lk 11:28) The first thing is to hear the word of God and the second thing is to keep it. How many obstacles there are in us and around us which prevent us from hearing the word of God, thinking about it and keeping it so that it may become incarnate in us. This word should become incarnate in us just like in the Blessed Virgin – in her the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And how did it happen? She was prepared. She lived by faith, wholly devoted to God. When the angel came to her, she said: “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.” These were not mere words, this was her life. And what did it involve? In that situation she risked her life. Any woman in Israel who was pregnant without being married was stoned to death. However, Mary knew Isaiah’s prophecy: “The virgin shall conceive and bear a Son.” She asked: “How can this be?” The angel said to her: “The Holy Spirit will do it.”

If you judge yourself – that means, you admit your sin truly before God here in time, you can taste forgiveness in this light. God’s Word says: “If we judge ourselves, God is so good and just to forgive us our sins.”

People can overcome sin neither by means of psychology, nor by modern theologies, nor by oriental meditations… The victory depends on our deep communion with Christ. The essential thing is to be in Christ Jesus, our Lord, by faith. It means that in the particular present moment I am in Him not only passively but at that moment I love Him with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my strength.

To love Him means to offer Him my spiritual powers – heart = emotions, soul = powers of the soul, i.e. memory and reason, as well as my members. To love Him with all my strength means to give Him my will.

What to do in order to discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The Apostle writes: Rom 12:1-2  I beseech you, brethren, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

How to transform our minds in order to accept God’s Word, to have experience of God, to trust in Him and to live by faith? Our soul has reason, will and heart – i.e. feelings. And if there is disharmony between them, evil and sinful feelings begin to manipulate us, enslave us and our will and reason must be conformed to them. And that’s our ruin! We become slaves of sin – fornicators, drug addicts, careerists… Or we live in hatred, envy, open our hearts to the spirit of evil which is behind them, and reason doesn’t work any more.

Ukraine, 30 September 2014

In May this year, “Pope” Francis uttered a statement that shocked the whole world! Bergoglio approved and blessed the “mark of the beast”, calling RFID-chips God’s blessing for mankind.

Francis said: “We have examined the Scriptures thoroughly, and I can conclusively say that there’s nothing to indicate that RFID Chips are Satanic in anyway. If anything, these devices are a blessing from God himself, bestowed upon humanity to solve many of the world’s ills.” (http://praisedc.com/1710415/pope-francis-gives-support-to-rfid-chip-implantation-shocking-video)

The statement by this so-called “Pope” is a betrayal of God, the height of blasphemy and lies. It is an obvious sin against the Holy Spirit!

Bergoglio is a false prophet with the spirit of the world. 20 years ago, Orthodox monks of Mount Athos pronounced a clear word of prophecy in God’s Spirit when they warned insistently against chipping.

The Apostle Paul says: …we constantly enter into Christ’s death”. It does not mean that we die physically but that in a particular situation we give the whole problem to God.

Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

God promised to instruct us and teach us in the way we should go. How much we need it, for the world today is full of evil and traps prepared for us. And God says – I will counsel you.

We need to get at the root of Christianity. The essence of Christianity is our communion with Jesus, Jesus crucified and risen. This must not be just an empty phrase. We need to live a life of repentance and true following of Christ in a small house Church, in a sound cell of a biblical and prayer community under the guidance of the prophetic voice of a pastor or teacher. Moreover, we must be prepared for persecution. A fight with the spirit of antichrist is going on and destroying the Church little by little. It was our duty to stand against this whole system. It will seek to attack and destroy us.

What is necessary for us Christians to live a true life? How can we achieve unity among us? This is the most needful and, at the same time, the most difficult thing. Often it is not possible to speak about the problems of others in the community or to point to the root: “Look, you have such fault, you need to do something about it. You cling to this thing and attitude, and you deprive yourself of 90% of the blessing and all the graces which God has given you.” If you say this to someone, the old self (i.e. our corrupt nature) reacts by taking offence and fleeing both from the community and from Christ. What’s that? The problem is, too, that we are mostly under pressure, exposed to a spiritual fight, and so it is not possible to tell a brother about his faults because he would not have the strength to continue to fight.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways be mindful of Him, and He will make straight your paths.” (Pro 3:5-6)

We have a variety of vices and self-pities which hold us in bondage. We can speak of spiritual resurrection if we let ourselves be healed by God. The precondition is to stand in the truth and to be willing to see and admit our faults. We should not take offence. Let us say: “Yes, it is true. This is my weakness.” We should not fall into depression but say to ourselves: “I have to fight against it. Yes, I will fail again and again but I will ask God for light and strength.

Pearls

• Psalm 86:5 For You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abundant in mercy to those who call upon You.

What does this Psalm say about God? He is good, forgiving and abundant in mercy. But only to those who call upon Him. Those who do not call upon Him, refuse His help, or do not even admit that they need His help, are like starving people whom you give bread and they turn away from you. They don’t want! They don’t want good, they don’t want life, so what can you do? The condition of salvation is: …to those who call upon Him.

• Eph 1:7-8 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

How are we forgiven? We are forgiven through His blood.

1Jn 1:7 “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from every sin.”

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin if we walk in the light. What does it mean to walk in the light? To confess our sins is the first step in the light.

The second step in the light is to fix our spiritual eyes on Jesus crucified and to receive His forgiveness by faith. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn 1:9) Jesus died for my sins however small or great they are. We must wholly trust in God’s mercy. Not to degrade God’s mercy by saying: “God is merciful, so I can sin.” That’s a deceit. Remember that God is just at the same time. God did promise the forgiveness of sins but He did not promise you tomorrow. I must not rely on God’s goodness, sinning. I must resist sin: I won’t sin! I won’t! I must cut off a sinful thought or feeling and start to think about something different.

You have families. Man should be as a priest in the family. He has responsibility for his wife and children. Then he will have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Think of Abraham – he believed and God gave a blessing to all his descendants. Each of you bears responsibility. Family is your diocese, your parish. You are responsible above all for the souls, and not only for yourselves. Husband should be the head of his wife, the head of the family. He has a certain responsibility before God. God also gives man a kind of authority. Man should learn true wisdom. He needs to learn to fight against lies, to manage his family wisely and to protect it. This is not simple. It does not mean just to give orders but to be on the cross many times. Often you cannot force the truth on others, you need to learn to respect in certain situations that people are not yet mature. E.g. children rebel, are manipulated by the spirit of the world and soak it up… When you try to instil into them sound Christian principles, they don’t like it.

God’s Word convicts us all of sin: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:23) But, on the other hand, it also convinces us many times of the forgiveness of sins. The First Epistle of John reads: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jn 1:9) We can compare it with verse 7 as well: “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” So there is a condition: to walk in the light as He is in the light. It concerns God’s presence. There is no need of a vision or apparition; I just realize that God sees me and focus my attention on this truth. I can do so at any time during the day too when I face a difficult situation. I stop, realize God’s presence and ask God to give me the light because I don’t know what to do, or I call on Him to intervene in this difficult situation Himself and to give a solution.I do not have to kneel or be alone in my room; wherever I am, faced with a concrete problem or suffering, I stop and make contact with God. In this way I enter into God’s light.

So what is the truth then?

1Jn 3:8-9: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

This is one of the most difficult verses of the Scripture. You might even say that what is written here is not true: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin.” Now compare it with verse 8 of chapter 1 in this Epistle: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1Jn 1:8) These are totally different statements. And verse 10 adds: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (1Jn 1:10) It is emphasized twice that if someone says he has no sin, he deceives himself and makes God a liar. But on the other hand, the same Epistle reads: “Whoever has been born of God does not sin.” You can say: All of us were born of God when we were baptized, when we believed in Jesus through personal faith and received Him as our Lord and Saviour.

Those who experienced renewal in the Holy Spirit consciously opened their hearts to the Holy Spirit. It is true about them: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1Cor 6:19) If He is in us, then it is true: “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” (1Cor 12:4) So the Holy Spirit is the Author and Source of all gifts, and if He is in your heart, in Him you have all His gifts. But the question is which gifts He wants to be manifested right through you. God ordained that gifts should be developed within the communion of the Church, and at the right time. There are some people who, being renewed in the Holy Spirit, started to serve with several gifts at once – the gift of interpretation, the gift of healing… But that’s rare.

Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit – what happened and what did she do?

The Word became flesh and Mary became the Mother of God. Mary immediately went to visit her relative Elizabeth. When she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth, something great happened: the Holy Spirit descended on Elizabeth. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and her baby likewise benefited greatly from that special visit. Zechariah also was filled with the Holy Spirit, which became manifest on the day of his son’s birth. Zechariah spoke a prophecy about his child (Lk 1:68-79). Mary remained in the house of Zechariah about three months. But she was not alone there. Jesus Christ, true God, dwelt in her. She had become the living ark, the living tabernacle. She was filled with the light of the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, the time had not yet come for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on the New-Testament Church – the Body of Christ – but all in the house of Zechariah already had the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit through Mary. Let us notice that here the Holy Spirit manifested Himself as the Spirit of prophecy (cf. 1Cor 12:10-11). Elizabeth prophesied, saying: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” No one had told Elizabeth that Mary was pregnant. Moreover, she was pregnant for less than a week, and pregnancy is not recognized so early. However, Elizabeth did recognize it, not by her reason but the Holy Spirit revealed it to her. Elizabeth called Mary blessed because Mary believed that what the Lord had said to her would be fulfilled. But Mary had not yet told Elizabeth about it, she just greeted her. Elizabeth prophesied, Zechariah prophesied, and what about the child, John the Baptist? His spiritual benefit from the visit was obviously the greatest one. He became the greatest prophet. Jesus said about him some time later: “Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.” (Mt 11:11)