Nativity of the Theotokos, to the Children

I want to talk to you today about something very

important. Today, this day, is so amazing. We

had so much already. You heard so many words.

The subdeacon and Aaron came out and read from

St. Paul's epistles. And then the deacon came

out and he read three different selections from

the gospel. There's so much. And we can't talk

about it all. But I just wanted to say, here's

what we're doing today. Today is the Lord's Day.

That's how you say Sunday in the Greek language.

You say Kyrieki Imera. The Lord's Day. It's in

the paper, the Sunday paper, the Lord's Day paper.

And in Russian, you say Voskresenia. That means

resurrection. Sunday is resurrection day. And

that's right. Every Sunday is a little Pascha.

We can't do Pascha every single week. We would

never get to work on Monday or Tuesday. We'd

be exhausted all week long. We can't do Lent

all the time because that's like going to boot

camp here and here out. You just don't do that.

We exercise our spiritual life in a certain way

for a certain time and then we celebrate Pascha.

But every Sunday we have Holy Communion. Every

Sunday we have the Divine Liturgy, and that's

why it's Pascha. Because we celebrate the Lord's

Resurrection. That's the first thing. Today's

Sunday, so it's about the Lord's Resurrection.

Do you know that those that were baptized, and

you could see them, they're wearing their white

robes today, but you also were baptized. I baptized

lots of you. You don't have to raise your hands,

but there's a lot of you. It's my honor and joy,

absolutely. You also know something about the

resurrection because Christ is with you. And

Christ died and he rose and he will never die

again. And now he sits at the right hand of the

Father and he rules all things. And you are in

him and he is in you. When you're afraid, when

you're anxious, When you're not sure, remember,

Jesus is with you because you're baptized, because

you went to communion. Remember, Jesus sits with

the Father and all things in the entire universe

are in his hands. The second thing we celebrate

today is a feast day. It's actually a birthday.

Whose birthday is it today? Mary's birthday.

Anybody else have a birthday today in our parish?

September 8th? Well, that's probably good because

then we leave it all on the Virgin Mary. How

do we celebrate a birthday of your friend? What

would you do? You go to the house. Maybe you

have a present. Hopefully there's a party. There's

a cake. You sing happy birthday. There's a toast.

But there's something else we celebrate today

before I get back to the birthday. And that is,

today is the Sunday before the feast. There's

another feast coming up next Saturday. The Sunday

before the feast of the exaltation or the elevation

of the Holy Cross. We bring the cross out at

the end of that. Matins service on Friday night.

And then we sing. What do we sing? before thy

cross, right? And we sing, O Lord, save thy people,

and we celebrate. So today's the Sunday before

that. And it's very important that we remember

that God has begun our salvation, not just with

that day, the cross, not just with Christmas,

when he became... when he was born of a Virgin

Mary. But even before that, and even before that,

that is when the Virgin Mary was born. He started

everything. Well, he started everything before

that even, but that was one important stop. Her

birthday today, we sang, and let me ask you a

question. We sang, today proclaims joy. To the

whole universe. The whole universe. Everything.

Every city. Every town. Every place. In heaven

and on earth. The bottom of the sea. In outer

space. The whole world. If you're listening.

You can receive this joy. The joy of the Virgin

Mary's birth. If we were at her birthday party.

And this is her birthday party today. We honor

her. If you were there at a regular party, you

would want to have a toast. You'd ding, ding,

ding, ding on your glass. You'd stand up. I'd

like to make a toast in honor. And what would

we say to the Virgin Mary? We would say something

like, you were born. to the most wonderful parents

probably that ever lived, Joachim and Anna. Your

parents wanted a child. They couldn't have a

child. They tried to have children. They didn't

have children. They felt very ashamed because

in that culture, not like our culture, having

children, especially if you were in the line

of the Messiah, meant that you might, bear the

child, that would be the Messiah. They could

have no children. They prayed, they wept, they

prayed and they wept. When they were old, God

granted them a child, Mary. And we would say

at her birthday party, your parents, they never

gave up. And God showed how he could turn something

so sad into something more wonderful. And you

were born. And the whole universe now hears about

the joy. What joy? That from you, oh holy lady,

is going to be born Jesus, which means the Savior.

Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one. And you

that were just baptized, you were anointed. You

became small Christs today. And your place is

now in heaven. It says with the firstborn. Oh

my gosh. And that's all of you. And that's because

of the Virgin Mary. That she, her faith then

in God was so pure. When she was a young child

like you, Celeste. Or like you, Trinity. Her

faith was so pure and she loved God so much.

Do you know that she kept her heart pure? Yes,

she was tempted. Yes, she was tempted to sin.

But her heart was so in love with God that she

never committed terrible acts like what we do

all the time. She never rebelled. She was joyful.

She was unusual. She was... A human. She's not

superwoman. But God chose her because she was

pure of heart. And so we would say at her party,

O Holy Virgin Mary, you became the censer to

hold Christ the incense. You became the candle

to hold Christ the flame. You became the table

to hold the Holy Communion. You became the chalice

to hold Christ. You became the one that shows

us that we can hold Jesus Christ within ourselves

too. On this feast day, I want you to think,

and I'll end with this, what present you can

give to the Virgin Mary today. It's pretty simple.

You can give your joy. Give your joy, that's

all. Can you try and stay joyful all day, no

matter what happens, no matter what thing? occurs

to you that you didn't really want to happen.

Can you remain joyful? We can do that. And once

you remain joyful, then you're offering unto

the Virgin Mary another gift, and that is to

God too. The gift of love. The gift of kindness.

The gift of purity of heart. The gift of, well,

prayer. The gift of prayer. So, Bring your present

to the Virgin Mary today. Try to keep your attention

not on stuff outside. You know when we're in

church sometimes we start thinking of something

else and pretty soon we're thinking of lunch

or maybe something at school tomorrow or what

you're going to wear or what you're worried about.

Bring your mind back. Like take it like you have

a bird and you put it in this cage. That's your

soul. And try to keep that joy and that love

and that prayer for God on this day of the Virgin

Mary. The Sunday before the Feast of the Cross

and the day of the resurrection of our Lord.

To him be glory now and ever.