St Seraphim Fr. Andrew Cuneo

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, one God, amen. Sprasnikum.

A blessed feast to all of you, brothers and sisters,

community of St. Seraphim. It is a joy to be

here with you on your winter feast. And on this

rainy day, here you're all gathered together

under the changed circumstances even of 2021.

Thanks be to God. One of the things that you

get to see when you visit a parish, from the

outside, is kind of the tenor and the feel of

it, and you can tell it instantly. Just like

when you go to a person's house that you visited

for the first time, you can kind of get the sense

of the household right away. Coming back after

some time and coming back into your parish during

the pandemic, it's beautiful to see how much

love and how much cohesion there is. And so I

just want to commend you for that. Because when

people are gathering together after many, many

services, after having the rains and listening

in their cars and gathering outside when it's

raining right now, that is a beautiful thing.

And so it may not feel like the parish is running,

but it is going together. And it's beautiful

to see. So God bless you. I'm a little envious

that you have a fantastic saint like St. Seraphim

as your patron. What a heavenly patron. Somebody

who, by virtue of being consecrated to his patronage,

cares and prays for each and every one of you.

He can't help but do this. This is your saint.

This is your feast day. This is the day where

you appeal to him and ask for his blessings and

his prayers that God would give you more of the

Holy Spirit. And what of that Holy Spirit did

we hear today in this gospel? We heard in Matthew

Matthew 3:11

chapter 3, verse 11. We heard John the Baptist

say these words. He who is coming after me is

mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy

to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit

and with fire. The last phrase in Greek. It's

the Piri that I want to focus on for a little

bit this morning. The fire of the Holy Spirit.

The gift that is given to us in the baptism that

is coming, in the Feast of Theophany, and in

so many other areas. You know, Father Lawrence

and I, in happier days, in 2019, we went together

to Greece and had some days on the Holy Mountain.

Mount Athos, and had a wonderful pilgrimage.

And one of the highlights of that pilgrimage,

I'm sure Father would agree, was getting to have

some time with one of the abbots of Vatopedi,

where we were staying for so long. And this abbot

is a wonderful abbot, and because of the restrictions

this past year, he's been able to do some things

online and using electronic means to minister

to people. And not that long ago, I was watching

one of his talks online, and this phrase struck

me. People were asking him questions, like hundreds

of people would line up online, raise their electronic

hands, and ask questions. And one of the questions

was from a young girl in Romania, and people

were asking her, what job should I take, where

should I move, and so forth. But this young woman

asked a question to the abbot, and it was this.

She asked, Yeronda, how do I address my anxious

thoughts? How do I address what is like a panic,

a serious panic in my mind, and it's there continually?

That's a very difficult question, right? To be

asked from somebody halfway around the world.

And his reply was instant and so beautiful. He

said this. He said, say the prayer, and by this

he means the Jesus prayer, and burn those thoughts

with the Jesus prayer. When you say the prayer,

you burn the intrusive thoughts. He shall baptize

you with fire and the Holy Spirit. When you say

the Jesus prayer, you burn those intrusive thoughts.

Wonderful Saint Seraphim, the one who lit a candle

for all those who asked him to pray, right? Whose

cell was aflame with all those candles. Wonderful

Saint Seraphim who would ask, I'm glad he didn't

do it this morning, who would ask his monks,

what were the epistles and what were the gospels

that you heard in this morning's service? And

the monks, if they didn't know the answer, would

get a rather stern rebuke. And Father Seraphim

would say to them, you must not be like charred

logs, right? Your souls must be aflame with the

Holy Spirit. Be attentive to the words of the

gospels and the words of the epistles. These

are spirit -bearing. These are fire -bearing.

And we hardly even notice this. It's incredible.

Even this week I saw a quotation from the deceased

abbot in Arizona, another year in Ephraim. He

said, when you say the Jesus prayer, it is like

an atomic bomb going off in the heart of the

devil. How powerful the words of our prayers.

How powerful the relics of our saints. How powerful

the holy water. that we're going to bless in

just a few days. It is a tremendous gift of God

to have an icon of St. Seraphim right in the

center on your analoi there with a relic of the

saint. The monks in Arizona tell a story about

how somebody who was demon -possessed was brought

into the church to have the prayer said for him.

And when they brought out the relics from the

altar, it was especially the relics of St. Joseph

the Hesychast that burned him the most, they

said. He couldn't stand it. He cried out without

even knowing these titles. He didn't know anything

about the monastery. The Panagia of Arizona,

I cannot bear that icon. And that St. Joseph,

he burns me. He didn't know who St. Joseph the

Hesychast was. But the devils do. What power.

What power in these relics. What power in these

saints. in the words of the Gospels, in the Jesus

prayer. More recently, in 1982, in the monastery

of the Onisiu on Mount Athos, there was yet another

man who was beset by devils. And for weeks and

weeks, the monks would pray for him, but he was

the type that would stamp and move his body,

continually stamping, thrashing about. They'd

even try to tie him to no success. And then one

day, one of the fathers decided to put some of

the holy water from the monastery into the jug

of water that they gave to this man to drink

because he was continually exhausted, continually

tired. And the man drank the holy water. He says,

this burns me. I don't want this. And he cast

away that holy water. Why do I tell you all these

stories? Because it's not only in the ancient

stories of the Orantic Con of the Desert Fathers

that we read about the power of these prayers,

the power of these holy items, the power of the

Holy Spirit, but you and I ourselves, how often

is it, how often is it, my brothers and sisters,

that we kind of slouch towards our prayer corners

in the morning or evening prayers, and we think,

I wonder if this prayer does anything, right?

I wonder if this prayer has any effect. Or we

struggle to say an akathist for somebody who's

in need. And we wonder, does God even hear our

prayers? But this is the Lord who has given us

the Holy Spirit and has baptized us with that

same Spirit and with fire. Those words of the

prayers, even the morning prayers, are of fire.

The young woman who asked the abbot in Vatupedi

how to take care of those intrusive thoughts,

she was not a great ascetic, right? She wasn't

a saint. Simply the objective words of those

prayers have the grace of the Holy Spirit within

them. And those are our prayers. Every one of

us can say them. When we say the Jesus Prayer,

there is an objective quality to the power of

that prayer. When we pray the liturgy, the prayers

of St. John Chrysostom and of the saint we celebrated

yesterday, St. Basil, the prayers of their anaphora.

are objectively filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's why you don't have an afro prayed or ad

-libbed by your local parish priests, right?

The prayers of the saints, whether they're written

in our morning prayer books, whether they're

written in an akathist, whether they're written

in an epistle or a gospel, the prayers of those

saints are fire -bearing words of the Holy Spirit.

Whether we care or not, whether we notice or

not, whether we perceive that or not, whether

our minds are attentive or not, they are still

of that quality. That's what they are inherently.

One monk asked St. Sophrony of England in Essex,

he said, what is it like when you pray the divine

liturgy? And St. Sophrony told this young monk,

he said, when I pray the prayers of the divine

liturgy, the Holy Spirit showed me that it was

like fire was coming out of my mouth. Such is

the grace that is given to us in these God -breathed

prayers. That's what the Holy Spirit gives us.

There is a reason, brothers and sisters, there's

a reason why on the Feast of Pentecost, the descent

of the Holy Spirit upon his church comes in tongues

of fire. Our Lord says in the Gospel of St. Luke,

he says, I came to send fire on the earth and

how I wish it were already kindled. Today on

this great feast of St. Seraphim, whose very

name means, it's a plural name, the Burning Ones,

we're reminded of the grace of the Holy Spirit,

the fire that Christ has given to every single

one of us. in those prayers of the saints, in

these writings, in this liturgy. May St. Seraphim's

prayers enkindle a love and a warmth in our hearts

for him, for the Church of Christ, and for each

other, and especially for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Spraznikum.