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RUSIA SAGVRADA ESPAÑA SAGRADA. EL COMPOSTELA RUSO ATRAE A MILES DE PEREGRINOS

Posted: 21 Jul 2017 09:50 AM PDT

ON RUSSIA’S HOLY ROAD

Alexander Groves

The anxiety had been mounting for weeks, and now over breakfast on the first day of the Velikoretsky pilgrimage there was no escaping the feeling that I may have made a terrible mistake. I had seen a Russia Today short programme about the oldest, longest, and largest walking pilgrimage in Russia, how, although very much suppressed in soviet times, it was not only allowed, but now hugely popular. An inner feeling had developed that I wanted to experience this event and to be a small part of the religious revival in Orthodox Russia.

So, visas obtained, injections endured, and all manner of unaccustomed items bought—a rucksack, sleeping mat and foam-roll, and (I thought they might be useful) many packets of Kendal’s Mint Cake. Anyway, now, on this first morning there was no way out so we went, as arranged to the entrance of the Trifonov Monastery in Kirov where the procession was about to begin. 105 miles to go, in a six-day round trip.

Already the choir was singing the end of the Liturgy, and hundreds and hundreds of people were arriving—every minute more and more until, through the archway colourful banners, priests and the wonderworking icon of proceeded off down the road. We had been adopted by Anastasia who was the English teacher to students at the seminary “you have a blessing to walk with us at the front” she had told me and then we jumped in to the huge stream on people as the choir continued to sing. In fact, the choir sang all week from three o’clock in the morning until we stopped in the evening—through the streets, the fields and the forests as we walked—all ages, all types of people, men, women, and children, priests and monks, nuns.

Many pilgrims wearing icons round their necks, some walking barefoot.

Photo: Alexander Groves

So the pattern was established—we walked for about two hours, then the icon stopped, a moleben sung, and thousands of people found a patch of field to unroll their mats, lie down for a rest and perhaps have some tea or a snack, then on out into the countryside and road which gave way to a path, and the path to mud and the mud to large path-blocking puddles.

Photo: Julia Makoveychuk / Foma.ru

The miraculous icon was found in the forest by the river Velikaya in 1383 by a peasant who saw it bathed in light as if surrounded by many candles. A small chapel was built, miracles wrought and pilgrims started to seek the aid of St. Nicholas. When the icon was later moved to the monastery in the regional capital of Kirov, it was on the understanding that each year at the beginning of June it would return once again to where it was found. Under communism the pilgrimage was officially banned and as late as the Khrushchev period anyone in even the smallest group of walkers heading there was turned back.

By the year 2000, the full route of the ancient pilgrimage was allowed, and now some 40,000 people walk and pray and sing and do so with what I can only describe as a deep sense of joyfulness.

So, by the end of day one we arrived in a small village called Bobino with a chapel and a school floor where we were taken in to have a meal of buckwheat porridge and vegetables and tea and a very early night spent comfortably enough in my sleeping bag on the floor.

Photo: Alexander Groves

“Wonderful news,” Arkady the student said to me, “you have a blessing to carry one of the banners—put this on,” as he handed me a sticharion at 3 AM the next morning.

So there I was, a strange walking at the front of the procession, carrying a banner of the Saviour through . After three days on the march we arrived at the river where the icon was discovered where a festive array of stalls selling things to eat and souvenirs to buy stretched from the monastery church towards the bank of the river. The usual huge vats of buckwheat porridge were available for the pilgrims and at 10 AM the Patriarch arrived to celebrate the Liturgy in an outdoor pavilion. After lunch—a bath in the river, and a relaxed afternoon. Then at 2 AM the following morning, after a service in the Church, we were heading back.

Photo: Julia Makoveychuk / Foma.ru

Photo: Patriarchia.ru

Two days later, in the gentle rain we walked back into the monastery at Kirov for the last service and tearful farewells to the strangers who had become friends.

Photo: Patriarchia.ru

And after all my anxiety, and worry about my ability to walk that far, fear of not coping and the possibility of blisters?

Photo: Patriarchia.ru

It was simply one of the most wonderful weeks of my life. Not only that I was moved by the devotion and love of the pilgrims, of their courage and deep happiness despite all the difficulties, but that something else had changed in me—a deep joyful realization that if my life of faith is a journey, then I am not traveling alone, but that supported and encouraged and loved even by people I scarcely knew, we are on this road together. Despite all life’s anxieties and frustrations, with prayer and even the smallest grain of faith, it will be alright. As I walked the last mile, glad that the rain was disguising my tears, I felt triumphant and deeply thankful. I pray that I will remember this lesson as I go through the remainder of my journey. I pray also that I might return to walk Russia’s Holy Road again.

Photo: Patriarchia.ru

Alexander Groves

21 / 07 / 2017

HOMILY OF THE FEAST OF THE KAZAN ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

Commemorated July 8/21, October 22/November 4

Archimdrite Kirill (Pavlov)
Translation by OrthoChristian.com

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

Kazan icon of the Mother of God

Beloved brothers and sisters, today we celebrate and remember with solemn prayer and praise the manifestation of the Mother of God’s mercy for the Orthodox Russian nation through her miraculous deliverance of our Fatherland in 1612 from foreign invasion.

Our ancestors, the Russian people, loved the Mother of God, had special and deep faith in her heavenly protection of the Christian race, and they always turned to her with fervent prayer in their sorrows and calamities. Although entire countries considered the Most Holy Virgin to be their Protectress and honored her, in our homeland the name of the Mother of God was always surrounded with particular veneration, immeasurably greater than in any other place, and the Mother of God has never poured such grace and mercy out upon a country as she has upon the Russian land. In almost every Russian city there is unfailingly a source of the Mother of God’s grace—her miracle-working icons, which she desired to give to people as a heavenly assurance of her love, and as a consolation to suffering humankind. Our people loved to call the Mother of God by special names that describe her heavenly protection and mercy, and the Mother of God did not put their faith to shame, but granted speedy help to everyone who asked for it, and to our Fatherland as a whole.

Particularly memorable is the deliverance of our nation through the mercy of the Mother of God from Polish rule in 1612. During that sorrowful time, when the royal line of Rus’ was severed, disorder began in our land which led to complete lack of sovereignty. The Poles hastened to take advantage of this: they took Moscow into their own hands, and half of the Russian kingdom along with it. Not wanting to remain forever under the yoke of the Poles, Russian people rose up to defend their Fatherland, placing all their hope in their heavenly Intercessor, to whom they turned with fervent prayer for aide in their battle against the enemy. The army took with them the icon of the Mother of God called “Kazan,” and, with it at the fore, came closer to Moscow. A fast was announced; all the people and soldiers fasted for three days, praying fervently before the miracle-working icon of the Heavenly Queen that she grant them victory. The Most Pure Queen heard their prayers, and interceded before her merciful Son and Lord for help and triumph over the enemies of the Russian people. Appearing that night in a dream to the Greek Archbishop Arseny, who was languishing in a Polish prison, St. Sergius of Radonezh said that the Lord, at the prayers of His Mother and the Holy Hierarchs Peter, Alexiy, Jonah, and Phillip of Moscow, shall overthrow the usurpers on the very next day, and return the capital city of Russia to the hands of the Russian people.

Encouraged by this news, the soldiers, with the Kazan icon of the Mother of God, took Moscow with little effort on October 22, and freed the Fatherland from the foreign invaders. Thus, the country and the Church were delivered from their enslavement. In reverence before their heavenly helper, the grateful army and citizens of the capital city served a moleben on the very next Sunday to the Most Pure Mother of God, who had saved the Russian state. Carrying the Kazan icon in procession, they went to the very platform on Red Square. Archbishop Arseny met them at the Kremlin gates carrying another holy icon—the Vladimir Mother of God, which he had preserved through his captivity. So that the remembrance of the prayerful intercession by Most Pure Mother of God for the Fatherland would not fade over time, the annual celebration of her miracle on that day was soon unanimously instituted.

Thus we see, dear brothers and sisters, that the main cause of our country’s salvation from destruction was the firm Orthodox faith of our ancestors. When hope in human strength was no more, then all the true children of the Church and Fatherland placed a three day fast on themselves and prayed to the Mother of God before her Kazan icon. Their prayer was heard. Furthermore, from the most ancient times the Russian people were known for their simple, reverent faith and sincere, heartfelt love for the Lord Jesus Christ. In this faith and love for the Son of the Most Pure Virgin Mary lay the cause of her special mercy for us. What mother would remain indifferent to a person who displays obvious signs of love and care for her children? Reverent faith, strong love for the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, undoubtedly brings great joy in heaven to His most Pure Mother. That is why it happens that her intercession and help pours out upon all who have honored and confessed from ancient times the Lord Jesus Christ, who reverently worship Him, and lovingly submit themselves to the Church He has established on earth.

To what does this remembrance of the Mother of God’s miraculous aide to our Russian land obligate us? The more closely, mercifully and attentively the Mother of God is to us, the more careful we must be over our behavior and toward our faith. The more we are given, the more will be asked of us. What nation saw such obvious and miraculous Divine help as did the Jewish nation? It’s whole history, from beginning to end, is penetrated and filled with descriptions of miraculous, direct guidance from God. Nevertheless, this chosen people of God has known so much heavy suffering for its many departures from the true God, for the times that it betrayed the faith of its fathers! Why? Because that is what Divine justice and magnanimity requires: the Lord cannot leave unpunished even one deed that insults the dignity of His holy Law. “Let us depart,” was heard in the very holiness of the Jewish Temple, and soon the abomination of desolation came to the holy place and will remain there, as the Lord said, until the end of time—because the Jewish people did not believe in the Only-Begotten Son of God.

Let us give thanks, my dears, to the Lord and His Mother for such great benefactions shown for the strengthening of our Fatherland, which was brought to such glory by the path of difficult trials by the right hand of God alone. Let us treasure, brothers and sisters, our holy union with the Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother, who has chosen our land as an inheritance. The Lord Jesus Christ and His Mother are zealous with love for us. Let us remember who our Intercessor is, our help and hope, and let us not break our union with her, but rather confirm it with our faith, life, and hope.

Contemplating the fact that Orthodox Christians are the inheritance of her Son and enjoy her special protection, let us not forget that the true quality of Orthodox Christians consists in following Christ in everything as the only Law-giver, and loving Him boundlessly as our only Savior. We must firmly hold to the path that our Orthodox ancestors walked, which Jesus Christ showed to us, and on which the Holy Christ directs us. The Lord marked the path for us in the Holy Gospels, and we must hold it sacred and follow it. If we depart from this path, from this cherishing of Christ, then our Intercessor, the Heavenly Queen, will also depart from us, because she cannot be united with the enemies of her Son who trample upon His teachings, His commandments, and His cherished Blood; just as Christ, her Son, cannot be united with belial.

Let us pray today to the Heavenly Queen, that she herself might confirm us on the path of salvation, for she is ever ready to intercede for us if only we would have recourse to her intercession with warm, heartfelt prayer, with firm faith and hope. Then she will in no way abandon us with her fervency, but will ever preserve and save us from every evil. Let us raise warm prayers to her from all our hearts, and call out to her with tender feeling: Rejoice, Fervent Intercessor for the Christian race!

Amen.