30 May 2021

Bishop Theodorite celebrated Sunday services at the Intercession Academic Church

On May 29 and 30, on the 5th Week after Easter, the Holy Church recalls an evangelical episode of a conversation between Jesus Christ and a Samaritan woman.

Once when the Savior and his disciples were on their way to Galilee, they went through a Samaritan village and stopped at Jacob's well for a rest. While Christ was sitting by the well, a woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, «Give Me a drink». This simple request brought the woman to extraordinary amazement, because the Jews and the Samaritans did not communicate with each other.

«How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?» For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans».

But for the Lord every person was dear and important, so the Savior talked to her and pointed out that He has a source of an eternal life:

«Jesus answered and said to her, «Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life».

After that, He asked the Samaritan woman to bring her husband, to which she replied that she didn’t have one. Jesus replied:

«You have well said, “I have no husband”, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.»

So, she realized that was talking to an unusual person and began to ask questions about rightness of her faith and how to worship God. Jesus said to her:

«Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.»

Finally, Christ finally himself to the woman and announced that He is the Messiah for whom all mankind had been waiting. The Samaritan woman was amazed and ran to the village to tell everybody what had just happened to her.

This woman turned out to be much more open and devoted to the Creator than many so-called righteous Jews. She was ready to the Word of God and was not afraid of the Truth, which revealed Itself so unexpectedly.

On May 29, the Rector Bishop of Zvenigorod Theodorite celebrated an all-night vigil at the Intercession Church of the Moscow Theological Academy.

On Sunday, May 30, Bishop Theodorite celebrated the Divine Liturgy co-served by teachers and students in the priesthood.

After reading the Gospel, the Rector addressed an assembly with his archpastoral word.

After the sacrament verse, Hierodeacon George (Pimenov), a1st year post-graduate student, delivered a sermon on how to worship God in spirit and truth.

“What does “worship in spirit” mean? There are various interpretations, but in this case we are talking about the spirit of the truth in which you need to be convinced in order to worship God with dignity. What is the spirit of truth? The spirit of truth is the presence of this truth in human life. Spirit means the embodiment of truth in human existence. When we say that we live in the spirit of Christ's commandments, we mean what the Lord said to the Samaritan woman: you need to live in the spirit of the truth that God revealed to people, so to live by your faith. "