We hope that, in the future, when Holy Russia is resurrected, the history of the Russian Church Abroad as the guardian of Holy Russian Orthodoxy in the years of tribulations will be written. May this book serve as a modest reference for our Church

   If it were to happen to any one of us, that messengers might come to him from the king or some other mighty ruler, and informed him that the king had decided to don him with princely honors and make him his collaborator, how greatly would that man rejoice and be glad, joined in his rejoicing by his relatives, friends, and acquaintances.

Many times over the course of our lives, each of us has seen how nature is bound and shackled by winter. We possess no power by which we might, through our own desire or will, free it from this imprisonment which binds it, as though with steel shackles

Residents of large cities are almost never able to see the beauty of a starry sky. The light of the street lamps and the bright advertisements blot out the stars from them, and they appear faint and feeble.

   The Russian people have long demonstrated their unmatched proficiency in creating the churches of God. From the dawn of Russian history, first Kievan Rus, and then Muscovy, were adorned as though from heaven with tabernacles, in which the ephemeral reflected the beauty of the ethereal.

On March 11/23, 1964, on the feast of St. Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, with the blessing of our Primate, Metropolitan Anastassy, and accompanied by the well-wishes of my friends, I departed for the Holy Land and arrived there on March 18/31, on the feast of St. Cyril, Patriarch of Jerusalem. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Resurrection of the Lord in Jerusalem, where we headed immediately after a reception with His Beatitude, Patriarch Benedict, on March 18/31, 1964, located close to the Patriarchal headquarters, is the principal holy site in the Holy Land and the mother of all Orthodox churches

   The holiest site in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Resurrection in Jerusalem – and in the Holy Land and in the whole world – is the Lord’s Tomb itself – that place, where our Lord Jesus Christ was buried for three days and resurrected from the dead.

 After the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Resurrection, the principle place of veneration in the Holy City is the Tomb of the Most Holy Virgin:

   We call kings and queens those who lord over life, the masters and administrators of life’s blessings. In calling the Ever-Virgin Mary a queen, we much clearly understand what blessings she controls and administers.

   The Parable of the Talents, as expounded by the Evangelist Matthew, is the last parable before the Lord’s sufferings. It ends with a warning: "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!" (Matthew 25:30).

   "In confirming the common Resurrection, O Christ God, Thou didst raise up Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion. Wherefore, we also, like the children bearing the symbols of victory, cry to Thee, the Vanquisher of death: Hosanna in the highest; blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."

 The wheel of time spins tirelessly on. Everything changes and everything passes. Those hot, stuffy days, when the scorching stones of the big city would bring exhaustion to its inhabitants, have departed from us. 

 In 1938, during the celebration of the 950th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia, the decision was made at the behest of Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko) to mark this jubilee by erecting the majestic St. Vladimir Memorial Church

   The scorching sun in the torrid July days sinks below the evening horizon. A cool breeze blows, filled with the aroma of pine trees and green fields. It becomes easy to breathe.

 "Thou son of David, have mercy on us" – thus called out to the Lord two blind men, about whom today’s Gospel reading bears account, pleading that the Lord return to them that precious gift created by nature’s God: sight.

Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee: As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. And this is Life eternal, that they might know Thee the only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:1-3).