On May 29, the 6th Sunday of Holy Pascha, of the Blind Man, Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan celebrated Divine Liturgy in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City. Concelebrating with His Grace were: Archpriest Andrei Sommer (cathedral dean), Priest Živojin Jakovljević (cleric of the Serbian Church in the USA), Protodeacon Nicolas Mokhoff (cathedral cleric), Hierodeacon Panteleimon (Jigalin; diocesan cleric), and Deacon Nicholas Ilyin (cleric of Holy Dormition Convent "Novo-Diveevo" in Nanuet, NY).

Singing the divine services was the Synodal choir under the direction of Vadim S. Gan.

Upon completion of Liturgy, Bishop Nicholas greeted everyone with the ongoing days of Pascha and, addressing the faithful with a sermon on the day’s Gospel reading, said in part:

"The Lord can work miracles with us, as well, that we might grow spiritually, depart from our sins and from the darkness into the light, as today we heard in the Gospel reading about the healing of the blind man.

"The Lord Jesus Christ worked a miracle with a man who had been blind from his birth. He made clay and rubbed it on the eyes of the blind man – and the man saw! Wondrous are Thy works, O Lord! The Apostles saw this wonder and asked their Teacher who had sinned: the man or his parents? But the Savior answered that neither the blind man nor his parents had sinned, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. And today’s Gospel reading is a lesson for us.

"We have our breath, sight, hearing, smell, but we often forget to thank God for these seemingly simple things… We are also born blind: we do not see the beauty of God’s world, we do not thank God, do not understand that everything is given to us for our salvation. The Lord wants for us to depart from the darkness into the light, and thus gives every person his own cross, which we must humbly bear and thank God. Now that will be a miracle."

His Grace thanked the clergy, altar servers, singers, and all those who labored during the divine services and panihidas for the newly departed Metropolitan Hilarion, and called on the faithful to pray for the repose of his soul.

The cathedral sisterhood then prepared a luncheon for the clergy and parishioners, during which their interaction continued.