Divine Liturgy at the Resurrection Cathedral on May 17, 2026

      Today in the cathedral in honor of the Resurrection of Christ, the divine liturgy was performed by the rector, priest Alexander Makarov, with priest Alexander Pankratov serving alongside him. After the service, the clergy and parishioners walked around the cathedral in a procession. In his pastoral address, the rector said: "Dear brothers and sisters, today on the sixth Sunday after Easter, we heard the Gospel passage about how our Lord Jesus Christ heals a man born blind, of whom we know from the Gospel that he was indeed blind from birth, and this blindness is confirmed even by his parents. Here we see that our Lord Jesus Christ performs a great miracle—He makes clay, says, 'Go wash in the Pool of Siloam,' and the man does this, and he begins to see, comes to the church, and there encounters some misunderstanding from the high priests, scribes, and generally, in a broad sense, the Jews. They say: 'Are we not living according to the law of Moses? Was it permissible to perform this healing on the Sabbath?' However, a great storm of emotions, those that negatively affect his thoughts, falls upon the man who has regained his sight. They begin to ask him: 'Who healed you?' Were you really blind from birth? Let us now check with your parents to see if they confirm this. And much, much more. And here, dear brothers and sisters, all these speculations, statements against the healing of the blind man accumulate over the person who has already been healed from his affliction of blindness. Our Lord Jesus Christ grants the man sight. And at the end of the Gospel passage, we hear how the man born blind says, 'I don't care what you are saying here; I know only one thing: I was blind all my life, and now I see.' And this great miracle was performed for me by that Man who made clay and sent me to wash in the Pool of Siloam. And I have come to the temple now to thank God only for granting me this sight. And here, dear brothers and sisters, we must elevate our thoughts not only about physical blindness but also about spiritual blindness. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself reveals Himself to the man born blind, reveals Himself in His form, reveals Himself to him from a spiritual point of view. So it is for us, dear brothers and sisters, sometimes we find that there are some things, especially spiritual ones, that we do not notice due to our own blindness; we do not see good deeds either due to our own blindness; we also do not care about some other skills of Christian life that we could manifest to this world. And therefore, dear brothers and sisters, we must pray to God that He grants us not only physical but also spiritual sight, that He grants us the vision of good deeds, that He grants us the vision of love, the vision of hope, to see those people who wish to receive help from us, to see good deeds, because this is very important for approaching the Kingdom of Heaven. For many centuries of the existence of Christianity and the existence of the Russian Orthodox Church, the main mission among believers, the mission passed down to us by the holy apostles, is to teach a person to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us strive to act according to the Law of Christ, fulfilling Christ's commandments, so that the Lord may enlighten us, grant us mental and spiritual eyes to see virtue. And, of course, so that all this may serve for us to reach the heavenly Jerusalem—the Kingdom of Heaven."