Recollections are a time that a person mainly devotes to prayer, to reflection, to discovering something new, interesting, informative. During these couple of days, people gather to deepen their faith, to try to understand what God wants from us, to discover, to some extent, Him in a new way. In these long-awaited moments, we want to put aside our daily worries and problems and "rest our souls".
This year the faithful of our parish had such an opportunity. On April 5 and 6, on the eve of Easter, recollections were held with Father Stefan, Auxiliary Bishop of the Transfiguration Diocese of Novosibirsk. In his speech, Father Bishop reminded that the year 2025 was declared the year of "Pilgrims of Hope" and everyone has the opportunity to visit one of the temples in Novosibirsk or Omsk.
The theme of pilgrimage was central to the reflections of Fr. Stefan. Starting with the Old Testament, where Abraham, having a special experience of communication with God, believed and followed the Lord, as well as Moses, who led the people to the Almighty for 40 years and there were various problems, overcoming which the people still went, although not quickly, towards the Lord. Also in his reflection Fr. Stefan cited examples from the New Testament: the most striking of them is the Holy Family - Joseph and Mary. How many hardships we see already at the very beginning of their life. Endless moving from one city to another and this is only a part of what we know from the Gospel. Joseph and Mary fulfilled the will of God, they carried this fire of hope that we also need. One of the important messages of the recollections was that we should listen to God's voice, seek Him and change our lives in the way He wants us to.
"We also in our lives, according to Fr. Bishop, make our pilgrimage, coming to St. Mass, participating in the sacraments, and each of us takes another step, however small, but an important one for the Lord in our spiritual life, helping our neighbor, doing works of mercy, and working on ourselves, with prayer, we can hope that someday we will complete our earthly pilgrimage and believe that the Lord will receive us at his house in eternity. At the end of the service, Father blessed each believer with the relics of the Holy Cross brought from Jerusalem. May the blood of our Savior wash us from all sin and strengthen our faith.
We thank Fr. Stefan for taking time for us and preparing useful spiritual food. The St. Mass and the conference were streamed in the video links below.
https://vk.com/wall699376263_1081
https://vk.com/wall699376263_1082
