ARCHIERATICAL DIVINE LITURGY FOR SAINT SPYRIDON’S CELEBRATION IN CORFU
Worship events continued in Corfu in memory of the patron saint of the island, Saint Spyridon. On Sunday morning, 12th of December, an archieratical divine Liturgy took place with their Eminences, the Bishop of Corfu, Paxoi and Diapontian Islands, Mr. Nektarios and the Bishop of Montenegro, Mr.Ioannikios.
In his sermon, Mr. Nektarios stressed that Saint Spyridon, with his holiness, responded to the honor that God bestowed on man by creating him in His image and likeness. Saint Spyridon increased the piece of love that God bestowed on man, increased his talents and showed that he understood with his life the gift of God’s grace.
But apart from the Creator, God is our father. And the characteristic of fatherhood is freedom, even if it is a gift that leads us to revolt against God. God is a father and accepts our repentance. And God’s fatherhood leads His Son and His Word to incarnate to restore each of us to the joy of communion with Him. And Saint Spyridon realized the paternity of God and became a deacon of His will. He despised the revolution that most people have adopted in his life and became a child of light, receiving light from the source of light, our God. During the reconstruction, the saint dresses the new man, the one who is being renewed in the image of this builder, he despises the cosmic spirit and God himself admires Saint Spyridon, making him the source of miracles.
Modern human works the same will, abandons his relationship with God and seeks the deification of himself, without seeing that his achievements can not relieve the fatigue he feels from the false promises and the tyranny of ideas and systems that they drive God out of our lives. That is why we need a return to our relationship with God, an imitation of the saint’s life and a beginning of repentance in our lives.
