Metropolitan Sergiy of Singapore and South-East Asia celebrated the Liturgy on the sixteenth anniversary of his bishop ordination

On February 15, on the feast of the Meeting of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Patriarchal Exarch of South-East Asia, Metropolitan Sergiy of Singapore and South-East Asia celebrated the festive Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Ostankino, Moscow. This day marked the sixteenth anniversary of Vladyka’s bishop ordination. On the eve of the feast, Metropolitan Sergiy served the All-Night Vigil. His Eminence was co-served by the clergy of the church.

At the end of the service, Metropolitan Sergiy read out the Patriarchal message on the occasion of Orthodox Youth Day, which is also celebrated on this day. He then congratulated the faithful on the feast and addressed them with his archpastoral word:

“I join the warm fatherly words of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. This is a holiday of youth for everyone: both the elderly and the young. In God we are all young. The soul has no age. For eternity we are all young.

And, if we want to meet with God someday, then we must remember that this will happen first in the temple. It is no coincidence that the Holy righteous Simeon lived for more than three hundred years in the Jerusalem temple in anticipation of Christ. How much he languished in anticipation that he would suddenly die without seeing what was promised. Today we prayed to the Lord, each for our own. But, if we do not receive what we desire from the Lord, then we will certainly start to complain or get dispondent. But the righteous Simeon lived for centuries, not knowing when his Meeting would take place.

From day to day he spent time in the Jerusalem temple, as he was living there. The Saints knew that the meeting with God would take place in the temple.
Simeon the God-bearer lived for over 300 years. Just think – three hundred years. An ordinary person would get tired of living. In our modern life, 60-70-year-old elderly people already feel tired, grumbling and complaining that they have no health. But people who had holy life showed an example of patience, humility, and the ability to wait, while living openly before God. Life in the Church obliges a person to always live in a state of spiritual alertness, in a state of attention and vigilance.

Simeon did not know when this meeting would take place, but he was ready for it every day. This is how you and I should have prepared if we knew that we should soon have a meeting with God. The problem is that we do not know when this meeting will take place. And in this, we are like Simeon. He didn’t know either. Our meeting is the meeting of our souls with God after the departure. We think that now I will sin a little, and then I will retire and start to pray a lot, I will attend the church more often – but nothing like that happens. We will be overcome by weakness, and if youth knew, old age could – life will already be behind us.

And this is how you imagined your old age, but it turns out not at all like that. You will no longer be able to work physically and pray fervently. Therefore, every moment is precious.
And think about the righteous Anna, who married early, but after seven years became a widow. For almost eighty-four years she was a widow. And where did she live? There, in the Jerusalem temple, from which she did not leave all eighty-four years, after the death of her husband – here is an example for you and me, how people valued opportunities, and asked God for only one thing – so that I could live in the house of the Lord and enjoy the magnificence of His house .

This is what the apostles asked of God, this is what the saints prayed for – they asked only for one thing: to be in the temple and enjoy the joy of worship, the presence of the Spirit of God, which dwells in every temple, in every church”.