In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Today, our Saviour has begun calling the Twelve Apostles. Our Saviour is coming by the shore of the Sea of Galilee to these particular men, and He is saying to them: ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men’.

When He says this to them, He says the same thing to us, now and here.

Our hearts want to follow the Lord immediately also. However, our hearts are very often distracted by one thing or another. That does not stop the Lord from calling us. He is constantly calling you and me to follow Him because He loves us. He desires that we will participate in Him eternally, in the fulness of life. He wants us to become our real selves, our full selves, our healed selves, our selves as He created us to be in the first place. He wants us to live an abundant life, not shackled by fear, not weighed down by unnecessary cares, but free in Him and alive in Him. He wants us to LIVE our life, rather than just to act it as actors do, as it seems to be more and more the case of contemporary society… That is why He is constantly telling us: “Follow Me”

When He is calling us, He is also in our hearts enabling us, in His mercy and in His love, to say ‘yes’ to Him. From without He is calling, and from within He is enabling so that we can have the strength. First of all, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we celebrated recently, which became possible very much due to His sacrificial Love!

We, human beings, scared sheep that we are, really do have difficulty believing the depth of His love. Yet, the Lord in His mercy and His care does love us. His love for us is stable, and it does not end. He wants us to live in Him, with Him, and to be like Him.

As we hear, the Apostle Paul is reminding us today the Lord has created all of us to be equal: “There is no partiality with God”.

And the undercurrent of this are the words of the Lord Himself, which come from the Old Testament, and which are repeated many times: “‘You shall be holy; for I, the Lord your God, am holy’” (3 Moses [Leviticus] 11:44). We are in Him. We are in His likeness, and He created us to be holy. He created us to be like Him. To be like God can only mean to be full of love, full of life-giving love, full of selfless love.

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Two weeks ago, we celebrated the Great Feast of Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the completion and sanctification of our Lord’s Salvation Work.

And last Sunday, we celebrated the feast of All Saints, whose holiness was the fruit of their collaboration with the same Holy Spirit, revealed to the world. They have witnessed the Grace of the Holy Spirit.

Today we celebrate the day of all the local saints, and the saints of our spiritual holy tradition. So, here, in Canada, we celebrate All Saints in the land of North America and the saints of our fore-fathers – the saints of Rus – Ukraine, Russia, Byelorussia, and the Slavonic saints of Poland, Austria, Hungary, Moldavia etc.

This reveals to us and to the entire world the holiness in time and space, and even ‘some certain place’, ‘some certain people’, our people… and here we start hearing this call personally: “Follow me!”

The Church, in her wisdom, wants us to clearly understand that holiness is not limited to anything, except, perhaps, our own rejection of it.

In whatever place we are, in whatever century we live, neither the special cross of life that we carry, nor our special calling in this life can separate us from the love of God and from the life in Him.

Even today one of the greatest evens related to our local saints is taking place here in North America: the official glorification — the canonization as a saint — of Righteous Olga (O’Michael) of Kwethluk (of Alaska, USA) (+1979), whose relics were obtained on November 16, 2024, in the city of Kwethluk.

Matushka Olga lived in the village of Kwethluk, an Aboriginal village. Olga was a midwife. And she was living as a widow (and even when her husband was living), and she was caring for needy children. She was making clothes for needy children, and she was also making food for children. She was making the food, and leaving it where the children could take it and not feel that it was being given to them, somehow (thus giving secretly). She was a very compassionate woman.

Since her death, many people are finding that the Lord is healing them through her prayers. This is happening not only in Alaska, but also in the United States and Canada, where she has become very well known. She is helping many women who have trouble with childbirth, with children, and with their husbands, also. Matushka Olga has been very helpful with her prayers since she has gone to the Lord.

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In these days when we are having so many difficulties in our lives as Orthodox Christians, the Lord is showing signs such as this one through simple persons like Matushka Olga.

Wonderous is God in His saints! Even today, and even here, so close to us, healing people through the prayers of Matushka Olga, as well as all those who followed Him.

So that we can see how close the way of sanctity and holiness is, and how close is God to His saints, and could be to us if we live our life after their lives, and follow Him.

Amen.