Heb. 11: 9-10, 17-23, 32-40
Matt. 1: 1-25

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

In Bill Gates’ book “Business @ The Speed of Thought”, he lays out some rules that students do not learn in high school or college, but which they need to know for real life:
RULE #1 - Life is not fair; get used to it.
RULE #2 - The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world expects you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
RULE #5- Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it “opportunity”.
RULE #6 - If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
RULE #7 - Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you whine.
RULE #9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
RULE #10 - Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and find jobs.

The point that Mr. Gates is making is that the ordinary in life is real life. The point that the Evangelist Matthew is making in this morning’s Gospel reading is that, despite the majesty of his being, God came among us as an ordinary human being with ordinary human relationships. To make the point that Jesus Christ is “fully man”, the Evangelist Matthew this morning shows us that Jesus, like ourselves, was preceded by a line of relatives who made possible his own human birth.

When God chose to reveal himself to mankind, he did so through a reality that we could recognize… an ordinary human body. The tongue that called forth the dead was an ordinary human one. The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails. The feet upon which the woman wept were calloused and dusty. And the tears for Lazarus came from an ordinary heart just as broken as ours. Just as we have all descended from ordinary ancestors who went before us, so too did Jesus Christ.

Because we take the ordinary for granted, it is sometimes difficult for us to sense the divine in the ordinary, and this being true, we can sometimes be tempted to think that the “ordinary” has little to do with our spiritual life. For example, coming to church on Sundays can seem so ordinary to us that we start to think that missing a Sunday service is no big deal. As a result, we start making excuses to ourselves as to why our missing church on Sunday is “no big deal”. And once we have convinced ourselves of this, it is easier and easier to view going to church as optional. As we come to the end of this Christmas Lent, let us ask ourselves: Have I actually lost interest in my Christian pilgrimage? Am I, in fact and in reality, only a token Christian?

If your car started once in every three tries, would you say that it is reliable? If the postman skipped delivery every Monday and Thursday, is he doing his job? If your refrigerator stopped working for a day or two every now and then, would you just say, “Oh well, it works most of the time”? If you skipped a couple of electricity bill payments do you think that Savannah Electric would mind? And how about if you came out of a Lenten season no different than when you began it… would you still say that you had been a faithful Orthodox Christian?

The Christian life is a journey, a pilgrimage, away from our inherent self-centeredness and selfishness… and, ultimately, towards God, but immediately, towards those around us. The essential movement is out-and-away-from-the-self. The question for us this morning is: Have we used this Nativity Lent to pander to our self-centeredness, or to move us towards God even while he moves towards us?

It was autumn, and the Indians on the remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was an Indian Chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should quickly collect firewood in order to be prepared. Every day, he urged them to collect more wood, more wood, and the piles of wood accumulated everywhere.

Being a practical leader, however, after several weeks the new Chief called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" The meteorologist at the Weather Service replied, “Indeed, it looks to be one of the coldest on record.” Just wondering, the Chief asked, "How can you be so sure?" The weatherman replied, "Because the Indians are collecting wood like crazy."

Everything in life is interconnected, the ordinary in the divine, and the divine in the ordinary. The question for us to think upon these remaining few days until Christmas is: Even though God presented himself as so ordinary, even though he made himself so approachable … do we even bother to approach him? Do we bother to approach God by coming to church? Do we bother to approach God through prayer? Have we given any thought, this Nativity Lent, to the awesomeness of the Transcendent God’s approaching us by becoming one of us?
This coming Sunday’s feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ proves that God is not off at a distance: He is Emmanuel, God-With-Us. He has been faithful to pursuing us, even when we, in our sinful stupidity, like the Prodigal Son, have preferred to run away from him. As we are giving gifts on this coming Christmas day, let us resolve to give God the gift of our own hearts.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

December 18th

The Holy Martyr Sebastian was born in the city of Narbonum in Gaul (modern France), and he received his education at Mediolanum (now Milan). Under the co-reigning emperors Diocletian and Maximian (284-305) he occupied the position of head of the imperial guards. St. Sebastian was respected for his authority, and was loved by the soldiers and those at court. He was a brave man filled with wisdom, his word was honest, his judgement just, insightful in advice, faithful in his service and in everything entrusted to him. He was a secret Christian, not out of fear, but so that he could provide help to the brethren in a time of persecution.

The noble Christian brothers Marcellinus and Mark had been locked up in prison, and at first they firmly confessed the true Faith. But under the influence of the tearful entreaties of their pagan parents (Tranquillinus and Marcia), and also their own wives and children, they began to waver in their intent to suffer for Christ. St. Sebastian went to the imperial treasurer, at whose house Marcellinus and Mark were held in confinement, and addressed the brothers who were on the verge of yielding to the entreaties of their family.

"O valiant warriors of Christ! Do not cast away your everlasting crowns of victory because of the tears of your relatives. Do not remove your feet from the necks of your enemies who lie prostrate before you, lest they regain their strength and attack you more fiercely than before. Raise your banner high over every earthly attachment. If those whom you see weeping knew that there is another life where there is neither sickness nor death, where there is unceasing gladness and everything is beautiful, then assuredly they would wish to enter it with you. Anyone who fears to exchange this brief earthly life for the unending joys of the heavenly Kingdom is foolish indeed. For he who rejects eternity wastes the brief time of his existence, and will be delivered to everlasting torment in Hades."

Then St. Sebastian said that if necessary, he would be willing to endure torment and death in order to show them how to give their lives for Christ.

So St. Sebastian persuaded the brothers to go through with their act of martyrdom, and his speech stirred everyone present. They saw how his face shone like that of an angel, and they saw how seven angels clothed him in a radiant garment, and heard a fair Youth say, "You shall be with Me always."

Zoe, the wife of the jailer Nicostratus, had lost her ability to speak six years previously, and she fell down at the feet of St. Sebastian, by her gestures imploring him to heal her. The saint made the Sign of the Cross over the woman, and she immediately began to speak and she glorified the Lord Jesus Christ. She said that she had seen an angel holding an open book in which everything St. Sebastian said was written. Then all who saw the miracle also came to believe in the Savior of the world. Nicostratus removed the chains from Marcellinus and Mark and offered to hide them, but the brothers refused.

Mark said, "Let them tear the flesh from our bodies with cruel torments. They can kill the body, but they cannot conquer the soul which contends for the Faith." Nicostratus and his wife asked for Baptism, and St. Sebastian advised Nicostratus to serve Christ rather than the Eparch. He also told him to assemble the prisoners so that those who believed in Christ could be baptized. Nicostratus then requested his clerk Claudius to send all the prisoners to his house. Sebastian spoke to them of Christ, and became convinced that they were all inclined to be baptized. He summoned the priest Polycarp, who prepared them for the Mystery, instructing them to fast in preparation for Baptism that evening.

Then Claudius informed Nicostratus that the Roman eparch Arestius Chromatus wanted to know why the prisoners were gathered at his house. Nicostratus told Claudius about the healing of his wife, and Claudius brought his own sick sons, Symphorian and Felix to St. Sebastian. In the evening the priest Polycarp baptized Tranquillinus with his relatives and friends, and Nicostratus and all his family, Claudius and his sons, and also sixteen condemned prisoners. The newly-baptized numbered 64 in all.

Appearing before the eparch Chromatus, Nicostratus told him how St. Sebastian had converted them to Christianity and healed many from sickness. The words of Nicostratus persuaded the eparch. He summoned St. Sebastian and the presbyter Polycarp, and was enlightened by them, and became a believer in Christ. Nicostratus and Chromatus, his son Tiburtius and all his household accepted holy Baptism. The number of the newly-enlightened increased to 1400. Upon becoming a Christian, Chromatus resigned his office of eparch.

During this time the Bishop of Rome was St. Gaius (August 11). He blessed Chromatus to go to his estates in southern Italy with the priest Polycarp. Christians unable to endure martyrdom also went with them. Father Polycarp went to strengthen the newly-converted in the Faith.

Tiburtius, the son of Chromatus, desired to accept martyrdom and he remained in Rome with St. Sebastian. Of those remaining, St. Gaius ordained Tranquillinus as a presbyter, and his sons Marcellinus and Mark were ordained deacons. Nicostratus, his wife Zoe and brother Castorius, and Claudius, his son Symphorian and brother Victorinus also remained in Rome. They gathered for divine services at the court of the emperor together with a secret Christian named Castulus, but soon the time came for them to suffer for the Faith.

The pagans arrested St. Zoe first, praying at the grave of the Apostle Peter. At the trial she bravely confessed her faith in Christ. She died, hung by her hair over the foul smoke from a great fire of dung. Her body then was thrown into the River Tiber. Appearing in a vision to St. Sebastian, she told him about her death.

The priest Tranquillinus was the next to suffer: pagans pelted him with stones at the grave of the holy Apostle Peter, and his body was also thrown into the Tiber.

Sts. Nicostratus, Castorius, Claudius, Victorinus ,and Symphorian were seized at the riverbank, when they were searching for the bodies of the martyrs. They were led to the eparch, and the saints refused his command to offer sacrifice to idols. They tied stones to the necks of the martyrs and then drowned them in the sea.

The false Christian Torquatus betrayed St. Tiburtius. When the saint refused to sacrifice to the idols, the judge ordered Tiburtius to walk barefoot on red-hot coals, but the Lord preserved him. Tiburtius walked through the burning coals without feeling the heat. The torturers then beheaded St. Tiburtius, and his body was buried by unknown Christians.

Torquatus also betrayed the holy Deacons Marcellinus and Mark, and St. Castulus (March 26). After torture, they threw Castulus into a pit and buried him alive, but Marcellinus and Mark had their feet nailed to the same tree stump. They stood all night in prayer, and in the morning they were stabbed with spears.

St. Sebastian was the last one to be tortured. The emperor Diocletian personally interrogated him, and seeing the determination of the holy martyr, he ordered him taken out of the city, tied to a tree and shot with arrows. Irene, the wife of St. Castulus, went at night in order to bury St. Sebastian, but found him alive and took him to her home.

St. Sebastian soon recovered from his wounds. Christians urged him to leave Rome, but he refused. Coming near a pagan temple, the saint saw the emperors approaching and he publicly denounced them for their impiety. Diocletian ordered the holy martyr to be taken to the Circus Maximus to be executed. They clubbed St. Sebastian to death, and cast his body into the sewer. The holy martyr appeared to a pious woman named Lucina in a vision, and told her to take his body and bury it in the catacombs. This she did with the help of her slaves. Today his basilica stands on the site of his tomb.

Col. 3: 4-11
Luke 14: 16-24

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain and taught them saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are you when you suffer: Be glad and rejoice for your reward is great in Heaven." Simon Peter replied, “How do you expect me to remember that; I don’t have paper and pencil to write it down.” James said, “What? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” John blustered, “You want me to do what?!”

Excuses: We all make them. But what do our excuses for not doing things really mean? We presume that our excuses are valid reasons… but are they? Making excuses is exactly what this morning’s Gospel parable is all about.

In this morning’s Gospel reading we heard that “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many.” According to the customs of the time, not one but two invitations for the banquet would have been sent. The first would have given the date, but not the time. The second would have been sent out when the feast was about to be served. But in this morning’s reading we heard that when the time for the second announcement came the invited guests (who all had previously said that they would come) began to offer phony excuses as to why they now would not be attending.

What’s the first thing that we say or do when we wake up in the morning? Is it prayer to God? Or do we have all sorts of excuses for why prayer can wait:
“I need my coffee first.” “I want to make sure I’m awake and focused before I talk to God.” “I was asleep all night, I didn’t even have a chance to sin, so why do I need to talk to God?”

The 2nd grade Sunday School class was told that the student who could correctly answer one question would win a free trip to Disneyland. The teacher asked Johnnie, “Now Johnnie, What is Easter?" Filled with self-confidence, Johnnie stood and answered, “It's the holiday in November when everyone eats turkey." “I’m sorry,” the teacher replied, “but that’s not correct. Now Janey, can you answer ‘What is Easter’?” Janey stood up and said, “Easter is the holiday in December when we get presents.” I’m sorry Janey,” the teacher replied, “but that’s not correct.” Meanwhile, little Paulie was bouncing up and down in his seat and waving his hand. “Yes Paulie?” the teacher asked, “Do you know what Easter is?” Paulie jumped to his feet, and with a look of scorn and distain at Johnnie and Janey, he replied, “"Easter is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus and his disciples were eating at the Last Supper and Jesus was later betrayed and handed over to the Romans by one of his disciples. He was buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder." “Why, Paulie, that’s…” the teacher began, but Paulie continued: “…and every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out and if he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter."
How often do we find ourselves justifying our ignorance through our excuses? How do we justify our lack of a relationship with God? And how often do we come to believe our own made-up excuses? Each year, on this second Sunday before Christ’s Nativity, the church tries to wake us up, to help us to examine the excuses of our inner life. During the season of Advent, the church tries to get us to understand that now… not at some future date… is the time for us to stop with the excuses and deepen our relationship with God.
On this Sunday the church commemorates the Patriarchs, Prophets, all the men and women of the Old Covenant who, instead of making excuses, prepared the way for Christ’s coming, from Adam all the way up to and including John the Baptist. Through the lives of all these people God was sending his invitation informing them of Christ’s coming. And with the Nativity of his son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, just as it says in this morning’s Gospel, God announces, “Come, for all things are now ready.”

It is exactly this kind of readiness that is at the heart of repentance. And repentance is possible for us all were we to but stop making excuses for why we don’t do what we don’t want to do. This morning is the second-to-last call of the ascetical season of Christmas Lent. Are we ready for He-Who-Comes? Are we ready for the transcendent God to be with us?

To think of God is to think of abundance. To think of Jesus Christ is to think of emptiness. The mystery, and the wonder, of the Incarnation is that God, who is so full, chose to become empty. In this season of our pursuit of gifts it would be fruitful for us to reflect upon the fact that by sharing in the poverty of our humanity God gave us the gift of being able to share in the richness of his own fullness. In a sense, God gave God away. Do we do the same to God? Christmas should not be about acquiring, but about surrendering.

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, shoppers fought for bargains in stores all over our nation. In some instances, they literally ended up stampeding one other, or broke out in fights… all over obtaining a gift to give which would prove how much they love. What does such an approach to this season have to do with the one whom the season is about… the King of peace?

In less than two weeks we will celebrate the nativity of Jesus Christ, that King of peace. Supposedly, we have spent the 5 weeks of this Advent looking at our life, at our inner life… when, really, 5 weeks is not even enough for such a comprehensive task. It is ironic that while we have focused on office parties and gift-giving we have been starving our souls by avoiding the asceticism that the Orthodox Church emphasizes in this season.

During the next two weeks we should examine whether or not we have stopped with our excuses. Otherwise, we will end this Christmas Lent just as we began it, as just one more season of: “I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.”

Glory to Jesus Christ!

December 11th

Saint Daniel the Stylite was born in the village of Bethara, near the city of Samosata in Mesopotamia. His mother Martha was childless for a long while and in her prayers she vowed that if she had a child, she would dedicate him to the Lord. Her prayers were heard, and Martha soon gave birth to a son, who was without a name until he was five years of age.

The boy's parents desired that since he was born through the good-will of God, he should also receive his name from God. They took their son to a monastery located nearby and approached the igumen. The igumen gave orders to take down one of the service books, and unrolled it at random. He found the Prophet Daniel (December 17) mentioned in it. Thus did the boy receive his name. The parents asked that he might remain at the monastery, but the igumen would not accept him, since he was still only a small boy. At twelve years of age, saying nothing to no one, the child left home for the monastery.

His parents were happy when they learned where their son was, and they went to the monastery. Seeing that he was still going about in his worldly clothes, they besought that the igumen should clothe him in the angelic garb. That Sunday the igumen fulfilled their request, but permitted them often to visit their son. The brethren of the monastery were astonished at the saint's ascetical efforts.

Once, St. Simeon the Stylite (September 1), visited the monastery. He foretold to the young monk, that he too would undertake the feat of pillar-dwelling. St. Daniel continued with his ascetic life in seclusion. When the place of a new exploit was revealed to him in a vision, he withdrew into the Thracian wilderness together with two disciples. They set up a pillar, upon which St. Daniel dwelt for 33 years. People thronged to the pillar, the unfortunate and those who were sick, and all received help and healing from St. Daniel. Byzantine emperors also sought the prayers of the holy ascetic. The most notable of the saint's predictions was about a great fire in Constantinople. St. Daniel possessed also the gift of gracious words. He guided many onto the path of correcting their lives. The monk reposed in his eightieth year.

Eph. 4: 1-6
Luke 17: 12-19

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Lucinda went to the butcher to buy a chicken for Fred’s dinner. The butcher had only one chicken left, and it looked a bit too small to Lucinda, so she asked him to weigh it and, sure enough, it was too small. So she asked, “Do you have another one, just a bit bigger?” “Sure,” the butcher replied and, taking the under-weight chicken with him, went back into the cooler, came back out with the same bird, and when he put it on the scale pressed down with his thumb so the total was a bit more than the first time. “Well,” Lucinda said, “That one’s a bit too small also; I’ll take them both.”

It’s funny how life has a way of catching us in our lies. Like the butcher, there are times, even in our relationship with God, when we hope to get away with stuff without paying any kind of price. The danger of this approach is that when we… from our point of view… do get away with something, we keep our gratitude to ourselves. But… is gratitude “gratitude” if it is not expressed?

Recently, our nation went through its annual celebration of Thanksgiving Day. We all gave thanks to God, and then overate. This morning’s Gospel reading presents us with the question: Are we, actually, un-grateful?

In the Gospel reading, we meet 10 men who have leprosy. In Jesus’ day, a diagnosis of leprosy was essentially a death sentence, with the leper being exiled from the community. Not only did a person afflicted with this disease face physical pain and suffering, they also faced the emotional pain of saying good bye to loved ones, friends, and their whole way of life, so that they would not spread the disease to them. If someone who was not a leper came near them, the leprous were required to shout out “unclean, unclean, stay away”.

In this morning’s reading Jesus Christ heals all ten lepers; only one, however returns to Christ to offer his thanks, prompting Christ to comment, “Were not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”

Make no mistake about it: The other nine were happy to have been healed since this allowed them to return to their families and their old way of life. They were happy… but not grateful.

Fred considered himself a savvy art collector and so, while walking through the city, he became very excited when he saw a mangy cat lapping milk from what he knew to be an extremely valuable saucer in the doorway of a store. Determined to pull one over on the store-owner and get that saucer for his collection, he casually walked into the store and offered to buy the cat for two dollars.

The storeowner replied, "I’m sorry, but the cat isn’t for sale." Fred said, "I really need a hungry cat around the house to catch mice. I’ll pay you 20 dollars for that cat." So the store-owner said, "Sold," and handed over the cat. Acting as if he suddenly had an after-thought, Fred then said, "Hey, for the twenty bucks I wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat’s used to it and it’ll save me from having to get a dish." The owner firmly replied, "Sorry buddy, but that’s my lucky saucer. So far this week I’ve sold 68 cats."

Chances are that Fred was not grateful, but then… often… neither are we. We live in such a culture of entitlement that we have forgotten to be grateful to God. We act as if everything is owed to us. With such a mindset, we could not be more unlike St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, whose feast we celebrate today. St. Nicholas, from whom we derive our modern-day Santa Claus, was known for his selfless generosity, not for obtaining whatever he could lay his hands upon.
In our country and in our materialistic culture, we seem to have forgotten how to be grateful. We are surrounded by blessings, but we moan that it is all not enough. While our cup overflows, we complain that we need a bigger cup. We don’t hesitate to cry out to God for help when we are in need, but do we ever go back and thank him for his blessings, other than on Thanksgiving Day? Or do we assume that what we have received we were supposed to get? If so, then we are more like this morning’s nine lepers than we might want to admit.
In a small town north of Manhattan lived a sweet-natured and friendly family whom everyone loved, but who had a very strange habit: They never seemed to throw anything away. They had completely filled their front porch with bags of trash and it wasn't long before their yard and driveway were completely full of trash, broken refrigerators, stoves, worn out sofas, lawn movers and a car that they didn't drive. And then, one morning a sign was posted on their front door that read, “Moved Next Door”. The inside of their house was just as full of clutter and trash as the yard, forcing them to move. Of course, there was always another solution: They could have cleaned it all up. But having lived in such chaos for so long, the chaos seemed normal to them, and other options just didn’t even occur to them, and so, rather than change and clean, they just moved next door.
What about us? We entered this Nativity lent with the junk that we have accumulated since this year’s Great Lent, and the question for us this morning is: What are we going to do about our junk before Christmas? Are we going to change and clean things up, or just move next door into 2012?
Repentance is not possible if the individual is not grateful. We should consider that there is the possibility that our lack of change manifests our lack of gratitude. If, after Christmas, we still take delight in gossiping about others, still try to get away with things, still make excuses for not cleaning up our lives and relationships, then no amount of official prayers of gratitude will convince God that we are, in fact, grateful. The fact is that, if we are grateful, we will change.
One of this morning’s lepers turned around and came back to Christ and thanked him; will we turn around over the remaining 3 weeks of Nativity Lent and show God our thanks for his giving of himself by coming to us? Or will we be like the other 9 lepers who were happy to have been healed, but not one bit grateful.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

December 4th

The New Martyr of Russia Alexander Hotovitzky was born on February 11, 1872 in the city of Kremenetz. From 1898 to 1907, the New Martyr Alexander served as a pastor under the omophorion of Bishop Tikhon. Through Father Alexander's efforts, Orthodox parishes were established in Philadelphia, Yonkers, and Passaic as well as other large and small towns throughout North America. The parishioners of these churches were cradle Orthodox whom fate had brought to the New World, as well as Carpatho-Russians converted from the Unia and former Protestant converts to the Orthodox Church.

The sacrificial and dedicated pastoral service of the New Martyr Alexander in America was concluded on February 26, 1914. From 1914 to 1917, Father Alexander served as a priest in Helsinki, Finland, where the majority of the population was Protestant. In August 1917, Archpriest Alexander was transferred to Moscow and assigned as assistant pastor of Christ the Savior Cathedral.
In 1922, the Church was subjected to harsh tribulations when, under the pretext of helping the starving, ecclesiastical treasures including sacred vessels, icons, and other holy things were violently confiscated by the state. After two court cases against the Church, in Petrograd and Moscow, which resulted in the executions of hieromartyrs and martyrs, a new highly visible trial of clergy and laity began in Moscow on November 27, 1922. On trial in this case were 105 clergy and laity, including the Archpriest Alexander Hotovitzky.

The most significant part of the indictment submitted to the Court concerned the activity of the clergy and laity of Christ the Savior Cathedral. The indictment stated, "The main organizers and leaders of this criminal activity were Priest Hotovitzky, chairman of the council of parishes in this area.” The case was in court for two weeks. Following the interrogation of all the defendants and witnesses, at the Court session on December 6, the later infamous, sinister prosecutor Vishinsky delivered the concluding statement for the prosecution. He asked the court for a sentence of capital punishment for thirteen defendants including Archpriest Alexander Hotovitzky.
On December 13, the verdict of the revolutionary tribunal was announced. Each of the main defendants - Abbess Vera (Pobedinskaya), Archpriest Sergius Uspensky, and Archpriest Alexander Hotovitzky were sentenced to ten years in prison, the confiscation of their personal property and the deprivation of their civil rights for five years.

After the holy Patriarch Tikhon resumed his administration of the Church and made several statements regarding loyalty to the governmental authorities, many hierarchs, clergy, church leaders and laity were granted amnesty. Father Alexander was among those freed in October 1923.
He remained free for only a short time. On September 9, 1924, the New Martyr Alexander was subjected to an interrogation. By a decision of a special meeting of the administration of the Department of State Political Management, the New Martyr Alexander was exiled to the Turuhan region for a period of three years. His already failing health was further weakened by his sojourn in the far north.

Following his return from exile, Father Alexander was raised to the rank of protopresbyter.
In the 1930s, Protopresbyter Alexander served as rector of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskoy Street. In the fall of 1937, the New Martyr Alexander was arrested again. The documentary evidence about him at our disposal ends with this; however, a majority of oral reports testify to his death as a martyr.
The Orthodox Church in America, on whose territory Protopresbyter Alexander served as a priest until 1914, venerates him as a passion-bearer, whose life as a confessor ended with sufferings for Christ. The place of his burial is unknown.

The Holy Great Martyr Barbara lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Her father, the pagan Dioscorus, was a rich and illustrious man in the Syrian city of Heliopolis. After the death of his wife, he devoted himself to his only daughter.

Seeing Barbara's extraordinary beauty, Dioscorus decided to hide her from the eyes of strangers. Therefore, he built a tower for Barbara, where only her pagan teachers were allowed to see her. From the tower there was a view of hills stretching into the distance. By day she was able to gaze upon the wooded hills, the swiftly flowing rivers, and the meadows covered with a mottled blanket of flowers; by night the harmonious and majestic vault of the heavens twinkled and provided a spectacle of inexpressible beauty. Soon the virgin began to ask herself questions about the First Cause and Creator of so harmonious and splendid a world.

Gradually, she became convinced that the souless idols were merely the work of human hands. Although her father and teachers offered them worship, she realized that the idols could not have made the surrounding world. The desire to know the true God so consumed her soul that Barbara decided to devote all her life to this goal, and to spend her life in virginity.

The fame of her beauty spread throughout the city, and many sought her hand in marriage. But despite the entreaties of her father, she refused all of them. Barbara warned her father that his persistence might end tragically and separate them forever. Dioscorus decided that the temperament of his daughter had been affected by her life of seclusion. He therefore permitted her to leave the tower and gave her full freedom in her choice of friends and acquaintances. Thus Barbara met young Christian maidens in the city, and they taught her about the Creator of the world, about the Trinity, and about the Divine Logos. Through the Providence of God, a priest arrived in Heliopolis from Alexandria disguised as a merchant. After instructing her in the mysteries of the Christian Faith, he baptized Barbara, then returned to his own country.

During this time a luxurious bathhouse was being built at the house of Dioscorus. By his orders the workers prepared to put two windows on the south side. But Barbara, taking advantage of her father's absence, asked them to make a third window, thereby forming a Trinity of light. When Dioscorus returned and expressed dissatisfaction about the change in his building plans, his daughter told him about how she had come to know the Triune God, about the saving power of the Son of God, and about the futility of worshipping idols. Dioscorus went into a rage, grabbed a sword and was on the point of striking her with it. The holy virgin fled from her father, and he rushed after her in pursuit. His way became blocked by a hill, which opened up and concealed the saint in a crevice. On the other side of the crevice was an entrance leading upwards. St Barbara managed then to conceal herself in a cave on the opposite slope of the hill.

After a long and fruitless search for his daughter, Dioscorus saw two shepherds on the hill. One of them showed him the cave where the saint had hidden. Dioscorus beat his daughter terribly, and then placed her under guard and tried to wear her down with hunger. Finally he handed her over to the prefect of the city, named Martianus. They beat St Barbara fiercely. Then they subjected the saint to new, and even more frightful torments.

In the crowd where the martyr was tortured was the virtuous Christian woman Juliana, an inhabitant of Heliopolis. Her heart was filled with sympathy for the voluntary martyrdom of the beautiful and illustrious maiden. Juliana also wanted to suffer for Christ. She began to denounce the torturers in a loud voice, and they seized her.

Both martyrs were tortured for a long time. Their bodies were raked and wounded with hooks, and then they were led naked through the city amidst derision and jeers. Through the prayers of St Barbara the Lord sent an angel who covered the nakedness of the holy martyrs with a splendid robe. Then the steadfast confessors of Christ, Sts Barbara and Juliana, were beheaded. Dioscorus himself executed St Barbara. The wrath of God was not slow to punish both torturers, Martianus and Dioscorus. They were killed after being struck by lightning.

In the sixth century the relics of the holy Great Martyr Barbara were transferred to Constantinople. Six hundred years later, they were transferred to Kiev (July 11) by Barbara, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenos, who married the Russian prince Michael Izyaslavich. They rest even now at Kiev's St Vladimir cathedral, where an Akathist to the saint is served each Tuesday.

Many pious Orthodox Christians are in the habit of chanting the Troparion of St Barbara each day, recalling the Savior's promise to her that those who remembered her and her sufferings would be preserved from a sudden, unexpected death, and would not depart this life without benefit of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.