Primate of the OCA His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon visited St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVOTS) on April 22, the fifth Sunday of Great Lent.
His Beatitude presided at the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy and the ordination of Seminarian Monk Cyril Hanna (M.Div. ‘25) to the Holy Diaconate. Fr Dn Cyril is a member of the Orthodox Monastery of St John the Baptist in Phoenix, AZ. A number of monks from his monastic community and nuns from the sister Monastery of St Macarius made the trip to the seminary to be present at the joyous occasion.
In his homily, His Beatitude drew on the Sunday Gospel reading, in which our Lord recounts His upcoming sufferings in detail, and called on his hearers to “truly lay aside all earthly cares and crucify our minds with Christ” during this last week of Great Lent, and especially during Holy Week. His Beatitude went on to point out that “each year Holy Week invites us back into the mystery of Christ, back into the authentic pattern of our life and salvation. We are not learning a new story, we are being called to experience and live more truly the story that has existed since before the beginning of time… If we allow ourselves to be transformed during this coming Holy Week, by the renewing of our minds, then we hope this renewal will remain with us throughout all the days of the coming year, and even into eternity.”
Hear the recording of His Beatitude’s homily
