Sunday, July 20, 2014
The Glorification of St John of Shanghai and San Francisco (1994)
This video is from the service of Vladyka John’s glorification in San Francisco in 1994.
Vladyka John should serve as an inspiration for us all to be zealous with respect to our faith, to live for eternity rather than for this world. Every minute of Vladyka John’s life was focused on God. God’s reality was for him more real than this life on earth.
To become a saint, we must firstly strive to fulfill all the commandments.
We must repent when we fall short in obeying God’s will, that is, when we do not live up to the law of love, the teaching of Scripture, the tradition of piety and morality of the Holy Orthodox Church. If we do not know clearly what ideal the Scriptures and the Church requires of us, this is an indication that we need to learn, that we have not yet begun a truly Christian life.
We can learn by studying the Lives of Saints, such as the life of Vladyka John - because each Saint fulfilled the Law of God in his own time and his own circumstances. We can also learn by reading the Scriptures, and the writings of the Holy Church Fathers.
By the prayers of Saint John and all our holy fathers, recent and ancient, may we turn our life to this path of pleasing God, which will lead us to true happiness, here on earth, and in eternity!
