Living Homily

We have a new priest in our parish, and so now we have two. Fr. Nicholas, who has been our priest since the parish was brought into the Orthodox Church will remain as Priest Emeritus (he now refers to himself as GRANDFather Nicholas) and Fr. Dimitri will be the Rector, or priest-in-charge. Fr. Dimitri just graduated from Seminary (St. Tikhon) and this is his first parish. There are obviously many opportunities for the devil to meddle in a transition such as this, because all of us struggle with lack of humility. We're a week into it, and Fr. Dimitri has begun serving 40 consecutive liturgies which is a very traditional way for priests to get their "sealegs." Thus far I am struck with one main thing: Fr. Dimitri and his wife fit like a glove in our somewhat unique parish/community. We have a very small but tight community, and before he arrived I had my misgivings about the ability of anyone to step into this role smoothly. But something occurred to me last night that should have been obvious.

We had Fr. Dimitri and his wife Mary over for dinner, and as I heard him recount his journey to priesthood and this particular parish, it became very clear that this has all happened as a result of the prayers and virtuous life of our beloved Fr. Nicholas. He knew he needed to secure a "replacement" long before any of us were thinking about it and I am quite sure he has been praying for the right person for a long time. God has answered his prayers. To watch Fr. Nicholas hand over the reigns to an inexperienced man almost 50 years his junior is instructive. It may be the most important homily Fr. Nicholas has ever had to deliver. It will certainly be the longest. I think it will be his best.