Today, Saturday, the day before the last week on the eve of Lent, Orthodox Christians celebrate Ecumenical Parental Saturday.

All Souls' Day - Ecumenical Parents' Saturday - is dedicated to those who have passed into another world and cannot independently change their fate before God.

It’s good when someone has relatives or children left on earth who can light a candle and order proskomedia. There are more unfortunate dead people, lonely ones, for whom there is no one to pray. Recently I saw an old man with a dog in a grocery store, followed by a social worker. The old man asked me, almost in tears, to buy him a bottle of beer, only unnoticed, since the cashiers were forbidden to sell it to him.

A person in his youth is full of optimism (wears “rose-colored glasses”), but the further he goes, the more he encounters troubles, restrictions or sorrows from the loss of relatives. Recently, an acquaintance told a story that another, former radio amateur, died of pancreatitis and delirium tremens. He was only about 53 years old. An acquaintance says that “the radio amateur drank so much that it seemed that he was rushing to his grave as quickly as possible.”

The New Testament contains the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ (Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5-7), which first promises changes in life that are difficult to imagine (the Beatitudes), and then defines requirements for human actions and lifestyle (code of ethics). The events described in the 4 Gospels, the words and deeds of the Savior, require study and reading of interpretations, i.e. it is necessary to make efforts to understand them.

The exclamation read by the priest at the morning service is bright and expressive:"Glory to you, who showed us the light". The implication is that before and now we are in the dark. But God showed the first light, the beginning of the morning twilight that precedes the sunny day.

During the short sermon (since today is Saturday, not Sunday), the priest noticed. I’m writing the quote from memory before I forget:

In order to get out of this "kingdom of tears", but not unexpectedly find ourselves at trial in an unprepared state, we must have time to do Kingdom of God within yourself already during this life.

The Kingdom of God from the point of view of Christianity is fulfilling the commandments and following Christ (“take up your cross and follow Me”).

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