On Sunday, December 13, the feast of St. Spyridon the Wonderworker was solemnly celebrated at Saint Spyridon Church in Kingsford in Sydney. The Divine Liturgy was officiated by the Protosyncellus of the Archdiocese, Bishop Emilianos of Meloa.
The Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Christos Karras, and the High Commissioner of the Republic of Cyprus, Martha Mavrommati, attended the Divine Liturgy.
In his sermon, the Bishop referred to the great simplicity of Saint Spyridon, talking about a virtue that allows us to approach the Kingdom of Heaven.
He then presented to the congregation three simple ways in which one can cultivate this virtue. The first, as he mentioned, is the memory of death.
“To think,” he explained, “that our present life will end at some point. And if we think about it, some things that we become too complicated in our head will cease to interest us. We will simplify our way of thinking.”
Another way to simplify our lives is to trust in God. “Let us be left in His hands”, Bishop of Meloa said, “The God who brought us here will get us even further. This does not mean that we will not do the best we can. It means that, once we do the best we can, we will be left in the hands of God and there will be no stress. And if there is no stress, things are simpler and more measured.”
The third way in which one can achieve simplicity in one’s life is selfless love, according to the Bishop of Meloa. “When we say selfless love,” he explained, “we mean not to love in order to be loved, not to love because we have an interest, not to love because it suits us, but to love because as an image and likeness of God we are made of love ourselves.” “That is, to love for the other and not for ourselves”, he added, opposing that “if we demand love, understanding, kindness from those we love, we actually love ourselves, because we want all this for ourselves.”
