Mutual Love

A Word on the Birthday of the Widowed Most Pious Sovereign Empress Maria Feodorovna

All things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that came into being (Jn 1:3)

The holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, who began his sublime proclamation of the gospel with an account of the eternal being of God the Word and of the creation through Him and by Him of the whole world, visible and invisible, and of all creatures, animate and inanimate alike, proclaimed at the very beginning of his Gospel: all things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that came into being. Thus we all owe our very being and our blessed well-being to God the Word, Who at the end of the ages was pleased to become incarnate and to remain forever, without end, the perfect Man Jesus Christ, while continuing from eternity and forever the infinite God.

Today we celebrate the birth of the Empress, the Mother of the Tsar, foreknown by God before all ages and called into being in due time—precisely in our own time—for an exceptional and lofty childbearing, whose fruit was and is, among others, our reigning Sovereign Emperor. Great is the election and destiny of the Empress-Mother. Look—her Son, the Emperor of all Russia, commands a fifth part of the world. What a divine election and appointment, what a rare lot among mankind; and in keeping with such an election, what a sacred and great duty lies upon her before God and humanity; for the higher God’s election, the greater, loftier, and more responsible the duties before God and men that the chosen person takes upon herself: first, she is the Mother of the Tsar and of the royal children, whom she raised in accordance with their lofty calling; and second, she is the royal Mother of all her loyal subjects, but especially of all the maidens who have been and are being raised in Russia in those educational institutions that bear her name. She is their Patroness, well-disposed toward them not in name only but in deed: for they enjoy the most careful oversight and guidance of her faithful and zealous helpers, men and women, in the important work of Christian upbringing. As the former Consort of the late Tsar the Peacemaker, who knew his royal ideals, thoughts, intentions, desires, and undertakings well, she graciously passed them on to her reigning Son, and in this respect an important share in the upbringing of the Tsar her Son belongs to her: for who could have known and handed down the behests of the Tsar the Peacemaker and Father of the Russian people better than his Consort? She was the most faithful interpreter of the behests of her sovereign Consort to the Son who had come to the throne; and he firmly keeps the behests of his father the Tsar—firmly walks in his footsteps, vigilantly stands guard over his realm, protecting it with the sovereign power given him by God from every encroachment upon its integrity, whether by internal or external enemies, just as he stands guard over its outward protection—the security of the faith and of the Orthodox Church, as the firmest bulwark and repository of the Russian realm; for in the firm unity of Church and Kingdom lies an invincible strength, the strength of God.

And each of us, dear brothers, together with his being, given to him by God, has received his own purpose—to build up the well-being and salvation of himself and of those near him, as members of one great body politic, whose good rests upon the common, unanimous striving toward the general and the private good of all its members—and as members of the one spiritual body of the Church, or of the grace-filled kingdom of Christ. This purpose is: fidelity to God and to the Tsar; fidelity to family, civil, and Christian duties; fidelity, goodwill, honesty, and justice in our relations with one another; the solicitous guarding of the family, of the spiritual family hearth; the faithfulness of husbands and of wives; the Christian upbringing of children, their protection from every allurement, and their being brought near to the Holy Church, which God Himself has given us as a Nurturer for time and eternity; the keeping by each of his own faith in a pure conscience; the upholding of the true spirit of piety, in which our forefathers were so strong, and by which with unshakable firmness they defended for us the integrity of our Holy Faith and of our Church; fidelity to the Tsar and to the authorities appointed by Him for the ordering of the common good; private and common care for the observance of chastity and of self-restraint, and for the mutual help of one another in faith and in life, in sorrow, sickness, need, and grief. For at the present time many sorrows and calamities have pressed down upon us, especially from the instability of morals, from the fragility of marital and family unions, from all-consuming, ruinous drunkenness and debauchery—from failures of the grain and grass crops, or from the complete spoiling of fields and mown meadows by unceasing rains.

Let us bear the burdens of one another according to our strength, and in this way fulfill our appointed purpose. Bear the burdens of one another, and so fulfill the law of Christ[1]. Amen.