From the Sermons of Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia

The icon of the All-holy Trinity painted by Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II

John the Theologian says in the Gospel: “God is love,” and I think no one has ever given the Lord a more exact name. Truly, God is the source of love, and where there is love, there is joy, there is peace.

The chief, unending virtue is love. There are faith, hope and love. Love is eternal. And today is the feast of this eternity — the feast of eternal love.

King David the prophet prayed thus: “Lord, remember David, and all his meekness.” Today, when there is such astonishing opposition and strife among people, let us beseech the Lord that, as He granted meekness to King David, so He may grant it to Georgia!

We must always remember the words of the Bible: “God crushes the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”

Peace is desirable for everyone, but it is not easy to attain. For peace to reign both around us and in our souls, we must have a peace-loving heart.

Patience, like a faithful knight, guards peace, joy and love, and is itself richly nourished by this grace.

Mercy is the surest and shortest road to salvation. That is why the Lord says that at the Dread Judgement the merciful will be shown mercy and will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

Faith means not only being convinced that God exists; it means above all living in God, trusting, hoping in His mercy.

Meekness implies humility, for it is humility that excludes all irritation and anger, that is, the cause of turmoil.

A person must make a cross by his life; this cross is drawn thus — a reaching toward God and a reaching toward man. Blessed is he who not only carries his cross but also makes it by his life. Such a person will be saved himself and will save those around him.

I have told you more than once that King David the prophet spoke very remarkable words: “The Lord reigneth.” In everything, always, everywhere, the Lord reigns. Indeed, if we look back over our lives, we shall see that at every step there is the trace of God, the providence of God and the mercy He has given. We can do nothing without God.

Blessed is the person who has hope in God. This means that he has faith, love and trust. When a person loses all this, when he acts by his own will and wants to arrange a happy life by his own strength, in this case the Lord often sends the person or the nation some heavy trial. A trial comes to a person not because God wants to punish him but, above all, so that the person may be given faith. By this trial the Lord seeks to bring the person or the nation back to the true faith.

Great is our pain: the country is bleeding. We are sure that the Lord has sent us this heavy trial for the spiritual awakening of the nation, its cleansing and the revival of faith… I believe that the time will soon come when Georgia is made whole, when we shall celebrate the wholeness of Georgia in Abkhazia and in Samachablo, when we shall see a united Georgia and a united nation. God grant that the Lord, the Holy Trinity, may give us unanimity. Only in unanimity is our salvation.

The unity and unanimity of the generations is of vital importance for our country today. The devil divides and sets people against each other, but God unites and reconciles.

God grant that each of you may leave the church full of grace.

Being introduced to deep thinking will make it much easier for a child to master other subjects. And so we shall bring up truly intelligent young people, who will live and act not by emotions alone, will be free of maximalism, and will order their lives more wisely than we, with faith and truth.

I am not a painter, but I rest while I paint. The cross of the Catholicos-Patriarch is very heavy; he too needs rest, and painting helps me very much in this.

If not by the power of Christian grace, how could a people worn out by fighting countless enemies have raised in our Mtskheta the heaven-touching Svetitskhoveli, and the Sioni churches of Tbilisi and Bolnisi…

First of all we must help those in need who are far from God and the Church. I think that the one most in need is precisely the one who is an unbeliever, who has lost his way and leads others astray too.

When a person does a good deed, the grace of the Holy Spirit flows down upon him, and it spreads over his whole house, his relatives, his children and grandchildren.