Archiepiscopal Homily at the Door-Opening and Doxology of Life-Giving Spring Orthodox Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas (July 10, 2025)

Reverend Archpriest Vasyl Babych,

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in the Lord:

We are assembled as One Body in Christ, here before the doors of your Temple, which is dedicated to the Life-Giving Spring of the Theotokos, so that we may pray to be worthy to open all the doors which lead heavenward.

I look to this crowd, and I see the faithful People of God, who with sincere devotion and unflagging dedication have labored to arrive at this moment. The Faithful of the Slavic Vicariate are very precious to me, as you represent a great reservoir of deep spiritual traditions. And that reservoir is so aptly represented by the Life-Giving Spring Church, where the waters well up within the Sanctuary.

Especially for me, a Constantinopolitan by natural birth – although we are all Children of the Queen of Cities by spiritual birth – this feast has tremendous import, because of the renowned Church at Baloukli.

The Miraculous Spring there, dating back over sixteen hundred years, still flows with waters of healing and inspiration. It is a precious shrine of our Ecumenical Patriarchate, with a long a glorious history.

And it has given to the understanding of the Church a deep knowledge of the role of the Theotokos in our salvation.

In the icon of the feast, we behold the Mother of God, at the center of the Fountain, which flows and waters the faithful, especially those in need of mercy. She holds Her Son and our God, Who appears as the Divine Child.

From this icon, we perceive that Her humanity is the fountainhead of the Lord’s Incarnation. She gave birth to the new Human Race that is manifest in Her Son. Through Baptism, we enter into the Wellspring of Divine Life as through a womb, which is what the Fathers of the Church call the Baptismal Font. It symbolizes simultaneously both the tomb in which Lord was buried, and into which we must also descend, and the womb from which we emerge as new creations in Christ.

These deep meanings bring extraordinary blessings to all of you and all who will pass through these doors. As we open these doors, I want us to call to mind how the stone was rolled away from the Empty Tomb of the Lord.

You see, my friends, we enter into the Temple of God not to find something that we could not find anywhere else in the cosmos, for we can find God anywhere and at any time. He is, as the wondrous prayer, “O Heavenly King” says: “everywhere present and filling all things.”

We enter into the Temple to worship the One Who is the Source and the Fountain of Life, to become, through Holy Communion, a Holy Community dedicated to living in His love and mercy.

Therefore, my beloved Christians:

Let us open the doors of our hearts to one another, even as we open the doors of your precious Life-Giving Spring Church.

Let us open the doors of our spiritual eyes, so that we behold in one another the image and likeness of God, and recognize the innate goodness that God has gifted to us in our humanity.

Let us open the doors of our minds to see in each other brothers and sisters in Christ, who are in need of our attentive love and compassion.

And let us open the doors of our souls, that are so often fastened shut by bitterness and disappointment, resentment and loneliness – so that we may feel the rush of the Spirit, and welcome the presence of the Living God in our lives.

Today is much more than a ceremony of our venerable traditions. It is an opportunity to open ourselves to the experience of God’s love, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion, as we rejoice in the works of our hands.

May the Lord Himself, through the intercessions of the Life-Giving Spring of the Theotokos, grant unto you, your families, and loved ones, His infinite grace; so that you may worship within this Holy House in solidarity, and in the peace that surpasses all human understanding and imagination – to the glory of His Holy Name and the shining Witness of His Holy Orthodox Church.

Amen!