Archpriest Maksym (Bykov)

  • To be or not to be happy

    God gave each of us free choice, gave us complete freedom in our deeds. And it depends on each person how we will use this freedom of choice in our life, in relation to ourselves or others, what we will do with it, we will do good (to go the way of life) or to do something annoying, evil (go the way of death). So with our own free will we can be happy or suffer permanently, be dejected, loosing heart more and more, plunging into the darkness deeper and deeper, that will devour the soul, making us even more miserable.

  • The Orthodox Feast “The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple”

    The Orthodox Feast «The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple»

    The Feast "Presentation of the Lord at the Temple" in the time of Emperor Justinian spread from Jerusalem to the whole East. Celebrated it on the forty day after the Birth of Jesus. The name of the feast came from the fact of meeting of God’s Son, Holy Virgin with religious Simeon. In the spiritual sense, this meeting is a symbol of the meeting of the Old and New Testaments...

  • The Orthodox Feast “The Nativity of the Holy Lady”

    The Orthodox Feast «The Nativity of the Holy Lady»

    The feast of the Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady is one of twelve main Christian feasts, which was set up in honor of the birth of the Most Holy Lady – the Mother of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament it is written very poor about the earthly life of the Holy Lady and there are no facts about her Birth and Her parents. About this event, in honor of which the feast was set up, we found out from the apocryphal Gospel of James (the second century)...

  • The Orthodox Feast “The Dormition of the Holy Lady”

    The Orthodox Feast The Dormition of the Holy Lady

    The Day of the Dormition of the Holy Lady is one of twelve main Christian feasts, which was set up in honor of the event, when God's Mother finished her Earth life and her body and soul was taken by Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Heavens...

  • The Orthodox Feast “The Annunciation to Our Lady”

    The Orthodox Feast The Annunciation to Our Lady

    The Christian feast of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated April 7 (March 25 in old calendar), is one of the twelve Great Feasts of the church year. It was set up in the honor of the announcement by the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God, who would become the salvation for the lost humanity...

  • How to understand and to keep God’s Сommandments?

    How to understand and to keep God’s Сommandments

    The soul comes in this world and gets the greatest gift from God – it is life. The Lord gave Ten Commandments to humanity for its salvation; in these Commandments the rules of life are described. The Lord gave the choice to people – to keep God’s Commandments or to ignore them. It is sometimes very difficult to make this choice. Why?

  • How to sow a good grain in your heart?

    How to sow a good grain in your heart?The human’s soul is a specific soil, which is sowed with informational grain. And when a man takes some information close to his heart it grows with thoughts and later with feelings...

  • How to pray for peace in Ukraine?

    How to pray for peace in Ukraine

    Today a lot of people ask question: “How to pray in the time of the terrible war aggression, which is happening in Ukraine right now? How long this darkness will last in our country? How long people will suffer in it?”

  • How should we move towards God’s blessing?

    How should we move towards God’s blessing?

    A person who believes in God always comes to a priest to get the blessing when he/she needs help in solving difficult problems, which happen in life. But not always help arrives. Why?

  • How can we protect ourselves and our children from the hard diseases?

    How can we protect ourselves and our children from the hard diseases?

    Jesus Christ says that a man gets ill because of his sins or his parents’ sins. It looks very easy – just live religious life and your kids and you will be healthy. It is a pity, but in our life everything happens in a very different way. Because we all are weak and poor, even those who visit the church.

  • Confession as the tool for happiness

    Confession as the tool for happiness

    The happiness is such a short word, but it absorbs all human needs, dreams and desires. People make huge mistakes when they try to chase it and later people pay for it with the great sufferings. And the hardest sufferings are spiritual sufferings, because there is no handmade medicine for it...

  • Christian feast “Christmas Day”

    Christian feast Christmas Day

    The feast of Christmas is considered to be a great Christian holiday and it is one of twelve main Orthodox feasts, which are celebrated by Church with a special solemnity. The feast was set in the honor of the birth of Our God Jesus Christ, God’s Son on the Earth...

  • About wisdom of forgiveness of enemies and about wisdom in difficult moments of life

    About wisdom of forgiveness of enemies and about wisdom in difficult moments of life

    Great Lent begins, and there are difficult moments. It is necessary to prepare for the feast, it is necessary to be able to forgive. But you should forgive wisely. In what way? It should not be in the way that you forgive a person, and he/she betrays you immediately… Therefore, it is necessary to be wise. If you have not enough wisdom, you can ask God for help: "God, give me Your wisdom, give me Your wise love..."

  • About the wedding guests and about the Christian society

    About the wedding guests and about the Christian society

    True Christianity is one thing and the other thing is formal Christianity. You can screen yourself behind such words as “Christian”, “Christian world”, “Christian country”, “We are with God’”, etc. But if you do not make steps in the way to change the society on the Earth, to change it for better and lighter future, you will not hide in that words…

  • About the unforgiving debtor, about Russian aggression and about inevitability of retribution

    About the unforgiving debtor, about Russian aggression and about inevitability of retribution

    Now when we look at the situation in Ukraine we see that Russia shakes us and says: “Ukraine! Give back everything, what you have, because I think that you own me maybe since USSR.”…

  • About the Sower and about the results of earth life

    About the Sower and about the results of earth life

    It is important to remember that God gives gifts to a man, that this man could multiply those gifts. God doesn’t want to take them back. He wants the field full of wheat on that place where He sowed…

  • About the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and about God’s blessing

    About the Pharisee and the Tax Collector and about God’s blessing

    There is a difficult choice in front of us – how to communicate with God, what gift bring to Him and what to ask. We have to understand that and be ruled by that in our lives, that our life could be full of God’s power. That we understand who we really are. This God wants…

  • About the perception of the world through God’s knowledge with humbleness, wisdom and hope

    About the perception of the world through God’s knowledge with humbleness, wisdom and hope

    Every soul on the Earth, which comes in this world, gets its body. It starts to live in this world and comes across with one thing – it is a choice. The soul makes a choice what to do: evil or good. The soul choses whether to say the truth or to practice deceit. These things are the choices of the soul. Why?…

  • About the miracle of healing of two blind men and how protect yourself from blindness

    About the miracle of healing of two blind men and how protect yourself from blindness

    Many people come to God only for the ritual. It mean that people want to be healed only physically. He/She forgets that first of all you should be healed spiritually. But again, when the person takes care only for the body, his spirit degrades...

  • About the healing of the invalid near the pool and about the presence of God’s power in our life

    About the healing of the invalid near the pool and about the presence of God’s power in our life

    The people, who follow God’s road, devote their lives to serve God also have angels near themselves, which are blessed by God. Angels help in life and give God’s healing…