On March 29, the 5th Sunday of Great Lent, dedicated to Venerable Mary of Egypt, Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal & Canada celebrated Divine Liturgy in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City. Concelebrating with His Eminence were cathedral clerics: dean Archpriest Andrei Sommer, Archpriest Seraphim Chemodakov, Hieromonk Theognost (Kogan), and Protodeacon Serge Arlievsky.

Cathedral parishioners and faithful from other churches gathered to pray during the service. Many communed of Christ’s Holy Mysteries.

Upon conclusion of Liturgy, Archbishop Gabriel greeted the clergy and the faithful with the feast and addressed the worshippers with a sermon, in which he spoke of the life of St. Mary of Egypt, and said, in part:

"Mary set sail for Jerusalem, not so much to venerate the holy sites as to seduce the pilgrims. And we know that when they arrived in Jerusalem, and everyone headed toward the Holy Sepulcher and the Life-Giving Cross, she was prevented by some force unknown to her from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher along with the other pilgrims. Several times, something stopped her at the gates leading to the holy place. It was then that she reflected upon her sinful life and realized that, most likely, it was for this very reason that she was being barred from this holy place. Upon seeing an icon of the Mother of God, she immediately offered a prayer of repentance, imploring the Theotokos to grant her the grace to enter the church, and promising that she would thereafter amend her life. Having repented, Mary was able to enter freely; she venerated the Cross, and, after praying to the Mother of God, she heard a voice instructing her to go to the Jordan, into the wilderness, and to spend the remainder of her life there.

"When the Elder Zosimas, having ventured into the wilderness during Great Lent, caught sight of the saint’s silhouette in the distance, he ran to overtake her. They began to converse, and Mary recounted to him the story of her life and how she had come to repentance. When the Elder asked her how many years she had spent in the wilderness, she replied that it had been 47 years.

"Mary instructed Zosimas that, when he returned to the desert the following year, he should bring her Holy Communion, so that she might commune and thereafter surrender her soul to God. And so it came to pass. When the elder arrived, he administered Communion to Mary; she then recited the prayer, ‘Now lettest Thou Thy handmaid depart in peace, O Master…’ and reposed in the Lord. Later, when Venerable Zosimas beheld a lion, he felt no fear, but rather asked the lion to dig a grave in which Mary could be laid to rest."

His Eminence noted that, "While we are far removed from the ascetic feats undertaken by St. Mary in the desert, we must nonetheless recognize our own sinfulness and the imperative to spend our time on earth in repentance, keeping our minds fixed upon that which is most essential: the realization that we ever stand beneath the gaze of God. Great Lent is precisely that season granted to us for the sake of repentance, for partaking of Christ’s Holy Mysteries, and for embarking upon a new life."

During the days of Great Lent, Archbishop Gabriel exhorted the faithful to abstain from worldly amusements, to devote themselves more earnestly to prayer, and to offer alms to the needy; he urged them, both individually and within their parish communities, to observe these days with due reverence, so that they might greet the feast of Pascha with a pure heart.