PATRIARCHAL EXARCH CELEBRATED THE SUNDAY LITURGY AT THE CATHEDRAL

On 11 October 2026, the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, Metropolitan Mark of Korsun and Western Europe, Patriarchal Exarch of Western Europe, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Holy Trinity Cathedral. Concelebrating with him were Priest Maxim Politov, secretary of the Korsun Diocesan Administration, and the cathedral clergy.

The hymns were sung and the prayers offered in Church Slavonic and in French.

After the Prayer Behind the Ambo, Metropolitan Mark addressed the parishioners present with a homily:

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Today, dear brothers and sisters, we heard the Gospel account of the miraculous catch of fish, when at the Saviour’s word the apostles’ nets were filled with a great number of fish (Luke 5:1-7).

Everyone wants to succeed. The Apostle Peter, like any fisherman, tried to succeed and relied on his own strength and experience. Peter certainly believed in God, but at that moment he did not yet understand that the Lord was far closer than he could imagine. For it turned out that the will of God is fulfilled quite easily, since the Lord Himself blessed that miraculous catch.

Before this, the Apostle Peter had spent the whole night fishing and had caught nothing; here a single word from the Teacher was enough for the net to be filled (Luke 5:5-6).

When we speak of the Apostle Peter, we sometimes forget that the Lord granted him something deeper and more spiritual than a catch of fish. He called him to become a fisher of men (Luke 5:10). From that hour the former fisherman left his trade, at the very moment when success and an astonishing catch had come to him, though of course by God’s help. The Apostle Peter left everything and followed Christ (Luke 5:11).

In the same way, dear brothers and sisters, we often rely on ourselves. We often think that success in life is secured by our professional qualities, by pursuing the goal we have set and by patience. But we forget that true success depends on God. He gives us the chance to achieve a result, He helps us in our labours. It also happens that a person keeps striving for one thing while God calls him to another and gives him something greater.

Nor should we think that we are among those who have not been called. The very word “Church” comes from the Greek word meaning “to call”. People of the Church are those whom God has called.

Just as the Apostle Peter was called to follow Christ, so we too are called to carry out a particular mission in this world. The Lord opens His own path before us, and we can become a vessel of God’s grace and an instrument of divine Providence.

May God grant us, brothers and sisters, not to rely on ourselves alone. For in today’s apostolic reading we heard the words of the Apostle Paul, that the power of God is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).

That is, the more we humble ourselves and the less we rely solely on our own strength, the greater will be our opportunity to become an instrument of divine Providence, and the greater our hope of success in whatever we do and in the mission the Lord has entrusted to us.

Let us remember this, dear brothers and sisters, and let this miraculous catch of fish, of which the Evangelist Luke tells us, be for us an example and a reminder that true success in life depends on the Lord. Amen.