A Church is a sanctified place; a holy place in which the grace of God is present continually. During the sanctification of Solomon’s Temple the glory of God in the form of a cloud filled the House of God. This occurred in the Old Testament Temple. How much the more does the grace of God act in New Testament temples, in which genuine cleansing of sins is granted, in which we commune of the Body and Blood of Christ regularly and the Holy Spirit comes down during the Liturgy on the Gifts being sanctified as well as on all the people present. It is true, one can pray anywhere and the Lord hears our prayers from everywhere. Yet, it is much easier to pray in church where everything inspires us to pray. It is from there that our prayers ascend to God and call down upon us God’s mercy.

The building of a Church is a sacrifice unto God; the setting aside of a parcel of land for Divine service, the donation of part of one’s possessions. But, most importantly is the offering to Him of one’s love, of one’s efforts. Churches have been erected under differing circumstances: in times of joy and in times of lamentation. They were constructed as candles offered from all the people arising on the scape of their native land.

St. Peter, the Metropolitan of Kiev, having visited the then small city of Moscow, told Prince John Kalita to build “The house of the Mother of God.” “What is the use of a new church?” – some would now say. Even without this new construction there were sufficient churches in the small Moscow. Most of them had been built by Kalita’s father, the righteous prince St. Daniel. But without hesitation, prince John began the construction of the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God. The temple was barely completed when Moscow began to rise and her princes united around themselves all the lands of Rus’.

Churches are needed not by God, Whose throne is the heavens and Whose footstool is the earth. We need churches. It is we who benefit from our own donations to the churches. Yet the Lord accepts not so much the substance donated as much as our ardor and zeal. Christ declared good the gift of the widow, pointing out that she put down more than all the rest, for the wealthy gave of their surplus, but she gave all that she had, her entire sustenance. Our sacrifices in the Name of God are accepted by God Himself. Spiritually our gifts proceed to the Divine coffers, from where no one can apprehend them.

This is the way pious Russian folk of old saw it, as they gave their pennies to the gray haired “Uncle Vlasy”, who went around collecting funds for the church.

At each Divine service the builders of the Holy Temple are commemorated.

By building churches here on earth, we construct for ourselves eternal abodes in the heavens. Decades will pass – and our bodies will decay – nothing may remain even from our very bones. Yet our souls will live forever. How good it will be for those who have prepared their abodes in the heavenly chambers! Even if those churches built on earth will be destroyed, the names of their constructors will be recorded in the eternal Divine Books and the prayers that had been offered in these churches will be remembered perpetually.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts; consider your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the Temple of God; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified… I am with you, saith the Lord (Haggai Ch. 1)