If Angels Come Down From Heaven 2005-09-17 Voice of Russia

"I came from a monastery to lift the Russian people's sagging spirits and help them with a word of prayer which is a time-tested spiritual remedy and I know that, some day, Russia will be born again," says the song and its author, Ilya, a onetime monk at the Royal Martyrs' Monastery at Ganina Yama in the Urals.

The spiritual songs Ilya sings are a combination of prayers, calls for repentance and prophesies about this country's future. These songs are tougher and more aggressive, so to say, as compared with other songs of this genre. What they lack in melodiousness and poetic perfection they more than make up for with their powerful concentration of spiritual energy.

Read more about "If Angels Come Down From Heaven" at The Christian Message From Moscow website or visit the Mansfield & United Lutheran podcasts to hear this week's sermon from an ELCA perspective.