Kiev, February 27, 2023
Photo: news.church.ua
Before the start of the Great Fast, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, sent a message to the Orthodox faithful in Ukraine with words of instruction and a blessing for a special Lenten prayer rule.
His Beatitude writes:
By God’s grace, in this difficult year for all of us, we have approached the beginning of the holy Great Fast. Great Lent, called the Quadragesima due to the number of days, is intended for our correction and improvement. It’s a time of prayerful concentration and hard work on one’s spiritual life, a time when everything external subsides, allowing the inner to open up. “Fasting elevates a man to Heaven, puts him before Christ and introduces him into communication with the saints,” teaches St. John Chrysostom.
This year, Lent, beginning in the difficult conditions of war, shouldn’t depress but, on the contrary, should encourage us on the path to the joy of the Bright Resurrection of Christ. Entering the days of the holy Quadragesima, let us remember that the Fast is not the goal but a means. We impose restrictions upon ourselves in order to grow spiritually in Christ. The Fast is special, precious time given to us to become freer from sinful addictions, to renew faith, hope and love in our hearts.
We bless the clergy, the monastics, and the faithful of our Ukrainian Orthodox Church to read Psalms 45 and 90 from the Psalter every day throughout Lent, as well as to make 12 prostrations with the Lord’s Prayer, for peace in our long-suffering Ukrainian land.
May our Saviour Jesus Christ bless our Ukrainian land and our people, so that by the labor of prayer we might learn to be united around the Truth, Which is Christ Himself (John 14: 6), so that we, united with one another by the union of Divine love, might successfully overcome hardships and difficulties on the path of our earthly life.
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