Kiev, April 24, 2023
Photo: news.church.ua
Despite the state’s attempts to expel holy Orthodoxy from the Kiev Caves Lavra and despite the increasing provocations against the monks and faithful there, Orthodox services and prayers continue to ring out in the holy monastery.
The brotherhood was informed on March 10 that it had until March 29 to completely leave the territory of the Lavra, which has been state owned since Soviet times. The monastery is also home to the Kiev Theological Seminary and Academy and the administration of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
However, the Orthodox faithful have been filling the Lavra by the thousands every day since then in prayerful defense of their beloved monastery. And though the authorities and schismatic-nationalist radicals have staged a number of provocations, including placing the abbot under house arrest, groundlessly detaining seminarians and human rights activists defending the monastery, and mocking and ridiculing the pious faithful and the Orthodox faith, Orthodox services and prayers continue to be celebrated in the Lavra.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev, the primate of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine, led the service for Thomas Sunday yesterday in the Church of St. Agapit of the Caves, concelebrated by other hierarchs and clerics, reports the Information-Education Department of the UOC.
After the reading of the Holy Gospel, His Beatitude addressed the congregation with a homily, calling on the people to not only believe with their minds, but to live in accordance with their faith.
“Those laws that represent the will of God are set forth in the Holy Gospel. God wants us to love, respect, and forgive each other. May the Lord help us, dear brothers and sisters, to be truly blessed, so that we not only know God in our minds, but also do His holy will. This is the kind of living faith that brings a man into the Kingdom of Heaven,” the Ukrainian primate said.
Photo: news.church.ua And today, Met. Onuphry again joined the faithful in prayer in defense of the Lavra, leading the reading of the Akathist to the Venerable Fathers of the Kiev Caves.
His Beatitude thanked all the people for their loving prayer:
I sincerely thank you for your prayers, which you offer here today in this place—a place of prayer, since the Lavra was created for prayer. I thank you for coming here and praying here for the brothers of the holy Monastery, for our soldiers, who today stand guard over our state, for our native land, for the government, for all people…
Prayer is what protects the world, and malice, hatred is what destroys the world.
Love God, love one another, and pray to save our world. Christ is Risen!
In comments to the Union of Orthodox Journalists, Met. Onuphry called on the faithful not to succumb to provocations, but to behave with dignity. He also encouraged them to continue praying that those who persecute the Church might be enlightened.
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