Kiev, February 26, 2024
Photo: Ukrainian Orthodox Church (YouTube)
Though there are many different types of prayer, the most powerful prayer is that which is offered from a state of humility, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church preached yesterday on the pre-Lenten Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.
Through the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Lord “reminds us what prayer should be like,” His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine said during his homily in the St. Agapit Church of the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra, reports the UOC’s Information-Education Department.
“Fasting and prayer are the main virtues by which a man is spiritually improved and acquires the likeness of God,” His Beatitude said. “Prayer is an appeal, a conversation with God, breath for the soul, through which man receives the Divine grace that nourishes him.”
The Ukrainian primate enumerated the various types of prayer: supplicatory, penitential, praise, and thanksgiving, noting that supplicatory and penitential prayers make up the bulk of our daily prayers, “but it’s very important to thank God for everything and always. The most powerful prayer is humble.”
“As we heard in the Gospel reading, the most powerful is humble prayer,” His Beatitude noted. “For the Lord resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble (Js. 4:6). And those who exalt themselves will sooner or later be humbled. And those who humble themselves will be exalted by God in due time (cf. Mt. 23:12).”
Met. Onuphry also reminded his flock that all the gifts we have are from God.
“May the Lord help us to try to remember in prayer that God is the Creator, and we are His creation. This understanding obliges a man to humble himself. He who prides himself on gifts appropriates them for himself and becomes a transgression. The man who relies on God shows that the gifts are not his, but God’s. In this way, a man properly relates to his Creator, and God multiplies the talents in such a man” His Beatitude said.Top of Form
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