Primate of UOC: Fast changes Divine Judgment from strict to merciful (VIDEO)
"By the grace of God, we, dear brothers and sisters, reached Thursday of the first week of the Holy Great Lent. Everyone tried to fast due to their abilities and effort. And we pray that the Lord will grant us to properly accomplish the feat," said the Primate.
He recalled that fast is a blessing for us. "Fast reminds a man of the way of life, which our forefathers led in Paradise, it restores the distorted Divine image and helps to become godlike."
His Beatitude gave the believers a model of repentance from the Scriptures - an example of the people of Nineveh, who repented after the words of the prophet Jonah and were pardoned.
"Fast changes the Divine Judgement from strict to merciful," said His Beatitude.
He said that a lot of days all the inhabitants of the town of sinners - from infants to adults – did not eat anything at all. "And there was a great cry of repentance in this town, after which the Lord changed his anger to mercy and spared these people for their great repentance."
Metropolitan Onuphry urged everyone to sincerely repent of all their sins and transgressions, then be sure the Lord will have mercy on us.
"Great repentance bars great sins. Whether our sins are big or small, only God knows and, to some extent, we do. But each of us must make every effort, do the utmost to repent of the sins that we have," he said.
"May the Lord help us, dear brothers and sisters, to undergo Lent in corporal abstinence, prayer and repentance so that we will be honored to see the glorious light of the Resurrection Day of our Lord Jesus Christ," wished the Primate.
<
Read also
Odesa UOC Eparchy: "We can no longer be silent; we will defend the Church"
The press service of the Odesa Eparchy commented on the statement regarding the ROC's actions toward dioceses in occupied territories.
OCU Cathedral in Lutsk decorated with frescoes of businessmen
Due to criticism of this initiative, the images had to be redone.
Yelensky on UOC bishops’ statement: We expect an exit from the ROC, not talks
The DESS head suggested that the Primate did not support this statement, as he hadn't put his signature on it.
Dumenko laments that believers in Zakarpattia are not joining his structure
During his stay in Khust, the OCU leader remarked that Orthodox Zakarpattians still remain "under the spell of the Russian world.”
UOC hierarchs oppose ROC's actions in Russian-occupied territories
The UOC condemned the Synod of the ROC’s decision to release Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol from managing the Donetsk Eparchy of the UOC.
Amsterdam: Ukraine uses judiciary as an instrument of torture of UOC clergy
An American lawyer has commented on the hospitalization of Metropolitan Longin (Zhar) during a court session.