UOC Primate: There is no person of whom Mother of God does not care
The help of the Most Holy Theotokos is effective if we live in dignity and turn to Her with sincere prayers, said His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.
The Mother of God is a helper to all of us, and there is no such person of whom She does not care. The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, said this in his sermon on October 5, 2020, on the day of honouring the Icon of the Mother of God " "Quickly-Hearing", reports the UOC Information and Education Department.
“The Mother of God is the beauty of heaven because She is ‘the most honest Cherubim and the most glorious without comparison Seraphim’ and is the helper to all of us,” said His Beatitude Onuphry. "There is no such person of whom the Mother of God does not care, and blessed is the person who knows this and who is grateful to the Mother of God for Her prayers."
According to the Primate, the Blessed Virgin Mary is always with us, especially when we are in sorrow and illness.
“She is ready and wants to help us, but Her help is then effective when we ask the Mother of God: ‘Help us, stand up for us, save us!’ Then She prays to the Savior for us. The Lord gives us great, all-powerful grace that strengthens us in our trials," he explained.
The Primate added that through the icon "Quickly-Hearing" the Mother of God shows us that She always hears us, "only we need to be sensitive to our salvation, we need to live attentively, we need to look at where is good and where is evil, and turn away from evil to good."
“Of course, it happens in life that evil itself sticks to us, but good, no matter how much we want to learn it, do it, is given with difficulty,” he said. “It happens that a person has heard a song, and it plays over and over in his head ... And the prayer that a person reads every day and tries to read with all his heart, with all his soul does not go into the mind like that. Because a person is more inclined to evil, and evil sticks to us more easily than good."
We must force ourselves to love God and our neighbour, to forgive, pray, fast and do good deeds, His Beatitude emphasized. And if we live like this, "the Mother of God will listen to us with joy, She will help us with joy."
At the end of the sermon, the Primate of the UOC called on everyone to live as the Lord commanded in the Holy Gospel.
“God's Laws are eternal and perfect. <...> And when we try to live according to the Gospel, then there will be God's blessing on us, and the Mother of God will always cover us with Her prayerful veil, and we will obtain eternal salvation in the coming future,” resumed His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry.
As reported, the Primate of the UOC led the patronal feast of the Monastery of the Icon of the Mother of God "Quickly-Hearing" in the village of Fasova.
