Two Lavra temples cannot accommodate all believers at Sunday service

April 14, 2024, on the Fourth Sunday of Lent and the day of the memory of the Monk John of the Ladder, hundreds of believers came to pray at the Divine Liturgy in Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The two temples in honor of St. Agapit of Pechersk and St. Sergius of Radonezh, which are now available for prayer for the laity, could not accommodate all those who wished to pray. People prayed nearby, in the open air.

The service in the church of St. Agapit was led by the Primate of the UOC.

In his homily, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry explained that during Lent a person tries to climb the spiritual ladder and become better. That is why, he said, the Venerable John of the Ladder and his main work are mentioned during these days.

"When a person observes the commandments of the Lord, embodies the Divine image in his life, this image raises a person from one step of love to the next. May the Lord help us, dear brothers and sisters, to labor in the work of our salvation, so that we may joyfully greet the great and bright feast of the Glorious Resurrection of Christ!" he wished.

The great ascetic St. John Climacus was a Sinai hegumen who, in his work "The Ladder", drew up the doctrine of moral perfection – a ladder, gradually climbing which one can spiritually ascend from earth to Heaven.

Also on the territory of the monastery in the church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow", the guardian of the Nearby Caves Archimandrite John led a service for the Lavra brethren.

During all the services, special petitions were offered for the granting of peace and quiet in our Ukrainian land and deliverance from all enemies and adversaries, as well as for God's blessing to host those who were forced to leave their native homes.

As the UOJ wrote, there is a daily prayer standing near the Lavra.