On Monday, 14 March 2016, in the evening, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said to the faithful that“prayer which represents the breath of the Church throughout this period of inner spiritual climbing to the Resurrection is a prayer of repentance: God, have mercy on me!” The Patriarch of Romania said that the“mercy of God is His humble and merciful love for human beings”.
His Beatitude celebrated theCanon of Saint Andrew of Crete, within the Great Compline. The canon celebration began in the holy place of worship at 16.00 hours, in the presence of hundreds of faithful.
The decayed man can rise through repentance
While referring to the present period, His Beatitude Daniel underlined that“the entire period of the Triode is spiritually focused on the state of repentance, especially during Lent we have just begun”. Repentance is a gift from God for human beings,“because the decayed man can rise through repentance, the doomed man can get his bearings again in his relationship with God and the man spiritually dead because of the sins committed can be spiritually resurrected”.Repentance is a change too“a passage from the sinful state of disobedience towards God and His commandments to a state of obedience towards God and fulfilment of His will”.
We bring God into our soul through prayer
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel has also spoken about prayer, showing that in this way“we bring God into our soul and feel His peace and joy as foretaste of the Paradise”. His Beatitude has also explained the meaning of fasting showing that“fasting is an offering brought to God, a self-sacrifice, namely that we offer God the sacrifice of our fasting and He gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit or of the virtues beginning with the gifts received at Baptism”. Because during Fasting Christ crucified and risen is“the centre of life in the liturgical life”, during fasting“we do no longer rely on our physical life or on the help around, but only on God”.
Fasting and repentance are the work of the entire Church
The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also underlined the fact that“repentance is not frightening, but a chance for renewal”, and while fasting “we show that we love God, the Giver of life and eternity, more than the material gifts that He gives us”. The Patriarch of Romania has also emphasised the connection between fasting and repentance, saying that“they are not only individual, personal gestures, but also the work of the entire Church. It is very important to pray together with the Church during Lent so that we should rejoice together with the Church during the Resurrection night”.
Because we are during the Lent period, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel is wearing black cassock, keeping the white kalimavkion, the well know insignia of the patriarchal dignity.
The celebration was transmitted live byTRINITAS TV, the Television of the Romanian Patriarchate.
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