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His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel marked the beginning of the New Year 2022 with a midnight service of thanksgiving including the Akathist Hymn to our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ at the Patriarchal Cathedral on Friday, basilica.ro reports.
The Patriarch of Romania stressed that by constantly calling the saving name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of the world and the King of the ages, the lives, the time and the space of those who pray are sanctified.
New Year is a new gift that we receive from God
“This service performed at the turn of the year is a bridge of gratitude and hope. The New Year we have entered is a new gift that we receive from God for our salvation, that is, for cultivating communion with Him through prayer and good works.”
“That is why, now, at the turn of the year, we need to think even more about how to use the time of our lives as a time blessed by God,” Patriarch Daniel said.
His Beatitude added that for Christians, all ages are a blessed time, and that is why we read in the Akathist of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Jesus, Guardian of mine infancy! Jesus, Nourisher of my youth! Jesus, Praise of mine old age! Jesus, my Hope at death! Jesus, my Life after death! Jesus, my Comfort at Thy Judgement!”
“Christ, as God and Man, lives eternity and time at once,” His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel explained recalling that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” as St. Paul notes in his epistle to the Hebrews.
“In Jesus Christ, time gives the Christian the opportunity to participate in eternal life. This time of man’s salvation or union with God is offered to us in the Church of Christ as a transfigured, sanctified and fulfilled time, especially by partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ which are given to us in the Holy Eucharist for the forgiveness of sins and for the life everlasting. The consecration of time, therefore, is accomplished through prayer and good works.”
“Time spent in prayer at home or at work, in the church, or on the journey is not wasted time, but a time sanctified, eternal, which brings grace and joy.”
“The Orthodox Church has in its worship the book called Horologion or the Book of Hours, according to which prayer paces the life and spiritual growth of the believer as a spiritual clock. In addition, the ‘Orthodox Calendar’, through each day sanctified by the prayer and light of the saints of the days of the year and with each feast, becomes the screen of the passing time oriented to the eternal life of the kingdom of the love of the Most Holy Trinity enjoyed by saints of all ages.”
“The history of the Church and the theological and spiritual meanings of the Christian life call us today to bear witness to the truth that man is called to sanctification in a relationship of humble gratitude to the Holy God and to merciful or generous love for people to gain the peace and joy of eternal life in the Kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity.”
“But the secularisation of human life reduces it to become earthly and temporarily and deprives contemporary man of the horizon of eternal life as man’s eternal relationship of love with God, the Creator of the Universe.”
“The Holy Gospel shows us that every moment of a Christian’s life can be a time of salvation. In a moment we can gain salvation by repentance, like the penitent thief on the cross, or we can lose salvation if death finds us spiritually unprepared, that is, separated from God by unbelief and evil deeds, unforgiven by repentance.”
Life – a book that we write and correct until the day of departure
The Patriarch recalled that some Holy Fathers of the Church understood the time of our life as “a book that we write and correct until the day we leave this life when God will judge or evaluate the time of human life paying attention to the light of the deeds committed.”
In this regard, Patriarch Daniel quoted St. Isaac the Syrian, who says:
“Dealings in this world resemble a copy of a book which is still in rough draft. What a man desires or whenever he wishes, something can be added to or taken from it, and so he may alter his writing. Future dealings resemble documents drawn up as bonds, provided with the seal of the king, to or from which it is not allowed to add or subtract anything. As long as we are in the place where altering is possible, let us observe ourselves; and while we have authority over our lifebook and our book is still between our hands, let us zealously add [acts of] beautiful behaviour, and let us scratch from it the loss of the old behaviour without freedom. We are allowed to scratch out faults, as long as we are here. And God will take into account every alteration we make in it. May we be deemed worthy of life everlasting before we appear before the king, and He puts His seal on the book. As long as we are in this world, God will not put His seal neither on our good works nor on our bad ones, before the hour of departure, when we have completed the sacrifice of our country and we prepare to strike camp.” (St Isaac the Syrian, Mystic Treatises, LXII, 436)
Who gives us many happy years?
“At the beginning of the New Year, many people wish each other ‘Happy New Year, Health, Joy, Happiness, Fulfilment of All Wishes.’ But where do all these gifts come from? Who gives us many happy years? Who gives us full health? Who helps us to fulfil our desires? Only the Merciful God can fulfil all our holy and good wishes,” the Patriarch of Romania noted.
“Life, health, and the time of our earthly life are gifts from God that must be kept and cultivated with great care, humility, and wisdom for our personal profit, for our family, and society in which we live.”
In his sermon on New Year’s Eve, Patriarch Daniel recalled that the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church proclaimed 2022 as a Solemn Year of Prayer in the Church’s life and the Christian’s life” and a Commemorative Year of the Hesychast Saints Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas and Paisius (Velichkovsky) of Neamt.
“Prayer is the foundation of man’s life and spiritual growth. It is saving and sanctifying because it fills us with the presence of the love of the Merciful God, with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit,” the Patriarch said.
May we have full confidence in the power of prayer!
“Let us pray more to God for the speedy cessation of the present pandemic, that we may live and work naturally and freely,” His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel urged at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest.
“Let us have full confidence in the power of prayer and much responsibility for our own health and that of our neighbours. Let us pray to God to bless the crown of the year we have entered and to give the Romanian people in the country, in the vicinity of its borders, and in the Romanian diaspora strong faith, peace and joy, the abundance of the fruits of the earth, and much help in all good deeds, for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and our salvation. Many and blessed years!” Patriarch Daniel said concluding his speech.
At the end of the service, the faithful received prayer cards depicting the Saviour Jesus Christ and the Orthodox Calendar for 2022.
