{"id":22341,"date":"2020-02-27T11:38:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T10:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxia.be\/?p=22341"},"modified":"2020-02-27T12:38:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T11:38:37","slug":"catechetical-homily-of-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-on-the-beginning-of-holy-and-great-lent-2020catechetical-homily-at-the-opening-of-holy-and-great-lent-bartholomew-by-gods-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxia.be\/en\/2020\/02\/27\/catechetical-homily-of-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-on-the-beginning-of-holy-and-great-lent-2020catechetical-homily-at-the-opening-of-holy-and-great-lent-bartholomew-by-gods-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"Catechetical Homily on the beginning of Holy and Great Lent (2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"

CATECHETICAL HOMILY
\nAT THE OPENING
\nOF HOLY AND GREAT LENT
\n\u2020 BARTHOLOMEW<\/strong>
\nBY GOD\u2019S MERCY
\nARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE \u2013 NEW ROME
\nAND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH
\nTO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH,
\nMAY THE GRACE AND PEACE
\nOF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,
\nTOGETHER WITH OUR PRAYER, BLESSING AND FORGIVENESS
\nBE WITH YOU ALL<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

We offer hymns of thanks to the God of love as once again we enter Holy and Great Lent, the arena of ascetic struggle, fasting and abstinence, of vigilance and spiritual awareness, of guarding our senses and prayer, of humility and self-knowledge. We are commencing a new and blessed pilgrimage toward Holy Pascha, which has \u201copened for us the gates of paradise.\u201d In Church and as Church, as we behold the Risen Lord of glory, we all journey together along the way of deification by grace that leads to the heavenly goods \u201cprepared by God for those who love Him\u201d (1 Cor. 2:9).<\/p>\n

In the Church, where \u201cthe eternal mystery\u201d of divine Economy is realized, all things have their unwavering theological foundation and pure soteriological reference. The incarnation of God and the deification of man are the pillars of the Orthodox faith. We move toward our eternal destination in the love of Christ. Our God, Who is \u201calways for us,\u201d can never be reduced to some \u201chigher power\u201d enclosed in transcendence and the grandeur of almightiness or its holiness. Instead, He is the pre-eternal Word of God, Who \u201cassumed our form\u201d in order to invite humankind to the communion of His holiness, of the genuine freedom. Man, who from the beginning \u201chas been honored with freedom,\u201d is invited to freely accept this divine gift. In the divine-human mystery of salvation, our synergy also functions as a witness in the world of the blessing that we have experienced\u2014\u201cwhat do you have that you did not receive?\u201d (1 Cor. 4:7)\u2014through the love for the \u2018brother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holy and Great Lent is par excellence a period of experiencing this freedom bestowed by Christ. Fasting and ascesis do not comprise a discipline imposed externally, but a voluntary respect of ecclesiastical practice, obedience to Church Tradition that is not a sterile letter but a living and life-giving presence, a permanent expression of the unity, sanctity, catholicity and apostolicity of the Church. The language of theology and hymnography speaks of \u201cjoyful sorrow\u201d and \u201cthe spring of fasting.\u201d This is because authentic asceticism is always joyful, springful and bright. It knows no dualism or division; it does not undermine life or the world. \u201cDepressive ascesis\u201d that leads to an \u201caridity of human nature\u201d has nothing to do with the spirit of Orthodoxy, where the ascetic life and spirituality are nurtured by resurrectional joy. In this sense, fasting and ascesis contain an alternative proposal for life before the promised false paradise of eudemonism and nihilistic pessimism.<\/p>\n

Another essential element of Orthodox ascetic spirituality is its social character. The God of our faith is \u201cthe most social God,\u201d \u201ca God of relations.\u201d It has rightly been said that the Holy Trinity is \u201cthe negation of loneliness.\u201d The individualization of salvation and piety, the transformation of ascesis into an individual achievement, overlook the Trinity-centered essence of the ecclesial event. When we fast for ourselves and according to our whim, then fasting does not express the spirit of the Orthodox tradition. Spirituality is the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit, Which is always \u201ca spirit of communion.\u201d The genuine Orthodox spiritual life always refers to the ecclesial dimension of our existence and not to some \u201cspiritual self-realization.\u201d<\/p>\n

In adhering to the dedication of this year by the Holy Great Church of Christ to \u201cthe pastoral renewal and due concern for our youth,\u201d we call upon our Orthodox young men and women to participate in the spiritual struggle of Great Lent in order to experience its anthropological depth and liberating spirit, to understand that Orthodox asceticism is a way of freedom and existential fulfilment in the context of the blessed life in the Church, whose core is to \u201cspeak the truth in love.\u201d Our Orthodox youth is called to discover the holistic character of fasting, which is praised in the Triodion as \u201cthe commencement of spiritual struggles,\u201d as \u201cfood for the soul,\u201d as \u201cmother of all good things and all virtues.\u201d It is not simply an abstinence from certain foods, but a struggle against self-love and self-sufficiency, a sensitivity toward our suffering neighbor, and a tangible response of support. It is a Eucharistic use of creation, existential fulfilment, communion of life and solidarity. Ascesis, fasting, prayer and humility convey the fragrance and light of the Resurrection, from which they receive meaning and direction. As the quintessence of ecclesial life and its eschatological orientation, the Resurrection inseparably links the ascetic life with the Divine Eucharist, the sacrament of foretaste of the ineffable joy of the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The fact that the Divine Eucharist is preserved as the center of the life in the Orthodox Church is associated with the fact that the Resurrection is the foundation of our faith and the bright horizon of our ascetic spirituality as well as of our good witness in the world.<\/p>\n

With these thoughts, we humbly invoke upon all of you the mercy and blessing of the God of love, so that we may pursue the race of Holy and Great Lent with devout heart, reach the saving Passion of Christ our God and, glorifying His ineffable forbearance, shine brightly for the feast of His splendid Resurrection that leads us from death to endless life.<\/p>\n

Holy and Great Lent 2020<\/p>\n

Bartholomew of Constantinople
\nFervent supplicant for all before God<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CATECHETICAL HOMILY AT THE OPENING OF HOLY AND GREAT LENT \u2020 BARTHOLOMEW BY GOD\u2019S MERCY ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE \u2013 NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH, MAY THE GRACE AND PEACE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, TOGETHER WITH OUR PRAYER, BLESSING AND FORGIVENESS BE WITH YOU ALL *** We … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actuality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCatechetical Homily on the beginning of Holy and Great Lent (2020) - Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orthodoxia.be\/en\/2020\/02\/27\/catechetical-homily-of-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-on-the-beginning-of-holy-and-great-lent-2020catechetical-homily-at-the-opening-of-holy-and-great-lent-bartholomew-by-gods-mercy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Catechetical Homily on the beginning of Holy and Great Lent (2020) - Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CATECHETICAL HOMILY AT THE OPENING OF HOLY AND GREAT LENT \u2020 BARTHOLOMEW BY GOD\u2019S MERCY ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE \u2013 NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH, MAY THE GRACE AND PEACE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, TOGETHER WITH OUR PRAYER, BLESSING AND FORGIVENESS BE WITH YOU ALL *** We … Continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orthodoxia.be\/en\/2020\/02\/27\/catechetical-homily-of-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-on-the-beginning-of-holy-and-great-lent-2020catechetical-homily-at-the-opening-of-holy-and-great-lent-bartholomew-by-gods-mercy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/orthobel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-27T10:38:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-27T11:38:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/orthodoxia.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/\u0397-\u0391\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03cd-\u0398\u03b5\u03b9\u03bf\u03c4\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7-\u03a0\u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03b3\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2-\u03bf-\u039f\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc\u03c2-\u03a0\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03ac\u03c1\u03c7\u03b7\u03c2-\u03ba.\u03ba.-\u0392\u03b1\u03c1\u03b8\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03af\u03bf\u03c2-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"343\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fr. 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