SUNDAY MESSAGE (audio message)
BY HIS EMINENCE THE METROPOLITAN
KYTHIRA & ANTIKYTHIRA SERAPHIM
SUNDAY CUSTOMS & FARISIO - BEGINNING OF THE HOLY TRIDENT
(09-02-2025)
PASTORAL ENCYCLICAL OF THE HOLY TRINITYῼDIOU
(No 244/2025)
To
The Holy Clergy and
Christonymos Laon
of our Holy Metropolis
Kythira and Antikythira
«Let us not pray, brethren.· For he that exalteth himself shall humble himself, let us humble ourselves against God with fasting customs.· To the sinner, O God, be thine, O God.»
(The Evening of the Triodion)
My dear brothers and fellow ministers,
My Christian brothers, my beloved children in the Lord,
Blessed, peaceful, joyful and good-hearted may the holy season of the Triduum, which begins today and ends on the holy day of Holy Saturday, be blessed. Seventy days and seventy spiritual steps to reach the «called holy and glorious day» of the cosmic feast of the Resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
We begin this blessed period of the Holy Triduum with the first individual troparion of the first Sunday, the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. It refers to the way in which prayer, our heavenly communication and conversation with the Holy Triune God, is indicated. Two characteristic adverbs are used here by the holy hymnist - the «Farsi» and «customs», whose meanings are diametrically opposed. Pride, arrogance, arrogance and contempt for one's fellow men characterize the Pharisee. Humility, humility in affliction, self-restraint, brokenness of heart and wholehearted prayer characterise the publican.
Saint John Chrysostom describes both (the publican and the pharisee) as follows: «The publican of the parabola only won (was saved) through humility, while the pharisee was lost through his pride. He, therefore, who is puffed up with pride, knows nothing essentially»(from the spiritual life).(H.P.E.23,424).«They both went up to the Temple to pray. Then the publican, after standing far away, did not answer (to the Pharisee) with insults, nor with insults, but after sighing deeply and unfurling his breast, he only said this - «Forgive me, O Lord, for I am a sinner.» And he went up saved».(E.P.E. 8α,248)
«Both examples taught (positive and negative), both the publican and the Pharisee. We must therefore, notes St. Chrysostom, also know the way of prayer. And what is this way? Learn it from the publican and do not be tempted to take him as your Master. To such an extent he managed to rise, that with his simple words he achieved everything. Because his heart was prepared, he succeeded in opening heaven for him with a single word.» (IBID. 5, 138).
«Prayer, according to St Chrysostom, is a value of heaven. It is the language of the angels, when it says nothing bitter, but what it says is thanksgiving. The soul prays for those who wrong and harm it. Then the angels also stand and listen in great silence. And when the prayer is over, the angels applaud, praise and admire it.»(E.P.E. 5,140).
«He knelt, he groaned, he begged the Lord Jesus to be a priest. And indeed, when in the night, when others are resting, thou with tears performest a night prayer, then the Lord will have more compassion on thee. Do this also thou man, not only the woman. Let the house be a church, composed of persons of both sexes.» (H.P.E. 16α,98) «He who prays with heat, is inflamed (by the divine flame) and is not burned, but just as gold is tested by fire, so he too becomes brighter.» (IBID. 19,168).
«Medicine, which relieves from all the sad and unpleasant things, is prayer, thanksgiving for everything. So the Apostle Paul wants prayers not only as petitions, but also as thanksgiving for what we have. For how can one ask for something for the future when one has not paid his debt for the past?» (H.P.E.22,32). «Prayer is a salutary medicine, which prevents sins and heals misdeeds.» (E.P.C. 25,232).
My dear brothers,
The sinner, but repentant and broken-hearted publican gave us a genuine model of a repentant and praying man. He went up to the sanctuary to pray truly, to make an offering of a broken and contrite heart and to ask for mercy and grace from the Most Merciful and All-Holy God, and therefore he left the Temple of God justified. The Pharisee, on the contrary, who did not enter the Temple with a sincere intention to humble himself before God and to pray from the heart, but in order to advertise himself for his good works and to accuse the publican, was condemned and censured by our all-knowing Lord and God.
Saint John Chrysostom spoke to us beforehand about the divine and praiseworthy prayer, which is not limited to requests, but contains warm thanksgiving and heartfelt praise to our All-Holy Lord and God. A model of prayer, and a short and comprehensive one at that, is the Sunday prayer, the «Our Father...»which Christ himself has given us.
We pray for our spiritual progress and advancement, repentance and our salvation in Christ. For the peace of the universal world, the stability and unity of the Holy Churches of God. For our pious nation, for those who govern it, and for our glorious army. For our discipled, studying, working and conscripted youth, together with their families and relatives. We also pray for our Holy Clergy and our hospitable people. For the support and divine protection of pious families. We also pray for the Holy Monasteries, Holy Shrines, Parishes and charitable institutions. We also pray for the prosperity of the work of the farmers, breeders, professionals and businessmen of our land and our country.
Also, due to recent revisions and rearrangements of burning issues on a global scale, such as. the cessation of wars in the North and the Middle East, the halting of the scourge of millions of abortions a year around the world, and the now official distinction of the sexes into two, male and female, rather than the rhetoric and monstrosities of the past, We also offer heartfelt prayers to the Most High for the cessation of the cruel and proto-Christian persecutions against the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, by virtue of state laws passed against the Christians of Syria and the persecuted Orthodox Christians everywhere. But also for the in-school and out-of-school violence suffered by the student youth and the more general acts of violence against older people, and even women, it is imperative that we pray night and day.
My brothers,
Let us enter with eagerness and zeal into the stage of virtues during the holy season of the Holy Triduum, which begins today. With the God-taught prayer, humility and the practice of the other Christian virtues, obedience to the Divine Will, repentance and devout love, let us fight the good fight of the Christian Faith.
In particular, let us prepare ourselves spiritually and mentally for the upcoming celebration of the ecclesiastical anniversary of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council (325-2025 AD). Let us praise and thank our Tridentine Lord and God from the bottom of our hearts for the passing and completion of 17 centuries of Orthodox Christian life and Tradition under the Divine and true light of the recognized seven (7) Ecumenical Councils and those local ones which they have accepted and proclaimed. They guard and preserve unadulterated the Divine Doctrine of the Divine Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Spirit-bearing and Christ-preaching Holy Apostles, the Apostolic Fathers, as well as the Holy Fathers, who before the Holy Ecumenical Synods, proclaimed the Holy Legacy and Heritage of our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
In view of the celebration of the Paschal Canon of the current salvific year 2025, which this year coincides with that of the Latins, it is the sacred duty of the local Autocephalous Orthodox Churches and of Orthodox everywhere (clergy, monks and other Christians) to immerse ourselves in the Doctrinal Mount, the Theophitic Doctrine and the Divine and Holy Canons of the Holy First Ecumenical Council of Nicea, placing them before us as a spiritual mirror and revising our life, state and course in Christ as Local Orthodox Churches,«following our Holy Fathers» and «Not repenting of eternal boundaries, as our Fathers did.»to follow in their footsteps and their footsteps in the long-standing Holy Ecclesiastical Tradition and the canonical statutes.
The Will of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council is-«not to celebrate with the Jews», «not to finish the passover before the (vernal) equinox.» and certainly «on a Sunday». The Local Synod in Antioch (341) speaks severely of those who would violate the provisions of the First Ecumenical Council: «all those who dare to paralyze the Holy and Great Council of the Holy and Great Synod, assembled at Nicæa ... on the Holy Feast of the saving Easter, are unconverted and expelled from the Church ...». The Second Ecumenical Council notes in its Rule: «We take nothing away, we add nothing, but we always preserve the things of the Catholic (Orthodox) Church unchanged.» and «We shall unswervingly guard our own Traditions, whether written or unwritten, which have been established by the Church.».
«The celebration of Easter . should only take place after absolute doctrinal unity on the basis of the Orthodox Faith and not on the basis of theological compromises, of the type of agreement Balamand (Balamand 1993), Church association, i.e. without an identity of Faith».
We are delighted with what we have written above for the not unexpected and irregular celebration of Easter with the heterodox with the emphatic and inspired voice of the admirable Archimandrite Fr.Epiphanios Theodoropoulou, a prominent and great Canonologist of the 20th century.no century:
«The Church of Greece, if it is faced with a proposal for the common celebration of Easter or any other feast with the heterodox, must refuse to discuss the matter at all.Such discussion must be excluded at all costs and at all costs, because it constitutes an overthrow of the foundations of Orthodox doctrine and especially of Ecclesiology. Either we believe that we are the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church or we do not believe... » («Parish No.549/10-5-1974»).
May we, my brothers and sisters, celebrate in a godly and holy manner this triple anniversary and feast. May the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Orthodox Church as a whole celebrate together, excluding from the celebration the dissenting heterodox, malodox, heretics and schismatics. A common unprejudiced and nebulous celebration with the «welding»of the above heterodox and unsaved would not be spiritual and, according to God, joyful and joyful, but superficial, meaningless and frivolous, for the creation of impressions only.
Wishing from the bottom of my heart that the holy solemn period of the Holy Triduum may be blessed, peaceful and spiritually fruitful,
With paternal wishes and blessings
The Metropolitan
†Ὁ Kythira & Antikythera Seraphim
