At the start of 2025, Archbishop Calinic of Suceava and Rădăuți emphasized a spiritual perspective on New Year’s celebrations, stating, “Our participation in New Year’s Eve should follow different coordinates and expectations than the temporary ones.”
These guiding principles, he noted, are provided by Saint Paul: “Rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11-12).
In his message, the Archbishop explained the origins and symbolism of the Te Deum service, traditionally performed at the beginning of the year and on other occasions to express gratitude before God.
Significance of Te Deum service
Archbishop Calinic remarked that through the Te Deum service (Doxology), “we express our desire for all our endeavors in the coming year, as in the previous one, to unfold under the blessing of the Holy Trinity.”
“At the start of the New Year, we invoke the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, from the bosom of the Holy Trinity—just as at Pentecost—to dwell within us. With His presence, we can pray purely, free from passions, to the Holy Trinity for peace from above and peace for the entire world, for the Holy Churches, and for the salvation of believers.”
The Archbishop noted that the Te Deum petitions include asking God to “remove all His justified wrath against us,” a request inspired by the Psalms.
Biblical and Liturgical Context
Discussing the Gospel reading in the Te Deum service, Archbishop Calinic highlighted that the verses are “a specific Lucan compilation from Isaiah 61:1-2 and Isaiah 58:6. Notably, in addition to the sabbatical year and the jubilee year, there is also the ‘year of the Lord’s favor,’ prophesied by Isaiah and officially proclaimed by Jesus.”
He also mentioned that the service’s climactic moment occurs during the Litany of Fervent Supplication, where the congregation prays for God’s blessing on the new year, and the concluding prayer provides spiritual relief and peace.
The Te Deum ends with the hymn “We Praise You, O God” by Saint Nicetas of Remesiana, a Romanian saint from the 4th–5th centuries. “The hymn, in its complexity, is a sung theological reflection on the Trinity, Christology, soteriology, eschatology, and the Kingdom of Heaven,” concluded Archbishop Calinic.
New Year Decalogue
The Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuți also presented a Decalogue for the New Year he wrote as a set of advice for a good start in the New Year:
- Pray to the Comforter to dwell within you, just as at Pentecost, so that you may pray purely to the Most Holy Trinity for your salvation and that of your nation.
- Relive liturgically the passage of time—one of the coordinates of your existence—as a synthesis of the life of the Lord Christ: from His Nativity to His Resurrection, and from His Ascension to the Father to the Descent of the Holy Spirit, sent by Him.
- Give thanks to God—One in Essence and Three in Persons—for the year that has entered eternity, marked by divine revelations, redeeming time through edifying work.
- Make the course of your life a journey toward communion with God, being a fervent warrior against sin and constantly striving for perfection.
- Crush with the power of your will all past sins, burying the old man and building the new man with the strength of virtues.
- Be grateful to the Creator of all things for the wonderful gifts poured into your life—already inscribed in eternity—glorifying His great mercy.
- Ask the Most High that the rest of your days may be spent in the work and cultivation of virtues, always giving thanks for everything to the Most Holy Trinity.
- Live a sinless life, praying that God may bless you with health, prosperity in all things, and, in the end, with life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Reflect on the purpose of life, the significance, and results of your work, choosing what is good over what is less good, so that you may become a new leaven in Christ.
- Renew yourself in the Holy Spirit, rejoice, and live in the sweetness of virtues, and the God of love and peace will be with you all the days of your life.
Photo: Archdiocese of Suceava and Rădăuți
