During the initial days of the Nativity Fast, His Eminence Metropolitan Laurențiu of Transylvania issued a pastoral message suggesting that forty Divine Liturgies be reenjoined, as was the customary practise among the earliest Christian communities.
“The Christians of the first centuries knew that every Divine Liturgy is the eternal Last Supper in the Kingdom of Heaven, which they could take part in from this world. To this heavenly feast we are also called, today, by our Lord Jesus Christ every day,” the metropolitan noted.
“How many heavenly gifts does the Divine Liturgy bring us all! How important it is to understand that only the Divine Liturgy keeps this world alive! God’s unspeakable goodness has placed everything in our hands. Our future depends on us and no one else. All the evil in the world happens because of our distance from God,” His Eminence said.
Metropolitan Laurentiu pointed out that “if there were daily Liturgies in every parish and if there were Christians who call for God’s help from the bottom of their hearts and humbly, like the father in the Gospel (Mark 9), then God would intervene for us and deliver us from all the evils that are about to come upon us.”
“With these thoughts in my heart, I address our parental exhortation, both to the priests and to the faithful within our diocese, that during this Fast of the Nativity of the Lord, we may strive to participate as often as possible in the Divine Liturgy, to fulfil the forty-day season of gratitude we owe to God.”
Photography courtesy of the Metropolis of Transylvania
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