“This passage between years is also a time of watchfulness. We are not called to judge our lives with harsh severity—which leads to discouragement—but to place them before God with sincerity,” noted Archbishop Atanasie of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a message marking the turn of the year.
“The year now drawing to a close has been, for each of us, a weaving of joys and trials, of blessed encounters, but also of burdens carried in silence,” the hierarch wrote.
“None of these things is lost before God. Saint John Chrysostom reminds us that nothing is small when it is entrusted to God with a pure heart, and Saint Maximus the Confessor says that every moment can become a place of salvation if it is lived in truth and love.”
The Church Is the Home That Gathers Us
His Eminence noted that Romanians welcome the threshold between years in different circumstances—either in the quiet of their homes or far from their native places.
“But wherever we may be, we are not alone. The Church is the home that gathers us, and Christ is the One who gives unity to our steps, even when our paths seem different. True closeness is not geographical, but spiritual,” the archbishop emphasised.
“The year ahead is given to us as a time for work, not for fear. We do not know what 2026 will bring, but we know to Whom we entrust it. And this is enough. Where a person receives God into his heart, time ceases to be a burden and becomes a place of a hidden encounter with grace.”
Almsgiving and Inner Peace
Archbishop Atanasie urged the faithful to step into the new year “with enlightened hearts, with patience and forbearance toward one another, with care for those in weakness, for the sick, the imprisoned, or those who bear the mark of injustice, with greater attentiveness to the lonely, and with a deeper longing for prayer and a thirst for heaven.”
“Let us not forget almsgiving, which forgives many sins. Let us not allow the noise of the world to steal our inner silence and secret prayer, nor haste to rob us of the joy of simple things. In a hurried world, the Christian’s witness remains steadfastness, peace, love, and unshakable hope,” added Archbishop Atanasie of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Photo: Basilica.ro files / Raluca-Emanuela Ene
