On New Year’s Eve, Patriarch Daniel points to the Church’s liturgical time as provision for eternal life

In a special New Year’s Eve watch night service Tuesday, Patriarch Daniel offered a message encouraging people to see the liturgical time of the Church as a provision for eternal life.

‘The service officiated during the night at the turning of the year represents the proper attitude and action of an Orthodox Christian, that is, to give thanks to God for the benefactions He bestowed on us in the year that ended and to ask God, through humble prayer, to bless the New Year we are entering,’ the Romanian Patriarch said.

The Patriarch explained that during the annual Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve celebration of the special service we call on the salvific name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of ages.

‘The New Year we have entered is a new gift that we receive from God for our salvation, that is, to cultivate communion with Him through prayer and good deeds. That is why, now, at the turn of the year, we must reflect more on how to use the time of our lives as a time blessed by God.’

His Beatitude stressed that ‘the best place to conclude the old year and to welcome the New Year is Christ’s Church, because this is the meeting place of time and eternity after they first met in the Person of the eternal Son of God, who became man and was born in Bethlehem “at the fullness of time” to give to men the adoption by grace and eternal heavenly life.’

‘The liturgical time of the Church is by excellence the time of the meeting of humans with God and His saints, a meeting that expresses our response to the love of God, through thanksgiving and through good deeds shown to our neighbour (John 4:20).’

‘More precisely, the sanctification of man means the use of the present time as a time of union with the Holy God, through prayer, saintly life and works of mercy, thus preparing us for the partaking of the Holy Eucharist, which is in the Church the provision of eternal life in the Kingdom of God.’

‘The value of time is fully revealed in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, who was incarnate in time from the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin Mary and became Man to heal humankind of sin and death by giving us His resurrection and eternal life (John 11:25),’ the Patriarch added.

‘The Lord Jesus Christ, as God and Man, lives eternity and time at the same time, to give to the man who lives in time the opportunity to participate in eternal life, especially by partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ “unto remission of sins and eternal life.”’

‘The Holy Gospel shows us that every moment of the Christian’s life can be a time of salvation.’

‘In a moment we can gain salvation by repentance, like the thief on the cross who repented (Luke 23:43), or we can lose salvation if death finds us unprepared spiritually, that is, separated from God by unbelief and evil deeds.’

‘We understand, therefore, that time is the most precious gift of our life, if we use time for salvation, namely: 1) as a redemption of time, by repentance for the evil deeds committed, thus acquiring forgiveness; 2) as fruitfulness and sanctification of the time of life, through prayer and good deeds.’

‘Therefore, at all times and at every hour, we must praise God, thank Him, and ask for His help, because the good is done only with God’s help, as the Saviour Jesus Christ tells us, saying, “Without Me you cannot do anything ”(John 15: 5), meaning nothing good.’

In his speech, the Patriarch remembered that throughout 2020 the Romanian Orthodox Church will focus on the importance of the loving communion between parents and children, but also the ties between the spiritual life and man’s social activity, between prayer and action, piety and generosity, Liturgy and Philanthropy.

‘The good deed of merciful and humble love carries within itself the heavenly light of divine grace and becomes the treasure of the human soul for eternity.’

— Source: basilica.ro

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