{"id":229707,"date":"2019-03-05T14:01:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T12:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=229707"},"modified":"2019-03-05T14:01:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T12:01:34","slug":"ecumenical-patriarchs-lenten-message-focuses-on-ascetism-as-common-vocation-for-all-faithful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/ecumenical-patriarchs-lenten-message-focuses-on-ascetism-as-common-vocation-for-all-faithful\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecumenical Patriarch\u2019s Lenten Message focuses on ascetism as common vocation for all faithful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ascetism takes center stage in Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s Lenten message this year, which represents a common vocation for all faithful without exception.<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘<\/strong>Asceticism is Christianity in its entirety,’ Patriarch Bartholomew wrote in his catechetical homily at the opening of Holy and Great Lent published March 4, 2019.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘The purpose of ascesis is the transcendence of one\u2019s own will and the \u201cmind of the flesh,\u201d the transferal of the centre of life from individual desire and the \u201cright,\u201d toward love that \u201cdoes not seek its own,\u201d in accordance with the scriptural passage: \u201cLet no one seek his own good, but the good of the other\u201d,’ he said.<\/p>\n

The Patriarch’s message includes a reflection on ‘sensitivity and sacrificial use of freedom’ based on an encounter with Amma Sarah, one of the early Desert Mothers who is known to us today solely through the collected Sayings of the Desert Fathers.<\/p>\n

‘This is where the supreme value of the Orthodox concept of human freedom lies,’ Patriarch Bartholomew said.<\/p>\n

‘It is a freedom that does not demand but shares, does not insist but sacrifices.’<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Bartholomew points to the traditional Lenten feats stressing that they communicate ‘the fragrance and radiance of the Resurrection.’<\/p>\n

‘Genuine asceticism is luminous and charitable. It is a characteristic of Orthodox self-conscience that the period of fasting is permeated by the joy of the Cross and the Resurrection,’ he explained.<\/p>\n

The Patriarch warned against ‘the dualistic vision and denial of the world’ as non-Christian concepts.<\/p>\n

The Ecumenical Patriarch wished everyone to ‘run the race of Holy and Great Lent in a way that is fitting and joyous before Christ, joyfully exercising, in obedience to the rule of church tradition, the \u201ccommon struggle\u201d of fasting that extinguishes the passions, constantly praying, helping the suffering and needful, forgiving one another and \u201cgiving thanks for all things\u201d.’<\/p>\n

The liturgical season of Great Lent for 2019 will begin next week on March 11.<\/p>\n

Patriarch Bartholomew’s Lenten message will be read in churches on Cheesefare Sunday, March 10, 2019, immediately after the reading of the Holy Gospel.<\/p>\n

\n

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s catechetical homily at the opening of Great Lent 2019: full text<\/h4>\n

\u2020Bartholomew<\/p>\n

By God\u2019s mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch<\/p>\n

To the Plenitude of the Church<\/p>\n

May the Grace and Peace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you<\/p>\n

Together with our Prayer, Blessing and Forgiveness<\/p>\n

With the grace of God, the giver of all gifts, we have once again arrived at Holy and Great Lent, the arena of ascetic struggle, in order to purify ourselves with the Lord\u2019s assistance through prayer, fasting and humility, as well as to prepare ourselves for a spiritual experience of the venerable Passion and the celebration of the splendid Resurrection of Christ the Saviour.<\/p>\n

In a world of manifold confusion, the ascetic experience of Orthodoxy constitutes an invaluable spiritual asset, an inexhaustible source of divine knowledge and human wisdom.<\/p>\n

The blessed phenomenon of ascetism, whose spirit pervades our entire way of life \u2013 for \u201casceticism is Christianity in its entirety\u201d \u2013 is not the privilege of the few or chosen, but an \u201cecclesial event,\u201d a communal good, a shared blessing and the common vocation for all faithful without exception.<\/p>\n

The ascetic struggles, of course, are not an end in themselves; the principle that \u201cascesis exists for the sake of ascesis\u201d is not valid.<\/p>\n

The purpose of ascesis is the transcendence of one\u2019s own will and the \u201cmind of the flesh,\u201d the transferal of the centre of life from individual desire and the \u201cright,\u201d toward love that \u201cdoes not seek its own,\u201d in accordance with the scriptural passage: \u201cLet no one seek his own good, but the good of the other.\u201d (1 Cor. 10.24)<\/p>\n

Such is the spirit that prevails throughout the long historical journey of Orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

In the New Miterikon, we encounter an excellent description of this ethos to renounce \u201cour own\u201d in the name of love: \u201cSome hermits from Scetis once approached Amma Sarah, who offered them a container with basic provisions. The elders set aside the good food and consumed the bad. The righteous Sarah said to them: \u2018You are truly monks from Scetis\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sensitivity and sacrificial use of freedom is foreign to the spirit of our age, which identifies freedom with individual assertions and claims for rights.<\/p>\n

Contemporary \u201cautonomous\u201d man would never have consumed the bad food, but only the good, convinced that in this way he expresses \u2013 while authentically and responsibly employing \u2013 individual freedom.<\/p>\n

This is where the supreme value of the Orthodox concept of human freedom lies. It is a freedom that does not demand but shares, does not insist but sacrifices.<\/p>\n

The Orthodox believer knows that autonomy and self-sufficiency do not liberate humanity from the shackles of the ego, of self-realization and self-justification.<\/p>\n

The freedom \u201cfor which Christ has set us free\u201d (Gal. 5.1) mobilizes our creative capacity and is fulfils as rejection of self-enclosure, as unconditional love and communion of life.<\/p>\n

The Orthodox ascetic ethos does not know division and dualism; it does not reject life, but rather transforms it. The dualistic vision and denial of the world is not a Christian concept.<\/p>\n

Genuine asceticism is luminous and charitable. It is a characteristic of Orthodox self-conscience that the period of fasting is permeated by the joy of the Cross and the Resurrection.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the ascetic struggle of Orthodox Christians \u2013 much like our spirituality and liturgical life in general \u2013 communicates the fragrance and radiance of the Resurrection. The Cross is found at the heart of Orthodox piety, but it is not the final point of reference in the life of the Church.<\/p>\n

Instead, the essence of Orthodox spiritual life is the ineffable joy of the Resurrection, toward which the Cross constitutes the way. Accordingly, during the period of Great Lent, the quintessence of experience for Orthodox Christians is always the yearning for the \u201ccommon resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pray, then, precious brothers and sisters in the Lord, that we may be deemed worthy, with the grace and support from above, through the intercessions of the Theotokos, as first among the saints, and of all the saints, that we may run the race of Holy and Great Lent in a way that is fitting and joyous before Christ, joyfully exercising, in obedience to the rule of church tradition, the \u201ccommon struggle\u201d of fasting that extinguishes the passions, constantly praying, helping the suffering and needful, forgiving one another and \u201cgiving thanks for all things\u201d (Thess. 5.18), in order that we might venerate with a devout heart the \u201cHoly, Saving and Awesome Passion\u201d as well as the life-giving Resurrection of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom belong glory, power and thanksgiving to the endless ages. Amen.<\/p>\n

Holy and Great Lent 2019<\/p>\n

\u2020Bartholomew of Constantinople
\nFervent supplicant for all before God<\/p>\n

Photography courtesy of EPA \/ Robert Ghement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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