{"id":311513,"date":"2021-03-11T17:08:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T15:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=311513"},"modified":"2021-03-11T17:08:57","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T15:08:57","slug":"warsaw-metropolitan-at-beginning-of-lent-union-with-christ-through-repentance-is-the-path-of-the-modern-orthodox-in-the-fight-against-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/warsaw-metropolitan-at-beginning-of-lent-union-with-christ-through-repentance-is-the-path-of-the-modern-orthodox-in-the-fight-against-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Warsaw Metropolitan at beginning of Lent: Union with Christ through repentance is the path of the modern Orthodox in the fight against evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor Orthodox Christians in our complex, difficult times, full of spiritual disappointments, temptations and limitations of all kinds, Lent is of great spiritual importance,\u201d His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Poland begins his\u00a0Lenten epistle<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lent is a time for increased prayer and the struggle for purification, which give us renewed strength to struggle with the temptations of our times. We fast to elevate the soul above the body, to bring about repentance, and to see the world around us through the eyes of a spiritually-cleansed person, the Polish primate writes.<\/p>\n

Never before has man been so entrenched in the material world; never before has man been \u201cso weak and spiritually empty,\u201d Met. Sawa states.<\/p>\n

There are many reasons for this, one of the main ones being the \u201ccatastrophic exchange of values,\u201d where modern man serves the lust of the flesh instead of the spirit. Thus, love has cooled and man has become a \u201ctoy in the hands of his passions and all kinds of evil powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Satan now works out in the open, His Beatitude warns.<\/p>\n

As Orthodox Christians, we can resist this evil only by our faith in Christ. And for this to be effective, we must be faithful to Christ in absolutely everything\u2014whether big or small. And Lent is a time when our fidelity to Christ is strengthened, through humility and repentance.<\/p>\n

\u201cFasting purifies the human spirit, restores spiritual strength over the weaknesses of the flesh. The human spirit was created by the Creator, not to serve the flesh and the outside world, but to inherit the eternal Kingdom,\u201d the Metropolitan exhorts. And in the Divine services, we sing of \u201cjoyful\u201d repentance. \u201cWe should mourn our sins and rejoice in God\u2019s mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA cleansed conscience sees much good. When a soul loves Christ, it is forgiven much,\u201d Met. Sawa teaches. Further: \u201cWhen we unite with Christ through repentance, Christ will be with us and no evil powers can harm us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the path for the modern Orthodox man to fight evil, for as St. Isaac the Syrian and St. Anthony the Great teach, the greatest thing we can do is confess our sins, which is greater than angelic visions, His Beatitude writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepentance is a ladder the leads man to Heaven,\u201d he adds. And the main condition for repentance is mutual forgiveness, to which the Church calls us on the upcoming Forgiveness Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrothers and sisters! In accordance with our Orthodox practice, on the eve of Lent, I am asking all of you, for myself and the entire clergy, to forgive our sins: We have sinned in word, deed, thought and feelings. Forgive us, sinners,\u201d the Polish primate movingly asks of his flock.<\/p>\n

May we peacefully and profitably pass through the days of Great Lent in order to truly honour Christ\u2019s Resurrection, His Beatitude entreats in conclusion.<\/p>\n

English article by OrthoChristian<\/p>\n

Photography courtesy of OrthPhoto.net \/ Jarek Charkiewicz<\/p>\n

Follow us on Instagram: @basilica.ro<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor Orthodox Christians in our complex, difficult times, full of spiritual disappointments, temptations and limitations of all kinds, Lent is of great spiritual importance,\u201d His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Poland begins his\u00a0Lenten epistle. Lent is a time for increased prayer and the struggle for purification, which give us renewed strength to struggle with the temptations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":311245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,18771],"tags":[25093,441,5068],"class_list":["post-311513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autocephalous-orthodox-churches","category-spirituality-en","tag-great-lent-2021","tag-metropolitan-sawa","tag-repentance"],"better_featured_image":{"id":311245,"alt_text":"","caption":"Preafericitul P\u0103rinte Sava, Mitropolitul Var\u0219oviei \u0219i al \u00eentregii Polonii, \u00een ve\u0219minte arhiere\u0219ti. Foto credit: Jar","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":2000,"height":1682,"file":"2021\/03\/Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti-890x748.jpg","width":890,"height":748,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti-890x748.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti-1024x861.jpg","width":1024,"height":861,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti-1024x861.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti-360x360.jpg","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti-360x360.jpg"},"1536x1536":{"file":"Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti-1536x1292.jpg","width":1536,"height":1292,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti-1536x1292.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"1.8","credit":"Jaroslaw Charkiewicz","camera":"ILCE-7M3","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1574592694","copyright":"Jaroslaw Charkiewicz","focal_length":"85","iso":"5000","shutter_speed":"0.0025","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":311513,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Mitropolitul-Sava-al-Varsoviei-in-vesminte-arhieresti.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311513\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=311513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311513\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311245\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=311513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=311513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=311513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}