During Lent, which began today, March 7, every believer should try to pray daily to God and ask Him for the forgiveness of their sins, said His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
“Let us try to pray every day and during our prayer let us ask the Lord for the most important thing – for the forgiveness of our sins,” said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church addressed during the Vespers with the rite of forgiveness at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on Sunday.
Noting that, probably, every believer begins his or her day with a prayer, the Patriarch added: “… let every day from now on begin with a prayer for the forgiveness of our sins, so that the great words of the thief would come to life in our hearts: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Be merciful to me! Hear my prayer, help me, o Lord, on my life path, which should lead me to salvation!”
“And there is no other, more important goal. No human concerns, no other goals that a person sets in his life, are comparable in value with this main and prime goal – the achievement of salvation,” added His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.
In this regard, Patriarch Kirill specifically noted that it is the salvation of the soul in eternal life that is the main goal of all Lenten labors of a person, therefore “the thought of salvation, the prayer for salvation should become an important part of our life during Great Lent.”
“Lent is the time to work on improving ourselves. The Great Fast is the acquisition of grace-filled forces that can help us walk the path of salvation. Finally, Great Lent is the only way for a person to prepare his soul for a meeting with the Resurrected Christ and, having experienced the joyful Paschal mystery, gain new strength to worthily walk the path of his life with the hope in the will of the Risen Christ, in the will of God,” emphasized the Patriarch.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill wished the believers to go through Great Lent precisely this way and added in conclusion, “ascending from strength to strength and acquiring what is very difficult to find outside of fasting – a vision of the true goals and objectives of one’s life, spiritual strength to solve these objectives, strengthening our faith, and closeness to Our Lord the Savior Himself.”
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