Participant in standing at Lavra: Despite the cold, we must continue prayer

UOC believer Iryna calls to continue the prayer standing for the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: a video screenshot of the Telegram channel "KozakTV1".

Despite the winter weather, Orthodox Christians should continue to pray at the walls of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, said the UOC parishioner Iryna in a comment to "KozakTV1".

"Often I see on the Internet questions: "Maybe, enough of these standings? It's cold, people are freezing," said the girl. “Yes, it is cold. We dress warmly. I come and stand for two or three hours, not all day. Everyone stands as long as they can. <...> Despite the weather, despite the fact that it is cold, we have to stand here for at least 10 minutes – not an hour, not two, not three – just 10 minutes to pray, to cross ourselves, and the Lord already counts our prayer for the Lavra."

Iryna expressed confidence that the prayer of the faithful is important for the brethren of the monastery: "They go and see that here, at the temple, it is not empty. Even one person can stand and pray, and the Lord will hear this prayer."

The believer noted that the difficulties experienced by the participants of the prayer standing are incomparable to the feats of the martyrs of early Christian times and the communist period.

"The martyrs in Soviet times were taken out into the forest, into the cold, and were told: 'Either you are for Christ, or you go to a warm place and get saved.'" What kind of Christians are we then if we are afraid to stand at +5? Despite the fact that now it is getting frosty, I think that our Christian duty is to stand here, to pray at least a couple of minutes together with the bishops and brothers," Iryna stressed.

As earlier reported, during the prayer standing near the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the lawyer of the monastery, Archpriest Nikita Chekman, spoke about the importance of unity of the UOC faithful in prayer for their holy shrines.

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