His Beatitude: The stronger the prayer, the greater the gift from God

Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC Press Service

On 21 September 2025, in the Church of St Agapitus at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry, celebrated the Divine Liturgy and delivered a homily dedicated to the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos.

In his address, His Beatitude reminded the faithful of the great significance of the Theotokos’s Nativity for the entire Christian world. The Primate recounted in detail the story of the righteous spouses Joachim and Anna – the parents of the Virgin Mary – who for many years endured reproach for childlessness yet did not lose faith in God’s mercy.

At the heart of the homily was a spiritual law formulated by the Primate: “The more abundant the prayer, the more precious the gift. The less the prayer, the lesser the value of the spiritual gifts.”

Metropolitan Onuphry stressed that the Most Holy Virgin became the fruit of her parents’ great, patient, and humble prayer. For nearly fifty years Joachim and Anna prayed for the gift of a child, despite public scorn and even the high priest’s refusal to accept Joachim’s offering.

According to His Beatitude, it was precisely through such steadfast prayer that Divine Providence fulfilled the promise given in Paradise, that “the seed of the woman shall crush the serpent’s head.”

Particular attention in the homily was given to the necessity of patient and humble prayer. The UOC Primate urged believers to keep eternity before their eyes and to prepare for the life to come: “The person who continually remembers eternity and prepares himself for it receives from God everything necessary for a normal human life.”

Metropolitan Onuphry underlined that the chief aim of Christian prayer must be eternal salvation, and not merely earthly needs.

In his address, His Beatitude drew a parallel between the expectation of the Messiah in Old Testament times and the present day, noting that “people lived by hope in the promise” and “waited for that day” across the centuries, until the time came for God’s plan to be fulfilled.

Previously, Metropolitan Onuphry said in a homily that the prayers of the Theotokos are the most powerful in the spiritual world.

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