UOC Primate explains what helps a Christian endure hardships

His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: UOC

On the Feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry explained in his homily what helps a Christian endure the difficulties of life, the Information and Education Department of the UOC reports.

The Primate recalled that after the fall, humanity distanced itself from God, yet the Lord did not abandon people but granted salvation through the Most Holy Virgin Mary. She became the “Temple of God,” chosen to receive the Son of God and bring deliverance to the world.

His Beatitude spoke about the long prayer of her parents, Saints Joachim and Anna, who for more than fifty years patiently asked God for a child. Their daughter Mary, brought to the Temple at the age of three, was dedicated to God and spent her years there in prayer, reading of Scripture, and obedience, growing in purity and humility.

According to the Archpastor, it was precisely humility that became the virtue through which the Theotokos received the grace of the Holy Spirit: “God gives grace to the humble.” This same grace, he emphasized, strengthens every person, helping one to endure the hardships, disagreements, and trials of earthly life.

Metropolitan Onuphry called on the faithful to imitate the humility of the Most Holy Virgin and to ask God for help in spiritual struggle: “May the prayers of the Most Holy Virgin Mary help us to pray, to humble ourselves, and to bear with one another, that we may receive the grace of the Holy Spirit – the grace that strengthens us in daily life and leads us to the Heavenly dwellings prepared for us by God.”

As the UOJ previously reported, on the Feast of the Entry, His Beatitude celebrated the Liturgy at a Kyiv church in Demiivka.

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