His Beatitude Onuphry: Through fasting, man returns to Paradise
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. Photo: YouTube video screenshot
On February 22, 2026, on Forgiveness Sunday, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and addressed the faithful with a sermon about the meaning of Great Lent.
In his word, the Primate reminded the faithful about Adam's expulsion from paradise, which the Church commemorates on the eve of Lent. "Sin is separation from God," he emphasized, explaining that through disobedience and self-justification the first people lost their paradisiacal life. According to the Archpastor, it would have been enough for Adam to say: "I have sinned, forgive me, Lord," and the history of mankind could have been different, but instead of repentance came justification.
His Beatitude Onuphry noted that the loss of paradise occurred through intemperance, and the path of return lies through the feat of fasting. "The Church says that through breaking the fast Adam lost Paradise, and through keeping the fast we attain Paradise again… Just as through lack of self-restraint man lost Paradise, so through self-restraint he regains it," he said. His Beatitude highlighted that the Lord by His Resurrection destroyed hell and opened to people the possibility of salvation, but "we enter there through fasting and prayer."
The Primate called upon the faithful to worthily pass through the time of Great Lent, to strenthen prayer, to preserve humility and love. "The image of God is in every person, and the likeness of God is acquired by living according to the commandments," he noted, adding that it is precisely love that makes a person God-like and brings them closer to God.
In conclusion of the sermon, His Beatitude wished the flock spiritual strength, so that the feat of fasting would become for each a step toward inner renewal and preparation for the bright Feast of Christ's Resurrection.
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that the Primate of the UOC blessed a special prayer rule for Great Lent.
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