Blissedness His Beatitude spoke about the spiritual desert accessible to modern man
The Primate of the UOC, after the Liturgy on the feast day of his heavenly patron, called on the faithful to seek the inner desert – within their own hearts.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphrius addressed the faithful with an archpastoral word at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy in Theophania, celebrated on the feast day of Venerable Onuphrius the Great — the heavenly patron of the Primate. This was reported by the Information and Educational Department of the UOC.
In his homily, His Beatitude spoke about the spiritual legacy of Venerable Onuphrius the Great and about how exactly a modern person can emulate the ancient ascetic.
He noted that, venerating the memory of God's saints, every believer involuntarily compares his own life with the life of the saint and asks himself about imitation. At the same time, he emphasized: there are saints whom one can emulate "only allegorically, in a relative sense."
According to the Primate, the austere desert life led by Venerable Onuphrius the Great cannot be repeated by anyone today — the Lord has taken away from people this special grace. Modern man is surrounded by neighbors, acquaintances, and social obligations: "The world now is like an anthill. And to run away somewhere is already impossible today." At the same time, His Beatitude emphasized that the impossibility of external solitude does not release a Christian from spiritual labor.
The alternative to the physical desert for the modern Christian, according to the Primate's word, must be the inner desert. "Every person can enter into his own heart with his mind and there offer prayer, converse with God. This will be a spiritual feat similar to that great feat accomplished by Venerable Onuphrius," — His Beatitude concluded his homily.
At the end of his address, the Primate thanked the archpastors, clergy, monastics, and faithful for their prayerful congratulations.
As the UOJ reported, the UOC congratulated the Primate on his name day in Theophania.
