Day of Commemoration of the Great Martyr Theodore Tiron

On March 16, 2019, on Saturday of the first week of Great Lent, the Day of Commemoration of the Great Martyr Theodore Tiron, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the Liturgy at the Trinity Odigitrievsky Zosimov Desert Monastery . At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Church addressed the believers with the Primatial word. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! The first week of Great Lent was completed - a particularly fertile time, when the Church offers wonderful means of spiritual healing to her faithful children. The first week, if it is carried out in accordance with the church regulations in prayer, in abstinence, in reflections, first and foremost about oneself, is a very special means of man’s spiritual rebirth. Our life today is extremely complex, so quickly everything around us is changing - both in terms of external material factors, and in the sphere of culture and spiritual life. The fact that yesterday concerned the unshakable, perfect, that which was an example, today ceases to be so. And in this circle of life of modern civilization it is incredibly difficult to save your inner world from temptations, temptations and even destruction. And for those who want to follow the path proposed by the Church, the first week of Great Lent provides an opportunity to look at themselves, their loved ones, relatives, their work, what is happening in the country and society, from a certain distance. And this distance is not caused by indifference, but, on the contrary, it helps to see what is really happening. The first week of Great Lent was for many of us a time of separation from the hustle and bustle of the world - so that our eyesight sharpened and so that we learn not only to see, but also to understand the essence of the events, first of all, so that we can understand what is happening with ourselves. The last words of the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian: "grant my peace my transgressions and not condemn my brother." These wonderful words we also need to understand correctly. What does it mean to see your transgressions? What sense organ do we see them? Sight, touch, taste, smell? Of course not! We see our transgressions by the power of our conscience. Conscience is a feeling that gives us an understanding of what we are doing, rightly or badly. Conscience helps us measure the level of our sinful acts, the level of our sinful thoughts. But conscience is a fragile vessel and a fragile feeling. And if the conscience is constantly broken, if you do not hear this voice, and trample it, then the conscience begins to gradually lose its strength. Then before the man opens the abyss of sin. The main deterrent factor, conscience, ceases to restrain a person, and he dies. Therefore, the preservation of conscience, the preservation of the ability to see one’s sins, is of great, perhaps even paramount importance for the life of every person, but especially a Christian: “Give me my sin . ” Great post gives us the opportunity to reflect on many things. He gives us the opportunity to strengthen ourselves spiritually and, above all, to bring sincere repentance - as often as we wish to do. As a matter of fact, the result of the action of conscience is repentance. Only when conscience begins to reproach us, does it become necessary to break free from this oppression, and repentance is the only means of liberating conscience. The people who piously spent the first week of Lent were not only those who had the opportunity to go to the temple every day, but also Orthodox believers who, because of their work, could not be in the temple every day even during the first week, usually on Friday and the Sabbath are confessed in order to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. And when we come to confession, we must see our sins with our conscience. Confession cannot be a mechanical listing of sins, many of which have already been left and are completely irrelevant. It is strange when older people begin to repent of what young people usually hesitate to repent of. It seems that from youth to old age there was not a single confession. For some reason, the sins of youth are remembered, but what about the sins of today, including the elderly? Are they missing? The automatic, mindless enumeration of sins has nothing to do with genuine confession. It is necessary to repent of what you consider necessary to repent of sins, which are exposed by your conscience. This is where the most difficult comes, perhaps - to repent of what your conscience reveals you and even of what you are sometimes afraid of yourself or ashamed to confess. Confession enables the purification of the soul, mind, feelings. Confession gives you the opportunity to gain genuine liberation from sin and start life from scratch. And although this clean sheet will quickly fill with sins, it is important that every time we come to repentance, we have the ability and the power to genuinely bring such things before the cross and the Gospel and reveal our soul to God before God, asking for forgiveness of sins. St. Theophan the Recluse has wonderful words: “The door of salvation during the flood was the door of the ark. And the door of salvation from the flood of sin is repentance. ” As with the flood it was impossible to be saved without passing through this door of the ark, so today, overcome by sins, we cannot enter the ark of salvation except through the door of repentance. And may the Lord help us take advantage of this door, dismissing all sorts of prejudices and all that prevents us before the cross and the Gospel from bringing true repentance to God for our sins. Amen.