22 February 2026
Dear brothers and sisters!
Today is the Sunday of Forgiveness. A special, landmark day. As soon as tomorrow, the Holy Orthodox Church will call upon us to enter the saving path of Great Lent.
Fasting is not just abstinence from food. It is an attentive and strict attitude towards every movement of one's heart and mind. It is struggle against pride, irritation, judgement. It is a return to one's proper self — that image of man according to which God conceived us.
The grace of the Holy Spirit can work only in a heart cleansed through fasting, repentance, and forgiveness. And where the Spirit of God works, peace is born — not declarative, not temporary but genuine, profound, and steadfast.
The Sunday of Forgiveness reminds us: reconciliation with God and one's neighbours is no formality or merely beautiful custom. It is the main condition for salvation. It is impossible to go towards Pascha without reconciliation.
Today, this truth pertains to not only each of us but also our entire country. We live in an atmosphere of enmity, where hatred is ever more often presented as a virtue, and mutual mistrust becomes a norm. Society is divided and hardened, words have long become a weapon, and pride has become an excuse for intolerance. All outer griefs begin from a loss of peace in the human heart. The present war between two Orthodox peoples has also begun from the sin of pride, pseudohistorical offences, and false milestones replacing the concepts of love and mutual forgiveness.
Peace in a state and between states is impossible without peace in a human soul. Until we learn to overcome our own passions and sins, hear one another, and seek paths to reconciliation, no external decisions detached from reality will bring long-awaited calmness.
We should have the courage to admit: we will have to live on beside each other. History cannot be cancelled, nor can geography be erased. For the sake of the future of our children, grandchildren, and all next generations, we need to seek paths to co-existence instead of striving for endless enmity and mutual annihilation.
And however those who profit from the insanity of the war try to protract it and fuel hatred, the day of peace will come anyway. For evil is not eternal. Only what is based upon the Truth of God is eternal.
Great Lent is a time for inner work. A time for an honest talk with God and one's conscience. A time to start good changes from oneself instead of waiting for others to change.
I wholeheartedly ask you for forgiveness if I have insulted anybody in word or in deed — willingly or unwillingly.
I wish all of us to run the race of Great Lent worthily, purify ourselves spiritually and physically, reconcile with God, with our neighbours, and with ourselves.
Peace be with you and your homes!
All related news Today is the Sunday of Forgiveness. A special, landmark day. As soon as tomorrow, the Holy Orthodox Church will call upon us to enter the saving path of Great Lent.
Fasting is not just abstinence from food. It is an attentive and strict attitude towards every movement of one's heart and mind. It is struggle against pride, irritation, judgement. It is a return to one's proper self — that image of man according to which God conceived us.
The grace of the Holy Spirit can work only in a heart cleansed through fasting, repentance, and forgiveness. And where the Spirit of God works, peace is born — not declarative, not temporary but genuine, profound, and steadfast.
The Sunday of Forgiveness reminds us: reconciliation with God and one's neighbours is no formality or merely beautiful custom. It is the main condition for salvation. It is impossible to go towards Pascha without reconciliation.
Today, this truth pertains to not only each of us but also our entire country. We live in an atmosphere of enmity, where hatred is ever more often presented as a virtue, and mutual mistrust becomes a norm. Society is divided and hardened, words have long become a weapon, and pride has become an excuse for intolerance. All outer griefs begin from a loss of peace in the human heart. The present war between two Orthodox peoples has also begun from the sin of pride, pseudohistorical offences, and false milestones replacing the concepts of love and mutual forgiveness.
Peace in a state and between states is impossible without peace in a human soul. Until we learn to overcome our own passions and sins, hear one another, and seek paths to reconciliation, no external decisions detached from reality will bring long-awaited calmness.
We should have the courage to admit: we will have to live on beside each other. History cannot be cancelled, nor can geography be erased. For the sake of the future of our children, grandchildren, and all next generations, we need to seek paths to co-existence instead of striving for endless enmity and mutual annihilation.
And however those who profit from the insanity of the war try to protract it and fuel hatred, the day of peace will come anyway. For evil is not eternal. Only what is based upon the Truth of God is eternal.
Great Lent is a time for inner work. A time for an honest talk with God and one's conscience. A time to start good changes from oneself instead of waiting for others to change.
I wholeheartedly ask you for forgiveness if I have insulted anybody in word or in deed — willingly or unwillingly.
I wish all of us to run the race of Great Lent worthily, purify ourselves spiritually and physically, reconcile with God, with our neighbours, and with ourselves.
Peace be with you and your homes!
