Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew delivered His Catechetical Homily for the opening of the Holy and Great Lent, referring to the suffering Ukrainian people and expressing His full support for the sufferings they face due to the war.
That’s according to Orthodox Times.
In particular, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew said characteristically “the pious people of Ukraine carry their own weighty Cross, as they suffer the unspeakable abuses of an unprovoked, irrational and hostile war, which propagates pain and death. Co-suffering with our tested brethren and children, we intensify our supplication to the Lord of mercy and God of peace, unto the immediate cessation of this conflict and the prevalence of justice and peace, which are a foretaste of the redeemed joy of the Kingdom of God”.
Then the Ecumenical Patriarch spoke about the period of the Holy and Great Lent ” Asceticism belongs to the core of Christian existence and the life of the Church. It constitutes a calling by Christ to His faithful and a witness of His saving presence in our lives.
