CATECHETICAL HOMILY FOR THE OPENING OF HOLY AND GREAT LENT (2025)

+ B A R T H O L O M E W

BY GOD’S MERCY 

ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE – NEW ROME

AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH

TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH

MAY THE GRACE AND PEACE 

OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,

TOGETHER WITH OUR PRAYER, BLESSING AND FORGIVENESS BE WITH ALL

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Three Years of Russian Invasion in Ukraine. A Voice of Truth and Justice from Phanar

By Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne PANAGIOTIS KAPODISTRIAS

Three years after the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the voice of truth and justice continues to resonate powerfully from Phanar, the heart of Orthodoxy. In his address to the Ukrainian diplomatic corps and the local Ukrainian community in Constantinople (February 23, 2025), Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew fearlessly expressed the stance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate: the subjugation of a people cannot be tolerated, freedom is non-negotiable, and truth cannot be overshadowed by lies and propaganda.

Ecumenical Patriarch to the Ukrainian Diplomatic Corps and the Local Ukrainian Community in Istanbul

ADDRESS 

of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the Ukrainian Diplomatic Corps and the Local Ukrainian Community in Istanbul on the Third Anniversary of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine 

(23 February 2025 – Meatfare Sunday, Church of St. Nicholas, Istanbul)

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Brothers of Christ

By Archpriest Dr Georgios Lekkas

“Another person is our own secret self and even more so the hidden Christ.”

— Fr. Georgios Dormparakis*

The Lord Jesus Christ hungered for us, suffered for us, endured pain for us, and was crucified for us so that He might give us the possibility of sharing His resurrection. The pain suffered by the God-Man cannot be compared  to that of any human being because it had cosmic dimensions—for the Lord suffered as much as all people have ever suffered or will suffer until His Second Coming. However, there is a further reason why His suffering is also unequalled by any other human being: He alone, of all humanity, was fully aware that He was the Son of God and God Himself precisely at the moment when He was suffering for us all.

The Pharisee, who imagined himself saved

By Archpriest Dr Georgios Lekkas

Our Lord directed his harshest words against the Pharisees, who, though they observed the Law, were far from God in their hearts.

A Pharisee is someone who has such a high opinion of himself that he fails to recognise how greatly he is in need of God. The Pharisee believes he has faith in God, but the reality is that he acknowledges no god outside himself. He follows God's Law not in order to please God, but only to appease his own conscience. And because he is so satisfied with himself, his heart is as closed to God as it is to his neighbour.