Pastoral Letter

of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church,

on the first Sunday of the Lent of the Nativity of the Lord 2022

On the importance of

the Homage Year of Prayer in the Life of the Church and of the Christian

and of

the Commemorative Year of the Hesychast Saint Simeon the New Theologian,

 Gregory Palamas and Paisius from Neamţ, in the Romanian Patriarchate

TO THE PIOUS MONASTICS, THE MOST REVEREND CLERGY

AND TO THE BELOVED FAITHFUL OF THE ROMANIAN PATRIARCHATE,

Grace, joy, and peace from God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

and from us paternal blessings!

Most Reverend Fathers,

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

Continuing a beautiful tradition started in 2008, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church proclaimed the year 2022, in the Romanian Patriarchate, as the Homage Year of Prayer in the life of the Church and of the Christian and the Commemorative Year of the Hesychast Saints Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas and Paisius from Neamț.

Prayer is the first work of the Church and its believers. The highest form of prayer, in the Church, is the Holy and Divine Eucharistic Liturgy, through which we give thanks to God for all the gifts He created for us, people, and for the acquisition of eternal life in the Kingdom of the Most Holy Trinity.

Following the apostolic exhortation: "Pray without ceasing!" (1 Thessalonians 5, 17), from the desire to practice unceasing prayer, hesychasm appeared and developed, starting with the 4th century, as a spiritual effort or need to pacify passionate or selfish thoughts and senses, according to the promise: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5, 8).

In close connection with the model of prayer offered by the hesychasts, the prayer "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!" was kept and transmitted in the Church, also called the prayer of the mind or the prayer of the heart, which is accessible to every believer for the enlightenment of the soul and the sanctification of life.

Dear Christian faithful,

Being created in the image of God (cf. Genesis 1, 27), man can only be perfected through a close communion with his Creator. Christ the Lord, true God and true Man, is mysteriously present, by grace, in the heart of those who are in a relationship of love with Him, according to His promise: "where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am also in their midst" (Matthew 18, 20). Therefore, the Christian's prayer, even when it is done in solitude, in his house or in his cell, is not a solitary prayer, but one of solidarity, that is, in communion with the whole Church in prayer and illuminated by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the sharing of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Corinthians 13, 13).

Christian believers are united by grace to each other, and the suffering of one is borne by the entire ecclesial community, according to the apostolic exhortation: "Bear one another's burdens and so you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6, 2) and the spiritual advice: "Let pray for one another" (Jacob 5:16). In this sense, Father Professor Dumitru Stăniloae reminds that prayer "can also be considered as a means of transcending people from the life closed in selfishness and in the world to the life of communication in God, as His kingdom. The prayers indicate such a transcendence, or an exit of the person closed in selfishness, towards the Triune God or of love, even when the goods necessary for earthly life are requested in prayers, as conditions of preparation for the kingdom of God".

Fervent and persistent prayer is testimony to the fact that the Holy Spirit is working in man, supporting and strengthening him in a good work to achieve salvation, as the Holy Apostle Paul teaches: "And the Spirit comes to help our weakness, because we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself prays for us with unspeakable sighs" (Romans 8, 26). Thus, through prayer, man unites with God, becoming a partaker of divine love, and God, through His grace, illuminates the soul of the man who prays, so that prayer becomes man's collaboration with God. Without prayer addressed to Christ there is no Church and no Christian life, because only Christ, the eternal Son of the heavenly Father, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, gives holy life to the members of His Church and helps them to remain in communion with the Most Holy Trinity. That is why, in the Gospel according to John, the Savior says to His apostles: "Remain in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. If someone does not remain in Me, he is thrown out like a branch and withers; and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they burn. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask what you want and it will be given to you" (John 15, 4-7).

Holy Scripture contains both the exhortation to pray and concrete examples of prayers and praying people. In the Old Testament, it is mentioned about Enos, the son of Seth, that he is the first of the people who began to "call on the name of the Lord God" (Genesis 4, 26). In the book of Ecclesiasticus, Jesus, the son of Sirach, says about the praying man that: "His heart, in the morning, lifts it up to the Lord, the One who made him, and before the Most High he will pray. He will open his mouth in prayer and for his sins he will pray" (Ecclesiasticus 39, 6-7). In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ makes Himself an example of prayer. The Holy Evangelists remember that Jesus attended services in the synagogues (cf. Mark 1, 21), but there were also times when Jesus "Retired to deserted places and prayed" (Luke 5, 16). The Lord Jesus also taught His disciples the Lord's Prayer or Our Father, urging them to pray with great perseverance (cf. Luke 18, 1-8). We find the same exhortation to unceasing prayer in the Apostle of the Gentiles, who exhorts the Thessalonians, saying: "Pray without ceasing!" (1 Thessalonians 5, 17). In the last chapter of the book of Revelation, the angel addresses the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John with the exhortation: "Worship God!" (Revelation 22, 9).

Through prayer, the Christian's mind and heart are constantly turned to God. Prayer, as the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in the pious man, brings comfort, peace and joy; it unites us with the Most Holy Trinity, the source of joy and eternal life, but also with the Church of Christ from all times and from all places. Therefore, when we lose the joy and peace of the soul, it is a sure sign that we no longer pray properly or as much as we should.

Therefore, the Orthodox Christian must pray as much as possible, because prayer brings a lot of holy love into the heart, unites us with God the Most Merciful, helps us see in every person a brother and in every beauty of creation a gift from God. Prayer helps us to face the difficulties of life and to foretaste, even in this world, the light and joy of the Resurrection and eternal life. Nothing can replace prayer and no activity is more precious than this, because prayer gives us inspiration and strength to speak the beautiful word and do the good deed.

In the context of the health restrictions of the last two years, caused by the pandemic situation, and the problems created by the military conflict in Ukraine, it is noted that the practice of prayer has increased in the life of the Church and the faithful. Prayer is a source of joy and spiritual strength, a source of peace and love towards God and our fellow men, it is the spiritual breath of the soul. If we persistently call the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer, saying: "Lord, save us!" or "Lord, deliver us!", then He, by His grace, comes to our soul, enlightens, and strengthens us. All good deeds and all pure thoughts are the fruits of the prayer of the believer and of those who pray for him: priests, parents, relatives, pious friends.

Beloved faithful,

The year 2022 marks the 1000th anniversary of the passage to the Lord of Saint Simeon the New Theologian and the 300th anniversary of the birth of Saint Paisius from Neamț. To mark these solemn moments from a spiritual point of view, but also to highlight the work of prayer in the Christian's life, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church proclaimed 2022 the commemorative year of the Hesychast Saints Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas and Paisius from Neamț. The names of these three great hesychast saints are associated with three important periods of spiritual renewal, in the history of the second millennium of the Church.

Saint Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022) is venerated by the Orthodox faithful every year on March 12. He was born and lived in Constantinople and, as a teenager, entered monasticism, being part of the community of the Studion Monastery, which gave the Church many saints. Here he had St. Simeon the Pious as his spiritual guide. At the age of only 20, Saint Simeon the New Theologian had the first spiritual experience of seeing the uncreated light, testimony of the zeal he had for the pure life and the practice of prayer. He was a spiritual father for many monks and lay Christians, and through his teachings and example of life, he contributed to the renewal of the spiritual life of his time. A strong personality, Saint Simeon the New Theologian teaches us about the importance of seeing the uncreated light of divine glory, as a work of grace, watchfulness, and unceasing prayer in the spiritual life.

The official reception of hesychasm, in the 14th century, as a movement of spiritual renewal through unceasing prayer, is linked to the life and work of Saint Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), whom the Church commemorates twice during the church year, in the second Sunday of Great Lent and on the 14th of November. Since his teenage years, Saint Gregory Palamas undertook a severe asceticism, in fasting and prayer. He spent several years in Mount Athos, where, under the guidance of virtuous spiritual fathers, he was guided to the practice of watchfulness and the prayer of the mind. According to his biographers, sometimes, during the Divine Liturgy, his face shone beyond the ordinary, transfigured by the fire of the Holy Spirit. In relation to unceasing prayer, St. Gregory Palamas mentions that "everyone who reclaims himself from Christ (every Christian), in whatever group he may be, must work the unceasing prayer, according to the apostolic exhortation "Pray without ceasing!" [...]. Not only monks outside the world, but also men, and women, and infants, and wise men, and laymen, and all together should learn this likewise, and to this they should direct all their strength".

For his pure life and the depth of his teachings, St. Gregory Palamas was called "the theologian of divine light" or "the theologian of grace." He synthesized scriptural and patristic teachings regarding the contemplation of the uncreated light as a lasting testimony for the ages to come, and he defined hesychasm as a fundamental teaching of the Orthodox Church.

Saint Paisius (Velicicovschi) from Neamț (1722-1794) represents the third stage of the Hesychast revival in the history of the Orthodox Church. Born in 18th century, in Ukraine, in a context of crisis of spiritual life, in which spiritual guides were missing, and the books of the Holy Fathers were forgotten, Saint Paisius arrived in Wallachia, where he was the disciple of Saint Basil from Poiana Mărului. Then he lived 17 years in the Holy Mount Athos. Together with a community of Athonite monks, he came to Moldova in 1763, first to the Dragomirna Monastery, then to the Secu and Neamț Monasteries. Saint Paisius carried out, together with his disciples, an extensive work of translation of the works of the Holy Fathers and great ascetics, from Greek into Romanian and Slavonic. Philokalia was translated by him into Slavonic and published in Moscow in 1793. The disciples of St. Paisius founded monasteries in the Romanian Provinces, in Ukraine and in Russia, within which they cultivated the practice of hesychastic prayer and continued the work of translation from the works of the hesychast Holy Fathers.

St. Paisius from Neamț speaks like this about acquiring the benefits of prayer: "The holy prayer of the mind, according to the power of the teachings (writings) of the bearers of God the Fathers, worked through the grace of God, cleanses man of all passions, urges him to the most diligent keeping of the commandments of God and keeps him unharmed from all the arrows of enemies and from deceptions"3.

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

With God's help, we are at the beginning of the Nativity Lent, also known as the Christmas Lent. This period is, first, one of preparation, prayer, sanctification of our soul and body through Confession and Communion, but also an occasion for helping and almsgiving. The works of Christian charity are fruits of prayer because prayer is the source of pure love towards God, loved ones and fellow human beings. Prayer is the foundation of human life and spiritual growth and the source that fills us with the presence of the love of the all-merciful God. Therefore, with much paternal love, we urge you to remain united through continuous prayer with God, the Creator of heaven and earth, to value and cultivate prayer in the ecclesial community, as well as in the family and in personal life.

In the context of the crisis that the contemporary world is going through, multiplying prayer is a necessity. We pray for peace between peoples, for the end of war and for the spiritual strengthening of those who suffer because of it. At the same time, let us continue to help those in need, let us become for them the hands of the merciful love of Christ, the One who protects them and gives them strength, patience and hope to all people. Today, when around us we see signs of physical and spiritual death: greed and violence, suffering and insecurity, poverty and indifference, let us pray to the Lord Jesus Christ to strengthen us in our work of helping the sick, the elderly, the orphans, the poor and to the bereaved and saddened.

We address the priests and lay faithful of our Holy Church with the paternal exhortation to organize themselves, in parishes, monasteries, deaneries and diocesan centers, collections of food, clothes and medicine. They will be distributed to those in distress and in need, disadvantaged families or families with many children, the elderly and single people without children or relatives.

Trusting that you will also show Christian generosity this year and respond with love to our paternal call to this holy work of charity and help, we thank you for the generosity shown in previous years and remind you of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy" (Matthew 5, 7).

We pray to the Most Merciful God to bless all Romanians, at home and abroad, giving them health and salvation, protecting them from all evil and strengthening them in all good things, to the joy of our Church and the Romanian people everywhere.

With much appreciation, we embrace you fatherly and share with you the apostolic blessing: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the sharing of the Holy Spirit, be with you all!" (2 Corinthians 13, 13).

† D a n i el

Archbishop of Bucharest,

Metropolitan of Muntenia and Dobrogea,

Locum Tenens of the throne of Caesarea of Cappadocia and

Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church