Universal prayer

at the beginning of the year 2023

"Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

(1 Timothy 2, 1 - 4)

Reverend Fathers,

Dear Faithful,

The beginning of the calendar year is accompanied by the thinking to prayer. At this moment, the Church has set the exhortation of St. Ap. Paul addressed to Timothy to be remembered. It is the exhortation to pray for the various needs, accomplishments, or shortcomings.

Prayer is the characteristic that best defines the Christian believer. It is the expression of the connection with God and the absolute need for Him in our everyday life. There are important times like the beginning of the calendar year when people make wishes, make plans, enjoy achievements but are also concerned about failures and shortcomings. St. Paul's exhortation to prayer reminds us that at all times and in all the events of our lives God is present through His providence, taking care of us.

Through prayer, man expresses his hope that God is with him and that what he wants to accomplish is under the sign of the work of divine grace.

Prayer is the reflection of the dialogue between man and God in heaven, constitutive of his life, which God restored through the incarnation. God became flesh and appeared face to face to man in a form through which he could glimpse God, His invisible nature and His power that gives eternal life.

Our prayer to God is universal in two respects: (1) its kind – petition, prayer, intercession and thanksgiving; (2) the people for whom it is made - all the people, kings or those in authority.

We turn to God for various needs of ourselves or others. We ask for God's help, intercede for those in need and give thanks for the gifts received and the help He offers us. Prayer comprehends our needs but also the needs of our neighbors.

The prayer is offered for all people. Man manifests through this his solidarity with his peers as one humanity or as one body of Christ which is the Church. In the healthy body there is harmony and peace because a body that is in spiritual condition reflects the image of God that has been planted in it.

At the beginning of the year 2023, we need prayer for a peaceful and quiet life all the more as we know that the conflicts and the war that started last year have multiplied the disturbance, restlessness, sufferings and insecurity of everyone. Conflicts and wars have been a disturbing presence in different generations, places and times. They were always followed by consequences that affected society and people's lives for a long time.

At the beginning of the year 2023, let us follow St. Paul's exhortation to pray fervently in all ways and for all our needs and those of our neighbors. Let us include in our prayer all people as one body to achieve the goal that God has entrusted to us - to live a peaceful and quiet life for this is a thing that pleases God. It helps us gain our salvation and knowledge of the truth.

St. Paul also tells us that the author and mediator of our salvation and the source of knowledge of the truth is the Savior Jesus Christ. With this thought, let's start our prayer and deeds to hope for a peaceful life in the new year.

"A blessed new year 2023!"

Many Years!

† Ioan Casian

Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada

Saint-Hubert, January 1, 2023