Academic Community Celebrated Vespers With The Rite Of Forgiveness

In anticipation of Great Lent, a gracious and the most intense period for the spiritual life of a Christian, the Church invites all the faithful to look into the depths of their hearts and ask themselves: have I offended my neighbor with my words and deeds? Have I treated him as Christ teaches?

The feeling, inner attitude, and content with which a person begins the journey of Great Lent depend on the answer to these questions. 

Reconciliation with one's neighbor is the first step on the long and difficult path of Holy Quadragesima, and it should also become the fulfillment, the content, and the very essence of the coming fast. 

"O Lord, grant me to see my own sins and not to judge my brother". These words of the prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian will be heard daily. They will repeatedly return our consciousness to the evaluation of our relationships with neighbors. For he who does not love his brother does not love God. 

Through moving away from passions, from what makes us unfree, to strive for true freedom in Christ, in order to learn to love not ourselves, but those who are next to us.

On February 22, on the eve of the Monday of the first week of Great Lent, the academic community celebrated daily Vespers with the Rite of Forgiveness in the Intercession Church of the Moscow Theological Academy. 

Everyone asked each other for forgiveness. Each person first approached the icons of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Mother, then the Cross on the ambo, which Archimandrite Hilarion presented for kissing. Behind him, teachers, staff, and students of the MThA formed a line to ask each other for forgiveness. 

MThA Press Office