A New Ecclesiastical Year

- time of encountering Christ and His saints through prayer and communion -

September 1, 2022

We are at the beginning of the new ecclesiastical year. Every time at this moment we meditate on its meaning with the hope of being able to better understand the path we have taken so far and the one we want to complete in the future.

The year 2022 is the Homage year of prayer in the life of the Church and the Christian. Prayer is for us as the Church, as its members, what defines us the most. In the words of one of the ascetics of the Egyptian desert "prayer is the ascent of the mind to God."[1] The same author also says that "prayer is the conversation of the mind with God."[2] From these words we understand that prayer is at the same time our elevation to the Creator God and the living and present dialogue with Him. Our word becomes through this dialogue important because it is no longer an expression of our secular, horizontal and limited way of speaking, but gains power from above by addressing the One who has in His power and under His protection all things.

Prayer is what best characterizes us as humans. Why this? Because through it we rise again to our stature of people of paradise. We begin again to become people of obedience and speaking with God.

There are two things to which prayer contributes in our spiritual life: (1) our word becomes a word of the communion of each of us with God; (2) our mind ascends to God, approaching Him, and acquiring a new consciousness of what it is; it becomes a locus of the presence of a new understanding, a paradisiacal understanding similar to that of the first man. Through this dynamic man rises from a worldly standing to a new spiritual and human condition. His mind and his consciousness become "a new heaven and a new earth"[3] where God can be contemplated. Man is no longer an autonomous creature in the negative sense of the term, of gnomic will[4] or opinion, limited by passion, but the creature that progressively frees itself from the limitations set by sin and passion by opening itself to the Absolute and to the neighbor through the natural or innate will[5] that it's good.

Why is the ecclesiastical year so important? We find the answer in Father Stăniloae:

"The 365 days in a row are for the faithful a solemn procession before the 'cloud of testimonies', who gave us an example of Christ's ministry here on earth and whose prayers in heaven help us to follow Christ. ... Human destiny is under the forces of eternal changes ...; but above all these changes unfolds before the faithful the history of the life of Him who was born in Bethlehem and ascended to heaven on the Mount of Olives.

The center of Christianity is Christ, His life, His sacrifice. The whole human life is represented by His life, Who in infinite senses lived for us all, in Whose experiences, all human experiences find their key and resolution, Who was perfect in what we are in ourselves, so that we can become like Him."[6] The ecclesiastical year is a testimony of life of all those who followed the example of Christ. It is the multitude of saints whose lives we are called to contemplate and follow. They are the ones who through their lives and deeds fill the time and space of our world. They make up the multitude of testimonies that 'convince' us of the truth and the historical realism of our Christian faith. They are concrete examples of how we can follow in the footsteps of Christ, serving God. Their prayers are support and encouragement in the path we have chosen to be Christ's apostles.

The ecclesiastical year and the examples of the saints direct our gaze and life to the example and life of Christ. Looking at the tradition of the church, of the ecclesiastical year, and entering into it, we look and enter into the experience of understanding and living with Christ. We enter as people into the mystery of Christ's life and sacrifice. This entering into the sacrifice, death, resurrection, ascension of Christ and descend of the Holy Spirit and  receiving it as God's gift for our redemption and salvation is what we try to accomplish during an ecclesiastical year. In this way we have Christ present in our midst both externally and existentially, internally, in our life. In Him and in His experience of life we ​​find the solution to all our existential problems.

Father Stăniloae also shows us the pillars of the ecclesiastical year: "The pillars on which the ecclesiastical year stands are the Nativity of Christ, His Resurrection and the Descent of the Holy Spirit. They correspond to Christian love, faith, and hope."[7] The Nativity of Christ and the Resurrection of the Lord together with the Descent of the Holy Spirit are the major feasts on which the ecclesiastical year rests because they include all the saving work accomplished by Christ in His person and offered to us for help. It is up to us to appropriate through faith and grace the saving work of Christ and to make it working and profitable in the life of each of us personally and in that of all as Church or community. Love, faith and hope represent mirrors of the three church feasts: love for Christ (Lord’s Nativity), faith in Christ’s resurrection from the death (Easter) and hope in eternal life through the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).

The purpose of this journey throughout the entire ecclesiastical year is to enlarge and deepen our spiritual life, to pass from the image to the likeness of God, resembling more and more to our model who is Christ.

It is prayer that raises us to encounter Christ and His saints through dialogue with Him. Through prayer our mind ascends to God. The path of a church year is thus constituted in a pilgrimage in which we are permanently with the friends of God, the saints, and Christ Himself is our guide, counselor, help and blessing. Prayer is the highest form of human talking because it is the dialog with God the Creator and with His saints The latter rose to the heights of deification through word and communion, through faith, hope and love. We are called to this mission like them.

Let us rejoice and begin with courage, faith, hope and love this new church year to be able to overcome all the obstacles placed by the enemy in the way of our perfection.

† Ioan Casian

The Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada

Saint-Hubert, September 1, 2022

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[1] Evagrius the Monk. On the prayer. in Filocalia (ed. II, vol. 1/transl. Rev. Prof. Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae), Institute of Graphic Arts Dacia Traiană S.A.: Sibiu 1947 p. 79 (36)

[2] Idem, p. 75 (3)

[3] Revelation 21:1

[4] "It (the gnomic will - n.t.) implies hesitation, wandering or suffering; this is the gnomic will (opinion), a function of hypostatic or personal life (existence - n.t.), not of nature." in John Meyendorff. Byzantine Theology - Historical Currents and Doctrinal Themes. Fordham University Press: New York 1979, p. 38. The gnomic will is a will determined by the limit of passion and lust that alters man's choice by impoverishing or diverting it.

[5] The natural or inner will is a dynamism that God has planted in man and is in harmony with the divine will that created him. (Meyendoff, p. 143)

[6] Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae. Culture and Spirituality (Complete Works vol. 1). Maison d’edition: Basilica, Bucharest 2012, p. 327

[7] Ibidem, p. 328