Spiritual words

In church we pray better than in any other place

    • His Eminence Pimen, Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti

      His Eminence Pimen, Archbishop of Suceava and Radauti

In church we will find even more peace and redeeming joy and there we prepare our soul to receive worthily, as much as we can the Holy Communion.

Through the word church we understand the mystical Body of Christ, meaning the congregation of all those who believe in Christ and partake with the seven Sacraments. The second meaning of the word “church” is that of a place of worship where the Holy Communion, the Holy Blood and Body of our Lord Jesus Christ is always present on the Holy Table or prestol.

In church, as place of worship, we are baptised and taken to worship after forty days from our birth, to church we go every feast day and we pray better than in any other place. In church is where we receive the Holy Communion and we listen sermons. In church we sanctify our life.

The aisle of the church once served as a school, and the Book of Hours and Psaltery as textbooks.

When we go to church we need to go in peace with those with whom we have been in conflict. In many parishes there’s a custom according to which people ask for forgiveness before receiving the host or the anointment and younger people go to elderly people and kiss their hand, asking for forgiveness.

Looking at a church both from the outside or the inside, we feel that we are in a truly holy place, as we find it declared in the Book of the Hours: “Standing in the church of your glory, feels like being in heaven”, a shared belief of each of us who is standing with a pure heart in the house of Lord. The church is the house of God, because God lives there in spirit, meaning that there is the Blood and Body of Christ – The Holy Eucharist.

A place of prayer where there’s not the Holy Eucharist cannot be called the House of Lord.

When we go to church, of course that we need to prepare our body as well, meaning to bathe ourselves and dress with clean clothes. Tidiness in church is done through the vigilance of the priest by certain delegated people, usually the verger, but it would be good if the cleaning would be done by the parishioners, especially by the women members of the parish committee.

Cleanliness in the holy altar must be done by a man, the singer or the verger, and the cleaning of the Holy Table exclusively by the priest. Candlesticks and the candle from the Holy Table can be cleaned by the singer or the verger, but the holy vessels will be cleaned and sorted, put in place, only by the priest.

In church we participate actively - each by skills and knowledge – singing in choir or reading The Apostle, The Canons or The Psaltery. The chants of our Church, edify us through their melody, their words illuminates our minds through the knowledge of the doctrine of faith.

In the tradition of our Church, the faithful listen the Service by standing no matter how long it would take; the elders sit in the pew listening; listening the service while standing is imposed by our respect to God, by our zeal to bring a sacrifice to God through body pain; thus fulfilling the word of the apostle " glorify God in your body, and in your spirit" (I Corinthians 6: 20). The effort reinforces our endeavour to better please God, an effort that does make the body tired but strengthens it.

By standing in church and listening carefully everything that happens there we leave aside more easily the troubles of the soul, concerns that deviate us from the love of God and our brother. It’s not a sin to take care of the things needed in life but it is a sin to concern yourself unduly with earning your life. We need to leave this type of concerns at the doorstep of the church.

In our troubles we feel the need to ask for help, to ask someone for advice in order to find the best solution to the problem that concerns us. Their advice is very useful, especially of those who are entitled to do so, spending every moment of their life in church, lighting a candle for us and our brothers, parents but most of all we shall pray for our enemies.

In church we will find even more peace and redeeming joy and there we prepare our soul to receive worthily, as much as we can the Holy Communion.

Church was also the place where Virgin Mary prepared herself starting from the age of three in order to give birth to the incarnated Son of God, Saviour of the world.