On Monday, Patriarch Daniel of Romania read the first portion of the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete at the Patriarchal Residence’s historic chapel. On this occasion, Patriarch Daniel emphasized that a strict fast supports humble and fervent prayer.
“This practice of fasting means an abrupt beginning of the fight against sin,” the Patriarch of Romania said on March 15.
“When a man does not eat or drink anything during the day but only prays, his prayer becomes more humble and at the same time more fervent because it is a prayer for forgiveness of sins,” Patriarch Daniel added.
The Patriarch of Romania also spoke about the first week of Lent and its meanings.
“It is a week with a strict fast and with a special intensity of repentance. So this first week of Lent is called in the Tradition of our Church the “Clean Week”, that is, (the week) of the believer’s struggle to cleanse passions and sins through repentance, by acknowledging the fact that he made a lot of mistakes, but also by expressing the desire to get up and move forward spiritually towards the great feast of the Lord’s Resurrection,” Patriarch Daniel noted.
The Patriarch of Romania said that the Great Canon sung these days reminds us that Lent is a repentance school.
The Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete, which contains 250 stanzas, is a canon of repentance. “It shows how people who sinned and repented received salvation, and those who sinned and did not repent lost it,” the Patriarch explained.
Source: basilica.ro
