On March 2, 2024, on the memorial day of St. Leo, Bishop of Rome, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, governor of the Philippine-Vietnamese diocese, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the house church in honor of St Xenia of Petersburg in Hanoi, Vietnam. His Eminence was co-served by Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev), Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese, and Priest Eugene Tsukalo, Dean of the Vietnamese Deanery. At the end of the service, Metropolitan Pavel addressed the audience: “Dear fathers, brothers and sisters, let me thank you all for your common prayers! Today I am very glad to share with you the joy of liturgical communion. It is not often possible to pray together, to perform the most important Great service together, when a person unites with God in His holy Mysteries. All are one in Christ, they partake of the one cup. Although it is rare, there is such an opportunity today, and I hope that it will be more and more often. Yesterday we met with representatives of the Committee on Religions, and our meetings were very comforting, since we can now legally register our communities. This is such a mercy of God, which has not existed until now, such an opportunity has appeared, and it exists, and I hope that with God’s help we will implement it in the next six months. It’s really a joy! Today I would like to remind all of us that we are now on the eve of Lent, and tomorrow is the Sunday of the Prodigal son. The Holy Church reminds us of repentance and forgiveness. And if we talk about the parable of the prodigal son, then here the son left his father, took his part of the estate, dissolved it in a prodigal life, and then he had to be left with nothing and return at least as hired workers to his father. The Lord shows in this parable that a person departs from the truth, from faith, from God, and when he realizes his sins, he returns back. And the second brother, the eldest, who was always with his father, he was offended that his father gave a feast to his brother, who dissolved the entire part of his estate. And here, too, what is the point? Learn to forgive. It would seem that my brother, as my father said, disappeared and was found, was lost and rebelled, and now to learn to forgive, to bear the fruits of repentance, this is the most important thing in our life. There is no person before God who would live on earth and not sin, but we do not always succeed in learning these saving things that the Lord came to earth and gave us, and the Holy Church prepares us for Lent. And these gospel parables remind us of the fall of man, of the return of awareness of our fall, and of course the forgiveness of our neighbors. Find the strength to forgive your brother, sister, and all those who have caused us pain or sorrow. And the Lord calls us to this, calls us all before the beginning of Lent, so that each of us thinks, realizes what he has done wrong in life and whether he is doing anything at all to save his soul. And we must bear the fruits of forgiveness, learn repentance, and realize our sins.Thank you all, my dear ones, for our common prayers, I hope that we will see each other more often and more confidently, let’s say legalized, we will work on this today, we will make every effort to make everything work out for us in this regard. And we hope for the mercy of God and, of course, our heavenly patrons. God bless you all, my dears!”
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