The service in the parish of Resurrection of Christ in General Santos on Wednesday of the first week of Lent
Author Archives: Антоний
Forgiveness Sunday
Sunday of forgiveness in Tagaytay
Beginning of the Lent
On March 17, 2024, Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi celebrated Vespers with the rite of forgiveness at the Resurrection Cathedral in Khanty-Mansiysk. His Eminence was co-served by the clergy of the Khanty-Mansiysk deanery. The first part of the service is performed in light vestments. After the singing of the great prokimenon the closing of the Royal Gates and the clergy changed into Lenten black robes.
After the dismissal of Vespers, Metropolitan Pavel read a prayer for the beginning of the fast of the Holy Lent and addressed the faithful with the word: “Dear fathers, brothers and sisters! today you and I have gathered on this Sunday evening for this short evening service in order to ask each other for forgiveness, as one big Orthodox family. We have all been communicating with you for a year, and of course somewhere we express our discontent against each other, someone may have been insulted, someone has done something bad. Sometimes, in the course of our lives, we don’t even notice when we can offend each other. Today’s gospel narrative says so bluntly that if we do not forgive, then the Lord will not forgive our sins. The Lord teaches you and me to forgive offenders, because it is hard and difficult when a person does something bad to you, but you have to love and forgive him. I remember a long time ago, a teacher told me that love can be strangled, but for many years I did not understand how this could be done. And it turns out that when they make you feel bad, you respond with love. And a person will not stand it and stop doing bad things himself, and repent. Today we have gathered to ask the Lord for forgiveness first of all, so that He would forgive us every sin, voluntary and involuntary, and of course, forgive each other’s offenses. Let us forgive, and it will be easier for us to go through the field of Lent. It’s like a load is lifted from your soul when you get joy from the fact that you have forgiven and you have been forgiven. There is no man who has lived on earth and has not sinned. Today, His Holiness the Patriarch said in his sermon that even sinners became saints only because they knew how to get rid of sins. And a person cannot sin in any way, but if he brings the fruits of repentance, he can become a saint. May God grant us to bring the good fruits of repentance in this Lenten Week, so that each of us can change our lives at least a little for the better, leave some kind of vice, some kind of sin that he lives with all his life and cannot get rid of it. But the most important thing is awareness, vision of sins and repentance. Help us, Lord! I, like any human being, having a human nature, also sin, sometimes maybe without noticing, so I ask you for Christ’s forgiveness, forgive me, a sinner!”
Baptism in Polomolok
Sacrament of baptism took place in the church in Polomolok, South Kotabato.
Farewell to the icon
On March 11, 2024, the journey of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Softening of Evil Hearts” in the Philippines ended. The last parish to which it was brought was the oldest Orthodox church in the Philippines in honor of the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord in Siniloan. The parishioners warmly welcomed the miraculous image. The priests served a prayer service, which ended with a procession, during which the icon acquired a red hue, abundantly covered with drops of fragrant myrrh, and the face of the Virgin was covered with red dots.
The Orthodox believers of our diocese express their sincere gratitude to the organizers of bringing the icon to the Philippines – Sergey Fomin, Natalia Mezentseva and Alexander Chvala – for the opportunity to see a real miracle and feel the grace of the spiritual world.
Miraculous icon in Manila
On March 10, 2024, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Softening of Evil Hearts” stayed at the parish in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God in Manila. After the Divine Liturgy, prayers were served to the Most Holy Theotokos. During the day, the temple was visited by numerous guests, including the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the Philippines Marat Pavlov, priests and parishioners from the Antiochian Orthodox Church, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church. For the first time, the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in the Philippines, Apostolic Nuncio Charles J. Brown and the nunciature staff visited the parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Philippines. The Vatican Ambassador talked with priests and parishioners, who presented him with a copy of the miraculous icon.
Guardian of the miraculous image Sergei Fomin, organizer of the icon travel, President of St. Martyr Bonifacio Foundation Natalia Mezentseva, Secretary of the Philippine-Vietnamese Diocese Hieromonk Cornelius (Molev) and rector of the Iveron Parish of the Mother of God in Manila Hieromonk Alexei (Lapshin) told the parishioners and guests about the miracle of myrrh-streaming and about the history of this icon. The streaming of myrrh is a well-known but rare miracle of Orthodoxy. The fragrant liquid, consisting of proteins that have no analogues in nature, appears from the air in the form of drops on the icon and on the nod as a reminder of the spiritual world. In recent years, myrrh-streaming has already been recorded three times in the parishes of the Russian Church on Mindanao Island in the parishes of Makalangot (in 2020, after the consecration of the temple by Metropolitan Pavel, all icons were myrrh-streaming for many months), Polomolok (after the parish returned from the schism on Christmas 2024, the icon of the Savior was myrrh-streaming) and General Santos (the icon with the relics of St. Andrew the Apostle in 2022). But the constant flow of myrrh for 25 years is a unique phenomenon. To see a miracle with our own eyes is the grace of God revealed to the Orthodox in the Philippines.
Holy image in Tagaytay
On March 9, 2024, the myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God “Softening of Evil Hearts” stayed in Tagaytay at the parish in honor of the Nativity of Christ. The priests served prayers, anointed the faithful with fragrant myrrh from the icon. At the end of the service, the towel on which the icon was lying became wet from the myrrh that had flowed from the icon. The parishioners reverently thanked God and the Most Holy Theotokos for the miracle. Myrrh, symbolizing the grace of God, is really capable to soften hearts.
Icon in Banate and Kinabalan
On March 8, 2024, the myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God completed a procession through the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in Mindanao. On this day, it was greeted in the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in Banat and in the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Kinabalan. Prayer services were held in temples in front of the holy image of the Queen of Heaven and the faithful were anointed by a priest with holy myrrh. In the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, the president of the Foundation of St. Martyr Boniface Mezentseva N. S. congratulated the parishioners on the construction of the church of St. Thomas the Apostle and said that she had handed over the relics of St. Thomas. St. Thomas the Apostle for the new church. During the prayer service in this temple, the icon shone with a bright light. At the end of the prayer service, a procession took place to the church under construction.
Patronal feast in Davao
The faithful of the parish of Blessed Matrona of Moscow in Davao City, Philippines, prayerfully celebrated the patronal feast of the temple. On March 7, the day of the finding of the relics of St. Matrona of Moscow, the faithful of the parish named after the blessed Matrona in Davao City, on the island of Mindanao, celebrated the patronal feast of the temple. The Divine Liturgy was celebrated by: Priest Moses Kahilig, Priest Rafael Frajillo, Priest Juventinus Bulaqueña. Also, on this day, parishioners had the opportunity to worship the myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God “Softening of Evil Hearts”, which has been delivered to the parishes of Mindanao Island for several days to comfort and strengthen the spirit of the faithful. This image began to flow myrrh 25 years ago, just on this very day of the beatification of Blessed Matrona of Moscow. After the Liturgy, Natalia Mezentseva, President of the Charity Foundation of the Holy Martyr Bonifacio, donated to the parish a copy of this icon with a particle of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Miraculous icon in the parishes on Mindanao
With the blessing of Metropolitan Pavel of Manila and Hanoi, the Charitable Foundation of St. Martyr Bonifacio organized the bringing of the myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God “Softening of Evil Hearts” to the temples of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Philippines from March 5 to 11, 2024. On March 5, the miraculous icon was brought to the parishes of the island of Mindanao: to the church of the Resurrection of Christ in General Santos, to the church of St. Isidore of the Rostov in Alabel, to the church of Intercession of the Mother of God in Polomolok and the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Lake Sebu. The icon of the Mother of God “Softening of Evil Hearts” is brought by the guardian of the icon S. L. Fomin. The President of the Charitable Foundation of St. Bonifacio N. S. Mezentseva handed over to the Intercession church a copy of the myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God “Softening of Evil Hearts” with a particle of the Holy Veil of the Mother of God.
On March 6, 2024, the journey of the myrrh-streaming image of the Mother of God “Softening of Evil Hearts” continued through the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church on Mindanao Island. The icon was brought to five parishes for prayerful worship and the blessing of the parishioners. It was greeted at the Church of St. Ignatius the God-Bearer in Lambayong, in the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Mahongok, in the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Makalangot, in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Arakan and in the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Salasang. Prayer services were served in front of the icon, and the priests anointed the parishioners with the myrrh from the icon. The faithful greeted the icon with great joy, and reverently wiped off the fragrant myrrh flowing from the icon with cotton wool.
