First Sunday of Lent-Clean Sunday-Sunday of Orthodoxy

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT – CLEAN SUNDAY – SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

Today we celebrate the First Sunday of Lent – Clean Sunday, which the Holy Church calls the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

After the first week of fasting, filled with repentance, prayer and tears, we stand before God today with gratitude because He has preserved our faith pure and undefiled.

The Sunday of Orthodoxy was established in remembrance of the victory over iconoclasm, when the Church affirmed that icons are not idols but a testimony that the Son of God truly became man. If Christ was incarnate, if He truly took on flesh, then He can be depicted. An icon is not an ordinary image – it is a window to Heaven, a witness that God entered history and sanctified matter. Today, in our holy temple of Saint Demetrius the Great Martyr, as we look upon the icon of our patron saint, we remember that faith is always united with struggle and sacrifice.

Saint Demetrius did not only defend the city of Thessalonica; through his life he testified that Christ is worth more than anything earthly. He did not betray Orthodoxy even under the threat of death. His blood became a seal of faithfulness to Christ. Therefore, the Sunday of Orthodoxy is not merely a historical remembrance. It is a question directed to each one of us:

Is our faith alive? Are we ready to defend Christ’s truth with our lives? Does the fast we have begun bring change to our hearts?

Clean Sunday calls us to purification – not only from rich foods but from hatred, envy, gossip and negligence in prayer.

Orthodoxy is not only the correct confession of faith but the right way of life. We truly believe when we truly live.

When today we go in procession around the church, it is not merely a custom.It is a testimony that we desire Christ to be at the center of our lives, our homes and our families. It is a confession that we belong to the Church which has endured for two thousand years and which, despite all trials, remains unshaken.

May Saint Demetrius strengthen us to be courageous witnesses of the faith. May the Lord purify us during this Fast so that we may greet the Resurrection with clean hears, renewed souls and a faith that is not only words but life.

Blessed is this holy beginning of the Fast. Blessed is this temple and all who offer their prayers within it. Amen.