On the Feast of All Saints, celebrated in the Orthodox Church on the First Sunday after Pentecost, Metropolitan Vladimir conducted the service of the Divine Liturgy in the Square of the Metropolitan Cathedral.
The Feast of All Saints unites the Old and the New Testaments, showing a continuity of the worship of the True God in the Christian Era. Two texts from the New Testament read out during the Divine Liturgy on the Fist Sunday after Pentecost (Hebrews 11:33-12:2 and Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38; 19:27-30) speak about the devotion of the saints and their love of God in the Old Testament, and their actuality and model of holiness that should be followed in the New Testament, when God revealed Himself to people in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, our Lord Jesus Christ sais to His disciples that only loving Christ wholeheartedly can one enter the Heavenly Kingdom and be worthy of the Lord. We are called to follow the saints and become ones of them by sharing the true faith, true love, and be ready for true suffering.
The period that comes after the Sunday of All Saints till the Feast of Holy Apostles Peter and Paul is a period of fast, and is dedicated to the memory of the holy apostles. It is the expression of our gratefulness to the apostles, who brought us the good news (Gospel, or Evangelic teaching) about the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the redemption of the humanity from the consequences of sin.
Synodal Sector of Institutional Communication and Mass-Media Relations