On the First Sunday after Pentecost, All Saints’ Day, His Eminence Vladimir, Metropolitan of Chisinau and All Moldova, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Chisinau, assisted by the Metropolitan Secretary, Fr. Vadim Cheibais, and a choir of the Cathedral’s clergy.
The Orthodox Church celebrates All Saints’ Sunday on the first Sunday after the Feast of the Holy Spirit. This shows that the purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world is to sanctify the human being. If we do not celebrate All Saints’ Sunday immediately after the Sunday of the Pentecost, we do not fully understand either the work of the Holy Spirit in the world or the purpose of the Church of Christ, namely the sanctification of men.
During the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Vladimir ordained subdeacon Iulian Ghirghilijiu, graduate of the Master of Theology program year 2019, to the rank of deacon.
In his homily, delivered during the Liturgy, Fr. Vadim pointed out that All Saints’ Sunday is a feast dedicated to the entire community of saints of the Triumphant Church.
Today we honor that part of the age-old flock of Christ’s Church which has been eternally united with the grace of the Savior’s divinized and exalted body. If the lives of numerous saints bear witness to their holiness, and vouch for their sanctity for many centuries, then we do not even know how many other saints there are left unknown to the humanity.
Starting with tomorrow, July 1, 2024, the Fast of Saints Peter and Paul begins, and it will last until July 12, 2024.
Unlike other fasts, especially Great Lent, the Fast of the Apostles is less strict. The ordinances and the teaching of the Great Holologion show us how to observe this fast. Thus, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday one eats vegetables, cooked without oil, and on Tuesday and Thursday one may consume oil and wine. On Saturdays and Sundays fish is allowed. If a major feast falls during this period, on Wednesdays and Fridays, oil and wine is allowed, and on Mondays, Tuesdays, fish is allowed during meal. On feast days and the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (July 7), fish is allowed on whichever day of the week it falls.
We wish you a blessed Fast with good deeds and much spiritual profit!
Synodal Sector for Institutional Communication and Media Relations