He just stands before God – for his people, for his Ukraine
Two years ago, in August, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church got its new head, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry. A lot has already been said about our Primate. In principle, there is nothing to add. We can only emphasize. And if I characterized him, I would say that he is a prayer warrior.
You may be surprised to hear that about a man. "Just think, a prayer warrior? What is so remarkable and great about that?" someone will ask. Indeed, for the world, in which we live, or rather, for most people, prayer does not mean practically anything. At best, it is considered a means of relaxation and auto-training. At worst, it is a waste of nervous energy. The world often looks at prayer as meditation, a kind of a talk with yourself or an attempt to avoid such a talk. And that is why it (the world) does not perceive prayer as a certain kind of activity, as labor. The one who prays, in the eyes of the world, idles or relaxes.
But this is not so. It has long been observed that physical labor is much easier than spiritual. Even to guard is not as hard as to hold a service. Prayer requires a completely different effort than, for example, work in the field. After all, if you need to stretch only the body doing the field work, in the church you cannot do without the mobilization of the entire psychophysical makeup of human nature.
The fact is that during the prayer the man gets above himself, because he refers to the Creator. And here words of their own are not enough – purity of the heart, thoughts and desires is also required. That is why there are so few real prayer worriers on earth – because there are not many wholehearted and frank people.
His Beatitude is a prayer warrior. For him, prayer is the main thing. He works in prayer, but does it so that one wants to work with him. He does not say big words or high phrases; he does not call anyone anywhere, except to the Heavenly Kingdom. He just stands before God – for the Church of Christ, for his people, for Ukraine, for the whole world. In a word, he is the Primate. And a prayer warrior.
