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Orthodox Christians celebrate the Meeting of the Lord

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Orthodox Christians celebrate the Meeting of the Lord


15.02.2019

Photo: astrakhan.net

Orthodox believers celebrate the Meeting of the Lord, one of the 12 major church holidays, on Friday, February 15, RIA Novosti reports. Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill will celebrate Divine Liturgy on this day. It will be held in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. 

On this holiday, believers remember the meeting of baby Jesus Christ with the righteous old man Simeon and Prophetess Anna. Parents brought the baby to the temple of Jerusalem on the 40th day after birth in order to devote him to God. According to the Gospel, the elder Simeon, who was 360 years old, met Jesus there. The Bible says that Simeon translated a prophecy, according to which a virgin would give birth to a son. He found this a mistake and wanted to make a correction. However, God sent him a revelation that he would live until he saw the Savior come into the world with his own eyes. 

Church historians claim that the feast of the Meeting of the Lord was mentioned for the first time in the writings of Christian saints of the 3rd and 4th centuries. It was celebrated in the Byzantine Empire in 542, during the reign of Emperor Justinian. 

The holiday coincides with the World Day of Orthodox Youth since 1953. In this regard, Patriarch Kirill addressed the believers and young people with the words: “This amazing meeting of a person seeking God, and the Creator, who wants to save His creation, has already taken place in the heart of each of us... The meeting with Lord must change our life fundamentally, should influence our actions, because, as we know from the Gospel, what we have done to our neighbor, we have also done for God.” 

The Patriarch urged everyone to do good and remember mercy. “It is everyone’s power to feed the hungry, to help the needy, to say a word of encouragement to the despondent, to comfort the one who is crying, to visit the patient,” the message says.

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