Holy Monday in the Orthodox Church / Father Ilia Mazniku shows its importance and the story of Joseph

2024-04-19 19:02:00, Aktualitet CNA

Holy Monday in the Orthodox Church / Father Ilia Mazniku shows its importance

Today begins the official celebration of the Great and Bright Week of faith, the savior of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this week, two events are celebrated, that of the wise and mighty Joseph of the Old Testament and the second event when it comes to that part of the Gospel when the Lord ascended to Jerusalem for his savior position and it is said that at one point he had he was hungry and asked to eat fruit from the fig tree, and when he saw that there was no grain, God cursed him and the fig tree immediately withered.

Father Ilia Mazniku, cleric of the Patriarchate of Tirana, has shown that the entire service, both the morning and the evening service, is filled with hymns, beginning with the beautiful hymn "Here comes the bridegroom in the middle of the night" which is a hymn which invites all believers to prepare spiritually to celebrate the week of the Ascension of our savior Lord Jesus Christ. He invites them to be alert and not sleepy, to prepare their souls with prayers, fasting and good deeds according to God's commands.

He also told the story of Joseph.

Father Ilia Maznik's confession

Our holy Orthodox Church today begins the official celebration of the Great and Bright Week of the saving faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This week begins with Great Holy Monday in which we celebrate two events. These two are the wise and wholesome Joseph of the Old Testament and the second event is about that part of the Gospel when the Lord ascended to Jerusalem for his savior position and it is said that at one point he was hungry and asked to eat fruit from the fig tree and when he saw that there was no seed, God cursed him and the fig tree immediately withered.

The whole service, both morning and evening, is filled with hymns, starting with the beautiful hymn "Here comes the bridegroom in the middle of the night" which is a hymn that invites all believers to prepare spiritually to celebrate the week of The presence of the savior of our Lord Jesus Christ. He invites them to be alert and not sleepy, to prepare their souls with prayers, fasting and good deeds according to God's commands.

The story of Joseph is a very touching story that shows how this blessed man, the son of Jacob because he was so blessed, believed in his father, believed with all his heart in God, God had endowed him with many gifts and blessed qualities which provoked the envy of his brothers who even tried to kill him but at a certain moment they, fearing that their conscience would be burdened by the murder of their brother, sold him as a slave for 20 silver coins in Egypt .

There continued the suffering of Joseph, because of his purity because of his honesty he refused to fall into sin with Potiphar's wife and this caused him to suffer an unjust prison.

But God brought him out of this pain, temptation and suffering because of his purity, and the pharaoh appreciated his prophetic ability to know the dream and to interpret the dreams, and one of these dreams had been seen by the pharaoh himself and he foretold about the great calamity, the great mourning that would happen in Egypt for 7 years in a row and so he from a slave sold by his brothers was enthroned by the grace of God as a ruler, as an all-powerful ruler of Egypt and not only that but was cause that when the years of mourning occurred he took care of his father and his brothers who had once tormented him and repentantly accepted your sin and Joseph forgave them.

It is not for nothing that the Church chooses the story of Joseph because it has a very beautiful clear analogy with our Lord Jesus Christ who came and preached the truths of God and the Jewish brothers not only did not accept him but left him in torment and death until cross But the god resurrected him on the third day.

This is the analogy between Joseph of the Old Testament and our father Jesus Christ./ CNA