On the feast day of the Protection of Our Most Holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, the Abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshhorod and Chornobyl, served the Divine Liturgy (and on the eve, the All-Night Vigil) in the home church.

During the service, special prayers were offered for the granting of peace and tranquility in our Ukrainian land, for deliverance from all enemies, and for God’s blessing upon those who have been forced to leave their homes and have found refuge with others.

After the Liturgy, the troparion, kondak, and magnification for the feast of the Protection were sung, and a prayer before the icon of the Mother of God was read. Metropolitan Pavel thanked the brotherhood for their joint prayers, congratulated the communicants on receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and invoked God’s blessing upon all those present.

The Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God is one of the great Orthodox feasts celebrated on October 14. This feast is established in memory of the miraculous appearance of the Most Holy Mother of God in Constantinople in the 10th century, when She spread Her veil over the praying faithful, protecting them from enemies. In the Orthodox tradition, this feast symbolizes the intercession of the Mother of God for all Christians.

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