“Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and wholeheartedly pray to the Lord.” Joel 1:14
In this passage of the Prophet Joel’s writings, God raises an alarm for the people to return from their sins and immorality. Through His Prophet, God directs His call to His people to repent and do away with their sinful ways and escape from judgment, a judgment that is known as “misery upon misery”.
But how is this to take place? And how is it possible for people to be reconciled with God? In this prophetic text, God shows the path to reconciliation. Reconciliation can take place when his people fast; when they join in collective prayer; when leaders and the people join together in the House of God, and with sincere and contrite hearts, they raise their supplications to God, and all the while each and every one of them, turn their hearts and desires toward God.
After the Artsakh war — and in the different wars that rise today, especially in Ukraine — and during these challenging times, we need a plan for reconciliation, first and foremost with our God. We have the desperate need for spiritual renewal and revival, for us to grow the faculty to discern our times as they are, to understand the seriousness of the world’s conditions, and be cognizant of God’s mercy and primacy for our personal and collective lives.
The Great Lent is an excellent opportunity for the individual and the collective to turn towards God. Therefore, come let us observe this Lent together with prayers, pleading to our Lord God, seeking his graces and mercies in our lives, and His peace to the world. Come and let us pray with sincere hearts, and to ask from our merciful God to grant us, collectively, a renewed life.
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