Bulgarian Patriarch Daniel has urged Orthodox Christians to strengthen their faith, love for God and their neighbors, and to recognize signs of God’s grace in the lives of Christians living in the modern world.

The patriarch made the remarks on September 1 following the Divine Liturgy at the Church of Saint Great Martyr Kyriaki in Sofia, as the Orthodox Church marked the beginning of the new ecclesiastical year.

According to Patriarch Daniel, the beginning of the church year reminds Christians of Jesus Christ’s words about the “acceptable year of the Lord” — a period granted by God for repentance and salvation.

The patriarch said that during the past year, Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria had numerous opportunities to encounter examples and testimonies of holiness. Among them were a film about the life of Saint Paisios the Athonite and the arrival in the Sofia Diocese of the relics of Saints Gabriel of Urgebadze, John the Russian, David of Euboea and Lazarus of Bulgaria.

Believers in different Bulgarian dioceses also had the opportunity to venerate the Hawaiian Iveron Myrrh-streaming Icon of the Mother of God.

Patriarch Daniel stressed, however, that Christians should pay equal attention to examples of holiness found in Bulgaria’s own recent history. During the past year, the Sofia Diocese presented books about Metropolitan Nathanael of Nevrokop and clergy who suffered under Bulgaria’s atheist regime. A film was also shown about Father Eustathius Yankov, known as the “Wonderworker of Chepelare.”

“We can say together with the Apostle that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,” Patriarch Daniel said, referring to people of the recent past who preserved their faith and sought to live according to Christian principles despite wars, persecution, crises and profound social upheaval.

The patriarch emphasized that these people bore witness to Christ not by withdrawing from the world, but through their faithfulness to the Church, truth and Christian life. Their example, he said, demonstrates that holiness is possible even under circumstances similar to those faced by people today.

Patriarch Daniel described the central hope of the new ecclesiastical year as an opportunity for spiritual renewal: repentance, strengthening of faith and prayer, healing of spiritual weaknesses, and growth in love for God and one's neighbors.