Слава Ісусу Христу! Glory be to Jesus Christ!

A belated Happy Ecclesiastical New Year !

On 1 September the Byzantine tradition begins the ecclesiastical year with the Indiction (Indiktos).  The term was was originally associated with the Byzantine imperial fiscal cycle but was was adopted by the Church as a confession that time itself belongs to the Creator. The Gospel of the feast, Luke 4:16–22, gives the day its deepest meaning: in the synagogue of Nazareth, Christ proclaims “the acceptable year of the Lord” and declares the prophecy fulfilled in himself. Thus the new year is not simply a new calendar cycle; it begins in the grace, liberation, healing, and reconciliation announced and accomplished by Christ. The Byzantine liturgy accordingly prays for peace, fruitful seasons, health, and salvation, placing the entire coming year under divine mercy.

The patristic tradition reads Christ’s proclamation as the inauguration of salvation’s new age. St Cyril of Alexandria explains that the “acceptable year of the Lord” is the saving time in which Christ’s Passion makes humanity acceptable to the Father: the year is “acceptable” because, through Christ’s self-offering, the fruit of redemption is brought forth for God. A sermon traditionally attributed to St John Chrysostom, On the Beginning of the Indiction (CPG 4597), exhorts Christians not to mark the new year with worldly excess, but with thanksgiving, almsgiving, repentance, and virtuous living—turning the passage of time into an occasion for renewed devotion to God.  The homily witnesses to an ancient Byzantine pastoral interpretation of the feast: God blesses time so that human beings may use it for holiness.