The Sunday of the victory of Orthodoxy over all heresies was celebrated with much devotion by many faithful who came to the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest to attend the Divine Liturgy.
On the first Sunday of the Lent when the victory of Orthodoxy over all heresies is celebrated, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Patriarchal Cathedral and delivered a sermon. Yesterday too, the Patriarch of Romania was congratulated on the occasion of the anniversary of 23 years since his ordination as hierarch.
While interpreting the Gospel read, His Beatitude spoke about the sight through faith which is higher than physical sight. “We see through the right faith the Heaven opening for us to pray together with the angels of God, who ascend and descend over the Son of Man. Namely the angels of God ascend taking the prayers of the Church, which is the mysterious body of the Lord, to Heaven and bring from Heaven the blessing of God for the Church. The Heaven opened means seeing the relationship between the Church of Heaven, of the Most Holy Trinity and of the saints, and the Church on the earth, the praying Church. This sight of the relationship between the Kingdom of God and the Church is the right faith. Faith is sight beyond the physical sight, it is a spiritual sight”, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel showed. The right faith is not only an intellectual conviction that God exists, added His Beatitude, but a communion, a living relationship with the Unseen God. The faithful were urged to defend the right faith against many confusions of our time and live Orthodoxy more intensely and know it better.
As we learn from “Lumina” newspaper, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also spoken about the cult of the holy icons. “The Orthodox icon is not only a simple ornament in the Orthodox Church, because it has three main purposes. First of all it is a right confession of the truth of the Incarnation of the Son of the Unseen God, Jesus Christ, or His becoming human. Secondly, the icon is a call to prayer and a help for prayer. Thirdly, the icon is a blessing for the joy of life, for the Church and for the house. The beauty of the icons is a blessing of joy for those who venerate the icons and pray in front of them. The icon is the confession of the right faith, namely that the Unseen One, the Son of the eternal God was made visible out of love for humans”, the Patriarch of Romania showed.
Yesterday too, the collect for the Central Missionary Fund began in the Romanian Patriarchate assigned to the missionary, social-philanthropic work of the Church and to help the poor people. So, till 14 April, the faithful can contribute to the support of the poor parishes in the country and abroad, and of the social-philanthropic activity of the Church too.
23 years of hierarchy of the Patriarch of Romania
Yesterday, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel was congratulated on the occasion of the anniversary of 23 years since his ordination as hierarch, an event that took place on the Orthodoxy Sunday, in 1990. Then, Rev. Sorin Vasile Tancau presented the book entitled “Signs of hope in time of sufferance” by our Patriarch, published by Basilica publishing house of the Romanian Patriarchate. “23 years pass really quickly when we look behind only to thank God and those through whom He worked to help us answer His call. When we look and see how much we still have to do it seems a short time because there are many new needs of the Church today in all fields of activity, but we must thank those through whom God worked for our formation and work as a support and inspiration”, the Patriarch of Romania showed.
