On the first Sunday after the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church joined the community of Antim Monastery, on the occasion of the celebration of the dedication day of the place of worship. His Beatitude delivered a speech in which he showed that the Orthodox Church celebrates the All Saints’ Sunday just after the Pentecost to show that the meaning of the Holy Spirit’s coming into the world is to deify people: “The All Saints’ Sunday shows us that the Holy Spirit has only one desire, namely to deify all people who believe in Christ and bring them to the image and likeness of God. Namely, all people are created according to the image of God, but they reach His likeness, and holiness, through their cooperation with the divine grace. Thus, all humans are created according to the image of God, but the saints reached the likeness so that the human being should also make efforts to reach the likeness of God.”
All Saints’ Sunday also shows us that the unity of the Church is seen especially in the communion of the saints.
“From the point of view of the relationship between the Church and holiness, the unity of the Church is first of all given through holiness. It is not a legal unity first, but a holy deifying unity. This is why we confess that the faith in the Church is one holy, Catholic and apostolic. The more people progress to holiness the more they feel the joy of the unity among them and God, their inner unity between mind and feeling according to the grace of God and common unity. This unity of the church as a holy communion of all saints is emphasised on this celebration day of the All Saints’ Sunday. Thus, the saints do not live in isolation, but in communion and cooperation, in communication through the grace of God everyone of them knowing the other ones’ lives and all of them sharing the glory, love, peace and joy of the Most Holy Trinity”, His Beatitude has also said.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel has also shown that one more reason for which the Church settled this feast is due to the relationship between the known and unknown saints: “Every century there have always been more saints than those we have in the calendar. In order to enjoy their help, the Holy Fathers of the Church decided that on this day all saints should be remembered, known and unknown by the people, but known by God. The saints whom we know and whom we do not know are united through the grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Akathistos of All Saints says that on this day we celebrate all the saints known and unknown who lived so far, as well as those who will follow in the future, so that they all help us keep the right faith and do the will of God in our life”.
To end with the service, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel offered the monastery several books recently published by the Patriarchate, as a sign of appreciation.
In the end, the Patriarch of Romanian received an icon of the Brancovean Saints Martyrs on behalf of the community of Antim Monastery. Then, His Beatitude blessed the fountain of Saint Alexie in the interior yard of Antim Monastery, the distribution chamber of the water in the precincts of the Monastery and the painting workshop too.
