Sunday, 25 October 2015, lots of pilgrims attended the Divine Liturgy celebrated at the summer altar near the Patriarchal Cathedral on the Patriarchate Hill by His Grace Macarie, Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Northern Europe, assisted by a group of priests and deacons. Before the celebration, His Grace Macarie prayed in front of the relics of Saint Pious Demetrius the New, Protector of Bucharest, of Saint Emperors Constantine and Helen, and of the Three Saints Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and of Saint John Chrysostom, brought from Saint Paul Monastery of Mount Athos, and laid in shrines placed under the new baldachin.
On the 23rd Sunday after the Pentecost, the Church scheduled to read the text of the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke on the healing of the demoniac from the region of the Gerasenes.
On this occasion, His Grace Macarie delivered a sermon in which he explained the deep meaning of this miracle made by Jesus Christ, our Saviour.
The devil has influence over us only as much as we let him to, the hierarch said, showing that while healing the demoniac and sending him to his house and city, the Saviour entrusted him the apostles’ work.
“And we, my beloved ones, clergy and people, are also called, on these days of celebration, to the apostles’ work, to witness to God’s miracles near the shrines of the saints. And you, the pilgrims who arrive here must also tell everybody how much good the Most Merciful God does to you through the miracles He works through His saints; the great joy that we feel when we pray to the relics of the saints embedded with the deifying energies of the divine Grace … the Three Saints Hierarchs, together with the saints permanently here, at the Patriarchate Hill, through their relics, teach us how to witness to the blessings of God through the power of the model. The demoniac did not utter many words when he preached Christ, his benefactor, but showed himself to all those around as he was, healed of the wounds of his sins, and bearing the bright image of the glory of God”, His Grace Macarie said.
At the end of the service, His Grace thanked His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel for the blessing to celebrate the Divine Liturgy and be one of the pilgrims to the relics of the helping saints on the way to salvation.
His Grace Macarie has also explained that the shrine with the relics of the Three Saints Hierarchs was brought for these three days for veneration and pilgrimage to the Romanian Patriarchate from Saint Paul Monastery of Mount Athos where the Martyr Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu founded the Chapel of Saints Emperors Constantin and his mother Helen. Given the old fraternal spiritual relationships between the Romanian Orthodox Church and Saint Paul Monastery, the Romanian Lacu skete affiliated to this Athonite settlement is functioning with about 50 Romanian monks.
The liturgical hymns were sung by Nicolae Lungu Chorus of the Romanian Patriarchate.
Photo: “Lumina” newspaper
