Today, 19 April 2014, the Holy Light from the church of the Holy Sepulchre arrived in Bucharest, brought by a delegation of the Romanian Patriarchate, to Henri Coanda airport, around 10.30 hours. Then, the Holy Light, carried by His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, was met by His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, at the Patriarchal Cathedral.
Here, the group of servant priests of the Cathedral celebrated the Trisaghion service.
On this occasion, the Patriarch of Romania delivered a speech in which he showed that the Holy Light is a gift of God for the faithful. “We thank God for having enabled us this year too to receive the Holy Light from the Holy Sepulchre of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. This Holy Light was taken to several countries by over 150 planes, which fact explained the late coming of the Light to Romania, because they waited more than usual at the Airport of Tel Aviv. This fact, namely the reception of the Holy Light is, first of all, a gift of God, a great blessing of the Christ Risen from the dead who illuminated the hell and grace with the shining of His Divinity and filled the heaven of light so that on the Easter night we sing Now all are filled of light, the heaven and earth and those underneath. This gift and blessing of God too shows the merciful love of Christ from Heaven. He is in Heaven, but also in the hearts of those who are looking for the Kingdom of Heaven, and this is why He said: the Kingdom of God is inside you. Thus, this Light is received with joy, faith and the hope that it is the foretaste of the light of the Kingdom of Heaven, as a blessing of the Most Holy Trinity for us. We thank His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest who headed the delegation of the Romanian Patriarchate to the Holy Sepulchre this year too and His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch included in the delegation. Rt Rev Archimandrite Paisie Teodorescu, Patriarchal Counsellor, secretary of the Patriarchal Office was also present. We thank all those who helped us from a material point of view, so that this light may come to us and bring joy not only to our Eparchy, but also to some other places, because the representatives of several other Eparchies of the country have come to Henri Coanda airport of Bucharest to take it by three airplanes to Moldova, Transylvania and Banat. We pray Good God to give us the light of His Resurrection all our life so that it may be the foretaste of the Kingdom of God for us for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for our salvation”, His Beatitude said.
The Holy Light will be offered at the Resurrection service (at 24.00 hours) by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel to the clergy and faithful present at the Patriarchal Cathedral.
