The Bishop of Maramureș and Sătmar sent a message for both parents and children on International Children’s Day. The hierarch urged parents and educators to cooperate with God in raising joyful children and recommended children to love Christ, the only One who can offer them real freedom.
“Children come from God’s heaven. They bring smiles and joy to our world, as well as meekness, kindness and the perfect holiness of the only One Who is holy through Himself – God,” wrote His Grace Bishop Justin.
“They are the gift and accomplishment, the hope and continuity of their parents (mother and father), they are the crown of their teachers’ apostolate, they are the treasure of the Church of Christ, they are the beauty and youth everlasting of our Romanian villages, they ensure continuity, normality, eternity and life eternal for our Romanian God-loving and Christ-witnessing people.”
“Each child, each man is a unique project of God, conceived to become His masterpiece for eternity,” he added.
Yet, added His Grace Bishop Justin, “a masterpiece is made through cooperation with the project’s author – God and his beneficiaries – the people”.
Therefore, he continued, parents are not only meant to give life to the child but also to educate it together with the school, teaching it “Romanian (peasant-like) common sense, which means: faith in God and fear of Him, modesty and moderation.
The hierarch added that Church “will accomplish the personal project of each child, bringing grace in its being and making it a child of Heaven, a child of God, wisely and lovingly helping the child become aware that life is a multi-level exam and that the Church of Christ is a lifetime school.”
The hierarch urged all those involved “to make sure that the gifted and enlightened sons and daughters of our people grow beautifully and harmoniously in joy and light.” For this purpose, he said, it is essential that adults do not deprive children of their innocence.
“If God still keeps the world, it is for the children’s angel-like innocence! Let us not break the wings of our angelic children,” the bishop says.
“Let us not cloud their sun and obscure their light! Let us not steal their childhood, their joy and innocence,” transmitted he. “Let us raise them in purity and holiness, because it is only for the children that God still smiles to us now and then, showing us mercy, love and His gentle and serene face!”
Also, the hierarch kindly asked children: “Love Christ, the only One Who can offer you real freedom and Who loves you unconditionally, accompanying you with His guardian angel forever”.
The International Children’s Day was also the feast of St. Justin the Martyr and Philosopher, the spiritual patron of Bishop Justin of Maramureș and Sătmar.
Photo credit: Facebook / Diocese of Maramureș and Sătmar
