“St. Lydia represents the woman of today and of always being open to the words of God. And she represents the people who love and seek the light, those who have confessed Him Who is the Light of the world, but also those who today persistently seek the light,” His Grace Assistant Bishop Timotei of Prahova said during the Divine Liturgy last Saturday.
The assistant bishop to the Bucharest Archdiocese celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Saint Nicholas “built-in-a-day” Church in the centre of Bucharest, recalling, in his sermon, that on May 20, the Church remembers “the first woman to receive the word of the Gospel on European soil.”
St. Lydia of Philippi “is an example for our time and all times,” His Grace said.
“She is the model for many Christians who later received the apostles of the Lord in different places because wherever this writing of the Acts of the Apostles was read and especially the words of the Gospels and the books of the New Testament, people opened their souls.”
“Today is a preparation for the Sunday of the healing of a blind man, a blind man who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, but who, after meeting the Saviour in the city of Jerusalem, saw a great light – but above all he saw with the eyes of his soul, recognising The One Who is the Light of the World,” the assistant bishop also said.
“Lydia, the first woman baptised in the City of Philippi by St. Paul, the saints we confess today, St. Thalasius, the founding saints of the monastery in Chios and the others mentioned together with them urge us to seek the light.”
“As much as we are surrounded by the things of darkness and often attracted by these things, we will have to look for the light, the only one that brings joy and that leads people into the Kingdom of Light,” the Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest said concluding his sermon.
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