The International Day of Families is marked annually on May 15, while the Romanian Orthodox Church has dedicated to Christian families the Sunday which is closest to the same date. In his most recent message, Patriarch Daniel has mentioned the patron saints of the Romanian Christian family
In 1993, the United Natrions General Assembly established May 15 as the International Day of Families.
The international events organized this year to mark the day will be focused on the theme of the impact of new technologies on the well-being of the families.
The Romanian Orthodox Church has also established a National Day of Families, which is marked on the Sunday which is closest to the date of May 15. The day has been named the Sunday of Christian Families.
In the message transmitted on Thursday for the Sunday of Christian Women and the Sunday of the Myrrbearing Women, Patriarch Daniel says that Romanian Christian families are “protected by the Holy Apostle Andronicus and his wife Junia (commemorated on May 17). They preached the Gospel of Christ to our Thracian ancestors in the region of Pannonia, which is close to the borders of today’s Romania.”
The Patriarch of Romania has transmitted good wishes to Romanian Christian women and families:
“On the occasion of the Sunday of Christian Women and the Sunday of Christian Families, we pray that God may give to all right-believing women and families the joy and blessing that He gave to the Myrrhbearing Women, so that they be able to witness for our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. We also wish them good health, peace and help in all the good deeds, and to many blessed years!”
The messages of the Romanian Orthodox Church regarding family focus on the spiritual importance of this institution and explain its role in society and in the history of Salvation.
In an encyclical published for the Solemn Year of the Holy Baptism and the Holy Matrimony in the Romanian Patriarchate (2011), the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church mentioned:
“The family is an icon and a foretaste of the love of the Holy Trinity, as it enables man to live the mystery of filiation, fraternity ant paternity, respectively the joy of being a child (a son or a daughter), a brother (or a sister) and a parent (a father or a mother). Children raised in matrimonies blessed by the Church (in Christian families) learn about the spiritual family which can offer the blessing from God, which is the Church and whose members are called sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, spiritual fathers and mothers in Christ the Lord.
Living a holy life is the purpose of family. Giving birth to children is a sign of God’s blessing and a fruit of the spouses’ love, of their wish to have children and to raise them with love. Yet, the maternal and paternal vocation is not affirmed solely by giving birth to children, but also by educating them, which involves love and patience, according to St. John Chrysostom (Homily to the Maccabee Saints). Children are gifts from God to the family in order to be guided to gain eternal life.”
Photo: Basilica.ro archive / Raluca Ene
