On Sunday, Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia and Bukovina emphasised the importance of forming special bonds with those in need to appreciate God’s blessings. He delivered this message at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Iași while discussing the Gospel reading about the healing of the paralytic, who was brought to Jesus by his friends because he was unable to move.

Recognizing our own weaknesses

His Eminence explained, “We should pray to God to grant us, first and foremost, the ability to recognise the state of paralysis that defines us so that we may strive and fight to remove from ourselves the inability to love, the inability to rejoice, and the inability to forgive. This is fulfilled, and we receive the strength to remove this state of weakness from within us by participating in the Holy and Divine Liturgy and by thinking of God as often as possible throughout the day.”

The role of friendship with the needy

Metropolitan Teofan advised: “A true Christian must have a paralysed friend among their circle of friends.”

“This means having a special bond with a person who has a disability, with someone helpless, with someone who is in a nursing home, who might be missing a hand or a leg, who has a great incapacity or is very old and burdened with years. Such a connection brings joy to that person, and we come to realise what a great blessing we have from God,” explained His Eminence Metropolitan Teofan.

Blessing the pilgrims

At the end of the service, the pilgrims who had venerated the relics of Saint Parascheva and Saint Joseph the Merciful received a blessing from the hierarch.

Photography courtesy of Doxologia.ro / Flavius Popa

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