Patriarch Daniel opens international theology symposium on prayer

The International Theology Symposium on “The role of prayer in the ecclesial and personal life of believers” began on Monday with His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel congratulating the organisers and greeting the attendees.

His Beatitude hoped that “this academic event will contribute to the promotion of prayer as a state of encounter and conversation between man and God, as a source of sanctification in the Church and the family, but also as a provision of joy in the Kingdom of the love of the Most Holy Trinity” in the message he sent.

The Patriarch entitled his message “Constant prayer brings holy joy to the life of the Church and the believer.”

Photo: Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu

Romeo Moșoiu, an advisor to the Ministry of Education, conveyed the message of Minister Ligia Deca. The minister underlined the value of working together during adversity and stated that the connection between the Church, the community, and the School is vital and welcome.

She made reference to the resources and educational support that the Church provides for kids who struggle in school.

The Romanian Academy’s vice president, Academician Mircea Dumitru, remembered, quoting a text by Patriarch Daniel, that faith and culture are not two separate things but rather are entangled and encompass one another.

Prayer is “a global and universal phenomenon, one of the most prevalent and ubiquitous forms of religious manifestation in our lives,” the vice-president of the Romanian Academy highlighted in his message.

According to him, a prayer’s meanings are completed by its poetic, social-communal, or relational meanings, as well as, last but not least, its epistemic ones. Nevertheless, the fundamental meaning is the spiritual-religious or theological one.

Florinel Irinel Frunză, director of the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs, presented at the conference. In addition to other things, he stated that “prayer is an act of communion, of social support, of meeting, of acknowledging the things that bind us, of sharing hopes.”

“Prayer helps foster a social environment of peace, which is increasingly important in European society since citizens’ Christian identities are less and less assumed.”

In a presentation titled “Prayer – an approach from the perspective of the sociology of time,” University of Bucharest Rector Prof. Dr Marian Preda concluded that “whether we have time or not, children, retirees or active adults, prayer is obviously a temporal and positive routine eminently beneficial for all ages.”

Attendees at the symposium in Bucharest include Archimandrite Ephrem, the abbot of Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos. Photo: Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu

Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu

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