On the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, the Patriarch of Romania congratulated all pious and confessing Christian women for their mission.
‘We convey congratulations, thanks and blessings to all women who cultivate and confess through prayer, in word and deed the faith in the crucified and risen Christ, spreading light and joy in the life of the Church, family and society,’ His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said during his homily at Turnu Monastery on Sunday, May 12, 2019.
Patriarch Daniel wished for ‘good health and salvation, peace and holy joy for many and blessed years.’
The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church pointed out that the Church particularly honours the myrrh-bearing women and ‘values their faith, piety and courage.’
Inspired by the words of saint John Chrysostom, Patriarch Daniel noted the blessed boldness of the myrrh-bearing women who, ‘while the disciples of Jesus were closed in a house because they feared the Jews,’ had the courage ‘to face every peril to anoint with spices the body of the Saviour Jesus Christ.’
Image of confessing women
The Patriarch of Romania went on to say that the myrrh-bearing women ‘are the icon of all women who ask Christ’s help to overcome the troubles and difficulties of life, to bring up children in faith, to be faithful wives in their family and pious women in the Church.’
His Beatitude said that just like the angel of the Lord appeared and helped the myrrh-bearing women at a difficult moment, rolling away the stone from the entry to the tomb, the same way received help all faithful women in the Church history who ‘have often carried the burden of the stone of life’s troubles on their heart.’
‘They felt how the crucified and risen Christ helped them overcome troubles and to profess their faith,’ His Beatitude said referring to ‘our grandmothers, mothers, sisters who in the harsh years of communism humbly and silently transmitted the faith in Jesus Christ to their children who learned in school that God did not exist.’
Patriarch Daniel noted that in a prophetic way the myrrh-bearing women represent ‘the mothers and the girls in a family’, as well as ‘the monastics and sisters in the monastery.’
‘They also represent the multitude of faithful women in the hospitals who watch the sick, the multitude of religion teachers, the multitude of women who work in education and culture institutions, carrying in their soul and spreading around them the light of the faith and the joy of Christ’s resurrection as a hope for a life in communion with God.’
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro Archive / Raluca Ene
