Patriarch Daniel in his Children’s Day message urged parents to spend more time with their children and help them cultivate faith, hope, love and the freedom to do good to others.
The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church dedicated the first Sunday following the International Children’s Day (June 1) to parents and children, in an effort to cultivate the communion of love and respect in the family.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel addressed the families in Romania with a message highlighting that the three important institutions – family, school, and Church – have the ‘sacred duty’ to educate children and young people in a Christian spirit.
In his message, the Patriarch reminded that this year the Romanian Patriarchate honours the Romanian village and its major contribution to the historic becoming of the Romanian nation.
‘The Romanian villages with churches and rural houses, with cemeteries and tombs guarded by crosses, with alleys and welcoming gates, are the bearers of a mystical and visible language of tradition, of the physical and spiritual continuity of this nation.’
His Beatitude underscored that many of the country’s spiritual, cultural and identity values were formed in the rural areas of Romania.
The Patriarch praised the devoted grandmothers and mothers calling them ‘icons of self-offering and caring for the entire family, as regards the religious and moral education of the younger generation.’
While advising children to ‘love their parents and teachers more, to pray for them and show gratitude,’ Patriarch Daniel entreated the risen Christ ‘to illumine and fill with peace and joy the souls of parents, children, young people and all those who help them to be a blessing for the Romanian people.’
Photography courtesy of the Basilica.ro Archive
