Today, 22 July 2013, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania is 62 years old. On the occasion of this anniversary, at 11.00 hours a Te Deum service was celebrated in the Patriarchal Cathedral, as thanksgiving to God for the boons bestowed over the Romanian Orthodox Church, over the Romanian people and over His Beatitude, as well as for the help given to the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church for promoting the Orthodox Christian faith and mission. The religious service was celebrated by His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests and deacons. His Eminence Ciprian, Archbishop of Buzau and Vrancea, His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch, officials, as well as lots of faithful were also present.
After the Te Deum, the Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest read a speech on the achievements of the Patriarch of Romania.
“We have come here with much joy to thank God for the gift He gave to our Church, in the person of Your Beatitude, bringing you into the world to be entrusted the mission to be the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The special connotation of this anniversary time is given by the changing of the ordinary joy into spiritual joy, celebrating ever since the first hours of the day the Divine Liturgy to thank God, and now we, all those present at the Te Deum thank God for Your Beatitude’s achievements during your 62 years of life. Our thanksgiving is linked to our request, at this time, when we pray God to help our father in the great work of the Church to which he was called, namely to make Christ better and better known to the Romanian nation, so that He should be salt and light, way and truth.
Then, Rt Rev Timotei Aioanei, Great Eclesiarch of the Patriarchal Cathedral and Cultural Exarch of the Archdiocese of Bucharest offered an icon lamp to His Beatitude on behalf of the priests of the Patriarchal Cathedral, “to remind the light of faith and of the good deeds that Your Beatitude have spread everywhere for 23 years, in time and no time, serving God and the people”, Rev archimandrite said.
To end with his speech, the Patriarch of Romania thanked God for the gift of life and for the boons bestowed, as well as for the people through whom God works.
“We thank God for the gift of life at every anniversary and we remember with gratitude the parents who gave birth to us and grew us up, the biological and spiritual parents, teachers, professors, father confessors who contributed to our formation and helped us promote and serve the Church and society in various stages of our life. We do thank His Grace Assistant Bishop Varsanufie Prahoveanul for his nice words, for having mentioned many achievements which we consider to be the work of God through the hands of the people, of every one of us, always together with other people, with our closest collaborators, as well as with other institutions which help the Church. We are at an anniversary time, when we thank God and the people through whom He works”, His Beatitude said.
His Beatitude has also emphasised the fact that the gift of life is a burning light of God, just like an icon lamp, which must be kept burning, cultivated and made fruitful for those around.
“Very important is the fact that the light is transmitted from generation to generation. The light of life is conveyed to the children born, as well as to all the people around. It is obvious that we get as much light as we spread around. This is why Jesus Christ, our Saviour, said: gather treasures in Heaven where the moth and rust do not spoil them and the thieves do not steal them. These treasures are the light of the prayer and of the good deeds; and this light that we gather in our souls and take with us in the Kingdom of Heaven is always a light received first in the community, in the family to which we were born, in the big family which is the Church as well as in a national, social family where we are citizens. Therefore, every human of this world is what he received from others; it is a network of light, the light received from the parents, teachers, educators, professors, friends, colleagues, or collaborators. Only the way in which the influences received are mixed together in the soul and mind differ from one person to another, so that every person spiritually keeps inside all the persons that contributed to our own formation, enrichment and enlightenment. We often feel where from we get good advice, from whom we got the teaching that helps us live as Christians. This light is not transmitted only through books, but mostly through other people’s way of life, so that in Orthodoxy, the Saints’ Lives influence the servants of the Church more than the lecture of the Holy Scriptures. We learned how rich, beautiful and useful the prayer is when we saw how our parents were praying. We learned the light of the merciful generous love which helps the helpless ones from the diligence and generosity of our parents or of the people around us. For all these gifts we thank God and the fellow beings through whom He works at every anniversary”, His Beatitude explained.
“We thank all those present and consider prayer, wherever we may be as the most important participation; even if it is not a physical participation we feel very close through prayer, so that we convey our thanks to all those who, from the feast of Saint Elijah – which was our baptism name – till today, congratulated us in various ways and especially those who are present here today. We must say that this gift of life is mostly seen as a great joy wherever the faith in God is cultivated, because He is the Life Giver. He is the Source of the earthly life and of the Heavenly Life too. Wherever children are understood as a gift of God the joy is so much greater, and this is why we strive to promote the Christian family, to help the parents with many children, because all the gifts of giving birth to children are gifts for the church and for the entire society. We see that the population of Romania is diminished because there are fewer births. This is why, at our anniversary and at that of every one of us, we must think how big the gift of life is and urge the others to enjoy the gift of the presence of the children, young people and of the old people too, because in the Church all persons, irrespective of their age and rank, are lights of God”, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church said in the end.
The Te Deum service was followed, at 12.00 hours, by a short anniversary festivity in Europa Christiana hall of the Patriarchate Palace.
