Today, 4 November 2013, the first session of Autumn Semestral Pastoral Missionary Conference of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Bucharest was held in Patriarch Teoctist Aula Magna of the Patriarchate Palace under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. Over 700 clergymen from the deaneries of Bucharest and Ilfov county together with the priests of charity attended the event. The conference was preceded by the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and of the Te Deum in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Saint Spiridon the New, by His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests and deacons.
His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church opened the conference with a speech entitled “Mystic Theology as Support of the Missionary Work”, out of which we render a fragment below: “The work of Father Dumitru Staniloae is a vast neo-patristic synthesis creatively expressed or a fidelity renewed towards the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers of the Church. Father Staniloae’s theology is a mystic theology, just like John’s, Paul’s and patristic theology, namely focused and based on the mystery of Incarnation or Humanisation of the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ. This is “the mystery for centuries hidden and not known by shepherds”…, this is the “mystery of Christianity”, of “the God who appeared in flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16), or of the “Word who became flesh” (John 1:14) – Saints Paul and John the Apostles say. In order to reveal this mystery, God created the world, and man was created inside it in the image of the eternal Son of God, who was to be incarnated. And the purpose of the Incarnation or Humanisation of the Son of God is the adoption and deification of man according to grace. “God was made man, so that man should become God according to grace” – the Holy Fathers of the Church teach us. But the revelation of the mystery of the Incarnation or Humanisation of the Son and Eternal Word of God is at the same time the revelation of the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, of God – eternal Communion of life and love, of the distinct Persons but not separated, a communion that Father Dumitru Staniloae calls “structure of the supreme love”.
The lectures were delivered by:
-Rev. Prof. Dr. Stefan Buchiu – “Father Dumitru Staniloae – Theologian of the Divine Love (triadology – Christology – Pneumatology)” (lecture read by Rev. Lecturer Dr. Mihai Burlacu);
-Rev. Prof. Dr. Stere Tache – “Cosmology and Anthropology of Rev Dumitru Staniloae – Recuperation of the View of Patristic Theology on Man and World”;
-Rev. Lecturer Dr Dumitru Pintea – “The Divine Liturgy – Community’s Ascension to the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Eternal Love”;
-Rev. Lecturer Dr. Gheorghe Holbea – “Asceticism and Mystics in the Thought of Father Dumitru Staniloae”;
-Rev. Lecturer Dr. Mihai Burlacu – “Thought of Father Dumitru Staniloae Concerning the Experience of God in the Holy Sacraments”;
-Lecturer Dr. Adrian Lemeni – “Filocalic Landmarks for Today’s Mission of the Church”.
The meeting of the priests and deacons of Prahova county will be held Thursday, 7 November 2013, in “Paul Constantinescu” Hall of Ploiesti city.
