Today, 31 March 2013, the second Sunday of the Lent His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania visited the community of Pasarea Monastery, county of Ilfov, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity. <\/p>\n
In the sermon delivered His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel emphasised the spiritual meaning of the Evangelical pericope of the day on the healing of the paralytic of Capernaum: “We see here that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, does not heal the paralysed man before forgiving his sins. In other words, we see that the healing of the body is preceded by the healing of the soul, because the forgiveness of the sins is healing the soul. The sin is a disease of the soul and the forgiveness of the sins must begin with the healing of the soul from the sin disease. So, the Gospel shows us the divinity of Christ first because only God can forgive the sins, but in order to show us that He is not only Man, but God-the-Man Jesus said first “Son, your sins are forgiven”<\/em> and then “stand up, take your mat and go to your home”<\/em>. The man paralysed for many years stood up and went out before all of them”. <\/p>\n His Beatitude has also shown that the Evangelical pericope of the day urges us to try to heal the soul of sins: “The Church scheduled this pericope for this period of the Lent to urge us that first of all we must try to heal the sins and then the diseases of the body. The healing of the soul from sins is done through the confession of the sins and having them forgiven. No matter if our body is in good health, as long as we sin we are spiritually sick. This is why we need the Sacrament of confession and getting the forgiveness of the sins. Thus, Christ, our Lord, heals the soul first and then the body because very often, but not always, the disease of the body is the result of the sin. There are cases when the disease is a divine pedagogy which protects us against sins. So, for some people disease is a punishment for sin, while for some other ones disease is a protection for man not to let him sin. The sick man is more interested in getting his good health again, how to consume less food not to harm him more, while the sick man understands better than the healthy one that good health is a gift of God which can be lost”. <\/p>\n The Patriarch of Romania has also spoken about the importance of forgiveness during the Lent: “Today’s Gospel is addressed to the father confessors too, to all those who urge man to rid of the dark oppressive past and make a new beginning to his life lived not as a separation from God, but as a union with God. This Sunday shows us the Gospel of man’s recuperation, of his spiritual healing from sin and of the body’s disease too, with Christ’s mercy”. <\/p>\n The 2nd Sunday of the Lent is also named the Sunday of Saint Gregory Palama. The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also shown the reason why the Church scheduled the celebration of Saint Gregory Palama on this Sunday: “The Church scheduled Saint Gregory Palama to be remembered as Theologian of the never setting light on the second Sunday of the Lent. Why on this Sunday? It is because the second Sunday of the Lent follows after the Orthodoxy Sunday or of the right faith. Thus, the Church wanted to show that whoever has the right faith and living succeeds in seeing the light of the Kingdom of God. The Lord Himself says in the Gospel of the Orthodoxy Sunday: “Now you will see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending over the Son of Man”<\/em>.<\/p>\n So, we see that the right faith opens the heaven to us and whoever has the soul pure can feel the presence of God in his life as light, peace and joy”. <\/p>\n To end with the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel offered the servant priests of the monastery several liturgical books. His Beatitude has also offered books for the monastery’s library and seminary. The Patriarch of Romania offered 100 Akathistos leaflets of Saint Prince Neagoe Basarab to Saint Filofteia Seminary. The students of the seminary received a small icon of Saint Gregory Palama on behalf of His Beatitude. <\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, 31 March 2013, the second Sunday of the Lent His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania visited the community of Pasarea Monastery, county of Ilfov, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity. In the sermon delivered His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel emphasised the spiritual meaning of the Evangelical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-romanian-patriarchate"],"yoast_head":"\n