The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church emphasised in the beginning of the sermon delivered yesterday, 8 March 2009, in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest the fact that the feast of the “Orthodoxy Sunday” was instituted on 11 March 843 in Constantinople, so that ever since, every Sunday of the Lent has been celebrated as the Sunday of Orthodoxy or of the right faith.

Further on, His Beatitude underlined that on the Orthodoxy Sunday, the Holy Synod of our Church sends a pastoral letter to the clergy and faithful, by which they underline the importance of the Orthodox teaching on the worship of icons and the need to preserve the right faith. Then, he also underlined the fact that the deep meaning of the Gospel read yesterday during the Divine Liturgy is the “sight”, pointing out that three sorts of sights can be seen in this fragment.

When referring to the spiritual sight, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said that this sight is the “beginning of the sight in faith. Faith is a sight beyond the bodily sight; it is a spiritual sight. It is a sight not with eyes of the body, but with those of the soul. This spiritual sight is the sight of faith, it is a sight beyond human senses”.

His Beatitude also showed that, when reading this text from the Gospel, we must keep in mind that the true faith is the confession of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. “If we have true faith we also have true sight on reality. This world, as seen with bodily eyes is not the only one and not the eternal one; the eternal world, to which the world created by God goes to, is the Kingdom of Heaven, the uncreated light, which never sets, the everlasting glory. This glory, everlasting light in the Kingdom of Heaven, can be seen by those who have the true faith and true life in Christ. These ones are the saints who have foretasted, while still in this world, the joy from the heavenly joy and the glory from the glory of heaven”.

His Beatitude also underlined the fact that we foretaste the eternal life through the Holy Sacraments of the Church, and the saints and their icons are our guides to the Kingdom of God, to the heavenly light, not seen with the bodily eyes, but with the eyes of faith. “Orthodoxy is the right faith, as a foundation of the right sight, of the sight in eternity, of the sight beyond the material things, of the sight in the Kingdom of Heaven. Orthodoxy is also the foretasting of the eternal life ever since this world. Our Church is not adorned with icons only to make it more beautiful, but because the saints are our teachers and they are the prophets of the Kingdom of God because all those who repent, confessed their sins, took the Holy Communion, lived according to the Gospel of Christ, receive ever since this world the foretaste of the joy and of the light in the Kingdom of Heaven. On this day, of the Orthodoxy, or of the right faith, we go out in procession with the icons of the saints because the saints are examples for us, or guides. They are our teachers, and they pray together with us for the salvation of the world”, also said His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.

During the Divine Liturgy celebrated yesterday, a thanksgiving prayer was also said on the occasion of the anniversary of 19 years hierarchy of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. His Beatitude was ordained hierarch on 4 March 1990, on the first Sunday of the Lent, when our Church celebrates the victory of Orthodoxy. It was also yesterday, that the young theologian Teodor Gradinaciuc, deputy editor with Trinitas Radio station was ordained deacon, and deacon Sorin Şelaru, Director of the Representation of the Romanian Patriarchy in Brussels was ordained priest. Both of them will serve at the Patriarchal Cathedral.

Source: ziarullumina.ro