Today, 24 December 2011, the servant priests of the Patriarchal Cathedral announced the Nativity of the Lord to His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. According to the tradition of the Orthodox Church, the priests went to the Patriarchal Residence the feast icon in their hands, just after the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.

Here a polihronion service was celebrated and then His Beatitude spoke to the servant priests of the Patriarchal Cathedral about the importance of the Nativity of the Lord and of the icon taken from house to house: “We pray Christ, our Lord, Who for us humanity and for our salvation was made man, to give us the joy the angels had when they announced His Nativity in Bethlehem and which was given to the shepherds from Bethlehem, so that this peace and joy, these great gifts from God should be announced to all the inhabitants of the city. The same as the angels were the first to announce the Nativity of the Lord, so were the carolers the first to come to announce the Nativity of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, the shepherds who received their heavenly message go to the people’s houses to give them the good news of the Nativity of the Lord. So, we have angels and then shepherds who give the good news. We have carolers and then servant priests who announce the Nativity of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, to the faithful and to the world too”.