Great Lent 2020

Patriarch Daniel: Transform the period of medical crisis in a time to strengthen our faith and increase our love!

On the Second Sunday of Great Lent, the Church opens before us the well-known page of the Holy Gospel about the cure of a paralytic man. This gospel passage shows us the healing power of our Saviour Jesus Christ and highlights the importance of caring for one’s health. Referring to the four friends who made…

Mar 16, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

PHOTO: Sunday of Orthodoxy throughout the world

The Sunday of Orthodoxy is a feast celebrating the holy icons. On this Sunday, throughout the Orthodox world, these representations of saintly persons are at the centre of religious services and processions. In Constantinople, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, Patriarch Bartholomew celebrated the Divine Liturgy together with Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus. On this…

Mar 12, 2020Ștefana Totorcea

The Week in Pictures: March 2 – 8, 2020

The Orthodox World seen through the lens of photographers on March 2-8, 2020. Follow us on Twitter: @BasilicaNews We would gladly include one of your photos depicting Orthodox life in our weekly selection. All you have to do is send the picture(s) you have taken to our email address [info @ basilica.ro] along with a…

Mar 12, 2020Ștefana Totorcea

Patriarch Daniel on Sunday of Orthodoxy: The profession of true faith opens Heavens

‘The profession of the true faith opens the Heavens. Without confessing Christ’s divinity, no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, no one can see the Kingdom of Heaven,’ His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel stressed during his sermon on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The Patriarch of Romania explained that true faith ‘is laid as a foundation…

Mar 9, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Bishop of Huși: We live in an age of technology and another type of fasting is required, a media quarantine

His Grace Bishop Ignatie of Huși cautioned that in an age of technology we should extend our fasting rules to technology in order to gain spiritual peace during Lent. ‘We live in an age of technology and another type of fasting is required, a media quarantine,’ the Bishop of Huși stressed during Forgiveness Vespers marking…

Mar 5, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Message by Patriarch John X of Antioch at the beginning of Great Lent 2020

The Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East published Patriarch John X’s message to the faithful at the beginning of Holy and Great Lent 2020. His Beatitude highlighted fasting as a self-transformative journey which can only be accomplished into Christ: “a person is their own master as long as they lean on God”. The essence…

Mar 4, 2020Ștefana Totorcea

Romanian Patriarch offers reflections on Great Lent: from pagan training school to Christian repentance school

The first part of the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete was officiated in all Orthodox churches on Monday evening, March 2, 2020, marking the beginning of Great Lent. At the patriarchal cathedral in Bucharest, the Great Canon was read out by His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania who spoke about repentance as the…

Mar 4, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Patriarch Daniel: No one can enter Lent without forgiveness

“No one can enter into fasting, as a spiritual struggle for the cleansing of sins and the lightening of the soul, without forgiveness,” His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania explained in his homily at the Chapel of St. Gregory the Enlightener in the Patriarchal residence in Bucharest on the Sunday of the Expulsion of Adam…

Mar 3, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Catechetical Homily of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on the beginning of Holy and Great Lent, 2020

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has published Patriarch Bartholomew’s Catechetical Homily at the opening of Holy and Great Lent (2020). + BARTHOLOMEW BY GOD’S MERCY ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE – NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH TO THE PLENITUDE OF THE CHURCH, MAY THE GRACE AND PEACE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, TOGETHER WITH OUR PRAYER, BLESSING…

Feb 27, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Greek Metropolitan of Mesogaia to speak about ‘passing through the wilderness of Great Lent’ in Bucharest

The Lenten lectures organized by the Romanian Orthodox Christian Students Association (ASCOR) in Bucharest will kick off this year with a special guest from Greece. His Eminence Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki will speak at the Aula Magna of the Law School of Bucharest about the passing through the wilderness of Great Lent and…

Feb 20, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu

Patriarch Daniel at beginning of Triodion: Not every prayer is received by God

During his homily marking the beginning of the Triodion, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said that the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee is an appeal to humble prayer. Offer prayers with humility ‘Not every prayer is received by God, only the humble prayer, offered in humility,’ the Patriarch of Romania stressed quoting the Gospel…

Feb 11, 2020Aurelian Iftimiu