Palestinian Orthodox Community On A Visit To The Romanian Patriarchate

Church of Romania

On Sunday, 31 August 2014, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel received at the Patriarchal Residence a group of young Palestinian Orthodox faithful. Accompanied by Archimandrite Galaction, Trustee of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem at Ramallah, they will participate next days in the Youth Orthodox Meeting at Baia Mare. In the morning the young people attended the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral. The Primate of our Church blessed them and spoke about the relationship between the Romanian Patriarchate and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

“We are glad to have Arabian Orthodox Christians to participate in the Youth National Meeting to be held in Baia Mare city and it is a very good thing to have more meetings of the Orthodox youth, not only of the hierarchs, because the young people are the present and the future of the Church. Today, the majority of the young people wonder first of all how to have a house, a career, a large income, but the religious young people want to reach the Kingdom of God first, and all the rest will come as a blessing. We wish you a blessed stay in Romania, and may you enjoy prayer, as well as the discussions with the other young people and go back home safe and sound! We kindly ask you to convey all our brotherly esteem to His Beatitude Patriarch Teofil and we are waiting for him in October on a visit to Romanian at the feast of the Patriarchal Cathedral on 27 October”, His Beatitude said.

In the afternoon the group visited several representative places of worship of Bucharest, as well as the building yard of the Cathedral for the Nation’s Salvation. The young people are for the first time in Romania and are accompanied by Rev. Archimandrite Galaction Auad, Trustee of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem at Ramallah.

“It is for the first time that we participate in an Orthodox Youth Assembly. We are glad we have been invited to the Romanian Patriarchate and we hope this invitation to be renewed and to have the more opportunities to participate. The group is made up of 15 young people who belong to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. There are people both from Jordan and from Palestine, because we know that the Patriarchate of Jerusalem has jurisdiction both in Jordan, Israel and in Palestine.

The Orthodox Youth Meeting will take place in Baia Mare, from 3-6 September 2014. The event – at its second edition – is organised by the Diocese of Maramures and Satmar, with the support of the Metropolitanate of Cluj, Maramures and Salaj, and of the City Hall of Baia Mare. It is for the first time that young people from Greece, Ukraine and Moldova participate.

We cannot be saved only through devotion unless we are merciful

In the sermon delivered after the Divine Liturgy on the 12th Sunday after the Pentecost, at the chapel of the Patriarchal Residence dedicated to Saint Great Martyr George, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel explained the significance of the Evangelical pericope of Saint Matthew 9:16-26.

The Patriarch of Romania said that the attachment to wealth makes the people’s salvation difficult: “It is not enough to be devoted, faithful, and correct in your moral behaviour to the people, it is not enough not to kill, not to be libertine, not to steal, lie or cheat, or swear false. It is not enough to restrain from evil, but you must do much good and be perfect. And the best thing this young rich man could do to his fellow beings was to help the poor, to be merciful to them. The rich young man was moral and devoted, but avaricious. And Jesus Christ, our Saviour, means to tell the young rich man that he would be perfect only when he is merciful or generous.”

The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also shown the fact that man finds it difficult to part with the material things in order to get the heavenly permanent gifts: “We notice while reading the Gospel that it is difficult for man to part with his temporary limited wealth in order to get the permanent heavenly gifts, to give up something temporary and material, to be united with something permanent, which is God Himself. Thus, Christ, our Lord, shows us that we cannot be saved only if we are devoted, unless we are merciful too, especially if we have many material things. When we do not own material things or money, our generosity can be shown through good words, deeds, advice and especially through the prayer for somebody else. But if we have material richness, our mercy can be shown helping the other ones. This is why the Church developed not only the Liturgy in history, but also Philanthropy, namely helping the poor both spiritually and materially”.

Nest Sunday, the Orthodox Church will be on the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

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