Feast of Saint John Chrysostom at the Chapel of the Cathedral for the Nation’s Salvation

14/11/2011

The chapel of the Cathedral for the Nation’s Salvation was overcrowded with the faithful who have come to worship Saint John Chrysostom, one the Saints Patrons of the place of worship. The Divine Liturgy on this feast day was celebrated by His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, together with His Beatitude Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests and deacons.

After reading the evangelical pericope, His Beatitude delivered a sermon for the faithful present in the chapel.

The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church showed that “Today’s Gospel is a programme. The urge “go and do the same” shows that this is not only a pleasant example to the ears, but a programme for a life time. Go and do the same means to be merciful any time and to any man who needs our help”.

“The Good Samaritan helped the one who had fallen among the bandits not because he was a relative, friend or acquaintance of his, but as the Holy Gospel reads, because he felt mercy for him. This is why the merciful Samaritan in today’s Gospel is the image of the merciful love of Christ for the humans. Anyone of us can become somebody’s neighbour whom he helps even if he has not met him before, even if he is not a relative, fellow citizen or compatriot of his. Anyone of us can become the hands of Christ for the fellow being in need. Any human can be our neighbour if he needs our help. So, the neighbour can be the one who helps his fellow beings, as well as any human who needs our help.”

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel eulogized the personality of Saint John Chrysostom celebrated today.

“One of the great preachers of the Holy Gospel, of God’s mercy is Saint John Chrysostom whom we celebrate today. He lived only 53 years, from 354 till 407, but he worked a lot. He had a good command of the Holy Scriptures and he was great preacher. He wrote lots of interpretations of the Holy Scriptures, especially “the homilies to the Genesis”, “Comments to the Gospel according to Matthew”, which is the best known of all his writings, “Comments to the Gospel according to John” and “Comments to the 14 epistles of Saint Paul the Apostle”. He has also been a great shepherd of souls and combated the sin and called to repentance. He has also combated greed and called to mercy. He combated the body’s passions and called to holy life and had lots of enemies because he was a man of truth and of justice.”

His Beatitude has also showed the relation between the Romanian people and Saint John Chrysostom.

“We have a great teacher and implementer in the person of Saint John Chrysostom. He not only preached repentance and mercy, but he also organised mercy. He organised hospitals in Constantinople for the sick and canteens for the poor. Saint John Chrysostom has also been a missionary. We, the Romanians, have a special relation with Saint John Chrysostom. In his time missionaries were sent from Constantinople to the Danube and to Dobrudgea. The Christianization of the Romanian people began with Saint Andrew the Apostle, but it was the Holy Fathers who paid special heed to the territory of Dacia, namely to today’s territory of our country, from the 4th to the 5th centuries. Saint Basil the Great from Caesarea of Cappadochia and Saint John Chrysostom sent missionaries to the territory of our country because after the Roman emperor Aurelian withdrew, the migratory populations began to invade us. So, the Goths occupied the territory of the country for a time, and it was to them that Saint John Chrysostom sent Christian missionaries from Constantinople. He has also sent missionaries to Dobrudgea, and the Bishop of Tomis, Teotim I was a friend of his. Saint John Chrysostom ordained Saint John Cassian, who was born in Dobrudgea and who could speak Greek and Latin fluently, and sent him to Rome to tell Pope Inocentius about the persecution he, Saint John Chrysostom, suffered in Constantinople”.

The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also emphasised the fact that “It is from Saint John Chrysostom that we learn the right faith and spiritual life. It is from him that we have the Divine Liturgy that we celebrate almost all the year long, with a few exceptions when the two other Liturgies are celebrated. It is from him that we have the most beautiful sermons. He is the greatest orator of Christianity or at least of the Eastern Church and a great defender of the family for us. It is from Saint John Chrysostom that we also learn that the most important things of all are repentance and mercy. The Saint recommends mercy as the essence of the Gospel of the love of Christ.”

The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also ordained a deacon during the Divine Liturgy, the young theologian Adrian Constantin Oance, an employee of the Eparchial Centre.

The chapel of the Cathedral for the Nation’s Salvation houses particles of the relics of Saint John Chrysostom laid in a shrine. His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul supervised the making of some other such shrines for the holy relics laid in other churches of Bucharest. Today, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel offered His Grace an engolpion as a sign of appreciation.

“The shrine you have seen at the entrance when you kissed the relics of Saint John Chrysostom was made with much skilfulness and it is very big compared to the size of the holy relics and it was made by the care of His Grace Assistant Bishop Varsanufie Prahoveanul. This is why we wanted to serve together today, as well as because His Grace had the initiative, found money and the ways of making several such beautiful shrines in Bucharest. We want to offer him today an engolpion of Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest, and thank him for the great devotion he proved when bedecking the shrines for the relics of several saints”.

To end with, His Beatitude offered little icons to the faithful present at this beautiful feast.

His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel consecrated the holy place of worship together with a group of Romanian and foreign hierarchs on the day when the Holy Head of Saint Andrew the Apostle was brought for the first time to Bucharest, on the occasion of the celebration this year of Saint Dimitrios the New, on Monday, 24 October 2011.

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