His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel Received The Members Of The Philanthropy Federation Of The Romanian Patriarchate
On 10 November 2010, the Patriarch of Romania received the members of the Philanthropy Federation at the Patriarchal Residence of Bucharest – informs Trinitas Radio station.
During the meeting, His Beatitude spoke to those present about the importance of serving one’s neighbour through charity work.
“Having been Orthodox, we must never separate the social- philanthropic work from the social-pastoral one, because we risk a sort of secularised humanism and of humanitarian work which forgets that man is a being created according to the image of God and has the love of eternity, and the aspiration to eternal life implanted in him. This work is equal to the Divine Liturgy. It is the Liturgy of the Altar and the Liturgy of the brother or of the fellow being in need, as Saint John Chrysostom says. We worship Christ in the Cup and overlook and despise Christ in the poor one. We have the social-philanthropic ecclesiastic conscience, not only a humanitarian one and you have the great joy when you bring joy to somebody, his joy being reflected in the joy of the one who did a good deed. It is an exchange of joy. We make joy and whenever man enjoys the merciful deed we did, we are glad of his joy”, said His Beatitude.
