Licensing as father confessors at the historical chapel of the Patriarchal Residence
On Friday, 7 August 2015, the Patriarch of Romania licensed several priests of the Archdiocese of Bucharest as father confessors. The religious service was celebrated in the historical chapel of the Patriarchal Residence dedicated to Saint Great Martyr George.
The training of the father confessor lasts all his life, just like that of the physician’s
To end with the celebration, the Patriarch of Romania spoke to the young father confessors about the responsibilities of the service in a parish.
“The father confessor’s dignity is great and hard, but everything is possible in the Church with the help of God. The training of the father confessor lasts all his life, just like that of the physician’s. In general, the faithful who repents must feel, through the work of the father confessor, the mercy of God-the-Father, the advice of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, and the warmth of the Holy Spirit given especially through the prayer of the father confessor for the spiritual sons and daughters, as well as through the prayer of the spiritual sons and daughter for their spiritual father confessor. This experience of the presence and work of the Holy Trinity in the Church is felt especially through the service of the father confessor who must guide the people to know the mercy of God-the-Father, speak with them at catechesis and in sermons, especially during the fasting time, about the importance of going back to God, give up sin and return to virtue, because this is the mystery of repentance, and about the profits of Confession, not only as duty, but also as means of spiritual growth”, His Beatitude said.
The father confessor must be considered as a bearer of the resurrection flame for the resurrection of the souls after the death of sin
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel urged the father confessors to base on prayer in order to firmly and responsibly solve the issues of the faithful.
“The father confessor must be just like a physician who takes into account the characteristic features of every person and avoids both the strictness which can lead to despair and a too great tolerance, which can cause spiritual laziness. It is much confusion in today’s society. It is spiritual laziness. This is secularisation; it is not quite atheism, but spiritual laziness. The secularised man is not atheist by all means, but it is the man who does not pray. He has a lay thought, not a spiritual one. May God help us wake up, in a secularised world, the flame of the desire of renewal, of changing, so that the father confessor should be understood as a bearer of the flame for the resurrection of the souls from the death of sin, from the spiritual death caused by sin, and so have the joy of a community spiritually revived, which matters not only as number but also as quality”, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also emphasised.
The new father confessors received the licensing certificate, a blessing cross, as well as the new edition of the Molitfelnic on behalf of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.
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