The Patriarch of Romania at the Dedication Day of Saint Mary Monastery – Techirghiol

On 15 August 2013, day when the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrates the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God, the Monastery of Saint Mary Techirghiol – a patriarchal stavropighia (a monastery of a certain eparchy subordinated to the Romanian Patriarchate seated in Bucharest) – celebrated its dedication day. His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania celebrated the Divine Liturgy assisted by a group of priests and deacons. Besides His Beatitude, His Eminence Petru, Metropolitan of Bessarabia and Exarch of the Territories was also present.

In the sermon delivered, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church explained the Evangelical Pericope scheduled to be read today. The Patriarch of Romania underlined the fact that the relationship of man with God is the only thing that must be cultivated in this life: “The relationship of man with God, namely the obedience to the Word and the answer given to the Word through good deeds and thanksgiving means laying the man’s relationship with God at the foundation of life. All the other things have sense and values if added to this relationship of faith and obedience of man towards God. All the other activities are blessed, namely food, drink, work, family and everything we do in our life is blessed if man’s relationship with God is the foundation of life. This is the only thing that should be done; this relationship is the only one needed namely this vivid link, faith and love of man for God, as an answer to God’s love for man. This relationship begins in this earthly life, but it is continued in eternity. This is why when Saint Maxim the Confessor gave the definition of love he said that love is that state of the heart which prefers God instead of any other being in this world. Therefore, it is on this love for God from all the bottom of one’s heart that the love for family, homeland, friends, relations, and for close persons is based on. Everything is blessed as a result of the relationship of man with the Holy One.

The Mother of God is the most living icon of the obedience to the Word of God, His Beatitude has also emphasised: “She has obeyed the Word of God so much, ever since her childhood, when she was taken to the temple of Jerusalem, when aged three, that she blessed herself, having become a temple worthy receiving God inside her – the Eternal Word, so that He should be made man, out of her humanity, out of love for the humans and for their salvation. Therefore, the Mother of God obeyed the Word and interiorized it and showed Him to the world saying: Do everything He tells you to. Thus, the best obedient person of the Word of God is the Mother of God who gave birth to the Word of God as man in this world.”

His Beatitude has also referred to the words of the ordinary woman who raised her voice out of the crowd and said: blessed is the womb that had you and blessed is the breast that suckled you. He showed that we learn from this woman that everything we think of Christ we must also think of His mother, of the being that gave birth to Him as man and grew Him up. She carried Him in her arms and showed Him to the world as the Saviour of the world, as the Spring of the eternal Life and happiness. “This relationship between Christ, our Lord, and the Mother of God is seen in the way the ordinary woman venerates her. When Christ, our Lord, heard these words, He said: “So it is, blessed is the mother who gave birth to Me and grew Me up, but also blessed are those who obey the word of God and accomplish it. Thus, the Mother of God becomes the icon of all faithful, the icon of the entire Church who obeys the Word of God and incarnates Him, shows Him concretely through the deeds of faith, holiness, and kindness. Therefore, the Mother of God appears as the icon of the vivid Church who obeys the God-the-Word, and the Word of God becomes the sense, bases and fulfilment of the humans’ life.

Thus, the Mother of God is the living icon of the Church”.

“Today, our Church celebrated the feast of the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God and of her moving not only with her soul, but also with her body, to Heaven. This feast, the greatest feast of the Mother of God, is celebrated with special devotion. The Mother of God has 9 days in the calendar when she is remembered, out of which 5 in red letters. This is the greatest and the Church scheduled it in the last month of the church year, on the ninth day after the great feast of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, which shows us His glory before His Passion in order to show us later on the glory of the resurrection and the glory of His second coming to judge the living and the dead, whose Kingdom will have no end. The glory of the Lord at the Transfiguration is shared to the saints, while the closest saints of the Lord share more glory, and more eternal light. The Mother of God is the human being Most Holy, pure, and blessed, who shares most of the light and glory of Christ, because she gave birth to Christ as human, the eternal Son of God”, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church has also said.

His Beatitude emphasised the fact that the movement of the Mother of God to Heaven is an icon of the existential movement of those who believe in Christ from the earthly life to the heavenly life.

“The Church scheduled this feast in August in order to show us the Mystery of the Church expressed by her, namely the Mystery of the Church which moves us from this temporary world to the eternal Kingdom of Heaven; it moves us from the temporary human life, often full of troubles, temptations, and sorrow, to the eternal life, to the joy, happiness and light of the Most Holy Trinity. The movement of the Mother of God to Heaven is an icon of the movement, of the existential movement of those who believe in Christ. These ones pass from the earthly life to the heavenly life. The feast is named falling asleep or dormition, not death, because Christ, our Lord, did not want the body who gave birth to Him to be submitted to decay. Therefore, the Mother of God dies, but she does not remain in death, because three days later she is mysteriously raised in her body to heaven, to the temple not made by human hand. That is because her Son proved love and veneration for her and did not let her body be decayed or remain in death, as He, Christ-the-Son, Who was born by her, although passed through death, defeated death through Resurrection and raised in glory to heaven in order to give us new eternal life. The One born by Virgin Mary, the Defeater of death, the One who has never known decay and  raised up in glory after He has defeated death, raises her, moves her from grave to Heaven. This is why Saint John Damascus says that the Mother of God, as daughter of Old Adam, through obedience to the order established by the law maker, assumed the guilt, the mistake of the forefathers Adam and Eve, and passed through death. She shared the same state of all humans who pass through death, because a primordial consequence of the sin was de death, but having been the Mother of Life she did not remain in death, but was brought back to life,. This is why the troparion of the feast says: “In birth, you preserved your virginity; in death, you did not abandon the world, O Theotokos. As mother of life, you departed to the source of life, delivering our souls from death by your intercessions.”

The Patriarch of Romania has also shown that although she moves to Heaven, the Mother of God remains in the Church always praying for us.

“Although she moves to Heaven, the Mother of God is not indifferent to what happens to the people on the earth, so that she is always present in the Church with her prayers in Heaven and with the help she sends to those who believe in her Son and venerate her. This is why, Saint John Damascus says: “how should we call you departure? We cannot call it death, because you did not remain in death, but falling asleep, dormition, movement or not leaving, namely you did not leave us, so that although you are in heaven with your body, in the glory of your Son, you are, at the same time, present in the Church of Christ, pray for us and expiate our souls of death. Death does not mean the separation of man from God. Therefore, the Mother of God remains in the Church always praying for us in front of the throne of her Son and of the Most Holy Trinity”, His Beatitude also said.

His Beatitude has also emphasised the fact that the Mother of God is the icon of the praying Church, intercessor and victorious prayerful (as our books of rite read), namely never refused: “She showed, at the wedding in Cana Galilee, that she could change time, anticipate the time of Christ’s making wonders, so that Christ changed water into wine at her request to help the new family who did no longer have wine. So, He showed that at every wedding party when we invite Christ, the Mother of God, the Apostles, we receive the blessing of Christ in our life who blesses our life and changes the natural into heavenly, the so called natural life into blessed life, as a preparation for the Kingdom of Heaven. The Mother of God is the protector of the family, of children, the protector of the parents, because she herself is a mother who gave birth to infant Jesus and grew Him up; she is the protector of the girls because she always remained virgin, of the monks and nuns living in monasteries, of the servants of the holy altar: of the deacons, priests and hierarchs because Christ, our Lord, is the eternal Hierarch, High Priest, the servant of the Father for the salvation of the humans.”

“On this feast day of the Mother of God we pray her to protect us, to help us strengthen our faith, grow our children in faith, take care of the sick, poor, of those who cannot help themselves so that we become the hands of the merciful hands of Christ and of the Mother of God” the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church also added.

To end with His Beatitude offered several liturgical books to the monastery library. The abbess offered the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church an icon of Saint Daniel the Prophet, and His Eminence Petru, Metropolitan of Bessarabia an icon of the Mother of God. His Eminence has also thanked the Patriarch of Romania for the invitation to celebrate at the celebration of the dedication day of the monastic settlement of Techirghiol.

Situated close to the shore of the Black Sea, in the Techirghiol resort, “Saint Mary” Monastery dates as far as 1928, when patriarch Miron Cristea bought a house with 16 rooms here. A priests’ sanatorium was set up here, served by a few nuns, for the clergy of the whole country. Later on, in 1951, a small wooden church was brought from the royal pen of Sinaia and a nuns’ skete was set up here, while the sanatorium has become an annexe of the skete.

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