The Patriarch of Romania Re-Consecrated the Church of Delea Nouă – Calist Parish of Bucharest
On Sunday, 11 October 2015, the parish church of Delea Nouă – Calist, deanery of Bucharest district 2, was re-consecrated. The re-consecration service was celebrated by His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, together with His Grace Timotei Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests.
The re-consecration service was preceded by the Divine Liturgy celebrated by His Grace Timotei Prahoveanul. On this occasion, His Grace ordained deacon Cocolşila George as priest for Schiuleşti parish, Vălenii de Munte deanery, and theologian Andrei Băbeanu as deacon for Podul Văleni parish, Ploieşti South deanery.
The Patriarch of Romania delivered a sermon in which he spoke about the importance of the consecration of a church in the life of the community: “The text of the Gospel read today shows us how important Church is. It is in the consecrated church that we meet to listen to the words of the Gospel, to pray together for those present and for those who could not attend. It is here that we thank God for the blessings received from Him, and it is here that we pray for His help to renew our souls, to give us good pure hearts. Today, we remember through the re-consecration of this church, the good pure hearted, devoted and merciful people, who built this church, and then those who restored, bedecked, and adorned it. This is why we pray God to bless them, to bless their life, adorn their activity the same as they contributed to adorning this church re-consecrated today, after 140 years since its first consecration.”
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel showed that, in essence, today’s Gospel indicates to us that the meaning of the human’s life on the earth is to receive the Word of God and implement it: “We see in the parable of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, four categories of people symbolically represented by the four sorts of seeds. The first category is that of the people deceived by devil. Namely the people who hear the word, but the devil comes and takes the word out of their heart so that by believing it would be saved. Thus, the first obstacle for bearing the fruit of the word of God in the soul of the humans is the devil who takes the word of God well proclaimed by the Church out of the human’s heart through his servants, even before it may germinate in the soul of the one who is listening to it”.
While speaking about the second category of people, symbolically described by Jesus Christ, our Saviour, through the seed fallen on the stone, His Beatitude Daniel showed that these are “those who hear the word of God and accept it with joy, but have no roots, believe it for a time, and then, at a time of trial they deny it. These are the people who receive the word of the Gospel with joy and cultivate it as long as they have a good life. But when the time of trial or of the persecution of the Church comes, or when they suffer diseases, distress, temptations, troubles, they give up the faith”.
“The third category of people is that of those who receive the word of God, but this word cannot bear good fruit because it is stifled by enslaving preoccupations. These are the people who do not find time to pray in the morning and evening, or before eating, because they worry too much for temporary things and forget about the essential thing: their relationship with the eternal God, the Spring of their life and of all boons. There are many people who are so overwhelmed by the worries of the world that they can no longer find the meaning of their life on the earth. They have a well-established programme, very efficient methods to acquire material profit or reach a high position in society so that they do not have time to think about the meaning of their life on the earth”, His Beatitude also said.
The fourth category of people is that of the good pure hearted. “It is only the good pure heart, sincere and humble, cleansed by the tears of repentance and Confession, through Holy Communion and good deeds that can become again the bright vestment received at the Holy Baptism. But the pure heart must be also good or merciful. In general, there are people with pure, sincere heart, but not all of them are merciful. We have some good religious people, but avaricious. Christ, our Lord, tells us that the pure heart must be kind too. Therefore, the good pure heart is the spiritual state of the soul in which the saving word of the Gospel of Christ becomes fruitful”, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel also said.
Distinctions for those involved
To end with, the Patriarch of Romania awarded several distinctions, as a sign of appreciation, to the persons specially involved in the works of this parish. Reverend Fathers Claudiu Constantin Cotan and Cosmin Daniel Pricop were awarded the rank of oikonomos-stavrophore.
With the blessing of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, between 2013 and 2015, extensive works of consolidation, restoration, and rehabilitation were undertaken at the parish church of Delea Nouă – Calist. Thus, by the help of the faithful and the perseverance of parish priest Valentin Fătu, the church painting was restored and the church porch built in 2013 was painted.
