"Standing in the Temple of thy Glory, we seem to stand in Heaven.”
By the power of the Holy Spirit and by the mercy of God, the Holy and God-bearing Fathers of the Orthodox Church ordained the Holy and Great Lent as a spiritual journey to the Resurrection of Christ, a true time of spiritual purification, of the exaltation of the soul through humility and prayer, a beginning of another life, lived with and in Christ.
We thank the Lord that He has made it possible for us to begin to ascend the steps of Lent with all due respect and to find our way back to Christ, our joy.
The Second Sunday of Lent, of Saint Gregory Palamas, was a truly blessed one for the Romanian faithful of the parish of Saint Nicholas and Saint George in New York, who had in their midst His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae. The reception of His Eminence was full of emotion and joy of reunion, because the warmth and love with which Metropolitan Nicolae always comes to our church flows towards the multitude of believers who are waiting for him and whose souls respond with the same affection and openness.
On the afternoon of March 19, 2022, HE Metropolitan Nicolae arrived in New York, and soon afterward, in our parish. This was followed by the participation of our Metropolitan via ZOOM in the first Saturday Philokalic evening of the educational program “Exploring your faith,” entitled “On the prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian,” by Father Vasile Gavrila, Rector of St. Nicholas Church, University Chapel in Bucharest.
After the conference, His Eminence Nicolae concelebrated the Great Vespers together with Litya with the Parish Priest Marius Dumitrescu. At the end of this service, His Eminence spoke to us about true friendship, interpreting the Gospel of the Second Sunday of Lent.
On Sunday morning, the celebration continued with Matins and the Hierarchical Liturgy concelebrated by HE Metropolitan Nicolae, together with the Fr. Marius Dumitrescu. In his sermon at the end of the service, His Eminence Nicholas spoke about St. Gregory Palamas, the one who established the Orthodox teaching on grace as a saving energy or divine work:
“St. Gregory made a distinction between knowing God in His Being and the discovering of God in the human soul. God is ungraspable, incomprehensible, beyond man’s intellectual possibilities. But God reveals himself to man and to the world through what St. Gregory Palamas called the uncreated energies or works of God. God's love for the world, His protective grace, these are the uncreated energies. God cannot be contained in His Being, but God chooses to reveal Himself through His uncreated energies in the soul of the one who zealously seeks God. Christ Himself in the Beatitudes told us about this possibility: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’ (Matthew 5: 8).”
At the end of the Holy Liturgy, the Memorial Service was served for the founders of the church and for the reposed Nicolae Bujin, who had recently passed away to the Lord.
Christians filled St. Nicholas Church to the brim on Sunday morning, a sign of its blessing by Christ the Savior. Our whole community was involved in the preparations for the pastoral visit by lovingly giving of its time to the Church. At the end, Parish Priest Marius Dumitrescu addressed to HE Metropolitan Nicolae and to all the faithful a word of thanksgiving for this moment of extraordinary joy.
May the Good God help us, in understanding the spiritual benefit of Lent, to advance in our ascent to the joy of the Resurrection.
We thank the organizers, donors and all the faithful of St. Nicholas and St. George’s Church in New York. May our Good God reward their love and sacrifice!
Glory to God for all!
Written by
V. Rev. Fr. Marius Dumitrescu
