On September 9th-10th, 2023, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas visited the community of the Nativity of the Mother of God Mission in Norfolk, Virginia, on the occasion of the feast day. On the evening of Saturday, September 9th, His Eminence celebrated Vespers with parish priest Orlando Stelian Geonea and Father Ionel Satnoianu from the Parish of Holy Hierarch Callinicus of Cernica in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which was followed by an agape meal.
In his address to the faithful at the end of Vespers, His Eminence spoke about the two feasts at the beginning of the Church year. The first is the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God:
"The Virgin Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, showed steadfast prayer and faith. The reward was the lifting of the curse, as the Feast's Troparion says, through the birth of the Virgin Mary. But this proclamation brought joy to everyone, for it was the sign of the revelation of God's work for the salvation of mankind. Therefore, the sign also refers to the work of the Savior Himself, who has destroyed death and given us eternal life. The second feast is the feast of the Ascension of the Holy Cross. The Gospel reading of the Sunday preceding this feast is an exhortation to reflect on the foundations of our faith: Christ as Savior, the incarnate Son of God, who bore our sicknesses and infirmities and even allowed himself to be crucified on the Cross to save us from death to resurrection. It is an exhortation that throughout the Church year we reflect on what it means to be Christians by imitating Christ's sacrifice."
On Sunday, September 10th, His Eminence celebrated the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy together with the parish priest. In his homily, he read this Gospel pericope from John 3:13-17:
"The Ascension of Christ on the Cross is the true Ascension, which brought healing from sin, which brought eternal life. Christ ascended the Cross to offer Himself on behalf of humanity as a reconciliation with God, a sacrifice for eternity.
The Apostle Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Philippians 2:5-8: ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, who, being God in the likeness of God, did not consider Himself to be in the likeness of God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, and yet death on the Cross.’ And in today's Holy Gospel it is said that no one has ascended into heaven except the One who came down from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven (John 3:13). A logic of descent and ascension is revealed: Christ, the Son of God, came down from heaven, took on our human body, in order to correct our human nature, weakened by sin, and then to offer it as a sacrifice to God the Father, to reconcile it to God the Father and to heal it from the last consequence of sin, which is death: with death by death He has given us eternal life. He conquered death by passing through death.
Christ came down humbling Himself, humbled Himself unto death, and still death on the Cross. St. Paul says in the continuation of this hymn: ‘Therefore, God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2:9-11). The sacrifice to death on the Cross brought Him exaltation. It seemed yet another victory over death; it seemed an incomprehensible humility. His descent from heaven, the taking up of our body, the lifting up of the body on the Cross brought Him exaltation, for He rose and conquered death."
Finally, at the end of the sermon, the Parish Priest Orlando Stelian Geonea thanked His Eminence Nicolae for his visit and ministry, recalling the importance of the presence of the Hierarch in parishes. The event then officially ended with the usual agape meal.
We thank God for these special moments and give Him glory for all!
Fr. Orlando Stelian Geonea
------------------------------------------------
In the afternoon of September, the 10th, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae, accompanied by Fr. Orlando Geonea and Fr. Ionel Satnoiannu, attended the Advancing Bridges Awards Gala and Concert organized by the Romanian Embassy in Washington to award those who have invested energy, talent, intelligence, and creativity to support and strengthen Romanian-American communities. The concert entitled, "Amazing Grace: Celebrating Religious Freedom. A Romanian Tribute to America" was offered by the Romanian National Orchestra (consisting of 150 Romanian artists) and was intended as a tribute to all Romanian-American heroes who fought for religious freedom on the eve of the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Metropolitan Nicolae said the prayer of blessing for the meeting and then spoke of the presence of the Romanian Orthodox on American soil since the end of the 19th century, of their desire to preserve their language, faith and traditions, and of the building of churches, some of which were modelled after those left at home, such as the one in Boian of Bucovina, which was consecrated in 1905 in Boian, Alberta. Metropolitan Nicolae then thanked His Excellency, the Ambassador of Romania in Washington, Andrei Muraru for the invitation and conveyed the blessing and greetings of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel.
Among those honored was Fr. Ionuț Voicu from the Parish of the Life-Giving Spring in Long Valley, NJ, for his effort and perseverance to build a Maramureș-style wooden church on American soil.
