The first carolers also arrived at the Cathedral of Ss. Constantine and Helen in Chicago. HE Metropolitan Nicolae was caroled by the children from the Sunday School of the Cathedral on Saturday, December 21, 2024. Led by the teachers, the children remembered the star from the east, the magicians, and the shepherds. HE Nicolae thanked the children and teachers and offered them icons, sweets, and fruits. The joy of caroling was multiplied by the completion of the iconography work of the Cathedral just a few days before Christmas.
The carol is by no means a tender song that has become a tradition because it conveys the memory of a historical event, but its value and authority are based on the message it conveys, a message identical to that of Scripture. And if the theology of the Incarnation of the Son is sometimes complicated and difficult to understand, the carol tells us in simple, melodic words that God came down to the human being “to deliver it from evil.” The carol urges each of us to prepare our homes and our souls in order to receive God. On Christmas Eve, even though we are fasting, we prepare our houses and load our tables, as a carol says. But this is not for those who carol, but for God Himself who descends into every home and brings blessing. This is the joy we share with carolers. We are hosts, and God is the heavenly guest who dwells among us. And He brings with him peace and happiness from beyond.
On Sunday, December 22, 2024, the children of the Cathedral of Ss. Constantine and Helen in Chicago presented the Christmas program. This year, the two priest-wife’s, teachers at the Sunday School, Andaluzia Mureșan and Sanda Cărbune, have prepared a program different from previous years. The parents and faithful of the Cathedral enjoyed the Good News of the Savior's Birth, and the children were rewarded with gifts by Santa Claus. Sunday evening, December 22, also brought carol singers from Romania, via Facebook, through the carol concert offered by several choral groups from the Diocese of Giurgiu with the title "Offering to diaspora through Romanian carols." His Grace Bishop Ambrozie addressed a word of blessing and greeting, on the occasion of the Christmas holidays, to the Romanian priests and faithful from the USA and Canada. His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae responded by thanking the carol singers and His Grace Bishop Ambrozie for the great joy.
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The choir of the Cathedral of Ss. Constantine and Helen in Chicago is ready, as every year, for the carol concert on Christmas Eve. The repertoire includes traditional Romanian carols and carols from the international repertoire. The young people of the choir of the Cathedral of Ss. Constantine and Helen seriously rehearsed to offer the Orthodox Romanians from the Chicago Metropolis the joy of receiving through the carols the announcement of the Nativity of the Lord. Christmas Eve is a special evening of the church year. That is why the carol concert of the Choir of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Chicago, on Christmas Eve, is an event long awaited by the Romanian Orthodox faithful in Chicago.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of St. Nicholas and St. George Romanian Orthodox Church in New York, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae addressed a greeting to the Romanian Orthodox Christians in America through Romanian TV of NY (RTVNY).
