On the weekend of March 23-25, 2019, HE Metropolitan Nicolae visited the parish of St. Nicholas and the Great Martyr George of Queens and the Monastery of St. Demetrios the New of Middletown, both in New York state.
The pastoral visit began on Saturday, March 23, with the celebration of Great Vespers at St. Nicholas parish. At the end of the service, HE Nicolae spoke of the life and mission of St. Irodion of Lainici, whose holy relics were brought for veneration to the faithful of New York. HE Nicolae also remembered the history of discovery of the relics on 10 April 2009, after much prayer and desire to discover the holiness of St. Irodion of the monastic community in Lainici. The holy relics were received for veneration with the blessing of HE Metropolitan Irineu of Oltenia and the kindness of Abbot Joachim.
On Sunday morning, HE Metropolitan Nicolae served the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas parish together with the Parish priest, Fr. Marius Dumitrescu. At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, the hierarch spoke of the significance of the second Sunday of Great Lent dedicated to St. Gregory Palamas: St. Gregory made a distinction between the knowledge of God in His Being and the revelation of God in the soul of man. God is incomprehensible, unconceivable, beyond the intellectual possibilities of man. God is revealed to man and the world through the uncreated energies or works of God. The love of God to the world, His protective grace, these are the uncreated energies. God cannot be conceived in His Being, but God chooses to reveal Himself through His uncreated energies. God is revealed in the soul of him who very earnestly seeks God.
HE Metropolitan Nicolae offered the parish the new antimision and explained its significance. Then he presented to the faithful the new Academic Dean of the St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theology Faculty of New York in the person of Mr. Ionuţ Alexandru Tudorie.
On the feast day of the Annunciation, HE Metropolitan Nicolae served the Divine Liturgy united with Vespers at St. Demetrios the New Monastery in Middletown, NY. The clergy of the monastery, V. Rev. Protosynghellos Vincentiu, and Rev. Hierodeacon Serafim, together with Rev. Hieromonk Chrysostom and Fr. Ionuţ Voicu, Parish Priest of the Life Giving Fountain parish, Long Valley, NJ served with His Eminence. In the sermon, HE Nicolae referred to the joy of the Annunciation which brings to all the good news of the Incarnation of the Son of God: the mystery of man's salvation was accomplished only after the Virgin said "here is the Lord's handmaid", only after the Virgin has agreed to fulfill this call. We can say that God's plan for man's salvation, now uncovered, has been accomplished only by the cooperation of man. To the pilgrims who were at this monastery for the first time, HE Nicolae remembered the history of the place and the stages to the fulfillment of the monastery’s plans: the construction of the church, its consecration in June 2011, the iconography and its blessing in October 2016, the pilgrims’ and the monks’ house. The founders of the monastery, Dumitru Minciu, Archimandrite Vasile Vasilachi and Gheorghe and Parascheva Papa family, were not forgotten. HE Nicolae invited all faithful to participate in the monastery's services and to take part in other activities in this blessed place.
