The 7th Sunday after Pascha, June 9, 2019, was a joyous celebration for the Romanians in the North East of the United States. The Romanian Monastery of Saint Demetrios the New of Middletown, New York celebrated its second feast, Ascension of the Lord. The beautiful early summertime made a lot of believers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to attend this special event.

The feast commenced on Saturday evening, when HE Metropolitan Nicolae served the Great Vespers with Lytia. On Sunday morning, the feast continued with Matins, followed by the Divine Liturgy celebrated by the HE Nicolae, surrounded by a group of priests composed of the Monastery brotherhood to whom were added Fr. Marius Dumitrescu from the St. Nicholas parish of Queens, Fr. Marius Lazar of the Brancoveanu Martyrs Mission in Fairfield, Connecticut and Fr. Constantin Pituşcan, a young priest from Saint Parascheva parish of Straseni, Republic of Moldova. The event was attended also by a delegation from the Consulate General of Romania in New York headed by His Excellency Mr. Consul General Cătălin Dancu. The believers were able to venerate the relics and the icon of St. Irodion of Lainici brought especially for this feast by HE Metropolitan Nicolae and an embroidered pillow that covered the relics of Saint Hierarch Basil of Ostrog, received as a gift by St. Dimitrios the New Monastery from a group of Romanian believers from the village of Lokve in Serbia.

A Memorial service for the founders of the monastery who passed to the Lord was served at the end of the Divine Liturgy. In the sermon, Metropolitan Nicolae spoke of the importance of the time period from the Ascension of the Lord to the Pentecost, the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, and how we, today Christians, must follow them in the confession of Christ: The 318  fathers met in Nicaea and formulated the teachings we confess until today in the Creed about the Son of God who is true God of true God, Light of Light. These are the words of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council who have defended the right teaching that the Son is true God, is not a creature of God the Father, is born from eternity from the Father, and is of a same essence, of the same nature as the Father. At the end of the sermon, His Eminence spoke about the life of St. Irodion of Lainici and the wonderful discovery of his relics. The feast ended with a brotherly agape organized by the monastery, where those present expressed thanksgiving to God for this blessed day. 

Protosynghellos Vincentiu Temirov