“Constantly incarnate Christ in the hearts of people”, Archbishop Makarios of Australia, paternally urged the new Deacon of the local Church, Fr. Dimitrios Drougas, who ascended the first step of the priesthood on Tuesday, November 21, on the day of the Feast of the Entrance of the Virgin Mary into the Temple.
“The Lady Theotokos became the widest of the heavens, in whose womb this unique union of the created and the Uncreated, the Incarnation of the Word, was performed truly and substantially. This will be your mission, to minister the Sacrament of the Incarnation of the Lord in the heart of every man” pointed out Archbishop Makarios.
Elsewhere, the Archbishop urged the ordained to enter the priesthood with childlike innocence, according to the model and example of our Lady: “With the innocence that characterizes infants, I invite you to open your soul and mind to the presence and providence of God who transforms everything, who achieves everything. Keep your mind constantly turned to God, as did our Lady throughout her stay in the Temple, because otherwise everything will seem drowning and loneliness will be the feeling that will prevail. It has a loneliness, let me say, the priesthood, but it is not an emotional or psychological loneliness, it is that ontological loneliness that is fulfilled only through the presence of God.”
Finally, the Archbishop of Australia expressed confidence that the new Deacon is properly prepared for the great mission he has undertaken while estimating that he will prove worthy of the expectations of the Church.
The ordination ceremony of Fr. Demetrios took place at the celebrating Church of the Presentation of our Lady to the Temple, in the suburb of North Balwyn, Melbourne, on the day of the inauguration of this beautiful church, by Archbishop Makarios. The ordained Deacon, a family man with four children, for many years a chanter and secretary of the School of Byzantine Music of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia, received the heartfelt wishes of the Archbishop, as well as Bishops Kyriakos of Sozopolis and Evmenios of Kerasous, the Protosyncellus, Archimandrite Christoforos Krikelis of the Ecumenical Throne, the other clergy who participated in the glorious Feast and the faithful who had flooded the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary.
