On the Second Sunday of Lent, the Greek Independence Day was celebrated this year in Vienna.
Metropolitan Arsenios of Austria presided over the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Trinity Cathedral, accompanied by the General Hierarchical Vicar and Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Throne, Ioannis Nikolitsis, and the Hieromonk Boubidis. The service was attended by the Greek Ambassador to Austria, Elena Rafti, representatives of Greek consular authorities, offikalioi of the Mother Church, and several believers in compliance with the COVID-19 restrictive measures.
In his sermon, referring to the pericope of the Second Sunday of Lent, the healing the paralytic at Capernaum, the Metropolitan emphasized that the figure of Saint Gregory Palamas stood out primarily by talking about the distinction between the essence and energies of God and that we could know only His energies and not His essence.
After the Divine Liturgy, the Doxology of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution was performed this year.
The Ambassador of Greece in Austria delivered the panegyric of the day and referred to the importance of the Greek Revolution of 1821 in the sense of expressing a vision for the future of the nation, which was cultivated by the Greeks of the Diaspora and especially by the Greeks of Vienna.