With due splendor, the great feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple was celebrated in the Archdiocesan District of Northcote, centered at the celebratory Holy Church of The Presentation Of Our Lord in the Coburg suburb of Melbourne.
Representing Archbishop Makarios of Australia, Bishop Evmenios of Kerasounta, Archiepiscopal Vicar of Northcote, officiated at the Great Vespers on the eve of the Feast Day, while on the morning of the feast, He officiated at the Matins and presided over the Divine Liturgy.
Clergy from both Archdiocesan Districts of Victoria, Northcote, and Melbourne, took part in the Holy Services, while the sacred hymns were chanted by a choir of chanters from the Byzantine School of Music of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia. Students from St. John’s College Preston were present also for the feast day, among others.
Bishop Evmenios conveyed to the congregation the wishes and blessings of Archbishop Makarios of Australia, both on the eve and on the day of the feast, while during his sermon he focused on two key points of the ecclesiastical event of Presentation of the Lord in the Temple.
First, he noted that “we see Christ and the Virgin Mary respecting and fulfilling their duties before the Mosaic law”, pointing out that “we cannot easily follow laws and systems, not only because they often seem to us to be wrong, but also because we are greatly influenced by ego and pride and think that we have better inspiration and understand things better.’ “However, Christ fulfills his duties, giving the new meaning”, he added and concluded: “So we too can give new meaning and significance to everything, as long as we approach everything with the right spirit, with morals and an ecclesiastical mindset, that is of the Holy Fathers of our Church”.
The second point that Bishop Evmenios focused on is the desire of Simeon the God-bearer to see Christ. And when this happened, he said thanking God: “Now allow your servant to depart…”, declaring that he was ready to depart from this life. “Unfortunately for many people,” Bishop Evmenios observed, “ready means when everything has come conveniently in life. When we have arranged our daily life and our life in a way that it flows easily or when we have reached an age and we know that we have achieved some worldly things. For the Christian, however, ready means when we have met Christ and held him tightly in our arms. When we have Christ, then everything, even our problems, are in order, because He solves everything.”
