Patriarch Daniel of Romania welcomed the civil New Year with prayers at the Patriarchal Cathedral.
The Patriarch addressed the faithful, highlighting the value of time, and reminded them that 2024 would be dedicated to the pastoral care of the sick, so he urged everyone to cultivate peace and value health.
“The new year we have entered is a new gift from God. That’s why, especially now, at the turn of the year, we must think more about what the gift of time means for people’s lives,” the Patriarch said, recalling that, in this sense, Saint John Chrysostom asked: “What gain do we have from this life if we don’t use it to gain the one to come?”
“Every year, we deepen spiritually, theologically, and factually, one of the themes that the Church considers a priority in pastoral care. If last year – 2023 – the focus of our missionary and cultural-social concerns was the pastoral care of the elderly, it is natural that this year we should expand our pastoral work by intensifying, by word and deed, the pastoral care of the sick,” Patriarch Daniel said.
“Also, let us cultivate the peace of our hearts received from Christ through prayer and good works, and let us pray for peace among peoples in these troubled times of armed conflict. Let us value the gift of health and show high responsibility for our own health and that of our neighbors,” Patriarch Daniel urged.
“Let us pray to God to bless the crown of the year which we have entered, to give the Romanian people in the country, from the vicinity of the borders and the Romanian diaspora, strong faith, peace and joy, health and much help in all good deeds for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and our salvation. Many and blessed years!” His Beatitude concluded.
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca-Emanuela Ene
Source: basilica.ro
