This afternoon, a new seat named “Saint John Casian” of the “Basilica Travel” Pilgrimage Office of the Romanian Patriarchate was consecrated at Braila. The religious service was celebrated by His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania, assisted by a group of hierarchs, priests and deacons.
The sermon His Beatitude delivered showed the spiritual importance of the pilgrimage in the life of the faithful.
“We thank God for the beginning of a missionary intensification of our Romanian Orthodox devotion and communion through pilgrimage in this eparchy, in the eparchies of the Holy Land, as well as in other holy places of Orthodoxy. They are not simple touristic trips. They are times of strengthening our relationship with God, and with one another too. The pilgrimages are processions in communion or a refreshing of devotion of the faith and a deification of the memory through the remembrance of these holy places where holy people lived and where God showed his work in the world”.
His Eminence Casian, Archbishop of Lower Danube thanked, in his turn, His Beatitude for the visit to the Archdiocese of Lower Danube.
“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Your Beatitude, for having invited us to a pilgrimage through the sermon in which Jesus Christ, our Saviour, was mysteriously present. You have also urged us to be pilgrims to the altar, to the Holy Sacraments where the bread and wine are turned into the Body and Blood of the Saviour in order to change the relationship among us, the people, through charity. Your Beatitude have taught us before Christmas and the Saint Nicholas feast to be pilgrims one to another without which we cannot be good people or create harmony and social peace which our Romanian people need so badly”.
Before consecration, the Patriarch of Romania and the hierarchs present at the events unfolded during these last two days visited the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Lord in Braila city.
