Today, 24 December 2013, the servant priests of the Patriarchal Cathedral announced the Nativity of the Lord to His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. After the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, the priests took the icon of the feast to the Patriarchal Residence, according to tradition.
A polichronium service was celebrated here, and His Beatitude spoke about the importance of the feast of the Nativity of the Lord and of the icon taken to the houses of the faithful.
“The announcing of the Nativity of the Lord that the priests do these days in the houses of the faithful is an icon of the missionary work that the shepherds of Bethlehem did after they have received the holy message of the Nativity of the Lord from the angels. The angels taught the shepherds and the shepherds taught the inhabitants of Bethlehem about the significance, the holy light of the mystery of the Nativity of Jesus Christ in the Bethlehem. We announce the never ending love of the Most Holy Trinity for humankind, higher than human understanding. The sense of life is formed through this announcement because Christ is born and grows up in order to save us. He comes down into a sick world marked by sin and death to heal sin and death and give us eternal life. The Son of God is made Son of man so that the humans should become sons of God through grace. He comes down to us in order to raise us to the Kingdom of the love of the Most Holy Trinity. This mystery of the lowliness of God is the mystery of man’s freedom too”, the Patriarch of Romania said, according to Trinitas Radio station.
To end with, the religious singers of the Patriarchal Cathedral sang traditional carols.
