{"id":303271,"date":"2020-12-24T16:39:15","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T14:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=303271"},"modified":"2020-12-24T16:39:15","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T14:39:15","slug":"ecumenical-patriarchs-christmas-message-pandemic-does-not-affect-the-innermost-relationship-of-the-faithful-with-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/ecumenical-patriarchs-christmas-message-pandemic-does-not-affect-the-innermost-relationship-of-the-faithful-with-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecumenical Patriarch’s Christmas Message: Pandemic does not affect the innermost relationship of the faithful with Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his Christmas message, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stressed<\/a> that the Christmas Fast – the journey to the great feast of the Nativity of the Saviour – was different this year in terms of external conditions caused by the pandemic, but all this does not affect the innermost relationship of the faithful with Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our church life and the participation of our faithful in the sacred services, as well as the church\u2019s pastoral care and good witness in the world, were all affected by the repercussions of the related health restrictions. However, all this does not affect the innermost relationship of the faithful with Christ or of our faith in His providence and our devotion to \u201cthe one thing that is necessary.” (Luke 10:42)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His Holiness warned that “in secularized societies, Christmas has lost its original identity and has been reduced to a celebration of ostentatious consumption and worldliness, without any suspicion that on this holy day we commemorate the \u201ceternal mystery\u201d[2] of the divine incarnation.”<\/p>\n

“Today, the proper Christian celebration of Christmas is an act of resistance to the secularization of life and to the dilution or demise of the sense of mystery.”<\/p>\n

“The perilous pandemic has shattered much of what we have taken for granted, revealing the limits of the \u201ctitanism\u201d of the contemporary \u201cman-god\u201d and demonstrating the power of solidarity.”<\/p>\n

“Alongside the indisputable truth that our world comprises a whole, that our problems are common, and that their solution demands a joint action and agenda, what was supremely manifested was the value of the personal contribution, the love of the Good Samaritan, which surpasses every human standard.”<\/p>\n

“The Church actively supports \u2013 in deed and in word \u2013 our suffering brothers and sisters, while praying for them, their relatives and all those responsible for their care, and at the same time proclaiming that the healing of the sick \u2013 as a temporary victory over death \u2013 pertains to transcendence and to the ultimate abolition of death in Christ.”<\/p>\n

Photography courtesy of Facebook \/ Ecumenical Patriarchate<\/p>\n

\n

Thank you for reading Basilica.ro.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his Christmas message, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew stressed that the Christmas Fast – the journey to the great feast of the Nativity of the Saviour – was different this year in terms of external conditions caused by the pandemic, but all this does not affect the innermost relationship of the faithful with Christ. Our church…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":303162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24500,4761,22837,67,10386],"class_list":["post-303271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autocephalous-orthodox-churches","tag-christmas-2020","tag-christmas-message","tag-coronavirus-pandemic","tag-ecumenical-patriarch","tag-orthodox-news"],"better_featured_image":{"id":303162,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1599,"height":900,"file":"2020\/12\/Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1-890x501.jpg","width":890,"height":501,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1-890x501.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1-1024x576.jpg","width":1024,"height":576,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1-1024x576.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1-360x360.jpg","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1-360x360.jpg"},"1536x1536":{"file":"Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1-1536x865.jpg","width":1536,"height":865,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1-1536x865.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1608735862","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":303271,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Din-mesajul-de-Craciun-al-Patriarhului-Ecumenic-Pandemia-nu-afecteaza-relatia-intima-a-credinciosilor-cu-Hristos-1.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303271\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=303271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303271\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303162\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=303271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=303271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=303271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}