Sunday, 4 October 2015, the church dedicated to the “Synaxis of the Mother of God” and to “Saint Nicodemus of Tismana” was consecrated.
The Patriarch of Romania celebrated the consecration service
His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania, celebrated the consecration service together with His Grace Varlaam Ploieşteanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests and deacons.
The celebrating group consisted of Rev. Archimandrite Veniamin Goreanu, Administrative Counsellor to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, Rev. Fr. Florin Busuioc, Archpriest of Bucharest District 3 deanery, Rev. Fr. Ion Armaşi, Archpriest of Bucharest District 4 deanery, parish priest Valentin Buşe, priests and deacons of Bucharest.
The consecration service was preceded by the Divine Liturgy celebrated by His Grace Varlaam Ploieşteanul.
We must never answer evil back with evil, not to increase the evil in the world
The Patriarch of Romania delivered a sermon in which he referred to the love for enemies. The Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church explained that the Saviour asks us to overcome our own selfishness through His commandment to love our enemies.
“The commandment that Christ gives us to love our enemies asks us, in fact, to change our nature, to overcome our selfishness, because for the man created in the image of God only good is natural, not evil, which is decay, a degradation of the human nature.
This is why Jesus Christ, our Saviour, urges us to do only good deeds. Evil cannot be justified. We must always answer with kindness, even when other people do not behave in a good manner. We must never answer back evil with evil, not to increase evil in the world”, His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel said.
To be able to forgive our enemies we must ask in prayer for the merciful humble love of Christ
The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church underlined the fact that this commandment to love the enemies is easy to fulfil if we pray for the help of God.
“Rather often we cannot love those who helped us, we often forget about our parents, professors, benefactors, but we remember the evil other people did to us by word or deed. We do remember for a long time if somebody insulted us or caused us damage, but forget benefits. This is why, in order to answer with kindness to evil we must pray for the help of God. We must begin to pray for our enemies. First we cannot easy forgive, but if we pray for their salvation and ask God to strengthen us, we receive that love coming out from the merciful humble love of Christ who did not revenge on the Cross, did not curse those who harmed Him, but prayed saying: “Father,forgivethem, because they don’t know what they’re doing”. Thus, we cannot accomplish Christ’s commandment without His help. This is why the Saviour said “Apart from me you can do nothing”, namely you cannot do anything good. To be able to forgive our enemies we must pray for the merciful humble love of Christ. This merciful love of Christ makes us just like Christ, like God-the-Father, makes us the sons of the Highest, makes us merciful”, His Beatitude said.
The Church urges us to pray for the good progress of the enemies
“The Church urges us to pray for the good progress of the enemies”, the Primate of the Romanian Orthodox Church also underlined.
“This urge to pray for the spiritual improvement of the enemies, for their change for the better, is the only healthy spiritual attitude. Why that? Because as long as we keep in our soul the evil that other people did to us, by word of deed, we keep their wickedness in us. If we remember their wickedness, this one becomes our wickedness as desire to revenge ourselves and as hidden poison, as bondage we cannot get rid of. This is why forgiveness of the enemies is a good thing for us first of all, because we rid of the burden of the desire to revenge ourselves. When Jesus Christ, our Saviour urges us not to answer back evil with evil, He urges us, in fact, to work for the healing of the human soul”, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of Romania said.
Those who build churches take upon them the bright image of the church built into their own soul
To end with, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church addressed congratulations for having built the place of worship consecrated today and showed that the building of a church is a difficulty, as well as a great dignity.
“There is no greater dignity in this world than building, building churches, houses of the Most Holy Trinity, of Christ. One of the chants at the end of the Divine Liturgy says: “This church the Father built, the Son strengthened, the Holy Spirit enlightened, consecrated”.
This dignity is great and this is why the founders are called in our litanies blessed and always remembered founders; they are remembered when they do no longer have anybody of their families, when they pass away. Those who build churches assume the bright image of the church built into their soul, and when they appear in front of the Most Holy Trinity the image of the church they built is seen like a bright light, because they are the humans who lent their hands to the Most Holy Trinity. This is how we must understand the chant: “This church the Father built, the Son strengthened, the Holy Spirit enlightened, consecrated”. The Most Holy Trinity built the church borrowing the hands of those who worked, donated, and contributed with their work. Thus, Christ builds the church through His mysterious Body: clergy and faithful working together. This is how, until today’s consecration, this church was the gift of this community, of this parish, to Christ, to the Holy Trinity, but after consecration it becomes a house of the Holy Trinity, the gift of God to the humans. We offer God temporary things: wood, cement, glass, brick, and receive eternal gifts. We offer God things of this world and receive the foretaste of the heavenly eternal life. This exchange of gifts is done through the miraculous work of the building and consecration of the church, our gift to God until consecration, and now His gift to us, the gift of the presence of His saving deifying love for us”, His Beatitude also explained.
Distinctions for contributors
To end with, the Patriarch of Romania awarded several distinctions to the persons specially involved in the building works of this parish.
Parish priest Valentin Buşe was awarded the title of oikonomos-stavrophore. Rev. Fr. Constantin Sergiu Nicolaescu and deacon Andrei Mănescu, servant priests of this church, were awarded the Homage Diploma of Saint John Chrysostom with medal. The Worthiness Distinction with the Image of the Mother of God was awarded to Mrs Nicoleta Buşe, wife of priest Valentin Buşe, as well as to the Parochial Council. On this occasion, distinctions were also awarded to some other representatives of the local institutions.
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The church dedicated to the Synaxis of the Mother of God and to Saint Nicodemus of Tismana is situated in Balta Albă district of Bucharest, zone of Titan II – Miniş Square. The foundation stone of the place of worship was laid on 20 June 2003. The church was built in five years with the help of the parishioners and of the parish priest Dumitru Valentin Buşe. The painting was executed from 2009-2011 by painters: Archdeacon Gabriel Sibiescu and Mr Valeriu Stoica. The church built in Byzantine style, in the form of the cross, is 20 m long, 7 m wide and 18 m height at the belfry.
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