On 29 November 2015, His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, visited the monastic community of Cernica Monastery, county of Ilfov, where he participated in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.
Human being can attain eternal life through mercy
At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the Patriarch of Romania delivered the sermon of the day in which he showed that the Gospel text read today (Luke 18:18-27), on the 30th Sunday after Pentecost, describes mercy as a way to salvation.
“The Gospel text shows us that a human being can attain eternal life through mercy, by helping the poor. What we do notice especially is the sincere quest: the essential question of life that this rich young man or ruler – called “young man” in the Gospel according to Matthew and “rich ruler” in the Gospel according to Luke – asks Christ, our Saviour. His question “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” is the most beautiful one; it is the essential question of the life of every human being living on earth. What must I do during my lifetime to attain eternal life? Thus, we see that the rich young man had a spiritual dissatisfaction and although he was very rich and has observed ever since his childhood or youth what the law commanded, although he was pious, moral and virtuous, he still had dissatisfaction. He felt he was not complete or fully happy, that his much wealth was not enough to fill his never ending aspiration of eternal life”, His Beatitude said.
In the end, His Beatitude offered the monastery several theological and liturgical books. The gift was also occasioned by the celebration of the dedication day of the monastic settlement on this Thursday, when Saint Pious Gheorghe from Cernica and Căldăruşani Monasteries is celebrated. Particles of his relics are kept in the church monastery.
Situated only 12 km far in the east of Bucharest, Cernica Monastery sprawls on two of the islands of Cernica lake. Founded by great village chief Cernica Ştirbei and by his wife Chiajna, Cernica Monastery is first documentary attested in 1608, in a princely document issued by ruler prince Radu Şerban.
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