Summer patronal feast of St. Matthew and St. Great Martyr Hristina Parish in Ottawa

On Sunday, July 24, 2022 – St. Matthew and St. Great Martyr Hristina Romanian Orthodox Church of Ottawa celebrated its summer feast day.

After a week spent in Mono, Ontario, at the St. Theodora of Sihla Summer Camp, which concluded with a pilgrimage dedicated to the Mother of God at the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and St. Ephrem the New Orthodox Monastery, located in the same area, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian, brought great joy and blessings to the Romanian parish in the capital of Canada, on this beautiful summer day.

The Divine Liturgy was celebrated by the hierarch, together with Father Grigorie Tapuc, the parish priest of the church.

The responses to the Liturgy were given by the Incognito Choir of the parish.

The church was filled with the fragrance of prayers and flowers, in the presence of many faithful from the Canadian capital area.

In his sermon, HG Bishop Ioan Casian, first spoke about Saint Hristina, her life of witness and her example of strength in faith.

"St. Christina had a vocation of faith as a young woman, for which she suffered persecution and martyrdom, confessing Christ at a young age. She consecrated herself to Christ, and through her confession she strengthened the Church and showed the power of faith.

The saints, like St. Christina, never talk about themselves, but about God, they testify about Him, being aware that all the gifts and powers they have come from Him."

Then he exegeted on the Gospel pericope of the day, which spoke of the work of the Saviour in the world.

"Today's Gospel about the healing of the paralytic man in Capernaum shows again who the Savior Christ is. His words testify to His divine identity. Forgiveness of sins is an attribute of God, and therefore those who hear His words are troubled because they were understanding their meaning well. Christ begins to be known as God, One of the Trinity, the Son of God, incarnate from the Virgin Mary, like us in everything, but without sin.

The reality that the founder of our faith is God Himself, must make us responsible and motivate our love and prayer for the whole world, so that we can transform ourselves and carry the world's worries on our shoulders as a responsibility shared with us by God.

Our calling is not to judge the world. It will be judged at the end of the ages by Christ, by the Apostles, by the Saints of God. Our calling is to transform our lives and live according to God's commandments.

The faith and love of the four people who bring the paralytic man to Christ are essential in his healing. Christ restores his health, and restores it granting him the forgiveness of sins, thus testifying about Himself that He is the Son of God. His contemporaries must understand from everything that is happening, who is the One standing before them. The Savior is restrained in asserting who He is. There are only a few passages in which we find Him testifying about Himself as the Son of God. Definitive, from this point of view for us, is the testimony of the Apostles that Christ is the Son of God. This is the deep creed of the Church. That is why the Church is apostolic."

After the Divine Liturgy, an agape meal was offered by the Parish Ladies' Committee.

Let us thank to the Lord and to the Holy Great Martyr Hristina for this day of joy, of hierarchical blessings and of spiritual fulfillment!

(Notes by Psa Mihaela Tapuc)