Pastoral visit to the Timmins community

On November 22-24, the members of the Dormition of the Mother of God Parish in Timmins received the visit of His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian. It is the first pastoral visit to this community after almost two and a half years due to the pandemic. The hierarch was accompanied by Rev. Protosyncel Maxim Morariu, diocesan exarch, and Nun Ana from the diocesan centre.

The visit was made in the context where the parish no longer has a permanent priest since the spring of this year.

The hierarch together with the community performed the Paraklesis of the Mother of God in the evening of November 23 and 24. On the morning of Thursday, November 24, the hierarch served the Divine Liturgy. In his sermon, the hierarch recalled the fact that the Divine Liturgy is the central mystery of the Church in which we are all called to participate. "We have before us not only invisibly present by His grace Christ the Lord, but also visibly in the form of the bread and wine of the Holy Communion that we partake of."

The hierarch recalled that "we are in the period of Lent of the Nativity of the Lord, a period of preparation through physical asceticism, through prayer and almsgiving. Fasting means not only abstaining from animal products but also from sin by multiplying prayer. This means giving more time in the personal life to God. It is a preparation that we do by going through the prophetic texts about the nativity of the Savior Jesus Christ from the books of the Old Testament."

"We performed the Paraklesis of the Mother of God - said the hierarch - being still in the period after the celebration of the Feast of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple. The Mother of God is our protector and the epitome of holiness. It is she who shows us the way in which we must prepare for the reception of Christ in our mind and soul and the way in which we need to listen to the word of God in such a way that it bears fruit in our lives."

In the encounter with the faithful, the hierarch also talked about the effort made to find a priest for this community.