The Christian Family in God's Fatherly Love[1]
The Sunday of Parents and Children, the first Sunday after June 1st - International Children's Day, was decided by the Holy Synod of our Church by Decision no. 629/March 12, 2009 and coincides, this year, with the feast of Pentecost or the Descent of the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost is the celebration of the foundation of the Church, as a gathering of people in the love of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit unites by grace different persons and nations, who confess the same righteous and holy faith. The growth or expansion of the Church of Christ is achieved with each newly baptized person, beginning on the day of Pentecost when they were baptized in Jerusalem "as many as three thousand souls" (Acts of the Apostles 2, 41) and until the end of the ages. Saint Hierarch Basil the Great shows that Baptism in the name of the Most Holy Trinity is the beginning of eternal life, the incorporation into the mysterious Body of Christ, the adoption of man by God: "And in this way, being baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, we are born from above. And after being born and baptized in the name of the Son, we are clothed in Christ, putting on the new man, built in the image of God. And so, we were baptized in the name of the Father and were proclaimed sons of God."[2]
As persons baptized in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, parents and children are called to know and live the true faith in the family, Church and society, through prayer and good deeds, to cultivate freedom and responsibility, love and generosity, according to the words of our Savior Jesus Christ: "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8, 31-32).
The perennial values of faith strengthen communion between generations. Therefore, parents and children are called to value and care for the elderly, considering them not a burden, but a source of blessing, wisdom and merciful love, following the model of the Holy Prophetess Ana; "eighty-four years old", she "did not leave the temple, serving night and day in fasting and prayers (...), she praised God and spoke about the Child to all those who were waiting for salvation in Jerusalem" (cf. Luke 2, 37-38).
In the year 2023, proclaimed in the Romanian Patriarchate as the Homage Year of Elderly Pastoral Care, we gratefully mention the grandparents who guide children's steps towards church, helping them to feel God's love for them, to cultivate love for those around them, to distinguish between ephemeral trends and eternal values. In a technical and secularized society, the prayer of righteous parents and grandparents is essential in cultivating the grace of Holy Baptism, in forming the character of children, in preparing them both as citizens of the earthly homeland and of the heavenly homeland.
We pray to the Most Holy Trinity, the Source of life and eternal love, to illuminate and fill the souls of children, parents and grandparents with peace and joy, to be a blessing for the Church and the Romanian people.
With much appreciation and paternal blessing,
† DANIEL
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
[1] The message of His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, on the Sunday of Parents and Children, June 4, 2023.
[2] St. Basil the Great. On Baptism. Biblical and Orthodox Mission Institute’s Publishing House: Bucharest, 2010, p. 93.
