Feast day at All Saints Parish in Toronto, Ontario

This year, the faithful of the Parish dedicated to All Saints in Toronto, Ontario, in the Deanery for Central Canada, had present in the middle of the Eucharistic community His Grace Ioan Casian, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada.

The parish celebration began on Saturday, July 27 and continued Sunday July 28 with the Hierarchical Liturgy for the celebration of the patron saint of the church.

On Saturday evening, a group of priests from Toronto and the surrounding area were together in prayer serving the Sacrament of the Anointing of Sick amid the faithful participants. Rev. Petre Busuioc, administrative vicar, Rev. Viorel Țencaliuc, archpriest of Central Canada, Rev. Lucian Azoiței, Rev. Dragoș Giulea, Rev. Toderiță Călin, Rev. Mihail Cristea and Rev. Marian Iacobuț responded to the invitation of Rev. Emanuel Ionuț Țencaliuc parish priest and were together at the hour of prayer, warmly asking for grace for the spiritual and physical healing of those present but also of the members, donors and patrons of the church.

The next morning, on July 28, Sunday, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian was greeted in the traditional way with bread and salt, on which occasion he blessed the believers present and afterwards served the Holy Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom together with Fr. Emanuel Ionuț Țencaliuc. The liturgical responses at strana were given by the parish choir conducted by Mr. Constantin Bănică.

At the end of the Holy Liturgy, in the sermon delivered, the hierarch began by reminding the importance of Sunday celebration: "It is the day of Christ's resurrection or the moment when we celebrate Easter night. Christians honor it every time because it reminds them that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, died on the cross as a man for us but arose from the dead on the third day for our salvation."

Then the hierarch continued commenting on the Gospel of the day: "Today we read the pericope that talks about the miracle performed by the Savior Christ with the two demonized. The suffering of these people was not necessarily as a bodily disease in the sense that we know it, but it was a possession which is the most terrible suffering of a human person due to the evil. The possessed is deprived of his natural freedom received from God. In the times and the world in which we live, - the hierarch continued -, we are faced with these manifestations of the evil that affects people and brings a lot of suffering. Healing from this, however, comes through the prayer of the Church and of the saints. Thus, freedom is regained. This happens because, first, this way was opened by Christ. God was the initiator of this path."

The hierarch showed that the devil knows the identity of the Savior Christ as God, but induces in the human mind disbelief or doubt in His existence: "What do we observe in the dialogue between Christ and the devils? That they have no doubt about the status or identity of the Savior Jesus Christ. Who is He? He is the Son of God. He is the Son of God who rose from the dead on the third day.

For us humans there is doubt, disbelief, different explanations and theories about our lives and the world. The elders of the temple, the Saviour's contemporaries, doubt, even are scandalized by the affirmation of His divinity. But we continue the testimony of the Holy Apostles, of the Church in general, which means the testimony of the Savior Christ as the Son of God incarnated for us from the Virgin Mary."

"It is interesting in today's dialogue from the Gospel that the devil claims for himself an absolute time of domination over the world - said the hierarch. He somehow says that this is the time of his reign, and that Christ came before the time they expected that is before the end of the ages. The world is the creation of God which remains so during the time of man's sin and in the Kingdom of God. God never abandon the world. God takes care of it. The devil uses this deceit in front of Adam and Eve. The evil one suggests to them that they could change their creature status in that of God by their decision."

The hierarch then spoke about the limited power of the devil, about his wickedness and about God's care: "In today's pericope we see that the devil asks for a blessing to enter in the herd of pigs that show his weakness before God. He can do nothing without God's permission. And immediately after that the herd of pigs throw themselves into the sea and die. Here we see the wickedness of demons who want to harm God's creation. At the same time, we observe here God's care for the sick persons. The two people possessed by the devil were sick in soul as well as in body. And God, through His care, frees them from this burden and from their deep suffering, not only physical but also spiritual. The loss of their freedom, the most precious gift that God gave to man at creation, is part of his divine stature, as image and likeness of God. The Church has in her tradition special prayers for the demon-possessed through which she invokes God's help over the sick to be delivered and to regain their natural status in the image and likeness of God. Also, God also can take care of the sick through the healing gift He gives to the Holy Unmercenary Doctors who work by the power of God's grace on His behalf and on Church behalf to heal the suffering."

The Romanian hierarch concluded by talking about the importance of the Christian attitude in the contemporary world: "Today's society, even though it is so-called modern, allows conflicts, wars, suffering in different forms and degrees without always paying due attention to solving the problems it faces. The question remains for us Christians: what can we do today, like the generations before us, to contribute our part to improving the situation of the world in which we live? God's word remains for us a call to introspection of who we are as identity and what our action in this world means.

At the last meeting of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 16 new holy confessors or martyrs from the period of the communist regime were canonized. In this way, the Church sends us a message of hope, a message that tells us that the saints exist and live among us. You have known some of them, you have heard their words of encouragement, spiritual advice, you have seen their miracles. The saints are contemporaries with us. They bring strength and courage to all and give us an example to follow.

The example of the martyrs of the first centuries and throughout time shows us that the Christian life requires courage. It does not guarantee us earthly life but eternal life, our salvation, according to the faith we have had and according to the good deeds we have done."

His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian showed that the faith and confession are important in the Christian life: "The Epistle to the Romans read today tells us that nothing can be done without confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and without believing in the heart that God raised Him on the third day from dead. Without the two there is no salvation. This is how important faith and confession are. Without them we cannot attain salvation. For this epistle also says that with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation. We cannot truly straighten our life and that of the whole world except through the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit but also through the stature of our Christian life without the existence of the two – confession and faith.

Christ never ceased to testify of His divine mission, of His coming for our salvation, and of His divine stature. We Christians must do the same to be able to change our society.

The variety of saints in the Orthodox Church shows us that the Church is constituted of all of us – not just clergy or believers, separately, but together, each one being a foundation stone to the building of the temple in which Christ will come to live. You are a Church that testifies to this truth through the very major feast you have - All Saints.

We must not expect the world to treat us Christians as Church differently than they did to Christ. This is an illusion. Let's have Christian verticality, as it should be, without being confrontational or creating more problems than there already are. We have the duty to assume and transmit the Christian values ​​entrusted to us by the Apostles, martyrs, hierarchs, simple Christians, monks, nuns, etc.

Communism showed that what we think and propose as a model of society is not unimportant. The result of that pattern was tens of millions of deaths. That is why the Christian must not be indifferent to the choices or models of society that are proposed to him as ‘viable and authentic ways of human choice.’ A certain type of organization, a specific model of society, proposed must not leave us indifferent because ists consequences will not be indifferent. Its consequences and effects can be dramatic, even catastrophic for all of us and can cause much suffering, injustice, persecution and even death.

What is our attitude in this regard and what are its consequences? It can cost us our comfort and even our life as it happened to the Savior Christ and the holy martyrs.

Let us follow the examples of the saints, older or newer, because they are sources of inspiration and models of how to assume and live the Christian life."

The celebration ended with brotherly Agapa in the social hall of the church. The varied dishes prepared with great skill and love by the faithful from the Ladies' Committee were tasted and appreciated by the crowd of parishioners and friends of the All-Saints parish who came to the celebration.

(notes by Fr. Emanuel Ionuț Țencaliuc)