Christian education is light for society*

At the beginning of the school year 2024-2025, we congratulate and bless students, parents, grandparents, teachers and professors, urging them, with paternal love, to value and cultivate Christian education in the family, Church and school.

Christian education aims at the spiritual growth of man in communion of love with God. The foundation of the Christian life is the incarnation of the Son of God, who has become man, to give man the opportunity to reach the likeness of God, to holiness, to perfection. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ commanded: "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5, 48).

Man cannot tend to this ideal without the help of God: "He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15, 5). As the first means for perfection, has been given to man the possibility of uniting with Christ in the mystery of baptism, in order to fight against sin and cultivate virtue, because man is called to communion with God and his fellows.

As the Christian educational principles are based on the texts inspired by the Holy Spirit in the Holy Scriptures, the knowledge of the revealed teaching represents the condition of enrolling the child on the path of spiritual growth. Christian education is carried out in the family, ecclesial and school space. The transmission of the teaching of faith in the family is facilitated especially by the model of living of parents and grandparents, and in the Church and in school, through the patience, wisdom and love of the student and the teacher of religion.

As the light discovers in the dark people and unknown things until then, both the religion school discipline and the parish catechesis promote a view of the deep meanings of the reality of life and the world, contributes to reducing the negative effects of the contemporary identity and orientation crisis, proposes models of goodness and holiness, helps students understand the history and culture of our continent. Therefore, Christian education, carried out in the Church and in school, is also necessary for a good coexistence in the family and society, according to the exhortation of Saint Paul: "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ... but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection ... Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3; 12, 14, 16).

We pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, the "Teacher" (Matthew 23, 10) and "our Savior" (Titus 1, 4), to illuminate the souls of students, parents, grandparents, teachers, and professors, to bring many fruits in family and society.

With great appreciation and paternal blessing,

† Daniel

The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church

* The message of His Beatitude Daniel, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, at the beginning of the school year 2024-2025.

Photo: Basilica.ro