HG Bishop Ioan Casian: pastoral visit and virtual participation
at the AROLA Congress
On the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian was present among the faithful of All Saints Parish in Toronto. The emotion of encountering the hierach touched the hearts of all the faithful present at the religious service.
The presence of HG Bishop Ioan Casian this Sunday was occasioned by the AROLA Conference (Association of Romanian Orthodox Ladies ’Auxiliary), whose president is Mrs. Claudia Aileni.
On Saturday, September 21, the Conference entitled Christian Woman - a moral landmark for a drifting society held by Prof. Dr. Stelian Tofană, brought a lot of spiritual benefit to the participants.
On Sunday, at the end of the Divine Litugy, in his sermon, HG Bishop Ioan Casian presented the significance of the beginning of the church year:
This Sunday we hear Christ's invitation to all to follow Him. But this following presupposes three important things: the renunciation of one's selfish self, the taking up of the cross, that is, the responsibility of the vocation that Christ planted at birth in each one, and His following, that is, the way of discipleship in order to see, understand and share in what He does.
The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is a celebration of the joy of Christians in finding the wood of the Holy Cross on which Christ had been crucified. The Cross is the sign by which every Christian must look throughout a new year. The light that the cross casts on the whole year makes the believer approach all the events that he encounters with a divine spirit. The cross offers the believer the opportunity to live a life in the spirit of God's will precisely because he finds in it a profound and true landmark of the world and of himself.
The time of the liturgical year is sanctified and marked with the spirit of the cross which is that of the kingdom of God. Time does not remain a simple sequence of moments chained together or deriving from each other, but it is built significantly as a time of salvation, as a space for spiritual growth and preparation for the kingdom of heaven. It is a time marked by the essential events of salvation that happened with Christ and that are integrated into man's space and life. Man gradually begins to anticipate the mysterious but real presence of the eternal kingdom.
In the afternoon, the AROLA Congress took place, attended virtually by HEm Metropolitan Nicolae, HG Bishop Ioan Casian, Rev. Fr. Secretary Daniel Ene and approximately eighty AROLA members from the USA and Canada.
The AROLA report for the years 2018 - 2019 was presented at the conference, the budget for the next two years was approved, existing projects were discussed, and proposals were made for new projects.
The fact that the meeting took place on Zoom platform was a good occasion for a larger number of members to participate, giving everyone the opportunity to better understand the role, projects, organization and functioning of the association. All participants entrusted themselves to the care of St. Anne, who is the patron of the association.
