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‘We
are called to prayer, humility and repentance to transform ourselves,
to change the way we think, speak and are, the way we act, live and
work,’ Patriarch Daniel said during his homily on the fifth Sunday of
Lent.
Speaking from the St George chapel of his patriarchal residence, the
Patriarch of Romania referred to Saint Mary of Egypt, who lived for 47
years in the Jordanian desert. His Beatitude said that given the
coronavirus outbreak, we have a context suitable for repentance.
“Unexpectedly, we see there is no need now to go into the desert
because almost all the cities have become desolate by the fact that not
so many people circulate any longer. There is no more traffic on the
streets, no more crowds, because people are isolated in their houses.”
Illustrating today’s society, His Beatitude reminded the first verse
of Jeremiah’s Lamentations: “How deserted lies the city, once so full of
people!”
“It was there [deserted] because of the slavery of the Jews, but here
it is because of another bondage: the fear of disease, the spread of
this new virus, COVID-19, which produces a great deal of anxiety and
fear, suffering and even death.”
The number of coronavirus cases in Romania climbed to the total of
3,864 on Sunday, the Strategic Communication Group said. There have been
148 deaths from COVID-19 since the outbreak began.
‘Today’s deserted or nearly deserted cities resemble the desert to
which Mary of Egypt once withdrew. The near-empty churches because our
beloved faithful no longer attend the services, all these urge us to be
humble and to turn our isolation into spiritually profitable work.’
‘Let us transform the suffering of the disease in the hope of
recovering from disease and all the shortcomings that this epidemic
generates,’ the Romanian Patriarch said April 5.
“We can do this by multiplying prayer, filling our souls with the
light of humble prayer and the light of good deeds and words, by helping
our fellows.”
On Sunday, Patriarch Daniel’s assistant bishop Varlaam of Ploiesti
blessed Bucharest to ward off the coronavirus, circling the city in a motorcade with the holy relics and icon of Saint Demetrios the New and reciting prayers.
Photography: Patriarch Daniel entering the National Cathedral before consecration in November 2018. © Basilica.ro / Raluca EneFollow us on Twitter: @BasilicaNews
