Today, 9th July 2017, the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, the Orthodox Church of Moldova celebrates the Icon of the Mother of God “Of Neamt Monastery”. This celebration coincides with that of Tihvin Mother of God Icon celebrated in the entire Russian Orthodox Church. The Divine Liturgy on this holiday was celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Chisinau and Moldova, in the Nativity of the Lord Metropolitan Cathedral in the capital of the country.
The Metropolitan was assisted at the Service by the Cathedral’s clergy, who prayed in the presence of numerous church-goers, invoking the mercy of God on our people and on entire humanity.
Today’s Gospel Reading (Matt. 8: 28 – 9:1) reminds us about the healing of two men possessed with devils in the country of Gergesenes. By this miraculous act of our Lord Jesus’s casting away of the legion of evil forces from these two poor human beings, we are warned that where God is missing in one’s heart, it will inevitably become the nest of the evil.
Humanity lives in constant fight between good and evil, and as Dostoyevsky wrote, “the field of fight are human hearts”. God, through the story told in today’s Gospel Reading, shows us that we can easily become victims of evil possession, if we turn away from the Creator and from the source of all goodness.
Strengthened in the Communion, the church-goers uttered thanks-giving prayers and chanted hymns glorifying the Creator and bearing in their hearts the words of Gospel teaching.
Synodal Sector of Institutional Communication and Relations with Mass-Media