Commemorations at the Episcopal Cathedral of Saint-Hubert

On Saturday, June 22, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian was present at the Divine Liturgy performed on special commemoration for people who have fallen asleep in the Lord. At the end of it and of the commemoration service the hierarch said:

"This Saturday is a special one. It is part of the important moments in which the Church remembers those who have fallen asleep in the Lord. These memorials shed a Christian perspective on what human life means and its purpose which is eternal life. The outlook for memorial services or funerals is bright. Through them we see at the same time the fragility of human nature, but we also receive the hope of eternal life from God. If with the earthly death we end one stage of life here on earth, through it we also begin another one that takes us closer to God and to the perspective of eternal life depending on the faith we have had or the deeds we have done.

After death the soul goes to God but at the end of the world, when Christ comes on the clouds of heaven, the transfigured body will be reunited with it and will live in the presence of God which means eternal life.

No matter how painful the separation from loved ones and close ones in this life may be, it must always be viewed from the perspective of eternity, because this is the hope that the Church transmits to us. We are not alone but God is with us forever.

You have seen that for some time we have also a local tradition of commemorating sailors or navigators who died on their voyages in their effort to be of help to us all by transporting goods in terrible conditions. Sometimes they ended their lives there. That is why we commemorate them today along with all others as models of ministering and service to us all.

This image of sailing is used in the patristic tradition of commentaries on the Holy Scriptures as an image of our life course that begins with birth and has an earthly end - death. This multi-year journey may encounter sunnier times or times of storm, doubt or trial. The image of the navigator meeting the vicissitudes of time is the appropriate image for what our human life is all about with its spiritual ups and downs."

It has become a custom at St. George and St. Epictetus and Astion Episcopal Cathedral at these moments to be commemorated the navigators and sailors who fell asleep in the Lord either on duty facing the dangers or those who managed to finish their work they chose to do.