Saturday June 15 and Sunday June 16 2019 were days of spiritual joy for the Holy Trinity Mission in Calgary. For the second time since its inception, the mission celebrated its feast day. On this occasion, the community has as guest His Grace Ioan Casian, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada.
His Grace celebrated Vespers with Litia on Saturday evening with a group of clergy: the Rev. Fr. Ovidiu Moldovan parish priest, Rev. Fr. Mircea Panciuk dean from the Dormition of the Virgin Mary in Boian, Rev. Fr. Vasile Moisi from St. Andrew's parish in Calgary and deacon Ciprian Roman.
Sunday morning the hierach served the Divine Liturgy with the sobor in the presence of a large number of believers come for the celebration.
In his sermon, the hierarch said:
The Feast of Pentecost is the moment when God gives humanity the gift of the Holy Spirit for salvation. The Apostles, after receiving the teachings of the Savior Jesus, after seeing His miracles, His suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead on the third day, received the power that strengthened them to confess this. After being in doubt, disturbed and in disbelief following the death of the Lord, they became afterwards martyrs for the faith in Christ as the Son of God dead and risen for our salvation.
The miracle of Pentecost is felt by the wind blowing quickly, through the tongues of fire and by speaking in the tongues of the apostles to those who were present at Jerusalem on the occasion of the feast. The apostles become the true church, the community of those who have received the Holy Spirit Who transfigured and filled them with power from high that Christ promised to give. They become messengers of the kingdom of God and those who will continue the mission of Christ the Savior. The diversity of languages will no longer be an impediment to the spread of the word of salvation. The grace of God will make the diversity of languages an unexpected wealth that confesses in unity about the saving work of God.
We today follow the example of the Apostles every time we come to the Divine Liturgy. We gather together similarly to the Holy Apostles rebuilding unity amongst us in the Holy Spirit. It helps us to share the risen and transfigured humanity of Christ the Savior in the form of the Eucharist. This becomes the foood of eternal life precisely because of the work of the Holy Spirit.
Fr. Ovidiu Moldovan gave glory to God for all, and he thanked to the hierarch for the love shown by his visit, for the words addressed and for the blessing, as well as to Rev. Fr. Panciuk who responded to the invitation to participate in all the events. Thanks were also offered to all those present, who afterwards were invited to participate in the agape meal of the parish, prepared with zeal by the women parish group.
