Beloved of Christ, our spiritual children.
46 years are years of torture, but this torture was and is joyful. God's blessing has strengthened us and your love. We are grateful for your love.
God is with us.
Speech by Metropolitan Shio (Mujiri) of Senaki and Chkhorotsk on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the enthronement of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia
Your Eminence and Beatitude, today is a significant and special day - the Georgian Orthodox Church is celebrating the 46th anniversary of your enthronement as Catholicos-Patriarch.
God has granted great mercy to the Georgian people. In one of the most difficult periods for our country, Your Holiness and Beatitude acted as the ruler and spiritual leader of the Church.
Allow me on behalf of the priests of the Holy Synod, priest-monastic order and the flock to congratulate you cordially on this significant day.
December 25, 1977 is undoubtedly a date of epochal significance for our Church and country.
"I remember the period when I was elected Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and that blessed day when I was enthroned in Svetitskhoveli. When I was kneeling on the pulpit and prayers were read over me, I well understood the responsibility and the weight of the cross that the Lord had laid on me, but I knew, and you should also know that when the Lord gives a man a cross, the same Lord helps him to carry his burden, and I have always felt the help of the right hand of God." - You remember, and we too are witnesses of visible miracles when, with God's intervention and your great merits, our people, who had separated from the Church, began to turn to the Lord during the most difficult period of the atheistic regime of the Soviet Union.
Since then, you have worked tirelessly day after day and given us a clear example "if there is still a walk of God in the house which is the Church, the animal of God, the pillar and fortress of truth."
Your spiritual children, we remember with gratitude the fruits of your many years of service, manifested in all spheres of church life:
The increase in the number of priests and nuns, the ongoing construction of churches and monasteries, educational, missionary and social activities, work with youth and many other good deeds that will take place in the church with your blessing, testify to the fact that your primary concern has always been and is "the word of God, that the number of His disciples may be enlivened and multiplied".
Your Holiness and Beatitude, on this solemn day, I thank you for your martyrdom and fatherly love; your life's journey, your personal qualities, wisdom, foresight, humility, Longsuffering, patience, kindness and forgiveness are a vivid example of great spirituality for each of us. It is due to these qualities that you have earned great love of the Georgian people.
Let me once again congratulate you on the Feast of Ascension. I wish you God's help, spiritual courage and joy, health and longevity for the glory of God and for the good of our country.
May God bless your life for many years and many times, Ispola et despota!
46 years are years of torture, but this torture was and is joyful. God's blessing has strengthened us and your love. We are grateful for your love.
God is with us.
Speech by Metropolitan Shio (Mujiri) of Senaki and Chkhorotsk on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the enthronement of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia
Your Eminence and Beatitude, today is a significant and special day - the Georgian Orthodox Church is celebrating the 46th anniversary of your enthronement as Catholicos-Patriarch.
God has granted great mercy to the Georgian people. In one of the most difficult periods for our country, Your Holiness and Beatitude acted as the ruler and spiritual leader of the Church.
Allow me on behalf of the priests of the Holy Synod, priest-monastic order and the flock to congratulate you cordially on this significant day.
December 25, 1977 is undoubtedly a date of epochal significance for our Church and country.
"I remember the period when I was elected Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and that blessed day when I was enthroned in Svetitskhoveli. When I was kneeling on the pulpit and prayers were read over me, I well understood the responsibility and the weight of the cross that the Lord had laid on me, but I knew, and you should also know that when the Lord gives a man a cross, the same Lord helps him to carry his burden, and I have always felt the help of the right hand of God." - You remember, and we too are witnesses of visible miracles when, with God's intervention and your great merits, our people, who had separated from the Church, began to turn to the Lord during the most difficult period of the atheistic regime of the Soviet Union.
Since then, you have worked tirelessly day after day and given us a clear example "if there is still a walk of God in the house which is the Church, the animal of God, the pillar and fortress of truth."
Your spiritual children, we remember with gratitude the fruits of your many years of service, manifested in all spheres of church life:
The increase in the number of priests and nuns, the ongoing construction of churches and monasteries, educational, missionary and social activities, work with youth and many other good deeds that will take place in the church with your blessing, testify to the fact that your primary concern has always been and is "the word of God, that the number of His disciples may be enlivened and multiplied".
Your Holiness and Beatitude, on this solemn day, I thank you for your martyrdom and fatherly love; your life's journey, your personal qualities, wisdom, foresight, humility, Longsuffering, patience, kindness and forgiveness are a vivid example of great spirituality for each of us. It is due to these qualities that you have earned great love of the Georgian people.
Let me once again congratulate you on the Feast of Ascension. I wish you God's help, spiritual courage and joy, health and longevity for the glory of God and for the good of our country.
May God bless your life for many years and many times, Ispola et despota!
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