The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will be in Thessaloniki from today, Tuesday, September 24, as part of his visit to the city.
The Ecumenical Patriarch will be in the Diocese of Thessaloniki from the afternoon of September 24, until Thursday the 26th, inaugurating the new facilities, where the “Byzantine Thessaloniki” Organization will be housed, in a building granted by the Holy Patriarchal and Crusader Monastery of Vlatados.
The Primate of the Orthodox Church, on the morning of Wednesday, September 25, is going to participate in a celebratory Event in the Ceremony Hall of the AUTH, to mark the centenary of the establishment of the Medical Association of Thessaloniki.
On the morning of Thursday, September 26, the day of the feast of Saint John the Theologian, he will officiate during the Orthros and the Divine Liturgy, at the Metropolitan Church of Saint Gregory of Palamas.
Yesterday, the Ecumenical Patriarch was in Kilkis for the celebrations of the 100 years of the Metropolis there.
“In the Church, everything is given meaning and expresses eternal value” underlined the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the opening of the cultural center of the holy church of Agios Charalambos, in Mavroneri Kilkis.
Mr. Bartholomeos pointed out that “it’s the place, but the way shapes culture” and, after distinguishing the “material”, that is, the technical, from the “immaterial” culture, that is, the spiritual culture, he urged the faithful to choose with what values and what kind of culture they will follow as a priority in life to achieve their personal and social happiness and well-being.
“You are invited to choose the type of culture. On the one hand, the way of the world opens, on the other, the way of the Church. The difference is subtle, but capital. The way of the world favors progress and technology, over spiritual values, which hold a society together” said Mr. Bartholomeos and continued:
“We now live in the age of digital technology, the internet and artificial intelligence. From the use of these technologies emerge the values that accompany them. In other words, the technological discovery precedes and the appearance of values follows, as a follow-up. A necessary consequence is the removal of man from the sphere of joy and the meaning of life, as things shape values, instead of values shaping things,” stressed Mr. Bartholomeus.
“The way of the Church is completely different – he continued. It prioritizes spiritual culture over technical culture, without of course renouncing the latter. But it limits him, as in the Church everything is given meaning and expresses eternal value. The Church itself is a culture, it is a way of life of free and virtuous people, a community of persons, who consciously move from the image to the likeness, to the truly free existence”.
The Ecumenical Patriarch mentioned the sacred spiritual ties that connect the inhabitants of Mavroneri, descendants, in the majority, of Asia Minor and Pontian refugees, with the Great Church of Christ and noted that his presence in Mavroneri aims to remind the faithful where they came from they come from, but also what they can achieve with their choices.
“Be able to emit the light of the Patriarchate if you choose its Universal Spirit. That is, if you prefer the culture of acceptance, tolerance and openness, openness. Called to inaugurate a place, a cultural center, we propose to you a new way, the way of sacrificial love, of happy communion, of life, as thanksgiving, after the Holy Eucharist” said Mr. Bartholomeos and added:
“Embrace the vision offered to you by the Patriarch of the Genus and the work being completed, it will not only be a cultural center of Mavronerio, but a light. Light, which will emit the special ethos of the Great Church of Christ. Then, your center will become a real spiritual center, because it will embody values of the spirit, that is, values that are universal and therefore always relevant. Then, your center will become a focus of universality, a small Lantern, because the culture of the spirit is light and the light always rises from the East.”
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