2024-05-05 07:03:29
Christ is risen and this is the greatest miracle. Of course, the devil will always be angry and act against the church, but despite all efforts to wipe it from the earth, shut it down and humiliate it, it exists. And this is also a great miracle!
“With God we must be in constant conversation. This communication must not cease even for a moment. The Lord lives with us and will not cease to do so, but we must seek Him, have Him by our side as a counselor, protector, pacifier and pacifier Let us go to Him with open eyes and arms outstretched in an embrace, saying: Lord, do with me what is Your will, let it be Your will, not my will, for I am Your instrument. “
It is
one of the precious
instructions
of a metropolitan
Gregory
Tarnovski, preaching the word of God to young and old on the eve of the feast of the Resurrection of Christ.
But also at any other time of the year, the bishop does not get tired of serving and teaching the worshiping people in simple words, so that it can be understood by both children and adults.
At the liturgies in the churches of Veliko Tarnovo, where the bishop serves, grandfather Grigoriy does not let only the deacon read the Gospel as part of the service, but then retells it according to the case with references and examples from the present, so that Christ’s example becomes close and understandable to Bulgarians and for them to seek to imitate him.
“Here, it is said how the Lord Jesus Christ rode the donkey, and what did that acquaintance of ours ride, brothers and sisters, Maybach, Mercedes or other luxury he rode, and his pockets were heavy with bills…”
Bishop Grigoriy preached with such living examples from modern life. A
with the wafer c
the temple he
gives out and
spiritual books,
textbooks on religion, gospels for children and everything possible to educate the population.
“I inscribe all these books at midnight with a paternal blessing and favor, I put a signature and seal. And so each one of these books already has a soul and can enter anyone’s house. The child takes it and carries it home. It will always be he will open it, he will look at it, he will be able to read and understand. Then he will learn “Our Father”, he will learn “Symbol I believe”, he will read one chapter of the Gospel today, another – tomorrow, and so on day by day, little by little… It’s not for God, it’s for us. God doesn’t need us, we need Him”says the bishop.
At the beginning of March 2024, he completed 30 years of metropolitan ministry since he was installed on March 6, 1994 in the Diocese of Tarnovo, consisting of 10 spiritual districts covering 19 municipalities plus parts of another 5 – 24 in all.
He heads over 450 churches and 21 monasteries in the territory from Nikopol and Svishtov to Gabrovo and Elena in the Central North. 12 of the monasteries are located near the old capital. 3 of the cloisters are brand new – built, opened and consecrated by the bishop in the last few years.
Grigoriy Turnovski was born in the village of Kozarevets in Lyaskovo in 1950 with the common name Yorgo Stefanov. Consecrated as a monk in the Transfiguration Monastery in 1974, for half a century devoted to God, he went from a “simple monk”, as he defines himself, to a church bishop in the old capital city and one of the senior metropolitans in the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church .
Last year Metropolitan Gregory
also became the “doctor honoris cause” of
National Military University
The title was awarded to him for special merit in educating future officers to the ideals of patriotism, duty and honor, as well as for his contribution to the university’s mission of molding them as individuals and leaders.
For 30 years now, he has been responsible for the relationship between the army and the church. Here’s what the bishop says about it: “In 1994, I assumed this obedience, because our predecessor, grandfather Yosif Turnovski, was also in charge of the army in the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and that was very important then. It was of great importance.”
He also says:
“Clergymen were called up and kept up the morale of the army in both the Balkan wars and the First World War, those were difficult times.
And when the company commander fell in battle, Grandfather Pop with his cross and saber, shouting: Brothers, God is with us, forward to Bulgaria, he led the soldiers.
Those are past times, but even now the church and the army must go together in the name of the Fatherland. I was an anti-aircraft gunner in the army, I know military duty and honor, and I think every regiment should have a chaplain. But in order to have army clergy, certain efforts must be made.
Parliament should also take care of this, it should be regulated with clear regulations. And although people of different faiths serve in the army,
the army clergy
must be under the guidance
of the Orthodox Church,
because Bulgaria, as a huge percentage of the population, is primarily an Orthodox country.”
On the feast of St. George in 1994, Metropolitan Grigori also consecrated the church of the same name of the saint in the courtyard of the Bulgarian embassy in Cambodia, which was erected in memory of the Bulgarian soldiers who died in the UN mission there.
The embassy has long been closed, but the Bulgarian temple in Cambodia is still there and, according to the bishop, we should take care of it. It is
also accepted as a mission – to raise
temples and monasteries
We consecrated a temple both at the Military School and at the University of Veliko Tarnovo. And one day, if it happens like the embassy and the university are closed, the temple will still remain, says grandfather Gregory.
This year, for the services of Resurrection in the churches and monasteries of the diocese, they will use the Blessed Fire, which they jealously guard in the lamp, lit last years with fire brought from the Holy Sepulchre.
We keep you here with us from the Blessed Fire, we can also take from the one who is in the Holy Synod. I have participated in delegations to Jerusalem when we brought from there and we really experienced this miracle. This fire in the first minutes you can bring it close to your beard and face and it will not burn you, only later it acquires its normal physical properties. Now I hear various people talking about all kinds of things, they doubt everything. This slavery is clearly not going to ease us for many more years of it.
Christ is risen and this is the greatest miracle! And as St. Apostle Paul says: And if Christ was not resurrected, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is in vain.
Miracles do not stop to this day. Of course, the devil does not stop either, he will always be angry, he will say that fire is not real, that this or that is not true. He also acts against the church for so many years.
But here is the church, despite all efforts to be erased from the earth, closed and humiliated, continues to exist. And this is also a great miracle!
This is how the 73-year-old Metropolitan Grigoriy Tarnovski preached in anticipation of Christ’s resurrection.
