“I would like to meditate together tonight, dear brothers and sisters, on a shocking event in the life of Saint Demetrius,” the Archbishop of the Lower Danube wrote on Facebook on Tuesday evening.
St. Demetrius, when he was a shepherd, accidentally trampled a baby bird. And he repented so much that all his life he walked barefoot, Archbishop Casian remembered.
“Lord, remember how many times we have literally and figuratively stepped on the soul, on the identity, on the life of our neighbour.”
“Nobody asks us to walk without shoes,” Archbishop Casian said. “Saint Demetrius teaches us to stop violating in one way or another the dignity and personality of any man in whom God is totally present.”
“Holy Venerable Father Demetrius, help us to do this,” the Archbishop prayed.
In his message, Archbishop Casian of Lower Danube referred to the pilgrimage in Bucharest, which, in conditions of hardship, continues in two forms: “Those who can, under the pandemic’s conditions, go to the holy relics at the Patriarchate, and for the rest of us, the Holy Venerable Father Demetrius comes to us,” Archbishop Casian highlighted.
