PS Varlaam Ploieșteanul: The cross helps us cultivate our true connection and friendship with Godtranslated

"The cross of Christian quality is the happiest, because it helps us to cultivate our true connection and friendship with God our Creator and Savior", emphasized Sunday the Patriarchal Vicar Bishop Varlaam Ploieșteanul, at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest.

Starting from the Savior's call, "Whoever wants to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me", His Eminence showed the freedom of man that Christ respects: "It is not addressed only to His disciples, but to the multitudes, that is to say, to all people, because God wants all people to be saved".

"This call is universal, but we see that Christ appeals to our freedom which he respects perfectly. Freedom was one of the gifts that man received from God the Creator at the time of his creation."

At the same time, the hierarch explained that self-denial is not the loss of personal identity, but the liberation from everything that keeps man in slavery to sin and passions: "It means getting out of this slavery and acquiring true freedom, the freedom of the sons of God."

"Many have thought that the rejection…