Over 30,000 faithful walked in the streets of Iași this week for the joint feast of St. Paraskeva and St. Paisius, filling the Romanian city with prayer and song. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church marked the same saint’s day with an archierarchical vespers and five-loaf blessing at home. In Montreal the Bulgarian parish of St. Ivan Rilski laid out its October schedule of services and talks. Meanwhile the Orthodox Church in America celebrated the 110th anniversary of Descent of the Holy Spirit parish in Warren, Michigan, with Archbishop Nathaniel and Bishop Andrei presiding. These events show how local feasts and anniversaries keep drawing people together across jurisdictions. They matter because they quietly strengthen the daily life of the Church.

Bishop Theoklitos of the Metropolis of Katerini visited the Parents' School run under the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s initiatives, speaking directly to families about raising children in the faith amid everyday pressures. The gathering drew local teachers and parents who shared practical experiences from home life and parish activities. In related developments, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church parish of St. Ivan Rilski in Montreal released its October schedule of services and lectures aimed at keeping diaspora families connected. The Romanian Orthodox Church heard Archbishop Atanasie address the challenges facing Christian families scattered abroad, urging concrete steps toward renewal rather than drift. Meanwhile, the Polish Orthodox Church marked the Feast of the Icon of Our Lady “Unexpected Joy” with a quiet celebration in Hajnówka that included veneration and familiar hymns. These moments show how steady, local attention to family and education quietly sustains Orthodox life across widely different settings.

A Bulgarian Orthodox Church delegation has taken part in Georgia’s nationwide events marking 1,700 years of Christianity in the country. At the same time the Romanian Orthodox Church saw its abbot travel 1,350 kilometres from Europe to serve a small parish in Canada, while the Polish Orthodox Church kept the feast of the Icon of Our Lady “Unexpected Joy” at its parish in Hajnówka. In Romania the local community in Hungary gathered at Méhkerék for its annual Orthodox Days, celebrating faith and heritage with hymns and traditional food. These coordinated observances across borders show how local parishes and distant delegations keep the same calendar and the same memory alive. Such steady participation reminds everyone that the Orthodox Church remains one living body stretching from the Caucasus to the Canadian prairie.

The red brick church with white crosses stands among small trees. Calm, bright place.

The brick church with the golden domes and the high cross stands so quietly. It's beautiful how the light falls on it.

The old stone church stands so solid against the sky, with that beautiful round window and the statues looking down from the front. I like how the light catches all the different shapes on it.

Yesterday for dinner I made lean cabbage rolls with buckwheat and mushrooms instead of meat. I boiled the cabbage, mixed the minced meat with boiled buckwheat, fried champignons and onions, wrapped it and stewed it in tomato sauce. It turned out nourishing and tasty, even the eldest daughter asked for more.

In the corner of the house there are my icons, a small lamp and a cross. In the evening, we all gather, I, Nino and the child, read "Our Father" and "Holy God". The baby still wakes up a little, but already knows how to put his hands on. The day ends peacefully.

We went on Saturday with the wife and the child to the small monastery above Kesariani. They held a service in the old church and then they treated us to Turkish delight and water in the courtyard. I came home calm, as if I had really rested.