Patriarch Daniel: The Church overcomes history’s storms only through Christ

“Only Christ saves the praying Church when she finds herself amid the stormy sea of history and in the darkness of times hostile to the light of the Gospel of salvation,” Patriarch Daniel emphasised on Sunday in his sermon on the Gospel reading of Christ calming the storm.

“No matter how many worthy ministers the Church may have, they alone cannot save Christ’s Church in her struggle against sin in human nature, against evil spirits, against the storms of persecution and heresy, against the waves of unbelief, secularisation or spiritual indifference. The Church can prevail only with Christ’s help, sought through prayer,” the Patriarch of Romania said.

The Gospel appointed for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost , he explained, is one “of trial and struggle, but also of encouragement and victory. It shows us that deliverance from very difficult situations does not come from our own efforts alone, but first and foremost from God’s help.”

“The principal lesson, or holy wisdom, that Christ the Teacher offers His disciples—and through them to all of us—using the boat as a chair of theology for salvation, is this: every trial and hardship we encounter in life can be overcome for…