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Your Eminence Metropolitan Vissarion of Spain and Portugal, dear Brother in Christ,

Beloved Children in the Lord,

Cristo ressuscitou!  [response: Em verdade ressuscitou]

Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη! [response: Ἀληθῶς Ἀνέστη!]

Christ is Risen! response: Truly He is Risen!]

Today our heart overflows with joy – the joy of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the joy of this first-ever Visit of an Ecumenical Patriarch to the magnificent and historic land of Portugal.

We are gathered together in Divine Worship under the maternal auspices of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, in whose sacred Temple we offer up our prayers and sacrifice of praise.

Only seven months ago, we made our first Apostolic Visit to the Iberian peninsula with a blessed sojourn to Madrid, and now with this Patriarchal visit, we complete our heart’s desire to come to you, in unison with the Apostle Paul who said:

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers, asking that, somehow by God’s will, I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I have longed to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you; that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.[1]

In your shining faces, countenances radiant with the light of the Resurrection, we behold the fulfillment of our hopes and aspirations to come to Portugal. We come to you embracing your diversity and your inclusivity. For the Mother Church of Constantinople embraces all without regard to origin or ethnicity. Our heart and arms are open wide – even as the Lord’s arms were, nailed to the Cross, in order to welcome all to a spiritual home that embraces every person who seeks the truth and beauty of the Orthodox Faith, which is the Faith of the Resurrection!

Indeed, we hold that it is no accident that our Divine Liturgy today, in the midst of these Forty Days of the celebration of Pascha, falls on the feast of our renown predecessor – the Holy Patriarch, Nicholas Mystikos. Over one thousand years ago, Patriarch Nicholas presided over the See of the First-Called Apostle Andrew through turbulent political times, but always seeking to expand the vision of his own predecessor, Saint Photios the Great.

This vision was sweeping in its scope – a careful and thorough reorganization of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which then consisted of 624 Metropolises and Dioceses. The purpose was to increase and expand its missionary activity to the people beyond the borders of the Christian Roman Empire.

As we stand here today in Lisbon, and behold the example of your faith in Christ and your devotion to the Mother Church of Constantinople, we share the same satisfaction that our saintly predecessor, Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos must have possessed.

For you are the Orthodox light of the Resurrection here in Portugal. You have chosen not to hide your light under a basket, but rather to place it upon the lampstand of the Mother Church, within this Sacred Metropolis of the historic Iberian Peninsula, and to let it shine throughout Portugal and beyond, with the love and faith of the Resurrected Christ.

And you are enfolding into the Sacred Sheepfold of the Great Shepherd more and more brothers and sisters, welcoming them into the one family of God. For we are the ones whose spiritual DNA is comprised of love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and peace. The blood that unites us is the Precious Blood that was shed for the life of the world upon the Holy Cross. We are nourished by His Holy Body and Blood in every Divine Liturgy, which we share with all Orthodox Christians throughout the ecumene. We hold no nation, no ethnicity, no origin, no land superior to any other. Rather, The Ecumenical Patriarchate embraces all people, and works diligently and faithfully, carrying out the words of our Saviour:

All whom the Father has bestowed upon Me shall come to Me, and I will never cast out the one who comes to Me.[2]

Therefore, Beloved Spiritual Children of the Great Church here in Lisbon and throughout the wondrous land of Portugal, we bestow our warmest Paternal and Patriarchal blessings upon you all. We would be remiss, if we failed to highlight our deep personal gratitude and also the profound thanks of the Church of Constantinople for the great generosity that our Metropolis here in Portugal is experiencing from our brothers of the Roman Catholic Church. And we are talking both about the granting of Church Temples and other places of worship for the liturgical, sacramental and pastoral needs of our Orthodox faithful in Lisbon and about the amicable relationships and fraternal bonds that are being fostered between the clergy of our two sister Churches. We tend to emphasize a lot the significance of the official theological dialogue between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, but we sometimes fail to acknowledge that the fruits of this dialogue are not only doctrinal, but equally pastoral. Our Liturgy this morning is a great testament to this truth. Today, we experienced the exact same love with which Peter always embraced his brother Andrew. Thank you so much! 

However, since “as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Prov. 27, 17), we would also like to wholeheartedly congratulate our spiritual son His Eminence Metropolitan Vissarion of Spain and Portugal, who cultivated this relationship from the very beginning of his archpastoral ministry, three and a half years ago. Metropolitan Vissarion took very seriously his title as ruling bishop of two countries, not just of Spain, but also Portugal, and took immediate action, in order to organize our diocese here in your hospitable country. With great pride we behold his noteworthy achievements so far, with his missionary zeal and his pastoral fantasy. We bestow our Patriarchal blessing upon him and upon his worthy collaborators in order Christ’s precious vineyard in Portugal to bear even more fruit and to continue its journey from glory to glory. Axios!

Beloved children in the Risen Lord,

We stand with you in this Holy Paschal Season, and we affirm our Ecumenical and Orthodox Faith with you all, saying:

It is the day of Resurrection!

Let us be radiant for the festival, and let us embrace one another.

Let us say, Brothers and Sisters, even to those that hate us:

Let us forgive all things on the Resurrection; and thus let us cry:

Christ is risen from the dead, by death He has trampled down death, and on those in the tombs, He has bestowed life!

To Him be the Glory forever and ever. Amen

Cristo ressuscitou!  [response: Em verdade ressuscitou]

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[1] Romans 1:9-12.

[2] John 6:37.