In the harmonious and gracious rhythm of the church calendar, the venerable memory of our Equal-to-the-Apostles father St. Clement of Ohrid the Wonderworker shines like a day of deep spiritual significance. This is not only a celebration of an important historical personage from our sacred history, but also a living encounter with him in the mystery of eternity, hidden in the Holy Trinity.
Saint Clement, the national enlightener in the faith of salvation, the apostle of education and of the Roman culture, stands before our spiritual eyes as an inextinguishable torch, as an indispensable light that illuminates our path towards the profound essence of the Christian invocation through the ages. His life, immersed in the pursuit of the Divine wisdom and in the preaching of the Gospel of our Saviour, unfolds as a fruitful vine, whose branches cover vast spiritual spaces with God’s grace and nourish multitudes of faithful with their vital juices in the course of eleven centuries.
Therefore, the Bigorski Holy Monastery, with its Elder, Bishop Parthenius, who have an especial love in his heart for this great father and progenitor of ours – Saint Clement, gathered in the church with great zeal, in prayer and thanksgiving, thus honouring his memory according to the eucharistic character of our holy faith. And every sung hymn, every penitential sigh, every uttered prayer, both with lips and with heart, is an act of participation in the living Christ and in the life of His Saint.
Today, therefore, the Bigorski catholicon, adorned in its liturgical majesty by the Eucharistic ministry of the Elder, in a gracious way went through time and space, becoming a communion of the heavenly table. In this consecrated spiritual space, the legacy of Saint Clement is not only worthily commemorated, but also present, alive and active.
O Saint of Christ, our father Clement, look down from Heaven and see and visit thy vineyard, cleanse it from the thorn of hatred and of envy and sweeten it with the gracious juices of love, compassion and gratitude.
Amen.
