The Triduum of prayer and reflection that preceded the Commemoration prepared us well for the solemn celebration on Sunday presided by our Bishop, Mgr. Christo Prolkov. This year, the parishioners from Kuklen joined those from Plovdiv. This helped to create a true spirit of family and unity.

The Divine Liturgy is an event characterized by a place and rites whose purpose is to bring us to encounter God so as to be transfigured by Him. The chants, the icons, the incense, the candles, the Word from the Holy Scriptures, are all meant to open our hearts so that God can touch them and make them more “holy” by the gift of his grace.

On one side the earth represented by us, the faithful, and on the other heaven with the divine presence made possible by the invocation and the memory of our three martyrs. To participate in these solemn moments of the Church when they are well prepared, as they were thanks especially to the work of our Sisters, allows us to look for a brief moment upon the invisible and to break the barriers of time and space so as to live a real experience of unity.   

Dear Brothers, Sisters, and Friends in the Assumption, you were truly present amongst us and we prayed for each of you so that our three martyrs might support you in your vocation in the Assumption. This surely is part of the mission conferred upon those Assumptionist brothers and sisters living where our three martyrs lived.

The reading for this Sunday was the story of the Good Samaritan. In his homily, the bishop reminded us that the Christian is called to go beyond the invitation made by Christ to the one who questioned him: “Go and do likewise”. To respond to that invitation one must first of all have the courage to follow Christ to Calvary and give his life to the end. “ By persecuting Christians,” continued the bishop, “the Communists created a desert in the land of Bulgaria.” But they had  forgotten the truth that Saint-Exupery expressed so well in “The Little Prince”: “…water can also be good for the heart…I have always loved the desert. We sit on the dunes. We see nothing. We hear nothing. Yet, something shines in the silence…What makes the desert beautiful,” says the Little Prince, “is that it hides a well somewhere.”
Kamen, Pavel, Josephat are living fountains bursting into the desert of Communism that now give us water that is "good for the heart”.
Dear lay brothers and sisters in the Assumption, do not forget that these sources are a hidden gift that the Lord gave to our religious family to help us when we need to cross our personal deserts.
Thanks to all those who were in communion with us through prayer.

The Plovdiv community.