“May you constantly make Christ incarnate in the hearts of all people”, paternally ugred His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia to the new Deacon of the Local Church, Father Dimitrios Drougas, who ascended to the first level of the priesthood on Tuesday, 21 November 2023, the feast day of the Mother of God, celebrating the Presentation of Our Lady into the Temple.
“The Lady Theotokos, after her preparation in the Holy of Holies”, pointed out the Archbishop in his spiritual word of admonition, “became the broader than the Heavens, in whose womb this unique union of the created and Uncreated was finally completed, that is, the Incarnation of the Word, truly and essentially. This will be your mission, to minister the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Lord in the heart of every person, which is possible precisely because there was that unique and unrepeatable “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be unto me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38), of the Most Holy Theotokos”.
At another point, His Eminence Archbishop Makarios urged the ordinand to enter the priesthood with childlike innocence, according to the model and example of the Virgin Mary: “With the innocence that characterises infants I invite you to open your soul and mind to the presence and providence of God who transforms everything, who saves everything, who accomplishes everything. Keep your nous constantly turned to God, as our Virgin Mary did throughout her time in the Temple, because otherwise everything will seem suffocating and loneliness will be the dominant feeling. Allow me to say that, there exists a certain loneliness in the Priesthood, but it is not an emotional or psychological loneliness, it is that ontological loneliness that is fulfilled only through the presence of God”.
Finally, the Archbishop of Australia expressed the certainty that the new Deacon is properly prepared for the great mission he has undertaken, while he reckoned that he indeed will be found worthy of the Church’s expectations. The service of ordination of Father Dimitrios took place in the celebrating Church of the Presentation of Our Lady into the Temple, in the suburb of North Balwyn, Melbourne, on the day of the consecration of this Church, by His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia. The newly-ordained Deacon, a family man with four children, who was for many years a chanter and secretary of the Byzantine Music School of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia, accepted the wholehearted wishes of his Shepherd, as well as from Their Graces, Bishop Kyriakos of Sozopolis and Bishop Evmenios of Kerasounta, the Chancellor, Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne Christophoros Krikelis, the other clergy who participated in the glorious feast day celebrations and the faithful who had filled the Holy Church of the Presentation of Our Lady.
