Your All-Holiness, Father and Master,
On another holy day we greet you, venerable Primate of the Church, in this most holy house of the Mother of God, in the “new Sozopolis”; here, in the mountains of Mahmutlar, in the historical and blessed Alanya, where, as in former times, another miracle of the Virgin Mary of Pisidia took place.
And the miracle of the Most Holy Mother of God is constantly and continually performed both for the faithful Orthodox Christians, and especially for the place sanctified by Her Grace, thanks to which here “beyond reason and words” is performed by “the Mother of God who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions.” Is not the presence of this blessed hearth in Alanya and in the people of God planted there by the Lord a miracle of the Most Holy Mother of God? Truly, as incomprehensible are His works, as incomprehensible are His ways and will.
The Most Holy One performs miracles for the love of the Lord. She accomplishes them for those who come with faith, hope and love. Moreover, with these virtues and with the fear of the Lord we come to Her grace and become partakers of faith, hope and love, without which there can be neither miracles nor good.
With the fear of God, faith, hope and love we greet you now, Your All-Holiness, who have come and illuminated the feast of feasts and the triumph of triumphs of Alanya.
This splendor is still increasing for us who honor and follow the footsteps of history, which You, Your All-Holiness, through my illustrious predecessor Metropolitan Sotirios, have resurrected and made bright and glorious. For You have revived dry bones and transformed them into living and flourishing vines of the eternal Vine, our Mother Church of Constantinople.
And now ten years have passed since this blessed Community of ours arose from nothing. And now, Your All-Holiness, you define history in the persons of all of us, you gladden our hearts and grant peace to our departed fathers and brothers, known and unknown, witnesses at various stages of perfection, awaiting in eternity the fulfillment of the promise, which consists in the redemption from death and corruption of all our forefathers and fathers, glorified in the heavenly chambers prepared for each of them individually.
Surely, it does not escape the sleepless eye of our Lord and His Most Holy Mother that the presence of Your All-Holiness once again during the celebration of this significant anniversary and the feast of Pisidia, the generator of saints and martyrs, is a blessing and recognition of the tireless work of Metropolitan Sotirios and his many anonymous and eponymous co-workers, among whom we should mention Fr. Theologos Chrysantakopoulos the Athonite, Mrs. Emine Koçak, generous friends of the Holy Metropolis of Pisidia, mainly from Greece, but also from wider circles.
Bless, Your All-Holiness, the work of the decade that has been accomplished and continues. Bless the labors and sacrifices of those who brought generous and venerable gifts, other gold, frankincense and myrrh, for the construction of the dwelling of the Virgin Mary of Pisidia. Bless the humble pastor, the active and God-loving rector Father Constantine, immersed in service day and night, and your God-loving flock in this city, and strengthen us with your God-fearing prayers, so that we may stand firmly on this rock of our duty and responsibility.
Many years to you, Your All-Holiness, Father and Master!
