After the pastoral visits to the Southwestern part of Sweden, Thursday, March 21, His Grace Bishop Macarie began his pastoral visit to Denmark. On Friday, March 22, 2019, the hierarch commemorated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the parish church of Herning-Ikast, and on Saturday, March 23, 2019, surrounded by priests and deacons in Denmark, he celebrated the Divine Liturgy and memorial for those asleep in the Lord in the chapel of the Romanian Orthodox Monastery “Saint Macarie the Roman and John Iacob from Neamt” in Ikast, Denmark. On this occasion, His Grace Macarie ordained as priest the Deacon Marian Cibotaru for the faithful of the Romanian parish “Holy Great Martyr and Healer Pantelimon” in Nykøbing Falster, in southern Denmark.

On the second Sunday of the Great Lent, March 24, 2019, Father Bishop Macarie served the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great in the Romanian Orthodox Parish in Copenhagen, Denmark. After the service, the Romanian hierarch performed the Holy Baptism for a little infant in the community. In the word of the ministry, the His Grace Macarie said: “This Sunday, the second of the Great Lent, we especially regard St. Gregory Palamas, the theologian of the uncreated light and of hesychasm, the practice of the prayer of the heart. He played an essential role in crystallizing the teaching of faith in the Church at the height of the times, as a final sigh and as a last glimpse of the Byzantine Empire before it moved into the Ottoman darkness. By honoring St. Gregory Palamas, we also honor the righteous Christian family. Few of you might know that the entire family of St. Gregory Palamas was canonized, his father Constantius, the counselor of the emperor, his mother Kaloni, his brothers hieromonks Theodosius and Macarie, and his sisters the monks Epiharia and Theodota. All of these were people of prayer, godliness, sacrifice, being considered saints since their earthly life. What a great example! A family that has given abundant, plentiful fruit, being deeply rooted in Christ, a family that, although so well socially situated at the heights of the Byzantine Empire, chose to remain faithful to Christ the Savior, rather than to the powers and fashion of those times. Today, on the one hand, we honor the rightful and the truthful faith and, on the other hand, we honor the loving and sacrificial Christian family, praying to Saint Hierarch Gregory Palamas to cleanse our feelings through prayer and to share ourselves with the everlasting light making a good and just testimony in both family and society”.

On the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 2019, His Grace Macarie began his pastoral visit to the Romanians in Norway, serving the Holy Liturgy of the Day in the Romanian parish in Stavanger, where, together with the priests and the faithful, honored the Icon of the Mother of God “The Master of Fiords”. The children present at the holy ministries received gifts from their shepherd and the faithful were given books of spiritual use and icons. During his pastoral visits during this period of the Great Lent, His Grace Macarie confessed and guided many believers eager for the enrichment of the soul.