A full twenty years of episcopal ministry were completed. I praise the name of God for this with my heart overflowing with gratitude and thanksgiving. My choice all these years was to remain among the holy clergy and my Christian brothers "as a deacon" (Luke 22, 27).

I am not going to take stock or evaluate my episcopal ministry. The words of the Lord "Likewise you, when you do all that is commanded you, say that we are filthy slaves, that we have done what we ought to do" (Lk. 17, 10), has always been with me. The joyous anniversary of twenty years of episcopal ministry is accompanied by the present edition of my festive messages of the second decade.

They reflect the feelings that were born in my soul by the summits of our ecclesiastical calendar and which I wanted to transmit to my brothers "through paper and ink" (2 John 12). Collected here, in the form of a book, they become more accessible to our clergy and Christians to whom they were sent, and perhaps also beneficial for those who will turn to its pages. I wish it from the bottom of my heart.

Simeon, Metropolitan of New Smyrna