About Father Galeriu, with love “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

So each word began… And then, the “beloved” word, which resounds throughout the church… I miss that name. Then came the explanation of the Gospel pericope of the day, with an unmistakable combination of registers: scriptural, patristic, artistic, scientific…

Father Galeriu gave a group of children a little guide for listening: listening to our parents, praying for them, getting along with each other, washing the dishes, doing little chores around the house, according to age?

I mean involvement, taking things step by step…

Not exactly an invitation to the unwilling mischief-makers.

But the joy that accompanied his words, his gestures, the game of questions and answers that followed under his thick eyebrows with a peculiar twinkle in his eyes, changed everything. You remembered more clearly than the story of your grandparents. Then the way each Mass was celebrated, by all three holy priests – Father Nicolae Bordașiu and Father Ștefan Alexe – each of them sharing the divine joy with the faithful on a different wavelength. With much attention.

And the prayers were said a little apart, so that they could be fully understood, without much explanation, even for the children.

The Holy Liturgy of the Holy Resurrection of the Lord served in the Church of St. Sylvester had a special joy, not separated from the penetrating voice of Father Galeriu, both in prayer and in song. And with deep resonance even in the souls of those less accustomed to the Holy Liturgy. In addition to the many teachings in the homilies, the nobility of the prayer was sown in the souls in the heart of the Church… And we must also mention the “two Romanian minutes” at the end of the Holy Liturgy, during which various explanations were given; this was not at all inconsequential, especially since in the Church of Saint Sylvester the “canon” of the homily was one hour or more…

In these two Romanian minutes, Father Galeriu always livened up the atmosphere… In addition to the weekly programme, there was room for a harsh word… and the bus went home even faster. In the furrow of the soul, there remain fragments of words, born of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which have already become the milk of his preaching: The Greek etymology of the word repentance, metanoia – a change of mind, “today” – as a time of communion with God, the resurrection from the death of the soul, the testimonies of scientists on the existence and work of God, the image of God in man, which is not erased but only darkened, to love means to live the life of the other.

And very importantly, the New Testament “speaks about and for me, the reader”, the longing for God, the Crucifixion of the Saviour Jesus Christ, which in the Orthodox view is inseparable from His Resurrection…”.

(Iulia Radu – And I have been the disciple / apprentice of Father Galeriu, edited by Argentina Grămada Dragu, Reproexpres Publishing House, Valencia, pp. 146-147)