"Ilia II will help us continue life as he wished, as he instructed and bequeathed to us: to achieve unity, mutual love, and reconciliation - may God grant us the strength to continue worthily and learn to live without him", Metropolitan Shio said.

Following the transfer of the Catholicos-Patriarch to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Shio, delivered a sermon addressing the faithful.

“Today, all of Georgia is in deep sorrow over the passing of His Holiness, Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II. It would not be an exaggeration to say that every believer feels orphaned today. We so deeply felt his fatherly love, care, and the divine strength manifested through his service that we are truly left as orphans. I share this feeling personally, and I know that most of our brothers and sisters feel the same.

Yet we are comforted by God’s mercy and by the great legacy His Holiness has left us. Messages of condolence are arriving from many countries, highlighting his extraordinary fatherly nature, which extended not only to Georgia but to the entire Orthodox Christian world. This loss is not only for Georgia but for all of Christianity.

He possessed a remarkable grace—his fatherly love, thoughts, and prayers embraced all of Georgia and every person who ever encountered him. Through this grace, he brought profound transformation to people’s lives, changing them for the better. It is no coincidence that he passed away during Great Lent, in the week of the Veneration of the Cross, when the Church honors the supreme symbol of sacrificial love—the life-giving Cross. As you already know, the funeral will take place on Sunday, when the Church commemorates St. John Climacus, who teaches us about the spiritual ladder leading to deification and salvation. This is not accidental—His Holiness embodied this spiritual ascent through virtue: great love, humility, patience, wisdom, and more.

One of his greatest achievements was that he inherited the Georgian Church in a weakened, oppressed, and marginalized state, and left it to us—his children—strengthened, restored, and firmly established, now playing a vital role in the life of the country and society. We bow with deep love before his fatherly service and thank him for it.

Alongside sorrow, our hearts are filled with hope—that the Lord will grant him rest among the righteous in His Kingdom, and that in him we have gained a heavenly intercessor and protector of Georgia. He will help us continue both our church and civic life as he wished and commanded us: to achieve unity, mutual love, reconciliation, and a firm return to the values he worked so hard to revive and spread.

Once again, I offer my condolences to all of you. May God forgive him and grant rest to his soul in the Kingdom of Heaven, and may He grant us the strength to endure these days with dignity and to continue life worthily, learning to live without him. It is difficult today to imagine Georgia and the Church without Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, but he is with us and will always be with us—this is what we believe. God is with us,” Metropolitan Shio addressed the congregation gathered at the Trinity Cathedral.