Gladsome Light Dialogues - An Orthodox Blog

The Empty Churches of the City of Lights

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:43:26 +0000

Visiting Paris, the city of lights, is a wonderful experience, anytime of the year. The boulevards, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and even more so the great cathedrals: Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Saint Sulpice and so on, attract visitors like flies. From a tourism perspective it is wonderful to see these great historical churches full of people all day long. But if you cast a closer look and try to find the people that enter to actually pray, you soon realize that the flock is very small for the grandiose size of the gigantic stone and marble monuments. In contrast, during a recent trip to the same city I’ve been blessed with participating in the Continue reading

Setting a good beginning

Fr. Vasile — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:08:35 +0000

As the New Year is just around the corner, for many people also comes the time for setting their New Year resolutions. This year I will reach my ideal weight, this year I’ll take better care of my health, this year I’ll finish the college that I always wanted and so on. The first weeks of the year the gyms are full of enthusiastic first time athletes, the grocery stores have record sales for diet foods and the pharmacies sell years worth of nicotine patches. But the statistics show however that only 8% of people are successful in achieving their resolutions. So come February the gym crowds vanish, the excitement fades away and life goes back to its Continue reading

Parking in the priest’s spot or what do we do when no one is watching?

Fr. Vasile — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:12:55 +0000

Most parishes in the United States have a designated parking spot for their priest, usually somewhere close to the Church’s entrance. The reasons are understandably practical. In reality this space proves to be an apple of discord and a stepping-stone for many that dream to park just inches away from the building. Nobody dares however to park there if they know the priest might be stopping by. But as soon as the danger of being caught ebbs away there will always be someone that will take up that spot. You might already be asking yourself at this point, is it I that Father is complaining about? Guilty or not, this article is not about my frustration of finding out that my spot was taken. I don’t care Continue reading

The implications of music in the liturgical life of the Church

Fr. Vasile — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:13:37 +0000

I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.(Ps 146:2)

Like with any of the other arts employed by the Orthodox Church in its worship, the music does not serve a purpose in itself. Once used in Church the music drops its role as simply embellishing the services and it is elevated to convey, on a deeper level, the meaning of the prayer contained in the hymns of the church and make them resonate with our souls through its melodies. Great saints of the Church, like John Damascene, Ephraim the Syrian, Roman the Melodios, Andrew of Crete, Joseph the Hymnographer, Kosmas the Poet, John Koukouzelis and many others, have carefully matched the meter of

The Freedom of Morality and the Imorality of Freedom

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:26:35 +0000

The recent overthrowing of the authoritarian governments from the Middle East countries has brought up again the importance of freedom as an essential human value. The notion of freedom however is not as easy to define as one would think. In general we understand that freedom means the capacity to act without any outside restraint. As J. Rufus Fears, professor of Classics and chair in History of Liberty at the University of Oklahoma, asserts, this concept can be applied to a nation for example that is free from any outside domination, can be applied to a political system, meaning that one can elect its own choice of government, but most importantly can be applied to the individual that is Continue reading

My Big Fat Greek Festival

Fr. Vasile — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:41:40 +0000

Reposting this older article as we get closer to the 30th Greek Festival in Eules, October 7,8,9 2011. Festival page here We just closed the doors of another Greek Festival at Saint John's. We are all happy, but tired, and some may think, and we cannot blame them, why we do this every year? A short answer would be: we need the money! And it is a good answer, but maybe we could find other ways to raise the needed funds. Still I think, even though we might manage to get there, we should continue doing the festival. And I will present my argument for it. In the present times the Continue reading

Drought and redemption – The Lessons of Global Warming

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:24:50 +0000

“And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” (Isaiah 58:11) October 2010 to July 2011 was the driest of any 10-month period on record for Texas. Scorching heat, wildfires, crops destroyed, cattle herds relocated seem to be the new norm for the Lone Star state. But we are not the only ones suffering this, Asia, Africa are also experiencing similar weather patterns, bringing millions to the brink of starvation. Who is to blame? Some say the global warming, others argue that is a natural variation of Continue reading

Spiritual Ground Zero

Fr. Vasile — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:47:20 +0000

Many people would agree that the September 11 terrorist attacks changed not only New York, not only America, but most of the world in many ways. We are involved in a 10 years war in which countless people have lost their lives, soldiers and civilians together; our travel experience hase deteriorated tremendously; our watchfulness level has been raised to paranoid heights; even some people report that church attendance, at least in the United States, might have slightly increased as a result. The main reason for all this change is that the horrible events in New York shook us all to the core and inflicted a wound that cannot be healed without a visible scar. From an emotional point of Continue reading

Looking Death in the Face or The Aesthetics of Dying

Fr. Vasile — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:25:59 +0000

"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" (1Cor 15:54-55) As a parish priest one has the privilege to face all aspects of human life from birth until the final departure. In the eyes of a priest, humanity is exposed in its most glorious and most deplorable experiences. Among them one of the most challenging is death. Even writing about it is a difficult task because it is a very unpopular subject. Nobody wants to die and even more so, nobody wants to talk about it, is a taboo, a place where you just don’t want to go Continue reading

Paraklesis to the Mother of God Pantanassa, the Healer of cancer

Fr. Vasile — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 22:05:48 +0000

The holy and miracle-working icon of the Virgin Mary was brought to the Vatopedi monastery by the blessed elder Joseph from Nea Skete. The Monastery of Vatopedi is one of twenty monasteries on the Mount Athos peninsula (Greece) and is located on the northeastern side of the peninsula. It operates as a coenobitic monastery(a communal monastic community). As of 1999, it is inhabited by 80 monks and is second in hierarchical rank among the monasteries of the mountain. The first record of the icon's miraculous powers is from the witness of Elder Joseph. One day a young man from Cyprus went to visit and entered into the church. At that point, the elder witnessed a glowing light radiating from the face of the Theotokos and an invisible power pushed the young man down to the ground. When the young man had recovered from his fall, he began to repent and weep and confessed that he did not believe and was a participant in the black arts. He changed his life and became an Orthodox Christian. This icon is also known for working many miracles, especially healing people with cancer. There are many recent records of people who have been healed from cancer after participating in the Supplicatory Canon to the Pantanassa at the monastery. Text from http://russian-crafts.com/russian-saints-icons/pantanassa.html The following text was translated and set to meter by Fr. Vasile Tudora. Some of the text (especially the heirmoi of each ode) is based on the translation of the Small Paraklesis to the Most Holy Theotokos from http://goarch.org/chapel/liturgical_texts/paraklesis. This has been done to ensure consistency with the current chanting practice in the Greek Orthodox Churches in America. Pantanassa Paraklesis Booklet for parish usage Continue reading