Gladsome Light Dialogues - An Orthodox Blog

Holy Week and Pascha 2013

Fr. Vasile — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:56:39 +0000

Enjoy the photos from our first Holy Week and Pascha in the New Church

A Year of Firsts

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:21:02 +0000

It is the custom in the Orthodox Church on August 6th, the day of the Transfiguration of our Lord on Mount Tabor, to bring the first fruits of the fall harvest into church, as a first offering to God from the gifts that He so richly bestows upon us. Of course He personally does not need any material goods from us, as the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, but He so desires to see us displaying a giving and loving heart “a humble and lowly heart, God will not despise” (Ps. 50). What God hopes is to see that we stop for a minute and reflect on the relationship the exists between us Continue reading

It’s Entertainment – How ‘The Bible’ Series Fails to Deliver to the Christian Community

Fr. Vasile — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:13:08 +0000

The recent TV mini-series on the History Channel, "The Bible," proved to be a big hit as it cleverly coincided with the preparation period before the Western celebration of Pascha. No less than 10 million people followed through each of the 5 episodes of what was supposed to be a sort of Reader's Digest version of the history contained in the sacred scriptures. Ten million people is a lot of people to follow a Bible-based show, and I wondered how come, in a society that is as secularized and cross-cultural as ours, we can still find that many people to be still interested in what the old Bible has to say?

I found the answer

The Last Temptation

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 18:02:47 +0000

Coming back home from spring break was always a joy in my childhood. Somehow over the break the nature was magically starting to come back to life. White blooming cherry trees, budding branches with baby leaves, the green starting to fill the dried lawns were all signs that the dominion of winter is past and the rule of spring has begun. In some years however, in the midst of this resurrection of nature, winter was sending its last unexpected snowfall over the land. The tragedy was that any trees caught in bloom were doomed to a fruitless season, as the unmerciful cold destroyed their delicate flowers. It was the last temptation of winter, sweeping away any impatient tree, too eager to Continue reading

Lent – an intimate journey to God. Lessons from the sermon on the mount

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:13:32 +0000

What is Lent? By most popular definitions lent is a period of abstinence, total or partial, from food. It is basically a diet. If it is not understood as a diet, then is often considered a period of renunciation to some of our guilty pleasures like tv, chocolate etc. The Christian understanding of fasting however and especially the Orthodox one, is much more complex than simply "giving up" something . So what is Lent? Of course during Lent we renounce some types of foods like meat, dairy products etc. This is an important part of our lenten journey, not to be forgotten or neglected; it helps the body become swifter and, less encumbered by heavy foods, it can rise faster to prayer Continue reading

The Great Confusion – reflections on the disruption of God’s order in our lives

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:22:03 +0000

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them (Gen 1:21)

Last night I went to a talent show at my kids’ school. It was enjoyable to watch an entirely random blend of performances unfolding in front of a room full of parents eager to applaud at the slightest hint of aptitude showing on the stage. I know this because I was one of them. There really was true talent to applaud and, even when talent was not really present, there was a lot of courage to be praised. The one thing that set Continue reading

The First Sermon of Christ

Fr. Vasile — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 05:08:19 +0000

Any classical public speaking training would tell the aspirant lecturer to always start with a little warm up for the audience, in order to get them engaged, then introduce the topic, present the topic and then a short recap at the end. It is all about building up to your main subject. This is pretty much what I’m doing now. There is an old story with a priest in a convent that loved to preach. He always used well thought out phrases, nice metaphors, parables, comparisons, his subjects were always good, but he would tend to take a little more time than others. The abbess was a little upset about that because this would cut out the Continue reading

Everyday Saints

Fr. Vasile — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:10:53 +0000

This article marks the beginning of my collaboration with the OCN blog, the Sounding. So there we go! The recent book of Archmandrite Tikhon, "Everyday Saints and other stories", is one of those books that fulfill the prophecies on their back covers: it was impossible to put down and I felt very sorry when it ended. What is so special about this spiritual book, that made it into a major bestseller and almost a pop phenomenon in Russia, is that it brings the elements of faith right where they belong: in real life. I've read many books about the unmatched spiritual battles of the saints from the desert of Egypt Continue reading

Beyond Semantics

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:17:11 +0000

One of the interesting linguistic phenomena is semantic change, or in layman terms, the change in one of the historical meanings of a word. Archbishop Dmitri of blessed memory, for example, was always making waves during pan Orthodox Lenten Vespers when he was blessing the fasting meal using the prayer “Our Lord Jesus Christ bless Thee the meat of Thy servants”. He always enjoyed clarifying that the original meaning of the word meat in Middle English was actually food, of all varieties, not just of animal origin. It made for sure an interesting conversation over baked potatoes. There are other changes, however, that occasionally can draw attention to cultural shifts in the society. Take for instance the word holiday Continue reading

Who Am I and Who They Say I Am

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:17:08 +0000

Every time a new school year starts, I inevitably ponder upon the choices one has in education today. The beauty of living in a free country is that one can choose the best-suited education modality for their offspring. Public school is a basic choice opened to all, more refined private schools offer new avenues for the ones that can afford them and for those that don’t trust either, one can also adventure into home schooling. This was not the case back in communist Romania where I grew up. You had to go to the only school system that was and be taught whatever they decided to teach you. There was not much choice involved. Among other things Continue reading