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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

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

Who’s afraid of the Most Holy Virgin Mary?

Fr. Vasile — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:09:44 +0000

The veneration of the Virgin Mary has long been point of contention among Christians. Although it may be difficult to delineate a uniform position among the plethora of Protestant denominations, it is generally recognized that most of the Reformed Churches have no particular place of honor for the Virgin Mary in their theology or worship. Most believe that her role was fulfilled at giving physical birth to the human Jesus Christ and from there on she is nothing but a regular woman that went on with her life, having other children and never to be heard of again. On the other hand the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox, although may differ in some theological aspects, hold the Virgin Mary Continue reading

Always forward looking

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:01:24 +0000

One of the issues that philosophy has spent a lot of ink on is the answer to the question: who we are? Many thinkers have tried to give a proper answer to this basic question, and yet , despite their efforts, the world is confronted with a huge identity crisis with profound effects at all levels of our society. In Christianity however, this question is already answered and answered in a very fulfilling way. We know who we are: the Creation of the Most High, fashioned out of His boundless love. Our origin is in Him and this suffices for us. The more important question, as Christians, should be however: where are we going? The human life should Continue reading

My summertime with God

Fr. Vasile — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:19:26 +0000

Time is a very precious asset. As a priest, in Confession one of the most common sins I hear is the lack of time for prayer. The majority of the people realize that their prayer life lacks the breadth and the depth it should have and yet over and over they repeat the same mistake. I know very well out of personal experience what a busy schedule looks like, so I generally have a lot of compassion in this respect. The other day however I read an interesting survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics regarding how the average Americans spend their time, and my sympathetic mindset has been severely shook. Here is the daily schedule of Continue reading