The Candle
A Soulful Publication 
___________________________________
Fall 2010 Year
8 Issue 1
St. Dimitrie
Romanian
Orthodox Church
504 Sport
Hill Road, Easton
The Gift of the Church
Know That I Am
Last
year my wife gave me a garden present. It is a plaque that reads: Be still and know that I am. This quote
comes from the Psalms 46:10. I hang it
on the gate post of my little garden, and I read it or say it almost every time
I enter in.
I like to wake up “early in the morning while the dew is
still on the roses” as Elvis Presley so beautifully sings. Being in the garden
that early is indeed divine. There is such a stillness and quietness that you
can hear the voice of the Lord. I just stand quietly for a while. I look around
at my plants, and I watch them grow. I listen to their song of praise to God.
(Did you ever lay your head down on the grass in early spring and listen to it
grow – or do we do that only when we are young and still pure in our hearts?)
The plants in my garden praise the Lord with all they have. With the color
green of their leaves, they glorify the Lord; with their growth they witness to
Him. I did place the plants or seeds in the ground, but God waters them; He
gives them the light, the warmth, and the air to grow. He shapes their flowers
and brings their fruit to maturity. That’s why when the plants turn and grow
towards the light, I believe in fact they unconsciously are growing towards
God. They look for the face of God imprinted in the sunshine.
It is the same in my ministry: I do some teaching, I
do some praying, and I do some preaching – but it is God who lifts us up to
Him. It is His grace that waters us, gives us the spiritual food and guides and
shapes our souls. He loves us so much
that he wants us all to be saved.
I write this with our new church in my mind and soul. I
am not the only one to notice the peace that one feels while on the church
grounds and walking around the new church. There is the same kind of stillness
and quietness that I feel in the early morning while walking in my little
garden. I can sense the grace of God embracing our church and His peace
wrapping around its beautiful location.
The more I feel this peace of God, the more trust and
courage I get, and I know that our worries about how to materially sustain our
new church are in vain. It can only show our lack of faith.
We build the church with sacrificial giving, but also
with our praying faith. We have built a building in which to praise the Lord
and to witness Him – otherwise it would have remained just a building, a shell
with no soul. We must open it to God to walk in, and we should find rest in it
– for God rests in his saints. But mostly we must make it alive by being there,
and (as do the plants in my garden) to praise the Lord, to worship and give
thanks to Him for all His blessings.
I encourage you, my dear faithful, to walk slowly, look
around smiling, and stay still for a while when you come to church. Take in a fresh breath of air, and feel the
powerful presence of God’s grace. Listen to God’s words to you: Be
still and know that I am. Immersing yourself in that stillness and
quietness, you will know indeed that God is – He was, He is, and He always will
be. Fr. Cornel
Five Paths to Repentance
St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople (+407 AD)
Would you
like me to list also the paths of repentance? They are numerous and quite
varied, and all lead to heaven.
A first
path of repentance is the condemnation of your own sins: "Be the first to
admit your sins and you will be justified." For this reason, too, the
prophet wrote: "I said, I will accuse myself of my sins to the Lord, and
You forgave the wickedness of my heart." Therefore, you too should condemn
your own sins; that will be enough reason for the Lord to forgive you, for a
man who condemns his own sins is slower to commit them again. Rouse your
conscience to accuse yourself within your own house, lest it become your
accuser before the judgment seat of the Lord.
That,
then, is one very good path of repentance. Another and no less valuable one is
to put out of our minds the harm done us by our enemies, in order to master our
anger, and to forgive our fellow servants' sins against us. Then our own sins
against the Lord will be forgiven us. Thus you have another way to atone for
sin: "For if you forgive your debtors, your heavenly Father will forgive
you.”
Do you
want to know of a third path? It consists of prayer that is fervent and careful
and comes from the heart.
If you
want to hear of a fourth, I will mention almsgiving, whose power is great and
far-reaching. If, moreover, a man lives a modest, humble life, that, no less
than the other things I have mentioned, takes sin away. Proof of this is the
tax-collector who had no good deeds to mention, but offered his humility
instead and was relieved of a heavy burden of sins.
Thus I
have shown you five paths of repentance: condemnation of your own sins,
forgiveness of our neighbor's sins against us, prayer, almsgiving, and
humility.
Do not be
idle, then, but walk daily in all these paths; they are easy, and you cannot
plead your poverty. For, though you live out your life amid great need, you can
always set aside your wrath, be humble, pray diligently, and condemn your own
sins; poverty is no hindrance. Poverty is not an obstacle to our carrying out
the Lord's bidding, even when it comes to that path of repentance which
involves giving money (almsgiving, I mean). The widow proved that when she put
her two mites into the box!
Now that we have learned how to heal those wounds of
ours, let us apply the cures. Then, when we have regained genuine health, we
can approach the Holy Table with confidence, go gloriously to meet Christ, the
King of Glory, and attain the eternal blessings through the grace, mercy, and
kindness of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Finally, all
of you live in Harmony with one another;
be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and
humble (I Peter 3:8).
From the earliest days of
Bible history, there are accounts of brothers who are quite unbrotherly toward
each other. Cain killed Abel. Eleven of Jacob’s sons sold their little brother,
Joseph. Later, an elder brother resented the prodigal.
Even in Christian families today, children strike their
brothers and speak hot and bitter words to them. Worse yet, in the family of
our Lord, we find resentment and bitterness sparking struggles between God’s
children. Some of these conflicts last for decades.
Because of this, the words of Peter need to be heard. We
are not expected to establish unity. Christ has already done this for all
Christians. We do not become brothers by choosing to do so. Jesus has made us
brothers. Christ has forgiven each and every one of us; we are then made able
by His Spirit to forgive our brothers. He who forgives us for our past
lovelessness and unbrotherliness has made us and other believers His brothers.
He gives us strength to be brotherly.
Lent Helps Know Ourselves
During
the Divine Liturgy, we hear repeatedly the following invitation: "Let us give ourselves and one another
to Christ, our God." The Psalmist
said: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 51:17)
Giving
ourselves and our whole life to God is the acceptable sacrifice. In this
regard, the Lord Jesus Christ is the supreme example. He, our Lord, gave his
life to God, that we might have life and have it abundantly.
Before
we can give anything, we must know what we give; before we can give ourselves,
we must know ourselves. How can we give our life to God if we do not master it,
if we are not in charge of it? Our daily lives are so busy. We just go with the
flow or roll with the punches. The day carries us and the social structures
shape our actions. The requirements of life enslave us, and TV eats up the rest
of our time. But, in spite of this, we
should take the time to get to know ourselves.
We
can know ourselves only by conscientiously accepting the tests of our lives.
Christ called us to pick up our Cross and follow Him. In this life we carry a cross anyway, but the Christian cross
must be acknowledged as a service to the Lord and unto the salvation of our
souls.
Lent provides the best circumstances for testing and
strengthening ourselves. We should look
at Lent as a divinely designed time of a special journey; a very intricate and
complex journey with Christ and with ourselves for the salvation of our souls. There
are three main dimensions of an integral fast: abstaining from eating specific
foods, praying more and giving alms.
All three are very important and simultaneously all three affect our
minds, souls, wills and bodies.
Abstinence
from specific foods, teaches us about how little we are in control. Soon we realize that food is governing of
our lives. Soon we realize that the most important door in our house is the
door of the refrigerator. Let=s seriously think about how much time and money we
spend getting food, preparing and eating it.
Let's
know ourselves by praying more during lent.
As soon as we try to spend time in prayer, we realize how little control
we have over our own thoughts and minds, how short our attention spans are and
how hard it is to control and weed out earthly fleeing thoughts. The unwanted thoughts come in and hinder our
conversation with God. The temptations that come to our minds during prayer are
many and great.
Let's
know ourselves by giving alms during lent.
It=s only when we give alms that we can see how much
money controls our will. We feel that
we work so hard to make a living, that it is hard to give its stuff away. We always say that we are not at the top,
where we want to be, so let those who are there give alms. We learn in the
first few days of lent that we are weak and not in charge. Then the struggle
begins when we attempt to take control of our lives, by trying to defeat the
power of food, to take charge of uncontrolled thoughts and to regain a lost
will. Be sure, that we are not alone in this conquest, but that God will carry
us through; His angelic powers will guide us in this journey.
And
when the Lenten journey is over, we should make a spiritual portrait of
ourselves. We should not frame it yet,
but first bring it to the father confessor for the last touch up. Then and only
then, after we made the necessary amendments, we can humbly offer Aourselves and one another@ to the
Resurrected Christ so He can find abode in us.
Fr. Cornel
HAPPY DAYS
Summer is here and school is out. That was the most
wonderful sound and statement all children could and can still relate to even
today. I see it on the faces of my
grandchildren and their friends. For my
family it meant a multitude of happenings.
For me it meant a myriad of chores and coming from a family of
immigrants and being the first born in this country, it was an uphill battle
with my grandmother and mother especially.
The child in me wanted to go out and play with the other kids in the
neighborhood and believe me there were plenty of boys and girls my age in the
neighborhood. On the other hand my
grandmother thought that at the age of ten it was time to get my “hope chest”
ready and learn how to cook, too After
all, what man would want to marry me without a “hope chest” or knowing how to
cook. But as soon as my grandmother’s
back was turned or she was out of the room, my sister and I would sneak out the
front door and play with the neighborhood kids. That didn’t always sit too well
with my mother and grandmother but my Dad was a buffer for us against the two
women. My sister and I didn’t really
get to appreciate, at that time, his interference on our behalf. But as we grew older we found out the truth
and we were totally devoted to our father for pitting himself on our behalf against
the “women of the house.”
We had an open
field directly across the street from our home and all the kids would gather
there and play baseball, dodge ball and football. Believe it or not but the
boys actually let us play baseball but not football. It was deemed too rough for us girls. I have to agree with that assessment. My brother would play with
them and often came home with bruises all over his body.
But it wasn’t all looking to get out of our chores or
learning how to make spinach pita. My
father had two brothers, two sisters and very close first cousins. Every July, the company my family all worked
for shut down for two weeks. Those were
the weeks that usually turned out to be a lot of fun. We would all get together in a four or five car caravan and trek
to the beach. Most of the time it was a
caravan to New London Beach in New London, Connecticut or Nantasket Beach near
Boston, Massachusetts and right on the Atlantic Ocean. To say the water was a little rough and the
waves higher than normal is putting it mildly. My father saved me from drowning
one time when I was knocked sown by a huge wave. I was struggling to get my footing when I felt a hand grab me by
the arm and lift me up. My hero. There
were a few other beaches that were a little more subdued and we tried them out
but those were the two most used by my family.
New London Beach had rides and games for the kids. Nantasket had rides,
too and it had the second largest roller coaster in New England at that time. I
let my cousin talk me into going for a ride with her. Boy, that was a big, big mistake. That was the first and last time
I went on a roller coaster. That was one of the magnets that drew us there. The
other was the picnic grounds.
Each car
contained a minimum of two to a maximum of six. We were sure a sight to behold on the beach and on the picnic
grounds. We took up a whole section of
the beach. We were usually eight to
twelve children and thirteen adults. So as you can see we took up a lot of
space. We would stay from around 10 am
to 7 pm and picnic. Our parents had the
typical hamburgers and hot dogs and rolls but someone would bring a pita, home
made bread and cheese, fruit, cucumbers, all summer foods. The men would put three picnic tables
together so we could all sit together and share the bounty. It almost felt like Thanksgiving with all
the different varieties of food, fruits and vegetables. Looking back now on these memories, I feel
sad that so many children do not experience this family togetherness that was
such an integral part of our lives growing up in the fifties and sixties. I
know people joke and make fun of the “leave it to beaver era”, but it
truly was a happy and idyllic time in our lives and I would not change a thing
about it for anything.
One of our most memorable vacations was a cross
country trip in the summer of 1957. My
mother, father, grandmother, sister, younger brother and I piled into the 1956
Oldsmobile, without air conditioning. Air conditioning was a luxury we hadn’t
even heard of let alone have one. Our
first stop was Albany, New York to visit my grandmother’s cousin for two days.
It was fun and we got to see some of the sights. Then we were off to Detroit, Michigan to visit more of my
grandmother’s cousin who was also my brother’s Godparents. In Detroit we also were able to spend some
time with the Bishop of our diocese, His Grace Bishop Andrei Moldovan. He was such a kind and gentle man and he
treated us children along with our parents to a picnic at the zoo. It was a truly wonderful day and we saw him
in a different light. He wasn’t just a
bishop that day but a kindly old grandfather who was enjoying being in the
company of young people.
Back on the
road again we stopped in Chicago, Illinois for more cousins. I have to say at
this point it was one of the hottest summers and Chicago was brutal. When we left for St. Louis, Missouri at 8
A.M. the temperature was all ready 90 degrees.
We were literally hanging out the windows for the breeze from the speed
of the car. Looking back on this trip,
even though we had a great time and saw a good many highlights of our wonderful
country and met relatives we had never seen before, it was hot..
We ended our trip in St. Louis, Missouri were my
father had a good many relatives. I
remember writing in my diary how we crossed the wide Mississippi River. Again, it was very hot and we were shown a
good many sights. But mostly spent visiting with the many cousins we had never
met. One of the funniest things that
happened involved my six year old brother.
Our aunt had baked several loaves of home made bread and had left them
on the counter to cool down. When it
came time to sit down to dinner, she reached for one of the loaves and
proceeded to slice through the bread.
Well, to her surprise and my parent’s mortification, my brother had
snuck into the kitchen and eaten the inside of the bread and left the outside
crust. We all had a good laugh about
that but my parents were still embarrassed.
On the road again, we left St. Louis to travel back
home. My poor father drove the whole
way west and back home. My mother
didn’t drive at that time and I know it must have been exhausting for him. It took us three days to get back home. My father decided to take a more scenic
route home and of course we got lost. I
remember how frightened my sister and I were as we tried to take turns staying
awake as we were somewhere in the Catskill Mountains but had no idea where we
were at that time. My father drove for
over twenty seven hours straight without a stop. We were on a very dark and deserted narrow road and of course our
imagination ran away with us. We imagined all kinds of horrors with wild
animals or backwoods people with axes or knives. We sure had vivid
imaginations. We didn’t let on to our father about this as we took turns trying
to keep him company and awake. How he
managed to stay awake on that dark, curvy road was only by the GRACE OF GOD and our guardian angels working
overtime.
Around 6 A.M.
with the sun rising, we saw a guard post on this back woods road which turned
out to be West Point. My Dad stopped
and asked directions (surprise, surprise, a man actually asking directions) to
a main highway. We were able to get to
a more traveled road and my Dad did get back on a major highway. We arrived back in Southbridge, Massachusetts
around 11A.M. Saturday. Just in time
for one of our favorite series, Fury.
It was a wonderful and memorable trip with my family.
Oh, did I mention it was HOT??
Audrey M. Fatsy, October 2010
ON THE BEATITUDES
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven."
"Poor in spirit" means to be humble. Humility is the realization that
all your gifts and blessings come from the grace of God. To have poverty of
spirit means to be completely empty and open to the Word of God. When we are an
empty cup and devoid of pride, we are humble. Humility brings openness and an
inner peace, allowing one to do the will of God. He who humbles himself is able
to accept our frail nature, to repent, and to allow the grace of God to lead us
to Conversion.
It
is pride, the opposite of humility that brings misery. For it brings anger and
the seeking of revenge, when one is offended. If every man were humble and poor
in spirit, there would be no war!
"Blessed are they who
mourn, for they shall be comforted."
If we are humble and appreciate that all of our gifts and blessings come from
God, we grow in love and gratitude for Jesus Christ our Savior. But this can
only produce mourning and regret over our own sins and the sins of this world,
for we have hurt the one who has been so good to us. One also mourns for the
suffering of others.
St.
Gregory describes another reason to mourn: the more one ascends in meditation
of Divine Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, and then realize the poverty of human nature;
man can only be left in sorrow. When one contemplates that we were made in the
image and likeness of God and lived in Paradise, the Garden of Eden, and
compare that to our present state after the fall, one can only mourn our
present condition. But the sentence continues that they shall be comforted,
by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and hopefully one day in the Kingdom.
Mourning
in this context is called a blessing, because mourning our fallen nature
creates in us a desire to improve ourselves and to do what is right!
"Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
St. Gregory of Nyssa taught that the Beatitudes build one upon another. A
humble person becomes meek, or becomes gentle and kind, and exhibits a docility
of spirit, even in the face of adversity and hardship. A person that is meek is
one that exhibits self-control. St. Augustine advises us to be meek in the face
of the Lord, and not resist but be obedient to him. Obedience and submission to
the will of God are certainly not in vogue these days, but they will bring one
peace in this world and in the next.
"Blessed are they who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."
A continuous desire for justice and moral perfection will lead one to a
fulfillment of that desire - a transition and conversion to holiness. This is
true for all the virtues - if you hunger and thirst for temperance, you will
head towards the goal you have in mind. St. Augustine, in his discourse on the
Lord's Sermon on the Mount, notes the correspondence of the seven gifts of the
Holy Spirit and their necessity in fulfilling the Beatitudes. For example, one
must have the gift of fortitude so one may be courageous in seeking justice.
"Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Mercy is the loving disposition towards those who suffer distress. Love,
compassion, and forgiveness towards one's neighbor will bring peace in your
relationships. We say in the Lord's
Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who
trespass against us. As we are merciful to others, so our Heavenly Father
will be merciful with us! Jesus reminds us that whatever "you did to the
least of my brethren, you did it to me (Matthew 25:31-46)." St. Paul calls
for the obedience of faith in the beginning and end of his Letter to the
Romans
(1:5, 16:25-27). The following are ways to be merciful to your neighbor, as
well as obedient in faith to Christ our Savior.
