Word has reached us here in the village that Pope Benedict is going to sign what is called in the Roman Church as a Universal Indult. Since the suppression on the Latin Mass after Vatican II, bishops have had the discretion to allow the Latin Mass to be said at certain times in certain places. Many of the diocese have at least one Latin Mass a week. Now, the discretion will be held by the individual priest. I find this very interesting. As a child, the Latin Mass had already gone out of style and the Novus Ordo, the New Order, had taken hold. I have never been to a Latin Mass but as one who constantly advocates for the use of the vernacular in all this liturgical I find this move very troubling.

Since most people did not understand Latin, private devotions become the thing at Mass. You could see people saying the Rosary or reading from their prayer books. Is that what we are trying to get back too? As Orthodox, look around our churches and see how many young people there are in our churches when the liturgical language is not the vernacular. Of course if the parish is strictly an immigrant parish it would be different. I look at my own parish. We are in the third generation here and if the language were to switch back to Romanian I believe that the third generation, as well as the converts, would slip away.

As an outsider I think the church needs to look at liturgical reform and how we can make the church relevant in the world today. What can we do in this regard? One of the reasons the Orthodox Church spread as far and as fast as it did in the east was that the early missionaries learned the language of the people and did not force them to learn a new language. Then we come to America, and bring our church with us, and force people to learn a new language. This needs much more thought and discussion than I am giving it here so please be patient.

So that’s the ramble for now. Blessed Sunday to all.

Yesterday I posted about church names and I mentioned if it was up to me, I would choose the name St. Snuffies. Some of you asked for the story behind that particular comment. Okay here it is.

When I was teaching middle school some years back, I would often use the name Snuffie in examples in class. “Snuffie and his sister went to the store to buy some bread” things like that. In religion class I would often use the same name but call him St. Snuffie. The kids loved it and always wanted to hear more stories about Snuffie and his/her (gender would depend on the situation) family and friends.

So there it is the Story of St. Snuffie, a modern day saint for all people and I think will become the patron saint of this blog.

Today on the Romanian Church Calendar is the feast of St. Parascheva. I believe her feast is latter in the year on the Greek calendar. I had the opportunity last night to travel to our church in Wakefield, Massachusetts under the patronage of St. Parascheva for a Vespers service. Presided over by our new Vicar Bishop Ioan Casian the service was very moving. It was especially moving for me as this is the Orthodox Church that I cut my teeth in. This was the first Church that I attended on a regular basis at the time I was a Byzantine Catholic Seminarian studying at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. This was my first trip back and it was a pleasure to stand at the altar and serve vespers as priest. Everyone used Romanian, and when the time came for me to participate, I used English. The one sad part was that there were only about 6 people in the congregation for this service. They are having a liturgy today for their feast and another on Sunday. The crowd will be larger then. Happy Feast day to our friends in Wakefield.

Fr. Greg has a post on his blog about how the cathedral got it’s name. I find this topic interesting so I thought I would post about how our church, St. Michael’s got it’s name. In the early 1920’s the Romanians here in Southbridge decided they wanted a church of their own. They had been worshiping together with the Greeks and the Albanians and it was time for their own church. They acquired land here on Romanian Ave and began to build their first church. What to name the place? So what did they do? They sold raffle tickets for the right to name the church. The raffle was won by Mr. Michael Kruti hence the name of the church St. Michael’s. I am glad I did not win as I would have had to name the church St. Snuffies, can you imagine?

Recently I wrote about loving your enemies. I spoke on this topic in church last Sunday and had some comments after from parishioners. Like I said, this is a hard topic for us to deal with as Christians. I mean of all the scriptural things that we have to deal with, this has to be the biggest one.

This past week we saw play out on TV the shooting of the girls at the Amish school in Pensylvania. I cannot imagine what that must have been like for the girls or for their families. To see the way the community came together and prayed was an amazing thing. Part of the Amish belief is this intense sense of forgiveness. It was reported in the news that the families have already forgiven the man who took the lives of their daughters. That is forgiveness. Try that one on for size. I also just heard on the news that one of the girls volunteered to be shot first. Such courage in one so young. Such faith in people that we know very little about.

Another act of forgiveness came to my attention this week. Sister Leonella Sgobarti a Roman Catholic Nun of the Consolata Missionaries was murdered in Somalia in September. It has been reported that as Sister lay on the ground dying she was heard whispering that she forgives the people who did this to her. WOW that is big.

Here are two examples of what I can only imagine are many. We find it hard to forgive someone who cuts us off in traffic and these people forgave people who killed. Such faith.

In my previous post I mentioned my work as a fire chaplain. This has been a very rewarding ministry for me for the past few years. I serve a small department made up of both volunteer and full-time firefighters. Not much happens in the town and most of the time I spend at the station is just ministry of presence.

Yesterday however, we were called to Thompson, Connecticut for a house fire. House fires are never good and thankfully no one was hurt. The house was a complete loss and the three families will have to be relocated. A fire scene can be very chaotic and anything can happen. The chaplain walks around speaking with the FF’s and brings water and makes sure that all is well with them. In small town we usually know people who live in the houses where the fire is so it becomes personal. This can be a stressful time for all.

I asked in my last post to pray for the FF’s and EMT’s. Pray for all public safety people that they remain safe and well. Pray for their families as well as they give them up each day to keep us safe.

One of the most difficult parts of ministry is to be at the side of a family after the death of a loved one. This time is one of great spiritual grace for me as priest. That might sound a bit self serving but it is true. To be able to minister to people at that time reminds me of Jesus at the tomb with Martha and Mary after their brothers death.

This past Sunday I had the opportunity for this type of ministry. My work as a fire chaplain brings me into contact with people that I might never come in contact with. Sunday there was an accident near my home. The 16 year old driver was killed and his father badly injured. As the hospital tried in vain to find someone to come and be with the family, the fire department paged me. The humorous thing there is that I was in the supermarket when this happened. I arrived at the hospital to find the young man’s brother in a state that I can only describe as inconsolable. His mother was in shock. I prayed for them and then went to the room and prayed for this young man taken so early from this life. No matter how many times I do this type of thing it never gets easier. I spent a few more minutes with them family and slipped quietly away. Pray for Michael and his family as they come to grips with this tragedy in their life. Pray also for the Firefighters and EMT’s as well as all those at the hospital. It never gets easy for them either and they are often over looked in these situations. If you have time left, say a little prayer for me also.

I mentioned this last week, but Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston is in Rome and has begun a blog. Although he does not make the posts himself, someone on his staff does it for him, he does write all of the entries. It is his travel log and very interesting. Check it out if you have a few minutes.

The Gospel reading for today’s Liturgy is taken from Luke’s Gospel chapter 6 vs 31-36. A very short Gospel reading by Orthodox standards but a very powerful one. The end of the selection for today I think is the most important one of all. Love those who do not like us. How hard is this for us to do? I would say this has to be the hardest thing that we as Christians are called too but also the most rewarding.

The fathers of the church speak of the soul as the center of the body, and if the soul is sick the body will also be sick. If you are carrying around hatred for someone because the wronged you, or your family, then you need to find a way to forgive them and let go.

A new theological concept has come about in the last few years called restorative justice. It is through this concept that victims and perpetrators of crime are brought together for healing. Dorothy Day was a big supporter of this concept although it was called something different in her day.

The message from this Gospel is clear. We must love everyone, and not just the people who love us.

Last Sunday, as I mentioned in the previous post, I was at a Krking service in New Hampshire. The minister spoke about faith and about how much time we spend on the “things” of life. He asked us to ask ourselves how much time we spend doing things other than practicing our faith. I have been thinking about that this week. How much time do we spend on other things? What else could we be doing? Makes me stop and ponder.