I had the opportunity yesterday to take a little trip down to Bridgeport, CT to St. Dimitrie Romanian Orthodox Church. It was festival day for the church, and some of the people there have been after me for three years to come. There is come crossover between my parish here in Southbridge and the parish there. So I decided to drive on down. Bridgeport is about an hour and half from Southbridge. It was nice to see some of the old faces again and meet Fr. Cornel who is the priest there. They have begun to build a new church. So right now they are borrowing space from another Orthodox Church in town. The festival was quite large and the food was outstanding. Now I will have to say it was not as good as the food at our festival but I am a little biased.

Okay, I forgot something so I am now in edit mode. Most of the people there are big Yankees fans, why I don’t know. It was hard to sit there and listen to them go on about how great there team is, but then again the Yankees are 4 1/2 games up now on our beloved Red Sox. Well, football season is just around the corner so we have the Patriots anyway.

Well, this topic has provided much to talk about. But we won’t be able to figure this question out here. I will be meeting on Sunday with another Monastic person who shares the same vision as I do. The model would be something like this. One house that could be called the mother house. Several monks would live in different locations and come to the house maybe monthly or more frequently if necessary. We would live in the world doing what we do and promise to pray with and for each other and follow a monastic life as best we can. Of primary service would be to the local parish and those in need. More on this to come.

Last night several priests from the area celebrated vespers together at St. Mary’s in Worcester. It is always nice to have priests from other jurisdictions celebrating together. Here in the Worcester area we have 12 Orthodox Churches from Various Jurisdictions. We do many things together and this is one of those times.

Back there today for liturgy and then off to our nursing home for the celebration of the founding of the place. This is the only Nursing Home in the country that is run by a Pan-Orthodox group. Holy Trinity Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Check it out. More on the Dormition latter on.

Fr. Greg asked in one of his comments for my musings on urban monasticism. I want to thank Fr. Greg for getting me back on message.

Having monks in the Orthodox Church is a necessary part of who we are. However monasticism from the old world will not work here in the new world. We do not need monks who live out in the middle of nowhere we need monks to live in and about the people. We need monks that live in the bad parts of town and minister to the peoples needs. This is not a new idea, I only have to point to Dorothy Day and the early days of the Catholic Worker Movement in the US. This is what Orthodoxy needs we need urban monks.

I have this vision of a monastery in a three decker in the middle of the city where the monks will be advocates for new immigrants and teach English and help with citizenship classes and the like. We need monks who are not afraid to get their hands dirty. Who will see Jesus in the poor and the desolate, but who are also not afraid to pick up the phone and call politicians and advocate for justice for the poor and disadvantage. This is what I meant a few posts back about a preferential option for the poor.

How will these monks support themselves. Wait, here is a radical idea, they get jobs and work in the community. Perhaps teaching or hospital ministry would be part of this monastery also. We should not live off of the parishes and expect them to support us in our ministry. Monasteries should be able to support themselves.

Another thing that Orthodox monks could provide, but in a different place than the urban ones, would be retreat space. Our monasteries should be houses of hospitality. St. Benedict writes of this in his rule for monasteries.

These are just some random thoughts, and I look forward to your comments.

Yesterday’s Gospel passage for the liturgy was from Matthew 14. In this passage we see Peter attempting to walk on water. I thought I would post some comments from my homily yesterday on this very passage. This is not a full text just some bullet points. To hear my whole homily, you have to come to St. Michaels.

– We all face storms in our life, and God never said it was going to be easy if we followed Him, after all, even Jesus had to face the cross.

– What God does promise is strength to face the storms we face in life. No matter how heavy the cross is that we have to bear he is there to help us.

– Peter took his eyes off of Jesus. Peter represents all who dare to take that first step as Christians in confidence, and then when the storm starts we take our eyes off Jesus and try to go it alone. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and not on what is going on around us.

– The more difficult the task or temptation, the more we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

– In the end, Jesus immediately grabbed Peter. Jesus was right where Peter needed him to be. He will always be where we need him to be even to the end of time. He is our ever present help. So as we run the race of life look to Jesus for help in faith.

Several posts ago I began a discussion about the preferential option for the poor. This led to more reading on my part and a meeting yesterday with Sister Margaret Leonard of Project Hope in Boston. I interned at Project Hope as a seminarian and I have been fascinated by their work ever sense.

Well, through the discussion yesterday, I realized that before we can have any discussion about different social issues, the Orthodox Church needs a systematic study of Social Theory. The Roman Catholic Church has a large body of teaching in the area of Social Theory so I turned there to begin. Here is what I found. There are certain principles that we must adopt according to what we believe about God, the human person, and the community. Although different authors have different numbers of principles, 7-10 seems to be the agreed upon number. Some will differ only in how they include things or not. Here is the list;

The Principle of Human Dignity
The Principle of Respect for Human Life
The Principle of Association
The Principle of Participation
The Principle of Preferential Protection for the Poor and Vulnerable
The Principle of Solidarity
The Principle of Stewardship
The Principle of Subsidarity
The Principle of Human Equality
The Principle of the Common Good

Now this list comes in part from an essay in America Magazine by William Byron and also from a publication of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in the US, Sharing Catholic Social Teaching. So we have a place to start. I believe that much could be written on each one of those principles, and I hope to be able to fill some of them out myself. I invite comment and perhaps this could be a cyber project to build on this.

Today is the feast of the Transfiguration. It is a rare treat when one of the major feasts falls on a Sunday and more people are in church. I preached on the Transfiguring power of Christ and how we all need to have a closer, personal relationship with Him. The feast is more about Transfiguring our spiritual life than anything else. This seems like a good idea considering all that is going on in the Middle East. We need to pray for a resolution to this situation in the Middle East and a stop to all of this craziness. Let us continue to pray for all of those involved in this situation.