My dear parishioners and friends,

            Every Sunday in the Divine Liturgy, the priest intones the following verse during the Great Litany (Ektenia): “ For the peace in the whole world and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord!”  In other words, we pray to the Lord to give us peace of the entire world and for the salvation of our souls.” Our souls, my dear beloved, is the most precious thing that we possess, it is the only thing that will stay with us after we lose everything, after all our material goods will be no longer with us, after we will come to realize what the value of money and all the “valuable things”, were not as valuable as we thought they were, the only thing that will stay with us is our soul.

            In one of the prayers that we recite during the service of Baptism, the priest reads:” Sovereign Master, Lord Our God, You honored man with Your own image and fashioning him of a rational soul and a comely body, the body as it were serving the reason endowed soul…” This emphasizes clearly that the human body was created to serve the soul because the soul is the most important element.

            We were gifted with our souls and we have to take care of them, the way we take care of our bodies, by washing them, giving them a good look all the time, more than that we suppose to take care of our souls and to give them what they long for, salvation of God.

            Now, the only place where we find salvation is The Church, the Holy Fathers said that:”Salvation is not possible outside the Church!”, and that is why our participation in Church services is so important. The Church is the “Spiritual laboratory”, where we purify our souls, where we find peace of mind and where we redefine our beings knowing where we’re coming from and where we’re going to.

            When you plant a seed, any seed, you’ll water it, fertilize it and give it everything it needs to grow. It is the same thing with the soul, we have to give it everything that it needs to find salvation in Jesus Christ Our Lord! It takes an entire life to feed our souls spiritually, to see results and to receive the desired result, salvation from Christ. And we need to work our salvation every day, 24/7/365, year after year .St. Augustine of Hippo said:” You created us for You, o God, and troubled are our souls, until they’ll find rest in You!” And this is so true because no matter how happy or peace minded we are, our souls are still troubled for as long as we live here in the world.

            My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, with these thoughts in mind, I, your spiritual father, ask you to come to Church, to give your souls the spiritual food that they need so much. I also ask you to bring your children to the Church , to send them to Sunday School and all other Church activities, to raise them in a Healthy Christian environment, for their own being and for the Glory of the Almighty God, because  that is our mission here in the world, to glorify God all the days of our life!

            Hoping, that everybody will understand how important the words of my message here are, I’m looking forward to see all of you in Church and to be a united family of Jesus Christ Our Lord, I remain Our Lord’s unworthy servant, who fervently prays for  all of you,

                                                                                             +  Father Catalin