Every year, our Church celebrates its patronal feast day on September 8th. This year was truly special, almost historic, as the construction of the new church and social hall commenced.
The feast began at 6pm on Friday, September 6th, 2024, when our special guest, Archdeacon Sorin Mihalache, led the first four hours of the “Attachment Cultivation” Workshop. During the workshop, attended by 24 faithful, aspects of the parent-child relationship were addressed, along with educational insights from psychology as part of the Attachment Theory. The characteristics of secure attachment were clarified, and desirable gestures and behaviors of parents, which are indispensable in shaping a secure attachment style for children, were discussed. Saturday morning, the workshop continued for another five hours. These sessions highlighted several elements that show remarkable convergence between Attachment Theory and Christian anthropology: the need of every person for attachment, the role of attachment in shaping health, structuring interpersonal relationships in adulthood, and defining one’s relationships with others and their philosophy of life. In addition to the many tools and practical means available to parents to beneficially influence the psycho-cognitive and behavioral development of children, these sessions reiterated the exemplary way in which Christian love—lived and expressed according to the virtues of faith and the work of divine grace—exemplarily meets a person’s attachment needs, regardless of age, and fulfills the life’s desire that characterizes human existence. At the end of the sessions, several questions from participants were discussed, where it was highlighted how, for a faithful person, the Divine Providence offers the security and protection indispensable to human life.
The conclusions, formulated by the guest and participants, were that in our lives, through faith and the mysterious work of God's grace, we experience the attachment relationship—including safety and protection—in our very relationship with the loving God, and the power derived from trusting in this love is what enables us to open ourselves up to those around us. The goal of Christian spiritual life is not to attach ourselves to things, as is often the case in today’s consumerist society, but to our neighbors, to the saints, to the Mother of God, and especially to God.
In the rush and pressure of everyday life, modern man often feels the burden of others’ needs, rarely having the willingness to help. According to Attachment Theory and Philokalic recommendations, it is important to strive to listen and open ourselves up, to understand and respond to others’ needs—efforts that reflect the self-sacrificing love of Christ for humanity. As Christian Philokalic spirituality also suggests, we should seek the obstacles to understanding and helping others within ourselves. The difficulty we experience in being present for and helping others should not be blamed on their weaknesses but should instead lead us to self-examination and to intensifying our spiritual lives.
After the conclusion of the “Attachment Cultivation” Workshop, the Blessing Service for the commencement of construction of the new church was conducted. The service was celebrated by several priests from Austin and the surrounding areas, with the Mayor and Vice Mayor of Cedar Park in attendance, along with many faithful from San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston.
At the end of the Service, we gave thanks to everyone who helped us reach this stage, but also mentioned that this is only the beginning of a long journey. For this reason, we asked those present to continue supporting us in the stages to come. After the Blessing Service, everyone enjoyed the wonderful food prepared by our volunteer team and celebrated this memorable day.
Following the evening meal, starting at 5 pm, the Great Vespers with Litia was celebrated, with nine priests and one deacon participating. The responses were provided by Chanter Cosmin Mardare, a good friend of our Church.
Saturday concluded with an intervention of Archdeacon Sorin on the significance of the gospel of the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, beginning at 6:30 pm. On this occasion, three spiritual states symbolized by the three women in the Gospel of Luke—Martha, Mary, and the woman from the crowd—were highlighted, respectively: ascetic work, theory (illumination), and contemplation, which are fulfilled by the Mother of God in her life, but which are also necessary to be fulfilled in the life of every Christian.
On the third day, Sunday, we celebrated the Matins Service starting at 9 am, followed by the Divine Liturgy. Afterward, Archdeacon Sorin Mihalache delivered a conference titled “To Dwell on Thoughts or to Master Them?” Here, Archdeacon Sorin emphasized, by referring to observations made by Philokalic Fathers and recent discoveries in medical sciences and neuroscience, the importance of thoughts and their impact on our moods and actions. The abundance of information and experiences encountered today in the culture around us diminishes attention and weakens the ability of individuals to attentively observe their own thoughts. This presents a great challenge for modern man, to develop the habit of monitoring thoughts, especially since they are increasingly scattered and disorganized.
Conversely, it was highlighted that spiritual life—especially in the Eastern Christian tradition—requires monitoring of thoughts, and to do this, one must guard the senses and the works, which most often fuel the mind's activity. The importance of confession was also emphasized in the battle against thoughts, along with the necessity of prayer, reading from the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, to purify one’s thoughts.
At the end of the Conference, participants asked questions, and the event concluded after nearly three hours.
After the conference, all guests and participants shared a meal together for the last time in the old church. This final day ended with a communal administrative activity, preparing for the next day's work. Everyone present, young and old, helped gather all the religious objects and other valuables from the old church to clear the space for the demolition work scheduled for the next day. The items were carefully packed so they could continue to be used in the future.
At the end of these three intense and emotional days, we shed a tear with one eye and smiled with the other. The old little church/chapel/house, which has been our warm home for 15 years, will remain in our hearts. We will never forget the beautiful moments spent there! At the same time, strengthened by the help of the Mother of God, we look with faith and joy to the new church that will rise in the coming year in our community.
We thank His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae and all those who have supported us so far, and we ask them to pray that the Good Lord helps us fulfill this wonderful project, for which we feel unworthy! We pray that the Merciful God protects us and guides our steps further so that we may successfully complete this great project, leaving behind for our community of faithful this treasure, His Church, for generations and generations to come, that they may attain salvation within it!
Fr. Gabriel Ilieș