Each meeting of the young Orthodox is an occasion of a Eucharistic communion, of the ideas and feelings brought by both the dioceses of our mother country and those of the Diaspora.

Regardless of the country of origin, one feels the need for identity, a faith and a philosophy. Young people raised or moved in the Diaspora are like a flower removed from its root: they need artificial nutrition to keep themselves alive and not to wane. So is our Romanian Christian living in the midst of foreigners: he is in a sea of ​​ideologies and foreign beliefs of his ethnogenesis. In this condition, the Orthodox comes in contact with foreign gods, money, the temptation of power, of dishonest gain, pleasure and luxury. All these replace the spiritual source offered by the connection with our ancestors who are more concretely on our Romanian land.

Being with the Romanian delegates from the Diaspora I noticed first of all the beauty of the fraternal understanding, but also the sad reaction of our condition: distance.

The Meeting of the Orthodox Youth (ITO in Romanian) has the role of a healing module through logotherapy. We, the participants, are the beneficiaries of this therapy, and the hierarchs along with the priests and the volunteers are administrators of this therapy. In this regard, we identify with the comparison of St. Paul from the Letter to Corinthians: "you are the body of Christ and members (each) in part" (1 Cor. 12:27). Indeed, the metaphor of St. Paul fits wonderfully with the activity of this ITO, and not only, since only those who love and share the same faith can form a biological Eucharistic Cup.

Every year I am impressed by the efforts of each of the host Archdiocese. For me, the liturgical experience at the Maglavit Monastery moved my heart the most because it reminded me of the summer liturgies held in my parish in Georgia, USA, under the shadow of the oaks and in the peace of Christ.

Ryan Peter Botas,

Representative of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States of America at ITO