This is not only for those that call themselves Romanians but for all of you that call yourselves Christians. “Two are better then one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up other.” ECCLESIASTES 4:9-10

I would really love to share with you one of my favorite prayers from My Personal Daily Prayer Book which is actually designated for January 11^th :

“The wires are holding hands around holes: To avoid breaking the ring, they hold tight the neighboring wrist, and it’s thus that with holes they make a fence. Lord,  there are lots of holes in my life, there are some in the lives of my neighbors, but if you wish we shall hold hands, we shall hold very tight and together we shall make a roll of fence to adorn paradise.” – MICHEL QUOIST, “THE WIRE FENCE”

God’s gift of Community is a beautiful and purposeful design of interdependence- of helping and being helped. Since it is a gift, however, Community will never happen unless we first reach out to receive it.

I often hear this word “ Community” and sometimes it sounds so familiar and I used to stop and try to take a quick trip through my memories to identify this word…Oh yes, I know.. I heard it sometimes when I used to go to church on Sundays. But somehow it just didn’t stick with my memories as I could not associate it with any form of “group of people with common interests living in a particular area” or “a unified body of individuals” as the word would be described in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Our Romanian Orthodox Community here in this area can be described with one simple word: ABSENT, even though there are so many Christians, Romanians or not. I can't quite figure out why is it that this happens when we all call ourselves Christians. Have we forgotten what being a Christian really means? …Have we lost our connection with God? Are we to busy to take few hours off our Sundays to try built and maintain this Community that we all call ourselves members of?

Not to long ago I felt like I was loosing my identity and it was actually scary because I used to be proud of being part of a Community no matter if it was the Romanian Community or the Romanian Orthodox Community (and I am talking here about the Romanian Church Community here in this area)

 We’ve gotten so bad that we only call ourselves Romanians once a year on December 1^st when we smile big in front of the camera to make sure our picture will look nice on the local Community paper, but when we hear somebody talking Romanian we make sure we don’t say a word in our native language because we either are ashamed of it or we really don’t want to meet other new Romanians .We even lie ourselves thinking that we are Christians just because we stepped into the church sometimes on Sundays.

Recently I joined this new Romanian Orthodox Church and I can honestly say that I am proud of being part of such a beautiful Community. I’ve met wonderful people that I can really call Christians, not only Romanians, and I feel like I found my identity. The only thing that makes me sad is that the Community is so small… people seam they forgot about God these days and they only turn to Him when they need something. I hope more people will reach out to receive this gift of Community that God gave it to us as a new chance to become more compassionate, loving, kinder Christians not only on Sundays but every day of our lives.

God bless all of you and may you keep Him in your heart!

THIS ARTICLE IS AN EXPRESION OF A NARROW PERSONAL OPINION AND IT DOES NOT EXPRESS BELIEVES, RULES, OPINIONS OR CONVICTIONS OF ANY ORGANIZATION OR COMMUNITY. THANK YOU!