Today on the Romanian Church Calendar is the feast of St. Parascheva. I believe her feast is latter in the year on the Greek calendar. I had the opportunity last night to travel to our church in Wakefield, Massachusetts under the patronage of St. Parascheva for a Vespers service. Presided over by our new Vicar Bishop Ioan Casian the service was very moving. It was especially moving for me as this is the Orthodox Church that I cut my teeth in. This was the first Church that I attended on a regular basis at the time I was a Byzantine Catholic Seminarian studying at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. This was my first trip back and it was a pleasure to stand at the altar and serve vespers as priest. Everyone used Romanian, and when the time came for me to participate, I used English. The one sad part was that there were only about 6 people in the congregation for this service. They are having a liturgy today for their feast and another on Sunday. The crowd will be larger then. Happy Feast day to our friends in Wakefield.
St. Parascheva
