{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ 40th Day ~ Memory Eternal!

Today is Fr. Roman Braga's 40th day ~

that is the 40th day since he fell asleep in the Lord

 on April 28th of this year, 2015.

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I wish I could be at Holy Dormition Monastery for this memorial but

it was not possible.

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This past week I was able to go to a closer monastery,

St. Tikhon's and it was so comforting to 

hear Fr. Roman prayed for in the liturgy and vigil service 

that I was at.  

I felt, in hearing him so prayed for, that 

not only was he being remembered

but all of us who loved Fr. Roman Braga were 

being remembered and prayed for as well.

Simply said, it made me feel cared for.

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I never had the honour of taking to Fr. Roman for more

than a minute or so to get his blessing,

but once, right outside the dining hall, I got his blessing

and he smiled and said to me:

make yourself at home here [at the monastery]

and I felt so loved and blessed, as if 

everything was suddenly very much full of sunshine.

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I still remember my first time at Holy Dormition Monastery

and how it was my first Sunday after I was chrismated and

Fr. Roman gave instructions for preparation for Holy Communion

in Romanian and they were translated into English...

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I remember his joy, his jokes and laughter at the table once

when I was there with very few people

and I esp. remember how he prayed in church

during that Lenten period of Great Lent.

I have to this day never heard anyone else pray the

prayer of St. Ephraim with so much contrition,

that Fr. Roman really knew himself to be a sinner. 

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I remember many times watching him in church,

knowing he was praying.

As I wrote earlier, it was enough to see him

and to just know he was praying to God

and also praying the Jesus Prayer.

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It is like a child seeing their Father,

who they know in their very bones, is 

a good Father who does good and

is one they can trust

to care for them,

protect them, 

succour them, guide, teach 

and love them. 

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For me, while the older I get the more shadowed realizations 

of my own inward poverty, it was always a real comfort to know

that Fr. Roman prays so deeply. 

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It is the reassurance that one has knowing

that their Father is there 

and that everything,

ultimately, 

will be taken care of

and that they can be at peace.

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I told someone at church,

and I know I am not alone in thinking it,

that while there is real grief and loss at Fr. Roman's passing,

especially for those who were close to him,

yet it was happy, as so many of us dream of the day

that Fr. Roman's day of death, April 28th,

will be his new Saint's day 

for us on earth while he is praying for us in heaven.

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May God so grant and may we have Fr. Roman's blessing!

Memory Eternal dear and beloved Fr. Roman

and may God remember you in His Kingdom

and may we have your prayers and blessing! 

*

Memory Eternal,

Memory Eternal,

Memory Eternal!

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ on Christmas...

This blog post is posted in it's entirety from this blog

and this blog entry.

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Today my song comes from an Orthodox Archimandrite Roman Braga, who serves the nuns at Holy Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery in Rives Junction, Michigan. His article in the Winter 2014 monastic journal, The Burning Bush. Here’s a short excerpt:

We must understand that the Nativity is a historical fact; it is not a mere hypothesis open to speculations. Simple Christians did a much better job—they clothed this Feast in poetic folklore only to keep this mystery fresh and not dried up by theological reasoning. The theology of simple people is contemplation, prayer and singing, and in this way they are much closer to the Truth.

Later in the article Father Roman tells us who Christmas is for:

Christmas is for simple and wise mothers who are silent and humble….

Christmas is for fathers who with calloused hands daily make a commitment… to protect their families….

Christmas is for countrymen, for shepherds and workers….

Christmas is for the poor….

Christmas is for the rich….

Christmas is for the ill and lonely, for the abandoned and destitute….

Christmas is for wise Christian philosophers an object of adoration and not a speculation….

Christmas is the gift of God for everyone, children and grownups, sinners and saints, angels and stars, shepherds and magi, and even for inanimate things, because God revealed Himself in the flesh and all nature was imbued by Him.

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ the sufferings in prison

"A few months ago I was able to talk with another survivor of Pitesti, Fr. Roman Braga, when I visited the Michigan convent where he now is in residence. The Communists had arrested Fr. Roman on an inventive charge: he was accused of trying to overthrow the government by discussing the writings of St. Basil the Great, St. John Climacus, and St. Gregory of Nyssa. He spent his first year in solitary confinement, and in the dark, narrow cell could not tell one season from another, nor could he look out the small, high window and see a horizon. “You had to go somewhere; you had to find an inner perspective,” he said, “because otherwise you would truly go crazy.”

Fr. Roman told me that religious beliefs were particularly mocked. Tormenters would set obscene lyrics to the tunes of familiar hymns, and celebrate parody liturgies designed to break believers’ hearts. His sole clue that Christmas or Pascha (Easter) might be near would be the appearance of their themes in the torturers’ arsenal.

One way guards particularly taunted Christians was by telling them that Christ and Mary Magdalene had had a sexual relationship. Fr. Roman noted, laughing, that in Romania this constituted torture, but in America people line up to pay for it in movies and books (“Here in the land of so-called freedom—I am not so sure you are free.”)

Neither man would describe what they’d endured. “It is secret, intimate,” Fr. Roman said, “I saw saints fall, and I saw the simple rise and become saints.” "

~interview by Kh. Frederica Matthewes-Green

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~no one can take the image of God from within us

"Fr. Roman did not want any eulogies. He did not want people’s tears. As he said, the
soul needs not tears but prayers. And he referred to himself as a great sinner. Such was his humility. It is this holy humility coupled with love that I am sure have vouchsafed him rest among the saints, taking his place as one of them.

Fr. Roman lived for 93 years and did not have an easy life. When the communists took
over Romania he was imprisoned not once but twice. And as a priest, the communists took special care to be cruel through physical and psychological torture, through isolation and solitary confinement. Who would give thanks for that? Yet Fr. Roman said he was grateful for what the communists did to him because by stripping away all his possessions, even his liberty and the community of others, as they tried to turn him into a beast, he said distractions were removed from him and he turned inward, inside himself to discover God. Because God is not outside us. God has made us in His image. We already have the divine image within. Jesus says “the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) And that image of God shone through Fr. Roman by his sufferings, by his being a modern day confessor of the faith, that is one who calls Christ Lord and God though it will mean suffering and imprisonment."

~homily from St. Nicholas Church in MI

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ some of his favourite sayings

"Though tears were shed at losing Fr. Roman’s physical presence, yet there is joy at
gaining an intercessor in heaven. Among his favorite sayings, “Love one another as God loves us.” “Look to see the good in every person.” “Pray without ceasing.” Prayer is not only the words we say from our prayer books or here in church, it is also what we do, living in Christ in every moment of our day, whether at home, work or school.

From Fr. Roman, as a living example of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us learn how to be
humble, how to forgive, how to love one another as Jesus Christ loves each one of us."

~homily from St. Nicholas Church in MI

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ in loss of freedom there can still be joy

"And in the last two years Fr. Roman experienced again a loss of freedom and ability as he
became ill. He remarked that dying was difficult. Little by little things were stripped away from him. First, he could no longer serve the Liturgy. Then he could only come to services in a wheelchair. Eventually he couldn’t even do that and had to remain in his monastic cell where he still kept his rule of prayer. When he celebrated his 93rd birthday three weeks before his death, he was asked if it was okay to sing “Many Years” for him. He said, “No. I am only now beginning to learn to die.” So he took joy in the smallest things. When the nuns thought his time was near, he astonished them when he awoke and asked for ice cream. The joy he had at that simple treat made him say that monks are only children with beards. When he could no longer get out of bed and keep his prayer rule he said “God has to take over.” Finally, he could not even speak but wordlessly was able to make the sign of the cross in prayer. Now he added to his voluntary poverty of earthly things the poverty of his physical helplessness and confinement. He fulfilled Jesus’ words in Luke’s gospel, “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (6:20)"

~homily from St. Nicholas Church in MI

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ his life teaches us to forgive

"Where Fr. Roman could have been embittered against those who treated him so
shamefully he prayed for them. When given humiliation, he responded with humility. When
given torture, he responded with a blessing. When exiled from his homeland, he followed God’s will. These things may sound impossible to us. They are not. Humility and love are not
reserved for monks and nuns. There are for all of us. And in them we will find salvation. If I
think about something in the past where someone wronged me, it’s easy to tense up, feeling
blood pressure rise, becoming agitated. What does that serve? Fr. Roman’s example is nothing
other than the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. What freedom there is in forgiveness! How
light the load is when we look to see some good in every person! How we are filled with
Christ’s joy when we pray for those who love us and those who hate us! The humility to forgive is life-giving. It takes what we “want” or the vengeance we may seek out of the equation. That is, forgiveness puts to death our pride. This is how Fr. Roman lived. It is a choice to live like this, a choice to live like Christ. That’s important for us to remember before we make the choice to hold a grudge or seek retribution. "

~homily from St. Nicholas Church in MI

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ a priest's words on Fr. Roman's funeral

On Friday the Church, bishops, priests, deacons, nuns, monks and all the baptized buried

God’s faithful servant, Hieromonk Roman (Braga) at Dormition Monastery in Rives Junction.

His funeral was a Paschal light burning brightly, reflecting the Light of the World, our Lord

Jesus Christ who came into the world, took on our flesh, to heal us who are sick with sin, as He healed the paralytic today.

The first striking thing about Fr. Roman’s funeral was not the three bishops, four

deacons, over thirty priests, over twenty monks and nuns and the hundreds of people. It would have been a surprise if there weren’t that many people given his holiness and humanity. It was the timelessness and the other-worldly beauty of his funeral. I quickly gave away my book because I couldn’t balance the candle and the book at the same time without possibly setting myself or someone else on fire. (It was like Joe Goodman was looking over my shoulder). The beauty of the chant, the Psalms that were sung, amid the icons of the church with Fr. Roman’s mortal remains in our midst, bearing the marks of his illness and death. Yet there was in it joy, as Christ is risen was sung again and again, announcing anew to the world as if for the first time that death is now powerless because Christ is risen.

The service was very long. I’m glad I gave away my book because then I wouldn’t look

ahead to see where we were and how much more we had to go. Sure, our backs ached, our feet

hurt, it was warm. But those were minor inconveniences compared to what we were doing,

singing Fr. Roman away to his rest. We notice a rose flower, the thorns not so much, though we know they’re there when we are pricked by them. It is the beauty and the scent of the flower that stays with us. It is the beauty and the perfume of the prayers that we said for Fr. Roman’s repose that remain. Time was not to be reckoned as we prayed for him. We had entered the beauty of the kingdom of God.

Fr. Roman was carried to the grave and placed in the hole in the earth dug for his mortal

body. Everyone, clergy and monastics, laity, adults and children took turns shoveling dirt onto his casket until his grave was full and the cross was placed above his resting place. I sent a picture on my phone to Matushka with the words, “Until the Second Coming.” Fr. Roman’s

grave, like the graves of all our beloved dead, are temporary. They will be emptied when we

hear the Savior’s voice calling us to Himself when He comes in glory to the earth. All will be

raised up, mortal bodies and souls reunited, bodies changed in the resurrection. As Jesus tells us,

those who have lived in evil will rise to the resurrection of judgment but those who have lived in Him on this earth will rise to the resurrection of life.

~homily from St. Nicholas Church in MI

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ interior life of man

[Interviewer]:Father [Dimitru] Staniloae confessed that his time in prison was the first time he could pray without ceasing, with the mind in the heart.

I cannot say that I experienced prayer as Father Staniloae, but what I do know is that we will never reach the same spiritual level of life as in Communist imprisonment. There was no pencil, no paper, no T.V., nothing; especially in solitary confinement, you could not even look through a window. There was no exterior horizon, nothing but the four walls of your cell. You had to go somewhere; you had to find an inner perspective, because otherwise you would truly go j crazy. I'm ashamed to say that I was forced to find myself in prison. I had some ideas about prayer because I came from the Burning Bush Movement, but it was mostly theory about what prayer is; but there in those difficult moments I confess that I started to recite the Jesus Prayer and practiced it intensely. Only then was I able to discover how beautiful the interior life of man is.

~Fr. Roman Braga, 

On Prayer of the Heart

Excerpts from Exploring the Inner Universe

by Fr. Roman Braga

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ on dispassion

Father, do you think that the ascetic effort associated with the Prayer of the Heart should be the same for monks and for lay people?

The first step should be the Prayer, I mean the formula. If you repeatedly recite the Jesus Prayer, the rest comes naturally. Man cannot become dispassionate without falling on his knees and asking God for this grace, because everything comes by the grace of God. Attaining dispassion is not the result of personal effort, but it comes by the grace of God; so you must fall on your knees, see yourself as a sinner, and ask for God's help. Prayer and the purification of passions happen at the same time. I think that priority must be given to prayer. It is said that there is no pure prayer without first attaining dispassion. But I say that whether pure prayer or forced prayer, prayer must be the beginning of any spiritual work.

~Fr. Roman Braga, 

On Prayer of the Heart

Excerpts from Exploring the Inner Universe

by Fr. Roman Braga

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ on "spirituality"

"And now, a few words on "spirituality", which you have repeatedly asked about. I live Orthodox spirituality through the liturgical cycles. I strongly believe that the Holy Spirit is in the Church. When I told you about the monks of Cemica and Condritsa, I was speaking about some great unknown men. There were among them great spiritual monastics whom no one knew about. I do not think "elders" are some "gurus" to whom people go to see them performing miracles or hanging on pillars or living as animals in the clefts of rocks. I think that true spiritual elders live in the discipline of the Church, in obedience and humility. The Spirit of God is in monasteries and in churches, together with the monks and priests incorporated in the monastic and liturgical life, not in isolated individuals. Monks are tempered like steel in humility and obedience. I know that there are people looking at them like wonder workers, anxious to see something miraculous, and they classify them as good or bad by how they "perform". There was a woman in Iasi who once came to Father Bartolomeu Dothan and asked me if he was a saint. I told her, "I do not know, madam." She replied, "The world says so." And I said, "It might be." And she said, "If he is a saint, why does he not perform some miracles?" She came to such a humble man to see miracles! I am not comfortable with this idea about the spiritual man. Spiritual men are not some spiritual elite, detached from the regular life of the Church. When we mention them, we say "St. Seraphim of Sarov". Sarov was a monastery. We speak of a man incorporated in a discipline. The same thing with our Romanian saints like "St. Chiriac of Taslau". Taslau is a monastery with a fixed discipline. "Iosif of Bisericani", another monastery, "Onofrei of Sihastria", "Paisie of Neamts", "Daniel the Hermit of Voronets", "Ghelasie of Rametsi"... all these are remembered by their monasteries which had a fixed discipline and rules; these men were incorporated into this discipline. The Spirit is there where the monastery is, where the Church is. Their spiritual exploits are obedience and community discipline."

~Fr. Roman Braga, 

On Compromise in the Hierarchy During the Communist Yoke

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ prayer is not formalistic or legalistic...

"First and foremost is the matter of prayer. 

You should realize that there is a great difference between Protestant and Orthodox beliefs about spiritual realization. Orthodoxy is not overly formalistic or legalistic; the accent is on living with Jesus Christ in your heart and feeling His presence at all times. Prayer doesn't mean you have to read a certain number of official prayers. The Phiokalic definition of prayer is the feeling of the presence of God in you heart, even if you don't say any words. You realize this state of prayer by a continue dialogue with our Lord."

~Fr. Roman Braga 

in an excerpt from the Ask Father column in Again magazine

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ constant prayer to God who loves us

"Fr. Roman always encouraged us to think of prayer as a continual,

 ongoing conversation with God; 

nothing, no activity, no matter how seemingly trivial, 

falls outside of the Providence of God’s love

 and care for His creatures."

~ Dr. Dr. Dan Hinshaw

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ praying the Jesus Prayer

From Dr. Dan Hinshaw's essay on Fr. Roman's illness and death,

"And yet, he continued to pray while lying immobile in bed the quintessential prayer of the Christian penitent, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” When speech finally deserted him, he still silently made the sign of the cross, for he had attained to silence, the language of Paradise."

~found here and here.

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This is the Fr. Roman I knew by sight.

When I would see him in church,

even in his later years, 

sitting in a wheelchair,

I always knew that he was

praying and praying the 

Jesus Prayer.

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For me and I think for many, 

this story is true:

Three Fathers used to go and visit blessed Anthony every year 

and two of them used to discuss their thoughts 

and the salvation of their souls with him, 

but the third always remained silent and did not ask him anything. 

After a long time, Abba Anthony said to him, 

"You often come here to see me, but you never ask me anything,"

 and the other replied, 

"It is enough for me to see you, Father."

(found here, I read it in book form here)

{Fr. Roman Braga} ~ beautiful pictures of his funeral

You can see beautiful pictures

of Holy Dormition Monastery and the

funeral of Fr. Roman Braga here.

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I wish I had been able to go,

but it just was not possible.

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How beautiful was his funeral!

A younger priest who I know 

said the funeral was like Pascha.

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May Fr. Roman's memory be eternal! 

Fr. Roman Braga

Gretchen Joanna was the first to alert me

to this letter,

which my husband later emailed to me...

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This part of the letter struck me

as I also remember Fr. Roman reading this Akathist

in the middle of church, in the lovely chapel

at Holy Dormition Monastery...

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Here are the words from James M. Kushiner on

 Fr. Roman praying this Akathist...

from the Touchstone newsletter:..

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"I could sense from the way Fr. Roman prayed and chanted the "Akathist Hymn to Jesus Christ" on Sundays before Divine Liturgy that I was witnessing a loving communion between the Lord and his servant. One stanza is an icon of his faith:

Jesus, true God.

Jesus, Son of David.

Jesus, glorious King.

Jesus, innocent Lamb.

Jesus, Shepherd most marvellous.

Jesus, Protector of mine infancy.

Jesus, Guide of my youth.

Jesus, Boast of mine old age.

Jesus, my Hope at death.

Jesus, my Life after death.

Jesus, my Comfort at Your judgment.

Jesus, my Desire, let me not then be ashamed.

He also praised Jesus Christ, "Redeemer of those below" and "Vanquisher of the nethermost powers." Fr. Roman was singing a song to his Paschal Liberator. I will always think of him with a captivating twinkle in his eye, revealing an inner joy forged in the crucible of prison. He was, with St. Paul, a "prisoner of the Lord" and true servant.

Father Roman, I trust, beholds the face of his Beloved Savior in the mansions of the righteous. Christ is risen! Memory eternal!"

~James M. Kushiner

Executive Director, The Fellowship of St. James

found on Gretchen Joanna's blog and my husband's email forward

from Touchstone

Fr. Roman Braga ~ A Mother remembers

I love Michelle's brief

account of meeting Fr. Roman;

I can just hear how Fr. Roman's voice would be...

so kind, so loving... 

Fr. Roman Braga ~ remembering another's words

When I lived in Ottawa,

I talked to a man who with his family years ago,

was visiting Holy Dormition Monastery.

The man was at the liturgy and when the Beatitudes were being sung,

and he heard the lines:

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

    For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The man happened to look over at Fr. Roman and 

Fr. Roman's face was shining with joy... 

Fr. Roman Braga ~ finding oneself in prayer when there is nothing else

""They gave books and pencils and everything to the common prisoners, to the thieves, but not to the intellectuals, to political prisoners. For all my eleven years in prison, I didn't see a pencil! I didn't see a piece of paper! They wanted us to become beasts, to become animals. They were very naïve. This was, in fact, a failure for them, because we became ourselves without books.

Outside prison you don't have time to be yourself, because we are reading so many books. We are so busy that we don't have time to say, "Who am I?" or to sit down and to ask, "Why has God created me?" We are always gathering knowledge and notions and depositing them in our heads like a bank. But we don't take time to find ourselves.

In solitary confinement you have to go somewhere! There is no horizon outside of yourself, so you have to go inside. And then you discover who you are! And that was the revolution that happened with us in prison. Many times they have laughed at me when I said, "God bless the Communists!"—because they put the intellectuals in prison. And those who were truly intellectuals—who believed in God—discovered for themselves that true freedom is inside, it's not outside. In solitary confinement I discovered communion with God, with Christ, in the interior, in prayer and conversation with God; true freedom. The Communists could not control that!"

from: 

Solitary Refinement

How One Man Found Freedom Inside a Communist Prison: 

An interview with Fr. Roman Braga

by James M. Kushiner

Fr. Roman Braga ~ on what our Lenten focus should be

I found Fr. Roman to be a dynamic speaker, who held my attention to the very end, I wished he could have spoken more. In short, he was inspiring. His message to us was that as Orthodox Christians during Lent we put so much emphasis on what should be eaten instead of our spiritual needs. Fr. Roman told us a story about a parishioner who asked The late Archbishop John of Chicago "What shouldn't I eat?' Bishop John replied, "Don't eat each other".

~from this account of a pilgrimage to Holy Dormition

(emphasis mine).