Who we are
We cannot speak about ourselves without first speaking about our readers, nor without mentioning the Good Lord. For this magazine was born out of a need—a communion of hearts and minds. It was created to share a way of thinking and feeling that is as close as possible to what may be called man’s true nature, the very nature that Father Rafail Noica described as Orthodoxy.
For more than fifteen years, together with our readers, we have sought to remain within the bounds of this natural way of life —learning how to raise our children, how to care for the health God has entrusted to us, and how to discern the real challenges facing both the world around us and our own inner lives.
Indeed, “Familia Ortodoxa” is also a journey into the heart of the modern person—a journey through our falls and our spiritual resurrection, our sorrows and our joys. It can be said that it follows the opposite path from that taken by much of today’s media: not from the outside in, but from within outward; not toward distraction and fragmentation, but toward recollection of the mind and its focus in prayer.
Above all, however, “Familia Ortodoxa” is a love story, in keeping with the very principle by which everything that truly exists in our world comes into being. What Romanians need today is not simply another publication—they need love. And love can exist only in communion with others, within a family, whether it is the small family into which each of us is born, or the “greater family” of the Church. Over time, almost without our noticing, the magazine itself has become more and more of a family. Not a virtual community confined to the Internet, but one patiently formed in the timeless rhythm of handwritten letters. Letters in which pain and love are given the precious time they so desperately need today to mature and reach their fullness.
Little by little, through our shared sacrifice for our readers, “Familia Ortodoxa” has become an ever more tangible reality. Together we have learned what love truly is, what it means to be fervent rather than lukewarm. We have met the unsung heroes among us, rejoiced in hearing how many found their way to faith, stood breathless at the threshold of life’s final day, and experienced it all together. We have gazed upon the innocent faces of our children—sometimes joyful, sometimes filled with wonder. We have kissed the hands of the mothers who raised them. We have fallen into quiet contemplation, our eyes resting in the gentle light streaming through the windows of churches. Perhaps, in these introductory words, we ought to have said more about ourselves—the people who write for “Familia Ortodoxa”—about the purpose we see in this work, and about the things one would normally expect to find on an “Who we are” page. Yet after years of searching and reflection, we have come to understand that, in the end, what matters most is how much we have loved and how much we have helped love grow in the world around us. And if the pages of this magazine sometimes contain sorrowful subjects, it is because love is always accompanied by suffering, compassion for others, and, at the same time, by Truth. These are the principles that guide us in the making of this magazine, and we believe they are shared by all those who, over the years, have joined us at the abundant table of the “Familia Ortodoxa”.