VIDEO! A Conversation with Father Arsenie Papacioc (I)

Today, on the 15th anniversary of the commemoration of our beloved Father Arsenie Papacioc († July 19, 2011), we thought we'd offer you the first interview taken by Sorin Dumitrescu... to remind us of the surprise we had when we first heard: “Typical, typical, and nothing in the heart!”

A surprise not because it's a beautiful, profound, bold, and playful saying (we knew back then that we had to be serious, frowning, repentant, and rigid), but especially because it changed the direction of a certain type of spiritual guidance present in those times. It shifted the emphasis to that famous 'continuous presence,' which in the meantime every devout Romanian has heard about (it doesn't mean that if they've heard about it, they've also attained it). It rediscovered God for us as closer, more accessible, more... evangelical, after all.

Listening to him again now, we are amazed by the timeliness of Father's words, as if they were spoken for these very times. How shocking it sounds again:

“Good God loves us more than we thought. And He accepts you, He wants you just as you are. Just be sincere!

Sins don't even matter, I tell you as a spiritual father. With a simple absolution, a simple repentance, with a single cry...

So the great struggle is to have our heart present with God! A continuous presence!”

Father Arsenie, pray for us!

A.S.