A Disturbing Point

I was reading this article and was particularly struck by this passage, "Is it not indeed a tragic paradox: we build ever greater and richer and more beautiful churches and we pray less and less in them?"

Indeed! All too often during my travels I drive by a gorgeous gigantic temple and look it up online to find out more about it. More often than not, under "services," it says "Divine Liturgy is held on Sundays at 10:30, Confessions by appointment."

Now if you read under the "ministries" section or click the link to "Greek Fest 2011!" there is a great deal of information involving numerous parish members who are part of a large number of clubs, councils, etc. There is nothing wrong with having a festival or gathering food for the poor or organizing retreats, etc. but shouldn't these things be secondary to the worship of God? How can these people justify spending several hours each week in meetings and then declaring without remorse or shame that they "simply don't have time to go to Vespers on Saturday night." I am not criticizing people who truly cannot make it to services, I have been in that position my self. But how can people who clearly have such zeal for serving the Church of Christ justify only spending an hour and a half in Church a week? How can the priests (who at these large parishes generally do not have other jobs) not offer Vespers (or a vigil) or even a regular time for Confession?

On the other hand, when I visit a small mission Church, like the Western Rite mission that I was Chrismated into, the picture is entirely different. Every week Vespers are held on Saturday nights followed by time for Confession, and almost every week one or two feast days are celebrated in some manner as well. Attendance tends to be high, despite the fact that everyone, including the priest, has one (or two) other full time jobs to deal with. They are willing to devote not just their money but their time and skill to pray to God and beautify whatever dingy rented space the temple is located in.

How does this make sense? And it seems to be true in every jurisdiction. Just because a temple cost three million dollars and was painted by a world famous iconographer doesn't mean that it glorifies God. A temple is made sacred by the constant prayers of the faithful ascending like incense before the Lord. This relates to my earlier post about crazy converts. Who is crazier, the convert who spends as much time as possible in prayer in the temple, or the cradle Orthodox wealthy Church council member who spends as much time as possible in meetings held in the brand new million dollar Church offices? Where did the saints spend most of their time?