| He leans over and shakes it lightly. The top grade apples fall. It all jumps into the burdock and nettles. There is an oozy, stagnant smell coming from the burdock, and a penetratingly pungent smell from the nettles, mingling with the sweet fragrance, extraordinarily subtle, like spilled perfume somewhere—from the apples. Everyone is crawling, even the sturdy Vasil-Vasilich, whose vest has split along his back, and whose pink shirt shows through, boat-shaped; even fat Trifonich is crawling, all covered with flour. They each take one into their hands and sniff… " Ahh… grushovka! " You wrinkle your nose and breathe in—what joy! Such freshness, spilling out so very subtle, so fragrant and sweet-strong—with all the smells of a sun-warmed orchard, crushed grass, and disturbed, warm black current bushes. A sun no longer hot, and a tender blue sky, shining through the branches and on the apples… Even now, far from your native country, when you meet an ordinary apple that smells like a grushovka, you squeeze it in the palm of your hand and wrinkle your nose; and in the sweetish, juicy fragrance you remember vividly the little orchard that once seemed enormous, better than all other orchards in the world, now lost without a trace… with the birch and the rowan trees, the apple trees, the raspberry bushes and the black, white, and red current bushes, the purple gooseberries, with lush burdock and nettles; the distant orchard…. To the bent nails in the fence, to the crack in the cherry tree seeping like glimmering mica, with droplets of amber and raspberry-colored gum—everything, to the last apple on the top, behind a golden leaf, beaming like golden glass!... And you see the yard with the great puddle, now less watery, with dried ruts, with sunken bricks, with boards that had clung there before the rain, with the ragged boot, claimed forever by the mud … and the gray barn with the silvery glimmer of time, with the smell of pitch and tar, and the mountain of bulging sacks piled up to the storehouse ceiling, with oats, and salt packed into rock, leaning fast to the hooks, with ears of golden oats… and tall stacks of board weeping resin in the sun, and crinkling piles of shingles, and wood billets and chips… |
| There were three kinds of bobalki (bo-BIDE-kee); one-inch round balls of sweetish yeast bread (yes, those Eastern Europeans are big on carbs) that are browned in the oven and then simmered for just a moment in honey water, then tossed with either browned sauerkraut, or mixtures based on ground walnuts and poppyseed. Everyone had their favorites (mine has always been the sauerkraut), but we really should have passed around the dental floss after the poppyseed course. These were the main dishes of the meal, accompanied by such kid-friendly favorites as lima beans, beets and creamed peas, made with an oil roux. Most of us under the age of 21 made faces when these came around the table, but we all had to have at least one bite of everything, and I remember wondering which one of the Apostles got to be the creamed peas. After dinner, we opened gifts one at a time, youngest to oldest (because the adults had to learn patience), and sang Christmas carols until it was time to go to church. We would bundle up in our sweaters and coats, scarves and mittens to dash through the snow to our car, and everything would be white and twinkly and magical. Soon we would be in church, lighting candles and singing about how God became one of us, as a baby in a barn. I’m sure I thought much of what we did on Christmas Eve was corny or weird, but in the midst of my teenage angst and uncertainty about life in general, I realized that four generations were focused on that one night, however many years ago, that this miraculous baby was born. Grandma is no longer around, but the traditions are still carried on by her daughters, my mother, my brother and sister, and me. And I pray that my children, a daughter who will be going off to college next fall, and a son who will be a junior in high school, will have these kinds of memories and feelings about Christmas, the birth of Christ, and the meaning that it gives to our lives and to the world. Christ is Him! Discuss this article © Copyright 2007 by pravmir.com |
| Vladyka was sent to free exile, but in a penal train car. The train came at night into the Cheklar station. The guards pushed Vladyka onto the platform in his undergarments and torn quilted jacket. He had in his hands only a certificate, which he was supposed to take twice a month to the local NKVD for their records. Vladyka sat the rest of the night in the station. Morning came, and he had to go somewhere. But how could he go out in winter dressed as he was? And there was nowhere to go, anyway. Vladyka had to turn to some elderly ladies for help, and their kind female hearts responded. The ladies gave him a warm quilted suit, a cap, and a pair of patched felt boots. One gave him shelter in her barn, where her cows and pigs lived. Vladyka was in his sixty-fifth year at the time. His hair was gray, and his appearance evoked compassion. Vladyka tried to find work, but no one would hire him, for he looked older than he was. He had to take alms in order not to die from hunger. Later, when his spiritual children asked him, “Why didn’t you tell the old ladies who gave you clothing that you are a bishop?” Vladyka replied, “If the Lord sends a cross, He also gives strength to carry it, and He also makes it lighter. One must not assert one’s own will in such cases, but rather give himself over entirely to the will of God. It is not worthy of a Christian to go against the will of God; and after a person patiently endures the trials sent to him, the Lord sends spiritual joy.” This is how Vladyka ended his explanation. Thus, until late autumn of 1942 did Vladyka drag out his pauper’s existence. His physical strength was fast waning. He became wasted from malnutrition and cold, his body was covered with sores, and he had lice from the dirty conditions. His strength was leaving him rapidly… Then came the moment when Vladyka’s last strength failed him, and he lost consciousness. He awoke in a hospital, in a clean room, in a clean bed. It was bright and warm, and people were leaning over him. He closed his eyes, deciding that this was only his imagination. One of those leaning over him felt his pulse and said, “Well, almost normal! Our grandpa has come to!” Vladyka recovered slowly. When he finally rose from his bed, he immediately tried to be of help to those around him. He would bring water to some one, a dish to another, straighten another’s bed, give a kind word to yet another. People in the hospital came to love this kind old man. All began to call him affectionately, “Grandpa.” But only one young doctor knew this “grandpa’s” tragedy; he knew that when they release him from the hospital, he would again return to begging alms and living with the cows and pigs. |
| “Orthodoxy is the truth. It is the one true path to salvation,” Father Berry confesses. “Once you understand what it is all about, there is no hiding from the truth.” Once Orthodox, he confesses the greatest challenge for staying Orthodox is hopelessness. “The hardest thing to do in Orthodoxy is to learn how to have hope.” Father Moses Berry now serves hope from a golden chalise every Sunday at 10 a.m. in a small, white and red barn church with a golden onion dome in the middle of a cornfield in rural Missouri. “There is no other hope than in our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ,” he smiles. “I am a living example of the immanent love of God for His children, even those who have gone far astray, of despair turning into hope. We must never lose hope.” Learn more about the African tradition in Orthodox Christianity (for example the life of the Holy Saint Moses the Black, Father Berry’s namesake) and Father Berry’s books at www.mosestheblack.org Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Father Moses Berry: From Hippie Bad-Boy Cool-Cat to Humble… Irene Archos “A simple act of kindness can reach into eternity; it can save your soul besides another’s.” Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life " s purpose, family and society. |
| The love of Father Herman for the Aleuts would often reach the point of self-sacrifice. An infection of deadly sickness and sores was brought by ship from the United States to the island of Sitka and, from there, to the island of Kodiak. This sickness would begin with a fever and a very runny nose coupled with shortness of breath, and would end in spasms, with the victim dying within three day’s time. Since there were no doctors or medicines on the island, the sickness spread through villages, quickly embracing the entire region. It affected all, even suckling babes. The death toll was so great that for three days there was no one to dig graves and the unburied bodies were laying everywhere! An eyewitness said, “I cannot imagine anything more sorrowful or more horrible than the sight I was struck with when I visited an Aleut dwelling place, Kazhim! This was a huge barn or a barrack with bunk beds, which could lodge as many as a hundred people, where whole Aleut families were living. Some of the dead, who had already become cold, were stretched out next to the living; others were dying with moans and groans that would tear your soul apart! Your heart would bleed with pity at the sight I saw of dead mothers, upon whose already cold breasts crawled hungry little infants who, futilely, and with cries of anguish, were seeking food that was no longer there to be found! You would think that if you could paint all the horror of this sorrowful picture with a worthy brush, even the most hardened of souls would fear death. Father Herman, tirelessly visited the sick the entire time the sickness lasted, a whole month with a gradual decline; begging them to be patient, to pray, to bring forth repentance, or to prepare themselves for death.” The Elder especially cared about the moral enlightenment of the Aleuts. With this aim in mind, he made a school for orphaned Aleut children. He himself taught them the Law of God and church singing. He would gather the Aleuts for prayer in the chapel near his cell on feast days and Sundays. |
| Let us then not permit ourselves by making this brief time a time of carelessness and remissness, to fall into everlasting punishment, but let us watch and be sober, let us do all things, and make it all our business to attain to that felicity, and to keep far from that river of fire, which rushes with a loud roaring before the terrible judgment seat. For he who has once been cast in there, must remain for ever; there is no one to deliver him from his punishment, not father, not mother, not brother. And this the prophets themselves declared aloud; one saying, Brother delivers not brother. Shall man deliver? Psalm 49:7 , Septuagint And Ezekiel has declared somewhat more than this, saying, Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters. Ezekiel 14:16 For one defense only, that through works, is there, and he who is deprived of that cannot be saved by any other means. Revolving these things, then, and reflecting upon them continually, let us cleanse our life and make it lustrous, that we may see the Lord with boldness, and obtain the promised good things; through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom, to the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Homily 13 on the Gospel of John John 1:15 John bears witness of Him, and cries, saying, This is He of whom I spoke, saying, He that comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. 1. Do we then run and labor in vain? Are we sowing upon the rocks? Does the seed fall upon the rocks? Does the seed fall without our knowing it by the wayside, and among thorns? I am greatly troubled and fear, lest our husbandry be unprofitable; not as though I shall be a loser as well as you, touching the reward of this labor. For it is not with those who teach as it is with husbandmen. Oftentimes the husbandman after his year " s toil, his hard work and sweat, if the earth produce no suitable return for his pains, will be able to find comfort for his labors from none else, but returns ashamed and downcast from his barn to his dwelling, his wife and children, unable to require of any man a reward for his lengthened toil. |
| Note: See the Gospels of Matthew: 13:33; Luke 13:20–21. The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. Jesus Christ taught that in His Kingdom on earth, in the Church of Christ, until the last day of the world there would be sinners. The Lord said, «The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. «So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ »He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ «The servants said to him, ‘Then, do you want us to go and gather them?’ »But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time, I will tell the reapers to gather the weeds first and to bind them in bundles to be burned but gather the wheat into my barn.’ » The disciples, when they were left alone with the Lord, asked Him to explain this parable. Jesus Christ said: «The Sower of the good seed is the Son of man, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The field is the world. The good seed means the sons of the Kingdom, good, devout people who accept the teachings of Christ. The weeds are the sons of the Evil One, wicked, evil people. The enemy who sowed the weeds is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are angels. »Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers and throw them into the furnace of fire; there, men will weep and gnash their teeth. " Then, the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father,» in the kingdom of eternal blessed life. How often, at the sight of the disgraceful behaviour of immoral evil people, we ask, «Lord, why do You not punish these evil people now? Why do You allow them to use all the good things of the world? Why do they burden and oppress the good?» |
| Mr. Allen: Thank you. I appreciate that very balanced comment. Jim Jatras, as we’re coming to a close, where do you see events leading in Ukraine? What are the chances the protests will die down soon, because people are still in Independence Square, and there still seems to be a movement? Mr. Jatras: It’s a very, very good question, and that fact that you point to is indicative of how intractable the problem is. When the opposition seemingly has now formed a new government or is trying to do that and is supposedly in control, against whom are the protesters protesting? If the more violent elements demand—and I think [they] are being courted—a veto power on further political elements, if they decide they’re not happy and they use the same tactics against Tymoshenko and Klitschko and Yatsenyuk that they used to against Yanukovych, will they be any stronger at being able to resist violent demands than Yanukovych was? I think it’s a very open question, but I can’t imagine they’d be in a stronger position. How will they reach out to the eastern, southern parts of the country? It’s indicative of a problem that one of the first things they purported to do in the new parliament is to repeal a fairly moderate [law to] accord a status to the Russian language, which is the prevalent language in eastern and southern Ukraine, and really even in the city of Kyiv, not even to grant it official status along with Ukrainian, but to allow it to be officially used for some purposes and return it to the status of a completely second-status language. In the constitution is even called the language of a national minority in Ukraine, which is simply absurd. That doesn’t bode well for how these people intend to reach out to other parts of the country. Will they be able to hold elections? Will violence break out in other parts of the country? Let’s hope not. I think, ultimately, a lot of this may be decided by the economy. I’d mentioned early the difficulty knowing, not only for the Russians but for the Europeans and the Americas: whom do you even send the aid to in Ukraine? I don’t think there will be much aid coming to Ukraine from the West. At some point they’re going to turn back toward Russia. Now, Russia is… Right now it seems to be taking what they call the Colin Powell Pottery Barn rule: “You broke it, you pay for it.” “We offered money. Instead you swept those guys away. You’ve got some real problems, but they’re not our problems.” |
| Обратим внимание на некоторые из этих слов, потому что история их имеет много общего с нашими. 1 . barn и mögr означают детей: mögr в гот. magus, коим Ул. переводит πας, в О.Е. отрок, напр. Лук. 2, 43 : πμειεν Ιησος πας ν Ιερουσαλμ, оста отрок в иерслме, gastop iesus sa magus in iairusalem. Ул. употребляет magus и в смысле раба, напр. Лук. 15, 26 : να νν παδων, у Ул. sumana magive: в О.Е. строго еще отличается отрок от раба, и это место переведено так: единого от раб: так что отсюда можно заключить, что переводчики знали слово отрок только в благородном его значении сына, а не служителя. Как liberi имеет смысл вольных, так и княжий или боярский отрок получил смысл вольного служителя, уже в Русск. Правде: «о княжих отроцех» – слич. в Салич. Зак. puer regis vel letus, 13, 7; а с другой стороны отрок, как лицо в полной зависимости находящееся, перешел в значение раба, холопа, напр. в чешск.: otroky neb chlapy kupowati a prodawati, смотр, Слов. Юнгм.: даже Остромирову наимник μισϑωτς в чешских Евангелиях соответствует отрок, Io, 10, 12, Evang. ms Vien. – И наоборот Остромирово отроча в Tat. Harm. Ev. заменяется словом kneht: ther kneht vvuohs inti uuard gistrengiost geiste, отроча же растяше и крепляшеся дхм, Лук. 1, 80 . Как от piuda происходит piundans, так и гот. kindins, коим Ул. переводит γεμων, в О.Е. игемон, Мат. 27, 2. – происходит от kind: по свидетельству Амм. Марц. у Бургундов царь назывался hendinus. Таким образом из недр семьи с одной стороны исходит понятие властителя, а с другой понятие раба: как лат. famulus от familia, так точно и челядин, уже в договоре Олега, в смысле раба: «аще украден будет челядин рускый, или въскочить, или понужи продан будетъ», Лавр. 15, также в Рус. Правде: «аже кто познаеть селядин свой украденъ» – через форму челядь происходит от скр. кула род, племя, семья. Как -ин т.е. один, служит суффиксом слову челяд-ин, так древнейшее ек, скр. êкас – один, от того же скр. кула, образует: чел-ов ек; êкас является в лат. aequus, точно также как скр. |
| 8. These men, however, deceive the people by the very Scriptures, that they may receive honors and praises at their hand, and that men may not turn to the truth. But in that they deceive, by the very Scriptures, the people of whom they seek honors, they do in fact sell oxen: they sell sheep too; that is, the common people themselves. And to whom do they sell them, but to the devil? For if the Church be Christ’s sole and only one, who is it that carries off whatever is cut away from it, but that lion that roars and goes about, seeking whom he may devour? 1 Peter 5:8 Woe to them that are cut off from the Church! As for her, she will remain entire. For the Lord knows them that are His. 2 Timothy 2:19 These, however, so far as they can, sell oxen and sheep, they sell doves too: let them guard against the scourge of their own sins. But when they suffer some such things for these their iniquities, let them acknowledge that the Lord has made a scourge of small cords, and is admonishing them to change themselves and be no longer traffickers: for if they will not change, they shall at the end hear it said, Bind ye these men’s hands and feet, and cast them forth into outer darkness. 9. Then the disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Your house has eaten me up: because by this zeal of God’s house, the Lord cast these men out of the temple. Brethren, let every Christian among the members of Christ be eaten up with zeal of God’s house. Who is eaten up with zeal of God’s house? He who exerts himself to have all that he may happen to see wrong there corrected, desires it to be mended, does not rest idle: who if he cannot mend it, endures it, laments it. The grain is not shaken out on the threshing-floor that it may enter the barn when the chaff shall have been separated. If you are a grain, be not shaken out from the floor before the putting into the granary; lest you be picked up by the birds before you be gathered into the granary. For the birds of heaven, the powers of the air, are waiting to snatch up something off the threshing-floor, and they can snatch up only what has been shaken out of it. |
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