| N. S. Ancona, 1996. Vol. 31. N 93. P. 709-737; Follieri E. Per una nuova edizione della Vita di S. Nilo da Rossano//BollGrott. N. S. 1997. T. 51. P. 71-92; eadem. L " ingresso nella vita monastica di Nilo da Rossano//Πολπλευρος νος: Miscellanea für P. Schreiner zu seinem 60. Geburtstag/Hrsg. C. Scholz, G. Makris. Münch., 2000. S. 10-16; eadem. L " autore della Vita di S. Nilo da Rossano//RSBN. N. S. 2017. T. 53. P. 123-135; Caruso S. Un tabù etico e filologico: La mutilazione verecundiae gratia del Cryptensis B. β. II (B i os di Nilo da Rossano)//Pan: Studi dell " Istituto di filologia latina «Giusto Monaco». Palermo, 1998. Vol. 15/16. P. 169-193; D é roche V. L " obsession de la continuité: Nil de Rossano face au monachisme ancien//L " autorité du passé dans les sociétés médiévales/Ed. J.-M. Sansterre. R., 2004. P. 163-175; Luzzi A. La Vita di S. Nilo da Rossano tra genere letterario e biografia storica//Les «Vies des saints» à Byzance: Genre littéraire ou biographie historique?/Ed. P. Odorico, P. A. Agapitos. P., 2004. P. 175-189; idem. Nilo il Giovane, santo//DBI. 2013. Vol. 78. P. 575-578; Parenti S. Il monastero di Grottaferrata nel Medioevo (1004-1462): Segni e percorsi di una identità. R., 2005. (OCA; 274); San Nilo di Rossano e l " Abbazia greca di Grottaferrata: Storia e immagini/A cura di F. Burgarella. R., 2009; Efthymiades S. Les saints d " Italie Méridionale (IXe-XIIe s.) et leur rôle dans la société locale//Byzantine Religious Culture: Studies in Honor of A. M. Talbot/Ed. D. Sullivan e.a. Leiden; Boston, 2012. P. 347-372; Burgarella F. Shabbettai Donnolo nel Bios di S. Nilo da Rossano//Gli Ebrei nella Calabria medievale: Atti d. Giornata di studio in memoria di C. Colafemmina/A cura di G. De Sensi Sestito. Soveria Mannelli, 2013. P. 49-62; Crimi P. Parola e scrittura nel «Bios» di S. Nilo da Rossano//Bizantinistica: Riv. di studi Bizantini e slavi. Ser. 2. Spoleto, 2013. Vol. 15. P. 157-173; PMBZ, N 25503; Greek Monasticism in Southern Italy: The Life of Neilos in Context/Ed. |
| And then there’s sex. Since her debut in 1959, the glamorous, buxom Barbie has been the queen of dolls, and has become something of an obsession among many young girls. With regular baby dolls, girls naturally practice parenting-after all, toys are effective learning mechanisms–but with Barbie, the focus is on physical attractiveness, boyfriends, and dating, which, in today’s sexually-charged atmosphere, is particularly unhealthy. A board game designed for mid-teens spells it out: “Hey, let’s be honest. At this stage of our lives, what’s more important than finding the perfect member of the opposite sex? Not much. Basically, you play girls against guys. That’s cool for starters. You get to make the other team do all this bizarre stuff. If they don’t do it, you stamp them and they become your personal party-slaves. Naturally, they have to do whatever you say. Cool. . . Don’t be stupid. Try it!” The toy industry, which is spewing out such abominations, is enjoying a profitable partnership with the film industry. Cartoons have become essentially 30 minute advertisements, and children have responded by becoming aggressive consumers of whatever film-character toys are in fashion – in addition to the bed-sheets, lunch-boxes, T-shirts, posters and other articles bearing the image of their favorite TV-toy, whether it is the macho G.I. Joe or the New Age Pocahontas. This gross abuse of children’s souls is a lucrative business. The task of raising Christian children has never been an easy one. “A young child,” writes St. Dimitri of Rostov (l709), “is like a board prepared for icon painting. Whatever the iconographer paints on it, honorable or dishonorable, holy or sinful, an angel or a demon, it remains forever. The same applies to a young child: that upbringing which he is given, those manners he is taught–whether God-pleasing or God-despised, angelic or demonic–shall be part of him for the rest of his life.” Because children are so impressionable, parents must be especially vigilant regarding the influences surrounding their children, ensuring as much as possible that these make a positive contribution to their development, towards making them worthy citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Ask God not to Increase your Faith, but your Watchfulness Source: Eric Hyde " s Blog Eric Hyde 04 May 2018 So many Christians want to increase their faith. And why wouldn’t they? It seems only natural. But have they never read when Christ nearly rebuked his disciples for asking him to increase their faith? It’s the passage where he tells them that faith the size of a mustard seed is enough (small faith is enough), and what they really needed was increased obedience and humility (Luke 17:5-10). Many Christians seem positively obsessed with increasing their faith, imagining that all of their lack, defeat, insecurity, illness, suffering, etc., are due to their lack of faith, hence more faith would give them power over these things. I believe they are only partially right. It is true that they lack faith (perhaps even mustard seed small faith), but they’re wrong in why they lack it. They lack faith because they treat faith as a concept and not as a mode of being. They lack faith for precisely the reasons Christ gave in the Scripture above: for lack of obedience and humility – the very acts of faith. But the only corrective for these is not more emphasis on faith but by more emphasis on watchfulness. Watchfulness is taught throughout Scripture and throughout historic Christianity by the saints and ascetics. In the Philokalia (a 4 volume text containing the writings of Orthodox Christian monks and ascetics from the 4 th to 15 th centuries) watchfulness is understood as literally the opposite of drunkenness; it is sobriety, alertness, and prayerful vigilance; it is the act of keeping watch over one’s inward thoughts and vain conceits; the constant guarding the soul. Watchfulness makes possible the act of praying without ceasing and encapsulates the whole range of the virtues including purity of heart and stillness. |
| This utilization of the verb leaves traces until the middle ages. For example, in the 11 th century Nicetas Stethatos writes: “kata thn tjn kanonjn oikonomoymen akribeian.” The correct determination of the meaning of the substantive “oikonomia” in the canonical texts of the fourth century must be sought while considering the different ways the verb is employed. If we neglect this connection we risk making serious errors. Obsessed by the subsequently acquired technical sense “derogation of the norm,” the texts of the fourth century have often been read with the anachronic semantic presuppositions. “Oikonomia” can have a literal and a banal meaning of “economic-financial management.” In relation to penance, the term brings itself back to its modality of application without being tied in the least to mitigation of the punishment incurred. Saint Gregory of Nyssa writes: “ One of the elements that contribute to the good celebration of the great solemnity (Pascha), is knowing the legitimite and canonical manner of behaving (thn ennomon te kai kanonikhn oikonomian) towards those who have committed transgressions.” We notice in Saint Gregory of Nyssa that the softening of the penitential rules is explained by the traditional terms of “filanvropia,” “simperifora,” and “sygkatabasic.” The more standard sense is “administration of ecclesiastical affairs,” “ecclesiastical discipline,” concrete decisions concerning the affairs of the Church. The most well known text and the one that does not lead to uncertainty is canon 2 of the above mentioned council of Constantinople in 381, where it says, “if they are not invited, let bishops not go out of a diocese for a chirotonie or for some other ecclesiastical act (h tisin allaic oikonomiaic ekklhsiastikaic). We come to a controversial question: Saint Basil died two years before the reunion of the council of 381, did he use the term economy in the sense of a derogation of a strict rule? We notice that this is an opinion almost universally admitted, yet it seems doubtful to us. |
| Nefarius, non dignus farre, quo primo cibi genere vita hominum sustentabatur. [Alias nefarius nec dicendus.] [Nutritor, quasi nutu eruditor.] Nefandus, id est nec nominandus quidem. Nuntius est [et] qui nuntiat et quod nuntiatur, id est γγελος κα γγελα. Sed nuntius ipse homo genere masculino: id vero, quod nuntiat, genere neutro, ut hoc nuntium et haec nuntia. Nazaraeus, id est sanctus Dei. Nazaraeus olim dicebatur qui sanctam comam nutriebat et nihil contaminatum conspiciebat, abstinens se a vino omnique sicera, quae mentem ab integra sanitate pervertit. Nugas autem Hebraeum nomen est. Ita enim in Prophetis est expositum, ubi dicit Sophonias (3,4): «Nugas, qui a lege recesserunt,» ut nosse possimus linguam Hebraicam omnium linguarum esse matrem. Nugigerulus appellatus ab eo quod sit turpis nuntius. Neglegens, [quasi] nec legens. Nepos dictus a genere quodam scorpionum qui natos suos consumit, excepto eum, qui dorso eius insiderit; nam rursus ipse qui servatus fuerit consumit patrem: unde homines qui bona parentum per luxuriam consumunt nepotes dicuntur. Hinc quoque nepotatio pro luxuria ponitur, qua certe quaeque res consumuntur. Niger, quasi nubiger: quia non serenus, sed fusco opertus. Unde et nubilum diem tetrum dicimus. O Orthodoxus, rectae gloriae. Orator ab ore vocatus, a perorando nominatus, id est dicendo; nam orare dicere est. Obaudiens, ab aure, eo quod audiat inperantem. Ospes, quod inferat ostio pedem. Ospes, facilis, aptus et ostio patens: unde et ospitalis homo dicitur. Osor, inimicus, ab odio dictus, sicut amator ab amore; et est generis communis. Odibilis, odio aptus. Obsitus, obsessus, id est undique insidiis convallatus. Obscenus, inpurae libidinis, a vitio Obscorum dictus. Obtunsus, hebetior et obclusior, quasi ex omni parte tunsus. Obnixus, contranisus et conabundus. Obnexus, quia obligatus est nexibus culpae. Oblectator, quasi cum lacte, cum fraude, ut Terentius (Andr. 648): Nisi me lactasses amantem. Unde et oblectare dictum est. Obtrectator, malignus et qui obstringillando officiendoque non sinat quempiam progredi et augescere. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Great Lent and Fasting in the Age of “the Screen” Source: OCA Fr. Steven Kostoff 09 March 2017 Photo: http://www.generationy.com “Enlighten me through prayers and fasting” [Forgiveness Vespers]. Within the context of Great Lent and our ascetical effort during this season, commonly called fasting, I would like to raise the issue of not only fasting from certain foods and drink—the most basic aspect of asceticism because of our sheer dependence on food and drink—but also of “fasting” from the amount of time we spend daily before a variety of screens: television, computer, tablets, movie, smart phones, etc.This raises the issue of “Orthodoxy and technology,” a fascinating issue and one that should generate a good deal of theological/spiritual reflection when we think for a moment of our overwhelming dependency in the contemporary world on technology. We may be able to live without technology, but we would hardly be able to function without it. However, my goal is much more modest, as I will explain momentarily.Without entering into a philosophical/theological discussion about technology, we can at least state that Orthodoxy is in no way anti-technological. Although some Orthodox bishops, priests, and monastics may awaken visions of the Amish, there is no real similarity in worldview when it comes to technology. You may just contact any one of those Orthodox persons through their computers and smart phones—but not the Amish! Or you would be impressed by the web sites and overall computer sophistication of both Orthodox seminaries and monasteries. This is to state the obvious.The Church has never moved to suppress technology or, for that matter, any progress in all of the sciences. This is a crucial aspect of our human capacity to think and create, setting us apart from the rest of the animal world. Yet, one more issue unavoidably related to this is that of the abuse of technology, when it is severed from any clear moral and ethical restraint. Our thinkers and theologians are struggling to keep up with the exponential and seemingly daily moral/ethical challenges that arise out of the obsessive desire to keep pushing forward the frontier of technological progress. |
| drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rm 14:17). The “sons of the kingdom”, often referred to by the synonymous expression “the righteous” (Mt 13:38,43), should be factors of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” in their immediate or broader environment. The new and ever revolutionary notion they have to offer is the transcendental value of the human person, which has been virtually overlooked by both capitalism and communism. A characteristic note in our era is the explosive protest of the young against every kind of “establishment”, their longing for fullness of life, for deep experiences, their striving after forms of spirituality that go beyond the traditional individualistic morality, their searching in the field of Asiatic religions and their attempts at a more direct escape – by the use of drugs. To my mind, the latter phenomenon seems like a return to a sort of primitive religion; among primitive peoples there are witch-doctors who administer herbs with narcotic properties to men afflicted by obsessive ideas and desires so as to induce a kind of “release”, an ecstatic state, a leap into another world. The Orthodox have to speak about the process of inner transformation and renewal through the acceptance of the Word and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit and introduce people into the “deifying” area of the mysteries of the Kingdom. They can transmit the “fullness of life” (“that they may have life, and have it abundantly” – Jn. 10:10), that the Christian faith can give by emphasizing the transcendental nature of man, the “divine image”, the existentialist communion with the Holy Trinity which is activated in and by the Holy Spirit and leads to a substantial transformation of life. 2) In the immense expanses of the so-called third world, the presence of Christians is very limited and that of Orthodoxy very slight, indeed no more than a token presence. However, there are minuscule Orthodox communities (in Eastern and Central Africa, in Japan |
| For a short period of time, when he needed to gather strength for the struggle against Hitler, Stalin cynically adopted a friendly posture toward the Church. This deceptive game, continued in later years by Brezhnev with the help of showcase publications and other window dressing, has unfortunately tended to be taken at its face value in the West. Yet the tenacity with which hatred of religion is rooted in Communism may be judged by the example of their most liberal leader, Krushchev: for though he undertook a number of significant steps to extend freedom, Krushchev simultaneously rekindled the frenzied Leninist obsession with destroying religion. But there is something they did not expect: that in a land where churches have been leveled, where a triumphant atheism has rampaged uncontrolled for two-thirds of a century, where the clergy is utterly humiliated and deprived of all independence, where what remains of the Church as an institution is tolerated only for the sake of propaganda directed at the West, where even today people are sent to the labor camps for their faith, and where, within the camps themselves, those who gather to pray at Easter are clapped in punishment cells–they could not suppose that beneath this Communist steamroller the Christian tradition would survive in Russia. It is true that millions of our countrymen have been corrupted and spiritually devastated by an officially imposed atheism, yet there remain many millions of believers: it is only external pressures that keep them from speaking out, but, as is always the case in times of persecution and suffering, the awareness of God in my country has attained great acuteness and profundity. It is here that we see the dawn of hope: for no matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets, no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet, it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity. The West has yet to experience a Communist invasion; religion here remains free. But the West’s own historical evolution has been such that today it too is experiencing a drying up of religious consciousness. It too has witnessed racking schisms, bloody religious wars, and rancor, to say nothing of the tide of secularism that, from the late Middle Ages onward, has progressively inundated the West. This gradual sapping of strength from within is a threat to faith that is perhaps even more dangerous than any attempt to assault religion violently from without. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation BBC Tells Schoolchildren There Are ‘over 100’ Genders Source: Breitbart The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) tells primary schoolchildren that there are over 100 genders as part of its “Teach” video series, which has some concerned parents and observers up in arms. Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. 14 September 2019 Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash “You know, there are so many gender identities,” declares the head teacher in response to child’s question. “We know that we have got male and female, but there are over 100, if not more, gender identities now.” The video for schoolchildren aged 9-12 is part of nine new BBC Teach films produced as support material for the personal, social, and health education (PSHE) curriculum in UK schools. Telegraph columnist Celia Walden has written a scathing review of the program, which she calls “noxious nonsense” that poisons children’s minds, a product of the modern “Emperor’s New Clothes gender diversity narrative.” BBC is indulging in the “propagation of misinformation,” Ms. Walden writes, thereby betraying its journalistic duty “to deal not in fads, but facts.” By “willfully warping their minds,” she continues, BBC is contributing to making the new generation of children “as self-obsessed as the supposed grown-ups.” Self-expression no longer means “appreciating individuality and producing something of wider cultural value,” Walden laments, but “folding in on yourself and behaving in an unashamedly selfish way.” “All of which is likely to leave us with a generation of lost, confused and angry young adults asking a question we will find it very difficult to answer: ‘How did you let this happen?’” she writes. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog BBC Tells Schoolchildren There Are ‘over 100’ Genders Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) tells primary schoolchildren that there are over 100 genders as part of its “Teach” video series, which has some concerned parents and observers up in arms |
| The Middle East’s Friendless Christians SOURCE: The New York Times By Ross Douthat Farida Pols Matte, 80, in Ankawa, Iraq, with her family and other Iraqi Christian refugees. They are among the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Photo: Lynsey Addario/The New York Times When the long, grim history of Christianity’s disappearance from the Middle East is written, Ted Cruz’s performance last week at a conference organized to highlight the persecution of his co-religionists will merit at most a footnote. But sometimes a footnote can help illuminate a tragedy’s unhappy whole. For decades, the Middle East’s increasingly beleaguered Christian communities have suffered from a fatal invisibility in the Western world. And their plight has been particularly invisible in the United States, which as a majority-Christian superpower might have been expected to provide particular support. There are three reasons for this invisibility. The political left in the West associates Christian faith with dead white male imperialism and does not come naturally to the recognition that Christianity is now the globe’s most persecuted religion. And in the Middle East the Israel-Palestine question, with its colonial overtones, has been the left’s great obsession, whereas the less ideologically convenient plight of Christians under Islamic rule is often left untouched. To America’s strategic class, meanwhile, the Middle East’s Christians simply don’t have the kind of influence required to matter. A minority like the Kurds, geographically concentrated and well-armed, can be a player in the great game, a potential United States ally. But except in Lebanon, the region’s Christians are too scattered and impotent to offer much quid for the superpower’s quo. So whether we’re pursuing stability by backing the anti-Christian Saudis or pursuing transformation by toppling Saddam Hussein (and unleashing the furies on Iraq’s religious minorities), our policy makers have rarely given Christian interests any kind of due. |
|
|
