| Что же касается " наметанного глаза " , определяющего, кто есть гей, а кто нет, то вспомните лучше из аввы Дорофея: " Однажды, когда я стоял, прошла мимо меня женщина с ведром воды; сам не знаю, как я увлекся и посмотрел ей в глаза, и тотчас помысел внушил мне, что она блудница; но лишь только пришел мне сей помысл, я стал очень скорбеть и сказал (о сем) старцу, авве Иоанну: " Владыко, что я должен делать, когда я невольно замечаю чьи-либо движения и походку, и помысел говорит мне о душевном устроении сего (человека)?” И старец отвечал мне так: " Что же? Разве не бывает, что иной имеет естественный недостаток, однако с великим усилием и трудами исправляет его? Потому и нельзя из этого заключать чьего-либо душевного устроения. И так никогда не верь своим догадкам, ибо кривое правило и прямое делает кривым. Мнения (человеческие) ложны и вредят тому, кто предается им.” Иван Иоанна_ 26 июля 2016, 19:37 Все эти праздники и каникулы для немцев - только лишние выходные, не более того. Из детей мало кто вообще сможет вам объяснить, что такое Рождество, Пасха, а тем более Троица и Успение. Немцы в абсолютном большинстве к христианству безразличны, увы; если только в Баварии что-то осталось. Правда, что касается преследования за христианские убеждения или символы - этого не наблюдала и об этом не слышала. Но " голубых " вы не видели в Германии?? Вы, наверное, в Альпийских горах где-то живёте! Я не имею в виду разрисованных, которые ходят на всякие парады, а просто " сладких парочек " , если глаз намётан, - и хотел бы не видеть, да никуда от них не денешься, ВЕЗДЕ они. А в России - да, церковная жизнь, и сравнивать тут нечего. Сравнивать можно дороги или чистоту воздуха, но если говорить о духовной жизни, здесь САМО ПОНЯТИЕ СРАВНЕНИЯ НЕУМЕСТНО. 24 июля 2016, 00:20 Еще вспомнилось: в Германии у школьников есть не только Рождественские, но и Пасхальные, и Троицкие каникулы. (А где же они в России?) В гостинице Германского археологического института (на что, казалось бы, светское учреждение) на кухне висит календарь с церковными праздниками. И Успение там есть (Marias Tod - " смерть Марии " ), и дни памяти самых разных святых (помнится, даже святой Феклы - Thecla). |
| His Beatitude stated that this position was shared by all the members of the Bishops’ Council, which recently took place in the Church of Antioch. ‘They spoke of the need to do everything that is possible to achieve and preserve our unity. And we wish that our voice be heard because it is improper to keep silent at our time. We should speak aloud about it. Therefore, we called and call the Patriarchate of Constantinople and other Local Churches to return to the path of dialogue and cooperation. It needs to be done the paramount principle of our work’. He stressed: ‘We should do everything to make the pain go out of our hearts so that we could rejoice in our unity, the unity of all the Local Churches and the whole Christian world. All the Christian should adhere to precisely this principle and make it the basis of our work both now and in the future’. I thank God for the successful development of our relations in many areas’, he said addressing Patriarch Kirill, ‘These relations have proved to be effective, and we continue doing everything possible bot make our contribution to the common cause’. Concerning the help given by Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church in restoring Syrian churches damaged by military and terrorist actions, Patriarch John said, ‘You have rightly noted that the restoration work in the St. Thecla Convent is close to the end, and the nuns are returning to it to continue their service of the Lord God in it. The situation in Maaloula has become almost normal. It is a very good factor, which gives pilgrims an opportunity to visit holy places’. He also expressed gratitude for the stated readiness to carry out a project for the restoration of the church compound in Arbin and a church in Al-Zabadani. ‘We are exerting every effort for our brothers in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and throughout the Middle East to feel at home in their homeland and to live a life in love and brotherhood in their native land’, Patriarch John said and continued, ‘Along with the plans to restore several churches, we also want to make our contribution to the restoration of what has been destroyed as a result of the war – schools. universities, the creation of new jobs and thus to continue doing everything for the further development of our homeland. We are full of optimism and believe that our live in the future will be such as we want it to see’. |
| The case of the transvested ascetic female saints is of great significance for understanding the challenges faced by women in Orthodoxy. The Life of St. Mary/Marinos is not the first instance where a woman puts on men’s clothing in order to escape societal expectations and pursue an ascetic life. St. Thecla is also reported in her Life to have put on men’s clothes in order to continue her pursuit of St. Paul at Myra. Nicholas Constas, in his study of the cult of the Virgin in late Antiquity, analyzes the symbolism and the complex issues underlying this form of cross-dressing: “Through the medium of clothing, individuals could achieve relative autonomy or advantage in interaction with others” (2003: 353). Clothes were thought of as absorbing the qualities of the people wearing them and in this respect the otherwise deviant act of wearing male clothes was accepted as an action through which women negated the seductive nature of their sex in pursuit of the Kingdom of God. St. Mary/Marinos – venerated both in East and West – dressed like a man and entered a monastery together with her father, aiming to lead an ascetic life (see Constas, in Talbot 1996: 1–12). A similar pattern of seeking anonymity and freedom to follow God despite all accusations and challenges is encountered in the Life of St. Matrona of Perge, a fervent defender of Chalcedonian Orthodoxy against the Monophysite policy of the Emperor Anastasius I (491–518), who spent her early years in disguise in the monastery of Bassianos in Constantinople (Acta Sanctorum Novembris 3). More than ten lives of transvested nuns survive from the period from the 5th to the 9th centuries and they testify to the need of women to supersede gender boundaries, even by deception if necessary. As Judith Herrin puts it, in an essay entitled “In Search of Byzantine Women”: “The monastic disguises adopted by women enabled them to simulate a holiness reserved by male ecclesiastical authorities to men only. To the church fathers, the very idea of a holy woman was a contradiction in terms, which women could only get round by pretending to be men” (Cameron and Kuhrt 1983: 179). |
| My sister, Thecla is back in Zaire on mission. She is an iconographer and an ecclesiastical seamstress and is trying to start a skete in Zaire, but it is not easy. Fr. Cosmas Aslanidis, Apostle to Zaire RTE : You mentioned Fr. Cosmas Aslanidis, who has been called “The Apostle to Zaire.” You were his spiritual son, weren’t you? Can you tell us about him? FR. THEOTIMOS : Yes. Fr. Cosmas was a Greek who first came to Zaire as a layman. His name was Ioannis Aslanidis, and we first knew him as Yannis. He built many churches in the villages and was very loved. He returned to Greece, was ordained a hieromonk and came back to Africa in 1977 as head of the local mission. I was only in high school when he returned, but he took me as his secretary. I lived with him at the mission center, with a few other young men. Each of us had a special job. He was a person of great energy and courage, and very quick with everything he did. If he told you, “Sweep the floor,” he expected that before he finished his sentence you would have grabbed the broom. If he told you, “We’re going to cut some wood,” before he stood up, the first piece should have already been cut. He was practical, he made no rash promises, but he never wasted time. When he sta RTE d a construction project, he intended it to be finished in two months. For me it was good, but for others around me it was exhausting. Those who didn’t understand said, “Oh, he’s rushing, he wants everything in a hurry,” but others entered into his spirit, and I was one of them. Fr. Cosmas’ plans for the mission always succeeded. He wasn’t stopped by the times, the hour, the seasons, war, obstacles, needs. Some people say, “Oh, my head aches,” or “the weather is bad” or “someone is speaking against me,” but these kinds of problems didn’t exist for Fr. Cosmas. He was as free as a prophet, nothing stopped him. If there were roadblocks because of political or civil conflicts, he didn’t care – he just made his way through. He would stop in front of the barriers, offer food to the guards and say, “I’m on your side, I’m on your side.” That was the kind of man he was and why everything he did succeeded. |
| Wael Salibi, 26, recalled how when the Christian area in Homs was taken over by rebels, 66,000 of the faithful " left their home, and just few of them stayed there. He was the only priest, he stayed in his church. " " Just months before he died, he said ‘I can’t leave my people, I can’t leave my church, I am director of this church, how can I leave them?’ " Salibi told CNA on April 11. Salibi, who hails from the now-ravished city of Homs, grew up as a close friend and pupil of Fr. Frans, who was brutally killed on April 7. Days before his 76th birthday, an unknown gunman entered his church, beat him and shot him in the head. In Hasakah (Hasce) many of the Christian Syrians fled, but almost 30,000 stayed as internal refugees. The Syrian Christians who belonged to the Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic Church, Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Catholic Church collectively asked the world for help and to put an end to the fighting, in an appeal that went unheard, in late-2012; they have suffered from persecution, lawlessness, kidnappings, ransoms, and murder. One Christian from the area told Fides News Agency that Al-Nusra was targeting " all young people who were born between 1990 and 1992. They look for them, accuse them of being soldiers for the national service and kill them cold-bloodedly. They want to terrorize young people to prevent them from enlisting. " Another example of the assault on the Christian community is Al-Nusra’s assault on the town of Maaloula. Maaloula is one of a few villages maintaining an old dialect of Aramaic, known as the language of Jesus of Nazareth. Many Christian structures and historic sites fill the Syrian town, but the Melkite Greek Catholic Saint Sergius (Mar Sarkis) Monastery and Antiochian Greek Orthodox Saint Thecla (Mar Taqla) Monastery standout. The town became the scene of fighting between Al-Nusra and the Syrian Arab Army and switched hands between the insurgents and Syrian government four times between late-2013 and mid-2014. |
| 32 . But not only is that temperance worthy of praise which moderates food, but also that which moderates lust. Since it is written: “Go not after thy lusts, and deny thy appetite. If thou givest her desires to thy soul, thou wilt be a joy to thine enemies;” 3765 and farther on; “Wine and women make even wise men to fall away.” 3766 So that Paul teaches temperance even in marriage itself; for he who is incontinent in marriage is a kind of adulterer, and violates the law of the Apostle. 33 . And why should I tell how great is the grace of virginity, which was found worthy to be chosen by Christ, that it might be even the bodily temple of God, in which as we read the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily. 3767 A Virgin conceived the Salvation of the world, a Virgin brought forth the life of all. Virginity then ought not to be left to itself, seeing that it benefited all in Christ. A Virgin bore Him Whom this world cannot contain or support. And when He was born from His mother’s womb, He yet preserved the fence of her chastity and the inviolate seal of her virginity. And so Christ found in the Virgin that which He willed to make His own, that which the Lord of all might take to Himself. Further, our flesh was cast out of Paradise by a man and woman and was joined to God through a Virgin. 34 . What shall I say concerning the other Mary, 3768 the sister of Moses, who as leader of the women passed on foot the straits of the sea? 3769 By the same gift Thecla also was reverenced by the lions, so that the unfed beasts stretched at the feet of their prey prolonged a holy fast, and harmed the virgin neither with wanton look nor claw, since virginity is injured even by a look. 35 . Again, with what reverence for virginity has the holy Apostle spoken: “Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord.” 3770 He has received no commandment, but a counsel, for that which beyond the law is not commanded, but is rather advised by way of counsel. Authority is not assumed but grace is shown, and this is not shown by anyone, but by him who obtained mercy from the Lord. Are then the counsels of these men better than those of the apostles? The Apostle says, “I give my counsel,” but they think it right to dissuade any from cultivating virginity. |
| He was so afraid and ashamed to pass in front of our house that he would make a long detour to go home. He couldn’t get another job and became very poor, until one day father saw him from afar and said, “Hey, come here. Why don’t you come back to work?” He came to the porch with his head down, and father asked, “Matthew, why did you want to kill me? What had I done to you? I gave you work, and food and coffee in my home – if you had killed me, what would have happened to you? I forgive you. If you want a job again, come ask me.” Nostalgia for Paradise FR. THEOTIMOS : Another thing that attracts people in the Congo are the many miracles that happen around our Orthodox Church. It’s like the early Christian times, an outpouring of God’s grace to help our people believe. RTE : Can you tell us about any? FR. THEOTIMOS : Yes. My sister Thecla has a small girls’ school in her skete, and one girl borrowed a catechism book from a teacher. The girl soon died, and afterwards the teacher said, “This girl borrowed a book, where is the book now?” Books in Africa are very precious and hard to come by. The book belonged to the school and if it wasn’t returned they would have to take the price of the book out of the teacher’s salary. The book was one month’s salary, and the teacher was very sorry, because he didn’t know how they would find the book. That night my sister had a dream in which that girl said, “Don’t worry, I will bring the book.” A few days later the teacher was at school when he saw a girl coming in, whom he didn’t recognize. She said, “Teacher, take the book.” She gave him the book and disappeared right in front of him. FR. THEOTIMOS : What you ask is what I am planning to write a book about. I have it in mind already. It begins with a person, a Greek who was a true missionary: Fr. Athanasios Anthides, who went to Africa in the sixties to teach. Although he didn’t spend long in Africa, he understood its essence. When he returned to Greece, he met Greek missionaries going to Africa: “Where are you going?” “We are going to convert Africans to Christianity.” He laughed and said, “It’s you who are going to become Christian there, because before you even say a word, the African already catches it. |
| And if there is to be encountered in these hymns and prayers any mention of fire, it is not a temporal one that has a purgatorial power, but rather that eternal fire and unceasing punishment. The saints, being moved by love for mankind and compassion for their fellow countrymen, desiring and daring what is almost impossible, pray for the deliverance of those departed in faith. For thus does St. Theodore the Studite, the confessor and witness of the truth himself, say, at the very beginning of his canon for the departed: “Let us all entreat Christ, performing a memorial today for those dead from the ages, that He might deliver from eternal fire those departed in faith and in hope of eternal life” (Lenten Triodion, Meat-Fare Saturday, Canon, Canticle 1). And then, in another troparion, in Canticle 5 of the Canon, he says: “Deliver, O our Saviour, all who have died in faith from the ever-scorching fire, and unillumined darkness, the gnashing of teeth, and the eternally-tormenting worm, and all torment.” Where is the “purgatorial fire” here? And if it in fact existed, where would it be more appropriate for the Saint to speak of it, if not here? Whether the saints are heard by God when they pray for this is not for us to search out. But they themselves knew, as did the Spirit dwelling in them by Whom they were moved, and they spoke and wrote in this knowledge; and likewise the Master Christ knew this, Who gave the commandment that we should pray for our enemies, and Who prayed for those who were crucifying Him, and inspired the First Martyr Stephen, when he was being stoned to death, to do the same. And although someone might say that when we pray for such people we are not heard by God, still we shall do everything that depends on us. And behold, some of the saints who prayed not only for the faithful, but even for the impious, were heard and by their prayers rescued them from eternal torment, as for example the First Woman-martyr Thecla rescued Falconila, and the divine Gregory the Dialogist, as it is related, rescued the Emperor Trajan. |
| 21 . Some one will say: “Why have you brought forward the example of Mary, as if any one could be found to imitate the Lord’s mother? And why that of Thecla, whom the Apostle of the Gentiles trained? Give us a teacher of our own sort if you wish for disciples.” I will, therefore, set before you a recent example of this sort, that you may understand that the Apostle is the teacher, not of one only, but of all. h10 Chapter IV. A virgin at Antioch, having refused to sacrifice to idols, was condemned to a house of ill-fame, whence she escaped unharmed, having changed clothes with a Christian soldier. Then when he was condemned for this, she returned and the two contended for the prize of martyrdom, which was at last given to each. 22 . There was lately at Antioch a virgin who avoided being seen in public, but the more she shrank from men’s eyes, the more they longed for her. For beauty which is heard of but not seen is more desired, there being two incentives to passion, love and knowledge–so long as nothing is met with which pleases less; and that which pleases is thought to be of more worth, because the eye is not in this case the judge by investigation, but the mind inflamed with love is full of longing. And so the holy virgin, lest their passions should be longer fed by the desire of gaining her, professed her intention of preserving her chastity, and so quenched the fires of those wicked men, that she was no longer loved, but informed against. 23 . So a persecution arose. The maiden, not knowing how to escape, and afraid lest she might fall into the hands of those who were plotting against her chastity, prepared her soul for heroic virtue, being so religious as not to fear death, so chaste as to expect it. The day of her crown arrived. The expectation of all was at its height. The maiden is brought forward, and makes her twofold profession, of religion and of chastity. But when they saw the constancy of her profession, her fear for her modesty, her readiness for tortures, and her blushes at being looked on, they began to consider how they might overcome her religion by setting chastity before her, so that, having deprived her of that which was the greatest, they might also deprive her of that which they had left. So the sentence was that she should either sacrifice, or be sent to a house of ill-fame. After what manner do they worship their gods who thus avenge them, or how do they live themselves who give sentence after this fashion? |
| Magani, sin embargo, había defendido ya la pluralidad de los baptisterios. De Roma, en la segunda, mitad del siglo IV, se tienen también noticias de más baptisterios, citados por la lista de Zettinger, de los cuales Ferrua ha estudiado recientemente los de San Pedro y el de Santa Inés. Un himno de Ennodio alaba al arzobispo Eustorgio II, de principios del siglo VI, por algunos trabajos geniales que había realizado en el baptisterio de San Esteban. La base octogonal de la bañera de este baptisterio fue encontrada en las excavaciones de la sacristía septentrional de la catedral, y allí se conserva todavía en el subterráneo existente. El de San Esteban, con el de San Juan, llamados ambos ad fontes, había constituido el doble baptisterio medieval de la catedral. A los des baptisterios se iba procesionalmente al final de las laudes y de las vísperas de los oficios del tiempo, de ecclesia in baptisterium y de baptisterio in aliud, como dicen las rúbricas de los antifonarios y de los manuales, encabezando las Psauendae que se cantaban en las respectivas procesiones. Parece que en el Medievo el doble baptisterio servía para la administración del bautismo a los distintos sexos. Como quiera que sea, la cosa no está absolutamente probada. Se ha llegado a hablar hasta de diaconisas para el rito del bautismo en el baptisterio de las mujeres . Se quiso ver una doble representación de estas diaconisas en un fresco, hoy desaparecido, del baptisterio de Galliano y en otro de la basílica ambrosiana. Pero la interpretación no es exacta, ni mucho menos. Las leyendas de San Bernabé y de San Calogero han dado origen a la opinión de que las fuentes añejas a las iglesias de San Eustorgio y de San Calogero pertenecían a los primitivos baptisterios. Pero la opinión tiene el mismo valor crítico que las leyendas en las cuales se apoya. Es más digno de atención, si es exacto, un testimonio del Líber Notitiae Sanctoram Mediolani, del siglo XIII, sobre el cual ha llamado recientemente la atención el profesor Bognetti. Dice el texto citado que, entre las iglesias dedicadas en la ciudad a San Juan, ítem est Ecclesia in Brollo, cum baptisterio. Unde íllic de sancta Thecla ibi in Baptista, et Decumani in Evangelista. Esta iglesia habría que identificarla con la de San Juan en Augirolo, llamada después en Guggirolo, situada en algún tiempo junto a la antigua Porta Romana. |
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