| But these questions and concerns do not address our primary concerns as Orthodox Christian parents in the education of our children. Our primary concern for our children is that they learn to love God, to know God, and learn to love their neighbor as their own selves. This is the foundation of our home, and everything that is taught in our home despite our many shortcomings and fails. But something else altogether lies at the foundation of the public education system. It is not the spirit of God that breathes through the curriculum, but the spirit of Antichrist. The public school has become the channel for much subtle (and at times, very overt) and skillful persecution of the Christian Faith. The public school has also become the government tool for social and moral reform, most of which is distinctly new-age, relativistic and humanistic in spirit. This is of Antichrist. This spirit is a direct threat to our society and to our children. Of course, it is not only indigenous to the public school; it permeates every corner of public life. Our children are very vulnerable and impressionable and we have chosen to not submit them to forty or more hours of exposure at these tender ages to this anti-christian environment that threatens the very foundation of the Christian faith, and constantly pits its authority and the opinion of the “peer group” against our authority and that of the Church. It would be very convenient to use the public schools to provide our children with a basic education. But they seem dedicated to destroying our primary educational goals, rendering this morally indefensible for us. If, in the process of home schooling, our children do not have access to the latest lab equipment, advanced training in team sports, and opportunities to play in orchestras, or perform on stage, then so be it! These small deprivations are the least of our worries. If home schooling means added stress, financial sacrifice and a very, very full schedule, so be it! In the former Soviet Union, to even be known as a Christian was to severely limit the educational, economic and job opportunities of the individual, and could, at times, lead to imprisonment-even death. We are exceedingly grateful to God and our neighbor that we are able to home school in a manner that is obedient to conscience without persecution! We feel called upon to make these small sacrifices now by recoiling from a system that is so dedicated to its anti-christian work. |
| Children are so tired of homework that they only want to eat and sleep. Why is such education ineffective? Source: Pravmir (Russian) And what do scientists suggest? Photo: Freepik.com Russian teenagers spend 48 hours a week studying. This is more than the length of a working week for adults: 40 hours. Due to this regime, children do not have time and energy to walk outside, enjoy their hobbies, or talk with their friends and family. They only want to eat and sleep. At the same time, children who are overloaded with homework do not always learn successfully. Denis Sobur, a father of four daughters, explains why this happens and how much time children should spend on their homework. Trade unions fought for an eight-hour working day a long time ago. The rule they invented was as follows: “Eight hours are for labor. The other eight hours are for rest. And the last eight hours are for sleeping”. Developed countries have gradually enshrined this rule in their legislations. And not only because they were afraid of the world revolution (although, it was also a reason). It is just that long-term work reduces efficiency. The longer a person works, the more useless it is. As a result, it is more profitable to work less. Yes, you can work on weekends and on vacation, and take your work home. But it will not do much good. Remember the story about Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics. When Rutherford saw his graduate student in the lab late at night, he reprimanded him. “When do you think?”, asked Rutherford. If a person is constantly working, they simply do not have time to process what is happening around them. Unfortunately, achievements of trade unions do not apply to Russian education. Even a formal ban on homework for first graders does not stop parents and teachers. Many believe that the more a child studies, the more they will know by the end of the school. However, this is not the case. They study more, but they do not know better Do large homework assignments help children learn better? |
| CT scan of charred scroll yields oldest Biblical remnant after Dead Sea Scrolls July 20, 2015 A scrap of a torched Torah scroll being shown by staff in a lab of the Israel Antiquities Authority on July 20, 2015. Thanks to a high-tech solution, a charred parchment scroll discovered by the shores of the Dead Sea bearing verses from the Book of Leviticus was deciphered for the first time, archaeologists announced Monday. The document, found during the excavation of the synagogue in Ein Gedi 45 years ago, was burned 1,500 years ago while stored inside the ark in the ancient house of worship. Since then, however, the text has been unreadable. Using micro-CT scanners, specialists at the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Dead Sea Scrolls laboratory in Jerusalem discerned the text written on the charred scroll: verses from the second chapter of the Book of Leviticus. The results of the CT scans were sent to computer scientist Brent Seales of the University of Kentucky, who created a 3D reconstruction of the scroll. Carbon-14 dating determined the text was from the end of the 6th century CE, making it the oldest copy of the Bible after the Dead Sea Scrolls. The IAA archaeologists noted that it was also the first time the remains of a Torah scroll were found in an ancient synagogue. Mentioned in the Bible as an oasis where David took refuge from King Saul, Ein Gedi was home to a Jewish community in antiquity and, during Roman times, was noted for the balsam plantations growing nearby. Excavations in the 20th century unearthed the remains of the town and a synagogue with a large mosaic floor. The ancient Jewish village was completely burned in antiquity, Yosef Porat, one of the archaeologists who excavated the site, said in a statement, “and none of its residents returned to resettle it, or to pick through its ruins in order to rescue valuables.” Among the items left behind in the Byzantine-era village were a bronze menorah and the community’s alms box with 3,500 coins, Porat said. “We have no information about the cause of the fire, but theories for the destruction range from conquest by Bedouins from the region east of the Dead Sea to conflicts with the Byzantine authorities.” The Times of Israel 21 июля 2015 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Смотри также Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| Her outrageous and deliberately provocative sexual behaviour on stage got her in trouble a number of times, which included being charged with public obscenity. Her last public performance was in 1988, after which in 1991 she settled down in Connecticut with her partner and former manager, and worked as an animal rehabilitator and at a food co-op. She explained the move by saying she was “pretty fed up dealing with people”. She once described herself as a “marginal nymphomaniac and terminal exhibitionist” (which explains her interesting sense of fashion). Since 1966 she was also a committed vegetarian and was once featured on the cover of the Vegetarian Times . She gave up smoking, drinking, using drugs, and was opposed to the high amount of sugar used in processed food. She worked out, ran six miles a day, and refused to use products made by companies which used animals for lab testing. She was also often depressed, and attempted suicide at least three times—once by hammering a knife into her sternum, once by drug overdose, and finally (and successfully) by shooting herself in 1998. She was then 48 years old. In the suicide note she left she said, “I don’t believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me, much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm.” One is tempted to say that if she had survived she would have been a poster girl for our modern culture, which is awash in pornography, loves vegetarianism, jogging, hates smoking and processed foods, and is adamant that people have the right to kill themselves for whatever reason. This last enthusiasm is cause for great alarm. I am reliably told that a person can now (in B.C. anyway) request a lethal injection one afternoon and be dead before suppertime. We now also believe strongly that the right of kill oneself is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. If Wendy were here, she would doubtless applaud the rising ascendency of suicide-on-demand. Culturally speaking, she left us too soon. |
| I think this suggests how thoroughly and naturally (to put it mildly!) the Theotokos is integrated with the life of Orthodox people. Not that she shows up every 10 minutes, but her involvement with us is not considered all that remarkable. This seems to be especially true in the “old Orthodox countries”. Why? And why do Protestants and even Anglo-Catholics seem not to have these experiences with her? However, with us Orthodox her usual way of making her presence known is through her weeping icons. She gives us something we can get our hands on. Literally. It’s called myrrh. It flows from her eyes and usually exudes a sweet fragrance. What is this myrrh? It’s a mystery! No one knows. Obviously it has a chemical makeup or it wouldn’t exist in our world, but it isn’t in the nature of Orthodox people to take it to a chem lab and test it. Even if we knew what it was, what difference would that make? How would that diminish the miracle? How would that explain why it flows only from icons? sometimes even from paper icons? and on icons of the Theotokos, only from her eyes? But before we talk about weeping icons of the Theotokos, let’s look at another much less common category of miraculous images called… Myrrh-streaming Icons With these icons, the myrrh streams from the entire surface of the image. I think these are usually of Saint Nicholas. In Blog Post 65, you can read about one at Saint George Church, Michigan City, Indiana. I know of another at Saint Nicholas Church, Tarpon Springs, Florida. But there is presently a very unusual one of Saint John the Baptist at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Homer Glen, Illinois, a south Chicago suburb. Here’s some Chicago TV coverage of it: And an article from the Tribune. While I was sick, some of the myrrh was brought to me on a little ball of cotton. The spicy sweet fragrance lasted for about a year. Did it help? Unless there is instant cure, how can we know? All I know is that with the myrrh and a good neurologist, I’m better now. The certain result is that I have come close to John, who had previously seemed distant to me. |
| Kirill. When in that first horrible year after the stroke he was dying as he had a number of times before and there was talk of a tracheostomy, we were offered to take him to Germany, to better, as it was accepted to believe, doctors and medicine. His Holiness the Patriarch was ready to help. At his request the father superior of the Lavra came to the hospital in order to raise the question of Germany. Only this time did Fr. Kirill not obey. Barely alive, exhausted by pneumonia and torturous bronchial spasms, he quietly pronounced: “I’m not going anywhere.” The doctors in Russia saved us then, and saved us many other times with God’s help during those years. If we were to count the names of all the medical workers who took part in batiushka’s treatment we would have a serious list. From scholars and department heads to simple nurses and lab technicians. We bow down to all of them, for they helped him live so long. Others who knew him will be gathering information on Fr. Kirill’s life, but for now we are simply preserving in our hearts the feeling of gratitude for that gentle, meek light of Christian authenticity, who radiated on us life, ascetic labor, and even the very countenance of this man. The Christian accepts human loss not entirely as loss, and there is no place in his soul for animal fear or panic. It is terrible to loose the thread of the spiritual connection that unites us with those whom we love and who laid down their lives for our souls. But it is up to us whether we loose it or not. You ride in the tram or the subway. People everywhere, the usual Moscow crowds, fuss… But in your backpack there is a little book, the favorite book of your spiritual father, with which he never parted and knew almost by heart. It’s called the New Testament. You open it to any page… We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves … And you see before you the face of this man, in whose soul your every grief drowned as in the sea. And you understand that nothing can ever completely cease as long as there is such a Word among those who dwell on earth. Glory to God for all things… How could it be otherwise? Nun Natalia (Aksamentova) Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Смотри также Комментарии Photini Mills 3 марта 2017, 02:00 Thank you for these uplifting words. Love is the answer to every question isn " t it. The dear Elder had this love. Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| Last year, responding to one of Porath " s nudnik queries, Pnina Shor, curator and director of IAA " s Dead Sea Scrolls Projects which includes the IAA " s Lunder Family Dead Sea Scrolls Conservation Center which uses state of the art and advanced technologies to preserve and document the Dead Sea scrolls, decided to take a gamble to try to decipher the mystery parchment using a combination of two new promising technologies. The first involved an offer by Merkel Technologies Company, Ltd., based in Yehud, to voluntarily scan thousands of 2D images of the fire-damaged tiny scroll. Utilizing its microcomputed tomography machine (micro-CT), Merkel created a high resolution 3D image. This in turn was sent to the University of Kentucky where a computer science team headed by Prof. Brent Seales was able to complete the virtual unrolling of the scroll last week using proprietary digital imaging software which allowed for the visualization of the unseen text. That software was developed with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation. This is " just like what they do in the doctor " s office but at a very high resolution, probably a hundred times more accurate than the medical procedures that we do, " Seales explained. Adding to the extraordinary atmosphere of high tech, hard work and international co-operation, Seales said in a Skype conversation broadcast at the IAA offices at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem that he doesn " t read Hebrew. " I " ve never seen the scroll. And that " s indicative of our digital age, " the chair of the Department of Computer Science at the university in Lexington, Kentucky noted. In the background were some of the eight students who worked with him at his pioneering lab in the tedious and exacting process of making the burnt scroll " s text legible. Seales beamed " We " ve all been celebrating here. " He was not the only one reveling. " After the Dead Sea Scrolls, this has been the most significant find of an ancient Bible, " said Shor, referring to hundreds of ancient texts found in the late 1940s near the shores of the inland sea for whom the scrolls were named. |
| Like many of the babushkas, she was an infant during Stalin’s famine and a schoolgirl during the Nazi march across Ukraine. They have outlived their husbands and, in some cases, endured thyroid cancer. Most of them eventually die from strokes and the usual complications of old age. “The exclusion zone is not a prison,” Valentyna Ivanivna, 75, says in the film as she fishes in the Pripyat River, which flows past the old nuclear plant. She is an expert on the medicinal herbs her grandmother taught her to gather in the forest. Life here, she believes, is healthier than in the city. “In Kiev, I’d have died long ago, five times over,” she says. “Every car releases the whole periodic table into the air, and you inhale that into your lungs.” Later we see her at a medical center, sitting in the chair of a radiation spectrometer to have her level of cesium checked. “You’re fine,” the lab technician assures her. He reminds her of what she already knows — that radiation is dangerous. Mushrooms, which funnel radionuclides from the soil, are especially suspect. But there are other considerations — “sociopsychological factors,” he calls them — that affect human health. He tells of a study that found returnees — that is the official term — are outliving the evacuees. “Quite simply, people die from anguish,” he says. As I watched the film, I thought of the estimated 1,600 people who have died from the strain of the evacuation that followed the Fukushima meltdown in 2011. Since I wrote about the aftermath a couple of months ago, the first case of cancer, in a worker on the cleanup crew, has been attributed to the accident. In the absence of humans from areas around Chernobyl, some species have thrived. Credit Sergiy Gaschak/Associated Press There is no way to know whether the man’s leukemia was actually caused by the radiation. But in agreeing to award medical compensation, the Japanese government gave him the benefit of the doubt. You don’t hear much about people willing to return to Fukushima, only accounts of the many who refuse to go back to areas now declared safe. With memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they have their reasons to be leery. For the people of Chernobyl, the horrors of World War II were non-nuclear. |
| Now she was retired, but her son was like a stranger to her. He married suddenly and brought his wife, Tatiana, home and things went from bad to worse. About to graduate from college, Oleg unexpectedly stopped his studies, and neither of the young people worked. They just lived in the flat eating and drinking whatever the mother gave them, with barely a word to her. She seemed to live in a silent sepulcher, but no, not even that: how could one call it silent with music thundering from their room from morning until night. Once, when her son was away, she argued with his wife, “I won’t have you here, I’ll drive you out! You are idle yourself and you allow him to sponge on his mother who is a pensioner. He doesn’t even study.” Tatiana replied rudely: “I’m not living with you, but with my husband. It was you who brought him up like this.” They hurled abuse and curses at each other, and that night her son said, “If you scold Tanya again, know that you no longer have a son.” Evgenia was bitter. A friend suggested that she visit Blessed Matrona’s grave. For a very long time she didn’t go, but finally, in desperation, she set out. It took half a day to get there: at first she was on the wrong tram, and when she found the right one, it broke down. At the cemetery, people showed her the path to Matrona, but she followed it to the end without finding the grave. A second path led to another dead end, and she wondered if Blessed Matrona wasn’t allowing her to come to her grave: she knew she wasn’t properly dressed – she was wearing pants, lipstick, her fingernails were brightly painted, and she wasn’t wearing a cross. But when she finally approached the grave, she felt enfolded in an otherworldly warmth. She was drawn to the grave as if by a magnet. There was a lump in her throat; tears stood in her eyes… And then, as if she knew all about her, the woman who cared for the grave gave her a little cross saying: “Wear it. Never take it off.” Evgenia went home as if on wings. But at home things did not improve; they became even worse. Finally, she went to Blessed Matrona’s grave again, simply because she had nowhere else to go and begged with tears: “Matronushka, pray for me, ask God to change something, it cannot stay as it is!” When she returned home, she found a lab report on her son’s desk, confirming that her daughter-in-law was pregnant. She thought bitterly, “There have been two parasites living off me and now there will be a third, their child!” |
| Our Faith : In the Church Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 The Church is our Mother By Mr. William Kopcha Dec 14, 2010, 10:00 Discuss this article Printer friendly page Source: Wonder The priest who gave the homily at my grandfather’s funeral was a man who pulled no punches. I had once, several years before, heard him speak at the funeral of a more distant relative; his opening words were, “Those who knew her in life knew that she was a difficult person to get along with…” And, maybe not so surprisingly, nobody got mad. Not a brow was furrowed, not an eyebrow raised, not any more than a shrug and a resigned sigh and nod, because, simply put – it was true. Anyone there who had the potential to get flustered by this statement also knew that this was not the priest’s opinion – it was a fact. So, naturally, I was especially moved when this same priest said of my grandfather, He was like Dove soap – 99.998% pure. Here was a man who understood that, in the words of St. Cyprian of Carthage, ‘unless you have the Church as your mother, you cannot have God as your Father.’ … And because of this,everything for him was simple. Truer words could not have been said, and I’m fairly certain that I could see the cheeks of “Grandpa-Deacon” get still rosier beneath the foundation and other funeral-parlor fakery. And, following a send-off that was described as being like midnight on Pascha (an analogy that I extend with Holy Week in his last days), not a few hours after the fact, I was back at the University, plunged once again via total immersion in its own unique atmosphere with its own unique cares. Specifically, we were in the middle of final exams, a time which underscores the transient nature of the University environment like no other – people giving one last-ditch effort to save their semesters before bursting, or perhaps falling, into freedom, sitting at home on the couch eating pretzels and watching every episode of 30 Rock on Hulu. Anyone who has ever had a job or internship on campus during the summer can attest to this transience, seeing the once-crowded streets deserted, the dorms silent and empty, and, every once in a while, a stray grad student stumbling out of the lab or library and blinking once or twice at this thing called “the sun” before retreating. In what amounts to a giant brick shanty-town, where, as a friend reminded me, every campus organization is “only four years away from extinction,” the idea of “community” is hard to come by. Everything is uncertain, everything is in flux, and, though we may stitch together networks of friends and companions, we are all essentially sent out alone from “home” to a temporary outpost. That is difficult. |
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