| Praise be! 85-year-old defies death threats from Satanists to spend 22 years returning 1,000-year-old derelict church to its former glory Source: Daily Mail By Mario Ledwith Bob Davey began work on the Norfolk tower when he retired 22 years ago. 1000-year-old church last used in 1930s before it was hit by a German bomb. When he first entered he was horrified to find satanic temple and pagan altar. The Christian guarded church from cult members who once drove car at him. During restoration he discovered dazzling religious murals hidden by plaster. It has been struck by a German bomb, torn apart by American GIs and left in squalor by a pagan cult. So when the ruins of an ancient church were discovered in thick woodland by Bob Davey, he could have been forgiven for thinking its fate had already been sealed. Instead, the determined church warden used his retirement to embark on a 22-year crusade to return the dilapidated building to its former glory – despite receiving a death threat from the cult. Determined: Bob Davey has spent 22 years restoring the church in Houghton-on-the-Hill, Norfolk to its past glory But even he was surprised when his noble DIY effort threw up an unexpected gift, unearthing ancient paintings inside its ivy-covered walls. The images depict the Holy Trinity and the Last Judgment and are thought to have been created in 1090, soon after the Norman Conquest. Believed to be the oldest wall paintings in Britain, they have seen the tiny church become an international tourist attraction. They have even earned Mr Davey, 85, an MBE after Prince Charles made several visits to the church. Mr Davey heard about the tower in 1992 when his late wife Gloria came across it on a ramble near Houghton-on-the-Hill, Norfolk, with her WI group. Transformation: The church was engulfed in ivy in 1992 and looks like a different building today Thought to have been last used in the 1930s, it had no roof, door or windows. Mr Davey and his wife had to push through piles of rubbish outside to get in. |
| A word given at the reading of the Great Canon of Repentance of Venerable Andrew of Crete on Thursday of the Fifth Week of Great Lent. Met. Nicholai (Yarushevich). Photo: Wikipedia The penitential canon of St. Andrew of Crete is read for the last time this the year in the fifth week of Great Lent, thus closing the book on this Great Canon until next year. The holy words of the penitential canon will be read again by those who live until next year, and who heed these many lamentations: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me”—by those whom the Lord blesses to meet Great Lent next year. In reading this canon, we repeat the words “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me” many times, and in doing so we as if see the scroll of our whole lives unraveling, from the day of our birth, and not simply until the present day in each of our lives, but until the day of death, and further until the day of the final Dread Judgment of God. How does life begin for every one of us? With crying. But there would be no suffering for the one bearing us, and the one being born if there was no guilt or impurity. What suffering? That which cried out in me when I, a newborn babe, began life with crying? I as yet had neither memory nor intelligence. My nature cried out from its inherent imperfection. Every child is born with the stamp of the ancestral sin of our forefathers and with the inclination to sin, which is inherited by every one of us from our forefathers. And when we, having defiled our lives by many sins, remember that we are born with an inclination towards sin, and that our duty is to master it, and that we cannot manage to do so, we bow our heads low at the recollection of our first day of birth, and from our heart breaks forth this prayerful cry: “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me!” Look, God, upon Thy poor creation, which was born with an inclination to sin, which for many years of this earthly life did not want to refrain from this inclination and now fears Thy righteous judgment! |
| For Martyrs, Death is a Joy Orthodoxy in the World Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 For Martyrs, Death is a Joy By Archpriest Arkady Shatov (Now Bishop Panteleimon) Nov 19, 2010, 10:00 Discuss this article Printer friendly page On November,19, 2010 is one year since the murder of Fr. Daniel Sysoyev. Source: Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Washington, DC When I was little, I very much feared death, and thought that to die meant to completely vanish. It is a very good thing that believers do not have such fear. While we are alive on earth, our bodies interfere with our seeing God, for God is Spirit, but when we die, our soul encounters God. People of faith of course also fear death, but it is a different kind of fear. It is not a fear of vanishing, of no longer being, it is not a fear that your life, everything good that you possess, everything will come to an end, and no longer exist. Rather, it is the fear of God " s Judgment, fear that God will judge us for everything we have done. And today, praying for Fr. Daniel, we ask God that this Judgment of God over Fr. Daniel will be a merciful one. Like everyone else, Fr. Daniel was a sinful person, but he possessed amazing zeal; he greatly desired that all people should learn about Christ. He had a great desire to tell about Christ to those who did not yet know about Him. He wanted to share with others the joy of his faith. And the fact that the Lord blessed him with such a martyric death is a sign of God " s mercy towards man. While the Saints were being taken away to be martyred, they rejoiced that they could suffer for Christ " s sake, to suffer for the One Who died for us on the Cross, Who suffered for us. Thus, for the Saints, it was a joy to have a martyr " s death, and we always celebrate the day of their death as a great Feast. In our school, there are girls who are afraid of revealing their faith in Christ, who are afraid that others will find out that they are Orthodox, who are embarrassed by the fact that they do not smoke and do not commit the sins that others do. Some of the children are embarrassed that they do not have social network pages, that they don " t own a good cell phone. Yet, is that a cause for embarrassment?! Is that so important? Is that what one needs? What is important for man is to be with God, to be with Christ. And of course, to be embarrassed by what is the main joy of our life, to be embarrassed by what the Lord has given us, not according to our merits, but because he has chosen us — that is a great sin. |
| In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble. (Wisdom 3:7 RSV) ____ The story is told of St. Macarius that he was falsely accused of fathering a child by a young woman in the village. After being beaten and humiliated by the people there, he returned to his cell and gathered all of the mats and baskets he had made and gave instructions that they were to be sold, and the money given “to my wife.” In time, he was vindicated of the crime for which he had been falsely accused. St. Francis’ disciple, Brother Juniper, was falsely accused of theft, murder and a number of such crimes. He immediately confessed that he was guilty of everything. He was rescued at the last minute from hanging through the intercession of the friars. All of us stand falsely accused. That might sound surprising, since most of us carry some constant level of moderate guilt. And though we wouldn’t dare go as far as Brother Juniper and submit to hanging, or agree to support a child for whom we have no responsibility, nonetheless, we generally agree to some level of guilt and quietly task ourselves with improving. “I can’t believe I did that! What must I have been thinking?” Our lives are a strange mix of virtue and vice. Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that the line between good and evil did not run between nations, nor even between groups or individuals, but within every human heart. Some portion of our heart accuses the other, and with just cause. But we also stand falsely accused. Our passions cloud our judgment (and guilt can indeed act like a passion). We cannot accurately judge ourselves because we do not see the truth (not even of ourselves). By the same token, we do not and cannot judge others rightly. We are simply incompetent as judges. Solzhenitsyn is right, however. The dividing line does not run between us, but within us. Sergius Bulgakov once suggested that the parable of the sheep and the goats is incorrectly applied to individual versus individual, and should be applied instead within the heart of each individual. This coincides with St. Gregory of Nyssa’s thoughts on salvation in which the judgment exists to destroy our sins and faults and restore us to our true nature. I will leave that argument to others (for there are so many who rise to great eloquence on the topic). |
| On Minor Sins There is no doubt that one of the most common and ‘slight’ sins is censuring one’s neighbor. Many might even fail to realize that this quite common and seemingly insignificant sin is actually the beginning and the root for many sinful habits that are much more dangerous...Among other ‘minor’ sins one has to mention lying together with gossiping and idle talk that are close to lying. Lying is so deeply rooted in the consciousness of the modern society that it’s become an integral part of life. Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern) 14 January 2009 Translated by Olga Lissenkova There is no doubt that one of the most common and ‘slight’ sins is censuring one’s neighbor. Many might even fail to realize that this quite common and seemingly insignificant sin is actually the beginning and the root for many sinful habits that are much more dangerous. At that, the confessor must keep in mind and bring home to the repentant the following things: (1) First of all, this sin is in close association with the passion of pride that’s been discussed above. Disapproving of others’ drawbacks, a person thinks himself or herself better, cleverer, more honest and more righteous than others. That is why one is to subdue one’s passion of pride and self-importance. (2) It is not up to a person to judge others for their actions and drawbacks. The Savior Himself commands to us, ‘ Stop judging, so that you won’t be judged, because the way that you judge others will be the way that you will be judged, and you will be evaluated by the standard with which you evaluate others. Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?’ (Matthew, 7: 1-3). Apostle Paul reproaches the Romans, ‘ Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? He stands or falls before his own Lord – and stand he will, because the Lord makes him stand’ (Romans 14: 4). The final justice is divine. (3) As to human justice, it’s the anticipation of God’s Last Judgment. Our justice can never be unprejudiced. In our judgment we are usually influenced by accidental impressions, or, which is more often, by hurt, irritation, anger, accidental ‘moods.’ It’s an important observation that usually we denounce others for the drawback we ourselves have, and we do not even notice this. One, who’s not clever but thinking oneself clever, would denounce narrow-mindedness (not to say silliness) in others. One who is vain and self-important would usually get indignant at others’ self-conceit. One who is mammonish would see in others indications of this passion, it can be wastefulness, without understanding that, being avaricious, one oneself is subject to the same passion; etc. |
| The Error of Chiliasm Fr. Michael Pomazansky Yesterday and today we are presenting a series of four articles on the heresy of Chiliasm, or Millennialsm—that is, that Christ will have a literal, earthly kingdom lasting for 1,000 years at the end of time. This belief, popular amongst many Protestants today, arises from a misinterpretation of Scripture, and our saints and holy elders hold for us the key to properly understanding Scripture, and the end times, as far as it is given to us to know. This third article is an excerpt from Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Fr. Michael Pomazansky (St. Herman of Alaska Press). See the first article in the series by Elder Cleopa (Ilie) of Romania. See the second article in the series by Bishop Alexander (Mileant). Very widespread at the present time is the teaching about a thousand-year kingdom of Christ on earth before the universal or last judgment; this teaching is known by the name of " chiliasm " (from the Greek chiliasmos , a thousand years). The essence of this teaching is as follows: Long before the end of the world, Christ will come again to earth to overcome Antichrist and resurrect only the righteous, to establish a new kingdom on earth in which the righteous, as a reward for their struggles and sufferings, will reign together with Him for the course of one thousand years, taking enjoyment of all the good things of temporal life. After this there will follow a second, universal resurrection of the dead, the universal judgment, and the universal and eternal giving of rewards. Such are the ideas of the chiliasts. The defenders of this teaching found themselves on the visions of the seer of mysteries (John the Theologian) in the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse. There it is said that an angel descended from heaven and bound satan for a thousand years, and that the souls of those beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the first resurrection (Apoc. 20:5). And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations (Apoc. 20:7-8). Soon there follows the judgment of the devil and of those who were deceived by him. The dead will be raised up and judged according to their deeds. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire ... This is the second death (Apoc. 20:15, 14). Upon those who have been resurrected in the first resurrection, however, the second death will have no power. |
| Tweet The Epistles of St. Abba Dorotheus Abba Dorotheos 1. Instructions to a brother who has asked him about insensitivity and the growing cold of love. When your soul becomes insensitive, brother, it is useful to read the Holy Scriptures and the heart-touching words of the Holy and God-bearing Fathers, to remember God's Last Judgment, the departure of the soul from the body, and the terrible powers that can greet it, and with whose cooperation the soul committed evil acts in this brief and tormented life. It is also useful to remember how we shall appear before the terrible and righteous judgment seat of Christ, and not only for our deeds, but for words and thoughts shall we give an answer before God, before all His angels, and in general before all creation. Remember just as often also that sentence which the terrible and righteous Judge shall pronounce against those who stand at His left side: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt. 25:41). It is good also to remember the great sorrows of mankind in order that the cruel and insensitive soul might be thereby if only involuntarily softened, and come to a recognition of its sinfulness. You are failing in brotherly love because you accept suspicious thoughts against your neighbor, and trust your own heart; this happens to you also because you do not want to endure anything that goes against your will. Thus; before anything else you should, with God's help, under no circumstances believe your own opinions, and strive with all your might to humble yourself before your brothers, and with all your soul cut off your will before them. If one of them injures you, or causes you sorrow in any way, then you should pray for him, according to the words of the Fathers, as for one who has given you great benefit and has healed your love of pleasure. Through this your irritability will decrease, for in the words of the Holy Fathers, love is the reigns on irritability. And before all, pray to God to give you attentiveness and understanding, so that you might know what is that good, perfect and acceptable will of God (Rom. 12:2); also pray for the strength to be ready for every good work. For to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship unto the ages of ages. Amen. |
| Waiting for the Lord to Come Our Faith : Fasting Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 Waiting for the Lord to Come By Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh Dec 23, 2010, 10:00 Discuss this article Printer friendly page Source: Holy Apostles Orthodox Mission, OCA A dapted from an Advent Sermon by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom In these days of fasting as we approach the festival of the Incarnation, the Church gives us in the words of Christ Himself, a stern and clear warning. Are we going to be like the guests called to the bridal feast of the king’s son? One refused to come because he had acquired a plot of land. He wanted to possess the earth and instead became a slave to it. The others could not come because they were too busy—there was no time for God. The one who had taken a wife could not share in the joy of the Bridegroom because his heart was already too full. This parable will be read on December 14, just two Sundays before the Winter Pascha. How do we respond to the invitation? Advent is a time when we should stand face to face before the judgment of God and listen to the voice of our conscience. Every time we come to communion we must have made our peace with those with whom we are at variance. We must have made our peace with the thoughts of our mind and heart that accuse us of disloyalty to God and to one another. We must have made our peace with the living God so that it cannot be said that He died in vain for us. It is a matter of pondering deeply within ourselves, of passing a severe judgment upon ourselves and coming to Communion through repentance and Confession, after a searching examination of our lives so as to not be condemned for coming lightly to the holy meal. This implies a certain number of simple things, but things that must be done. No one should come to communion who is deliberately late for the liturgy through laziness or carelessness. No one should come to communion who has not prepared himself in the course of the whole week by praying, by examining his conscience, and by reading prayers before communion. If they are too long to be read on Saturday after the evening service or on Sunday morning, they can be distribut throughout the week and be part of our morning and evening prayers. This is a discipline which is required of us always, but in these days particularly. |
| We live in a time of nationalism. Red, white, and blue flow through our veins. Recently, we had a national debate: is it patriotic to protest racial inequalities in America by kneeling during the Star Spangled Banner , or is it better to stand in order to support lasting values we hold dear? Both sides saw their view as patriotic, though in different ways. What we don’t realize is that it doesn’t matter. We are already under judgment. The real question is: is our patriotism directed towards the U.S. or is our first loyalty to the gospel? (Reflections on the Sunday of Judgment) — How to Have a National Conversation? In 2016, a football player by the name of Colin Kaepernick started a national debate. He was upset with racial justices he saw in America. In order to draw attention to the matter, and hoping to a difference, he decided to kneel during the national anthem at N.F.L. games. In his mind, as well as those supporting him, kneeling was a respectful way of continuing to acknowledge the greatness of America, yet, at the same time, begin a national conversation about race in America. Not everyone agreed. Others saw the act of kneeling as disrespectful. For them, the hard work and sacrifice of our American forbearers – especially those who had served and died in military service – always deserved the greatest respect: standing during the anthem. There are other ways, they argued, to begin a national conversation. This debate rages on through social media, ordinary conversations, newspaper editorials, and even last week’s State of the Union address. If we’re fair, both sides are squarely within our American tradition. Both sides are patriotic, wanting the best America possible for every American. Originally, the idea was to start a conversation on racial inequality in America, but the reality is, it started a second national debate as well. “What does it mean to be a loyal American?” “What does it mean to live out life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ?” “How does one truly embrace being an American?” “Are there limits to freedom of speech ?” |
| In Passion Week A cab drove by. The cabman was clucking to his horse and slapping the reins, unaware of two street-urchins hanging from the springs of his little carriage. I wanted to join these boys, but straightway remembered that I was on my way to confession, whereupon the boys appeared to me to be very wicked sinners indeed. Anton Chekhov 15 April 2008 Source: www.ibiblio.org “RUN, the church-bells are ringing! Be a good boy in church and don’t play! If you do, God will punish you!” My mother slipped a few copper coins into my hand and then forgot all about me, as she ran into the kitchen with an iron that was growing cold. I knew I should not be allowed to eat or drink after confession, so before leaving home I choked down a crust of bread and drank two glasses of water. Spring was at its height. The street was a sea of brown mud through which ruts were already in process of being worn; the housetops and sidewalks were dry, and the tender young green of springtime was pushing up through last year’s dry grass under the fence rows. Muddy rivulets were babbling and murmuring down the gutters in which the sun did not disdain to lave its rays. Chips, bits of straw, and nutshells were floating swiftly down with the current, twisting and turning and catching on the dirty foam flakes. Whither, whither were they drifting? Would they not be swept from the gutter into the river, from the river into the sea, and from the sea into the mighty ocean? I tried to picture to myself the long and terrible journey before them, but my imagination failed even before reaching the river. A cab drove by. The cabman was clucking to his horse and slapping the reins, unaware of two street-urchins hanging from the springs of his little carriage. I wanted to join these boys, but straightway remembered that I was on my way to confession, whereupon the boys appeared to me to be very wicked sinners indeed. “God will ask them on the Last Judgment Day why they played tricks on a poor cabman,” I thought. “They will begin to make excuses, but the devil will grab them and throw them into eternal fire. But if they obey their fathers and mothers and give pennies and bread to the beggars, God will have mercy on them and will let them into Paradise.” |
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