| Message By His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew On the Tragic Situation in Ukraine Natalya Mihailova 21 February 2014 February 20, 2014 Beloved children and friends in Ukraine and abroad, It is with heavy heart that we have been following the ongoing and, indeed, only escalating tragic circumstances in Ukraine over the last weeks. We feel that our brothers and sisters in Ukraine are our own flesh and blood. “We endure the same sufferings that you suffer and we work with you for your joy,” as St. Paul says. In our high responsibility as Ecumenical Patriarch, we are obliged to call for peace from the authorities in a democratic and independent nation, where its elected leaders – both in government and opposition – have the ultimate responsibility to protect the dignity of human life among its citizens. There is no room for brutality and bloodshed in a democratic nation of the 21 st century. In our pastoral and spiritual capacity as an Orthodox bishop, we are compelled to denounce all violence and aggression among police and protesters, which have led to the unnecessary loss of innocent life. All parties must at all cost choose dialogue over disorder and mediation over force. There is never room for abuse of power in a nation whose Christian roots date back to the first millennium. Finally, in the wake of the anniversary last year, celebrating 1025 years since Christian faith and civilization was conveyed to the Kievan Rus by our own predecessors in the Church of Constantinople, we are compelled – in the name of the ethos and culture of the freedom granted by God to all people as a divine gift – to condemn the present relentless brutality and insist on a peaceful and reasonable solution to the internal problems of Ukraine for the benefit of its people and to the glory of God. May He guide the elected rulers of Ukraine toward this blessed end. Dear friends, even as in the Orthodox Church we prepare for Great Lent with the forthcoming Judgment and Forgiveness Sundays, we call on every person of faith and of goodwill to pray and fast for truce and peace among our beloved and precious people in Ukraine. |
| Metropolitan Hilarion: “During Holy Week We Remember Christ’s Sufferings for the Whole World” Photo: mospat.ru Holy Week is a special period for believers, because they remember the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of the whole world, said Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. “Holy Week is a time when believers remember the last days of the earthly life of Jesus Christ day after day in Orthodox churches,” Metropolitan Hilarion said in the Church and the World program, reports the press service of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media. The metropolitan added that the last week before Pascha is “a very special time, when we follow the events that happened to the Lord Jesus Christ, when He was taken for judgment, crucified on the Cross, when He was dying for the sins of the whole world and of every man, and, of course, when He rose from the dead.” “The things that He warned about took place, the things He predicted many times, but even His closest disciples could not believe it. Even after He rose from the dead, not everyone believed it right away,” Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk noted. Recalling that the Resurrection of Christ is “the core point of the Christian faith,” the metropolitan quoted the words of the Apostle Paul: “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). “Therefore, of course, the feast of the Resurrection of Christ – Pascha – is the main feast day of the entire church year. We prepare for this feast day for 49 days: these are six weeks of Great Lent and Holy Week,” Metropolitan Hilarion concluded. You can f ollow Pravmir.com on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , Telegram , or Parler Code for blog 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. |
| Nativity Fast: Renewing Our Zeal for Life with God Source: Holy Archangels Orthodox Church Priest Robert Miclean 18 December 2016 Photo: patriarchia.ru One of the most beautiful and favorite classical music of Advent, this time of preparation for Christ’s holy Nativity, is Bach’s popular cantata “Sleepers awake!” The title refers to a common theme of the Holy Scriptures, and, therefore, of our Orthodox Faith, particularly during this season of preparation for Christ’s coming, the meaning of the word, “Advent.” The early Orthodox Church lived in a constant state of alertness, readiness, to meet the Lord at His Second Coming, putting Christ first and before all things the world had on offer. It was not easy to be a Christian; you knew that at any moment you might be arrested, tortured, and martyrd for your faith in the one, true God. Christ having ascended in glory, we now live in the last epoch, that is, “the last days.” We who are here today are even closer to that final day that will begin the day that has no end. Indeed, this is the truth we commemorate every Vespers service as we sing the Gladsome Light, Phos Hilaron in the original Greek. We’re called to live with eternity before our eyes, to put away the temporal distractions that lull us into spiritual sleep and slothfulness so that we can be ready for the Day of Christ’s dread Judgment. Advent is never just about looking to the past, the Incarnation-in-the-flesh of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ into the world. It is also always a looking forward to a second Advent, that of Christ’s glorious Second Coming. St. Cyril of Jerusalem writes, “We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom.” That we may be ready when He comes, that we may make the most of this holy Nativity Fast in spiritual preparation for “the Winter Pascha,” Holy Nativity, St. Paul urges us in today’s Epistle (as he does elsewhere in the Scriptures, e.g., I Thess. 5:1-11) to the exercise of such great vigilance. He reminds us first of what should be the fruit of our life in Christ by the Holy Spirit: goodness, righteousness, truth—all of which is defined not by ourselves, not by our culture, but by God Himself who is the Truth, Who has became incarnate to enlighten every human being with that Truth, life in and through Him. |
| On the feast day of the Theophany, the Baptism of the Lord, every Orthodox Christian would do well to remember another baptism, the one performed over each one of us Orthodox Christians, the baptism in which each of us, through the mouths of our Godparents, gave God an oath that we would always renounce Satan and his works and would always join with, “unite with” Christ. I repeat, this is especially fitting for this day. Now we will begin the ceremonious rite of the great blessing of the water. Its center, one might say its main part, is the grand prayer in which the Lord is glorified and the grace of the Holy Spirit is invoked upon the water which is being blessed. This prayer begins with the wonderful words: “Great art Thou, O Lord, and wonderful are Thy works, and no word doeth justice to the praise of Thy wonders.” Those who have attended the rite of baptism and listened carefully know that this prayer for the blessing of the water in which a person is to be baptized begins with the same words, and the first part of this prayer is performed in the same way as during the great blessing of the water. Only later, in the last part, does the prayer change at the completion of the Mystery of baptism, which is composed for this Mystery, as a new human soul is to be baptized. It would be worth remembering the promises made during baptism on behalf of each one of us. When a person is baptized as an adult, which happens these days sometimes but happened much more often in ancient days, he makes these oaths himself, but if he is baptized as a child, his Godfather or Godmother make these promises—they are the “adopters,” as the Church calls them. And these promises, in which the Christian makes a promise to God to renounce Satan and all his works, and joins with, unites with Christ, are not only forgotten by people, but many do not even know about them or that they were spoken, and that they must think about how these promises are to be fulfilled. What if on the last day of the history of mankind, the Day of Judgment, it turns out that a person made some promises (or that promises were made on his behalf by his Godparents), but he doesn’t know what these promises were? What will happen with such a person? Think, brethren, what it means to renounce Satan and all his works and to unite with Christ. |
| Passion Week The central event in the history of mankind is the coming into the world of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the most important deed — His voluntary suffering and death on the cross, culminating in the glorious Resurrection from the dead. Contents : The last days of the earthly life of the Savior. The Judgment of the Lord by the High Priests. The Verdict of the Sinhedrin. The Lord Jesus Christ on trial before Pilate. The Lord’s Way of the Cross. Crucifixion. The Death of Christ. The Burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Services of Passion Week. Conclusion. The Canon of the Great Saturday. The central event in the history of mankind is the coming into the world of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the most important deed — His voluntary suffering and death on the cross, culminating in the glorious Resurrection from the dead. The services of the Holy Week aim to revive the meaning of Christ’s martyrdom on the Cross in the consciousness of the devout, in order that we may feel the greatness of His love towards us more deeply and, in turn, try to love Him more. For this reason everything that is only pre-depicted in the Old Testament, and that which directly concerns the Saviour’s suffering on the Cross in the New Testament, the Holy Church reveals to the spiritual view of those praying in the touching services of the pre-Easter week, which is also called Passion Week because of the sufferings of the Saviour. Each service of this week is unique in its Gospel remembrances, in its melodies, prayers and holy rites. And here the Church initiates the faithful into great spiritual abundance, not only in its inner content, but also in its external form. These services were conceived and perfected in the course of centuries through the efforts of many talented church writers, poets and composers. In this article, we will relate the events of the last days of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ, explain the central moments of the Passion services and present the texts of several of the chants. |
| Photo: golos-obitely.prihod.ru As we enter into our last days of preparation for celebrating our Lord’s Nativity this week, we need to consider what we are hoping for. No, that does not mean focusing on what presents we want to receive or what fine foods we anticipate enjoying for Christmas dinner. It means attending to the long-awaited Savior as we entrust ourselves to Him. In order to do that, we must allow our hopes for whatever we want in this life to be called into question by the God-Man, Who was not born to acquire or give earthly power or success in any conventional sense, but to fulfill a kingdom not of this world that stands in prophetic judgment over even our best attempts to set things right according to our own agendas and desires. Christ is born to fulfill the ancient promises to Abraham, who “looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” The many generations of preparation for the Savior’s birth did not occur through the unbroken progress of any earthly city, kingdom, or culture, but through periods characterized by slavery, exile, injustice, and apostasy. The prophet Samuel was the last of the judges of Israel over a thousand years before Christ was born. When his sons ruled unjustly, the people asked for a king so that they could be like the other nations. God told Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” (1 Sam. 8:7) We do not have to know much about the Old Testament to know that wanting to be like the others nations is the exact opposite of what God intended for His people. Their kings were not unlike the powerful of any time and place with David, the greatest of them, known for his repentance from the sins of murder and adultery. Even his son the wise Solomon fell into the worship of false gods. Because of Israel’s ongoing unfaithfulness, the kingdom divided into two, with both eventually going into exile after being defeated at the hands of their enemies. |
| Preparing for Great Lent Our Faith : Fasting Last Updated: Feb 8th, 2011 - 05:50:02 Preparing for Great Lent Jan 24, 2010, 10:00 Discuss this article Printer friendly page Source: Orthodox America The center of the liturgical year in the Orthodox Church is Pascha, the celebration of Christ " s Resurrection. It is extolled in the services as the Feast of feasts and Triumph of triumphs. Justifiably so, for as the Apostle Paul declares, if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain (I Cor. 15:14). Through His redeeming Passion, Christ freed us from the tyranny of death and opened for us the door to Paradise and eternal life. This is the goal of our life-long spiritual journey, a journey from death to life, from darkness to light. It is a long journey and we travellers get weary; we get distracted and wander off or even lose sight of the road. To help keep us focussed, the Church every year compresses for us this journey as it prepares us to greet the Feast of Christ " s Resurrection, which is a foretaste of that eternal Pascha. We usually think of this preparatory time as the period of Great Lent, but in fact it begins three weeks earlier with the Sundays of the Publican and Pharisee, the Prodigal Son and the Last Judgment. Since we are not fasting yet, we tend to pay less attention to these preparatory Sundays than we do to the Sundays of Great Lent, and yet they are very important, as they give us a map, as it were, of our lenten journey. Already a week before the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, which opens The Lenten Triodion, we hear intimations of the approaching period of lent. The Gospel reading for that Sunday relates the story of Zacchaeus , " the chief among the publicans, " a rich tax-collector despised for his extortionary practices. He must have been a hard man, but the voice of his conscience had not been completely stifled, for he came to realize that he had taken the wrong path in life. But what could he do? Perhaps the great teacher people were talking about could help him. When he heard that Jesus Christ was to pass by, he climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to catch sight of Him over the crowd, for Zacchaeus was " short of stature. " Any self-consciousness or concern that he, such a public figure, would be laughed at and scorned, was overcome by his intense desire to see the Lord, his desire to get help in order to set his life aright. And what happened? Jesus Christ not only acknowledged him, He came to his house. Zacchaeus " heart expanded in the presence of this Love, he resolved to make amends to the people he had wronged; in a word, he was on his way to a new life. As we approach the fast, we must have this same desire, the same state of mind as Zacchaeus. If we genuinely desire to catch sight of the Lord amidst the worldly vanities, God will visit us. We must simply have the desire to receive Him in the home of our heart. |
| See The Jewish Trial, Part 1 “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Illumine our hearts, O Master Who loves mankind, with the pure light of Thy divine knowledge. Open the eyes of our mind to understand Thy gospel teachings. Implant in us also the fear of Thy blessed commandments, that trampling down all carnal desires, we may enter upon a spiritual manner of living, both thinking and doing such things that are well-pleasing unto Thee. For Thou art the illumination of our souls and bodies, O Christ our God, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, Who is from everlasting, and Thine all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.” " Christ before Caiaphas " . The High Priest is depicted tearing his robe in grief at Jesus " perceived blasphemy (Giotto, Life of Christ, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua). Photo: Wikipedia At this point we are approximately halfway through the Jewish trial. I want to read for you again this passage in Matthew and conclude it. When we last met, Caiaphas was just about to question Christ and we were going to hear the exchange between them. So now let’s hear this section of Matthew’s Gospel from chapter 26 verse 57 and then 59 through 66 (Revised Standard Version). Then those who had seized Jesus led Him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. Now the chief priests and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus, that they might put Him to death. But they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last, two came forward and said: “This fellow said ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days’.” And the high priest stood up and said: “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” but Jesus was silent. And the high priest said to Him: “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God?” Jesus said to you Him: “You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of Heaven.” Then the high priest tore his robes and said: “He has uttered blasphemy! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard His blasphemy. What is your judgment?” They answered: “He deserves death.” |
| The expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. My beloved in the Lord, the great and saving time of the Fast is upon us! We have completed the time of preparation, beginning with the Sunday of Zacchaeus, and continuing with the Sundays of the Publican and the Pharisee, the Prodigal Son, the Sunday of the Last Judgment, and now finally with today - the Sunday which commemorates the expulsion of Adam from Paradise. Of course much can be, and indeed has been said about each preparatory Sunday —from the desire of Zacchaeus to the humble prayer of the publican to the repentance of the prodigal son, and finally with the clear teaching of the Lord as to what we need to do to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Today's theme, however is more frightening —the expulsion of Adam from Paradise. The stichera sung at last night's Vigil service were certainly a spiritual wake-up call for all of us. We heard of Adam weeping outside the gates of Paradise saying, " Woe is me…I transgressed one commandment of the Master, and now I am deprived of every blessing! " Also, during the matins canon we heard the words, " O miserable soul, thou hast departed far from God through thy carelessness; thou hast been deprived of the delight of Paradise and parted from the angels; thou hast been led down into corruption. How art thou fallen! " Not only are these words frightening for us, but also more importantly, they are true. Nevertheless, the Holy Church, in Her mercy and love for us gives us comfort, even in the simple fact that this Sunday, although frightfully serious in it's theme of Adam's fall and in turn, our own sinfulness, has another, more consoling theme as well, and that is the theme of FORGIVENESS. On this Sunday, we are powerfully reminded that no one is so patient and so merciful as God, but even He does not forgive those who do not repent. And therefore, my beloved, we must constantly repent of our sins, both individually as well as communally. The Holy Church gives us a unique and marvelous opportunity to do this for the next 40 days, for again, I say to you, that the time of the Fast is here! |
| Tweet Нравится Christ is Risen! Part 5a. Tradition Dr. Jeannie Constantinou See Christ is Risen! Part 4 In this lesson Dr. Jeannie addresses a question about the nature of sin, forgiveness, and judgment, then begins the topic of apostolic Tradition regarding Christ’s Resurrection. Photo: Pravoslavie.ru Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life. Today we will continue our discussion on the Resurrection by studying an important passage about the Resurrection found in the New Testament. I did forget to mention in the last podcast when I was talking a little bit about the difference in the perception—in the understanding of sin and the crucifixion in Orthodoxy and Catholicism. I forgot to mention about one of the best resources and easiest resources for learning about Catholicism, and that is the Vatican website which is Vatican.va. Or you can just type in “Vatican website” in a search and it will come up very easily. Well, first of all you can choose the language you want to search in when you type that in, Vatican.va. You’re given an option of various languages. You can click on English, or some other language you prefer, and then you can search for a word in a box which appears on the upper-right side—there’s search engine. For example, you can type in “indulgence” and all kinds of information about indulgences, papal documents, etc. will come up. Or you can type in “canon law” and get all of the canon law, etc. in English. So it’s very useful for learning about Catholicism and “official” Catholic doctrine. Now about the question from the last lesson. My husband, Fr. Costa, does not approve it when I begin the podcast with questions relating to the prior lesson. He thinks I should leave the questions for the end and just begin with the lesson. I prefer to begin with the questions since they are related to what was discussed before, and then proceed to the lesson. But this is the kind of ongoing discussion in our family. If you have an opinion about this, I’d appreciate it if you would let me know… You can contact me by writing to searchthescriptures@ancientfaith.com or on the website. At the podcast site under my picture it says, “author email,” and if you click on that the email address will come up. |
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