| As a result of her participation in WWI, Russia suffered financial ruin and widespread demoralization. There was a huge number of casualties at the front, and back at home there was widespread famine, while the empire fell apart at the seams. Already Russia was suffering much turmoil from some members of the aristocracy and intelligentsia who had turned their backs on Christ and Orthodoxy, and who instigated revolution, dissent and a reign of terror and murder of government officials. The last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, was on his way back from the front when he was convinced to abdicate in favor of his brother, the Grand Duke Michael. When Michael refused to accept the throne, the monarchy collapsed, signaling the final deathblow to the Great Russian Empire. What resulted was sheer anarchy and chaos. There was widespread looting, crime and destruction, while various revolutionary groups struggled for control of the government. The sailors in Kronstadt revolted, the criminals were freed from the prisons, and the local police and militia were unable to maintain control and order. There was a massive work stoppage and strikes by factory workers and other laborers. The beautiful and magnificent city of St. Petersburg turned into a filthy and dangerous pig sty. Garbage piled up in the streets. Stores, hotels and various places of business were looted and trashed. Food was scarce. Symbols of the monarchy were destroyed or desecrated, as well as various churches and holy shrines. It was not safe for anyone to walk on the streets without fear of being shot, robbed, assaulted or arrested by the various revolutionary factions vying for control. Eventually the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were the victors. This resulted in a civil war between the Red Army (Communists or Bolsheviks) and the White Army (those who were loyal to the monarchy). The Communists emerged victorious. Atheist in ideology, the Communists began a widespread assault and attempt to eradicate all vestiges of the monarchy and the Orthodox Church. Members of the aristocracy and clergy were arrested and either executed or sent to perish in forced labor camps. The churches and monasteries were all closed, looted and desecrated. |
| Скачать epub pdf The City of God (Book III) As in the foregoing book Augustine has proved regarding moral and spiritual calamities, so in this book he proves regarding external and bodily disasters, that since the foundation of the city the Romans have been continually subject to them; and that even when the false gods were worshipped without a rival, before the advent of Christ, they afforded no relief from such calamities. Chapter 1.– Of the Ills Which Alone the Wicked Fear, and Which the World Continually Suffered, Even When the Gods Were Worshipped. Of moral and spiritual evils, which are above all others to be deprecated, I think enough has already been said to show that the false gods took no steps to prevent the people who worshipped them from being overwhelmed by such calamities, but rather aggravated the ruin. I see I must now speak of those evils which alone are dreaded by the heathen– famine, pestilence, war, pillage, captivity, massacre, and the like calamities, already enumerated in the first book. For evil men account those things alone evil which do not make men evil; neither do they blush to praise good things, and yet to remain evil among the good things they praise. It grieves them more to own a bad house than a bad life, as if it were man " s greatest good to have everything good but himself. But not even such evils as were alone dreaded by the heathen were warded off by their gods, even when they were most unrestrictedly worshipped. For in various times and places before the advent of our Redeemer, the human race was crushed with numberless and sometimes incredible calamities; and at that time what gods but those did the world worship, if you except the one nation of the Hebrews, and, beyond them, such individuals as the most secret and most just judgment of God counted worthy of divine grace? But that I may not be prolix, I will be silent regarding the heavy calamities that have been suffered by any other nations, and will speak only of what happened to Rome and the Roman empire, by which I mean Rome properly so called, and those lands which already, before the coming of Christ, had by alliance or conquest become, as it were, members of the body of the state. Chapter 2.– Whether the Gods, Whom the Greeks and Romans Worshipped in Common, Were Justified in Permitting the Destruction of Ilium. |
| 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 Self-Knowledge as a Path to God: On Sts. Sergius and Herman of Valaam Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia 11 July 2012 His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, delivered the following sermon during the Divine Liturgy at Valaam Monastery’s Transfiguration Cathedral on July 11, 2011, at which Archimandrite Savva (Mikheev) was consecrated Bishop of Voskresensk. Today we celebrate the memory of the Holy Venerable Fathers Sergius and Herman, the great God-pleasers who came here in times of great difficulty for Rus’, when a formidable enemy had begun to ravage the south. With the once-flourishing centers of Russian Orthodoxy falling into ruin under this onerous occupation, the fact that the spiritual center began to move from the south to the north was of providential significance. Those who founded the monastery here did not face any external enemies, but they did face enormous difficulties in establishing the monastic life. The severe climate, the isolation, and the pagan surroundings all created practically insurmountable obstacles to spreading the word of God. The labors of the Holy Venerable Fathers Sergius and Herman were also overshadowed by the fact that Swedish missionaries had preached in these parts several decades before their arrival. They sought to convert the local pagan Karelians to Christianity, not hesitating to use military force to this end. The freedom-loving and peaceful Karelian people were so repulsed by this preaching of Christ that it seemed impossible to undo their firm rejection of the new faith. But little by little, through their personal labors – and, above all, because the monastery founded by Sts. Sergius and Herman had become a beacon to the world – everything changed. The local inhabitants, stern and suspicious of the preaching of the new faith, poured into the monastery. Valaam became a missionary center for the enlightenment of the north of historical Rus’ with Orthodoxy. |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Metropolitan Hilarion speaks at International Conference in Tula State University On 22 May 2014, the 6 th International Theological Conference on ‘Role of the Russian Orthodox Church in History and Culture of Russia: Traditions and the Present Time’ at the Tula State University. Taking part in the conference on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. rector of the Ss Cyril and Methodius Church Post-Graduate Institute and a permanent member of the Holy Synod; Metropolitan Alexiy of Tula and Yefremov; Bishop Serafim of Belev and Aleksin; and archpriest Lev Makhno, head of the Theology Chair of the Tula University. Metropolitan Hilarion presented a report, in which he spoke of the role the Russian Orthodox Church has played in Russia. He believes that people should know traditional values thus being able to oppose the forces which justify sin and ruin human souls. After a historical excursus, Metropolitan Hilarion underscored the importance of culture as a liaison between the Church and the state. He said that the Russian Church gives people models of the true cultural development and – more important – gives examples of extraordinary spiritual rise. He reminded the audience of the 700th anniversary of St. Sergius of Radonezh celebrated this year and spoke about his life and deeds. Metropolitan Hilarion said in conclusion that the Russian Orthodox Church exerted influence on the shaping of national statehood and Russian culture, which, thanks to Orthodoxy, is unique. He emphasized that the Russian Church supports cultural tradition as a connecting link between modern men and the glorious history of the Fatherland. On May 23, the conference will continue its work in sections. Print publication Share: Page is available in the following languages Feedback |
| Pro-marriage revolution building in France: up to 1 million march Paris, May 28, 2013 Analysis The French have done it again. Two weeks after same-sex “marriage” became legal, the odds seemed against a major turnout for the latest national demonstration against the new law. And the minister of the Interior, Manuel Valls, certainly did his best to discourage would-be participants from joining the march: all day Saturday, he sent out alarming messages on television and on the radio warning that in view of expected violence families with children would do best to stay at home. But on Sunday, organizers estimated that up to a million people marched from three different points in Paris towards the Invalides, including large numbers of young people and families with children and babies in push-cars. One mother answering the press said she had originally intended to come without her kids – Valls’ intimidation tactics encouraged her to bring them along. The estimate given by organizers is more than six times the number given out by the ministry of the Interior. However, having walked in the dense crowds from the Austerlitz station to Invalides and seen photos and films of the other two walks, a million seems more plausible than the “150,000” noted by the police – and Valls has proved over recent months that minimizing participation statistics by any means is a specialty of his administration. Not to mention hampering and hindrances of all kinds: the number of regional trains coming in from the western suburbs where many more conservative families live was unexplainably halved on Sunday without notice, and specially hired coaches coming in from the north of Paris were stopped for customs controls. The spirit of the marches was grave and determined, but as always largely peaceful. Less than two weeks previous, riots broke out in Paris when fans of the Paris Saint-Germain soccer club were to celebrate the clubs victory in the national football league: hundreds of ethnic youths from the suburbs came to join (and ruin) the party, burning cars, smashing shop windows and placing the more luxurious parts of Paris in a state of siege. The riots only gave rise to 21 arrests and the government was heavily criticized for not having handled the crisis adequately – the police was even called away when the “disturbances” began. Manuel Valls capitalized on those incidents by announcing that on May 26th, when the “well-behaved French” who pay their taxes and leave demonstration venues impeccably unscathed came for their rally, he would deploy 4,500 law enforcement officers to prevent the “violence” he was expecting - not to say hoping for. |
| Tweet Нравится Holy Martyrs of Kvabtakhevi Monastery (†1386) Memory 10 (23) April Holy Martyrs of Kvabtakhevi Monastery. Holy Martyrs of Kvabtakhevi Monastery. In the 14th century, during the reign of King Bagrat V (1360–1394), Timur (Tamerlane) invaded Georgia seven times. His troops inflicted irreparable damage on the country, seizing centuries-old treasures and razing ancient churches and monasteries. Timur’s armies ravaged Kartli, then took the king, queen, and the entire royal court captive and sent them to Karabakh (in present-day Azerbaijan). Later Timur attempted to entice King Bagrat to renounce the Christian Faith in exchange for permission to return to the throne and for the release of the other Georgian prisoners. For some time Timur was unable to subjugate King Bagrat, but in the end, being powerless and isolated from his kinsmen, the king began to falter. He devised a sly scheme: to confess Islam before the enemy, but to remain a Christian at heart. Satisfied with King Bagrat’s decision to “convert to Islam,” Timur permitted the king to return to the throne of Kartli. At the request of King Bagrat, Timur sent twelve thousand troops with him to complete Georgia’s forcible conversion to Islam. When they were approaching the village of Khunani in southeastern Georgia, Bagrat secretly informed his son Giorgi of everything that had happened and called upon him and his army to massacre the invaders. The news of Bagrat’s betrayal and the ruin of his army infuriated Timur, and he called for immediate revenge. At their leader’s command, his followers destroyed everything in their path, set fire to cities and villages, devastated churches, and thus forced their way through to Kvabtakhevi Monastery. Monastics and laymen alike were gathered in Kvabtakhevi when the enemy came thundering in. Having forced open the gate, the attackers burst into the monastery, then plundered and seized all its treasures. They captured the young and strong, carrying them away. Kvabtakhevi Church in southeastern Georgia. Kvabtakhevi Church in southeastern Georgia. The old and infirm were put to the sword. As the greatest humiliation, they mocked the clergy and monastics by strapping them with sleigh bells and jumping and dancing around them. |
| The Fathers’ Response to the Three Kinds of Impulsivity Hieromonk Alexis (Trader) In our ever-changing, fast-paced contemporary world that rewards Type-A aggressive behavior and a results-oriented lifestyle, impulsivity can become our default mode for interacting with the world. This “ready-fire-aim” approach to life can be framed as quick reflexes and speedy adaptation needed for success and getting ahead. Of course, if one’s gut reactions are wrong, that same approach can be one’s ruin. Impulsivity, however, is not just about being an active, carpe-diem sort of person. Acting on the spur of the moment is only one of the measures of impulsivity used by psychologists. Other expressions of impulsivity include the inability to focus on a given task and difficulty with careful planning. In technical terms used in measures of impulsivity such as the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, psychologists refer to these factors as motor, attentional, and planning impulsiveness (Dougherty, Bjork, Marsh, & Moeller, 2000). In each case, something else other than what we started to do grabs our attention and almost immediately we “decide” or rather let our impulse decide that that thing or that thought is desirable. And so without further ado or further reflection, we move our muscles, our intentions, and our thoughts in the direction that our impulses suggest. In many cases, the reward for giving in to our impulses is immediate, and so we learn to follow this easy, effortless behavioral pathway so much so that we may find ourselves having trouble getting anything done or even worse we may feel as though we are no longer really in control of ourselves. In our political discourse, we see planning impulsivity when simplistic solutions are favored over patience and negotiation. In our news media, we see a tipping of the hat to attentional impulsivity when information concerning daily events is delivered in terms of sound bites and easily digestible slogans. In our online activity, we see motor impulsivity when we surf the net clicking on link after link with no real forethought of where we might really be going. Often, we see all three kinds of impulsivity in our own selves: for instance when we open the refrigerator while daydreaming and forget about plans to diet. Such innocent impulsivity may not be a major problem, but when it is, it can disrupt our lives and the lives of others. |
| Rogue monks vanquished in battle over Fayoum monastery March 15, 2015 A decades-long battle for control of the St. Macarius of Alexandria Monastery in Fayoum may have finally drawn to a close on Friday, with the rogue monks that walled the monastery off to the world finally conceding power to the Coptic Orthodox Church — and, hence, the state. The dispute dates back to the 1960s, according to Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher on religious freedoms at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). As Ibrahim shows in a timeline posted to his Facebook page, a group of 10 monks first built the monastery in Fayoum’s Wadi Rayan area between 1960 and 1969. They established a number of residential buildings and a small chapel, only to abandon them at the end of the decade due to harsh living conditions. In 1996, a new group of monks rehabilitated the area, which had been declared a natural reserve and thus fell under the Ministry of Environment’s jurisdiction. Security forces reportedly clashed with the monks when they brought construction materials into the reserve to build three new churches atop the original structures, which had fallen into ruin. The late Pope Shenouda III was reluctant to intercede due to a dispute he had with the monks in question, according to Ibrahim. Moreover, the church had not officially recognized the monastery. “Following the January 25 revolution, the monks seized large areas of the Wadi Rayan reserve and built an 8 km-long wall isolating a number of natural springs and hundreds of acres of land. Another battle ensued between the monks, the Ministry of Environment and local residents over control over the land,” Ibrahim continued. “After Pope Shenouda died, the newly appointed Pope Tawadros II attempted to solve the problem by assigning a new abbot to the monastery,” Ibrahim explained. “But the monastery possessed huge financial potential, and the monks were divided between those determined to maintain its independence, and a group that supported the abbot tapped by the pope.” |
| 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 Regular session of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Synod takes place in Kiev Source: DECR Natalya Mihailova 21 June 2014 On 19 June 2014, a session of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church took place in the Synodal Hall of the Kievan Laura of the Caves under the chairmanship of Metropolitan Onufriy of Chernovtsy and Bukovina, Locum Tenens of the Kievan Metropolitan See. Before the session members of the Synod visited His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir of Kiev and All Ukraine who is undergoing medical treatment. Heard at the session were reports of Metropolitan Hilarion of Donetsk and Mariupol and Metropolitan Mitrofan of Lugansk and Alchevsk on the situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Cordial gratitude was expressed to the bishops, cleric and monastics who continue their ministry there at the difficult time. It was resolved to raise money for humanitarian aid to the civilians and to victims of the military conflict in the regions. The members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church were asked to ardently pray for the cessation of discord and enmity among people and for peace and tranquility to be granted to the people of Ukraine. An address to President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine was adopted, mentioned in which were attempts to ruin interreligious accord in the state by attacks and attempts to destroy churches and places of worship. The need was underscored for ensuring impartial attitude to all religious organizations and for truthful coverage of their activities in the media.’ On behalf of the clerics and laymen of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions the Holy Synod asked the President ‘to take all possible measures to stop the bloodshed of which civilians are suffering and to begin peace talks.’ An appeal to the bishops, clerics, the monastics and laymen was also adopted. ‘Our Church unites people of different languages and cultures. Members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church live in the east, west, north and south of Ukraine. WE do not divide our flock on political, national or social grounds. We are one in Christ,’ the document says. The importance of pastoral ministry aimed at the achievement of peace and accord was underscored. Text of the prayer for peace and cessation of internecine strife was approved for reading in the churches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. |
| 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 On Good Intentions Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) 27 June 2013 Question : What is the origin of the expression “the path to hell is paved with good intentions”? Is it true? Reply : This expression has now become proverbial. The closest source is the two-volume memoir-biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson, by James Boswell (1740-1795), which appeared in 1791. The author states that Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) said in 1775: “Hell is paved with good intentions.” The only difference is that the proverb speaks of the path to hell, whereas Johnson speaks of hell itself. It appears that the author of the aphorism – an English critic, lexicographer, essayist, and poet – relied on a dictum made earlier by the Anglican priest and metaphysical poet George Herbert (1593-1633) in his book Jacula prudentium (Latin, “Aphorisms of the Wise”): “Hell is full of good meanings and wishings.” All three expressions share in common the idea that wishes and intentions are insufficient for salvation. This is in full agreement with the teachings of the Holy Fathers. Above all one must have faith: But without faith it is impossible to please Him (Heb 11:6). In the words of St. Ephraim the Syrian: “without oil a lamp will not burn; and without faith no one will acquire a good thought.” How many utopias, radical movements, revolutionary programs, and the like the world has seen, the leaders and participants of which have wanted to attain human “happiness” without God and against God, relying on their fallen reason. History maintains the sad and tragic memory of this. Individuals, too, blinded by unbelief, wanting to fulfill intentions that seemed good to them, have often caused evil and pain to those around them. Faith is necessary, but it must be correct faith. Error and delusions can be many, but truth is always one. People who are motivated by mistaken religious doctrine are certain that their intentions are good, but their false spirituality leads them to ruin. All religious falsehoods are performed with the participation of demonic forces. |
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