| ‘A man of quick temper,’ Scripture says, remember, ‘is not honorable;’ and again, ‘The person who is angry with his brother without cause shall be liable to the hell of fire.’ Should desire for money unbalance our thinking, let us be quick to shun this noxious ailment and expel it for what it is – the root of all evils. Let us be zealous in correcting each of the passions that beset us, so that by avoiding harmful ways and practicing those that are good we may on that dread day be judged worthy of God’s loving kindness, thanks to the grace and mercy of his only-begotten Son, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power and honor, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.” (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 18-45 , pp 196-197) 24 февраля 2015 г. Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также Forgiveness Sunday Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) Forgiveness Sunday Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) This is the very beginning of Great Lent. For whatever we begin in life, we always compose some kind of plan of action, a program of what we have to accomplish and in what order. But here we don’t have to do this; today’s Gospel gives us this program. Earlier, the Holy Church was more often teaching us, but now she is requiring actions from us. Just let us examine the present Gospel attentively, and we will see how simple, how accessible for each of us, and at the same time, how comprehensive these rules are. Forgiving Our Way into Salvation Gabe Martini Forgiving Our Way into Salvation Gabe Martini By pondering our participation in Christ’s life throughout the year—and especially through the season of Great Lent—we can better understand its purpose. Blow The Trumpet in Zion Fr. Barnabas Powell Blow The Trumpet in Zion Fr. Barnabas Powell All too often it’s easy to miss the warnings in my life because my life, my soul, my mind is flooded with my own “voice.” The selfish wants drown out that “still, small voice” that is screaming at me that I am going down a wrong path. Комментарии © 1999-2015 Православие.Ru |
| After his departure from Optina, the Bolsheviks put an occultist into his cell in order to discover, as they thought, the treasures that were hidden there. (It is well known that they made frequent use of occult powers to pursue their ends.) It was night, and a kerosene lamp burned in the cell. The magician-occultist began his spells and, although the lamp continued to burn, the room became dark. At this point a nun who was there took Fr. Nectarius " prayer-rope and made the sign of the cross with it. Immediately it became light, but the magician writhed on the ground in convulsions. As the elder himself said of spiritists: " Finally, when the unfortunate soul with Satan " s help has reached the last step in leading himself astray, he either takes leave of his senses - the man becomes literally irresponsible - or he commits suicide. " On leaving prison, Fr. Nectarius settled in the house of a peasant in the village of Kholmischchi in Bryansk region. Here, although many of his spiritual children visited him, life was very difficult for him. The authorities threatened him with exile to Kamchatka. Elder Nectarius also worked miracles of healing. Eugenia Grigorievna Rymarenko, the wife of Fr. Adrian, later Archbishop Andrew of Rockland, recalls: " I remember during Lent the unusual case of Fr. Adrian " s healing by Batiushka " s prayers. Every evening I sent medicine (powders, mineral water) - from the beginning of Lent he had unbearable abdominal pains. Fearfully, the people were talking among themselves that he would probably be so sick that he wouldn " t even be able to carry out the Cross. He didn " t want to eat non-lenten food, and I didn " t know what to do with him! I wrote to a certain nun in Kozelsk, Anastasia, so that she would ask Batiushka to pray. And then (for, when Fr. Adrian went in the morning to liturgy on the day of the bringing out of the Cross, he still had pains), toward evening everything went away, and the evening church service, with the bringing out of the Cross, passed without his having pains. The pains stopped for a long period of time and didn " t return. Mother Anastasia told me that Batiushka had arranged a short moleben and everyone heard how he prayed for " the sick priest Fr. Adrian " . " |
| " A quite different situation arose with the coming to power of Metropolitan Sergius: between the latter and Fr. Nectarius there was no communication. " Even before the declaration of Metropolitan Sergius, in the same summer of 1927, Professors Komarovich and Anichkov were visiting the elder. During the conversation the elder called Metropolitan Sergius a renovator. When they objected that Sergius had repented, the elder replied: " " Yes, he has repented, but the poison is in him still. " " And according to Archbishop Lazarus of Tambov, the elder said: " Sergianism is worse than renovationism... It is worse because the renovationists repented, but these will not repent, they will become hardened of heart. " Photo: Optina.ru Elder Nectarius sent some of his spiritual children to the churches of those who had separated from Metropolitan Sergius, both in Moscow and in Petrograd. And when he was dying, he said that his body should not be sent to Kozelsk for the burial service, since the brothers in Kozelsk recognized Metropolitan Sergius. " Kozelsk has set off on a false path, " he said. They say that at the time of his arrest, when the authorities demanded that batyushka refuse to receive visitors, all the Optina elders appeared to him and said: " If you want to be with us, do not refuse your spiritual children. " And he did not refuse. The Optina elders appeared to him for the second time when they wanted to take him away from Kholmishchi. At that time they forbade him to leave. Elder Nectarius died on April 29/May 12, 1928 in Kholmishchi. The last rites were given to him by Fr. Adrian Rymarenko, later Archbishop Andrew of Novo-Diveyevo. At the moment of death Fr. Adrian placed his stole over the dying elder. He reposed quietly. He was buried in the local cemetery on May 3/16 by five priests led by Fr. Sergius Mechiev, the future hieromartyr. It was a bright spring day, and a great joy was felt in the hearts of his weeping spiritual children. The elder foreknew his death and bade farewell to his close ones already two months before he died. He blessed them for the last time, gave them some parting counsels and gave them over into the care of this or that spiritual father. After his death he appeared in dreams to his spiritual children. |
| But where is its source? Let’s listen further: When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee (Mk. 2:5). These four had faith in their hearts, and this faith impelled them to make every effort to help; and seeing this faith, Jesus helped. The external happened as a result of the internal. God did not say at once to the paralytic: " Arise, take up thy bed, " but said, " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. " See, not the external first, but the internal. After all, sin was in the heart. A heart paralyzed by sin could not sense God in Christ and could not rightly praise Him. And here Christ healed this heart, made it Orthodox. And then followed the external: I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house (Mk. 2:11). But what would have happened if the Lord had started with the second thing, with the external healing? The paralytic would have gotten up in the same way, would have taken his bed and gone, but only with a heart which was dead from sin. This would have been a living corpse. Here is what the Pharisees could not understand. Whether is it easier , said Christ to them, to say to the paralytic, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins , (He saith to the paralytic) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house (Mk. 2:9-11). To this paralytic the Lord gave both the internal and the external. And he walked home and brought there with him the quiet feeling of the triumph of Orthodoxy. And here, St. Gregory Palamas, to whom this Sunday of Great Lent is dedicated, shows us so clearly by his whole life that Christian life, Orthodox life, always begins in our heart, and only then expresses itself in feats of asceticism. From The One Think Needful Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) 16 марта 2014 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также Second Sunday of Lent, St. |
| In 1927 Fr. Nectarius foretold to Professor I.M. Andreyev that very heavy trials and sufferings lay ahead for him, but that in the end everything would turn out well and he would be free and have the opportunity of working actively for the Orthodox Church. In February, 1929, the professor was arrested for being a member of the Catacomb Church, was exiled to the Solovki labour camps, and then was in exile. But everything turned out well and after the war of 1941-45 he emigrated to America, where he became a professor in the Jordanville theological seminary. Once a young girl came to ask the elder " s blessing to become a nun. But he said: " No, you will have a bridegroom, you will marry, you will bear a child and he will weigh ten pounds. " It turned out exactly as he said. And two years later the girl brought her son to the elder to be blessed. One of Fr. Nectarius " constant visitors relates the following: " Patriarch Tikhon did not visit Fr. Nectarius, and Fr. Nectarius did not visit the patriarch. It seems that there was no correspondence between them. However, it seems that many questions were decided by the patriarch in accordance with the elder " s opinion. People close to both men would convey the elder " s opinion to the patriarch. And he always acted in accordance with his advice. " Or almost always. We know of one case in which the elder criticized a decision of the patriarch " s - his decision in 1922 to allow the church valuables - with the exception of the most sacred vessels used in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy - to be given to the Bolsheviks, supposedly so that they should be sold and the proceeds given to the starving in the Volga region. " You see now, " said the elder to Matushka Evegnia Rymarenko, " the patriarch gave the order to give up all valuables from the churches, but they belonged to the Church! Only don " t say anything about this to Fr. Adrian, please, don " t say anything... " Of course, as I.M. Kontzevich writes, " the position of the patriarch was exceptionally difficult. The authorities were trying to destroy the foundations of Christianity. At this time Optina, under the direction of the elders in general and the last elder, Batiushka Nectarius, in particular, went firmly ahead without deviating to either side. Through the authority of the elder Optina spread its influence into every corner of Russia; for people devoted to the Church poured to it from all sides in spite of the difficulties and dangers. Bishops, priests and laymen addressed the elder both personally and in writing and orally, through other people. They sought the resolution of spiritual, ecclesiastical and everyday questions. The elder " s opinion on this or that question was absolutely authoritative and quickly spread among the truly believing people, who were a support for the patriarch in all his initiatives. |
| In order to heed the words of our Savior, our vision for the future must be built upon the rock-solid spiritual foundation laid out for our Diocese by Archbishop Vitaly, all the First Hierarchs of the Church Abroad, and other pillars of Orthodoxy, such as Archbishops Nikon (Rklitsky), Averky (Taushev), Andrei (Rymarenko), and the countless priests, monks, and laymen who toiled alongside them over the past eight decades. They understood that words, regardless of how eloquent they may be, will not be enough to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. They heeded the words of our Savior when He said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven”(Matthew 7:21). For eighty years, the Diocese has made a great effort to discern the will of the Father, making His will our priority, which has led to our inspiration and joy. Despite the temptations of the outside world, life in the Church has been peaceful and fruitful. Let us look back and remember the hundreds of reverend clergy who were ordained and served our Diocese throughout its 80-year history. How many thousands more were saved through the Holy Church because of these pastors and monastics? Every Divine Liturgy that has been served in all of our churches and monasteries over the course of 80 years has been a triumphal proclamation of Christ’s victory over the world! Every communion of the Holy Mysteries has brought people into the salvific fold of the Church, making them members of the one Body of Christ. Prayer and the divine services are the air that the Church breathes, without which life in Her, and union with Her Head – Christ is impossible! If we continue to live our lives within the saving fold of the Church, we shall have no cause for worry or despair when faced with the trials and temptations of the world, for we know that we are safe with Christ in His Holy Church, against which even “the gates of hell shall never prevail!” |
| The Possessed Gadarene Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) Now the man out of whom the demons were departed besought Him that he might be with Him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to thine own house, and tell what great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him (Lk. 8:38-39). So, brothers and sisters, ends today’s Gospel reading where, as you heard, the Lord tells the healed man to reveal the mystery of his healing before all the Gadarene people. And this is what he did. The Gospel does not tell us how he related what had happened to him; but according to the meaning of the Gospel narrative, we can fully imagine what he must have said and what he most likely did say. Here is what he must have said: You Gadarenes have known me from my childhood. I was born among you and grew up among you, in your Gadarene land, a land of transgression. You have seen what happened. You lived not according to the Law which God revealed to you, but according to your lawlessness. In your desire for riches and comfort you engaged in a sinful trade, a trade which was not blessed by God. You raised pigs. You had whole herds of them, and yet according to the Law, they are unclean animals. God punished you and gave you over to the power of the devil. And by the incomprehensible Providence of God, all this demonic power lodged in me alone—I bore your punishment. I was changed from a human being into a beast. I couldn’t live in houses—I lived in a desert place, in a cave where the dead were buried. You bound me with chains, and I broke them. There wasn’t just one devil within me but a whole legion of devils; as you saw in reality when He Who healed me permitted the demons to enter your herd of pigs, which threw itself from the precipice into the lake and drowned. Yes, now you can truly imagine why I caused so much evil and trouble. There was a terrible power in me. The devils took possession of all my human passions and brought them to a monstrous state. That is why I hated you so savagely, why I wanted to torment you, destroy you. |
| The Rite of Forgiveness Brothers and sisters! What the Holy Church asks us to perform right now is no longer a thought or a feeling, but an action, a deed. Thoughts and feelings have been cultivated in us for the past weeks. In fact this is the way t always happens: thought gives birth to feeling, and feeling gives birth to action. And this action is of special importance. Listen: " If ye forgive not men...neither will your [Heavenly] Father forgive you " (Mt. 6:15). This means that our fasting and going to church and prostrations, in fact all our devotions, will be in vain. That’s how important this first step is. But it is not easy. To do it in words only, just for the sake of decency, for the sake of formality, might not be difficult. But what is the good of that? However, really to make this step, to recognize that we are worse than others, worse than everyone, truly guilty before everyone (and after all, this is how it is: each of us is guilty before everyone, in everything, and for everything), to come to this realization is very, very difficult. And to consider the guilt of another before us as nothing, as if it did not exist, and maybe was even provoked by us — this is still more difficult. Even in the Lives of the Saints we read examples of how great strivers and confessors were not able to do this, and thereby ruined everything. And even more for us sinners is the special help of God needed to forgive and to ask forgiveness sincerely, from our whole heart, to draw out of it our self-love, our self-justifying " I. " But we have to do this, the Lord requires it of us, the Lord is waiting. Without this effort within ourselves we cannot begin Lent. So let us ask for forgiveness and forgive from our whole heart. And here, as the first one, I ask you: Forgive me! From The One Thing Needful Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) 1 марта 2014 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Смотри также Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| Tweet Нравится Second Sunday of Lent, St. Gregory Palamas Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) V. Morgon. Apostle Philip and Nathanael. Engraving. Brothers and sisters, we have lived this week in the light of last Sunday—the Triumph of Orthodoxy. A wonderful feature was pointed out to us in the Gospel, which was then read: Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? (Jn. 1:45-46). Both of them, Philip and Nathanael, wanted to believe in the right way, praise God rightly, that is, to be Orthodox. But for them it meant first of all to determine who was the true Messiah. With such an intention they approached Christ. Seeing Nathanael, Christ said, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael saith unto Him, whence knowest Thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee (Jn. 1:47-48). What happened under the fig tree we do not know. But we do know that Christ hit on just the right point, got right to the heart of this man. Here is Nathanael’s answer: Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God (Jn. 1:49). Nathanael truly and rightly praised Christ, and in this way he became the first Orthodox man. And all because Christ touched his heart, touched something intimate lying deep, deep within Nathanael’s heart. The triumph of Orthodoxy always starts in a person’s heart, and only afterwards is it expressed externally. True, sometimes there are cases when the external attracts the heart, as if waking it up. But for this to happen, there must be something in the heart, which makes such an awakening possible. God demands our heart. To serve God without heart, Orthodoxy without heart—this is the same as a man without heart. And here today’s Gospel speaks about the same thing. A paralytic was brought to the Lord, carried by four people. Unable to get near Christ because of the multitude, they removed the roof of the house, broke through and lowered the bed on which the paralytic was lying. See how difficult it all was. This is the fulfillment of the commandment of love in external life. Yes, such is life in the triumph of Orthodoxy. |
| Календарь Материалы 5 октября 2014 г. [Встреча с Православием/Проповеди] Иеромонах Иов (Гумеров) Сегодняшнее воскресное Евангелие повествует о том, как Господь призвал первый четырех апостолов. [Встреча с Православием/Проповеди] Святитель Николай (Велимирович) Вся ежедневная жизнь человеческая полна уроков постоянства. Только с помощью постоянства воин добивается победы, ремесленник - совершенства в своем ремесле, торговец - богатства, священник - исправления нравов в своем приходе. English Edition [Homilies and Spiritual Instruction] Archbishop Andrei (Rymarenko) And here, today’s Gospel about the miraculous catch of fish shows us how that same talent (according to the Gospel’s expression, used in " trade " (Mt. 25:16), which means applied to life) is manifested in absolute obedience and trust in the word of the Lord and produces the fruit of faith. But what is faith? What does the process of faith consist of? We are given the answer to this in today’s Gospel (Lk. 5:1-11). Српска bepзuja [Вести] У уторак 7. октобра 2014. године навршава се година дана од саборног храма Христовог у Подгорици, а тим поводом организовано низ Свети владика Охридски и Жички Сваким чудом Бог жели прво, да опомене да Он будно бди над светом овим по и мудрости; и друго, да не могу без никакво добро учинити. [Вести] До рата су чинили 8% становништва те 1.8 милиона. Око 450 током 3 године сукоба отишло из Новости 5 октября 2014 г. |
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