| Bangladesh Christians call on Pakistan to pardon Asia Bibi Source: AsiaNews.it The Bangladesh Christian Association (BCA) sent an official letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Islamabad must understand " the link between Asia Bibi " s death sentence and that of Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, " murdered by Muslim extremists for defending her. Natalya Mihailova 06 November 2014 Dhaka (AsiaNews) - Christians in Bangladesh stand with Asia Bibi and ask Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to grant a pardon. Yesterday Nirmol Rozario, general secretary of the Bangladesh Christian Association (BCA), sent an official letter to the prime minister, expressing “deep concern” over the fate of the Christian mother of five, sentenced to death for blasphemy . After years in prison in solitary confinement “for security reasons”, the Lahore High Court on 16 October upheld the death sentence imposed by a lower court on Asia Bibi. In 2011, Islamic extremists killed Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, a Muslim, and Federal Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic), for defending her. “We like to draw attention of the Government of Pakistan, including lawmakers, politicians, civil society and the people of Pakistan to this connection,” namely “the link between the case of Asia Bibi and what happened to these two political leaders,” Mr Rozario said in the letter. “Our fear,” he added, “is that the blasphemy laws are often used against Christians and minorities.” Hence, Bangladesh Christians call on the government of Pakistan to “address the issue from the point of view of human rights and the defence of humanity, granting this woman a pardon to save her life.” Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Bangladesh Christians call on Pakistan to pardon Asia Bibi Natalya Mihailova The Bangladesh Christian Association (BCA) sent an official letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Islamabad must understand " the link between Asia Bibi " s death sentence and that of Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti, " murdered by Muslim extremists for defending her |
| Tweet Нравится The Life of Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop of Verea Andrei Gorbachev Priest Alexei Troitsky with his wife and sons Vladimir (right) and Dmitri Vladimir Alexeevich Troitsky, the future archbishop and hieromartyr, was born on December 13, 1886 (Old Style) into the family of Alexei Troitsky, a parish priest of the village of Lipitsy in the Kashirsky ouyezd (district), the Province ( gubernia ) of Tula. Lipitsy was “a large village, dvukhstatnoe (that is, having two regular priests at the parish church—A.G.), five to six kilometers downstream on the River Oka from Serpukhov.” In October 1923 the Kashirsky ouezd was incorporated into the Province of Moscow. For this reason, some biographers have mistakenly related Archbishop Hilarion’s birthplace to the Province of Moscow, which, incidentally, Vladyka Hilarion himself would hardly have regarded as a mistake: “The people from Lipitsy, you know, are Muscovites,” he wrote from his isolation cell in Yaroslavl’, “That means that I have become a native Muscovite!” Besides the eldest, Vladimir, there were four other children in Fr. Alexei Troitsky’s family: Dmitri, Alexei, Olga, and Sophia. Dmitri (born on October 6 Old Style, 1887) became a monk after graduating from the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy, with the name of Daniel. Later he became the vicar of the Orlovsky and Smolensk Eparchies, and after that, the Bishop of Orel and Archbishop of Briansk. Like his older brother, Archbishop Daniel was an active opponent of the Renovationist schism—a confessor. The legacy of prisons and exiles, serious and wasting illness became the cause of Vladyka Daniel’s early death on March 17, 1934. He had been told about the day of his death by an appearance of angels. Before his death he received Holy Unction and communed of the Holy Mysteries. Alexei (born on March 24 Old Style, 1891) became a priest, taking the place of his father, who died in 1917. Later, like his elder brother, he was subjected to repressions, and on September 2, 1937 was shot at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. |
| Monotheism. Part 2: Judaism Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) Part 1 Judaism: a Retreat from Biblical Monotheism The history of the Jewish people is clearly divided into two periods: before and after the expiatory death of Jesus Christ. As the Sacrifice for the sins of the world had not yet been carried out, Old Testament history continued, the entire meaning of which consisted in waiting and preparation to meet the coming Savior. Messianic expectations were particularly pronounced during the last decades before the arrival of the Savior into the world. People not only in Jerusalem, but also in other cities and villages of Palestine, waited for the Messiah foretold in the Holy Scripture. Christ and the Pharisees Time was fulfilled. The Messiah came, but Jewish leaders, Pharisees, and Sadducees condemned him to death. But why were the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes offended? Why was it enough for the Samaritan woman to reveal the secret side of her life for her to gladly believe that the traveler standing beside her, weary from the road and asking her for water, was Christ (see John 4:42)? Why did the Pharisees and scribes, who were witnesses to the magnificent miracles performed by Jesus and knew the Scriptures better than anyone else, stubbornly refuse to recognize Christ? Finally, one more question: why did they hate Him, despite the fact that he delivered many people from terrible disease and suffering? The answer must be sought in the peculiarities and character of the spiritual life of the leaders of Israel. Religious life demands of a person self-attentiveness, moral sensitivity, humility, and pure intentions. Without this, the heart gradually hardens. A change inevitably occurs, the consequences of which are spiritual death. “The Jews imagined the Messiah as a powerful earthly king, who would exalt the them above all nations and make them wealthy and powerful.” Already before the beginning of our Savior’s Gospel of the Heavenly Kingdom, the Jews had begun to imagine the Messiah as a powerful earthly king, who would exalt them above all nations and make them wealthy and powerful. This concept of the Messiah corresponded to their spiritual and moral condition. |
| You Won’t Believe How This Pro-Life Doctor Saved a Woman’s Baby Midway Through an Abortion Source: LifeNews.com Advancements in science and medical technology have proven to be great gifts to the pro-life movement time and time again. Doctors are able to routinely deliver premature babies at earlier and earlier stages of development. Innovations in sonogram imaging have provided a window to the womb enabling expectant mothers to see their unborn children face to face. We also have the ability to hear the unborn baby’s tiny heartbeat. These glimpses at the baby’s humanity have inspired countless numbers of mothers to reject abortion and choose life. However, until now, once a pregnant woman selected a chemically-induced abortion, there was little hope that the unborn child would survive. Now, a new medical advancement is saving lives in a previously unimaginable way. Dr. George Delgado, medical director at the Culture of Life Family Health Care in San Diego, California, has been instrumental in developing a technique to reverse what was the inevitably fatal effect of the RU-486 abortion pill. Dr. Delgado’s story began when he received a call from a friend in El Paso, Texas, who informed him about a woman who had taken the abortion pill but immediately regretted the decision. At the 2015 American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) conference, Dr. Delgado told attendees, “I started thinking about my years of experience with progesterone, and how I’d used progesterone to try to prevent miscarriage.” The protocol calls for taking the injectable progesterone as soon as possible after taking the mifepristone. Dr. Mary Davenport, another pro-life physician at the forefront of this new innovation, explained how chemical abortions involve two drugs: “Medical [chemical] abortion is actually performed in early pregnancy with TWO pills, the first – RU-486 – mifepristone or Mifeprex, antagonizes the hormone progesterone, which is necessary for pregnancy. This cuts off the nutritional supply to the pregnancy, ending in the unborn baby’s death. One or two days later the woman takes a second pill, misoprostol or Cytotec, which causes uterine contractions and expels the pregnancy. Medical abortion is frequently a horrible experience for the women, lasting up to 2-4 weeks with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hemorrhage, and intense pain.” |
| U.S. citizen rushes to Sudan to save pregnant wife from hanging for Christian faith/Православие.Ru U.S. citizen rushes to Sudan to save pregnant wife from hanging for Christian faith Sudan, May 19, 2014 Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, right, is seen with her husband Daniel Wani. A New Hampshire man has returned to his native Sudan in a desperate bid to save his pregnant wife from hanging. Daniel Wani, a Sudanese immigrant with U.S. citizenship, is now fighting for his wife's life after she was jailed with their 18-month-old son and sentenced to death for refusing to recant her Christian faith. " I'm just praying for God. He can do a miracle, " Wani's distraught brother,Gabriel Wani, told WMUR of his brother's recent travels from their home in Manchester. Meriam Ibrahim, 26, who's eight months pregnant, was sentenced to death Thursday after convicted of " apostasy. " Because of the Islamic court's refusal to acknowledge her 2011 marriage to Wani, who's a Christian, she was also sentenced to receive 100 lashes for adultery. As in many Muslim nations, Muslim women in Sudan are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims, though Muslim men can marry outside their faith. By law, children must follow their father's religion. Ibrahim's father was Muslim but he left her mother, who was an Orthodox Christian from Ethiopia, when she was a child, according to her family's attorney, Al-Shareef Ali al-Shareef Mohammed. She was consequently raised Christian. The tribunal where the trial against Ibrahim for apostasy took place in Khartoum, Sudan, is seen. The Islamic court also sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery because they refuse to acknowledge her marriage to her Christian husband. Ibrahim was given four days to repent, accept Islam as her religion and ultimately escape death, said Mohammed, but it was an offer she refused. Mohammed said he intends to appeal Ibrahim's conviction. " The judge has exceeded his mandate when he ruled that Meriam's marriage was void because her husband was out of her faith, " Mohammed told The Associated Press. " He was thinking more of Islamic Shariah laws than of the country's laws and its constitution. " |
| Tatiana Boriskina, a parishioner of the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Moscow, is an amazing person. Having experienced clinical death at age forty, she came to believe in God and began going to church. From that time on, her entire life has been bound up with service to people. Despite serious health problems, she finds the strength to teach Sunday school, correspond with prisoners, give long distance lessons on the New Testament, and, what is most difficult, conduct study sessions on the fundamentals of Orthodox culture in juvenile detention center No 5, where underage offenders are detained for investigation of crimes. Not long ago Tatiana Pavlovna graduated from the St. Tikhon Orthodox Humanitarian University and defended her work on the theme of “Neo-paganism in the penitentiary institutions of the Russian Federation,” and “Apostatizing from the Orthodox Church is spiritual death (from examples of discussions with juvenile criminals in Investigative Isolation prison No. 5).” Tatiana Pavlovna talks about the joys and complications of her service and her not-so-simple pupils. Tatiana Boriskina “My first university degree was in elementary school education, then I received my language education in English and Spanish, and later I graduated from St. Tikhon’s. I taught classes on Old and New Testament in Sunday school at the Church of the Life Creating Trinity in the Konkova [district of Moscow],” Tatiana Pavlovna says about herself. Our talk began with a conversation on indifference, which is characteristic of modern man. After all, we have everything we need, and all is well with us. So we begin to think about whether we should go to church on Sunday—some have aches and pains, and are generally tired after the workweek. In prison it is entirely different. Prisoners have realized much, and it has all gone through the heart. If they have faith it is earnest. They go to confession, and are eager to go to church. —There were many leaders of radical teenage gangs—they are the ones who would eventually attend every class. They could not understand what was happening to them; I had to call them for individual discussions, to explain, and there were often disputes in the groups on this subject. Later many were baptized and escaped from their former demonic state. You can’t call it by any other name—after all, satan was appearing to some of them on a daily basis. |
| In the life of St. Olga, honored by the Church on July 11/24, we read that after the murder of her husband, prince of Kiev Igor, she behaved with incredible cruelty and avenged not only to the killers but also to the whole tribe to which they belonged. Many saints, before the final decision to embrace the Christian faith, had shown toughness, misanthropy and sin. So find application the Biblical words: “where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom. 5,20). Where the size of sin seemed scary, the grace of God appeared much greater than previously. Something similar occurs in the life of the Russian Princess Olga, which was adorned with the nickname “Isapostolos” (that is, equal to Apostles), just as Constantine the Great. In the life of St. Olga, honored by the Church on July 11/24, we read that after the murder of her husband, prince of Kiev Igor, she behaved with incredible cruelty and avenged not only to the killers but also to the whole tribe to which they belonged. Saint Olga received by Emperor Constantine VII, byzantine manuscript, 12th century After Olga was initiated into the Christian faith, she traveled to Constantinople where she was received with honors by the emperor Constantine VII the Porphyrogénntos, and is said to have received the baptism by patriarch Polyeuktos and taken the name Helen. Returning to Kiev, although she tried to indoctrinate her son Svetoslav (945-972) to Christianity, he stubbornly remained pagan. When her son took over the reins of the state, Olga lived “for some years in deep peace, enjoying love of her son and people, likewise thanksgiving.” During this time she tried to pass on the evangelical light to her grandchildren, but she didn’t manage to baptize them, because of their father’s opposition. But one of them, Vladimir, after her death (969 AD), following the shining example of his grandmother, by decree urged state residents to be baptized in the Dnieper River. So officially began the Christianization of the Russian people through the insight and prayers of St. Olga, the Equal to the Apostles. |
| Following In Christ’s Steps Source: Praying in the Rain Life on the earth is often referred to as a valley of tears because suffering is universal. Atheists, Moslems, Christians, agnostics, Jews… It doesn’t matter. Everyone suffers. What then is the difference? What is this mystery that transforms suffering into Glory and Resurrection? Archpriest Michael Gillis 12 August 2020 Photo: https://vk.com/simbirskaya_mitropolia Immediately after the Apostle Peter recognizes Jesus as the Christ (something revealed to him from heaven), Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that He must be rejected and killed, (something inspired in Peter by satan). Even the Apostle Peter, even immediately after a heavenly revelation, could not accept that the way we enter into the Father’s Glory, the way we experience the Resurrection, is through suffering and death. Jesus, however, assures us that it is the way. We see the Kingdom of God coming in power by taking up our cross and following Christ (Mark 8:27-9:1). I am so like Peter. I am sure that there is another way, another way to enter into Glory, a way other than asceticism, a way other than suffering, a way other than the Cross. But Jesus tells us that there is no other way. Asceticism and suffering are ubiquitous. Life on the earth is often referred to as a valley of tears because suffering is universal. Atheists, Moslems, Christians, agnostics, Jews… It doesn’t matter. Everyone suffers. What then is the difference? What is this mystery that transforms suffering into Glory and Resurrection? Essential in the Christian understanding of Christ’s suffering is the fact that He suffered voluntarily. That Christ could have said no, that Christ could have called twelve legions of angels, that Christ prayed, “nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done”: these facts are evidence of the voluntary nature of Christ’s suffering. Moreover, Jesus Himself said, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10: 17-18). And that Christ’s suffering is voluntary grants us some insight into this mystery of the transformation of suffering into Glory and death into Resurrection. |
| John Anthony McGuckin St. Nicholas the Wonderworker MARIA GWYN MCDOWELL A “super-saint” (Onasch 1963:205) in whom the “Church sees ... a personification of a shepherd, of its defender and intercessor” (Ouspensky and Lossky 1982: 120), the received story of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is a conflation of the 4th- century Nicholas of Myra and the historical 6th- century Nicholas of Sion (d. 564). Nicholas of Sion’s cult was well established by the end of the 6th century, aided by his Life written soon after his death by a disciple (Sevcenko and Sevcenko 1985: 11). To this abbot of the Monastery of Holy Sion and later bishop of Pinara belong the popular birth miracles, felling of the cypress tree, miracles at sea, and many healings (ibid.: 13). Exemplifying a “down-to-earth piety” (ibid.: 15), the Life is modeled after the New Testament and Psalms. Its historical credence is partly due to its detail, which likely reflects firsthand knowledge of itemized monastery records; for example, the amount of oxen Nicholas ordered slaughtered to feed the populace after the bubonic plague of 541–2. The Life also refers to the earlier St. Nicholas who had a coastal shrine in or near Myra. This earlier saint’s small 6th-century cult engulfed that of Nicholas of Sion by the 10th century – the distinction between the two saints blurred by the extensive borrowing of Byzantine hagiographers from the later Life on behalf of St. Nicholas of Myra. The earliest known account of Nicholas of Myra is likely the Vita per Michaelem from the 10th century, though isolated stories appear earlier. Eustratios of Constantinople (late 6th century) cites the story of the falsely accused generals, while the terminology of the On the Tax indicates a 9th- or 10th-century composition. Icons of the saint often feature two medallions of Christ and the Virgin, alluding to St. Nicholas’ presence at the Council of Nicea in 325. Angered, Nicholas is said to have slapped Arius, resulting in the suspension of his episcopal office and the removal of its attributes – the Gospel Book and Omophorion. In the icons, Christ and the Virgin Mary return these items to Nicholas, reflecting their appearance in dreams to the emperor’s advisers advocating his reinstatement. This event, as well as his appearances to Constantine I (d. 337) in a vision on behalf of the three generals and a dream in which Nicholas receives a chrysobull exempting the city of Myra from taxation, place his activity in the early 4th century. However, there is no historical evidence of such a bishop nor any official written record of his presence at the council. |
| Saint Edward the Martyr, King of England Commemorated: March 18/31 (Martyrdom) and September 3/16 (Local Translation of Relics) Dmitry Lapa St. Edward, one of the most venerated English saints, was the son of the Holy Right-Believing Edgar the Peaceful, King of England, and Queen Ethelfleda who died soon after his birth. According to different sources St. Edward was born either in 959 or in 962/963. The reign of King Edgar was marked by a great revival of monasticism, Church life and piety among the English people and he wholeheartedly supported the three great episcopal restorers of the English Church after the ninth century Danish invasions: Dunstan of Canterbury (who baptized Edward), Oswald of Worcester, and Ethelwold of Winchester. According to tradition, some time before St. Edward’s birth St. Edgar had an unusual dream, which his wise and saintly mother Elgiva (St. Edward’s grandmother), formerly Queen and then Abbess of Shaftesbury, explained thus: following St. Edgar’s repose the English Church would be attacked, the supporters of his (Edgar’s) younger son would murder his elder son, the former then would reign on earth while the latter would reign in Heaven. These prophetic words eventually came true. St. Edward’s younger brother was Ethelred (“Ethelred the Unready”, 968-1016) who was born from his father’s second marriage. St. Edward ascended the English throne in 975 at the age of only thirteen (or sixteen) after the sudden death of his father St. Edgar aged only thirty-two. According to one of the sources of that time, St. Edward was a young man of piety, exemplary behavior, a genuine Orthodox Christian who led a devout and God-fearing life. As his father St. Edgar—especially in the second half of his life—young Edward loved God and the Church above all things. He was a benefactor of the needy, a refuge for the pious, defender of the faith of Christ, and filled with many virtues. Sts. Dunstan of Canterbury and Oswald of Worcester anointed him as King at Kingston upon Thames. On becoming King, St. Edward with great enthusiasm continued the labors of his father to revive and strengthen the Church and monastic life in the country; many new monasteries were opened or restored all over England during his short reign. Prayer and Christian piety were the basic things that St. Edward saw at the core of a true kingdom. |
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