| Maria Kamenetskaya’s “Between Summer and Fall” is a piercing, funny and ultimately loving ode to the functionally dysfunctional family as it ages. Older parents meet with grown children at the dacha (one daughter in law can’t attend because she has gotten her lips augmented). They plant apple trees awkwardly, but in a spirit of détente. Arkady Babchenko is the new Russian master of the memoir. His work is both confessional in tone and bereft of self-pity. Somehow he makes the Russian Army’s disciplinary battalion—a dank, festering, abusive and debased atmosphere, as hopeless as any of the gulags—approachable and eminently readable. His unembellished style and ironic humor draws the reader in, as if standing close to him, a specter over his shoulder who knows somehow he got out because he is writing this story and not rotting outside Grozny. Anyone following Russia’s current army reforms must read Arkady Babchenko’s story “The Diesel Stop.” Already known for his journalism and first book “One Soldier’s War,” it is not lost on readers that he uses the same adroit translator here, Nick Allen. Babchenko recovered from his lifeless humiliation and addiction to war through writing about it. He has said in interviews that the process of writing transformed him into a new person. Ah, there it is again, the transformation of character. Most of us cannot become Russian writers in hopes of changing our lives. But could reading more Russian writers help us reach that place called an examined life? Start with Rasskazy, or Stories. As editors Mikhail Iossel and Jeff Parker point out, Russia’s greatest contribution to the world over time is not oil or gas or arms. “Rather it’s been the successive generations of Russian writers capable of examining life’s emotional and intellectual restlessness, its complexity and intensity. Here’s to the interior life. Russia Beyond the Headlines Nora Fitzgerald 25 ноября 2010 г. ... Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также International academic conference to take place on Solovki in September International academic conference to take place on Solovki in September On September 15-21 on the Solovki islands the theoretical and practical conference, " Solovki in the literature and folklore (the 15th-21st centuries) " will take place. |
| Let us give praise to Blessed Agafia, for “praise is comely for the upright” (Ps. 33:1) Saturday, September 24 the Holy Dormition of the Theotokos Monastery of Cuselauca village, Soldanesti region, hosted a historical event for our Church and Motherland – the beatification service of Blessed Agafia (Maranciuc). Numerous church-goers from all corners of the country and from abroad came to the Monastery of Cuselauca, to give glory to the Lord and to pray and give due praise to Blessed Agafia. The Divine Liturgy was officiated by the Archpastor of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir, assisted by HE Sava, Archbishop of Tiraspol and Dubasari, HE Alexei Archbishop of Balta and Ananiev (Ukraine), HG Petru, Bishop of Ungheni and Nisporeni, HG Anatolie, Bishop of Cahul and Comrat, HG Marchel, Bishop of Balti and Falesti, HG Nicodim, Bishop of Edinet and Briceni, and HG Ioan, Bishop of Soroca and Vicar of the Metropolis of Moldova. During the divine service the last memorial service was celebrated for Blessed Agafia, after which the beatification Tomos and brief life of Holy and Blessed Agafia were read out. Following the Divine Liturgy, a thanksgiving Te Deum service was celebrated, giving glory to the Lord in thankfulness for His utmost mercy to our Church and its people. “The beatification of Blessed Agafia is a very important event in our spiritual life, who has become a great intercessor for our right-believing people before the All-Good God, " noted the archpastor of the Orthodox Church of Moldova in his pastoral message. Metropolitan Vladimir thanked all those who participated for several years in the research of the beatification portfolio of novice Agafia (Maranciuc), especially Hegumena Vera (Spinei), Mother-Superior of Cuselauca Monastery, the members of the Moldovan Saints Beatification Commission and its Chairman Bishop Petru of Ungheni and Nisporeni. In the end, the Metropolitan, the hierarchs, priests and lay Christians came up solemnly to the shrine with the holy relics of Blessed Agafia, giving her due veneration. Holy Blessed Agafia is celebrated on the day of her passing into eternity, June 9/22. Let us rejoice together for our Lord made us worthy of one more intercessor who prays for us. Let us give praise to Blessed Agafia, for “praise is comely for the upright” (Ps. 33:1) Blessed Agafia, pray to the Lord for us! Metropolis of Chisinau and All Moldova 5 октября 2016 г. Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: Смотри также Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| In the vast territory of the Russian north, no place carries more historical weight than the place commonly known as Solovki. The archipelago " s first known Russian settlement dates from 1429, when the monk Zosima joined forces with Herman, an illiterate hermit who had visited Solovetsky Island. Although the elderly Zosima died in 1435, the following year another monk, Savvaty, came to the island and founded a monastery dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior. Initially the monastery belonged to the Russian city-state of Novgorod, but after Novgorod’s subjugation to Moscow in 1478, the Muscovite grand princes gained this strategic outpost Growth and expansion The flourishing of the monastery occurred in the mid-16th century under the direction of Philip (Feodor Kolychev), a Moscovite monk of noble origins who left his privileged existence in 1537, joined the Solovetsky monastic community, and in 1547 became its spiritual leader (hegumen). During the next 18 years, Philip guided a program of construction that transformed the monastery and created monumental buildings of stone and brick such as the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior (1558-1566), one of the most impressive examples of medieval Russian architecture. Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery, southwest view at harbor. From left: Chapel of St. Alexander Nevsky; west wall; Refectory Church of Dormition; bell tower; Church of Annunciation over Holy Gate; Church of St. Nicholas; Transfiguration Cathedral; Chapel of Sts. Peter & Paul. June 29, 1999./Photo: William Brumfield In the summer of 1566 Philip was called back to Moscow by Ivan the Terrible, who supported the monk’s appointment as metropolitan (head) of the Russian Orthodox Church. Tragically, his public resistance to acts of political terror by Ivan IV during the late 1560s led to the prelate’s exile and death in 1569. ... Read the rest at Russia Beyond the Headlines ... Рейтинг: 6.4 Голосов: 5 Оценка: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru |
| Does one need any “special conditions” in order to read Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers? Many people today read while taking public transport, since this is their only “free time.” Once one gets home after work and has taken care of all one’s household chores, it seems impossible to absorb anything serious… There is the practice, recommended by quite a few people with spiritual experience, of beginning one’s day with the reading of Holy Scripture – if only a few chapters of the Gospels. One should literally feed one’s soul with them, so that the Gospels might guide one in all the situations of life. Besides which, people do indeed feel tired in the evening – literally overloaded. The classical European tradition included reading the Bible as a family in the evening – which, incidentally, found expression in both literature and painting. Alas, this tradition belonged to other times, when life was more balanced. Their daily labor may have been physically difficult then, but their heads still remained in relative peace – unlike in today’s “information society,” when we hardly know who or where we are by the time we get home. In my opinion, therefore, it is best to read Holy Scripture at home in the morning. Sometimes people taking public transport read serious books. This depends more on whether someone is good at attentive reading. If one is, then one can read on the go – this is certainly better than just looking around. Spiritual literature: the word about God Which books, in your opinion, should every Christian read? One should certainly read Abba Dorotheos, the Russian ascetic strugglers Sts. Theophan the Recluse and Ignatius (Brianchaninov), and then The Philokalia . Properly speaking, The Philokalia is an anthology of patristic texts. I think it is impossible to tear oneself away from the first four volumes of The Philokalia . In St. Theophan the Recluse’s Russian translation, The Philokalia is suitable reading for all Christians, since St. Theophan attempted to adapt even the most difficult monastic and hesychastic texts for use by average people. Therefore, notwithstanding the misconception that The Philokalia is only for monks, it can and should be read by everyone. When becoming acquainted with spiritual literature one should start, as with regular literature, with the classics: first read the fundamental, essential works of the Holy Fathers, and only later read books by modern authors. There are, for instance, some very good books by Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain that have entered our life fairly recently. |
| Unceasing prayer of the heart and reading only Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers – this is the ideal to which every Christian should aspire. Not everyone can attain this – I myself am far from it. But in spiritual warfare, as in battle, if one needs to retreat then it should be done in an orderly manner – not running away cowardly or, what is worse, going over to the side of the enemy. Since I cannot live with only the Bible and The Philokalia , I read simpler things: the lives of saints and the letters of the Optina Elders to laypeople. And if I lack the strength even for this, I read books on Christian history or religious philosophy. If I am even weaker yet, I read good literature: Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Tolstoy (his great novels, not his later works). Among foreign classics there are also writers with a Christian spirit, but I simply know Russian writers better. But looking at pornography is like reading enemy propaganda. People who are starting out on the spiritual path should ask for advice about reading, especially as concerns spiritual literature, from an experienced spiritual father. Archpriest Viktor Grigorenko During the fast we should also pay attention to spiritual food. One should read more than usual, but one should do this slowly, unhurriedly. Once again, once we have taken the burden on our shoulders we should not cast it off. One should regulate one’s reading time. It is good to read the daily Gospel and Epistle readings, as indicated in the church calendar, in the morning, so that one might recall what one has read throughout the course of the day. In the evening, after one’s prayers, one can read spiritual literature. As for authors whose works are especially valuable to study during the fast, one should advise with the priest to whom one normally goes to confession. Text prepared by Leonid Vinogradov, Oksana Golovko, Alisa Orlova, and Maria Senchukova. Translated from the Russian Translator’s note: Several authors advise reading the letters of the Optina Elders. While relatively few volumes of their letters have yet been translated into English, several volumes containing selections from their letters and other spiritual councils do exist: Living Without Hypocrisy: Spiritual Counsels of the Holy Elders of Optina (an anthology of spiritual advice drawn from the works of the Optina Elders); Russian Letters of Spiritual Direction, 1834-1860 by Staretz Macarius of Optino; and A Collection of Letters to Nuns: Profitable Instructions for Laymen and Monastics by St. Anatoly (Zertsalov) of Optina. See also the seven-volume Optina Elder Series published by St. Herman Press, which also contains many letters. |
| 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 The Problem with Abundance Source: Pemptousia Michael Bressem, Ph.D. 10 February 2020 People are rarely satisfied with having enough. Many say to themselves,“If a little is good, then surely more is better.” This belief appeals to our desire for greater freedom: we want a larger selection to choose from to appease whatever mood strikes us at the moment. And people laud freedom as if it is a virtue. Liberty is perceived as an essential human right along with life and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, freedom adds nothing to our character; rather, freedom places us in a position to be more vulnerable to temptation and so possibly lose our moral standing. In fact, virtue is more likely to arise when we limit our freedoms than expand them. Regardless, secular society is in a mad dash to give us more freedom by offering an “abundance” ( abundare from Latin meaning “overflow”). We want more channels on TV, more commodities on superstore shelves, more clothing shops at mega-malls, more dishes on restaurant menus, more recreational toys to play with on weekends, more features on electronic gadgets, etc. Of course to indulge in these freedoms and add to our abundance, we need more money which means we will work longer hours or go into more debt; thereby, we risk increasing the likelihood of developing stress-related health disorders and having relational conflicts. Also, the time it takes to shop for and then play with our new “whatever” mentally distracts us from contemplating more important matters. In this modern age, who takes the time to quietly reflect: to take stock of our lives and learn lessons contributing to our spiritual growth? Consider some of the other consequences of abundance: It increases an attitude of entitlement among youth. Each passing generation becomes more desperate for what is media touted as a “must have;” they don’t value the patience and diligence needed to labor many years for their desires, but instead selfishly proclaim they deserve to have it “Now!” Greater freedom is increasingly leading us to measure our self-worth and social status based on our abundance, and those who don’t have access to “all that life has to offer” are to be pitied. Abundance is complicating our lives with a never ending list of new manuals to read, new machines to maintain, new web sites to explore, new games to play on tablet devices, new people to add to our social network, etc. Much of our populace are losing their souls in a morass of plenitude. |
| Photo: spzh.news Agia Sophia, the ancient Christian cathedral in Istanbul, will never become a church again, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan said recently in an angry commentary on the deadly New Zealand mosque shootings, reports Romfea . The shooter’s manifesto targets Turks and Erdoan specifically, reports Egypt Today . “We are coming for Constantinople and we will destroy every mosque and minaret in the city. The Hagia Sophia will be free of minarets and Constantinople will be rightfully christian [sic] owned once more,” the text reads. The Turkish President reacted to this statement, calling the murder a “scumbag, who dared to call the city by its former name.” Agia Sophia will not be turned into a church again “as long as there is a Turkish people and soul,” Erdoan continued. Romfea also noted that according to some Turkish media, the President “inadvertently called Agia Sophia” a mosque. It is currently officially considered a museum. Although the former church is officially a non-denominational museum, Turkey has repeatedly allowed Islamic prayers to be read inside, angering the Greek and broader Orthodox community. In April , Erdoan read out a prayer in Agia Sophia that he dedicated to “Istanbul’s conqueror”—Mehmed the Conqueror. In 2017, the Turkish president announced that he would read prayers in Agia Sophia on Orthodox Holy Friday . Although in the end he did not read the prayers that day, the announcement could serve no purpose other than to anger Christians. A Muslim cleric read from the Koran inside the Agia Sophia for the first time in 85 years in 2015, and the following year the Turkish government began airing religious readings during the Islamic month of fasting, Ramadan , and the call to prayer was read out and broadcasted on television to mark the supposed revelation of the Koran to the “Prophet” Mohammed. The Greek Foreign Ministry called the reading on television last June “an unacceptable challenge to the religious sensibilities of all Christians.” |
| The presence of ‘Synoptic-sounding materials’ or ‘Johannine-sounding materials’ in an ancient writer does not necessarily denote that writer’s knowledge of the Synoptic or Johannine Gospels. Ancient Mediterranean culture was an oral culture, very much given to storytelling, memorization, and oral performances of every kind. People were more apt to reproduce words, sayings, and narratives from memory (accurately or not) than we are today, who are trained not to trust to our memories but to go to our books to check for accurate and contextual use. But recognizing ancient culture as an ‘oral culture’ cuts both ways. On the one hand, people might be more prone to reproduce from memory what they had heard and not read in a book. On the other hand, people used to the oral retelling of stories, each time with certain nuances of change, would feel less inhibited about ‘retelling’ or ‘rewriting’ with minor modifications even what they had read, or heard someone else read, in a book. This is well noted by John Barton: The often inaccurate quotations in the Fathers, it is argued, show that they were drawing on ‘synoptic tradition’ but not actually on the Synoptic Gospels. Such a theory cannot be ruled out absolutely, but it is not the only or, probably, the best explanation for loose quotation. We should remember instead how loose are quotations from the Old Testament in many patristic texts, even though the Old Testament was unquestionably already fixed in writing. The explanation is to be found not in oral transmission in the strict sense, but in the oral use of texts which were already available in written form. 251 Even quite literate and literary persons might readily reproduce from memory rather than look something up. Not only this, but recent studies have shown that ancient authors, when quoting or alluding, were also more likely to change intentionally the wording 252 of a source than we are, who fear being caught misquoting. Quotation standards, or better, methods of borrowing pre-existing material, in the early second century were not so strict as they are today, even when borrowing sacred materials (as Barton noted above). Unless there was a particular reason for quoting verbatim, as when you expected an opponent to check your citation, or when you were expounding particular words in a sermon or commentary, the rather more cumbersome practice of quoting precisely from open books was often deemed unnecessary. It was sometimes even seen as more sophisticated and less boorish to one’s informed reader to adapt the words of one’s source rather than repeat them verbatim. The typical style of Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Ignatius, and others mentioned in this chapter, for instance, very often was not to quote, in our sense of the word, but to work the words or phrases of their sources (which their readers were assumed to know) into their own statements, or to mix sources together. |
| Liturgical Dysfunction? More problematic is the fact that Orthodox Christians do so little reading of the Bible at home (there are exceptions, just enough to prove the rule). They have no idea of the context of a prescribed passage from the Epistles, to the point that the reading is little more than liturgical trappings, devoid of meaning other than as a long and cumbersome way into the Gospel. March 2010 Reading of the Epistles People will persist in dysfunctional patterns of behavior simply because they’re familiar. A woman who divorces an abusive alcoholic husband will be very likely later on to marry someone with a similar addiction. The “good ol’ boys” will continue to tie one on Saturday nights, even though the Sunday morning hangover is inevitably excruciating. A parishioner (only the Orthodox are guilty of this, it seems) who habitually arrives at the Sunday Liturgy after the Lesser Entrance and still wants to receive communion will respond to the priest’s protests, “But we’ve always done it that way, Father!” Examples like this are not too far removed from a form of “liturgical dysfunction” that many of us complain about and yet do nothing to change. (“Change?”) I’m referring particularly to the way we read the Epistle at the Divine Liturgy. From a technical point of view there’s a very real problem posed by Readers who insist on displaying their vocal talents over a range of one or more octaves, with a muffled delivery that makes understanding what is being read almost impossible. More troubling, though, is the fact that the lectionary was produced under monastic influence, which presupposed continuous daily readings. Those who devoted themselves to this discipline were familiar with the context of any given passage, and many of them, especially monks, knew the reading by heart. This is hardly ever the case today. In the first place, we have lost the habit of memorizing lengthy passages, whether of Scripture or of secular writings (a century ago school children committed to memory large numbers of poems and passages of classical literature; today most of those texts go entirely unread). More problematic is the fact that Orthodox Christians do so little reading of the Bible at home (there are exceptions, just enough to prove the rule). They have no idea of the context of a prescribed passage from the Epistles, to the point that the reading is little more than liturgical trappings, devoid of meaning other than as a long and cumbersome way into the Gospel. |
| Newsweek Scholarship: So Sloppy It’s a Sin Source: Straight from the Heart Just in time for Christmas, Newsweek continued the media’s predictable and venerable tradition of trashing the Christian Faith. (Expect the next instalment just around Easter time.) To be precise, on December 23, it published a piece by Kurt Eichenwald entitled, “The Bible: So Misunderstood It’s a Sin”. The intended victims of the annual seasonal assault are listed in the opening paragraph as those who “waves their Bibles at passersby, screaming their condemnation of homosexuals…they are God’s frauds, cafeteria Christians who pick and choose which Bible verses they heed with less care than they exercise in selecting side orders for lunch”. Mr. Eichenwald is on a roll, and seems to be clearly enjoying his righteous indignation at those doing the screaming. His strategy throughout the article leans mostly to showing how unreliable the Bible text actually is, and you would never guess from his own vitriolic vituperation heaped on those “who appeal to God to save America from their political opponents, mostly Democrats” that many thoughtful Protestant Christians retain their faith in the reliability of the Biblical texts and do not actually scream about homosexuals or Democrats. Protestants like Bishop N.T. Wright (the Anglican Bishop of Durham) seem not to be on his radar. I did not expect Mr. Eichenwald to know that thoughtful conservative Catholics exist, much less thoughtful conservative Orthodox. But thoughtful conservative non-screaming Protestants are not that hard to find. But it appears that screaming at the screamers is much easier, and makes for juicier print. A complete and detailed refutation of every error in the piece would require more space than available in a blog like this. Perhaps an examination of just a few of Eichenwald’s errors may serve to reveal the sloppiness of his scholarship and the essential worthlessness of his attempted assault. First of all is his claim that no one has actually read the real Bible, but “at best we’ve all read a bad translation—a translation of translations of translations of hand-copied copies of copies of copies, and on and on, hundreds of times…About 400 years passed between the writing of the first Christian manuscripts and their compilation into the New Testament.” To read this you would think that Mr. Eichenwald had never heard of textual criticism, or read anything about the creation of the New Testament canon. So, leaving the over-heated rhetoric to Newsweek , let’s recall a few facts. |
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