| Календарь Материалы 9 марта 2011 г. [Встреча с Православием/Богослужение] 24 февраля/9 марта. Среда Первой седмицы Великого Поста. Сретенский монастырь. Полунощница, утреня, 1-й, 3-й, 6-й, 9-й часы, изобразительны, вечерня с Литугией Преждеосвященных Даров. Хор Сретенской духовной семинарии. (MP3 файл. Продолжительность 332:43 мин. Размер 159.8 Mb) [Поместные Православные Церкви/Элладская/Публикации] Мы забыли чистое слово Христово: «Не хлебом единым жив человек, но всяким словом, исходящим из уст Божиих». И мы стали легкой добычей, проглотив приманку тех, кто нам обещал больше хлеба и благополучия. Мы отодвинули в сторону Бога и истину, и получилось, что преуспели мы только в одном: выбросили человека «на помойку». Больно смотреть правде в глаза, но без этого мы не спасемся. [Документы истории] Протоиерей Владислав Цыпин Важнейшим деянием императора Константина стало создание новой столицы империи – на Босфоре, на месте древнего Византия, – названной в честь своего основателя Константинополем, именуемым также и Новым Римом, ибо этот город стал новым центром Римской империи – со времен Константина уже христианской эйкумены. [Встреча с Православием/Православная библиотека] И кровожадные звери, и ястреба хищные, и сколько еще невинных животных малых и великих, и какие неисчислимые тысячи их — тоже постятся. [Встреча с Православием/Богослужение] Великим постом с понедельника по четверг первой седмицы на великих повечернях читается покаянный канон святого Андрея Критского. English Edition [Saints. Asceties of Piety. Church Holy Days ] She was justly called the " Abbess of all Russia. " It can be said without exaggeration that Mother Barbara personified a whole epoch in the existence of Russian women " s monasticism, and monasticism in general. She labored in monasticism for fifty years, forty-three of which she served as the abbess of Piukhtitsa Monastery in Estonia. Under Matushka Barbara, Piukhtitsa became a unique " smithy of monastic personnel, " a capital city of women " s monasticism. But mainly, here one could feel true Christian love, kindness, hospitality, and spiritual nobility, combined with deep monastic work. Новости 9 марта 2011 г. |
| Photo: patriarchia.ru Recently I had a discussion with a devout person about the number of days in Great Lent. This person was concerned because, depending on what days you count, Great Lent in the Orthodox Church can be from forty to forty-eight days long. I explained to this person what I had learned: Great Lent is from Clean Monday to the Friday before Lazarus Saturday, which is forty days. The following eight days are not counted as Great Lent, but are a separate entity: Holy Week. My friend was not content with my answer and began bringing up fine points that made it difficult to affirm with any certainty exactly which days count as Great Lent and exactly how many those days are. And then it struck me. The question of number is completely the wrong question. As I listened to my friend’s litany of minor problems related to counting the days of Great Lent, I realized that Great Lent is not a number of days, like a number of rocks on a wall or a number of apples in a tree. Great Lent is as long as Moses was on the Mountain with God. It is as long as Jesus was in the wilderness fasting a praying. Great Lent is not about a number of days, it is about an experience with God. Forty is the number given to the days Moses was with God on the Mountain and Jesus was in the wilderness praying because “forty” represents fullness. Jesus prayed in the wilderness and Moses was on the mountain with God as long as was needed. They were apart with God for as long as was needed to accomplish what God had intended for that time apart. Similarly, Great Lent is as long as is necessary. We don’t need more time and less wouldn’t do. If we cannot give ourselves completely to God in the forty days (however you count them), more days will not help; but it takes the full forty days to accomplish the transformation that is offered to us–this year, and each according to his or her ability. Great Lent is long enough to transform us, but not so long so as to discourage anyone. Counting the days of Great Lent seems to miss the point. Forty days are the full time offered to us for the renewal of our repentance. It is the time Moses was on the mountain and Jesus was in the wilderness. It is enough time for our salvation. |
| John Maddox: It is in preparation. Fr. Evan: Yes. It " s total preparation. It " s a Bibical mandate. It heightens our awareness of the absence of the Lord from our lives. So, we are reminded of the distance there may be between ourselves and the Lord; and then, receiving the Eucharist, with the celebration of Pascha, we are reminded of His imminence, of His absolute presence, of the unification of our lives with His. John Maddox: So what about the forty hours? Fr. Evan: This is probably most easily attached to the Old Testament story of the Israelites in the wilderness. We all know the story in which the Israelites, having left the bondage of Pharaoh and having exited with Moses from Egypt, travelled through the Red Sea into the wilderness, and wandered for forty years there for their disobedience, before they are given the opportunity to enter the Promised Land. This connection with their wandering is made specifically in the prayers of Great and Holy Lent. The early Christians understood that. They understood this period of time, that the people of God had been apart from God, and unable to enter into the full covenant and promise of His presence. Thus, the forty hours naturally comes from that remembrance. The Old Testament has a number of additional stories that incorporate the number forty. We can think of some quite easily, can " t we? John Maddox: In the New Testament, Jesus is in the wilderness for forty days. Fr. Evan: In that specific story, He prays and fasts in his own way to prepare for His confrontation with Satan—the evil one. So this is a preparatory period before doing battle. In the Old Testament, we have the story of Noah and the Ark, in which he stayed forty days and forty nights. We have the story of Moses, who spends forty days in preparation on the mountain, to receive the Ten Commandments of God. We have the forty days of the prophet Elijah on the mountain before he confronts the false prophets. So, forty is a number that is very familiar in the Old and New Testament. For the early Christian it was a time frame for looking at preparation in a Bibical manner. It wasn " t something they just drew out of thin air. |
| The notion of fasting (as opposed to the keeping of dietary laws) in preparation for a theophany is known both in Antiquity and in the Old Testament: Moses, on the mountain, fasted for forty days and forty nights ( Ex. 24.18 ), while the Israelites below were instructed also to abstain from sexual activity ( Ex. 19.15 ) and Daniel fasted as he awaited God’s answer to his prayer ( Dan. 9.3 ). There are many instances of fasting as an act of national penitence. After the disaster of the civil war with Benjamin, all Israel fasted ( Judg. 20.26 ) and Samuel made the people fast because they had strayed away to Baal ( 1Sam. 7.6 ). Nehemiah also made the people fast and confess their sins (Neh. 9.1). Some of these early characteristics of fasting recur in early Christianity, but in general the position adopted towards fasting was different and exceptional. Jesus had criticized the ritual formalism of the Pharisees because it assumed precedence over ethical action. However, he did not eliminate fasting, for he spent forty days in the desert praying and fasting and he suggested that both could be used as effective means against the devil, a view which is reminiscent of ancient practices. Yet, because of the prevailing view associating fasting with mourning, Jesus regarded fasting in his Messianic presence as meaningless ( Mk. 2.18–20 ). In the post-apostolic period, however, Christianity imposed its own rules with regard to fasting, which seem to have developed from Jewish ones. In the 2nd century the Pre-Pascha fast was established. The duration of this severe fast was analogous to the period of time that Christ spent in the tomb. However, it was not associated with mourning, but rather was viewed as a preparatory period for the celebration that lasted from Pascha to Pentecost and as an outward sign of the anticipation of spiritual fulfilment. During the course of the 4th century this fasting period was extended to forty days in commemoration of the forty years spent by the children of Israel in the wilderness ( Ex. 16.35 ) and Jesus’ forty-day fast in the wilderness, tempted by the devil ( Mt. 4.1 ); from then onwards it was known as the Great Fast (Lent). Also, by the 3rd century, Wednesdays and Fridays were designated as fasting days for Christians. These days were chosen because they were days of mourning: Wednesday in remembrance of the betrayal of Jesus and Friday in remembrance of his death. To fast on Saturday, the day that the Lord rested from his work of Creation, and on Sunday, the day of Christ’s resurrection, was prohibited since fasting and joy were regarded as antithetical. |
| Isn’t it true that the strength that overcame the deluge spread all over the earth to the so-called Columns of Hercules640 and the vast sea boiling over the tops of the highest mountains? There is no doubt, therefore, that that deluge was subsided by the invisible power of the Spirit, not through the wind as such but through divine intervention. On Noah 16.58. 641 8:3–5 The Waters Abated Duration of the Deluge. Ephrem the Syrian: The springs of the abyss and the floodgates of heaven were open forty days and forty nights and “the ark was afloat for one hundred fifty days.” 642 But after one hundred fifty days the waters began to subside and the ark came to rest on Mt. Qardu. 643 In the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen. In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. In the second month, that is, Iyor, “on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.” Therefore Noah and those with him had been in the ark three hundred sixty-five days, for from the seventeenth of the second month, that is, Iyor, until the twenty-seventh of the same month the following year, according to the lunar reckoning, there were three hundred sixty-five days. Notice then that even the generation of the house of Noah employed this reckoning of three hundred sixty-five days in a year. Why then should you say that it was Chaldeans and Egyptians who invented and developed it? Commentary on Genesis 6.11.2–6.12.1. 644 8:6–12 END OF THE DELUGE 6At the end of forty days opened the window of the ark which he had made, 7and sent forth a raven;+ and it went to and fro# until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent forth a dove from him,§ to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9but the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 11and the dove came back to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth a freshly plucked olive leaf; so knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12Then he waited another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she did not return to him any more. |
| Take fasting seriously as a very important aspect of Lent. Think of fasting not simply as an item of diet, but as something related to the fall of humankind, and at the same time as a victory through Christ. We fast for forty days in Lent before Holy Week not merely as an exercise, an ascesis, but also because there is an important Christological significance attached to fasting. We have forty-day fasting models from both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, Moses fasted for forty days on Mount Sinai before receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28, Deut. 9:9, 9:18) and Prophet Elijah fasted for forty days on Mount Horeb (3 Kingdoms 19:8). Both of these instances are connected with an encounter with God at the end of their fasting. In the New Testament, we have the forty-day fasting in the desert by our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13). At the end of the forty-day fasting by Christ in the desert, there are the well-known “Temptations” of Christ, the first of which is related to eating: And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he [Christ] answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:3-4). Is this event in the life of Christ in any way connected to the Fall of Adam? Indeed, the Fall of Adam was caused by an eating situation, yet the victory of Christ also happened through an eating situation. While Adam said “yes” to the temptation and ate (Genesis 3:1-6), Christ said “no” to the temptation and did not eat. This is why the fasting of the forty-days during Lent is not simply a matter of abstention or an issue of diet, but is a major Christological and soteriological situation; the fall of humankind, and then the restoration through the victory of Christ. So let us take fasting seriously and prepare ourselves for a blessed encounter with God. 3. Reconsider our life of prayer |
| “from without” not by descending physically but as a witness to his almighty power (Justin Martyr). 7:10–12 The Flood Comes upon the Earth The Deluge Proves That God Intervenes in Earthly Affairs. Salvian the Presbyter: And then what? “All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood gates of heaven were opened. And the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” And a little later: “And all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth. ”608 And again, “And Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in the ark.” 609 Here and now I wish to ask them eho call God indifferent to human affairs whether they believe that at that time he either cared for earthly affairs or intervented in them. Governance of God 1.7. 610 Why Does God Bring on the Deloge for Forty Days? Chrysostom: The fact, too, that he brought on the deluge for forty days and nights is a further wonderful sign of his loving kindness. His purpose in his great goodness was that at least some of them might come to their senses and escape that utter ruin, having before their eyes the annihilation of their peers and the destruction about to overwhelm them. I mean, the likelihood is that on the first day some proportion were drowned, an additional number on the second day, and likewise on the third day and so on. His reason for extending it for forty days was that he might remove from them any grounds for excuse. You see, had it been his wish and command, he could have submerged everything in one downpour. Instead, out of fidelity to his characteristic love he arranged for a stay of so many days. Homilies on Genesis 25.11. 611 Duration of the Months and Years at the Time of the Deluge. Augustine: It is now time to examine the evidence that proves convincingly that the biblical years, so far from being only one-tenth as long as ours, were precisely as long as the present solar years. This is true of the years used in giving those extremely long life spans. It is said, for example, that the flood occurred in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life. But notice the full text: “The waters of the flood overflowed the earth in the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, in the twenty-seventh day of the month.” Now those words are inexplicable if a year was so short that it took ten of them to make one of ours. That would mean that a year had only thirty-six days. For so short a year (if it was actually called a year in ancient usage) either had no months at all, or if it had twelve months, then each month could have had but three days. How. then, [can we] explain the words of the text, |
| Why Certain Psalms Are Titled “For the Octave.” Jerome: [We see that] certain psalms are titled “for the octave.” This is the day on which the synagogue comes to an end and the church is born. 618 This is the day in the number of which eight souls were preserved in the ark of Noah, and “its counterpart, the church,” says Peter, “now saves you. ”619 Homilies 93.620 7:17–24 THE DELUGE COVERS THE EARTH 17The flood continued forty upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20thewaters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man; 22everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23He blotted out every living thing+ that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah# was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days. adds and forty nights +LXX everything that rises up (anastema) #LXX Noe Overview: The deluge covers the entire earth and destroys every creature (Chrysostom). Only the summit of paradise is not reached: the flood stops at its foothills (Ephrem). The sentence “Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died” refers to every living creature (Augustine). The deluge symbolizes the judgment of God that those who repent will escape (Justin Martyr). 612 FC 14:444. 613 FC 82:132–33. 614 Gen 7:24. 615 FC 91:141. 616 Gen 7:16 . 617 FC 6:345. 618 The day of resurrection, the eight day. 619 1Pet 3:21 . 620 FC 57:248. The forty days prefigures the subsequent rite of baptism during Quadragesima, the forty days of Lent (Maximus of Turin). That the Lord loves righteousness and hates iniquity is made manifest through the deluge (Bede). 7:17–20 The Flood Continues for Forty Days |
| Photo: http://www.calledtocommunion.com Hence, there is a cross in regard to which the servant of God, far from being confounded, rejoices, saying: But as for me, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world . That is a cross, I say, not of forty days’ duration, but of one " s whole life, which is symbolized by the mystical number of forty days, whether because man, about to lead this life, is formed in the womb for forty days, as some say, or because the four Gospels agree with the tenfold Law and four tens equal that number, showing that both the Old and New Testaments are indispensable for us in this life, or it may be for some other and more likely reason which a keener and superior intellect can fathom. Hence, Moses and Elias and our Lord Himself fasted for forty days so that it might be suggested to us that in Moses and in Elias and in Christ Himself, that is, in the Law and the Prophets and the Gospel, this penance was performed just as it is by us, and so that, instead of being won over to and clinging to this world, we might rather put to death the old man, living not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. But [let us] put on the Lord Jesus, and as for the flesh, take no thought for its lusts . Live always in this fashion, О Christian; if you do not wish to sink into the mire of this earth, do not come down from the cross. Moreover, if this ought to be done throughout one " s entire life, with how much greater reason should it be done during these forty days in which this life is not only passed but is also symbolized? Therefore, on other days let not your hearts be weighed down with self-indulgence and drunkenness, but on these days also fast. On other days do not commit adultery, fornication, or any unlawful seduction, but on these days also refrain from that conjugal pleasure which is lawful. What you deprive yourself of by fasting add to your almsgiving; the time which was formerly taken up with conjugal duties spend in conversation with God; the body which was engaged in carnal love prostrate in earnest prayer; the hands which were entwined in embraces extend in supplication. |
| The Ninth Day On the ninth day, the Holy Church offers prayers and the Bloodless Sacrifice for the departed, that his soul be accounted worthy to be numbered among the choirs of the saints through the prayers and intercession of the nine ranks of angels. St. Macarius of Alexandria, in accordance with the angel " s revelation, says that after worshipping God on the third day, it is commanded to show the soul the various pleasant habitations of the saints and the beauty of Paradise. The soul considers all of this for six days, lost in wonder and glorifying the Creator of all. Contemplating all of this, it is transformed and forgets the sorrow it felt in the body. But if it is guilty of sins, at the sight of the delights of the saints it begins to grieve and reproach itself, saying: " Woe is me! How much I busied myself in vanity in that world! Enamored of the gratification of lust, I spent the greater portion of my life in carelessness and did not serve God as I should, that I too might be accounted worthy of this grace and glory. Woe is me! Poor me! " After considering all the joys of the righteous in the course of six days, it again is borne aloft by the angels to worship God. The Fortieth Day From earliest antiquity the Holy Church has correctly and devoutly made it a rule to commemorate the departed in the course of forty days, and on the fortieth day in particular. As Christ was victorious over the devil, having spent forty days in fasting and prayer, so the Holy Church likewise, offering for the departed prayers, acts of charity and the Bloodless Sacrifice throughout the forty days, asks the Lord " s grace for him to conquer the enemy, the dark prince of the air, and that he receive the Heavenly Kingdom as his inheritance. St. Macarius of Alexandria, discussing the state of man " s soul after the death of the body, says: " After the second adoration, the Master of all commands that the soul be led to hell and that it be shown the places of torment there, the various parts of hell, and the diverse tortures of the wicked, in which the souls of sinners ceaselessly wail and gnash their teeth. The soul is borne about these various places of torment for thirty days, trembling lest it itself be imprisoned therein. On the fortieth day it is once again borne aloft to adore the Lord God, and it is at this time that the Judge determines the place of confinement proper to it in accordance with its deeds. This is a great day for the deceased, for it determines his portion until the Dread judgment of God, and therefore, the Holy Church correctly commands that fervent prayer be made for the dead on this day. " |
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