Материалы 6 января 2012 г.

Сердечно поздравляем вас с праздником Рождества Христова! Христос родился на земле, в далеком Вифлееме, чтобы однажды принести в них мир и любовь. Воплотившийся Богочеловек озарит нашу жизнь Божественным светом, дарует нам радость и надежду, терпение и любовь!

24 декабря / 6 января 2012 г. Пятница 30-й седмицы по Пятидесятнице, Рождественский сочельник. Сретенский монастырь. Царские часы, изобразительны, вечерня, Божественная литургия Василия Великого. Хор Сретенского монастыря. (MP3 файл. Продолжительность 3:07:37 мин. Размер 90.1 Mb)

Божественный мир, сходящий свыше в нашу душу, можно чувствовать в церкви на Рождество Христово.

Для воспитанников вертепное действо одновременно и привычное, и каждый раз ребята переживают рождение Младенца заново. В Сочельник в трапезной устраивается генеральная репетиция со свечами, бенгальскими огнями, пением и музыкальным сопровождением.

Glory to Thee, O Lord! Once again we greet the awaited bright days of Christ's Nativity. Let us be glad and rejoice. In order to raise our festivities to a higher level in these days, the Holy Church has intentionally instituted a fast before them—a certain amount of constraint, so that as we enter the festive period we might feel as though we were coming out into freedom.

And the Word became flesh!...in order to make us earthly beings into heavenly ones, in order to make sinners into saints; in order to raise us up from corruption into incorruption, from earth to heaven; from enslavement to sin and the devil – into the glorious freedom of children of God; from death – into immortality, in order to make us sons of God and to seat us together with Him upon the Throne as His royal children.

There is no mystery greater than that of the Incarnation of God. In the quiet majesty of an archangel’s salutation, months before in Nazareth, a wonder beyond description was begun; and here, on this night, that wonder will be fully manifest. The great mystery which the holy Virgin, now holy Mother, had for long days stored up and treasured in her heart, the reality hidden but to a select few, is now to shine forth in all the radiance of a heavenly star.

Our Saviour, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. For there is no proper place for sadness, when we keep the birthday of the Life, which destroys the fear of mortality and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our Lord the destroyer of sin and death finds none free from charge, so is He come to free us all.

This song to the incarnate God, the Infant Christ, was sung by the angelic hosts on earth at His Nativity. It is a brief song, but its meaning and significance are wise and full of substance. In it is contained and revealed to us the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of the world. This mystery, in the words of the Church, amazed all the angelic powers. But where is this peace on earth, which the angels announced to the Bethlehem shepherds?

On this radiant and joyful feast of the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ I cordially greet you all, my dear ones. On this light-bearing night together we prayerfully echo the doxology of the angels, proclaiming ‘great joy to all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour’ (Lk 2:10-11).

As the Yuri Levada center for analytics informed Interfax, the majority of people living in Russia—65%—intend to celebrate Christmas on January 7.

The construction of a Russian Orthodox culture and religious center in Paris will soon be started, Russian presidential property manager Vladimir Kozhin said.

A young man dressed as Santa Claus has been killed in a religious attack in Dushanbe, a high-placed source in Tajikistan's Interior Ministry told Interfax.