Материалы 2 января 2013 г.

Ревностный аскет, подвижническими трудами стяжавший у Господа драгоценный дар слез, святитель Даниил как архипастырь умел искусно направлять корабль Церкви к мирным гаваням. Он добился примирения Милутина с его сыном Стефаном Дечанским, боролся против еретиков, основал монастыри в Баньске и Дечанах и построил множество церквей.

Неисповедимому Промыслу Божию было угодно, чтобы угас великий светильник Церкви Христовой и молитвенник земли Русской, всенародно чтимый пастырь и праведник отец Иоанн Кронштадтский. Всем сердцем разделяя великую скорбь народную о кончине любвеобильного пастыря и благотворителя, Мы с особым чувством обновляем в памяти Нашей скорбные дни предсмертного недуга в Бозе почившего родителя Нашего, Императора Александра III, когда угасавший царь пожелал молитв любимого народом молитвенника за царя и Отечество.

Chinese Christians are sharing their faith on Weibo, China’s giant, state-regulated, social network – and some are beginning to challenge the censor by speaking out against religious persecution.

Nearer and closer to our hearts be the Christmas spirit,which is the spirit of active usefulness, perseverance, cheerful discharge of duty, kindness and forbearance! — Charles Dickens, "What Christmas Is as We Grow Older," 1851 As we look back from our perspective of a century-and-a-half, Charles John Huffam Dickens does indeed seem to be what London's Sunday Telegraph for 18 December 1988 proclaimed him, "The Man Who Invented Christmas."

The Incarnation of God was foretold in the Old Testament. A race was chosen for a specific purpose: to produce a holy humanity from which God could take flesh. Mary is the one who, in the Lord's words, "heard the word of God and kept it." (Luke 11:28) Through her personal sinlessness she fulfilled all the hopes and prophecies of Israel. She figured greatly in the very prophecies, the most important of which is that of Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel."

"God, Father of the Word, is also our benevolent and loving Father. When saying 'The Lord's Prayer,' we must believe and remember that the Father in heaven never forgets and will never forget us, for what earthly father forgets or does not care for his children? Remember that our Heavenly Father constantly surrounds us with love and care, and not in vain is He called our Father—this is not a name without meaning and force, but a name with great significance and power."