Материалы 13 июня 2013 г.

Святитель без устали ездил по обширной епархии, раскинувшейся от Урала до Китая, снаряжая миссии на Алтай, Камчатку, в Монголию и Северный Китай, невзирая на подчас жесткое сопротивление языческих племен.

Когда Господь был распят и погребен, ученики Его многие разбежались, вернулись к своим прежним делам – стали ловить рыбу. И сомнение, конечно же, поселилось в их сердцах и в своем Божественном Учителе, и в том деле к которому Он их призвал. (MP3 файл. Продолжительность 4:03 мин. Размер 3 Mb)

31 мая / 13 июня 2013 г. Четверг 6-й седмицы по Пасхе. Вознесение Господне. Сретенский монастырь. Божественная литургия. Хор Сретенского монастыря. (MP3 файл. Продолжительность 1:10:08 мин. Размер 50.6 Mb)

Давайте вернемся на 40 дней назад и посмотрим, как отмечали Пасху на борту международной космической станции.

В этом фрагменте книги Е. Домбровской «Русская сага. Воздыхание окованных» рассказывается о ее двоюродной бабушке, «вдове известного русского адмирала и племяннице знаменитого математика», которая десять лет была игуменьей Спасо-Вознесенского монастыря Елеонского монастыря и о том, как внучка чудесным образом узнала на Вознесение, что игуменья Мелания (Жуковская) – это ее дорогая Машура, следы которой затерялись в гражданскую войну.

Иисус позвал ее по имени: «Мария!» И в этот момент она узнала Его. Мария Магдалина – символ народов, которые придут к вере только после того, как Христос вознесется на небеса и пошлет Духа Святого ученикам, которые отправятся на проповедь.

Болезнь и немощь – тяжёлое испытание. Нарушается привычный образ жизни, становятся невозможными многие прежние радости и утешения, приходит боль и страдание. Преподобный Амвросий писал о тяжести болезни: «В скорбях человек может находить утешение в молитве, а в тяжкой болезни телесной он и этого утешения лишен».

Summer is almost here. It’s a good time to just take a deep breath, and relax. You know, go to the beach if you live close to it, have a barbeque, invite some friends over. I remember doing this on a grand scale as a child growing up in New Jersey. But how often do most of us do this anymore? We’re so busy, we’ve forgotten that true rest and relaxation, the kind that really restores you, is vital to our survival.

We know perfectly well that it is one of the very great Christian feasts, and yet, despite ourselves, it seems like a parting, a separation, and that after it, our Lord is not with us in quite the same way any longer. The disciples did not react like this. They could have been overwhelmed with grief, but, on the contrary, they ‘returned to Jerusalem with great joy’. We, too, can try and enter into this joy of the Ascension. Why does the Ascension bring joy to Christians?

The Feast of the Ascension of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ is celebrated each year on the fortieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter). Since the date of Pascha changes each year, the date of the Feast of the Ascension changes. The Feast is always celebrated on a Thursday.

On the Feast of the Ascension, the Orthodox Church does not merely commemorate an historical event in the life of Christ. On this day, the Church celebrates Christ's physical departure from the world and His glorification with God the Father.

Words cannot describe the joys and beauties of our home which is heaven. All the beauty we have on earth is just a reflection of heaven. Think of the fairest scenes you have ever seen on earth; of rolling landscapes, of calm lakes and of winding streams, of fragrant meadows and of attractive gardens. Beautiful are the scenes of earth: yet this earth compared to heaven is a prison and a place of probation. No wonder people will cry out, "If our prison is so beautiful, what must heaven our palace be like!”

Thus did the One ascend to Heaven Who held heaven within Himself. He who carries hell within himself will end up in hell, but he who bears heaven within his soul will ascend to heaven. And truly, no one can ascend to heaven other than those who have heaven within; and no one can end up in hell besides those who have hell within.

The "two men in white apparel," who immediately after the ascension of the Lord appeared to the Apostles and asked them why they stood gazing up into heaven, were without doubt themselves inhabitants of heaven; therefore it is not to be supposed that this was displeasing to them, or that they desired to direct the gaze of those men of Galilee elsewhere. No. They desired only to put an end to the inert amazement of the Apostles when saying: Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?

The entire Christian mystery is expressed by this double movement of descent and ascension, the incarnation and glorification of the eternal Son of God. As Orthodox spiritual and liturgical tradition affirms, this movement was undertaken not for Christ’s own sake, but for ours. Through His incarnation, the Son of God took upon Himself our very life and being, the specific conditions of our human nature, in order to restore that nature to its original perfection, and to open the way for us to ascend with Him to the heights of heaven, there to share with Him His own glory and majesty.

Jesus did not live with his disciples after his resurrection as he had before his death. Filled with the glory of his divinity, he appeared at different times and places to his people, assuring them that it was he, truly alive in his risen and glorified body.

The Lord ascended to Heaven in order to prepare for us, too, the path to the Heavenly Mansions, to open the Gates of Paradise, and Himself to be our Guide. Heaven that had been closed to men before the Resurrection now at the Ascension was opened by Christ the Savior.

Ordinary human consciousness, drawing only on the experience of earthly existence and its physical laws, can no more comprehend Christ’s Ascension than it could His Incarnation or His Glorious Resurrection from the dead. Even the disciples who saw the empty Tomb, who saw the Risen Christ, who witnessed His Ascension, had mixed feelings about everything they had seen. They vacillated between exaltation over the miracles they had witnessed and misunderstanding and doubt.