Материалы 11 июля 2013 г.

То, что мы видим в этих двух людях, то, что церковная история сохранила о них как величайшую драгоценность, главное – это слава Божия.

28 июня / 11 июля 2013 г. Четверг 3-й седмицы по Пятидесятнице. Сретенский монастырь. Великая вечерня, утреня. Хор Сретенского монастыря. (MP3 файл. Продолжительность 2:35:26 мин. Размер 112 Mb)

К 70-летию Победы в Великой Отечественной войне на месте бывшего концентрационного лагеря в бельгийском городе Льеж строится храм-памятник советским военнопленным, погибшим в заключении в годы войны.

Как удобнее добраться до Псково-Печерской обители, где можно остановиться и другая полезная паломникам информация.

— И еще, батюшка, я очень постарела... Я смотрю на стоящую у аналоя женщину и ожидаю продолжения. Это ведь не грех, кажется, стареть, это естественно.

Джастин Уэлби (Архиепископ Кентерберийский), обращаясь к руководству Англиканской Церкви, заявил, что недавние дебаты об однополых браках показывают, что Церковь “рискует оказаться идущей не в ногу с меняющимся обществом”. Он сказал, что церковные лидеры должны пересмотреть свое отношение к гомосексуалистам “даже если им это не нравится”. Он подчеркнул, что “нравится нам или нет, но мы должны принять, что в области сексуальности произошла революция”.

Как создавался этот огромный лингвистический свод – словарь Даля, были ли у него предшественники и почему он привлёк внимание не только учёных, но и литераторов? Что сегодня может подарить нам знаменитый словарь? Об этом мы беседуем с доктором филологических наук, ведущим научным сотрудником отдела исторической лексикографии Института русского языка им. В.В. Виноградова РАН Маргаритой Чернышевой.

St. Paul was the first Christian missionary to preach in the celebrated intellectual stronghold of the Greco-Roman world. Indeed, Athens still reigned as the university of the Empire; she lived on her reputation as the city of the philosophers, and her streets were filled with the arguments of Platonists, Stoics, and Epicureans. Other intellectual centers had arisen in Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Tarsus, but Athens remained indisputably the queen.

O most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul, who laid down your lives for Christ and beautified His pasture with your blood! Hearken unto the prayers and sighs of your children which are now offered up with contrite heart. For, lo! we have darkened ourselves with iniquities, and for this cause have we been covered with misfortunes as with showers; and we have become exceeding poor in the oil of a good life, and we cannot fend off the ravening wolves which boldly strive to lay hands on the inheritance of God.

This parish in Hong Kong is officially registered as the Orthodox Brotherhood of Apostles Saints Peter and Paul in 2004 to provide for the spiritual needs of Orthodox expatriates and local Chinese living and working in Hong Kong.

A visiting dignitary is honoured with a symbolic key to the city as a token of respect, but for eternity the keys to the kingdom of Heaven have been placed by the Messiah himself, out of respect to one of his greatest disciples, into the hand of a man called Peter,the constant companion and beloved friend of Jesus Christ. This magnificent disciple, whom trust places at the gates of heaven to examine the credentials of those who would enter, had a master key in his lifetime which unlocked the hearts of men to admit the Saviour, and his wisdom was the key to men's minds which in turn admitted the intelligence to give meaning to the Christian faith... Whenever the storms of controversy within the Christian Church have cast a shadow on the Cross of Jesus Christ, the clouds have been rolled back by the spiritual brighteness, undiminished by the centuries, of the magnificent St. Paul. Most Christians agree that were it not for St. Paul, the new faith of Jesus Christ would have never taken hold to become the mainstay of Western civilization, The total commitment of St. Paul to the Messiah, for which he ultimately sacrificed his life, brought the message of Jesus to the nucleus of Christians over a period of thirty years and assured the permanency of the truth of the Savior.

“All his life Saint Peter the Apostle regretted his denial of Christ, so that he tried to make up for that through special diligence, through missionary zeal towards Christ. Saint Paul the Apostle has also remembered all his life that he used to persecute the Church, so that he changed this fall of his into a great missionary work, never surpassed by others, because he worked more than the other apostles in order to redeem his mistake to have been once a persecutor of the Church..."

When we speak about the Apostle Peter, our mind usually goes to the plethoric and dynamic Apostle, who stood out among the Twelve as 'the head Apostle'. For we remember how often we see him from within the sacred texts, being the leader in various activities, acting also on behalf of the rest of the Apostles, yet without separating himself from them.

The same challenges face us to day. We have to be faithful to the Tradition of the Church, which is what we have received, and to sell that for a farthing (few cents) is to surrender the whole purpose and meaning of the Church. However, without a creative engagement with modern culture; without listening to the word of God as it is spoken today; without being attentive to the work of the Holy Spirit in that same world, we risk Christianity becoming once again a limited sectarian enclave.

There are residents of Beijing in the Amur region in Russia who are descendants of the Albazin Cossacks. One of them, following his ancestors, has taken Baptism in the waters of the river Amur.