Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Christian Salvation

John 17:3-8

"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

"I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me."

I Corinthians 13:12
"Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face."

II Corinthians 3:18
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

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Is Pentecost the Birthday of the Church?

It is a common misconception that Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. The following section from the Pentecostarion translated by Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, MA speaks of the actual significance of Pentecost and what it means for our ecclesiology.

Such, therefore, are the reasons for today's feast: the coming of the All-holy Spirit into the world, the completion of the Lord Jesus Christ's promise, and the fulfilment of the hope of the sacred disciples, which we celebrate today. This is the final feast of the great mystery and dispensation of God's incarnation. On this last, and great, and saving day of Pentecost, the Apostles of the Saviour, who were unlearned fishermen, made wise now of a sudden by the Holy Spirit, clearly and with divine authority spoke the heavenly doctrines. They became heralds of the truth and teachers of the whole world. On this day they were ordained and began their apostleship, of which the salvation of those three thousand souls in one day was the comely and marvellous first fruit.

Some erroneously hold that Pentecost is the "birthday of the Church." But this is not true, for the teaching of the Holy Fathers is that the Church existed before all other things. In the second vision of The Shepherd of Hermas we read: "Now brethren, a revelation was made unto me in my sleep by a youth of exceeding fair form, who said to me, `Whom thinkest thou the aged woman, from whom thou receivedst the book, to be?' I say, 'The Sibyl.' 'Thou art wrong,' saith he, `she is not.' `Who then is she?' I say. `The Church,' saith he. I said unto him, `Wherefore then is she aged?' 'Because,' saith he, `she was created before all things; therefore is she aged, and for her sake the world was framed."' Saint Gregory the Theologian also speaks of "the Church of Christ ... both before Christ and after Christ" (PG 35:1108-9). Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus writes, "The Catholic Church, which exists from the ages, is revealed most clearly in the incarnate advent of Christ" (PG 42:640). Saint John Damascene observes, "The Holy Catholic Church of God, therefore, is the assembly of the holy Fathers, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Evangelists, and Martyrs who have been from the very beginning, to whom were added all the nations who believed with one accord" (PG 96, 1357c). According to Saint Gregory the Theologian, "The Prophets established the Church, the Apostles conjoined it, and the Evangelists set it in order" (PG 35, 589 A). The Church existed from the creation of the Angels, for the Angels came into existence before the creation of the world, and they have always been members of the Church. Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome, says in his second epistle to the Corinthians, the Church "was created before the sun and moon"; and a little further on, "The Church existeth not now for the first time, but hath been from the beginning" (II Cor. 14).

That which came to pass at Pentecost, then, was the ordination of the Apostles, the commencement of the apostolic preaching to the nations, and the inauguration of the priesthood of the new Israel. Saint Cyril of Alexandria says that "Our Lord Jesus Christ herein ordained the instructors and teachers of the world and the stewards of His divine Mysteries ... showing together with the dignity of Apostleship, the incomparable glory of the authority given them ...Revealing them to be splendid with the great dignity of the Apostleship and showing them forth as both stewards and priests of the divine altars . . . they became fit to initiate others through the enlightening guidance of the Holy Spirit" (PG 74, 708-712). Saint Gregory Palamas says, "Now, therefore ... the Holy Spirit descended ... showing the Disciples to be supernal luminaries ... and the distributed grace of the Divine Spirit came through the ordination of the Apostles upon their successors" (Homily 24, 10). And Saint Sophronius, Bishop of Jerusalem, writes, "After the visitation of the Comforter, the Apostles became high priests" (PG 87, 3981B). Therefore, together with the baptism of the Holy Spirit which came upon them who were present in the upper chamber, which the Lord had foretold as recorded in the Acts, "ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence" (Acts 1:5), the Apostles were also appointed and raised to the high priestly rank, according to Saint John Chrysostom (PG 60, 21). On this day commenced the celebration of the Holy Eucharist by which we become "partakers of the Divine Nature" (II Peter 1:4). For before Pentecost,it is said of the Apostles and disciples only that they abode in "prayer and supplication" (Acts 1:14); it is only after the coming of the Holy Spirit that they persevered in the "breaking of bread,"that is, the communion of the Holy Mysteries-"and in prayer" (Acts 2:42).

The feast of holy Pentecost, therefore, determined the beginning of the priesthood of grace, not the beginning of the Church. Henceforth, the Apostles proclaimed the good tidings "in country and town," preaching and baptizing and appointing shepherds, imparting the priesthood to them whom they judged were worthy to minister, as Saint Clement writes in his first Epistle to the Corinthians (I Cor. 42).

All foods are allowed during the week following Pentecost until the beginning of the Apostles Fast the following week.

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who made fishermen all-wise, sending upon them the Holy Spirit and, through them, netting the world. O Loving One, glory to You.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
When the Most High came down and confounded tongues of men (Babel), He divided the Nations. When He dispensed the Tongues of Fire, He called all to unity, and with one voice we glorify the Most Holy Spirit.

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A Guide to Russian Sects and Fringe Beliefs - Part 2 of 6

Cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov

Russian Sects Part Two: Waiting for Doomsday in the Penza Region

06/05/2009

RIA Novosti

Robert Broadie

Moscow, Russia

(RIA Novosti continues its six-part series on Russian sects and fringe beliefs with an account of Pyotr Kuznetsov's Doomsday sect)

In late 2007 a small, reclusive community of Christians in a village deep in the Russian countryside became the focus of intense media scrutiny.

The believers, who saw themselves as followers of "true" Russian Orthodoxy, had spent half a year burrowing a network of tunnels into the side of a ravine outside the village of Nikolskoye in the Penza Region stockpiling rice, grain, water and fuel in preparation for a long, dark wait underground. They entered and sealed the enclosure in late October.

This strange story provoked public curiosity on all sorts of levels. Holed up in the dugout, waiting for the end of the world, were women and young children. There was their threat to blow themselves up if forced out, and a perceived extremism. There was their apparent longing for death, entombed in a ravine. And there was their gaunt, wild-eyed leader Pyotr Kuznetsov, known as Father Pyotr, a wandering evangelist who had recruited disciples from far-flung provinces of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Kuznetsov had chosen not to join his followers underground, and was soon arrested and admitted to an asylum.

Kuznetsov told his followers that the world would end in May or June - the accounts varied. Why did he believe this?

I travelled from Moscow to Nikolskoye in early April 2008, after most of the believers had emerged from the dugout, which had largely collapsed. Of the original 37, only 11 remained underground. It was easy enough to find the home of Vitaly Nedogon, who the papers told me was one of the more hardline members, terrifying rescuers by firing bullets through the dugout's ventilation pipes. He had spent almost half a year underground with his wife, son and two daughters.

In the garden outside the run-down wooden house on the edge of a forest was his 22-year-old son Sergei, standing behind a police cordon. He had just finished talking to some journalists from the Izvestia daily, who wanted a photo of the pet parrot that had survived with the group underground. While the seven women living in the house refused to speak to journalists, Sergei saw it as a God-given opportunity to spread the word.

We took a walk around the house, out of earshot of a police officer keeping watch, and Sergei gave me a detailed account of the group's beliefs, which seemed to be largely based on Bible texts that had been filtered through Father Pyotr's feverish mind. The spiritual leader had published several tracts, and distributed them to his followers and any locals who would take them.

"I read his books, and didn't believe them at first. But I opened the Bible, and then I believed - it's all correct, the numbers all match," Sergei told me.

I asked him whether they had really been ready to blow themselves up for their beliefs.

"If you look at the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, Christians never submitted to worldly powers when those worldly powers went against God's laws," he explained. "So those Orthodox Christians were ready to die to stay faithful to God, and to not submit to the devil with his three sixes. So yes, we would have blown up those canisters."

So how did Kuznetsov work out that the world would end in May 2008?

"There is this number in the Bible. After the church - our Orthodox Church - betrays Jesus Christ, 1300 evenings and mornings will pass. This could be either seven years if you count full days, and if you count half days, then three and a half, which would be spring 2008. Pyotr Kuznetsov took fragments from the Bible and proved all this."

I asked him what had been the great catastrophe three and a half years ago that signalled the fall of the Orthodox Church.

"The Orthodox Church took on a taxpayers' identification number. It began to depend on the state, to serve the anti-Christian state."

The main theme running through Kuznetsov's teachings appeared to be a fear and obsession over meaningful numbers - sevens, multiples of seven, twelves, triple sixes. Tax registration codes, passport numbers and bar codes contain the number of the Beast, so the followers burned all their documents and refused to pay taxes or buy goods with barcodes attached.

I hesitantly pointed out to Sergei that items he was wearing - a digital watch and a Nike baseball cap - probably came with barcodes.

"No, these are fake Chinese goods," he said.

Walking by the woods in the clean spring air and feeling a long way from Moscow's pollution, the whole story of Kuznetsov's sect felt like a pleasant joke. I drank some water from the well behind the Nedogons' house, birdsong echoing from the woods. There seemed to be an intensity and sincerity to Sergei's beliefs, and it was hard to see that the sect was doing any harm - they had rejected most modern comforts and discomforts and were living a pseudo-medieval existence, with no electricity and no running water, chopping firewood and catching fish.

So it was easy to forget the trouble Kuznetsov had caused. Two women had died underground - one of cancer, the other of starvation from an extended fast. Many of the believers had children back at home, who were understandably anxious, and were pressuring the authorities to drag the group out from their cave. Rescuers and police had been forced to camp in the ravine throughout the cold winter, with local officials and occasionally Orthodox priests visiting to try to coax the group out of the hole.

And there were children down there - Sergei's two sisters, aged 15 and 9, as well as an infant, 18 months old at the time she was carried out in late March, apparently in good health.

"People think we forced the children down there. I'll tell you what happened. My sister - who you saw just now - when we were sitting on the gas canisters because the Spetsnaz (special forces) had started to dig, she went up to our mother and said 'mamochka, don't worry, there will be an explosion and then we'll all be with God' - a little child calming her grown-up parents. That surprised everyone."

I suggested to Sergei that perhaps the planet was going to die through another means - the cars and coal plants are still belching out their greenhouse gases, the ice caps are shrinking.... Did Pyotr talk about this?

"Yes, of course. Man with his sins is destroying the Earth.... When God flooded the world, he produced a rainbow, and promised to never flood the world again. He said next time I'll burn it. And now it's burning."

I was surprised that this sect, feeding on obscure writings, counting holy numbers and avoiding television, were aware of anthropogenic climate change. I reassured him that scientists don't expect the collapse of the climate system to occur by Kuznetsov's alternative date for the apocalypse - 2011.

"Let them say what they want, people don't decide these things, God decides these things" was his answer. "It can happen in a single moment, he can destroy the world in a single instant. It's all written in the Bible."

At the time of my visit, Kuznetsov was in hospital with head wounds. He had been let out of the asylum as part of a deal made with several women in the dugout - they came to the surface on the condition that they could live with their leader in his house. The reports said he was found in the shack outside, severely beaten, a bloodied plank lying next to him. Local officials said he had been attacked by his own followers, but investigators called it an attempted suicide.

Sergei had a different view on the matter - the Inquisition had come to get Kuznetsov, and in fulfillment of the prophesies, he had died and risen.

"When they tried to kill Pyotr, they smashed him on the head seven times, and when the administration chief came, they found him dead. They took him to hospital and started to fill out the death certificate. My sister saw them writing it."

Father Pyotr was left for dead, but when they came for him in the morning, "he was lying there whispering something, praying... Pyotr was dead. And he rose from the dead. No one believes this, but in it is written that when the prophet is killed, no one will believe it. And this is what happened."

This apparent resurrection, which provided the sect with yet another sign that the apocalypse was approaching, seemed to have turned him from a mere prophet into Christ himself.

But the question of how the unimposing figure that was Kuznetsov, regularly pictured in the tabloids in a shabby coat, pyjama-like trousers and a beanie hat, managed to make such a powerful impression on this group of a few dozen people, remained unanswered.

Later that evening I hitched a lift to the nearest town, Bekovo, with a local couple. The woman in the front passenger seat, Maria, said she had been to school with Kuznetsov. I asked what he was like back then.

"He was a normal boy. A good kid, a bit of a joker - he would tell you these funny stories. I don't understand what happened to him," she said.

Born in 1964, Kuznetsov appears to have had an ordinary provincial upbringing. We drove past his father's house, where I was told his grandmother was still living at the ripe old age of 102. He studied construction and appears to have had a normal career and family, but at some point in his thirties found his true calling in life.

"He would go to church and meet people, and start to indoctrinate them. He wrote books, he would hand them out. I had some of those books, I threw them away," Maria told me.

"The relatives of those people sitting down there told us that that they were all living peacefully like everyone else before, but then he appeared, that Pyotr. He would go to people's houses, the rich houses, not the poor people's houses, and he had some kind of hypnotic power... They sold their homes, whatever they had, and gave all their money to him."

The next afternoon I paid a visit to the house of the holy man himself, which I found at the end of a dirt track called Poganovka, converted into a prayer house with a cross on the roof. Several of his followers, all middle-aged and elderly women, were living there. In the yard was a makeshift chapel, tidily put together with roofing and transparent plastic sheets, capped with wooden crosses and onion domes.

Having seen cheerful photos in the newspapers of these women in black headscarves sawing wood with a local official, and after the surprisingly open chat with Sergei, I thought there would be no harm in approaching the house. But unfortunately the occupants were less welcoming than Sergei - one of them barked angrily as soon as I stepped over the police cordon.

I walked over to the famous ravine, a few hundred meters away. I climbed up the slope, and in the distance I could see a police van and some tents near where I knew the entrance to the dugout was. It was a warm evening and the sun was beginning to set, and by this time my urge to follow the circus had waned, so I began the long walk back to the main road.

More than a month after my visit, having braved a long winter and the first months of spring in the dugout, the remaining 11 finally emerged squinting and jaundiced into the sunlight. There were no signs of God's destructive wrath.

Kuznetsov was charged with inciting religious and ethnic hatred, but was declared insane by psychiatrists and avoided a conviction. Last June, media reported that he had been issued with a passport, numbers and all, which he meekly accepted in his asylum room.

Pyotr Kuznetsov, the leader of a Russian doomsday cult, peeks out from behind the door of his house in the settlement of Nikolskoye in the Penza region March 31, 2008.

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Testimonies on the Benefits of Prayers for the Dead

[On the Saturday before Pentecost, otherwise known as Trinity Saturday, we offer special prayers for the dead. On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended upon the earth to teach, sanctify and lead all people to eternal salvation. Therefore, the holy Church calls upon us to make a commemoration on this Saturday, that the saving grace of the Holy Spirit wash away the sins from the souls of all our forefathers, fathers and brethren, that have reposed throughout the ages and, asking that they all be united in the Kingdom of Christ and praying for the redemption of the living and for the return of their souls from captivity, she begs the Lord to "give rest to the souls ... that have fallen asleep, in ... a place of refreshment; ... . for the dead shall not praise Thee, O Lord, neither shall they that are in hell make bold to offer unto Thee confession. But we that are living will bless Thee, and will pray, and offer unto Thee propitiatory prayers and sacrifices for their souls." - J.S.]

1. "And they turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out. And the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin." -- 2 Maccabeess 12:43-45

2. "May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, but when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently, and found me (the Lord grant to him to find the Lord’s mercy on that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well." -- Saint Paul (2 Timothy 1:16-18)

3. "Let every friend who observes this pray for me." -- The tomb of Abercius of Hieropolis in Phrygia (latter part of the 2nd century)

4. "Mayst thou live among the saints."
"May God refresh the soul of . . . ;"
"Peace be with them." -- 3rd century prayers for the dead in the Roman catacombs

5. "The widow who does not pray for her dead husband has as good as divorced him." -- Tertullian

6. "I then, O my Praise and my Life, Thou God of my heart, putting aside for a little her good deeds, for which I joyfully give thanks to You, do now beseech You for the sins of my mother. Hearken unto me, through that Medicine of our wounds who hung upon the tree, and who, sitting at Your right hand, makes intercession for us. I know that she acted mercifully, and from the heart forgave her debtors their debts; do Thou also forgive her debts, whatever she contracted during so many years since the water of salvation. Forgive her, O Lord, forgive her, I beseech You; enter not into judgment with her. Let Your mercy be exalted above Your justice, because Your words are true, and You have promised mercy unto the merciful; which You gave them to be who wilt have mercy on whom You will have mercy, and wilt have compassion on whom You have had compassion..." -- Blessed Augustine (excerpt from the prayer he made for his deceased mother Monica at the end of the 9th book of his Confessions)

7. "O Christ our God...(who) on this all-perfect and saving Feast, art graciously pleased to accept propitiatory prayers for those who are imprisoned in hades, promising unto us who are held in bondage great hope of release from the vilenes that doth hinder us and did hinder them ... send down Thy consolation... and establish their souls in the mansions of the Just; and graciously vouchsafe unto them peace and pardon; for not the dead shall praise thee, O Lord, neither shall they who are in Hell make bold to offer unto thee confession. But we who are living will bless thee, and will pray, and offer unto thee propitiatory prayers and sacrifices for their souls." -- Saint Basil the Great (Third Kneeling Prayer at Pentecost)

8. "Wash away, O Lord, the sins of all those here commemorated, by Thy Precious Blood, through the prayers of all thy saints." -- Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom

9. "The Holy Sacrifice (Eucharist) of Christ, our saving Victim, brings great benefits to souls even after death, provided their sins (are such as) can be pardoned in the life to come." -- Saint Gregory Dialogos

10. "We can do nothing better or greater for the dead than to pray for them, offering commemoration for them at the Liturgy. Of this they are always in need... The body feels nothing then: it does not see its close ones who have assembled, does not smell the fragrance of the flowers, does not hear the funeral orations. But the soul senses the prayers offered for it and is grateful to those who make them and is spiritually close to them." -- Saint Mark of Ephesus

11. "There was a certain prisoner whose parents, considering him dead, had the Liturgy served three times a year for him—on Theophany, Pascha and Pentecost. After he had been released from captivity, returning unexpectedly to his parents, he recalled that on those very days a certain man of glorious appearance came to him in prison carrying a torch. The fetters fell from his hands and he was freed; the rest of the days he was again in chains as a prisoner." -- Saint John the Merciful

12. "But who can number all of the testimonies found in the biographies of holy men, in the accounts of the lives of the holy martyrs and the divine revelations, which clearly indicate that even after death tremendous benefit is rendered to the departed by prayers, Liturgies and the distribution of alms for them. For nothing given to God perishes in return, but is rewarded by Him with the greatest interest." -- Saint John of Damascus

13. "A certain holy man had a disciple who was living heedlessly. And what happened? Death found him in the midst of his carelessness. The merciful Heavenly Father, roused by the tears and cries of the elder, revealed to him the youth burning in flames up to his neck, like the merciless rich man mentioned in the parable of Lazarus. And when the saint subjected his flesh to strict mortification, fervently beseeching God for the forgiveness of his disciple, he beheld him enveloped in flame up to his waist. Finally, when the holy man had increased his ascetic labors yet more, God revealed him in a vision to the elder, removed from the flame and completely free." -- Saint John of Damascus

14. "Not by weeping, but by prayer and almsgiving are the dead relieved." -- Saint John Chrysostom

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Only Creator who out of the depths of wisdom lovingly govern all things and upon all bestow what is accordingly best for them, give rest to the souls of Your servants, for they have placed their hope in You, our Author and Maker and God.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Give rest, O Christ, among the Saints to the souls of Your servants, where there is no pain, no sorrow, no grieving, but life everlasting.

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Vogue-style Jesus: Dag Soderberg on Colbert Report

Pop goes the Bible.

Dag Soderberg seeks to take the Bible out of the bookshop and onto the coffee table with Bible Illuminated: The Book. When a secularist non-believer like Soderberg seeks to illuminate the Bible, you know very little good can come out of it. The purpose of the Bible is to illumine, and can only truly be illuminated by someone that has in fact been illumined by it.

The glossy-paged Vogue-style Bible sold well in secularized Sweden precisely because it only appeals to a secularized post-modern mentality that limits the teachings of Christ to social justice and would rather honor celebrities as God's messengers than the Saints. Why else would Angelina Jolie, Al Gore, Che Guevera, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi and Nelson Mandela appear in the Gospel of Mark? Why else would an Andy Warhol poster and the ultrasound image of a baby with 47 chromosomes appear at the opening to the Gospel of Mat­thew, adjacent to highlighted verses on the birth of Christ? What purpose is there to a photograph of three young black men striking gangsta poses to "illuminate" Matthew’s account of the three visitors from the East? Probably the worst thing about the book is that it uses the awful Good News translation of the Bible.

One can only wonder what's next in the world of the big business of selling Bibles - a Jenna Jameson illustrated version of Song of Songs perhaps? After all, wouldn't such a text provoke discussion as well?

Maybe certain things should just not be discussed.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Dag Soderberg
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Keyboard Cat

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Mary and Martha According to Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Icon of Saints Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany (Feast Day for Saints Mary and Martha is June 4th)

SERMON 69 of Saint Cyril of Alexandria on the Gospel of Luke

Luke 10:38-42. "And it came to pass as they journeyed, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at our Lord's feet, and heard His word, but Martha was distracted with much service. And standing before Him, she said: 'Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her help me.' But our Lord answered and said to her: 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and busied about many things, but few things are required, or one, and Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.'"

You who love the virtues which adorn piety, and carefully practice every art which become the saints, again come and listen to the sacred doctrine, and let not the method of hospitality be unknown to you. For it is a great and valuable quality, as the wise Paul testifies, where he writes, "Forget not hospitality, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Let us learn therefore of Christ, the Savior of all, this also, as well as all other things. For it would be a disgrace to us, that while those who desire worldly wisdom, and gather written learning, select the best teachers for their instructors; we who are encouraged to pay earnest heed to doctrines of such surpassing value, and may have as our instructor and teacher Christ the Giver of all wisdom, do not imitate this woman in her love of learning, even Mary, who sat at the Savior's feet, and filled her heart with the doctrines He taught, feeling as if she could never have enough of what so profited her.

For the Saviour lodged with the holy women, but Mary, it says, listened to Him as He taught; while the other, Martha, was distracted with much service. She therefore besought Him that her sister might share her carefulness with her. But Christ consented not, saying, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and busied about many things, only few things are required, or but one." And He further praised Mary, that "she had chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." For the acquisition of spiritual blessings is never lost.

The first thing however which we must examine is the manner in which the Savior again benefits His disciples, by setting Himself before them as an example, in order that they may know how and in what manner to behave in the houses of such as receive them. For they must not immediately on entering indulge themselves in relaxation, or suppose that this is the reason why they lodge with men, but rather that they may fill them with every blessing, and the divine and sacred doctrines. So somewhere the blessed Paul also sends a message to certain one: "For I desire to see you, that I may give you some spiritual gift, that you may be confirmed." Observe therefore, that our Lord Jesus Christ, on entering to lodge with these holy women, did not cease from giving instruction, but still grants them, without stint, the sober doctrines of salvation. And one of these women was steadfast in her love of hearing, but Martha was distracted with much service. Does any one then blame her for being occupied with careful service? By no means. For neither does the Savior chide her for having proposed to herself the discharge of this duty; but rather He blamed her, as one who was labouring in vain, by wishing to procure more than was necessary. And this He did for our benefit, that He might fix a limit to hospitality. For far better is that other part, of earnestly desiring the divine doctrine.

We do not then say that the wish to entertain strangers, when it does not aim at anything excessive, is to be despised, and is no service. The saints especially are bound to be content with little, and when they eat, and are prevailed upon to draw near to the table, they do so, rather to appease the infirmity of the body, in accordance with the laws of nature, than as caring about pleasure and relaxation. When therefore we lodge with the brethren, in wishing to reap their corporeal things, let us first sow for them things spiritual; and imitating therein careful husbandmen, let us lay bare their hearts, lest some root of bitterness spring up and injure them, lest the worm of human innovation attack them, and work in them secret decay. And if anything like this has happened, then thrusting forthwith into their minds the saving word of instruction, like the teeth of the mattock, let us eradicate the root of ungodliness; let us pluck up the heretical darnel from the very bottom; let us implant the knowledge of the truth; thus we may reap the corporeal things of those who have a superfluity, receiving them as a matter of debt: "for the workman", He says, "is worthy of his hire". And the law of Moses, hinting at the same truth, says somewhere in like manner, "You shall not muzzle the trampling ox." And as Paul said, "Does God care about oxen? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes?" You therefore will give things more valuable than those you receive from men for things temporal; you will give things eternal for earthly things things heavenly; for the things of sense, things intellectual; for the things that perish, things that endure. And thus much of those who receive hospitality.

But let those who open to them their house, meet them cheerfully, and with alacrity, and as their fellows; and not so much as those who give, but as those who receive; as those who gain, and not as those who expend. And the more so as they profit doubly; for in the first place they enjoy the instruction of those whom they hospitably entertain; and secondly, they also win the reward of hospitality. Every way therefore they are profited. When however they receive the brethren into their house, let them not be distracted with much service. Let them not seek any thing beyond their means, or more than sufficient. For every where and in every thing excess is injurious. For often it produces hesitation in those who otherwise would be glad to receive strangers, and causes but few [houses] to be found fit for the purpose, while it proves a cause of annoyance to those who are entertained. For the rich in this world delight in costly banquets; and in many kinds of viands, prepared curiously often with sauces and flavours; a mere sufficiency is utterly scorned, while that which is extravagant is praised, and a profusion beyond all satiety is admired, and crowned with words of flattery. The drinkings and revellings are excessive; and the draining of cups, and courses of wines, the means of intoxication and gluttony. But when holy men are assembled at the house of one who fears God, let the table be plain and temperate, the viands simple, and free from superfluities: but little to eat, and that meagre and scant; and a limited sufficiency of drink. In every thing a small supply of such necessaries as will allay the bodily appetite with simple fare. So must men receive strangers. So too Abraham by the oak at Mamre, received those three men, and won as the reward of his carefulness, the promise of his beloved son Isaac. So Lot in Sodom honoured the angels, and for so doing, was not destroyed by fire with the rest; nor became the prey of the inextinguishable flame.

Very great therefore is the virtue of hospitality, and especially worthy of the saints. Let us therefore also practise it, for so will the heavenly Teacher lodge and rest in our hearts, even Christ; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.

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Boy Chosen by Dalai Lama Turns Back on Buddhist Order

Osel Hita Torres

[The Dalai Lama is known in our culture today as a man of peace and wisdom. But people don't understand the horrible fear-inducing teachings behind Tibetan Buddhism. It also can be accused of promoting child abuse, as the story below shows. Many times in interviews even the Dalai Lama himself has spoken of regrets in not having experienced things that had he not been faced with his similar dilemma he would have participated in - things such as love and romance. Finally a boy with a strong enough will to escape this abuse is speaking out and rebelling against being forced into a lifestyle he unwillingly has had to deal with since birth by the Dalai Lama who here proves to be a fales prophet. -J.S.]

Boy Chosen by Dalai Lama Turns Back on Buddhist Order

Dale Fuchs in Madrid
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 31 May 2009

As a toddler, he was put on a throne and worshipped by monks who treated him like a god. But the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a spiritual leader has caused consternation – and some embarrassment – for Tibetan Buddhists by turning his back on the order that had such high hopes for him.

Instead of leading a monastic life, Osel Hita Torres now sports baggy trousers and long hair, and is more likely to quote Jimi Hendrix than Buddha.

Yesterday he bemoaned the misery of a youth deprived of television, football and girls. Movies were also forbidden – except for a sanctioned screening of The Golden Child starring Eddie Murphy, about a kidnapped child lama with magical powers. "I never felt like that boy," he said.

He is now studying film in Madrid and has denounced the Buddhist order that elevated him to guru status. "They took me away from my family and stuck me in a medieval situation in which I suffered a great deal," said Torres, 24, describing how he was whisked from obscurity in Granada to a monastery in southern India. "It was like living a lie," he told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. Despite his rebelliousness, he is still known as Lama Tenzin Osel Rinpoche and revered by the Buddhist community. A prayer for his "long life" still adorns the website of the Foundation to Preserve the Mahayana Tradition, which has 130 centres around the world. The website features a biography of the renegade guru that gushes about his peaceful, meditative countenance as a baby. In Tibetan Buddhism, a lama is one of a lineage of reincarnated spiritual leaders, the most famous of which is the Dalai Lama.

According to the foundation biography, another leader suspected Torres was the reincarnation of the recently deceased Lama Yeshe when he was only five months old. In 1986, at 14 months, his parents took him to see the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The toddler was chosen out of nine other candidates and eventually "enthroned".

At six, he was allowed to socialise only with other reincarnated souls – though for a time he said he lived next to the actor Richard Gere's cabin.

By 18, he had never seen couples kiss. His first disco experience was a shock. "I was amazed to watch everyone dance. What were all those people doing, bouncing, stuck to one another, enclosed in a box full of smoke?"

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Can Animals tell Right From Wrong?

[Einstein said that at the beginning of the twentieth century only a few scientists had been philosophically minded, but today physicists are almost all philosophers, although "they are apt to be bad philosophers." He pointed as an example to logical positivism, which he felt was a kind of philosophy that came out of physics. We also know that biologists make bad philosophers, but we can now add ecologists to that list as well.

Animals can tell right from wrong, claimed The Telegraph. “Until recently, humans were thought to be the only species to experience complex emotions and have a sense of morality,” the article by Richard Gray said. “But Prof. Marc Bekoff, an ecologist at University of Colorado, Boulder, believes that morals are ‘hard-wired’ into the brains of all mammals and provide the ‘social glue’ that allow often aggressive and competitive animals to live together in groups.”

Gray did not explain what the moral standard was by which to judge moral behavior, nor why social glue is a good thing in his article. We know that some aggressive and competitive animals are loners. If morality is hard-wired, is it really morality? Can't it just be the instinct for survival? Is there an instinct for morality? Should morality be lowered to the level of mere instinct? If so, how are we then to ultimately judge right from wrong? The appeal to the instinct of one's own personal morality in a court of law would make an interesting defense, but without an appeal to a higher judge of behavior (God) there really can be no judgement against a personal interpretation of morality. Maybe scientists need to start asking the right questions, before answering really bad illogical questions. -J.S.]

Animals Can Tell Right From Wrong
Animals possess a sense of morality that allows them to tell the difference between right and wrong, according to a controversial new book.

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent for Telegraph
23 May 2009

Scientists studying animal behaviour believe they have growing evidence that species ranging from mice to primates are governed by moral codes of conduct in the same way as humans.

Until recently, humans were thought to be the only species to experience complex emotions and have a sense of morality.

But Prof Marc Bekoff, an ecologist at University of Colorado, Boulder, believes that morals are "hard-wired" into the brains of all mammals and provide the "social glue" that allow often aggressive and competitive animals to live together in groups.

He has compiled evidence from around the world that shows how different species of animals appear to have an innate sense of fairness, display empathy and help other animals that are in distress.

His conclusions will provide ammunition for animal welfare groups pushing to have animals treated more humanely, but some experts are sceptical about the extent to which animals can experience complex emotions and social responsibility.

Prof Bekoff, who presents his case in a new book Wild Justice, said: "The belief that humans have morality and animals don't is a long-standing assumption, but there is a growing amount of evidence that is showing us that this simply cannot be the case.

"Just as in humans, the moral nuances of a particular culture or group will be different from another, but they are certainly there. Moral codes are species specific, so they can be difficult to compare with each other or with humans."

Prof Bekoff believes morals developed in animals to help regulate behaviour in social groups of animals such as wolves and primates.

He claims that these rules help to control fighting within the group and encourage co-operative behaviour.

Recent neurology work has also revealed that distantly related mammals such as whales and dolphins have the same structures in their brains that are thought to be responsible for empathy in humans.

Other findings have also suggested that some animals may even be capable of showing empathy with the suffering of other species.

Prof Bekoff, who co-wrote the book with moral philosopher Jessica Pierce, also from the University of Colorado, added: "There are cases of dolphins helping humans to escape from sharks and elephants that have helped antelope escape from enclosures.

"While it is difficult to know for certain that there is cross species empathy, it is hard to argue against it."

His ideas have met with some controversy in the scientific community, but many admit it is difficult to argue that animals do not share many of the psychological qualities previously only attributed to humans.

Professor Frans de Waal, a primate behaviourist at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, said: "I don't believe animals are moral in the sense we humans are – with well developed and reasoned sense of right and wrong – rather that human morality incorporates a set of psychological tendencies and capacities such as empathy, reciprocity, a desire for co-operation and harmony that are older than our species.

"Human morality was not formed from scratch, but grew out of our primate psychology. Primate psychology has ancient roots, and I agree that other animals show many of the same tendencies and have an intense sociality."


WOLVES

Wolves live in tight-knit social groups that are regulated by strict rules. If a pack grows too large, members are not able to bond closely enough and the pack disintegrates. Wolves also demonstrate fairness.

During play, dominant wolves will "handicap" themselves by engaging in roll reversal with lower ranking wolves, showing submission and allowing them to bite, provided it is not too hard.

Prof Bekoff argues that without a moral code governing their actions, this kind of behaviour would not be possible. If an animal bites too hard, it will initiate a "play bow" to ask forgiveness before play resumes.


COYOTES

In other members of the dog family, play is controlled by similar rules. Among coyotes, cubs which bite too hard are ostracised by the rest of the group and often end up having to leave entirely.

"We looked at the mortality of these young animals who disperse from the group and they have four to five times higher mortality," said Bekoff.

Experiments with domestic dogs, where one animal was given a treat and another denied, have shown that they posses a sense of fairness as they shared their treats.


ELEPHANTS

Elephants are intensely sociable and emotional animals. Research by Iain Douglas Hamilton, from the department of zoology at Oxford University, suggests elephants experience compassion and has found evidence of elephants helping injured or ill members of their herd.

In one case, a Matriarch known as Eleanor fell ill and a female in the herd gently tried to help Eleanor back to her feet, staying with her before she died.

In 2003, a herd of 11 elephants rescued antelope who were being held inside an enclosure in KwaZula-Natal, South Africa.

The matriarch unfastened all of the metal latches holding the gates closed and swung the entrance open allowing the antelope to escape.

This is thought to be a rare example of animals showing empathy for members of another species – a trait previously thought to be the exclusive preserve of mankind.


DIANA MONKEYS

A laboratory experiment trained Diana monkeys to insert a token into a slot to obtain food.

A male who had grown to be adept at the task was found to be helping the oldest female who had not been able to learn how to insert the token.

On three occasion the male monkey picked up tokens she dropped and inserted them into the slot and allowed her to have the food.

As there was no benefit for the male monkey, Prof Bekoff argues that this is a clear example of an animal's actions being driven by some internal moral compass.


CHIMPANZEES

Known to be among the most cognitively advanced of the great apes and our closest cousin, it is perhaps not surprising that scientists should suggest they live by moral codes.

A chimpanzee known as Knuckles – from the Centre for Great Apes in Florida – is the only known captive chimpanzee to suffer from cerebral palsy, which leaves him physically and mentally handicapped.

Scientists have found that other chimpanzees in his group treat him differently and he is rarely subjected to intimidating displays of aggression from older males.

Chimpanzees also demonstrate a sense of justice and those who deviate from the code of conduct of a group are set upon by other members as punishment.


RODENTS

Experiments with rats have shown that they will not take food if they know their actions will cause pain to another rat. In lab tests, rats were given food which then caused a second group of rats to receive an electric shock.

The rats with the food stopped eating rather than see another rat receive a shock. Similarly, mice react more strongly to pain when they have seen another mouse in pain.

Recent research from Switzerland also showed that rats will help a rat, to which it is not related, to obtain food if they themselves have benefited from the charity of others. This reciprocity was thought to be restricted to primates.


BATS

Vampire bats need to drink blood every night but it is common for some not to find any food. Those who are successful in foraging for blood will share their meal with bats who are not successful.

They are more likely to share with bats who had previously shared with them. Prof Bekoff believes this reciprocity is a result of a sense of affiliation that binds groups of animals together.

Some studies have shown that animals experience hormonal changes that lead them to "crave" social interaction.

Biologists have also observed a female Rodrigues fruit-eating bat in Gainesville, Florida, helping another female to give birth by showing the pregnant female the correct birthing position – with head up and feed down.


WHALES

Whales have been found to have spindle cells in their brains. These very large and specialised cells were thought to be restricted to humans and other great apes and appear to play a role in empathy and understanding the feelings of others.

Humpback whales, fin whales, killer whales and sperm whales have all been found to have spindle cells in the same areas of their brains.

They also have three times as many spindle cells compared to humans and are thought to be older in evolutionary terms.

This finding has suggested that complex emotional judgements such as empathy may have evolved considerably earlier in history than previously thought and could be widespread in the animal kingdom.

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Why are Ethnic Russians Converting to Islam?

[I thought this was an interesting question in todays news published by The Georgian Daily. Various answers are given that I would agree contribute to these conversions, but there was another story published today that I also think is contributing to this factor. I wonder how much they relate. Could the article below be one reason people in Russia are leaving Orthodoxy for other religions? -J.S.]

Patriarch Kyrill Calls for Eliminating Crude Behavior from Parishes

Patriarch Kyrill called for eliminating crude behavior, which sometimes takes place in the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church, and deters people from Orthodoxy, reports Interfax-Religion.

"I've spoken with people who had completely lost their faith, because upon entering the church for the first time, they encountered brutality, anger, irritability," - said Patriarch Kyrill on June 3 when presenting diplomas to graduates of the Sretensky Theological Seminary in Moscow.

According to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the blame for the rudeness and lack of civility of church staff often rests with the priest, who is unable to live in such a way as to be an example for others. "

"Personal example - this is something without which the priest can not carry out his service", - underscored the Patriarch.

In our time, "when people no longer believe in spoken words, the life of the priest must be a constant sermon by its acts", - believes the head of the Moscow Patriarchate.

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Lady Gaga Almost Arrested At Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow

[Lady Gaga is currently one of the most popular female pop stars in America today known not only for her pop hits, but also for her skimpy outfits. Her outfits are not only skimpy on the stage, but off the stage as well. This has caused her to be fined by police for public indecency.

On her recent trip to Moscow, for some reason she decided to visit the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Basil. Anyone familiar with Orthodox churches in Russian knows that they have strict dress codes to enter these places that require a certain decency. In Greece it is the same and even I as a male have been prohibited from entering certain places for wearing shorts into a church while visiting as a tourist. Which is why I was not surprised to hear that Lady Gaga was almost arrested when she entered the Cathedral in indecent leather attire. -J.S.]


Lady Gaga Almost Arrested in Russia for Wearing Leather

Wednesday, 29 April 2009

LiveNews

"They tried to arrest me in Russia, for leather at St. Basil's. But all is calm in the red square, as I leave the east Parisbound." -Lady GaGa

Lady Gaga was almost arrested during a trip to Russia – because she was wearing leather.

The ‘Poker Face’ singer was approached by officers when she visited St. Basil's Cathedral, in Moscow, over her choice of outfit.

She wrote on her Twitter page at the weekend: “They tried to arrest me in Russia, for leather at St. Basil's. But all is calm in the red square, as I leave the east Parisbound. (sic)”

The 23-year-old pop star is well known for her skimpy outfits, and is regularly seen wearing just underwear on evenings out.

She has previously admitted her wacky fashion sense has caused her problems with the law, explaining a Chicago policeman once took exception to her tiny shorts.

She previously revealed: "I was outside the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago and this policeman came up and told me my hotpants were too short. They weren't really pants at all, but he got upset and I got a citation. All people will have seen is this half-naked girl on the street yelling, 'It's fashion! I'm an artist!'"

Below is one of the more interesting Lady Gaga interviews

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Winchester Mystery House to Star in Hollywood Movie

The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California

[It was inevitable that movies about some of the most famous haunted houses in America would be released at a time when belief in the paranormal is steadily rising. Earlier this year The Haunting In Connecticut was featured, and now the story behind the Winchester Mystery House by the same director. If done right, I anticipate this movie to be very interesting, though I expect it to overly focused on the paranormal aspects of the house as the previous feature was. A true story of Sarah Winchester, the builder of the house, would be more interesting. It should be noted that even though many would consider this house to be the most haunted in America, no real evidence that I know of has been found for it being haunted. We know Sarah Winchester believed in the haunting of the house, but when the crew from Ghosthunters visited a few years ago they found no evidence of paranormal activity. Of course, this doesn't rule out the possibility of paranormal activity. Still, the house that I consider to be most haunted in America is one that I have visited many times in Salem, Massachusetts - the Joshua Ward House (the topic of a future blog). -J.S.]

Aerial view of the Winchester Mystery House

Winchester Mystery House to Star in Hollywood Movie

By Karen D'Souza
Mercury News
06/02/2009

The Winchester Mystery House had better get ready for its close-up because San Jose's most iconic haunt has been cast as the star of a new horror movie.

The first major motion picture to be shot in San Jose in ages, the "Winchester Mystery House" movie will be produced by Saratoga native Andrew Trapani, best known for the Lionsgate hit "The Haunting in Connecticut." The filmmaker, who attended Saratoga High School and Santa Clara University, says he has been fascinated by the valley's original monster home since childhood.

"I must have toured the house a dozen times. The question isn't what is fascinating about the Winchester but what's not fascinating about it," says Trapani, who now lives in Los Angeles. "As a kid, it was a big scary place that terrified me. As an adult, it's something I want to research and investigate."

Hundreds of thousands of people flock to the 160-room mansion, one of the most popular haunted houses in America, each year. Originally built by eccentric rifle heiress Sarah L. Winchester in the late 1800s, the house is also considered a center of spectral activity by many. Over the years apparitions have been reported by staff and visitors alike. The seance room, where Winchester nightly tried to commune with the afterlife, is among the hot spots.

"It's the great American haunted house," Trapani says. "It's also a great mystery. What motivated her to do what she did? That's what we want to explore with this movie. The reports of paranormal activity are so numerous that it's certainly worth investigating."


Legend has it that Winchester was so wracked with guilt over the deaths caused by the Winchester rifle, the gun that won the West, that she thought legions of ghosts were after her. Some say she believed that if she never stopped building, the spirits could never find her. Construction on the 24,000-square-foot Victorian mansion went on 24 hours a day for 32 years until her death in 1922. Among the byzantine house's infamous architectural oddities are doors that open onto nothing and stairways that lead to ceilings.

Trapani is currently brainstorming the plot, which will probably entail "a contemporary tale about the house with flashes into the past." Nothing has been decided on who might distribute or star in the picture.

For the record, Shozo Kagoshima, manager of the Winchester, says he has never seen any evidence of the supernatural in his 33 years on staff. "I don't doubt people who say they have seen things," he says. "But I think you have to believe before you can see."

The publicity is expected to raise the profile of not just the city's biggest tourist destination but also the city at large.

"A major motion picture would be a major boost to our local economy and tourism industry by showcasing San Jose to a broader audience," says Dan Fenton, CEO of Team San Jose. "We welcome the chance to put San Jose on the big screen."

Other movies shot in the city include the sci-fi flick "The Terminator," with its shots of Interstate 280, as well as "Mad City," starring John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman, and "The Rookie," with Clint Eastwood.

Over the years, the house has inspired countless TV segments. San Jose Repertory Theatre even staged a musical about the house. But producers are quick to note that this will be the very first feature film granted permission to shoot on location. Filming is slated to begin by the end of the year.

"They wanted to make sure that the movie would be handled with care," Trapani says, "that nothing would be done to defame the legacy. We want to honor it."

Contact Karen D'Souza at kdsouza@mercurynews.com or 408-271-3772.

Sarah Winchester

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Saint John the New Great Martyr of Suceava

Saint John the New Great Martyr of Suceava (Feast Day - June 2 and June 24)

The Holy Great Martyr John the New of Sochi, lived in the fourteenth century in the city of Trebizond. He was a merchant, devout and firm in his Orthodoxy, and generous to the poor.

Once, he happened to be sailing on a ship while pursuing his trading activities. The captain of the ship was not Orthodox, but got into an argument about the Faith with St John. Having been vanquished by the saint's words, the captain resolved to make trouble for him when they got to Belgrade. During the ship's stay at Belgrade, the captain went to the city ruler, a fire-worshipper, and suggested that on his ship was a studious man who also desired to become a fire-worshipper.

The city ruler invited St John to join the fire-worshippers and renounce his faith in Christ.

The saint prayed secretly, calling on the help of Him Who said, "When they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what you shall speak, neither do you premeditate; but whatsoever will be given you in that hour, speak that, for it is not you that speaks, but the Holy Spirit" (Mark 13:11). And the Lord gave him the courage and understanding to counter all the claims of the impious and firmly confess himself a Christian. After this, the saint was so fiercely beaten with rods that his entire body was lacerated, and the flesh came off in pieces. The holy martyr thanked God for being found worthy to shed his blood for Him and thereby wash away his sins.

Scenes from the life of St. John the New (Voronet Monastery, Romania)

Afterwards they put him in chains and dragged him away to prison. In the morning the city ruler ordered the saint brought forth again. The martyr came before him with a bright and cheerful face. The intrepid martyr absolutely refused to deny Christ, denouncing the governor as a tool of Satan. Then they beat him again with rods, so that all his insides were laid bare.

The gathering crowd could not bear this horrible spectacle and they began to shout angrily, denouncing the governor for tormenting a defenseless man. The governor, having the beating stopped, gave orders to tie the Great Martyr to the tail of a wild horse to drag him by the legs through the streets of the city. Residents of the Jewish quarter particularly scoffed at the martyr and threw stones at him. Finally, someone took a sword and cut off his head.

The Martyrdom of St. John the New

St John's body with his severed head lay there until evening, and none of the Christians dared to take him away. By night a luminous pillar was seen over him, and a multitude of burning lamps. Three light-bearing men sang Psalms and censed the body of the saint. One of the Jews, thinking that these were Christians coming to take up the remains of the martyr, grabbed a bow and tried to shoot an arrow at them, but he was restrained by the invisible power of God, and became rigid.

In the morning the vision vanished, but the archer continued to stand motionless. Having told the gathering inhabitants of the city about the vision and what was done to him by the command of God, he was freed from his invisible bonds. Having learned about the occurrence, the ruler gave permission to bury the body of the martyr in the local church. This occurred between the years 1330 and 1340. There is some question about the year of the saint's martyrdom. St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain gives the year as 1642, while others say it was 1492.

The captain who had betrayed St John repented of his deed, and decided secretly to convey the relics to his own country, but the saint appeared in a dream to the priest of the church, and prevented this. After seventy years the relics were transferred to Sochi, the capital of the Moldo-Valachian principality, and placed in the cathedral church.

The archer who tried to fire at the angels over St. John's martyred body

On hearing of his death, Reiz resolved to dig up the body of the martyr and steal it as a further act of revenge, but the Orthodox priest in the city had a dream in which John who informed him of this crime and asked him to bring his body to the Orthodox Church. This was the first miracle of the great martyr. For years his relics were kept in Cetatea Albă, where they became famous for healings and other miracles, but eventually Prince (Voievod) Alexander the Good (Alexandru cel Bun) heard of the martyr's relics and, at the urging of Metropolitan Joseph (Iosif) Muşat of Moldova, arranged to have them brought to his capital, Suceava, on June 24, 1402. John's incorrupt relics have been kept at the monastery bearing his name in that city until the present.

In 1685 the Relics of St. John were taken by the Polish King Jan Sobieski to Stryy in Ukraine. They were later transferred to the Basilian Monastery in Zhovkva, also in Halychyna. The Austrian Emperor Joseph II returned them to Suceava in 1783. The Monastery that bears his name was the site of huge pilgrimages on the day of commemorating his martyrdom. Many people came from Bukovyna.

The translation of the Relics of St. John the New

St. John the New is one of the most venerated saints in Moldova, and many miracles are associated with his relics.

The Church of St. George at the Monastery of St. John the New, Suceava, Romania

For the Akathist and Paraklesis of St. John the New (in Romanian), along with his life and numerous icons of him, see: http://sfantulioancelnou.8k.ro/index.html

Apolytikion for a Martyr in Fourth Tone
Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee received the prize of the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since he possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful.

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A Conversation between Saint Silouan the Athonite and a Hermit on Hell

Saint Silouan the Athonite

A hermit declared with evident satisfaction that "God will punish all atheists. They will burn in everlasting fire."

Obviously upset, the Staretz [Silouan] said: “Tell me, supposing you went to paradise, and there you looked down and saw someone burning in hell fire, would you feel happy?”

“It can’t be helped. It would be their own fault,” said the hermit.

The Staretz [Silouan] answered him in a sorrowful countenance: “Love could not bear that,” he said. “We must pray for all.”

* This excerpt was taken from the book The Monk of Mount Athos by Elder Sophronius Sakharov

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Real Stories of Vampires from Transylvania

The traditional vampire story has its origins in the folk beliefs of the Slavic Orthodox Christians. It was believed that any Orthodox who converted to Catholicism or any heresy was cursed. The sign of this curse could be observed after death if the body refused to be decomposed. This belief is still very popular in traditional Orthodox countries, but it has gone even further to a belief in actual vampires who would rise from their graves at night to steal the life blood and energy from people. One way villagers dealt with this issue was by driving a stake through the heart of the suspected vampire and decapitating it, among other things. This extreme ritual is still a fairly common practice in one of the largest Orthodox countries in the world - Romania.

Two American filmmakers went to Transylvania to collect stories of vampires (strigoi in Romanian), werewolves and ghosts. They find that belief in these creatures still exist in the small villages of the Carpathian mountains. This video showcases interviews with Romanian villagers who share their experiences about vampires.

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Miracle of Saint Nektarios: The Healing of Fr. Nektarios Vitalis of Cancer

Saint Nektarios the Wonderworker of Aegina

Fr. Nektarios Vitalis, well-known in Lavrio [a city in Attika, Greece] for his deeds and his sympathy to the poor and those written-off by the world in these difficult times, retells the following incident from when he was dying from cancer. What is said below has been told elsewhere, repeatedly, including in the book I talked to Saint Nektarios (Athens 1997, by the renowned writer Mr. Manolis Melinos).

Fr. Nektarios Vitalis recalls:

"I was suffering from a serious form of cancer. My chest was an open wound that was continuously running blood and pus. I would tear my undershirts from the pain. It was a tragic situation, and I was headed directly to death. So you understand, I had even prepared my grave clothes....

"On the 26th of March 1980, in the morning, I was talking in my office in the basement of the Church with Sofia Bourdoy (the church care-taker [a woman who cleans the church]) and the icon painter Helen Kitraki, when the door suddenly opened and an old, unknown man entered. He had a snow-white beard, was short and was slighty bald. He looked exactly the same as St. Nektarios appears in photographs. He took three candles without paying and lit only two. He venerated all the icons of the church, but passed over the icon of St. Nektarios without venerating it. He did not see me where I was. I had terrible pains when they pulled aside the curtain of the office and went to see the old man. He faced the Beautiful Gate [the Royal Doors in the Holy Iconostasion], crossed his palms and without looking around he asked: 'Is the Geronta [Elder] here?'


"The church care-taker knowing my disease wanted to protect me...: 'No, no...he is at home with the flu....'

"He replied: 'Never mind. Pray, and have a Good Resurrection,' [the traditional Orthodox greeting during Great Lent in anticipation of Pascha 'Kali Anastasi'] he said as he left.

"The church care-taker came running to me and said 'Father Nektarios, the old man who just left resembled St. Nektarios himself! His eyes flew flames. It seems to me that was St. Nektarios and he came to help you....'

"I thanked her thinking that she said this to console me. But deep down something was wrong. I sent her along with the icon painter to find the unknown man and quickly bring him back. I walked into the sanctuary and venerated the Crucified One [the icon of Christ on the Cross in every Holy Altar] crying, and once again asking Christ to heal me. Their footsteps stopped: 'Father, the Elder has come!'

"I tried to kiss his hand, but out of humilty he did not let me. He bent and kissed my own! I asked him: 'What is your name?'

"'Anastasios, my son,' he said, relating his baptismal name that he had before he become a monk....

"I led him to venerate the holy relics. He took out a pair of glasses with only one arm, and as soon as we saw them we were amazed! They were the same glasses of St. Nektarios that we had in the case with the holy relics. They were given to me by the old Gerontissa [Eldress] Nektaria of the monastery in Aegina.

"'Belief is everything!' said the stranger, as he put on his glasses.

"He began with reverence to embrace all the holy relics as the church care-taker showed, except for the relics of St. Nektarios, which he passed over....

"'Geronta, forgive me,' I said, 'but why don't you venerate the miraculous Saint Nektarios?'

"He turned and looked at me smiling. I asked him: 'Where are you staying Geronta?'

"He showed me the ceiling, where we were building the new church [dedicated to St. Nektarios], saying: 'My house is still not ready and I'm worried. My position does not allow me to live here and there....'

"'Geronta, I must confess, you were told a lie earlier. I have cancer! But I want to get well, to make the Holy Altar, to finish the Church first, and then I can die....'

"'Do not worry,' he told me. 'I'm leaving now. I'm going to Paros [an island in Greece] to venerate St. Arsenios and to visit Fr. Philotheos [Zervakos],' he added, starting to leave and passing by the big icon without giving it a second thought....

"I stopped him and put my hands to his face.

"'My Geronda, my Geronda, your face looks exactly like St. Nektarios who is honored here in our church....'

"Then, tears rolled from his eyes. He crossed me and embraced me with his hands. Taking courage I opened my hands to hug him. But when I spread out my hands, and while I was watching I could see him before my face, my arms closed back to my chest! The hairs then stood up on my arms and I crossed myself!

"I said again: 'O my Geronta, I beg you, I want to live to do my first Liturgy. Help me to live....'

"He left from being close to me and stopped in front of his icon and said: 'Oh, my child Nektarios, don't worry. It is a passing trial, and you will be well! The miracle which you are asking for will happen, and it will be told to the whole world. Don't be afraid....'

"Immediately he left us by walking through a closed door....

"The women ran to catch up to him. They reached him at the bus stop. He went inside and disappeared before the bus left!"

This story is always told by Fr. Nektarios Vitalis, a respected and reliable person, in the presence of witnesses. Fr. Nektarios eventually became well - to the amazement of doctors, radiologists, and forecasters of death. Because above all is Christ, our living God, and our intercessors before God, the Saints, plus our Mother the Panagia!

For "where God wills, the laws of nature are overcome...."

Icon of St. Nektarios embracing and healing Fr. Nektarios Vitalis, along with the two women bearing witness to this to the left, and the doctors confirming the miracle to the right. The icon is from the church of St. Nektarios in Aretaieion Hospital.

Fr. Nektarios Vitalis


Below is Fr. Nektarios recalling this great miracle (in Greek)

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A Guide to Russian Sects and Fringe Beliefs - Part 1 of 6

[Below is presented the first in a six-part series being run by RIA Novosti offering a brief overview of Russian sects and fringe beliefs. -J.S.]

The Schism and the Skoptsy

29/05/2009

MOSCOW, RUSSIA

RIA Novosti

Marc Bennetts

Russia has seen a colossal number of sects and fringe religions throughout its long history, from the 18th-century self-castrating Skoptsy to the modern-day doomsday cult whose members threatened to burn themselves alive in the Volga Region last year.

In this six-part series, RIA Novosti takes a look at the history of some of these groups and their leaders, and also asks why Russia has proved such fertile ground for the growth of new and bizarre beliefs.

Up until the mid 17th century, the Russian Orthodox Church enjoyed complete spiritual authority. However, in 1666, Patriarch Nikon decided to bring the Russian Church in line with Greek Orthodoxy, and ordered the rewriting of ecclesiastical tomes.

His move, in a country where dogma and tradition had always played a large role in religious life, caused an uproar.

Nikon's assertion that Orthodox believers should use three fingers instead of two to cross themselves led to him being labeled the Antichrist by opponents of his changes. Pious Russians had long feared the year 1666, with its satanic associations, and Nikon's actions seemed to them to be a sign that the Apocalypse was fast approaching.

The Old Believers subsequently fled to Siberia and other remote areas of Russia to escape persecution and await the end of the world. Some of the groups cut themselves off so effectively that isolated communities that knew little of developments in the modern world were still being found in the 1960s and 1970s by Soviet geological expeditions.

This 17th century rejection of the Church's authority laid the roots for a subsequent explosion of sects and cults, many of them fixating on a single piece of scripture, or an interpretation of scripture, and basing their entire belief system around it.

The two most notorious of these cults were the Khlysty and their offshoot, the Skoptsy.

Portrait of Kondratii Selivanov (c. 1732-1832), leader and founder of the Skoptzy movement.

The Khlysty believed that the way to salvation lay through the repentance of sins. The greater the sin, the greater the repentance, the Khlysty reasoned, and following this logic they rejected conventional doctrines of "right and wrong," indulging in actions that they could later confess to.

Grigory Rasputin, the mysterious monk who had a major influence on Tsar Nicholas II prior to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, is also thought to have had links to the group, which was active from the 17th to the early 20th century.

"I whip myself, I seek Christ" ("Sebya khlyschu, Khrista ischu") the Khlysty chanted, while flagellating themselves. They were also famed for their dervish-like dances, during which they believed they were communicating directly with the Holy Spirit.

From the Khlysty came the Skoptsy, who believed that Adam and Eve were created sexless, and that reproduction organs only appeared after humanity had been tempted by Satan. Accordingly, in order "to avoid sexual temptation and sin" the group's men castrated themselves. Just to be on the safe side, they also cut off women's breasts.

The sect also distorted biblical texts, referring to Christ not as the redeemer (iskupitel) but the castrator (oskopitel), and stated that Jesus had himself been relived of his sexual organs by John the Baptist.

The late Russian academic Andrei Sinyavsky claimed in "Ivan the Fool - Russian Folk Belief" that the Skoptsy believed that anyone who castrated twelve people was guaranteed a place in heaven, irrespective of any other sins he may have committed. Soviet dissident Sinyavsky, in his quite remarkable study of Russian religious history, wrote that they even went so far as to pay peasants to let them "strike off the serpent."

The sect's leader and founder, Kondraty Selivanov, considered by his many followers to be a castrated Tsar Peter III, despite the latter's assassination in 1762, was granted an audience with a curious Tsar Paul I towards the end of the 18th century. Predictably, the Russian leader turned down Selivanov's proposal that he castrate himself and establish the Skoptsy belief as state religion, packing him off to an insane asylum instead.

Despite Paul I's unwillingness to embrace the group's teachings, the influence of the Skoptsy grew and by 1863 official state statistics showed that the group was some 110,000-strong. The Khlysty were also said to boast similar numbers.

Rasputin was said to have been a Khlysty, though his daughter refutes this in her biography of her father.

While the Khlysty and the Skoptsy were the most notorious of the new sects, they were not the only ones. Other sects included the Molokans (known for their habit of drinking milk on fast days), the Dukhobors (Spirit-Wrestlers) and the Beloritzy (who only wore white), to name but a few.

Although these groups have largely ceased to exist, their rejection of the mainstream Church had a massive influence on Russian religious life, and paved the way for the appearance of the myriad modern-day sects and cults that emerged following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

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