The Third Salutations To The Theotokos

New creation was shown by the Creator in showing Himself unto us whom He created, sprouting up from an unseeded womb, while preserving it just as it was, inviolate, so that beholding the miracle we might extol her, exclaiming:

Rejoice, O flower of incorruptness.
Rejoice, O crown of laurel for continence.

Rejoice, for in you resurrection is typified.
Rejoice, for angelical life you exemplified.

Rejoice, fertile tree with luscious fruit, by which believers are sustained.
Rejoice, foliaged tree beneath which are many sheltered in its shade.

Rejoice, for you were pregnant with the Guide for the errant.
Rejoice, for of the Freer of captives you are the parent.

Rejoice, who plead till the just Judge surrenders.
Rejoice, forgiveness for many offenders.

Rejoice, the vesture of those stripped of confidence.
Rejoice, the tender love that conquers every longing.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


On seeing the strange childbirth, let’s be estranged from the mundane, transporting our mind unto heaven. For this purpose the supernal God as a humble human being appeared down on earth, intending to attract unto the summit those who cry out to Him, Alleluia.


Present below completely and above nowise absent was the uncircum­scribable Logos. For it was no migration through space, but divine con­descension that had taken place, and childbirth from a God-possessed Virgin who hears this that follows:

Rejoice, the uncontainable God’s container.
Rejoice, the magnificent mystery’s doorway.

Rejoice, for unbelievers a doubtful story.
Rejoice, for the believers the doubtless glory.

Rejoice, all-holy vehicle of Him who rides the Cherubim.
Rejoice, exquisite domicile20 of Him who mounts the Seraphim.

Rejoice, who integrate in yourself a contradiction.
Rejoice, who incorporate both virginity and parturition.21

Rejoice, through whom the trespass was nullified.
Rejoice, through whom was Paradise opened wide.

Rejoice, the opener to Christ’s kingdom.
Rejoice, the hope of eternal blessings.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


Quite amazed by the great deed of Your incarnation was the entire nature of Angels. For the once inaccessible God they beheld accessible to all as a man, with us together sojourning while thusly hearing from everyone: Alleluia.


Richly eloquent rhetors we see speechless as fishes when they contem­plate you, O Theotokos. For at a loss are they to explain how you managed childbirth and a virgin yet remain. But we, in marveling at the mystery, cry out with conviction:

Rejoice, God’s Wisdom’s repository.
Rejoice, His providence’s depository.

Rejoice, who prove the philosophers wisdomless.
Rejoice, who reprove the sophists as ridiculous.

Rejoice, for the fierce debaters becoming fools lost their taste.
Rejoice, for the creators of the myths have faded away.

Rejoice, you who rend the webs of the Athenians.
Rejoice, you who fill the nets of the Fishermen.

Rejoice, who drag out from the deep of ignorance.
Rejoice, who illumine many with cognizance.

Rejoice, the barge for those seeking salvation.
Rejoice, the harbor for life’s navigators.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


Set on saving the cosmos, He who set all things in order came down to it of His own volition. And though being the Shepherd as God, for us He appeared like us, as a man; and having called His own, like by like, as God He hears, Alleluia.

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Birth of a Nation-State: The Establishment of Modern Greece

Effie Karageorgos
March 25, 2011
Neos Kosmos

On 25 March 2011, 190 years has passed since the beginning of the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Empire.

It is important at this time to remember both the forces within and outside of Greece that led to the famous ‘Ελευθερία ή θάνατος!’ (Freedom or death!) declaration on this significant date in Greek history. From the mid-15th century, the powerful Ottoman Empire overran early Greek (Byzantine) territories weakened by various wars, including the Fourth Crusade.

The harsh treatment of Orthodox Christians under Ottoman rule put them in a low position in society, and one that inspired frequent revolts. This increased during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when Greek shipping merchants became wealthier under spreading industrialization, leading to increased courage against the Ottoman navy and the financing of more Orthodox Christian schools teaching predominantly Greek values. Added to this, ideas about freedom originating in the French Revolution and the Enlightenment were reaching Ottoman Greece, particularly through descendants of those who had migrated to Western Europe before the invasion. This increased courage led to the 1814 formation of Φιλική Εταιρεία (Society of Friends), a secret organization with the aim to liberate Greece.

By 1821, they were ready to plan a large scale revolution in the Peloponnese, the Danubian Principalities and Constantinople. Although various separate revolts occurred from February 1821, the modern Greek nation celebrates their initial drive towards freedom on 25 March, when historians claim Germanos of Patras raised the Greek flag at the Peloponnese monastery of Aghias Lavras in the most important battlefield of the revolution, the Peloponnese.

Eventually the relentless Greek fighting for independence forced the European powers of France and Britain to pay attention. Britain and France, in particular, were prompted by public opinion, particularly of Romantic painters and other intellectuals, such as Eugene Delacroix and Lord Byron – who died while fighting on the Greek side. By 1826 they were ready to combine forces with Russia to help end the war.

The weakened state of the Ottoman Empire by the 19th century had forced them to employ Egypt to fight for them in 1825, in exchange for Greek territory. The Egyptian navy’s push towards Hydra in October 1827 was to prove the end of the long war for independence. Britain, France and Russia sent a joint fleet to meet the Egyptians before they reached the island, meeting them in Navarino. The ensuing battle lasted for a week, and ended in an Egyptian defeat. This encounter only added to the numerous gains made by Greek revolutionaries that won the war.

By 1829, Greece had defined borders and a new government, establishing the modern Greek state as we recognise it today.

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The Courageous Reply of the Monks of Mega Spelaion In 1827

By Metropolitan Amvrosios of Kalavryta

In the year 1827, the nation of Greece was in the throes of a revolution which could only have two outcomes: freedom or the death of all in an eternal and unique example of self-sacrifice. When the blood-thirsty Imbrahim Pasha of Egypt had again conquered Peloponnesos, leaving only ashes and ruins, he turned his attention to the treasures of the Great Cave [Mega Spelaion], the only part of Peloponnesos not subjugated. He marched against the Monastery, a natural fortress, which was guarded by five hundred armed revolutionaries and one hundred young monks.

Imbrahim Pasha sent the following letter:

June 21, 1827

Most noble Abbot and the priests and monks of the Great Cave.

We inform you that we arrived four days ago at the plain of Kalavryta with the effendi Imbrahim Pasha. We have many arms and are much prepared for the siege of the Monastery of Mega Spelaion. We await soon cannon balls and bombs and many sappers also, so that after one or two days we shall begin the siege of the Monastery and the places round about. Therefore, we ask you to spare your Monastery which aforetime had not been destroyed, but now might be destroyed. Indeed, many more ignorant than you have come and submitted to our effendi and saved their villages, and many people and their life and possessions. You, who are more intelligent than they, are able to consider matters even better.

I shall write you no more; you will also be informed by the letter of my friend Fotilas, who shall himself advise you.

Abbot, consider that this uprising of the Romans will come to no good, therefore, as a sensible man, consider well that you will not end well, but be conquered. Know that what we write, we write at the orders of our most high effendi; answer to us what we have written.

Sami Effendi
Segneztipe effendi

The Abbot and monks of Mega Spelaion responded with the following letter:

June 22, 1827
Mega Spelaion

Most sublime leader of the Ottoman forces, Hail.

We have received your letter and have read it. We know that you are in the plain of Kalavryta for many days and have all the means to wage war. It is impossible for us to submit, because we have vowed on our Faith to become free or to die fighting, and as long as we exist we cannot break this sacred vow to our fatherland. However, we advise you to go wage war somewhere else. If you come here to war against us and you conquer us, the evil thing is not great, for you have only defeated clergy. But if you should be defeated by us, which is our sure hope in our impregnable position with the help of God, it will be to your shame, and the Hellenes will take heart and hound you everywhere.

Such is our advice, and you, as a wise man, do what is to your advantage. We have letters as well from the parliament and the Marshal Theodore Kolokotronis stating that if needed they will send us much aid, soldiers and supplies, and that either we will be freed quickly or die according to our sacred vow for the fatherland.

Damascene, Abbot
and the other priests and monks with me.

Divine power, however, animated and encouraged the six hundred defenders of the Monastery against the more than ten thousand well-armed foe. After an epic battle on June 24, 1827, the enemy troops retreated, while the unharmed defenders with all those who had sought refuge there chanted hymns and praises to the saving Champion Leader, the Mother of God, who humbled the foe and raised the trophy of victory.

Letters In Greek

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Φ. Κόντογλου: "Στολή Αφθαρσίας" & "Η Aγιασμένη Eπανάσταση"

Tου αειμνήστου Φωτίου Κόντογλου

ΣΤΟΛΗ ΑΦΘΑΡΣΙΑΣ

Για του Χριστού την πίστιν την αγίαν,
για της πατρίδος την ελευθερίαν,
γι’ αυτά τα δύο πολεμώ,
γι’ αυτά να ζήσω επιθυμώ,
κι αν δεν τα αποκτήσω
τι μ’ ωφελεί να ζήσω;

Η ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΕΠΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΗ του 1821 έχει μια πνοή αγιασμένη, κι η ιστορία της είνε σαν συναξάρι. Η Ελλάδα μπορεί να παρασταθεί σαν τη μητέρα των Μακκαβαίων που είδε να βασανίζονται και να σφάζονται μπροστά της τα παιδιά της ένα-ένα. Από τον καιρό που χάθηκε η Κωνσταντινούπολη, η πατρίδα μας μαυροφόρεσε σαν χαροκαμένη χήρα· οι άνδρες ήτανε σαν ασκητές, οι γυναίκες σαν καλογρηές, τα τραγούδια μας γεμάτα πόνο και ελπίδα, τη λεγόμενη «χαρμολύπη», σαν χερουβικά, σαν τροπάρια.

Μια αγιωσύνη τα τύλιγε όλα. Οι καρδιές ήτανε, με όλη την παληκαριά τους, συντετριμμένες και ταπεινωμένες. Γι’ αυτό κι η θρησκεία μας ήτανε αληθινή, επειδή η πίστη του Χριστού δεν ταιριάζει σε ανθρώπους απίκραντους και καλοπερασμένους, κατά τα λόγια του Χριστού που λέγει: «εν τω κόσμω θλίψιν έξετε», και στενή και τεθλιμμένη η οδός».

Μα όσα χάνει ο άνθρωπος σε καλοπέραση, τα κερδίζει «εκατονταπλασίονα» σε βάθος πνευματικό. Και το έθνος μας που στάθηκε κακότυχο και βασανισμένο, από την άλλη μεριά στάθηκε ευλογημένο, κατά τον λόγο που λέγει ο Σολομών για όσους μαρτυρούνε για την αλήθεια: «και γαρ εν όψει ανθρώπων εάν κολασθώσιν, η ελπίς αυτών αθανασίας πλήρης· και ολίγα παιδευθέντες, μεγάλα ευεργετηθήσονται». Και ποια είνε αυτή η αντάμειψη; Η αντάμειψη ήτανε πως ντυθήκανε με κάποια στολή αφθαρσίας αυτοί που ζούσανε «υστερούμενοι, θλιβόμενοι, κακουχούμενοι, εν ερημίαις πλανώμενοι και σπηλαίοις και ταις οπαίς της γης».

Για τούτο, όποιος άνθρωπος έχει καρδιά καθαρή, και νιώσει την Ελληνική Επανάσταση, σαν να τραβιέται από κάποιον μαγνήτη, ας είνε κι άλλης φυλής άνθρωπος, χωρίς να γνωρίζει καλά- καλά από πού βγαίνει αυτή η γλυκύτητα και η κατανυκτική αγάπη, μ’ όλο που ακούει σκοτωμούς, μαρτύρια και μοιρολόγια, που σε άλλη περίσταση αγριεύουνε τον άνθρωπο. Θαρρεί πως δεν γινήκανε στ’ αληθινά αυτά που ακούει, αλλά πως είνε κάποιο έμορφο παραμύθι.

Τα πιο σκληρά πράγματα χάνουνε τη σκληρότητά τους, καν φονικά, καν αγωνίες κάθε λογής, φτώχια, κρύο, πείνα, αρρώστεια, ορφάνια. Κάποιος μυστικός πλούτος τα χρυσώνει όλα, ο της αφθαρσίας ο Παράκλητος (ο Παρηγορητής), το Πνεύμα το Άγιον. Αυτή είναι που λέγω στολή Αφθαρσίας κι ελπίδα Αθανασίας.

Η Ελληνική Επανάσταση είνε σαν το χάλκινο μοσχάρι που έκανε ένας τεχνίτης για τον τύραννο Φάλαρη και που το πύρωνε με φωτιά και σφαλούσε στην κοιλιά του όσους ήθελε να βασανίσει για να ψηθούνε ζωντανοί. Μα αντί ν’ ακούγονται βογκητά και φρικτοί θρήνοι από το στόμα του βοδιού, έβγαιναν τραγούδια χαρούμενα, επειδή ο τεχνίτης είχε βάλει επιτήδεια στο λαρύγγι του βοδιού κάποιο όργανο που άλλαζε τους θρήνους σε χαρούμενη μουσική. Ο

Αθανάσιος Διάκος τραγουδούσε περασμένος στη σούβλα, κι οι γυναίκες του Ζαλόγγου χορεύανε και πέφτανε στον γκρεμνό. Κι όλοι οι Έλληνες, άνδρες, γυναίκες, μικροί, μεγάλοι, δεσποτάδες, παπάδες, λαϊκοί, ψέλνανε σαν να τραγουδούσανε και τραγουδούσανε σαν να ψέλνανε, όπως οι τρεις Παίδες της καμίνου που δοξολογούσανε τον Θεό χορεύοντας μέσα στη φωτιά σαν να δροσολογιότανε.

Απ’ όλη την αιματοβαμμένη Ελλάδα ακουγότανε «ήχος καθαρός εορταζόντων», κι οι Έλληνες τρέχανε στον θάνατο «αγαλλομένω ποδί, Πάσχα κροτούντες αιώνιον». Γι’ αυτό μαγεύθηκε ο κόσμος, χωρίς να ξέρει γιατί. Εκείνο που τους μάγευε ήτανε η Ελπίδα της Αθανασίας που βγαίνει από την Ορθοδοξία και που τα σκεπάζει όλα με την χαρούμενη πνοή της.

Η χαρά του Χριστού είνε ένα άνθος που φυτρώνει μοναχά στις καρδιές που πονούν. Για τούτο ο Δαυΐδ έλεγε: «Κύριε εν θλίψει επλάτυνάς με». Κι οι ασκηταί της Ορθοδοξίας τη λέγανε «Χαρμολύπη» ή «Χαροποιόν πένθος», αυτή τη χαρά που βγαίνει από τη συντριμμένη καρδιά. Η Ελληνική Επανάσταση ήτανε τα χαρούμενα ορμήματα του Ποταμού της Ορθοδοξίας. Γι’ αυτό τη μισήσανε και την πολεμήσανε οι «ψευδάδελφοι», εκείνοι που ιδρύσανε στ’ όνομα του Χριστού ένα σύστημα εγκόσμιας ευδαιμονίας, κάποιον «αριστοκρατικό χριστιανισμό» που τραβά τις ματαιόδοξες ψυχές, και τις ξεραίνει από τη χαρά του Χριστού, από τη «χαρμολύπη»[1].

Οι Έλληνες του καιρού εκείνου ήτανε «πτωχοί τω πνεύματι», κατά τους έξυπνους του κόσμου. Ήτανε απλοί και φυσικοί, κι η όψη τους, τα λόγια τους, οι συνήθειές τους, τα φερσίματά τους ήτανε αληθινά, δηλαδή Ελληνικά. Η ψυχή τους ήτανε δεμένη με τη φύση και τη θρησκεία τους. Λεοντόκορμοι άνδρες που βαστούσανε από αρχαία αίματα, ζούσανε στον ανοιχτόν αγέρα όπως τους έπλασε ο Θεός, με γένεια, με μουστάκια, με μακρυά μαλλιά σαν το Χριστό, γοργοπόδαροι, λιγόφαγοι, θρήσκοι, ταπεινοί μπροστά στους γεροντότερους και στους παπάδες, με ψυχή γεμάτη κρυφά πλούτη.

Απάνω απ’ όλα ήτανε η Θρησκεία, η Πίστις των Πατέρων μας. Κι οι λειτουργοί της ήτανε οι πνευματικοί τους, οι δάσκαλοί τους, οι προστάτες τους, οι παρηγορητές τους, οι δικαστές τους, οι εξομολόγοι τους. Ο πιο αγαπημένος αρματωλός για το λαό, ο πιο αγνός πολεμιστής, ο καινούριος άγιος Γιώργης, στάθηκε ένας παπάς, ο Αθανάσιος Διάκος, που σουβλίσθηκε για την Πίστη του Χριστού.

Άλλοι τέτοιοι αγιασμένοι που αγωνισθήκανε για την Πίστη, είνε ο Πατριάρχης Γρηγόριος ο Ε’, ο Ησαΐας Σαλώνων, ο Ρωγών Ιωσήφ, ο Κυπριανός στην Κύπρο· τι λέγω; Νέφος ολόκληρο ρασοφορεμένοι, Ορθόδοξον Ιεράτευμα. Πριν να γίνει η Επανάσταση, χιλιάδες Νεομάρτυρες μαρτυρήσανε για την Πίστη, κι ύστερα ήρθανε οι αρματωλοί. Οι δεσποτάδες, οι παπάδες κι οι καλόγεροι είχανε γίνει σαν τους προφήτες που οδηγούσανε τον νέον Ισραήλ στη Γη της Επαγγελίας.

Οι αρματωλοί γινήκανε σαν ασκητές και ψέλνανε απάνω στο μετερίζι, και ξεστηθίζανε το Ψαλτήρι για παρηγοριά, με τα χαϊμαλιά στο στήθος που παριστάνανε τον Χριστό, την Παναγία, τον άη Γιώργη, τον άη Δημήτρη. Για φυλαχτό είχανε ή τίμιο ξύλο, ή άγιο λείψανο, ή ένα κομμάτι από το παλιόρασο του άγιου Κοσμά. Πολλοί αρματωλοί ήτανε ζωγραφισμένοι στα ερημοκκλήσια μαζί με τους αγίους. Η ζωγραφιά του Μεϊντάνη βρισκότανε στην εκκλησιά της Κατούνας, του Ανδρούτσου στο Μεγάλο Μετέωρο, του Διαμαντή Σπατούλη στην εκκλησιά στ’ Αλεποχώρι Μπότσαρη. Και τους σκοτωμένους τους θάβανε κοντά στην εκκλησιά.

Λοιπόν, δεν είνε αγιασμένη η Επανάστασή μας, δεν είνε η Ορθοδοξία ματωμένη για να φυλάξη την πίστη μας; Η Ορθοδοξία έγινε ένας λόγος άδειος στα στόματα των σημερινών φραγκοδασκαλευμένων δασκάλων. Μα η αληθινή Ορθοδοξία που είνε πλούτος και ρίζα αθανασίας, είνε φυτρωμένη βαθειά στην καρδιά του ορθοδοξώτατου λαού μας, που όσο δεν ήθελε να τουρκέψει, άλλο τόσο δεν θέλει να φραγκέψει.

Φώτης Κόντογλους

ΚΙΒΩΤΟΣ
ΜΗΝΙΑΙΟΝ ΦΥΛΛΑΔΙΟΝ ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΟΥ ΔΙΔΑΧΗΣ
ΕΤΟΣ Β’ ΜΑΡΤΙΟΣ 1953 ΑΡΙΘ. ΦΥΛΛΟΥ 15

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[1] Πριν λίγες μέρες γράψανε οι εφημερίδες πως το καθολικό περιοδικό «Ecclesia», δημοσίευσε ένα άρθρο του Κλωντ Φαρρέρ που κατακρίνει την Ελληνική Επανάσταση… Μ’ όλο που αυτό το περιοδικό δημοσιεύει πολλά ορθόδοξα κείμενα και στην πρώτη όψη φαίνεται χριστιανικό, ωστόσο το δηλητήριο τόχει πάντα κρυμμένο κατεπάνω στην Ορθοδοξία.

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Η Aγιασμένη Eπανάσταση

Η Ελληνική Επανάσταση είναι η πιο πνευματική επανάσταση που έγινε στο κόσμο. Είναι αγιασμένη.

Η επανάσταση γίνεται τις περισσότερες φορές από κάποιες υλικές αιτίες, που είναι η σκλαβιά, η στέρηση, η κακοπέραση, τα βασανιστήρια, η περιφρόνηση. Η λευτεριά είναι η θεότητα που λατρεύει ο επαναστάτης, και γι’ αυτή χύνει το αίμα του. Μα τη λευτεριά, πολλές φορές, σαν την αποχτήσει ο επαναστάτης, δεν τη μεταχειρίζεται για πνευματικούς σκοπούς, αλλά για να χαρεί την υλική ζωή μονάχα. Κοντά στην υλική ζωή έρχεται κ’ η πνευματική, μα τις περισσότερες φορές για πνευματική ζωή θεωρούνε οι άνθρωποι κάποιες απολαύσεις που είναι κι αυτές υλικές, κι ας φαίνονται σαν πνευματικές. Ένας επαναστάτης της γαλλικής επανάστασης, να πούμε, θεωρούσε για πνευματικά κάποια πράγματα που, στ’ αλήθεια, δεν ήτανε πνευματικά. Αυτός ήθελε ν’ αποχτήσει τη λευτεριά, για να κάνει αυτά που νόμιζε πως είναι σωστά και δίκαια για τη ζωή των ανθρώπων σε τούτο τον κόσμο μοναχά, δηλαδή για την υλική ζωή τους, μη πιστεύοντας πως υπάρχει τίποτ’ άλλο για να το επιδιώξει ο άνθρωπος. Γι’ αυτό λέγω πως, για τις περισσότερες επαναστάσεις, οι αιτίες που τις κάνανε να ξεσπάσουνε σταθήκανε υλικές, και η ελευθερία που επιδιώξανε ήτανε προορισμένη να ικανοποιήσει μονάχα υλικές ανάγκες.

Η ελληνική όμως Επανάσταση είχε μεν για αιτία και τις υλικές στερήσεις και τη κακοπάθηση του κορμιού, όπως η κάθε επανάσταση, αλλά, απάνω απ’ αυτές τις αιτίες, είχε και κάποιες που είναι καθαρά πνευματικές. Και πνευματικό, κατά τη γνώμη μου, αληθινά πνευματικό, είναι ό,τι έχει σχέση με το πνευματικό μέρος του ανθρώπου, με τη ψυχή του, δηλαδή με τη θρησκεία.

Η σκλαβιά που έσπρωξε τους Έλληνες να ξεσηκωθούνε καταπάνω στο Τούρκο δεν ήτανε μονάχα η στέρηση και η κακο­πάθηση του κορμιού, αλλά, απάνω απ’ όλα, το ότι ο τύραννος ήθελε να χαλάσει τη πίστη τους, μποδίζοντάς τους από τα θρησκευτικά χρέη τους, αλλαξοπιστίζοντάς τους και σφάζοντας ή κρεμάζοντάς τους, επειδή δεν αρνιόντανε τη πίστη τους για να γίνουνε μωχαμετάνοι. Για τούτο πίστη και πατρίδα είχανε γίνει ένα και το ίδιο πράγμα, και η λευτεριά που ποθούσανε δεν ήτανε μονάχα η λευτεριά που ποθούνε όλοι οι επαναστάτες, αλλά η λευτεριά να φυλάξουνε την αγιασμένη πίστη τους, που μ’ αυτήν ελπίζανε να σώσουνε τη ψυχή τους. Γιατί, γι’ αυτούς, κοντά στο κορμί, που έχει τόσες ανάγκες και που με τόσα βάσανα γίνεται η συντήρησή του, υπήρχε και η ψυχή, που είπε ο Χριστός πως αξίζει περισσότερο από το σώμα, όσο περισσότερο αξίζει το ρούχο απ’ αυτό.

Εκείνες οι άπλες ψυχές, που ζούσανε στα βουνά και στα ρημοτόπια, ήτανε διδαγμένες από τους πατεράδες τους στη πίστη του Χριστού, και γνωρίζανε, μ’ όλο που ήτανε αγράμματες, κάποια από τα λόγια του, όπως είναι τούτα: «Τί θα ωφελήσει άραγε τον άνθρωπο, αν κερδίσει τον κόσμον όλο, και ζημιωθεί τη ψυχή του;» Ή: «Τί θα δώσει άνθρωπος για πληρωμή της ψυχής του;» «Η ψυχή είναι πιο πολύτιμη από τη τροφή, όπως το κορμί από το φόρεμα!» κ.ά.

Για τούτο, κατά τα χρόνια της σκλαβιάς, χιλιάδες παλληκάρια σφαχτήκανε και κρεμαστήκανε και παλουκωθήκανε για τη πίστη τους, αψηφώντας τη νεότητά τους, και μη δίνοντας σημασία στο κορμί τους και σε τούτη τη πρόσκαιρη ζωή. Στράτευμα ολάκερο είναι οι άγιοι νεομάρτυρες, που δε θανατωθήκανε για τα υλικά αγαθά τούτης της ζωής, αλλά για τη πολύτιμη ψυχή τους, που γνωρίζανε πως δε θα πεθάνει μαζί με το κορμί, αλλά θα ζήσει αιώνια. Ακούγανε και πιστεύανε ατράνταχτα τα λόγια του Χριστού, που είπε: «Μη φοβηθείτε εκείνον που σκοτώνει το σώμα, και που δεν μπορεί να κάνει τίποτα παραπάνω. Αλλά να φοβηθείτε εκείνον που μπορεί να θανατώσει και το σώμα και τη ψυχή».

Η ελευθερία, που γι’ αυτή θυσιάζονταν, δεν ήτανε κάποια ακαθόριστη θεότητα, αλλά ήτανε ο ίδιος ο Χριστός, που γι’ αυτόν είπε ο απόστολος Παύλος: «Όπου το Πνεύμα του Κυρίου, εκεί είναι και η ελευθερία.» Κι αλλού λέγει: «Σταθείτε στερεά στην ελευθερία που σας χάρισε ο Χριστός, σταθείτε και μην πέσετε πάλι στο ζυγό της δουλείας. Γιατί για την ελευθερία σας κάλεσε. Αλλά την ελευθερία μην την παίρνετε μονάχα σαν αφορμή για τη σάρκα σας».

Για τούτο είναι αγιασμένη η ελληνική Επανάσταση, κι αγιασμένοι οι πολεμιστές της, όπως ήτανε αγιασμένοι όσοι πολεμήσανε μαζί με τον Κωνσταντίνο Παλαιολόγο, πριν από τρακόσα εξηνταοχτώ χρόνια, κατά το πάρσιμο της Πόλης, καταπάνω στον ίδιο οχτρό της πίστης τους.

Άκουσε με τι λόγια μιλούσε εκείνος ο αγιασμένος βασιλιάς στους στρατιώτες του, σαν να ‘λεγε κανένα τροπάρι: «Ελθών ουν, αδελφοί, ο δυσσεβής αυτός αμηράς και εχθρός της αγίας ημών πίστεως, ημάς απέκλεισε, και καθ’ εκάστην το αχανές αυτού στόμα χάσκων, πως εύρη καιρόν επιτήδειον ίνα καταπίη ημάς και την πόλιν ταύτην, ην ανήγειρεν ο τρισμακάριστος και μέγας βασιλεύς Κωνσταντίνος εκείνος, και τη πανάγνω τε και υπεράγνω δεσποίνη ημών Θεοτόκω και αειπαρθένω Μαρία αφιέρωσε και εχαρίσατο, του κυρίαν είναι και βοηθόν και σκέπην τη ημετέρα πατρίδι και καταφύγιον των χριστιανών, ελπίδα και χαράν πάντων των Ελλήνων, το καύχημα πάσι τοις ούσιν υπό την του ηλίου ανατολήν». Και στο τέλος είπε: «Ελπίζω Θεώ λυτρωθείημεν ημείς της ενεστώσης αυτού δικαίας απειλής, δεύτερον δε και ο στέφανος ο αδαμάντινος εν ουρανοίς εναπόκειται ημίν, και μνήμη αιώνιος και αξία εν τω κόσμω έσεται».

Στην επανάσταση του Είκοσι ένα, όπως και στην πολιορκία της Πόλης, μαζί με τους λαϊκούς πολεμούσανε πλήθος ραφοφορεμένοι, καλόγεροι, παπάδες και δεσποτάδες, και τραβούσανε μπροστά με το σταυρό στο χέρι, κι από πίσω τους χίμιζε κλαίγοντας ο λαός, κ’ έψελνε:

Για της πατρίδος την ελευθερία, για του Χριστού την πίστη την αγία, γι’ αυτά τα δύο πολεμώ, μ’ αυτά να ζήσω επιθυμώ, κι αν δεν τα αποκτήσω, τί μ’ ωφελεί να ζήσω;

Στη Πόλη κρεμάστηκε ο πατριάρχης Γρηγόριος, ανοίγοντας πρώτος το μαρτυρολόγιο της Επανάστασης. Ο Θανάσης Διάκος πολέμησε σαν νέος Λεωνίδας, και σουβλίστηκε για τη πίστη του. Ο Παλαιών Πατρών Γερμανός, ο Ησαΐας Σαλώνων, ο Ρωγών Ιωσήφ, ο Παπαφλέσσας, ο Θύμιος Βλαχάβας, κι άλλοι πολλοί, πολεμήσανε για την αγιασμένη πατρίδα τους.

Στη Τριπολιτσά κλειστήκανε στη φυλακή κατά την Επανάσταση οι δεσποτάδες του Μοριά, κ’ οι περισσότεροι πεθάνανε με αβάσταχτα μαρτύρια. Το ίδιο και στη Πόλη, φυλακωθήκανε και κρεμαστήκανε πολλοί δεσποτάδες.

Παρακάτω βάζω λίγα λόγια από το ημερολόγιο του αντιναύαρχου Γεωργίου Σαχτούρη:

«Παρασκευή, 25 Δεκεμβρίου. Εορτή των Γενεθλίων του Κυρίου και Θεού και Σωτήρος ημών Ιησού Χριστού. Αραγμένοι εις Ντάρδιζα με ήσυχον αέρα της τραμουντάνας, πλην με χιόνια. Αυτήν την ημέρα, διά το χαρμόσυνον της εορτής, το πρωί, υψώνοντας την σημαίαν μας, ερρίχθη και μία κανονιά, καθώς και όλα τα ελληνικά εδώ αραγμένα το αυτό έπραξαν.

Κυριακή, 15 Αυγούστου. Εορτή της Θεοτόκου. Εξημερώθημεν αραγμένοι. Υψώσαμεν τας σημαίας και ερρίξαμεν και από μίαν κανονιάν διά το χαρμόσυνον της ημέρας».

Ο ναύαρχος Κουντουριώτης έκανε τη προσευχή του, σαν τους παλιούς, να τον βοηθήσει η Παναγία στη ναυμαχία της «Έλλης», κι όπου αλλού τον καλούσε το χρέος του. Το ίδιο κάνανε και κάνουνε όλοι οι Έλληνες στο πόλεμο.

Κατά την καταστροφή της Μικράς Ασίας, πρώτοι οι άνθρωποι της θρησκείας πληρώσανε με τη ζωή τους το καινούργιο χαράτσι στον οχτρό της πίστης μας. Ο μητροπολίτης της Σμύρνης Χρυσόστομος κρεμάστηκε, ο δεσπότης των Κυδωνιών Γρηγόριος θάφτηκε ζωντανός, ο Μοσχονησίων Αμβρόσιος θανατώθηκε άσπλαχνα, κι όλοι οι παπάδες κ’ οι καλόγεροι περά­σανε από το σπαθί.

Οι Γερμανοί κ’ οι Ιταλοί θανατώσανε κι αυτοί τους ρασοφορεμένους των χωριών, για να μην απομείνουν παραπίσω από τους άλλους θεομάχους.

Ναι! Πίστη και πατρίδα είναι για μας ένα πράγμα. Κι όπως πολεμά το ένα, πολεμά και τ’ άλλο, κι ας μην ξεγελιέται.

Η μάννα μας η πνευματική είναι η ορθόδοξη Εκκλησία μας, που ποτίστηκε με πολύ κι αγιασμένο αίμα. Κανένας λαός δεν έχυσε και δεν χύνει ως τα σήμερα το αίμα του για τη πίστη, όσο ο δικός μας. Η ορθόδοξη πίστη είναι ο θησαυρός ο κρυμμένος κι ο πολύτιμος μαργαρίτης που λέγει ο Χριστός.

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Bulgarian Traditions For the Annunciation

In Bulgaria, Annunciation is called Blagoveshtenie, which literally means "delivery of the good news".

Together with Annunciation, Bulgarians also celebrate the traditional holiday Blagovets, which has its roots in the national folklore. It had several meanings developed into a complex system of omens and beliefs.

In the Bulgarian tradition Blagovets related to the arrival of the migratory birds and the spring awakening of nature.

Bulgarians believed this was the day when the cuckoo would sing for the first time in the year. Depending on what they were doing when they heard the bird sing, and depending on how it sounded, they would make different predictions about their lives and well-being in accordance with a rather complicated set of legends. One of the legends advises everyone to leave their house full and with money in their pockets in case they hear the cuckoo sing so that they would be the same way all year long. It is also believed that it is a bad omen to see a stork that is not flying, but laying or walking.

Bulgarians often call this day "Half Easter." On Blagovets, they also used to pierce young girls' ears and stain the lambs and the kids because they believed it would not hurt. On that day all poison loses its strength and people go treasure hunting. Bulgarians also clean their homes and light ritual fires. They used to gather around them and sing folklore songs. At these meetings young men and women would pick their future love as the spring was believed to be the appropriate seasons for that.

The holiday meal includes baked or boiled fish and round loafs.

The Blagovets holiday has another even more magical and secret meaning. This is the day when the woodland fairies found in the South Slavic folklore and called samodivi in Bulgaria, reappear in the rivers and lakes after they have spent the winter somewhere far away. The fairies are very secretive, and dangerous because they could kidnap anyone who encroaches upon their territory, and take them into another world. Young women and brides are not allowed to go out of the house early in the morning so that they could avoid the samodivi, whose glance can turn them ugly, make them sick or even die.

Another folklore belief about Blagovets is that this is the day when all snakes and lizards wake up and crawl out.

Males named Blagovest, Blagoy and Vangel and females named Blagovesta, Blaga and Evangelina celebrate their name day on March 25.

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Read also: Blagovets - Blagostina

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Annunciation Tower In Moscow

The Blagoveschenskaya Tower (Russian: Благовещенская башня), known in English as the Annunciation Tower, was erected in 1487-1488. At its foundation are slabs of white limestone that have survived since the time of the white stone Kremlin of the 14th century.

During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the tower was used as a prison. The name of the tower comes from the miracle-working Icon of the Annunciation, which was once kept here, and is also associated with the Church of the Annunciation added to the tower in the early 18th century and demolished in 1932. The icon appeared written on plaster on a wall of the Kremlin tower prison. In 1731 Empress Anna Ivanovna ordered the stone church be built around the icon so that the external side of the tower with the icon was inside the church. In the 17th century, the Portomoyniye Gates were built nearby so that palace laundresses could go to the Portomoiny raft on the Moscow River to rinse porty, or underclothes. These gates were bricked up in 1813.

The height of the tower is 30.7 m (32.45 m together with the weather vane that replaced the original cross in 1932).

See photos here.

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New Church Expels Ghosts From Russian TV Center

March 24, 2011
Interfax

After St. Porphyrius Church opened in the Ostankino TV center, ghosts, who according to numerous witnesses lived there, started leaving the complex, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports on Thursday.

"If there were paranormal phenomena, now they are disappearing. The area where the church is situated and divine services are celebrated gets great blessing," the cleric of the local church Deacon Dimitry Danilov was quoted as saying.

The TV center outskirts have been considered corrupt from the old times. Some researchers believe that there were impassable swamps here in the 15th century and once a year suicides were buried in the swamps: their bodies were thrown in and the bog sucked them in.

According to one of the versions, the word "Ostankino" originates from Russian ostanki, or "remnants".

The building of the Ostankino tower gave new life to old myths. Psychics claim that big antenna directed to space attracts negative energy.

Some priests believe that in theory there can be ghosts in the TV center as certain programs produced here promote sin and debauchery.

Read also:

Demons Flee From Ostrankino!

A blessing that was done in 2009

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Star in the Scorpio Constellation Named after Russian Saint

March 24, 2011
Interfax

A star of the 16th magnitude in the Scorpio constellation has been named after St. Afanasy of Kovrov – a saint who held services even while serving time in the Vladimir jail for his religious beliefs during the Soviet era. Vladimir Orthodox Gymnasium initiated a request to name the star after the Orthodox saint, the local edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports on Thursday.

The official certificate on naming the celestial body was given to pupils by the Commander of the Space Crew, the hero of Russia Yury Lonchakov, and rector of the Transfiguration Church in Zvezdny Gorodok Hegumen Iov (Talats).

“For a long time the Church and space exploration were pitted against one another, but if one’s heart is open to God, then there are no boundaries between the ecclesiastical and worldly scientific affairs,” said Archpriest Alexei Golovchenko, director of the school.

Father Afanasy Sakharov was appointed bishop of Kovrov, vicar of the Vladimir Diocese in 1921 at the age of 34, but next year he was arrested. The next 30 years he spent in camps and exiles, and his last term in jail ran out on November 9, 1951.

Read also:

THE LETTER OF BISHOP AFANASIY (SAKHAROV) TO HIS SPIRITUAL CHILDREN

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Russian Orthodox Leadership Proposes Alliance With Catholics

Elena Yakovleva
March 23, 2011
RT

­The Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church should accept each other not as rivals, but first and foremost as allies, working to protect the rights of Christians, said “the Lavrov of the Church”, head of the ROC’s Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, while speaking at the International Christian Congress in Wurzburg, Germany.

This year Easter celebrations coincide for the Orthodox and Catholic faiths. Bishop Hilarion told Rossiiskaya Gazeta how the two Churches could develop an allied position without damaging their integrity, dogmas, and principles.

“Today, the Orthodox and Catholic Christians should accept each other not as rivals, but as allies working to protect the rights of Christians. We share a common field of missionary work.” said Metropolitan Hilarion, while speaking at the fourth international congress in Wurzburg, stressing that “the future of Christianity in the third millennium depends on the joint efforts of the Orthodox believers and Catholics.’’

Bishop Hilarion commented on his statement to RG as follows.

“The idea of a strategic alliance with the Catholics– is an old idea of mine. It came to me when the Catholics were electing the new Pope. Although I would like to point out that what I am suggesting is, in essence, the direct opposite of Uniatism, which is a way toward a rapprochement based on doctrinal compromises. In our point of view, the policy of Uniatism had suffered complete failure. Not only did it not bring the Orthodox Christians and Catholics closer together, it actually distanced them. And Uniatism, as is currently recognized by both Orthodox believers and Catholics, is not the path toward unity.

I, on the other hand, am asking to – without any doctrinal compromises and without attempts to artificially level our dogmatic differences, the teachings about the Church and about the superiority of the Universal Church, without the claims to resolve all of the existing problems between us – act as allies, at the same time, without being a single Church, without having a single administrative system or common liturgy, and while maintaining the differences on the points in which we differ.

This is especially important in light of the common challenges that face both Orthodox and Catholic Christians. They are first and foremost the challenges of a godless world, which is equally hostile today to Orthodox believers and Catholics, the challenge of the aggressive Islamic movement, the challenge of moral corruption, family decay, the abandonment by many people in traditionally Christian countries of the traditional family structure, liberalism in theology and morals, which is eroding the Christian community from within. We can respond to these, and a number of other challenges, together.

I would like to stress, once more, that there are well-known doctrinal differences between the Orthodox and Catholic faiths, but there are also common positions in regard to morality and social issues which, today, are not shared by many of the representatives of liberal Protestantism. Therefore, cooperation is first and foremost necessary between the Orthodox and Catholic Christians – and that is what I call a strategic alliance.

The Church is not ready to make any compromises. And I am not calling for compromise, but on the contrary, to uncompromisingly defend our positions. Within the framework of the Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, my position is often the toughest. Meanwhile, the documents that are drafted there, are the most often contested by the ROC delegations. There have been instances when we were forced to walk out of sessions as a sign of disagreement with what was happening. We always very firmly oppose attempts to erode the differences that exist between us.

We don’t need any compromises. We need cooperation and collaboration. And within the framework of the theological commission, we could discuss the differences that exist between us not in order to find a compromise, but in order to clarify our differences and the things we have in common. It could so happen that in the course of discussion we realize that in some doctrinal aspects we are actually closer than seemed to be before – and this will be a rapprochement. But just the opposite could happen: we may see the differences that we have never noticed before.

The theological dialogue should be allowed to take its course; it may or may not lead to some results. Meanwhile, cooperation that is built on a systematic basis and that is founded on the fact that we share many of the same tasks and challenges should be developed at the same time.”

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Moscow Mayor Allocates Land For 60 Orthodox Churches

March 24, 2011
RT

Sergey Sobyanin has pledged to allot plots of land for the construction of 60 Orthodox churches in the Russian capital.
­The land will be allocated within a month, the mayor told the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill. To begin “this big program”, they will lay together the foundation stone at the construction site of the first church in April.

This will be the largest allocation of land plots for church purposes over the last one hundred years, head of the Patriarch’s press service Archpriest Vladimir Vigilyansky told the Kommersant daily. The 60 plots promised by the mayor are part of a program aimed at constructing 200 Orthodox churches in Moscow. The idea had been proposed earlier by Patriarch Kirill.

Moscow is still lagging behind other Russian cities in the number of Orthodox churches per person. On average, one church is intended for 10,000 people in Russia, and per 25,000 people in the Russian capital.

The Russian Orthodox Church will finance the construction of all the new churches in Moscow, using standard construction and concrete. Each church will be able to accommodate from 100 to 500 people.

Sobyanin announced his surprise decision against the background of the recent scandal over plans to construct the Council of Muftis’ mosque in Moscow’s Tekstilshchiki district. After protests of people living in the populous Southeast Moscow area short on public greenspace, the new Moscow government revoked the permission given by the municipal authorities.

Mufti Albir Krganov, the head of the Muslim Spiritual Board for Moscow and the Center of Russia, said in January that the authors of the project have only themselves to blame for its failure. They should have learned the opinion of local residents first and agreed on the right place for construction, he stressed.

Although some Muslim leaders said there could be problems with the construction of new mosques in Moscow, Krganov believes there are no “objective obstacles” against it.

The mayor’s decision is considered by some observers as a move to underline the cultural tradition of Slavic Russians and Moscow’s Orthodox roots.

Nevertheless, the Council of Muftis is not inclined to dramatize the situation. “We are glad that the Russian Orthodox Church has managed to solve such an important issue,” the council’s chairman, Mufti Ravil Gainutdin told the daily. He is convinced that the interests of Muslims will be taken into account and plots of land will be allotted for mosques as well. Such talks with the Mayor’s Office are under way, but no decisions have been taken yet.

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Khirbet Madras Byzantine Mosaics Vandalized

Shmuel Browns points to an article in Ynet (Hebrew) about last night’s destruction of mosaics in the recently excavated Byzantine church at Khirbet Midras. The church’s beautiful mosaics were left open to visitors for a brief period of time before they were slated to be covered until preservation works could be carried out. In this time, tens of thousands of visitors have come to view the nearly intact mosaics. The archaeologists have theories about who may have destroyed the site and await the police’s investigation. They believe the damage can be restored if there is sufficient funding. About fifteen years ago, a well-preserved rolling stone tomb at Khirbet Midras was destroyed by vandals. Browns has several photos showing the destruction of the mosaics.

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Synaxarion For the Annunciation of the Theotokos

THE ANNUNCIATION of the THEOTOKOS

On the twenty-fifth day of this month we celebrate the Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.

Verses

The Angel announced to the Virgin the
Great Son of the Father’s great Counsel.
The Angel said, "Rejoice", to Mary on the twenty-fifth.

Synaxarion

God, Who is merciful and loves mankind, is ever solicitous about the race of men. When, as a loving Father, He saw the work of His hands enslaved to the Devil and under his tyranny, subject to the passions and to idolatry, He resolved to send His Only-Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver mankind from the clutches of the Devil. Since He wanted to escape the notice not only of Satan, but also of the Heavenly Powers themselves, He entrusted the Mystery to one of the Archangels, the glorious Gabriel, and in His OEconomy He brought it about that the Holy Virgin was purified by the Holy Spirit, for she was worthy of such a favor. When the Angel came to the city of Nazareth, he said to her: “Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.” She asked: “How shall this be?” He replied: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” And she said: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” At the same time as she and the Archangel spoke, she conceived preternaturally in her immaculate womb the Son and Word of God, His enhypostatic Wisdom and Power, by the overshadowing of God and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Thereafter, the Mysteries of God the Word were accomplished by His OEconomy, for our salvation and redemption.

By her holy intercessions, O God, have mercy on us and save us, for Thou art good and lovest mankind. Amen.

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Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Today is the crowning of our salvation and the manifestation of the Mystery which is from eternity; the Son of God becometh the Son of the Virgin, and Gabriel announceth the glad tidings of grace: wherefore let us cry out with him to the Mother of God; Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!

Kontakion in Plagal of the Fourth Tone
To thee, the Champion Leader, do I offer thanks of victory, O Theotokos, thou who hast delivered me from terror; but as thou that hast that power invincible, O Theotokos, thou alone can set me free: from all forms of danger free me and deliver me, that I may cry unto thee: “Hail, O Bride without Bridegroom.”

Megalynarion in the Fourth Tone
The Theotokos, being the living tabernacle of God, shall never be touched by an unclean hand. But the lips of believers shall sing unto her ceaselessly with the voice of angels, crying joyfully, Rejoice, O full of grace. The Lord is with thee.

Koinonikon in Plagal of the Fourth Tone
The Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath chosen it for His dwelling. Alleluia.

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Former Dawkins Atheist Richard Morgan Continues to Praise God

Eryn Sun
March 24, 2011
The Christian Post

Three years later and still going strong, one man continues to prove to atheists that his conversion was not a “temporary brain infraction.”

Nominal Christian, Mormon missionary, atheist, and now a born-again Christian, Richard Morgan recently spoke to Apologetics315 about his life-changing, or saving, experience on none other than Richard Dawkins’ infamous website.

Having been through his share of religious inquiry at a young age, Morgan realized that he was constantly in search of something, whether it be spiritual or not.

Embracing answers in whatever shape they took, he found himself a Mormon at one point in his life after meeting two Mormon missionaries. But after becoming a missionary, he began to have some serious doubts about his beliefs, which later caused him to abandon that religion altogether.

Blindly searching still for something to hold on to, Morgan shared in his interview, “I was aware that probably much more than seeking God I was seeking a social context where I would be accepted. I think basically all of us deep down, we’re all looking to be accepted in some way or another.”

Having grown out of the need for that kind of moral support however as he aged, Morgan one day began to read Dawkins’ book, The Blind Watchmaker which revolutionized his life and made sense of everything he had been experiencing.

The book made one thing clear: There was nothing to look for, so stop looking and get on with your life.

“This was a real epiphany experience… to realize of course all those years of searching for something spiritual or God-like were bound to be completely frustrating because God didn’t exist.

“I didn’t feel like I became an atheist, the feeling was more that I realized I always had been,” expressed Morgan. “I had a feeling that I never actually believed in God but I was looking for some unhealthy psychological reason [to believe]… coming out as an atheist was really a hallelujah experience for me.”

Morgan’s interest in evolution increased dramatically after reading the book, redirecting his attention towards understanding the nature of living things around him more than trying to understand things that were above.

More than the religious debate, it was his interest in evolution that led him to follow Richard Dawkins. Upon finding the author’s actual website, Morgan was excited to communicate with scientists and philosophers who could offer more insight into evolution.

But rather than discussing the nature of evolution in the “oasis of clear thinking,” Morgan was horrified to discover in his first forum that more than half of the people devoted their time saying rude things about believers using extremely foul language.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen ‘The Social Network’ but there’s one point where a girl says to the main character ‘Just stay in your dark room and make snide remarks because that’s what the angry do these days.’”

After witnessing the discussions firsthand, the newly minted evolutionist agreed that the Internet was more a place where people could hide behind their anonymity and say rude things as a kind of therapy.

Still searching for answers however, Morgan continued to be a part of the community, drawn particularly to a discussion on David Robertson’s open letter replying to Dawkins’ first chapter of The God Delusion.

Prompted to write a response to each of Dawkins’ chapters in the book, the Scottish pastor eventually compiled all the letters into a book called The Dawkins Letters.

Criticizing the book in the forums, members began to attack the letters until one day Robertson himself appeared in the discussions and began defending the points he made.

“I don’t know how many hours he must have spent just replying very calmly and politely to people who were sending out the most vilest insults and criticisms,” Morgan recalled. “He just kept coming back and occasionally with a few words of Scripture thrown into his general discourse.”

Unable to understand what was wrong with Robertson, Morgan himself posed a question on the discussion boards asking members why the pastor kept coming back and what result he expected. One of the seasoned and experienced posters on the forum commented, “It’s just another Christian attention seeker.”

“Yes, David Robertson was seeking attention but it wasn’t for David Robertson. We all know for whom he was seeking attention,” expressed the now Christian Morgan.

For several days the attacks continued, until one day someone replied that David Robertson was a liar. But Morgan throughout all of the threads had not noticed this and asked where the pastor had lied, bringing him a bout of criticisms as well.

“I was probably too unintelligent to see where he was a liar,” remembered Morgan.

As time went on, he began to see more and more the brutality and harshness of the chats, recalling one shocking post where the site administrator had published an article about an extremist Russian prophet who tried to commit suicide when his prediction for the date of the end of the world failed to come true.

A couple of posters in response to the story regretted that the fallen prophet had failed in his attempt to put an end to his life. Stunned by the level of inhumanity, Morgan wondered how any civilized person could say they wanted to see anybody die. Writing a protestation to some form of humanity in the forums about his shock and disappointment in the members, one respected member on the site simply replied to his post with an LOL– laugh out loud.

It was then that Morgan realized he did not want to be a part of these people. “I’m not condemning all atheists,” he clarified in the interview. “I’m talking about anonymous atheists on internet discussion boards and the messages they express which are extremely negative, puerile, [and] full of hate…”

Coming back to Robertson’s replies to all the “nastiness and unpleasantness,” which Morgan himself was a part of, composing a piece of music just to insult the pastor, Morgan reread the debates and was impressed at several aspects of Robertson’s participation.

First, his persistence and continual presence in the discussions astounded Morgan. Robertson always came back and sometimes got up two hours earlier in the morning to give adequate response time to the criticisms.

Secondly he defended himself in a robust manner while not hesitating to wish everyone well. He wasn’t the meek and mild kind of Christian who said "I love you all and you’re all nice," but the kind of Christian who stood up for what he believed in.

Printing out over fifty pages of Robertson’s posts, Morgan read through all the posts again and found no lies. What he discovered instead was humility, intelligence, sensitivity, and several references to the Bible.

In his confused state, without God or a community of atheists to turn to, Morgan started to post on The Free Church of Scotland’s forum, which the Scottish pastor was a part of.

Writing to Robertson about how he appreciated his responses and comments, Morgan shared how he couldn’t believe in God. “I’m not an atheist because I want to be an atheist. I’m not a happy atheist. I’m an atheist because I can’t believe in God."

In response to Morgan’s post, Robertson, the “resident fruitcake” at the Dawkins’ forums, asked him two questions which subsequently changed his life: 1) Why don’t you believe in God? 2) What could make you believe in God?

Dismissing the first question as dumb, Robertson’s initial reaction to the second question was “certainly not proof and evidence.”

At that moment, Morgan's instinctive response conjured up to his memory, probably from his previous Mormon days, the verse, “We love because he first loved us.” And in that instant, Morgan understood the expression “amazing grace.”

“I was certain without having any rational explanation that God existed, that he loved me without waiting for me to love him, that he loved me unconditionally without waiting for me to deserve it.”

“Science and philosophy are wonderful manifestations of the enormous capacities of the human mind, but the Word of God is truth, and truth is what it took to set me free,” Morgan stated. “Only a personal relationship with God can bring us to any kind of meaningful, personal, transcendental truth.”

In his renewed experience with God, he went back on the Dawkins site and posted about his newfound faith to which many replied with vile insults and commented, “You need counseling” and “This is a temporary brain infraction.”

But now, three years later, the “temporary brain infraction” Morgan was affected with continues to persist. Morgan is still amazed and feels the love of God even more now every day, being plugged into a church, which Robertson referred him to.

“I didn’t cease to know everything I knew before and I didn’t forget everything I learned about evolution or all of a sudden lose interest. I was [just] aware of how limited it was, how it could not answer man’s deepest needs.

“There’s a famous French quotation that says, ‘In every person’s heart there is a God-shaped hole.’ I am aware of the presence of this God-shaped hole and that only the love of God can fill it.”

Advising believers to speak to people in their language and maintain open lines of communication as Robertson had before in the forums, Morgan noted, “There’s no point speaking the truth if you are speaking a language that the person in front of you can’t understand.”

“It’s important to understand where atheists are coming from in their modern day arguments and how many valid refutations there are in the Christian message to all these criticisms.”

Speaking to atheists, Morgan said, “Science and philosophy do not have the answer to everything. If you are willing to listen with an open mind and an open heart and just say ‘perhaps I do not possess all the truth,’ that is an act of humility and I know that God never rejects or ignores acts of humility.”

Referring to Revelation 3 where Jesus spoke, “I stand at the door and knock,” Morgan concluded, “Jesus hasn’t invited you to come and knock on his door. He says, ‘I am here, I am standing at the door, and knock.’ All you have to do is open the door and invite [him] in.”

Morgan’s testimony is now a part of the revamped edition of The Dawkins Letters, by David Robertson.

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The Journey of Great Lent

Fr. Alexander Schmemann

When a man leaves on a journey, he must know where he is going. Thus with Lent. Above all, Lent is a spiritual journey and its destination is Easter, “the Feast of Feasts.” It is the preparation for the “fulfillment of Pascha, the true Revelation.” We must begin, therefore, by trying to understand this connection between Lent and Easter, for it reveals something very essential, very crucial about our Christian faith and life. Is it necessary to explain that Easter is much more than one of the feasts, more than a yearly commemoration of a past event? Anyone who has, be it only once, taken part in that night which is “brighter than the day,” who has tasted of that unique joy, knows it. [...] On Easter we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection as something that happened and still happens to us. For each one of us received the gift of that new life and the power to accept it and live by it. It is a gift which radically alters our attitude toward everything in this world, including death. It makes it possible for us to joyfully affirm: “Death is no more!” Oh, death is still there, to be sure, and we still face it and someday it will come and take us. But it is our whole faith that by His own death Christ changed the very nature of death, made it a passage — a “passover,” a “Pascha” — into the Kingdom of God, transforming the tragedy of tragedies into the ultimate victory. [...]

Such is that faith of the Church, affirmed and made evident by her countless Saints. Is it not our daily experience, however, that this faith is very seldom ours, that all the time we lose and betray the “new life” which we received as a gift, and that in fact we live as if Christ did not rise from the dead, as if that unique event had no meaning whatsoever for us? [...] We simply forget all this — so busy are we, so immersed in our daily preoccupations — and because we forget, we fail. And through this forgetfulness, failure, and sin, our life becomes “old” again — petty, dark, and ultimately meaningless — a meaningless journey toward a meaningless end. [...] We may from time to time acknowledge and confess our various “sins,” yet we cease to refer our life to that new life which Christ revealed and gave to us. Indeed, we live as if He never came. This is the only real sin, the sin of all sins, the bottomless sadness and tragedy of our nominal Christianity.

If we realize this, then we may understand what Easter is and why it needs and presupposes Lent. For we may then understand that the liturgical traditions of the Church, all its cycles and services, exist, first of all, in order to help us recover the vision and the taste of that new life which we so easily lose and betray, so that we may repent and return to it. [...] And yet the “old” life, that of sin and pettiness, is not easily overcome and changed. The Gospel expects and requires from man an effort of which, in his present state, he is virtually incapable. [...] This is where Great Lent comes in. This is the help extended to us by the Church, the school of repentance which alone will make it possible to receive Easter not as mere permission to eat, to drink, and to relax, but indeed as the end of the “old” in us, as our entrance into the “new.” [...] For each year Lent and Easter are, once again, the rediscovery and the recovery by us of what we were made through our own baptismal death and resurrection.

A journey, a pilgrimage! Yet, as we begin it, as we make the first step into the “bright sadness” of Lent, we see — far, far away — the destination. It is the joy of Easter, it is the entrance into the glory of the Kingdom. And it is this vision, the foretaste of Easter, that makes Lent’s sadness bright and our lenten effort a “spiritual spring.” The night may be dark and long, but all along the way a mysterious and radiant dawn seems to shine on the horizon. “Do not deprive us of our expectation, O Lover of man!”

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Novak Djokovic Donates 100,000 USD to Gračanica Monastery

Serbian Tennis Player Novak Djokovic Donates 100,000 USD to Gračanica Monastery in Kosovo and Metohija

March 23, 2011
Pravoslavie.ru

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has donated 100,000 USD to the Serbian Monastery Gračanica in Kosovo and Metohija, reports Sedmiza.ru, citing the official website of the Raska-Prizren diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

According to this report, the donation is earmarked for the purchase of a parcel of land located near the medieval monastery. The monastery was forced to purchase the parcel at a very high price; otherwise, it would have been permanently disassociated from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The monetary donation was transferred to the monastery through the humanitarian "Novak" fund.

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Do Figures Like Elders Paisios and Porphyrios Exist Today?

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

Fortunately, we knew these really enlightened Elders, Fathers Paisios and Porphyrios and other patristic personalities, who showed us what the Church is and how God shows, through the Church, his friends. Many of us felt God's love near them. These elders comforted thousands of people and in many cases brought rest to the most unruly children of God. We must feel unworthy of such a gift.

However, since God and the Church exist, such holy figures always exist. As I said before, the saints are the offspring of the Church, having passed through the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, and Pentecost, and give testimony of the new life which God brought to earth.

Alas if there are no such figures today. It's like thinking that the Church has ceased to exist or is barren and cannot give birth. The truth is that when saints cease to exist, then will occur the Second Coming of Christ.

On Mount Athos today there are many blessed monks who glorify God and are glorified by Him. Mount Athos is still a great light, which, when those who see it do not have adequate vision, they are blinded and they blame the monks who live there. And outside Mount Athos also, in monasteries and communities there are blessed children of God and the Church, which illuminate those who understand this and have need.

The problem is that we do not see the saints, do not feel them, do not smell their presence. This is because we do not have high pursuits, we do not have spiritual senses to recognize them and to feel them. We can apply in this case the words of Christ: "For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened" (Matt. 7:8). Those who truly seek God and His saints, they will certainly encounter them, or rather the living modern saints themselves will go to find them and fill them with the gifts of God. Such is our God. He comes secretly, He likes to reverse all logical possibilities, He shows His love loudly, suddenly and surprisingly to those who hurt and are looking for Him. Soberly intoxicated are those who seek "the good wine", the strong wine.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes

March 2, 2011
Catholic Online

The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, also known as the Church of the Multiplication is a church in Tabgha, or ancient Heptapegon on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. The modern church stands on the site of 4th and 5th-century churches. The church preserves a splendid early Christian mosaic as well as the traditional stone on which the miraculous meal was laid.

The feeding of five thousand people is described in Mark 6:30-44, just before Jesus walks on water. The Gospel does not specify where it took place; only that it was in a "remote place" (6:32,35) on the shores of Galilee.


While it is remotely possible that this is the actual site of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, it's not likely. Scholar Jerome Murphy O'Connor attributes the selection of the site to pilgrims' associations with the area.

"It was perhaps inevitable that this well-watered area with its shade trees on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where Byzantine pilgrims ate their picnics, should have been identified as the location of two episodes involving the consumption of food, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and the conferral on Peter of the responsibility of leadership after a fish breakfast. Then it became convenient to localize the Sermon of the Mount on the small hill nearby."


A church of the Feeding of the Five Thousand was first built on this site in 350 AD. The church was small and on a slightly different orientation than the later versions. The Spanish pilgrim Egeria visited this church in the 380s, and reported:

Visiting the church today, visitors will find under the altar table a block of limestone venerated as the table of the Lord. Pilgrims are no longer permitted to chip away at it. In front of the altar is a lovely restored mosaic of two fish flanking a basket of loaves.

Besides its sacred importance as the place of a miracle of Jesus, the main highlight of the Church of the Loaves and Fishes is this beautiful 5th-century figurative mosaic floor. It is the earliest known example of a figured pavement in Palestinian Christian art.

The main mosaic covers the two transepts and the intervals between the pillars. The rest of the floor has a mosaic in a simple geometric pattern, mostly restored. The principal mosaic was clearly designed by a great master who was able to create a free-flowing design without need of any repetitious pattern.

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Tomb(s) of Noah

In Lebanon, just northeast of the city of Zahle, there is a small village named Karak Nouh. Karak Nouh is located in the Beqaa at the eastern foot of the Mt. Lebanon range. In a building adjoining the village mosque, there is a long sarcophagus draped in a green cloth. It is claimed this is the tomb of Noah.

Karak Nouh, Lebanon

Mark Twain wrote about his visit to Karak Nouh in The Innocents Abroad.

"Noah's tomb is built of stone, and is covered with a long stone building. Bucksheesh let us in. The building had to be long, because the grave of the honored old navigator is two hundred and ten feet long itself! It is only about four feet high, though. He must have cast a shadow like a lightning-rod. The proof that this is the genuine spot where Noah was buried can only be doubted by uncommonly incredulous people. The evidence is pretty straight. Shem the son of Noah, was present at the burial, and showed the place to his descendants, who transmitted the knowledge to their descendants, and the lineal descendants of these introduced themselves to us to-day. It was pleasant to make the acquaintance of members of so respectable a family. It was a thing to be proud of. It was the next thing to being acquainted with Noah himself."

There is another tomb of Noah in the city of Cizre, Turkey (pronounced Jizre). Cizre is on the Tigris River, north of the location where Iraq, Turkey, and Syria all meet. To the east is Cudi Dağ, identified as Mt. Ararat in some traditions.

Tomb of Noah, Cizre, Turkey

Evidently, there is also a shrine to Noah name Hazrat Nuh in Kerak, Jordan. I have not visited this one, nor do I know if there is a tomb associated with the shrine. I believe the shrine is the small, turquoise building at the far left in this photograph. It is located in a cemetery on the northwestern edge of the modern town.

Kerak, Jordan

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Fr. Alexis Trader's New Book On Orthodoxy and Psychotherapy

The following is the first in a series of four guest posts from Fr. Alexis Trader, a priestmonk and spiritual father of Karakallou Monastery on the Holy Mountain, and author of In Peace Let Us Pray to the Lord: An Orthodox Interpretation of the Gifts of the Spirit. Fr. Alexis has recently released a new book and it is about his new book that he now writes. (The second through fourth posts will be posted elsewhere, please see the posting schedule at the end of this post.)

Behind Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy: A Meeting of Minds

Monks are by nature introspective creatures. We turn inward in prayer in order to meet our Savior. We also try to stay active in mind and body. We turn to serve our brother in love and in so doing we encounter our Lord once again. The union of theoria and praxis, thought and action, makes for a joyous monastic life. Sometimes, however, sincere monastics get bogged down and their lives seem quite different from what is described in the lives of the Saints and books by contemporary luminaries. Critical thoughts take hold of our minds and sluggishness characterizes actions that should be a source of joy and gladness.

What goes wrong? Certainly, a large part of the answer to this question lies in the passions and the providential withdraw of divine grace. But perhaps, another part of the answer can be found in the monk’s personal history, tendencies, and vulnerabilities that made up his personality long before entering the monastery. In that case, might a contemporary school of psychotherapy, grounded in empirical study and focused on cognition and behavior have something important to say?

With that introduction in place, I should mention that I have been an Orthodox monk for nearly twenty-five years. I lived on the Holy Mountain for a decade during which time I got to know some wonderful fathers who tasted the most sweet fruits of the prayer of the heart and intimate communion with Christ. I also encountered novices and monks discouraged by the struggle and wondering why those same fruits seemed beyond their reach. I saw acts of self-sacrifice and love that moved me deeply. I also was saddened to see others who were so obsessed with certain thoughts that they missed opportunities to serve their brethren and although they desired to act virtuously and to love sincerely, insecurities, feelings of inferiority, and suspicions compelled them to react in ways that they themselves deplored. My heart went out to those monastics. I prayed for them, but what else could I do?

While at the Monastery of Karakallou on the Holy Mountain, I came across the works of the influential spiritual father, Father Simeon Kragiopoulos. In his Do You Know Yourself? [in Greek], he offered a Christian Orthodox reading of Karen Horney’s Our Inner Conflicts. In this and other works by Fr. Simeon, he suggests that certain psychological problems can prevent a person from progressing in the Christian life and need to be resolved so that the Fathers’ teachings can be received and applied in a way that is salutary and salvific. This suggestion was the seed for Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy: A Meeting of Minds, but in the full life of an Athonite Monastery, I lacked the time for any serious exploration of such topics.

In 2005, when I was sent to celebrate the liturgical services at a dependency of Karakallou, the Monastery of Saint Demetrius at Nea Kerdyllia, I developed a heart condition that made it impossible for me to return to the Holy Mountain and follow the way of life there. With more time on my hands and in order to avoid idleness, that mother of the vices, I decided with my Elder’s blessing to begin to explore the teachings of the Church Fathers and modern psychologists on the thoughts. I was already quite familiar with traditional ascetic literature such as The Philokalia, The Ladder of St. John Climacus, The Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, and other holy fathers as well as the writings of contemporary elders, in particular the Elder Paisios who repeatedly emphasized the need for good thoughts [logismoi]. Psychology was at the time an unexplored terrain that I had been somewhat suspicious of in the past. After reading the works of Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan, Eric Erickson, Sigmund Freud, Victor Frankl, Albert Bandura and others, I came across the works of Aaron Beck. What struck me concerning this final figure was that Beck’s works were simply an application of the scientific method to thoughts and behavior without an inordinate amount of esoteric theories around nebulous concepts. His ideas could be observed, tested, and verified easily in day-to-day life. I should mention that I was originally trained in the hard sciences before becoming a monk and Beck’s approach meshed well with my scientific background. So my thinking went if I could find a way to connect Beck’s insights with those of the Fathers, I would have something valuable to offer spiritual fathers and those who are suffering. Thus inspired, I began reading more intently, researching more extensively, and praying more earnestly until I had about 5,000 note cards (As a writer, I am rather old school) with citations from the Fathers and cognitive therapists on mental/spiritual health. As I sorted and sifted, an amazing amount of common ground began to emerge and I could see the framework of a book taking shape.

In order to make sure that I would not stray from the Fathers’ teachings, I contacted Professor Anestis Keselopoulos, a specialist in the writings of Saint Gregory Palamas and author of the book, Passions and the Virtues, which I had translated many years earlier. Realizing the dangers of trusting in one’s own judgments and opinions, I wanted to pass every chapter that I would write by him. And so the book also became a doctoral dissertation. Professor Keselopoulos was very enthusiastic about the work as were the other six professors present at the defense, including specialists in psychiatry, dogmatics, pastoral counseling, patristics, and the interface between Christianity and culture. They all were emphatic that this dissertation should not only be published in book-form and enter the university libraries of the West but also find its way into the hands of pastors and counselors helping those who suffer.

Peter Lang International Academic Publishing Group has now published this work, which can be ordered from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1433113627.

(For those unfamiliar with academic presses that produce a limited number of monographs for university libraries, the book will unfortunately seem rather expensive. I would encourage those who wish to read the book, but find it outside their budget, to approach their local college or public library about the possibility of purchasing it. Perhaps, groups of five could purchase it as a donation for their parish library or the pastor’s library. If the hardbound copies sell well, a less expensive paperback may be on the way).

If you would like to read more, please follow the rest of this series of blog posts:
Post #2 – March 25th: http://janotec.typepad.com/terrace/
Post #3 – March 28th: http://voxstefani.wordpress.com/
Post #4 – March 31st: http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/

For More:
http://orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/introduction-to-ancient-christian-wisdom-and-aaron-becks-cognitive-therapy.aspx

HTTP://ORTHODOXINFO.COM/PHRONEMA/CULTIVATING-THE-GARDEN-OF-THE-HEART-CH-9-ANCIENT-CHRISTIAN-WISDOM-AND-AARON-BECKS-COGNITIVE-THERAPY.ASPX

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Russia's Trend For Dipping Children In Frozen Rivers

Katia Moskvitch
March 22, 2011
BBC News

When an amateur video of a screaming, naked boy being plunged by a priest into an ice hole in Siberia appeared on the web, it caused a massive outcry in the Russian media and blogosphere.

The boy appears to be no more than five or six years old.

At first, he is seen wrapped up in a blanket, already crying, as adults in fur coats carry him towards an ice hole carved in a frozen lake or river.

He is then unwrapped and fully immersed three times into the water - obviously against his will - while an Orthodox priest conducts a baptism ceremony.

"Where did this happen? Who is the priest? Who are the parents?" wrote one blogger, stating his determination to gather information about the "sadistic" incident and make it public.

The ceremony is reported to have taken place not far from a Siberian city of Irkutsk on 19 January, the Russian Orthodox festival of Epiphany, commemorating the baptism of Jesus Christ.

Religion was frowned upon during Soviet times, but since the fall of Communism it has made a big comeback.

There is now no shortage of people of all ages, eager to fast during Lent, mark the resurrection at Easter with traditional bread, get married in church and christened in holy water.

And since Jesus Christ was baptised in January - according to the Russian Orthodox church - many regard stripping down and diving into icy water as a good way to erase their sins.


No sneezes

Some take their children with them, dipping newborns and older ones alike.

Not everyone, though, does it for religious reasons.

"My son was eight when I first took him to an ice hole in a river, four years ago," says Andrei Roletski, a musician living in Saint Petersburg.

Now they swim every winter weekend, carving a hole in the ice with axes.

But he never forced his son to dive into icy water - Igor actually asked his dad if he could come along.

"I myself started ice swimming five years ago, and at the same time I began getting Igor used to cold water by splashing it on his feet in the bath every night. He was fine with it," says Mr Roletski.

"Then, one day, he asked me to pour cold water over him so that he was completely wet, and a few months later, when I said I was going for a dive in January, he said he wanted to come too."

Mr Roletski says Igor enjoyed the experience and "hasn't even sneezed once for the past two years as his body has become much more resistant to cold viruses and infections".

Huge shock

But Irina Yefremova, a paediatrician from a Moscow Sports Medicine Centre, warns that plunging a child into an ice hole even for a few seconds could lead to all sorts of problems - from the common cold to loss of consciousness.

The heart could simply stop beating, she says.

Newborns, in particular, she explains, have an underdeveloped thermoregulation system.

"Such a great temperature change is a huge shock for the body - one minute the child is dressed, the next he or she is in icy water. It is very stressful for the system, especially for the heart."

Natalya, aged 22, was one of those who plunged into an ice hole cut in shape of a cross on the frozen Moscow River this year.

It was a last-minute decision, spurred on by a friend who showed her the Epiphany swimming page on social networking site vkontakte.ru.

"I'd never even taken a cold shower before that and I was scared a bit, but everyone was saying that the water is sacred and it will take all your sins away, so I went along," she says.

She jumped into the water feet first, going under with her head, and loved the experience - though with an air temperature of -26C she admits it was painful.

"It was like getting your body pricked by a thousand needles at once - and my head was really, really cold," she says.


Creating the past

The popular belief that diving three times into an ice hole on Epiphany will erase your sins is not actually endorsed by the Orthodox Church.

And christening does not have to be done outside in the cold - or done on Epiphany at all, explains Father Yakov Krotov, an Orthodox priest from Moscow.

"Christening, while being beneficial for the soul, does not have to be harmful for the body," he says.

"And although in the ancient times Christening was done in rivers, it does not mean that nowadays Baptising someone in a church by pouring warm water over the head is somehow less beneficial," he adds.

Besides, he says, the practice of plunging into ice holes on Epiphany, is not really a centuries-old ritual. Before the October Revolution of 1917, only a few people would do it - nothing like the numbers that have taken it up since the 1990s.

"This is not going back to our traditions - no, this is just an attempt [by the masses] to create some kind of great past," he says.

And regarding the case of a young boy being forcefully christened in an ice hole somewhere in Siberia, Mr Krotov says that he does not approve of those parents - and priests - who disregard the opinion of the child who is old enough to have his or her own stance on Christening.

"It does not matter if it happens in an ice hole or in a Church, a priest cannot ever be abusive," he says.

"This is not right."

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The Conversion of French Photographer Frère Jean (Gérard Gascuel) to Orthodoxy

March 22, 2011
Interfax

Photographer Gérard Gascuel who worked with Marcel Marceau and Salvador Dali and now is Hieromonk Gerasimos says he decided to become a monk after hearing an Athonite monk singing.

"I was 33 when the editor in chief of an influential Japanese magazine sent me to Greece to make a report about the life of Athonite monks," Father Gerasimos was quoted as saying by the Rossijskaya Gazeta daily on Tuesday.

Going around the monasteries he came upon a monastery where there is an ancient tradition to keep skulls of deceased monks.

"I went into the crypt and then life was divided: 'before' and 'after'. When I was going back I met a Greek monk and we talked about the meaning of life. His English was poor... And suddenly he started singing!" Father Gerasimos recalls.

According to him, it was then that he decided to become a monk.

"I made a decision in few seconds. Having returned to France, I delivered my report to the magazine, sold my estate and became an ordinary monk on Athos. I spent many years in the Holy Land at St. Savvas Monastery in the Judean desert. I met my spiritual father there. I realized that death is not the end," Father Gerasimos tells about his spiritual way.

He became a monk, but he is still a photographer, though he managed to found and become rector of an Orthodox monastery in the French town of Cévennes.

Frère Jean's (or Brother John, as he is known among artists under this name) exhibition will take places in Nizhny Novgorod.

Read more here.

See his official website here.

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