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Tarsus (Agenzia Fides) – “The Year of St Paul will be for Tarsus the birthplace of the Apostle of the nations the Year of St Paul and for the entire Catholic Church in Turkey an unforgettable experience”: said Friar Ruben Tierrablanca, Superior of the Friars Minor community in Istanbul, adding “We are all called to live this year of grace in the footsteps of St Paul and to tell the world that humanity has been saved by Jesus Christ the Lord of history. Fr Ruben told Fides that the Year was officially and ecumenically opened on 21 June in the...

Vatican City, Jun 30, 2008 / 10:51 am (CNA).- Patriarch Bartholomew I, the ecumenical patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church, arrived in Rome on Saturday to open the celebration of the Pauline Year with Pope Benedict. At the reception ceremony for Bartholomew I, the Pope told the patriarch that he was happy to learn that he had also called a Pauline Year to commemorate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of the Gentiles. "This happy coincidence", Benedict said, "highlights the roots of our shared Christian vocation and the significant harmony of feelings and of pastoral commitment we...

The stained glass window of Sts. Paul and Peter in St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church, Washington, DC (The following is excerpted from Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for 30 June -- the Commemoration of St. Paul, in Volume XII of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "...Paul, having appealed to Caesar [see Acts 25: 11-12], landed in Italy at the beginning of the year 56. Then at last the apostle of the Gentiles made his entry into Rome...." "Instead of having to await in prison the day...

On this feast of Rome's Christian founders -- the 57th anniversary of Joseph Ratzinger's ordination to the priesthood -- Uncle Bart remained at Papa Ratzi's side as 40 new metropolitans from across the globe received the symbol of their office, the pallium. Among the prelates who came forward to receive the traditional lambswool band were the recently-named archbishops of Nairobi, Moscow, Jerusalem, Taipei, Lille, Minsk, Mobile, Halifax, Baltimore and St Paul and Minneapolis. With the statue of St Peter in the nave of the Vatican basilica decked out in its usual finery for the day, the morning liturgy also...

Over at A Conservative Blog for Peace, an interesting discussion has been in process. Namely, on the recent phenomena of the Orthodox “Western Rite“. The combox discussion can be found here.The Western Rite Orthodox concept has been around for about 100 years. Not to be confused with the Eastern notion that the west “used to be� Orthodox prior to 1054 (but no longer is) when I speak of WRO, I mean to discuss the movement to create parishes worshipping according to traditional western styles under Eastern Orthodox bishops. Like Eastern Catholics who are Easterners in communion with the Roman...

Holy Mass has begun in Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica for the feast of Sts. Peter & Paul. The old new form of papal pallium is being used.   The Holy Father has shifted away from the archeologically correct, but odd, ancient form of pallium which Benedict XVI began to use at the time of his "inauguration" in April 2005.  This new but still ancient form of pallium represents an organic midway point between the lond, drapy stole-like pallium and the modern style, used by all the modern popes until Benedict XVI and which is still imposed by the Pope on...

Christian Atheism The title for this post sounds like an oxymoron, and, of course, it is. How can one be both an atheist and a Christian? Again, I am wanting to push the understanding of the one-versus-two-storey universe. In the history of religious thought, one of the closest versions to what I am describing as a “two-storey� world-view, is that espoused by classical Deism (the philosophy espoused by a number of the American founding fathers).They had an almost pure, two-storey worldview. God, “the Deity,� had created the universe in the beginning, setting it in motion. He had done so in such...

Moscow, June 27, Interfax - At its final Friday session, the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church ruled that the Bishop of Anadyr and Chukotka Diomid should be defrocked. An absolute majority of the Bishops' Council (with three abstainers) voted for "stripping Diomid of priestly privileges" due to his disobedience to hierarchy, Interfax-Religion reports. "The Council calls Diomid to immediately repent and stop his activity. If he refuses, the Council's ruling shall be enforced," one of the Council's participants told to the agency. The Council also fixed the deadline for such repentance - before the next session of the...

Vatican City, Jun 24, 2008 / 10:40 am (CNA).- The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff announced that on June 29, the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate the Eucharist at 9:30 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica.  The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I is also scheduled to participate in the ceremony.Bartholomew I and the Holy Father will deliver the homily, recite the profession of faith and impart the final blessing. The Pontiff will concelebrate with the new Catholic metropolitan archbishops, upon whom he will impose the pallium.Among the 43 archbishops receiving palliums...

From the Holy See Press Office - Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations: Holy Mass of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, presided by the Holy Father Benedict XVI, with the participation of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I On Sunday, June 29, 2008, Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, the Holy Father Benedict XVI will celebrate the Eucharist, at 9:30, in the Vatican Basilica, with the participation of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. The Ecumenical Patriarch and the Holy Father will deliver the Homily, jointly recite the profession of faith [Creed], and impart the blessing. The new Metropolitan Archbishops, on whom the...

Constantinople, Jun. 19, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople has responded favorably to a suggestion by the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church for a system of "dual unity" in which Byzantine Catholic churches would be in full communion with both Constantinople and Rome. Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople welcomed the proposal in an interview with the magazine Cyril and Methodius, the RISU news service reports. The acknowledged leader of the Orthodox world suggested that the "dual unity" approach would produce something akin to the situation of the Christian world in the 1st millennium, before the split between...

Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1930s and '40s, Ed Deeb attended a Syrian Orthodox church where members worshiped entirely in Arabic. But by the time Beeb moved to North Jersey in the 1950s, he was ready for a new direction. He and several other Syrian Orthodox Christians from Brooklyn founded St. Anthony Antiochian Orthodox Church, a congregation that maintained Eastern Orthodox traditions but held its services in English and recruited people of different nationalities. The approach seemed natural at the time, Deeb said. "When we were growing up in Brooklyn, our parents were very strong on us becoming Americans,"...

Munich—In a recent interview with the German ecumenical journal Cyril and Methodius, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church in Constantinople Bartholomew I invited Eastern Catholic Churches to return to Orthodoxy without breaking unity with Rome. He noted that “the Constantinople Mother-Church keeps the door open for all its sons and daughters.” According to the Orthodox hierarch, the form of coexistence of the Byzantine Church and the Roman Church in the 1st century [millennium ?] of Christianity should be used as a model of unity. This story was posted by KATH.net on 16 June 2008.At the same time, the patriarch made...

Real Presence or Substantial Transformation? An Anglican Reflection on Eucharistic Theology:or The Anglican Reformers on the Eucharist chalice The starting point for this reflection on eucharistic theology is a helpful article by the late Roman Catholic theologian Edward J. Kilmartin, S.J., “The Active Role of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the Sanctification of the Eucharistic Elements,“ Theological Studies 45 (1984): 225-253.(1) Kilmartin’s article begins by examining numerous ecumenical agreed statements on eucharistic theology prepared by Roman Catholics and Lutherans, Roman Catholics and Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Reformed, Roman Catholics and Orthodox. Kilmartin notes that although all of the statements...

Vatican City, May 30, 2008 / 10:09 am (CNA).- During his visit to Russia, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity met with Holiness Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow, and delivered a message from the Holy Father.  In his letter, Pope Benedict highlighted the similarities of the two Christian religions and expressed gratitude for the dialogue between the two churches.The Pope writes that Cardinal Kasper’s visit to Russia provides a timely opportunity for the Pontiff to extend his greetings to the Russian Orthodox Church, “to express my esteem for your ministry in the Russian Orthodox...

KAZAN, May 27 (Itar-Tass) - Vatican Cardinal Walter Casper begins an unofficial visit to Kazan on Tuesday. Alexander Pavlov, press secretary of the Kazan bishopric, has told Itar-Tass, "The high-ranking official of the Vatican has headed the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity for many years. The guests is to have a conversation on the subject during a meeting with Archbishop Anastasiy of Kazan and Tatarstan". The Vatican envoy is to tour the restored Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of the Monastery of the Mother of God. The monastery was founded in 1578 in honour...

Timisoara, May. 27, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A Romanian Orthodox bishop has shared Communion with Catholics, causing a sensation in a country where Byzantine Catholics and Orthodox have a history of tense relations. At the consecration of the Queen of Peace parish church in Timisoara on May 25, Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolae Corneanu of Banat asked to share Communion. The Orthodox metropolitan approached the altar and received the Eucharist from his own hand. Romanian Catholic Bishop Alexandru Mesian of Lugoj was the celebrant of the Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine Catholic church; Archbishop Francisco-Javier Lozano, the apostolic nuncio to Romania, was also...

O God, by whose mercy the faithful departed find rest, look kindly on your departed veterans who gave their lives in the service of their country. Grant that through the passion, death, and resurrection of your Son they may share in the joy of your heavenly kingdom and rejoice in you with your saints forever. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Doctrines RomanCatholic EasternOrthodox Anglican/Episcopal UnitedMethodist Lutheran Reformed/Presbyterians Southern Baptist Trinitarian Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Apostolic Succession Y Y Y     N N Roman Papal Infallibility Y N N N N N N Immaculate Conception of Mary Y N N N N N N Assumption of Mary Y Y N     N N Purgatory Y N N N N N N Celibacy of the Clergy Y Higher only N N   N N Infant Baptism Y Y, Triune  Y     Y N Transubstantiation Y N N N N N N Consubstantiation N Y Some...

VATICAN CITY, MAY 22, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Aid to the Church in Need is helping to foster ties between the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches, said two Vatican officials. In separate meetings last week with leaders of the Germany-based organization, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Benedict XVI's secretary of state, and Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, expressed their appreciation for the work. Cardinal Bertone stressed the Holy See's commitment to nourishing unity between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. In the context of this commitment, he said the aid organization is a "focus of closer...

VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Walter Kasper left for Moscow today to take a message from Benedict XVI to Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will be in Russia through May 30. The trip was undertaken at the invitation of Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the president of the Department of External Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, reported the pontifical council. The program of the visit includes an inaugural celebration for the feast of Corpus Christi at the Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese...

What are your favorite books of the Bible? What Old Testament Book do you find yourself reading more than any other? Where do you go for illumination in the New Testament? My favorite books of the Old Testament are probably Exodus and Isaiah. In the New, I like the two books attributed to St. Luke---his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. John's Gospel is also very illuminating.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US watchdog on religious freedom on Friday expressed serious concern over violations in strife-torn Iraq and was considering whether to place the ally of Washington on a blacklist with countries such as North Korea and Iran. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that it was “seriously concerned” about religious freedom conditions in Iraq, where widespread persecution of Christians has been reported. The 10-member commission last year placed Iraq on its “watchlist” but its members were now divided on whether it should be maintained in...

Vatican City, May 9, 2008 / 10:05 am (CNA).- The Holy Father and His Holiness Karekin II, the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, met privately at the Vatican this morning and then went on to pray the Midday Liturgy of the Hours with the Armenians delegation. The Holy Spirit, the Pope encouraged in his remarks to the group, can work miracles to bring about unity between Christians if we are open to Him. The group of 75 Armenian faithful and 18 bishops gathered in the Clementine Hall with their patriarch to celebrate Midday Prayer, while the Holy Father...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Armenia's Orthodox leader on Wednesday used the pulpit of the Vatican to condemn the 1915 killing of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks, saying the whole world should recognise it as a genocide. "We Armenians are a people who have survived genocide, and we know well the value of love, brotherhood, friendship and a secure life," Karekin II said in a public address during Pope Benedict's general audience in St. Peter's Square. "Today, many countries of the world recognise and condemn the genocide committed against the Armenian people by Ottoman Turkey ..." the head of...

VATICAN CITY, 7 MAY 2008 (VIS) - In the general audience, held this morning in St. Peter's Square in the presence of 20,000 faithful, the Holy Father used the occasion of the visit to Rome of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians, to focus his remarks on ecumenical dialogue. The Patriarch, who was present at the audience, also made a brief address in which he reflected on the same theme, also dwelling upon the history of the Armenian people. Greeting the Patriarch in English, Benedict XVI referred to the statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator,...

VATICAN CITY, MAY 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, is responding to an invitation from Benedict XVI to visit him in the Vatican. The Pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, visited Armenia last March and was received by Karekin II. The Vatican official presented a handwritten letter from the Holy Father, inviting the Patriarch to the Vatican. Karekin II, elected as the 132nd Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of all Armenians in October 1999, arrived in Rome today and will participated in events through Sunday. According to a communiqué released by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian...

The Vatican has said that the time has come for the Anglican Church to choose between Protestantism and the ancient churches of Rome and Orthodoxy. Speaking on the day that the Archbishop of Canterbury met Benedict XVI in Rome, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council of Christian Unity, said it was time for Anglicanism to "clarify its identity". He told the Catholic Herald: "Ultimately, it is a question of the identity of the Anglican Church. Where does it belong? "Does it belong more to the churches of the first millennium -Catholic and Orthodox - or does...

April 27, 2008 Holy Pascha The Feast of Feasts For since death came through a human being, The resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. (I Corinthians 15:21-22) To the Most Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Distinguished Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Day, Afternoon, and Church Schools, the Philoptochos Sisterhoods, the Youth, the Hellenic Organizations, and the entire Greek Orthodox Family...

The Double Consciousness of Christ Bertrand de Margerie, S.J. This title and topic makes us enter into a mysterious and controverted field of thought, about which so much has already been written! Who is Jesus of Nazareth in His own eyes? What did Jesus say about Himself? Was there an unconscious zone in His human psychology? After a preamble about the meaning of the vocabulary used, we shall consider, in the context of the faith of the Catholic Church, the following three aspects: 1) the divine consciousness of Jesus Christ, 2) His human consciousness as a divine Person, and 3)...

Synaxarion: Mary Magdalene, and the other women who were present at the burial of our Saviour on Friday evening, returned from Golgotha to the city and prepared fragrant spices and myrrh, so that they might anoint the body of Jesus. On the morrow, because of the law which forbids work on the day of the Sabbath, they rested for the whole day. But at early dawn on the Sunday that followed, almost thirty-six hours since the death of the Life-giving Redeemer, they came to the sepulchre with the spices to anoint His body. While they were considering the difficulty...

MarkChapter 16 1 1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. 2 Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb. 3 They were saying to one another, "Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" 4 When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large. 5 On entering the tomb they saw a young man sitting on...

KOENIGSTEIN, Germany, APRIL 24, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's video message to the people of Russia gave viewers a look at the "warmhearted" Pope of "great dignity," affirmed the Russia specialist for Aid to the Church in Need. Peter Humeniuk gave this analysis of the response to a documentary that aired in Russia on the state channel Vesti on April 16, the Holy Father's 81st birthday. The documentary included a personal message from the Pope to all Russians. Humeniuk said the film brought the Holy Father closer to many of the Russian people. Viewers saw the Pope as "a person of...

Orthodox and Catholic Churches are allies, Bishop Hilarion says Sofia, Bulgaria, Apr 24, 2008 / 02:02 am (CNA).- Bishop Hilarion, the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Vienna and Austria, has said in an interview that the Orthodox and Catholic Churches are allies who could form a strategic alliance to defend Christian values, Interfax reports.   He also criticized many Protestants for having a “light version” of Christianity. Speaking to the Bulgarian magazine Christianity and Culture, Bishop Hilarion said, “We must realize that Orthodox and Catholic believers are no longer rivals. We are allies. The rivalry must be gone once and for all....

Israeli police rushed into Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre to break up fist fights between dozens of Greek and Armenian worshippers on Orthodox Palm Sunday, witnesses said. Some 20 officers intervened after Armenian worshippers threw a Greek Orthodox priest out of the church, sparking a free-for-all, they said. Several worshippers then started beating the police officers with palm fronds they were holding for the Palm Sunday celebrations that mark the return of Jesus to the Holy City a week before he was crucified. After the incident, dozens of members of Jerusalem's Armenian community marched from the church to the...

Declaration and Confession of the True Orthodox Christians We, the hierarchs, clergy, and people of the True Orthodox Church, under the presidency of His Beatitude, Auxentius, Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, seeing that Ecumenism teaches of a Church of Christ consisting of branches with differing or even opposing doctrines and practices; that it attributes efficacy for salvation to the sacraments of the non-Orthodox—who have lost or never had the canonical form of baptism, and of whom many ordain women to the priesthood and episcopacy, while others do not recognize the priesthood at all; that it manifests these beliefs in...

Moscow, April 1, Interfax – Leaders of Ukraine’s Orthodox patriotic organizations again spoke against country’s membership in NATO. “When you continue pushing Ukraine to NATO, you, dear leaders, commit a crime before God, before your people, before millions of our forefathers who gave their lives for our freedom and independence, our unique East-Slavonic Orthodox civilization,” the letter of Orthodox Ukrainian leaders to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko reads. Its authors stressed that main values of this civilization are “not comfort and high material standards of life, but absolutely different life objectives based on Christian spirituality and morality”. Leaders of the country’s...

The weekly show "Questions About Faith" on the Egyptian based Christian Al-Hayat satellite channel features an Egyptian Coptic priest residing in the United States. Father Zakaria Boutrus, the show, and Al-Hayat TV itself, have come under harsh criticism in the Egyptian press. Boutrus and his show have been accused of attacking Islam; of being supported by the U.S. to sow division and strife; and of "mocking the verses of Allah." Al-Hayat TV has been accused of being the work of foreign agents collaborating with the U.S., and Pope Shenouda III reportedly announced his opposition to the station's broadcasts, and denied...

On the Third Sunday of Great and Holy Lent, the Orthodox Church commemorates the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Services include a special veneration of the Cross, which prepares the faithful for the commemoration of the Crucifixion during Holy Week. The commemoration and ceremonies of the Third Sunday of Lent are closely parallel to the feasts of the Veneration of the Cross (September 14) and the Procession of the Cross (August 1). Not only does the Sunday of the Holy Cross prepare us for commemoration of the Crucifixion, but it also reminds us...

Following a visit to Assisi where he was reported to have prayed at the tomb of St Francis, perestroika father and former USSR president, Mikhail Gorbachev, has denied rumours that he is secretly a Catholic. AsiaNews says rumours of Mr Gorbachev's alleged "secret" conversion had begun circulating after he and his daughter Irina visited the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, home to the saint's relics. Italian daily La Stampa called the event a "spiritual perestroika". "Over the last few days some media have been disseminating fantasies, I can't use any other word, about my secret Catholicism, citing my visit...

Moscow, March 26, Interfax – The Russian Orthodox Church called journalists to be scrupulous when covering religious life in Russia. Thus the Church reacted on the recent report on Easter mess in the Moscow Catholic cathedral when 35 people were baptized. Its author claimed the Moscow Patriarchate’s representative had attended the sacrament and cited a Catholic nun as saying “We are very pleased that the Russian Orthodox representative was sympathetic and didn’t object to the baptism of Russians.” The mentioned Orthodox priest has criticized the way his visit to the Catholic cathedral was reported. It was the Moscow Patriarchate Department...

Decries "dominance of an agnostic or even a materialistic approach to life which causes anxiety amongst believers" GENEVA, March 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has called for worldwide inter-religious dialogue on human rights and denounced the "dangerous" anti-life and secularist trends in human rights thought. Human rights, a concept brought into Europe by Christianity, has been subverted by a small group of activists and civil servants who have imposed an atheist or agnostic interpretation. Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kallingrad spoke for many Christians outside the Russian Orthodox Church when he told the 7th...

MARY IS BLESSED BY THE SEVEN VIRTUES AGAINST THE SEVEN CAPITAL VICES Blessed art thou among women. Let us still speak of the blessing of our Blessed Virgin, let us still hear of it. Happy is the Blessed Mary; unhappy is every accursed soul to whom it shall be said: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!" Cursed without doubt is every sinful soul, but blessed art thou, O virtuous Mary. The world incurred malediction by the seven capital vices; but Mary obtained blessing by the contrary virtues. Blessed, therefore, art thou among women, O Mary. Blessed by humility...

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi. Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb. His arrival in Assisi was described as "spiritual perestroika" by La Stampa, the Italian newspaper. "St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ," said Mr Gorbachev. "His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life," he added. Mr Gorbachev's surprise...

Shortly after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, a Russian Orthodox monk nominated Russia as the ‘Third Rome’, or successor to the Roman and Byzantine empires. Some analysts have seen Muscovite Third Romism (that allegedly persisted into the Bolshevik era of the Soviet Union) as the Russian equivalent of the USA’s Manifest Destiny, and other concepts used to rationalise imperialism. This paper attempts to broaden and deepen similar interpretations of the major geopolitical dictum coming from Russian Orthodoxy: questionably a direct justification for Russian imperialist messianism and far from being just a feature of the past, this metaphor is an...

The new Orthodox metropolitan of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia says his priorities include dealing with the Chinese government to bring about the recognition of Orthodox Christians in mainland China - writes Francis Wong. "There are many Orthodox in the port cities in South China. Greeks are working on the ships and they want a place of worship," Metropolitan Nektarios told Ecumenical News International on 29 February, the day before his enthronement. "The pastoral activities are first for the [Orthodox] Greeks, then for the Chinese. There are only a few Orthodox Chinese there." At present, the Chinese government recognises only...

Mary At The Foot Of The Cross Mary's sorrows will now engage our attention. We shall see how great her sufferings were: because she suffered in her heart and soul; because her sufferings were the result of her great love for her divine Son; because she saw that Jesus would die in vain for countless souls who would not profit by His death.... For many years Mary had known what her sufferings were to be. In her soul she treasured fearfully the prophetic words which Simeon had addressed to her on the occasion of the Child's presentation in the temple:...

Metropolitan Laurus deceased http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=dujour&div=163 New York, March 16, Interfax – First hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Metropolitan Laurus of Eastern America and New York Diocese deceased on Sunday at the age of 80, the ROCOR website has reported. Metropolitan Laurus passed away on the Feast of Orthodoxy. He was born Vassily Mikhailovich Skurla on January 1, 1928, in the village of Ladomirova, present day Slovakia. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1950, and became a hieromonk in 1954. Fr. Laurus graduated from the Holy Trinity Theological Seminary in 1954 and was appointed its inspector in...

I shall open my mouth and it shall be filled with the Spirit; and I shall pour out a word to the Mother and Queen; and I shall be seen cheerfully celebrating; and rejoicing I shall sing her miracles. Most-holy Theotokos, save us. 0 animate book of Christ, sealed by the Spirit, 0 pure one, the great Archangel, beholding you, exclaimed: Rejoice, 0 vessel of joy through whom the first mother's curse shall be broken. Most-holy Theotokos, save us. Rejoice, Virgin Bride of God, the restoration of Adam, the mortification of Hades. Rejoice, completely unblemished 'One, the palace of the...

Abstract Eurasianism as a concept emerged among Russian émigrés in the 1920s, with the premise that Russia is a unique ethnic blend, primarily of Slavic and Turkic peoples. Its geopolitical implications for Russia include gravitation toward mostly Turkic Central Asia. Alexander Dugin, one of its best-known proponents, believes that the demise of the Soviet Union was simply a tragic incident. The people of the former USSR should again be united in a grand Eurasian empire, with Russia a benign and generous patron, providing its “younger brothers” clients economic largesse and defense, mostly against the predatory USA. The “orange revolutions” and...