2020-11-30

LOS ORTODOXOS CELEBRAN EL GRAN AYUNO DE ADVIENTO CUARENTA DIAS SIN COMER NI BEBER PARA PURIFICAR EL ECUERPO

 

DURING THE NATIVITY FAST

Photo: A.Pospelov / Pravoslavie.ruPhoto: A.Pospelov / Pravoslavie.ru
    

The Nativity Fast continues...

The Fast is a time of cleansing the soul and body. It is considered, and quite rightly so, that for a Christian cleansing is necessary not only for its own sake, in general, but also so that one might worthily commune of the Holy Gifts of Christ. Therefore, people are right in saying that the Fast exists so that during the Fast one may become “worthy” to receive Communion. That is true because fasting, abstinence, and asceticism are good means toward repentance. This is something that should be emphasized: fasting is not the goal of religious life, but merely a means [toward it].

However, repentance is something more than a means. If repentance is not the life in Christ itself, it is its actual well-spring, something so involved in [the goal of life in Christ], that it is as it were an integral part [of that life].

Without repentance, there can be no faith in Christ. The Gospel sermon addressed to sinful people begins with the words of the Forerunner and of the Lord Himself: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2). Repentance is the elemental, archetypal religious state that turns us toward Christ.

One who does not perceive the unworthiness, defectiveness, sinfulness and weaknesses with which he satisfies himself…does not see the need for God, and blindly believes that he can get along without Him.

However, one who perceives his own sinfulness, his impotency, his helplessness and limitations, one who is sorrowed by them and wants to be renewed and become the richer for it, one who turns to God and cries out as if from the depths of a pit, “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. Lord hear my voice. Hear me, for I am poor and in need!” (Ps. 129:1) – such a person is on a religious path; he is no longer self-contented, but wants to rise up out of himself and turn his attention beyond the bounds of his being. Thus, fasting is beneficial towards evoking in ourselves feelings of repentance. A sense of repentance can also appear in the absence of fasting. An example would be the thief on the cross who turned to Christ and in the blink of an eye, repented. You do not need a lot of time to repent. It is possible to repent in the blink of an eye! There were times when many martyrs would come to Christ without having fasted or made any other “preparation.” It may be possible through means other than fasting to be sanctified and “be made worthy” to commune of the Holy Gifts. But it is impossible to do so without repentance. It is impossible to come to Christ dressed in filthy garments. God said, “Ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:45). The morally unclean should not, and simply cannot, approach God and see Him. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) Moreover, one cannot prepare for communion of His Holy Gifts without vesting the heart in “wedding” garments.

In preparing to approach and commune of the Holy Gifts of Christ, one feels oneself to be just like those in the Gospel parable who were called to come to the royal wedding feast. King. This is because communion of the Body and Blood of the Savior is a continuation of the Feast of the Lord at the Mystical Supper, when Christ and His disciples were celebrating the Passover and when at that Jewish Feast, He instituted the Mystery of the Eucharist, i.e. Holy Communion.

The Feast of the Lord, the Eucharist, is “the Feast of Faith” during which our most intimate communion with Christ, the Wedding of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:22-33), takes place. “Take, eat – this is My Body” – said Christ at the Wedding Feast in the Upper Room on Mt. Zion. Each time we commune of the Eucharistic Body and Blood we are with Christ in the Upper Room on Mt. Zion, and we experience God’s love towards us sinners, the love expressed in the Savior’s sacrifice for us on the Cross on Golgotha.

It is obvious that when we reflect on all this, when we think about the fact that in communing of the Savior’s Body and Blood, we participate in His wedding feast, we cannot fail to remember that among those attending the feast in the Gospel parable, there was one “…which had not a wedding garment” and upon seeing him, the King said to him sternly, “Friend! How camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment?!” and having said that, ordered the servants to cast the careless man out the door of the house in which the feast was taking place (Matthew 22:11-13).

When approaching the holy, one must be washed and cleansed, and must have the fear of God.

What does it mean to be washed of sin?

Human falling into sin begins with the moment he is visited by the demonic temptation to hold an inflated opinion of himself, to see himself as the center of everything, to have a high and inflated opinion as to his independent existence, his freedom and independence of reliance on anyone, not even on God.

A person’s falling into sin begins with his loss of recognition that man is God’s creation, and that he is in the hands of God. Man’s first, original, sin, the sin which gives birth to all of the others, is his seclusion, selfishness, pride, and isolation from God, from his Creator.

When approaching for Holy Communion, we must repent of the fact that while calling ourselves Christians, we do not hear Christ’s constant and unceasing appeal, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest….” (Matthew 11: 28.)

When approaching for Holy Communion, we must regret that we had thought to rid ourselves of the burdensome weight of our sins by ourselves, without His grace-filled help, completely ignoring His redemptive Sacrifice on Golgotha.

As we open the door of our heart at which Christ knocks (Revelation 3:20), let us repent of not having opened it to Him yesterday, and that He had to stand outside the door, waiting for our love, all night.

As we enter into the Wedding Feast of the Lord, let us put on appropriate wedding garments: conscious recognition of our dependence, our poverty, our weakness – that, after all, is what we require to avoid being cast out into the darkness.

    

Why did we imagine that without Him, without communing of Him, we could live and accomplish anything? How could we have forgotten His words, “Without Me, ye can do nothing!”? Why did we imagine that without communing of Christ, we could rid ourselves of our sins, of our sorrows and disappointments, of our despondency, our coarseness and despair?

Why did we imagine that we could obey His commandment and love one another without communing of His Body, which is also His Church? Why did we not realize before today that our divisions and disagreements are the result of our estrangement from His mystical Body?

How could we have not constantly communed of His Blood, knowing that It was shed for us for the remission of our sins (Matthew 26:28) and that it is only through It that we can be rid of our sinfulness?

Lord, how could we have imagined that in order to become “worthy” of communing of Your Holy Gifts, we needed something other than repentance of our proud conceit, how could we have held to the naive notion that it was not You that made us worthy, but that we somehow “make ourselves worthy” through fasting, praying, doing good deeds, or coming to church...

How could we, O Lord, have closed our ears and not heard that You were calling us to Yourself, that You want to heal us, to enliven by offering us to eat of Yourself, Your Body and Your Blood?

We repent, O Lord, of not understanding and not remembering the words You said, that in commemoration of Your redemptive sufferings, we must continually serve the Lord’s Supper, and from it draw strength to live our life. As Your Apostle said, “For as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come.” (I Corinthians 11:26). The Divine Eucharist is the continuing Mystical Supper related to Your sufferings.

Forgive us, O Lord, for our carelessness and our pride, for the idea, instilled in us by the devil, that we do not need to commune of the Holy Gifts, that we can live through a week, a month, or even up to a year without that Communion! Forgive us, Lord, for our inflated opinion of ourselves, for our flippancy and thoughtlessness.

Forgive us, O Lord, for incorrectly thinking that in refraining from Communion, in constantly putting it off, we are ostensibly acting piously and properly out of respect for Your Holy Things (Which one must approach “having prepared oneself”); we did not understand, O Lord, that real preparation is our humility before the miraculous and healing power of Communion of Your Body and Blood, shed specifically for the remission of our sins! (Matthew 26:28).

Grant us, O Lord, that at least now, during the Nativity Fast, we have the strength to come to our senses, to suddenly remember ourselves, and to open the door of our heart to Thee, who art knocking

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)

Comments
Robert J Glemann3/7/2015 11:04 am
Thank you. I struggle to properly discern the Lord's body. But I try and only succeed with the Grace of God.

Peace of Christ be with you,
Robert Joseph
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HAMBRE

 

HOLODOMOR VICTIMS COMMEMORATED IN UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

Kiev, November 30, 2020

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

On November 28, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holodomor, with the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, memorial services were held in churches and monasteries throughout the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, “for the victims of the terrible events of one of the most tragic pages in the history of Ukraine.”

Every year on the fourth Saturday of November, on the basis of the presidential decrees of 1998 and 2007, Ukraine honors the victims of three famines—the Holodomor of 1932 to 1933, and the mass famines of 1921 to 1923 and 1946 to 1947, reports the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The victims were commemorated in a variety of services and ceremonies.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

In Severodonetsk, Bishop Irinarch of Novopskov served a memorial litiya at the chapel of the victims of the 1932-1933 Holodomor, where a regional and city requiem meeting was held.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

In Nizhyn, Metropolitan Clement celebrated a nighttime Divine Liturgy, praying for the victims of the Holodomor during the litany for the departed. With his blessing, prayers were also offered in the churches and monasteries of his diocese.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

Metropolitan John of Kherson also celebrated a nighttime Divine Liturgy in Kherson, during which prayers were offered for the repose of the souls of all suffered during the difficult years of repression and a symbolic memorial candle was lit in the cathedral.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

In Voznesensk, Archbishop Alexiy served a panikhida in memory of the victims, and memorial litiyas and panikhidas were served throughout the diocese.

Metropolitan Irinei of Dnepropetrovsk served a memorial litiya in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Dnieper, after which he and the concelebrating clergy took part in a flower-laying ceremony at the memorial cross in the local park.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

Metropolitan Nikodim of Zhytomyr celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the village of Vertokievka and a memorial litiya at the memorial cross erected next to the church.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

Archbishop Theodosy of Cherkasy served a memorial service at the monument to the victims of the Holodomor in the Cathedral Park. A memorial event was held in which participants lit candles in honor of the victims.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

With the blessing of Archbishop Bogolep of Alexandria, emorial services for the victims were held in all churches and monasteries of the Diocese of Alexandria.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

With the blessing of Archbishop Nathanael of Volyn, the clergy of the diocese served a memorial litiya at the monument to the victims of political repression in Lutsk.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

In the Zaporozhye Diocese, flower-laying ceremonies were held at the memorial plaques in Kamensk-Dneprovsk. A memorial service was also served in the city park.

Photo: news.church.uaPhoto: news.church.ua    

And with the blessing of Metropolitan Philip of Poltava, a panikhida was served in the village of Kamishnaya.

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11/30/2020

See also

Onésimo y Ramiro

 RAMIRO LEDESMA RAMOS & ONESIMO REDONDO AGAINST SEPARATISM OT THE LONG FIGHT AGAINST THE MARXIST BEAST

 

“No quiero heroes sino mendigos” Azaña dijo al firmar el ukase de disolución del Ejército... tiros a la barriga en Casas Viejas pueblecito minero de Huelva. El cruel alcarreño, escitor fracasado, al que de niño debió de dar por el ano un agustino en el Escorial, cruzó por la vida con cara de hiel  Alcalá putas que hoy es san Lucas was the epitome of the freemasonry coming from an old family of converses he hated Spain he was the typical señorito member of the bourgeois y stemming from a family of conversos. His figure has been resurrected today in parliament while the Commons discuss the censure motion against Sanchez executive. Peter and Paul seem to be the bastard brethren of Azaña confronting the Casado from the Right  benches una derecha timorata curtida en el vasallaje al dinero que se le hace la boca agua cuando pronuncia la palabra democracia una derecha noña que vivió a costa de los presupuestos del Estado y para quienes la politica es la gran marrana de cuya teta estuvieron mamando estos fulanos de la casta que se hicieron terratenientes con los legados y fincas arrebatadas a la iglesia y se enriquecieron con la desamortización de Mendizabal. Tiros pues a la barriga gritaba don Manolón. Conocí cosa de quince años a su sobrino nieto un ex jesuita en el café gijón y él me profetizó el acabiento de las Españas. Su aserto me hizo presuponer que la bestia ha ganado la partida que Cristo era un impostor y que la paruxía estaba en manos del sionismo ¿el fin del mundo?

 No sé si estaremos al final de los tiempos lo que sí que sé es que mitad de la voragine de la confusión hoy faltan en las derechas cabezas pensantes y tan bien amuebladas como las de Onesimo y Ramiro. La conquista del Estado fue una revista que apareció en Madrid precisamente el dia en que quemaron los conventos de Madrid sus redactores miraban desde las ventanas de redacción en gran via cómo las turbas pegaban fuego a la iglesia de los jesuitas ern el cruce de esta avenida con san Bernardo. No salieron a la calle más que dos numeros (la revista fue cerrada por orden de la republica) pero es el sustrato idfeologico que alentó el movimiento falangista y alentó a ganar la guerra civil. Por su parte sacaba de torculos en Valladolid su periodico “Libertad” que tuvo una vida algo menos efimera. Una y otra fueron la hoja de ruta de F.E y de las J.O.N.S (juventudes obreras nacional sindicalistas) un movimiento que no era ni de izquierdas ni de derechas que preconizaba la acción directa. España no se podrá liberar de sus enemigos seculares las fuerzas oscuras sino con sangre.

Y ambos lideres sellaron con su vida aquel excelso ideario. José Antonio Primo de Rivera vendría detras pero JA era un poeta. Se convertiria en el eterno ausente. El pensamiento falangista reposa pues verdaderamente en el jonsismo siendo ambos escritores castellanos Ramiro y Onésimo los impulsores.

Gracias a este pensamiento que luego reanudaría Juan Aparicio el iniciador de un nuevo periodismo en la cultura española volvería por donde solía a contrapelo de las preconizaciones de las fuerzas oscuras que hoy se han hecho fuertes gracias a esos dos individuos que se sientan en Moncloa con  aquiecencia y repaldo de Soros.

Las derechas siguen sin dar una, envahidas en su poltronería. Sólo sirven de comparsas y de tancredos de toda esta debacle que supondrá, agitando el frasco de los separatismo catalán, gallego y vasco, la voladura controlada de una nación excelsa como es España.

Las derechas y la Iglesia se han subido al carro de heno vencedor repantingandose comodamente entre la hierba de momios empleomanía subvenciones. Ahí nos las den todas.

Han atendido a las llamadas de la sirena extranjerizante mientras los españoles mueren como moscas a causa de la peste china.

Onesimo Redondo y Ramiro Ledesma Ramos ¡¡¡ peresentes!!! que vuestra sangre derramada sea la semilla de una nueva flor de amanecer. Hay ue conquistar de nuevo al estado y devolver a la España aherrojada por los esbirros de mendizabal su libertad.

Eso se llama acción directa. No valen las platicas, los espiches, y las predicas baratas de los tertulios de lenguas desatadas. Parece que les dan cuerda y parlotean sin parar asistiendo inanes a la desmembración de la patria