Russia's Thousand-Year Christian History Makes Russians Who They Are
We cannot understand the present if we know nothing about the past
https://movingtorussia.substack.com/p/russias-thousand-year-christian-history?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

988 is the year Russia was baptized Orthodox. Every Russian knows it, and every person moving to Russia is required to know it. Five years ago, after my family and I left America, when I took the Russian immigration test, this was one of the questions.

Why is our history so important? Why isn't it enough for us to know that we live in a particular geographical location named "Russia" or "America"? Why do we need to know that Russia became Christian in 988, or that America rebelled against its English king in 1776?

Who we were yesterday partially determines who we are today. It matters who our parents and grandparents were. The religion and culture that formed us is significant. It is important to know our roots.

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

Today's Readings
Luke 24:13-35

St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 11:9-10; 32-40

Matthew 1:1-25

Fifth Orthros Gospel
The Gospel According to Luke 24:13-35

At that time, [Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home wondering at what had happened. That very day] two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.

And He said to them, "What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk?" and they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered Him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?" And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find His body; and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that He was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb, and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see." And He said to them, "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was not it necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into this glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So He went in to stay with them. When He was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them.

And their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the scriptures?" And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road and how He was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Prokeimenon. Mode 2.
Psalm 117.14,18
The Lord is my strength and my song.
Verse: The Lord has chastened me sorely.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 11:9-10; 32-40

BRETHREN, by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city which has foundation, whose builder and maker is God.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets - who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated - of whom the world was not worthy - wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

Sunday before Nativity
The Gospel According to Matthew 1:1-25

The book of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa, and Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

RIGHTEOUS OBEDIENCE AND RIGHTEOUS DISOBEDIENCE

If, when an Orthodox Christian shows from the Scripture or the Fathers that the normal, oft-exhorted relationship to the appointed authorities of the Church is obedience, your response uses some version of the phrase "blind obedience," then your model of authority isn't Orthodox. It's Protestant.
Almost no one other than a few true fanatics actually argues for blind obedience. There are other kinds of obedience than blind obedience.
Constant distrust and resistance to authority might be a political virtue, and it certainly is a Protestant ecclesiastical tradition, but it's not how the Orthodox Church functions.
Obedience is a virtue. Full stop.
For example, St. Paul said: "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you" (Heb. 13:17).
And who can forget the oft-repeated exhortations from St. Ignatius of Antioch to follow the bishop and the presbyters and the deacons?
These themes get repeated in every place in every century of Church history, through wars, schisms, cataclysms, mass apostasy, etc. At no point is the norm changed. At no point do the saints tell us to go from being the Church of the Fathers and the Councils to the Church of the Self-Willed and the Self-Appointed.
If you're obedient only when you've picked apart everything Church authorities say and decided you agree with it all, you're not actually obedient. You might be collaborating, though probably not. But that's not obedience.
Of *course* we are not called to follow leaders into sin. Of course not.
But if our default response to their leading is to assume it's sin unless proven otherwise, to treat everything with suspicion, then we are not practicing the virtue of obedience.
And we are also contributing to schism.
And if we encourage other people to have the same attitude, then we in fact are the ones leading people into sin.
I've read some say that the ecclesiology of obedience found in the Scripture and the Fathers does not apply because we are living in a time of Antichrist. But such a claim reveals an ignorance of the Orthodox tradition, in which even the earliest Christian leaders were confronted by Antichrists.
We have always had Antichrists with us, and yet never did the Church institute a theology of resistance to authority, when we can cast off our bishops because we've decided the end of the world is coming. Indeed, we have been living in the Last Days ever since the Messiah came. The norms of Church life were given to us by Christ and His Apostles precisely within the context of assaults by Antichrists.
The normal relationship to Church authority is obedience.
Yes, sometimes we have to respectfully disobey if the authority really is leading into sin, to "obey God rather than man."
What comes next, then? If we follow the example of the saints who righteously disobeyed, then we also patiently accept whatever consequences come as a result of our righteous disobedience. Suffering patiently for righteousness's sake forms us in holiness.
If someone encourages you to disobey but you don't see him patiently and lovingly accepting the consequences of his own righteous disobedience, if you see that the fruit of his teachings in others is not patience and long-suffering, then you've got every reason to believe he's not doing it righteously.
If we were meant by Christ to make resistance to Church authority normal, He would have said so. His Apostles would have said so. The Fathers would have said so.
But they didn't. They said the opposite.
That should give us very long pause before we decide to go the other way on this.

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

Βοήθειαμας

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

The Church may not be a building,
but the Church is worship -- offering up the sacrifice to our God according to the ways commanded by Him in Scripture, participating in His priestly offering of Himself for us.

And that's what the building is for.

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

Crist was born! Glorify Him!

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

History of Christmas
Christmas is celebrated on December 25 and is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion. Popular customs include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. December 25—Christmas Day—has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870.
How Did Christmas Start?
The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world. Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. Many peoples rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight.
https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas

What day is Christmas on the Gregorian calendar?
Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world.
Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrate Christmas in the Gregorian calendar on December 25!

On Tuesday, December 20th, Orthodox Christians celebrate the life and witness of St. Ignatius of Antioch (+115AD)!

St. Ignatius of Antioch was an early Christian bishop who was executed for his faith in Christ in the Coliseum of Rome in 115 AD. He was the second bishop of that city after the Apostle Peter and as you may recall from reading your Bible, it was in Antioch that followers of Jesus were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). He was charged with atheism – the denial of the existence of the gods and goddesses of ancient Rome – and was literally, fed to the lions. Many icons depicting his martyrdom show him being attacked and mauled by lions. Arrested in Antioch – then in the ancient Roman province of Syria, today in the modern state of Turkey – he wrote seven letters that have survived to the Christian churches that he encountered on his way to Rome where his bloody death would serve as entertainment for the crowds.

Ignatius, in his letters, talks about many things: the roles of bishops, priests and deacons; he is the first person to describe the Church as catholic, just as we still do in the Creed today. But most importantly for our discussion of him today, he wrote a great deal about the Eucharist. He calls the Eucharist the flesh and blood of Jesus; he calls the Eucharist “the medicine of immortality, the antidote we take not to die but to live forever in Jesus Christ.” He writes to the Church in Rome: “I want the bread of God, which is the flesh of Christ who is of the seed of David; and for drink I want his blood, which is incorruptible love” (Romans 7.3).

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

The birthplace of Jesus

Bethlehem lies 10 kilometres south of the city of Jerusalem, in the fertile limestone hill country of the Holy Land. Since at least the 2nd century AD people have believed that the place where the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, now stands is where Jesus was born. One particular cave, over which the first Church was built, is traditionally believed to be the Birthplace itself. In locating the Nativity, the place both marks the beginnings of Christianity and is one of the holiest spots in Christendom.

The original basilica church of 339 AD (St Helena), parts of which survive below ground, was arranged so that its octagonal eastern end surrounded, and provided a view of, the cave. This church is overlaid by the present Church of the Nativity, essentially of the mid-6th century AD (Justinian), though with later alterations. It is the oldest Christian church in daily use[I1] . Since early medieval times the Church has been increasingly incorporated into a complex of other ecclesiastical buildings, mainly monastic.

As a result, today it is embedded in an extraordinary architectural ensemble, overseen by members of the Greek Orthodox Church, the Custody of the Holy Land and the Armenian Church, under the provisions of the Status Quo of the Holy Places established by the Treaty of Berlin (1878).

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

Emmanuel: God is with us.

The Child is born homeless because of a government program. God is with us.
The Child is sheltered because of a humble generosity. God is with us.
The angels appear to the poor. A star guides the rich from afar bearing costly gifts because God is with us.
The Child is God, yet helpless. The parents are human, yet watch over God. God is with us.
The parents are warned in a dream, flee, protect your Child from death! Hundreds of others were given no warning. Yet God is with us.
A jealous madman king plots to kill a nursing Babe, the Prince of Peace. By an earthly sword innocent blood flows like a river in the streets. Yet God is with us.
Being born that night, too, are babies blind, deaf, halt, and healthy children yet to be broken by life, whose parents cry into the night at the injustice of random dissolution. Some of them will some day meet this Stranger Child and cry for His mercy for God is with us.
And this Child will die, like all children do in time because God is with us.
God is with us and nothing changed.
Yet because God is with us nothing is untouched by God.
In all things, God is with us. Emmanuel.
A blessed Nativity to all, and may peace and goodwill reign in you as it reigned in His flesh.

FB Steve Robinson

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

A CHRISTMAS STORY by Richard Wurmbrand (1909-2001).

Richard Wurmbrand was a Lutheran minister in Romania who spent 14 years in Communist prison camps in the 1950's and 60's. He tells this story of an Orthodox priest and the Communist who tortured him to death:
"I was in a Romanian communist prison and fell very, very ill, close to death. At my right hand was 40 year old Fr. Iscu, an abbot of a monastery. He had been so tortured he was near death, yet his face was serene. He spoke about his hope of heaven, about his love of Christ, about his faith. He radiated joy. On my left side was the Communist torturer who had tortured this priest almost to death. He had been arrested by his own comrades. It happened that the Communist torturer who had tortured this priest nearly to death had been tortured nearly to death by his comrades. And he was dying near me. His soul was in agony. During the night he would awaken me, saying, “Pastor, please pray for me. I can’t die, I have committed such terrible crimes.”

Then I saw a miracle when the agonized priest called two other prisoners to help him walk past my bed, sit on the bedside of this murderer, and caress his head—I will never forget this gesture. I watched a murdered man caressing his murderer! That is love—he found a caress for him. The priest said to the man, “You are young; you did not know what you were doing. I love you with all my heart.” Then he went on, “If I who am a sinner can love you so much, imagine Christ, who is Love Incarnate, how much He loves you! And all the Christians whom you have tortured, know that they forgive you, they love you, and Christ loves you. He wishes you to be saved much more than you wish to be saved. You wonder if your sins can be forgiven. He wishes to forgive your sins more than you wish your sins to be forgiven. He desires for you to be with Him in heaven much more than you wish to be in heaven with Him. He is Love. You only need to turn to Him and repent.”

In this prison cell in which there was no possibility of privacy, I overheard the confession of the murderer to the murdered. The murdered—near to death—received the confession of the murderer. The murdered gave absolution to his murderer. They prayed together, embraced each other, and the priest went back to his bed. Both men died that same night.

It was Christmas Eve. But it was not a Christmas Eve in which we simply remembered that two thousand years ago Jesus was born in Bethlehem. It was a Christmas Eve during which Jesus was born in the heart of a Communist murderer."

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова

Аминь

Matthew 7:22

1Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

22Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’…

_________________
«Русскому человеку лучше всего удаётся невозможное!»
***
Только нашей земли не разделит
На потеху себе супостат:
Богородица белый расстелет
Над скорбями великими плат».

Анна Ахматова