Head of Russian Church Urges Online Outreach, Meets with Social Media Star Priests
Father Pavel Ostrovsky is well known for his internet presence.

https://gorthodox.com/en/news-item/head-of-russian-church-urges-online-outreach-meets-with-social-media-star-priests?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=russian_christian_news_syndicate

The meeting was used to discuss their different activities and their plans for the future development of their ministries. Further discussion took place on topical issues of Christian witness on the Internet. The head of Church-Society Relations, Vladimir Legoyda, also gave a talk

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

Анна Ахматова

…“Many Christians see war as the result of a failure to live by God's standards”….

Иерей РПЦ: «Не может священник призывать людей к убийству других людей»
..."Сейчас мы видим, что Русская православная церковь выполняет именно пропагандистскую функцию. Она говорит о том, о чем Церковь вообще говорить не должна, поскольку она должна проповедовать Христа распятого, а вовсе не патриотизм и мобилизацию. Совсем не это является функцией Церкви, не это ее задача, не для этого она была создана Христом.

Не может священник призывать людей к тому, чтобы убивать других людей. Это не его задача. Он говорит о любви, о том, что есть заповеди Божьи, которые человек не должен нарушать. А если он их нарушает, то это требует покаяния.

– Насколько успешна политическая деятельность РПЦ?

– Это не может быть успешным просто потому, что Господь не для этого ее создал. Если человек идет против Бога, то как может быть это дело успешным?
https://belsat.eu/ru/news/28-10-2022-ierej-rpts-ne-mozhet-svyashhennik-prizyvat-lyudej-k-tomu-chtoby-ubivat-drugih-lyudej

I will tell you something even more remarkable. Learn now how Christ triumphed over the devil and you will be even more amazed, for using the very weapons that the devil used to conquer us, Christ vanquished him!

Once Christ seized his weapons, He triumphed over him, and listen now to how He did it: A virgin, wood, and death were the symbols of our defeat. The virgin was Eve, for she knew not man. The wood was the tree in Paradise, and death was Adam's penance.
But behold, a virgin, a tree and death—the symbols of our defeat—have become the symbols of our victory. For instead of Eve, we have Mary; instead of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we have the tree of the Cross; instead of Adam's death, we have Christ's death. Do you see how the devil is vanquished by the very weapons with which he vanquished us?
By the tree, the devil vanquished Adam; by the Cross Christ conquered the devil. That tree led to Hades, whereas the Cross led back those whom had been led there. And again, that tree hid the captive's nakedness, whereas the Cross revealed to all the naked Victor from on high. Adam's death condemned his descendants, whereas Christ's death raised all whom had preceded Him. 'Who shall tell of the mighty acts of the Lord?' [Ps. 105:2] Out of death, to which we were subject, we became immortal. These are the accomplishments of the Cross!

Have you learned what manner of victory this was? Have you learned how the victory was won? Learn also that this achievement was painless. We did not stain our weapons with blood. We did not stand in battle. We received no wounds. We saw no war and yet we gained the victory. The battle was the Lord's, yet the crown was ours. Since, therefore, the victory is ours, let us shout triumphantly, exactly as soldiers do, and let us all chant the hymn of victory today, praising the Master: 'Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is thy victory? O Hades, where is thy sting?' [I Cor. 15:54]
These things has the Cross accomplished for us! The Cross is the trophy of victory against the demons, the sword against sin, the blade with which Christ slew the serpent. The Cross is the goodwill of the Father, the glory of the Only-begotten Son, the joy of the Holy Spirit, the ornament of the Angels, the safeguard of the Church, the boast of the Apostle Paul, the protection of the Saints, the light of the whole world!"

- St. John Chrysostom, Homily on the Cemetery and the Cross
~ Stephanos Upton

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

Анна Ахматова

Thomas Sunday
The Gospel According to John 20:19-31

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe." Eight days later, His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."

Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side; do not be faithless, but believing." Thomas answered Him, "My Lord and My God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.

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

Анна Ахматова

"Man sentenced God to death…but by His Resurrection, He sentenced man to immortality. In return for a beating…He gives an embrace; for abuse…a blessing; for death…immortality.

Man never showed so much hate for God as when he crucified Him… and God never showed more love for man than when He arose.
Man even wanted to reduce God to a mortal…but God by His Resurrection made man immortal. The crucified God is Risen and has killed death. Death is no more. Immortality has surrounded man and all the world.

By the Resurrection of the God-Man, human nature has been led irreversibly onto the path of immortality, and has become dreadful to death itself. For before the Resurrection of Christ, death was dreadful to man…but after the Resurrection of Christ, man has become more dreadful to death. When man lives by faith in the Risen God-Man, he lives above death, out of its reach; it is a footstool for his feet: 'O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?' (I Cor. 15:55)"
— St. Justin Popovic

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

Анна Ахматова

We celebrate the memory and witness of St. George the martyr.

St. George was born in the ancient Roman province of Cappadocia, in what is today part of Turkey, the son of Christian parents. George's father was executed for being a Christian while George was still a child, so he had seen with his own eyes the brutality of the Roman Empire in its persecution of Christians. His mother, owning some land in Palestine, moved there and George was raised as a believer.

As a young man, George entered the Roman army where, after distinguishing himself in service, he came to the notice of the emperor Diocletian (who reigned from 284-305 AD) and was promoted and made a member of the imperial guard. After a meeting of the Roman senate in Nicomedia, at which Diocletian gained their full support in his ongoing persecution of Christians, George distributed all of his goods to the poor, freed his slaves and then appeared before the senate to denounce their decision. He confessed himself to be a Christian, saying,

“I am a servant of Christ my God and trusting in Him, I have come before you voluntarily to bear witness to the Truth.” George was arrested and then tortured. On the day of his martyrdom, George asked God to forgive all those who had tortured him. George was executed for his faith in Christ by being beheaded in 303 AD

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

Анна Ахматова

Just in time for the feast day. St. George knows it takes at least a week on the spit to get dragon just right.
(With lemon!)
Also, eating dragons is Biblical (Ps. 74:14).

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

Christ is RISEN!

On April 25th, Orthodox Christians celebrate the memory of St. Mark, the author of the Gospel that bears his name.
St. Mark is mentioned some ten times in the New Testament. The Book of Acts tells us that he accompanied the apostles Paul and Barnabas (his older cousin) on their first missionary journey, but did not complete the journey and turned back alone at Perga. Paul later refused to take Mark with him on his second missionary journey. Instead, Mark went with Barnabas to continue the evangelization of the island of Cyprus. This breach with Paul was eventually healed and Mark was with him in Rome at the time of his execution.

Mark is most famous for writing the Gospel that bears his name, an account of the life, teaching, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Probably written in Rome shortly after the execution of the apostles Peter and Paul, it was a vivid reminder to Christians, then suffering persecution for their faith, of the sufferings of Christ, their Master, and an inspiration to them to remain faithful to Him. Mark‟s Gospel is the first and oldest of the four gospels that today constitute the heart of the New Testament and, in fact, forms the essential basis for the Gospels of Matthew and Luke as well. Of the 660 verses in Mark‟s Gospel, 600 are to be found in Matthew‟s Gospel and 350 in Luke‟s Gospel and only 60 in neither. Compared to these two later Gospels, Mark's is much shorter, more direct and informal and written in the simple Greek used throughout the Mediterranean world of his time. Traditionally, the writing of Mark‟s Gospel has been associated with the witness of the apostle Peter and rooted in Mark‟s relationship with him. At the closing of the First Letter of Peter the apostle speaks of “my son Mark” much as the apostle Paul wrote of Timothy in his letters. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, around 185AD, wrote that “after the deaths of Peter and Paul, Mark – the disciple and interpreter of Peter – handed down to us in writing those things that Peter had proclaimed.”

The fourth century church historian Eusebius mentions that after leaving Rome, Mark went to the city of Alexandria in Egypt and became its first bishop. Like the apostles Peter and Paul, Mark was also to be executed for his Christian faith during the persecution of the emperor Trajan. Following the expansion of Islam into formerly Christian territories, his relics were eventually smuggled out of Alexandria and taken to Venice, where his body lies beneath the altar of St. Mark's Cathedral.

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

Анна Ахматова

How Tim Kirby Became ‘The Most Russian American’
A special from Russia Beyond . ..

Despite the fact that Tim permanently moved to Russia from the U.S. back in 2006, Russians still keep asking him how he could have done so. In order to reply to everyone in one go, he has written a book about it.

Tim Kirby from Cleveland (State of Ohio, U.S.) has been living in Moscow for 17 years now. He has a Russian wife and two children, he speaks excellent Russian (albeit with an accent) and is happy in Russia. Tim has worked as a presenter on Mayak Radio and political analyst at RT and now he posts a video travel blog and he has already visited half the country. In 2018, he was granted citizenship of the Russian Federation.

But, every time he pops into a store to buy a pirozhok (plural: pirozhki - small filled pies) or travels by train, he is inevitably asked where he is from and people are invariably very surprised. Tim gets very upset that people living in Russia do not, by and large, appreciate what they have. For some reason, Russians think that America is a real paradise full of rich people with big houses and big cars.

https://movingtorussia.substack.com/p/how-tim-kirby-became-the-most-russian?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1057303&post_id=117671090&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

_________________
«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 of the Myrrh-Bearing Women

About the beginning of His thirty-second year, when the Lord Jesus was going throughout Galilee, preaching and working miracles, many women who had received of His beneficence left their own homeland and from then on followed after Him. They ministered unto Him out of their own possessions, even until His crucifixion and entombment; and afterwards, neither losing faith in Him after His death, nor fearing the wrath of the Jewish rulers, they came to the sepulchre, bearing the myrrh-oils they had prepared to annoint His body. It is because of the myrrh-oils, that these God-loving women brought to the tomb of Jesus that they are called the Myrrh-bearers. Of those whose names are known are the following: first of all, the most holy Virgin Mary, who in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 is called "the mother of James and Joses" (these are the sons of Joseph by a previous marriage, and she was therefore their step-mother); Mary Magdalene (celebrated July 22); Mary, the wife of Clopas; Joanna, wife of Chouza, a steward of Herod Antipas; Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus; and Susanna. As for the names of the rest of them, the evangelists have kept silence (Matt 27:55-56; 28:1-10. Mark 15:40-41. Luke 8:1-3; 23:55-24:11, 22-24. John 19:25; 20:11-18. Acts 1:14).

Together with them we celebrate also the secret disciples of the Saviour, Joseph and Nicodemus. Of these, Nicodemus was probably a Jerusalemite, a prominent leader among the Jews and of the order of the Pharisees, learned in the Law and instructed in the Holy Scriptures. He had believed in Christ when, at the beginning of our Saviour's preaching of salvation, he came to Him by night. Furthermore, he brought some one hundred pounds of myrrh-oils and an aromatic mixture of aloes and spices out of reverence and love for the divine Teacher (John 19:39). Joseph, who was from the city of Arimathea, was a wealthy and noble man, and one of the counsellors who were in Jerusalem. He went boldly unto Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, and together with Nicodemus he gave Him burial. Since time did not permit the preparation of another tomb, he placed the Lord's body in his own tomb which was hewn out of rock, as the Evangelist says (Matt. 27:60).

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

Анна Ахматова

Travel with an Orthodox American Russian Priest from a Kremlin, to a Russian cafe, to an old Russian church and to a working family farm. What is this religion about and how old are these places?
What is Father Joseph Gleason's story?
Will we have a sword fight?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IUAO1bKwhs

Super cool!

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

Анна Ахматова

On May 1st, Orthodox Christians celebrate the memory and witness of Jeremiah,
the Old Testament prophet, who was active as a prophet from 626BC until the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple of Solomon by the Babylonians in 587BC.
Jeremiah was charged by God to prophecy the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians because the people of Israel had begun worshipping Baal and practicing human sacrifice. Jeremiah proclaimed that the nation of Judah would suffer famine, foreign conquest, plunder, captivity and exile in a land of strangers as a result of their murderous worship of an idol.

_________________
«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 of the Paralytic

May 07
Reading
Close to the Sheep's Gate in Jerusalem, there was a pool, which was called the Sheep's Pool. It had round about it five porches, that is, five sets of pillars supporting a domed roof. Under this roof there lay very many sick people with various maladies, awaiting the moving of the water. The first to step in after the troubling of the water was healed immediately of whatever malady he had.

It was there that the paralytic of today's Gospel way lying, tormented by his infirmity of thirty-eight years. When Christ beheld him, He asked him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" And he answered with a quiet and meek voice, "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool." The Lord said unto him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." And straightaway the man was made whole and took up his bed. Walking in the presence of all, he departed rejoicing to his own house. According to the expounders of the Gospels, the Lord Jesus healed this paralytic during the days of the Passover, when He had gone to Jerusalem for the Feast, and dwelt there teaching and working miracles. According to Saint John the Evangelist, this miracle took place on the Sabbath.

Kontakion of Sun. of the Paralytic
Third Tone
I am grievously paralyzed in a multitude of sins and wrongful deeds. As You raised up the paralytic of old, also raise up my soul by Your divine guidance, that I may cry out, "Glory to Your Power O Compassionate Christ."

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

Анна Ахматова

May the Son of God be with you!

_________________
«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 of the Samaritan Woman

May 14
Reading

One of the most ancient cities of the Promised Land was Shechem, also called Sikima, located at the foot of Mount Gerazim. There the Israelites had heard the blessings in the days of Moses and Jesus of Navi. Near to this town, Jacob, who had come from Mesopotamia in the nineteenth century before Christ, bought a piece of land where there was a well. This well, preserved even until the time of Christ, was known as Jacob's Well. Later, before he died in Egypt, he left that piece of land as a special inheritance to his son Joseph (Gen. 49:22). This town, before it was taken into possession by Samaria, was also the leading city of the kingdom of the ten tribes. In the time of the Romans it was called Neapolis, and at present Nablus. It was the first city in Canaan visited by the Patriarch Abraham. Here also, Jesus of Navi (Joshua) addressed the tribes of Israel for the last time. Almost three hundred years later, all Israel assembled there to make Roboam (Rehoboam) king.

When our Lord Jesus Christ, then, came at midday to this city, which is also called Sychar (John 4:5), He was wearied from the journey and the heat, and He sat down at this well. After a little while the Samaritan woman mentioned in today's Gospel passage came to draw water. As she conversed at some length with the Lord and heard from Him secret things concerning herself, she believed in Him; through her many other Samaritans also believed.

Concerning the Samaritans we know the following: In the year 721 before Christ, Salmanasar (Shalmaneser), King of the Assyrians, took the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel into captivity, and relocated all these people to Babylon and the land of the Medes. From there he gathered various nations and sent them to Samaria. These nations had been idolaters from before. Although they were later instructed in the Jewish faith and believed in the one God, they worshipped the idols also. Furthermore, they accepted only the Pentateuch of Moses, and rejected the other books of Holy Scripture. Nonetheless, they thought themselves to be descendants of Abraham and Jacob. Therefore, the pious Jews named these Judaizing and idolatrous peoples Samaritans, since they lived in Samaria, the former leading city of the Israelites, as well as in the other towns thereabout. The Jews rejected them as heathen and foreigners, and had no communion with them at all, as the Samaritan woman observed, "the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9). Therefore, the name Samaritan is used derisively many times in the Gospel narrations. After the Ascension of the Lord, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the woman of Samaria was baptized by the holy Apostles and became a great preacher and Martyr of Christ; she was called Photine, and her feast is kept on February 26.

Kontakion of Sun. of the Samaritan Woman
Plagal of the Fourth Tone
The Samaritan Woman, having come to the well in faith, beheld You, the Water of Wisdom from which she drank plentifully and inherited the Heavenly Kingdom as one who is blessed forever.

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

Анна Ахматова