20 May 2013. Where Do They Get Their “Attitude?”

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One wonders… is Cossack attitude inborn or is it taught? I, for one, vote for it being part of one’s being… that is, you “get it through the tittie”. That’s not only true of Cossacks, it’s true of all the Orthosphere peoples… be they Greeks, Armenians, Copts, Ethiopians, Russians, Serbs, or Hillbilly Ossetians (don’t mess with ‘em, y’ hear; they DO know how to take care of themselves, they proved that in the recent war). We have not only a religion, we have a culture that comes wrapped indissolubly around it. That’s why it’s so difficult for newbies to “get it right”… it doesn’t come out of a book, “it comes through the tittie”. A whole new world has to be born in a convert’s soul to receive the Truth… which means that they have to walk away from the whole lot that they once believed in. They’re not doing that… ergo, they’re not truly converting. Sad, ain’t it? However, for how much longer can we afford to tolerate posturing semi-converted Anglicans amongst us (I know real Anglicans… they don’t have the hangups that the konvertsy have, trust me on that one)?

You can have the books or you can have the iaias and babas… that’s what on offer… I think that you know where I stand…

BMD

20 May 2013. It’s STILL the Easter Season!

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The Easter season stretches on to Pentecost, which falls on 23 June this year. That means that we have another month left in the festal time… hey, if we keep the Easter Lent for all forty days, then, it stands to reason that we should keep all fifty days of the Easter feast. God did NOT intend us to walk about with long faces and be insufferable misery-guts to all about us. Christ is risen! That’s what our religion is all about… not rules… not crusades… not marches… not politics… but Christ is Risen! It was good enough for baba and dede, it’s good enough for me…

Христосъ воскресе!

Воистинну воскресе!

BMD

 

19 May 2013. A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words… Here’s What Radonitsa’s All About

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During the Easter season, real Orthodox go out to the cemeteries and visit the graves of their loved ones. We tend the graves and lay symbolic offerings of food and flowers on them (often, Easter eggs). However, on Easter and during Bright Week, we can’t offer Pannikhida, the first opportunity is the first Monday after Bright Week. Since many monasteries keep Monday as a day of abstinence, the custom has arisen of celebrating Radonitsa (Day of Rejoicing) on the Second Tuesday after Easter. Mind you, you can lay offerings on a grave on Easter and Bright Week (we certainly did), but you can’t offer Pannikhida. In the above image, people in Minsk are visiting family graves, offering a toast, and giving due respect. Radonitsa isn’t “canonical”… it’s a “people’s feast”… the Church didn’t decree it, the people just did it. Now, if some would just get their long noses out of books…

BMD

Patriarch Neofit: Our Kids Need to Know the ABCs of Orthodoxy

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Patriarch Neofit Dimitrov stated that Bulgarian kids should have the opportunity to learn about their Orthodox Christian heritage. On Sunday, Neofit addressed clergy and believers on the 60th anniversary of the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. The message, read out by Bishop Naum Dimitrov of Stob, Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod, made a strong case for the introduction of religion as a subject in school, with a special emphasis on Orthodox Christianity. It also reflected on the last 60 years of history for Orthodoxy in Bulgaria. Neofit wrote, “The past decades weren’t easy, but with God’s help, immutably led by the spirit of truth, all of us, according to the measure of our powers, bore witness to the resurrection of Christ. Today, we call for, and will continue to call for, more mission and witness to eternal salvation in our dear homeland and beyond her confines. What’s been accomplished isn’t little, but it isn’t enough either”. Patriarch Neofit also reflected on the “spiritual crisis” that Bulgarian society is going through, which is deeper than any financial and political troubles, saying, “There is a crisis of values, a crisis in thinking through the eternal truths about God, the world, and humanity”.

19 May 2013

Novinite.com

Sofia News Agency

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=150534