Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)
Archimandrite Tikhon, abbot of the Sretensky Monastery, met with students of the Moscow seminaries at the Moscow Theological Academy in order to speak with them about contemporary monasticism and parish life and to reply to their vital questions.
Thus did the terrible prophecy of Jeremiah come true for the mothers of the generations of Benjamin: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Mt. 2:18). Rachael’s grave is in Bethlehem, and she seemed to rise from it that very day to share the sorrow and tears of those mothers. Their sons had died for Christ and in place of Christ, and became the seed and flower of all martyrs to come.
Vincent Gabriel
One of the many wonderful aspects of the Orthodox-Catholic celebration of the birth of Christ is the traditional season of "Christmastide" or the "12 Days of Christmas." This is one of those rare periods in the life of the Church where all fasting is suspended and where the fulness of Christ's Incarnation is on display in the following days. Thankfully, people have come to understand more and more that the feast of Christmas was not established as a replacement of a "pagan holiday" (as is proposed in popular discussion), but is rather an intentional celebration of the unique birth of our Lord according to the flesh.
Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Rating: 6,4|Votes: 36
I am a novelist, and I suppose I have made up this story. I write “I suppose,” though I know for a fact that I have made it up, but yet I keep fancying that it must have happened on Christmas Eve in some great town in a time of terrible frost. I have a vision of a boy, a little boy, six years old or even younger. This boy woke up that morning in a cold damp cellar. He was dressed in a sort of little dressing-gown and was shivering with cold.
Rating: 2|Votes: 1
We greet you with the Nativity of Christ!
