Fr. John Behr
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
The relationship between Scripture, the Gospel and Orthodoxy is a huge topic, but is indisputably important. In fact, speaking accurately about these topics is perhaps the most important task for Christians today. As “Scripture” and “Gospel” are seemingly more obvious in their meaning, it is with “orthodox” that I will begin.
Natalia Narochnitskaya
The problem of corruption and criminalization is becoming a topic of the national strategy and political dispute in Russia and needs fundamental analysis. Meanwhile discussion over this issue results as a rule in suggestion of better methods of discovering illegal operations, development of punitive measures and endless reorganizations of the corresponding police bodies. However their weakness testifies to the deeper causes of such a large-scale illness of the national organism. But they should be searched for in the field of consciousness, which is a subject of sociology.
Yuri Klitsenko
Rating: 9,7|Votes: 3
In the Holy Scripture the temple of God is compared with paradise. In the vision of prophet Ezekiel the garden of Eden grows on the banks of the river that flows from the temple: "Waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar…And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine"(Eze 47:1-12).
On February 10, 1963, the centennial of St. Ekvtime’s birth, his body was reburied at the Didube Pantheon in Tbilisi. When his grave was uncovered, it was revealed that not only his body, but even his clothing and footwear had remained incorrupt. St. Ekvtime’s relics were moved once again, to the Pantheon at the Church of St. Davit of Gareji on Mtatsminda, where they remain today.
The second day of the Forefeast of Theophany falls on January 3. Today’s hymns invite us to go in spirit to the Jordan River where the Creator comes to be baptized. He is the Light which shines in the darkness (John 1:5), and today He begins to overcome that darkness.