CIVIL RELIGIOUS DISCUSSION: All things Christianity

[foszoe]

Pascha Scripture Readings
Sunday, April 16, 2017


Acts 1:1-8
John 1:1-17

Today’s commemorated feasts and saints

HOLY PASCHA — THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. [Beginning of the Pentecostarion]. Virgin Martyrs Agape, Irene and Chionia, in Illyria (304). Martyrs Leonidas, Chariessa, Nice (Nika, Victoria), Galina, Calista (Calisa), Nunechia, Basilissa, Theodora, and Irene, of Corinth (258). Monk Martyr Christopher of Dionysiou (Mt. Athos—1818). Hieromartyr Nicetas. The Weeping “IL’INSKO-CHERNIGOV” (1658) and the TAMBOV Icons of the Theotokos


I hope all found Lent to be the sorrowful joy and joyful sorrow that it can bring. Now the Light of the World has burst forth upon us and let us be transformed by it. Let the hymns of Pascha continue with us.

DO NOT LOSE THE JOY OF EASTER!!! The Easter Season lasts until Pentecost!!! 50 DAYS!

IT IS PROPER for Christians to greet each other with

CHRIST IS RISEN!

INDEED HE IS RISEN!

UNTIL ASCENSION! 40 DAYS....ALWAYS A THURSDAY

40 DAYS OF FASTING REQUIRES 50 DAYS OF FEASTING FOR BALANCE!!!

THE PASCHAL TROPARION:


Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!


HYPAKOE:


Before the dawn, Mary and the women came and found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They heard the angelic voice: “Why do you seek among the dead as a man the One who is Everlasting Light? Behold the clothes in the grave! Go and proclaim to the world: The Lord is risen!” He has slain death, as He is the Son of God, saving the race of men.


PASCHAL HYMN TO THE THEOTOKOS:


The angel cried to the Lady Full of Grace: Rejoice, O Pure Virgin! Again I say: Rejoice! Your Son is risen from His three days in the tomb! With Himself He has raised all the dead! Rejoice, all you people!


Shine! Shine! O New Jerusalem! The Glory of the Lord has shone on you! Exalt now and be glad, O Zion! Be radiant, O Pure Theotokos, in the Resurrection of your Son!


HYMN TO THE RESURRECTION:


Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship, the holy Lord Jesus, the only Sinless One! We venerate Thy Cross, O Christ, and Thy Holy Resurrection we praise and glorify; for Thou art our God, and we know no other than Thee; we call on Thy name. Come, all you faithful, let us venerate Christ’s Holy Resurrection! For, behold, through the Cross joy has come into all the world. Let us ever bless the Lord, praising His Resurrection. By enduring the Cross for us, He destroyed death by death!

 

[hoosierdoc]

Jesus Christ is risen today!
Hallelujah!

[video=youtube;p2HSklHBHxw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2HSklHBHxw[/video]

 

[jblomenberg16]

Christ is risen, He is risen indeed! Alleluia!!!

 

[T.Lex]

Hey historian - did you end up going for Good Friday mass? Curious what you thought. Maybe better by PM, of course.

 

[JettaKnight]

Hey historian - did you end up going for Good Friday mass? Curious what you thought. Maybe better by PM, of course.

No PMs! I want to hear about it to!

 

[foszoe]

[video=youtube;0XJklq2AVd8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XJklq2AVd8[/video]

 

[historian]

We weren't able to find one to fit into our schedule Sadly, most happened in the early afternoon, and I was spending time at Rick's and at the Louisville Slugger Museum (their relics are better than most!). By the time we got to the hotel, the kids just wanted to swim (and ride the elevator), and I wanted to sit in the hot tub. However, it is still on my list to go to. I figure that the best Mass would be a Good Friday Mass. The best Eastern Orthodox service would be Christmas, and the best Baptist service is one with a meal afterwards!

 

[foszoe]

We weren't able to find one to fit into our schedule Sadly, most happened in the early afternoon, and I was spending time at Rick's and at the Louisville Slugger Museum (their relics are better than most!). By the time we got to the hotel, the kids just wanted to swim (and ride the elevator), and I wanted to sit in the hot tub. However, it is still on my list to go to. I figure that the best Mass would be a Good Friday Mass. The best Eastern Orthodox service would be PASCHA, and the best Baptist service is one with a meal afterwards!

Trust me on this...

 

[T.Lex]

We weren't able to find one to fit into our schedule Sadly, most happened in the early afternoon, and I was spending time at Rick's and at the Louisville Slugger Museum (their relics are better than most!). By the time we got to the hotel, the kids just wanted to swim (and ride the elevator), and I wanted to sit in the hot tub. However, it is still on my list to go to. I figure that the best Mass would be a Good Friday Mass. The best Eastern Orthodox service would be Christmas, and the best Baptist service is one with a meal afterwards!

No worries.

And "relics" in a baseball sense or religious sense? Wait. Never mind. Nearly the same.

 

[historian]

No worries.

And "relics" in a baseball sense or religious sense? Wait. Never mind. Nearly the same.

Their worship of Jeter is pretty off putting, so I probably won't be joining that one...

 

[historian]

Trust me on this...

.
mmmmmm...perogies..

 

[foszoe]

I was reading the following hagiography taken from the Prologue of Ohrid by St Nicholai Velimerovich for Apr 22. What struck me the most about it was how it illustrated two things. How the Christian should do good works, and How Christians should not behave. Judging the works of others.



THE VENERABLE MONK VITALIS


During the time of the Alexandrian Patriarch John the Merciful, a young monk appeared who, as soon as he arrived, complied a list of all the prostitutes in Alexandria. The mortification (asceticism) of this young monk was exceptional and unique. During the day he would offer himself for hire to do the most difficult jobs and at night, he would enter the houses of ill repute, gave the earned amount of money to some prostitute and close himself in the room with her the entire night. As soon as they were locked up, Vitalis would beg the woman to lie down and sleep and he would spend the entire night in a corner of the room in prayer to God for that sinner. Thus, he would save the woman from sinning at least one night. The second night, he would go to a second, the third night to a third and so on until he had visited them all, and then, he again returned to the one with whom he started. By his counseling, many of the sinners abandoned their sullied trade. Some of them married, others entered convents and still others turned to a respectable work and income. Vitalis forbid all of these women to reveal the reason why he was visiting them. Because of this, Vitalis became a scandal for all of Alexandria. The men began to scold him, spit upon him and to openly beat him on the streets. He bore all patiently, making known his good works to God and concealing them from men. When he died, everything about him became known. Many miracles of healing occurred over his grave. People from different places began to bring their sick to his grave. Spat upon by men, he was and remained glorified by the Omniscient God.


then in the Reflection section,

I saw how Christians should behave towards the sins of others....



REFLECTION


At the time of the First Ecumenical Council [Nicaea, 325 A.D.], the quarreling clerics wrote accusations one against the other and presented them to the emperor. Emperor Constantine received all of these accusations and not opening them, burned them over a flaming candle. To the amazement of those around him, the emperor said: "If I would see with my own eyes a bishop, a priest or a monk in a sinful act, I would cover him with my cloak, so that no one would ever see his sin." Thus, this great Christian emperor embarrassed the scandalmongers and sealed their mouths. Our Faith prohibits us to be spies of the sins of others and stresses that we be merciless judges of our own sins. The sick person in the hospital is concerned with his own particular malady so that he has neither the will nor the time to question others who are ill or to mock their illness. Are we not all in this world as patients in a hospital? Does not our own common sense underline that we look at our own illness and not at another's illness? Let no one think that they will be cured of their illness in the other world. This world is merely a hospital and a place for healing and, in that world, there is no hospital; there is only a mansion or only a prison.

Finally in his Homily, I read this and the highlighted portion made me immediately think of ATM

HOMILY


About the power of God in the weakness of men


"For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:10).


There are no contradictions in Holy Scripture and even in these words there are no contradictions even though they sound like it. The physical is governed by sound and the spiritual by thought. For physical man, there are contradictions everywhere for he is afraid of obstacles and flees from a shadow if this shadow seems to be an obstacle for him. The spiritual man is like a knight who likes to overcome obstacles. For the spiritual man, hidden in these words of Scripture, is the entire teaching about salvation.


"For when I am weak, then I am strong." That is, when I am cognizant of my nothingness and the omnipotence of God, then I am strong. When I know that I, of myself alone, cannot do any good neither for myself nor for others and when I totally entrust myself in the power and mercy of God, then I am strong. When I sense that I am as a drowning person in this world and that I am not in the position to grab on to the extended hand of God, to hold on to it by my own strength, rather cry out to God that He with His hand grab hold of my hand and pull me out of the depths of sinful abyss, then I am strong. When I see that I am weak and that I am a hollow reed amidst the tempest of winds and floods; a reed which God is able to fill with His Almighty Grace and when I pray with faith for God's Grace, then I am strong.


O, my weak brethren, let us entrust ourselves to the power of God that we, in our nothingness, may be strong. Relying on man you are weak but relying on God you are strong. Adhere to God and all the power of God will be with you. Confess your weaknesses before God and God will send you His All-powerful Grace. This is confirmed for you by the apostle through his example and through his experience: "For when I am weak, then I am strong." In truth there is no contradiction in the Holy Scripture. Physical man speaks about contradiction in terms of the sound of the word, but spiritual man enters into the meaning and shatters the illusion of contradiction through experience.


O resurrected Lord, have mercy on our weakness and fill us with Your Omnipotent Grace.

 

[foszoe]

In exhorting Christians to attend church for prayer, St. John Chrysostom says: "If someone delivers to subjugated citizens a royal decree, the citizens do not question the life of the messenger, as to whether he is rich or poor or righteous or sinful but all listen attentively to that which he is reading. If someone did not hear, he asks one who has heard. When you have such a great awe of earthly rulers, how much more should you have heed us priests here, where the Creator of the Heavenly Powers speaks through us sinners?" Indeed, what is Holy Scripture but a Grammata [Letter] of the Heavenly King! Why is it that the unique and saving Grammata does not interest us every day and every hour, when the least authority in the country and their trivial orders do interest us? St. Anthony said: "Whatever you do have justification for this in Holy Scripture." But how can you have justification in Holy Scripture if you are not familiar with Holy Scripture?

 

[ChristianPatriot]

Well, that's sort of a sticking point for many of us non-believers: If one's "spiritual" life is eternal, what is the "sacrifice" in death? Eternal (spiritual) life turns death into just another signpost on the road of life. Much like kidney stones or childbirth, whatever trauma is experienced will ultimately become fleeting and temporary.

Why shouldn't God send his son to Earth to die...over and over again, if necessary? Corporeal death would be absolutely meaningless to an eternal spiritual creature.

(Moved over from another thread)

 

[ChristianPatriot]

If "God" created the universe, something you and I are clearly not capable of doing, wouldn't it stand to reason that "He" is infinitely more intelligent than we are? And that the way "He" does things won't and/or doesn't have to make sense to us who are FAR less intelligent?

 

[PaulF]

If "God" created the universe, something you and I are clearly not capable of doing, wouldn't it stand to reason that "He" is infinitely more intelligent than we are? And that the way "He" does things won't and/or doesn't have to make sense to us who are FAR less intelligent?

Not as I see things, no.

As I see things, our universe isn't unique. The rapid expansion that led to what we view as "the universe" was one of an infinite number of such occurrences, it is only that we lack the ability to "step back" far enough to be able to see it. Space is a big place. There could be a million "big bangs" occurring every second...they are just so far away we will never know about it. These explosions require no gods, only gravity and time.

But let's suppose that the universe does have a beginning, and it did require a creator. There is no logical reason to believe that the "creator" was the same being described by your religion...or anyone else's. The creator may have died during childbirth, for all we know.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Not as I see things, no.

As I see things, our universe isn't unique. The rapid expansion that led to what we view as "the universe" was one of an infinite number of such occurrences, it is only that we lack the ability to "step back" far enough to be able to see it. Space is a big place. There could be a million "big bangs" occurring every second...they are just so far away we will never know about it. These explosions require no gods, only gravity and time.

But let's suppose that the universe does have a beginning, and it did require a creator. There is no logical reason to believe that the "creator" was the same being described by your religion...or anyone else's. The creator may have died during childbirth, for all we know.

That first paragraph requires faith in something nobody has any evidence for.

As for your 2nd paragraph, is it possible for something that exists in space, time, and matter to create space, time, and matter? Wouldn't it be logical whatever "it" is had to exist outside of space/time? Has there ever been a case something creating itself?

 

[PaulF]

That first paragraph requires faith in something nobody has any evidence for.

As for your 2nd paragraph, is it possible for something that exists in space, time, and matter to create space, time, and matter? Wouldn't it be logical whatever "it" is had to exist outside of space/time? Has there ever been a case something creating itself?

Yeah, my ideas about the broader universe are not supported in current mainstream academic astrophysics. The evidence just isn't there, and probably could never be...any other "universe" would necessarily exist far beyod the point of decay of measurable electro-magnetic radiation. I don't care. I get maybe 80 years on this planet, over half of those are already gone. If I die without knowing how everything got here it isn't going to cause me much distress.

As to the second point...Time and space have no beginning, no end. The vast emptiness of space has always existed... I have no problem believing the physical contents, on some elemental level, have also always exsisted. I don't, however, see any compelling evidence for the existence of supernatural or spiritual realms. So, no...I'm not convinced there was a "before" and "after", but if there was I would be inclined to believe it was due to some natural phenomena that exists within time and space...unless I was exposed to compelling evidence that pointed elsewehere.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Yeah, my ideas about the broader universe are not supported in current mainstream academic astrophysics. The evidence just isn't there, and probably could never be...any other "universe" would necessarily exist far beyod the point of decay of measurable electro-magnetic radiation. I don't care. I get maybe 80 years on this planet, over half of those are already gone. If I die without knowing how everything got here it isn't going to cause me much distress.

As to the second point...Time and space have no beginning, no end. The vast emptiness of space has always existed... I have no problem believing the physical contents, on some elemental level, have also always exsisted. I don't, however, see any compelling evidence for the existence of supernatural or spiritual realms. So, no...I'm not convinced there was a "before" and "after", but if there was I would be inclined to believe it was due to some natural phenomena that exists within time and space...unless I was exposed to compelling evidence that pointed elsewehere.

But that's not what science says. As I understand the Big Bang theory, time, space, matter, and energy all commenced from that one event. Then there's the concept of...oh crap, it's not entropy...I forgot the word...crap...anyway...that systems tend to devolve to a less energized state over time, as the energy is used up. It's impossible for matter and energy to have always existed because it would have worn its self down at some point.

I heard this the other day: If time were infinite, we could never get to this moment in time. Because from any point on the time line, there's infinite time before it and it's illogical how you could get to the present.

 

[Woobie]

(Moved over from another thread)

Pertaining to this quote:

This argument presupposes that the great tragedy of the cross was death, and so ignores the root cause of death.