A virtual, photographic pilgrimage to shrines in Greece and Cyprus dedicated to the Feast of the Mother of God Presentation or Entry, Entrance, Eisodos in the Temple (November 21)
“Today, the most pure temple of the Savior, the precious bridal chamber and Virgin, the sacred treasure of God, enters the house of the Lord, bringing the grace of the Divine Spirit. The Angels of God praise her. She is the heavenly tabernacle.”
In Memoriam — A Video, Liturgic Chant and Iconography Tribute and Islam’s New Martyrs’ ‘Army’
In the darkness of the Paris tragedy, May God give rest to all the victims! Comfort to their families! Mercy to the killers! Repentance for the assassins before they depart this earth! Saints Denis, Genevieve, and Maria of Paris, Irenaios of Lyons, Martin and Gregory of Tours, Prosper of Aquitaine, John Cassian the Roman, Caesarius of Arles, Hilary of Poitiers, and all the martyrs and saints of France, pray for the protection of the people of France and our world!
The world is talking about you Your apocalyptic dreams and spectacular sins Are now awakening the middle east In your holy war, come to holy ground Come children of Abraham come The people of the cross gathers at your gates with a message
Love is coming after you. Like a rush of wind grazing over the pacific From hills of the mount of olives to the desert winds of Jordan From the cedars of lebanon to the silk roads of the East An army comes. With no tanks or soldiers But an army of martyrs faithful unto death Carrying a message of life The people of the cross Comes to die at your gates. If you wont hear our message with words Then we will show you with our lives Laid down.
For every throat you slit and every woman you rape For every man you burn and every child you turn to dust There is blood on your hands brother
But Come Brothers Come
Come with your bloodstained hands, Come with your eyes full of murder for the people of the Cross, Come lay your guns and your knives at the foot of the cross A love that is overdue and overwhelming Breathes through your cities
Though your sins are like scarlet They can be washed white as snow Though you call yourselves servants He will make you into Sons Where can you run from His love? Even the darkness cannot hide you
Come Brothers Come There is the sound of a rushing rain To remove your sins and bind your wounds You die for your god but our God died for us The King of Kings comes to be the sacrificial lamb Slain on the altar where we should have been Jesus Christ, Isa Al Masih Walks through the Middle East
There is forgiveness tonight oh brother There is healing for your sins oh brother We are no different. Apart from Christ, we are no better than the worst jihadist Christ has been crucified once. and for All. To make sinners like you and me into brothers Even you. Even now.
Who Would Dare to Love ISIS? (A Letter from the People of the Cross)
Paris terror attacks: a night of carnage in France’s capital–Friday November 13
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
“It still remains unclear how the situation developed inside the concert hall. According to witnesses, the attackers stormed the venue as a California rock group ‘Eagles of Death Metal’ was performing on the stage. A Europe 1 journalist, who was inside the Bataclan, said the men were unmasked and carried what he recognized as Kalashnikov-type guns. “The assailants had time to reload at least three times. They were not masked, masters of themselves. They were very young,” the reporter Julian Pearce said, according to the Liberation newspaper. People who managed to flee the theater reported seeing between six and eight shooters inside were killing those who remained in the concert hall “one by one”. One of the gunmen at Bataclan reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar!” meaning, “God is [the] greatest” in Arabic.
In 1714, just before Easter, Constantin Brancoveanu – the Christian ruler of the Romanian Kingdom for 26 years – was taken to Istanbul and imprisoned. His four sons were imprisoned with him. In a typical gesture, the Muslim rulers of the Ottoman Empire gave them the well-known choice: convert to Islam or die. Because they refused to deny Christ, on August 15th (the Dormition Feast), they were all decapitated – first the Christian king’s councillor was beheaded, then all his sons (Matthew, the youngest of them, was 11 years old). The King, his wife and daughters, were forced to witness the public executions. Western diplomats were present; the official representatives of France, England and Russia (among others) felt they could not refuse the Muslim ruler’s invitation. In the end, after the killing of all his sons, the King himself was publicly executed – it was his 60th birthday. Their heads were carried and displayed through Istanbul; their bodies were thrown in the Bosphorus. Today, they are all commemorated as Martyrs.
The Glorification of 1241 New Martyrs of Naousa
Central photograph of St. Philoumenos the New Righteous Hieromartyr, the Cypriot, at Jacob’s Well where Christ spoke with St. Photini. Surrounding are other pictures and icons of St. Philoumenos and associated scenes. He was martyred on November 16th/29th 1979
St. Philoumenos the New Hieromartyr of Jacob’s Well
Holy New-Martyrs of Jasenovac
St. Jacob of Hamatoura
Synaxis of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia
… Three centuries later; we see Muslim children carrying the heads of the people their fundamentalist parents have murdered. We hear these children calling for more executions. The only difference is that, this time, Western journalists are also killed.
The West may be in shock, but Eastern Europe isn’t. For us, this is just the return of a very recent nightmare. Less than a century ago, the Ottoman Empire was still present here, in our countries. Think about that!
New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke
We all – West and East – have so much to learn from each other. The world needs to look at its past – its common past. The West needs to understand that what happens in other parts of the world will one day (very soon, it seems) happen at home, in its own back-yard.
The 1241 New Martyrs of Naousa who were brutally massacred
The 21 New Martyrs of Egypt & Libya
Saint Ephraim the Newly-Revealed Wonderworker of Nea Makri
Holy New Martyrs Emmanuel, Anezina, George and Maria, The Four Crypto-Christians New Martyrs
The 100,000 Holy Martyrs of Tbilisi
When one visits the thousands of Orthodox monasteries in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, one must learn how to see beyond their exterior beauty and exoticism. All these places are built on harrowing pain and horror, yet they remain living prayers for the peace and salvation of the whole world; for centuries, they’ve held on to a holy stubbornness to not let go of hope, to not let go of love, to not allow hate to win and take over our hearts.
New Martyrs Raphael, Nikolaos, Eirini
If that happened, if we let go of love and embraced the hatred, we’d be denying Christ; we’d be losing the real battle, the battle these old and new Christian martyrs died for.
Hell Is Empty and All the Devils Are Here: a quote from the first act of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
“The Muslim threat will not be neutralized, and Muslims will not come to see the falsehood of their own faith, – which, after all, must be our hope and the only real solution to the problem – until and unless the Christians stop appeasing them through their anti-Christian ecumenism and debauchery, demonstrating in their own lives what it is to be a real Christian. The present confrontation between Western ecumenism and Muslim terrorism is providential … a final appeal to the conscience of Western Christians to cast off their indifference and acquire zeal for the one true faith, which is Christianity.” http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/690/islamic-terrorism-western-ecumenism/
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE 