You Tube Bells

Category: Some Early History of Russian Orthodoxy, & the Russian bells,

in San Francisco, California-

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxDNeQARtt0    

 http://www.holy-trinity.org/node/87

Our Bells in News and Print

1985: The Bells of Russia. History and Technology By Edward V. Williams

Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey, 1985.

The largest of seven Russian bells at Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in San Francisco [OCA] was cast in 1888 at the Moscow bell foundry of N. D. Finliandskij. The inscription on the sound-bow records that it weights 144 puds 5 funts (5,205 pounds) and that it was founded "In memory of the miraculous rescue of the Russian Emperor Alexander III, together with the imperial family, October 17 [1888]." On that day the tsar and his family narrowly escaped with their lives in a train accident near the town of Borki in the Ukraine. (The San Francisco bells later narrowly escaped destruction themselves. Several days before the earthquake of April 18-19, 1906, they had been removed from their belfry in the old cathedral on Powell Street, which was scheduled to undergo structural repairs.) (The restoration of Holy Trinity Cathedral, San Francisco, California, booklet published by the cathedral, [p.4].) [p.212n46]

[...] The Finliandskij plant [...] had been established [by Konstantin Slizov in Moscow] in 1774. Nikolaj Dmitrievich Finliandskij, owner of the foundry that bore his name, was the grandson of [Mikhail] Bogdanov, who founded the Great Uspensky Bell in 1817. [p.60; also p.211n24]

At the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhnij Novgorod in 1896 bells from ten Russian foundries were on display. In his review of these exhibits Nikolaj Findejzen singles out three of the ten foundries for special comment. [...] He thought the Finliandskij foundry produced some of the most beautiful bells on display from the standpoint of their external finish and decoration, though he did not find their sound completely satisfactory. [p.63]

O

1999: Priceless Bells Stolen and Recovered On Saturday, August 28, 1999, as the Cathedral singers went to ring the bells to announce the beginning of the Vigil Service, it was discovered that three of the seven historic bells of the Cathedral were missing. On September 1, 1999, to the great joy of all, the bells were recovered. See articles including Cathedral Press Releases and media reports on this event.

Their version of their parish history: SF Holy Trinity Church

Our Story

A Brief History of Holy Trinity Cathedral

by: Archpriest Victor Sokolov (+2006)
Holy Trinity Cathedral Parish traces its history to December 2, 1857, when the first Orthodox Society was founded in San Francisco. Ten years latter, on September 2, 1867, it was incorporated as the Greek Russian Slavonian Orthodox Eastern Church and Benevolent Society. During these years, the Orthodox population of the Bay Area was spiritually and sacramentally served by chaplains from Russian Navy ships that frequented San Francisco Bay.
During the Holy Week of1868, an Orthodox Priest was sent to the City from Alaska to conduct the Paschal services here. That priest, Father Nicholas Kovrigin, became the first permanent Orthodox minister in San Francisco (until his return to Russia in 1879). Another Alaskan missionary, Archpriest Paul Kedrolivansky, became the first Rector of the San Francisco parish (+1878).
In 1872, the Right Reverend Bishop John (Mitropolsky; returned to Russia in 1876) transferred the headquarters of the ruling hierarch of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska to San Francisco. Since then, it has been a cathedral church, consecrated at different times in the name of St. Alexander Nevsky, St. Nicholas, St. Basil the Great, and finally, after the Most Holy and Life-giving Trinity. This episcopal cathedra was occupied by many hierarchs, some among whom were outstanding archpastors and missionaries: Bishop Nestor (Zass; 1879-82), Archbishop Vladimir (Sokolovsky-Avtonomov; 1887-91), Archbishop Nicholas (Ziorov; 1891-98), Holy Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin; in San Francisco, 1898-1905), Archbishop Apollinary (Koshevoy, 1926-27), Archbishop Alexis (Panteleev; 1927-31); Metropolitan Theophilus (Pashkovsky; 1931-50), Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy; 1950-79), Bishop Basil (Rodzianko; 1982-84). Since 1987, Holy Trinity has been the cathedral church of the Right Reverend Tikhon, Bishop of San Francisco and the West.
In the history of the Cathedral, there were many outstanding pastors who with great zeal and much sacrifice served the community. While it would be too long to list all of the clergymen who served this Cathedral, some names must be prayerfully remembered: the venerable Alaskan missionary, Archpriest Vladimir Vechtomov (1878-88); the future Metropolitan and builder of the present Cathedral temple, Archpriest Theodore Pashkovsky (1897-1912); the "Guardian Angel" of refugees from the Russian Revolution and the firm defender of the Cathedral from the assaults of the Renovationists, Archpriest Vladimir Sakovich (1917-31); Archpriest Alexander Vyacheslavov-Mattison (1931-38); Protopresbyter Gregory Shutak (1938-48); Mitred Archpriest George Benigsen (1951-60; 1980-81); and Archpriest Roman Sturmer (1961-75). The New-Hieromartyr Alexander (Hotovitsky) was ordained at the San Francisco Cathedral, and many outstanding priests and bishops of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in America began their sacred ministry at this little church with a great history.
The bell tower of the Cathedral is adorned with a set of five wonderful bells donated by the Emperor Alexander III in 1888. Two other bells were locally recast from older bells that melted during one of several fires that seriously damaged the temple in the course of the years.
The temple itself is illumined by a grand chandelier donated by the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. According to tradition, the Emperor also donated a richly decorated icon of his patron saint, Nicholas of Myra and Lycia, to the Cathedral.
Holy Trinity Cathedral is the keeper of the episcopal vestments of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Russia and Confessor. The Saint's Prayer Book, Commemoration booklet, Hierarchical Liturgicon, and monastic belt (embroidered with Californian Golden Poppies and presented to the beloved hierarch by the Sisterhood when he was leaving San Francisco in 1905) are carefully preserved in the Cathedral safe.
There are many gorgeous old icons on the Cathedral's walls. In 1993-94, its iconostasis icons were painted in old Russian style by iconographer Dimitry Shkolnik.
Today, as at the very beginning of its history, Holy Trinity Cathedral is a multinational, or, more accurately, an American Orthodox community, the only Orthodox church in San Francisco where the services are conducted in English (with some Slavonic). Our community is wholeheartedly open to all and any Orthodox Christians. The majority of our parishioners today are "converts" -- Christians who have been consciously searching for the true faith and have found it in the Holy Orthodox Church.

_____________________________________________________________

Comment:  Well, this history is largely true,  at least the early history.

But the last canonical bishop here, was Bp. Apolonary, who rejected
 the Platonite (Rozdyesvensky) Schism, and stayed with the Church abroad.
He helped to form the ROCOR faithful nucleus here in north America.
After him in this church, were all schismatics, one after the other...till today.

Sharing-with tears: And, Now.....all this is under the control of the Apostate Unionists

http://www.pravmir.com/in-the-footsteps-of-st-john-of-shanghai-and-san-francisco/


Warning: This is from a ROCOR/MP source, so it's intent is to show us,

 that 'all is well in San Francisco'-i.e. since the union with the MP, Russian
 synodal church life in that city, is now, ( even after the 2007 union with
 the Stalin created MP), in unbroken peaceful continuity and in beautiful harmony with what all,
 St. John Maximovitch  and the old ROCOR built there.... nothing has changed, etc.
 But, is this really so?

 

In the Footsteps of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco

By Ekaterina Stepanova   Jul 2nd, 2013 // Comments (0)

July 2 marks the anniversary of the repose of St. John the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco (in churches of the Russian Church Abroad his memory is celebrated on the nearest Saturday, while in Russia it is marked today). We offer the following photographic essay in his memory.
St. John was born on June 4, 1896, in the village of Adamovka, Kharkov province, in today’s Ukraine. He was descended from the ancient noble family of Maximovitch, to which St. John (Maximovitch), Metropolitan of Tobolsk, had also belonged. His father, Boris, was a marshal of the nobility in a district of the Kharkov province. He was named Michael in Baptism in honor of the Archangel Michael.
He received his secondary education in the Poltava Military School, where he studied from 1907 to 1914. He later entered the law faculty of the Kharkov Imperial University, from which he graduated in 1918 (before its seizure by the Soviets). He was later appointed to the Kharkov District Court, where he served during the period of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi’s rule in Ukraine while the Volunteer Army was still present there.
In 1921, during the Civil War, when the Bolsheviks had wholly occupied Ukraine, the future Vladyka emigrated with his parents, brothers, and sisters to Belgrade, where he entered university. Michael graduated from the theological faculty in 1925, supporting himself during his studies by selling newspapers.
In 1924, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) made him a reader in the Russian church in Belgrade; in 1926, he was tonsured a monk with the name John and ordained a hierodeacon. On November 21 of the same year, Fr. John was ordained a hieromonk.
From 1925 to 1927, Hieromonk John was a religious instructor in a Serbian high school; from 1929 to 1934 he taught at the St. John the Theologian Serbian Orthodox Seminary in Bitol.

St. John (seated second from the left with the clergy) in Serbia, where Vladyka, then still a simple hieromonk, taught at the Bitol Seminary; he was consecrated a bishop in Belgrade.

St. John first served as a bishop in China. In the photo: the young Vladyka John, Bishop of Shanghai.

In his office in China.

On the island of Tubabao in the Philippines, where a camp for Russian refugees from China was organized following the Communists’ rise to power.

St. John often traveled by airplane (photo on left), given that his flock was spread throughout the world (in 1951, Vladyka was transferred to Brussels to serve as Archbishop of Brussels and Western Europe, while in 1962 he was appointed as head of the Western American Diocese). Photo on right: St. John in San Francisco.

“Once we were driving to the airport with Vladyka,” relates Vladimir Krassovsky, choir director of the Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco, “and he asked that we turn aside to the cemetery. I replied that the airplane can’t wait for us, but Vladyka insisted. We arrived at the cemetery, and Vladyka went around to all the graves! There were thousands of them! Time passed, and we were late for our flight, but he kept walking around looking for someone. I got angry and returned to the car, but Vladyka kept looking. Several hours passed, but he finally found who he was looking for, somewhere in the furthest corner of the cemetery. It turns out that it was the anniversary of this person’s death. Vladyka served a panikhida at the grave and returned to the car. ‘Now we can go to the airport!’ We arrived, and it turned out that the airplane had been detained. He left as if nothing had happened.”

St. John was always surrounded by children and young people, to whom he devoted much love and care. Photo on left: Vladyka among children at the St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Orphanage; photo on right: St. John with his altar boys in San Francisco.

At the installation of the crosses at the “New” Cathedral in San Francisco, which was built thanks to Vladyka. Construction of the cathedral was completed in 1965; Archbishop John was able to serve there for a short time before his repose in 1966. (Photo: Bishop Savva, Metropolitan Philaret, St. John, and Bishop Nektary.)

St. John served the Liturgy daily and stayed behind in the altar for a long time after everyone had left. He knew the services by heart and often chanted them himself.

St. John in his cell in San Francisco.

San Francisco today.

The “Old” Cathedral in San Francisco, where St. John served during much of his time in San Francisco.

Hieromonk James (Corazza), a clergyman of the “Old” Cathedral, serves a moleben (supplicatory service) before St. John’s mantle, which on the central analogion. Ailing supplicants kneel before the analogion, while the priest wraps them in the saint’s mantle.

Parish of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk in San Francisco, which formerly housed an orphanage founded by St. John in Shanghai and later relocated here.

Chapel dedicated to St. Tikhon in the former orphanage.

Vladyka John’s cell in the St. Tikhon of Zadonsk House has been preserved as it was during his lifetime: the icons in the corner, the typewriter on which he typed his decrees and letters; and the armchair in which the saint rested at night (as is well known, he never slept lying down on a bed).

A Gospel and Cross are kept on the analogion in St. John’s cell; confessions are heard here.

Vladyka John’s personal items are kept in his cell.

On the table, next to the portrait of the Tsar-Martyr, is an Orthodox calendar from 1966, the year of the saint’s repose.

The “New” Cathedral in San Francisco, dedicated to the Icon of the Joy of All Who Sorrow.

The tomb of St. John in the Holy Virgin Cathedral, where his relics were originally interred. People began coming here immediately after Vladyka’s repose to seek his prayers, to serve panikhidas for his repose, and to place notes with requests for the saint’s help.

Following his glorification, his relics were transferred into the main body of the cathedral.

The cathedral choir, headed by Vladimir Krassovsky: “Four generations of Russians have sung in our choir.”

Altar boys continue to serve in the cathedral, just as in St. John’s lifetime. (Photo: in the belfry.)

The choir performing a concert in honor of the late Metropolitan Laurus. The musicians prayed at St. John’s relics before the concert.

The St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy at the Cathedral.

A moleben (supplicatory services) is held daily for students at St. John’s relics.

Holy Hierarch John, pray unto God for us!

new ROCA ordination-to the Deaconate

Found on: http://sinod.ruschurchabroad.org 
 
Posted news on July, 7, 2013:
At the Divine Liturgy in the Odessa church of the Archangel Michael, Metropolitan Agafangel,
for the Reader Dionysius  Pavlovsky, ordained him, to the Sub-deaconate,
and then he ordained him as a Deacon. 

New ROCA priest for Moldova

found on: http://sinod.internetsobor.org 
 

On Tuesday, July 2nd, in the church of the Great-martyr George the Trophy-bearer of the Resurrection Monastery, after the Hours, the layman Alexander Friptuliak was ordained reader and subdeacon by the Most Reverend George, Archbishop of Kishinev (Chisinau) and Moldova, and at the Divine Liturgy he was ordained to the dignity of deacon. On Thursday, July 4th, at the Divine Liturgy, Deacon Alexander was ordained to the dignity of presbyter. Batiushka will serve in the village of Pohrebea, Dubasari District, Republic of Moldova.

Islamic Persecution

Middle East genocide

We do nothing as Muslims eradicate the last vestiges of Christians and Jews from nation after nation

• By RALPH PETERS
• Last Updated: 12:57 PM, June 2, 2013
• Posted: 10:39 PM, June 1, 2013

Ralph Peters

We are witnesses to murder, and our governments are accomplices. The relentless destruction of the last remnants of the Middle East’s Judeo-Christian civilization is well under way. And we are silent.

Captives of political correctness, our governments cater to radical immigrant tantrums as our leaders contort the truth to deny the existence of Islamist terrorism. Meanwhile, our Middle Eastern “allies” and foes alike eradicate thousands of years of Jewish and Christian heritage. Our diplomats treat the persecution as a minor embarrassment, best ignored.

Getty Images

Muslims set fire to a Copt Christian church in Cairo.

The banishments and butchery aren’t new, but the breakdown of the last rotting order in the wake of the “Arab Spring” has empowered psychotic fanatics who do not even value the lives of the faithful, let alone the lives of unbelievers. This is the end-game, the final persecution of Christians clinging to lands they’ve called home for 2,000 years. Except for Israel and the rarest exceptions elsewhere, Jews are already gone from the realms that nurtured them since the early years of their faith.

A thousand years ago, there were more Christians in the Middle East than in Europe, and Jewish communities prospered from the Nile to the Tigris. Even a century ago, more than 20% of the region’s population was Christian, and Jews still adorned Arab cities with their talents.

Today, estimates put the Christian population of the region at under 5% and sinking rapidly — and only that high because of the 9 million Copts who remain, for now, in Egypt.

The birthplace of Christianity, Bethlehem, now has a Muslim majority of as much as 80% — a reversal that coincided with the West’s decision to embrace Palestinian terrorists as “partners for peace.” A few decades ago, Lebanon had a Christian majority. Now, with Christian numbers fading, it’s tugged between Shia Hezbollah and Sunni fanatics.

Slighted by the US occupation — as our government pandered to Muslim hardliners — the Christian population of Iraq has fallen by two-thirds over 10 years. And the most ferocious elements in the Syrian insurgency see no place for Christians in Syria’s future. Even Jordan, struggling to appease its own Islamists, has cracked down on Christian activities.

The Jews, of course, are already long gone.

But the stones of ruined churches cry out, and vanished synagogues haunt decayed Arab neighborhoods.

If you read the New Testament or study the formative centuries of Christianity, there are few references to western cities other than Rome. The names that dot the Epistles of St. Paul and histories of the church are now in Muslim hands: Alexandria, Damascus, Tarsus, Carthage, Ephesus, Nicaea, Constantinople and so many others. Even Mecca and Medina had thriving Christian and Jewish quarters before the first jihads.

But all they possess does not suffice for Islamist fanatics. Israel must be blotted from the earth, and the last Christians must be driven out.

This is an old, old story, nearing its end. We shroud it in lies to excuse ourselves from taking a stand, even accepting the preposterous Arab claim that Muslim failures today are the fault of the Crusades, a brief interlude when Christians occupied a coastal strip hardly larger than Israel. In fact, it was the Mongols, then the Muslim Turks, who shattered Arab civilization. And as for conquests, Muslims occupied Spain in all or part for 800 years - and brutalized the Balkans for half a millennium. The Crusades were hardly a burp.

We also accept extravagant claims that "civilized" Arabs rescued the classical texts that formed our civilization. That's utter nonsense. The Arab hordes that burst out of barren Arabia in the 7th century were composed of illiterates. Conquering at a time when the warring Byzantine and Persian empires had exhausted themselves, the new rulers found that tribal practices didn't suffice to run provinces. So they took over the existing bureaucracies, staffed by Greek-speaking Christians and Jews. It was those officials who saved the Greek classics for Europe's future Renaissance - and their descendants designed Islam's greatest monuments.

Yes, some Arab rulers came to value learning - but the Arab world never produced a Homer, Plato, Sophocles or Thucydides whose appeal transcended their culture.

Islam was a religion spread by war. It was only a "religion of peace" where it had conquered. True, Islam sometimes proved more tolerant of minorities than Europeans, but that was at the zenith of the faith's power.

There's yet another illusion of ours - that Islam is gaining strength. Islam is on the ropes. What we've seen in the pogroms and outright genocides over the last 150 years has been the spleen of a once-triumphant faith whose practices and values can't compete in the modern age.

Consider today's Middle East, apart from Israel. Despite the massive influx of oil wealth, there isn't one world-class university. Nothing of quality or technological complexity is manufactured between Morocco and Pakistan. Not even Saudi Arabia has first-rate health-care. Research is nil. Patent applications are statistically zero. Women are regarded as lesser beings, wasting half of the region's human capital. Not one Arab society's a meritocracy. And corruption cripples all. A handful of glitzy hotels and shopping centers do not make a civilization (especially when the merchandise is all imported). Should Islamist fanatics succeed in driving all minorities from the region, they'd be left with a human wasteland of comprehensive failure, seething with hatred and uncontainable violence. The self-segregation of the Islamic heartlands would be a tragedy for humanity - but, above all, for Muslims. Birth rates are a red herring. More mouths to feed are not magic sources of strength in lands of scarcity and poverty. The Middle East is self-destructive, morally brittle and falling ever further behind a world that's charging ahead. Islamists can't even get terrorism right - today, we're terrorizing the terrorists. So they turn on the weak in their midst, the last minorities.

The initial wave of destruction and slaughter began almost a millennium ago, when the Muslim world first felt itself under threat. But, more recently, as the West shot to power (thanks to science, learning, hard work, religious tolerance and organization), the creaking Ottoman Empire could not shake off its centuries-old stupor to keep up.

Enraged by failure, the Ottomans turned on their most-productive minorities - whose successes outraged yesteryear's fanatics. Beginning in the 1880s and accelerating in the 1890s, pogroms against Armenian Christians stunned Western witnesses. But European leaders turned a blind eye, just as we do today. So during the First World War, the Young Turks who had seized power decided to finish the job.

It was genocide. At least a million Armenians - perhaps twice that number - were systematically exterminated . . . although not without being tortured, raped, starved and death-marched first. The scale of the butchery was such that it obscured other, concurrent genocides, most notably that of Assyrian Christians at the hands of Turks and other Muslims. Estimates of Assyrian deaths run from just under 300,000 to one million. Nor did the slaughters stop there. In British-created Iraq, massacres of Christians recurred from 1933 to 1961. City names we know from our recent wars, such as Mosul, Basra or Tikrit (Saddam's home town), once were centers of Christian culture, with bishops, cathedrals and monasteries famous for learning.

Gone. And the last pale ghosts, those Christians holding on to homes their blood knew for 20 centuries, are soon to go. Meanwhile, our president assures us that "Islam's a religion of peace."

Mr. President, go to Iraq and speak those words in the bomb-torn churches amid desecrated graves.

Mr. President, go to Egypt and explain to the brutalized Copts why your embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood government's good for them.

Then go to Israel, Mr. President, where Christians worship freely, and tell the Israelis they should "return Palestinian land" after Muslims seized the homes that sheltered Jews for 3,000 years.

Explain to Jews why their temples were profaned and obliterated by the adherents of that "religion of peace."

Of course, the real tragedy for the Arabs in the last century wasn't the Naqba, Israel's close-run struggle to survive attacks by an arc of Arab armies. The tragedy was that the most-backward, intolerant and indolent Arabs, primitive tribesmen, got most of the oil wealth and used it to spread their Wahhabi cult throughout the Islamic world. The intellectuals in the great Arab cities never had a chance.

My wife and I spent our honeymoon on a long bus trip through Turkey, a country for which I have great, if frustrated, affection. All went fine amid splendid hospitality . . . until we reached the east. Along the roadsides in what had been Armenia (the first Christian kingdom, by the way) desolate villages, razed to their foundations, scarred the landscape between drab modern towns. When asked what those ruins were, a Turk would avert his eyes and mutter, "Abandoned."

Those villages weren't abandoned. They were the site of the last century's first great genocide. No one stood up for those inconvenient Christians. And no one's standing up for the Middle East's tormented Christians now, or for the last handful of Jews left beyond Israel.

Even the dust cries for justice.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/middle_east_genocide_CYyETqFc0LgMfoQUbYXzWM

Readings - Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Shared by Ilarion Marr: 

 

Epistle+Gospel Readings-July 7/June 24 -2nd Sunday after Pentecost

Tone 1

Nativity of the Honorable and Glorious Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist

'The Cross is the Guardian of the whole earth; the Cross is the beauty of the Church.  The Cross is the strength of kings; the Cross is the support of the faithful.  The Cross is the glory of angels and a wound to demons.'  

from the Exapostilarion of the Cross, Tone Two - page 8

'Man was created neither for distress, nor for suffering.  We received life in order to thrive, says St. Gregory the Theologian, and we thrived after we received our existence.  Paradise was entrusted to us in order to enjoy.  We were given commandments to obey, so that in following them we would receive glory.  They were bestowed upon us , not because God did not know the future, but because He decreed the law of freedom.  We were enticed because we provoked envy, and we fell because we violated the law and did not maintain submissiveness and obedience to God.  For this transgression of disobedience we were banished from Paradise by the Father of the human race and led into an earthly life of suffering, sickness, sorrow and finally death.  Thus sin was the origin of tears and sighing for the human race, a fate common to all living on earth.  This violation of God's commandment not only subjected man to temporary misery and suffering, but it removed him from God, made him shun eternal life, and closed the gates of the heavenly Kingdom for him, so that even the souls of the righteous descended in hell before the coming of the Redeemer on earth.  

But the all-merciful Lord did not leave man in this unfortunate state.  In order to save the human race, in His great compassion our Creator bowed the heavens and descended to earth, became Himself man, suffered on the Cross, and redeemed us with His most pure blood, thereby delivering us from the curse.  With His resurrection He opened the heavenly Kingdom and gave us access to the enjoyment of heavenly bliss.  However, He did not release His followers from sorrow and suffering on this earth.  On the contrary, as He Himself endured suffering in the process of saving us and ascending into His glory, so too must we follow this path.  Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps (I Peter 2:21), says the Apostle Peter. And the Lord Himself warned, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (Saint Matthew 16:24) He added, And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me (Saint Matthew 10:38).  And again in His sermon to His disciples shortly before His death, the Lord proclaimed, In the world ye shall have tribulation (Saint John 16:33).  Thus the Saviour of the universe considered sorrow to be an inevitable part of man's earthly life.  Through His salvific suffering the Lord redeemed man from the trials and sorrows he brought on himself by not obeying God's commandments, changing them into a means of attaining eternal blessedness for the believing Christians, as the Evangelist Luke confirms: We must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). 

More than a few people realized this truth and, devoted to God's will, wisely endured the sorrows of the present life in the hope of obtaining eternal blessings.  Many people seek blessings where they cannot be found, that is on earth, in the changing fame and the futile, fleeting enjoyments of this world.  Rather than seeking the true blessings, they chase shadows, forgetting that suffering and torment follows indulgence in pleasures.  But for those Christians who endure the sorrow of the present life, there is the consolation of spiritual gifts even while here on earth, and in the Age to Come unimaginable eternal blessings and unending joy and delight.'  

Part One - Chapter 1 ENTRY TO THE WAY OF THE CROSS page 9 of the :  'The Royal Way of the Cross of Our Lord Leading to Eternal Life' Translated from the Russian original published in 1877 by Optina Monastery by Vera Kencis - published by Monastery Press 2002 available for purchase through www.monasterypress.com cost US$16.00

**Prayer Before Reading Scripture: 

O Lord Jesus Christ, open Thou the eyes of my heart, that I may hear Thy word and understand and do Thy will, for I am a sojourner upon the earth.  Hide not Thy commandments from me, but open mine eyes, that I may receive the wonders of Thy law.  Speak unto me the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom.  On Thee do I set my hope, O my God, that Thou shalt enlighten my mind and understanding with the light of Thy knowledge, not only to cherish those things which are written, but to do them; that in reading the lives and sayings of the saints I may not sin, but that such may serve for my restoration, enlightenment and sanctification, for the salvation of my soul, and the inheritance of life everlasting.  For Thou art the enlightenment of those who lie in darkness, and from Thee cometh every good deed and every gift. Amen

Saint John Chrysostom**

There are two Epistle readings for this day and three Gospel readings:  

The Epistle of Saint Paul to the:  

Romans 2:10-16; 

King James Version (KJV 1611)

10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:

11 For there is no respect of persons with God.

12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

++ second reading : Romans 13:11-14:4

11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
14 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.
4 Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

The Holy Gospel according to: 

Saint Matthew 4:18-23; 

King James Version (KJV 1611)

18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.
19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.
22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.
23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

++ second reading: Saint Luke 1:1-25; 76, 80

1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,

2 Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;
3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,
4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.
8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course,
9 According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
13 But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
14 And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
15 For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.
16 And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
18 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.
19 And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
20 And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
21 And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple.
22 And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.
23 And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house.
24 And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,
25 Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

++ third reading: Saint Luke 1:57-68; 76; 60

57 Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.

58 And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.
59 And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
60 And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.
61 And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.
62 And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.
63 And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.
64 And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God.
65 And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judaea.
66 And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.
67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,
68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
80 And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts until the day of his appearing unto Israel.

For His Feast: The Righteous Are In Everlasting Remembrance!

O Our Holy Father, St. John (Maximovitch) Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, PRAY TO GOD FOR US!