Keywords: Bishop Nicolae Ivan; Cluj Eparchy; Cathedral of Cluj; city of Cluj
Paying tribute to the ancestors is a gesture of gratitude and an antidote to oblivion. Highlighting their wonderful deeds shows character. If we keep quiet about Bishop Nicolae Ivan’s accomplishments, “the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40) about them, especially the stones of the Cathedral’s walls. Wherever we go and whenever we look throughout the eparchy, we encounter the accomplishments of this great founder. At his arrival in Cluj, Bishop Nicolae Ivan was 66 years old and showed great experience. The mission he carried out in the Sibiu eparchy, including the building of cathedrals and churches in Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Aiud and Orăştie, recommended him as the most appropriate refounder of the eparchy. Moreover, the confidence that he was granted proved to be auspicious. We strongly affirm that the city has been marked by his personality. And today, the city is mostly Romanian and Orthodox.
More...Keywords: young; beauty; moral; life
The gospel shaped to be read today at the Holy Liturgy could be called the gospel of the young. The young studying in schools and universities, the young attending postgraduate Ph.D. and research courses, the young heavily working in companies and institutions, those trying to decipher the secrets of Theology by taking part in seminars as well as in university courses, the young in search of a better life, the young struggling through hardships, suffering and necessities, saddened and grieved, the young who are unable to find answers to their spiritual and existential questions and unrests who fail to understand the purpose of their lives.
More...Keywords: human being; politics; diary; memories; contemporary world; aspects of actuality;
Starting from the title question, the author tries to identify aspects of political theology in the spiritual autobiographies from the Orthodox space (especially from the 19th and 20th centuries).After presenting the main aspects that defines the genre, and, in the same time, after showing what political theology means, he emphasizes the main important elements of this topic that can be founded in the works of the aforementioned genre. Afterwards, he emphasizes the actual dimension of it and proposes a new key of lecture of the identified passages that contain elements of political theology taken from spiritual autobiography. Through these aspects, that may highlight new important ones, the author brings into attention elements that were not enlighted enough before. Although the diaries of Saint John of Kronstadt or Saint Silouan the Athonite, or the one of the Russian Philosopher Nikolai Berdiaev were not supposed to be works of political theology, they constitute important aspects for this topic and useful elements for an analysis that can show how the Gospel principles can be applied in nowadays world.
More...Keywords: Christianity; ecumenism; mission; life; churches
The 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) took place in Busan, Republic of Korea, during the late October and early November 2013. More than 5.000 delegates from around 300 member Churches and 100 countries, examined the tasks facing the World Council of Churches, their relationships in the world, their potential and their dreams, and they came to speak more and more of the „pilgrimage of justice and peace” in describing this journey on which the God of life is leading the Christians. In the following study, we try to capture how the theme of mission is reflected in the official report, published now by WCC Publications into the year 2014.
More...Keywords: demon; falling; the tragedy of evil; sin; death; hell
Demonic angelology, an arid land barely explored, wide opened inside the modern theology concernsgeographical architecturesteps in, taking significant positions in the territory of scriptural and patristic ideatics. The inspired authors of the Holy Scripture as well as the Holy Fathers, considering the enemy of God awall of hostility rising against man’s redemption, managed to bring forth the complex symptomatics of sin in full, exposing its existential phenomenology with the consequences to follow.
More...Keywords: idol; divinity; priestess; bracelets; cloture; hierarchy;
Our presentation starts from three pieces of Zorlenţu Mare site, related with discoveries made by Marius Moga, Octavian Răuţ and Gh. Lazarovici,rendering clothing items and adornments. Idols mainly render women,representing the female divinity, Great Mother or its priestess. Some of examples presented here, especially pots with thrones; idols with bracelets represent parts of sanctuary inventory or cultic inventory of priestess. Their insignia represents a certain social and religious hierarchy. Being involved cultic inventory we can deduce that is involved a Neolithic “liturgy”, even the term seems to be pretentious; but this represent repetition of inventory or association of idols, idols with thrones, sacred numerology, 7, 13, 21, 28, 41, etc. The best examples are illustrated by several conclaves of Poduri, Isaiia, Drăguşeni, Ovčarovo, Greece and others.
More...Keywords: Human Nature; Being; Life; Death; Ancestral Sin; Alienation; Embodiment; Grace; Restauration of Nature
Human nature was not left untouched pursuant to the ancestral sin, nor was it permanently compromised, but it merely fell ill by disease of damage. The sin of our forefathers is a failure in exercising the freedom which man received from God, a failure which shall lead to the diminishing of the divine grace in the subjective-human life environment, by alienation from God. God, however, in His fore-wisdom, left a door by which to enter our world so as to redeem human nature from the inside, for he cast his mercy upon seeing the tragedy in which man was attracted by the devil. Ignoring the truth on the weakening of human nature and the origin of death leads to a misconception on God and His relationship with man and the world, which threatens the unity of the Church, making man a victim of the subjective representations about God, the world and themselves. The renewal of human nature by grace offers its primordial authenticity, pursuant to an interior war, an asceticism, 2 so necessary due to the contradiction present in the human nature following the naturalization of the sin from outside by hosting it within ourselves.
More...Keywords: asceticism, spiritual exercises; death; Desert Fathers; ascetic tradition;
This paper explores Christian asceticism and spiritual exercises in early ascetic tradition, with particular emphasis on death in the spirituality of the desert. More exactly, the main aim of the article is to highlight the role of the death in the development of Christian asceticism.
More...Keywords: terrorist; religions; Islamic; muslims;
Although the majority of religions are promoters of peace, religion continues to thrive as the main generator of certain armed conflicts. The terrorist attempted attacks and armed conflicts during the past years are mostly of religious origin. The Islamic religion has, however, distinguished itself in this matter. It relates to the conflicts in Kosovo and in Chechnya involving Muslims and Christian Orthodox people, in Kashmir, between Muslims and Hindus, and in East Timor, between Muslims and Catholics and many others (Iraq, Afghanistan etc.).
More...Keywords: widow; biblical; theologic; Israel;
Widowhood is therefore characteristic for all men, we are all guided into admitting our feeble-mindedness, into abstaining similarly to Anna, to spend time in prayers and fasting (Lc 2,36-37) and to consider heavenly Father as our protector. As such, in the biblical conscience, understanding widowhood as a spiritual status becomes defining for the condition of man spending time in this world, but also as a calling to a superior life, as a passage from ancient Israel, deprived of God’s presence, towards new Israel – the bride of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
More...Keywords: penance; sacrement; canon law; codex iuris canonici; confession; confessor; reconciliation;
In our postmodern context, where the transcendental dimension of existence is often hidden, human relationships are largely lived in the way of individualism and competition, when life paths are confronted with nonsense and to violence. The existence of forgiveness remains however a need, an expectation, a way of possible healing. This is why the sacrament of penitence and reconciliation remains relevant: through it, the Church brings a beneficent presence to the world. The crisis of the practice of this sacrament, preceded by the nineteenth century, led to new research to make it a place for the announcement of the salvation proposed by God to humanity. This study presents the canonical approach of the sacrement of penance according to the present Code of Canon Law, and how the norms of the Church seek to preserve the framework of ecclesial discernment, in particular the role of the confessor, but also the rights of the penitents and that in order to favor the conditions of an authentic path of conversion. The present practice of the sacrament is the fruit of the very long experience of the Church in this field; given the complexity of matter, which touches the intimate of people’s lives, their relationship to God and to others, the accompaniment of the process of conversion, penance and reconciliation can not be improvised. This is why the Church has given precise canonical norms. This study introduces to this complex aspect of the celebration of reconciliation, with the objective of showing how much the law of the Church, by its precisions, wants to favor the conditions of an authentic way of conversion by proposing marks of discernment.
More...Keywords: Patriarch Justinian; truth; history; spiritual fathering
The purpose of the historical truth is to know and understand the historical context and to fructify this information for world’s development. If one were to summarise the activity and mission of Father Patriarch Justinian, the most suitable words would be those engraved on his tomb: “I fought the good fight. I kept faith unspoiled. I reached the end of my life. From now onwards, I’ll be expecting the virtue reward that Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me that day”.
More...Keywords: Emil Hurezeanu; Dorin Murariu;
More...Keywords: Church music; Lapus Country; history; Scholl; teachers; tradition; spirituality;
The history of a people is identified by its culture, and the foundation of the nation’s culture is education, practiced in the world since ancient times, in order to produce people, ideas and ideologies that serve, by word and mind, the national ideal for prosperity. material and spiritual wellbeing. The main factors that contribute to the development of a young person’s education and personality are the Church, the Family and the School. From ancient times the church singer, the singer and the teacher, had an important role in the community. Most of the time he exercises the function of teacher, who meditates his students in writing and reading, the cult books being the real alphabets. When he carried his students through the secrets of buchisit, he certainly acquainted them with church music. The school has always existed. It manifested itself in various forms that had as their desideratum the education and development of the personality of the student who occupied and must occupy a leading place in the instructiveeducational process in our country. It was not easy for the students to study at the priest’s house, or in the church porch that turned out to be the first teacher, but they also broke through the times and the stepchildren, and the poverty and the obstacles. Why? Because they wanted more. And this wish was fulfilled because they received the expected support from the communities that wanted to have in their midst exceptional teachers who would carry the souls of their children on high peaks to a new horizon - which they did not have. tasted but they saw him. That is why every community in Ţara Lăpușului has been actively involved in opening schools, bringing and through considerable effort to keep teachers that history remembers today and speaks with so much love and consideration.
More...Keywords: Lucian; Bishop of Caransebeș;
Preacuviosului cin monahal, Preacucernicului cler și preaiubiților credincioși din cuprinsul Eparhiei Caransebeșului, Har, pace și bucurie de la Dumnezeu – Tatăl, Fiul și Duhul Sfânt, iar de la noi părintești binecuvântări! „Nu vă temeți. Căci, iată, vă binevestesc vouă bucurie mare, care va fi pentru tot poporul; Că vi S-a născut azi Mântuitor, Care este Hristos Domnul…” (Luca 2, 10-11).
More...Keywords: war; peace; Olt Testament; New Testament; Qur’an;
Researching the Old Testament we identify many clues that war has not been seen as part of mankind’s daily life. Also the central themes of the New Testament are the Savior’s sacrifice by which men were reconciled with God, and their sacrificial love for one another. Analyzing the vision captured in the Qur’an and other books considered to be sacred by the Islamic world, we come to the conclusion that the peace much desired by all mankind can only be achieved by transforming the whole world into Dar al-Islam.
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