Orthodixie

MOSCOW – The remains of the last czar’s hemophiliac son and heir to the Russian throne, missing since the royal family was gunned down nine decades ago by Bolsheviks in a basement room, may have been found, an archaeologist said Thursday.

Bones were found in a burned area in the ground near Yekaterinburg, the city where Czar Nicholas II and his wife and children were held prisoner and then shot in 1918.

A top local archaeologist said the bones belong to a boy and a young woman roughly the ages of the czar’s son, Alexei, and a daughter whose remains have also never been found.

If confirmed, the finding would solve a persistent mystery about the doomed family, which fell victim to the violent revolution that ushered in more than 70 years of Communist rule.

The Story.

Thanks to FWD from Fr Mark Mancuso.

Prayer is more essential to us, more an integral part of ourselves, than the rhythm of our breathing or the beating of our heart. Without prayer there is no life. Prayer is our nature. As humans we are created for prayer just as we are created to speak and to think. The human animal is best described, not as a logical or tool-making animal or an animal that laughs, but rather as an animal that prays, a eucharistic animal, capable of offering the world back to God in thanksgiving and intercession.

— Bishop Kallistos Ware

When I’m in my car, I usually listen to National Public Radio. That’s quite a transformation for a man who once saw KISS, Willie Nelson, and Prince all in the same year – BUT … and I paraphrase … “Those without sin cast the first 8-track.”

Honestly, over the years I’ve found that listening to Classical Music is the best way to not only control road rage — but to actually enjoy driving. Therefore, I listen to NPR stations a lot. If you’re accustomed to the same, you know that sometimes you might tune in and they are playing the most fabulous hits of the Classical Music World – Like the greatest hits of Mozart, Bach, and, oh, Garrison Keillor. You know … for some reason, their programming just seems extra heavenly on that particular day! Then, if not before, you hear the voice that’s asking for money … donations … That’s right, it’s that time of year again … Fund raising.

No, this Podcast is not about money, but it could be. In fact, money is a little less painful topic than the subject of this week’s subject on the Orthodixie Podcast.

Are you ready?

Forgiveness.

Forgiveness.

Also, come closer … I don’t want to upset anyone here … I’m also going to talk about a man who was part of a gang, a murderer … and he was …

BLACK!

And no, I don’t mean he was African-American … This was long before there was a country called America … and, essentially, I’m not really talking just about skin color here …

Listen to the Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

Image Source: The roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where Ethiopians maintain the only presence by black people in Christianity’s holiest shrine.

Lord, this warfare in the body is a heavy burden and to have fought until now is enough. But if it is Thine order that I toil on still, mounting guard over the camp of Thy people, I do not refuse, nor plead the feebleness of age. I will consecrate myself to the fulfillment of the duties Thou dost lay upon me; I will fight on under Thy banners, so long as it is Thy command. Sweet to an old man is release after labor, but the will can triumph over length of life and knows no yielding to old age.

— St. Martin of Tours

Thanks to FWD from Fr Josiah Trenham.

Image Source

1) Icon of All Saints of Great Britain and Ireland

2) The earliest extant image of the Theotokos in the British Isles (from the wooden coffin of St Cuthbert, dated to A.D. 698)

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church instituted a holiday to honor Christians who lived on the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and were canonized before the 1054 schism that divided Christendom into the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The holiday will be an annual event observed on the third Sunday after Pentecost. The Synod, which met on Tuesday, also ordered that these saints’ names be included in the Menology after their Christian exploits have been studied. The Synod’s decision follows an appeal of March 3, 2007, in which the diocese of Sourozh, the Russian Orthodox diocese having the islands of Great Britain and Ireland for its territory, asked the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, and its Holy Synod to institute a holiday for pre-1054 British and Irish saints.

The Story.

Images and text lifted from the Clergy Brotherhood Memo of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, August 22, 2007.