Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Blagoslovi Dushe Moya Gospoda (Vespers)

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4 comments:

Michael said...

I love this creation psalm at the start of the new day. At my parish, we intone it at daily vespers and, at great vespers, we use the setting by Archpriest Sergei Glagolev, but with nearly all of the verses rather than the heavily abbreviated published version.

11/25/2009 9:05 AM
Stephen said...

John, I noticed the first icon was of Tsar Nicholas and his martyered family. Would you mind filling me in on how Tsar Nicholas received such as pass from the Church as to be canonized? He as much as any body was responsible for WWI, as he perhaps more than anyone person could have prevented it, or at least not let Russia be engaged in it. While I can respect the placidity with which he faced a gruesome death, the death of others and destruction of his own country that resulted from his own actions seem overwhelming, as does the incongruity to this non-Russian as to why his life as Tsar would be so discounted relative to his life after he abdicated.

11/28/2009 10:23 AM
John (Ad Orientem) said...

Stephen,
I am somewhat constrainefortime. Theshort version is that Nicholas II was glorified in spite ofhis politics, not because of them. He and his family are commemorated as Passion Bearers for the heroic and Christian manner in which they accepted the suffering of their last days. The Russian Church Abroad and some of the more staunch monarchist elements also commemorate them as Royal Martyrs and the victims of sacriligious regicide (there are whole passags in scripture that deal with the curses on those who attack God's annointed).

In ICXC
John

11/30/2009 4:29 PM
Stephen said...

Thanks John! I can certainly understand the Passion Bearer, and its link to such regicide. thanks for the note. Why a monarchist would, on strictly political grounds, revere a monarch who destroyed his own monarchy and nation remains beyond me.

11/30/2009 6:01 PM

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