Please take a look at my latest article in the Fairfield Daily Republic. https://www.dailyrepublic.com/lifestyle/religious-view-politicians-are-poor-saviors/article_d5c09a82-5376-11ef-8f5e-0b2adb722cfc.html
Tag Archives: Faith
WHAT IS JESUS’ GREATEST MIRACLE?
This is the subject of today’s article (June 2, 2024) in the Fairfield Daily Republic. Please take a look. Thanks.
LIFE AFTER DEATH
Please take a look at my latest article on LIFE AFTER DEATH, in the Fairfield Daily Republic.
LIFE AFTER DEATHhttps://www.dailyrepublic.com/lifestyle/religious-view-is-there-life-after-death/article_9ecc9c0a-f387-11ee-b1e5-af662e257673.html
WHAT IS THE BESTSELLING BOOK IN RUSSIA?
Trivia time… What is the bestselling book in Russia since the fall of Communism (besides the Bible)?
We went to Doma Knegy (House of Books bookstore) last week. I bought a book that looked interesting. Turns out it is the bestselling book in Russia since the fall of communism. First Published in 2011, within a year the book had sold more than 1 million hard copies and several million e-book copies.
Everyday Saints and Other Stories by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) is the bestselling book in Russia since communism’s fall.
Everyday Saints is a 500 page book written by a Russian Orthodox monk (Archimandrite Tikhon), telling about his conversion to faith in Soviet Russia during the early 1980s while attending film school, his subsequent experiences as a Monk in the Pskov Caves Monastery, and the stores of various monks in the monastery.
It is a fantastic book. I highly recommend it.
Can you imagine a Christian book being the equivalent of “Harry Potter” in the Russian publishing world? This is truly AMAZING.
If you want to learn more about the persecutions of Christians during the Communist era, and about Orthodox spirituality, this is the book for you. It is available in an English translation from Amazon, etc. All proceeds go to build a church in memory of the millions of Christian martyrs killed during Soviet rule.
Daniel Molyneux
Daniel Molyneux’s website: www.angelofa.com
The Angel of Antioch on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Angel-Antioch-Daniel-Molyneux/dp/0692349634
CHURCHES IN SAINT PETERSBURG By Daniel Molyneux
Photos of Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, in Saint Petersburg, taken from our hotel room window.
The story of Kazan Cathedral, on Nevsky Prospect, across from Doma Knegy (House of Books bookstore), is really amazing. Kazan was closed by the communists after the Russian Revolution. In the 1930s the communists turned Kazan into the Museum of Atheism. But Kazan was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1990s. It is now the Primary Cathedral for Saint Petersburg, and the seat of the bishop for the Eparchy (diocese) of St. Petersburg.
Almost all churches in the Soviet Union were closed under Stalin in the 1930s, and again under Khruchev in the 1950s. (And virtually all priests and pastors were arrested, tortured, sent to the Gulags and/or killed. It is difficult to estimate how many millions of Christians were killed under the communists.) Even in the late 1980s only 20 churches were allowed to legally function in Saint Petersburg, a city of 5 million people.
Today, the number of functioning churches in Russia has multiplied by 10 fold since the fall of communism; and the number of monasteries has grown from only 1 to many 100s, with more churches and monasteries opening every day.
The most recent estimates are that 75% of all Russians now profess faith. In spite of its many problems and issues, Russia today is one of the most religious countries in the world.
Daniel Molyneux
Daniel Molyneux’s website: www.angelofa.com
The Angel of Antioch on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Angel-Antioch-Daniel-Molyneux/dp/0692349634
LOVING YOUR NEIGHBORS AND GIVING YOUR LIFE FOR THEM – St. Dimitri Klepinin
The Nazis began the mass arrests of French Jews in 1942. Many Jews came to Father Dimitri Klepinin asking him for baptismal certificates, to avoid being deported and sent to the Nazi death camps. Father Dimitri believed his Christian Faith demanded that he act saying, “I think the good Christ would give me that paper if I were in their place. So I must do it… If a man surprised by a storm takes shelter in a church, do I have the right to close the door?”
In February, 1943 he Father Dimitri was interrogated by a German Gestapo officer named Hoffman.
Hoffman: “If we release you, will you promise never again to aid Jews?”
Father Dimitri: “I can say no such thing. I am a Christian, and must act as I must.”
Hoffman: (striking the priest across the face he screamed) “Jew lover! How dare you talk of those pigs as being a Christian duty!”
Father Dmitri: (raising the Cross from around his neck) “Do you know this Jew?”
Father Dimitri was then sent to a prison camp. He was abused and ridiculed by the guards who shoved him shouting, “Jew! Jew!” In response Dimitri said, “Remember that Jesus Christ had to bear much greater humiliations.”
A year later, Father Dimitri was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, in Germany. His health broken, suffering from pneumonia, he died on February 9, 1944 and his body was burned in the Buchenwald crematorium.
FAILING FORWARD TOWARDS SUCCESS by C. S. Lewis
“We are what we believe we are.”
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
“Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”
“There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.'”
– C. S. LEWIS
PLANTING SEEDS
“A single seed of religious instruction, planted by mother or father into the heart of a child, produces a bigger harvest than a bag-full of seeds planted by clerics and priests.” Elias the Teacher (The Angel of Antioch)
© 2015 Daniel R. Molyneux
Daniel Molyneux’s website: http://www.angelofa.com/#!daniel-molyneux-elias-proverbs/cnec
The Angel of Antioch on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Angel-Antioch-Daniel-Molyneux/dp/0692349634
LIVE WELL, HAVE NO FEAR OF DEATH, AND ABIDE IN THE TRUTH by John Hus
“It is better to die well than to live badly”
“He that fears death loses the joys of life.”
“Seek the truth,
Listen to the truth,
Teach the truth,
Love the truth,
Abide by the truth,
And defend the truth,
Unto death.”
-John Hus
TRUTH AND LIES by The Angel of Antioch
“Children of Light defeat evil by speaking the Truth. But Satan seeks to overcome God’s Children by telling half-truths.” Elias the Teacher (The Angel of Antioch)
© 2015 Daniel R. Molyneux
Daniel Molyneux’s website: http://www.angelofa.com/#!daniel-molyneux-elias-proverbs/cnec
The Angel of Antioch on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Angel-Antioch-Daniel-Molyneux/dp/0692349634
Daniel Molyneux 