Elena Paparizou, Pro-Family

Here's a woman who has her priorities right:

I believe that family is the most natural thing, the thing I want in my life. And what is my preference? To not have kids so I can continue my career? One day it will end. I cannot be on stage everyday, like I am now at 25.

Kallipolitou, Giota & Papaioannou, Eleni. "Cover Story: Elena By Night", Celebrity Magazine, May 2007, p. 120.

One wonders if Elena's Greek upbringing has anything to do with it.

May 29, 1453

God rings the bells, earth rings the bells, the sky itself is ringing,
The Holy Wisdom, the great church, is ringing out the message,
Four hundred sounding boards sound out, and two and sixty bells,
For every bell there is a priest, for every priest a deacon.
To the left the emperor is singing, to the right the patriarch,
And all the columns tremble with the thunder of the chant.
And as the emperor began the hymns to the Cherubim,
A voice came down to them from the sky, from the archangel’s mouth:

Cease the Cherubic hymn, and let the sacred objects bow;
Priests, take the holy things away, extinguish all the candles:
God’s Will has made our city now into a Turkish city.

But send a message to the West, and let them send three ships:
The first to take the cross, the second to remove the Gospel,
The third, the finest shall rescue for us our holy altar.
Lest it all to those dogs, and they defile it and dishonour it.
The Holy Virgin was distressed, the very icons wept.
Be calm, beloved lady, be calm and do not weep for them.
Though years, though centuries shall pass, they shall be yours again.

Anonymous Song of Lamentation
for the Fall of Constantinople in 1453
Translated by Richard Stoneman

Church of Cyprus Sues Turkey

Nicosia, Apr 8 - The Church of Cyprus has decided to take legal action against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the destruction of Cyprus’ religious heritage in the Turkish occupied areas of the island.

Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus Chrysostomos II has said that the decision "is final" and added that the legal advisors of the Cypriot Church are ready to proceed with the case.

"We have already assigned the case to our lawyers and we are in the process of registering all properties of the Church of Cyprus all over the island with the Land Registry", he said.

Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus about 550 churches have been desecrated and 15,000-20,000 icons are missing, believed to be stolen or sold on the black market.

Some Orthodox Churches situated in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus have been converted to mosques, military camps, barns, mortuaries or silos.

- Embassy of Cyprus in Washington D.C.

It's about time the Church stood up to Moslem injustice.

Readers may remember Sandro Magister's report, 'Cyprus: Portrait of a Christianity Obliterated' from two years ago. I doubt much has changed since.

An excerpt:
...most of the mosques in Greek Cypriot territory have been restored, while [the Turkish Cypriot] government has authorized the transformation of churches into restaurants and hotels

What is this, but yet another example of the famous Moslem double-standard?

If we live in a world where the strong rule and the weak submit, why is it that whenever Muslim regions are conquered, such as in the case of Palestine, the same Islamists who would never concede one inch of Islam’s conquests resort to the United Nations and the court of public opinion, demanding justice, restitutions, rights and so forth?

As in Kosovo, the Moslem occupiers of Northern Cyprus have undertaken a similar, systematic obliteration of historic Christian culture. The world vexes over Iran, supposedly the "most active state sponsor of terrorism", when eyes should be on Turkey - genocide of its native Christian population is not known in Iran.

I am doubtful that bring this matter before the ECHR would resolve anything. The Court, based in Strasbourg, is dominated by the same politically correct Western European ilk who run the bureaucratic monster in Brussels. The West has always been slow to respond to the needs of Eastern Christians; as we have witnessed in recent months, neither do they care.

Virtually all of Western Europe has consented to the surrender of Kosovo and Metohija to Albanian crime lords. Earlier in 1999, NATO killed a few thousand Serbs then too stupid to realize their fellow Christians didn't give a @#$% about them.

Why, in the 17th century, France provoked Russia to war when Napoleon III forced Ottoman Turkey to recognise France and the Roman Catholic Church as the sole Christian authority in the Holy Land, with control over the Christian holy places and possession of the keys to the Church of the Nativity, formerly held by the Orthodox Church. Looking back further, we remember the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and the establishment of the Latin Empire. We remember how the Teutonic Knights, seeing how the Orthodox Novgorodians were in need of salvation as much as the pagans, invaded the Russian territories, only to be inflicted a crushing defeat by the 21-year-old St Alexander Nevsky.

When they were Christian, the Western powers were reluctant friends at best. Now, one does not expect much help from these postmodern, secular states.

RIP Archbishop Christodoulos

Archbishop Christodoulos (1939 - 2008)

He was the rock star of priests. Greek Orthodox leader Archbishop Christodoulos surfed the Web, cracked jokes and made a point of welcoming people who had AIDS. He mended an age-old rift with the Vatican by receiving Pope John Paul II in 2001 - the first visit to Greece by a pope in 1,300 years. He urged young people to come "as you are, earrings and all," and dramatically upped church attendance. Despite criticism for his sometimes shrill nationalism and willingness to meddle in politics - as when he called the Turks "Eastern barbarians" or attacked NATO's bombers of Serbia as "pawns of Satan" - he remained one of his nation's most popular figures. He was 69 and had cancer.

TIME February 11, 2008

Prayers for Cyprus

"Once again a drought has blighted our country and the people are worried because if the dry spell continues it will bring terrible consequences to farming, livestock and crops," (Archbishop Chrysostomos II) said.

"We are certain that by praying together with the warmest of spirit and deepest of faith it is possible that Almighty God will hear our prayers and grant our request," said a statement from the archbishop on Monday.

Lower-than-average rainfall over the last year has drained the reservoirs on which Cyprus relies heavily for water.

Cyprus' largest dam is expected to run dry if there is no heavy rainfall within the next month, Reuters news agency reports.

- BBC News, Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 11:56 GMT

554th Year

O, city, city, head of all cities!
O, city, city, center of the four quarters of the world!
O, city, city, pride of the Christians and ruin of the barbarians!
O, city, city, second paradise planted in the West, including all sorts of plants bending under the burden of spiritual fruits!
Where is thy beauty, O, paradise?
Where is the blessed strength of spirit and body of thy spiritual Graces?
Where are the bodies of the Apostles of my Lord?
Where are the relics of the saints, where are the relics of the martyrs?
Where is the corpse of the great Constantine and other Emperors?

Nicetas Acominatus

Monday marked the 554th anniversary of the fall of the Constantinople, Queen of Cities and New Rome, to the Turks. The City, by 1453 militarily insignificant and economically dependent on the fickle Italian maritime republics, faced her end with dignity and courage. A sorrowful event still to all true Christians, and lovers of the Classical world.

On the fifth of the month of April, one hour after daybreak, the sultan Mehmet came before Constantinople with about a hundred and sixty thousand men, and encamped about two and a half miles from the walls of the city.

Appeals to Rome and the West yielded no results, save for empty promises and expressions of sympathy. The Venetian senate was still deliberating about sending a fleet even in the middle of May. The Genoese colony of Pera, the opposite the City, stayed neutral. To the people of Constantinople, the only thing that mattered now, at the end of freedom and the beginning of a long darkness, was holding on to the true Faith.

Forty days later, in the early hours of 29th May, the final assault of the Turks began. Under the deafening noise of trumpets and drums, irregular bashi-bazouks and the elite janissaries alike poured through the walls of Constantinople. The Emperor, Constantine XI, realizing that everything was lost, threw off his imperial insignia, and followed by his cousin Theophilus Palaeologus, the Castilian Don Francisco of Toledo, and John Dalmatus, all four holding their swords, charged into the sea of the enemy soldiers, hitting left and right in a final act of defiance, never to be seen again.

Smashing through the great bronze doors of the Hagia Sophia, the Turks burst in, interrupting matins, massacring the congregation and priests. Later, the sultan Mehmet would walk into the great cathedral and claim in for Islam.

An empire which lasted for 1123 years, inheriting Greek thought and propagating the Christian faith, fell in a single night into the hands of infidels. When the sultan entered the City the sun, as it is said, veiled its brightness behind thick clouds in tokens of mourning. For us, 1453 does not only signify the beginning of the modern era; it evokes the memory of a world of grandeur, and all the memory of regret.

That Monday, being the anniversary of the Fall, as well as my name day (my patron saint is the Emperor Constantine XI), Edward, Anthony, Ernest, Norman and I went out to commemorate the occasion. We dined at Philia, one of the few Greek restaurants in this country. The staff, being ethnically Greek, agreed to play a music CD, Songs from the Fall of the City, that Edward had brought.

An icon of my patron saint was placed by the table

Starters: Feta cheese, tzatziki - a yoghurt dip with cucumber and garlic puree, and wholemeal bread

I had souvlaki - grilled pork, marinated in oil, salt, pepper, oregano and lemon, on skewers. Edward had the same, Norman had moussaka (eggplant casserole) and I can't remember what the rest had.

We had loukoumades for dessert, which are similar to donuts, essentially fried balls of dough drenched in honey and sprinkled with cinnamon

Norman enjoying his dessert

The Holy Virgin was distressed, the very icons wept.
Be calm, beloved Lady, be calm and do not weep for them.
Though years, though centuries shall pass, they shall be yours again.

Anonymous

The Fiftieth Day

I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
John 8:12

Today, fifty days after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha and ten days after the Feast of the Ascension of Christ, we celebrate the Feast of Holy Pentecost, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles.

We also celebrate the establishment of the Church on this day, which saw the preaching of the Apostles and the baptism of thousands who believed in the message of salvation through Our Lord Jesus Christ. This Feast is the culmination of the revelation of the Holy Trinity.

For the Christian East, the descent of the Holy Spirit is also understood as a reversal of the events at the Tower of Babel. There, mankind was divided by the confusion of tongues; but here, mankind is united by the gift of tongues.

When the most High came down and confused the tongues,
He divided the nations;
But when he distributed the tongues of fire
He called all to unity.
Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the Most Holy Spirit!

Kontakion, Tone 8

Speaking of the Holy Spirit, I remember a Greek-Australian friend, Kosma, a theologian who has since been tonsured a monk, mention that the Anna Vissi song, "Eisai" was a favourite of the secretary to the Greek Archbishop of Sydney. Something about the lyrics being about the Holy Spirit.

Take a look at this performance from the Closing Ceremony of the 2004 Olympics and see if you agree!

Lyrics

Chorus:
Ise, sto ema, stis fleves, sta kitara mou,
Ise, ston aera, pou anapneo, sti monaksia mou

You are in my blood , in my veins, in my cells,
You are in the air that I breathe, in my loneliness.

Ise i mera mou, ise i nihta mou,
Ise to lioma mou, ke ta ksenihtia mou,
Ise o paradisos stis paresthisis mou,
Ise to karma mou, ki oles i esthisis mou.

You are my day, you are my night,
You are my intoxication, and my late nights,
You are paradise in my hallucinations,
You are my karma, and all my sensations.

Chorus:
Ise, sto ema, stis fleves, sta kitara mou,
Ise, ston aera, pou anapneo, sti monaksia mou.

You are in my blood , in my veins, in my cells,
You are in the air that I breathe, in my loneliness.

Esi, ti zoi mou orizis,
Esi, to mialo mou trelenis,
Esi, se ola iparhis,
Esi, ki as min ise edo.

You determine my life,
You confuse my mind,
You exist in everything,
You, even if you're not here.

March 25

Today we mark the beginning of the liberation of the Hellenic people from the Turkish yoke. On March 25, 1821, Metropolitan Germanos of Patras blessed a Greek flag at the Monastery of Agia Lavra and proclaimed a national uprising. Greece declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence.

The rallying song of Righas Pheraios, a poet brutally murdered by the Turks, is remembered today:

Ως πότε παλληκάρια θά ζούμε στά στενά
O brave young warriors, we shall live close together,
μονάχοι σάν λιοντάρια στίς ράχες τά βουνά
Lonely like the lions in the ridges of the mountains,

Καλύτερα μιάς ώρας ελεύθερη ζωή
It is better an hour of free life,
παρά σαράντα χρόνια σκλαβιά καί φυλακή.
Than forty years a slave in chains.

May God continue to bless the Hellenic nation for years to come!