Great Day post

Apri, 27 was the day of Easter this year (in the Orthodox Church calendar). Christ is risen, giving us life.
Jesus is the hope of our everything. The hope of change for the better, the faith in God's care and love to heal the situation, to help us, often in spite our weaknesses. Whenever there's a problem, in faith is our life in hope.
Whenever I can see a touch of good change in a person -- this is the gift of God, and the good, inwardly right turn to the best, most beatiful sources of one's soul.
The life of a Christian is inner life, good change, sensed from the inside.
I want to say that Christian faith is not only in the statement of our beliefs (the Creed), but also in real life, in our hearts, in our joys, often where there's a penitent desire for a change and hope for the better in trust.
P.S. I think I'm a bit unclear here in expressing the idea. Sorry.

What is the Lent about?

In a few words, generally. The Great Lent is a period of preparation for Easter, the time of fasting, the time for spiritual shift, for movement. It is said to be the period of test and exercise.
Fasting is a means: you forgo certain food, on the other hand, you refuse or linit certain things to leave space for something better, refuse one thing for the other, the more important one. As for the Church calendar, through the Lent the major events of the Gospels are remembered and relived, revived in the hearts and minds of the believers.
(This was an attempt to say a few words about what the Great Lent is. Based on what I read and some thoughts of mine.)

Forgiveness Sunday

In this post I was planning to write something about the so called Forgiven Sunday. http://verdevivoverdechiaro.blogspot.com/2008/04/week-just-before-great-lent-was-good.html#links/ Catholics have Ash Wednesday, The Orthodox have Forgiven Sunday, the day just before the Great Lent. I haven't found any clear indications to this tradition on the net. I know it's old. The start of it lies in the words from the Gospels (http://kingjbible.com/matthew/6.htm): 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
The tradition is to ask the people to forgive you, and the usual answer is "God will forgive." Formerly, before the revolution, people used to these words even to the people they were not acquainted with, strangers.
By the way, this tradition is shown in Nikita Michalkov's film "The Barber of Siberia" (1999).
So what is the situation nowadays? Nowadays people do it, mostly relatives and friends, I think. Even some people who are not church-goers and who are not religious.

Apostle Paul's Faith

12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; 13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
The First Epistle to Timothy (1)
http://kingjbible.com/1_timothy/1.htm
This is a useful source http://bible.cc/, you can see different translations and some comments.
Line 13 to me seems comforting.
Line 15 ... Shows Apostle Pauls humility and penitence. By the way, this line is sometimes read in the Divine Liturgy (with some other prayers) in the Orthodox Church, just before taking the Holy Communion. And also in Russian transation the last word is 'the first'.

'Due South'

That's a good series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_South A brief review now.
I liked this film. The main character, like an odd one, behaving strangely (not like other people), always responsive, ready to help, exercising the love for the neighbour, Christian love. With the 'who, if not me' attitude.
I can't tell exactly in what number season (the second or the third) the concept of the main character was changed, the writers made him more common, so to speak.
A good nice film.

'Pilgrimage to the Eternal City', Apostle Paul

This documentary is amazing. It produced a great impression on me. It is the first series of the five. The first film is about Apostle Paul. Featuring Vladimir Mashkov.

From here http://russart.com/?movieplay&mid=1422 the first five minutes can be downloaded (no English translation, though).