Despre legume

A doua zi de Craciun.
- Mami, ai facut pizza? Pizza e leguma mea preferata. Dar fara ciuperci.

Mitr. Antonie Bloom - Predica la Nasterea Domnului 1975 (ENG)

SERMON GIVEN The Feast of the Nativity 1975

 

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

There is anguish when a woman is in labour, but all this is forgotten when the child is born, because a man has come into the world. Someone has come into the world to live, someone has entered into the realm of transitory life in order to grow into life eternal, and the birth of a child is always perceived as the beginning of life and as the beginning of eternity, once more incarnate, once more made real, visible, tangible, become part of human joy and human simplicity.

And yet, when we think of the nativity of Christ, the birth on earth of the Son of God, we see it in a quite different way. One of the ancient miniatures representing the birth of the Lord, shows us, apart from the habitual features of a cave, of the Mother Virgin, of Joseph, of the familiar animals, the manger standing by, deposited on an altar of sacrifice. And the child is lying on it as probably Isaac laid on the altar which Abraham had built in order to bring him as a blood offering to the Lord. Every one of us is born through temporary life into eternal life; the Eternal One, He who is life itself, is born into the world in order to enter into the realm of death. Eternal, Immortal God enters into the realm of man, not only the created world, but to enter the fallen world where death is the end of our earthly pilgrimage.

When we look at this image of the new-born child, lying on an altar of stones, ready for a sacrifice, brought as an offering, we can well ask ourselves, "Who is he who sacrifices this child?" — and we have an answer: it is the Father who gives us His Son that through His death we may live. We see here incarnate, clearly expressed, divine Love, and the measure of this love divine. The Only-Begotten Son is given unto death, delivered unto death for our sakes. Saint Paul ponders on the event, and he exclaims, "Hardly would anyone die for a friend, and Christ died for us while we still were enemies of God."

God called us into existence, it was a one-sided act, not of His own powerful will, but of His immeasurable love. He called us into existence, that we may share with Him not only existence, but life, become partakers of all that He is; we are called, in the words of Saint Peter, to become partakers of divine nature; we are called to be brethren and sisters of Christ, sons and daughters of the Living God. He created us in an act of love and in this act of love, from the first, He gave Himself as an offering to us. And this offering is always a sacrifice. In order to make this offering meaningful, He gave us freedom, the freedom to accept love and to reject love, to love Him in response to His love, or discard His love and, through our deeds, through all our attitude to Him and to life, to proclaim to Him that His love is of no avail to us, that we do not want it, that it is in vain that he has loved us first, it is in vain that He had loved us so much as to give His Only Begotten Son for us.

God gives us the freedom, and we ask very often, "Why?!" — why have we not been made in such a way that, compelled by a blessed necessity, we would be unable to go wrong, that we should be made in such a way that we always and in all things would respond to the best. But is it not simply because where there is no freedom of love and rejection of love, there is no love? If we gravitated towards one another without any choice, it would be a law of nature, it would not be an act of free gift of oneself and of acceptance of the other. This freedom means love, at least the possibility of love, as it means also the possibility for us to reject God. But God in His freedom does not reject us. He remains faithful to the last, perfectly generous, heroically faithful.

And when the freedom of man is misused, He uses His freedom to come, and to reach out towards us at the very depth of ourselves, at the extreme distance which we reach when we die to love. He enters this very realm which is the realm where there is no love, where there is only dividedness, brokenness and separation, both from God and from one another and within ourselves, the inner brokenness and conflict between mind and heart, between conscience and action: Christ is born into the realm of death we have made through the misuse of freedom, because we have forgotten that freedom culminates, is fulfilled in that love which gives itself perfectly, which is forgetfulness of self, which is the laying down of one's life for the other.

Let us then look at this crib not as we do when we are small children, seeing only an image of a child's birth, miraculous, wonderful; let us look at it with an earnest and adult gaze, and see that this crib is an altar of sacrifice, that this cave where He was born is an image of that cave in which He will be deposited, a young man, killed for God's sake after the agony of the Garden and the agony of the Cross, and let us ask ourselves, 'Are we, each of us, a response to love revealed in such a way, revealed to such degree? "Will we find in ourselves a response, or shall we only say, "It was His choice, I have chosen against Him. He has chosen life for me, I have chosen death for Him".

Is that the answer which we will give? Oh, not in words, but in deeds, through our life, through our attitude to our own self, in which our own dividedness is not overcome, through our attitude to one another in which those people for whom Christ lived and died remain to us strangers, irrelevant and can be brushed out of our way, or through our attitude to Him Whom we do not treat as our everpresent invisible neighbour, for Whom we have no thought, no compassion, no charity, no love.

Or are we going to respond to this revelation of love in which the frailty of love is made visible, perceptible to us in the frailty of this little human body deposited on the straw of a crib, respond to the frailty of God by a mature love?

This is the question which now the day of Christmas sets before us, and we have days and months of liturgical unfolding of the year, to grow through it towards a definitive and final answer when we will see love sacrificed on Calvary. We have got this liturgical year to follow step by step, in this year we will discover how the saints of God have responded, and at every step the question will stand before us: “And what about you, what about thee personally, what about us in our togetherness, what is our answer to love?” Amen

De seara

O luna foarte plina si foarte palida arunca lumini albe pe acoperisul unei case. Daca nu esti atent, aproape ai zice ca-i zapada.

Orionul s-a lungit obosit peste blocul vecin.

Sub el, la geamuri, clipocesc perdele de lumini colorate.

In case se intrezaresc contururi de brazi.

Azi e ajunul Ajunului. Noapte linistita!

Cartile noastre de Craciun

Pe 30 noiembrie am scos la lumina cutia noastra cu carti de Craciun. De-a lungul timpului s-au adunat cateva, unele mai reusite, altele mai putin. Pun mai jos cateva imagini din fiecare, poate va ajuta sa va faceti o idee despre ele si sa decideti daca merita sa le cumparati (sau nu).

Vine Craciunul - Editura Litera

Vad ca acum e format mic, noi avem de vreo 3 ani editia format A4, cu coperta cartonata. Combinatia de povesti frumos ilustrate, retete si idei de activitati face din ea una din cele mai reusite carti de Craciun din biblioteca noastra. Povestile sunt simpatice, pe alocuri am mai indulcit anumite cuvinte cand Maria era mai mica, ilustratiile sunt dragalase foc, dupa cum puteti vedea mai jos.

Micul Pateric - Editura Potamitis

In perioada asta citim din colectia Micul Pateric: Sfantul Nicolae, Nasterea lui Hristos, Darurile de pret ale Magilor, Cantarea Ingereasca si Povestea Vasilopitei (pentru ziua Sfantului Vasile)

Viata Sfantului Dionisie din Zakynthos - pe care il sarbatorim pe 17 decembrie

O carte A4 cartonata, aparuta tot la Potamitis, pe care am luat-o chiar de la manastirea din Zante.

Nasterea lui Iisus - Editura Gama

Iustratii minunate, text aerisit. Pentru varianta ortodoxa a textului am mai facut niste modificari :)

Botezul lui Iisus - Editura Gama

La fel ca mai sus, adaptam textul pe alocuri :)

Hoinari prin anotimpuri - iarna

Una din preferatele mele, pe care nu am mai pus mana de prea mult timp. Am facut cu Maria un exercitiu de memorie, incercand sa ne amintim numele pe care le-am dat personajelor din seria asta si ne-am distrat amintindu-ne povestile pe care le-am creat impreuna pentru fiecare personaj in parte. In continuare sunt indragostita pana peste urechi de toata colectia.

O noapte cu ninsoare si O zi de iarna - editura InfoDar

Aventurile Micului Arici sunt printre preferatele noastre. Din aceasta serie avem doua carti minunate, format A4, cartonate, cu insertii catifelate, in care sunt povestite aventurile ariciului si ale prietenilor sai. Carti calde, despre generozitate si prietenie, ilustrate minunat de Tina Macnaughton.

Ingerii Craciunului - Editura InfoDar

Tot din aceeasi serie, puteti citi mai multe despre ea accesand linkul de mai sus.

Ceasornicul din tei - Arcadie Suceveanul

Ma tin de mult timp sa va povestesc de cartea asta, dar, cum zic americanii, life got in the way. Niciodata nu e, insa, prea tarziu. Cartea este impartita in patru sectiuni, care contin fiecare poezii cu privire la cate un anotimp. Un detaliu care pe mine m-a dat gata a fost cuprinsul colour-coded: cate o culoare pentru fiecare anotimp, sa fie mai usor de identificat poeziile in carte si in cuprins. Daca nu ati mai pus niciodata ochii pe poeziile lui Arcadie Suceveanul, vi le recomand cu tot dragul. Am citit cartea asta zi de zi timp de vreo doua saptamani si cred ca ma bucuram eu mai mult decat Maria :)) La fiecare noua lectura mai descopeream cate un joc de cuvinte care ma umplea de bucurie. Bineinteles ca in perioada asta vom citi mai ales poeziile de iarna.

Poeziile Copilariei - Editura Cartea Copiilor

O alta carte de poezii din care citim in aceasta perioada. Format A4, ilustratii de vis (in ea am descoperit-o pe Livia Coloji, de ale carei ilustratii m-am indragostit iremediabil)

24 de povesti nastrusnice in asteptarea lui Mos Craciun - Editura Corint Junior

E o carte cu privire la care nu m-am lamurit inca. Cum bine ii zice si numele, contine cate o poveste de cateva pagini pentru fiecare zi de advent. Ilustratiile sunt, in general, frumoase, insa povestile ma fac sa am inca dubii in privinta cartii. Cum e povestea cu Sfantul Nicolae care ii salveaza pe copiii rapiti de un macelar. Sau limbajul un pic prea modern si nitel cam agresiv pentru gustul meu.

Paddington si surpriza de Craciun - Editura RAO

Intalnirea lui Paddington cu Mos Craciun si toate peripetiile aferente. Mi s-a parut interesant modul in care e prezentat Taramul Magic al Iernii din magazinul in care merge Paddington sa il intalneasca pe Mos Craciun: decorul lipit cu scotch pe pereti, renul rasturnat si cu coarnele rupte, becurile stricate.

Scrisori catre Mos Craciun - Editura Prut

Maria a fost teribil de incantata de tot pachetul. In el, pe langa carte, am mai gasit 10 foi colorate, 10 plicuri, 6 carti postale cu Mos Craciun, niste sabloane, un creion si o radiera in forma de steluta, un pix sclipicios si niste autocolante. Asta se intampla anul trecut. Doar cartea a supravietuit pana anul asta

Am mai pus in cutie (dar nu au avut deloc succes):
O revista Disney de Craciun (povestea cu cadoul pierdut al lui Ariel + diverse joculete si activitati)

Doua carti de activitati care au supravietuit intr-o forma oarecare

Si o carte old-school cu colinde.

Anul asta am mai primit cateva, dar nu am apucat sa le procesez inca, au venit multe gramada de Mos Nicolae. Cele de la Usborne mi-au atras atentia, sper sa va povestesc de ele in curand.

 poveste cu Mos Craciun, 10 foi de scris si 10 plicuri, o foaie cu abtibilduri stralucitoare, 6 sabloane, 6 carti postale, un pix, un creion si o radiera - See more at: http://www.librariabizantina.ro/scrisori-catre-mos-craciun.html#sthash.UPKvJSVH.dpuf

o poveste cu Mos Craciun, 10 foi de scris si 10 plicuri, o foaie cu abtibilduri stralucitoare, 6 sabloane, 6 carti postale, un pix, un creion si o radiera - See more at: http://www.librariabizantina.ro/scrisori-catre-mos-craciun.html#sthash.UPKvJSVH.dpuf

Poezii din copilarie - Cartea Copiilor

Neavand o inclinatie pentru poezie, nu mi-a dat prin cap, cumparand indecent de multe carti pentru fete, sa iau si carti cu poezii. Cand Maria a mai crescut si a inceput sa memoreze lucruri, am pus in cosul de cumparaturi si Poezii din Copilarie, de la Cartea Copiilor, despre care citisem numai de bine.

Poeziile sunt tare bine alese (adevarul ca am si cautat sa merg la sigur, cu versuri din "the classics" :))

Ilustratiile sunt minunate

(Povestea gastelor era preferata mea in copilarie)

Ne-am indragostit imediat de cartea asta. Primele poezii mai lugute invatate de Maria sunt de aici (cea cu ouale de Paste e face senzatie la noi in casa, in continuare :P)

La Pasti, G. Toparceanu

Astăzi în sufragerie
Dormitau pe-o farfurie,
Necăjite si mânjite,
Zece ouă înrosite.

Un ou alb, abia ouat,
Cu mirare le-a-ntrebat:
- Ce vă este, frătioare,
- Ce vă doare?
Nu vă ninge, nu vă plouă,
Stati gătite-n haină nouă,
Parcă, Dumnezeu mă ierte,
N-ati fi ouă...
- Suntem fierte!
Zise-un ou rotund si fraise
Lânga pasca cu orez.
Si schimbindu-si brusc alura,
Toate-au început cu gura:
- Pân'la urmă tot nu scap!
- Ne găteste de paradă.
- Ne ciocneste cap în cap
Si ne zvârle coaja-n stradă...
- Ce rusine!
- Ce dezastru!
- Preferam să fiu omletă!
- Eu, de m-ar fi dat la closcă,
As fi scos un pui albastru...
- Si eu unul violet...
- Eu, mai bine-ar fi să tac:
Asa galben sunt, că-mi vine
Să-mi închipui că pe mine
M-a ouat un cozonac!...


O carte care m-a facut sa vorbesc in rime (si in ritm) prin casa :)))