/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

>>605354

A true example for us all….

>>605354

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>>605354

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May he find great riches in heaven that he declined to in his earthly life.

>>605354

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We all hope he died as his name goes "happy"

RIP

>>605354

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I think I heard about this man just half a year ago, God rest his soul. I only pray that I become as charitable as he.

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Today I've been reading the written about him in Internet. The English wikipedia says that he was "a Bulgarian ascetic who walked over 20 kilometres (12 mi) each day to sit or stand in front of the Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky in Sofia to collect money for charitable causes. Dobrev donated all the money he collected to charities, orphanages, churches and monasteries. And according to the Russian wikipedia, his main occupation was "charity giver". So wrong… Or rather not wrong, but incomplete. Yes, by his charity he has collected for himself a huge treasure on the heavens where it won't be consumed by moth or rust, nor thieves will break through and steal. But he was so much more than just a charity giver…

For a very long time people knew him as a beggar. Then they learned what he was doing with the money and decided that he was a Godly man who had devoted himself to God and His Church. But so few suspected that the old man didn't really want their money. What he wanted is to make their souls better, kind and merciful. The money was only the means to achieve this sacred goal. When the media eventually discovered him, they began to chase him aggressively. But the old man didn't want a glory for himself in this world. He locked himself in a poor room, avoiding journalists, rarely speaking, sleeping not in the bed but on the floor. And he died there at age of 104, being old and full of years.

You look at him and you see a stranger from another world. To some he was a time traveller from far past. To others, he was coming to us from the future, from the Kingdom of God that will be after the general resurrection. You look at him and you don't know what to do with him. Should you hug him, or should you fondle him, or you should simply stay for a while next to him?

I am reading the following words of apostle Paul and each word seems to me as written specially about grandpa Dobri: "By glory and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. Our mouth is open to you, our heart is enlarged. You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own bowels. Now in return, I speak as to my children, you also be open wide!"

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A talk with grandpa Dobri (the translation may be inaccurate because the old man speaks a difficult dialect; however, I think this translation is more accurate than what can be found in other places in Internet):

Are there others like you?

I don't know. [And his gesture says: This is not important.]

Do you have a TV?

No, no. These are devils, I don't take them.

Is the TV from the devil?

Surely it is. The media and the news papers, they are delusion. Everything from the humans and without the God is from the devil.

Show me the devil?

He is in our heads. We have received him.

Grandpa Dobri, are you going to heaven?

Well, we shell see. God will say when I die, when I go before Him. God wants to take everyone, anyone who wants to be with God. Because He is merciful. Whoever acknowledges his own faults will be forgiven. But whoever doesn't want, because he is captured by the devil,…

Which is our one, greatest sin?

Let me see… Fornication. As it destroys the family and everything.

Are you afraid from the death?

I am not afraid from the death.

How so?

Well, not that I am certain about me, because I am a sinner… But I am not afraid. Seeing that here, too, it is not a good place. And if God lifts me, then He lifts me, it is that. Here I am not the happiest person, am I?

Will God be merciful upon us?

He will, he will! He will, but to those who are humbling themselves. But to those who are not humbling themselves before Him, to those who do not understand this, He won't be merciful to them, they will go with the devil, with the one who conducts them.

>>605833

Welcome to /christian/, friend!

Enjoy your stay!

F

>>605919

Some stories about grandpa Dobri.

Today I met Elder Dobri at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. On my way out he took a bow and handed me over his plastic cup for donations. I didn't have any money so I apologised to him. Then he reached for his pocket and handed me over 2 leva! I didn't want to take them but he insisted with a request to mention him in my prayers. I took them for blessing from him. Next time I meet him if it is God will I will repay him properly. I wish more of us to be humble and simple in our souls like him.

An advice by the Elder: If while making a step you sin with something, then before you make your next step you have to repent and ask God for forgiveness!

This happened few years ago. It was a beautiful spring day. I was walking with my earphones on the streets of Sofia. While passing by the "Alexander Nevsky" cathedral I decided to enter to light a candle for health. On my way out I saw him – grandpa Dobri. I had read about him and I had seen him in few TV reportages. But it was so different alive! I was lost in astonishment by his face and the kindness radiating from him. As if he was an angel, descended for a little among us. I approached worried and I opened my walled awkwardly. I wanted to hand him some money. He smiled and greeted me and before I could answer he bowed and kissed my hand. Then he gave me a postcard with the kneeling Jesus Christ in pray. I was confused, my face became red and in no time I went out. I had to kneel to kiss the hand of this saint man! And yet, the opposite happened. I've just learned that he has passed away. His lessons were like slap in the face for all of us. His words radiated humility, his eyes – fire, his deeds – miracles.

I was in the park of St. George in Sofia with my son. Grandpa Dobri was there every day. We were giving to him some money and he was buying waffles and chocolate for the children playing in the park. He wasn't really begging but he was collecting charity, not for himself but to make other people happy. Once I asked him what makes him happy. And he answered happily: "The kindness in the people but most of all the smile of the children. You should know, my boy, they are something sacred, clean and their faces are pictures of our souls."

A prophecy by the Elder about the end of the world: The end of the world is where the goodness ends. Keep yourself from the devil, my boy! He attracts the people and they become bad. Don't allow him because then the world will end.

The picture is from the funeral service. Leftmost is bishop Tikhon who led the service. Next to him is Patriarch Neophyte. From the address by bishop Tikhon: As a matter of fact, Grandpa Dobri did what we all want to do – to become closer to God. Only we don't know how, hindered by many worldly reasons. But here you see, how a simple man, with no doctoral or professorial titles, with no clerical rank becoming so close to our Lord, that He brought him to His Kingdom. You will be unfair if you were only happy that such a man existed, a man who embodied in himself what we all are longing for. Because he didn't want you to be happy about him or to praise him. He wanted to kindle your hearts, to make you thoughtful.

>>606494

>>606494

>May his memory be eternal!

>That's a pretty pagan thing to say, you know?

If a pagan says this, then yes – then this would be pretty pagan thing. Because a pagan will say it in concealed desperation, knowing that there is nothing eternal in this world, only his eternal soul wishing that there were eternal things.

But when OP says, or when I say "May his memory be eternal!", we say it knowing that a memory is eternal only when God remembers it.

Do we think that grandpa Dobri is with God and he doesn't need our prays? Yes, probably we do. But do you pray only about things you think God will not do unless you pray? If you pray only in such cases, then, forgive me my friend, but then you do like a pagan.

If I pray about the well-being of everyone, do I do it because I think I have to persuade God about this? Or when I pray about the salvation of a soul of a righteous man, do I think that God won't save him unless I pray? God forbid: nay, I pray because such prays strengthen our love and through love we all become united in the body of Christ, the citizens of the Earth and the citizens of the Heavens.

There is a well documented ancient tradition in the Church to make memorial services about deceased righteous people, who are not yet canonized as saints. There we pray about the salvation of such people. Do these people need our prays? No, but then their prays about us become more efficacious. So let nobody be afraid to pray about the soul of the servant of God Dobri.

>>606611

> >Because a pagan will say it in concealed desperation, knowing that there is nothing eternal in this world

> It's more like Christians know that without remembrance it's like someone never lived on earth in the first place.

> It's a very worldly thing to say.

Holding onto memory of one another is an act of love.

> The god of the bible is allegedly all knowing, this includes memory, and it seems to be timeless.

> Yahweh thus "remembered" this man before he was even born.

Have Luke 2:52 in mind and remember the awesome mystery of God. Don't put Him in a box. He can forget someone if He wants to. Are you going to argue with Him about that? He is God, not a mathematical formula.

> We remember people because it is the key to immortality on the worldly plane.

No, it's because we love them. If we really just wanted to be immortal, we'd be too preoccupied by preserving our own memory to remember one another. Or better yet, we'd freeze ourselves.

> Which is something Christians should, at least theoretically, not be concerned with since it's a transient stage.

What kind of buddhism is this? God came to save the world, not to bin it.

> Since paganism is the real and true spiritual way of people, all people, it is very difficult to break the voice of the real gods speaking to the people.

Counterexample: the persians, whose ethnic religion was a universal monotheism, wherein the gods are devils, Ahura Mazda is love and wisdom, and there are nine orders of angels guarding creation. They got a lot right.

To say paganism is man's natural state is to say God created something evil in man. Paganism is absolutely not natural. Devils masquerading as gods is not natural and most certainly cannot be ascribed to human nature.

> Take anyone who is a clean slate and have him listen to thunder and he will dream up a thundergod, not a bible god.

assertion

Ask a child who hasn't ever been taught any religion nor atheism. The child more often than not will have a natural awareness of God, perhaps even a friendship with Him, but not with the “gods”.

It's only after the devils have their way with a man that He falls into paganism.

> But yeah, that man seems like a pretty good man.

> Hopefully the charity he donated to wasn't used as a weapon against his people, as they often are used as.

I really wish we could do atleast one single thing on this board without some butt-retarded accusations flying. Let's end this foolishness and have Elder Dobri in our memory this fasting season. For the sake of this man who shone forth with the love of God with greater intensity than I could fathom, let's fast and give alms for his sake and have him in our prayers. May his blessed memory be eternal. Lord have mercy on us.

>>605831

>Well, we shell see.