Showing posts with label Behind-the-scenes travelogue to holy Mt. Athos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Behind-the-scenes travelogue to holy Mt. Athos. Show all posts
Breathe!: The Holy Spirit Moves on the Air
Friday, 10 June 2011
While going through things after my friend's mother-in-law died, this prayer to the Holy Spirit was found hand-written on well-worn stationery folded in her Bible. He didn't know the source of this prayer, but it was well-used, as though the prayer had been read many times:
Come Holy Spirit; fill my heart with your holy gifts.
Let my weakness be penetrated with Your holy strength this very day, that I may fulfill all the duties of my state conscientiously, that I may do what is right and just. Let my charity be such as to offend no one, and to hurt no one's feelings, so generous as to pardon any wrong done to me.Assist me, Oh Holy Spirit in all my trials of life. Enlighten me in my ignorance; advise me in my doubts; strengthen me in my weakness; help me in all my needs; protect me in temptations; and console me in afflictions.
Graciously hear me, oh Holy Spirit, and put your light into my heart, my soul, and in my mind. Assist me to live a holy life, and to grow in goodness and grace. Amen.
At Pentecost we focus on God's power as manifested through the Spirit. As Jesus is the only begotten Son is the Word of God incarnate, so the Spirit in Greek translated is pneuma, which means wind, breath, to breathe. "Holy" in English is translated from the Greek as "set-apart."This Sunday's Gospel reading from John 20:21-22 is one of my favorite scriptural depictions of the Holy Spirit: the Breath of God.
Behind-the-scenes travelogue to holy Mt. Athos
Sunday, 24 April 2011"60 Minutes" producer Michael Karzis is the perfect tour guide to take you behind the scenes on the show's Mt. Athos story. Karzis is the son of Greek immigrants and speaks Greek. Those things surely helped as he and fellow producer Harry Radliffe tried to get permission to film a "60 Minutes" story on the otherworldly Mt. Athos, a self-governed peninsula in Greece that's home to 20 monasteries and some 2,000 monks.
But getting permission was no easy task. "The parliament that exists there, the holy community, is the only parliament on the face of the Earth that has been continually in session since the 10th century," says Karzis. "And these are the guys we were looking to get permission from to shoot on Mount Athos."
The Holy Community turned down requests from "60 Minutes." "They said, 'Thank you very much but, get in line,' Karzis recalls. "I mean, the BBC's been knocking on the door for 40 years, the French, the Germans, they've all wanted to come."
They then appealed to the powerful abbots who run individual monasteries on Mt. Athos and finally had a breakthrough.
Watch part one and part two of Bob Simon's report.
"We just built trust," says Karzis. "And they understood that we would do our best to distill the essence of monastic life, the beauty of the place, and what makes Mt. Athos unique in this world."
Once Karzis and Radliffe got their invitation, many more challenges were to come, as you'll learn in this "60 Minutes Overtime" travelogue. It's located in Europe, but Mt. Athos is remarkably difficult to access. The peninsula is only reachable by boat and the surrounding seas can be rough. It's believed that the Virgin Mary herself was shipwrecked there, which is just one of the many things that makes Mt. Athos so sacred to the monks and the thousands of pilgrims who visit each year.
But getting permission was no easy task. "The parliament that exists there, the holy community, is the only parliament on the face of the Earth that has been continually in session since the 10th century," says Karzis. "And these are the guys we were looking to get permission from to shoot on Mount Athos."
The Holy Community turned down requests from "60 Minutes." "They said, 'Thank you very much but, get in line,' Karzis recalls. "I mean, the BBC's been knocking on the door for 40 years, the French, the Germans, they've all wanted to come."
They then appealed to the powerful abbots who run individual monasteries on Mt. Athos and finally had a breakthrough.
Watch part one and part two of Bob Simon's report.
"We just built trust," says Karzis. "And they understood that we would do our best to distill the essence of monastic life, the beauty of the place, and what makes Mt. Athos unique in this world."
Once Karzis and Radliffe got their invitation, many more challenges were to come, as you'll learn in this "60 Minutes Overtime" travelogue. It's located in Europe, but Mt. Athos is remarkably difficult to access. The peninsula is only reachable by boat and the surrounding seas can be rough. It's believed that the Virgin Mary herself was shipwrecked there, which is just one of the many things that makes Mt. Athos so sacred to the monks and the thousands of pilgrims who visit each year.
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