Archive for April, 2024

Enormous Scandal in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church continues as the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Holy Synod acts as Masonic Lodge not venerating the people’s choice about future Metropolitan of the Eparchy

Thursday, April 25th, 2024

The times of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ seem to be really near, this is clear from the facts that the corruption and people's degradation has reached a state, where no truthfulness is existing neither in the worldly organizations Countries, governments, parliaments, courts, institutions, companies and even in the Most Holy Church of Christ which he has consecrated by his Holy Blood, through the Crucifixion and Death on the Cross for our sins. 
 

It seems today, neither the low ordinary people neither the high and eligible and most honored Bishops and even Metropolitans are in a such a bad careless state, that they only care about their own wordly interests and the interests of a few of other servitudes nearby, neglecting the interest of the Holy Church of Christ (which is the Assembly of believers in the Lord Christ Jesus, who breath and live being in the world but , “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” John 18:36.

What happens now about 2000 years, later in Christ Church is absotely the same. Just like Jesus, his true followers has been rejected to be accepted by his own people. In same way his true people are always, being rejected to take their ruling place, but instead in the world the Lies and manipulations are taking place to crucify the true servents of God.

The Holy Gospel seems to repeat itself again and again all the time through the ages. This time the stage is different this is not ancient Israel with the Assembly of Synodrion and the Old Testament's Church of God and his People the Israelites. But the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Church and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church with his people the new Israel the Christians.

Get to know the facts on Bulgarian Church Scandal Escalasion for New Metropolitan of Sliven voting – situation as of 24th April 2024

The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Church  has made another and strange untransparent decision once again, right after the Enormous Scandal with the cassation of legal choice of People of Sliven for best candidates Ierotey and Mihail (amongs which Ierotey is preferred), as the Metropolia of Sliven is still mourining on the beloved pontiff his holiness Metropolitan Ioanikij, less than 3 months before his blessed passing to Christ.

prayer-for-the-Soul-fo-His-Holiness-Metropolitan-Ioanikij

The decision of Eparchal voters among which nuns, monks (archimandrites), priests and layman was cleartly to have Metropolitan to have Ierotey as a first and most wanted candidate and Mihail as a second that was made on 18 of February (Eparchy voters in Sliven elected the two bishops, of whom St. The Synod will elect a new Metropolitan of Sliven.

Dioceses_of_the_Bulgarian_Orthodox_Church_Sliven_Eparchy

Map of Spiritual Eparchies in Bulgaria of Bulgarian Orthodox Church Bulgarian Patriarchy (BPC-BP)
Sliven_Diocese_spiritual_regions-map

Territorial Map of Sliven Eparchy according to the Local Spiritual districts belonging to Sliven Metropoly

Shortly after, it was decided to stop the legal procedure for choosing between bishop Ierotey and bishop Michail and overwritte the Synod accepted and agreed own legal document to follow on different church casuses,  the ' the Church statuses regulations (Устав на БПЦ Българска Патриаршия = Bulgarian Orthodox Church Regulation Rules document decided to be followed by everyone in the Church including the bishops and metropolitans on a National Church Assembly) right during a procedure for enthronization of next Metropolitan of Sliven.

The new "regulation" they tried to push "in the shadows (illegally against the Church statues)" was written in a way to make the choice of new Metropolitans to be done only by Metropolitan assembly the Synod, without taking in considerating the christian people preference for such, something scandal as this was not so during the last 150 years since we have restored the Bulgarian Church Excharchy.

 For more see whole case described in Enormous Church Scandal in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on the selection of new Metropolitan for one of Biggest Church Eparchies the Eparchy of Sliven.

Out of this a great number of discussions started by Christian laity in facebook, viber and in the media of multitude of people, priests and cleargy from Sliven Eparchy complaining and protesting first infront of the Metroplitan Palace in Sliven

Prayer-Vigil-peaceful-protests-in-front-of-Sliven-Metropolia
Sliven Church Priests, Monks and Layman gathered in front of Sliven Eparchy Metropolitan governing building

As this protests were not considered seriously by many of Elders of the Synod, the same protest with much more participant occured in front of Synodal Palace (the ruling ministry of the Bulgarian Church seat place) in Sofia as well as purely physical by presence with Prayer Vigils to the Holy Synod because of their unwillingness to accept the Synod unargumented decision to stop the procedure for choice of new metropolitan.

Unofficially it was was said the reason behind the solution is accusation against Ierotey and Michail for being involved in unwaful selling of Church lands. These facts were publicly checked by documents (see them here) presented by the court clearly prooving the accusations of two brother priests Silvester and Evgeny (which has a history of being involved in many anti-church activities and scandals) are fake.

Bishop Mihail has also been accused by others for the same illegal church land resell activities, and he came with official answer on the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (official site) see the document here.

Prayer-Vigil-Protest-in-front-of-Holy-Synod

Peaceful objection Vigil Prayer in front of Holy Synod by Sliven Clergy and Laymen, Poster reads:
"Do not exchange our Good shepherd, which gives his soul for the sheep with a mercenary, we do not know !"
Second Poster on the background is "Against the New Order", meant the new Order to not venerate People's choice during voting of new Metropolitans

Prayer-Vigil-in-front-of-Holy-Synod-by-Sliven-Priests-and-Clergy

The outcome of the protest in front of the Synodal bulding palace in Sofia, Bulgaria was to cancel the votings for Metropolitan and do the whole voting procedure from the beginning.
The people accepted the decision of the Synod even though the synod took this decision to not put in place 'new order' in favour if existing norms of the Churh statuses on the background of multitude of protesting priests, monks and layman from Sliven Eparchy and other eparchies which is well documented well in below video.

Synodal Prayer Vigil against the cassation of choice for future Metropolitan of Sliven

On the protests along with Church people and clergy from Sliven was present people from other Eparchies as well as key well known priests and monks that are from Sofia and the Sofia Metropolitan to tell their unwillingness for overriding the Church established rules "Statuses", as well as to express their support for Sliven Eparchy whose Church people will is to have venerated their up to the rules selection of Bishop Ierotey to become the next Vicar (Metropolitan) of Sliven.

On many TV medias this protest was not shown and the organized fake "contra-protest" of Metropolitan Nikolay and his people who were anti-protesting against people will was shown as it was paid for that (another proof for lack of enough freedom of speech and transparency of Bulgarian mass medias).

holy-synod-contraprotest-for-the-choice-of-new-sliven-metropolitan

The contra-protesters from Plovdvid Eparchy that came with buses from Plovdiv eparchy enforced by Metropolitan Nikolay, very much in the old spirit of manifestations during the totalitarian regime of communism (notice the obviousness of the protest is fake from the exactly same looking slogans held mainly by priests)

As a result people from Sliven Eparchy accepted the fact that the Holy Synod decided to finally cassate (cancel) the procedure for choice of new Sliven Metropolitan and organize a new list of Worthy and dostopochteni (venerable) Bishops among which Sliven's people should make the choice again.
The people accepted this as they hoped the Holy Synod elders, might have been misled by the false accusation reports of the two brother priests Silvester and Evgeny Yanakievi (who by the way are very active on facebook) against Ierotey, and thus by organizing the choice once again officially the choice will take case in a transparent way and according to the Church rules statuses and then they can again vote for bishop Ierotey and double verify their initial choice.

However what happened now is far from that. Contrary to any logic (and as provocation), the list of venerable Bishops was made by the Holy Synod, during the Great Lent on 22 of April, a time in which people should concentrate on their repentance and spiritual growing and spiritual preparation to accept the Fest of Feasts, The Resurresction of Christ Easter.

Contrary and again unvenerating the Church clergy and people's will of Sliven the new list of Bishops does not included neither Ierotey nor Mihail and included only 6 Bishops claimed to be venerable !!!


1. Velichki Bishop Sionij
2. Znepolski Bishop Arsenij
3. Melnishki Bishop Gerasim
4. Branitcki Bishop Pahomij
5. Glavnicki Bishop Makarij
6. Velbyzdhski Bishop Isaak

 

Here is a tiny biographies and only few rumored things about the Bishops, synod have been included and listed them according to seniority on when they become bishops. 

1. The first listed Bishop Sionij (Velichki) completed Cherepish Spiritual Seminary (Academy) in 1990. Become monk in 1991.
Completed Theology in 1994 in Saint Kliment Ohridski. 1995-1996 specialezed in Erlangen Germany. Become monk from Metropolitan Dometian (Vidinski) in Klisurski Monastery soon after become hieromonk. In 1992 – 1995 has been abbot of Klisura Monastery. In 1996 has become deacon of Sofia's Theological Seminary Saint John of Rila (he was later removed because of scandals, a boy died and accused by pupil parents for pedophilia, a sad fact that was hidden with time, due to many publications you can find online …). 
In 1998 has been raised to archimandrite by Patriarch Maxim in Dolni Lozen Monastery St. Peter and Paul.
In March 2007 has been ordinated as Bishop Velichki in Saint Alexander Nevski Cathedral. In 2009 become vicar of Vidin Metropolitan Dometian In 1 May 2014 become an abbot of Troyan monastery, 3rd April 2019 he has become an abbot also to Bachkovo Monastery.
Bishop Sionij is among the most scandalous persons in Bulgarian Orthodox Church, many  media scandals assigning his name tо pedophilia and homosexuality through the time. It is claimed by medias he is involved with mafia (and especially with Church mafia). There was even a person who says to have been involved in this affairs with him that publicly has given interview for "Tzanov"'s self financed youtube channel Napred i Nagore"  (video titled: "The Church of Sin").
Currently paradoxically he is an abbot of 2 of the biggest and 2 second richest monasteries in Bulgaria Troyanski and Bachkovki.. His family is known in Sofia for years for being one of the most richest people in Sofia.
Currently aged 56 yrs.

2. Second one Arsenij gruaded high school 2006 in Stara Zagora in village Osetenovo. Completed Saint John of Rila seminary in 2006, was student in Saint Ohridski Theology and continued his education in Plovdiv  University, saint Paisios of Hilendar, said to have graduated 2009. Tonsured monk in 2007, became hierodeacon and consequentially same year 2008 hieromonk. 6th December he was raised by Metr. Nikolay to Bishop. He has been a director of Plovdiv's Orthodox  TV since 2009 and Plovdiv Seminary 2010 (seminary initiated again by by Metr. Nikolay). In 2012 he was given to be a head of Metropolitan cathedral in Plovdvid saint Marina.
On June 2014 he was raised to bishop after offer was to the Holy Synod, by Metr. Nikolay. 
Hierotony was made by then very old Metropolitan Ioanikiy of Sliven in collaboration with Metropolitans Dometian of Vidinsky (now deceased), Grigoriy of Velikotarnovsky, Ignatius of Pleven and Nikolay of Plovdiv.

Iinterestingly he is titled as protegee of Metr. Nikolay who orchestrates the decisions in the Holy Synod for the last years (fact known by most people who even had a slight idea of what is going on internally in the Church). The backstage ruling of the Synod and the place is said to be easy for the Metr. Nikolay, since patriarch Neofit was severely sick and in practice inactive as patriarch. According to official information that leaked from Synod, it was exactly Arsenij the choice of Metr. Nikolay and his group of metropolitans (most of whom doesn't have the necessery support from anyone such as DS (Dyrzhavna Sigurnost) to which Metr. Nikolay is said to have the support and in which Metr. Nikolay's father was important ranked person). Thus according to different medias the legative choice of Sliven people was cancelled by the Synod by Metr. Nikolay and his group in attempt to install the already pre-chosen Arsenij in any means.

Bishop Arsenij  is known amoung the clergy in Church for becoming a bishop officially against the Church statuses, not having the Statuses set fulfilled years, becoming bishop before his 30s in 28 years, according to Church rules of statuses regulations of BPC-BP he should have had been at least 35 years, 2 more years than Christs age of crucifix. The other break of Church statuses regulations with his hierotony was that he did not have 10 years as a clergy person in Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Currently 37 yrs old (has 10 years served as Bishop)

3. Bishop Gerasim (Melnishki) is famous for having a professional Actors education, before deciding to become monk and start his new career in the Church. He has not have officially any Theological Education diploma till the moment he decided to walk the spiritual path, but received such by specialization in Moscow 2 years in a newly created faculty by Metropolitan Ilarion Alfeev (faculty created 2012) and no longer existing. The Diplomas from Russia are not really considered officially by Bulgarian Government due to legislative reasons. Even though that he managed to be chosen somehow and become the Secretary of Holy Synod, and have signed documents that he has a higher Theological education which he at that time doesn't. He seemed to have served as a head of saint Alexander Nevsky and in this service  
He is said by some medias to have closed his eyes and signed the documents for requirements of higher education for the job of Synodal Secratary as a preliminary to the function of Secratary. He is known to often serve Liturgy in the Russian Church among which was a lot of scandals last year and which kept closed for quite some time, due to clergy in the Russian Church Clergy in (Sofia) Bulgaria being accused for serving for FSB (Russian Secret Services). He is also accused by  medias for organizing an official business dinner  for donation to collect money from businessmen for the sake of restoration of  Biggest Cathedral in Bulgaria St. Alexander Nevsky. It should be said his service in saint Alexander Nevsky as a head of it for some years was okay, no big scandals like the previous head archim. Dionisij Mishev.
Have to say it is strange why such a cathedral as Saint Alexander Nevsky, has to collect donations for its restoration, especially since the Bulgarian church Sofia Metropoly has a lot of land properties and stores on the city center that given for rent and should be bringing money to mitropoly along with the so called "vladichnina" amount of whole profit which every Church on territory of eparchy has to pay to the metropoly, especially as the Church st. Alexander Nevsky is a common tourist destination in Sofia for people all around the world and that should be supposably another way to collect money for its restoration. He is neither famous nor infamous and that is perhaps his main places of service was Saint Alexander Nevsky and as Synodal Secretary.
Currently he is aged 44 yrs. Served as Bishop 8 yrs.

4. Bishop Pahomij (Branicki) has been made a monk and hieromonk  again by Metr. Nikolay, his elder was proto-abbot Benedict from Holy Mount Athos Zograph in Divotinski Monastery, near Bankya in 2002 in 2004 he become abbot of Divotinsky Monastery. For 2004 till 2010 he had managed to gather brotherhood and helped to recover a Chapel Saint Anna and rerecover the 70 Apostles Church buildings and the Main Church Holy Trinity (which is considered his greatest achievements) his fame amount the Orthodox christian youth has been positive as he managed to have a good charisma and attract young people in his monastery during his abbotship. In 2015 he become hieromonk.
bishop (hierotony by current Metropolitan of Vratza and some other bishops who is temporary substitute for patriarch Neofit's passing till the new choice of patriarch completes.). In 12.06.2017 he was made a bishop in Rila Monastery, again – according to some sources he did not have the Higher Theological education at that time for the post of bishopship, requirement according to Statuses of Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Currently he is aged 45 yrs. Served as Bishop 7 yrs

5. bishop Makarij (Glavnicki) has completed Plovdiv's Spiritual Seminary (whose deacan at that time was Bishop Evlogij Adrianopolski), finished Theology school in Bucharest in 2004 and Master degree in Thessaloniki (Solun) completed in 2010. In march 2007 become a novice monk in Rila Monastery Saint John of Rila. In 2008 during Lent become Hierodeacon, by bishop Evlogij. April 2011 become a hieromonk (priest monk). In March 2017 become a bishop. After becoming metropolitan he is now a vicar Bishop of Metropolitan Naum. He is perhaps among the most educated bishops of Bulgarian Church at present. Due to his studies in Greece, some people which play a kind of rloe of 'whisle-blower' but also do distribute some false mirrors, he might be a man of the Ecumenical patriarch.
It is interesting fact that his hierotony as bishop did not happen in Saint John of Rila monastery but in Troyan Monastery (The Old Practice of Bulgarian Orthodox Church was to create new bishops in the Capital Sofia in Saint Alexander Nevsky – nowadays changed – some speculate this is done to escape from the anaxios (unworthy) that someone might scream during the services of new hierotony to stop the ceremony). In Troyan monastery as of time of writting this article the abbot is bishop Sionij Velichki. Also it is a bit strange the person who pushed his career forward Bishop Evlogij of Rila Monastery did not take part in the hierotony in Troyan monastery.
Current aged 42 yrs. Serves as Bishop 7 yrs

6. Bishop Isaak (Velbyzhdski), started and completed aged 13 in Saint John of Rila seminary in Sofia, which he complated in 2001. In 2001 he started working in Seminary administration. Completed Sofia, Theological School saint Kliment Ohridski in 2008 (Bachelor). In 2009 in Vidin he become monk by Dometian of Vidin under spiritual guidance of Biship Sionij Velichki. In 2010, was raised to hieromonk in Saint Nicolas Church and in parallel works in Sofia Seminary as а tutor (ethnical bulgarians living abroad).
In 2011, with blessing of Metr. Dometian he has become episcopal vicar of Lom Spiritual district. In 2012 in Dormition of Theotokos Chapel (which he headed) he was raised to archimandrite. In 2012 he started studying postgraduate studies in Moscow. In June 2023 he was raised to bishop with the title Bishop Velbyzhdski and given the role of second patriarch Neofit's vicar, as first is Bishop Polikarp. According to rumors, he is said according to some media news to have some connections with FSB due to his studies in Russia (and the common Russians practice to try to recruit their students to work for Russian agencies). Also according to some medias he had public appearance speach, staying behind Russia's official position for holy war, held against the evil (Russia as a Third Rome idea which currently Russian Church embraces).
Serves as Bishop 1 yr


Bishop Ierotey Agathopolski (Kosakov)

The Seventh Bishop that is excluded from list, Ierotey (Agathopolski) was selected by Sliven Eparchy Priest, Monks and Laity
to become the 7th Metropolitan of Sliven is Ierotey (The Voice of the People, The Voice of God) !

Bishop Ierotey (Agathopolski) in 2003  completed, Parallel course of Sofia Theological Seminary. December 22, 2003, Metropolitan Ioannikiy (Nedelchev) of Sliven tonsured him as a monk in brotherhood of the Holy Great Martyr George in the city of Pomorie.
Archimandrite Theodosius (abbot of) Pomorie monastery at that time became his spiritual mentor. 
May 11, 2004, Metropolitan Ioanikiy of Sliven in the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Burgas ordained hierodeacon.
On May 16 of the same year, Metropolitan Ioanikiy of Sliven in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Nessebar was ordained to the rank of hieromonk.
On January 1, 2005, he was appointed abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Great Martyr George in Pomorie.
He made a significant contribution to the development of the Pomorie monastery and its influence on Christian life in the region.
Christian children's camps were organized annually at the monastery, a week of Orthodox singing introduced. Many hopeless and lonely and people with problems found a hospitality and spiritual help and resort in the monastery.
On May 6, 2008 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. In 2010 he graduated  Master Degree of Theology of Shumen University, Bishop Konstantin Preslavsky. 
September 18, 2014, by decision of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, he was elected vicar of the Sliven diocese, bishop with the title of Agathopol (Agathopolski).
October 1 was chiratonized to Bishop rank by Metropolitan Ioanikij (Nedelchev) Slivenski, Metropolitan Grogorij (Stefanov) of Tarnovo, Metropolitan Starozagorsky Galaktion (Tabakov), Metropolitan Nikolay Plovdivsky (Sevastyanov), Metropolitan Ambrosij (Ambrosius) Dorostolsky (Parashkevov), Metropolitan of Nevrokop Seraphim (Dinkov), Bishop of Trayanopol Cyprian (Kazandzhiev), Bishop of Znepol Arseniy (Lazarov).
Served as Bishop 10 years


I believe there is nearly no person who has even encountered to meet Ierotey (Kosakov) Bishop Ierotey and interacted and doesn't have a good memory of that time, or have some bad impression.
Not that I know him presonally but that person has always tried to help everyone in everything, this is really rare in our mostly egoistical world. Perhaps only envious and people obsessed with money or material goods can criticize him for the reason, he lives a true monk, and as every true monk and as Saint John of Rila adviced in His Covenant, "From all the things, most beware of money, for they are the root of all evil.".

It happens Slivens Eparchy is full of material goods due to its strategic location nearby see and due to tourism, and of course this eparchy is interested to be at the hands of businesses who can built freely and sell for cheap to big investors lands for the sake of increasement of tourism in the region, as Bishop Ierotey might be a factor against that (as he has refused to cooparete in building of 200 rooms Hotel accomodation at lands of Pomorie Monastery to Silvester Yanakiev, now there are some people leading fierce company to remove him from the vote and destroy his good name reputation.).

From the Holy Synod, there is no official explanation on why Bishop Ierotey is removed from the vote list during the new choice, but for everyone who has even the slightest idea of what is going on in the Church higher stages of power it is fully clear.

The wing of Metropolitan Nikolay and his protegees Metropolitans has risen their voices against the inclusion of Ierotey in the list. In order to make it not clear that Ierotey is the real target, few others were also removed who were in practice "un-votable" as their personal life has spots.

This just like the first time of decision to halt the process of voting even thugh two candidates for metropolitan were chosen (none of which that seems to fit the desires of the Dark Cardinal of the Bulgarian Church Metr. Nikolay and his synodal group of dependent people who are kept silent and obedient due to compromates against them or with financial donations).

It is not secret and not new the backstage dictation of Metropolitan Nikolay to his band (Synodal wing) of bishops many of whom are known to have a lot of homosexual (homophilia) and even pedophilia  and other abnormal sexual activities, as well as activities related to the dark business schemes in bulgarian businesses and money laundary for which people know from mouth to mouth information spreading for years in the Church.

What is now stunning is that these people has become so unscrupulous, that they're ready to get over any person or group of people and even against a whole Eparchy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church that perhaps nominally might be around 1 million people !!!

These peoples's believe, that us the ordinary believers of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church are stupid and easily managable and they can do with them whatever they want because they're a higher class and very few of people are really regularly going to Church or actively parcipating in the Church Mysteries (Holy Communion and the other 7 sacraments).

What is striking, the Synodal elders are shameless, they think they're the Church, forgetting the word Ecclesia meaning.

"Ecclesia (or Ekklesia) in Christian theology means both: a particular body of faithful people, and the whole body of the faithful."

Seems like now our many of our Synodal Elders understand the Church (Ecclesia) as them and the servitude of faithful to Christ people who should obey them for the only reason, they have taken the seat of the Holy Apostles (that is the metropolitan seat = bishopship seat + administrative obediences).

It is interesting to say the modern understanding of Ecclesia in Western Modern Catholicism does well fit the understanding that the powerful of the day in the Synod that are trying to push out their agendas against the people will and choice, below is a definition.
 

Christian understanding of Church
 

If one speaks of the whole body of Christian faithful, then there are included not only the members of the Church who are alive on earth but all who were members of the church before. Some churches therefore describe the Church as being composed of the Church Militant (Christians on Earth) and the Church Triumphant (Christians in Heaven). In Catholic theology, there is also the Church Suffering (Christians still in purgatory).

The Christian family, the most basic unit of Church life, is sometimes called the domestic Church.[2]

Finally, 'The Church' may sometimes be used, especially in Catholic theology, to speak of those who exercise the office of teaching and ruling the faithful, the Ecclesia Docens, or again (more rarely) the governed as distinguished from their pastors, the Ecclesia Discens.
 

What else is really not Okay with how the selection of Bishops are reduced from 10 to 6 venerable to take the seat of Sliven Metropolitan
 

All this events happen during the Great Lent and for every True Christian it is well known the old Church practice, that important decisions should not be taken during the great Lent period as usually such decisions are wrong and could create havoc, due to the highest degree of temptations that are let around by the Almighty God for the spiritual grow and healing of his faithful childs the Christians.

It is up to Christian people to now proof them once the Great Lent is over after the Glorious Resurrection Day they're wrong and that people will not let the God given eparchy of Sliven to be ruled by dependent Metropolitan to Metr. Nikolay.

It is up to us to proof we're not sheepsand that people's will on matters of higher hierarchy of Church and their deeds should not be unmonitored and unpunished as it was in a higher degree over the last years !!!

People should rise of their indifference and show they still care about the Pureness of the Church and the legitimity of the Church Law of Selection of new Highest Hierarchical heads of the Church.
It is last time and last chances until we still have Church, especially considering the Apocalyptic times in which we seem to be living.

If you dear brothers and sisters in Christ not react and not fight for the truthful selection of a list with really venerable bishops that is transparent and argumented as it should be, another satellite Metropolitan will be installed to fit the plans of the ex-communist DS (Dyrzhavna Sigurnost) and the Ruling elite. If that happens soon we'll not only have a Real Orthodox Church Hierarchy chosen according to canons and due to Church Statues as it should be but an Assembly of Pseudo Hierarchs who acts in secrecy and conspiracy schemes in the same way as any Masonic Lodge.

In other words, we'll have Church but a faked artificial business and party like organization, where decisions are not taken by the Creator of the Church the Lord Jesus Christ and his true followers the Apostles (that are the Bishops and Metropolitans), but we'll have a secular organization with Big beauty Church temple (museums without real cleargy) and a Monasteries full of pedophiles, gays and people who want to live an easy life and enjoy themselves instead of spiritually persevere and lead the hard spiritual fight and pray for the well-being of Bulgarians, Bulgaria and the Rest of the Christians.

Lets pray fervently until the end of the fasting, that the Metropolitans who took that bad decision will change their mind and put back in the list the real venerable people and not have a list of people who are dependent and unworthy due to lack of Higher education, a personal scandals, they were involved like Bishop Sionij or have another kind of spots, that can be easily researched even by a simple few Internet searches in Google.

Nomatter who is worthy or not, the main thing is that Sliven Eparchy should be headed by a person who is wanted in the Eparchy and such person according to the clear votes of Eparchical electors is Ierotey, the problem is that Ierotey is not playing well with the dark businesses and does count the interest of people, and does not randomly do what is being asked for with the only goal to make money and he doesn't follow blindly rules by Metr. Nikolay or whoever else that is not working for the good of True Church of Christ (the assembly of all people believing in Jesus Christ as we theEastern Orthodox believe) and thus he is automatically becoming unworthy. As worthy is considered those who serves the Business and the Internet of the powerful authorities of this day.

 

Improve haproxy logging with custom log-format for better readiability

Friday, April 12th, 2024

Haproxy logging is a very big topic, worthy of many articles, but unfortunately not enough is written on the topic, perhaps for the reason haproxy is free software and most people who use it doesn't follow the philosophy of free software sharing but want to keep, the acquired knowledge on the topic for their own and if possible in the capitalist world most of us live to use it for a Load Balancer haproxy consultancy, consultancy fee or in their daily job as system administrators (web and middleware) or cloud specialist etc. 🙂

Having a good haproxy logging is very important as you need to debug issues with backend machines or some other devices throwing traffic to the HA Proxy.
Thus it is important to build a haproxy logging in a way that it provides most important information and the information is as simple as possible, so everyone can understand what is in without much effort and same time it contains enough debug information, to help you if you want to use the output logs with Graylog filters or process data with some monitoring advanced tool as Prometheus etc.

In our effort to optimize the way haproxy logs via a configured handler that sends the haproxy output to logging handler configured to log through rsyslog, we have done some experiments with logging arguments and came up with few variants, that we liked. In that article the idea is I share this set of logging  parameters with hope to help some other guy that starts with haproxy to build a good logging readable and easy to process with scripts log output from haproxy.

The criterias for a decent haproxy logging used are:

1. Log should be simple but not dumb
2. Should be concrete (and not too much complicated)
3. Should be easy to read for the novice and advanced sysadmin

Before starting, have to say that building the logging format seems tedious task but to make it fit your preference could take a lot of time, especially as logging parameters naming is hard to remember, thus the haproxy logging documentation log-format description table comes really handy:

Haproxy log-format paremeters ASCII table
 

 Please refer to the table for log-format defined variables :
 

+---+------+-----------------------------------------------+-------------+
| R | var  | field name (8.2.2 and 8.2.3 for description)  | type        |
+---+------+-----------------------------------------------+-------------+
|   | %o   | special variable, apply flags on all next var |             |
+---+------+-----------------------------------------------+-------------+
|   | %B   | bytes_read           (from server to client)  | numeric     |
| H | %CC  | captured_request_cookie                       | string      |
| H | %CS  | captured_response_cookie                      | string      |
|   | %H   | hostname                                      | string      |
| H | %HM  | HTTP method (ex: POST)                        | string      |
| H | %HP  | HTTP request URI without query string (path)  | string      |
| H | %HQ  | HTTP request URI query string (ex: ?bar=baz)  | string      |
| H | %HU  | HTTP request URI (ex: /foo?bar=baz)           | string      |
| H | %HV  | HTTP version (ex: HTTP/1.0)                   | string      |
|   | %ID  | unique-id                                     | string      |
|   | %ST  | status_code                                   | numeric     |
|   | %T   | gmt_date_time                                 | date        |
|   | %Ta  | Active time of the request (from TR to end)   | numeric     |
|   | %Tc  | Tc                                            | numeric     |
|   | %Td  | Td = Tt - (Tq + Tw + Tc + Tr)                 | numeric     |
|   | %Tl  | local_date_time                               | date        |
|   | %Th  | connection handshake time (SSL, PROXY proto)  | numeric     |
| H | %Ti  | idle time before the HTTP request             | numeric     |
| H | %Tq  | Th + Ti + TR                                  | numeric     |
| H | %TR  | time to receive the full request from 1st byte| numeric     |
| H | %Tr  | Tr (response time)                            | numeric     |
|   | %Ts  | timestamp                                     | numeric     |
|   | %Tt  | Tt                                            | numeric     |
|   | %Tw  | Tw                                            | numeric     |
|   | %U   | bytes_uploaded       (from client to server)  | numeric     |
|   | %ac  | actconn                                       | numeric     |
|   | %b   | backend_name                                  | string      |
|   | %bc  | beconn      (backend concurrent connections)  | numeric     |
|   | %bi  | backend_source_ip       (connecting address)  | IP          |
|   | %bp  | backend_source_port     (connecting address)  | numeric     |
|   | %bq  | backend_queue                                 | numeric     |
|   | %ci  | client_ip                 (accepted address)  | IP          |
|   | %cp  | client_port               (accepted address)  | numeric     |
|   | %f   | frontend_name                                 | string      |
|   | %fc  | feconn     (frontend concurrent connections)  | numeric     |
|   | %fi  | frontend_ip              (accepting address)  | IP          |
|   | %fp  | frontend_port            (accepting address)  | numeric     |
|   | %ft  | frontend_name_transport ('~' suffix for SSL)  | string      |
|   | %lc  | frontend_log_counter                          | numeric     |
|   | %hr  | captured_request_headers default style        | string      |
|   | %hrl | captured_request_headers CLF style            | string list |
|   | %hs  | captured_response_headers default style       | string      |
|   | %hsl | captured_response_headers CLF style           | string list |
|   | %ms  | accept date milliseconds (left-padded with 0) | numeric     |
|   | %pid | PID                                           | numeric     |
| H | %r   | http_request                                  | string      |
|   | %rc  | retries                                       | numeric     |
|   | %rt  | request_counter (HTTP req or TCP session)     | numeric     |
|   | %s   | server_name                                   | string      |
|   | %sc  | srv_conn     (server concurrent connections)  | numeric     |
|   | %si  | server_IP                   (target address)  | IP          |
|   | %sp  | server_port                 (target address)  | numeric     |
|   | %sq  | srv_queue                                     | numeric     |
| S | %sslc| ssl_ciphers (ex: AES-SHA)                     | string      |
| S | %sslv| ssl_version (ex: TLSv1)                       | string      |
|   | %t   | date_time      (with millisecond resolution)  | date        |
| H | %tr  | date_time of HTTP request                     | date        |
| H | %trg | gmt_date_time of start of HTTP request        | date        |
| H | %trl | local_date_time of start of HTTP request      | date        |
|   | %ts  | termination_state                             | string      |
| H | %tsc | termination_state with cookie status          | string      |
+---+------+-----------------------------------------------+-------------+
R = Restrictions : H = mode http only ; S = SSL only


Our custom log-format built in order to fulfill our needs is as this:

log-format %ci:%cp\ %H\ [%t]\ [%f\ %fi:%fp]\ [%b/%s\ %si:%sp]\ %Tw/%Tc/%Tt\ %B\ %ts\ %ac/%fc/%bc/%sc/%sq/%bq


Once you place the log-format as a default for all haproxy frontend / backends or for a custom defined ones, the output you will get when tailing the log is:

# tail -f /var/log/haproxy.log

Apr  5 21:47:19  10.42.73.83:23262 haproxy-fqdn-hostname.com [05/Apr/2024:21:46:23.879] [ft_FRONTEND_NAME 10.46.108.6:61310] [bk_BACKEND_NAME/bk_appserv3 10.75.226.88:61310] 1/0/55250 55 sD 4/2/1/0/0/0
Apr  5 21:48:14  10.42.73.83:57506 haproxy-fqdn-hostname.com [05/Apr/2024:21:47:18.925] [ft_FRONTEND_NAME 10.46.108.6:61310] [bk_BACKEND_NAME//bk_appserv1 10.35.242.134:61310] 1/0/55236 55 sD 4/2/1/0/0/0
Apr  5 21:49:09  10.42.73.83:46520 haproxy-fqdn-hostname.com [05/Apr/2024:21:48:13.956] [ft_FRONTEND_NAME 10.46.108.6:61310] [bk_BACKEND_NAME//bk_appserv2 10.75.226.89:61310] 1/0/55209 55 sD 4/2/1/0/0/0


If you don't care about extra space and logs being filled with more naming, another variant of above log-format, that makes it even more readable even for most novice sys admin or programmer would look like this:

log-format [%t]\ %H\ [IN_IP]\ %ci:%cp\ [FT_NAME]\ %f:%fp\ [FT_IP]\ %fi:%fp\ [BK_NAME]\ [%b/%s:%sp]\ [BK_IP]\ %si:%sp\ [TIME_WAIT]\ {%Tw/%Tc/%Tt}\ [CONN_STATE]\ {%B\ %ts}\ [STATUS]\ [%ac/%fc/%bc/%sc/%sq/%bq]

Once you apply the config test the haproxy.cfg to make sure no syntax errors during copy / paste from this page

haproxy-serv:~# haproxy -c -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg
Configuration file is valid


Next restart graceously haproxy 

haproxy-serv:~# /usr/sbin/haproxy -D -f /etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg -p /var/run/haproxy.pid -sf $(cat /var/run/haproxy.pid)


Once you reload haproxy graceously without loosing the established connections in stead of restarting it completely via systemd sysctl restart haproxy:

 

2024-04-05T21:46:03+02:00 localhost haproxy[1897731]: 193.200.198.195:50714 haproxy-fqdn-hostname.com [05/Apr/2024:21:46:03.012] [FrotnendProd 10.55.0.20:27800] [BackendProd/<NOSRV> -:-] -1/-1/0 0 — 4/1/0/0/0/0
2024-04-05T21:46:03+02:00 localhost haproxy[1897731]: 193.100.193.189:54290 haproxy-fqdn-hostname.com
[05/Apr/2024:21:46:03.056] [FrotnendProd 10.55.0.20:27900] [BackendProd/<NOSRV> -:-] -1/-1/0 0 — 4/4/3/0/0/0
2024-04-05T21:46:03+02:00 localhost haproxy[1897731]: 193.100.193.190:26778 haproxy-fqdn-hostname.com
[05/Apr/2024:21:46:03.134] [FrotnendProd 10.55.0.20:27900] [BackendProd/tsefas02s 10.35.242.134:27900] 1/-1/0 0 CC 4/4/3/0/0/0

Note that in that log localhost haproxy[pid] is written by rsyslog, you can filter it out by modifying rsyslogd configurations

The only problem with this log-format is not everyone wants to have to much repeating information pointer on which field is what, but I personally liked this one as well because using it even though occuping much more space, makes the log much easier to process with perl or python scripting for data visualize and very for programs that does data or even "big data" analysis.

How to RIP audio CD and convert to MP3 format on Linux

Thursday, April 11th, 2024

I've been given a very tedious task to Copy music from Audio CD Drive to MP3 / MP4 file format and then copy the content to external Flash drive.
Doing so is pretty trivial, you just need to have a CD / DVD rom on your computer something that becomes rare nowadays and then you need to have installed a bunch of software, if you don't already have it as i've pointed in my previous article Howto craete Music Audio CD from MP3 files, create playable WAV format audio CD Albums from MP3s.

Creating a Audio CD from an MP3 collection is exactly the opposite to what is aim't now (to copy the content of a CD to a computer and prepare it for A Car MP3 player).

1. RIPing audio CDs to WAV and Conver to MP3 from terminal
 

On Linux there is  many ways to do it and many tools that can do it for your both graphical and command line.
But as I prefer command line to do stuff, in this article I'll mention the quickest and most elementary one which is done in 2 steps.

1. Use a tool to dump the CD Audio music to Tracks in WAV format
2. Convert the WAV to MP3 format

We'll need cdparanoia tool installed as well as ffmpeg.

If you don't have them installed do:

# apt-get install –yes cdparanoia dvd+rw-tools cdw cdrdao audiotools cdlabelgen dvd+rw-tools wodim ffmpeg lame normalize-audio libavcodec58

Next create the directory where you want to dump the .wav files.

# mkdir /home/hipo/audiorip/cd1
# cd /home/hipo/audiorip/cd1

Next assumng the Audio CD is plugged in the CD reader, dump its full content into track*.WAV files with cmd:

# paranoia -B

This will produce you the dumped songs into .wav files.

hipo@noah:~/audiorip/cd1$ ls -al *.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root  10278284 мар 25 22:49 track01.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root  21666668 мар 25 22:50 track02.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root  88334108 мар 25 22:53 track03.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root  53453948 мар 25 22:55 track04.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 100846748 мар 25 22:58 track05.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root  41058908 мар 25 22:59 track06.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 105952940 мар 25 23:02 track07.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root  50074124 мар 25 23:03 track08.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root  92555948 мар 25 23:06 track09.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root  61939964 мар 25 23:07 track10.cdda.wav
-rw-r–r– 1 root root   8521340 мар 25 23:07 track11.cdda.wav

Then you can use a simple for loop with ffmpeg command to conver the .wav files to .mp3s.

hipo@noah:~/audiorip/cd1$  for i in $( ls -1 *); do ffmpeg -i $i $i.wav.mp3; done
 

ffmpeg version 1.2.12 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Feb 12 2015 18:03:16 with gcc 4.7 (Debian 4.7.2-5)
  configuration: –prefix=/usr –extra-cflags='-g -O2 -fstack-protector –param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security ' –extra-ldflags='-Wl,-z,relro' –cc='ccache cc' –enable-shared –enable-libmp3lame –enable-gpl –enable-nonfree –enable-libvorbis –enable-pthreads –enable-libfaac –enable-libxvid –enable-postproc –enable-x11grab –enable-libgsm –enable-libtheora –enable-libopencore-amrnb –enable-libopencore-amrwb –enable-libx264 –enable-libspeex –enable-nonfree –disable-stripping –enable-libvpx –enable-libschroedinger –disable-encoder=libschroedinger –enable-version3 –enable-libopenjpeg –enable-librtmp –enable-avfilter –enable-libfreetype –enable-libvo-aacenc –disable-decoder=amrnb –enable-libvo-amrwbenc –enable-libaacplus –libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu –disable-vda –enable-libbluray –enable-libcdio –enable-gnutls –enable-frei0r –enable-openssl –enable-libass –enable-libopus –enable-fontconfig –enable-libpulse –disable-mips32r2 –disable-mipsdspr1 –dis  libavutil      52. 18.100 / 52. 18.100
  libavcodec     54. 92.100 / 54. 92.100
  libavformat    54. 63.104 / 54. 63.104
  libavdevice    54.  3.103 / 54.  3.103
  libavfilter     3. 42.103 /  3. 42.103
  libswscale      2.  2.100 /  2.  2.100
  libswresample   0. 17.102 /  0. 17.102
  libpostproc    52.  2.100 / 52.  2.100
[wav @ 0x66c900] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5015510 microseconds
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.0 : stereo
Input #0, wav, from 'track01.cdda.wav':
  Duration: 00:00:23.19, bitrate: 1411 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Audio: pcm_s16le ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 1411 kb/s
Output #0, mp3, to 'track01.cdda.wav.wav.mp3':
  Metadata:
    TSSE            : Lavf54.63.104
    Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (pcm_s16le -> libmp3lame)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
size=     363kB time=00:00:23.19 bitrate= 128.2kbits/s    
video:0kB audio:363kB subtitle:0 global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.058402%
ffmpeg version 1.2.12 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Feb 12 2015 18:03:16 with gcc 4.7 (Debian 4.7.2-5)
  configuration: –prefix=/usr –extra-cflags='-g -O2 -fstack-protector –param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security ' –extra-ldflags='-Wl,-z,relro' –cc='ccache cc' –enable-shared –enable-libmp3lame –enable-gpl –enable-nonfree –enable-libvorbis –enable-pthreads –enable-libfaac –enable-libxvid –enable-postproc –enable-x11grab –enable-libgsm –enable-libtheora –enable-libopencore-amrnb –enable-libopencore-amrwb –enable-libx264 –enable-libspeex –enable-nonfree –disable-stripping –enable-libvpx –enable-libschroedinger –disable-encoder=libschroedinger –enable-version3 –enable-libopenjpeg –enable-librtmp –enable-avfilter –enable-libfreetype –enable-libvo-aacenc –disable-decoder=amrnb –enable-libvo-amrwbenc –enable-libaacplus –libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu –disable-vda –enable-libbluray –enable-libcdio –enable-gnutls –enable-frei0r –enable-openssl –enable-libass –enable-libopus –enable-fontconfig –enable-libpulse –disable-mips32r2 –disable-mipsdspr1 –dis  libavutil      52. 18.100 / 52. 18.100
  libavcodec     54. 92.100 / 54. 92.100
  libavformat    54. 63.104 / 54. 63.104
  libavdevice    54.  3.103 / 54.  3.103
  libavfilter     3. 42.103 /  3. 42.103
  libswscale      2.  2.100 /  2.  2.100
  libswresample   0. 17.102 /  0. 17.102
  libpostproc    52.  2.100 / 52.  2.100
[mp3 @ 0x66c900] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5015510 microseconds
Input #0, mp3, from 'track01.cdda.wav.mp3':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf54.63.104
  Duration: 00:00:23.22, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 128 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p, 128 kb/s
File 'track01.cdda.wav.mp3.wav.mp3' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
Output #0, mp3, to 'track01.cdda.wav.mp3.wav.mp3':
  Metadata:
    TSSE            : Lavf54.63.104
    Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mp3 -> libmp3lame)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
Trying to remove 1152 samples, but the queue is emptys    
size=     363kB time=00:00:23.24 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    
video:0kB audio:363kB subtitle:0 global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.058336%
ffmpeg version 1.2.12 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Feb 12 2015 18:03:16 with gcc 4.7 (Debian 4.7.2-5)
  configuration: –prefix=/usr –extra-cflags='-g -O2 -fstack-protector –param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security ' –extra-ldflags='-Wl,-z,relro' –cc='ccache cc' –enable-shared –enable-libmp3lame –enable-gpl –enable-nonfree –enable-libvorbis –enable-pthreads –enable-libfaac –enable-libxvid –enable-postproc –enable-x11grab –enable-libgsm –enable-libtheora –enable-libopencore-amrnb –enable-libopencore-amrwb –enable-libx264 –enable-libspeex –enable-nonfree –disable-stripping –enable-libvpx –enable-libschroedinger –disable-encoder=libschroedinger –enable-version3 –enable-libopenjpeg –enable-librtmp –enable-avfilter –enable-libfreetype –enable-libvo-aacenc –disable-decoder=amrnb –enable-libvo-amrwbenc –enable-libaacplus –libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu –disable-vda –enable-libbluray –enable-libcdio –enable-gnutls –enable-frei0r –enable-openssl –enable-libass –enable-libopus –enable-fontconfig –enable-libpulse –disable-mips32r2 –disable-mipsdspr1 –dis  libavutil      52. 18.100 / 52. 18.100
  libavcodec     54. 92.100 / 54. 92.100
  libavformat    54. 63.104 / 54. 63.104
  libavdevice    54.  3.103 / 54.  3.103
  libavfilter     3. 42.103 /  3. 42.103
  libswscale      2.  2.100 /  2.  2.100
  libswresample   0. 17.102 /  0. 17.102
  libpostproc    52.  2.100 / 52.  2.100
[mp3 @ 0x66c900] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5015510 microseconds
Input #0, mp3, from 'track01.cdda.wav.mp3.wav.mp3':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf54.63.104
  Duration: 00:00:23.25, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 128 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p, 128 kb/s
Output #0, mp3, to 'track01.cdda.wav.mp3.wav.mp3.wav.mp3':
  Metadata:
    TSSE            : Lavf54.63.104
    Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mp3 -> libmp3lame)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
Trying to remove 1152 samples, but the queue is emptys    
size=     364kB time=00:00:23.27 bitrate= 128.1kbits/s    
video:0kB audio:364kB subtitle:0 global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.058271%
ffmpeg version 1.2.12 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built on Feb 12 2015 18:03:16 with gcc 4.7 (Debian 4.7.2-5)
  configuration: –prefix=/usr –extra-cflags='-g -O2 -fstack-protector –param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Werror=format-security ' –extra-ldflags='-Wl,-z,relro' –cc='ccache cc' –enable-shared –enable-libmp3lame –enable-gpl –enable-nonfree –enable-libvorbis –enable-pthreads –enable-libfaac –enable-libxvid –enable-postproc –enable-x11grab –enable-libgsm –enable-libtheora –enable-libopencore-amrnb –enable-libopencore-amrwb –enable-libx264 –enable-libspeex –enable-nonfree –disable-stripping –enable-libvpx –enable-libschroedinger –disable-encoder=libschroedinger –enable-version3 –enable-libopenjpeg –enable-librtmp –enable-avfilter –enable-libfreetype –enable-libvo-aacenc –disable-decoder=amrnb –enable-libvo-amrwbenc –enable-libaacplus –libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu –disable-vda –enable-libbluray –enable-libcdio –enable-gnutls –enable-frei0r –enable-openssl –enable-libass –enable-libopus –enable-fontconfig –enable-libpulse –disable-mips32r2 –disable-mipsdspr1 –dis  libavutil      52. 18.100 / 52. 18.100
  libavcodec     54. 92.100 / 54. 92.100
  libavformat    54. 63.104 / 54. 63.104
  libavdevice    54.  3.103 / 54.  3.103
  libavfilter     3. 42.103 /  3. 42.103
  libswscale      2.  2.100 /  2.  2.100
  libswresample   0. 17.102 /  0. 17.102
  libpostproc    52.  2.100 / 52.  2.100
[wav @ 0x66c900] max_analyze_duration 5000000 reached at 5015510 microseconds
Guessed Channel Layout for  Input Stream #0.0 : stereo
Input #0, wav, from 'track02.cdda.wav':
  Duration: 00:02:21.28, bitrate: 1411 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Audio: pcm_s16le ([1][0][0][0] / 0x0001), 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 1411 kb/s
Output #0, mp3, to 'track02.cdda.wav.wav.mp3':
  Metadata:
    TSSE            : Lavf54.63.104
    Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16p
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (pcm_s16le -> libmp3lame)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help


Finally remove the old unneded .wav files and enjoy the mp3s with vlc / mplayer / mpg123 or whatever player you like.

hipo@noah:~/audiorip/cd1$  rm -f *.wav


Now mount the flash drive and copy th files into it.

# mkdir /media/usb-drive
# mount /dev/sdc1 /media/usb-drive/
# mkdir -p /media/usb-drive/cd1
# fdisk -l |grep -i sdc1

/dev/sdc1 on /media/usb-drive type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=utf8,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro

# cp -rpf ~/audiorip/cd1*.mp3 /mnt/usb-drive/cd1
# umount /dev/sdc1


2. RIPping audio CD on Linux with rip-audio-cds-linux.sh  script
 

#!/bin/bash
# A simple shell script to rip audio cd and create mp3 using lame
# and cdparanoia utilities.
# —————————————————————————-
# Written by Vivek Gite <http://www.cyberciti.biz/>
# (c) 2006 nixCraft under GNU GPL v2.0+
# —————————————————————————-
read -p "Starting in 5 seconds ( to abort press CTRL + C ) " -t 5
cdparanoia -B
for i in *.wav
do
    lame –vbr-new -b 360 "$i" "${i%%.cdda.wav}.mp3"
    rm -f "$i"
done


If you need to automate the task of dumping the audio CDs to WAV and convert them to MP3s you can do it via a small shell script like the one provided by cyberciti.biz that uses paranoia and lame commands in a shell script loop. Script rip-audio-cds-linux.sh is here

3. Dump Audio CD to MP3 with Graphical program ( ripperx ) 

By default most modern Linux distributions including the Debian GNU / Linux based ones has the ripperx in the default repositories, as well as the tool is downloadable and compilable from source from sourceforge.net 

ripping-audio-cds-linux-graphical-program-ripperx-tool

# apt-cache show ripperx|grep -i descript -A3 -B3
Architecture: amd64
Depends: cdparanoia, vorbis-tools (>= 1.0beta3), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.12.4), libc6 (>= 2.14), libcairo2 (>= 1.2.4), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.12.6), libfreetype6 (>= 2.2.1), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.0), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.16.0), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.8.0), libpango-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libpangocairo-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libpangoft2-1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libstdc++6 (>= 5.2), libtag1v5 (>= 1.9.1-2.2~)
Suggests: sox, cdtool, mpg321, flac, toolame
Description-en: GTK-based audio CD ripper/encoder
 ripperX is a graphical interface for ripping CD audio tracks (using
 cdparanoia) and then encoding them into the Ogg, FLAC, or MP2/3
 formats using the vorbis tools, FLAC, toolame or other available
 MP3 encoders.
 .
 It includes support for CDDB lookups and ID3v2 tags.
Description-md5: cdeabf4ef72c33d57aecc4b4e2fd5952
Homepage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ripperx/
Tag: hardware::storage, hardware::storage:cd, interface::graphical,
 interface::x11, role::program, scope::application, uitoolkit::gtk,

# apt install –yes ripperx


https://www.pc-freak.net/images/ripperx-linux-gui-rip-audio-cds-tool

That's all folks.
Enjoy !

Dormition of Saint Methodius excerpt from the Biography letter on Saint Methodius from Saint Clement of Ohrid

Sunday, April 7th, 2024

Saint-Methodius-Dormition-enlightener-of-the-Bulgarian-Slavs-author-of-alphabet

..Both on his father's and on his mother's side, he came not from a simple, but from a very good and honorable family, known first of all to God, and then to the king and to the whole Thessalonica (Solun) region, which was also evident from his appearance. That is why the princes, who loved him since his childhood, held dignified conversations with him.

Finally, the king, learning of his abilities, gave him the rule of a Slavic principality – as if he foresaw, I would say, that he would send him as a teacher and first archbishop of the Slavs, so that he could learn all their customs and gradually come to love them .

Having spent many years in this principality, and seen many tumults and crimes in this life, he exchanged his aspirations for gloomy earthly affairs for heavenly thoughts; for he would not trouble his noble soul with things that do not abide forever.

Having found a suitable occasion, he released himself from the princeship, and going to Olympus, where the holy fathers lived, he cut his hair, put on a black garment, and obeyed obediently, fully fulfilling all the monastic rule and diligently occupying himself with books.

When some occasion arose, the king sent his brother [Constantine] to the Khazars, and he took him with him to help. Because there were Jews there who blasphemed the Christian faith very much.
And he said, "I am ready to die for the Christian faith," and he did not disobey, but went and helped his younger brother as a servant, obeying him.
And so he by prayer, and the Philosopher by word, overthrew the Jews and put them to shame.

...And then God revealed the Slavonic writings to the Philosopher, and he, arranging the letters and composing the [Gospel] discourse, took the road to Moravia, taking Methodius with him. And he again began to obediently obey and serve the Philosopher and teach with him.

… After many days, when the Philosopher was about to appear before [God’s] judgment, he said to his brother Methodius: "Here, brother, we were a pair harnessed to draw a furrow, and I, having finished my day, fall into the fields .
You, on the other hand, love the mountain too much; but do not forsake your teaching for the sake of the mountain, for by it you can better be saved.”

…On all the roads, he fell from the devil into many calamities: in desolate places – among robbers, on the sea – in violent disturbances, on the rivers – in sudden sandy shoals, so that the apostolic words were fulfilled with him: "Misery from robbers, miseries by sea, troubles by rivers, troubles by false brothers; in labors and pains, often in vigils, often in hunger and thirst," as well as other afflictions that the apostle mentions.

Then, putting aside all [life’s] noise, and entrusting all his cares to God, he first appointed from among his disciples two priests, good scribes, and quickly translated from the Greek language into Slavonic all the [Bible] books in their entirety, with except the Maccabees, for six months, beginning in the month of March until the twenty-sixth day of the month of October.

When he had finished, he gave worthy praise and glory to God, who gives such grace and such quick success. And by serving together with his clergy the holy mysterios elevation, he celebrated the memory of Saint Demetrius.
Because before that he had translated together with the Philosopher (Kiril) only the Psalter, the Gospel with the Apostle and selected church services. And now he also translated the Nomocanon, that is, the church rules, and the books of the Fathers…

He took, therefore, that the time was approaching for him to receive rest from his sufferings and a reward for his many labors. … On Palm Sunday, when all the people had gathered, he entered the church and, although weak, pronounced blessings for the king, for the prince, for the clergy and for all the people and said: "Keep me, children, until the third day." So it happened.

On the third day at dawn he said: "Into your hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit," and he died in the hands of the priests on the sixth day of the month of April, indict three, in the year six thousand three hundred and ninety-three (6393) from the creation of the whole world, ( 885 A .D.).

His disciples placed him in a coffin, gave him due honors by performing a funeral service in Latin, Greek, and Slavonic, and laid him in the cathedral church. And he joined his fathers and the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, and the martyrs. An innumerable people gathered, people who saw him off with candles, weeping for the good teacher and shepherd: men and women, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, widows and orphans, foreigners and natives, infirm and healthy – all [lamented] him who was all things to all, that he might win all.

Excerpt from writtings of
Saint Clement of Ohrid:(St. Kliment Ohridski)
From "Extensive Life of Archbishop Methodius"

Translation of Hristo Kodov based on the text of the Assumption Collection from the 12th-13th centuries.
Old Bulgarian literature. Volume IV. Biographical works. Ed. "Bulgarian Writer", Sofia. 1986
(See the full text in Bulgarian – HERE

 

Troparion of St. Equal to the Apostles Methodius

Through Your Saint Methodius, O Christ, grant mercy to us who perform the bright celebration of his Assumption, open the doors of the Kingdom to us, free us from the chains of our many sins, and through his intercession, Lord, have mercy on us.

Kontaktion

Let us praise the divine and faithful Methodius, people, and praise him with love as a great shepherd of the Slavs, an honest servant of the Trinity and a banisher of heresies: he prays unceasingly for us all.

Second Sunday of Great Lent Saint Gregory Palamas – Hesychasm as a mean of Theosis (Union of of God and Man through Deification) and the Orthodox Christian Teaching of God’s Energies

Monday, April 1st, 2024

Saint-Agios-Grigorios-Palamas-christian-orthodox-icon-Teacher-of-Hesechasm-and-Theosis-Lord-Jesus-Christ-have-mercy-on-me-the-sinner.

These week passed the Second Sunday of Lent, for one more year prat of Church Lent Calendar. This Pre-Easter Great Lent holiday marks one of the spiritually important stops along the way and our participation in the Calvary sufferings of our Divine Master, and above all in His glorious Resurrection, that is repeated throughout the 40 days of Great Lent.
In the Western Church in the Roman Catholic Christiandome
, Saint Gregory of Palama is little known as he is one of those typical Eastern Orthodox Saints that did not make fame in the West as the western christian, has departed from its ancient Christian teachings and put more importance on didactical thinking of the world (didactism) and scholastism and left away the importance of heart as part of the restoration of soul and unification with God in the completenes of work of attaining salvation and attendance of God's energy in the Eternal Soul, here and now throughout this temporary life. God's energies are not the same as God itself and Saint Gregory Palamas give a very in depth and complete hierarchical structure of different kind of energies that God used to built the world and the createres starting from creation of the Lights and Energies of the World, the Space, The Stars, Galaxies, The Sun, The Moon the Earth and the rest of the multitude of Pleiades that comtemporary astronomy knows to the tiniest plant and creater animal towards the crown of his creation the Man and Woman (Adam and Eve)..
The topic of teaching of Hesychasm is enormous and in this article, I'll be unable to give even a very brief of overview of it as Hesychasm. Hesychasm was a practice that perhaps started even in the Old Testament and practiced by the Ancient Prophets and continued first in the Holy Apostles, later by the Archibishops, Bishops, priest, deacons, monks, martyrs towards the last layman in the church. 
In short it is rooted in the Simple repeation of The Lord's Prayer "Lord Jesus Christ Son of the Blessed God have Mercy on me the Sinner!", again and again combined with a very specific breathing in and breathing out. The first part of the Prayer "Lord Jesus Christ Son of the Blessed God" is said during breathing in while the second one "have mercy on me the sinner" is said during breathing out, the inhailed air within trachea. This is continued as practice by the Prayer practicioner all and on throughout day and night with the blessing of an Spiritual Elder or a practicioner who has received the prayer from his teacher and the practice is to be done, only with a blessing of a experienced spiritual elder (staretz) and not to be done on by own will. Usually the prayer is being transferred from Elder to a Apprentice pupil, just like the (Son / Daughter) Kid receives his DNA from the parent, thus practicing it without the proper blessing too much might be dangerous and lead the practicioner in a very dangerous realm of proudness for thinking one being more enlightened than the rest (more superior) more knowledable (or more proud – that is a deadly sin we fight against), throughout our whole life as christians. 

Theosis is also a Topic that multitude of Books cannot describe as to be attained is a hard path through a combination of a practical knowledge about God and his laws and the Theoria (the intellectual attaindance of God's energies throgh prayer). The topic of Theosis is being exposed and discussed of tens of hundred thousand of various books and thus the simple path to attain it throgh constant repetition of Prayer by illuminating the Soul, instead of doing intellectual exercises as was thought in the west would be perhaps revolutionary for roman catholics and protestant western people.

But enought talk lets see shortly the biography of Saint Gregory Palamaes and why he is so important for Eastern Orthodox Christians, that the Church decided to have a special Sunday every year during the period of great Lent.

Second-Sunday-of-Great-Lent-Saint-Gregory-Palamas

When did the saint Saint Greagory of Palames lived?
 

Saint Gregory lived in the 14th century. This is also the time of the teaching of hesychasm, which we mainly associate with the personality of Sаint Gregory, but the truth is the tradition of hesychasm was an ancient tradition practiced even by apostles and every christian since the time of Christ through the centuries, traditioan that was often neglected by many through the centuries, just to be retold and shown again in the early mid centuries in 14 century.

St. Gregory was born in 1296 in a family of refugees from Asia Minor. The surname Palama indicates a noble ancestry, since at that time ordinary people had only names and nicknames. Having completed his education in Constantinople, Gregory Palamas had the reputation of a brilliant connoisseur (well knowing the phylosophy) of Aristotle.

Around 1315, he and his brother became monks on Athos. On Mount Athos, Gregory lived in various monasteries, until he finally settled in the hermitage of Saint Sava, which was attached to the Great Lavra of Saint Athanasius of Athos. Living for most of his time in this hermitage, Gregory attended the Lavra to participate in the common services and sacraments.[1]
 

Short Movie about the Cave of Saint Gregory Palama in (Beroea) Veria in Russian

Gregory later became Archbishop of Thessalonica. He died in 1359, and his memory is celebrated two times in the year in the Church calendar (as many of the saints) on November 14, as well as on today's second Sunday of Great Lent, that in 2024 falls on 30th of March.

Saint Gregory Palamas defends the position that, although unknowable in His essence, God is knowable through His external appearances, energies.

God's energies are the grace poured out by God upon His creation. Although not God in His essence, the divine energies are not something created either, "they flow eternally from the one essence of the Holy Trinity.".

The times in which Saint Gregory lived were very unrestful, the Byzantine empire has been attacked and big parts of it already conquered by the Ottoman Turks and before he before he became archibishopship of Thessaloniki has been captured by the invading turks and has lived as a captive.
He went through many hardships, lived as a hermit and wanted to live a life in total seclusion and isolation of the world, just like the ancient hermit saints, a life of continuous prayer through which he wanted to help the world and reunite himself and the world through himself with God the creator of all things.

Opponents of Saint Gregory and his teaching of Theosis were the Calabrian monk Barlaam and Gregory Akindin. According to them, the divine essence exists, its created consequences also exist, but there are no divine actions. They accused St. Gregory of distorting religious truths. The fight against saint Gregory by those two monks with heretical partly pro-scholastic ideas were also perhaps related to the partial distancing of people from true Orthodoxy because of the Unia (religios union with the Roman Catholics) and acceptence of some heretical ideas that wre already taking part in the Roman Catholic Church after the Great Schism in year 1054 in which the Eastern Church distanced from the Western Church because of both dogmatical, historical and theological reasons and most importanly the false pretencies of the Pope to be the head of the whole Wordly Church as well as the inclusion of the heretical and unknown in the ancient Church "filioque", claiming the false and unknown dogma prior to 8th century that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and The Son, something that is not in the Niceo-Constantinople Creed of Faith, decided by the Holy Fathers in the Ecumenical Councils to be the official confession of the whole church about the Dogmatical definitions of faith.

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Saint Gregory Palama

Saint Gregory's Triads

In response to Barlaam's attacks, Palamas wrote nine treatises entitled "Triads For The Defense of Those Who Practice Sacred Quietude". The treatises are called "triads" because they were organized as three sets of three treatises.

The Triads were written in three stages. The first triad was written in the second half of the 1330s AD and are based on personal discussions between Palamas and Barlaam although Barlaam is never mentioned by name.

Gregory's teaching was affirmed by the superiors and principal monks of Mount Athos, who met in synod during 1340–1. In early 1341, the monastic communities of Mount Athos wrote the Hagioritic Tome under the supervision and inspiration of Palamas. Although the tome does not mention Barlaam by name, the work clearly takes aim at Barlaam's views. The tome provides a systematic presentation of Palamas' teaching and became the fundamental textbook for Byzantine mysticism.

In response, Barlaam drafted "Against the Messalians", which attacked Gregory by name for the first time. Barlaam derisively called the hesychasts omphalopsychoi (men with their souls in their navels) and accused them of the heresy of Messalianism, also known as Bogomilism in the East. According to Meyendorff, Barlaam viewed "any claim of real and conscious experience of God as Messalianism".

saint-Theodosious-of-Tarnovo-icon
Saint Thedosious of Tarnovo a Bulgarian saint one of the Pupils of Saint Gregory Palama and one of the main Hesychasm teacher and disperser of ancient Christian Tradition of Hesychasm within Bulgaria,
Many of his Pupils later spread the Tradition to the rest of Orhodox Newer Local Churches

Barlaam also took exception to the doctrine held by the hesychasts as to the uncreated nature of the light, the experience of which was said to be the goal of hesychast practice, regarding it as heretical and blasphemous. It was maintained by the hesychasts to be of divine origin and to be identical to the light which had been manifested to Jesus' disciples on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration. Barlaam viewed this doctrine of "uncreated light" to be polytheistic because as it postulated two eternal substances, a visible and an invisible God. Barlaam accuses the use of the Jesus Prayer as being a practice of Bogomilism (a heretical movement that was plaguing the Church of 14th century and who has been publicly refused in Local Church council in Medieval Bulgaria organized by the Bulgarian Patriarch of that time was Theodosious, a council who was requested by the insistance Saint Theodosius of Tarnovo", due to the many heretical teachings plaguing the Bulgarian Church of that time)

The second triad quotes some of Barlaam's writings directly. In response to this second triad, Barlaam composed the treatise "Against the Messalians" linking the hesychasts to the Messalians and thereby accusing them of heresy.

In the third Triad, Palamas refuted Barlaam's charge of Messalianism by demonstrating that the hesychasts did not share the antisacramentalism of the Messalians nor did they claim to physically see the essence of God with their eyes. According to Fr. John Meyendorff "Gregory Palamas orients his entire polemic against Barlaam the Calabrian on the issue of the Hellenic wisdom which he considers to be the main source of Barlaam's errors."

As we have said, we associate the personality of St. Gregory with the teachings of Hesychasm. Hesychasm is based on man's ability to attain godlikeness (theosis).

"Worship is supernatural participation in the essential energy of God and union with Him" [3]. This assimilation to God is achieved through the incessant silent prayer (Greek's word hesychia) of the practitioner of hesychasm and the gift of divine grace, in which "man becomes all that God is, except for the essence".

To achieve hesychia, hermit-monks constantly practiced the so-called Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner!"). According to many fathers, this prayer contains the whole gospel in an abbreviated form. We must note that even today the Jesus Prayer is important in the lives of both monks and lay people. Pay attention to the fact that sometimes its use must be done with spiritual-pastoral guidance.

The vision of the Taborian light of grace, which the apostles saw at the time of the Transfiguration of their Master, is a key moment in the whole teaching of hesychasm. Most of the Fathers who speak of the Transfiguration, such as Saint Basil the Great, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint John Chrysostom, etc., assert that the nature of the light which the apostles saw on the mountain was divine and uncreated. This is exactly what Saint Gregory Palamas defended in the 14th century. This is also the proof that his teaching was not new, but the ancient teaching of the Church.

According to St. Gregory, the Light of Tabor is divine. Through it, man communicates with God, who gives him His grace. We know that the grace of God is given most fully in the sacraments of the Church. And above all, in the Holy Eucharist – communion with the body and blood of our Savior. As noted by Professor Georgi Kapriev: "Palama explains that not just nature or just the soul, but the entire hypostasis of the faithful partakes of the worshiping bread and chalice"[5].

In the end, the side of the hesychasmists wins. A council of 1341 condemned Barlaam, but nevertheless some Byzantine theologians continued to protest against Palamas' positions. However, his theology received final conciliar approval successively in 1347 and 1351, as well as posthumously in 1368, when he was canonized as a saint.[6]

In the 14th century, hesychasm was widespread not only among hermits, but also among monks from communal monasteries, and even among many lay people. It is becoming a strong international movement. From Athos, hesychasm spread to Byzantium, and from there to Bulgaria. From Bulgaria, through the so-called "second South Slavic influence", the hesychastic teaching reached Serbia, Wallachia-Moldavia and Russia.[7]

Hesychasm has an influence on the entire "worldview" of the Christian East and its artifacts. This is the time of the so-called Palaeologous Renaissance, which got its name from the ruling dynasty at the time and had its achievements in literature, visual arts and music.

Today, we Christian believers of the 21st century live in a time separated from the life and work of St. Gregory Palamas by more than six centuries. However, our respect for him and his teachings is actually a testimony to our devotion to the teachings of holy Orthodoxy.

The truths that St. Gregory expressed and maintained are valid even now. Many Monks still follow the teachings of Hesychasm and try to constantly repeat in their mind the Lord Prayer "Lord Jesus Christ Son of the Blessed God, Have Mercy on me the Sinner".


The Life of Saint Gregory Palamas and his Teaching on Hesychasm and Theosis 

Today we also need the grace of God, our Creator. Without it, we would become barren trees that would be of no use (cf. Luke 3:9).
Let us more often proceed to prayer and observance of the evangelical commandments for active love for our neighbor. May our communion in the Church of Christ by means of the holy sacraments not cease.
And above all, let us proceed to the holy Eucharist, which is given to us by God "for the good and sanctification of our souls and bodies"[8].

Sources
https://dveri.bg
(Article Source Text in Bulgarian by Priest Ivaylo Borisov)

[1] Cf. Meyendorff, John. Introduction to patristic theology (lecture course for seminaries).

[2] Loski, V. An Essay on the Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church., S., 2005, p. 71.

[3] Kapriev, Greek Byzantine philosophy. Four centers of synthesis. S., 2001, p. 289.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., p. 294.

[6] Cf. Mayendorf, J. Byzantine Theology. S., 1996, p. 102.

[7] Cf. Kuyumdzhieva, S. Old Bulgarian music. S., 2011, pp. 90-91.

[8] From the first thanksgiving prayer after Holy Communion.