Posts Tagged ‘orthodox christianity’

The Church Rejoices + Daniil Metropolitan of Vidin chosen and Enthroned as Head of Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Dostoin / Axios !

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2024

The Church Rejoices + Daniil Metropolitan of Vidin chosen and Enthroned as Head of Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Dostoin / Axios !

Patriarch_Daniil-the-new-canonically-and-officially-elected-Patriarch-of-Bulgaria-and-Metropolitan-of-Sofia

Metropolitan Daniil is our Officially and canonically elected Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia (the choice was made in a complex selection system) during a Church national Assembly on 30th of June 2024.

The whole Church rejoices as a dark cloud was over the Church as people were scared, un-worthy patriarch might be selected.

The procedure of selection of new patriarch depends on matching, certain criterias for the candidate.

According to the Ustav of Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Establishment Law document, Church established rules statues)

New Patriarch Candidate should match following criterias:

  • To have been on a cathedra as metropolitan and have governed a diocese for at least 5 years
  • To be not be younger than 50 years of age (should be 50+ years old).
  • To be distinguished within the Church to have right thoughts on the Orthodox faith and the exact observance of church order and laws.
  • To enjoy a good and honorable name both before the people and before the government of the country

Procedure for electing a patriarch

On 20th of June of 2024, after internal voting in the Holy Synod, following the Church statuses, after 42 turns of votes of individually each Bishop and Metropolitan voting for his favorite, the 3 candidates for patriarch were emitted.

1. In the first round, the candidate who collected 2/3 of the votes of the voters present wins
2. If this does not happen, a second round is reached with the two candidates who received the most votes in the first round
3. In the second round, the candidate with a simple majority wins.

The results out of the elections on the Patriarchical choice National Church assembly results were as so:

Three Patriarchical Candidates

 

Three-candidates-for-Patriarch-na-Bulgaria-as-of-20-June-2024.
 

Name Candidate 1st voting 2nd voting
Daniil Metropolitan Vidinsky 51 votes 69 votes
Grigoriy Metropolitan Vrachanski 64 votes 66 votes
Gavriil Metropolitan Lovchanski 19 vote does not qualify


Patriarch Daniel (Bulgarian: Патриарх Даниил, romanized: Patriarh Daniil) has received his monk name after Saint Daniil the Stylite, one of the most notable Stylites in the Church history.

Early life and Education

Secular name Atanas Trendafilov Nikolov (Bulgarian: Атанас Трендафилов Николов; born 2 March 1972) in a town of Smolyan. He was born in a good and healthy family, his father Trendafil Nikolov is born in a small village near Smolyan (Kremene) and served as a police officer, his mother Zlatka Nikolova used to be a  teacher in the field of Informatics in Economy scohol in Smolyan.

He completed his primary and secondary education in his hometown and later served in the military. In 1996, he began studying English Philology at Sofia University, but being grown in the spirit of love for history and the motherland Bulgaria, he soon found out field of Philosophy does not provide enough to match his wide interests in history of the world and history of Bulgaria. Being touched by Gods love and having a desire to learn more about Christianity and his homeland orthodox christianity and learn more about philosophy but from the perspective of the Orthodoxy obviously guided by Gods provide, the following year during the hard years of national financial catastrophe and church schism in 1997 he transferred to the Faculty of Theology of the same university Saint Kliment Ohridski

In 1997 he also become candidate for monk novice in the notorious monastery of Hadji Dimovo (in honour of Saint Great Martyr George)  which was at that time of Spiritual Leadership of Metropolitan Natanail of Nevrokop, where he graduated in 2002 and which was one of the best monasteries capable of giving a solid basis for true and high standard spiritual life.

Becoming a Monk

On August 7, 1999, he was ordained a monk by him and the next day he was ordained as a hierodeacon. On July 21, 2004, he was sent for obedience to the Nativity of the Virgin Monastery (Rojenski Monastery) in Rozhen, and on November 27, he was ordained a hieromonk by his diocesan bishop.
On June 1, 2006, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

Daniil-as-vicar-Bishop-of-Metropolitan-Joseph-of-America-of-Bulgarian-Orthodox-Church


Recognized as exceptional choosen person and Levereged to a Bishop by metropolitan Natanail Nevrokopski
Note: Nevrokov Eparchy is the eparchy in which Saint John of Rila Monastery belongs to, Metropolitan Natanail was among the most loved person in Bulgarian Church

On January 20, 2008, he was ordained as a Bishop with the title of Dragovitski and was appointed vicar of the Metropolitan of Neurokop Natanail

Nevrokopski-Metropolitan-Natanail
Metropolitan Nathanail Nevrokopsky (titled as the consience of the Bulgarian Church)

His ordination was carried out by Patriarch Maxim (the previous patriarch before Patriarch Neofit) in collaboration with Metropolitans + Ioanikiy of Sliven, + Dometian Vidinsky, + Kyril Metropolitan of Varna and Veliko Preslav, Grigoriy of Velikoturnovsky, Neofit of Rusensky, Natanail of Nevrokopsky, Gavriil Lovchansky and bishops Evlogius of Adrianople, Abbot of the Rila Monastery, Naum Stobiyski at that time Chief Secretary of The Holy Synod, Theodosius of Devol, Constantine of Marcianopol and John of Znepol (currently Metropolitan of Varna and Veliko Preslav chosen after decease of Metr. Kiril).

Hadji Dimovski monastery become also famous also for being the spiritual school for  Metropolitan Serafim of Nevrokop (chosen after's Metropolitan Natanail Nevrokopsky pass away to Christ).

On 15 June 2010, Daniel was appointed vicar of the diocese in the US, Canada and Australia of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. On 2 December 2011, the Holy Synod "took note of the letter from Metropolitan Joseph of the USA, Canada and Australia, notifying that permission had been received from the American emigration authorities to fulfill the obedience assigned by the Holy Synod to Bishop Daniel of Dragovitski who can already leave and take on responsibilities, as metropolitan vicar of the USA, Canada and Australia".
He was considered the most likely successor to Metropolitan Joseph of America (Bosakov).

Served as vicar bishop in the American, Canadian and Australian dioceses from 2011 until February 4, 2018 (for 7 years).
He was chosen to become the Metropolitan of Vidin (after the decease of Metr. Dometian) from February 4, 2018 to June 30, 2024.

In December 2018, Metropolitan Daniel condemned the Unification Council in Kyiv, calling it uncanonical. In his opinion, the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew are non-canonical, since he encroached on someone else's canonical territory.

Daniil is the originator of the introduction of religious education in the Bulgarian school and for many years worked for it to be included as a subject in the curricula.

On 21 July 2004, Daniel was sent for obedience to the Rozhen Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On 27 November of the same year he was ordained hieromonk by his diocesan bishop. On 1 June 2006, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. On 20 January 2008, he was consecrated Bishop of Dragovitia and vicar of the diocese of Nevrokop diocese.

Metropolitan of Vidin 4 February 2018 – 30 June 2024

Metropolitan-Daniil-in-times-as-a-Metropolitan-of-Vidin

On 4 February 2018, he was elected by the Synod to the post of Metropolitan of Vidin. Vidin was the last city that fall under the Ottoman hordes, and perhaps his zeal for truthfulness and orthodoxy and the Bulgarian nation was the reason Gods providence in that hard times to have chosen him to be head of this small but historically rich and important eparchy.

In December 2018, Metropolitan Daniel condemned the Unification Council in Kyiv, calling it uncanonical. In his opinion (based on Church Canons of Ecumenical Councils), the actions of Patriarch Bartholomew are non-canonical, since he encroached on someone else's canonical territory.

https://pc-freak.net/images/Patriarch-Daniil-Bartholomeow-patriarch-of_Constantinople-guest-on-patriarhical-enthronement

Perhaps for the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the selection by the Gods providence for Daniil to be the next patriarch of Bulgaria, was quite a shock as the expected patriarch to choose was Gregory who if chosen should have been titled Gregory the II-nd as we already had a patriarch with this name , during the Second Bulgarian Kingdom  (saying this by memory), but mans thoughts are very different from Gods thoughts as the Holy scriptures says.

After the death of the former Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Neophyte in March 2024 and respective mourning period, then Metropolitan of Vidin, Daniel was one of the three shortlisted candidates to ocuppy the patriach position together with Metropolitan Gregory of Vratsa and Metropolitan Arsenius of Sliven.[7] On 30 June 2024, at the patriarchal electoral Church-People's Council in Sofia, Metropolitan Daniel was elected the new Patriarch of Bulgaria, Metropolitan of Sofia.

Patrirach-Daniil-of-Bulgaria-Blessing-soon-after-his-selection
Picture of Patriarch Daniil Blessing, right after his selection and his "radiation" with Patriarchal Ensignias, the Patriarchical Wand stick, The Cross, Panagias …

Daniil-Metropolitan-of-Sofia-and-Patriarch-of-Bulgaria

Pre-selected moments of the enthronization of new Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil of Bulgaria by Sonya Ankova

Currently he is the canonical 4th Patriarch of the new History of the Bulgarian  Orthodox Church, currently serving as Patriarch of All Bulgaria since June 30 !

His choosing and Enthroning was surprise for many influential people in the history and was just another proof the Church of Bulgaria is Governed by Jesus Christ and the selection was made by the Holy Spirit of God itself !

 

Daniil the New Bulgarian Patrhiarch, the Forth Patriarch by Bulgarian National TV (BNT) Chapter I

Lets all say Достоин / Axios !!!, just like many has proclaimed during the official introduction of Daniil as Patriarch with a special enthronization Ceremony.
The selection day 30 of June this year was by God's providence on the Sunday of All Saints, this year this day coincided also with the Assembly of All Holy Apostles day commemoration dedicated to All Apostles of Christ (the 12, the 70th of desciples and the rest of rings of desciples  of Christ who have done apostolic mission sent by him). The Assembly of Apostles feast is always celebrated  in the Church always 1 day after the Great feast of Saint Apostle Peter and Apostle Paul's day. 
The day after on the day the first Holy Liturgy was served by tradition by the new Patriarch and it was the Summer Feast of Saint Cosmo and Damianos  and  one of the 3 major feasts of Saint John of Rila (The Return of the Holy Relics of Saint John of Rila into Bulgaria) .

Patriarch Daniil  is the youngest patriarch of Bulgaria in our history of the Bulgarian Church, currently aged 51, since its establishment in year 870 (1154 years ago) and a lot of hope by many, that his Church rulership will be mostly beneficial for the whole Church and nation and will raise up the confidence and self-esteem of the nation, and shed light on the nation and attract more of the youth, that is living a life away from the Church even though baptized,  back in the Church.

Lets pray and wish the new Patriarch Daniil, a lot of increasement of Health, Love and Faith for everyone and Wisdom to guide the flock of Christ through the hardships of current turmoiled times of desperation and confusion as well as good health to serve as a Patriarch for Many Years !

For Many and Blessed Years his Holiness Patriarch of Daniil ! Metropolitan of Sofia and Patriarch of All Bulgaria !

The origin of English Words and The History of English in 10 Minutes / History of King James Holy Bible

Monday, October 29th, 2012

 


 

The Origin of English Words

 

 

The History of English in 10 Minutes

 

 

Though funny and sometimes ridiculous the second presentation is quite interesting for people interested in Antrophology; how English Country and Language established and most people who somehow influence the development of English language as we know it.

 

 

Mongrel Nation – origin of english language

I knew English language used to be a mixture of French, German and dead Latin, but never thought the origin of most words are so mixed up. Also the story with King James Bible is very interesting, I never knew King James Bible Version. So widely known as ( KJV ) has plaid so essential role for English as we know it. As the video points out KJV, played most essenail role in all English history for development of the modern English language. As with mostly all else in modern developed civilization it is Strong Christian faith which play a key role in formation of a development of modern civillized society as we know it. It is a pity nowdays most English people and Westerners forgot, how important the Holy Bible (Bible btw means Book of Books Bi-Ble) and earlier Church teachings and writings were in order to have a good safety life, good fed people which live in the Western Countries.
There was a good reason Why this Holy Bible translation still is referred as King James Bible. King James (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was a very wise man (linguist and scientist) along with being a King of Great Britain France, Scotland and Ireland.

History of the King James Holy Bible version

Ancient English used to be called Anglo-Saxon English. The called Old English is part of the Germanic Languages group, so in theory nowadays should be much easier for a German, Dutch or some western person to speak English and understand its meaning than to people who belong to other main groups of languages like Slavonic Language group. Actually Slavonic Language group has also taken a multitude of words from German language, so situation with categorizing languages is not so clear to do. It was really interesting to me to learn Dutch Language is maybe in a way more close to primordial Original Anglo-Saxon English. This explains also how comes Dutch in general contains so much English in it and also so many English lingual structure  🙂

With all said, it is clear English as we know it just a mixture of words taken from languages around the world. Colonization that  Great Britain  did in past also played essential role for the inclusion of new words within English Language and Enriching the Language so much. It is also clear, how it come to be that the English is relatively easy to learn and flexible enough to become an International Language as it is today. There were also factors the Invasive character of Great Britain, the migration of many British and Germans to America continent the creation of the United States. And the raise of the US this all played important role in wide-spread of English. Most importantly the World Politics and the interests of certain people (Masonry and Royal Groups), development of modern science, Isaac Newton and the many scientists or (pseudo-scientists) that UK give birth to played an important role for making English popular.

While talking about impact of Christian faith to English, it is no strange Africa (continent countries) and the rest of the undeveloped or so called third world countries are in such a bad condition, because many of them had never had the chance of true spiritual enlightenment through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is probably one of the reasons why western civilization was blessed to have a material goods advancement as a mean that those people help the poor and needy and spread the light of faith. Unfortunately now westerners can no longer spread the light of the faith because English Church is Anglican and is no longer in communion with the One Holy Apostolic Church – The Holy Orthodox Church. It is useful to say Anglican Church in its development as a separate Church did take some of its beliefs of Roman Catholics and some of beliefs from Protestant Reformation. I even red somewhere, the Anglican Church had a point in his history where some negotiations were made with (Greek Eastern Orthodox Church?) that Anglicans unite with the Eastern Orthodox Church. Pitily this never happened. But who knows maybe in future Anglicans will change back to the original Christian faith Orthodox Christianity.

Though King James Bible version, played important role in development of Englishman and English as we know it, some of the verses inside are translated so they correspond better to a protestant understanding of the Holy Bible than Orthodox or Roman Catholic. Besides that the bible contains less books (66 Books), whether the Orthodox Christian bible contains (77 Books).

Though missing some important books still the Bible included many new words and by letting the multitudes across Great Britain, Scotland, England and later new populated American lands it become the most rich words book for XVI th century. Thought some words in KJV are too much archaic for nowdays, the language of it is pretty close to modern English and 95% and more understandable by mostly anyone who speaks some kind of English. Because of its historical importance of forming the English Language. King James Holy Bible version is a great reading for anyone willing to learn some English. I myself has significantly improved my English by reading KJV.  Actually I believe for anyone interested in history and anthropology it is very important to study well Christianity. Christianity and faith in Christ played so huge role in our civilization development, that it is impossible for us to understand properly History and Civilization without knowing well Christian faith. I took some time to  read interesting facts related to King James Holy Bible so I found an interesting page prepared by some Christian enthusiasts which did a statistical analysis over King James Bible Content 🙂

The whole topic of Origin of Words is mostly the most important thing that should be taught at schools and universities today, as it helps us better to understand why our culture and civilization is the way we are. As long as I studied in Holland in Arnhem Business School, it is quite saddening to say nowadays Universities and modern science has so much forgot about its relation and origins to faith in God, that  even the little sort of anthropology I was told in Arnhem Business School – Human Resources and Quality Management (now known under the new official name IBS – International Business Studies) has absolutely nothing to do with real facts – the Christianity part (which is essential is totally missing).

With all said, Modern people want to have a partial truth and completely scratch out our modern civilization Christian origins. The Crisis which emerged is just a reflection of the great spiritual Chrisis and lack of faith in God that is more and more apparent this days.

 I've been lately more and more interested in Anthrophology and whether I learn a bit more I will share it here and hopefully it might be interesting to someone else too 🙂

Satanism and Occultism preached in modern Hip-Hop star singers and hip hop culture – revealed

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

satanism-preached-in-hip-hop-or-do-what-you-willt-sing-in-most-rap-music-and-hip-hop
"Above is a quote from the Satanic Bible which is a formula for success preached by all modern music stars today"

During my younghood, I've been listening to a lot of metal spending many nights in a discoteques. Being seriously addicted to metal music and hanging around a lot with metal companies. Back in the days I remember closely, even though I have realized there is something wrong with Metal. I always had a natural hate for (hip-hop) rap music, which in my view back there was a hypocrite music.

Don't get me wrong I know many people who are fans of a rap music and they seem to be a very good people the only problem is the rap industry as we know it is not preaching a good and generally tends to be hypocritic.

Many years passed since then, many things happened in my life, one of which was my convertion by the Lord Jesus Christ grace to Christianity. It was just about many years of wandering for me until I found the faith of my fathers which the Orthodox Christianity. Which I later realized was the only complete and true apostolic Christianity existent as of today.

As a person, who is constantly striving for the truth (Thanks and Glory be to God for making me like this). I've started researching, the different philosophical and music genres movements in deepness, since then and it was quite shocking and almost in disbelief, I've found most of the youngsters mind preference ruling pop and  hip-hop culture has a very strong connection with occultism and satanism. This connection between modern hip-hop music and satanism is not always clearly manifested but obfuscated in mixing some good preaching lyrics with bad preaching lyrics.  The authors of the music and lyrics are just sharing their ideology, which is neither inclining for good nor for evil but a mixture of.

By God's grace just recently, I've found analysis in youtube which is showing more than clearly that one of the hip-hop idols as they're called in the mass-media are just poor deceived people who preach the satanic philoslophy to the masses. Just to mention few of these notorious hip-hop musicians, who sold their souls to the devil:

Jay-Z, Eminem, 50 Cent, DMX, Lyl Wayne, Chris brown, Keri, 2PAC and probably many, many more of the top stars who used to be taken for life examples by multitude of youngsters, who never been tought properly by their family to believe in Jesus Christ to love God and stay away from evil people and non-godly philosophies.

However it is not the parents fault that the children was not properly educated in the spirit of Christianity, the alienation of family from Christianity and Christian ethics has happened slowly through the last 200 years. The 2 World Wars, the crisis and the many calamities around the world. The materialist people's philosophy preached, heavily communism, democracy and the fall of monarchies, all this together played a role for breaking up the common people good faith in Jesus Christ and the introduction of false Christs doctrines to people.

Some of the many false-christs (anti-christs – meaning instead of Christ) are many of today's biggest stars we see on the TV and listen on the radio literally daily.
This fame this mortal people like me got not by chance and a hard work, though some of them might have been a hard workers too. They got it by being raised with a non-Christian philosophy being exposed to a non-Christian communities, being exposed to constant look for fame and money and desire for power and finally being exposed to one false spirituality which satanism and occult movements offers. Many of this people have already developed multiple personalities, as a consequence of the demon possession. Hence many of this hip-hopsters are probably most of the time not themselves but are simply controlled by an evil spirit, who is doing through them the works of satan and as a reward gives them fame using them as a dumb instruments to spread an insane nowhere leading philosophical ideas and devilish lies…. Here are the 2 videos who does a Christian criticism on the lyrics and videos shown to promote these so "talented" hip-hop singers:

 

SATAN LIES PART 1 – BRINGING IN THE ANTI-CHRIST – DMX, ROBIN THICKE, EMINEM, JAY Z,

SATAN LIES PART 3 – Bringing in the Anti-Christ – LIL WAYNE, 50 CENT, CHRIS BROWN, KERI

Satanism in Hip Hop 1

Satanism in Hip Hop 2

satanism in Hip Hop 3

Well obviously, this people are not singing to praise God and Christ and therefore they're with the devil.I know this will probably look like a meaningless rant to a non-Christian minded people from other religions as well as to atheists but this are the facts. Why would people who are not Christian as the authors of this music preach an anti-Christian content?? If they don't believe in God or Satan and the devil, why would they ever preach a no moral, no ethics, hatred evil and generally anti-Christianity?? One would say "it is just because of money and fame and cause they want to be different", but even if this was the case how comes they become so popular. Where this magnetism this God enemies possess from? Who gives the money to the industry to make this people so famous and make them being on the TV screen and Radios all around the clock. What are this people's philosophy for life and their beliefs. Let me tell obviously, they're people like the up mentioned hip-hop singers, evil desirers, non lovers of good and family and person destroyers ….

 

Tricks of the supermarket trade or how supermarket lie to you to buy more than you need (My few memories on government food stores in communism times)

Friday, June 22nd, 2012

I've personally always hated super markets from the very early days I entered one. Here in Bulgaria we've been somehow partly lucky not to have supermarket due to the different philosophy of the communistic regime in which we lived until 1991. The philosophy of then governing communist back then was to distribute food in local middle size or small stores owned by the government. The food has to be approved by governmental body and heavily checked if it matches the governmental set standards. The variety of food we were offered in the stores was very little. Most of the small stores (which were owned by the government) only contained basic products like;;;

bread, youghurt, milk, meat, butter, lemonade, beer and few more,

This was done probably intentionally and was a result probably of our long years Orthodox Christian faith which (has saved us and preserved over the centuries). Orthodox Christianity has always teached for simplicity. Even though the communist party rejected the faith and even did severe persecution against the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The people on the top elite who were planning the communism had been a descent of an orthodox christian raised up living and therefore the philosophy of simplicity was inherited (even genetically) so the way the COM party behaved based on its leaders and the governing decisions about the nations belonging to communism (Russia, (Yugoslavia) – Serbia Koso , Bulgaria, Greece, Egypt etc.) were in a material expression in conjunction with the Christian tradition of simplicity (i say material because Orthodox Christian Church even visiting back then in the countries was usually prohibited and the Com. party did their best to ruin up the believe in Christ in people).

In communism the local suburb grocery stores, were the only "points" of distribution of food. Since buying and owning a car took at least few years of waiting and big money for it. Not more than 10 to 20% of families owned car and owning a car was considered to be granted mostly to people belonging to the then governing communistic elite or the Communist Party.

The public transportation was encouraged because according to communism so called "geometry" which was a main drive for how the systems in communistic countries should work it was estimated public transportation is cheaper and more environmental friendly than if a car is given to anyone, also public transportation (trains, bus-es) etc. did a good thing in the aim of the party to exersice higher control and surveilance over the population.

Because of that existence of big super-market was scarce and the culture to go and buy from a shop with your own family car was not existing.

The equivalent of nowdays mall shops (big retail stores) was usually located on the city center and the size of this shop was much smaller and the variety of products one can find there was only few. Hence the customer didn't have so much options to choose between, neither had to spend too much of time on choosing, the com party wanted the people to work more and buy less, so spending time in stores was not encouraged.

With the entrance of democracy and the moving up of large super-market food and good retails shops like Metro was among the first ones which entered the "freed" market. It was really a bizarre experience for us the ex U.S.S.R belonging people to enter such a large sized stores and to face such a big variety of choice.

Before that in communism we never saw such stores even on the TV, since the TV was governed by communistic party and only information which was useful for the establishment and protection of the regime was projected on the only available National TV channel.

Sorry to distract a bit from the major topic of this post, but I thought this is necessery to explain before continuing because it is important to understand that unintentinonally the communist gave us an advantage to have a different view on things than Western free world, a view which is in many things contrary and more correct (in terms of hard logic) than to Western Europe.

My first encounter with a super-market was only about 8 or 10 years ago and I believe many people who lived in the province of Bulgaria and other ex-communist countries did for a first time experience super-markets approximate 10y. ago.
Though all looked so nice inside the shop and the shop emploees were so nice I always felt something very cold dead inside this big stores. Ptonsnlu my intuition (spirit) if you want has always pointed me out that there is something very wrong with this super markets.

With the increase of products on the market for us people who lived up to our 8 to 12 years (young age) in communism it was a great shock, since we were raised in a society based on some communist false ideology and suddenly the markets were opened and the products variety to choose between become extremely high.
All previously said to be good and true in communism time was said to be anti-freedom and many people did their best to destroy as much as possible mostly everything somehow connected with previous communistic time.
My homeland Bulgaria as a result of this become a very hard to live place and we were forced to adapt in fast paces and learn things on how we have to live like democrats for a very little short of time.
One severe "damage" most of the growing people in Bulgaria in communism had was the hardness and inability to make choices.
For many people between the age of 25 to 35 it is very hard to make choices even for small things.
This was a direct consequence of a long years (45 years) of communist propaganda, and few generations who lived in a non-freedom respecting regime which conditioned and prepared a specific plan and place for every individual living in the country.

Seeing communism as the ultimate evil and manipulation to make us dependent we didn't know that in the free democratic world the manipulation and conditioning in society was heavy too.

"The Programming" of western society through institutions, stores and order in society was a fact and in a sense the only difference between the Democratic world and communistic world was one of the worlds seemed to have a larger frame in which the individual can work and live, whether the communistic regime seem to be more restrictive.
One main thing used to condition people choices and buying behavior and make them over-consume to make the democratic economy constantly growth was big super-markets. Though they were privately owned and not like in communist country, the only drive behind each shop was PROFIT, PROFIT and agian PROFIT.

Higher profits would mean higher consumptions, higher consumptions means higher production and more work places opened as well as more expenses for working individuals would mean bigger necessity to work more and earn more, because though the sallaries incomes were high in the free world. The individual necessities there were even increasing too.

Since the about 1950s 1960s the super-markets started entering the "free" democrat countries world. As a result the small shops which were prior a main food and beverage distribution source started closing, because they couldn't be a concurrence to the big "brothers" super-markets which were able to buy higher quantities of goods in lesser price and therefore sell many of the goods in much lower prices than the little grocery stores.

The result with the years was a huge shift in people buying behavior from local groce and open markets to buy everything from the big super-markets. The big store chains had to be in a fight for customers all the time, so businesses involved started customer wars and tried their best to "steal" customers from each other. In this financial wars a main thing that most super-market chains and malls did was constant optimization of efficiency of both buying and reselling to the end customer. This is a 3 step business process actually.

1;;; They buy from the commodity producer
2;;; They prepare the food for the store (packaging, cleaning up whatever)
3;;; They put it in a certain way in the store and organize the store in a way to always sell more and more

As a result a huge number of tricks were employed by each and every super-market aiming to deceive the customer to ever buy more
The deception of the client in store is very tricky and smart organized so it cannot really be called a lie but its rather a tricky smartness.

Since the super-markets entered in my country too and the tiny grocery stores are mostly closing unable to compete with the large super-market 'money making machines'. Even I am sometimes forced to buy stuff from super markets. Since here in Bulgaria the culture of purchasing from super-markets is not so strong yet. In order to be able to consume the little grocery stores. Many large super-markets started investing in making the little groceries their retail shops with their brand or (sometimes a new make up brand).
By doing so the little grocery stores loose their authoritarity and independance and become dependant on the big super-market on the type of products they will sell, this obviously means this strategy of the big super-market in the long run will lead the little grocery stores we still have to ruin up. This is obvious because if the small grocery stores start selling the exact same products (brands) of the big super-markets, there will be nothing left to make the little grocery unique. Neither the variety of products choice inside or pricing will be any different from super-market. This will mean the tiny grocer will be no different from the big super-markets in terms of product and prices and therefore. The clients which now are loyal to small grocery stores like me will then have not such big motivation to buy from small super-markets, since everything inside is somehow similar (not to say) the same as with big supermarket the only difference would be the lesser variety which is obviously a good reason why the customer would definitely prefer to buy from the large supermarket …

On the videos you're about to see below, they explain some of the probably thousands of tricks nowdays existing the super-market chains employs to trick us to exponentiolly consume their goods.

Old Tricks of the SuperMarket Trade

As you can see the video is presenting a reality of the tricks which was used in the 1960 and now technology and knowledge in the field has largely increased and since they there are surely many new trick 'developments' which are working for the masses of customers daily.
There is even a whole science centered on buying behaviour already existent called buyology!

Here is a short introduction to buyology to give you an idea what its purpose is:

Short introduction video on buyology – The Science of buying part 1 of 2

Short introduction video on buyology – The Science of buying part 2 of 2


Seeing all this is very precious information, since being informed one can escape the bad "tricks and traps" pawn in the markets.

All the information about the communistic regime and the 'shopping system' there was mentioned priorly because I wanted to explain a bit of the difference of then and now to point you to my opinion that the Western buying model and expectation to sell more based on the tricks are probably not working very well here in the ex-communistic countries, especially with the older generations and the one like me which somehow grow a small part of their youth in communism.

The reason is we have a different 'social programming' than westerners. Also the different spirituality (The orthodox Christian faith) plays another role. Also there is a difference in the type of buying behaviour. In Bulgaria there is no culture to buy once or twice per week. People have culture to buy daily, though this is starting to change slowly these days.

For a bit more of videos and a bit of my thougths on my research on Super Market Psychology check my previous post containing educational videos on how the supermarkets cheat you to buy more

The topic is actually very huge and I'm sure what I'm saying is just the 'tip of the iceberg'. As I'm a firm opponent of big industries and large business I'm firmly against the buying from big stores any goods. The reason is that simply by doing so one makes the already RICH people even more RICHER. By increasing the richness of a certain small group of people daily, we as society are un-consciously somehow involuntarily letting them increase the financial control that is already there in some degree to the society.
As democracy's main drive is money this means that by helping the large business-es marge and become even BIGGER, we're doing something against ourselves and our interests as society.
I don't think that any ordinary citizen in the free world want to live in a fully controlled one World State (one world country), similar to the ex-communism I lived through, so I think people concerned about our freedoms should oppose the big businesses according to the society level they're in. Even if we're not in position to change things with money, we as society are in a position to change ourselves and our understanding of world, our desires and our behaviour. If we change our value system in a way, where money are not a top priority and the highest value the outcome will be positive in both spiritual terms and overall world state.

The modern day however wants us to falsely believe that we're divided, helpless and money dependent. This is a big delusion which we're constanty repeated. Just like with the super-market this big super-market company owners were able to convince us through time that super-market is better than the grocery stores, because of the less money spending advantage. Even if in the past there were possibility to spend less via supermarket nowdays spending less by using the supermarket instead of the small groce-store is a BIG LIE. Even if one spends less in super-market on certain products, the amount of related products he is cheated* to buy in store highly exceed the simply money one would spend on even higher priced products in the small groce.
The outcome results from the super-market is also a big waste, as I lived in the west I've seen most of the households are buying more than they need, spending more than they need, cooking more food and more frequently than necessery and throughing large portions of food in the garbage (e.g. a huge amount of food waster).

If it was possible that people were aware they are buying all this non-sense food because of deception, they would have bought less, the super-markets would bought less and distribute less and the food (waster) remaining could be distributed to poor-er countries to help the starving kids and suffering people in Africa.
Helping the suffering and starving, we would have helped each other as it is a nowdays well known that even on molecular level the whole world is connected, therefore helping our poorer brothers and sisters is actually helping ourselves ***

Understanding the Christian Orthodox Faith / What does Orthodox Christian faith stands for and it differs from Roman Catholicism and Protestanism

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

I’ve stumbled upon a very educative videos, which might be interesting for both Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholics and Protestants.
The video contains an Orthodox Christian fathers who explain with simple words the difference between the Orthodox Christian Faith and the rest of the most popular Christian faiths present today. Watch learn and enjoy! 🙂


Understanding the Christian Orthodox Faith – Part 1


Understanding the Christian Orthodox Faith – Part 2


Understanding the Christian Orthodox Faith – Part 3

The videos also questions very important questions about Orthodox Christianity which I believe non-orthodox christians could truly benefit and hopefully some might even turn to orthdoxy.