Spring is in swing at UIC.....unfortunately that doesn't improve upon the architectural dog vomit........

Worldly ends

The Liberal is undisturbed even by fundamental deficiencies and contradictions in his own philosophy because his primary interest is elsewhere. ...he is more immediately interested in worldly ends, and because everything else is vague or abstract to him.

Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

The obese American's second favorite restaurant next to mcdonalds.....

I love you, you love me, we're an ecumenical family.....

It may sound strange, but it is a fact that ecumenism today is threatening the "ecumenical nature" of our Church, as it falls more and more to compromising and syncretistic tactics which contradict the basic principles of our Orthodox faith. We must not forget that correct faith is the first and foremost prerequisite for the salvation of mankind, according to the divinely-inspired Patristic declaration: "Whoever wishes to be saved is first of all obliged to keep the catholic faith; if he does not keep this faith safe and unblemished, without hesitation, he will be eternally lost" (The Symbol of Faith of St. Athanasius the Great of Alesandria).

Holy Monastery of the Paraclete

no comment...

Scholastic roundup

As this school year draws to a close I'd like to reflect on the attitude at most of our modern day "institutions of education":

If truth is, in the highest sense, knowledge of the beginning and end of things, of the dimension of the absolute; and if nihilism is the doctrine that there is no such truth; then it is clear that those who take scientific knowledge for the only truth, and deny what lies above it, are nihilists in the exact sense of that term. Worship of the fact is by no means the love of truth; it is, as we have already suggested, its parody. It is the presumption of the fragment to replace the whole; it is the proud attempt to build a Tower of Babel, a collection of facts, to reach to the heights of truth and wisdom from below.

Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

On a similar note:

Previously young people had been expected to learn. Because they didn't want to appear to be ignoramuses, they worked hard willy-nilly. But now all they have to say is: Everything in the world's nonsense! And that's that. Young people are delighted. The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they've suddenly become nihilists.

Pavel Petrovich in Fathers and Sons

It's nice to know I have a special place in the Mason's heart...

I'm not sure who this "St. Stephenson" is....must have been an oppressed minority that didn't make it into the calendar whom our modern exegetes discovered after a millennium of obscurity...

Caution: hot potato...

During 1009-1046 the Franco-Latins completed their expulsion of the Orthodox Romans from the Church of Old Rome and finally replaced them with themselves, thus inventing today's Papacy.

Fr. John Romanides

Neither from the 7th century till 1054, nor since, have the Franco-Latin bishops and popes have had the slightest knowledge of, or interest in, the cure of the human personality via the purification and illumination of the heart and glorification (theosis). They still have a magical understanding of apostolic succession which many Orthodox have also have been accepting since the so-called reforms of Peter the Great.

Fr. John Romanides

Just a little something to ponder at this current juncture...

Someone has let their opinion be known to the world....

When the edifice of the Church is destroyed and, on the bare, poorly leveled place, there is erected only the edifying sermon, the result is sad and terrible.

David Strauss

In this case the nave as oposed to the edifice, but the effect is the same.

The price of words

It is true, I think, that these are times when the financial rewards for sorry writing are much greater than those for good writing. There are certain cases in which, if you can only learn to write poorly enough, you can make a great deal of money.

Flannery O’Conner

This makes me think of the Da Vinci Code among countless other modern day collection of words they call "literature".

I become very leery when I find these type of things around the city...

...shootin' some b-ball outside of the school
when a couple of guys who were up to no good
started makin' trouble in my neighborhood...

The Doctor is in

In the hands of neurologically sick people the Bible becomes a source of "uncontrollable fantasies." And indeed religion is ... most dangerous. Instead of being a manual for the cure of the sickness of religion the Bible becomes a book for the propagation of the sickness of religion.

Fr. John Romanides

Where the Wind Blows...

...this weekend the wind is blowing me to Michigan. So I expect to see your incredible comments when I get back.

Survey Says...

As the translation exercise elicited no response we'll see if any one has an opinion on this question: "Is dogma 1) a protection from speculating quack doctors and 2) a guide to the cure of the purification and the illumination of the heart and glorification (theosis), or not?" That is the question Fr. John Romanides and myself pose to you. Comments?

No soup for you!

As no one seems to be interested in an incredible prize I will be forced to give the translation myself. "Το γαρ απροσληπον αθεραπεντον ο δε ηνωται τω Θεω, τουτο και σωζεται" - “What is not assumed can not be healed, and what was united to God is saved” - St. Gregory Nazianzen - The essential tenet of our salvation.

Southern (non)Comfort

Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one. To be able to recognize a freak, you have to have some conception of the whole man, and in the South the general conception of man is still, in the main, theological. That is a large statement, and it is dangerous to make it, for almost anything you say about Southern belief can be denied in the next breath with equal propriety. But approaching the subject from the standpoint of the writer, I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.

Flannery O’Conner

An itty bitty spider...

I always imagined that you would take me to some place where there was a huge, wicked spider as big as a man, and we should spend the rest of our lives looking at it and being afraid of it.

Lisa in The Possessed

So does anyone remember that movie Arachnophobia? I always thought it was pretty scary.

The ugly truth is confirmed...

In the vestiges of the "Peace Fest" the remnants of the pinata mentioned earlier were found. Indeed the peaceniks pummeled the pinata. What I had not noticed earlier was that the pinata has a likeness of the President plastered on it which proves the earlier quote even more apropos.

Sasha TV

As I recently learned of the "Jacob cam" during Church services I thought it would be quite apropos to post something self-depreciating:

All this sounds false and theatrical. He pronounces the words, and one feels that the tone and diction are pre-planned, and that he looks around at what kind of impression they create on others. It is quite possible that objectively all this is accepted differently. But I know him, and cannot free myself from this feeling. He knows well the church service, he loves it; but this precision and this effectiveness-is not the Orthodox way of doing things.

War...what is it good for?

So today there was a "Peace Fest" on the campus here at UIC. While walking through on my way to work I observed a "peacie" hanging up a pinata. I thought to myself "what better way to promote peace than pummeling a pinata?"

"Look, Pedro. I don't know how they do things down in Juarez, but here in Idaho we have a little something called pride. Understand? Smashing in the face of a pinata that resembles Summer Wheatly is a disgrace to you, me, and the entire Gem State."

This could mean several things: all the art of Mexico fits in this dumpster so they didn't need a building or conversely this is their building and they are tiny people or yet again, this is a "statement"- need I say more; I will quote Fr. Seraphim: In art and literature the Nihilist is not concerned with the modification of old aesthetic canons regarding subject-matter or style, nor with the development of new genres or traditions, but with a whole new approach to the question of artistic "creation" and a new definition of "art."

I still prefer to call it a "cathedral" but "hood" is just as good I guess; after all Jesus is my homey...so I guess the bishop would be as well.

More goodies

If you haven't noticed I added a link to "Truly Incredible Photos". This is a small collection (to be expanded) of my slightly more serious photos. Please visit.

ps. If you haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite Pedro says you should.

I know you've always wanted to see the inside of a masonic temple. I could be exterminated for showing this to you...

Ponder this juxtaposition...

Jumpin' Gibberish

"What! This vanity-eating galimatias! But don't you see they're all lost their minds from pride and vanity?"

Lizaveta Prokofyevna

[ps. To my dear readers: Sorry for the delay today; I've been haggling with the Russians and their visas.]

[pps. No one has yet competed in the competition. In order to win a sweet prize you must at least try...and try again.]

The Price is Right...

I think it is time for a little friendly competition on the ole' blog. The first round will be a test of wits; one will need to translate the forthcoming phrase and ascribe the correct author. The first one to comment with the correct information will get an incredible prize. The phase is: Το γαρ απροσληπον αθεραπεντον ο δε ηνωται τω Θεω, τουτο και σωζεται.

[Rules and regulations: Enter as many times as you like, however, one prize per household. Heretics don't receive prize even if answer is correct.]

Frenchiness

"You don't believe in the devil? Disbelief in the devil is a French notion, a frivolous notion."

Lebedev in The Idiot

What am I doing paying $6000 a year for UIC when I could go to St. Michael's Kiddy Kollege? I no I wood lurn how to spell write their...

The ubiquitous segue: So...

The other night two friends and I (they've requested to remain annonymous [ok, so they haven't but it's more exciting to say they have-I'm just playing the Fyodor]) were sitting in Starbucks cafe in Barnes and Noble where we were enjoying fine (ha!) coffee and fine (truly) conversation. All of a sudden we were confronted by a gruff and unintelligible voice which to my amazement came from a solicitor standing right next to me. (This takes place inside Barnes and Noble mind you [security was obviously slacking off.]) Although I couldn't understand the man I knew exactly what he wanted- the ubiquitous "change". While my lack of change (or any cash for that matter) made me impervious to the assault one of my friends succumbed and gave him a dollar. (On reflection I should have bought him some some food since after all we were in a cafe [I was still shocked by the initial confrontation and I was preoccupied with something else which I will proceed to shortly.]) After he had completed his objective we all expected him to move on to the next solicitee in his never ending search. However, he simply stood there and began more semi-intelligible communication. He was expressing, in not so many words, that he was tired which could be duduced from his lolling eyes. At one point he almost went into a swoon in which I was afraid that he would fall right on top of me (I even raised my hand in anticipation). Eventually he seemed to figure that it was time to go and almost walked right out an emergency door. My generous companion helped him to avoid this mishap and he turned right around and proceeded towards the correct door. When all was said and done I turned to my friends and asked, "Did you see his shirt?" They, however, had not so I informed them of its slogan: "United College fund- A mind is a terrible thing to waste". All I could add to that was "isn't it ironic...don't ya' think?"

This plaque is quite fine for those of our present world who are so entrenched in this world that they cannot see beyond it; those who's conception of heaven is a mamby-pamby life reclining on a cloud. However, I found this outside of a Franco-Latin (Roman Catholic) church, in front of a statue of our Lady-who is the supreme example of one who forsook this world for the joy of life eternal.
Pertinent quotes:

The future Kingdom has not been abandoned by modern Christians, but it has been so "toned down" that one wonders how strong the faith of Christians is. Particularly all the involvement of Christians in the projects of social idealism, seems to me a way of saying: "You, the worldly, are right. Our Kingdom 'not of this world' is so distant and we can't seem to get it across to you; so we will join you in building something we can actually see, something better than Christ and His Kingdom—a reign of peace, justice, brotherhood on earth." This is a "new Christianity," a refinement, it seems to me, of the Christianity of the "Grand Inquisitor" of Dostoyevsky.

Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose

...man in his fallen condition feels the dissolution of the present world and of his own existence as a pain, a suffering; feels it as a sorrow because he has bound the affections which form part of his very being to the image of this world which is passing away. This attachment to the things of this world is felt particularly strongly by those who do not believe that there is any further transformation of this world after the life which we now know.

Fr. Dumitru Staniloae

The modern idealism that hopes for "heaven on earth" hopes likewise for the vague "transformation" of man—the ideal of the "superman" (in diverse forms, conscious or not), which, however absurd, has a great appeal to a mentality that has been trained to believe in "evolution" and "progress."

Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose

My dream car: a Buick with dual straight pipes.

Payless- not just the place for shoes anymore...

I wouldn't reccomend these guys- it'll take a real long time...

Unity- as one stand together...

Christian unity cannot be realized merely by determining what articles of faith or what creed should be regarded as constituting the basis of unity. In addition to subscribing to certain doctrines of faith, it is necessary to achieve the experience of a common tradition or communis sensus fidelium preserved through common worship within the historic framework of the Orthodox Church. There can be no true unanimity of faith unless that faith remains within the life and sacred tradition of the Church which is identical throughout the ages. It is in the experience of worship that we affirm the true faith, and conversely, it is in the recognition of a common faith that we secure the reality of worship in spirit and in truth.

Oberlin Statement of Orthodox Churches

I wouldn't trust these guys with my "europian" car...

The Condition...

...if man chooses to treat himself as raw material, raw material he will be: not raw material to be manipulated, as he fondly imagined, by himself, but by mere appetite, that is, mere Nature, in the person of his dehumanized Conditioners.

C.S. Lewis

...the function of Liberalism was to obscure, with the smoke of “tolerance” and agnosticism, the higher truths concerning God and the spiritual life...

Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

человека-бога

Then there will be a new life, a new man, everything will be new. Then history will be divided into two parts: from the gorilla to the annihilation of God, and from the annihilation of God…to the physical transformation of the earth and man. Man will be god.

Kirillov in The Possessed

America's new motto.

First rule of business: It's all in the name.

If you're out there Al, this ones for you.

Our forebears, Adam and Eve, sought to become "like gods" without God, relying on the magical power of the beautiful "apple." This is how many of our contemporaries dream of being saved: with the Gospel, but without the Church and without the God-man. They hope on the book of the Gospel exactly as Adam and Eve hope on the paradise apple. The book, however, does not have the power to give them a new life.

St. Hilarion (Troitsky)

I personally prefer the eight pointed Byzantine cross but I guess the 2 pointed is ok...you know, what works for you...

...about as useful as a fan vent on a jungle gym...

...psychoanalytical knowledge of man, is unscrupulously employed in this business. ... They [advertisements] are simply nonsensical, yet they are no simple nonsense but rather an extremely calculated and highly financed nonsense! What should make us stop and think is the ease with which we buy all this-buy it in both meanings of the word.

Josef Pieper

Attention foreigners: wash your laundry here.

This one goes with a shout out to Laura and Gabe... (ignore the spelling)

Gabriel attempts to lick the worlds biggest ice cream cone.

The Fr. Seraphim Show

The unreflective scientific specialist sees no need for any other kind of knowledge; occupied with the demands of his specialty, he has, perhaps, neither time nor inclination for "abstract" questions that inquire, for example, into the basic presuppositions of that specialty. If he is pressed, or if his mind spontaneously turns to such questions, the most obvious explanation is usually sufficient to satisfy his curiosity: all truth is empirical, all truth is relative.
Either statement, of course, is a self-contradiction. The first statement is itself not empirical at all, but metaphysical; the second is itself an absolute statement.

-From Nihilism

Quick! To the fallout shelter! S-bomb, incoming!!

The Nihilist Revolution stands against authority and order, against Truth, against God, and to do this is, clearly, to stand with Satan.

Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

They weren't lying when they said it's high living in Chicago...