They must have a lot of drive-up tellers to have to have all this parking for them...

And how's your Buddha today?

Alan Gishlick, with silver-painted toenails sticking out of his Tevas and a shoulder tattoo of a Buddhist word puzzle meaning "Knowledge makes me content," said he was a "devout Christian."

This vs. That

We must be cautious, then, in examining the claims of those who would restore a 'spiritual' meaning to life, and especially of those who fancy themselves allies or adherents of 'Christianity.'
Fr. Seraphim Rose

...most of what passes for “spirituality” today is in fact a “new spirituality,” a cancer born of Nihilism that attaches itself to healthy organism to destroy them from within.
Fr. Seraphim Rose

...men are denying with all their might and main the divine creation, the world of God and it’s meaning. These are the only things which modern civilization finds utter nonsense.
Dostoevsky

Vain pursuits

It is the great and invincible truth of Christianity that there is no annihilation; all Nihilism is in vain. God may be fought: that is one of the meanings of the modern age; but He may not be conquered, and He may not be escaped: His Kingdom shall endure eternally, and all who reject the call to His Kingdom must burn in the flames of Hell forever. ... It has, of course, been a primary intention of Nihilism to abolish Hell and the fear of Hell from men's minds, and no one can doubt their success; Hell has become, for most people today, a folly and a superstition, if not a "sadistic" fantasy. Even those who still believe in the Liberal "heaven" have no room in their universe for any kind of Hell.

Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

Our Lady of Sitka

Some choice phrases from the Akathist to Our Lady of Sitka:

For those unfortunates:

Rejoice, rebuker of those fallen into heresy.
Rejoice, reprover of dishonesty.
Rejoice, destroyer of the serpent.
Rejoice, corrector of those who have gone astray.
Rejoice, confounder of those who fail to honor you.
Rejoice, defender before whom devils quake and tremble.

For those truth-seekers:

Rejoice, calm haven of those seeking salvation.
Rejoice, protectress of those who run to you.
Rejoice, for from the time of the Crucifixion you have adopted us all as your children.
Rejoice, refuge of the faithful.
Rejoice, chosen Maiden, Mother and Virgin.
Rejoice, boast of women.

You have shown yourself above every angelic rank, O Virgin, for you have conceived in the flesh Him Who cannot be circumscribed. And you have carried in your arms Him Who holds the whole world in the palm of His hand. Therefore, as you are greater in honor than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim we glorify you and sing to God on your account: Alleluia.
O Mother of God, we see most eloquent orators silenced before you, for every tongue is at a loss to praise you worthily. Our minds have not the strength to extol you. Therefore, O you who are gracious, accept from us the salutation of the Archangel as we cry to you

...Rejoice, zealous defender of the Orthodox faithful in America.

We came, we saved, we left...

"Everyone Can!"

She waited.
We came.
And she was saved.

On a related note: "Kingdom Challenge"

"baptism as a show of unity in the cause"

Baptism is just a show after all, right? just one of those 'symbol' things...

So...you call that an 'icon' do you?

Even from the thirteenth century—a key point for our understanding of all subsequent religious and cultural developments in the West—we can no longer speak of ecclesial iconography in Europe, but only of religious painting. And this means that is the western Church artistic expression ceases to be a study and a manifestation of the Church’s theology—at least on the preconditions for theology in visual art formulated by the Seventh Ecumenical Council.

Christos Yannaras

This linguistic atrocity hardly deserves my time...

WCC, NCC, I'm getting dizzy...

Antioch's divorce...why?

"'We believe the impact of this loss to the council will become apparent over the coming months and years, and we implore the council leadership to take immediate steps to understand this action and reach out to leadership within the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese,' the letter (to the president of the NCC) stated."

Maybe they should reach out and search for the Truth instead of trying to keep up their appearence for ecumenisms sake?

If only the rest of the Orthodox Churches in America would follow suit with the Antiochians on this one...

Speaking of Dostoevsky

It is culture we have not got... and it is not there because of the nihilist, Peter the Great.
Dostoevsky

Now let us think...Peter the Great-the "great" Westernizer-and an association with nihilism...maybe there is something about the West and nihilism? I am thinking yes.

It seems that someone has a vendetta against lumpers...

Something to think about

Both religion and secularism have man as the ultimate value because both derive from man and lead to man.

By making allies with the deluded and deluding, the Orthodox will only confuse and discourage those serious seekers who exist in the West.

Clean Cut

Comments?

And again that WCC just keeps turning up.

Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki on the WCC conference held in Athens in May:

If... we extend an invitation to them in order to divvy up and pass around together with them the treasure of the true faith, this is impious. Unfortunately, the World Council of Churches is a syncretistic organization. It is a religious organization which struggles for the unity of Christians but with an earthly and worldly perception. The one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church does not “pray together” but does pray for the God-given and ordained union of all. It does not discuss and dialogue with the aim of reaching human agreement, but provides its obligatory witness in order to call all of us to conversion. ...the Anglicans have in the recent past proceeded with the ordination of women, while a variety of Protestant confessions have gone further and ordained homosexuals. Moves such as these are not of secondary importance, since they are quite an offense to the most holy mystery of the Priesthood. ... We will not drive anyone away. Maybe we will run into a few women who believe that they have the gift of the priesthood. Maybe people of an uncertain character will approach us and present themselves to us as priests. Maybe, furthermore, conference attendees with a worldly way of thinking and image will approach us and will appear to us as angels of the kingdom of God. We clearly contest their so-called ecclesiastical gifts, however we will not insult or offend them. We confess the delusion which exists, however the persons who express it we respect and encounter in a dignified manner. ... Perhaps these people are better than us as it concerns their character. Their faith, however, is dangerously unsound and ailing. It is so ill that we could assert that they believe in a Christ who does not exist. ...within the many opportunities presented by contemporary ideological pluralism, the blessing to submit our witness – not as intolerant persistence in crude ideas, but as magnanimous confession of personally-experienced truths, which we don’t uphold as if they are in danger, but rather confess because without them we are in danger – is exceptionally great. ... I pray that the Resurrected Lord will, on the one hand, help us to know the treasure of the one Church which we hold, and on the other hand help the conference attendees of the many “churches” to discover together with the saving faith that they ignore, the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church with which they converse.

Enough said ...for now.

Get your paper now before it's far...

Re: Great Ideas

(This post refers, in a round about way, to Gabe's post)

So I haven't read really any of the supposed "great ideas". I've only read excerpts of Common Sense (and am currently writing an essay incorporating it). I own Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and started it once... So it seems I must know nothing of "great ideas"...

What prompted me to write anything about said post was that I've been thinking a lot about Dostoevsky lately (he's also in said essay) and reading A Writer's Diary.

Reading Dostoevsky is enlightening in many ways and I'm always impressed by how accute his mind was (in many ways, once again) and how "great" his ideas were. However, his ideas weren't "great" in the same way that one normally thinks of as "great". He shows us the "greatness" within ourselves which is the fallen human nature. He shows us the immense amount of responsibility we have with our gift of freedom. As Berdyaev said, "He was 'cruel' because he would not relieve man of his burden of freedom, he would not deliver him from suffering at the price of such a loss, he insisted that man must accept an enormous responsibility corresponding to his dignity as a free being."

And when this freedom (by our own volition) leads us in the wrong way as free beings we will face the consequences. This part is what is important to Dostoevsky-the purgatory process that our mistakes bring us to (as can be seen in Dmitri in The Brothers Karamazov) and stated directly in A Writer's Diary:

Purification through suffering is easier—easier, I say, than the lot you assign to many of them by wholesale acquittals in court. You only plant cynicism in their hearts; you leave them with a seductive question and with contempt for you yourselves. ... They have contempt for you and your courts and for the justice system of the whole country! Into their hearts you pour disbelief in the People’s truth, in God’s truth; you leave them confused...

Long before it became sheik to blame "my upbringing, my parents, my teachers, my education" etc, etc infinity... for ones crimes, Dostoevsky could see that that indeed was where the court system was heading. He makes a very interesting comparison between how the people would call criminals "unfortunates" and the perversion of that term with relation to justice:

...when they use the word ‘unfortunate,’ the People are saying to the ‘unfortunate’ more or less as follows: ‘You have sinned and are suffering, but we, too, are sinners. Had we been in your place we might have done even worse. Were we better than we are, perhaps you might not be in prison. With the retribution for your crime you have also taken on the burden for all our lawlessness. Pray for us, and we pray for you. But for now, unfortunate ones, accept these alms of ours; we give them that you might know we remember you and have not broken our ties with you as a brother.’ ... Never have the People, in calling a criminal an ‘unfortunate,’ ceased to regard him as a criminal!

Of course, all this talk of "greatness" is not to say there are is no "smallness" within us humans. To balance his "great" characters there are those such as Sofya in Crime and Punishment and of course Alyosha and Fr. Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov.

However, I think for the modern corrupted world there is probably more need for the vision of precisely this kind of "greatness".

...if we consider that we ourselves are sometimes even worse than the criminal, we thereby also acknowledge that we are half to blame for his crime. If he has transgressed the law which the nation prescribed for him, then we ourselves are to blame that he now stands before us. (on trial) If we were better, then he, too, would be better and would not now be standing here before us…. now is precisely the time we must tell the truth and call evil evil; in return, we must ourselves take on half the burden of the sentence. We will enter the courtroom with the thought that we, too, are guilty. This pain of the heart, which everyone so fears now and which we will take with us when we leave the court, will be punishment for us. If this pain is genuine and severe, then it will purge us and make us better. And when we have made ourselves better, we will also improve the environment and make it better. And this is the only way it can be made better. But to flee from our own pity and acquit everyone so as not to suffer ourselves—why, that’s too easy. Doing that we slowly and surely come to the conclusion that there are no crimes at all, and ‘the environment is to blame’ for everything. We inevitably reach the point where we consider crime even a duty, a noble protest against the environment. ‘Since society is organized in such a vile fashion, one can’t get along in it without protest and without crimes.’ … So runs the doctrine of the environment, as opposed to Christianity which, fully recognizing the pressure of the environment and having proclaimed mercy for the sinner, still places a moral duty on the individual to struggle with the environment and marks the line where the environment ends and duty begins.

A brewhaus and icehaus, boy, Jonnie's living on increasingly bigger dreams...

So I normally wouldn't post a picture like this as it has no comedic value but the situation which ensued after it was taken will hopefully tickle your fancy... Well, as I was taking this picture (of the gateway into the subway tracks for those who can't tell) I noticed a kid come out of a house to the left of the picture and go back inside...so I take my picture and am biking away when I hear "Hey!", "Hey!" so I looked around and there's a guy that had come out of the house with his entourage of kids and said, "What are you doing!!?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "What are you doing video taping the dog!!?" So I started to say that I wasn't photographing his dog when I realized how vacuous this exchange was so I simply turned around and rode off... As I'm 'making my escape' he was saying, "Why are you running away!?" ...

The evolution of dogma...

"The Catholic Church this year celebrates the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception."

The Immaculate Conception

My dream fulfilled!

GRYFFINDOR! You scored 16% Slytherin, 24% Ravenclaw, 56% Gryffindor, and 28% Hufflepuff!

You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve, and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart. Gryffindors are known for their courage, audacity, and devotion to what is good and honest.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 21% on Slytherin You scored higher than 32% on Ravenclaw You scored higher than 65% on Gryffindor You scored higher than 36% on Hufflepuff

Link: The Sorting Hat Test written by leeannslytherin on Ok Cupid

Get your 'How to Build a New Life' booklet now!

The tract for Katrina!

These dang tests are addictive!

I had to have something to brag about!

English Genius You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 80% Expert!

You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 70% on Beginner You scored higher than 53% on Intermediate You scored higher than 50% on Advanced You scored higher than 61% on Expert

Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

Serve Somebody?

So at Gabe's instigation I took this little survey. I wasn't going to post my results as I turned out to be "centrist" but then I looked at the ideologies qualification and it turns out I was on the border of "totalitarian" so I guess I'll post it. Looking at it closer it looks like I'm more on the side of totalitarian...but whatever.

You are a Social Conservative (33% permissive) and an... Economic Moderate (41% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating

This "bling" van kind of reminds me of those child molester vans...

WCC: need I say more?

... Dr Kobia declared: “Together, as people of faith, we have faith in a better world.” ... Have Faith...


What Fr. Seraphim would say about this:
All of these ideals have enlisted the enthusiasm of some modern idealist or other, but it is quite clear to the Christian that they are secularizations and so perversions of genuine Christian hopes. They can be realized only in Christ, only in His Kingdom that is not of this world; when faith in Christ and hope in His Kingdom are wanting, when the attempt is made to realize Christian "ideals" in this world—then there is idolatry, the spirit of Antichrist.

The Church is in society because men are in society, but the end of the Church is the transformation of men, not society.

Our hope as Christians cannot be reduced to the abstract, but neither can it be reduced to the concrete; we believe and hope in a Kingdom no one living has ever seen, our faith and hope are totally impossible in the eyes of the world.

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 - Letter to Thomas Merton

Holy cities

"Like the Jews of old, we long for a return to our holy city," said the New Orleans archbishop, who has been based in Baton Rouge, La., since the hurricane and subsequent flooding made much of New Orleans uninhabitable in late August.

Holy Toledo, ok, but holy New Orleans???

refugees (to use a "loaded" word)

Rasing them right

I believe in making the world safe for our children, but not our children’s children, because I don’t think children should be having sex.
Jack Handey

Re: In Whose Court is the ball?

Some of my faithful readers may remember a post on blogodoxy with the current title. For those unfamiliar here is the story:

From DNN (Duke News Network): April 1, 2005 - Relations between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church were put on a precarious footing after an incident at Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago. The incident in question transpired when a Catholic representative spitefully placed the Orthodox representative's soccer ball out of reach and refused to retrieve the ball.

This incident comes at a time when many hoped an increased dialogue between the churches would soon be underway. Recently the Pope had returned to Patriarch Bartolomew the bones of two prominent early saints, St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian.

The Catholic Church slowly broke off from the Orthodox Church beginning in the 7th century, with the schism being consummated in 1054 with excommunications on both sides.

I have just been informed that now the Orthodox soccer ball has been put directly into the hands of Pope Benedict XVI. This does indeed effect future relations between the Frankish church and the Orthodox Church. The Pope is slated for a visit to Constantinople for next spring and this issue should definately be discussed.

Orthodox Soccer Ball Given to Pope

My problem

If there has been a consistent “theme” or “interest” to my extracurricular reading in the last couple of years, it has been between the tension of reason and revelation. The 20th Century Jewish thinker Leo Strauss perhaps did more than any other modern mind to identify this tension and cogently argue that both, by being in tension, became the twin pillars of Western society. Though Strauss’ disciples, students, and critics have differed as to whether or not Strauss thought one ought to win out over the other or if a synthesis between the two could ever be accomplished, it seems clear to me that Strauss was extremely wary of one becoming subordinate to the other. Even if Strauss may have chosen “Athens over Jerusalem” in his own life, it remains unclear to me whether or not that is the desirable choice.

It is important to note that the tension of reason and revelation was for Strauss a phenomena best exemplified by the Jews, though I see no evidence why it ought to be limited to the Jews. Still, for Strauss the tension became strikingly apparent in the “Jewish problem” of modernity. In the wake of the Enlightenment, Jews were finally extended the chance for equal citizenship in civil society; and yet the “price” of that citizenship was that Jews could no longer be, well, Jews. Liberal democracy with its mind oriented ever towards pluralism could not accept the exclusive truth claims of Judaism. Instead, it offered the Jews new claims that oftentimes failed to square with identity of Jews as the chosen people of God in possession of the Law. Strauss thought that there could be no satisfactory answer to the “Jewish problem” or, at least, none that liberal democracy was capable of providing.

What has come to strike my interest now more specifically is whether or not there is a “Christian problem” developing in Western society today. Perhaps that problem ought to be narrowed down more to an “Orthodox Christian problem” as history has provided ample evidence of Protestantism’s assimilationist tendencies along with the Catholic Church’s proclivity for synthesis, even when it means its own weakening. Now, even with that being said I do have to admit that unlike the wider whole of Christendom or Judaism, Orthodoxy only occasionally blips on the sociopolitical radar; it is not a present force pluralism feels it must contend with directly nor does it, by and large, concern itself with a full fledged dialogue with the rest of the world. Orthodoxy is insular in many ways, though it seems inevitable that it will stop being so in the years to come.

My concern for the moment then revolves more around how Orthodox Christians individually ought to relate to liberal democracy and the claims of pluralism. It is true that liberal democracy has given the Orthodox Christian the right to be Orthodox, but surely not the means to be Orthodox. To be Orthodox in the truest sense seems to me to be nearly impossible if one expects to live their faith honestly. The claim to Truth in Orthodoxy is one that supercedes any claims liberal democracy could make, even those grounded in natural human reason. And while I am hesitant to say there is something fundamentally anti-intellectual or anti-reason in Orthodox Christianity, there exists little doubt in my mind that the claims of Orthodoxy, rooted in revelation, cannot be explained by reason nor find support from it. There is simply an arena too exclusive and pure to allow anything else in it. To do so would be to blacken that purity to the end result of no longer having Orthodox Christianity at all.

For my part, I wonder how far I can take my faith into the wider society and what I could ever bring back from it that would not poison my faith. I must live “in the world” but can I allow my thought to be “of the world”? More confusing to me is what “the world” even is. Is it the thought of this world—that is, the modern world—which I must throw off, or the thought of the world as it has always existed? Should I simply live a sham social existence as a good citizen of an arbitrarily drawn nation despite the fact nothing it says can be anything but superfluous at best or complete lies at worst? Perhaps there are important distinctions I haven’t even considered yet. I worry, however, that this problem will remain the problem of my life and one I have not a single hope of resolving.

The Bible: your key to millions!

Let the Oil flow!

May I remind you of some pertinent quotes:

In the hands of neurologically sick people the Bible becomes a source of «uncontrollable fantasies.» And indeed religion is one of the most dangerous. Instead of being a manuel for the cure of the sickness of religion the Bible becomes a book for the propagation of the sickness of religion.
Fr. John Romanides

...the expressions about God in the Bible are not intended to convey concepts about God. They act only as means to guide one to the purification and illumination of the heart and finally to glorification by the Pre-Incarnate and Incarnate Lord (Yaweh) of Glory...
Fr. John Romanides

How 'bout a taste of your own medicine ol' Benny?

Rome should not require anything more on this point than was found in the formularies and practice of the first millennium. When, during the Pope’s visit to St. George’s Cathedral in Phanar, on July 25, 1967, Patriarch Athenagoras spoke of the Pope as “the successor of Peter, the first in honor among us, the one who presides over the community of love", “the words of this great Church leader conveyed the substance of what had been said about the primacy during the first millenium, and Rome should not ask for anything more.”

Cardinal Ratzinger

Fanclub

Update: So I saw the guy that drives this hunk of junk and he definitely had at least one too many super sizers...

Band of Enemies

The one aim of the whole band of these enemies of sound doctrine is to shake the faith of Christ down to its foundations, by utterly levelling apostolic tradition to the ground. They clamor for written proofs and reject the unwritten testimony of the Fathers as worthless, proving themselves worse than debtors who refuse to pay what they owe when there is no written evidence of the loan.

St. Basil the Great

So I was just walking through the park and I see these girls treating our exquisite Chicago public art like a mechanical bull. So I said, "What do you think that is? A mechanical bull?" And they said, "No, it appears to be a giant Jack and I have no idea why some 'artist' would design such a thing and why some city would actually pay them for it and display it as public 'art'."

Continuing the tradition of absurd names for suburbs/subdivisions/buildings and etc. in Chicago...

I always just referred to them as gastroenterologists but hey, if that's their marketing plan so be it.

America!!

USA, America, we stand as one!

Bible bonanza

"a sense of hope"?

The big-head WCC

Universal history you say?

The lonliest newsstand...

hm...

displaced persons

"failing of our health care system"?

Stop that child! He's actually helping out around the house!
"child"care

Ok, so it may not be totally altruistic but is it not a duty?

Now-gain tolerance while having fun!

Enlighten!

The end of an era...

worldlings- a rodent similar to an R.O.U.S.

...it is those never content with accepted ways who despise the old as being stale, constantly welcoming innovation, like worldlings who are always chasing after the latest fashion.

St. Basil the Great

Duke Victorious

After weeks of intensive battle The Grand Duke's tactics won out over Goldstein the Rodent. (note: I judged that a clearer picture would be even too incendiary for this blog, however, if you want more evidence [of Goldstein and her troops demise] send me an email.)

I think we all could do with more children's literature like this...

Nutcracker Sweet

‘Good God!’ cried Mr. Pocket, in an outburst of desolate desperation. ‘Are infants to be nutcracked into their tombs, and is nobody to save them?’

Mr. Pocket. Great Expectations

So the dumpster company was like, "They'll think we're really patriotic if we paint a flag on our dumpster and they'll rent our dumpsters!"

The most beautiful shopping mall church I've seen...

My attempt to capture the guy on the bike with the flag.

I sure would like to hear about this "positive, practical spirituality"...

Fear Factor has a new contender.

Kathleen say, "I'll give you a dolla if you eat this goo on a wheat thin." I says, "It's gonna take more than a dolla sucka!" She say, "Ok, five big ones." I think to myself... Lynn say, "I'll pitch in a dolla." I say, "Ok, you womens is on."

Cret(a)(i)ns: Gosh!

No Comment

Re: Robertson's outburst

WEA and ol' Pat

It will take a lot more than retracting a certain statement for ol' Pat to "reconcile his views with the orthodox Christian faith."

ps. I don't care that there's no big "o" in that quote.

The Russians know how to do it

This is how tv should be run:

Spas managing editor Ivan Demidov explains that "if for example there was an ad for milk and another ad for crisps, and one was filmed on a beach, while the other was filmed in a village, we would prefer to take the latter. I don't think we could permit ourselves to show a beach on our channel".

Spas TV

Boy, some kind of hispanic knows how to cut melons...it's beautiful

The politically correct version of "Beware of Dogs"

Franklinstein Graham?

Raising the body

There's obviously someone out there who still likes Lionel...

Those durn agnostics...

Da Vinci dereliction

"She, like most traditionalists, said the storyline was based on agnostic heresy."

In other news...

Whoa Nel(s)l(s)y

Last week money grubbing tv producers explaced placed a life size model of Nessy in Lake Loch Ness to try to trick people into thinking that Nessie isn't real.

We all know better than to take the bait.

All that's lacking is money...

Spare change for Ecumenism?

The relationship between the Armenian Orthodox Church and the Canadian Anglicans has been strengthened to become recognised more through the Scholarship of St. Basil the Great, which is administered by the Anglican Foundation. The scholarship was established by retired bishop of Diocese of Ontario, Bishop Henry Gordon Hill, with means to facilitate exchange between members of the Anglican Church of Canada and members of the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Assyrian Church of the East.

Those are some pretty powerful words there junior

De-gendrifying Lutherans

Instructions begins with the proper use of speech, and syllables and words are the elements of speech. Therefore to scrutinize syllables is not a superflous task.

...what theological term is so insignificant that it will not greatly upset the balance of the scales, unless it is used correctly?

Those who are idle in the pursuit of righteousness count theological terminology as secondary... those conscious of the goal of our calling realize that we are to become like God...

St. Basil the Great

With the spirits of the righteous give rest, O Savior, to the souls of Thy departed servants and keep them in the blessed life with Thee, O Lover of man. In the place of Thy rest, O Lord, where all Thy Saints repose give rest also to the souls of Thy servants for Thou alone art the Lover of men.

Concerning Greeks and Latins

We begin with the fact that there are no "Latin" or "Greek" Fathers of the Church. All Fathers of the Church within the Roman Empire are Greek-speaking and Latin-speaking Roman Fathers of the Church with their localities attached to their description. The Carolingian Franks literally invented the distinction between "Greek" and "Latin" Fathers of the Church. Why? In order to cover up the fact that they had no Father of their Church until Rabanus Maurus (776-856). So they simply broke the Roman Fathers in two and began calling them "Greek" and "Latin" Fathers of the Church. In this way they simply attached Rabanus Maurus and his successors to their so-called "Latin" Fathers of the Church. But the Fathers of the Church who wrote in either Latin or Greek or in both Latin and Greek, were neither Latins nor Greeks, but were simply Roman Fathers of the Church.

Fr. John Romanides

The Eighth Council

Without ever mentioning the Franks, the Eighth Ecumenical Synod of 879 condemned those who either added or subtracted from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, and also those who had not yet accepted the Seventh Ecumenical Synod. It must first be emphasized that this is the first instance in history wherein and Ecumenical Synod condemned heretics without naming them. In this case, the heretics are clearly the Franks.

Fr. John Romanides

Add another council to the list

Nicea 3?

...politics [might I add church governance?] that rejects Christian Truth must acknowledge "the people" as sovereign and understand authority as proceeding from below upwards, in a formally "egalitarian" society [church].

Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

Forgetfulness: the curse of human nature

...see, I pray you, after such signs had been wrought, what evils within a short space ensue. Such is human nature: it soon forgets. Or, do ye not remember what has been the case among ourselves? Did not God last year shake our whole city? Did not all run to baptism? Did not whoremongers and effeminate and corrupt persons leave their dwellings, and the places where they spent their time, and change and become religious? But three days passed, and they returned again to their own proper wickedness. And whence is this? From the excessive laziness. And what marvel if, when the things have passed away (this be the case), seeing that, the images lasting perpetually, the result is such?

St. John Chrysostom

Something to ponder in this age of terrorism and (sometimes) increased "religiosity."

Math is your friend

"Proof" positive
Logic's loaded gun

Christian Faith is mighty not only when it agrees with sensory reasoning and sensory logic but when, and especially when, it contradicts sensory reasoning and sensory logic.

St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

A “new god” is clearly required by modern man, a god more closely fashioned after the pattern of such central modern concerns as science and business; it has, in fact, been an important intention of modern thought to provide such a god…the new god is not a Being but an idea, not revealed to faith and humility but constructed by the proud mind that still feels the need for 'explanation' when it has lost its desire for salvation…Whether 'deist,' 'idealist,' 'pantheist,' or 'immanentist,' all the modern gods are the same mental construct, fabricated by souls dead from the loss of faith in the true God.

Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

...when God does anything, reasonings are of no use; for how did He make us out of those things that were not?

St. John Chrysostom

Mega-something

I need to get in on this: Taking over

(maybe tomorrow I'll be one of the lucky 175000)

Baptists under attack

It appears there is someone out there that doesn't want the Baptists to have their little meetings: Bombshell Baptists

Under lock and key

That religion is a sickness with a specific cure is known from the tradition of the Old and New Testaments. However, that this sickness and cure exists in the Bible is known only to those who know that it is there and know how to use the Bible as a guide to said cure. For this reason the Bible is a closed book to all others, even to most Jews and Christians today. This means that Jews who accept the Old Testament alone, or Christians who accept both the Old and the New Testament, yet are not in the process of being cured under the guidance of one already cured, i.e. "glorified" (1 Cor. 12:26), automatically and unknowingly distort these books into supports for the sickness of religion, rather than its cure. Many such students of the Bible become Fundamentalists and at times quite dangerous. On the other hand the critical Biblical scholar, who uses whatever tools he has at his disposal to understand the Bible, cannot complete his task unless he knows the existence of the sickness of religion and its cure, and indeed in a Bible which is supposed to be his specialty.

Fr. John Romanides

I'm Jive With Ebonics

District to 'affirm' Ebonics

The common element in all of this is the degeneration of language into an instrument of rape. It does contain violence, albeit in latent form. And precisely this is one of the lessons recognized by Plato through his own experience with the sophist of his time, a lesson he sets before us as well. This lesson, in a nutshell, says: the abuse of political power is fundamentally connected with the sophistic abuse of the word, indeed, finds in it the fertile soil in which to hide and grow and get ready, so much so that the latent potential of the totalitarian powon can be ascertained, as it were, by observing the symptom of the public abuse of language. The degredation, too, of man through man, alarmingly evident in the acts of physical violence committed by all tyrannies (concentration camps, torture), has its beginning, certainly much less alarmingly, at that almost imperceptible moment when the word loses its dignity. The dignity of the word, to be sure, consists in this: through the word is accomplished what no other means can accomplish, namely, communication based on reality. Once again it becomes evident that both areas, as has to be expected, are connected: the relationship based on mere power, and thus most miserable decay of human interaction, stands in direct proportion to the most devastating breakdown in orientation toward reality.

Josef Pieper


Our countrymen do not want to speak too much, not because they do not have an adequate vocabulary or imagination, but because they do not want to lose the substance of the spoken word. Through abuse, words have lost their power; once a word was equal to the act, but now words are devoid of real meaning; they have become abstract. This is why monks recommend silence.

Fr. Roman Braga

Found in "Cathedral of St. John the Divine" ...

St. John, St. Gregory, St. Symeon, St. Gregory Palamas and Calvin(?)

Calvin the "Theologian"

A true definition of Theologian from Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos:

...theologians of the Church should be called "those who have reached theoria (vision of God)", who formerly purified their heart from passions or at least are struggling to purify them.

Further:

…the beholders of God, specifically those who follow the whole methodology of the Church and attain perfect faith -the illumination of the nous.

From the pen of Fr. John Romanides:

The true Orthodox theologian is the one who has direct knowledge of some of God's energies through illumination or knows them more through vision. Or he knows them indirectly through prophets, apostles and saints or through scripture, the writings of the Fathers and the decisions and acts of their Ecumenical and Local Councils. The theologian is the one who through this direct or mediated spiritual knowledge and vision knows clearly how to distinguish between the actions of God and those of creatures and especially the works of the devil and the demons.

And from St. Neilos:

"If you are a theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly, you are a theologian"

From a true Theologian:

...He makes my disobedience His own as Head of the whole body. As long then as I am disobedient and rebellious, both by denial of God and by my passions, so long Christ also is called disobedient on my account. … But when all things shall be subdued unto Him on the one hand by acknowledgment of Him, and on the other by a reformation, then He Himself also will have fulfilled His submission, bringing me whom He has saved to God. For this, according to my view, is the subjection of Christ; namely, the fulfilling of the Father's Will. But as the Son subjects all to the Father, so does the Father to the Son; the One by His Work, the Other by His good pleasure, as we have already said. And thus He Who subjects presents to God that which he has subjected, making our condition His own. Of the same kind, it appears to me, is the expression, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was not He who was forsaken either by the Father, or by His own Godhead, as some have thought, as if It were afraid of the Passion, and therefore withdrew Itself from Him in His Sufferings (for who compelled Him either to be born on earth at all, or to be lifted up on the Cross?) But as I said, He was in His own Person representing us. For we were the forsaken and despised before, but now by the Sufferings of Him Who could not suffer, we were taken up and saved. Similarly, He makes His own our folly and our transgressions; and says what follows in the Psalm… For in His character of the Word He was neither obedient nor disobedient. For such expressions belong to servants… But, in the character of the Form of a Servant, He condescends to His fellow servants, nay, to His servants, and takes upon Him a strange form, bearing all me and mine in Himself, that in Himself He may exhaust the bad, as fire does wax, or as the sun does the mists of earth; and that I may partake of His nature by the blending. Thus He honours obedience by His action, and proves it experimentally by His Passion. For to possess the disposition is not enough, just as it would not be enough for us, unless we also proved it by our acts; for action is the proof of disposition. …by the art of His love for man He gauges our obedience, and measures all by comparison with His own Sufferings, so that He may know our condition by His own, and how much is demanded of us, and how much we yield, taking into the account, along with our environment, our weakness also.

St. Gregory the Theologian

And a swift kick in the pants from Khomyakov:

...having rejected legitimate tradition, it has deprived itself of every right to condemn a man who, while acknowledging the divinity of the Holy Scriptures, might not find in them the refutation of the error of Arius or Nestorius

Aleksei Stepanovich Khomyakov

Nothing like porn neon to get the word out...

Lie, lie, lie

Can a lie be taken as communication? I tend to deny it. A lie is the opposite of communication. It means specifically to withhold the other’s share and portion of reality, to prevent his participation in reality. And so: corruption of the relationship to reality, and corruption of communication—these evidently are the two possible forms in which the corruption of the word manifests itself. … The very moment, as I have stated, that someone in full awareness employs words yet explicitly disregards reality, he in fact ceases to communicate anything to the other.

Josef Pieper

Rock of Ages

The Liberal view of government, as one might suspect, is an attempt at compromise between these two irreconcilable ideas [Orthodox Christian Monarchy and Anarchy]. In the 19th century this compromise took the form of "constitutional monarchies," an attempt--again--to wed an old form to a new content; today the chief representatives of the Liberal idea are the "republics" and "democracies" of Western Europe and America, most of which preserve a rather precarious balance between the forces of authority and Revolution, while professing to believe in both.

Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose

A Nation Build on the Rock?

Souvenirs from my run in with the law.....the law of gravity that is...

I'm going to have to go with the parking spot on this one...

I don't think I've ever seen anything as ambiguous and yet loaded as this add. We have the Rainbow/Push coalition (need I say more) in a time of "civil unions" presenting a conference, stealing a phrase from the constitution: "a more perfect union"; trying to connect their fight for "civil rights" to MLK jr. Add to that Jesse Jackson and you have one wacky tossed salad...

Malpractice

...from the viewpoint of Protestant needs, the WCC is certainly the best kind of medical treatment possible for the maladies of Protestantism. However, from the viewpoint of Orthodox needs, membership in the current organizational structure of the WCC is an aimless adventure, simply because the maladies of Orthodoxy and Protestantism are not the same.

Fr. John Romanides

Pertinent article: WCC One correction: they think there is a difference between the "Catholic" church and "Protestant" churches.

-Manly Help- -- I doubt this is immediatly as hilarious to you as to me so I will explain. "Help" is a feminine word so the adjective must be in feminine form-in this case "man". So you get girly "manly" help.

Coward- what a descriptive word.

In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.

Pip in Great Expectations

It still amazes me that a writer from 145 years ago could describe my life so well; I get the same feeling when I read Dostoyevsky.

No stinkin' cars allowed!

In full bloom...

...the cult of individualism blossoms luxuriantly [in the West], finding prophets in fashionable philosophy and singers in the belles-lettres, Christ's ideal of the Church can, of course have no place; for it negates self-love and self-will in people and demands love from them all.

St. Hilarion (Troitsky)

incen-delicious

Now that my previously hardly existent readership has turned non-existent I am back from my Russia and etc. hiatus. As you can see I have changed the name of the blog to conform more to the current content; since you're here you obviously know that the address changed as well. So...

A picture of sucess?

By the new standards Hitler too was “successful,” until the “spirit of the age” proved him “wrong”; and the avant-garde and its humanist “fellow-travellers” have no argument whatever against Bolshevism today, unless it be that, unlike national Socialism, which was “expressionistic” and exciting,” it is completely prosaic and Realistic.

Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

pseudos...

It is entirely possible that the true and authentic reality is being drowned out by the countless superficial information bits noisily and breathlessly presented in propaganda fashion. Consequently, one may be entirely knowledgeable about a thousand details and nevertheless, because of ignorance regarding the core of the matter, remain without basic insight. ... Arnold Gehlen labeled it “a fundamental ignorance, created by technology and nourished by information”. ...the place of authentic reality is taken over by a fictitious reality; my perception is indeed still directed toward an object, but it is a pseudoreality, deceptively appearing as being real, so much so that it becomes almost impossible any more to discern the truth.

Josef Pieper