Stalin's mistake

Stalinist culture considered that it represented the only escape from history and that the rest of the world had not yet entered the realm of pure mythology but remained historical. And it was here that Stalinist culture encountered its limit--it was swept away by the forces of history, because unlike Christianity it had failed to establish itself in the superhistorical; and when the extrahistorical competes with the historical, it inevitably loses, because it is fighting on alien ground.
Boris Groys

Christ is Risen

No one is so all-embracing as is the Lord Jesus. Who, of those so-called philanthropists of mankind, teachers, leaders or enlighteners ever attempted to perform any good for the dead?
St. Nikolai (Velimirovic)

The order of knowledge

...the lovers of God are not simpletons because they know God well enough that they are able to love Him. Of all human knowledge, this knowledge is more important and greater. To this must be added that the enemies of God cannot be more knowledgeable, even though they consider themselves as such, because their knowledge is unavoidably chaotic, for it does not have a source and does not have order. For the source and order of all knowledge is God.
St. Nikolai (Velimirovic)

Where is your goat's trail to be found?

Most men are surrendered unto Satan and run after wealth and other things of this life. But there are a few who believe with simplicity in the words of Christ. And again among these are found a few who go and live far away from the world, struggling and walking their whole life on the narrow and arduous goat's trail which our Lord showed us. They go to the desert and seek to find the hidden door of Paradise. These blessed men are not mistaken, but rather, know well where their ancient Fatherland is found.
From the life of St. Mark the Anchorite

Christ among us

Churches, shrines, chapels, ikons, candles, processions, priests, bells, monasteries, travelling preachers, every day's saints, fast seasons—everything is the repetition of the same idea, namely, that Christ is the ruler of life and we are His followers. Christ must be expressed everywhere, indoors and outdoors. Many Englishmen have remarked that the Bible is read very seldom in the home in Russia and Serbia. That is true. People read the Bible more in symbols, pictures and signs, in music and prayers, than in the Book, Our religion is not a book religion, not even a learned religion. It is a dramatic mystery. The Bible contains the words, but in this dramatic mystery there is something higher and deeper than words. Slav Christianity is something greater than the Bible. Looking at an ikon, a Russian mujik perceives the Bible incarnated in a saint's life-drama. Mystery of sin, mystery of atonement, mystery of heroic suffering, mystery of the daily presence of Christ among us in holy wine, in holy bread, in holy water, in holy word, in holy deed, in every sanctified substance, even in matter as in spirit, mystery of communion of sins and of virtues—all are recorded once in the Bible, and all are recorded and repeated also in our daily life—that is what we call our Slav Orthodoxy. We take the mystic outlines of the Bible and do not care about the details. In those mystic outlines we put our daily life, with its details of sins and sufferings.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

On "liturgical piety"

...it is difficult to reconcile oneself also to the term 'liturgical piety.' In the ordinary usage of words, piety is Christian faith, hope and love, independently of the forms of their expression. Such an understanding is instilled in us by the sacred Scriptures, which distinguish only authentic piety (piety is profitable unto all things - I Tim. 4:8) from false or empty piety (James 1:26, II Tim. 3:5). Piety is expressed in prayer, in Divine services, and the forms of its expression vary depending on circumstances: whether in church, at home, in prison, or in the catacombs, But we Orthodox scarcely need a special term like 'liturgical piety' or 'church piety,' as if one were pious in a different manner in church than at home, and as if there existed two kinds of religiousness: 'religiousness of faith' and 'religiousness of cult.' Both the language of the Holy Fathers and the language of theology have always done without such a concept. And therefore it is a new conception, foreign to us, of a special liturgical piety.

If we speak of worship as members of the Orthodox Church, there should be present to us that principle in the understanding of the history of our worship and its present status by which the Church Herself lives. ...if we maintain the Orthodox Symbol of Faith, if we confess that we stand on the right dogmatic path, we should not doubt that both the direction of church life and the structure of worship which was erected on the foundation of our Orthodox confession of faith, are faultless and true. We cannot acknowledge that our 'liturgical piety,' after a series of reformations, has gone far, far away from the spirit of Apostolic times.
Fr. Michael Pomazansky

...piety is, as it were, the groundwork and foundation of perfection.
St. Basil the Great

On Creation

I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that everywhere, wherever you may be, the least plant may bring to you the clear remembrance of the Creator.

...shall we, whom the Lord, the great worker of marvels, calls to the contemplation of His own works, tire of looking at them, or be slow to hear the words of the Holy Spirit? Shall we not rather stand around the vast and varied workshop of divine creation and, carried back in mind to the times of old, shall we not view all the order of creation?

...the sight of the moon, making us think of the rapid vicissitudes of human things, ought to teach us not to pride ourselves on the good things of this life, and not to glory in our power, not to be carried away by uncertain riches, to despise our flesh which is subject to change, and to take care of the soul, for its good is unmoved.

...the world was not conceived by chance and without reason, but for an useful end and for the great advantage of all beings, since it is really the school where reasonable souls exercise themselves, the training ground where they learn to know God; since by the sight of visible and sensible things the mind is led, as by a hand, to the contemplation of invisible things.

St. Basil the Great

The first place

Even today common enemies make peace among themselves when they find it necessary to attack and condemn the Lord. There are many who kill one another until you mention the Name of the Lord to them. As soon as they hear that Name, they gradually make peace among themselves for the sake of attacking that Holy Name. It is easier for the unjust to tolerate the unjust than it is for them to tolerate the just. It is easier for the unjust to come to an understanding and reconciliation with the unjust than with the just.

Even in some countries, the most quarrelsome parties seek reconciliation among themselves when it is deemed necessary to decide what place should be given to the Lord Jesus Christ in the State, either to render Him the first place, which is befitting to Him, or the last place? To these questions sworn enemies reconcile among themselves in order that our Lord will be given the last place only. So, also, it was with the quarreling parties of Pharisees and Saducees who were reconciled and entered into a partnership against Christ.

Why is it that the Most Pure and the Most Needed had to be awarded the last place? Because, according to their thinking, the first place would then be reserved for them. The same incentive was there between sworn enemies, the Pharisees and Saducees, when it was deemed necessary to seek to put Christ to death. The same incentive was the occasion that caused the reconciliation between Pilate and Herod when it was deemed necessary to judge that Christ had to be put to death.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

The ideal of repentance

...repentance from things better to things worse is a change impossible to us.
St. Polycarp of Smyrna

The terrible judgement

He who does not see God as the merciful Samaritan on earth will see Him as the Dreadful Judge in Heaven.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

"...I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." [Matthew 26:64]

The evocation of contrition

In the countries of Europe there are churches with paintings that are famous for their artistic merit; yet they do not have the mystery and the power of evoking contrition possessed by the icons that were done by some unlettered and simple Byzantine painters.
Fotis Kontoglou

What a simple way to discredit Western Art, no?

No light comes from the West

The Eastern light has come to the West -- to the uttermost Western end. And blessed be they who, with a clear vision, perceive this light just as it shines in the East. This light, although it came from the East, did not change, but while it shines in the West, it continues to be the light of the East; it is the Eternal Light. Christ, Who is the East Himself, laid down Himself as the chief cornerstone of His Church, which He established in the East, and they in the West who receive this Light of the East, must so shine as the Light of the East would have them be enlightened; but not allow themselves to be dazzled with the glare of a false fire; I say fire, but not light, as no light comes from the West! Praise and glorify the Good God! See, He comes to the West from the East, that all may see by that One Light, and be saved in the bond of union, which is love!
Archimandrite Sebastian (Dabovic)

I've always been perplexed when people dislike using the term "Eastern" to refer to our Church. Seems to me like it is a new heresy of our times. I think I will call it "ненавистники восточного Христоса" - Haters of the Eastern Christ.

Another lenten reminder

St. John Chrysostom writes thusly against those who create a disturbance in church and who depart from church before the completion of the Divine Liturgical Service of God. 'Some do not approach Holy Communion with trembling but with commotion, shoving one another, burning with anger, hollering, scolding, pushing their neighbor, full of disturbance. About this, I have often spoken and will not cease to speak about this. Do you not see the order of behavior at the pagan Olympic games when the Arranger passes through the arena with a wreath on his head, dressed in a lengthy garment, holding a staff in his hand and the Crier declares that there be silence and order? Is it not obscene that there, where the devil reigns there is such silence, and here where Christ invites us to Himself there is such an uproar. At the arena, silence: and in church, uproar! On the sea, calm and in the harbor, tempest! When you are invited to a meal, you must not leave before the others, even though you are satisfied before the others, and here while the awesome mystery of Christ is being celebrated, while the priestly functions are still continuing, you leave in the middle of it and exit? How can this be forgiven? How can this be justified? Judas, after receiving Communion at the Last Supper [Mystical Supper] that final night, departed quickly while the others remained at the table. Behold, whose example do they follow who hurry to depart before the final thanksgiving?' (Homily on the Feast of the Epiphany).
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

The path of the sunflower

The only true means for attaining our happiness in this life and in the next is the constant turning of our attention within ourselves, to our own conscience, to our thoughts, words, and deeds, so as to raise them to passionlessness: this will reveal to us our mistakes in life and indicate the only path to salvation. This path is the entire devotion of our whole being, of our whole self with all the circumstances of our life, to the will of God. As a symbol of this our turning to God we may take the growth of the sunflower; let it be ever before our eyes.

Christian! Observe once and for all how the sunflower even on gloomy days pursues its circular course, following the sun with the unchanging love and attraction natural to it. Our sun, illuminating our path through this world, it the will of God; it does not always illuminate our path in life without clouds; often clear days are followed by gloomy ones: rain, wind, storms, arise... But let our love for our Sun, the will of God, be so strong that we may continue, inseparably from it, even in days of misfortune and sorrow, like the sunflower on gloomy days, to navigate faultlessly on the sea of life, following the indications of the 'barometer' and 'compass' of the will of God, which leads us into the safe harbor of eternity.
St. John (Maximovitch) of Tobolsk

The salvation of the ignorant

By what can the ignorant be saved? By nothing except by faith in Christ and faith to Christ. Who are the most ignorant ones in the world? They are those who deny whatever Christ claimed and claim whatever He denied. In a word: there are those who think that they know something contrary to the knowledge of Christ. They are the worst and the most dangerous ignorant ones both to themselves and to others.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

On Susceptibility

If you have not faith, do not fear beasts so much as your faithlessness, which renders you susceptible of all corruption.
St. Basil the Great

The true hierarchy

Which hierarchy is the true and lawful one? It is the priesthood which has retained and continues to follow these conditions:

1. In the first place such a hierarchy is true, which has received the grace of the Holy Spirit from the Apostles themselves in an unbroken line of succession from one to another. ...In the time when the erring Church of Rome spawned the Protestant sects, the Protestants commenced to elect and establish presbyters themselves, and these ministers not only baptize, but they officiate at a so-called "communion service," which of course is not a valid sacrament, as the ministers have no apostolic ordination and are not presbyters.

2. Secondly, an authentic hierarchy is such, which confesses all the truths of holy religion, for there are heresies which entirely deprive bishops and priests of their ministerial grace.

3. Thirdly, a Priesthood to be lawful must administer the Sacraments orderly, according to the rules of the Holy Church Catholic, not changing essential actions, as there are acts and conditions in the rites of Mysteries that are essential, without which a certain Sacrament may not be valid.

4. Fourthly, to be a lawful and true hierarchy, the same must be governed and govern its spiritual charge according to the rules of the Holy Apostles, the Seven Ecumenical Councils, and other laws which are accepted by the Orthodox Church in general.

5. A fifth condition necessary for proving the lawfulness of the Priesthood is its unity with the Orthodox Church in the spirit of peace and love. Whoever destroys this unity, except for a genuine and important cause, and bishops and priests together with Christians who follow them, that separate themselves from the higher Church authorities, are excommunicated from the Church, according to the rules of the Apostles and the canons of the Councils.
Archimandrite Sebastian (Dabovic)

The least plants

The whole universe cannot give us a right idea of the greatness of God; and it is only by signs, weak and slight in themselves, often by the help of the smallest insects and of the least plants, that we raise ourselves to Him.
St. Basil the Great

Put out into deep water

In shallow waters there are only small fish; that is the entire catch. But in the greater depths, the danger is also greater. There you have large sea creatures and great storms. That is dangerous. But there are also much larger and better fish in enormous quantity; that is the catch. O, enlightened one, come therefore into the deep! "Put out into the deep" mysterious sea of life, but do not set out without Christ in your boat. By no means. ... Perhaps the winds could carry you away and cast you into an abyss. Perhaps the monstrous and enormous beasts of the sea will consume you. The winds, O enlightened one, those are your own passions which accompany you unavoidably if you set out into the deep without Christ.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

To remember during Lent

The time which you lend to God is not lost: he will return it to you with large interest.
St. Basil the Great

And while you're lending your time remember this.

The troubles of the world

What a troublesome world this is, when one has the most right to expect it to be as agreeable as possible!
Clara Copperfield (Murdstone)

Apropos to the feast of St. Nicholas the Fool for Christ

'Fools for Christ' were distinguished by rare fearlessness. Blessed Nicholas ran throughout the streets of Pskov pretending insanity rebuking the people for their hidden, sins and prophesying that which will befall them. When Ivan the Terrible entered Pskov, the entire town was in fear and terror of the Terrible Tsar. As a welcome to the Tsar, bread and salt was placed in front of every home but the people did not appear. When the mayor of the town presented the Tsar with bread and salt on a tray before the church, the Tsar pushed the tray away and the bread and salt fell to the ground. At that time, Blessed Nicholas appeared before the Tsar in a long shirt tied with a rope, hopping around on a cane as a child and then cried out: 'Ivanuska, Ivanuska, eat bread and salt and not human blood.' The soldiers rushed out to catch him but he fled and hid. The Tsar learning about this Blessed Nicholas, who and what he is, visited him in his scant living quarters. It was the first week of the Honorable Fast [The First Week of Lent]. Upon hearing that the Tsar was coming to visit him, Nicholas found a piece of raw meat and when the Tsar entered his living quarters, he bowed and offered the meat to the Tsar. 'Eat Ivanusha, eat!' Angrily, the Terrible Tsar replied: 'I am a Christian and I do not eat meat during the Fast Season.' Then the man of God quickly responded to him: 'But you do even worse: you feed on men's flesh and blood, forgetting not only Lent but also God!' This lesson entered profoundly into the heart of Tsar Ivan and he, ashamed, immediately departed Pskov where he had intended to perpetrate a great massacre.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

The offerings of the educated

...what does our educated society have to offer, they who so love to make free and self-confident judgements concerning every question and contemporary event? -- Nothing but a market-place, where every kind of cheap liberal idea and opinion is offered and exchanged... Someone must open the eyes of these careless and blinded people, who are going to their destruction and drawing after them a great people!
Archbishop Amvrossy of Kharkov

The destruction of satan and the "invisible church"

An abstract federation of communities whereby each body is a member of a more general body reduces the Eucharist to a secondary position and makes possible the heretical idea that there is a membership in the body of Christ higher and more profound than the corporate life of local love for real people and thus the whole meaning of the incarnation of God and the destruction of Satan in a certain place and at a certain time in history is destroyed.
Fr. John Romanides

The ark of holy things

Those who know and accept and believe the prophetic visions, as the Divine himself gave them shape and form, which the chorus of prophets behold and explain; and who, strengthened by the written and unwritten tradition of the Apostles, continuing to the Fathers, therefore express holy things in images and honour them:
May their memory be eternal!
Synodikon of Orthodoxy

I believe...in one, holy, universal, and apostolic Church.
Wayfarers, behold the ark! When the flood came, Noah was saved in a secure ark. The flood of madness and sin continues incessantly. Therefore, the Lover of Mankind constructed the ark of salvation. Ask for His ark, and you will soon be entering it.
Do not let yourselves be led astray by the multitude of variegated vessels, decorated and adorned on the outside. Ask about the power of the engine and about the skill of the captain. The most powerful engine and the most skillful helmsman are to be found in the ark of Christ. This is the all-seeing, all-powerful, Holy Spirit himself.
Neither let yourselves be led astray by those who invite you into their tiny and new rowboats, or those who offer you private rowboats just for yourselves. The journey is distant and the storms are dangerous.
Neither let yourselves be led astray by those who say that on the other side of the ocean there is no new land, no new world, and that there is no reason to prepare for a distant voyage. They invite you to go fishing on the shore. To such a little extent do they see or know. Truly, they are setting out for destruction, and are inviting you to destruction as well.
Do not allow yourselves to be deceived, but rather ask about His ark. Even though it may be less dazzling to the eyes than others, nevertheless it is strong and secure. Even though it does not have many variegated banners, except the sign of the cross, know that your life is safe aboard it. And on a sea voyage the first and primary concern should be that the life of the passenger is safe.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

Grant it, O Lord

I have no tears, no repentance, no compunction -- my God and Savior, grant these to me!
St. Andrew of Crete

What is that blessed day? It is the day of self-judgement. When that day dawns, the man who has condemned the whole world until then will at once come to regard himself as the greatest stain on the whole of God’s earth. He will be ashamed before God; he will be ashamed before every man and before everything that God has created on earth. And this shame will begin to burn him like fire. And he will then acknowledge and confess: 'Truly I am the greatest stain on God’s earth. Truly, are all other men not better than I am? …O Lord, Lord, have pity on me a sinner and rescue me from the mire of my sins, that I may so much as begin to resemble Your creation.' My brother, do not expect that blessed day of repentance to come of itself. Take firm hold on yourself the first day that it comes to meet you, and say: 'You are the blessed day on which I shall purchase life eternal!'
St Nikolai (Velimirovic)

Nail my flesh

Let us crucify our member through abstinence; and as it is written, let us be vigilant in prayer, living after the example of Him who suffered; by His passion, putting to death the passions.
Irmos of Matins, Wednesday, First week of Lent

Nail my flesh with the fear of you, O Christ, Who nailed the sin of Adam to the cross. Loose me from the bonds of wickedness, shatter the arrows of the evil one with Your Lance, Master, and deliver me from all his mischief.
Irmos of Matins, Wednesday, First week of Lent

Beloved, our condition needs much endurance; and endurance is produced when doctrines are deeply rooted. ...the soul which is nailed by the fear of God none will be able to overturn. ... Thus the Prophet prayeth, saying, "Nail my flesh by Thy fear" (Ps. 118: 120, LXX.); "do Thou so fix and join me, as by a nail riveted into me." For as men of this kind are hard to be captured, so the opposite sort are a ready prey, and are easily thrown down.
St. John Chrysostom

The light-giving season

Lord, You have consecrated and given us this light-giving season of abstinence, enable us all to pass through it in compunction and sincerity, living in peace by the power of the Cross, only Lover of mankind!
Hymn of Matins, Wednesday, First week of Lent

Spiritual meat

The season of repentance is at hand: show the fruits of abstinence, O my soul! Consider those who repented in the past and cry aloud to Christ: I have sinned, O Loving Master; save me, as You saved the Publican who sighed with sorrow from his heart, for You alone are rich in Mercy!
Hymn of Matins, Tuesday, first week of Lent

Restrain yourself, soul, from harmful passions, from hate and envy and from every evil. Be nourished in the fast with the spiritual meat from Heaven, which is the Word of God.
Irmos of Matins, Tuesday, first week of Lent

As the Lord killed the enemy by fasting, so let us also come to destroy his arrows and spears, saying: get behind me Satan! When he comes to tempt us.
Irmos of Matins, Tuesday, first week of Lent

Apropos to the first day of the Great Fast

For eating is also a matter of habit.
Abba Dorotheos

This is the time of repentance. This is the day of salvation. This is the beginning of the fast. Be vigilant, my soul! Close the door of your passions and seek the Lord.

Let us present a good fast, well-pleasing to the Lord! A true fast is alienation from the evil one; the holding of one's tongue, the laying aside of all anger, the removal of all sensuality, of accusation, falsehood and sins of swearing. The weakening of these will make the fast true and well-pleasing.

The principle of Christianity

People who deny the Church constantly speak about 'evangelical principles,' about evangelical teaching; but Christianity as life is completely alien to them . . .
St. Hilarion (Troitsky)

Five year plan x2

I know you've all been eagerly awaiting an update on the actions of famed new ecumenical group CCT so I will not disappoint... Having just concluded their "celebration" of formation last week they could not fail to release some "objectives" towards which all "Christians and all people" need to strive.

Being not quite as ambitious as Stalin they will expand their plan from 5 years to 10, but no bother. Before laying out these objectives we must first get you in the "spirit" and remind you that "The Gospel and our ethical principles place our service of the poor and vulnerable and our work for justice at the center of Christian life and witness." (As if stating that "justice's" foundation is in the Gospel isn't enough they have to invoke those ambiguous "ethical principles".) Let's see what St. Isaac the Syrian says about this so-called "justice" talked of in the Gospels, "how can you call God just when you come to the passage about the laborers' wages [Matt. 20:1-16] Where is God's justice? ...Do not call God just, for His justice is not made known in your affairs ...He is good, as He says, to the evil and the ungodly."

Laying aside the fact that the center of the Christian life is actually the Eucharist we'll proceed. Next, to inspire your sense of "justice" some cheerleader phrases and lofty goals would be good, "...we can, we must, do more. Our goal must be the elimination of poverty in this land." I can almost hear Stalin's 1925 era voice through the crackly speaker perched high above red square...

Lest you forget who is calling you to action I will remind you that they are "representatives of almost all the families in Christianity in the United States: Evangelicals/Pentecostals, Catholics, Racial/Ethnic, Orthodox and Historic Protestants." (Grammatical correctness aside, if I had a bad dream and were the "ecumenical officer" from the Orthodox Church present when this was written I think I would have objected to being called an Orthodox Protestant.)

And don't forget kids, in 10 short years you'll be poverty free!

[Edit: See superb article here.]

The Artisan

But what kind of artist on earth can be compared to Christ the Artist, who from illiterate men creates wise men, who from fishermen creates apostles, who from cowards creates heroes, who from the immoral creates saints?
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)

The virtue of gluttony

Christianity is food and drink. And the more one eats of it, the more the mind is stimulated by the sweetness; it is uncontrollable and insatiate, insatiably asking for more eating
St. Macarius the Great

The word of Christ

...what does it mean, brethren, to keep the word of Christ within ourselves? That means; First: to keep the word of Christ in our mind, thinking about it; Second: to keep the word of Christ in our heart, loving it; Third: to keep the word of Christ in our will, fulfilling it in deeds; Fourth: to keep the word of Christ on our tongue, openly confessing it when it is necessary to do so. Thus, to keep the word of Christ means to fill ourselves with it and to fulfill it. Whoever would keep the word of Christ in this manner, truly, he will never taste of death.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirivic)

Outward resemblances

All that can be said in regard to the platonism of the Fathers, and especially in regard to the dependence of the author of the Areopagitica on the neo-platonist philosophers, is limited to outward resemblances which do not go to the root of their teaching, and relate only to a vocabulary which was common to the age.
Vladimir Lossky

May we in like manner speak of the "Western captivity" of Orthodoxy? I think so.

In preparation for Great Lent

Today is celebrated the memory of St. Theodora who after the death of her iconoclast husband restored the veneration of icons in 842. Of course this is where the feast we celebrate in two weeks, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, originates. Today's commemorations also "happen" to coincide with the Sunday of the last judgment reminding us that those who do not recognize Christ in "the least of these" will be sent into "the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels". It seems to me reasonable to recognize that seeing Christ in "the least of these" includes many of the saints we venerate on icons. Having recently read the life of St. Symeon of Emesa, fool for Christ, I could not help but see in his life such an example as fools for Christ take on a much more humble position than your run of the mill monk. Recently I posted a great explanation of the fool for Christ phenomenon which well sums up this thought.

And don't forget that today is also the commemoration of St. Blaise of Sebaste the patron of my bosom buddy Bleys, otherwise known as Colonel K.

The ludicrous ways of saints

...the all-wise Symeon's whole goal was this: first, to save souls, whether through afflictions which he sent them in ludicrous or methodical ways, or through miracles which he performed while seeming not to understand, or through maxims which he said to them while playing the fool; and second, that his virtue not be known, and he receive neither approval nor honor from men.
Leontius of Neapolis

D.I.Y.

A brother said to Antony, 'Pray for me,' He answered, 'Neither I nor God will have mercy on you unless you do something about it yourself and ask God's help.'
Sayings of the Desert Fathers

On unity

Union is possible with Rome. Unity alone is possible with Orthodoxy.
Alexey Khomiakov

The speech of faith

Separate aspects of faith disintegrate only for scholastic theology, but, in living life, these aspects, each retaining its independence, become so closely interwoven that one idea imperceptibly evokes another. For a scholastic theologian, it is easy to say that the concepts Church, Holy Spirit, and Son of God are different: easy, because in his consciousness they are only concepts. But for a believer for whom all of these are realities that cannot be experienced independently of one another, realities that are interpenetrating and interconnected; for a believer who perceives them in their living givenness; for whom the Church is tangibly the body of Christ, the fullness of the Spirit sent by Christ; for such a believer, it is painful to make sharp divisions and separations, for they cut through living flesh. The speech of faith is in no wise like the speech of theology, and faith clothes its knowledge of dogmatic truth in a symbolic garment, in figurative language, which covers the higher truth and depth of contemplation in consistent contradictions.
St. Pavel (Florensky)

Don’t fret “Byzantium” was egalitarian

Byzantine architecture, with its interpretation of the Church as the Trinitarian mode of existence, marks out a space which is concrete and yet without bounds, a space continually divided up which yet has its center everywhere. The eucharist is accomplished everywhere, in the place where each Christian is present, bearing in himself Christ and the Spirit.
Christos Yannaras

Have it their way

Walking across campus today I could not help but notice a large RV parked along a campus street. You may ask me what (insert latest pop star here) was doing at my school? I would reply that this was no pop star but the RV of repentance - the tanker of truth - the source of "salvation". What is the best way to spread salvation? To give out Bibles, of course. What if in my reading of the Bible I don't find salvation? Well now, you must read our version as we are "Spreading the interpreted Word of God one Bible at a time." Italics, of course, mine...

It depends on us

Since therefore I am unable to present instruction and the image and model of virtuous deeds from my own life, carrying with myself everywhere the mark of sin, come, and from the work of others and their sweaty toils, I shall today unveil for you a nourishment which does not perish but which leads our souls to life everlasting [cf. Jn 6:27]. For as bread strengthens the body, the word of God often awakens the soul to virtue in earnest, and especially the souls of those most slothful in the work of divine commandments and disposed to carelessness. For the zealous, those whose intention is directed toward God, it is sufficient for their conscience to set them in the presence of instruction, recommending all good things and dissuading them from evil. Those more humble than these need to have the commandment of the written law set before them. But if someone escapes both from the first and from the second type of path which leads to virtue, it is necessary that from the zeal and concern of others, which he sees before his eyes, through his hearing, aroused in him to shake his soul from its sleep, that he may travel through the straight and narrow path and begin eternal life now. For it depends on us and lies within our power either to despise the desire for things which come in the present because they pass away, or, in the desire and longing for present things, to lose the unceasing good.
Leontius of Neapolis

What might happen?

Advertisements have penetrated American life to such an extent that, if upon waking some amazing morning Americans were to find all advertisements gone, the majority of them would be in the most desperate of plights. ...without advertisements, the devil alone knows what might happen!

Life would become incredibly complex. One would have to think for himself at every step.

No, it is much easier with advertisements. Americans don't have to think about anything. The large business houses do the thinking for them.
Ilya Ilf and Eugene Petrov

It goes without saying that this is now true for most of the modern world. This comment was made early in the previous century before advertising had spread in talons over the world outside America.

The pre-existence of souls?

We already existed before this world, because our creation was decided by God long before our actual creation. Before our creation we therefore existed in the thought of God, we who later turned out to be intelligent creatures of the Divine Word. Thanks to Him, we are very ancient in our origin, because 'in the beginning was the Word.'
St. Clement of Alexandria

...the World-generating Reason also considered, in His mind's great representations, the images of the world formed by Him, this world which was generated later, but, which, for God was present even then. Everything is before God's eyes: what will be, what was, and what is now. For me such a division is set by time: that one thing is ahead, another thing behind. But for God all merges into one, and all is held in the arms of the Great Deity.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus

So I almost fooled you didn't I (or rather St. Clement did)? Upon the first few words you were thinking, "What's going on here?" But then you realized this is a much more lofty idea than some measly pre-existence of souls.

The fools for Christ

...seem to reject the Apostle Paul's admonition to accept any personal deprivation and sacrifice in order to avoid scandalizing the faithful (1 Cor. 8:13). But what kind of scandal is St. Paul talking about? It is something that causes confusion in the realm of truth, and may thus deprive others of the possibility of participating in truth--the possibility of salvation. If by eating food offered to idols you give your brother's 'weak conscience' grounds for supposing that there is some connection between idol worship and the truth and life of the Church, then the responsibility for the confusion you cause is great indeed.

The challenge of the fools, however, does not create confusion in people's faith, nor does it obscure the Church. It simply surprises those who have identified faith and truth with the secularized concept of moral uprightness and conventional decorum. Fools for Christ have the gift, and the audacity, to manifest openly the human fall and sin which is common to us all: this is the reality of our nature, and it is not cancelled out by individual cases of 'improvement,' nor by concealment behind social externals.

In this sense, every monk in the Orthodox East is a kind of 'fool for Christ.' He wears a garment of mourning, openly declaring that he accepts our common fall and sin; and he withdraws into the ascetic life, waging war on this fall and this sin on behalf of us all. This same acceptance is the calling of every member of the Church. If we persist in ignoring the Gospel of salvation and continue to identify the regeneration of man with the social recognition of individual virtues, with worldly success in gaining individual moral respectability, then the fault is ours alone--and it is an error which bars us from truth and life.

The prototype to which the Church has always looked is not individual moral self-sufficiency, but the monks' lament of repentance. This lament is ultimately joyful--a 'joyful sorrow'--and turns sin into a measure of the acceptance of Christ's love. Man is able to mourn and lament only when he knows exactly what he has lost, and experiences this loss as a personal deprivation, a personal thirst. This is why repentance, the personal sense of the loss of God, is also a first revelation, our first acquaintance with His person, our first discovery of the extent of His love.

In the case of the fools for Christ, certainly their shocking freedom from every law, rule, restriction or code of obligations is not simply didactic in its purpose, reminding us of the danger of identifying virtue and holiness with conventional social decorum and egocentric moral rectitude. No one can ever really teach simply by calling into question mistaken concepts and ways of life: one has to make the fulness of the saving truth incarnate in oneself. The shocking freedom of the fools is first and foremost a total death, a complete mortification of every individual element in their lives. This death is the freedom which can break and destroy every conventional form; it is resurrection into a life of personal distinctiveness, the life of love which knows neither bounds nor barriers.

The example of the 'fools for Christ,' then, is neither extreme nor inexplicable, as it may perhaps seem to many people. It is the incarnation of the Gospel's fundamental message: that it is possible for someone to keep the whole of the Law without managing to free himself from his biological and psychological ego, from corruption and death. And that on the other hand, it is enough is someone humbly accepts his own sin and his fall, without differentiating it from the sin and fall of the rest of mankind, trusting in the love of Christ which transfigures this acceptance into personal nearness and communion, into a life of incorruption and immortality.
Christos Yannaras

Quantity=Quality?

Having recently finished War and Peace I will have to concur with Turgenev for my summary:

The novel itself aroused my keen interest: there are tens of pages which are absolutely magnificent, first class--all the descriptive parts, the stuff of everyday life--a hunt, a drive at night, and so forth. But the historical addition, which is precisely the part which enraptures the reader, is sham and charlatanery. ...Tolstoy impresses the reader with the tow of Alexander's boot, the laugh of Speransky. He forces the reader to believe that he knows everything about his subject, if indeed he goes down to these minute details, but in reality he knows only these small details.
Ivan Turgenev

In the power of Christ

...I am going to mock the world.
St. Symeon of Emesa

Discerning evil

St. Gregory the Theologian had baptized a certain philosopher, Maximus by name, and liked him so much that he kept the philosopher in his home, sharing his table with him. However, this Maximus, was as dangerous and cunning as a serpent. After a period of time, through intrigue and bribes, he obtained recognition of some Constantinopolians as patriarch, in place of St. Gregory. When this temptation, after great confusion, was removed, some rebuked Gregory for keeping his greatest enemy with him. The saint replied: 'We are not to blame if we do not discern someone's evil. God alone knows the inner secrets of man. And to us is commanded by law, that with fatherly love, to open our hearts to all who come to us.'
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)