Of fops and dogs

Do not harness your intellectual freedom into a foppish dog-caller with the inscription 'Europe'.
Aleksey Khomiakov

Feel good feelings

"Helping you feel safe is just part of the online peace-of-mind you have come to expect from us."

So my savings account instituted new "security measures" when I logged in today. Their blurb included the above statement. I am sure glad they are looking out for my "feelings" and "peace-of-mind" because that "sense" of "security" really keeps my money safe...

Surgery for the world

The Holy Eucharist pours healing balm into the wound of repentance, but the Eucharist also judges the communicant. Is it not in this same way that the Anointing and Comforting Spirit will come to heal the wounds of creation with a baptism of fire after the Terrible Day of surgery for the world, after the Judgment of the Son of God and the Word of God, that Very Same Hypostatic Word that “is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12)?
St. Pavel Florensky

The dawn of a better life

...I also loved to read the Holy Scriptures; and when, toward the end of the Old Testament, in its concluding chapters, I somehow had a sense of emptiness and peace, and the strict Romans were already present, a feeling of barely audible, barely noticeable, sweet expectation stirred within me. The dawn of a better life seemed to be awaiting the whole world. There was no light as yet, and one felt both sad and relieved. Then a poor child was born in Bethlehem....How good it is in these dry deserts, where only palm trees grow and people walk about barefoot in light robes! And already Peter was weeping in the night when the cock crowed, and I wept with him; all grew dark, the dead rose out of their graves and walked into town, the curtain in the temple was rent….Before me is a picture....Christ manifest himself for a minute to a couple of disciples, who were on their way to Emmaus. Some poor little town, this Emmaus; three smallish men are hurrying out of some valley, their robes blowing behind them; to one side are rocks, and in the distance looms an agglomeration of small houses with flat roofs. How deserted it all seems! As though after dinner when it is no longer hot, you might enter a large green garden which no one is using and where the shadows cast by the trees grow more and more elongated. As though the person closest to one had departed from the house and from this garden, in which he could have strolled had he wished. And something new was about to begin, was about to glimmer….But what was it? Even then I could not explain it, nor can I do so now.
Konstantin Leontiev

Reject the vomit

The truth of the Unity of God has been delivered to thee: learn to distinguish the pastures of doctrine. Be an approved banker, holding fast that which is good, abstaining from every form of evil . Or if thou hast ever been such as they, recognise and hate thy delusion. For there is a way of salvation, if thou reject the vomit, if thou from thy heart detest it, if thou depart from them, not with thy lips only, but with thy soul also: if thou worship the Father of Christ, the God of the Law and the Prophets, if thou acknowledge the Good and the Just to be one and the same God . And may He preserve you all, guarding you from falling or stumbling, stablished in the Faith, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem

She who is more honorable than the Cherubim

… while she alone stood between God and the whole human race, God became the Son of Man and made men sons of God; she made earth heavenly, she deified the human race, and she alone of all women was shown forth to be a mother by nature and the Mother of God transcending every law of nature, and by her ineffable childbirth-the Queen of all creation, both terrestial and celestial. Thus she exalted those under her through herself, and, showing while on earth an obedience to things heavenly rather than things earthly, she partook of more excellent deserts and of superior power, and from the ordination which she received from heaven by the Divine Spirit, she became the most sublime of the sublime and the supremely blest Queen of a blessed race.
St. Gregory Palamas

In the name of man

The first truth of Orthodoxy is that man does not exist for the sake of man, but for the sake of God or, more fully, for the sake of the God-man. Therefore, we stay with the God-man in the name of man. In Him alone is an understanding of man's being possible; in Him alone is a justification for man's existence possible. All the mysteries of heaven and earth are attained in this truth, all the values of all the worlds that man can contemplate, all the joys of all the perfections that man can attain.
St. Justin (Popovic)

Knowledge

...is not yet true enlightenment. Knowledge is the broadening of man’s intellectual endowment. True enlightenment, however, embraces in itself development of high moral and spiritual principles over and above knowledge. To acquire knowledge is not very difficult; to attain a high moral development, however is the highest aim of man and many people who are deprived of scientific knowledge b the circumstances of life but are deeply permeated by moral light are nearer to complete enlightenment than many who have knowledge but lack the power of spiritual life.
Alexey Khomiakov

Mankinds social benefit

The Panagia did the work of greatest social benefit to mankind. It is not a matter of a superficial and temporary deed, but of the eternal salvation of man, of the fact that she brought life into the world. "For she performed a miracle of miracles on earth and a public benefit greater than any in history..."
Met. Hierotheos (Vlachos)

Communism

…not merely a power-mad political regime, but an ideological-religious system whose aim is to overthrow and supplant all other systems, most of all Christianity. Communism is actually a very powerful heresy whose central thesis, if I’m not mistaken, is chiliasm or millennialism: history is to reach its culmination in an indefinite state of earthly blessedness, a perfected mankind living in perfect peace and harmony.
Fr. Seraphim (Rose)

St. Aleksander pray to God for us!

Today is the commemoration of St. Aleksander of Comana my patron so here is his story from the Prologue:

SAINT ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF COMANA
Men look upon clothes and the face,
But God looks at the soul and the heart.
Glorious Alexander, a charcoal-burner, was,
With the charcoal-burner, the body is blackened
And from soot, which water cleanses,
In the sinner, the heart is darkened
Which only the fire of faith can cleanse
The fire of faith and the cry of repentance.
It is easier to cleanse the skin of a charcoal-burner
Than the blackened heart of a sinner.
Alexander, with humility, covered
In a cave concealed, as a hidden flame
For laughter, to the gullible world, he was.
The world did not see; Gregory saw,
With an acute spirit, the charcoal-burner discerned
And in him, found a saint,
In the dark cave, a beautiful flame,
Beneath the mask of insanity, great wisdom,
Beneath the dirty soot, a pure heart,
A royal soul in decayed rags.
That the light be hidden, the Lord does not permit,
At the appropriate time, the light proclaims,
For the benefit and salvation of men.
All is wonderful, what God judges.

THE PRIESTLY-MARTYR ALEXANDER, BISHOP OF COMANA
As a simple charcoal-burner, Alexander lived in the town of Comana near Neo-Caesarea. When the bishop of Comana died, St. Gregory the miracle-worker and Bishop of Neo-Caesarea (November 17) was then called to preside at a council to elect a new bishop. Both clergy and laymen alike were present at the council. However, the electors were unable to agree on one person. At the time of evaluating a candidate, they all primarily paid attention to the points of his externals: external dignity and behavior. St. Gregory then said that they need not look so much at the external characteristics as much as at the spirit and spiritual capabilities. Then some jesters mocking cried out: then we should elect Alexander the charcoal-burner as our bishop! General laughter then ensued. St. Gregory asked: "Who is this Alexander?" And, thinking that his name was not mentioned at this council without God's Providence, Gregory ordered that Alexander be brought before the council. As a charcoal-burner, he was completely soiled and in rags. His appearance again evoked laughter in the council. Gregory then took Alexander aside and made him take an oath to speak the truth concerning himself. Alexander said that he was a Greek philosopher and that he enjoyed great honor and position but that he rejected all, humbled himself and made himself to be a "fool for the sake of Christ" from the time when he had read and understood Holy Scripture. Gregory ordered Alexander bathed and clothed in new attire and, with him, entered the council and before all began to examine Alexander in Holy Scripture. All were amazed at Alexander's wisdom and words of grace and could hardly recognize in this wise man, the former quiet charcoal-burner. Alexander was unanimously elected bishop. By his sanctity, wisdom and goodness, he gained the love of his flock. Alexander died a martyr's death for Christ during the reign of Diocletian.

Learn to respect and to love the lowly and simple people. Such as these are the most on earth: such as these are the most in the Kingdom of Heaven. In them, there is no pride, i.e., the basic madness from which the souls of the rich and the powerful of this world suffer. They carry out their duty in this world perfectly and yet it appears to them amusing when someone praises them for it, while the self-seeking men of this world seek praise for all their work and often, it is imperfectly completed. St. Alexander was an eminent philosopher and he left everything, hid himself from exalted society, the praise of the world and mingled with the lowliest and the simplest of men, as a charcoal-burner among charcoal-burners. Instead of former praises and honors, he endured with rejoicing that children ran after him and laughed at him because of his sootiness and raggedness. However, Alexander was not the only one who liked to live with the lowly and simple. Many kings and princes, learning of the sweetness of Christ's Faith, removed the crowns from their heads and fled from aristocratic vanity to be among the simple people. Did not He alone, the King of Kings, the Lord our Christ appear among shepherds and fishermen? St. Zeno counsels: "Do not choose a glorious place for living and do not associate with a man of a prominent name."

В конце концов

So the "school year" is over and I thankfully passed with "A's minusums". Now the stress shall subside. But now now I understand what they were talking about in Harry Potter when they talked of putting in 7 or more hours a day of studying...

The law of the human mind

Standing on this highest level of [noetic] thought, the Orthodox believer can easily and harmlessly comprehend all systems of thought deriving from the lower levels of reason; he can see their limitations and their relative truthfulness. However, for the lower form of thought, the higher is incomprehensible and appears nonsensical. Such, in general, is the law of the human mind.
Ivan Kireevsky

The Urals of my soul

Again and again, every sin, every 'petty' baseness is present, ineradicably distinct, in my consciousness. More and more deeply, 'petty' inattentions, egotism, and heartlessness are branded into the soul with letters of fire, gradually crippling it. Not that there was anything clearly bad, anything clearly, tangibly sinful. But always it was in the petty things. And out of petty things, mountains grew!
St. Pavel Florensky

This (not) just in

In case anyone had been wondering... I haven't been updating as much this summer as I've been intensively studying Russian for most of my days.
...

Woe! (Nelly)

...woe to them who wish to defend the power of Christ with the impotence of man’s weapons!
Aleksey Khomiakov

The contradiction of deviation

… whenever the teaching of faith deviates even a little from its basic purity, the deviation, growing little by little, cannot help becoming a contradiction to faith. The lack of wholeness and inner unity of faith compels one to seek unity in abstract thinking; and reason, having received equal rights with Divine Revelation, first serves as the ground of religion, and subsequently replaces it.
Ivan Kireevskii

The unmaking of man

‘Don’t people decrease in their sense of life when buildings increase?’ Voshchev hesitated to believe. ‘Man will make a building and unmake himself. Who will live in it then?’
Andrei Platonov. The Foundation Pit.

The well concealed menace

Serving the tyranny, the corruption and abuse of language becomes better known as propaganda. …the most perfect propaganda achieves just this: that the menace is not apparent but well concealed. Still, it must remain visible; it must remain recognizable. At the same time, those for whom the menace is intended must nevertheless be led and eased into believing (and this is the true art!) that by acquiescing to the intimidation, they really do the reasonable thing, perhaps even what they would have wanted to do anyway.
Josef Pieper

We will resist these trials

if we would but remember Christ crucified on the Cross for us and so many thousands of martyrs for the Faith who, in their patience, conquered all and emerged from the flames as gold and who for centuries glow among the angels and among men.
St. Nikolaj (Velimirovic)