Remembrances for March – 2023

 

Dear friends, if you have time, please pray for these members of the Southern family on the day they reposed.  Many thanks.

But one may ask:  ‘What good does it do to pray for the departed?’  An answer is offered here:  https://orthochristian.com/130608.html

Along with prayers and hymns for the departed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6je5axPodI

March 3^rd

M. E. Bradford, one of the South’s best defenders in the latter half of the 20^th hundredyear:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/review/remembering-mel-bradford/

https://theimaginativeconservative.org/author/m-e-bradford

March 7^th

Jean-Baptiste de Bienville

‘Canadian naval officer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, served as three-time governor of the French colony of Louisiana intermittently from 1702 to 1743. Bienville and his older brother, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, traveled on an expedition that arrived in Louisiana in 1699. Together they explored the lower Mississippi River valley and established a permanent French settlement in Louisiana, Fort Maurepas. Bienville proved particularly talented, though not always successful, as a negotiator with local Native Americans. In 1718, he chose the site where New Orleans, named for the French Duc d’Orléans, was built.’

https://64parishes.org/entry/jean-baptiste-le-moyne-sieur-de-bienville-2

March 13^th

Elizabeth Madox Roberts, a gem of a writer from Kentucky:

http://emrsociety.com/Biography

March 19^th

Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

‘French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, is perhaps best known for giving the region and ultimately the state its name: Louisiana. In 1682, while searching for a water route to the Gulf of Mexico, La Salle—accompanied by a small group of European and Native American explorers—arrived at the point where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. There, he planted a post and claimed the river and its basin for France, naming the territory La Louisiane in honor of King Louis XIV. In so doing, La Salle helped set the stage for the next eighty years of French rule in the new colony.’

https://64parishes.org/entry/rene-robert-cavelier-sieur-de-la-salle

March 20^th

Lewis Grizzard, one of the many good comedians Southern culture has produced:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/its-a-trick-general-theres-two-of-them/

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/topics/lewis-grizzard/

March 25^th

Philip Ludwell III.  ‘He was born in 1716 in Virginia. After completing his education at the College of William & Mary and marrying, he sailed to London in 1738 in order to be received into the Orthodox Church. One of the largest landowners in the colonies, he remained true to the ancient Christian faith till the end of his days and earned the esteem of his peers, including many of the Founding Fathers of the future United States of America.’  Interestingly, he reposed on the Feast Day of the Holy Annunciation.

https://www.ludwell.org/

https://southernorthodox.org/philip-ludwell-iii/

https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/03/25/100884-the-annunciation-of-our-most-holy-lady-the-theotokos-and-ever-vi

March 27^th

General Richard Gano, a good example of the kind of Christian soldier who fought for Dixie in the War with the Yanks:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/gods-general/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9813/richard-montgomery-gano/photo

March 28^th

Margaret Junkin Preston, sister-in-law to Stonewall Jackson and a great poetess and novelist:

https://civilwar.vt.edu/margaret-junkin-preston-poetess-of-the-south/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Junkin_Preston#Bibliography

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7737366/margaret-preston/photo

March 28^th

Earl Scruggs.  ‘Earl Scruggs, once compared to violinist Niccolo Paganini, not only pioneered the three-finger banjo but played it to standards of taste and technique unmatched by thousands of disciples over seven decades. He was an important figure in the birth of the bluegrass genre, and also brought his artistry to the fields of country, folk, and rock, to college campuses, and to television and the movies.’

https://www.bluegrasshall.org/inductees/earl-scruggs/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJOIqmlI65Y

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/87507819/earl-eugene-scruggs

Also, to celebrate some of the saints of March from the South’s Christian inheritance of various lands, follow these links on over if you’d like:

https://southernorthodox.org/orthodox-saints-for-dixie-march/

https://confiterijournal.blogspot.com/2020/03/happy-feast-for-saints-of-march.html

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

Are the Current Revivals (Asbury, etc.) Like the Church of Acts?

 

Some of the statements coming from the revivalists are beginning to slip into the realm of the absurd (bolding added):

"Jesus is moving at Texas A&M! It's real! Met for 7 hours! STUDENT LED, no program! Closest thing I've ever seen to ACTS. Testimonies, worship, praying for healing, prayers for boldness to witness to the lost at TAMU.  SUPPORT/PRAY for the Holy Spirit to lead and to continue this. Amen!" Bynum wrote.

--https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2023/february/anne-graham-lotz-this-could-be-the-last-great-awakening-as-asbury-revival-fires-reach-new-campuses

For Mr Bynum, the worship of the Apostles in the Book of Acts, of the early Church, is identified with spontaneity and mostly unstructured worship.  But was that the case?  It was not:

The Evangelical approach to worship seems to be based on the assumption that Jesus abolished the Old Testament.  Because of this Evangelicals ignore the Old Testament teaching on Tabernacle worship and focus on the New Testament for instruction on how to worship God.  The paucity of New Testament passages on worship has been taken as grounds for an anything goes approach to worship.  But, this assumption is wrong.  Jesus made it clear he did not come to abolish the old covenant but rather to fulfill it:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17).  

An examination of the gospels shows Jesus’ adherence to the Old Testament pattern of worship.  Jesus was in the habit of attending the synagogue services (Mark 1:21; Mark 3:1; Mark 6:2).  Likewise, he observed the great Jewish festivals at the Temple: Passover (Luke 2:41), Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:1-13), and Passover (Matthew 26:18; Mark 14:14; Luke 22:7-11).  Like Jews throughout history, Jesus considered the Passover meal the highlight of the year.  Jesus told his followers: “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Luke 22:15)

In the healing of the leper we find an affirmation of Jewish Temple worship.  After healing a leper, Jesus orders him:

But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them (Mark 1:44; Matthew 8:4).

Here we find Jesus affirming: (1) the Mosaic Law, (2) the Aaronic priesthood, and (3) the offering of sacrifices at the Temple.  Nowhere do we find Jesus or his apostles disregarding the Jerusalem Temple or the Jewish forms of worship; rather we find indications they affirmed the Jewish form of worship.

Likewise, we find Jesus’ apostles continuning the Old Testament pattern of worship.  Following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the first Christians met at the Temple courts (Acts 2:36).  The Temple court was a focal point for the early Christians (Acts 5:20).  The apostles preached the Good News in hope that the Jews would accept Jesus as the Messiah.  Just as significant we find them relying on the ritual prayers used by Jews.  This can be seen in the fact that a literal translation of Greek in Acts 2:42 would be “the prayers.”  We find that Paul, like Jesus, attended the synagogue (Acts 13:5, 14; 14:1; 17:2, 19:8).  Even when Paul had become a Christian he continued to make it his habit to attend the synagogue services: As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue…. (Acts 17:2)

The Apostles of Christ showed a similar respect to the Jerusalem Temple. We read in Acts 3:1 that Peter and John attended the prayer services at the Jerusalem Temple.  In his testimony to the Jews Paul recounts how God spoke to him while he was at the Jerusalem Temple praying (Acts 22:17).  The positive regard Paul and the other Apostles had to the Jerusalem Temple can be seen in: (1) Paul’s eagerness to attend the Pentecost services in Jerusalem (Acts 20:16), (2) the Jerusalem Apostles advising Paul to take part in the purification rituals to show their loyalty to the Torah (21:22-25), and (3) Paul’s participation in the Temple rituals (Acts 21:26).

Where Evangelicals assume a sharp discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments, the Orthodox Church sees a strong continuity between the two.  The Evangelicals’ assumption of a sharp discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments has led them to ignore the Old Testament teachings on worship.  This disregard for the Old Testament is much like the early heresy of Marcionism.  Orthodox Christian worship is based upon a radical continuity.  As the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ took the Jewish forms of worship and filled them with new content and meanings.  Orthodox worship took the Jewish synagogue and Temple worship and made them Christocentric.

--https://eurekafirstchurch.com/understanding-orthodox-worship/

The revival services going at various college campuses in the Southern States and elsewhere are a positive sign, and some good things will probably come of them.  But if one is looking for the Church of the Apostles, he will not find it there.  For those who are looking for that, they will need to visit the nearest parish or monastery of the Orthodox Church.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

Offsite Post: ‘The US Is a Luciferian Project’

 

A lot of people in the United States, millions of MAGA folks we would imagine, consider the US not just a good and pleasant place to live but something much more than this – as the pinnacle of human society, in fact:  past, present, AND future.  Nothing will ever surpass it, they believe.

But is there a shred of evidence to support such a belief?

Not really.  The evidence actually points us in the opposite direction, that the beliefs at the heart of the ‘American experiment’ are extremely detrimental to a healthy society.

At the heart of this belief system is the dogma of the power of the individual to shape life as he wishes it to be (which is very much akin to black magick).  It appeared early, as shown here in Federalist No. 49, which was written in 1788 (bolding added):

‘As the people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived; it seems strictly consonant to the republican theory, to recur to the same original authority, not only whenever it may be necessary to enlarge, diminish, or new-model the powers of government; but also whenever any one of the departments may commit encroachments on the chartered authorities of the others. The several departments being perfectly co-ordinate by the terms of their common commission, neither of them, it is evident, can pretend to an exclusive or superior right of settling the boundaries between their respective powers; and how are the encroachments of the stronger to be prevented, or the wrongs of the weaker to be redressed, without an appeal to the people themselves; who, as the grantors of the commission, can alone declare its true meaning and enforce its observance?’

The individual here described is a ‘fountain of power’ who has the ability to shape government into whatever form he wishes, since he is sovereign.  Thus, he is also the final authority in determining the meaning of laws for himself and whether or not they should be obeyed.

This line of thought would continue to develop, culminating in 1992’s federal Supreme Court majority opinion in Casey v Planned Parenthood, which declared, ‘At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.’

The federal high court’s reasoning in that case spawned other execrable and immoral decisions, such as Obergefell v Hodges (legalizing same-sex ‘marriage’) and Lawrence v Texas (legalizing sodomy).

All of this is the regression of human development, not its advancement.  It is consonant with the spirit of Antichrist, as described in the Book of the Holy Prophet Daniel (7:23-25, bolding added):

‘"Thus he said: `As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, two times, and half a time.’

St. Jerome provides a commentary on the bolded portion:

‘The Antichrist will wage war against the saints and will overcome them; and he shall exalt himself to such a height of arrogance as to attempt changing the very laws of God and the sacred rites as well. He will also lift himself up against all that is called God, subjecting all religion to his own authority.’

The modern American project of god-like, autonomous individuals is Promethean/Luciferian at its core, attempting to ‘change the times and the law’ given by the All-Holy Trinity in ever more disturbing ways – by pursuing genetically modified crops and animals; synthetic biology; transgenderism; transhumanism; etc.

Is it any wonder that many tradition-respecting countries are becoming reluctant to ally with Washington City and its friends in the wider apostate West?

Within the US itself there is, nevertheless, resistance; there are dissenting voices and views.  The people of New England and their descendants in Utah and in the cities along the Pacific Coast have always been at the forefront of pushing new, subversive ideologies – feminism, communism, polygamy/Mormonism, homosexual rights, man-boy love, polyamory.

But outside of Yankeedom we meet with more reasonable, more traditional voices.  The South, for instance, the South shorn of Yankee-imposed ideologies, that is true to her history and character and inherited customs – Southerners of this kind insist on the ‘given-ness’ of creation, on its immutability, that man must respect certain boundaries regarding it or risk experiencing great cataclysms and tragedies.  Wendell Berry, a typical Southern agrarian of this sort, writes in his essay ‘The Gift of Good Land,’

 . . .

The rest is at https://thesaker.is/the-us-is-a-luciferian-project/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!