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Sunday, August 30, 2020

About the Orthodox Church

Resources for those who want to learn more about the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church:

I.  General information, theology, and history of the Orthodox Church

http://www.holy-transfiguration.org/library_en/ct.html

http://orthodoxinfo.com/

http://oodegr.com/english/index.htm

http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/dogmatics_pomazansky.htm

https://orthodoxwiki.org/Alexei_Stepanovich_Khomiakov#Writings

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/pocket_church_history.htm

II.  Basics of Orthodox Spirituality

Prayers

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/prayers.htm

The Holy Scriptures

https://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/bible1_e.htm

The Philokalia

https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Philokalia.pdf

Avoiding spiritual delusion

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/about

Akathist hymns

http://www.saintjonah.org/services/akathists.htm

The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom

http://www.stgeorgenj.com/the-divine-liturgy-of-st-john-chrysostom.html

III.  The Ascetic Ideal at the Heart of the Orthodox Church

http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/fathers_florovsky_4.htm

Three Main Centers of Orthodox Asceticism and Some of Their Fruits:

A. The Egyptian Desert – The Conferences of St John Cassian with the Desert Fathers

https://ccel.org/ccel/cassian/conferences/conferences.i.html

B. Mount Athos (Greece) – The refinement of the practice and theology of hesychastic prayer.  Two recent Athonite Saints, St Joseph the Hesychast and St Paisios the New

http://www.chotki.com/Mount-Athos/#gsc.tab=0

https://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/about-monastery/our-monastery/saint-joseph.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe4OtnPJGpo

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/elder_paisios_mount_athos.htm

C. Optina Monastery (Russia) – The Elders of Optina (Sts Ambrose, Barsanuphius, and others)

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/optina_e.htm

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/ambrose_e.htm

IV.  The Goal of the Orthodox Faith:  Sainthood/The Deification of Man

A Selection of Orthodox Saints through the Centuries

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/saints_different_e.htm

Services to Various Saints

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/zliturgics.htm

A Few 19th and 20th Century Orthodox Saints and Sundry Teachings They Gave Us:

St Seraphim of Sarov

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/seraphim_e.htm

St Silouan of Mt Athos

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/siluan_e.htm

St John of Kronstadt

http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/john_kronstadt_k_zaitzev.htm

St John Maximovitch

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/johnmx1.htm

http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/sermons_john_maximovich.htm

St Nikolai Velimirovich and St Justin Popovich

http://www.sv-luka.org/library/index.htm

V.  Preserving the True Faith

Keeping in Step with the Orthodox Church Fathers

https://www.fatheralexander.org//booklets/english/following_fathers_florovsky_e.htm

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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!

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Donald Trump’s Garden of American Heroes

We were glad to see some of our Southern leaders pan Pres Trump’s proposal to build monuments to ‘American heroes’ in his speech before Mt Rushmore:

https://www.reckonin.com/clyde-wilson/national-garden

https://www.reckonin.com/neil-kumar/the-garden-of-american-zeroes

This is only right, as only a nation of imbeciles would honor Walt Whitman (a homosexual and Satan worshipper), a lounge-singer and womanizer like Frank Sinatra, Mohammed Ali (a Muslim boxer), or a butcher of Southerners and Native Americans like Ulysses Grant (https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/ulysses-s-grant-mass-genocide-through-permanent-peace-policy-Ing8OYiNuU6hw6ZgulRA9Q).

The South does not need any of these kinds of people for her heroes.  What she desperately needs is the Orthodox Saints of her forebears.  For in one Saint, just one Saint, there is such a close bond between God and man that it floods a people with the Grace of God for generations.  St Sergius, Abbot of All Russia (+1392), is a perfect ensample of this:

 . . . All the threads of the spiritual life of the Russian Church converge towards the great saint and wonderworker of Radonezh, and through all of Orthodox Rus the grace-filled, life-creating currents radiate outwards from the Trinity monastery he founded.

Naming a church for the Holy Trinity within the Russian land began with holy Equal of the Apostles Olga (July 11), who built the first Trinity temple at Pskov. Afterwards, similar churches were built in Great Novgorod and other cities.

The spiritual contribution of Saint Sergius in teaching the theology of the Holy Trinity is quite significant. The monk had profound insight into the secret mysteries of theology with the “spiritual eyes” of the ascetic, in prayerful ascent to the Tri-Hypostatic (i.e. in Three-Persons) God, and in the spiritual experience of communion with God and God-likeness.

“Coheirs of the perfect light and contemplation of the Most Holy and All-Sovereign Trinity,” explained Saint Gregory the Theologian, “are those which become perfectly co-united in the perfection of the Spirit.” Saint Sergius knew from personal experience the mystery of the Life-Creating Trinity, since in his life he became co-united with God, he became a communicant of the very life of the Divine Trinity, i.e. he attained as much as is possible on earth to the measure of “theosis” [“divinization”], becoming a “partaker of the Divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). “If a man loves Me,” says the Lord, “he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).

Abba Sergius, in everything observing the commands of Christ, belongs to the rank of holy saints in the souls of whom the Holy Trinity “has made abode.” He fashioned himself into “an abode of the Holy Trinity,” and everyone with whom Saint Sergius associated, he elevated and brought into communion with the Holy Trinity.

The Radonezh ascetic, with his disciples and conversants, enriched the Russian and the universal Church with a new knowledge and vision of the Life-Creating Trinity, the Beginning and Source of life, manifesting Itself unto the world and to mankind in the “Sobornost’” [“Communality”] of the Church, with brotherly unity and the sacrificial redemptive love of its pastors and children.

In the spiritually symbolic gathering together of Rus in unity and love, the historical effort of the nation became a temple of the Life-Creating Trinity, built by Saint Sergius, “so that by constant attention to It would be conquered the fright of the hateful discord of this world.”

The worship of the Holy Trinity, in forms created and bequeathed by the holy Igumen Sergius of Radonezh, became one of the most profound and original of features of Russian ecclesiality. With Saint Sergius, in the Life-Creating Trinity there was posited not only the holy perfection of life eternal, but also a model for human life, a spiritual ideal toward which mankind ought to strive, since that in the Trinity as “Indivisible” (Greek “Adiairetos”) discord is condemned and “Sobornost’” [“Communality”] is blessed, and in the Trinity as “Inseparable” [“Akhoristos” -- per the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in year 451] coercion is condemned and freedom blessed. In the teaching of Saint Sergius about the Most Holy Trinity the Russian nation sensed profoundly its own catholic and ecumenical vocation, and comprehending the universal significance of the Feast, the people embellished it with all the variety and richness of the ancient national custom and people’s verse. All the spiritual experience and spiritual striving of the Russian Church was embodied in the liturgical creativity of the Feast of the Holy Trinity, of trinitarian church rituals, icons of the Holy Trinity, and churches and monasteries of this name.

The theological insight of Saint Sergius in transformation was rendered as the wonderworking icon of the Life-Creating Trinity painted by the Saint Andrew of Radonezh, surnamed Rublev (July 4), a monastic iconographer, lived in the Trinity-Sergiev monastery, and painted with the blessing of Saint Nikon in praised memory to holy Abba Sergius. (At the Stoglav Council of 1551 this icon was affirmed as proper model for all successive church iconographic depiction of the Most Holy Trinity).

“The hateful discord,” quarrels and commotions of worldly life were surmounted by the monastic cenobitic life, planted by Saint Sergius throughout all Rus. People would not have divisions, quarrels and war, if human nature, created by the Trinity in the image of the Divine Tri-Unity, were not distorted and impaired by ancestral sin. Overcoming by his own co-crucifixion with the Savior the sin of particularity and separation, repudiating the “my own” and the “myself,” and in accord with the teachings of Saint Basil the Great, the cenobitic monks restore the First-created unity and sanctity of human nature. The monastery of Saint Sergius became for the Russian Church the model for renewal and rebirth. In it were formed holy monks, bearing forth thereof features of the true path of Christ to remote regions. In all their works and actions Saint Sergius and his disciples gave a churchly character to life, giving the people a living example of its possibility. Not for renouncing the earth, but rather for transfiguring it, they proclaimed ascent and they themselves ascended unto the Heavenly.

The school of Saint Sergius, through the monasteries founded by him, his disciples and the disciples of his disciples, embraces all the vastness of the Russian land and threads its way through all the remotest history of the Russian Church. One fourth a portion of all Russian monasteries, the strongholds of faith, piety and enlightenment, was founded by Abba Sergius or his disciples. The “igumen of the Russian land” was what people called the founder of the Domicile of the Life-Originating Trinity. . . .

To Saint Sergius, as to an inexhaustible font of spiritual prayer and grace of the Lord, at all times came in veneration thousands of the people -- for edification and for prayers, for help and for healing. And each of those having recourse with faith to his wonderworking relics he heals and renews, fills with power and with faith, transforms and guides upwards with his light-bearing spirituality.

But it was not only spiritual gifts and grace-filled healings bestown to all, approaching with faith the relics of Saint Sergius; God also gave him the grace to defend the Russian land from its enemies. . . .

In later times, the monastery continued to be an inextinguishable torch of spiritual life and church enlightenment. From its brethren many famed hierarchs of the Russian Church were chosen for service, one after another.

In the year 1744, for its service to the country and the Faith, the monastery was designated as a Lavra. In 1742 a religious seminary was established within its enclosure, and in the year 1814 the Moscow Spiritual Academy was transferred there.

And at present the Domicile of the Life-Creating Trinity serves as one of the primary centers of grace of the Russian Orthodox Church. Here at the promptings of the Holy Spirit the Local Councils of the Russian Church take place. At the monastery is a place of residence of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus, which carries upon it the special blessing of Saint Sergius, in the established form, “Archimandrite of the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra.”

The fifth of July, the day of the Uncovering of the relics of holy Abba Sergius, igumen of the Russian Land, is a crowded and solemn church feastday at the monastery.

--https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2020/07/05/101910-uncovering-of-the-relics-of-venerable-sergius-of-radonezh

Dixie ought in no way to settle for Pres Trump’s silly Garden of American Heroes.  She has many Orthodox Saints connected with her past who could do for her something akin to what St Sergius has done for Russia:  St Alfred the Great of England, St Cuthbert the Wonderworker of All England, St Anthony the Great of Egypt, St Athanasius the Great of Alexandria, St Martin the Merciful of Tours, St Brigid of Kildare, St Genevieve of Paris, St Hilda of Whitby, St Audrey of Ely, St Moluag of Lismore, and others besides.  The demonic spirit of Americanism brings death; the Holy Ghost present in the Orthodox Saints brings life.  The South has a choice between these two.  We hope she will choose life.

--

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

Anathema to the Union!

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Cowardly Bishops

Orthodox bishops in the States are not raising any outcry over their churches being closed:

https://orthodoxreflections.com/why-wont-orthodox-bishops-fight-for-california/

(Link via https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/seems-were-missing-much-of-the-church-militant/)

If they will not push back against such outrageous behavior by State and local governments, what hope is there that they will withstand government orders for their parishioners to be forcibly injected with Big Pharma’s transhumanist vaccine?

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/08/no_author/the-vaccine-from-hell/

(Hint:  Unless something major changes, there ain’t much.)

Nevertheless, the crucial test is coming soon:

https://www.newswars.com/virginia-plans-mandatory-covid-19-vaccinations-for-all-residents/

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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!

How to Drain the Swamp in a Meaningful Way

Help this monastery in northern Virginia:

https://orthochristian.com/133440.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!

Friday, August 21, 2020

Returning Monarchy to the States

Orthodox Christianity has always been friendly towards hierarchy.  Monarchy in particular is seen as a reflection of the divine rule of God over His creation.  Even during the Roman persecutions, Christians did not call for overthrowing the heathen emperors:

     Tertullian (+ c. 240) employed a similar argument. “Anticipating Eusebius, he insisted that Christians rendered ‘such reverential homage as is lawful for us and good for him; regarding him as the human being next to God who from God has received all his power, and is less than God alone.’ Christians, Tertullian argued, were even perfectly willing to offer sacrifice on behalf of the emperor, though it had to be a Christian sacrifice: ‘We therefore sacrifice for the emperor’s safety, but to our God and his, and after the manner God has enjoined, in simple prayer.’ Pagan sacrifices are useless, the ‘food of devils’. Christians appeal to God, praying ‘for the imperial well-being, as those who seek it at the hands of Him who is able to bestow it.’.. Christians do just what the imperial cult demands, though in his own way.” In other words, the only legitimate sacrifice a Christian can make to the emperor is the sacrifice of prayer on his behalf; for he rules, not as a god, but “by the will of God”. So the Christians by no means refused to give to Caesar what was his. Indeed, the emperor was, in Tertullian’s words, “more truly ours (than yours) because he was put into power by our God”, which is why the Christians prayed that he should have “a long life, a safe empire, a quiet home, strong armies, a faithful senate, honest subjects, a world at peace”.

--Dr Vladimir Moss, http://orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/1019/-foundation-christian-political-theology/

It is true that some Christian writers did view some of the Roman emperors as tyrants, as types or foreshadowings of Antichrist and the Beast. 

 . . . Nevertheless, it was the more optimistic view of Rome as the true kingdom that prevailed. And the loyal attitude of the Christians to Rome is demonstrated by the fact that even during the persecution of Diocletian, when the Church was threatened with extinction, the Christians never rebelled against the empire, but only against the unlawful demands of the emperors. And in reward for this patience, the Lord finally broke the crust of ancient pagan despotism, bringing to birth a new creature designed specifically for the spreading of the Faith throughout the world – the Roman Christian Autocracy, or New Rome…

--Ibid.

Dr Moss continues with words that are relevant here in the States, where most are quite proud of having cast off what they consider the ‘tyranny’ of a king:

     Since that time [i.e., the conversion of the Roman Empire under St Constantine the Great], as St. Seraphim of Sarov taught, the first duty of all Orthodox Christians, after faithfulness to Orthodoxy, is loyalty to the Orthodox Christian Autocrat – in his time, the Russian Tsar [Moscow inherited the Imperial Throne after the fall of Constantinople/New Rome in 1453 to the Turks.].

     “In explaining how good it was to serve the Tsar,” wrote the saint’s friend, Nicholas Motovilov, “and how much his life should be held dear, he gave as an example Abishai, David’s war-commander.

    “’Once,’ said Batyushka Seraphim, ‘to satisfy the thirst of David, he stole in to a spring in view of the enemy camp and got water, and, in spite of a cloud of arrows released at him from the enemy camp, returned to him completely unharmed, bringing the water in his helmet. He had been saved from the cloud of arrows only because of his zeal towards the King. But when David gave an order, Abishai replied: “Only command, O King, and everything will be done in accordance with your will.” But when the King expressed the desire to take part himself in some bloody deed to encourage his warriors, Abishai besought him to preserve his health and, stopping him from participating in the battle, said: “There are many of us, your Majesty, but you are one among us. Even if all of us were killed, as long as you were alive, Israel would be whole and unconquered. But if you are gone, then what will become of Israel?”…’

   “Batyushka Fr. Seraphim loved to explain himself at length, praising the zeal and ardour of faithful subjects to the Tsar, and desiring to explain more clearly how these two Christian virtues are pleasing to God, he said:

    “’After Orthodoxy, these are our first Russian duty and the chief foundation of true Christian piety.’

     “Often from David he changed the subject to our great Emperor [Nicholas I] and for hours at a time talked to me about him and about the Russian kingdom, bewailing those who plotted evil against his August Person. Clearly revealing to me what they wanted to do, he led me into a state of horror; while speaking about the punishment prepared for them from the Lord, and in confirmation of his words, he added:

    “’This will happen without fail: the Lord, seeing the impenitent spite of their hearts, will permit their undertakings to come to pass for a short period, but their illness will turn upon their heads, and the unrighteousness of their destructive plots will descend upon them. The Russian land will be reddened with streams of blood, and many noblemen will be killed for his great Majesty and the integrity of his Autocracy: but the Lord will not be wroth to the end, and will not allow the Russian land to be destroyed to the end, because in it alone will Orthodoxy and the remnants of Christian piety be especially preserved.

--Ibid.

For throwing off our legitimate ruler, King George III of England; for undermining Christian hierarchy in general; and being quite prideful and unrepentant about all of this, a mass of demonic energy has been building in the States.  The violent Marxist riots in many of them are the natural outcome, just as they were in Russia and France.  Monarchy is not a cure-all for our societal woes, but its restoration is a necessary part of the repentance the peoples of the States must undergo if they wish to reestablish anything resembling a Christian society within their respective boundaries.

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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!

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Hospital Bed Use as a Sign of a Non-Crisis

According to Gov Edwards, the highest number of hospital beds occupied in La. during the COVID illness by COVID patients was 1,600, back in July:

https://louisianaradionetwork.com/2020/08/20/12949/

However, the total number of hospital beds in the whole State is 15,061:

https://www.ahd.com/states/hospital_LA.html

It is worth asking:  Were we ever in an emergency health situation when only a tenth of our hospital beds were being used by COVID patients at the peak of the ‘crisis’?  Do these numbers invalidate the mandates the Governor has been issuing?  We hope someone with governmental authority will explore those and related questions.

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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!

A Further Word on Louisiana’s Death Count

Regarding yesterday’s post, we do not wish to imply that all the new deaths being recorded are a direct result of COVID.  Many of these new deaths are the result of the misguided efforts to fight the illness.  The lockdowns, social distancing, widespread unemployment, and so on have led to a surge in deaths resulting from drug overdoses, suicides, etc.:

https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/opinion/columnists/2020/07/20/dr-nicholas-goeders-hidden-health-crisis-results-covid-19/5471082002/

https://www.nola.com/news/coronavirus/article_aa6cc4ce-9141-11ea-9a95-2fa8063b42a2.html

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/coronavirus/article_5eec4dc2-c2e1-11ea-87c4-9371590ffdb6.html

None of this was ever necessary:

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/horowitz-sweden-riding-high-triumph-rational-herd-immunity-approach/

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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!

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

A Look at Louisiana’s Death Count

After being snookered by some faulty stats last week, we decided to look around for Louisiana’s own total death numbers to see if there really is an abnormal number of deaths in 2020 when compared to previous years.  As one may see below, there are unfortunately thousands more deaths in 2020 because of the COVID illness (whatever it may be in reality:  a virus, a TB bacterium (the effectiveness of anti-bacterial agents like the TB vaccine and azithromycin makes us wonder about the official story that ‘It’s a virus’), an effect of 5G radiation, a combination of these and other factors, etc.).

Deaths Occurring in Louisiana, 2010-2014

Year

Number

2010

40,834

2011

40,977

2012

42,518

2013

43,487

2014

44,172

 

Deaths of Louisiana Residents, 2010-2014

Year

Number

2010

40,488

2011

40,694

2012

41,895

2013

43,076

2014

43,342

--Tables from https://ldh.la.gov/index.cfm/page/705

Deaths by            Occurrence         Residence

2015                       43,970                   43,371

2016                       44,454                   44,531

2017                       45,990                   45,824

2018                       46,259                   46,125

2019                       46,142                   45,958

Deaths by Occurrence = Deaths of all people in La.

Deaths by Residence = Deaths of permanent La. residents

NUMBER OF DEATHS BY MONTH:  LOUISIANA RESIDENTS, JAN-JULY 2016-2020*







Statewide

 

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020*

January

3,871

4,043

4,890

4,124

4,195

February

3,671

3,656

3,756

3,744

3,933

March

3,920

4,060

3,758

4,060

4,685

April

3,727

3,779

3,724

3,705

5,729

May

3,725

3,766

3,860

3,747

4,721

June

3,505

3,542

3,567

3,701

4,054

July

3,627

3,619

3,672

3,650

3,962

Jan-July

26,046

26,465

27,227

26,731

31,279

* 2020 DATA AS OF 8/13/2020; data for 2015-2019 and this table of monthly deaths were received via e-mail from the La. Dept. of Health.

Total deaths have been higher in 2020, but we will need to see how things go for the rest of the year before any definitive conclusions are reached.  Did COVID merely hasten some deaths that would have occurred in 2020 without this illness being around?  Or will it result in a higher death toll versus previous years?  We will know when Dec. 31 has come and gone.

Related links:

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/06/no_author/how-bcg-vaccination-trials-might-finally-unlock-the-many-mysteries-of-covid-19/

https://banned.video/watch?id=5f19fff068370e02f296c69d

https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/08/18/dont-believe-anything-government-says-about-vaccines-viruses/

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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!