Our Great Need for St Alfred Today, Part I: The Downward Spiral

As the South and most other parts of Western European civilization drift away from their Orthodox Christian roots, we are witnessing a return of the brutality of the Dark Ages of Europe when Goths, Vikings, and other demonic-inspired peoples ravaged the lands of our Christian forefathers.  To give but one example:

#7 One of the clearest signs that American society is decaying is the fact that groups of kids are banding together and agreeing to commit absolutely horrible crimes.  We have seen this with the “flash mob” robberies that are plaguing many cities, but what is even worse is when groups of kids band together to commit violent acts.  In Pennsylvania recently, a group of teens cheered on attackers as they beat up a 15-year-old girl…

Speaking exclusively to CBS 3, a 15-year-old high school student, whose identity we are concealing, described a terrifying attack by a gang of at least nine teenage boys as she was leaving an Interboro High School football game Monday night.

The teenage victim described first being taunted by the attackers, who followed her down a neighborhood street, cursing and spitting at her, before she was repeatedly kicked and punched, suffering at least one blow to her head.

The attackers even tried to throw her in front of a passing vehicle and nobody tried to stop them…

The victim says as at least two of the teenagers pummeled her, the others cheered them on shouting, “Come on, let’s get her!” At one point, the victim says, the gang tried to throw her under the wheels of a passing car, which swerved, narrowly missing her.

Source:  http://www.infowars.com/12-shocking-clues-about-what-america-will-look-like-when-the-next-great-economic-crisis-strikes/

These are the kinds of murderous people St Alfred confronted in his own kingdom in the 9^th century A.D.; and these are the kinds of people he successfully overcame and had baptized into the Christian faith.

How great is our need to call upon St Alfred, the Holy King of England, the South’s patron saint, to pray for us:  that we would have the wisdom and strength to be victorious over such men.  And not only over men intent on harming the body but also over those whose desire is to confuse the mind and harm the soul.

All this he is well able to do, for during his life he was pious and wise, strong and humble, a great God-pleaser.  And now in Heaven, he has boldness before Christ our Immortal King and God to intercede for us.  How foolish it would be for us to spurn his mighty help!

But if we are so full of pride that we turn our hearts away from our holy kinsman and intercessor St Alfred, trusting in and clutching at the filthy rags of our righteousness, the South may be sure that she will not return to an innocent and childlike paganism as she falls further and further away from the Christian Church.  The New Paganism, as Hilaire Belloc saw all too well, is merely a prelude to Satanism (Essays of a Catholic, 'The New Paganism', Rockford, Ill., TAN, 1992 [1931], p. 12).  When one turns his back on the full revelation of Truth - that is to say, on Christ - this is all that is left to him.  For rays of Christ’s light did indeed shine in the Old Pagan religions, however corrupt they had become.  How then would the South be able to tolerate such Light as she plunges headlong into Satanic darkness?

Do not trust in your own goodness, Southron, but confess that you are crooked and wicked.  Humble yourself, and honor those whom the Lord has honored.  Plead with St Alfred to pray for us, his descendants, that we would truly be a God-honoring people, that salvation would come to our land.

Beware the Trans-Pacific Partnership

The latest supposed free trade treaty is nothing of the sort:

The Obama administration has been negotiating the TPP in secret for more than three years. Unlike past trade agreements, the text of the TPP is classified and members of Congress have restricted access to it. If they do read the text, they are not allowed to copy it or discuss any specifics of it. However, more than 600 corporate advisers have direct access to the text on their computers.

. . . the TPP goes far beyond a trade deal. Only five of the twenty nine chapters contain provisions related to trade. The other chapters consist of provisions related to patent protections, investor state rights and finance deregulation, among others. The TPP is a backdoor corporate power grab to advance the stalled WTO agenda. Or as Sachie Mizohata writes in Asia Times, “The TPP is a Trojan horse, branded as a ‘free trade’ agreement, but having nothing to do with fair and equitable treatment. In reality, it is precisely ‘a wish list of the 1% – a worldwide corporate power’. “

. . .

Countries negotiating with the United States need to realize that if the TPP becomes law they will be under the thumb of Monsanto, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wal-Mart and other US-based transnational corporations.  They will have lost their sovereignty. Rodrigo Contreras, Chile’s lead TPP negotiator recently up and quit to warn people of the dangers of TPP highlighting how big financial institutions will dominate their governments and how the TPP “will become a threat for our countries: it will restrict our development options in health and education, in biological and cultural diversity, and in the design of public policies and the transformation of our economies. It will also generate pressures from increasingly active social movements, who are not willing to grant a pass to governments that accept an outcome of the TPP negotiations that limits possibilities to increase the prosperity and well-being of our countries.” The TPP will destroy the sovereignty of the nations who agree to its terms.

The destruction of sovereignty includes the United States.  One of the most egregious outcomes of the TPP, if it passes, is the way it will undermine our national sovereignty as well as the ability of state and local governments to pass laws.  All laws will have to be brought into compliance with the TPP. This means that public institutions like schools and hospitals can no longer give preference to buying local products and consumers may be barred from knowing whether the foods we buy contain GMOs. It means the “Buy America” laws will be illegal so Americans will be forced to spend their money on foreign products that create a massive trade deficit.  And if we pass laws that interfere with expected corporate profits, those laws can be challenged in a special court, an international trade tribunal that operates outside of our legal system and that is staffed largely by corporate lawyers on leave from their corporate jobs.  There will be no appeal to traditional courts from these rigged trade tribunals.

Source:  http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-trans-pacific-partnership-we-wont-be-fooled-by-rigged-corporate-trade-agreements/5352612

Do what you can to oppose this monstrosity while there is still time, or the South and our sister States will be all the closer to openly pledging allegiance to the flag of Chase-Sony-McDonalds-etc. (which is secretly what the American Empire’s flag symbolizes now - loyalty to corporate domination, not to the Church, the fatherland, the traditions, etc.).

For more information, please have a look at these sites:

A short slide-show type presentation:

http://www.flushthetpp.org/

Another in-depth look at the TPP:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15353-transpacific-partnership-will-undermine-democracy-empower-transnational-corporations

Preparing for the Feast of the South’s Patron Saint

On 26 October 899 A.D., the Patron Saint of the South, the Holy and Right-Believing King Ælfred (Alfred) the Great of England, reposed in the Lord.  In preparation of his great and holy feast day on Saturday, 26 October, let us hear about his life and honor him for his achievements.  This fourteen minute BBC radio broadcast is a fairly good overview:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pzrhm/The_Essay_AngloSaxon_Portraits_Alfred_the_Great/

Though, as might be expected, it takes a somewhat skeptical, secular view of his reign.

Also, there is rather a lot of praise for Charlemagne/the Carolingians.  For a corrective to this, please have a look at what Father Andrew Phillips wrote not long ago in ‘Our Mission’:

It was under the Carolingian regime at the end of the eighth century that Western Europe first began the long process of abandoning the Incarnation, that is, of abandoning Sacral Orthodox Christian Civilisation. In its place it would put the disincarnate dualism of iconoclastic clericalism on the one hand and the secularised State and society on the other hand. For by clericalising the Church, making it into less than the Church under the illusion of making it into more than the Church, a Super-Church, the State and the rest of society were gradually desacralised. The illusion of spiritualising the Church by imposing celibacy on the clergy meant disincarnating the Church from society, thus creating secularism.

As we have said, the first movement to desacralisation can be seen under the Carolingians. This took place through their rejection of the Holy Spirit’s incarnational role in sacralising the material world, that is, through the Carolingian Trinitarian filioque heresy and its resulting iconoclasm. Fortunately the Carolingian Empire collapsed and the part of Western Europe subject to it remained in communion with the Church for another quarter of a millennium. Unfortunately, the Carolingian project was revived by Carolingian-descended, Germanic popes in the middle of the eleventh century and its next stage appeared as papism. And since then the desacralising apostasy has continued inexorably.

For the rest, please visit this site:

http://www.events.orthodoxengland.org.uk/our-mission/

So listen to the broadcast with a grain of salt and take away what is good and true.  Then, with a sober mind and contrite heart, let us cry out:

Holy Saint Alfred, pray to God for us sinners in the South,

The offspring of your people of England!

As you restored the Christian faith in your kingdom

After defeating the Viking invaders,

So deliver us from the enemies of the all-holy Trinity

And lay the foundation of holiness

In the midst of this our crooked and unworthy country,

Among your little children who have gone astray,

O Blessed Alfred, our ever-caring and watchful father,

By your holy prayers.

A Good Example for Young Women

It is a formidable task in this degenerate age to find good role models for the young ladies in our lives, be they friends or relatives, whose souls are still being formed.  In this respect, the lives of the saints are all the more valuable to us. 

The Holy Martyr Zlata of Meglin, Bulgaria, is but one example of a righteous and courageous life we could share with them.  While many in the South do not face a physical threat like that of the marauding Turks (at the present - though not too many generations ago they did; and perhaps we should be ready for the return of such bands as Christianity dwindles in influence), still the subtle pressure of renouncing Christ (if not in words, then in deeds) remains.

Let us learn from and honor this holy one who contested for Christ in the same year that our forefathers were unfortunately buried in the mundane, wringing their hands over the question of Adams or Jefferson for President.

Zlata was born of poor peasant parents (who also had three other daughters) in the village of Slatina, in the province of Meglin. She was a meek and devout girl, wise in the wisdom of Christ and golden, not only in name but also in her God-fearing heart. Once when Zlata went out to get water, some shameless Turks seized her and took her to their home. When one of them urged her to become a Moslem and be his wife, Zlata fearlessly replied: ``I believe in Christ and Him alone do I know as my Bridegroom. I will never deny Him, even though you subject me to a thousand tortures and cut me into pieces.'' When her parents and sisters found her, her parents said to her: ``O daughter, have mercy on yourself and on us, your parents and sisters; deny Christ in words only, so that we can all be happy, for Christ is merciful. He would forgive such a sin, committed due to the necessities of life.'' Her poor parents, sisters and relatives wept bitterly. However, the noble soul of St. Zlata resisted such diabolical snares. She answered them: ``When you counsel me to deny Christ the true God, you are no longer my parents or my sisters. I have the Lord Jesus Christ as my father, the Theotokos as my mother, and the saints as my brothers and sisters.'' The Turks then cast her into prison for three months, flogging her every day until her blood soaked the ground. Finally, they suspended her upside down and lit a fire, to suffocate her with the smoke; but God was with Zlata, and gave her strength in suffering. At last they hanged her from a tree and cut her into small pieces. Thus, this brave virgin gave her soul up to God, and went to dwell in Paradise in the year 1796. Pieces of her relics were taken by Christians to their homes for a blessing.

HYMN OF PRAISE

The Holy Great-martyr Zlata of Meglin

The Turks tortured St. Zlata of golden heart,

Tormented her to death for Christ the Living God.

Golden Zlata wept not, nor did she waver,

But surrendered her whole heart to the Lord of Heaven.

The tears of parents and sisters were in vain:

Zlata sought delight through sufferings, true delight-

The delight that Christ prepares for wise virgins,

The joy that the Bridegroom bestows upon faithful brides.

The cage of the body of Zlata the Golden was destroyed,

And her soul was freed from its fragile prison.

Zlata rose up to Paradise, joyful in soul,

Taking her place among the royal, holy angels.

St. Zlata, once a poor peasant girl,

Is now glorified in Paradise as a queen.

Source:  St Nikolai Velimirovich, Prologue from Ochrid, for the day of 13 October:

http://98.131.104.126/prolog/October13.htm

PLEASE NOTE:

This translation of the Prologue is copyright © 1999 Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Western America and is hosted on the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Western America.

This version includes not only the Lives of the Saints, but also the Hymns of Praise, Reflection, Contemplation and Homily sections for every day, just as Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic wrote it in the original Serbian text. This first, complete version in English was translated by Reverend T. Timothy Tepsic and Very Reverend Janko Trbovich.

This internet publication is intended for the private use of people of good will and cannot be copied, published, or used in any other form without the written consent of the Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of Western America, the copyright owner.

Secession Rising?, Revisited - Pat Buchanan Surveys the Scene at Home and Abroad

The evidence continues to mount that the world’s countries have grown to an inhuman size.  But perhaps the tide is turning.

Abroad, Mr Buchanan lists these peoples as actively trying to affect a separation:

Scotland is moving toward a referendum on independence from England, three centuries after the Acts of Union. Catalonia pushes to be free of Madrid. Milanese and Venetians see themselves as a European people apart from Sicilians, Neapolitans and Romans.

Dutch-speaking Flanders wants to cut loose of French-speaking Wallonia in Belgium. Francophone Quebec, with immigrants from Asia and the Third World tilting the balance in favor of union, appears to have lost its historic moment to secede from Canada.

Among the Corporate States of America, he speaks about the secession movements in Northern California, Northern Colorado, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Vermont, and Western Maryland.  Of the last of these, Mr Buchanan writes,

While many Red State Americans are moving away from Blue State America, seeking kindred souls among whom to live, those who love where they live but not those who rule them are seeking to secede.

The five counties of Western Maryland — Garrett, Allegheny, Washington, Frederick and Carroll, which have more in common with West Virginia and wish to be rid of Baltimore and free of Annapolis, are talking secession.

The issues driving secession in Maryland are gun control, high taxes, energy policy, homosexual marriage and immigration.

Scott Strzelczyk, who lives in the town of Windsor in Carroll County and leads the Western Maryland Initiative, argues: “If you have a long list of grievances, and it’s been going on for decades, and you can’t get it resolved, ultimately [secession] is what you have to do.”

And there is precedent.

Four of our 50 states — Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, West Virginia — were born out of other states.

Considering that he did not need to mention the more well-known secession movements elsewhere in the Empire - Alaska, Hawai’i, Texas, and the other Southern States in general - to fill out his article, this is a hopeful sign indeed.

Mr Buchanan's essay, ‘Is Red State America Seceding?’, is available here: 

http://buchanan.org/blog/red-state-america-seceding-5934

Ward off the Cold and Flu Naturally - Lavender

From the NaturalNews web site:

‘Hidden beneath the pleasing scent of lavender is a fierce natural medicine and formidable protector. Used since antiquity, lavender was a significant guardian against some of the most deadly infectious diseases of all time - the great epidemics of plague sweeping across Europe throughout the Middle Ages and into the 17th century. The protective aspects of the plant were discovered when tannery workers who utilized the oil in manufacturing, and those who tended lavender fields, appeared to be immune to the disease. Unbeknownst at the time, lavender is an exceptional bactericide and also stimulates the production of white blood cells, thereby creating a robust defense against harmful invading pathogens.’

For the several ways the author recommends using lavender, please mash this path:

http://www.naturalnews.com/042405_lavender_cold_and_flu_season_essential_oils.html

One of the best things about stories like this is that these healing plants - garlic, lavender, Echinacea, etc. - can be grown by us in our own yards, or even in pots in the window.  We don’t have to rely on the sick-care industry to provide us with potent, effective medicines. 

In such small ways can the South and other peoples begin to break free from the corporatocracy even today.

Uncompromised Christian Economic Principles - Part II

Herewith, the last chapter of the Russian Orthodox Church’s encyclical, The Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church, which speaks exclusively of economic matters - Chapter VII, ‘Property’:

Property is commonly understood as a socially recognized form of people’s relation to the fruits of labor and to natural resources. The basic powers of an owner normally include the right to own and use property, the right to control and collect income, the right to dispose of lease, modify or liquidate property. The Church is not an entity that defines the rights to property. However, the material side of human life is not outside her field of vision. While calling to seek first “the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Mt. 6:33), the Church does not forget about people’s need for “daily bread” (Mt. 6:11), and believes that everyone should have resources sufficient for life with dignity. At the same time, the church warns against the extreme attraction to wealth, denouncing those who are carried away by “cares and riches and pleasures of this life” (Lk. 8:14). The Church, in her attitude towards property, does not ignore people’s material needs, nor does she praise the opposite extreme, the aspiration for wealth as the ultimate goal and value of life. The status of a person in itself cannot be seen as an indication as to whether God is pleased with him.

The attitude of Orthodox Christians to property should be based on gospel’s principle of love of one’s neighbor, expressed in the words of the Savior: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” (Jn. 13:34). This commandment is the basis of Christian moral behavior. For Christians – and the Church believes, for other people as well – it should be an imperative in regulating interpersonal relationships, including property relations.

According to the teaching of the Church, people receive all their earthy blessings from God, Who is the One Who holds the absolute right to possess them. The Savior repeatedly points to the relative nature of the right to property in His parables about a vineyard rented out to be used (Mk. 12:1-9), about talents distributed among many (Mt. 25:14-30), and about an estate handed over for temporary management (Lk. 16:1-13). Expressing the idea inherent in the Church that god is the absolute owner of everything, St. Basil the Great asks: “Tell me, what do you have that is yours? From where did you take it and bring it to life?” The sinful attitude towards property manifested in the conscious rejection of this spiritual principle generates division and alienation among people.

Wealth cannot make man happy. The Lord Jesus Christ warns: “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses” (Lk. 12:15). The pursuit of wealth makes a pernicious impact on the spiritual condition of a person and can lead him to complete degradation. St. Paul points out that “people who long to be rich are a prey to temptation; they get trapped into all sorts of foolish and dangerous ambitions, which eventually plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all evil: and there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith, and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds. But, as a man of God, you must avoid all that” (1 Tim. 6:9-11). In a talk to a young man the Lord said: “If you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Mt. 19:21). Then He explained those words to His disciples: “It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven… It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Mt. 19:23-24). St. Mark clarifies that it is difficult to enter the Kingdom of God precisely for those who trust not in God but in wealth, who “trust in riches” (Mk. 10:24). Only those who “trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides for ever” (Ps. 125:1).

However, a rich man can be saved as well, for “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Lk. 18:27). In Holy Scripture there is no censure of wealth as such. Abraham and the Old Testament Patriarchs, the righteous Job, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea were all affluent people. One who owns considerable wealth does not sin if he uses it in accordance with the will of God, to Whom everything belongs, and with the law of love; for the joy and fullness of life lie not in acquiring and possessing, but in giving and sacrifice. St. Paul calls people “to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said: It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). St. Basil the Great regards as thieves those who do not give away part of their property as charity to their neighbors. The same idea is stressed by St. John Chrysostom: “Failure to share one’s property is also theft.” The Church urges Christians to see in property a gift from God, given to be used for their own and their neighbors’ benefit.

At the same time, Holy Scripture recognizes the human right to property and deplores any encroachment on it. In two out of its Ten Commandments, the Decalogue states clearly: “You shall not steal… You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is your neighbor’s” (Ex. 20:15, 17). In the New Testament, this attitude to property continues, acquiring a more profound ethical confirmation. The Gospel says: “You shall not steal… You shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, namely: You must love your neighbor as yourself” (Rom. 13:9).

The Church recognizes the existence of various forms of ownership. Public, corporate, private and mixed forms of property have taken different roots in the course of the history of various nations. The church does not give preference to any of these forms. Any of its forms can produce both sinful phenomena – such as theft, greed, unfair distribution of wealth – and the proper and morally justified use of wealth.

Intellectual property, such as scientific works and inventions, information technologies, works of art and other achievements of the creative thought acquires a growing significance. The Church welcomes creative work aimed at benefiting society, and deplores the violation of copyright.

In general, the Church cannot approve of the appropriation and re-distribution of property that violates the rights of its legitimate owners. An exception may be made only for the appropriation of property based on the law, conditioned by the interest of the majority of people and accompanied by fair compensation. Russian history has shown that the violation of these principles has always resulted in social upheavals and people’s suffering.

In Christian history, many communities have pooled their property, abandoning personal proprietary aspirations. This kind of property relations contributed to the consolidation of the spiritual unity of the faithful and in many cases proved rather effective economically, as in the case of Orthodox monasteries. However, the repudiation of private property in the early apostolic community (Acts 4:32) and later in coenobite monasteries was exclusively a voluntary affair and a personal spiritual option.

The property of religious organizations is a special form of property. It is acquired in various ways, but the primary characteristic of its development is the volu7ntary donation by believers. According to Holy Scriptures, donation is sacred, that is, it belongs directly to God as a donor gives to God, not to a priest (Lev. 27:30; Ez. 8:28). Donation is a voluntary action made by the faithful for religious purposes (Neh. 10:32). Donation is called to support not only the servants of the Church, but also the whole people of God (Phil. 4:14-18). Being consecrated to God, donation is immune, and any one who has stolen it must return more than has been stolen (Lev. 5:14-15). Donation belongs to the basic commandments given by God to man (Sirach 7:30-34). As donation is a special case of economic and social relations, it should not be made automatically subject to the laws regulating finances and economy of a state, in particular, public taxation. The Church declares that the income drawn through entrepreneurial activity can be taxed, but any encroachment on the donations of believers is a crime before people and God.

Source: http://www.stlukeorthodox.com/html/currentissues/articles/churchAndSociety/chapters/chapter7.cfm

* * * * *

Afterword:

Bishop Amvrosios of Greece said this of his nation:

‘Our only salvation is to return to repentance to God’s ways. We idolised money and then went bankrupt! Let us return to God’s ways and correct our lives. May the example of the prodigal son in the Gospel parable inspire us. The Lord who loves mankind awaits us with open arms! Amen!’ (emphasis added)

http://www.events.orthodoxengland.org.uk/we-idolised-money-and-then-went-bankrupt-the-church-of-greece/

Let the South similarly confess her sin of idolatry before a catastrophe befalls us as it has Greece.  We have made economic growth our god (one of them, at any rate), from which we sought an earthly paradise.  We have forgotten that we are pilgrims here, that the earth is not our true homeland, that our lives are not to be filled with comfort and indulgence but with struggles and hardships of various kinds.  

We have made many things serve this god:  education, so our people would have the technical skills to fill the vacancies in factories, offices, etc.; religion, so our people would be orderly and honest workers; politics, so our laws would create a business climate capable of attracting the mega-corporations that we are told are so important to our economic well-being; etc.

Let the economy instead honor God and serve man, humbly helping us to work out our salvation during our journey to Heaven-ward as we keep in our hearts the blessed words of the Holy Apostle:  ‘But godliness with contentment is great gain’ (I Timothy 6:6).