At Home in the South: Fr Sergei Rybakov

For his unflinching defense of God-created patriarchy and hierarchy, we think Fr Sergei would feel quite at home in Dixieland:

Archpriest Sergei Rybakov, associate professor of theology department at Ryazan State University, chairman of the religious education department of the Ryazan diocese, answers the question: “Why does the modern family break up?”

"A lot depends on how the the hierarchy is setup. Previously, families had a patriarchal structure, in which a wife traditionally came to her husband each morning to request a blessing for the day. She also brought the children, who would receive blessings from their father. He would bless each of them with his right hand. This is the patriarchal way of the Orthodox family.”

“But then, due to spiritual impoverishment and the influence of liberal ideas, the man ceased to be recognized as a patriarch. As a result, a modern woman rarely fulfills what the apostle has commanded — not to teach, but to learn from her husband at home (1 Timothy 2:12; 1 Corinthians 14:35). There is no one to learn from now, and worldly wisdom is not enough. The soul of the woman remains hungry, and thus a kind of madness begins. She desires to seize power in the family. The child is often used as an excuse." 

"And thus there is a restructuring of the entire family. The child becomes the head of the family, who is served by the mother. The child becomes an idol, the woman becomes his priestess, and the man becomes an economic appendage. As a result, the entire family structure is destroyed, and the man leaves the family to find a place where he feels more comfortable. Thus the family falls apart.”

“This is confirmed by statistics: Where patriarchy is preserved, there are fewer divorces. The patriarchal family is more stable, and is immune to all sorts of difficulties. If there are fewer divorces, it means that a greater number of families acquire an understanding of the correct dispensation of the family, although it may be done with great difficulty."

"Meanwhile, where there is a matriarchal approach to raising children, feminism breeds feminist women who are not ready to become wives and mothers, and feminist men who are not ready to become responsible husbands and fathers. So until the pedagogical attitude is changed — through intentional education about the Orthodox family — the situation will continue to be senseless.”

--https://russian-faith.com/family-values/patriarchy-preserves-christian-families-feminism-destroys-them-russian-orthodox-priest

Let the Sean Hannity’s, the Frank Gaffney’s, the National Review’s, and so on continue to vomit out their hate-filth for Orthodox Russia.  By doing so, they will expose, for all the world to see, the anti-Christian nature of the ‘American experiment’, of the Puritan ‘City on a Hill’.

--

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

Anathema to the Union!

Trump vs the Squad

This whole identity politics fiasco between Donald Trump and the four congresswomen is yet another argument in favor of an hereditary king.  With elected governments, there is always an ‘us’ vs ‘them’ mentality; there is always a majority and a minority who are at war with one another over who will control the government apparatus.  With a hereditary king, that kind of mindset has no soil in which to put down roots.  The king is the father of all his subjects of whatever background; he owes his position to God’s providence alone, not to the machinations of any political party or special interest group; therefore, he works for the good of all the people.  All the bitter invectives that go along with never-ending political campaigning is rare in the former system, in a monarchy.

Could a king reign over all the States and territories of the current union?  Maybe, if two conditions are met:

--Each cultural region must be given autonomy over its internal affairs; and, closely related to this,

--The Puritan, Lincolnian belief in the exceptional nature of ‘America’ and her mission to the world must be absolutely and utterly renounced as an evil heresy.

Barring that, it is better for each cultural region to go her own way, have her own king, and live according to her own traditions and folkways.  Such arrangements are far more preferable to the un-Christian anger and envy and money squandering which the current electoral system encourages on a massive scale.

--

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

Anathema to the Union!

‘The Shadow-Fiends’

Afar off in the woods

A little hamlet stood

Of kindly-hearted folk,

Not so noteworthy

In acts good or bad,

But merely made their way

In the world steadily,

Working day by day

And remembering

God and neighbor.

But as the years went by,

They became more worldly-wise.

They still offered

The yearly sacrifice

Of the best of their labors

At the altar

Of the Thunder God,

The mighty ruler

In the heavens above,

And bowed to the Great Ones

In the Hall of the Blessèd

Nearby, caring for their tombs

And for their bodies,

And sharing together

The Meal of Friendship,

Forgiving past sins

And renewing old ties.

Yet they did not walk

The Circle of Penance

Beforehand for cleansing,

But made an easy road

To walk or ride a beast

To the holy place.

The daily prayers

And other rites

Also went unused,

As time in field and forge,

At lively dance hall

Or quiet story-teller’s home,

Filled their fleeting days.

But their forgetfulness

Of God had an effect

Unknown to them,

Weakened their bond with Him,

And the protection

Of His power ebbed.

And then of a night

A rift did open,

Black and foul and smoking,

And through it came

The shadow-fiends,

Floating along

By their two jagged wings,

Bodies short and fat

Like a spider’s,

Skin black and scaly like a snake’s,

Arms and legs spindly thin,

Hands and feet all like -

Three claws apiece,

Two afore and one aback,

The oval head,

Sometimes more than one,

With its sev’ral eyes

And little mouth

Filled with razor fangs.

They have no care

For one another

But go one by one

Alone throughout a land

Seeking what they might despoil.

And here they did the same,

Moving slowly

Through the hamlet

In their frozen malice.

Whatever living being

Came into their presence

Met with death or madness,

And plants withered

At their icy touch.

The village folk

Now hastened to the holy grounds,

A haven from harm,

And asked the lore master

What might be done

To overcome the dreadful foe.

Quoth he, Leofwin,

‘The Old Ones say

That a sword imbued

With heaven’s power

Must strike the doorway

Of the demons to close it.’

‘And will you do this deed?’

‘I will,’ answered he.

Chose now they did,

The elders wise,

A warrior-band

Leofwin to guard

On the fearsome quest:

Alfgar, Athelric, Edsig -

Sword masters without peer.

The four best blades

They gathered from the hoard

Dedicated

At the yearly

Sacrifices

As gifts to God:

Four large claymores

With double edges

And two-handled hilts;

Shining steel above,

Glittering grip below,

Inlaid with sparkling stones.

To bless the blades

And consecrate themselves,

They walked the Circle of Penance,

And then Leofwin

At the altar

Placed the swords upon it,

And, saying the words of power,

A lightning bolt

Shot down from the sky

And entered the four weapons.

A glowing fiend-bane

Each now held in his hands,

Radiating

A warm blue-white light,

Throbbing with the power

Of Thor Himself.

Scouts had found the fiend-cave

And the dark doorway.

The four hurried thus-ward,

The blades ringing

In the wind as they ran

And as the Three

Did deadly battle

With the shadow-fiends

Along the way.

At the mouth of the cave,

Alfgar, Athelric, and Edsig

Bade Leofwin

To wait until they should

Clear the path for him

To the rift inside.

He hid; he waited;

His breath was baited.

But no one came.

Suddenly he heard

A breathing not his own

And felt its icy coldness

On his very neck.

He whirled and faced

The bulging, soul-devouring eyes.

It flung its claws at him

And cut into his chest.

Leofwin, unused to battle,

Fell dazed to the ground.

But the singing

Of his blade revived him,

And the next swing

Of its claws cost it an arm.

Out came a low, rough roar

And a stench of putrid gore,

But he kept a fixèd gaze.

Its frantic lunge

Was met with a final blow

Of Leofwin’s blade,

Which hewed the creature in two

But shattered the fiend-bane,

Leaving a hilt in his hands.

Waiting was through;

He darted for the cavern.

Inside a horrible sight:

Wrack of slaughtered bodies,

Many fiends mangled

And dismembered.

But among them, alas,

Lay his three friends,

Asleep after heroic deeds.

He mourned them

A moment only,

For duty would not

Allow it longer.

The sword of Edsig,

Smeared with black, stinking blood,

But still glowing, giving light,

Was near at hand.

He grasped it quickly,

Ran further down.

Then he saw it,

The gaping tear.

He hurled a blow

With all his might

At the evil gate,

And power from the sword

Burst forth, sealing the door,

And then splintered and raced

Across the countryside,

Annihilating

The remaining shadow-fiends.

Three days of quiet;

The people came forth

To see if the tidings

Were good or ill.

The scouts crept back warily

To the fiend-cave,

Finding the doorway closed

But their friends dead.

Leofwin, too,

For the power unleashed

Was too much for man to bear.

The villagers bore the bodies

Solemnly to the

House of the Blessèd,

Where each was entombed.

Every year on the night

Of their battle,

The villagers

Honor their acts of valor.

And every year

The lore master

Would warn the folk

Against slackness

Toward the Thunder God,

Lest evil overrun

Their land again.

--

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

Anathema to the Union!

Why True Faith Is So Rare in the States

It is because there is no humility.  And there is no humility because there is no obedience.  What do we hear over and over again in the States?  The boastful statement, ‘Every man is a king’.  Each is obedient only to his own will; this develops not a healthy faith in God but Satanic pride and spiritual delusion:  These last two are the hallmarks of modern American ‘Christianity’.  Archimandrite Gregorios Estephan has some very helpful words regarding this:

The Apostles transferred the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ to the world, along with the duty of absolute obedience to this teaching. Out of this righteous obedience to the commandments, passed from generation to generation, the Tradition was formulated which is called the Apostolic Tradition, encompassing the entirety of the Church’s faith. That is why the Apostle Paul praised the Corinthians’ obedience saying: Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. For Tradition in the Orthodox mind is the criterion for understanding the faith.

The opposite of Tradition is heresy, just as transgression is the opposite of obedience. Any departure from Tradition is heresy. Nobody can understand the faith except in the way it was delivered to the Church by the Apostles. About the Church’s overseers, St. Clement of Alexandria says, “They preserve the blessed Tradition of the faith that is handed down directly from the holy Apostles.” And Eusebius of Ceasarea says that St. Ignatius of Antioch was a defender of the faithful against heresies and that “he firmly exhorted them in the Apostolic Tradition.”

Thus, the blessed Tradition emerged from obedience. Obedience in Orthodoxy is an inseparable part of the life of the faithful who endure in the journey of their salvation, for in the Fall our human nature lost the ability to discern between the righteous and the wicked, between good and evil. It was in need of blessed obedience in order to face the effects of its corrupted fallen state. This is the reason why disobedience became the sign of abominable pride and error, while obedience is the sign of blessed humility and self-denial. Pride and self-love, which are the source of all passions and falls, oppose obedience.

--http://orthochristian.com/122240.html

The Evangalicals in the States may study the Holy Scriptures and church history, may sing all the praise choruses they want, and whatever else they like, but as long as they live in defiance of the Orthodox Faith, their spiritual understanding will be terribly distorted and clouded:

The world has its ways of convincing the many faithful who were entrusted to salvation with many arguments, that they supposedly do not oppose the faith but do God’s will while they in fact do their own will and violently resist whoever disagrees with their opinions. St. Dorotheos of Gaza says that if a man does not honestly seek God’s will, then even if he asks a prophet, God will place in the prophet’s heart an answer that fits the deception in the seeker’s heart. As the Bible says: And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet (Ezek. 14:9).

--Ibid.

Thus, they will go on tearing themselves and the world around them to pieces, driven mad by the demonic spirits they have invited within themselves, believing all the while they are doing ‘God’s will’:

No one is deceived but those who disdain obedience to the Orthodox spirit that the Church has followed from the days of the Apostles until today, and who impose their own thoughts that are harmful to the faith. They are many in the Church nowadays. They willingly submit to the spirit of this age that is full of evil, debauchery, and heretical teachings. They transgress and overlook under the pretext that we live in an age that requires such changes and omissions. They justify themselves with these excuses and subject the Church to secularism and conformity to the spirit of this world. St. Hilary of Poitiers says, “The Church boasts that the world loves her; the world's hatred was the evidence that she was Christ's.”

As the disobedient monk cannot feel peace within himself, so those who were entrusted to the Church of Christ, the bishop and priests, will not find true rest except through blessed obedience to the faith, dogmas, and canons that define the foundation of this faith. Our Holy Fathers were persecuted for the faith, and in the depth of their sufferings of exile and martyrdom, their internal peace was increasingly pure and still, for only one reason—because Divine grace was strongly witnessing within them to the glory of the truth they were defending. But their enemies were full of feelings of confusion, anger and the desire for revenge. St. Hilary of Poitiers expresses the state of peace that he experienced when the heretics exiled him saying: “For me, I do not complain of the times: I rejoice rather, that iniquity has revealed itself in this my exile, when, unable to endure the truth, it banishes the preachers of sound doctrine, that it may heap up for itself teachers after its own desires. I glory in my exile, and rejoice in the Lord.”

--Ibid.

What the Soviet-murdered priest Father Pavel Florensky once wrote is very apt to American apostasy:

In its extreme, the state of Pharisaism is a spiritual delusion, where a certain state becomes an idol.  At the same time it is a very close imitation of what is genuine.  And once a person has entered into this circle, there is no way out, since even an errant prayer gives joy and a feeling of satisfaction, while feeding all the other feelings, pride, conceit, arrogance, etc., so that the more his soul is filled with this tinsel glitter, the greater will be his desire to pray and the more obstinate he will be in his error and convinced of his righteousness.  And only a miracle, which is what a deep fall usually is, can open his eyes and show him how far he has gone in his error.  This helps to explain the aphorism of Amvrosy of Optina, which he stated as a rule for young monks:  “Do not be afraid of any sin, even fornication; rather, be afraid of fasting and prayer.”

--At the Crossroads of Science & Mysticism, Boris Jakim, ed. & trans., Kettering, Ohio, Semantron Press, 2014, pgs. 114-5.

That is, sadly, the American Empire in a nutshell:  The further it goes into error, the more it believes it is advancing in righteousness.  May the deep fall of the States, if one is necessary to snap them out of their illusions, be softened by the prayers of the Saints.

--

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

Anathema to the Union!