A Portrait of the Faster as a Crucified Man

Orthodox in the third week of Fasting.

Galatians 5:24

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Repentance: You're Doing It Wrong!

( You may wish to turn up the volume on your computer ).

This Thanksgiving...

...remember to thank God that you're NOT Orthodox!

The Purpose of Fasting

Monotheism.

I am the LORD thy God: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:2-3; Deuteronomy 5:6-7)

Psalms 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

1 Corinthians 10:7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Philippians 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

On The Ninth Day Of Fasting, The Fathers Said To Me...

...that even snakes fast for hundreds of days in a row, but still remain poisonous.

Phyletist Post of the Day

Actually, I have noticed while visiting Romania that though Romanians are proud of their nation they don't have the hostile, aggressive attitude toward the West and the fear of non-Orthodox churches that I encounter in other Orthodox countries. In Romania I don't hear, or only very occasionally hear, people talking about 'Judeo-Masonic conspiracies' against the Orthodox world. So, in my experience at least, Romanians seem to be more balanced than many other Orthodox in their views about the rest of the world.

+Kallistos Timothy Ware

Catch-22

Is it any surprise to anyone that the oldest Christian New Testament Canon (that of the Syriac Peshitta) had exactly the same number of books as that of the Jewish Old Testament Canon, especially given their common Semitic background? Or that the current New Testament Canon has 27 books, according to the same Jewish reckoning? (Since five of these 22 books are "doubled": 1^st & 2^nd Samuel, 1^st & 2^nd Kings, 1^st & 2^nd Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Jeremiah-Lamentations).

Copyright Infringements

On the 25th day of the ninth month, Orthodox Jews celebrate the Feast of the Purification of the Temple in Jerusalem by Judah Maccabee.

On the 21st day of the ninth month, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Entrance of the Holy Mother of God into the Temple, herself being the fleshly Temple whose womb, just like the Holy of Holies, housed the incarnated Lord of Glory (which is made abundantly clear in the hymns of the Feast).

On The Third Day Of Fasting, The Savior Said To Me...

Matthew 6:16 ¶Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

On The Second Day Of Fasting, Isaiah Said To Me...

Isaiah 58:6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

On The First Day Of Fasting, My True Love Said To Me...

...that two whole months of total sexual abstinence await us...

Patristic Exegesis

Since therefore it is impossible to learn anything true concerning religion from your teachers, who by their mutual disagreement have furnished you with sufficient proof of their own ignorance, I consider it reasonable to recur to our progenitors (ancestors), who both in point of time have by a great way the precedence of your teachers, and who have taught us nothing from their own private fancy, nor differed with one another, nor attempted to overturn one another’s positions, but without wrangling and contention received from God the knowledge which also they taught to us.

Justin Martyr, Hortatory Address to the Greeks,
Chapter VIII.

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Since therefore it is impossible to learn anything true concerning religion from your teachers, who by their mutual disagreement have furnished you with sufficient proof of their own ignorance,

i.e., the Protestant pastors.

I consider it reasonable to recur to our progenitors (ancestors),

i.e., the Church Fathers.

who both in point of time have by a great way the precedence of your teachers,

i.e., the antiquity of the Church Fathers versus Protestantism's lack thereof.

and who have taught us nothing from their own private fancy,

Contra Protestantism's innate tendency of turning the individual believer into the sole authority and ultimate interpreter of Holy Writ...

nor differed with one another,

i.e., the Patristic Consensus versus the plethora of various rival Protestant views, opinions, and interpretations.

nor attempted to overturn one another’s positions,

As opposed to what the founders of countless Protestant denominations have done throughout the centuries...

but without wrangling and contention received from God the knowledge which also they taught to us.

i.e., the chain of transmission of Holy Tradition throughout consecutive or successive generations. (2 Timothy 2:2)

Contracepting to the Glory of God!

The only question is: which God?

There is no God, other than my own Comfort, and Onan is its Prophet.

Don't you find it rather ironic how Christians, who confess to the existence of a Heavenly Father and His only-begotten Son, adopt [pun intended] a contraceptive mentality, whereas Muslims, who outright reject the concept of God as being anyone's Father, have children by the truck-load?

Deuteronomy 32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.


Romans 10:19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. 20 But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. 21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

Orthodox Christianity: Rightly Dividing Law And Gospel Centuries Before Luther

Are the Orthodox Lutherans before Luther ?


First Kontakion

Let the leaders of the Angels of the Trinity, Michael and Gabriel, be praised by us all, those who cherish Feast Days and take cover under the shadow of their wings, being thus from all sorts of wants and needs delivered, to the one saying: Rejoice, Servant of the Law, and to the other singing: Rejoice, Angel of Grace !

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The Trouble With Galileo Galilei

...is that he was a Catholic.

Yes, the guys trying to burn him at the stake were Catholic as well, I get that: but, -you see-, just because Sicilian mobsters "murderize " each other doesn't make either one of them less Italian than the other... so there's no point in trying to make poor ol' Galileo into some sort of standard-bearer for the cause of militant atheism and agnosticism, and its cheap religion-vs.-science propaganda, as long as the man himself was neither an atheist, nor was there any conflict in his mind between Catholic Christianity and scientific truth...

Protestantism as a "Demonic" Religion

Have you ever noticed how Protestantism demonizes (divides) between things which no sane, God-fearing person would ever dare to tear asunder? Like between God and His Saints, the Lord and His mother, Christ and His Cross, Scripture and Tradition, faith and good works, Baptism and regeneration, the Lord's body and Holy Communion, the universal and the sacerdotal Priesthood, or -as in the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses- between the Heavenly Father and His Only-Begotten Son. Truly, as our Savior Himself said: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." ( Matthew 12:25; Mark 3:24-25; Luke 11:17 ). -- Actually, how can any religious faith or belief-system that confesses the Holy Trinity believe in "Sola" anything ?