Old White Men

The Tolerant Twenties

 It was only in my fourteenth to fifteenth year of life that I first began to stumble more often upon the word Jew, partly in the context of political discourse. I felt towards it [anti-Jewish polemic] a mild distaste, being unable to forefend myself from sensing an unpleasant feeling, which always crept up on me, whenever denominational unpleasantries were carried out in my presence.

 I perceived the only noteworthy difference to lie in their strange confession of faith. For them to have been persecuted solely on account of this, as I then believed, sometimes made my [abovementioned] distaste of [witnessing] unkind remarks directed at them turn into outright repulsion.

 I do not wish to suggest that the way and manner in which I would [eventually] become acquainted with it [the Jewish question] felt particularly pleasant to me [at the time]. In Jews I still saw only the confession, and, therefore, in the name of humanitarian tolerance, I considered the cessation of religious infighting to justly apply in this case as well. So I deemed the tone, especially the one displayed by the anti-Semitic Vienna press, as unworthy of the [rich] cultural tradition of a great nation. I felt oppressed by the remembrance of certain medieval events, which I did not gladly wish to see repeated. As the aforementioned newspapers were not generally well-regarded (whence this [impression] came from, I myself was not exactly aware of at the time), I viewed them more as (by)products of livid envy, rather than results of a systematic, though misguided, perspective.

 The infinitely more noble form (as I saw it), in which the truly great press addressed all these attacks, or, what to me seemed even more graceful, not even mentioned them, but was simply dead-silent about, only served to strengthen my opinion.

 I eagerly devoured the so-called world press (New Free Press, Vienna Daily Paper, and so on), and was stunned both by the [wide] range [of subjects] it provided its readers with, as well as by the objectivity of its detailed presentation. I appreciated its appropriate tone.

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

Today Is A Good Day To Die

Gaudeamus, igitur,
Iuvenes dum sumus...

Vita nostra brevis est,
Brevi finietur;
Venit mors velociter,
Rapit nos atrociter:
Nemini parcetur.

Vivat academia,
Vivant professores;
Vivat membrum quodlibet,
Vivant membra quaelibet :
Semper sint in flore !

For smoke is our nostrils' breath, and thought a sparkle kindled by our moving hearts; which, when extinguished, our body shall turn into ashes, and our soul shall fade away as thinnest air...

Wisdom of Solomon, Second Chapter

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Sunday Of The Myrrh-Bearing Women

Earth-Shattering Events

Whose Cataclysmic Shock Waves Are Still Felt To This Very Day

Matthew 27:50  ¶Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51  And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; 52  And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53  And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. 54  Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying: Truly this was the Son of God. 55  And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him: 56  Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children. 28:1  ¶In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. 2  And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

It's Just Another Skeptic Sunday

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Lies We Can Believe In !

Perfectly Rational Explanations

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...And Other Psychological Coping Mechanisms

Designed To Protect The Human Mind From Accepting The Unthinkable

The Latest Victim

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We Interrupt This Blog To Bring You This Important News Bulletin...

Christus Victor

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Orthodox Soteriology 101

Chaos Is A Ladder

Easter And Passover

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Exodus 12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. 13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. 23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. 27 That ye shall say: It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. 29 ¶And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said: We be all dead men.

The Uncreated Light, And Other Outdated Concepts

Edison vs. Palamas

...as if St. Peter celebrated the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and saw the Uncreated Light while chanting the Jesus Prayer. You don’t even have to go back that far in the timeline to conclude that this is nonsense.

Arturo Vasquez, Why I Didn’t Become Orthodox

With their antiquated medieval notion of an uncreated light having been long since outshone by the advent of modern electricity (unknown in fourteenth century Byzantium), and seeing their traditional long-held beliefs of heaven and hell being gradually challenged and subsequently replaced by the exasperated postmodern quest for finding an earthly Paradise, what are the poor Orthodox to do, but pray ?

When's The Best Time For Repentance ?

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Romans 13:11

 ¶And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep:
for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Apocalypse Now

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Unrepentant Sinners Before Christ's Dreaded Judgment

The last week before Great and Holy Lent begins, of course, with the Sunday of the Last Judgment. (For those pondering or wondering about the possible differences between the two nearly-synonymous expressions, we hope this post will provide some adequate clues).

Christ's Prophecy Concerning America

Wonder how all American Evangelicals have missed such an obvious allusion to their own history, especially since they seem otherwise quite proficient at discovering all those hidden prophecies in the Book of Revelation:

Luke 15:11  ¶And he said: A certain man had two sons: 12  And the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14  And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 15  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16  And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

First Week Of The Pre-Lenten Period

This post is pure fiction.

Any resemblance to any actual person, alive or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Luke 18:10  Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12  I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying: God be merciful to me a sinner. 14  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Mandatory Epiphany Post

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Psalm 77:16
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee;
they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.

Psalm 114:3
The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.