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Fantastic

On deck 👀 #bookstr

"Israel isn’t a country. It just isn’t. Israel was, and has always been, a womb, an entry way, known late in the creation story as a woman named Mary, and now known as the body of believers, those who follow Christ. Israel was always the place made to accommodate the coming of God into the world. That’s what Christians believe. If you call yourself a Christian and you don’t believe this, you are a schizophrenic and I wish you the best. The people of Israel did their job. The Theotokos said yes. Christ happened. And He didn’t happen just because I call myself a Christian. He happened for everyone. I’m betting my life on it. I believe it to be true. Once Christ came and lived, and died, and resurrected, and ascended, and then sent his Holy Spirit, the place called Israel moved mystically into the font of baptism and into the soul of man. And everyone, no matter what DNA molecules you claim to have, has access to this new Israel. All of us can join the Israel club, and when you do, you enter Christ, and that place in which you live is called The Orthodox Church".

Bibi Land and Christianity

Bibi Land loves Darbyland and also... isn't this all kind of obvious?

Fr. Turbo Qualla On pain: Masochism is hatred Asceticism is love. People seek pleasure to forget themselves, and so a process begins which becomes addiction… Pain reminds us of our selves, keeps us present and so we see the mystery behind asceticsm and ultimately the Cross as life. Saint Sophrony teaches that pain brings you to yourself. When you're running from pain, you're just deluded. That's why everyone's deluded. When you're running from pain, you're running for pleasure. “I just need a break. I just need to escape. I just need to not think about it. I just need to veg out.” No. No more. Your whole life every day should be like this: “I stayed in the fire five minutes longer than yesterday.  I stayed in the fire ten minutes longer than yesterday. I stayed in the fire for an hour longer than yesterday.” That should be your whole life. Until you're engulfed in flames.  Because what is the flame? Pain. You're supposed to be fully aware of who you are at all times. Pain. What are ascetics? Ascetics have learned to embrace the way of pain. They seek it. They live it out because of the benefit it brings. Because they're sober. Because an ascetic truly is one who's integrated. The pain is what integrates you, not the other way around. Pleasure diffuses you. Even trauma can be transfigured. Everything that is eternal is birthed out of trauma. Everything that is positive has been built off of pain – pain that was accepted and pain that was given to God. Everything. Pleasure diffuses your energy. Sex is the lower and Prayer is the higher creative act.  Sex (pleasure) diffuses and prayer gathers.. It's the highest creative act. This is why Sophrony stopped painting. Sophrony stopped painting because he was seeking enlightenment through the arts.  And he came to a place where he realized his whole life had been dedicated to art, to painting, but it wasn’t enough. So he abandoned everything that he knew and loved to pray. Why did he go to Kouroulia? Because in Kouroulia there's no cenobium. There's nothing. There's nothing but prayer. You can't go to Kouroulia unless you have prayer. Prayer is everything. It's the highest expression. Embrace pain. Allow God to transfigure it. That's what this tradition does. It's not something you have to intellectualize. If you're actually praying and accepting, it will happen.

In order for the medicine of the teaching of the word of God to be of benefit, it is necessary for the life of the preacher to accord with what he preaches “so that his life witnesses to the doctrines and the doctrines render his life more credible. . . for teaching through deeds is more precise and more credible by far than teaching through words. Such a teacher is able to teach even if silent and unseen. ☦️St. John Chrysostom

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☦️GM Divine Liturgy time

A transcribed page from the writings of the latest transsexual child killer, captured before the scrubbing: “I feel like there is some kind of god or higher force controlling me. I sometimes notice how I suddenly start writing things that I don’t even think of myself. It"s as if someone is putting these thoughts in my head. I used to think that all of this was nonsense, but now I’m not so sure. “Maybe there is really some kind of higher mind that communicated with me this way. “I often notice how my body does things automatically as if by itself. I can just walk down the street and suddenly realize that I don’t even remember how I got there. It scares me but at the same time it makes me curious. Maybe people are all controlled like this, but they don’t notice it. “Maybe I am the only one who has noticed it and that's why i feel special. “But I don’t know if that's good or bad.” Worth noting too that he did not get into the church.

Who is the best teacher? – Suffering. Who is the worst teacher? – Pleasure. What is the rarest skill? – The ability to give. What is the greatest skill? – The ability to forgive. What is the hardest skill? – The ability to keep silent. What is the most important skill? – The ability to ask. What is the most needed skill? – The ability to listen. What is the most dangerous struggle? – Fanaticism. What is the most unpleasant habit? – Quarreling. What is the most harmful habit? – Talkativeness. Who is the strongest person? – The one who can understand the Truth. Who is the weakest person? – The one who considers himself the strongest. Who is the most intelligent person? – The one who guards his heart. What is the most dangerous attachment? – Attachment to one’s own body. Who is the poorest person? – The one who loves money the most. Who is the closest to God? – The merciful one. Who is the weakest person? – The one who has conquered others. Who is the strongest person? – The one who has conquered himself. How do we confront affliction? – With joy. How do we endure suffering? – With patience. What is the sign of a healthy soul? – Faith. What is the sign of a sick soul? – Despair. What is the sign of wrong actions? – Irritability. What is the sign of good deeds? – Peace in the soul. ☦️ Monk Simeon of Athos

Esmee Noelle Covey: There is no such thing as a “homosexual” in the Orthodox tradition—not as an ontological category, at least. To claim that someone is homosexual or transgender, as if it were an essential aspect of their being, is to make a category error. It elevates a sinful inclination to the level of a defining attribute or even a created “nature.” Same-sex attraction is a passion—a distortion of desire—not an identity. Yes, homosexual lust is particularly unnatural, but it is still just lust. A man who lusts after women is not ontologically labeled a “fornicator.” He is a man struggling with sin—just as any of us are. We don’t categorize people into spiritual castes based on which sins tempt them. That, ironically, would be a kind of gnostic essentialism: defining souls by their passions, rather than their repentance. This is an area where the Church perhaps needs to speak more clearly. The truth is this: same-sex attraction is not an identity, and as such, it can be healed. It is not immutable. The Church, through her ascetical and sacramental life, offers transformation. The passions can be conquered. And we have powerful witnesses to this truth—saints who struggled with same-sex desire and overcame it through prayer, fasting, and humility.

From Prismatic Orthodox: "Here's a repost of a reply to further explain the East v. West Trinitarian differences: Catholicism begins with God as Essence; Orthodoxy begins with God as Person. The Catholic perspective of the Trinity starts with the idea that God’s essence is utterly simple (I.e. has no composition or distinction of existence, attributes, operations, will or activity). To maintain this simplicity, they define the distinctions of the Persons by their relation to one another. I.e. the Father is Paternal, the Son is Filial, the Spirit is Spirated. Their hypostases share all things apart from these relational distinctions, which is what safeguards Divine Simplicity. This leaves no room for the Essence-Energy distinction because there can be no other distinctions apart from the relationship between the Persons. The Orthodox view on the other hand does not begin with God's essence (we hold the divine essence is apophatic and is eternally unknowable), but rather as God the Father as Person. The Father is the source of Persons (begetting and spirating) and is only made known by His energies. So in our view, the Persons share all things and are made distinct by their origin (Father as monarch, Son as begotten, Spirit as spirated) and simplicity is safeguarded by the apophatic transcendence of the Father, who is expressed perfectly by the energetic procession through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. A useful analogy is to consider the energies this way: the Father thinks (apophatic/simple), the Son articulates, the Spirit is the breath that makes the sound. The analogy of course breaks down (as all analogies of divine metaphysics do) because they don't have distinct operations in this way—that is, they are not composed of separate parts, but are instead undivided in operation. In Catholic theology, because all of God’s internal life is identical with His essence (apart from the relational distinctions of Father, Son, Spirit), any talk of energies as really distinct activities in God would compromise simplicity. They would instead say that God’s thinking, speaking, and breathing are simply God’s essence as one simple act, not additional distinctions in Him. Distinctions only arise on the side of creatures who receive and name them".

This is worth a read☦️

Becoming Orthodox | Kenneth B. | Substack

A journey into the ancient Christian faith—through history, story, and real conversations. Click to read Becoming Orthodox, by Kenneth B., a Subs...

Not a bumper sticker guy but I would.

Elder now Saint Cleopa who was recently glorified! ☦️

☦️GM #Christianity

Interactive map of St. Paul's journey. https://www.intofarlands.com/map-of-pauls-journeys

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