Speak and We Obey!

Death to the World

“In times past, a table used to stand in the corner wherein the holy icons were. Then, however, that space will be occupied by seductive instruments for the deception of men. Many who have departed away from the Truth will say: we need to watch and hear the news. And it is in the news that antichrist will appear; and they will accept him.”   St. Lavrenty (Lawrence) of Chernigov (he was born in 1868 and reposed in the Lord in 1950.)

In times past, humanity was mindful of God. Sovereignty belongs to Him alone. Western civilization of olde was indisputably Christian. Inevitably it, civilization, was imperfect, there are no perfect institutions on earth. But it was governed by the mindset that there exist immutable realities, principles,that have their origin in God. And humanity is answerable to these Divinely instituted principles, be it the king, the civil authorities or the people. Sovereignty resided only in God. By Him, rulers ruled, and the people lived. 
In Orthodox Christian societies, the icon corner, or prayer corner, was one of the ways this sovereignty materialized itself (icons are divinely inspired images which Christians have used in prayer for thousands of years). 
There, God-fearing Orthodox Christians start their day and end their day (in prayer). The point of reference is (was) God. From that point, the events of the world were encountered and interpreted, processed: in light of eternity; in light of Good and evil. As humanity actively turns from God, it encounters only sin – godlessness – just as there is only darkness without the sun. A person only sees in the light; so much more do we only see, perceive, reality in the eternal Light of the Three-fold Godhead. 
Now the aura of electronic screens has replaced the light of God. Many people now orientate themselves, not according to everlasting virtues, but according to the brokenness of fallen existence.

The question is: to where, to whom, are we looking for our in-formation, our orientation? 
On a basic level, news should be informative information. But news today is a teaspoon of information with a pound of propaganda. One writer, Paul Craig Roberts, frequently calls modern mainstream news providers the “presstitute,” it seems a valid term. Through the “news” we are taught to fear, to despise, to worry, to be desensitized, to dehumanize others, to support war and conflict, to condone amorality, and the list could go on. We must understand clearly that we do not have news, we have propaganda. And it has a very clear anti-Christ intent and purpose. 
It is striving to prepare people for something, or someone. It desires to create chaos, confusion, and darkness. It is mind-numbing, it actively seeks to de-intellectualize people: don’t try and think for yourself (or worse, according to higher principles), we will instruct you on how you should receive events and happenings. And folks drink the kool-aid, ahh, so tasty!
The mainstream secular media is laboring to cultivate a certain atmosphere, a mentality, in which people will be prone to accept the anti-Christ spirit. And it is working to build an environment where it will control all information and narratives. 
After all, they have to protect us! It is for our own good, they are ever so benevolent to us lowly ones! They will tell us who our enemies are, and we will hate them; in fact, bomb them into oblivion! They will tell us what race we can hate, O those evil whites! They will tell us who should rule over us, and who we should cast to the inquisition! They will tell us how we should understand history, and we will blindly follow. The bell rings and the mob mindlessly grabs their pitchforks!
The effect (fruit) of the “news” (presstitute) shows that as St. Lavrenty foretold, it is a primary purveyor of the anti-Christ mindset. We are easily lead astray because we have abandoned Truth. 
It is time that we, as Christians, turn back to the icon corner as the main source of our news; the facts that we get there are sure and immutable. Then come what may, we will, by God’s grace, have the wisdom to discern. There is a battle for minds and hearts. If we are preoccupied with and look to modern news media, then our hearts will begin to feel the effect of its intentions. 
Remember the words of St. Paul, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2).
(An aside: there do exist independent news sources that seem to be trying to simply relay news, information; I would encourage folks to find these sources. Reading news is not bad per se, what is being addressed here is what seems to be the evident agenda of modern America mainstream media “news.” But again, we must be preoccupied with the One Who is Sovereign over all, then we will be capable of encountering and processing the events around us in a Higher manner.)

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For more of Fr Zechariah’s writings, visit The Inkless Pen Blog

Orthodox Bishops of the USA: Solidarity with those who condemn racism and inequality

 

Terrence Floyd, George Floyd's brother visits the location where his brother was killed, June 1 (photo from here)

 Photo from here

Orthodox Times
St. Simon of Cyrene Orthodox Mission (about)

The Executive Committee of the Assembly of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA is calling on a moment of silence and solidarity for all victims of racial violence on Wednesday at 12.00, on the occasion of the recent incidents and unrest that are taking place in many American states, due to the murder of George Floyd.
The Orthodox Bishops express their unequivocal solidarity with all those who condemn racism and inequality, “which betray the spirit of democracy in our nation, i.e. ‘one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all’.”
As they typically report, “violence is a horrible and tangible manifestation of the reign of sin in our world. It is expressed in many faces, all of which seek to deny the image and likeness of God in each human person, in whom God has placed an irreducible dignity and sacredness.”
“Thus, as Orthodox Hierarchs, we condemn all actions and words that promote hatred and racism, but also all acts of violence and destruction.”

See also

en.Wikipedia / Killing of George Floyd
Orthodox Christian Clergy Against Racism
Racism: An Orthodox Perspective
The Heresy of Racism
Racism (tag)  
Orthodoxy, Torture & death penalty
The Kingdom of Heaven, where racial discrimination has no place
Grace and “the Inverted Pyramid” 
Race and the Fall

The parable of the prodigal son is a mystagogic parable

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ: Η παραβολή του Ασώτου είναι μυσταγωγική

Translation K.N.
 
The parable of the prodigal son is a mystically educational parable. It clearly refers to the sacrament of baptism, of repentance and of the Holy Eucharist. Salvation is on the table of the Church. The Father, the calf, the glory garment, as well as the other elements of glory. God could not have spoken more clearly. It was not about a moral path towards vindication, but a mystagogic ecclesiastic procedure; it is about the return and the rejoicing.

Saint Simeon tells us how, in the parable of the prodigal son is hidden and foreshadowed the great mystery of Repentance-Confession in its three stages: confession, contrition and satisfaction. Confession is found in the words "Father, I have sinned unto heaven and before you». In the words “I am not worthy of being called your son” we discern contrition. In the words “Do with me, as one of your wage-earners” is contained satisfaction; that is, the need for a certain spiritual penance that satisfies the crushed human state.

The older son did not covet the celebratory garment, the ring, the sandals and the fatherly embrace. He coveted the fattened calf and complained about the rejoicing and the celebration. The holy Fathers tell us that this stance refers to those of us who receive Holy Communion (=the sacrificial calf) and yet, judge the worth or the unworthiness of others. Poor, deluded fools!

When the father slaughtered the calf and prepared the banquet, were you not invited to participate in that celebration? Didn’t the sinner brother also have a right to be at the celebration and the banquet? Isn’t the Holy Chalice common to all? Did the father invite him and not you? And anyway, who, my dear fellow, made you a jurist and judge on My affairs? - as the Lord had said.

Whatever I give to him and to you, I give the same to both! Don’t I have the right to oversee those things that belong to me? Your brother was lost and was found; he was dead and lived again – Shouldn’t we therefore rejoice? He abandoned his past life, and I judged him worthy of rejoicing. Why are you still harboring inside you that foreign Past, which is no concern of yours at all? I evaluate his Present and act accordingly! Are you perhaps the guardian of my property? Do you perhaps covet my Love, o you tiny-souled, sick person!?!

Second Sunday of the Triodion

The sacramental dimension of the Triodion

The first Sunday of the Triodion - the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee – among other points was an introduction of ours to the Orthodox ethos, because the Triodion period is an opportunity for us to be re-baptised in the faith of Jesus Christ and in our substantial relationship with Him. So far, we have seen that the key to the Kingdom is humility, also the immense value of self-deprecation and the absolute dependence on divine mercy. We learned how to emulate the external virtues of the Pharisee but avoiding his haughty bragging, and also how to avoid the publican's life style but being zealous of his deep and saintly repentance.

This Sunday, of the son who returns and father who opens his embrace, has a prominently sacramental character. If the first Sunday pertains to the ethos, this one reveals to us the value of the Mysteries and our need to partake in them, in order to hereafter live as choice and genuine children of God. Patristic interpretation tells us what is declared by all these acts of love and honor that the merciful father is bestowing on the prodigal son: the embrace signifies the inclusion in the Kingdom and the acceptance of the son’s repentance. The father’s warm welcome is also an expression of unconditional, unique love.

The ring, the sandals and the new garment are the cloak of elation, which signifies the glory and the restoration by the Baptism, while the sacrifice of the fatted calf and the delight at a celebratory banquet clearly denotes the Mystery of the Divine Eucharist and Paschal participation.

And before all the above, there is the return of the son, his open admission, his humiliation in front of the father and the final absolution, which surpasses the absolution and penances and becomes joy and honour; that is, the mystery of repentance and confession - a prerequisite for the return to life, to the actual life. The life in the paternal home, which is the life near God. Outside that home there is no life; only famine and swine and servitude to a master of prostitutes, prodigals and swineherds, who reigns in the land of hunger and death.

Thus, the period of the Triodion is, above all, a period of liturgical splendour and Eucharistic opportunities. A period that not only has to do with our emotional load and psychological priorities and our ascetic ethos, but with our return to the genuine ecclesiastic way of life. And the ecclesiastic way of life signifies our participation in the sacraments. And our participation in the sacraments signifies a substantiation of man, the return to being, and an existence near God.

That is when the genuine traveler of the Triodion can say that he was lost and then found, dead and lived again; by having received true light and becoming true light, he can proceed without stumbling to the Paschal joy of the Resurrection, which rises at the end of the Triodion’s course.

“Having squandered the paternal gift of wealth,
I, the wretch, was grazing with senseless beasts,
and by longing for their food, I was starving,
not sated by it; but, on returning to the merciful Father,
I cry out with tears: “Accept me as a wage-earner
beseeching Your philanthropy, and save me”
(Chant)

Satan, as the "eldest son" in the parable of the prodigal son

I think the older son of the parable resembles Lucifer, as opposed to the younger son, who is clearly man, Adam.

God is father to both, because He is the creator of both. And of course, given the temporal precedence of his creation, the devil is considered an “elder son” (as a creation within Time).

The younger son Adam apostatizes and leaves the paternal home. But when he returns to Paradise - and each time he returns to Paradise - to the paternal home and embrace, he becomes an object of envy, by the older son.

The older son is portrayed in the parable as already outside the paternal home, just like the devil, who had apostatized and had remained “outside”, prior to the fall of Adam. He feigns ignorance, and seeks to learn the cause of rejoicing from a servant (an Angel, a priest, a Christian) – obviously to make him a co-partaker of his indignation and his own situation. By envying his co-creation (man), he calumniates him to the Father (“your son squandered your wealth with prostitutes, etc...”).

Furthermore, bedimmed as he was, he managed to overlook his own fall and blindness, accusing his father of thanklessness and ungratefulness, and, presenting himself as a wronged Prometheus, he complained that his Father never provided even a young goat for his friends (demons) to celebrate a banquet together with them (the joy of paradise is hell for the un-communed and unclean), and he holds the Father responsible for his personal self-destruction, for God’s supposed bias and injustice – all because he had attained a perverted sense of justice and a blackened self-government.

His Father reminds him of the glory that he used to have previously, near Him, but also the potential to be like an Archangel (regardless of his persistence in remaining perverted with his self-government) and attempts to put him in Paradise as well, to co-rejoice with his fellow-man (because God invites even Satan to repentance). But the older son refuses, he becomes possessed (enraged), does not enter (“did not wish to enter”) and remains forever away from the rejoicing of the Father (non-communion, “hell”) – whereas the servants of the Father (benevolent Angels) co-rejoice and concelebrate for the return of Adam to the paternal home (There is great joy "in heaven, for even one repented sinner" - Luke 15:7).

Let us also remember how man was invited to replace the tenth angelic order of Lucifer and his angels who had lapsed, as well as the parable of the lost sheep, where the shepherd (God) leaves the nine sheep (the nine orders of Angels) and seeks to find the one lost sheep. He then finds it, and numbers it among the nine others, who co-rejoice for the return of that sheep.

The Christian, who looks upon the return of a repented brother with a “crooked” eye and a devilish disposition, and regards as unacceptable the pastoral concern of the Church for the misled brother, resembles that evil and perverted Satan himself. By having the illusion of superiority and spiritual self-sufficiency, he considers God the Father responsible for his own wretched situation, obliged to justify him and to also minister to him; and yet, he does not in fact want to be ministered to or helped, but eventually proves himself to be a sinner and a prodigal.

The love and the righteousness of the Father is “hell” for him, and it reveals the misery of his existence – just as limitless sunlight is death to the gloomiest and most abysmal darknesses.

See also
  
Man and his Fall - Analysis of the Parable of the Prodigal Son
Orthodox Spiritual Legacy: A Guide to the Triodion and Lent, on the Road to Easter
Triodion resource page

The Way - An introduction to the Orthodox Faith

Theosis (deification): The True Purpose of Human Life

Theosis, St. Silouan and Elder Sophrony

LIVE, BEYOND THE LIMITS!
Love the sinner, hate the sin 
Deification - The Uncreated Light

 
Protestants ask: Why be Orthodox?   
During the time that Luther and Calvin were formulating the Reformation...
The ancient Christian Church - About Orthodox Church in the West World
Travelers on the way to light