about why the date of Pascha (Easter) is different in the Western and Eastern Christian traditions? Follow this link for an answer.
Oh My…
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Wow…
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When I Get Rich…
You will hear this kind of justification from many who pursue riches: “When I become rich, I will be able to perform good works!” Do not believe them, for they deceive both you and themselves.
Read the rest here…
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Good Friday…
What great mystery is this?
The sun turns dark as light perpetual emerges.
The eternal chooses death for the sake of the mortal.
The boasters have fled.
The meek keep vigil.
A pagan finds truth.
Priests remain in darkness.
A mother is given to a son.
A son is given to the ages.
The demons rejoice.
Hell is made ready for the taking.
The world kills its king.
Yet in death he becomes unconquerable.
What mystery is this?
A day called good.
While the humble weep.
The world is healed.
Its savior is wounded.
Love is shown as thorns.
Earth itself is shaken and groans.
Angels watch in wonder amazed.
So let us be, on this day and always.
Keeping watch ourselves as the story unfolds.
Hearts aflame with that which defies words.
Love unmeasurable for those who survey
this all, and understand.
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An Article…
worth reading from the New York Times.
In a recent interview, presented in more detail on my Times blog, she told me that various cultural cues exhort her and her female peers to approach sex in an ostensibly “empowered” way that she couldn’t quite manage. “I heard so many of my friends saying, ‘Why can’t I have sex and feel nothing?’ It was amazing: that this was the new goal.”
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Reason #2579 Why I'm Orthodox…
How glorious art Thou in the springtime, when every creature awakes to new life and joyfully sings Thy praises with a thousand tongues. Thou art the Source of Life, the Destroyer of Death. By the light of the moon, nightingales sing, and the valleys and hills lie like wedding garments, white as snow. All the earth is Thy promised bride awaiting her spotless husband. If the grass of the field is like this, how gloriously shall we be transfigured in the Second Coming after the Resurrection! How splendid our bodies, how spotless our souls!
Glory to Thee, bringing from the depth of the earth an endless variety of colours, tastes and scents
Glory to Thee for the warmth and tenderness of the world of nature
Glory to Thee for the numberless creatures around us
Glory to Thee for the depths of Thy wisdom, the whole world a living sign of it
Glory to Thee; on my knees, I kiss the traces of Thine unseen hand
Glory to Thee, enlightening us with the clearness of eternal life
Glory to Thee for the hope of the unutterable, imperishable beauty of immortality
Glory to Thee, O God, from age to age
Read all of it here.
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An Article…
worth reading from the online version of Salvo magazine.
…Tolerating what you like and censoring what you don’t like, of course, had a name before Marcuse came along. It was called intolerance. Intolerance had an unpopular ring to it, so Marcuse called it by its more popular antonym, tolerance. This word was often modified by liberating, discriminating, and true. Further corruption of language came via his criticism of practitioners of free speech as “intolerant.” …
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You'll Sleep Better at Night…
if you remember that the media does not exist to tell you the truth. The media exists to get you to watch, read, or listen to advertisements. That’s how they make their money and so they’ll focus their energies on whatever it takes to get you to watch, read, or listen.
That’s why a politician with a dead hooker in his house will always be the most important thing they want you to know. It’s also why you never hear about the millions of people doing good things and trying to live the best they can. There’s no gawker value in that, no blood, no scandal, no potential wardrobe malfunctions. As you figure this out you can cut the head off that monster by simply refusing to swallow the spoonful of turds they’re trying to feed you every day. If you don’t eat it they starve.
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Whenever…
you notice a politician, a preacher, the media, a salesperson, a celebrity, anyone in fact, start shouting about a crisis that requires immediate and drastic action do just three things.
Step back.
Take a breath.
Then ask, who gets something out of this? If you do you’ll find that nine times out of ten the whole thing is manufactured and somebody is making money, gaining power and influence, or somehow getting a “taste” from your panic; if you let them.
Example. What happened in Florida with Trayvon Martin is a tragedy no matter how the situation pans out. Notice, though, that a whole industry has sprung up out of nowhere, or so it seems, to get TV time, influence, even to sell products all based on an emotional response to an investigation not yet completed. The dead young man has almost become an afterthought, a tool in a larger campaign for whatever the people agitating about this feel they need.
This kind of thing, sadly, happens all the time, across the political and social spectrum, and sometimes it seems the only way people try to get our attention these days. Just follow the money, follow the power, follow the flow chart to see who gets what out of the panic and you’ll gain wisdom. You’ll be able to separate truth from fiction, make solid decisions in the face of loose emotions, and know how to direct your energies towards good things.
