What is Written in Stone

Words are movable, shaded and nuanced. Have you ever heard the expression, "A picture is worth a thousand words"? God was proclaimed by the Holy Spirit in words by Moses and the Prophets of all ages, actually since time began. Remember the old sayings, "It's not written in stone" "This IS written in stone" and "This is yet to be written in stone."  More certainly than the stone tablets of Moses, God's Incarnation into the womb of Mary, him taking on HER humanity, was a writing in Stone.  What before had been symbolized by the Holy Spirit, clouded, seen in myriad symbols and signs, became written in Stone in the Divine/Human Man, Jesus Christ. What had not and could not be depicted, except in abstract symbolism, took concrete form and became "depictable." So that what had been spoken in words, and depicted in abstract symbolism became an Living Human Being, with personality and features, countenance, expression, emotion. 

Those who chose to bow to the heresy of the Muslims and condemn the depiction of Jesus Christ in holy imagery (Ikons) attacked HIM, tried to remove him to non-incarnational status, tried to ROB his likeness from the consciousness of future generations of Christians, tried to take his humanity away and make of him "spirit only" and remove his Divine/Humanity from the vision and thoughts of the believer.  The Incarnation of Jesus Christ wasn't so that he could teach, but that he could be the LIVING IKON of God the Father. 

The great theosophist Thomas Jefferson said, "I believe in Jesus Christ in every way he would have wanted me to believe in him.  I believe in what he taught."  You cannot be saved and find eternal life depending exclusively on what Jesus taught. Shocking words I know. Much less could Jefferson find salvation in the teachings he excluded in the same manner as the "Jesus Seminar" centuries later.  Because both believed in a false Jesus, in a Jesus of their own creation, a product of their pride and imagination, they could not believe that "their" Jesus would say, this thing or that thing.  But even when the words are clearly placed on a page, and all of them are included, as the myriad Protestant versions of the Gospel prove, words are movable, shaded and nuanced. Healing/salvation lies rather in who Jesus was and what he did and people HEARING about it, and learning about it in written word, spoken word and ART.  He was God incarnate, Truly Human, Truly Divine, depictable in human reality, yet containing the fullness of the Godhead.  The core Christian statement of faith, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed says nothing about Jesus' teaching, but says WHO he WAS and WHAT he DID.  Every aspect of each of his actions contains the mystery of the Gospel, and every action is depictable. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Truths of the Gospel are depictable.   

What do you think was the motivation of Satan, when he tried through the demonic influence of Islam, the use of the Roman Emperor and apostate Churchmen, to stamp out physical depictions of Jesus Christ, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, Angels and Saint and . . . the stories, the parables, the events of the Gospel?  It was to rob the Church of the new means of spreading the message of the Gospel, to block the Church from creating those very IKONS that today even iconoclast cults have burned in their memory: 

the Annunciation - when God became man, 

the Visitation, when John the Baptist in the womb recognized Jesus in his mother's womb.

The Nativity


 



the Presentation when the infant Jesus first shed blood for us, 

His Baptism by John the Baptist 

His temptation by Satan in the Wilderness

His healings. Here healing the lepers. 

His Transfiguration, 

His feeding the masses, 

 His Teaching the Eucharistic Familiar Covenant at the Last Supper, also called the New Covenant and the New Testament.

 His Betrayal by Judas,  

His Agony in the Garden before his arrest, 

His Arrest, 

His trial before Pilate.

 His Scourging and Humiliation, and His Suffering Trek to Golgatha
His Torture on a Cross, 
His Shedding of Blood and Water, 
His removal from the Cross, 
The Preparation of his body for the Tomb, 
His Tomb, 
His sojourn in hell, where he lead captivity captive, 
His Resurrection where he conquered death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowed LIFE,  
His Meetings with his faithful after the Resurrection, 
His revelation to Doubting Thomas, 
His cooking and eating with his apostles, 
His Ascension into Heaven, 
His Kingship, 
His Revelation to Saul on the Damascus Road 
- these are just a few of the Depictions possible of the Story of the Gospel, the incarnation, the Message of the Cross. They are immanently and naturally DEPICTABLE.

What wealth Satan tried to seal through the arrogance and self-righteousness of prideful men!  Everyone of these IKONS taught myriad generations of illiterate and simple people, and burned these scenes and the MEANING of these scenes into the hearts of Centuries of Faithful.  In this, the Church is seen NOT as trying to "hide the Bible" from ordinary people, as is the common and ignorant anti-catholic accusation, but rather though massive book publishing called "codices" (starting in the 1st century) the forerunner of modern book publishing, spread these very expensive hand-produced works, the Books of Holy Scripture into several languages and to multiple continents. AND MORE, they created the universal language of ICONOGRAPHY, so that even the unlearned could view the picture, hear the story and have two means of retaining the message of God's Living Word, who is the person, Jesus Christ.  

And what about that NAME, Jesus the Christ? In his condescension He created  NAMES, The Messiah, Jesus Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Son of God, Emmanuel (and others). These given to him FOR man's sake, so that we would be able to SPEAK HIS NAME, as Friend and Brother; he also gave us the name of the Great unspeakable I AM, that name being Abba, (Father - most closely related to the English word, Daddy) something that before the Incarnation would have been unthinkable blasphemy. When we pray we say collectively, "Our Father" - what a wonder is that. Who else has a family, whose Father is GOD?   Instantly these names were reduced to Iconography, that is given symbols to "picture" and remember. 


Alpha And Omega: These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, signifying that Jesus Christ is the beginning and end of all things (Rev. 22:13).

Chi Rho: This is a monogram of the first two letters X and P of the Greek word for Christ.

Chi Rho with Alpha and Omega: This symbol for the Lord comes from the catacombs and indicates that he is the beginning, continuation and end of all things.

Chi Rho with Alpha and Omega in a Circle: The symbol for Christ is within the symbol for eternity (the circle), thus signifying the eternal existence of the Savior.

I X: This symbol for the Lord consists of the initial letters of the Greek words for Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ The Victor: This is a Greek Cross with the abbreviated Greek words for Jesus Christ, the lines above the letters indicating that the words are abbreviated. The letters NIKA are translated victor or conqueror.

I.N.R.I.: These are the initial letters for the Latin inscription on the Cross of the Crucified Christ. Iesus Nazaremus Rex Indaeorum: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews (John 19:19).

I.H.B.I [Greek]

[Slavonic]

Sun and Chi Rho: The sun is the source of light and Jesus is referred to as the Light (John 1:4). The sun is combined with the CHI RHO, another symbol for Christ (Mai. 4:2).



Accuse the Orthodox of "worshiping idols" and you attack the person of Jesus Christ, depicted in those IKONS, The Christ, the Living Word of God, The Way, The Truth, and The LIFE, given us to DEPICT in IKONS to share and teach, not just by words but VISUALLY. "1Jn 1 ff  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)  That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.  And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full."   

Accuse the Orthodox of "worshiping idols" because we venerate the Saints depicted in ICONOGRAPHY and you attack the Sanctity of Christ himself.   
Do you not know that what has been witnessed may be depicted in Sacred Icon? That not only can we "tell you" we can "draw you a sacred picture"?  And when you attack it, do you not know you attack the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, "Heb 2:11  For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". Families and family members can be depicted, and even the Son of God may have his likeness depicted, and in the hands of the worshiping Eucharistic Society that IS his family, IT IS SACRED ICONOGRAPHY and NOT Idol. Using VISUAL AID to draw to mind and heart THROUGH the SACRED OBJECT depicted, showing that ICON reverence, is the least respect it deserves. Both to Jesus Christ, but also to ALL the Saints because, HE who sanctifies and those he sanctifies are ONE.  

Since Satan was defeated in his attempt to destroy Sacred Iconography he had to choose another tact. That happened in Western Art, where depraved artists began to create images that were "anti-christ" vulgar, demeaning and even lewd.  With the advent of photography and moving pictures he greatly increased his anti-christ depicting enterprises.  We see a constant diet of it on the History Channel, Net/Geo the National Geographical Channel, on all the major networks and in movies like The Last Temptation of Christ and The Divinci Code, to name only two of many.  Sadly in this culture that anti-christ depiction is all many know.

This anti-christ depiction of Jesus Christ and his Church is prevalent in this Western Society, financed by a who's who list of Jesus Haters. It has herded mindless quasi-Christians into a conditioned state, where the mere mention of The Church brings from their gut an immediate attack as if the Church of Jesus Christ is evil.  I remember seeing a lecture about early Church History by a former "evangelical believer" turned Agnostic, who in all honesty gave a fair verbal depiction of the formation of the Church. At the end of the presentation, a young man stood to ask a question and asked some absolutely ridiculous question about some conspiracy of the Roman Church. The former Evangelical, a PhD professor in Roman History looked stunned and said, "You are making reference to the Divinci Code, correct."  
The young man acknowledged that was his point of reference. 
The professor returned, "It never happened."  
Then the young man was stunned. He responded, "Who are you to say? What proof do you have?"  
The professor said, "I know the difference between fact and fiction. It is that simple. The Divinci Code is entertainment, and totally fictional." 
The young man said, "How can you say that?  How can you know?"
"Well, after all, I have a PhD in both early Church History and Secular Roman History. I have the witness of historians of the contemporary period, the Roman and Jewish historians, not to mention the record of the Church itself. I'm not even a Christian, but I've spent decades studying these sources and I'm telling you, it never happened."
In total incredulity the young man asked, "How can I know that what you are saying is true?"
The professor said the logical thing. "I invite you to spend the years I've spent studying the extant material and see if you can come to another conclusion."
Still the young man was not convinced.

The anti-Christ depiction of Christ in the 20th and 21st Century is a massive brainwashing tool.  I looked at that clean-cut well dressed articulate college student, caught in the sorcery of the New Babylon.  I heard the words of the prophet Isaiah speaking to those who are the image of nice people without God, comfortable and prosperous on the outside yet filled with great poverty and tragic but laughable foolishness.  As affluent and educated as he was, he had been "suckered" played the fool by sorcery. "Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, which you learned with much labor from your youth; see if you will be able to profit from this.  You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. (He was truly frustrated and angry and I'm sure he had spent much energy imbibing every anti-Christ, anti-Church message, book, blog, movie etc., available to him.) Let the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from these things that will surely come upon you. Behold all these shall be burned like sticks in a fire, and they shall not deliver their soul from the flame."  Isaiah 47:12ff

Those who attack the Church, who believe the lies of the sorcerers, who watch the daily prognosticators, the fear mongering "free-church-prophet class", who abuse the Sacred Scriptures and paint Christ's Body the Church as pagan and "idolatrous," the whore of Babylon, the Bishop of Rome as the Anti-Christ . . . they are JUST AS much victim of sorcery, just as deeply brainwashed and deluded as this college secularist.

Orthodox Sunday

Orthodox Sunday - The first Sunday in Great Lent:
 
Fr Alexander - “This is the Apostolic faith, this is the Orthodox faith, this is the faith of the Fathers, this is the faith that is the foundation of the world.”  

This is our Faith, called Christian, direct from the Apostles. This is the faith that shines the True Light of the Cross of Christ to every generation without admixture of error, that True Light is Orthodox, Catholic, Apostolic.  Why? Because, in the collective saints of every age, we are the Body of Truth. HE, the Person who IS Truth is our head and we saints and sinners are HIS Body.  Having this wonderful treasure, let us live it, let us preserve it, let us keep it, and let us also use it in such a way that this treasure becomes the victory of Christ in us and in His Church and ultimately in the world as the Holy Prophets and Apostles foretell.  Let us not be caught in the mere form of the visible church, becoming "sacramentalized" instead of sanctified,  but rather let us be caught in the sanctifying LIFE of it, who is Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, present to all that truly seek Him.

Our Heavenly Father
Let us not be caught in the fear of servile religion; keeping Tradition out of ignorance and offering our "correctness" as sign of righteous enlightenment.

Let us not be caught in the tyranny of our rational minds, which creates "innovations" upon the faith, which leads us to hold prideful "theologies" that diminish God to the level of our understanding, or worse, which deny Him altogether.

Let us not be caught by the tyranny of our emotions, mistaking our soul's phantasy producing powers for the working of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.

Let us not be caught in the mere form of the visible church, but in the LIFE of it, who is Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, present to all that truly seek Him. Let our keeping of Tradition spring from the warmth of your Love, from a heart that seeks continual repentance, from a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise. Amen. Amen. Amen.  - Archpriest Symeon Elias.

I AM a Power Spiritual Being!

Here is Elizabeth Gilbert and Oprah Winfrey pushing what the Holy Fathers call, "the happiness seeking sickness."  Some Christian Traditions also falters in their witness of the Gospel for reason of this very philosophy creeping into their theology, where one is taught that Christian Faith is about seeking and finding "happiness" in this life.  No, rather Christian Faith is about seeking and finding Eternal LIFE, regardless of the pain and pleasure of the journey. It is about abandoning everything that is death engendering, no matter how pleasant and pleasurable it may seem and embracing everything that is "eternal life" engendering, even if it is great suffering and struggle.  The life engendering grace of God may come to us via many experiences. Many LIFE LESSONS may engender great happiness and joy, but the most profound lessons are those that challenge this sort of "surface emotional living."  All REAL Life Lessons have ONE common source. For Elizabeth, the power of her happiness is "photosynthesis." She would reel in deep depression in the Winters in my neck of the woods where the Sun does not shine sometimes for many weeks. She would be suicidal in Alaska.  



The weakness of the various "spiritualisms" (New Age, the Mind Sciences, Motivational Enthusiasm Movements, the cults of every ilk) is that they "make something special of the devotee."  You are a "powerful spiritual being" is an oft stated mantra of these groups, a statement that is not devoid of Truth. Or that we should act only upon those things that make us experience surface "happiness."  Who could deny that Genghis Khan, Mao, Stalin, Hitler were powerful spiritual beings? Who could doubt that they experienced great moments of happiness, victory, even elation at pressing their hellish will upon the earth.  A great many people use their natural innate human spirituality to align with dark forces that destroy their own "person" as they attempt to destroy the "personhood" of others. This is the modus operandi of every Utopian fantasy, every atheist/secularist "empire," every "re-education" and indoctrination program, every secular philosophy, science and psychology devoid of the Cross of Christ, every attempt at the recreation of the Towel of Babel, that is Wisdom and Order devoid of the Cross of Christ.  

AS an individual, coming to realize that we are more than flesh and bone, that our consciousness is more than the physical aspect of the human brain, that cognition is beyond the scope of science and is "spiritual" is a step toward wisdom, a step out of the extreme materialist mentality of our age, but may or may not be a step toward our own healing/salvation. 

On his lenten blog, Fr Robert Barron stated, "Something I have noticed over the years is that the holiest people in our tradition are those who are most aware of their sinfulness. Whether it is Paul, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux, or Mother Teresa, the saints are those who are convinced of their inadequacy. (I wish he had used the word, sinfulness instead of "inadequacy" which lends itself to the delusions of secular psychology and away from the absolute Truth.) 

"When Isaiah encounters the Lord he says, "I am a man of unclean lips!" When Peter is in the presence of the Messiah he says, "Lord, leave me, for I am a sinful man." G.K. Chesterton once said, "A saint is someone who knows he's a sinner."  I could state further than Chesterton and say that one who does not recognize his own sinful nature, is not a Christian, not a true follower of Christ, but is rather a deluded "religionist."  i.e., sickened by religion. The human spirit is naturally religious and absent the true spiritual comprehension of the Cross of Christ constructs theologies proclaiming the primacy of its own reason and emotions, and the kingship of its own carnal mind, via the delusion of its own religious (spiritual) constructs or those it has adopted. No human philosophy is constructed of benign and antiseptic reason alone, but rather each springs from a spiritual base, which is drawn to, or repelled by TRUTH, who is a person.   

Two things expose the sinfulness of even the greatest saint, and thus all us lesser "saints."  (1) The Glorious Luminosity of God, who is wholly OTHER. (2) The true spiritual comprehension of the Cross (and I don't mean the ability to expertly explicate every aspect of it, but rather to be truly submitted to communion in Christ's Blood, which is participation in its healing power.) 

Every saint in the presence of an "angel of God" or a "theophany" (an appearance of God's Word) is first overwhelmed by the difference in their "state of being" and that of God's.  Instantly they recognize their inferiority, that is their sinfulness. Ultimately, from this view, at the foot of the Cross, one comes to comprehend the true meaning of the Cross, how that Sacrifice defines EVERYTHING.  The first comprehension is the total, absolute and unreasonable condescension it is, that was prepared for us. Yet comprehension is meaningless if we do not "participate in that sacrifice." So the second comprehension is that we, with unclean lips may share in the sacrifice of the Life Producing Cross. We participate in the Divine Liturgy where Jesus Christ shares His Body and Blood in a spiritual sacrifice, because Jesus, as they were eating, took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, (New Covenant) which is shed for many for the remission of sins.  - Matthew 26:26-28 (King James Version) That Body and Blood IS Jesus Christ. HE is the New Covenant, HE the Divine Human Person. The Covenant is not a legal agreement, but a FAMILY TIE, Sharing in the same Divine/Human flesh and blood. It is the Covenant Family, that gathers together, presenting their own bodies in the "unbloody" sacrifice, their "rational liturgizing" their proper worship that is Holy and Acceptable, so that they may experience the transforming of their mind, so that they may come to know the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.  I said it is a FAMILY BOND, of the same Divine/Human Flesh and Blood. It is a bond of those who through The WAY of the Cross, gain the Holy Spirit within, and HE turns to us and says, "Behold my mother and my brethren!  For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." 12:48-50 (King James Version) It has nothing to do with a legal contract! It is a FAMILY BOND.     

 Anyone with this comprehension never participates in an egotistical spiritual evaluation of themselves, but rather say, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."  No Holy Roller, self-righteous ACT, no prattling about the pristine condition of our "salvation" and our "mature spirituality" has any place in the vicinity of the Cross of Christ.  How else can we with unclean lips touch the cup of this sacrifice and not say, "Lord, I am unworthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word and I will be healed." 

Abject spiritual prostration at the Cross of Christ is our ONLY true Spiritual strength.  All else is darkness and death, though it may seem for a period, "great enlightenment."  "Nothing is more common than Satan teaching theology to those he fears may slip from his grasp."

Think about the "Family of God."  After the fall, it was Adam and Eve, grieving in extreme remorse, then by promise it was Abel.  Yet in that first chaotic period after many centuries, alive on this planet, that Family of God was only Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives.  By the time of Abraham it was a tribe of kinsmen. Then by the time of Moses twelve tribes. Then it became a nation of people and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is has become a family of many nations.  Yet it is a family, who participate in the same Sacrifice, who spiritually prostrate themselves at the foot of The Cross, and hold FAITH in nothing else. 

My Personal Experience of "The New World Order"

Nancy and Thomas writing about the turmoil in Ukraine. (Do you know what Ukraine means? "On the Border".
On Tuesday, March 4, 2014 10:11 PM, Nancy and Thomas Luichinger <toltwo1@aceweb.com> wrote:

Father, Bless!

Fr.Symeon, we have not heard from you a long, long time.  Welcome, and welcome again.

**

Just one question, I wonder why the acting president Oleksandr Turchynov did not make THE LIST today on this particular [Huffington Post UK] review of leaders.  And, *especially since the Goal of the article is to show:

"the political and ideological make-up of Ukraine's opposition-turned-government is far more complex and nuanced...."



"Ukraine's New Leaders: From Neo-Nazis To A Muslim, A Jew And A Heavyweight Boxer"

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/03/ukraine-government_n_4889063.html?view=print
  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Nancy and Thomas Greetings in this Lenten season. May Jesus Christ be honored, may we all return to HIM none other.

In my first comment on this topic I said something to the effect that I had always been a keen observer of Political Science.  And not just the surface politics of the meme makers, which is the endless imagery of the propagandists,  but rather coming to understand the underbelly of the competing world powers, the incessant parade of those trying to recreate the Tower of Babel.

Decades ago, when I was a young man,  I was invited into this crowd because of my exceptional talents and intellect. (This is not pride speaking, but explaining a narrative that will not be comprehensible without this statement.)  Because I was talented, (like Vitali Klitschko) I became a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. Yet unknown to them, through God's mercy, I was personal friends with Congressman Larry MacDonald (a martyr to TRUTH) and then, the second to the head of the John Birch Society.  Congressman Larry MacDonald taught me the underlying goals of the C.F.R. and other "internationalist organizations."  He exposed me to the genocidal foundation of the United Nations, and the hellish heritage of UNESCO. From the inside I witnessed the function of the C.F.R.

My spiritual mentor, Great Schema Archimandrite Damian, wrote in the mid-1990s, “In addition to patience, we must learn not to judge. People are seldom as good at that as they think, and not always anxious to learn better. But the Lord may have something worldly He wants us to do, and we should always be ready to learn that or to tolerate it in others. These things cannot be explained; we must just take them as He sends them. Life is not meaningless just because we do not understand it. And our Orthodox Faith is not confused just because our reason cannot hold it together for us."  Those words were salve to my soul, because my trek had been "worldly." From early on, I knew that my experience was not contrary to God's will for me, that it had meaning and purpose, but it was worldly.  This life was not easy and had many costs, which I payed in honor of my parents who were both very insightful and aware of  the forces destroying the American Constitutional Republic (1950s, 60s and early 70s).  In my life's experience I came to understand "the new world order" decades before George Bush (the first) announced it.  What is it, but one more Tower of Babel?

George Bush annoucing opently THE NEW WORLD ORDER
  http://youtu.be/byxeOG_pZ1o
http://youtu.be/hHFKtdE6mCU

OUR PRESENT AMERICAN TOTALITARIAN STATE.
http://lettersfromthegulag.blogspot.com/2013/12/our-american-totalitarian-state.html

While I was a member of the C.F.R. everything I touched turned to gold.  And in my secular life I quickly reached the pinnacle of my profession.  A kid whose grandfather owned a tiny grocery store in (Atlanta) Cabbage Town, became close friends with the massive money that created Cabbage Town in the 1880s. (People pictured in the Book/Movie - "A Man Called Peter" - whose author also became my friend.)  On my short list of powerful friends was the Atlanta diplomatic corps, the charge d'affaires of United Kingdom of Great Britain, Germany, France, Mexico, the billionaire Charles Smithgall, the multi-millionaire Frank Sheffield, the close friend of Charles Lindbergh (soloed in the same plane the same day in Americus, Georgia in the 1930s)  and a who's who list of concert artists and visual artists, and composers, (the list would take a page) the president of Emory University,  the youngest lawyer in the Nuremberg Trials and head of the de-nazification program in the S.E., U.S., and some in his care like visual and concert artists and rocket scientists, Fob James, the governor of Alabama, Richard Farbolin, who owned the Honey Baked Ham Company, and because I am a pianist/composer I also played concerts for university presidents, five ex-U.S. presidents and the Queen Mother and two American generals. - private events.  

Here is some of the music I composed and played at those concerts. 
http://pianobutchdevilmusic.blogspot.com/2012/07/symphony-hall-compositions-by-marion.html

I am NOT exposing this aspect of my life to say, "LOOK AT ME"   - it is not pride that is speaking here, but merely the wish to express that my knowledge of the New World Order mentality and apparatus,  is not some shallow conspiracy theory, but personal experience of world and cultural leaders speaking their goals to me EYE TO EYE, and personally witnessing some of the mechanism used for their purposes.  So you will understand this is not "pride of life speaking" understand that this life has not been without deep grief.  My friend Congressman MacDonald, killed by a joint C.I.A./K.G.B operation on flight KLA 007. My close friend Mitchell Werbell, (Orthodox Christian) the son of a former Czarist calvary officer, co-founder of the OSS  (the precursor of the CIA) with Allen Dulles, the younger brother of John Foster Dulles, was set up, assassinated by poison and shamed by a Larry Flint operation. My friend Jimmy Swaggart (who also cooperated with the C.I.A. in central and south america, also set up and shamed in a like operation).   My own brother-in-law (career Nato intelligence) assassinated on his front lawn in Spain in the first days of the Kosovo War, killed for information he leaked to me, exposing to me the Jihadi goals of the New World Order in Kosovo.  I was in the crowd outside of WACO documenting the opening gambit of the NWO's assault on Christianity in the U.S, the jackbooted attack on Christians.

 Nancy and Thomas, that was a long-winded way of explaining Vitali Klitschko's rise to power.  He is a useful tool of the New World Order and quite possibly through human pride, does not himself realize it.  The New World Order, (this Tower of Babel)  is Marxist/NeoCon/Muslim.   It seeks to create a Sharia Compliant "Secular West" (for the moment), and seeks to destroy any Christianity left on the planet that is not aligned with Ecumenical Heresy - which is a Unitarianism, devoid of Orthodox TRUTH and is rather, Sharia Compliant.    It arrived to us through the FreeMason Movement in Europe, which was a stealth Jihadi insurgency into every institution of Western Civilization, whose main goal has been to foster wars between Christian Nations. It has been extremely successful.  Let us face it. The Christians of Russia and the Christians of the U.S., without the propaganda of the New World Order, would be "natural allies" against the common enemy which is the Anti-Christ reality of ISLAM.

Frank Sheffield

http://www.libs.uga.edu/media/collections/homemovies/sheffield.html

Mitch Warbell
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4tx23_american-mercenaries-the-true-story_tech

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwerbell.htm

Lent, Privation and the Eyes of the Heart

Great Lent in the Orthodox Liturgical Seasons began yesterday. Despite the great and swelling words of many of the saints about the meaning, purpose and benefit of Lent, none are any more true than the words of a modern Roman Priest who said, "In its simplest terms, Lent is the season when we refocus ourselves on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ." The exercise is not privation, for privation alone means NOTHING. The exercise is to focus the eyes of the heart. The vision and knowledge of the Cross is the Complete Gospel upon which all creation, history, wisdom, scripture, worship and LIFE rests. The fact is year after year the exercise of Lent makes it more real for us, the meaning more profound. "Things" appear deepening our Communion IN the Gospel, which though previously seen become better perceived. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner. I am the Blind Man, Lord, open the eyes of my heart that I may see.

I remember seeing a bitter ex-Christian on PBS, talking with the great Secular Humanist Writer, Joseph Campbell.  He was decrying the ignorance of his Christian upbringing, literally poking fun at his parents who thought that "Jesus Christ was the answer to everything."  He said, "I'm sorry, he just is not." I remember thinking, "You can't be talking about the Jesus I've met, who placed his Holy Angel over my cradle to defend me, who from birth to now showers his grace upon me and gives everything and every person in my life meaning."  I hope this young man learned better in time.  

It was not until years later that I realized the true blessing of my parents, flawed as all parents are, but holding clear faith in the Cross of Christ.  That blessing came into focus reading this passage about someone born to Atheists,(Valeria Alfeyeva) who spent years in a seemingly futile search for Christ, at the same time I remembered the words of that unfortunate bitter young man.
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A friend said to her, "Perhaps you were looking not for HIM but for something else?" 

"I was looking for something else, something that would ease my sufferings, I longed for perfect love, and couldn't quench my thirst. I read thick tomes to find the Truth that would answer the eternal questions of being, and I crossed three oceans in the pursuit of beauty.  But still I did not know that all this was You: the easing of suffering and blessing, unending Love, absolute Truth, and perfect Beauty - these are all different names for you.

"And so, without loving you - I loved you; or, without looking for you - all my life I've been looking for you alone. 'Who is to blame that he is blind, him or his parents?' the disciples asked the Savior about the man born blind.  And the Lord answered: 'Neither him nor his parents - but this has happened so that the works of God might be seen in him."'

"You predestine me to endure that lot of the generations that rejected you, and were struck down with the plagues of Egypt and with darkness - to endure the fate of the generation that has lost you and so is lost itself.  You made me drink the bitter cup to the drops, the cup prepared by the fathers, so that I'd no longer want this poisoned drink, either for myself or for my son.

"Those who have seen you - did not want to see you.

"We (their children) were born blind - so that we might see.
"And so the works of God have been revealed in every generation.
"Having forgiven me and received me into your house, as you received the prodigal son, you baptized me with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

Unexplained blindness is no shame, choosing the darkness is. So coming to sight, "we are sealed in the same Spirit, who hovered over the waters when the earth was still formless and void, and you (Jesus Christ the Word) transformed chaos into cosmos.  This is how I was called - in the mystery of baptism, which is accessible to us all." +++
Many seek "Christ" and find only some poisonous substitution for him.  But those who truly seek him in the most elementary understanding of his Cross, coming to share in the testament and covenant of His Blood, find TRUTH, the person and a complete way of life, participating in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  After all, the earliest name given to those who followed the Cross of Christ (the Christians) was not "people of the book," a title that has NEVER applied to Christians, (a mis-concept of Muslims) but rather "the people of The Way." It is NOT paper and ink, but living experience of Jesus Christ, who promised he would be with us always and indeed IS.

The Way is with Christ and him crucified, our hope, our ultimate perception of Beauty, of Truth, of Justice, of Mercy, of Meaning, of Love, and ultimately "glorification" having WALKED with Him, baptized in his suffering and blood. 

Once Blind, Now Seeing!

http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/frederica/c._s._lewis_on_the_passion

The oldest hymn to the Theotokos?

The oldest hymn to Blessed Mary, the Mother of God, outside the New Testament.
"Beneath your compassion we take refuge, Theotokos! Our prayers, do not despise in necessities, but from danger deliver us, only pure, only blessed one."

So far, the earliest known prayer to the Virgin Mary is known as “Beneath thy compassion” (Greek: Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν). The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250 A.D.

In 1917, the John Rylands Library in Manchester acquired a large panel of Egyptian papyrus including the 18 cm by 9.4 cm fragment shown at left, containing the text of this prayer in Greek.

C.H. Roberts published this document in 1938. His colleague E. Lobel, with whom he collaborated in editing the Oxyrhynchus papyri, basing his arguments on paleographic analysis, argued that the text could not possibly be older than the third century, and most probably was written between 250 and 300. This hymn thus precedes the “Hail Mary“ in Christian prayer by several centuries.

On the papyrus:
.ΠΟ
ΕΥCΠΑ
ΚΑΤΑΦΕ
ΘΕΟΤΟΚΕΤ
ΙΚΕCΙΑCΜΗΠΑ
ΕΙΔΗCΕΜΠΕΡΙCTAC
AΛΛΕΚΚΙΝΔΥΝΟΥ
…ΡΥCΑΙΗΜΑC
MONH
…HEΥΛΟΓ

Full text:
Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν
εὐσπλαγχνίαν
καταφεύγομεν
Θεοτὸκε· τὰς ἡμῶν
ἱκεσίας μὴ παρ-
ίδῃς ἐν περιστάσει
ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ κινδύνου
λύτρωσαι ἡμᾶς
μόνη ἁγνὴ
μόνη εὐλογημένη.

In English:
Beneath your
compassion
we take refuge,
Theotokos! Our
prayers, do not despise
in necessities,
but from danger
deliver us,
only pure,
only blessed one.

Interestingly, the hymn calls Mary Theotokos (“she who gave birth to God”) two centuries before the Nestorian heresy arose. By the fourth century, the term was already popular in the area of Alexandria (St. Alexander of Alexandria, St. Athanasius, St. Serapion of Thmuis, Didymus the Blind), and also in Arabia (Titus of Bostra), in Palestine (Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Cyril of Jerusalem), Cappadocia (St. Basil of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen, Severian of Gabala.)

More information: “The Sub Tuum Praesidium” at the Catholic site New Liturgical Movement

The term Theotokos may be encountered during the previous century as well in the work of the Alexandrian school. According to the testimony of the ecclesiastical historian Socrates (Hist. Eccl. VII, 32 – PG 67, 812 B), Origen used it in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. This commentary is unfortunately now lost, but Origen’s disciple, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, also used the term Theotokos around the year 250 in an extant epistle to Paul of Samosata. It is interesting to note that the term did not remain a mere theological concept, but was actively and popularly used in public services of prayer.

Of course this hymn is familiar to Orthodox Christians, who still sing it at the end of nearly every Vespers (evening prayer) service during the fasting season of Lent. It is also found prominently in the liturgies of the Oriental churches and in Roman Catholic worship.  It can be heard in Greek at the three minute mark of the video below.

Two versions of the Hymn Still in Use - the first Roman Catholic the second Greek Orthodox Catholic

DO NOT SIGN THIS PETITION!

Ukrainians in America are trying to create another American War, under the disguise of the U.N. I wonder what they think they will be accomplishing? Are they so blind to the goals of the Marxist/NeoCon/Muslim Cabal that has control of the U.S., the E.U. and the U.N.? Do they really think that foisting the New World Order upon the Ukrainian people is a kindness?

The little Irish Church lady (not a nun but a Bible Scholar, I believe her name is Hogan) who teaches on EWTN said the other day in her very Irish brogue, talking about the Jewish disciples of Jesus wanting Jesus to rise up and conquer the Romans, "And so" she said, "if he had, all that would have accomplished is a change of government. And what has a change of any government really accomplished concerning the thing (singular) that really matters." Of course her reference to that THING was the CROSS OF CHRIST.

That statement set me back, since I have always been a keen observer of not just surface politics, but an examiner of the underlying and evil power structures that haunt the dark swamp of worldly power. My goal for 45 years has been the preservation of Real and True Constitutional Liberties in the U.S., which are now all vanished in this Emergency Powers Totalitarian Police State. This culture itself has been an attack on everything moral and Christian.

It took only seconds to reconcile with that TRUTH. Concerning THE THING THAT MATTERS, all the convolutions of worldly power are meaningless. Yes, oppressive regimes create great persecutions and create propaganda and cultural control (control of the dialectic) that creates great clouds of darkness, making the perception of The Cross nearly impossible, YET the "Christianism" in the U.S., in the 20th century, in the era of America's Greatness, in the ERA of Radical LIBERTY has created a stronger wall of thought (propaganda) blocking the view of the Cross as has Russia or Ukraine at this point in time. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's testimony "The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert" Published by Crown & Covenant tells of her indoctrination into radical feminism that happened in THIS culture, where at the time, nearly 90 percent of the population self-identified as Christian, even still 79 percent of the population self-identifies as "Christian." The book "Pilgramage to Dzhvari" written by Valeria Alfeyeva (Bell Tower) tells of an identical indoctrination in the old Soviet Union. If that isn't proof that the form of government is of little import, what could be? Identical indoctrination in supposedly totally different forms of government.

Here the petition:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/petition-prevent-war-between-russia-and-ukraine/d0qlScJ8

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's story:
http://americaschaplain.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-train-wreck-conversion-review.html

Here is the plea coming from Ukrainians in the west, hoping to create another AMERICAN war.
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we petition the obama administration to:
Petition to Prevent a War between Russia and Ukraine
In the interests of preventing a humanitarian crisis and insuring the right of self-determination of the Ukrainian people, we the undersigned request the following of the President of the United States:
1. That the United States Ambassador to the U.N. Security Council undertake the task of forming an international peacekeeping force composed of nations acceptable to all parties involved in the Ukrainian Crisis. This Peacekeeping force could be deployed to the Crimea and Ukraine' s eastern border in the interests of preventing any escalation of the crisis and insuring the peace and security of all who live in the region.
2. That the United States coordinate with its allies to impose economic sanctions on any and all parties who escalate the crisis in Ukraine to the point of war.
Created: Feb 28, 2014
Issues: Foreign Policy, Human Rights

My Train Wreck Conversion - Review.

My Train Wreck Conversion

As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield/ FEBRUARY 7, 2013

This is well worth the read. Of late I've met a few ex-lesbians and their husbands, who are living lives filled with Faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ.  This article demonstrates that the "cultural battle" is a battle for the HEARTS of sinners first, their minds cannot help but follow.  

Every presupposition of feminism is a LIE. Those who have the nerve to meet Truth in Jesus Christ, discover this.  This woman's story reminds me of the book, "Pilgramage to Dzhvari - A Woman's Journey of Spiritual Awakening" by Valeria Alfeyeva, which tells the story of an Atheist Communist Party member in the darkest days of Soviet Russia, sacrificing her privileged position when she discovered the Reality of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Valeria a very well educated KGB apparatchik, and author, (propagandists) steeped in the culture of Atheistic Communism, came to Christ and explained it this way, "The most intense time of my life had been spent among books.  This is where my religious awakening began.  The Hindus say that truth will find you when you are ready for it.  It won't delay a day or an hour - it will knock at your door.  And that was certainly the case with me."  

Rosaria's discovery of the Reality of the Cross of Christ, reminds me of Valeria's because the mind-controlled culture from which their very well educated and accomplished minds were rescued are in many ways identical and have the exact same evil philosophical root.  What is amazing is that Valeria Alfeyeva was raised in a culture where choice was removed, she was born with little choice but to be an Atheist Communist and Rosaria Champagne Butterfield was raised in a culture that touted "liberty."  Yet both "cultures" produced the same deadening wall of lies, making a journey to the Cross seem a miracle at best, and impossible at worst.  

The little Irish Church lady (not a nun but a Bible Scholar) who teaches on EWTN said the other day in her very Irish brogue, talking about the Jewish disciples of Jesus wanting him to rise up and conquer the Romans, "And so . . . if he had, all that would have accomplished is a change of government. And what has a change of any government really accomplished concerning the thing (singular) that really matters."  Of course her reference to that THING was the CROSS OF CHRIST.

That statement set me back, since I have always been a keen observer of not just surface politics, but an examiner of the underlying and evil power structures that haunt the dark swamp of worldly power.  It took only seconds to reconcile with that TRUTH.  Concerning THE THING THAT MATTERS, all the convolutions of worldly power are meaningless. Yes, oppressive regimes create great persecutions and create propaganda and cultural control (control of the dialectic) that creates great clouds of darkness, making the perception of The Cross nearly impossible, YET so did "Christianism" in the U.S., in the 20th century, in the era of America's Greatness, in the ERA of Radical LIBERTY!  Rosaria's indoctrination into radical feminism happened in THAT culture, where at the time, nearly 90 percent of the population self-identified as Christian, even still 79 percent of the population self-identifies as "Christian."  If that isn't proof that the form of government is of little import, what could be?

My wish for this woman is that she allows her faith to deepen and that she never take her eyes off the Cross, or get caught in any of the diversions which limit its healing power.     

My Train Wreck Conversion

As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield/ FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Mirror from Christianity Today:

The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it.

Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That's what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model.

As a professor of English and women's studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality. And I probably could have stomached Jesus and his band of warriors if it weren't for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian Right. Pat Robertson's quip from the 1992 Republican National Convention pushed me over the edge: "Feminism," he sneered, "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." Indeed. The surround sound of Christian dogma comingling with Republican politics demanded my attention.

After my tenure book was published, I used my post to advance the understandable allegiances of a leftist lesbian professor. My life was happy, meaningful, and full. My partner and I shared many vital interests: aids activism, children's health and literacy, Golden Retriever rescue, our Unitarian Universalist church, to name a few. Even if you believed the ghost stories promulgated by Robertson and his ilk, it was hard to argue that my partner and I were anything but good citizens and caregivers. The GLBT community values hospitality and applies it with skill, sacrifice, and integrity.

I began researching the Religious Right and their politics of hatred against queers like me. To do this, I would need to read the one book that had, in my estimation, gotten so many people off track: the Bible. While on the lookout for some Bible scholar to aid me in my research, I launched my first attack on the unholy trinity of Jesus, Republican politics, and patriarchy, in the form of an article in the local newspaper about Promise Keepers. It was 1997.

I was a broken mess. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world.

The article generated many rejoinders, so many that I kept a Xerox box on each side of my desk: one for hate mail, one for fan mail. But one letter I received defied my filing system. It was from the pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter. Ken Smith encouraged me to explore the kind of questions I admire: How did you arrive at your interpretations? How do you know you are right? Do you believe in God? Ken didn't argue with my article; rather, he asked me to defend the presuppositions that undergirded it. I didn't know how to respond to it, so I threw it away.

Later that night, I fished it out of the recycling bin and put it back on my desk, where it stared at me for a week, confronting me with the worldview divide that demanded a response. As a postmodern intellectual, I operated from a historical materialist worldview, but Christianity is a supernatural worldview. Ken's letter punctured the integrity of my research project without him knowing it.

Friends with the Enemy

With the letter, Ken initiated two years of bringing the church to me, a heathen. Oh, I had seen my share of Bible verses on placards at Gay Pride marches. That Christians who mocked me on Gay Pride Day were happy that I and everyone I loved were going to hell was clear as blue sky. That is not what Ken did. He did not mock. He engaged. So when his letter invited me to get together for dinner, I accepted. My motives at the time were straightforward: Surely this will be good for my research.

Something else happened. Ken and his wife, Floy, and I became friends. They entered my world. They met my friends. We did book exchanges. We talked openly about sexuality and politics. They did not act as if such conversations were polluting them. They did not treat me like a blank slate. When we ate together, Ken prayed in a way I had never heard before. His prayers were intimate. Vulnerable. He repented of his sin in front of me. He thanked God for all things. Ken's God was holy and firm, yet full of mercy. And because Ken and Floy did not invite me to church, I knew it was safe to be friends.

I started reading the Bible. I read the way a glutton devours. I read it many times that first year in multiple translations. At a dinner gathering my partner and I were hosting, my transgendered friend J cornered me in the kitchen. She put her large hand over mine. "This Bible reading is changing you, Rosaria," she warned.

With tremors, I whispered, "J, what if it is true? What if Jesus is a real and risen Lord? What if we are all in trouble?"

J exhaled deeply. "Rosaria," she said, "I was a Presbyterian minister for 15 years. I prayed that God would heal me, but he didn't. If you want, I will pray for you."

I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might. Then, one Sunday morning, I rose from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later sat in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. Conspicuous with my butch haircut, I reminded myself that I came to meet God, not fit in. The image that came in like waves, of me and everyone I loved suffering in hell, vomited into my consciousness and gripped me in its teeth.

I fought with everything I had.

I did not want this.

I did not ask for this.

I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side of the equal sign.

But God's promises rolled in like sets of waves into my world. One Lord's Day, Ken preached on John 7:17: "If anyone wills to do [God's] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine" (NKJV). This verse exposed the quicksand in which my feet were stuck. I was a thinker. I was paid to read books and write about them. I expected that in all areas of life, understanding came before obedience. And I wanted God to show me, on my terms, why homosexuality was a sin. I wanted to be the judge, not one being judged.

But the verse promised understanding after obedience. I wrestled with the question: Did I really want to understand homosexuality from God's point of view, or did I just want to argue with him? I prayed that night that God would give me the willingness to obey before I understood. I prayed long into the unfolding of day. When I looked in the mirror, I looked the same. But when I looked into my heart through the lens of the Bible, I wondered, Am I a lesbian, or has this all been a case of mistaken identity? If Jesus could split the world asunder, divide marrow from soul, could he make my true identity prevail? Who am I? Who will God have me to be?

Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there. The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed. And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me "wife" and many call me "mother."

I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life.

And my former life lurks in the edges of my heart, shiny and still like a knife.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is the author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert(Crown & Covenant). She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina, where her husband pastors the First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham.