Orthodixie

Yesterday, I was a “guest” on The Danny Fontana Show which originates in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Plugging One Flew Over the Onion Dome has granted me several interviews with radios and newspapers; though, granted, I’d never heard of The Danny Fontana Show and, most likely, won’t again. Though when he quickly ended the interview, just before a break, he thanked me and said we’d do it again sometime.

Danny, playing to his audience, wanted to know …

How “Orthodox” differs from “Conservative”

If “Orthodox” believe in the inerrancy of Scripture

and …

Do I (as an “Orthodox”) believe that we are saved by works

In the process of answering him, I explained what the term Orthodox meant within a Church context … the Great Schism … Synergy & Theosis … Etc.

By now you, wise and patient reader, have figured out that I was wasting my time. No doubt. But it is one of the flaws of Orthodoxy, if you will, that our Faith cannot be explained in little sound bites.

The whole purpose, apparently, of the interview was to get me to admit that “works saves.” As Danny Fontana, the Big Banana, kept steering me in that direction, I stated:

You can’t have Fatih without Works. True Faith is always expressed in good works. You can’t have one without the other.

Danny: So, you would agree that you can be saved by works?

FrJ: No, works alone won’t save you.

Danny: But you believe that works are necessary for salvation?

FrJ: I believe that you can’t have one without the other. God is Love and love creates. Love always creates — love gushes forth in works and, as with True Faith, you can’t have one without the other.

Danny: Thank you! I’ve been trying to find the difference in what you believe and what I believe — And I think I just did!

* * Stinger! * *

And that was the end.

Oh! As I mentioned, he also asked if I believed in the inerrancy of Scripture. I stated that we believe in the inerrancy of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit guides the Church, the Church gave us the Scriptures … etc.

Danny: So you don’t believe in the inerrancy of Scripture?

Somewhere in there I told him that you would not find a church that uses more Scripture in its worship … and that the Orthodox use the whole Canon of Scripture, unedited by the Reformation.

None of this mattered as we raced toward the break.

Perhaps the strangest part of the interview was Danny Fontana’s question about the Enlightenment. He said something like, “Doesn’t it bother you that your church missed out on the Enlightenment?”

FrJ: What do you mean?

Danny: Well … you said that your church started in 1054 …

FrJ: No. I said the Roman Patriarchate and the other patriarchates split in 1054 …

Danny: Whatever … either way, there’s 800 years or so where you guys missed the whole Renaissance. Don’t you think that’s a problem?

FrJ: “Some would say it was a Godsend!”

Honestly, other than the time constraints of commercial radio, I believe this was a biggie for the Big Banana, Danny Fontana. The Orthodox missed out on the Enlightenment.

Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) – The Enlightenment was a philosophical movement which took place in the eighteenth century, representing a culmination of the humanistic spirit of the Renaissance (ca. 1350-1600) and the results of the scientific revolution which had begun with the work of Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, and Newton. Essentially, for many thinkers, the Enlightenment represented a radical break from the medieval period (i.e. the Dark Ages) and ushered in a new age of reason. From the perspective of religion (especially Christianity), the Enlightenment accelerated the secularization of Western culture, liberating society from the firm authority of the Church and biblical concepts. Thus, reason became ascendant over the authority of revelation, and mankind was now moving away from Christian theism toward a new era of humanism.
Source

Did I miss something?

Any circumstance in which a man finds himself unwillingly is a prison for him. So be content with whatever circumstances you may now be in, lest by being ungrateful you punish yourself unwittingly.

— St Anthony the Great

Stolen from The Daily Lives, Miracles and Wisdom of the Saints and Fasting Calendar – 2007 (January 17th).

If you google temptation st anthony, you’ll find lots of things (viewer beware).

Like this.

And the famous one from Dali.

There’s this one (which resembles the proto-type from many sci-fi films, think Men in Black).

And its variation which I like to think of as “I don’t think so, Bro” (referring to the artist).

But, given the struggles of St Anthony, I believe his holy prayers — and our imitation of his virtues –are needed now more than ever.

The Enemy of the race of man troubled the young ascetic with thoughts of his former life, doubts about his chosen path, concern for his sister, and he tempted Anthony with lewd thoughts and carnal feelings. But the saint extinguished that fire by meditating on Christ and by thinking of eternal punishment, thereby overcoming the devil.
Source

According to Athanasius, the devil fought St Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a theme for Christian art.
Source

O Father Anthony, you imitated the zealous Elijah. You followed the straight paths of the Baptist and became a desert dweller. By prayer you confirmed the universe. Wherefore, intercede with Christ our God to save our souls. (Apolytikion)

There’s often talk of a Patron Saint of the Internet. Who better than St Anthony?

Some quotes from Wikiquote …

A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, “You are mad; you are not like us.”

Our life and our death are with our neighbour. If we gain our brother we have gained God; but if we scandalise our brother, we have sinned against Christ.

I no longer fear God, I love him.

I saw all the snares that the enemy spreads over the whole world and I said, groaning, “What can get through such snares?” Then I heard a voice saying to me, “Humility.”

The above image is taken from here … which notes: “St Anthony … was greatly tormented by hallucinations, in the form of demons and erotic visions, which he resisted with prayer.”

Fr Michael Dahulich, Dean of St Tikhon’s Seminary, preached at St George on Sunday. Though the sermon was a good exhortation — encouraging us toward repentance — I believe many in attendance may only have heard the first few sentences.

Why’s that?

Because somewhere in there he mentioned the “L” Word.

After which their mind went into OMG-M (Oh-my-gosh mode).

LENT is coming.

That’s right …

Next is Zacchaeus Sunday
(I believe the garbled word is, ironically, “focus.”)

Followed by the Four Preparatory Weeks leading up to LENT …

Publican & Pharisee

Followed by Prodigal Son

and Meatfare (aka Sunday of the Last Judgment).

February 18th is Cheesefare / Forgiveness Sunday …

Followed by Clean Monday and the beginning of the Great Fast.

Fr Michael touched on those days in his exhortation. But, as I said, many may have been cross-eyed and dizzy, struggling with that ecclesiastical Ear Worm: “Lent is coming. OMG. Lent is coming. Fasting … OMG …”

So, for those in attendance (last Sunday, and here on the blog), let us, like Zacchaeus, climb above the clutter and cares of this world to see the Lord moving among us. With clarity, we’ll probably notice that, like Lent, He’s closer than we thought.

Image taken from here.

“I’m under no illusion that America is going to embrace Orthodoxy within a generation,” Huneycutt says. “Kissing relics, kissing bones of dead people. Baptists don’t normally do that.”

Source

That’s one of my favorite (forgive me) personal quotes in this story.

Until the non-Orthodox father of a blog reader sent notification to his son — who FWD’ed me — I didn’t know the article had run in Thursday’s USA Today.

For whatever reason, USA Today cut out that quote. Okay you GR readers: Why?

If this is your first visit here: Thanks!

If interested, go H E R E for a truncated version of Church History.

While you’re at it, read the blurbs, buy the book.

God bless you!

Oh, and …

pray for me.

🙂

That which is required of every Orthodox [Christian] is to pass on the good uneasiness to the heterodox, in order that they may understand that they are in delusion, so as not to falsely be at peace with their thoughts and be deprived in this life of the rich blessings of Orthodoxy and in the next life the much greater and eternal blessings of God.

— Elder Paisios the Athonite

[The World Council of Churches] has never ceased to be driven by the Evangelical Protestant dream of a united and worldwide mission irrespective of dogmatic peculiarities and sensitivities – something which perhaps is understandable for the Protestants, with the minor dogmatic differences which usually exist between them, but not for the Orthodox. For the Orthodox the very basis for involvement – recognizing a unity in Christ and the Church with the heterodox – nullifies the very reason for involvement, namely, to instill in the heterodox “a good uneasiness” and sense of separation from the Church. That which makes their dream even more dangerous, however, is that today the World Council of Churches advertises its failing as an advantage and begins to honor and “celebrate” the “distinctiveness” and “differences” of its members instead of being aggrieved over them and attempt to overcome them …
Emphasis mine, FrJ+

If we add to all of this the pre‐existing estrangement of many members of the WCC from the authentic faith and ethos of the Gospel, as well as its increasingly visible approach to and reconciliation with the religions of the world, glimmers of the nightmare of the Apocalypse are cast upon the globalized mission dream of Ecumenism, a worldwide mission without Christ, ready to accept and preach the Antichrist.

The one and only way out of the dead end of this ecumenistic ecclesiology and mission – which has done more to split the Orthodox Church than unite Her – is the path of Orthodox mission.

If Protestant mission led us into ecumenism, Orthodox mission will lead us out: tried and tested apostolic and patristic mission, true, uncompromising, ascetic, otherworldly, and sacrificial, which aims at heavenly, not temporal, ends. Mission in the spirit and tradition of Apostles Peter and Paul, Ss. Cyril and Methodios, St. Stephen of Perm, St. Kosmas Aitolos, St. Innocent of Alaska, and, in our own times, Blessed Father Cosmas of Grigoriou and Zaire and the ever‐memorable Bishop Nectarios of Madagascar.

To such Orthodox witness there can be no objection on the part of anyone. Such an Orthodox witness can unite all Orthodox in the realization of an authentic catholic vision of mission, where we all, according to the words of the Apostle Peter, will be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15). With such a spiritual and authentically ecclesiastical Mission we will be able to call all – heterodox and all religious believers – into the unique Ark of salvation, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which is in truth the very Body of the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

— Taken from an unpublished talk, The Missionary Origins of Modern Ecumenism Milestones leading up to 1920, by Fr. Peter Alban Heers; An address prepared for the Academic Conference The Mission of the Orthodox Church and The World Council of Churches – Athens, May 15, 2005.

Image taken from here.