Orthodixie

Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain gave as good a summary as any. When he was once asked where the soul goes when it leaves the body, he answered: “Well, when the watch stops working, it goes to the hands of the watchmaker. In the same way, our soul goes into the hands of God.”

He also said this: “When I see Christians cry because their fathers passed away, I am upset, for they neither believe nor understand that death is simply a journey to life of another kind.”

More.

“I emphatically declare that today’s world, more than ever before, longs for just and righteous people with love for all humanity; and above all longs for the perfect righteous human being and the real savior who has been promised to all peoples and who will establish justice, peace and brotherhood on the planet.

“O, Almighty God, all men and women are your creatures and you have ordained their guidance and salvation. Bestow upon humanity that thirsts for justice, the perfect human being promised to all by you, and make us among his followers and among those who strive for his return and his cause.”

— The final act, a prayer, of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s dramatic address at the United Nations (for which he received an uproar of … applause).

Talk about it.

Manners first developed in Florence during the Renaissance as a method of setting a person apart as a gentleman, and the fashion was later adopted in Britain. It was manners, according to Dr Colin Gill, a chartered psychologist, that allowed society to slowly begin to move away from behaving, on pure instinct, violently.

He said: “We value manners, not only because they promote good behaviour, but, most importantly, they curb bad behaviour. They are the oil that smoothes our path. People feel that society is more hostile and so may act in a more hostile manner. When someone asks a group to stop making such a noise, he gets stabbed or beaten.”

If you please, go here.

The Vatican in recent years has tried to clear away some historical baggage, including a 2001 apology by Pope John Paul II for the medieval Crusades, which are widely seen by Muslims and Orthodox Christians as Western invasions. During a visit the same year to Syria, John Paul also became the first pope to visit a mosque.

Benedict’s speech found a sympathetic ear among many in the West. A German theologian, the Rev. Martin Schuck, said any backtrack by the pope would amount to “intellectual surrender” to radical Islam. But a professor of Islamic law at Qatar University, Muhammad Ayash al-Kubaisi, proposed another route: A debate with the pope on the history their faiths. His offer, posted last week on the Web site of the Al-Jazeera television network, contends Christians should study their own turbulent past.

Crusaders in 1099 captured Jerusalem and began wholesale attacks on its population, including Muslims and Jews, historians say. At the same time in other parts of the Muslim world, a golden age had its intellectual hub in Baghdad.

In the early 13th century, Crusaders sacked Constantinople, the ancient center of Greek-led Byzantium, in part to use the plunder to fund more forays into Muslim lands. The Byzantine Empire never fully recovered from the blow.

Story.

Pic source.

Moscow, September 26, Interfax – Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov), former first hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, died at a hospital in Mansonville, Canada, on Monday evening, at the age of 97.

Metropolitan Vitaly’s condition deteriorated sharply last week, sources in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia told Interfax.

The late metropolitan was the primate of the ROCOR for many years. He was known as an implacable critic of the Moscow Patriarchate for its obedience to the Soviet authorities, ecumenism, etc. It was under him that the ROCOR began opening its parishes in Russia – the policy that the Church Outside of Russia itself was to admit erroneous.

During his last years Metropolitan Vitaly led his Church only nominally due to his old age. In 2001, the ROCOR Council sent him into retirement, but later he declared the Council invalid and was made head of one of the Church’s small parts, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia [V], which continued to recognize him and was to split into three irreconcilable church groups, who pulled out from the ROCOR.

Source.

The late Mike Royko, longtime columnist for the Chicago Tribune, once told of a practical joke that was played on a man in Madison, Wisconsin. This man and three friends were enjoying a fishing trip at a secluded lake. They fished all day. Every night they went to bed at about 10:00 and got up before dawn for more fishing.

One of them, who we’ll call Joe, was the first to his bunk one night. He was exhausted, and was snoring within a few minutes.

Then one of his friends had an idea. He got Joe’s wristwatch off the dresser and changed the time to 4:45. Then they all got together and changed their own watches, including the alarm clock, to 4:45. The alarm was set to go off at five o’clock, or just fifteen minutes later. Then the conspirators turned off all the lights, took off their clothes, and went to bed.

Fifteen minutes later when the alarm clock went off, they all got up, shuffled around, and made the grumbly, miserable sounds that people usually make early in the morning. One of them put toast and coffee on. The only truly miserable one, of course, was Joe. He sat on the edge of his bed, shaking his head and moaning. He kept looking at his watch and complaining that he felt like he hadn’t gotten any sleep.

“I must be getting old,” he said as they dropped anchor and began fishing. Every few minutes, he’d glance at his watch and look at the eastern horizon and say: “What time have you got?” “Five-forty,” somebody would say.

“Boy, it’s dark,” Joe would say. And a little later: “What time have you got? “Six,” someone would answer.

Then Joe began to get concerned. “Shouldn’t it be getting light soon?” By the time his watch said 6:40, he had stopped fishing. He just sat there staring into the darkness. Finally, his voice cracking in genuine terror, he cried: “I’m telling you, something is wrong! It’s not getting light today! It’s not getting light!”

“It’s the end of the world,” his buddies hooted. “Doesn’t matter,” one of them said, “because the fish aren’t biting anyway.” That’s when Joe caught on. And he took it rather well, although they did have to wrestle an oar out of his hands.

Lacking the original article, many thanks to Ron Newhouse at Daily Devotions for preserving this tale.

In a way, you can hear this same sort of exasperation in Simon Peter’s voice from today’s Gospel reading (Luke 5:1-11) :

[Jesus] was standing by the lake of Gennes’aret. And he saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

Peter and the others had been fishing all night and caught nothing. Now, having listened for a good while to the Lord preach, they were being asked to once again go fishing.

You’ll have some of this. That is:

There are times when we feel that we have done all that we can do — we can’t do anymore! And, as it happens, this is often the time that the Lord asks the most of us.

And … as anyone who has ever done it can attest, this is where the blessing — the increase — comes in. Simon Peter basically said, “As you will, Lord.” And that made all the difference.

And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zeb’edee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

God certainly doesn’t play practical jokes on us. But, there are times when we cry: “Something’s wrong! There’s no light! There should be light!” When, in reality, it is our perception of things that is askew.

God is not on our time. And this is ever evident when we, though wishing to balk, submit our wills to His. In so doing, in laboring on for the Kingdom, we receive the blessing of obedient servants to His holy will. (Though, most often, not within our own desired time.)

The boat represents the Church and the net is filled, to the breaking point — to the point that the boat is sinking — with men (male and female) of all stripes, good and bad. Our job is not to separate the bad from the “keepers” — but to be “fishers of men” for the Kingdom of God. In obedience, we labour; in His providence, God, the righteous judge, provides the increase.

Yet, we are not appointed to do this alone. Our Lord, truly God and truly Man, chose the 12, the 70, and the many women disciples. He was visited in the Garden of Gethsemene and comforted by an Angel. Aided by Simon of Cyrene, He did not bear His Cross alone.

No, our Lord does not appoint us to this work individually, but collectively. He gives us family, friends, co-workers — in the Church. (Notice, in today’s Gospel passage, they even had to enlist the help of another boat of helpers to assist the catch.)

Let us, fishers of men, labour together for the increase of the Kingdom. When, at times, there seems to be something wrong — no light; when we have laboured all night and caught nothing — Let us be mindful of the Good God Who provides the increase to those who love Him, answering His call to do His holy will.

“Whatever you do, on no account condemn anyone; do not even try to judge whether a person is good or bad, but keep your eyes on that one evil person for whom you must give an account before God – yourself.”

– St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, THE ARENA

Thanks to FWD from Fr Josiah Trenham.

Osama bin Laden is dead.

Zorastrians are dying, too.

Thanks to Muhammed, many lost their heads.

Here’s an example of a head poorly used.