The Zenzoid Files

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This video explains…

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God is nearer to us than any man at every time. He is nearer to me than my raiment, nearer than the air or light, nearer than my wife, father, mother, daughter, son or friend. I live in Him, soul and body. I breathe in Him, think in Him, feel, consider, intend, speak, undertake, work in Him. For in Him we live, and move, and have our being’ (Acts 17:28).

St. John of Kronstadt
“My Life in Christ”

True wisdom is gazing at God. Gazing at God is silence of the thoughts. Stillness of mind is tranquillity which comes from discernment.

St. Isaac the Syrian

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If you are undertaking anything, before asking any other adviser, ask the advice of faith. Appeal in the words of the Apostle: Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? (Acts 9:6). Is what I would undertake pleasing to Thee, Lord? If it is pleasing, bless it; if not, do not let me do what is displeasing to Thee. And then listen to what the Lord tells you in your conscience, in your reason, in the counsels of pious and wise people and, having begun the course that you select, pray in your heart, O Lord, make haste to help me (Ps. 69:1).

Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow (1868)

Trust in prayer consists in uttering the petitions, thanksgivings, and praise with faith in the presence of God, and of His hearing them; and with fear of God, not doubting, nor being in the least uneasy as to their acceptance and fulfillment, but in absolute assurance that God has heard them and accepted them upon His heavenly Altar; and that, in accordance with the desire of our Mother the Church (if we pray in the name of the Church), as well as of our own heart, He will give us, as the all-good Almighty and most wise, all that we ask, and more abundantly than we ask or mean. But the heart that has a partiality for food and drink, that is greedy for these, and is weakened by them, has not much trust; neither the heart in which hatred and animosity are concealed, nor that is bound by avarice, covetousness, and envy, until it puts away its infirmities and amends itself.

St. John of Kronstadt
“My Life in Christ”

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Some of you may think I’m some kind of a freak for mountains. I’m not sure what gave you that idea but, OK, I won’t deny it. And I’m sure I won’t disappoint you in this post, either.

I was hiking in the Presidential Range a few months ago when all of sudden I realized how absurd it is to name these majestic and glorious mountains after something as trivial and venal as Ameedican politicians. Most of the Presidents after whom the summits of the Presidential Range were named had never even stepped foot in those mountains, much less had any kind of personal connection to them. Besides, God made the mountains; they weren’t constructed by a bloated pork-barrel project originating in the Federal District of Criminals. If mountains are going to be named after people, they should be people who know Him who made the mountains. So, I’ve re-named each summit after a saint in the Orthodox Church. The new name is chosen based on the saint(s) commemorated on the day of the re-naming hike.

My fellow mountain freaks (and you know who you are), I give you The Saints Range:

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I’ve listened to just about every audio bible out there: Scourby, Johnston, Zorsky, Peck, McLean, and several others I can’t even recall. Some were unlistenable from the start. Others would start off fine and then, after a while, I realized that it was EATING MY BRAIN! I was about to give up on listening to audio bibles altogether when I stumbled on The Man in Black reading the New Testament. From the first moment I started listening, I knew I had finally found The One.

Johnny Cash reads the NT in a manner that engages you and draws you in. He sounds like he’s talking *with* you, not *at* you; like he’s talking with a close friend and not up on stage talking to strangers. I’ve only had this audio bible for a few weeks but I’ve already listed to it for dozens of hours (I hike a lot and listen to it while hiking).

The translation used is the NKJV, which is a good and faithful translation but lacks the “clang and flavour” of the KJV. Reading the NKJV is like drinking decaffeinated coffee– same basic brew but lacks the punch and kick of the fully-caffeinated KJV. Nevertheless, this audio bible is an outstanding production.

For Psalms, Alex Jennings’ rendition of the KJV Book of Psalms is unrivaled. They could have left out the cheesy interlude music or used Byzantine chant instead. And, ideally, the Psalms would be chanted and not read, but overall it’s still nice in the ears and conducive to prayer.

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The Spirit of Grace lives in Christians from the time of Baptism and Chrismation. And to participate in the Sacraments of Repentance and Communion - is not this to receive the most abundant floods of grace? To those who already have the Spirit, it obviously is appropriate to say: “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians, 5:19). But how can one say to such people: “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians, 5:18)? Indeed the Grace of the Holy Spirit is given to all Christians, because such is the power of the Christian Faith. But, the Holy Spirit, living in Christians, does not affect their salvation by Himself, but works together with the free actions of each individual. In this sense, the Christian can offend or extinguish the Spirit - or else he may contribute to the perceptible manifestation of the Spirit’s action within him. When this happens, the Christian feels himself to be in an extraordinary state, which expresses itself in deep, sweet, and quiet joy… Therefore, the commandment to be “filled with the Spirit” simply is an injunction to behave and act in such a manner as to co-operate with or allow free scope to the Holy Spirit, to make it possible for the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself by perceptibly touching the heart.

St. Theophan the Recluse
“The Art of Prayer”

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Nothing can so make a man an imitator of Christ as caring for his neighbors. Indeed, even though you fast, or sleep on hard ground, or even suffer unto death, but should you take no thought for your neighbor, you have done nothing great; despite what you have done, you still stand far from this model of a perfect Christian.

St. John Chrysostom

If a man cannot be a Christian where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.

Henry Ward Beecher

All Truth is God’s Truth.

Anonymous

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by Colin Mason

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” This line, spoken by Mexican actor Eduardo Verstegui, opens the movie Bella, one of the most phenomenal films I have ever had the privilege to experience. The film is touring colleges right now to work up interest in its theatrical run, and I was able to screen it with about 200 students from Christendom College. The experience was deeply rewarding to me, not only as a long-time film buff, but as a pro-life Catholic as well.

Back in August 2006, I was attended a private screening the film’s rough cut, and even then was floored by its grace, beauty, and simple depth. Apparently the audiences at the Toronto Film Festival were, too.

In September 2006, that same unfinished cut moved audiences of every political and religious persuasion, and went on to win Toronto’s coveted People’s Choice Award. To give an example of what an accomplishment this is, two of the many other films premiering at this festival were Babel and The Last King of Scotland, both of which were highly acclaimed works that went on to win Oscars. Thus, to see the film’s vastly improved final cut at Christendom College was an experience to remember.

Bella tells the story of a young single waitress in New York City who becomes pregnant, loses her job, and struggles with the decision of whether or not to keep her child. In the meantime, she encounters a mysteriously compassionate Latino chef, who has suffered a tragedy in his past, and is perhaps the only person in her life who really cares about her. During the course of the film, a decision is reached that will change both of their lives.

Bella is not only an artistic triumph, but a moral and spiritual one as well. Metanoia films, the small production company responsible for the movie, states its mission as “to use film to make a positive difference in the culture and in peoples’ lives.” The film contains none of the titillative sensuality or violence of many of its cinematic counterparts. There is no blasphemy. It depicts the family: intact, loving, and responsible, and contrasts it with the empty loneliness of individualism and promiscuity. And it depicts abortion for the frightening, devastating, futile choice that it actually is.

How did a film like this do so well in Toronto? How did a crowd of some of the world’s most left-leaning elitists vote it the winner of the People’s Choice Award?

It would be an insult to the artistic integrity of Bella to call it a film with an agenda. The movie refuses to put forward any of the tiresome socio-political mores that plague so many “serious” films today. Simply put, there is nothing to argue with in Bella. Without pontificating or moralizing, the movie is artistically direct, viscerally powerful, and steadfastly pro-life. There is no pretentious posturing, no hyper-aware political overtones. It’s just simple, and powerful, stirring basic emotions that are fundamental to the human experience. So fundamental, in fact, that audiences of all political persuasions have fallen for the film.

In the words of producer Leo Severino: “You can’t argue with life.” At the end of the day, there is no argument to be made against the image of the child, the idea of the tiny human being growing within a mother’s body. Life is universal, no matter how many people try to reduce it to a science or a math formula. The film capitalizes on that fact, and gracefully but directly pulls us toward the inevitable truth.

But Bella needs help. American theater companies have only agreed to carry the film in a limited distribution, and only as far east as the Midwest. If they can raise enough interest in other places, interest to the point where seats in theaters are sold out, Bella can reach a much wider distribution. Similar to The Passion of The Christ before it, whether or not the film will go to more theaters will all depend upon how well it does, and how much interest there is.

Call Metanoia films. E-mail them. Let them know how important this film is to you. Organize church groups and youth groups, and get families to go see the film and promote it to their friends. Interest and excitement about this movie is key. If the response is mediocre, theaters will drop Bella quickly, before it has really had the chance to shine. It is up to us not to let that happen.

Metanoia films can be reached by phone at (310) 500-5097, or email at contact@metanoiafilms.com
Colin Mason is the Media Director at PRI.

PRI
P.O. Box 1559
Front Royal, VA 22630
USA

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If the saints, who had attained passionlessness, had to be vigilant over themselves so as not to fall from their state of grace - then all the more is daily attentiveness and concern over our eternal salvation necessary for us sinners.

Elder Joseph of Optina
“Letters”

There may be those on earth who dress better or eat better, but those who enjoy the peace of God sleep better.

L. Thomas Holdcroft

Those who trust in their riches will wither,
but the righteous will flourish like green leaves.

Proverbs 11:28

A doubting heart makes the soul timid; whereas faith can make the will firm.

St. Isaac the Syrian

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A heart that is continually moved to thanksgiving is a guide that leads the gifts of God to a man. A murmuring disposition always active in the heart is a guide that leads trials to the soul.

St. Isaac the Syrian
“Ascetical Homilies” (Homily 48)

I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not even what I hope to be. But by God’s grace and Christ’s love I am not what I was.

Anonymous

I know myself now; and I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities; a still and quiet conscience.

Shakespeare

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How else could they pray?

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The husband must bear in mind that his deeds and words should engender piety in his home. The wife must look after the house. However, in addition to that occupation, she must also attend to another, more pressing concern - that the whole family strive [to attain] the Heavenly Kingdom.

St. John Chrysostom

A palace without affection is a poor hovel, and the meanest hut with love in it is a palace for the soul.

Ingersoll

It is a good thing to be rich, and a good thing to be strong, but it is a better thing to be beloved of many friends.

Euripides

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The pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again. The local paper read…

PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race. The next day, the local paper headline read:

BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR’S ASS This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:

NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN The Bishop fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10. The next day the paper read:

NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10 This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild. The next day the headlines read:

NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE Alas, the Bishop was buried the next day.

MORAL OF THE STORY? Being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery and even shorten your life. So, be yourself and enjoy life, stop worrying about everyone else’s ass and you’ll live longer and be a lot happier!

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If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk of the Catholic Church, in the year 1517.

If you belong to the Church of England, your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534 because the Pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to re-marry.

If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded by John Knox in Scotland in the year 1560.

If you are a Congregationalist, your religion was originated by Robert Brown in Holland in 1582.

If you are Protestant Episcopalian, your religion was an offshoot of the Church of England, founded by Samuel Senbury in the American colonies in the 17th century.

If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam in 1606.

If you are of the Dutch Reformed Church, you recognize Mic helis Jones as founder because he originated your religion in New York in 1628.

If you are a Methodist, your religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1774.

If you are a Mormon (Latter Day Saints), Joseph Smith started your religion in Palmyra, New York, in 1829.

If you worship with the Salvation Army, your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865.

If you are Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year in which your religion was born and to Mary Baker Eddy as its founder.

If you belong to one of the religious organizations known as “Church of the Nazarene, Pentecostal Gospel,” “Holiness Church,” or “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” your religion is one of the hundreds of new sects founded by men within the past hundred years.

If you are Roman Catholic, your church shared the same rich apostolic and doctrinal heritage as the Orthodox Church for the first thousand years of its history, since during the first millennium they were one and the same Church. Lamentably, in 1054, the Pope of Rome broke away from the other four Apostolic Patriarchates (which include Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), by tampering with the Original Creed of the Church, and considering himself to be infallible. Thus your church is 1,000 years old.

If you are Orthodox Christian, your religion was founded in the year 33 by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It has not changed since that time. Our church is now 2,000 years old. And it is for this reason, that Orthodoxy, the Church of the Apostles and the Fathers is considered the true “one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.”

This is the greatest legacy that we can pass on to the young people of the new millennium.

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This is food; thank you for posting it. This paragraph in particular resonated with me:

There is a relatedness and a deep relationship between us and God in the very act of creation, and in the very gift of freedom. Freedom is an absolute condition of love, because love is the gift of one’s self in perfect freedom, and has no meaning apart from freedom. But there is more to it — the English word ‘freedom’ is rooted in the Old English word that means ‘beloved’; ‘my free’ meant ‘my beloved’. The word Liberty which signifies freedom in other languages defines the status of the child born free in a freeman’s household. The Russian word for freedom indicates that we are called to be our own selves, not to imitate, not to ape, not to resemble, but to be ourselves in the image of the One who is perfect freedom and perfect love-truly himself. In all this the relatedness there exists between us and God is revealed particularly in this final act of solidarity which we call the Incarnation. Not only did God remain concerned with us throughout history, but he became one of us through history, and this not for a moment, but forever; not escaping the heaviness, the limitations and the pain of our human destiny, but in order to carry on his human shoulders the consequences of his divine act of creation and of our human rebellion, our rejection of him, lovelessness, godlessness itself. The Incarnation of the Word of God, the becoming man, meant for him that he entered into the realm of time and of death and of limitation and of all the consequences of human godlessness. This solidarity was not for a moment, it was definitive. He became a man, in human history, and he remains a man for ever because ‘He sitteth on the right hand of the Father’ as a man with hands and feet pierced by the nails, and with his side pierced by the spear. Throughout history and throughout eternity we can see this vision of divine solidarity with us.

Freedom and liberty are issues that have always preoccupied me. My heretofore saints on these topics were the original founders of the American experiment, which ended in abysmal failure at the commencement of the War to Prevent Southern Independence. But Metropolitan Anthony’s essay and some of the other things I’ve been reading during this Lent have made me realize that the “freedom” the American revolutionaries droned on about was just a shadow of the real freedom that Christ came to give us: a freedom that transcends temporal concerns like property and money, and how the government forcibly extracts our property from us for various feel-good and imperial programs.

Personally, I hate, and I mean HATE that we live in a world where we have to expend so much of our creative energy trying to make a buck so we can support our families. I hate that we even have or need money. I understand that money is just a way of metering out finite resources. But, still, it stinks because it creates a strong distraction for us. On the one hand, we’ll be strongly distracted to make as much money as we can to avoid poverty, even to the point of greed. Or, on the other hand, we’ll be distracted to venally envy other’s accumulation of money and property and want to use the force and coercion of temporal government under the banner of “social justice” to extract it from them.

And what is justice, Phaedrus, and what is not? Need we anyone tell us these things? Yes we do! And God Himself has told us these things. Real justice is being reunited with the person of God in Jesus Christ. It is a real relationship with the Living God. It transcends mere intellectualism, rationalism, ecofeminism, gayism, communism, socialism, fascism and all sorts of other boneheadisms. Such a sublime relationship with the Creator of all things visible and invisible, who humbled Himself to become one of us, to be born of a woman, to eat, sleep, and die like one of us… well, it just blows your mind. I mean, why would He do it? Only one reason: He’s crazy in love with us. And I can’t even pretend to understand why.

Anyway: freedom. Christ tells us that if anyone asks of your cloak, give him your underwear, too… er, well, I forget the exact quote but it’s something kinda like that. Well, imagine a world where *everyone* lived like that. There’d be no such thing as property and, here’s the cool part, *there’d be no need for it!*

Wouldn’t be wild if we lived in a world where we didn’t need property or money in order to live? It’d be a world where everyone looked out for everyone else’s well-being. Even if the other person is a weenie, you’re somehow able to look beyond that and you still actively seek their good. Anyway, try imagining it yourself, it’s a neat thought-experiment.

We’ve seen lip-service given to the idea of altruistic societies by various hare-brained political theories of the 19th and 20th Centuries: communism, socialism, fascism and all the other *-isms, all of which fail in precisely the same exact way: they all try to do it without God. And so you’re left with a collectivist system, namely government, based on coercion, not on the presence of Christ. And basing it on love simply isn’t enough. Lots of free-love communes in the 60’s ended in petty jealousy. Why is that we even want to separate the love from He who creates love? But this is exactly what we do when we make governments imbued with the powers of compulsion and death. You could say that government, by its very nature, is an anti-christ because it is based on force and coercion, confusion and beguilement– all the tools of Satan, not of Christ.

So, freedom, *real* freedom, is not something that we find in this world without God. But if each of us had a relationship with the Living God, we would manifest His presence to each other. What kind of a world would that be?

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Hey, we sing this one in Church! Except in English. You can listen to the Greek version in the video. And you can read more about St. Nectarios here.

=================

O Virgin Pure
by St. Nectarios
Plagal First Tone (Tone 5)

Refrain: O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

O Virgin pure, immaculate/ O Lady Theotokos
O Virgin Mother, Queen of all/ and fleece which is all dewy
More radiant than the rays of sun/ and higher than the heavens
Delight of virgin choruses/ superior to Angels.
Much brighter than the firmament/ and pure than the sun’s light
More holy than the multitude/ of all the heav’nly armies.
O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

O Ever Virgin Mary/ of all the world, the Lady
O bride all pure, immaculate/ O Lady Panagia
O Mary bride and queen of all/ our cause of jubilation
Majestic maiden, Queen of all/ O our most holy Mother
More hon’rable than Cherubim/ beyond compare more glorious
than immaterial Seraphim/ and greater than angelic thrones.

O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

Rejoice, O song of Cherubim/ Rejoice, O hymn of angels
Rejoice, O ode of Seraphim/ the joy of the archangels
Rejoice, O peace and happiness/ the harbor of salvation
O sacred chamber of the Word/ flower of incorruption
Rejoice, delightful paradise/ of blessed life eternal
Rejoice, O wood and tree of life/ the fount of immortality

O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

I supplicate you, Lady/ now do I call upon you
And I beseech you, Queen of all/ I beg of you your favor
Majestic maiden, spotless one/ O Lady Panagia
I call upon you fervently/ O sacred, hallowed temple
Assist me and deliver me/ protect me from the enemy
And make me an inheritor/ of blessed life eternal.

O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

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Forget McCain, This Is Straight Talk: “

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) before the House of Representatives, Feb. 6:

Don’t Do It, Mr. President

It’s a bad idea.
There’s no need for it.
There’s great danger in doing it.
America is against it, and Congress should be.
The United Nations is against it.
The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis are against it.
The whole world is against it.
Our allies are against it.
Our enemies are against it.
The Arabs are against it.
The Europeans are against it.
The Muslims are against it.
We don’t need to do this.
The threat is overblown.
The plan is an hysterical reaction to a problem that does not yet exist.
Hysteria is never a good basis for foreign policy.
Don’t we ever learn?
Have we already forgotten Iraq?
The plan defies common sense.
If it’s carried out, the Middle East, and possibly the world, will explode.
Oil will soar to over $100 a barrel, and gasoline will be over $5 a gallon.
Despite what some think, it won’t serve the interests of Israel.
Besides — it’s illegal.
It’s unconstitutional.
And you have no moral authority to do it.
We don’t need it.
We don’t want it.
So, Mr. President, don’t do it.
Don’t bomb Iran!
The moral of the story, Mr. Speaker, is this: if you don’t have a nuke, we’ll threaten to attack you. If you do have a nuke, we’ll leave you alone. In fact, we’ll probably subsidize you. What makes us think Iran does not understand this?

Imagine every member of Congress who supposedly opposes war with Iran speaking this clearly and forcefully. Can you?

Link.

”

(Via Antiwar.com Blog.)

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