Personal background: I was the owner / operator of a small corporation for many years which was sold to a telecommunications company. My businesses have included: Mortgage Banking, Commercial Real Estate, Land Development, Software Development and consulting. My Investment Analysis Software received favorable reviews in several national publications including PC Magazine and the Wall Street Computer review. Currently, I hold a PMP and do technical project and program management for various corporations.
RETURN | Repentance and Confession: Return to God and His Church
Best book I’ve found on this topic. Answered all my questions on the Orthodox Confession: especially for those –like me– who are new to Orthodoxy. Coming from a Protestant background, the idea of confession seemed strange, unnatural, unnecessary and even scary… but this little 86 page book explained it all to me in terms I could understand.
‘Return’ is a great title for this little book… a RETURN to God and His Church through the process of repentance and confession. This is what confession on a regular basis does… it helps you return to the path when you stray off into the weeds.
Back Cover:
What is sin and which are sin’s fruits?
What is repentance and what isn’t it?
How do we prepare for confession?
How do we confess?
What is the meaning of penance?
What is the relationship of repentance with the mystery of the Divine Eucharist?
This small book, in simple words attempts to answer these as well as other questions and helps to offer a RETURN back to the original attitude and to a correct approach to the great and philanthropic mystery of repentance and confession.
The Philokalia provides a wealth of wisdom and deep insights which I enjoy daily. This five (5) volume set addresses many questions I have and explores with great care and insight topics that deepen my understanding of the human condition and Christian Orthodoxy. Daily reading of these important writings have helped clear the debris that clouds my nous (eye of the soul). I read volume five first and then jumped to volume one.
As a former artist, it became obvious early on how much easier it was to create amazing monsters and how much more difficult it was to create something truly beautiful and wholesome. I believe this fundamental theorem resonates with much of my life to date. Creating monsters is easy and productive, yet this road does not lead to beauty. Believing I could control my life by my own personal will, intellect and talent would lead to a beautiful, satisfying life proved to be folly. As it has turned out –while I accomplished many personal and financial successes—my self-directed control, fortitude and personal management proved to be in error exposing the limits of my man-made rationalism, reasoning and abstract concepts. My nous had become clouded and I was unable to receive the full energy imitating from God which I once knew and experienced as a child. Reading the Philokalia helped clear my nous and return me to the experience and the eternal wisdom provided by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. -db
From the 5th Volume: The Philokalia, which means “the love of the good and beautiful”, was compiled by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth and first published in Greek in 1782 as an anthology of classic spiritual texts ranging from the 4th and the 15th century. Its rich assortment of edifying literature provides boundless wisdom and guidance regarding prayer, the soul’s ascent to God through grace by its natural “love for beauty”, and its struggle to overcome its own passions and fragmentation.
Orthodox Wiki: The Philokalia is a collection of writings, mostly centering on practicing the virtues and spiritual living in a monastery. In recent decades it has become an important resource for Orthodox Christians, laity and clergy alike, in personal living and in some ways has achieved status as a major secondary spiritual written resource (after the primary one, Holy Scripture) along with St. John Climacus‘ The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
The Prologue of Ohrid: Lives of Saints, Hymns, Reflections, and Homilies for Every Day of the Year
A great addition to my library and daily studies: I can’t wait to get up every morning to read The Prologue from Ohrid. Truly a fascinating book providing much wisdom, historical context and analysis on the lives of the Saints. A simple and quick two page read each morning and then I’m off to reading the Philokalia and other books of great wisdom.
Daily Format of the Ohrid:
Date (day of the year)
Brief biography of two or more Saints of the day
Hymn of Praise for the above Saint(s)
Reflection on the life of the Saint(s) of the day
Contemplation
Homily
I find it Interesting to compare The Prologue from Ohrid to the much condensed A Daily Calendar of Saints by Fr. Lawrence Farley. The Prologue provides additional historical depth and context expanding my understanding of the life of our Orthodox Saints, plus the ‘Reflections’ and ‘Homily’ sections are pure gold. After only four months reading The Prologue daily, I feel I have gained a rich understanding of the lives of the Saints, the evil they faced and the historical times in which they lived and died. -db
The Ladder of Divine Ascent | by St. John Climacus (579 – 649) died ~age 70; born in Syria
The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 1: On Renunciation of the world (7) Step 2: On detachment (12) Step 3: On exile of pilgrimage (14) – Concerning dreams that beginners have (17) Step 4: On blessed and ever-memorable obedience (18) – About a robber who repented (20) – About Isidore (23) – About Laurence (24) – About a bursar (24) – About Abbacyrus (25) – About Macedonius the archdeacon (26) – About a certain other brother (27) – About Saint Menas (27) – The first snare (31) – The second snare (32) – About Saint Acacius (37) – About John the Sabbaite, or Antiochus (38) Step 5: On painstaking and true repentance which constitute the life of the holy convicts; and about prison. (41) Step 6: On remembrance of death. (49) Step 7: On mourning which causes joy. (52) Step 8: On freedom from anger and on meekness. (59) Step 9: On remembrance of wrongs. (63) Step 10: On slander or calumny. (65) Step 11: On talkativeness and silence. (67) Step 12: On lying. (68) Step 13: On despondency. (69) Step 14: On the clamorous, yet wicked master – the stomach. (70) Step 15: On incorruptible purity and chastity to which the corruptible attain by toil and sweat. (74) Step 16: On love of money or avarice. (85) Step 17: On poverty that hastens heavenwards (86) Step 18: On insensibility, that is, deadening of the soul and the death of the mind before the death of the body. (87) Step 19: On sleep, prayer, and psalm-singing in chapel. (89) Step 20: On the bodily vigil and how to use it to attain spiritual vigil and how to practice it. (90) Step 21: On unmanly and puerile cowardice. (91) Step 22: On the many forms of vainglory. (93) Step 23: On mad pride, and, in the same Step, on unclean blasphemous thoughts (97) – – Concerning unmentionable blasphemous thoughts (100) Step 24: On meekness, simplicity, guilelessness which come not from nature but from habit, and about malice. (102) Step 25: On the destroyer of the passions, most sublime humility, which is rooted in spiritual feeling. (104) Step 26: On discernment of thoughts, passions and virtues. (112) – On expert discernment (123) Brief summary of all the previous steps (132) Step 27: On holy solitude of body and soul. (136) – Different aspects of solitude and how to distinguish them (139) Step 28: On holy and blessed prayer, mother of virtues, and on the attitude of mind and body in prayer. (145) Step 29: Concerning heaven on earth, or godlike dispassion and perfection, and the resurrection of the soul before the general resurrection. (151) Step 30: Concerning the linking together of the supreme trinity among the virtues. (153) A BRIEF EXHORTATION SUMMARIZING ALL THAT HAS BEEN SAID AT LENGTH IN THIS BOOK (157)
St. Anthony Assaulted by Demons | Considered to be the founder of monasticism, was born in Egypt in 251.
Logismoi is assaultive thoughts or thought forms, not your everyday thoughts. We swim in a sea of thoughts; the Zeitgeist or the culmination of the culture. Thought forms which are within this Zeitgeist can be assaultive. They are not harmless. Thoughts and thought images. Logismoi are caused by battle with the devil.
There are 5 stages:
Assault – ignore – turn away from it. Don’t have to fight it…swat them like flies buzzing around. A thought enters our mind… for example to steal some money, lust, etc. We are not accountable for the strike or the assault. We have not committed a sin. We have not done anything except being assaulted.
Interaction – we open a dialogue with the logismoi .. Should I do this or should I do that? Should I steal this money or not? We analyze the risk vs. reward. Slap it down. No accountability; no sin yet committed.
Consent – defeat … we are accountable. Consent to what the logismoi tempted you to commit. This is the beginning of sin. Guilt.
Captivity – if you can’t free yourself from the previous stage, then there is defeat. You become hostage to the logismoi, next time it comes around with greater force. Becomes a habit that is repeated time and again.
Passion – it takes the grace of the Holy Spirit…prayer, passions to recover who you are. An entrenched reality. You are a captive to destructive acts to yourself and others. You get rewired and reoriented. Not a simple matter to deal with. Capable of reasoning with the mind but the heart can’t escape and you descend into sin.
Assault > Interaction > Consent > Captivity (you become hostage to the logismoi); thus it becomes more and more difficult to resist > Passion / obsession / addiction – you then participate in ongoing destructive acts … you give a key to your heart to Satan so he can get in and out without effort … Obsessive / Compulsive – this clouds and darkens the nous. Takes the grace of the Holy Spirt to recover who you are. Obey His commandments. This is spiritual warfare.
Note: When the nous is illuminated it means that it is receiving the energy of God which illumines it. Nous refers to our highest faculty… the “I” that perceives God.
NIHILISM by Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose | The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age; Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose (1934 – 1982); St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood; Paperback, 123 pages; First printing: 1994
In this short, insightful book, Eugene Rose convincingly dispatches the philosophy of Nihilism to the existential trash bin by exposing its many contradictions, errors and self-imposed limitations. This book helped me understand how Nihilism and its progeny have permeated today’s culture clouding the inner eye of the soul, thus blocking the “I” that perceives God from God’s energy and illumination.
Note:Since Eugene Rose was deceased in 1982, this book was obviously written close to the end the Soviet Union’s reign of terror (1922–1991) against the Russian people. From my reading of this book, Rose was likely unaware the role Wall Street and the International Bankers played in the October Revolution, WW1, and WW2 as exposed by Antony C. Sutton, Carroll Quigley, James Perloff and many others. What this means to me is that –like Communism and so many other ism’s– Nihilism may yet be another tool used to gain advantage over the sleeping masses. Also, it is interesting to note the harmonic resonance between this book, and: Technocracy, Materialism, and Ted Kaczynski’s desperate warnings on the advance of technology.
NIHILISM |The Root of the Revolution of the Modern Age Eugene (Fr. Seraphim) Rose (1934 – 1982) St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Paperback, 123 pages First printing: 1994
CONTENTS
Editor’s Preface…
I. Introduction: The question of Truth
II. The Stages of the Nihilist Dialectic
Liberalism
Realism
Vitalism
The Nihilism of Destruction
III. The Theology and the Spirit of Nihilism
Rebellion: The War against God
The Worship of Nothingness
IV. The Nihilist Program
The Destruction of the Old Order
The Making of the “New Earth”
The Fashioning of the “New Man”
V. “Beyond Nihilism”
Eugene’s Proposed Outline for The Kingdom of Man and the Kingdom of God Appendix: The Philosophy of the Absurd Index
Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind
For me, ‘Thinking Orthodox’ was a page turner … answering questions I have about Orthodox Christianity and answering many questions I didn’t know I should be asking. In short, this book represents a feast of new breakthroughs and understandings for me personally. Until recently, I thought the Christian world consisted of the Roman Catholics and their rebellious stepchildren, the Protestants. I was unaware that Orthodoxy was and is the root of both: the Catholics spun off from their Orthodox foundations in 1054, later the Protestants separated from the Catholics in 1517. The result of these departures –from the consistent and unbroken tradition of Orthodoxy– created thousands of Protestant denominations and a Church in Rome whose Pope claims universal jurisdiction. In sum, Rome added to Orthodoxy’s unbroken tradition and Protestants subtracted from Orthodoxy in their earnest efforts to correct the many missteps of Rome after Rome’s break with Orthodoxy in 1054. Both the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, however, are left without the full context or the full gospel of their faith, and like me, most are unaware of what they are missing.
In ‘Thinking Orthodox‘, Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou introduced me to a new and useful word called the ‘phronema‘ (mindset or outlook). She describes the Protestant and the Roman Catholic phronema and then shows how the Orthodox phronema differs. I was left with a much clearer understanding of what it means to be Orthodox and the impact Western philosophy has had on both Rome and the Protestants. In this regard, Protestants and Roman Catholics are more alike in their Western thought processes than Orthodox.
What does it mean to “think Orthodox”? What are the unspoken and unexplored premises and presumptions underlying what Christians believe? Orthodox Christianity is based on preserving the mind of the early Church, its phronema. Dr. Jeannie Constantinou brings her more than forty years’ experience as a professor, Bible teacher, and speaker to bear in explaining what the Orthodox phronema is, how it can be acquired, and how that phronema is expressed in true Orthodox theology – as practiced by those who are properly qualified by both training and a deep relationship with Christ.
About the Author: Dr. Eugenia Constantinou hosts the popular podcast Search the Scriptures Live! on Ancient Faith Radio. She has been a professor and visiting lecturer on the Bible, patristic interpretation of Scripture, and early Christianity at Orthodox and non-Orthodox universities and schools of theology. She holds master’s degrees in theology from the University of San Diego, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, and Harvard Divinity School; a juris doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law; and a Ph.D. from Université Laval in Quebec City in the history of biblical interpretation. She is married to Fr. Costas, a Greek Orthodox priest.
The mythos of our sanitized view of history has been promulgated by state-run, compulsory school systems; maintained by the entertainment and news media; verified by professional historians; and coordinated by all these actors to produce an easy to understand cartoonish story for the unwashed masses. Building on the research of Antony C. Sutton, Carroll Quigley and many others, Matt Ehret explores current events in a more credible historical context.
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” ― George Orwell, 1984
