Robert Waddell III

[Orthodoxy Above The Clouds @noetic_healing]

Why is despair necessary in spiritual life?

God sometimes subjects us to trials in order to slay, not us, but the old man, and to help us find the new inner man of grace. This was the culture of our spiritual fathers: not to gratify the passionate desires of their disciples by reassuring them that all is well, but rather to increase their tension and suffering because this would lead them to true knowledge of their own state and to even deeper despair so that they would utter piercing cries to God for help.

We need to live on the brink of death, bearing in us “the dying of the Lord Jesus.” In reality, despair is inevitable even for people who are naturally optimistic and happy all their life. At some point, every man will come to a full realisation of his fallen state, which will cause him to despair and cry from the depths of his heart. In such moments, tears come out like hot drops of blood. We often cry, but such tears are of a different kind.

-Archimandrite Zacharias-

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

How Japanese have produced wood for 700 years, without cutting down trees.

Daisugi is an ancient Japanese forestry technique developed in the 14th century originally used by people living in the Kitayama region, because the territory was extremely poor in saplings.

They planted cedars pruned in a special way to produce shoots that eventually would become perfect, straight, knot-free lumbers.

The shoots are gently pruned by hand every two years leaving only the top boughs, allowing them to grow straight. Harvesting takes 20 years and old 'tree stock' can grow up to a hundred shoots at a time.

There was actually another reason why the technique was developed: fashion. In the 14th century, a linear, stylized form of architecture known as sukiya-zukuri (数寄屋造り) became popular, and every prominent samurai or nobleman wanted a house built in this way.

There were simply not enough raw materials available to keep up with demand, so daisugi was developed to produce more wood in a shorter time.

The wood produced with this technique has also impressive qualities: it's 140% more flexible than standard cedar and 200% denser and stronger. And, it's extremely durable.

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

Zoey's stand. The scariest miracle in the USSR!

She said, "If there is a God, let Him punish me." And the girl fossilized for 128 days with the icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker in her hands.

January 1956. The Soviet Union.

Khrushchev promises to show the last priest on TV. At that exact moment—in an ordinary house in Kuibyshev—a young girl takes an icon, stands up, and freezes for 128 days. Her name is Zoe.

She came to a party to celebrate the Old New Year. She arrived without a boyfriend, and he never showed up. Feeling offended, she took the icon of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker off the wall and said, "If there is a God, let Him punish me!" She then began to dance in a circle with the icon.

On the third lap, a whirlwind spun. A blinding light flashed. Everyone fled the room, but Zoe remained standing—with the icon pressed to her chest. She was cold, still, and hard as marble.

The ambulance doctors recorded a pulse; she was alive. However, the syringes broke against her skin, making it impossible to administer medicine.

Tens of thousands of people gathered outside. Authorities summoned police from all over the region to cordone off the house. People asked the right question: if there is no miracle, why guard the house?

Priests arrived one after another, but no one could take the icon from her hands. Then, Father Dimitri was called—a man who had just spent fifteen years in the gulag camps. He served a prayer and successfully took the icon. He said, "Now we must wait for the Great Day."

Easter was four months away.

Before the Annunciation, a quiet old man appeared at the house. Security turned him away twice, but on the third try, he slipped past them. Inside, he asked Zoe, "Well, are you tired of standing?"
When guards looked into the room, he was gone. He could not have escaped; the windows were closed and the doors were guarded. All witnesses were convinced that Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker himself had visited.

On Easter night, Zoe came back to life. She began crying, "Pray! It is terrifying! The whole world is perishing in sin!" She had stood for 128 days without any food or water.

After this event, crowds of people in Soviet Kuibyshev went to get baptized. There were not enough crosses for everyone.

~Roman Golovanov

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

A Miracle Story of Saint John of Shanghai

Bishop John of Shanghai was called to minister to a very sick girl. Her parents were desperate, as she was critically ill. The bishop blessed her, and while praying internally, he began to tell her funny stories and laugh cheerfully. The girl was barely conscious and not feeling well, but the bishop kept telling jokes.

He said to her, "I am sure the next joke will make you smile. Listen to this: Once, a bishop, just like me, had a funny dispute with a kettlebell and a subdeacon. They went to the diocesan bishop to explain the situation. The subdeacon complained that the kettlebell hit him. The bishop asked the subdeacon:— 'Where did he hit you?'

And the subdeacon replied:— 'Not with a traditional swinging blow, but in the head with a candlestick!'"At this, Vladyka laughed so hard that the sick girl could not help but laugh with him.

The parents looked on in utter amazement, and this made Vladyka laugh even more. While the girl was laughing, a growth in her throat seemed to burst. As they found out later, she had a severe form of diphtheria, and the violent coughing from laughing broke the obstructions, allowing her to swallow and breathe again.

After that, Saint John blessed the girl and left.

Later in the day, a disturbed doctor came and carefully asked the girl's mother if the patient was still alive. The mother answered cheerfully:— "Not only is she alive, but she is well. Her fever broke and she is sleeping soundly."

The doctor could not believe her words. After examining the girl, he could only say:— "It's a miracle. This is nothing short of a miracle."

Saint John of Shanghai.

[The Aramaic Wire ܣܘܪܝܐ @AramaicWire]

This post is for you @TuckerCarlson.

Let me tell you what they did to Christians.

This is the Assyrian Archbishop who saved Aramaic manuscripts & died for his congregation.

Mar Addai Sher, Chaldean Archbishop of Siirt in Upper Mesopotamia, spent his life documenting lost Aramaic manuscripts.

Documenting the lost treasures of Christianity.

A scholar of Syriac, Sher catalogued five major libraries: the libraries of Siirt, Alqosh, Mosul, Diyarbakir & Mardin.

He went to Rome & Paris to document them & discovered the only copy of a 5th century text.

Sher published the Chronicle of Siirt, a history of the Church of the East from the 5th to 7th centuries.

When the sword reached Siirt, he buried the manuscripts in leather sacks.

He bribed the governor with gold to save his congregation, but he could not save himself.

Sheltered by Kurds that eventually gave him up, he was found in a frail state & killed on June 15, 1915.

They handed his head to the Ottoman governor.

A life of service to the Church & her Aramaic treasure.

To this day, his buried manuscripts are still missing.

Don’t let a fake theologian turn you into a useful idiot.

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

What separates a Christian from the rest of the world today?

You can go to church regularly, read theological books, display images of saints in your home, hold communion in your hands, give alms, listen to theological talks, act humbly, and speak spiritually.

Yet, if you are angry with others, you are missing the mark. In the midst of difficulties, you should smile. If you are unsatisfied with your money and comforts—feeling oppressed, anxious, and dissatisfied with everything and everyone—you will constantly find yourself in disputes and competition with whoever stands beside you.

That means you do not live in Christ, no matter how much you talk about Him. This smells of death. What truly separates a Christian from the rest of the world today?

If you do not have patience, gentleness, joy, simplicity, and, most of all, humility during difficulties, temptations, and face-to-face encounters with difficult people, it means you still have not understood what life in Christ truly means.

~Monk Moses

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

Prince Igor Olgovich (baptized George) was born around 1080 (or 1090). He inherited the Chernihiv Duchy from his father and, in 1146, was proclaimed Grand Duke of Kiev. However, the residents of Kiev—who disliked the Olgovichy family and condemned Igor for his inability to curb the abuses of his retinue—expelled the prince. Following a severe beating, he was imprisoned in Pereyaslavl.

Exhausted by disasters and disease, the prince renounced his birthrights and asked to be tonsured as a monk. He was released from prison, tonsured into the great schema with the name Gabriel, and entered the Monastery of St. Theodore in Kiev.

Despite his abdication, the people continued to hate him. Gabriel was brutally killed while praying in front of an icon of the Mother of God. The crowd dragged his body through the streets of Kiev on September 19, 1147. On June 5, 1150 (Old Style), his holy relics were moved to the Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernihiv, where many miracles occurred.

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

If you read the Canon to the Life-Giving Cross of our Lord (spending 15–20 minutes) and kiss your cross while saying the Jesus Prayer—'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Sanctify me with the light of Your Cross, and drive away from me this unclean spirit that torments me'—then this light will penetrate your conscience, heart, soul, and character, displacing the evil force of possession. Through persistence, within two to three months, even the most possessed person can become healthy.

In the same way, we can protect ourselves from possession. Even if twenty sorcerers work against us, they will be able to do nothing! Such is the power of the Cross of the Lord!

~Schemeigumen Savva (Ostapenko)

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

“God does not reveal sins to me… Only in the face of a person I see light or darkness. And unfortunately, most are darkness…”

“Look with your eyes, but don’t see anything. Listen with your ears, but don’t hear anything. Do not blaspheme with your mouth. Put a lock over your mouth so as not to transfer words from one person to another. Have love for everyone. Shelter others so that you can be sheltered by God. Have patience, my dear children, and lots of patience.”

Saint Sophia, the ascetic of Kleisoura

[Fr. Daniel☦️ @Fragbaza]

To God, it is not what you are by nature that matters, because one person is naturally kind, and another is naturally evil. One's mother was a drunkard, and the other had a motorbike. And it's clear that these two mothers will raise very different children.

And the Lord rewards the one who turns bad into good. Some say, 'I'm a good person.' So what? You were kind since childhood, and your mother was kind and brought you up that way. So, if you were as evil as a dog but became kind or if you became even half as evil, even though you remained much worse than the kind person, then you would be rewarded. Because you tried; you went from bad to better. And if you die the same as you were, there is no merit in it.

Some say even at confession, 'I did not steal, I did not slander.' So what? If you were born in prison, your father and mother were corrupt, and as a result, you did not become a thief, then, you would have a reward.

Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov

[少年ぜっぷShonnenZepp@ビートRock紹介 @whoskinky2]

#Beatles
#ビートルズ
ロック史上最重要ライブを選べと言われたら、ビートルズ1964年2月11日ワシントンコロシアムライブを選ぶ。
このドキュメントが残っていたのは奇跡としか言いようがない。
何も気取らずステージでとっとと段取り済ませてマイク不調も意に介さずサクッと最強ライブキメる姿が最高！

[Metropolitan Saba Isper @SabaIsper]

The world does not need more Christians who merely talk about Christ. It needs Christians through whom Christ can be seen.

[Robert Waddell III @arcadia4u]

@OrthodoxHistory Beautiful funeral. The largest I’ve ever seen

[Robert Waddell III @arcadia4u]

What a wonderful funeral for my friend Warren Farha. The largest I’ve ever seen. Memory Eternal

[Robert Waddell III @arcadia4u]

@OrthodoxHistory Memory eternal. I’m going to miss him greatly

[Robert Waddell III @arcadia4u]

@cdmuseumpb I absolutely love ❤️ those shop cards.

[Father Christopher @FChristopher77]

Nestled in Romania's Bucovina region, Voroneț Monastery – the pearl of Romanian monasteries and "Sistine Chapel of the East" – dazzles with its vivid exterior frescoes set on the iconic "Voroneț blue," a mysterious, enduring pigment from the 15th century. Built in 1488 by Saint Stephen the Great, this UNESCO gem is a breathtaking masterpiece!

[Jonah In Wales 🦊 @JonahInWales]

🙏🏻☦️

[Fr. Borjan Vitanov @prezviteros]

The soul that loves God has its rest in God and in God alone. In all the paths that men walk in in the world, they do not attain peace until they draw nigh to hope in God.
+ St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 56, 89
Three-Hundred Sayings of the Ascetics of the Orthodox Church
https://t.co/IwOx8xUMzn
https://t.co/5oPG5uOqy4

[Robert Waddell III @arcadia4u]

@Camp4 This is great advice! I’m 57 and have lived my life almost exactly like this. The hardest thing is finding people my age now with this mindset.