Disqus - Latest Comments for silouan

Re: Covid Christians As Rich Young Rulers | The American Conservative

silouan — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 22:27:44 -0000

Last line is, "I am struggling and I hope you are too."

Cheers,
Original Poster

Re: Warm Gray 20 %

silouan — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 00:24:24 -0000

Wait, I know that family, and that style of painting... Just realized I know who warmgray20% is :-D

Beautiful picture!

Re: No Father Z, you are the icon of God

silouan — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 14:32:06 -0000

I'm curious what makes it appear that an ancient church was built so that a priest can serve with his back to the east?

In all the eastern Liturgies, the clergy need to be able to circle round the holy table, so there's a fair amount of open space behind the table. But the priest or bishop only stands there when he's listening to a reading (and as deacon I read the Gospel in front of the holy table, facing the east together with the people.)

As deacon, I'm usually the most visible person in the Divine Liturgy. But the people only see my back, because I'm leading them in prayer to the same God I'm addressing.

It's something like the way the saints pray with us. We don't address the saints as an end in itself; we are asking them to lend their intercessions in agreement with our petitions, so they stand alongside us, not between us and Christ.

This is why we need to be "oriented" in order to liturgize; we need to know how to face east, as St Basil writes, "seeking the ancient homeland, the Paradise that God planted in Eden toward the East," toward the direction from which the Son of Man will come "as lightning flashes from east to west," and "Orient is His name."

Above you're specifically talking about the Mass. That makes me wonder: when Roman Catholic parishes serve Vespers or Compline or the rest of the liturgical life outside the Mass, do the clergy stand facing east or west?

Re: He’s Not A Christian? Says WHO?

silouan — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 09:50:46 -0000

According to scripture, the people who get to call you a Christian are unbelievers in Syria: "And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." (Acts 11:26)

If you want to add additional criteria for a person to qualify for the name "Christian," then you have to go beyond scripture and rely on traditions of men.

Re: http://servantmichael.tumblr.com/post/26922068114

silouan — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:57:56 -0000

I just saw this today, from Elder Paisios:

‎"If you wish to be calm do not read rebellious books or pamphlets that mention Church matters, since you are not responsible for such serious affairs. You have need of books that will assist you in YOUR repentance. If you want to help the Church, correct YOURSELF and immediately amendment is made to a small part of the Church. Naturally, if everyone did this, then the Church would be put in order."

Re: Are We Saved by Doctrine, or Saved by Jesus?

silouan — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:41:04 -0000

We're saved by the Jesus whom we learn about. If the teaching (doctrine) that announces Jesus to us is badly distorted, then our relationship is with an unreal idea of a person, not the incarnate God that Christian doctrine describes.

And while it's not any human's job to say who personally is in or out of the Kingdom, it's not only allowed but essential that we identify religions that teach rotten doctrine so we can avoid being led away from Christ by them. A Christianity that loses the ability to discern heresy and teach the true faith in its place is just blind leading the blind.

Re: Objective Moral Analysis? – Part 2

silouan — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:39:32 -0000

This gives me the feeling you're defining terms but you haven't yet begun to make a case - is that right?

The only objective standard I know of is Christ. When I want to compare myself to Him I use descriptions like 1 Cor. 13, the Beatitudes, the Commandments. That, and the reality-check that happens at Confession, are the only way I know of to evaluate my place in creation. The Gospels, the example of the saints, and the "Taste and see" that confirms in our own experience that "the Lord is good" are what call us to go beyond our limits. At least, that's what I'm thinking on as I read your post - is that a fair summary of what you're getting at here?

Re: Delayed Echoes

silouan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:35:37 -0000

Hong Kong? Looks like Coruscant :-)

Re: books i have read in 2009

silouan — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:22:44 -0000

Is it significant that all these books were written within the last decade or so?

For all its diversity of contemporary viewpoint, does reading only current, post-everything writing lead to a kind of echo chamber? I worry that time-delimited spiritual reading may eventually render Christians completely unmoored from the faith of the apostles.

Re: Seventy years ago...

silouan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:57:57 -0000

Yow! He's in the public domain? Iä! Iä! I am *so* downloading all his works into my phone asap. Devotional reading, you know.

Re: suddenly - “mmm deja el raye, que la gente tiene que trabajar...

silouan — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:33:42 -0000

Best part about this is it's written in the Gotham font, which costs $200+ per user so you know the person who created it works in an ad agency or marketing department.

Re: blog.PhilThompson.net

silouan — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:18:00 -0000

I got it from Flickr: http://farm1.static.flickr....
Unfortunately I don't know how to read a Flickr URL to get to the account were an image was posted. (Also it looks a little Photoshopped to me...)

A bit more Photoshopped but still very cool: http://cdn-www.cracked.com/...

Sweet: http://dasimpleton.blogspot...

Re: Young and Brilliant

silouan — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:09:00 -0000

It looks like it's made of chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate motorcycle...

Re: Jamie Martin

silouan — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:37:28 -0000

Reminds me of Rob Paravonian's Pachelbel Canon rant:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Re: I haven't felt this ugly in a long time.

silouan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:56:21 -0000

This total stranger suggests: Replace "ugly" in that sentence with "hot." I'm just sayin'.

Re: Bunker Complex

silouan — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:24:55 -0000

I dunno if you're Orthodox, but while you're in the countryside you should attend Vespers some Saturday evening at a small-town Orthodox parish. In big-city cathedrals you hear choirs chanting the service and it can be pretty and all, but in small towns, local parishes, you see the plain workaday singing and practices that haven't changed in a thousand years. Nobody's putting on a show for tourists, they're just being real. You don't get much more local color than that :-)

Re: Matt - realrealsoft: well done peta. you’ve realized...

silouan — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:59:09 -0000

Seriously, if kittens were:
a.) tasty when grilled, stirfried, baked, batter-fried, or made into sushi;
b.) rich in Omega 3 fatty acids; and
c.) floating around just waiting to be netted;
then I'd eat kittens day and night! Cute doesn't mean "not food."

Re: Regarding tumblr.

silouan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:01:40 -0000

As addictions go, it's not so bad. Tumblr hasn't yet cost me a job, a relationship, or my self-respect.

Keep comin' - it gets better!

- Silouan (12 steps for 30 years so far...)

Re: free hugs - Dammit I’m mad. Evil is a deed as I live. God,...

silouan — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:39:02 -0000

My previous favorite palindrome:
Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog!

Re: Cashews and pistachios will be the end of me.

silouan — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:33:22 -0000

"Mixed Nuts" is just cashews with impurities.

Re: California GOP Chair: Go Local

silouan — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:04:12 -0000

In *one* paragraph, in passing, he mentions "credibility. Without it, we’re not even in the game. This means if we’re campaigning as the team that’s for reforming and limiting government, and doing so in an ethical manner, that’s what we have to do once elected."

The entire rest of his message is about fighting and winning.

The guys who won the 2008 elections ran on a record and promise of *serving* individuals and communities. Whether they represent sound economic or social principles is irrelevant, because they identified themselves as public servants. By contrast, the Republican message (other than fear of terrorism and fear of Obama) was all about beating the Democrats. Republicans across the country ran on a platform of *serving their party*.

What Nehring is proposing sounds to me like a replay of the Gingrich-led victory in the mid-90s, when the GOP successfully beat the other guys, and then proved that all they had was a winning game, not a commitment to serve the voters who put them in DC.

When the Republicans can convince me they have a coherent plan to lay off a lot of government employees, quit providing corporate welfare, and the tax burden of the middle class, and when they prove it in the mean time by providing corrective voices instead of obstructing ones -- and when they run on the basis of those promises and that record instead of on a fear-the-democrat platform -- then they'll earn my vote again.

Re: blog.PhilThompson.net

silouan — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:50:21 -0000

Neither - is this from the movie?

I just saw this image and thought it was funny. (Never mind the painfully obvious technology of time travel; let's explore the *dialectic* of time travel...)

Re: blog.PhilThompson.net

silouan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:24:37 -0000

Oops.. Thought I'd written 1970. At any rate it's fixed now :-)

Chunks of rotten whale raining down... It doesn't get much better than that!

Re: Jamie Martin

silouan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:29:52 -0000

Oh, there is a video of "Never Gonna Give You Up"? Wow, who knew? I must send it to all my friends.