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The holiest season of the Christian Year is upon us… Christ comes to Jerusalem to perform the Seder, be betrayed, suffer a real death, and to rise from the tomb, trampling down death by death. You don’t have to be at every service… our services are monastic in nature, so, they’re not well-suited at times to laypeople with real cares, obligations, and limitations in the real world. This is a time of year when jumped-up konvertsy try to lecture the rest of us on how to be Orthodox (quite often using inappropriate “Evangelical” verbiage in so doing). I advise most of you not to engage them, please. I always fall down at once or twice a year in that… their overblown treatises with rather shallow roots do rankle me mightily (especially, when I’m tired or vexed).
You’re under no obligation to go to all the services. You’re NOT a monastic. Even in monastic communities, there are always those with obediences that often keep them from services. Go to what services you can and get from them what you will. Stand in God’s Presence… it’s enough, trust me on that. Remember, the services are only the flower of the Faith… belief is the root and Christian practise is the stem. The services are only an ornament… without interior content, they are worse than nothing.
Reflect on what Christ did for you and for all of us… then, love and do what you will, as the Apostle bade us…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
24 April 2016. You Don’t Spit at People to Make a Point
Tags: Norman Thomas, patriotic, patriotism, political commentary, politics, Protest, United States, USA
This is more respectful than the “Black Lives Matter” people trampling on the flag… here’s the sad part… the BLM people knew that they were inciting, and didn’t care…
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If you want a symbolic gesture, don’t burn the flag, wash it.
Norman Thomas
I saw an online image of two black ladies trampling on an American flag to show their commitment to “Black Lives Matter”. That move was both unwise and inflammatory. It showed ungrounded contempt for the symbol of this country. I’m a Leftist… I’m patriotic… the two aren’t exclusive of one another, despite what the loud rightists say! To trample on the flag isn’t only stupid, it’s spitting in people’s faces, for surely these women should’ve known that their act would incite people to anger. There are right and wrong ways of protesting, indeed, there are right and wrong ways of rebelling against an evil.
You don’t spit in people’s faces to make a point. Full stop.
BMD