4 August 2011. Some Russian Proverbs and How They Got Me to Think on the Current Church Crisis (and How They’ll Help You, Too)

OUR HEROES! Not money-grubbing godless filth such as Ayn Rand, Rush, Boehner, Ryan, Hannity, Palin, Bachmann, and Buchanan… the konvertsy bow low before those false prophets of the Great (False) God Mammon. We respect the heroes of the VOV… they showed us the way. Filthy Lucre or Selfless Courage… Compassion or the Tea Party? Whadaya want? I know what I want! What about you?

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Editor’s Foreword:

I’m NOT going to develop the themes in these sayings… it’s for you to think about in the coming days as the confusion continues to unfold. Let our ancestors’ wisdom guide you… they DID know a thing or two (despite their “lack” of academic credentials)…

BMD

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They said that they’re getting milk from chickens!

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Devils lurk in still waters.

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“Maybe” and “somehow” never seem to add up to anything in the end.

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If you cooked it that way, you’ve got to eat it that way.

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Anyone who tries to sit on two chairs at once falls flat on their face.

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Things always tear at the thinnest point.

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Not everyone in a riassa is a monk.

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Use a sharp axe for a tough tree.

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Wolves don’t eat wolves.

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He looks big… but he’s done little…

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Two bears can’t live in the same lair.

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Don’t divide the pelt until you kill the bear.

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You’ll find out who your friends are when trouble knocks at your door.

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Trying to teach the incorrigibly ignorant is like trying to raise the dead.

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The truth is speechless when money talks.

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Don’t eat other people’s bread.

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Don’t say, “Hop”, until you’ve made it to the other side.

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If you do anything, you’ll make mistakes.

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Don’t dig a pit to entrap others… you’ll end up in it yourself.

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There aren’t bad ships or ill winds… there are only bad captains.

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I ran from the wolf only to bump into a bear.

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Honest labour will never win you a soft bed in the palace.

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Drunks can sleep it off… ignoramuses can’t.

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The altar is NEVER empty…

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Wise people like to learn… fools like to teach.

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Pharaoh was pompous, but he drowned in the sea.

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As long as God’s asleep, the devil will play.

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Before we go on, I wrote this in an earlier post… its good raw material for further thought:

I stumbled upon a nutter GOC (Greek Old Calendar) website, the True Orthodox News Forum… well, it was just as full of bloviating “Readers” as the Orthodox Forum is… both extremes DO meet, Eric Hoffer was right. Well… it was as fulla beans as Mr Mattingly was. It was rotters bloviating about “True Orthodoxy”… that’s to say, marginal uncanonical Ruritanians sitting in judgement on Lived Orthodoxy, just as Mr Mattingly was, from the other extreme margin. Yes, there are unmitigated embarrassments such as Vassa Larina, Vanya Behr, Lyonyo Kishkovsky, Hilarion Alfeyev, and Andrei Psaryov… but their ecumaniac goofiness does NO harm to the canonicity of the Church in the end. Be careful of BOTH fringes… you’re rather too close to the edge in both.

In short, read the above proverbs, and think on the above paragraph. They’re full of wisdom that’ll teach you a great deal on what to do in the coming days. Much will appear to be what it’s not… much won’t make any sense whatsoever. Just keep ordinary good-sense in mind. After all, the Church existed long before the konvertsy came amongst us… it’s going to exist long after they leave us. Keep this meditation uppermost…

Reflect on the entire history of our blessed and long-suffering Russian Motherland, be aware of the full path of our people, and grasp the totality of the spiritual heritage that flowed from the Baptismal Fount in the Dnepr…

If you can do that, the caterwauling of the konvertsy and their teabagger pals won’t lead you astray. God calls upon us to love and transfigure the world in very tangible, down-to-earth, and mundane ways… not to hate it in perpetual “culture warfare”, not to wish for a crackbrained utopia that can never be, nor to obsess over one’s ill-gotten gains in a tawdry and shoddy McMansion. You can have Patrick Reardon, JP, and the “OCA Truth” squad, or, you can have His Holiness, “Charlie”, and the crazy Cossacks who just wore out their boots walking all over the rodina for Batiushka Serafim… for me, that’s an easy choice… what about you? Christ or the Tea Party? Fr Vsevolod or Fred Phelps? The brave KPU guys who stood tall for Christ’s Church or the money-grubbing rightwing Free Marketers who attacked it? What say you?

BMD