No comment is necessary. The above is slobbering arrant nonsense, with no relation to Christianity in any way, shape, or form. The Way is NOT magic… the revival will not be televised… the revival will be live (HT to the late Gil Scott-Heron). Reflect on this… those who believe in such rot can vote… and most will vote Republican. Get off your dupa and vote in 2016, or the plug-uglies WILL win…
BMD
Squash and bean soup… a fave Russian nosh in the Fast…
Aleksei Nemeryuk, head of the Moscow City Department of Trade and Services, said that canned beans were a leader in the growth of demand for canned goods amongst Muscovites during the Great Lent. At a press conference on Thursday, he said, “Baked beans was the leader in growth amongst canned vegetables this year; the demand for them increased more than 30 percent. Consumption of mushrooms was up by 45 percent, vegetables and berries by 26 percent, kasha and oatmeal by 20 percent, and barley by 10 percent. The most popular cereal with buyers was buckwheat; the demand for it grew by more than 50 percent. The turnover in nuts and dried fruit increased more than 30 percent, whilst frozen vegetables and fruit increased 20 percent”.
Editor:
You want PROOF that folks are keeping the Lent? Here it is! Note well that beans, long a jocular Lenten staple amongst in-the-know Orthodox, are leading the pack (which means that the other two mainstays of Russian Lent, boiled potatoes and stewed prunes, can’t be far behind). You were wondrin’ why the morning commute was suddenly more FRAGRANT? It’s those beans… TOOT! TOOT! Is biological warfare occurring on the elektrichka every morning? Perspirin’ minds wanna know (what will the Russian Army do without funky footcloths (portyanki) as a chemical weapon?)…
The Revolution will not be televised… the Revolution IS alive! (hat-tip to Gil Scott Heron)
BMD
10 April 2014
Interfax-Religion
http://interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=54968
A Cabinet member whispered this to me about Moriak in the loggia:
It’s true; he’s done. The word is that he’s getting a leave of absence or suspension! There’ll be a misconduct investigation and the OCA will have a statement soon.
Now, this came from a trustworthy source. That doesn’t mean that its set in stone, but it’s MUCH more believable than anything out of Monomuckos. OK, kids, this means that I can say now that we should look for a confirmation from the OCA, as early as today. If this is true, the Holy Synod should smack down Ray Velencia… hard and publicly. You see, they have to defend a priest in good standing, Mike Regan. Velencia had the brass balls to call himself “Fr Raymond Velencia” in court papers, implying that he was a cleric in good standing. Besides giving Velencia the sack, they should protest Velencia’s usurpation of the title “Father” to the court involved. You see, otherwise, if they don’t, it leaves the OCA open to all kinds of lovely and sticky legal meadow-muffins. Crazy world, ain’t it? Do pass the jug.
If this isn’t proof that we need a united Russian Orthodox Church in the USA, Canada, and Alaska, nothing is. You see, only that is a real first step on the road on the road to a real “Church in America” (and Canada and Alaska). Interestingly enough, the only road “forward” starts going “back”. That’s the way it is, often enough, in real life. The OCA’s a sclerotic failure… and has to go. Then, it’s rebuilding time… not with any grandiose plans, but with the modesty and sobriety of the Metropolia of Leonty Turkevich and Basil Stroyen and the ROCOR of Anastassy Gribanovsky and Vitaly Maksimenko. Vladyyki Leonty and Vladyki Anatassy often conferred together, and acted like brothers. When they died in ’65, Schmemann and Grabbe mucked things up and started the Church War.
It’s time to go home… there’s no place for a notional “American” Church. If there’s going to be one in future, it’ll grow organically, it won’t be “planned”. To paraphrase Gil Scott-Heron, “The Holy Spirit is not televised, brothers; the Holy Spirit will be LIVE!” There’s no place for the Cold War ROCOR. The war is over, and it IS time to “beat our swords into plowshares”. Shall we do it, though?
We DO stand at a crossroads, and I’d say that live to the Parma Synod members, to their faces. It’s time to “quit you like men” and rip up the Tomos. It’s up to us…
Barbara-Marie DrezhloWednesday 29 August 2012
Albany NY
The spiritual part of fasting consists of prayer, spiritual reading, and an avoidance of all sins and distractions from God. The physical part consists of abstinence from flesh food (not fasting). Throughout Lent, the Orthodox Church urges believers to abstain from eating meat, dairy products, eggs, and fish, including as ingredients. Formally, one can only eat fish on the holydays of the Annunciation and the Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday). On Lazarus Saturday, you can eat caviar and other fish roe.
28 February 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://ria.ru/infografika/20120228/579053768.html
Editor’s Note:
These are the “formal” rules; in practise, it’s rather simpler. Most people who follow the Lents abstain from meat, eggs, and dairy, but do eat fish and use oil. In fact, Patriarch Pimen Izvekov “canonised” this arrangement when he allowed seminarians and church workers to eat fish and use oil in Church dining halls during the Great Lent. The canons are “guidelines”, if they were “canon laws” as the papists have, we’d call them “Nomoi”. No uppity konvertsy priest can “trump” a holy patriarch who preserved the Church in Soviet times. If a priest tries to tell you that some form of fasting or abstinence is obligatory, they’re chock fulla shit, and you don’t have to listen to them. The Church URGES believers to do this. Don’t be a fanatic… far from pleasing God, you’ll move farther away from Him (you’ll replace the Living God with your Image of Him, which is forbidden in the Decalogue). “Love God, and do what you will”… that’s the Church’s teaching, and quite a meaty reflection, too, isn’t it?
This appeared in a “normal” secular journalistic source… not a religious “Church” venue. If that doesn’t tell you that the revival “will be live, it will not be televised” (with a hat-tip to the late great Gil Scott-Heron), nothing will. God’s ways certainly aren’t ours… remember, God preserved the Faith in Russia through the agency of the militant godless. They burned out the cancer of both the Black Hundred Know-Nothings with their backwards-looking Romantic substitute for Tradition and the effete Petersburg zapadnik dilettantes with their pseudo-intellectual Renovationist attack on Tradition… quite the same under the skin, wot? God willing, the Almighty will do the same in the diaspora, as well. Reflect well on that…
BMD
NB:
This Infographic was only available in a Russian version; it took me some time to translate the text and Photoshop an English text to the document to make it usable for Church School classes, posting in parishes, etc.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
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