The Holiness of the Church

Can inadequacies of individual people sully the holiness of the Church? A partial answer to that question was given by Archpriest Valentin Sventsitsky (1882-1931), a remarkable pastor and confessor, who suffered a great deal at the hands of the atheist regime. The following is an excerpt from a homily given by Fr. Valentin in the 1920s, during an awful time of persecution against the Russian Church: Inadequacies in the Church are not just a contemporary manifestation; they have always existed. It is enough but to recall the words of St. Gregory the Theologian, ‘Faith in God has perished.' It is enough but to recall the words of St. John Chrysostom, who in a talk on the Epistle to the Corinthians said, ‘In the Church, we only have a plethora of fond memories that both in times past and now people would gather together to chant. However, before, when people gathered together to chant, there was oneness of mind, while now you would be hard put to find even one person who would be of one mind with you.' And this used to be said then, at a time when some of the Nicene Fathers were still alive, when Athanasios the Great had just reposed, when Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom were alive. But what does this mean? It means only that as the result of human weaknesses and illnesses, the Church on earth has many inadequacies. Can transgressions of individual people shake the holiness of the Church? What a temptation, what a great misunderstanding is expressed if I should leave the Church because I have encountered an unworthy pastor, if I should no longer believe in the Church because one or another bearer of grace has made a bad personal impression on me. The holiness of the Church does not rest in that. It rests in the Mysteries, in the holiness of God's Grace, in all of the good which that Grace has done for men's souls; it rests in that assembly of saints who were saved by that grace, it rests in every truly kind impulse of our souls. These glorious and holy [things] are what comprise the holiness of the Church. Our sins – our illnesses – are sinful weaknesses that we wash and cleanse in that Holy Church of Christ. For that reason, let us not be troubled in our personal life by the evil idea that we need not labour when we are weakened by our sins, and likewise let us not, let our faith not, be troubled by doubts in the holiness of the Church whenever we see some inadequacy or other in the earthly Church. Our recognition of our sins should evoke in us not despondency, but only ever greater effort to do the Lord's work. Recognition of inadequacies in church life should bring about not estrangement from the Holy Church, but even greater love for it, and a desire to serve for the good of the Church. Archpriest Valentin Sventsitsky Link to original

Images from Antioch

Thanks to Father John Fenton for highlighting this beautiful video of images from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. (Antioch, the city where "the disciples were first named Christians" - Acts 11:26)

Technology Quotes

1. "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
2. "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
3. "Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." Rich Cook, author, best known for his Wizardry series of books.
4. "UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity." Dennis Ritchie, Bell Labs, creator of the C programming language and key developer of UNIX.
5. "The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential." Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Source and commentary.

Sense Appeal - Samuel Hoppe

Life is good - Samuel Hoppe

Samuel Hoppe R.I.P.

HOPPE, Samuel : January 9, 1958 - December 3, 2007 Samuel Hoppe passed away peacefully, but all too soon on December 3, 2007 after battling complications due to Multiple Sclerosis. He will be deeply missed by his mother Ellen, his brothers Toomas and Eliot, his daughters Michelle, Melanie (spouse Phil) and Sara, his wife Diane and of course all his nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Sam spent the last few years of his life living at Bendale Acres Home for the Aged and will also be deeply missed by the residents, staff and visitors. His life may have been short, compared to most, but he never looked back on what might have been, he only moved forward in faith and trust.

Clear Creek Monastery

A lovely & inspiring documentary video on a (Roman Catholic) Benedictine monastery in Clear Creek Oklahoma:

A smaller world

I seek a shore where I can fence in a patch of the horizon with trees or reeds. Where, gathering infinity, I can have the sense that: there are no machines or very few; there are no soldiers or very few; there are no weapons or very few, and those few aimed at the exit of the forests with wolves; or that there are no merchants or very few at remote points on the earth where paved roads have not yet been laid. God hopes that at least in the poets' sobs paradise will never cease to exist. By Nikiforos Vrettakos (From Turtle Rock)