This resonated very deeply with me. I have bipolar, but am also very successful within the limits it places on me. No one would really know, because I work so hard to hide it, but it is always there like a shark in the water. Some one in five people or so struggle with some sort of mental health issue in their life and we will never know about most of them. It is so crucial to be kind to each other, but we live in an age when kindness means giving up a little of your fake righteous indignation or inconveniencing yourself to take a couple of minutes and really listen to and connect to other people. There is so much we cannot fix, but we can maybe make things a little better for people if we try.
My Serbian friend tells me Serbo-Croation is considered a language, but that there are real differences between Serbian and Croatian. In fact, I think he said he got credit for knowing the Croatian language as a third language for his doctorate (in addition to Serbian and English.) There are Croat nationalists who say they speak an entirely different language from Serbs and Bosniaks and Montenegrins, so it can get political. But my Serb friend also does think of them as different languages, though with much intelligibility between them. (Not quite like a person can understand standard Italian if they speak Spanish as a second language, but maybe similar.)
I used to think Serbs and Croats had become divergent from each other living in different empires -- one Roman Catholic with a Latin alphabet, the other Orthodox with a Cyrillic alphabet, and one subsumed for a time under Ottoman rule. But, a Talmudic scholar born in Hungary and long resident in America told me no, when the Slavic tribes first emerged from the Asian steppe and settled on the Adriatic, the Serbs and Croats were already bitter enemies, although nobody remembers why.
The Serbs seem officially to have embraced Byzantine Orthodoxy around 870; the Croats, Western Catholicism a decade later. I do not know whether it was mutual antipathy that promoted these different choices, or whether the antipathy was a result, and the different choices were more a result of geographical location and the influence of different neighbors.
They seem to have been distinct groups, but very little is known about the Slavic migrations to the region, and I haven’t heard of evidence of any particular antipathy going back that far.
I haven't either. I've heard one tradition related by one individual who originates in the region and is neither Serb nor Croat. In the absence of any evidence, and considering the contrast with my previous assumptions, I found it interesting to consider. Also, it does explain the sheer vehemence of their hostility continuing right into modern times.
Getting credit for another language is a neat trick. They are all basically the same language, formerly called Serbo-Croatian. German dialects are more distinct from each other.
Well....He's a good guy. He also has A2 level (social conversation) in Hungarian, French and German, plus I'm not sure the PhD required three languages - mine only required two. (And heck, I could bring my French dictionary and verb conjugation book, then had half an hour to translate three paragraphs...not hard.)
- - From what I am hearing, yes, the same language. But just as it may take a good ear understand someone parts of the British isles (say a Geordhi or parts of London) there may not be mutual intelligibility. The efforts to make Serbo-Croation "the" language were strong, of course, in the days of Yugoslavia, and I think all would understand Serbo-Croation - though many would, as nationalists, say Serbo-Croatian no longer exists. Quite political.
Ever look into Italian "dialects"? Not mutually intelligible.
This is excellent. My late brother struggled with mental health and physical health issues for many years yet continued on until he was called home. And none too many knew about it. Thanks for writing this.
Another issue in US employment: HR has all but strangled the process. It used to be you could work with a recruiter who could get you right in to the hiring manager if you had the right skills, bypassing HR and its endless resume filters. But that's no longer the case. Recruiting has been outsourced abroad, and the recruiters no longer have a direct business relationship with employers. All they are is bottom feeders who trawl the internet for resumes then offer to represent you-- but they have to go through HR too. There are two young men at my church with excellent educational credentials (STEM stuff). They've been looking for months for "real" jobs. One found a job teaching-- Spanish, not what he actually has a degree in-- and the other makes money doing tutoring. Something is very, very broken in our employment system, and No, it isn't DEI or anything like that. I have to imagine hiring managers are frustrated with it too. HR departments (and the AI resume scanning apps) have become barriers to employing people, not facilitators.
I was recruited to my last jobs. I am certain if I had applied directly I wouldn't have gotten the jobs. The HR system has been bad for at least 20 years, with algos and key word searches and diversity quotas.
Then there are goals to not hire perm. full-time. My brother, in another field, worked for specialized temp agencies, at a lot of large employers. Many only wanted temp workers, so as to not trigger certain state employee rights. Even when he was encouraged by departments managers to apply for full time/perm, he would never get hired and those positions would not get filled. He got his current position at a large employer as a temp, then went full-time perm after 6 months.
I was recruited to me last job too-- in 2018, initially as a temp (also for a job in 2006). Back then it was one way for employers to take new hires for "a test drive" and decide if they wanted them full time or not. And it also allowed potential employers to see if they wanted to work in a certain job for a certain employer. The recruiting/contractor firm bore the initial risk and had to do all background and security checks-- the main firm could save on HR expenses that way.
Some states do have laws against using "perma-temps" specifying that temps must be hired or let go after a given term, maybe six months.
During the time I was an on-staff temp field worker for some University of Michigan longitudinal studies, I had periods of unemployment when I had to show evidence of "looking for work" even though nobody wanted to hire me for a mere two months. I always applied for the best jobs I qualified for, like paralegal. That got me on the mailing lists of all kinds of recruiters, and I still get a flood of emails pointing to jobs I am uniquely qualified for (which often I am definitely not.) When I click on any of them, that particular job is usually not there, but they want me to set up an account and to through a log-in process.
I have a friend who works in HR. Oh my. Her stories. The interview process is so different than the last time I looked for work. She says it’s not unusual in her company to have four interviews before someone is hired in. She says that’s typical for a lot of companies these days.
My husband would get so frustrated with HR b/c of how they’d filter resumes when he was manager. He found it impossible to believe that nobody was applying for an in-demand position. He spent a lot of time trying to work with HR on getting resumes filtered up to him. He’s so glad he’s not in management anymore.
>> Something is very, very broken in our employment system, and No, it isn't DEI or anything like that.
Yeah, there are too many workers chasing too few damn jobs. This mass immigration stuff has to end, permanently.
I'm looking for basic outdoor labor jobs here in Vegas. Management demands three years experience for work as a landscaper. Three years experience, ha. The entire job can be learned in one afternoon just watching (and participating with) the other landscapers. Management/capital have all the card, still, MAGA notwithstanding. If Trump doesn't get on this, the proles stay home and MAGA goes down and Trump just becomes more ridiculous these last two years, and the Democrats come roaring back and end Republican participation in national politics, FOREVER. Would serve the cucks and MAGA right if they don't do the correct things for their base.
Follow Virgil's twitter feed to keep up to date on the scam that is the H1b and other assorted employment visas. Millions of Americans denied employment opportunities granted to foreigners. American elites hate, hate, hate, hate workers, and many of you know, through bitter experience, that you are just one layoff away from being permanently unemployed in your field/profession. As the old song says, "If you let them do this to you, you have yourself to blame..."
H1B is a scam fest. In technology, an older native born white male could not get hired in anything. I required a living wage. The H1B scammers did.not.
Fortunately, I found a way around obstacles. But I temporarily parked some of my ethics.
Tech jobs are the worst offenders. 5+ hour long technical screenings plus an 8 hour long on site, followed by a 1x1 with someone from upper management who will literally never see you again.
And then they'll just hire someone from India for a $20k salary 💀
I had two old friends back in Michigan die from alcoholism last month. Both could be described as people who had peaked too young and never quite made the transition to full adulthood. One had been a "golden boy" in high school, and the other had been a beautiful young woman whose looks opened doors for her-- but looks do not last of course. I knew how it would end for them so there was no shock about it, just a sadness. I should thank God that whatever issues I have addictiveness is not among them. And yes, it's always tempting in that situation to think in a judgey way "Why the deuce can they just quit?"
I don't know: when's the last time you really bullied someone, or engaged in cruelty on purpose? I think we probably overstate the case when we say that literally anyone could do anything. I mean, that's theoretically possible, sure, in the sense that we all share fallen human nature—but there seems to be some sort of baseline grace that offers protection at least against some lower limit. Not anyone just becomes a rapist depending on the situation.
Likewise, when's the last you called for the brutal murder of *anyone*, let alone a person you considered wise and beautiful and holy?
On the other hand, sins of omission are something else altogether, and they are probably uncountable: who knows how many times we've failed to do something that we should have done for others? That's something that everyone short of a saint is surely guilty of, constantly. And I could easily imagine walking away when Jesus was arrested and pretending it was none of my business; that's definitely something I could see myself doing.
There's certainly really overt wickedness, but I think if we're not careful, we're prone to let the "little sins" take over our souls without even realizing it.
Sure. But Rod wrote that he will be confronted by scenes when he has bullied people. And I just went, "Really?—is that something you've gone around doing in your life? I'm not seeing it. . . ." Again, though, walking away when we should have done something: that I find much more plausible.
And as to murder of someone beautiful like Jesus, (not trying to criticize, just make honest observations). 1st there is the very real impact of mob mentality. 2nd it reads like you’re assuming that if you’re in that place in the Bible, you would know Jesus as you know him today. For starters, you wouldn’t of course. I personally try to think of how I’d react if the least of us (a carpenter or shopkeeper) showed up preaching. How would I react? It’s like people who claim that when they become parents, they will act a certain way, but in reality all that changes and rarely does your plan work out. 3rd in that time, death and murder where an everyday experience for people. Today is different. We don’t attend public executions or see people in crosses along the road. Maybe the modern equivalent is prison? Or a false accusation leading to the death penalty?? Finally, was the mob calling for his death the same as those who thought him beautiful? I don’t think so…but maybe.
Honestly, I'm very, very open (some might say too open) to creative types and their novel philosophical and poetic perspectives on reality, so I'm just extrapolating from that. Would I have listened to Him and found what He said to be beautiful?—yeah, probably.
As for how we'd be if brought up in a very different culture where the sight of death was commonplace, well, who knows? That's too big of a question, getting into the more general problem of what is innate versus conditioned in a human being.
Fair enough. I’ve never been I. A true mob. Some group actions. But never mob-ish. That said, there is plenty of research to show people “lose it”. So I can how many probably wee horrified by their actions later. All that said, I appreciate your thoughts.
Which, I suppose, is why Jesus said “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Imagine that. Having compassion for the very people that are torturing you to death, while they are doing it.
Me neither. But maybe the part about saying sorry to Ruthie for stuff in childhood? Either that or Rod was more different than we know, and Rod is a wonder of God's transformative power. -- Maybe it was the movie reviews? :) I'll stop; it's Holy Week...I must be more measured.
Anyway, do congratulate me. I have passed the test and shall remain Galadriel and go into the West! - - By that I mean I got through the Catholic gospel reading this morning done in Hungarian, a language I do not much understand.
Well, I was needlessly cruel in my writing back then. I had read SPY magazine in the Eighties, and loved that kind of writing. But I was thinking about things that I could easily have done, and never noticed I was doing it. I remember having to go to confession back during the first year of the sex abuse scandal, after I read a story of an alleged abuse victim kneecapping his clerical abuser with a pistol shot in the leg. I thought when I read that, "Good, the bastard deserved it!" And maybe the bastard did. But I should not have thought that.
But never a bully...I'm kicking myself some. My "me neither" remark above got separated from its reference to Sethu's "bullied people...really?...not seeing it". Hope that and the joke about the reviews were clear.
I don't think we're held spiritually responsible for the thoughts that pop into our heads. We are held responsible for the uncharitable thoughts we welcome (once they're there) and dwell on.
My guess is that thought about the clerical abuser came from your desire to protect innocence, which is a good and virtuous instinct that comes from God. Assuming you did not go on to dwell in fantasies of all the ways the perpetrator might suffer, that you didn't pursue delight in vengeful imaginings, I think the Lord understood your reaction completely and loved you for your concern.
I also think that the world would be a better place if some of these people needed to live under constant fear of getting a kneecap or let’s-say-something-else blown off. Deterrence.
Why? Sexually abusing a child is the lowest of the low. It's the darkest thing, as the theft of that child's innocence and faith and childhood. Anyone who can do that deserves condemnation and scorn. Isn't part of what we're asked to do as human beings to discern and value and, in fact judge? If we can't or don't discern or judge, how do we separate the beautiful from what is not? I realize these are big messy, complicated questions, but I miss your point in an absolute sense, or disagree with it, I suppose. Why not think that? By what compass or code or meaning would one not think with judgement upon such a person for such a heinous act? What is the "should" here, that you shouldn't have had such a thought. Why? I wonder if there isn't a bit of ego in taking oneself so seriously for thinking such a thing.
I'm thinking of something that involves knowing malice, like the kind of scenario Rod wrote about. If you mean some sort of subtle Girardian scapegoating, then sure, I expect that we're all liable to subconsciously get caught up in that sort of dynamic.
I'm talking about the sort of universal gossip that falls upon people like a spell. Like, we believe the guy's a criminal because everyone believes it, not even because we personally know or hate the guy, but because we just passively go with the flow and don't think to think about it.
It depends on the definition of bullying. If it's intentionally terrorizing someone weaker, I can't remember ever, as a kid, engaging in bullying. It happened in the schools I was in, but it was mostly the dumbasses who got up to it.
But if we go by the current left's definition, sure, I engaged in bullying. I remember many years back some Americans online lamenting how one of their 4th-grade sons, who liked to wear a pink My Little Pony jacket to school, was getting "bullied". I tried to ascertain what bullying meant to them. Basically, it meant the other boys occasionally teased him for the jacket.
That's not bullying. Or if it is, I'm guilty. And would hope to be guilty again should I have to go through grade school again.
Yes, it’s about our “definition of the situation,” to quote the sociologist W.I. Thomas. I remember during a Boy Scouts outing, standing up for a slow and stuttering kid who was being bullied by two other cabin mates. But then I recall, mea culpa, not doing much for the same kid when there was a much larger group of popular kids teasing him, even joining in the laughing. Not proud of it.
I see it on three levels. What you're talking about is level one. Level two is what psychotherapists call being a prick. One of my best friends in high school took a dirty hit in football practice from a BMOC. Later, at the urinal in the lockeroom, the guy next to my friend pointed pointed down. My friend was pissing blood and spent the next three days in the hospital with a badly bruised kidney. The BMOC went on to make a lot of money selling some household convenience and had a second career as a lay prosperity gospel motivational speaker telling everybody how it was Jesus made him rich.
The third level is narcissistic abuse, and for that you need intimacy, familial or sexual, before the narcissist can get to work. You also need a devil, who makes himself generally pretty available.
For me this is why reading Scripture is so healthful.
Every time I am reminded of a past sin, and hence how far from the purity that God demands. But thankfully He provided a way out for me and every other sinner--Jesus!
“Let us keep our eyes open and our hearts broken over our own sins, and the sins of the world. In fact, the only way to keep our eyes open fully is if our hearts are broken.”
“Pathein mathein” - “We must suffer to be wise” - Aeschylus, “Agamemnon”. And Cordelia to Charles in “Brideshead Revisited”: “No one is truly holy without suffering.”
That's a great Palm Sunday reflection, Rod. We'll be at Mass in a couple hours where my wife will participate in the reading of the Passion, according to Luke.
I would echo your insights on the universality of suffering. More than once over the years I've highlighted for my family and friends some words of wisdom that I heard many years ago and have always resonated with me: "Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about."
So often people engage in desperate and lonely struggles while carrying crosses beyond the knowledge or comprehension of others.
In fact, if you make it to age 70 without an acute sense of awareness of your own sinfulness and gratitude for God's rescuing power in sparing you the just consequences of that sinfulness, well, you haven't been paying enough attention.
I learned early on never to judge another human being but also the necessary and critical distinction between judging subjective guilt, which is the province of God, and judging the objective moral quality of actions, which it is our sometimes painful obligation to do...guided by reason, revelation, and Church teaching.
That's a haunting question you raise about what our response to Jesus would have been if we had lived 2000 years ago in the land He walked, among the people He taught. As someone who on occasion over the decades has been called to take unpopular, unfashionable stands in the face of power or majority opinion, I'd like to think I would not have been among those demanding His crucifixion.
But I don't know. Nobody can know until placed in the situation. Sometimes those you'd think would be brave turn out to be cowards or connivers while those you would not have placed as heroic act with courage. You can only pray beforehand that you will be given the grace to know and do the right thing when the moment arrives.
At the end of the day, we're left with Scripture's warning that each person must work out his or her salvation with humble trembling, aware of their own weakness but praying for God's saving grace. And as Christians in the West enter the awesome mystery of Holy Week, we're reminded that the crucifixion came before the Resurrection. So it was for Christ. So it must be for all of us.
Yet the story has a happy ending captured beautifully in a song I love titled Roll Away The Stone: "They have been saying no one will remember; they have been saying power rules the world; roll away the stone...see the glory of God..." Next Sunday we will see and celebrate the glory, which is our ultimate hope.
I'm so glad the prayer book is working for you, Rod! It was great to give it to you following the Danube Institute event before all your travels, after I’d sent for it from Ancient Faith. Weeks ago, it was, and just now, your first chance to try it. Happy to know it may enhance your experience of the liturgy. And it's been inspiring to follow your recent missives from across Europe and America
Oh my, I opened the Stack again and realized - perspective- The book is actually about 8in by 10in IIRC. Which I thought was a little big but manageable. There were not alternate sizes. The thing looks close to the width of Rod...heh..imagine walking down the street with that. Rod would just need some priestly robes and a longer beard. Perhaps he could then thunk people on the head with it. Oh dear, I am just not getting serious enough yet for Holy Week.
Well, Rod has written more than once about going to liturgy at the Serbian Orthodox Church and the challenge due to not understanding. Sometimes I just want to "take care of things." :) Anyway, I owe a lot to Rod as a Christian teacher.
The last couple of days, in particular, my thoughts have taken a bad turn. Not as bad as sometimes, but all the stress and frustration and ways of being able to tell myself I have failed can just get to a point of feeling like too much. And then, the sunrise over Racine. Or time with friends. Or even some tiny sign that reminds me that He is with me. That doesn't always make the moment or even the day feel better, but it helps keep it all from becoming too much. I'm not being asked walk across Spain - I'm being asked to keep putting one foot in front of the other and lean on Him as guide.
Have no doubt, too, that there's a lot of spiritual warfare going on at this point. Perhaps moreso this year because all Christians are unified on when we are actually celebrating Easter/Pascha. It is not good to discount this reality.
There are plenty of explicable reasons for it, nonethelss I seem to invariably get hit with something during Lent. Right now I'm dealing with a stomach bug which has me on the BRAT diet. At least it's Lentan. :)
Hope you recover soon! The Florida stomach bug I had in early January lasted a solid week, which is quite unusual for something like that, especially for me and my normally cast iron gut.
I went to a CVS Minute clinic on day 5. They did nothing but give me the usual advice ("drink plenty of fluids...eat bland food...") You may well have something else of course so I'm not saying Don't go. I once had giardiasis (which I would not wish on my worst enemy) and there was a course of medicine available for that.
Thank you. I'm honored. At this point, I'd be lucky to be able to sit down and make it a blog post.
It's funny, because Marcus Plested (https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/the-norfolk-orient) suggested I write a non-fiction book, coincidentally on the same subject as I've been pondering for awhile (Orthodox Churches and History in Wisconsin).
The fiction book that is floating around my head has space travel, growing up, a random 19th century Alaskan Orthodox priest, unbelievable technology, questioning reality, a beheading. and other such things. Having the discipline to sit and write, in the middle of all sorts of chaos, though, is really, really hard. Oh yes, and that voice that likes to whisper, "Hey, it's all stupid" doesn't help either. But I'm working on it, bit by bit.
If you see reality weirdly enough, the line between what you call nonficton and others call fiction can perhaps become nebulous. And remember, you can always pull a Kerouac: write about real stuff, but then just change the names, so as to avert getting sued. "You think that character is you? Aw, you always think *everything* is about you. . ."
Be merciful to others. Everyone carries a heavy cross.
When asked what he had learned from frequently hearing confessions for over 10 hours a day, the Cure of Ars, (St. John Vianney), said: “Most people are not nearly as happy as they appear to be". He was a humble French priest to whom people flocked for many years to pour out their hearts in confession.
A Southern Baptist friend once told me that in the church of her youth, everybody felt this unspoken pressure to be Perfect -- to look like you had the perfect family, that everything was happy, etc. The sense was that if you had problems that were visible, people would conclude that you were a sinner failing in your Walk With The Lord.
Your comment also made me think of what I've heard from several confessors, both Catholic and Orthodox, over the years: that ordinary people would be shocked to learn how widespread pornography addiction is. Addiction, as in people want to stop, but they can't. And these are the people who know it's evil, and take it to confession!
Whether it's alcohol or porn, my theory is that it's not enough to try to eliminate some behavior. Some other practice needs to fill the space being vacated or the reform attempt is likely to fail.
Even the bloodthirsty Robespierre realized it wasn't enough for the French Revolution to try to crush the Church. Hence, his ill-fated substitute the 'Cult of the Supreme Being'.
Sexual hormones developed to be addictive. What does it take to induce two rats or two pigs or two ferrets to make babies and ensure the survival of the species? The more addictive, the greater the survival value. That's why humans have institutions to channel it, including of course marriage. But if that isn't satisfying, its back to the addiction. Before pornography was so widespread, it was just fantasies running around our own heads, which could be distracting to the point of having evil effects, or not, but wasn't widespread commerce. I'm becoming more convinced that "sin" and "virtue" are actually about our bodies having evolved with a variety of instincts that need to be mastered (not mortified, but mastered, channeled, dedicated to a higher purpose) by minds infused with a living soul.
People don't really like physical contact either. How often do we prefer to find a double seat on a plane, train or bus that has nobody else sitting next to us? Sex drives are all about motivating large complex organisms to go through some very inconvenient contortions to produce a new generation. And since we have that, like other mammals, we have done some very human things building culture around it.
Coming down hard on porn, sequestering it to a part of the internet that would be difficult to access for youth and cumbersome for adults would be a winning policy - at least the effort would be - for Republicans, low hanging fruit, instead we here crickets. Again, what conservative triumphs has that faction accomplished over the past 45 years? Oh yea, taxes, defense spending, whatever.
<<In fact, the only way to keep our eyes open fully is if our hearts are broken.>>
1) Asking prayer as I am having trouble with faith, though not with knowing I constantly fall short.
but (2) I think our hearts are supposed to be broken but healed. Not continually broken. And there can be scars. Maybe the semantics of the word broken are in play here?
(3) There can be a careful balance between a repentant heart and scrupulosity. Where that balance is for a person? That is between each believer and their Lord.
Linda, as for your first point, let us pray for one another. My struggle with faith has been going on many years, though I am grateful it has not been so intense recently. It is especially upsetting because I am a catechist. I even reached out to Rod once by email and his advice was helpful. This Substack--Rod's columns as well as the comments--are a source of strength for me and, I suspect, for you as well.
I am beginning to think that most of our thoughts are not really our own, that we are observing them and either assenting or rejecting them.
I think Live Not By Lies reminds us that there are good, decent, brave people and this is a powerful weapon against the malice and cynicism this culture marinates us in.
But as Dostoevsky said, "the truth becomes evident in unhappiness" and also,
"Life everywhere is life.....Do not grieve for me....never until now have such rich and healthy stores of spiritual life throbbed in me."
The Lord of Spirits podcast has had a couple of episodes where they assert that the "nous" is like a receiver which receives ideas from a variety of spiritual entities, which we then filter and incorporate or reject . I continue to ponder that and wonder how many of my thoughts are generated by me and how many by spiritual entities--especially the ones who wish evil.
I have trouble believing a demon puts words in people's heads on any regular basis. As for words from Spirit/sprits: Among Christians it is considered unusual to say, "The Lord told me (something)" Granting that direct words from God are rare, is our mind a place where demons can constantly whisper?
Regina was not speaking of possession, but perhaps of interest, I saw a "documentary" two nights ago - well, I saw the first few minutes of one. It was portraying Evangelical Christians in China trying and failing to cast out a demon. After the demon scene it became apparent YouTube had served up a something from the cult Eastern Lightening. (It never served me cults before and I hope it does not again.) The demon possessed man acted exactly like purported actual films of "possessed" people. Yes, the deep voice, which I have long known as a qualified voice teacher is well within human capability. I don't say possession never happens. I say it is rare. I say it can easily be unintentionally faked by the impressionable who have seen dramas about it and fear they are possessed. Because people can sometimes feel powerless against addictions and other evils within. - - And I say there is no reason 80 percent of those claiming possession (actual statistics) should be women if most of those claiming possession are indeed possessed.
The spirits used to be called "intelligences," due to the belief that they communicate directly with one's mind. Your "trouble believing" is just thoroughly modern; this belief was totally uncontroversial not only for most Christians but most human beings in general across all of history. And I think that they were right.
I will admit that I don't believe demons put thoughts directly into heads. If they could, they would, for instance, commonly tell the most evil people what stocks to buy so they would grow rich and do greater evil. They would (this is horrible) tell someone when a person they want to rape is arriving home alone. They could tell the president to press the red button and give very convincing thoughts as to why.
OK, in the last example the president has free will. So do the first two, but the first two already wish to use their free will for evil. They can do these evil things with more information.
I think demons would have already achieved their desired end of killing all humanity if they directly inserted thoughts in heads.
It seems to me that you're misunderstanding the concept. The fact is that our minds participate in a spiritual realm, which is populated by spirits—and if you accept that, then it follows quite naturally that we would "hear" them and often mistake them for ourselves, since they are not physically external to us in a way that makes the boundary clear. Not just demons; spirits of all kinds.
The modern mythology of the subconscious has largely been substituted for this view in these times.
Once you consider thoughts like that-- St. Ignatius's discernment of spirits starts making much more sense.
There's a great monologue from Shakespeare's Richard II where he's alone in jail, sentenced to death, and he talks about his "still-breeding thoughts", and how they whip him around from elation to despair, from king puffed up with ego to silly beggar, but then he realizes that he, like every other man "will not be eased until he's pleased with being nothing."
Hi Regina: I liked your post. I did wonder about one part - thoughts not really our own - but when I continued the discussion it was after Sethu's remark. Just letting you know. Also, the Dostoevsky was very inspirational!
Speaking of Dostoevsky--I just finished leading an adult class on "The Grand Inquisitor" from Bros. Karamazov so it's very much on my mind. The Inquisitor's language to Christ sounds identical to the "voice" of the tempter in Eden and in the desert with Christ those 40 days.
It's all suggestion with the tempter: Did God really say....? If you are the Son of God....
And from Bros. K" The dread and intelligent spirit, the spirit of self-destruction and non-being...spoke with you in the wilderness...he supposedly tempted you. Did he really?"
The bad spirit is nothing if not subtle. But when you are alert to it--you recognize the voice. Like Christ says: My sheep know my voice.
Maybe it's a writer/reader thing--but I am attune to "voice"
Hope this helps and doesn't make it sound crazier than it actually is.
This resonated very deeply with me. I have bipolar, but am also very successful within the limits it places on me. No one would really know, because I work so hard to hide it, but it is always there like a shark in the water. Some one in five people or so struggle with some sort of mental health issue in their life and we will never know about most of them. It is so crucial to be kind to each other, but we live in an age when kindness means giving up a little of your fake righteous indignation or inconveniencing yourself to take a couple of minutes and really listen to and connect to other people. There is so much we cannot fix, but we can maybe make things a little better for people if we try.
I think Serbian in the Latin alphabet is what Croatian is (and/or Bosnian too)
My Serbian friend tells me Serbo-Croation is considered a language, but that there are real differences between Serbian and Croatian. In fact, I think he said he got credit for knowing the Croatian language as a third language for his doctorate (in addition to Serbian and English.) There are Croat nationalists who say they speak an entirely different language from Serbs and Bosniaks and Montenegrins, so it can get political. But my Serb friend also does think of them as different languages, though with much intelligibility between them. (Not quite like a person can understand standard Italian if they speak Spanish as a second language, but maybe similar.)
There's an old line: "A language is a dialect with an Army behind it."
I used to think Serbs and Croats had become divergent from each other living in different empires -- one Roman Catholic with a Latin alphabet, the other Orthodox with a Cyrillic alphabet, and one subsumed for a time under Ottoman rule. But, a Talmudic scholar born in Hungary and long resident in America told me no, when the Slavic tribes first emerged from the Asian steppe and settled on the Adriatic, the Serbs and Croats were already bitter enemies, although nobody remembers why.
The Serbs seem officially to have embraced Byzantine Orthodoxy around 870; the Croats, Western Catholicism a decade later. I do not know whether it was mutual antipathy that promoted these different choices, or whether the antipathy was a result, and the different choices were more a result of geographical location and the influence of different neighbors.
They seem to have been distinct groups, but very little is known about the Slavic migrations to the region, and I haven’t heard of evidence of any particular antipathy going back that far.
I haven't either. I've heard one tradition related by one individual who originates in the region and is neither Serb nor Croat. In the absence of any evidence, and considering the contrast with my previous assumptions, I found it interesting to consider. Also, it does explain the sheer vehemence of their hostility continuing right into modern times.
Getting credit for another language is a neat trick. They are all basically the same language, formerly called Serbo-Croatian. German dialects are more distinct from each other.
Well....He's a good guy. He also has A2 level (social conversation) in Hungarian, French and German, plus I'm not sure the PhD required three languages - mine only required two. (And heck, I could bring my French dictionary and verb conjugation book, then had half an hour to translate three paragraphs...not hard.)
- - From what I am hearing, yes, the same language. But just as it may take a good ear understand someone parts of the British isles (say a Geordhi or parts of London) there may not be mutual intelligibility. The efforts to make Serbo-Croation "the" language were strong, of course, in the days of Yugoslavia, and I think all would understand Serbo-Croation - though many would, as nationalists, say Serbo-Croatian no longer exists. Quite political.
Ever look into Italian "dialects"? Not mutually intelligible.
This is excellent. My late brother struggled with mental health and physical health issues for many years yet continued on until he was called home. And none too many knew about it. Thanks for writing this.
“That’s who we are as human beings. There is not one of us who is innocent.”
“Faces along the bar
Cling to their average day:
The lights must never go out,
The music must always play,
All the conventions conspire
To make this fort assume
The furniture of home;
Lest we should see where we are,
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the night
Who have never been happy or good.”
W.H. Auden, “September 1, 1939”.
Another issue in US employment: HR has all but strangled the process. It used to be you could work with a recruiter who could get you right in to the hiring manager if you had the right skills, bypassing HR and its endless resume filters. But that's no longer the case. Recruiting has been outsourced abroad, and the recruiters no longer have a direct business relationship with employers. All they are is bottom feeders who trawl the internet for resumes then offer to represent you-- but they have to go through HR too. There are two young men at my church with excellent educational credentials (STEM stuff). They've been looking for months for "real" jobs. One found a job teaching-- Spanish, not what he actually has a degree in-- and the other makes money doing tutoring. Something is very, very broken in our employment system, and No, it isn't DEI or anything like that. I have to imagine hiring managers are frustrated with it too. HR departments (and the AI resume scanning apps) have become barriers to employing people, not facilitators.
Chisel this one in stone. Thank God I've backed out of all that too much for us.
I was recruited to my last jobs. I am certain if I had applied directly I wouldn't have gotten the jobs. The HR system has been bad for at least 20 years, with algos and key word searches and diversity quotas.
Then there are goals to not hire perm. full-time. My brother, in another field, worked for specialized temp agencies, at a lot of large employers. Many only wanted temp workers, so as to not trigger certain state employee rights. Even when he was encouraged by departments managers to apply for full time/perm, he would never get hired and those positions would not get filled. He got his current position at a large employer as a temp, then went full-time perm after 6 months.
I was recruited to me last job too-- in 2018, initially as a temp (also for a job in 2006). Back then it was one way for employers to take new hires for "a test drive" and decide if they wanted them full time or not. And it also allowed potential employers to see if they wanted to work in a certain job for a certain employer. The recruiting/contractor firm bore the initial risk and had to do all background and security checks-- the main firm could save on HR expenses that way.
Some states do have laws against using "perma-temps" specifying that temps must be hired or let go after a given term, maybe six months.
My favorite HR story is the time they required 5 years experience in a hot new programming languages. 5 years!
The language had only existed for barely 3 years. But HR required 5 years experience for anything.
You will have to lie on your resume these days.
During the time I was an on-staff temp field worker for some University of Michigan longitudinal studies, I had periods of unemployment when I had to show evidence of "looking for work" even though nobody wanted to hire me for a mere two months. I always applied for the best jobs I qualified for, like paralegal. That got me on the mailing lists of all kinds of recruiters, and I still get a flood of emails pointing to jobs I am uniquely qualified for (which often I am definitely not.) When I click on any of them, that particular job is usually not there, but they want me to set up an account and to through a log-in process.
Jon this is quite true. There are even apps to tell you the key words used for the filters.
I have a friend who works in HR. Oh my. Her stories. The interview process is so different than the last time I looked for work. She says it’s not unusual in her company to have four interviews before someone is hired in. She says that’s typical for a lot of companies these days.
My husband would get so frustrated with HR b/c of how they’d filter resumes when he was manager. He found it impossible to believe that nobody was applying for an in-demand position. He spent a lot of time trying to work with HR on getting resumes filtered up to him. He’s so glad he’s not in management anymore.
>> Something is very, very broken in our employment system, and No, it isn't DEI or anything like that.
Yeah, there are too many workers chasing too few damn jobs. This mass immigration stuff has to end, permanently.
I'm looking for basic outdoor labor jobs here in Vegas. Management demands three years experience for work as a landscaper. Three years experience, ha. The entire job can be learned in one afternoon just watching (and participating with) the other landscapers. Management/capital have all the card, still, MAGA notwithstanding. If Trump doesn't get on this, the proles stay home and MAGA goes down and Trump just becomes more ridiculous these last two years, and the Democrats come roaring back and end Republican participation in national politics, FOREVER. Would serve the cucks and MAGA right if they don't do the correct things for their base.
Can you start your own company?
This is a 'tarded response.
Follow Virgil's twitter feed to keep up to date on the scam that is the H1b and other assorted employment visas. Millions of Americans denied employment opportunities granted to foreigners. American elites hate, hate, hate, hate workers, and many of you know, through bitter experience, that you are just one layoff away from being permanently unemployed in your field/profession. As the old song says, "If you let them do this to you, you have yourself to blame..."
https://x.com/VBierschwale
H1B is a scam fest. In technology, an older native born white male could not get hired in anything. I required a living wage. The H1B scammers did.not.
Fortunately, I found a way around obstacles. But I temporarily parked some of my ethics.
Tech jobs are the worst offenders. 5+ hour long technical screenings plus an 8 hour long on site, followed by a 1x1 with someone from upper management who will literally never see you again.
And then they'll just hire someone from India for a $20k salary 💀
I had two old friends back in Michigan die from alcoholism last month. Both could be described as people who had peaked too young and never quite made the transition to full adulthood. One had been a "golden boy" in high school, and the other had been a beautiful young woman whose looks opened doors for her-- but looks do not last of course. I knew how it would end for them so there was no shock about it, just a sadness. I should thank God that whatever issues I have addictiveness is not among them. And yes, it's always tempting in that situation to think in a judgey way "Why the deuce can they just quit?"
“Yes, the Jews, and the Romans, crucified Our Lord. But so did we, and so do we every day, when in our thoughts and deeds, we deny him.”
From “Choruses from The Rock” by T.S. Eliot:
“But the man that is will shadow
The man that pretends to be.
And the Son of Man was not crucified once for all,
The blood of the martyrs not shed once for all,
The lives of the Saints not given once for all:
But the Son of Man is crucified always
And there shall be Martyrs and Saints.”
I don't know: when's the last time you really bullied someone, or engaged in cruelty on purpose? I think we probably overstate the case when we say that literally anyone could do anything. I mean, that's theoretically possible, sure, in the sense that we all share fallen human nature—but there seems to be some sort of baseline grace that offers protection at least against some lower limit. Not anyone just becomes a rapist depending on the situation.
Likewise, when's the last you called for the brutal murder of *anyone*, let alone a person you considered wise and beautiful and holy?
On the other hand, sins of omission are something else altogether, and they are probably uncountable: who knows how many times we've failed to do something that we should have done for others? That's something that everyone short of a saint is surely guilty of, constantly. And I could easily imagine walking away when Jesus was arrested and pretending it was none of my business; that's definitely something I could see myself doing.
There's certainly really overt wickedness, but I think if we're not careful, we're prone to let the "little sins" take over our souls without even realizing it.
Sure. But Rod wrote that he will be confronted by scenes when he has bullied people. And I just went, "Really?—is that something you've gone around doing in your life? I'm not seeing it. . . ." Again, though, walking away when we should have done something: that I find much more plausible.
I think he was talking about his youth.
And as to murder of someone beautiful like Jesus, (not trying to criticize, just make honest observations). 1st there is the very real impact of mob mentality. 2nd it reads like you’re assuming that if you’re in that place in the Bible, you would know Jesus as you know him today. For starters, you wouldn’t of course. I personally try to think of how I’d react if the least of us (a carpenter or shopkeeper) showed up preaching. How would I react? It’s like people who claim that when they become parents, they will act a certain way, but in reality all that changes and rarely does your plan work out. 3rd in that time, death and murder where an everyday experience for people. Today is different. We don’t attend public executions or see people in crosses along the road. Maybe the modern equivalent is prison? Or a false accusation leading to the death penalty?? Finally, was the mob calling for his death the same as those who thought him beautiful? I don’t think so…but maybe.
Honestly, I'm very, very open (some might say too open) to creative types and their novel philosophical and poetic perspectives on reality, so I'm just extrapolating from that. Would I have listened to Him and found what He said to be beautiful?—yeah, probably.
As for how we'd be if brought up in a very different culture where the sight of death was commonplace, well, who knows? That's too big of a question, getting into the more general problem of what is innate versus conditioned in a human being.
Fair enough. I’ve never been I. A true mob. Some group actions. But never mob-ish. That said, there is plenty of research to show people “lose it”. So I can how many probably wee horrified by their actions later. All that said, I appreciate your thoughts.
Which, I suppose, is why Jesus said “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Imagine that. Having compassion for the very people that are torturing you to death, while they are doing it.
Amen.
Me neither. But maybe the part about saying sorry to Ruthie for stuff in childhood? Either that or Rod was more different than we know, and Rod is a wonder of God's transformative power. -- Maybe it was the movie reviews? :) I'll stop; it's Holy Week...I must be more measured.
Anyway, do congratulate me. I have passed the test and shall remain Galadriel and go into the West! - - By that I mean I got through the Catholic gospel reading this morning done in Hungarian, a language I do not much understand.
I chuckled at the movie reviews.
Well done for sitting through the Hungarian gospel.
It's been great to see you posting again! And you helped make my day - rarely can i draw a chuckle from a person with a fine British sense of humour.
Hey Linda I enjoyed your article.
I feel honoured that a non-English person would attempt to understand our odd little foibles.
Congrats!
Well, I was needlessly cruel in my writing back then. I had read SPY magazine in the Eighties, and loved that kind of writing. But I was thinking about things that I could easily have done, and never noticed I was doing it. I remember having to go to confession back during the first year of the sex abuse scandal, after I read a story of an alleged abuse victim kneecapping his clerical abuser with a pistol shot in the leg. I thought when I read that, "Good, the bastard deserved it!" And maybe the bastard did. But I should not have thought that.
My grammar school had a reunion. I went to every kid I terrorized (that showed up) and apologized with all my heart. And told people to pass it on.
But never a bully...I'm kicking myself some. My "me neither" remark above got separated from its reference to Sethu's "bullied people...really?...not seeing it". Hope that and the joke about the reviews were clear.
Personally, I'm not sure that thought needs to be forgiven.
I don't think we're held spiritually responsible for the thoughts that pop into our heads. We are held responsible for the uncharitable thoughts we welcome (once they're there) and dwell on.
My guess is that thought about the clerical abuser came from your desire to protect innocence, which is a good and virtuous instinct that comes from God. Assuming you did not go on to dwell in fantasies of all the ways the perpetrator might suffer, that you didn't pursue delight in vengeful imaginings, I think the Lord understood your reaction completely and loved you for your concern.
I also think that the world would be a better place if some of these people needed to live under constant fear of getting a kneecap or let’s-say-something-else blown off. Deterrence.
Why? Sexually abusing a child is the lowest of the low. It's the darkest thing, as the theft of that child's innocence and faith and childhood. Anyone who can do that deserves condemnation and scorn. Isn't part of what we're asked to do as human beings to discern and value and, in fact judge? If we can't or don't discern or judge, how do we separate the beautiful from what is not? I realize these are big messy, complicated questions, but I miss your point in an absolute sense, or disagree with it, I suppose. Why not think that? By what compass or code or meaning would one not think with judgement upon such a person for such a heinous act? What is the "should" here, that you shouldn't have had such a thought. Why? I wonder if there isn't a bit of ego in taking oneself so seriously for thinking such a thing.
The ones who do that deserve more than just condemnation and scorn.
I detest bullying. But anybody, male or female, who says they've never engaged in it is lying, probably to themselves first.
I'm thinking of something that involves knowing malice, like the kind of scenario Rod wrote about. If you mean some sort of subtle Girardian scapegoating, then sure, I expect that we're all liable to subconsciously get caught up in that sort of dynamic.
Really? I think you have to be pretty far down the road to Hell to engage in full-blown scapegoating, not occasional nasty cracks.
I'm talking about the sort of universal gossip that falls upon people like a spell. Like, we believe the guy's a criminal because everyone believes it, not even because we personally know or hate the guy, but because we just passively go with the flow and don't think to think about it.
I get it. But scapegoating takes time, thought, and hatred.
It depends on the definition of bullying. If it's intentionally terrorizing someone weaker, I can't remember ever, as a kid, engaging in bullying. It happened in the schools I was in, but it was mostly the dumbasses who got up to it.
But if we go by the current left's definition, sure, I engaged in bullying. I remember many years back some Americans online lamenting how one of their 4th-grade sons, who liked to wear a pink My Little Pony jacket to school, was getting "bullied". I tried to ascertain what bullying meant to them. Basically, it meant the other boys occasionally teased him for the jacket.
That's not bullying. Or if it is, I'm guilty. And would hope to be guilty again should I have to go through grade school again.
Yes, it’s about our “definition of the situation,” to quote the sociologist W.I. Thomas. I remember during a Boy Scouts outing, standing up for a slow and stuttering kid who was being bullied by two other cabin mates. But then I recall, mea culpa, not doing much for the same kid when there was a much larger group of popular kids teasing him, even joining in the laughing. Not proud of it.
I see it on three levels. What you're talking about is level one. Level two is what psychotherapists call being a prick. One of my best friends in high school took a dirty hit in football practice from a BMOC. Later, at the urinal in the lockeroom, the guy next to my friend pointed pointed down. My friend was pissing blood and spent the next three days in the hospital with a badly bruised kidney. The BMOC went on to make a lot of money selling some household convenience and had a second career as a lay prosperity gospel motivational speaker telling everybody how it was Jesus made him rich.
The third level is narcissistic abuse, and for that you need intimacy, familial or sexual, before the narcissist can get to work. You also need a devil, who makes himself generally pretty available.
For me this is why reading Scripture is so healthful.
Every time I am reminded of a past sin, and hence how far from the purity that God demands. But thankfully He provided a way out for me and every other sinner--Jesus!
“Let us keep our eyes open and our hearts broken over our own sins, and the sins of the world. In fact, the only way to keep our eyes open fully is if our hearts are broken.”
“Pathein mathein” - “We must suffer to be wise” - Aeschylus, “Agamemnon”. And Cordelia to Charles in “Brideshead Revisited”: “No one is truly holy without suffering.”
With all due respect to Evelyn Waugh, I go with Paul: There is none righteous, no, not one.
That's a great Palm Sunday reflection, Rod. We'll be at Mass in a couple hours where my wife will participate in the reading of the Passion, according to Luke.
I would echo your insights on the universality of suffering. More than once over the years I've highlighted for my family and friends some words of wisdom that I heard many years ago and have always resonated with me: "Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about."
So often people engage in desperate and lonely struggles while carrying crosses beyond the knowledge or comprehension of others.
In fact, if you make it to age 70 without an acute sense of awareness of your own sinfulness and gratitude for God's rescuing power in sparing you the just consequences of that sinfulness, well, you haven't been paying enough attention.
I learned early on never to judge another human being but also the necessary and critical distinction between judging subjective guilt, which is the province of God, and judging the objective moral quality of actions, which it is our sometimes painful obligation to do...guided by reason, revelation, and Church teaching.
That's a haunting question you raise about what our response to Jesus would have been if we had lived 2000 years ago in the land He walked, among the people He taught. As someone who on occasion over the decades has been called to take unpopular, unfashionable stands in the face of power or majority opinion, I'd like to think I would not have been among those demanding His crucifixion.
But I don't know. Nobody can know until placed in the situation. Sometimes those you'd think would be brave turn out to be cowards or connivers while those you would not have placed as heroic act with courage. You can only pray beforehand that you will be given the grace to know and do the right thing when the moment arrives.
At the end of the day, we're left with Scripture's warning that each person must work out his or her salvation with humble trembling, aware of their own weakness but praying for God's saving grace. And as Christians in the West enter the awesome mystery of Holy Week, we're reminded that the crucifixion came before the Resurrection. So it was for Christ. So it must be for all of us.
Yet the story has a happy ending captured beautifully in a song I love titled Roll Away The Stone: "They have been saying no one will remember; they have been saying power rules the world; roll away the stone...see the glory of God..." Next Sunday we will see and celebrate the glory, which is our ultimate hope.
I'm so glad the prayer book is working for you, Rod! It was great to give it to you following the Danube Institute event before all your travels, after I’d sent for it from Ancient Faith. Weeks ago, it was, and just now, your first chance to try it. Happy to know it may enhance your experience of the liturgy. And it's been inspiring to follow your recent missives from across Europe and America
Oh my, I opened the Stack again and realized - perspective- The book is actually about 8in by 10in IIRC. Which I thought was a little big but manageable. There were not alternate sizes. The thing looks close to the width of Rod...heh..imagine walking down the street with that. Rod would just need some priestly robes and a longer beard. Perhaps he could then thunk people on the head with it. Oh dear, I am just not getting serious enough yet for Holy Week.
Interesting - I hadn't expected that Ancient Faith's store would have anything in Serbian.
Well, Rod has written more than once about going to liturgy at the Serbian Orthodox Church and the challenge due to not understanding. Sometimes I just want to "take care of things." :) Anyway, I owe a lot to Rod as a Christian teacher.
The last couple of days, in particular, my thoughts have taken a bad turn. Not as bad as sometimes, but all the stress and frustration and ways of being able to tell myself I have failed can just get to a point of feeling like too much. And then, the sunrise over Racine. Or time with friends. Or even some tiny sign that reminds me that He is with me. That doesn't always make the moment or even the day feel better, but it helps keep it all from becoming too much. I'm not being asked walk across Spain - I'm being asked to keep putting one foot in front of the other and lean on Him as guide.
Have no doubt, too, that there's a lot of spiritual warfare going on at this point. Perhaps moreso this year because all Christians are unified on when we are actually celebrating Easter/Pascha. It is not good to discount this reality.
There are plenty of explicable reasons for it, nonethelss I seem to invariably get hit with something during Lent. Right now I'm dealing with a stomach bug which has me on the BRAT diet. At least it's Lentan. :)
Hope you recover soon! The Florida stomach bug I had in early January lasted a solid week, which is quite unusual for something like that, especially for me and my normally cast iron gut.
Thanks, probably going to try and see the doctor. I want to be over this before Pascha
I went to a CVS Minute clinic on day 5. They did nothing but give me the usual advice ("drink plenty of fluids...eat bland food...") You may well have something else of course so I'm not saying Don't go. I once had giardiasis (which I would not wish on my worst enemy) and there was a course of medicine available for that.
I missed a checkup a few days ago because of a dead battery, so I need to go anyway.
I got it too, in October, I thought it was Noro virus. 😵
Hang in there!
Thanks!
Sunrise over Racine sounds good.
"Sunrise Over Racine" sounds like the novel Katja needs to write.
Thank you. I'm honored. At this point, I'd be lucky to be able to sit down and make it a blog post.
It's funny, because Marcus Plested (https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/p/the-norfolk-orient) suggested I write a non-fiction book, coincidentally on the same subject as I've been pondering for awhile (Orthodox Churches and History in Wisconsin).
The fiction book that is floating around my head has space travel, growing up, a random 19th century Alaskan Orthodox priest, unbelievable technology, questioning reality, a beheading. and other such things. Having the discipline to sit and write, in the middle of all sorts of chaos, though, is really, really hard. Oh yes, and that voice that likes to whisper, "Hey, it's all stupid" doesn't help either. But I'm working on it, bit by bit.
If you see reality weirdly enough, the line between what you call nonficton and others call fiction can perhaps become nebulous. And remember, you can always pull a Kerouac: write about real stuff, but then just change the names, so as to avert getting sued. "You think that character is you? Aw, you always think *everything* is about you. . ."
There's another in my head - not fiction - that goes into woo things a fair bit, but they actually happened!
If someone asks what it is, you can say, “It’s whatever makes you feel better.”
Not uncommon for lent. Hang in there.
Bless you Katja this Holy Week 🙏
Lent has been especially “ arduous “ this season. IMHO. But that’s ok. 🙏
Thank you Rod. A wonderful piece for Palm Sunday.
Be merciful to others. Everyone carries a heavy cross.
When asked what he had learned from frequently hearing confessions for over 10 hours a day, the Cure of Ars, (St. John Vianney), said: “Most people are not nearly as happy as they appear to be". He was a humble French priest to whom people flocked for many years to pour out their hearts in confession.
A Southern Baptist friend once told me that in the church of her youth, everybody felt this unspoken pressure to be Perfect -- to look like you had the perfect family, that everything was happy, etc. The sense was that if you had problems that were visible, people would conclude that you were a sinner failing in your Walk With The Lord.
Your comment also made me think of what I've heard from several confessors, both Catholic and Orthodox, over the years: that ordinary people would be shocked to learn how widespread pornography addiction is. Addiction, as in people want to stop, but they can't. And these are the people who know it's evil, and take it to confession!
Whether it's alcohol or porn, my theory is that it's not enough to try to eliminate some behavior. Some other practice needs to fill the space being vacated or the reform attempt is likely to fail.
Even the bloodthirsty Robespierre realized it wasn't enough for the French Revolution to try to crush the Church. Hence, his ill-fated substitute the 'Cult of the Supreme Being'.
Sexual hormones developed to be addictive. What does it take to induce two rats or two pigs or two ferrets to make babies and ensure the survival of the species? The more addictive, the greater the survival value. That's why humans have institutions to channel it, including of course marriage. But if that isn't satisfying, its back to the addiction. Before pornography was so widespread, it was just fantasies running around our own heads, which could be distracting to the point of having evil effects, or not, but wasn't widespread commerce. I'm becoming more convinced that "sin" and "virtue" are actually about our bodies having evolved with a variety of instincts that need to be mastered (not mortified, but mastered, channeled, dedicated to a higher purpose) by minds infused with a living soul.
Most wild mammals don't like physical contact at all. The sex drive has to be strong to overcome this.
People don't really like physical contact either. How often do we prefer to find a double seat on a plane, train or bus that has nobody else sitting next to us? Sex drives are all about motivating large complex organisms to go through some very inconvenient contortions to produce a new generation. And since we have that, like other mammals, we have done some very human things building culture around it.
Coming down hard on porn, sequestering it to a part of the internet that would be difficult to access for youth and cumbersome for adults would be a winning policy - at least the effort would be - for Republicans, low hanging fruit, instead we here crickets. Again, what conservative triumphs has that faction accomplished over the past 45 years? Oh yea, taxes, defense spending, whatever.
Not much has been conseved in my time. Poor Russell Kirk, he really thought that you could stop the tide.
Republicans always bend the knee to big business and Big Porn doesn't want it to be hard to find.
A Turkish friend of mine told me the same thing about her upbringing in Istanbul.
How very sad.
Yeah the fear of shame and gossip was usually worse than the actual shame and gossip. It took my parents a long time to accept that.
My first wife (RIP) was a strong Southern Baptist who made fund of the Cult of Perfection.
"I see those hands, I see those hands...."
*fun of the Cult of Perfection.*
<<In fact, the only way to keep our eyes open fully is if our hearts are broken.>>
1) Asking prayer as I am having trouble with faith, though not with knowing I constantly fall short.
but (2) I think our hearts are supposed to be broken but healed. Not continually broken. And there can be scars. Maybe the semantics of the word broken are in play here?
(3) There can be a careful balance between a repentant heart and scrupulosity. Where that balance is for a person? That is between each believer and their Lord.
Linda, as for your first point, let us pray for one another. My struggle with faith has been going on many years, though I am grateful it has not been so intense recently. It is especially upsetting because I am a catechist. I even reached out to Rod once by email and his advice was helpful. This Substack--Rod's columns as well as the comments--are a source of strength for me and, I suspect, for you as well.
Thank you!
I'm praying for your friend Rod. Very hard.
I am beginning to think that most of our thoughts are not really our own, that we are observing them and either assenting or rejecting them.
I think Live Not By Lies reminds us that there are good, decent, brave people and this is a powerful weapon against the malice and cynicism this culture marinates us in.
But as Dostoevsky said, "the truth becomes evident in unhappiness" and also,
"Life everywhere is life.....Do not grieve for me....never until now have such rich and healthy stores of spiritual life throbbed in me."
The Lord of Spirits podcast has had a couple of episodes where they assert that the "nous" is like a receiver which receives ideas from a variety of spiritual entities, which we then filter and incorporate or reject . I continue to ponder that and wonder how many of my thoughts are generated by me and how many by spiritual entities--especially the ones who wish evil.
The discernment of spirits.
I have trouble believing a demon puts words in people's heads on any regular basis. As for words from Spirit/sprits: Among Christians it is considered unusual to say, "The Lord told me (something)" Granting that direct words from God are rare, is our mind a place where demons can constantly whisper?
Regina was not speaking of possession, but perhaps of interest, I saw a "documentary" two nights ago - well, I saw the first few minutes of one. It was portraying Evangelical Christians in China trying and failing to cast out a demon. After the demon scene it became apparent YouTube had served up a something from the cult Eastern Lightening. (It never served me cults before and I hope it does not again.) The demon possessed man acted exactly like purported actual films of "possessed" people. Yes, the deep voice, which I have long known as a qualified voice teacher is well within human capability. I don't say possession never happens. I say it is rare. I say it can easily be unintentionally faked by the impressionable who have seen dramas about it and fear they are possessed. Because people can sometimes feel powerless against addictions and other evils within. - - And I say there is no reason 80 percent of those claiming possession (actual statistics) should be women if most of those claiming possession are indeed possessed.
The spirits used to be called "intelligences," due to the belief that they communicate directly with one's mind. Your "trouble believing" is just thoroughly modern; this belief was totally uncontroversial not only for most Christians but most human beings in general across all of history. And I think that they were right.
OK then, lets at least go with this: "The Philokalia," says
"Do not attribute to demons more than is due. Many of the passions come from our physical nature, our habits, and our own free choice."
I will admit that I don't believe demons put thoughts directly into heads. If they could, they would, for instance, commonly tell the most evil people what stocks to buy so they would grow rich and do greater evil. They would (this is horrible) tell someone when a person they want to rape is arriving home alone. They could tell the president to press the red button and give very convincing thoughts as to why.
OK, in the last example the president has free will. So do the first two, but the first two already wish to use their free will for evil. They can do these evil things with more information.
I think demons would have already achieved their desired end of killing all humanity if they directly inserted thoughts in heads.
It seems to me that you're misunderstanding the concept. The fact is that our minds participate in a spiritual realm, which is populated by spirits—and if you accept that, then it follows quite naturally that we would "hear" them and often mistake them for ourselves, since they are not physically external to us in a way that makes the boundary clear. Not just demons; spirits of all kinds.
The modern mythology of the subconscious has largely been substituted for this view in these times.
Once you consider thoughts like that-- St. Ignatius's discernment of spirits starts making much more sense.
There's a great monologue from Shakespeare's Richard II where he's alone in jail, sentenced to death, and he talks about his "still-breeding thoughts", and how they whip him around from elation to despair, from king puffed up with ego to silly beggar, but then he realizes that he, like every other man "will not be eased until he's pleased with being nothing."
Hi Regina: I liked your post. I did wonder about one part - thoughts not really our own - but when I continued the discussion it was after Sethu's remark. Just letting you know. Also, the Dostoevsky was very inspirational!
Thanks Linda!
Speaking of Dostoevsky--I just finished leading an adult class on "The Grand Inquisitor" from Bros. Karamazov so it's very much on my mind. The Inquisitor's language to Christ sounds identical to the "voice" of the tempter in Eden and in the desert with Christ those 40 days.
It's all suggestion with the tempter: Did God really say....? If you are the Son of God....
And from Bros. K" The dread and intelligent spirit, the spirit of self-destruction and non-being...spoke with you in the wilderness...he supposedly tempted you. Did he really?"
The bad spirit is nothing if not subtle. But when you are alert to it--you recognize the voice. Like Christ says: My sheep know my voice.
Maybe it's a writer/reader thing--but I am attune to "voice"
Hope this helps and doesn't make it sound crazier than it actually is.