Safe Resources For Newcomers to the Orthodox Faith
WARNING
NOT EVERYTHING THAT
CALLS ITSELF ORTHODOX IS
TRULY ORTHODOX
The above warning was given to me when I first met Orthodoxy in 1986. Today [2009] it is even more perilous, even more difficult to find the Royal Path. For one thing there is a far greater abundance of misinformation. And many materials are missing, and other materials are being rapidly rewritten. For another thing there are fewer than ever guides remaining on the Royal Path, especially who speak English. Hopefully this website will be a place where Newcomers to the Faith can keep at least one foot on solid ground, while they are "exploring."
blog owner: Joanna Higginbotham
joannahigginbotham@runbox.com
jurisdiction: ROCA under Vladyka Agafangel
who did not submit to the RocorMP union in 2007
DISCLAIMER
...and there are still others outside of the Orthodox Church who by God's grace, their hearts being open to His call, will undoubtedly yet be joined to genuine Holy Orthodoxy...
– Fr. Seraphim
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future
1983 edition, page 220
A sure way to learn properly about Orthodoxy is to read lives of saints and Fr. Seraphim Rose [1934-1982†]. Everything necessary can be found in lives of saints. And Fr. Seraphim Rose is the American convert's link to the Holy Fathers, he himself having received the living transmission from living saints of his time. He understood what the royal path is, and he lived it. So this will be the focus of this blog.
In America look for a ROCOR parish under Metr. Agafangel or a GOC-K parish under Metr. Demetrius. Any church or group not in communion with both of these bishops is not considered royal path.
"For the believing soul, openly miraculous events are only an opening in the veil, behind which the uninterrupted miracle of God's Providence continues and the writ of each man's course is recorded without omission."
~Archpriest Michael Pomazansky 1988†
"Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them. Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men, which proceeds from love of God, they are responsive to men's needs, and upon their supplication they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God."
St. John Maximovitch
There's no one Holy Father you can read to get the whole teaching of Christianity, because many Holy Fathers express different points of view, different aspects. And the whole of the Fathers contain the wisdom of the tradition. And modern historians would like to say that one contradicts the other and so forth, but if, once you enter into the Orthodox spirit you see that one rather compensates for the other. And there's a marvelous harmony in all the writings of the Holy Fathers.
Fr. Seraphim Rose
from the Survival Course
The "new age" will be nothing else but the brief period of rule of the Antichrist on Earth, who will "unite" all under his blasphemous authority.
Abp. Averky Taushev
"Clearly the World Council of Churches is the vehicle through which Antichrist will establish his one world church."
-statement issued by Jordanville in 1998-99
"Ecumenism is the most prevalent heresy of our times, and the most devastating heresy of all times."
-statement issued by Jordanville in 1998-99
"If we expect to withstand the world, it is first necessary to understand it and keep sensitively in mind that in this present age all that which carries the most holy and dear name of Orthodoxy is not in fact Orthodox. Rather, it is often 'A fraudulent and usurped Orthodoxy' which we must fear and eschew as if it were fire. Unlike this spurious faith, True Orthodoxy was given and must be received without novelty and nothing must be accepted as a teaching or practice of the Church which is contrary to the Holy Scriptures and the dogma of the Universal Church."
Archbishp Averky
Anything outward can become a counterfeit.
Fr. Seraphim Rose
"It's Later Than We Think"
Fr. Seraphim Rose
The divine services in their composition contain all the fullness of the dogmatic teaching of the Church and set forth the path to salvation. They present invaluable spiritual wealth. The more fully and precisely they are fulfilled, the more benefit the participants receive from them. Those who perform them carelessly and who shorten them by their laziness rob their flock, depriving them of their very daily bread, stealing from them a most valuable treasure. The shortening of the services which comes about through lack of strength must be done wisely and performed circumspectly in order not to touch that which should not be tampered with.'
- St John of Shanghai and San Francisco
"In our confused days when a hundred conflicting voices claim to speak for Orthodoxy, it is essential to know whom one can trust. It is not enough to claim to speak for Patristic Orthodoxy; one must be in the genuine tradition of the Holy Fathers..."
-Fr. Seraphim Rose
“AMONG US this food is called the Eucharist; of which no one is allowed to partake but one who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the forgiveness of sins and unto regeneration, and who is living as Christ taught us. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, took both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise we have been taught, that the food which is consecrated by the prayer of His word, and by which our own flesh and blood by transmutation is nourished, is the Flesh and Blood of that Jesus Who became flesh.”
Holy Martyr Justin + 165 A.D.
"Don't have a hypocritical attitude. By this I don't mean to give up your intellect and discernment, but rather to place them in obedience to a 'believing heart' – heart meaning not mere 'feeling,' but something much deeper – the organ that knows God."
-Fr. Seraphim Rose (written to a catechumen)
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