Pilgrim's Guide to Services

In 2024 Fr. Gregory offered this series of classes to help us appreciate our Church Services

new upload to Joanna's Shared Library
https://app.box.com/s/ed2flgx2c8beswrc4kf0ve549o2e5ppm

Table of Contents

Pilgrim_s Guide Session I outline.rtf
Pilgrim_s Guide Session II outline.rtf
Pilgrim_s Guide Session III outline.rtf
Pilgrim_s Guide Session IV outline.rtf
Pilgrim_s Guide Session V outline.rtf
Pilgrim_s Guide Session VI and VII.rtf
Pilgrim_s Guide Session VIII.rtf
Session 1 - June 30 (July 13).mp3
Session 2 - July 7 (July 20).mp3
Session 3 - July 14 (July 27).mp3
Session 4 - July 28 (August 10).mp3
Session 5 - August 4 (August 17).mp3
Session 6 - September 25 (September 7).mp3
Session 7 - February 16 (March 1) 2015.mp3
Session 8 - March 16 (March 29).mp3
Session 9 - July 6 (July 19) 2015.mp3

SUNDAY OF THE HOLY FATHERS OF THE FIRST ECUMENICAL COUNCIL

Unless I were doing services at home alone, I would not have noticed this note on p. 254 of the SJKP Pentecostarion:

Katavasia: imoi of Canon II of Pentecost in Tone IV:
He who was slow of speech, having been covered with the divine darkness, gave utterance unto the divinely written law; for having shaken off the mire from his noetic eyes, He beheld He Who Is, and learned the understanding fo the Spirit, uttering praise with hymns divine.

 The beauty I want you to see is how the services overlap.  Even at the Feast of Ascension and here we are already hear a call from the coming feast of Pentecost.   Such wholeness! such beauty! such perfection is woven into our Church services.   

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Free Milkweed Seeds

leftover seeds harvested fall 2025

common milkweed, (2 large pods)

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milkweed, native, Pleurisy Root (1 thin pod)

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Also I have:  updated May 23
  — curly dock seeds, (3 tablespoons)  I can get more soon, no stratification needed.
  — heirloom lime barberry bush (app. 2 dozen berries, each berry has 2 seeds)
  — 1 pkt of 5 ephedra seeds, I give up trying to grow (Strictly Medicinal, Williams, Oregon)

send SASE or email me a mailing address:

   Joanna Higginbotham
   12569 Nashville Hwy, Liberty TN 37095
   joannahigginbotham@runbox.com

Sunday of the Blindman

from Joanna's notepad

.Two things I want to talk about, and I have nobody to talk with.  As usual, I did Sunday Typica by myself.

 Gospel St. John 9:1-38

1.  I remember that this blindman had no eyeballs.  It wasn't like he was born with eyes that were useless.  He was born with eyeballs missing.  Empty sockets.  Our Lord Jesus literally created eyeballs for the man using dirt (earth) and his spit to moisten it to make a clay.   He rolled the clay into 2 balls, I imagine about the size of chestnuts, and pressed the clay into the man's empty eye sockets.  For the second time he uses water in this miracle, the first time His own spit, and the 2nd time the Sheep's pool, which is where the Jews would wash the animal to be sacrificed before it was killed according to procedure. 

Interesting is that before the Gospel reading we read a beatitude verse (from the Tone 5 Octoechos and Pentecostarion): ...Thou wast crucified between two thieves, one of them blasphemed Thee and was justly damned... 

And now in the Gospel reading we have the Pharisees doing the same blasphemy as the bad thief, denying that Christ is God.  

Right away I remember St. Philaret's sermon, "On Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit":
https://startingontheroyalpath.blogspot.com/2026/01/blasphemy-against-holy-spirit.html

First the Pharisees try to deny the miracle itself.   But the miracle is undeniable.   They also can't deny that this type of miracle could only be done by God.  They say that Christ can't be God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.  So the best they can do is to get the blindman to say it was God Who healed him, and not Christ.   But the blindman humbly and truthfully explains without giving them the attestation they demand.  So then they change the subject and attack the blindman for his daring insubordination, daring to contradict teachers who are superior to him.

St. Philaret's definition of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:

  — a conscious opposition to the truth that is obvious to a person's conscience, when a person goes against the truth and against the voice of his own conscience.  This is the grave sin the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking of, that it will not be forgiven in this present age, or in the coming age.

A conscious opposition is when somebody denies Christ is God while in their heart knowing He is God.  Not just somebody who is mistaken, misinformed or skeptical/cautious — St. Paul is an example of this latter.  We don't get tricked into committing blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.  When it happens it is deliberate.  Why was St. Paul not convicted of blasphemy?  The difference is that St. Paul loved truth more than he loved himself.  When he saw he was wrong, he submitted to the truth, immediately, "Who art thou, Lord?"  

2.  Backing up in the Gospel reading to where the Pharisees said that Christ is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day.  This is using "Keeping the Sabbath" as a sign of who to trust.  The Pharisees deliberately were abusing the law.   But the people trusted they were being directed to use this as a sign of how to recognize a man of God.  If only such recognition were so easy...  Satan uses this "sign-trick" over and over. 

    A.  I see the sign trick used to confuse people about canonical/uncanonical jurisdictions.with the calendar and the canons.   One of the signs of a true Church is that it uses the Church calendar and follows the canons.  But that is not always the case.  Some of world Orthodoxy still uses the Church calendar (OCA in Alaska), and all of the R-fragments use the Church calendar (ROCiE, ROAC, RTOC, ROCANA).  

    B.  The other day I read in a 1970 interview with the then Metr. Philaret where he was asked what circumstances prevent cooperation between ROCOR and MP.*  St. Philaret answers that MP is controlled by the government.  That is the first thing he says in giving his answer.  Then later he expounds a little saying:

" ... the main sign of MP's captivity is that it does not glorify the New Martyrs; instead it mocks their memory claiming there has been no persecution of the Church in USSR. "

  Fast-forward to 1992 and MP realizes that it has to make show of canonizing some of the new martyrs to get ROCOR to submit to its control.   MP canonizing the New Martyrs was used as "proof" for the supposed rightness of the ROCOR-MP union.  This was an abuse of that sign, and look how many fell for it!  And now MP is still mocking the Holy New Martyrs by grouping them with abominables: Stalin, Lenin, and Sergius.

 

 Satan is so sickening; and when he makes us sick it delights him.  Satan delights in the people he fools with his tricks; and Satan delights in the people who see through his tricks are get disgusted.   I daresay he delights more in the people who are aware of his tricks, but can do nothing about them; and who are forced by circumstances to either participate in the tricks, or to keep silence; or else if they try to speak out, they are considered a mental case of some kind or a criminal of some kind.

. . . in the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

* In Their Own Words, Private Letters, provided by Orthodox Traditionalist Publications ISBN: 979-829-448-2275

Jotting in a Spiritual Notebook

Understanding the sin that's "even worst than a beast..."

Octoechos Sunday Evening at Vespers — Tone IV
On "Lord I have cried..."  stichera of repentance, in Tone IV: Spec. Mel.: "Thou hast given a sign..."

I have sinned against Thee, O Thou Who lovest mankind, and not according to my human nature, for which I might ask forgiveness, but inhumanly, past my nature, beyond forgiveness...

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Jotting in a Spiritual Notebook

Not even a month had passed since his wedding when his wife became desperately ill, and except for brief periods of relief, suffered over the course of a whole year.  Fr. Theodosius was alarmed by his wife's sickly state, but he was firm in the spirit and constantly impressed upon her that she must endure:

"...we must endure every visitation of God's punishing righteousness and paternal love with feelings of gratitude and absolute devotion to Him.  ...only this can suppress carnal-mindedness in a man and bring down upon him the grace of the Holy Spirit."

Priest Theodosius Levtisky 1845 †
March 9th  (Church calendar)

— from a Collection of Lives: Russian Ascetics of Piety,  NHM Bp. Nicodemus, (old ROCOR) St. Panteleimon monastery Mt. Athos 1907, translation by Old Paths Press (world orthodox) 2025 p. 91
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  OL 1992 (2) has another translation:
   "...only a period of punitive truth and Fatherly love can stifle the human wisdom of a person and humble one enough to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit."
https://orthodoxlifemagazines.blogspot.com
  

Against Socialism

     We have socialists in our Church!  One of them still around today is Mary LaBarge of St. Louis, a.k.a. Box G9a9l  

     Agape Community seems to have attracted socialist-style thinkers, probably because of the "commune" atmosphere.  Fr. Gregory in 1999 offered everyone, me included, that if we would give him our pay checks, then he would take care of all our needs.  It seemed he thought this would improve our lives.  One of the catechumens, Todd Brown (later baptized Nicholas), was also made this offer, and he said, "I'm totally convinced about Orthodoxy, but I don't like this commie stuff..." 

 

 

SOCIALISM IS A FORM OF COMMUNISM.  
COMMUNISM IS EVIL.
OLD JORDANVILLE TAUGHT US THIS.

recent email from Box G9a9l

SJKP Books Safe Reading List May 2026

sjkp.org
https://orthodoxbooks.com

   All these non-service books listed below and sold by neo-SJKP are safe to read.     Books you want to own have a star*
   Books not listed I don't know enough about to say one way or the other.  Some books, like the catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow, I can't tell who published it or know if there is some world-orthodox preface/introduction included.  Neo-SJKP does not provide complete information.  Some books I would recommend are currently sold out, and so not listed here. 

For better descriptions of older publications, download the 2007 catalogue.
https://app.box.com/s/jf7v6iw9rknqclddmc30833cimms9p1h
But do not try to order from this old catalog. 


Here are Joanna's picks from neo-SJKP on May 2026:

Lives of Saints
Great Synaxaristes (14 volumes)*
Slain for Their Faith
Northern Thebaid
Elder Anatole Optina
Elder Sebastain
Eldress Evdokia
Elder Nikon Optina

Writings Holy Fathers
Commentary Gospels, by Abp. Averky*
Psalm 118 Commentary, by St. Theophan Recluse*
First-Created Man, by St. Symeon New Theologion*
Orthodox Veneration of Mother of God, by St. John S&SF*
Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, by Fr. Michael Pomazansky*
Soul After Death, by Fr. Seraphim Rose*
Struggle for Virtue, by Archbishop Averky*
Threshold, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov*
The Field, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov*
The Refuge,  St. Ignatius Brianchaninov*
Genesis, Creation, Early Man (2nd edition)  

     https://genesiscreationandearlyman.blogspot.com


Modern 
Letters From a Convert (bundle overpriced)
    order book individually https://orthodoxbooks.com/products/letters-from-a-convert
Julian Calendar (bundle pamplets overpriced) 
Antichrist (bundle pamphlets overpriced)
      https://orthodoxbooks.com/collections/complete-sets/products/apostasy-and-antichrist
Nihilism, by Eugene Rose (notes compiled before his baptism)
Restoration of Orthodox Way of Life, by Abp. Andrew (Rymarenko) pamphlet
Chosen for His People, biography serialized in OL magazines
Sacramental Life, by Fr. Gregory Williams (pamphlet)

Teenagers
Trace in the Sand
Purple Mantle 

POISON
Glorified in America includes pseudo-elder Ephraim Moraitis
Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives , by neo-elder with dreamy smiley face
Thomas Hopko heretic world orthodox ecumenist
do not trust any "elder" who died after 1900
reject anything translated by Nathan Williams — he has less than no discernment
Law of God (Fr. Seraphim Slobosky is a Christian-evolutionist)