I greet the men of ROK again with an eye to the future, and some requests.
We live in unusually perverse times
I don’t know if many men will identify with me, but over the past 10 years I often asked myself if I might be going insane. 10 years ago, I was essentially a “moderate” Progressive; but study of the Classics, history and theology, took me swiftly over a long road, into the bosom of tradition and patriarchy.
Perhaps other men have experienced this. You start with a “red pill” about women, and it leads you to see that traditional morals had a reason for existing; or perhaps it opens your eyes to the disingenuous agenda of the establishment, and that epiphany leads to another, and so on. I find that my thinking has been so revolutionized over the past ten years, that it would be difficult to tally all the ways, in which I am now an heretic against the modern world.
Once one debunks the premises of any of the major lies of Modernity, the rest fall apart in quick succession – since they share a basic premise (indiscriminate egalitarianism) – and this fundamentally rearranges one’s worldview in very short order. I was a “nice guy” even in 2008; now I find myself agreeing more with de Maistre and Evola, than Jefferson. Not long ago, such a system of beliefs as I now possess would have seemed intolerably evil to me.
What do I find evil, now? When one considers the myriad abominations celebrated by today’s “respectable” people, it is quite sobering. As the love of patriarchy, justice and excellence burns brighter within me, I find modern iniquity to be so intolerable as to demand decisive action. Women murder their children and “doctors” carve them apart for profit, joking about it while swilling chardonnay.
Scantily clad, prepubescent boys dance sexually for their adoptive “fathers” and other admirers at the Folsom Street Fair. There are now tiny dildos for transitioning toddlers. The financial system is rigged; it punishes earning (tax) and saving (inflation), encourages profligacy (consumerism) and then exploits it (usury).
Mentally ill people mob together and dominate the public forum; them that are sane, the public forum often drives mad. The schools themselves loathe wisdom and learning. There is a seemingly deliberate and coordinated effort to destroy all integral cultures, especially of European peoples. The elites suffer no consequences when they perpetrate high treason or gross injustices; but what happens to you, if you violate a minor statute or go delinquent on your property taxes?
Women destroy their marriages, families and even nations, all to the applause of the crowd… but woe betide the man who would stand on his God-given authority as husband and father to encourage civilization-building behaviours. One could go on and on. There is a crushing oppression and a Satanic madness, that is not only putting everything good and decent to death, but is exalting public evils so heinous, that I often find my blood boiling.
No man likes to feel a sense of impotent rage, but I am often at a loss, when I consider how to remedy our situation. It seems clear to me that electoral politics will achieve nothing. It seems morally wrong to engage lunatic apparatchiks in debate, implying that their ideas are within the bounds of respectable opinion, when a more upright model of engagement is found in book XXII of Homer’s Odyssey.
Moreover, they everywhere suppress free debate; and if debate is not appropriate or possible, only force of arms remains. This, too, is fraught with moral and practical difficulties. Yet one cannot be content to do nothing. The way forward must be found.
An Element Of My Motivation
There are only two things clear to me. 1) The first element of our crisis is spiritual, and this must be resolved before substantive and lasting progress will be made on any other front; 2) There is no clear path at present, humanly speaking, to victory for us—neither by cunning nor by arms; those who will perceive and lead the way forward, will not merely be smart men or strong men, but men of genuine wisdom and excellence.
I have always admired the hermit, because he stands out as a man who uniquely embodies the Truth, and the masculine ethos of the spirit—he is not merely a scribe who knows about the sacred, he has hard-won wisdom through spiritual combat. He is a soldier of the spirit. The lives of countless hermits and monastics recount their battles against devils, and such saints as Anthony the Great and Benedict are still invoked against them.
In Western lore, the hermit is regarded as a companion of sorts to knights, even as a knight himself, spiritually. In Arthurian legend, Mordred ousts the Archbishop of Canterbury, who retreats to an hermitage, where he will heal and counsel various knights, eventually receiving the body of King Arthur, and receiving Sir Bedevere as a disciple.
In Etienne de Bourbon’s tale of Robert the Devil, Robert’s murder of seven hermits is treated as the murder of seven knights. Friars (who lived a similarly ascetic life) often stood at the front of Catholic armies, and went before the soldiers into battle bearing the Cross. The hermit may not take up arms, but he is the peer of fighting men. And as we may soon have need of fighting men, we will have need also of hermits. That, is my vocation.
Saint Anthony is not impressed.
A particular legend, retold in Burger’s Der Wilde Jäger (The Wild Huntsman), tells of how a feckless aristocrat’s encounter with an hermit in the wild resulted in his doom. My space is limited, so I’ll let you find the poem, if you’re interested. It contains perennial truths, but encapsulates our situation well: those in authority have spurned wisdom; the untouchable sacred has vanished from before their eyes, and they are now hounded by their own impudence.
The hermit represents that unshakable power and sanctity, which alone knows and merits to be the touchstone of divine judgment and providence. Men sometimes thank me for sharing what I know about theology and spirituality; I hope to continue doing so at ROK and elsewhere; but if I am to share my opinion with men, I want it to be rooted in something substantive, beyond relating the wisdom that others won by their hard work (though there is some benefit in this).
I am painfully aware that my knowledge at this point is that of a scribe, not the battle-honed wisdom of the hermit, bought by blood in the spiritual combat. I am convinced that the only men who will lead the way forward, are the lucky bastards whom providence carries along willy-nilly (as is often its way), and the men who win direct connection with transcendent wisdom through fidelity to the spiritual struggle.
Perceiving that I can only offer my fellows an informed opinion, at present, as to how we must prosecute the pressing affairs of our age, it is my intent to enter upon the eremitical life and to begin the combat that imparts a keener vision, if indeed it please God to give it. I have long felt that men need to shake off mediocrity, start networking and building “parallel structures,” and otherwise preparing for a drastic change in the world.
I hope to offer a discreet meeting place, a spiritual retreat and, God willing, some worthy counsel to men who walk our path of reclaiming masculinity and reestablishing Patriarchal civilization: a new symbiosis between hermits and knights, as it were!
The Dream of Sir Gawain, wherein a monk admonishes and advises him.
My Requests To The Readers Of ROK
First off, if any men are interested in helping to establish and prosper the hermitage and its mission, even if only by prayer, I’d ask them to go to the link in my author bio.
Secondly, my plan both now and in the future is to share the fruits of contemplation and study with my fellow men. The leadership at ROK wanted me to write two articles, and to gauge whether there was enough interest for me to continue writing for the site. Let me know in the comments if you are so interested, and tell me the kinds of things you would most like to learn about, from a theological perspective.
What questions do you have? What theological topics are of interest to you? I have many ideas for articles, but I’d love to get a feel for where you guys are at, in theological knowledge and interests.
Central to this article, is my own sentiment that action is needed, rooted in authentic learning and experience. I am now preparing to act in the manner that seems most appropriate to me; what obstacles do you find in your own paths, preventing you from responding to the dire needs of our times, whether spiritually or otherwise? How, brothers, can I be at your service?
Read More: Modern Culture Mirrors Jezebel’s Poisonous Spirit
Great article, Cui!
Gratias permultas, Quinte Benevole.
I saw a picture the other day that reminded me of you. It is an illustration of the conception of Alexander the Great from a translation of Qintus Curtius Rufus’ life of the same. It seemed to have implications for neomasculinity, game and Classical culture!
Vobiscum concordo, et accommodo…
Do you have any idea why it is so depicted? I know that it is said Necatebo(?) disguised himself as Ammon, a ram-headed god, to seduce Alexander’s mother. Why the dragon? Have you heard a different story?
I’m not really sure, Cui. It seems to depict the king watching his queen being “cuckolded” by a demon. Perhaps this depicts an event in Alexander’s life of which I am unaware. I do know that it was not unusual for medieval copyists to include moralistic illustrations in their manuscripts, even when they had no direct relation to the text itself. Maybe this is such an illustration.
Well, I’m glad to know you’re puzzled by it, as well. I thought I was missing out on something obvious.
Don’t know what this is, or what it means. But it is totally awesome.
Yeah, I can’t decide which part is more amusing; the dragon in bed with the lady, or the king looking through the door; or the non-plussed expressions, as if the king were merely asking if they needed any refreshments.
Great article indeed, and judging by the commentary we’re all looking forward to more. If I can relate a personal anecdote, I struck up an online acquaintence with Brother Cui over a year ago after reading some of his illuminating words in the comments sections here. He wound up helping me, just some stranger on the internet, with some very difficult spiritual matters. His responses took great time, care and wisdom.
This man is the real deal. I plan to make the sort of pilgrimage Quintus you yourself have written about in the past and make my way to the hermitage site to assist where I can. And if anyone else out there can help him with donations through his site, you know it’s going to a great cause.
Too kind, my friend. The pleasure has been all mine.
Brother, how do I get in touch with you? My internet presence is rather prosaic.
I have a gmail address; same as my handle in this message (no spaces, though).
I am interested to hear more. I am one that deeply hungers for such as you described.
Excellent article, and a cause for reflection. Looking forward to all you have to say!
Absolutely keep writing. All men are born of three parts…the intellect, the body and the spirit. There are many articles here covering the first two, but no man is complete without the third.
Definitely interested in hearing and learning more, my spiritual quest is a hard road, but one that I find very important, often I get lost, especially when surrounded by blue pill church leaders. I would love greater guidance and discussion.
I sympathize.
I love the Varangian Guard! Great handle.
Are you connected to any brothers in the UK, I have contemplated Catholicism in the past, but wouldn’t really know where to begin?
I’m fascinated by the Varangian Guard at the minute.
Yeah, I was fascinated by them at one point, too, and the ties of some European noble families to Constantinopolitan and Kievan nobility. The Medieval world was far more Cosmopolitan than many people imagine.
Sorry, I forgot to answer your question. I’m in the USA at present. I hope to write on beginning Catholicism, here and on my blog.
I shall keep an eye out for your articles on Catholicism. I’m going to have to treat myself over Christmas to a couple of history books on the Varangians.
Great article, I know as a young man (29) who is reestablishing his connection with God, I would like to see an article that is more of a primer on literature for someone like myself. How I can get started on my journey to developing a better spiritual foundation which I’m sure will help develop the physical and mental aspects of my life as well.
I’ve visited your website and really think your writing will be a breath of fresh air on ROK
Also, I’m looking to purchase the Bible to further my studies and would like to know, in your opinion, what is the best english translated version to get?
Here is a website that compares the various translations:
http://www.hem-of-his-garment-bible-study.org/best-bible-translation.html
Get one copy of all of them? 😉
May I suggest the following literature:
-A.W Tozer (I’ve read only the Pursuit of God, but I very impressed with it).
-Oswald Chambers
-Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible (circa 1600)
-Dietrich Bonhoffer (he’s a tad progressive in some areas, but that could be my perception).
-Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testament (might want to print hard copies off the Internet because original hard copies are very expensive / non-existent)
-Deep Strength’s WordPress Blog (https://deepstrength.wordpress.com/)
-Dalrock’s blog @ wordpress
-https://donalgraeme.wordpress.com
http://www.drbo.org/index.htm
This is the Challoner also.
I concur with Charles Martel. The Douay-Rheims is the best all-around Bible (in English), because it uses the traditional, Christian base-texts (the Septuaguint and very ancient Hebrew Texts edited by St. Jerome, along with the “Textus Receptus” of the New Testament).
Pretty much every other, modern, mainstream translation is made from the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament, and the Nestle-Aland or UBS4 Greek Texts of the New Testament. I disagree immensely with these choices. The Masoretic text is a very late text – it’s oldest document is only 1000 years old, well into the Christian period, and reflects 1000 years of use in a tradition hostile to Christianity. By contrast, the Septuagint documents are far older, and were made from Hebrew texts that predate the Masoretic text by 1300 years. St. Jerome translated from Hebrew texts available in his day (4th century AD, 600 years before the Masoretic texts), with reference to the Septuagint (and that work of St. Jerome is the basis of the Vulgate Old Testament, which is the basis of the Douay Rheims translation). A rather embarrassing development for Judaism in the past century, was that the Dead Sea Scrolls further corroborated the redactions of the Old Testament used by the Church, rather than the normative texts of Judaism. The Church has more ancient and accurate texts, and I don’t know why so many Protestant groups have chosen to prefer the texts of Judaism over those of the Church.
As to the New Testament, I disagree with the editorial assumptions of the Nestle-Aland/UBS4 texts, such as the belief that anything that shows up in an isolated, earlier text is more likely to be accurate than the almost unanimous agreement of many, later texts of disparate extractions. Also, believing that the Church is the Pillar and Bulwark of the Truth, I prefer to refer to the texts that express the common usage of all the Church for 1500 years, rather than a reconstructed text based upon automatic deference to the earliest sources.
For example, one of the most popular documents used in that textual tradition is the Codex Sinaiticus, which a British scholar found in a trash heap in a Coptic Monastery. He regarded it as a godsend because it was so old, but the abbot objected strongly, saying that the manuscripts in that heap were there because they had been rejected as bad copies! But almost blind faith was put in the document for its antiquity. I agree that its antiquity makes it important… but, not so important that I would overturn a majority reading for one of its eccentricities. Still, all that said, when it comes to the New Testament, both the Textus Receptus and the NA27/UBS4 texts are 99.7% identical. The text of the New Testament is very well attested.
If you find that the Douay-Rheims is hard to understand, about the only modern English version of the NEW TESTAMENT that I trust, is the NASB. It uses the Nestle-Aland/UBS4 texts, but its translation is fairly literal. Many modern versions reflect a theological agenda (the old NIV Bibles), a political agenda (the newer NIVs) or just plain stupidity (NLT, “The Message”). The NASB seems content to just lay it out there. For the Old Testament and Apocrypha, there really isn’t a great, modern English version. I use this one: http://ecmarsh.com/lxx/index.htm (use the links to the left; the download button is broken).
Cui, what you say about the masoretic text, etc. is true. But you are missing the elephant in the room.
The big problem is that the “Douay Rheims” is not the Douay Rheims. It is Challoner’s translation put between the covers saying “Douay Rheims”. Look, and if your translation is honest it will say something like “Challoner Edition”, or “Challoner’s translation”.
For more information on this, and to purchase the true Douay Rheims see http://www.realdouayrheims.com and http://www.lulu.com/rheims
I’m aware that Challoner’s revision is the norm; I wasn’t aware there was any controversy over it. I thought it amounted to a light modernization of spelling and, occasionally, terms.
You say the NIV of the Bible can have either a theological or political agenda. Can you elaborate?
Later versions of the NIV sometimes dabbled in the gender-neutral language, for a political agenda.
For a theological agenda, one of the main things that irritated me as I was learning about the early Church and leaving Protestantism, was they way that it altered the doctrine of Tradition in the New Testament. As you may know, a big part of the debate between the Catholic Faith and the Protestants, was over tradition. Protestantism was a new and anti-establishment movement, and this means that discrediting tradition had to play an important role for them. They began to use a propaganda that relied heavily on the accusation of “traditions of men,” etc., in the Church. Reading my NIV, I noticed that every single time the word “tradition” shows up, it is being condemned.
But, reading the Greek New Testament, I realized that there are a few times where tradition is praised, and even commanded. St. Paul even commands Christians to observe the traditions he gave them, including the things not written down as Scripture. While it would be enough to notice that the NIV consistently chooses to translate the exact same word (paradosis) differently, depending upon whether it is being condemned (then it is “tradition”) or praised (then it is “teaching”), the real kicker for me was Second Thessalonians 2:15. In this verse, “tradition” and “teach” are used in the same verse, so the NIV translators knew it sounded silly to say “keep the teachings you were taught.” They therefore went so far as to change the noun “tradition” (paradosis – “that which is handed down”) into a verb, and to change the verb “teach” (didasko – teach) into a noun, giving:
“So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.”
This way, they avoid having to mention the word tradition in a favourable light, even though St. Paul is clearly doing so. The Greek actually says “So then, brethren, stand fast and cling to the traditions which you were taught, whether by our speaking or by our letter.”
That gives you some idea of their willingness to pre-interpret your Bible for you via the translation.
I would personally recommend the ESV. It’s a continuation of the KJV tradition IIRC, and I believe uses the Septuagint instead of the Masoretic texts as Cui was explaining.
I’ve also heard good things about the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) but I haven’t yet been able to confirm.
What you say about the masoretic text, etc. is true. But you are missing the elephant in the room.
The big problem is that the “Douay Rheims” is not the Douay Rheims. It is Challoner’s translation put between the covers saying “Douay Rheims”. Look, and if your translation is honest it will say something like “Challoner Edition”, or “Challoner’s translation”.
For more information on this, and to purchase the true Douay Rheims see http://www.realdouayrheims.com and http://www.lulu.com/rheims
Beware of something out there called a gender neutral Bible. Messing with pronouns can completely change the meaning of some verses. Unfortunately, it exists because … opression & patriarchy.
I’d say a significant portion of the bible is talking directly about sex / gender. So by altering that, you’re not going to be left with a whole lot. Sick.
It sure makes good use as an accelerant in a fire.
I Read the NIV version, “New International Version” it modernized most of the words but it doesn’t pander to Political Correct Gender narratives. A quick way to check if a Bible is Gender sensitive is by reading Genesis 1:26-27 if it says God created “Human Beings”(NLT/New Living Testament) and Not “Mankind” it’s a Gender Sensitive Bible.
NIV removed a large amount of verses regarding salvation, and Christ’s Deity, from the New Testament. NIV is a very Satanic translation.
Really? I’ve not had that impression, but I was also unaware of it removing parts.
All of the modern versions are straight from Satan. Stay vigilant my friend, and pray for disernment! God bless!
Agreed. I only recently turned to the Christian faith for guidance and I have no idea where to start. I attended an amazing church in NYC, but moved out of state, so the search for a church is ongoing.
I believe that a primer on literature or what steps (young) men who want to reconnect with God or have made the decision to embrace God should do would be immensely helpful.
I currently work in NYC, if you don’t mind me asking, what church did you attend?
Redeemer Presbyterian Church. I’ve been to a few churches, but they’ve probably had the biggest impact on me.
KJV.
” It seems clear to me that electoral politics will achieve nothing”
There are only three kinds of votes that ever made a difference:
1. With your wallet
2. With your feet
3. With bullets
History shows that bullets are resorted to when people are robbed and cornered.
As for your articles: I try not to read them during the day because they are worthy of being saved for later when I can pay more attention to them. Keep at it. Your input is needed (because fast-talking vacuous empty-headed modern women is not going to save civilization).
Very true, both about the voting and the improbability of women saving us.
I wish you many swift and true votes, should it come to that.
4. With bombs.
Eh, bullets get the point across better. With bombs, it might as well be God striking you down with lightning, you never see it coming, you don’t know from whence it came or why. Although I guess the bombs in Paris did make a point…
But the real answer is not just dropping bombs on the enemy from a plane. The last 15 years in Afghanistan should prove that point.
Nah. The mistake was: Bombs not big enough.
I think more bombs were dropped on Vietnam than in the entire Second World War. And America still lost.
Plus Germany tended to win every time it used its armies. It got bogged down when it relied just on bombing.. Bombed England, all it did was strengthen British resolve. Bombed Stalingrad, after rolling through and blitzkreiging most of Russia, got boxed in and defeated. After that it was just a matter of time until their inevitable defeat.
Bigger bomb. Nuclear.
But Vietnam is a bad example. The US hardly lost. They were just stupid enough to retreat after the desperate final attack of the Vietnamese.
Hermetical men of true resolve would not have let the liberal media of the time sway them away from certain victory.
Yup Vietnam was a political war.
” I have long felt that men need to shake off mediocrity, start
networking and building “parallel structures,” and otherwise preparing
for a drastic change in the world.”
I’ve come to the same conclusion after the last 3 years (the hardest years personally in my life) and continued intercession. Through my prayer life I have an impression that as a society we’ve entered Jeremiah 15 territory:
‘Even if Moses and Samuel* were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go!’
(*Note: Moses and Samuel were great intercessors of the original 12 tribes of Israel)
There is no physical solution to the current madness that pervades society, and that we must use the time given wisely to prepare for the coming darkness.
If I may add a suggestion to your article: we should also act to preserve useful hard knowledge (books) that otherwise might be lost. It’s easy to think that the Internet is forever, but there was life before the Internet.
Yes, I’ve thought along similar lines. I was recently reading Ezekiel, and the Lord spoke similarly, saying that not even the prayer of an Abraham or Moses would save them, now.
As to preserving books. Yes, that was one of my first goals, which I mentioned to Quintus Curtius in our interview some time ago: the desire to collect what library I could. My focus had been mostly on Patristics, history, theology and Liturgy, but there is need to store medical and scientific knowledge as well. I think men may find themselves working in small, detached communities after the chaos sets in, and they’ll be very glad to have a physician’s manual, a Bible, and some assistance in learning/remembering techniques for simple machines, construction, etc.
Speaking as a soldier, we greatly appreciate our fellow warriors on the spiritual plane. Robinhood and Friar Tuck; King Arthur and Merlin; the one needs the other, and vice versa.
This is one of the men you are looking for; he has been of immeasurable spiritual aid to me personally: http://swordsofthesaints.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the link; I bookmarked it and will read it with interest.
Great examples! The feeling is mutual. If it please God to see me ordained a priest, I look forward to blessing the swords and firearms of decent men, of helping them to bear the burden of our times, and doing my duty by them in their last needs (though may God grant that the fallen be few, at least in bloodshed).
As I was just saying to Leif, the man I linked previously, the glories and the ugliness of both forms of battle complement one another in a cathartic manner for both the priest and the soldier.
I look forward to receiving the Lord’s blessings on my arms through you, brother.
I’ve expressed interest a few times in creating a tribe of men interested in self-improvement, masculinity, and defending our culture. Definitely interested and willing to add whatever knowledge I can provide.
I’d like to read more in general. I’d also like to read more about what Christian Mysticism has to offer as opposed to New Age claptrap.
“Not long ago, such a system of beliefs as I now possess would have seemed intolerably evil to me.”
I can relate. Isaiah’s sums up the current state of the world:
Isaiah 5:20 NASB
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
“The first element of our crisis is spiritual, and this must be resolved before substantive and lasting progress will be made on any other front;”
It’s impossible to have a change in culture without a change in religion. Everyone has a religion; it’s the beliefs we hold that define right and wrong for us. Culture is religion externalized.
“There is no clear path at present, humanly speaking, to victory for us—neither by cunning nor by arms; those who will perceive and lead the way forward, will not merely be smart men or strong men, but men of genuine wisdom and excellence.”
Good thoughts.
2 Cor 6:17 NASB
“Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord.
2 Cor 10:4 NASB
“for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
It’s worth pointing out Paul is not saying fleshly weapons have no place or are irrelevant. It’s the spiritual that forms the foundation for everything else.
Gideon was considered by God to be a mighty man of valor. He was going against the masses of his day, busy disobeying the civil government and obeying the moral principles most had cast aside:
Judges 6:11-12 NASB
“Then the angel of Yahweh came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. The angel of Yahweh appeared to him and said to him, “Yahweh is with you, O valiant warrior.””
Ultimately, a majority does not matter:
1 Sam 14:6 NASB
“Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, “Come and let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; perhaps Yahweh will work for us, for Yahweh is not restrained to save by many or by few.”
There’s always more going on in this reality than what men can discern with their 5 senses:
2 Kings 6:15-17 NASB
“Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Yahweh, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And Yahweh opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
There will always be a remnant of good men:
“Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Yes, we agree on much. And you underscore one of my central realizations – the evils of our day are plain enough, but to simply start fighting, before beginning a spiritual discernment of the moral requirements and of God’s particular will for our times, is a recipe for failure.
This is also something I feel within my own heart. To quote Heinlein, “time is not yet in fullness”. Perhaps in France things are different, but here in America we are not yet ready; it is time for organization, discipline, and spiritual development before we’re ready to appear on the field.
The other option favored by Christian mystics is of course resignation and withdrawal from the world. Is this perhaps God’s way rather than our way to think we might know Him?
I think this is the more perfect path in a certain sense, especially for particular persons. But, some men have obligations to society – especially husbands and fathers. We can run, nowadays, but we can’t hide. As an hermit, my intention is to retire, and to pray, and to reflect on what we can do in these times, if an answer may be found. But I know some men don’t have that luxury; I do not want to abandon them, as that would be too easy on my end. I hope to spend this time learning what God wants me to do, and to be of service to the men who have nowhere to go. This is how it has always been – the clergy and the monks should be doing their job as well as they can, so that they can lift up the men who have other business preventing them from so rich a life of prayer, study and contemplation.
Right now we live in an inversion of this relationship, where a bunch of uncommitted/unattached SJWs spend all their time studying and plotting to destroy the commonweal and the livelihoods of the people. The men of the Church must use their time for prayer and reflection equally well for the purpose of saving their brethren. They should focus on saving their own souls, first; but part of saving your own soul, is looking out for your brother’s, as well. Some hermits and monks save their brethren by praying and interceding only. Some run hospitals, schools, etc. I don’t yet know what God will ask of me. As the times are strange, so may be His mission for certain persons.
Resignation and withdrawal from the world can lead a man safely across the higher and more arduous paths through the mountains. In the Himalayas, it’s well known that the best guides are those men without family, they’ve keener senses (sight and hearing) and explore different ways, often those riskier routes, than men with worldly attachments.
The analogy in the spiritual sphere is exactly the same. It’s like learning the best tracks to follow at certain times of the year from accompanying a seasoned huntsman. You mentioned the study and scheming of so-called SJWs, but, when you learn detachment you’ll realize that their nonsense is of no consequence and why would any man of stature and integrity bother himself with the ploys of silly schoolgirls?
I think, when you arise to a certain state you understand these things with clearer judgement and discernment- these beings live in perpetual error and falsity- and we’ll always have to understand that there’s those who’ve condemned themselves to their own underworlds, and this isn’t a punishment by any GOD. Rather it’s a punishment that they’ve served on themselves through error and lack of insight. You can’t bring transparency to opacity without a change in LIGHT. They live in the darkness of their own resentment, ignorance and dishonesty, but, they can change if they wish to see what it is that makes them so- this is where insight starts.
Men like you can teach these ways to others. I would say that it’s best to let your words percolate and linger like the memory of some ancient scent that vividly on occasions sets the mind free from the work a day world. That’s all any learnt man’s words can do- to act as a prompt and mover towards the divine. Those that live in error will scorn- others dismiss, others laugh, others not care- but that’s no loss- they’ll be others who you will move- and that’s perhaps the hermit’s and the scribe’s real calling- namely to wake us up to our destiny.
I started reading RoK this year and keep coming back for more. Though you and I do not share the same Church I do believe we share the same church and spirit. RoK would be at a loss should you not write for it.
You provide a sophisticated response to the issues that are raised here. Not that I mind the vulgar references as each has it’s place, but it is good to see value placed on eloquent thought.
Thank you for the kind words; I hope I can live up to them.
I remember how glad I was to read an interview of Cui by Quintus on this site. His words and wisdom really hit me.
At that time, being recently converted to christianism and in search of a spiritual masculine guidance, I thought it was great that ROK published an article like that and I had great hope to read more articles on that matter.
So I would say keep going!
Men in the west are really in need of spiritual guidance and hope!
Link?
Until this spiritual essence becomes a conscious facet in Christian mens inner everyday actions then it worse than unless. We have to learn how to speak essential truths that resonate while overcoming their inherent “Christianity” by displaying their value for today’s world.
The trick is that it becomes neither an emasculated or catch all credo that applies to all men equally. Christianity right or wrong is the white man’s religion that can led us back to the divine, but, only by being true to its essence.
I enjoy your articles and will read every one published.
I just ask for more wisdom and guidance for those men who will enter the path of aggression against our so called leaders and their raised thrones but also against the useful idiots who number like pillars of sand in the desert.
The Bible says there is a time for peace and a time to kill. I’m sure that we all know here the time for peace is over. Especially for us modern heretics.
Personally it is my hatred that motivates me. Hatred for weakness and contempt for the masses fuel me. Some might say hatred is bad but to them I would say… How can you know love if you do not know hatred ? For if you love something will all of your heart then you will hate it’s antithesis.
It was David who said in the Psalms to God
“Do I not hate thine enemies with a righteous hatred?”
I hate the whore and the child murderer, the diseased faggot and the coward. Since I just described 99% of western civilization it’s safe to say I hate nearly everyone.
I want to be hated by them as well. Never would I wish to be in any way lumped among the filthy modern lemming.
The Saints and Philosophers tell us that hatred is predicated of love, but not the other way ’round (i.e., you speak very truly when you say that to love something is to detest its antithesis, but we can know love without having to know hate). Even in God, His wrath is but the proof of His Love. You are right: it is a time for wrath, a time for incensed hatred against iniquity. We must strive to pity and to love men as men, but we should oppose wickedness with a fire in the belly.
The older I get, the more I find my younger naive self dying, only to replaced by a hatred of people and society. I’ve become hopelessly introverted, a hermit I suppose. I don’t like what I’ve become. the joy and gratitude for life is simply not there.
Perhaps monasticism is the answer? Do you find living as a monk to be a big sacrifice, financially, materially? And is it rewarding in other ways? How long have you been a monk? And at what age did you decide it was the right lifestyle or you?
Thanks for the words of wisdom.
I sympathize, and I see joy dying in many people. That is part of what I find most gratifying about the Church – I keep the fasts and feasts of the Church, and there are a thousand customs, both in the Church and in the home, that give one the opportunity to rise above to an actual joy and gladness, a real mirth and festivity, that is such a welcome answer to the nihilism of modernity. If the men at ROK still want to have me, I hope to write an article next week on the Advent fast and Christmas, and how to keep it.
There are many things that are hard about being a monk, if one is doing it right. But the basics of the monastic/heremitical life require but a bit of discipline, and then raise the mind to God. I think it is easy to romanticize the religious life, and some people imagine monks caught up in mystical prayer all day long. I love the monastic life and find a great deal of joy and fulfilment in it, but I don’t want to give someone the wrong impression. Prepare for a spiritual battle, sometimes quite difficult (and sometimes at its most difficult when the struggle is merely one of dryness, emptiness), but always with a beating heart of purpose and right order, that sets it sharply apart from the general malaise many people feel who live without that purpose.
Yes, sometimes it can be a great sacrifice materially and financially. Really, a monk/hermit should renounce money and ownership, beyond what is necessary for his needs and mission, and even then, should strive for detachment from what he has. I have had low points, where I was homeless, and high points, where I was able to live comfortably. I’m taking steps now to build an hermitage (to which I refer in my blog at my author bio, idithun.com), so that I can have a permanent base of operations and strive for self-sufficiency, not so dependent upon charity or circumstance to live, but being productive, responsible, autonomous and, hopefully, beneficial to others.
I decided the life of celibacy and asceticism was right for me, in my early twenties. Eremitical life has been somewhat forced upon me, but I accept it gladly and sympathize with it.
Would like to read more.
“I have long felt that men need to shake off mediocrity, start networking and building “parallel structures,” and otherwise preparing for a drastic change in the world.”
Beautifully stated. We must be at our task because it appears the drastic change is coming faster than we thought.
yes, there is both need and interest for you to continue writing. if you will take this as a burden as a quest and as a mission others, i for one. will follow. Every battle fought, whether fought with sentiment, syllogism or steel is a spiritual battlle. i am in grave need of direction and succour. i may be knight, squire, scribe or monk; i do not know, but there is a place for any and all in this struggle. please continue writing and let me know how i may be of service.
Thanks for chiming in. Yes, that’s how I’ve felt – both for myself and for others, I need to rise to meet God’s purpose for me.
As for what you can do: read, comment, and be bold and direct in your questions and requests, so that we can find the best way forward.
C’mon Quintus…get her! Banhammer her back to the stone age!
No kidding. Seriously, is there a way to stop these annoying spam ads leaking through?
It’s not easy, because they keep changing their accounts.
Done.
Thank you, good sir. I noticed she was spamming it all over the more recent articles on ROK.
I would think any thoughtful contribution of the caliber presented here would be more than welcome at ROK.
Banned.
I certainly identify with the author, and have gone through a very similar change. I still have some liberal social tendencies, as in, ok, if you’re gay, and you want to “show your pride” ok, fine, whatever. But when that same culture has a complete lack of any sort of traditional, masculine, patriarchal pride, although straight men make up the vast majority as compared to homos, and even showing any sort of pride in patriarchy is seen as an evil and abhorrent thing, then that is where I draw the line and say enough with freedom and western liberal democracy.
I would enjoy hearing more about hermit economy and philosophy.
I would also greatly enjoy more on Julius Evola and Joseph de Maistre, whom I was unaware of prior to this article.
After reading a bit more about Evola and de Maistre, I would strongly request the author to submit an article on their ideas!
I read “Revolte against the modern world and “Men among ruins”from Evola
They are truly one of these life changing books.
The next book I read is from De Maistre.
Then may I strongly suggest you submit an article on these? I should add them to my reading list, but it is already fairly long and would enjoy seeing another’s insight into these authors anyway. It would likely encourage many of us to read the books themselves.
Good Article.
We should not surrender to the modern simply because it is here. I for one will not go gentle into that good night.
Agreed
defeatism will not save the west, nor will retreating from it to EE or South America. We must make a stand and defend what is left and all that can be; right here in the west. Our ancestors would do no differently.
I believe that articles like this can take RoK to the next level. It would be wise to continue.
Excellent article.
I look forward to read more of your prose.
I have a very basic question : how to pray properly ?
Tell me more: do you mean the usual elements of a prayer life, the proper disposition for prayer, the methods of prayer?
Can’t answer for Monsieur but I say yes to all the above. Being Christian myself, I pray nightly but they seem methodical and disingenuous. Would like some insight on how to really connect with God.
Suggestions for prayer books:
– “Understanding Prayer” by E M Bounds
– The Red Sea Rules by Robert Morgan
– 1559 Book of Common Prayer (or any of the older BCP books)
-The Book of Psalms (they are prayers, pretty much)
-The Pursuit of God by A W Tozer
Now that I think of it, I may look into Orthodox and Catholic prayer books (I’ve been neither, BTW). The general rule I try to go for is the older the book, the better.
Much obliged. I’ll look into these
The answer is celibacy. Look into the science of Brahmacharya. Chastity is a virtue that has stood the test of time for a reason. Direct God contact does not have to wait until death. Live a chaste life in mind and body and you will know what it means to be a saint.
I think this issue – prayer, finding the connection with God – is the one for which men have most expressed an interest. I’ll try to turn to that one fairly quickly, if the potentates of ROK ask me to keep writing.
Yes, old books contain treasures of forgotten lore.
One of my first forays into earlier Christian theology – St. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation – providentially had a forward by CS Lewis “On the Value of Reading Old Books.” Do yourself a favour and find it, if you can!
Try also:
The Cloud of Unknowing, The Imitation of Christ, The Practice of the Presence of God, Christ the Life of the Soul (by Bd. Columba Marmion), How to Converse With God (by St. Alphonse Liguori) and Introduction to the Devout Life (by St. Francis de Sales).
On a more advanced level, sometimes dry but often with great information, are such works of Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange as The Three Stages of the Interior Life, and Christian Perfection and Contemplation
You can probably find an online version of all of them.
I think I meant these three questions.
I come from an atheist family and don’t have any religious education, except the one I do on my own.
Ah, I sympathize. I was also raised atheist. God go with you, as He has with me.
I still have faith in the west. Things have been far worse in the past than they are now. The early Christians saw and faced horrible discrimination to liberate the west, but they also faced terrible depravity. Incest, infanticide, single parent families/early feminism, laying with beasts, broken men and yes; Homopheilia.
The Christians essentially won, for their time.
The west and much of the world has been far darker in the past than it is today. It only takes a few good men and the right time in which to act: to change the world.
Once Homopheiliacs start raping “their” kids to the point where even the mass media can’t hide it. Once Women take over the suicide ratio over young boys due to depression from feminism. Once people don’t even recognise their own homes due to “multiculturalism” and mass immigration; they will open a single eye.
Once they do, it’ll up to men like us to open the other and set them free from our “modern” culture.
I’m not worried, because in the end; Shit may sink to the bottom; progressive bullshit floats to the surface. People will see this new world culture for what it is; depravity.
Please do continue. I have found your articles stimulating and informative.
Ah, sounds like something I could become. Cool. I love my cute little demons.
So glad that you will be writing for ROK and sharing your wisdom. I agree pretty much with your conclusion. I have a feeling that we have almost entirely reverted back to pagan times in which the spirit of the world (media, popular opinion, what not…) aims to supress and destroy what is left of religion, tradition and patriarchy. This is why it is so important for men like you to have their voice heard and to support each other.
For those of us who are religious, do not lose hope in the fight, but repeat with faith the words: ”Quis ut Deus!”
Sancte Michael, ora pro nobis!
God bless you, brother!
Yes, Please Do keep Writing!
Interesting article that provokes many thoughts both secular and profane. However, the issue between faith, meaning a belief or indeed a knowledge, if one is of a Gnostic inclination, in a divinity whom created this realm and that of exercising one’s rationality in the vigorous enquiry in the realm that was created by Him, should not that be states that are mutually exclusive. Why should faith prohibit rational enquiry or rational enquiry prohibit faith?
If you’re of a Christian, especially of Catholic heritage you’ll always experience that visceral dichotomy between reason and faith. The monk and the abstract mathematician are not as far apart as people sometimes think as both are based on discipline, dedication and the belief in matters higher than that offered by the mere secular, empirical world.
I don’t just merely think, but believe that a form of solitude and detachment from the sensuous world can led us back to the divine, but, also I think that our messy world of transient disappointments and joys with all its “felt experiences” is a necessary and vital part in the process of acquiring again our real home with the true God.
Good points. As a STEM grad, I also struggled with the faith vs reason debate until I came to the conclusion that in religion or spirituality, it is not necessary to understand everything. One of the things that make modern churches so lame is precisely this lack of sacrum and mystery. To quote someone smarter than me, ”Man does not understand the great mysteries of God, but through faith he can grasp them much more than he could make it through reason, because reason and faith remain at odds when God reveals His secrets.”
With knowledge that’s disclosed to you, and you alone by something higher, more wise and insightful than us, our natural reason and faith go asunder under the power of such a revelation. It’s analogous to Saint Thomas Aquinas’s experience at the end of his life where he had a vision of God just before his death and stated that all his writings across his life “were but bits of straw in comparison to the knowledge of God” which he received.
I think often we forget to reflect upon our true origins. The reason why we’re here on planet Earth. It seems we’re meant to forget who we are, it’s similar to the morale of the person who does good in this world without the belief that their God will reward them for doing good, as this isn’t doing good in the true, free sense of what it means to do good in the way the divine would view it.
What is mystery to man is no mystery to God. God himself is a mystery to man. If a man were to know the hearts and minds of every other man alive, he’d be familiar with ‘the neighborhood’, but still he would barely scratch the surface of understanding, grasping or ‘beholding’ what is creation.
When we are born we forget God. When we die we remember Him.
Yes, I have always felt that the Faith stimulates, rewards and amplifies my intellectual interests and abilities, never that it dismisses them or asks them to simply be suspended in obscurantism.
I definitely would like to see more. All I ever hear is admonishment of the Catholic faith and overall Christianity. And honestly, I can’t take another evangelical telling me God and Jesus loves me, and that’s all that matters. What practical (in both a physical and spiritual sense) does the good book and Catholicism provide?
The world would be backward, primitive and dull without the progressive instincts that Catholicism unintentionally gave the world. Catholicism allows a place for reason unlike Protestantism that insists on faith and revelation alone.
The Catholic faith gives us a path or way that allows us to negotiate our way through the realms of reason, faith and judgement- the path of a true neo-masculine soul.
There is a world of difference between an all-male meeting place for patriarchal men who have access to women and eventually a patriarchal family unit versus an all-male hermitage of monks who are not alpha enough to tell the Pope to go to Hell when the Pope commands that they cannot ever be husband or father. Monks typically become dissolute and debauched over their impotent, unnatural position in life. Factual, citeable, historical eyewitness proof of this is most ubiquitous indeed.
Protestantism put Christianity on the most banal road to secular humanism that we see all around us in today’s unfortunate post-Christian world.
I’ve met monks who to me seem more balanced and complete than any married man I’ve ever encountered . Their belief and practical activities are based around their community and the one true God- who could ask and demand (once free from women) for a more perfect, harmonious and blessed form of existence for men with an inner, spiritual calling and destiny?
That relies on their ability to transcend their libido into their spiritual work, i assume they have some practical means to channel it into the right direction.
Sublimation through discipline and by sacrifice is the defining ethos of monasticism. It was in existence in a modified and very masculine form before Saint Anthony’s retreat into the Egyptian desert.
Our ancestors we’re not obsessed with their masculinity being subjected and valadaited by the approval of some female’s vagina.
Yeah. Pedophilia and other debaucheries. Instances of this hysterically common among priests. Do we really even need to go there?
Thats were ability comes in, repression and sublimation will have different outcomes.
A cliche of dull mediocre catchment. Let us denounce an entire creed by less than 5% of its official officers (priests) who were convicted of this offence.
An intellectual argument would be nice rather than something approximating a left wing slogan.
Thats because they knew better, true monasticism or hermesticism will build your masculine character and virtues while women will drain it.
That’s what’s true monasticism was all about. I think you’re Swedish, correct? So your country has a small Catholic community. However, I fear that your country will become the bastion for non-Christian aliens who’ll eventually subject you to their Muslim sharia laws. How can you take that? If you were a Catholic you’d belong to a faith that was bigger than a particular nation and which could oppose this menace.
These Muslims are devious and duplicitous to the core, but, oddly they also lack intelligence in the European sense. So, like a good monk I think we “must be as wise as serpents” when it comes to this cunning type in our midst.
Correct, im swedish. I’ve been around them alot since recently when i decided to not have anything to do with immigrants (the redpill lead me to nationalism and ethnocentrism).
I know them very well, i know their strengths and i know their weaknesses, their main strength are that they take lying and decieving to the level of an artform and us europeans sometimes underestimates the extent of that ability. Their main weakness is their inability of stoicism, short temperedness and how easily offended they are.
I am not a christian, my personal practice have similarities though.
If you think it’s five percent, you’re out of touch with reality.
The priests diddle the children. The monks diddle the nuns. And then they make the nuns abort the babies because the Pope won’t let these men be fathers, lest they should pass their worldly possessions on to their offspring instead of the Papal System. And you want to call all of that cravenness and perversity ALPHA now?
I give it to you: That’s audacity. Bravo.
I’m talking about monks not priests in the general catholic community. I don’t believe that your anecdotal tale is a universal of the church. It’s simplistic and grossly inaccurate.
Yes, I agree Arabs are extremely cunning in their ways. I never trust them, but, their almost feminine emotionalism and proclivity to react to even the most slight offence betrays their true nature, time and time again.
A weakness like that can be exploited.
Are you european yourself if i may ask?
Yes.
Yes, this stands at the center of monastic life. People associate eros, the love from which we derive the term “erotic,” with merely sexual love. But it is the love fixated upon the desired object with an eye towards union, rather than the love of friendship (companionship in shared pursuits and ideals) or charity (self-sacrificing concern with the other’s interests). These loves are not mutually exclusive, but they are obviously different.
The monk channels eros towards the divine with greater intensity, because eros is not being directed towards other objects.
Thanks for the words of defense. I was once a liberal and anti-Catholic, and bought into all this stuff. I then discovered that the abuse rate was far less in the Catholic Church than it was in public schools, the Boy Scouts, Protestant organizations, etc. But for some reason(!), the Catholics take all the flak for it.
It’s a cliche that’s used by a whole motley crew of dullards that’s used to denounce an entire organisation. This is where the rationalism and evidence based approach that the Catholic Church helped develop still provides a reliable method that allows discernment between the truth and its opposite number.
I think there are two reasons for this. Firstly, the elite either come from a protestant background and their gut reaction is to loath Catholics and they delight in any thing anti-Catholic; or, they come from a secular tradition as in modern France.
Secondly, I think this is a continuation of the struggles between church and state that have been a feature of the West since the first millennium. The state is in the ascendant and many of the functions of the church – births, deaths and marriages – have been taken over by the state. The state and its functionaries seek to consolidate and extend state power to the detriment of the church. This includes ridiculing and persecuting the church and religious faith through the media.
I agree. Also, because the infiltration and assault upon the Catholic Church has been so effective for the past 60 years, I think many younger people misunderstand the power and influence of the Catholic Church prior to the 80s. It was a bulwark of tradition against a world of Statist aspirations to power, against Socialism, against moral degeneracy. More than any other religious group, it was unified, ubiquitous, wealthy and uncompromising. For this reason, it was public enemy #1 for Socialists, Perverts, Warmongers, Crony Capitalists, etc.
I am realtively new to ROK and appreicate your articles. Please continue here or your own blog if you must.
“..the Catholics take all the flak for it.”
I’ve noticed that for years.
Protestantism has been dead in this country for at least half a century. What you are seeing is not Protestantism. Not that I am one, note. But let us be honest: today’s lily-livered evangelicalism is not historical Protestantism.
I don’t know what Protestantism actually means anymore. In England, Anglicism is nothing more than a form of secular socialism with a touch of God. In the States as evangelicalism it’s akin to a form of literal mindedness without any rational enquiry. Either way it seems rudderless in the sea of modernity.
George, I’ve been reading this exchange. I, for one, am quite interested in what is offered. I’ll be blunt and say that you, on the other hand, have only had something to say about what is wrong and offer nothing constructive to make things right.
Is there something you need?
You must not be an history buff.
In terms of being a hermit, are you aware of canon 603? Is that part of your hermitage project?
I am. I am a sedevacantist, however, who feels that the conciliar hierarchy since the late 60s, is not at all the authentic magisterium of the Catholic Church. I believe that the modern Church is “in eclipse,” as sister Lucia of Fatima put it.
I understand that this short answer has left a book full of things unsaid. I suppose if the men of ROK are interested in that, I could go into it.
Sedevacantist ? Hush…. Cui, if you are studying to become a roman catholic priest, I hope that your opinions will not get you in trouble, at least not until you get ordained. From what I heard from seminarians and priests in my corner of the world, there is a very strict emphasis on obedience, and many who were a hope for the future have been kicked out for being too pious or too smart and a potential threat to the church (literally the words used). And their superiors would teach Kant and belittle St Thomas Aquinas, make fun of the piety of simple folk, and specifically for us our ”exagerated” Marian devotion. There is hope that this will change in the future with the new generations of priests who are not infiltrated by communists and other traitors. I will keep you in my prayers.
Thank you! Yes, and this is why I am a sedevacantist. Often people get bogged down in the question of whether the pope is or can be an heretic, and how to get rid of him (if possible), if and when he is an heretic.
While I think even this question is easily answered, by far the stronger rationale for the sedevacantist position, in my mind, is the Church’s teaching that the Universal, Ordinary Magisterium cannot be in error. When one sees the majority of bishops routinely teaching odd ideas, approving of heresy in their seminaries, permitting the publishing of books that contain heresy, changing all the rites of the Church in impious ways, writing new Catechisms and codes of Canon Law that contain precepts contrary to Divine Law, etc., etc., one knows for certain that he is dealing with an apostate body, and not the Church. Yes, many young priests are much more sincere and faithful. Even many traditional folk, now, have absorbed odd ideas that seem orthodox in comparison to modernity, but which are actually condemned heresies. But, because they are starting to study Latin again, are reading LaGrange and the older manuals of dogmatic theology again, I am optimistic that things can get sorted out, sooner or later. God help us!
I am sure that God will help. He is the One who is writing the pages of history, and many Saints will probably envy us for having lived and fought in such difficult times. Whenever I get enraged at current bullshit, I try to remember the vision of the two columns of St. John Bosco, at the end of which the ennemies of the Church will destroy each other. And I just love it when sites like ROK or Milo Yiannopoulos show how lefties start to fight about who is more opressed or who has more priviledge (eg. gays vs trans, blacks vs migrants, etc.). In the end, they might just eat each other without our help.
As for the papacy, I do not have the knowledge or the inclination to judge the pope, but I have been disillusioned over the years with the actions of modernist bishops. However, there is hope. Men like you give me hope. You often talk about Fatima, but you might also be interested in the writings of the blessed Anne Katherine Emmerich. She had visions of the future in which she saw the darkness in the Church, almost completely destroyed form within and attacked from all sides. She says that even if only a single true Catholic would remain in the world, the Church can still be victorious because it was not build upon the wisdom of men. Here are some excerpts:
September 12, 1820: “I saw a strange church being built against every rule…No angels were supervising the building operations. In that church, nothing came from high above…There was only division and chaos. It is probably a church of human creation, following the latest fashion, as well as the new heterodox Church of Rome, which seems of the same kind…”
September 10, 1820: “I saw the Church of St Peter: it has been destroyed but for the Sanctuary and the main altar. St Michael came down into the Church, clad in his suit of armor, and he paused, threatening with his sword a number of unworthy pastors who wanted to enter. That part of the Church which had been destroyed was promptly fenced in with light timber so that the Divine office might be celebrated as it should. Then, from all over the world came priests and laymen and they rebuilt the stone walls, since the wreckers had been unable to move the heavy foundation stones. And then I saw that the Church was being promptly rebuilt and She was more magnificent than ever before…”
October 22, 1822: “Very bad times will come when non-Catholics will lead many people astray. A great confusion will result. I saw the battle also. The enemies were far more numerous, but the small army of the faithful cut down whole rows (of enemy soldiers). During the battle, the Blessed Virgin stood on a hill, wearing a suit of armor. It was a terrible war. At the end, only a few fighters for the just cause survived, but the victory was theirs.”
Source: http://veritas-vincit-international.org/2014/08/16/blessed-anne-catherine-emmerichs-prophecy-on-the-two-popes/
Thank you very much for this. I am but little familiar with Bd. Anne, having recently heard that her visions led to the discovery of the Blessed Virgin’s home in Ephesus, and of course knowing that Mel Gibson had based his film on our Lord’s Passion upon her visions.
This is a real revelation; many thanks.
Sedevacantist ? Hush…. Cui, if you are studying to be a roman catholic priest, I hope that your opinions will not get you in trouble, at least not until you get ordained. From what I heard from seminarians and priests in my corner of the world, there is a very strict emphasis on obedience, and many who were a hope for the future have been kicked out for being too pious or too smart and a potential threat to the church (literally the words used). And their superiors would teach Kant and belittle St Thomas Aquinas, make fun the piety of simple folk, and specifically for us our ”exagerated” Marian devotion. There is hope that this will change in the future with the new generations of priests who are not infiltrated by communists and other traitors. I will keep you in my prayers.
Please keep writing. I will definitely send you an email.
Another excellent article. PLEASE keep writing. This site keeps getting better and better, and your two articles have been highly refreshing.
I feel the spiritual glut that you talk about, both in society and in myself. Having spent a number of my childhood years as a Catholic, and my post-pubescent adolescence as a Baptist, I find myself yearning more and more for a solid spiritual foundation.
The problems I have are as follows:
First, the Pope’s a feminist, and I’m pretty sure he’s not even Catholic. I live in NYC, so I’m not really sure anybody that goes to mass actually has the balls to advocate traditional Catholic teachings. If that were to change, I’d easily embrace the faith. But then, isn’t that the problem? Am I not just being a bitch by waiting for something to change for me? Do I have a chance to nudge it back in the right direction, if I make a commitment along with hordes of others like me?
Second, I’ve never seen a more efficient beta-male factory than a Baptist church. All they seem to know how to do now is blindly follow everybody else towards the cultural pit of whatever, 10-20 years later. Everybody, from the pastor down to the 47-yr old basement dwelling cat man, all seem to be on one purpose: pretending as hard as possible to be a cool kid… emphasis on “kid”. It started becoming more pathetic than Steve Ballmer trying to be like Steve Jobs in corporate press conferences. The men all have front-asses, and the women all have two asses.
So what do I do? Where can a guy like me in NYC turn for a traditional masculine spiritual community? If nothing exists, then who lives in NYC and wants to start something up with me? I’m not looking to half-ass a “Theology on Taps” binge drinking bitch-fest, either… I’ve been to one of those before where everybody spent 2 hours getting drunk, leaving the server an embarrassingly tiny tip, and pretending to debate about whether or not they’d kill somebody or something.
“I’ve never seen a more efficient beta-male factory than a Baptist church.”
*laughter in agreement* It’s true (former Baptist here). The ironic thing is everyone thinks Baptist churches are dictatorial. I will say, however, that my first pastor was the only person to give an encouraging Father’s Day sermon.
“Where can a guy like me in NYC turn for a traditional masculine spiritual community?”
This was suggested to me, or you could try the Orthodox:
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/fortruss/assad_russia_is_the_only_defender_of_christianity_that_one_can_count_on/#comment-2363129722
There are also a couple of Red-pill Christian blogs I frequent, and they have additional sites you might want to check out:
https://deepstrength.wordpress.com/
https://dalrock.wordpress.com/
https://ragingvanity.wordpress.com/
I hope this helps.
Bookmarked. Appreciate it, I’ll check these out tonight.
Some likely Orthodox churches in NYC, services in English : St. Gregory the Theologian, at Union Theological Seminary, Broadway and 121st; Protection of the Virgin Cathedral, 2nd St./2nd Ave.; St. Mary Magdalen, Columbus and 107th.
I have thought of doing an article that tackles the present problems in Catholicism, but I don’t know if it would be interesting to the men of ROK. Maybe I should do it on my own blog, and direct readers there.
I for one would love to read it. Your articles are edifying.
I think you’d find a lot of men interested. It’s interesting for me, because I really don’t believe in a higher power, but I strongly believe in the value of good religion with traditional (neomasculine) values. I know others have written about the lack of rites of passage and rituals in modern western society, so I’m looking for something strong in that area (among others). I’ll be having kids in a couple years despite the warnings all over the manosphere, and I want a solid foundational community to raise them. I feel having children is a duty to make the world a better place (egotistical?), and I really hope I have a son to break the cycle of three generations of matriarchal divorcee disasters preceding my brothers and me.
Excellent article, thank you Sir.
Definitely more writings like this would be great, I am not a Christian but I am mostly a scholastic, monastic hermit.
I love the history of Christendom, without it we would not have the western civilisation model we want to save.
It’s not the best BEST, it’s in the shits right now but without it we would still be slaves to the Pharisees, we would not have any of the rights we have today and compared to the other choices, it is still the golden standard.
I think the below video series is a great start, battles, hero’s, heroic deeds, love of God, politics, history, spirit, valour, loyalty, chivalry, brotherhood, love, family.
Real history of Crusades from primary sources Christian and Muslim.
if this doesn’t stir the cockles of your heart, you’re giving sexual comfort to the enemy.
It’s only 146 videos..
These same crusaders also killed other Christians as most were simply looters.
No, they were not simply looters. Many of them did pillage, as this was something which armies generally engaged in (even in WW2, American soldiers could send war booty home; Russian soldiers raped and pillaged in German territories, as well).
Sometimes people speak as though the Crusaders’ sack of Constantinople, for example, was an unprovoked attack for the sake of looting and venting confessional spleen. But in 1182 the Byzantines had massacred approximately 55,000 Catholic civilians, and sold 4,000 into slavery to the Moslem Turks, resentful of their commercial success in the city as traders (mostly Genoese and Venetians). Catholics, who had been fighting to defend the Byzantines, and who had started religious orders to redeem Byzantines and Catholics from slavery to the Turks, were naturally disgusted by this outrageous, treasonous, crime of ingratitude. This prompted the sieges of Thessalonica and Constantinople in the following two decades.
Thank you.I get annoyed at all this emotional silliness, I say to people, you make it sound like the Christians woke up one day and said,’ hmm what shall we doeth this fine morrow….I know let’us starteth ourselves a bloody 1000 year crusade”.
The 1st step to any kind of freedom is realising you don’t own any of your ideas/thoughts/history,
2nd step is finding out who put those ideas/thoughts/history there,
3rd step is finding out which ideas/thoughts/history you weren’t allowed to learn, then study, study, think, feel, study some more, then we MIGHT say something worthy of being said that actually belongs to us.
Great article.
Dildos for toddlers? Hard to believe. Then again, I believe there are thongs for tween girls, those creepy dance mom and pageant shows, and the whole cheerleader culture. I suppose, nowadays, anything is possible, especially if you want to raise a prostitot.
Not a dildo for sexual pleasure; a prosthetic penis so that transitioning toddler girls can begin to feel like they have male parts.
Oops, my bad…then again, apples and oranges aside, it’s still pretty weird.
No, my statement was ambiguous and easily misunderstood. And yes, it is insanely weird.
Keep the articles coming please.
I agree with everything you say. We need dedicated holy men to light the path for the rest of us. There are people that depend on me so I need to keep working “in the world”. I have a good income but I work with corporates. The lunatics are in charge of the system. It’s not about business anymore. The obsession with diversity is stronger than the profit motive now. The one thing that keeps me going is my love for others (Thank God I found a decent and holy woman). I know I need to prepare for when it starts to fall apart, which cant be far away with the way things are going now. We need to learn to be strong again and to be vigilant. That is why we need guides like this monk.
I sympathize; the inmates really are running the asylum.
You mention SJW insanity outstripping even greed (which is truly astounding). A friend of mine recently told me that the new Star Wars movie put out a press release, saying that they had a lesbian starship captain. I was mystified – to the best of my recollection, the original Star Wars trilogy had only one woman anywhere with a speaking part (apart from a brief cameo by Mon Mothma), and a very minimal love story. It was focused primarily on mythopoetic, almost spiritual ideals, and a struggle of the male spirit (search for the father, for manhood, for independence, for strength, for virtue, for martial prowess). Little boys loved it because it had these noble ideals, acted out in epic battle scenes.
Then Lucas pandered in the second trilogy and aimed at children, rather than trusting kids to like it for the same reason they liked the first three. In the process, he alienated the major demographic – straight white men – leaving only a silly movie for kids. Now, all the parents I know, as soon as they heard that lesbianism was now a featured attraction in the film, said: “Well, I guess I can’t take the kids to see it.” I was truly amazed that they could take so huge a franchise as Star Wars, a real money-maker, and then throw a ton of profit away for SJW signaling points – now, straight white men don’t want to see it, and many parents will not take their kids to see it, either. Who will see it? Lesbians of color? Is that a recipe for success?
I guess that is the power of the SJW insanity – even when a company stands to lose millions, it is still better to alienate white, heteronormative (i.e., the dominant) culture. I know many people will still see the film, if only because they have high hopes for a franchise that was once so interesting. But I know a substantial portion of people will refuse to spend their twenty bucks to see it – and all because Disney felt the need to include something that nobody would have missed to begin with. They’re just throwing cash away, for the sake of wearing an “I love lesbos” pin. It’s a new religion.
I don’t want to reveal much about my area of work, but it is in the “big end of town”. When tendering for new work, my firm now emphasiseso it’s “commitment to diversity and inclusion”. Big pocket clients (government agencies, banks, insurance companies, etc) expect it to be covered in tender docs, it’s now a factor sitting with fees and expertise. Business is business, so the firm needs to have a few gays on staff, pride network/events, to make that sort of thing available to key clients. To keep my job, I keep my mouth shut. We are well and truly through the looking glass. Thanks for responding to my comment.
Future Ideas? The role of the man as spiritual head of the
household…attacked and demonized by gender feminists (recently) and
those opposed to the truth (forever). Wax on, Grasshopper.
We’re beasts of burden of sorts here on Earth, but we’re not animal beasts, we’re still men. The closest we come to becoming less than human is when we surrender our all to the female, when we allow matriarchy to become. Men are never so sick and handicapped that they can’t lead. The strength is there all along. It’s called PATRIARCHY. We’re men. We’re HUMANS, not animals. Not unless we fall under bitch rule will we risk becoming full fledged ‘dumb animals’ without souls. Only if a man allows himself to be browbeaten to submission or to fall under the whip of the female, then his soul is in jeapordy of becoming lost in the pit. For a man falling under any woman’s ‘spell’, at the moment he’s ‘used up’ and preparing to be discarded, he finds himself in a place that is far from the light of God, his soul being sucked asunder, and he feels it where? That’s right. Solar plexus or below the heart and above the stomach, IN THE LOWER RIBS. From whence woman came, from the rib.
Great article, Cui. I’ll spare some ribs for you man . . heh
More and more, I feel like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole. Up is down. Right is wrong. Wrong is right. You seriously start to regard contemporary American culture as one big psyop. With each passing day, it becomes less possible to determine whether you’re dealing with a true news outlet or the Onion. It’s become so sick you can’t tell if these news stories are real or satire.
And at the same time male college students are required to attend classes designed to “teach them not to rape,” Europe and America are busy taking in millions of male immigrants from the Middle East and Africa – men who believe that a woman who isn’t covered
head to toe in a bed sheet is an affront to Allah and is inviting rape. The cognitive dissonance meter is maxed out. The fucking needle has broken off and steam is pouring out. And the really fucked up thing is women truly think that if they get raped, it’s going to be by some Christian Grey type on his Loui Vuitton comforter set. No. It’s going to be by an unwashed, uncircumcised “refugee” with yellow rotten teeth and curry on his breath in a back alley. You’re not
going to have cute little love bites on your skin or a red handprint on your ass. You’re going to have a broken orbital bone and your eye will be swollen shut.
Shooting a lion engenders such collective outrage that the dentist who shot it is forced to shutter his business and go into hiding whereas leaked video footage of abortionists literally haggling over the price of human flesh in some type of modern day Faustian deal is met with deafening silence. The shooting of a fucking lion is enough to move a late night television host to tears but there’s no
similar outrage when video footage of a bowl of baby parts being picked through like a bowl of gumbo is leaked to the public. No police raids. No interruption in funding of Planned Parenthood. And Planned Parenthood: it’s such an Orwellian term. It’s like calling the section in a store where condoms are shelved the Family Planning aisle. Birth control is not for planning a family: it’s for ensuring you don’t have a family. Abortion practitioners unable to keep the excitement out of their voices at the realization that the bowl of baby parts they’re picking through was a boy. Watch the leaked video. The medical assistant aiding the abortionist says in a breathless voice: “It’s another boy!” as he stirs through the pink glop with a stick.
In another time, people vied for who was the most pious, the most honorable, the wisest, the most chaste. Now they compete for who is the most tolerant. The most open minded. Women of an earlier era would pride themselves on their modesty, on their temperance. How they compete for who is the most tolerant, who has had the
greatest variety of dick (Mediterranean dick, Italian dick, Black dick, Latino dick). The greater the panoply of dick that has been tried, the greater your worth as a human being. That is the standard we measure ourselves by now. It’s like that line in Alice in Wonderland, when the Cheshire cat says to Alice grinningly from his perch in a tree, “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
/rant
The maddest of the mad aren’t the mad women, they’re the TOOLS of the mad women, the manginas. The sad thing is that manginas don’t even know that they’re tools. If only some manipulative cunts would come foreward and gloat how they pull the strings on so and so mangina. They yak of it in private constantly, how they pull so and so’s chains. Mangina prevention implemented would require men to be knighted as patriarchs and be certified or ordained as capable of grappling the she beast before they even lay hands on one. You can always learn the hard way without prior guidance and come out very strong as a patriarch if you succeed in boxing the wrathful bitch and bringing out the sweet grapes. But without the crack rule of the patriarch, a good man can be reduced to wreckage beside the road from blindly running into a nasty ‘slick spot’ . . eeh. But I read a lot on here guys wishing they knew back when what they know now and realize the truths that are discussed here.
Notice how many women seek power for the sake of power? Men generally don’t do that. Men naturally rise to positions of power (CEO) over time: they don’t set their sights on positions of power so that they can lord over others. It is very common for young girls (high school / college) to state their goal is to be a lawyer or a CEO. Notice they don’t say they want to accomplish anything, invent anything, do something that no one has done before. They simply want the power.
Yep. Give a girl a ‘phantom dick’ and all she yearns for is ’empty’ power. Geez
Brother, I sympathize profoundly with everything you say here. In fact, there’s only one thing you got wrong, and it’s not even worth mentioning (i.e., today’s most likely refugees and rapists are going to be circumcised, not uncircumcised)!
If something is unsustainable, it’s only a matter of time till it ends, question is only how long and what form it will take..
Please continue to write, Cui.
Let me post this quote:
“Simon wanted to die not because he felt too much, but because he felt nothing. He was unable to have a relationship because he was empty, incapable of giving or receiving. He moved through the world in a restless search for meaning, discarding jobs, condos, cars and people when they failed to deliver. He wanted what everyone else seemed to find so easily, but which proved elusive to him, a connection with another human being.”
Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect, by Jonice Webb.
I just submitted an article, coincidentally, regarding my skepticism about Christianity as a motivating doctrine due to some problematic assumptions, but there is much other wisdom from the ancients and the institutions that were passed down through it.
Perhaps an article about incorporating this in a new framework would be appropriate.
I’ll be interested to read your article. I was once an Atheist, and think I’ve entertained most of the usual, skeptical views towards the Faith; I think it acquits itself well, and I suppose we’ll see if I can help other people to agree, or not.
My objections aren’t really concerned with atheism so much as I see Christian assumptions at root of some of the ideological problems we face (such as you mention, this mad drive for total equality) and whether it is capable of meeting our challenges with political correctness and more aggressive creeds like Islam.
There is a bit of a “not believable” thing, but that’s more to do with demography and whether it’s feasible for people to truly return to the churches.
I take a shot at the “atheist community.” I consider them self-righteous pseduo-intellects.
I simply wonder whether it can be a unifying force like it once was in our modern world.
It’s clear that faith in something is necessary for most people. I’m just not sure Christianity will be that faith.
“It’s clear that faith in something is necessary for most people” There is of course the possibility, remote to most I imagine, that God can be known and understood at least partially through our minds and spirits as we experience this world. This way, is the way gnosis, that has roots in our own western culture and is superior in my view to a “belief” or “faith” in God that’s based on the received wisdom of the church you happened to a member of.
This type of God is very different to the God of Christianity, Islam and Judaism as this God needs human beings as much as we need Him. In fact the relationship is creative and co-dependent on Him and us.
Something different to reflect on:- The Gospels of Saint Thomas give a feel for its unique tempo.
http://gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html
I don’t how to classify myself but am not religious and probably a down low atheist but a polite one(an apatheist??) I’m one of those paleo/rightwing/traditionalist atheists ( there’s like 6 of us worldwide) who isn’t a self righteous snarky prick like the leftist atheists are. I’m just not a joiner. Love Brother Cui’s articles though. Ironically I find myself nearly 95% of the time defending religious people because they align with me politically and philosophically. I will steal a line from one of the brilliant ROK commentariat “it takes a religion to fight a religion” i.e. the religion of leftism, hedonism, feminism etc. So my atheist ass will stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the shield wall with you religious people and I’ll be the better for it….
In the current climate, I can understand that skepticism, and those questions. I obviously think it can, and I have hope, actually, that men are being primed for a recovery of Christian Faith in large numbers, now that the alternative to Christianity has had 500 years to unravel, and play out to its natural conclusions. I think we are at a stage where men may be able to look back upon the shambles of Western Civilization, and see that the propaganda against the Church was pushed by the same people telling us all the other pretty lies about diversity, equality, the “brotherhood of man,” etc. I think men are coming to a point, where they can see that the supposed obscurantism and vain moralizing of the Church was anything but. Even 10 years ago, however, many regular joes were under the sway of liberal, “blue-pill” ideas, and the dismissal of the Church as obviously backwards in light of these ideas was par for the course.
I understand how some men attribute this “blue pill” ideology to Christianity, thinking it is rooted in the altruistic ideals of the New Testament. But, I think I can succeed in demonstrating that the success of the left and the Blue Pill, required the dismantling of the authentic, Christian Faith through successive, revolutionary and occupying waves. Recovery of the full and uncompromised Faith, in my opinion, is the best antidote to the democratic and egalitarian poison, and to the recovery of Patriarchy and masculine nobility.
But everything is on the edge of a knife. Where it may go, and how, is difficult to see.
The nature of God’s creation would be an interesting discussion from a masculine perspective. I believe Saint Paul wrote about the Christian man becoming a co-creator with God in one of his famous letters. What would this state be like to experience as a man, one can, but, wonder?
Yes please write more.
Has anyone noticed that as much SJWs and left wing policies are about helping the plight of migrants at the cost of white men, they never help East Asian people? Isn’t this hipocrasy? Well you see, left wing degeneracy is not about demonising white men and elevating the status of non white men per se. No, it is about affirmative action and unfair social charity to races that display lower levels of civilisation building capacities, over races that display higher levels of civilisation building capacities. By this logic, it becomes obvious why no East Asian man has ever benefitted from the affirmative action blacks receive. Heck, if anything, left wing people hate East Asian men even more than white men due to their even greater propensity to maintain advanced civilisations and uphold patriarchy. Ultimately, it is a battle not between white men and non white men, but between k-selective cold region races and r-selective Equatorial races.
I enjoyed this article. Look forward to many more from you ,Cui.
Keep writing, maybe an article on ascetic living, or religion and self improvement.
I would make a request. As a monk who values a good work ethic, what is your take in the good works vs just believe in Jesus Christ being the Son of God and you’ll be saved debate? Maybe it’s because I’m pretty neutral on religion, but I suspect the whole good works don’t count towards salvation concept is partly responsible for the entitlement virus infecting American society at large, but especially liberal SJW society. As always, looking forward to more articles good sir.
Sure, I can tackle that, though a lot of folks have deep convictions and emotions on the topic. I don’t want to alienate too many people, but the focus of this forum is on developing manly character and understanding, so there should be no shame in clearing up misconceptions that lead some to take too passive an approach.
In the last few days it has occurred to me that the concept of “justification through faith alone” is at the root of much evil in the modern world. It allows the elite to believe they are good “just because”… and therefore they can do no evil, because they are sui generis good.
Further, it has occurred to me that “justification by faith alone” allows the elite to eschew self reflection. Therefore they can’t correct their actions – why should they? They are in themselves good. It means they believe they have no need for confession – they have nothing to confess, because everything they do is in itself blessed.
The concept is hubristic because it presupposes that they know what is good “just because”. It is arrogant because it places men (and women) on the level of God. It is blasphemous for the same reason.
Without the concept, much of protestantism collapses, of course.
To emphasize this point, I currently live in West Texas. After about three years living here, I noticed something interesting here. You see, there’s two kinds of establishments here. One are alcohol based establishments like liquor stores and bars. The other is churches. What happens here is during Fridays and Saturdays, the locals get seriously hammered and get rowdy and get in trouble, such as the prevalence of DUIs that I witnessed reading the Midland Texas Police Department Crimestoppers periodical. Ditto the bottle and can strewn alleys, which besides being a tiny treasure trove for those of us who collect aluminum cans to sell, is a serious eyesore. Then there are churches, where those sober enough to stagger in can sit down, get on their knees, take Jesus in their heart, and let their sins wash away, just like that. And the next day, they can go on with their lives, being assholes to their fellow human beings, like the redneck with the U.S. and Confederate flag in his truck, who almost ran me off the road because he was speeding, not giving a damn about his fellow American. I was so mad I couldn’t laugh about the irony of the U.S. and Confederate flags flying together. But who cares? He responds only to Jesus, and not to anyone else. Explains also why the obsession with the Rapture. And as I pointed out in my comment on the University of Missouri, thus is where the liberal offspring of these savages get their lack of integrity, as well as their sense of entitlement. Just as conservatives think that one is good just by having faith alone, liberal soccer moms think that just by showing up, kids should be commended.
With this being said, we should all give our support to Mr Pertinebit on tackling this subject. And yes, he is right on saying it is controversial and might make people mad, but oh well. It will like bitter medicine. And isn’t it why ROK exists in the first place? After all, Jesus went against the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin, so we should go against the establishment, whether left or right.
We have no righteousness to offer God. Jesus’ blood is the only thing that SAVES!
Elven King, I’ve always enjoyed your comments and kindness, so I mean no offense here, but I offer some food for thought. Here is the Catholic view.
The Scriptures speak of many things as saving us – grace, faith, works, God, baptism, our fellow Christians who pray for us and persuade us, etc. So, those who rush too quickly to say that only one thing saves us – “faith alone,” or somesuch – are often being too rash; many things play a role in our salvation. The Catholic view is that the Christian is saved by the involvement of all these things, rather than just one of them.
If you want to really get into it: Aristotle gave us an important way of using reason to distinguish between the roles that various elements can play in causing a phenomenon. He mentions the four types of causes – formal, efficient, material and final. For example, in a statue the formal cause is the “form” to which the sculptor will conform the marble; the efficient cause is the sculptor himself and his instruments; the material cause is the marble of which the statue is made; the final cause is the purpose for which the statue is being made – i.e., to be placed in a temple.
One can break down even the various elements I will list here into their causes, so there are many ways one can look at this; but I think a way of discussing the causes of our salvation is as follows.
1) The efficient cause of our salvation is God’s grace. Ultimately, we will see that grace is an operation of the Deity, and thus, salvation comes from direct contact with God Himself – as St. Peter says, “you have been made partakers of the divine nature.” Grace operates upon us directly, and also, chiefly, through the Sacraments. The “sculptor” (referring back to the statue analogy) is thus the Blessed Trinity immediately, and salvation is wrought upon us by the “instruments” the Trinity pleased to use: the Incarnate Second Person of the Trinity in Jesus Christ the God-Man, His merits and dispensation and the Sacraments thereof, etc. Hence, “being justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him,” and “likewise, Baptism now saves you” and “all those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” and “unless you eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man, you shall have no life in you,” etc. Christ did the work of our salvation, and all the ways in which He conforms us to Himself are the efficient causes of our salvation; these, distilled to their essence, come down to this: we are saved by Grace, the Operation of the Deity upon man for His betterment, perfection and salvation.
2) The formal cause of our salvation is Christ Himself, to Whom we are conformed by grace. Baptism forms us as members of Christ; chrismation makes us christs with Christ; the Eucharist nourishes us upon Christ, causes us to assimilate Christ and be assimilated into Christ; and so forth.
3) The material cause of our salvation, is faith – or, more properly, the man of faith, the faithful man. Faith is not mere belief (“even the demons believe and tremble”), but is a divinely infused habit of trust in God, which is given operation in the soul through the mediation of goodwill. Aquinas, in his “Disputed Questions on Truth,” makes it clear that faith is different from both knowledge and opinion, and also indicates that it is neither in the cognitive power nor in the affective power, but is in the Understanding (intellect), and not in the operative/practical Understanding, but in the speculative. Hence he concludes:
Unde fides est in intellectu speculativo, quamvis fides sit ut occasio remota aliquid operandi: unde etiam sibi non attribuitur operatio nisi mediante dilectione. Sciendum tamen, quod non est in intellectu speculativo absolute, sed secundum quod subditur imperio voluntatis. (“Wherefore faith is in the speculative understanding, though it be the remote cause of doing something; wherefore also it is not given operation except by a mediating goodwill. One must also know that it is not in the speculative understanding absolutely, but insofar as it is subjected to the command of the will”).
All of which is just an explanation of the Biblical teaching that “even the demons believe and tremble.” Faith is not mere belief, but is trust in God, subject to the good pleasure of the will. It thus has an implicit requirement of willingness to obey and follow God; this is why “faith without works is dead,” as St. James says. Some misunderstand the teaching of St. Paul, because he emphasizes that works cannot merit salvation in and of themselves. This is true, and every Catholic admits it. Any good deed, on its own, has no power to save a man from sin. Even an infinite number of good deeds would have no such power. But it would be wrong to conclude that the intent to obey God – a real intent, such that would and does produce action – is not an element of the faith that saves, since faith is not the mere acknowledgment that God exists, but is the habitual belief in God mediated by goodwill/pleasure. Hence, as St. James also points out, in the example St. Paul gives of Abraham, whose faith was credited to him as righteousness, we must realize that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness because it was real faith and Abraham was intending to obey, and in fact did obey. But if Abraham believed God was speaking to him, and left that on the abstract level, having no delight and goodwill to obey God or act on what he acknowledged to be true, this would not be faith at all. What would it have meant to God, if Abraham moved out of Ur and kept trying to have a kid with his wife? Plenty of men did similar things; such a deed does not merit salvation on its own. What mattered to God, was that when He came to Abraham with His plan to save mankind, Abraham actually trusted him with an obedient and good will; thus, even before Abraham fulfilled what was asked, God credited this faith to him as righteousness. If Abraham had “believed” God, but had no intention to obey Him, would God credit this as righteousness to Abraham? Is this “faith?” According to Scripture and Reason, no.
Likewise, the Church teaches that those who, upon hearing the Gospel, intend to obey and be baptized and live as Christians, are saved by faith and credited with righteousness. But a Christian who hears and then plans on doing everything his own way, not heeding the Church and obeying the commandments to be baptized, to obey the Church, to be subject to prelates and teachers, of walking in good works, of repenting, etc., is essentially a man who believes his own opinion about God, just as any demon does, but has no faith, no faithfully obedient disposition, towards God’s actual plan of salvation. This is not a faith that saves.
4) The final cause of our salvation is the glory of God; that the Saints should bless and enjoy Him forever.
I hope that makes the Catholic view a bit clearer. We believe one must have real faith, that this is expressed in good works and obedience to all the things the Lord willed to establish. None of these things is meritorious or capable of saving, considered as mere deeds – “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags;” but, done with actual Faith, done in Christ, with His righteousness and not our own, they become important means of “working out our salvation with fear and trembling,” and of forming Christ within ourselves, as St. Paul says, and longed to see in those he converted and taught.
Faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord, saves. The belief that He died on the cross for your sins, saves you. I wish to see you in Heaven, Brother Cui! God bless!
great article!!!
End of evil by Jeremy Locke. Ez read. 90 pages. love to here thoughts on liberty slavery Tyrent evil. book outlines these very well. The book costs 500.00 but I found a free version odd Pdf
No offense, man, but this book seems more like a major component of the evil philosophy of our time. The first page alone has a great deal of nonsense.
“The definition of freedom is the infinite value of the human being.” This is literally nonsense. Freedom may be good, and humans may have infinite value, but “the definition of freedom is the infinite value of the human being” is a nonsensical phrase. His next point – “Truth is always simple. All people recognize truth because all people are intelligent beings” – is false on the face of it. An huge part of our criminal element consists of people of about 80-85 IQ who are not very worried about truth; freedom is not the right approach towards such persons – they would not understand it and, more importantly, they would not care.
This reminds me of the “I’m spiritual but not religious” idea. Religion is what happens when “spiritual” people start taking their vague ideas about goodness seriously, and realize that, yes – sometimes, life for man on this earth gets complicated, and correctly discerning the truth can be a daunting task. The book’s idea is basically that people can and should be trusted to engage in whichever conclusions and actions they choose, without having to acknowledge any authority or constraining power upon their lives. This is literally a Satanic philosophy, and is precisely the ideology that gives us revolutionary and leftist activism of all the modern varieties. It is death to the Patriarchy; but Patriarchy is the natural and just society. Submission to legitimate authority (and justly exercising such authority) is a constitutive element of manly character.
Fantastic Article Aurelius!
Great article. Once moral decline arrives and moral is turned upside down, how do you make things right again ?
It has arrived, and how!
That is the question, isn’t it? My belief – the necessary consequences of moral breakdown will naturally produce mortal catastrophes in society; to this, God will probably directly intervene with punishments and purifications of his own. There will be a brutal awakening, and the survivors will envy the dead, for a time. Then, the hard work of building up again, so that some future ingrates can throw it all away, as usual; but, at least in the meantime, some men may save their souls, love their families, build something of worth.
Homo natus de muliere, brevi vivens tempore… it can seem very futile and vain, but there is a point, seen through the lens of eternity.
I would be very interested in many more articles from you. If they don’t wish you continue writing at ROK, then please write somewhere else to get the message out.
As for immediate needs, now, I see guidance as the number one. In particular, guidance how to deal with the world around us, how to help people who will be led astray, in particular, how to convince my 12 y.o. niece that Miley Cyrus is NOT a good role model.
I agree that it is too early for success. But the state ideology, which you’ve called ‘egalitarianism’, but I’d probably call ‘equalism’ (although a more accurate word would probably be same-ism, i.e. everyone man, woman, short, tall, fat, thin, brown, white etc, etc, is exactly the same), is built on very, very shaky foundations because our everyday experiences deny its truth. Kick away one supporting leg and the whole thing comes crashing down. This is why the mass media become so hysterical whenever anyone even hints that there is something wrong with the ideology. So, there’s work to be done, but once the dominoes start falling, it might not take long.
Yes, that’s been the most common request: basic guidance on basic spirituality. It is sad, but true, that our generation has been completely orphaned, spiritually (and sometimes materially). I agree that egalitarianism is central to the modern problem… for example, with your niece. In a sane world, men would not be worrying about trying to convince most women of anything (let alone young women). Patriarchy would make their decisions for them. We are not equal, and women should not be running their own lives or choosing their own entertainments, especially not at the ripe age of 12!
Can you handle the truth? The true red pill? Here it is, but be aware that Yahweh~God is not mocked without consequences….
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=25929&cmd=tc
I’m a hermit. I fought long and hard on the spiritual battlefield, and will continue fighting until I win the war. I love articles like these. I have a LOT to say, but no ability to say it unless people directly ask me (This is usually the case with hermits), so I respect people who can stir up interest like this and say even a little bit of what I wish I could say.
So for your benefit alone, here’s some insight from an extreme hermit.
– The spiritual battle is the hardest battle anyone can ever face. The current spiritual battlefield is the worst it has ever been on Earth, excepting maybe 5000 years ago when Taoists (the most hermit of hermits) last made a big move.
– Everyone wants hermits to pave the way for a new society to be created, and many people like yourself want to be involved in the creation of that new society. That can’t happen yet. The people who would be citizens of that society aren’t alive yet. That society is reserved for the next generation which will be born soon, and subsequent generations.
– The world as we know it doesn’t exist anymore. The lessons of the past tell us to find and build upon sources of stability. There is no stability in the world any more. The world is now turbulence incarnate. All hope is lost. It’s still possible to find stability inside oneself, but no one is currently capable of creating stability in the world around them. You cannot win that battle. No one can win that battle. I can’t even win that battle, and I win EVERY spiritual battle. The best thing anyone can do is find that stability inside themselves (which is what ROK is good for), and then wait.
– All hermits are now waiting. They all know that something needs to happen, and that something will happen. They’re all waiting for the turbulence to grow until it hits the breaking point and becomes chaotic. Because when it becomes chaotic, there will be some threads of stability that can be created. They are waiting and preparing themselves to be able to create stability inside the chaos. I feel like this will happen in 8 years, but predictions like that don’t really work anymore. Point is, everything is going to continue getting worse for a while.
– There are no knights right now. All sources of stability that knights align themselves to are corrupted beyond repair, including the true masculinity heralded by ROK. Despite everyone’s attempts to save and preserve these sources of stability, they’re all gone, and this will get worse. You, a scribe, are the closest thing the world has to a knight right now.
Interesting comment Epigeois, I would like to know more about your story.
Sure, why not.
I was born with a strong moral compass. I knew what was right and what was wrong long before anyone tried to tell me.
When I was in preschool and kindergarten, I went around from table to table helping everyone to complete whatever the project of the day was. I could feel the flow/energy of the every person in a group, and directed it toward harmonizing with the others of the group.
When I got to first grade, almost everyone was shocked and afraid of my attempts to help them accomplish things, as if they would scurry into a corner whenever I made an attempt at a deep connection. That traumatized me.
Throughout my whole life, I’ve had trouble learning how to do things that most people take for granted. Like walking, potty training, memorizing, sleeping, learning. Fundamental things that very few people ever think about. I was always a super fast learner, but for those fundamental things that no one knew about, I had to figure out for myself. It took me a long time to realize that.
For example, when potty training as a toddler, there’s a muscle around the kegels that is controlled to hold in the bladder. I was the only person I knew who found and learned how to control that muscle. None of the adults knew what I was talking about, and none of the kids my age knew either. Everyone around me learned how to control their bladder naturally, which left me to figure it out on my own.
The result of this is usually that I understand everything I learn on a deep level, and am thus really good at everything I do. Even though it takes me a bit of time to figure out the fundamentals on my own, once I do I quickly surpass everyone else in ability.
In late high school, I met someone who introduced me to Taoist meditation. For a while, I had been trying to figure out how to meditate, and had done so on a basic level on my own many times. Once he told me about it, I realized that I had been on the right track. Then with his information, I quickly improved to the ranks of actual Taoist meditation.
I have learned and figured out many, many things in the 10 years since then. At this point, I am starting to pactice something known as “QiGung TuiNa” for a living (think of it as “energetic massage”). In order to practice QiGung TuiNa, I had to learn how to deal with everyone’s psychological problems as if they were my own. It’s not that hard, just think of all types of pain and discontent as a source of information, follow it to it’s root, understand it exists, allow it to exist, then let go of it. This is a summary of what’s known as Taoist dissolving meditation. The hard part is being able to feel the source of the information (If you ask “how long will it take me to feel or do X”, the answer is usually 10 years). My list of skills with QiGung TuiNa include: set up my client’s body so that it can begin healing itself normally; help my client feel ‘Qi’, up to psychic energy if they want; exorcise ghosts; remove extra energy my client acquired from someone else; get my client’s body to start removing heavy metals, drugs, and/or radiation which has taken up residence in the body’s tissues; and fix shock and the damage caused by shock (for example, shock to uterus caused by rape, or shock to spine caused by car crash, or shock to body caused by radiation cancer treatment). I never do anything to a client that I haven’t done to myself (in a broad sense. I don’t have a uterus, but shock is the same everywhere).
There are a LOT of interesting things to talk about. I know how “energy” works, and am writing out the theory (It fits perfectly well within modern physics to the point that if it’s not true, the laws of electromagnetism are wrong). I know how neurons work, and how intelligence works, and why the current path of AI development will never create a general AI; and I am trying to program a true general AI myself. I know why all companies have been producing worse and worse products over time, even new companies that vow to do better. I can feel layers and types of tissue in someone’s body, and at this point have found a few things which haven’t been discovered yet (most of the things I discover, I later find out that they have been discovered by others already, but are labeled as not really science). I have a whole lot of knowledge from an extremely broad range of subjects, and I need all of that knowledge and more to pursue my life goals. I am very good at figuring out why something doesn’t work as well as it could, and how to make it better.
I am an atheist. Not because I believe that god doesn’t exist, but because my path in life and my morality wouldn’t change in the slightest even if I met god.
My morality comes from “do everything in my power to not spiritually hurt myself”. It turns out that once you start interacting with subtle energies, the only way to not hurt oneself is to not hurt anyone else either. Taoist morality is someone’s attempt at writing out the rules you need to follow to not hurt yourself when working with extremely subtle energies.
In order to not spiritually hurt myself, I have to: Never hinder others’ spiritual development; take responsibility for everything that’s mine to take; put full effort into everything I do; Acknowledge and accept the existence of everything I can observe, and the possibility of everything I can’t; Never put force into anything; and Never betray my decisions.
Let’s see, other important things….
Usually when I talk about things of relevance, people don’t understand. I still talk about things, though, because many times people have begun to understand a few years later.
I get discouraged by the average person’s lack of ability to put effort into anything. This is something that has clearly gotten worse within the last 10 years.
I get annoyed by the average person’s lack of ability to control and be aware of their thoughts. This too has clearly gotten worse in the last 10 years.
I think rest is the most important thing to put effort into, because if I don’t rest properly, I get exhausted (truly exhausted, the kind that takes days to recover from).
My goal in life is to fix the source of the problems causing everyone to be stupid, then help everyone be smarter. So far I think I need to destroy Karma, free the lesser gods from imprisonment, create a true general AI, exorcize all ghosts, start a new society, create an organization of awesome people to do awesome things, win the physical war that would start if I were to be successful at all of that, and then help everyone survive and be better people after they find out that their whole life is a lie because I won the war.
I also know that I, as a soul before incarnation, chose to be incarnated into earth at this time to do something of that magnitude.
I have chosen the hardest life I can imagine.
I find your thoughts interesting; I am in partial agreement on much of it, even substantial agreement on some of it.
If the best I can manage to do is to awaken an interest in the pure founts of spiritual knowledge, and to give some knowledge and purpose to the men who will, in a few decades, begin the real battle, so be it. My intent at present is to find what God wants me to do; I try not to have too many absolute convictions about what that is, yet. I have some inklings, which generally don’t disappoint me. But, certainly, I don’t yet know. I look forward to finding out!
I didn’t mean to discourage. I don’t think that the best you can manage is to give some preparation for the men who will, in a couple decades, begin the real battle, while also preparing some others for the aftermath. I only think that’s the best you can manage until the real battle starts. I also think that’s an extremely important thing to manage, one of the best things anyone can manage right now, and is something I would like to do myself but seem to be unable to (every time I try, fate turns me around and says “sorry, kid, you have something else to do”). I strongly wish for you to succeed in managing that. I would also add that finding out what god wants you to do while doing the best you can at something you think is close to the answer is absolutely the way I would advise most people to spend their lives until they find out.
Plus, once the real battle starts, the skills you’ve been honing can easily be used for other purposes. You will not be lost or feel lacking at that time.
I spoke harshly about the state of the world in my first comment because I was trying to imply: don’t let your guard down, your current path will be harder than you think, and some things you think you’ll accomplish by following your path won’t be accomplished; instead you’ll accomplish some things that are even more important right now. I use the word “Impossible” and related concepts often because I’ve found that it’s only when I’ve accepted that something is impossible that it becomes possible. And someone like you, who is trying to accomplish a difficult task, and who knows how difficult some things can be, is likely to benefit from harsh insight.
PS: I often tell people something’s impossible as a way to guide them to figuring out how to do it properly. I’m often told by said people, “So I should just give up?”. To which I respond “What? Why would you give up?”. The concept of giving up just because something is impossible is foreign to me; I don’t understand it.
Don’t worry, I wasn’t discouraged.
And I’m an expert in how following the path does not always go according to plan, but works out in unexpected ways.
I hope you are able to continue to write for ROK. It seems to me strong Christian values and patriarchy are intertwined with one another.
Brother Aurelius, I sincerely hope you become a regular fixture here at ROK. Often Faith is the last bit of the red pill men refuse to swallow. I encourage anything which might encourage men to embark on this path.
Things I would like to read:
How can men find the true Church with an impostor in the Vatican?
Alongside prayer, and meditation, what practical things can small, independent groups of Catholic men do in this fallen world? Organisation, ritual,
The Catholic Church is not a Jewish cult.
Anything which might inspire and encourage men to take up the sword instead of passively accepting their fate.
How does one become a monk, and what is it like?
My best wishes for your spiritual redoubt. Godspeed.
The Peronist Pope bothers me too.
Thanks for this, the suggestions are much appreciated.
Yes, a few people have mentioned their confusion about the present state of the Church and papacy, and how one goes about being a Christian, or even taking the Faith seriously, in light of that.
I need to be mindful of writing for more than just a Catholic audience here at ROK, but I don’t think an occasional post describing the feminization and usurpation of ecclesiastical institutions (including the papacy/Vatican) would be out of place.
I have a theology degree. My studies took me deep into the Classics, the history of philosophy, and the development of theology from NT times through to the liberal Protestantism of the current era.
I studied theology at a time when postmodernism was starting to gain traction. It seemed to me to be an anti-philosophy; a giving up on rationality and thought. I have seen that early traction turn into a take-over of the philosophical worldview that informs political decision-making today.
With this background I am in a position to critique the lazy thinking of today … and it makes my blood boil with impotent rage too …
I sympathize entirely. The West is auto-destructing, and all of her institutions have succumbed to a kind of madness. The Church has not failed, cannot fail – but the institutions that once belonged to the Church are now run by the revolutionaries, and a confused kind of civil war is taking place. Until the spiritual heart of the West is set right, there can be no victory; any institution that pretends to stand for tradition and wisdom and conservatism at best slows the descent.
We must purify our rage, ensure that it is righteous, and then channel it with an angelic resolution.
How does one know if one is a knight or a Don Quixote?
Good question. These days, it can be hard to tell; delusion is everywhere, even (or especially?) amongst those who wish to do good. It used to be that obedience to experienced spiritual guides and authorities was critical in ensuring that one remained free from delusion. That is still true, in fact; but, how many men of spiritual wisdom, experience and truth are left? Even the good are often hopelessly confused and turned around in our days.
Humility of heart with boldness of hope, hard as both are to find and keep, form our solitary refuge.
Most people don’t realise, because history is no longer taught, that the current situation vis a vis Islam, is just the latest iteration of the Crusader cycle, going back around 1000 years. Westerners tend to think of the Crusades as some nasty event that can be used to browbeat modern-day Catholics with, when in fact they were an aspect of the push-pull between the Islamic world and Christendom.
The Islamic world has never forgotten the Crusades, and the Western world has been propagandised into ‘apologising’ for them.
I think there needs to be widespread teaching about the Crusades, so that people understand the context of the current conflict with the Islamic world.
Perhaps there is a place for an article on the Crusades in ROK?
This. Also, the first crusade was largely in response to the brutality of the Seljuk Turks who were behaving very like ISIS is today.
Sure! The Crusades represent many of the best things of the Western and Christian spirit.
Great article. I look forward to reading more from you
Great article Cui, I’d definitely like to see more articles by you on ROK.
Your articles are great Cui and I hope to see more of your writing on ROK.
I was listening to Mike Cernovich’s recent podcast and he addressed the role of suffering in strengthening one’s spirit and it got me thinking. I hope you’ll write about the role of suffering in the Christian faith.
Thank you, yes, that is a topic I had in mind.
Thank you for doing this, getting people excited and willing to further the Faith in a way that works. I’m coming back around to practicing again in the Catholic Church and seeing this article was definitely a sign.
I guess what I would like to see in future articles is what some have brought up about practicing with the current pope, and out of my own concern, how to form masculine groups when everything has become so feminized and partially social justice in the church. How does one attempt to bring it back?
Yes, the two main interests thus far seem to be how to form a basic spiritual life/begin praying, and what to do about the feminization of the Church. I will be sure to address these topics.
Thanks to you and so many others for telling me what they’d like to read, and for giving their encouragement.
excellent read.
Brilliant stuff so far keep it up. I am an agnostic, but I believe a spiritual crisis too lies at the heart of the failure of western civilization to maintain its vitality.
Brother Moser, please continue writing. And while i may not be able to do much right now, if I can donate to your cause I will. As someone who recently found the red pill, as well reinvigorated on a spiritual journey, I find your advice timely.
Bravo! Another excellent read! You, Quintius, and Waldemer are the main reasons I keep coming back here. It was never the “bang all these hot chicks” content that attracted me to this place – it was its slow transformation into a traditional, fraternal, masculine, patriarchal environment that drew me in, and as my spirituality develops, I’m truly keen on reading more from a theological perspective similar to mine. I feel like a man is incomplete unless he nourishes his soul, and your work here is greatly appreciated.
I also happen to be a fan of the Traditionalist school and reactionaries like De Maistre myself.
As a fellow slave of Christ and therefore free from the world I exhort you to remain in spiritual relationships even if you pursue solitude. Also to have the spiritual protection of advisors and the church(which is typified by God in the family patriarchal unit). It is so important that it would warrant relocation if necessary.
One of the surprises for me in reading on St. Anthony by Athanasius was the community aspect of his life and also the service he rendered, even in his cave – life. And after 20 years of “solitude,” at 55 years old, he dedicated his life to service until the age of 110!
Enkrateia! Self mastery!
Cui Pertinebit, It be blessing to have you continue to writing articles for RoK. Many of us are lost at sea due this storm of insanity and manipulation that is today’s world. We need safe harbor to orient ourselves, and wisdom strengthen us against the storm. The fall of Western Civilization is coming, the question is what type of fall do we want? The one where we cannot get up from, or the one where get up and move forward. That remains to be seen. I for one will fight the demons and vices within me to become one of the bedrocks again the storm. Thank you for help Cui.
We want more.
Excellent article.
First, I propose that you create the first of what should be many meeting places for men to find spiritual motivation for the fight to come. Much like radical Islam uses mosques, Christian men of the West should use churches or something like them. Radical Islam breeds the devil’s work in those mosques, but we can show a better example by doing God’s work.
Second, regarding articles, I would like to know more about the theological basis for the natural subservience of women to men, their natural place in the home, their natural place as wife and mother, there natural place in service to men.
Brilliant article.
Br. Moner,
“1) The first element of our crisis is spiritual, and this must be resolved before substantive and lasting progress will be made on any other front;”
The element of spiritual crisis cannot be resolved prior to kinetic catharsis for the West. That spiritual crisis will resolve through reflection on consequence, not through preemptive revival.
“2) There is no clear path at present, humanly speaking, to victory for us—neither by cunning nor by arms; those who will perceive and lead the way forward, will not merely be smart men or strong men, but men of genuine wisdom and excellence.”
I will marry those together and say it will be men of genuine excellence in cunning and arms, possessed of wisdom to recognize the return of the dark word. The Adversary has set this in motion, and will have his denouement.
The spiritual crises that have infected the West and permitted the sword of Islam to be redrawn will require torrents of blood and fire before that blade is broken. At that point the self-examination necessary for spiritual resolution may take place.
You are inestimably correct in the value of the relationship between the knight and the hermit. One defends the other, and one teaches the other to defend.
Regards,
Ivan
http://www.darktriadman.com
Yes I hope you stay and write for ROK! I have been waiting for more people like you for a while now. I too believe there is a spiritual element to the decline of the west and we NEED people like you to discuss solutions with. I, for one, would love to read an article about how to grow closer to God as a man living in this sick modern culture which mostly rejects him. There are so many problems with the modern catholic church, how can we be the change we want to see in Catholicism?
Yes I hope you stay and write for ROK! I have been waiting for more people like you for a while now. I too believe there is a spiritual element to the decline of the west and we NEED people like you to discuss solutions with. I, for one, would love to read an article about how to grow closer to God as a man living in this sick modern culture which mostly rejects him. There are so many problems with the modern catholic church, how can we be the change we want to see in Catholicism?
Jumping in here late, but I think that articles like this add a special flavor to this site that simply can’t be matched anywhere else. I’d love to see the author as a regular contributer.
As a religious man, you should know the answer to your own question: Jesus. The world has always been crazier. So what? As Christians we are told to die to the world and look towards Jesus and heaven. It’s the only solution and is the reason we’re on Earth.