>>512170385
>>512167340
And we should not let them disturb our own peace. God allows all things only for the purification and repentance and perfection of men. If we did not have challenges, we would not be able to make our faith manifest and it would be just thoughts and ideas, not actions in reality.

>>511069119
Black Sabbath is actually my favorite Christian band.

If you don't believe me, read the lyrics of "After Forever", it is more in-your-face about being Christian than your average protestant evangelical band. I believe Ozzy believed in the Lord.

>>17849253
>they are zealot monks (not in communion with the ecumenist Patriarch)
You just said they aren't Orthodox, but instead schismatic heretics, so my statement stands.

>>510318476
>Wish I had to grit to go monk like he did.
It's there if you seek it. The path of the monk is not for the faint hearted nor those weak in spirit. You are a child of God so your potential is unlimited.

Our Holy Father Euphrosynos (Euphrósynos) the Cook was born into a peasant family, and had no schooling, but he was truly devout and faithful.

As an adult, he became a cook, and was able to save money out of his expenses by depriving himself, but only for the sake of almsgiving. His position as a cook permitted him to eat the best food first, but he never took advantage of this privilege. He ate his greens and olives gratefully, while the most appetizing meats and most tantalizing fish were cooking before him.

Later Euphrosynos went to a monastery, where his obedience was to work in the kitchen as a cook. In contrast to the meals that he used to prepare in secular hotels, he made very plain food in the monastery. To those who complained and mocked him, Euphrosynos meekly replied: "Good cooking is not useful for attaining the Kingdom of Heaven. The more the body craves pleasure, the more the soul will lose that which it truly needs. It is not my intention to punish you."

Some of the monks scorned him because of his coarse rustic background, but he endured their contempt in silence and was not disturbed by it. Saint Euphrosynos strove to please the Lord by his virtuous life, which he concealed from others, but the Lord Himself revealed to the monastic brethren just what spiritual heights their cook had attained.

>>22914091

>be a holy person and at peace at all times around the >people you encounter and be the salt of the earth >that way

Agreed.

Its also much, much harder to be holy when you swin in filth (General human society). That's why some choose to seclude from it. Its undoubtly makes most people come closer to God. We also know that such seclusion soften inspires other humans to join, and suddenly you have communities focused on God, and from there it spreads.

And, even the nicest janitor, kind to all, usually sucumb to vain materialism, jealosy, envy or even bad vices because not of despair or trauma, but because human socities currently, and formerly bades in sin and breaks us all.

Im not saying seclusion saves from sin tho, because often the worst sin takes place, pride. But time and prayer can help one to overcome that pride. I believe that the pride sin, is why so many holy people call themselves the greatest sinners.

>>509697962
Our Holy Father Euphrosynos (Euphrósynos)1 the Cook was born into a peasant family, and had no schooling, but he was truly devout and faithful.

As an adult, he became a cook, and was able to save money out of his expenses by depriving himself, but only for the sake of almsgiving. His position as a cook permitted him to eat the best food first, but he never took advantage of this privilege. He ate his greens and olives gratefully, while the most appetizing meats and most tantalizing fish were cooking before him.

Later Euphrosynos went to a monastery, where his obedience was to work in the kitchen as a cook. In contrast to the meals that he used to prepare in secular hotels, he made very plain food in the monastery. To those who complained and mocked him, Euphrosynos meekly replied: "Good cooking is not useful for attaining the Kingdom of Heaven. The more the body craves pleasure, the more the soul will lose that which it truly needs. It is not my intention to punish you."

Some of the monks scorned him because of his coarse rustic background, but he endured their contempt in silence and was not disturbed by it. Saint Euphrosynos strove to please the Lord by his virtuous life, which he concealed from others, but the Lord Himself revealed to the monastic brethren just what spiritual heights their cook had attained.

(Part 1 of 3)

>>509519872
>eating out every other week
Most people are struggling for money because they eat out 7 days a week. Either they don't have the time or energy between their 40+ hr/week jobs, or they don't have the intelligence or skills that were supposed to be transmitted to them by their parents. People are poor because they are either willingly hooked or unwillingly forced by time crunch into eating Mickey D's every day.

>>508050225
appealing to the passions to rile up the primary demographic of 4chan, disaffected males, to go join the military impulsively while being beset by as many emotional and spiritual attacks as they can stack by psyop

Everybody is sick of being told by boomers to pull up by bootstraps, etc. We also hear the same tired sayings, like buzzword mk ultra activation phrases, and our reaction is to cringe.

Nothing addresses our real problems. The answers we get to the destruction of the family and the despair in the dating market are just out of touch cringe platitudes from 40+ years ago.

I find that the world often has these trite, cliche platitudes, like "focus on yourself" or "be the person you would be happy with" etc. These particular platitudes aren't wrong per se but they're definitely cringe. Why are they cringe? Because they have shadows of the truth, but miss the mark. The Orthodox Church teaches us that we are fighting a war, day in and day out; that we are called to become holy. That only in the strength of the Omnipotent Master and Lover of mankind, can we ever hope to be healed of our sick fallen human nature. This is the true meaning of focusing on yourself. It's not some self-help platitude about acquiring more material things, more status. It's about your inner spiritual life, and the peace that is visible to other people when you allow Christ God to dwell within you.

Platitudes have no depth. Cringe is the recoiling from hypocrisy, from pride. When we cringe at people throwing platitudes at us, we cringe at their pride, because we are hungry for depth, for true wisdom.