Religious-extremist - With Love In Christ

lol

I have no respect for anyone who sexualizes nuns. If you wear a sexy nun outfit for Halloween, it’s on sight.

I really don't want to be mean, but I'm a converted Catholic and the people around me don't really follow it and you seem to be holy so I wanted to say that there's this thing that has been bothering me a lot about Christianity. In Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot, who's called a righteous man, offers up his daughters to be raped "Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof" And it's just always bothered me, since I read this story because, y'know, he's a good person and even though he's trying to save angels, but he's basically willing to sacrifice his daughters to be gangraped. I checked through a few versions to make sure I read that There are other weird things like in Timothy there's a thing about women being saved through childbirth and I don't know. Maybe I'm just not used to this bible stuff, but I don't really want children and thinking I'll go to hell if I choose not to, because I don't think I'm infertile, scares me

I know this is a really weird question to just spring on you, but I've been questioning things and it scares me. I took you randomly showing up on my dash as a sign or something. Praying to believe and trying to stay positive

You can read this article written by John Sanidopoulos, an Orthodox layman who studied at a few seminaries: Why Is Lot Called “Righteous” If He Offered His Daughters To Be Raped? LINK

Lot wasn’t perfect, but he knew God and that’s what made him righteous. It seems he already knew that his guests were angels, and therefore would be able to protect his family if they so wished; that’s why when the Sodomites rushed in, they were blinded by the angels. That was going to happen either way, the blinding, just like God didn’t allow Abraham to slay Isaac, but still, Lot’s love for God was tested.

The topic of childbirth and almsgiving, the latter which you sent in a second anon, is something that should be discussed with an Orthodox spiritual father. If you live in North America, I recommend visiting an Orthodox monastery and talking to a priest if you want the best answer possible. You can also write a letter to an Orthodox priest at a monastery, or go to a local Orthodox Church and speak to a priest there. There is a path for women who don’t want to have a family. You can PM me if you want me to give you more information about it.

It’s good to have this zeal and fear in your heart, but know that this is also a test of faith. God is merciful and wise above all.

I forgot which saint said it, maybe St. John Climacus, but he said that Christians walk a narrow path with the danger of falling down either side. The demonic attacks come from both the left and the right. Demons from the left attack us with the temptation to sin, to be lazy, to be careless, to be greedy. From the right comes the temptation to quickly acquire virtues like asceticism, almsgiving, to be righteous… but you’ll see that those seemingly good virtues are trickeries that can quickly make you fall into the sin of pride, pride in your ability to fast, give alms, and criticism of other seemingly less righteous people. That is the trick of the devil. That is why it is said: narrow is the way that leads to eternal life.

Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

You are new wine, the virtues of almsgiving and asceticism are old wineskins. If you try immediately to pour yourself into the virtues, you will likely just break and spill and fumble everything. You have to put new wine into new wineskins, so everything in the spiritual life must be done with great care.

Most importantly, you need a spiritual guide, that is, a spiritual father. I am Orthodox so I would recommend an Orthodox guide, although some people will tell you that it is all the same. In my experience, having been on both sides, there are many differences in the life of prayer and relationship with God. Let that be your decision.

And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’

Would like to add that, in Orthodox iconography, the colors are always going to be the same for canonical icons.

Blue means royalty and divinity; red means flesh and humanity; white is purity.

Blue over red is usually what Christ wears because He clothed humanity with His divinity. “Those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Because God has invited man to partake of His divinity, by becoming like Him; not like the pride and greed of Satan in the Garden of Eden, but by having the humility and mercy of Christ on Golgotha.

Mary, the Theotokos is blue inside red (divinity inside flesh), because although she was human and a created being, she contained within her womb the God and Savior of mankind.

When God created mankind, before the fall, man was created to be above the angels in rank; God gave us free will, and that is something even angels do not have. There are nine ranks of angels, and humanity was given authority over them, creating a perfect ten.

Archangel Michael always has a sword because he is the bearer of God’s Righteous Judgement. He’s the one who separates souls from bodies during death. He is the Christians’ protection during war. I can guess that he wears red over blue because he carries the authority that mankind originally had over the angels, and he is the Commander of the Angelic Ranks. On the other hand, Archangel Gabriel is clothed in blue, because he is the one who pronounces mercy, a divine power solely from God Most-Merciful. Archangel Gabriel was the one who said to the Theotokos “Rejoice!”, announcing the mercy of God upon mankind, when He took on flesh and saved us from spiritual death.

And the lilies, I think is one difference between the Orthodox and Catholic belief about St. Joseph the Betrothed. The Orthodox believe that he was an old widower when he was betrothed to the Theotokos, and he was betrothed in order to be the guardian of the Mother of God. (She would have been stoned, presumed to have borne a child out of wedlock had she not had St. Joseph as her guardian.) According to Orthodox tradition, St. Joseph already had kids from his previous marriage, and that’s why Christ had “brothers” because they were His step-siblings.

Archangel Gabriel and a sleepy kitty near the gates of Kazanskiy cathedral in the city of Feodosia, Crimea, Russia. August 2023