Let me attempt to explain what Orthodoxy really means to someone born Orthodox.
The Orthodox faith is more, much more than a church building or a priest in regal robes with gold embroidery, or the smell of incense that fills your nostrils when you enter the church. Orthodoxy is a combination of distinct flavors of which food is only a part, a big part but none the less no where near the entirety.
Orthodoxy covers your body like skin, it is a part of your natural DNA, it is not something you can extract, or set aside because it is a natural part of your existence….you cannot “become some thing else” because you may think you suddenly want to; it just doesn’t work that way. For me it would be like trying to eat with no arms….it is part of the breath that enters my body, it is the soil in the path that leads to my grandfather’s village high in the mountains of Montenegro. It is the customs agent at the airport in Belgrade who on my first visit to the country waved me through customs without opening my bags; instead saying to me….”go on through, you are home now.”
It is truly a wondrous place and I cannot imagine life without it. It breeds tolerance and respect and trust and fierce loyalties that lead to friendships that last beyond the grave. It does not runs ads in magazines looking for applicants, but it never turns away anyone who wishes to enter. I wish similar love for whatever faith you may follow, and may your journey through life be as wonderful as mine……….
Peter Children
Beliefs are instilled in you as a young person. As you grow up, supposedly you learn discernment, and the reasoning behind those beliefs. A lot of people do not grow up, nor can they sit long enough to think of why these beliefs are important.
It’s not something you learn in school, but perhaps, you pick up some of it from your parents and surroundings.
Serbians it has been my observation, are very close knit. They were in the SE Chicago/NW Indiana. So were the Croatians in the same area. It is nothing new for me since most of where I lived was tight knit communities of one nationality or another.
Carrying tradition, including one’s religion used to be important. It was a mark of respect for your ancestors, and your duty to carry them on. People do not think that way today. They could care less about their heritage, if they even know it.
Tradition? Ask Tevye.
WOW-wow, I couldn’t have said it better myself. That is exactly what I believe and what I tell people at my peril. Religion is men trying to control other men. It is that simple.
AMEN Larry !!!!
Give me a break. You think you are stepped in this wonderfulness because you are Serbian? Really? Have you not been paying attention to what those wonderful Serbs have done in the past 20 years? Murderous fools!
All Serbians are righteous; anything adverse said about them is a lie.
Continued posts like this is UNorthodox !!!
Tolerance & respect? You disrespect our City’s leaders by calling them names and bashing them at every opportunity. I don’t necessarily agree with their ideas, but I don’t call them names. You’d accomplish far more without the name-calling, showing some tolerance for their different points of view, and sticking to the facts as to why your point of view is better.
Orthodoxy is no different from any other chauvanistic religion or way of life that thinks it’s the one true answer.
Katie
Once again you fail to recognize the truth; I speak the truth when I talk about the mayor. I could be much more brutal under the first amendment.
Tolerance my eye!! You Peter have to be the MOST intolerant, bigoted person alive today in Mason City. In my opinion, you are nothing more than a narrow minded hypocrite; a product of your generation!!
You’re so full of it. Orthodoxy is the same as any other inflicted belief system. When you get old enough to not have to go to church, you just walk away and never come back. Not hard to do at all. All these oblations to Orthodoxy, and you condemn the major sacrament of Rastafarianism which is marijuana. Hypocritical.
Once again you are off your medications; what a curse you turned out for your family. But in the end everyone gets just what they deserve;what ye sow ye shall reap. The price they are paying for you is umimanginable.
Curse? I’m about to become a millionaire, you silly fool.
Too bad you weren’t in the Hanford Inn when they demolished it. It would have saved Mason City from listening to the rants of an old broken man.
No one is born with beliefs. They are taught. To think otherwise is foolish.