Husband. Father. Christian. Prince Albert Raiders fan. Nipawin Hawks. LFC. Goat herder. Cat wrangler. Roundup enjoyer.
Joined July 2026
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After reading a ROCOR social media directive that advised using one's own name, I have done just that. It was for clergy, which I am not, but did say it could be beneficial for laymen.
Neil Whitaker retweeted
St. Arsenie Boca teaching PSA explicitly:
“The two disciples wanted positions of authority in the kingdom of God. They did not know how much humiliation the King Himself would have to endure before “entering into His glory.” That is why Jesus asked them, “Can you drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And without realizing it, the disciples naively replied, “We can.” Their answer, however, was prophetically confirmed by Jesus, for in fact, the disciples’ future fate in the world turned out to be just that: nothing but a cup of suffering and a baptism of martyrdom. Interpreting these words of Jesus in light of what happened not long afterward, we understand that the cup Jesus was to drink was more bitter than the cup of hemlock the Athenians gave to Socrates.
In Jesus’ cup were gathered all the transgressions of mankind, which had once unleashed the Flood, all the abomination of sin, and all the fiery hatred against His life, against God. All the defiled blood—the power of the demons—that flowed through people was poured into the cup for Jesus to drink, the only blameless Man. (And when the cup of iniquity is full, someone must be found to drink it, for otherwise it spills over, and either the earth is flooded or it bursts into flames and meets its end.)
The gall and vinegar, soaked in a sponge, are nothing compared to the cup of human sins, which Jesus had to drink with His Holy Soul and Body and “become sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21) and for Him, the Innocent One, to take upon Himself the punishment for sin from God, so that through this He might win for us redemption and salvation. His Holy Body was a visible chalice, but one upon which all the transgressions of mankind were now laid and drunk—not out of a willingness to commit any transgression, but out of His endless love for humanity to deliver them from sin. This was the most terrifying trial of love. Then came its punishment; first from mankind: the entire torment of the cross, upon which hatred crucified love. Love for mankind was not broken on the cross. This was the baptism; the baptism of blood. Then came the hardest trial possible, God’s abandonment: Jesus’ love for God did not fade even on the cross of abandonment. The sun was darkened, and the earth shook at this dreadful judgment. This was the baptism of the Spirit—for in Jesus there was also a true human soul. Jesus, out of love for humanity, had taken upon Himself the entire burden of sin—which entered the world through one man— and thus the Son of Man became the target of divine wrath—the wrath against sin—which struck down the human person who had taken it upon Himself, yet saved the rest of humanity from that same condemnation and wrath.
Now, from His holy Chalice—the sacrifice on the cross—has flowed to us “the Blood shed in mercy from His side,” the life-giving blood of Holy Communion. This is the gift that Jesus gave us in exchange for the cup that people gave Him—an exchange that may resolve us to change as well. May this gift of Holy Communion resolve us once and for all never again to commit transgressions against the Cup of Jesus. “Do you not know that you are no longer your own? For you have been bought with a price.” The cup and the Baptism of the Lord, which He has transformed for us into the blessing of Holy Communion, should engrave in our minds the question that should accompany us before all our actions: “What would Jesus do right now in my place?” If this question were to follow us everywhere: “What would Jesus do in my place?” I believe we would no longer pour so many sins into the cup! The Explanation of Saint Maximus the Confessor: “By ‘the Baptism of the Lord’ we mean all our voluntary efforts toward virtue. These wipe away the stains from our conscience and kill our inclinations toward the world of the senses.
By the ‘Cup of the Lord’ we mean all the involuntary trials that come upon us in times of distress because we stand in the service of the truth. By enduring these, we place our longing for God above life itself. The difference between the cup and baptism is this: baptism kills the will’s inclination toward the pleasures of life for the sake of virtue; whereas the cup convinces the faithful to place truth above even life itself. The cup comes before baptism, for virtue is for the sake of truth, and not truth for the sake of virtue. Therefore, the one who cultivates virtue, keeping the truth in mind, escapes the arrows of vain glory; whereas the one who pursues virtue as the goal of life, even if he attains it, makes it a nest for self-conceit and is wounded by vain glory” (Philokalia, vol. III, pp. 114–115).
A life entirely selfless in the service of God—for He is the Truth—the more it brings us bitter struggles and clashes with the fallen life of the world, the more it Let us better safeguard the reward that God will give us, in true glory, “when the world is made new” (Matthew 19:28).”
St. Arsenie Boca, Living Words, Homily 137.
Neil Whitaker retweeted
It’s the reason Christians should be against secular-democracy.
We can in the story of St. Moses’ when coming back from his dialogue with God. We see those at the foot of the mountain followed the collective will of the people (the “volonté général” of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “vox populi, vox dei”), which St. Aaron also yielded to.
Their "falling away" was an insurrection of the collective will of the people asserting itself against the monarchial-theocratical-hierarchical order that St. Moses represented.
The result was the “golden calf” and the singing & dancing of the people in a circle around the statue.
This biblically shows the very first kind of democratic striving, to worship something not higher than the self, something that one has willed oneself, projected & created from one’s own will. Therefore, democracy is predicated, namely, upon the idea of "sovereignty of the people", itself just a societal generalisation of the "sovereignty of the self" which is the basis of liberal individualism. Thus natural that democracy ultimately produces narcissists thinking their vote is "divine act". It's that liberal-democracy creates a sense of entitlement in the “citizens” (virtual category), as it instaures the false confidence of dictating public life (ritualised vote). And as stated beforehand, an incubator of narcissism that births egocentric individualities with a proto-divinized idea of their will/ self. Here we can see the strategic philosophy of Nietzsche, whereby it's fundamentally, a "will to power", rather than what's true, & noble. Ultimately, for a Christian, it's a blasphemous proposition. As with all of modernity, this finds its roots in the Cartesian/Lockean "sovereignty of the self", which pervades all patterns of Western modernity, not just democratic politics, but be it rationalistic epistemology, or consumer-oriented economics, all interlinked for its recipe, all made possible by the exclusion of religion (secularism), is paradoxically the most tyrannical of ideas.
Now, Democracy imposes the idea that "conflict resolution" has to be rationalised (like everything else), thus we must "create consensus" through "intellectual debates".
An overtly optimistic anthropology that doesn’t take into account the entropic dumbing down of the masses. The democratic mob is by default an irrational mass (see works of social psychology by Gustave Le Bon). I mean, look at the majority of anti-Christian agitators, they’re far from "rational", it’s all about emotional presentism, moralism & liberal mental reflexes, there’s no space for critical discussion let alone debate with creatures unable to process basic counter-information. In speaking on this truth, within the chambers of a democracy the "dumbing" down of the masses is necessary, as the privileged elite retains power precisely because it keeps (artificial) political/economic/cultural superiority & all of that process is *precisely* legitimised through elections (illusion of "deciding"), cyclic.
In a modern society, 99% are literate but dumb ; in a traditional society, 99% MIGHT be "illiterate" but they'll be noble as they embody ancestral values they learn not through institutionalised schooling, a ciriculum propagated & utilised for govermental ends, contra true classical learning which is orientated towards the true & noble, & with that through the whole social life/community/religion. As a rationalist socio-policy, liberal-democratic politics reduces existence to the pettiest "middle-class" aspirations, elections, forms of public rituals, all being about ultimately secondary issues. The democratisation of a society can thus be considered a way of generalising materialism among the population.
As a man who grew up in a secular family/society and had some "issues" back in those days, I believe 100% that self righteous hatred and fear produces similar emotional and physical responses that cocaine and crack does. They cannot stop because they are addicted to hate.
“Russia wants to destroy the West.”
Matthew Syed of the Sunday Times warns we’re “tilting towards war” because of Russian hybrid warfare efforts in Europe.
#Newsnight
Once in a while I find I am blocked by an account and it's an account I have never seen before. I check out his page and I see would likely agree on most things.
Nothing I can do about it, just always makes me wonder what happened.
Neil Whitaker retweeted
You still don't get it?
Forget left & right, forget Muslim or Jew.
The only target is Christianity. Every shift, every world change has one purpose: to destroy the Church. But be at peace, they fail.
Neil Whitaker retweeted
Here in the UK a quarter of million white girls are raped & abused, & the govt's response is to pass laws preventing you from talking about how & why it happened.
America needs to understand what is coming.
Everybody! Quit your bitchin, bickering and arguing. @SIRIUSXM has Holiday Traditions back on my radio!
My children and wife were born in Canada, I was raised here but there times I miss England and wish I was there. I love my people.
Ultimately we will all be judged. Arguing online about denomination for most won't be much of a defense when we are being judged for unrepentant sins.
Go the one you think is the Body of Christ and defends tradition of it and pray for those outside it.
Neil Whitaker retweeted
if you're racist just say so, i'd easily bring my 9-month old baby for a walk through that crowd. I guarantee they're probably nicer people than every far-right nazi. they literally just want more schoolbooks
Total chaos outside the symbol of Christianity in Milan, the Cathedral. Paper bombs, firecrackers, cars destroyed, attacks on police, insults and shouting right in front of the Duomo. No Italian, not even the worst, would dare to light fires and shoot fireworks against the Duomo. An insult that cannot be explained and forgotten.
Neil Whitaker retweeted
How else but with rage and grief is a body supposed to react to watching the world he knew be destroyed? What other emotions aside from mourning and fury can we expect?
England is for the English, France is for the French, and so on in each country.
But Europe and the UK are, in a sense, a part of the patrimony of an American. They are part of the West. America is a descendant, now a cousin, of England. France lent us help in the American revolution. Enlightenment ideas that built the modern West flowed between us.
It's not like watching a distant star supernova; it is to watch your cousins' house burn while the arsonists laugh and your cousins stand there doing nothing but crying.
It's awful.
I'm from the 20th century. If you're younger, you won't be able to feel this the way people like me do. With a few years, you will feel something similar based on your own time.
We're watching the last of the 20th century be destroyed deliberately with no one willing to stop it. The police clocked out, the guards went to sleep.
Everything good, everything worth preserving, every piece of the past that acted as a base on which to build a hopeful future is being burned and shattered. Gleefully.
There's no way to say this so that you really hear it for what it is; you only hear a cliche. But it's *real*, still.
No one in my cohort or above could ever have imagined we'd live to see such times. This was outside the possibilities we could have imagined. Yes, we were foolish to believe in permanence, I know.
But we did believe, and now is a time of deep sorrow, foolish though we may have been.
You know how you saw the Statue of Liberty covered in sand in Planet of the Apes and thought, "compelling for a movie, but man, that could never happen."
It is happening. It's not a movie. And it's terrible.
-Uncle Josh
Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, but we can say with absolute certainty that the Germans would NEVER have allowed 3rd world migrants to loot and burn down Paris when they occupied France.
Neil Whitaker retweeted
😂😭 Meanwhile in the Caribbean Cup, someone has just invented a whole new way of taking penalties! 🤣⚽
Forget Panenka… what on earth do we call THIS? 💀😂
Neil Whitaker retweeted
My friend's dad works at the Bot Farm. He got called in for an emergency meeting today. Came back late and wouldn't explain anything. Just told us to pack our things and go stock up on two weeks' worth of food. We're driving somewhere far outside the city now. I don't know what's going on, but I have a feeling it's begun…
Does Orthodoxy have anything comparable or similar to Calvinist Covenant Theology? I don't suppose so but this is an interesting topic to me. Perhaps @blessedmikko @BrotherAugusti2 or @HosannaHosannaa or anybody else have some insights or can point me in the right direction?