In case you were wondering why Jonathan of Roots of Orthodoxy/Roots of Faith decided to remain Roman Catholic, here he is asking for the intercessions of Pope Shenouda Credit to @C2Antiquity

“Once a decision is announced, it must bring peace and rest to all the people, to the whole fullness of the Church. Above all stands the people; they are the guardian of Orthodoxy.” — Blessed Metropolitan Augustinos Kantiotis Video is from today’s shameful enthronement of the replacement of Metropolitan Tychikos in Paphos, where the people of Cyprus reacted. Glory be to God, there is still a devout and faithful people.

Peaceful priest have their limits too!

The more I digest Fr. John Romanides, especially his writings on the spiritual life, the more I come to love St. Augustine. Most of us will only be in the purification phase of the spiritual journey due to our many sins and weaknesses, and one of the greatest, and in my opinion relatable titans of our church here is St. Augustine. Some say statements like "oh he's a Saint because of his repentance and piety" as if that's a minor thing. To do what he did by God's help and the painful psychological trials he endured on his path to holiness are far more relevant to us moderns stuck in pits of passions. Fr. John may have been writing from a polemical angle dealing with presuppositions, philosophy, etc about St. Augustines's dogmatics...however in any writing about St. Augustines's CHARACTER there's nothing but good things. For many of us there is no higher THEO LOGY than repentance, and following the commandments of God in a blessed, bitter struggle against ourselves. St. Augustine is a model and beacon for us in this.

Hannah Update 6/7/2026 It is so much harder to find a few minutes since Hannah has been taken off the vent, as she has been awake almost continuously. On the one hand, we have been so grateful to see that her mind, her speech, and her spinal cord are all intact, so she has been able to communicate with us. In those first couple of days, when I didn’t know if I would ever hear her voice call me “Mom” again, all I wanted was to hear her voice. On the other hand, it is difficult to see her in so much excruciating and constant pain. So many people have texted me when I have mentioned her great pain, asking why they are taking away or lowering her pain medication so early…but that is not what is happening. She is absolutely still on a great deal of pain medicine as well as medication to try and keep her calm. The doctors have explained to us that because her injuries and fractures are so widespread and because she has been through so many major surgeries across multiple systems in her body, the pain she is in is to be expected, no matter how much pain medication they give her. This of course, is difficult to bear, especially for her but also for all of us who love her. The day she got off the vent, she had basically three questions: (her voice was still very faint and raspy) -What happened??? -Am I going to live? -But are you SURE I’m going to live??? We told her yes, she is going to live and that the worst of it is over. We obviously know she could have a set back of some kind, but we are well aware that she (and we who love her) have experienced countless miracles in the last 8 days, and we are trusting God that He has given her back to us for a reason. As for what happened, we simply told her that she was in a head on collision coming home from Wegman’s, and where the accident happened. We honestly don’t know much more than that. We know that she was cut out of the car and that her legs were trapped by the motor of the car…and that she was in and out of consciousness at the scene. We also know that the firefighters and paramedics had her out of the car in only 10 minutes, and that the trauma doctors at Geisinger had to work hard that first night and give her 7 units of blood. In other words, the trauma team surgeons at Geisinger, by the grace of God, absolutely saved her life. The surgeries that followed basically put her badly damaged body back together again, beginning with her organs and then moving on to her host of fractures with the orthopedic team during her 9 hour surgery on Tuesday. We will always be grateful to the team here at Geisinger for their skill and outstanding judgement through every step of this terrifying journey…for their willingness to be God’s hands in putting her body back together. Again, I will post more later…but as for prayer requests, her breathing feels extremely difficult to her because of her damaged but healing diaphragm. During the first couple days she begged for her nebulizer treatments just about constantly but was only allowed to have one every 6 hours. That was torture because when the nurses told her she has to wait, she turned to me in tears and said, “Mom, please help me! They don’t understand, I have asthma! I am going to die without it!” We have explained to her that her diaphragm muscle has been injured but it is healing and needs to build itself up again after several days on the vent. We told her it is not her lungs that are the problem but her diaphragm. (She did have a collapsed lung but that was repaired and currently still being aided by the chest tube, which is also probably making her chest feel tight). Yesterday was better as far as breathing goes…but still severe pain is keeping her from getting more than a few minutes of sleep at a time…which is causing a lot of delirium, especially combined with medications. Hannah is extremely grateful for the visits and the outpouring of love she is receiving. She keeps apologizing for being trouble. ❤️‍🩹😥 Thank you all!

You get a lot older if you don’t grow up. A fit healthy 28 year old guy with two toddlers is still young. A 32 year old whose Twitter bio says “your local rat gf” is ancient, a decaying entity.