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“ And God created man in His own image; in the...
Florin Dragos Minculescu
 November 09 2024 at 06:27 pm
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Marriage, as an event, is a celebration of the promise of the good of all. By allowing gay marriages, we have allowed the celebration of abnormality in the name of the good of only gays, because a gay marriage is not beneficial to society. Society has consequently been invaded by marginal concerns to the point of priapic adulation. The good of all is not such a simple phrase, the good of all means a relationship with the Good itself, a relationship that does NOT exclude the good of the gay community, on the contrary, it includes it, but the good of the gay community does not include the good of others by its very nature. The fulfillment (not pride, because there is a distinction between pride and fulfillment) that children, one's own children, bring to parents makes an important palette of experiences exclusive to heterosexual couples. Society is in a deep crisis, but materiality is not the cause. There is an important range of psychic experiences (emotions and feelings) that are exclusive to a ritualistic, religious existence. The trivialization of marriage has led to the trivialization of human nature per se. By accepting gay marriage, we have allowed ourselves to play with the buttons whose fine-tuning has been achieved over tens of thousands of years and which has brought us what for our ancestors is heaven itself, at least from a material perspective. Our imagination is the most powerful tool we have, but we have come to confuse imagination with fabrication. Ideology as a product of fabrication, that is, disconnected from reality, has brought us to the point where tens of thousands of children have been and are being mutilated. We must accept that human nature is not (anymore) inherently good but is a potential that must be honed in this sense, and tradition and Christianity provide us with the necessary structure in this sense. Words such as sacrifice, humility, contentment, gratitude, faith and God must be reintroduced into the vocabulary of our children. The meaning of the phrases: “ And God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” and “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and the two shall be one flesh.” , must be rediscovered.
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The Child and the Wonder - a story
Florin Dragos Minculescu
 November 12 2024 at 12:09 am
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There once was a child who lived on a hilltop, seemingly since forever.His name belonged to everyone, and everyone knew him, and he knew everyone because he was the child who awaited morning. Every morning, this child would run to a place known only to him, where he would meet Wonder, his best friend whom Beauty always brought along.Wonder was marvelous but mysterious; she had neither body nor face, and she didn't speak. The child spent no more than a moment in her company, but for him, it was enough. One morning, as the child darted toward his secret place, he met Morgana on his way.Morgana was a beautiful girl, but lonely and sad, and because he dared to look into her eyes, the child's heart was enveloped by fear.With a frightened heart, the child reached his secret place and waited for Beauty to bring his friend Wonder, but he waited in vain because Beauty was nowhere to be found, and Wonder did not appear.The child's heart tightened even more, and disappointed, he went back to the hilltop where he lived. The next morning, the child ran breathlessly to his secret place, hoping that Beauty would appear and bring Wonder. His heart was doubtful after yesterday, and his fears proved true as Beauty didn't appear, and Wonder didn't come.Days passed, and mornings became a burden for the child because his friend Wonder no longer came, and his heart grew heavier and heavier. One morning, he decided not to go to his secret place anymore and sat on a stump at the foot of the hill where he lived and began to cry. Morgana, who happened to pass by, saw him and asked: "Why are you crying, child?" "My heart is broken. Wonder, my friend, no longer comes to my secret place. I think Beauty no longer wants to appear and bring her."Morgana thought for a moment and then said: "Child, you must seek Goodness; it knows where Beauty is." "How do you know?" asked the child. "If you don't believe me, ask Truth, it will confirm," Morgana replied. Curiosity stirred in the child, and after pondering for a moment, he asked: "And where do I find Goodness and Truth?" "Ah, for that, you must give me something in exchange," replied Morgana. "What? What do you want in exchange?" asked the child, almost choked with enthusiasm. "I want your childhood. I, child, am always sad because I am alone, and childhood would be a good companion," she pitied herself. The child didn't even blink and said in one breath: "Fine, I'll give you my childhood, just tell me how to reach Goodness and Truth." "You must descend into the swampy forest where Dark Valley dwells. She will show you the way to Truth and Goodness, but I warn you, beware of her husband because he will want your heart. His name is Opposite." "Fine, and how do I give you my childhood?" "Don't worry, when you leave here, with each step you take toward the swampy forest, your childhood will come to me." The child started to leave, and with the first step, he felt something tear away from him, and when he took the second step, another part tore away, but he continued bravely and walked on. From time to time, he would look back and see Morgana holding the shadow of a child by the hand, which became more real the further he went. At the village's edge, he cast one last look behind him and understood that only this way could he move forward. The child descended and ventured deep into the swampy forest, searching for the path to Dark Valley's house. This forest was full of animals he had never seen before, which crawled and swarmed everywhere. The child was downright terrified, but the hope of seeing Wonder again gave him courage.At one point, while struggling to step over a snake, he felt a hand grab him and lift him like a feather, then a mischievous face looked into his soul and said in a guttural voice: "What are you seeking in my forest? Why are you disturbing my sons and daughters, human? Don't you know this is my kingdom and no human should be here?"The child looked into the ugly one's eyes and saw himself in them and understood that this was Opposite, Dark Valley's husband, about whom Morgana had told him to beware because he would want his heart. "I seek the path to Goodness and Truth's house," said the child. "But what business do you have with them?" asked Opposite.The child thought for a moment and answered: "I want to recover my childhood." "Childhood?! But how did your childhood end up with them?" Opposite shouted questioningly. "Morgana took it," replied the child.Opposite thought for a moment and said: "Human, come with me to my wife to tell you the way, but you'll have to give something in exchange for that." The child didn't get to say anything because Opposite threw him over his shoulder and headed toward his wife.After a while, Opposite stopped and slammed the child to the ground. Dazed, the child looked around and saw an enormous tree with a trunk so thick he couldn't encompass it with his gaze, and whose thick roots dug deep into the swampy ground. Under a root, he spotted a door from which emerged a woman with a child's face, but who had a huge and frightening mouth with dragon-like teeth, very sharp and pointing in all directions.With a surprisingly warm voice, the woman spoke: "What have you brought me here, husband? Food for our sons and daughters, or for us?"Hearing the woman's words, the child jumped up like he'd been burned and said before Opposite could: "I've come to seek Dark Valley to tell me the way to Goodness and Truth's house." "Oh, really? And what business do you have with them, human?" asked Dark Valley. "I want to recover my childhood. Morgana took it," replied the child. "Well, wait here," said Dark Valley and went into the house under the tree roots with her husband. Frightening noises were heard from there, and the child thought about running, but he held his fear in check and encouraged himself with thoughts of Wonder. Then evening came, and darkness enveloped the forest, and the child began to tremble and cry, thinking he wouldn't escape alive from there, but he remembered that Morgana had told him Opposite wanted his heart and wondered why he hadn't taken it until then. While thinking and trying to understand, he realized that his heart was invisible to Opposite's eyes because it was wrapped in fear. The child encouraged himself to become even more frightened to ensure his heart wouldn't be taken, and the more he let himself be embraced by fear, the braver he became. The child was so consumed by fear that he became fear itself, but he didn't lose himself, and suddenly, a strong light penetrated the forest, and a gentle voice said: "Here is the path, human! You've lit it yourself." The child immediately darted onto the path, and although the forest was full of crawling things and all kinds of animals, he was no longer afraid; on the contrary, his heart warmed with hope. Then he heard a guttural voice shouting: "The heart, the heart, you must give the heart in exchange." The child understood then that Opposite had seen his heart and wanted it, but the gentle voice was heard again: "Stay in the light of the path you've lit!" The child climbed and fought with all the obstacles he encountered in his light's path so as not to stray from it. From time to time, Opposite's hand would penetrate the path's light trying to grab him but would immediately withdraw because the light burned it. Three nights and three days the child ran through the swampy forest, three nights and three days the child fought with the forest's obstacles, and three nights and three days the child kept away from Opposite's hands, until, at the end of the third day, he collapsed exhausted at the forest's edge and fell into a deep sleep. Early in the morning, the sun caressing the flesh torn by the forest branches woke the child and he realized he had escaped, and a pleasant state encompassed his being. "This is Goodness, this must be Goodness," thought the child. "You have thought truly," said a voice. The child, who had now become a man raised his gaze and observed a Being with three faces and recognized one of them.It was Beauty. Wonder embraced him from within his heart, and The Being with three faces carried him over the swampy forest back to the foot of his childhood hill, and the closer they got, the more his childhood left with Morgana returned. The Being with three faces gently left the child's body on the stump where the search had begun and departed, but Wonder somehow never left him again, and the child turned man and his friend lived embraced until the end of its time.
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G-D'S RELATIVES
Omar Zaid, M.D.
 November 26 2024 at 03:14 pm
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Figurative sons and daughters of G-d are aplenty in the Bible (see addendum), and since Al Qur’an says G-d teaches the same things to all prophets (Q 41.42), I treat the matter of monotheist purity in terms of conjugal chastity because the good faith of pure intent and practice preserves family, clan, and nation. Adultery, literal and spiritual, diverts or aborts grace that naturally obtains communal cohesion. Its toxic auspice subverts institutional integrity at all levels and must be compensated for by rituals that preserve the pretense of devotional loyalty’s proper focus, which is the compass of moral purity. This artifice happened to NOI. Its cultural identity parody remains intact at the cost of moral, spiritual, and fully-informed emotional development. I know this because they misplace the word honorable, indicating they also misplace faith and hope. While claiming heterosexual conjugal chastity is the most honorable of trustworthy human relationships, I also suggest it redeems civilization by refracting the light of divine aspirations at the apogee of human joinery to divine will. When properly constituted and honored, marriage is the primal institutional fractal. Its heartfelt devotional loyalty consciously attracts and applies inexhaustible cosmic fractals that help us avoid mundane calamities. Considering this and other arguments, I suspect marital fidelity is the microcosmic path to becoming little gods (judges), as mentioned in the bible; those peacemaking maintainers of social accords who ensure justice, starting with offspring. Ruling correctly over time, we ideally become G-d’s praetorian mediators on earth —the Elves of Tolkein fame, if you will — indicating children-of-G-d who are fiercely armed with discernment per immanent guidance. NOI's founding god-men, Fard & Poole, claimed this status but made little progress in achieving its beatitude status. As described in Sexology For The Wise, chaste marital fidelity obtains the consciously shared vision of Jacob’s Ladder; what I call the Dao of divine order. It matters not what you call it, but most couples initially consider its shared hope a path of near-paradisaical comfort not otherwise obtainable.* Nonetheless, and like repentance, marriage naturally follows its baccalaureate honeymoon with ongoing re-creative processes that birth degrees of graduate transfigurations for both parties, providing they pass the trials it brings. It is a grail of trans-mutational power that specifically expresses the promise of fulfillment when wills are united. This penultimate consummations begins the challenging journey of conjugal integrity that assures satisfaction after attracting and keeping supernal grace active. When properly nourished and maintained, the garden in which the tree of conjugal fidelity grows keeps love alive. Its humbling journey also takes time and supernal effort. * See: Your Closest Neighbor: A Marriage Manual https://alginkgo.com/shop/books/your-closest-neighbor/ Sexology For The Wise https://alginkgo.com/shop/books/sexology-for-the-wise/ Spousal communion at this level of consciousness peaks after keeping the 11th, 1st, and 7th Commandments of Marriage, whereby we do not entertain the worship of strange gods with another partner (strange flesh) after learning, by mutual experience, that we partake in divinely designed aspects of ecstasy only when abjectly submitted to fulfilling each other’s needs while, at the same time, helping them meet their destiny. If this does not happen, destiny gives way to fatalism; and then, failing re-education, it may be best to divorce in peace. Hence, I suggest conjugal fidelity’s initiatory experience holds hagiographic benchmarks on the road home to wisdom’s source. Meaning, if you cannot complete the experience for whatever reason—and there are many—it is wise to serve those who do so within the hierarchy of your community. Everyone who merits the franchise will know who they are by their fruits. In support of this claim, scripture variously calls redeemed humans G-d’s relatives. A woman in covenant marriage to a man-of-G-d is his wife. His trustworthiness and her fruitful satisfaction at his side in life, is all anyone who serves them ever really needs to know. Despite Margaret Mead's celebrated fictions written for the U of Chicago's Frankfurt School of Cultural Subversion, I propose that LGBT-friendly conjugal ethics and promiscuous standards are in no way inextricably woven into human existence as equal or preferred to the self-possessed morals of heterosexual fidelity.* Even so, clans of the uncoupled avidly apologize for the unrestrained lust of politically-correct, self-centered, anti-social aspirations that just lost Democrats the election to Mr. Trump, a beautifully married man. Selfishness at institutional levels of governance is often piloted by psycho-sociopath narcissists whose dark personalities commonly rise above sea levels as honored scum. * See Sexology For The Wise : “Playgrounds For The Uncoupled” https://alginkgo.com/shop/books/sexology-for-the-wise/Precis of the Dark Personality (DP) profile of a Sociopath-Narcissist. Generally speaking they · are of higher intelligence and socioeconomic status; · have better impulse control capability; · are more adept at creating compelling facades,· engage more effectively in underhanded tactics that prevent exposure and accountability, · are better at grooming or manipulating others to support them, · are more likely to harm using methods that are subtle, ongoing, and leave no evidence, resulting in emotional and mental 'torture' which their targets/victims struggle to recount to others. · lead double lives, https://www.sott.net/article/494883-Psychopaths-Control-through-Calculated-Ferocity This forensic analysis describes NOI founders who also exhibited the following sadistic, ‘face-of-evil ’ traits: "... a cold-blooded sense of entitlement ... all members are but parts to be moved around and utilized ... The perpetrator enjoys causing harm to multiple others yet poses as a heroic 'Jedi knight' to justify their actions in the guise of 'fighting evil ... their entire public personality is a construct .... they use aliases to harm and hide wrongdoing." (ibid) Moving away from this incarnate malevolence, the cure was scientifically established and prescribed by Professor Unwin more than 100 years ago. His prescription was heterosexual conjugal boundaries that guard and preserve what is good for all: ... “Unwin’s three main predictions: the abandonment of rationalism, deism, and absolute monogamy, are all well underway, which makes the ultimate prediction appear to be credible ... the collapse of Western civilization in the third generation." See: Why Sexual Morality May be Far More Important Than You Ever Thought, Kirk Durston / kirkdurston.com / 03 Dec 2019 https://www.sott.net/article/425192-Why-Sexual-Morality-May-Be-Far-More-Important-Than-You-Ever-Thought” Hence, chaste monogamy charges us to be faithfully responsible for lifetimes of meaningfully fulfilling relationships, here & hereafter. Heaven commands it no matter the criticism offered. Repentance initiates the empathetic sublimation of shame and remorse, a process to which DP perps are averse. Successful processing of penitence also curtails the furtherance of incidental pathology as well as the karma of divine payback's nemesis (destiny’s obverse). Marital and spiritual fidelity enhance redemptive activities to mitigate arrested developments that fetter those who live in the muddy waters of denial and/or ignorance. Adversely, handicaps related to prurient eros become especially ubiquitous when society fails to correct or curtail behaviors that expose appetites for the selfish violation of others. Hence, it is best penitents “... willingly realizes the hurt or loss he/she once inflicted on others, in order to feel the full scope of damage and harm done ....”* This was the right honorable disposition of Malcolm-X before the fools zealously murdered him for their DP messiah. He exposed the prurient appetite of his former mentor and did not wait for the Judgement Day disclosure of Mr. Poole’s reprobation because he took responsibility for the souls he had foolishly misled. Thus, I caution NOI sympathizers not to repeat or support the politically-correct error of trite empathy, which is a kind of masochism that attends compounded ignorance and naively ushers friends, family and followers into apology processions for DP sadists mistakenly taken as heroes; a common enough human error because there are so many excellent fraudsters to choose from when unguided; for the unguided are also unguarded. Pugnacity is another definitive sign of arrested development in wanton societies saturated with impure fractal processors; which indicates the presence of many who fail to repent. Pretense never transcends; never matures. Moral embodiment does not occur because existential karma arrests development with destiny’s obverse token. Mr. Tolkein kindly taught us that to attain Rivendale Elven Status and access Rahim (supernal) grace on the same token's obverse, all responsible leaders must relinquish Rings of Personal Power; this humility enables genuine nobility. To the contrary, unchaste organizations pave this road with yellow brick glitz while breaking the fundamental law of grace that governs G-d's Kingdom within and without. Think Law of Moses to which The Son of Myriam recalled his nation and you will realiza that Jesus did not found Christianity any more than Mr. Poole founded the Dao of Islamistan. (See Forgotten Saints https://alginkgo.com/shop/books/forgotten-saint/) As in pre-dynastic Israel, Mohammad judged a Confederacy of tribes in Medina; each with their own chiefs and elders. He was no shah of exceptional sociopaths who conquered others to keep up with the Khans. To the contrary, rather than ascend the rungs of rahim grace by seeking union with like-minded prodigals found everywhere, NOI became a politically-correct institution who helped carry the White Man's Malthusian burden by stoking fires of racial tension, which is similar to what Ike Clanton, another DP, did for cowboys in Tombstone. Mr. Poole's polite tyranny conducted minor and major iniquities in the wake of canted missionary zeal stoked by thoughts of revenge. His mild-mannered, non-transcendent trance-making obtained ventriloquist pawns who, like so many Hari Krishna dolls, cast a widening net of star-and-crescent fez-topped spellbinders on un-redeemable street corners. It is far more appropriate to consciously position one's soul in submission to truth and take corrective action, individually and collectively. Repentance admits mistakes and humility paves the road for conscious development with sacralized citizens who are fully prepared to establish 'Son-of-Man' polities. This is no 'next-year-in-Jerusalem' fantasy but rather a divine plan of action that transforms us by dying to self-centered, sensual ambitions moment-to-moment. If pride or ignorance prevent this repair, we develop deep anxieties with socio-psychopathic tendencies leaning towards sadism or masochism, with our majority settling in the latter party. This happens to entire nations. There are many examples of this devilry. It is no different than that of the Aztecs. Ideally, the right honorably entrenched habit of daily repentance leads to resurrection and ascension. The unjaded pure of heart do it innately. Jesus referred to its transfiguration when he said; “... not my will but thine be done.” As Messiah, he reminded Jews, much to their chagrin, that the way out of Pharisee and Sadducee hell had previously been lit by the Decalogue rather than the Talmud. Howbeit, his job was not to rule over a Promised Land in Palestine but rather to act as guide to Jacob’s Ladder of Ascendance (The Beatitudes ) for all of us. Thus, his disciples are a communion of sons and daughters capable of planting and raising good seed through the initiation provided by his imitation. Death to selfishness requires no convent, blood-stained whip, or secreted sacristy with dark guardians. It is distinctly followed by the phoenix of life when faith literally becomes the substance of things hoped for as evidence of the unseen. This literal component of G-d’s covenant with Abraham was reserved for Ahmad* and attested to by early Christians who, like the people of Khadijah, were aware of the Gospel of Barnabas and fully expected the arrival of Mohammad who fulfilled Allah's plan to Ibrahim figuratively and literally.* All else is the hot air of Zionism, Christian and not. It is Mohammad who finally established The Kingdom, which Muslims have since lost. * See Forgotten Saints: The Gospel of Barnabas: Survey and Commentary, 2010, ISBN 978-983-065-312-9 https://alginkgo.com/shop/books/forgotten-saint/ ADDENDUM: BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO G-D’s FIRST-DEGREE RELATIVES “Israel is my son : say to Pharaoh, ’This is what the LORD says: “Israel is my firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22) This phrase refers of anyone or group of believers who reflects the Divine Light of Genesis called Significant Light. They incarnate the word of God = logos made flesh). Prior to Mohammad, Jesus and his mother were the purest , thus far incarnate, out of the pre-primordial reserve spoken of in Genesis. There are indications that a Yemeni Jewish sect called Ezra, was also referred to as a ‘Son of God’. Kenan was the son of Enosh. Enosh was the son of Seth. Seth was the son of Adam. Adam was the son of God. When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. (Hosea 11:1) He said to me, ‘Your son, Solomon, is the one who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a father to him. (1 Chronicle 28:6) He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. (Rev 21:7) Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. (Job 1:6) Bene Elohim means ‘Sons of God’ Luke called Adam the Son of God (Lk 3:38); He that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be sons of light. (John 12:35–36). As many as received him, to them gave he the power to become sons of God. (John 1:12–13). Sons and daughters of men are followers of said prophets and prophetesses: He that soweth good seed is the son of man (of truth); the field is the world, and the seed is sons and daughters of the kingdom. (Matt.13:37–38) All is clearly metaphor. Hence, if NOI's founding gods were truly learned men, they should have safely pretended to be Sons of God and Man, respectively, minus apotheotic blasphemy.
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Ignorance and vulnerability
Florin Dragos Minculescu
 November 30 2024 at 12:40 am
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Humans are bipedal beings, and unlike other bipedal animals, we move only in an upright position. This geometry makes us extremely vulnerable, with the vast majority of our soft parts exposed, unlike other animals that move with their body positioned parallel to the ground, thus having their soft parts directed towards the ground. Our eyes and skeletal biophysics are designed for forward movement, with backward or lateral movement involving additional effort. Naturally, humans are designed to be an almost unidirectional being, and to be unidirectional, you need to voluntarily expose yourself to ignorance, because to focus, you must have the ability to become blind to all factors that could distract you. This, at least for a period of time, makes you extremely vulnerable. The dimension to which we expose ourselves is that of potentiality, and potentiality contains within itself both chaos and order. In the unknown, both predator and prey exist, and the result of the incursion into the unknown, into potentiality, depends on our skill. But skill is acquired through exposure to failure, so from the perspective of learning, we need to accept being optimally vulnerable, because you can't learn much in a secure environment. On the contrary, a secure environment makes you even more vulnerable by the fact that exposure to the unexpected and uncertainty are the necessary factors for developing a mechanism for relating to the unknown. No athlete will prove brilliant just by learning the rules of the game; they must be exposed to the game itself, and the athlete must dedicate themselves to the game, thus becoming ignorant of everything that the game is not. Our neurobiology allows us, when we are injured, to have the pain we feel numbed by the activation of the parasympathetic system, which floods our brain with one of the most powerful analgesics- epinephrine, meaning that we are capable of becoming ignorant of our own being when necessary. There is also a part of the brain called the midcingulate cortex, which develops and is activated only when we are willing to do what we do not like and only when we voluntarily choose to do what we do not like, such as when we fast or speak in public, when we are willing to approach unpleasant conversations, when we do contact sports, etc. – essentially, when we voluntarily expose ourselves to physical and/or intrapsychic pain. Hiding your vulnerability makes you ignorant of potentiality and deprives you of the ability to relate to the unknown, and then the encounter with "Mother Hubur who gives birth to everything" ( Tiamat / Enuma Eliș ) transforms into an encounter with the personification of a monstrous dragon that only knowledge and truth can defeat. Not being ignorant is an option, but not being vulnerable is not- we all die. By accepting vulnerability and adopting a humble attitude towards what constitutes existence, you begin to inform yourself and learn to extract order from the unknown.
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Our Father Which Art in Heaven
The Speaking Lions
 December 02 2024 at 11:06 pm
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Reflections on the Lord's Prayer The model of all prayer. Here is the first paragraph: "Matthew chapter 6, in which Jesus dictates the Lord’s prayer, begins with him warning against the vanity of the “hypocrites” who “love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men”. Instead, we are to pray in private and even in secrecy: “go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret; and your father who sees in secret will reward you”. Now while Christians of course do pray in private and often alone, it is virtually unknown, perhaps apart from circumstances of persecution, for them to pray in secret. So the fact that Jesus speaks of God as “in secret” and as one who “sees in secret” is a clue that the word ‘secret’ is not being used in its regular sense here. God is a spirit (John 4:24) and not a visible object and so not something that can be exposed in public or hidden away under the bed. The “Hiddenness of God” is not that sort of hiddenness. God cannot be seen, but not because he is secreted away. No, the secrecy here is something more like the solitude of each human heart. This in itself does not preclude hypocrisy. The human heart is a deceiver and I can lie to myself. But God is not a deceiver and He is not deceived. A lying prayer is not even heard by God. The liar, by their deception, removes himself from admission to the secret chamber of dialogue with the divine. The condition of admission is truthfulness, and that truthfulness (which is much more than veracity) is “secret” in that a truthful speaker – even if reciting a prayer in public and with others – must speak alone in the sense of being uninfluenced by the passions of the mob, the threats and inducements of the world, and so on, but only by the dictates of a lucid conscience. We must make an effort, in prayer, to speak as if there were no audience but God. Even my own selection of words is liable to betray me, and that is surely one of the reasons Our Lord instructs us in a standard format. Not just any extempore words will do. Not even those charged with genuine emotion, for these words must be robust enough to survive the inevitable gusts and eddies of feeling and opinion. The words of the Lord’s Prayer make a language of divine civility, which, like the courtesies of everyday life, maintain our spirit when the flesh is weak." Full essay here: Reflections on the Lord's Prayer by Andrew Gleeson agonymagazine.substack.com

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