The Linchpin Virtue of Fidelity

[Tentoa 3160]

“Fidelity truly means adherence to GOD, above Church, above Dogma, above Doctrine, above all. 
The Local reverend is born into sin as much as the Holy Father himself. 
The Lord is the only spring of Virtue; when the wellspring of man’s virtue runs dry, only the Lord can nourish.”

– Cardinal Alaric
 

Among the virtues outlined to us by the scrolls, Fidelity is the linchpin that holds the spool of the faithful from coming undone; it is the backbone of all other virtues. 

For if one holds no fidelity to GOD, then he holds no diligence toward his duties for the Almighty.  
No true charity can be born of self-interest.  
No faith remains unshaken when one’s fidelity to the master they beseech for aid is nonexistent.  
There is no need for temperance without duty; the selfish sinner trains no patience within himself, nor does he humble himself.  

“So I find that professing yourselves to be wise, you have made yourselves fools. You have traded the glory of the Lord GOD without peer for the imperfections of men.”
(Spirit 1: 9-10)
 

There are countless examples of Fidelity among the faithful. Still, I wish to reflect upon one who embodied it in their service: Saint Julia.  

The Saint kept her union to Ex. Horen and bore him three sons, but also served as his greatest ally among men. For when Horen submitted to GOD’s order to make a pilgrimage to the Grotto of Gamesh, it was Julia who defended their home and Tabernacle, who stood beside her husband’s instruction and set to cast the deceiver out of the camps when he dared to tempt her people from their fidelity to the Lord.  
(Gospel 2: 19-23)  

She kept true to her GOD, to her Husband, and her people, and bettered her camp through this.

The consequence of a lack of fidelity is outlined to us clearly in the Book of Horen, for it was the first betrayer who tempted the world to sin and bid Saul to deceive and scheme for his own benefit. Saul, in thinking himself wise, ignored the warning of his liege and departed the camp, permitting his covetousness to override his fidelity and spur him to serve at a new master’s table.  
(Gospel 2: 28-33)
 

When Owyn addressed the Jorenites, he declared:  
There can be no laxity in faith for any reason, not war nor peace, not wealth nor poverty.”
(Spirit 2:13)  

Here we see Fidelity exemplified beyond the mere keeping of station into the keeping of the faith itself.  
It is not Fidelity if it endures only in times of peace; Fidelity is proven in hardship, in hunger, in the horrors of war, when all temptations urge the soul to falter.  
It is Fidelity that binds the faithful man to GOD’s Word when worldly woes and vices would pressure us to disobey.

In this way, Fidelity is both obedience to divine order and singleness of devotion.  
To envy another’s lot is to accuse GOD of folly, and to worship another with GOD is to commit the greatest infidelity, for the Lord hath no peer.  

Thus do the Scrolls teach us that Fidelity is the sanctification of constancy:  
keeping the oath of station, cleaving to the faith without wavering, and rejecting every idol that would seduce our loyalty.

 

-Acolyte Viktor Sorinsoff

 

[Malins Welcome 1519]

Acolyte,

 

Your thesis is approved, and I endorse your ordination to the priesthood.

 

God Bless,

James Cardinal Malinor