thesmellypocket

Fr. Petros, FSSCT, quotes from the Thesis of St. Jude On Conversion and Humility. "Now, I write this thesis because I strongly disagree that those who convert and were of a different race, or religion, are below us in any way. In the end, we are all below one great Being and we will all be judged differently. Just because you may have been a pagan or nonbeliever once  doesn’t mean that you are not a brother or sister of the Creator now. We are all equal and should love each other the same. Now I leave you to think upon this: If you are someone who believes converted heathens, pagans, or heretics, are below you, how would you feel if you were in their shoes?” 

"Holy Father Saint Jude, pray for us!" He exclaims.

THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT PIUS OF SUTICA

BOOK II: ILLUSION.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Blessed Pius of Sutica (1610-1803), known before his conversion as Malgath, was an High Elven philosopher who converted to Canonism and later became a Canonist Priest, founding the Priestly Fraternity of SS. Jude and Kristoff. He was the author of many influential spiritual works. Disowned by his natural family as “impure”, High Pontiff Saint James II called him “An example of humility whom I wish to emulate and a teacher to whom I submit”; he was beatified for the greater glory of God by High Pontiff Jude II in 1807. He was canonised by Everard VI in 1836.
 

READ HERE: BOOK I (IMPURE), PUBLISHED BY FRATERNITY PRESS.

CHAPTER I - THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE.

I.My philosophy of life, then, was thus: having abandoned any attempt to build character, I resolved that the only meaning to life was to suck as much pleasure out of it as could be gained, and to avoid as much pain as could be avoided. My sense of morality was hence bent towards this, so that I never indulged brutal or greatly mean tendencies in terms of causing physical harm, which I would have rejected as uncivilised, but remained always outwardly polite and seemingly harmless. I was a coward, what might informally be called a ‘wimp.’ I stood for no principle or cause, except to not stand; and I would rather look in the mirror and see a coward than incur any pain to myself. Although it was of course, contrary to Thee, the experience of this philosophy taught me much which I now know. For example, I cannot now delude myself into believing myself a strong or courageous man, capable of standing up without Thy holding me up. I know that when I stood for nothing but my own self, I really did not stand at all. I was content to avoid trouble and pursue pleasure, and, again, this I called Life on the Basis of the Pleasure Principle, as if some great intellectual invention of mine, when in fact it is as old as iblees. Thou wast not my God, my God. Rather, I was my own god, a rule unto myself, and I thought this bold and new! But most novelties are just old philosophies with new labels.

II.For this reason, I never explicitly crossed the line to do acts or say words that would render me Impure in the eyes of the State. I kept these things bottled up within my head. And yet, along with this contentment - that the struggle did not really matter and that I might as well get as much pleasure out of it as I could - I remained angry with the Silver State and what I thought was her fiction of Purity. Perhaps it was because they denied me the most intense pleasures, such as fornication. A lust denied is often the wellspring of anger. I cannot claim to have lived chastely at this time, for although I kept the outward chastity of Mali’aheral, yet inwardly I would not have, with only my own cowardice preventing me. Hence, I have no moral high ground whatever over the adulterer: in spirit, I was an adulterer, with only a slavish fear of the State and society that kept me from consummating the acts I desired. 

III.Wherefore, I desired the thrill of being a rebel, testing the line, but never with the backbone to actually cross it. I would drink altogether too much, each week, each day; each hour daring to push toward the edge of the line closer and closer. I fell in with a bad group, and they accelerated my ‘progress.’ My life hence became one of petty crime. I was merely a petty criminal simply because I was too pathetic to be a serious one. My friends were bolder than me; and I often-times lied to them in order to make it seem like I had committed crimes as grievous as theirs. A man, boasting of an act of lust, or wickedness or rebellion, would make me feel compelled to lie that I had done just as bad, if not worse. My family were worried about my habits, but they never really became aware of their true extent. And if they did, my parents loved me too much to expose me to the scandal of our society. 

CHAPTER II - THE NATURE OF SIN.

IV.One night, it came to a head when we broke the Silver Laws in a clear and indefensible manner. Second among the ‘Obvious Laws’ is that in which stealing is strictly prohibited (Eltiran’thilln I.I.II) - and it was this Law which we violated on one warm summer night. But unlike some of the laws written in our code, this was not merely an offence against the Silver Laws, but against the very Law which Thou hast engraved into our hearts - namely the natural Moral Law which belongs to all men. It was in the trade district of the city, where we stole some bottles of rather mediocre wine. The wine was of no real value. We had much better at home. There was nothing financial in what I did. But to the man from which we stole, it could have represented a serious loss. 

V.If it was not money, why did I choose thee, O sin of mine? “It’s a victimless crime, Malgath.” The boys urged, their smooth voices like melting butter. Yes. I would not have chosen thee alone, O cursed one. Were I alone, the thought of stealing would never have entered my mind. But shamed by the urging of peers, I caved to the baser instinct. Again, O my soul, learn thy lesson. Thou art not as strong or self-dependent as thou thinkest thyself to be. No, no! Thou art inclined to take the path of least resistance - and in a fallen world, that path is often the road that creeps softly to death. There is no man so vulnerable as he that trusts in his own energy and resources! Lean, O my soul, on Thy God, and never forget all that He hath done for thee. 

VI.That is the tension which I think must shatter any remnant of Mali'thill pride which still remains with me. I once read in one of the Akritian pagan poets: Video meliora proboque, deteriora seqour. ((OOC Note: Ovid, Met.VII.20-21)) “The better things I see, and I praise them; but it is the baser that I follow.” Or in other words, as one wise man, or perhaps rather God in him, put it: “Non enim quod volo bonum, hoc facio: sed quod nolo malum, hoc ago.” ((OOC note: Romans 7:19)) Viz., for the good which I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Is it not amazing that I never read the like in any of our authors, despite the fact that we pride ourselves on being wise above men? Our Laws say: “Our ancestors strove for Purity...” (Elitiran’thilln I.I.IV.) but it seems that even peer pressure, passions and emotions, the law of our members and flesh, and such influences, can cause us to capsize like a gunboat on the open sea very easily. We do not realise that we are fallen creatures. Sin has a certain hold over us, and we are compromised by a mortal weakness which inclines us to the baser instincts. The refusal to acknowledge this weakness makes the High Elf even more likely to fall, and, worse, makes him refuse to pity his brother who does fall. We need to realise we all have something of the Old Krug in us. Deliver me not to a prideful heart, my God.

VII.But there was more. It was not merely a caving into pressure, but I took a positive pleasure in the act. Whence came this pleasure? Allow me to guess, my Lord. I think it came from that instinct of pride and rebellion which caused me to have a contempt for a higher law placing a restriction on my free act. In my licentious philosophy, if it can be honoured by that word (for philosophy means love of wisdom, and this was the love of nothing), freedom was the highest good. By therefore inordinately chasing freedom even at the cost of evil, I fell into a bad way. Sin seems to me to be rooted in nothing less than a pursuit of a lesser good to its extreme, to the point where it overrides the Moral Law. 

VIII.This is why we need to have moral absolutes. My father used to tell me a story about a plotting human queen, the wife of the king. The queen desperately wanted her son, the king’s step-son, to follow after the death of the childless king. Therefore she poisoned, blackmailed and schemed, stopping at no length, ceasing to commit no evil to obtain this end. In the end, even the husband of her bosom and king was made her victim when it became clear to her he was going to prefer another man to her son. At her husband’s deathbed, she justified herself: “I never did anything, never thought anything, never said anything except for thee and for the kingdom, my lord,” sounded she in the ears of the dying king. If she was a mere lunatic it would not be a frightening story. But the truly abominable thing is that she truly believed - or at least convinced herself - of the necessity of these acts. For, she reasoned, without a single heir, the kingdom would be plunged into civil war. Her son, in her mind, would be the only one who could be universally accepted as king. This is a terrifying truth cloaked in a fictional story. For, without moral absolutes, we can justify any evil to pursue any lesser good. Convicted of our own righteousness, we will, in our pride, do every evil imaginable before facing the trial of conscience which our sins - at the least - deserve. 

IX.In these acts I sought to make myself free, but merely enchained myself afresh. And the chains were more chafing than before. For when I held myself to the laws of Purity, the chains were outward - now the chains enclosed my very heart and soul. O, that I had wings like a dove! Thou art my desert place, O my God, and let my soul take its final flight to Thee. [Editor’s note: Pius’ declining health meant he was convinced his own death was close at hand upon writing.] For who was freer, the man from whom I had stolen, or the thief? I had loosed myself from a Law, but bound myself by sin. My victim was constrained now by a new economic necessity. But in his heart and conscience he remained innocent and free. This is true freedom. For the just man, though a slave, is free. But the wicked man, though he reigns, is a slave, for the slave has for his master but one, and that outward, but the wicked man has as many masters as he has vices which enslave even his very interior life. I therefore freed myself only to enslave myself yet more profoundly, convincing myself that slavery was freedom, and freedom was slavery. O, had I known the free and true law of Love! She has the chains of law, but they chafe not: for they are held in place not by servile fear, but by the sweet bonds of charity.  Late have I come to Thee, O my Love. But possess me ,for I am utterly Thine to possess. Hold me fast, and let me never depart from Thee! 

CHAPTER III - ACADEMIC CAREER.

X.Whilst this reality dawned upon me, I began to suffer from intense boredom. I went from enjoying life to sneering at it. This was another flaw in Life According to the Pleasure Principle. For pleasures are transitory and suffer what I may call a Law of Diminishing Returns. That is, sensual pleasure gradually loses its novelty, and so we become weary of it, and so, to stimulate an ever-decreasing capacity for pleasure, one must seek for pleasures more and more intense, novel and illicit. Therefore, that night of my theft was when things came to a head. After that, for weeks, I would go seeking to replicate the thrill which I experienced that night. But I could never find it. I went to the same stupid job every day. I drank the same wine. Everything seemed grey and meaningless. I have felt grief, anger and other negative emotions at various points in my life. But to feel truly grieved, I must love something greatly, care greatly about something. But I cared for nothing. So there was no passion; no lamentations cried to an unknown god. Grey. Transitory. It was the true face of nihilism - a blank nihil staring me down the long prospective centuries, and driving me insane. After a time I decided I could not live by this principle any more. 

XI.I returned to the Silver Library. The pleasures of childhood had been more wholesome, so I suppose I reckoned that in the pleasures of the Library I might find solace. I encountered a genre of literature which might be called Self-Improvement. It involves things such as “Growing in Knowledge of Self” “Self-Esteem”, and Listening. (A Full Guide to Meditation and ‘The Self.’) As the name implies, it is far too self centered. Nevertheless, devouring volumes such as these which gave practical tips for “self-actualisation”, I sought a perverted kind of asceticism, which is far from the kind which Thy servant, our Holy Father Saint Jude practised upon this earth. Saint Jude understood that the love of Thee takes the primacy in our lives. (Thesis on Love.) We rather chase an inordinate love of self and chase “improvement” out of self-love, rather than seeking out the other to become the object of our love. 

XII.Dearest God, my Creator, I exist only in relation to Thee. Without Thee I am nothing. Apart from Thee, I have nothing to claim for my own but sin and death. Thou art the source, summit and sustainer of my entire life from the womb onwards. Thou art Wisdom - without Thee I am only pitiful unwisdom - Thou art beauty - without Thee I am only brute ugliness - Thou art Goodness - without Thee I am only utter wretchedness.  I therefore give Thee all of my love, I make to Thee a sacrifice of love as I say: I love Thee. I immolate myself in this Act of Love. Let ‘I’ only exist to be in the ‘I’ in ‘I love Thee!’ let me be enclosed within this Act of Love in time and in eternity. I love Thee with my whole heart and above all things. O let all other things dissolve before me in this Act of Love; let me be wrapped up in the consciousness of two, and only two, luminously self-evident beings: myself, and my Creator.

CHAPTER IV - PIUS REJECTS CONTRACT.

XIII.It was therefore in this self-absorption that I gave myself to return to an academic career. I chased “success.” That meant power, wealth and prestige. But to what end? That question I carefully avoided, deciding to cast myself body and soul into the pit of materialism. This provided solace, for a time. I gave myself up furiously to the study of architecture for several decades until I was considered a respected master of the field. At the end of my resolve, I finally found what I had grasped for so anxiously: the great work which would propel me into an illustrious career. A senior magistrate in the Silver State commissioned me to build for him a great townhouse which would gain for me great fame in the land and would probably be enough to secure me great favour with the State. My family would be proud of me. A woman I was sweet on would be greatly impressed, and I would gain universal admiration, a comfortable life and a reputation as a great patriot. But despite all my vehement devotion to my work, I could not bring myself to sign the contract. My pen shaked, much as I did when I began this writing. Something was off.

XIV.I requested a few days off to consider. The magistrate eagerly granted, but seemed surprised. I had, after all,  seemed such an ambitious sort! But there was a nagging doubt which I could not answer, because I could not work out what it was. I could not sleep. I had always kept on my desk some archive documents talking about the calendar: the months of the year, the difference between Elven and normal hours, and so on, and so forth - and, most importantly of all, the years of the various realms upon which the descendants had dwelt in modern history. I studied the details only because I had nothing else to do for lack of sleep. Anthos. 1420-1454. 34 years. Athera. 1470-1513. 43 years. Vailor. 1513-1570. 67 years. And then my birthplace, Axios: 1571-1642. 71 years. And now Atlas: 1643-1704. 61 years. And now I was in Arcas and they wanted me to build a townhouse. 1704-to...what? When would this one finish? I swiftly calculated the median of the time it took for each continent to implode and force a mass migration. 61+71+67+43+34. Divided by 5. 55.2. My mind raced: in about half a century, this new place I was supposed to call home would be finished, on average, by 1759. (Griffith, thou must needs understand - that seems a long time for a human. But to an Elf, it is almost nothing.) So what? Was I to lay the foundations of a townhouse which would be abandoned so swiftly? How fleeting an honour! How pointless an endeavour! How futile a contract! O, Vanity of Vanities! And yet my blessed race, which looks upon men with pity for their short years, differ nothing from them in this manner of thinking. I was building as if for eternity something which would last, in Elven terms, ten fortnights at the most. 

XV.I took that contract which I had coveted for half a century of gruelling mental labour and I ripped it in shreds. At first, I felt a tremendous weight lift from my shoulders. Although I knew it not, Thou hadst delivered me from the cage of covetousness. For I now see that I would not have wrested myself from that pitiable position: there is no reason I should have read that calendar and raced my mind along such a path, unless Thou didst spur it on. Thou hast spared me from the fate I deserved, from the fate I had chosen for myself, Lord - centuries of centuries of labour ever more futile, working away at a thing that passeth away like stubble in the wind, ere its foundations were laid. O, Thou art my Liberator who hath broken my bonds asunder. Having received of this unmerited grace, unknowing that it be grace at all, I returned home that very night, unsure of what to do next.

CHAPTER V - PIUS TAKES UP THE VOCATION TO PHILOSOPHY.

XVI.The Library was the only place I knew where to go. And so I did. My employer was there and was looking very smug. “Ah, after so rudely ripping up the opportunity of a lifetime, young Malgath hath returned. I will, in my generosity, over thee a second chance.” He thought my refusal was a thing of vanity, and that I would now accept a worse offer. He was wrong. 

XVII.What now? As a child and young man, I had studied the Flexio and Akritian languages. But I had considered other races, naturally, inferior. In the natural order of science, such as in medicine, perhaps they might have something valuable to teach us. But in terms of philosophy and metaphysics, we were told as a rule of dogma that there was nothing possibly they could teach us. Indeed, to embrace foreign ideas was considered of questionable Purity, and to do so to the exclusion of the State’s ideas of Purity and so forth, utterly Impure. [Editor’s Note: c.f. Othelu Orrar, Enumerated Distinctions of Purity.] Therefore, whilst I had studied Flexio and Akritian works on mathematics, medicine, architecture, linguistics and so forth, I had never read any work of philosophy not approved by the State, except works bent toward ‘self-improvement.’ But now my mind took a different turn. The philosophy of the Blessed Mali had proven nothing but disastrous and illusory for me on a personal level. Nihilism had proven equally so. These people seemed very advanced in the natural sciences. Could it hurt to start to study their philosophies as well as their natural sciences? I had to give it a try. 

XVIII.I take a moment to observe how excellent the timing of this decision, or rather how excellent Thy timing was. If I had studied these things as a boy or a youth, I would have read them with nothing but scorn, disgust and a deep conviction of my own superiority. But now I was eager to learn from them. Before I would have read the philosophers to lecture them on my own superiority. Now, all that I had experienced, the lies upon which I was brought up, the utter evil of hedonism and the giving over of monstrous enemies to a transitory gust of wind, I had gone from lecturer to student. I knew I did not have the answers so I sought them elsewhere. Before I thought: I do not have the answers; surely these inferior civilisations cannot tell me them. There are no answers. Now I had abandoned that evil line of thinking, and was determined to investigate. 

XIX.I took another job at the Silver Library as a linguist and translator. After a few months of study, I came across an Akritian pagan writer writing in Flexio called Archimedes. Akritos was a far-away country which for centuries had never been Canonist. I did not read the Canonists because I considered them fanatics, so I stuck to the pre-Canonist philosophers. Archimedes wrote an epistle to his friend exhorting him to the love of wisdom above all things and how she needed to be preferred over any material thing. I was entranced. “Did this Archimedes have disciples?” I asked. If so, they must be found abroad. Yes, I must go and talk if this man hath any more written works and any men who know his philosophy in detail. Everything material was vain; I was now inflamed with the spirit of a philosopher. I knew that I could not rest until I knew where the true good of the sons of Malin lay. My vocation was clear: I was to become a philosopher, a Lover of Wisdom.

"Pretender? The Pontiff crowned him just last month, and yet you name disobedience of the Pontiff among his sins? This is hypocrisy. You yourself accept the Pontiff's judgement if you would so accuse others of failing." Says Fr. Petros. 

"Long live the Orenian Empire and the Principality of Savoy." Proclaims Father Petrus the Akritian.

These are a few notes and reflections on my pastoral experience as an assistant Priest in Savoy.

"Before the mountain, the ant and the aurochs are equally small."-Virtue 7:7.

I have been living for the past year in the Principality of Savoy. Fortunately, it does not suffer from many of the problems occasioned by modern times. Most people, if they do not love God, at least have some kind of servile fear toward Him, which, whilst inferior and imperfect compared to the filial fear and loving reverence of the Saints, is at least better than the self-wise tranquillity of many modern persons.

Nevertheless, I have noticed a very dangerous spiritual tendency, which has the potential to drag thousands of souls into the Void. Yes, it is very wretched indeed. The faith of the people seems to lack joy. Everything is austerity and the only form of popular piety that exists is executions. A lack of spiritual joy is usually caused by spiritual pride. This deadly sin, contrary to the Commandment of Virtue ch. 7, seeks to exalt itself above others. It glories in ignorance, revels in rash judgement, and seeks not to uplift our brother if he should fall into a serious sin, but rather to grind him into the dust by raving on in spiritual beratings and beatings. This can be spiritually ruinous and the cause of despair in others, the opposite vice to the virtue of Faith according to Saint James II as was recently published by HIH Josephine Augusta. Spiritual pride is often more deadly than other forms of pride because it sees itself as pious - at least other pride is free of that delusion. Hence it is potentially ruinous to the sinner who is berated into despair, but positively destructive to the spiritual life of the man who berates pridefully, because he will do evil and rash judgement and congratulate himself for the act.

Not only the Scrolls, but scores of the Saints warn us against this kind of behaviour. The Angelic Doctor, St. Jude, thundered against it: "In the end, we are all below one great Being and we will all be judged differently. Just because you may have been a pagan or nonbeliever once doesn’t mean that you are not a brother or sister of the Creator now. We are all equal and should love each other the same. Now I leave you to think upon this: If you are someone who believes converted heathens, pagans, or heretics, are below you, how would you feel if you were in their shoes?” (On Conversion and Humility.) Furthermore, St. Pius of Sutica, FSSCT, wrote: "I have since learnt this: that any man who refuses to pity his brother when he falls into a serious fault, shows himself to be in great danger of an imminent fall himself. For pride refuses to admit weakness, and hence, as a hot-headed general is easily lured into ambushes, so Iblees can easily overcome those who are assured of their own strength. I do not mean we should not punish transgressors because we ourselves are guilty; but even there we should say: “Thank God I have not done worse”, and punish as men who hate sin, but love sinners. Even when the order of society necessitates the death penalty, Confession should on no account be neglected to be offered to the criminal, so that he who was failed according to the justice of men, might triumph according to the mercy of God - Thy mercy, which endureth forever." (Confessions, I.IX.)

This spiritual pride is manifested in contempt for our neighbour. We are constantly on the look out for the faults of others, and will rashly judge them. We will seek reason to persecute them, rather than making reasonable excuse for them as we ought, always giving the most uncharitable and mean interpretation of their actions. I saw this in the square the other day. There was a man, - half-orc, half son of Horen by the flesh (but 100 percent a son of Horen through Baptism) - who was being questioned by a mob in the town square. I will admit that I arrived late to the scene and perhaps something was said which I did not hear. Nevertheless, the people gave him no chance whatsoever to say anything in his own defence. And when he professed his Canonism boldly, men accused him, without basis, of being a liar. One of these gentlemen accused the half-breed of being "born into sin." At this I became angry. It was not this gentleman's sin which made him a half-orc, but his parents. He is not to be held responsible. So I said "Sir, we are all sinners. Leave off from this man." And he said: "I am, but I go to Confession to Father so-and-so." He said this as if some kind of great achievement and excuse to persecute others. For a start, the man he was persecuting himself professed to be a regular churchgoer, and that means probably with a Confessor also. Going to Confession means you must be frail and in need of God's forgiveness. Why, then, refusing to be merciful, do we expect mercy?

What do we have which we have not received? And if we have received, why do we glory as if we have not so done? Confession is the pure mercy of God to a poor sinner. When a patient is cured from a bad disease, does he not thank the physician? Would the man say: "How great I must be, I am cured! Those uncured persons are idiots!" Of course not, he owes it to the physician, not to himself. And so remember this: all your progress in the spiritual life is the gift of God, not your own achievement. Without His grace we have nothing to call our own but sin, evil and death. St. Pius said: "Better wine drunk with humility than water with pride." It is better to be faithful in small devotions and remain small in our own estimation than to do many great penances and think how great we are, and how sinful and weak our brother who does less must be.

We must therefore kindle in ourselves great distrust of self. We should recognise our pride and therefore our tendency to act in a contemptuous fashion. You know our mortal lot. For some irrational reason we dislike someone who may be perfectly innocent. And then, to feed our hatred, the evil one pours into our ear all kinds of ridiculous fancies. Our sinful self seeks any reason to exalt itself about this person and kindle hatred against him. We must fight this with tooth and nail. When assaulted by such irrational thoughts, we must not entertain them, but batter them down like the minions of iblees they are. 

If we had not pride, we would rejoice that even from sin, God can bring good. Even from the kinslayer Owyn, he created His great Prophet and the Captain of His heavenly hosts. Even from the product of an illicit marriage, He can bring out a baptised and practising Canonist. But we are so tainted by spiritual pride that we are blind to His universal love of all men. Remember that every person we are speaking to may themselves be a potential Saint-in-waiting. The great Ven. Bishop Benedict received Pius of Sutica with courtesy even before he became a Canonist, and this helped him on the road to conversion. The man, too, you are berating, could one day be your great superior in holiness - assuming he is not already. 

We should not shrink from stamping out injustice and blasphemy. We should not cower from confrontation and having to use harsh words. This would make us cowards. We should not shrink, but nor should we leap to judgement and meanness as our first resort rather than our last. Our inclination, our default stance, should be gentleness, kindness, courtesy and good will. Departing from these things should be a burden which we are forced by necessity to take up. 

For, O my sweetness, my God, when shall we see that it is blasphemy to call Thee 'Father' when despising our brother? Too long have we done this blasphemy! Too long have we treated our neighbour with contempt! How dare we proclaim to acknowledge Thy primacy whilst exalting ourselves! How dare we proclaim we love Thee whilst hating what Thou lovest! Open our hearts, O Lord, and there engrave the Law which Thou didst formerly implant in the hearts of all the descendants. Plant there the root of all virtue: humility. And let there grow from her bounty the glorious red rose of charity, which is Thy very heart, for Thou Thyself art Charity. (Proverbs 5:1) And, acknowledging Thee as Father, let us call our neighbour brother: congratulating him when he triumphs, pitying him when he falls, and desiring the good of his immortal soul with all the fervent desire of our hearts, let us all advance as pilgrims back to our true home, Thy kingdom forever and ever. Amen.

N.B. It is very important for Confessors to stay away from this tendency. It takes humility and faith to come to the confessional. Admonish sinners, yes, but not in the Confession-booth. For the repentant sinner should always be received with utmost sweetness. Only if beration is the only reasonable means to deliver a man from habitual sin should it be used. 

NOTE TO CARDINAL PROVIDENCE. Your Eminence, I have completed a thesis, I am familiar with the Mainland Church, and I now can speak Common quite fluently. Fr. Paul can attest to these things. I earlier made you a promise to refrain from using the powers of my ordination - viz., administering the Sacraments. I now ask that such an impediment be removed and I be given full power to exercise my Priestly faculties and celebrate public liturgies. I remain your humble servant,

Fr. Petrus the Akritian.

"The opposite of Faith is despair, that is an interesting take...But I do not know if we can accept the proposition that He is Faith, Humility, etc. - it would only be possible for God to show these virtues if He...somehow united Himself to a lower nature, such as that of an Angel or even...A man." Says Petrus.

The Akritian Church had not yet received news of Saint Pius' canonisation. The Bishop, a friend of Bl. Seraphim, prayed most fervently for the canonisation of the pair. He decided to dedicate a church to them, but had no idea where a suitable side would be. He consulted many man of high rank and great wisdom. He even established a commission who argued and argued about it. "You can't place it near the river, it's a flood plain!' One said. "And those hills are too inaccessible to the people - and too accessible to the Turkins!" Another countered. 

"Let us ask Pius of Sutica where he would like the church to be. He is just waiting for an excuse to give us a miracle for his canonisation." At that moment, in the middle of summer, snows fell down on a precise spot within their sight. Not only had snow in summer not been seen in generations in Akritos, but it was also seeming to fall down as if a beam of light indicating that location. "This is a miracle. No doubt about it."

The sight was found to be perfect. A temporary outdoor shrine was first to be set up there whilst the church was being built. And there, by the icon of Pius of Sutica, there have been said to be dozens of miraculous healings. Soon the little village became a place of pilgrimage for those dedicated to Pius of Sutica, Akritian and Turkin, and even foreigners. 

"I need to tell Father Petros to send word to the High Pontiff, whoever he is - Tylos, isn't it? He must be canonised at once!"

Petros reads the Bull at the same time as the letter from his old Bishop came onto his desk. "Errrr...." He hesitated for a moment, before bursting into laughter.

"If this isn't a sign we need to reform the FSSCT, what is?"

Saint Pius, looking down upon him, says: "Now, I know I took my time...But when I did it, I did it in style." 

Then the Akritian Priest sniffed. That's odd...The smell of roses! He checked his pockets...

Set to the tune of "Hymn for King Marius" by Ven. Humbert, O.S.J.

Entitled A Hymn to the Venerable Olivier.

O Bless'd Olivier,

our noble defender,

Hear thou our call.

For justice intercede,

Our cause for pity plead,

So that we may now heed,

Our God and Lord!

Vouchsafe as thou art just,

To place us in thy trust,

That we so be!

With thy benignant gaze,

Men with new hearts a-raise,

That Savoy may well praise,

The God who Saves! 

Keep thou the Prince, we pray,

Lest now the foe may say:

"Where is their God?"

Grant in our fathers' place,

We may complete the race,

To gaze on God's own face:

Forevermore!

By Fr. Petrus the Akritian.

Discord : TotusTuusEgoSum #3901

MC Name: TotusTuusEgoSum

RP Name: Father Petros (Peter) the Akritian

MC Name : GMT

Applying to join as Chaplain.

Pius found Griffith's long-awaited arrival an equal if not greater joy than his own entry into the Skies. Gone was the reserve and tact which held back his expression upon earth. "I knew you would make it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!" The old stoic exploded in a spectacle of giddy joy, like a boy waking up on Christmas morning. "That's my boy!" All Heaven knew what the occasion was. Even Griffith's Guardian Angel had grown tired of Pius' anticipation. "Pius has been raving on about this day for years," explained he. (Speaking relatively, of course - years do not exist in Heaven.) Soon, Pius had the whole of the Skies joining in the jubilee - billions of Cherubim and Seraphim, all the Holy Prophets, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins and Kings ringing for the arrival of one man. "He deserves nothing less!" Pius insisted boldly. Saint Julia made sure Pius' insistence was followed up on.

He rushed upon his friend like a madman, showering him with kisses and hugs. "That's my boy!" He exclaims proudly. "Now, there's a certain Akritian Priest I need us to take care of..." And then going to talk his ear off with rants and lectures for eternity of eternity. 

"Wow, a system in which a king can be declared a 'coward', deposed by force and murdered, I am sure this is a very stable system with no potential for civil wars.'" Comments some smug nerd. 

"Maybe it's time to re-form the FSSCT." Speculates a man.

"Your sentry duty is over, brave soldier. Now you join an army without hard drill or long marches." Proclaims Pius of Sutica happily, welcoming the venerable clergyman into company of the holy ones.

A heavenly 'Te Deum' sounds from the heavenly choirs of Angels and Saints in jubilee. 

"Jubilate Deo!" shout the Pontiffs in chorus.

"Servite Domino in laetitia" respond the holy Confessors.

"Laudate Dominum Deum Saboath!" Cry the holy militants. 

"All these choirs covet you as their own..." explains Pius.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

2 hours ago, Minuvas said:

The only authority on this subject is his holiness, not the brotherhood. 

 

The Brotherhood was more concerned about trying to judge with it's eyes and it's ears than through its spirit. They looked but they failed to see.

 

I am unsure of what I witnessed in the Basilica, but in that uncertainty is wisdom - to humble yourself to ponder whether what you are seeing can be explained by the senses or by GOD.  Only therefore, can men of great spirituality of the Church settle this question definitively.

 

In this instance, the brotherhood has only arrogance - confident in it's proclamation, pride in it's certainty.

 

This being, possibly Ex. Owyn, possibly a deceiver wielded a blade untampered by some kind of dispelling oil. A radiant halo of light illuminated it's head, it appeared from the nothing, and vanished as easily when it was escorted from the Basilica. It smelled of incense, and it's very voice echo'd with authority. 

 

It demanded nothing, subjecting itself to the secular experiments of the brotherhood. It offered no violence. Healthy speculation is warranted in this regard.

 

The Holy Father should appoint a clergyman to investigate this further and provide a thorough answer to which only the vicar of GOD can answer, not some half-cock test of 'witchery' because it bleeds. For who can discern the will of the Divine but the vicar of GOD the Holy Father, and the Emperor, twin brothers in service to GOD.

 

 

What the Brotherhood is scolding is faith. If Owyn were to descend, why not at a place where those who venerate him have gathered? He made no demands, save that we listen - instead we cut him and tried to dispell him a way. Let us pray we did not deny ourselves one of the seven skies.

 

 

I encourage my Canonist brothers first to pray, that why their faith is so weak that they could not believe that Owyn could not walk amongst us, and that they for themselves could discern with mortal eyes and mechanisms the work of GOD.  Ye of so little faith that you would cast stones at the faithful for the crime of believing of even the possibility that GOD has not abandoned us from his prophets.

 

He Remarks publicly.

"We don't need an apparition to tell us that God has not abandoned His people. We don't need to see Owyn to know that he intercedes for us." Replies Br. Williams. "It is a weak faith that says unless such a manifestation has happened, we cannot know these things."

"These people, those who denigrate Elven Canonists as weaklings, pretend to treat Canonist elves with contempt and yet seem much disturbed by them...does their talk of God hit closer to home than they like to admit?" Observes Bl. Pius of Sutica from the Skies. 

"An apparition of a Prophet or a Saint is not impossible, for example, legend holds that St. Julia appeared to Saint Kristoff, but it could never be integral or fundamentally change the Faith or the constitution of the Church as the Prophets left them, and if it tries to do so, we know it to be false or a deception. For everything necessary for the Church to know was given to the Church in the lifetimes of the Prophets; revelation was complete and ended with the death of Siegmund. And the Church was set up as the guardian of this sacred deposit of faith until the end of time. Hence a true apparition of Owyn would seek to enkindle devotion in the people by teaching them how to live the faith and practise devotion, not manifest and claim a public authority." Writes Brother Owyn FSSCT.

Blessed Pius of Sutica, FSSCT, laughs. He looks to Saint James II: "75% of the clergy have to be present for an ecumenical council? How did you manage to get that law past us?"

52 minutes ago, puffables said:

(( i am like.. jaw-drop impressed. thank you so much for this wonderful piece, like,, heck.. !! such an interesting perspective, i love this sm <33 genuinely started gushing about this piece to everyone i could find,,;; ))

[!] Upon the chance that one Lleinde Tillun'sae would take to reading this, her brow would furrow at first. Over a tall, thin glass of white wine would the Tillun'sae make her way through the First Book of this series - a tear shed by the end. "This is.. undoubtably a fine piece of writing." the elfess murmured lowly and faintly to herself, some element of shock upon her porcelain features. She'd curl a few thinly-drawn smiles each time either her own work, or a particular favourite work of hers, was mentioned within citings in the essay, the writer in her heart swayed by the intellectual stylings. Yet, at the conclusion of her reading session the elfess gripped tightly the corners of the page, a sigh exhaled - her gaze wracked with a quiet sort of despair, a brow-furrowing sort of sorrow. "My.. they are so close, oh so terribly close, yet only just have they missed it - it is only guilt in my stomach which I might feel to know this fine oem'ii took to becoming so terribly disillusioned as to seek the false hope, the honeyed liquor of deital figures and institutions. Most all the criticisms levied against the Mali'thill might be reflected upon their own 'Church'." A rap of a fingertip against the table, her head shook side to side. "The difference between elmaehr'sae hiylun'ehya and this.. religion... is that the Mali'thill continue to grow, continue to strive to be ever-closer to elmaehr'sae hiylun'ehya: it develops, it builds, it lives through our Peoples' legacy. The draw towards true Enlightenment.. such gets closer with each spark of genius. The knowledge of all, it is a fathomable-infathomable thing; it has a direction. This ideal of a 'God' - it does not. It is but a stationary point - a standstill, a part of the Path we have long passed. Still.. " In tucking away of the papers, the pale figure continued on in her perhaps hypocritical ways of following this Doctrine of the Pure that she so cherished, one to which she was as devoted as any holy-man : a solemn hope that one day, perhaps, these hypocrisies would eventually be outgrown and erased, the vision to which she aspired realised.

((Thanks so much for your interesting reply. When I started with Pius he was already a Canonist living in Oren, so it was very interesting to go back to his past and explore it. I found the authors on purity and so on exceedingly interesting. I really had no clue High Elves had such amazing lore and unique ideology. Stayed tuned for Book II!))

That same night, Malgath's father reads Book I of the Confessions of Pius. "My son, my son, why did have to be like this!?" He cries.

((Inspired by St. Augustine’s Confessions, St. Therese of Lisieux’s A Story of a Soul, and St. John Henry Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Also the writings of F.J. Sheen.))

IMPURE: BEING THE CONFESSIONS OF MALGATH of HAELON’OR, MORE COMMONLY KNOWN AS

BLESSED PIUS OF SUTICA.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

Blessed Pius of Sutica (1610-1803), known before his conversion as Malgath, was an High Elven philosopher who converted to Canonism and later became a Canonist Priest, founding the Priestly Fraternity of SS. Jude and Kristoff. He was the author of many influential spiritual works. Disowned by his natural family as “impure”, High Pontiff Saint James II called him “An example of humility whom I wish to emulate and a teacher to whom I submit”; he was beatified for the greater glory of God by High Pontiff Jude II in 1807.

PREFACE.

Pius of Sutica never intended that these words be published - of that the archaic style bears witness, for Pius usually wrote in modern Common, but used this older style in his own private writings. He is also more unreserved in his praise of High Elven ideals than in his public writings. They were read only by his former Confessor, Fr. Griffith of Gwynon, FSSCT and the Metropolitan of Providence, his Eminence Cardinal Gawain, FSSCT. In his last testament (Book XII), he wrote that it was his desire for these words to remain unpublished, but that, if either the Provost of the FSSCT, his former Confessor, Fr. Griffith, or the Bishop of Providence, who at the time of my writing these words is Cardinal Gawain, should judge it to be useful for the Church for them to be published, then so it shall be. Three months ago we received that very order from his Eminence, and so this work, part-autobiography, part-philosophy; wholly prayer, we eagerly present to the public eye, knowing it shall be, with God’s help, of no small profit to them. I remain your humble servant,

-Br. Williams, FSSCT. 

NOTE TO FR. GRIFFITH.

Dearest child,

Long have you required of me this little book, and long have I delayed. I hope all is well in Gwynon. Although separated by the raging seas, you are always pressed very close to my heart. I should just like to say that, though my life is short by Elven standards, by those of men, I am very old indeed. I am currently engaged with works related to the life of the Church, so, for brevity’s sake, some decades I will pass over quickly. Do not expect a detailed autobiography but a work more reflective in nature. Your loving  father in grace,

Pius.

BOOK I - CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE.

Chapter I - Introduction and Doxology.

I.I WILL PRAISE THEE, O my God, my one Creator, my sole Shepherd, my singular Refuge, one and only King enthroned in the lowly tabernacle of my heart. My pen shakes, Lord, and the hand that holds it trebles. How shall it render fitting praise to the One who fashioned it out of nothing? How shall I pine after Him in Whom I live, and move, and am? In whatsoever order I narrate things, still I find the thing wholly inadequate, utterly unable to recount Thy innumerable mercies unto me. O glad, how glad am I that Thou hast promised eternal life, wherein “I shall sing the mercies of the Lord forever” (Attr. Ven. Humbert), for I shall need an eternity to do such a thing. But since Thou hast been pleased to shower such abundant blessings on one so unworthy of them, do not suffer inadequate praise, O Lord, but rather lead me on the way of eternal life, in order that I might have that eternity wherewith I can praise Thee worthily. But as for now, open my mouth; enlighten my intellect; inflame my affections, casting me without reserve into the furnace of Love, that this little work might avail for my salvation and Thy glory. And since I have not yet that eternity wherewith to praise the Good God, might I lend thine, O my patron, blessed Jude the Saint? Unite this prayer with that of the Angels and Saints, that it might be a tiny cymbal in that awesome orchestra of love, giving praise and glory to Almighty God forever and ever, Amen.

II.`The fool shall say: What need hath God of praise?” (Proverbs 3:2) Modern scoffers do not understand why we praise Thee, O Lord. They imagine Thee as a kind of despot sitting hatefully on a throne unless we sing his praises. But it is not so; Thou art all-blessed and complete within Thyself; indeed Thou art the cause of the completeness of all complete things and the blessedness of all blessed things. No, rather, Thou hast said: “I am thy Father, and the Father of all things.” (Virtue 1:6) One day, I saw some little girls gathering up daffodils to give to their mother. Did the mother have any need of the daffodils? No. Did the girls have a need to give them? Certainly! Simply put, O Lord, Thou art the Source and Fount of all life and goodness, and the love of Thee, therefore, is the sole remedy for all our ills. We must love Thee - the Eternal  - and thus live the life of eternity, or, loving things temporal, thus die with the death of temporality. As the little girls remained in the bosom of their mother, the source of their life, so we must ever dwell in the bosom of Thy love, if we are to live. And what is more conducive to love than praise? If in loving Thee we live, and in praising Thee we love, then in loving Thee not we die, and in praising Thee not we love Thee not. Therefore to praise Thee is life; to neglect Thee is death. That is why Thou art jealous for the praise of Thy Name, O Lord. Not as for an insecure tyrant, but a true Father seeking what is best for His child. 

III.Therefore, O my hand, still thyself, and tremble no more. Calm thyself, O my soul, like a ship unfurling her snow-white topsails in serenest weather, and play the man; do thou manfully, and render thou the sacrifice of praise. Be still, and see that He is God. Do not worry about the inadequacy of thy expression. Pen of my hand, fear not. Thou dost not write a panegyric for a fearful despot, but a love letter to a doting Father. He does not care that thy scribbles are inadequate, he cares only for the intent behind the pen. I assure thee, O my soul, that thy God is much better than thou believest. He is content with a glance; a sigh of love. Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of so good a Father. Do all that thou canst do with love, and the rest is in His hands. I will love Thee, O Lord, by the small things: here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word, always choosing the smallest good and doing it all for love, for in the eyes of a father the littlest thing is precious. (c.f. Ven. Humbert, Maxims II.XI.) I am little, O Lord, and “to him that is little, mercy is granted, but the mighty shall be mightily tormented.” (Ibid II.V.) Therefore let no more false humility still my hand. I will praise Thee, O Lord, with the boldness and bravery of a princeling. And I will here recount Thy mercies and the story of how Thou raised me up to be a Canonist Priest, as Thy representative hath required me to do. 

Chapter II - Conception, Birth and Parents.

IV.Almost two centuries ago, Thou didst breathe life into my heart, (Virtue 1:5), pouring out of Thy infinite bounty the caresses of Thy love, by placing into it an abundance of virtue. (Virtue 2:5) For although I was a babe in my mother’s womb, nourished by the beating of her heart, and later by suckling of her breasts, yet it was Thou that didst suckle me through her. For Thou Thyself art the Nourisher of the mother who nourished me. The milk she gave me was from Thy creation: for Thou hast created for me “a garden of abundance.” (Virtue 2:7) Thus from my mother’s womb and in the years I could not speak and walk properly, Thou didst protect me, nourish me and cuddle me with maternal tenderness through the Elfess Thou hadst created. 

V.Thou didst give me loving parents, an attentive mother and an honourable father, a patriotic man from a well-off family jealous for the traditions of our race. Yes, I do acknowledge it as a true gift that Thou didst count me among those fairest of skin, agile of mind and tall of ear, the High sons of Malin, and of the purest bloodline am I. Our race is expert in scientific matters beyond all the sons of Man and Malin, careful and discerning in character; guarding our purity with a fiery craving. My father - the representative Thou didst choose to shew forth Thy fatherhood in my childhood - used to take me on his knee, showing me the whole of the great city of Taliyna’maehr, and calling me his little prince; telling me stories of the wars and tales of heroism and statesmanship from our great forebears, such as the noble Larihei. My childhood was normal and happy. The racial patriotism and sense of honour my parents taught me are still with me to this day, since I recognise them as Thy gifts through them. Whilst I now consider other races my equal brethren formed in the image of a common Father rather than “lesser beings'' (Eos Sinruil, On Purity), and I consider my racial gifts an occasion of humility rather than pride, seeing as they are gratuitous gifts and inheritances from Thee rather than anything of which I am deserving, still I have never ceased to love the sons of Larihei with a great longing for their highest good. And although my conversion to Thy Church would later tear my family away from me, I still do not fail to love them. They were Thy agents, unknowing though they be, and I pray unceasingly for the conversion of my race and family to Thee, the God who made our race great among men and blessed our family so abundantly. Often I have considered returning to my country; doubtless I would be killed as an Impure. My Confessor has forbade me from seeking such a martyrdom.

Chapter III - Education and Intellectual Pride.

VI.Of course, to believe in Thee or anything beyond the scope of reason was seen as inherently irrational. Hence when my father sought the ‘best’ for me, it was worldly advancement and a good education that he sought, and provided through his contacts within the Silver State. A good tutor employed by the Silver Library taught me literacy in Common and Ancient Elven, and later I attended his small classes of rhetoric and foreign languages. I was given a blissful freedom to explore that vastest range of tomes, which served as kindling for the fire of learning which burned in my young heart.  I also studied some of the scientific disciplines. I worked very hard in these things and was an attentive and quiet student, finishing top of my tutor’s classes in all but science. Mankind, even then, took my fancy, although I was trained to - and did -  look upon them with disdain as irrational fanatics who lacked our intelligence, purity and refinement, I investigated them simply because they have so many languages compared to us. Hence I even made my own private studies in Flexio and Akritian which later Thou wouldst use to bring me into Thy fold. Such studies were permitted and even encouraged by the Silver State, because although some considered the Lessers so beneath us so as to not be worth real consideration [Editor’s note: c.f. Othelu Orrar, Enumerated Distinctions of Purity], others have considered them at least worthy of study and experimentation. I was of the latter opinion; I studied the languages of men with the detachment and contempt with which one might observe the barkings of a dog. [Editor: C.f.  Doctrine of the Pure, “The Lesser Question.”.]

VII.But as adolescence progressed, these gifts of intellect and will which enabled me to progress so well, puffed me up like air does a balloon, for I considered myself the sole origin of my success. Time came when my declaimations far exceeded even those of my father, but at that time I was not mindful of the fact that before Thee, the author of our intellectual capacity, “The ant and the aurochs are equally small.” (Virtue 7:7) Hence I began to consider myself the superior of my superiors, arguing with my tutor, questioning the State, and being ungrateful for the food placed on my table. I fear this is a consequence of the way in which Haelon’or exalts personal intellect as the highest gift, instead of wisdom. Wisdom and knowledge are not the same thing. A man of great scientific knowledge can be a fool, whereas an humble farmer who knows only his plough can possess the wisdom of the greatest philosopher. For example, when one of my fellow countrymen wrote to me (presuming me to be a human because I had written to him in an Orenian journal), he patronised me by highlighting my “inferior mind.” (Irulan Elibar’acal, Man’s Discourse.) Doubtless he was correct that my mind was inferior, but his manner of conduct was exceedingly foolish. Haelon’or leaves itself open to the scourge of Liberalism because of this exaltation of personal intellectual capacity, ignoring the need for humility and a sound will in order to become truly wise. Hence, submission to an ideology or creed based on the authority of intellectual and moral superiors such as Purity or Maehr’sae Hilyun’ehya [Editor: Progress and Health] cannot be maintained in the long-term, because as soon as someone finds what he thinks to be a personal intellectual quibble with that system, he will exalt himself above it. Hence a man who considers personal knowledge and intellectual superiority his highest achievement will find it hard to submit to a communal ideology or standard, especially if he is, as I was, puffed up with pride. 

VIII.Hence, out of pride rather than love of truth, I became increasingly disillusioned with my studies. I found the rules of Purity extremely hard to keep, and I began to fall into what I would have called “habits of questionable purity” [Editor: c.f. Othelu Orrar, Distinctions], but which I now understand to be sins against Thee alone. I was told by my superiors, by the State and by my parents: “Here are the rules of Purity. Here are the dictates of right reason. Follow thou them.” But they themselves could not follow them. Even my father, an honourable man, would sometimes have the odd irrational tendency, an irritation or an outburst of emotion or lust. Even my mother suffered from jealousy, and, although supposed to be content with plain modesty in the Socialist society, was covetous for possessions and the attentions of others. She even had a secret collection of rare wines and potions, worth thousands of minas, which she kept as a personal show of wealth, a show which she showed to no one. Meanwhile, however, when, in politics, they read of any kind of cause for scandal, they would condemn it in the hottest terms. The women in my family would gossip about those of supposedly questionable Purity, failing to see that such gossiping was a greater poison than the alleged impurities about which they would gossip. I do not say this to denigrate my mother, who loves me so much, I know. We are all weak and prone to sin without Thy grace.  She alone did not gossip among the women. 

Chapter IV - Turning Away from Virtue.

IX.It was allegiance to a list of rules, an allegiance which no blessed Mali could completely keep, but which he felt justified in imposing on others in the harshest possible terms. We were unwilling to acknowledge our own mortal frailty; pity for those who fell in the public eye was hence perceived of as Impure within itself. I have since learnt this: that any man who refuses to pity his brother when he falls into a serious fault, shows himself to be in great danger of an imminent fall himself. For pride refuses to admit weakness, and hence, as a hot-headed general is easily lured into ambushes, so Iblees can easily overcome those who are assured of their own strength. I do not mean we should not punish transgressors because we ourselves are guilty; but even there we should say: “Thank God I have not done worse”, and punish as men who hate sin, but love sinners. Even when the order of society necessitates the death penalty, Confession should on no account be neglected to be offered to the criminal, so that he who was failed according to the justice of men, might triumph according to the mercy of God - Thy mercy, which endureth forever. Hence, what could I do when I saw these hypocrisies? In my own intellectual self-justification, I rejected the ideals my parents taught me. I rejected Purity as an unliveable standard used to control me by a group of hypocrites who themselves could not abide its terms. I was wrong to reject Purity. I was right to reject hypocrisy. For of all the Canonist doctrines, this seems to me to be the sanest: that we are all sinners in need of Thy mercy, and without the help of Thy grace we cannot overcome our moral weakness. “For if Thou will be quick to mark what is done amiss, Lord, who would stand it? But with Thee there is mercy, and by reason of Thy law, I have waited, O Lord.” (Little Office of Saint Jude, Psalm 3d.) For even that very Sinruil I quoted earlier, who regarded the other Descendants as “lesser beings”, later himself became a degenerate Liberal (Arelyn Iyathir, Uprooting Liberalism.), being ruled by lusts in a way that most of my so-called “lesser” human friends I now have would not even countenance in the worst of their nightmares.

X.Ex reverentia praecipientis procedere debet reverentia praecepti.  Viz, Reverence for a law flows from reverence to the lawgiver. Hence why I wrote earlier, Lord, that in loving Thee we live. For if Thou art Thyself Infinite Goodness, then it seems to me that all commandments flow from this one great commandment: Love of Thee. A man who loves someone will do all that is necessary to avoid injuring that person. A man who trusts the advice of another will readily follow that advice. As an apprentice will take tips from an archmage with highest reverence, so from reverence for Thee proceeds reverence for what Thou hast commanded - viz., the Moral Law. Hence, when morality is just a list of commandments without reference to a person, it is bound to fail. But when Goodness is identified with a Person, viz., Thee, from love of Thee proceeds all of the moral life. This I have observed from living in divers places. That in Oren they have a love without sacrifice, whereas in Haelon’or they have a sacrifice without love. Oren claims to love Thee, but hates self-denialism and asceticism. The good things they see, and they praise them, but it is the baser that they follow. Hence what is their love but sentimentalism? Weakness? Effeminacy? On the other hand, among the High Elves there is a culture of self-denial, of modesty and a striving for pure conduct, but without the love of God it is simply tyrannous lists of hard rules, hypocrisy and scorn. This latter tendency I have also noticed among the school known as the Flamenists. (c.f. Fr. Himmler, Clerical Disciplines.) One is the path to weakness, and the other to misery. We must not therefore imitate the Farfolk asceticism which sits on spikes, taking pleasure in pain as pain, but take a filial discipline out of love. It is better to drink wine with humility than water with pride.

XI.A man thinks in years; an Elf thinks in decades, and over the decades Thou hast made plain to me, through the will and intellect Thou has given me, the true errors which ought to have caused me to turn away from many of the prejudices I was raised with. Intellectual pride, its negative element, I embraced, and it was even the cause of my rebellion, whereas those truly good and noble things, such as chastity, frugality, diligence, courtesy, loyalty, patriotism, prudence, a sense of justice and honour, and the other splendid virtues which the Mali’aheral can be said to possess to some degree, and with which my parents raised me, I threw out as revolting unto me. For Thou hast planted the seed of virtue in each and every rational creature (c.f. Virtue 2:5), and in revolting against that which was truly good and admirable in our own culture, I was revolting against Thee. And by disdaining those civil authorities which Thou Thyself hast established as agents of Thy Law (c.f. Virtue 6:6), I disdained Thee. 

Chapter V - Criticism of Some High Elven Ideas.

XII.It was not the erroneous High Elven proposition of rejecting Thee because we believe that placing faith in something whose motivations are not rationally explainable is illogical that caused me to turn away from these things. With this proposition my countrymen have poisoned even the great Archives, as shown by the document I found there on the Elven race. This is actually the root of Liberalism, instead of being merely an antithesis to the Purity standards of the Mali’thill as the Silver State now claims. (Arelyn Iyathir, Uprooting Liberalism.) The Silver State claims to uproot Liberalism, but herself hath embraced her chief root: the rejection of mystery - Viz., anything which goes beyond the ability of the Pure Mali to rationally understand it. But we cannot exalt our own reason in such a manner and expect to come to a knowledge of the truth. For our reason is greatly limited, and is far from being able to understand concepts such as infinity. This is not to dismiss or denigrate reason or her true and noble excellence. It is a gift from Thee, and by her natural light we can come to know of Thy existence with certainty from the things which Thou hast made. [Editor: c.f. Pius of Sutica, Fides et Ratio.] But to exalt our own reason as the supreme principle of excellence, viz., to reject anything whose motivations may be above her, is to reject the infinite on the basis that the finite cannot possess it perfectly. The High Elf hence rejects the concepts of eternity on the basis that he can only understand temporality. He therefore makes his own reason the supreme principle of the universe, holding it illogical to believe that anything is above her. But things are above her, and things below her such as lust and anger cloud her and drag her down even to the level of the beasts. And by super-exalting personal reason in such a disproportionate way, the High Elves sow the seed of Liberalism. For if personal reason be the supreme principle, whereby if anything be above her, to acknowledge it as so is considered irrational, does not the suppression of personal freedom constitute the greatest evil, since it inhibits, in some way, the free exercise of a man’s reason? Hence wisdom must not merely consist in this searching of the intellect, but also submission of the will to received truths from above, and acknowledgement of our reason’s own frailty, seeing that there are truths which can be above her comprehension, and not rejecting those truths on the basis that they are so. Thinking itself requires certain assumptions which cannot be proved by reason alone.  In logic they are called axioms. To reject these axioms or dogmas is to embrace insanity. Hence the sceptic will sink through floor after floor of a bottomless universe; the spectre of this universal doubt will destroy things that we know are self-evidently good - one social institution after another. Do Thou spare us from this dark path!

XIII.Neither was it an objection to their rejection of true humility that caused it, but on the contrary, High Elven pride was itself the cause of my rebellion. For whilst charity is the flower of virtue, humility is the root of it. And hence without the root, the flower cannot flourish; and this is the thing that stops a truly pure charity from welling up inside the breasts of our race. Humility is also the cause of lasting happiness, not only because it is the root of so splendid a flower, but also because it is the scourge of envy, which causes us to resent the success and gifts of others. The High Elves cannot bring ourselves to admit that other races also have great blessings which we do not have to the same degree. For example, it would have been considered questionable [editor: c.f. Distinctions] to praise anything in the race of Men, Orcs or Dwarves. Men, for example, despite their much shorter life-span, are not far behind us in terms of technology or culture, and often it has surprised me that men have often taught me more practical wisdom than High Elves, despite a much shorter life. This is because they have an admirable ability to pass knowledge and wisdom on to the next generation, so that the collective knowledge of the race is as if they lived as long as we do. This passing on of knowledge is called tradition, from the Flexio tradere, meaning to hand down. The traditional nature of men is sometimes looked down upon by some of my race. This shows our capacity for pride and envy. We must be on top, and we would never acknowledge the truth of this matter. We are always looking upon rational creatures, creatures endowed with the supreme dignity of intellect and will, as tools to be exploited and studied for our own gain. [Editor: c.f. Doctrine, “The Lesser Question.] As far as I can tell, this makes us miserable, not the objects of our contempt. For this pride and envy enslaves us to them, by forcing us to constantly compare ourselves. But by this gift, O Lord, Thou dost endow men with a knowledge beyond their natural capacity. We see here how Thou hast blessed Man and Elf alike. The High Elf Thou hast given a superior intellect and length of life, and Man, Thou hast given power to overcome his natural limitations by this ability to hand down. If we acknowledged and rejoiced in the gifts of others rather than raving on about how superior we are, we would be much happier and more blessed. The irony is, by this feigned superiority we poison ourselves with jealousy and make ourselves miserable, becoming the moral inferiors of those whom we envy. Truly, pride is an admission of weakness because it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals.

XIV.This prideful attitude was not only present in our attitude to other races, but the day-to-day interactions of our people. I used to know a young female religious, a Novice, still in her adolescence. Despite her tender years, with the exception of Father Seraphim [Editor’s Note: A Priest of the FSSCT, now beatified] she is the only person whom I can say with certainty whom I have met and can call a living Saint. She had an excellent tendency to be able to take very complex theological questions and reduce them to simple analogies about nature, which is the sign of the greatest teacher. But she was best not because she was the teacher, but because Thou wert the teacher through her. She used to compare Thee to a gardener looking upon a garden of flowers which He had lovingly planted. Now, there are very many flowers there: in fact, each flower is unique and special. There are gorgeous roses of pink and red, little lilies of purest white, striking lotuses of loveliest blue, and, among them, a simple poppy who is not nearly as striking as the others, and is very small. Should she envy the glory of the rose, and should the rose tyrannise the simplicity of the poppy? Never. The rose must recognise that she has all that she has solely from the liberality of the sun, and the care of the gardener. Without these, she would wither away very quickly. All her beauty is therefore nothing but an unearned gift from these gracious friends.  On the other hand, the poppy should, first of all, recognise her own gifts. She should be mindful of this truth: that if every poppy wanted to become a rose, the garden would lose its splendour. The gorgeous beauty of the rose must go alongside the charming simplicity of the poppy. And so, with souls, some delight Thee by beauty, others, being endowed with fewer or less splendid gifts, charm Thee by simplicity. One of the vindications of this philosophy is the fact that often, childhood is the happiest time in the lives of many, when they were smallest and most simple.  This is one of the reasons we celebrate the Saints, acknowledging and rejoicing in their superior gifts. The same Novice used to pray to Saint Julia: “Julia, were thou me and I Queen of Angels, I would wish to be me, that I might see thee Queen of Angels!”  Let the rose therefore rejoice in the poppy and the in the rose; and Thou, Divine Gardener, take Thy delight in both. Amen.

XV.Lord, I ask Thee to send me a humiliation whenever I try to exalt myself above my fellow man.

Chapter VI - Pius Pursues Pleasure.

XVI.Whilst I began to reject the ideal of Purity, I knew not the true reason why it ought to be rejected. Not Purity in itself; nor even the jealous guarding of our own racial integrity. The former I rejected, but the latter I retained to some extent. The true error of High Elven Purity was its elevation beyond due proportions to the level of idolatry, so that a good thing, Purity, was the object of inordinate levels of veneration to become the very basis of the State and ideology. For whenever anyone exalts a societal or natural principle, such as race, or the state, or a particular form thereof, beyond its proper proportion and place, however necessary or honourable it may be, perverts that very thing he exalts, and thus is the cause of great chaos and moral injustice. This is a more subtle form of idolatry than the worship of Angels or Daemons, which the Mali’aheral rightly reject. But this subtler form, namely, rooting the superlative good in something temporal and fading, can be more dangerous, in that it is unconscious. The superlative good must not be rooted in any one principle except the superlative good itself, which is Thee, but by exalting not Thee but racial Purity as the highest good, the High Elves cause a great deal of injustice, severity and meanness within their own society and their interactions with other nations. 

XVII.This was the subject of a public article to which replied a truly despicable Mali, Irulan Elibar’acal. This man wrote a letter zealously persecuting an Elfess for marrying an alleged worshipper of Xan, an action that could have gotten her killed if she was found Impure. (Irulan Elibar’acal, Challenge.) When I wrote admonishing the High Elven error of rooting the Superlative Good in Purity, he replied: “Neither [Superlative Good nor Purity] exist. Both are fictions we tell one another to create networks of cooperation. These are the foundation of bands, tribes, kingdoms, and empires.” (Ibid, Man’s Discourse.) This means this man was literally willing to have a woman killed, burned in the cruel acids, not to satisfy justice, or benevolence, or any other good thing, but on the basis of what he himself calls a convenient lie in order to sustain High Elven society. This man feels qualified to lecture Mankind on her supposed infantilism. And this, O Lord, is what our race supports, supposedly the intellectual and moral superiors of the entire world, wallowing in the filth of pride and corruption and calling it Purity. I thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou gavest me parents who exalted Purity in this fashion as a genuine error and not a cynical excuse to persecute the weak. I thank Thee, O Lord, that I have always sought the truth, and, however sinful I became during my more hedonistic days, I, by Thy mercy, never lived in this despicable manner. Of course, it mattered not to him. It cannot be objectively evil to wrongly kill someone if our hatred of murder is just a “fiction” to sustain ideological co-operation. Nevertheless I raise my arms to Thee on his behalf every night and day. [Editor: For further reading on this controversy, read Bl. Pius’ reply to Uprooting Liberalism and Man’s Discourse in which he argues against Elibar’acal publicly.] 

XVIII.But the same man reacted with outrage at the atrocities of Oren against the Elven race, lamenting that Elven women were enslaved as “concubines, or worse…” (Man’s Discourse), decrying the woes inflicted on our race by Man. But if morality has no basis in reason or objectivity, and such concepts are just convenient fictions around which Empires are built, he had no reason to become so emotional: a hidden emotionalism hidden behind an outward wall of contempt for a lesser. Perhaps this contradiction - moral outrage combined with nihilism - should lead him, and all Elves, to one of two conclusions. Either 1)We are not the purely rational creatures which we pride themselves on being; morality is just emotional outrage and therefore a manifestation of the fact we are just as emotional and illogical as Men; or 2)Killing babies and enslaving women, the things Elibar’acal decried, truly are outrageous in themselves, because they possess a positive evil, being a violation of a Moral Law; a Transcendent Good.

XIX.At the time, I accepted the first of these. I was convinced that Purity was a fiction made up by hypocrites to sustain their own power structures. But unlike the author of Man’s Discourse, I would live a life that would be consistent with my nihilism. Seeking to uphold not only in myself these standards of Purity, but also to persecute others for failing in them would be an evil action, insofar as I did not believe in them. I could not condemn men to death for what, rather than a genuine evil, I believed to be a violation merely of an arbitrary list of rules. Hence I could not remain a respectable member of our society; Thou at least prevented me from that evil course. I was false to Thee, but at least Thou kept me true to myself. Now, straying further from Thee in another, albeit less malicious path, I resolved to live my life based on the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. This I would call “The Pleasure Principle,” and would I be rescued from this dark path?

"This is epic." Says Edmund von Manstein.

"I have to write some kind of big-brained mathematical sum or logical syllogism in order to court a lady? I'll stick to courtly love, thanks." Says an old-fashioned Heartlander. He adds: "There is some virtue in these Elves, however." 

Armiger Edmund is honoured that Fr. Ernst drew upon his thesis.

In the crisis, a group of Catholic men form a militia to defend their parish church...

Mary Immaculate of Lourdes Parish

Discord: TotusTuusEgoSum #3901

Starting Point Allocation: MP 4, Supplies 4; Weapons 2. (4-4-2 come on ingerland)

Starting Location: Mary Immaculate of Lourdes, 270 Elliot Street, Newton, MA

"Pius of Sutica did nothing wrong." A young Canonist man says. "Faithfulness to a moral code proceeds from love of God and neighbour, not a list of rules."