The Pen, the Cross and the Abbey

I just discovered you about two weeks ago and the( demon) algorithms have helped me find more of your talks and interviews. It is refreshing to hear of your being hunted by God and your yielding to Love's pursuance. I was hounded by that same Love 51 years ago and He has never let go of me. I have seen the church go through a myriad of changes. I got "saved" in the Jesus movement of the 70's and here we are in the time of the church with many migrations. Living in the northwest corner of the US for the first 30 years of of my apprenticeship to Jesus, melded my love for God and love of creation. Thank you for sharing your journey with honesty and clarity. Voices such as yours are an encouragement to a seasoned traveler as well as those searching, but unaware of Who they are seeking. 🥀

Paul! When I met you and your lovely family in Madison this fall, I reminded you that you are a Zechariah 1 artist. These craftsmen were called into the world by God to terrorize the global powers (the 4 horns) that were discouraging the people of earth with such force that they were "not able to lift their heads." Your writing enables us to lift our heads. Your writing destroys the power of the enemy. I bless you again with this gift given to you by Jesus, "the author and finisher of our faith." / And, we celebrate your season of "compost" and rest. Winter seasons are honored by your supporters, as we know well that living in a perpetual "summer" season of production is simply the West's idea of a good time :) that only yields a bad harvest! Do what you need to do. We got you. - Natalie

Love to see St. Joseph the Hesychast in the background

Paul - I really enjoy the video format. So grateful you chose to do this and hope there are more to come! Also, very excited for these thoughts on what you may offer in the coming months… your bravery, courage and words are very much needed in navigating the narrow way.

How lovely it is to have you speaking to me from across the miles…as if you heard my thoughts and appeared. Ah, friend, unmet and yet so true.

God bless you. Video format is also good, I’m dyslexic so videos or audio books great way to listen to content.

Take your time, work your way through it on the page. The rest of us will happily come along on the journey!

It was so beautiful to just sit and listen to you talk from the heart. Please don't hesitate to be a so called Christian writer. You and the likes of Johnathan Pageau, John Vervaeke, Martin Shaw, Mark Vernon etc etc are our deepest hope in a very dark world.

Delightful! And way to represent West Virginia, Jaroslav Flidr!

Paul, thank you for your resting in writing and understanding your journey is taking a turn. We all have loved your writing, your books up until now, and your posts since your Orthodox trajectory. Yes, it changes everything, and thanks for pointing out - hadn't put my finger on it before - it changes our livelihoods... Many of us resonate with your writings and will continue to support you in this. Thanks for persevering, literally and figuratively being in your own version of the seven-year wilderness period.

Hi Paul, Far be it for me to tell you what I think you should do. But, I can say what I would love to see from you. Right now, in the West, Orthodoxy is in it's infancy. There are a lot of Orthodox writers, but hardly any who write fiction, and even less who write speculative fiction. In the past, authors have written cautionary tales mainly through speculative fiction and I, for one, believe that the stories about the perils of the present and future are best relayed via science fiction and fantasy. Storytelling is a powerful way to get a point across that isn't a lecture. A wonderful character whom we can identify with and model our own stories after is powerful indeed (Frodo Baggins, Ransom etc.). Since you are previously a novelist, I think you could write some powerful epic novels!

@19:47 A Bible verse that I keep thinking about, dreaming about lately: Luke 2:1: "Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from C�sar Augustus, that all the world should be enrolled." As to what is "closing in about us," I keep thinking of the parallel between this verse when Christ incarnated 2000 years ago, to initiate our salvation, and this latest/current enrollment/registration by the Machine of "all the world," the tightening of the net/noose. Maybe the portends of the Second Coming are upon us. But like you said, I fear we will have to live through what is slouching towards Bethlehem to be born before we finally see that every knee shall bow. I love this talking format--you are very good at it. Maybe a way forward is to write AND talk to us about what you write. Also, I think most people love hearing the lives of the saints. I found this video very peaceful and calming. Thank you for all you do. I kept thinking of that hot toddy wrought iron peace as a shepherd's staff!!

Paul---Yaroslav's gift is a crozier for the Abbot of the Abbey of Misrule! Greetings and bleassings from California.

God Bless Paul. Found you on my journey to Orthodoxy, for many of the reasons you raised in this video. Let the Holy Spirit guide and uplift you on your journey to help us be a witness in these harrowing times.

Thank you, Paul for the surprise visit! Praying you and family are healed and fully restored! God bless every endeavor! 🙏❤️☦️

Thanks for the video Paul, it is good to hear you speak, it is good to see the amazing wrought iron poker with which to make "Hot Toddies" with. I appreciate your pondering of where we are going as a society. I come at things primarily through a technical, flow chart, cause/effect linear point of view but contrasting it with my Christian upbringing and for the last 30 years, a (for lack of a better word) pantheistic view of the world. I am part native North American, and just before my 40th birthday had what can only be called a pentecostal experience where the spirit, the flame of God touched me in a traditional sweat lodge ceremony. Remember, I am a linear technologist, not given to spiritual experiences every day....(I will get to the point of this) My life drastically changed, I became obsessed with Native Spirituality as it is called here, and entrained a teacher and have spent a substantial part of the last 30 years learning, exploring and a little teaching these ways. Against this background, I "tripped" over your 50 Holy Wells series. It made perfect sense to me. I recognized these as very likely a carry-over of the "pre-Christian" folk that lived there before Christianity came along. Us Christians don't have a very good record of practicing the "live and let live" mantra at all, and I suspect these Holy Wells all got Christian names but they did not start out that way, and the spirits that inhabited them were not Christian, necessarily. Spirits are not a "religion" to me, they just are. I feel like I walk in two worlds. Over the years of doing native ceremonies, dances, fasting etc each place I was at was unique and special. If one calmed the mind, relaxed, smudged, prayed, maybe camped out there for a few days you began to feel, to sense what it was that LIVED in that place, inhabited it. I look at the wells in this way. Part of me would like to go and spend time there to test my theory. An example and then I will end. One place I was fasting at took me, gradually, over a couple of days to a place where I saw and felt all the pain and sorrow, regrets and mistakes of my three deceased sisters who had appalling lives and died "before their time" in my mind. I sobbed and cried out in anguish for an entire day at the weight of it all. My teacher (my words, not his) brought me down from the hill sobbing, and we had a sweat and dip in the spring to clean me off. I gained a new respect for my sisters' lives and the lives of so many that do not have it "easy". It was a place. That was the gift that place gave to me, at that time. I had dreams during that fast too. I learned, after the fact, that others report similar experiences and the locals stay away from that place. So I have to wonder, what is the "gift" of each of the wells? Who are these spirits that inhabited the wells? Are the old stories still hidden away about some of them? Did the patron saint chosen have attributes that matched the spirit, the gift of the well? All I have are questions, and I read each story about each well with interest and anticipation. I muttered to my wife that I would like to go and see some of these wells. I have been sending links to your sites to my family and friends in the off chance one or two may find them interesting too. So keep up the good work. Keep asking, questioning. Thank. you.

You are a beautiful man Paul. Thank you. 💚 I hope you feel better soon.

I have been following your work for a little while now. I do not have your talent for words but your talk today speaks to my gradual journey of transformation and importantly, what is in my heart. I shed a tear listening to this. We must have trust and courage. Thank you for your work.

In a similar period of disillusionment or psychological "drought", when we find ourselves emerging from the chrysalis after a long, gut revolving, all transforming metamorphosis, I was gifted with a sentence (a quote from a famous writer colleague of yours, I think). That sentence goes like this: "Ask not what the world wants from you. Go find out what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world really needs are people who come alive." Perhaps you know this quote already, you probably do, and I don't know if this is useful at all but my heart took a leap of empathy and thought that "perhaps, even if he knows it, he needs to be reminded nonetheless". And Paul, the heavens will keep on sustaining you and your family. Thanks for sustaining me with your intelligente and radical authenticity.

Thank you Paul, what a thought provoking message. So many ideas presented so succinctly. And visually - symbolically - so well balanced, with Jaroslav's crozier-reminiscent iron on one shoulder and the Cros Bríde reflected over the other. I look forward to following your writings, wherever they go.