Why haven't I updated or posted? Because I have decided to dedicate myself to this fully. I am starting a 2 day fast to cleanse my body, I will exercise and decide how often to exercise.
I am even learning the way that Ministers learn. I have a Minister on call to answer questions I have. I want to know this word of God as exact as possible in order to Modernize this Order with the old ways in mind and be closer to God.
I will document my progress as I do this, this is a trial but in the end, I hope to have a truly Modern Templar Order
A Victorian take on the medieval Christmas Christmas. What’s not to like? The decorations, pudding, cake, fir tree decked with lights, Santa Claus and his little elves. Now imagine a Christmas without any of these things. Then you’re getting closer to Yuletide at the time of the Knights Templar! So – key points for celebrating Christmas medieval style: Advent is not about calendars popping open a…
The Templar of Old had a rule that in order to join, the prospect needed to be a knight himself, and both his father and grandfather must also have been knights. One could argue that this was due to keeping the Templar order filled with Noble houses or blood or something along these lines.
I think there is another reason.
If your father and grandfather were Knights, that would mean that you would have been raised with a certain set of ideals and values. Ideals of how a Knight was supposed to act and be. Being a Templar was far from easy, they needed exceptional and dedicated people. I believe that a knight that met those requirements would have the mindset to try and be exceptional at everything.
You're not good at something? Practice, you need to do something in your daily routine? Be the best at it.
So The Modern Templar Order would need to keep that same standard.
Are you a cashier? Everytime you're working you need to try and be the best cashier out there. Are you a programmer or in front of a computer? You should be constantly perfecting your craft and being an elitist typer.
Everything you do, you need to do to the best of your ability and always strive to be better. You need to be the kid in the group project who did all of the work, the one who says “this sucks but it needs to get done right.” Your name is attached to all of your work, and eventually, the Order will be attached to your work. Take pride in it, expect Exceptionalism in yourself.
It’s a short post, but it’s important to understand everyone who wants to be apart of this Order needs to be someone to look up to. Exceptional, dedicated, and determined.
Templar prayed very often, sometimes I think about how long they did and wonder how they could ever think of stuff to pray for. Below I have a general guideline to how much the Modern Templar should pray and what should always be included in such a prayer.
Once when you wake up, get on your knees next to your bed and pray.
Once before starting your work day, pray, be it in your car or on the bus.
Once before eating dinner, pray before taking the first bite.
Once before bed, get on your knees next to your bed and pray
Pray for strength, wisdom, and to become a better soldier for Christ. Pray for protection, for your family and fellow soldiers. Pray for forgiveness of your sins and the sins of others and pray to not be lead into temptation.
Pray for good things and things you hope to happen, pray for protections and patience and to represent God and your Order as best as possible. Pray that the Lord’s kingdom comes to earth as it is in Heaven.
Pray for the meal to fill your body and for it to make you stronger to fight for our Lord. Thank your Lord for his gift to you (The Meal) and pray for Godly men to always receive the gift of God’ bread, both spiritually and in the form of a meal.
Thank the Lord for your trails, which only give improvement and thank him for the rewards you’ve received. Thank the Lord for your safety and for the safety of your family and fellow Christians. Ask that your next day and future be better than you’ve ever imagined. Add any extra prayers you have yet to make.
There are specific prayers Templar did and they most likely prayed in Latin, I will introduce free courses where we can learn Latin and prayers that Templar made but for now, let’s just establish a foundation for everything.
This is a short post, mostly because I am researching exercises and Martial Arts The Modern Templar should learn.
When people go to church, they give their time and minds to the Lord for a short period of time and learn to be better people and what he wants. I’ve stated why I don’t believe that works as well as it should and we have many examples of dirty Popes and church leaders who weren’t as holy as they claimed.
I am suggesting that we use this way to give more to God, together, regardless of Faith.
In the current state, we give our bodies to God through fasting, and we give our minds to him through prayer. As I expand and modernize more rules, we will give much more of ourselves on a daily basis and feel more connected to him through this Order. You can live a Modern Templar lifestyle for God and give more of yourself to him than just going to dress nice and sit down for a few hours.
I will add workout routines, fighting techniques, weekly activities, cheaper accessories, and a ton of modernizations to rules. This will grow into something you can give yourself to and be more like the Templar of Old than any in the Current Orders around the world (It’s more like a Fraternity or Country Club now).
This is the real deal. Templar were guaranteed a spot in Heaven for how much they gave to God and his Children. They gave more of themselves than they were ever asked and never complained. They answered to the Pope, not the church, and because of that they were never corrupted as easily as church members were. They made their own rules, had their own priests and their own mass. I believe that with this, we can serve God much more than those who go to Church.
Stay with me in this process to rebuild the Order and help me in serving God, regardless of your Christian Faith, as long as you love Jesus and God above, you can stay a Protestant or Catholic or Mormon, or Jehovah’s Witness or whatever Christian Faith you believe in and you can join this Modern Templar Order to show your love for God in a new way. Plus, you will become a better, more knowledgeable and more physically fit person in the process.
Another issue is the acceptance of females, I understand why they weren’t allowed in the Middle Ages, and I will have a post regarding this issue, but females and marriage should be allowed and are fine. Next week I want to speak on Prayers and how to modernize the schedule that the Templar once had to adhere to.
Let me start with why this Order needs to exist and in a Part 2 I will explain what it will do to help us.
Knight’s Templar Cross (Jerusalem Cross)
Some of the more History Savvy people know that The Templar Order was never actually wiped out, it was disbanded but there were still many, MANY members left. For those of you who don’t know, France was the only country that actually persecuted the Templar; the other countries simply either gave them a new Order and let them keep their lands or had a hand in their mysterious disappearances.
The Military Order of Christ formerly known as The Order of The Knights of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Portugal’s Templar) and The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Spain’s Templar) are actually just a bunch of Templar who renamed their orders, and it is widely known that many Templar simply signed on with The Knights Hospitaller.
There is the case of the Freemasons, where there isn’t actual evidence of them being tied to Templar but it is widely believed that is where they originated (England, Ireland, and Scotland’s Templar)
Switzerland has stories of how the Country Originated with white Knights (Believed to be Templar) who rode down to help them against invaders and left the battlefield when all was said and done (Not to mention the banking system).
So why not just join these orders and be real Knights and all that?
Because that’s not the point.
Let me get personal for a moment, I am a Protestant Christian and when I was a young boy, I had a Pastor that I really looked up to; he constantly preached forgiveness and told us never to judge others because that’s not what Jesus was about (Judge not, lest ye be judged; He among you who is without Sin, cast the first stone).
And his wife did not have sex with him for years until finally he was unfaithful, cheated on her, and divorced her.
When you look at it from that angle, you can see why this happened, he cheated because she was basically mentally abusing him, but that still does not make an affair right. The point that I am trying to make is that there are always two sides to a story.
My Congregation didn’t learn much from him apparently because this man who was their leader was chastised and disowned by his flock and his family. They did something that I thought we didn’t do as Christians, they judged their own and they pushed him away like the black sheep even though he never did that to us.
It’s one of the reasons that I don’t believe in organized religion. I love God and Jesus and pray often, try to be a good person, and fail just like everyone else, but I don’t go to church. I read the bible, but I don’t think that other religions are evil or that other Christian Faiths won’t go to Heaven. I married a Jehovah’s Witness and realized there were so little differences between our Faiths, same with Catholics and same with Mormons (Well, there’s that one big book of difference) we just interpret the bible differently yet teach almost the same things.
I want to modernize the Templar Order because I do believe that “The way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ, not through the church.”
A church does help many, but I’ve found that it teaches too many to judge people and label people and say that they’re absolutely right and others are absolutely wrong, this just isn’t true.
Yes you’ve read the bible more than me, but until you speak to Jesus himself, you could be completely wrong about it. We can all agree on the basics, and if we focused on what makes us the same, we can stop dividing ourselves, we believe that Jesus is the son of God and he gave his life for our Sins and that we must pray to him and be good people. That is basic. And that’s what I like to focus on when interacting with others from different Christian Faiths.
In the next part I will state my point on how this could actually be an alternative to going to church.
Rule 74. Let it be known to all present and future brothers of the Temple that they should fast at the vigils of the twelve apostles. That is to say: St Peter and St Paul; St Andrew; St James and St Philip; St Thomas; St Bartholomew; Sts. Simon and Jude St James; St Matthew. The vigil of St John the Baptist; the vigil of the Ascension and the two days before, the rogation days; the vigil of Pentecost; the ember days; the vigil of St Laurence; the vigil of Our Lady in mid-August; the vigil of All Saints; the vigil of Epiphany. And they should fast on all the above-mentioned days according to the commandments of Pope Innocent at the council which took place in the city of Pisa. And if any of the above-mentioned feast days fall on a Monday, they should fast on the preceding Saturday. If the nativity of Our Lord falls on a Friday, the brothers should eat meat in honour of the festival. But they should fast on the feast day of St Mark because of the Litany: for it is established by Rome for the mortality of men. However, if it falls during the octave of Easter, they should not fast.
Templar celebrated many holidays in terms of extra praying and feasts. Many centuries have passed and Holidays have been added and removed based on where you live. In keeping with the goodness of the order I will explain how we should now celebrate it in order to modernize the Order.
Christmas, Easter, All Saints Day, Good Friday, Pentecost, Ash Wednesday, First day of Advent, your marriage Anniversary
Why an Anniversary? Because you gave your heart to another person in the name of God’s Love and that should be celebrated yearly, even Jehovah’s Witnesses who celebrate very little celebrate this day. It is important to God that you do cherish your significant other and do so in His (The Lord’s) name.
This list will be added to and updated to show more days that we celebrate. I live in the United States and there are some holidays more widely celebrated here than in other parts of the world, (Thanksgiving, Family Day, etc.) If you feel that a Holiday is specific to your area and promotes love for Our Lord and for your family then feel free to celebrate it the Modern Templar way.
Some people would call these cheat days, but we don’t do the diet for physical fitness; we do it to give our bodies to the Lord. On these days you may eat as many carbs as you please and feast well, but only for one meal. I also believe that because you will eat to your fill in one meal, then you will not need to eat anything else for the rest of the day. That is not to say to eat a day’s worth of food all at once, instead eat one meal to your fill and satisfaction and eat nothing else in a form of fasting.
I have started doing this and I’ve gone by just fine; my body does not leave Ketosis because I had only cheated the one meal and I feel like I’m still sacrificing something because I am hungry the rest of the day.
Also, this day should be filled with much more prayer, I have not touched on how often you must pray daily, I will soon but for now, I’ll give a baseline on how often you should pray during a holiday:
Once when you wake up (a general prayer of thanks and to ask for strength for yourself and your family)
Once before you feast (to give thanks for the feast and for the people who have come to feast with you)
Once after the feast (to give thanks for the day in general and for it to be a great rest of the day)
Once before any work you will do (for strength, wisdom, and to be a better soldier for Christ)
Once after your work day (To thank him for the trials which make you stronger and for the wisdom that you used throughout your day)
Once before bed (a general prayer of thanks and to ask for a more heavenly and productive day tomorrow)
We are modernizing an order of very pious and faithful men, more so than most monks; so yes, a lot of praying is involved in our lives.
I will do a post on prayers much later, the reason I am posting this early is so that I can use Friday to explain why I am modernizing the order and how it will help those of all Christian Faiths, be they Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Protestants, Judeo-Christians, and any others than love Jesus (or God) and the sacrifice he made for us all.
I am not excluding any Faith of Christianity, I’m simply offering a different approach and you can still keep true to your own version.
Rule 28: “On Friday Meals: On Fridays, let Lenten meat be given communally to the whole congregation, out of reverence for the passion of Jesus Christ; and you will fast from All Saints until Easter, except for Christmas Day, the Assumption and the feast of the twelve apostles. But weak and sick brothers shall not be kept to this. From Easter to All Saints they may eat twice, as long as there is no general fast.”
The Templar of Old rarely feasted and often were fasting, I agree that this should stay the same. Templar would fast every Friday from All Saints Day to Easter. Because we're letting ourselves have meat extremely often, I think we need to make up for the goodness we are getting; we should fast every single Friday of the year (excluding the Holidays I will mention, just fast the next day).
Hungry and very dedicated men.
Fasting one day a week is extremely good for your body; look up the benefits if you don't believe me. I'm on my second week of fasting and it still isn't easy. It's extremely difficult but it's made easier with our low-carb diet.
On a fasting day, we will only drink water and 1 protein shake (we need to keep our strength up) but not a milk fruity whatever protein shake, I mean a low-carb, high protein powder with water. Period. It should be only 10-12 ounces (mostly water).
So now we're doing the low-carb diet and have added the fasting every week to modernize the Order, what's next? Feasts. I will discuss feasts (when and what holidays) more next week but let the feast day that's coming up (Christmas) have a meal where you cheat. Not the whole day, just one cheat meal. And the closest Friday (or the next day if Christmas lands on a Friday) fast.
I know, I know, what is this, a diet blog? Don't worry, I'm working on the other stuff, from salutes to accessories, but it all takes time. I've dedicated much of my day, every day, to studying the Old Order. I will add workouts and study guides as well as updated rules but this will be in a month or so, I hope to really make a Modern Day Order that is realistic and can work in this day and age.
I've seen a lot of sites with people just talking and communicating and selling things. I want the real thing. So come back next Friday for more!
The hardest part of being a Templar (In my opinion) would be the diet, high in vegetables, low in meat. To quote Rule 26 of the Rule of the Templars
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Rule 26: “On the Eating of Meat: It should be sufficient for you to eat meat three times a week, except at Christmas, All Saints, the Assumption and the feast of the twelve apostles. For it is understood that the custom of eating flesh corrupts the body. But if a fast when meat must be forgone falls on a Tuesday, the next day let it be given to the brothers in plenty. And on Sundays all the brothers of the Temple, the chaplains and the clerks shall be given two meat meals in honour of the holy resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the rest of the household, that is to say the squires and sergeants, shall be content with one meal and shall be thankful to God for it.”2
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Templar had an extraordinary amount of rules governing their lives and while that worked for them way back when, it would not work today.
Why wouldn’t it work and why did the Templar diet seem so strange? Aren’t they supposed to be very strong, athletic, and fit warriors? Wouldn’t they know better?
They did.
The benefit of a high vegetable, bread, and fruit diet was that this was extremely high in carbs and sugar; back then, that was great. Due to the daily exercise and hardships of just living in the Medieval ages, they’d burn that off in no time and Templar themselves had a whole lot more to do so they’d grow much bigger than any peasant.
Unfortunately, today, you don’t get that much exercise from your morning activities; if anything, you need to go out of your way to work out to keep in shape. Meat has a very low amount of carbs (In some cases, none.) but had high protein, so Templar got enough protein to keep themselves strong enough to handle the daily tasks, the muscle came from the hard work involved with being a Knight.
So, a diet that works for anyone and improves overall health will need to be used. Over the course of my short life, I have delved into many diets for half a year each and multiple times, I’ve been a Vegan, Vegetarian, Ova-Lacta Vegetarian, Keto, Couch Potato to dad diet. I have seen the benefits and cons of all of them. I have low blood pressure, a low resting heart rate, and slow metabolism yet I’ve been able to keep abs and had my fair share of time as a fatty.
Body Shape is mostly diet, don’t let anyone fool you, if you diet you won’t even have to exercise to stay in a good shape (I’ve done it before) but if you want to be muscular or have abs, it also takes exercise. So I know of a diet that I use to lose weight quickly and it helps lower cholesterol, defend against diabetes, lowers blood pressure, and will help a lot with the other diet requirements of Templar. It’s a Ketosis Diet, there are many articles online about it if you want to know how to do it, let me get to the point.
https://www.ruled.me/guide-keto-diet/
Is it mostly meat? Yes, and that’s one liberty that we will need to take because High Carb diets work with very few people and people with low metabalism (me) won’t look good at all, even with portion control and we want to modernise the diet itself. In this day and age, Keto works for the most people, takes a lot of discipline, and low-carb works well with all of the fasting that Templar must do. So I’ve chosen this diet for The Modern Templar. It’s Low Carb, High Fat, and changes your body and its cravings to make things a little easier.
I recommend consulting with your doctor before any change in diet and ALWAYS do a cleanse before starting this diet, it just helps a lot.
Because Templar must be strong, you must buy low carb protein powder and fiber pills to take every so often.
I have always had an interest in History and the Medieval ages. I thought I knew a lot about the Templar but it had turned out there was so much more to them than I could have imagined and we share the same ideals.
All over the internet you can find many websites featured “Current day Templar” who do nothing the Templar use to do and try in no way to keep their traditions. Which is why I started this blog as a precursor to a community I hope to found.
I want to be more like them, but things have changed in the centuries since the Templar fell, so I will work on making things much more modern by doing things the way they did it and making it realistic to today’s standards. I will post what I learn and what I do to make it work to today’s standards.
I am currently working on the new Modern Templar diet. Templar took vows of poverty, and in those days the Order would pay for the bland and unappealing meals they had, they ate meat only 3 times a week, ate mostly vegetables and bread if there were no vegetables and were very restricted on how much and when to eat. There is also the occurrence of the fasting days and times. I am currently putting my own body to a modern day equivalent that would keep current Templar strong and physically fit.
Friday the 13th, 1307 one of the greatest Orders fell from grace and was defamed by a corrupt king and a weak pope. We could all still learn something from this order
