#Daniel Matrimony Christian matrimony

[saiparbha]

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[starlost-andfound]

slow dancing in the dark (amoureux au) / d.j.s

Following Chapter 17 of Amoureux...

Summary: in which daniel’s heart belongs to louisa forever, but her heart has fallen into the arms of another

a/n: this was so similar to chapter 18 and 19 of Amoureux i almost didn’t write it rip

Warnings: Angst, absolute lack of knowledge on how galas & weddings worked in the 1820s (bear with me)

Word Count : Approximately 3.46K (oops...)

Extra: Surprise @chilling-seavey​! + Thank you to @stuffofseaveyy​ for hyping me up this morning and @jonahlovescoffee​ for the help on the dialogue, I love you!

“I am marrying your brother in a week. We need to stop this now, okay?”

“No. No, you don’t mean that.” Daniel chuckled in disbelief. Louisa’s firm response before walking away hit Daniel hard.  She couldn’t really mean that? Could she? He stayed away from the wedding preparations in the main hall of the church, and lingered in the background, deep in his thoughts.

That night when they returned, he waited until Christian retreated to his room before peeking his head out of his room. Once he saw the hallway was clear, he hurried over to Louisa’s room, quietly knocking on her door.

Daniel listened quietly as he heard a shuffle on the other side before the door opened by a crack. Louise looked out, her curious expression instantly turning to a frown.

“What are you doing, Daniel?”

“I came here to talk to you.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” Louisa pushed the door but Daniel held back, holding his hand against it.

“Please, Louisa,” he looked into her eyes, a desperation in his words.

Louisa stepped back, silently, holding the door open for him. She checked the hallways before shutting the door and turning to Daniel with a sharp look on her face, “Well, go on.”

Daniel felt taken back at her sudden brash tone. He gulped, before straightening his shoulders, “You can’t be serious about marrying Christian, Louisa.”

“What do you mean?”, she whispered harshly, “I have to do what’s right for the country and the integrity of our families, Daniel.”

Daniel huffed, “What about for you? Is this right for you? Do you even love him, Lou?”

Louisa crossed her arms over her chest, “It’s Louisa and yes, I do.”

Daniel’s heart dropped, “You do?”

He stepped closer to her, “What about us? What about me? Do you not love me?”

“Merde. Daniel, don’t do this right now.”

“The kisses in the stairwell, the late nights we spent loving each other, everything. What was that for?”

Louisa sighed, looking out at the balcony in her room where the moonlight slipped through the open doors. She turned to Daniel, “We were being young, and naive, and reckless. I’m going to get married, it had to end.”

“Yes, we were young and we were naive and it was reckless but, tell me I’m wrong- we were in love, Lou.”

Louisa looked at Daniel in his eyes and with a strong tone she whispered, “You are right. We were in love. Were. And for the last time, it’s Louisa.”

Daniel shuddered, stepping back.

“You need to leave,” she gestured towards the door.

“You’re lying.”

“I am not.”

“Yes, you are,” Daniel glared. “You are so utterly blinded by my brother’s love. Does he show you love like I do?”

“Daniel, stop it, right now.”

Daniel stepped closer to her, ignoring her words as he continued, “Does he make you smile like I do? Does he hold you like I -”

“La ferme!”, Louisa’s loud response stunned Daniel to silence. She never raised her voice at him.

Louisa jabbed her finger into Daniel’s chest, her lips trembling in anger as she spoke, “You have no right to walk in here and tell me who I am to love. What we had is long gone and over. I love Christian and I will marry him. Now, leave.”

Daniel gulped reaching for her, “Lou-”

“Leave.”

_ _ _

Daniel felt sick to his core as he watched Louisa walk down the aisle to Christian. Everyone settled down as the ceremony started, sharing smiles across the hall. Daniel sat silently, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.

“Christian John, wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, to live together according to God’s law in the holiest state of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, protect her, and keep her in sickness and in health and keep only unto her so long as ye both shall live?”

Daniel could feel the burn in his chest as he watched his brother smile at her and reply without any hesitation, “I will.”

The bishop turned to Louisa and Daniel couldn’t take it anymore. He got up from his seat and walked past to the gate. A firm hand held him back and he turned to meet his mother, “Where do you think you are going, Daniel?”

Daniel stifled a cry, “I am not feeling well, mother. I think I may be down with a cold.”

He was thankful for the heart broken tears in his eyes which looked to his mother, to be a sign of illness. His mother dismissed him, asking a guard to escort him back to the castle before turning back to the ceremony just as the bishop asked Louisa the marriage sealing question.

Daniel walked out of the church, clenching his fists as Louisa’s words echoed through the hall before the door shut behind him.

“I will.”

_ _ _

If the wedding wasn’t too much to bear, the extravagant gala celebrating the newly wed royals, left Daniel devastated. It had been a week since the wedding and his acting skills weren’t enough to maintain the role of a sick prince. He laid in bed as the doctor did a check up, dreading the day ahead as the royal servants prepared the grand hall for that night.

“Is it absolutely necessary for me to attend? I still feel a little under the weather,” he muttered, watching as the doctor packed his tools in his briefcase.

“Your temperature is perfectly healthy and you show no symptoms of any illness. I am afraid you need to attend,” the doctor picked up his case and bowed down, “Your royal highness.”

Daniel dismissed the doctor and watched with sorrowful eyes as he left the room. There was no way out of this. He was somewhat thankful because of the wedding and preparations for the gala, all his classes were cancelled until further notice. The young prince stayed in his room, refusing to do anything else. His act of catching a cold allowed him to have his meals in his room for the past week but with the gala approaching and no reason not to attend, he couldn’t avoid it.

It seemed like time passed all too quickly and soon the clock above his chest of drawers struck 6. As the hour hand touched the tips of the number twelve, Daniel’s personal royal servants stepped into the room with his suit in their hands. They urged him to get dressed, fixing his hair and polishing his shoes as he stared blankly ahead.

“Your royal highness,” the servants bowed and exited the room once Daniel dismissed them and he was left alone again. His sighed as his eyes drifted around the room, trying to find anything that could peak his interest and distract him. He found himself staring at this bedside table’s drawer which held in secret, the letters and whispers of his old lover.

Though his mind resisted, his heart was pulled towards it. His feet carried him across the room and to the table where he picked up the first of many envelopes in the pile.

À mon amoureux secret

Daniel traced her handwriting on the envelope, his hands trembling as he opened the folded paper. He read the letter over and over again, his eyes memorising every detail in every curve of the pen which spelled the words which once held so much love and passion. With every line he read, Daniel’s vision blurred, pulling and distorting the words. He wiped his eyes, and shoved the letter back into the drawer, slamming it shut.

A knock on the door pulled him to compose himself as he steadied his breathing, furiously blinking away the tears.

“Yes, you may come in,” he called out.

A recognizable face of one of the royal guards, Daniel knew as Jack, opened the door and stepped into the room.

“Sir, it is time,” he straightened his posture, “We must escort you to the grand hall.”

Daniel nodded, following Jack out.

“Have all the guests arrived?”, Daniel inquired as they approached the doors, the sound of chatter and classical music growing louder.

Jack nodded briefly, “Most of the guests have, Sir.”

Daniel gulped, “Is Louisa here yet?”

Jack shook his head, “The prince and princess will arrive in half an hour.”

The guards at the door bowed their heads before opening the two large wooden doors, allowing Daniel to enter. He kept a low profile, not that it required much work. Everyone was far too excited to meet the newly wed royal couple. To the pleased eyes of his mother, Daniel maintained a polite character, greeting the guests.

A tap on his shoulder, pulled Daniel away from his seat as he turned to his mother.

“Daniel, I would like you to meet someone.”

Daniel followed his mother to a group of three people. Daniel scanned the three, noting their resemblance, their clothing and their features. They looked to be from another royal family, a king, a queen and another princess. Daniel’s mother introduced him to the family, placing extra emphasis on the princess.

“Princess Cecile of Denmark,” the mother introduced the young princess who looked to be the same age as Daniel.

The princess curtsied, a soft smile on her face, “Your royal highness.”

Daniel bowed down, greeting her, with a subtle glare hidden in his almost neutral expression as he observed her. She was beautiful, he wouldn’t deny that, but she wasn’t her. Her hair was a darker brown and her eyes, although they were the same colour, didn’t glow the same.

To his dismay, his mother left him to interact and talk to the princess. Daniel smiled politely as they conversed. Her shy smiles and the slight blush on her cheeks every time he spoke, did not go unnoticed by Daniel. He inhaled deeply, his breath shaking in all his frustration.

“What do you enjoy doing in your free time?”, Cecile asked.

Daniel’s lips tugged up in a close lipped smile, “I like composing music.”

Cecile looked down at the curt response, “That sounds lovely,” she grinned.

An awkward silence fell over the two. Daniel turned his head, his eyes checking the time on the clock.

5 minutes until she arrived.

“Excuse me,” Daniel abruptly excused himself, barely waiting for the princess’ response before he pushed through the crowd. He had no sense of direction, he just wanted an escape from it all. He spotted the table of food that laid ahead, and changed his direction towards it. On the way, Daniel bumped into one of the countless servants he didn’t recognize. The servant carried a tray, holding an arrangement of glasses filled with champagne.

“Champagne, sir?”

Daniel hesitated a moment, the ache in his chest clouding his thoughts as he reached for a glass. He held the glass delicately in his hands, carrying it to a corner in the hall near the table, free of large crowds. He looked across the hall, everyone seemingly occupied in a conversation. His gaze dropped to the glass of champagne and he lifted it to his nose, taking a sniff.

Daniel pulled back from the glass slightly, his face breaking into a grimace before he took a sip, testing the taste on his tongue. The unfamiliar liquid frizzled and invaded his mouth with a bitter taste. He took a larger gulp of the drink, feeling the warmth which burnt his throat and the slight wave that washed over him.

With a sudden tilt of the glass, he downed the glass, wincing at the taste. Daniel looked around the room, placing the glass on the table of food. His eyes drifted to another servant carrying glasses of champagne and he approached them, grabbing another. He lifted it up to his lips, taking a large sip.

The sudden sound of the trumpets in the hall and the silence that fell across the crowd pulled Daniel away from his drink as he looked up at the entrance of the room. He watched with a look of distaste on his face as an announcement was made and his brother walked into the hall with Louisa, their arms linked. The members of the crowd, bowed and curtsied respectfully. With the largely crowded room, no one noticed how Daniel remained standing, his eyes set on the royal couple.

As the couple descended the stairs and greeted the guests, Daniel chugged down his drink, the harsh liquid staining his mouth with the lingering smell of the alcohol. Daniel remained in his corner of the hall by the table, observing the movements of the crowd, yet his eyes always seemed to betray him, falling onto her. His head fell back and he rested it against the wall as he admired her from afar.

Daniel thought she was the most beautiful in the room, more beautiful than the moon, even. Her gown complimented her perfectly. He noticed the extra curl in her strawberry blonde hair and the rouge on her lips. He sighed shakily as his eyes traced her figure, falling to the ring on her finger.

He was suddenly pulled out of his haze when the crowd seemed to part, leaving a circle around the dance floor. Daniel frowned, rubbing his eyes as a soft classical tune played on the speakers. He pushed through the circle of people, standing at the front just as Louisa and Christian stepped to the middle of the dance floor, hand in hand. The first dance.

The instrumental music escalated as they danced in each other’s arms. Daniel clenched his jaw, watching as Christian held Louisa and they waltzed. At one moment, Christian spun her around in a circle. Louisa’s eyes connected with Daniel’s before she quickly looked away, turning to Christian with a smile.

The dance finally drew to a close as pairs in the crowd joined the royal couple, waltzing together. A firm hand fell onto Daniel’s shoulder as he heard the familiar voice of his mother, “Why don’t you go dance with Cecile?”. Knowing well enough not to go against the words of his mother, Daniel trudged over to the princess who blushed at his offer.

The two young acquaintances joined the dance at the centre of the hall. Daniel sent a polite smile to Cecile as they danced, spinning around the room. However, his eyes would only, always drift to the one person who danced just a few feet away, yet remained tied closely to his heart.

Soon, in a synchronized motion, partners were swapped and Daniel found himself dancing with another woman. His new partner, a duchess, as Daniel discovered was slightly older than him. She mentioned just how adorable he was and blabbered about the grandeur of her castle, droning endlessly. Daniel released a sigh of relief as the partners swapped again but his breath caught in his throat as he felt the familiar grasp of her hand.

His eyes focused on the soft strawberry blonde curl that rested on her shoulder and he gulped.

“Oh, it’s you.” Louisa looked up.

“Louisa,” Daniel breathed her name, looking her in the eyes.

They waltzed to the music, eyes entranced by each other. One pair of eyes held a deep yearning and the other seemed indifferent, unfocused. Daniel gulped, unsure of what to say. He looked across from him, at his brother. He was too far to hear anything. Daniel looked back at Louisa, a sudden desperation in his lungs, itching his throat and urging him to speak.

“Louisa, I’m sorry about that night.”

Louisa smiled at him but it didn’t hold the love it once did. It was a mere polite smile, one which mimicked Daniel’s expressions towards Cecile. “It’s alright,” she whispered.

“I mean every word I said though,” Daniel suddenly blurted out, the foreign taste of the alcohol he drank, luring him away from his conscious words.  “I love you Louisa.”

"Daniel we’ve spoken about this,” Louisa replied sternly. “I don’t feel that way for you anymore.”

Daniel sighed shakily, “But I do, Louisa. I do love you and I know you love me inside, I don’t what has come over you. I love you more than anything in the world and I- it breaks me to see you with him, to see you look at him the way you used to look at me like he is your whole world.”

“Daniel-”

“We promised each other the world, Louisa. There is no way you can throw that away for someone else.”

“Daniel,” Louisa gripped Daniel’s shoulder a little tighter, urging him to quieten down, “You are out of your mind.”

She paused, suddenly taking in the odd scent he carried over his cologne. “Have you been...drinking?”

Daniel shook his head hurriedly, shamefully, “Just a glass- no two. Just two, I swear upon my heart Louisa, please. You look at him like he’s your world,” he continued.  “I don’t know where you’ve gone.”

“Da-”

“I want you - no, I need you back,” Daniel whispered hurriedly. “We could flee, leave the country and abandon our titles to start a new life, start a new family...”

“Daniel, stop-”

“We could get our happily ever after,” Daniel pleaded, his eyes frantically searching for any flicker of change in Louisa.

“Daniel, listen to me,” Louisa whispered, “There’s no happy ever after for us, not when I don’t feel the same. What we used to be is part of the past.”

Daniel held back the hurt in his expression as he spun Louisa around once, before catching her in his arms again, in harmony with the others on the floor.

“I love Christian,” Louisa pressed, pressing another weight onto his chest.

“Daniel, I’m married to him now,” she reminded him. “Just let it go.”

Daniel whimpered, “Louisa, I can’t. Wait, no please-”, he tugged her hand back, desperately as she began to move away.

Louisa looked back at Daniel, her expression only filled with an emotion Daniel despised - pity.

“I’m sorry,” her hand slipped through Daniel’s as she joined hands with the next person beside her. Christian.

Daniel stepped back, watching as her eyes lit up when she was in his arms. Christian said something to her and she laughed. Daniel’s face fell even more as he watched her smile. He used to be the one who could make her happy like that.

He shook his head from side to side, his lips trembling as he backed away from the crowd. Daniel turned around, bumping straight into another person. They gasped, looking up. Cecile, Daniel recognized. He wished for anything else but running into someone he knew, hoping that the ground would just swallow him up.

“Daniel,” Cecile spoke, concerned. “Are you alright?”

Daniel gulped, “I-”

The sudden tear that fell from his eyes, rushed him to push past Cecile, as he headed straight for the doors of the hall. Daniel clenched his fist, his fingers pressing into his palms as he opened the doors and walked into the hall. He breathed deeply, holding back his tears and ignoring the calls of the guards.

He navigated the empty halls of the castle, wiping another tear away as he recalled her words.

“There’s no happy ever after for us.”

He walked aimlessly, trying to find a familiar room. His room, the music room, any room far enough to feel far enough. Daniel unbuttoned the top of his collar, the material growing uncomfortable and far too restraining.

The way she looked at him.

He took a sharp turn to the right, nearing an unfamiliar corridor. The windows on the side let in the bright moonlight, casting a glow over the dusted ornaments and paintings on the wall. Daniel walked across the hallway, in search for some familiar passage he could recognize. When he found none, realising he was lost, he cried out. Daniel slammed his fist against the wall.

“I’m sorry.”

The tearing pain in his chest and the frustration of being lost broke the last straw. A strangled cry left his lips and Daniel fell to the ground on his knees. He gripped his hair, sobs wracked his body. The sound of his cries in the deserted hallway was chilling, almost mocking as the young prince fell apart under the burden of his pain.

The feel of her hands in his, her smile, her laugh, her everything. The touches in the late hours of the night, all the promises sealed. He carved her name into his heart for eternity. Yet, she engraved someone else’s name into hers, tied by vows and a silver band. A feeling which only they knew and held once, fell to ruins. A tragic end tied by the secrecy of what was once love.

[pamphletstoinspire]

Our Lady Goes to War

Some people “read” themselves into the Catholic Church, having been convinced by Patristic writings or by dogmatic and doctrinal arguments. Others, looking about at the chaos within their own denominations, cross the Tiber due to the issue of authority. There are even stories of souls converting because of sacred architecture or liturgy, not to mention matrimony.

But then there are ones “born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:8), who have rejected Christianity altogether and undergo, like Saul, a Road to Damascus moment. Why this should occur to those at war with Christ and not others is a mystery. While I never discuss my own conversion (and won’t do so here), it falls in the latter camp. I owe my faith (and subsequent education) entirely to Our Lady of Fatima.

My family is blessed to currently have the Pilgrim Virgin of Fatima staying in our home during this special anniversary of my conversion. And all this has provided me some time to reflect on the events at Fatima, especially the much-needed catechesis given by Our Lady.

For She comes to the world at Fatima terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata (“fearsome as an army drawn up for battle”) and fires the opening salvo in a war against Marxism and Modernism, a war of which the faithful were largely unaware they were in danger.

In 1907, on the Nativity of the Blessed Mother, Pope Pius X publishes his condemnation of Modernism and closes by wanting some oversight to root out the heresy’s presence among the laity, clergy, and seminaries. He worries that it may prove futile if his remedies are “not dutifully and firmly carried out.”

Who among the faithful, though, ever hear their own shepherds sound this warning? Instead, a decade later, the shepherd children in Portugal receive a visit from the Queen of Heaven among their sheep. She has come to warn and defend her Son’s Church. It is not merely messages and secrets She conveys. She upholds, by the events themselves, the very doctrines that are the remedy.

The first teaching She demonstrates is that the heavenly hosts not only exist but are intimately involved in the mission of Christ and the salvation of Man. This flies in the face of a good many professors and priests who think of angels strictly as “literary devices” in the Bible or mere nursery tales. Before the Virgin ever appears to the shepherd children, She sends an emissary: the Angel of Peace.

For the devout Catholic, the existence of angels is no surprise, though it is greatly scoffed and ignored these days, even from the pulpit. But this emissary also identified himself as the Angel of Portugal. That there are angels who are charged with guarding individual nations is not as well-known as it used to be, despite its place in Scripture. (Cf. Daniel 10:13)

This angel teaches and guards two other truths of the Faith: the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, and that propitiatory sacrifice is both real and required by God. Neither of these tenets are accepted in most “theology” departments these days. They have many models of soteriology but that Christ (and we united with Him) must expiate and atone for sins is not one which is typically welcome. But here, the angel sent by Our Lady insists on offering the Eucharistic Lord in reparation for sin as well as many personal sacrifices to “console your God” and to save sinners.

Which brings us to other doctrines Our Lady protects from the encroachment of Modernism: that of Hell and sin. She shows the children Hell itself. They could see human souls falling into it. She tells them many go there because they have no one to pray for their conversion. This underscores the reality of sin. Imagine that such a thing is no longer patently obvious!

I recall an entire course I was required to take in graduate school, allegedly on the Trinity, which opened my eyes to the genuinely frightening state of things. There was no Hell in these teachings. No sacrificial saving act of Christ. No need for Reconciliation because there were no individual personal sins, only “systemic” and “structural” ones.

When I hear from pastors that Hell does not exist; or that it is empty; or perhaps just temporary; or that the wicked blink out of existence; or that Judas is a saint; or when Confession is impossible to come by (except by appointment, or only for the vaccinated); when I am asked whether absolution would make me “feel better,” I think back to this course. And I know such ideas are not a bishop’s “fuzziness” or lack of education. It is its own system of theology that hangs together as a piece. But it is not Catholic.

A final matter on sin: Fatima underscores for us that sin has not only permanent consequences in eternity but real ramifications in this life as well. The Virgin warns that if people do not convert a worse war will break out.

That is perhaps something to spend time praying over. What do our daily choices bring upon the world? Conversely, what do our prayers and sacrifices accomplish?

In a time in which so many feel powerless against the powers-that-be, against the corruption, against the agendas set in motion and the long-plotted evils underway, Mary comes to gather an army. She comes to tell us that we, in our insignificance­, make the difference in this Great Battle. Christ’s remnant flock, clinging to their pious devotions and the Ancient Truths of the Faith. Interceding for the world. Reconciling it to God.

Evil cannot stand against such humility and sacrifice. Call on the angels encamped around you! The Virgin never loses. She gives weapons fit for children in this spiritual battle. Penance, the Eucharist, Confession, and the Rosary. They cannot backfire. They harm no one. Then pick them up and lay siege.

By: Taynia-Renee Laframboise

[hieromonkcharbel]

Can the Ladder, a work written by a hermit monk who lived 1,400 years ago, say something to us today? Can the existential journey of a man who lived his entire life on Mount Sinai in such a distant time be relevant to us?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

After 20 Catecheses dedicated to the Apostle Paul, today I would like to return to presenting the great writers of the Church of the East and of the West in the Middle Ages. And I am proposing the figure of John known as Climacus, a Latin transliteration of the Greek term klimakos, which means of the ladder (klimax). This is the title of his most important work in which he describes the ladder of human life ascending towards God. He was born in about 575 a.d. He lived, therefore, during the years in which Byzantium, the capital of the Roman Empire of the East, experienced the greatest crisis in its history. The geographical situation of the Empire suddenly changed and the torrent of barbarian invasions swept away all its structures. Only the structure of the Church withstood them, continuing in these difficult times to carry out her missionary, human, social and cultural action, especially through the network of monasteries in which great religious figures such as, precisely, John Climacus were active.

John lived and told of his spiritual experiences in the Mountains of Sinai, where Moses encountered God and Elijah heard his voice. Information on him has been preserved in a brief Life (PG 88, 596-608), written by a monk, Daniel of Raithu. At the age of 16, John, who had become a monk on Mount Sinai, made himself a disciple of Abba Martyr, an "elder", that is, a "wise man". At about 20 years of age, he chose to live as a hermit in a grotto at the foot of the mountain in the locality of Tola, eight kilometres from the present-day St Catherine's Monastery. Solitude, however, did not prevent him from meeting people eager for spiritual direction, or from paying visits to several monasteries near Alexandria. In fact, far from being an escape from the world and human reality, his eremitical retreat led to ardent love for others (Life, 5) and for God (ibid., 7). After 40 years of life as a hermit, lived in love for God and for neighbour years in which he wept, prayed and fought with demons he was appointed hegumen of the large monastery on Mount Sinai and thus returned to cenobitic life in a monastery. However, several years before his death, nostalgic for the eremitical life, he handed over the government of the community to his brother, a monk in the same monastery.

John died after the year 650. He lived his life between two mountains, Sinai and Tabor and one can truly say that he radiated the light which Moses saw on Sinai and which was contemplated by the three Apostles on Mount Tabor!

He became famous, as I have already said, through his work, entitled The Climax, in the West known as the Ladder of Divine Ascent (PG 88, 632-1164). Composed at the insistent request of the hegumen of the neighbouring Monastery of Raithu in Sinai, the Ladder is a complete treatise of spiritual life in which John describes the monk's journey from renunciation of the world to the perfection of love. This journey according to his book covers 30 steps, each one of which is linked to the next. The journey may be summarized in three consecutive stages: the first is expressed in renunciation of the world in order to return to a state of evangelical childhood. Thus, the essential is not the renunciation but rather the connection with what Jesus said, that is, the return to true childhood in the spiritual sense, becoming like children. John comments: "A good foundation of three layers and three pillars is: innocence, fasting and temperance. Let all babes in Christ (cf. 1 Cor 3: 1) begin with these virtues, taking as their model the natural babes" (1, 20; 636). Voluntary detachment from beloved people and places permits the soul to enter into deeper communion with God. This renunciation leads to obedience which is the way to humility through humiliations which will never be absent on the part of the brethren. John comments: "Blessed is he who has mortified his will to the very end and has entrusted the care of himself to his teacher in the Lord: indeed he will be placed on the right hand of the Crucified One!" (4, 37; 704).

The second stage of the journey consists in spiritual combat against the passions. Every step of the ladder is linked to a principal passion that is defined and diagnosed, with an indication of the treatment and a proposal of the corresponding virtue. All together, these steps of the ladder undoubtedly constitute the most important treatise of spiritual strategy that we possess. The struggle against the passions, however, is steeped in the positive it does not remain as something negative thanks to the image of the "fire" of the Holy Spirit: that "all those who enter upon the good fight (cf. 1 Tm 6: 12), which is hard and narrow,... may realize that they must leap into the fire, if they really expect the celestial fire to dwell in them" (1,18; 636). The fire of the Holy Spirit is the fire of love and truth. The power of the Holy Spirit alone guarantees victory. However, according to John Climacus it is important to be aware that the passions are not evil in themselves; they become so through human freedom's wrong use of them. If they are purified, the passions reveal to man the path towards God with energy unified by ascesis and grace and, "if they have received from the Creator an order and a beginning..., the limit of virtue is boundless" (26/2, 37; 1068).

The last stage of the journey is Christian perfection that is developed in the last seven steps of the Ladder. These are the highest stages of spiritual life, which can be experienced by the "Hesychasts": the solitaries, those who have attained quiet and inner peace; but these stages are also accessible to the more fervent cenobites. Of the first three simplicity, humility and discernment John, in line with the Desert Fathers, considered the ability to discern, the most important. Every type of behaviour must be subject to discernment; everything, in fact, depends on one's deepest motivations, which need to be closely examined. Here one enters into the soul of the person and it is a question of reawakening in the hermit, in the Christian, spiritual sensitivity and a "feeling heart", which are gifts from God: "After God, we ought to follow our conscience as a rule and guide in everything," (26/1,5; 1013). In this way one reaches tranquillity of soul, hesychia, by means of which the soul may gaze upon the abyss of the divine mysteries.

The state of quiet, of inner peace, prepares the Hesychast for prayer which in John is twofold: "corporeal prayer" and "prayer of the heart". The former is proper to those who need the help of bodily movement: stretching out the hands, uttering groans, beating the breast, etc. (15, 26; 900). The latter is spontaneous, because it is an effect of the reawakening of spiritual sensitivity, a gift of God to those who devote themselves to corporeal prayer. In John this takes the name "Jesus prayer" (Iesou euche), and is constituted in the invocation of solely Jesus' name, an invocation that is continuous like breathing: "May your remembrance of Jesus become one with your breathing, and you will then know the usefulness of hesychia", inner peace (27/2, 26; 1112). At the end the prayer becomes very simple: the word "Jesus" simply becomes one with the breath.

The last step of the ladder (30), suffused with "the sober inebriation of the spirit", is dedicated to the supreme "trinity of virtues": faith, hope and above all charity. John also speaks of charity as eros (human love), a symbol of the matrimonial union of the soul with God, and once again chooses the image of fire to express the fervour, light and purification of love for God. The power of human love can be reoriented to God, just as a cultivated olive may be grafted on to a wild olive tree (cf. Rm 11: 24) (cf. 15, 66; 893). John is convinced that an intense experience of this eros will help the soul to advance far more than the harsh struggle against the passions, because of its great power. Thus, in our journey, the positive aspect prevails. Yet charity is also seen in close relation to hope: "Hope is the power that drives love. Thanks to hope, we can look forward to the reward of charity.... Hope is the doorway of love.... The absence of hope destroys charity: our efforts are bound to it, our labours are sustained by it, and through it we are enveloped by the mercy of God" (30, 16; 1157). The conclusion of the Ladder contains the synthesis of the work in words that the author has God himself utter: "May this ladder teach you the spiritual disposition of the virtues. I am at the summit of the ladder, and as my great initiate (St Paul) said: "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love' (1 Cor 13: 13)!" (30, 18; 1160).

At this point, a last question must be asked: can the Ladder, a work written by a hermit monk who lived 1,400 years ago, say something to us today? Can the existential journey of a man who lived his entire life on Mount Sinai in such a distant time be relevant to us? At first glance it would seem that the answer must be "no", because John Climacus is too remote from us. But if we look a little closer, we see that the monastic life is only a great symbol of baptismal life, of Christian life. It shows, so to speak, in capital letters what we write day after day in small letters. It is a prophetic symbol that reveals what the life of the baptized person is, in communion with Christ, with his death and Resurrection. The fact that the top of the "ladder", the final steps, are at the same time the fundamental, initial and most simple virtues is particularly important to me: faith, hope and charity. These are not virtues accessible only to moral heroes; rather they are gifts of God to all the baptized: in them our life develops too. The beginning is also the end, the starting point is also the point of arrival: the whole journey towards an ever more radical realization of faith, hope and charity. The whole ascent is present in these virtues. Faith is fundamental, because this virtue implies that I renounce my arrogance, my thought, and the claim to judge by myself without entrusting myself to others. This journey towards humility, towards spiritual childhood is essential. It is necessary to overcome the attitude of arrogance that makes one say: I know better, in this my time of the 21st century, than what people could have known then. Instead, it is necessary to entrust oneself to Sacred Scripture alone, to the word of the Lord, to look out on the horizon of faith with humility, in order to enter into the enormous immensity of the universal world, of the world of God. In this way our soul grows, the sensitivity of the heart grows toward God. Rightly, John Climacus says that hope alone renders us capable of living charity; hope in which we transcend the things of every day, we do not expect success in our earthly days but we look forward to the revelation of God himself at last. It is only in this extension of our soul, in this self-transcendence, that our life becomes great and that we are able to bear the effort and disappointments of every day, that we can be kind to others without expecting any reward. Only if there is God, this great hope to which I aspire, can I take the small steps of my life and thus learn charity. The mystery of prayer, of the personal knowledge of Jesus, is concealed in charity: simple prayer that strives only to move the divine Teacher's heart. So it is that one's own heart opens, one learns from him his own kindness, his love. Let us therefore use this "ascent" of faith, hope and charity. In this way we will arrive at true life.

Vatican, Feb. 11, 2009

[chilling-seavey]

Anything But Mine - Penelope & Her Uncle Chi-Chi

A/N After seeing her parents get married, three-year-old Penelope is in love with the idea of love and weddings...and she knows exactly who she wants to marry.

W/C: 2.2k

Tuesday, December 14th, 2023

The first Christmas vacation after the wedding had Daniel and Florence flying to Vancouver with the girls earlier in the month to spend more time with the family. The newlyweds were still on a bit of a high from the wedding, the honeymoon, and the fact that they had found out they were expecting their third; a little secret just for the two of them until they were to share the news with everyone on Christmas Eve. Clementine and Penelope were also still enthralled with the magical idea of weddings after watching their parents get married and seemingly falling even closer in love afterwards than they had seen them before. The two little girls were full-on heart-eyes when it came to their parents, each hand hold or quick kiss making them squeal with adoration.

Clementine loved to visit the Seavey’s in Vancouver and the whole way back to the house from the airport she talked Anna’s ear off who was squished in the backseat between the girls’ car-seats. Anna wouldn’t have it any other way. Daniel and Florence were in the front seat together as Daniel insisted on driving back home as he loved the scenic drive of the Vancouver skyline on the way, and his hand was locked with Florence’s on her lap. Penelope sat silently and eyed her parents’ hands with a calm smile.

They were greeted excitedly at the door and plentiful hugs were shared before Daniel and Tyler brought the suitcases and bags upstairs, Clementine’s little voice echoing up the walls of the two-storey entryway as she shared all her stories from the plane with her family.

It was already about lunch time when they arrived and the whole house smelt of Daniel’s favourite childhood meal, a tradition for his home-coming meal since he had first left for university five years before. The table was lively with chatter and Daniel and Florence were asked about their honeymoon. They tried to fill their reply with the most interesting things they could think of, skipping over the plenty of time they spent locked in their room which was honestly most of the week away.

Penelope was quieter than normal, eating her lunch as she eyed Christian from across the table as the adults talked. She could hardly take her eyes off him, nearly poking herself in the cheek with her fork a few times in her distraction.

“You okay, bug?” Daniel asked her softly, noting how she seemed to be zoned out, and he petted her hair back from her face.

Penelope smiled up at her father and nodded, her little dimples mirroring Christian’s as he laughed loudly at something someone had said, making Penelope turn back quickly to him. Daniel looked between his daughter and his brother with a small smile as he turned back to his food, setting his hand in Florence’s on his right.

When lunch was finished and the dishes were done, everyone retired to the living room to visit some more, Clementine and Penelope sat on the rug with their few favourite stuffed animals and pretend tea set, having a quiet tea party amongst themselves. Florence was cuddled up in Daniel’s arms and Penelope kept glancing up at them through her playing, sneaking peeks at Christian as well, everyone oblivious to the thoughts swirling around in the three-year-old’s head.

“Here you go, Daddy.” Clementine carefully got to her feet, cutting off the adults’ conversation and held out a tiny plastic teacup to him.

“Thank you, angel.” Daniel smiled, taking his arm from around Florence’s shoulders to take the cup from his eldest.

“Be careful. It’s hot.” Clementine warned him seriously before crouching down and pouring another pretend cup of tea for Keri. As the almost five-year-old made her rounds with the afternoon tea, Christian excused himself for something real to drink – but not before gladly taking a sip of Clementine’s pretend tea to humour her.

Penelope jumped up from the rug and followed after him into the kitchen slowly, twisting the hem of her shirt around her hands nervously as she approached him at the fridge. Christian almost tripped over her when he turned to grab a glass, having not heard her come up behind him.

“Oh! Hey, you.” Christian smiled down at her, tugging lightly on one of her pigtails before moving around her to open the cupboard and set a glass on the counter to pour himself a glass of Sprite. “Can I get you something?”

Penelope shook her head, simply watching him move around the kitchen. It wasn’t unusual for Penelope to fall into little silent spells, so he didn’t think much of it as he put the bottle back in the fridge.

Penelope reached for his hand and he let her wrap her fingers around his the best her little hand could, “Chi-Chi, will you marry me please?”

Her sweet baby blues staring up at him could have melted him on the spot, especially her gentle voice using her little nickname for him, and Christian chuckled lightly and pulled a small pout through his smile with how absolutely adorable his niece was, giving her hand a little squeeze, “Of course I’ll marry you, pumpkin.”

Penelope grinned up at him and he mirrored it, their dimpled smiles more alike than not, and he leaned down to kiss her head.

“We should go tell everyone the good news.”

“Yes!” Penelope smiled, pulling him after her out of the kitchen and back into the living room. She didn’t even wait for the conversation to end before she was shouting, “Chi-Chi and me gonna get married!”

“You are?” Daniel chuckled.

“Mhm! Just like you and Mommy!” Penelope explained proudly before looking up at her uncle with his matching dimpled grin.

“You can’t marry uncle Christian!” Clementine gaped, nearly dumping the entire tea set on the ground in shock.

“Yes I can. He said yes!” Penelope frowned, wrapping her arms around his leg protectively.

Clementine looked to her parents for support of her case but the adults only smiled.

“When are you gonna get married, baby?” Florence asked.

“Right now!” Penelope said.

“I think we can push back nap time for a wedding.” Daniel agreed. “You sure about this, bug?”

“Yes. I love him.” Penelope whispered, cuddling up against Christian’s thigh and he pet a hand over her brown hair. The room ‘awe’d out loud.

“Do you have rings for each other?” Keri asked.

Penelope’s face fell with the realization that she didn’t.

“Hang on. I think I got something.” Anna jumped up from the couch and ran upstairs to her room.

“Where are we gonna honeymoon?” Christian asked his little bride to be as she clung onto his leg.

“McDonalds!” Penelope grinned.

“McDonalds. Wow. A good choice. Hopefully one with a playplace, right?”

“Mhm!” Penelope nodded.

Christian smiled down at her, meeting her full-on heart-eyed stare back at him. Anna came back down from upstairs with two little pretend rings made from pipe-cleaners from her old art kits and a little veil made from one of her lace tops. She gently fastened the makeshift veil to Penelope’s hair with bobby pins, topping it off with a white flower crown that was almost too big for her.

Clementine watched on quietly as her family set up for the little wedding, her grandfather getting up to officiate and Daniel moving from his spot on the couch to walk his three-year-old down the aisle. The rest of the family stayed on the couches as the audience, Clementine sat on Florence’s lap.

Penelope held Daniel’s hand as they walked down the hallway back into the living room where Christian stood by the fireplace with Jeff, smiling at his shy little niece who was so sure she was really going to marry him. It was the sweetest thing ever. Daniel passed over his daughter’s hand to his older brother, patting him once on the shoulder before finding his seat again.

Penelope had to reach up to hold Christian’s hands, her dimpled grin nearly too big for her face and she stared at him with nothing but youthful adoration and love and he stared right back at that cute little face with all the stars in his eyes.

Jeff began the makeshift service, a dictionary open in his hand to mimic the look of the bible, “We are gathered here today in the sight of the best family on the west coast, to join Penelope and Christian in holy matrimony.”

“No.” Penelope said, turning to her grandfather after his way too confusing introduction for the toddler. “We’re getting married.”

“Yes, my bad.” Jeff said as the adults laughed. “Let me try again. We are here today to join Penelope and Christian in a wedding.”

“Better.” Penelope giggled, looking back up to her uncle.

“Christian, if you put your very expensive ring on Penelope’s finger and repeat after me.”

Christian bent down a little to be same height as the three-year-old and she held out her right hand.

“Other one.” he whispered, reaching for her left. The little girl grinned at him excitedly as he held her hand in his.

Jeff began the stating of the vows, “Penelope Magnolia Seavey, take this ring as a sign of my love.”

Christian sent his niece a sweet smile, as he gently put the pipe-cleaner ring on her tiny finger, “Penelope Magnolia Seavey, take this ring as a sign of my love.”

“Forever and ever!” Penelope added.

“Forever and ever.” Christian agreed through a small chuckle. “My turn.” he handed her his own pipe-cleaner ring.

Jeff stated her own vows for her to repeat, “Christian John Seavey, take this ring as a sign of my love.”

Penelope pushed the ring on her uncle's finger, whispering a gentle, “Chi-Chi Seavey, take this ring for my love forever and ever.”

Christian laughed lightly, squishing her cheek gently as she grinned at him.

“Now, by the city of Vancouver and the completely official power vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.” Jeff said.

Christian puckered out his lips and Penelope set her tiny hands on his cheeks to plant a kiss to his lips, pulling back with an exaggerated ‘mwah!’. Everyone in the living room cheered and applauded and Penelope wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a hug.

“My turn! I wanna marry Aunt Anna!” Clementine demanded, whipping around to her aunt.

“Not me?” Tyler frowned. “I’m hurt.”

“Yes! I’ll marry you, Ty Ty!” Clementine said, grabbing his hand and tugging him off the couch.

“No! This is my wedding!” Penelope shrieked, her eyes filling with tears as her older sister walked right up beside her.

“Does no one want to marry me?” Daniel mumbled.

“Girls-” Florence started.

“Mine too!” Clementine retorted.

“No!” Penelope screamed, tears threatening to fall as she held tightly onto Christian’s neck, her face pressed up against his through her pout. He scooped her up and she cuddled up against him, burying her face in his neck with her arms around his shoulders.

“My bride is in need of a nap, I think.” Christian said.

“No.” Penelope whined, holding onto him tighter.

“I’ll take you to McDonald’s when you wake up, okay? Still gotta have that honeymoon, don’t we?” Christian promised, adjusting the flower crown on her head with his one arm that wasn’t holding her arm.

Penelope smiled softly and nodded, earning her a kiss to her cheek. Clementine smiled proudly as Christian started taking her younger sister upstairs and she looked up at Tyler, her hand in his.

“Think it’s nap time for you too, angel.” Daniel said from his spot on the couch.

“I don’t want to marry you anymore anyway.” Clementine told Tyler flatly, dropping his hand and rushing after Christian to follow him up the stairs to bed.

“Wow. That hurt.” Tyler frowned, left alone in the living room as the rest of the family laughed at the fact he was just left at the alter by his four-year-old niece.

As promised, when the girls woke up from their nap about two hours later, Christian took Penelope out for dinner just the two of them. They shared a box of chicken nuggets across a small table for two and Penelope was absolutely beaming at him over her straw in her apple juice, telling him all sorts of stories from back home. After dinner, she used her perfected puppy eyes to get him into the play place with her but he barely had even crawled in before getting stuck in a plastic tube and they had to call the manager to get him out as Penelope cried her eyes out, screaming that she “killed Chi-Chi!”

When he got out safely and bought her an ice cream cone to calm her down, they sat in his car in the parking lot for a moment. Christian glanced at his niece through the rear-view mirror and she met his eyes, vanilla ice cream all over her face and hands and her eyes red from drying tears.

“We don’t tell anyone about what happened here, okay?” Christian said, already hearing his siblings’ raging laughter if they found out he got stuck in a play place.

“Got it.” Penelope gave him a sticky thumbs up and his same dimpled grin before shrieking from her approaching sugar high, “Best wedding ever!”

“Let’s get you back to your parents.” Christian chuckled.

[stshyt]

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[danielhoy-blog1]

There are elements of psychological terrorism being created for me that I am unable to defend against, and obviously, no-one could be compelled to.

The threats are ambiguous, and I fear are interpreted by terrorists (who have no right to assume my actions or choices or the lack thereof to be symbolic, or to any association with me whatsoever) to mean whatever they wish; against my will, intention, understanding, and agency.

I, Daniel Hoy, am not now and have never been a member, prospective or otherwise, of any theological or communal club, guild, military, fraternity, secret society, or faith-based group; and am not at all interested in joining any. I have no personal interest or involvement in Freemasonry or other secret societies, and have not had. I have no interest or involvement in secret societies, and have not had. There are no "gods", "higher powers", "curses", "omens", extraterrestrial beings or any other superstitions. My morality is not dictated to me from any particular source. Rather, I develop it, my conscience, and my character, being considerate of a wealth of sources and experiences. I have never been a Christian. I cannot be a Jew. I have never been, am not now, and will never be any form of Freemason or secret society member. I have never been inside a masonic lodge. I have no "brothers" of any kind. No one is "like a brother" to me. I will be no one's "Sir" (outside of the informal male address). My only friends and family of any kind are my wife and life partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily Hoy. No one owes me any favours; I am owed only my rights under The Constitution of Canada, and it's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I have not accepted, do not accept, and will not accept, any third party, by-proxy, unusual or indirect communications or representations - implicitly, or otherwise - or any association with secret societies.

If any third parties have ever interfered in my personal or professional relationships, I have been unconsenting.

I reserve absolute ownership and control of my intellectual, physical, and other properties and accomplishments, and have made no contracts otherwise. Absolutely no one - but me - has any authority or control of any of my various properties, whether real estate at 129 Lighthouse Street, Goderich, Ontario, or my agency, or any of my intellectual properties.

I have never made any contracts or associations with any members of secret societies.

I have not signed any documents of nor made any contract with any Children's Aid Society. I have absolutely no association with any Children's Aid Society.

I am not a participant in any inter-personal resolutions. I am not a participant in any extra-judicial or investigative activity. I am not a participant in any "theater", nor thespian dramatization. I am systematically harassed, traumatized, violated, and made to fear for the safety and security of myself, family, and properties almost daily. I post this declaration in some instances which I feel threatened. I am not communicating with any recognizable authority or adjudicative processes or procedures; I am safeguarding myself and family from criminals.

I am not a populist. I am not a politician. I am not a "Settlement Worker". I am not a part of a community or neighbourhood. My only associations are Nicole, Norman, and Emily Hoy, and the secular covenant of law that we share with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

I have no juvenile criminal record.

I have no "counsellor", and will not have. I am neither a patient nor participant in any psychological therapy, treatment, or group activity.

I have never been, am not now, and will never be in a polygamous or polyamorous marriage, relationship, family, or other. My marriage and family are neither polygamous nor polyamorous. No aspect of my life or relationships is at all open to the opinions, perspectives, judgements, or consideration of anyone but each with whom I choose to relate. I choose only to relate with my Wife and Life-Partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily Hoy. Polygamy is absolutely illegal in Canada, and unrecognizable under Canadian law.

My wife and life partner, Nicole Hoy could not be a member of a secret society, as I have never been. My marriage and family (which is only myself, Nicole Hoy, Norman Hoy, and Emily Hoy) is absolutely exclusive. There is no relationship nor association that could preclude, include, or exclude my marriage to Nicole Hoy, nor my family.

My wife is allowed and expected to make mistakes, and to have secrets. My marriage is conditional only to my own sovereign will.

Individual agency cannot be forfeited, subjugated, proxied, delegated, assumed by others, or misrepresented in Canada except by means of incarceration or detention. Freedoms of expression, religion, thought, belief, peaceful assembly, and association are protected and guaranteed to be all but inalienable by Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I do not have any association with secret societies, Children's Aid Societies, secret societies, or faith-based groups; nor do I have any association through anyone else's association with a Children's Aid Society, secret society, or faith-based group. I do not want any association, contact, influence, consideration, or communication of any form to or from any such groups. The only exception possible is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whose consideration of me must preclude any personal interests or involvement in such groups. Any faith-based or private functions or interests of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II are absolutely inapplicable to me or mine. I will have no personal involvement in any secret or faith-based groups. I have had no - and will have no - association other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with involvement in secret societies or faith based groups.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the only Sovereign, Ruler, and allodial owner of - and in - Canada. Crime committed in Canada is judged at the discretion of Her Highness, and often Her gracious consideration is extended to victims of crime. I have not as of yet reported the crimes committed against myself, my wife, our children, and properties, and struggle for my own responsible, honourable, and righteous discretion. I reserve the right to consider myself consenting to actions that may otherwise appear to have been criminal, and as such, my participation and testimony are necessary in the finding of culpability.

Secular law is the only standard by which I may be judged, or my actions restrained. Nicole Hoy cannot be judged without my participation, as I and she both enjoy that right, and I am privy to intimate and objective insights of my wife and life partner, and the abuses she has suffered. Any lies to the effect that I have ever had association with any secret society I presume would predate my marriage or even association with Nicole Hoy. Nicole Hoy is guiltless, blameless, innocent, and herself the victim of the broad scope of crimes committed against me, and us. When Nicole and I have sufficient shared perspective of what has happened, we will be considerate and honourable of worthy merit and integrity.

I and my children are (un-spiritual) Native Canadians, speaking of our origin, nationality, and citizenship, and "African" in the ethnic sense that all humans are. We are not Scottish. We are not "French", "French Canadians", "Québécois", "French New World", or "Acadian". We are no more British or Irish than we are from the Caucasus Mountains. As much as my wife and children may be undeclared "Metis", "Native", or "Indian" Canadians (we do not observe racism), they are without spiritual observance or identity, and any introduction of the "supernatural" is child abuse by my standards.

French law is not valid in Canada. Quebec Provincial laws have borrowed from some vestiges of French law, but the entirety of Quebec law is nonetheless Canadian. Law of the Province of Quebec is not valid in the Province of Ontario.

My actions and choices (which necessarily include my inaction), are not to be considered as consent or participation in any Masonic, secret society, psychological, superstitious, philosophical, social, or Children's Aid Society activity, game, maze, treatment, experiment, initiation, journey, education, audit, training, play, service, challenge, dramatization, virtuality, contract, rite, ritual, or bargaining process. I will not participate. I have not asked for, or received clemency for any wrongs I may have done. Neither have I been asked for, or granted clemency for wrongs that have been committed against myself or my family, nor is it within my legal purview as I understand it. I will not accept any extrajudicial resolutions for criminal actions without the free, enthusiastic, public, and Sovereign discretion - in person - of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; or that are at all considerate of "spiritual" faith.

I have always been of sound mind.

My hearing and sense of smell are both less than perfect, due to damage and age. I have made no claims to the properties of these seemingly marginal lacks.

My only friends, loves, relatives, and family are my wife and life-partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily. I miss my wife, our children, and our home. I have always been faithful. My address remains 129 Lighthouse St, Goderich, ON, CA, N7A 2J6. I am not a part of a community or neighbourhood. My phone number is 1-519-612-1094. I have not "naturalized" to any other location, changed my address, nor forfeited my legal rights to our matrimonial home or my property. I cannot participate in volunteer or community activities for fear that it be used against me as evidence of "naturalization". My motivation in retaining title and rights to our home is related more to maintaining it as further proof of the validity of our marriage than property ownership. I have never moved from our home; I was removed from it. Any members of any secret or faith based groups, any Children's Aid Society employees, anyone associated with either, and/or anyone who has ever considered or represented themselves to be my friends or family (that are not my wife or children) are not in any event other than by force of judicial warrant to be allowed onto my property or to communicate with my wife, our children, or myself. My own communications are not intended to be shared with my wife or children until such time that it is permissible by law. I do not accept any communications involving any third parties or by-proxies as valid, nor any unusual or indirect forms of communication.

I cannot access homelessness services for fear that my attendance be misconstrued as acceptance of punishment for crimes that I have been neither charged nor convicted of. I have not been afforded the opportunity to face a charge or accuser. I am my own legal council, and have not appointed anyone (including my wife) to speak on my behalf (to represent my agency). I have not broken any laws under the Canadian Criminal Code or International law. I am eager and available to answer to any and all criminal charges that may have been created for me. I insist on the full and equal accountability, rights, and protections of all Canadians, and all people in Canada, under Canadian law and our shared Sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

These declarations are in no sense to be conditioned by anyone. They are not a matter of personal opinion, or part of any ongoing bargaining process. I am only expressing protection of myself, my wife and life partner Nicole Hoy, my children Norman and Emily Hoy, all of my properties, achievements, interests, and agency, and the purely secular covenant of law that we share with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

[jeanbaltsubsta-blog]

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[iprayunceasingly-blog]

Singapore archdioese extends required marriage prep time to one year

New Post has been published on https://pray-unceasingly.com/catholic-living/catholic-news/singapore-archdioese-extends-required-marriage-prep-time-to-one-year/

Singapore archdioese extends required marriage prep time to one year

Singapore, Nov 12, 2018 / 03:23 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Singapore has introduced a new policy to ensure couples are taking the time they need to properly prepare for marriage.

Catholics looking to getting married in any of the archdiocese’s 32 churches have to book their wedding date at least one year in advance, according to Catholic News.

Previously, the couples only had to notify the church six months before the wedding. Archbishop William Chye of Singapore made the decision in October after discussing the move with the archdiocese’s priests.  

Couples must still undergo the same marriage preparatory programs, including a marriage course and a meeting with the priest who will preside over the wedding.

A Catholic spokesperson for the archdiocese told Strait Times that the new policy emphasizes the importance of the commitment of matrimony and helps Catholics prepare for it.

“In response to the feedback and to help our fellow Catholics prepare for such a major commitment in their lives, the Archbishop, in consultation with his Senate of Priests, is looking to refine the recommended policies presently in place,” he said.

“It marks the beginning of a journey that the Church and the couple take together to prepare the couple for their commitment to each other,” he added.  

Numerous other Christian dominations in Singapore have similar requirements, which may range from six to nine months prior to the wedding day.

Daniel Seah is an engaged Catholic in Singapore who plans to get married in 2020. He told Straight Times that he was happy with the new policy.

“In my opinion, the divorce rate is quite high and I think the Church is looking at ways to help couples discern deeper if this is the right person for them before they walk down the aisle,” he said.

“Even if you book a hotel, you may also need to book one year in advance but people don't grumble about that.”

CNA Daily News – Asia – Pacific

[njawaidofficial]

Difficult Men Meet Their Match In “Fifty Shades” And “Phantom Thread”

https://styleveryday.com/2018/02/15/difficult-men-meet-their-match-in-fifty-shades-and-phantom-thread/

Difficult Men Meet Their Match In “Fifty Shades” And “Phantom Thread”

Fifty Shades Freed and Phantom Thread

Doane Gregory/Universal, Laurie Sparham/Focus Features

Comparisons between the Fifty Shades films and Phantom Thread started cropping up online as soon as the first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest arrived, with people joking about a broad resemblance between the Oscar nominee and the mommy porn hit. But once you start actually considering the similarities between Phantom Thread and the E.L. James–based trilogy, they become impossible to unsee. Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) is a brooding businessman and Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a fashion designer, but they’re both demanding men with a thing for lips and a fixation on their mothers. More importantly, they’re men who’ve shored themselves up, emotionally and professionally, in their respective fortresses, allowing a carefully selected series of lovers into their spaces and having them shooed out when they’re no longer wanted.

One of the assumptions that goes along with our culture’s continued, if souring, mythologizing of powerful men is that to be uncompromising is a show of strength which inevitably requires others to conform to their will. The other, of course, is that it’s up to the people who want to be with those men to comply to the romantic terms they set out, or be replaced, because he has earned the right to do as he wants. Reynolds and Christian are revered as singular, essential figures, but their lovers get treated as anything but. Replaceability haunts both stories in the suggestion of the (mostly unseen) women who’ve come and gone before. The women we do see are hurt and unhappy because they want more — the distraught former submissive who turns up with a gun in Fifty Shades Darker, the soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend at the start of Phantom Thread who asks Reynolds “There’s nothing I can say to get your attention aimed back at me, is there?”

The women who do break this pattern, virginal undergrad Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and winsome server Alma (Vicky Krieps), both enter the lives of their future paramours as artless supplicants — the first thing they’re seen doing by the men is tripping over their own feet. But they both end up triumphant, not so much because they’ve secured matrimony, but because they’ve managed, by whatever means necessary, to carve out a place for themselves in the lives of the powerful men they love.

It’s understood to be funny, that one of these films is a prickly Best Picture nominee while the others are considered, generously, trashterpieces, although a lot of the people who have strong opinions on the Fifty Shades series have never actually watched any of it. The Fifty Shades movies are wildly out of step with current conversations about female empowerment and independence, widely (and snidely) scoffed at as softcore porn for suburban housewives, and inarguably silly — sometimes intentionally so. They already seem consigned to being a pop cultural footnote, even though the trilogy’s final installment has only just opened in theaters.

Fifty Shades Darker

Doane Gregory / Universal Pictures

When Fifty Shades of Grey premiered in 2015, it was to a barrage of anticipatory criticism based on the novels’ disturbing tendencies with regard to consent. They were tendencies the adaptations wisely ditched — the films are basically PSAs for sexual communication — not that it mattered. What really smarted for some women, and what continues to smart, is the way these films have so lucratively peddled an updated, R-rated version of romantic fables we’re supposed to have left in the dust.

It’s hard to convey to anyone who hasn’t seen the Fifty Shades series just how unlike typical movies they are. The love story of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey is, for long stretches, barely a story at all, unconcerned with essentials like conflict or action. After all, that’s not what the audience has come to see. When the unavoidable relationship problems or bouts of kidnapping are introduced, it’s with great reluctance, as if the movies themselves hate to jolt Anastasia and Christian out of their thousand-thread-count idyll. The third and final installment, Fifty Shades Freed, for instance, doesn’t culminate with its heralded wedding — it begins with it, before whisking the main characters off to a honeymoon where they swan around Paris and then sunbathe in the south of France.

The series is famous for the semi-adventurous sex the two lovers have — sex that is effortlessly orgasmic, and, in this latest film, accessorized with restraints, safe words, blindfolds, vibrators, a butt plug, and a pint of ice cream. But these languorous interludes are just as much about footage of the characters enjoying the bounties of Christian’s incredible wealth, presented via montages set to pop songs. In the first film, Christian takes Anastasia out over Seattle at night in his helicopter, to the ecstatic strains of Ellie Goulding; in the second, he lets her steer his yacht across the Puget Sound while that Taylor Swift–Zayn Malik duet swells. When the third film closes by running through highlights of the pair’s romance, it amounts to a montage of montages, which is exactly the kind of ridiculous but earnest choice that’s defined the entire franchise — the luxury photographed with equal if not greater lust than the lovemaking.

The Fifty Shades films unapologetically indulge in high-gloss dreams of being swept up and showered with gifts by someone possessed of an immense fortune and talented penis.

The Fifty Shades films are outlandish fantasies about dating someone who is as dominant in his professional life as he is in the confines of his custom sex dungeon. They unapologetically indulge in high-gloss dreams of being swept up and showered with gifts by someone possessed of an immense fortune and talented penis — part ravishment and part fairy tale — that are all the more embarrassing for still being able to compel audiences, to the tune of over a billion dollars at the global box office for the entire series. There’s a guilelessness to their avarice, in the fact that Anastasia doesn’t fall for Christian because of his success, but doesn’t fall for him in spite of it, either. That he’s a big deal (in an amusingly undefined way — it’s never very clear what his company, Grey Enterprises Holdings, does beyond make questionable investments in independent publishing houses) is an essential part of his identity and his appeal.

But the films are also, in a way that’s almost unbearably wistful, daydreams about extracting an equitable relationship from a situation in which there’s a huge power imbalance. The sex gets top billing in the franchise, but the arc of the trilogy is one of a woman demanding emotional intimacy from a man so determined to withhold it that he puts his rules in writing: This romance begins with a nondisclosure agreement and ends on an image of blissful familial domesticity.

Christian may be a fanciful billionaire boyfriend, but he is, by any reasonable assessment, a terrible one for most of the trilogy — distant, controlling, secretive, possessive, and jealous, qualities that the series views through hopelessly rose-colored lenses, and qualities Anastasia is (mostly) able to make him relinquish. Once you get past the overheated branding, there’s a plaintive streak to the Fifty Shades films, because they’re not just about the fantasy of getting swept off your feet (and into a kinky relationship) by a powerful man, but about being treated respectfully by one, as an equal rather than a dismissible underling — a fantasy only because we’ve internalized how unlikely that is.

Alma takes Reynolds’ order in Phantom Thread.

Laurie Sparham / Focus Features

While Fifty Shades started as Twilight fanfiction, Phantom Thread is, essentially, fanfiction about Anderson’s relationship with Maya Rudolph, who he’s been with since 2001. “I was very, very sick in bed one night,” he told a post-screening crowd in November, sharing what inspired the film. “And my wife looked at me with a love and affection that I hadn’t seen in a long time. So I called Daniel the next day and said, ‘I think I have a good idea for a movie’.”

It’s an origin story that sounds sweet out of context and downright outrageous once you’ve seen the film, given that (spoilers!) it depicts how Alma eventually poisons her lover into emotional vulnerability, leveling the ground between the two of them. If Anderson sees himself in Reynolds, it’s a slyly self-deprecating portrait. The character’s testiness and onerous insistence on having things just the right way comes across as increasingly ridiculous as the film goes along. It’s not, actually, the behavior of a man who’s too consumed with his work to have a relationship, but that of a man who’s afraid of any situation that’s out of his control.

Alma doesn’t just defeat Reynolds; she saves him from himself, from his ascetic bubble.

Phantom Thread takes pains to make it clear that Reynolds Woodcock is not revolutionary. He’s respected, and gifted, and at the height of his game — the toast of 1950s London, dressing royalty and the city’s crème de la crème in his airy atelier. But his gowns, while lovely, are not the cutting edge of fashion (“Fucking chic,” he mutters. “They should be hung, drawn, and quartered for that word.”) It is not posterity that demands his single-minded focus on his creative output, it is his faith in his calling — and his ego, the same ego that leaves him acting like a scorned lover when a client deserts him to go with another designer. He wields the importance of his work as a shield against anyone who’d ask him to do something he’d rather not, and deploys his ferocious sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) as a weapon.

While the adventures of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele involve dabblings in consensual BDSM, Phantom Thread is about two people engaged in a more expansive, unspoken game of dominance and submission, with Alma revealing herself to be far more formidable an opponent than Reynolds could have ever imagined when flirting with her over his breakfast order. She enjoys being Reynolds’ latest muse, likes giving a twirl during a fashion show, aware that he’s gazing at her through a peephole. It’s an electric moment in a film that otherwise uses sex for suspense — it keeps you wondering how much sexual interest Reynolds has in Alma, or in anyone.

But Alma doesn’t want to be treated as a resource he’ll use up and throw out. She wants to be his partner, to be acknowledged as a key part of his life, which is why she introduces herself to an important client in order to simply be seen, announcing “I live here.” She arouses the most ardor Reynolds ever shows when she comes to the defense of his work, stripping it off the unconscious customer she feels is unworthy of wearing it.

If it’s difficult to explain how strange the Fifty Shades films can be, it’s just as difficult to characterize the surprising contortions of Phantom Thread, which appears from the outside to be a film about fashion, but turns out to be a perverse romantic comedy about two people who battle it out to achieve a wayward but perfect equilibrium. Theirs is combat fought in skirmishes over breakfast noises and buttered asparagus, the prize being an intimate universe that Alma and Reynolds get to share, rather than one she’s only allowed to be a guest in. Alma doesn’t just defeat Reynolds; she saves him from himself, from his ascetic bubble.

Christian Grey, above it all in Fifty Shades of Grey

Universal Pictures

The chasm between centuries of romantic fiction concerned with wedding a powerful man, a tradition both of these stories could be a part of, and our expectations of what that might be like in reality, has maybe never yawned wider than at our current moment. We might still coo over Meghan Markle getting engaged to a literal prince, but who among us has gotten starry-eyed about the Trump marriage? The relationship between Donald and Melania Trump exists like a funhouse mirror reflection of the dynamic Fifty Shades swoons over — Christian’s aggressive persistence is replaced with “when you’re a star, they let you do it,” Anastasia’s place ensconced in his penthouse turned into a point of view onto which people project imprisonment. And while Jamie Dornan and Donald Trump don’t resemble one another in the slightest, they’ve both played cartoonish conceptions of successful businessmen on screen.

To consider a figure closer to a real world equivalent of Christian, there’s actual swashbuckling entrepreneur Elon Musk, who’s equally strapping and brilliant and apparently as demanding in his relationships in a way that, at least in his case, hasn’t lead to a storybook ending. His first wife, Justine Wilson, recounted in writing about their marriage in Marie Claire that he told her at their wedding reception: “I’m the alpha in this relationship.” That line, and what he reportedly said to her repeatedly during their relationship (“If you were my employee, I would fire you.”) were precursors to an unsurprising divorce in 2008. The ultimatum Musk delivered, in which Wilson could accept their marriage as it was or be done with it, is reminiscent of both Fifty Shades of Grey and Reynolds’ outburst over the surprise dinner Alma cooks for him. Unlike in the films, Musk’s declaration was apparently the end of any discussion, not the start of it. He announced his engagement to eventual second (and then third) wife Talulah Riley six weeks later, which ended in divorce not once but twice, in 2012 and again in 2016.

We’re still beholden to the idea of the difficult genius, the demanding executive, the aloof artist, the person who deserves to act this way.

That threat of replaceability, and the internalization of it — the idea that it’s therefore on women to know better — haunts both Fifty Shades and Phantom Thread, as well as some of the conversations that we’ve had in this #MeToo moment. Look at how Caitlin Flanagan at the Atlantic wrote about Aziz Ansari in the wake of the messy Babe.net article last month, writing that the Ansari’s accuser “wanted affection, kindness, attention” from him when she agreed to see him that evening, that “Perhaps she hoped to maybe even become the famous man’s girlfriend.” Flanagan had no way of knowing if the latter was true, and the former desires really are less aspirations than hopes for basic date courtesy. But that doesn’t stop her from implying that it was foolish to expect even that much, to want kindness from someone who is, after all, famous.

It’s terribly convenient to think of yourself as too important, or too powerful, to have to concern yourself with the feelings of others, to make compromises, to accommodate others. But it’s an excuse that we continue to accept, because we’re still beholden to the idea of the difficult genius, the demanding executive, the aloof artist, the person who deserves to act this way because of their work, and the understanding of masculinity that accompanies it. That’s a theme these films have in common, despite their vast differences in approach, with Phantom Thread working to dismantle and poke fun at the self-importance of its prominent man, while Fifty Shades opts for a wish fulfillment reworking of its restrictive romance into something functional. They don’t banish the fairy tale, but they do hold it up to a new light.

These aren’t treatises on how no one should get to behave this way; they’re stories about how even the men who are indulged in this behavior end up the worse for it. They are sealed off and solitary, without any obligations toward empathy — the worst people to rule the world, though they often do. And they’re also stories about women who insist on even ground, who fight for it and win it, even if it takes a few mild poisonings to get there. They may be about love, but they’re also very much about war. ●

Phantom Thread

Laurie Sparham / Focus Features

[chilling-seavey]

Amoureux (c.s./d.s.) - Chapter Twenty

A/N How’s #TeamChristian feeling right about now? Or maybe I should ask #TeamDaniel...?

It took Louisa a while to calm herself down after her argument with Daniel, some part of her feeling a tad broken herself but she forced herself to focus on the goal of the day: Getting herself married. She really could have used a reassuring hug from Christian but the next time she was going to see him was when she was walking down the aisle. At 10am, Mary helped Louisa down the grand staircase of the palace, the sixteen-year-old girl absolutely beaming. The butlers and guards lined the foyer to catch a glimpse of the bride on her way off to the Abbey and they bowed to her as she passed, everyone admiring her adoringly.

Jack and Zach opened the carriage doors for her and Jonah was stood nearby to give her a hand into it, the two young guards carefully holding the train of her dress so she wouldn’t step on it. Louisa got herself carefully sitting in the carriage and said her quick goodbye to Mary, her lady in waiting giving her hand a squeeze before Jonah was climbing into the carriage beside her.

Jack and Zach closed the doors and with a sharp snap from the driver, the horses took off towards the Abbey. Jonah was going to be the one to walk Louisa down the aisle since his stature as right-hand-man to the King was so respected and there were no other men in the Royal Family to take on that role. Jonah’s uniform was similar to Daniels except he was in dark navy instead of red but everything down to the epaulets and the sword on his belt were quite the same. They didn’t speak on the ride over, Louisa busying herself with staring out the window as her stomach twisted with nervousness and her heart felt like it might beat right out of her chest.

When the horses came to a stop outside Westminster Abbey, crowds had already gathered behind lines of Royal Guards and Policemen that created a pathway for her into the church. Jonah stepped out of the carriage first and held out his hand to Louisa who set her in his and took a carful step out onto the front steps of the church. Two of the young page boys rushed to help carry her long veil up the steps to keep it from dragging on the dirty outdoor ground. They smoothed it carefully over the floor of the foyer to the church and she thanked them softly as they rushed back to their positions at the front of the congregation.

“Are you ready to be Princess Louisa of England?” Jonah asked quietly through a kind smile as she set her hand in his arm.

“Quite.” Louisa smiled, not wanting to answer with a lengthy question as she felt her stomach turn with anxiousness.

“Wedding jitters.” Jonah chuckled as he could feel her hand trembling against his arm, and he set a hand on hers. “All normal. Nothing to be nervous about. His Royal Highness is still the same man with whom you fell in love.”

Louisa sent Jonah her most convincing smile.

The organ began to play and the packed crowd that filled the church stood up to await the entrance of the Royal bride. The page boys opened the large double doors and Louisa and Jonah started their long walk down the aisle. Hundreds upon hundreds of faces were staring back at her as Louisa walked towards her future, people she recognised from their galas but most she didn’t remember even meeting at all.

They closer they got to the front of the church, the more faces she recognised; the young couple from the gala who Louisa had taken a liking to, a few of the King’s men in their military uniforms, Jonah’s own wife who had visited the palace a few times herself and Louisa could see him smile widely at her as they walked. Louisa only hoped Christian would still look at her like that through the years. She was to be married among strangers with not even her own mother and father present. She belonged to England now.

The King and Queen were sat right at the front with Anna at their side and they were already turned and looking at her when she saw them. Anna absolutely beamed at her.

Daniel turned around expressionlessly and let his eyes fall on her before turning to face forward again, his hands locked behind his back. Louisa tried to hide her hurt.

It was easy to, however, when Christian finally turned to face her, dressed in a red suit dripped in gold, looking more handsome and polished than she had ever seen him before. Simply the sight of him made her heart skip a beat and his wide smile mirrored hers.

Christian took a step down from the alter to take her hand from Jonah who returned to his seat with his wife.

“You look absolutely beautiful.” Christian whispered as they took their place in front of the bishop.

“You as well.” Louisa smiled, still anxiously holding back her breakfast. She could feel herself trembling, but Christian kissed the back of her hand as if to settle her.

They stood face to face, hand in hand, and the crowd sat as the bishop began the ceremony.

“Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”

They began with a prayer, although Louisa was too busy with her eyes focussed on the curling gold details of Christian’s suit jacket and his high white collar donned with a red tie and gold trim. Christian could see her wide eyes zoning out and he gave her hands a squeeze to bring her back to reality.

As the prayer came to a close, Louisa started to realize what she was so anxious for and as the bishop spoke his next lines, she held her breath and prayed for peace.

“Into the Lord’s Holy Estate these two persons come together to be joined as one. If any man can offer any just cause as to why these two may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak. Or else, here after, let him forever hold his peace.”

The silence was ringing in Louisa’s ears and the five seconds of pause was dreadfully terrifying to her. She waited for Daniel to stand up in front of everyone and confess her sins to the entire congregation, but he didn’t.

She looked out into the crowd and spotted him right away, his arms crossed over his chest and a chilling glare shooting daggers right into her. She took a small breath and looked back to Christian with a smile.

The bishop continued, “I require and charge you both as you will answer on the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of all our hearts shall be disclosed. If either of you know of any in impediment why ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, now confess it.”

Louisa could have sworn she heard Daniel scoff, although it could have been someone coughing, but she kept quiet, sharing a sweet smile with her groom.

Soon it was time for the vows, the bishop reciting them to the man first, “Christian John, wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, to live together according to God’s law in the holiest state of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, protect her, and keep her in sickness and in health and keep only unto her so long as ye both shall live?”

Christian was absolutely beaming and he ran his thumbs over Louisa’s hands in his as he replied, “I will.”

Louisa felt her heart soar and she bit back her smile, her nerves starting to disappear.

The bishop turned to her now, “Louisa Arielle, wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband, to live together according to God’s law in the holiest state of matrimony? Wilt thou love him, comfort him, serve him, honour him, and keep him in sickness and in health and keep only unto him so long as ye both shall live?”

Louisa gave Christian’s hands a squeeze and opened her mouth to respond but she was interrupted by a sudden,

“Ok, I’m sorry. I can’t watch this.”

Everyone turned to Daniel who was standing up despite his mother’s desperate attempts to pull him back down under her stern glare. The young prince laughed humourlessly under everyone’s angry stares, especially Christian who looked like he was about ready to kill his little brother on the spot.

“I tried to shut up but I cannot watch my brother marry her.” Daniel told the entire church, his voice echoing over the stone walls and reaching all the way up to the ceiling. His voice was filled with nothing but anger and sorrow and he turned back to look at the alter where Christian and Louisa still stood hand in hand. The bride’s face was a sickening pale.

“Daniel, sit down!” The King said through his teeth.

“No, father.” Daniel retorted, narrowing his eyes at the couple. “Christian deserves to know.”

Christian had never looked so angry in his life, absolute hatred for his brother coursing through his veins, never being able to have one nice thing without him ruining it. His wedding was apparently no different.

Daniel continued, “My dear, sweet, naïve older brother deserves to know that his bride doesn’t love him like he thinks she does.”

“Oh, shut up, Daniel!” Christian snapped.

“No! I won’t shut up!” Daniel yelled back, cutting him off before he could even retaliate. “I can’t let you both make a mess of yourselves. Not when Louisa doesn’t love you like she loves me!”

“Grow up!” Christian shouted, his voice booming through the church.

Every single guest was silent.

“You grow up!” Daniel retorted. “You’re too goddamn dense to know your fiancé was making out with your brother for months! Right in front of your nose! Sneaking out of parties and tiptoeing around the palace, kissing me and touching me and moaning my name, telling me how you didn’t compare. Well I’m not going to sit back and stay quiet like everyone always tells me to while you go and marry the woman I love. I don’t think you want to live with the fact that your wife slept with your brother.”

Gasps filled the church and Christian whipped his head back to look at Louisa. The expression in his eyes sent chills tearing down her body, his eyebrows narrowed in near fury, blue eyes filled with rage and a hint of heartache, his cheeks flushed red. She could only gape at him, her words abandoning her, her breath abandoning her, and she felt faint.

Christian’s expression of pure anger moulded into that of disgust and he snatched his hands out of hers as if she was diseased.

“Christian.” Louisa’s voice wavered, barely audible, she could barely even hear herself saying his name. He took one last look at Daniel and then one last look at Louisa before turning and walking right back down the aisle, his boots echoing each footstep against the marble floor through the entire church, head bowed.

Everyone was staring at Louisa, every single eye on her in the entire building, but she could only stare at Christian’s back disappearing out the door and into the sunlight.

[hieromonkcharbel]

Pope Benedict XVI on St. John Climacus and the Ladder of Divine Ascent

Can the Ladder, a work written by a hermit monk who lived 1,400 years ago, say something to us today? Can the existential journey of a man who lived his entire life on Mount Sinai in such a distant time be relevant to us?

Dear Brothers and Sisters, After 20 Catecheses dedicated to the Apostle Paul, today I would like to return to presenting the great writers of the Church of the East and of the West in the Middle Ages. And I am proposing the figure of John known as Climacus, a Latin transliteration of the Greek term klimakos, which means of the ladder (klimax). This is the title of his most important work in which he describes the ladder of human life ascending towards God. He was born in about 575 a.d. He lived, therefore, during the years in which Byzantium, the capital of the Roman Empire of the East, experienced the greatest crisis in its history. The geographical situation of the Empire suddenly changed and the torrent of barbarian invasions swept away all its structures. Only the structure of the Church withstood them, continuing in these difficult times to carry out her missionary, human, social and cultural action, especially through the network of monasteries in which great religious figures such as, precisely, John Climacus were active.

John lived and told of his spiritual experiences in the Mountains of Sinai, where Moses encountered God and Elijah heard his voice. Information on him has been preserved in a brief Life (PG 88, 596-608), written by a monk, Daniel of Raithu. At the age of 16, John, who had become a monk on Mount Sinai, made himself a disciple of Abba Martyr, an “elder”, that is, a “wise man”. At about 20 years of age, he chose to live as a hermit in a grotto at the foot of the mountain in the locality of Tola, eight kilometres from the present-day St Catherine’s Monastery. Solitude, however, did not prevent him from meeting people eager for spiritual direction, or from paying visits to several monasteries near Alexandria. In fact, far from being an escape from the world and human reality, his eremitical retreat led to ardent love for others (Life, 5) and for God (ibid., 7). After 40 years of life as a hermit, lived in love for God and for neighbour years in which he wept, prayed and fought with demons he was appointed hegumen of the large monastery on Mount Sinai and thus returned to cenobitic life in a monastery. However, several years before his death, nostalgic for the eremitical life, he handed over the government of the community to his brother, a monk in the same monastery. John died after the year 650. He lived his life between two mountains, Sinai and Tabor and one can truly say that he radiated the light which Moses saw on Sinai and which was contemplated by the three Apostles on Mount Tabor!

He became famous, as I have already said, through his work, entitled The Climax, in the West known as the Ladder of Divine Ascent (PG 88, 632-1164). Composed at the insistent request of the hegumen of the neighbouring Monastery of Raithu in Sinai, the Ladder is a complete treatise of spiritual life in which John describes the monk’s journey from renunciation of the world to the perfection of love. This journey according to his book covers 30 steps, each one of which is linked to the next. The journey may be summarized in three consecutive stages: the first is expressed in renunciation of the world in order to return to a state of evangelical childhood. Thus, the essential is not the renunciation but rather the connection with what Jesus said, that is, the return to true childhood in the spiritual sense, becoming like children. John comments: “A good foundation of three layers and three pillars is: innocence, fasting and temperance. Let all babes in Christ (cf. 1 Cor 3: 1) begin with these virtues, taking as their model the natural babes” (1, 20; 636). Voluntary detachment from beloved people and places permits the soul to enter into deeper communion with God. This renunciation leads to obedience which is the way to humility through humiliations which will never be absent on the part of the brethren. John comments: “Blessed is he who has mortified his will to the very end and has entrusted the care of himself to his teacher in the Lord: indeed he will be placed on the right hand of the Crucified One!” (4, 37; 704).

The second stage of the journey consists in spiritual combat against the passions. Every step of the ladder is linked to a principal passion that is defined and diagnosed, with an indication of the treatment and a proposal of the corresponding virtue. All together, these steps of the ladder undoubtedly constitute the most important treatise of spiritual strategy that we possess. The struggle against the passions, however, is steeped in the positive it does not remain as something negative thanks to the image of the “fire” of the Holy Spirit: that “all those who enter upon the good fight (cf. 1 Tm 6: 12), which is hard and narrow,… may realize that they must leap into the fire, if they really expect the celestial fire to dwell in them” (1,18; 636). The fire of the Holy Spirit is the fire of love and truth. The power of the Holy Spirit alone guarantees victory. However, according to John Climacus it is important to be aware that the passions are not evil in themselves; they become so through human freedom’s wrong use of them. If they are purified, the passions reveal to man the path towards God with energy unified by ascesis and grace and, “if they have received from the Creator an order and a beginning…, the limit of virtue is boundless” (26/2, 37; 1068).

The last stage of the journey is Christian perfection that is developed in the last seven steps of the Ladder. These are the highest stages of spiritual life, which can be experienced by the “Hesychasts”: the solitaries, those who have attained quiet and inner peace; but these stages are also accessible to the more fervent cenobites. Of the first three simplicity, humility and discernment John, in line with the Desert Fathers, considered the ability to discern, the most important. Every type of behaviour must be subject to discernment; everything, in fact, depends on one’s deepest motivations, which need to be closely examined. Here one enters into the soul of the person and it is a question of reawakening in the hermit, in the Christian, spiritual sensitivity and a “feeling heart”, which are gifts from God: “After God, we ought to follow our conscience as a rule and guide in everything,” (26/1,5; 1013). In this way one reaches tranquillity of soul, hesychia, by means of which the soul may gaze upon the abyss of the divine mysteries.

The state of quiet, of inner peace, prepares the Hesychast for prayer which in John is twofold: “corporeal prayer” and “prayer of the heart”. The former is proper to those who need the help of bodily movement: stretching out the hands, uttering groans, beating the breast, etc. (15, 26; 900). The latter is spontaneous, because it is an effect of the reawakening of spiritual sensitivity, a gift of God to those who devote themselves to corporeal prayer. In John this takes the name “Jesus prayer” (Iesou euche), and is constituted in the invocation of solely Jesus’ name, an invocation that is continuous like breathing: “May your remembrance of Jesus become one with your breathing, and you will then know the usefulness of hesychia”, inner peace (27/2, 26; 1112). At the end the prayer becomes very simple: the word “Jesus” simply becomes one with the breath.

The last step of the ladder (30), suffused with “the sober inebriation of the spirit”, is dedicated to the supreme “trinity of virtues”: faith, hope and above all charity. John also speaks of charity as eros (human love), a symbol of the matrimonial union of the soul with God, and once again chooses the image of fire to express the fervour, light and purification of love for God. The power of human love can be reoriented to God, just as a cultivated olive may be grafted on to a wild olive tree (cf. Rm 11: 24) (cf. 15, 66; 893). John is convinced that an intense experience of this eros will help the soul to advance far more than the harsh struggle against the passions, because of its great power. Thus, in our journey, the positive aspect prevails. Yet charity is also seen in close relation to hope: “Hope is the power that drives love. Thanks to hope, we can look forward to the reward of charity…. Hope is the doorway of love…. The absence of hope destroys charity: our efforts are bound to it, our labours are sustained by it, and through it we are enveloped by the mercy of God” (30, 16; 1157). The conclusion of the Ladder contains the synthesis of the work in words that the author has God himself utter: “May this ladder teach you the spiritual disposition of the virtues. I am at the summit of the ladder, and as my great initiate (St Paul) said: "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love’ (1 Cor 13: 13)!” (30, 18; 1160).

At this point, a last question must be asked: can the Ladder, a work written by a hermit monk who lived 1,400 years ago, say something to us today? Can the existential journey of a man who lived his entire life on Mount Sinai in such a distant time be relevant to us? At first glance it would seem that the answer must be “no”, because John Climacus is too remote from us. But if we look a little closer, we see that the monastic life is only a great symbol of baptismal life, of Christian life. It shows, so to speak, in capital letters what we write day after day in small letters. It is a prophetic symbol that reveals what the life of the baptized person is, in communion with Christ, with his death and Resurrection. The fact that the top of the “ladder”, the final steps, are at the same time the fundamental, initial and most simple virtues is particularly important to me: faith, hope and charity. These are not virtues accessible only to moral heroes; rather they are gifts of God to all the baptized: in them our life develops too. The beginning is also the end, the starting point is also the point of arrival: the whole journey towards an ever more radical realization of faith, hope and charity. The whole ascent is present in these virtues. Faith is fundamental, because this virtue implies that I renounce my arrogance, my thought, and the claim to judge by myself without entrusting myself to others. This journey towards humility, towards spiritual childhood is essential. It is necessary to overcome the attitude of arrogance that makes one say: I know better, in this my time of the 21st century, than what people could have known then. Instead, it is necessary to entrust oneself to Sacred Scripture alone, to the word of the Lord, to look out on the horizon of faith with humility, in order to enter into the enormous immensity of the universal world, of the world of God. In this way our soul grows, the sensitivity of the heart grows toward God. Rightly, John Climacus says that hope alone renders us capable of living charity; hope in which we transcend the things of every day, we do not expect success in our earthly days but we look forward to the revelation of God himself at last. It is only in this extension of our soul, in this self-transcendence, that our life becomes great and that we are able to bear the effort and disappointments of every day, that we can be kind to others without expecting any reward. Only if there is God, this great hope to which I aspire, can I take the small steps of my life and thus learn charity. The mystery of prayer, of the personal knowledge of Jesus, is concealed in charity: simple prayer that strives only to move the divine Teacher’s heart. So it is that one’s own heart opens, one learns from him his own kindness, his love. Let us therefore use this “ascent” of faith, hope and charity. In this way we will arrive at true life.

Vatican, Feb. 11, 2009

[danielhoy-blog1]

I, Daniel Hoy, am not now and have never been a member, prospective or otherwise, of any theological or communal club, guild, military, fraternity, secret society, or faith-based group; and am not at all interested in joining any. I have no personal interest or involvement in Freemasonry or other secret societies, and have not had. I have no interest or involvement in secret societies, and have not had. There are no "gods", "higher powers", "curses", "omens", extraterrestrial beings or any other superstitions. My morality is not dictated to me from any particular source. Rather, I develop it, my conscience, and my character, being considerate of a wealth of sources and experiences. I have never been a Christian. I cannot be a Jew. I have never been, am not now, and will never be any form of Freemason or secret society member. I have never been inside a masonic lodge. I have no "brothers" of any kind. No one is "like a brother" to me. I will be no one's "Sir" (outside of the informal male address). My only friends and family of any kind are my wife and life partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily Hoy. No one owes me any favours; I am owed only my rights under The Constitution of Canada, and it's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I have not accepted, do not accept, and will not accept, any third party, by-proxy, unusual or indirect communications or representations - implicitly, or otherwise - or any association with secret societies.

If any third parties have ever interfered in my personal or professional relationships, I have been unconsenting.

I reserve absolute ownership and control of my intellectual, physical, and other properties and accomplishments, and have made no contracts otherwise. Absolutely no one - but me - has any authority or control of any of my various properties, whether real estate at 129 Lighthouse Street, Goderich, Ontario, or my agency, or any of my intellectual properties.

I have never made any contracts or associations with any members of secret societies.

I have not signed any documents of nor made any contract with any Children's Aid Society. I have absolutely no association with any Children's Aid Society.

I am not a participant in any inter-personal resolutions. I am not a participant in any extra-judicial or investigative activity. I am not a participant in any "theater", nor dramatization. I am systematically harassed, traumatized, violated, and made to fear for the safety and security of myself, family, and properties almost daily. I post this declaration in some instances which I feel threatened. I am not communicating with any recognized authority, nor participating in any adjudicative processes or procedures. I am safeguarding myself and family from criminals.

I am not a populist. I am not a politician. I am not a "Settlement Worker".

I have no juvenile criminal record.

I have no "counsellor", and will not have. I am neither a patient nor participant in any psychological therapy, treatment, or group activity.

I have never been, am not now, and will never be in a polygamous or polyamorous marriage, relationship, family, or other. My marriage and family are neither polygamous nor polyamorous. No aspect of my life or relationships is at all open to the opinions, perspectives, judgements, or consideration of anyone but each with whom I choose to relate. I choose only to relate with my Wife and Life-Partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily Hoy. Polygamy is absolutely illegal in Canada, and unrecognizable under Canadian law.

My wife and life partner, Nicole Hoy could not be a member of a secret society, as I have never been. My marriage and family (which is only myself, Nicole Hoy, Norman Hoy, and Emily Hoy) is absolutely exclusive. There is no relationship nor association that could preclude, include, or exclude my marriage to Nicole Hoy, nor my family.

My wife is allowed and expected to make mistakes, and to have secrets. My marriage is conditional only to my own sovereign will.

Individual agency cannot be forfeited, subjugated, proxied, delegated, assumed by others, or misrepresented in Canada except by means of incarceration or detention. Freedoms of expression, religion, thought, belief, peaceful assembly, and association are protected and guaranteed to be all but inalienable by Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I do not have any association with secret societies, Children's Aid Societies, secret societies, or faith-based groups; nor do I have any association through anyone else's association with a Children's Aid Society, secret society, or faith-based group. I do not want any association, contact, influence, consideration, or communication of any form to or from any such groups. The only exception possible is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whose consideration of me must preclude any personal interests or involvement in such groups. Any faith-based or private functions or interests of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II are absolutely inapplicable to me or mine. I will have no personal involvement in any secret or faith-based groups. I have had no - and will have no - association other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with involvement in secret societies or faith based groups.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the only Sovereign, Ruler, and allodial owner of - and in - Canada. Crime committed in Canada is judged at the discretion of Her Highness, and often Her gracious consideration is extended to victims of crime. I have not as of yet reported the crimes committed against myself, my wife, our children, and properties, and struggle for my own responsible, honourable, and righteous discretion. I reserve the right to consider myself consenting to actions that may otherwise appear to have been criminal, and as such, my participation and testimony are necessary in the finding of culpability.

Secular law is the only standard by which I may be judged, or my actions restrained. Nicole Hoy cannot be judged without my participation, as I and she both enjoy that right, and I am privy to intimate and objective insights of my wife and life partner, and the abuses she has suffered.

I and my children are (un-spiritual) Native Canadians, speaking of our origin, nationality, and citizenship, and "African" in the ethnic sense that all humans are. We are not Scottish. We are not "French", "French Canadians", "Québécois", "French New World", or "Acadian". We are no more British or Irish than we are from the Caucasus Mountains. As much as my wife and children may be undeclared "Metis", "Native", or "Indian" Canadians (we do not observe racism), they are without spiritual observance or identity, and any introduction of the "supernatural" is child abuse by my standards.

French law is not valid in Canada. Quebec Provincial laws have borrowed from some vestiges of French law, but the entirety of Quebec law is nonetheless Canadian. Law of the Province of Quebec is not valid in the Province of Ontario.

My actions and choices (which necessarily include my inaction), are not to be considered as consent or participation in any Masonic, secret society, psychological, superstitious, philosophical, social, or Children's Aid Society activity, game, maze, treatment, experiment, initiation, journey, education, audit, training, play, service, challenge, dramatization, virtuality, contract, rite, ritual, or bargaining process. I will not participate. I have not asked for, or received clemency for any wrongs I may have done. Neither have I been asked for, or granted clemency for wrongs that have been committed against myself or my family, nor is it within my legal purview as I understand it. I will not accept any extrajudicial resolutions for criminal actions without the free, enthusiastic, public, and Sovereign discretion - in person - of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; or that are at all considerate of "spiritual" faith.

I have always been of sound mind.

My hearing and sense of smell are both less than perfect, due to damage and age. I have made no claims to the properties of these seemingly marginal lacks.

My only friends, loves, relatives, and family are my wife and life-partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily. I miss my wife, our children, and our home. I have always been faithful. My address remains 129 Lighthouse St, Goderich, ON, CA, N7A 2J6. I am not a part of a community or neighbourhood. My phone number is 1-519-612-1094. I have not "naturalized" to any other location, changed my address, nor forfeited my legal rights to our matrimonial home or my property. I cannot participate in volunteer or community activities for fear that it be used against me as evidence of "naturalization". My motivation in retaining title and rights to our home is related more to maintaining it as further proof of the validity of our marriage than property ownership. I have never moved from our home; I was removed from it. Any members of any secret or faith based groups, any Children's Aid Society employees, anyone associated with either, and/or anyone who has ever considered or represented themselves to be my friends or family (that are not my wife or children) are not in any event other than by force of judicial warrant to be allowed onto my property or to communicate with my wife, our children, or myself. My own communications are not intended to be shared with my wife or children until such time that it is permissible by law. I do not accept any communications involving any third parties or by-proxies as valid, nor any unusual or indirect forms of communication.

I cannot access homelessness services for fear that my attendance be misconstrued as acceptance of punishment for crimes that I have been neither charged nor convicted of. I have not been afforded the opportunity to face a charge or accuser. I am my own legal council, and have not appointed anyone (including my wife) to speak on my behalf (to represent my agency). I have not broken any laws under the Canadian Criminal Code or International law. I am eager and available to answer to any and all criminal charges that may have been created for me. I insist on the full and equal accountability, rights, and protections of all Canadians, and all people in Canada, under Canadian law and our shared Sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

These declarations are in no sense to be conditioned by anyone. They are not a matter of personal opinion, or part of any ongoing bargaining process. I am only expressing protection of myself, my wife and life partner Nicole Hoy, my children Norman and Emily Hoy, all of my properties, achievements, interests, and agency, and the purely secular covenant of law that we share with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

[danielhoy-blog1]

I, Daniel Hoy, am not now and have never been a member, prospective or otherwise, of any theological or communal club, guild, military, fraternity, secret society, or faith-based group; and am not at all interested in joining any. I have no personal interest or involvement in Freemasonry or other secret societies, and have not had. I have no interest or involvement in secret societies, and have not had. There are no "gods", "higher powers", "curses", "omens", extraterrestrial beings or any other superstitions. My morality is not dictated to me from any particular source. Rather, I develop it, my conscience, and my character, being considerate of a wealth of sources and experiences. I have never been a Christian. I cannot be a Jew. I have never been, am not now, and will never be any form of Freemason or secret society member. I have never been inside a masonic lodge. I have no "brothers" of any kind. No one is "like a brother" to me. I will be no one's "Sir" (outside of the informal male address). My only friends and family of any kind are my wife and life partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily Hoy. No one owes me any favours; I am owed only my rights under The Constitution of Canada, and it's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I have not accepted, do not accept, and will not accept, any third party, by-proxy, unusual or indirect communications or representations - implicitly, or otherwise - or any association with secret societies.

If any third parties have ever interfered in my personal or professional relationships, I have been unconsenting.

I reserve absolute ownership and control of my intellectual, physical, and other properties and accomplishments, and have made no contracts otherwise. Absolutely no one - but me - has any authority or control of any of my various properties, whether real estate at 129 Lighthouse Street, Goderich, Ontario, or my agency, or any of my intellectual properties.

I have never made any contracts or associations with any members of secret societies.

I have not signed any documents of nor made any contract with any Children's Aid Society. I have absolutely no association with any Children's Aid Society.

I am not a participant in any inter-personal resolutions. I am not a participant in any extra-judicial or investigative activity. I am not a participant in any "theater", nor dramatization. I am systematically harassed, traumatized, violated, and made to fear for the safety and security of myself, family, and properties almost daily. I post this declaration in some instances which I feel threatened. I am not communicating with any recognized authority, nor participating in any adjudicative processes or procedures. I am safeguarding myself and family from criminals.

I am not a populist. I am not a politician. I am not a "Settlement Worker".

I have no juvenile criminal record.

I have no "counsellor", and will not have. I am neither a patient nor participant in any psychological therapy, treatment, or group activity.

I have never been, am not now, and will never be in a polygamous or polyamorous marriage, relationship, family, or other. My marriage and family are neither polygamous nor polyamorous. No aspect of my life or relationships is at all open to the opinions, perspectives, judgements, or consideration of anyone but each with whom I choose to relate. I choose only to relate with my Wife and Life-Partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily Hoy. Polygamy is absolutely illegal in Canada, and unrecognizable under Canadian law.

My wife and life partner, Nicole Hoy could not be a member of a secret society, as I have never been.

My wife is allowed and expected to make mistakes, and to have secrets. My marriage is conditional only to my own sovereign will.

Individual agency cannot be forfeited, subjugated, proxied, delegated, assumed by others, or misrepresented in Canada except by means of incarceration or detention. Freedoms of expression, religion, thought, belief, peaceful assembly, and association are protected and guaranteed to be all but inalienable by Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I do not have any association with secret societies, Children's Aid Societies, secret societies, or faith-based groups; nor do I have any association through anyone else's association with a Children's Aid Society, secret society, or faith-based group. I do not want any association, contact, influence, consideration, or communication of any form to or from any such groups. The only exception possible is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whose consideration of me must preclude any personal interests or involvement in such groups. Any faith-based or private functions or interests of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II are absolutely inapplicable to me or mine. I will have no personal involvement in any secret or faith-based groups. I have had no - and will have no - association other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with involvement in secret societies or faith based groups.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the only Sovereign, Ruler, and allodial owner of - and in - Canada. Crime committed in Canada is judged at the discretion of Her Highness, and often Her gracious consideration is extended to victims of crime. I have not as of yet reported the crimes committed against myself, my wife, our children, and properties, and struggle for my own responsible, honourable, and righteous discretion. I reserve the right to consider myself consenting to actions that may otherwise appear to have been criminal, and as such, my participation and testimony are necessary in the finding of culpability.

Secular law is the only standard by which I may be judged, or my actions restrained. Nicole Hoy cannot be judged without my participation, as I and she both enjoy that right, and I am privy to intimate and objective insights of my wife and life partner, and the abuses she has suffered.

I and my children are (un-spiritual) Native Canadians, speaking of our origin, nationality, and citizenship, and "African" in the ethnic sense that all humans are. We are not Scottish. We are not "French", "French Canadians", "Québécois", "French New World", or "Acadian". We are no more British or Irish than we are from the Caucasus Mountains. As much as my wife and children may be undeclared "Metis", "Native", or "Indian" Canadians (we do not observe racism), they are without spiritual observance or identity, and any introduction of the "supernatural" is child abuse by my standards.

French law is not valid in Canada. Quebec Provincial laws have borrowed from some vestiges of French law, but the entirety of Quebec law is nonetheless Canadian. Law of the Province of Quebec is not valid in the Province of Ontario.

My actions and choices (which necessarily include my inaction), are not to be considered as consent or participation in any Masonic, secret society, psychological, superstitious, philosophical, social, or Children's Aid Society activity, game, maze, treatment, experiment, initiation, journey, education, audit, training, play, service, challenge, dramatization, virtuality, contract, rite, ritual, or bargaining process. I will not participate. I have not asked for, or received clemency for any wrongs I may have done. Neither have I been asked for, or granted clemency for wrongs that have been committed against myself or my family, nor is it within my legal purview as I understand it. I will not accept any extrajudicial resolutions for criminal actions without the free, enthusiastic, public, and Sovereign discretion - in person - of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; or that are at all considerate of "spiritual" faith.

I have always been of sound mind.

My hearing and sense of smell are both less than perfect, due to damage and age. I have made no claims to the properties of these seemingly marginal lacks.

My only friends, loves, relatives, and family are my wife and life-partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily. I miss my wife, our children, and our home. I have always been faithful. My address remains 129 Lighthouse St, Goderich, ON, CA, N7A 2J6. I am not a part of a community or neighbourhood. My phone number is 1-519-612-1094. I have not "naturalized" to any other location, changed my address, nor forfeited my legal rights to our matrimonial home or my property. I cannot participate in volunteer or community activities for fear that it be used against me as evidence of "naturalization". My motivation in retaining title and rights to our home is related more to maintaining it as further proof of the validity of our marriage than property ownership. I have never moved from our home; I was removed from it. Any members of any secret or faith based groups, any Children's Aid Society employees, anyone associated with either, and/or anyone who has ever considered or represented themselves to be my friends or family (that are not my wife or children) are not in any event other than by force of judicial warrant to be allowed onto my property or to communicate with my wife, our children, or myself. My own communications are not intended to be shared with my wife or children until such time that it is permissible by law. I do not accept any communications involving any third parties or by-proxies as valid, nor any unusual or indirect forms of communication.

I cannot access homelessness services for fear that my attendance be misconstrued as acceptance of punishment for crimes that I have been neither charged nor convicted of. I have not been afforded the opportunity to face a charge or accuser. I am my own legal council, and have not appointed anyone (including my wife) to speak on my behalf (to represent my agency). I have not broken any laws under the Canadian Criminal Code or International law. I am eager and available to answer to any and all criminal charges that may have been created for me. I insist on the full and equal accountability, rights, and protections of all Canadians, and all people in Canada, under Canadian law and our shared Sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

These declarations are in no sense to be conditioned by anyone. They are not a matter of personal opinion, or part of any ongoing bargaining process. I am only expressing protection of myself, my wife and life partner Nicole Hoy, my children Norman and Emily Hoy, all of my properties, achievements, interests, and agency, and the purely secular covenant of law that we share with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

[danielhoy-blog1]

I, Daniel Hoy, am not now and have never been a member, prospective or otherwise, of any theological or communal club, guild, military, fraternity, secret society, or faith-based group; and am not at all interested in joining any. I have no personal interest or involvement in Freemasonry or other secret societies, and have not had. I have no interest or involvement in secret societies, and have not had. There are no "gods", "higher powers", "curses", "omens", extraterrestrial beings or any other superstitions. My morality is not dictated to me from any particular source. Rather, I develop it, my conscience, and my character, being considerate of a wealth of sources and experiences. I have never been a Christian. I cannot be a Jew. I have never been, am not now, and will never be any form of Freemason or secret society member. I have never been inside a masonic lodge. I have no "brothers" of any kind. No one is "like a brother" to me. I will be no one's "Sir" (outside of the informal male address). My only friends and family of any kind are my wife and life partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily Hoy. No one owes me any favours; I am owed only my rights under The Constitution of Canada, and it's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I have not accepted, do not accept, and will not accept, any third party, by-proxy, unusual or indirect communications or representations - implicitly, or otherwise - or any association with secret societies.

If any third parties have ever interfered in my personal or professional relationships, I have been un-consenting.

I reserve absolute ownership and control of my intellectual, physical, and other properties and accomplishments, and have made no contracts otherwise.

I have never made any contracts or associations with any members of secret societies.

I am not a "Settlement Worker".

I have not signed any documents of nor made any contract with any Children's Aid Society. I have absolutely no association with any Children's Aid Society.

I am not a participant in any inter-personal resolutions. I am not a participant in any extra-judicial or investigative activity. I am not a participant in any "theater", nor dramatization. I am systematically harassed, traumatized, violated, and made to fear for the safety and security of myself, family, and properties almost daily. I post this declaration in some instances which I feel threatened. I am not communicating with any recognized authority, nor participating in any adjudicative processes or procedures. I am safeguarding myself and family from criminals.

I am not a populist. I am not a politician.

I have no juvenile criminal record.

I have no "counsellor", and will not have. I am neither a patient nor participant in any psychological therapy, treatment, or group activity.

I have never been, am not now, and will never be in a polygamous or polyamorous marriage, relationship, family, or other. No aspect of my life or relationships is at all open to the opinions, perspectives, judgements, or consideration of anyone but each with whom I choose to relate. I choose only to relate with my Wife and Life-Partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily Hoy. Polygamy is absolutely illegal in Canada, and unrecognizable under Canadian law.

Individual agency cannot be forfeited, subjugated, proxied, delegated, assumed by others, or misrepresented in Canada except by means of incarceration or detention. Freedoms of expression, religion, thought, belief, peaceful assembly, and association are protected and guaranteed to be all but inalienable by Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I do not have any association with secret societies, Children's Aid Societies, secret societies, or faith-based groups; nor do I have any association through anyone else's association with a Children's Aid Society, secret society, or faith-based group. I do not want any association, contact, influence, consideration, or communication of any form to or from any such groups. The only exception possible is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whose consideration of me must preclude any personal interests or involvement in such groups. Any faith-based or private functions or interests of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II are absolutely inapplicable to me or mine. I will have no personal involvement in any secret or faith-based groups. I have had no - and will have no - association other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with involvement in secret societies or faith based groups.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the only Sovereign, Ruler, and allodial owner of - and in - Canada.  Crime committed in Canada is judged at the discretion of Her Highness, and often Her gracious consideration is extended to victims of crime.  I have not as of yet reported the crimes committed against myself, my wife, our children, and properties, and struggle for my own responsible, honourable, and righteous discretion.

Secular law is the only standard by which I may be judged, or my actions restrained.

I and my children are (un-spiritual) Native Canadians, speaking of our origin, nationality, and citizenship, and "African" in the ethnic sense that all humans are. We are not Scottish. We are not "French", "French Canadians", "Québécois", "French New World", or "Acadian". We are no more British or Irish than we are from the Caucasus Mountains. As much as my wife and children may be undeclared "Metis", "Native", or "Indian" Canadians (we do not observe racism), they are without spiritual observance or identity, and any introduction of the "supernatural" is child abuse by my standards.

French law is not valid in Canada. Quebec Provincial laws have borrowed from some vestiges of French law, but the entirety of Quebec law is nonetheless Canadian. Law of the Province of Quebec is not valid in the Province of Ontario.

My actions and choices (which necessarily include my inaction), are not to be considered as consent or participation in any Masonic, secret society, psychological, superstitious, philosophical, social, or Children's Aid Society activity, game, maze, treatment, experiment, initiation, journey, education, audit, training, play, service, challenge, dramatization, virtuality, contract, rite, ritual, or bargaining process. I will not participate. I have not asked for, or received clemency for any wrongs I may have done. Neither have I been asked for, or granted clemency for wrongs that have been committed against myself or my family, nor is it within my legal purview as I understand it. I will not accept any extrajudicial resolutions for criminal actions without the free, enthusiastic, public, and Sovereign discretion - in person - of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; or that are at all considerate of "spiritual" faith.

I have always been of sound mind.

My hearing and sense of smell are both less than perfect, due to damage and age. I have made no claims to the properties of these seemingly marginal lacks.

My only friends, relatives, and family are my wife and life-partner, Nicole Hoy, and our children, Norman and Emily. I miss my wife, our children, and our home. I have always been faithful. My address remains 129 Lighthouse St, Goderich, ON, CA, N7A 2J6. My phone number is 1-519-612-1094. I have not "naturalized" to any other location, changed my address, nor forfeited my legal rights to our matrimonial home or my property. I cannot participate in volunteer or community activities for fear that it be used against me as evidence of "naturalization". My motivation in retaining title and rights to our home is related more to maintaining it as further proof of the validity of our marriage than property ownership. I have never moved from our home; I was removed from it. Any members of any secret or faith based groups, any Children's Aid Society employees, anyone associated with either, and/or anyone who has ever considered or represented themselves to be my friends or family (that are not my wife or children) are not in any event other than by force of judicial warrant to be allowed onto my property or to communicate with my wife, our children, or myself. My own communications are not intended to be shared with my wife or children until such time that it is permissible by law. I do not accept any communications involving any third parties or by-proxies as valid, nor any unusual or indirect forms of communication.

I cannot access homelessness services for fear that my attendance be misconstrued as acceptance of punishment for crimes that I have been neither charged nor convicted of. I have not been afforded the opportunity to face a charge or accuser. I am my own legal council, and have not appointed anyone (including my wife) to speak on my behalf (to represent my agency). I have not broken any laws under the Canadian Criminal Code or International law. I am eager and available to answer to any and all criminal charges that may have been created for me. I insist on the full and equal accountability, rights, and protections of all Canadians, and all people in Canada, under Canadian law and our shared Sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

These declarations are in no sense to be conditioned by anyone. They are not a matter of personal opinion, or part of any ongoing bargaining process.

[pamphletstoinspire]

Commentary by Cornelius a Lapide on Luke - Chapter 1: 26-38 - Latin Vulgate

Feast of The Queenship of Mary

Verses:

26 And in the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth,

27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the name of the virgin was Mary.

28 And the Angel being come in, said to her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: Blessed art thou among women.

29 But she having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be.

30 And the Angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God:

31 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his name, Jesus.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David, his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever,

33 And of his kingdom there shall be no end.

34 And Mary said to the Angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?

35 And the Angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.

36 And behold thy cousin, Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren:

37 Because no word shall be impossible with God.

38 And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word. And the Angel departed from her.

Commentary:

Ver. 26.—ln the sixth month. That is the sixth month of the conception of John. Christ was therefore six months younger that John the Baptist. We ought to understand that this six month was not beginning but ending, or rather ended; for from the 24th of September, when John was conceived, to the 25th of March, when Christ was conceived, there are six whole months. The Annunciation therefore by Gabriel, and consequently the Incarnation of the Word, took place on the 25th of March; on which day likewise, Christ, after completing the thirty-fourth year of His life, was crucified. Many are of opinion that the world was created on the same day; so that it was created by God on the same day on which it was afterwards recreated and restored by Christ in His Incarnation and Cross. Whence it is that from this day of March, the English, the Venetians, the Pisans, and several other nations reckon the years after Christ.

The Angel Gabriel.

S. Jerome remarks on Daniel viii. that there are three angels, Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel, who are especially mentioned in Scripture; of whom Michael presides over the prayers and offerings of the faithful and is therefore called Michael (that is, who is like God); for it is the prerogative of God alone to hear the prayers of penitents: while Raphael presides over the healing of men’s bodies, and he therefore restored sight to Tobias when he was blind; whence he is called Raphael (that is the Healer or the Healing, of God); and thirdly Gabriel (or the strength of God) presides over the conflicts and wars of the faithful (as is clear from Dan. xii. &c.). Wherefore he is sent to announce the birth of Christ, who was to carry on a most severe war against Lucifer, and the rest of the demons and impious men. Again Gabriel in Hebrew means man of God; the meaning of which is that God will be incarnate, and will be a child as to nature and age; but yet He will also be a man, because from the first instant of His conception His soul will be full of all knowledge, grace, and strength, according to the saying of Jer. xxxi. 22, a woman shall compass a man. Again, Toletus following Basil, Dionysius and others, is of opinion that Michael was one of the principalities, which S, Dionysius places as the first order of the third hierarchy of angels, but that Gabriel was of the order of archangels; but it is more probable that Michael was of the order of the seraphim, and that Gabriel was next to him.

Nazareth.

Whence Christ was called a Nazarene, being, as it were, the country in which he was conceived. The Blessed Virgin therefore dwelt there with Joseph, to whom she was betrothed. The house or chamber in which she conceived Christ was consecrated by S. James and the other Apostles as a church. After three hundred years S. Helen built a temple there. Also S. Paula, S. Louis, and other travellers visited it. After a thousand years it was translated by angels from Nazareth to Dalmatia and thence to Italy, to Loretto, where it even now stands, and is visited by pilgrims from the whole world; so that Erasmus himself thus addresses the Virgin of Loretto, “Hail to thee, 0 noble offspring of kings, the beauty of priests, the glory of patriarchs, the triumph of the heavenly hosts, the terror of hell, the hope and solace of Christians; thou art next to the Divine nature; do not, we pray thee, be wanting to us; I prostrate myself at thy feet, preserve my poor soul, I beseech thee.”

Ver. 27.—To a Virgin espoused to a man, &c. Espoused, not by betrothal only but by matrimony already contracted, although not actually consummated, see Matt. i 18. S. Gregory Thaumasius (Serm. 3 de Annun.) says, “Gabriel is sent to prepare a chamber worthy of the most pure Bridegroom; he is sent to contract espousals between the creature and the Creator.” Also S. Bernard (Serm 1 de Assump.) well says, “There is no place in the world of greater dignity than the temple of the virginal womb in which Mary conceived the Son of God, nor in heaven is there any place of higher dignity than the royal throne on which her Son has exalted Mary.” And in Serm. 4, “What angelic purity even may we venture to compare with that virginity, which was worthy of becoming the shrine of the Holy Spirit, and the abode of the Son of God.”

Mary.

In Hebrew Miriam, that is, Mar Yam, myrrh, or bitterness of the sea; for the Hebrews have a tradition that the sister of Moses was called Miriam, because when she was born the bitter tyranny of Pharaoh in drowning the Hebrew children began. But, by the Divine will, the name was afterwards changed to a different meaning, for after the Red Sea had been crossed and Pharaoh had been drowned, she was called Mariam (Mara Yam), that is mistress of the sea; for as Moses was the leader of the men, so Miriam was the leader of the women in the passage of the Red Sea. Moreover she was a type, says S. Ambrose, of the Blessed Virgin, who is called Mary, that is the Mistress and Lady of the sea of this world, that she may lead us through it in safety to the promised land, that is heaven. S. Isidore (vii. Etym. cap. 10) says, “Mary is by interpretation illuminator or star of the sea; for she brought forth the Light of the world. But in the Syrian language Mary is called Lady, because she brought forth the Lord.”

For this reason Mary was full of grace, and a sea of graces; for as all rivers run into the sea, so all graces which angels, patriarchs, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins possessed, came together in her, as S. Bonaventura says. S. Bridget also shows in her Revelations, i. 9, how delightful the name of Mary is to the angels, and how terrible to demons.

And the angel came in unto her , &c.

He glided into the chamber of the Virgin as she was praying in secret for the advent of the Messiah and the salvation of men, either through the window or through the door. For angels, since they are most pure spirits, by means of their subtlety pass through all walls and bodies. Although Andrew, Bishop of Jerusalem, in a sermon on the Annunciation, thinks that the angel secretly opened the door and modestly saluted the Virgin.

Hail, Ave .

It is very probable that the angel used the ordinary salutation of the Hebrews, שלום לך, Peace be to thee. Unless the opinion of Serarius is to be preferred, that ave is the Hebrew חוה chave or have, that is, “Live;” so that there is an allusion to the name of Eve, which is in Hebrew חוה chava, that is the mother of all living (Gen. iii. 20), so that the meaning will be, Eve was not the mother of life but of death, because by sin she delivered over all her children to death, but thou, 0 Mary, art truly called Eve, because thou art the mother of life, grace, and glory. Hence in Latin ave is Eva reversed, because Mary turned the maledictions of Eve into blessings.

Highly favoured. Gratia plena ,

Vulgate, full of grace. Greek, κεχαζιτωμένη, which Beza translates gratis dilecta, freely loved; for he thinks that the just have no inherent and intrinsic, but only an extrinsic righteousness, which consists in this, that, although they be sinners, God of his own good will holds and reckons them as just; which is heresy.

But κεχαζιτωμένη answers to the Hebrew נחנה, filled with grace or made acceptable; for χαζιτοω, signifies I make acceptable, I render beloved or dear, I fill with grace. For God judges nothing to be acceptable except what is truly in itself acceptable; wherefore when He makes any one just and acceptable to Himself, He bestows upon him the gift of justice and inherent grace. Wherefore κεχαζιτωμένη is the same as full of grace: as it is rendered in our version and the Syrian, &c.; also by S. Ambrose and others of the Fathers. This word therefore signifies—1. That the Blessed Virgin had a gift of grace bestowed upon her by God, and that, in a full measure of excellence beyond other just and holy persons, for this epithet is applied solely to the Blessed Virgin, to the end that she might be made worthy to become in time the Mother of God. 2. That she by means of this gift of grace was wonderfully well-pleasing in the sight of God and of all His angels, and in their eyes altogether lovely and beautiful, so that Christ chose her before all others for His mother.

You will say that Christ was more full of grace than the Blessed Virgin. Others also of the saints are said to have been full of the Holy Spirit, as Stephen.

I answer that they are said to have been full of grace, but in different ways. For, as Maldonatus rightly says, a fountain is full of water, so is a river, so are streams, although there is more water and purer in a fountain than in a river, and in a river than in streams. Christ is full of grace, like a fountain where grace gushes forth and is collected as in a reservoir, and from which it flows forth to all men, as from a head to the members. The mother of Christ is full like a river very near a fountain, which although it has less water than a fountain, yet flows with a full channel. Stephen is full like a stream.

S. Augustine (Serm xviii de Sanctus) says, “Mary is filled with grace, and Eve is made clear from guilt; the curse of Eve is changed into the blessing of Mary.” Toletus (annotat. 67) shows that the Blessed Virgin was full of all grace, both in body and soul. For she was free from concupiscence (fomite concupiscentiæ), so that in her the flesh was subject to the reason and the spirit, as was the case with Adam in Paradise through original righteousness. Wherefore he adds that in her, nature conspired with grace and co-operated with it in every respect. See also what I have said concerning her in the Commentary on the Canticles, especially on those words (c. iv. 7), Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee.

S. Jerome (Serm. de Assump. B.V.) says, “It is well said that she was full of grace, because on others grace is bestowed partially (per partes), but the fulness of grace in complete treasure was infused into Mary.” And again, “The entire fulness of grace, which is in Christ, came upon Mary, although in a different way.”

Suarez shows that the grace possessed by the Blessed Virgin in the first instant of her conception was greater than the grace which the highest angel possesses, who by one or two acts has perfected all his merits, and therefore she merited more than thousands of men merit through their whole life. Wherefore the Blessed Virgin in this first instant loved and praised God with such earnestness of intention that she exceeded the love, and consequently also the merit, of the highest angel. But in the second instant of her co-operation and love, by means of the increase of grace which in the first instant she had merited and had in reality received, she doubled the degrees of love and consequently also of merit; and in the third instant, by doubling the same she quadrupled both merit and grace; and so in every instant, by doubling continually the grace she had received, until her death in the seventy-second year of her age, she had increased the degrees of grace and merit to such an extent that she altogether excelled in them all men and angels taken together. Wherefore she by herself alone is more acceptable to God than all the rest; and God loves the Blessed Virgin alone more than the whole Church, that is, more than all men and angels taken together. See also the Revelations of S. Bridget i. 10.

The Lord is with thee.

The angel gives the reason why she was full of grace, that is, because the Lord was with her in a singular manner, so that He wrought in her the singular work of the Incarnation of the Word. S. Bernard (Serm. 3) says, “What wonder is it that she was full of grace with whom the Lord was? But this rather is to be wondered at, how He who had sent the angel to the Virgin was found by the angel with the Virgin. Was God then swifter than the angel, so that He outstripped him and reached the earth before His swift messenger? Nor is it to be wondered at. For since the king was on His couch, the sweet ointment of the Virgin gave forth its odour, and the smoke of spices went up in the sight of His glory, and she found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” And further on he shows that God is in all creatures by power, in rational beings by knowledge, in the good by love, and therefore He is with them by concord of the will, for it is by means of this that they unite themselves to God. Then he adds, “But since He is in this way with all the saints, yet He was in an especial manner with Mary, between whom and Himself there was such a consent that He joined not only her will, but her flesh to Himself, and of His own and the Virgin’s substance made one Christ; who although He is not wholely of God nor wholely of the Virgin, yet He is wholely God’s and wholely the Virgin’s, and not two sons, but the one son of both.” Then he shows that the whole Trinity was with the Blessed Virgin. “Not only is the Lord the Son with thee whom thou art clothing with thy flesh, but also the Lord the Spirit by Whom thou art conceiving, and the Lord the Father who begat Him whom thou art conceiving.”

S. Bridget (Revel. iii 29), conversing with the Blessed Virgin, says, Thou art made like to the Temple of Solomon, in which the true Solomon moves, and He sits who has made peace between God and man. Blessed therefore art thou, 0 Blessed Virgin, in whom the great God became a little child, the eternal God and invisible Creator became a visible creature.” The Blessed Virgin answers, “Why do you compare me with Solomon and his Temple, since I am the mother of Him Who has neither beginning nor end, for the Son of God, Who is my Son, is Priest and King of kings. In short, in my Temple He clothed Himself spiritually with the priestly garments in which He offered sacrifice for the world.”

Further S. Thomas (Quæst. xxx. art. 4) expounds the words the Lord is with thee of the Conception and Incarnation of the Word, which was presently to take place, but which had not already taken place; as I shall show at verse 38.

Blessed art thou among women.

The same was said of Jael and Judith, but it is said here of the Blessed Virgin in a far more excellent way, for she excelled Jael and Judith, and all virgins and matrons a thousand times in blessings, gifts, and graces.

S. Augustine (Serm. 18 de Sanctis) says, “Blessed art thou among women, for thou hast brought forth life both for men and women. The mother of our race brought punishment into the world; the Mother of our Lord brought salvation to the world. Eve was the originator of sin, Mary of merit.” Peter Chrysologus (Serm. 145) says on these words, “She was truly blessed, for she was greater than the heaven, stronger than the earth, wider than the world; she by herself alone contained God, whom the world contains not; she bore Him Who bears the world; she brought forth Him by Whom she had been begotten, she gives nourishment to the Nourisher of all things living.”

Among women.

That he might signify that whatever is most excellent in the threefold condition of women is found in the Blessed Virgin. For women are either virgins or widows, or living in matrimony. In Virgins chastity is praised, but not barrenness; in widows liberty of mind is commanded, but not solitude, for it is written (Eccles. iv. 10) “Woe to him that is alone, for when he falleth he hath not one to lift him up.” In matrimony the education of offspring in what is good is highly esteemed, but not the loss of Virginity. The Blessed Virgin alone among all women possessed virginity without barrenness; liberty of mind without loss of companionship, since she was really espoused to Joseph; and what is a greater thing than these, fruitfulness in offspring without the violation of virgin chastity. And so she appropriated whatever is good in the threefold state of women, and whatever is evil she rejected. Whereupon deservedly the angel proclaims her Blessed above all women.

Ver 29.—She was troubled. First, at the unwonted appearance, brightness, and majesty of the angel. Secondly, at his unwonted salutation. S. Jerome (Epist. 7) says, “Let a woman imitate Mary, whom Gabriel found alone in her chamber, and therefore, perhaps, she was alarmed at beholding a man whom she was not accustomed to see” Again S. Bernard (Serm. iii. on Missus Est) says, “She was troubled, but not alarmed; her being troubled was a mark of modesty; her not being alarmed of courage; while her keeping silence and meditating was a mark of prudence.”

What manner of salutation.

That is, how noble and august, and exceeding the strength and merits of all men, and therefore even her own. For she, in the greatness of her humility, thought far different, yea, even contrary things of herself. For she thought within herself; I seem to myself to be in need of all grace, how then does the angel call me fill of grace, I in my poverty live and associate with poor virgins, how then does the angel proclaim to me that the Lord is wish me. I esteem myself the least and lowest of all women, how then does the angel say to me, Blessed art Thou among women.

Again, the Blessed Virgin was meditating to what end she was so honourably saluted by the angel; for the salutation of the angel had reference to the mystery of the Incarnation which was to be accomplished in her. But since she knew not of this end, she meditated and wondered why she was so honourably saluted by the angel. However, she made no answer, because, as S. Ambrose says, “she did not return the salutation through modesty, nor did she make any answer;” because modesty and astonishment fully occupied her mind, and restrained her tongue.

Listen again to S. Ambrose, “Know the Virgin by her modesty: or she was afraid; as it follows, and when she heard she was troubled. It is the habit of virgins to tremble and to be afraid at the approach of a man, and to be bashful when he addresses her. Learn, 0 virgin, to avoid lightness in talking. Mary feared even the salutation of an angel.”

Ver. 30.—And the angel said unto her, &c. The angel removes the fear, and then the rising shame of the Virgin, by the grace, that is, the favour and goodwill which he says she has found in the eyes of God above all women; first, because God chose her from all eternity above all others without merit, and of His free and gratuitous love to be His Mother, of whom he would take flesh: secondly, because as soon as she was conceived and born in time, He so adorned her with every virtue and grace that in His sight she appeared altogether pleasing and worthy to be loved by Him, and exalted above all. Thou hast therefore found favour with God on account of the virtues infused into thee by Him in a most excellent degree. The first is thy most profound humility: the second was thy angelic virginity. S. Basil, in his homily on the human generation of Christ, says, “Virginity is chosen, as being fit and next to sanctity.”

The third virtue was her most ardent charity, by which the Blessed Virgin, being desirous of the redemption of mankind and the Advent of the Messiah, used to pour forth unceasing and fervent prayers for both, and therefore she obtained both, and, further, merited herself to become the mother of the Messiah, not from grace of condignity but of congruity. So S. Bernard (Hom. 3 super Missus Est), “Thou hast found what thou wast seeking. Thou hast found what no one before thee was able to find. Thou hast found favour with God. What favour? Peace, between God and man, the destruction of death, the restoration of life.” The Schoolmen everywhere teach that the Blessed Virgin merited to become the Mother of God. See Suarez. And some teach that she merited of congruity not of condignity to become the Mother of God, yet that she did not merit the Incarnation of the Word; for this is antecedent to all merit, and is the cause and origin of it.

Ver. 31.—Behold, thou shalt conceive. The angel shows that Mary found favour with God because she is about to conceive and bring forth Jesus, that is, God and man. He alludes to and also quotes the prophecy, Isa. vii. 14.

Hence then is refuted, first, the Manichæan, who says that Christ did not take real flesh of the Virgin, but only the appearance of flesh; for a son who is conceived in the womb and brought forth is a real son, and not one in appearance only: secondly, Valentinus, who teaches that Christ brought flesh from heaven, and merely passed through the Blessed Virgin, as water passes through a channel; thirdly, Nestorius, who asserts that the Blessed Virgin was not the Mother of God because she was not the Mother of the Divinity; to whom Cyril well replies that she is truly the Mother of God although she did not bring forth His Divinity, but His humanity only, because she brought forth the Man, namely Jesus, Who is truly God: as a father is truly called the father of his son, although he does not beget his soul, but only his flesh, because he begets a man who consists of soul and flesh,

Ver. 32.—He shall be great, &c. Great both as God and as man. And He shall be called the Son of the Highest; that is through the hypostatic union. He can and ought of right to be called the Son of God.

Ver. 33.—And He shall reign over the house of Jacob. That is, over the Church, as Bede and others say. This kingdom in David was a temporal one, but in Christ a spiritual and eternal one, because He reigns over His saints here by grace, and in heaven He will reign over them in glory. See what I have said on the kingdom of Christ, Matt. xxvii. II.

Ver. 34.—And Mary said to the angel, &c. The Virgin had no doubt concerning the truth of the prophesy and promise of the angel, as Calvin blasphemously asserts, but she was anxious as to the manner of its fulfilment, lest the conception of a son should involve a loss of virginity, and a breaking of the vow which she had made concerning it. So S. Ambrose, Augustine, &c.

We may learn here how great was the zeal and love for virginity which the Blessed Virgin had, because, as Nyssen says, “she preferred chastity to the angelic tidings; and preferred being a virgin to being absolutely the Mother of God, as S. Anselm says. For virginity is in itself a virtue most pleasing to God, while maternity is not so absolutely. I say absolutely; for in other respects maternity is an incomprehensible dignity bestowed by God (as God Himself is incomprehensible) and an abyss of all graces. For on account of this the Blessed Virgin was endowed with more than angelic virginity, humility, charity, and other virtues, that she might be worthy to become the Mother of God. So S. Augustine, S. Thomas, &c.

Wherefore Bede says, that by a divine gift it was granted to her first among women to make an offering of her virginity to God. And Albertus Magnus (super Missus Est, c. 82) says, “The Blessed Virgin is the mother of all who are in virginity, since she was the first to make an offering of her virginity to God, through which offering she became the mother of all virgins.” Wherefore the Blessed Virgin, being most anxious concerning her virginity and the vow she had made with respect to it, makes mention of it as it were by way of objection to the angel. For there was a conflict in her between the desire of conceiving the Son of God and the fear of losing her virginity: and therefore she obtained both. The sense therefore is: “I surely believe that I shall conceive and bring forth Jesus, the Son of God, but I am doubtful as to the way in which this will be. I know not a man, because I have made a vow of virginity: if God wishes to dispense with this vow, though it be hard, yet I will obey the will of God: but if He seeks to know my desire, I certainly declare that I earnestly desire to preserve the virginity that I have vowed to Him: for He who is a most pure spirit, and therefore the first virgin, has Himself put it into my mind; and it will be honourable to my Son Jesus if He is born of a virgin. For I know what has been foretold by Isaiah, Behold a virgin shall conceive, and shall bring forth Emmanuel; and it may be the will of God that I should be that virgin. If it is so, be it so.” Whence on hearing immediately from Gabriel that she would conceive not by a man, but by the Holy Spirit, she immediately breaks forth with great joy of heart, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And it was this word that God wished to hear, so that through the profession of her virginity she might merit to become the Mother of God.

Ver. 35.—And the Angel answered . . . the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, &c. Mark here that the Incarnation is limited only to the Person of the Word, or Son of God: for He alone was incarnate and made man, and not the Father nor the Holy Spirit: and yet the incarnation was the work of the whole Trinity, as its efficient cause and not only of the Son. Yet this work of the Incarnation is appropriated to the Holy Spirit, first, because it was a most holy work; secondly, because the works relating to our redemption, and those which most display God’s goodness are appropriated to the Holy Spirit, because He proceeds forth as the ideal love of the Father and the Son: in the same way wisdom is appropriated to the Son as the Word, and omnipotence to the Father as the first principle and origin. Moreover, the Holy Spirit was the framer of the humanity of Christ, because He fashioned and animated it, but He cannot be called its Father, because He did not contribute or communicate anything to it of His own substance. S. Augustine (Enchirid. c. 28).

Further S. Cyril (Catech. 12) shows that a virgin by the power of God could conceive and bring forth; and first, in arguing with the Gentiles, he says, “How is it that ye, who say that stones when thrown were changed into men, maintain that a virgin cannot bring forth? How is it that, ye, who fable that a daughter was born out of the head of Jupiter, maintain that it is impossible that one can be born of a virgin’s womb?” And then, arguing with the Jews, he says, “Sara was barren, and she brought forth a child beyond the way of nature at an age when women have lost the power (to do so): either then deny both, or grant both, for the same God was the worker of both.” He further says, that God out of the virgin Adam formed a virgin woman, namely Eve; why could He not then in like manner form a virgin man out of a virgin woman?

Shall come upon thee.

In order that the conception of Christ, and Christ Himself, might be holy, not only by reason of the hypostatic union with the Word, but also by reason of so divine a conception, for He was conceived not by a man or an angel, but by the Holy Ghost. Wherefore Christ, by virtue of this conception, was not the son of Adam, so as to derive original sin from him, and be born a sinner, as we all are born, but He was most pure and most holy.

Again Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, because it was fitting, since He was both God and man, that both should be recognised in the conception. For the conception itself declares that He was Man; for He would not have been conceived unless He had been man; and the manner of the conception shows that He was also God; for to be conceived by a virgin without a husband, shows that He who was conceived was more than man.

Mystically, S. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. 12) says, the Lord willed to be born of a virgin, to signify that His members would be born according to the Spirit of the Church, which is a virgin.

Lactantius gives another reason, which is that Christ, Who in heaven is α̉μήτωζ, without a mother, might be on earth α̉πάτωζ, without a father. But the first reason is the chief one, namely, that Christ might be born without original sin.

Proclus (Hom. de Nativ.) says, “Mary is both handmaid and mother, both virgin and heaven itself. She is the one bridge by which God comes down to man. She is the wonderful web of that economy, of whom and in whom, in a certain ineffable manner, the admirable fabric of that union was wrought, of which the Holy Spirit was the weaver, the power overshadowing from on high was the spinner; the wool was the old and rough garment of Adam; the woof was the pure flesh of the Virgin; the weaver’s shuttle was the immeasurable grace of her who was with child; the artificer was the Word which passed in through the hearing.”

The power of the Highest

, &c. According to Euthymius and Maldonatus, the power of the Highest is the Holy Spirit, Who with power brings the holy works of God to perfection, so that these words are an explanation of what the angel had said, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. So Christ (cap. xxiv. 49) says to the Apostles, Tarry in this city (Jerusalem) until ye be endued with power from on high, i.e. with the Holy Spirit. This it is of which the Church speaks, “Almighty and everlasting God, Who by the co-operation of the Holy Spirit didst prepare the body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother Mary that she might be worthy to be made a fit habitation for thy Son.”

Shall overshadow thee.

S. Gregory (33 Moral. c. 2) explains thus, “The Word of God in thee will assume a body, which will be as it were a shadow of Deity, for it will as a shadow veil and conceal It.” And again he says (18 Moral 12), “The human body in thee shall receive the incorporeal light of Divinity.” Origen says also that the Body of Christ is called a shadow, because in the Passion it was humiliated and obscured after the manner of a shadow.

S. Ambrose (on Psalm 119) understands by the shadow this present and mortal life which the Spirit gave to Christ, for this is, as it were, a shadow of the true life and of eternity.

S. Augustine (Quæst. V. et N. T. c. 15) says, The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, i.e. shall attemper itself to thee, as a shadow adjusts itself to a body, for thy human weakness could not contain the fulness of its force and power.

But more simply, the meaning is, It will cover thee as with a veil, i.e., will secretly work a mighty operation in thee; for it will be such and so great a one that no man or angel can penetrate into or comprehend it. For, first, it will form in thee the perfect humanity of Christ; and, secondly, it will unite the same in a certain ineffable manner to the Person of the Word.

Again, to overshadow may be taken as answering to the Hebrew word ענז, to cover with a cloud, and so to rain upon, for a cloud pours forth rain, and hence by the shadow and the cloud is signified rain, which is poured forth from the cloud and renders the earth fruitful. An allusion seems to be made to Psalm lxxii. 6, He shall come down like the rain into a fleece of wool.

Wherefore that Holy Thing which shall be born of Thee shall be called the Son of God.

Because the Holy Spirit will come upon thee, and cause thee to conceive a son, the Son which shall be born of thee will be holy from His very conception, yea, the Holy of Holies, because He will be called, and through His hypostatic union with the Word will truly be, the natural and Only Begotten Son of God, and will be called so by God, by angels, and by men; for He who is conceived by the Holy Spirit must needs be most Holy. Maldonatus somewhat differently says, “Jesus is called the Son of God, because He will not be begotten as the rest of men are, but by God through the power of the Spirit, and therefore He will be holy, and the Son of God.” So (Luke iii. 38) Adam is called the Son of God, because he was created not by man but by God.

He says, That Holy Thing, not Man, to show that this Son will not be a mere man, but besides being, a man will also be God (S. Greg. xviii. Moral. c. 27); and also to declare that Jesus will be holy with a holiness altogether perfect and natural on account of the hypostatic union (Suarez, iii. p. disp. 18 sect. 1): so that the meaning is, Jesus, Who will be born of thee, will be Most Holy, yea, Holiness itself.

S. Bernard (Serm. 4 super Missus Est) says, “Why does he say merely that Holy Thing, and no more? Because there was not any proper or worthy expression that he could use. If he had said that holy flesh, or that holy man, or whatever expression of such a kind he had used, he would have seemed to himself to have said but little. He uses, therefore, the indefinite expression, That Holy Thing; because whatever it was that the Virgin brought forth, It was without doubt holy and in a singular manner holy, both through the sanctification of the Spirit and the assumption of the Word.”

The Son of God

by nature, Who would make all the faithful, sons of God by grace.

Ver. 36.—And, behold, thy cousin Elizabeth. The angel confirms the miracle of the coming birth of Jesus of the Virgin and the Holy Spirit by the similar miracle of the conception of John by Elizabeth who was barren. At the same time he silently admonishes the Blessed Virgin that she should visit John and Elizabeth, and fill them with the Holy Spirit by saluting them.

For with God nothing shall be impossible

(Vulgate, non omne verbum, no word, which is a Hebraism), i.e. nothing, however difficult or incredible to man; or, as others take it, no word, i.e. no promise; which means that God is able to perform all things that He has promised, because He is omnipotent; and He will really perform them because He is faithful. He says word, because it is as easy to God to do a thing as it is to us to speak a word, and because He spake a word only and all things were made. “Inasmuch as,” says S. Bernard (Serm. 4 on Missus Est), “with God neither does His word fall short of His intention, because He is Truth; nor His deed fall short of His word, because He is Power; nor the manner (in which the deed is done) fall short of the deed, because He is Wisdom.” “God,” says S. Augustine (lib. 5 de Civ. c. 10), “can do all things except those things which to be able to do is a mark not of power, but of weakness; and which if he were able to do He would not be omnipotent; such as to die, to deceive, to err, to sin.”

The angel stood, and was silent, eagerly expecting the answer and consent of the Virgin. Whence S. Bernard (Serm.4, super Missus Est) says, that Adam and all the patriarchs and prophets, being anxious concerning the coming of the Messiah and the salvation of men, were waiting for this consent; and he adds “the whole world, prostrate at thy knees, is waiting for this: and rightly, since on thy words depend, the consolation of the miserable, the, redemption of the captives, the liberation of the damned, the salvation, in short, of all the sons of Adam. Make answer, 0 Virgin, speedily, speak the word which earth, which the dwellers below and the dwellers on high are waiting for. The King and Lord of all things Himself desires thine assent, by which His purpose is to save the world.”

Ver. 38.—And Mary said, &c. Mark the humility, modesty, and resignation of the Virgin, for though saluted by the angel as Mother of God, she calls herself His handmaid, not His mother; handmaid by nature, mother by grace. Pet. Dam. (Serm. 3 de Nativ. Virg.). And S. Bernard (Serm. in Apoc. 12) says, “A great sign: deservedly she made mistress of all who declared herself servant of all.”

Be it unto me (Fiat). This word shows that she consented and yielded her assent to the angel with respect to the conception of the Word; also that she wished, desired, and earnestly prayed for the Incarnation of the Messiah, so that He might redeem and save mankind. For this the Blessed Virgin most ardently desired and prayed for. “Be it so, is a mark of desire, not a sign of doubt.” S. Bernard (Serm. 4 sup. Missus Est).

There is a question at what precise moment the Son of God became carnate. 1. Andrew* of Crete is of opinion that He was incarnate before the angel came to the Blessed Virgin. For his words, the Lord is with thee, clearly signify that the King Himself had come.

2. Nicephorus maintains that Christ became incarnate when the angel saluted her and said Hail, thou art full of grace (Lib. 1. c. 8). S. Jerome (Ep. 140) and S. Gregory Thaumaturgus favour this opinion.

3. Others appear to think that He became incarnate when the Angel said The Lord is with thee. S. Augustine (Serm. 2 de Annunc.) and S. Thomas (3 p. qu. 30 art. 4) and others so explain it.

But these opinions cannot be true; because the angel after the Hail, &c. adds, Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb; therefore she had not yet conceived. Again the Blessed Virgin giving her assent to the angel says, Be it unto me according to thy word; therefore it had not yet taken place.

I say then that the Word was incarnate as soon as the Blessed Virgin had given her assent to the angel; for he was sent for this purpose; for it was not fitting that Christ should be conceived without the consent or knowledge of His Virgin Mother; as soon then as she had spoken the words, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, Be it unto me according to thy word, the Holy Spirit formed the Body of Christ, and joined It Hypostatically to the Word, or Person of the Son of God; in the same way as when the priest in consecration says, This is my Body, by the power of these words the bread is transubstantiated into the Body of Christ. This again is clear from the fact that as soon as the Virgin had given her consent the angel, having, as it were, fulfilled his mission, departed from her. It is confirmed too by the fact that soon after the Blessed Virgin had said, Be it unto me, &c., when she saluted Elizabeth, being saluted by her in return she was called the Mother of the Lord, i.e. of Christ Who is God. The Virgin, therefore, when she said, Be it unto me, &c., was made as it were the spouse of God, and our flesh was made the spouse of the Word.

To those who maintain a contrary opinion it may be replied—1. that Andrew of Crete seems to have been of an opposite opinion, but that he was alone in maintaining it; for the rest contradict him. 2. That Nicephorus by the words Hail, &c., understands the whole of the salutation and annunciation made by the angel, at the end of which the Word was made flesh. 3. S. Augustine, S. Thomas, and Damian are to be understood (when they say the Lord is with thee) not as to what had already taken place, but as to what was immediately going to take place.

The Blessed Virgin in the conception of the Son received an extraordinary increase of grace and perfect sanctification; and this, says Suarez, may not be doubted without temerity. Whence Bede (Hom. de. Visit.) says, “Who can say or measure what grace then filled the spirit of the Mother of God, when so great a light from heaven shone forth in the mother of His forerunner?” S. Bernard gives a reason for this (Vol. 1, conclus. 61, art 1, cap. 12), “In order that God should generate God, no especial arrangement was needed on the part of God, since according to His nature it was fitting that in the way of nature His intellect should produce the Word, in all things equal to Himself; but that a woman should conceive and bring forth God is and was a miracle; for there was a necessity, so to say, that she should be raised to a certain divine equality by means of a certain quasi-infinity of perfections and graces, which equality no creature had ever experienced. Whence, as I believe, no human or angelic intellect has ever been able to attain to that inscrutable abyss of all gifts of the Holy Spirit which descended on the Blessed Virgin in the hour of the Divine conceptions.”

And the angel departed from her.

The Blessed Virgin made known to some that Gabriel did not depart immediately, but stayed with her for nine hours, being overcome with astonishment at the Incarnation of the Word in her, and that he adored the Word incarnate; as if rapt in admiration at the incredible modesty and majesty of the Virgin, he were unable to depart. (The records of S. George in Alga in Lusitania mention this tradition.) But though this is a pious tradition it is not to be regarded as certainly true.