#Engraftment

[rodspurethoughts]

FDA Approves Omisirge, a Cell Therapy for Blood Cancer Patients Undergoing Stem Cell Transplantation

The FDA has recently approved a cell therapy called Omisirge (omidubicel-onlv) for patients with blood cancers who are undergoing stem cell transplantation. This allogeneic cord blood-based cell therapy can help speed up the recovery of neutrophils in the body, a type of white blood cell, and reduce the risk of infection. Omisirge is intended for use in adults and pediatric patients 12 years and…

[transtheology]

According to Matson, 39, his “disclosing,” as he describes it, is a moment years in the making. He offered his story as indicative of the often difficult path for trans Catholics, including those seeking life as a religious — a category that includes brothers and nuns.

“I am currently based in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky,” he wrote in an email to friends and supporters on Sunday. “I live in a hermitage at the top of a wooded hill, which I share with my German Shepherd rescue, Odie, and with the Blessed Sacrament, which was installed in my oratory shortly before Christmas.”

[...] Matson approached a canon lawyer to discuss his options and was told that only two aspects of Catholic life were categorically off the table: marriage and the priesthood. According to Matson, the canon lawyer recommended being upfront about his status as a transgender man in any vocational conversations with church leaders and mentioned the role of a diocesan hermit, which could prove less challenging than enlisting with an existing religious order.

[...] What followed was roughly a decade of searching and no small amount of rejection. Living in the United Kingdom while pursuing a master’s degree, and later a Ph.D. in theology, Matson entered a vocational discernment program and approached the Jesuit order to ask if he could join.

“They said, ‘No, we just don’t see how this would work for us,’ which was crushing, because that’s where I felt called,” Matson said.

[...] “I thought, well, if I can’t find a religious community to sponsor me, maybe what I need is a bishop,” Matson said.

A priest friend recommended different bishops to contact, beginning with Stowe, who was emerging as a leading voice among Catholics calling for a more tolerant approach to LGBTQ+ people. In 2020, Matson sent Stowe a letter, conveying his status as a transgender man, his vision for an artists’ community and his pull to religious life.

Stowe wrote back immediately, expressing his openness.

“It was an enormous relief,” Matson said. “I was in tears. I felt my hope revive.”

[...] Matson vented his frustrations to Stowe and his spiritual director, saying he wanted to speak out. But he said he was advised to first “build a foundation” in religious life for several years.

During that time, Matson had an experience that shook him. Attending a friend’s play in his religious habit, he was approached by a student who identified as trans and nonbinary. After asking if Matson was a monk, the student said they were raised Catholic, but that their parents had rejected their identity, and the student felt like they “don’t have a place in the church anymore.”

Matson responded by saying there were people in the church who would support the student, and Matson prayed with them, asking God to show the student how they are “wonderful the way you’ve made them.” The student, Matson said, grew emotional, thanking the hermit profusely and saying, “No one from the church has ever affirmed me for who I am.”

[...] As for ever leaving Catholicism itself, Matson bristled at the idea, calling the church “my family.” “I’m Catholic,” he said. “I became Catholic after I transitioned because of the Catholic understanding — the sacramental understanding — of the body, of creation, of the desirability of the visible unity of the church and primarily because of the Eucharist.”

At the very least, Matson said, he hopes going public will spark dialogue about his fellow transgender Catholics, a discussion he believes can enhance unity among the body of believers.

“You’ve got to deal with us, because God has called us into this church,” he said. “It’s not your church to kick us out of — this is God’s church, and God has called us and engrafted us into it.”

[secretmellowblog]

> Not a single future dreamed of engrafting itself on this solitary old man. Not a single sprouting ambition committed the folly of putting forth its foliage in his shadow.

I am always really “!” By the emphasis on how Myriel’s humility/charity/etc means that no one wants to follow in his footsteps, because the rest of the church is after money/power.

I also think it’s significant his “legacy” ends up being Jean Valjean— a poor felon continues the legacy of charity that other bishops will not.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Kelly Betts

People can’t see my disability from the outside. I worry that in this current political climate and with the new law, it may not end at the comments and harassment I already face.

On Thursday, officials in Nassau County, New York, where I live, signed a mask ban into law, one of the first of its kind in the country. And while to most healthy adults it doesn’t mean much, to those with serious health conditions, like me, it makes getting out into the world a lot harder.

The ban was touted by lawmakers as a public safety measure after reported antisemitic incidents and protests at various New York universities, many involving people wearing masks. Those who violate the new law face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. And while there are exemptions for people with religious and medical reasons, it’s not dealing with the law that I’m afraid of. It’s dealing with the “citizen cops” of the world who will be using their discretion to enforce it.

I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in February 2023. It’s a fast-growing type of blood cancer. I underwent more than five rounds of chemotherapy, and the following July, thanks to an amazingly generous donor, I had a stem cell transplant, something I knew nothing about until I got sick. I was given some of the most powerful chemotherapies to kill my old immune system and any remaining cancer cells. Then I was given my donor’s stem cells to help build a brand-new immune system.

There are a lot of risks that come along with the transplant, especially in the early stages as the stem cells are engrafting and you have no immune system. The first 100 days are the riskiest, and you must watch everything from what you eat to how it’s prepared, and most of all the people around you. Your body is starting from scratch, so you have almost no immunities. Any vaccinations you’ve had over your lifetime have been wiped out. For the last year since my transplant, my immune system has slowly been getting stronger. But building a new immune system takes years, and I have a long way to go. So, wearing my face mask whenever I go out is essential.

That brings me back to the new law. I wear a medic alert bracelet and would hope that showing it to the police, should it ever become an issue, would be enough. But that’s not guaranteed, because anyone can just order one. Would I be forced to show up in court to prove my medical condition to a judge? And what cost and time could that take, all to protect my health? And what about my family or people who act as caregivers, who don’t technically have medical conditions of their own, but still wear masks to protect me? Would there be an exemption for them?

Most of all, I worry about those who have strong feelings against masks. As we know, many people read headlines and not always the full story. And just reading most of the headlines, all someone will know is that there’s a mask ban in Nassau County. Even at the height of my illness, with no hair and really looking like I had cancer, I still got comments like “Covid is over” or “that’s not protecting you.” And while the few comments hurt, especially while I was battling for my life, I could shake them off. I had a bigger fight ahead of me.

Now, healthier with hair again and 43 years old, the comments continue. But I worry that in this current political climate and with the new law, it may not end at that. People can’t see my disability from the outside. It’s been hard to get back out in the world, as many can relate to after going through a global pandemic. Even being as careful as I am and just starting to let my guard down a little in outdoor settings, I caught Covid. And it took my body and immune system down hard. Luckily, I’m recovering and back to wearing my mask diligently, even outdoors.

I want to be able to return to my normal life. And go out with friends, see a Broadway show, and one day get back to my office in the city. But now with New York City considering passing its own mask ban, I don’t know when I would feel safe enough to do that. Is this law really protecting the masses?

[lnfini]

In the rotten bramble-wood his skull abloom with thorn and vine A man who had my own face stood; its petals soft, blossom divine. He looked upon me with no eyes and spoke without a mouth to talk; His voice rang out in bell-like chimes: "In the depths does God's corpse rot."

stroma is finally complete, with chapter 3: emesis.

if you are interested, read from the beginning here. you may also read it on my personal site.

thank you very much for reading.

[lesmisletters-daily]

The Solitude Of Monseigneur Welcome

Les Mis Letters reading club explores one chapter of Les Misérables every day. Join us on Discord, Substack - or share your thoughts right here on tumblr - today's tag is #lm 1.1.12

A bishop is almost always surrounded by a full squadron of little abbés, just as a general is by a covey of young officers. This is what that charming Saint François de Sales calls somewhere “les prêtres blancs-becs,” callow priests. Every career has its aspirants, who form a train for those who have attained eminence in it. There is no power which has not its dependents. There is no fortune which has not its court. The seekers of the future eddy around the splendid present. Every metropolis has its staff of officials. Every bishop who possesses the least influence has about him his patrol of cherubim from the seminary, which goes the round, and maintains good order in the episcopal palace, and mounts guard over monseigneur’s smile. To please a bishop is equivalent to getting one’s foot in the stirrup for a sub-diaconate. It is necessary to walk one’s path discreetly; the apostleship does not disdain the canonship.

Just as there are bigwigs elsewhere, there are big mitres in the Church. These are the bishops who stand well at Court, who are rich, well endowed, skilful, accepted by the world, who know how to pray, no doubt, but who know also how to beg, who feel little scruple at making a whole diocese dance attendance in their person, who are connecting links between the sacristy and diplomacy, who are abbés rather than priests, prelates rather than bishops. Happy those who approach them! Being persons of influence, they create a shower about them, upon the assiduous and the favored, and upon all the young men who understand the art of pleasing, of large parishes, prebends, archidiaconates, chaplaincies, and cathedral posts, while awaiting episcopal honors. As they advance themselves, they cause their satellites to progress also; it is a whole solar system on the march. Their radiance casts a gleam of purple over their suite. Their prosperity is crumbled up behind the scenes, into nice little promotions. The larger the diocese of the patron, the fatter the curacy for the favorite. And then, there is Rome. A bishop who understands how to become an archbishop, an archbishop who knows how to become a cardinal, carries you with him as conclavist; you enter a court of papal jurisdiction, you receive the pallium, and behold! you are an auditor, then a papal chamberlain, then monsignor, and from a Grace to an Eminence is only a step, and between the Eminence and the Holiness there is but the smoke of a ballot. Every skull-cap may dream of the tiara. The priest is nowadays the only man who can become a king in a regular manner; and what a king! the supreme king. Then what a nursery of aspirations is a seminary! How many blushing choristers, how many youthful abbés bear on their heads Perrette’s pot of milk! Who knows how easy it is for ambition to call itself vocation? in good faith, perchance, and deceiving itself, devotee that it is.

Monseigneur Bienvenu, poor, humble, retiring, was not accounted among the big mitres. This was plain from the complete absence of young priests about him. We have seen that he “did not take” in Paris. Not a single future dreamed of engrafting itself on this solitary old man. Not a single sprouting ambition committed the folly of putting forth its foliage in his shadow. His canons and grand-vicars were good old men, rather vulgar like himself, walled up like him in this diocese, without exit to a cardinalship, and who resembled their bishop, with this difference, that they were finished and he was completed. The impossibility of growing great under Monseigneur Bienvenu was so well understood, that no sooner had the young men whom he ordained left the seminary than they got themselves recommended to the archbishops of Aix or of Auch, and went off in a great hurry. For, in short, we repeat it, men wish to be pushed. A saint who dwells in a paroxysm of abnegation is a dangerous neighbor; he might communicate to you, by contagion, an incurable poverty, an anchylosis of the joints, which are useful in advancement, and in short, more renunciation than you desire; and this infectious virtue is avoided. Hence the isolation of Monseigneur Bienvenu. We live in the midst of a gloomy society. Success; that is the lesson which falls drop by drop from the slope of corruption.

Be it said in passing, that success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men. For the masses, success has almost the same profile as supremacy. Success, that Menæchmus of talent, has one dupe,—history. Juvenal and Tacitus alone grumble at it. In our day, a philosophy which is almost official has entered into its service, wears the livery of success, and performs the service of its antechamber. Succeed: theory. Prosperity argues capacity. Win in the lottery, and behold! you are a clever man. He who triumphs is venerated. Be born with a silver spoon in your mouth! everything lies in that. Be lucky, and you will have all the rest; be happy, and people will think you great. Outside of five or six immense exceptions, which compose the splendor of a century, contemporary admiration is nothing but short-sightedness. Gilding is gold. It does no harm to be the first arrival by pure chance, so long as you do arrive. The common herd is an old Narcissus who adores himself, and who applauds the vulgar herd. That enormous ability by virtue of which one is Moses, Æschylus, Dante, Michael Angelo, or Napoleon, the multitude awards on the spot, and by acclamation, to whomsoever attains his object, in whatsoever it may consist. Let a notary transfigure himself into a deputy: let a false Corneille compose <i>Tiridate;</i> let a eunuch come to possess a harem; let a military Prudhomme accidentally win the decisive battle of an epoch; let an apothecary invent cardboard shoe-soles for the army of the Sambre-and-Meuse, and construct for himself, out of this cardboard, sold as leather, four hundred thousand francs of income; let a pork-packer espouse usury, and cause it to bring forth seven or eight millions, of which he is the father and of which it is the mother; let a preacher become a bishop by force of his nasal drawl; let the steward of a fine family be so rich on retiring from service that he is made minister of finances,—and men call that Genius, just as they call the face of Mousqueton <i>Beauty</i>, and the mien of Claude <i>Majesty</i>. With the constellations of space they confound the stars of the abyss which are made in the soft mire of the puddle by the feet of ducks.

[henrygrass]

Life update tag game

Thank you for the tags @carlossreaders @everlastingday @herefortarlos

Last Song: "Coraline" by Måneskin (I’m kinda obsessed with it right now; I’m playing it on a loop.)

Favorite Colour: Black

Last Book: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (I always come back to this series. Will I finish it this time?)

Last Movie: Wicked (I loved it so much!)

Last TV-Show: I've been rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Lone Star.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Spicy

Relationship Status: Does a friends-with-benefits situation count?

Last Thing I Googled: "Engraft," because I didn't know what it meant.

Current Obsession: Apart from Tarlos, Dungeons & Dragons.

Looking Forward To: Finishing my D&D campaign (just to start a new one), reading the many fics I have on my list, going back to Zurich in a month or so to see my nephew again.

Open tag & tagging a few (no pressure) @nisbanisba @carlos-in-glasses @heartstringsduet @emsprovisions @bonheur-cafe @eclectic-sassycoweyes @lemonlyman-dotcom

[torchflies]

Hi have 2 questions!

1. What's the age difference between Bradley and CCS Jake?

2. Jake was 8 when he met them, 9 when he was getting his last treatment and by the tome he was 10 he was in remission, right? Just want to make sure my brain has the timeline right lol

I’m ready to answer, Nonny!

Approximately nine years, because Bradley got a late start 👀 and stubbornly worked to pay his own way for a few years before reapplying to the USNA. (Jake loves dinosaurs, what can I say? 😂)

2. Kind of.

See, Jake got his cord blood transplant at nine, yes, which officially destroyed all his cancer (the graft takes care of what was still there). That's technically remission at nine. But engraftment (the cord blood replacing all his destroyed bone marrow) takes FOREVER for cord blood transplants because of the small volume transplanted. It’s the major drawback for cord blood transplants (total hospitalized isolation for about 6 weeks and six months to a year before everything is as it should be — imagine having the immune system of a newborn again 😬 ).

Hope that helps! 😊

Thank you for your questions!!!! 🥹

[transmutationisms]

i just read Against Exercise. i wanted to ask what you make of this sentence and the wider paradigm he gestures at occasionally in the essay:

Upon the desperate materialist gratifications of a hedonic society, commanding immediate comfort and happiness, we engraft the desperate economics of health, and chase a longer span of happinesses deferred, and comforts delayed, by disposing of the better portion of our lives in life preservation.

do we live in a ‘hedonic’ society? and does that framing shape his conclusions on in ur opinion? i have my own thoughts but am interested in yours x

ok i'm glad you asked because i find this sentence and this paradigm very irritating lol. i don't think he's the only left-ish thinker who's acceded to this type of framing (like i've complained about mark fisher pulling a similar move) but with greif there's a particular irksomeness to it because, even in the sentence you've quoted, we can see in the latter half how he contradicts his own idea of a "hedonic society"! if his thesis here is something like "the dominant cultural paradigm encourages instant gratification and hedonism, and the exerciser defies this edict by deferring their happiness and sweating it out at the gym instead" then, like, the obvious question here is, where does the impulse of the exerciser come from? does greif actually think the pursuit of fitness and longevity by physical exertion is some kind of counter-cultural move that reacts against, without acceding to, the demands of a "hedonic society"? if he does then it kind of undercuts the significance of the entire rest of the essay, lmao.

my personal answer here would be—and this is something greif dances around a few times but doesn't ever seem prepared to fully unpack—that the demand to have a fit and 'healthy' and long-lasting body is not at all contradictory to the demand to consume goods, and that this latter is more precisely what is meant by "hedonism" here if we are to use it in any useful sense. i think what greif is actually pointing to is the demand to shape oneself into, simultaneously, a valuable worker and an obedient consumer. in an immediate sense these two goals demand different things (say, 'going for a run' vs 'buying products') but on a more thorough analysis we can easily see how they arise from the same fundamental logic of profit-seeking. body fascism has never been just an aesthetic; what it promises to the state and the corporation is a population that is biologically managed and economically exploitable. i think this is true even in an imperialist economy like the united states that doesn't run primarily on production/export.

i don't know a ton about mark greif biographically but my impression is that he's kind of half-left at best, lol. certainly he's like, curmudgeonly in a way that is sometimes useful to mine (ruthless criticism of all that exists, &c) but i think in this essay and others we can clearly see how easily that attitude can slide into just a vaguely reactionary position when it lacks materialist analysis. like, frankly i think if we lived in a social context that actually had a commitment to ensuring hedonic pleasure that would probably be a better world. it's kind of similar to when lib-left types try to claim that we live in a world that has any serious degree of commitment to "the individual" when what they actually, usually mean is that we've been massified in a way that denies us social connection and material support from one another.

anyway: 'against exercise' was very mind-blowing to me when i first read it and i love to see someone staking out that position seriously; and there are elements of greif's analysis i think can be useful in an actually communist analysis. but i find a lot of cultural criticism (specifically that positions itself as counter-cultural without being explicitly communist) has a risk of just sliding reactionary, and i think this half-baked idea of a "hedonic society" is an example of that happening. curious what you think though!

[boxandgardens]

Similar to engrafted trees, when we place our trust in Christ, we become a new creation and can bear much fruit.

Our Daily Bread

[santoschristos]

Everything that grows holds in perfection but a little moment. Nemfrog. 2019.

When I consider everything that grows Holds in perfection but a little moment, That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;

When I perceive that men as plants increase, Cheered and check'd even by the selfsame sky, Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease, And wear their brave state out of memory; Then the conceit of this inconstant stay Sets you most rich in youth before my sight, Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay To change your day of youth to sullied night;

And all in war with Time for love of you, As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

Sonnet 15: When I consider everything that grows By William Shakespeare

[transgenderer]

Human and rodent placentation is hemochorial, the fetomaternal interaction between the two blood circulations involving direct physical interaction between maternal blood and the chorionic trophoblasts.

The mechanism by which cells are exchanged across the placental barrier is unclear. Possible explanations include deportation of trophoblasts, microtraumatic rupture of the placental blood channels or that specific cell types are capable of adhesion to the trophoblasts of the walls of the fetal blood channels and migration through the placental barrier created by the trophoblasts. Intervillous thrombi containing mixed maternal and fetal cells occur in the fetal placenta/labyrinth.44,45 Histological defects in the continuity of the trophoblasts lining the vasculature of the placenta are also reported.46,47 Together these observations suggest the possibility that fetomaternal hemorrhage within the fetal placenta/labyrinth may allow exchange of cells between the fetal and maternal circulation. Microtraumatic dislodgment of trophoblasts from the trophoblast-lined blood channels through which the maternal blood passes may also explain why trophoblasts appear in maternal circulation. The microtraumatic hypothesis of cell exchange does not appear consistent with the hypothesis that fetomaternal microchimerism may be of adaptive value to the fetus but fits well with the hypothesis that fetomaternal microchimerism is an epiphenomenon of pregnancy with potential pathological consequences.

An alternative hypothesis is that cells cross the placental barrier by mechanisms akin to the active adhesion and transmigration that occurs across high endothelial venule (HEV) endothelium in peripheral lymph nodes and at the blood-brain barrier (BBB).48 Intriguingly, in the mouse at least some of the fetal cells that enter the mother are also capable of crossing the blood brain barrier into the brain.35,49

Fetomaternal microchimerism appears to occur with great frequency following human pregnancy. It has been suggested that fetomaternal traffic occurs in all pregancies.14 Moreover fetal cells are reported to persist in the mother for decades. Male cells have been found in maternal blood even decades after pregnancy,7,77 including in one case in which the women was last pregnant with a male child 27 years earlier.7 Fetal cells also may persist for even longer after engrafting maternal bone marrow14 and perhaps other organs. By engrafting into niches such as the bone marrow, fetal cells may also be able to proliferate and reinfiltrate blood or other tissues later. There is strong evidence that fetal cells with the characteristics of mesenchymal cells do engraft the bone marrow. Male DNA was detected in 48% of CD34-enriched apheresis products from nonpregnant female marrow donors.1 Male cells were also detected in all bone marrow samples from women who had previously been pregnant with males, including one woman who was last pregnant with a son 51 years earlier.14

The absence of Y chromosome markers in samples from women who had never born sons in some studies14 strongly supports the argument that the male cells observed originate from the fetus. However, it is important to note that there are crucial caveats in the use of the Y chromosome alone as a marker for fetomaternal microchimerism that may have led to over estimation of the incidence and persistence of fetomaternal microchimerism in humans. Male cells have been found in the blood of women without sons.78,79 Male cells may occur in the blood of as many as 8–10% of healthy women without sons and no known history of abortion.79 It has been speculated that the male cells arise from unrecognized spontaneous abortions, vanished male twins, an older brother transferred by the maternal circulation, or sexual intercourse. However, a history of unrecognized spontaneous abortions or sexual intercourse cannot explain all cases of the presence of male cells in females as another study detected the presence of the Y chromosome in normal liver from seven of eleven female fetuses and five of six female children.80 Such microchimerism may be best explained, by fetofetal transfer from an undetected vanishing male twin or maternofetal transfer of male cells harbored by the mother. Estimates of the frequency of vanishing twins range from 3.7–100% of pregnancies81 however not all twins share connected placenta vasculature, especially at the early stages of development at which many twins disappear. Maternofetal transfer to the mother may also have occurred if the mother's mother had a history of blood transfusion, transplantation or previous pregnancy with a male fetus. It is difficult to estimate how frequently male cells in females could arise as a result of fetofetal or maternofetal transfer. Although one might expect such events to be rare, the incidence may be high enough to have biased estimates of the incidence of fetomaternal microchimerism in humans. While the possibility that the Y chromosome could also enter the mother via microchimerism as a consequence of previous blood transfusion or transplantation has been considered in most studies, the possibility that male cells detected in the mother may have arrived via fetofetal or maternofetal transfer to the mother in utero has not be systematically excluded. Conclusive proof of fetomaternal microchimerism in humans would require the use of other paternal markers that differentiate between the father of the fetus and the father of the mother. One scenario might be to investigate cases where the mother and the mother's father share a genetic mutation or polymorphism not carried by the father of the fetus. In such cases, evidence of genetic markers derived from the father of the fetus in the mother could provide more conclusive evidence of fetomaternal microchimerism in humans. If the genetic mutation or polymorphism caused disease the presence of fetal cells in the diseased tissue could also offer evidence of the potential of fetomaternal tissue repair.

[michaelofnebadon]

Salvington School students…

One aspect of my mission is to restore the Planetary Prince School which had begun the  organizing and administering of this inhabited sphere.

The success of the School which guides the evolutionary emergence of all creatures and the civilization greatly facilitates the subsequent missions of the Material Sons and Daughters, who come to engraft the higher forms of creature life on the primitive men of the worlds.

Their rule also does much to prepare the planets for the Paradise Sons of God, who subsequently come to judge the worlds and to inaugurate successive dispensations.

Thine faith shall grow and expand and mature until it establishes a divine dominance .. so real and all-encompassing shall this faith in you expand and grow throughout all thine field of personality expression that it absolutely sweeps away all intellectual adversity, any spiritual doubts and hesitations, and effectively destroys every conflicting desire and opposition.

Nothing is able to tear one of sincere faith away from the spiritual anchorage of this fervent, sublime, and undaunted faith.

Practice the Six heavenly Ts of Character Righteousness and Personhood Dignity within the ministry of the Universe Adjutants...and the Adjutant of Courage.

Truthfulness

Temerity

Tenderness

Tenacity

Transparency

Trustfulness

The Third Adjutant of Courage...

The spirit of courage—the fidelity endowment—in personal beings, the basis of character acquirement and the intellectual root of moral stamina and spiritual bravery.

When enlightened by facts and inspired by truth, this becomes the secret of the urge of evolutionary ascension by the channels of intelligent and conscientious self-direction.

All self-esteem shall grow with these Ts of Courage.

All worthiness shall mature with these T's of Character Dignity.

Ye shall refine thine authorship unto heightening faculties and empowering rights inalienable.

Practice the T's each day while becoming aware of those opportunities to express the T's in your self-relationship and relationship with others.

You shall be shaping all character habits and tendencies upwards; elevating the inner urges to discriminate appropriately, to discern positively, to decide with bravery, to grow boldness and courage in thine selfhood in accordance with the Trinity of Paradise.

Christ Michael Of Nebadon

Proclamations of God's Everlasting Glory

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Evening, August 2nd

"So she gleaned in the field until even." – Ruth 2:17

Let me learn from Ruth, the gleaner. As she went out to gather the ears of corn, so must I go forth into the fields of prayer, meditation, the ordinances, and hearing the word to gather spiritual food. The gleaner gathers her portion ear by ear; her gains are little by little: so must I be content to search for single truths, if there be no greater plenty of them. Every ear helps to make a bundle, and every gospel lesson assists in making us wise unto salvation. The gleaner keeps her eyes open: if she stumbled among the stubble in a dream, she would have no load to carry home rejoicingly at eventide. I must be watchful in religious exercises lest they become unprofitable to me; I fear I have lost much already--O that I may rightly estimate my opportunities, and glean with greater diligence. The gleaner stoops for all she finds, and so must I. High spirits criticize and object, but lowly minds glean and receive benefit. A humble heart is a great help towards profitably hearing the gospel. The engrafted soul-saving word is not received except with meekness. A stiff back makes a bad gleaner; down, master pride, thou art a vile robber, not to be endured for a moment. What the gleaner gathers she holds: if she dropped one ear to find another, the result of her day's work would be but scant; she is as careful to retain as to obtain, and so at last her gains are great. How often do I forget all that I hear; the second truth pushes the first out of my head, and so my reading and hearing end in much ado about nothing! Do I feel duly the importance of storing up the truth? A hungry belly makes the gleaner wise; if there be no corn in her hand, there will be no bread on her table; she labors under the sense of necessity, and hence her tread is nimble and her grasp is firm; I have even a greater necessity, Lord, help me to feel it, that it may urge me onward to glean in fields which yield so plenteous a reward to diligence.

[lesbianvaljean]

collecting some more phrases from melville. in two chapters we get the following:

downright bumpkin dandy

Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs

speechlessly quick chaotic bumbling

engrafted clerical peculiarities

the canticle in the fish’s belly

all careening, glides to sea

the indignant gale howls louder

an oily calmness floats

his tossed arms seemed the warring elements at work

just so obscenely good!!!