#apostolic fathers

[apenitentialprayer]

Credo of the People of God

This Creed was promulgated by Pope Saint Paul VI, on the 30th of June, 1968. This Creed, "without being strictly speaking a dogmatic definition," was meant to repeat "in substance . . . the creed of Nicaea" while also elaborating upon the dogmas of the Church "to a high degree complete and explicit" (§3, 7). Pronounced at the end of the Year of Faith, it was meant as a gift to "all those in the world, to whatever spiritual family they belong, who are in search of the Truth" (§7). Bolded emphases are added to better separate the articles of the Creed for convenience of reading.

We believe in one only God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Creator of things visible such as this world in which our transient life passes, of things invisible such as the pure spirits which are also called angels, and Creator of each man of his spiritual and immortal soul.

We believe that this only God is absolutely One in His infinitely holy essence as also in all His perfections, in His omnipotence, His infinite knowledge, His providence, His will, and His love. He is He who is, as He revealed to Moses; and He is love, as the Apostle John teaches us: so that these two names, being and love, express ineffably the same divine Reality of Him who has wished to make Himself known to us, and who, "dwelling in light inaccessible," is in Himself above every name, above every thing, and above every created intellect. God alone can give us right and full knowledge of this Reality by revealing Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in whose eternal life we are by grace called to share, here below in the obscurity of faith and after death in eternal light. The mutual bonds which eternally constitute the Three Persons, who are each one and the same divine Being, are the blessed inmost life of God thrice-holy, infinitely beyond all that we can conceive in human measure. We give thanks, however, to the divine goodness that very many believers can testify with us before men to the unity of God, even though they know not the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

We believe then in the Father who eternally begets the Son; in the Son, the Word of God, who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who proceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal love. Thus in the Three Divine Persons, coaeternae sibi et coaeuales, the life and beatitude of God perfectly superabound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory proper to uncreated Being, and always "there should be venerated unity in the Trinity and Trinity in the unity."

We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. He is the Eternal Word, born of the Father before time began, and one in substance with the Father, homoousios to Patri, and through Him all things were made. He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was made Man: equal therefore to the Father according to His divinity, and inferior to the Father according to His humanity; and Himself one, not by some impossible confusion of His natures, but by the unity of His Person.

He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. He proclaimed and established the Kingdom of God and made us know in Himself the Father. He gave us His new commandment to love one another as He loved us. He taught us the way of the beatitudes of the Gospel: poverty in spirit, meekness, suffering borne with patience, thirst after justice, mercy, purity of heart, will for peace, persecution suffered for justice sake. Under Pontius Pilate He suffered — the Lamb of God bearing on Himself the sins of the world, and He died for us on the cross, saving us by His redeeming Blood. He was buried, and, of His own power, rose on the third day, raising us by His Resurrection to that sharing in the divine life which is the life of grace. He ascended to heaven, and He will come again, this time in glory, to judge the living and the dead, each according to his merits — those who have responded to love and piety of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not extinguished.

And His Kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of life, who is adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son. He spoke to us by the prophets; He was sent by Christ after His Resurrection and His Ascension to the Father; He illuminates, vivifies, protects, and guides the Church; He purifies the Church's members if they do not shun His grace. His action, which penetrates to the inmost of the soul, enables man to respond to the call of Jesus; "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect." We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and that by reason of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner, preserved from all stain of Original Sin, and filled with the grace more than all other creatures. Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory and likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ's members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed.

We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offense committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that offense, and which is not the state in which it was at first in our first parents — established as they were in holiness and justice, and in which man knew neither evil nor death. It is human nature so fallen, stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death, that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with human nature, "not by imitation, but by propagation," and that it is thus "proper to everyone."

We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of the Cross, redeemed us from Original Sin and all the personal sins committed by each one of us, so that, in accordance with the word of the Apostle, "where sin abounded, grace did more abound."

We believe in one Baptism instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Baptism should be administered even to little children who have not yet been able to be guilty of any personal sin, in order that, though born deprived of supernatural grace, they may be reborn "of water and the Holy Spirit" to the divine life in Christ Jesus.

We believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, built by Jesus Christ on that rock which is Peter. She is the Mystical Body of Christ; at the same time a visible society instituted with hierarchical organs, and a spiritual community; the Church on earth, the pilgrim people of God here below, and the Church filled with heavenly blessings; the germ and the first fruits of the Kingdom of God, through which the work and the sufferings of Redemption are continued throughout human history, and which looks for its perfect accomplishment beyond time in glory. In the course of time, the Lord Jesus forms His Church by means of the sacraments emanating from His plenitude. By these She makes Her members participants in the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, in the grace of the Holy Spirit who gives Her life and movement. She therefore is holy, though She has sinners in Her bosom, because She Herself has no other life but that of grace: it is by living by Her life that Her members are sanctified; it is by removing themselves from Her life that they fall into sins and disorders that prevent the radiation of Her sanctity. This is why She suffers and does penance for these offenses, of which She has the power to heal Her children through the Blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Heiress of the divine promises and daughter of Abraham according to the Spirit, through that Israel whose Scriptures She lovingly guards, and whose patriarchs and prophets She venerates; founded upon the Apostles and handing on from century to century their ever-living word and their powers as pastors in the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him; perpetually assisted by the Holy Spirit she has the charge of guarding, teaching, explaining, and spreading the Truth which God revealed in a then-veiled manner by the prophets, and fully by the Lord Jesus. We believe all that is contained in the word of God written or handed down, and that the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed, whether by solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium. We believe in the infallibility enjoyed by the successor of Peter when he teaches ex cathedra as pastor and teacher of all the faithful, and which is assured also to the episcopal body when it exercises with him the supreme Magisterium.

We believe that the Church founded by Jesus Christ and for which He prayed is indefectibly one in faith, worship, and the bond of hierarchical communion. In the bosom of this Church, the rich variety of liturgical rites and the legitimate diversity of theological and spiritual heritages and special disciplines, far from injuring Her unity, make it more manifest.

Recognizing also the existence, outside the organism of the Church of Christ, of numerous elements of truth and sanctification which belong to Her as Her own and tend to Catholic unity, and believing in the action of the Holy Spirit who stirs up in the heart of the disciples of Christ love for this unity, we entertain the hope that the Christians who are not yet in full communion of the one only Church will one day be reunited in one flock with one only Shepherd.

We believe that the Church is necessary for salvation, because Christ, who is the sole Mediator and way of salvation, renders Himself present for us in His Body which is the Church. But the divine design of salvation embraces all men; and those who without fault on their part do not know the Gospel of Christ and His Church, but seek God sincerely, and under the influence of grace endeavor to do His will as recognized through the promptings of their conscience, they, in number known only to God, can obtain salvation.

We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the Person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the Name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His Body and His Blood which were to be offered for us on the Cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious Presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is true, real, and substantial Presence.

Christ cannot thus be present in this sacrament except by the change into His Body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His Blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of thus mystery must, in order to be in accord with the Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine, as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.

The unique and indivisible existence of the Lord, glorious in heaven, is not multiplied, but is rendered present by the sacrament in the many places on earth where Mass is celebrated. And this existence remains present, after the sacrifice, in the Blessed Sacrament which is, in the tabernacle, the living heart of each of our churches. And it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore in the blessed Host which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word whom they cannot see, and who, without leaving heaven, is made present before us.

We confess that the Kingdom of God begun here below in the Church of Christ is not of this world whose form is passing, and that its proper growth cannot be confounded with the progress of civilization, of science, or of human technology, but that it consists in an ever more profound knowledge of the unfathomable riches of Christ, an ever stronger hope in eternal blessings, an ever more ardent response to the love of God, and an ever more generous bestowal of grace and holiness among men. But it is this same love which induces the Church to concern Herself constantly about the true temporal welfare of men. Without ceasing to recall to Her children that they have not here a lasting dwelling, She also urges them to contribute, each according to his vocation and his means, to the welfare of their earthly city, to promote justice, peace, and brotherhood among men, to give their aid freely to their brothers, especially to the poorest and most unfortunate. The deep solicitude of the Church, the Spouse of Christ, for the needs of men, for their joys and hopes, their griefs and efforts, is therefore nothing other than Her great desire to be present to them, in order to illuminate them with the light of Christ and to gather them all in Him, their only Savior. This solicitude can never mean that the Church conform Herself to the things of this world, or that She lessen the ardor of Her expectation of Her Lord and of the eternal Kingdom. We believe in life eternal. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ, whether they must still be purified in purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies Jesus takes them to paradise as He did for the Good Thief, are the people of God in the eternity beyond death, which will finally be conquered on the day of the Resurrection when these souls will be reunited to their bodies.

We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in paradise forms the Church of Heaven where in eternal beatitude they see God as He is, and where they also, in different degrees, are associated with the holy angels in the divine rule exercised by Christ in glory, interceding for us and helping our weakness by their brotherly care.

We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are attaining their purification, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion the merciful love of God and His saints is ever listening to our prayers, as Jesus told us: "Ask, and you will receive." Thus it is with faith and in hope that we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Blessed be God thrice-holy. Amen.

[rosalinesurvived]

Very Mori of Dazai to arrange for the murder of the girl Kunikida had a crush on btw.

[troybeecham]

Today the Church remembers St. Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr of Smyrna.

Ora pro nobis.

Polycarp (AD 69 – 155) was a 2nd-century AD Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire refused to touch him. Polycarp is regarded as a saint and Church Father in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches.

It is recorded by St. Irenaeus, who heard him speak in his youth, and by Tertullian, that he had been a disciple of St. John the Apostle. St. Jerome wrote that Polycarp was a disciple of John and that John had ordained him bishop of Smyrna.

Polycarp is recorded as saying on the day of his death, "Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong", which could indicate that he was then eighty-six years old or that he may have lived eighty-six years after his conversion. Polycarp goes on to say "How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked."

Polycarp was bound to a stake to be burned to death, but eyewitness, including his murderers, recount that the flames billowed out like a sail and refused to touch him. The soldiers were then ordered to end his life by piercing him through with a spear. His crime was refusing to burn incense to the Roman Emperor. On his farewell, he said "I bless you Father for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share the cup of Christ."

With Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp is regarded as one of three chief Apostolic Fathers, that is, those who were disciples of one of Jesus’ 12 Apostles, and so provided a living link to the eyewitnesses of Jesus.

O God, the maker of heaven and earth, you gave your venerable servant, the holy and gentle Polycarp, boldness to confess Jesus Christ as King and Savior, and steadfastness to die for his faith: Give us grace, following his example, to share the cup of Christ and rise to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF SAINT POLYCARP Feast Day: February 23

"Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth and in all gentleness and in all freedom from anger and forbearance and steadfastness and patient endurance and purity."

Polycarp was born in 69 AD. He was converted to Christianity by the apostle John, who made him as bishop of Smyrna.

Irenaeus of Smyrna described him in these words: 'It is yet present to my mind with what gravity Polycarp came in and went out; what was the sanctity of his deportment, the majesty of his countenance; and what were his holy exhortations to the people. I seem to hear him now relate how he conversed with John and many others who had seen Jesus Christ, the words he had heard from their mouths.'

Polycarp kissed the chains of Ignatius when he passed by Smyrna on the road to Rome for his martyrdom. In 155 AD, during the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the emperor, some soldiers were sent to arrest him. After offering them a good supper, he prayed with such devotion, that several of them were converted.

To the proconsul, Lucius Statius Quadratus, who exhorted him to give up his faith, he replied: 'Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked.'

Polycarp was pierced with a spear and burned to ashes at the stake. On his farewell, he said: 'I bless you, Father, for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs, I may share the cup of Christ.'

[paularoseauthor]

The first Church was Catholic.

History reveals that the first Church was, in essence, Catholic.

Unveiling the Catholic Origins of the First Church. The origins of the Christian Church are deeply intertwined with the emergence of a movement inspired by Jesus Christ’s teachings.  History reveals that the first Church was, in essence, Catholic. This assertion is rooted in the early Christian community’s connection to the apostles, the development of fundamental doctrines, and the…

[nycreligion]

Killed, Pentecostals in Ukraine with church roots in NYC

Yaroslav Pavenko. Photo: Ukrainian Pentecostal Church Yaroslav “Slava” Pavenko, a twenty-two-year-old chaplain, was helping to lead a worship service, when he had to duck, along with everybody else, under cars and shelters as rockets from the invaders came. The air shuddered and hummed. He wore a bulletproof vest and helmet, but a fragment from a projectile slipped underneath. The chaplain was…

[spiritualwanderlust]

Thankful for my Abba

'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him , that we may be also glorified together. ' Romans 8:14-17 https://my.bible.com/bible/1/ROM.8.14-17

[idylls-of-the-divine-romance]

*bangs head on the table repeatedly* Why. Do. The. Brothers. And. Sisters. Of. Christ. Love. To. Hate. Each. Other. So. Much.

You're Christian. I'm Christian. They're Christian. We all believe Jesus is God. We all believe God is love. Why all the hate?? So what if they believe Mary was assumed into heaven and you don't? So what if you believe Mary was ever a virgin and you don't?

There are lots of things we disagree on. But you know what? We agree on so much more!

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us humans and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one, holy, universal and apostolic Church. We confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

We are all Christians for we are all anointed by the Anointed One, the Son of the Living God.

[portraitsofsaints]

Happy Feast Day

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

35-107

Feast Day: October 17 (New), February 1 (Trad)

Patronage: Against throat diseases, the Church in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa

St. Ignatius of Antioch is one of the five "Apostolic Fathers," and was the third Bishop of Antioch. He was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist and is known for explaining Church theology. Ignatius was arrested by Roman soldiers and taken to Rome where he was sentenced to death at the Coliseum for his Christian teachings, practices, and faith. On his way to being martyred in Rome, he wrote letters to the early Christians, which we still have today, that connect the Catholic Church to the early, unbroken, clear teaching of the Apostles given directly by Jesus Christ. He urged the Christians to remain faithful to God, warned them against heretical doctrine, and provided them with the solid truths of the faith.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase. (website)

[sunrisebythesea]

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is,

seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,

was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary

and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again

in accordance with the Scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

[why-bless-your-heart]

@audreythevaliant the real question is why some Christians don’t believe she remained a virgin. We have writings stating that she was a perpetual virgin from as early as the 120s, and it was solidified as doctrine in the 400s, shortly after the biblical canon was affirmed. Even Martin Luther asserted that she was a perpetual virgin.

Apostolic tradition aside, we believe that she was a perpetual virgin because:

1. Her questioning of the angel only makes sense if she intended to remain a virgin after being taken into Joseph’s house. If an engaged woman intending to have natural relations with her spouse after marriage is told that she will conceive and her son will be the Messiah, she doesn’t ask “how can this be, since I have not known a man?” She assumes that she will have a child in the normal manner at some point down the line. Mary’s questioning of the angel shows that her virginity was her vocation, not just her state at the time.

2. She is the new ark of the covenant. The visitation of her cousin Elizabeth parallels the entrance of the ark into Jerusalem with King David. Just as David danced before the ark, John the Baptist leaps with joy. Elizabeth’s words — who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me? — echo David’s — who am I that the ark of my Lord should come to me? The ark of the covenant was so holy that Uzzah was struck dead for putting out his hand to steady it. It carried within it manna, the bread from heaven, Aaron’s rod, symbol of the priesthood, and the Ten Commandments, God’s word. The new ark of the covenant is even holier, because she carried within her the bread of life from heaven, the perfect priest and sacrifice, and the Word of God made flesh. Another word for holy, sacred, means “set apart.” Mary is the daughter of the Father, the mother of the Son, and spouse of the Holy Spirit. She is uniquely holy, and set apart by her virginity.

3. Joseph was a righteous man. A righteous man does not lay claim to what is God’s. It’s a matter of debate whether he believed Mary’s pregnancy was miraculous and so wanted to divorce her because he believed he was unworthy to take her into his home, or if he believed she had committed adultery and wanted to keep her from being put to death. Either way, we know it was only after he was told by the angel it was God’s will that he took her into his home, and we further know that he did not interpret the angel’s message to mean that he was expected to have relations with Mary. Which again, makes sense if the marriage was meant to safeguard Mary’s virginity rather than be consummated.

[tamamita]

Is it heresy if there are christian denominations that don't believe in the Trinity such as Unitarianism?

I mean the very first Christians were Unitarians who believed in the theological concept of adoptionism. Adoptionism involved the idea that because Jesus (a) was such an upstanding moral figure among the Israelites, God declared him to be the son of God in the metaphorical sense. Adoptonists never accepted Christ as a divine figure, seeing him as fully human. The idea of Christ's divinity was mostly an issue that came to appear later in Christian history. Docalism, Marcionism, Modalism, Monarchianism, Montanism, Arianism and various other doctrines introduced between the 1st-4th century became the foundation of Jesus as a divine being, albeit with various definitions and interpretations. The Church adopted the Trinitiarian (albeit still in development) view as its mainstream theology in the Council of Nicaea, Council of Constantinople, introducing the Nicene-Constantinpolitan creed and apostole's creed respectively. The creed also deemed every other Christian doctrine to be heretical, surpressing any other heterodoxy, especially Arianism. It wasn't until Augustine that the concept of the Trinity was fully introduced in the 5th century, finalized by the Athanasian Creed. However, it wasn't until we the court of Charlemagne that we were introduced to the Johannine Comma that included the Trinity in brackets of the first epistle of John to substantiate its inclusion, so this was effectively the first alteration of the Greek Bible in the West. Enter Augustine, the man who described the Trinity in relation to each other. We can go further, but the doctrine of the Trinity has never been established with one single definite meaning, since the personal relationship and the meaning between each essence keeps being debated and discussed among Christians, even till this day.

Christadelphians are one of the few Unitarian Christians today, but they don't adhere to adoptionism, they simply hold that Jesus (a) was the son of God, but not in the literal sense. However, they reject Jesus' divinity, seeing him as fully human, subordinate to the Father. The adoptionists were very much the first true Christians, but not in the eyes of the Church. As you can see, the Trinity was a later invention that took several centuries to form and was not ultimately defined by the Church Fathers. Indeed, this is evident by the fact that several Christian scholars had to redefine the Trinity throughout history.

[rosalinesurvived]

I am actually frothing at the mouth rn where the fuck is the interview where Asagiri implies that the Azure King case never occured and thus Kunikida never accidentally caused the deaths of five people and so Rokuzou never lost his father and so Kunikida never met Sasaki OR Rokuzou. Where is it. What the fuck yall. Kunikida wears a blue tie in beast because he never associates blue with death. And he never meets Dazai so there’s nobody to hammer it into his head on how his ideals aren’t trustworthy. And how this implies that Dazai somehow offed the Azure King and Apostole.

[rthstewart]

So is John Pevensie still an antagonist in Stone Gryphon? (Am I asking this because I love Helen and Mrs. Godwin? Yes. I am also asking because I love a furiously protective person and John seemed like that in the snippets from his perspective)

@becauseforoncethisisme asked:

So is John Pevensie still an antagonist in Stone Gryphon? (Am I asking this because I love Helen and Mrs. Godwin? Yes. I am also asking because I love a furiously protective person and John seemed like that in the snippets from his perspective)

First, thanks so much for reading and reaching out about the first chapters of Heart and Crow Make The Peace.

Ware below for LONG meta/history/ruth stewart blather

For many years, the first and last look readers had of John Pevensie was a scene in the posted Apostolic Way.  It’s a disastrous dinner at the Rainbow Room in New York City, where Col. Walker-Smythe has brought Edmund to America to work as his aide and batman.  John is, as presented in the story, a writer and editor, recruited by the SOE, to work on the generation of pro-British propaganda.  He is a serial philanderer, is bitterly disappointed that it is Edmund, rather than Peter, who has come to America, and the dinner is excruciatingly painful as John’s memories of his children are several years old and certainly pre-Narnia, leaving Edmund to, once again, be far kinder than his father deserves and Walker-Smythe is furious.  It’s made worse by numerous women who have obviously enjoyed John’s attentions in the past stopping by the table to say hello.  

Meanwhile, Helen Pevensie is back in London, and true to what was more common in 1943 than it was in 2020, has been in a sexual relationship with Mrs. Beatrice Goodwin, the widow next door.  

I was probably too successful in the scene as John can come across as a craven and cruel person. Readers’ sympathies (and mine) have always tilted to Helen.

With the reposted story, I slightly tweaked the previous version of the Rainbow Room scene and have introduced in text that a part of John’s issue is untreated PTSD. So, is this signaling a change of heart for me in John's role? and what about Mrs. Goodwin and Helen?

John's untreated illness is an explanation, in part, but not a justification to be sure.

I’ve always intended for Helen and Beatrice to go their separate ways.  As broad-minded as the Four are, it's different when your parents are involved and I’m finding it hard to push myself to writing that as a resolution or where it’s all just one big happy polyamory.  From discussions with readers, I could see Beatrice moving to a small market town for economy, meeting another widow with young children and you know, there are only 2 bedrooms in the cottage, so of course….   Post-war England was filled with these kinds of relationships of economy and convenience and, presumably, potential romance amongst widows.

As a writer, I also want John and Helen to both put some work in and try to rebuild their relationship.  This is something millions of people had to do post-War and I’m interested in how and whether couples can overcome infidelity.  I’m not sure I could, personally (I’ve been married for over 30 years!) and I’m interested in developing it.  TSG itself presents numerous different takes on bonding and infidelity which, while true to the time period, is also intended as a contrast to Edmund and Lucy’s  own sense of loss for their partners.  Something I’ve not decided is whether Morgan and Aidan, respectively, went on to have their own relationships some period of time later.  

There’s another reason for introducing John’s PTSD.  TSG was originally supposed to be a two-fer, Peter-centric story.  I was going to do a time-skip after the conclusion of Ox 1942 and jump to post war, with Peter starting an affair with Mary, dropping out of uni, finally finding his path, and then everyone dying, with Susan left behind (I had this about half-written, even). I never, EVER wanted to touch the 1940s UK educational systems or Peter’s potential service in the military as I deemed bothway beyond my storytelling skill.

[TQSiT was never in the cards – that’s the fault of an early reader, Miniver on ff dot net long since gone, who asked, Well, given these adventures for Peter, and Lucy and Edmund off on the Dawn Treader, surely Susan is up to something exciting in America, which coincided with me reading a WaPo review Connant’s The Irregulars.  Oops.]

So to avoid having to write Peter in the service, from the very beginning, back in Ox 1942, I wrote that Peter’s parents are opposed to his service and he’s willing to go along with it because he thinks he’s an insubordination risk.  I never explained why they are opposed which is really not especially consistent with the patriotism of the time.  

So, in the story I’ve picked up again 12 years later, John’s trauma at Dunkirk as now part of the reason for that opposition.  He goes to War to protect his family and early on is deeply traumatized by the failures to evacuate soldiers on the beaches; he hears the screams of men and ships going down in his dreams.  In his own protective misguided way, he wants to protect his family from that horror. And when he finds out that Aslan plucked his children out of England and turned them into warriors, he is going to be PISSED.  

 Oops.

Thanks so much   @becauseforoncethisisme!!

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF POPE SAINT CLEMENT The Patron of Mariners and Stone-cutters Feast Day: November 23

"Follow the saints, because those who follow them will become saints."

Pictured here is the image of St. Clement in Angono, Rizal Province in the Philippines.

Clement, the first Apostolic Father of the Church, along with Polycarp and Ignatius of Antioch, was born in Rome circa 35 AD. He personally met the apostles, and he was ordained and consecrated as bishop by the apostle Peter himself. Clement was elected Pope in 91 AD.

The apostles' preaching was always in his ears, and according to the letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul refers Clement as 'a fellow worker.'

Clement's only genuine extant writing is his letter to the church at Corinth (1 Clement) in response to a dispute in which certain presbyters of the Corinthian church had been deposed. He asserted the authority of the presbyters as rulers of the church on the ground that the Apostles had appointed such. His letter, which is one of the oldest extant Christian documents outside the New Testament, was read in church, along with other epistles, some of which later became part of the Christian canon. These works were the first to affirm the apostolic authority of the clergy. In the legendary Clementine literature, Clement is the intermediary through whom the apostles teach the church.

In order to encourage peace and unity among the brothers, he wrote: 'The head is nothing without the feet, just as the feet are nothing without the head. The smallest parts of our body are necessary and valuable to the whole.'

During the reign of Emperor Trajan, Clement was banished from Rome to the Chersonesus according to apocryphal acta dating to the 4th century at earliest, and was set to work in a stone quarry. Finding on his arrival that the prisoners were suffering from lack of water, he knelt down in prayer. Looking up, he saw a lamb on a hill, went to where the lamb had stood and struck the ground with his pickaxe, releasing a gushing stream of clear water. This miracle resulted in the conversion of large numbers of the local pagans and his fellow prisoners to Christianity. As punishment, Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown from a boat into the Black Sea. The legend recounts that every year a miraculous ebbing of the sea revealed a divinely built shrine containing his bones. However, the oldest sources on Clement's life, Eusebius and Jerome, note nothing of his martyrdom.

Clement's name is in the Roman Canon of the Mass. In workings of art, Saint Clement can be recognized by having an anchor at his side or tied to his neck. He is most often depicted wearing papal vestments, including the pallium, and sometimes with a papal tiara but more often with a mitre. He is also sometimes shown with papal symbols such as the papal cross and the Keys of Heaven. In reference to his martyrdom, he often holds the martyr's palm.

[paularoseauthor]

Unveiling the Catholic Origins of the First Church.

History reveals that the first Church was, in essence, Catholic.

The first Church was Catholic. And this is why I am looking very seriously into the Catholic Church. The origins of the Christian Church are deeply intertwined with the emergence of a movement inspired by Jesus Christ’s teachings.  History reveals that the first Church was, in essence, Catholic. This assertion is rooted in the early Christian community’s connection to the apostles, the…