#being encouraged to discern priesthood

[lightshiningbright]

please pray for me as i truly begin this discernment process

my priest, unbeknownst to me, is apparently in charge of the ordination process for the whole diocese.

so deep into our conversation, when i had mentioned i had experienced a possible calling before- not thinking much of it- i could tell he was eager

he explained to me how our rural community needs more priests badly. and as the priest in charge of ordination, making that final decision, he said he had been praying hard, especially in the past 2 weeks. “and then we showed up at the church” he said.

no pressure, but he told me he believed i may want to pray on it and potentially follow this calling i have thought about since 2017, something i keep coming back to despite everything that’s happened.

he explained how much the ordination process has changed and how much easier it could be for me to be ordained. another issue that felt resolved for me.

in the meantime, he has offered me multiple ways to get involved in the church. he also has invited me to help work with him to build a local queer christian community that is desperately needed.

this priest, who eagerly wants to have lunch with us after thursday mass once a month, the priest in charge of ordination, may even become a sort of mentor figure

my whole world might have potentially changed in one afternoon. i am still trying to find out where God is leading me, but i trust Him. God will not lead me astray

so please, prayers as i find out where God wants me as i find my place in His church

[orthodoxadventure]

On Sunday, 14th January 2024, Deacon Symeon Menne was ordained to the Holy Priesthood at the Church of St Anthony the Great in Newcastle. His Grace Bishop Raphael of Ilion presided during Matins and celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Amongst those concelebrating were the V. Revd Archimandrite of the Ecumenical Throne Dr Antonios Kakalis, Hieromonk Melchisedec from the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex, Revd Oeconomos Andreas Amirhom, Revd Presbyter Anton Caius Curgu and Revd Presbyter Nikitas Banev. Also present were the Revd Dr. Justin Mihoc (Durham) from the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Very Revd Lee Batson, Dean of the Newcastle Cathedral. Prior to the ordination, Andreas Lumsden was elevated to the order of Readers by His Grace Bishop Raphael.

In his ordination speech, Deacon Symeon expressed profound gratitude to His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain for blessing his journey to priesthood. Deacon Symeon recounted his own spiritual journey in Orthodoxy, starting with his Baptism at the Monastery of St Catherine in Sinai in 1991, which has ever since been lovingly supported by the Archbishop of the Monastery and the Sinaite Brotherhood, including his Godparents, Hieromonk Arsenios and Monk Moses, as well as the Abbot and the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex. He acknowledged with utter reverence the unfailing love of his first spiritual father, the late Archimandrite Symeon, of blessed memory, and his current one, His Grace Bishop Raphael. He also extended his deep appreciation to the priests, who guided him during his Holy Diaconate with love and patience, especially Fr Antonios Kakalis, Fr Andreas Amirhom, Fr Andrew Louth, Fr Justin Mihoc, and Archdeacon George Tsourous. He also cordially thanked his family, especially his dearly beloved wife Konstantina, his rock and support, and cherished children Savina and George Lucas.

After recounting all his blessings, he then reflected on a saying by St Sophrony of Essex about the purpose of the Christian Life, which is to ‘ask the Lord Jesus to send the Holy Spirit into our hearts to cleanse us and make us like Christ’. Recollecting his experiences from several of his patients’ last moments on this earth, Deacon Symeon reiterated the need to steadfastly live by the Saint’s advice, whilst continually preparing for the afterlife through humility, discernment, prayer, fasting, faith, hope and love. He acknowledged that there is no better place on earth to get closer to our Saviour than in Church, most importantly through our participation in the Eucharist. Deacon Symeon humbly accepted his sacred duty, seeking forgiveness and vowing to be a diligent shepherd, inspired by the country’s Christian Saints. He urged all to devoutly follow God, referencing St John Climacus’ Spiritual Ladder of Divine Ascent to highlight life’s trials. His moving speech concluded with a call for prayers for himself, for peace in our parishes and in the whole world.

Bishop Raphael warmly welocmed Deacon Symeon’s ordination, marking it as the realisation of Archimandrite Symeon’s (of blessed memory) desire. He lauded Deacon Symeon as a spiritual heir, destined to further the legacy of St Sophrony through genuine love for God and others. Bishop Raphael highlighted the dual nature of priesthood as both a cross to bear and a path to salvation, urging Father Symeon to cherish his blessings, family, and spiritual lineage, along with the growth opportunities presented by life’s challenges. He counselled Father Symeon to maintain humility and attentiveness in his service and encouraged him to stay true to himself, being approachable and humble, and to continuously seek refuge in Christ and the Jesus prayer against trials and temptations. Representing the Archbishop, he expressed joy in welcoming Father Symeon to serve in the altar with unwavering dedication.

Following the ordination, the Parish of St Anthony the Great in Newcastle, under Chairwoman Savina Iliadou’s guidance, organised a grand reception to celebrate Father Symeon’s ordination. The event was a joyful gathering, attended by the church community, family, friends, neighbours, and colleagues, all there to support Father Symeon as he embarks on this new chapter of his spiritual journey.

[Photo and text credit]

[greatestloveinc]

The Truth about Tithes and Offerings

In the realm of religious and spiritual discussions, few topics are as widely debated and misunderstood as the concept of tithes and offerings. While some view them as essential acts of faith and obedience, others perceive them as financial burdens or manipulative tools used by religious institutions. To uncover the truth about tithes and offerings, it is essential to explore their historical, theological, and practical dimensions.

Understanding Tithes

Tithing, a practice with deep roots in religious traditions, typically involves giving a portion of one's income, often 10%, to a religious institution, such as a church or synagogue. The word "tithe" itself comes from the Old English word "teoþa," which means "tenth." The practice is primarily associated with Christianity and Judaism, though similar principles can be found in other faiths.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, tithing has its origins in the Hebrew Bible. The Book of Leviticus prescribes the giving of one-tenth of agricultural produce and livestock as an offering to God. This was intended to support the religious institutions, the priesthood, and those in need. Many proponents of tithing argue that these principles are still relevant today, as a way to support the work of the church and help those less fortunate.

Offerings and Their Purpose

In addition to tithing, religious institutions often encourage congregants to make offerings. While tithing involves a specific percentage of one's income, offerings are typically freewill gifts, not limited to a specific amount. They are used to support various church activities, from maintaining the building and paying staff to funding charitable works and mission trips.

Offerings, unlike tithes, are not rigidly defined in religious texts. Instead, they are seen as expressions of gratitude and generosity. Many individuals feel a sense of fulfillment in giving above and beyond the tithe, as it allows them to actively participate in the growth and well-being of their faith community.

Theological Perspectives

The interpretation of tithes and offerings varies among different religious denominations and beliefs. Some argue that tithing is a divine command, while others see it as a matter of personal conviction. Critics often raise concerns about the misuse of funds, questioning the transparency of financial management within religious organizations.

Proponents of tithing often cite the New Testament to support their position. In the Book of Malachi, for example, there is a reference to God's promise to "open the windows of heaven" and "pour out a blessing" upon those who bring tithes into the storehouse. Many believers view tithing as an act of faith, trusting that God will provide when they obey this command.

However, some religious leaders emphasize the principle of cheerful giving, emphasizing the importance of offerings that come from the heart rather than a rigid 10% calculation. They argue that generosity should not be confined to a specific percentage but should be motivated by a genuine desire to help others and support the work of the church.

Practical Considerations

Beyond the theological aspects, the practicality of tithing and offering should also be acknowledged. It is essential to assess one's financial situation and make decisions that are responsible and sustainable. Some argue that blindly giving 10% of their income might lead to financial strain, especially for those facing economic hardships.

Therefore, individuals should approach tithing and offerings with wisdom and discernment, seeking to strike a balance between their faith-based giving and their financial well-being. This may involve discussions with religious leaders, financial advisors, and a consideration of individual circumstances.

For More Info:-

Free Peer Counseling Maryland USA

[hieromonkcharbel]

PADRE PIO

IN UNION WITH CHRIST’S SACRIFICE

By Joachim Bouflet

When he was ordained to the priesthood on 10th August 1910, Pio de Pietrelcina had holy picture cards printed on which the following prayer appeared.

" Jesus, my breath and my life,

Trembling before you today,

I elevate You in the mystery of love,

So that with You I may be - for the world

The Way, the Truth and the Life ;

And for You - a holy priest, a perfect victim. "

This prayer expresses the aspirations of the newly ordained priest. In it he announces what his life will be ; a sacrifice to the praise and glory of God. For Padre Pio there was no possiblity of seeing the priestly ministry without this dimension of self oblation which unites the priest to the sacrifice of Christ. In the words of a document of the Second Vatican Council we find a reference that applies, in posteriori, perfectly to him. " As ministers of the liturgy, especially in the sacrifice of the Mass, priests represent Christ in a special way. They represent Christ in person (persona Christi), who offered himself up as a victim for the sanctification of men. " (Presbyterorum ordinis) Father Pio was to represent, in the strongest sense of the word, " Christ offered up as victim " for more than fifty years. The grace of the visible stigmata, of charismatic significance in his case, was a constant reminder of this identification of the one Eternal High Priest and His priest.

From the beginning, because of his poor health, his confessor said to him at his first Holy Mass : " Your health is not too good ; you’ll not be able to be a great preacher. So, my wish for you is that you should become a great confessor. " Prophetic words. The priestly life of Father Pio flourished between the altar and the confessional, totally dedicated to the celebration of the Eucharist and the ministry to souls.

A priest according to the Heart of God

In 1913 he wrote ; " The Lord has shown me as in a mirror that my whole life will be nothing short of a martyrdom. Jesus himself wants my suffering ; He needs it for souls. " The grace of the stigmata, which is a sign for the Church and the world in the person of Father Pio, is the seal of the mystical identification with Jesus, Priest and Victim. Despite the apparent anachronism of this view of the priest today, it is nonetheless fundamental and Vatican II has not hesitated to draw our attention to it. At a time when certain forms of the priesthood were being considered questionable, Father Pio came on the scene as a the figure par excellence of the "total" priest in whom precisely those priorities of the ministry were being emphasised. These were namely, the celebration of the Eucharist to bring the people of God together in ecclesial communion, and the cure of souls. His entire ministry was ordained to the Eucharist, " the source and summit of the whole of Christian life. "(Lumen Gentium) In the sacrament of Confession he brought people back to the Eucharist, back to true life. Through spiritual direction and his apostolate in letter-writing, he encouraged souls to abandon themselves without reserve to the love of God. His leitmotiv was love of God and of neighbour. He devoted his own life to this without reserve, spending hours in the confessional – like the holy Curé d’Ars – and directing souls with the certainty of a Don Bosco with whom he is comparable as regards his charisms of discernment. His celebration of the Mass, the highlight of his day, gathered together the people of God in the celebration of the God of Mercy who gave His Son for the redemption of mankind. He was a priest according to the heart of God, burning with zeal for the Glory of God and the salvation of souls.

[the-waking-dreamer]

Hi Daniel: How are you doing these days? I don't know why, but I was thinking about you and remembering how you. Last time you wrote, you were asked to pray about God's will before the Blessed Sacrament, during that retreat. I hope you are well and blessed, Fr. Angel

Hi Daniel, You sent this a long time ago, when you had questions about what a priest said to you during a retreat. I never answered because I wasn’t sure if it was more of a comment or a question, but I would say now that prayer during vocational discernment is partially pragmatic (seeing if one has the practical means for carrying through on formation and becoming a priest), but also has an element of “inspiration.” Prayer, during vocations discernment (IMO) is to also help us see if we are in love enough (inspired enough), with the Lord and the Church, to give seminary a try. Anyway, I think of you from time to time and pray that you are doing well. You wrote once that your sister was pregnant and getting married. Did she have her baby? Is she alright these days. God bless you very much! Fr. Angel

Father, I heard that God took you away recently, so I logged in, and it grieved me to see this message in my box. It looks to be six years unanswered now. I am moved that you would think of me and give consideration to all my little trifles. Even though you will not read my response on this Earth, I wish to answer you all the same.

I'm doing well right now. My heart was never large enough to give serious consideration to the priesthood, but you never thought that was a big problem in your previous answers. I married my girlfriend from college, who I spent several years fawning over, several years dating, then several years engaged. We've been married for three years now, and though we have not yet been blessed with children, I couldn't imagine life without her (and I can hardly remember my life before!)

After college, I went on to grad school for my MFA and taught at a high school those same two years before being let go due to downsizing in the English department. It was a temporary certificate to teach, so I never went back to it. It stressed me out terribly, besides. I wasn't able to find work teaching at college so I worked at a printshop, and now, I'm at an assistive tech company answering the telephone. It's not as interesting as teaching was, but it pays the bills. The same year I was fired, I was married, and also disowned by my own family--a long story I won't get into here. I'm looking forward to my hundredfold.

I've been pursuing publication with my thesis from my MFA, a collection of short fiction. Nothing has taken yet save for one of my stories, which has been delayed for a year now. I still submit to magazines at least once a month to keep up the pace. I've been submitting seriously for a year and only one piece has received a personal note on the rejection. That's supposed to be a good sign! Still, the lack of success kills my motivation to write any further. It's hard to perform without an audience.

My wife is a realistic artist, and she also submits to shows and contests. Maybe it's the subject matter or just the area we live in, but she's having similar trouble getting recognition. Right now, she's working on getting her master's at the Florence Academy. We hope that the new skills push her over the to and that this program helps her get the connections she needs.

My sister, whom you advised to pursue convalidation, did end up receiving convalidation. She re-entered the Church along with her husband and their three little girls when they were all baptized some years ago. It was a big hassle, but they pulled through. The priest my brother-in-law was doing RCIA with ended up passing away, and because of military, they had to move parishes--basically losing all their progress. It wasn't until he was out of the military that they were finally able to get it done. I know my sister was put off by her priest previously and saw no way forward. Through your advice and encouragement, she was able to become right with God again. We owe much to you, Father.

Now, she's had her fourth baby--a little boy named Abram. She lives on a farm with her husband where they have chickens, cows, a couple dogs, and a donkey. Right now, she is pursuing training to be a sonogram technician so that she can support the pro-life community where she lives. She's very much an inspiration to me--humble, loving, and strong.

I regret that I haven't been on Tumblr lately, particularly to respond to you here and see your wit at work. Life became busy, and I switched to other sites to evangelize, Facebook and Reddit mainly, though I'm mostly just on Facebook now. I hope you continue to think about me from time to time and pray for my little troubles in Paradise, too.

Pax tecum,

Daniel J Dupuy

[dailyaudiobible]

03/20/2020 DAB Transcript

Numbers 30:1-31:54, Luke 4:1-30, Psalms 63:1-11, Proverbs 11:20-21

Today's the 20th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you. It's an honor it's a joy. What it joy that we get together like this for a few minutes and focus our hearts attention on the Scriptures, focus our hearts affection on God and just allow the word to speak to us. What a joy. So, we’re continuing to move through the book of Numbers and the book of Luke in the New Testament. Today we will read Numbers chapter 30 and 31.

Commentary:

Okay. So, there's a really, really huge, huge lesson for us to learn from the gospel of Luke today and it really encompasses the…the entire reading, even though it seems like we encountered a couple of stories of like Jesus being tempted in the wilderness and then Jesus being way back up in the Galilee in Nazareth announcing His ministry. They connect because of the way Jesus conducts Himself, the way that He operates, the way that He sees and does. He’s teaching us a lesson. So, for starters we find Jesus in the wilderness, and I don't know if you've noticed. It's been like right in front of his from the beginning, but have you noticed how much time we have spent in the wilderness in the Bible so far? It's an irreplaceable backdrop to the stories that the Scriptures are telling us. And what the Scriptures are showing us in those stories is that the wilderness brings utter dependence on God, which brings transformation and it also brings a lot of thrashing around and complaining and moaning and groaning. I suppose we could just stop right there because that's the story of our lives. We spend more time in wilderness seasons than we want to, or that we think that we deserve. Even though, as we look back in retrospect, we see just how much transformation and formation happens in those seasons. But usually when we’re in those seasons all we want is out of the season. So, like anything that will show us the clear path out of the wilderness, the quickest, we just pretty much fall for it. Jesus is in the wilderness outside of Jericho. It is the desert. He is making His way eventually back to Nazareth. He's a long way from Nazareth, like 70 miles. And he'll have to climb out of the desert and into the transition and up into the lush Galilee. And the devil comes and tempts Jesus. It's obviously a super famous Bible story. But as we’ve mentioned before when we’ve passed this territory, he’s coming to Jesus with an easy way out of the wilderness, an easy way to get what he seems to want, the fastest way, the pain…the most painless way to get what he wants. That’s kind of our default and we’ve probably learned a number of times that we can get into a deeper wilderness trying to find…take the fast way out of the one where in. The fastest way out of the wilderness, friends, at least in my experience is to learn the lesson the wilderness is teaching you. That changes the entire dynamic of the experience. And Jesus rejected this easier path. And, so, He walked back to Nazareth and the Bible says, that the evil one retreated and waited for another opportunity. That opportunity would come in Nazareth. Jesus entered the synagogue and announced Himself. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the Lord's favor has come.” Now, of course, everybody's around the synagogue, the famous Rabbi, the hometown boy who’s made it…making it big is back in town. And, so, Jesus announces that prophecy is being fulfilled but what they really want isn't any of that. They want Him to perform a magic show. Like, they want Him to do some miracles and signs. They want to see a show. They don't have eyes to see or ears to hear what Jesus is announcing. Like He’s announcing something huge in their Hebrew faith, the fulfillment of a prophecy and they just want Him to perform tricks. And eventually their provoked. Like, they’re provoked against Jesus, who has just had a showdown with the evil one in the desert and the evil one is waiting for an opportune time. And, so, Jesus comes and announces that He's fulfilling prophecy and the people decide they should probably throw Him off a cliff in response. And that’s how the story goes. This kind of mob mentality escorts Jesus to this cliff and then He passes right through them and goes on His way. You see how Jesus deals with things? If you're in the wilderness, and the easy way out is before you and you follow that path without discerning at all, without at least inviting God to show you whether or not the lesson of this wilderness has been learned. And not all wilderness journeys are sent to us by God. We navigate ourselves there quite readily. It seems to be like the one place that we know how to get to in our lives is the wilderness. But once we are there it is not purposeless. And sometimes the easy way out is not the easy way out. And it takes courage to stay one foot in front of the other marching through the wilderness toward the promise. That takes a whole lot more courage than taking the detour that promises an exit. If we keep going, we’ll get out of the wilderness. It will be lush and fertile, but that doesn't mean that we’re not going to face the voices of rejection, the voices of ridicule, the voice of contempt and scorn, even the voice of hatred. What if we could just let that pass right through us? What if we could pass right through that and go on our way? We can if we accept things as they are and continue moving forward day by day step-by-step. And, so, let's take these things to heart today, meditate upon them today, consider them in our lives today.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You. Thank You for the opportunity to do just that. We invite Your Holy Spirit to plant these words from the Scriptures into the soil of our lives today and help us to live into them. Help us to continue to watch. As we’re walking through the Scriptures, we’re walking with You. May we not miss anything that we need to see. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth we pray. In Your precious and holy name, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And that is all for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. First Peter 2:9. Please pray with me. Lord, my precious Savior it is your bronze slave, Treasured Possession speaking before you thanking you for my courageous sisters and brother who are saying it’s time to face the truth. They did not blame anyone. They did not make excuses for their sin. They just confessed and have repented and desire to be made whole. To have the root of pain removed so that they can operate in the fruit of the Spirit of love and self-control. Lord, you have said those who are forgiven much love much and you are looking for sisters and brothers who worship you in Spirit and truth. I lift these sisters up to you today Lord, the one who desires to be free of jealousy, the one who desires to be free of self-pity, and my brother also of courage who wants to get self-control over his eating and my sister who wants to be fray…free of binge eating. Father, I know you will never love us more today than you will in eternity. The work we have been asked to do is believe in your son Jesus Christ. And Lord relay all our burdens down today as we are called out of the darkness of rejection, self-pity, fear, abandonment and crimes perpetrated against our will. All curses spoken over us are made null and void in the cross of Christ. We receive the love of Jesus for us, the healing of our minds, will, and emotions, the healing of our bodies and say yes to be made a new creation in Christ. And it is in Jesus’ name we ask these things.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family today is March 14th. Michaela from Gloucester, I heard your prayer. It was yesterday or possibly on today’s podcast you said you were struggling. I just want you to know that I love it…I love your prayers. They always touch me on such a deep level and I’m always finding myself agreeing to them in the Spirit. So, Michaela I just want…I’m just asking God on your behalf today to lift you up. And I want you to know that you mean something to this community, if that helps. So, thank you Lord for Michaela. Thank you, Lord for the gift that you’ve given her of prayer. May that gift increase. May her hard times be made less and may she grow stronger through them with your help and by your grace. And then there was God’s Girl, all your anxiety. Lord I just lift up God’s Girl to You. My God, may her…may she find strength to push through that anxiety, strength in You Lord and may she also become stronger as she works through this latest attack or this latest whatever that’s gripping her. May she also become stronger as she works through it with You Lord. May she have eyes to see and ears to hear what You are showing her Lord, the truth of what You are showing her. May Your truth shine through. Hey…and His little Cherry, that description of that pink sunrise and how it made you think of Pink Paint was beautiful. Pink Paint you are loved. His little Cherry you are loved. Be blessed family. Amen.

Hey Daily Audio Bible family my name is Julian Miller and I am from Atlanta Georgia and I’m calling in today because I heard from a podcast a couple days ago from Veronica from Oklahoma or Oklahoma City. And I just want to say that my heart went out to you after hearing your voice and hearing your call for help. And I just want you to know that I feel for you and I’m praying for you. I’m praying that these impulses and these binges and this…this feeling that you feel like you can’t control or like you’re trapped, I just…I just ask that the Lord would continue to release you of that and that you would not fall into despair or feel like there’s no way out. I am a fitness coach here in Atlanta Georgia and I meet people all the time that are…feel like there over weight or in a situation where they can’t get back from it and it’s part of my job to reignite encouragement and life in them, to know that there is more life for them, that there is a future, there is a way to lose weight and to become more healthy. And I just hope that you’re not ashamed for calling in. I heard that in your voice, “like, I can’t believe that I’m saying this.” And I just want to say that we…you…you have a family here. It doesn’t matter what the problem in your life is, that you can always call in and ask for prayer. I love you sister. I’m continuing to pray…pray for you and lift you up. Please do not despair. Hope is on its way. God has so much for you. Release that to Him.

Hi Candace, this is Dorothy out in California. I just wanted to call and let you know that I’m so glad you’re calling in and I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s passing. You are very loved, and you are not alone. We are here for you, your Daily Audio Bible family. Keep calling in. We love you.

Hey guys this is Val from Vegas. I’m calling in because I…I made a promise that I was gonna call in on the 15th of every month. I’m in the hospital. I just got out of isolation. I have double pneumonia and I need your prayers. __ to ask it makes me feel so selfish when there’s so many other needs in the world but I could really use your prayers that the doctors will figure out how to treat me and that I can get out of here and that it can be a testimony and that God can get the glory. Honestly, I feel so defeated and I’m trying to understand and recognize that God loves me, but have you ever felt like he’s mad at you? Please pray that I can get out of the hospital soon.

Good morning. Blessings Flow here again. I also wanted to say, God’s girl in Canada, God bless you sister. I’m praying for you. Thank you so much for calling in. And I’m in agreement with you that anxiety and depression will not prevail in your life in the name Jesus. And that God will have God’s way in your life. I’m praying for you this morning and I just wanted to say, may the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you God’s girl and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon and give you peace. I’m praying for you also my sister called and with PCOS and was requesting prayer about losing 100 pounds. I’m so proud of you. You have nothing to be ashamed of. We’re in agreement with you. Nobody is looking down at you. No one is saying, “how could you call in with that. That’s so silly.” Yes, and amen. We are in agreement. We are proud of you. We’re cheering on. And I just thank you for your boldness to call in about that. This is Blessings Flow in Pennsylvania and I don’t know why I’m up at six something a.m. but many of you are on my heart and I know it’s…it’s not about me. It’s about the Lord and you and God’s love for us DAB family. And I’m so humbled just even in these last couple months to be a part of this family. God bless you. Blessings Flow in Pennsylvania.

Good morning DAB this is Judy I’m from Delaware. I just want to express my love and appreciation for all you who pray every day for everyone. I’d just like to see some extra special prayers for my family, that we are able to keep our love for one another together, that we are able to maintain our prayer life in the midst of all this turmoil. I’d just like to also see some special prayers to everyone who listens to DAB and brings forth prayers for the world every day. Brian thank you so much. Thank you to you and your family for all that you bring to the table for us every morning in spite of…I know there must be days where your heart is heavy as ours. But you still and enlighten us with the Bible, with the words. And I’m just so thankful to have you and to have a place where I can come and listen and know that there’s so many others listening with me. Thank you again. And everyone be blessed and be safe.

[mjwood93]

Rhythms of Grace: How the Church’s Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel by Mike Cosper

Rhythms of Grace: How the Church’s Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel by Mike Cosper.

"The Story of the Gospel is all about Worship” (p. 73)

“Do you find yourself in God’s Gospel story week to week? How is the Gospel important to worship?” These are just a couple of the questions that Mike Cosper seeks to answer in his book Rhythms of Grace. Mike Cosper is one of the founding pastors at Sojourn Community Church, where he serves as pastor over the worship and arts ministry. He also writes for The Gospel Coalition. While I’ve never heard of Mike Cosper until reading this book, I had listened to a couple songs from a Sojourn Music worship album because of their association with Sovereign Grace Music.

At 212 pages or so, I flew through this book in about a week, and am able to say that I’ll be recommending this book to other worship leaders and musicians. It is perfect for the layperson as well as a pastor/elder who may be in need of more study on Gospel-Centered Worship. This book has a little something for everyone, with the first part of the book almost being a short biblical theology of worship, then moving into a short chapter dealing with church history, and then moving on at last to how do we apply all this to today with changes in worship styles, technology, and other complications.

Chapters 1-4 give a short biblical theology of worship in the Bible. Biblical Theology is a discipline of theology that traces a theme chronologically in history as it appears in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Biblical Theology is a good discipline to show how a theme or doctrine develops throughout the Bible and is fulfilled and consummated in Jesus Christ. We start right at the beginning (well, actually before the beginning) before the foundation of the world with God in perfect Trinitarian love. At it’s heart, the worship of God by His own self adoration is perfect worship and love. In the book of Genesis, it is out of this overflowing love that Adam is created as the first “worship leader”. Eden was a garden temple where God was able to completely dwell in the presence of Adam & Eve. Adam & Eve’s worship was not ritualistic or endless singing, but it was their whole lives devoted to God.  They were called to expand and subdue the rest of creation to the glory of God, but failed in their sin, and so perfect worship between God & man was ruined. Sin distorts the beauty and harmony that God created, and we see this in the contrasted worship of Cain and Abel and all down the line of humanity through when God calls Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt, where they sing a song of God redeeming them and giving them a new identity as His people. It is at Mount Sinai where the Priesthood and Tabernacle are established. Because God is a holy, perfect, and just God, He requires that life be taken as the punishment of sin, requiring atonement of sins through the sacrifice of birds, bulls, and lambs. As Adam represented humanity and creation, so the priesthood represents the people of Israel. Further in history these priests lead the people in false worship, and the people long for a King like other nations, who also end up representing the nation and leading the people astray.  The story of the Old Testament is one of utter failure, with God continually calling the people of Israel back to repentance. The Song of Jesus is one that is built up throughout the Biblical story and leads to his quotation of Psalm 22 on the Cross, facing God’s wrath and fury for the sins of His people. His song is one of redemption and through His death and resurrection became the center where it is possible to approach God the Father through a reconciled relationship. This is why Jesus is the True Temple, our True Priest, and our True Worship Leader. He has won and has restored what sin has broken. By union with Him and by His extension, we are called as the Church to do His work, being a light unto the nations, singing His praise and glorifying Him with our lives as living sacrifices.

Chapter 5 was one of the most helpful chapters to read titled “Worship One, Two, Three”. Cosper’s philosophy of worship is one that I’ll continue to use in the days ahead. His philosophy is that worship has one Object & Author, two contexts, and three audiences.

The Trinitarian God is at the center of our worship. He created us to worship Him, and even though sin corrupted our worship of Him, He makes us new creation in Christ so that our lives are completely offered to Him by Christ’s righteousness, who also brings glory to the Father. God is the One who put forward and directed His own sovereign plan, so that He is the author of not only our faith, but our worship.

Two contexts exist for our worship, one that is scattered, the other that is gathered. Scattered worship is how each Christian individually is able to worship God in their own private and public lives. It is important to note that we can only have this intimate living sacrifice of worship because of what Christ has done on the Cross. The fact that we can worship God while driving in our car is a huge deal, one that we should be continually thankful for! We cannot sustain ourselves and our relationship with God individually though. We are called to be with community and this is where Gathered Worship takes place. Because Jesus is the Cornerstone of the true Temple and fulfills the OT temple and priesthood, we become the dwelling place of God, even more so when we unite and worship Him together. Therefore this makes our gathering on Sundays completely unique. Little temples are making a greater temple that are united to the True Temple. The goal of all this is to proclaim the Glory of God, and to spur and encourage one another on so that we can go out back into the world to proclaim the Gospel and His Kingdom.

Three audiences exist: God, the Church, and the World. God is our audience as we come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ. We can worship Him fully because of Jesus interceding for us at the right hand of the Father. The Church is the second audience. We are called to sing to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, encouraging and teaching one another in this way. The last audience is the world. Through the Church’s song we are called to be a light and declare boldly through our singing the glory of Jesus Christ to the world. It is important to have a balance of audience direction from week to week. If not careful, a church could move to something more like a seeker-sensitive church, where the emphasis is on the audience of the world. “Worship that celebrates the gospel brings all three audiences together: the God who saves by the Gospel, the Church formed by the Gospel, and the world in need of the Gospel” (p.90).

Chapter 6 moves on to Worship as Spiritual Formation, mainly emphasizing why we gather as a Church and how we use the Word in worship to form our habits as worshippers going out into the world. Gathering itself is a habit that must discipline ourselves to do. Not only that, but how we gather, what we teach through our songs, and the language we use during this gathering all form our habits for how we express and articulate our worship. We need to make sure we are discerning and scriptural about all these things. Ultimately, our gathering is to encourage us in the Gospel and our hope-filled future of Christ returning and our uniting with Him.

Chapters 7 & 8 deal with Worship in the history of the church and liturgical aspects of worship. From the beginning of when the Church was created, the Gospel has always shaped it’s liturgy. Liturgy itself means “the work of the people”, and when the church gathers we have work to do. This means to Glorify God and to spur each other on to good works. But how we do these things, and how we view God and worship Him, is based on the content that we include in our services. “The words we hear, sing, and speak in worship help form our images of God,.... our understanding of what the church is and does,... and our practices of engaging with God, with each other, and with the world” (p.118). Everything we do in a service explicitly and implicitly teaches something. To help find ourselves in the story of the Gospel, we must frame our services by the Gospel. This includes the elements of:

Adoration

Confession

Assurance

Thanksgiving

Petition

Instruction

Charge

Blessing

or, can also be framed as:

God is Holy - Creation - Adoration

We are sinners - Fall - Confession/Lament

Jesus saves us - Redemption - Assurance/Thanksgiving/Instruction

Jesus sends us - Consummation - Communion/Charge/Blessing

From the early church, to the Reformation, to the Free Church, to age of Revivalism, all various church denominations have used these practices and framework to some degree when shaping their service. Much of the problem with a modern church service is that it is based on what’s called “The Temple Model” of a pilgrim traveling to Jerusalem. I include this next paragraph from Cosper’s book because I believe it is of importance, describing a large portion of churches today:

“The problem with this model is twofold. First, it’s developed backwards. The theology of the Temple Model is a theological interpretation of an experience, and it is divorced from any kind of historical perspective on the gathered church. Second, it ignores most of what the New Testament teaches us about worship, the presence of God, and the temple. instead of being led by Jesus through the inner curtain, we’re led there by a worship leader or a pastor - a pseudo priest. God’s presence is measured in emotional impact, and it’s mediated through music and preaching, displacing Jesus from his role as Mediator and worship leader” (p.113).

This type of worship can lead people astray, and into unknowingly thinking that they are just there to feed a spiritual/emotional high. Even in our worship, we should not look to ourselves, to a worship leader, to a pastor, but to Christ Himself to help us worship all the more.

Chapter 9 is all about singing. Singing is all throughout the Bible and usually has to deal with the redemption of God’s people. God sings over us and we as the people of God have sung to Him throughout the ages. We are to sing a “new song”. This does not mean a literal creative new song with some fancy new chord progression, but has to deal with the new song of Jesus Christ our Lord saving His people through the Gospel. Worship is so much more than an individual encounter with God, as much as the modern worship movement may make it seem, but it is about our song as the people of God to our God. As I have explained earlier in this review, singing should be about teaching one another, and we are told to do this through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. What we sing and how we sing are so important, because our song sung together is a testimony and declaration to the world about what we believe. This means singing and submitting to each other’s preferences as well, because, this shows love to one another, and continues to not hurt our witness to the world. Within all of this, the end goal of music should be to serve the congregation’s singing, in scriptural truth, but also in quality and other factors, such as a key that is suitable for them.

Chapter 10 places an emphasis on the role of a worship leader being a pastoral one. Those who lead are stewards of God’s Word, and should know it well. We as worship leaders place the thoughts and words used into people’s minds, mouths, and hearts. Worship leaders have the greatest opportunity to summarize doctrine and make the language of the Bible fresh and new to their congregation’s ears. We should make sure that what we sing should be rightly contextualized and understandable to our congregation. We should also be aware of who we have in our congregation, and what situations are arriving and have gone before us in the congregation, and should know the congregation’s needs and sufferings. This is an area where I personally need to grow in, so it was good for me to read.

I’ve read six books on worship this year, and this would probably take place at number three for favorite worship book that I’ve read; number two being Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chapell, number one being Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin (who also does the foreword for this book). I continue to learn and see that our theology shapes our doxology and vice versa, therefore one must be discerning with each, because they are of the utmost importance. Worship is what we were made for; to worship God through Jesus Christ, because of what he Has done on the Cross. He is our True Worship Leader, and may we ever look to and depend on His mercy and grace to help His name be glorified all the more. I thank God for Mike Cosper, his ministry and this much needed book.

[drunkexmormonsexplain-blog]

So my dad posted an infuriating article on facebook...

Here's the link: https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-01-22/what-to-do-with-your-questions-according-to-1-general-authority-whos-an-expert-on-anti-church-materials-48843

After reading this absolute garbage, I was so infuriated that in the height of pettiness I decided to write a 3 page rebuttal essay. Then I realized that as much as I want to stir shit with the Mormons, I don't actually want my dad to disown me. So I'm gonna post it here instead of on my dad's facebook. It's extremely rough and overwritten, but since I have no plans to revise it I'm just gonna let it into the wild. There are a few paragraphs where the wording is too poor to convince real diehards, but it should be convincing enough for my fellow exmos at least! LONG POST AHEAD

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Valerie Johnson’s piece, “What to do with your questions”, covers LDS leader Elder Corbridge’s visit to a BYU campus and outlines his response to concerns many members of the church have about unsavory parts of its history and current practices. It’s an effective piece of LDS propaganda: a piece of media that obscures or inflates the truth in order to advance the beliefs of an organization. As we’ll see below, not only does the piece fail to address the valid concerns of many latter-day saints, but it also uses familiar techniques to undermine the importance of those concerns in the first place. The following outlines both the inaccuracies in Corbridge’s arguments and the subtle ways in which the article discourages LDS readers from thinking critically about the issues at hand.

Let’s start with the first question in the article. “The kingdom of God is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as described in the book of Daniel as standing forever. The question is, will you and I stand?” Corbridge/Johnson asks. While claims about the longevity of “God’s kingdom” are unprovable, it’s evident to any non-church-funded source that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at least, is dwindling. Church sources commonly claim that membership numbers are increasing, because they count all individuals who have been baptized but not ex-communicated. On the other hand, counting only active, financially-contributing members reveals that membership is declining sharply. Teens and adults who were raised in the church are leaving at a higher rate than ever. A large portion of the membership inflation reported by the church consists of individuals converted by missionaries as adults, who are counted as members until death although they often stop attending within a year.

From there, Johnson moves on to claim that attacks on the church are broad, including church doctrine that conflicts with “shifting attitudes of today”. This is a common phrase in LDS writing, used to encourage but not specifically state the idea that church doctrine, unlike the rest of the world’s social values, is permanent and unchanging. This is untrue, as many church teachings have changed with time, often shifting to become more in line with North American social norms. A famous and relatively recent example, alluded to in Johnson’s article, is the fact that black men were not allowed to receive the priesthood until 1978. Though there have been many apologetic explanations for this overdue change in doctrine, it’s hard to ignore the fact that its introduction coincided with a government warning that the church would only be able to keep its tax-free status if it got rid of its racist policies. With this and other examples, it’s clear that the church does have a historical precedent to alter teachings in order to keep up with society’s “shifting attitudes.” However, the way it’s phrased in the article contributes to the subconscious idea among many church members that society is at fault for becoming more progressive, not the church for its inability to keep up.

Changing church policy, a history of immoral doctrine, and dwindling membership statistics are only a few of the concerns plaguing modern Mormons. Corbridge and Johnson attempt to address this huge umbrella of issues with a simple response: “Answer the primary questions.” According to Corbridge, these fundamental questions about the church include: “Is there a God who is our Father? Is Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Savior of the World? Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the kingdom of God on the earth? Was Joseph Smith a prophet?”

The first three questions refer to the existence God, which is unprovable, and the role of Jesus Christ, a distant historical figure whose true actions in life are hard to discern. In contrast, the last question refers to Joseph Smith, a man who lived in America in the 1800s, whose life is well documented and researched. Was he, as Corbridge asks, a prophet? Researching his life, the answer is clear: hopefully not.

There’s a well of damning evidence on Joseph Smith available with some quick research. He scammed people with his treasure-hunting business, was often jailed for his crimes, and even killed others during his escape attempts. Although the church tried to cover it up for years, he is most well known for his polygamy: by the time he died in 1844, he was married to at least 27 women. The youngest of these, Helen Mar Kimball, was 14 years old. Joseph Smith was 37, which makes him a pedophile on all counts – even in 1843, when they were married, the average marriage age for women was between 20 and 22. If such a man was chosen as a prophet of God, we should question what type of God would choose him, and what type of church would follow his teachings. The church itself has not addressed these concerns, sweeping them under the rug as “lies and deception”, despite multiple sources proving their accuracy. Predictably, Johnson and Corbridge do not mention anything else about Joseph Smith in the article.

Corbridge then moves on to what he calls the “secondary questions,” which Johnson broadly generalizes as “questions about Church history, polygamy, black people and women and the priesthood, how the Book of Mormon was translated, DNA and the Book of Mormon, gay marriage, different accounts of the First Vision and so on,” not going into specifics on any of these topics. Corbridge follows this up with the most bizarre claim in the entire article: “If you answer the primary questions, the secondary questions get answered too or they pale in significance and you can deal with things you understand and things you don’t understand, things you agree with and things you don’t agree with without jumping ship.”

There’s a lot to get into with this statement. Firstly, the article attempts to trivialize many valid concerns about the church. For example, “Gay marriage” is used as a buzzword to cover an array of questions about the church and the LGBT+ community such as why same-sex couples aren’t allowed to be married in the church, if it’s possible for LGB members to be happy even though they’re forced to be celibate, if trans and gender non-conforming individuals are allowed to present their true identity and be fully accepted into the congregation, why children of LGB parents aren’t allowed to be baptized into the church without cutting contact with their family, and so on. These topics are trivialized by presenting them so broadly and following them up with the statement that they “pale in importance�� to the primary questions. This is not the case for the LGBT+ individuals in question, or other individuals whose happiness is directly affected by any of the issues mentioned.

Secondly, the idea that some of these secondary questions are also answered by the primary questions is a bold and frankly false statement. Knowing the “correct” answers to the primary questions does nothing to answer the far more nuanced subjects of the secondary questions. A devout Mormon who firmly believes in God and knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet can still easily have questions about why God wouldn’t allow women to hold the priesthood, or how the Book of Mormon can be a historically accurate account of pre-colonial America when DNA evidence proves otherwise. It’s clear that most of these questions fall into Corbridge’s “pale in importance” category, which minimizes the real struggles that even faithful members can experience in the church.

The last part of this statement is the most telling to Corbridge’s, and more broadly the church’s response to criticism and questioning members. He says that it’s important members deal with these controversial subjects, with “things you understand and things you don’t understand, things you agree with and things you don’t agree with, without jumping ship.” According to Corbridge, Mormons should stay active in the church if they believe in the “primary questions”, even if they have doubts about the “secondary questions.” Historically, many religious groups have been formed by those who share the same primary beliefs as another sect – belief in God and Jesus Christ, for example – but differ on how the church should be run or the details about God’s doctrine. There is even history within the Mormon faith of separate factions who have split off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based on their different answers to the “secondary questions”, even though they share belief in God, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith with the mainstream branch of LDS faith. It doesn’t make sense for LDS members who disagree with or don’t understand controversial church doctrine to remain members, even if they believe in God, Jesus Christ, or Joseph Smith, as they can seek out other denominations that are more in line with their personal beliefs. Remaining in the church is not beneficial to their spiritual well-being or happiness. Non-believing or disillusioned members can create disharmony within the church, so it isn’t good for the health and harmony of a congregation for leaders like Corbridge to encourage those members to stay. What it is good for, though, is the church’s finances, since LDS members who want to access all the benefits of Mormonism must pay 10% of their income to the church. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that the purpose of this article is to suggest doubting members ignore their concerns and stay active, tithe-paying members.

Johnson’s section on the methods of learning is familiar to anyone experienced with religious anti-science rhetoric. Though it references the scientific method and “analytical learning” (research), those mentions are meaningless as Corbridge states “the divine method of learning ultimately trumps everything else by tapping into the powers of heaven.” This is echoed often in fundamentalist religious writing, and means that whenever scientific evidence, academic research, or social values clash with religious beliefs, believers are to ignore the facts and trust “God”, or the teachings of their church. It’s a way to shut down logical arguments from doubters or non-believers without having to think critically about church doctrine and has been discussed at length in other writing.

A somewhat amusing and unique addition to this article is the concept of “academic learning” as separate from scientific or analytical. The idea that simply reading a text can provide the reader with truth without the “analytical” step of fact-checking and resource gathering is false. After all, anyone can write a piece (such as Johnson’s) and fill it with lies. Without multiple opinions and validations, a text on its own has no truth value.

The final two sections of “What to do with your questions” move away from laughable pseudo-academic claims and give us insight into the far more insidious psychological methods the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other religious groups use to keep their members in order. The first section is entitled “The Presence or Absence of the Holy Ghost.” Generally, most LDS members and leaders assume the “presence of the Holy Ghost” to mean a happy, warm, and comfortable feeling. This type of feeling commonly occurs in familiar, safe settings such as churches and homes. Corbridge goes on to state that “the gloom I experienced as I listened to the dark choir of voices raised against the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ… is the absence of the Spirit of God.” In other words, if members who read about controversial church history and practices feel bad or uncomfortable while doing so, it must mean these claims are false.

The truth is that anyone who learns about information that radically disrupts their current worldview will be uncomfortable. In the case of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, leaders have so effectively hidden parts of its history from its members and lied about doing so that the discovery of things like Joseph Smith’s history of polygamy and multiple accounts of the First Vision can be shocking and upsetting. Issues dealing with the happiness of LGBT+, women, and black members of the church make many members feel guilty and sad, as they feel empathy for those who have been wronged by the church’s present or past teachings. By equating the natural and understandable feelings of sadness, guilt, and discomfort with the absence of the spirit and therefore falsehood, Corbridge convinces questioning members that they should bury those feelings and ignore their questions. This is not an acceptable way to address controversial church topics, nor is it healthy to encourage members to suppress their emotions.

The final section of the article, “Elimination”, is the final nail in the coffin telling LDS members to keep their doubts private and unanswered. Corbridge reiterates that he and God can’t answer all the member’s doubts – obvious, since he and Johnson have done nothing to address any concerns in this article – and that those who truly answer the “primary questions” will not even need answers to their further questions. This effectively combines the church’s policy of repression and communal guilt: if you are bothered by unsavory aspects of the church’s doctrine, you probably don’t believe in God or Joseph Smith. LDS doctrine already encourages a heavy amount of personal guilt for members who don’t feel they are perfectly living up to the church’s expectations, but if they voice their concerns, they now face the shame of their peers. Nobody in a faith setting wants to be known as the unfaithful member, and Corbridge’s statement is clear: if you want to be respected by your religious peers, keep those questions in.

-North

[araitsume]

The Desire of Ages, pp. 132-143: Chapter (14) “We Have Found the Messias”

This chapter is based on John 1:19-51.

John the Baptist was now preaching and baptizing at Bethabara, beyond Jordan. It was not far from this spot that God had stayed the river in its flow until Israel had passed over. A little distance from here the stronghold of Jericho had been overthrown by the armies of heaven. The memory of these events was at this time revived, and gave a thrilling interest to the Baptist's message. Would not He who had wrought so wonderfully in ages past again manifest His power for Israel's deliverance? Such was the thought stirring the hearts of the people who daily thronged the banks of the Jordan.

The preaching of John had taken so deep a hold on the nation as to demand the attention of the religious authorities. The danger of insurrection caused every popular gathering to be looked upon with suspicion by the Romans, and whatever pointed toward an uprising of the people excited the fears of the Jewish rulers. John had not recognized the authority of the Sanhedrin by seeking their sanction for his work; and he had reproved rulers and people, Pharisees and Sadducees alike. Yet the people followed him eagerly. The interest in his work seemed to be continually increasing. Though he had not deferred to them, the Sanhedrin accounted that, as a public teacher, he was under their jurisdiction.

This body was made up of members chosen from the priesthood, and from the chief rulers and teachers of the nation. The high priest was usually the president. All its members were to be men advanced in years, though not aged; men of learning, not only versed in Jewish religion and history, but in general knowledge. They were to be without physical blemish, and must be married men, and fathers, as being more likely than others to be humane and considerate. Their place of meeting was an apartment connected with the temple at Jerusalem. In the days of Jewish independence the Sanhedrin was the supreme court of the nation, possessing secular as well as ecclesiastical authority. Though now subordinated by the Roman governors, it still exercised a strong influence in civil as well as religious matters.

The Sanhedrin could not well defer an investigation of John's work. There were some who recalled the revelation made to Zacharias in the temple, and the father's prophecy, that had pointed to his child as the Messiah's herald. In the tumults and changes of thirty years, these things had in a great measure been lost sight of. They were now called to mind by the excitement concerning the ministry of John.

It was long since Israel had had a prophet, long since such a reformation as was now in progress had been witnessed. The demand for confession of sin seemed new and startling. Many among the leaders would not go to hear John's appeals and denunciations, lest they should be led to disclose the secrets of their own lives. Yet his preaching was a direct announcement of the Messiah. It was well known that the seventy weeks of Daniel's prophecy, covering the Messiah's advent, were nearly ended; and all were eager to share in that era of national glory which was then expected. Such was the popular enthusiasm that the Sanhedrin would soon be forced either to sanction or to reject John's work. Already their power over the people was waning. It was becoming a serious question how to maintain their position. In the hope of arriving at some conclusion, they dispatched to the Jordan a deputation of priests and Levites to confer with the new teacher.

A multitude were gathered, listening to his words, when the delegates approached. With an air of authority designed to impress the people and to command the deference of the prophet the haughty rabbis came. With a movement of respect, almost of fear, the crowd opened to let them pass. The great men, in their rich robes, in the pride of rank and power, stood before the prophet of the wilderness.

“Who art thou?” they demanded.

Knowing what was in their thoughts, John answered, “I am not the Christ.”

“What then? Art thou Elias?”

“I am not.”

“Art thou that prophet?”

“No.”

“Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?”

“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.”

The scripture to which John referred is that beautiful prophecy of Isaiah: “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her appointed time is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.... The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Isaiah 40:1-5, margin.

Anciently, when a king journeyed through the less frequented parts of his dominion, a company of men was sent ahead of the royal chariot to level the steep places and to fill up the hollows, that the king might travel in safety and without hindrance. This custom is employed by the prophet to illustrate the work of the gospel. “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.” When the Spirit of God, with its marvelous awakening power, touches the soul, it abases human pride. Worldly pleasure and position and power are seen to be worthless. “Imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God” are cast down; every thought is brought into captivity “to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5. Then humility and self-sacrificing love, so little valued among men, are exalted as alone of worth. This is the work of the gospel, of which John's message was a part.

The rabbis continued their questioning: “Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?” The words “that prophet” had reference to Moses. The Jews had been inclined to the belief that Moses would be raised from the dead, and taken to heaven. They did not know that he had already been raised. When the Baptist began his ministry, many thought that he might be the prophet Moses risen from the dead, for he seemed to have a thorough knowledge of the prophecies and of the history of Israel.

It was believed also that before the Messiah's advent, Elijah would personally appear. This expectation John met in his denial; but his words had a deeper meaning. Jesus afterward said, referring to John, “If ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, which is to come.” Matthew 11:14, R. V. John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, to do such a work as Elijah did. If the Jews had received him, it would have been accomplished for them. But they did not receive his message. To them he was not Elijah. He could not fulfill for them the mission he came to accomplish.

Many of those gathered at the Jordan had been present at the baptism of Jesus; but the sign then given had been manifest to but few among them. During the preceding months of the Baptist's ministry, many had refused to heed the call to repentance. Thus they had hardened their hearts and darkened their understanding. When Heaven bore testimony to Jesus at His baptism, they perceived it not. Eyes that had never been turned in faith to Him that is invisible beheld not the revelation of the glory of God; ears that had never listened to His voice heard not the words of witness. So it is now. Often the presence of Christ and the ministering angels is manifest in the assemblies of the people, and yet there are many who know it not. They discern nothing unusual. But to some the Saviour's presence is revealed. Peace and joy animate their hearts. They are comforted, encouraged, and blessed.

The deputies from Jerusalem had demanded of John, “Why baptizest thou?” and they were awaiting his answer. Suddenly, as his glance swept over the throng, his eye kindled, his face was lighted up, his whole being was stirred with deep emotion. With outstretched hands he cried, “I baptize in water: in the midst of you standeth One whom ye know not, even He that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.” John 1:26, 27, R. V., margin.

The message was distinct and unequivocal, to be carried back to the Sanhedrin. The words of John could apply to no other than the long-promised One. The Messiah was among them! In amazement priests and rulers gazed about them, hoping to discover Him of whom John had spoken. But He was not distinguishable among the throng.

When at the baptism of Jesus, John pointed to Him as the Lamb of God, a new light was shed upon the Messiah's work. The prophet's mind was directed to the words of Isaiah, “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.” Isaiah 53:7. During the weeks that followed, John with new interest studied the prophecies and the teaching of the sacrificial service. He did not distinguish clearly the two phases of Christ's work,—as a suffering sacrifice and a conquering king,—but he saw that His coming had a deeper significance than priests or people had discerned. When he beheld Jesus among the throng on His return from the desert, he confidently looked for Him to give the people some sign of His true character. Almost impatiently he waited to hear the Saviour declare His mission; but no word was spoken, no sign given. Jesus did not respond to the Baptist's announcement of Him, but mingled with the disciples of John, giving no outward evidence of His special work, and taking no measures to bring Himself to notice.

The next day John sees Jesus coming. With the light of the glory of God resting upon him, the prophet stretches out his hands, declaring, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is become before me.... And I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water.... I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” John 1:29-34, R. V., margin.

Was this the Christ? With awe and wonder the people looked upon the One just declared to be the Son of God. They had been deeply moved by the words of John. He had spoken to them in the name of God. They had listened to him day after day as he reproved their sins, and daily the conviction that he was sent of Heaven had strengthened. But who was this One greater than John the Baptist? In His dress and bearing there was nothing that betokened rank. He was apparently a simple personage, clad like themselves in the humble garments of the poor.

There were in the throng some who at Christ's baptism had beheld the divine glory, and had heard the voice of God. But since that time the Saviour's appearance had greatly changed. At His baptism they had seen His countenance transfigured in the light of heaven; now, pale, worn, and emaciated, He had been recognized only by the prophet John.

But as the people looked upon Him, they saw a face where divine compassion was blended with conscious power. Every glance of the eye, every feature of the countenance, was marked with humility, and expressive of unutterable love. He seemed to be surrounded by an atmosphere of spiritual influence. While His manners were gentle and unassuming, He impressed men with a sense of power that was hidden, yet could not be wholly concealed. Was this the One for whom Israel had so long waited?

Jesus came in poverty and humiliation, that He might be our example as well as our Redeemer. If He had appeared with kingly pomp, how could He have taught humility? how could He have presented such cutting truths as in the Sermon on the Mount? Where would have been the hope of the lowly in life had Jesus come to dwell as a king among men?

To the multitude, however, it seemed impossible that the One designated by John should be associated with their lofty anticipations. Thus many were disappointed, and greatly perplexed.

The words which the priests and rabbis so much desired to hear, that Jesus would now restore the kingdom to Israel, had not been spoken. For such a king they had been waiting and watching; such a king they were ready to receive. But one who sought to establish in their hearts a kingdom of righteousness and peace, they would not accept.

On the following day, while two disciples were standing near, John again saw Jesus among the people. Again the face of the prophet was lighted up with glory from the Unseen, as he cried, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The words thrilled the hearts of the disciples. They did not fully understand them. What meant the name that John had given Him,—“the Lamb of God”? John himself had not explained it.

Leaving John, they went to seek Jesus. One of the two was Andrew, the brother of Simon; the other was John the evangelist. These were Christ's first disciples. Moved by an irresistible impulse, they followed Jesus,—anxious to speak with Him, yet awed and silent, lost in the overwhelming significance of the thought, “Is this the Messiah?”

Jesus knew that the disciples were following Him. They were the first fruits of His ministry, and there was joy in the heart of the divine Teacher as these souls responded to His grace. Yet turning, He asked only, “What seek ye?” He would leave them free to turn back or to speak of their desire.

Of one purpose only were they conscious. One presence filled their thought. They exclaimed, “Rabbi, ... where dwellest Thou?” In a brief interview by the wayside they could not receive that for which they longed. They desired to be alone with Jesus, to sit at His feet, and hear His words.

“He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day.”

If John and Andrew had possessed the unbelieving spirit of the priests and rulers, they would not have been found as learners at the feet of Jesus. They would have come to Him as critics, to judge His words. Many thus close the door to the most precious opportunities. But not so did these first disciples. They had responded to the Holy Spirit's call in the preaching of John the Baptist. Now they recognized the voice of the heavenly Teacher. To them the words of Jesus were full of freshness and truth and beauty. A divine illumination was shed upon the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures. The many-sided themes of truth stood out in new light.

It is contrition and faith and love that enable the soul to receive wisdom from heaven. Faith working by love is the key of knowledge, and everyone that loveth “knoweth God.” 1 John 4:7.

The disciple John was a man of earnest and deep affection, ardent, yet contemplative. He had begun to discern the glory of Christ,—not the worldly pomp and power for which he had been taught to hope, but “the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14. He was absorbed in contemplation of the wondrous theme.

Andrew sought to impart the joy that filled his heart. Going in search of his brother Simon, he cried, “We have found the Messias.” Simon waited for no second bidding. He also had heard the preaching of John the Baptist, and he hastened to the Saviour. The eye of Christ rested upon him, reading his character and his life history. His impulsive nature, his loving, sympathetic heart, his ambition and self-confidence, the history of his fall, his repentance, his labors, and his martyr death,—the Saviour read it all, and He said, “Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.”

“The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow Me.” Philip obeyed the command, and straightway he also became a worker for Christ.

Philip called Nathanael. The latter had been among the throng when the Baptist pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God. As Nathanael looked upon Jesus, he was disappointed. Could this man, who bore the marks of toil and poverty, be the Messiah? Yet Nathanael could not decide to reject Jesus, for the message of John had brought conviction to his heart.

At the time when Philip called him, Nathanael had withdrawn to a quiet grove to meditate upon the announcement of John and the prophecies concerning the Messiah. He prayed that if the one announced by John was the deliverer, it might be made known to him, and the Holy Spirit rested upon him with assurance that God had visited His people and raised up a horn of salvation for them. Philip knew that his friend was searching the prophecies, and while Nathanael was praying under a fig tree, Philip discovered his retreat. They had often prayed together in this secluded spot hidden by the foliage.

The message, “We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write,” seemed to Nathanael a direct answer to his prayer. But Philip had yet a trembling faith. He added doubtfully, “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Again prejudice arose in Nathanael's heart. He exclaimed, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

Philip entered into no controversy. He said, “Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” In surprise Nathanael exclaimed, “Whence knowest Thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.”

It was enough. The divine Spirit that had borne witness to Nathanael in his solitary prayer under the fig tree now spoke to him in the words of Jesus. Though in doubt, and yielding somewhat to prejudice, Nathanael had come to Christ with an honest desire for truth, and now his desire was met. His faith went beyond that of the one who had brought him to Jesus. He answered and said, “Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel.”

If Nathanael had trusted to the rabbis for guidance, he would never have found Jesus. It was by seeing and judging for himself that he became a disciple. So in the case of many today whom prejudice withholds from good. How different would be the result if they would “come and see”!

While they trust to the guidance of human authority, none will come to a saving knowledge of the truth. Like Nathanael, we need to study God's word for ourselves, and pray for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. He who saw Nathanael under the fig tree will see us in the secret place of prayer. Angels from the world of light are near to those who in humility seek for divine guidance.

With the calling of John and Andrew and Simon, of Philip and Nathanael, began the foundation of the Christian church. John directed two of his disciples to Christ. Then one of these, Andrew, found his brother, and called him to the Saviour. Philip was then called, and he went in search of Nathanael. These examples should teach us the importance of personal effort, of making direct appeals to our kindred, friends, and neighbors. There are those who for a lifetime have professed to be acquainted with Christ, yet who have never made a personal effort to bring even one soul to the Saviour. They leave all the work for the minister. He may be well qualified for his calling, but he cannot do that which God has left for the members of the church.

There are many who need the ministration of loving Christian hearts. Many have gone down to ruin who might have been saved if their neighbors, common men and women, had put forth personal effort for them. Many are waiting to be personally addressed. In the very family, the neighborhood, the town, where we live, there is work for us to do as missionaries for Christ. If we are Christians, this work will be our delight. No sooner is one converted than there is born within him a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus. The saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart.

All who are consecrated to God will be channels of light. God makes them His agents to communicate to others the riches of His grace. His promise is, “I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.” Ezekiel 34:26.

Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see.” He did not ask him to accept another's testimony, but to behold Christ for himself. Now that Jesus has ascended to heaven, His disciples are His representatives among men, and one of the most effective ways of winning souls to Him is in exemplifying His character in our daily life. Our influence upon others depends not so much upon what we say as upon what we are. Men may combat and defy our logic, they may resist our appeals; but a life of disinterested love is an argument they cannot gainsay. A consistent life, characterized by the meekness of Christ, is a power in the world.

The teaching of Christ was the expression of an inwrought conviction and experience, and those who learn of Him become teachers after the divine order. The word of God, spoken by one who is himself sanctified through it, has a life-giving power that makes it attractive to the hearers, and convicts them that it is a living reality. When one has received the truth in the love of it, he will make this manifest in the persuasion of his manner and the tones of his voice. He makes known that which he himself has heard, seen, and handled of the word of life, that others may have fellowship with him through the knowledge of Christ. His testimony, from lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, is truth to the receptive heart, and works sanctification upon the character.

And he who seeks to give light to others will himself be blessed. “There shall be showers of blessing.” “He that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Proverbs 11:25. God could have reached His object in saving sinners without our aid; but in order for us to develop a character like Christ's, we must share in His work. In order to enter into His joy,—the joy of seeing souls redeemed by His sacrifice,—we must participate in His labors for their redemption.

Nathanael's first expression of his faith, so full and earnest and sincere, fell like music on the ears of Jesus. And He “answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.” The Saviour looked forward with joy to His work in preaching good tidings to the meek, binding up the brokenhearted, and proclaiming liberty to the captives of Satan. At thought of the precious blessings He had brought to men, Jesus added, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

Here Christ virtually says, On the bank of the Jordan the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended like a dove upon Me. That scene was but a token that I am the Son of God. If you believe on Me as such, your faith shall be quickened. You shall see that the heavens are opened, and are never to be closed. I have opened them to you. The angels of God are ascending, bearing the prayers of the needy and distressed to the Father above, and descending, bringing blessing and hope, courage, help, and life, to the children of men.

The angels of God are ever passing from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth. The miracles of Christ for the afflicted and suffering were wrought by the power of God through the ministration of the angels. And it is through Christ, by the ministration of His heavenly messengers, that every blessing comes from God to us. In taking upon Himself humanity, our Saviour unites His interests with those of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, while through His divinity He grasps the throne of God. And thus Christ is the medium of communication of men with God, and of God with men.

[gildedink]

Kōngběi-Hu, The North of Tenruon’ou - Travel, Demographics and Education

Travel

The primary mode of transportation tends to be either walking, riding or caravanning. With the North’s expansive roadways, traveling on foot is overwhelmingly preferred though major cities to have horse -renting services should faster travel be needed. It is common for merchants who are running along one of the several trade routes between major landmarks and cities to allow hitchhikers to join them for a small fee. There are several outposts near the border between Jiteo-Sengu and Kōngběi-Hu to ensure only those with papers may enter. These regulations are particularly strict for those coming from Mikaizu.

Boat travel occurs but it primarily done either through industry (the sea) or for tourism (lakes and rivers). Only one Sea Blessed family resides within the North - the Kukaku Clan in Amakin - and as such many merchant ships will hire Sea Blessed ship hands, navigators and captains from Mikaizu. Special work permits are provided for these occupations, allowing the ship’s crew to travel both the North and South freely, as negotiated. There have been a few incidents of work contracts being reneged upon but this is rare. Piracy is also rampant within the water of the North, further discouraging water travel. Boat travel on rivers is more common though on a smaller scale and typically centered near Ruzhid and Yangjin in the form of pleasure cruises.

Demographics

The populace of the North is home to 75% of the Sky Blessed humans of Tenruon’ou. Because the continent of Jiahuyen houses both Kōngběi-Hu and part of Jiteo-Sengu, about 40% of the Northern populace in total is Blessed. The North contains about 55% of the total population of Tenruon’ou.

Those of the North may be finer boned and shorter due to certain Sky Blessings. However, with the easily available protein this is not always the case and body types tend to have a much larger range. Common traits are black or dark brown hair, sky blue or brown eyes and a range of skin tones from fairer skin to darker, sun-kissed skin.

Population Breakdown

Total percentage of Sky Blessed: 75%

Total Percentage of Earth Blessed: 25%

Total Percentage of Sea Blessed: 0% (apart from the Kukaku Clan)

Ratio of Blessed to Non-Blessed: 40-60

Percentage of Total Human Population in Tenruon’ou: 45%

Percentage of Total Blessed Human Population in Tenruon’ou: 50%

Male-to-Female Ratio: 50-50

Education

Education is reserved for nobility, the priesthood and merchants. The education of the nobility is far more extensive, as merchants tend to only be educated in basic calculations and writing. Other necessary skills such as financing are taught by the family, thus making individuals having these skills difficult to discern by class alone. It is common practice by nobility to keep merchants ignorant in order to skim additional funds for their pockets.

The priesthood within the North, while not as educated as the nobility, are quite learned. Most know how to read and write both in Common and other, more obscure languages. This is done so the clergy can read ancient texts pass down or found through excavation. They are also taught complex calculations, astronomy, astrology, divination techniques (which can vary from temple to temple, family to family), ritual and ceremony, funerary rights, midwifing and demon purification. Some of the temples that historically encounter Spirits more often are also taught Spirit Court etiquette. Both priests and priestesses are educated.

Noblemen are encouraged to cultivate activities deemed of masculine refinement such as wood carving, instrument playing, oration and opera should they have the talent. Noblewomen are encouraged to hone their culinary skills, learn flower arrangement and household management. Needlework, singing and dance are also highly prized female accomplishment.

Taglist: @omgbrekkerkaz @ikilledmyocs @nepeinthe @hollenzwei @ecririe @writeblrnet @sadragons @hazeywrites @the-ichor-of-ruination @thethew @nerocael

[dalyunministry]

GOD'S WORD BEFORE YOU SLEEP:

💗

Some people decide in advance that they are going to fail and not reach their dreams. They see the obstacles.

But, those that believe in God can depend on Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me). God specialises in working beyond us.

When you yield yourself to Him, He will strengthen you when you are weak, upholds you when you are falling and send forth the Holy Spirit to encourage you when you feel like giving up.

Your divine destiny is impossible without the help of God. My prayer for you this night is that you will receive help from God in Jesus Christ Name I pray. Amen.

💗

Take a look in the mirror if you would like to know who is responsible for most of your troubles. Some people suffer because of their actions, wrong decisions, behaviours, disobedient, etc.

The kind of life you live today will be manifested tomorrow. That's why the Bible says: "whatever you sow, the same you shall reap (Galatians 6:7)". When you live according to the faith of Christ, you will be destined for a perfect tomorrow.

God is perfect. My prayer for you this night is that you will sow according to God's pattern and purpose, in Jesus Christ Name. Amen.

💗

Some people decide in advance that they are going to fail and not reach their dreams. They see the obstacles. But, those that believe in God can depend on Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me).

God specialises in working beyond us. When you yield yourself to Him, He will strengthen you when you are weak, upholds you when you are falling and send forth the Holy Spirit to encourage you when you feel like giving up.

Your divine destiny is impossible without the help of God. My prayer for you this night is that in Jesus Christ Name you will receive help from God. Amen.

💗

Hebrews 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God".

The church must arouse to action. The Spirit of God can never come in until she prepares the way. There should be earnest searching of heart. There should be united, persevering prayer, and through faith a claiming of the promises of God.

There should be, not a clothing of the body with sackcloth, as in ancient times, but a deep humiliation of soul. We have not the first reason for self-congratulation and self-exaltation. We should humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. My prayer for you this night is that He will appear to comfort and bless the true seekers of God in Jesus Christ Name. Amen.

💗

There is a common trend that runs through the lives of exceptional people who trust God. They are tempted all way round, knocked down and for years they get nowhere as you might think.

But every time they are knocked down they stand up. Such people cannot be destroyed because God is their defense.

Psalm 91:1-16 makes us understand that when God is your refuge and habitation nothing can bring you down. You are undefeated when you set your love upon God and trust Him.

My prayer for you this night is that you should love God with all your heart, with all your soul in Jesus Christ Name. Amen.

💗

Do not live your life unsatisfied. Do not think that there is something missing from conception. Nothing is missing. You are custom made.

There is somebody out there crazy about you. Consider 1 Peter 2:9 says that you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.

Dare to be the person God created you for. When you imitate others, you are indirectly limiting your potential. You are to imitate God (His characters, ways and life) and not man.

God created you original in order not to be second best. My prayer for you this night is that you will begin to appreciate yourself in Jesus Christ Name. Amen.

💗

God wants us to be completely committed to Him. The motives should be right with Him. Your commitment should not be what you want Him to do for you.

God can discern every thought and motive behind every action (Hebrew 4:13). When you are faithful in your services to God, your needs will be provided. He is a Faithful God and the best pay Master.

Faithful service requires faithful payment. My prayer for you this night is that you will be found faithful in Jesus Christ Name I pray. Amen.

💗

Pride is a weapon the devil uses to stop people from being exalted by God. The moment you begin to think and feel that without you, the house of God cannot move forward, that is pride.

God will not exalt you when you are proud. The Bible says in the Book of James 4:10: humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. Pride will keep you at the level you are but God will continue to uplift you if you are humble.

My prayer for you this night is that you will remain humble in Jesus Christ Name I pray. Amen.

[hieromonkcharbel]

PADRE PIO

IN UNION WITH CHRIST’S SACRIFICE

By Joachim Bouflet

When he was ordained to the priesthood on 10th August 1910, Pio de Pietrelcina had holy picture cards printed on which the following prayer appeared.

" Jesus, my breath and my life,

Trembling before you today,

I elevate You in the mystery of love,

So that with You I may be - for the world

The Way, the Truth and the Life ;

And for You - a holy priest, a perfect victim. "

This prayer expresses the aspirations of the newly ordained priest. In it he announces what his life will be ; a sacrifice to the praise and glory of God. For Padre Pio there was no possiblity of seeing the priestly ministry without this dimension of self oblation which unites the priest to the sacrifice of Christ. In the words of a document of the Second Vatican Council we find a reference that applies, in posteriori, perfectly to him. " As ministers of the liturgy, especially in the sacrifice of the Mass, priests represent Christ in a special way. They represent Christ in person (persona Christi), who offered himself up as a victim for the sanctification of men. " (Presbyterorum ordinis) Father Pio was to represent, in the strongest sense of the word, " Christ offered up as victim " for more than fifty years. The grace of the visible stigmata, of charismatic significance in his case, was a constant reminder of this identification of the one Eternal High Priest and His priest.

From the beginning, because of his poor health, his confessor said to him at his first Holy Mass : " Your health is not too good ; you’ll not be able to be a great preacher. So, my wish for you is that you should become a great confessor. " Prophetic words. The priestly life of Father Pio flourished between the altar and the confessional, totally dedicated to the celebration of the Eucharist and the ministry to souls.

A priest according to the Heart of God

In 1913 he wrote ; " The Lord has shown me as in a mirror that my whole life will be nothing short of a martyrdom. Jesus himself wants my suffering ; He needs it for souls. " The grace of the stigmata, which is a sign for the Church and the world in the person of Father Pio, is the seal of the mystical identification with Jesus, Priest and Victim. Despite the apparent anachronism of this view of the priest today, it is nonetheless fundamental and Vatican II has not hesitated to draw our attention to it. At a time when certain forms of the priesthood were being considered questionable, Father Pio came on the scene as a the figure par excellence of the "total" priest in whom precisely those priorities of the ministry were being emphasised. These were namely, the celebration of the Eucharist to bring the people of God together in ecclesial communion, and the cure of souls. His entire ministry was ordained to the Eucharist, " the source and summit of the whole of Christian life. "(Lumen Gentium) In the sacrament of Confession he brought people back to the Eucharist, back to true life. Through spiritual direction and his apostolate in letter-writing, he encouraged souls to abandon themselves without reserve to the love of God. His leitmotiv was love of God and of neighbour. He devoted his own life to this without reserve, spending hours in the confessional – like the holy Curé d’Ars – and directing souls with the certainty of a Don Bosco with whom he is comparable as regards his charisms of discernment. His celebration of the Mass, the highlight of his day, gathered together the people of God in the celebration of the God of Mercy who gave His Son for the redemption of mankind. He was a priest according to the heart of God, burning with zeal for the Glory of God and the salvation of souls.

[pope-francis-quotes]

3rd May >> (@ZenitEnglish By Virginia Forrester) #PopeFrancis #Pope Francis’ Regina Caeli Address: On the Fourth Sunday of Easter Dedicated to the Good Shepherd. ‘The Lord Calls Us by Name; He Calls Us because He Loves Us’.

Here is a ZENIT translation of the address Pope Francis gave today, before and after praying the midday Regina Caeli from the Library of the Apostolic Vatican Palace.

* * *

Before the Regina Caeli:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!

The Fourth Sunday of Easter, which we celebrate today, is dedicated to Jesus the Good Shepherd. The Gospel says: “The sheep hear His voice: He calls His sheep, each one by name” (John 10:3). The Lord calls us by name; He calls us because He loves us. However, the Gospel also says, there are other voices, not to be followed: those of strangers, of robbers and brigands that wish evil for the sheep.

These different voices resound within us. There is God’s voice, which speaks gently to the conscience, and there is the tempting voice that induces to evil. How can we recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd from that of the robber; how can we distinguish God’s inspiration from the suggestion of the Evil One? One can learn to discern these two voices: in fact, they speak two different languages, that is, they have opposite ways of knocking at our heart. They speak different languages. As we know how to distinguish one language from another, we can also distinguish the voice of God and the voice of the Evil One. God’s voice never obliges: God proposes, He doesn’t impose. Instead, the evil voice seduces, assails, constrains: it arouses dazzling illusions, tempting but passing emotions. At the beginning it flatters, it makes us believe that we are omnipotent, but then it leaves us empty inside and accuses us: “You are worthless.” Instead, God’s voice corrects us, with so much patience, but always encourages us, consoles us: always nourishes hope. God’s voice is a voice that has a horizon; instead, the voice of the Evil One leads one to a wall, leads one to a corner.

Another difference: the enemy’s voice distracts from the present and wants us to concentrate on fears of the future or on sadness of the past — the enemy doesn’t want the present –; he reawakens bitterness, memories of wrongs suffered, of those that have done us harm . . . , so many bad memories. Instead, God’s voice speaks to the present: “Now you can do good, now you can exercise the creativity of love, now you can renounce regrets and remorse that keep your heart a prisoner.” He encourages us, leads us forward, but speaks to the present: now.

Again: the two voices arouse in us different questions. That which comes from God will be: “What does me good?” Instead, the tempter will insist on another question: “What should I do?” What suits me: the evil voice always rotates around the “I” — its impulses, its needs, everything and immediately. It’s like children’s whims: everything and now. Instead, God’s voice never promises joy at a low price: it invites us to go beyond our “I” to find our true good, peace. Let us remember: evil doesn’t give peace; it puts frenzy first and leaves bitterness after. This is evil’s style.

Finally, God’s voice and that of the tempter speak in different “environments”: the enemy prefers darkness, falsehood, gossip; the Lord loves the light of the sun, truth, sincere transparency. The enemy will say to you: “Shut yourself in yourself, so no one understands you and listens to you, don’t trust!” The good, on the contrary, invites to open oneself, to be limpid, and trusting in God and in others. Dear brothers and sisters, in this time many thoughts and worries lead us to re-enter ourselves. Let’s pay attention to voices that reach our heart. Let’s ask ourselves where they come from. Let’s ask for the grace to recognize and follow the voice of the Good Shepherd, who makes us come out of the enclosures of selfishness and leads us to pastures of true freedom. May Our Lady, Mother of Good Counsel, guide and accompany us in our discernment.

© Libreria Editrice Vatican

[Original text: Italian] [ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester]

After the Regina Caeli

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Observed today is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Christian existence is wholly and always a response to God’s call, in any state of life. This day reminds us of what Jesus said one day, namely, that the field of the Kingdom of God requires much work, and that it’s necessary to pray to the Father to send laborers to work in His field (Cf. Matthew 9:37-38). Priesthood and consecrate life call for courage and perseverance and, without prayer, one doesn’t go forward in this way. I invite all to invoke from the Lord the gift of good laborers for His Kingdom, with heart and hands available to His love.

Once again I would like to express my closeness to the COVID-19 sick, to all those that dedicate themselves to their care and to all those that are suffering in any way by the pandemic. At the same time, I wish to support and encourage the international collaboration that is being activated with various initiatives, to answer in an adequate and effective way the grave crisis we are living. It’s important, in fact, to put together the scientific capacities, in a transparent and selfless way, to find vaccines and treatments, and to guarantee universal access to the essential technologies that enable every infected person, in every part of the world, to receive the necessary health care.

A special thought goes to the “Meter” Association, promoter of the National Day of Children Victims of Violence, of Exploitation and of Indifference. I encourage the responsible persons and the workers to continue their action of prevention and sensitization of consciences alongside the various educational agencies. And I thank the children of the Association who sent me a collage with hundreds of dandelions colored by them. Thank you!

We began May a short while ago, Marian month par excellence, during which the faithful love to visit Shrines dedicated to Our Lady. This year, because of the health situation, we go spiritually to these places of faith and devotion, to place in the Holy Virgin’s heart our worries, expectations, and plans for the future. And, as prayer is a universal value, I have accepted the proposal of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity so that next May 14 believers of all religions unite spiritually in a Day of Prayer and Fasting and Works of Charity, to implore God to help humanity overcome the coronavirus pandemic. Remember: May 14, all believers together, believers of different traditions, to pray, fast, and do works of charity.

I wish you all a happy Sunday. Please, don’t forget to pray for me.

Enjoy your lunch and goodbye.

© Libreria Editrice Vatican

[Original text: Italian] [ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester]

3rd MAY 2020 16:54ANGELUS/REGINA CAELI

[polyadvice]

Hi Zinnia! If you are comfortable with it, would you mind talking a little bit about your faith and its relation to polyamory? I was raised Catholic in a rather strict community and had to unlearn a lot of toxic teachings to become comfortable with polyamory. I'm curious about your experience and keeping with the faith.

This answer ran really long, so I’l put it under a cut and break it up into sections.

My identity

I believe that I have always been polyamorous; I can look back at some thoughts, feelings, and questions I had even as a young kid and recognize that traditional monogamy just would never have been healthy for me. This “born this way” narrative helps strengthen my conviction that polyamory is an okay way to be; it’s not just urges that I need to resist to be a good person.

My personal faith journey is a bit unconventional in the sense that I was not raised Christian but converted as a teen. So I was lucky in that I didn’t grow up with a lot of toxic teachings about bodies, sexuality, relationships, purity, etc. I converted in the context of the Evangelical church, passionate and individual-focused, but I never held to much of their theology around social issues.

When I discovered polyamory as a term and concept and started practicing, I was 19 and had been Christian for about three years. I wasn’t too concerned with how it intersected with my faith; I was still learning who I was and what I believed, and I was the only Christian in my social group, so there wasn’t much pressure around that. My parents are okay with my polyamory and NOT okay with my conversion to Christianity. Go figure.

By the time I was 21, my identity and theology as a Christian, and my identity and philosophy as a polyamorous person, had both crystallized. They grew in form together, informed by my studies into queer, liberation and feminist theology. My polyamory is part of my faith; my faith is part of my polyamory. I see traditional attitudes about relationships, gender roles, and property rights as violent and outdated, and standing in opposition to the Gospel message, and healthy, intentional polyamory is one way, for me, of re-claiming the dynamic vision of wholeness that I believe the Kingdom reflects.

Romans 13:10 tells us: “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” I believe sin is anything that separates us from God, each other, or ourselves; anything that denies someone agency and wholeness; anything that causes trauma to our bodies, earth, relationships, or minds. I can see no evidence that healthy, intentional polyamory does harm. It liberates us from rigid relationship roles that are tied up in oppressive ideas about gender, bodies, and economics. I don’t think it’s “wrong” or “sinful” to be polyamorous.

I am fully aware that parts of the Bible clearly prescribe monogamy - but I believe those sections must be understood in the context of the time. It is clearly sinful to cheat on someone, to use your body or your language in ways that hurt someone or leave someone vulnerable. Without a cultural concept of healthy polyamory, unhealthy non-monogamy of course looks sinful.

But the Bible also condones slavery, plural marriage, and violence against children, so, again, it’s important to understand context and culture. My old priest used to say “Jesus talked a lot more about economics than sex,” and she’s right. If you look at the core message of Jesus - liberation, wholeness, reconciliation, redemption, love - it is a lot more compatible with polyamory than a lot of the stuff we see in the Old Testament, stories being related to us not as an example to follow but a historical record of a specific people’s relationship to the Divine.

I get really insulted when people (that means you, everyone who messages me on OKCupid) imply that my polyamory and Christianity exist “in spite of” each other; or that I must “compartmentalize” in order to be both, or that I have to do some “reconciling” to avoid “cognitive dissonance.” To me, they are intertwined; they inform each other; they are rooted in the same thoughts, beliefs, values, feelings, desires, and needs. 

My Christianity influences my polyamory - Gospel ideas about growth, healing, inclusion, and love. My polyamory influences my Christianity - practices centered around intentionality, identifying and communicating needs, honoring a person and their relationships without having to fit it into a pre-existing box. I am both a Christian Anarchist and a Relationship Anarchist, and that’s not exactly a coincidence.

Being polyamorous in a Christian community

I immediately started running into opposition, however. My spiritual leader on campus, the InterVarsity coordinator, disapproved of my polyamory and cited Scripture about it. It hurt my heart to have such an important part of my life and relationships rejected by someone who I needed to be a safe person, so I sort of just dropped that as a conversational topic, and she did the same, though I know she continued to “pray for me” over what she saw as a dangerous and harmful choice I was making.

Later, I took a volunteer gig as a youth ministry helper in a church. But since I was living with my boyfriend and unmarried, I was unable to sign the covenant the church required of actual volunteer-staff, which was why I remained a “helper” instead of a “leader.” In practice, had all the same roles and responsibilities as a leader, but on paper I held a lower position. The youth pastor and his wife were supportive and welcoming, treating the whole situation like a bureaucratic annoyance. But it was a clear signal that my understanding of sexual morality was different than this church’s party line, and so I kept my polyamory to myself.

I was accidentally outed during a conversation with the youth minister’s wife - I mentioned a college boyfriend, but she remembered that I had been with my current partner since high school. I said yes, we opened our relationship to get through the distance of college. She said “but now that you live together, that stopped, right?” I could have lied to her, but I really don’t like doing that - staying closeted through omission of details is one thing, but answering a direct question with a lie feels gross. I told her the truth.

She was clear with me that she doesn’t believe that is a wise or healthy or Godly choice. I was clear with her that I respected her position but wasn’t interested in being evangelized out of my relationship and identity. She told me she would pray for me and encouraged me to spend some time with the Holy Spirit seeking discernment about this. I told her that I would (knowing that the Holy Spirit and I frequently come to conclusions together that she wouldn’t agree with). She also made it clear that I was to keep this private at church, especially since I worked with the kids. I promised her that I would. She continues to be a good friend of mine, a loving and supportive sister in Christ.

When I moved to where I live now, I sought out a more open church. I found my way to the Episcopal church. They are known for being incredibly progressive in issues of sexuality, gender identity, etc. They have openly gay and  leaders in the church, perform same-sex weddings, teach comprehensive sex-ed rather than purity-culture nonsense in their youth programs. I joined an Episcopal church in the area and soon was interviewing to be their youth minister. As part of the interview process, I told my priest, who would also be my boss, about my polyamorous identity.

He was less aggressively this-is-wrong than the other church leadership I’d spoken to, but was also not immediately welcoming. He told me that he didn’t see it as a problem and was still happy to hire me to minister to the youth of the parish. However, as a condition of my employment, he did want me to stay closeted at church. Essentially, his position was, he didn’t have an issue with it, but he also wasn’t “for it” enough to take a stand for me if the parents of the parish were put off or uncomfortable. He didn’t want me to put him in the position of defending something he wasn’t sure he was able or willing to defend. He also didn’t want concerns to be raised that I was teaching the kids something inappropriate or out of line with the church’s beliefs.

So I agreed. It was worth it - I love the kids and wouldn’t trade my place in the community for anything - but it is painful and isolating. I do live in fear of being “caught.” I have two long-term partners right now, one of whom is seen by the church as my boyfriend; and another who is my “friend.” I am very lucky that this person doesn’t pressure me to let him be his true self, hold my hand or kiss me when he visits me at church to hear me preach - it is a big thing I am asking of him, too, to be closeted as well, to be kept a secret. I have a lot of church people on my Facebook, so I cannot wish him a public happy anniversary, refer to him as my boyfriend, post any photos of us kissing, etc.

But I also live in most areas of my life as an out poly person. I run this blog (actually, the login page for my gmail which clearly says “polyamoryadvice” was accidentally projected to the entire parish when I plugged my computer in once, which gave me a gnarly panic attack but thankfully had no consequences) and have an OKCupid account (where local people have found me!). I worry about being doxxed or being seen out and about with one of my other partners. So It’s a fine line to walk and I do carry a lot of stress and sadness about it. 

I have been open with my priest about my future desires to go into the Episcopalian priesthood, and he is very unsure of whether he could support me if I continue to be a practicing polyamorous person. If I started in the seminary, I would want to be out and proud, but that is not a bridge I need to cross just yet, because I am making different plans for the next few years of my life.

Why I don’t fight for inclusion right now

I would love to be able to write this blog under my real name. I would love to be able to publish articles about polyamory elsewhere, under my real name. I would love to be able to include all my partners in all areas of my life. I am often asked why I don’t push my priest, and my church community, to be more inclusive and accepting.

The answer is two-fold: one, I simply don’t have the energy right now. I am the only person of faith in my polyamorous network right now, and the only person my age in my church community. I just don’t have the peer support or community foundation to start such a fight right now. This sometimes makes me feel ashamed - I look at the pioneers who fought for women’s ordination or LGBTQ rights in the church, and I know their journey was lonely, and difficult, but ultimately worth fighting. I am just not ready to make those sacrifices just yet, to step into that loneliness and pain and struggle.

The second answer is that I want to be sensitive about what I am asking for. Church community and church beliefs are messy, complicated, and, for many people, sacred.

I wouldn’t appreciate it if I was running a community with a set of stated values and someone just showed up and insisted we change to accommodate them. Even if I agree that inclusion is a good thing! Even if the change they’re asking for would ultimately be for the better! This is the kind of thing where, sometimes, you stay in your seat and be a passenger for a while before you try and take the wheel to change course. I respected the right of my former church to set their morals and covenants, even if they didn’t suit me entirely. 

I do not get to show up to an established community with established values and an established identity and start making a big mess of things. I don’t get to demand that they change the way they do everything to include or accept me. I wish I could. I wish there was space for me, all of me, in the church right now. But there isn’t. This makes me feel sad and lonely. And I intend to continue fighting for myself and others like me, looking ahead to a future where I don’t have to be so closeted or compartmentalized - but, for now, the healthiest thing for me to do right now is keep my head down on this issue, because I need a secure place in a church community to build a foundation on before I feel safe striking out on my own like that.

In conclusion

So there you have it! I hope this answers your questions.

This is a really sensitive topic for me - I often feel rejected and alienated from polyamorous communities because of hostility against Christianity, so please don’t send me hate mail about that. I honor and recognize that a lot of people, especially people in the queer community, have a lot of pain and trauma history around childhoods in the church, and you have every right to your anger. But please try not to direct it at me. I get enough snide comments and casual alienation in my daily life, where 99.9% of my peer group is atheist, and it’s pretty lonesome being a polyamorous Christian in an incredibly secular area, attending a church where my demographic is under-represented along every axis.  And if you are a Christian who wants to send me hate mail about how my Biblical interpretations are wrong and I am a hedonistic sinner, also, please just don’t. It really hurts my feelings. I don’t exactly fit in anywhere. I literally cried when I saw an etsy listing for a polyamorous-and-Christian pendant. So trust me, whatever you have to say, I’ve already heard it, and it made me feel bad, but I’m still polyamorous and Christian, so, save your energy and do something slightly more Christlike with your time. <3

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 26 June – Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás – (9 January 1902 at Barbastro, Spain Died– 26 June 1975 of natural causes in his office in Rome, Italy; his body is interred at Prelatic Church of Our Lady of Peace at Viale Bruno Buozzi 75, Rome, Italy) – Priest, Founder Writer, Teacher, Doctor of Civil Law and Theology – known as “The Saint of Ordinary Life”.; St Josemaria was Beatified on 17 May 1992 by Pope John Paul II: the beatification miracle involved the cure in 1976 of Carmelite Sister Concepcion Boullon Rubio from the nearly-fatal cancerous form of lipomatosis following prayers by her family for the intercession of Father Josemaria and was Canonised on 6 October 2002 by Pope John Paul II: the canonization miracle involved saving a surgeon’s hands from a career-ending disease. Patron of Opus Dei and of Ordinary Life.

St Josemaria founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness by God and that ordinary life can result in sanctity.   He was canonised during 2002 by Pope John Paul II, who declared Saint Josemaría should be “counted among the great witnesses of Christianity.” His principal work was the initiation, government and expansion of Opus Dei.  Escrivá’s best-known publication is The Way, which has been translated into 43 languages and has sold several million copies.

St Josemaria Escrivá and Opus Dei have aroused controversy, primarily concerning allegations of secrecy, elitism, cult-like practices and political involvement with right-wing causes, such as the dictatorship of General Franco in Spain (1939–1975).   After his death, his canonisation attracted considerable attention and controversy, by some Catholics and the worldwide press.   Several journalists who have investigated the history of Opus Dei, among them Vatican analyst John L. Allen, Jr., have argued that these accusations are unproven or have grown from allegations by enemies of Escrivá and his organization.   Cardinal Albino Luciani (later Pope John Paul I), John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, Oscar Romero and many Catholic leaders have endorsed Escrivá’s teaching concerning the universal call to holiness, the role of laity and sanctification of ordinary work.   According to Allen, among Catholics, Escrivá is “reviled by some and venerated by millions more”.

Early life José María Mariano Escrivá y Albás was born to José Escrivá y Corzán and his wife, María de los Dolores Albás y Blanc on 9 January 1902, in the small town of Barbastro, in Huesca, Aragon, Spain, the second of six children and the first of two sons.   José Escrivá was a merchant and a partner of a textile company which eventually became bankrupt, forcing the family to relocate during 1915 to the city of Logroño, in the northern province of La Rioja, where he worked as a clerk in a clothing store.   Young Josemaría first felt that “he had been chosen for something”, it is reported, when he saw footprints left in the snow by a monk walking barefoot.

With his father’s blessing, Escrivá prepared to become a priest.   He studied first in Logroño and then in Zaragoza, where he was ordained as deacon on Saturday, 20 December 1924.   He was ordained a priest, also in Zaragoza, on Saturday, 28 March 1925. After a brief appointment to a rural parish in Perdiguera, he went to Madrid, the Spanish capital, during 1927 to study law at the Central University.   In Madrid, Escrivá was employed as a private tutor and as a chaplain to the Foundation of Santa Isabel, which comprised the royal Convent of Santa Isabel and a school managed by the Little Sisters of the Assumption

Mission as the founder of Opus Dei A prayerful retreat helped him to discern more definitely what he considered to be God’s will for him and, on 2 October 1928, he “saw” Opus Dei (English: Work of God), a way by which Catholics might learn to sanctify themselves by their secular work.   He founded it during 1928 and Pius XII gave it final approval during 1950.   According to the decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which contains a condensed biography of Escrivá, “[t]o this mission he gave himself totally. From the beginning his was a very wide-ranging apostolate in social environments of all kinds. He worked especially among the poor and the sick languishing in the slums and hospitals of Madrid.”

During the Spanish Civil War, Escrivá fled from Madrid, which was controlled by the republicans, via Andorra and France, to the city of Burgos, possessed by the nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco.   After the war ended during 1939 with Franco’s victory, Escrivá was able to resume his studies in Madrid and complete a doctorate in law, for which he submitted a thesis on the historical jurisdiction of the Abbess of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas.

The Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, affiliated with Opus Dei, was founded on Sunday, 14 February 1943.   Escrivá relocated to Rome during 1946.  The decree declaring Escrivá “Venerable” states that “in 1947 and on Monday, 16 June 1950, he obtained approval of Opus Dei as an institution of pontifical right.   With tireless charity and operative hope he guided the development of Opus Dei throughout the world, activating a vast mobilization of lay people … He gave life to numerous initiatives in the work of evangelisation and human welfare;  he fostered vocations to the priesthood and the religious life everywhere… Above all, he devoted himself tirelessly to the task of forming the members of Opus Dei.”

Later years According to some accounts, at the age of two he suffered from a disease (perhaps epilepsy) so severe that the doctors expected him to die soon but his mother had taken him to Torreciudad, where the Aragonese locals venerated a statue of the Virgin Mary (as “Our Lady of the Angels”), thought to date from the 11th century.   Escrivá recovered and as the director of Opus Dei during the 1960s and 1970s, promoted and oversaw the design and construction of a major shrine at Torreciudad.   The new shrine was inaugurated on 7 July 1975, soon after Escrivá’s death and to this day remains the spiritual center of Opus Dei, as well as an important destination for pilgrimage.   By the time of Escrivá’s death during 1975, the members of Opus Dei numbered some 60,000 in 80 countries.   As an adult, Escrivá suffered from type 1 diabetes and, according to some sources, also epilepsy.

During 1950, Escrivá was appointed an Honorary Domestic Prelate by Pope Pius XII, which allowed him to use the title of Monsignor.   During 1955, he received a doctorate of theology from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.   He was a consultor to two Vatican congregations (the Congregation for Seminaries and Universities and the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law) and an honourary member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology.   The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) confirmed the importance of the universal call to holiness, the role of the laity, and the Mass as the basis of Christian life.

During 1948 Escrivá founded the Collegium Romanum Sanctae Crucis (Roman College of the Holy Cross), Opus Dei’s educational center for men, in Rome. During 1953 he founded the Collegium Romanum Sanctae Mariae (Roman College of Saint Mary) to serve the women’s section (these institutions are now joined into the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.)   Escrivá also established the University of Navarre, in Pamplona, and the University of Piura (in Peru), as secular institutions affiliated with Opus Dei. Escrivá died on 26 June 1975, aged 73.

Three years after Escrivá died, the then Cardinal Albino Luciani (later Pope John Paul I) celebrated the originality of his contribution to Christian spirituality.   The Statue below is at St Peter’s the Vatican.

St Josemaria and the Blessed Virgin Mary Pope John Paul II stated on Sunday, 6 October 2002, after the Angelus greetings:  “Love for our Lady is a constant characteristic of the life of Josemaría Escrivá and is an eminent part of the legacy that he left to his spiritual sons and daughters.”   The Pope also said that “St. Josemaría wrote a beautiful small book called The Holy Rosary which presents spiritual childhood, a real disposition of spirit of those who wish to attain total abandonment to the divine will”.

When Escrivá was 10 or 11 years old, he already had the habit of carrying the rosary in his pocket.   As a priest, he would ordinarily end his homilies and his personal prayer with a conversation with the Blessed Virgin.   He instructed that all rooms in the offices of Opus Dei should have an image of the Virgin.   He encouraged his spiritual children to greet these images when they entered a room.   He encouraged a Marian apostolate, preaching that “To Jesus we go and to Him we return through Mary”. While looking at a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe giving a rose to San Juan Diego, he commented:  “I would like to die that way.”   On 26 June 1975, after entering his work room, which had a painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe, he slumped on the floor and died.

Pope John Paul II made the following observation in his homily at the beatification of Escrivá:

“With supernatural intuition, Blessed Josemaría untiringly preached the universal call to holiness and apostolate.   Christ calls everyone to become holy in the realities of everyday life.   Hence work too is a means of personal holiness and apostolate, when it is done in union with Jesus Christ.”

John Paul II’s decree Christifideles omnes states:  “By inviting Christians to seek union with God through their daily work — which confers dignity on human beings and is their lot as long as they exist on earth — his message is destined to endure as an inexhaustible source of spiritual light regardless of changing epochs and situations”   St Josemaria pray for us!

[lifechangerforchrist-blog]

You Are So Valuable, and until You truly comprehend this, You won’t be walking in Your full potential that God has for You. This is deep my friends, but it’s from the Heart. <3</p>

Jeremiah 29:11-13

11 For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and welłl-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you. 13 Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

In my mind as a child, I only saw myself as a survivor. Every day was another day to wake up and Hope and pray that I and our family would be able to have somewhat of whatever you would call a normal day. Which to us the norm was not your typical norm.

You see coming out of an abusive environment your self-worth, well to be quite honest with you, I really didn’t see any Value in myself. My thoughts were very poorly how I viewed who I was as a person. And to be quite frank about it, I lost my identity as a young girl. when you’ve been abused you seem to go into survival mode grasping at anything that will make you feel better, for me that was wanting to be anyone but “Ginger.” Always looking to others finding out what good qualities they had, so that I could take on those traits because know you everybody else was better than me. At least that's how my mind thought anyway. I always thought of myself as someone that was, less than, not enough, helpless, stupid and even ugly... Yes, that was the old me. Sad but very true. 

It wasn’t until I found JESUS, and started learning about what His word said about me! I never really understood How valuable of a person I was. It had to be revealed to me. Now, mind you, it didn’t happen over night. I had to dig deep and press in for several years until one day I really starting comprehending it. I diligently read it in FAITH until It became a Revelation to me!

 I encourage you to dig deep, get into God’s word daily, stay plugged into a good church that will teach you the infallible doctrinal truth of the word of God. Stay connected with people of Faith and in an environment where you will learn and grow. It isn’t always easy hearing the plain Truth, but my friend that is what it takes for your life to change.

People that genuinely love you, they will encourage you, pray with you and tell you what you need to hear not what will tickle your ears for a moment, you know the FEEL GOOD message. I thank God for all of those pastors, teachers, mentors, and people he put in my Life over the years that Helped me by praying with me, standing with me when I needed it the most. And now I can add Dr.s to my life! The Lord will put you on the right path where He will use those in your midst to help catapult you to the next spiritual level that he has for you! Don’t get weary keep pressing in. He sees where you’ve been and sees where you are, but better yet, He knows where you're going and what you are BECOMING IN HIM! PRAISE THE LORD!

One of the many things I’ve learned over the years is that CHRIST died for all! Once a person accepts Him as “Savior into their hearts, they receive His forgiveness and unconditional Love! “ Man, I can’t even describe How beautiful this new ground will be as You walk in His ways, and learn what His calling is for your life. Because there has been No Greater Joy, than serving my Savior! 

You see I have been bought with a price. I am no longer the same old Ginger that I once was. I have become a New Creation in Christ. I see myself differently than through the eyes of a little-broken girl, that thought there was no Hope for me. Who thought,  I had no place in this world or that I could be rewarded for anything that I could possibly make a difference in. That my friends is... so far from the Truth.  God’s rewards are rich and His blessings are continual to the overflowing and His Love and Blessings never run dry.

God has a plan for each and every one of us. He knows what we're becoming, we just need to trust Him and follow His voice and go where He tells us to go. We are “Life changers!’ I encourage you to stir up the gifts that He has so graciously placed inside of you.! You are important to the father, you are loved, you are treasured and He has so much in store for you. Don’t let anything deter you from that truth. <3

We might see Failure, other people might see failure, But God sees VICTORY because He see’s Beauty, Christ gave us Beauty for Ashes. Start seeing yourself the way God see’s you.”

<3</p>

Ginger Miller

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17  

 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 1 John 1:12 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  Ephesians 2:10

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:4

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  Romans 12:2

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:1

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philipians 4:13

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.  John 15:16

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:14

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

For you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:20

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,  Colossians 1:13

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. Ephesians 3:12

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. Ephesians 1:4

And who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.  2 Corinthians 1:22

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  Ephesians 6:11

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ... 1John 1:10

1John 5:14-15

  I do not boast on my thoughts or what other people say of me. My total confidence is In the one that bought me with a Price, His own Life He laid down. 

It totally disturbs me when I hear people talking about me, myself and I kind of success and having confidence in self. I mean we need to be built up and encouraged Lord knows we all need that. But our true self-worth only comes from who’s we are and who we are in CHRIST.