#holy sacrifice of the mass

[jameslmartello]

Answering a Jesuit's Eucharistic Heresy | Catholic Answers Podcasts

[tonreihe]

Nicholas Gihr, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

[dxxtruction]

Louis being compared to as a saint. Saints, who find their salvation and then give intercession from beyond that veil to move others towards it. A guide for life, where they no longer fall into their sins and trajectories towards a certain hell. "Listen to me as if I am the voice of god, or an angel." Louis being that saintly catalyst for the vampires to confront themselves in that such a way. A saintly Louis is very dear to me.

[myremnantarmy]

"𝘔𝘺 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥."

[do-i-love-jaal-today]

Jaal reacting to seeing SAM kill you (and revive you thanks SAM) to escape from the Archon's trap, once you're both safely back on the Tempest (I feel like there should have been a scene with the LI about this, a dramatic you-almost-died-and-I-need-to-hold-you scene)

Funny how I can both not remember a scene well, but also know exactly what to do with it.That being said, we absolutely should’ve had a stronger reaction from Jaal. Even if it was barely contained emotion.

Doing this HC styled for the moment, but feel free to request this as a mini-fic, if that’s more your speed!

In the moment, he tries so hard to be okay with it. SAM said it was the only way, so it has to be the way this happens, right...?

However, Jaal is bitterly realizing he’d much rather bare through being on Kadara for hours on end if it meant he didn’t have to be here. Emotions are choking him up, especially watching your limp body collapse on the ground. Grinding his teeth when SAM is struggling a moment with reviving you.

He should be used to this. The grief. The risk of loss; why else enter the Resistance? One must face loss and still fight on. Even understanding that one’s own life is at risk. To protect the whole...

But just this once... Can’t he be greedy? Can he not wish for your survival? To not have to see you like this...?

Being revived is a relief he can hardly put to words- further choked up at you taking breaths of air once more- but his heart still aches with a fierceness unrivaled.

...For now, he holds his tongue. Stills his arms from reaching out and holding you to the point it hurts. (He’d be sorry for it, but to know your alive and can feel takes precedent over all else, at the moment.) There is still a mission to finish. He can do that much.

(As much as it maddens him to do so. For the first time in his life, Jaal loathes putting the mission first. He almost lost his darling one, and he cannot react until the end? It’s no different from past missions he’s had with other angara; this hurts in a way unlike those, however.)

He gives you some time. Gives himself a few moments to be composed, before you inevitably seek him out... Yet, he cannot still his shaking hands. Hold back a few tears from escaping. How can he find any semblance of peace when he does not want to lose you...?

His back is to you, staring at nothing, when you enter. And when your voice sounds in greeting, he is quick to turn and pull you into a hug. It’s almost crushing, but he seems to have pulled himself together just enough to prevent any further harm.

You still have to ask him to ease up!

Jaal pours out his heart without any further nudging. He loves you so, seeing that was one of the worst moments of his life, how can he bear to know you may end up like that again...?

...And yet, he cannot stop you. He needs the kett stopped as much as you do. To protect his cherished people. For the chance that someday, maybe, on an off-chance... That his creators may return. Because he loves this little “extended, friend-family” that the Tempest is for him, now.

He loves you. And to love you is to know that your people- all those from the Milky Way- need the kett gone, too. This isn’t something to give up on, even though seeing you die in front of him will haunt his nightmares for the rest of his days.

...You both cry. The hug he pulls you into is less constricting, but that’s what your heart is probably doing right now, anyways. His head nuzzles the top of yours, his tears getting on there...but you cannot find it in you to care right now.

Jaal admits that he wishes to not be without you. However, his bunk is...terribly small. Isn’t yours bigger?

You can’t help but laugh and agree. A small cutscene of the two flopping onto your bed, cuddling close. A momentary comfort, for the fight ahead.

“Keep me with you, won’t you, darling one...?”

[cvbarroso]

¿Si no quieres ir a Misa para que quieres ir al cielo?

If you don't want to go to mass, why do you want to go to heaven?

[five-one-two-station]

At this point I am convinced some people are watching this show solely via the subtitle files, because that's the only thing that explains drastically misunderstanding everything that's not spelled out in dialogue to this extent.

Honestly some of the most embarrassing mass failure of media literacy I've ever seen. It's not even complicated stuff, it's basic text comprehension and story fluency.

- No, Caitlyn's "I know!" is not anger at being called out; she's saying she is very, very painfully aware of what she's done wrong. Watch it again.

- No she didn't take the guards away or go to the cell to have sex with Vi. TF?!?

It was Vi who initiated; Caitlyn was surprised she did.

She pulled the guards away to help Vi if/when she chose to do what she knows her well enough to know she probably would. Vi makes her choice - Caitlyn doesn't "let" her, she just supports it, because it's Vi's choice to make.

Vi has no idea she's done this until after, it doesn't affect her "agency" at all. That's not what any of those words mean!

- She did this as a direct acknowledgement of and response to Vi's previous criticisms.

You are supposed to be able to make the very, very minimal leap of imagination required to understand what the show is telling you here; that she is genuinely sorry, genuinely committed to getting her shit together, and that she has heard and received every word that Vi has told her.

The reason this gesture is so important is that it demonstrates she's now going out on a limb to put herself, her resources, and her privilege to work for the greater good.

And the reason Vi reacts the way she does is that she understands all of this immediately.

You should not need the show to sit you down and spell this out to you step by step Barney the Dinosaur style.

- She works very hard and sacrifices quite a lot to try to do right by people after fucking up so badly before, but not before very explicitly acknowledging that she can't undo the harm she's already done. And this isn't even an inference thing, she actually even says this bit out loud twice, and you still somehow missed it.

- For $5, what do you think the show was suggesting by having Sevika take up her seat, her final costume have no Enforcer uniform elements, and having her allude to an ongoing struggle. Come on, guess.

I am loathe to call people stupid just because some tv show stuff sailed over their heads, but... y'all are legitimately testing that. This is not exactly The Holy Mountain or something, it is very straightforward storytelling.

And just... I mean why would you be this loud about anything without making sure you didn't have it ass backways first?!? In public!?!? 💀

You guys, you have to watch shows to know what is happening in them.

[tyxaar]

A compiled list of various severe crimes committed by one Mr Scar of the Good Times, exact counts pending. Cannibalism (Multiple counts) War profiteering Trading of Souls Grave robbing Fraud of multiple varieties Racketeering Arson (Like a lot of it) Unethical experimentation Acts of Terror Spiritual possession Contract killing Sale of human remains Ritual sacrifice Perpetuating Police Brutality Domestic Terrorism Oathbreaking Violation of the real life Geneva Convention Deceptive marketing Kidnapping Desecration of a sacred place Whatever tf Area 77 had going on Insider trading Extortion Patricide Matricide Unsafe building practices Holy war Desecration of corpses Market manipulation Treason Tax evasion Murder (Lots and lots) Large-scale extreme vandalism Mass enviromental destruction Political corruption Identity fraud

[alostwanderernotfound]

The Dangers

Many years ago in my studies I worked with many people. We all eventually started to disagree on a variety of things.

Latin was one of the few languages I was taught & to a degree retained at the time. Music was another study encouraged. To some holy families this was a practice to be whole & for others it was considered an opportunity- “a tool” as it was described. I was taught a lot as a child under the guise of just trying to learn of the world, but quickly others intervened. They were trying to teach me sorcery & I didn’t even know it.

The angels were fractionated by “rank” & “power”. Witchcraft & asking for the power of other things outside of us started to become a secret ambition of some. Some of us wanted to prioritize peace & harmony. Others were focused on the attainment of the most power possible for our survival.

Latin as a language is apparently spoken by a lot of different beings. Communication between beings that have different technology/skills/power/etc apparently had occurred at least somewhat enough of other beings to know of angel existence.

One specific group that shall go unnamed spoke Latin & to speak to them you played certain notes in a certain way. Like an intro song & then they knew you were speaking to them.

Some were asking for power & attempting to bargain.

This was one of the huge dividers that eventually led to angel banishment out of the clouds.

I do not think Latin is translated correctly & I think that’s for a very scary reason.

I also think I asked and wrote down pretty specifically if you did Latin mass to not sing.

That is because you never know who is there leading you to deceive you.

I remember walking into one of the first Latin masses given and as soon as I entered- I remember being taken aback because they were singing.

I looked at the sheet music and was horrified in its familiarity.

The sheet music had the chords for speaking to this other type of being that asks you to sacrifice your body to it for its power. And I watched as an entire congregation sung a chant to other things not of our God that was asking for a specific person’s protection for them. These beings heard the chant & I can only assume lent that person some of their power, for your words said that is what you asked for.

The antichrists/people in hell’s power is supposedly derived from these types of practices. They bargain & gossip with other beings to get favor & then ask for their enemies destruction. A lot of power comes from the manipulation of people trying to do good.

God told me a long time ago I had to warn when I saw this & I did. Many times. But they did not care. I was in the minority. These practices were apparently essential to others, but all I saw was the chaos & the suffering & the pain.

And I realized a long time ago me & you, we’re nothing more than an infinite sacrificial token to them. They’d flood the world & crucify me & keep going as long as they get to stay in power.

And that’s why the Bible & Christianity & all these religions & mythical stories were life and death & why we didn’t stop fighting for so long. Why they were the most important things in the world & you were begged to please just listen because we don’t know who or what we were angering.

This is the story of the never ending fall & all the things people have done for all of history that led to what we called the inevitability of eternal suffering for us all.

They seek to continue to erase memories because they don’t care if they destroy this world & they don’t want anyone to even consider stopping them.

I remember now the ones so many years ago that asked for my skin & my flesh & my body. And I cried.

And the other angels, spiritual beings, & their followers gave me to them- to make themselves more powerful.

[numbers-31-blog]

There is no one, orthodox way to commit yourself to Lord Satan. It can be as elaborate as a high black mass or as simple as whispering a prayer over a single black candle at midnight. For me, it was lighting a candle one night when my mom was away at church and reciting the Pater Noster (the Lord's Prayer) backwards and promising Satan that if he answered my prayer, I would renounce Jesus Christ and his Father forever and serve him (Satan) in whatever capacity I could for as long as I lived.

However, if you want to show Satan you are serious, I recommend that you precede your commitment to him with an act of blasphemy. In Matthew 12: 31-32 Jesus informs us that there is one sin that God will never forgive: blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy is deliberate irreverence or profanity directed at something that is held to be sacred, and the Holy Spirit is that part of the Christian Godhead that dwells within every Christian. If you were baptized, even as an infant, you have it -- though it be dormant. By blaspheming the Holy Spirit you are rejecting that part of God which is in you and thus irrevocably cutting yourself off from His grace! Think carefully before you do it since it is a line that, once you cross it, you will never be able to step back from; but when and if you decide to do it, then it will make your commitment to Lord Satan all the more powerful!

If it were me, I would light a black candle and tell the so-called Holy Spirit to f*** off; that it is no longer welcome in me or my life; that I reject forever God, the sacrifice of his son, his grace, and all that he might have planned for me. I would then take the plate of unleavened bread (signifying the body of Christ) and drop it unceremoniously into the garbage. Likewise the glass of wine, signifying the blood of Christ, should be poured onto the ground or into a toilet or sink. Then I would ask Satan and all the denizens of Hell to witness my commitment to Lord Satan and his righteous cause.

[uwmspeccoll]

Manuscript Monday

Today we will be exploring our facsimile of an Exultet Roll, a southern Italian manuscript originally produced around 950 CE. This is a long scroll (24 feet long, unrolled) containing the text and chant notation for the Exultet, or Exsultet, which is a chant performed at the Easter Vigil mass, usually by a deacon before the congregation. It celebrates the night of the resurrection of Jesus, and is performed in praise of the Paschal candle, which is lit at every mass during the liturgical year. This candle slowly melts down until it is almost completely depleted, and then it is replaced at the Easter Vigil each year.

Although today it is usually chanted in the vernacular language of the Church being attended, this chant is referred to as the Exultet due to the first Latin word of the chant, which begins 'Exultet iam angelica turba coelorum' ('Let the angelic host of heaven exult').

Personally, one of my favorite parts of the Exultet chant is the portion known as the 'Praise of the Bees', which is said to be a reference to Virgil's writings in the Aeneid. This portion of the chant praises the work of the bees done to create the wax with which the Paschal Candle is made:

On this, your night of grace, O holy Father, accept this candle, a solemn offering, the work of bees and of your servants' hands, an evening sacrifice of praise, this gift from your most holy Church. But now we know the praises of this pillar, which glowing fire ignites for God's honor, a fire into many flames divided, yet never dimmed by sharing of its light, for it is fed by melting wax, drawn out by mother bees to build a torch so precious.

The codex -- books bound on one side as we know them today -- had long replaced the scroll by the time this manuscript was produced. So, why is this manuscript in the form of a scroll, rather than a codex? The reason is due to its ceremonial use at the Vigil mass. As the deacon chanted the Exultet, he would actually let the scroll unroll over the front of the ambo, so that members of the congregation could see the illuminations on the manuscript. Because of this use during the mass, these scrolls also have a peculiar feature: the text is written in an opposite orientation to the illuminations. This allowed the deacon to recite the chant accurately while the images were also oriented correctly for the attendees of the mass.

Use of Exultet scrolls during the Easter Vigil is unique to Southern Italian Catholic churches around Benevento and Montecassino and began being produced in the 10th century. All extant Exultet Rolls today were made between the 10th and 13th century.

Our facsimile is a reproducton of the Vatican Library's Codex Vaticanus Latinus 9820 and was published in Graz by the Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt in 1975. There are currently no complete images of the Scroll online, but the Vatican Library does have a digitized document explaining the condition of the scroll when it arrived there around 1200 CE.

View more manuscript posts.

View more Manuscript Monday posts.

– Sarah S., Former Special Collections Graduate Intern

[throwsahammer]

Okay, wait, this "Blood Atonement" thing is the belief that... If I understand it correctly, Christ's sacrifice did not fully eliminate the need for sacrifice to atone for sin, and certain sins required the blood sacrifice (Voluntary or otherwise) of the sinner to achieve salvation?

As an atheist with protestant roots this strikes me as shockingly heretical in its departure from ordinary Christian doctrine.

I'm not sure I entirely have a question other than "Am I understanding correctly" and I guess "What the heck?"

It's a bit more complicated than that, but you've got the basic idea.

There are two foundational concepts that you need to understand in order to fit blood atonement into Mormonism properly, and those are Perdition and Having Your Calling and Election Made Sure (I'm going to abbreviate the second one).

Perdition is the condition of being sentenced to outer darkness, which sounds pretty straightforward. It's basically just the standard protestant idea of hell. However, unlike protestantism's concept of Jesus's atonement being infinite in the sense that it's open for anyone to opt into, Mormonism believes that the atonement is infinite in that it guarantees salvation for everyone regardless of personal decision. The whole concept of a tiered heaven can, therefore, be based entirely on personal merit and the completion of specific ordinances, as it's ostensibly built around the idea of growing into the sort of person who would actually be comfortable living there, and not about whether or not Jesus paid the price of admission for that specific individual.

This creates a real-world problem, though: the threat of damnation is an indispensable tool in the arsenal of a religious leader who wants to coerce people into taking certain actions, and Joseph Smith is at this point in history desperately in need of a stick with which to threaten people into compliance. So he develops a new kind of threat based on the figure of Cain. The basic idea of perdition is that there are certain acts that alter their perpetrators on a metaphysical level to the point where they can't exist within god's presence even a little bit, and will not be able to live in any kingdom of glory post resurrection. (There's a whole tangent about mormon cosmology I'm not going into here, but the short version is that the kingdoms of glory operate via divine Reaganomics, and terrestrial and telestial glory are the result of god's celestial glory trickling down).

So, the two sins that damn one's soul and body to perdition are "the shedding of innocent blood" and "denying the holy ghost." The first one is mostly employed rhetorically as a point of comparison and serves to underscore how serious the second one is. What exactly constituted a sufficient degree of apostasy to qualify as perdition-worthy was left intentionally vague by Joseph in order to enable him to threaten people from a position of unquestionable authority. It's all pretty standard new religious movement stuff so far.

But now you run into a different problem: if murder is a potentially soul-threatening act, then you're going to need to waste time manufacturing a spiritual casus belli against anyone you need removed, and nobody who is trying to build a kingdom for themselves has time for that. Enter the second piece of the puzzle: HYCaEMS. Eventually known as the Second Anointing, HYaCEMS is the ultimate theological get-out-of-jail-free card, where the prophet guarantees you a spot in the celestial kingdom, and from that moment onward there's nothing you can do to disqualify yourself from it.

So now Joseph Smith has invented everything he needs to build his empire: a message of universal salvation to appeal to the masses that directly addresses the contemporary debates of protestantism, the ability to leverage the ultimate threat against any man who questions his leadership or any young girl who doesn't want to sleep with him, and the ability to offer the ultimate reward to his inner circle in exchange for their cooperation in carrying out his dirty work. He gets shot to death before he can do very much with any of this.

So now the stage is all set for Brigham Young to build upon the foundation his successor built. He expands Smith's nascent ideas into a fleshed-out universe. The curse of Cain is developed into mormon doctrinal racism, the law of consecration is developed into Deseret's United Order, and Joseph's early concepts of exaltation are developed into the ever-expanding hierarchy of gods.

In case you haven't figured out by now, Mormonism is built on a foundation of nitpicking specific semantic details and then extrapolating entire theological concepts from there. Blood atonement is primarily the result of Brigham Young doing exactly this with how blood is talked about in the scriptures alongside the use of the phrase "flesh and bone" instead of "flesh and blood" in specific contexts. Joseph Smith (and other contemporary religious figures, most notably those who would go on to form the Jehovah's Witnesses) had spoken quite a bit about blood and the symbolic and spiritual importance thereof, but Mormonism's unique contribution to the conversation was the idea that blood was mortality. Adam and Eve did not have blood until the fall, and Jesus didn't have blood after his resurrection. Blood contained both the curse of physical death and was also a metaphorical vessel for the soul, containing the sins of man, and therefore also carrying the curse of spiritual death. The most important moment of Jesus's life, according to Mormonism, was when he prayed in Gethsemane, as that's when he physically took the universe's sins onto himself and literally bled from every pore out onto the earth, as that's when he conquered spiritual death.

Still with me? Good. Now is where I need to talk about how mormon cosmology is built around the idea that planets, stars, the sun, and other heavenly bodies are living beings. Not in a metaphorical way but in a more literal sense. Stars and planets (including the sun) are essentially divine beings, home to beings that correspond to their degree of glory. This is important because Earth was also affected by the fall and became mortal and required all of the same saving ordinances as a human would. The flood of Noah was the earth's baptism (which means that according to this worldview, the entire earth was fully submerged under water), and the eventual fiery apocalypse of the world's end will be its confirmation, or baptism by fire. The earth's equivalent of the mormon Sacrament, then, was when it literally drank the blood (in Gethsemane) and ate the flesh (in the tomb) of Jesus. This act cleansed the earth itself of sin.

Ok, so now we finally get to talk about blood atonement in context. According to this whole paradigm, anyone who commits an act of perdition will have their very blood cursed and cut off from the presence of god. When they are resurrected to face final judgment, their sins will remain locked inside their now immortal bodies and prevent them from dwelling in any kingdom of glory (this point is not much elaborated on, and it's unclear whether bodies of sons of perdition have blood or are just metaphysically bound to it somehow).

When Cain slew Abel, Abel's innocent blood soaked the earth, and that blood cried out for justice, but Cain was cursed with perdition, so his blood could never be shed, and it wasn't until Jesus soaked the earth with his blood that Abel's blood's need for justice was fulfilled. The earth, having absorbed divine blood capable of paying the price of justice for innocent blood, can therefore act as an intermediary for this sort of thing.

But doesn't that undermine the whole "infinite atonement" thing? Well, yes, but not anymore than the necessity of any other ordinance within Mormonism does within the same framework. Jesus was baptized, and anyone who wants to access the specific covenants locked behind baptism needs to be baptized. Jesus, while not a murderer, took those sins upon himself and shed his blood, so any murderer who wants to access the redemption must also do so. Shedding your blood upon the ground becomes a sort of conditional ordinance that's only necessary if you've committed the otherwise unforgivable sin of murder.

Now you'll notice that we're only talking about murder here and not apostasy. That's because, crucially, those are the same thing as far as Mormonism is concerned, as you're spiritually killing someone (yourself and potentially your family as well). Brigham Young prescribed "death on the spot" for mormons who engaged in the apostate act of miscegenation, for example.

Now, I want to stress that it's extremely unclear how many people, if any, were actually blood atoned for apostasy, how many people, if any, were executed in ways that did not shed their blood because they were deemed "apostate," and how widespread or accepted any of this doctrine was beyond church leadership. I also want to make it clear that there is no credible evidence that suggests that either the doctrine or practice of blood atonement is taught or practiced by any branches of Mormonism beyond certain fundamentalist sects such as the FLDS under the leadership of Warren Jeffs, or isolated incidents such as the Lafferty Brother murders.

The mainstream LDS church has quietly de-emphasized or de-canonized almost all of these teachings, including many of the foundational elements. You can occasionally find church officials expressing some or even all of these beliefs in unofficial settings, but the most recent examples are the likes of Cleon Skousen, Hugh Nibley, Bruce McConkie, and Joseph Fielding Smith, all of which are decades ago at this point, and virtually all of which are inaccessible via official church records.

So there you go. I feel obligated to note that much of the connective tissue of this post comes from personal experience and decades of reading various official and semi-official writings on the topic and that I don't have a list of sources handy. Go read Under the Banner of Heaven (or watch the Hulu series) if you want a broader, better-sourced look at the history of violence within Mormonism (though note that Krakauer does dabble in conjecture, especially in the Hulu adaptation).

[splickedylit]

Bestie pls tell me all of ur indigoblood and clown church headcanons!! :o)

I always have trouble pinning this kind of thing down to a list! Everything I can name feels either too vague or too specific. But I'll try!

longtime readers will know I'm absolutely into different facepaint designs having different meanings, and the intimacy/sanctity of the Bare Face eue

I really enjoy the concept of the church as a group being weirdly supportive and protective of each other compared to most trolls. like they'll still kill each other, but trolls of other colors find their comparative attachment to each other deeply unnerving.

Religious practice is largely by The Vibes both for the practitioners and also for me the author lol. Church services? sure! Confession? I guess! Patron saints and saint prayers? If you like that kind of thing. Ritual sacrifice? Yeah man! Orgies and mass intoxication? Why not?

Seadwellers have the monopoly on gold jewelry as a sign of status--highblood fashion is rainbow fabric/stones, silver and jet. Gold on a clown is usually a quadrant symbol from a seadweller--a fairly rare event because:

(I feel like this is at least partially textual but) violet seadwellers and highbloods have a contentious relationship and frequently clash RE: who's the bigger top bitch. Despite the hemospectrum being in the seadwellers' favor, this is a pretty evenly-matched contest (see: Dualscar vs the GHB)

The GHB position technically comes down to deadly combat, but there's a certain amount of democratic input in that if the church or empress don't like you, you can definitely win and then promptly get quietly assassinated.

Despite "candy/mutant red" and "lime green" as blood colors both being taboo or carrying baggage in some way, those colors are often represented in holy art and paintings, because those are the colors of the Messiahs--red for rage and green for mirth. Spirals, smiling/snarling masks or faces, and twining snakes also feature heavily.

Finally, I'll point you toward this post, which covers a lot of less general stuff not covered in this list lol.

[i4mth4ti4m]

⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆ ⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆ ⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day

for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart,

in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,

for the salvation of souls, the reparation for sins, the reunion of all Christians,

and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month.

Amen

⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ⋆⁺₊⋆

[superiorcatholicinspiration]

Parish Retreat: Walking with the Lord through Holy Week. Catholic Inspiration

This 4-part parish retreat takes the listener through Holy Week: Palm Sunday – setting the stage for the events to come Holy Thursday – Service and Sacrament Good Friday – Sacrifice and Support Easter – Divine Strength and Hope Each of these presentations can be listened individually or collectively, depending on time and circumstance. May all of us prepare to enter fully into these holy…

[ofbatsandballads]

Having thoughts about catholic!Jason Todd

tw: mentions of religion, Jay’s death, addiction, and semi-explicit descriptions of murder

How he grew up devout because Catherine was. How he had hazy memories of her dressed in her Sunday best from when he was small. How even in the throes of her addiction she still managed to drag him to mass every Sunday. How after she died and he was left to fend for himself on the streets the local church was one of a handful of places he could seek shelter from the cold.

How when Bruce takes him in he learns about other religions because maybe Bruce has lost all his faith, but Alfred is a sentimental old man and still celebrates Hanukkah in honor of Thomas and Martha. How Jason becomes open to other interpretations of faith, how Bruce supports it even if he thinks it’s a fairytale. How in the final seconds, as the timer of the bomb tick, tick, ticks down to zero, as he drags himself over Sheila’s body to protect her, he finds himself reciting hail Mary’s and hoping he’s done enough good to earn his place among the holy.

How he comes back from the dead and remembers nothing. Black, dark, blank, void. How his faith died with him. How it still haunts him. How the scriptures are burned in his brain, the commandments screaming in his blood. Thou shalt not kill as he puts a bullet in the head of a human trafficker. Thou shalt not kill as he draws a knife across the throat of a drug dealer that was selling to kids. But even God sent a flood to clear the wicked, didn’t He? And isn’t sacrifice for the salvation of others a tenet of faith? Jason decides he’ll be the flood, even as it damns him to Hell.