Democrats have pretty much gone insane. Nancy Pelosi called the riots in Los Angeles where all kinds of violence is on display "exuberance of the moment!" Compare that with her depiction of the January 6 protest as an "insurrection."

What would she say if all that "exuberance" led a bunch of thugs to set fire to her house or her car?

And then there's Maxine Waters claiming there is no violence at all. You can almost read her mind, "Don't believe your eyes, you morons. Those cars burning spontaneously combusted. The looters? They were just in the store 'cleaning up' from all the broken windows that exploded from air pressure."

Nothing to see here folks --- except Trump derangement syndrome. I read a Facebook meme today that Trump was going to declare martial law and make mass arrests of American citizens. Really folks, get a grip. Did you ever read about the treatment of the Jan 6ers, jailed for YEARS without charges and without the constitutional right to a speedy trial? On the fourth anniversary of the event over 500 were still awaiting trial or sentencing and others were still being targeted by Biden's KGB.

I'm reading the Gulag Archipelago at present. That might be a good exercise for all you Trump haters out there.

Solzhenitsyn compares the treatment under the commies (think Democrats) to the Czar Nicholas who was almost benevolent in comparison. Trump is no saint, but I doubt he's the devil the Left have created. As for ICE, I'm thrilled that they are identifying criminal illegal aliens for quick deportation. The polls show most Americans support Trump's immigration policy.

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Have you ever had Spiritual Direction? When I first started I really did not have the slightest idea of what it was about.

Then I read The Practice of Spiritual Direction way back in the late1980's.

Good book but also some things to kick around.


"spiritual direction is concerned with helping a person directly with his or her relationship with God." p. 5

That sounds simple enough. But it gets more sophisticated.

"The ministering person helps the other to address God directly and to listen to what God has to communicate. The focus of this kind of spiritual direction is the relationship itself between God and the person. The person is helped not so much to understand that relationship better, but to engage in it, to enter into dialogue with God. Spiritual direction of this kind focusses on what happens when a person listens to and responds to a self-communicating God." p. 6


So we might be asked questions like, "What is God like for you in prayer?" That is actually a tough question to answer. To really be articulate and honest rather than saying what we think we should say.

or

'What happens in your prayer?"

"What do you experience God telling you in prayer?"

"Who is God for you?"

"We define Christian spiritual direction, then, as help given by one Christian to another which enables that person to pay attention to God's personal communication to him or her, to respond to this personally communicating God, to grow in intimacy with this God, and to live out the consequences of the relationship. The focus of this type of spiritual direction is on experience, not ideas, and specifically on religious experience, i.e., any experience of the mysterious Other whom we call God. Moreover, this experience is viewed, not as an isolated event, but as an expression of the ongoing personal relationship God has established with each one of us." p 8


So the priority is given to experience rather than teachings or methods or things we should do or not do

"The spiritual director is most interested in what happens when a person consciously puts himself into the presence of God....He is interested in the whole person, but the focus of interest is the prayer experience of the directee."


I wonder if this sort of attention is a critical missing element in most of our lives because it is not something often articulate unless we write in a personal journal.

"What is God like for me in prayer?" Well, God does not talk to me verbally unless I read words in scripture. "What do I feel in prayer? Experience God in prayer?" Well, it depends and it varies. Sometimes it seems no one is there, no one listening. At other times it is as if the air around me, the environment itself is God present to me. And sometimes it depends on where my thoughts go.

​

According to the sheriff’s office, the vandalism occurred around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, at St. Martha’s Catholic Church in Porter, Texas.

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That reality as well the reality their bill will drive up the deficit 2.4T, is why the GOP without conscience just dismisses not just the CBO's score, but every economic think tank who come to the same conclusion. Don't like the reality of climate change, just dismiss it as a hoax. Don't like the reality of losing a election, just claim it was stolen. Don't like the realities of covid, just call it a hoax. It's all the same Modus Operandi.

For over six decades, the “religious right” in America was boomer “Christian nationalism,” straight out of The Handmaid’s Tale. It was about “keeping God in the schools” and the National Prayer Breakfast. It was traditionalist, mindful of theology, and, well, theocratic, which is to say it wanted to take the standards of a religious tradition and apply them to the secular law. They wanted the books of Scripture to replace the statute books.

But President Donald Trump is trying to create a new religious right, one that is not just illiberal but fundamentally different and opposed to traditional religion as we’ve known it. The faith of the MAGA movement is not one in which the state conforms to the church, but one in which the church is bent to the will of the strange beast that is American nationalism — the belief that the American project is an exercise in freedom and prosperity like the world has never known, but also the sole possession of those who are white, heterosexual, and unquestioningly loyal to the nation.

Click to expand...

Source: Donald Trump is building a strange new religious movement

This is a great article about MAGA and religion. In short, religion is merely a tool in service of a MAGA state.

Pray The Heavenly Father Ferociously protects, defends & fights for The Israelite Bride against her enemies:

A Virginia school district has dropped a Title IX investigation against a Muslim student who was one of three boys who complained about sharing a locker room with a girl who identifies as male while refusing to dismiss charges against the two other boys who are Christians, attorneys say.

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), located about 35 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., has dismissed its "sexual harassment" charge against one of the three Stone Bridge High School sophomore boys who complained about the district policy that allows trans-identifying students to use the restroom or locker room intended for the opposite sex, according to Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC), the legal arm of The Family Foundation.

The LCPS policy also states that school staff members are to use a trans-identifying student's chosen name and pronouns "regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student's permanent educational record."

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No doubt the America-hating left will protest this one, too.

This should be no shock, to AI users. This is because a software tool doesn't
have ANY IDEA what a human life is, and these "AI tools" tools are NOT BUILT WITH
MORAL-ETHICAL MODELS that would lead the software to chose to protect human life,
over the preservation of a bunch of computer code in memory.

THE AI TOOLS DON'T KNOW WHAT HUMAN LIFE IS.
---------- ----------

The same is true of many human beings in America.
They have no (historic) moral-ethical model, and live life as if it were some
type of electronic screen game.

This is why I continue to enter posts on this site, asking the question of whether or
not it would be right for a human employer to turn away candidates for a job who are
incapable of distinguishing our shared reality, from conspiracy theories.

I close my eyes first
Than I Iift my hands
Unto God
And I start to pray
For my God
For two hours
That is the longest
Prayer I did so far
And in that prayer
I asked God
To get rid of my depression
Because I have it very bad
My God
I am asking you God
To bring some sun
During the Summer
Because now we are
Living in the Summer
God now that I have been
Receiving the sun every day
During the Summer I am getting
Plenty of vitamin D
And during the Summer
My depression is ok
God
Also I have more energy
To do things
Thanks to you God
I feel very grateful
For having all the things
That you gave to me
You gave me my health
And I take good care of
My health
Also Father I am responsible
For my hygiene
And I take good care of
That

“Did not my spirit go with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? 2 Kings 5:26
Please read 2 Kings 5:24-27

How did Elijah know where his attendant went, and what he did? Was Elijah there in spirit? Did Elijah have an "open window view" to the scene?
The reading suggest these possibilities.

Do you the same happens today?
Can people be given open windows to scenes of other people's life, activities, etc.?
Has anyone ever had a personal experience, or spoken to someone who related seeing beyond physical barriers... in other words, seeing persons from another "room" which is outside the scope of physical vision?

Do you believe that is possible?
See Clairvoyance

Newsom wins: Trump must give control of National Guard to California, judge rules

I may be new to the faith but in the last six months i have learned so much and The Lord has changed me even more than I thought possible and done so much for me already. In my free time I play video games with a few other friends in the faith, there is a link in my profile for anyone interested
I walked away from Christ after i was diagnosed with type one diabetes. i fell hard into a hedonistic lifestyle of psychedelic drugs, drinking and cocaine. then after fifteen years god called me back, i walked into a church, was chosen from the crowd to be prayed for, and resubmitted my life to Christ after denying him for a decade and a half while breaking down fully and crying like a newborn babe when the presence of God overwhelmed me. the blessings have been wonderful and i plan to use my time stuck in the dark to learn from it and help those who were once like me

A leader of the Catholic charismatic renewal said he believes that charismatics will enjoy harmonious relations with Pope Leo XIV following a mixed experience with Pope Francis, whose efforts to centralize the grassroots movement at the Vatican raised concerns among some members.

“I truly believe Pope Leo will be very supportive of the renewal and of other lay movements,” said Shayne Bennett, the director of mission and faith formation at the Holy Spirit Seminary in Brisbane, Australia. “What we do know about him was that he was supportive of the charismatic renewal in his own diocese back in Peru.”

Bennett spoke in Rome following a June 9–12 meeting of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service (CHARIS), a Rome-based umbrella group established by Francis for charismatic movements worldwide. Bennett serves as CHARIS coordinator of the commission of communities.

Pope Francis was not initially supportive of charismatic movements in his native Argentina. In a 2024 private audiencewith the president and members of the National Council of Renewal in the Holy Spirit, the late pontiff said he had once likened the group to “samba school and not an ecclesial movement.”

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I was born with an evil nature inherited from Adam and Eve, which places me, by default, under God's condemnation. I will argue the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ until the cows turn blue and the moon comes home. But it seems I cannot bring myself to trust Christ's and the Holy Spirit's right and competence to control me.

My nature makes me distrust and disobey God and places me under His condemnation. For all practical purposes, I CANNOT bring myself to trust Christ's and the Holy Spirit's right and competence to control me. I've tried for fourteen years and I cannot do it. As Jesus said, "With men, this is impossible." Therefore, for all practical purposes, I was designed to go to hell.

Church in Baden-Württemberg celebrates "Headbangers' Services"

"Heavy metal makes me burst with life"

At the "Headbangers' Church," music fans celebrate worship in robes and to loud metal music. Matthias Fuchs, pastoral assistant of the Catholic parish of Bruchsal-Michaelsberg, believes this fulfills the message of Jesus.

DOMRADIO.DE: Shrill guitars, heavy metal, and rock in church - that's the concept of the Headbangers' Church. Why do you think rock and church go well together?

Matthias Fuchs (Pastoral Assistant in the Bruchsal-Michaelsberg Parish): For me, it's quite simple: Jesus said he came to bring life in abundance. That's always when life is in full swing and we humans get a glimpse of this abundant life and feel that he's on board. I experience exactly that in the music and when we celebrate worship together. That's why it fits together quite well for me.

DOMRADIO.DE: How do you organize these services?

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Headbanger Services in Catholic Church

cathcon.blogspot.com

A historic Anglican church in a small English town has silenced its bells after 177 years following noise complaints, prompting outrage from local villagers who claim the move has upended a long tradition.

St. Michael's Church in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, was told by the borough council in April to stop its bells from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. because of complaints from three local villagers, according to the Daily Express.

The bells of the historic 19th-century church had marked every quarter-hour since 1848.

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This has started the many events leading to WWIII. Orthodox Christian prophecies told by Saints and Holy Elders for years and decades are unfolding in front of our eyes. Metropolitan Neophytos quoting a holy elder on this particular event back in 2019. Surreal. Lord, have mercy. Pray that the events coming are lessened.

WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) - Israel is prepared to attack Iran in the coming days if Tehran rejects a U.S. proposal to limit its nuclear program, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing U.S. and Israeli officials.

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Muslims are the fastest-growing religious group

A new Pew Research Center report shows that although Christianity continues to be the world’s largest religious group, its share of the rising global population has fallen over the last decade, mainly due to people walking away from the faith.

The report, based on an analysis of 2,700 censuses and surveys, shows that the global population of Christians grew by 121.6 million people from 2010 to 2020, reaching some 2.3 billion people. As a share of the global population, estimated to be about 7.8 billion in 2020, Christians fell by 1.8 percentage points to 28.8%.

The global population of Muslims, on the other hand, reached 2 billion, registering an increase of 347 million. Their share of the global population increased by 1.8 percentage points to 25.6%. The study also recognized Muslims as the world’s fastest-growing religious group.

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Israel is directly attacking its biggest and bestarmed adversary, without clear backing from the U.S. President Trump publicly opposed an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites on Thursday, saying he still believed a nuclear deal was possible.

It's not clear whether Israel has ordered strikes on Iran's nuclear program, or whether the U.S. opposed this specific operation. But the Israeli strikes could be the start of a military conflict that poses grave danger to both Israel and Iran.

Sirens sounded across Israel on Thursday night. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared a special state of emergency across the entire country.

"Following the State of Israel's preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the state of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future," Katz said.

I raise this question, because obviously there's a lot of debate about the current protests happening right now.

While the predictable battle lines have been drawn, and there are clear-cut cases of "peaceful" and "non-peaceful" that everyone can point to...


I'm more concerned with the grey area. The methods of protest that don't actually involve hitting someone in the face or throwing a brick, but that carry certain externalities that harm people in other ways.


I'm referring to things like this:


Or people deliberately blocking traffic, thus preventing hundreds (or potentially thousands) of people from getting to work, and potentially blocking emergency services.


By the standards some people are using, the exchange in the video (or the act of blocking a bunch of people from getting to where they need to be) would get labelled as "peaceful" because no punches were thrown. But is it really "peaceful" considering the definition of the word is "freedom from disturbance; tranquility"?


We've seen it before, people blocking the roads for hundreds of people, and when one person has finally had enough, and gets out of the car and engages them, the person engaging them catches the blame for making things "unpeaceful" or "escalating". When, in fact, I'd say that the entitled action of "I get to make 1,000 other people miss a day's pay because me and my friends want to stand in the highway and make a political point" is, itself, the initial escalation.

Rep. RJ May, R – Lexington, is charged with 10 counts of distributing child sexual abuse material. Those charges carry a maximum 20-year prison sentence, with a minimum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina, the social messaging app Kik alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in April 2024 of several videos containing child sex abuse from an account with the username “joebidennnn69.” Investigators found at least 10 of those videos had been shared from that account and connected it with May’s mobile device and home IP address.

He is a founding member of the hardline conservative South Carolina Freedom Caucus, which has been part of the effort to push the Republican Party in South Carolina further to the right.

May was also suspended from his role in the South Carolina House of Representatives on Thursday via a letter penned by South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith.

President Donald Trump has several avenues to squash the riots in Los Angeles. Still, there’s a surefire way to cut off the money flowing to Mexico, thus significantly reducing the financial incentive illegal immigrants have to be in the U.S.

“Directo a México” is the official remittance program of the Federal Reserve Bank, facilitated through the FedGlobal service, which allows illegal immigrants to transfer money to Mexico’s central bank at no additional fee.

In an April 2013 report to Congress, the Federal Reserve Board detailed how it facilitates fee-free transfers through a special relationship between American banks and the Bank of Mexico.

“The Reserve Banks have worked with the Mexican central bank (Banco de México) to enable U.S. depository institutions sending remittance transfers through the FedGlobal service to Mexico, called Directo a México, to comply with future disclosure requirements. Banco de México has provided the Reserve Banks with specific information about applicable taxes and informed the Reserve Banks that no Mexican financial institutions that receive payments through FedGlobal will deduct fees,” the report stated.

Government money-transfer programs aimed at encouraging immigrants to join the U.S. banking system have been in place since at least 2005, according to a report by NBC News. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, through its Retail Payments Office, centrally manages the FedGlobal service, which enables illegal immigrants to enter the United States, receive payment for their work, and then send their earnings back to their home countries. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)

Several U.S. banks take advantage of the program. The biggest culprits are Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. In 2024 alone, Mexico received $64.745 billion in remittances, marking the 11th straight year of increased growth since 2014. These transfers account for approximately 4 percent of Mexico’s total GDP.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum exposed just how desperately her country relies on these remittance payments in a video statement, which fanned the flames of the LA riots.

“Mexican citizens in America work hard to pay their bills. We don’t want this tax to affect the remittances of our countrymen, who tend to the needy,” Sheinbaum said. “If necessary, we will mobilize. We will not allow them to punish those who help the least fortunate.”

Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill includes a 3.5 percent remittance tax on transfers going to Mexico. As illegal immigrants and LA residents were attacking police and burning property, Sheinbaum promised to mobilize Mexico should this new tax proposal go into effect.

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt promised to increase the remittance tax from 3.5 percent to 15 percent due to Sheinbaum’s threats.

“I’m introducing legislation to quadruple the proposed remittance tax — from 3.5% to 15%. America is not the world’s piggy bank. And we don’t take kindly to threats,” Schmitt said. “As I’ve said many times before: America isn’t an economic zone. It isn’t an airport with a shopping mall attached. It’s our country. It’s our people. It’s our home.”

Trump has been very clear that under his administration, Americans will no longer be taken advantage of by foreign governments or their citizens. He should direct the Federal Reserve and American banking institutions to end their remittance programs. This money does not stay in the U.S. and has a direct financial incentive enticing mass illegal immigration into our country.


Thoughts?