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RileyG · Sep 5, 2024

dzheremi said:
This is so sad. There are so many confused, hurting people in the world, and hurt people often hurt others in turn. Lord have mercy.

Amen. Lord, have mercy.

RileyG · Sep 5, 2024

I actually read the article. No, he shouldn’t have been on school ground, but he shouldn’t have spent 400 days in jail.

Ugh

iarwain · Sep 5, 2024

RDKirk said:
To be honest, I believe both candidates intend to usher in administrations that will gravely damage the nation over the next four years.

Entirely possible, if not probable. Like you, I have to vote for what I think are the lesser of two evils. We just don't agree on what that choice is.

GoldenBoy89 · Sep 5, 2024

Xi I wish you hadn’t made that corny joke

Gpegasus3 · Sep 5, 2024

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the most
painful the most painful suffering the
Lord endured until this moment was not
the crown of thorns was not the nails in
his hands and his feet was not the the
the the whipping and the shredding of
his of his pure body was not that spear
that when in his side all these wounds
after a little while can heal and the
pain can disappear but there is one
wound cannot heal ever the wound of the
one you love the most and then he
returns that love with a a knife in the
heart when the one you love the most
turns around and hurts you the most that
wound cannot
heal Jesus loves us and we are loving s
Satan Jesus calling us and we are going
to Satan Jesus begging us and we are
begging Satan Jesus saying come to my
holy church and we're going to Satan's
house Jesus says come to the light and
we're going to Darkness Jesus says come
and praise me and we go and swear and
use foul language Jesus comes and says
let me hug you instead we hug Satan and
the
world it's extremely painful
unbearable when you love the
most and the one you love misunderstand
you completely and totally this is
unbearable

Malleeboy · Sep 5, 2024

IF the wind is blowing 20km/h from the west and the roof is aligned north/south and a rooster lays an egg.

Where is the Rooster?

Clearly Australia

RileyG · Sep 5, 2024

Good for him!

Carl Emerson · Sep 5, 2024

ViaCrucis said:
For those Christians who take this event literally, the majority would understand this (based on our modern understanding of the relative motion and position of the earth to the sun) as the earth being made still--the naturalistic effects that such would cause are waved away by simply acknowledging God's supreme power and authority over His creation. If God wanted to make the earth stop spinning without the problems that would cause, He can certainly do that.

In other words, God can do what God wants to do, He's God.

Other Christians may take a less literal approach to the story, or have other explanations.

Those Christians who insist on a geocentric (or even flat earth) perspective would argue that the sun literally stopped moving because the sun, not the earth, is what moves.

As for me, personally, I don't worry too much about how literal or non-literal the event is; though I would be fine with a simple acknowledgment that God did something to help the Israelites. Perhaps it only appeared that the sun stopped moving, or perhaps this meant something we don't fully understand now to the ancients who wrote about it. Or perhaps God literally compelled the earth to stop moving about its axis and because He's God, He can do that. Whatever the case may be, it's not one of those things that I think is particularly important to the overarching divinely inspired narrative of Holy Scripture.

The importance of Israel's entrance into the land of promise is ultimately about Jesus. Because the Bible is always about Jesus.

-CryptoLutheran

I am not sure why we immediately think that to change the shadow on a flight of steps has to mean some enormous cosmic event.

It may have been a cloud over the sun combined with a bright light from a naturally occurring 'fireball' that cast a shadow backwards.

So a local event may have been the cause.

LoricaLady · Sep 5, 2024

Sep. 05, 2024 | Nigeria
Hope and Healing After Husband's Murder
[7] prayers in [1] nation have been posted for Gift.

Gift is only 19 years old but has already endured more anguish than most people in a lifetime. The young bride from Jos, Nigeria, saw her husband shot to death by militant Fulani Muslims. The attackers then shot her in the hand. Pregnant at the time, she collapsed and was taken to a hospital, where her baby was delivered by cesarean session. After this distressing experience, caring Christians provided for her emotional and spiritual needs through six months of encouragement and biblical counseling. Read More.
Sep. 05, 2024 | Egypt
Christian Woman Missing
[5] prayers in [1] nation have been posted for Egyptian Christian.

An Egyptian Christian convert from Islam has faced intense family pressure since becoming a follower of Christ. The woman's father is an imam, an Islamic scholar, which made it difficult for her to be in public without scrutiny. In Egypt, Christian converts from Islam can experience harsh opposition from their families. Their Muslim families often feel an intense sense of shame or dishonor because they see their relatives' new Christian faith as an affront to Islam. Read More.
Sep. 05, 2024 | Nepal
Pastor Protected from Anger of Hindu Monk
[5] prayers in [1] nation have been posted for Pastor Mukhiya.

During the Christmas season of 2023, Pastor Mahesh Mukhiya encountered a Hindu monk on the street. He was unsure whether he should share the gospel with him, so he prayed in his heart and then finally approached the monk. After hearing about Jesus and Christianity, the monk immediately started shouting, calling others to punish Mahesh. Many people gathered, but most of the villagers recognized Mahesh and told the monk that he was a respected member of the village. Read More.

stevil · Sep 5, 2024

public hermit said:
And how does this lead to the conclusion that we should "Expect multiple government agencies to again try and interfere in the presidential election"?

Irrational paranoia

public hermit · Sep 5, 2024

ViaCrucis said:
One thing they do is take the texts about "these things" happening before "this generation" passes away as referring to everything--the 2nd coming and Last Judgment included. So they insist that these things had to have happened before the current generation who heard those words was gone. Whereas most Christians understand those things related to the Second Temple, or the mistreatment of the early Christians by Jewish authorities, and even viewing the Son of Man coming into His kingdom as referring to the Transfiguration/Ascension rather than the Parousia. Essentially everything gets condensed into the stuff about the Second Temple.

The worst, I'd argue, is actually how Full Preterism deals with Christian hope. Full Preterism denies the future resurrection of the body, the future renewal of creation, and instead argues that resurrection just means the soul going to heaven, and new heavens and new earth have nothing to do with the material creation. There is no Eschaton, no conclusion, no resolution outside of the subjective and personalized eschatology of going to heaven or going to hell--things down here on earth will just continue like this forever until the eventual heat death of the universe (presumably). There is no definitive conclusion to the problem of evil, there is no finality to the problem of death, injustice continues down here and the only address to justice and injustice is personal judgment at death.

There's a reason why Full Preterism is considered heretical by the majority of mainstream Christianity.

-CryptoLutheran

Wow. Thanks for the insight.

Apple Sky · Sep 5, 2024

loveofourlord said:
funny how the lower the vacination rates of certain states the higher the death rates, and there hasn't been massive die offs since the vaccine like was predicted.

I wouldn't know I don't live in the Sates.

eleos1954 · Sep 5, 2024

iluvatar5150 said:
lol, the only reason Trump won the primaries is because he gives off ToughGuy vibes, not because he was a policy wonk. After one term in office characterized largely by its internal chaos and his ineffectiveness as an executive, his campaign is still driven largely on vibes, with many of his policies plans being largely unworkable (e.g. mass deportation) and/or exacerbating problems that he complains about (e.g. high tariffs and inflation).

Dems have their issues, sure, but there’s a reason that educated professionals have been headed there for a while. It’s because intelligent ideas still have purchase in the Democratic party, while the Republicans have largely ceded control to populists and cranks. Nobody is following Trump because of his thoughtful policy ideas.

Yeah ... well both parties are corrupt ... so we pick our poison.

Wolseley · Sep 5, 2024

RileyG said:
Rome had a right to defend their lands from the Visigoths....if that happened in America...I don't know how his holiness would respond.

Well, that's just it. Between 400 A.D. and 550 A.D., Rome was invaded, besieged, and sacked no less than five times, by the Visigoths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Ostrogoths; each time, the event included the wanton destruction of irreplaceable art, the pulling down and smashing of statues--especially if they were coated with precious metals, which was stripped from the stone, smelted down, and carried off, the looting of churches, the robbing of private homes of anything considered of value, the rape of thousands of women, wholesale slaughter of men and children, and the capture of thousands more, to be sold off into slavery. Whatever was left was indiscriminately burned.

If something similar were to happen here, I'm not sure how His Holiness would respond, either. Considering that the factions with the most power who want to crash our borders include Latin American drug cartels, corrupt banana republic regimes, Communist Chinese, and jihadist Muslims, I'm not sure how the "baptism doesn't end at the border" argument would work. Those factions are not Christians, and they don't want to come here to settle down and live peacefully; they want to come here to get their hands on whatever goodies we have that they can appropriate for themselves, and to destroy whatever threat they feel we represent to them.

And, if they took us down, we'd have precisely the same situation they had in ancient Rome: whatever organs there are that might have helped those truly in need will be completely and permanently destroyed, the infrastructure will collapse, the currency will become worthless, and most likely, an extended period of chaos and anarchy will ensue. (When Rome fell, Western Europe became a hazardous battleground dominated by vicious armed gangs for approximately 400 years.) How does the creation of a situation like that help anyone?

Michie · Sep 5, 2024

Why are some people kind? This question is especially though of course not exclusively pertinent in forming the young. I think we take kindness for granted, forgetting both its central importance and the need to cultivate it, in self and others.

“We are for the most part unhappy, because the world is an unkind world.” So wrote Fr. Frederick Faber, a noted author and close collaborator with John Henry Newman. He describes kindness as “the overflowing of self upon others. We put others in the place of self.” He says that kindness is our imitation of Divine Providence.

But how is kindness cultivated? It seems that here two things are worthy of note. First, we should consider the unique power of showing kindness to those in whom we would form it. While all virtues are cultivated at least in part by way of example, the power of showing kindness stands out.

If I am courageous toward or in the presence of my children, this is very important as a good example. If I act justly toward them, again this is good example and will tend to inspire them to act justly toward others. But there is something unique in kindness. When I am kind toward them, they are powerfully moved, consciously and unconsciously, to ‘pass on’ that kindness. To say that kindness is contagious only weakly captures this.

Continued below.

NEW ADVENT: Home

The largest Catholic website in the world

www.newadvent.org

Chesterton · Sep 5, 2024

Reverberate; rev, ever, verb, be, berate, era, rate, rat, ate, at, a (whew!)

Michie · Sep 5, 2024

longhair75 said:
Rabbi Abe was a good friend. We spent a lot of time sitting across a chessboard and drinking good scotch.

I remember you discussing that. They really sounded like very sweet people.

RileyG · Sep 5, 2024

I'm happy the Church responds. Prayers for Catholics in Venezuela.

RileyG · Sep 5, 2024

DraculKain said:
It’s the Ethiopians who have the biggest canon. I believe Syriacs have roughly the same canon as Eastern Orthodoxy with a few extra Psalms.

Thanks for the info.

The Liturgist · Sep 5, 2024

Paidiske said:
I am not Orthodox, but I am ministering in a rural area (in Australia). I would suggest that the 10-minute thing might make sense in the cities, but in rural areas, many folks live more than 10 minutes from the nearest anything, and would certainly expect and accept having to go further than that to church. Perhaps that kind of difference ought to be taken into account?

I think that’s a very good point!

Right now there are very many people who commute two hours or more, round trip, to access an Orthodox church, in areas of the US that have the population to support one, and new missions have been opening, for example, the new Antiochian Orthodox mission in St. George, Utah, which improves coverage in the Southwest, but there is another nearby metropolitan area to the south of Las Vegas which is two hours away from any Orthodox church, and then there is the town of Pahrump, the capital of Nye County, which has Orthodox Christians in it who have to commute across the scorching desert to Las Vegas. And things actually get worse as one heads east across the Rockies, so that when one reaches the sparsely populated areas of the Western Prairie States, in places like Wyoming or Eastern Colorado or Montana, the commutes become even more untenable, and it is not until one heads south towards Oklahoma or Texas or East to the more populated areas that parish density returns to normal. It’s ironic, but there are people in the sparsely populated areas of Alaska and rural Pennsylvania who have better access to Orthodox churches than people in a massive portion of the interior of the lower 48.

Just in California, Nevada and Arizona I can think of twenty population centers that should have an orthodox church, and which have plenty of churches from other denominations, and which have Orthodox Christian residents, but no local church.

One unpleasant area for the Orthodox is the High Desert of the San Bernardion County, where the only Orthodox churches are, to my knowledge, the Coptic Orthodox monastery in Newbury Springs and the OCA parish of St. George the Martyr (which also is home to St. Julian Syriac Orthodox Church), which results in round trip travel times that are quite severe, at least an hour, for many residents of that area, which is increasingly highly populated.

A problem we have is that our parishes tend to be concentrated in inner suburban areas, but many of them were established when those were in the outer suburbs.

tdidymas · Sep 5, 2024

ကြည့်ရှုမှု ၁.၉ သန်း ကြိမ် · တုံ့ပြန်မှု ၃.၈ သောင်း ခု | Donkey said to the tiger | Donkey said to the tiger #motivation #Quotes #Inspiration #Tips | By Success VocalFacebook

Donkey said to the tiger #motivation #Quotes #Inspiration #Tips

www.facebook.com

Michie · Sep 5, 2024

Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign on Sept. 4 launched the Catholics for Trump coalition, which emphasizes the defense of religious liberty, traditional values, and the sanctity of human life as priorities of the Republican nominee’s agenda.

The coalition, which intends to rally Catholic support behind the former president, seeks to show a contrast between Trump and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on key issues that are important to Catholics.

According to the coalition’s mission statement, Catholics for Trump commits “to safeguarding the vital principles of religious liberty and the sanctity of life that President Donald J. Trump has ardently championed.”

Continued below.

Trump-Vance campaign launches Catholics for Trump coalition

The coalition seeks to show a contrast between Trump and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, on key issues that are important to Catholics.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

iluvatar5150 · Sep 5, 2024

Tim Sheehy Was Recorded Using Racist Stereotypes About Native Americans

Mr. Sheehy, a Republican, is the nominee for a Senate seat in Montana, where Indigenous residents make up about 6 percent of the population.

www.nytimes.com

Tim Sheehy, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Montana, made comments perpetuating racist stereotypes about Native Americans during private fund-raisers last year, according to recordings of the events published by a local news outlet late last week and obtained by The New York Times.

In one recording, Mr. Sheehy, a cattle rancher and businessman, can be heard saying that he had participated in roping and branding cattle on the Crow Reservation, in southeastern Montana, and that it was “a great way to bond with all the Indians out there, while they’re drunk at 8 a.m.” In another clip, he said that he had ridden in a Crow parade, and that “they’ll let you know whether they like you or not, there’s Coors Light cans flying by your head.”

SabbathBlessings · Sep 5, 2024

Joseph G said:
Ever feel like this, believers? I am right now!

Notice that 1) Satan has to ask Jesus permission to test us, 2) how severe the test is, 3) Jesus already knows the outcome, and 4) Jesus turns it all on Satan's head - the experience giving us ammo to then strengthen each other!

Luke 22:31-32 NKJV

"And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

And... this trial is not unique to us, but happens to all believers, so we should take comfort that it isn't happening for no reason - which would truly tempt us to despair. And there is a further blessing - we will behold Him in His glory!

1 Peter 4:12-13 NKJV

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you."

God bless us all who abide in Christ!

biblegateway.com

I believe this world is our test, but faith through Christ, we will always have an escape

1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Just like when Jesus was tempted- He relied on the scriptures-Mat 4:4 God's love letter to us which reveals His will and how we can be reconciled and the promise the seed of evil will finally be eliminated once and for all.

God bless!

Offline4Better. · Sep 5, 2024

Reluctant Theologian said:
Cool, great plan .. that is my native country - I might be there in November as well .. any churches there you intend to visit? (apart from sight-seeing) There's plenty to do as a tourist of course ..

I could ask my parents, but we will find out more information shortly before leaving. It is good that there are still Dutch Christians. The Netherlands has become almost a godless country. I have visited a few churches there in the past, but none had services.

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