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hieromonkcharbel · 3 years

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Feast of St. Rita of Cascia

EARLY LIFE

Rita was born in the year 1381 in the village of Roccaporena, near Cascia , Italy . Her parents, Antonio and Amata Lotti, considered her birth a very special gift from God, for Rita was born to them as they were already advancing in age. As a young girl Rita frequently visited the convent of the Augustinian Nuns in Cascia and dreamed of one day joining their community. Her parents, however, had promised her in marriage, according to the custom of the day, to Paolo Mancini, a good man of strong and impetuous character. Rita accepted her parents’ decision, resolved to see this as God’s will for her.

MARRIED LIFE

The young couple was joined in marriage and soon twin boys were born to them. Rita found herself occupied with the typical concerns of a wife, mother, and homemaker of Roccaporena, while Paolo was employed as a watchman for the town. In Cascia, as elsewhere, a great rivalry existed between two popular political factions, the Guelphs, and the Ghibellines. As a minor official of the town, Paolo often found himself drawn into the conflict, and the strain that this caused probably accounts for the tension, which he sometimes brought into the Mancini household. By her prayer, patience, and affection, however, Rita was able to ease the stress and worry her husband experienced, but she was not able to shield him altogether from the dangers to which society exposed him.

DEATH OF HUSBAND AND SONS

One day as Paolo was returning home from work he was ambushed and killed. The pain which this unexpected and violent death inflicted upon Rita was only compounded by the fear she felt that her two teenage sons, moved by the unwritten law of the “vendetta,” would seek to avenge their father’s death. Rita’s only recourse was to prayer and persuasion. As it happened, the death of both boys from natural causes a short time later removed them from physical and spiritual danger. Despite her great burden she could still thank God that they had died in peace, free of the poison of murder to which hatred and revenge might have otherwise drawn them.

PEACEMAKER

Now alone in the world and without family responsibilities, Rita once more turned her thoughts to the desired vocation of her youth, that of joining the Augustinian Nuns of Saint Mary Magdalene Monastery. Some of the religious of the community, however, were relatives of the members of the political faction considered responsible for Paolo’s death, and so as not to tempt the harmony of the convent, Rita’s request for admission was denied. Fortunately, she was not to be easily dissuaded from following what she knew to be God’s plan for her. She implored her three patron saints — John the Baptist, Augustine, and Nicholas of Tolentino to assist her, and she set about the task of establishing peace between the hostile parties of Cascia with such success that her entry into the monastery was assured.

THE GIFT OF THE THORN

At the age of thirty-six Rita pledged to follow the ancient Rule of Saint Augustine. For the next forty years she gave herself wholeheartedly to prayer and works of charity, striving especially to preserve peace and harmony among the citizens of Cascia. With a pure love she wanted more and more to be intimately joined to the redemptive suffering of Jesus, and this desire of hers was satisfied in an extraordinary way. One day when she was about sixty years of age, she was meditating before an image of Christ crucified, as she was long accustomed to doing. Suddenly a small wound appeared on her forehead, as though a thorn from the crown that encircled Christ’s head had loosed itself and penetrated her own flesh. For the next fifteen years she bore this external sign of stigmatization and union with the Lord. In spite of the pain she constantly experienced, she offered herself courageously for the physical and spiritual well being of others. During the last four years of her life Rita was confined to bed and was able to eat so little that she was practically sustained on the Eucharist alone. She was, nevertheless, an inspiration to her sisters in religion and to all who came to visit her, by her patience and joyful disposition despite her great suffering.

THE ROSE

One of those who visited her some few months before her death — a relative from her hometown of Roccaporena — was privileged to witness firsthand the extraordinary things wrought by Rita’s requests. When asked whether she had any special desires, Rita asked only that a rose from the garden of her parents’ home be brought to her. It was a small favor to ask, but quite an impossible one to grant in the month of January! Nevertheless, on returning home the woman discovered, to her amazement, a single brightly-colored blossom on the bush where the nun said it would be. Picking it, she returned immediately to the monastery and presented it to Rita who gave thanks to God for this sign of love. Thus, the saint of the thorn became the saint of the rose, and she whose impossible requests were granted her became the advocate of all those whose own requests seem impossible as well. As she breathed her last, Rita’s final words to the sisters who gathered around her were, “Remain in the holy love of Jesus. Remain in obedience to the holy Roman Church. Remain in peace and fraternal charity.”

DEATH

Having faithfully and lovingly responded to God’s many invitations to her in the course of her seventy-six years, Rita returned to God in peace on May 22, 1457. Her body, which has remained incorrupt over the centuries, is venerated today in the shrine of Cascia, which bears her name. Her feast is observed on the anniversary of her death, 22 May.

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alwaysabeautifullife · 4 years

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I don't understand why people act shocked that marriage theologically/legally/whatever includes sex and/or being open to life. No sex is one of few reasons a Jewish woman can initiate a divorce. Not consummating is grounds for annulment. It's a basic and holy part of a marriage and from a religious perspective not one you should enter into without a willingness to participate in it. (OBVI nobody should be forced, that's a different matter). You could have chosen to stay single, and I applaud your dedic to your vocation

Yeah it’s frustrating because Catholic Culture doesn’t really seem to have an understanding on the basics of the most common vocation and it can be really frustrating for lots of people later on down the road unfortunately in the middle of the marriage. There is what I will call strange legalities regarding the Sacrament just as all sacraments, but when you understand them theologically...even when they are difficult to practice you can see the beauty in them. I absolutely wish I could be one of those Catholic couples that doesn’t have to be careful and can have as many kids as I wanted. I really enjoy being a parent. I don’t believe a person should have a disrespect for their own lives and not be careful either, by having no self control and intentionally risking their life with situations similar to my own. Unfortunately I know many people who do this and are applauded, I do not see this as a holy form of living in the sacrament.

I would say I have found a common pattern in which a persons desires seem to be torn a lot during their vocations. Maybe that’s because it’s a human thing to desperately want what we cannot have.

I know from an outside perspective this is REALLY weird but it’s unfortunate it’s strange with Catholic peeps too. I feel like marriage prep should be as intense and as honest as prep for other vocations so people don’t find it shocking later.

I like to say the Sacrament of Marriage is not just some “dumb love story”, and also is just some “dumb love story” at the same time. Some how both are true.

#catholic #vocation of marriage #marriage vocation #sacrament of marriage

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woman-loving · 4 years

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Virginity Among Early Catholic Korean Women

Selection from "Kollumba Kang Wansuk, an Early Catholic Activist and Martyr," by Gari Ledyard, in Christianity in Korea, ed. Robert E Buswell Jr. and Timothy S. Lee, 2006

An important element of Catholic religiosity for Korean women at that time [in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries] was the maintenance of virginity. Although Kang made a special point of promoting this practice, she was by no means the only source of the idea; one of the most remarkable virgins of the early Korean Catholic Church, Nugalda (Luthgarde) Yi Yuhǔi, though born in Seoul, lived in Chŏnju, quite out of Kang's orbit.[38] Kang's faithful young friend Agada Yun conceived her desire to live as a virgin in her home district of Yanggǔn after her Catholic identity had already been forged by her parents, who however did not encourage such a vocation and were in fact quite opposed to it.[39] Thus one can conclude that the model of a virgin life for women was generally respected in the Catholic community even if some, such as Yun's parents, had residual Confucian reservations. What is truly worth note, however, is the number and variety of cases in which women responded positively to this model. In the normal expectation of the traditional Korean society of the time, a young woman of marriageable age would get married, and the family took seriously the obligation to find for her (and for the family) the best possible match. The society did not really have a concept of a respectable, single young woman. Because of hair and dress distinctions between unmarried and married women, a single female in her late teens or early twenties would be immediately spotted; people might assume she had an incurable disease or was limited mentally and was thus unmarriageable. So for women like Agada Yun Chŏmhye and Parǔbara (Barbara) Chŏng Sunmae of Yŏju, the only option was to pretend they had been married and lost their husbands at an early age. They both undid their braids, put their hair in a bun pierced with the pin traditionally worn by married women, and lived in the relative anonymity of Seoul, where they became close associates of Kang Wansuk.[40] Nugalda Yi Yuhǔi adopted a different strategy. Her family arranged for her a virgin marriage, in which her husband, Yu Chungsŏng of Chŏnju, also vowed to live a celibate life. Nugalda, in her letters to her mother, sisters, and brother in Seoul, has vivid descriptions of the emotional difficulty of maintaining such a state. The following comes from a letter to her mother:

"When I arrived at my husband's house, I easily obtained the thing that was the object of all my anxiety and the worry of all my days. I found myself with him at the ninth hour; at the tenth, both of us took a vow to keep our virginity, and for four years we have lived as brother and sister. During that time there were some temptations --ten times or so--when we were not far from losing everything. But thanks to the Precious Blood, which we both invoked, we avoided the devil's ambush. I tell you this fearing that you may have been anxious on my account."[41]

Kang herself exemplified another aspect of the chaste state. She fell into the different category of widows. For them, Korean Confucian mores favored chastity and in particular circumstances rewarded it highly. Although she was not technically a widow during the time of our coverage, but a divorced woman in her thirties and early forties, she could, like widows, dress and function as an ordinary, once-married woman of her age without public notice or comment. But she still valued her chaste state and cultivated personal purity as a religious commitment. She made particular efforts to encourage the practice among young unmarried women, starting in her own home with her daughter, (Hong) Sunhǔi. She found a natural constituency for virginity among palace maids, who were recruited into palace service (or, if their families disapproved, arbitrarily drafted) soon after puberty, and they were required to remain unmarried and chaste during their time of service, which in itself was not up to them to decide. Such women became an important part of her network. Likewise, one sees among her closer associates a fair number of widows. Both of these groups could find in their socially accepted state a religious purpose in the conditions of their existence. No doubt for many it was a source of personal religious gratification.

In asking ourselves why virginity was sought and cultivated by respectable numbers of women, we might find an answer that also applies to the bigger question of the attraction of the church itself. While marriage was more a matter of fate than of choice for the average Korean woman, maintaining virginity or postmarital chastity was, at bottom, a woman's own personal decision to make. It was a way of asserting agency, defining independence. As virgins or chaste widows in Kang Wansuk's and other church networks, they had not only a religious vocation but a life and solidarity in an enterprise that was bigger than all of them. And if, in being faced with the conventional gender attitudes of the society, they had the courage to make that decision, they also usually had the strength to resist the pressures that inevitably followed. As a practical matter, such opportunities were available to few Korean women, but for that reason, perhaps, were all the more prized by those who seized them.

#general history #asian history #korea #virginity #celibacy #religious celibacy #christianity #catholicism #kang wansuk

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morepopcornplease · 5 years

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Can you please talk about the Catholic understanding of the "single" vocation? I'm ace and not drawn to religious life so I thought that's where I was heading, but lately I've been hearing it's not a "real" vocation, just a "transition" state

Not only would I argue that the single vocation exists, I’d argue it’s sorely needed today.

Actually you know what? I would argue there’s more evidence of the single lay vocation than a marital vocation within Church tradition, especially in the early Church days.

What do I mean by that?

*cracks knuckles* PREPARE YOURSELF.

(also sorry this wasn’t responded to earlier. people who ask me side b or faith questions should know that it takes me literal weeks to respond)

So, back in the founding days of the Church, there was ONE vocation: Priesthood. Not religious orders. Certainly not matrimony. Just: priesthood. See, the word vocation stems from the Latin “vocare” / “to call,” specifically referring to how Jesus “called” the apostles. Either men answered God’s call to the priesthood, or they did not.

Now, for marriage— in his first letter to the Corinthians, St Paul writes this:

“If you marry, however, you do not sin, nor does an unmarried woman sin if she marries; but such people will experience affliction in their earthly life, and I would like to spare you that. I tell you, brothers, the time is running out. From now on, let those having wives act as not having them…”

St Paul basically says here: “I mean, I ~guess~ getting married isn’t sinning, so it’s fine. It’s fine! It’s Fine.”

And really, Paul, what kind of half-assed encouragement to your married folk is this?!

He basically says things like: “listen up you horny kiddos, if you’re too damn horny, then go ahead! Get married! (See if I care!!) But if you’re like me *cough cough* then you WON’T!!”

Incidentally, I will absolutely be using this as the basis for my Best Woman speech at my sister’s wedding…

I think Paul goes overboard here, but in a sense he had to. In a time where followers of Christ were convincing fellow Jews that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah, they had an important differentiation (and I don’t mean just circumcision).

Rather, the early Christians was pushing to make disciples of all nations, not through birth (again, the Messiah had already come! The sign given to Ahaz [Isaiah 7:10-16] has already been fulfilled!!) but through baptism of the spirit. We are to become a new kind of community, according to Jesus.

Going back to the Gospels: “Jesus replied, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’” (Matt 12:48-50, Luke 8:21)

Again, we get a sense that Jesus is establishing a new type of community to be His Church, a new definition of family. The kind of bond formed not by the water of the womb, but the blood of the new covenant. I mean, there’s a reason almost all of the epistles of the New Testament begin and end with addressing the faithful as “Brothers and Sisters,” a practice the Catholic priests keep today in their homilies.

Ok, so there’s a new kind of family. That doesn’t establish a “single vocation” any more than it disassembles a “married vocation.”

Well, let’s pull up the Early Patricians, shall we?

Here’s St Jerome on the subject in 393 AD in his treatise Against Jovinianus: “but while we honor marriage we prefer virginity which is the offspring of marriage. Will silver cease to be silver, if gold is more precious than silver?”

And St Jerome again, when facing controversy: “Someone may say: ‘And do you dare disparage marriage, which is blessed by the Lord?’ It is not disparaging marriage when virginity is preferred to it. No one compares evil with good. Let married women glory too, since they come second to virgins.”

St Augustine, also countering Jovinianus: "Marriage and fornication are not two evils, whereof the second is worse: but marriage and continence are two goods, whereof the second is better.”

In fact, marriage was not considered a sacrament until 1184, at the Council of Verona. That’s less than half a Church History ago!!

Notice, too, how these saints are not saying “religious life.” They are not saying “priesthood.” There is no mention of deaconship or stewardship that would imply religious orders and the vows accompanying them. And St Augustine’s use of the word “continence” dissolves the idea that this is just a fetishization of women’s virginity, inapplicable to men.

They are talking about those who choose continence. And while that includes religious orders, it was not limited to priests, deacons, etc. In fact, the obligation of clerical celibacy wasn’t made canon until The Second Lateral Council in 1139; where marriages with religious men had previously been regarded as “illicit but still valid,” now marriages with religious men was now, canonically, completely invalid.

Logically then, they must be talking about the vocation to single, celibate life.

In the Catholic Church, we have untold numbers of early Church saints who are noted as “virgin martyrs.” Think about that. What is that actually saying? That just by virtue of not getting married, out of devotion to Christ, you deserve to be recognized as a saint? No sacrament of holy orders required?

Actually, yes. Saying NO to a husband for Christ is enough for sanctification.

And I don’t think we realize how outstanding that is when we talk about the Single Vocation.

To wrap this up, I would like to posit my own theory about how virginity and marriage actually complement one another (and to some extent, religious orders as well)

In those days (and tbh throughout history) marriage was a financial decision. Money exchanged hands. The bride was “bought.”

And only 300 years before Jesus arrived, Aristotle argued that the best kind of love was between friends. Since marriage was a love of “utility” and “pleasure,” it could not possibly reach the love of friends; it was better to be unmarried.

(it’s also good to remember that Aristotle lived in the hellenistic culture, featuring plenty of pedophilia and ephebophilia. Aka, rape. So it’s good to remember that when he says “remain unmarried” he doesn’t really mean “stay celibate.” Several yikes.)

This is the Gentile worldview Jesus enters. And He establishes marriage as a good—and how could marriage be anything else, when He refers to Himself as a Bridegroom, and His bride the Church? “You are not your own; you were bought with a price.” 1Cor 6:19-20.

But then He says this: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Jesus didn’t elevate the good of friendship up to the status of marriage.

He elevated the relationship between husband and wife to the status of friendship.

Nowadays, while there is no money exchanging hands during a ceremony (well, except for the reception and honeymoon), I’d argue a new type of currency is being exchanged, within the Christian churches themselves.

It is the currency of sanctified sex. Pleasure with the stamp of God’s Approval. The ability to have sex without feeling guilty about it, or have your priest make you feel guilty about it, or having your conscience beat yourself silly about it.

Once again, spouses fall prey to treating each other as objects to satisfy their sexual desires, as well as every other desire.

And single vocations are the answer to that.

Marriage cannot be a good if it is reduced to “sanctified sex.” It is degrading to the sacrament and to the people within that union.

Religious Orders cannot be good if celibacy is treated as the ultimate punishment—that attitude leads to pitiful sexual entitlement by the members of those same religious orders.

It’s only if you have a true, Church-defended, celebrated, joyful, viable Vocation of Singleness that the fruit of the other two’s vocations—their real fruit of the gift of the sacraments and of new life—come into view, crystal clear and glorious.

And that is why the Single Vocation is not only a real vocation—it’s sorely needed today.

#Catholic #Side B #vocations #Christian #Church history #gay as the rainbow over noahs ark #Anonymous #hi nonnie!

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lisinfleur · 5 years

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Foreign Treasure

Author’s Notes | This one wasn’t supposed to have SMUT, but gods… Some works just gain their own lives hahaha Universe | Vikings Pairing | Hvitserk x Reader Info | Viking Age AU, Christian Nun! Reader, requested by multiple anons for 5CW5 Words | 4656 ⁑ Warnings: NSFW. SMUT included. Explicit content. Dub!Con and mentions of religious conflict. Caution is recommended: The following content might be triggering!

You never wanted to be a nun. This fate swallowed you at the moment you were betrayed by the first man you loved in your life. You gave yourself to him under his promises of eternal love, he took your chastity and left to never come back, leaving you alone with your purity corrupted, your heart broken and your family shamed by your actions. Your father wanted to abandon you to your own luck, but your mother begged him to take you to the convent and there you were forgotten by your kindred, to serve and ask God for forgiveness until the end of your days.

You never really felt like doing this. Your heart never really felt that vocation, the call for serving God's will. But also, you felt like God - wherever he was and if he was - somehow was having mercy, giving you a life that wasn't that hard, but keeping you for something...

Something you couldn't figure out until those barbarians reached your confinement place.

First, the news came, saying the Norsemen had taken York. Then, those men came in a chariot, pulled by an imposing white horse. Many others were with them, but those two seemed to lead the party.

The one dressed in black sat at the chariot's bench while the other, honey-haired and devilish expression, jumped out the chariot to come near the doors of your walls. The other nuns were all afraid, but you were curious. Maybe it was why you sneaked to the window, ended up being seen by that man's greedy greens.

He yelled something to those men and soon they started hitting the gates until bending them open, invading the place and only then, causing your heart to sink in your chest: those men were spreading out. But that honey-haired was looking straight at you.

You knew he was coming for you when he crossed the doors of the convent. He was a leader. Maybe...

You went to the door and the Superior Mother held your hand, trying to prevent you from going.

"Those are the demons of hell, my child! They'll tear you apart!"

"My father once fought beside Ragnar's men. I knew at least enough to communicate. I can try to speak to them!"

She tried to restrain you, but even then, you went out, locked the door and kept the key with you, waiting for them at the entrance of the hall.

As you were waiting, that honey-haired man came first, leading the pack of thirsty wolves that invaded the building, picking the crosses and golden stuff to take with them. He was taller and bigger than you could measure from the window, causing him to look scarier, but yet, you felt in your heart maybe that was the reason you were in that place after all.

All those women were virgins. Pure women dedicated to their God. You weren't like them. You weren't chaste or pure... But you could try to save them at least.

As he came closer, you bent yourself, mumbling in his language, surprising him for knowing how to speak in a way he could understand.

"Mercy... I beg you to hear me," you asked, and then, he lifted his arm, stopping the men behind him.

"Who are you and how do you speak my language, woman?" he asked, curious.

"I'm Y/N, daughter of lord Y/F/N, who once fought beside Ragnar Lothbrok and his men for the kingdom of Mercia," you said, looking at him, "Under King Ecbert and in the name of the deceased queen Kwenthrith."

All names that seemed to enlarge his green eyes, taking that man completely out of his guard and battle position. His entire body language changing into surprise and serenity.

"I'm Hvitserk, son of Ragnar Lothbrok," he said, causing shivers to go down your spine.

A prince. A Nordic one. You lowered your head once again.

"I came to these lands to avenge my father's death and conquer the lands that were promised to him by the broken words of King Ecbert. What is the daughter of a lord doing in a place like this? What is this place?" he asked, looking around.

"This is a convent. In this place, women are kept to serve our Lord and Sire Jesus Christ, your highness. There is not a single woman in this place that doesn't live to serve our God. That's why I beg you, take everything you want, everything is yours, but please, spare those women. We're few and harmless. I know your people take ours as slaves, but I beg you, in the name of all you think it's sacred for you, release those innocents from this burden. I beg your mercy, Prince Hvitserk."

He twitched his lips, unsatisfied. He saw those women with you, he saw they were women under those strange clothes and he knew they were usually virgins dressing those habits.

It wasn't a small thing what you were asking, but yet, it wasn't that big.

"How many of you are into this place?" he asked.

"We're twenty at the moment, my lord. Seven of us, underaged. Novices brought recently by their families," you answered, keeping your head low. "Eight old women that served their entire life and came to rest their last days in prayer. Five workers like me."

Hvitserk's lips twitched more, clearly annoyed.

"Don't lie to me, woman. If what you say is true, then how do you keep this place working with only five women to care for all the chores?"

You lightly raised your head.

"Each one of us five care for the biggest tasks. The others work in doubles, the newcomers learning what the elders have to teach."

It looked like a perfectly possible scenario for him. Hvitserk sighed, frustrated. Only five other women but you wouldn't be enough for his men. They would end up killing the elders and hurting the underaged slaves and it would end up not pleasing the gods or any of them, for the women of those places didn't have any experience and ended up dying in their hands.

But he didn't come for leaving with empty hands waving... Those places were full of gold indeed. It would be enough for the men, but he was hungry for more. The last days in that church with Ivar leading the way weren't being his best and he was tired, annoyed, bothered and bored. A new bed slave who knew his language could be interesting for some days of entertainment.

"We'll camp for the night and leave in the morning. Tell them to stay in their room. You... You come with us." he stated, causing you to swallow dry. "You know my language and you pleased my eyes. You come. The others can stay."

It seemed a good deal. Your life, for theirs.

"I accept your terms. I hold the key for their room. Allow me to speak to them, to bring them water and food for the night, and then, tomorrow morning, to leave the key for them to leave. And I'll go with you without resistance."

"Fine," he agreed, dismissing his men to pick up the gold and staying by your side while you were unlocking the door to speak to the women inside.

When the wood opened, Hvitserk sneaked his eyes into the room, seeing you were speaking the truth: The elders were shrunk in the corner of the room, embracing some crying little girls. Alongside them, some women of your age, too few for pleasing his men, were trying to help the children to stop crying, dividing an amphora of water among them all. One of the older women came, dressed in a different cloak, a darker one, with one of those funny hats over her head. Her eyes were looking at him like seeing a demon and she looked at you with her hands shaking trying to find yours.

"My child..." the old woman mumbled and you lightly smiled at her, holding both of the woman's hands.

"I made an agreement and they won't touch the women of this place. Their leader is the son of Ragnar Lothbrok and he'll respect the honor of his father's name. His men will camp here for the night and I'll feed and provide them with wine and water. Tomorrow, when the morning comes, they'll leave and I'll bring the key for freeing you. Keep the others calm and don't leave this room. Pray tonight to thank God for our lives, for His mercy found place even in the heart of the Norsemen."

"Oh, blessed be your words, my child. But what about you? Will you be safe?" she asked and you smiled softly.

"I'm not important, Mother. You know, I'm not one of you. I never was. I'm touched by the sin and God allowed me to serve him by protecting his sheep. Don't worry about me: I speak their language and my father fought beside his father." you looked at Hvitserk, indicating him. "I won't be mistreated. I'll cook for them and bring some food for you tonight. Stay calm and stay safe, Mother."

She looked at you and nodded with her shaking head.

"I'll pray for your soul, child," she said, looking at him. "And for yours as well, boy..."

With this said, she came inside and you locked the door, placing the key into your pocket.

"What did she tell me? She was speaking to me. What did she say?" Hvitserk asked and you softly smiled at him.

"She said she'll pray for us," you explained. "Come. I'll show you where the treasures of this place lie and if you allow me, I'll prepare food for all your men and tell you how to reach the supplies. It's gonna be a cold night and we have furs. I just beg you to leave enough for the women that will stay so they can avoid dying by the winter."

You were sweet and kind. And you weren't afraid of him. Hvitserk wasn't used to the kindness coming from women like you. None of them stopped screaming when seeing one of his men, but you seemed to be secure and calm, despite your shaking hands while showing him the places behind the altar and under the wooden stage to find the treasures of gold your people offered to your God.

You knew God wouldn't be mad at you for giving his wine and food, his gold and silver to those men. You saved the souls of those women for him and it was more valuable than any other thing, you knew that.

Hvitserk observed you while you were moving, separating the food, preparing everything to feed his brother and the whole army they brought. Your words becoming more and more trustful when he observed you were really able to fast prepare a large meal due to your ability to keep more than one pan on the fire at the same time, cooking the broth while treating some meat and baking loaves, all looking like you were dancing at the kitchen with your strange grey dress. He took himself thinking you would be gorgeous in some colored fabric doing the same, walking around while moving the colors around...

You cooked everything and, in a few hours, there was a lot of fresh food. And a small cart prepared to carry some supplies for the nuns at the room. Hvitserk escorted you there with the cart and then you dedicated to serving the portions to his men in the bowls you and the nuns used to serve the homeless and poor in the days near the Christmas. One by one you served them with broth, bread, and meat enough for a meal. And the table for the princes was served with a bigger portion for them to serve themselves if they wanted more.

"Will you take her?" the other, blue-eyed, asked to Hvitserk while you were serving their portions. "You're looking at her all the time, Hvitserk."

"Yes. I will, Ivar. Is there any problem that I want to take a personal slave for me?"

Something seemed to be wrong in between them. You kept yourself silent, but Ivar chuckled, lifting his hand.

"Nothing, brother. Keep her. It's just a slave, anyway. As long as she can take the elephant trunk from your face, I'll be satisfied," Ivar said, and Hvitserk rolled his eyes.

With the end of the meals, you started slowly picking up every single empty bowl with that chart. And, alone, you took them to the kitchen to where Hvitserk followed you.

"What are you doing, woman?" he asked.

His men were sharing and distributing the furs to sleep at the hall of the church, after spreading the benches.

You had indicated Hvitserk a pair of rooms where he and his brother could sleep more comfortably, especially because of his brother's legs.

"I'm washing the bowls and cleaning the kitchen," you explained.

Hvitserk observed, curiously touching some of your stuff, taking pieces of some food at the table, tasting cookies and pieces of bread as if he didn't have just ate.

"You do this all the time? Cooking?" he asked.

"And sewing. And cleaning. And caring for the land, the furniture, sometimes sculpting, sometimes painting. Anything that's necessary, my prince," you answered, keeping your hands occupied.

"Do you know how to braid hair?" he asked, looking at you.

"Yes, my prince, from my life among my sisters," you answered.

"Then finish it and come with me. This place seems warm enough and I had been feeling dirty for a while. I'll bath and you'll help me. Then you can remake my braids."

You almost broke a bowl, blushing hard with the idea of seeing a man naked once again. Yet, you obeyed.

"Y... Yes, my prince."

You didn't want him to come back in his word of protecting the others, so, you would sacrifice for them.

You took a while to finish the bowls, but to make things faster, you had already lighted the fire and put some water to boil. So, when you finished the washing task, the water for his bath was ready.

You placed the two pans of boiling water at the cart and guided him to the room where the only bathing tub of the convent was placed. Then, you put the hot water into it and filled it with more water in ambient temperature, checking it with your own hand to be sure he wouldn't burn himself.

When you turned yourself to warn him the bath was ready, your eyes went wide and you let fall the bowl you had in your hands, breaking the ceramic on the ground: Hvitserk was fully naked, finishing to take off his trousers.

"What happened, woman? What the fuck?" he cursed and you immediately lowered yourself to pick up the pieces of the bowl, trying to avoid looking at his nakedness and take the memory of his body out of your mind.

"I'm sorry, prince Hvitserk. I'll clean this up in a second. I'm so sorry..." you started apologizing, but instead of going mad, he laughed.

"You Christians are all the same... It looks like you never saw a dick before," he joked, walking towards the bathtub.

And your mouth spoke too much, getting you even more embarrassed.

"Not one of this size..."

His expression changed to surprise - a nun who already saw a cock? It was something new for him.

"Bigger, or smaller?" he asked, casually, while entering into the water, sighing in pleasure for the perfect temperature, allowing you to look at him once again once he was immersed.

"I... I'll replace the bowl and pick up some clean clothes for your bath..." you tried.

But he insisted, looking at you.

"I made you a question. Answer me," he ordered, and you lowered your head, losing the hope of escaping that conversation.

"Smaller. And thinner. We were a young couple and he wasn't that older than me. Can I go now?" you said, ashamed.

However, Hvitserk was curious now. So, not all of those nuns were inexperienced virgins after all? He sat at the tub, looking at you.

"So, you already had a man? I thought nuns were all virgins..." he asked, curiously.

"They are. I'm an exception. Please, can I go? The water will go cold..."

He noticed you were embarrassed and allowed you to go get rid of the broken bowl and bring towels for him to get cleaned and to dry himself after the bath. But when you came back, filling the bathtub with more hot water to warm his bath, the first problem came.

"You can start in my back," was his answer when you showed him the bath towel.

You would wash him, of course... You were the slave, right? You went burning red when he sat closer to the center, leaving his fully naked tattooed back exposed for you to rub. Yet, you wetted the towel at a bucket with warm herbal water you brought and started slowly rubbing his skin, cleaning it from the mud and blood that were all over his body.

Unashamed, Hvitserk kept the conversation as if you weren't blushing hard behind him.

"So, you had a man before. Did he die or anything like that?"

You sighed, noticing it wouldn't be possible to get rid of that conversation while rubbing his skin.

"He left after he had what he wanted. Then my family put me here to serve God for forgiveness to my sins," you tried to give him a generic answer, which seemed to be accepted easily.

But not enough to satiate his curiosity.

"Still doesn't make any sense to me. You had sex and the jerk was gone. What the fuck is wrong with this?"

"It is a sin. Against the rules of God," you explained and Hvitserk chuckled, looking at you from upon his shoulder.

"Your God is complicated. It seems everything that's pleasurable is a sin for him. I don't like your God. His rules are boring. You can come into the tub, love." he said, noticing how you were stretching yourself to touch his chest from outside the water.

Your face burst red once again.

"You're gorgeous when you're red like that. Don't worry, you'll get used to these sins very fast by my side. Now come."

Without a choice and not wanting to be naked in front of him, you made a knot on your skirt as high as you could and tried to come into the bathtub not touching his body. The problem was that he was decided to have you red and instead of being quiet, he moved his legs, causing you to fall into the water and holding your waist so you would fall over his lap.

"Oh, dear Lord!" you squeaked.

Your habit fully wet.

How many chances you had of going out of hell after sitting on a Norseman's lap using your nun's habit?

Probably none! But Hvitserk wasn't really aware of this, giggling of your burning red cheeks.

"See? You didn't die. Take off these clothes. You're not a nun anymore. You're my slave. And if I like you, then you can become something more. Now take off these things and come to wash me properly, woman!"

Hvitserk was different from your last man. He wasn't even trying to disguise his intentions, but also, he wasn't making false promises. It was a good thing, right?

You went to the side of the tub, taking off your hat and veil, revealing the long hair tied in a bun behind your neck.

"Loosen it," he said, looking at you, "You have a beautiful hair."

You pulled the strand that was tying it up and your hair cascaded through your back finishing under the line of your butt. Hvitserk smiled.

"You gonna get luscious braids with all this hair. Gorgeous... Now take off this grey thing. You're too beautiful for this lack of colors."

If he ever had seen you in one of your former dresses... Your mind tricked you with that thought, remembering the beautiful dresses you abandoned long ago. What would your mom think of knowing you ended up this way? Your father would surely say your sins weren't forgiven. Bullshit...

You served well. But a servant cannot serve two sires and now, you had a new master.

Undressing your habit brought you memories of that night. Memories of the fabric of your dress sliding down your shoulders and your ex companion's voice in those same words that came out of Hvitserk's mouth when you finished undressing in front of him.

"You're so pretty..."

"Please, don't say that," you asked.

"I'm just telling the truth," Hvitserk hit back, but you lowered your head, covering your breasts with locks of your hair, trying to keep your shames covered by your hands.

"He told me the same. And he used me for his pleasure. I was supposed to be married, to have children at this point. But he ruined me. And you're about to do the same," you mumbled, feeling tears in your eyes.

Hvitserk pulled you closer by one of your hands and you kneeled beside his legs, your head low.

"I won't ruin anything. There is no such thing from where I come. You said you'll come with me. So, forget anything you learned from your world to your God. I'll show you everything new. And you'll see, sweet one, why pleasure cannot be a wrong thing."

He lifted your chin with his fingers and leaned his face, capturing your lips into a kiss he slowly deepened, exploring your mouth, getting your defenses down while causing shivers to go down your spine.

Your last companion didn't know how to kiss that way. He barely touched your lips. But Hvitserk was exploring your whole mouth, his tongue dancing with yours, arousing your body even when you didn't remember that sensation anymore.

Slowly, his hands guided your body to straddle his lap and then you softly pulled away from his kiss, afraid.

"Hvitserk..."

"Relax, love. You're mine... So, my rules. You're doing nothing I think is wrong. Just feel it."

You closed your eyes just to open then surprised when his fingers started rubbing your folds, causing a sensation of pleasure you never felt before.

You bit your lip. It would be too sinful to call for God at that moment. Yet, your mouth sighed and your voice came out low in a muffled moan Hvitserk smiled fo having from you.

"Just like that, love. Relax. I'll show you more..."

His fingers rubbed you for a while, and in this time, he explored your neck with kisses, shivering your untouched skin. His touches and kisses provoking something you have never felt before, building up warm and strong in your lower belly, before exploding in a wave of pleasure that caused you to squeal, cumming at the exact moment Hvitserk wrapped one of your hardened nipples with his warm lips.

Your ability to think was overwhelmed by his caresses, and he didn't stop with his devilish lips, sucking and kissing every part of your body they could reach, distracting you while his hands were conducting your hips to your doom.

When you less expected, Hvitserk's cock invaded your walls, stretching you around him, filling you in a way you never felt before. You squealed again, but this time, Hvitserk only held your waist, pulling you down onto his cock until your whole channel was filled with his length, hissing against your lips he softly kissed slowly in between the words.

"Shh... Shh... Whatever pain will pass son, love. You're so tight! I can feel you don't have a man in a while. I'll be patient, sweet Y/N. I want you moaning for me tonight."

He kept his thumb caressing and rubbing your clit while his other hand was keeping your waist on its place. His mouth teasing yours, kissing and sometimes biting your lower lip.

Your mind was flooded and disorganized. A part of you thinking about how wrong was what you were doing, having sex into a tub in the middle of a convent with a Norseman prince you just met. Another part of your mind asking yourself if you were made to have him inside you like that, cause somehow, he fit perfectly where you thought that length could never fit.

Hvitserk started moving his hips and again your mind went blank when the pleasure invaded your whole body in waves rhythmed by his movements, growing when he came out of you to spread when he came in, shocking his hips against yours in a wet noise.

"So good... So tight! Gods, I was missing a tight girl like you around me. Fuck, love, move your sweet hips over me..." He asked, guiding your hips with his hands, mesmerizing you with so much pleasure that your body started moving by itself over him, seeking for more, rocking your hips against his, rubbing yourself on his fingers.

"Hvitserk..." his name slid out of your lips like meowed and he smiled, pushing himself deeper.

"Like that, kitten... Such a good girl!"

Some more movements and you started feeling he was thicker, pulsating into your body, against your walls.

"Hvitserk... What's happening? You're throbbing..." you asked.

Your mind blurred, the sensations dominating your consciousness.

"You gonna make me cum, sweet love. You're so good, I can't hold myself... But I'll seed you here... And then... Then I'll take you to my bed. I want you moaning this whole night like this. Shit... I can't handle anymore, love. I'll fucking cum!"

His curses, his way to talk about that so naturally... He was fucking you, into a bathtub, cumming into your pussy and coating your insides with seed when you were supposed to keep yourself pure, clean. And the proof you didn't belong to that place was in your moans, freely given to him when the pleasure overcame you once again, wetting his cock into your walls as if you were made to warm him like that.

"I'm dirty... I sinned again," you mumbled, kinda lost in your vague and messy thoughts.

But Hvitserk lifted your chin, kissing your lips and sucking your lower lip again, catching your attention.

"You did. And you'll do again. You'll sin with me, love. Again, and again, and again. Until my smell is all over your skin and my seed is dripping out of your pretty cunt. Then it won't be a sin anymore, cause everything about this God of yours will be gone. I'll fuck your brains out tonight, love. And when the dawn comes, you'll remember nothing but the fact that you're mine."

Hvitserk moved again into your wet walls. And even surrounded by water, your body burned in desire.

You were doomed, you could already feel the heat of the hell's flames claiming your body on his fingers, his lips, his cock.

Hvitserk fucked you into oblivion that night, and you moaned disconnected things until his name was everything you could mumble.

When the morning came, he braided your hair and had your habit tore, defaced in a grey dress he covered with his own cloak, almost marking you as his woman, his property.

You passed the key under the door for the other women to pick up when they were awake. And with the first rays of the sun, the Norsemen left the convent, leaving untouched the women you saved behind.

You left with them, mounted on Hvitserk's horse with his body behind yours, his hands guiding the way. And you didn't look back.

You fulfilled the plans of God for you and you felt your mission in that place was complete. The nuns were saved. The Norsemen were gone.

Now was time for you to know what the Norse Gods had for your fate...

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salty-ofthe-earth · 5 years

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I was wondering if I could ask a vocations question. Back in school whenever someone would come to talk to our class about vocations the focus was almost always on marriage and the priesthood, with an occasional mention of religious life. Recently (within the past year) I learned of consecrated single life. This was never discussed with us. I was wondering if you might be able to clarify what a vocation to consecrated single life entails and how it compares/contrasts with religious life. Thanks!

There are, broadly speaking, two forms of vocations “consecrated single life” can take in the public structures of the Catholic Church. The oldest and most Scripturally-referenced is consecrated virginity. This is the total dedication of a young woman to Jesus Christ as His spouse as received by the bishop of a local area. It is a part of the vocation of a consecrated virgin to live a single life, but in service of the local church. In this way, it is analogous to the place in the Church that the diocesan priesthood has, though it does not involve the promise of obedience to the bishop . The vocation to consecrated virginity is primarily liturgical, devoting one’s entire life to Christ in prayer. For more on consecrated virginity, please see this fine blog of a friend of mine, a consecrated virgin and a canon lawyer.

The other public possibility form of a vocation to “consecrated single life” is in secular institutes. Secular institutes are institutes “ of consecrated life in which Christ's faithful, living in the world, strive for the perfection of charity and endeavour to contribute to the sanctification of the world, especially from within.“ -Code of Canon Law c. 710. These are groups with full support of the Church that attempt to change the world from within it, usually having some explicit apostolic purpose. Members of secular institutes can be lay, single, married, or clergy. While not a secular institute, Opus Dei’s mission is to sanctify the world from the world and has celibate members as well as married and clerical members.

While not a public structure, it is possible to take a private vow of celibacy for the purposes of living out a life of holiness dedicated to God in the world. This ought to be done under the careful direction of a spiritual director after discernment.

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pamphletstoinspire · 5 years

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By Their Fruits: Saints. Louis And Zélie Martin

Tomorrow, July 12, marks the feast day of the first married saints of modern times and the only married couple to be canonized together: the parents of St. Thérèse, Louis and Zélie Martin.

One of the most saintly love stories in history began on a bridge.

It was April 1858. Zélie Guérin was walking over the bridge of St. Léonard in Alençon, France when she observed a striking, dignified man also making his way across. An interior voice, which she recognized as coming from the Blessed Virgin, spoke: “This is he whom I have prepared for you.”

The pretty young woman had been noticed by Louis Martin, too, and it didn’t take long for them to be introduced, probably by his mother, who was taking a lace making class with Zélie.

The two had much in common. Both had desired religious life but had been turned away at the door of both monastery and convent. He, for an inability to master Latin, and she, because, as the Superior of the local order of St. Vincent de Paul mysteriously told her, “It was not the will of God.”

They had both set about to learn intricate arts. Louis learned the careful craft of clock making. Zélie’s art was lace making, specifically, Point d’Alençon, a complicated and highly-prized lace the region was known for.

Most importantly, they had a deep devotion to God and to the Catholic faith. They had long since set their hearts on fulfilling perfectly God’s will for them. When He revealed that they were called to marriage, they embraced their vocation and wished for many children “to bring them up for heaven.” Perhaps, they openly hoped, some of them would be given the religious vocations they themselves had not received.

Married on July 13, 1858, the Lord heard their prayers and soon the home was filled with the gentle joy of children. Marie-Louise, Marie-Pauline, Marie-Léonie, and Marie-Hélène followed each other in quick succession. And then, finally, a son arrived, and the family rejoiced, hoping that Marie-Joseph-Louis would grow up to be a missionary priest! But he was called home to heaven just a few months later, ushering in a period of deep grief for Louis and Zélie. Another son was born and died, and then they suddenly lost little Hélène shortly after Marie- Céline was born. “I thought,” wrote Zélie, “I would die myself.”

Another daughter, Marie-Thérèse-Mélanie was born in 1870, and as Zélie was unable to nurse her babies, had to be sent to a wet nurse in town. Tragically, incomprehensibly, the nurse had let the little girl starve, and she died in agony on Zélie’s lap. It was another bitter cross and one which could only be borne with a faith deeper than death. But that was, of course, exactly the kind of faith they had.

It was the next child who would bring this family into the light of the whole Church, little Marie-Françoise-Thérèse, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She was a fresh joy, a “little winter flower” who appeared on January 2, 1873, and she was encircled in a family rich in love. Together they attended Mass daily, prayed, served the poor, and fulfilled their duties with attention to every detail. Zélie continued to work as she raised her daughters; in fact, her business became so successful that Louis sold his own in order to help her manage the lace making.

Her many remaining letters are filled with the joys and sorrows of daily family life, and themselves laced with faith in a God who works all things for good.

But the warm circle would be broken by another suffering. This time the sacrifice the Lord asked for was Zélie herself, who died after an excruciating battle with breast cancer when Thérèse was only four years old.

Broken hearted but determined to do his best for his five daughters, Louis sold the lace-making business and their home and moved to Lisieux to be near Zélie’s brother and his family. It would be a move designed by Providence.

In Lisieux was the Carmelite convent where four of the five girls would find their calling. Louis surrendered them to God, generously but not without a bittersweet grief. First Pauline, then Marie, then Thérèse, his “Little Queen,” when she was only fifteen.

Céline’s entrance would have to wait, for a final sacrifice was asked of Louis – in the form of an illness that slowly stole away his mind. At his final visit with his Carmelite daughters, barely able to speak, Thérèse would emotionally remember his final gesture to them: his hand raised, his finger pointing upward, and a single, wrenching word: “Heaven!”

Céline and Léonie alone remained to help care for him until his death in 1894. Then they both would enter the convent: Céline joined her sisters in Carmel and Léonie became a Visitation nun.

For decades, it was Thérèse, canonized in 1925, who would capture the hearts of the faithful. One of the most loved saints of all time, “The Little Flower” and her way of spiritual childhood spread like wildfire over our spiritual landscape.

But the Church slowly realized that this Flower bloomed on a burning bush, a family itself ablaze with love. Perhaps it was she, this time, pointing us upward to heaven, revealing those who had opened her little-girl heart to Jesus and made Him the King in their home and their lives.

Louis and Zélie Martin were canonized in 2015, the first married saints of modern times and the only married couple to be canonized together. Their 19 years of marriage was rich in suffering but richer still in love, a love which gave birth to a spirituality. Therese’s “way of confidence and love” really was a rediscovery of the deeper meaning of her own beloved childhood.

The Church, by raising them to the altars, urges us to find hope in their story. Now we are encouraged to call on them for help – in finding a spouse, perhaps, or for a happy marriage, or holy children, or strength in the bitterest sufferings. Certainly, the lace maker and the clock maker will help us faithfully fulfill the millions of tiny details in our daily duties – to the last stitch and the final screw.

On July 12, their feast day, we remember that divinely-orchestrated meeting on the bridge. How good is God, who guides our steps that we encounter such saints as we make our own way across this life! May Louis and Zélie pray for all of us, that we safely, faithfully, cross the bridge into heaven and join them there.

From: www.pamphletstoinspire.com

#by their fruits you will know them #saints louis and zelie martin

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karalora · 6 years

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Can I, uh, get some love for...

...Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame?

Honestly if Pocahontas hadn’t been so weird and underwhelming, I’m positive Hunchback would be more beloved in the mainstream than it is. Even people who like it tend, I’ve noticed, to get fixated on the “Hellfire” sequence, which is legitimately awesome, but far from the only awesome thing in this movie.

Awesome things about this movie:

It contains the single longest shot ever animated by Walt Disney Animation--specifically, the finale of “Out There” (with Quasimodo perched on the spire), zooming all the way out and out and out and then panning down to the street below.

The score. Yes, “Hellfire” is an amazing song, but this is almost certainly the best score ever composed by Alan Menken, and maybe the best score composed for any film in the Disney Animated Canon. The use of chorale liturgical chants is especially effective. On which note...

...I cannot think of another animated Disney film that tackles the subject of religion in any depth. There are cases in other Disney movies of characters saying bedtime prayers, church weddings, and Friar Tuck is I think the first named character to have a religious vocation, but Hunchback actually has something to say about faith and Christianity and what it means to have holy or unholy desires. And yet it does it without seeming to preach to the audience at all. As a non-Christian, I find that very admirable.

Esmeralda! This movie deserves more attention for her alone--a smart, passionate and compassionate woman of color who is an artist and a bona fide political activist.

Clopin! I adore how morally ambiguous he is, another real rarity for Disney. He is introduced as our narrator so we are inclined to trust him, and his second appearance is as the master of ceremonies for the Festival of Fools, reinforcing that perception...but then in the “Court of Miracles” sequence, he is suddenly threatening and violent. He would have killed Quasimodo and Phoebus if not for Esmeralda’s timely arrival. Yet throughout, he is believably the same character.

“Hellfire.” I said it was legitimately awesome. It’s an intense, dramatic song, and it showcases Frollo as a kind of villain that we almost never see in family entertainment: one who sincerely thinks he’s the hero. Villain Songs usually have the villain pompously revel in their own malice and/or arrogance, but “Hellfire” shows us a man terrified and vulnerable and wracked with self-loathing. This song could have been the turning point in Frollo’s redemption arc, but he rejects that path, on-screen, as we watch, and that is fascinating.

More love for this movie, please.

#disney #the hunchback of notre dame

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hieromonkcharbel · 4 years

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Feast of St. Rita of Cascia

EARLY LIFE

MARRIED LIFE

DEATH OF HUSBAND AND SONS

PEACEMAKER

THE GIFT OF THE THORN

THE ROSE

DEATH

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seattle-hq · 5 years

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basics.

January 9th, 1982 (37) Gender / pronouns: Male & He/Him Hometown: Fresno, CA Occupation: ER Doctor Face-claim: Jake Gyllenhaal

biography.

tw: illness, sudden death

Church, school, and family — that had been his father’s mantra for as long as Ethan Kaminski could remember. It bellowed throughout the halls of the household as him and his younger brother woke up in the morning all the way up until they were tucked into bed at night. Life had started out relatively normal for the young man, born to parents who seemingly wanting nothing more than to one day raise a beautiful family. His father, Jack, had opened up Kaminski’s Deli in his hometown of Fresno, California after graduating college when he met Anita. Anitahad immigrated from Poland with her parents in the late 1970s and was about to finish her last year in vocational school when she happened to walk into the small business with a couple of friends. It was true love at first sight, and about three years later the two were married and had their first child: Ethan.

Life was nice for the little family. Jack’s small business was booming which allowed him to take on more staff members and move to bigger locations so, needless to say, finances were never really a problem. They were very religious and went to church every single week regardless of location or circumstance, the male having been enrolled in Sunday school since he was old enough to walk. Only a few short years later, Anita became pregnant with another boy whom they named James. It was bliss in the Kaminski household and it stayed that way for a very long time.

Until Jack died of a heart attack, leaving behind his family and the business that he’d worked so hard to build. It was a crushing loss for the community and for the Kaminski’s themselves, but with Anita leading the way she did her best to put the boys on the straight and narrow path. Ethan can’t even recall the number of times his mother would slap him square in the face for making a snide remark or talking back, his snarky attitude always one to get him in trouble. This especially got worse after the patriarch’s death, but all in all, Ethan loved and respected Anita for the strong, iron-clad woman that she was and did his best to abide by her rules, however difficult that could be.

As the eldest brother, Ethan was expected to take over the deli upon graduating college. The plan was simple: he’d go to university, get a degree in business, then move back to Fresno as the sole owner. However, as the male grew older he soon came to realize that he could have a chance at life outside of his hometown, outside of his family’s expectations. Going into medicine hadn’t even been on Ethan’s radar until his first year at UCLA when he befriended a couple of students in the field. Science and logic had always made sense to him, and the thought of helping people in the way his father had so desperately needed was far too appealing to ignore. So, before that year was up, he switched his major to biology, deciding he wanted to become a doctor. He knew his mother would disapprove, hence why he waited until his second semester was over before telling her, but despite her initial anger Anita ultimately accepted his decision (though not without some incessant guilt-tripping) and Ethan continued med school, with the deli now going to his younger brother.

It was at the beginning of his last year of undergrad that he met Rosalie, a physics major, at one of the football games. The two sat beside one another, conversing the entire time without any regard to the game itself – to this day, Ethan can’t recall which team won – and became an item quickly after. A year later they were married with him starting med school and her starting grad school. Bills became far too difficult to pay, so the young couple moved in with his family until they could get on their feet and worked at the deli all the while, As stressful as it could be at times, and as many days they’d go without seeing each other or spending time together, they made it work.

And then Rosalie fell pregnant, putting a wrench in their plans. Though it was a pleasant surprise, the timing wasn’t exactly ideal. How were they both going to work at their degrees and raise a kid at the same time? After much deliberation, Rosalie decided to drop out of grad school to be with the child, a sacrifice that seemed like a grand idea at the time – and it was, for a while. Med school kept Ethan busy, but he still had time to make for his wife and child. When their son, Matthew, was born, it felt like life couldn’t get any better. Stressful, perhaps, but all in all, it was bliss.

Good things don’t always last. Matti was almost four years old when Ethan started his residency, which meant that his days and nights were spent at the hospital. This caused an incredible amount of tension in their marriage, despite how much Rosalie did support him and his efforts to become a doctor. Not only that, the woman felt incredibly unfulfilled. She loved her husband and her son dearly, but life as she knew it did not come out as planned. Things began to look up after a couple of years when Ethan finally started his own practice in Los Angeles; they were able to buy a nice house in the new city, send Matti to a great school where he could excel, but Rosalie still wasn’t satisfied. The male was still working long hours, putting his work before his family life, and even he became frustrated that he nothing he seemed to do was enough for them. Their unhappy marriage continued, with Ethan sleeping in the guest rooms most nights, until finally he had enough. However, instead of ending things completely, he did the next best (or, worst) thing: he cheated.

He craved intimacy, but he didn’t have the heart to ask for a divorce. He still loved Rosalie, and he didn’t want to put his son through that much pain. It was immature and, hell, it was downright unacceptable, but he felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. Nights out of the house became more frequent, and Ethan found himself spending more and more time away from his family. It wasn’t until Rosalie found out about his affairs that everything came crashing down – or so he thought.

She was upset, understandably, but there was still a great amount of love between them. After talking it out for days and weeks, they decided to start couples counseling, and Rosalie made the decision to go back to grad school to jump start her career once more. With Matti in middle school and Ethan making more than enough to cover expenses, it seemed like the right decision. There was still a lot of things that they needed to move past, and Ethan had more than enough he needed to make up for, but for the first time in almost a decade it felt like their relationship was finally back on track.

Until it wasn’t. Ethan was in the middle of a shift when one of his nurses suddenly pulled him aside, telling him that they’d just received a call from the hospital. Apparently, Rosalie was home, making breakfast for Matti, when she suddenly got a pounding headache. Not wanting to alert their young son and make him believe anything was wrong, she decided to just take a nap and sleep it off. Later, when Matti went to wake her up, he found her completely unresponsive. Ethan’s phone was off, so Matti was unable to get a hold of him and dialed 911 instead. The doctors said it was a brain aneurysm, quick and unexpected, but even now Ethan can’t help but believe he could have done something.

It’s been two years since that day, and a lot has happened in the meantime. Ethan moved him and Matti to Seattle for a fresh start, now working as an ER doctor at the local hospital. He prefers the quick-paced environment that the emergency room provides, not allowing him time to sit with his thoughts for long before a patient comes through, which is ultimately what he prefers. A workaholic through and through, he cares deeply about his son and always puts him first, but his career is so demanding that at times, it’s nearly impossible. Otherwise, when he’s not at home, work, or fucking around with whoever has a pulse, he’s at church. Confession is the only way he’s been able to keep his head on straight, his dedication to God being what keeps him from completely tearing at the seams even though he constantly questions why He felt the need to take Rosalie away from her. Though his faith has been shaken, he simply doesn’t know where else to turn to.

personality.

+ hard-working, intelligent, pious – cynical, condescending, temperamental

#all #m #northeast #ethan kaminski #jake gyllenhaal

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ihaveonlymydreams · 6 years

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"Marriage as a Creative Work"

By Louise Cowan

I am maintaining that this mysterious phenomenon of becoming “one flesh” occurs only in marriage, not in any relation outside marriage. It is not a property of sexual love, then, but of marriage. Marriage is an actual, very real vocation: its task, primarily, is not just the happiness of two people, or the establishment of a family, or even the salvation of two souls; but the construction of an entity, which constitutes a sacred area within society, a territory within which the divine may pitch its tent. (Recall Abraham and Sarah; the Holy Family.)

Now marriages can be characterized in no other way except to say that they have been made by the decision to “cleave to one another” as long as life lasts. Each marriage is a unit, having its own character; there can hardly be any standardized measurement for quality, nor any prescribed roles that either partner must invariably play (Men may do the housework; women may earn the living.) Its single requirement is the shared intention of mutual bestowal of self to the end, through whatever pleasures or ordeals circumstances may bring. Each marriage has its own arcane discipline, its secret wellsprings. Yet each shares in being an alliance recognized by legal, political, social, and religious institutions. Matrimony as legal contract, as social custom, and as sacred ceremony are institutional ways of dealing with a fundamental and private joining that Church and state acknowledge as occurring—in whatever circumstances—when a man and woman pledge themselves to each other, body and soul, with a lasting commitment. Customs and mores change; but the reality represented by marriage, from as far back as human investigation can determine, is unchanging.

In considering this fundamental conjunction into which a man and a woman enter with the aim of permanence, we are speaking not simply of a relationship but of a union. Outside marriage there can be, of course, and are quite profound relationships, according to the disposition of the persons involved: some may be deep and lasting friendships; some, bonds of piety, or romantic passions; others may be based on a connaturality—not necessarily eros or philia—but a special agape—a bestowing love in which the two partners “recognize” each other and discover an intimacy in which they feel they know each other's total being, so that they seem to be two halves of one whole: “soul mates.” (Faulkner depicts this relationship in Gavin Stevens and Linda Snopes, who appear in The Town and the The Mansion.) Theirs may be a truly I-Thou relationship, in which the beloved is known from within. And though, according to the ways of the world, one would expect this relationship to result in a sexual consummation—and though it would seems, ideally, that it should issue in marriage—still it need not necessarily do so. (We oversimplify the human heart in our day. Human beings are capable of all sorts of loving relations.)

Marriage does not require as its basis this sort of affinity, though ideally the union should be founded on a genuine empathy. This truly mutual love of the soul is a gift—and, when it occurs in marriage, a very great blessing to a wedded union. But fundamentally marriage should be founded on something else: on one’s sober estimate of the other person as a life partner, on his or her character, on his ability to grow, his willingness to enter fully into a life adventure. And the marriage is initiated by a decision: a vow, a pledge. For the promise creates the reality, or at least opens the way for its creation. Married love will be given as the result of the pledge.

Love is a gift: marriage is a work. The feeling of belonging to another person comes of its own accord; marriage, in contrast, is a free act like any act of choice. It marks the beginning of a new status. Once established, marriage creates a metaphysical reality shared by two people; the two partners give themselves to each other, fully sanctioning this new conjunction for an entire lifetime. Their bodily union consummates this pledge. In this manner a freely willed act can bring into being an objective status which, once founded, is no longer limited to or dependent upon the will of either person. (It is something like having a child; one cannot undo its existence.) For a marriage to exist at all (in the ontological sense), it must be entered into as something that cannot be revoked—and herein lies the reason for the failure of so many matrimonial ventures launched with such high hopes in our day. In the inevitable disappointments that follow—the disagreements, the hardships and disappointments—the sins, possible infidelities, psychological aberrations—both partners at times, no doubt in most marriages, look for a way out. And for many, the desire to start over, to rid oneself of the painful imperfections of the past, takes on the semblance of a high moral cause—divorce becomes almost an obligatory rite of purification.

For how can one go on with something so marred as most human lives turn out to be? How can we bear having a witness to the mistakes and failures in our lives, the vanity and littleness uncovered—our own and our spouse’s? Only by holding to the belief that matrimony seriously entered into is irrevocable can marriage partners grow beyond the natural repugnance that any two people at times feel for each other—the sense of being trapped by something alien, the wild desire that comes intermittently to be absolutely free to choose one’s own path, completely alone. Only by encountering, sometimes in violence, the permanence—and the sacredness—of the union and its enduring ability to heal and be healed can conjugal partners surmount their sense of injury—to go beyond even the sense of their own virtue. And in doing so they consent to enter by stages into a realm that has little to do with virtues or vices, but more to do with giving and forgiving; a realm governed by a deep and pervasive presence that is not simply love of each other, but a love far superior to that of either partner—a love that instructs.

Now let me make clear that I am not speaking of an ideal state, or of a lyrically happy situation. I mean to be describing what has heretofore been taken as actuality: for in every century before this one and, as far as we can tell in every society, marriage has been considered not simply as a contract between two separate parties, nor a fulfilling romantic relationship in love, but a solemn union, celebrated by a joining, that is always recognized as sacred and connected to the primordial. The new life of marriage is a being in itself; and it need not necessarily be a happy one. For just as not every individual in him or herself is happy or fortunate, so too with matrimony. Many marriages are, one recognizes, quite miserable; most are neutral, neither happy nor unhappy; but if they have been genuinely entered into with the intention of permanence, they all become a source of grace to the participants. Happiness is not the goal of marriage: the work of creation and redemption is.

In the unity of marriage, there are still two separate minds, two hearts, two imaginations, two proclivities; there is no mystical transformation into one substance. It is not, as Catherine declares in Wuthering Heights: “I am Heathcliff!” The union does not produce sameness in its two halves; it is more as the myths would have it: Earth and sky, yin and yang, etc. These make an ontological unity—a whole—that is not composed of similitudes but contrasts. Indeed, if we look back at ancient myths, we shall see that this diversity—the difference in the two sexes—is the precise reason for their existence. For ancient myths speak of one originary sex: split into two for punishment, as some accounts have it; for joy, as the Genesis myth tells it—divided in order that the creature ha-adam, man (both male, ish, and female, ish-shah) could be provided with a companion: in order, as I would put it, that the dynamic of love might be exercised in action, over and over again. “Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,” Adam exclaims joyously on awakening from his creative sleep.

#marriage #love #louise cowan

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rkjoohyvn · 6 years

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NAME bae joohyun NICKNAME baechu REASON FOR NAME her last name, and a play on the word for napa cabbage BIRTHDAY march 29, 1996 AGE 23 GENDER female PLACE OF BIRTH sydney, australia PLACES LIVED SINCE from birth to 12: sydney, australia / present: seoul, south korea PARENTS’ NAMES, BACKGROUNDS, OCCUPATIONS

father: bae hyungki, 56, professor. was the lead singer and guitarist in a band in high school and college; eventually ended when all the members grew older and had families to take care of. owned a music shop in sydney, but had to close it down due to slow business. instead, became a professor in music at university of sydney. when his father had a stroke, he moved his family to seoul, where his father lived with his korean wife, so that he could help take care of the aging man.

mother: jin yuna, 49, flight attendant. a former beauty queen, she and yuuto met at a college party as the only two sober people in the entire frat house. they’d spent the entire night talking until the sun rose. after retiring from the pageant circuit, she became a flight attendant for qantas airlines, eventually transferring to korean air after the family moved to seoul. she is currently estranged to yuuto and his family due to having been cheating for years and having a second family.

NUMBER OF SIBLINGS ( 1 )

abigail bae ( jooeun ), 28, announcer. originally meant to be the “big name musician” of the family, she relinquished that burden after finding she could not sing, and hated the way the guitar calloused her fingers. instead, she became an announcer, and is currently employed by sbs as a morning newscaster. she is engaged to jeon baekho, a hospital director. they both live in hannam-dong, yongsan-gu, seoul.

OTHER IMPORTANT FIGURES

family pet: dubu, 11, pyrenean mountain dog. he was a gift to joohyun from her father on her eleventh birthday. she singlehandedly took on the responsibility of feeding and training him, and has loved him all the while. tofu is getting quite old now, and has become blind in one eye due to cataracts.

grandmother: jin okbin, deceased. a tough but loving woman, she helped raise joohyun and jooeun whenever her mother was away because of work. she helped instill confidence and morals into joohyun, and would support joohyun’s every whim, from vowing to become the prime minister of australia to wanting to reincarnate as a rock. jin okbin passed away in february of 2004 without ever discovering her daughter’s infidelities.

RELATIONSHIP WITH FAMILY joohyun was very close with her family until she discovered that her mother had been cheating on her father for years and that she has a whole other family they never knew about; she is currently unsure of how she feels about her mother---she misses her, but doesn’t want to admit it. she moved back into her father’s home, partly because she could no longer afford rent on her own, but also to help take care of her father, who had fallen into quite the slump. although the experience had been a tragic one, she, her father, and her sister have become even closer than they were before. HAPPIEST MEMORY ( 2005 ) her father brings dubu home for the first time / ( 2006 ) began taking hip-hop lessons / ( 2015 ) accepted into k-arts CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ( 2004 ) her grandmother passed away ( 2018 ) discovered her mother’s infidelity and lies

〈 PHYSICAL 〉 +

HEIGHT 162 cm / 5′2″ WEIGHT 50 kg / 110 lbs BUILD slim but toned, athletic NATIONALITY australian ETHNICITY korean DISABILITIES none COMPLEXION clear & bright; a small tattoo on her upper left ribcage of australia ( x ) FACE SHAPE oval DISTINGUISHING FACIAL FEATURES large eyes, downward facing lips, facial symmetry HAIR COLOR naturally black USUAL HAIR STYLE down, no bangs, natural off-center split EYE COLOR dark brown GLASSES? CONTACTS? none STYLE OF DRESS/TYPICAL OUTFIT(S) very casual and laid back, t-shirts that are too big, distressed denim, boyfriend & bomber jackets TYPICAL STYLE OF SHOES sneakers, flats HEALTH in good health, athletic GROOMING typical five step korean skincare routine, showers before bed ACCENT? australian accent when speaking english, very slight accent while speaking korean UNIQUE MANNERISMS/PHYSICAL HABITS running fingers through hair, or playing with it in general; standing with hands on hips, nearly toppling over when laughing too hard ATHLETIC? yes; used jogs every weekday morning, do taekwondo every monday, tuesday, and friday nights; after getting signed she no longer jogs every morning, but works out at the gym and dances for hours; she continues to attend tkd lessons on saturday nights

〈 INTELLECT 〉 +

LEVEL OF EDUCATION graduated high school in 2015, currently on leave at korea national university of arts LEVEL OF SELF ESTEEM previously 10/10; currently at about a 5/10 due to being surrounded by such talented people, but is slowly building it back up GIFTS/TALENTS singing, tap, hip-hop dance, guitar, taekwondo SHORTCOMINGS a short attention span, too impatient for theory STYLE OF SPEECH can be abrasive and blunt, very casual, curses a lot LANGUAGES fluent in korean, english, and japanese “LEFT BRAIN” OR “RIGHT BRAIN” THINKER? right brain ARTISTIC? yes MATHEMATICAL? barely MAKES DECISIONS BASED MOSTLY ON EMOTIONS, OR ON LOGIC? emotional NEUROSES perfectionism LIFE PHILOSOPHY "work hard, play harder.” RELIGIOUS STANCE barely christian CAUTIOUS OR DARING? daring MOST SENSITIVE ABOUT/VULNERABLE TO lack of creativity; that she can’t write her own music; family is her biggest weakness OPTIMIST OR PESSIMIST? optimist EXTROVERT OR INTROVERT? extrovert LEVEL OF COMFORT WITH TECHNOLOGY basic knowledge of technology; knows how to use her devices effectively but doesn’t know what to do with them if they were to stop working

〈 RELATIONSHIPS 〉 +

CURRENT RELATIONSHIP STATUS single SEXUAL ORIENTATION heterosexual PAST RELATIONSHIPS

( 5 ) nearly gave her father a heart attack when she came to him with stars in her eyes, yelling “dad, i’ve got a boyfriend!” the furthest they ever went was calling each other by boyfriend and girlfriend,, and held hands once. the infatuation ended when preschool did.

( 16-18 ) perhaps it wasn’t the greatest idea to date the lead singer and lead guitarist of the band, but she’d thought it was real. unfortunately, their relationship ended when the band did, and no one really knows whether or not it was because they broke up.

( 19 ) met at an inter-university meeting where there were instant sparks. for weeks, it was passionate and amazing and it was like fireworks every time, but after a few months, it all began to fade. they went separate ways after breaking up, and haven’t spoken since.

LEVEL OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCE relatively inexperienced STORY OF FIRST KISS she was at a friend’s birthday party and they decided to play a little game. the spin of a glass bottle decided the fate of her first kiss, and it was gross. he’d tried to stick his tongue in her mouth and that earned him a slap across the face. STORY OF LOSS OF VIRGINITY instant sparks are a hard thing to ignore, and she’d given herself to him after meeting him for the first time that night. it had been awkward at first and painful, but it was passionate and exciting. he was the first and only person she’d ever been with in such an intimate setting. A SOCIAL PERSON? very MOST COMFORTABLE AROUND (PERSON) jinyoung, mason, nana OLDEST FRIEND mason HOW DOES HE/SHE THINK OTHERS PERCEIVE HIM/HER? in admiration of her skills and talents, respect for her take-charge attitude HOW DO OTHERS ACTUALLY PERCEIVE HIM/HER? probably as someone overbearing, can be bossy and mean-spirited

〈 VOCATION 〉 +

PROFESSION dog daycare employee, student trainee PAST OCCUPATIONS working at her father’s music store PASSIONS singing, dancing, guitar ATTITUDE TOWARDS CURRENT JOB proud of how she achieved trainee status, but still overwhelmed by everything ATTITUDE TOWARDS CURRENT COWORKERS, BOSSES, EMPLOYEES she looks at all her sunbaes with stars in her eyes, especially the girls of eclipse; she follows all the rules and regulations given to her by coaches and trainers, so they probably have a positive impression of her; she doesn’t believe she’s on katie lee’s radar yet SALARY below minimum wage and thankful for free food and rent from her father and sister

〈 SECRETS 〉 +

PHOBIAS losing her family, dying as an unknown LIFE GOALS to be able to provide for herself and take care of her father in his old age DREAMS to become a household name GREATEST FEARS failure MOST ASHAMED OF her weaknesses MOST EMBARRASSING THING EVER TO HAPPEN TO HIM/HER fighting with her ex-boyfriend on stage and breaking up and crying about it in front of a small crowd COMPULSIONS playing with her hair and/or any jewelry she’s wearing, talking over others, giving advice even when it’s not asked for OBSESSIONS music, old rock bands, records, MYNAME SECRET HOBBIES nothing secret SECRET SKILLS nothing secret, though most don’t know she’s a skilled tap dancer/4th degree black belt PAST SEXUAL TRANSGRESSIONS none? CRIMES COMMITTED trespassing WHAT HE/SHE MOST WANTS TO CHANGE ABOUT HIS/HER CURRENT LIFE she wants to debut! WHAT HE/SHE MOST WANTS TO CHANGE ABOUT HIS/HER PHYSICAL APPEARANCE nothing at all~

〈 DETAILS &. QUIRKS 〉 +

DAILY ROUTINE ( AS OF JAN 2019 )

kt’s trainee schedule can be found here

taekwondo lesson on saturday nights

family time on sundays

NIGHT OWL OR EARLY BIRD? a little bit of both LIGHT OR HEAVY SLEEPER? heavy sleeper FAVORITE FOOD dad’s bulgogi with hanwoo beef LEAST FAVORITE FOOD bitter foods FAVORITE BOOK the maze runner series LEAST FAVORITE BOOK text books lol FAVORITE MOVIE the marvel cinematic universe/disney movies LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE none she can think of FAVORITE SONG 80′s rock bands/pop songs LEAST FAVORITE SONG none she can think of COFFEE OR TEA? tea CRUNCHY OR SMOOTH PEANUT BUTTER? crunchy TYPE OF CAR MOTORCYCLE HE/SHE DRIVES 2004 honda cbr600rr LEFTY OR RIGHTY? right-handed FAVORITE COLOR red CUSSER? yes SMOKER? DRINKER? DRUG USER? drinks, but usually not too heavily BIGGEST REGRET wasting two years of her life in a band in high school PETS? dubu, her 11-year-old pyrenean mountain dog VOTED most likely to become famous

#.;* canon ;#( i've had this in my drafts since seola was first accepted into rookie sa;kdhgou )

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12-3amproductions · 6 years

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Ritual Murders: The Adrian Lim Case

Hello everyone! Welcome to another bizarre case study. Today, we will be covering a murder by a Singaporean who was madly obsessed in deities and the rituals that came along with them, to the extent of killing innocent victims and offering them to the idols as sacrifice.

Two children were killed in the seventh-story flat, in Block 12, Toa Payoh Lorong 7.

In the early 1980s, Adrian Lim, a charlatan medium seen by many as the very embodiment of evil, and his two “holy” wives (Tan Mui Choo and Hao Kah Hong), kidnapped, tortured and killed a pair of children (Agnes Ng Siew Heok and Ghazali bin Marzuki).

Background of Adrian Lim

Born on 6 January 1942, Adrian Lim was the eldest son of a low-income family. Described at the trial by his sister as a hot-tempered boy, he dropped out of secondary school and worked a short stint as an informant for the Internal Security Department, joining the cable radio company Rediffusion Singapore in 1962. For three years, he installed and serviced Rediffusion sets as an electrician before being promoted to bill collector.

In April 1967, Lim married his childhood sweetheart with whom he had two children. He converted to Catholicism for his marriage. Lim and his family lived in rented rooms until his 1970 purchase of a three-room flat—a seventh floor unit (unit number 467F) of Block 12, Toa Payoh.

Lim started part-time practice as a spirit medium in 1973. He rented a room where he attended to the women—most of whom were bargirls, dance hostesses, and prostitutes—introduced to him by his landlord. Lim's customers also included superstitious men and elderly females, whom he cheated only of cash. He had learned the trade from a bomoh called "Uncle Willie" and prayed to gods of various religions despite his Catholic baptism.

The Hindu goddess Kali and "Phragann", which Lim described as a Siamese sex god, were among the spiritual entities he called on in his rituals. Lim deceived his clients with several confidence tricks; his most effective gimmick, known as the "needles and egg" trick, duped many to believe that he had supernatural abilities. After blackening needles with soot from a burning candle, Lim carefully inserted them into a raw egg and sealed the hole with powder. In his rituals, he passed the egg several times over his client while chanting and asked her to crack open the egg. Unaware that the egg had been tampered with, the client would be convinced by the sight of the black needles that evil spirits were harassing her.

Lim particularly preyed on gullible girls who had deep personal problems. He promised them that he could solve their woes and increase their beauty through a ritual massage. After Lim and his client had stripped, he would knead her body—including her genitals—with Phragann's idol and have sex with her. Lim's treatments also included an electro-shock therapy based on that used on mental patients. After placing his client's feet in a tub of water and attaching wires to her temples, Lim passed electricity through her. The shocks, he assured her, would cure headaches and drive away evil spirits

Background of Tan Mui Choo

Catherine Tan Mui Choo was referred to Lim by a fellow bargirl, who claimed the spirit medium could cure ailments and depression. Tan, at that time, was grieving the death of her grandmother to whom she had been devoted. Furthermore, her estrangement from her parents weighed on her mind; having been sent away at the age of 13 to a vocational centre (a home mostly for juvenile delinquents), she felt unwanted by them. Tan's visits to Lim became regular, and their relationship grew intimate. In 1975 she moved into his flat on his insistence.

To allay his wife's suspicions that he was having an affair with Tan, Lim swore an oath of denial before a picture of Jesus Christ. However, she discovered the truth and moved out with their children a few days later, divorcing Lim in 1976. Lim quit his Rediffusion job and became a full-time medium. He enjoyed brisk business, at one point receiving S$6,000–7,000 (US$2,838–3,311) a month from a single client. In June 1977, Lim and Tan registered their marriage.

Lim dominated Tan through beatings, threats, and lies. He persuaded her to prostitute herself to supplement their income. He also convinced her that he needed to fornicate with young women to stay healthy; thus, Tan assisted him in his business, preparing their clients for his pleasure. Lim's influence over Tan was strong; on his encouragement and promise that sex with a younger man would preserve her youth, Tan copulated with a Malay teenager and even with her younger brother. The boy was not her only sibling to be influenced by Lim; the medium had earlier seduced Tan's younger sister and tricked her into selling her body and having sex with the two youths. Despite the abuses, Tan lived with Lim, enjoying the dresses, beauty products and slimming courses bought with their income.

Background of Hoe Kah Hong

Born on 10 September 1955, Hoe Kah Hong was eight years old when her father died; she was sent to live with her grandmother until she was fifteen. When she returned to her mother and siblings she was constantly required to give way to her elder sister Lai Ho. Under the perception that her mother favoured her sister, Hoe became disgruntled, showing her temper easily.

In 1979, her mother brought Lai to Lim for treatment, and became convinced of Lim's powers by his "needles and egg" trick. Believing that Hoe's volatile temper could also be cured by Lim, the old woman brought her younger daughter to the medium. After witnessing the same trick, Hoe became Lim's loyal follower. Lim desired to make Hoe one of his "holy wives", even though she was already married to Benson Loh Ngak Hua. To achieve his goal, Lim sought to isolate Hoe from her family by feeding her lies. He claimed that her family were immoral people who practiced infidelity, and that Loh was an unfaithful man who would force her into prostitution. Hoe believed Lim's words, and after going through a rite with him, she was declared by the medium as his "holy wife". She no longer trusted her husband and family, and became violent towards her mother. Three months after she had first met Lim, Hoe moved from her house and went to live with him.

Loh sought his wife at Lim's flat and ended up staying to observe her treatment. He was persuaded by her to participate in the electro-shock therapies. In the early hours of 7 January 1980, Loh sat with Hoe, their arms locked together and their feet in separate tubs of water. Lim applied a large voltage to Loh, who was electrocuted, while Hoe was stunned into unconsciousness. When she woke, Lim requested her to lie to the police about Loh's death. Hoe repeated the story Lim had given her, saying that her husband had been electrocuted in their bedroom when he tried to switch on a faulty electric fan in the dark. The coroner recorded an open verdict, and the police made no further investigations.

Despite her antipathy towards Loh, Hoe was affected by his death. Her sanity broke; she started hearing voices and hallucinating, seeing her dead husband. At the end of May she was admitted to the Woodbridge Hospital. There, psychologists diagnosed her condition as schizophrenia and started appropriate treatments. Hoe made a remarkably quick recovery; by the first week of July, she was discharged. She continued her treatment with the hospital; follow-up checks showed that she was in a state of remission. Hoe's attitude towards her mother and other family members began to improve after her stay in the hospital, although she continued to live with Lim and Tan.

The murder:

The first victim was little Agnes Ng - curled up in the fetal position inside a travel bag by the lift landing. She was discovered by a 25-year-old carpenter at the ground floor of Block 11, Toa Payoh Lorong 7, as he headed back home after a night out at the movies on Jan 25, 1981.

“They found the bag, opened the zipper and out popped her head,” said retired police officer S.K. Menon, who was then the officer-in-charge of the CID’s Special Investigation Section.

He did not know it then, but the nine-year-old girl was the first of the two ritual murder victims of Adrian Lim, an unemployed 39-year-old who claimed to be a medium, his wife Catherine Tan Mui Choo and his mistress Hoe Kah Hong.

Agnes was abducted by Hoe at the Church of the Risen Christ in Toa Payoh and taken to Lim’s flat. She was injected with a sedative and then suffocated. She was also sexually assaulted by Lim.

A week after her death, either Tan or Hoe, called Agnes’ mother threatening to “chop” Agnes’ sister up.

But with few clues at the scene where the body was found, cracking the case was difficult, said Mr Menon. The pressure was truly on when the trio’s second victim, Ghazali Marzuki, 10, was found almost two weeks after Agnes.

“He was just lying there on the grass patch,” said Mr Menon, 78, when asked how the body was found, just metres from Lim’s block.

Ghazali had been playing with his cousins in a playground in Clementi the day before when they were approached by Hoe asking for help.

Ghazali was taken to Lim’s flat, where he was drugged, choked then drowned. There were also three burn marks on his back and a puncture on his arm.

This time, there was a trail of blood leading from Ghazali’s body all the way to Lim’s residence at Block 12.

“He did not realise the body was dripping blood from the nose,” said Mr Menon. “The blood, that was his undoing.”

Officers cordoned off the area and searched the block house-to-house. When they got to the seventh floor, they found Lim, dressed in a shirt and pants, seemingly about to make a run for it, said Mr Menon.

“(The house) was very eerie, it was lit with amber light, and right in front when you go in is the altar.”

Officers found various religious items in the flat, and on the altar Mr Menon mentioned, there were crucifixes and Hindu and Chinese idols, some of which were smeared with blood.

Suspicions were aroused further when a drop of blood was spotted on the kitchen floor.

Description of victim Agnes Ng:

Agnes Ng Siew Hock was a nine-year-old who went to the Holy Innocent’s Chinese Girl School.

She was the youngest of nine siblings.

She was last seen alive by her sister Pauline and a friend at the Church of Risen Christ in Toa Payoh at about 4pm, on Jan 24, 1981.

She was there waiting for her sister to finish classes before returning home together.

Her body was found in a brown vinyl bag on Jan 25, at about 2.20am near a staircase at Block 11 Toa Payoh by a man returning from a midnight show. Adrian Lim’s flat was at Block 12.

Her home at Block 233 was not far away from where she was found.

She had been sexually assaulted and suffocated — it seems by a hand covering her nose and mouth.

According to a forensic expert during the trial, it would have taken her 10 minutes to die.

Description of victim Ghazali Marzuki:

Ghazali Marzuki, who studied in Henry Park Primary School, was 10.

He was staying with his grandmother at Block 344, Clementi Avenue 5, on Feb 6 for the Chinese New Year holidays.

While at a playground with two cousins, a woman approached them.

She asked for help to collect some things from a friend’s house.

Ghazali agreed to help, and followed her into a taxi.

That was the last time he was seen alive.

In the early hours of Feb 7, Mr Fung Joon Yong, who lived at Block 12 in Toa Payoh, saw Catherine Tan stepping out of a lift, carrying a child over her shoulder. Adrian Lim was with her.

They went in the direction of Blocks 10 and 11.

Later that morning, Ghazali’s body was found near a hedge just in front of Block 10. The boy had been drugged with a sedative and drowned — his head pushed into a tub of water.

Burn marks were also found, but these were believed to have been caused by electrocution after he died.

Arresting the 3 murderers:

In a search of the area where Ghazali was found, police were led to the lift at Blk 12 where a resident had seen Catherine Tan with the boy. A bloodstain was found in the vicinity.

The police decided to search the higher floors.

More blood stains were found between the fifth and sixth storey staircase and the staircase leading to the seventh storey.

They decided to check the units on the seventh storey, the first of which was Adrian Lim’s. He was in the corridor. They spoke and Lim agreed to a search of his home.

It was very messy inside. In the kitchen, police found what seemed to be a bloodstain on the floor.

More police were called in to conduct a thorough search.

Tan and Hoe Kah Hong had returned by this time. Lim called them his wife and girlfriend, and told police they lived together.

A pair of slippers, shorts and a handkerchief — all stained were blood — were discovered. They belonged to Lim. A bloodstained blouse belonging to Hoe was found in a pail.

Pills containing the drug found in Ghazali were seized, along with a syringe believed to contain his blood. Strands of hair that seemed like Ghazali’s were found under a carpet and under a sofa.

Lim, Tan and Hoe were arrested and the next day, charged with murder.

Why did Adrian Lim and his accomplice murder the two children?

With Hoe and Tan as his assistants, Lim continued his trade, tricking more women into giving him money and sex. By the time of his arrest, he had 40 "holy wives". In the late 1980s, he was arrested and charged with rape.

His accuser was Lucy Lau, a door-to-door cosmetic salesgirl, who had met Lim when she was promoting beauty products to Tan. On 19 October, Lim told Lau that a ghost was haunting her, but he could exorcise it with his sex rituals. She was unconvinced, but the medium persisted. He secretly mixed two capsules of Dalmadorm, a sedative, into a glass of milk and offered it to her, claiming it had holy properties.

Lau became groggy after drinking it, which allowed Lim to take advantage of her. For the next few weeks, he continued to abuse her by using drugs or threats. In November, after Lim had given her parents a loan smaller than the amount they had requested, Lau made a police report about his treatment of her. Lim was arrested on charges of rape, and Tan for abetting him. Out on bail, Lim persuaded Hoe to lie that she was present at the alleged rape but saw no crime committed. This failed to stop the police enquiries; Lim and Tan had to extend their bail, in person, at the police station every fortnight.

Frustrated, Lim plotted to distract the police with a series of child murders. Moreover, he believed that sacrifices of children to Kali would persuade her supernaturally to draw the attention of the police away from him. Lim pretended to be possessed by Kali, and convinced Tan and Hoe that the goddess wanted them to kill children to wreak vengeance on Lau. He also told them Phragann demanded that he have sex with their female victims.

On 24 January 1981, Hoe spotted Agnes at a nearby church and lured her to the flat. The trio plied her with food and drink that was laced with Dalmadorm. After Agnes became groggy and fell asleep, Lim sexually abused her. Near midnight, the trio smothered Agnes with a pillow and drew her blood, drinking and smearing it on a portrait of Kali. Following that, they drowned the girl by holding down her head in a pail of water. Finally, Lim used his electro-shock therapy device to "make doubly sure that she was dead". They stuffed her body in a bag and dumped it near the lift at Block 11.

Ghazali suffered a similar fate when he was brought by Hoe to the flat on 6 February. He, however, proved resistant to the sedatives, taking a long time to fall asleep. Lim decided to tie up the boy as a precaution; however, the boy awoke and struggled. Panicking, the trio delivered karate chops to Ghazali's neck and stunned him. After drawing his blood, they proceeded to drown their victim. Ghazali struggled, vomiting and losing control of his bowels as he died. Blood kept streaming from his nose after his death. While Tan stayed behind to clean the flat, Lim and Hoe disposed of the body. Lim noticed that a trail of blood led to their flat, so he and his accomplices cleaned as much as they could of these stains before sunrise. When the trail of blood led the police to their flat, this resulted in their arrest.

Battle of psychiatrist in the supreme justice court:

No one doubted that Lim, Tan, and Hoe had killed the children. Their defence was based on convincing the judges that medically, the accused were not in total control of themselves during the crimes. The bulk of the trial was therefore a battle between expert witnesses called by both sides. Dr Wong Yip Chong, a senior psychiatrist in private practice, believed that Lim was mentally ill at the time of the crimes. Claiming to be "judging by the big picture, and not fussing over contradictions", he said that Lim's voracious sexual appetite and deluded belief in Kali were characteristics of a mild manic depression. The doctor also said that only an unsound mind would dump the bodies close to his home when his plan was to distract the police. In rebuttal, the prosecution's expert witness, Dr Chee Kuan Tsee, a psychiatrist at Woodbridge Hospital, said that Lim was "purposeful in his pursuits, patient in his planning and persuasive in his performance for personal power and pleasure". In Dr Chee's opinion, Lim had indulged in sex because through his role as a medium he obtained a supply of women who were willing to go to bed with him. Furthermore, his belief in Kali was religious in nature, not delusional. Lim's use of religion for personal benefit indicated full self-control. Lastly, Lim had consulted doctors and freely taken sedatives to alleviate his insomnia, a condition which, according to Dr Chee, sufferers from manic depression fail to recognise.

Dr R. Nagulendran, a consultant psychiatrist, testified that Tan was mentally impaired by reactive psychotic depression. According to him she was depressed before she met Lim, due to her family background. Physical abuse and threats from Lim deepened her depression; drug abuse led her to hallucinate and believe the medium's lies. Dr Chee disagreed; he said that Tan had admitted to being quite happy with the material lifestyle Lim gave to her, enjoying fine clothes and beauty salon treatments. A sufferer from reactive psychotic depression would not have paid such attention to her appearance. Also, Tan had earlier confessed to knowing Lim was a fraud, but changed her stance in court to claim she was acting completely under his influence. Although Dr Chee had neglected Lim's physical abuse of Tan in his judgment, he was firm in his opinion that Tan was mentally sound during the crimes. Both Dr Nagulendran and Dr Chee agreed that Hoe suffered from schizophrenia long before she met Lim, and that her stay in Woodbridge Hospital had helped her recovery. However, while Dr Nagulendran was convinced that Hoe suffered a relapse during the time of the child killings, Dr Chee pointed out that none of the Woodbridge doctors saw any signs of relapse during the six months of her follow-up checks (16 July 1980 – 31 January 1981). If Hoe had been as severely impaired by her condition as Dr Nagulendran described, she would have become an invalid. Instead, she methodically abducted and helped kill a child on two occasions. Ending his testimony, Dr Chee stated that it was incredible that three people with different mental illnesses should share a common delusion of receiving a request to kill from a god.

In their closing speeches, the defence tried to reinforce the portrayal of their clients as mentally disturbed individuals. Cashin said that Lim was a normal man until his initiation into the occult, and that he was clearly divorced from reality when he entered the "unreasonable world of atrociousness", acting on his delusions to kill children in Kali's name. Jeyaretnam said that due to her depression and Lim's abuse, Tan was just "a robot", carrying out orders without thought. Isaac simply concluded, "[Hoe's] schizophrenic mind accepted that if the children were killed, they would go to heaven and not grow up evil like her mother and others." The defence criticised Dr Chee for failing to recognise their clients' symptoms.

The prosecution started its closing speech by drawing attention to the "cool and calculating" manner in which the children were killed. Knight also argued that the accused could not have shared the same delusion, and only brought it up during the trial. The "cunning and deliberation" displayed in the acts could not have been done by a deluded person.Tan helped Lim because "she loved [him]", and Hoe was simply misled into helping the crimes. Urging the judges to consider the ramifications of their verdict, Knight said: "My Lords, to say that Lim was less than a coward who preyed on little children because they could not fight back; killed them in the hope that he would gain power or wealth and therefore did not commit murder, is to make no sense of the law of murder. It would lend credence to the shroud of mystery and magic he has conjured up his practices and by which he managed to frighten, intimidate and persuade the superstitious, the weak and the gullible into participating in the most lewd and obscene acts."

Judgement:

On 25 May 1983, crowds massed outside the building, waiting for the outcome of the trial. Due to limited seating, only a few were allowed inside to hear Justice Sinnathuray's delivery of the verdict, which took 15 minutes. The two judges were not convinced that the accused were mentally unsound during the crimes. They found Lim to be "abominable and depraved" in carrying out his schemes. Viewing her interviews with the expert witnesses as admissions of guilt, Sinnathuray and Chua found Tan to be an "artful and wicked person", and a "willing [party] to [Lim's] loathsome and nefarious acts".The judges found Hoe to be "simple" and "easily influenced". Although she suffered from schizophrenia, they noted that she was in a state of remission during the murders; hence she should bear full responsibility for her actions. All three defendants were found guilty of murder and sentenced to be hanged. The two women did not react to their sentences. On the other hand, Lim beamed and cried, "Thank you, my Lords!", as he was led out.

Lim accepted his fate; the women did not, and appealed against their sentences. Tan hired Francis Seow to appeal for her, and the court again assigned Isaac to Hoe. The lawyers asked the appeal court to reconsider the mental states of their clients during the murders, charging that the trial judges in their deliberations had failed to consider this point. The Court of Criminal Appeal reached their decision in August 1986. The appeal judges which consist of Chief Justice Wee Chong Jin, Justice Lai Kew Chai and Justice L P Thean reaffirmed the decision of their trial counterparts, noting that as finders of facts, judges have the right to discount medical evidence in the light of evidence from other sources. Tan and Hoe's further appeals to London's Privy Council and Singapore President Wee Kim Weemet with similar failures.

Having exhausted all their avenues for pardon, Tan and Hoe calmly faced their fates. While waiting on death row the trio were counselled by Catholic priests and nuns. In spite of the reputation that surrounded Lim, Father Brian Doro recalled the murderer as a "rather friendly person". When the day of execution loomed, Lim asked Father Doro for absolution and Holy Communion. Likewise, Tan and Hoe had Sister Gerard Fernandez as their spiritual counsellor. The nun converted the two female convicts to Catholicism, and they received forgiveness and Holy Communion during their final days. On 25 November 1988 the trio were given their last meal and led to the hangman's noose. Lim smiled throughout his last walk. After the sentences were carried out, the three murderers were given a short Catholic funeral mass by Father Doro, and cremated on the same day.

The children who escaped death from them:

Before Agnes Ng and Ghazali Marzuki, there were a few children who came to the apartment of Adrian Lim.

The first one was lured by Hoe, she got a girl aged 10 to follow her from Toa Payoh Central. But Lim rejected the girl because she was Indian and the deity he worshipped, called Kaliammam, was Hindu.

Hoe picked up another girl from Clementi. She was Chinese. But Lim said she was too skinny.

The third girl she brought back made Lim panic when she called her friend on the phone, and told Lim that the friend had seen her being led away by a woman.

There was also another child who got released by Adrian Lim because she was told that “The gods do not want you”. She happened to be prayed over by a pastor who happened to be her teacher back then and was most likely covered by the protection and blood of Jesus.

Conclusion:

First of all, we have to make this clear that no religion would approve of human sacrifice except for Satanism. No god would appreciate suicides or the death of someone as a gift.

The Hindu god, Goddess Kali is a strong motherly figure in Hinduism and is well respected for her motherly-love. She is well known to ward off evil spirits and slay demons for peace to be in order. The demon Kali (which most people confuse with Goddess Kali), is source of the most cruel and evil demon in Hinduism. Thus, Adrian Lim could have been having delusional thoughts with the demon Kali instead of Goddess Kali.

Second of all, religious beliefs do impact someone positively and sometimes negatively depending on the influence of it. In this case, Adrian Lim was obviously the bad influence. Teaching false and negative things and bringing harm to people instead of good. No religion will ever bring harm to its own people.

Psychiatrists were brought in due to the hallucinated mind of the three killers and the different mental illness they were having. It is important to pin point if they were really affected by their unconscious state of mind or just for their own evil joy. Adrian Lim showed no regrets or remorse towards his actions and could even smile before the death sentence. It is hence also important to understand the different religious teachings and their beliefs to avoid misleading people into the negativity.

Well, rest assured 12-3AMProductions will be doing articles on the different religions to educate people about the different magic circle groups created by us humans. Of course, words are a really powerful tool which many people use to brainwash others and mislead them into believing ridiculous things. In this case, the murders’ reasoning by Adrian Lim and his accomplices was of total bullshit with the claim that the sacrifices were requested by God. Justice has been served to the victims and religion will never be a strong reason to escape killings.

Thirdly, we do want to mention about the punishment of these vicious murderers after they have perished in hell. They are not going to be given a chance by god obviously. And all of them will be going to purgatory if they had REALLY been converted to Catholic. Otherwise based on their skin color and nationality, they will be facing the Buddhism hell and accept the punishment there. Their pain will never stop even when they are dead, the worst pain is given by god and not in the living world.

That is all for the case on Adrian Lim, we hope that you all have gained knowledge and awareness from this case study and do remember to like and reblog. Thank you once again for the amazing support, we will see you in our next article and case :)

#cases #murder #cold blood #Godness Kali #crime #sad #pain #suffering #occult #medium

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