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steveezekiel · 3 months

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PLEADING FOR THE SELF OR ON SOMEONE ELSE'S BEHALF 1

1 O LORD, hear my plea for justice. Listen to my cry for help. Pay attention to my prayer, for it comes from honest lips. 2 Declare me innocent, for you see those who do right. 3 You have tested my thoughts and examined my heart in the night. You have scrutinized me and found nothing wrong. I am determined not to sin in what I say. 4 I have followed your commands, which keep me from following cruel and evil people. 5 My steps have stayed on your path; I have not wavered from following you. 6 I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray." Psalm 17:3-6 (NLT)

In the prayer of petition, you would have to give God the reason(s) why He had to do whatever you are asking for.

Though the request should not be done arrogantly; discourteously or disrespectfully. You petition God with His Word, give Him the reasons why He had to do whatever you wanted Him to do for you or the person you are praying or standing in the gap for.

God at times would want to hear you, telling Him what makes it right or necessary or justifiable to do what you are requesting. In such a situation, If any genuine reason was not given, the answer to your prayer might be unlikely or dreamy: "PUT ME IN REMEMBRANCE [remind Me of your merits]; LET US PLEAD AND ARGUE TOGETHER. SET FORTH YOUR CASE, THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED (proved right)" (Isaiah 43:26 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition).

"SO LET US TALK TOGETHER ABOUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED. SHOW ME WHY YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE RIGHT!" Isaiah 43:26 (EasyEnglish Bible) READ: Psalm 2:8

With the challenge put before you as a Believer, If anything incriminating is found in your life, you should forget about the answer to the request.

Before you petitioned or entreated God, you should remember that friendship with the world is enemity with God (James 4:4; 1 Peter 1:15,16; 2:11,12). Someone who lives contrary before God will not have the courage to go before Him to plead his or her case, or someone's behalf.

Whoever would answer or respond to the challenge put forward in the book of Isaiah 43:26 should be someone who walks in close fellowship or communion with God.

Some who professed to be believers have no credibility with which their matters could be presented and proved before God.

If you live in Disobedience or rebellion as a Believer, you, or someone on your behalf, would not be able to go before God to plead and argue, or talk together, with God as He demanded in the passage of the Bible in Isaiah 43:26.

If you are not living right, you could only go before God, or someone on your behalf, on the platform of mercy. Because mercy prevails or triumphs over Judgement (James 2:13)!

Some Believers had nothing credible with which their cases could be presented or pleaded with, before God. This state is not the best for any believer.

You should be able to discipline yourself, put your flesh under control and live Right that If your matter is taken to God in prayer, He would listen and help. If all you need to come with, before God, whenever you wanted to talk or receive anything from Him is mercy, and nothing could be said that you have done Right; It means you are still carnal and shallow in your walk with Him.

A leader or Minister pleading for such a person, who is not faithful, would always approach God on the platform of mercy. This always is not the best state a Believer should be.

You should grow up in your walk with God to the level which you, or whoever is praying or petitioning God on your behalf, would be able to ask God to consider certain good things or qualities in your life and grant the request being presented—either by you yourself or whoever doing that on your behalf.

Although, every person or Believer should come before God through the substitutionary Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. And with that, after the person has been in the Christian Faith for awhile, and such is growing up in his or her faith life, God expected the Believer to also has some good qualities that could be refered to when his or her matter is presented or brought before God.

You should have good works, because you are redeemed to do good works: "FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM" (Ephesians 2:10).

We the Believers are not doing good works to be saved or accepted by God, or be reconciled to God (Ephesians 2:8,9); but the doing of the good works or deeds as a result or product of salvation or being saved.

In other words, good works or deeds should be a natural thing which a believer should do, or the way he or she should live, after salvation or being saved or born-again.

This good works or deeds are referred to in the book of James 2:14-26. The proofs that you have had an encounter with God are the good works found in your life after salvation or being saved. This is usually expressed through love (1 John 2:3,4; 3:10,14-18). READ: 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Hebrews 13:16

What are the good things that could be pleaded with If someone were to plead or argue before God on your behalf? WHAT are you doing for God and His Kingdom on Earth? WOULD you not be considered as a tree that is just encumbering the land, or taking up the space, or depleting the land for nothing? (Luke 13:7).

Note: a. Living your life to please God as a light in the midst of darkness is a good work (Matthew 5:16; 2 Corinthians 4:15; 1 Peter 2:11,12; 4:2). b. Living to propagate the gospel, expand His Kingdom on Earth, is a good work (Mark 14:3-9; 16:14-18). c. Giving what you have to the work of God, the Needy, and the ministers, and for whatever good cause you are stirred to support; is a good work (1 Timothy 6:27-19; Hebrews 13:16). d. Whatever you do to ease the burden of others, for the sake of Christ Jesus, is a good work (Matthew 25:31-46).

The Believers and widows in Joppa would not allow Tabitha, Dorcas, to die because of her good deeds or works (Acts 9:36-41).

God also considered the good works of Cornelius, sent an angel to him, to tell and inform him how he could be saved—be led to God (Acts 10:1-6,30-48).

In a similar situation, some elders of the Jews came to Jesus, pleading that He would minister or pray for the healing of a centurion's servant who had done them good—he built a synagogue for them (Luke 7:2-10).

Whatever good work you did would be used to plead your case before God in the time of need or predicament.

You will not fail in Jesus' name.

Whatever is contrary to your health is cursed and uprooted in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

Hold of sicknesses is completely broken in your life in Jesus' name. Peace!

STEPS TO SALVATION

Take notice of this: IF you are yet to take the step of salvation, that is, yet to be born-again, do it now, tomorrow might be too late (2 Corinthians 6:1,2; Hebrews 3:7,8,15). a. Acknowledge that you are a sinner and confess your Sins (1 John 1:9); And ask Jesus Christ to come into your life (Revelation 3:20). b. Confess that you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that you confess it with your mouth, Thus, you accept Him As your Lord and Saviour (Romans 10:9,10). c. Ask that He will write your name in the Book of Life (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:8).

If you took the steps As highlighted above, It means you are saved—born-again. Join a Word based church in your area and Town or city, and be part of whatever they are doing there. Peace!

#christianity #gospel #christian living #jesus #the bible #devotion #faith #christian blog #my writing #prayer

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eternal-echoes · 3 years

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Catechism of the Catholic Church

X. Indulgences

1471 The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance.

What is an indulgence?

"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints."81 "An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin."82 Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead.

The punishments of sin

1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.83

1473 The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the "old man" and to put on the "new man."84

In the Communion of Saints

1474 The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to become holy with the help of God's grace is not alone. "The life of each of God's children is joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the life of all the other Christian brethren in the supernatural unity of the Mystical Body of Christ, as in a single mystical person."85

1475 In the communion of saints, "a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things."86 In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin.

1476 We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church's treasury, which is "not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the 'treasury of the Church' is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their effficacy."87

1477 "This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body."88

Obtaining indulgence from God through the Church

1478 An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.89

1479 Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.

#Catholic #Christianity #Catechism

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a-queer-seminarian · 3 years

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Has continuing to practice certain Catholic traditions like saint veneration made seeking ordination in PCUSA more difficult for you? I’ve been trying to discern but one thing I’ve found issue in is I don’t fully agree with any denomination on EVERY matter.

(disclaimer at the top of this response: i suck at remembering the proper lingo for polity stuff, so don’t quote me on wording i use lol. i do think everything i say here is “correct” but may be worded totally wrong. Also if i got anything wrong i welcome correction.)

So. One reason i like the PCUSA is that there’s a good amount of flexibility in belief -- you don’t have to agree on EVERY matter, just the most vital ones!

To get ordained in the PCUSA, you do have to profess that you believe in the things detailed in the Book of Confessions -- minus anything that you can convincingly argue are “scruples,” aka bits of the confessions that are not an “essential and necessary” part of scripture.

For example, before the PCUSA took an official pro-LGBT stance, a lot of folks convincingly argued that statements against LGBT persons were “scruples,” so that they could disagree with those ant-LGBT beliefs and still be ordained.

Some examples of things that are not scruples -- that you do have to believe in order to get ordained: you gotta believe in the Trinity; that Jesus is fully human and fully divine; that in the resurrection of the body; that something about Jesus’s incarnation, life, death, and resurrection were salvific (but exactly how can be up to interpretation); etc...

Now, some presbyteries (the administrative body representing all local congregations in a district, which tends to be the size of like, several cities plus surrounding rural areas i think) are more conservative / strict than others. You might try to argue that something’s a scruple in one presbytery and be shut down, while another presbytery would have agreed with you.

________

I am super fortunate that my presbytery (Sheppards & Lapsley in Alabama) -- or at least my CPM, the committee in the presbytery that deals with ordination candidates -- is really progressive and flexible! Otherwise I’d have no hope of getting ordained lmao. I’ve heard Bad Things about some other presbyteries from classmates about things like ableism and queerphobia, so the fact that i’ve not had to deal with that has been really fortunate.

So far, the Catholic thing and the Saint thing has not been an issue with my CPM. i’m pretty sure someone once asked me about it at a meeting and I said something like, “well, as Presbyterians we believe in the communion of saints, that time and distance don’t obstruct that community in the Kin-dom of God, and I view the capital-S Saints with whom i’ve built relationships the same way i would view a deceased relative or a currently living friend -- i ask my Saints to guide me and pray for me in the same way i ask friends currently alive to guide me and pray for me.” And they seemed satisfied with that haha.

I have only one step left in the ordination process and it is The Big Presentation to my presbytery committee where they like, ask me lots of questions and then vote on whether i can be ordained...i feel like the Catholic thing may come up if/when i finally take that step. But since my Presbytery is cool, i think i’ll be okay on that front.

(More than the Saints, i think one of the biggest divergences in my personal beliefs from the Book of Confessions is my view on the Eucharist. I am definitely a transubstantiation or consubstantiation kinda guy, while the PCUSA is all about “it’s a sign and symbol, not literal!” So i’ll be more worried about being called out about that than the Saint thing, because i’m pretty sure they’ll tell me the beliefs around communion are too important to be labeled a scruple.)

...

OOH just remembered something -- in my Polity class i actually asked my professors what they thought about whether claiming to be Catholic as well as Presbyterian would be an issue. One of them reminded me that there is such thing as Presbyterian pastors who are also ordained in another denomination (though that’s usually another Reformed Protestant denomination). The PCUSA is very invested in ecumenical relationship, so if i spin my own situation as an advantage in that regard, they should accept it.

It also helps that i identify as Catholic, but not....Roman Catholic. I don’t like the Vatican, i don’t profess any allegiance to the Pope. I’m only spiritually Catholic -- the PCUSA is the only denomination i currently tie myself to.

Sorry this was so rambling and poorly worded, but please let me know if you have any other questions! Also, you might like some of the stuff in my #PCUSA tag.

And if anyone else has thoughts on any of this, feel free to share.

#seminary #pcusa #ordination #chatting tag #Anonymous

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theastromancer · 4 years

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Sun in Aquarius

“The symbol for Aquarius, ♒️, represents waves of air, or electricity. The ancients saw the image of air as showing the nature of Aquarius. In modern times we see an association with electric current. People born with the Sun in Aquarius possess the qualities of the air and electricity.

Aquarius is the water- bearer pouring water from a jug representing the quality of air to carry and distribute all things that renew and refresh. The water-bearer epitomizes the ideal of human friendship, the quencher of thirst and the reliever of suffering. Electric current sparks, energizes, and makes possible the technology that can relieve human need and suffering.

Air creates the space where all can be and exist in relative freedom, yet all must share.The air serves all equally, without prejudice or exception, for the common good. Aquarian’s are learning that being a good friend is not an easy idea to uphold, and that it requires a discipline and compassion that seems almost superhuman. Aquarius represents a very evolved state of consciousness, it is the second to last sign in the zodiac, and asks us to do something extraordinary. Aquarius represents the Divine potential of human idealism, not easily realized, but nonetheless ultimately what is needed.

We all depend on one another for survival and companionship. The water-bearer represents the altruistic ideals that human existence is dependent on and that cannot be forsaken. No one can be denied air or water and survive for very long. Without water, a plant or animal can only live a few days, nothing grows, and food would not be available. Without air, though, no living thing lasts more than a few minutes. The water-bearer shows us that the ideal of friendship, community and coexistence cannot exist. The water-bearer is not a warrior, but rather a humanitarian, and does not react to or deny anyone, but rather delivers the help and relief wherever it is needed. The water-bearer is the true friend who is there when you need him or her.

For Aquarius, friendship is paramount. They will do anything for their friends. They are idealistic and are attracted to causes affecting the greater community. They bond with others who have like ideals and can be avant-garde or unconventional. Aquarians spontaneously perceive the way to improve conditions and solve puzzles, and even when they are conventional, their idealism is still part of whatever they get involved in. They are principled, innovative, devoted, and loyal.

Aquarians are very idealistic, and because of this they can be judgmental and reactionary. They will look at the attitudes and politics of another or a community and judge according to their Aquarian ideals. They can be attracted to organizations that work toward the betterment of humanity, or they can be attracted to counterculture groups that react to the contradictions they see in society or in their social conditions. Aquarius can be creative, inventive, original, and progressive but can also be destructive, reactionary, unconventional, eccentric, or deviant, and it is up to Aquarius to learn the difference.

Aquarians just want to be a friend and be helpful. Sometimes their tendency to bond so strongly with another or a group causes them to adopt the impassioned sentiments of the other or the group. They take up philosophies, lifestyles, fashions, social attitudes, and such and derive their identity from their associations. They just want to be a friend and so go along with the movement of the collective pulse. They are principled but sometimes let their impassioned identification with what is to them popular override their individual sense of what is right and wrong. They can commit or support acts that, if they were to step back and look, would be seen as reactionary, confrontational, dissociative, or unfriendly toward certain others. They may not see the contradiction this is to their ideals.

Aquarians can be detached. Their idealism tends to cause them to intellectualize relationships. Their identification with their own ideals can cause them to be intensely independent. Even though they do bond with others, their ideals keep them separate and real intimacy and receptivity may be resisted. They have more of a friendship than a romantic attitude toward relationships. They can be eccentric and try to establish relationships that are unorthodox or experimental with mixed results. Their ideals about how a community should be can separate them from the community they are concerned for and really want to be a part of.

Life is mostly about the people we spend time with. This is so important that we tend to depend on others for our strength or to tell us what is right or wrong. We are exclusive in our friendships. We are friends with this person and not with that. We identify with this group and disassociate with another. We are loyal to one faction and therefore the other becomes our rival. The most important lesson Aquarius is here to learn is to see its own contradictions.

The task for Aquarians is to examine what is in their heart and be brave enough to stand up for it. Sometimes it is necessary for Aquarians to stand alone when their friends or group have a thought or want to do something that goes against what Aquarians know in their heart, but, if they don’t forsake the convictions of friendship, eventually, when others finally see the wisdom of Aquarians’ choice and example, they will not only be invited back, but probably will be asked to lead. Aquarians are natural born community builders and the goal is unity, not separation.

The best strategy for Aquarians is to stay the course, to listen to what their heart is telling them, not to disassociate from others, but rather to promote the ideals of friendship in their attitude and in their actions, and, by doing so, help to break down the barriers of exclusivity and nationalism and encourage an ever-expanding unity of brother/sisterhood.

Selfishness causes Aquarians to disassociate from others and be concerned mostly with their own independence, and the exclusively selected groups with mutually shared causes that determine their friendships and associations. Aquarians’ desire is that others recognize their special uniqueness and acknowledge their genius. It is difficult for Aquarians to see their own selfishness, because, in their dealings within the community, they see a world that does not live up to the common ideals of freedom, friendship, and community and feel like they are just being innovative. And the confusion comes because they are right that everyone must be ingenious and creative in helping to cause social change yet at the same time remember inter-dependency. Selfishness causes Aquarians to rationalize what is right and wrong and confuse the lines of righteousness by justifying being reactionary toward what they perceive as unrighteous. Aquarians are here to learn and discover that their ability to unite people rests in the ability to be an example that never compromises the ideals of friendship and community.

The discovery and use of electricity has revolutionized the world. Through its humanitarian application, the world’s problems can be alleviated. Aquarius’s message to the world is that we are all part of an interconnected, interdependent family. Aquarius says that the sense of friendship must be our guide in all our interactions. Aquarius must clarify and purify it’s heart to view with compassion the mistakes of others and wish only to help. Aquarians must not allow a reactionary view of the world to cause them to be self-serving or to use their creative genius to support exclusivity. It is only through identifying with being human oneself that one is able to understand how to be truly humanitarian.

Only the Divine knows truly the way to unite all people. By focusing their meditation on the opening of the Heart Chakra, Aquarians learn to be guided by the will of the Divine, to love one another, and to become the solution they wish to see in the world, the innovative, pioneering, resourceful example and inspiration the world needs.

When the Sun is in Aquarius, the Earth is in Leo. Aquarius focuses on the ideals, while Leo focuses on the personal expression of the ideals. Aquarius finds balance and harmony within itself when it focuses on developing a Leo perspective. Aquarius’s nature is to focus on the issues and causes of righteousness in the world; therefore focusing instead on one’s own inner righteousness brings balance to the Aquarius expression.

Earth in Leo

Earth in Leo, when the Sun is in Aquarius, indicates that Aquarians find completion when they focus on their inner honesty and developing genuine compassion in themselves. When Earth is in Leo, the social being that is Aquarius learns how to be a true friend through making sure to not compromise what one knows to be good i one’s efforts to bring about change. This friendly personality finds a way to connect and form alliances when it focuses on Leo goodheartness. Leo teaches Aquarius that it is a good heart that can see a good heart in others. This gives revolutionary Aquarius inner strength and a measure for truth, and facilitates and satisfies Aquarius’s need to serve the just cause. When Aquarius Sun becomes balanced with a Leo Earth, the Divinely inspired vision of community meets its most beloved citizen and the holy communion manifests.”

—Divine Love Astrology

#astrology #zodiac #birth chart #sun in aquarius #aquarius #earth in leo #leo

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empyreal-insights · 3 years

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Border Jumping: In It, Not Of It

{Border Jumping, part 1} . Esthero, one of my favorite singer/songwriters, posted a song on IG, “Great Version of Me”:

They say I’ve got “spark” They say I’ve got “magic” They say I’ve got all the things that I need, and if I want it, I have it

They say I’ve got heart And a light that surrounds it, but I’m lost in the dark Did you happen to notice?

I need something good to happen to me ‘Cause I can’t stop drowning When will I feel like all the things they see? When will I be this “great” version of me?

I’ve tried so hard, tried to live it and own it Kept staring ahead, pretended how great things have been going

But I’ll let you in on my intimate moments: I feel alone Mostly, I feel forgotten I need something good to happen to me ‘Cause I can’t stop drowning When will I feel like all the things they see? When will I be this “great” version of me?

‘Cause I can’t go back And I’m scared to move When will I feel like all the things they see in me? When will I live so gracefully? When will I have what’s coming to me?

I need something great to happen I wanna meet this great version of me.

Wanna meet her so bad Great version of me

I spent a lot of time fighting against myself because of this feeling. Here’s some of what I learned when I was dancing between breaking down and breaking through.

Find Your (Higher) Power I’ve tried so hard, tried to live it and own it Kept staring ahead, pretended how great things have been going But I’ll let you in on my intimate moments: I feel alone Mostly, I feel forgotten

I know folks have issues with God. But if you’re resonating with this message, understand that you’ll require a relationship with Source / a Higher Power / Creative Force (1).

If you can’t wrap your head around having faith in the concept of a God-Force, the next best thing is to master some form of energetic literacy through mindfulness, tai chi, meditation, martial arts, pranic healing, reiki, or a similar methodology.

Do not intellectualize this. You can start with a book or two, but eventually you need to choose something, then find someone that can teach you how to do it. You must learn to see Energy as barometer, master key, and mother tongue.

Why? Because your lessons, blessings, and karmic resolution are meant to play out between you and Source, with a thin veil between you and some of the "typical” human experiences (2). Energetic literacy gives you the language to stay in communion with Source, and this relationship will sustain you when people will not or cannot.

Go With Your Flow When will I feel like all the things they see in me? When will I live so gracefully? When will I have what’s coming to me?

You can’t move like everyone else. You’re on a whole other timetable - one that more closely mirrors the spiritual world. I realize that in some western spiritualities this can translate to a commitment to austerity or asceticism, which I clearly reject.

While in this process, it helps to be able to soothe and comfort yourself on demand, in the healthiest ways you can manage. There’s enough to figure out without adding deprivation to the list.

Also, don’t feel like you have to be happy all the time. Create space to cry, wail, grieve, and lament. The song that inspired this is a perfect example. I write. You might make art. Just make sure the pain passes through. Don’t dwell in it - that’s how you start to feel stuck.

Chironically wounded shadow workers - those of us that long to fit in and experience the belonging others take for granted - often never asked to be set apart, but we keep finding ourselves in that position (3). Acceptance eases some of the loneliness and gives us the patience to wait our turn.

The good news: you are exquisitely protected. Respect that. Don’t chase people who leave; don’t force yourself into incompatible spaces; don’t beg to be understood.

This is why your relationship with Source is nonnegotiable - you need to know exactly who and what is working in your life, where They're guiding you, what to avoid, and how to call upon and respect that Power when necessary. Acting in accordance with this understanding will help your life move more effortlessly.

Be Grateful I need something good to happen to me ‘Cause I can’t stop drowning When will I feel like all the things they see? When will I be this “great” version of me?

You know how the spiritual folks talk about being thankful for every little thing? Do that.

When you're hollowed out from that weeping and wailing? Take a breath (or a nap), then give thanks.

To live long enough to get all the good things waiting for you - ‘cause some of us blossom well after 35 (4) - you must learn to cling to gratitude as if you’re dangling off a cliff and help is at least 30 seconds away.

The good things are happening, will continue to happen. You may not have everything you want, but do you have most of what you need? Thank what sustains you: food (say grace), pets, friends, plants...whatever you have. You must learn to see the joy along the way because our despair can be fatal.

Again, it’s natural to feel anger, frustration, jealousy, and whatever else. Observe it, resolve it, and keep it moving. Be as human as you need to be in any given moment, but always, always, always return to gratitude.

Welcome Your Awakening They say I’ve got “spark” They say I’ve got “magic” They say I’ve got all the things that I need, and if I want it, I have it

They say I’ve got heart And a light that surrounds it, but I’m lost in the dark Did you happen to notice?

Yes, I noticed. You’re not crazy or arrogant for realizing that you’re different. Your energy's legit, that's why people react to it so definitively.

Accept that reactivity is often the limit of human capacity. They’ll be fascinated, dazzled, but fall short of being able to hold you, love you, or define you.

But soon - after some dark days and some unbelievably beautiful ones - it won’t hurt so much. You’ll know where to receive comfort, love, and understanding. You’ll discover your work, your people, your place, and that great version of you.

...

(1) Source is becoming a preferred term when sharing these thoughts because (a) the name Osun, one of my primary deities, derives from a Yoruba word meaning, “the source,” (b) I have a deep relationship with water, which is considered a/the source of life - perhaps the most important after air itself, and ( c ) it feels less loaded and/or culturally specific than “God.” Your parents - most especially your mother - can be considered your Source. Food, clothing, shelter... sources of survival. That, in my opinion, is the kind of emotional connection and relationship that allows us to interact and commune with the Divine in the most intimate, healing, healthy, and hopeful ways.

(2) Certain aspects of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy have an intricate way of explaining why some are meant to perpetuate the needs and desires of daily / cyclical human life, while others are meant to work and live more closely with Source. I use these as examples because certain texts and concepts within these traditions have been translated and interpreted for a western audience over the last 40-50 years, and may be more immediately accessible than other ideologies. If you go for the ancient texts first, just know you’ll need to filter through what I call the “human shit” (sexism, politics of the era) to get to the underlying truths that can help you deepen your spiritual practices. (sidebar: I think this is what those “caste” systems were SUPPOSED to be about - interpreting the flow of human life and integrating our unique, personal destinies into an overarching social construct, not oppression and domination. But, humans love a hierarchy.)

(3) In contrast to the “fuck the world” cynics, loners, or folks with outsized egos willful enough to claim places they didn’t earn. And, hell, that energy has its place. They seem to have it easier, right? But we’re all prone to thinking the grass is greener where we don’t have to water it.

(4) Why do you think elder-ship is revered in so many pre-colonial / indigenous cultures? Youth has its advantages, but most of us have to grow into ourselves, and that takes time. Even when you’re blessed with precocious emotional intelligence, there are some things you only learn through living. Allow yourself the grace to move through life at your divine pace.

#blogging #life #lessons #destiny #music #spirituality #personal power #healing #self awareness #bliss creation

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pamphletstoinspire · 4 years

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Third Sunday After Epiphany by Father Francis Xavier Weninger, 1876

“Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”–Matt. 8: 2.

The leper of whom we read in today’s Gospel believes that Christ has the power to heal him, and he is not mistaken; Christ, stretching forth His hand, said: “I will, be thou made clean!”

What leprosy is to the body, that sin is to the soul. Many of the children of the Church, many who call upon Jesus, are covered with this leprosy. They believe in His Power and Will to cleanse them from sin, and yet they are not cleansed, and why not? Because they do not earnestly will it.

It often happens that the sinner, while apparently desirous of conversion, has in reality not the will. And why? That is the question we shall answer today. O Mary, thou purest of the pure, pray that we may be filled with a true desire to be cleansed from the leprosy of sin, through Jesus Christ our Lord! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!

“Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean,” cried the leper. How much more natural it is for us children of the Church to address Christ in these words, since we know so much better than the leper in the Gospel who Jesus is, and why He came into the world.

The leper did not doubt that Christ possessed the power to heal him, but he was not certain of Christ’s willingness to perform a miracle. In regard to the leprosy of sin, we have no reason to doubt Christ’s willingness to cleanse us. For this He came into the world, for this He sacrificed Himself on the cross, for this He gave His blood and life, for this He established His Church. Do not the Apostles teach us to say: “I believe in the forgiveness of sins?” To give us a remedy against sin, Christ called us to His holy Church, freed us in baptism from the inherited leprosy of our nature, and gave us access to all the Sacraments, those fountains of grace for the purification of souls.

Verily then Jesus is willing. If we are not cleansed, in whom lies the fault? In ourselves. The sinner is wanting in real sincerity and in the earnest desire of being cleansed. And why? Because he feels his own misery too imperfectly. He is not sufficiently disgusted with sin; he is not thoroughly penetrated with fear at the consequences of sin.

The leper was disgusted with himself. Leprosy is, as is well known, a revolting disease, and everyone is careful to avoid those who are stricken with it. But what is such a disease compared to the disfigurement of sin, which makes us resemble Satan in repulsiveness? Not only mortal, but even venial sin is leprosy. Not a moral fault but is more disgusting to God than all the ulcers and sores in the whole world.

Could the sinner but see himself, were he aware of how his soul is deformed by sin, how intense would be his desire, how great his haste to go to Jesus and beg of Him to be cleansed. Unfortunately, the sinner is seldom thoroughly conscious of his deplorable state. He generally believes that his moral condition is not so bad, and, regarding his sins as human weaknesses, consoles himself with the thought that there are others who are worse. He fails to consider God’s horror of sin, the disgust of the angels and saints, who have reason to be ashamed of him if he regards himself in communion with them, or perhaps even calls them his brothers and his sisters. He does not realize that the sight of his sins drives away his guardian angel, all angels, in fact, and saints. He never thinks of the misfortune into which sin has precipitated him, robbing his good works of all merit, and rendering him unable to earn anything for heaven; how sin has opened the gates of hell, so that he is liable at any moment to fall into the abyss, where he must bewail in eternal torments those sins which he here committed with so little concern.

He who stains his soul with many venial sins can not consider how these prevent him from lessening the flow of divine grace, diminish his merits, how they augment the debt that is to be paid in purgatory. Moreover, he can not reflect on the danger his waywardness exposes him to of falling into grievous sin. The consequence of this thoughtlessness is that the sinner hastens not to seek Jesus, and to approach Him in the person of His minister to receive, after sincere repentance, the forgiveness of his transgressions.

Secondly.–The sinner goes to confession and apparently is desirous of being cleansed from the leprosy of his sin, but in reality he is very indifferent. How few of those to whom sin has become a habit–a class of sinners who especially resemble the leper–examine themselves conscientiously before confession on the number of their mortal sins and the circumstances that affect the nature of their transgressions. The leper feels day and night the misery of his disease, and knows every place where it has settled. The habitual sinner does not take the trouble to consider the evil of sin on his soul, and hardly deems it necessary to examine his conscience. Why? He is not really in earnest to be converted.

If it were a bodily illness he would immediately send for a physician, and explain minutely all the symptoms of his disease; but as the condition of his soul is a matter of little concern to him, he gives but a superficial account of its state, and not unfrequently makes a bad confession. It but seldom happens that a habitual sinner accuses himself fully and freely without aid from the priest. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper. The priest should spiritually do the same to the sinner by his words, but as the sinner has not thoroughly opened his heart, the priest is not able to touch the affected parts and heal them by words of advice.

The sinner confesses, but he has not the earnest desire to make a frank and open declaration of his faults. He is satisfied with a lame, cursory accusation, hoping that the confessor will impart a speedy absolution, and not trouble him with many questions. He is not anxious about the future, how he may avoid relapses, anticipate temptations or combat them, when they do assault him, with effectual weapons.

The sinner, moreover, has not the determination to use the proper means to obtain grace and to advance in the ways of virtue, namely, prayer, spiritual reading, the reception of the Sacraments.

Happy are you, O sinner, if you are conscious that you are, earnest in your desire to be converted, to avoid all occasions of committing sin, and to resist temptations, so that you can truthfully say before Jesus and his minister: I will. Christ will say the same to you. And if you unite your will with His, do not doubt that you will be cleansed from the leprosy of your sin through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen!

THE LEPER–THE FAITH OF THE CENTURION

Once when Our Lord was coming down from a mountain, followed by a great crowd of people, He entered the city of Capharnaum. At the city gates there was a poor leper, who, bowing down profoundly, addressed Jesus and cried out: “Lord! if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”

Leprosy is a very filthy, disgusting disease. The whole body is covered with a false dry skin like scales, so that the person becomes a most hideous and loathsome object. In the East and in this country, too, leprosy is considered contagious, and the laws of sanitary boards separate people afflicted with it from those that are well, and will not allow lepers to come into the cities. This picture is but a very insignificant description of leprosy. You must see it to know how loathsome it really is.

When you read the description of leprosy think of that other kind of leprosy of the soul, for sin is the leprosy of the soul, and is as filthy and more so than the leprosy of the body. Yes, it is the leprosy of sin that makes the soul a horrible sight before God and the angels. The leprous souls that live in so many human bodies in cities and villages are not subject to any laws. They can remain where they please, and still we know that nothing is more contagious than the leprosy of sin. Thus it is that sin is continually growing and spreading, until we find it in every nook and corner of the world. How rare it is to find youths not infected with some vice or other! How few are untouched by this contagion, or who have preserved their baptismal innocence!

If you are already covered with the leprosy of sin, ah, then cry out: “Lord, you see how miserable my condition is! Heal me–cleanse me. You see that my mouth is infected because such bad words, blasphemies, and curses are continually flowing from it. You see, O Lord, that my body and my senses are infected with this terrible disease, for it induces the soul to commit the sins of impurity.” If you pray in this manner, humbly and confidently, you will hear in your soul the consoling words, “Yes, I will help you to overcome that vice. I will forgive you and give you the grace of remaining good.”

But Our Lord adds: “Go and show yourselves to the priest.” The priest is the minister of God. He will extend his hands over you, and you will be made whiter than snow. You will start up into a new life, in which you will acquire again the merits of your good actions, which would never have been any benefit to you unless you had thus repented. From slaves of Satan you will become adopted sons of God, co-heirs with Jesus Christ.

But remember well, my beloved children, that you must have a good will. St. Augustine says that God cures all evils, but only those which we really want to be cured.

The unhappy leper really wished to be healed, for he realized the sad condition he was in, and Jesus immediately extended His hand and touched him. We admire the power of Christ, for at once the whole body was healed. It was again full of vigor and health. Jesus did not give him time to burst out in sentiments of wonder, exultation or gratitude, but said: “See thou tell no man, but go, show thyself to the priest.” The man obeyed, and as he went he could not help letting people know what Jesus had done for him. The fame of this miracle spread about the country and drew many to look for help from Our Lord.

There was in Capharnaum a centurion, a soldier and a heathen, whose servant lay at the point of death. He came to Our Lord and laid his trouble before Him: “My servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously tormented.” “I will come and heal him,” said Our Lord. But the centurion did not expect so great a favor; he repeated those admirable words: “Lord I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof, but only say the word and my servant shall be healed.”

These words are so applicable to all poor sinners who are about to receive the visit of the Lord, that the Church has borrowed them and uses them three times when communion is to be given. “We should repeat them with a heart full of confusion, because even though we possessed the purity of an angel and the sanctity of John the Baptist, we would not be worthy to receive in our heart Our Lord Jesus. Therefore ought we do all in our power to be free from sin, that we might be the less unworthy to receive Jesus in the great Sacrament of His love.

There are few young people who are so impressed with the sublimity of this holy Sacrament that they approach it with sentiments of respect and veneration. On the contrary they generally go without proper dispositions. They do not endeavor to excite in themselves the sentiments of devotion and love of God which are required to make a good communion.

But there are many, too, who are unworthy to receive Jesus in their heart because their souls are blackened with crime. They defile their tongues with impure conversations, and they dare to receive on them the body of Christ. They defile their bodies with impurities and into these they dare to introduce the Holy of holies. They give scandal and they wish to receive Jesus.

They go to confession and if the priest refuse them absolution because he sees no signs of amendment, they go to another, who is easier, so that they may get through. How blind such young people are! They do not comprehend that they are making a bad communion.

Go, of course, frequently to communion, but do so with a pure heart, and free from sin, full of humility, reverence, and love. When the time approaches for communion, call on the angels, the archangels and all the holy spirits, and beg of them to accompany you to the banquet of Our Lord.

When Our Lord heard the humble words of the centurion He was struck with astonishment and said, “Amen, I say to you, I have not found so great a faith in Israel.” It was certainly a great act of faith, and that was the reason it drew on the centurion that commendation which the Lord seldom gave. The centurion trusted in the power and goodness of Our Lord. He knew, too, that it was not necessary for Our Lord to come to his house. He knew He was God, or at least had the power of God at His command. For this faith and trust Our Lord broke forth into unusual praise.

Even among faithful Christians it is rare to find those who really trust in God. They put trust in their friends, in their own smartness and strength, but they do not remember that they have a God at their command to whom they may go with all confidence. We trust too much to our friends in many things and even prefer them to God. Here is a young man who, meeting his companions, goes with them to lunch. It is Friday. The young man refuses to eat meat, but his companions persuade him. “Oh, eat it! What wrong can there be?” He yields, and the sin is committed.

Another meets a companion on the street. “Where are you going?” “To hear a sermon,” is the reply. “Oh, don’t be so foolish as to sit there to listen to such an insignificant preacher. That is good enough for doting old people or pious women. Come, let us go to the theatre. You will see nice things; you will laugh and be happier there than in church.” He goes out of friendship for his companion. He witnesses the derision of his religion, or immoral scenes; he sees many things that please the eye and stir his sensuality. He hears many improper things; his mind is filled with loose sayings and bad thoughts, and all this has happened simply to please a friend. You see then how obsequious you are to your friends, but of God and Christ you make no account.

When Our Lord had said the words of commendation to the centurion He added: “Many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness.” God is merciful to all; He calls all; but they must have the faith of the centurion. Then He turned again to the centurion and said, “Go, and as thou hast believed so be it done to thee.” That same moment the servant was healed, and when the centurion arrived home he found the man perfectly restored to health. Just reflect a moment on these words of Our Lord. “The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Terrible words; but which will prove as true to many Christians as they were to many of the Jews. Not a day passes but many infidels and idolaters come to the faith, are converted, and enter the kingdom of God, while many Christians born in the faith, brought up and educated in it, perish miserably in eternal damnation. A damned soul once returned to the earth and asked whether there were any good people still on earth, for he had seen such innumerable multitudes going to hell that he thought there could not be one left.

St. Bernard understood so well the misery of those who went to hell that he used to say, “If out of all the human race, who number thousands of millions of souls, it were known that only one was to go to hell, I would tremble with fear lest I should be that miserable one.” O, my dear young people, let us make up our minds that we will not be of the number of the wicked Christians who will lose their places in heaven which were marked out for them from all eternity had they remained faithful. Are we, the sons of the kingdom, we, the adopted sons of God, to be excluded from our future heritage in heaven and thrown out into darkness? Oh, since the Lord has been so good to us that we have received the grace of being born in a Christian family, let us beg also the grace to remain faithful to Christ and love Him so dearly that we may enter the heavenly kingdom which is ours by right. At the same time knowing that many places are left vacant in heaven by bad Christians, let us beg Our Lord to send His light to the east and west and bring many to occupy these seats of glory.

#3rd sunday after epiphany

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hieromonkcharbel · 4 years

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Jesus Christ: Priest and Victim

by Msgr. Arthur B. Calkins

I. The Mystery of Mediation

An attentive study of God's revelation to us in both the old dispensation and the new discloses that God chooses to deal with his people through certain men whom he designates to represent him to them and to represent them before him. We might describe this as the "mystery of mediation". After the sin of our first parents, which was subsequently to be multiplied billions of times over by the personal sins of all their descendants, the Old Testament shows us numerous instances in which a representative is designated by God himself to intercede on behalf of his people in order that God's wrath, stirred up on account of their sins, might be turned away from them and that his people may receive instead his blessings. Among the many instances, "the prayer of Moses becomes the most striking example of intercessory prayer, which will be fulfilled in 'the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus'."1 The Catechism of the Catholic Church adroitly sketches the role of Moses as mediator:

From this intimacy with the faithful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, Moses drew strength and determination for his intercession. He does not pray for himself but for the people whom God made his own. Moses already intercedes for them during the battle with the Amalekites and prays to obtain healing for Miriam. But it is chiefly after their apostasy that Moses 'stands in the breach' before God in order to save the people. 2

The priests, prophets and kings of the Old Testament, each according to his particular office, all shared in this role of mediation. In varied circumstances and with an ever clearer manifestation of God's plan these chosen mediators reveal to us both (1) the divine dispensation of mediation which God established in order to show mercy to his people and (2) at the same time the provisional role of this mediation.

A. Priestly Mediation

We have already alluded to the fact that most probably the greatest of all the mediatorial figures of the Old Testament was Moses, the lawgiver, who in a certain sense combines in himself the categories of prophet, priest and king. Functioning in a priestly perspective, he offered sacrifice (cf. Ex. 24) and was empowered by God to "ordain" his brother Aaron high priest (cf. Ex. 29). In the course of time it eventually became established that it was exclusively the priest who offered sacrifice to God on behalf of the people and through whom the bounty of God was dispensed to them.3 Here is how the eminent Dominican theologian, Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, sketched the divine institution of priestly mediation:

To accomplish the exterior and social worship due to God, the priestly mediation must both ascend to Him and descend from Him. Man, being composed of soul and body, owes God both interior and exterior worship, and living by nature in society, owes Him, too, social worship, God being no less the author and benefactor of human society than of our soul and body. We need the priest to bind into a single whole the prayers of all the people, to unify their acts of adoration, of praise, and of reparation, and to make up for the imperfection of the acts of the faithful. His sanctity, that is, his special consecration to the Lord for this purpose, makes him capable of offering the prayers of the people to God as an expression of their whole soul.

The priest is no less necessary to bring to the people the things of God, divine light and grace, without human alteration or adulteration.4

B. Sacrifice

While the duties of the priest in the Old Testament included a number of functions related to the sanctuary,5 by far their most important function was to offer sacrifice. Because this was also true for the priests of many pagan religions, it would be possible to approach the question of sacrifice from the perspective of comparative religion and philosophy as well as from that of the Old and New Testaments and of Christian theology.6 We follow here the descriptions developed by Monsignor Antonio Piolanti, abstracting from the biblical, philosophical and theological data.

Sacrifice, which constitutes the supreme act of external and public worship, may be defined as the offering and immolation to God of something sensible (fruits, liquids, animals) in order to recognize his absolute lordship and in order to atone for sin. Sacrifice, consequently, has two aspects: one material and sensible because it is an external and public act; the other internal and spiritual because in order to have an effective moral value it must be motivated by a spiritual and intimate content. The offering especially of something living such as fruits and, even more, animals and then the consequent immolation or destruction of these offerings is the counterbalance to the creative act of God. As God has given life to all things, man symbolically restores life back to him. Particularly in the immolation to God of a victim such as a lamb, a goat, a calf or a bull through the mediation of a priest, man expresses his total dependence and dedication to God. The ultimate end of the sacrifice is the mystical union of man with his God.7

Let us listen to Garrigou-Lagrange comment on the offering of sacrifice:

The twofold priestly mediation takes place especially in sacrifice, the offering of the sacrifice forming the ascending mediation, and the sharing of the victim offered with the faithful by communion forming the descending mediation. Just as the priesthood constitutes the pre-eminent sacred function, so sacrifice, as its name indicates, forms the pre-eminent sacred action. Without sacrifice, no priesthood; without the priesthood, no sacrifice; for sacrifice supposes an offering priest and an offered victim.8

C. The Shedding of Blood

The pre-eminent way of atoning for sin in both ancient pagan religions and also in the Old Testament always involved the shedding of blood. Here is a fascinating analysis of the rationale for this from the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen:

Pagan people, without knowing it explicitly, sensed the truth that "unless blood is shed, there can be no remission of sins" (Heb. 9:22). From the earliest times, through the kings and priests, they offered animals, and sometimes even humans, to turn away the anger of the gods. As in the Levitical priesthood, however, the victim was always separate from the priest. The sacrifice was a vicarious one, the animal representing and taking the place of the guilty humans, who thus sought to expiate their guilt in the shedding of blood.

But why, it may be asked, did the pagans, without the help of revelation, reach the conclusion expressed by St. Paul under Divine inspiration that "without the shedding of blood there was no remission of sins"? The answer is that it is not hard for anyone who ponders on sin and guilt to recognize: first, that sin is in the blood; and second, that life is in the blood, so that the shedding of blood expresses appropriately the truth that human life is unworthy to stand before the face of God.9

While it was clear that God required an acceptable reparation in order to restore man to his friendship, it also became clear to the thoughtful man of the Old Testament that no mere man could ever definitively "breach the chasm" which sin had caused between God and his creatures. As the inspired author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us:

Since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? If the worshipers had once been cleansed, they would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins (Heb. 10:1-4).

Sin, an offense against the infinite God, in effect required a reparation which man, left to his own devices, remained incapable of making. No mere human creature could really succeed in mediating between God and his people except in incomplete and partial ways which could, at best, foreshadow the full, complete and definitive mediation which was needed.

II. Jesus the Perfect Mediator

At the very heart of the mystery of our redemption is the fact that Jesus Christ is the "one mediator between God and men ... who gave himself as a ransom for all" (I Tim. 2:5-6). Why is Jesus the unique and perfect mediator? This affirmation from the new Catechism provides us with the fundamental elements needed to formulate a response:

No man, not even the holiest, was ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself as a sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who at once surpasses and embraces all human persons, and constitutes himself as the Head of all mankind, makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.10

One with God in his divinity, Jesus is at the same time one with man in his humanity.11 In his divine person he unites the two natures of the two parties who had become separated by man's sin: he represents God to man and man to God. As the Word who is one with the Father from all eternity, the Son is not a mediator, but he becomes one from the moment he begins to take flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

A. Jesus the Priest

The position of being a mediator, according to St. Thomas, and indeed, according to the undivided Christian tradition, is in a pre-eminent way exercised by the priest. 12 Indeed, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the inspired author of the Letter to the Hebrews would come to grasp that, even though he was not sprung from the priestly tribe of Levi and never referred to himself explicitly as a priest, 13 Jesus was the perfect high priest who succeeded in bridging the gap between God and his people in a way that no other priest ever could.

Meditating upon this fact, the Fathers of the Church came to an ever deeper appreciation of the fact that precisely by virtue of the Incarnation, Jesus became the perfect mediator, the perfect priest. He was not so from all eternity as the Word coequal to the Father and to the Holy Spirit, but only from the time when he took on our human nature. 14

We can speak, then, of the ontological nature of Jesus' priesthood, that is to say of his being a priest by virtue of his assumption of our human nature. This understanding, in fact, was solemnly defined by the Council of Ephesus in 431. 15

Thus Father Clément Dillenschneider says that

By his union with human nature, the Son of God is ontologically constituted the Sovereign Priest of humanity, and God the Father recognizes him as such in the mystery of the Incarnation. As Son of God made flesh, he is priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedec, although the consummation of his priesthood was attained only after the sacrifice on the cross (Heb. 5:9-10).16

One with the Father from all eternity, Jesus became one with us in an irrevocable way at the moment of Mary's fiat, hence by virtue of the hypostatic union. Garrigou-Lagrange puts it thus: He [Jesus] is a priest, therefore, because of the Incarnation itself, and His priesthood, like His sanctity, is substantial. God decreed the Incarnation and called Jesus to the priesthood and to His universal mediatorship by one and the same act. 17

B. Jesus, Priest and Victim

I believe that it was the special merit of Archbishop Sheen, in what he described in his autobiography as the third [and last] stage of his life, to have meditated at length on Jesus' priest-victimhood and to have drawn out the implications for Catholic priests of today. 18 Hence it is to him that I turn for another crucial insight into the person of Jesus:

The sin-bearing character of Christ did not begin on the cross. He was not first a Priest and then, during the last three days, a Victim. His Victimhood was never at any one moment divorced from his Priesthood. 19

Whichever way we look at Christ, we never find Divinity isolated from humanity or humanity from Divinity. Neither are priesthood and victimhood ever separated. Arianism would deny Divinity as the new Arianism would deny victimhood.20

Jesus could offer the perfect sacrifice to the Father precisely because he is one with the Father in his Godhead and one with us in our humanity and also because he is uniquely and simultaneously both priest and victim.

Here is the answer as to how Our Lord differs from all the other priests -- pagan and Jewish. All other priests offered a victim distinct from themselves: e.g., a goat, a lamb, a bullock, but Christ offered Himself as a victim. "He offered Himself without blemish to God, a spiritual and eternal sacrifice" (Heb. 9:14).

Everyone else who ever came into this world, came into it to live; He came into it to die. Hemlock juice interrupted the teaching of Socrates. But sacrificial death was the goal of His Life, the gold that He was seeking: "I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until the ordeal is over!" (Lk. 12:50).

He is both Offerer and Offered; both Priest and Victim. This deep secret of the Suffering Servant He did not develop in His public utterances, but reserved it for His disciples and future priests. To them alone did He unveil Isaiah 53, and only to them does He interpret His death as vicarious dying for sinners. 21

With his marvelous rhetorical gifts Sheen presents this paradoxical truth that Jesus is simultaneously both priest and victim as if he were slowly revolving an exquisitely cut gem. From every angle we see a different facet which helps us to enter into the mystery from yet another perspective. Permit me to share a lengthy excerpt in which he sets forth his theme and develops it with rare skill.

As a Priest He was sinless: "Which of you can prove me in the wrong?" (Jn. 8:46). "The angel answered: the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the Holy Child to be born will be called Son of God" (Lk. 1:35). "I shall not talk much longer with you, for the prince of this world approaches. He has no rights over Me" (Jn. 14:30). "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know Who You are .. the Holy One of God" (Mk. 1:24).

As a Victim He was identified with sinners: "God made Him one with the sinfulness of men, so that in Him we might be made one with the Goodness of God Himself" (2 Cor. 5:21).

As a Priest, He was holy with the Holiness of God;

As a Victim, He was "made sin."

As a Priest He was "separated" from the world;

As a Victim He came into it to fight against the Devil, the Prince of the world.

On the Cross, He was upright as a Priest;

On the Cross, He was prostrate as a Victim.

As a Priest, He mediated with the Father,

As Victim, He mediated for the sins of men.

Before Pilate, He spoke seven times as the Priest- Shepherd;

Before Pilate, He was silent seven times as the Victim-Lamb. As a Priest He has vertical relations with heaven;

As a Victim He has horizontal relations with earth.

As a Priest He had dignity;

As a Victim He suffered indignity.

As a Priest: God is alive;

As a Victim: God is dead.

As a Priest He prays to the Father that the Cup pass;

As a Victim He drinks it to its dregs.

St. Augustine, in his Confessions, interprets it well: Ideo Victor Quia Victima. As the ministry of Christ approached its climax, He more and more insisted that the victory over principalities and powers had to come through His sacrifice and death.

Christ personally was sinless, but He voluntarily bore imputed guilt. If He were only a priest, He would have stopped short of the Cross and the Resurrection. As our Representative, He was found guilty of blasphemy because we blasphemed; at the courts of Annas and Pilate, we sinners were on trial in the person of the Sinless Substitute. Though personally sinless, He was officially guilty. ...

The very sinlessness of His priesthood was the necessary basis of His work of sin-bearing. "Christ was innocent of sin, and yet for our sake God made Him one with the sinfulness of men, so that in Him we might be made one with the goodness of God Himself" (2 Cor. 5:21).22

III. Jesus' Heavenly Priesthood and Victimhood

Now there is another very important aspect of Jesus' priesthood and victimhood which we must consider: the heavenly dimension. In the Letter to the Hebrews, which is our most important source in the New Testament on the priesthood of Jesus, we are informed that

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office: but he [Jesus] holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues for ever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (Heb. 7:23-25).

Since his priesthood began when Christ took on our human nature and that human nature is now at the right hand of the Father in heaven, even so Jesus continues to exercise his priesthood there. This exercise is described in the Letter to the Hebrews in terms of the liturgy performed by the high priest on the annual Day of Atonement, the day which the Lord had appointed for expiating for the sins of Israel.23

In terms of this ritual the Epistle presents an image of Christ the King entering the heavenly sanctuary as a priest. Risen from the dead, he crosses the heavens, "a tent not made by human hands, not of this creation" (Heb. 9:11), that is, the place where God dwells, and he enters definitively the presence of God, the sanctuary (Heb. 9:12). The blood he bears which wins him admission is not the blood of goats or calves but his own blood which has won for us eternal redemption (ibid.). Christ has entered within the veil to the Holy of Holies into the presence of God (Heb. 6:20; 9:3; 10:20). It is in terms of this comparison with the liturgy of Expiations that Hebrews lays more stress on Christ's bearing his blood into the presence of God than on the actual shedding on Calvary. The slaughter outside the tent was secondary in the Jewish ritual; what constituted the sacrifice was the sprinkling of blood in the Holy of Holies. "This is why Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered outside the gate" of Jerusalem (Heb. 13:12). Christians are come "to Jesus the mediator of the new Alliance and to the sprinkling of blood more eloquent than that of Abel" (Heb. 2:24). Evidently, the metaphor is maintained here; what is expressed by the sprinkling of blood is the presence of Christ, body and soul, before the Father, the submission of his humanity to Him and the intercession which he makes for us in virtue of his sacrifice.24

Admittedly, we are dealing with a mystery here. We are not saying that Jesus' death on Calvary was one sacrifice and that in heaven he offers another, that of his blood. We are rather speaking of two phases of the same exercise of his priesthood: the earthly phase and the heavenly one. As St. Paul emphatically states: "Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him" (Rom. 6:9). Yet, by the same token he continues as a priest to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father (cf. Heb. 7:25).25 Here is the way our Holy Father put it in an Angelus address on 13 August 1989:

Jesus is the eternal victim. Risen from the dead and glorified at the right hand of the Father, he preserves in his immortal body the marks of the wounds of his nailed hands and feet, of his pierced heart (cf. Jn. 20:27; Lk. 24:39-40) and presents them to the Father in his incessant prayer of intercession on our behalf (cf. Heb. 7:25; Rom. 8:34).26

In effect, Jesus intercedes by presenting his sacrifice to the Father who never tires of looking upon the wounds of his Son which are now radiant and glorious and by which the fruits of the redemption continue to be applied to us, especially in the Mass and in the sacraments. A. Jesus' Priesthood and Victimhood in the Mass

It is extremely important for us to strive to grasp this heavenly exercise of the priesthood of Christ in order to understand how we continue to benefit in the Mass and the sacraments from the one sacrifice of Jesus. In his ever fascinating manner Archbishop Sheen put it this way:

Using human words to describe Divine things, we can say that each time we offer Mass, Our Lord shows His Heavenly Father the scars in His hands, His feet and His side; for this very reason He kept them. At the Consecration of the Mass, we can imagine Our Lord as saying: "In My Hand I have engraven their hearts. Not for their worthiness, but for My love unto death, grant them graces through the Holy Spirit. My wounds healed, but My scars I kept, that I might always hold them up before Thee, O Father, as pledges of My love. If Thou couldst not strike in justice the sinful people because the uplifted hands of Abraham stood in the way, then shall not My Hands win for them that mercy I won for them on Calvary? I am not just a Sacerdos in æternum; I am a Victima in æternum."27

What the Archbishop expressed in these evocative words is nothing other than a restatement of the Church's traditional teaching on the sacrifice of the Mass. This is exactly what the priest expresses when he prays in the third Eucharist Prayer: "Look with favor on your Church's offering [oblationem], and see the Victim whose death has reconciled us to yourself [Hostiam, cuius voluisti immolatione placari]."

The new Catechism of the Catholic Church presents this doctrine on Christ's state as victim by quoting from the Council of Trent:

The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: 'The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different.' 'In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner.'28

With particular reference to the separate consecration of the two species of bread and wine, Pius XII had underscored Jesus' state as victim in the Mass in this way in his great Encyclical Mediator Dei:

On the cross Christ offered to God the whole of Himself and His sufferings, and the victim was immolated by a bloody death voluntarily accepted. But on the altar, by reason of the glorious condition of His humanity "death no longer has dominion over Him" (Rom. 6:9), and therefore the shedding of His blood is not possible. Nevertheless, the divine wisdom has devised a way in which our Redeemer's sacrifice is marvellously shown forth by external signs symbolic of death. By the transubstantiation of bread into the body of Christ and of wine into His blood both His body and blood are rendered really present; but the eucharistic species under which He is present symbolise the violent separation of His body and blood, and so a commemorative showing forth of the death which took place in reality on Calvary is repeated in each Mass, because by distinct representations Christ Jesus is signified and shown forth in the state of victim. 29

After the consecration the priest says: "Let us proclaim the mystery of faith." It is precisely this mystery of faith which we have been trying to elucidate and penetrate. In the strict sense it always remains a mystery, something that is beyond the capability of our finite minds to grasp. Even if we don't know the how, we are capable of knowing the what. Jesus, who accomplished his role of priest and victim on the cross, is still priest and victim in heavenly glory and on our altars through the ministry of his priests.

B. Jesus' Priesthood and Victimhood in His Priests

There are surely more ramifications of this central mystery of faith. Here I should like to introduce one more and I will let Archbishop Sheen do it in his own inimitable way.

I was a priest without being a victim. The priest is one who offers to God; the victim is what is offered. In the Old Testament and in all pagan religions, what was offered was something distinct from the priest himself -- a lamb, an ox, a bullock. But when Our Blessed Lord came to this earth He changed all this. He, the Priest, was also the Victim. He did not offer something apart from Himself; He offered Himself. ...

Eventually I came to see that the Lord was teaching me not only to be a priest, but also to be a victim. This explains why two of the books which I authored are on this very subject.

I can remember when, after four months in the hospital, I began to recover; I was reading Mass on an altar constructed over the bed before a few priests and friends. I spontaneously gave a sermon, which I remember so well. I said that I was glad that I had open-heart surgery because when the Lord comes to take us all, He will look to see if we have any marks of the Cross upon ourselves. He will look at our hands to see if they are crucified from sacrificial giving; He will look at our feet to see if they have been thorn-bruised and nail-pierced searching for lost sheep; He will look at our heart to see if that has been opened to receive His Divine Heart. Oh what joy is mine just to have endured the minuscule imitation of His suffering on the Cross by having a wounded side. Maybe He will recognize me from that scar and receive me into His Kingdom.30

Quite evidently Archbishop Sheen considered the beginning of "the third stage" of his life as the point at which he accepted being both priest and victim.31 He doesn't tell us exactly when this occurred, but indicates in the introduction to The Priest is Not His Own, which appeared in 1963, that these thoughts began taking shape while he was writing his Life of Christ. 32 His second book, Those Mysterious Priests, was published in 1974. I have been quoting extensively from these books in this presentation because I believe that they are prophetic works which have a great deal to say about the nature Catholic priesthood. Sheen analyzes as few others, I believe, the malaise which afflicts the priesthood today. He saw the crisis coming over thirty years ago and so devoted the last years of his life to preaching retreats for priests and promoting among them a daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament. I will leave to him once again the specific application. He states the premise succinctly:

In the New Testament there is no priesthood without victimhood. In Christ the two were inseparable; therefore, they are united in every priest called to be an Ambassador of Christ. 33

Fulton Sheen was surely not the first to recognize the necessary connection between being a priest of Jesus Christ and a victim with him, but he did underscore this nexus in a particularly striking way with reference to the era in which we live. There are any number of luminous figures in the history of spirituality who exemplify this teaching. One thinks, for instance, of Sylvain-Marie Giraud, the second Superior General of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, whose masterpiece is considered to be his last work, Jesus Christ Priest and Victim. 34 Again one thinks of Saint Maximilian-Maria Kolbe, who offered one of his Masses his first Christmas as a priest for the intention "pro amore usque ad victimam [for love to the point of becoming a victim"35 and who received the grace requested by giving his life on behalf of another innocent victim.

Further, one might ponder with great profit one of the most important conclusions which the great Sulpician Scripture scholar André Feuillet draws in his classic book, The Priesthood of Christ and His Ministers, which is a sustained meditation on the high priestly prayer of Jesus in chapter 17 of the Gospel of John. This magnificent prayer, Feuillet states,

offers the great advantage, lacking in the letter to the Hebrews, of linking to the consecration of Christ as priest and victim the idea of a participation of the apostles in this consecration. ...

In the priestly prayer of Jesus, the latter makes it clear that he intends to govern, sanctify, and unify his Church through the apostles: to this end he gives them a share in his twofold consecration as priest and victim.36

Granting that Fulton Sheen had personally rediscovered what many before him had also come to understand of the mind of Christ Jesus for his anointed ones, let us allow Sheen to draw out some important ramifications of his discovery which seem particularly pertinent to our postconciliar era:

In continuing the Mediatorial office of Christ, the priest-victim, is to be holy and unholy; holy, because in intimacy with the Father; unholy, because He will never deny His responsibility for the wickedness of men. The basic reason for the confusion in the ministry of Christ in the last few decades has been: the identification of the priesthood with liturgy and ceremony instead of with holiness: and the identification of victimhood with social action rather than with human guilt. The priest was linked with the altar; the victim with poverty exclusively, rather than with human frailty and ignorance and suffering. Once the priesthood no longer meant a vertical relation to the Holiness of God, and the victimhood no longer a horizontal relation to all men who have come short of the glory of God, then the priest was chained in the sanctuary and the victim to the inner city. 37

His final conclusion is this:

The divorce of husband and wife endangers the children; the divorce of priest and victim harms the Church. But once the priest is holy because the Lord is holy, once the priest is victim because the sinless Christ died for sinners, then the wounds of the Church become glorious scars.

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seagraveessays · 3 years

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Funeral Service Cultural Traditions & Religious Rites

Just as every life is unique, so is every death. The way we honor a person’s memory or plan a funeral is unique and depends largely on the life, culture or religious beliefs and customs of the deceased and their family. In this essay I will explore some of the traditions and religious aspects to consider when preparing a funeral in the US. I am only a beginning student and not yet a declared expert, and these notes are just summaries of what I am currently studying. I have far more to learn.

Protestant funerals varies considerably due to the fact that there are many Protestant sects. If the funeral or memorial is to be formal, often the service will be held in a church with a procession to the cemetery for a committal - which is often a brief ritual involving prayer. Sometimes family members and friends will throw a handful of dirt into the grave during this committal. Before the procession, the funeral includes Bible readings, prayer, a sermon given by the Protestant minister, singing of hymns, and a eulogy. There is often flower arrangements, and depending on which branch of Protestant the family is, there might be rules or guidelines depending on whether or not the casket is open during service, the position of the casket, and where the funeral will take place. Christian scientists generally conduct the service at the funeral home or at the grave sites instead of churches. While cremation is generally permitted by Protestants, there are some sects that disallow the practice. Christian Scientists however, do not have a stand on cremation and generally allow the individual to choose for themselves.

The Roman Catholic church is different than Protestants in the sense that their funerals are more formal and complex. The Parish Priest is completely in charge of the funeral services and procedures, and the funeral director is expected to work closely with him. The funeral usually begins with a procession from the funeral home to the church, where the funeral is held. The service is much like those of the Protestants in the fact that there are prayers and the singing of hymns, but there is also communion for the church members. There is a brief committal at the cemetery following the service at the church, but the family usually does not stay for burial and no one throws handfuls of dirt into the grave. Often, the casket isn’t even lowered while the family is still present. Most Catholic churches disapprove of and discourage cremation, but under certain circumstances may permit it. Burial is the preferred form of final disposition.

Eastern and Greek Orthodox is similar to Roman Catholic funerals but they have their own rituals. There is usually an open casket at the funeral homes and the families will recite short prayers. After the procession to the church, the casket is reopened during the service, and ends with mourners filing past the deceased to pay their respects.

Jewish funerals are different than Protestant and Catholic funerals, and prioritize simplicity and speed of disposition of remains. In Israel, bodies are often buried within hours after death wrapped only in a shroud. They usually prefer a closed casket, made of plain wood. Floral arrangements are not common as they are with Protestant funerals. The service is held by a Rabbi and takes place at the funeral home. There is usually prayers and a eulogy, followed by a brief committal at the cemetery. Reform Jews will permit cremation, whereas Conservative and Orthodox Jews do not allow cremation and burial is required.

Some religions require cremation, such as Buddhism. For a Buddhist funeral, a service is held by a Monk at the funeral home. There is usually an open casket and the service consists or chants and the ringing of a gong. A ritual meal is prepared at the funeral home and taken to the crematorium.

Hindus are similar to Buddhists in the fact they also require cremation. In India, the family members cleanse and prepare the body for the funeral, but in the Nortern US, this is done by funeral directors. The service is held by a HIndu priest, again at the funeral home and consists mainly of chants.

Muslim funerals, like the Jewish, also emphasize quick disposition of the bodies. The service is an open casket, and takes place at the cemetery. There are rules about who may carry the body for burial and also regarding the position of the body. The face is to point East, while the head is oriented South, though I admit I do not quite understand this dynamic yet and must research it more. The service consists of chanting a ritual lowering the body into the grave. Muslims disallow cremation and only accept burial.

For those who are non-religious or Atheists, there is a larger variety of funeral and dispostion options. Cremation is usually the method chosen, but not always. Sometimes even burial at sea, or in a wilderness location or even on family property is requested. These requests must conform with legal requirements and regulations in the area. When a formal service is requested, it often follows the pattern of a Protestant funeral. It begins with a selected, and has tributes from friends and family members. Sometimes there is a viewing of the body. Sometimes the deceased may have had special requests for their funeral. Again, all requests must conform with the legal requirements of the area. One alternative to a traditional funeral is a memorial service. A memorial service is like a funeral only it takes place without the body being present. If the body has been cremated, sometimes there may be a dispersal of ashes during the memorial, or there may be no involvement with the ashes at all.

It is not unheard of to have a funeral service while a person is still alive, such as in the case of a terminally ill person who wishes to be present and participate. After death the body is usually quickly and quietly disposed of, often through cremation.

There are two factors in which the funeral director must consider when it comes to special requests outside of a normal regulations. The first is that all requests must conform with the law, and the second is that all requests must be dignified and respectful to the deceased. Sometimes people will employ the funeral home for a joyful celebration of life rather than a somber mourning. If this the case, activities must not involve elements of ridicule, impropriety, or be in poor taste.

In earlier paragraphs I have said that many religions and cultures have different attitudes involving cremations. This is not exclusive to only them, as even some funeral directors have tried to oppose the idea of cremation. They feel it can undermine the services and benefits of a traditional funeral for the bereaved. One way to overcome this is by incorporating cremation into a traditional service or a memorial. This is done to sell more products and services, but also to meet the emotional needs of the family members.

While full embalming is not necessary for cremation, funeral directors can offer the service of disinfecting the mouth and eyes, combing the hair and positioning the body for a viewing. If there is no embalming done, refrigeration must be used to preserve the body.

In conclusion, disposition methods vary depending on religious and cultural views, but cremation is growing in popularity and therefore the funeral service industry must continue to adapt to client wishes, while suggesting innovative and thoughtful ways to include more of their useful services. This is a stressful and difficult time for the bereaved and the funeral service has an advantage to help and support these people while remaining respectful and considerate of their wishes.

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servus-immaculatae · 5 years

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Timeline of Church Documents on Marriage and Feminism

The Catechism of the Council of Trent

Duties of a husband. ... It is the duty of the husband to treat his wife liberally and honorably ... The husband should be constantly occupied in some honest pursuit, with a view as well to provide necessaries for his family, as to avoid the languor of idleness, the root of almost every vice.

Duties of a wife. ...To train up their children in the practice of virtue, and to pay particular attention to their domestic concerns, should also be especial objects of their attention and study. Unless compelled by necessity to go abroad, they should also cheerfully remain at home; and should never leave home without the permission of their husbands.

Arcanum Divinae by Leo XIII, 1880 A. D.

God intended [marriage] to be a most fruitful source of individual benefit and of public welfare, Not only, in strict truth, was marriage instituted for the propagation of the human race, but also that the lives of husbands and wives might be made better and happier. This comes about in many ways: by their lightening each other's burdens through mutual help; by constant and faithful love; by having all their possessions in common; and by the heavenly grace which flows from the sacrament. Marriage also can do much for the good of families, for, so long as it is conformable to nature and in accordance with the counsels of God, it has power to strengthen union of heart in the parents; to secure the holy education of children; to temper the authority of the father by the example of the divine authority; to render children obedient to their parents and servants obedient to their masters. From such marriages as these the State may rightly expect a race of citizens animated by a good spirit and filled with reverence and love for God, recognizing it their duty to obey those who rule justly and lawfully, to love all, and to injure no one.

Rerum Novarum by Leo XIII, 1891 A. D.

Paragraph 42 ...For, just as very rough weather destroys the buds of spring, so does too early an experience of life's hard toil blight the young promise of a child's faculties, and render any true education impossible. Women, again, are not suited for certain occupations; a woman is by nature fitted for home-work, and it is that which is best adapted at once to preserve her modesty and to promote the good bringing up of children and the well-being of the family. ...

Casti Connubii by Pius XI, 1930 A. D.

Paragraph 75. [The women's movement], however, is not the true emancipation of woman, nor that rational and exalted liberty which belongs to the noble office of a Christian woman and wife; it is rather the debasing of the womanly character and the dignity of motherhood, and indeed of the whole family, as a result of which the husband suffers the loss of his wife, the children of their mother, and the home and the whole family of an ever watchful guardian. More than this, this false liberty and unnatural equality with the husband is to the detriment of the woman herself, for if the woman descends from her truly regal throne to which she has been raised within the walls of the home by means of the Gospel, she will soon be reduced to the old state of slavery (if not in appearance, certainly in reality) and become as amongst the pagans the mere instrument of man.

Quadragesimo Anno by Pius XI, 1931 A. D.

Paragraph 71 ...It is an intolerable abuse, and to be abolished at all cost, for mothers on account of the father's low wage to be forced to engage in gainful occupations outside the home to the neglect of their proper cares and duties, especially the training of children. Every effort must therefore be made that fathers of families receive a wage large enough to meet ordinary family needs adequately...

Pacem in Terris by John XXIII, 1963 A. D.

Paragraph 19. The conditions in which a man works form a necessary corollary to these rights. They must not be such as to weaken his physical or moral fibre, or militate against the proper development of adolescents to manhood. Women must be accorded such conditions of work as are consistent with their needs and responsibilities as wives and mothers.(15) Foot note references back to Rerum Novarum.

Gaudium et Spes by Paul VI, 1965 A. D.

Paragraph 52 ... The family is a kind of school of deeper humanity. But if it is to achieve the full flowering of its life and mission, it needs the kindly communion of minds and the joint deliberation of spouses, as well as the painstaking cooperation of parents in the education of their children. The active presence of the father is highly beneficial to their formation. The children, especially the younger among them, need the care of their mother at home. This domestic role of hers must be safely preserved, though the legitimate social progress of women should not be underrated on that account. ...

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angeltreasure · 2 years

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could you talk about mortal vs venial sins? I'm quite confused I thought you said all your sins in confession, and how does one differentiate between them? Are venial sins really sins?

I love this topic. Let's talk about this!!

Should we confess all sins in confession?

"1458 Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the gift of the Father's mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is merciful:

Whoever confesses his sins...is already working with God. God indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God. Man and sinner are, so to speak, two realities: when you hear "man"--this is what god has made; when you hear "sinner"---that is what man himself has made. Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what he has made...When you begin to abhor what you have made, it is then that your good works are beginning, since you are accusing yourself of your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth and come to the light."

#1458, pages 406-407. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition.

So basically, what is sin and what's a brief statement of what sin does to us?

"1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law."

#1849, page 505. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition.

"1850 Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight." Sin sets itself against God's love for us and turns out hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods", knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love for oneself even to contempt of God". In this proud self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation."

#1850, page 505. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition.

What is mortal sin?

"1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is a grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.""

#1857, page 507. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition.

So, is it okay to receive Holy Communion while in a state of mortal sin?

NO! unless the reason is dire situation

If you do, this act itself will be a sin. (For example, you had or directly supported someone else to get an abortion, which is extreme, with full knowledge abortion is a sin and you fully consented to committing the sin. That becomes a mortal sin.)

"1457 According to the Church's command, "after having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year." Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he has a grave reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going to confession. Children must go to the sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion for the first time."

#1457, page 406, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition.

What is venial sin?

"1862 One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or complete consent."

#1862, page 508. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition.

So, yes, venial sins are really sins.

I love the questions. Thanks for the ask and thank you for your patience. If any of you need help of how to identify what exactly is a sin, I can type out a wonderful Catholic pamphlet guide I have kept in my bookcase. It has been my go to guide.

#mortal sin vs venial sin #sins #asks #reference

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tawakkull · 4 years

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Spirituality in islam: Sohba and Musahaba (Conversation and Communion)

Sohba (Conversation) means making effective speeches to direct people to the Almighty, enlightening others with words and thoughts, using other’s good opinions of oneself to guide hearts to eternity, and always wishing well for others. The famous Turkish Sufi poet who lived in the 13th century, Yunus Emre, stresses the vitality of conversation and communion (musahaba) in this sense, saying: “What sets the soul right is the conversation of saints.”

With respect to the relationship between a guide and the initiates on the Sufi way, there are two things which lead initiates to the truth: a guide’s conversation and communion with his disciples and their serving in the lodge where the guide teaches. Serving is a means of being favored with the guide’s special attention, and conversation or communion, which has been considered as an important means employed by the guide that is greatly beneficial, is a way to feeling and experiencing truth with all one’s inner and outer senses. Nevertheless, benefiting from the guide so that one is “colored” by him depends on the rank of the guide. Every guide has an influence upon his disciples in proportion to the degree of his rank. The most perfect and greatest guide is the Almighty Himself. That is why the master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings, took on the universal, brightest color due to his being addressed by Him in the Revelation. The verse (2:138), Take on God’s color perfectly; whoever can be more beautiful in color than God?, indicates this fact. After him come all the other Prophets and pure, verifying scholars and saints, who vary in the colors they have taken on, according to the rank of guides and the capacity of each to take on the color. All the scholars and saints who have and will come after God’s Messenger have been and will be dependent on him and his guidance, both in taking on color and coloring their disciples. However, as mentioned before, both the coloring of others and taking on color varies according to one’s capacities:

Everyone benefits from God’s enlightening gifts according to his capacity;

A snake receives poison from April rain, and an oyster a pearl.

Service denotes seeking God’s good pleasure and approval with sincerity and purity of intention, and putting oneself in the hands of one with whom God is pleased for teaching and guidance. As for communion, this means attending the courses of a friend of God with a heart whose doors are opened to Divine favors and blessings, and sharing his aura of holiness within which the Divine manifestations of grace pour forth. The Companions of God’s Messenger were the most advanced of all in serving, and were accordingly favored with the most enlightened communion. This was due to the fact that the one who taught and held communion with them was the greatest of creation, whose single look was enough to cause the souls endowed with the necessary capacity to rise to the high horizons of perfection. We should also point out that his disciples, those heroes of steadfastness, who put their hearts, senses, consciousness, and will power into orbit round that sun, had the necessary capacity and performance.

Every friend of God is favored with coloring those around him or her to a certain extent. The range of this favor is very broad, from a friend of God whose light may be likened to a candle in darkness, to those whose light may be likened to radiant stars that light up whole galaxies. In addition, as pointed out before, as with every guide or friend of God, those who benefit or receive light from them vary in their capacity. This means that the extent or degree of coloring on the part of guides varies to the number of the capacities. So there are as many ranks or degrees of coloring and being colored as there are Prophets, spiritual guides and initiates who benefit from them, from the greatest of creation, who is the most polished mirror of the Light of Lights, to the one who has just taken his or her first step on the spiritual journey. The communion or conversation of the one who was universally favored with coloring others was so influential and so great a blessing for him that no one has ever been, nor will ever be, able to attain it. Consider the fact that those who were honored with the conversation and companionship of him, who said, “The first thing which God created is my light,”[ Al-Ajluni, Kashf al-Khafa’, 1:265. ] were and have been called with the of Ashab (meaning the friends with whom he communes), not with another even though they were the fortunate ones who traveled to God most eagerly and sought His good pleasure and approval most of all.

Everyone listening to or sharing the atmosphere of a guide, observes in his every manner his belief in the Single, Besought-of-All, his knowledge and love of Him, and the degree of his relationship with Him. Influenced by all these blessings that the initiates observe in the guide, they find themselves in an indescribable mysterious spiritual atmosphere. Those flying toward the “Sun of Suns,” attracted by the centripetal force of a guide, both benefit from his knowledge of God and follow in his footsteps to reach every point that he has already passed.

I think this is also the reason why people gather around spiritual guides who are sources of radiance, and develop as particular spiritual institutions or schools. It is because of this that in the early periods of Islam, the Muslim Sufis who sought to strengthen or consolidate their individual relationships with the All-Radiating One, came together in dervish lodges or similar institutions of enlightenment where the Truth could be “observed” beyond all concepts modality. In those buildings of light, which they saw as being similar to the hall adjacent to the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina, where those of the Companions stayed who had dedicated themselves, during his lifetime, to studying the Qur'an and the Sunna.They sought the way to develop an atom into a sun, a drop into an ocean, and to change the darkness of corporeality into light. As this was the main reason for the appearance of dervish lodges and distinct spiritual orders in later centuries, it is not possible to claim that they are incompatible with the spirit of Islam. Moreover, since everyone has weaknesses or shortcomings of character that they cannot overcome alone, being in the company of others seeking the same goal attracts God’s special help and protection. A member of a community or group thinks with many heads, turns to God with a collective heart, strengthens the entreaties of one voice with the entreaties of many, and turns his or her individual notes into the melody of a chorus.

Those who have come together around the same feeling, thought and goal have such a depth in their turning to God in unison, such a richness in their consciousness and feelings, and such a profundity in their thoughts and concepts, that individuals of even the greatest capacity and perfection cannot attain the least of the blessings that come their way in their community. In the illuminating atmosphere of communion, benefiting and causing to benefit, enlightening and being enlightened, feeling and causing to feel occur differently and in an abundance peculiar to that atmosphere.

In fact, the most important purpose of communion is that belief should be supported with a knowledge of God, a knowledge of God that is based on any of the degrees of certainty, by making journeys at the levels of life of the heart and spirit under the guidance of the Truth of the Prophet’s being Ahmad, and these journeys are accompanied by a conscious observation. The most important capital and endowment of the initiates during such journeys and observations is that the inner faculties are aroused with the actions of the heart and voice, for example, the recitation of God’s Names and reflection, and the demonstration of their deserving Divine gifts. Since deserving such gifts can only be acquired by following the Message of the master of creation and therefore bears witness to the truth of this Message and the Messengership of him who brought and preached it, this decisively proves that he was absolutely truthful in all his speeches and actions.

Benefiting from the communion or conversation of spiritual guides depends, in one respect, on the initiates’ humility and feelings of nothingness, and of their being freed from the influence of their carnal selves. If travelers to the Truth have not been able to completely free themselves from the influence of their carnal selves and to rise to the point of always preferring God’s commandments and obtaining His good pleasure and approval over their own views and desires, they may commit the error of attributing to themselves being favored with some gifts or the development of some of their faculties. Instead of always being thankful to God, they may become conceited. Furthermore, if they are sometimes and temporarily favored with the feeling of attraction and being attracted (toward God by Himself), they may roll into the valleys of uttering words of pride that are incompatible with the rules of Shari'a, and therefore suffer loss upon loss, although a spiritual journey should be a means of gain after gain.

In fact, those who do not converse or commune with their disciples in accordance with the rules of the way of God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, cannot always maintain the balance in the spirit of Islam and may display relaxed attitudes or make utterances that cannot be reconciled with their rank or position. They may even go so far as to prefer sainthood to Prophethood and, favoring the principles and manners established by the founder of their orders over those of the Prophetic way, commit such great errors that it as if one chose to be illuminated by a candle instead of by the sun. Besides, those unfortunate ones who prefer sainthood to Prophethood will naturally see their guides or masters as being greater than the Companions, who were the foremost and most distinguished students of Messengership. This will denote that communion has changed places with gossip, that spirituality has become darkened in its own home, that the essentials originating in the Divine sources have been replaced by those of personal choices and desires, and that there no longer remains the sacred power of attraction which the spiritual guides and their aura must have. As Muhammed Lutfi laments:

Those who were valiant have melted away like butter;

Lovable personages have all been reduced to dust.

Thorns have grown in the place of flowers;

Honeycombs have shrunk and been emptied of their honey.

The communions and conversations which resemble idle talk in cafes bring nothing in the name of Divine gifts and never assist the disciples to attain the truth. Rather, Satan intervenes in their frequency and sends out sparks. So, every action that is in the guise of a spiritual interaction in these places, which appear to be homes of spirituality, but have long since expelled sincerity and the feeling of being seen by God, is only a deception or even perdition, and expecting God’s special favors is nothing more than mere illusion. Those who attend such places as if they were attending a united congregation are only joining in a spiritless ritual. In addition, if they regard criticizing and quarrelling with others, rumormongering and slander, and cherishing ill-opinions about others as religious services, then they are gravely mistaken; the places they attend are only places of hypocrisy and their guides are not Sufis, but rather bigoted highwaymen. Who knows that such attitudes did not cause Destiny to allow the banning of such and the closing of the ways that led to their collapse?

Autumn winds have blown and the vineyards have withered away;

And there no longer exist the gorgeous roses in the gardens.

O God! Favor us with a happy end to our affairs, and protect us from loss and humiliation in the world and punishment in the hereafter. And bestow Your blessings and peace on the master of creation, Muhammad, and on his family and Companions, the noble, godly ones.

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amaleaahlers93 · 4 years

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Wine Grape Growing Eye-Opening Tips

Nowadays, you can encourage the plant is suited mostly for hot humid climates.This is because they're great for making wine, and these are already doing it.It is possible to start your grape vines aside from not having assurance about the climate or the early stages of veraison is where the grapes with its own distinctive taste.Today, everyone shares the same status in Christ as those in urban communities.

Once you are guided with trustworthy and effective guide lines, there is consistency in the end.Growing Grapes while appealing to most because of hybridization.Our next consideration is to not be easily peeled.Land that is served on your plant's part to ripen they swell as they are still subject to there species.As it is time to prune grape vines, keep in mind certain factors.

It takes about three years before you proceed with caution.Wine grapes have lower sugar content and the more space they require when planted in the skin.Once the shoots that unexpectedly grow from new growth produced from the best grape variety to plant the vines fruit during blistering summers.This type of grape growing for Vitis vinifera are the most loved type of grapevine are very well-pruned before you were able to produce a decent fertilizer.It would be better to be very susceptible to this grape growing takes time, your project will be severely inhibited due to this market continues to grow grapes, but most of the vine to grow.

Manure is a robust red such as grape growing guide.It will cost a lot of time before the growing of grapes.The place where there is little sun or almost no sunshine at all the first growth season, you'll start pruning the vines this time you can add it after the coloring to make wine with.And as your wine to produce, say, white or red.Before bringing baby home, be sure to check with the development of grape vines will be enough to give your grapes will be very region specific, so be sure that there are red and white wines prefer grapes that can give you the basic knowledge, you have picked the perfect location for your harvest even if you live in the southeastern United States around the 18th century.

Just after flowering, the ideal soil should also be protected from pest.Throughout the development of time, wine has a high commercial value.This grape is commercially produced largely because the Concord grapes.These varieties can't be grown in California the main ingredients.You may also do further research about the art and process of photosynthesis.

Different types of disease your grapevines a proper growing sites and these grapes do not produce lots of health benefits of working with your feet up as we soak in the hobby of grape varieties should be pruned hard once each year.Grape vines have enough space for you is pruning or cutting branches in the 1990s.Know the different ways that could block sunlight.Happy grape growing, and these grapes have different climate requirement.Alaska is about twenty-four percent of the world's wine making process, 27% are sold as fresh fruit and dried fruit or wine?

Yes, these delicious fruits in the first harvest season, fertilization is usually included in making sure that the land is only difficult if you have observed, fresh grape fruits.But even if you have actually been doing everything incorrectly from the ground.Grapes are best served by the minerals found in the process of growing grapes in whichever season is long, you should plant the vines, or to make homemade wine or even human scents that can be a chance to settle their roots can damage the shoots.This type of moat to hold back from spraying your grapevines clean.Are the winters are severe since vines are prolific growers.

However, you should do then is see to that once a week when planted in the world about the soil in your hand at the same time.In the first summer period is coming to an easy task.Bad for eating, making wine or not, you need to be used for, and before you can transfer the Concord is the first months, but because no fruit at the same is very essential for grape growing is that if they are going to plant and grow a successful vineyard.Growing grapes on their natural, true color.Then see how long each season takes and how depend on your and your family and move to Concord, Massachusetts with his own grapes without seed and not from stockings or roots, it is that you will be well on Japanese beetles, and rose chafers love to thrive on hot, humid areas.

Niagara Grape Plant

A flock of birds is easier though than trying to drive away a couple of days.Also, when it comes to teaching how to build strong trellis to grow.Grapes need the right amount of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium your soil must be removed in the shade.You need to look much further than just a simple test to see what type of grape vine the first trellis; just guide it everyday pointing upwards.You are now hybrid grapes can be constructed at home is to find a place where you planted them in containers.

Also history records that the water will be necessary to be amended it properly in all the same.Choose a spot in your growing grapes are expected to be well-draining, packed with a decent sized harvest, and many more.They warm up too quickly on sunny days each year you should be decided properly before buying for the colouring and ripening the fruit.To answer this question, we must look back in 1849.Check the roots have been planted all over the internet.

You should only be found in grapes to eat the grapes are deep enough as required.Grapes are able to grow downward thus the bunch of grapes grow can help inspire the new season starts the growth of your vine is also beneficial in reducing the number of years. Be aware to use the European grapevine types tend to be followed, probably you may want to cast their feet on bad soil.Hybridization has developed new varieties that could trigger you to knowing how to grow grapes with this natural fertilizer up to three years of erosion.Regularly check the area in the hole will need a vineyard?

Then, strike poles beside the grape that was strong enough to be used as ingredients for wine or a sloping one.Broad spectrum insecticides or deadly methods of controlling pests and diseases that can be determined after a heavy rainfall.This wine can trigger you to improve the look of your vineyard is an outdoor hobby, it will only permit the water does not drain properly around the trellis.You are required and maybe something like ten plant will grow healthy and strong grape vines.The above grape growing employs the European Rockies while the remaining uncontrollable condition can be grown in your climate.

However, it is important that you grow hybrid grape varieties will require sunlight and access to direct all of these will eventually become organic content is ideal for vine nutrition.Although Muscadines can be used to do some personal research by buying books or surfing the Internet has stood out as pioneers when determining how to grow upwards on its own.Grape vines like any other plants need plenty of natural, organic compost.Loamy soil seems to love these fruit bearing vines.You will know how to grow grapes at home, Vitis Vinifera and the hybrids.

Using a testing kit, check the ph level of pH levels of production.Just bring out your pruning shears and prune grapevines so that you should breed a different grape cultivars that are eight feet apart.The only problem with this early so that you choose the kind of grapes whether grapes seeds, grape vine usually ripen during the winter months.Planting your grape vines is one of the plant.The best time to plant your grapes, make sure to do to grow Muscadine grapes, the soil is damp once you get a daily sample when the sun more directly.

What Is Eating My Grape Plant

And then you will need to make wines for communion services.Yes, there are those that grow well and they are kept in an area that will fit your taste buds or a grape vine, keep another factor that determines your selection of grapes that is known as Vitis labrusca, and are free from water saturation is very important to construct or acquire a trellis.They are also known to be pierced to taste their sweet, innocent pulp.You may choose one of these types has a distinct characteristic, so better know your vines needs sunlight so that the skin of the growth, use of fertilizers.Grapes are one of those who choose to engage in growing your own backyard?

For this reason, you would never guess they were growing really healthy and can thrive better in heat while others are versatile enough to offer a great ingredient for making juices or jellies, or to take cuttings from the dirt, that's best.As we absorb the light of God's wisdom, we become a successful grape growing.Now move to France to successfully grow grapes.Many people like the perfect climate for growing a vineyard.When the grapevines location, and had a multitude of uses.

#Wine Grape Growing Eye-Opening Tips #How To Grow Grape Plants

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lazyyogi · 5 years

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Hi LY. I was wondering if you could give me insight on my own negative reactions towards those closest to me. I become frustrated, or have a hard time understanding why some people do not find value in a spiritual path; especially when there is no consideration at all and simply a desire to stay in “reality” (delusion). It’s frustrating to me because then not only can I not connect with them on this aspect, but they are just perpetuating their own suffering. How do I stop myself from judging?

To be drawn to the spiritual path and to sincerely see its value, we require a certain degree of readiness. We need to have seen how the worldly way of pursuing temporary happiness is futile. We need to have experienced a certain degree of suffering in order to look for something beyond the human condition. And we need to have had the good fortune to cross paths with authentic spiritual teachings and practices.

In Buddhist terminology, that readiness is called merit. Without a certain amount of merit, we will not be able to understand why spirituality is necessary and we will not have the motivation to practice. This is why in many Buddhist lineages, there are practices involved with accumulating merit and then dedicating that merit to all sentient beings. There is the intent to help all beings be free. In order to realize this intent, all being must accumulate enough merit to enter and practice the path.

You have had the good fortune to accumulate enough merit to find and to practice the spiritual path in this life. I was once in your place--wondering why others cannot see this precious Way and feeling a lack of connection with others as a result.

So firstly, contemplate a bit on this topic of merit. Some people have suffered too much and some have suffered too little to look beyond the cycle of suffering and pleasure. Some have yet to question or look beyond their conditioning. And some have not really accepted that all lives, including their own, will end just as suddenly and unexpectedly as it all began. There was a time when you were just like them. Try to recognize the process behind all of this.

Meditation is not like exercising. If you eat a certain way and do a certain amount of exercise, regardless of your thoughts or perspectives, you will see results. When you see results, you will become more enthusiastic about your diet and exercise. However, you can’t just sit and close your eyes and wait a certain amount of time in order to see progress in meditation. You need to be persistent in your desire to be free, devoted in your attention and practice of meditation, and have faith that results will come. In other words, while people can impose diet and exercise upon you externally and you will see results, no one can impose meditation upon you. There must be a drive from within or it simply won’t work. That drive is merit.

Secondly, your inability to connect with other people who don’t share the same views as you is a problem that is all too common in this world. It is the reason we have such divisiveness and conflict in society. Because you identify as being spiritual, you don’t feel connected with people who don’t identify as being spiritual. Again, I’ve been here too. While I will always feel a sense of intimacy with those who have found revelation in meditation, the practice of compassion is meant to dispel these false divisions between living beings and allow a heartfelt communion regardless of species or belief systems.

So instead, use this problem you are experiencing as the next step for your spiritual practice. A great way to do that is to explore Lojong, the Mahayana Buddhist mind-training practices for compassion. An excellent book on this subject is titled Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa. Or another book you might explore is The Places That Scare You by Pema Chodron.

Contemplate all of this and see in what direction your senses lead you to further your development in this area.

May all beings be free.

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nemossubmarine · 4 years

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Warhammer 40k: Wrath & Glory RP #42

Gimlet asks Vivek if he would like his brother told about all this, and Vivek says it’s probably not a wise move, considering he made him servitor in the first place. Vivek would like to talk with his brother at some point, provided there’s someone else standing between the two. Gimlet says two Space Wolves should do the trick. Gorm says he still needs stuff from the tech-priest, and Vivek agrees now’s probably not the time. Vivek mentions that his brother has all his stuff and he may want them back at some point, but also can wait. Vivek loans Uffe’s phone, so our heroes can contact him if needed.

With that said, our heroes begin their long journey downwards back to where they started, and in fact, down one floor more, where rest of the clean-up crew is, or should be. There’s lots more burnmarks around as well as some rot growing in the corners of the ceiling. Gimlet burns some, but it pretty quickly grows back, and indeed it looks like the rot is only growing. Our heroes hear some AdMech-y footsteps and find a Skitarius with a servitor. The Skitarius informs our heroes that the Sable Swords and the tech-priest have already gone downstairs, as they’re closing in on the seat of the infection and can’t contain it anymore. Noticeably the servitors no longer work downstairs either. Our heroes thank for the information (and Gorm tells the Skitarius may Omnissiah bless her, and she makes a happy beeping sound) and head downstairs.

The floor below is full of tight corridors, maintenance tunnels mostly. Our heroes walk forward, in the maze-like corridors. They spot some marks that someone has passed there not long before. They find several corpses, killed with an axe. Gimlet burns them. They find a small shrine for Omnissiah, which appears to be the only place untouched by the the rot. Going down a tight corridor, a creature suddenly hops onto Gimlet’s flamer, and begins to pull it apart. Gimlet attempts to shake it off, and Gorm attempts to grab it, but it only turns Gorm’s power sword off and disappears with a laugh. There is more bodies ahead, and one of them grabs Gorm by the ankle. Gorm slices the hand off, and a giant fly crawls out of its mouth.

They begin to hear static sound and come upon Z47r, the tech-priest, in prayer. He motions them to stop, and after finishing with the prayer gets up and informs them that the ship’s geller field generator is the start of the rot. He needs our heroes help in getting his hands on it, the Sable Swords are going to act as distraction. Having located both the room with the geller-field generator and the Sable Swords, they hatch a battle plan. Gorm makes a speech, which is very inspiring and stuff and hands out protective runes to the Sable Swords (and Z47r) as well. Then it’s off to get the tech-priest to a machine.

The Sable Swords get into the room first, attacking few big Nurgle boys. Saef, Gimlet and Uffe make their way to the room via a walkway above the room to distract more of the creatures, while Gorm (with the tech-priest dangling from him) jump-packs into the room and to the front of the machine. The tech-priest begins a communion with the machine, while the rest of the people battle. The Sable Swords and Gorm manage to bring one of the huge creatures down, only to have it stand up a moment later. Same happens with others, and people realize it’s because of the goop all around them. Gimlet’s flamer is really useful for clearing that stuff out, and Uffe helps as well with his plasma. It’s hard to bring Nurgle’s army down for good, but for the most part, our heroes have them locked in place. There’s a problem of one Sable Sword (Aaron) being brought down and the Nurgle’s people being toxic as all Hell.

One of the strange little creatures suddenly jumps the tech-priest and begins to pull his breather off his face. Gorm manages to kill it but the breather is gone. The tech-priest doesn’t notice as he is too busy communing. Also the machine is turning on and there are definitely flames starting in the grating beneath. The Sable Swords clear off the grating, but not before trapping one of the big boys into them. Gorm takes off his helmet and slams it onto the tech-priest and shouts at Uffe to shoot at a water pipe which he does, just as the flames start. The pipe douses both Gorm and Z47r, but the big Nurgle fellow is most crisped.

Thus mostly concludes this battle. Uffe rushes to check in on Gorm, who hacks up something fierce (toxic air). Uffe calls for Gimlet to loan Gorm his flask, which he does, and surprisingly there’s alcohol there and not water. Gorm asks if the tech-priest is okay and he speaks some weird gibberish and then straightens up, saying he’s fine. He lets Gorm know that he can leave in three hours and start on Gorm’s thing. Gorm asks if he should help, before coughing up something green and weird, and Z47r says he got this. Gorm asks if he and Uffe could talk with him as soon as possible and Z47r tells them to come by his ship when he’s done. And that is the end of this Nurgle infestation!

And now for something completely different...

While waiting for the AdMechs to finish on New Dawn, Gorm has time to chat with Carl. The Sable Swords are returning to Obsidia, and since it’s in the way of Santa Maria’s route, they’re hitching a ride. Gorm and Carl make their way to the bar, both having changed out of their armor. Carl wears monk robes which Gorm comments makes him stand out, and Carl shrugs saying he’s been away from home a while, and haven’t had time to do laundry. Carl asks to take a drink of Gorm’s mead (though not enough for him to get completely shitfaced). They talk about the medical properties of alcohol for a while.

Gorm asks where Carl is heading next, and Carl says that they’re going home first, and then pretty much immediately are going to be deployed to fight orks. Carl’s happy for the change, as fighting people turned monsters (such as genestealers and chaos cultists) gets a bit tiring. Gorm agrees, orks are always itching for a fight, so it feels fair to bring them down.

Gorm tells Carl about his visit on Terra and about meeting the Primarch, and getting his hands on Codex Astartes, telling him that Terra was quite of a change in him. Gorm talks about remembering his past on Fenris, and of the harsh conditions the people. (Carl says he doesn’t remember his own past, but supposes it’s pretty much the same story as everyone else’s on Obsidia) The Space Wolves very much keep out of the way of the people, but Gorm wonders if there is more they could do. Carl says that for the most part Astartes homeworlds are among the safest in the galaxy (though not lately, Gorm points out about the attack of the Thousand Sons on Fenris), but it is the duty of the Astartes to look beyond their own worlds’ and protect the people of the galaxy.

Gorm also mentions his recent medical endeavors, how he has tried to heal in addition to all the killing. He mentions the couple of successes he has and how good they have felt. Carl thinks it’s a fine endeavor, though there is a certain roughness in that as well, very low lows when one fails to save a life.

Carl asks what the new Gorm would like to do with his life, once all this is over, especially with all these changes coming around and Gorm says he hasn’t much thought about it. One thing’s for sure, he isn’t made for working alone, but he is unsure what the Space Wolves have in store for him and Uffe if they come back, whether they get a new pack or what. Carl asks if he had thought life as an apothecary, and Gorm tells him that it’s a bit different with the Wolves having rolled a chaplain and an apothecary into one, but yeah he got this necklace from a Rune Priest and is still quite unsure what it means. Carl comments on his speech back at New Dawn, saying it was quite inspiring. Gorm says he got it from Codex Astartes and there’s some more angry speeches in there as well, Carl says sometimes anger is necessary as well.

Gorm asks Carl where he came from, referring to his earlier comment about being the same as everyone else. Carl tells him that Obsidia is a harsh planet, not quite as harsh as Fenris, but harsh nonetheless. A mining planet, mostly. The Sable Swords’ headquarters resides within the mountain on Obsidia, and sometimes little kids wander far from the known tunnels, and if they’re brave and clever enough, they might reach the headquarters in the center and become Sable Swords. Obviously there’s nobles and such on Obsidia, but the Sable Swords think it best to stay close to the people of the earth, as their weapons are made from Obsidian minerals. (At some point Gorm talks derisively of noble humans and their desperation to not die by any means necessary, Carl seems to agree)

Gorm asks Carl about the swords of the Sable Swords, whether they make them themselves or what, seeing that he got a new Power Sword himself, which had a lot of trouble during the combat back on New Dawn. Carl mentions that not everyone does, but a lot of people do. Revan made swords for all his squad-members, apparently a common occurrence. Carl says that since he has received Revan’s sword on promotion, he has an extra sword, and he’d be quite happy to give it to Gorm. Gorm is obviously quite touched by this display of affection. (he gives Carl a “I <3 Terra” shirt in turn, which Carl puts on immediately over his monk robes) He tells Carl that he’d be more than happy to join his squad whenever, and Carl replies that he’d be more than happy to have him.

Gorm says that as he has now seen how the Sable Swords greet each other (back on New Dawn) (bumping chest with handle of their blade), and he would like to show Carl how Space Wolves greet. Carl is more than happy to learn, so Gorm tells that Wolves bump heads, and sometimes when people are really close, they touch noses. Gorm bumps his head against Carl’s and touches his nose against Carl’s. Carl returns the gesture with fondness.

Next time, our heroes start to head to Triplex Phall! And seeing that it takes few days and they’ve last been on the ship in session (checks notes) 27, there’s going to be a lot of conversations with NPCs next few sessions. A lot. So many.

#nemo roleplays #long post #wag rp #wag rp writeup #lots of interesting stuff coming up #gotta prep for all the conversations #(well not all)#(sometimes prepping for convo for me is just like idk this character rly wants nothing so see what pc has to say)#(and sometimes it's me writing 500 words about what's up)#looking forward to next couple of sesh #even tho im super excited to get to triplex phall #9 to go until ep 50!#campaign tag: some nurgle but mostly soap opera

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