| Welcome, Guest |
You have to register before you can post on our site.
|
| Forum Statistics |
» Members: 296
» Latest member: m@c
» Forum threads: 6,897
» Forum posts: 12,849
Full Statistics
|
| Online Users |
There are currently 293 online users.
» 2 Member(s) | 288 Guest(s)
Bing, Google, Yandex, Jules
|
|
|
| Cosmopolitan Magazine Promotes Satanic Abortion Ritual |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2023, 07:44 AM - Forum: Abortion
- No Replies
|
 |
Cosmopolitan Magazine Promotes Satanic Abortion Ritual: ‘This Is the Most Demonic Thing I’ve Ever Seen’
The Western Journal [slightly adapted] | Nov. 22, 2023
Cosmopolitan was always the trashiest of the ladies’ magazines one could pick up at your local Shop-Rite check-out aisle, but the dying of print and the squeeze put upon whatever shopping lane business they were still doing by self-checkout apparently has the editors over at Cosmo pretty desperate these days.
So, they decided it was high time to profile Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic [Abortion] Clinic. Seriously.
“Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic. Does it sound like pure clickbait? Sure,” the writers admitted in the piece, published Nov. 14.
“But beneath the outlandish branding lies a sincere mission: The New Mexico–based telehealth practice, a legitimate medical entity run by an accredited clinical team, offers abortion care to patients within state lines.
“The staff prescribes abortion pills (at $91 per set, a competitive price) up until the eleventh week of pregnancy and offers 24/7 phone access to licensed medical personnel to anyone in need. It’s just that they’re also Satanists, members of a religious organization called The Satanic Temple.”
The Temple, Cosmo said, “chose New Mexico for a few reasons. It has about 3,300 members in the state, a robust base of potential need. New Mexico is also considered an abortion-rights stronghold, lacking oppressive laws dictating gestational limits, age restrictions, waiting periods, and mandatory ‘counseling.’
“Here, unlike in neighboring states Texas and Oklahoma, it’s still legal for doctors and nurse practitioners to prescribe abortion pills remotely and have them mailed to patients for safe use at home,” the report said. “Anyone traveling to New Mexico from out of state can use a P.O. box or a friend or family member’s address — even a hotel’s.”
My initial (flippant, sardonic) reaction was that the abortion mill industry had always been satanic and its high time satanists themselves got a bit of the action. Where’s the representation here, people? Planned Parenthood may be doing the work of the devil, but how many devil-worshippers are filling key roles in the organization? Check your demonic privilege, PP.
Anyway, like the usual establishment media reports on anything related to the Satanic Temple, Cosmo is quick to point out “that Satanists don’t actually worship the devil” and that its “roughly 1.5 million global members view Satan more like a mascot, one depicted not as a dark, omniscient deity but as a literary character.”
A literary character who acts, um, a lot like the devil. As popular YouTuber Ruslan KD noted, it was “the most demonic thing I’ve ever seen.”
Take what Cosmo calls “the optional ceremonial aspects of the Satanic abortion ritual” as recommended by the TST.
“First, you find a quiet space. Bring a mirror if you can. Just before taking the medication, gaze at your reflection and focus on your personhood. Home in on your intent, your responsibility to you. Take a few deep, relaxing breaths. When you’re ready, read the following tenet aloud: One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” Cosmo reports.
“Take the medication and immediately afterward, recite, Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.
“Later, once your body expels the aborted tissue, return to your reflection. Focus again on your personhood, your power in making this decision. Complete the ritual by reciting a personal affirmation: By my body, my blood; by my will, it is done.”
Yes, these people clearly believe that Satan is just a mascot, the same way that the people running Black Lives Matter clearly aren’t grifters.
These were the steps explained to Jessica* (the asterisk meaning that’s not her real name; if an abortion is so normal and righteous, why the asterisk and the pseudonym, hmm?), a patient of the troll teleabortion clinic.
“I think it’s genius,” the 37-year-old mother of three told Cosmo as she drove her children around Albuquerque.
“She’s also pregnant but not for long. A set of abortion pills is waiting for her back home, thanks to speedy shipping via Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic team,” Cosmo noted. “Jessica and her husband don’t want any more children, especially given her history of super-high-risk pregnancies.”
“Jessica decided to incorporate some ceremonial aspects into her solo abortion experience,” Cosmo reported. “Why not? she thought. The overall messaging just clicked with her.”
Yes, one imagines that it would. After all, this is what satanism is: The worship of the self while we’re here on earth. It’s the literal deal with the devil that we make, playing the long odds on Pascal’s wager.
Don’t want another child — or a child, period? It’s all about you. Do a few rituals to convince yourself that it’s all about you.
“The experience was just very supportive,” Jessica told Cosmo. “I think that’s the biggest thing — they really reinforce that this is your decision and your choice and that you are supported.”
Yes, that’s the important thing — while we’re here, anyway. Eternity might reveal harsher realities, however.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
|
|
|
| NY Court Rules in Favor of Landmark Case Allowing Quarantine Camps |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-23-2023, 07:18 AM - Forum: Health
- No Replies
|
|
NY Court Rules in Favor of Hochul in Landmark Case For Government Overreach Over Quarantine Orders
GP | November 22, 2023
New York’s Democrat governor Kathy Hochul won an appeal over a lawsuit against her administration’s Covid-19 quarantine rules and regulations.
Rule 2.13: “Isolation and Quarantine Procedures” will give the state of New York the ability to come in your home and take you away to quarantine without any notice and for any virus or infection they deem necessary.
Plaintiffs sued Hochul and the NYS Department of Health arguing the quarantine rules violated their rights and overstepped the separation of powers.
The plaintiffs initially won the lawsuit, however, NY Attorney General Letitia James filed an appeal to overturn the verdict.
The state’s Supreme Court Appellate Division on Tuesday ruled in favor of Hochul.
Noted attorney Harmeet Dhillon reacted to the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division’s ruling.
“Time for SCOTUS to step up and overturn Jacobson v Massachusetts, an outdated decision that enables the violation of our fundamental human and civil rights nationally as happened in COVID and will surely happen again the next time malevolent actors want to manipulate a credulous and enervated populace. We must NEVER let this happen again and this authoritarian decree needs to be reversed at the polls in every state and territory in the nation,” Harmeet Dhillon said.
WROC reported:
Quote:A decision in a lawsuit over New York’s COVID-19 quarantine regulations has been overturned.
After oral arguments ended last September, the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled that the state’s Commissioner of Health is allowed to issue quarantine orders to control the disease.
According to the document, the plaintiffs “lacked standing” in their complaint that the quarantine regulations overstepped the separation of powers.
This decision comes after a lawsuit was filed against Governor Kathy Hochul and the NYS Department of Health. The plaintiffs, including Senator George Borello, argued that the regulation impedes individual liberty and oversteps the separation of powers.
The plaintiffs won the lawsuit against the Hochul administration, but NYS Attorney General Letitia James appealed to overturn the verdict on behalf of Hochul and the Department of Health.
|
|
|
|
| New Mexico hairstylists being trained under CDC-funded program to push COVID, flu shots |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-21-2023, 07:27 AM - Forum: COVID Vaccines
- No Replies
|
|
‘Chair Care’: New Mexico hairstylists being trained under CDC-funded program to push COVID, flu shots
Under 'Chair Care,' a program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Mexico hairstylists are paid and trained as 'trusted messengers' to promote COVID-19 and flu vaccines, especially to minority and conservative clients with low vaccination rates.
![[Image: chair-care-hairstylist-covid-flu-vaccine...x417-1.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/chair-care-hairstylist-covid-flu-vaccine-feature-800x417-1.jpg)
Children's Health Defense
Nov 20, 2023
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website.
(Children’s Health Defense - adapted [not all original hyperlinks included below]) — Public health agencies are funding a New Mexico program to train and pay local hairstylists working in privately owned salons to promote COVID-19 and flu vaccines to their clients.
The “Chair Care” program trains these “trusted messengers” to target New Mexico’s Hispanic, Black, Native American and conservative populations who have been shown to have the lowest vaccine uptake and highest “vaccine hesitancy.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the New Mexico Department of Public Health (NMDOH) are funding the program, which is run by Presbyterian Community Health and Better Together New Mexico, an NMDOH initiative that connects local organizations to do vaccine outreach throughout the state.
Other partners in the grant program include an unnamed doctor, a salon, a hairstylist and an Albuquerque company, Serna Solutions, which provides behavioral health training.
The program is training hairstylists to spread the agencies’ vetted messaging on vaccines to the public. The “trusted messenger” strategy is based on the assumption that people tend to trust such figures more than they trust public health authorities, according to the project website, which states:
Quote:Research tells us that who a message comes from is just as important – if not more – than what the content of the message is … Chair Care TMs [trusted messengers] play a critical role in sharing the facts about vaccination with their clients because their clients trust them.
TMs can talk with their clients about vaccinations in a more relaxed, conversational way than traditional authority figures or healthcare providers sometimes can.
By training the “trusted messengers” to promote their messages, the public health authorities can get their message across to the public, without the public being aware the message is designed and paid for by those health authorities.
Hairstylists who sign up for a six-month commitment participate in two day-long trainings where they receive tools so they can “feel more confident” talking to their clients about taking vaccines.
They will be trained in motivational interviewing, COVID-19 basics, flu basics and long COVID basics.
After the initial training, the hairstylists are required to participate in twice-monthly virtual meetings to receive updated content and program support. At the end of the six-month program, they participate in a half-day debrief.
They also spend 30-45 minutes per week submitting data on their client interactions. The program website doesn’t indicate what types of data they are collecting.[Emphasis - The Catacombs]
Participants receive a one-time participant stipend, but the amount is also not specified on the website.
Better Together offers grants of up to $300,000 for proposals like Chair Care designed to circulate “vetted vaccine information” or increase access to vaccines for New Mexicans. All projects must include a focus on COVID-19 vaccination.
Better Together did not respond to The Defender’s request for more information about the program at the time of publication.
‘Trusted messengers,’ brought to you by corporate elite and the CDC
Chair Care cites an Ad Council Research Institute report, “The 2022 Trusted Messenger Study,” a follow-up on a similar report published in 2021, as the justification for the program.
The Ad Council is a nonprofit research organization whose directorship is comprised of over 100 representatives from almost every major legacy and social media corporation, Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Tech, professional sports, banking and consulting.
Its mission is to “convene the best storytellers to educate, unite and uplift – by opening hearts, inspiring action and accelerating change.”
The Trusted Messenger Study concluded that Americans don’t trust political leaders and institutions. To “market” messages that will “shift perceptions” and “ignite new behaviors,” leaders have to find the messengers that people trust and get them to deliver the desired message.
A key finding in the study was that local leaders – teachers, community leaders, nonprofits – are important references for people when they are gathering information to make decisions.
Based on these and similar ideas, the CDC since 2021 has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants for the creation of “culturally tailored” pro-vaccine materials and for training “trusted messengers” to promote COVID-19 and flu vaccines to communities of color in every state across the country.
In March 2021, the Biden administration also earmarked $3 billion for the CDC to support local initiatives to “strengthen vaccine confidence.”
The method: motivational interviewing
The Chair Care stylists will be trained to use motivational interviewing to influence their clients.
Better Together defines the method, from the CDC’s website, as “an evidence-based and culturally sensitive approach to helping people manage mixed feelings and move toward healthy behavior change that is consistent with their values and needs.”
According to Psychology Today, it is a counseling method used to help people decide to change their behavior, and it is particularly effective with people who are ambivalent, or even hostile. It can be effective in one or two sessions.
Originally developed for people with substance abuse disorders, the method is now applied broadly in healthcare, psychotherapy, correctional and counseling settings, according to the American Psychological Association.
The clinician – or in this case, the hairstylist – is meant to listen, show empathy and support for the idea that someone can change, and help people think about how they can do so.
The goal is to guide the communication in order to direct people in a way that is “respectful and curious.”
The CDC provides a script for healthcare professionals to implement the methodology to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake on its website. It also provides training in this method for clinicians working with HIV patients, opioid users and the elderly.
This article was originally published by The Defender – Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
|
|
|
|
| No more needles? Gates Foundation funds patch-style vaccine technology |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-21-2023, 07:16 AM - Forum: Health
- No Replies
|
|
No more needles? Gates Foundation funds patch-style vaccine technology
![[Image: KOVZUB6A45KAZKNEL6JFS5EOIA.jpg]](https://www.reuters.com/resizer/nD6ve6LIBmQ_X5ZVGOY5hU5h41Y=/960x0/filters:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/KOVZUB6A45KAZKNEL6JFS5EOIA.jpg)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation campus is pictured in Seattle, Washington, U.S. May 5, 2021.
REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
LONDON, Nov 16 [2023] (Reuters) - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given $23.6 million to U.S.-based life science company Micron Biomedical to fund the first ever mass production of needle-free vaccine technology.
The technology works by delivering the vaccine via dissolvable microneedles attached to the skin on a patch-like device.
Global health experts have long argued for the potential of similar technology to boost the uptake of life-saving shots.
It is simpler to transport and administer than traditional injections, particularly in low-income countries where reaching all of the children who need vaccines remains challenging. But scaling up production has been a hurdle.
A trial in Gambia earlier this year showed that Micron’s device delivered the measles-rubella vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, to adults, babies and toddlers as safely and effectively as syringes, and produced a similar immune response.
The technology "could help overcome some of the most substantial barriers to eradicating measles and rubella globally", said James Goodson, senior scientist in the immunization division at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which has also partnered with Micron.
It reduces the need for a cold chain for distribution, and does not require a trained professional to give the vaccine. It could also help those with a fear of injections, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The funding will support the development of a manufacturing facility to help make around 10 million devices annually, for larger clinical trials and then wider use, subject to approvals from regulatory authorities.
The company has had several other grants from Gates, to help deliver the technology to "underserved populations around the world", Micron's CEO Steven Damon said.
|
|
|
|
| Archbishop Lefebvre: Excerpt from 'A Bishop Speaks' on the Validity of the New Mass |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-20-2023, 07:14 AM - Forum: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
- No Replies
|
|
Taken from here:
From A Bishop Speaks (Kansas City, MO: Angelus Press, 2007), pp 97-98.
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Rome, March 13, 1971: The Fruits of the New Mass
"There are thus three realities needful for the reality of the Mass, 1) The Priest-Sacerdotes...having a sacerdotal character. 2) The real and substantial presence of the Victim, who is Christ. 3) The sacerdotal action of the sacrificial oblation which is realized essentially in the Consecration.
Let us not forget that it is precisely these three fundamental truths that are denied by the Protestants and Modernists. Let us not forget that it is to manifest their refusal to believe in these dogmas that their Masses have been transformed into services, into a eucharistic meal or gathering, where a much greater place is given to readings from the Bible, to the word, to the detriment of the offering and the liturgy of the sacrifice....Everything laid down in this new order clearly reflects this new conception, which is nearer the Protestant conception than the Catholic. The statements of the Protestants who contributed to the reform illustrate the truth of this naively and sadly: 'Protestants can no longer find anything to prevent their celebrating the Novus Ordo.' We may therefore quite legitimately ask ourselves whether, as the Catholic belief in the essential truths of the Mass insensibly disappears, the validity of the Mass is also disappearing. The intention of the celebrant will have a bearing on the new conception of the Mass which, before long, will be no other than the Protestant. THE MASS WILL NO LONGER BE VALID."
|
|
|
|
| The Apocalypse Tapestries |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-20-2023, 05:51 AM - Forum: General Commentary
- Replies (2)
|
|
The Apocalypse Tapestries
(Part 1)
NLM | November 18, 2023
As the Church’s year draws to a close, the book of the Apocalypse becomes very prominent in the Roman liturgy. It is read at the Mass of both the vigil (5, 6-12) and feast of All Saints (7, 2-12), and at Matins of the latter (4, 2-8 and 5, 1-14); at the third Mass of All Souls’ day (a reading of single verse, 14, 3, borrowed from the daily Mass for the Dead); and at Matins of the two dedication feasts on the universal calendar, those of the Lateran basilica on November 9th (21, 9-18), and of Ss Peter and Paul today (21, 18-27). It also provides the epistle for the Mass of a dedication generally (21, 2-5), and the Introit and Magnificat antiphon of Second Vespers of Christ the King. In the Mass lectionary of the post-Conciliar rite, it is read on the ferial days of the last two weeks of even-numbered years.
Introitus Dignus est Agnus, qui occísus est, accípere virtútem, et divinitátem, et sapientiam, et fortitúdinem, et honórem. Ipsi gloria et imperium in saecula saeculórum. Ps. 71 Deus, judicium tuum Regi da, et justitiam tuam Filio Regis. Gloria Patri... Dignus est Agnus...
Introit, Apoc. 5,12 & 1, 6 Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honor. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Ps 71 O God, give Thy judgment to the King, and Thy justice to the King’s son. Glory be... Worthy is the Lamb...
One of the most magnificent artistic representations of the Apocalypse is a set of six enormous tapestries (20 feet high by almost 79 long) woven in Paris between 1377 and 1382. Each of them begins on the left with a man sitting under a Gothic baldachin, reading the Apocalypse from a book on a stand in front of him. There follow 14 scenes of St John’s visions arranged in the order of the book, running from left to right, first above and then below, making for 15 panels per tapestry, a total of 90 scenes between the six.
![[Image: 1200px-Tapisserie_de_l%27Apocalypse%2C_A...0607195543]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Tapisserie_de_l%27Apocalypse%2C_Angers_%283%29.jpg/1200px-Tapisserie_de_l%27Apocalypse%2C_Angers_%283%29.jpg?20110607195543)
Part of the tapestries in their modern display space within the Château d’Angers. Image from Wikimedia Commons by c6L, CC BY-SA 2.0.
These tapestries were commissioned by Louis I (1339-84), the second son of King Jean II of France, and first Duke of Anjou. His grandson and third successor to his title, René, donated them to the cathedral of Angers, the capital of the duchy, where they remained until the French Revolution. France’s artistic treasures perished by the millions in that hideous debauch of barbarism, and the tapestries were cut into pieces and used for various purposes, such as covering crops for winter storage in barns. The surviving were recovered in 1848, but fourteen of the scenes from the book and two of the readers were lost; the sixth tapestry is the most badly damaged (five scenes and the reader lost, and the last scene in fragments), but the third and fourth are intact. In 2020, a group of 30 more fragments were discovered in a Parisian art gallery, and have been donated to the museum of the castle in Angers where the tapestries are now housed.
The images are taken from this page of Wikimedia Commons, which shows the arrangement of the panels divided by tapestry (by PMR Maeyaert, CC BY-SA 4.0, except where noted otherwise.) I will present them in three posts, two tapestries per.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Tapestry
The First Reader
![[Image: PMa_ANG001_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisGBD9dRjTkeynvhRg5BT9pd6RvUcbKyGfnpKgkgA0PaIPTgqKh1F1GJPxVrTeZJ_silEHwMnXUg6AVnaQrt-FX8trQ2GRYUpSHsF9qO-k48SOzTm8g8eRxAEEf5X5fUb9s2nw3sYNtE55ZLO04f1ekUxSt9o2oTlmMAgmiH8A2Ge17B1ZhWZAoQ/w314-h640-rw/PMa_ANG001_F_Angers.jpg)
The first panel, which represented the opening of the Apocalypse, with St John on the island of Patmos, is lost. The second represents the first mention of the seven churches to which he is ordered to write, chapter 1, verse 11.
![[Image: PMa_ANG002_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-O5RyGqeil1UI5Igqb_aiVGKMAvSuC7gxxbZM0yTr14LGkexNfeuzY_OB9Iw3wR20XpXoeODEVRDpxOXYaY_UYoGpwk0F_J1kIeBcQjnseHGaFjwyFeG8ZseL7-jAH_uQTnK4eEnZFjxm33VsEZj6rz8TrEy_Gw7H2-xD3gtfKh67tyhOCOF8CQ/w400-h323-rw/PMa_ANG002_F_Angers.jpg)
The vision of the Son of Man in the midst of the seven candlesticks (1, 12-20)
![[Image: PMa_ANG003_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-yUT13GgPdECKqB0a85gt-tYZEdGwD-OTqU0MHGad5rURbV4_BdJLJ2jPg_shYti730ojbKeFjKn3u1EpY0DPoT7v-DvMrzfOf89ZmfcjybrwDvUUrWrF1ckV4F7ZNyK6inttBSszgjc7sqqxINkfsZOmD654fH37rrcHZ4CHqLz_qg0HWwlwXQ/w400-h319-rw/PMa_ANG003_F_Angers.jpg)
Chapters 2 and 3, the letters which John writes to the seven churches, are passed over; the next panel is his vision of the throne of God in chapter 4.
![[Image: PMa_ANG004b_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPDLhdJWIwoen_5ekiT9t5RtfMrnEn6A_ID7X3RKqQh83LoLfCxubaSi37uuUaDi-p2YWEdCrcj3SrZ7dFcHAXM6uTu8fwaCOvh1fQChKRIo6JB8q-RWCuJPnWtLYw5nShzixyHergiCrtYQcANmTzD6ztucwKpJokfroMVr_M9DJbo2ZyIIA9lg/w400-h315-rw/PMa_ANG004b_F_Angers.jpg)
The twenty-four elders present their crowns to Christ (4, 10).
![[Image: PMa_ANG005_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihB7IKDIK-AbJoqUi2qTbytvI7ViDY5gh3u92oQ2nYRpcvIXbXufUMYIkieKaoHa0suL5TI1ylyRkDW5UpQg-h-5RGf3p2uri7KIQpFbyk-_scgD3akJkd-iWIThIDqDqatk1JffIndOklLJQd-lr7r8PKHo54gr2Rmg0c9GQFNzZoaTJh4stAoQ/w400-h334-rw/PMa_ANG005_F_Angers.jpg)
The angel opens the book (5, 1-8)
![[Image: PMa_ANG006b_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUsX6aAQnm0D7lxKP03n8VIbsgEcDPo47g697l0TOk0nXQbLW6jssADzh8L7KjZEwae45gbm3CVyYW-6GmDo6X9tWGWLVw07gfeeYBaxIpEMVxTe16fhZtk42TQtafsKXGjCHlu9x1NN3KcycabRJ7p09ILAINJxkB4bIEX-ei45-M5eCneZwtg/w400-h315-rw/PMa_ANG006b_F_Angers.jpg)
The Adoration of the Lamb that was slain (5, 9-14).
![[Image: PMa_ANG007_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj1ts2B-yKeyBGclyjwGmoMES7wJQINd6RtzU3kL8Au6hm2mAnfB6DrCYEO8xPyWirLMcppWlc6IrfnKLdG5FkWz-__ALwrs6OygTG_MIA3_rDz5eQ_M-6rsB5cseSlWcsIFRI_dVkamyJB0ahvnlKS43VqPDcpE3k_jRXDESSGPs_WAQ0fQfMFg/w400-h315-rw/PMa_ANG007_F_Angers.jpg)
The first panel of the lower register, which showed the Lamb receiving the book, is lost. The second panel shows the first horseman, who rides a white horse, and has a crown and bow (6, 2).
![[Image: PMa_ANG008b_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj92mQbXYFtCvOQXbrf4At7hhuGRTy2kbB-KZbrZ2dontgE1YCt6YaBVjgEYt34xPxyzR_jqeAgQj7AO36upTj0EOOvZYH7TxpI_UbYD08yAsiM7IkogFQP2MOmVbyvYvPHFUlwhzyKAzbpPZ2bWXoA-f2e-81eIcmjMnkdEXgMK9Sn2myjn8j4dQ/w400-h283-rw/PMa_ANG008b_F_Angers.jpg)
The second horseman is also lost; the third rides a black horse, and has a scale in his hands (6, 5).
![[Image: PMa_ANG009_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2-EyYysuaxI48nTTPaHh1ofmCK23mnp23RFsabCu_0-hhfBXeGD1MdbPx14CiBlqvXdC5X3RRshza7MuFeGxGrNG_BVItwzPPMhDGJrI3yL4MMITmzDlzcJRXEigRmA2rxLbXKtdGQ-joKPFReXlppbhBBxSVxkptlSkLJ3Mkyvwl1F4BT67Ww/w400-h259-rw/PMa_ANG009_F_Angers.jpg)
The fourth horseman, Death, riding a pale horse (6, 8).
![[Image: PMa_ANG010_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbMQ_7v9ZQUgLml-vl7go9hM8Afjm7G0n33AgXyPc9KN0Sda1J2w6txm8EMFFVUx6urAe436B5v3OEGQlMC9Wb5iuj1o93v29sRq_K9tvxqoOTOP_l-MWhkgYh6hIOVynjmMTX5iybqgt1afERiGiBa8DZpKqLw1zLqy_jnWG0faOZmBKojiPI4g/w400-h284-rw/PMa_ANG010_F_Angers.jpg)
The vision of the souls of the martyrs underneath the altar (6, 9)
![[Image: PMa_ANG011_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixj08M_7_va5mLnDtFJNF0J9Uo4WMUS8S1TB1T0cdGEzFOcpZti_kEAWPiA7vns6lZ_UeO_ocyjntuBFHcw2Ua-g2TTYvL-1vwaxtqPtTuDKBXlEv2Xb0E0bjTQFSSBlUfEWt3d6PLTjAT3jFh20bXiQQ0-mFrYRVrMmgmsmWJrNv-CAoWUEdQ0Q/w400-h264-rw/PMa_ANG011_F_Angers.jpg)
The reader of the second tapestry and the first panel of the upper register are both lost. The second panel shows the 144,000 signed, 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel (7, 1-8). Since this is read as the Epistle of the Mass of All Saints, they are symbolic represented by Saints of various classes: clergy, royalty, religious and laymen.
![[Image: PMa_ANG012_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnx8d7Qcsnoe7p8xbTdJJ71eyC7DmY2GH7cjtozjy3nIWs7X2oWHWnv2lHo2g3iPs1yuOrWBNXPor4dkpxBjkIkl_unI3gUmvj1HTj6-JfOc_roaQVmWC9g-3y9SMkQUUBNbva6GUF1NHg1c3i2ArieR2qkFYhBhUuvZ1xCn8voVM1jzcqAAAUg/w400-h315-rw/PMa_ANG012_F_Angers.jpg)
The angels receive the seven trumpets (8, 2).
![[Image: PMa_ANG013_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4eWOTU9du3KKt_IbkDrBnr0Fn309NgCTwAIN_MuCY0tQ8y98PhZ8Fst-qcLfoFHC0OcSBa1taF4j5G1mdkBHHkyNAiN4-tr0wEf75X1fHL9ESszDOW_x9RNnrD8mrj7O36rV_R6NC5uHEn9ro-ti26yQ7U35DNKQ963C-f1uDYi99XCWSUuAxjw/w400-h315-rw/PMa_ANG013_F_Angers.jpg)
The angel receives the incense which represents the prayers of the Saints (8, 3).
![[Image: PMa_ANG014_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXTXSrSmXB5xJVKhXUoBoKH3CcnrkDl9Yf-kp8jnzt7TVqj9U-q05IHu5nwKS07rjlXYlrc4OdkHgie9RKetk1zZEfzymzRfiflkV4_3IcOUatU1W0m97Uev1imGZm1vVQDLkNOUrPasstl6pf6bx7_gNJQtDlmX6U8Tikj296jdBMLQoDj6IwxQ/w400-h316-rw/PMa_ANG014_F_Angers.jpg)
The angel pours the incense upon the earth (8, 5), and the first trumpet is blown (8, 7), bringing with it hail and fire.
![[Image: PMa_ANG015_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSdBxd4kd9qUdh8HBsGLVsE2bgE0jXPAHSorLKcRgahgr_18Iw434suIghcEBMYUHMS-PdC0-eII0a39GMNiVUqtY9UHiyaWzDP2xj9e1HoQ2tM_hvColX9P5fNPxu6fEZsJRdYifB82L6HvBOkaKZSwBBYebhUrWeWvEXEp9TfpZbvOhfsR3xLg/w400-h316-rw/PMa_ANG015_F_Angers.jpg)
A panel showing the effects of the first trumpet (8, 7) is lost; with the second trumpet (8, 8-9), a great mountain burning with first is cast into the sea, and a third part of the ships are destroyed.
![[Image: PMa_ANG016_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidBnoDTt-4OC953EUperpvd9HQCcqeQGsMLPQ_1xboIgCg_V8iYkwl1WfTB2Z9fAkV0yHDSsMs0dvoyvftEz4OZmCYixz6fPGfjVF-cnH2Kld2NRzCO8KmoUzOUHNm7qm5v0aa0A6-9qq-FIrsc0Ga83GXr_RXubU3DoMUnp8BTzH1oi8tbcejqA/w400-h294-rw/PMa_ANG016_F_Angers.jpg)
The first panel of the lower register, the descent of the star called Wormwood (8, 10-11).
![[Image: PMa_ANG017_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3whWVSv8qOUfdQCxPAI3RC5d0UIru32GOHZbjF5er7hZ5C9yc7NVWxuNyHKrcHkjHUtwITtHVU9FvDH-TJwRwA-jtI3Fa0aNxAEADONAUZBT5P1JDwUD_KD42WYMjabrLxrRrjLMgLddDAShtdKJOhR4RwwE3Oi8l_6O0d_gm63RledAqP7SQ5A/w400-h286-rw/PMa_ANG017_F_Angers.jpg)
The fourth trumpet (8, 12-13): the darkening of the sun, moon and stars, and the coming of the great eagle that cries out “Woe, woe to those that dwell upon the earth.”
![[Image: PMa_ANG018_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrw5DidZ2zJbb9R02RxR1JcA9ibaQufHoomUTxy5RM_yh87FIOjDW0uW8iMfsYBWWfWa9AWZxBbdISHLzRA_OT66jJ0MbTjenUpB6Tp0XcuOPwbenk9I_b5mIxGQumLgMb9b2Cr-jca3TZE7he3q5do_ZZwkMQJIMPmy5GCoCRAnlzqwH0miWhOQ/w400-h289-rw/PMa_ANG018_F_Angers.jpg)
The fifth trumpet (9, 1-12): the locusts ascend from the pit.
![[Image: PMa_ANG019_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWxq0q4UJpWQn37C2_-TGVf-UlXpWtEbRxQ6opqDc44dNUiGySjP-gN1LDnvvAwB1mQhYTUx9o2TVINEnKhsAXrwoWaPYdguWebxqQO-LG0mZEpobE0YxxneO2iTKBUleQs5SgcyNl0yPQ0vM0BUNciIsLLgJPp_E6XyAJgcQwFYOmIubr6DYSSw/w400-h314-rw/PMa_ANG019_F_Angers.jpg)
The sixth trumpet (9, 13 etc.): the release of the four angels.
![[Image: Screenshot-2023-11-20-045001.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/kgcfqzqB/Screenshot-2023-11-20-045001.png)
The riders on fire-breathing horses (9, 16 etc.)
![[Image: PMa_ANG021_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkWOvgr1ggjpcM6mnzW-jJL8D0LqWfvqpQspe5Ct4vnd_poMIfpl8KX6qRd8IZCgFfNYUhcpZSyVqp_vJmMbgBsdB1c4vHOcvecn3S_O2kvnCF3xFSalG2f6-d_h12QNrBjnUDtbjeeIRUa_eDjr4uk-dHakwSnHOsrsM60ZZ1rQwsbxvggnd4gw/w400-h296-rw/PMa_ANG021_F_Angers.jpg)
The angel with seven thunders (10, 1-4)
![[Image: PMa_ANG022_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBLAifsgjyCfyqMdnyQ-KxWyZMtV_tPKeRCKM5nmtLcFAh4oquPRbCCrcsbr7HEDskEcVFunI1k7rROBWh08Lo847JL_EbqAGgGN09sXmU3aNtaxTCYGIki5XuARE-MKrsOWj5b4dJIzUrAbh5Fv7diIyqVnSK73IVThPQB3cRjms0m0YxSOLXeg/w400-h269-rw/PMa_ANG022_F_Angers.jpg)
St John eats the book (10, 8-10)
![[Image: PMa_ANG023_F_Angers.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha6MHdR6L3aOLzf4l6nl1uXAAEvHqa482QcKwPVErVeM0APyNnj0n4ZvJC9JTFpXoCJdbjHjZzVbd19JILkzJWIUGHRazDNmuy7ymhh7IV-PfHAyNc4IUvczDE37F-DETCzyz2-jgl6Mkz7608drNO36VrItenvP0UEGQQAPgop037QI61Z_tsPg/w400-h297-rw/PMa_ANG023_F_Angers.jpg) |
|
|
|
| Bl. Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend: Adam to Noah |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-16-2023, 07:50 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
- Replies (3)
|
|
Bl. Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend: Adam to Noah
Part I
Taken from here.
![[Image: wf4r3prmmeie82ddzklgll3gg6yd5842abklyob....68&webp=on]](https://seedus1869.gloria.tv/1z94gyaCTBei3D8MsGrYwjE6j/wf4r3prmmeie82ddzklgll3gg6yd5842abklyob.webp?crop=753.465&secure=C52gtfUHm6Jrjj8Sz7ynXQ&expires=1700598394&scale=768&webp=on)
Hans Baldung Grien - Adam
"God saw that all these works /six days of Creation/ were good and said: 'Faciamus hominem, etc. Make we man unto our similitude and image.' Here spake the Father to the Son and Holy Ghost, or else as it were the common voice of three persons, when it was said 'make we,' and 'to our' in plural number. Man was made to the image of God in his soul.
...And man was made in the field of Damascus; he was made of the slime of the earth. Paradise was made on the third day of Creation, and was beset with herbs, plants and trees, and is a place of most mirth and joy. In the midst whereof be set two trees, that is the tree of life, and the other the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
God said it is not good for a man to be alone, make we to him a helper like to himself for to bring children...Therefore God brought to Adam all living beasts of the earth and air, in which be understood them of the water also, which with one commandment all came tofore him...And he named them in Hebrew tongue which was only the language and none other at the beginning. God sent to Adam a lust to sleep, which was no dream, but as is supposed in an ecstasy or in a trance; in which it was showed to him the celestial court. Wherefore when he awoke he prophesied of the conjunction of Christ and His Church, and of the flood that was to come, and of the doom and destruction by fire, he knew, which afterward he told to his children."
|
|
|
|
| Bl. Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend: "The Ten Commandments' interpretation from Middle Ages |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-16-2023, 07:39 AM - Forum: Church Doctrine & Teaching
- Replies (1)
|
|
Bl. Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend: "The Ten Commandments' interpretation from the Middle Ages
Part I
Taken from here.
![[Image: xgkebp9tuvk4mqm6oat443q5fcyrge7shxfoj3x....24&webp=on]](https://seedus1869.gloria.tv/1z94gyaCTBei3D8MsGrYwjE6j/xgkebp9tuvk4mqm6oat443q5fcyrge7shxfoj3x.webp?crop=996.616.0.14&secure=EyKjqDU4r6cHbIZpvL2R1Q&expires=1700630893&scale=1024&webp=on)
Philippe de Champaigne - Moses with the Ten Commandments
"The first commandment that God commanded is this. Thou shalt not worship no strange ne diverse gods. That is to say, thou shalt worship no god but me, and thou shalt not retain thine hope but in me, for who that setteth principally his hope on any creature or faith or belief in any thing more than in me, sinneth deadly. And such be they that worship idols, and make their god of a creature; whosoever so doth, sinneth against this commandment. And so do they that overmuch love their treasures, gold or silver, or any other earthly thing that be passing and transitory, or set their heart or hope on any thing by which they forget and leave God their creator and maker which hath lent to them all that they live by. And therefore ought they to serve him with all their goods, and above all things to love him and worship him with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength, like as the first commandment enseigneth and teacheth us.
The second commandment is this, that thou shalt not take the name of God in vain, that is to say, thou shalt not swear by him for nothing. In this commandment our Lord commandeth in the gospel that thou shalt not swear by the heaven ne by earth ne by other creature. But for good cause and rightful a man may swear without sin, as in judgment or in requiring of truth, or without judgment in good and needful causes. And in none other manner without reason by the name of our Lord and for nought. If he swear false wittingly he is forsworn, and that is against the commandment and sinneth deadly, for he sweareth against his conscience, and that is when he sweareth by advice and by deliberation, but a man should swear truly and yet not for nought or for any vain or ill thing, ne maliciously. But to swear lightly without hurt or blame is venial sin, but the custom thereof is perilous and may well turn to deadly sin but if he take heed. But he then that sweareth horribly by our Lord, or by any of his members, or by his saints in despite, and blasphemeth in things that be not true, or otherwise, he sinneth deadly, he may have no reason whereby he may excuse him. And they that most accustom them in this sin they sin most, etc.
The third commandment is that thou have mind and remember that thou hallow and keep holy thy Sabbath day or Sunday. That is to say, that thou shalt do no work nor operation on the Sunday or holy day, but thou shalt rest from all worldly labour and intend to prayer, and to serve God thy maker, which rested the seventh day of the works that he made in the six days tofore, in which he made and ordained the world. This commandment accomplisheth he that keepeth to his power the peace of his conscience for to serve God more holily. Then this day that the Jews called Sabbath is as much to say as rest. This commandment may no man keep spiritually that is encumbered in his conscience with deadly sin, such a conscience can not be in rest ne in peace as long as he is in such a state. In the stead of the Sabbath day which was straitly kept in the old law, holy church hath established the Sunday in the new law. For our Lord arose from death to life on the Sunday, and therefore we ought to keep it holily, and be in rest from the works of the week tofore, and to cease of the work of sin, and to intend to do ghostly works, and to follow our Lord beseeching him of mercy and to thank him for his benefits, for they that break the Sunday and the other solemn feasts that be stablished to be hallowed in holy church, they sin deadly, for they do directly against the commandment of God aforesaid and holy church, but if it be for some necessity that holy church admitteth and granteth. But they sin much more then, that employ the Sunday and the feasts in sins, in lechery, in going to taverns in the service time, in gluttony and drinking drunk, and in other sins, outrages against God. For alas for sorrow I trow there is more sin committed on the Sunday and holy days and feasts than in the other work days. For then be they drunk, fight and slay, and be not occupied virtuously in God's service as they ought to do. And as God commandeth us to remember and have in mind to keep and hallow the holy day, they that so do sin deadly and observe and keep not this third commandment. These three commandments be written in the first table and appertain only to God."
|
|
|
|
| Ireland Passes Draconian 'Exclusion Zones' Which Ban Prayer |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-16-2023, 07:30 AM - Forum: Global News
- No Replies
|
|
Ireland Passes Draconian 'Exclusion Zones' Which Ban Prayer
Catholic Arena | November 15, 2023
In the past year, Catholic Arena has repeatedly warned of incoming ‘Anti Prayer’ legislation in Ireland.
Although termed ‘Exclusion Zone’ by Ireland’s increasingly bureaucratic and euphemism driven state, there is a particularly nasty anti religious under current.
The legislation is aimed towards criminalising anyone who might in any way shape or fashion deter someone from potentially aborting their baby.
Ireland, unlike the UK or the USA, does not have stand alone abortion clinics. Abortions are completed at Maternity Hospitals. The radius of these zones is such that many churches adjacent to hospitals are covered by the legislation. This means that blessing one’s self on the grounds of a church, praying the Rosary or simply walking around the grounds of a church could see you prosecuted.
Could not happen?
It’s happening now in the United Kingdom, to Isabel Vaugh Spruce and others, who have been charged and persecuted under these grounds.
With emigration, suicide and drug use soaring in Fine Gael/Fianna Fail uniparty’s Ireland, it is no wonder that they are so focused upon producing ridiculous pieces of ‘legislation’ aimed at delighting their voter bases, with no requirement.
This legislation has been passed based on no incidents of intimidation and no evidence of their need, which has been repeated by the Garda Commissioner on numerous occasions.
With an election looming, Irish people barely know which issue to begin with in opposition to this government. It is looking increasingly likely that Sinn Fein will form a significant role in the next government, though with ‘right wing’ parties like Fine Gael, it surely cannot get any worse.
|
|
|
|
| Report Warns The Gates Foundation’s Foray Into “AI for Global Health” Will Produce Far More Harm ... |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-15-2023, 07:54 AM - Forum: Health
- No Replies
|
|
BMJ Report Warns The Gates Foundation’s Foray Into “AI for Global Health” Will Produce Far More Harm Than Good
A familiar criticism of The Gates Foundation.
![[Image: bill-gates-90q2354.jpg]](https://reclaimthenet.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/bill-gates-90q2354.jpg)
reclaimthenet.org | November 6, 2023
The Gates Foundation “AI initiative” is getting scrutinized, and criticized, from a variety of points of view. And now a trio of academics has offered their take on the controversial push into using AI to supposedly advance “global health.”
What seems to have prompted this particular reaction – authored by researchers from University of Vermont, Oxford University, and University of Cape Town – was an announcement in early August.
The Gates Foundation at that time let the world know that it was in for a new scheme, worth $5 million, set to bankroll 48 projects whose task was to implement AI large language models (LLM) “in low-income and middle-income countries to improve the livelihood and well-being of communities globally.”
Every time – and it’s been many times now – that the Foundation chooses to present itself as the “benefactor” of “low or middle income countries” (i.e., undeveloped ones with little recourse to protect themselves from many things, including Bill Gates’ apparent “savior” complex) – it leaves observers critical of the organization and its founder’s “experiments” – and feeling somewhat, if not a lot, ill at ease.
But feelings are one thing and scientific facts hopefully often another, and the paper, the gist of which is available in an article, asks the question: is the Gates Foundation trying to “leapfrog global health inequalities?”
Well, as they would say in the American south – is a frog’s… anatomy watertight?
But in scientific language, the initiative announced on August 9 is highly likely yet another Gates’ project that, while making all the right promises – improving lives and well-being of people around the world, particularly the poor or verging on poverty (and therefore obviously extra vulnerable, particularly to questionable “altruism”) the results might be very different.
The study is not mincing too many words here. From a related article:
“There are at least three reasons to believe that the unfettered imposition of these tools into already fragile and fragmented healthcare delivery systems risks doing far more harm than good.”
The research then breaks it down into the very nature of “AI,” i.e. – machine learning. “If you feed biased or low-quality data into a machine that supposedly ‘learns,” out comes the reproduction thereof, perhaps even worse than before,” is how the authors put it.
So then – if we are to believe what many scholars and activists do – namely that “the world and its governing political economy is structurally racist,” what could be expected as the outcome of “AI” learning, from that particular huge dataset?
And then – another reason “to oppose the careless deployment of AI in global health,” according to this, “is the near complete absence of real, democratic regulation and control – an issue that is applicable to global health more broadly.”
You wouldn’t necessarily expect scientists to cut this deep, but here they are: “At the end of the day, the hard, sharp edges of capital, command and control are in the hands of a very few entities and individuals, notably including the conflictingly interested Microsoft corporation itself, which has invested more than US$10 billion in OpenAI.”
How do you say, “mic drop” – in sciencespeak?
|
|
|
|
| St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Twenty-fourth Week after Pentecost |
|
Posted by: Stone - 11-13-2023, 10:58 AM - Forum: Pentecost
- Replies (7)
|
|
Come ye blessed of my Father! (Matt. xxv. 34). Such will be the glorious sentence which in the day of triumph God will pronounce in favour of those who have loved Him. O faithful souls, who love God, be not troubled if you are despised and humiliated in this world. Your sorrow shall be turned into joy!
I.
Come ye blessed of my Father! (Matt. xxv. 34). Such will be the glorious sentence which in the day of triumph God will pronounce in favour of those who have loved Him. St. Francis of Assisi having had it revealed to him that he was one of the predestinate, almost died of the consolation which such a revelation afforded him. What, then, will be the joy of the elect when they hear Jesus Christ inviting them: Come, ye blessed children, come and possess the inheritance of your Divine Father! Come and reign with Him forever in Heaven!
How often, O God, have I, through my own fault, forfeited Thy blessed kingdom! But, O Jesus, Thy precious merits encourage me to hope that I shall regain it. My dear Redeemer, I trust in Thee and love Thee.
Oh, how will the Blessed congratulate one another when they behold themselves placed upon thrones and united in the enjoyment of God for all eternity, without the least fear of ever being again separated from Him! What joy and glory will be theirs to enter on that day crowned into Heaven, singing together songs of gladness and the sweet praises of God! Happy souls, that are destined to such a blessed lot!
O God of my soul, bind me to Thee with the sweet bonds of Thy holy love, so that I may enter into Thy kingdom and praise and love Thee forever. The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever (Ps. lxxxviii. 2).
II.
Let us arouse our slumbering Faith! It is certain that we shall one day be judged, and that we shall receive sentence either of eternal life or of eternal death. If we be not secure of obtaining the sentence of life, let us endeavour now to make it certain. Let us fly from all those occasions which may expose us to the loss of our souls; and unite ourselves to Jesus Christ by frequently approaching the Sacraments, by pious meditations, by spiritual reading and continual prayer. The practice or neglect of these means will be the sign of our salvation or of our perdition.
My beloved Jesus, and my Judge, I hope through Thy Precious Blood that Thou wilt on that day bless me. Do Thou bless me now, and pardon me all the offences I have committed against Thee. Grant me to hear the same consoling words that Thou didst address to Magdalen: Thy sins are forgiven thee (Luke vii. 48). I am sorry with my whole heart for having offended Thee; pardon me, and at the same time give me grace always to love Thee. I love Thee, my sovereign Good; I love Thee more than myself, my Treasure, my Love, my All. Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever (Ps. lxxii. 26). O my God! Thee alone do I desire. Holy Mary, by thy powerful intercession thou canst procure my salvation, and thou desirest to do so. In thee do I confide.
Spiritual Reading
LOVE OF SOLITUDE
Whosoever loves God, loves solitude. There the Lord communicates Himself more familiarly to souls, because there He finds them less entangled in worldly affairs, and more detached from earthly affections. Hence, St. Jerome exclaimed: "O solitude, in which God speaks and converses familiarly with His servants." O blessed solitude, in which God speaks and converses with His beloved ones with great love and confidence! The Lord is not in the earthquake (3 Kings, xix. 11). But where is He found? I will lead her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart (Osee ii. 14). He is found in solitude and there He speaks to the heart in words that inflame it with holy love, as the sacred spouse attests: My soul melted when my Beloved spoke (Cant. v. 6). St. Eucherius relates that a certain man, desirous of becoming a saint, asked a servant of God where he should find God. The servant of God conducted him to a solitary place, and said: "Behold where God is found!" By these words he meant to say that God is found not amid the tumults of the world, but in solitude.
Virtue is easily preserved in solitude; and, on the other hand, it is easily lost by intercourse with the world, where God is but little known, and therefore His love, and the treasures He gives to those who leave all things for His sake, are but little esteemed. St. Bernard says that he learned more among the trees of the forest than from books and masters. Hence the Saints, in order to live in solitude and far from tumult, have so ardently loved the caves, the mountains, and the woods. The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily; it shall bud forth and blossom ... They shall see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God (Is. XXXV. 1, 2). The wilderness shall be a perennial fountain of joy and gladness to the soul that seeks it; it shall flourish like the lily in whiteness and innocence of life, and shall produce fruits of every virtue. These happy souls shall in the end be raised on high to see the glory and infinite beauty of the Lord. It is certain that to keep the heart united with God we must preserve in the soul the thought of God, and of the immense reward He prepares for those who love Him. But when we hold intercourse with the world, it presents to us earthly things that obliterate spiritual impressions and pious sentiments.
Worldlings shun solitude, and with good reason; for in solitude they feel more acutely the remorse of conscience, and therefore they go in search of the conversations and bustle of the world, that the noise of these occupations may stifle the stings of remorse. It is true that man loves society; but what society is preferable to the society of God? Ah! to withdraw from creatures and to converse in solitude with our Creator brings neither bitterness nor tediousness. Of this the Wise Man assures us: For her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness (Wisd. viii. 16). The Venerable Father Vincent Carafa, General of the Society of Jesus, said that he desired nothing in this world, and that were he to desire anything he would wish only for a little grotto, a morsel of bread, and a spiritual book, in order to live there always in solitude.
It is not true that a life of solitude is a life of melancholy: it is a foretaste and beginning of the life of the Saints in bliss, who are filled with an immense joy in the sole occupation of loving and praising their God. St. Jerome tells us that flying from Rome he went to shut himself up in the Cave of Bethlehem, in order to enjoy solitude. Hence he afterwards wrote: "To me solitude is a paradise." The Saints in solitude appear to be alone, but they are not alone. St. Bernard said: "I am never less alone than when I am alone"; for I am then in the company of my Lord, Who gives me more content than I could derive from the conversation of all creatures. They appear to be in sadness, but they are not sad. The world, seeing them far away from earthly amusements, regards them as miserable and disconsolate; but they are not so; they, as the Apostle attests, enjoy an immense and continual peace. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (2 Cor. vi. 10). The Prophet Isaias attested the same when he said: The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the ruins thereof; and he will make her desert as a place of pleasure, and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of praise (Is. li. 3). The Lord well knows how to console the solitary soul, and will give a thousandfold compensation for all the temporal pleasures which it has forfeited: He will render its solitude the garden of His delights. There joy and gladness shall be always found, and nothing will be heard but the voice of thanksgiving and praise of the Divine goodness. Cardinal Petrucci describes the happiness of a solitary heart in the following words: "It appears to be sad, and it is filled with celestial joy. Though it treads on the earth, its dwelling is in Heaven. It asks nothing for itself, because in its bosom it contains an immense treasure. It appears to be agitated and overwhelmed by the tempest, and it is always in a secure harbour."
In order to find this happy solitude, it is not necessary to hide yourself in a cave or in a desert. David found it, even in the midst of the great concerns of a kingdom, and therefore he said: Lo, I have gone far off, flying away; and I abode in the wilderness (Ps. liv. 8). St. Philip Neri desired to retire into a desert, but God gave him to understand that he should not leave Rome, but that he should live there as in a desert.
Hitherto we have spoken of the solitude of the body; we must now say something on the solitude of the heart, which is more necessary than the solitude of the body. "Of what use," says St. Gregory, "is the solitude of the body without the solitude of the heart?" That is, of what use is it to live in the desert if the heart is attached to the world? A soul detached and free from earthly affections, says St. Peter Chrysologus, finds solitude even in the public streets and highways. On the other hand, of what use is it to observe silence if affections to creatures are entertained in the heart, and by their noise render the soul unable to listen to the Divine inspirations? I here repeat the words of our Lord to St. Teresa: "Oh, how gladly would I speak to many souls, but the world makes such a noise in their hearts that My voice cannot be heard. Oh that they would retire a little from the world!"
Let us then understand what is meant by solitude of the heart. It consists in expelling from the soul every affection that is not for God, by seeking nothing in all our actions but to please His Divine eyes. It consists in saying with David: What have I in heaven? and besides thee, what do I desire upon earth? ... Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever (Ps. lxxii. 25, 26). Except Thee, O my God, what is there on earth or in Heaven that can content me? Thou alone art the Lord of my heart, and Thou shalt always be my only Treasure. In fine, solitude of the heart implies that you can say with sincerity: My God, I wish for Thee alone, and for nothing else.
Someone complains that he does not find God; but listen to what St. Teresa says: "Detach the heart from all things -- seek God, and then you will find Him." God can neither be sought nor found if He is not first known; but what can a soul attached to creatures know of God and His Divine beauty? The light of the sun cannot enter a crystal vessel filled with earth; and in a heart occupied with attachment to pleasures and wealth and honours, the Divine light cannot shine. Hence the Lord says: Be still, and see that I am God (Ps. xlv. 11). The soul, then, that wishes to see God must remove the world from her heart, and keep it shut against all earthly affections. This is precisely what Jesus Christ gave us to understand under the figure of a closed chamber, when He said: But when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret (Matt. vi. 6). That is, the soul, in order to unite itself with God in prayer, must retire into its heart, which, according to St. Augustine, is the chamber of which our Lord speaks, and shut the door against all earthly affections.
This is also the meaning of the words of Jeremias: He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace; because he hath taken it up upon himself (Lam. iii. 28). The solitary soul, that is, the soul that is free from all attachments, and in which earthly affections are silent, will unite itself with God in Mental Prayer by holy desires, by oblations of itself, and by acts of love: and then it will find itself raised above all created objects, so that it will smile at the worldling who sets so high a value on the goods of this earth, and submits to so many toils in order to secure enjoyment of them, while it regards them as trifles, and utterly unworthy of the love of a heart created to love God, the infinite Good.
Evening Meditation
CHRIST, THE KING OF LOVE
(FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING. LAST SUNDAY OF OCTOBER.)
I.
Through fear of losing his kingdom the wicked Herod sought the life of the Divine Child. St. Fulgentius contemplating little Jesus flying into Egypt, tenderly exclaims: "Why art thou troubled, O Herod? The King Who is just now born comes not to overthrow other kings by force of arms, but to subjugate them by dying for them." As though he had said: The King of Heaven is not come to conquer us by war, but by love; He is not come to put us to death, but to rescue us from death by dying for us. Hence it is that Jesus may indeed be styled the King of Love.
Oh that I had always loved Thee, O Jesus, my sovereign King, and that I had never offended Thee! Thou didst spend thirty-three years in pain and labour to save me, and I have wilfully renounced Thee, my sovereign Good, for the sake of momentary pleasures! Father of mercy, forgive me, and embrace me with the kiss of peace.
Ungrateful Jews! why did you refuse to acknowledge for your King One so lovely and so loving towards you? Why did you exclaim: We have no king but Caesar? (Jo. xix. 15). Caesar did not love you, nor desire to die for you; while your true King Jesus descended from Heaven upon the earth to die for the love of you.
O sweet Saviour Christ, if others will not receive Thee as their King, I will have no other King but Thee: "Jesus, Thou art my King." I know that Thou alone lovest me; Thou alone hast redeemed me with Thy Blood; where then shall I find one who has loved me as Thou hast loved me? I am grieved for having hitherto rejected Thee as my King by rebelling against Thee! Pardon me, O Jesus, my King! for Thou hast died to purchase pardon for me.
II.
To this end Christ died and rose again; that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living (Rom. xiv. 9).
My beloved King, dearest Jesus, since Thou camest upon earth to gain our hearts to Thyself, if hitherto I have resisted Thy loving calls, I will now no longer resist them. Do not disdain to accept me; I now give myself to Thee, I give Thee my whole self. Take, O my King, possession of my whole will, and of my whole self. Make me loyal to Thee; and grant that I may rather die than betray Thee any more, O my King, my Love, my only Good. O Queen, and Mother of my King, O Mary, obtain for me that I may be faithful to what I this day promise to thy Divine Son.
O KING OF HEAVEN
O King of Heaven, from starry throne descending,
Thou takest refuge in this wretched cave;
O God of bliss! I see Thee cold and trembling!
What pain it cost Thee fallen man to save!
Thou, of a thousand worlds the great Creator,
Dost now the pain of cold and want endure;
Thy poverty but makes Thee more endearing,
For well I know 'tis love has made Thee poor.
I see Thee leave Thy Heavenly Father's bosom,
But whither has Thy love transported Thee?
Upon a little straw I see Thee lying;
Why suffer thus? 'Tis all for love of me.
But if it is Thy will for me to suffer,
And by these sufferings my heart to move,
Wherefore, my Jesus, do I see Thee weeping?
'Tis not for pain Thou weepest, but for love.
Thou weepest thus to see me so ungrateful;
My sins have pierced Thee to the very core;
I once despised Thy love, but now I love Thee,
I love but Thee; then, Jesus, weep no more.
Thou sleepest, Lord, but Thy Heart ever watches,
No slumber can a heart so loving take;
But tell me, darling Babe, of what Thou thinkest,
"I think," He says, "of dying for thy sake."
Is it for me that Thou dost think of dying!
What, then, O Jesus! can I love but Thee?
Mary, my hope! If I but love Him little--
Be not indignant -- love Him thou for me
.
|
|
|
|
|
![[Image: eq0nimpcm23nt32r0glpfduuv9b71qdk28ps8ju....77&webp=on]](https://seedus9492.gloria.tv/1z94gyaCTBei3D8MsGrYwjE6j/eq0nimpcm23nt32r0glpfduuv9b71qdk28ps8ju.webp?secure=R-G_dp5AHeT7HRi4nvg8dw&expires=1701209677&webp=on)
![[Image: st-benedict-scaled.jpg]](https://sensusfidelium.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/st-benedict-scaled.jpg)
