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December 25, Christmas Is Celebrated As The Birthday Of Jesus Christ However, The Bible Doesn't Specify A Date Or Time Of Jesus' Birth. The Reason For Choosing 25th December For Christmas Is Believed To Be Influenced By Two Similar Pagan Holidays - The Birthday Of Mithra And The Feast Of Saturnalia.
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Ever Wondered Why Christmas Is Also Known As Xmas? According To 'From Adam's Apple To Xmas: An Essential Vocabulary Guide For The Politically Correct,' The Word "Christianity" Was Spelled "Xianity" As Far Back As 1100 As A Symbolic Syllable For "Christ." The Syllable Became 'X'temmas' In 1551 And Was Eventually Shortened To "Xmas."
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THE NAME SANTA CLAUS ORIGINATED FROM THE DUTCH WORD SINTERKLAAS WHICH MEANS SAINT NICHOLAS. St. Nicholas Was Bishop Of The Turkish Town Of Myra In The Early 4th Century. The Dutch First Made Him Into A Christmas Gift-giver, And Dutch Settlers Brought Him To America Where His Name Eventually Became The Familiar Santa Claus.
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There Is A Weird But Very Interesting Custom In Ukraine. Often The Christmas Trees Are Decorated With Artificial Spider Webs As It Is Believed To Bring Good Luck. According To A Legend A Poor Family Went To Bed On Christmas Eve With The Members Crying Because They Wouldn't Be Able To Decorate Their Tree. Their Cries Were Heard By The Spiders Roaming In The Home And They Were So Touched By The Cries That They Decorated The Tree With Their Webs. The Next Day On Christmas, The Web Strands Magically Turned To Gold And Silver, Which Changed The Families Fortune Forever.
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Every Christmas, Kids Flood The Post Offices Across USA, Canada And Many Other Countries With Letters To Santa Claus. The Post Offices In Canada Receives So Many Letters From Kids, That Some Kind Postal Workers Started Answering The Letters. The Canadian Postal Service Also Set Up A Special Zip Code H0H 0H0 For Santa Claus, So Kids Can Send Letters To Santa Directly. The 0 After H Is A Zero Not O In The Hohoho As You Might Have Thought.
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Santa Is The Worlds Richest Fictional Character According To Forbes. They Compiled A List Of The World's Richest Fictional People And St. Nick Or Santa Claus Is On The Number One Position With The Wealth Amounting To Infinity.
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According To Finnish Folklore When Visiting Finland, Santa Leaves His Sleigh Behind And Rides On A Goat Made Of Straw Named Ukko.
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Every Christmas, 25-30 Million Real Trees And 8-12 Million Artificial Trees Are Bought In America To For Decoration.
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It Is Also Estimated That People Spent Over 52 Billion And 45 Billion Over The Thanksgiving Weekends In 2011 And 2010.
Wishing A Merry Christmas To All The Readers ! Thanks For Reading
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In my thirties the Goddess and a good friend of mine tried desperately to get my attention and show me what I really wanted, but I was deaf and blind.
This was in the 80s and most people living any sort of alternative lifestyle did not go around waving a flag about it. I had a friend who was in her fifties and got divorced. She told me that now she was free to be a pagan. A few months later I asked her about a group that she met with every few weeks (or was it once a month!?!). I was a little hurt that I was never invited. She told me it was a pagan group.
Here is how dense I was. I thought she was just saying that she liked to party (pagan=party), and she liked to party with women her own age. I was really shut down to hearing anything that might open up a need to explore a spiritual life.
She never mentioned it again and it never occurred to me to question it.
A few years later I was visiting the town where she lived and my most beloved dog got out of my car and got lost. I was distraught. Many, many people tried to help me find the dog, including my friend. After a few days of hysteria on my part she told me to come to her house. She did what she called a ritual and had me just visualize the dog while she played with some candles and the dog's leash. I was very upset and I think that because I thought she was praying, I just played along trying to humor her and waiting for her to get done so we could go back out and keep looking for the dog.
I was oblivious, but I know now that she was casting a spell. The next day someone called and said he had found the dog. In fact he had her all along and had been planning to keep her because he thought it was a shame that she was running loose, but changed his mind.
It was a really really good spell.
How many ways are there to say "duh"
Source: http://wiccalessons.blogspot.com
Having had the pleasure of knowing Dr. Bowling personally as a college student at Olivet Nazarene where he is the president, I first and foremost must say that he lives what he teaches here in this book, the principles are not so much new, but it is a new take on them and a good reminder of things so easily forgotten and taken for granted in modern times. Dr. Bowling has had success as a leader in many, many positions and passes all he has learned down in this book. It probably sounds like I am kissing up to the college pres., but it truly is a great book and I have nothing by admiration for the man.
God has redefined the world of management for the Christian leader through scripture. He isn t focused on bottom lines, demographics, or profit margins; Christ presents the paradox of being a leader and a servant at the same time.In Grace-Full Leadership, Bowling explores the leadership qualities and practices that are distinct within the community of Christian leadership. Discover, when managing first as a Christian and second as a leader, how your company or organization can grow exponentially in spiritual gains an eternity of difference from today's capital gains.
Source: http://spells-and-chants.blogspot.com
I was driving home one day after a BBQ at a friend's house and saw this hanging over the driveway. It gave me a funny feeling, it seemed ominous somehow. I stopped the car and took a photo of it. Today, The Parable of the Mustard Seed comes to mind:
"Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches ther." Mt 13:31-32
Often, people take the mustard seed to represent faith which starts small and grows to a mighty tree. Yet the mustard seed never grows to a tree, it is a weed and grows to a bush no higher than 3-4 feet tall. What do the birds of the air represent? They were described earlier in Jesus' conversation, in verse 19 as The Wicked One.
In the mustard seed parable, Jesus tells us that the birds of the air will lodge in the branches. These "birds" as we see in the verses are actually demons led by "the prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2), who have continually tried to infiltrate the church. Satan thinks, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!' Satan efficiently implants his agents in Jesus' church to teach false doctrine while appearing to be true Christians. Sound like some of today's churches? We know from 1 Corinthians 18-19 that God has allowed antichrists to lodge within His church. They nest, they lodge, they infiltrate. Believe it. Like the birds in the photo, where there are a few clustered and not shooed off, more arrive and climb the branch. more, source here
Since satan is a counterfeiter and a copycat, and Jesus said when two or more are gathered so He will be among them also (Mt 18:20) then satan will also send his demons to nest in the mustard branches. Where you see two fowl, you will see more. The problem is, Jesus also said that in the time of the end, many will not be able to discern the false from the good: "And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many." Matthew 24:11 Is a fowl of the air nesting in your branch? Is he calling to fowl brothers to come on in? Pray daily. Study the bible daily. Walk with Jesus daily. Pick up your cross and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. Why? Nesting birds in your branches are not always good things.
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"I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."
9th Day of the 5th Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Kore
Lunar Tree Cycle of Saille/Willow
27th Day of the Celtic Tree
Month of Saille/Willow
9th Day of the Cycle of Mab -
Days of Faeries
Moon Phase: waxing Half Moon
Moon sets: 2:20AM EDST
Moon rises: 1:54PM EDST
Moon in Leo v/c 5:43AM EDST
Moon enters the Mutable Earth
Sign of Virgo at 9:59AM EDST
Rhiannon's Cycle of the Moon
Lunar Meditation: The wisdom
of nature
Sun in Taurus
Sunrise: 6:06AM EDST
Sunset: 8:24PM EDST
Solar Question for the Day: "Who
do you need to forgive the most?"
Beltane (Calan Mai) Quarter
of the Year
May 11th, 2011
MOON IN VIRGO - The Moon in Virgo sends us back to work and gives a to-do list. We become impatiently aware of what needs to be improved, fixed or healed. Our compassion is strong, but we can get irritated at less industrious folk. This transit is a time to weed, edit, critique, care, exercise, investigate, study, heal, but remember to be gentle with other. During this transit important issues are practicality, organization, cleaning up your diet or your home, healing your body or offering healing to others and attending to loose ends. After the Leo party it's a time to clean up our act and turn our attentions to the matter of our health and hygiene. This is a time of taking responsibility and cleaning up the messes we've been leaving. Virgo brings painstaking attention to details; housecleaning is a good way to work through a Virgo transit. During a Virgo Moon transit women are mentally active but there is a tendency to excessive criticism both of oneself and others. Emotionally it's an inward time, when we can reflect on personal relationships. Moon in Virgo is the best time to work magick involving employment, intellectua matters, health and dietary concerns. Healing rituals for ailments of the intestines or nervous system are also done during this period of time. Those who were born under a Virgo Moon are curious, responsible, caring but need cultivate gentle acceptance of self and others.
WODEN'S DAY - Mercury Day, the Day of Communication and Conncection... there are minor magickal energies for divination and working Elemental magick.
ELEMENTAL MAGICK
Deborah Lipp says in the beginning of her book "The Way of Four "this: "In Wicca and much of occult, the four elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth describe the universe and everything in it. Everything can be understood as taking part in one or more elements. Everything this is whole contains all four, and can be understood more deeply by dividing it into four and viewing it through a lens. The elements are the building blocks of creation; they are the beginning of "things. "The undifferentiated void that preceeded creation had no elements, or to put it another way, all elements are One. But creation - things, reality - consists of the elements... The four elements give us a way of thinking about the world. They give us a structured approach to knowing the unknowable. They provide us with a system of interrelations and magick is all about interraltions."
Here is a link to an About.com website that give us more information about the Elements and how they can work in our magick spells and rituals:
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Recently I have been doing quite a bit of counseling, helping very godly women with various circumstances in life and decisions that must be made. I am a firm believer in the sovereignty of God (that should come as no surprise to you who read this blog every day) and firmly believe that He is in charge of all the events of our lives.
When a counselee begins to see changes take place in their lives, they can sometimes begin to see the counselor as more than they really are. There is a great temptation for them to make the opinions of man more important that the Word of God. Of course, it is not intentional but nevertheless they sometimes tend to neglect seeking the wisdom, direction, and comfort of the Lord in these trying times as much as they seek my opinion.
As I sat down with my Bible I was reminded of the verses in Jeremiah 17:5-8 which begins in this way, "Cursed is the man who puts his trust in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord..."
Why do we start strong with the Lord and fade out in the long stretches? We begin praying and seeking and wanting what God wants for us and over time we become wrapped up in the details of the occasion and we turn away in our heart from focusing on Him. Remembering that all that is of this world is temporary is an important piece of making it through this life.
"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. 2 Corinthians 4:17
While Paul describes the afflictions of this life as "light" and "momentary" and our sufferings as temporary and designed only for this lifetime there are times I certainly struggle focusing on the eternal weight of glory they are producing (Romans 8:18)
Have you ever thought that present suffering will cause future glory? This is a tremendous promise! All of the difficulties, and trials, and sorrow and suffering that you and I endure in this life is affecting a change in the image of who we will become in eternity! This makes every single moment of our suffering very significant.
Even the worst of our sufferings are light compared with that "eternal weight of glory" which they are producing (1 Peter 5:10; 1 Peter 1:6; 2 Cor. 4:17.) They are nothing in duration. For these sufferings are but for a moment; but the glory we will share will be eternal. Sufferings will soon pass away; but the glory we will one day experience is never going to end. Do you have any concept of how long eternity is? I doubt it; I know I don't really understand the idea of eternal or never ending.
Paul understood this; he learned it through his trials. His trials began the moment he began to preach Christ. He wanted us to get two ideas in as emphatic a manner as possible; first, that his afflictions were light, and, secondly, that they were momentary, and soon passing away. His object was to contrast trials with the glory that awaited him, as being heavy, and as being also eternal.
Our afflictions are working, producing, and affecting future glory.
This is why we are to set our minds on what is to come. Not on the problems, the suffering, the afflictions and begin to look at the glory that is to come! If we really take these verses to heart and begin to understand in more than a superficial way that in comparison to what is ahead off us- the joy, the wonder, the splendor, the glory- this stuff is nothing.
As you pray about the burdens you bear, where is your focus? Is your focus in prayer, "God please end this" or is it "God be glorified?" Paul never would have made it if he lived focusing on the suffering, he understood that when it comes to suffering, our minds must be renewed and we must learn to focus on the glory to come.
Today, think of what God is accomplishing in your season of suffering. This time, think of the changes that have been made in your heart and life. Think of how your perspective has changed on things as a result of your trial.
Reference: http://witchnest.blogspot.com
Here is an interesting tid bit from ISLMAN.COM:
"A forthcoming lecture at the Manx Museum by Professor Ronald Hutton will shed light on the Isle of Man's historical relationship with witchcraft.
Professor Hutton, who is the Professor of History at Bristol University (and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries) will give the fifth of Manx National Heritage's popular winter lectures.
A leading authority on ancient and medieval paganism and one of the most recognised historians on British television, Professor Hutton says, "In the Middle Ages, the Isle of Man had the reputation of being the part of the British Isles most steeped in sorcery.
"In the Seventeenth Century, it became the only place in the world of the Anglican Communion in which people were burned for witchcraft."...(Cont.)...
So if anyone is in the neighborhood of the ISLE OF MAN - stop on by.
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Wow, what a busy end of summer/fall it's been! As is typical for me, the autumn winds have brought an extreme abundance of change. October in particular is always the month where everything in my life flips itself up-side-down and forces me to look at myself and my work with new eyes. And how fitting that I hop back on the horse of my personal blog on this enchanting October new moon.
"It's been a time of unimaginable opportunity for me. Over the summer I noticed that MOON BOOKS was having a contest with Pagan Writers Community to find the "next generation of Pagan writers." On a "meh, why not" whim, I sent in the first half of the manuscript I've been working on for over a year. To my absolute shock, it won! The prize was a higher level contract to publish with the company. So for the past six weeks I busily prepared to finish the manuscript, collected feedback, made changes, sent it around for endorsements, and sent it in for editing. As of today its just gone to copyediting which means its in its in full-on production process. So, The Deep Heart of Witchcraft "will be out in time for a January release. I'm so excited. I have multiple friend who are coming in from out of state in January so we can party it up at Sacred Circle Craft work has been kind to me. I'm in my 4th month of training in the Anderson Feri tradition and I'm absolutely loving it. Its everything I was hoping it would be and more. My teacher STORM FAERYWOLF has been an unimaginably effective mentor for me in this work. Towards the end of the summer I got to teach an introductory runes course at the shop, which was so fun. Next time I'll make that one 3 hours instead of 2 though! After that I did a 3 hour Wicca 1 course for Firelfy, then did a private Wicca 2 class in the home of one of my good friends for his family. And it doesn't stop there. Firefly has so many classes, rituals, and activities lined up even further on down the road, its incredible. So although folks have been worried about us being disadvantaged by choosing to not return to the Pagan center for the time-being, don't be. We're trucking right along and loving every moment that this wonderful world brings us.
"In other writing news besides the book, my little fingers have just been typing away writing for some pretty fun projects. Issue #3 of MODERN WITCH MAGAZINE" will be out in a matter of days just in time for Samhain. In there you'll find a piece I did focused on what I believe to be the top 10 most powerful herbs for a magickal boost of energy. And as of a couple days ago, I've been offered my own column over at PAGANSQUARE, the online blogging platform for "Witches and Pagans" magazine. The column is called "NextGen Pagan" and will focus on exactly what it sounds like, Paganism for the next generation.
So although things are writing heavy and day job heavy (election season in DC is nuts), the typical event-heavy schedule of October is a little lighter this year. I am doing two things for sure though. On October 26, Firefly is hosting T. Thorn Coyle for a SKYPE QANDA, since we've been working through her book Kissing the Limitless for the past 4 months. After that on Samhain night itself, Firelfy's annual Dumb Supper will be held at my house. The Dumb Supper is something we do every year in combination with Soul Interaction, my partner Mike's psychic development group. I can't wait!
And finally, I just LAUNCHED MY NEW WEBSITE. As you may have noticed, I took all the other links off this blog expect the one that says "website." So I'll still be blogging here, but you can also see this feed on the blog section on the new site, davidDsalisbury.com.
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Cadets gather for the dedication ceremony of the Air Force Academy's... (Jerilee Bennett / The Gazette)
November 26, 2011 By Jenny Deam, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Colorado Springs, Colo. - In the still of a cold November evening, a small gathering of pagans, led by two witches, begins preparations for the coming winter solstice. But these are not just any pagans, and this is not just any setting. They are future officers of the United States Air Force practicing their faith in the basement of the Air Force Academy's cadet chapel.
Their ranks are slim. According to the academy's enrollment records, only three of 4,300 cadets identified themselves as pagans, followers of an ancient religion that generally does not worship a single god and considers all things in nature interconnected.
Still, the academy this year dedicated an 80,000 outdoor worship center - a small Stonehenge-like circle of boulders with propane fire pit - high on a hill for the handful of current or future cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of "Earth-based." Those include pagans, Wiccans, druids, witches and followers of Native American faiths.
Witches in the Air Force? Chaplain Maj. Darren Duncan, branch chief of cadet faith communities at the academy, sighs. A punch line waiting to happen, and he's heard all the broom jokes.
For the record, there are no witches among the cadets this year. But the two spiritual leaders for all Earth-based religions - one a civilian, one an Air Force reservist - are witches and regularly cast spells, which they say is not so different from offering prayer. There also are no druids this year. But there could be next year.
"We're here to accommodate all religions, period," Duncan says. The building of the Cadet Chapel Falcon Circle on the hilltop, he says, is no different from the past conversion of chapel rooms into worship spaces that serve this year's 11 Muslim, 16 Buddhist and 10 Hindu cadets. There are also 43 self-identified atheist cadets whose beliefs, or lack of them, Duncan says are also to be respected.
"It is very nice to have our own space," says Cadet 1st Class Nicole Johnson, a 21-year-old senior from Florida who became a pagan after entering the academy.
This is not about religious tolerance - a phrase Duncan, a Christian, rejects as implying that the majority religion is simply putting up with the minority. He calls it a 1st Amendment issue. If the military is to defend the Constitution, it should also be upholding its guarantee of religious freedom. "We think we are setting the standard," Duncan says.
In addition to providing worship space, new policy dictates that all cadets take courses in understanding the religions of those who may someday fall under their command. Recently he's fielded calls from West Point and Annapolis about replicating the Air Force's efforts.
In 2005, the Air Force - still reeling from accusations of sexual assaults against female cadets at the academy - was accused in a lawsuit of allowing aggressive proselytizing toward non-Christians. The suit, ultimately dismissed, was brought by an attorney and academy graduate, Michael Weinstein, who founded the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and has continued to fight what he calls aclimate of religious oppression at the academy.
Weinstein isn't buying this new spirit of "Kumbaya." He says he has received hundreds of complaints from cadets who allege pressure by other cadets or superiors to profess faith in Christ and cites a desecration incident in 2010 when a cross was left at a previous Earth-based worship site. The Air Force condemned that incident, and it was never discovered who was responsible.
Weinstein says the presence of the powerful fundamental Christian organization, Focus on the Family, just a short hop down the highway from the academy only adds to tension for non-evangelicals.
Meade Warthen, a civilian spokesman for the academy, stands by the academy's efforts, adding that it takes heat not only from critics like Weinstein but also from those who say it does too much to accommodate other religions.
Back at the solstice preparations, with glue guns drawn and takeout pizza within easy reach, the pagan cadets decorated yule logs with bits of ribbon and glitter. Yule logs, whose ritual burning symbolizes faith in the reappearance of the sun, will be displayed alongside the Christmas trees and menorahs in next month's crowded religious calendar at the academy.
And though Johnson acknowledges that her beliefs are often misunderstood, she says she has taken no serious grief from other cadets, save occasional questions about whether pagans dance naked (she doesn't) or whether she can cast a spell on commanding officers (she wouldn't even if she could).
The rule is no spells cast without someone's permission. There is a prevailing tenet of her faith, she says: Do as you will, but harm no one.
Reference: http://spellscasting.blogspot.com
By Metropolitan Methodios of Boston
"Sadly, Sunday has lost its significance in our society, becoming less of a day of worship of almighty God and more like any ordinary work day. This especially affects our young people who are obligated to attend sports events on Sunday mornings rather than attend the Divine Liturgy. At my request, this sad reality and its ramifications were discussed at the recent meeting of the Orthodox-Roman Catholic Consultation. After lengthy discussion, the following joint statement was issued. I ask you to read it carefully and approach civic, business and school authorities in your community to schedule sports events after 12 noon so that our young people may worship together with their families on Sunday mornings. "
THE IMPORTANCE OF SUNDAY
The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation
Saint Paul's College, Washington, DCOctober 27, 2012
Recovering the theological significance of Sunday is fundamental to rebalancing our lives. As Orthodox and Catholics, we share a theological view of Sunday and so our purpose in this statement is four-fold: to offer a caring response to what is not just a human, but also a theological question; to add a little more volume to the growing chorus of Christian voices trying to be heard in the din of our non-stop worklife; to offer brief reflections in hopes of drawing attention to the fuller expositions elsewhere; and to reinforce the ecumenical consensus by speaking as Orthodox and Catholics with one voice.
For Christians, Sunday, the Lord's Day, is a special day consecrated to the service and worship of God. It is a unique Christian festival. It is "the day the Lord has made" (Ps. 117 (118):24). Its nature is holy and joyful. Sunday is the day on which we believe God acted decisively to liberate the world from the tyranny of sin, death, and corruption through the Holy Resurrection of Jesus.
The primacy of Sunday is affirmed by the liturgical practice of the early church. St. Justin the Martyr writing around 150 AD notes that "it is on Sunday that we assemble because Sunday is the first day, the day on which God transformed darkness and matter and created the world and the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead ("First Apology", 67)." Sunday has always had a privileged position in the life of the church as a day of worship and celebration. On Sunday the Church assembles to realize her eschatological fullness in the Eucharist by which the Kingdom and the endless Day of the Lord are revealed in time. It is the perpetual first day of the new creation, a day of rejoicing. It is a day for community, feasting and family gatherings.
As we look at our fellow Christians and our society, we observe that everyone is short of time and stressed. One reason is that many of us have forgotten the meaning of Sunday, and with it the practices that regularly renewed our relationships and lives. More and more Christian leaders see the effects of a 24/7 worklife and ask "Where is the time of rest?" As members of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, gathered October 25-27, 2012, we add our combined voice to their call.
Our purpose here is not to replace or replicate their message; it is to underscore and point to it. Anyone who looks at the 1998 Apostolic Letter "Dies Domini "("The Lord's Day") of Pope John Paul II and its cascade of patristic quotations will see there is already a feast of food for thought on the meaning of Sunday. Anyone who reads the recent book "Sunday, Sabbath, and the Weekend" (2010, Edward O'Flaherty, ed.) will see there is also strong ecumenical consensus on the need to recover the meaning of Sunday- not just for our souls, but for our bodies, our hearts, and our minds as well.
Sadly Sunday has become less of a day of worship and family and more like an ordinary work day. Shopping, sports, and work squeeze out the chance for a day of worship or rest in the Christian sense. By abandoning Sunday worship we lose out on the regenerative powers that flow out of the liturgical assembly. And when Sunday becomes detached from its theological significance, it becomes just part of a weekend and people can lose the chance to see transcendent meaning for themselves and their lives ("The Lord's Day", 4).
Sunday is more than just the first day of the week. In our faith we see how it is the ultimate day of new beginnings: "It is Easter which returns week by week, celebrating Christ's victory over sin and death, the fulfillment in him of the first creation and the dawn of "the new creation" (cf. 2 Cor 5:17). It is the day which recalls in grateful adoration the world's first day and looks forward in active hope to "the last day", when Christ will come in glory (cf. Acts 1:11; 1 Th 4:13-17) and all things will be made new (cf. Rev 21:5. "The Lord's Day", 1)."
Sunday even unlocks the mystery of time itself, for "...in commemorating the day of Christ's Resurrection not just once a year but every Sunday, the Church seeks to indicate to every generation the true fulcrum of history, to which the mystery of the world's origin and its final destiny leads ("The Lord's Day", 2)." The Lord's Day is the day after the last day of the week and so it symbolizes eternity as well: what St. Augustine calls "a peace with no evening (Confessions 13:50)." St. Basil the Great in his Treatise on the Holy Spirit writes, "Sunday seems to be an image of the age to come... This day foreshadows the state which is to follow the present age: a day without sunset, nightfall or successor, an age which does not grow old or come to an end ("On the Holy Spirit" 26:77)."
The apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II calls it a day of joy, rest, and solidarity. Joy there is, because the disciples are always glad to see the Master. God scripturally established a day of rest as a gift to us, and rest there must be for every human person. Rest is built into our nature and also withdraws us "...from the sometimes excessively demanding cycle of earthly tasks in order to renew [our] awareness that everything is the work of God. There is a risk that the prodigious power over creation which God gives to man can lead him to forget that God is the Creator upon whom everything depends. It is all the more urgent to recognize this dependence in our own time, when science and technology have so incredibly increased the power which man exercises through his work. Finally, it should not be forgotten that even in our own day work is very oppressive for many people, either because of miserable working conditions and long hours - especially in the poorer regions of the world - or because of the persistence in economically more developed societies of too many cases of injustice and exploitation of man by man ("The Lord's Day", 65,66)."
As members of the Consultation, we strongly urge both clergy and laity to work cooperatively within their communities to stress the importance of Sunday for worship and family. Foremost we call for all to render thanks to God and render love towards one another - and be willing to reserve time to do both - and avail ourselves of the riches of the Lord's Day. Appropriate authorities can be approached to schedule sports activities after 12 noon in order to give young athletes and their family the opportunity to worship on Sunday morning. We call for our children to live in a timescape that respects the God-given rhythm of the week.
"Yes, let us open our time to Christ, that he may cast light upon it and give it direction. He is the One who knows the secret of time and the secret of eternity, and he gives us "his day" as an ever new gift of his love. The rediscovery of this day is a grace which we must implore, not only so that we may live the demands of faith to the full, but also so that we may respond concretely to the deepest human yearnings. Time given to Christ is never time lost, but is rather time gained, so that our relationships and indeed our whole life may become more profoundly human ("The Lord's Day", 7)."
Source
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By Tracy Rocelyn
1971 - Yusuke Naora, Japanese game art director 1972 - Eddie Mason, NFL linebacker (NY Jets) 1972 - Jay Powell, Meridian MS, pitcher (Florida Marlins) 1972 - Kristie Hicks, Bardstown Kentucky, Miss America-Kentucky (1996) 1972 - Sarah Beeny, British TV personality 1972 - Angie Martinez, American radio and television personality 1972 - Jay Powell, baseball player 1973 - Aaron Holbert, US baseball infielder (St Louis Cardinals) 1973 - Ronald Hamming, soccer player (FC Groningen, Fortuna Sittard) 1974 - Craig Wishart, cricketer (Zimbabwe Test batsman vs South Africa 1995) 1974 - Jamain Stephens, NFL offensive tackle (Pittsburgh Steelers) 1974 - Farhan Akhtar, Indian Bollywood Director, Actor, Producer, Singer. 1975 - Justin Huish, Fountain Valley CA, archer (Olympics-gold-1996) 1975 - Mariano Friedick, Tarzana Calif, pursuit cyclist (Olympics-96) 1975 - Kiko Calero, Puerto Rican baseball player
1975 - Kimberley Ann Scott Mathers, former wife of Eminem 1976 - Amy Safe, Australian rower (Olympics-96) 1976 - Radek Bonk, Koprivnice Cze, NHL center (Ottawa Senators, Team Czech) 1976 - Todd Grisham, American professional wrestling interviewer 1977 - Beth Troutman, American production assistant 1978 - Gennaro Gattuso, Italian footballer 1978 - Mathieu Garon, Canadian ice hockey player 1978 - Chad Johnson, American football player 1978 - AJ McLean, American singer (Backstreet Boys) 1978 - Maggie Rizer, American model and AIDS activist 1979 - Lavinia Magruder, Miss Vermont Teen USA (1996) 1979 - Tomiko Van, Japanese singer 1980 - Sergio Garca, Spanish golfer 1981 - Euzebiusz Smolarek, Polish footballer 1987 - Lucas Pezzini Leiva, Brazilian and Liverpool Footballer 1987 - Sam Bird, English racing driver 1987 - Paolo Nutini, Scottish singer/songwriter 1987 - Pablo Santos, Mexican actor (d. 2006) 1989 - Michaella Krajicek, Dutch tennis player 1997 - Lauryn McClain, American actress and singer
1897 - Karl Lwith, German philosopher (d. 1973) 1898 - Gracie Fields, [Stansfield], England, music hall/vaudeville performer 1898 - Vilma Banky, Budapest Hungary, silent screen actress (Eagle, Rebel) 1898 - Wally Baker, American supercentenarian 1900 - Joseph Frederick Wagner, composer 1900 - Richard Halliburton, American adventurer (presumed dead 1939) 1901 - Chic Young, cartoonist (Blondie) 1902 - Rudolph Bing, opera manager (NY Metropolitan Opera) 1903 - Hem Vejakorn, Thai illustrator (d. 1969) 1904 - George Balanchine, dancer/choreographer/ballet producer [NS=Jan 22] 1908 - Simone de Beauvoir, France, author (Mandarins, 2nd Sex) 1909 - Herva Nelli, soprano 1910 - Dick Henry Jurgen, bandleader 1911 - Richard Selwyn Francis Schiling, professor of occupational health 1911 - Stafford WIlliam Somerfield, British newspaper editor 1912 - Ralph Tubbs, architect 1913 - Lavad "Dr Hepcat" Durst, vocal/piano 1913 - Peter John Norton, naval diplomat/artist 1913 - Richard Milhous Nixon, (R) 37th pres (1968-74) (I am not a crook!) 1914 - Derek Allhusen, England, equestrian (Olympic-gold-1968) 1914 - Gypsy Rose Lee, [Rose Hovick], Seattle, burlesque actress (Gypsy) 1914 - Kenny [Klook] Clarke, Pittsburgh, jazz/drummer, composer (Epistrop) 1915 - Anita Louise, NYC, actress (My Friend Flicka) 1915 - Fernando Lamas, Buenos Aires Argentina, actor ("You look marvelous") 1916 - Alain Bernardin, impressario (Crazy Horse Saloon) 1916 - Vic Mizzy, Bkln NY, orch leader (Don Rickles Show) 1916 - Peter Twinn, English World War II code-breaker (d. 2004)
1822 - The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese king Joo VI, starting the Brazilian independence process. 1839 - The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process. 1857 - The Fort Tejon earthquake of California occurs, registering an estimated magnitude of 7.9. 1858 - Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide. 1861 - American Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War". 1861 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War. 1863 - American Civil War: the Battle of Fort Hindman begins in Arkansas. 1878 - Umberto I becomes King of Italy.
1880 - The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow. 1894 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts. 1903 - Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia. 1905 - According to the Julian Calendar which is used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Tsarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905. 1909 - Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, plants the British flag 97 nautical miles (180 km; 112 mi) from the South Pole, the furthest anyone had ever reached at that time. 1914 - Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., the first historically black intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity to be officially recognized at Howard University is founded. 1916 - World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula. 1917 - World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine. 1918 - Battle of Bear Valley: The last battle of the American Indian Wars. 1921 - Greco-Turkish War: The First Battle of nn, the first battle of the war, began near Eskiehir in Anatolia. 1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight.
1923 - Lithuanian residents of the Memel Territory rebelled against the League of Nations decision to leave the area as a mandated region under French control. 1927 - A fire at the Laurier Palace movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec, kills 78 children. 1941 - World War II: First flight of the Avro Lancaster. 1941 - World War II: The Greek Triton (Y-5) sinks the Italian submarine Neghelli in Otranto. 1945 - World War II: The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines. 1947 - Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia, is last seen alive. 1960 - President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser opens construction on the Aswan Dam by detonating ten tons of dynamite to demolish twenty tons of granite on the east bank of the Nile. 1964 - Martyrs' Day: Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag on the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians. 1991 - Representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try and find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. 1992 - The Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina proclaims the creation of Republika Srpska, a new state within Yugoslavia. 1996 - First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launch a raid against the helicopter airfield and later a civilian hospital in the city of Kizlyar in the neighbouring Republic of Dagestan, which turns into a massive hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians. 2005 - Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.
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A relic hunter dubbed 'Indiana Bones' has lifted the lid on a macabre collection of 400-year-old jewel-encrusted skeletons unearthed in churches across Europe.
Art historian Paul Koudounaris hunted down and photographed dozens of gruesome skeletons in some of the world's most secretive religious establishments.
Incredibly, some of the skeletons, said to be the remains of early Christian martyrs, were even found hidden away in lock-ups and containers.
ST VALERIUS IN WEYARN: ART HISTORIAN PAUL KOUDOUNARIS HUNTED DOWN AND PHOTOGRAPHED DOZENS OF GRUESOME SKELETONS IN SOME OF THE WORLD'S MOST SECRETIVE RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS
They are now the subject of a new book, which sheds light on the forgotten ornamented relics for the first time.
Thousands of skeletons were dug up from Roman catacombs in the 16th century and installed in towns around Germany, Austria and Switzerland on the orders of the Vatican.
They were sent to Catholic churches and religious houses to replace the relics destroyed in the wake of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s.
Mistaken for the remains of early Christian martyrs, the morbid relics, known as the Catacomb Saints, became shrines reminding of the spiritual treasures of the afterlife.
They were also symbols of the Catholic Church's newly found strength in previously Protestant areas.
Each one was painstakingly decorated in thousands of pounds worth of gold, silver and gems by devoted followers before being displayed in church niches.
Some took up to five years to decorate.They were renamed as saints, although none of them qualified for the title under the strict rules of the Catholic church which require saints to have been canonised.
But by the 19th century they had become morbid reminders of an embarrassing past and many were stripped of their honours and discarded.
Mr Koudounaris' new book, Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs, is the first time the skeletons have appeared in print.
Mr Koudounaris, from Los Angeles, said: 'I was working on another book looking into charnel houses when I came across the existence of these skeletons.
'As I discovered more about them I had this feeling that it was my duty to tell their fascinating story.
'After they were found in the Roman catacombs the Vatican authorities would sign certificates identifying them as martyrs then they put the bones in boxes and sent them northwards.
'The skeletons would then be dressed and decorated in jewels, gold and silver, mostly by nuns.
'They had to be handled by those who had taken a sacred vow to the church - these were believed to be martyrs and they couldn't have just anyone handling them.
'They were symbols of the faith triamphant and were made saints in the municipalities.
'One of the reasons they were so important was not for their spiritual merit, which was pretty dubious, but for their social importance.
'They were thought to be miraculous and really solidified people's bond with a town. This reaffirmed the prestige of the town itself.'
He added: 'It's impossible to put a modern-day value on the skeletons.'
SOURCE
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Read Part 1: The Suffering of Job and Divine Justice
People reading the book of Job today will encounter a strange and disturbing view of God, a view that reflects a theology which affirms that God was the source of both good and evil. This theology is behind the words of Job's four friends who came to sympathize with Job in his time of distress. The dialogue of the four friends with Job was aimed at comforting him, but in the end they concluded that Job was suffering because he had sinned against God.
The friends' inability to understand the real cause of Job's suffering prompted them to accuse Job of being like the wicked: he was reaping the consequences of his wickedness. Their words of accusation were based on their experience and knowledge of God. However, they accused Job because they were unaware of what was transpiring in the council of God. In their attempt at defending God, Job's friends overstated their case by putting the blame on Job.
In their dialogue, Job's friends presented a lofty and unyielding view of God, a view that makes God appear to be removed from the arena of human experience. According to Job's friends' theology, God was so removed from humans that unless a mediator served as a go between God and humans, that separation would leave human beings hopeless when confronted with unyielding justice.
The theology of Job's friends was not all wrong, but neither was their theology right enough to explain Job's suffering. Notwithstanding their words of wisdom, Job's suffering continued. Thus, in the end, human wisdom could not bring the healing or the answers Job was so desperately seeking.
At the end of the dialogue between Job and his friends, God revealed himself to Job. Awed by the divine presence, Job forgot all the bitterness and complaints of his soul. The presence of God required Job's attention. Finally, Job's request to present his case directly to God was granted. As Job had already expressed, he knew that he could not contend with the awesome majesty of Almighty God.
Speaking to Job out of a whirlwind (Job 38:1), the Lord answered none of Job's questions, neither did God explain the reasons he had to endure such torment. No mention was made in God's response to Job of the events in the heavenly court as narrated in the prologue of the story. God had a more powerful way to demonstrate his justice.
The Almighty God revealed himself to Job. How simple that encounter seemed to be, and yet, how profound were the implications of that revelation. In a moment, Job's attitude changed. His life was flooded with purpose, with hope, and with the expectation of healing. God healed Job by bringing him out of his anxiety into acceptance of his situation, an acceptance that brought peace to Job's life.
God's purpose was not only to heal Job, but also to instruct him. God asked Job several rhetorical questions which were beyond human capability of answering.
God wanted Job to catch a glimpse of his work in creation so that Job could realize that his suffering was insignificant when placed next to God's work in the world. At the end of God's questioning, Job recognized the vast gulf between God's wisdom and power and his own ignorance of the many mysteries of life. The greatest lesson Job learned was that God was sovereign over his creation and that divine sovereignty governs all reality, including Job's own life.
At the end of God's encounter with Job, Job humbly repented of his presumption, that he could contend with God. He also repented of his pride in seeing only himself while failing to recognize that God's purpose for his life was much more than he could understand. He bowed in recognition of his insignificance before his sovereign Lord.
Job confessed his unwavering faith in God's sovereignty and his total submission to that sovereignty. Job admitted that he was unable to understand the marvelous work of God, and asked God to grant him wisdom and understanding. Job's repentance signals the end of his intense suffering and the restoration of God's blessings on his life.
The issue that vexes people with such an intensity, the problem of evil, is presented in the book of Job in the form of the suffering of a good and righteous man. His friends tried to console him, but they failed. Their words were not totally wrong. To the contrary, what they said made sense, but not in the case of Job. So, at the end, God himself told them they were wrong in their accusation of Job.
However, at the end of the book, the reader is still perplexed. Why did a good God allow Job's suffering to happen? This question presupposes one very important assumption: whoever asks this question believes in a God of justice. Atheists cannot ask this question. Since they do not believe there is a God, they cannot say God allows this kind of evil to happen.
The problem of the suffering of the innocent is a problem for believers, because they believe in a caring and loving God, a God who is in control of his creation. Those who do not believe in the providence of God, find reasons for human misery by denying or diminishing the God of the Bible.
Many people explain the problem of human suffering by denying the existence of God, by limiting the power and the sovereignty of God, or by affirming that God is not good. Many people are like Job's friends. When people are confronted with the limitations of humanity to understand or explain natural disasters, such as Katrina, Haiti, and Chile, disasters that take hundreds and thousands of human lives, they blame God for these disasters.
When people are challenged by the helplessness of one individual such as Job, a man who suffered and agonized for days and months with an incurable disease, they lose their faith in God and blame the deity for allowing violence, disease, and disasters to occur in the world.
But it is precisely because we know that the Lord is good that we insist that this goodness be shown in the world. It is because we know that the Lord is a righteous judge that we demand that justice be adjudicated in the world. But when we look at the world in which we live, we recognize that goodness and evil are not rewarded evenly. The wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. This was the problem Jeremiah had with God: Jeremiah said: "LORD, you have always been fair whenever I have complained to you. However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. Why are wicked people successful? Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?" (Jeremiah 12:1 NET).
In light of such a disparity, how can we continue to believe that God is good? The presence of evil and suffering in the world is evidence to many people that either God is not good or that God is impotent to deal with the problems of the world. But the Bible provides ways of reconciling the problem of suffering with the goodness of God.
The Bible affirms that the God of the Bible is a God of justice: "For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him" (Isaiah 30:18). Isaiah says that God's justice will be revealed, but that the believer must wait for it. However, human beings do not have the patience to wait for divine justice to be manifested, either in the near future or at the end of time. People desire to see divine justice manifested while they are alive. Few are willing to wait for divine justice to be done in the life to come. People want justice done in the land of the living.
Human questioning and reasoning about divine justice are important for humans. Job questioned divine justice until he was confronted with the presence of the sovereign and omnipotent God. Job understood the reason for his sufferings no better after his restoration than he understood it when he sat upon the heap of ashes.
Job found wisdom and understanding when he encountered God. The book of Job demonstrates that wisdom is not found in seeking answers to life problems, but in experiencing God. God's justice lies not in what a person perceives as fair, but in God's willingness to justify that person. Perhaps God's justification of Job was the deepest significance and meaning Job found for his suffering. God provides for each person a Justifier and an Advocate, the one whom Job earnestly desired.
To Job, his witness was in heaven: "my advocate is on high" (Job 16:19). Job's words indicate that he saw God as his vindicator. But it is clear that Job saw no vindication in this life. Job believed he was going to die but he knew that he would be vindicated: "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God" (Job 19:25-26).
To Christians, Jesus Christ is the answer to all Job's questions and to ours. Jesus is the culmination of all that Job wanted God to do for him: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Only through Jesus can human beings be justified, and only in justification will human beings learn the true meaning of divine sovereignty and divine justice.
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Nomi Morris (Special to the Los Angeles Times)
Erdene Zuu, Mongolia's oldest Buddhist monastery, was built in 1585 in the ancient capital of Kaakorum, once home to 67 temples and 1,500 monks.
"The practice of Buddhism, suppressed for decades by the Communist Party, is being reclaimed by Mongolians as an integral part of their national identity."
SHAND KHIID, Mongolia - In the crimson-painted interior of a monastery in central Mongolia, boys as young as 6 face one another cross-legged on benches and chant Tibetan Buddhist prayers that they barely understand.
* CHINA AND TIBET - ON THE GROUND
* WORLD BUDDHIST FEDERATION IN SRI LANKA IN NOVEMBER
Some fidget and get up every now and then to ladle bowls of fermented horse milk from a large metal vat. Their teachers occasionally call out directions.
The boys are at a three-month religious camp at the monastery, Shand Khiid. The oldest monk in residence is 97. A visiting sage from Tibet relaxes in a back room, watching sports on television.
According to a monk who showed a group of visitors around one recent day, the monastery guarded Genghis Khan's black flag of conquest until it was moved to Mongolia's National Museum of History in 1994. Four years earlier, the collapse of Soviet-bloc communism had led to the ouster of Mongolia's Communist Party. Today, Buddhism in Mongolia continues to emerge from a decades-long hiatus.
"During the Communist period, you had a devastation of Buddhism in terms of the material culture and the loss of knowledge," said Vesna Wallace, a professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara. "Now more people are coming to temples and visiting monasteries. There is also a new interest in meditation among the general public."
Wallace, an expert on Mongolian Buddhism, has spent the last 10 summers there and has seen Buddhist youth groups grow from three or four people to major gatherings. She says Mongolians have reclaimed Buddhism as an integral part of their national identity.
Couples who grew up with no religion are now choosing to be married in temples and by monks. The Gandan monastery in the capital, Ulan Bator, is the largest in the country and busier than it's been in decades.
Mourners across Mongolia are again consulting monks before deciding whether a loved one should be buried, cremated or left outside to the elements for what's known as a "sky burial."
And prayer piles, enormous cairns known as "ovoos", have sprung up around the countryside. Truck drivers leave punctured tires to pray for safe travels and shepherds leave livestock skulls in hopes of a healthy herd. Blue scarves flutter in the wind, symbols of the blue sky that Mongols worshiped in the pre-Buddhist period.
Mongolian Buddhism is predominantly the Yellow Hat sect of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and China. But Wallace says it has evolved into its own version, having incorporated the pre-Buddhist religion of Tangarism as well as shamanistic influences.
"Tibetans prefer white scarves, Mongolians prefer blue," she said. "Even certain deities that are preferred by Mongolian Buddhism are the blue ones that represent eternity, spaciousness, and the comprehensiveness of the sky." MORE>>
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