Friday Morning, All Saints Day, 01 Nov 2019, ~ “Blessed are those who die in the Lord”

Opening: – Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical Body of your Son: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
__________

Reading: -Revelation 14:7

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this down:
Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on.
Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed,
for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!”

__________
“For All the Saints” (Sine Nomine) – St Edmundsbury Cathedral Choir(UK)
For over 1,000 years, the site of Suffolk ‘s Cathedral has been one of worship and pilgrimage. The death of Edmund, King of the East Angles, at the hands of the Danes in 869 led to the building of an abbey to house his remains. St James’s Church was built within the precincts of the Abbey, becoming a Cathedral in 1914.

__________

Reading: – Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)

Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith,
let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.
And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

__________

Litany of the Saints – John Becker
The Litany of the Saints (Latin: Litaniae Sanctorum) is a formal prayer of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Old Catholic Church, Anglo-Catholic communities, and Western Rite Orthodox communities. It is a prayer to the Triune God, which also includes invocations for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angels and all the martyrs and saints upon whom Christianity was founded, and those recognized as saints through the subsequent history of the church. Following the invocation of the saints, the Litany concludes with a series of supplications to God to hear the prayers of the worshipers.

__________

Closing – Jude 24-25

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
__________

UPDATE: Iran Jails Two Christian Converts As Part Of Crackdown – Re-blog

Iran Jails Two Christian Converts As Part Of Crackdown

By BosNewsLife Middle East Service

Two Christian converts among the latest believers to be imprisoned in Iran.

TEHRAN, IRAN (BosNewsLife)– Two Christian converts are already over 50 days in Tehran’s feared Evin prison as part of a crackdown on spreading Christianity in heavily Islamic Iran and it remains unclear when they will be released, BosNewsLife learned Monday, March 4.

Shahrzad Y., a 25-year-old woman, and a man named as Sam S. 27, were both detained on January 9 after security forces raided their homes in western Tehran, Iranian Christians said.

The two university students were reportedly charged with the “formation and promotion of house churches and holding gatherings intended for committing crimes.”

Iranian police also confiscated personal belongings including laptops, Christian books and notes, Christian song Compact Disks and cameras, reported Mohabat News, a news agency of Iranian Christians and activists.

Their arrests came shortly after some 50 other Christians were reportedly detained on similar charges, though it remained unclear how many of them remained behind bars Monday, March 4.
Continue reading “UPDATE: Iran Jails Two Christian Converts As Part Of Crackdown – Re-blog” →

“Are Christians the New Jews?” – Rabbi Yitzchok Alderstein Re-Blog

Peanut Gallery: Special thanks to Rebecca Hamilton at Public Catholic for bringing this article to our attention. I have re-blogged Rabbi Alderstein’s entire article below – it’s well worth the read.

Today, Christians—especially those who take their faith most seriously—report that they feel like a scorned stepchild within general culture. They are mocked and derided, and treated as intellectual pygmies who have nothing to offer the better, more enlightened people around them.

Hamilton’s article is also worth the read “Christian Persecution: Are We the New Jews?” In it she applies Rabbi Alderstein’s analysis to the current state of the Roman Catholic Church in this critical time of change. She quotes Cardinal Ratzinger’s (Pope Benedict XVI) comments from 1969, “The church will become small”:

And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.

In an earlier post I lamented my feelings of frustration at becoming marginalized in America’s post-Christian culture. Rabbi Alderstein reminds me that Christians are not alone… and Pope Benedict XVI reminds me that God is in the midst of it all.

____________________________________

Are Christians the New Jews?

If you are fortunate enough to possess the truth, you do not compromise or sacrifice it, even if it means that you continue on only as tiny fleck of mankind.

By Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, February 20, 2013

“If you want to understand us, study our story, learn of our pain.” That is what Jews told Christians who wanted to build new bridges of respect after the Holocaust. Ironically, when Christians begin listening to the story of the Jews, they are finding reflections of themselves.

Christians who listened learned of a Jewish history written in blood from ancient to modern times. When they thought of Christian martyrdom, on the other hand, they had to turn for the most part to antiquity, to early Christianity under the thumb of Roman emperors.

That has all changed. While Jews feel threatened by the massive explosion of global anti-Semitism in the last years, coupled with Iranian and Islamist calls for the genocidal destruction of all Jews, very few Jews in 2013 are dying because of their faith or their roots. Christians, on the other hand, have become the New Jews. Continue reading ““Are Christians the New Jews?” – Rabbi Yitzchok Alderstein Re-Blog” →

Saudi religious police arrest Ethiopian workers for practicing Christianity | Fox News Re-blog

Peanut gallery: The Saudis (World Watch List #2) are at it again… and Ethiopian Christians working in the country are their target… 53 arrested this month.

Nina Shea, the director of the Washington-based Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com that the arrests in Dammam are “part of Saudi Arabia’s policy to ban non-Muslim houses of worship and actually hunt down Christians in private homes.”

Suadi Arabia's Mutaween(Photo: Religious police during a training session in Riyadh September 1, 2007/Ali Jarekji) — Saudi Arabia’s Mutaween
(Photo: Religious police during a training session in Riyadh September 1, 2007/Ali Jarekji)

What are the Saudis afraid of… if their brand of Islam is so superior to all other religious expression? Or, maybe it isn’t… and they know it wouldn’t survive without their state-sponsored religious Gestapo.

As for Christians living in the country, they won’t get a lot of help from their embassies. Their countries are much too beholden to Arab oil and money to care much about the persecution of their Christian nationals. Politicians’ rebukes are meaningless unless backed up with action. Don’t hold your breath on that happening.

The best we can do is pray for Christian expats living in the country… no small thing. And let the world know that the Saudis are doing to expat Christians in their country.

Please read the full Fox News article below –

________________________________________

Saudi religious police arrest Ethiopian workers for practicing Christianity
By Benjamin Weinthal
Published February 21, 2013

| FoxNews.com – Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Ethiopian Orthodox worshipers pray before the traditional Washing of the Feet ceremony at the Ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City April 21, 2011, ahead of Easter. REUTERS/Baz Ratner — Ethiopian Orthodox worshipers pray before the traditional Washing of the Feet ceremony at the Ethiopian section of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City April 21, 2011, ahead of Easter. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

Saudi Arabia’s notorious religious police, known as the mutawa, swooped in on a private gathering of at least 53 Ethiopian Christians this month, shutting down their private prayer, and arresting the peaceful group of foreign workers for merely practicing their faith, FoxNews.com has learned.

The mixed group of men and women was seized in a private residence in the city of Dammam, the capital of the wealthy oil province in Eastern Arabia, and Saudi authorities charged three Christian leaders with seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity. The latest crackdown on Christianity in the ultra-fundamental Islamic country comes on the heels of a brutal 2011/2012 incarceration and torture of 36 Ethiopian Christians, and drew a sharp rebuke from a U.S. lawmaker. Continue reading “Saudi religious police arrest Ethiopian workers for practicing Christianity | Fox News Re-blog” →

Marginalized – “Not Peace, But a Sword” – Re-Blog First Things

jerusalem-cross-lapel-pin — Jerusalem Cross

Peanut Gallery: Marginalized – it’s a bitter pill to swallow. But the sooner I come to terms with it the better. There is Life outside of politics – thank God. And, in America, this is the season for social conservatives to “stay the course” at the cultural margins… and let the chips fall where they may.

mar·gin·al·ize\ˈmärj-nə-ˌlīz, ˈmär-jə-n ə l-ˌīz\transitive verb : to relegate to an unimportant or powerless position within a society or group Other forms: mar·gin·al·ized; mar·gin·al·iz·ing

Peter Leithart has provided me with some reality therapy… maybe you can use some too. Democrats might find something to think about here as well.

My advice to Bad Republicans is: Let it come. If the price of regaining power is to abandon any semblance of Christian sexual morality, the price is too high. If the Republican party can’t bring itself to endorse a traditional understanding of marriage, let it split. If the Republican party can’t be bothered about the slaughter of the unborn, let it shatter into a million little pieces. Good Republicans will blame Bad Republicans for tearing the GOP to pieces. So be it.

In this article, published by First Things, Leithart maps out the future for social conservatives… and there is no peace on the horizon.

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10.34 NLT

Social, cultural conservatives are moving into unfamiliar territory. We’ve got a lot to learn.
_________________________________________

“Not Peace, But a Sword”

President Obama is convinced that liberals have won the culture war, and he aims to leverage that victory to force a transformation of the Republican party. In a New Republic interview published earlier this week, he noted that attitudes are changing “in the country as a whole around LGBT issues and same-sex marriage” and that this poses a challenge to Republicans. Some Republicans will “embrace” the change, but “there’s a big chunk of their constituency that is going to be deeply opposed to that.”

Unity is the president’s preferred weapon to divide and conquer. Continue reading “Marginalized – “Not Peace, But a Sword” – Re-Blog First Things” →