Truly the Son of Man, Christ our true God is this day given to us by the Holy Spirit through Mary, the Immaculate and Ever-virgin Theotokos

Today is December 25, according to the ancient Julian calendar of the Orthodox Catholic Church, the day of the Holy Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The original five patriarchs of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church followed the Julian calendar that was made the calendar of the Church by the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea in 325 AD. The Church calendar was later changed by the dictate of the Patriarch of Rome, Pope Gregory.  The problem with that was that the Patriarch of Rome had no authority to change the Church calendar, since it had been promulgated by an ecumenical council, only an ecumenical council, according to the canons, could vacate that act. So, for the vast majority of the Orthodox Christians of the East, today is December 25 in the life of the Church, which means today is the Holy Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

With my Orthodox brethren, I salute all Christians, saying, “Christ is Born!” And my Orthodox Christian brethren answer, “Glorify Him!”

Now finally, the Lenten fast of Advent is coming to an end and tomorrow will start the twelve days of Christmas joy.

Many of you know the English song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, but I bet not too many of you know what the gifts given in that song signify.

For any who do not know the religious symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas, here they are:

• The one True Love refers to our one triune God
• Two Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
• Three French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
• Four Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
• Five Golden Rings refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which gives the history of man’s fall from grace.
• Six Geese A-laying refers to the six days of creation
• Seven Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the sacraments
• Eight Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes
• Nine Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
• Ten Lords A-leaping refers to the ten commandments
• Eleven Pipers Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles
• Twelve Drummers Drumming refers to the points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed

To hear and see some children singing this song on YouTube click here

Joy to the World!

Christ is Born!

Glorify Him!

Related articles

• The Chalcedonian Formula (greatcloud.wordpress.com)
• Russians ready for Orthodox Christmas (rt.com)
• The Glory Of All Things Made New (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• Christ is Born! Glorify Him! (mpidirect.com)

Related posts:

1. In Celebration of the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, the Winter Pascha
2. Monastery, as the Soul of the Church
3. Morning Prayers of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of the East

THE  MILESTONES

ROCOR ARCHIVES

SPIRITUAL PATH

Chapel at the school’s courtyard in Bethany near Jerusalem in the Holy Land.

I then spent 10 years in Jerusalem at the Convent of St. Mary Magdalene. There was a wonderful young abbess their at the time (Abbess Anna Karipoff) who did much to instill a coenobitic order and inspire the nuns to a deeper spiritual life. Here in a much larger community of 25-30 nuns I was relieved of having to do so much physical labor that a smaller community might entail and aided by good examples and the inspiration of living and often visiting the Holy Sites, I was able to focus more on my interior spiritual life. This sweet period was only to last about a year and a half. Soon the events in Hebron happened (MP seizure of our monastery in 1997) and I was called to assist with administrative matters. As well the upheaval and strain caused by this seizure led to Mother Anna resigning her position and leaving the Convent. This led to other changes in the monastery and I was appointed to run the Convent’s Orthodox School of Bethany The experience of running a school for 325 children, caring for 12 girls from broken homes, managing the property, dealing with teachers and employees, and at the same time trying to live the life of a nun in the Holy Land, going to services and hosting pilgrims, all in a most politicized and sometime violent part of the world certainly honed skills that are most useful as we undertake the formation of a new convent here in the States. Quite frankly while there are challenges here, it somehow seems a lighter burden than those days in Jerusalem.

THE FIRST FEAST DAY

Holy Father Nicholas, pray to God for us!

Source: NFTU News

***   ***   ***

I became acquainted with Mother Agapia during my short stay in the Holy Land through Mother Xenia, and through some correspondence with Mother Agapia. Mother Agapia and Mother Xenia were members of the Community of St. Elizabeth, which serves and is served by the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene. The convent and the church are located on the slope of the Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.

In the story above, Mother Agapia mentions the events MP seizure of our monastery in Hebron in 1997 in an offhanded manner. I know something of what happened there and I know Mother Agapia as a hero in those events, and I seem to recall the then Sister Katherine was a hero right along with her. They dared to stare down the dastardly Russians who had been dispatched to seize their little outpost mastery and school. Of course the politically better connected Russians eventually prevailed in that struggle.

The incorrupt bodies of St. Elizabeth and St. Barbara, the good servant of St. Elizabeth can be visited in the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene. Both saints freely volunteered to be martyred with the  sainted Russian Czar Nicholas II and the Czarina Alexandra and their children.  St.  Elizabeth had formerly been the Grand Duchess of Russia, having been married to the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, brother of the czar. This was, of course,  before she became a nun after the death of her husband and founded the Convent of Martha and Mary. Click both St. Elizabeth and St.  Elizabeth to learn more about this wonderful lady.

Incidentally, Mother Agapia has a brother named George Stephanopoulos. He is the well known television journalist and Democrat political adviser.

Yours truly

Related articles

• Martyred Priest Daniel Sysoev & American Orthodox Missionary Work (palamas.info)
• Orthodox flock to once-banned holy site in Turkey (reuters.com)
• Turkey: patriarch holds historic Mass at monastery (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• St Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinaï (apostcardaday.blogspot.com)
• Christ is Born! Glorify Him! (mpidirect.com)

Related posts:

1. Morning Prayers of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of the East

Memories of John F. Kennedy and His Crime

Sen. John F. Kennedy Addressing the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, Sept. 12, 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

Some of my memories of President John F. Kennedy are so indelible it is as if they happened only yesterday. One of those memories is of Senator John Kennedy going to Houston to face a group of ministers in an effort to prove to them that his Catholic faith would not keep him from being a good President of the United States. What I, and probably most of those ministers, didn’t realize then was that Senator Kennedy committed a grievous crime that night as he stood there before them defending his ability to perform the task he aspired to without being hindered by the tenants of his Catholic faith. The crime he committed was in theorizing the most rigid separation of Church and state, in order to be acceptable as president.  It wasn’t a criminal act according to the law of the land, but it was a crime against the American people, the Roman Catholic Church, and, by extension, against all American Christians of every branch of Christianity—including the ministers before whom he spoke that fateful night. In short, it was a crime or sin, if you will, against God in his fellowman everywhere.

Here is a talk given by Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver, some 50 years later, before that selfsame group of ministers which was the very scene of Kennedy’s crime. I think it reasonable to assume that, by the time the Archbishop Charles finished speaking that night, those ministers understood the crime Kennedy had committed when he spoke before them that night.

THE VOCATION OF CHRISTIANS IN AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE

by Charles J. Chaput

Charles J. Chaput, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Denver

One of the ironies in my talk tonight is this. I’m a Catholic bishop, speaking at a Baptist university in America’s Protestant heartland. But I’ve been welcomed with more warmth and friendship than I might find at a number of Catholic venues. This is a fact worth discussing. I’ll come back to it at the end of my comments. [...]

I need to offer a few caveats before I turn to the substance of our discussion.

The first caveat is this: My thoughts tonight are purely my own. I don’t speak for the Holy See, or the American Catholic bishops, or the Houston Catholic community. In the Catholic tradition, the local bishop is the chief preacher and teacher of the faith, and the shepherd of the local Church. Here in Houston you have an outstanding bishop – a man of great Christian faith and intellect – in Cardinal Daniel DiNardo. In all things Catholic tonight, I’m glad to defer to his leadership.

Here’s my second caveat: I’m here as a Catholic Christian and an American citizen – in that order. Both of these identities are important. They don’t need to conflict. They are not, however, the same thing. And they do not have the same weight. I love my country. I revere the genius of its founding documents and its public institutions. But no nation, not even the one I love, has a right to my allegiance, or my silence, in matters that belong to God or that undermine the dignity of the human persons He created.

My third caveat is this: Catholics and Protestants have different memories of American history. The historian Paul Johnson once wrote that America was “born Protestant” ¹. That’s clearly true. Whatever America is today or may become tomorrow, its origin was deeply shaped by a Protestant Christian spirit, and the fruit of that spirit has been, on the balance, a great blessing for humanity. But it’s also true that, while Catholics have always thrived in the United States, they lived through two centuries of discrimination, religious bigotry and occasional violence. Protestants of course will remember things quite differently. They will remember Catholic persecution of dissenters in Europe, the entanglements of the Roman Church and state power, and papal suspicion of democracy and religious liberty.

We can’t erase those memories. And we cannot – nor should we try to – paper over the issues that still divide us as believers in terms of doctrine, authority and our understandings of the Church. Ecumenism based on good manners instead of truth is empty. It’s also a form of lying. If we share a love of Jesus Christ and a familial bond in baptism and God’s Word, then on a fundamental level, we’re brothers and sisters. Members of a family owe each other more than surface courtesies. We owe each other the kind of fraternal respect that “speak[s] the truth in love” (Eph 4:15). We also urgently owe each other solidarity and support in dealing with a culture that increasingly derides religious faith in general, and the Christian faith in particular. And that brings me to the heart of what I want to share with you.

*

Our theme tonight is the vocation of Christians in American public life. That’s a pretty broad canvas. Broad enough that I wrote a book about it. Tonight I want to focus in a special way on the role of Christians in our country’s civic and political life. The key to our discussion will be that word “vocation.” It comes from the Latin word “vocare,” which means, “to call.” Christians believe that God calls each of us individually, and all of us as a believing community, to know, love and serve him in our daily lives.

But there’s more. He also asks us to make disciples of all nations. That means we have a duty to preach Jesus Christ. We have a mandate to share his Gospel of truth, mercy, justice and love. These are mission words; action words. They’re not optional. And they have practical consequences for the way we think, speak, make choices and live our lives, not just at home but in the public square. Real Christian faith is always personal, but it’s never private. And we need to think about that simple fact in light of an anniversary.

Fifty years ago this fall, in September 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy, the Democratic candidate for president, spoke to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. He had one purpose. He needed to convince 300 uneasy Protestant ministers, and the country at large, that a Catholic like himself could serve loyally as our nation’s chief executive. Kennedy convinced the country, if not the ministers, and went on to be elected. And his speech left a lasting mark on American politics. It was sincere, compelling, articulate – and wrong. Not wrong about the patriotism of Catholics, but wrong about American history and very wrong about the role of religious faith in our nation’s life. And he wasn’t merely “wrong.” His Houston remarks profoundly undermined the place not just of Catholics, but of all religious believers, in America’s public life and political conversation. Today, half a century later, we’re paying for the damage.

Now those are strong statements. So I’ll try to explain them by doing three things. First, I want to look at the problems in what Kennedy actually said. Second, I want to reflect on what a proper Christian approach to politics and public service might look like. And last, I want to examine where Kennedy’s speech has led us – in other words, the realities we face today, and what Christians need to do about those realities.

*
John Kennedy was a great speaker. Ted Sorensen, who helped craft the Houston speech, was a gifted writer. As a result, it’s easy to speed-read Kennedy’s Houston remarks as a passionate appeal for tolerance. But the text has at least two big flaws ². The first is political and historical. The second is religious.

Early in his remarks, Kennedy said: “I believe in an America where the separation of Church and state is absolute.” Given the distrust historically shown to Catholics in this country, his words were shrewdly chosen. The trouble is, the Constitution doesn’t say that. The Founders and Framers didn’t believe that. And the history of the United States contradicts that. Unlike revolutionary leaders in Europe, the American Founders looked quite favorably on religion. Many were believers themselves. In fact, one of the main reasons for writing the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause – the clause that bars any federally-endorsed Church – was that several of the Constitution’s Framers wanted to protect the publicly funded Protestant Churches they already had in their own states. John Adams actually preferred a “mild and equitable establishment of religion” and helped draft that into the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution ³.

America’s Founders encouraged mutual support between religion and government. Their reasons were practical. In their view, a republic like the United States needs a virtuous people to survive. Religious faith, rightly lived, forms virtuous people. Thus, the modern, drastic sense of the “separation of Church and state” had little force in American consciousness until Justice Hugo Black excavated it from a private letter President Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association ⁴. Justice Black then used Jefferson’s phrase in the Supreme Court’s Everson v. Board of Education decision in 1947.

The date of that Court decision is important, because America’s Catholic bishops wrote a wonderful pastoral letter one year later – in 1948 – called “The Christian in Action.” It’s worth reading. In that letter, the bishops did two things. They strongly endorsed American democracy and religious freedom. They also strongly challenged Justice Black’s logic in Everson.

The bishops wrote that “it would be an utter distortion of American history and law” to force the nation’s public institutions into an “indifference to religion and the exclusion of cooperation between religion and government.” They rejected Justice Black’s harsh new sense of the separation of Church and state as a “shibboleth of doctrinaire secularism” ⁵. And the bishops argued their case from the facts of American history.

The value of remembering that pastoral statement tonight is this: Kennedy referenced the 1948 bishops’ letter in his Houston comments. He wanted to prove the deep Catholic support for American democracy. And rightly so. But he neglected to mention that the same bishops, in the same letter, repudiated the new and radical kind of separation doctrine he was preaching.

The Houston remarks also created a religious problem. To his credit, Kennedy said that if his duties as President should “ever require me to violate my conscience or violate the national interest, I would resign the office.” He also warned that he would not “disavow my views or my church in order to win this election.” But in its effect, the Houston speech did exactly that. It began the project of walling religion away from the process of governance in a new and aggressive way. It also divided a person’s private beliefs from his or her public duties. And it set “the national interest” over and against “outside religious pressures or dictates.”

For his audience of Protestant ministers, Kennedy’s stress on personal conscience may have sounded familiar and reassuring. But what Kennedy actually did, according to Jesuit scholar Mark Massa, was something quite alien and new. He “‘secularize[d] the American presidency in order to win it.” In other words, “[P]recisely because Kennedy was not an adherent of that mainstream Protestant religiosity that had created and buttressed the ‘plausibility structures’ of [American] political culture at least since Lincoln, he had to ‘privatize’ presidential religious belief – including and especially his own – in order to win that office” ⁶.

In Massa’s view, the kind of secularity pushed by the Houston speech “represented a near total privatization of religious belief – so much a privatization that religious observers from both sides of the Catholic/Protestant fence commented on its remarkable atheistic implications for public life and discourse.” And the irony – again as told by Massa – is that some of the same people who worried publicly about Kennedy’s Catholic faith got a result very different from the one they expected. In effect, “the raising of the [Catholic] issue itself went a considerable way toward ‘secularizing’ the American public square by privatizing personal belief. The very effort to ‘safeguard’ the [essentially Protestant] religious aura of the presidency… contributed in significant ways to its secularization.”

Fifty years after Kennedy’s Houston speech, we have more Catholics in national public office than ever before. But I wonder if we’ve ever had fewer of them who can coherently explain how their faith informs their work, or who even feel obligated to try. The life of our country is no more “Catholic” or “Christian” than it was 100 years ago. In fact it’s arguably less so. And at least one of the reasons for it is this: Too many Catholics confuse their personal opinions with a real Christian conscience. Too many live their faith as if it were a private idiosyncrasy – the kind that they’ll never allow to become a public nuisance. And too many just don’t really believe. Maybe it’s different in Protestant circles. But I hope you’ll forgive me if I say, “I doubt it.”

*

John Kennedy didn’t create the trends in American life that I’ve described. But at least for Catholics, his Houston speech clearly fed them. Which brings me to the second point of my talk: What would a proper Christian approach to politics look like? John Courtney Murray, the Jesuit scholar who spoke so forcefully about the dignity of American democracy and religious freedom, once wrote: “The Holy Spirit does not descend into the City of Man in the form of a dove. He comes only in the endlessly energetic spirit of justice and love that dwells in the man of the City, the layman” ⁷.

Here’s what that means. Christianity is not mainly – or even significantly –- about politics. It’s about living and sharing the love of God. And Christian political engagement, when it happens, is never mainly the task of the clergy. That work belongs to lay believers who live most intensely in the world. Christian faith is not a set of ethics or doctrines. It’s not a group of theories about social and economic justice. All these things have their place. All of them can be important. But a Christian life begins in a relationship with Jesus Christ; and it bears fruit in the justice, mercy and love we show to others because of that relationship.

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:37-40). That’s the test of our faith, and without a passion for Jesus Christ in our hearts that reshapes our lives, Christianity is just a word game and a legend. Relationships have consequences. A married man will commit himself to certain actions and behaviors, no matter what the cost, out of the love he bears for his wife. Our relationship with God is the same. We need to live and prove our love by our actions, not just in our personal and family lives, but also in the public square. Therefore Christians individually and the Church as a believing community engage the political order as an obligation of the Word of God. Human law teaches and forms as well as regulates; and human politics is the exercise of power – which means both have moral implications that the Christian cannot ignore and still remain faithful to his vocation as a light to the world (Mt 5:14-16).

Robert Dodaro, the Augustinian priest and scholar, wrote a wonderful book a few years ago called “Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine”. In his book and elsewhere, Dodaro makes four key points about Augustine’s view of Christianity and politics ⁸.

First, Augustine never really offers a political theory, and there’s a reason. He doesn’t believe human beings can know or create perfect justice in this world. Our judgment is always flawed by our sinfulness. Therefore, the right starting point for any Christian politics is humility, modesty and a very sober realism.

Second, no political order, no matter how seemingly good, can ever constitute a just society. Errors in moral judgment can’t be avoided. These errors also grow exponentially in their complexity as they move from lower to higher levels of society and governance. Therefore the Christian needs to be loyal to his nation and obedient to its legitimate rulers. But he also needs to cultivate a critical vigilance about both.

Third, despite these concerns, Christians still have a duty to take part in public life according to their God-given abilities, even when their faith brings them into conflict with public authority. We can’t simply ignore or withdraw from civic affairs. The reason is simple. The classic civic virtues named by Cicero – prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance – can be renewed and elevated, to the benefit of all citizens, by the Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity. Therefore, political engagement is a worthy Christian task, and public office is an honorable Christian vocation.

Fourth, in governing as best they can, while conforming their lives and their judgment to the content of the Gospel, Christian leaders in public life can accomplish real good, and they can make a difference. Their success will always be limited and mixed. It will never be ideal. But with the help of God they can improve the moral quality of society, which makes the effort invaluable.

What Augustine believes about Christian leaders, we can reasonably extend to the vocation of all Christian citizens. The skills of the Christian citizen are finally very simple: a zeal for Jesus Christ and his Church; a conscience formed in humility and rooted in Scripture and the believing community; the prudence to see which issues in public life are vital and foundational to human dignity, and which ones are not; and the courage to work for what’s right. We don’t cultivate these skills alone. We develop them together as Christians, in prayer, on our knees, in the presence of Jesus Christ – and also in discussions like tonight.

*

Now before ending, I want to turn briefly to the third point I mentioned earlier in my talk: the realities we face today, and what Christians need to do about them. As I was preparing these comments for tonight, I listed all the urgent issues that demand our attention as believers: abortion; immigration; our obligations to the poor, the elderly and the disabled; questions of war and peace; our national confusion about sexual identity and human nature, and the attacks on marriage and family life that flow from this confusion; the growing disconnection of our science and technology from real moral reflection; the erosion of freedom of conscience in our national health-care debates; the content and quality of the schools that form our children.

The list is long. I believe abortion is the foundational human rights issue of our lifetime. We need to do everything we can to support women in their pregnancies and to end the legal killing of unborn children. We may want to remember that the Romans had a visceral hatred for Carthage not because Carthage was a commercial rival, or because its people had a different language and customs. The Romans hated Carthage above all because its people sacrificed their infants to Ba’al. For the Romans, who themselves were a hard people, that was a unique kind of wickedness and barbarism. As a nation, we might profitably ask ourselves whom and what we’ve really been worshipping in our 40 million “legal” abortions since 1973.

All of these issues that I’ve listed above divide our country and our Churches in a way Augustine would have found quite understandable. The City of God and the City of Man overlap in this world. Only God knows who finally belongs to which. But in the meantime, in seeking to live the Gospel we claim to believe, we find friends and brothers in unforeseen places, unlikely places; and when that happens, even a foreign place can seem like one’s home.

The vocation of Christians in American public life does not have a Baptist or Catholic or Greek Orthodox or any other brand-specific label. John 14:6 – “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me” – which is so key to the identity of Houston Baptist University, burns just as hot in this heart, and the heart of every Catholic who truly understands his faith. Our job is to love God, preach Jesus Christ, serve and defend God’s people, and sanctify the world as his agents. To do that work, we need to be one. Not “one” in pious words or good intentions, but really one, perfectly one, in mind and heart and action, as Christ intended. This is what Jesus meant when he said: “I do not pray for these only, but also those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (Jn 17:20-21).

We live in a country that was once – despite its sins and flaws – deeply shaped by Christian faith. It can be so again. But we will do that together, or we won’t do it at all. We need to remember the words of St. Hilary from so long ago: “Unum sunt, qui invicem sunt”, they are one, who are wholly for each other ⁹. May God grant us the grace to love each other, support each other and live wholly for each other in Jesus Christ – so that we might work together in renewing the nation that has served human freedom so well.

__________

The complete text of the speech given by John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1960, to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association:

> “While the so called religious issue…”

__________

On the book “Render Unto Caesar” by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput:

> How to Conduct Politics as Catholics. The Denver Memorandum (13.8.2008)

__________

On a recent appeal from representatives of various Christian confessions of the United States:

> The “Manhattan Declaration”: The Manifesto That’s Shaking America (25.11.2009)

__________

Related articles by Zemanta

• Archbishop Chaput says Catholic medical workers should face hostility with courage (catholicnewsagency.com)

Related posts:

1. The Manhattan Declaration
2. About
3. In Celebration of the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, the Winter Pascha

MORNING PRAYERS

My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt (Matt 26:36).

On arising from sleep, stand before the holy icons with reverence and fear of God; make the sign of the sign of the Cross and say:

IN the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Then the introductory prayers:

Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, O Treasury of every good and Bestower of life: come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, O Good One.

Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (3)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
All-holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, be gracious unto our sins. Master, pardon our iniquities. Holy One, visit and heal our infirmities for Thy Name’s sake.

Lord, have mercy. (3)

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

OUR Father, Which art in the Heavens, hallowed by Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Priest: For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory; both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

(Or:)

People: Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Then the following Troparia to the Holy Trinity:

AS we arise from sleep, we fall down before Thee, O Good One, and we cry unto Thee with the hymn of the Angels, O Mighty One: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God. Through the Theotokos, have mercy on us.

Glory. (Abbreviation meaning say, Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;)

HAVING Raised me from bed and from sleep, O Lord, enlighten my mind and my heart, and open Thou my lips that I may praise Thee, O Holy trinity. Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God. Through the Theotokos, have mercy on us.

Both now.

OF a sudden the Judge shall come, and the deeds of each shall be laid bare. But let us cry out with fear in the midst of the night: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God. Through the Theotokos, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy. (3)

And the following prayer:

AS  I rise from sleep I thank Thee, O Holy Trinity, for because of Thy great goodness and long-suffering Thou wast not wroth with me, the slothful and sinner, nor didst Thou destroy me in mine iniquities, but didst show Thy wonted love for man, and when I was prostrate in despair, Thou didst raise me to keep the morning watch and glorify Thy dominion. And now enlighten Thou the eyes of my mind, open my mouth to meditate on Thy words and to understand Thy commandments, and to do Thy will, and to chant unto Thee in heartfelt confession, and praise Thine All-holy Name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

O come, let us worship and fall down before our King and God.

O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ, our King and God.

O Come, let us worship and fall down before Him, Christ the King and our God.

PSALM 50

HAVE mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy; and according to the multitude of Thy compassions blot out my transgression.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know mine iniquity, and my sin is ever before me.
Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil before Thee, that Thou mightest be justified in Thy words and prevail when Thou art judged.
For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did bear me.
For behold, Thou hast loved truth; the hidden and secret things of Thy wisdom hast Thou made manifest unto me.
Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be made clean; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
Thou shalt make me to hear joy and gladness; the bones that be humbled, they shall rejoice.
Turn Thy face away from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away form Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and with Thy governing Spirit establish me.
I shall teach transgressors Thy ways, and the ungodly shall turn back unto Thee.
Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; my tongue shall rejoice in Thy righteousness.
O Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise.
For if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, I had given it; with whole-burnt offerings Thou shalt not be pleased.
A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise.
Do good, O Lord, in Thy good pleasure unto Sion, and let the walls of Jerusalem be builded.
Then shalt Thou be pleased with a sacrifice of righteousness, with oblation and whole-burnt offerings.
Then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar.

THE CREED

I BELIEVE in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; being of one essence with the Father; by Whom all things were made;
Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from the Heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man;
And was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried;
And arose again on the third day according to the Scriptures;
And ascended into the Heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father;
And shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end;
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Give of life; Who proceedeth from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets;
In One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the dead,

And the life of the ages to come. Amen.

A PRAYER OF SAINT BASEL THE GREAT

THEE do we bless, Thou most High God and Lord of mercy, Who ever workest with us deeds great and unfathomable, glorious and extraordinary, whereof there is no number; Who hast given unto us sleep for rest from our infirmity, and for repose of our much-toiling flesh. We thank Thee that Thou hast not destroyed us in our iniquities, but hast shown Thy wonted love for man, and though we  were prostrate in despair, Thou hast raised us up to glorify Thy dominion. Wherefore, we beseech Thine incomparable goodness: Enlighten the eyes of our understanding and raise our mind form the heavy sleep of slothfulness. Open our mouth and fill it with Thy praise, that we may be able undistracted to sing and chant and give thanks unto Thee, Who art God glorified in all and by all, the beginningless Father, with Thine Only-begotten Son, and Thine All-holy and good and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Most glorious, Ever-virgin, blessed Theoto-kos present our prayer to thy Son ad our God, and pray that through thee He would save our souls.

My hope is the Father, my refuge the Son, my shelter the Holy Spirit. O Holy Trinity, glory be to Thee.

Unto thee do I commit mine every hope, O Mother of God; guard me under thy shelter.

IT is truly meet to call thee blest, the Theotokos, the ever-blessed and all-immaculate, and Mother of our God. More honourable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, thee who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, thee do we magnify.

FORGIVE them that hate us and do us wrong, O Lord; do good unto them that do good unto us. To our brethren and kinsmen, grant their requests that are unto salvation and life everlasting. Visit them that be in sickness, and grant them healing. Pilot them that be at sea. Accompany them that journey. Be Thou the ally of Orthodox Christians. Unto them that minister and show mercy unto us, grant forgiveness of sins. Upon them that have enjoined us, the unworthy, to pray for them, have mercy, according to Thy great mercy. Remember, O Lord, all our fathers and brethren who have gone to their rest before us, and grant them rest where the light of Thy countenance shineth. Remember, O Lord, our brethren, the captives, and deliver them from every misfortune. Remember, O Lord, them that bring oblations and do good works    in Thy holy churches, and grant them their requests that are unto salvation and life everlasting. Remember, O Lord, us also, Thy humble and sinful and unworthy servants, and enlighten our mind with the light of Thy knowledge, and lead us in the path of Thy commandments; by the intercessions of Thine all-immaculate Mother, our Lady the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary, and of all Thy Saints, for blessed art Thou unto all ages of ages. Amen.

THE PARYER OF SAINT EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN

This prayer is said during the Holy and Great Fast, except on Saturdays and Sundays.

O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, curiosity, ambition, and idle talk give me not. (prostration)
But a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love, bestow upon me Thy servant. (prostration)
Yes, O Lord King, grant me to see mine own failings and not to condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen. (prostration)

Then we make twelve bows, after which we repeat the concluding verse of the prayer:

Yes, O Lord King, grant me to see mine own failings and not to condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen. (prostration)

And at the last, say:

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Source: Holy Transfiguration Monaster

Related posts:

1. In Celebration of the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord, the Winter Pascha

Orthodox and non-Orthodox Catholic Christians are invited to read and take to heart this archpastoral message of Metropolitan Jonah, an Episcopalian convert to the Faith of our Fathers. All will be edified by this message of love. The Feast of the Nativity is celebrated by the most traditional Orthodox Catholic Christians on December 25 according to the ancient Christian calender, the Julian Calendar, which is 13 days behind the new Gregorian (new) Calendar. Being 13 days behind the new calender means December 25 comes on January 7.  A meditative reading of His Beatitude’s letter will edify your heart and soul.

Yours truly

Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah for the Nativity of Christ 2009

Posted 12/25
To the Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy,
Monastics, and Faithful of
The Orthodox Church in America

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

We rejoice in the coming of the Savior, the Advent of the Son of God into this broken world. His Nativity anticipates and prefigures His Second and Glorious Coming again in the flesh, not clothed in the swaddling bands of humility, for but a few years; but in the radiant vesture of the Kingdom to reign forever.

For us Orthodox Christians, the Nativity of Christ is the Winter Pascha, and our celebration is rooted in the liturgical life of the Church; the world’s “Xmas” hymns go on and on, oblivious, rather intentionally, to the point of the celebration. While we enjoy the worldly celebration, the family time, the gifts and giving, these are empty if we miss the central celebration itself: the services of the Nativity, culminating in receiving the Holy Mysteries. We can have Christmas without the Nativity, as does the world; but for Christians the Feast of the Nativity is Christmas!

We pray and fast to prepare ourselves for forty days before Christmas not only to be obedient to the Church, but to prepare ourselves to receive the Mystery of Communion. Will this Christmas be unto salvation, discerning and receiving His Body–that same Body born of Mary and laid in the Manger, the Son of God who has taken flesh and likened himself to us, so that He might liken us to Himself? Or do we judge ourselves, unaware or oblivious to the Mystery of Christ’s assumption of our nature. We pray and fast to open our spiritual eyes, so that we can see Christ, discern Christ, know Christ–not just as a historical figure who taught nice things, but as God who has come and will come again.

The traditional Christmas carols talk about Baby Jesus lying in the manger. Let us contemplate this mystery during this season, a mystery that at that time only His Mother really understood: that this little infant, no different than any other, would become the Savior of the world, and redeem mankind, indeed all of creation, from death. What infinite potential, the potential of a man fulfilling the Divine Likeness, and manifesting God in His flesh, was invested in that little child. Who would have thought that a child born in the most destitute poverty and anonymity would become the criterion of judgment for the whole world?

We can also contemplate this same mystery in the life of every child. Who knows what the destiny of that child will be? Who can tell if he or she will become a point of hope for the whole world? That same infinite potential, the potential for deification, the potential for a life transfigured by God, the potential for a life that will bring joy and peace, or beget such a child?

The Feast of the Nativity is not only the contemplation of God taking human flesh. It is also the great celebration of humanity, that God so loved as to become one of us, that through that One, joy and peace and salvation may be given to the whole world. Let us treasure the life of every child, who is the image of Christ born of the Virgin, and remember the great calling which he or she, and each of us, has in God. Let us also remember that the ultimate fulfillment of that calling is found in the transformation of our very flesh, in which God became incarnate, that having become man for our sake, He enables us to partake of His Divinity on that glorious day of His coming again in the flesh.

With love in the Newborn Lord,

+JONAH
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada

Source: Orthodox Church in America

Related posts:

1. Christmas in Rome. The Pope’s Tale of the Crèche
2. “God’s sign is that he makes himself small, he becomes a child”

“No longer is he the distant God who can in some way be perceived from afar, in creation and in our own consciousness.” From Bethlehem erupts the news that changes everything, even the “hearts of stone.” The pope’s homily for Christmas Eve

by Benedict XVI

Fra Angelico, 1440, Nativity, Florence, Convent of San Marco.

Dear brothers and sisters, “a child is born for us, a son is given to us” (Is 9:5). What Isaiah prophesied as he gazed into the future from afar, consoling Israel amid its trials and its darkness, is now proclaimed to the shepherds as a present reality by the Angel, from whom a cloud of light streams forth: “To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11). The Lord is here. From this moment, God is truly “God with us”. No longer is he the distant God who can in some way be perceived from afar, in creation and in our own consciousness. He has entered the world. He is close to us. The words of the risen Christ to his followers are addressed also to us: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). For you the Saviour is born: through the Gospel and those who proclaim it, God now reminds us of the message that the Angel announced to the shepherds.

It is a message that cannot leave us indifferent. If it is true, it changes everything. If it is true, it also affects me. Like the shepherds, then, I too must say: Come on, I want to go to Bethlehem to see the Word that has occurred there. The story of the shepherds is included in the Gospel for a reason. They show us the right way to respond to the message that we too have received. What is it that these first witnesses of God’s incarnation have to tell us?

The first thing we are told about the shepherds is that they were on the watch – they could hear the message precisely because they were awake. We must be awake, so that we can hear the message. We must become truly vigilant people. What does this mean? The principal difference between someone dreaming and someone awake is that the dreamer is in a world of his own. His “self” is locked into this dreamworld that is his alone and does not connect him with others. To wake up means to leave that private world of one’s own and to enter the common reality, the truth that alone can unite all people. Conflict and lack of reconciliation in the world stem from the fact that we are locked into our own interests and opinions, into our own little private world. Selfishness, both individual and collective, makes us prisoners of our interests and our desires that stand against the truth and separate us from one another. Awake, the Gospel tells us. Step outside, so as to enter the great communal truth, the communion of the one God.

To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his presence. There are people who describe themselves as “religiously tone deaf”. The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some. And indeed – our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today’s world, the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for God, to make us “tone deaf” towards him. And yet in every soul, the desire for God, the capacity to encounter him, is present, whether in a hidden way or overtly. In order to arrive at this vigilance, this awakening to what is essential, we should pray for ourselves and for others, for those who appear “tone deaf” and yet in whom there is a keen desire for God to manifest himself. The great theologian Origen said this: if I had the grace to see as Paul saw, I could even now (during the Liturgy) contemplate a great host of angels (cf. in Lk 23:9). And indeed, in the sacred liturgy, we are surrounded by the angels of God and the saints. The Lord himself is present in our midst. Lord, open the eyes of our hearts, so that we may become vigilant and clear-sighted, in this way bringing you close to others as well!

Let us return to the Christmas Gospel. It tells us that after listening to the Angel’s message, the shepherds said one to another: “‘Let us go over to Bethlehem’ … they went at once” (Lk 2:15f.). “They made haste” is literally what the Greek text says. What had been announced to them was so important that they had to go immediately. In fact, what had been said to them was utterly out of the ordinary. It changed the world. The Saviour is born. The long-awaited Son of David has come into the world in his own city. What could be more important? No doubt they were partly driven by curiosity, but first and foremost it was their excitement at the wonderful news that had been conveyed to them, of all people, to the little ones, to the seemingly unimportant. They made haste – they went at once.

In our daily life, it is not like that. For most people, the things of God are not given priority, they do not impose themselves on us directly And so the great majority of us tend to postpone them. First we do what seems urgent here and now. In the list of priorities God is often more or less at the end. We can always deal with that later, we tend to think. The Gospel tells us: God is the highest priority. If anything in our life deserves haste without delay, then, it is God’s work alone. The Rule of Saint Benedict contains this teaching: “Place nothing at all before the work of God (i.e. the divine office)”. For monks, the Liturgy is the first priority. Everything else comes later. In its essence, though, this saying applies to everyone. God is important, by far the most important thing in our lives. The shepherds teach us this priority. From them we should learn not to be crushed by all the pressing matters in our daily lives. From them we should learn the inner freedom to put other tasks in second place – however important they may be – so as to make our way towards God, to allow him into our lives and into our time. Time given to God and, in his name, to our neighbour is never time lost. It is the time when we are most truly alive, when we live our humanity to the full.

Some commentators point out that the shepherds, the simple souls, were the first to come to Jesus in the manger and to encounter the Redeemer of the world. The wise men from the East, representing those with social standing and fame, arrived much later. The commentators go on to say: this is quite natural. The shepherds lived nearby. They only needed to “come over” (cf. Lk 2:15), as we do when we go to visit our neighbours. The wise men, however, lived far away. They had to undertake a long and arduous journey in order to arrive in Bethlehem. And they needed guidance and direction.

Today too there are simple and lowly souls who live very close to the Lord. They are, so to speak, his neighbours and they can easily go to see him. But most of us in the world today live far from Jesus Christ, the incarnate God who came to dwell amongst us. We live our lives by philosophies, amid worldly affairs and occupations that totally absorb us and are a great distance from the manger. In all kinds of ways, God has to prod us and reach out to us again and again, so that we can manage to escape from the muddle of our thoughts and activities and discover the way that leads to him. But a path exists for all of us. The Lord provides everyone with tailor-made signals. He calls each one of us, so that we too can say: “Come on, ‘let us go over’ to Bethlehem – to the God who has come to meet us.

Yes indeed, God has set out towards us. Left to ourselves we could not reach him. The path is too much for our strength. But God has come down. He comes towards us. He has travelled the longer part of the journey. Now he invites us: come and see how much I love you. Come and see that I am here. “Transeamus usque Bethlehem,” the Latin Bible says. Let us go there! Let us surpass ourselves! Let us journey towards God in all sorts of ways: along our interior path towards him, but also along very concrete paths – the Liturgy of the Church, the service of our neighbour, in whom Christ awaits us.

Let us once again listen directly to the Gospel. The shepherds tell one another the reason why they are setting off: “Let us see this thing that has happened.” Literally the Greek text says: “Let us see this Word that has occurred there.” Yes indeed, such is the radical newness of this night: the Word can be seen. For it has become flesh. The God of whom no image may be made – because any image would only diminish, or rather distort him – this God has himself become visible in the One who is his true image, as Saint Paul puts it (cf. 2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15). In the figure of Jesus Christ, in the whole of his life and ministry, in his dying and rising, we can see the Word of God and hence the mystery of the living God himself.

This is what God is like. The Angel had said to the shepherds: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:12; cf. 2:16). God’s sign, the sign given to the shepherds and to us, is not an astonishing miracle. God’s sign is his humility. God’s sign is that he makes himself small; he becomes a child; he lets us touch him and he asks for our love. How we would prefer a different sign, an imposing, irresistible sign of God’s power and greatness! But his sign summons us to faith and love, and thus it gives us hope: this is what God is like. He has power, he is Goodness itself. He invites us to become like him.

Yes indeed, we become like God if we allow ourselves to be shaped by this sign; if we ourselves learn humility and hence true greatness; if we renounce violence and use only the weapons of truth and love. Origen, taking up one of John the Baptist’s sayings, saw the essence of paganism expressed in the symbol of stones: paganism is a lack of feeling, it means a heart of stone that is incapable of loving and perceiving God’s love. Origen says of the pagans: “Lacking feeling and reason, they are transformed into stones and wood” (in Lk 22:9). Christ, though, wishes to give us a heart of flesh. When we see him, the God who became a child, our hearts are opened. In the Liturgy of the holy night, God comes to us as man, so that we might become truly human. Let us listen once again to Origen: “Indeed, what use would it be to you that Christ once came in the flesh if he did not enter your soul? Let us pray that he may come to us each day, that we may be able to say: I live, yet it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20)” (in Lk 22:3).

Yes indeed, that is what we should pray for on this Holy Night. Lord Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, come to us! Enter within me, within my soul. Transform me. Renew me. Change me, change us all from stone and wood into living people, in whom your love is made present and the world is transformed. Amen.

__________

In the illustration: Fra Angelico, 1440, Nativity, Florence, Convent of San Marco.

__________

The latest articles from www.chiesa:

23.12.2009

Source: www.chiesa.espressonline.it

Related articles by Zemanta

• Pope greets faithful in basilica (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Pope greets wellwishers outside Rome soup kitchen (ctv.ca)

Related posts:

1. Christmas in Rome. The Pope’s Tale of the Crèche

The origins and meaning of the holiday. St. Francis’ stroke of genius. This is how Joseph Ratzinger explained Christmas to the pilgrims who had come from all over the world, just before Christmas Eve.

by Benedict

In the illustration: Benedetto Bonfigli, circa 1470, Adoration of the Magi, London, National Gallery

Dear brothers and sisters, with the Christmas novena, which we are celebrating in these days, the Church is inviting us to live in an intense and profound way the preparation for the Nativity of the Savior, which is now imminent. The desire that we all hold in our hearts is that the upcoming feast of Christmas may give us, in the midst of the frenetic activity of our days, the serene and profound joy that allows us to touch with our hands the goodness of our God, and fills us with new courage.

In order to understand better the significance of the Nativity of the Lord, I would like to make some brief remarks on the historical origin of this solemnity. In fact, the Church’s liturgical year did not initially develop beginning from the birth of Christ, but from faith in his resurrection. For this reason, the most ancient feast of Christianity is not Christmas, it is Easter [Pascha]; the resurrection of Christ is the foundation of the Christian faith, it is at the basis of the proclamation of the Gospel, and gives birth to the Church. Therefore being Christian means living in a Paschal manner, participating in the dynamism that arises from baptism and leads us to die to sin in order to live with God (cf. Romans 6:4).

The first to state clearly that Jesus was born on December 25 was Hippolytus of Rome, in his commentary on the book of the prophet Daniel, written about the year 204. Some exegetes later noted that the feast of the dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem, instituted by Judas Maccabeus in 164 B.C., was celebrated on that day. The coinciding of these dates would therefore mean that with Jesus, who appeared as the light of God in the darkness, there is the true realization of the consecration of the Temple, the Advent of God upon this earth.

The feast of Christmas took on definitive form in Christianity in the fourth century, when it replaced the Roman feast of the “Sol Invictus,” the invincible sun; this highlighted the fact that the birth of Christ is the victory of the true light over the darkness of evil and sin.

However, the special and intense spiritual atmosphere that surrounds Christmas developed in the Middle Ages, thanks to St. Francis of Assisi, who was deeply in love with the man Jesus, with God-with-us. His first biographer, Thomas of Celano, recounts in the book “Second Life” that Saint Francis “above all of the other solemnities celebrated with indescribable fervor the Nativity of the Child Jesus, and called a ‘feast of feasts’ the day on which God, having become a little infant, suckled at a human breast” (Fonti Francescane, 199, p. 492).

This special devotion to the mystery of the incarnation gave rise to the famous celebration of Christmas in Greccio. St. Francis probably got his inspiration for this from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and from the crèche at Saint Mary Major in Rome. What drove the Little Poor Man of Assisi was the desire to experience in a concrete, living, and present way the greatness of the event of the birth of the Child Jesus, and to communicate its joy to everyone.

In his first biography, Thomas of Celano talks about the night of the crèche in Greccio in a living and touching way, making a decisive contribution to the spread of the most beautiful Christmas tradition, that of the crèche. Christmas Eve in Greccio, in fact, restored to Christianity the intensity and beauty of the feast of Christmas, and taught the people of God to grasp its most authentic message, its unique warmth, and to love and adore the humanity of Christ.

This unique approach to Christmas brought a new dimension to the Christian faith. Easter had focused attention on the power of God who conquers death, inaugurates the new life, and teaches hope in the world to come. St. Francis and his crèche highlighted the defenseless love of God, his humility and kindness, which in the incarnation of the Word are manifested to man in order to teach a new way of living and loving.

Celano recounts that, on that Christmas Eve, Francis was granted the grace of a wonderful vision. He saw lying motionless in the manger a little baby, who was awakened from his sleep by the presence of Francis. And he adds: “Nor was this vision at odds with the facts, because, through the work of his grace acting by means of his holy servant Francis, the Child Jesus was reawakened in the hearts of many who had forgotten him, and was profoundly impressed in their loving memory” (Vita prima, Fonti Francescane, 86, p. 307).

This backdrop describes with great precision how much Francis’ living faith in and love for the humanity of Christ transmitted to the Christian feast of Christmas: the discovery that God reveals himself in the tender members of the Child Jesus. Thanks to St. Francis, the Christian people have been able to perceive that at Christmas, God truly became “Emmanuel,” God-with-us, who is not separated from us by any barrier or distance. In that Child, God became so close to each one of us, so near, that we are able to talk to him as a friend and establish a familiar relationship of profound affection with him, as we do with a newborn.

In that Child, in fact, is manifested God-Love: God comes without weapons, without power, because he does not intend to conquer, so to speak, from the outside, but instead intends to be welcomed by man in freedom; God becomes a defenseless Child in order to overcome man’s arrogance, violence, and desire for possession. In Jesus, God has taken on this poor and unarmed condition in order to conquer us with love, and lead us to our true identity. We must not forget that the greatest title of Jesus Christ is precisely that of “Son,” Son of God; the divine dignity is indicated with a term that extends the reference to the humble condition of the manger in Bethlehem, although it still corresponds in a unique way to his divinity, which is the divinity of the “Son.”

Moreover, his condition as a Child shows us how we can encounter God and enjoy his presence. It is in the light of Christmas that we can understand the words of Jesus: “If you do not convert and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Those who have not understood the mystery of Christmas have not understood the decisive element of Christian existence. Those who do not welcome Jesus with the heart of a child cannot enter the kingdom of heaven: this is what Francis wanted to remind the Christianity of this time and of all times, up until today.

Let us pray to the Father that he grant our hearts that simplicity which recognizes the Child as Lord, just as Francis did in Greccio. Then we too may experience what Thomas of Celano – referring to the experience of the shepherds on Christmas Eve (cf. Luke 2:20) – recounts about those who were present at the event in Greccio: “Everyone went home full of inexpressible joy” (Vita prima, Fonti Francescane, 86, p. 479).

This is the wish that I extend with affection to all of you, to your families and loved ones. Merry Christmas to you all!

(Catechesis given by Benedict XVI at the general audience on Wednesday, December 23, 2009).

____________

In the illustration: Benedetto Bonfigli, circa 1470, Adoration of the Magi, London, National Gallery.

__________

English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.

__________

23.12.2009

Source: www.chiesa.espressonline.it

Related posts:

1. Governor Bobby Jindal on Christianity
2. Manhattan Declaration.org: Limited Time Offer

Get off your Christian hands now and go to work. Do it soon. If you don’t, there will be nothing left of the American Dream to fight for. It is for this reason that I say the offer is a Limited Time Offer; for, if we continue setting on our Christian hands doing little or nothing to challenge those who are intent on taking our most basic God-given rights away from us, time is limited and it will be too late before we know it.

In fact it is very late in the day now, so read what follows below, take it to heart, and do your utmost to help the rest of us signers and activists by becoming a signer of the Manhattan Declaration and become active in anyway you can. Step outside of your comfort zone to help America remain the freest of the free countries on the face of the earth; the one that all men look up to as the epitome of freedom, economic wealth, and security.

The rights set forth in the First Amendment are among the most important in the U.S. Constitution. The text of the First Amendment is:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

These words, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, are to my mind the most important in the constitution and are the words that give power to all the other words in that great document. In essence these words say that Congress shall not establish a state religion (or, by implication, give preference to one religion over another), as was the case in England; the country the founders of our republic fled from when they came here to establish our country.

Not only does the First Amendment prohibit Congress from establishing a state religion, but more importantly, it prohibits Congress from prohibiting the citizenry from the free exercise of religion (and by implication free choice of religion).

Those words do not sound like the basis for separation of Church and State, but that is what the liberal humanists who would overthrow Christianity’s influence in American culture have said those words mean.

I beg you, my fellow Americans to step outside your comfort zone and put forth every effort to actively fight the good fight we are all called to by Christ, and now, in these latter times, by the Manhattan Declaration.

If you go to ManhattanDeclaration.org you will see the following message:

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:

1. the sanctity of human life
2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

And, should you elect to sign the petition (see The Manhattan Declaration post which immediately proceeded this one in time)

To all signers of the Manhattan Declaration:

Thank you for signing. We are now over 200,000 strong-and counting, for which we give thanks to God.

We have received thousands of e-mails asking what’s next – a good question. The goal of those of us who drafted and signed the document is not just to get a lot of names on a manifesto, gratifying though that is. We are seeking to build a movement – hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Catholic, Evangelical, and Eastern Orthodox Christians who will stand together alongside other men and women of goodwill in defense of foundational principles of justice and the common good. These are people who could expose the lie which so many in our culture have embraced about self being the center of life; and then winsomely present, in the words of St. Paul, “a more excellent way.”

We are looking for people who will work in every possible arena to advance the sanctity of life, rebuild and revitalize the marriage culture, and protect religious liberty.

So what’s next for you? Let us offer some specific suggestions. More will undoubtedly follow in the weeks ahead.

1. Pray. We can do nothing apart from God. So lay this before the Lord every chance you have, and ask your friends and prayer chains to do the same thing.
2. Study and learn about these issues. We see the Manhattan Declaration as a great teaching and reference source. Share it with others. Only after you have tried to teach it to someone else will you have really learned it. And go deeper in your own study. There are many organizations that offer excellent resources in support of these foundational truths. If you can’t find resources, you can visit www.colsoncenter.org and look at the Worldview Resource Directory we’ve assembled.
3. Come back to www.manhattandeclaration.org if you want help in answering questions others pose to you. We’ve posted a FAQ (frequently asked questions) tab on the home page, but most people signed the statement before this was added. So revisit www.manhattandeclaration.org – and watch for other resources we will be posting.
4. Invite all of the friends on your e-mail lists to go to www.manhattandeclaration.org, read the Declaration (that’s most important) and sign it.
5. Talk to your pastor or small group leader in church. We have heard from a number of pastors who are already referring to this document in their sermons and using it in their teaching. We’ve also heard from bishops and other church leaders who are planning ecumenical gatherings in their areas of responsibility. Some are talking about campaigns to equip the faithful. Other pastors are asking their congregations to sign the document, and become informed. Go to your pastor; urge him to do this. You can really help in this area. Suggest it, and then volunteer to be a part of it. Step forward as a leader.
6. If you belong to a civic group like Kiwanis or Rotary, and you have regular meetings, that’s a great forum in which to share information about the Manhattan Declaration. Explain to people what you’ve signed and why you’ve signed it. A lot of people are asking about this statement, its meaning and purpose. Educate them.
7. Letters to the Editor can be a very effective way to spread information about important issues. According to some sources, more people read the Letters to the Editor columns than the editorials.
8. Watch the issues being debated in the public arena, particularly as the health reform bill is moving through Congress. As a citizen you have a duty to let your representatives know what you think about the issues, particularly on profoundly important moral questions like those being raised now.
9. Get on Facebook or any other chat rooms or blogs that you have access to. Social networking, as we are learning, can have a powerful impact.
10. Finally, talk to your neighbors. Robert Naisbitt wrote that fads begin from the top down, movements from the bottom up. We are convinced that societies are changed over the backyard fence, standing around the barbeque grill, and sitting in the barber shop or hair salon. Learn to be an advocate in any environment.

In conclusion, in asking you to sign we were not just asking you to raise your hand, but to raise your voice. Great changes in society have often come about when Christian people unite in this way – think of the Wesley awakening, the Celtic revival, or movements for social justice and civil rights in our own country. We believe God is looking for good men and women who will pledge (as you have done in signing the Manhattan Declaration), never to compromise the gospel, and to become well-informed, effective advocates true and godly principles.

This is a message of hope for every area of human life and endeavor, and a call to discipleship for every believer.

God bless you.

Dr. Robert George
Dr. Timothy George
Chuck Colson

Dearly beloved Brethren in Christ,

Do it now. Sign up and become a modern day Christian Warrior and American Patriot.

Yours truly

Related articles by Zemanta

• EU: Churches Must Hire Gays? (answersforthefaith.com)
• -Re: ‘Manhattan Declaration’: A Call of Christian Conscience (answersforthefaith.com)
• State and Religion (stephankinsella.com)

Related posts:

1. The Manhattan Declaration
2. Governor Bobby Jindal on Christianity
3. Controlling Leviathan: The Battle for Limited Government

The Manhattan Declaration represents a turning point in the ongoing battle for the soul of America. It is first time in my lifetime where so many Christian church leaders have come together and declared themselves open combatants against all earthly powers that oppose one of the primary tenants of the Christian faith: the right to natural life.

Heretofore, with the exception of the Roman Catholic episcopacy, whose opposition was sometimes aggressive, but too often tepid and confusing, the Christian leaders that America looks to for moral guidance, stood idly by while their faithful looked more and more to societal forces for moral guidance while their self-aggrandizing, weak-kneed Christian leaders stood idly by; overcome with bewildered amazement at how their people were deserting them.

Now of a sudden, by the grace of God, these same weak-kneed leaders have declared war, by signing this document, on all the societal forces and earthly powers that opposed this most basic tenant of the Christian faith, the God-given human right to natural life

These two statements clearly show how profound the newfound strength is of our nation’s Christian leadership:
“We will not be intimidated into silence or acquiescence or the violation of our consciences by any power on earth, be it cultural or political, regardless of the consequences to ourselves.”

and

“We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”

Now it is time for us to stand up and be counted with our Christian leaders.

Read the excellent essay by Sandro Magister that explains the Manhattan Declaration very well. Please let the rest of the world know if you agree or disagree with what he writes or the little bit that I have just written.

Yours truly

The “Manhattan Declaration”: The Manifesto That’s Shaking America

It’s been endorsed by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox leaders, united in defending life and the family. With the White House in the crosshairs. In Europe, they would’ve branded it political “interference” by the Church

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, November 25, 2009 – On the other side of the Atlantic, the news passed almost without notice: the news about a strong public appeal in defense of life, of marriage, of religious freedom and objection of conscience, launched jointly – a rarity – by top-level representatives of the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion, and the Evangelical communities of the United States.

Among the religious leaders who presented the appeal to the public on Friday, November 20, at the National Press Club in Washington (in the photo), were the archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Washington, Donald W. Wuerl, and the bishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput.

And among the 52 first signatories of the appeal were 11 other Catholic archbishops and bishops of the United States: Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit, Timothy Dolan of New York, John J. Myers of Newark, John Nienstedt of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix, Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland, Richard J. Malone of Portland, and David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh.

The 4700-word appeal is entitled “Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience,” and takes its name from the area of New York in which its publication was discussed and decided last September.

The final drafting of the text was entrusted to Robert P. George, a Catholic professor of law at Princeton University, and to Evangelical Protestants Chuck Colson and Timothy George, the latter a professor at the Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

The other signers include Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen, primate of the Orthodox Church in America, archpriest Chad Hatfield of the Orthodox seminary of Saint Vladimir, Reverend William Owens, president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, and two leading figures of the Anglican Communion: Robert Wm. Duncan, primate of the Anglican Church in North America, and Peter J. Akinola, primate of the Anglican Church in Nigeria.

Apart from the bishops, the other Catholics who signed the appeal include Jesuit Fr. Joseph D. Fessio, a disciple of Joseph Ratzinger and founder of the publisher Ignatius Press, William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, Jody Bottum, editor of the magazine “First Things,” and George Weigel, a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The “Manhattan Declaration” has not emerged in a vacuum, but at a critical moment for American society and politics: precisely while the administration of Barack Obama is pushing hard for passage of a health care reform plan in the United States.

Defending life from the moment of conception and the right to objections of conscience, the appeal contests two of the points endangered by the reform project currently under discussion in the Senate.

In Congress, the danger was averted thanks in part to aggressive lobbying conducted openly by the Catholic episcopate. After the final vote had guaranteed both the right to objections of conscience and the blocking of any public financing for abortion, the bishops’ conference hailed this result as a “success.” But now the battle has started all over again in the Senate, on a working document that the Church again considers unacceptable. The bishops’ conference has already sent the senators a letter indicating the changes it would like to see made to all of the points in dispute.

But now there is also the ecumenical “Manhattan Declaration,” the last chapter of which, entitled “Unjust Laws,” ends with this solemn statement:

“We will not be intimidated into silence or acquiescence or the violation of our consciences by any power on earth, be it cultural or political, regardless of the consequences to ourselves.”

And immediately afterward:

“We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”

In an initial passage, the appeal also says this:

“While public opinion has moved in a pro-life direction, powerful and determined forces are working to expand abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.”

And it is true. According to the most recent surveys, public opinion in the United States is shifting noticeably toward greater defense of the life of the unborn child.

From 1995 to 2008, all of the research had shown that more people were pro-choice than pro-life, with a significant margin between them: the former at 49 percent, the latter at 42.

Now, instead, the positions have been reversed. The pro-choice have fallen to 46 percent, and the pro-life have risen to 47 percent, overtaking them.

The religious leaders who are pressuring Obama on the minefield of abortion, of homosexual marriage, of euthanasia, therefore know that they have with them a large and growing segment of American society.

The issuing of the “Manhattan Declaration” has received extensive coverage in the media in the United States, without anyone protesting against this political “interference” by the Churches.

But that’s just the way it is in the United States. There has always been a rigorous separation between religion and the state there. There are no concordats, and they’re not even conceivable. But this is exactly why the Churches are seen as having the freedom to speak and act in the public sphere.

In Europe, the landscape is very different. Here “secularism” is understood and applied in conflict, either latent or explicit, with the Churches.

This may be another reason for the silence that in Europe, in Italy, in Rome, greeted the “Manhattan Declaration.” It is held to be a typically American phenomenon, foreign to the European way of thinking.

A similar difference in approach concerns the denial of Eucharistic communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians. In the United States, this controversy is extremely heated, while on the other side of the Atlantic it isn’t. This difference in sensibilities also divides the hierarchy of the Catholic Church: in Europe and in Rome the question is practically ignored, left to the individual conscience.

But it most be noted out that something is changing on this point, even on the Old Continent. And not only because there is a pope like Benedict XVI, who has stated that he prefers the American model of relations between Church and state.

A sign of this came a few days ago from Spain, where the Catholic Church is grappling with an ideologically hostile government, that of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which is preparing a law that would liberalize abortion even more than it is now.

According to reports from sources including “L’Osservatore Romano,” the secretary general of the Spanish bishops’ conference, Bishop Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, did not hesitate to advise Catholic politicians that, if they vote in favor of the law, they will not be admitted to Eucharistic communion, because they will have placed themselves in an objective situation of “public sin.”

Not only that. Bishop Martínez Camino added that those who maintain that it is morally legitimate to kill an unborn child put themselves in contradiction with the Catholic Church, and thus risk falling into heresy and into “latae sententiae,’ or automatic, excommunication.

It is the first time that words so “American” have been heard from the leadership of a bishops’ conference in Europe.

But let’s get back to the “Manhattan Declaration.” The complete text, with a list of the first 152 signers, is on this web page:

> Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience

The following is the abbreviated text, released together with the complete text of the “Declaration”:

Manhattan Declaration Executive Summary

November 20, 2009

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are (1) the sanctity of human life, (2) the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife, and (3) the rights of conscience and religious liberty. Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Human Life

The lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are ever more threatened. While public opinion has moved in a pro-life direction, powerful and determined forces are working to expand abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. Although the protection of the weak and vulnerable is the first obligation of government, the power of government is today often enlisted in the cause of promoting what Pope John Paul II called “the culture of death.” We pledge to work unceasingly for the equal protection of every innocent human being at every stage of development and in every condition. We will refuse to permit ourselves or our institutions to be implicated in the taking of human life and we will support in every possible way those who, in conscience, take the same stand.

Marriage

The institution of marriage, already wounded by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is at risk of being redefined and thus subverted. Marriage is the original and most important institution for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all. Where marriage erodes, social pathologies rise. The impulse to redefine marriage is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture. It reflects a loss of understanding of the meaning of marriage as embodied in our civil law as well as our religious traditions. Yet it is critical that the impulse be resisted, for yielding to it would mean abandoning the possibility of restoring a sound understanding of marriage and, with it, the hope of rebuilding a healthy marriage culture. It would lock into place the false and destructive belief that marriage is all about romance and other adult satisfactions, and not, in any intrinsic way, about the unique character and value of acts and relationships whose meaning is shaped by their aptness for the generation, promotion and protection of life. Marriage is not a “social construction,” but is rather an objective reality – the covenantal union of husband and wife – that it is the duty of the law to recognize, honor, and protect.

Religious Liberty

Freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized. The threat to these fundamental principles of justice is evident in efforts to weaken or eliminate conscience protections for healthcare institutions and professionals, and in anti-discrimination statutes that are used as weapons to force religious institutions, charities, businesses, and service providers either to accept (and even facilitate) activities and relationships they judge to be immoral, or go out of business. Attacks on religious liberty are dire threats not only to individuals, but also to the institutions of civil society including families, charities, and religious communities. The health and well-being of such institutions provide an indispensable buffer against the overweening power of government and is essential to the flourishing of every other institution – including government itself – on which society depends.

Unjust Laws

As Christians, we believe in law and we respect the authority of earthly rulers. We count it as a special privilege to live in a democratic society where the moral claims of the law on us are even stronger in virtue of the rights of all citizens to participate in the political process. Yet even in a democratic regime, laws can be unjust. And from the beginning, our faith has taught that civil disobedience is required in the face of gravely unjust laws or laws that purport to require us to do what is unjust or otherwise immoral. Such laws lack the power to bind in conscience because they can claim no authority beyond that of sheer human will.

Therefore, let it be known that we will not comply with any edict that compels us or the institutions we lead to participate in or facilitate abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide, euthanasia, or any other act that violates the principle of the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every member of the human family.

Further, let it be known that we will not bend to any rule forcing us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality, marriage, and the family.

Further, let it be known that we will not be intimidated into silence or acquiescence or the violation of our consciences by any power on earth, be it cultural or political, regardless of the consequences to ourselves.

We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.

__________

The official website of the “Manhattan Declaration,” with the possibility of signing it:

> manhattandeclaration.org

__________

The letter of November 20, 2009, from the United States bishops’ conference to the senators, on the health system reform bill:

> “Dear Senator…”

Accompanied by a reminder on the previous discussion in Congress:

> “What does the Stupak amendment really do?”

__________

The Gallup/USA Today study on pro-life attitudes, which in 2009 have overtaken the pro-choice:

> U.S. Abortion Attitudes Closely Divided

__________

On the criticisms of the Obama administration from the American Catholic hierarchy, and divergences with the curia of Rome:

> The Bishop’s Ax Falls on Obama. And on the Vatican Curia (8.10.2009)

__________

On the granting or withholding of communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians, and on the comment in this regard written in 2004 by then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger:

> Obama’s Pick for Vice President Is Catholic. But the Bishops Deny Him Communion (27.8.2008)

> An American Dispute: Should Communion Be Given to Pro-abortion Catholic Politicians? (2.5.2008)

> The Kerry Affair: What Ratzinger Wanted from the American Bishops (3.7.2004)

> Ratzinger-Kerry, Act II. The Well-Tempered Controversy (13.7.2004)

__________

English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.

__________
25.11.2009

Source: www.chiesa

Related articles by Zemanta

• Your Thoughts on Kennedy’s Tiff With His Bishop (usnews.com)
• Why He Signed (palamas.info)
• Benedict Strives for Ecumenical Mark (online.wsj.com)
• Catholic church to receive Anglicans (guardian.co.uk)
• Pope in battle for soul of two churches (guardian.co.uk)
• LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report 10/3/09 (deaconforlife.blogspot.com)
• Back to basics for the church | HE Baber (guardian.co.uk)
• Theocracy: Imposing Faith into Politics in the US and Abroad (lafiga.firedoglake.com)
• In China, a colossal leap of faith (nationalpost.com)
• Pope Approves Plan to Allow Anglicans Into the Fold (nytimes.com)
• Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Christian leaders sign Manhattan Declaration (liveactivecultures.net)
• Politics, Polemics and Reconcilation (palamas.info)
• Convenient Christianity (The American Taliban) (drumsnwhistles.com)
• Lesbian ordination divides Anglicans (guardian.co.uk)
• LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report 12/7/09 (deaconforlife.blogspot.com)

Related posts:

1. Texas Straight Talk
2. Governor Bobby Jindal on Christianity

We used to rely on the protection of Divine Providence in war; that was before our government decided enhanced interrogation offered better protection

I liked this weekly talk by U.S. Congressman Ron Paul so much that I could not resist posting it here. What the congressman says here certainly fits in with my personal insights into the pursuit of happiness.

There was a time when “In God We Trust” meant something to us

The fact that we have fallen so low as an “In-God-We-Trust” republic as to commit horrible acts of torture on political prisoners—or any kind of prisoners, for that matter, sickens me, while at the same time it inspires our enemy to fight us to the death to overcome our domination of their people.

It is clear to see for all who seek truth in life that such dastardly acts of cowardice by our nation will inevitably lead to our downfall. And so it should! Why will we fail? Because we say that as a nation we believe in God, that’s why.

Torture is always wrong, no matter what

Notice I said we say we believe. I did not say we believe. I didn’t say it that way because our actions show we don’t believe in God very strongly. If we still believed strongly as a nation, we wouldn’t feel a need to torture people to get information. Never mind who they are or why we torture them, and never mind the quality of information torture might yield. Remember what you have been taught all your life: The end does not justify the means.

Has the truth of this adage suddenly changed? Of course not; truth never changes; only people do. So, today, how empty is the phrase, In God We Trust? Apparently for the majority of our people, those words are all but completely empty of meaning.

Yeah, we still believe kinda, but the Moslems believe really

I hear it said that the people we have tortured recently are by and large Moslem terrorists who would like nothing better than to make us their prisoners and slaves or simply kill us to get us out of their lives. I would have to say that I agree with that statement, but, and this is a big BUT, I believe those who say that are right! When those people tell us they will prevail over us because they believe in God, while we only pretend we believe: they are telling us the truth. Kinda believing is what it is.  Really believing is believing in the reality of that which is hoped for. That is a far cry from kinda believing.

The word believe has a strong meaning for a traditional Christian

The M-W Dictionary says it means to have a firm religious faith. It goes on to say a lot more, but for my purpose that is good enough. Faith is the key to believing. Saint Paul writes a lot about faith. His strongest and clearest explanation of faith for my purpose here is in his letter to the Hebrews. There Paul writes: Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 10:38-11:2 KJV).

For our instruction, Saint Paul goes on with a wonderful cataloging of the gifts of faith starting with Genesis down through the ages until his time. Open your Holy Bible and read that list for yourself. See Heb. 11:3-13, 17, 20, 24-31. Matt. 12:38-40 is the clincher, so to speak, but I will leave that to you to discover on your own.

When the Israelites believed and behaved, they always won; when they ceased to believe and turned away from God, they always lost. Will it be more of the same for us?

Their belief in God is so strong for many Moslems that they will willingly lay down their lives for their faith. They will also give up the lives of their women folk, and their children, whom they love every bit as much or more than we love ours.

Here’s a little history for your consideration

Our war fighting history is filled with incidents that prove that we always win when we fight while being mindful of the protection of  Divine Providence.

How many battles and wars have been won by inferior forces solely because they put their trust in the Lord of all? Our War of Independence against the British comes to mind.

Let me see:

• The British soldiers were, by a wide margin, the better trained of the two combatants. It could hardly be said that our soldiers, while trained, were in the same league as the crown’s soldiers. It was assumed the crown would win this war in short order against the ragged army we had assembled on short notice; an army based on the colonies militias.

• The British had warships-of-the-line that had tremendous firepower. We had none. While the war was fought almost wholly on land, ships and ship travel were vitally important in those days. People travel up and down the eastern seaboard by ship when possible.

• The British were well dressed for battle and for the weather in northeastern part of the country where the war was waged. Some of our guys didn’t have coats; some didn’t even have shoes. Can you imagine marching long distances in snow or freezing rain without a coat, much less without shoes?

• The British had the latest armaments. We had whatever our men and young boys brought with them from the farms when they joined up. That’s right; when they joined up. Ours was a volunteer army. And the British? Well, not all of their fighting men were British. A good part of their army was made up of mercenaries. Only the officers were virtually all British subjects.

• • Let me point out here that, since ours was a volunteer army, the men were free to quit the army and go home at the end of their enlistment period. Can you imagine the command skills combined with fatherly persuasion General Washington had to employ to keep his men happy enough to fight on and instead of going home? Not to leave when many of them didn’t have a coat or shoes to ward off the cold in the dead of winter in places like Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware required great sacrifice on their part.

• The British had a wealth of very well trained and tried and true generals, and other command officers. We had few trained line officers. Our army had to rely on the judgment of one man. True, he was a towering man who stood out in any crowd. Still, it really was his integrity that gave him his great charisma, which carried him and the fortunes of America through the unbelievably tough times of America’s war of independence from the British Crown.

My fellow Americans, I have just one thing more to say. A lot of us do believe in God and the invincibility of his power and protection of those whom He calls His Own. We must stop the physical abuse of prisoners in our custody. We must or else all is lost for my homeland. I believe we can and will stop the tide of evil that has been unleashed by our leaders over the last half of the last century and has continued and grown in this century.

Now, read or hear what Congressman Ron Paul has to say about “enhanced interrogation.”

Texas Straight Talk

A weekly column

May 25, 2009: Torturing the Rule of Law

While Congress is sidetracked by who said what to whom and when, our nation finds itself at a crossroads on the issue of torture. We are at a point where we must decide if torture is something that is now going to be considered justifiable and reasonable under certain circumstances, or is America better than that? “Enhanced interrogation” as some prefer to call it, has been used throughout history, usually by despotic governments, to cruelly punish or to extract politically useful statements from prisoners. Governments that do these things invariably bring shame on themselves. In addition, information obtained under …Continue reading »

Related articles by Zemanta

• Prince Harry pays homage at Sept. 11 memorial (msnbc.msn.com)
• Voice of the White House June 1, 2009 (thetruthwarblog.blogspot.com)
• Paul: Stimulus uproar is Congress’ fault (cnn.com)
• June 2, 1953: Coronation Shown on Global Kluge TV (wired.com)
• Libertarian activists arrested in Mississippi after filming cops (carlosmiller.com)
• Obama Is Wrong When He Says We’re Not a Judeo-Christian Nation (usnews.com)
• List of current articles on the global economic and social crisis (isiria.wordpress.com)
• Three Mansions In London (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Changing The Rules (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Entrepreneurs from the start . . . (texasstartupblog.com)
• Bernanke Brushes Off Merkel Rebuke (blogs.wsj.com)
• Devotion – Unchanging (pastorpaulvbsblog.blogspot.com)

Related posts:

1. A Tax Cheat is Sent to Talk About Tax Cheats
2. Governor Bobby Jindal on Christianity