Free Republic

February 9, 2010 Rowan Williams Issues 'Profound Apology' To Gay Christians Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a “profound apology” to the lesbian and gay Christian community today. In a powerful address to the General Synod, Dr Rowan Williams warned that any schism within the Church would represent a betrayal of God’s mission. But he made clear that he regretted recent rhetoric in which he has sought to mollify the fears of the traditionalist wing of the church. The Archbishop is from the Church’s liberal wing and a man who once espoused equal rights for gays within...

THE SINNERS GUIDE Ven. Louis of Granada 1504-1588 With Imprimi Potest and Imprimatur TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC. Ch 10. The Tenth Motive for Practicing Virtue: The Thought of Hell, the Fourth of the Four Last Things   The least part of the happiness we have endeavored to portray should be sufficient to inflame our hearts with a love of virtue. Nevertheless, we shall also consider the terrible alternative of misery reserved for the reprobate. The sinner cannot comfort himself by saying, "After all, the only result of my depraved life will be that I shall never see God. Further...

  IN INTERIOR TRIALS We ought to conform to God's will in interior trials, that is to say in all the difficulties met with in our spiritual life, such as temptations, scruples, anxieties, aridity, desolation and so on. Whatever immediate cause we may attribute to these states of mind, we must always look beyond to God as their author. If we think they come from ourselves, then it is true to say that they have their origin in the ignorance of our mind, the over-sensitiveness of our feelings, the disordered state of our imagination or the perversity of our...

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican denied Tuesday that it leaked documents that led to the resignation of a prominent Catholic editor, intervening in a tale of ecclesiastical intrigue that has dominated Italian headlines for weeks. The Vatican No. 2 issued a statement saying reports that Vatican officials leaked the documents were false and that Pope Benedict XVI himself "deplored these unjust and insulting attacks" that were "defaming the Holy See." The statement — unusual in its line-by-line denial of unsourced rumors — was confirmation that what had been a strictly Italian church scandal had reached the highest echelons of power...

February 10, 2010                                   Memorial of Saint Scholastica, virgin   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading I1 Kgs 10:1-10The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon’s fame,came to test him with subtle questions.She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue,and with camels bearing spices,a large amount of gold, and precious stones.She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subjectin which she was interested.King Solomon explained everything she asked about,and there remained nothing hidden from himthat he could not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba witnessed Solomon’s great wisdom,the palace...

U.S. lawmakers are toughening their stance on Iran’s energy industry with new economic penalties, but experts doubt the Islamic regime will pay much attention and is more likely to open the doors even wider to other players eager to replace fleeing investors. Long on Congress’ radar screen, Iran is being targeted by two bills: The Senate’s Dodd-Shelby Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act passed in late January; and the House’s Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act approved in December. The bottom line is these bills, once signed into law by President Obama, will pursue financial institutions and businesses that do...

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE: OF A MIRACLE WROUGHT BY HIS SISTER SCHOLASTICAGREGORY: Who is there, Peter, in this world, that is in greater favor with God than St. Paul was: who yet three times desired our Lord to be delivered from the sting of the flesh, and obtained not his petition? Concerning which point also I must needs tell you, how there was one thing which the venerable father Benedict would have done, and yet he could not. For his sister called Scholastica, dedicated from her infancy to our Lord, used once a year to come and visit her brother. To whom...

Catholic Biblical Apologetics Apologetics without apology! What does the Roman Catholic Church teach about ...? ... and why? This website surveys the origin and development of Roman Catholic Christianity from the period of the apostolic church, through the post-apostolic church and into the conciliar movement. Principal attention is paid to the biblical basis of both doctrine and dogma as well as the role of paradosis (i.e. handing on the truth) in the history of the Church. Particular attention is also paid to the hierarchical founding and succession of leadership throughout the centuries. This is a set of lecture notes...

Nebraska and Iowa are feeling the fallout from a decision by the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination to allow non-celibate gay clergy and church leaders, as well as recognition of same-sex couples. Thanksgiving! Lutheran Church in Bellevue voted Jan. 31 to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA. It takes two votes with at least a two-thirds majority, taken at least 90 days apart, for a congregation to split from the national church. The Jan. 31 vote was Thanksgiving!’s second vote, so it appears to make the church the first Nebraska congregation to break from the ELCA since a...

The Omniscience of God February 9, 2010  "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite." (Psalm 147:5)  Consider the great rhetorical question asked by the apostle Paul: "For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" (Romans 11:34). The most learned scholars of every age are mere infants in knowledge compared to Him. "There is no searching of his understanding" (Isaiah 40:28).   Everyone who believes in God acknowledges that God, by definition, is omniscient. He created all things and upholds all things, and thus understands all things. He...

February 9 The Holy Spirit: Some Other Time Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. --John 14:12 "You will receive power" (Acts 1:8a). "Eagerly desire the greater gifts" (1 Corinthians 12:31a). Anything that God has ever done for a soul He will do for anyone else, if the conditions are met. The Lord who blessed these men that I spoke about, and the thousands who followed them but whose names are not known,...

 Book looks at family disconnect December 14, 2008 7:53 AM MARK BARNA We've all heard about red states and blue states.Sometime next year we will learn about "red families" and "blue families" in a book that's bound to be controversial."Red Families, Blue Families" (Oxford University Press), written by two family law professors, turns the whole family-values mantra on its head.Based on numerous studies and surveys, coauthors Naomi Cahn and June Carbone found that red families - or socially conservative evangelicals aligned with the Republican Party - have higher teen pregnancy rates, more shotgun marriages, marry earlier and have higher divorce...

See His Goodness Today's Scripture "I am confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:13, NIV). Today's Word from Joel and Victoria David was going through tough times when he made the declaration in today's verse. Things weren't going his way. But he said in effect, "I'm not worried. I'm not upset. I am confident I will see God's goodness." In other words, "This situation I'm in may be rough, but that's not going to steal my vision. That's not going to cause me to give up on...

Are You Exhausted Spiritually? "The everlasting God . . . neither faints nor is weary" —Isaiah 40:28 Exhaustion means that our vital energies are completely worn out and spent. Spiritual exhaustion is never the result of sin, but of service. Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies. Jesus said to Peter, "Feed My sheep," but He gave him nothing with which to feed them ( John 21:17 ). The process of being made broken bread and poured-out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other people’s souls until they...

Check your local listings for times and stations, and please join us in praying that God will bring much spiritual fruit out of this experience.  For a preview, click here.The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist is a Roman Catholic community of women religious. Our community was founded in the Dominican tradition, as a response to Pope John Paul II’s call for new religious foundations to embody the graces of the New Evangelization of the third millennium Church.Through profession of the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, along with a contemplative emphasis on Eucharistic adoration and Marian devotion,...

Lisa Ling visits a convent near Detroit to see what a typical day is like for these sisters.

Moscow, February 9, Interfax - Many intellectuals in the West are embarrassed to confess their faith, Tatiana Goricheva, an Orthodox philosopher, journalist and missionary said. “Academic environment in Europe dramatically differs from ours. Even if a person is a deep believer, he will keep silence about it or offer some snobby excuses for his religious feeling. Thus, a question of faith in Western intellectual circles is a taboo,” Goricheva said in her interview published by the the Foma magazine in February. Sociologist Levi-Stross, a close friend of hers, told, “he secretly meets with like-minded people to talk about their faith.”...

When Niels Chew is installed next week as the newest honorary alcalde of Sonoma and handed his silver-headed cane as a symbol of authority, he can expect to have an easier time than pioneer John H. Nash, who was elected Sonoma alcalde in 1846 shortly after the California Republic had ceded its existence to American military forces. SNIP When a regiment of New York volunteers headed by Col. Jonathan D. Stevenson arrived in California in March 1847, one of its seven companies (Company C) was ordered to Sonoma under the command of Capt. George E. Brackett, who billeted his men...

Below are names of some of our FReepers' loved ones who are serving our country. If you have someone you would like to add, please address a post to Billie; Dutchess; dollycali;The Mayor; GodBlessUSA; JustAmy, and we will add their name to this list. As we pray for them, we pray also for all our nation’s leaders, and military personnel, and their families and friends. May God hold them close to His heart. gator girl........................husband severa.......................... brother Maigrey.........................cousin mystery-ak...........son, husband Inspectorette.......................son Blessed American..........nephew Slip18..........................nephew Diver Dave........niece, nephew ConspiracyGuy........2 nephews Pippin............niece's husband sneakers..........................son weldgophardline...............2 son weldgophardline.....brotherinlaw jamaly.................brotherinlaw Future Snake Eater.......cousin...

Salvation of the Soul 65. What precisely do you mean by the saving of one's soul? The meaning of that requires a brief analysis of man. Man consists of body and soul. The body is material and perishable; the soul is spiritual and imperishable. But the soul is the real you. It is the soul which knows and loves, is happy or miserable. Now as the soul is immortal, it enters at death into an eternal state, whether it be one of supreme happiness, or of direst misery. By "saving one's soul" I mean going from this world in the...

The Archbishop of Canterbury today issued a "profound apology" to the lesbian and gay Christian community. In a powerful address to General Synod Dr Rowan Williams warned that any schism within the church would represent of a "betrayal" of God's mission. But he made clear that he regretted recent rhetoric in which he has sought to mollify the fears of the traditionalist wing of the church. The Archbishop is from the Church's liberal Catholic wing and a man who once espoused equal rights for gays within the Church. More recently he has adopted a conservative line for the sake of...

The premise is that Eli guards The Book of Eli (do not if he wrote it or why his name is also that of the book) that is said to hold the knowledge which could redeem the world. Carnegie and his posse are out to get The Book of Eli and the shenanigans ensue. Carnegie’s adopted daughter, Solara, ends up becoming Eli’s guide. The official Warner Brothers film description states that Eli is “Driven by this commitment and guided by his belief in something greater than himself.” Actually, judging by more recent commercials; it appears that “the book” is the...

My mother-in-law, Barbara, is scheduled for triple bypass surgery Wednesday(2/10) Morning at 7AM Central Time. She is actually registered as a FReeper as DrewsNana, but only posted once about 5 years ago. Please pray for a successful surgery and complete recovery. Pray for peace of mind for her and the whole family - husband, son and daughter(my wife-drewsmom). Also pray for a peaceful resolution among family members to provide her with a clean(smoke-free) environment at home for healing. She also has glaucoma issues. She is a believer and recently concluded one of her emails with"...God , Thank you for loving...

Featured Term (selected at random):HUMANAE PERSONAE DIGNITATEM Document published by the Vatican Secretariat for Unbelievers. Its purpose is to give general principles and particular norms for Catholics who engage in private or public dialogue with unbelievers, e.g., Communist Marxists. Among the specific norms the most practical one affects public dialogues, which may be either unofficial or official, as organized by ecclesiastical authorities. Regarding the latter, "it is only rarely that conditions exist in which such dialogue can take place between Christians and unbelievers." Unofficial discussions require, above all, that the Catholic representatives "be expert in doctrine, have moral integrity, and...

A two-man Washington, D.C. panel has preferred to advance same-sex “marriage” at the cost of religious liberty, the Archdiocese of Washington has charged. The panel ruled that a referendum on a city council bill recognizing same-sex marriage would violate the District’s human rights law. Opponents of the D.C. City Council’s decision, including the archdiocese, have sought a referendum to try to overturn the action. However, two members of the Board of Elections and Ethics ruled the referendum would thwart the Council’s efforts to “eradicate unlawful discrimination” and would violate the District’s Human Rights Act (HRA). “The Civil Marriage Equality Act...

Conservative clergy have warned of a mass exodus from the Church of England and a sharp drop in its income unless divisive plans for the introduction of women bishops are changed.On the first day of the gathering of the Church’s governing body, the General Synod, Anglo-Catholics claimed that “large numbers” would leave for Rome if their demands for concessions are not met. Meanwhile 50 serving priests belonging to Reform, the evangelical group, signed an open letter saying that the situation could force them to cut off funding for dioceses and spend their money on training new vicars outside the Church...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Vatican official has floated the idea of a shared "ecumenical catechism" as one of the potential fruits of 40 years of dialogue among Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists and members of the Reformed churches. "We have affirmed our common foundation in Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity as expressed in our common creed and in the doctrine of the first ecumenical councils," Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told representatives of the churches. Opening a three-day symposium at the Vatican to brainstorm on the future of ecumenism, Cardinal Kasper said...

Losing her religion Anne Hathaway left the Catholic Church after her brother opened up about being gay. "The whole family converted to Episcopalianism after my elder brother came out," says the actress. "Why should I support an organization that has a limited view of my beloved brother?" So what religion is Anne now? "I'm nothing," she admits. "F- it, I'm forming. I'm a work in progress."

Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem Tehillim Psalm 122 1 A Song of Ascents; of David. I rejoiced when they said unto me: 'Let us go unto the house of the LORD.' 2 Our feet are standing within thy gates, O Jerusalem; 3 Jerusalem, that art builded as a city that is compact together; 4 Whither the tribes went up, even the tribes of the LORD, as a testimony unto Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD. 5 For there were set thrones for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. 6 Pray for the...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - February 9 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "And David enquired of the Lord." - 2 Samuel 5:23 When David made this enquiry he had just fought the Philistines, and gained a signal victory. The Philistines came up in great hosts, but, by the help of God, David had easily put them to flight. Note, however, that when they came a second time, David did not go up to fight them without enquiring of the Lord. Once he had been victorious, and he might have said, as many have in other cases, "I shall be victorious again; I...

The Haters of Reality – Part I The current battle for the soul of America is raging as never before. We have seen in the last century a mad dash to push our country toward a secular liberal, godless fascist state in which the “elite class” rules over the masses. Our nation was founded on the bedrock of the Bible, Judean/ Christian values and the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God; hence the conflict. These Constitutional apostates and haters of our Constitutional Republic have nearly arrived at their Machiavellian destination. As America apostatizes from the realities of Almighty God,...

"In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." ~ Luke 14:33 “Let there be no mistake about my meaning. I am not examining what it costs to save a Christian’s soul. I know well that it costs nothing less that the blood of the Son of God to provide atonement, and to redeem man from hell. The price paid for our redemption was nothing less than the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary. “The point I want to consider is another one altogether. It is what a man must...

February 9, 2010                                          Tuesday of the Fifth Week in                                   Ordinary Time   Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading I1 Kgs 8:22-23, 27-30Solomon stood before the altar of the LORDin the presence of the whole community of Israel,and stretching forth his hands toward heaven,he said, “LORD, God of Israel,there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below;you keep your covenant of mercy with your servantswho are faithful to you with their whole heart. “Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?If the heavens and the highest heavens...

Ven. Louis of Granada 1504-1588With Imprimi Potest and Imprimatur TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC. Ch 9. The Ninth Motive for Practicing Virtue: The Thought of Heaven, the Third of the Four Last Things   A motive no less powerful than those we have enumerated is the thought of Heaven. This is the reward of virtue, and in it we must distinguish two things: the excellence and beauty of the abode promised us, which is no other than the empyreal heavens, and the perfection and beauty of the Sovereign King Who reigns there with His elect. But though no tongue can...

  IN THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR SINS With submission and conformity to the will of God we should bear the evil consequences of which falling into sin is often the cause. It may be some indisposition or some more serious effect on our health brought about by over-indulgence; some sacrifice we have to make because of money spent foolishly for selfish ends; some bad turn in our affairs owing to impatient or imprudent conduct on our part; difficulty in resisting temptation and leading a good life because of a long habit of sin we have contracted -- the situation...

Catholic Biblical Apologetics Apologetics without apology! What does the Roman Catholic Church teach about ...? ... and why? This website surveys the origin and development of Roman Catholic Christianity from the period of the apostolic church, through the post-apostolic church and into the conciliar movement. Principal attention is paid to the biblical basis of both doctrine and dogma as well as the role of paradosis (i.e. handing on the truth) in the history of the Church. Particular attention is also paid to the hierarchical founding and succession of leadership throughout the centuries. This is a set of lecture notes...

When a Russian Cosmonaut returned from a space flight he said that he hadn’t seen God out there. An American Astronaut, one who was a Christian, was once asked if he had met God while in space. He answered with full confidence, “I would have, if I had taken off my space suit.” These are not just two contradictory answers to the same question. They are two totally different understandings of the word God and what is meant by it. The Russian Cosmonaut, an atheist, could not believe God existed unless he saw him with his own eyes. Whereas the...

Worldviews are referred to as such for a reason; they are the spectacles through which we view the world and this has been recently demonstrated via the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Danny Glover, Pat Robertson, 14 hypocritical atheist groups and on it goes as they all use Haiti as a mirror that reflects their worldview. Haiti as soapbox – Dan Barker, Annie Gaylor, Danny Glover & Pat Robertson take advantagePart 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 Of interest may also be: “Non-Believers Giving Aid” the uncharitable charity As well as: Audio Bibles, Haiti and atheist hypocrisy

Lucifer, God’s greatest of all God's creation (Ezek. 28:12, 15), in eternity past enjoyed a relationship to Almighty God. I truly believe there was a point in his existence that he loved and adored and the Triune God with all his heart. He had the chief place as Protector of the Holiness of God (Ezek 28:14) and was the worship and choir director of Heaven (Ezek 28:13). Lucifer enjoyed all the heavenly blessings of his rank and position. As events proceeded, though, there came a time when he became proud, arrogant, envious and bitter. In his foolish heart he sought...

PING TO END TIMES, Dreams, Visions, Prophecy ping list and the UFO ping lists ########################### Dear Ones, Have been here so many times over the last decade or two . . . have resisted saying much of anything yet again to much of anyone. Nevertheless, the last week, reading multiple reports from Iran of their ever more pointedly put threats from AhmANutJob on down . . . has been more than a little sobering. And now yet another . . . Here's the FR thread about it: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2447187/posts A number of FREEPERS have communicated with me privately and some...

Obama has saddled up the red Horse of Apacalypse on January 20, 2010 and we are in for a year to remember. Revelation 6:3-4. "And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse, that was red: and power was given him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." We are all going to see red. It is a year of fight and flight. The pressure will increase daily....

  BackgroundSaint Maroun, born in the middle of the 4th century was a priest who latter became a hermit, retiring to a mountain of Taurus near Antioch. His holiness and miracles attracted many followers, and drew attention throughout the empire. St John of Chrysostom sent him a letter around 405 AD expressing his great love and respect asking St Maroun to pray for him. The Maronite MovementSt Maroun is considered the Father of the spiritual and monastic movement now called the Maronite Church. This movement had a profound influence on Northern Syria and Lebanon. Saint Maroun spent all of...

Finding Grace February 8, 2010  "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." (Genesis 6:8)  This is the very first reference in the Bible to the great concept of the grace of God. In the midst of the most violent and wicked society that history has ever seen, there was one man who was "a just man and perfect in his generations" (Genesis 6:9), and the reason why he was different was that he "found grace in the eyes of the LORD."   In this first mention of such a vital doctrine, it is stressed that the...

February 8 The Holy Spirit: He Can Be Grieved And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. --Ephesians 4:30 Because He is loving and kind and friendly, the Holy Spirit may be grieved.... He can be grieved because He is loving, and there must be love present before there can be grief. Suppose you had a 17-year-old son who began to go bad. He rejected your counsel and wanted to take things into his own hands. Suppose that he joined up with a young stranger from another part of...

Father Jeff Kirby of the Diocese of Charleston, S.C., reads by candlelight in this demonstration of use of a "priest hole," part of an exhibit on the Tudor era at the Venerable English College in Rome. The replica is an example of hiding places built into walls for priests to celebrate Mass and the sacraments in England during the Reformation. (CNS/Paul Haring) By Father Matthew GamberCatholic News Service ROME (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Great Britain later this year, he will be greeted by lords and ladies and dignitaries of all kind, including Queen Elizabeth II...

Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella Rome, Italy, Feb 8, 2010 / 03:02 pm (CNA).- The celebrated philosopher and theologian Monsignor Michel Schooyans has published his thoughts on the contemporary misuse of the concept of "compassion." According to Msgr. Schooyans, the Vatican newspaper and the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, are complicit in promoting "pseudo-compassion."Msgr. Schooyans, professor emeritus of theology and philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium and an expert in bioethics and demography, outlined the "bogus" employment of the concept of compassion in contemporary society by way of his recent work "The Pitfalls of...

Last week, the Deseret News team that traveled to Haiti to report on the January earthquake returned to Utah. While in Haiti they slept in tents, near a runway crowded with relief planes and in the grass with earthquake survivors. They ate MREs, typed their stories on BlackBerrys and called in on satellite phones the destruction they saw. But these minor hardships paled in comparison to the suffering they witnessed. They watched a Utah widow save the life of a 4-year-old boy who had lost his arm. They marveled as a young Haitian bishop tended over his shell-shocked flock of...

SOTU I: Or, How to Peddle a Second Reality Using First-Reality Language By Jean F. Drew Every single man is but a blind link in the chain of absolute necessity by which the world builds itself forth. The single man can elevate himself to dominance over an appreciable length of this chain only if he knows the direction in which the great necessity wants to move and if he learns from this knowledge to pronounce the magic words (Die Zauberworte) that will evoke its shape (Gestalt). — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831) Am I alone in thinking these...

Driving in my car the other day, I turned on the radio and came across one of the local Protestant stations. A preacher was expounding on John 3:5 where Jesus says, “Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” In his exegesis, he was absolutely sure that John did not mean physical water. Instead, he proposed that John’s water referred to the “word of God.” He cited Ephesians 5:26 and claimed that because Paul referred to “washing her with water by the word,” water was a symbol for Scripture. He transferred...

The video features a star quarterback and a strong pro-life message. But it's not the ad by Tim Tebow and his mother. A 9-minute pro-life video featuring six members of the New York Giants team that won Super Bowl XXI is similar to the ad expected from Tebow, without the surrounding firestorm. Wellington Mara, the son of the Giants' founder, was co-owner of the team until his death in 2005. Along the way, he became an iconic figure in the NFL and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Mara also was staunchly pro-life, serving on the board of the...