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The Chosen Rise Up —- http://TheChosenRiseUp.com SPOILERS OKAY here on this thread Now that Episodes 1-3 of Season 4 have been in theaters for ONE week and has held a SOLID #2 Nationwide position for Theatrical releases for the past 7 days -RAW theatrical revenue Data here: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/releasegroup/gr4002566661/?ref_=bo_rl_su As of this posting: $10,317,554 (Worldwide for just episodes 1-3) With episodes 4,5,6 to be released in theaters on 15 February 2024 it is time to talk through Episodes 1-3 I am particularly interested in what FReeper chosen fans or chosen haters have to say about the NON-Biblical atory lines playing out...

Today is the feast of Saint Luke, a father of the ancient Church renowned as Evangelist, Historian, and Physician. We should be aware of one additional title that is traditionally attributed to this early disciple of Christ: Artist. For the name of Saint Luke is attached to one of the most venerable works of art of the ancient Church—the Hodegetria icon which resided in Constantinople until its destruction in 1453. While the origins of the Hodegetria icon are shrouded in mystery, its connection to St. Luke is based upon traditions stretching back to the early centuries of Constantinople as a...

Red Double of the Second Class [Transferred from Sunday, 28 October.] INSTEAD OF THY FATHERS, sons are born to thee. Thus does the Church, disowned by Israel, extol in her chants the apostolic fruitfulness which resides in her till the end of time. Yesterday she was already filled with that loving hope which is never deceived, that the holy Apostles Simon and Jude would anticipate their solemnity by shedding blessings upon her. Such is the condition of her existence on earth, that she can remain here only as long as she continues to give children to our Lord; and...

White Simple SCARCELY HAD TWO CENTURIES elapsed since the triumph of the Cross over Roman idolatry, when Satan began to cry victory once more. While Eutychianism was crowned at Byzantium in the person of Anastasius the Silent, Arianism was rife in the West. Throughout the whole ancient territory of the empire, heresy was supreme, and almost everywhere was persecuting the Church, who had now none but the vanquished for her sons. “But fear not; rather rejoice,” says Baronius at this point in his Annals; “it is Divine Wisdom still delighting to play in the world. The thoughts of men...

Red Double of the Second Class The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. The Eagle and the Lion have already risen in the heavens of the holy Liturgy; today we salute the Man; and next month the Ox will appear, to complete the number of the four living creatures who draw the chariot of God through the world and surround his throne in heaven. These mysterious beings, with their six seraph-wings, are ever gazing with their innumerable eyes upon the Lamb who stands upon the throne as it were slain;...

Red Double of the Second Class A WITNESS OF THE SON OF GOD, one of the princes who announced his glory to the nations, lights up this day with his apostolic flame. While his brethren of the sacred College followed the human race into all the lands whither the migration of nations had led it, Bartholomew appeared as the herald of the Lord, at the very starting point, the mountains of Armenia whence the sons of Noe spread over the earth. There had the figurative Ark rested; humanity, everywhere else a wanderer, was there seated in stillness, remembering the...

Red Double of the Second Class LET US TODAY HAIL the bright star which once made Compostella so resplendent with its rays that the obscure town became, like Jerusalem and Rome, a center of attraction to the piety of the whole world. As long as the Christian empire lasted, the sepulcher of St. James the Great rivaled in glory that of St. Peter himself. Among the Saints of God, there is not one who manifested more evidently how the elect keep up after death an interest in the works confided to them by our Lord. The life of St....

Red Greater Double WHEREAS THE GREEKS on this day are uniting in one Solemnity, the Memory, as they express it, of the illustrious Saints, the Twelve Apostles, worthy of all praise,—let us follow in spirit the Roman populace, who are gathered around the successor of Peter, and are making the splendid basilica on the Ostian Way re-echo with songs of victory, while he is offering to the Doctor of the Gentiles, the grateful homage of the city and of the world. On the Twenty-fifth of January, we beheld Stephen leading to Christ’s mystic crib, the once ravenous wolf of...

Red Greater Double THE PROMULGATION OF the new Alliance invited all nations to sit down at the Marriage feast in the kingdom of God; since that day, the sanctifying Spirit is ever producing saints in every age and at moments which correspond most mysteriously to the deep and hidden designs of Eternal Wisdom, over the particular history of a people. Nor must we be astonished hereat: for Christian nations having, as such, their appointed part in the advancing of the kingly sway of the Man-God, this vocation imposes duties upon them and gives them rights, superior to nature's law;...

The Easter season brings not one but three prominent releases of Christian films. I Can Only Imagine, a biopic based on the wildly popular Christian song of the same title, surprised observers with a $17 million opening weekend and added another $21 million since. Later this week, the next entry in the God’s Not Dead franchise, A Light in the Darkness, opens with John Corbett and Tatum O’Neal in the cast. Both of these cover modern-day dilemmas facing Christians, but Paul Apostle of Christ takes audiences back to the roots of the faith by focusing on its most prolific...

“Paul, Apostle of Christ” comes from the Affirm label, which has produced such Christian-themed dramas as “Heaven Is for Real.” Less interested in blunt proselytizing than more open-ended explorations of faith and its challenges, Affirm films have gratifyingly avoided the kind of Sunday-school pageantry that characterizes so many movies of the genre. “Paul, Apostle of Christ” is no exception. A portrait of the titular Christian convert and leader of the early church as he faces imprisonment and martyrdom at the hands of Roman oppressors, this absorbing drama benefits from lush production values and first-rate performances from a cast of seasoned...

Red Double of the Second Class AN APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST, St. Matthias is one of the Blessed choir which the Church would have us honor during the Season of Lent. Matthias was one of the first to follow our Savior, and he was an eyewitness of all his divine actions up to the very day of the Ascension. He was one of the seventy-two Disciples; but our Lord had not conferred upon him the dignity of an Apostle. And yet, he was to have this great glory, for it was of him that David spoke when he prophesied...

White Simple THE OCTAVE of the Beloved Disciple closes today; let us devoutly offer him our parting homage. We shall meet him again during the year, for on the 6th of May, when the Resurrection of his Divine Master is gladdening the Church with the Easter joys, we shall have the Feast of our Apostle’s Confession, made before the Latin Gate:—but his grand Feast ends today, and he has done too much for us this Christmas that we should allow this Octave Day to pass without returning him our warmest thanks. Let us begin by exciting ourselves to a...

White Double of the Second Class with Simple Octave NEAREST TO JESUS’ CRIB after Stephen, stands John, the Apostle and Evangelist. It was only right that the first place should be assigned to him who so loved his God that he shed his blood in his service; for, as this God himself declares, greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends, and Martyrdom has ever been counted, by the Church, as the greatest act of love, and as having, consequently, the power of remitting sins, like a second Baptism. But next...

Red Double of the Second Class Today the Church announces to us today, in her Office of Lauds, these solemn words: Nolite timere: quinta enim die veniet ad vos Dominus noster. Fear not: for on the fifth day, our Lord will come to you. THIS IS THE LAST Feast the Church keeps before the great one of the Nativity of her Lord and Spouse. She interrupts the Greater Ferias in order to pay her tribute of honor to Thomas, the Apostle of Christ, whose glorious martyrdom has consecrated this twenty-first day of December, and has procured for the Christian...

Red Double of the Second Class THIS FEAST is destined each year to terminate with solemnity the cycle which is at its close, or to add luster to the new one which has just begun. It seems, indeed, fitting that the Christian year should begin and end with the cross, which has merited for us each of those years which it has pleased the divine goodness to grant us, and which is to appear, on the last day, in the clouds of heaven, as the seal put on time. We should remember that Saint Andrew is the Apostle of...

Red Double of the Second Class INSTEAD of thy fathers, sons are born to thee. Thus does the Church, disowned by Israel, extol in her chants the apostolic fruitfulness which resides in her till the end of time. Yesterday she was already filled with that loving hope which is never deceived, that the holy Apostles Simon and Jude would anticipate their solemnity by shedding blessings upon her. Such is the condition of her existence on earth, that she can remain here only as long as she continues to give children to our Lord; and therefore, in the Mass of...

For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.( I John 3:11-15)Love...

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.( 2 John 9)The Apostle John’s ministry is a ministry of restoration. There were (and are) many whose faith in Jesus, understanding of God, prayer life, interpretation of scripture, ministry and ethics, have been corrupted and distorted by false christian teachers who have redefined what it means to know God. This is still the case today, and the need for John’s epistles is yet vital to the church. To John, the Lord’s...

What Are You Becoming? By Francis Frangipane It is insightful to me that when Luke listed the twelve apostles, when he came to Judas Iscariot, he identified him as the apostle "who became a traitor" (Luke 6:16). Let me start with a question, a sincere question that may be the most important question you can ask yourself: What are you becoming? Judas Iscariot was an apostle "who became a traitor." This was a man who had been used mightily by the Lord to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers [and] cast out demons" (Matt. 10:8). Judas knew...