Blogging again? Who knows...

Unbelievable. I have not been here for such a long time. As the time passes, and as the events unveil, one has many thoughts and reflections that just vanish if not put down in a written form. Unfortunately, one has only so many hours a day and they need to be taken for other things than blogging.

Anyway, God is good and patient with me. He showers me with blessings, some of which do not look like blessings at all, but prove to be beneficial to me after all. At least that is what I have to believe.

There are many changes for me and my family just around the corner, so all prayers are appreciated.

And to God be the Glory!

A good friend recommended...

What can I say to my Christian friend...

What can I say to my Christian friend who is about to marry an unbeliever?

John Piper - Early Days: Learning to Love God's Sovereignty

A Great Testimony

Dear Dr. White,
I *had* been struggling with pop-Christianity (as you correctly called it), and
Calvinism for quite a while. If you wouldn't mind taking the time to read this email,
I'd like to share my testimony with you. Since you're a Calvinist, I think you might be
interested in my testimony(though I'm sure you've heard many testimonies similar
to my own), and how one of your videos played a key part in where I am today.
I'm a former-atheist who found Christ, somehow, despite my protest and fear of
being a hypocrite or having been wrong, but I could no longer deny the real God,
our Creator, our Lord Jesus Christ. Not with a straight face, anyway.
I went through 8 years at a Baptist Christian school and graduated as an
unbeliever and proud of it! (you'd be surprised over how little I learned about the
Bible despite having Bible class every day and Chapel every Tuesday for 8 years) I
then spent nearly 10 years afterwards as a militant atheist, who was very
obnoxious when it came to the discussion of religion, and even more obnoxious
towards Christianity. I was in agreement with Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris and
others who believe it's perfectly justified to be intolerant of religion, the religious,
and especially Christians.

Continue reading...

Catholic Inquisition and The Torture Tools

What were the Inquisitions?

The inquisitions were judicial institutions or tribunals that were established by the Roman Catholic Church in order to seek out, try, and sentence people that the Roman Catholic Church believed to be guilty of heresy. The purpose of the inquisitions was to secure and maintain religious and doctorial unity in the Roman Catholic Church and throughout the Roman Empire, through either the conversion or persecution of alleged heretics. Historians generally categorize or distinguish the inquisitions based on four different time frames and areas that they took place in. These are: The Medieval or Episcopal Inquisition, The Spanish Inquisition, The Portuguese Inquisition, and the Roman Inquisition.

Prior to the founding of the Roman Catholic Church and the establishment of their version of Christianity as the official state religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, the punishment for heresy among Christians was usually excommunication from the church. However with the marriage of church and state that arose in the 4th Century, people that the Roman Catholic Church considered to be heretics also came to be considered as enemies of the state, and were subject to many forms of extreme punishment, including death. It wasn’t until the 12th century that official inquisitions were organized and sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church to officially deal with what they saw as a rise in organized heretical groups within the Roman Empire.

The first of the Inquisitions is known as the Medieval or Episcopal Inquisition and refers to the various inquisitions that started around 1184. It includes the Episcopal Inquisition (1184-1230), as well as the Papal Inquisition (1230), which arose in response to large popular movements in Europe that were considered to be heretical by the Roman Catholic Church. It was during this time (1231) that Pope Gregory IX shifted the power to punish heretics away from the local bishops and put the inquisitors under the special jurisdiction and authority of the papacy. He also established severe penalties for those found guilty of committing heresy, and his decree set forth new guidelines for investigating and punishing heresy in the Roman Empire. Generally, when an Inquisition was set up to investigate heresy in a particular area of the Roman Empire, the Pope would appoint two inquisitors, each of which had equal authority in the Inquisition or tribunal. Because these inquisitors had the power to investigate and excommunicate even princes, they yielded enormous power and influence in the Roman Empire.

While some of the inquisitors had reputations as being men of justice and mercy, others were known to subject people to cruel and unusual punishment, including many different kinds of torture, which is what the inquisitions are generally remembered for. Because they could imprison suspects that they thought were lying, some inquisitors used torture as an attempt to get them to admit what the inquisitor wanted to hear. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV officially sanctioned torture as a way of extracting the “truth” from suspects. Prior to that time, this type of extreme punishment was foreign to church tradition and practice. During the Spanish Inquisition alone, some historians estimate that as many as 2,000 people were burned at the stake within one decade after the inquisition began.

The next major Inquisition period is known as the Spanish Inquisition. It was set up by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain in 1478 with the approval of Pope Sixtus IV. Unlike the previous inquisition, it was completely under royal authority and was staffed by secular clergy. It mainly focused on Jews who had professed to be converts to Roman Catholicism but who were suspected of having continued to practice Judaism. Later on, with the spread of Protestantism into Spain, the inquisition would also begin to persecute Protestants who broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. However, after the decline in religious disputes in the 17th century, the Spanish Inquisition essentially became more and more like a secret police that would investigate and retaliate against internal threats to the Spanish authorities. The Spanish Inquisition is probably the most infamous for its torture and the number of people executed as a result of it. One historian estimated that over the course of its history the Spanish Inquisition tried a total of 341,021 people, of whom at least 10% (31,912) were executed.

Another important inquisition period is known as The Portuguese Inquisition and was established in Portugal in 1536 by the King of Portugal, Joao III, and operated much like the more famous Spanish Inquisition. Later in 1560 in India and other parts of the Portuguese empire in Asia, the Goa Inquisition was set up in the Indian city of Goa to deal with converts from Hinduism who were suspected of continuing to practice or hold to some Hindu beliefs.

The last inquisition period is known as the Roman Inquisition and it was established in 1542 when Pope Paul III established the Holy Office as the final court of appeals in all trials of heresy. This group was made up of cardinals and other officials whose task was to maintain and defend the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. This group played an important role in the Counter-Reformation, and it was also this body that condemned Galileo for “grave suspicion of heresy” and banned all of his works in 1633 for teaching that the sun was the center of the universe and that the earth rotated around it. In 1965 Pope Paul VI reorganized the Holy Office and renamed it as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and it remains in effect today.

Bitter-sweet

This is how I feel now. Bitter-sweet, very blessed, but very very sad at the same time. Meeting people is wonderful, saying good-bye is awful. It literally hurts when you say good-bye to a person you shall probably never meet again on this side of eternity...
I wonder... If this is the pain that awaits me next January, when the cruise is over... Is it realistic that I go and hurt afterwards? Or should I rather be anticipating the great fellowship and not pondering the inevitable?

Hey, I am getting into philosophy here, thinking about endings and exits... By the way - exits are part of our lives. We are all going to make the great exit one day, on the date and hour appointed by God. We are all going to leave, to be missed (hopefully), but the great question for many is, where to? And this big "where to" forces people to look for answers everywhere.

Desperation, pain, lack of hope, final encounter with the death sentence (in a form of medical verdict), or many other causes, push people towards the spiritual hunger. But only few find peace, the real peace with God, through Jesus Christ, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Those few are precious to God, and to one another. Maybe that is why it hurts so much right now... But it is a good kind of pain, so, in the end - I am going to meet others, because the SWEET of the fellowship is going to cover the BITTER of parting.

To God be the Glory in all things and for all things. And God Bless you, Martin.

My joy

“But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.” (Psalm 59:16)

(Read by Max McLean. Provided by The Listener's Audio Bible.)

Powered by BibleGateway.com

I met a brother in Christ yesterday. From a far away country, New Zealand.
What a blessing it is to know that we are everywhere, meeting on-line first, and then in real life, and worshipping Lord together.

Fare well, Martin, and God Bless on your journey home.

I warmly recommend

If you take a look at my sidebar, you notice some links to other places on the Internet. Some of them are friends, some are to sites that inspire my studies, but there is one very special, to a site about a country far away and almost forgotten by everybody. Our brothers and sisters in this country die for believing in Christ. They are tortured, beaten, starved, persecuted - all in agreement with the country's law.
Please go and read this blog. Please pray for North Korea.

House of Chosun

One word is causing a world of controversy

The Mormon community, as well as outsiders, is abuzz over a slight change to the latest edition of the Book of Mormon.
Local Mormon faithful appear to be unswayed by the change, while those who already questioned the validity of the community’s religious claims are using the controversy to bolster their stance against the religion.
A Mormon scholar has called the hubbub “nonsense,” while an Arizona State University religious scholar said the change appears to be a nod to science.
All this over five letters. But those letters, the word “among,” could signal a bigger change than it seems.
The change is in the second paragraph of the introduction to the 2006 Book of Mormon, the most recent printing of the book published by Doubleday. The last sentence of that paragraph, which discusses the fate of ancient civilizations, stated in previous editions that the Lamanites, a nation of people that originated in Jerusalem, “are the principal ancestors of the American Indians.”

Read on...
there is also a very informative video there, so I recommend this article warmly.

Simply silly :)

When Santa comes...

the CAT hides.

Sad news again

Benazir Bhutto is no more. She went away from this world unexpectedly, but in the usual way politicians from that part of the world leave the scene. I remember her when she was mourning her father's trial and death, I remember admiring her courage and firm position, her love for her country. I am not much into politics, but this lady meant a lot in my womanhood.
Let me pray for peace and Gospel in Pakistan.

Welcome Royal Son

I have recently enriched my humble blog by another author's contributions. He has already published a few posts, and I am hoping for many more.
Welcome, Royal Son, and feel at home here :)

I want also to ask you who come here for a prayer on my behalf and on the behalf of my family: we have been going through hard times lately, the sudden death of my father-in-law has been forcing us into many unexpected and vital decisions, involving a possible moving, changing of jobs, etc. None of these we had been contemplating some months ago, and yet these are issues that have to be dealt with soon.
Tomorrow is the day of giving his ashes back to the earth. Please pray.

Political correctness not so good, it appears

When you find an article in contemporary daily press that is sound in reason, you are almost surprised that this is even possible among all the ranting about crime, economy and pop culture. But, I found one today, and want to share, by translating it.

Hans Olovsson writes:

Spare the 3-year-old children from political correctnessES

In Wednesday's Jönköpings-Posten we wrote in the Editorial a critical article about how the 3-year-old children are going to be the target of teaching instruction at a free daycare centre. The reason of doubts are the long-term effects of this zeal and the need to scrutinize it. Daycare has become a pre-school, a pre-school need a curriculum an a special teaching instruction, which is not as innocent as it sounds. One example: in the present curriculum for the preschool there is a statement about how to work against the traditional gender roles and patterns.

Parents, who possibly have a different view of how to bring up their children, have few opportunities of other choices if there is a free preschool available. All reasons in the world can be put forward in order to argue for equality. But when one wants to lay it on the little ones, one has to be sure that their parents support this idea fully. If they don't, one should not force the children into the system. Of course! The parents can pass on it, but then they give up the tax-paid part of the system (paid by their tax money), the preschool. I read somewhere that Swedish children belong to those best equipped in critical thinking skills. I wonder... I do not think that it is the critical thinking, but, more or less, the preservation of the political correctnessES. These come forth when it is more important to think alike than to think freely. Therefore this gender-oriented teaching instruction is not going to be challenged by critical thinking.

Moses' Stones with Commandments have been replaced by something called value basis, and this value basis' relationship to ideologies, to our legal freedoms and to party politics, is not letting anybody to scrutinize it. They are also the Commandments in stone, given by a god. One of the political correctnessES growing in popular mind and attention is to be a vegetarian.

Environmental issues have become the new platform for the movement. Eating meat rises the level of CO2, by transporting the meat and by the mere existence of cows and their digestive mechanisms, to put it mildly. My wife and I were at the theatre together with our grandchild, and 8-years-old Jonathan. The title of the play was "Grandma, Grandpa and Monster", and the action took place in an attic. The play was written for children from 8 to 12 years old and was very dramatic. Thunderstorms, spooky attic with white linen hanging there, a hysterically afraid mother with a (meat-eating) monster under the table.
The action focused on the mother who was afraid of everything that existed outside the attic, while her daughter was longing to life outside of there. It might seem a bit scary, but much better than locking oneself inside. The message was somewhat different: the one who eats meat eats children! After the play we asked Jonathan about his opinion. "I think it was a weird play. The title is "Grandma, Grandpa and Monster", but we never saw the Grandpa and the Grandma." No, those were the ones who ate meat, and therefore the child was never allowed to go there and visit them. Jonathan did not get it, and we were very thankful for that.

One should add that Jonathan's father is a vegetarian, but both Jonathan and his mom may eat as much meat as they want without being called child murderers. But - where there are no problems, one has to create them. As long as it is within the limits of political correctness.

Interesting article, indeed. The reason I took time to translate it and publish it here is simple: finally there is someone who dares to oppose the establishment, if only in a humble article in a daily newspaper. We have to start somewhere, to show that we actually still possess the ability of critical thinking and logic, and are not afraid to question everything. The world thinks Christians are brainwashed and stupid. The world has no idea how incorrect this view is. It is time they knew.

Polish History in 10 minutes

This is my country. I love it.

Tack alla för att ni kom at säga farväl till Svärfar.

Detta är en tid av Tacksägelse, tid av visdom…. Får man hoppas…Av tillkommandet av visdom…
Hur skall vi då se på begravningar? Kanske är det en generalrepetition för min egen död?

Jag kommer att vara i den kistan en dag. Du kommer att vara där också. Vi alla går åt samma håll. Vi borde tänka på detta. Psalmen säger så här:

Psa 90:5 Du sköljer dem bort; de äro såsom en sömn. Om morgonen likna de gräset som frodas;
Psa 90:6 det blomstrar upp och frodas om morgonen, men om aftonen torkar det bort och förvissnar.
Psa 90:7 Ty vi förgås genom din vrede, och genom din förtörnelse ryckas vi plötsligt bort.
Psa 90:8 Du ställer våra missgärningar inför dig, våra förborgade synder i ditt ansiktes ljus.
Psa 90:9 Ja, alla våra dagar försvinna genom din förgrymmelse, vi lykta våra år såsom en suck.
Psa 90:10 Vårt liv varar sjuttio år eller åttio år, om det bliver långt; och när det är som bäst, är det möda och fåfänglighet, ty det går snart förbi, likasom flöge vi bort.
Psa 90:11 Vem besinnar din vredes makt och din förgrymmelse, så att han fruktar dig?
Psa 90:12 Lär oss betänka huru få våra dagar äro, för att vi må undfå visa hjärtan.


Herre, lär mig att räkna mina dagar, så att jag kan få visdom. Våra dagar är inte långa, även om vi lever 81 år, som Sigvard… De springer snabbare hela tiden, de accelererar med åldern.

Visdom… En vis person ser verkligheten så som den är. En dum person ser vad som inte finns där och beter sig enligt sina föreställningar. Visa människor ser vad som verkligen finns där.
Är Gud verkligen där? Är himmelen där? Är helvetet där? Är sanningen där? Är Jesus där? Är korset där? Vad är verkligt?

En klok person ser det som är verkligt och sedan bygger sitt liv runt den verkligheten. En dum person ser inte verkligheten, bygger sitt liv runt något som inte riktigt finns, och vid sluter ångrar sig fruktansvärt och sättet han levt. Hoppet är att vi växer i visdom.

Jakob skriver:

Jas 4:13 Hören nu, I som sägen: "I dag eller i morgon vilja vi begiva oss till den och den staden, och där vilja vi uppehålla oss ett år och driva handel och skaffa oss vinning" -
Jas 4:14 I veten ju icke vad som kan ske i morgon. Ty vad är edert liv? En rök ären I, som synes en liten stund, men sedan försvinner.
Jas 4:15 I borden fastmera säga: "Om Herren vill, och vi får leva, skola vi göra det, eller det."
Jas 4:16 Men nu talen I stora ord i eder förmätenhet. All sådan stortalighet är ond.


Allt beror på Gud. Alla våra steg, allt vi gör, om vi lever eller dör i morgon – allt beror på Guds nåd. Detta är visdom. Allt annat är det inte. Gud är Gud, vi är inte det – och vi borde leva med den vetskapen hela tiden. Medvetna om Guds närvaro, i ständig tacksamhet.

Kommer ni ihåg dessa ord, skrivna av Paulus, strax före hans död i Rom?
2Ti 4:7 Jag har kämpat den goda kampen, jag har fullbordat mitt lopp, jag har bevarat tron.
2Ti 4:8 Nu ligger rättfärdighetens segerkrans tillreds åt mig, och Herren, den rättfärdige domaren, skall giva den åt mig på "den dagen", och icke åt mig allenast, utan åt alla som hava älskat hans tillkommelse.

Paulus skriver om rättfärdighetens segerkrans. Ett pris för det fullbordade loppet, för bevarande av tron.

Vårt hopp är att Paulus övertygelse var också Pappas övertygelse. Jag ber att detta blir också allas övertygelse när den dagen kommer till var och en av oss. Att vi, synliga människor, förlitar oss på Jesus, att vi kryper till korset, att vi blir renade med Hans blod, att vi erkänner våra synder och vår nöd, och att vi blir förklarade rättfärdiga – inte för något vi gjort, utan för Hans Offer och Hans uppståndelse.

Detta är vår Kristna tro, och detta var Pappas tro.
Gud, vi står här ledsna och sorgsna, lämnade utan Far, men vi har Glädjen i oss, att Far finns hos Dig, med rättfärdighetens segerkrans på huvudet. Låt oss inte bortse från Dina vägar, hjälp oss vandra på den smala stigen, tills den dagen kommer när också vi står framför Dig och tar rättfärdighetens segerkrans. I Jesus namn. Amen.

Reformation in Poland

I was wondering about the best way to commemorate this date, 490 years from the day when Martin Luther decided to come public with his theses. And, I think, you will benefit from this unusual angle, as not much is known about my home country and the days of Reformation there.
What I am posting is a bunch of links - I am not going to violate the copyright. But please feel free to follow them and read for yourselves.

• Protestant Reformation and the Golden Age in Poland
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Poland
• Polish Anabaptism in the 16th : a story little told

Reformations in Eastern Europe: Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox

The Reformation first came to Poland-Lithuania in its Lutheran form soon after 1517, finding sympathizers among the German burghers in the cities of Royal Prussia. By 1522 calls for the introduction of the new religion had arisen in Gdańsk against the background of social unrest. King Sigismund I the Old banned the possession and reading of Lutheran books in 1520, and in 1526 he restored order in Gdańsk, reiterating the ban, although some burghers may have continued to practice the religion covertly. In 1525 Königsberg, the capital of the newly secularized Ducal Prussia (a fief of the Polish crown), became a center for Lutheran propaganda in the area (print shop from 1530, university from 1544). Polish and Lithuanian students attended the university, and religious propaganda was printed in their languages. Polish magnates of Great Poland began to serve as patrons of Lutheranism in the 1530s, offering protection to non-nobles on their estates. A few individual voices were heard in Vilnius in the same decade, but pioneering Lithuanian Lutherans such as Abraomas Kulvietis and Stanislovas Rapalionis were forced to seek protection in Königsberg. Another center of the Polish Reformation grew up in the 1520s and 1530s around humanistic circles at the Cracow Academy, at the center of which stood Jakub of Iłża the Younger (member of the Collegium Minor 1518–1535; documented Reformation activity from 1528). It was here that conditions were created for the first propagation of the new religion in Polish society, and there is some justification in calling Little Poland the "cradle of the Polish Reformation."

Reformation

All of these activities either remained largely covert or depended upon the protection of the nobles until the reign of Sigismund II Augustus (1548–1572), who, although remaining Catholic, was more open to the new ideas. He corresponded with Philipp Melanchthon and John Calvin (who dedicated his 1549 Commentary on Hebrews to him), and he appointed the patron of Lithuanian Calvinism, Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black, as Lithuanian grand chancellor (1550–1565). The transformation of the Polish-Lithuanian Reformation from a clandestine movement into an open, organized church with public services and synods dates from about 1550, when Protestant gentry began to form a majority in the lower house of the parliament. Protestant magnates were a majority in the upper house from the 1560s. Between 1552 and 1565, only Protestants were elected as marshals presiding over sessions of parliament. In 1552 the diet vacated decisions of the ecclesiastical courts against tithe-resisters and heretics, and in 1555 it declared a Polish interim, guaranteeing religious toleration for nobles until a general council could meet. In 1559 Sigismund II granted religious liberty to Prussian towns, approving the Augsburg confession that had been adopted by the Royal Prussian Diet.

In the years 1556–1560 a reformed church of Little Poland began to take shape as an overt organization, with a presbyterial governing structure and a Calvinist-Zwinglian doctrine. Leaders of the movement included Francesco Lismanini (1504–1566), the Franciscan provincial of Poland and confessor of Sigismund II Augustus's mother, Queen Bona Sforza, and the Erasmian Jan Łaski (Joannes à Lasco, 1499–1560), who returned to Poland after a seventeen-year exile in December 1556.

The Reformation in Poland-Lithuania quickly underwent fragmentation. The Brest Bible—the first printing of the entire Holy Writ by Polish Protestants—was a joint project of the Reformed churches of Poland and Lithuania. Its financial patron was Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Black. By the time it was printed in 1563, many of its sponsors and translators, led by such Italian refugees as Giorgio Biandrata (c. 1515–1588), had made moves in the direction of Anti-Trinitarianism, forming a volatile and loosely organized "Minor church" (as opposed to the still Calvinistic "Major church").

In 1570 the Calvinists, Lutherans, and the Czech Brethren living in exile in Great Poland (the latter had been in communion with the local Calvinists since the Union of Kominek in 1555) met at a synod of concord at Sandomierz and produced a Confessio Sandomirensis, agreeing to hold joint synods, although they actually met jointly only four times between 1570 and 1595. The Minor church, which was excluded from those deliberations, experienced a period of great internal turmoil in the 1570s and 1580s. The social radicals of Little Poland established centers in Raków and Lublin. Their leaders, such as the "pope of Lublin" Marcin Czechowicz (1532–1613), argued for pacifism and a withdrawal from the state. Lithuanian Anti-Trinitarians, such as Szymon Budny (c. 1530–1593), wrote in defense of the jus gladii ('office of the sword') but took much more radical ("non-adorantist") stances on Christological questions. Compromise positions were worked out by the Italian refugee Fausto Sozzini (Socinus), and the "Arians" at Raków published their Confessio Racoviensis in 1605, dedicating the work to King James I of England.

As the tiny but intellectually prominent groups of Polish Anti-Trinitarians were conducting their intensive debates on religion and society, the mainstream Reformation in Poland-Lithuania began to decline. The signs of weakness were already visible as the Polish Reformation reached its zenith in the 1573 Confederation of Warsaw. This document was worked out during the interregnum after the death of the last Jagiellonian king, Sigismund II (d. 1572), and from then on the elected kings of Poland were required to sign pacta conventa based on it and guaranteeing mutual toleration among dissidents in religion.

The rest of the article, about Contrreformation, at answers.com.

And from Wikipedia:

Poland and Lithuania in the Reformation Era

In modern eyes, the most saliently liberal aspect of Jagiellon Poland is its exceptional toleration of religious dissent. This tolerance prevailed in Poland even during the religious upheavals, war, and atrocities associated with the Protestant Reformation and its repercussions in many parts of sixteenth-century Europe. The Reformation arrived in Poland between 1523 and 1526. The small Calvinist, Lutheran, and Hussite groups that sprang up were harshly persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church in their early years. Then in 1552 the Sejm suspended civil execution of ecclesiastical sentences for heresy. For the next 130 years, Poland remained solidly Roman Catholic while refusing to repress contending faiths and providing refuge for a wide variety of religious nonconformists.

Such broad-mindedness derived as much from practical necessity as from principle, for Poland, and especially the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, that governed a populace of remarkable ethnic and religious diversity, embracing Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, and numerous non Christians. In particular, after the mid-sixteenth century the Polish lands supported the world's largest concentration of Jews, whose number was estimated at 150,000 in 1582. Under the Jagiellons, Jews suffered fewer restrictions in Poland and Lithuania than elsewhere in Europe while establishing an economic niche as tradesmen and managers of noble estates.

Thank you

To all you who commented on my yesterday's post - thank you, brothers and sisters. I appreciate your warm and loving words a lot.
We are coping - right now at a distance, since my husband tends to the various urgent matters at the house his father lived, and it is 130 km away from where we live.
The funeral ceremony will take place on the 8th of November.

We ask for more prayers, and we love you all.

To the best Dad-in-law

We loved you so very much. You were the kindest person on Earth, you loved us, took care of us, always denying yourself, always putting our needs first.
You were smiling, happy, you loved God... And God loved you, Dad...

You are with the Lord, starting today. You left us all so suddenly, we did not say our good-byes, but we hope to meet again, because we share your Hope, Dad.

Dear Lord - take care of him. He is glorified and with You now. Give us strength to endure the pain, give us strength to love You and glorify You through this mourning.
In Jesus precious name, Lord.

Eccl. 7:2 It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every man, And the living takes [it] to heart. (NASB)

My father-in-law died today. He is with the Lord forever.

Police evict nuns

Police evict nuns after two-year convent rebellion

Police forced their way into a Polish convent yesterday, evicted about 65 former nuns, and arrested the mother superior and a monk who had occupied the complex illegally for two years.

The women had taken over the building in a rebellion against the Vatican, which had ordered the replacement of the mother superior, Jadwiga Ligocka, who had reportedly had visions.

"They were disobedient," said Mieczyslaw Puzewicz, of the Lublin diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. The Vatican formally expelled the women from their Sisters of Bethany order last year.

Police said they planned to question the mother superior and a former Franciscan friar, Roman Komaryczko.

A locksmith opened the gate to the walled convent in the eastern Polish town of Kazimierz Dolny and police in riot gear pushed forward, encountering verbal aggression from some of the nuns, a police spokesman, Mariusz Sokolowski, said.

Read more...

Sweet unity of Roman Catholicism...