Free Republic

Islamo-"Christian" anti-Jewish "Palestinian" Hannan Ashrawi, racist-Arab, ugly liar #OpPalestine @FoxNews what is this nonsense by Geraldo & Ashrawi that the #Palestinians have 1000 year history? They formed in 1964! - http://twitter.com/PatriotJackiB/statuses/222161526239399937 http://friendfeed.com/oppalestine/31baafbe/foxnews-what-is-this-nonsense-by-geraldoFact, "Palestinians" were formed as a "distinct" group, no earlier than in the early 1960s. And as author warned in 1964 as the "Palestine entity" was stil forming... Noted 1940's Jurist: "the Arabic-speaking inhabitants of Palestine... are not the descendants of the conquerors." Ernst Frankenstein in "Justice for my people," (Dial Press, 1944), p. 88 Even most anti-Israel sect, the Islamic Arab Hamas, admits: "Half of the Palestinians...

This past January I had the opportunity to attend the pro-life march in Washington DC with some high school kids from Montgomery. It’s a good trip, and I think it’s a worthwhile practice for students and parents to go to it at least once. But that’s not what I want to say about it. I want to tell you what left the deepest impression upon me.I remember seeing a sea of people on those streets of our nation’s capital. These wide avenues packed with thousands upon thousands of people, mostly young people, many carrying signs or banners. Many, many Catholic...

Featured Term (selected at random):TRUE CONSCIENCE The mind making a correct moral judgment on some action either to be performed or already done. When the conscience is true, a person's subjective judgment corresponds to the objective fact that a particular human act is morally good or morally wrong. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The word virtual has become, for most people, a euphemism for the Internet, or the computer world; as in “occurring or existing primarily online.� But the word virtual has an original meaning that is actually quite descriptive of a modern problem.Prior to its application to the computer world, the word virtual meant: being something in effect, though not actually or expressly being such. In other words, it has aspects of the real thing, but is not the real thing. So, in the sentence. He is a virtual goldmine of knowledge on the subject one would be silly to look for...

A Love for Which He Suffered. A Meditation on the Poem of St. John the Cross: Un PastorcicoBy: Msgr. Charles Pope Many of you have read the allegorical poem adapted by St, John of the Cross called Un Pastorcico (A little Shepherd).  It is a poem about a shepherd boy who grieves that his beloved shepherdess has forsaken and forgotten him. In his love, and in his grief he climbs a tree, and there spreads his arms and dies, his heart by love torn open pitifully.It is an allegory of Christ, indeed of God’s love for us, and for...

The recently highlighted “crisis of Zionism” is in fact a quandary afflicting Jewry and no new phenomenon. Rather, it has two sources, each centuries old. One source is the exile and dispersion of a majority of the Jewish people from their native land of Israel by Emperor Hadrian in the year 135 CE, and the deep-seated and long-lasting consequences on the Jewish psyche over the course of the ensuing 1,813 years; the other source is about 200 years old, a gradual religious erosion which begins with the radical Reform movement of Samuel Holdheim in Germany and David Einhorn in the...

Course on GracePart Two - A Grace Considered Intensively by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.Chapter IX. Sharing the Divine Nature by Sanctifying Grace The most radical and fundamental and radical effect of sanctifying grace seems to be deification. Sanctifying grace deifies the soul, renders it deiform, godlike in a wondrous way, partaker of the divine nature.Can this really be true? The sources of revelation are clear. In the words of St. Peter, "By whom (Christ) He (the Father) hath given us great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1,4)....

Romans 10:4 [SNIP] The Apostle obviates here an objection which might have been made against him; for the Jews might have appeared to have kept the right way by depending on the righteousness of the law. It was necessary for him to disprove this false opinion; and this is what he does here. He shows that he is a false interpreter of the law, who seeks to be justified by his own works; because the law had been given for this end, — to lead us as by the hand to another righteousness: nay, whatever the law teaches, whatever it...

Featured Term (selected at random):PIARISTS An order of clerics, founded in 1597 by St. Joseph Calasanctius. The name Piarists comes from the last word of their official title, which is "Poor Regulars of the Mother of God for Schools of Piety." They began by opening free elementary schools, and ever since, their principal apostolate is teaching. they were approved as a congregation by Pope Paul V in 1617, and they take a vow to devote themselves to the education of the young. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with...

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints often refer to Jesus Christ as their elder brother. This expression of endearment appears in sermons, lessons, and publications...The title is used enough that some might think that elder brother is one of the many titles attributed to Christ in the scriptures, but nowhere do the scriptures use this expression in reference to Jesus. Nor can the idea that Jesus is our elder brother be ascribed with certitude to the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith... Beginning in 1844 we find the first instances in which the Church leaders use...

In the meantime, let’s go down a side route for a moment and ask first of all, whether any history can be written objectively. Is it possible for a historian to write a historical account without a bias of any kind? No. Every historian is limited by his philosophical and cultural assumptions. Every historian comes to his task with certain guiding principles that he thinks are true or valuable or helpful. These guiding principles cause him to interpret the history he records. He cannot help but make value judgements on the actions he records. Furthermore, those value judgements are in...

Featured Term (selected at random):PRAISES OF GOD A hymn of adoration of St. Francis of Assisi. The original paper with these praises is preserved today in a reliquary in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. The praises illustrate the mystical heights to which Francis had attained at the time of his stigmatization. They read: "You are holy, Lord, the only God, and your deeds are wonderful./You are strong. You are great. You are the Most High, You are almighty. You, holy Father, are King of heaven and earth./You are Three and One, Lord God, all good. You are Good,...

The New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia: Their Significance for People in the West Sophia Moshura   Feb 24th, 2012 // Why do Orthodox Americans, French, Swedes, and those outside Russia need to revere the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia? It is clear what they did for Russia, but why are the Russian New Martyrs so significant for people in the West? Why should we pray to them? “PravMir” asked several people to respond to these questions.Father Andrew Phillips, Rector of St. John the Wonderworker Orthodox Church in Colchester, England:First of all, the New Martyrs and Confessors are multinational,...

[SNIP] John 3:5: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say to thee, Unless a man be: born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. [SNIP] We must always keep in remembrance the design of Christ, which we have already explained; namely, that he intended to exhort Nicodemus to newness of life, because he was not capable of receiving the Gospel, until he began to be a new man. It is, therefore, a simple statement, that we must be born again, in order that we may be the children of God, and that the Holy...

Featured Term (selected at random):BREAKING OF THE HOST The liturgical breaking of the consecrated host at Mass. Its purpose is first practical, to facilitate consuming by the priest. It is also a symbol that through the body of Christ the faithful become one with him and with one another. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

ROME, JULY 13, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Hidden away behind the wall of a modern Roman hospital stand the remains of an old monastery, dating back more than a thousand years.Apart from a medieval entryway facing out into a small piazza in Trastevere, there is little evidence from the outside of Rome's Regina Margarita hospital that within its walls stands a monastery which, for centuries reaching back to the lifetime of Saint Clare of Assisi, once housed a community of Poor Clare sisters.Joan Lloyd, a retired professor of art history from La Trobe University in Melbourne, has lived and worked in Rome...

High Priests Groups world-wide are still reeling at the Church News’ announcement that questions surrounding the accuracy and authenticity of the Book of Abraham are not as important as critics suggest because the book “is not central to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ” despite its inclusion in the canonized LDS Standard Works. (Read Church News article here.) “I’m stunned,” said LaVerl Jensen, High Priest Group leader for the Spanish Fork 87th ward. “If the Book of Abraham isn’t all that important, why did God go to all that effort to make sure the Egyptian papyri containing Abraham’s writings, miraculously...

This list is great to share with Believing Mormons because most of these teachings have solid references or are still taught from the pulpit. It's a great conversation starter on the silly side of Mormonism. I'm sure you've heard most of these at one time or another. The list is divided into two sections - Mormon Church teachings that have documented citations, and those still missing. Cosmology - God says the correct name for our Sun is "Shinehah," which is the name He gave it. Also, the correct name of the moon is "Olea." See Abraham 3:13. - God lives...

In...1838...Joseph Smith responded to...questions which he said were daily and hourly asked by all classes of people. To the question "Will every body be damned but Mormons?" he replied, "Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent and work righteousness."...I...assumed, along with others, that Joseph's response was rather tongue-in-cheek. Actually, as we shall see, he was very much in earnest and was...a sentiment widely held among the early Saints... But what of the honest and honorable of other churches? A Times and Seasons editorial answered bluntly that it did not matter...Such either/or thinking did belong to some fanatic...

Featured Term (selected at random):SCHOLASTICISM The system of philosophy and theology first developed in the medieval schools of Christian Europe, having a scholastic or technical language and methodology, building on the writings of the Church Fathers, notably St. Augustine (354-430), using many of the philosophical principles and insights of Aristotle and Neoplatonism, and co-ordinated into a synthesis of human and divine wisdom by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74). Three periods of Scholasticism are commonly distinguished: medieval period from St. Anselm to Jean Capréolus (1060-1440); Counter-Reformation or the Spanish-Portuguese Revival (1520-1640), declining after the rise of Protestantism and the spread of Cartesianism;...

What is Biblical Prophecy?by Felix Just, S.J., Ph.D.  Introduction: What Biblical Prophecy is NOT, and What It Really IS:Contrary to what many fundamentalist preachers or late-night radio hosts would have you believe, biblical prophecy is not primarily about "predicting the future" or finding clues in the Bible that correspond to people or events in our own day and age! The prophets of Ancient Israel did not look into some kind of crystal ball and see events happening thousands of years after their own lifetimes. The books they wrote do not contain hidden coded messages for people living in the 20th...

Shortly before he died in Oxford in 1988, the Jesuit retreat master and raconteur, Bernard Bassett, in good spirits after a double leg amputation, told me that the great lights of his theological formation had been Ignatius Loyola and John Henry Newman, but if he “had to do it all over,” he’d only read Paul. “Everything is there.” There is a temptation to think that God gave us the Apostle to the Gentiles in order to have second readings at Sunday Mass, usually unrelated to the first reading and the Gospel. But everything truly is there. Paul was one of...

Featured Term (selected at random): .subadimg { text-align:center; } .subadimg a img { border:none; }   SATANISM The cult of Satan or Satan worship. Known in antiquity, it has long been practiced under a diffeent name among polytheists in their invocation and propitiation of the evil deities. But Satanism properly so called is mainly a revolt against Christianity or the Catholic Church. It rose in the twelfth century and culminated in the Black Mass, a blasphemous parody of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Modern Satanism has become widespread in circles that venerate the devil, pray for his assistance, perform elaborate rites in...

We add, that it is sure and firm, the better to express strength and constancy of persuasion. For as faith is not contented with a dubious and fickle opinion, so neither is it contented with an obscure and ill-defined conception. The certainty which it requires must be full and decisive, as is usual in regard to matters ascertained and proved. So deeply rooted in our hearts is unbelief, so prone are we to it, that while all confess with the lips that God is faithful, no man ever believes it without an arduous struggle. Especially when brought to the test,...

Thursday, 05 July 2012 The Golden Age Cometh     By Fr. C. John McCloskey III      My friend, the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, was a Lutheran minister from Canada and a great Christian witness who converted to Catholicism. I was privileged to be at his ordination to the priesthood.Fr. Neuhaus proclaimed in one of his books the advent of a “Catholic Moment” for the United States. As it turns out, he was twenty-five years or so ahead of his time. But perhaps today’s “Catholic Moment” is not exactly the kind that he foresaw.Neuhaus (along with George Weigel...

Heavy-hearted, Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, set out to meet the Caliph, the successor to the Muslim prophet Muhammad, at the gates of the Holy City. The surrender had already been negotiated, after a siege that had lasted four months. Sophronius, patriarch of the city since 634, had decided that the city must be surrendered. For several years, Palestine had been cut off from the rest of Christian-Byzantine territory. Sophronius could have known nothing of Emperor Heraclius’s intentions to relieve or leave the city to its fate. He did know that invaders had ransacked villages of Palestine for the second...

Featured Term (selected at random):CHILDERMAS DAY An old English name for the feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28. It is a Catholic custom for parents to formally bless their children on this day. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

<p>Whereas he exhorteth him unto repentance and prayer, he putteth him in some hope of pardon thereby; for no man shall ever be touched with any desire of repentance, save only he which shall believe that God will have mercy upon him; on the other side, despair will always carry men headlong unto boldness. Furthermore, the Scripture teacheth that God is not called upon aright save only by faith. Therefore, we see how Peter raiseth up Simon now unto hope of salvation, whom he had thrown down before with the cruel lightnings and thunderbolts of words; and yet Simon’s sin was no small sin. But, if it could be, we ought to pluck men even out of hell.</p>

(Reuters) - A 1,000-year-old hoard of gold coins has been unearthed at a famous Crusader battleground where Christian and Muslim forces once fought for control of the Holy Land, Israeli archaeologists said on Wednesday. The treasure was dug up from the ruins of a castle in Arsuf, a strategic stronghold during the religious conflict waged in the 12th and 13th centuries. The 108 coins - one of the biggest collections of ancient coins discovered in Israel - were found hidden in a ceramic jug beneath a tile floor at the cliff-top coastal ruins, 15 km (9 miles) from Tel Aviv....

Featured Term (selected at random):VICTIMAE PASCHALI The hymn to the Paschal Victim, which is the Easter sequence for the Mass on Easter Sunday and through the octave. Composed by Wipo (d. 1050) of Burgundy (or Swabia), it commemorates Christ's triumphant conquest of death. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

<p>In the first place, as Scripture testifies that all the sufferings to which the human race is liable proceed from sin, whenever we see any person wretched, we cannot prevent the thought from immediately presenting itself to our minds, that the distresses which fall heavily upon him are punishments inflicted by the hand of God. But here we commonly err in three ways.</p>

The Rule of St. Benedict St. Benedict of Nursia   Prologue1 Monk2 Abbots3 Counsel4 Good Works5 Silence6 Obedience7 Humility8-19 Divine Office20 Praying21 Monastic Deans22 Sleep23-30  Faults/Correction31 The Cellarer32-34 Tools/Property 35 Kitchen Service36 The Sick37 Old Men/Children38 The Reader39-41 Food/Drink42 Night Silence43 The Tardy44-46 Penance47 Call to Office48 Manual Labor49 Lent50-51 Outside Monks52 Oratory53 Guests54 Letters/Presents 55 Clothing/Shoes56 Abbot's Table57 Craftsmen58-61 Candidates/Guests62 Priests of Monastery63 Order and Rank64 Abbot's Election65 Prior66 Porter67 Before a Journey68 Impossible Commands69-70 Presumption71 Mutual Obedience72 Zeal73 Matters not in Rule

Featured Term (selected at random):GENUS The qualities that are common to several species, abstracting from their distinctive differences. Thus a universal concept, like intelligent being, can be applied to angels and men. The supreme genera are called categories, or which the first (in Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas) expresses substance, and the nine others express accidental properties, namely quantity, quality, relation, place, time, action, passion, position, and state. (Etym. Latin genus, class, kind.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Featured Term (selected at random):BARSABBAS One of the two candidates nominated to succeed Judas as the twelfth Apostle (Acts 1:23-26). Tradition holds that Barsabbas and Matthias were among the seventy-two disciples chosen by Christ (Luke 10:1). Lots were drawn and Matthias was chosen. (Etym. Aramaic bar sa'ba', son of Sabbas.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

All which notwithstanding the jury found him guilty, and incontinent upon the verdict the Lord Chancellor [for that matter chief commissioner] beginning in judgment against him, Sir Thomas More said to him, "My Lord, when I was towards the law, the manner in such case was to ask the prisoner before judgment, why judgment should not be given against him." Whereupon the Lord Chancellor staying his judgment, wherein he had partly proceeded, demanded of him what he was able to say to the contrary. Who then in this sort mildly made answer: "Forasmuch as, my Lord, this indictment is grounded...

America’s Catholic Colony By: Matthew E. Bunson The history of Colonial England in America is one of great irony: The same Protestant groups who fled England in pursuit of toleration and religious liberty brought with them an utter hatred for the Church. They installed laws and customs that excluded Catholics from all aspects of public life for over a century and a half. This reality makes the story of Catholics in the first days of Maryland all the more remarkable. From its founding, Maryland was intended to be a place where Catholics were welcomed and permitted to share in the...

Course on GracePart Two - A Grace Considered Intensively by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.Chapter VIII. Sanctifying Grace St. Thomas, following St. Augustine, declares that "the justification of the ungodly … is greater than the creation of heaven and earth" (l-2qll3a9). Since the former is a supernatural work of the highest order and the other only natural, more glory is given to God in justification than by all perfections of nature. Is justification, then, the greatest supernatural work? No, the Incarnation of the Word and the beatification of the just in heaven are greater.Causes of justification. What causes a sinner's...

Featured Term (selected at random):DEMIURGE Originally a craftsman working for the people, used by Plato (427-347 B.C.) to designate the Maker of the Material Universe. The Demiurge became a common term in Gnosticism and other heretical systems. He was the maker of the world, the personification of evil who caused Christ's crucifixion, at once distinct from the Supreme God and an emanation from him. Some Gnostics identified him with Yahweh of the Old Testament, from whose power man was rescued by Christ in the New Testament. (Etym. Greek d_mos, people + ergon, work: d_miourgos, artisan, craftsman.) All items in this...

Pope Pius XII. Jerusalem, Israel, Jul 5, 2012 / 03:38 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial has made changes to a controversial exhibit on Pope Pius XII, presenting a more balanced view of his actions toward the Nazis and their Jewish victims. Pave the Way Foundation President Gary Krupp, a prominent Jewish defender of Pope Pius XII, said his inter-religious group was “very pleased� with Yad Vashem's change of position, which “should show the world that it is truly an institution based on facts and truth.� “The black legend against Pope Pius XII is being bleached white...

Featured Term (selected at random):BOLSHEVISM A term derived from the Russian bolshinstvo (majority) and originally used to designate the radical left among the Communists. The professed aim of Bolshevism is the overthrow of existing governments and the substitution of Communism under the dictatorship of the proletariat. It has been several times condemned by name in papal documents. Pope Pius XI declared, "We have exposed the errors and the violent deceptive tactics of Bolshevistic and atheistic Communism" (encyclical Divini Redemptoris, III, 25). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Our hemisphere’s greatest martyrs remain virtually unknown to English-speaking Catholics.Left to right: Plutarco Elias Calles; Cristeros preparing for battle; Anacleto Gonzalez FloresThe recently-released motion picture For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada is raising awareness of a long-forgotten chapter in Catholic history that seems increasingly relevant for religious believers in America today. Few Americans—and amazingly few Mexicans—have been aware of the epic, three-year struggle to save the Catholic faith that convulsed Mexico in the 1920s, an almost mystical event that has come to be known by the faithful as “La Cristiada.”Although the movie conveys a rough idea of the...

The pre-mortal period is a period of organization, growth, and purposeful development...This organization of the spirits from the "intelligence" which is co-eternal with God is for the express purpose of exaltation, to become "Gods like himself..."... ...Brigham Young said:...The Lord has organized mankind for the purpose of increasing in that intelligence and truth...until he is capable of creating worlds on worlds, and becoming gods...Believing that "the power of choice of all intelligent inherit from the Gods of eternity...is innate."... ...Complete independence of action is an attribution of deity, and only those most valiant during their probation on earth who will...

Featured Term (selected at random):TRANSCENDENTALS In scholastic philosophy, those qualities that are common to all things whatsoever, and to all differences between things. they are not restricted to any category, class, or individual. the classic transcendentals are thing (res), being (ens), something (aliquid), the one (unum), the true (verum), the good (bonum), and, according to some philosophers, the beautiful (pulchrum). All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The Catholic Church in the United States of AmericaFR. ROBERT J. FOX This chapter explores the early days of the English colonies, when the rights of Catholics were not respected, to the end of the nineteenth century. Cecil Calvert(1606 - 1675) No. The English colonies were founded at the same time the Church was persecuted in England. Virginia colonists were members of the English Church; in New England the colonists were Calvinists. Catholics were not permitted in these colonies. Catholics were excluded from the Dutch colony in New York and the Swedish settlement of Delaware also. In 1683 James...

(CNN) -- Archaeologists are reveling in the discovery of an ancient synagogue in northern Israel, a "monumental" structure with a mosaic floor depicting the biblical figure of Samson and a Hebrew inscription. The synagogue -- dating to the fourth and fifth centuries in both the Talmudic and late Roman periods -- is in Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village in the country's Galilee region, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said. Jodi Magness, a professor of early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the building was found in a recent excavation. She...

The results of a recent study - completed by Italian scientist, Giuseppe Baldacchini - on the theory of annihilation, are said to prove the authenticity of the Shroud according to the current laws of physicsGiuseppe Baldacchini is a physician who has worked for Italian research centre ENEA for a number of years. He is also a passionate scholar of that mysterious object which is the Holy Shroud of Turin and in recent days he has published a book about his findings, which readers can access by clicking on the following link. Of particular interest is a fascinating theory he has...

Catholic Founding Fathers - The Carroll FamilyCHARLES CARROLL CARTERGeorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin. Nearly every schoolchild recognizes them as the Founding Fathers. But there were a great many more Founding Fathers, even if their names are not so familiar as the above. Several of those lesser-known men who played key roles in the creation of the United States of America were Catholics. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin. Nearly every schoolchild recognizes them as the Founding Fathers — signers of the Declaration of Independence, framers of the...

When we come to study the influence of Calvinism as a political force in the history of the United States we come to one of the brightest pages of all Calvinistic history. Calvinism came to America in the Mayflower, and Bancroft, the greatest of American historians, pronounces the Pilgrim Fathers "Calvinists in their faith according to the straightest system."1 John Endicott, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; John Winthrop, the second governor of that Colony; Thomas Hooker, the founder of Connecticut; John Davenport, the founder of the New Haven Colony; and Roger Williams, the founder of the Rhode...

The Holy Shroud The results of a recent study - completed by Italian scientist, Giuseppe Baldacchini - on the theory of annihilation, are said to prove the authenticity of the Shroud according to the current laws of physics Marco TosattiRome Giuseppe Baldacchini is a physician who has worked for Italian research centre ENEA for a number of years. He is also a passionate scholar of that mysterious object which is the Holy Shroud of Turin and in recent days he has published a book about his findings, which readers can access by clicking on the following link. Of particular interest...

Featured Term (selected at random):LA DISPUTA A fresco in the Vatican painted by Raphael (1483-1520), considered to be one of the artist's greatest works. Representing the Church, militant and triumphant, it portrays saints, doctors, and laymen engaged in discussion. During the discussion the heavens are opened, showing Christ with the Holy Spirit hovering above him and the eternal Father blessing him as he offers himself as a sacrifice for sin. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.