Posted on 07/26/2013 7:56:13 PM PDT by marshmallow
Fatima, Harissa, Damascus, Samalut, Assiut, Zeitun and many other places where the Virgin appeared are the destination of incessant pilgrimages from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iran. Pilgrims in search of physical but also spiritual healing; spontaneous and mystical prayer and not the schematic and formal verses of official Islam. The iconoclast Salafists destroy places of pilgrimage every year. But the devotion to Mary is growing, also fueled by the stories of the Koran. The spiritual dialogue between Christians and Muslims is much more promising than cultural, theological or political dialogue.
Beirut (AsiaNews) - Each year millions of Muslims come on pilgrimage to the Catholic Marian shrines. Not only to the major shrines such as Fatima in Portugal or Harissa in Lebanon, but also to Egypt, Syria, Iran. Muslims - especially Muslim women - go to give thanks to the Madonna or great Christian saints, like St. Charbel or St. George.
In the eyes of many Westerners these gestures seem ridiculous or false: they speak of apparitions, of prayers, but then there are massacres, killings, violence in the name of religion!
Like it or not, the religious phenomenon is alive in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia. When you see millions of Hindus go to bathe in the dirty water of the sacred river it may seem like a ridiculous thing. Yet for those who do it is an act of purification, of prayer. The West is tolerant and benevolent towards other religions, but its attitude towards Christians is increasingly hypercritical. The West is not post-Hindu, post-Islam. It is only post-Christian!
The point is that in the West, the supernatural is considered outdated, it is branded as mythology, illusion, instead the West is forever denouncing the difficulties that neither miracles nor pilgrimages can erase.
But in the rest of the world the spiritual.....
(Excerpt) Read more at asianews.it ...
You misunderstood what I said. I am saying that you must know that what you are doing is directly contrary to God's word.
So if I believed with all my heart that strapping on a suicide vest and blowing up a daycare while screaming "Allahu Akhbar!!" was God's will, I would not be sinning as you defined?
Preach it, sister.
Well, then, the focus needs to be back on Mary as the mother of Jesus, as the Holy Spirit calls her in Scripture.
Calling her and focusing on her as the mother of God, diminishes His humanity, especially in light of the way Catholics and the Catholic church have deified her.
This whole thought is wrong. Mary was the mother of Jjesus. The human Jesus. That he was God was not hers to give. He was God but all of his Godliness came from his Father.
Exodus 17:14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
Exodus 34:1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Exodus 34:27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
Deuteronomy 6:9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 17:18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests.
Deuteronomy 27:8 And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”
Isaiah 30:8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.
Here's a link to the keyword *write*.
http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=write&version1=ESV&searchtype=all&bookset=1
God LOVES the written word. He did it Himself and commanded men to do it.
On the contrary, I understood what you were saying perfectly well.
We can sin and not know it.
I know that puts Catholics in a real quandary because they are so fixated on having to confess each and every sin and that those which are unconfessed upon death either put the person in hell or purgatory.
Problem is, we can and do sin without out being aware. There is simply NO way possible to confess everything we did that we shouldn’t have done, or confess everything we should have done and didn’t do.
Sin is disobeying God, not just a list of do’s and don’t’s that we can check off. Jesus tells us in the beatitudes that it goes way beyond the action, right down to the intent of our heart. Since our very being is corrupted by sin, there is not a thing we can do with entirely pure motives or that is unstained by sin.
I know that throws a real monkey wrench in Catholic theology, but if they’d get a correct view on sin, they might see the real necessity of the death of Christ on the cross.
Firstly you need to define how broadly you want to use the phrase “Martial Arts”. After all, swordsmanship, boxing and wrestling are all ‘martial arts’ and the West developed techniques. Remember, the second time Jesus sent His disciples out, they were armed with swords to defend themselves!
Secondly, if any ‘martial art’ has a spiritual side to it, that should be avoided. I do not believe that yoga can be practiced without a spiritual side, as its focus is on one’s ‘inner self’. As far as Eastern martial arts, I have not seen churches offering martial arts courses, though I have not been searching for such training.
I would hope that if you are a Christian, you are aware that there is warfare going on all around you, that the Deceiver and his horde are continually setting traps for the unwary.
The Christian life is not about ‘doing church’ on Sunday for an hour and a half and then forgetting about God the other 166.5 hours in the week! THAT is ‘therapeutic’ church; ‘doing’ church because it feels good. The Christian walk is about being aware of God’s presence in one’s life 24/7, filling ourselves with His Word and surrendering to Him each morning. Do many Christians fail at this? Most certainly! Do I fail at this? Most certainly, but we have to try to live such a lifestyle, surrendering to Him and taking up our cross daily.
There is no sense in even trying to respond to you. Forgive me for even trying in the first place.
You are still misunderstanding, I apologize for wasting both of our times.
I specifically said "Buddhism" and "Confusicism", Both of which are considered "Eastern Arts."
Remember, the second time Jesus sent His disciples out, they were armed with swords to defend themselves!
If you "Bing" or "Google" this you will find a number of sites that disagree with your understanding of this. As for myself I have no opinion.
“...Lourdes...”
To understand Lourdes one must read the book by Alexis Carrel “The Voyage to Lourdes” (published 1939) an atheist French doctor who won a Nobel Prize, who was converted on the basis of a Lourdes miracle.
Also a must read is “Saint Bernadette Soubirous”, by Abbe Francois Trochu who gives an account of what actually happened to Bernadette (whose body is incorrupt, by the way).
Also, a complete understanding of Lourdes is not possible until one understands how the spring came about and actually experiences the baths. Actually a complete understanding of Lourdes will never be possible, but this is a start.
I highly recommend both books!!! The book by the doctor I read before we went and it allows a deeper context for the domain, etc.
God did not provide the Torah as such. Moses had to write it down. He did not provide any of the rest of the OT and none of the New.
My point is that most of the word is written by men.
>> “Fascinating. I thought that God provided two stone tablets” <<
.
I’ve been aware for some time now that you’ve only the most cursory and passing acquaintance with Yehova’s word.
Then do you consider it the word of God? His direct, divine, Spirit inspired, God breathed special revelation of Himself to us?
Or does the fact that He used human instruments to write it down invalidate it's very nature?
I have more peace of mind than I would ever have in a higher-critical, evolutionist church that hates the Book of Genesis but baptizes totem poles.
It would be a waste of time trying to communicate my experiences in your hateful church to you. I highly doubt you even care in the slightest. You probably want to goad me so you can say more vile, hurtful things.
I'll say this much and you can enjoy it and rub your hands together in glee: I learned that when it comes to "encountering" other cultures, the "redneck" culture gets no breaks from the Catholic Church (unlike the cultures of pagans). Mary in, Genesis out. I prefer Genesis. But you just go on blaming me because there's nothing unreasonable in Catholic hatred of Genesis.
As for your own super-loyalty to your new religion, just be happy you can live with yourself--even if you have no compassion for those of us who could not.
Some people simply take a sick pleasure in tormenting others.
It's truly sad to see how many FReepers are bullies.
This could explain the hostility that some non-Catholics have toward Christ's miracles, regardless of their knowledge of the facts.
What explains the Catholic hostility to the first eleven chapters of Genesis?
Here is the testimony of a healing in a Evangelical church, the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
Aaron Shust shares Michael’s miracle story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVRy-t3S0ts
God can heal through prayer for those who come to Him in simple faith, without the brouhaha.
Ping to post 219
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.