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Please join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.1 Timothy 2:1-2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.Religion Forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4). When your sins are forgiven, you are a happy person! Human sorrow is mourning over some tragic or disappointing turn of events. At such times believers are assured of God's sustaining and comforting grace (2 Cor. 1:3-4). But when Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4), He was referring to godly sorrow, which is mourning over your sin. "Mourn" in Matthew 5:4 translates the strongest Greek word used in the New Testament to express grief. It is often used of the...

The number of candidates preparing to be received into the Catholic Church across England at Easter is at its highest level for 15 years. Dioceses across the country are reporting increases, with Shrewsbury Cathedral holding an additional service to accommodate record numbers of adults seeking baptism and admission into the Church. In a statement, the Diocese of Shrewsbury said: “The numbers of people asking to become Catholics in the Diocese of Shrewsbury – which includes all of Shropshire, Cheshire, the Wirral and parts of Greater Manchester – has almost doubled in the past three years. “The surge in new converts...

the life of Japanese sculptor Etsuro Sotoo offers a striking witness to how stone itself can become a path to faith. For Sotoo, whose decades of carving at Spanish Barcelona’s Basilica of the Holy Family, known as Sagrada Familia, have shaped one of the world’s great sacred spaces, the slow, humbling work of sculpting stone ultimately led him to encounter the God whom Antoni Gaudí — Sagrada’s iconic architect — served, and to enter the Catholic Church through baptism. . Studying the life and vision of Sagrada’s legendary architect — and a spiritual giant — not only shaped his artistic...

Five years ago, Nazlican Soylemez had little connection to religious life. A random discovery in her Jersey City neighborhood changed everything. An avid reader and aspiring nurse, Soylemez, 31, was perusing a "Little Free Library" kiosk near her home when she spied a tiny paperback titled "Jesus Lives." The pages of that Christian devotional book would carry her on a journey toward Catholicism. Soylemez is among 1,700 people in the Newark Archdiocese scheduled to complete her conversion to Catholicism this Easter weekend. She and other spiritual newcomers will be confirmed and receive the Eucharist inside the ornate sanctuary of Holy...

It was July in 2016, and Holland was in the northern Iraq city of Sinjar. He had arrived with a BBC film crew about three months after ISIS, the murderous jihadist group, had tried and failed to retake the town after massacring members of the Yazidis, an ancient religious and ethnic minority in Iraq. Holland knew something about ancient history. He was an award-winning British historian who had written popular books about ruthless Spartan and Roman leaders he called the “apex predators” of the Greco-Roman world. They lived by the Athenian dictum: The strong do what they can and the...

Easter baptism figures for the past five years: 2021: 1,708 2022: 1,569 2023: 1,700 2024: 2,300 2025: 2,400 For a country surrounded by an openly anti-Christian regime, Hong Kong has seen a surprising surge in conversions over the past decade. On Easter of this year, around 2,500 new converts are estimated to join the Catholic Church. Hong Kong has long been a place of refuge for Catholics fleeing Chinese communist oppression. Since 1949, Chinese Catholics have poured into the diocese, seeking religious freedom and distance from the Chinese Communist Party's coercion. However, in following a year of pro-democracy protests in...

Vermonters in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington have celebrated this past week in the leadup to Easter on Sunday, when this year’s class of adults will enter into the Catholic Church. Current estimates indicate that their numbers are increasing substantially, especially among young adults at some of Vermont’s universities. While statewide Sunday Mass attendance has decreased and the diocese is consolidating churches, some local parishes have seen an increase in energy and enthusiasm. In a state with a declining birth rate and an aged population, data from the Diocese of Burlington indicates that conversions among adults are increasing at...

The supposed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has not been seen or heard since his father was killed. Now the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to run both the state and the war.

Daily Readings from the USCCBWhile they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’” Matthew 28:11–13Imagine being one of the Roman guards tasked with keeping watch outside Jesus’ tomb. They likely had little interest in what seemed to them merely a religious dispute between Jesus, the chief priests, and elders....

Here are remarkable new details about the rescue, according to Axios:- The rescued crew member is religious.- The crew member survived more than 24 hours in the mountains while wounded.- 200 soldiers from special operations units participated in the rescue.- The F-15 was shot down with a shoulder-fired missile.- “Thousands of these savages were hunting him down,” Trump said.- The officer hid in a crevice in the mountain and was found thanks to U.S. technology.- The officer said “God is good” after ejecting.- “The two crew members were spread apart by a couple miles. Hundreds of IRGC soldiers were everywhere,”...

Hunkered down in a mountain-top ravine, armed only with a pistol, and with gun-toting tribesmen bearing down on him, the US Airforce colonel probably had slim hopes for his survival.However, after what is being called the 'most daring' Special Forces rescue operation in US history, he is now safely out of Iran.It took hundreds of Special Forces commandos, a CIA drone operation, and some lateral thinking to avert last-minute disaster.Step-by-step, this is how the rescue operation unfolded.

We should not underestimate the prevalence of microplastics. They are everywhere—in our rivers, our lungs, and even in our blood. But researchers tracking this global pollution crisis may have inadvertently contaminated their research samples. The protective lab gloves they wear are shedding microplastic-like particles that tamper with their numbers. The culprit, according to a University of Michigan study, is a soap-like residue used to pop disposable gloves out of factory molds. Even a light, dry touch sheds thousands of these false-positive particles onto lab equipment. Because this residue can produce a very similar vibrational signature to common plastics under a...

Amy Hamm: I've been fired for my gender critical views. But I'm far from cancelled. My public shaming has been ineffective because I value the truth more than my reputation. ...My public shaming has been ineffective because I value the truth more than my reputation. I will continue to speak it, in the company of other brave and sane Canadians who can plainly see that a man is a man—and that to pretend otherwise is a misogynist lie. https://archive.is/l0HUnAmy Hamm's articles.

A series of so-called “wrench attacks,” violent robberies targeting wealthy cryptocurrency holders, are making headlines after victims in Los Angeles and the Bay Area were targeted, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. On Nov. 22, a San Francisco man was robbed of $13 million in digital currency after thieves posing as pizza delivery drivers forced their way into his home, bound him with duct tape, beat him with a firearm and threatened to cut off his fingers. The victim told investigators he had been expecting a package when a man carrying a white box arrived on the front porch of his...

Dive Brief:* Artificial intelligence was the leading cause of U.S. layoffs announced in March, accounting for roughly a quarter of the total, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a report Thursday. * Overall, U.S. employers announced 60,620 job cuts last month, a 25% increase compared with February, the report found. The month’s total included 15,341 layoffs attributed to AI. * “Companies are shifting budgets toward AI investments at the expense of jobs,” Andy Challenger, chief revenue officer at the Chicago-based firm, said in the report. “The actual replacing of roles can be seen in technology companies, where AI...

The story behind the New York Times’ 1903 claim that human flight was between one and ten million years away is even worse than it looks. Once you understand the backstory, you realize that the New York Times story is not really about flight at all but about how elites and credentialed “experts” mistake their own failures for the boundaries of possibility. The New York Times did not dismiss the possibility of powered flight at random. There was a very specific reason behind it. At the time, America’s most prominent scientific authority, Smithsonian Secretary Samuel Langley, had been showered with...

“I drive about 30, 40 miles a day, so I’m looking at $92, almost $100 in gas prices,” Mr. Harvey said. “So I’m like, maybe I should trade in my car and get something electric for the time being.” several brands have reported an uptick in electric vehicle sales in the opening months of 2026. Tesla has reported a modest year-over-year increase in sales, and Hyundai and General Motors’ Cadillac division have also seen electric car sales increase. You didn’t have to go far from the auto show on Saturday to see why drivers are showing a renewed interest in...

President Donald Trump delivered an Easter video message to Christians in the United States and around the world, quoting the Gospel of John and declaring that “evil and wickedness will not prevail.” Describing the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as “the most glorious miracle in all of time,” Trump drew on one of the Bible’s most widely cited verses to anchor his message. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, for whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life,” he said, adding that the words were “beautiful.” Trump said millions of Christians worldwide...