As Israel Falls Will Christians Allow Jerusalem to Fall as Well?

We learn that Ireland, Norway and Spain yesterday moved in support of a Palestine state. While this news barely registered on the meter here in the States, Hamas was dancing in the street with new vigor as they acquire new BFFs. Iran was not far behind with new calls for Israel’s destruction. Columbia, wanting to get into the action announced that a new embassy would be established in Ramallah located on the West Bank of Palestine.

The announcement was made hours after Spain, Ireland and Norway said they would recognize a Palestinian state, and weeks after Petro announced that Colombia would break diplomatic relations with Israel over its actions in Gaza. (Source)

Many choose to see these developments as “symbolic.” Yet 140 of 190 countries the UN represents now recognize Palestine.

The ICC prosector has a novel idea. Arrest both sides.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he disagrees with arrest warrants sought against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), suggesting that U.S. leaders could be next.

The ICC this week said it would seek arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the Hamas leaders, prompting criticism from both Israeli and top U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden. The ICC claimed that the warrants for the Israeli leadership were over the country’s conduct in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

Mr. Netanyahu said the warrants against himself and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the country’s conduct in its fight against Hamas in the Gaza Strip set a “dangerous” precedent for other democratic countries, including Israel’s allies.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor seeks arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders | DW News

Barreling along the downward path of Israel’s destruction, a new video by Project Veritas got the inside scoop with a “gotcha” with a Biden NSC Advisor by the name of Waters giving a “tell” with what most of us had already figured. Yesterday’s post told the tale.

• Biden NSC Advisor – ‘We Can’t Go Against Israel Until After the Election ‘ Project Veritas Strikes -UPDATE

….Waters discusses internal White House deliberations about the ongoing conflict in Gaza and admits that “if Biden won again he could be much more forthright about saying ‘No’ [to Israel],” stating that the administration would have more freedom to tell Israel ‘you’re not going to continue to lie, and bomb, and kill all these kids without facing serious consequences.’”

Now that we got that cleared up, here is a clip I updated later to yesterday’s post.

When Israel falls, Jerusalem falls as well. The foundation of all that is Holy to Christians will be destroyed. Any remnant or reminder of Jesus will be no more. End times indeed. Will the Knights Templar rise again?

Where are they?

The enemy is at the gate, they lay siege to our walls, yet no one answers the call to arms!! Where are the Knights, why are they not suited up for the great battle? Are they asleep?

Who will slay this beast if not the Templars? The angels are sounding the trumpets, are the sounds of them muffled? This enemy is familiar, we have fought them before, in histories past, come brethren, take up your cross, and fight for God, and the Saints, the beast has reared his ugly head once again!! Come, my brethren!

Take courage and stand beneath our banner! The darkness closes in, and we are the only true defenders of the Light! March to victory and arise triumphant!

March Of The Templars ~ Music Video ~ English & Latin Subtitles ~ Deus Vult 

Merry Christmas!

 

Wishing everyone a wonderful Merry Christmas!  Here is one of my favorites…

Pentatonix – Mary, Did You Know? 

 

 

Have a wonderful day.

The Winter Solstice – We Remain Waiting..

Today, December 21, we are given a gift, the return of longer days with the celebration of the Winter Solstice. Soon to follow we celebrate the gift of Jesus and his wonderful light.

Many of our customs today have a basis in those early traditions including Yule logs, mistletoe and Christmas trees – having their roots in the pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice.

Long before the birth of Christ, our stone age ancestors had their own theologies.  They were dependent upon the seasons. As such, they followed the wheel of the year. How anxious they must have been as the days kept growing shorter and wondering if the sun would again return, reborn, gifting longer days once more.

This is Advent  — when, as sleepers, we awaken to our own light of love, deep within us, waiting to be reborn again.

Lindsey Mead speaks to the nascent light of her own inner longing as Solstice approached, and offers a meditation by author Meg Casey that captures the hushed beauty of December here

December is a holy month. Maybe it is the dark, silky silence that descends so early that speaks to me of reverence. Maybe it is the promise that December holds — that no matter how dark, how cold, how empty it can get, the light is coming back. Something always shifts in me when December arrives — I embrace the darkness, and am eager for the coming solstice when the whole world is still and holds its breath, waiting to be reborn again.

What a not-to-be-missed treasure the natural season of Advent can be then, when the “nascent light” inside each of us can turn to, and answer, the promises of light surrounding us everywhere in the December dark — the whisper of candlelight from darkened windows, the blue-black light of dusk against the silhouetted trees of winter.

Soon we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We also experience the return of the sun after the darkest night.

At the Winter Solstice we reach the depth of that darkness with the longest night of the year. Darkness has reached its peak.

“Now we start to wonder: will this continue? Will the Earth grow darker and colder as the Sun disappears into the south until only darkness is left? But at Yule a wonderful thing happens. The Sun stops its decline and for a few days it rises in about the same place. This is the crucial time, the cusp between events. The Sun stands still, and everyone waits for the turning.”

In our heads we know the light will return. But in the darkness of Winter, can we be sure? Do our hearts believe what our heads tell us? Will the light keep its promises? We all have moments of darkness, when we don’t know how much deeper we will go before the light starts to return (or even if it will). The Mother earth has moments too; understanding us, and lives as we do.

The Sun does start north again and the light comes back. In the world, in our lives, the light comes back. This is indeed something worth celebrating.

More here

Taryn Harbridge created and performed in this video as part of her music ministry with a medley of Christmas music that I think reflects this pensive mood as we remain waiting……. 

I suggest watching it in full screen.

 

 

What if we could see the Solstice and the Sun/Son as “the light of the world” as did the ancients for thousands of years before us.

It’s a beautiful video that captures the essence of the season perfectly. Enya singing Silent Night in Gaelic in the background, setting the mood.

So Mote It Be….

Walter Reed Medical Center Terminates Catholic Services Contract Beginning Holy Week

Just when you think this administration cannot step one step lower they manage to achieve it. Anything to destroy the morale of our service members. In this case, they pick the very beginning of Holy Week, ending services on March 31. This for the vulnerable and need for spiritual care very likely in the military.

WASHINGTON, DC – Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has issued a “cease and desist order” to Holy Name College, a community of Franciscan Catholic priests and brothers, who have provided pastoral care to service members and veterans at Walter Reed for nearly two decades.

The government’s cease and desist order directed the Catholic priests to cease any religious services at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. This order was issued as Catholics entered Holy Week, the most sacred of days in the Christian faith, in which they participate in liturgies remembering Jesus’ passion, and leading the Church to celebrate the Resurrection on Easter morning.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio (center) celebrates Ash Wednesday Mass at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, on March 2, 2022.

The Franciscans’ contract for Catholic Pastoral Care was terminated on March 31, 2023, and awarded to a secular defense contracting firm that cannot fulfill the statement of work in the contract. As a result, adequate pastoral care is not available for service members and veterans in the United States’ largest Defense Health Agency medical center either during Holy Week or beyond. There is one Catholic Army chaplain assigned to Walter Reed Medical Center, but he is in the process of separating from the Army.

……

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is one of many medical centers within the Department of Defense and Defense Health Agency whose pastoral care lies within AMS jurisdiction. The refusal to provide adequate pastoral care while awarding a contract for Catholic ministry to a for-profit company that has no way of providing Catholic priests to the medical center is a glaring violation of service members’ and veterans’ Right to the Free Exercise of Religion. Especially, during Holy Week, the lack of adequate Catholic pastoral care causes untold and irreparable harm to Catholics who are hospitalized and therefore a captive population whose religious rights the government has a constitutional duty to provide for and protect.

Read more

How we got here?

Pentagon Chaplain Nominee? Called Christians with ‘Twisted Policies’

Bunkerville December 28, 2022 

One can only wonder how Brenda Sue Fulton with such extreme viewpoints was ever nominated to oversee the Pentagon’s chaplain program. What qualifies someone to move from the New Jersey DMV to overseeing chaplains? About the same as Kamala Harris.

Maundy Thursday – Jesus Asks ‘Stay with me’

A day of reflection. Jesus implores his disciples to stay with him. To keep watch with him.

The night of Maundy Thursday is the night on which Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus Prays at Gethsemane

Stay With Me-Taize.

Jesus Prays at Gethsemane
(Mark 14:32-42; Luke 22:39-46)

36At that time Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He told them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

37He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. 38Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”

39Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”

40Then Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. “Were you not able to keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asked Peter. 41“Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

42A second time He went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, may Your will be done.” 43And again Jesus returned and found them sleeping—for their eyes were heavy.

44So He left them and went away once more and prayed a third time, saying the same thing.45Then He returned to the disciples and said, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us go! See, My betrayer is approaching!”

For an opportunity to experience a Moravian Church service and Passion week readings via zoom and YouTube, here is the front page for Home Moravian Church.

Moravian Passion Week: Holy Days. Holy Week and Easter Sunrise services