Aum
Gung Ganapathaye Namah
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma-sambuddhassa
Homage to The Blessed One, Accomplished and Fully Enlightened
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Christianity
A Collection of Articles, Notes and
References
References
(Revised:
References Edited by
An
Indian Tantric
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
- William Shakespeare
Copyright © 2002-2010 An
Indian Tantric
The
following educational writings are STRICTLY for academic research purposes
ONLY.
Should
NOT be used for commercial, political or any other purposes.
(The following notes are subject to update
and revision)
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8
"... Freely you received, freely give”.
-
Matthew 10:8 :: New American Standard Bible (NASB)
1 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in
the last days.
2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—
5 having a form of
godliness
but denying
its power. Have nothing to do with
them.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil
desires,
7 always learning but never able to
acknowledge the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the
truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is
concerned, are rejected.
9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those
men, their folly will be
clear to everyone.”
-
2 Timothy 3:1-9 :: New International Version (NIV)
6 As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
-
Hebrews 5:6 :: King James Version (KJV)
Therefore, I say:
Know your enemy and know yourself;
in a hundred battles, you
will never be defeated.
When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself,
your chances of winning or
losing are equal.
If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself,
you are sure to be defeated in
every battle.
-- Sun Tzu, The
Art of War, c.
500bc
There are two ends not to be served by a wanderer.
What are these two? The pursuit of desires and of the pleasure which
springs from desire, which is base, common, leading to rebirth, ignoble, and
unprofitable;
and the
pursuit of pain and hardship, which is grievous, ignoble, and unprofitable.
- The Blessed One, Lord
Buddha
Religion – the opium of the masses
- Anonymous
Contents
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A Brief Word on
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Many of the articles whose educational
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permitted. Provided
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Moreover,
I believe that satisfies the conditions for copyright and non-plagiarism.
References
Some of the links may not be active (de-activated) due to various
reasons, like removal of the concerned information from the source database. So
an educational copy is also provided, along with the link.
If the link is active, do
cross-check/validate/confirm the educational copy of the article provided
along.
References
Damle, Manjiri. (
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=30698841
Goldberg,
Rabbi Hillel. A
powerful voice for faith
http://jewishworldreview.com/people/book.html
Jacobson,
Mark. (Monday.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/trends/columns/cityside/5990/
Jones,
Michael K. Father Zlatko
Sudac.
http://www.medjugorjeusa.org/sudac.htm
The Associated Press. (
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1037076665525
A Brief Word on Celibacy
http://www.monachos.net/monasticism/celibacy.shtml
History of
http://www.st-thomasmount.org/history.html
Our
Patron Saints
http://www.st-thomasmount.org/patron.html
St.Thomas Mount
– Chennai.
http://www.allindiatourtravel.com/hot_spots/chennai/stthomas_mount/
The Indult Tridentine Rite of Mass
http://www.geocities.com/confiteor_deo/latin_masses.html
The
http://www.suscopticdiocese.org/frames/magazine/holyfathers.html
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=22184
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Educational
Copy of Some of the References
FOR
EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY
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Reference
Damle, Manjiri. (
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=30698841
Women
priests bid farewell to pioneer
MANJIRI
DAMLE
TIMES
NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY,
PUNE:
Seventy-five years old Malatibai Joshi is no ordinary
teacher. She belongs to the first and the most elite batch of women purohitas (priestess) in the city.
Trained
by none other than the late Shankarrao Thatte,who opened the doors of priesthood to women in 1975,
Malatibai on Sunday presided over a unique gathering
of over 125 women priests — the last such get-together organised
by her before she prepares for retirement.
All
the purohitas who assembled at the Nrusimha temple in Sadashiv Peth on Sunday, to pay respect to their 'Bai', as she is fondly called, were her students.
In
fact, she has an enviable record of training 700 women in the 35 to 70 age
group, and a handful of men as well, during the past two decades. Chants of Purushasukta', 'Shivamahimna', Rudra', 'Saptashati Paath' and 'Shree Sukta' rented the air under the ever watchful eye of Malatibai.
"This
is our last get-together, although we will continue to study under Bai for some more time. She won't be taking new students
and assignments due to her advanced age," said professor
Arya Bhide, one of her
students. "Bai used to organise
a get-together every year in December, where we used to recite all the stotras' taught by her," she added.
The
get-togethers have followed a set pattern. Each disciple is accorded a warm and
traditional welcome in the morning.
"Our
feet are washed with milk and warm water. Green bangles, a coconut, a piece of
new cloth and a string of flowers are presented to every married woman. Every
batch is asked to recite a particular 'stotra', which
helps Bai to gauge its progress," Bhide said.
There
is no 'stotra' or a ritual that Bai
cannot perform. In fact, such is her command that she was invited to tour the
"During
my tour, I even performed a sahasrachandi yagna for a German scholar who was plagued by certain
problems," said Malatibai. She also taught
Sanskrit pronunciation to German students.
Back
home, Bai is busy conducting classes twice a day from
Wednesday to Saturday. "She is very strict when it comes to pronunciation
and recitation. We have to recite everything and we are not allowed to read
from books," remarks Savita Phalke,
a disciple.
One
only has to listen to the speeches of her students to realise
the kind of respect and love Bai commands.And
there were many a tearful eye in the gathering before the 'students' got busy
planning a celebration to mark Bai's 75th birthday on
January 17.
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Reference
Goldberg,
Rabbi Hillel. A
powerful voice for faith
http://jewishworldreview.com/people/book.html
In
popular culture, "faith" often connotes simplemindedness or suspension of
reason. The pertinent Hebrew terms emunah ("faith in G-d") and bitachon
("trust in G-d") open a different perspective.
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Cross-reference
…an excessive faith is accompanied by corresponding
deficiency of wisdom.
- Francis Story, Animal Magnetism
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Reference
Jacobson,
Mark. (
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/trends/columns/cityside/5990/
(Reference: Jacobson, Mark. (
News
Cityside
Sudac the
Mysterious
The bleeding
markings on the wrists and feet of Croatian priest Zlatko
Sudac have made him an ecclesiastical superstar. He
usually doesn't display them -- but have faith.
By
Mark Jacobson
"Which
one is he?" asked the 70-year-old lady from
"The
one in the purple vestments," said the lady's companion, who was leaning
on a cane. "The one who looks like God."
Truly,
there was no mistaking the singular presence of Father Zlatko
Sudac. He sat in a velvet-covered chair to the right
of the altar. Moments before, the 31-year-old Croatian priest, russet
shoulder-length hair pulled away from his pasty complexion, had spoken of the
unsurpassed joy of devotion, but now his thick brows arched above mournful
brown eyes; everything about his frail frame suggested an otherworldliness of
suffering.
"Can
you see it?" the half-blind woman asked her companion.
"Yes.
On his head . . . I see . . . a notch," replied the second old lady, squinting hard.
This
much was visible: an indentation perhaps an inch long, like a coin slot, in the
middle of Sudac's (pronounced SOO-dots) wide, flat
forehead. It could be the horizontal plane of a cross, which, it is said, Sudac first "received" in May of 1999. This was
followed the next year by bleeding markings on his wrists, feet, and side.
These
were the outward signs that the former philosophy student from the Adriatic
Amid
the church's appalling sexual scandals, news of Sudac's
stigmata has been cause for tentative celebration. The most celebrated stigmatic
since the revered Padre Pio (the Italian priest who
received the wounds of Christ in 1918 and will be officially canonized this
June), Sudac, who came here from
As
church officials say, "No church is big enough for Sudac
now." Two weeks earlier, 300 people, unable to fit inside
Especially now.
It was no surprise God had chosen this particular time, in the neo-apocalyptic
wake of 9/11, to send a messenger like Father Sudac,
said Pat F., a fortyish typist who had driven down
from
"Nine-eleven
changed that," Pat said. Like Oz, 9/11 "punched a hole" in the
cheap curtain. Nine-eleven made it clear that pop culture and "the rest of
what they hand you is not cutting it." Bush's version of "political
good and evil" was just more confusion. The real battle was between God's
truth and men's lies. That was the value of people like Sudac.
Pat said that he showed "a way to see through to the real truth."
The
first known receiver of the mystical stigmata (The
Catholic Encyclopedia cites 321 recognized
cases) was Saint Francis of
Sudac, whose
wounds have been declared "not of human origin" by
Other
marvels Sudac received along with stigmatization
include "gifts of levitation, bilocation, and
knowledge of upcoming events." Of these, bilocation,
the ability to be in two places at once, is particularly
"interesting," Sudac says. "You have
the feeling that you are at one place, but your heart and imagination want to
be somewhere else." The priest says he wouldn't have believed he'd been in
two places at the same time until "some people had come forward and
confirmed it all."One would like to engage Sudac, to discuss why he doesn't bleed to death. Or whether
his wounds smell like roses and tobacco, as Padre Pio's
were said to. But Sudac does not speak English and is
not currently talking to the press.
Nor
does Sudac display the stigmata at his Masses, a fact
that does not seem to bother many of the people on line in the rain outside St.
Athanasius. A young
Sudac would be
speaking the universal language of Saint Francis, Saint John of God, and Saint
Catherine of Siena, and Saint Catherine de' Ricci, and Saint Clare, and Padre Pio, too, Tom said. "Saints from 600 years ago, right
here, down the block from grocery stores and laundromats."
Inside
St. Athanasius, a fifties-modern church devoid of the
medieval ambience the soul-hungry religious tourist might hope for, Sudac is delivering his sermon. The room is silent, aside
from the outbursts of autistic children brought by their parents to be blessed.
Aware of his celebrity, and also of the strong resemblance parishioners often
draw between his looks and traditional depictions of Jesus, Sudac,
speaking in low, controlled tones, never mentions the stigmata. He cautions the
congregation "not to look at the gift, but the Giver." Anyone who has
come to Mass because of him rather than Jesus Christ is "making a very big
mistake," Sudac says.
Standing
beside Sudac, translating the sermon, is Father
Giordano Belanich. The 53-year-old pastor of St.
John's Church in Fairview, New Jersey, Father Gio, as
he is called, left Croatia with his family back during the Tito days, and has
now been asked by church officials there to "look after" Sudac. In addition to his translation duties, Father Gio arranges Sudac's schedule
(for $2,300, you can take a trip to Medjugorje, the
Bosnian-pilgrimage package-tour destination, air and hotel included, which
includes five days with Father Sudac) and compiles
long lists of e-mailed "healing petitions," which he prints out for Sudac to bless en masse. He also drives Sudac
to and from Masses in the
This
takes some planning, due to Sudac's growing
popularity. Sudac's already had to move out of the
rectory house in
"It
was always like that with these mystics," notes Father Gio,
a big man with a stern, down-to-earth manner that gives him the aspect of a
hard-knuckle Karl Malden waterfront priest beside Sudac's
ethereal Robert Bresson character. Saint Francis
could talk to the birds without interruption, but now saints and mystics needed
"spiritual directors," Father Gio said. People with "special gifts" need to be
"kept in line," lest they "fall prey to distraction." This
was very important, Gio
said.
Asked
what sort of fellow Sudac was, on an everyday basis, Gio, who runs Croatian Relief Services, which supplies aid
to his still war-torn homeland, cocks his giant Easter-egg-shaped head and
says, "Oh, I'd say he's pretty normal." Did this mean Sudac liked to put on overalls and operate a forklift
truck, as Gio often did in his Croatian Relief
Services warehouse? Did he like to get out on the lawn and toss around the old
football?
Well,
not exactly, Gio replies. It would be a mistake to
say Father Sudac was "a regular guy . . . even
for a priest. Let's say he spends a lot of time in his room thinking about the
Eucharist," Gio says. But then again, "it
took all kinds to do God's work and fight the devil."
"Don't
look into politics! don't look into ideologies! Don't
look into magics!" Father Sudac
implored, delivering his sermon at St. Athanasius. Father Gio translated with matching
fervor, a mighty, rising call and response. "Don't look into spiritism! Don't look into Santería!
Don't be afraid of sin! There is no sin! Jesus Christ died to banish sin from
this world! Open yourself! Make room in your heart. Then he will come in there
in those places. He will come real fast!"
Then,
growing quiet, Sudac began to talk about himself.
"You've heard of me, you know who I am," he said plaintively. "I
am a young priest. Only 31. But I am not so young not
to see that many crazy things go on in this world. Things
beyond explaining. Does it matter if I am a saint? I don't think so.
Only Jesus matters."
With
that, Sudac slumped down into the thronelike
velvet chair to the right of the altar. For a moment, there was a hush in the
room as Sudac, seemingly spent, took a Kleenex from
his vestments and wiped his eyes. "He's crying," said a young girl.
Several flash cameras went off. Visibly angry, Father Gio,
who had asked people not to take pictures, yelled, "This is not a show,
not a circus!"
But
it isn't every day you hear a Mass given by a stigmatic. You never know what
might turn up on a photo. Last year, someone took a picture of Sudac in
At
St. Athanasius, however, it was possible to discard
rationality, even skepticism. It was possible to stop, for a moment, trying to
spy up his sleeves to see if he really had bandages blotted red by
"blazing rays of blood." Because whatever anyone else thought,
including yourself, you knew he believed it.
A few
minutes later, Sudac was peering intently into the monstrance,
host of the body of Christ. Holding the vessel inches from his face, Sudac walked through the church, blessing the faithful. As
promised, he went out into the rainy night, across
"Father!
Father! . . . Him! Our brother! Bless him!" the men screamed at the
passing Sudac, indicating the teenage boy in the
chair. The boy was crippled, his dense black eyes crossed. The boy had had
"a stroke . . . since birth," the men declared. One reached over the
police line and grabbed Sudac's garment.
"You
have the stigmos!" the man yelled. "Bless him. We are Greek!
Bless him! He has always been like this! Please, Father."
Sudac turned
and, Eucharist in front of his face, bowed once, turned both left and right,
and walked on. Immediately, the men, now crying, began kissing the boy in the
chair. "He blessed you," they shouted. "Now you have hope."
One
of the men sprinted after Sudac, again reaching for
his garment. Falling to his knees, the man said, "Bless you, Father. Bless you!" Sudac turned toward the man. For a moment, it seemed as if
he might smile, even say "thank you." But Father Sudac,
afflicted with the wounds of Christ, kept walking, into the night.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Links:
Archive:
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Back
to: The News Section
From
the
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Personal
Note
People
with "special gifts" need to be "kept in line," lest they
"fall prey to distraction." This was very important
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Reference
Jones,
Michael K. Father Zlatko
Sudac.
http://www.medjugorjeusa.org/sudac.htm
Ordained
A
priest born in the Diocese of Krk, Father recalls
having visited Medjugorje in the Diocese of Mostar, as a child. Receiving the
stigmata (wounds of Christ), on May 1999,
Father Sudac accounts the events.
"When
I speak about all of those events which took place then, I speak with a tremendous fear of the Lord because I myself experienced how it all surpasses my
very self. When the people ask me, what I think of all of these happenings, I
tell them that I do not know what is
happening with me. It is the work of the Lord
which I have not fully discovered. The word of God states that we will be known by our fruits. When the people attend my Mass of seminars they
experience God. This experience changes
their lives and brings them closer to God. If those in conflict reconcile with
one another, throw out all their filth before God, and seek His face, then this
becomes the fruit to which we must turn our attention. Don't put your eyes on
me, but if you fix your eyes
on Jesus then
you will be blessed. Our focus is on the giver, not on the gift. I walk in Jesus' shoes and it is up to Him to do what He wants to do. God always comes to those people who are sincerely
seeking His Face. My only desire is to serve
Him to the best of my ability and if the individuals are healed, they are healed because
God healed them, not I. I may be an instrument, but He is the healer.
The
Cross on my forehead is painful especially when I pray. On certain days such as first Fridays of the month it
begins to bleed. Before the phenomenon of
stigmatization, I had gifts of languages (speaking in tongues), the gift of
healing, the gift of counsel and slowly the gift of
knowledge came also. After the stigmatization I receive many other gifts. Some
of these gifts overwhelmed me very much. And so I
need some time to get accustomed to what was happening. By this, I refer especially to the gift of levitation, bilocation, illumination and the knowledge of upcoming events-
the knowledge about the near future and especially about future dangers".
The
gifts of stigmata, healing, bilocation, prophecy,
etc. are a curious happening, the likes of which we have heard about throughout
History. There is no humanistic explanation to understand it. The famed Padre Pio was also known to have some of these gifts. It was said
that the blood that flowed from Padre Pio's Christ like wounds, smelled like roses. In the Church
approved apparition in
The
few special people listed here are just a few of the saintly people who have
accepted the invitations of God throughout History. They are all without question
as Father Sudac said himself, "Seeking the face of God", as should we all.
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Reference
The Associated Press. (
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1037076665525
Archeologists
find inscription linking monastery to Georgian community
By
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israeli
archeologists puzzling over who inhabited a
small Byzantine monastery have found an inscription in an underground crypt linking the church
to a group of Georgian monks, only the third
such find in Jerusalem.
A
grave at the far end of the crypt had been covered by a stone with an
inscription in an ancient Georgian script, a clue that could help researchers put together a
clearer picture of the small Georgian
community in ancient Jerusalem, said Jon
Seligman, of Israel's Antiquities Authority.
It's
a rare find, Seligman said, because the Georgians formed a small community in
The
inscription, the only one found in the crypt, reads, "Bishop Ioane of
"We
have yet to fully understand who he is," Seligman said. Researchers at
The
burial chamber was discovered earlier this month when a construction crew began
work on a home in the southeast
The
crypt is part of a monastery complex, a chapel with mosaic-tiled floors and a
few cisterns, that was discovered in 1996
and which researchers first believed had belonged to Greek Christians.
"This
gives a clearer picture of life in
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Reference
A Brief Word on Celibacy
http://www.monachos.net/monasticism/celibacy.shtml
God's gifts are not to be 'rated'. All are holy blessings.
How striking to our expectations that some of the most poignant phrases ever composed in support of and love for the married way,
have come from the pens
of celibate monks, nuns and Apostles.
Cross-reference
Voltaire
(Reference: Voltaire. Alphabet of Wit.
The celibate man may live without a wife, but he possesses the great
gift of being wed solely to Christ, of having none for the object of his
intimate love than his own Creator. She who lives in celibate devotion to God
vests herself in the same manner of life embraced by the Son who walked on this
earth with neither spouse nor mate, yet wed Himself to all the world as the
perfect Bridegroom for a waiting bride.
Due to the unsearchable wisdom and love of
God, he is called to a type of journey into the Kingdom that is more socially
solitary -- but he is
never alone. The
celibate, too, believes that 'it is not good for man to be alone'; but let us
not be so naive and closed-minded as to think that
marriage is the only way to be 'together'. The celibate joins himself to the
world in a relationship of no single intimate union with another, that through
his one union with Christ, and through Him the Spirit and the Father, he may be
lover and companion to all.
Society may be eager to decry the celibate way as one in which the individual 'misses out' on
the fullness of life attainable in marriage, but in so doing, our modern world only shows more clearly its failure to understand the nature of the
gifts of God as effective personal realities. The richness, the wholeness and the completeness of life do not come
from the adherence to any social or relational model: they come from personal union with God. Such union is always and only available to man through the gifts given
him by our precious and loving Lord; and so individual
fullness comes from realising, embracing and
fostering within us the gifts we, and not any other, have received.
Not to embrace the gift is to wage battle with God, who knows better than man what life is
most suited to him. And this
same concept is equally true of him who has received the gift of celibacy: only in the gift's embrace will such a
person ever truly know the richness and fullness of life as God has set it
before him. No other
way shall ever satisfy the longing in his heart, even if that other way is that
which brings fulfilment and union to a hundred
million others. It is not his way. To live a celibate life is, for the one who has received this gift, the
context of his journey into union with God.
Let us never succumb to societal pressures that would have us walk one
way or another based upon the comforts and preferences of a troubled world.
May our societally-induced 'preferences'
never cause us to scorn our gift through longing for another. May God give to us the patience and the
openness to discern which gift we have been given; and when we have found it, to follow Him in that
gift. If we are thus faithful to Him and Him alone, surely our wise Lord will bless our lives
with richness beyond imagining and fullness beyond expectation; for He is a good and loving God who knows and
desires what is best for His children.
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Reference
History of
http://www.st-thomasmount.org/history.html
…
Arrival
in
No detailed
account work of his work has come down to us. At this point we quote the
…
Martyrdom
Only
the brief narrative of his death has come down to us. The hoary tradition is that Apostle St. Thomas in
imitation of what Our Lord did, used to often retire
to the Hill at night for prayer and meditation after the day's work and that he finally met with martyrdom there. The South
Indian tradition says that it was the Brahmins who rose against Thomas. While
the tradition represents him as slain by the thrust of a single lance; another
account is that four soldiers pierced him with their lances.
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Reference
Our
Patron Saints
http://www.st-thomasmount.org/patron.html
1st century;
declared apostle of
Thomas
was probably born in
Thomas
is remembered for his doubt that Christ had actually risen from the dead, and
he said to the apostles, "Unless I see
the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger into the nailmarks, and put my hand into His side, I will not
believe" (Luke 20:25).
Eight
days later, Christ appeared to him and said, "Put
your finger here, and see my hands; and bring your hand and put it into my
side. And be not faithless, but believing."
Thomas fell at His feet, saying, "My Lord and my God!" and Jesus
replied, "Because you have seen me,
Thomas, you believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet
believe" (Luke
Lest
we condemn poor Thomas for his lack of belief, consider that he was a man who
relentlessly sought the Truth. Like an inquisitive child, he constantly asked
questions. Earlier, when Jesus told his
disciples, "I go to prepare a place for
you. And I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may also be. And you know the way where I'm going."
At
this Thomas, puzzled, but bold enough to ask his Lord to explain, said, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can
we know the way?"
Jesus
replied, "I am the way, the truth, and
the life; no one comes to the Father, except through me. If you had known me,
you would have known my Father also. Henceforth, you know him and have seen
him" (John 14:3-7).
When the worried disciples wanted to keep Jesus from
going to raise Lazarus from the dead because "the
Jews want to stone you and you leave yourself open to them!" Thomas responded, "Let
us go also, that we may die with him!" (John 11:16).
Accounts
of Thomas's missionary activities are unreliable, but the most widely accepted
account holds that he preached in
Christ
then appeared to the merchant Habban and sold Thomas
to him as a slave for his master, a king who ruled over part of
At
the court in
When
the king returned, he imprisoned him,
intending to flay him alive. At that point,
the king's brother died, and when the brother was shown the place in heaven
that Thomas's good works had prepared for the king, he was allowed to return to
earth and offer to buy the spot from the king for himself. The king refused,
released Thomas, and was converted by him.
There
exists a population of Christians along the
It is
certainly possible that Thomas reached
The
larger part of his relics appears to have been in
The
theme of the long, 3rd or 4th century Acta Thomae is the missionary efforts of
Nevertheless,
the doubting Thomas managed to quiet the doubts of many others during his
missionary journeys. He answered the questions of others with the childlike,
loving heart trained by Christ. The Indians
celebrate Thomas's death natale on July 1 (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Brown, Delaney,
Encyclopedia (December), White).
There
are several other apocryphal works concerning or attributed to
1.
The Gospel of Thomas
2.
Consummation of Thomas the Apostle
In
art,
1.
with a lance or, occasionally a sword or dagger;
2. touching Christ's wounded side;
3. catching the girdle dropped by the Virgin at her Assumption;
or
4. casting out the devil from an Indian king's daughter
(Roeder). White says that Thomas is portrayed as an elderly man, holding a
lance or pierced by one; or kneeling before Jesus; or with a T- square (White).
St.
PATRICK
Born
in
"I
bind to myself today
The
strong virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with his Baptism,
The
virtue of His Crucifixion with his burial,
The
virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
The virtue of His coming on the Judgment Day.
I
bind to myself today
The
virtue of the love of the seraphim,
In the
obedience of angels,
In
the hope of resurrection unto reward,
In
prayers of Patriarchs,
In
predictions of Prophets,
In
preaching of Apostles,
In
faith of Confessors,
In
purity of holy Virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
I
bind to myself today
The
power of Heaven,
The
light of the sun,
The
brightness of the moon,
The
splendor of fire,
The
flashing of lightning,
The
swiftness of wind,
The
depth of the sea,
The
stability of the earth,
The compactness of rocks.
I
bind to myself today
God's
power to guide me,
God's
might to uphold me,
God's
wisdom to teach me,
God's
eye to watch over me,
God's
ear to hear me,
God's
word to give me speech,
God's
hand to guide me,
God's
way to lie before me,
God's
shield to shelter me,
God's
host to secure me,
Against
the snares of demons,
Against
the seductions of vices,
Against
the lusts of nature,
Against
everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether
far or near, Whether few or many.
I
invoke today all these virtues
Against
every hostile, merciless power Which may assail my
body and my soul,
Against
the incantations of false prophets,
Against
the black laws of heathenism,
Against
the false laws of heresy,
Against
the deceits of idolatry,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man and woman.
Christ,
protect me today
Against
poison,
Against
burning,
Against
drowning,
Against
death-wound,
That I may receive abundant reward.
Christ be with me,
Christ be before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ be with me,
Christ beside me,
Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ at my right,
Christ at my left,
Christ be in the fort,
Christ be in the chariot,
Christ be in the ship,
Christ in quiet,
Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I
bind to myself today
The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity.
I
believe the Trinity in the Unity, The Creator of the
Universe. Amen."
--Saint Patrick's Breastplate or Faeth
Fiadha (deer's cry).
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Cross-reference
This Brahman, is the embodiment
of immortality, is in the front, He is behind, He is to the left and to the
right. He is above as well as below. He has pervaded and permeated the whole
universe. This supremely Excellent Brahman is all this.
- Mundaka
Upanishad
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Note
that there are several different versions of this prayer, which is alleged to
be the invocation that led Patrick and his party safely to the confrontation
with the Druids at
"I
was like a stone lying in the deep mire; and He that is mighty came, and in His
mercy lifted me up, and verily raised me aloft and placed me on the top of the
wall." --Saint Patrick
The
historical Patrick is much more attractive than the Patrick of legend. It is
unclear exactly where Patricius Magonus
Sucatus (Patrick) was born--somewhere in the west
between the mouth of the
About
405, when Patrick was in his teens (14-16), he was captured by Irish raiders
and became a slave in
He
ran away from his owner and travelled 200 miles to
the coast. His initial request for free passage on a ship was turned down, but
he prayed, and the sailors called him back. The ship on which he escaped was
taking dogs to
He
received some kind of training for the priesthood in either
The cultus of Patrick began in
Patrick's
cultus there reverts to the legend of Les Fleurs de St- Patrice which relates that Patrick was sent
from the abbey to preach the Gospel in the area of Bréhémont-sur-Loire.
He went fishing one day and had a tremendous catch. The local fishermen were
upset and forced him to flee. He reached a shelter on the north bank where he
slept under a blackthorn bush. When he awoke the bush was covered with flowers.
Because this was Christmas day, the incident was considered a miracle, which
recurred each Christmas until the bush was destroyed in World War I. The
phenomenon was evaluated many times and verified by various observers,
including official organizations. His is now the patron of the fishermen on the
It is
said that in visions he heard voices in the wood of Focault or that
he dreamed of
In
his Confession Patrick writes: "It was
not my grace, but God who overcometh in me, so that I
came to the heathen Irish to preach the Gospel . . . to a people newly come to belief
which the Lord took from the ends of the earth." Saint Germanus consecrated him
bishop about 432, and sent him to Ireland to succeed Saint Palladius,
the first bishop, who had died earlier that year. There was some opposition to
Patrick's appointment, probably from
He
set up his see at
There
is no reliable account of his work in
At
He
converted the king's daughters (a tale I've recounted under the entry for
Saints Ethenea and Fidelmia.
He threw down the idol of Crom Cruach
in Leitrim. Patrick
wrote that he daily expected to be violently killed or enslaved again.
He
gathered many followers, including Saint Benignus, who would become his successor. That was one of his chief concerns,
as it always is for the missionary Church: the
raising up of native clergy.
He
wrote: "It was most needful that we
should spread our nets, so that a great multitude and a throng should be taken
for God. Most needful that everywhere there should be clergy to baptize and
exhort a people poor and needy, as the Lord in the Gospel warns and teaches,
saying: Go ye therefore now, and teach all nations. And again: Go ye therefore
into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature. And again: This
Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to
all nations."
In
his writings and preaching, Patrick revealed a scale of values. He was chiefly concerned with abolishing paganism,
idolatry, and sun-worship. He made no
distinction of classes in his preaching and was himself ready for imprisonment or death for following Christ. In his use of Scripture and
eschatological expectations, he was typical of the 5th-century bishop. One of the traits which he retained as an old man was a
consciousness of his being an unlearned
exile and former
slave and fugitive, who learned to trust God
completely.
There
was some contact with the pope. He visited
His
writings show what solid doctrine he must have taught his listeners. His Confession (his
autobiography, perhaps written as an apology
against his detractors), the Lorica (or Breastplate),
and the "Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus,"
protesting British slave trading and the slaughter of a group of Irish
Christians by Coroticus's raiding Christian Welshmen,
are the first surely identified literature of the British or Celtic Church.
What
stands out in his writings is Patrick's sense of being called by God to the
work he had undertaken, and his determination and modesty in carrying it out: "I, Patrick, a sinner, am the most ignorant and of least account among
the faithful, despised by many. . . . I owe
it to God's grace that so many people should through me be born again to
him."
Towards
the end of his life, Patrick made that 'retreat'
of forty days on Cruachan
Aigli in Mayo from which the age-long Croagh Patrick pilgrimage derives. Patrick may have died at
Saul on Strangford Lough, Downpatrick, where he had built his first church.
The
high veneration in which the Irish hold Patrick is evidenced by the common
salutation, "May God, Mary, and Patrick
bless you." His name occurs widely in
prayers and blessings throughout
Most
unusual is Well of Saint Patrick at Orvieto, Italy,
which was built at the order of Pope Clement VII in 1537 to provide water for
the city during its periodic sieges. The connection with Saint Patrick comes
from the fact that the project was completed and dedicated by a member of the Sangallo family, a name derived from the Irish Saint Gall.
A common Italian proverb refers to this exceptionally deep (248 steps to the
surface) well: liberal spenders are said to have pockets as deep as the Well of
Patrick (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Bieler, Bury, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer, MacNeill, Montague, White).
We
are told that often Patrick baptized
hundreds on a single day. He would come to a
place, a crowd would gather, and when he told them about the true God, the
people would cry out from all sides that they wanted to become Christians. Then
they would move to the nearest water to be baptized.
On
such a day Aengus, a prince of
As
you know, the bishop's crozier often has a spike at
the bottom end, probably to allow the bishop to set it into the ground to free
his hands. So, when Patrick fumbled searching for the right spot in the book so
that he could baptize Aengus, he absent-mindedly
stuck his crosier into the ground just beside him--and accidentally through the
foot of poor Aengus!
Patrick,
concentrating on the sacrament, never noticed what he had done and proceeded
with the baptism. The prince never cried out, nor moaned; he simply went very
white. Patrick poured water over his bowed head at the simple words of the
rite. Then it was completed. Aengus was a Christian.
Patrick turned to take up his crozier and was
horrified to find that he had driven it through the prince's foot!
"But
why didn't you say something? This is terrible. Your foot is bleeding and
you'll be lame. . . ." Poor Patrick was very unhappy to have hurt another.
Then Aengus said in a low voice that he thought having a spike
driven through his foot was part of the ceremony. He added something that must
have brought joy to the whole court of heaven and blessings on
"Christ,"
he said slowly, "shed His blood for me, and I am glad to suffer a little
pain at baptism to be like Our Lord" (Curtayne).
In
art, Saint Patrick is represented as a Bishop driving snakes before him or
trampling upon them. At times he may be shown
1. preaching with a serpent around the foot of his pastoral
staff;
2. holding a shamrock;
3. with a fire before him; or
4. with a pen and book, devils at his feet, and seraphim
above him (Roeder, White).
He is
patron of
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Reference
St.Thomas Mount
– Chennai.
http://www.allindiatourtravel.com/hot_spots/chennai/stthomas_mount/
About
St.Thomas Mount
Situated
near the Airport, the small hillock is believed to be the place where his
assassins killed the apostle. The paintings of "The Holy Lady and The Child" in the church and "Our Lady of
Expectations" are widely believed to have been painted by St.Thomas himself. Close to the seashore, the impressive
Basilica is built over the tomb of St. Thomas containing in it's crypt a small
hand bone of the Apostle and the head of a lance which is said to have been
used in the attack on him.
The
Legendary Mount
Between
the 14th and 15th centuries, the beach church fell to
ruins and in 1522 the Portuguese moved the Apostle's remains to a new tomb and
built a new church, which was given the status of a cathedral in 1606. However,
in 1893 this church was also demolished and the present Gothic-style cathedral
was built and consecrated in 1896. In 1956, this cathedral was elevated to the
status of a Basilica as a fitting tribute to the martyred
Do
you know?
A
number of places in Chennai are linked with
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Reference
The Indult Tridentine Rite of Mass
http://www.geocities.com/confiteor_deo/latin_masses.html
There was much debate within the Church that caused great divisions among
Catholics that lasts even to this day, over thirty-five years after
(Reference: The Indult Tridentine Rite of Mass.)
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Reference
The
http://www.suscopticdiocese.org/frames/magazine/holyfathers.html
THE
Photo
Fresco
of Annunciation & Nativity
The
Monastery of the Holy Virgin and
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
THE
Ever
mindful of the historical impact of these ancient and great writings and the
holy fathers whose spiritual examples until today give light unto our paths,
let us continue on our journey through the PARADISE OF THE HOLY FATHERS. An earthly paradise found only
in the dry and thirsty desert…………
The
History of Dorotheos of
……And
whose life was one of spiritual excellence, and who had lived in a cave for
sixty years. And he commanded me to live with him, and to lead a life of self-denial with him for a
period of three years, so that the passions of the flesh might leave me.
For the blessed Isidore
knew that blessed old man, and he knew that his life was stern and severe, and
he admonished me saying, "When thou hast completed this period of three
years, return unto me for the remainder of the doctrine of spiritual
knowledge." But I was unable to fulfill
these three years with him, on account of a severe illness into which I fell,
and so I departed from Dorotheos before the end of
the period, and I returned to him that had brought me out, and entered his
abode that I might learn the doctrine of the spirit.
Now
the life of Dorotheos was one of exceedingly hard
toil, and the manner thereof was severe, and his food was meager and wretched, for he lived on dry
bread. And he used to go round about the desert by the side of the sea
the whole day long in the heat of the noonday sun and collect stones with which
he built cells, which he gave to brethren which were unable to build cells for
themselves; and he used to finish one cell each year. One day I said unto the
holy man, "Father, why workest thou thus in thine old age? For thou wilt kill
thy body in all this heat." And he said unto me, "I kill it lest it should kill me."
He used to eat one small bread cake, which
weighed about six ounces, each day, and a little bundle of green herbs; and he
drank water by measure. What then? I know
not. As God is my witness, I never saw this
man stretch out his legs and lie down as men usually do; and he never slept
upon a bed of palm leaves, or upon anything else, but he used to work the whole night long weaving baskets
made of palm leaves to provide himself with the daily bread which he required
and food. Now I imagined at first that he
used to work in this manner because I was present, and then I thought,
"Peradventure it is only for my sake, and to show me how to perform such
severe labours, that he doeth this. So I made
enquiries of many of those who had been his disciples and who were then living
by themselves and were emulating his
spiritual excellencies, and I also asked
others of his disciples who were living by his side if in very truth he always laboured in this wise, and they said unto me, "He hath held unto this practice from his youth up,
and he hath never been in the habit of sleeping according to what is right. In
the daytime he never sleepeth willingly, but
sometimes when he is working with his hands, or when he is eating, he closeth his eyes and is snatched away by slumber. As he sitteth working he is eateth, and
unless slumber overcame him suddenly he would never sleep at all. Many and many a time he is overcome by slumber while he is eating,
and the morsel of bread falleth out of his mouth
because he is overcome with drowsiness." And when from time to time I used to urge him to sit
down, or to throw himself upon a mat of palm leaves and to rest a little, he
would answer and say unto me in a grieved manner, "If thou art able to persuade "the angels to
sleep, then thou wilt be able to persuade me."
One
day, towards the ninth hour, Dorotheos sent me to the
fountain from which he drank water to fetch him some water, so that he might
eat his meal, for he used to eat about this time, and when I had gone there I chanced to
see a viper going down the well; and because of my fear I was unable to fill
the pitcher with water, and I went back to him, and said unto him, "O,
father, we shall die, for I have seen a viper going down into the water."
Now when he heard these words he laughed reverently, and constrained himself,
and he lifted up his face and looked at me not a little time, and he shook his
head, and said unto me, "If it were to
happen that Satan had the power to show thee in every fountain an asp, or again
to cast into them vipers or serpents or tortoises, or any other kinds of
venomous reptiles, wouldst thou be able to do without drinking water
entirely?" And when he had said these
words unto me, he went forth and departed to the fountain and drew water, and
brought it back and having made the sign of the Cross over it he straightway
drank there from before he ate anything. And he constrained me to drink and
said unto me, "Where the sign of the
Cross is, the wickedness of Satan hath no power to do harm."
And
this blessed man Isidore, the overseer of the
hospital in Alexandria, related unto me the story of Dorotheos,
which is worthy of record, and he heard it from the blessed Anthony where he
lived with him in the desert in the days of Emperor Maximinus,
the prosecutor.
In
the next issue we will learn of the exceedingly beautiful young virgin called Potamiaena….
May
the blessings of the triumphant holy fathers Isidore
and Dorotheos be with us all and may we keep their example of spiritual excellence always before us.
The
Editor
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Reference
http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=22184
…
In Persona Christi - living their lives in imitation of Christ.
…
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http://in.geocities.com/anindiantantric/christianity.html
Published on internet:
Revised: Tuesday, January 11, 2005
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“Thou belongest to That Which Is Undying, and not
merely to time alone,” murmured the
Sphinx, breaking its muteness
at last. “Thou
art eternal,
and not
merely of the vanishing flesh. The
soul in man cannot be killed, cannot
die. It waits,
shroud-wrapped, in thy heart, as I waited, sand-wrapped, in thy world. Know thyself, O mortal! For there is
One within thee, as in all men, that
comes and stands at the bar and bears witness that there IS a God!”
(Reference: Brunton, Paul. (1962) A
Search in Secret
Amen