±© Flipper Mike ®³ wrote:
Perkoff.net wrote:
…and is in the Guinness World Record Book.
….and she also had the biggest jerkoff for a son! lol
Bible Verse
— Psalm 100 —
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
———————————————————— ——————– On your feet now — applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourself into his presence.
Know this: GOD is God, and God, GOD.
He made us, we didn’t make him.
We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.
Enter with the password: "Thank you!"
Make yourself at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
For GOD is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.
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November 25th – Catherine of Alexandria, martyr
St. Catherine, virgin and martyr, is honored in both the Western and Eastern churches on November 25, the traditional date of her martyrdom in Alexandria, Egypt.
The usual account of Catherine’s life and death represents her as beautiful, of noble birth, and of high intelligence. When the Roman Emperor Maximus was persecuting Christians, this 18-year-old woman is said to have rebuked him for his cruelty and attempted to prove to him the folly of worshipping false gods. Maximus called in some leading pagan scholars to refute her, hoping that they would induce her to apostatize. But the little saint stood her ground so well that even some of the emperor’s scholars were converted to Christianity.
Furious over his failure, the emperor then had the young woman scourged
and imprisoned. His wife, the empress, fascinated by what she had heard of Catherine, went in the company of the emperor’s generalissimo to visit her in jail. The empress and general were also converted to Christianity by her words. Maximus therefore ordered that Catherine be tortured to death on a spike-studded wheel. At her mere touch, the deadly wheel fell apart, so the ruler had her beheaded. Her body was transported (by angels, says the legend) to Mount Sinai in Arabia. There in 527 Greek monks built the monastery of St. Catherine, which is still functioning.
Another statement made in the legend of St. Catherine is that before her death she had already reached the heights of contemplation, and in a vision of Mary and the Christchild had received the grace of being accepted by Him as His mystical spouse.
Now, even the brief sketch I have just given has a very legendary ring. As a matter of fact, what has come down to us about the life and death of this saint is not historically dependable. Her various "biographies" are filled with even more extravagant miraculous details. During the Middle Ages, when the crusaders brought back news of Catherine’s story to the West, popular devotion tended to favor lives of saints that were full of miracles and wonders. St. Catherine caught the fancy of everyday Christians and from the tenth to the eighteenth century, she was venerated as one of the fourteen most powerful saints (the "Fourteen Holy Helpers"). Many churches were named after her; her statue, with the broken wheel as identifying symbol, was found in most churches. Some of the greatest artists painted her likeness and the events of her life. Because of her wisdom in disputation, theologians invoked her aid. Churchmen sang and preached her praise. Nuns prayed to her because of her mystical graces. Young women (and spinsters) looked at her as their particular friend. Wheelwrights naturally chose her as their saint because of the episode of the broken wheel. St. Catherine’s feast was observed with solemnity and popular festivities throughout Europe. (Do you know the "official" name of that firework called a "pinwheel"? Look in the dictionary under "Catherine wheel"!)
With the arrival of the eighteenth century and of rationalism with its chill gaze, critics began to look askance at all medieval legendary lore. To be sure, criticism of dubious documentation was in order. Perhaps through overreaction to St. Catherine’s fabulous biography, she became thenceforth less popular as a saint.
Such a loss of popularity by saints is not uncommon. It says nothing about the saints, only about the fickleness of the faithful. Maybe that is why God permits so many women and men to be canonized. He knows well our childish caprice and inconsistency, and will not condemn it. Nevertheless, St. Catherine served for centuries to inspire untold numbers of peasants, tradesmen, craftsmen, theologians, poets and orators. Then it was high time, the little Alexandrian may well have thought, to pass on to other saints some of her long-term responsibilities as a popular heavenly go-between.
This Version Taken From:
http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/Quote:
"True knowledge is [that which consists in] the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church which exists in every place, and has come even unto us, being guarded and preserved without any forging of Scriptures, by a very complete system of doctrine, and neither receiving addition nor [suffering] curtailment [in the truths which she believes]; and [it consists in] reading [the word of God] without falsification, and a lawful and diligent exposition in harmony with the Scriptures, both without danger and without blasphemy; and [above all, it consists in] the pre-eminent gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels all the other gifts
[of God]." -Irenaeus,Against Heresies,4:33:8(A.D. 180)
Bible Quote
22 And Jesus answering, saith to them: Have the faith of God. 23 Amen I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed and be cast into the sea, and shall not stagger in his heart, but believe, that whatsoever he saith shall be done; it shall be done unto him. 24 Therefore I say unto you, all things, whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive; and they shall come unto you. (Mark 11:22-24)
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To the Holy Trinity
Most Holy Trinity, Your goodness has brought me to the beginning of this day and now I offer it to You with its thoughts, words and actions together with any crosses and contradictions which I may encounter. Give Your blessing to this day, Your gift to me, so that it may be animated with Your love and so bring glory and honor to Your divine majesty. – Amen.
Glory be to the Father who, when I did not exist created me by His power in the likeness of His own image; and to the Son who when I was lost redeemed me by His precious blood, and to the Holy Spirit who by His grace and goodness justified me in baptism, and many times afterwards when I had fallen. For each and all these benefits be the glory as great as it was in the beginning, and still greater be now in the course of this present life, and ever shall be to the consummation of the world and world without end. – Amen.
As I recite this doxology I wish to offer to the Holy Trinity all praise and I shall endeavor by grace to live this praise in action throughout this day and for the rest of my life.
I place before your eyes this Table where we communicate together, and the figures (typoi) of my salvation which I consecrate with the same mouth with which I present a request to you, this sacrament which raises us to heaven.
