I just want to say something because I think my heart will explode if I don’t, and that is to thank all of you who are commenting. Those comments speak of a generosity of spirit, a love of Christ and a desire to know Him more nearly and love Him more dearly, that by themselves they light a way forward.
It is surely in such a spirit and in such love and such respect for each other that we exhibit whose children we are. I can’t help, naive though I am, but think that if there were more of this expressed by more Christians, then the tide of battle would turn.
My co-author has a great fondness for the Alexandrian poet, Cavafy. I remember him reading this to me many years ago, and it seems apt here and now:
Walls
Without consideration, without pity, without shame
they have built great and high walls around me.
And now I sit here and despair.
I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind;
for I had many things to do outside.
Ah why did I not pay attention when they were building the walls.
But I never heard any noise or sound of builders.
Imperceptibly they shut me from the outside world.
All Along the Watchtower 
Absolutely beautiful sister! God bless you!
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And you dear sister 🙂
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He’s a very good, and interesting poet, I will have to find more of his work.
As to the rest of the post: As the mistress keeps the house, so shall the guests behave. 🙂
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Absolutely. Jess has been the most admirable of hosts to these thought provoking posts. She simply draws the best kinds of people to her like a bee to honey. 🙂
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That she does! 🙂
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*blushes* 🙂
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Well, now sir, it is me who is blushing – but you know, my friend, you and my other friends here are what makes this a pleasure 🙂
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Oh bless you my dear friend – you and the others are what makes this house what it is – to my immense joy 🙂
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We help but, it is you, dearest friend, who set the tone and tenor of our discussion, and make this a most wonderful place to be. 🙂
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Well, sir, that is extraordinarily kind, but I am the handmaiden of this place, and I do my best to provide fare for travellers, who, themselves, in return, provide the best of company – bless you all 🙂
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Well, Maam, then you are best of handmaidens, for you indeed provide wonderful fare for those of us on our various journeys, and we are more than happy to keep company with you. Bless you, Jess. 🙂
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*blushes* – and is happy to think that I am of service here 🙂
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That you certainly are! 🙂
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I second these comments, Jess. 🙂
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You make a huge contribution my friend 🙂
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Sister Jessica, i see you have a love of the Lord. But getting closer and what not are the words of someone who doesnt know the Lord. Once you are born again, you dont need to get closer. You are there. You just follow the shepherd. No religion or men in robes.Im going to say this again…. when you are born again, you get a new spirit, one that knows Jesus and it comes down from heaven, cause thats where Jesus is. It replaces your natural one. You are a new creature. You know His voice and another you wont follow. Like this guy who grovels behind Newman on your blog..you wont need man, you will follow the Lamb. I did a write-up of this on my topical blog. Come see it….cherrybombcoutour.blogspot.com/
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I will, Bosco, but remember, we all come to Jesus as He wants, and we should not assume that our own personal experience is general.
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Hi sister Jessica, everything i said is scriptural. Dont make the mistake of thinking that its my gospel. Its the words of god. If i dont speak of costume holymen and gold cups, religious people dont want to listen to me.
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Bosco, I am more than happy to listen, as you’ll see in a post later today.
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Remember that bozo imagines that the written words of his translation of the Bible are inerrant, which is an obvious heresy.
Bozo belongs to the Cavalry Chapel which is a Biblical literalist and Millenialist sect.
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Thanks Jabba, I think Bosco must have left the DT site before I came.
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bozo : Once you are born again, you dont need to get closer.
You should just stop spreading these false doctrines.
This is based on a BAD TRANSLATION in the King James Bible, where the text was deliberately altered in order to support the Protestant notion of Luther and others that salvation can be achieved in this world.
Luther was obsessed with discovering if he personally was saved, and when neither the Bible nor the Church could teach him the truth of this imponderable, instead he just devised his own heresies so that he himself could decide this matter all on his own.
God keeps His own counsel on who will and who will not be saved.
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I do not understand the whole saved part of Protestant belief(thou I come from protestantism to catholic) I read Jesus’ words and Paul must be interpeted with Christ’s words in mind(Mt 25:34, James 2:14), to protestants works are touched by the world and the world is touched by evil, to Paul it is the 613 laws. We are not dung, we are not helpless, we can change, we can take on the image of Christ, We are not worthless as protestantism teaches. Our souls are not without merit because we too can love. We are partners with Christ in his passion, not his slaves.
I often wonder do they think Jesus sends them a invisible telegram saying they are saved? There is no way we as humans can know if we are saved. We must take the whole test and God alone will grade us.
We as Catholics believe we are saved by grace(we are partners in salvation we can accept grace or reject it, we are free), but we must have works because God in the world works through us, and more important he commands us, he commands us.
Why if protestants believe you are saved without works, why at a funeral do they talk about the dead’s work, he did this and he did that….They use those works to judge if he is worthy of heaven, not grace alone, not faith alone.
And last something that really bothers me, The Rapture thing. If the Rapture is so important you would think that Christ would have mentioned it, maybe a whole page on it or at least a paragraph, I see nothing in Red letters in my Bible about it.
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That, Tom, is the difficulty with individual interpretation of the Bible, and one of the main causes of disunity.
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“We as Catholics believe we are saved by grace(we are partners in salvation we can accept grace or reject it, we are free), but we must have works because God in the world works through us”
Tom, I certainly can’t speak for all protestants, and have no idea who could but, that is nearly word for word Lutheran doctrine.
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I can’t really see anything to object to there at all 🙂
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Me either but, there are those who believe in predestination, which I think was Tom’s point. I don’t have any understanding of it either. 🙂
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Nor me. It seems impossible to me to believe that God who is love would send anyone into the world with no chance of avoiding hell – that seems a straight heresy!
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Well, at least we’re in good company, the Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican churches all declared it heresy.
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Good thing too!
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Very much so!
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Jessica – Tomorrow I am going to make pies for the sisters, in the states i would use corn starch to stablize the apple slices in the pie , but they do not have it here, They do have potato starch can you use that the same? or is there some else I can use to hold the slices so when it is cooked it has some body?
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You ought to be able to, but be careful if you boil it, as it will probably impart a bit of a potato taste, which you won’t want. I’d mix a little flour and water myself to make my own thickener. Arrowroot, if you can get it, is another option.
There’s a good website here, Tom:
http://www.foodsubs.com/ThickenStarch.html
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Thank you I want them to be perfect, it is a gift to the sisters and to the Lord, so to me it is important.
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Good – let me know how it goes. If you can get arrowroot it would work well.
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Thank you Jessica! Very thoughtful, as always. And it is good to see you have so many comments and supporters!
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Thank you my friend – and it is so lovely to have your voice back here, and back in the blogosphere 🙂
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