St. Bernadette Catholic Church is a warm, loving Roman Catholic parish in the St. Lucie West section of Port St. Lucie. Our church is a parish in the Palm Beach Diocese of Florida. We welcome all newcomers and visitors to join us as we develop and foster spiritual and social needs. These are realized through proclaiming the Word of God, acknowledging his gifts, and sharing our gifts of time, talent and treasure.
Our Mission Statement: To be a warm, loving community of faith, as we practice good Christian Stewardship. We develop and foster spiritual and social needs which are realized through proclaiming the Word of God, acknowledging his gifts and joyfully making a return by sharing our gifts of time, talent, and treasure.
Ash Wednesday & Easter Mass Schedule
Feb 13, Ash Wednesday - Ashes will be distributed at Masses at 8:00am, 10:00am and 7:00pm. Additionaly, Ashes will be distributed at a Prayer Service at 12 Noon
Feb 18-21, Lenten Parish Mission - Lef by Father Kenan Peters. Sessions will take place on Monday at 4:00pm, and Tuesday-Thursday at 7:00pm
March 18, Parish Day of Prayer & Reconciliation - A priest will be available from 9:00am through 8:00pm in the Monsignor Saporito Chapel
March 24, Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord
March 28, Holy Thursday - 8:00am Morning Prayer, 7:00pm Mass of the Lord's Supper (After Mass, the Blessed Sacrament will be carried in Procession to the Altar of Reposition, which will be open until 12 Midnight
March 29, Good Friday - 8:00am Morning Prayer, 12 Noon Stations of the Cross (outdoors), 3:00pm Celebration of the Lord's Passion and Death (with Holy Communion), 7:00pm Dramatic Stations of the Cross (in Church)
March 30, Holy Saturday - 8:00am Morning Prayer, 8:00pm Easter Vigil
March 31, Easter Sunday - 6:00am Sunrise Mass (outdoors at the Grotto), 7:30am, 9:00am, 10:45am, 12:15pm Contemporary
Saturday: 4:00pm, 5:30pm
Sunday: 7:30am, 9:00am, 10:45am, 12:15pm Contemporary (Sept-May)
Weekday masses: 8:00am Mon.-Sat.
Monday - Friday: 8:30am - 4:30pm
Monday - Friday: 8:30am - 3:00pm (summer months - beginning June 1, 2011)


It is easy to say, it is easy to claim that the God of the bible was the one who created everything. But can he prove it? If he really made the Earth and other planets in a matter of hours, then let us ask him to do some demonstration to prove it.
Create another planet similar to Earth between Mars and our planet. If it is true that he made everything then prove his creatorship by creating another planet. It must be something that is OBSERVABLE that he can really repeat a creation that he claimed to do. If he is really the one who made planets and everything in a very short period of time, then show it.
Otherwise, the Faith and Belief is really not based on observable facts but rather based on emotions and not evidence. It is one thing to believe a claim but is another thing to KNOW something for sure. And unless, he can prove his Creatorship by doing an actual creation before our very eyes then belief and faith are just a ploy and a scam to fool people into submission because his claim of creation happened in the past and could not be proven today.
But if he can prove it today in real time then there is no NEED to insist and promote the concept of faith and belief because the logic shifts from KNOWING something that really happened today and verifiable rather than having faith in something that happened in the distant past.
And that the God who claimed to created everything are INCAPABLE of proving it. Therefore he just want everyone to believe it based on his narrative story but not on known proven observable facts.
So, do not rush into believing in anything without knowing it fully well. While those who already believe in this God should start to really EVALUATE their Faith and Belief system. Wait for the release of my book next year - The Top Ten Lies of the Bible. I will defend those who could not defend themselves from the logical trap of faith and belief system of religion.
These are some of the things that I addressed in my book as I really focused on questioning: is the God of the bible a really genuine God of Love or just an impostor? Is he a genuine Creator of the Universe or a Fake Creator? What kind of Criminal God is He who asked people to obey his standards of law but he himself does not want to keep it?


A familiar face to Siouxlanders helped pack the house on the Briar Cliff University campus tonight.
Daniel Cardinal DiNardo, current bishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas and the former head of the Diocese of Sioux City was the honored guest speaker on campus.
It was a homecoming of sorts for the Pittsburgh native who returned to the diocese to a full crowd to hear his keynote for Briar Cliff University's annual Theology Lecture series
In his keynote, he focused on Vatican II and the many changes since then to the Church, including the use of modern-day languages and interaction between Catholics and the clergy during mass.
Something listeners in the audience thought was important to hear. "He's someone we look up to, you know, and it's just, especially at a Catholic University it's just great that he's here," said BCU sophomore Alexia Henschke. "You get the chance to talk to our leaders, we get the chance to hear what the church is telling us and what Jesus was telling us for 2000 years what we need to do to be better to our fellow man and woman and what we need to do to come back to the faith," said Deacon Dick Billings of the Blessed Sacrament Church. The Cardinal also reflected on the call of the Vatican II documents for the church to become active Catholics and worshippers, something he hopes the youth will lead in the near future. "I think any changes to the Vatican are relevant to us. I think it's a good thing for us to be able to be involved in our church and kind of know what's going on," said BCU senior James Conway. It seems the challenge the Cardinal has set before his audience Wednesday night is one that some students at Briar Cliff are ready to take on.
BEdme@siouxlandnews.comfacebook.com/beairshelle.edme OR twitter.com/BeairshelleKMEG


Posted by Phil on 21.02.2013
Ally Gillies is an intern with Sheddocksley Baptist Church. This was Ally’s first prayer space; “I didn’t really know what to expect when I visited my first prayer space at Hazelhead Academy. I can safely say that it was a huge success and that throughout the week, people from the school really connected with God, even though they may not have known who God is beforehand.”
Posted by Phil on 12.02.2013
“I was able to get rid of my worries and they’re not churning inside me.” Year 6 student. Christians from a variety of churches in Harlow hosted their first two prayer spaces in Milwards Primary and Holy Cross Catholic Primary Academy at the end of 2012. Here’s a few snippets from Phil Gray’s detailed report on how they got on, and what the students thought about it.
Posted by Phil on 01.02.2013
“Ugly. Fat. Unloved. Unpopular. These were some of the statements written down anonymously by students when they first entered Anam Cara at Maltings Academy in Witham. Granted, there were many positive comments too, but these were responses to our request to write down what they thought of themselves.” Matt Ager reports on the latest Anam Cara prayer space.
Posted by Phil on 23.01.2013
Between now and the start of the Summer holidays at the end of July, at least 18 prayer spaces are be hosted in schools around Oxfordshire. After hosting their third at the end of 2012, Oxford Spires Academy are now thinking and planning towards a permanent prayer space, in partnership with local Christians. Here’s Youth Worker, Clint Mcvea’s story-report.
Posted by Phil on 15.01.2013
Prayer spaces work best when they’re not one-off events, but part of the ongoing spiritual and pastoral life of a school. The permanent prayer space in Swindon Academy is a good example. Laura Rawson is a Youth Worker with Swindon Youth for Christ, and part of a chaplaincy team who have been working in the school for 40 years. She explains why this makes a difference.


"The Revelation of Light Conference"
John 1:4 "In Him was life and the life was the Light of men."
Speaker: James Maloney
Dates : 24th, 25th & 26th of July 2015
Times: Friday & Saturday 7 PM, Sunday !0:00AM
Cost: $15.00 for Friday and Saturday meetings, $10.00 a night if you only attend one service
(There will be a freewill offering taken up as well)
Loc: The Banquet Room @ Mountain Top Community Church
216 North Second St., Elkhart, In
Guidance Ministries, Inc.
PO Box 1494
216 N 2nd St
Elkhart IN 46516
Click here for specific directions
We are called by GOD to tear down the barriers between Man and Jesus that have been raised by the traditions and doctrines of men - Matthew 15:6b
Guidance Ministries' vision is to establish outreaching ministries in cities throughout the world that will remove the barriers between Christ and man.
Our primary goal is to bring people to know Jesus as their personal Savior. By meeting the basic emotional and physical needs of individuals, their ears and hearts will be opened to hear the call of Christ.
Our secondary goal is to bring healing, deliverance, obedience and increased faith to the word of God within the body of Christ. We are then to send His people out to build the kingdom of God.
Guidance Ministries, Inc., a non-denominational ministry, is comprised of Christian business persons from various denominations and walks of life. These men and women bring diversity, wisdom, knowledge and networking resources to this ministry.
Guidance Ministries is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible.


How's life going for everyone NOT in Arkansas?
A mission is definitely one of the hardest things I will ever do in my life. Especially with what is going on right now. I can really relate to Mormon when he is in charge of the Nephite armies.
Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was without faith, because of the hardness of their hearts. (Mormon 3:12)
Despite the pride and the hardness of the hearts of these people, I will continue to love them and pray for them and to do the work I have been called to. Like Mormon, sometimes it is without faith.
We did manage to find a new investigator. That was reason to celebrate! It was, however, short lived. We have been unable to get back in contact and continue teaching. Our recent convert, Arturo, is doing better. The ward has really been involved in taking care of him making sure he has food and water, that his ankle is taken care of, just visiting. It has been good for the ward. A lot of the members are complacent and idle in the work of the Lord. Maybe not having missionaries in the area for a while will push them into action. I truly feel Cabot is going to be closed. But we won't find out for another three weeks. So until then its still work work work.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.


Could you all keep a friend of mine and her family in your prayers. Because of certain things I told her that I would not use her name publicly but God knows who she is! She was just diagnosed with Lung cancer a few days ago. She has an awesome faith in her Lord and one of the best things she sent to me in an email yesterday was this:
"I have cancer, but cancer does not have me!! God is in control" Awesome!! She has the best attitude!!
Thank you so much!!!


Kelly, and his wife of 50+ years, Connie, are finishers, or second-career missionaries. After a successful business career in sales with Carnation Company, and as a headhunter leading a branch office of an international search and placement firm, God came calling!
At the age of 35, God revealed Himself to Kelly in a supernatural way which changed his life forever. This was a big transition and one of many transitions that he would experience over his career. In 1988 Kelly began full-time missions ministry including 10+ years in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim populated country.
Kelly is a graduate of Purdue University, Rhema Bible Training College, and has completed graduate studies in Inter-Cultural Studies and Missiology at Biola University and Asia Pacific Theological Seminary. He has been ordained for ministry since 1988.
Upon returning from Indonesia in 2004, the McClelland’s served on the leadership team of Pioneers, a fast paced missions agency based in Orlando, Florida with more than 3000 missionaries serving in over 97 countries. Serving as Vice President of Church Resources, Kelly led several Pioneers ministries including Pioneers Church Partnerships, Caleb Resources, The Encounters Group (Encountering the World of Islam), and the ACMC conference team. This was another big transition, but not the last that Kelly and Connie would need to navigate through successfully.
In mid-2010, the Lord began to impress Kelly to prepare for more change and transition. After much prayer, reflection and with solid godly counsel, Kelly resigned from Pioneers to launch Transition Time Coach, LLC and serve missionaries, individuals and organizations as they experience transitions! Kelly is a member of the International Coach Federation and Christian Coaches Network International where he served as president 2017-2018. As a Certified Career Management Coach and Certified Job Search Strategist, Coach Kelly is trained and equipped to help you find the Lord's direction to that place HE has prepared for you.
The McClelland's have two sons and nine grandchildren, plus 2 great-grandchildren and enjoy life in Central Florida. Kelly is an avid reader, lifelong learner, and enjoys teaching and speaking to groups of all sizes. In his spare time, amateur radio K4UPG, being outdoors with nature, and building and playing with computers keep him happy.


Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisieux, with Additional Writings (Hardcover)
Complete edition of the Story of a Soul by Saint Therese of Lisieux, translated by Thomas Taylor. This edition includes over 288 footnotes, and many additional letters, counsels, and prayers, creating a study edition for readers to better understand St. Therese's 'little way' to deepening a relationship with God.
Read with an open heart, this book is helpful to read again and again at various stages of life.
"To me it seems that humility is truth. I do not know whether I am humble, but I do know that I see the truth in all things."
No student of thought should be without this historic book. This edition is provided in a slim volume with full text at an affordable price.


Although the appendix to the Report of the Diocesan Council outlines clerical appointments and changes, I would like to welcome by name a number of recent newcomers to the clerical team here in Armagh. Canon Bridle has also served as a clerical member of Diocesan Council during his time in Clogher Diocese, and he is a clerical member of General Synod. Fr Edward Rogan on loan to St James Missionary Society. Ordinations Sept 2020. Clerical definition is - of, relating to, or characteristic of the clergy. Apostolic Work. Mission Focus Evening 2019. The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh is the ecclesiastical head of the Church of Ireland, bearing the title Primate of All Ireland, the metropolitan of the Province of Armagh and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Armagh.. Pastoral Plan 2015-2020. Fr Gerard O’Hora to be Co-Pastor. Note: Any changes in boundaries over time are not indicated in the above table. Kilmore Diocesan Appointments 2020; BEATIFICATION OF FATHER MICHAEL McGIVNEY – AN AMERICAN PRIEST WITH KILMORE CONNECTIONS; Diocese of Kilmore Curia R.C. Father McLaughlin is originally a native of the Long Tower parish, Derry. Rev. Diocesan Office, Ballinalee Road. Twitter Facebook Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Email Print. Cura. Published: 09 June 2020. The corona virus. Seminarian Liaison. The dioceseâ s two newly ordained priests have been appointed to parishes. Due to the constant changes in posts held throughout the world -wide church, almost any publication can be out of date even before it is published. Diocese of Cork and Ross, Cork and Ross Diocesan Offices, Redemption Road, Cork, T23 PXD0, Ireland T: +353 21 4301717 E: email@example.com Mon - … Bishop Larry Duffy of Clogher has announced the diocesan changes and appointments for 2020. Aras Mhuire. Very Rev. Very Rev. The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, announced his intention to retire in the We hope this website will be a great resource for our Diocese to promote closeness, build up the family spirit, to be as Pope Francis often says 'Synodal, A people who journey together. Catholic Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty has announced the annual list of clerical changes for the diocese. The Diocese of Clogher is part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Armagh. Donate. Diocesan Collection € Donation Amount: €5,00; €10,00; €25,00; €50,00; Custom Amount; Make this donation every . Youth Ministry. Contact Us The Archbishop’s House Tuam, Co. Galway. Pastoral Plan 2015-2020. 9 September 2020 By Tom Collins firstname.lastname@example.org Bishop William Crean recently announced the following clerical appointments for the Diocese of Cloyne which will come into effect at noon on Saturday 19 September 2020 V. Rev Liam Kelleher, PE, CC, Cobh to retire and continue to reside in Cobh Rev Kevin Mulcahy, CC Ballymacoda to retire… Welcome to the website of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Limerick. Cellach of Armagh or Celsus or Celestinus (1080–1129) was Archbishop of Armagh and an important contributor to the reform of the Irish church in the twelfth century. Clergy assignment changes announced. Bishop Fintan Gavin, Bishop of Cork and Ross. Mrs Helen McClenaghan. This total data is set forth graphically in the Appendices at the end of this Supplemental Report. On the retirement of The Most Reverend Raymond Field, The Very Reverend Paul Thornton, Co-PP is … and in every way. Archbishop Eamon thanks the priests for their continued ministry and service in the Archdiocese and wishes them well in taking up these new appointments. Aifreann Gaeilige. Diocese of Waterford and Lismore Clerical changes for 2020 August 26, 2020 Most Reverend Alphonsus Cullinan, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore has made the following appointments: Sarah Mac Donald Irish Independent June 12 2020 A third of staff working for the archdiocese of Dublin are to lose their jobs as it grapples with the financial cost of the Covid-19 pandemic. 2 Thess 3:16. • 212 children (186 boys and 26 girls) were sexually abused by 52 diocesan … 'I am delighted to be in a position to announce that Canon Brian Harper, rector of Magheracross has accepted my invitation to become the new Archdeacon of Clogher following the move by the Revd Helene Steed to take up an incumbency … Vocations. Liturgy. Joe Gallagher, PP, Tullamore, as Vicar General.Fr Gallagher will join Fr. Longford. Archbishop Eamon Martin makes clerical changes in Archdiocese of Armagh Archbishop Eamon Martin said the changes will come into effect from September 1. Diocesan Collection. Changes to Cathedral and Chapter . Armagh Diocesan Pastoral Centre. Affiliated Bishops, Living Seán Baptist Brady (Coadjutor Archbishop: 13 Dec 1994 ; Archbishop: 1 Oct 1996 to 8 Sep 2014 ) He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Cellach.Though a member of the laicized ecclesiastical dynasty of Clann Sínaig, he took holy vows and gained priestly ordination. Co. Longford. Tag: Clerical Changes. Archbishop Nelson … Reopening churches for public worship is only possible if it can be done safely and by minimising the risk of spreading Covid–19. Collection * Select Payment Method Credit Card; Personal Info First Name * Last Name Email Address * Credit Card Info This is a secure SSL encrypted payment. On August 4 th, the feast day of St John Vianney, the Curé d’Ars, patron of parish priests, Bishop Fintan Gavin has thanked priests for their ministry in the diocese and announces some diocesan appointments. Declan Hurley, Adm, Navan, who is also a Vicar General of the Diocese.The Vicar General assists the Bishop in the Governance of the Diocese and also acts as a Trustee of the Diocese. Details Published: Wednesday, 26 June 2019 16:54 Bishop John Fleming has announced the following clerical changes in Killala diocese: Fr Aidan O’Boyle to be Parish Priest of Kilmoremoy, Ballina. Kilglass, living in Enniscrone. Card Number * CVC * Cardholder Name * Expiration * Donation Total: €50,00 One Time. 09.11.2020 Canon Dr Ian W Ellis Elected as New Bishop of Clogher Canon Dr Ian W Ellis .
Bishop McAreavey announces clerical changes for the Diocese of Dromore. Oct, 2020 . The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Rev’d John McDowell, today announced the following senior appointments in the Diocese: Canon Shane Forster to be Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh and Keeper of the Robinson Library. As we are emerging gently out of lockdown, celebrating Masses with limited congregations reminds us we have to learn to live alongside the Covid-19 virus. Cross border diocese that includes St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh and home to the primate of all Ireland. Joseph Tynan, PP, Kilteely & Dromkeen to continue as Adm. Knocklong & Glenbrohane 3. Reports and Financial Statements for Year Ended 31 December 2018; National. News Archive 2020 Archbishop Eamon Martin announces clerical appointments for the Diocese of Dromore. Thank God for the way we as a country have responded. Archbishop Eamon Martin, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Dromore, today announced that in the coming months a new Diocesan Pastoral Council will be formed, built upon five Pastoral Areas of the Diocese. Thomas Hearne, CC, Cashel & Rosegreen to be PP Clonoulty & … Prayer and Spirituality. August 4, 2020 DIOCESAN NEWS. Diocesan Appointments 2020. How to use clerical in a sentence. Co. Longford. CLERICAL changes have been announced in the Archdiocese of Armagh. The Ir… The Lord be with you all. Home › Diocesan News › Bishop Ray on Clerical Appointments 2020. Diocesan Update 9th June 2020 and Return to in-church worship protocols . Clergy Appointments - 13th December 2020. August 19, 2020 . … The Roman Catholic Diocese of Clogher encompasses all of County Monaghan, most of County Fermanagh and portions of Counties Tyrone, Donegal, Louth and Cavan. Telephone : 043-3346432 Fax : 043 – 3346833 Email : email@example.com CHY 7423 01. The following appointments will take effect from Friday 4 September: Rt Rev Monsignor Richard Mohan PP, Clones to be PE Clones, residing at Aghadrumsee Very Rev Peter Corrigan PP, Killeevan-Currin-Aghabog to be PE Killeevan-Currin-Aghabog Very Rev John Halton PP, Tempo (Pobal) to The Bishop of Clogher, the Rt Revd John McDowell announced the following diocesan appointments on 30th September 2016. Posted June 20, 2020 . Evangelisation & Ecumenism. Armagh Diocesan Cursillo Movement.
Bishop McAreavey announces clerical changes for the Diocese of Dromore. Clogher Diocesan … Fr Francis Bradley, PP Buncrana and Chancellor of the Diocese of Derry,… Adult Faith Formation. Published: 05 June 2020. Peter Brennan, PP, Clonoulty & Rossmore to be PP Clerihan 2. Transfers and Appointments 2020 The Archbishop of Cashel & Emly, Dr Kieran O’Reilly, has made the following clerical appointments in the Archdiocese: 1. Archbishop Clarke addressing Armagh Diocesan Synod. It is now four months since the corona virus began to dominate our lives. The Penitential Prayer of Pope Francis during his celebration of Mass in Phoenix Park on 26 August 2018 - Counselling Service for … Justice & Peace . Contact Us. County Louth Radio. Donate. Clerical changes announced today in the diocese of Killala. We record with much sadness the death of Mrs Helen McClenaghan on 4 June 2020 following a short illness. Since moving to Clogher Diocese in 1999 he has served as rector of the grouped parishes of Cleenish and Mullaghdun. BISHOP DUFFY ANNOUNCES DIOCESAN CHANGES – FROM SEPTEMBER 2020. Bishop Ray on Clerical Appointments 2020 . May the Lord of peace himself give you peace all the time. the First Report, the totals from our two investigations, covering the time period 1950 to 2020, are as follows. Bishop Deenihan has appointed Fr. Clerical Changes 2019. Derry’s Bishop Donal McKeown has announced the following clerical changes, which are effective this month onwards: Fr Paul Fraser is to be PP Ardstraw West & Castlederg and PP Termonamongan; while Fr Colm O’Doherty will be PP Clonleigh and Adm. Urney & Castlefin. Share this story . Tel: 093-24166 Fax 093-28070 Email: firstname.lastname@example.org It was announced today that the Episcopal Electoral College for the Diocese of Clogher, meeting online, has elected the Revd Canon Dr Ian William Ellis, Rector of Rossorry, as the new Bishop of Clogher. Office of Pastoral Renewal and Family Ministry. Other Agencies. These have been a very difficult few months on all of us, our parishes, our families and personally; none more so than our priests serving at the frontline of parish duty. Deaf.


- Hear carols and festive tunes from North Bristol Wellbeing Choir, a wonderful group who come together in Southmead to boost their wellbeing through music and who want to share the joy of Christmas with you.
- Join in with some of our favourite Christmas Carols.
- Get in the Christmas spirit in the unique and beautiful setting of The Lord Mayor’s Chapel while enjoying mulled wine and mince pies.
- Raise money for local good causes.
Date & time: 7pm-9pm Wednesday 5 December
Venue: The Lord Mayor’s Chapel, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TB
Cost: Tickets £15* per person
*Price includes a suggested charitable donation of £7 per ticket.
Option 1 – Download the booking form
Option 2 – Book via Eventbrite
Option 3 – Pay on the door on the night
For more information call 0117 989 7700.


After living what I felt was a ‘decent’ life, my time on earth came to the end.
The first thing I remember is sitting on a bench in the waiting room of what looked like a court house.
The doors opened and I was instructed to come in and have a seat by the defense table.
As I looked around I saw the Prosecutor. He was a villainous looking figure who snarled as he glared at me. He definitely was the most evil person I have ever seen.
I sat down and looked to my left and there sat my Attorney, a kind and gentle-looking man whose appearance seemed familiar to me, I felt I knew Him.
The corner door flew open and there appeared the Judge in full flowing robes. He commanded an awesome presence. As he moved across the room I shuddered.
He took His seat behind the bench and said, ‘Let us begin.’
The Prosecutor rose and said, ‘My name is Satan and I am here to show you why this person belongs in hell.’
He proceeded to tell of lies that I had told, things that I had stolen, times I had cheated others. Satan told of other horrible perversions that had been in my life and the more he spoke, the further down in my seat I sank.
I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t look at anyone, even my own Attorney, as the Devil told of sins that even I had completely forgotten about.
As upset as I was at Satan for telling all these things about me, I was equally upset at my Attorney who sat there silently not offering any form of defense at all.
I know I was guilty of those things, but I had done some good in my life too – couldn’t that at least equal out part of the harm I’d done? No, I realized, not now.
Satan finished with a fury and said, ‘This person belongs in hell. He is guilty of all that I have charged and there is not a person who can prove otherwise.’
When it was his turn, my Attorney first asked if he might approach the bench. The Judge allowed this over the strong objections of Satan, and beckoned my Attorney to come forward.
As he got up and started walking, I was able to see him in his full splendor and majesty. Then I suddenly realized why he seemed so familiar – this was Jesus representing me, my Lord and my Savior!!!
He stopped at the bench and softly said to the Judge, ‘Father,’ and then he turned to address the court.
‘Satan was correct in saying that this person has sinned, I won’t deny any of these allegations. And, yes, the wages of sin is death, and this persoan deserves to be punished.’
Jesus took a deep breath and turned to his Father with outstretched arms and proclaimed, ‘However, I died on the cross in his place so that he might have eternal life. I received in myself on the Cross all the judgment due this person. He has accepted me as his Savior, so he is Mine.’
He continued, ‘His name is written in the Book of Life, and no one can snatch him from Me.
Jesus sat down, he quietly paused, looked at his Father and said, ‘There is nothing else that needs to be done. I’ve done it all.’
The Judge lifted his mighty hand and slammed the gavel down. The following words bellowed from his lips…
‘This person is free. The penalty for his sins has already been paid in full. Case dismissed.’
As my Lord led me away, I could hear Satan screaming, ‘I won’t give up, I will win the next one!’
I asked Jesus, ‘Have you ever lost a case?’
Christ lovingly smiled and said, ‘Everyone who has come to me and asked me to represent him has received the same verdict as you:
Paid In Full.


We have started a men’s group for fellowship and nachos.
This group is open to all the men who call LFC home. Fathers, bring your sons; sons, bring your fathers.
Our goal is to get together monthly to build community, build each other up, and make disciples of every man in this church. This will be a relaxed and welcoming environment with good company and good conversation. Come on out and join us.
Date-September 23, 2017 (sign up by Sept 17)
If you are planning on joining us, contact Keith Feldbusch at firstname.lastname@example.org


Obituary of Narcissus Dorr from the Southern Reporter, Volume XXXI, Number 30
Southern Reporter – Sardis Miss. Friday Evening, April 7, 1916
Mr. N. L. D'ORR
DIED at his home, near Sardis, Miss., Mr. N. L. D'Orr, aged 71 years, 3 months, and 3 days.
The above paragraph tells the readers of the Reporter that the messenger of death has once more been in our midst and has taken from us one of our valuable, honest and upright citizens. It falls like a pall of darkness, for we all realize the loss we have sustained. His death, though not entirely unexpected, made us realizes (sic) the loss. For several weeks he had been suffering with Bright's disease, during which time he had physician, the prayers of his many christian (sic) friends, and every assistance that could be rendered by the sympathetic hands of his loved ones, but all this failed to bring relief, and the end came at God's appointed time.
Mr. D'Orr was born and reared in Kemper County, Miss., and there he was married to Miss Sara Wilkins, moving to Panola County, and, locating near Sardis, lived there till death claimed him. His wife preceded him to the Great Beyond only ten years. Two years after the death of his wife he was married again, this time to Miss Lucinda Jackson, of Sardis. He leaves a widow, eight children and twenty-two grandchildren, and a host of friends to mourn for him.
He lived a Christian life from early manhood, being a member, and for a number of years an officer, either as steward or superintendent of the Sunday school, of Davis Chapel church, and was always to be found at his post of duty. He was a man of most exemplary character, pure and blameless, inspiring to a higher life all who came under the uplifting influence of the firm and useful life he lived.
Though his life is ended, yet the sweet influence he left will ever point his loved ones to the God whom he loved and served. May we see in this sad bereavement the act of a loving Father who knows best. He will be greatly missed in the church, to which he took so much pride in going, and in his home, where he was loved and honored by his family. In fact, no one can fill his place in life; but, friends, let us try to fill our places better by having such an example as this life before us. May our faith in Christ be strong and simple like his.
The funeral was conducted by his pastor, whose words of sympathy were very touching to every one present. The body was laid to rest in Davis Chapel cemetery.
May God look down in tender mercy on his wife, relatives and many friends.
Notes: (Sic) means this was copied exactly as originally written, even though it might be misspelled or doesn't conform to modern usage. Notice that his name was spelled as it is in French. Bright's disease is chronic nephritis (kidney disease).[an error occurred while processing this directive]


The Bair Room
The Bair Room is named for Robert C. Bair, Dr. Henry Smyser’s son-in-law who, with his wife Ella, inherited the Smyser-Bair house and lived out his life in it. Robert Bair was a lawyer who taught Sunday School in the church across the parking lot. His Sunday school lesson books remain on display in the house, and some of them include his portrait, signature, notes, and handwritten lists of his students. The room itself is decorated with soft, comforting wallpaper and includes three tall windows looking down from the third floor.


The beginning of the pontificate of Lenny Belardo, alias Pius XIII, the first American Pope in history. As he deals with the Kurtwell case and the demands of Catholics, the Pope makes an important decision, while Sister Mary is given a new mission. How many episodes of The Young.
While Lenny Belardo begins his pontificate as Pius XIII, he calls on Sister Mary, his childhood guardian for help, and begins to familiarize himself with the.
The Young Pope is an Italian-Spanish-French drama television series created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino for Sky Atlantic, HBO, and Canal+. The series. Synopsis: The first season of this limited drama series follows the early years of young, American-born Pius XIII's (Jude Law) pontificate. Pius XIII, who was born. [HBO] Two-time Oscar(R)-nominee Jude Law stars in this episode limited series about a radical new Pope. Diane Keaton co-stars.
[The Young Pope]() Reupped on request Video: AVC H @ - kb/s ( kb/s average).
Mostly, this episode is an opportunity for The Young Pope to set up some new antagonists. Voiello has been at least temporarily disarmed, and. Yet when it comes to the jaw-dropping moments in the premiere episode of The Young Pope, the Holy Father's ode to onanism barely even. It's absurd, intense, and elusive, everything we've come to expect from The Young Pope. Later in the episode, he has a dream or a vision of the.
The Young Pope makes travel plans to Guatemala, to change them last minute, to "find God" in Venice, Everything changes and the finale. All 11 songs featured in The Young Pope season 1 epsiode 9: Episode 9, with scene descriptions. Ask questions and download or stream the. The Young Pope - S01 - E01 - Episode 1. The conclave has elected Lenny Belardo, aka Pius XIII, the Holy See, making him the first American pope in history.
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The Young Pope - S01 Teaser (English) HD. The Young Pope - S01 Teaser ( English) HD. Video thumbnail for The Young Pope - S01 Teaser (English) HD. 0: The Young Pope del 8. Facebook Share; Twitter Tweet. SF Anytime. Stream on SF Anytime. Rent: 9 kr · SF Anytime. Stream on SF Anytime. Buy: 19 kr. Greek subtitles for The Young Pope Season 1 [S01] - The beginning of the pontificate of Lenny Belardo, aka Pius XIII, is the first Amer.
The Young Pope () s01e01 - Episode 1 Episode Script. SS is dedicated to The Simpsons and host to thousands of free TV show episode scripts and. Vatican Experts Designed Jude Law's Garments In 'The Young Pope'. HD Video. The Late The Young Pope S01 Promo VOSTFR (HD). Property of HBO, Sky. The Young Pope S01 COMPLETE BDRip xREWARD. by NORiA · Published December 25, · Updated June 1, The Young Pope watch the tv.
View HD Trailers and Videos for Miniseries on Rotten Tomatoes, then check our Tomatometer to find out what the Critics say. The Young Pope S01 p Blu-ray Remux AVC DTS-HD MA 5 1- elected Pius XIII, aka Lenny Belardo, is the first American Pope in history. Index of /Blade[rartv]/ Jan- S01Ep.
Lenny Belardo, the youngest and first American Pope in the history of the Church, must establish his new papacy and navigate the power struggles of the closed. Download The Young Pope - Season 1 - Mp4 p torrent or any other torrent from the Video HD - TV shows. Direct download via magnet link. , one year ago, 10, KB, تجميع , 2 years ago, 10, KB, A_Az4di: ترجمة حلقات الموسم.
The Young Pope is an English-language Italian drama television series created and directed.. Jump up ^ "Critic Reviews for The Young Pope Season 1".734 :: 735 :: 736 :: 737 :: 738 :: 739 :: 740 :: 741 :: 742 :: 743 :: 744 :: 745 :: 746 :: 747 :: 748 :: 749 :: 750 :: 751 :: 752 :: 753 :: 754 :: 755 :: 756 :: 757 :: 758 :: 759 :: 760 :: 761 :: 762 :: 763 :: 764 :: 765 :: 766 :: 767 :: 768 :: 769 :: 770 :: 771 :: 772 :: 773


When we think of chivalry, the most likely image to spring to mind is one of the perfect gentleman – an impeccably mannered individual who displays gentle and courteous behaviour, especially towards women.
The word ‘chivalry’ has its earliest roots in the French word for horse, cheval, and a knight in that same languare is called a chevalier, the ambassador of la chevalerie (chivalry). The chevalier was a horseman equipped with lance and sword for battle. As time progressed, the knight’s image grew in sophistication, and by the end of the eleventh century knighthood had come to denote a person of noble birth, often possessing property, whose responsibility it was to uphold certain religious, moral and social systems.
No one can put a precise date to the birth of chivalry, but it is generally agreed that it was at its height between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, falling into decadence and decline during the fourteenth, ultimately to disappear in the fifteenth century.
The first Crusade was proclaimed in 1095 by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in France. “A people without God,” he exlaimed, “the son of the Egyptian slave, occupies by force the cradle of our salvation – the country of our Lord.” Every person of nable birth, it was urged, should take a solemn oath before a bishop that he would “defend to the uttermost the oppressed, the widow and the orphan”.
Although it remained a sin to kill Christians, a pilgrimage to the Holy Land involving the slaughter of the “Saracen infidels” who attacked Christ’s sacred tomb would be quite acceptable in the sight of God. As a reward for this great work, knights would receive plenary indulgence upon their return to Europe.
The People’s Crusade
The First Crusade, which became known as the People’s Crusade, was not quite what the Pope had foreseen, however. The call to arms was taken up by a far greater portion of the peasantry than the Church would have liked. Full of savage passion and ignorant faith, the undisciplined rabble marched eastwards, massacring Jews in the Rhineland, attacking and pillaging Hungary and Bularia until, finally, they were ambushed and slaughtered themselves by the Turks in Asia Minor.
Christian chivalry was yet in its infacy, but slowly, through the Church’s refusal to abandon its crusading ideal, it began to assume a more definite aspect, and by the time the official army of the First Crusade travelled to Constantinople the following year, the nobility rather than the persantry dominated the ranks. For now, as the century drew to a close, it was the custom for every noble father to educate his son in the orders of knighthood. The Crusades continued and the great Crusading Orders were established. By the early twelfth century, the Church had begun to take control of the ceremony of knightly investiture. Religion had succeeded in consecrating knighthood to that most lordly vocation every young man of gentle birth longed to follow.
The Knight’s Education
At the age of seven, a boy with ambitions to be a knight usually had to begin their training. The boy was taken from his home and placed in the service of a neighbouring lord (who was a fully-fledged knight). Here, the boy took up his office as page. He was taught implicit obedience to the wishes of his lord and lady. He served them at table, he learned to ride, and he accompanied his lord on various excursions. It was left to the lady of the manor to develop the gentler aspects of the boy’s character. She schooled him in the basic rules of chivalry, discussed love and religion with him and supervised his musical training.
At the age of fourteen, the page was usually promoted to the higher grade of squire. During a religious ceremony, he exchanged his dagger for a manly sword and received moral instruction on its correct usage. His duties now were far more varied and challenging. He became proficient in the use of sword, lance and battle-axe. He took care of his lord’s armour, followed him to war, supplied him with fresh arms, dragged his body from the battlefield if he fell, and buried him if he were killed.
At the age of twenty-one, if he had served his lord well, the squire was judged eligible to receive the honour of knighthood. Many squires, however, remained devoted to their lords an entire lifetime.
Ceremony of Knighthood
That a knight’s sword should uphold the dignity of the Church as central to the notion of Christian chivalry and it was considered only proper that the ceremony which elevated him from the position of squire should be rich in religious symbolism.
The young man was expected to fast the day before his initiation and to spend the night in prayer. On the following morning, he was stripped of his clothing and taken to bathe for purification. He was then dressed in a red robe (symbolising the blood to be shed in the course of duty), and over this robe was placed a black doublet (symbolising the mortality of mankind).
After the high mass had been chanted the young man approached the alter and handed his sword to the bishop or priest. It was laid upon the alter and blessed.
The religious part of the ceremony completed, the candidate was led before the lord who intended to knight him. Once he had given a satisfactory response to the questions which challenged his motives in demanding the honour of chivalry, he was granted his knighthood.
The Code of Ethics
- Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches and shalt obey all her commandments.
- Thou shalt defend the Church.
- Thou shalt respect all weaknesses and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them.
- Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born.
- Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.
- Thou shalt make war against the infidel without cessation and without mercy.
- Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.
- Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to they pledged word. Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse to everyone.
- Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and Good against Injustice and Evil.


Updated: May 9
Since November 28, 2022, Pastor Ted Dudak has been preaching on the book called “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” During that time, he has mentioned and elaborated on Satan six times found in Rev 2:9, 3:9, 2:13, 2:14, 9:11, and 12:9-12. He is not finished yet. He will expose Satan again in 20:1-3, 20:7-8, and Rev 20:10.
Satan was first named Lucifer, which means shining one, light-bearer. ““How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” (Isaiah 14:12). Other translations show O Lucifer, son of the morning!
Ezekiel gives us the best account of how and why he was created by God:
“You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.” (Ezekiel 28:13–14)
Wow! Lucifer basically had it all. He was the perfection of wisdom and beauty as we find in Ezekiel 28:12. He was put in the holy mountain of God as a guardian for Eden. What happened? While a whole other topic, Lucifer, like all the angels and Adam and Eve at first had free will. He chose to sin against our Holy God as he let his pride take over. Pride is the original sin. Most every sin entails the sin of pride. I can just picture him standing atop that holy mountain and observing all he could see gave him that pride. Isaiah describes Lucifer’s process quite clearly: “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” (Isaiah 14:13–14). Once fallen, he and the third of the angels that fell with him have absolutely no chance of salvation. Thank God for sending Jesus in His plan of redemption for us.
We must guard ourselves against him for he possesses intelligence (2 Cor. 2:11; 11:3). He possesses memory (Matt. 4:6). He possesses a will (2 Tim. 2:26). He possesses desire (Luke 22:31). He possesses pride (1 Tim. 3:6). He possesses wrath (Rev. 12:12). He possesses great organizational ability (1 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 2:9, 24).
When used as a proper name, the Hebrew word so rendered has the article "the adversary." The Book of Job mentions Satan seven times within chapter 1:6-12 Chapter 2:1-7 again shows his name again, with the perfect number seven!
Satan is known by Twenty-Two other names in Scripture and those names are used in more than once. For example, we find in the New Testament it is used as interchangeable with Diabolos, or the devil, and is so used more than thirty times; He has twenty-one other names in the Scriptures; Satan (adversary), his most common name, used some 52 times; The devil (slanderer) used 35 times; The prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2); The god of this age (2 Cor. 4:4); The king of death (Heb. 2:14); The prince of this world (John 12:31); The ruler of darkness (Eph. 6:12); Leviathan (one who dwells in the sea of humanity) (Isa. 27:1); Lucifer (light-bearer, shining one) (Isa. 14:12); The dragon (Rev 12:7). The deceiver (Rev. 20:10); Apollyon (destroyer) (Rev. 9:11); Beelzebub (prince of demons) (Matt. 12:24); Belial (vileness, ruthlessness) (2 Cor. 6:15); The wicked one (Matt. 13:38); The tempter (1 Thess. 3:5); The accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10); An angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14–15); A liar (John 8:44; Gen. 3:4–5); A murderer (John 8:44); The enemy (Matt. 13:39) and A roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8).
Since his fall Satan knows his time is limited, as Pastor Ted covered: “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”” (Revelation 12:12)
Peter warns us: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) That someone(s) is all of us, especially Christians. He doesn’t have to go after the unbelievers; he already has them, yet he continues to deceive them to keep them from hearing the Word of God.
Satan prowling the earth, sows tares among God’s wheat. He is the instigator of many false doctrines, and perverts the Word of God. He hinders the works of God’s servants, especially His preachers and teachers as they diligently study His Word. As we find in Daniel 10:12-13, Satan resists the prayers of God’s servants. He blinds the unbelievers to the truth (2 Cor 4:4). In other scriptures, he lays snares for men; tempts them and afflicts them. He undermines the sanctity of the home (1 Cor 7:3-5). He prompts both saints and sinners to transgress against the holiness of God.
How can we stand against Satan and his armies? How can we avoid his snares, lies, traps, and the rest? By studying God’s Word (Logos) in the sixty-six books that He has provided - the Bible.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


Okay, I do not like this...I am starting to encounter some of the things that I heard my parents talk about. I have experienced a big disappointment. Don't get ideas, it isn't anything life changing or horrendous, but a kind of sadness that I couldn't have imagined. I don't really know even how to handle it. God gives us mercy, so I want to also have mercy and give mercy, but I also have to train, guide, discipline. How do you do both? I hate that I disappoint God this way, it makes me sad. I guess maybe that is why I am feeling this now, just so I have a hint of how much God loves us, despite how we've messed up. Thank you God for your grace.


Prioress Maria Capillas angles her fair face within a quadrant of the iron grille to better speak with her visitors at the Convent of St. Teresa in Valladolid, Spain.
“Our mission is to pray for everyone,” she says through an interpreter. “We have decided to follow the life of St. Teresa,” reaching her hand through the grille to emphasize her point, “her way.”
The convent, now of 12 cloistered sisters, was the fourth that Teresa founded in 1569. Generations of Barefoot Carmelite Sisters have followed her into the life of extreme poverty. Today, the sisters generate their small income by repairing furniture and crafting small souvenirs. So extreme is their dedication, in winter, they limit heat to an hour or two a day in the cold stone building.
As the patron saint of Spain, St. Teresa de Jesus always figures large in the nation’s spiritual life. But this year, the 500th anniversary of her birth in Avila, the country pauses to celebrate a singular woman who built an ecclesiastical empire within a nun’s constraints of humility and obedience.
“St. Teresa wasn’t always looking to heaven,” says guide Victoria Hernandez Vazquez during a visit to the convent of the Incarnation in Avila, Teresa’s home for 30 years. “She was an autodidact and a practical woman, a feminist woman, a business woman. These are the legacies of St. Teresa in our times.”
Mystic, Feminist, Renegade
Considered the first female founding religious, the mystic created 17 convents across Spain, mostly in the Castile and Leon region. They all continue today.
The sisters in Valladolid don’t wish to be photographed, but when they hand me a souvenir postcard, I look at it and wonder if they would mind replicating the pose—turning their backs on the camera. A few sisters graciously face away from the grille, and allow me to capture a tiny fragment of our time together.
Teresa founded nine convents in Castile and Leon, and the entire region is sponsoring more than 1,000 celebratory events this year to honor her. In a two-city exhibition that sweeps from her birthplace in Avila to her tomb in Alba de Tormes, curators of The Ages of Mankind have gathered an astonishing collection of paintings, sculpture and artifacts to tell her story. Allied churches and convents open their doors, too, to add new dimensions to the saint’s 67-year life on earth.
The exhibit is “Maestra de Oracion, Master of Prayer.” Teresa wrote that “Prayer and contemplation, if practiced with perfection, were the highest form of human activity.”
Teresa was a mystic. She had visions and levitated so high that she had to hold on to the nun’s grille of seclusion. Her fellow sisters would grab her habit to keep her closer to earth.
During this Teresian Jubilee Year, it’s easy to trace her footsteps in the vast region of Castile and Leon, northwest of Madrid. For a woman who wore simple hemp sandals and rode in a cart, she covered a lot of territory—a Papal Nuncio called her a “gadabout,” the people called her the Traveling Saint.
Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada was born March 28, 1515, to Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda and his second wife, Beatriz de Ahumada. There were eventually 12 children in the family.
Their house is gone, replaced by the Church and Convent of St. Teresa on the spot. Many people referred to Teresa as a saint in her lifetime, so after her death in 1582, they were quick to save her personal belongings and relics and sanctify sites associated with her. The Church and Convent built a gilded chapel on her birth site.
By the time Teresa as born, her family prospered by trading. Her grandfather, Juan Sanchez ,was a Jewish convert to Christianity in Toledo. Once the Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand cranked up the Inquisition, he was investigated and publicly shamed for “Judaizing.” To restore his reputation, Sanchez changed his name and moved to Avila. His descendants grew richer by each generation.
Eight days after Teresa’s birth, her proud family brought her to the Church of St. John the Baptist. The 13th-century stone font where she was christened is spotlighted in the Master of Prayer exhibit, along with dozens of paintings, sculptures as well as her habit and sandals.
A short walk away in the Mosen Rubi Chapel, the exhibition continues with a broader look at the Spain of Teresa’s time. She was born into the country’s Golden Age, after Isabella and Ferdinand united Spain, commissioned Christopher Columbus to set sail, blessed the Conquistadors on their way, and welcomed home unimaginable riches from the New World.
However, Catholicism was under attack from reformers such as Martin Luther in Germany. She wrote of “times so full of peril because of those (who had left the church)!”
Always a devout child, Teresa and her brother Rodrigo set out to fight the Moors from Spain. Their goal was to die beheaded as Christian martyrs. This was 1522, and she was 7—fortunately, their uncle stopped the mini-Crusaders on the edge of Avila.
Her mother died before Teresa turned 12, and she asked the Virgin Mary to become her mother. Her father put the 16-year-old in the Augustinian Convent of Our Lady of Grace as a boarder.
In 1533, Teresa fell ill and heard her calling, but her father didn’t approve. She had a “religious elopement” at age 20 to the Carmelite Convent of Incarnation just outside the walled city of Avila, a bit of inspired rebellion that would set her on the road to sainthood.
The Convent of Incarnation, now with 34 nuns in cloister, is a major pilgrimage stop this year. Teresa lived at the convent from 1535-62, then returned–against her wishes–as Prioress from 1571-74. During that break, she followed visions from God to found new, reform convents across Spain.
Incarnation shows visitors the parlors where St. Teresa levitated. The nuns saved a pillow she knelt on, a towel she embroidered, a letter she wrote and the key to her cell. They even have a fragment of her white wimple (nun’s headdress that covers the neck, head and sides of the face).
“She didn’t find what she was looking for,” said guide Victoria Hernandez Vazquez during a visit to the convent of the Incarnation in Avila. She tired of receiving visitors from Avila and of giving advice to her sisters. Advice giving was, Teresa wrote of herself later, “a very common temptation with beginners.”
She yearned for the life of contemplative prayer, “to empty the mind of normal thought,” scholar Stephen Clissold wrote, “in preparation for the infusion of divine enlightenment.”
She also wanted the extreme poverty of the Barefoot—Discalced— Nuns. She wore a coarse wool habit, mended again and again, in the brown of the Carmelites, topped by a white wool cape. Her sandals were rough hemp They are all on display in the Mosen Rubi Chapel.
Against great opposition, Teresa worked to found her first reform convent, St. Joseph in Avila. Always in ill health, she recovered from three years of paralysis, she believed through the intercession of St. Joseph. She later took him as her patron.
In 1562, she founded the Convent of St. Joseph, a small house for 13 sisters, sanctioned by Pope Paul IV. The nuns shared one blanket and one frying pan.
The city’s other convents and monasteries feared competition for alms and charities, and even the Inspector of Fountains claimed the new house would interfere with the water supply. The Town Council pounded on the doors and demanded the nuns surrender.
But she persevered, and the convent stands today.
Medina del Campo
Soon, Teresa was called to found her second house in Medina del Campo, a city associated with another dynamic woman, Isabella of Castile.
She and her small band of supporters arrived at midnight to the brick building that was little more than a hovel. They cleaned and set up a makeshift chapel and Teresa rang the bell to summon her sisters to Mass by St. John of the Cross. Once a building had been sanctified by a Mass, it was nearly impossible for her opponents to dismantle the new convent.
At the convent in Medina del Campo, Teresa often met with St. John of the Cross, the priest who carried out Carmelite reforms for the friars. They collaborated for years, and their relics are often displayed side by side.
The nuns saved Teresa’s early bell, some of her writings and even a piece of her flesh
The most remarkable treasure, though, is the tiny cell that Teresa used during her 13 visits to the convent. No more than 10’x10’, the room became a chapel in 1682, and every inch has been lovingly decorated. Someone added a dome and oculus (round window) for the woman who often looked heavenward.
Throughout her travels, Teresa wrote. More than 2,000 pages of her original manuscripts survive.
“She was the first woman writing in Spanish about mystical subjects,” says Vazquez. “Before, it was only men, and only in Latin. The Castillian language was just forming.”
Some of her writings, especially of her mystic experiences that her priestly confessors demanded she record, brought her under suspicion of the Inquisition. They examined her, and once confined her to her cell for three years. Undaunted, she used the time to pray and write.
Alba de Tormes
Teresa’s earthly work was nearing its end, yet she traveled on. With a broken arm and weak heart, she jostled along to Alba de Tormes. She had founded the Annunciation Convent in 1571. It was to be her final resting place.
Nine nuns now live in cloister here, welcoming pilgrims who want to see her gilt coffin high above the altar and, up the stairs through the museum, the reliquaries (containers for holy relics) on either side of the coffin. One holds her heart, the other her arm.
“We aren’t able to put ourselves 500 years ago,” said Vazquez, “so we can’t understand what these relics meant to people.” To have a piece of Teresa meant everything.
During her life, people often commented on Teresa’s lovely smell. Even though her teeth were rotten, those who knew her said her breath smelled pleasant, like musk.
After death, some said Teresa’s sweet smell persisted. She was disinterred five times over the years, displayed and dismembered for relics.
Avila asked for her body for burial, but it was there only nine months before the powerful Duke of Alba wrested it back for Alba de Tormes. Avila took one of her hands, which is now in Portugal. The other is in Southern Spain.
In 1591, the Bishop of Salamanca wanted to see the condition of the saint’s body. It was then that the heart was removed for its own reliquary.
St. Teresa’s spiritual reach far transcends mere geography. Faithful around the world call upon this capable woman, an entrepreneur and feminist centuries ahead of her time. And every Friday at the Convent of St. Teresa in Vallodolid, Prioress Maria Capillas and her eight fellow Carmelites pray for St. Teresa as her spiritual descendants have since 1569. — Story and photos by Betsa Marsh, RFT Contributor
If You Go
The Master of Prayer exhibition continues in Avila and Alba de Tormes through Nov. 30. The convents founded by St. Teresa have open hours for the public. For more information, turismocastillayleon.com/turismocyl/en


This was my first official Mother's Day. First my boys made me dinner and then gave me some of my favorite chocolates. I have such a wonderful little family, they make me so happy.
Since our anniversary is so close to Mother's day I get to celebrate the 2 most wonderful things that have ever happened to me:
The day I married Willie.
Willie is such a wonderful husband and father. He cares about the things in life that really matter. He is sensible and has his priorities straight. He is everything I ever wanted in a husband.
The moment they handed me Paul for the first time.
I love this little boy so much. The love I have for him is so great it has helped me understand how much Heavenly Father loves us. He has been such a blessing. He is a fun, happy baby. I couldn't be happier:)


So I feel like I haven't written in awhile and I know my biggest fan & supporter checks back daily for something and while I really have no particular topic in mind I thought I would just write. See where it takes me. And I guess ask your forgiveness if this is all over the place. Or maybe I will just write about gratitude today. Because it is with much gratitude for one of my bestest, bestest friends that I am typing today. My friend without whom I could not have gotten through this past couple of years and someone who so selflessly gives of herself on a daily basis that if the world was filled with her clone would be probably a place that Jesus would be proud of!! ( I know wrong religion, but just referring to his teachings on the way we should treat others. :)
Do you have people like that in your life, that you are grateful for? Do you tell them often? It's amazing how far a little support and kind words can go. I thank God daily for the wonderful friends and family I have in my life.
And what about all the people in our lives that we love, our friends and family even those we may have some anger toward. Are you still grateful for them in your life? I got a letter today from a friend's mom talking about her husband who recently passed.She talked about all of the things in life that made him happy, and she included a copy of "What Have You Learned in Life" and she had highlighted for us the things that her husband had highlighted. I would like to share them too.
I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.
I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.
I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
I've learned that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others. Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
I've learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.
I've learned that the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.
And on that note and in memory of my friend's dad, I will aspire to let go of anger and replace it with love, for you truly never know how much time you have with people. God bless everyone.


Lay Minister Jonathan Richard Mark Green (53) of St Paul’s has just been ordained a Deacon.
Bishop Dale Bowers ordained ‘Johnny’ Green during a Sung Mass and Ordination to the Diaconate, which took place in the Cathedral of St Paul Sunday afternoon, May 17.
Approximately 90 invited guests showed up to witness the event.
This was the first ordination of a deacon in the Diocese of St Helena since Deacon ‘Bobby’ Crowie was ordained in St Mark’s Church, Longwood in March 2018.
Johnny was prepared for the procedure at Farm Lodge, St Paul’s between Monday and Friday last week. The spiritual retreat included meditation and interviews by church leaders including Bishop Dale.
Johnny became St Helena’s newest deacon last Sunday, but has not yet been licensed. Bishop Dale told the congregation he would licence Johnny among his own congregation in the parish where Johnny will officiate.
Deacons have a vital role in the life and health of the local church.
From the lectern the new Deacon thanked everyone who had assisted him “through this wonderful journey.” Special thanks were given to his wife, Debra and their son, Kristian.
Johnny told The Sentinel that his introduction to the church was in his teenage years, when he became a member of the Church Lads Brigade – he served as an altar boy and crucifer at St Paul's Cathedral.
He travelled to Ascension Island in March 1985 to take up employment with Cable & Wireless PLC.
“During my time on the island I became a keen member of St Mary's Church,” Johnny said. “I was nominated as a PCC member and later as a Church Warden.”
In 2013, “after much thought,” Johnny decided to take on the role of Lay Minister.
“It has never been far from my mind about moving on even further in the church, but I was also enjoying my job with SURE as a Networks Technician, which was always my priority,” he said.
In September that year Johnny was licensed as a Lay Minister by Bishop Richard Fenwick. He had received local training with Fr Don Wittich and Fr Jack Horner.
Johnny said that he will soon start his higher certificate in theology with TEE College.
Johnny returned to St Helena with his family in January 2018, “so that our son Kristian could continue his schooling on the island.”
Johnny had been transferred as a Networks Technician from Ascension and happily continued with his duties at SURE. He also continued with his ministry in various churches around the island, and grew more involved.
In November 2019 Johnny, along with Lay Minister Ernest Fritz, was given the opportunity by Bishop Dale to travel to Cape Town to attend a 'Growing the Church Training Conference.'
“This inspired me even further, and I knew that I wanted to dedicate my time to the life and work of the church,” Johnny said.
Deacon Johnny assisted Bishop Dale with the communion at the Cathedral on Sunday, May 17. As a Lay Minister, Johnny was already licensed to assist with the chalice and to preach and take funeral services.
“Since becoming a Deacon, I can now do marriages and baptisms also,” Deacon Johnny said.
Because of the Covid-19 measures being practiced in churches currently, a “spiritual communion” took place, and the ‘sign of the peace’ was offered by waving to each other as opposed to shaking hands.
The first hymn sung was Be Thou My Vision and the last was Be Thou the Glory. After the service had concluded people from the congregation greeted Deacon Johnny in the sanctuary.
Lay Minister Ernest Fritz of Sandy Bay had also prepared himself for ordination, but Bishop Dale on Sunday announced that Ernest had picked up an infection and been hospitalised. His ordination would be carried out later, Bishop Dale said.


My current blog series is Followers of the Cross, found here: followersofthecross.wordpress.com.
Followers of the Cross contains stories on Christian movies, books, music and other multimedia projects. Many of these stories feature original interviews with the creative forces on projects. Examples are Jordan Feliz, Jason Gray and the writer of the movie adaptation of “The Case For Christ.”
An older blog is Tennessee Christian News. It has turned into a companion to Followers of the Cross but has older stories and links to news of the day with a Christian worldview.


I ran out of time to finish talking about the Church camps. Anyone reading this who has never experienced these events may find what I say a bit strange and not be able to relate to it very well, so, I'll try to explain things in detail as I go along.
In the last posting I talked about where we held the camps. I should talk about why? and also refer to what goes on?
Why? Easy question and easy answer. The Church camps give an opportunity for Christians, either members of our Church or those associated with it, to get together for a concerted and focused time of thought, reflection, teaching, prayer and opportunity to get help with issues and problems in our lives that are causing us trouble (this could be anything from those who haven't yet made a decision to follow Jesus Christ and are looking for the experience of forgiveness of sins and receiving God into there lives [a very, very real experience] or those seeking the experience I mentioned before called the baptism of the Holy Spirit (a second experience for Christians [see Acts 2 in the Bible] in which a powerful filling of the Holy Spirit takes place with the associated experience given to "speak in other tongues") to those who have drug or alcohol addictions or been involved in the occult or witchcraft and feel a shadow has entered their lives and are looking for God to remove this from them and set them free. If you're reading this and haven't heard anything like this before, then could I refer you to the first Christian book I ever read called The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson. You'll find a lot will make sense after you read that. (Available from Amazon, etc).
What? What takes place? There are 'meetings' (services) morning and evening with a mixture of Bible teaching/exposition and prayer (mornings) and a preaching-type meeting in the evening, often with the opportunity to respond and come for prayer afterwards. Examples of sermons are available for download here. In the afternoons, there are often activities for children/young people, or after lunch the more mature among us go for a long nap!


Christianity congealed over time by collecting and affirming texts, interpreting those texts, establishing its self-government, affirming traditions, and approving creeds.
This process began with the life of Jesus and continued as his apostles spread the gospel. The content of that gospel was wrestled with during the proto-orthodox period culminating in the 4th century at the councils of Nicea and Constantinople and the clarification of the canon of the holy scripture.
This is historic Christianity. It is what Christianity became, and then was passed down from generation to generation in the tradition of the church.
Protestants and evangelicals claim to be the arbiters of true Christian faith by appealing to the sole divinity of the Bible while simultaneously disregarding the tradition that birthed it.
This doesn’t work. It makes the faith susceptible to at least three problems.
The first is historical and scientific accusations that tear down its divinity. Because there is no authority to say what the Bible is, except the Bible itself. Defining the Bible as divine is completely arbitrary. So if it has flaws, how can it be considered divine?
The second is the lack of a hermeneutical rule that provides boundaries to its interpretation. As a consequence, Protestantism is splintered into thousands of pieces, each claiming to be authoritative. Many people’s faith is a fierce individualism: “jesus, the Bible and me.” All the while Christianity becoming increasingly irrelevant as seculars see through the charade.
Third, Christianity can’t be known without practicing it. Western Christianity gave us absolutely no tools for spirituality, and as a consequence devolved into a rationalistic dualism. “Spirit” couldn’t be known, because it wasn’t scientific, therefore it was relegated to a ghetto.
My conclusion, and the trajectory of my religion. We cannot pluck the Bible out of the context of the church that birthed it, manifest in the Orthodox Church.
If we are going to separate the Bible from the tradition that birthed it, as Protestants do, we have no option but to approach them as nothing more than historical documents. But when we do so, and I believe it is appropriate, we must apply the same rigor we do to other historical documents. And accept the consequences of those discoveries, even as they tear down its authority as a divine document.
But if we choose to approach the Bible as divine, we have to accept the decisions of the early church fathers as divine. And there is no justification to limit those decisions to the canon. If the canon is divine, so are the decisions of the councils. And their theology. And their practices of worship. And the heir to that tradition is the Orthodox Church.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with concluding that the Bible, the councils and church fathers aren’t divine. That’s a matter of faith.
But I feel you can’t consider the Bible divine, as Protestants and evangelicals do, without taking very serious the early church fathers, the councils, early christian theology, and early church worship practices.
The more I explore that, it doesn’t look anything like western Christianity.


The St Joan Of Arc brand was created to play homage to a symbolic icon but with a modern aesthetic twist to reflect the schools position as forward thinking.
St Joan of Arc is a co-educational parish primary school in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Brighton. By way of background Joan of Arc was first given armorial bearings by Charles VII in 1429 as recognition of her exploits in battle and service to France. The design contained two fleur-de-lis "in a field azure" (meaning on a French royal blue background) with a sword between them supporting a crown.
For centuries the Joan of Arc Coat of Arms has been represented in various forms but all tied centrally with the common elements first depicted by Charles VII.
The St Joan of Arc Catholic Primary School Logo has been designed to pay homage to this historically important symbol recognising the status of St Joan of Arc as a Catholic Church icon whilst presenting the school in a modern aesthetic to reflect the Schools position as a modern and forward thinking educational institution.


Posting our evening intention/prayer for those who wish to join.
Dear God of All,
We come together tonight to give thanks. Thanks be for keeping us safe
as we have traveled this road together in the world.
Thanks be for the protection, wisdom and comfort given.
We come with a simple prayer tonight. No fancy words. The prayer is simply "Help".
Please help us find the answers to this virus;
Help us and our families stay safe; help our Nation and the World heal.
Help those who have requested prayer from us and give them your protection, love and healing.
We ask you hear our intentions and prayers this night.


was a Dutch philosopher and Christian scholar who is considered to have been one of the greatest scholars of the northern Renaissance. As a Catholic priest, he was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a pure Latin style. Among humanists he enjoyed the sobriquet “Prince of the Humanists”, and has been called “the crowning glory of the Christian humanists”. Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free Will, In Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.
Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation. He remained a member of the Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the Church and its clerics’ abuses from within. He also held to the doctrine of synergism, which some Reformers (Calvinists) rejected in favor of the doctrine of monergism. His middle-road (via media) approach disappointed, and even angered, scholars in both camps.
Erasmus died suddenly in Basel in 1536 while preparing to return to Brabant and was buried in Basel Minster, the former cathedral of the city.
Desiderius Erasmus is reported to have been born in Rotterdam on 28 October in the late 1460s. He was named after Saint Erasmus of Formiae, whom Erasmus’s father Gerard personally favored. A 17th-century legend has it that Erasmus was first named Geert Geerts (also Gerhard Gerhards or Gerrit Gerritsz), but this is unfounded. A well-known wooden picture indicates: Goudæ conceptus, Roterodami natus (Latin for Conceived in Gouda, born in Rotterdam). According to an article by historian Renier Snooy (1478–1537), Erasmus was born in Gouda.
The exact year of his birth is controversial but most agree it was in 1466. The Virtual International Authority File reveals the standard dates favoured by various national authorities Evidence confirming the year of Erasmus’s birth in 1466 can be found in his own words: fifteen out of twenty-three statements he made about his age indicate 1466. Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for only four years, never to return afterwards. Information on his family and early life comes mainly from vague references in his writings. His parents were not legally married. His father, Gerard, was a Catholic priest and curate in Gouda. His mother was Margaretha Rogerius (Latinized form of Dutch surname Rutgers) the daughter of a doctor from Zevenbergen. She may have been Gerard’s housekeeper. Although he was born out of wedlock, Erasmus was cared for by his parents until their early deaths from the Plague in 1483. This solidified his view of his origin as a stain and cast a pall over his youth.
Erasmus was given the highest education available to a young man of his day, in a series of monastic or semi-monastic schools. In 1475, at the age of nine, he and his older brother Peter were sent to one of the best Latin schools in the Netherlands, located at Deventer and owned by the chapter clergy of the Lebuïnuskerk (St Lebuin’s Church), though some earlier biographies assert it was a school run by the Brethren of the Common Life. During his stay there the curriculum was renewed by the principal of the school, Alexander Hegius. For the first time ever in Europe, Greek was taught at a lower level than a university and this is where he began learning it. He also gleaned there the importance of a personal relationship with God but eschewed the harsh rules and strict methods of the religious brothers and educators. His education there ended when plague struck the city about 1483, and his mother, who had moved to provide a home for her sons, died from the infection.
Ordination and monastic experience
Most likely in 1487, poverty forced Erasmus into the consecrated life as a canon regular of St. Augustine at the canonry of Stein, in South Holland. He took vows there in late 1488 and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood on 25 April 1492. It is said that he never seemed to have actively worked as a priest for a long time, and certain abuses in religious orders were among the chief objects of his later calls to reform the Church from within.
While at Stein, Erasmus supposedly fell in love with a fellow canon, Servatius Rogerus, and wrote a series of passionate letters in which he called Rogerus “half my soul,” writing that “I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly.” This correspondence contrasts sharply with the generally detached and much more restrained attitude he showed in his later life. Later, while tutoring in Paris, he was suddenly dismissed by the guardian of Thomas Grey. Some have taken this as evidence of an illicit affair. No personal denunciation was made of Erasmus during his lifetime, however, and he took pains in later life to distance these earlier episodes by condemning sodomy in his works, and praising sexual desire in marriage between men and women.
Soon after his priestly ordination, he got his chance to leave the canonry when offered the post of secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai, Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters. To allow him to accept that post, he was given a temporary dispensation from his religious vows on the grounds of poor health and love of humanistic studies, though he remained a priest. Pope Leo X later made the dispensation permanent, a considerable privilege at the time.
Education and scholarship
In 1495, with Bishop Henry’s consent and a stipend, Erasmus went on to study at the University of Paris in the Collège de Montaigu, a centre of reforming zeal, under the direction of the ascetic Jan Standonck, of whose rigors he complained. The university was then the chief seat of Scholastic learning but already coming under the influence of Renaissance humanism. For instance, Erasmus became an intimate friend of an Italian humanist Publio Fausto Andrelini, poet and “professor of humanity” in Paris.
In 1499 he was invited to England by William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy, who offered to accompany him on his trip to England. According to Thomas Penn, Erasmus was “ever susceptible to the charms of attractive, well-connected, and rich young men”. His time in England was fruitful in the making of lifelong friendships with the leaders of English thought in the days of King Henry VIII: John Colet, Thomas More, John Fisher, Thomas Linacre and William Grocyn. At the University of Cambridge, he was the Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity and turned down the option of spending the rest of his life as a professor there. Erasmus stayed at Queens’ College, from 1510 to 1515. His rooms were located in the “I” staircase of Old Court, and he showed a marked disdain for the ale and weather of England.
Erasmus suffered from poor health and complained that Queens’ College could not supply him with enough decent wine (wine was the Renaissance medicine for gallstones, from which Erasmus suffered). Until the early 20th century, Queens’ College used to have a corkscrew that was purported to be “Erasmus’s corkscrew”, which was a third of a metre long; as of 1987, the college still had what it calls “Erasmus’s chair”. Today Queens’ College also has an Erasmus Building and an Erasmus Room. His legacy is marked for someone who complained bitterly about the lack of comforts and luxuries to which he was accustomed. As Queens’ was an unusually humanist-leaning institution in the 16th century, Queens’ College Old Library still houses many first editions of Erasmus’s publications, many of which were acquired during that period by bequest or purchase, including Erasmus’s New Testament translation, which is signed by friend and Polish religious reformer Jan Łaski. From 1505 to 1508 Erasmus’s friend, Chancellor John Fisher, was president of Queens’ College. His friendship with Fisher is the reason he chose to stay at Queens’ while lecturing in Greek at the university.
During his first visit to England in 1499, he taught at the University of Oxford. Erasmus was particularly impressed by the Bible teaching of John Colet, who pursued a style more akin to the church fathers than the Scholastics. This prompted him, upon his return from England, to master the Greek language, which would enable him to study theology on a more profound level and to prepare a new edition of Jerome’s late-4th century Bible translation. On one occasion he wrote to Colet:
I cannot tell you, dear Colet, how I hurry on, with all sails set, to holy literature. How I dislike everything that keeps me back, or retards me.
Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in learning Greek by an intensive, day-and-night study of three years, continuously begging in letters that his friends send him books and money for teachers. Discovery in 1506 of Lorenzo Valla’s New Testament Notes encouraged Erasmus to continue the study of the New Testament.
Erasmus preferred to live the life of an independent scholar and made a conscious effort to avoid any actions or formal ties that might inhibit his freedom of intellect and literary expression. Throughout his life, he was offered positions of honor and profit in academia but declined them all, preferring the uncertain but sufficient rewards of independent literary activity. He did however assist his friend John Colet by authoring Greek textbooks and procuring members of staff for the newly established St Paul’s School. From 1506 to 1509, he was in Italy: in 1506 he graduated as Doctor of Divinity from the University of Turin, and he spent part of the time as a proofreader at the publishing house of Aldus Manutius in Venice. According to his letters, he was associated with the Venetian natural philosopher, Giulio Camillo, but apart from this he had a less active association with Italian scholars than might have been expected.
His residence at Leuven, where he lectured at the University, exposed Erasmus to much criticism from those ascetics, academics and clerics hostile to the principles of literary and religious reform and to the loose norms of the Renaissance adherents to which he was devoting his life. In 1517, he supported the foundation at the university, by his friend Hieronymus van Busleyden, of the Collegium Trilingue for the study of Hebrew, Latin, and Greek – after the model of the College of the Three Languages at the University of Alcalá. However, feeling that the lack of sympathy that prevailed at Leuven at that time was actually a form of mental persecution, he sought refuge in Basel, where under the shelter of Swiss hospitality he could express himself freely. Admirers from all quarters of Europe visited him there and he was surrounded by devoted friends, notably developing a lasting association with the great publisher Johann Froben.
Only when he had mastered Latin did he begin to express himself on major contemporary themes in literature and religion. He felt called upon to use his learning in a purification of doctrine by returning to the historic documents and original languages of sacred scripture. He tried to free the methods of scholarship from the rigidity and formalism of medieval traditions, but he was not satisfied with this. His revolt against certain forms of Christian monasticism and scholasticism was not based on doubts about the truth of doctrine, nor from hostility to the organization of the Church itself, nor from rejection of celibacy or monastic lifestyles. Aloof from entangling obligations, Erasmus was the centre of the literary movement of his time, corresponding with more than five hundred men in the worlds of politics and of thought.


We all know the A.A. prayer or Serenity Prayer, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.” While I am not an alcoholic, I find a lot of comfort in this prayer. It is relevant in any aspect of life.
Have you had times in your life when you did everything “right” and all you could to achieve success, but it did not pan out as you hoped or expected? I know I have. These times when you know there was nothing more you could do to change the outcome are the hardest disappointments to overcome.
That is where this prayer comes in. Whether you pray or not, there is comfort in knowing that you can always accept the things you cannot change and change the things you can. However, the acceptance part is the hardest.
Accepting what you cannot understand at the moment seems impossible. So much of the time, for us to accept things that we cannot change we want explanations and practical reasons. Unfortunately, we do not always get that validation.
So, we have to focus on other things. Take other parts of your life into your own hands. You have control over much more of your life than not. It is important to let this fact comfort you and help you move on. It is likely that in time you will find clarity and validation in the things you could not change in the past.
Remember not to let life’s disappointments get you down. Sometimes things do not make sense. Sometimes you have to blindly accept what you cannot change and move forward.


Welcome Fellowship after all Masses
Date and Time
Saturday, Jul 27, 2019 - Sunday, Jul 28, 2019
4:00 PM - 12:30 PM
July 27: after 4 PM Mass
July 28: after all Masses (9 AM; 11 AM; 12:30 PM)
Fr. Steny's Farewell Potluck Party
For men and women
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Rev. John McClean
Rev. John McClean is the Vise Principal of Christ College (Formerly Presbyterian Theological Centre).
John became the Interim Moderator of GracePoint Church in 2017, after it was transferred from Sydney Presbytery to Hawksbury Presbytery. Prior to the transfer, Rev C.S. Tang was the Interim Moderator between 2014 and 2017 after Senior Minister Rev. Dennis Law retired in 2014.
Rev. Dennis Law
Consultant Minister & Founding Pastor
Phone: 0414 812 776
Rev. Dr. Dennis Law, born in Canton, China and raised in Brunei and Hong Kong, was called to be a pastor while he was studying theology. Dennis pastored several churches Hong Kong and Sydney including Chinese Presbyterian Church. He was also called to establish this church. His vision is to build a “Spiritual Family” for all Chinese Christians of all ages, with the hope that all may find it a warm spiritual home. The second part of his vision is to set up the church as a “Training Base for Evangelism and Missions” so that members may be equipped to obey the Great Commission by making disciples for Christ. Raised in a pastor’s family and married to a pastor’s daughter, Dorcas, Dennis has three grown up daughters who are deeply involved in Christian ministries.
Dennis has retired from the pastoral ministry in 2014 and now he is a Consultant Minister of this church. He is also serving in Chinese Theological College Australia as Principal.
Rev. Edwin Kwok
Associate Minister & Chinese Congregation Lead Pastor
Phone: 0416 199 307
Edwin was born in Hong Kong and studied dentistry in the Philippines where he accepted Christ as his saviour. He migrated to Australia in 1984 and worked as a dentist in a private practice. Edwin was baptised in Chinese Presbyterian Church. He helped planting a church in Chatswood and served there between 1997 and 2010. He finished his Master of Divinity study at Presbyterian Theological Centre in 2010 and joined GracePoint Chinese Presbyterian Church in 2011 as a part-time pastor. Edwin was ordained as Minister in 2013 and in the same year he sold his dental practice. He started to serve full-time in the following year. In 2014 Edwin was inducted as the Chinese Associate Minister of this church. In the same year, Edwin was appointed as the Lead Pastor of the Chinese Congregation by Interim Moderator Rev. C.S. Tang. Edwin has two adult sons and his wife is serving with him in GracePoint.
Ps. Andrew Tung
Phone: 0410 513 580
Andrew was born in Malaysia and raised up in Singapore and Hong Kong. In 1993, Andrew and his family moved to Sydney. Andrew committed to Christ during his university studies and subsequently served in his university fellowship, where he was called upon by God to serve in full time ministry in his second year. After graduating from university, Andrew worked as a structural engineer and commenced theological studies at Moore College. In 2009 he started serving in Burwood Chinese Presbyterian Church as a student minister. After he finished his theological studies in 2011, he became a pastor in GracePoint Chinese Presbyterian Church. Andrew is married and he is serving with his wife together in the GracePoint Cantonese Service.
Ps. Jacky Man
Phone: 0424 640 867
Ps. Barry Bai
Phone: 0433 761 207
Ps. Lisa Huang
Phone: 0431 461 258
Ps. Wilkin Ho
Voluntary Cantonese Pastor
Phone: 0414 668 198
Ps. Lane Sun
Bonnyrigg Mandarin Pastor
Phone: 0421 998 868
Ps. Steve Ryman
Bonnyrigg English Pastor
Phone: 0424 822 263
Ps. Peter Hughes
Phone: 0404 949 190
Peter was born and raised in Sydney’s inner west and has been part of GracePoint church since 2000. After many years working in the banking industry, Peter left full time work to study for his M.Div at Sydney Missionary and Bible College (SMBC). He now serves as the Youth Pastor for GracePoint Church. He oversees a team of leaders responsible for teaching, leading and guiding a group of high school students that meet in the fellowship called Extreme every Sunday morning from 11:30am at Lidcombe. In his free time, Peter enjoys reading, cycling, swimming and hanging around with friends.
Parish Worker (Honorary): Mrs Rosemary Wong
Parish Worker (Honorary): Mr Tim Fok
Parish Worker (Honorary): Ms Vicky Lin
Parish Worker (Honorary): Mr Philip Chan
For information about the pastoral team of the GracePoint English Congregation, please visit http://www.gracepoint.org.au


All Saints' Sunday Nov. 3; we welcome our newly baptized.
9 Williams Street • Clinton, New York 13323
Rev. Timothy Reger
Services Saturday 4 pm and Sunday 9:30am
Nursery provided during our Sunday services.
Advent and Christmas services; click here...
Order Christmas Flowers using the envelopes in the pews or by calling the church office, 853-5359. Suggested donation, $20; deadline December 17.
Advent Vespers - Dec 12 & 19, 6:45 p.m. Join us in the Parish Hall for these 30 min candle-lit services. Scripture will be read and Advent hymns sung. Special music is provided by a quartet of singers.
Visit us (map)
St. James is located at 9 Williams Street in Clinton, NY.
St. James is a community where we come together in Christ to develop spiritually; find opportunities for outreach; receive comfort when in need; and engage in sacred experiences through our liturgy, music, fellowship, and mutual ministry.
Also collecting small unopened toiletries for Hope House; place in baskets in back of the church or in lobby.
St. James now offers "Singing Rooster" Haitian Arabica Blue Mountain coffee; supporting farmers, increasing sustainability and helping fund hot school lunches.


Nigerian Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that Christianity is above everything because he already had a blueprint for the transformation of the nation long before his emergence as running mate to President Muhammadu Buhari for the 2015 presidential election.
Mr. Osinbajo said his proposed pathway for the development of Nigeria was developed with other other two pastors, Ituah Ighodalo and Kemela Okara.
The Acting President made the statement at the 7th anniversary celebration of Trinity House in Lagos.
Osinbajo maintained that the Senior Pastor of the church, Ighodalo, who he described as a politician, held several meetings in Lagos him and Okara with the aim of fashioning out a way forward for Nigeria.
“We were just committed to the idea that Christianity itself is a force for change, for transforming nations, men and women and for doing those things God has called us to do, namely disciplining the nations.
“Christianity is above everything; Christianity believes that the means of transforming nations are not controlled by the flesh and so, we agreed that unlike any other set of beliefs, Christianity calls up to sacrifice in order to transform.
“And so, we are enjoined to love our neighbours, to pray for those who despise us and pray for those we should condemn; even when we know that some would want us to fall, we are meant to pray for them and not to revenge.
“The compelling power of the gospel of Jesus Christ has not been because Christians confronted others by physical force.
“It has been because Christians had confronted others with love and compassion and with the strength of grace behind them; and that is what will change our nation and that is what will change the world.
“That is the fundamental of the Trinity Accord,” Osinbajo emphasised, urging the crowd at the Trinity House not to be surprised as to where the Lord is taking Pastor Ighodalo.


Tonight, we had an all staff party here on the St. Louis campus! It was a night full of laughter and spending time together. It’s not often that all the staff for every program and department are in the same place.
To start the night, we played a few games. Musical chairs got quite intense and a few started scheming how to cheat so they could steal the chairs away from others. We also played the balloon stomp. It was hilarious how everyone got so into it. Each person had a balloon tied to their ankle and they had to stomp out everyone else’s balloon without theirs getting popped.
After we played a few games, we spent some time talking about 2016 and where God was leading us. The missionary staff have been doing the theme of “Boldness” this year. Boldness in what we ask God to do, boldness in our willingness to serve God, and boldness in how we love others. We wanted to share that idea with all of the Haitian staff and make it our “theme” for the year. With being bold, means coming before God with courage and faith, without reservation. We decided a tangible way to be bold in our prayers this year was to “draw the circle.” We drew a huge circle and hung it in the common area. Tonight, we all took the time to fill that circle with our prayers for 2016. Our prayers for the programs, for the ministries, for our lives, for our community, and for how God can use us to advance His kingdom in St. Louis du Nord and the Northwest zone. Watching our Haitian staff fill in the circle was a humbling thing. They are asking big things for God this year and together, we will join in praying that God would work in his mighty way! I think we were all quickly reminded that God has surrounded us with some incredible family members who love Him and love His people.
After our time circling this mission, the ministry, and this community, we spent some more time laughing as a family together. We played hot potato, which got to be quite the competition. Everyone was very focused on the game. We ended the evening with a dance-off between several staff members! Some of them have some serious moves.
We ended the night with a nice meal and were able to send everyone home with a small gift, which just a small token of our appreciation for how hard they work alongside us.
We had a great time praying together and laughing together. We are excited to see where the Lord leads us this. We hope that you will join us in praying BIG, BOLD things for our ministry in 2016!