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Legend has it that Saints Simon and Jude traveled to Persia together where they were both martyred. This may explain why they share the same feast day: October 28.
Saint Jude aka Judas Thaddaeus, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus is the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes. Venerated by millions of people worldwide, he is believed to have miraculous powers, and his intercession is often sought for difficult or seemingly impossible situations. His feast day is October 28.
The Incredibly Shrinking Wholesome Entertainment Industry, Matched Only by the Incredibly Christian Persecution and Incredible Declining Church Attendance and record profits for the entertainment industry.
Not too long ago we could safely plan a family outing without worring the children would exposed to indecent behavior whether at the movies, an NFL game, a baseball game. a women's soccer game, an Olympic sports event or even a high school sporting event. No longer.
Dodgers Mocking The Catholic Faith Not Sitting Well
Pew Research uses Progressives' Logic - in 2020 Kamala Harris got 0% of the primary vote. In 2024 Kamala Harris got zero percent of the primary vote, therefore President Trump must be fascist! - to conclude that the Incredibly shrinking church attendance must be driven by the increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation
- as opposed to an incredibly increasing Christian persecution. It's like saying the US Justice System dispenses justice. It doesnt. The Justice System under Democrats isnt about Justice. It's about social control. It's more like subliminally forced conversion.
The Shrinking Wholesome Entertainment - The Christian Persecution
AntiCatholic NYT in covering Pope Francis Dilexit nos, it does a Kamala and can't even say Jesus Christ.
Paris 2024 break silence on Olympic opening ceremony controversy as organizers apologize after Christians slammed spectacle for woke parody of the Last Supper
From Christian persecution in India, China, Ukraine, Europe and the USA, the Christian persecutions rival the ones during the early Roman persecutions.
Is it a sutprise Hollywood Flocks to Kamala: Keep The Rule Of Pedophilia Alive! As J. K. Rowling writes: "We must not publish a study that says we're harming children because people who say we're harming children will use the study as evidence that we are harming children, which might make it difficult for us to continue harming children."
Pagan practices such as making sacrifices to the deified emperors or other gods were abhorrent to Christians as their beliefs prohibited idolatry. The state and other members of civic society punished Christians for treason, various rumored crimes, illegal assembly, and for introducing an alien cult that led to Roman apostasy
The Growing Morally Bankrupt Entertainment Industry
The content streaming from Hollywood has, devolved in recent decades, with sex, violence, racy, antiChristian content increasingly permeating our entertainment. But it is not just Hollywood, but the whole entertainment industry, including professional sports, seeping into college and even high school sports, more notably football.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, driven by growth in online advertising and live events, global entertainment and media revenue is expected to grow 3.9% annually on average over the next five years, jumping from $2.8 trillion in 2023 to $3.4 trillion in 2028. Ad sales will hit $1 trillion in 2026, and will account for more than half of the industry’s total revenue growth over the next five years.
Live entertainment, including sports and concerts, are also gaining momentum. Global tours of pop stars, from Taylor Swift to Coldplay, and the opening of the Sphere in Las Vegas boosted live music sales by 26% in 2023.
Gaming will remain one of the fastest growing sectors and is projected to top $300 billion in 2028.
Meanwhile the porn industry generates more income than the combined revenues of ABC, NBC, and CBS and more than the combined revenues of NFL, NBA, and MLB. In the USA, the porn industry generates between $15 billion – $97 billion a year. Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography.
Consider more people view internet pornography every month than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined. In 2016, people watched 4.6 billion hours of pornography at just one of the more than 42 million pornographic websites. That’s equivalent to 524,000 years spent watching porn in 1 year! Sadly 93% of boys and 63% of girls will be exposed to internet porn before the age of 18. The average age of first exposure is 11 years old.
A recent survey found that 50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women are ‘addicted to porn.’ That means that in a church with 100 adults, twenty-five men and ten women are struggling with porn: one in three.
Social Media companies make money through advertising rather than charging each user individually. If you are not paying for the product, you are the product. The crown jewels of a social media company is the data mining algorithm that identifies affinity groups. Affinity groups are segments of users who have expressed or demonstrated an interest in a specific topic, category, or activity on social media platforms. Consider Social Media made $11 billion in U.S. ad sales from minors in 2022.
And it gets worse: One in nine girls and one in 20 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault. 82% of all victims under 18 are female.Females ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. Arguably, children affected by legislation, school policies and or litigation are being subjected to abuse by propagandists, activists and or corrupt politicians
Christian persecution in India
Incredibe Decline in church attendance
Earlier in the year Gallop incorrectly reported that, two decades ago, an average of 42% of U.S. adults attended religious services every week or nearly every week. A decade ago, the figure fell to 38%, and it is currently at 30%. This decline is largely driven by the increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation -- 9% in 2000-2003 versus 21% in 2021-2023 -- almost all of whom do not attend services regularly. The question is, why the decline of Americans with no religious affiliation? Let’s not forget the full on attack on Christianity by Corporate America, including Bud Light, so-called Catholic Media, NorthFace, the US Navy and Major Leage Baseball, as the White House, DOJ, FBI and Main Stream Media are in lock step to promote the Christo-Fascist, America Is Racist narratives
Conversely Pew Research reports Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world; but like the Hotel California, you can checkout but never leave islam. Apostasy from Islam is considered a hudud crime. Death penalty is the traditional form of punishment for both male and female apostates for leaving Islam. Jaʿfari or Imāmī school – Male apostates must be executed, while female apostates must be held in solitary confinement until they repents and return to Islam.Forced conversion - Islamic law prohibits forced conversion, following the Quranic principle that there is "no compulsion in religion" However, that prohibition is like
Article 36 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China of 1982 specifies that: Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief.
For example, in 1571 the Ottoman Empire was ready to invade Italy. The Turks were on a warpath to overthrow all of Europe, killing millions of people and forcing Islamic conversion on survivors. They had conquered the Middle East and Mediterranean islands of Cyrus and Crete; Italy was next. The Holy Rosary saved the day.
Planned or Unintended Consequences: How we got here
The 1960s in American culture was a time of empowerment to battle social injustices such as racism and poverty. In the 1960s, America experienced an optimistic time of hope with plans to eliminate social inequalities, but the decade ended with a failed Vietnam War and the deaths of prominent political figures. Huge cultural shifts in the 1960s that which brought forth multiple scandals and protests.
The iconic images of the 1960s include JFK's assassination, the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, protests for racial justice, and Woodstock.
King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic 'I Have a Dream' speech in which he called for an end to racism and racial segregation. I Have a Dream, is quintessentially American: inspired by the Bible, the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.
MLK Jr. death cleared the way for the uber progressive Warren Court's Decision (1963) - the Court found that teaching children about wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord., charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, was too radical.
Five years later, progressives got MLK Jr out of their way, turning his dream into a nightmare: racism has morphed into DEI, the Human Sacrifice Industrial Complex has enabled the Black Genocide, the disintegration of the African-American nuclear family and a fatherlesssness crisis.
New York Times' Katie Rogers "reports" the Biden Administration continues to sharpens its Abortion Message - an AntiChristian message.
A new Documentary exposes how the FBI tried to destroy MLK with wiretaps and blackmail - ultimately he was assassinated. His family believes James Earl Ray was framed
Using analysis tools like the Ishikawa Cause-Effect Diagram, the Pareto Rule, Security Professionals' Attack Tree and or Occam's Razor, they all suggest that after the uberprogressive Warren SCOTUS (1963) decision, we have had A mental health crisis. Infanticide turned into Black Genocide. The extinction of the African American nuclear family. A fatherlesssness crisis - 80% of African American kids are raised in fatherless homes. Replaced faith-based Gleaning with SNAP. AIDS epidemic. Opiod crisis. A Girlhood Crisis. A Trans Crisis. An Obesity crisis.
Brothers and sisters: Grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says:
He ascended on high and took prisoners captive; he gave gifts to men.
What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming. Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole Body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the Body’s growth and builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:7
AntiCatholic NYT does a Kamala Harris- can't get itself to utter the name of Jesus Christ and has problems with Love and Mercy.
In Dilexit Nos, Pope Francis says that a heart transplant can save the world. "I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them. You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God." Ezequiel chapter 36
God doesn’t leave us alone. Francis writes, “This in no way implies an undue reliance on our own abilities. Let us never forget that our hearts are not self-sufficient, but frail and wounded.” Indeed, “the Lord saves us by speaking to our hearts from his Sacred Heart.”
October 24 is the feast day of Saint Anthony Mary Claret, canonized May 7, 1950 Rome by Pope Pius XII
Saint Anthony was a Spanish Catholic prelate, anti-establishment, religious founder, social reformer, writer and publisher, and missionary who served as Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba and was the confessor of Isabella II of Spain. He founded the congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, commonly called the Claretians. His work took him to the Canary Islands, Cuba, Madrid, Paris, and to the First Vatican Council.
Saint Anthony Mary Claret was born in Sallent, in the county of Bages in the Province of Barcelona, on December 23, 1807, the fifth of the eleven children of Juan and Josefa Claret. His father was a woollen manufacturer. As a child he enjoyed pilgrimages to the nearby Shrine of Our Lady of Fussimanya.
Claret received an elementary education in his native village, and at the age of twelve became a weaver. At the age of eighteen, he went to Barcelona to specialize in his trade as a Jacquard loom programmer, and remained there until he was 20 years old. Meanwhile, he devoted his spare time to study and became proficient in Latin, French and engraving.
Claret, ordained at 28, was prevented by ill health from entering religious life as a Carthusian or as a Jesuit, but went on to become one of Spain’s most popular preachers.
Claret spent 10 years giving popular missions and retreats, always placing great emphasis on the Eucharist and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was said that his rosary was never out of his hand. At age 42, he founded a religious institute of missionaries beginning with five young priests, known today as the Claretians.
Anthony was appointed to head the much-neglected archdiocese of Santiago in Cuba. He began its reform by almost ceaseless preaching and hearing of confessions, and suffered bitter opposition mainly for opposing concubinage and giving instruction to black slaves. A hired assassin—whose release from prison Anthony had obtained—slashed open his face and wrist. Anthony succeeded in getting the would-be assassin’s death sentence commuted to a prison term. His solution for the misery of Cubans was family-owned farms producing a variety of foods for the family’s own needs and for the market. This invited the enmity of the vested interests who wanted everyone to work on a single cash crop—sugar. Besides all his religious writings are two books he wrote in Cuba: Reflections on Agriculture and Country Delights
Claret was recalled to Spain for a job he did not relish—being chaplain for the queen. Anthony went on three conditions: He would reside away from the palace; he would come only to hear the queen’s confession and instruct the children; and he would be exempt from court functions. In the revolution of 1868, he fled to Paris with the queen’s party, where he preached to the Spanish colony.
All his life Claret was interested in the Catholic press. He founded the Religious Publishing House, a major Catholic publishing venture in Spain, and wrote or published 200 books and pamphlets.
Saint Anthony died in the Cistercian monastery of Fontfroide in southern France on October 24, 1870. Anthony Mary Claret had the gift of prophecy and performed many miracles. He was opposed by the liberal forces of Spain and Cuba and endured many trials.
Prayer to Saint Anthony
“O my God and my Father, may I know you and make you known; love you and make you loved; serve you and make you served; praise you and make all creatures praise you. Grant, my Father, that all sinners be converted, all the just persevere in grace, and all of us attain to eternal glory. Amen.”
Bernie Sanders' Triple Idiocy: Minimum Wage, Hairbrained College Push, Cancel Student Debt, all enabled by Facebook's Meta, is catastrophic for the health of the nation, yet demagogues like Bernie Sanders with blinders on, push full speed ahead.
And Meta doesn't like me saying it - Facebook's election interference again?
College for All and Cancel All Student Debt - Bernie Sanders
Minimum wage workers in the state of Washington will see an increase on their checks next year to $16.66 an hour. This increase will take effect on January 1. As of January 2024, Washington had the highest state minimum wage rate at $16.28 per hour. Washington, D.C. has the highest rate overall at $17.00 an hour.
The Street's Daniel Kline 'reports'. When Rubio's first shared that it was closing 48 California locations, it tried to make the decision seem strategic and blamed it on a new law in the state that increased the minimum wage for fast-food workers. The law, which went into effect April 1, forced the affected chains to raise the minimum wage to $20 from $16. 'Seem strategic' - get it?
The primary purpose of minimum wage is to provide workers with a level of income that allows them to meet their essential needs. It is intended to act as a safeguard against extremely low wages and helps reduce poverty and income inequality known as the Great Gatsby Curve.
Pew Research blames the Great Gatsby Curve on a number of factors, including “technological change, globalization, the decline of unions and the eroding value of the minimum wage.”
Meanwhile shoppers in Washington state will continue to see an increase in the number of business closures as a result. According to a report from Lending Tree,
Washington State is the nation's top state for small business failures with 40.8 percent of small businesses failing in the first year, compared to the national average of just over 23.2 percent.
Minimum wages, not unlike DEI policies, stifle job opportunities for low-skill workers, youth, and minorities, which are the groups that policymakers are often trying to help with these policies. In the case of DEI, the groups policy makers try to help, often get the short-changed, known as the Pareto Rule of Equity: 90% of those intended to be helped, get the short end of the stick.
David Neumark and William Wascher looked at the academic research on the effect of laws mandating wage floors for their book “Minimum Wages." They found that these laws lead to a “reduction in employment opportunities for low-skilled” workers. The authors also found that minimum wage laws do not help reduce the number of families living at the poverty line. In fact, the minimum wage may harm low-income families by reducing the number of jobs available for which they are qualified. They also found that “minimum wages appear to inhibit skill acquisition by reducing educational attainment and perhaps training, resulting in lower adult wages and earnings.” They concluded that minimum wage laws do harm in the short run and in the long run. The laws “have adverse longer-term effects on wages and earnings, in part by reducing the acquisition of human capital.”
Now consider High-income earning Joe is currently living paycheck to paycheck. Average Joe Went From the Great Resignation to jobless in two years.Poor Joe can't afford food, much less medication. Home mortgage debt, currently at $12.3 trillion. And credit card debt , currently at $1.2 Trillion Americans' collective medical debt totaled over $195 billion in 2019. 100 million people in America are saddled with medical debt.
When even NBC News reports Everybody Hates Bidenomics, you know the economy is not doing well. Bidenomics didn’t improve the economy. Instead, it sparked record-breaking 40-year inflation high An annual income loss of $7,300 for the average American family A 35.5% average credit card debt increase. Predictable. Among the disadvantages of increasing the minimum wage is the consequence of businesses increasing prices, thus fueling inflation.
As of July 2024, the American economy had 7.7 million job openings. This is up from less than 5 million a decade ago - Yet Washington is one of the most 'educated' states, while the most on-demand jobs of the next decade do not require a college degree.
Legislation and Minimum Wage In 1918, Congress enacted a law guaranteeing a minimum wage to women and children employed in the District of Columbia. D.C.’s Children’s Hospital, which employed many women, sought an injunction against enforcing the law. The injunction was denied in the trial court but granted in the intermediate appellate court.
In Adkins v. Children's Hospital of D. C., the majority struck down the minimum wage law as unconstitutional. The Court relied on Lochner v. New York, which struck down a law limiting bakers’ working hours under the Due Process Clause, which they believed contained a right of “freedom to contract.” In Adkins, the Court reasoned that the same reasoning extended to a minimum wage law. Employer and employee, according to the majority, had a constitutional right to contract in whatever manner they pleased. Thus, the minimum wage law unjustly interfered with the freedom to contract. Moreover, the Court reasoned that women do no merit greater protection than men.
Lawmakers have tried to raise the federal minimum wage on many occasions. The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amended version of the Raise the Wage Act of 2019 in July of that year to gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. But the bill died in the Senate. President Joe Biden tried to increase the rate for federal contract workers to $15 per hour, but that motion was blocked by a U.S. district judge in September 2023.
To make matters worse, nearly 10 million jobs across America are still vacant because of harebrained decisions and college push, according to 'Dirty Jobs' host Mike Rowe.
According to the Atlantic’s Meg St-Esprit the reason most of students do not choose trade schools is mostly due to parents - "when college is held up as the one true path to success, parents—especially highly educated ones—might worry when their children opt for vocational school instead." In this context "highly educated" may be what Mike Rowe refers to as harebrained decisions given the accumulated $1.8 trillion worth of student loans and trillions more in useless degrees.
Then there's the inverse relationship between running a higher education organization and the value of a degree. The Universities in Oregon say the costs of operating a higher education institution are becoming more and more overwhelming.
If the costs of operating a higher education institution are becoming more and more overwhelming, and the value of a college education is becoming less and less valuable as evidenced by the increasing student loan debt and unemployed degree holders, where is the money going, you may ask. The money goes mostly to administration. That's a classic definition of Insanity.
At the same time, with a seemingly bottomless budget, The Oregon football team took over the No. 1 spot in both the Associated Press and USA coaches polls on Sunday, earning the top national ranking for the first time since 2012. And what does college football have to do with higher education? Nothing! After all, And guess what? the Pareto Rule of College Sports rules: 99% of college players never make it to the professional league. As Collins C. Rhodes writes, "after a few years of student athletes legally making money from name, image, and likeness deals, colleges themselves will be paying student athletes for playing sports. Gone are the days of amateurism. The days of professional college sports are here."
Early in the year, the Washington University football team, went from the precipice of their first national title in more than three decades to a program in shambles. Many players headed to the NFL draft, others were headed to the transfer portal, including the presumptive next quarterback. To put a fork in it, Kalen DeBoer left the school to take the head job at Alabama. DeBoer walked away from the potential of a massive new contract with the Huskies for the opportunity of leading one of the premier programs in the country with resources and cachet that new Washington athletic director Troy Dannen couldn’t match. As edge rusher Zion Tuputola-Fetui posted on social media “Sometimes we have to be reminded it’s all a business.” it indeed is a business that benefits a small percentage of the student athlete population
Makes you wonder, why is it demagogues like Bernie Sanders continue pushing ahead with Bernie's Triple Idiocy.
Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf and six other missionaries known as the North American Martyrs, were the first martyrs of the North American continent officially recognized by the Church
Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf and six other martyred missionaries, all Jesuit priests or laypeople associated with them, were canonized in 1930 by Pope Pius XI. Their feast day is celebrated on 19 October in the General Roman Calendar. In 1624, at the age of seventeen, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen in Northern France. Here, his Master of Novices was Louis Lallemant. The Jesuit community had a strong missionary spirit, beginning in 1625 with their first mission to New France, including missionary pioneers, Énemond Massé, and later, Jean de Brébeuf. Lallement had two brothers and a nephew serving as missionaries in the colony of New France. These Jesuit missionaries inspired Jogues, and he aspired to follow in their footsteps
Isaac Jogues, a man of learning and culture, who taught literature in France, gave up that career to work among the Huron Indians in the New World, and in 1636, he and his companions, under the leadership of Jean de Brébeuf, arrived in Quebec. The Hurons were constantly warred upon by the Iroquois, and in a few years Father Jogues was captured by the Iroquois and imprisoned for 13 months. His letters and journals tell how he and his companions were led from village to village, how they were beaten, tortured, and forced to watch as their Huron converts were mangled and killed.
The first of the Jesuit missionaries to be martyred was René Goupil who with Lalande, had offered his services as an oblate. He was tortured along with Isaac Jogues in 1642, and was tomahawked for having made the sign of the cross on the brow of some children.
Father Anthony Daniel, working among Hurons who were gradually becoming Christian, was killed by Iroquois on July 4, 1648. His body was thrown into his chapel, which was set on fire
Jean de Brébeuf composed catechisms and a dictionary in Huron, and saw 7,000 converted before his death in 1649. Having been captured by the Iroquois at Sainte Marie, near Georgian Bay, Canada, Father Brébeuf died after four hours of extreme torture.
Gabriel Lalemant had taken a vow to sacrifice his life for the Native Americans. He was horribly tortured to death along with Father Brébeuf.
Father Charles Garnier was shot to death in 1649 as he baptized children and catechumens during an Iroquois attack.
Father Noel Chabanel found it exceedingly hard to adapt to mission life. He could not learn the language, and the food and life of the Indians revolted him, plus he suffered spiritual dryness during his whole stay in Canada. Yet he made a vow to remain in his mission until death. He was killed inb1649.
On 3 August 1642, Jogues, Guillaume Couture, René Goupil, and a group of Christian Hurons were heading back from Quebec City when they were waylaid by a war party of the Mohawk Nation, part of the Iroquois Confederacy. Jogues allegedly hid in reeds and bushes but decided to leave his hiding place to join the prisoners so that he could comfort them and ensure that their faith in Christianity remained strong. Shortly after that, and in retaliation for comforting a tortured Guillaume Couture, the Mohawk beat Jogues with sticks, tore out his fingernails, then gnawed the ends of his fingers until finger bones were visible.
The war party then took their captives on a journey to a Mohawk village. The villagers marched them through a gauntlet, consisting of rows of Iroquois armed with rods and sticks, beating the prisoners walking in single-file. Afterward, the Iroquois forced Jogues and the prisoners onto an elevated platform where they were mocked. A captive Algonquin woman then cut off Jogues' thumb. At night, the prisoners were tied spread-eagled in a cabin. Children threw burning coals onto their bodies. Three days later, Jogues and the prisoners were marched from one village to another, where the Iroquois flogged them in gauntlets and jabbed sticks into their wounds and sores. At the third village, Jogues was hung from a wooden plank and nearly lost consciousness until an Iroquois had pity on him and cut him free. Throughout his captivity, Jogues comforted, baptized, heard confession from, and absolved the other prisoners.
Ecstasies And VisionsAn ecstatic experience is the state of being in a trance, especially a mystic or prophetic trance. We have see time and tlilme again saints who have ecstatic mystical experiences are usually considered to be mentally unstable. The derivation of our word “ecstasy” (from the Greek ek , out plus stasis , state) suggests an out of body state (2 Corinthians 12:2-3 ) or the state of being out of control.
In the Old Testament, God used visions to reveal His plan through the prophets to His people and to put His people in places of influence. For example, He spoke to Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Solomon, and Daniel. In the New Testament, visions and dreams served to provide information that was unavailable elsewhere.
They are also common in the New Testament. The outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days is associated with sons and daughters prophesying, young men seeing visions and old men dreaming dreams (Acts 2:17). Typical examples are the vision Peter had of heaven opening and something like a large sheet being let down by its four corners (Acts 10:9-15) and the vision Paul had of a man standing and begging him to come over to Macedonia (Acts 16:9).
In 2 Corinthians 12:1, Paul says that he will go on to boast of “visions and revelations of the Lord.” He then speaks in the third person about someone who was caught up to the third heaven and who saw and heard things that ought not to be shared with other humans.
The Bible Gateway Commentary suggests that to understand visions and revelations as a catchall phrase for a wide range of supramundane experiences. Whatever Paul experienced, it was decidedly "of the Lord." The genitive could be objective: "visions and revelations of the Lord himself" (Phillips). Or, more probably, it is subjective: visions and revelations from the Lord
Paul breaks a vow of silence and mentions an ecstatic experience that occurred fourteen years earlier (v. 2). This would place the event during the so-called silent years, when Paul was in the region of Syria and Cilicia (Acts 9:30; Gal 1:21). It happened well before his evangelistic foray in Corinth (c. A.D. 50-52), but not before his Damascus road encounter with the risen Christ (I know a man in Christ).
The story is narrated in the third-person singular. All the details of the story point to its being a personal experience, symptomatic of his aversion to boasting; he did it to avoid suggesting that he was special because of his experiences. He didn't allocate much importance to it; he will speak personally only of things that show weakness; or he is distancing his apostolic self from the self in which he has been forced to boast. But it may simply be that speaking of himself impersonally is the only way he can look at the experience with any kind of detachment. To boast of ecstatic experiences in a personal way may just have been beyond him.
October 17, Feast Day of Ignatius of Antioch, also known as Ignatius Theophorus. St. Ignatius of Antioch is the patron saint of the Church in the Eastern Mediterranean and in North Africa. As found in his letters, St. Ignatius of Antioch was the first to use the term “Catholic” to describe the whole Church.
Christianity, during Ignatius time was not much different from today: the Christian faith had faced tribulations, persecution, mistreatment, and discrimination, and worst of all, the deaths of men, women, children, and the elderly simply because they believed in Christ.
Ignatius was an early Christian writer and Patriarch of Antioch. While en route to Rome, where he met his martyrdom - where he bravely met the lions in the Circus Maximus - Ignatius wrote a series of letters. This correspondence forms a central part of a later collection of works by the Apostolic Fathers. He is considered one of the three most important of these, together with Clement of Rome and Polycarp. His letters also serve as an example of early Christian theology, and address important topics including ecclesiology, the sacraments, and the role of bishops.
Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity and eventually became bishop of Antioch. In the year 107, Emperor Trajan visited Antioch and forced the Christians there to choose between death and apostasy. Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to be put to death in Rome.
Ignatius is well known for the seven letters he wrote on the long journey from Antioch to Rome. Five of these letters are to churches in Asia Minor; they urge the Christians there to remain faithful to God and to obey their superiors. He warns them against heretical doctrines, providing them with the solid truths of the Christian faith.
The sixth letter was to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was later martyred for the faith. The final letter begs the Christians in Rome not to try to stop his martyrdom. “The only thing I ask of you is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.”
Prayer to Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Most holy Saint Ignatius of Antioch, we know that you are a powerful intercessor because you sacrificed your life for your faith in God. We pray, that just as your glorious passion brought you eternal splendor, so it may also be for us unending protection. Help us to live our lives by your example of courage and faith.
