Friends,

I saw this fabulous photo from the incredible destruction of Breezy Point, New Jersey.

On the Solemnity of All Saints when some of the faithful spent considerable time at Holy Mass. Our little, tiny neighborhood parish church was filled to overflowing.

The Solemnity was originally called the Feast of the Martyrs and it's roots go back to the late-Third or early-Fourth Century.

The especial liturgy and ancient hymns were wonderful.







God Bless,

Steve

I feel for those people. Such a thing to go through.

Yessir Steve, it was a great celebration at Sacred Heart this morning.

I'm totally incapable of imagining such destruction. Let's pray that those folks get back on their feet SOON.

God bless,

Steve

Friend Terry,

And tomorrow, The Solemnity of All Souls.

Yep, we'll all be back in church and on our knees again. Thanks be to God.

Your friend Steve

Are statues like that part of the reason that Deuteronomy 5:8�9
("Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me")
has been eliminated from the Catholic version of the Ten Commandments?

I believe the Roman interpretation of the commandments lump the 1st & 2nd together, treating the later merely as a restatement of the first.

In fairness I'd say it's a little cynical to believe that they reinterpreted the commandments to justify their images, although there are plenty of places where all Christians reinterpret the plain meaning of Scripture for the sake of some "sacred cow".

As John Calvin rightly pointed out, our hearts are idol factories.

Steve, I am having trouble with photobucket so can only post the link, but this is the Virgin Mary of the Ninth Ward.....She stands in front of steps which used to go to a house, which was washed away in Katrina. This location is at ground zero where the seawall on the Industrial Canal, which connects the river with Lake Pontchartrain, was broken by a runaway barge and unleashed a fifteen foot wall of water through the Lower Nine. You can see the old drawbridge over the Canal at left.

She became a pilgrimage site after the storm.....tour buses still stop to see Her. How She and her shell survived while everything around Her was destroyed is something of a Miracle.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/revfez/3287054074/


the house in the background was a blown out shell....it has been rebuilt....this is a fairly recent photo.

Let's see if I remember correctly, All Souls Day is November 1st and All Saints Day is November 2nd.

It's tough to pray or meditate with out a icon of one's Deity which is probably why Catholics have them.

As a Pagan I don't have those restrictions.

thanks for posting it correctly. every structure within several hundreds of yards of the seawall break was just erased....washed away. a few hundred yards from the breach, a few brick buildings, mostly churches, survived as shells. most trees went...cars, boats people all washed away. hundreds died within a mile of where that Blessed Virgin sits.

here's a picture of the barge when it came to rest in what had been a neighborhood of wooden shotgun houses....you can get scale from the truck and schoolbus. it mowed down a few dozen houses and came to rest where you see it. the sudden rush of water from the canal.....where the water level was fifteen feet higher than the land behind the seawall, was like a bull dozer, exploding the weaker structures, picking up the stronger ones and carrying them for blocks, piling them like toys

http://media.nola.com/crime_impact/...al-katrinajpg-f1501470fc111ba0_large.jpg


and with all that water and metal and wood flying around, Mary serenely stands in her shell, praying for us sinners....literally in the hour of their deaths.

Thanks for that explanation!

I didn't notice that amalgamation in the catechisms that I got from several Catholic on-line sites, so I'll check again. And pay more attention!

Thanks!

Amen.
The Lord be with you and Karen, bro.
Amen.

Just the opposite. Dad would have been 94 today. He wasn't a saint, but as good a man as you could ever find.

Every now and then you write something that makes me think you're not a complete idiot. Then you post something like this and I realize you are.

Thanks. I use to get them dates mixed up even when I went to Catholic school.

You're right!

I was looking at the abridged version, which doesn't show the passages that we non-Catholics consider a separate (Second) Commandment with its own impact equivalent to any other Commandment. The full catechism explains the amalgamation. I consider the explanation to be questionable rationalizing, but since I'm not God, I'm left to wonder which line-up He'd have us honor. Of this I'm sure � it's not, as some seem to conclude, a list of ten suggestions.

Well I admit it's poor grammar which I didn't catch until you pointed it out but beyond that I said nothing that isn't the truth.

I don't know of any protestant churches that have religious icons other than maybe a wooden cross. Catholics have numerous religious icons of one sort or another. Usually of saints and of Jesus. I'll admit that I haven't been in a Catholic Church in some time but the last time I was in one there were still the usual religious icons in there. Maybe that's changed. The 1st and 2nd Commandment of the Ten Commandments does forbid religious icons.

Pagans have all kinds of religious icons of their Deities depending on the Pagan path. There are no restrictions on religious icons for Pagans of any of the Pagan religions I'm familiar with.

One certainly doesn't need a religious icon to pray or meditate but I find it easier to do and most Pagans do as well. Most Zen Buddhist have some type of icon to use for meditation many using a Buddha icon. As a former Catholic back in the day praying using a religious icon as a representative of some saint or Jesus was standard operating procedure and as a Pagan I still find it helpful today.

If this makes me an idiot well so be it.

Well, yeah, so be it. You appear to be a [bleep] idiot. Clean up your logic and yer syntax and you might not appear quite so.

No unintended disrespect, but dood, your logical inconsistencies sometimes staggering. I know I'd like you in person, but, day-um, you come across as such a [bleep]-up when you say schitt like this!

Your cross to bear. (no religious epithet intended... LOL!)

I will admit that I assume that people are up to speed on most of these subjects and that is a wrong assumption most of the time. My fault.

Boy, you want to talk syntax holy moly your post is terrible and you are calling me an idiot? It looks to me like the kettle calling the pot black.

As to liking me if you met me in person I can assure you you would not like me. Very few on here would like me.

Try me.

There is a PM function. Nuff said.

I would not put that kind of temptation in your path.

Dude, you can push the envelope. I ain't afraid, and I ain't for sure ignorant of all that's out there.