Today's the Feast of St. James, Apostle and martyr. A close friend of of Lord, James was present at the raising of Jairus' daughter, the Transfiguration and the Garden of Gethsemane. He waas the first of the Apostles to be martyred, at the orders of Herod Agrippa.
Tradition has it that James evangelized in Spain before his return to Judea and martyrdom, and that his body was buried in Galicia. His tomb was discovered in the 9th century AD and a great church, Santiago de Compostela, built on the site, where it remains today.
In 844, the Apostle appeared to Pedro Marcio appeared to Pedro Marcio, whose Christian war band were fighting numerically superior Moslem invaders, and said:
Did not you know that my Lord Jesus Christ, while distributing the other provinces in the world to my brothers, the other apostles, luckily entrusted me the guardianship of all Spain and placed it under my protection? (…) Keep your courage, because I will come to assist you tomorrow, God willing, to vanquish all that big crowd of enemies surrounding you. However, many of your soldiers will be destined for eternal rest and will receive the crown of martyrdom during your struggle for the name of Christ. And so that there is no doubt you will see me dressed in white on a white horse, holding in my hand a white banner. Therefore, at dawn, after receiving the sacrament of penance with the confession of sins, after receiving the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord in the Mass, do not be afraid to challenge the Saracens’ squadrons, invoking God’s name and mine, and taking for certain they will fall to the edge of the sword.
The Apostle wasn't lying. The Reconquista was victorious and St. James is invoked as Matamoros, Moor Slayer. Here's the BCP Collect:
GRANT, O merciful God, that, as thine holy Apostle Saint James, leaving his father and all that he had, without delay was obedient unto the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him; so we, forsaking all worldly and carnal affections, may be evermore ready to follow thy holy commandments; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Never, ever surrender the Faith,
LSP
4 comments:
And then, in 2003, Spain effectively handed itself back into Muslim control. They pulled out of the Coalition in Iraq because of a few terrorist bombings.
So sad. 700 years to take back one's country, only to have one's descendants give up.
St. James would be bitterly, probably is bitterly, disappointed.
Dam straight, Beans.
Wow, what a failure, across the board.
Well, it's not like Mother Church (the Holy Roman Catholic Church) supports actual Christians any more in said Christians' struggles against heresy and heathenry and full-blown satanic forces (in the guise of islam.)
Why do I say Islam is the religion of the Devil? Satan is the Father of Lies. It is a significant part of the Islamic faith that followers lie. Lie to each other, lie to one's rulers, lie to one's followers. Lie, lie, lie. And for damned sure lie to any non-muslims, as it is actually a pronouncement that one MUST lie to non-muslims. That to speak the truth to non-muslims is against the religion (if you follow all the suryas and such.)
On the other hand, both Judaism and Christianity want their followers to not lie. To try to act like adults and be truthful with each other. Yeah, sure, some versions of Christianity only consider others of that same version as true followers and everyone else is to be bilked and lied to, but, well, those are the more, ah, er, non-mainstream sects. Same with some versions of Judaism. But both mainstream versions say, "Hey, tone down the BS, try to stop lying, try to treat each other nicely, please!"
Spain? F! Spain. They finally got their crap together after the abortions of national vs international socialism from the 20's and 30's and then the first opportunity yank down their national pants and lube up their national keisters and wait to be violated by islamic swine. Kinda like what Ben Franklin said about the US being a Republic. Nice, if you can keep it. (Well, we've been national socialist since at least FDR, started under Woodrow Wilson but FDR tipped us into full national socialism and we've never really stepped back.)
Seriously, prove to me that the US isn't national socialism. Can any company actually do anything without government approval? That's national socialism. And we're close to full-out international socialism because we as a people can't do pretty much one damn thing without government approval via a permit or license or a form filled out or having to report what you do to a government official.
Mr. Beans, US = NatSoc?
Agreed.
As for Spain, let's see how that works out.
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