The Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Today we celebrate the remarkable conversion of St. Paul, who went from zealously persecuting the Church to becoming the greatest of Apostolic missionaries, all at the stroke of a blinding vision of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus.

The Apostle's conversion speaks to the unexpected quality of God's grace and power, which consistently uses the most unlikely candidates for the increase and furtherance of His Kingdom. In this instance, the fiercest enemy of the Church miraculously becomes its greatest champion. Is there a modern parallel? Possibly.

Islam, which is ferociously persecuting the Body of Christ is also the scene of mass conversions. This goes unreported in the media, along with the persecution itself but it's apparently taking place nonetheless.

Iran, Indonesia, Sub-Saharan Africa and more besides are reportedly seeing mass conversions of Muslims to Christianity. As with St. Paul, this is often brought about through visions, which lead people to convert in the face of heinous consequences on the part of Muslim authorities.

It would be ironic but well in keeping with Pauline precedent if Islam became the engine that converts the increasingly pagan countries of the West and Europe.

St. Paul, pray for us.

LSP

Vladimir Putin is the New Constantine

Putin and Patriarch

Vladimir Putin is the only world leader, of any note, to make a public stand for the defense of Christianity. According to Metropolitan Hilarion of Russia, a Christian is killed every 5 minutes for their faith, making this a new age of persecution for the Church.

Putin, Friend of the Church

In the face of this, the Western governments and media are silent. More than silent; in America at least, they appear determined to dismantle all traces of Christianity in the public square and with that to embrace its opposite. No more prayer in schools, no more Christian symbols on war memorials, no "evangelizing" in the Armed Forces, no more "Defense of Marriage Act." That's gone and with it, near enough, what Marx called the "bourgeois claptrap of the family." 

A Christian

Putin stands against that and for Christian morality and values. He doesn't believe, he tells us, that "same gender marriages" are good because they're "infertile" and he's had the temerity to ban New World Order sexual propaganda. No more "Pride" parades in Putin's Russia, much to the outrage of the Christ-hating Western ascendancy. 

Moral Majority

Like a new Constantine, there seems to be a star arising in the East. Pravda, I think, puts it well:

In the East there is someone that causes the western liberal's maniacal laughter to stop. Vladimir Putin. He has real world power, which causes the liberal media to fearfully ignore or warp his image. Like a good Christian King he leads a nation to Christ. Deep down in their evil souls they shriek like devils because they know Christ is true God and true power that they cannot defeat. They thought the Bolshevik revolution destroyed Holy Mother Russia. Christ cannot be defeated and his servant Putin has welcomed Christ and His church.

Putin, New Constantine

That would make Putin, as a champion of Christianity in a sea of secularist, pagan, opposition, a new Constantine. He has, after all, as temporal heir to the Third Rome, a right to that title. 

God bless,

LSP

Muslim Genocide

Help Catholics in Iraq

Unsurprisingly, given an aggressively resurgent Islam, Christians are being persecuted throughout the Middle East. Some would call it genocide.

Hudson New York has this to say:

It is obvious by now that the Christians in the Middle East are an "endangered species."

Christians in Arab countries are no longer being persecuted; they are now being slaughtered and driven out of their homes and lands.

Those who for many years turned a blind eye to complaints about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East now owe the victims an apology. Now it is clear to all that these complaints were not "Jewish propaganda."

The war of genocide against Christians in the Middle East can no longer be treated as an "internal affair" of Iraq or Egypt or the Palestinians. What the West needs to understand is that radical Islam has declared jihad not only against Jews, but also against Christians.

In Iraq, Egypt and the Palestinian territories, Christians are being targeted almost on a daily basis by Muslim fundamentalists and secular dictators.

You can read the whole thing here.

Say no to dhimmitude and submission to the religion of peace.

LSP