You Can't Serve God And Mammon

 

Mammon. The name itself connotes a kind of vast deadness and it's typically translated as wealth or riches. Nothing wrong with those, may everyone have nice things, but when wealth becomes the logic, criteria and end of our lives, when it's served and worshiped as God? Then it becomes an idol and an enslaving beast.

St. John Chrysostom likens followers of this false deity to dogs chained to a tomb. Here he is:

For though none of these things should come to pass, says He, you will undergo no small harm, in being nailed to the things below, and in becoming a slave instead of a freeman, and casting yourself out of the heavenly things, and having no power to think on anything that is high, but all about money, usuries and loans, and gains, and ignoble traffickings. Than this what could be more wretched? For in truth such an one will be worse off than any slave, bringing upon himself a most grievous tyranny, and giving up the chiefest thing of all, even the nobleness and the liberty of man. For how much soever any one may discourse unto you, you will not be able to hear any of those things which concern you, while your mind is nailed down to money; but bound like a dog to a tomb, by the tyranny of riches, more grievously than by any chain, barking at all that come near you, you have this one employment continually, to keep for others what you have laid up. Than this what can be more wretched?

 

Infernal Mammon waxes large today, it's in the deadly air we breathe. Stand fast against it; fix heart and soul on the true God, pray to Him in adoration and contrition, loving Him simply for what He is in Himself. I find the Jesus Prayer helps, "Lord Jesus, I love you, have mercy on me a sinner." In the face of this the idol Mammon seems at best tawdry, repellent and absurd.

Then, from adoration of the Savior, ask for the illumination and discernment to use our wealth, such as it is, for the love of God and neighbor. Then do it, concretely, tangibly. For some, this means total renunciation of worldly goods. For all, the giving of our substance to the glory of God and the service, the love, of our neighbor. Do these things; break the power of the infernal idol and store up treasure in heaven. 

Here endeth the Saturday sermon.

Sicut erat in principio,

LSP

St. Patrick's Prayer

I was going to post this yesterday but The Band got in the way and Adrienne beat me to it. Still, here's some power from St. Patrick's Breastplate:

I summon today

All these powers between me and those evils,

Against every cruel and merciless power

that may oppose my body and soul,

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom,

Against false laws of heretics,

Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,

Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul;

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.

Christ with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right,

Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down,

Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the Threeness,

Through confession of the Oneness

of the Creator of creation.

What a mighty prayer and you can read the whole thing at Adrienne's Corner.

God bless and be safe,

LSP

Church Of Sweden Votes To Become Pathetic Joke

"But isn't the Church of Sweden a pathetic joke already?" you ask in bewildered confusion. Sure it is but it just got more so by voting in a new Handbook which removes masculine references to God.

So out goes the patriarchal oppression of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; no more of that gender role consolidation for these latter day Vikings. They get this instead, straight out of the new Handbook:

Father, Mother, Son, Sister? Good Question.

“God, Holy Trinity, Father and Mother, Son – Sister and Brother, and Spirit – Lifeguard and Inspirator, lead us to your depths of wealth, wisdom and knowledge”.

Well done, Swedes, you've transitioned God into a shemale and in the case of the Holy Spirit, some kind of swimming pool or beach attendant. The Church of Sweden's leaderene, Archbishop Antje Jackelen, explains the reasoning behind the new language.

Some Kind of Joke?

"Theologically, for instance, we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human," argued Jackelen as reported by Sweden's TT news agency.

True enough, Jackelen, God is pure spirit and beyond all things but nonetheless became Incarnate as  a Man, Jesus. And this same God who is beyond time, space and "gender determinations" has revealed Himself to us in masculine terms; as Lord not Lady, as Son not Daughter, as Father not Mother, as King not Queen.

Christians believe this is a given, quite literally by God Himself, and it's intolerable to feminists like Jackelen, so they change it. As we've seen, Jesus who was notoriously a man, becomes Son and Sister, which is fine except that that person never existed. And there you have it, the religion of the imaginary Swedish friend.

A Swede

There is no Brother-Sister Jesus, no Father-Mother God except in the overwrought imagination of the Swedes and their allies in other denominations. These have voted in a new religion, the religion of the imaginary, androgynous, hermaphrodite friend, as opposed to the Faith revealed to us by God and founded on Christ. 

Feel free to believe one or the other or neither, but don't pretend both are Christian. They're not.

Your Friend,

LSP