A Short Sunday Sermon - The Canaanite Women

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

I found this short reflection on Sunday's Gospel helpful (Matthew 15:21-28):

What are the cries of the Canaanite woman if not a prayer to the Lord? What is her pursuit of Him if not a pivotal point in her life where she turns to His word? Her humility, her acceptance of the fact that, yes, she was an unworthy dog who was asking only for a few crumbs as a blessing, only what was left over from the table of the masters, what is that if not repentance and confession? And the final answer of the Lord is nothing other than His open embrace, God’s acquiescence in the face of unshakeable faith.

Today’s Gospel doesn’t merely tell us about a miracle performed by the Lord. It presents us with the way to approach the Lord, the only way by which we avoid the traps of the idols of this world and are able to cast ourselves, in tears, into the embrace of our Father. It presents us with how the Father operates in order to open to us the path of return to Him, without doing away with our freedom. It presents us with the face of our Saviour. It presents us with the way in which we must open our souls to His miraculous Grace. In other words, it presents us with the feast of our salvation... (Archbishop Christodoulos (Paraskevaïdis) of Athens (1998-2008, †)

And note the final verses of the miracle. Christ identifies the pagan and possibly occultist Canaanite as a "dog" but when she admits as much, "yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table," a remarkable thing happens. The dog becomes a woman, "O woman, great is thy faith." A miracle, the last has become the first, blessed are the poor in spirit, and the demon is driven away. 

We are the spiritual heirs of this woman. By the grace of God, may the quality of her faith be our own so that we too, with her, will be raised up to the full stature of sons and daughters of God, and the evil which afflicts us banished to the Pit from whence it came.

Vade Retro,

LSP

The Feast of the Assumption

It's the great Feast of the Assumption today, which some people object to because "it's not in Scripture." Neither is Sola Scriptura of course, but apologetics aside, I found this reflection helpful. Via Domini res gestas:

Today the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Theotocos and Christotocos, is taken into heaven to that court where the King of kings sits upon his starry throne. While angels and saints rejoice together with Christ, it is fitting that we too celebrate and rejoice with them today. Our true Solomon, the King of Peace, seats his Mother, the true Bathsheba, at his right hand today in the heavenly Jerusalem above all the choirs of angels. Today the ark of the covenant of the Lord is brought into the temple and placed in the Holy of Holies. This is the same ark that John saw in the Book of Revelation. Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen in the temple.  After writing this at the close of Chapter 11, as if to clarify the vision, he follows it immediately with the opening verse of Chapter 12:

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Without doubt this woman is the Virgin Mary, for John adds that she gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all nations... Her child was caught up to God and his throne. (St. Laurence Brindisi)

Note Serpent and Crescent crushed underheel

A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. I should be very wary of going up against that, to say nothing of her child. But here's a closing hymn from the Benedictines of Notre Dame de Fontgombault, Ave Maris Stella, Hail Star of the Sea:

Some say the Faith's dead. That's not true, though perhaps it's hiding, for a time.

Ave,

LSP

Are We All A Bit Worried?

DFTR,

LSP

Back in Dallas

 

What's Dallas like in the August of Plague Year 2020? Good question, and I drove to the Metrosprawl to find out. First things first, it's really hot, like an oven. The kind of heat which makes even the coolest perspire. Think FBI Koup Konspirators in the face of Clinesmith.

Oh dear, Nemesis meet Hubris and we have to ask, what kind of plea deal has corrupt lib lawyer Clinesmith cut by way of survival? Time will tell and Comey, Clapper, Brennan et al seem mighty quiet right about now. No wonder, the heat's on. 

But Ma LSP's place is refreshingly cool. The garden flourishes, flags wave along with refreshing drinks and a newly cleaned 19th C runner. I think it's Caucasian, but I've forgotten my rug lore. Whatever, out it popped. Nice.

And there you have it. We're off to a friend's ordination tomorrow morning. Well done, MR, you're a brave man to answer the call at this point in time.

Cheers,

LSP

Operation Phantom Fury

Today's toytown revolutionaries might want to watch this short informational video. And note, if it goes hot in the US there won't be rules of engagement.

Your Friendly Pal,

LSP

Vote Rigging Skulduggery

 Joe Biden

It's no secret that America's corporate-sponsored Communist Party, the Democrats, are all about rigging elections. They've been at it forever, even before they went full Cultural Marxist. 

Of course this aligns well with their new revolutionary red persona. Commies have always sat light to the actual will of the people in pursuit of their workers' paradise.

Here's Mark Marshall at Stand Firm:

"Eventually, the Soviet Communists did not have to bother so much with the annoyance of losing elections. They rigged them instead. Those old enough may remember that elections in the Soviet Union became fodder for jokes. In the 1984 elections to the Supreme Soviet, for example, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union won over 99.9% of the vote. And you thought Reagan had a landslide in 1984!

Joe Stalin

"Yes, the jokes practically write themselves when it comes to totalitarians disrespecting and rigging elections. But when you consider that here in the United States, we have a major political party that has hardly respected a presidential election they lost since 1988, that participated in an attempted coup faced on fabrications against the elected President of the United States, and that is very busy trying to rig this year’s election with vote-by-mail and ballot harvesting, along with the old standbys of no voter ID, dead people voting, and non-citizens voting, then maybe it’s not so funny. And maybe one should wonder if that major party really is Democratic."

Well said, Mark. Nothing to do with democracy, all to do with power. And the so far thwarted demons of the #MillSoc Left sure are shrieking for it. 

Coming to a point, eh? Let's see how it plays out in November and beyond. I predict turbulence.

Workers Unite,

LSP

Marx & Satan? Books With LSP

Was Marx a Satanist? Richard Wurmbrand certainly thought so and says as much in his mostly forgotten book Marx & Satan.

Wurmbrand, a Romanian pastor who experienced communist persecution first hand, quotes the poetry and drama of a young Karl Marx to support his claim. For example, the conclusion of Oulanem (1837):

If there is a Something which devours,I'll leap within it, though I bring theworld to ruins –The world which bulks between meand the abyssI will smash to pieces with myenduring curses.I'll throw my arms around its harsh reality,Embracing me, the world will dumblypass away,
And then sink down to utter nothingness,
Perished, with no existence - that would be really living.

Hardly a message of love, joy, peace and hope, to say nothing of bad verse. But was Marx a member of a satanic sect? Wurmbrand doesn't produce a smoking gun but circumstantial evidence, and rhetoric from Marx's family and friends make for unsettling reflection. His daughters Eleanor and Laura commit suicide, his friends Bakunin and Proudhon embrace Satan as the guiding anti-principle of revolution.

More than this, Wurmbrand highlights the destructive hatred of the radical Left, a hatred he believes satanic and with good cause, it's killed millions. He quotes Che Guevara:

Hate is an element of fight - pitiless hate against the foe, hate that lifts the revolutionist above the natural limitation of man and makes him become an efficient, destructive, cool, calculating, and cold killing machine.

University students facing 10 year prison sentences for revolutionary rage might want to think about the ethos and consequences of their actions. Lenin did, apparently, on his deathbed:

I committed a great error. My nightmare is to have the feeling that I'm lost in an ocean of blood from the innumerable victims. It is too late to return. To save our country, Russia, we would have needed men like Francis of Assisi. With ten men like him we would have saved Russia.

But you didn't, Vladimir, you bathed it in blood.

Is it beyond the bounds of possibility that Karl Marx was a ritual satanist, along with Stalin, Hitler and associated devils? If their hatred of God and all we hold decent, good and true, coupled with rage against life and humanity itself suggests the demonic, the effect of their thought most certainly is. Yes, to the tune of hundreds of millions of people tortured, killed and thrown into misery.

Richard Wurmbrand, who was imprisoned by the Romanian communists for the sin of being a Christian ends, towards the conclusion of his short book with: 

Sadly, Satanic Marxism has a materialistic philosophy that blinds its followers to spiritual realities. But matter is not all that exists. There is a reality of the spirit, of truth, beauty, and ideals. 

There is also a world of evil spirits, whose head is Satan. He fell from heaven through pride and drew down with him a host of angels. Then he seduced the progenitors of the human race. Since the Fall, his deceit has been perpetuated and increased through every conceivable device, until today we see God's beautiful creation ravaged by world wars, bloody revolutions and counterrevolutions, dictatorships, exploitation, racism of many kinds, false religions, agnosticism and atheism, crimes and crooked dealings, infidelities in love and friendship, broken marriages, rebellious children. Mankind has lost the vision of God. But what has taken the place of this vision? Is it something better?

Is it something better? Those Americans smashing up their cities and enabling the nihilism therein might want to think about that. To say nothing of a "world of evil spirits." 

Read Marx & Satan, it's free and online as a pdf. 

LSP

Bill Anderson.

Take note, Commies, comin' atcha,

LSP

Driven Insane By Satan?

At last we know. Not Michelle Obama, Susan Rice or even Donna "Corrupt" Brazille. No, none of these. Democrat hopeful Joe "China" Biden has chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate VP.

Kamala's famous for sleeping her way to the top and persecuting the poor as California's AG. Here's Tulsi:

And guess what, she got herself a facelift. Have a look:

Wow. Have you noticed how Satan destroys its puppets? Kamala is a Socialist, that's why her net worth is an estimated $10 million. You'd think she'd be able to afford a better surgeon, eh?

Botox Forever,

LSP

Commies Kill Children

Crazed Bolsheviks killed Tatiania and Olga Romanov. Here:

In the early hours of July 17, 1918, a Bolshevik death squad led by a drunken Peter Irkmakov, opened fire on the Imperial family and their retainers from the doorway of the room in which they were held captive. 

Tsar Nicholas died instantly, his wife Alexandra and their children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexei were not so fortunate. It took a further twenty minutes of shooting, clubbing and bayoneting on the part of the enraged Bolsheviks to dispatch the Romanovs until, as one of the killers stated, the floor was slick with blood “like an ice rink.” 

Pause for a moment and look on the faces of the young girls. Look into their eyes and imagine the horror of the Communist death gang which clubbed or stabbed them to death. 

As you do, ask yourself why this demonic ideology isn't harried from the land, and exterminated root and branch.

Your Friend,

LSP

Gibsme Dat!

America's Marxist revolution came one step closer last night as a Dindu rampage mob stormed through Chicago's famous Golden Mile, or whatever it's called. Their grievance? An armed Dindu got into a gunfight with police who shot him, as opposed to running away and sending in social workers.

The reaction? Our brave new civil rights movement followed the example of Martin Luther King by  went ape, smashing storefronts, attacking cops, stealing Louis Vuitton (er, why?), trashing a Tesla showroom (tick), and stackin' up on running shoes. Gotta supplement that ghetto salary, right? Some brave revolutionaries even drove an Audi into a shopfront.

So Chicago raised its bridges to stop the outta control Dindus from smashing up the very center of town. Day late and a dollar short? Looks a bit that way from the Isengard Eye of the Compound's Tower.

Whatever, you get the math. Russian Collusion failed. No, Trump isn't a Russian spy, morons, and impeachment didn't fare well either, Losers. So what to do? Start a race war in the middle of a hyped up virus. That'll get him. Oh yeah.

Except it won't, because no one's inclined to vote for the Dindu rampage mob Party, and who can blame them. Who wants to see their city trashed by a crazed gang of Gibsme Dats! No one, much, unless you're a Democrat.

Good electoral strategy, geniuses. Vote for us or a Dindu mob's gonna destroy your city and burn down your suburban house, because Racism and Gibsme Dat! Marxism, always popular with people who own something. Uh hunh.

Someone, please, fire the Dem's PR Team before any more people are hurt or killed.

Bridge of Sighs,

LSP

Sunday Sermon - Christ Walks on Water

Christ walks across the water of the lake to the disciples' boat, which is being beaten by the waves. After rescuing Peter, who goes out to meet him and sinks, Jesus enters the boat, stills the storm and guides the ship to shore.

The imagery is powerful. Jesus, appearing in the midst of the turbulent water in the darkness of the 4th Watch. So too is the symbol. The ship of the church, the ark of salvation, is beaten by waves of disbelief, iniquity, and hate only to rescued by Christ.

This is true in every age, not least our own, but consider. As in the miracle, Christ saves his church. For example, he raises up El Cid and Charles Martel, and the False Prophet is driven from Spain and France. The Jihad is routed by Sobieski in 1683 and Vienna saved, the evil, satanic Nazis are utterly defeated and the Iron Curtain blown away like so much noxious smoke.

Point being, as surely as he came to the beleaguered disciples in the midst of the lake, Christ saves his Mystical Body from the tempest which rages against her. He will save the church in our age too if we remain faithful, even desperately so, and cry out with Peter, "Lord, save me!" That must be our prayer.

There, in the act of faith, shouting out in the darkness, against all the odds, lies the path to paradise. Christ catches Peter by the hand, restores him to the safety of the boat, and in the end, to Paradise itself, the far shore of the lake.

So take heart. Our lord and Savior is infinitely more powerful than the iniquity which rages against his Body the church and against us, his faithful.

Sermon over,

LSP