Category Religion

Jun 28 2022

Freedom Wins, Supreme Court Sides with High School Coach Fired for Praying on Field After Games


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on June 27, 2022 | Sundance

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Joseph Kennedy [Full Ruling Here] saying the Bremerton school district in Washington state was wrong to fire him for praying after football games with players of both teams.  By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that Coach Joseph Kennedy’s conduct was protected by the First Amendment.

In 2015, Kennedy had been a part-time football coach at Bremerton High School for seven years. Coach Kennedy would pray at midfield after each game, alone, with players and with players of the opposing team joining him. When the school district learned about Kennedy’s prayers, they told him to stop. Kennedy refused, and despite wide support from parents and the community the district fired him.

Justice Neil Gorsuch delivered the court’s opinion and was joined in full by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. Gorsuch explained that the government’s only real justification for its decision to fire Kennedy “rested on a mistaken view that it had a duty to ferret out and suppress religious observances even as it allows comparable secular speech. The Constitution,” Gorsuch concluded, “neither mandates nor tolerates that kind of discrimination.”

(Via Christian Post) […] “Kennedy prayed during a period when school employees were free to speak with a friend, call for a reservation at a restaurant, check email, or attend to other personal matters. He offered his prayers quietly while his students were otherwise occupied. Still, the Bremerton School District disciplined him anyway,” wrote Gorsuch. 

“Both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s … The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”

In response to today’s opinion, Kennedy said, “This is just so awesome. All I’ve ever wanted was to be back on the field with my guys. I am incredibly grateful to the Supreme Court, my fantastic legal team, and everyone who has supported us. I thank God for answering our prayers and sustaining my family through this long battle.”

Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO and chief counsel for First Liberty, a religious liberty law firm based in Plano, Texas, which represented Kennedy, hailed the court’s decision as a “tremendous victory for Coach Kennedy and religious liberty for all Americans.” (more)

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” 

~ Matthew 18:20

“Will you pray with me?” or “will you allow me to pray with you?”  These are examples of the strongest proactive affirmations of fellowship, love and faith you can bring to any encounter.  Prayer works.

However, it is not enough to simply to stop and pray, we should immediately affirm the intent of the moment.  We should pause, gather or assemble and pray in His name. That is where the Spirit of Jesus will manifest.   Seek to gather with others in the name of Jesus and experience His presence in the moments of life.

Fellowship is critical.

There are many biblical commands concerning “one another” because God does not want us to be alone.  Isolation and/or aloneness is not living; they can be painful and harmful to our spirit.  Burdens weigh most when carried alone.

Fellowship is the connective tissue that brings life to our journey.  When you feel hardship, pray.  When you see hardship, pray. When you find hardship in another, pray.

There is no level of experience needed for prayer, nor is there an apprenticeship for faith.  While living, just pay attention.  When you see a burden reach out, feel, connect, and begin… “Dear God,”….. the rest will follow.

Jun 5 2022

Pentecost, The Birth of the Church


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on June 5, 2022 | Menagerie

Jn 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gave the Apostles all the gifts they needed to go out and preach the Gospel to the world. Ultimately, all of them except John would die as martyrs.

Pentecost occurs 50 days after Easter Sunday, ten days after the Ascension. Mary and the Apostles prayed together continuously after the Ascension, and this is where we Catholics get our tradition of the novena, nine days of dedicated prayer.

Once, when I was struggling with an especially difficult spiritual battle, a wise priest reminded  me to call upon the Spirit when I prayed, to guide me and help me, but also to deliver my prayers perfected to God. Those words helped me to see the might, power, love and completeness of the Advocate, and truly brought home to me all the gifts God makes available to us.

Too often we forget to use them.

May 26 2022

The Ascension of the Lord


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 26, 2022 Menagerie

Lk 24:46-53

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you;
but stay in the city
until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Then he led them out as far as Bethany,
raised his hands, and blessed them.
As he blessed them he parted from them
and was taken up to heaven.
They did him homage
and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and they were continually in the temple praising God.

May 8 2022

Happy Mother’s Day


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 8, 2022 | Menagerie

I’d like to return to a theme I’ve written about before. When we think of  Mother’s Day, it is natural for most of us to think of our own mothers and grandmothers, and since we are an adult community here, that means we mostly have in mind older mothers. I hope that if you fall into that category, as I do, your day is wonderful.  I hope you share my favorite gift, just some time with your family, laughter, joy, and making memories.

I would like to especially recognize young mothers and wish them a blessed day. Mothers with young children at home, or even teenagers, are in the most demanding phase of their lives. They are on the run from early morning until late at night.

There are tasks that need their attention before waking the family, then the morning rush of breakfast, dressing the kids, finding the homework and shoes, corralling everyone and loading the car, making it to school on time. Almost a day’s work before even their own workday starts, and then doing it all in reverse in the evening as they pick up kids. Then there are the demands of sports and extra curricular activities like music, dance, school projects, homework, last minute “Mom, I gotta have this (unusual, hard to find, expensive) thing tomorrow or I fail!!!”

Supper, cleanup, housework, laundry, helping with projects and chores and broken hearts and tears over hurts and troubles. And still, with all these demands on her, there are the needs of her husband, perhaps elderly parents, and her own responsibilities and career.

And somehow, there are superwomen who manage all this as a single mother. I truly hope they have appreciation from not only their kids, but most of the rest of us who underestimate the contributions of these moms to society.

The business done in the home is nothing less than the shaping of the bodies and souls of humanity. The family is the factory that manufactures mankind.
—G.K. Chesterton
from the book The Story of the Family
Apr 17 2022

Happy Easter!


Armstrong Economics Blog/Uncategorized Re-Posted Apr 17, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

We wish all of our readers who celebrate a happy Easter holiday.

Apr 17 2022

He Is Risen


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 17, 2022 | Menagerie

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qKSe9PE002o%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Reading I

Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Peter proceeded to speak and said:
“You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23.

R  (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R  Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
R  This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R  Alleluia.
“The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD.”
R  This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R  Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R  This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R  Alleluia.

I Cor 5:6b-8

Brothers and sisters:
Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast,
so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,
inasmuch as you are unleavened.
For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us celebrate the feast,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Alleluia

Cf. 1 Cor 5:7b-8a

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed;
let us then feast with joy in the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Jn 20:1-9

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.

Apr 17 2022

The Exsultet (Easter Proclamation)


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 16, 2022 | Menagerie

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YETnSx9HuMo%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven,
exult, let Angel ministers of God exult,
let the trumpet of salvation
sound aloud our mighty King’s triumph!

Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.

Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,
arrayed with the lightning of his glory,
let this holy building shake with joy,
filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.

(Therefore, dearest friends,
standing in the awesome glory of this holy light,
invoke with me, I ask you,
the mercy of God almighty,
that he, who has been pleased to number me,
though unworthy, among the Levites,
may pour into me his light unshadowed,
that I may sing this candle’s perfect praises.)

(V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.)
V. Lift up your hearts.
R. We lift them up to the Lord.
V. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
R. It is right and just.

It is truly right and just, with ardent love of mind and heart
and with devoted service of our voice,
to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father,
and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten.

Who for our sake paid Adam’s debt to the eternal Father,
and, pouring out his own dear Blood,
wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.

These, then, are the feasts of Passover,
in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb,
whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.

This is the night,
when once you led our forebears, Israel’s children,
from slavery in Egypt
and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.

This is the night
that with a pillar of fire
banished the darkness of sin.

This is the night
that even now, throughout the world,
sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices
and from the gloom of sin,
leading them to grace
and joining them to his holy ones.

This is the night,
when Christ broke the prison-bars of death
and rose victorious from the underworld.

Our birth would have been no gain,
had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us!
O love, O charity beyond all telling,
to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault
that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night,
worthy alone to know the time and hour
when Christ rose from the underworld!

This is the night
of which it is written:
The night shall be as bright as day,
dazzling is the night for me,
and full of gladness.

The sanctifying power of this night
dispels wickedness, washes faults away,
restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,
drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.
On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,
accept this candle, a solemn offering,
the work of bees and of your servants’ hands,
an evening sacrifice of praise,
this gift from your most holy Church.

But now we know the praises of this pillar,
which glowing fire ignites for God’s honor,
a fire into many flames divided,
yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,
for it is fed by melting wax,
drawn out by mother bees
to build a torch so precious.

O truly blessed night,
when things of heaven are wed to those of earth,
and divine to the human.

Therefore, O Lord,
we pray you that this candle,
hallowed to the honor of your name,
may persevere undimmed,
to overcome the darkness of this night.

Receive it as a pleasing fragrance,
and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.

May this flame be found still burning
by the Morning Star:
the one Morning Star who never sets,
Christ your Son,
who, coming back from death’s domain,
has shed his peaceful light on humanity,
and lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Apr 16 2022

“It is finished”


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 15, 2022 | Sundance

…and He bowed His head and dismissed His spirit.

There is a knot that builds in our throat.

Painful, yet not an ordinary discomfort.

It surfaces in one human sense….  Anguish.

Then tears.

Emotions that flow when we dare to slow down and feel.

Deeply feel.

The death of Jesus Christ, as a choice.

He hung on a cross and died for us.

So that we would know.

He had all control, and he made His choice for us.

For you.

For me.

For us.

For everyone who ever was, and ever will be.

It is finished.

Apr 16 2022

Good Friday Reproaches


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 15, 2022 | Menagerie

Apr 10 2022

Palm Sunday, Holy Week Begins


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 10, 2022 | Menagerie

At the Procession with Palms – Gospel

Lk 19:28-40

Jesus proceeded on his journey up to Jerusalem.
As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany
at the place called the Mount of Olives,
he sent two of his disciples.

He said, “Go into the village opposite you,
and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered
on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
And if anyone should ask you,
‘Why are you untying it?’
you will answer,
‘The Master has need of it.’”
So those who had been sent went off
and found everything just as he had told them.
And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them,
“Why are you untying this colt?”
They answered,
“The Master has need of it.”
So they brought it to Jesus,
threw their cloaks over the colt,
and helped Jesus to mount.
As he rode along,
the people were spreading their cloaks on the road;
and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives,
the whole multitude of his disciples
began to praise God aloud with joy
for all the mighty deeds they had seen.
They proclaimed:
“Blessed is the king who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest.”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him,
“Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”
He said in reply,
“I tell you, if they keep silent,
the stones will cry out!”