The Unitive Trap: How Modern Personalism Denies Original Sin in the Marital Act For two millennia, the Catholic Church stood as an unyielding fortress against the chaotic currents of carnal indulgence. Guided by the crystalline logic of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the sobering pastoral wisdom of Saint Augustine, Christian tradition understood precisely what the marital act was: a raw, biological reality ordered strictly to the procreation of immortal souls, protected by the legal bond of marital fidelity. Today, however, that fortress has been quietly hollowed out from within. Under the guise of a mid-century theological update, the contemporary Church has largely adopted the vocabulary of the 1960’s “sexual revolution,” baptizing the secular world’s obsession with "making love" by masking it in the language of "personalism" and the "unitive meaning" of the marriage bed. By elevating the highly subjective, emotional concept of the "unitive end" to a co-equal status with procreation, modern …More
So what exactly are the Seven Noahide Laws, and why should Christians be paying attention? Unlike the Ten Commandments, the Noahide Laws are not commandments specifically for the Jewish people. Within rabbinic Judaism, they are understood as universal laws given by God to the descendants of Noah, which means, effectively, all of humanity. They are: 1. Do not worship idols 2. Do not blaspheme God 3. Do not murder 4. Do not steal 5. Do not engage in prohibited sexual relations 6. Do not eat flesh taken from a living animal 7. Establish courts of justice At first glance, most people would probably consider these perfectly reasonable moral principles. Don’t murder, don’t steal, establish justice… But there is a fundamental question hidden within them that Christians in particular need to understand. Who defines “idolatry”? Because Judaism does not recognise Jesus Christ as God or as the Messiah, and within classical rabbinic Judaism there are authorities who regarded Christian worship of …More
On February 12, 2025, the Nascent Sanhedrin in Jerusalem sent an extraordinary letter to Donald Trump. They told him: “You have been elected, as Cyrus was in his time, to fulfill a heavenly mission.” Cyrus the Great was the King of Persia who conquered Babylon in 539 BC and allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem. According to the biblical account, he authorised the rebuilding of the Temple and the return of its sacred vessels. Isaiah even refers to Cyrus as God’s “anointed”. Cyrus was not Jewish. He was a powerful gentile ruler whom the biblical narrative presents as being used by God to facilitate the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple. So when Jewish religious authorities describe Trump as a modern-day Cyrus, we should understand precisely what that comparison means. For years, certain Jewish religious and Temple movements have associated Trump with Cyrus, particularly following his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In 2018, the Sanhedrin even minted a “Temple …More
Pope Leo XIV speaks with Vladimir Putin and calls for a ceasefire Pope Leo XIV gave strong indications Friday that he was recovering well from lung cancer surgery and was very much in charge of running the Catholic Church, speaking on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Vatican said that during the call with Putin, “the Holy Father expressed his deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region, and called for a ceasefire to allow the delivery of food and medical assistance, and the voluntary and safe evacuation of the civilian population.” (AP video / Isaia Montelione and Trisha Thomas) Read more: Associated Press News: Breaking News | Latest …
Pope urges humanitarian ceasefire in Oleshky in call with Russian President Pope urges humanitarian ceasefire in Oleshky in … Speaking by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pope Leo XIV expresses his "deep concern about the grave humanitarian situation in the city of Oleshky, in the Kherson region," and calls for a ceasefire to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.
DOJ is suing California in an extraordinary attempt to interfere in the midterm elections ...demanding action that Governor Newsom says would violate federal law. California Secretary of State Shirley Weber warns that the administration is using unsubstantiated claims about voter eligibility to create chaos and undermine confidence in our elections, just weeks before voters head to the polls. Dina Doll reports. MeidasTouch relies on SnapStream to record, watch, monitor, and clip the news. Get a FREE TRIAL of SnapStream by clicking here: Record TV with SnapStream to get clips that will … Support the MeidasTouch Network: patreon.com/meidastouch
Sunday, 17th August 1913: Serious Blow Is Dealt The Defense By Its Own Witness, The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Constitution, Sunday, 17th August 1913, PAGE 1, COLUMNS 1 AND 7. GIRL SAYS FRANK OFTEN LOOKED IN DRESSING ROOMS Miss Irene Jackson Testifies That Superintendent Stood in Door While Girls Were Partially Disrobed. PINKERTONS ACCUSED OF DOUBLE-CROSSING Mrs. Cora Barnes, Factory Employee, Declares Frank Was Soul of Honor-Asserts Belief in Innocence. The unexpected happened in the Leo M. Frank trial Saturday when Miss Irene Jackson, daughter of County Policeman A. W. Jackson, was placed on the stand to testify to the good character of Frank. Miss Jackson is quite a pretty young girl and was formerly employed at the National Pencil Factory, leaving there the Monday following the murder of Mary Phagan. The attorneys for the defense had evidently not questioned her closely prior to her appearance in court. One of her very first answers to Reuben Arnold's questions was sufficient …More
Sunday, 17th August 1913: Various Distances To Factory Measured By Civil Engineer, The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Constitution, Sunday, 17th August 1913, PAGE 11, COLUMN 4. A. Thomas, a civil engineer, who measured the distance from Marietta and Forsyth streets along Forsyth to the pencil plant and who also timed himself in walking the distance, was put on the stand following Mrs. Frank. Direct examination by Arnold. "Did you measure the distance from the intersection of Forsyth at Marietta along Forsyth street to the National Pencil factory?" "Yes, it is 1,016 feet." "Did you walk over it to test the time?" "Yes, at a moderate pace it took me four and a half minutes." "Did you measure the distance from the factory along Forsyth street to Alabama and along Alabama to Whitehall?" "Yes, the distance is 830 feet. Walking at the same rate, I reached Whitehall street in three and a half minutes." "Did you measure from the corner of Broad and Hunter streets to the pencil factory?" "Yes …More
Sunday, 17th August 1913: Trials Third Week Replete With Sensational Incidents, The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Constitution, Sunday, 17th August 1913, PAGE 6, COLUMN 3. :: Pretty Girls Who Testified Friday :: MRS. J. G. WARDLAW, Who testified to Frank's good character. MISS LOVEY HAYES, Who testified she saw Frank a few minutes after murder was committed. PAGE 6, COLUMN 3 TRIAL'S THIRD WEEK REPLETE Strong Points Scored by Defense WITH SENSATIONAL INCIDENTS By far the main feature of the evidence brought out during the third week of the Frank trial was the testimony of pedestrians in the uptown district and residents of the vicinity in which Frank lives, to the effect that the accused man had been seen calmly walking around only a few minutes after the time the murder is claimed to have been committed. This chain of testimony, forged with a number of links, has established a seemingly unbreakable corroboration of Frank's account of his whereabouts during the time he was gone from …More
This isn't just another art instruction book it is the meticulously structured and impossibly devotional workbook for icon painters that readers of Henri Nouwen and Sister Wendy Beckett have been searching for
Tuesday, 19th August 1913: Conflicting Statements Made By Franks Former Stenographer, The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Constitution, Tuesday, 19th August 1913, PAGE 3, COLUMN 3. Interest in the morning session of the trial of Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan, came when Solicitor Hugh Dorsey trapped Miss M. E. Fleming, a witness for the defense, into admitting that she had seen Frank working on the financial sheet on Saturday mornings. The claim of the defense has been that Frank never worked on this sheet except on Saturday afternoons, and they particularly stressed the claim that he did the three hours' work on the afternoon of the day on which the state claims the girl was murdered. When Miss Fleming, who stated that she worked in Frank's office as stenographer from April to December, 1911, was put on the stand by the defense she swore to the good character of the defendant. She was then turned over to the state for cross-examination. "You don't undertake to tell what …More
I read How to Paint Icons and then sat with it for a while, thinking about what you actually built here. This is not a painting manual. It is a workbook and a journal. Seventy-two pages designed to take the iconographer beyond just the painting of an icon. You wrote something that almost nobody in the art instruction category does. You asked the reader to document the process. To archive the work. To let the technique and the discipline and the spiritual growth happen together. And then the line that stopped me. The journey of an iconographer surpasses the feeling of being spiritual and becomes knowledge of God written in stone. That is not a sentence from an art teacher. That is a sentence from someone who has spent thirty years painting in a studio in San Miguel de Allende, combining prayer and sacred art, living a lifestyle that celebrates mystery. What struck me most is that you did not write this for the Orthodox world alone. You wrote it for the twenty-first century. You wrote it …More