#m=image%2Fjpeg&dim=708x408&blurhash=i36*RJ%3D%7DAaAGkDn%2CNKjJwgXSozs%3As%3AofWVjZWVR*0xEf%3Dx%3Dyj%5BS2s%3AWpJ7%5EQxGI%3AI%3Bj%5DoLWCjZsn%7DZ%24N9%5BACayoLR*n%25xG&x=1de9fb5ef01771ab50ab85d841bd9d70d3fcda8ec7f6ad42ac20bac393a27b41Psalm 75:45
God punishing the Egyptians but protecting his people…
43When He worked His signs in Egypt,
And His wonders in the field of Zoan;
44Turned their rivers into blood,
And their streams, that they could not drink.
45He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them,
And frogs, which destroyed them.
46He also gave their crops to the caterpillar,
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Happy and Blessed New Year friends!
Happy Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. May she intercede for us and for all this new year.
Monday 1 January 2024
Mary, the Holy Mother of God - Solemnity
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Mary, the Holy Mother of God
From a letter of St Athanasius
The Word took our nature from Mary
The Word took to himself the sons of Abraham, says the Apostle, and so had to be like his brothers in all things. He had then to take a body like ours. This explains the fact of Mary’s presence: she is to provide him with a body of his own, to be offered for our sake. Scripture records her giving birth, and says: She wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Her breasts, which fed him, were called blessed. Sacrifice was offered because the child was her firstborn. Gabriel used careful and prudent language when he announced his birth. He did not speak of “what will be born in you” to avoid the impression that a body would be introduced into her womb from outside; he spoke of “what will be born from you,” so that we might know by faith that her child originated within her and from her.
By taking our nature and offering it in sacrifice, the Word was to destroy it completely and then invest it with his own nature, and so prompt the Apostle to say: This corruptible body must put on incorruption; this mortal body must put on immortality.
This was not done in outward show only, as some have imagined. This is not so. Our Saviour truly became man, and from this has followed the salvation of man as a whole. Our salvation is in no way fictitious, nor does it apply only to the body. The salvation of the whole man, that is, of soul and body, has really been achieved in the Word himself.
What was born of Mary was therefore human by nature, in accordance with the inspired Scriptures, and the body of the Lord was a true body: It was a true body because it was the same as ours. Mary, you see, is our sister, for we are all born from Adam.
The words of St John, the Word was made flesh, bear the same meaning, as we may see from a similar turn of phrase in St Paul: Christ was made a curse for our sake. Man’s body has acquired something great through its communion and union with the Word. From being mortal it has been made immortal; though it was a living body it has become a spiritual one; though it was made from the earth it has passed through the gates of heaven.
Even when the Word takes a body from Mary, the Trinity remains a Trinity, with neither increase nor decrease. It is for ever perfect. In the Trinity we acknowledge one Godhead, and thus one God, the Father of the Word, is proclaimed in the Church.
Hello frens
I onboarded nostr:npub16k4yl6hxtrypknn8cplhgfl4ejkl9qjhnz6uvvluqkq5ey8d724qw0ejfg
To #nostr
And setup his restaurant to except #bitcoin.
#btc
Please give him a follow and say hi.
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Awesome! You traveling or live down there?
This is so excellent. Brilliant woman.
Was listening to this. Pretty insane. Will finish later but got a bit freaky.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZcBHvjhGMTTdGF3fIdvg9?si=dcoBwOQtQm2JF0EMD5cvaw
Excellent BTC explanation. His book is great.
Thursday 28 December 2023
The Holy Innocents, Martyrs - Feast
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
The Holy Innocents, Martyrs
The Massacre of the Innocents (c.1585) by Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594), Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice.
A sermon of St Quodvultdeus
Even before they learn to speak, they proclaim Christ
A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.
Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage, and to destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.
You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers or fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong your own life, though you are seeking to kill Life himself.
Yet your throne is threatened by the source of grace, so small, yet so great, who is lying in the manger. He is using you, all unaware of it, to work out his own purposes freeing souls from captivity to the devil. He has taken up the sons of the enemy into the ranks of God’s adopted children.
The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. See the kind of kingdom that is his, coming as he did in order to be this kind of king. See how the deliverer is already working deliverance, the saviour already working salvation.
But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.
How great a gift of grace is here! To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.
Next up on my reading list. Looking forward to it. Recommended by several people. Howard was also instrumental on my path to the Catholic Church with his Evangelical is Not Enough book. 
If you are going to read one of the Gospels, John is an amazing place to begin.
Saint John the Apostle, pray for us. 
This is good info and perspective. I appreciate it!
I haven’t read. Maybe I’m wrong. I just don’t trust the ETFS.
Ah thanks
Tell me about Fidelity. Why are they different. Regardless, I guess the point is, the ETF ain’t BTC. I’m sure Fidelity won’t back each ETF BTC with an actual BTC?
And the masses will think BTC is like any other investment, and be rugged, until they self custody. Planned. And easy money for the BlackRocks. Why is it so hard for people to take ownership of BTC?