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       #Post#: 3225--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: Piper Date: November 14, 2015, 1:17 pm
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       [font=trebuchet ms]Are those who have just devastated Paris
       "children of God"?
       I would say they are far from God.  But not so far they could
       not return.  Will they?  Where does their will carry them?
       Can one who carries out such atrocities--who is capable of such
       random, violent, merciless bloodshedding--ever come to true
       repentance?
       I would say I do not know;  God knows.  They seem to lack
       conscience.  They seem to have no fear of God.  Something vital
       seems lost.  I would not wish to look into the eyes of such men.
       What would be seen there?
       I believe in good and evil.  I believe some walk so far from
       God, they walk in darkness, they breathe in darkness, they
       scheme in darkness.  They perhaps come to worship darkness.
       They make themselves to be children of the night.  Who is their
       god?  They would mock and spit on God.  The Holy Spirit can not
       be found among them.
       There is nothing more dangerous than a human being filled with
       blood lust, filled with hatred, killing in the name of "God."
       God our Father is a god of perfect justice.  Such things are His
       to judge.
       But, if God is father, the blessed virgin is mother, and those
       believing on the name of Christ are the adopted children of
       light, can I call those whose cup overflows with hatred my
       brothers?  My sisters?
       I know not how.
       I can only pray.
       And if we know not the words to pray, our tears which spill for
       the sorrow of this fractured world must fall into the hands of
       God.
       "Give me eyes to see, and ears to hear."  Those words mean we do
       not close our hearts to the tragedy of this world because it
       seems far from us.
       Some days, from deep within, comes a cry of, "How much longer?"
       What a strange, sad, world I find myself in. How desperately
       alone I feel.  Bright days, dark nights.
       Remind me.  Who am I?
       God have mercy on my soul, for who knows what darkness may lurk
       there?
       Am I a child of light?  Am I?  I tremble, because I feel
       darkness in my soul at times, like a cancer.  I feel its power.
       Sometimes, I feel helpless to stop it.
       If we refuse to recognize what is twisted and raging within us,
       can we ever be purged?
       I wonder if, in the deepest, darkest depths of night, there is
       even one spark of light that cries for redemption.
       If there is only one, will God save them?  Can an ember about to
       expire be fanned to life?
       I know not.
       I know not.
       Such things are too much for me.
       God help me to not be bitter for all I have lost.  Beware the
       sin, o my soul, of ingratitude, for always the battle rages,
       within and without.
       Help me find the good in the midst of despair.  Give me courage
       in this passage, for this is not my home.
       And I am desolate.  Incomplete.  Agitated and so terribly
       restless.  Starving for bread from heaven.
       Let me not lose faith in love.
       Feed me, rescue me.  Let me never lose sight of hope.
       Without hope, without courage, we are already dead, consumed by
       darkness.
       Show us, in the depth of night, the light that lingers still.
       Help them.
       Help me, as well.
       Let me never say, "Thank God I am good."  Let me only plead,
       "God, make me better.  Heal me."
       [/font]
       #Post#: 3226--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: Piper Date: November 14, 2015, 1:49 pm
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       [font=trebuchet ms]"Left behind in Paris," said Pope Francis,
       "are the latest scars from the piecemeal Third World
       War."[/font]
       #Post#: 3227--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: Piper Date: November 14, 2015, 1:54 pm
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       [font=trebuchet ms]Ahh, they are dead.  All dead.  Suicide
       missions complete in an insane world.  Who commands them?
       Who can save them?
       Dark days.[/font]
       #Post#: 3231--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: bradley Date: November 15, 2015, 1:10 pm
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       I would say, it is truly not a human guiding them, but neither
       is it God.
       #Post#: 3235--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: bradley Date: November 15, 2015, 7:35 pm
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       A good thought amidst the suffering...
       Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands give
       me delight.
       Psalm 119:143
       #Post#: 3508--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: Twinc Date: December 26, 2015, 2:32 pm
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       [quote author=bradley link=topic=382.msg3235#msg3235
       date=1447637732]
       A good thought amidst the suffering...
       Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands give
       me delight.
       Psalm 119:143
       [/quote]
       without meaning to be arrogant or pompoue imho Catholics mostly
       unknowingly broadcast the wrong message that our Pope is always
       and everywhere and in everyway correct in all his pronouncements
       and cannot and must not be corrected - here he is partially
       correct except that we are the prodigal children of God away
       from home either out of choice or circumstance beyond our
       control - this we must see and return - twinc
       #Post#: 3510--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: bradley Date: December 27, 2015, 12:22 am
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       And the brother who stayed with the father and his farm/herd
       despised his brother.   Who was the more sinful?
       #Post#: 3512--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: Twinc Date: December 27, 2015, 3:42 pm
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       [quote author=bradley link=topic=382.msg3510#msg3510
       date=1451197360]
       And the brother who stayed with the father and his farm/herd
       despised his brother.   Who was the more sinful?
       [/quote]
       lets just stick with the prodigal son for now - maybe the other
       brother for another topic - twinc
       #Post#: 3513--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Messages from Pope Francis
       By: bradley Date: December 27, 2015, 5:29 pm
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       [quote author=Twinc link=topic=382.msg3512#msg3512
       date=1451252528]
       lets just stick with the prodigal son for now - maybe the other
       brother for another topic - twinc
       [/quote]
       And so goes error.   Lets focus on someone elses error or
       splinter and avoid talking about the plank in our own eyes.
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