Michael: Christ’s Sacrifice and Baptism in Him

Michael: Christ’s Sacrifice and Baptism in Him

See: Traditional Catholic Prayers: January 1 is the Feast of the Circumcision - Eternal Faith & Beliefs « BellesHeures's Weblog

The Epiphany is when the Holy and undivided Trinity appeared to confirm the beginning of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's public mission for the next, the last, three and one-quarter years of His earthly life. That mission was for one objective, which is the salvation of those who believe in Him. He came to exhaust the sins of those are redeemed by His Most Holy Cross. Just as His Circumcision was His first shedding of blood for us, so His Cross is the last. There will never be NOR could there be another sacrifice by which the redeemed are saved.

Eternal redemption. . . By that one sacrifice of his blood, once offered on the cross, Christ our Lord paid and exhibited, once for all, the general price and ransom of all mankind: which no other priest could do. For He alone is our High Priest and the only priest to whom we owe obedience.

9:13 For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of an heifer, being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh:
9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?
9:15 And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament: that by means of his death for the redemption of those transgressions which were under the former testament, they that are called ay receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
9:16 For where there is a testament the death of the testator must of necessity come in.
9:17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is as yet of no strength, whilst the testator liveth.
9:18 Whereupon neither was the first indeed dedicated without blood.
9:19 For when every commandment of the law had been read by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the ook itself and all the people.
9:20 Saying: This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
9:21 The tabernacle also and all the vessels of the ministry, in like manner, he sprinkled with blood.
9:22 And almost all things, according to the law, are cleansed with blood: and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
9:23 It is necessary therefore that the patterns of heavenly things should be cleansed with these: but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
9:24 For Jesus is not entered into the Holies made with hands, the patterns of the true: but into Heaven itself, that he may appear now in the presence of God for us.
9:25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the Holies every year with the blood of others:

Offer himself often. . . Christ shall never more offer himself in sacrifice, in that violent, painful, and bloody manner, nor can there be any occasion for it: since by that one sacrifice upon His Cross, he has furnished the full ransom, redemption, and remedy for all the sins of the world. But this hinders not that He, by the Holy Spirit, makes Himself daily present in the sacred Eucharist in the bread and cup given us by God and His power alone and not by any pretended power of men, that sacred Presence whom we receive in faith with all thanksgiving.

9:26 For then he ought to have suffered often from the beginning of the world. But now once, at the end of ages, he hath appeared for the destruction of sin by the sacrifice of himself.
9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment:
9:28 So also Christ was offered once to exhaust the sins of many. The second time he shall appear without sin to them that expect him unto salvation.

Muslims are encouraged to come to Christ, who they already confess as the Messiah, as Islam in the Holy Qur'an teaches, just as the Holy Bible teaches, and receive baptism in Christ and come to the Lord's table and receive the Eucharist. (See: The Final Trial)

To exhaust. . .That is, to empty, or draw out to the very bottom, by a plentiful and perfect redemption.

Second time. . .The Parousia, Nuzul i Isa in Arabic, the Second Coming of Christ from heaven with all the elect angels of God.

Jesus Christ said:

John 6:55
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.

Matthew 26:28
For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.

Christ will return to Judgement at the end of this age « BellesHeures's Weblog

See link: Christ will return to Judgement at the end of this age « BellesHeures's Weblog

[excerpt]

Ahiyah Asher Ahiyah I Am Who I Am Yahweh El Olam eth Abba Our Father and Son Jesus Christ OLS and Ruach Yahweh Holy Spirit our Paraclete, Pantocrator Omniscient Ubiquitos, Yahweh Elohim eth Creator and ruler of all the Lord thy God Incarnate, subsuming flesh of all men, Jesus Christ our only Saviour, 70 generations from Adam and the beginning of all creation through Whom, the Word of God, all that has been created was created and without Whom was nothing that has been created, Who hast commanded all men:
1. “Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me;
2. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain;
3. Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath Day;
4. Honor thy Father and thy Mother;
5. Thou shalt not kill;
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery;
7. Thou shalt not steal;
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness;
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife;
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods;
3. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.
5. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
6. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.
7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
8. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God
9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
10. Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11. Blessed are you when men reproach you, and persecute you, and, speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you, for my sake.
12. Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in heaven; for so did they persecute the prophets who were before you.
“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
22. Blessed shall you be when men hate you; and when they shut you out and reproach you, and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
23. Rejoice on that day and exult, for behold your reward is great in heaven. For in the selfsame manner their fathers used to treat the prophets.
24. But woe to you rich! for you are now having your comfort.
25. Woe to you who are filled for you shall hunger.
Woe to you, who laugh now! For you shall mourn and weep.
26. Woe to you when all men speak well of you! In the selfsame manner their fathers used to treat the false prophets!”
The Disciples Compared to Salt and Light
13. “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its strength, what shall be salted with it? It is no longer of any use but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.
14. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
15. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under the measure, but upon the lamp-stand, so as to give light to all in the house.
16. Even so let your light shine before men, in order that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The Old Law and the New
17. “Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
18. For amen I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall be lost from the Law till all things have been accomplished.
19. Therefore whoever does away with one of these least commandments, and so teaches men, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever carries them out and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20. For I say to you that unless your justice exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul with thy whole depth of being and with thy whole strength. 38. This is the greatest and the first commandment.
39. And the second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
40. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.
I say it now.
34. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: that as I have loved you, you also love one another. 35. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
Forgive us our sins as we also do forgive those who trespass against us”
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach us Thy statutes and therefore remember us when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, grant us understanding of Thy statutes and therefore remember us when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom
Blessed art Thou, O Lord, enlighten us by Thy statutes and by our obedience of them therefore remember us when Thou comest in Thy Kingdom

Also see:
Traditional Catholic Prayers: Be Prepared « BellesHeures's Weblog

Look up, your redemption is at hand: The Apocalypse - The Book of the Revelation - The Testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ

Look up, your redemption is at hand: The Apocalypse - The Book of the Revelation - The Testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ

The Apocalypse - The Book of the Revelation - The Testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ

Download The Testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ in PDF free of charge.

Or online here in HTML The Testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.



Title and Introdution. Go to links for full work. 133 pages in PDF.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

The Revelation of The Lord God Jesus Christ
The Book of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist of the Revelation Given Him by the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.
THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST
{WHO IS THE LAST PROPHET OF THE BIBLE UNTIL SAINT ENOCH AND SAINT ELIJAH RETURN AT THE CONSUMMATION OF DAYS – Muhammad is a prophet of God, Allah (SWT), but his Holy Scripture that God gave him to preach is the Qur’an}
The Apocalypse is a revelation of things that were, are and will be. We are actually witnessing some of the events foretold in this book, but many still lie in the future [this introduction was part of material written in the late 1940's]. It is Christ who commands John to write to the seven churches, opens the seven seals, reveals the sufferings of the saints, opens the little book, overcomes the beast, reigns during the period of the first resurrection, judges the dead, both great and small, according to their works at His Second Coming, rules over all things from the beginning, presides over all the changing scenes of earth’s history, and is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The book presents Christ as the Coming One; it reveals the dealings of Him who came, and who is to come. It opens with the solemn hope that the Coming One will come soon, and closes with the impressive prediction that the Coming One will come quickly.
The book is one of hope, but also one of warning; its aim is to assure the Church of the advent of her Lord in victory. The precise time of this victory lies hidden with God, but it is certain, although the crown will not be won without a struggle. Heaven will be stormed and carried away through suffering and conflict. And all who keep the words of this book will take part in the conflict andshare in the victory.The conflict is presented under the form of symbols. It is not easy to give a full interpretation of all the types, but the general symbols are not difficult to understand. Jerusalem stands as the type of the good cause, and this is the Church of Christ. Babylon appears as the type of the evil cause, and this is the world _ power. The heavenly Jerusalem has the assistance of divine power. The earthly _ Babylon has the help of evil powers, the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. The scenes in the great conflict arrange themselves around these types of good and of evil. The numbers, the seals, the trumpets and the bowls are phases in the development and consummation of the conflict.
John has arranged the scenes in a sevenfold structure; even in the subordinate visions he keeps to this arrangement. Commentators, however, are not agreed in marking off the limits of each structure.
The book was written in Greek by St. John the Evangelist, on the island of Patmos, about the year. 96 A.D.
Note on parallel passages and commentary. The parallel passages are based on the full concordance thereof relating to, from the Council of Trent; the commentary is late 1940’s Catholic from the full consensus of the Church Fathers on the seven within seven structure of the book.
Also note that the book at the same time “opens from the middle” so to speak. Just like a megilloth (Hebrew for scroll). The first eleven chapters (1 – 11) which culminate in the general judgement – Rev. 11:18 – 19
And the nations were angry: and thy wrath is come. And the time of the dead, that they should be judged and that thou shouldest render reward to thy servants the prophets and the saints, and to them that fear thy name, little and great: and shouldest destroy them who have corrupted the earth.
And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple. And there were lightnings and voices and an earthquake and great hail. (DRV)
And the second eleven chapters (12 – 22) which culminate in the general judgement (Rev. 20:11 – 14) and the New Heaven and New Earth (Rev. 21, 22)
Both the first and second eleven chapters begin from the time of Christ’s Incarnation but include the fact that He is Immortal and the Creator of Heaven and Earth. See: Rev. 1:4 – 6 John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Grace be unto you and peace, from him that is and that was and that is to come: and from the seven spirits which are before his throne:
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth, who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood (when He became Incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the blessed virgin Mary and went to the Cross for our salvation)
And hath made us a kingdom, and priests to God and his Father. To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.(DRV)
And see: Rev. 12:1, 2, 5
And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And being with child, she cried travailing in birth: and was in pain to be delivered.
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod (Christ’s Incarnation). And her son was taken up to God and to his throne (Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension). (DRV)
And see: Rev.:21:6:
6 And he said to me: It is done. I am Alpha and Omega: the Beginning and the End. To him that thirsteth, I will give of the fountain of the water of life, freely. (DRV)
These two phrases that is and that was and that is to come (Greek “‘o oon kai ‘o en kai ‘o erchoumenos”) and I am Alpha and Omega (Greek: “egoo eimi to Alpha kai to Omega”) are emphatic declarations of Christ’s Divinity and Immortality for it is the Thrice Holy Trinity – Rv:4:8 And the four living creatures had each of them six wings: and round about and within they are full of eyes. And they rested not day and night, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. (Greek “‘agious ‘agious ‘agious kurios ‘o theos ‘o pantocrator”) – alone Who possesses Aseity (self existence and Who is therefore alone uncreated) and Who is Immortal of the same Essence/Substance – Nature.
In the above: the “who [that] is”, in Greek “‘o oon”, is the declaration of Aseity. The “who [that] was” and the “who [that] is to come” with the “‘o oon”, self existence, is the declaration of Immortality (having no beginning and no end – always existing). The phrase I am Alpha and Omega has exactly the same meaning. “I am” – “egoo eimi” is the equivalent of Yahweh (God’s proper name) in Hebrew meaning “I am” in the same sense as the above “‘o oon”. Alpha and Omega has the same meaning as Immortality in the above. Pantocrator (translated as Almighty) is the declaration of the Thrice Holy Lord God’s All ruling absolute Sovereignty and includes emphatically the meaning that He is alone uncreated and Creator, ex nihilo, of all of creation. This relates directly to the beginning of the Gospel of St. John and the beginning of the first book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) which is Genesis. See: Genesis 1:1 through 2:4 and St. John’s Gospel 1:1 through vs. 18. All of this and the exact seventy human generations recounted in St. Luke’s Gospel 3:1 – 38 from Adam to Christ (see also the parallel in St. Matthew’s Gospel 1:1 – 25 from Abraham to Christ) and the testimony of the Church Fathers does not allow any pagan evolutionary gods nor even sophist pantheistic idolatrous creationism but only creation by the Creator as He said He did it, and only Redemption in God and His Christ (the Messiah, al-Maseeh) as He said that it is; the false gods or pagan idolatrous religions that willfully reject God and Jesus Christ (those who do not willfully reject Him but seek God in their hearts are judged by God alone) are without grace and they and their followers will be damned forever, who do not repent in this life from those false gods and religions and come to God and His Christ and make confession in Him and be baptized by God’s Spirit {believers in monotheistic Islam and all men of good will (in the full consensus of the Church Fathers) are included as true believers in the true God when therefore saved by their confession of belief in the Triune God and fulfilling the will of God, Allah (SWT), they come to Christ and professing the Trinity are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit}. Allah is from biblical Hebrew ‘Eloah’ and means the true God, All middle Eastern Christians, including Catholics, who are Arabic speakers call on Allah as the name of the true God. Amen.
Note on parallel passage notation – the ! after a scriptural reference means that is the emphasis or central point for explanation of the passage.
_________________________________________

Al-Qaeda’ is a Manufactured Intelligence Front by Kawther Salam « Retort Magazine

Al-Qaeda’ is a Manufactured Intelligence Front by Kawther Salam « Retort Magazine

Al-Qaeda’ is a Manufactured Intelligence Front by Kawther Salam

 PUBLISHED BY RETORT MAGAZINE, ON JUNE 20TH, 2004

During the past weeks, two American hostages have been killed and decapitated in Iraq and in Saudi Arabia. The media say that these crimes were comitted by Islamic Terrorists.

I have never read any Islamic Rule in the Koran which allows the decapitation of people whether they are Moslems, Christians or Jews, for any reason whatsoever.

I have never read an Islamic Rule which states that the killing of hostages is allowed. All what I remember that Islam has to say in this matter is that somebody who kills a “believer” unlawfully is sanctioned the same as if he had killed all the worlds nations. The word “believer” means “anyone who believes in God” in this context, not only Muslims.

The Koran states that the place where faith in God is held, and equally where the faith in God is broken, is in the heart. The Koran states that nobody can read what is in the hearts of others, or judge them as a believers or disbelievers. Even if their hearts are cut open, it is not possible to know if a person is a believer or not. Knowledge in this matter belongs only to God himself. This should be understood as meaning that Islam expressly forbids killing for religious reasons.

The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) recommended good treatment for hostages and prisoners during the past Islamic wars. He said: “You should not kill an old man, a child, or a woman. You should not cut a tree or destroy a church…”. Murdering and killing is outside of Islamic morals and principles, which are inviolable.

Seen from a more secular standpoint, an Arabic proverb says ”Nobody can cut the head of a person but his Creator”. This means again that nobody has the right to put an end to anothers life. While Islam expressly forbids suicide, it is still more acceptable to put an end to ones own life than to kill another person.

What does the word “Al-Qaeda” mean ? In Arabic, “Al-Qaeda” has a different meanings, among them “Base”, “Ground”, “Norm”, “Rule”, “Fundament”, “Grammar”. The exact meaning is dependent on the context in which it is used. It depends on the word which follows “Al-Qaeda” in the sentence. “Qawa’ad Askaria” is an Army Base, “Qawa’ad Lugha” stands for Grammar Rules (the Bases of Grammar).

“Qa’ada” is the infinitive of the verb “to sit”. “Ma-Qa’ad” is a chair. “Al-Qaeda” is the base or fundament of something. “Ana raicha Al Qaeda” is colloquial for “I’m going to the toilet”. A very common and widespread use of the word “Al-Qaeda” in different Arab countries in the public language is for the toilet bowl. This name comes from the Arabic verb “Qa’ada” which mean “to sit”, pertinently, on the “Toilet Bowl”. In most Arabs homes there are two kinds of toilets: “Al-Qaeda” also called the “Hamam Franji” or foreign toilet, and “Hamam Arabi” or “Arab toilet” which is a hole in the ground. Lest we forget it, the potty used by small children is called “Ma Qa’adia” or “Little Qaeda”.

Those who founded the glorious “International of Islamic Terror, Al-Qaeda, probably knew too little about common use of Arabic language to know that by using this name for their organization, they risked becoming the laughing stock of everybody who speaks the Arabic “public” language.

To kidnap, torture and execute people are terrorist actions which are in no way related to God or to Islam, and these actions are not rewarded by paradise as some ignorant Western media figures would like to believe.

The terrorist event of New York 11 September 20001, and the terror event of Madrid on 11 March 2004, and other terror events commonly connected to Islam, are clearly not related to Islam if we consider that the Al-Qaeda terror organization was established by the C.I.A in the 1980s. Al-Qaeda is nothing but a conveniently “Islamic” front which enables the C.I.A. to commit crimes in the name of Muslims. It is well known that the Mujahadeen terrorists of Afghanistan were organized, trained and funded by the C.I.A. using the Pakistani ISI as a “cut-out” in order to lure the Soviet Army into Afghanistan at the end of 1979. The Mujahedeen can be seen as C.I.A. terrorism with an islamic name and “islamic” perpetrators. Afghanistan has, for all purposes, been destroyed by these fanatics in furtherance of American interests.

The Al-Qaeda terror organization has caused immense damage to Islam, to Moslems worldwide and to the interests of the peoples of all Arab and Muslim countries. The actions of Al-Qaeda have only served to promote the interests of the U.S. and Israel, which are clearly interested in “reshaping” the Middle East in such a way that they can more easily rape and plunder the region at will.

In fact the C.I.A is using the terrorist actions of its proxy Al-Qaeda in order to give the U.S. an excuse to extend their power into and invade the Arab countries, first countries with rich plunder (Oil) like Iraq, Iran, Saudia Arabia, and second any country which is a “threat” to Israel, or more exactly which Israel dislikes for whatever reason. The third objective for which the C.I.A. is using its proxy Al-Qaeda is to engender fear and hate of Islam and Muslims worldwide. This corresponds to an old and tried ploy of colonizers: to slander and denigrate the target population so that it is acceptable and even called for to commit genocide against them. The peoples of Ireland, Africa and the Americas have all suffered this tragedy, and these regions have been colonized. The next obvious victims are Arabs and Muslims by extension because they live in geographic areas rich in oil and other resources, and because Muslims as a collective are not white enough to be respected as full humans by the criminals in London, Washinton and Tel Aviv.

The immediate question is then: What purpose is the U.S pursuing in Saudi Arabia with the decapitation of Paul Johnson ? Is this crime related to their plans in the region in any way, or is it just one more sideshow related to the upcoming elections in the U.S. designed to distract the american public from some very embarassing information leaks which could endanger the reelection of President Bush ? Will there be a new decapitation every time something embarassing or dangerous for the Bush administration leaks to the media, in the same way as there was a very well timed suicide bomber in Israel every time Sharon would have otherwise been forced to make peace with the Palestinian side ? In a strange coincidence, the murder of Paul Johnson was made public last Thursday or Friday.

The pictures of Johnson’s decapitation were widely shown in the mainstream media. At the same time, last Thursday, two American officers testified before the Commission investigating the 911 crime according to the article by Tom Fiocco linked above. This was conveniently ignored by the mainstream media. If the 911 Commission had chosen to ask these two officers hard questions related to the weirdness of that day, they could probably have been found more than just weirdness and chaos. A pertinent question would have been: could “Al-Qaeda”, without the very opportune “weirdness” around the actions of these two officers, been able to kidnap and fly four airplanes for hours through the USA, to crash them into buildings in two separate cities ? Whatever the answer to this question, the two officers named in the linked article, Navy Captain Charles J. Leidig, Jr. and Brigadier General Montague Winfield have since been promoted by President Bush according to the article of Tom Fiocco.

A strange coincidence around the murder of Paul Johnson is that the Saudi Police apparently cooperated with those who abducted him. Why would a security service trained by American and British C.I.A. fronts like the Vinnell Corporation, cooperate with “Al-Qaeda”, their purported enemy ? This is the second time during the last weeks that Saudi security forces have cooperated with “Al-Qaeda. If this starts happening regularly, it would suggest either a very grave instability in the Kingdom or that the Saudi security forces are run in accordance with American interests

And, why was the body of Paul Johnson, just like Nicholas Berg before him, clothed in an orange Guantanamo-style overall ? Does “Al-Qaeda” go shopping at Guantanamo Bay, or is there something else behind this “coincidence” ?

During the second Palestinian Intifada, the Israeli intelligence tried to create an “Al-Qaeda” organization in the West Bank and and Gaza using the American know-how and experience gained creating Al-Qaeda and Mr. Osama bin Ladin. The Israeli Intelligence services were using the damaged Palestinians economy to lure in unaware Palestinian youths. They provided several Palestinians with machine guns and thousands of dollars to kill Israelis under the name of Al-Qaeda. When the game was discovered by the Palestinians intelligence, the Israelis scurried away and stopped their disgusting “Al-Qaeda” game with Palestinians. Only last week the media carried news of an Israeli (not Palestinian) arrested in the Phillipines for being a member of “Al-Qaeda”

As an example of how different things can be when the USA wants, in April, 1992, the airplane of President Arafat made a forced landing in the desert during a trip between Lybia and Sudan. He was found almost instantly by Israel and America, and brought to safety on the next day. Why is the USA not able to find Osama bin Laden in the same way with all the resources they have ?

On behalf of my people I would like to say that we deny that the terror practices of Al-Qaeda represent Islam and Moslems in any way. We are against the instrumentalization of Islam and all Moslems by the C.I.A through their front organization Al-Qaeda. This disgusting criminal gang has already caused too much death and suffering for innocents of all creeds in many lands. We reject the Al-Qaeda announcement to killing innocents people under the name of Islam for revenge of the injustices comitted against Palestinians. We reject all Al-Qaeda practices as these crimes are against humanity. These crimes are all steered from Washington by the C.I.A. and they only represent U.S. policy.

© Kawther Salam 2004
http://www.kawther.info/wpr/
After I was forced by the Israeli occupation forces to leave my home in Palestine, I fled to Vienna, Austria, where I currently live as a refugee. I started my online diary in October 2001 while still living in Palestine, where I worked as a journalist.

Traditional Catholic Prayers: Eid Milad Saeed

Traditional Catholic Prayers: Eid Milad Saeed


Sons of men, do you truly speak of justice? Dwellers on the earth,
do you truly judge with fairness?
We confess with unshakable faith
that God, who was made man
and who was given birth by a Virgin.
Before all time he was begotten.
of an immeasurable Father;
now we adore him who became incarnate
in a Virgin’s womb.
He is the creator of all,
himself remaining invisible and distinct from creation.
So we are able to say:
in you, Lord, is clemency; glory be to you.
O Holy God,
you have deigned to be born, a tiny child, from a Virgin. I
O God, holy and strong,
you have willed to rest in the arms of Mary.
O God, holy and immortal,
you have come to rescue Adam from hell.
O immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, full of grace,
Emmanuel, whom you have carried,
is the fruit of your womb.
In your maternal bosom you have nourished all men.
You are above all praise and all glory.
Hail, Mother of God, joy of the angels.
The fullness of your grace
goes beyond what the prophets foretold.
The Lord is with you,
you have given birth
to the Saviour of the world.

South Sudan: the state that fell apart in a week | World news | The Guardian

Tracking the rising of the Antichrist in North Africa.

ANTICHRIST - KING OF THE NORTH, KING OF THE SOUTH - THREE HORNS CUT OFF - ONE SHALL REIGN OVER ALL

click on picture

South Sudan: the state that fell apart in a week | World news | The Guardian

South Sudan: the state that fell apart in a week

The first western journalist into South Sudan reports from Juba on the brutal and sudden descent into civil war

• Daniel Howden in Juba
• The Guardian, Monday 23 December 2013 15.00 EST

A young cattle herder from the Dinka tribe carries his AK 47 rifle near Rumbek, capital of the Lakes State in central South Sudan. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

A week ago, Simon K, a 20-year-old student living in the capital of South Sudan, was arrested by men in military uniforms. He was asked a question that has taken on deadly importance in the world's newest country in the past seven days: incholdi – "What is your name?" in Dinka, the language of the country's president and its largest ethnic group.

Those who, like Simon, were unable to answer, risked being identified as Nuer, the ethnic group of the former vice-president now leading the armed opposition and facing the brunt of what insiders are describing as the world's newest civil war.

Simon K was taken to a police station in the Gudele market district of Juba, where he was marched past several dead bodies and locked in a room with other young men, all Nuer. "We counted ourselves and found we were 252," he told the Guardian. "Then they put guns in through the windows and started to shoot us."

The massacre continued for two days with soldiers returning at intervals to shoot again if they saw any sign of life. Simon was one of 12 men to survive the assault by covering themselves in the bodies of the dead and dying.

A displaced family from South Sudan's Nuer tribe, who fled their home in fear of ethnic killing by the Dinka-led government, erects a makeshift shelter inside the United Nations Mission in Sudan facility in Jabel. Photograph: James Akena/Reuters

Simon spoke from inside the UN compound that has become an emergency sanctuary to the remaining Nuer in the capital. Sitting on a filthy mattress by the side of a dirt road, with bandages covering bullet wounds in his stomach and legs, he recalled: "It was horrible, because to survive I had to cover myself with the bodies of dead people, and during the two days, the bodies started to smell really bad."

In the space of seven desperate days, the UN base has been transformed from a logistics hub for an aid operation into a squalid sanctuary for more than 10,000 people. Amid the confusion of bodies and belongings, a handmade sign hangs from the rolls of razor wire. "The lord is our best defender," it reads.

But there is no sign here of the lord's defence, as the country that gained independence in 2011 with huge international fanfare and support has come apart in the space of a week.

The latest violence began after a fight between Dinka and Nuer soldiers in the presidential guard on 15 December, igniting a simmering political power struggle in South Sudan's ruling party and sparking widespread ethnic killings.

Juba resident Gatluak Kual, who has bullet wounds in both arms and a prosthetic foot from the 20-year battle that split Sudan and created an independent south two years ago under President Salva Kiir, says the country is once more at war.

United Nations Mission in Sudan personnel guard South Sudanese people displaced by fighting in Jabel, on the outskirts of Juba, the South Sudan capital. Photograph: James Akena/Reuters

"Everyone here has lost someone [in the last week]," he said, gesturing out over the multitude with the finger he broke five days ago disarming a Dinka militiaman who was trying to kill him. "We have seen our daughters, our brothers, our mothers killed simply because they are Nuer. To me this is already a civil war."

The reverberations of the wave of targeted killings that began in the fledgling capital are being felt throughout the country, where they have sparked revenge attacks and copycat atrocities. Generals who have mutinied have seized the capital of South Sudan's largest state, Jonglei, and its main oil-producing area, Unity State. Former vice-president Riek Machar threw his support behind the armed opposition and is now its de facto leader. On Sunday a full-scale tank battle was being fought between opposing factions in the South's army in the far western reaches of oil-rich, swampy Upper Nile.

"It would have been difficult one week ago to imagine that things would unravel to this extent," said the UN's head of humanitarian affairs in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer.

The fighting has already claimed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of civilian lives. Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have fled into the bush or returned to home villages, according to the UN. The official death toll of 500, which corresponds with the number of dead in a single Juba hospital six days ago, is being dismissed by experts. A veteran aid worker, who has been assessing the scale and nature of the killings from sources nationwide, said the real figure was "in the tens of thousands".

On Monday, Machar claimed his forces had gained control of all the major oil fields in Unity and Upper Nile states. The information minister, Michael Makuei, told Reuters this was "wishful thinking".

In Juba, Gatwech T remembers how, last Tuesday, he ran for his life when soldiers attacked his home area of Hai Referendum. Some of the men outran the younger ones, who were caught by men in uniform. "They caught the boys and I stopped to watch. They counted them and there were 21 boys, as young as him," he said, pointing at a 15-year-old. "They tied their hands behind their backs and killed them."

Yien K, 28, was at home last Monday evening at around 10pm in the Jabarona area on the outskirts of the capital when he heard shooting. As it came closer he decided to hide at his brother's home. There were five of them inside the simple structure: his brother, his brother's wife, one-year-old niece and another six-year-old girl, a cousin. Yien recalls the moment just after midnight when the tracks of a tank ripped through the walls and crushed the one-year-old. "The tanks came and ran over the house," he said. "The men escaped but the woman and girls were killed."

Unlike some of Juba's neighbourhoods, which have divided along ethnic lines, Jabarona is a mixed area and Yien believes the tank operators had guides showing them where Nuer people were living.

In neighbourhoods such as Mangaten, Hai Referendum, Area 107 and Eden City, it is now easy to tell where the Nuer community lived. Halfway down the main market street of Mangaten, a dust-blown complex of tin-shack shops and rickety stalls, the bustle and activity stops. Most businesses have been ransacked, their rough shelves stripped of everything; stalls have been burned to the ground. Crossing into Hai Referendum, one of the highest density settlements in Juba, is now a ghost town of abandoned houses.

On Saturday, a few laid-back looters could be seen loading a meagre haul of plastic chairs, pots and foam mattresses on to three-wheelers. In some houses nearby plates of food were left behind, clothes have been scattered where people fled. Only broken plastic chairs, empty tubs of milk powder and smashed fans lie in the dirt.

UN peacekeepers distribute boxes of food to displaced people in South Sudan. Photograph: Anna Adhikari/AFP/Getty Images

Crossing the boundary into Eden City, the atmosphere changed. Plainclothes soldiers, one of them with a plastic-handled kitchen knife in the pocket of his shorts and a machete visible under his football shirt stopped and questioned any outsiders. Only 20 metres away was the charred corpse of a man lying with his legs splayed outside the looted Eden Sports bar.

Nearby, a nervous family had returned to their mud hut home, known as a tukul, to visit Moses' aged mother who is too ill to make the journey to the UN base less than a mile away. He was determined to leave before nightfall, when a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed by the government begins. "The army is coming at night," he said. "You hear the guns going tuk-tuk-tuk."

Rose, who emerged from the tukul where Moses' mother is bed-ridden, said: "Everybody has been running because of war. We're also running."

South Sudan's government, which has received billions of dollars in foreign aid and is home to the largest UN peacekeeping operation in the world outside the Democratic Republic of Congo, continues to insist that massacres in Juba have not happened. The president, whose guards sparked the first fighting on 15 December, has assured the South Sudanese that his forces will protect civilians.

Philip Aguer, a spokesman for the Sudan People's Liberation Army, the civil war guerrilla force that is now the national army, denied any orchestrated attacks had taken place. He said he was unaware of the slaughter at Mangaten police station and blamed any deaths on "criminal elements" who had exploited the chance to loot and kill afforded by the crisis. "Even though some of these criminals are wearing army uniforms does not necessarily mean they are part of the army," he said. He denied any national army soldiers were involved: "No SPLA soldiers are involved in this criminal activity."

With regard to those carrying out the atrocities, he added: "We are ready to arrest them and take them to court."

But this description of rogue elements does not tally with the account of Riek W, who was until Saturday a serving member of the presidential guard, known to Jubans as the "Tigers".

A three-year veteran of the multi-ethnic unit that was meant to bind the diverse communities of what had been southern Sudan, he was not openly known as a Nuer to many of his colleagues and does not bear the traditional "Gaar" scarring that many Nuer men have on their faces.

Now in hiding in the UN base, he described how fighting between Dinka and Nuer members of the Tigers last Sunday night had spilled over into attacks on civilian Nuers all over the city.

"They took people who were not soldiers and tied their hands and shot them. I saw this with my own eyes, I was there wearing the same uniform as them."

Young men from the Dinka community, many of them with no military training, were given uniforms and guns from various armouries around the capital, including one located at President Kiir's own compound, known as J1, he says.

"It is soldiers who are doing this and militia from Dinka boys who have been given guns from the Tigers," he said.

Riek W said that his Dinka colleagues could not act without the authority of their commander and that they were "the same soldiers that are killing people at night".

Riek W, who decided to abandon his post in the president's compound at the weekend as he feared for his life and was horrified at the murder of civilians, said that the scale of the killings was being covered up. " They… are using the curfew to remove the bodies," he said.

He described how he had seen "large trucks" full of bodies, some of which were taken to grave sites dug with bulldozers, while others had been dumped in the river Nile at two points: one near the Bilpam barracks and one at Juba bridge. These reports have been corroborated by fishermen who have seen the bodies up on the river bank. "The numbers they are saying are completely wrong, people have been killed everywhere," Riek W said.

The Nuer who have survived in Juba, numbering 20,000, are now crammed into the city's two UN bases. Their fate is matched by another 14,000 civilians from other ethnic groups sheltering with the UN in South Sudan's other main towns.

Many of the Nuer crowded into the main UN mission base in Juba said they were sure the peacekeepers would protect them despite the evacuation over the weekend of all non-critical UN staff.

Not everyone feels safe, though. Wearing a dusty pinstriped suit jacket and apologising for not having showered in six days, 51-year-old Peter Bey was unsure. He has watched in recent days as one evacuation flight after another has taken foreign nationals to safety from the airport on the other side of the fence. "We see from history that the UN has left people behind before in Rwanda," he said. "They put their own people on helicopters and left the people who died."

Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

Europa & Palestine News « Europa & Middle East News

Frohe Weihnachten und ein Glückliches Neues Jahr!

Bei den Gelegenheiten der Weihnachtszeit und des Neuen Jahres 2013, wünschen wir Ihnen und Ihrer Familie ein frohes und gesegnetes Weihnachtsfest und ein schönes und friedliches neues Jahr. Frieden und Liebe für die gesamte Menschheit. Editor

Das Friedenslicht aus dem belagerten Bethlehem

In Österreich ist es unter den Christen Tradition, ein Licht des Friedens aus Bethlehem zu bringen, weil, wie es heisst, dieses “aus Bethlehem in der Geburtskirche Jesu entzündete Licht den Frieden Christi in unsere Familien und Nachbarschaften bringt”. Weiter heisst es, “das Symbol des Friedenslichtes solle den Vorsatz der Menschen stärken, Licht der Welt zu sein, das Vertrauen und die Hoffnung als authentische Kinder Gottes ausstrahlen zu lassen. Frohe Weihnachten für alle”.

Selbstverständlich schliesse ich mich dem Wunsch eines gesegneten Weihachtsfestes für alle ÖsterreicherInnen an. Als Palästinenserin wäre es mir ein Wunsch, dass alle Österreicherinnen und Österreicher, die sich durch das Licht des Friedens aus Bethlehem in ihrem Glauben verstärkt fühlen, dass sie und ihre Familien während ihrer Weihnachtlichen Besinnung auch an Bethlehem und Palästina denken, das Land wo ihr Licht des Friedens her stammt. Palästina ist seit über 65 Jahren kein “gelobtes Land” mehr, denn so lange is es unter einer brutalen Besatzung die uns Palästinensern wenig Anlass gibt, in dieser Zeit zu feiern.

Aus der Aussendung des Wiener Rathauses: “Für uns ist es eine große Freude, Ihnen Weihnachtsgrüße aus dem Ort zu übermitteln, in dem das Wunder der Menschwerdung stattfand, aus dem Ort, an dem das Wort Fleisch geworden ist: „Er, das Wort, wurde ein Mensch, ein wirklicher Mensch von Fleisch und Blut, und nahm Wohnung unter uns. Wir sahen seine Macht und Hoheit, die göttliche Hoheit des einzigen Sohnes, die ihm der Vater gegeben hat. Gottes ganze Güte und Treue ist uns in ihm begegnet.“ (Joh. 1, 14).

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