A Knight's Blog

  Fr. Schnabel in Jerusalem was told that he and his brothers should leave. He decided to stay amidst the War in Gaza, and the result is that he said persecution has ramped up, that on a daily basis people spit at his feet or on his pectoral cross, or say derogatory things about Jesus in the very streets of Jerusalem (EWTN News, 09/18/2024,  https://www.ncregister.com/cna/christian-community-comes-closer-together-amid-attacks-in-the-holy-land?amp ). I would encourage the Father by saying he is sharing in Christ’s sufferings, “Then they began to spit in Jesus’ face and beat him with their fists. And some slapped him.” (Matthew 26:67).  Fr. Schnabel shared that while there are no pilgrims, a major source of income, the Christian communities of all churches and denominations have been gathering together top support one another, causing them to grow closer (EWTN News, 09/18/2024). This often happens in persecution, the Church becomes stronger and more closely knot together, e...

  Strongholds are built one brick at a time in our bodies and souls. With each choice we make to give into sin, to freed an addiction, and to entertain demons we make the walls of the stronghold harder to tear down. It is not that Christ is insufficient to deliver us, on the contrary, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13). However, we must participate with The Lord in removing the bricks until the walls of the stronghold fall, and more importantly we have to discipline ourselves not to rebuild the stronghold. Jesus warned of this very problem when He said, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is wors...

  Before us so many saints have gone before. So many have suffered and born their crosses through the ages leaving us an example. These brothers and sisters who went before refused to abandon the Lord and His Way, not matter the threat, The Hope of Resurrection helping them carry on, “But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground.” (Hebrews 11:35-38).    I wonder if we are ready to join their number? Do we have it in us to leave a legacy of such dedication and discipleship? So many of us have had an ea...

  I found the perspective of Fr. Seraphim Rose intriguing, that pornography is Satan’s iconography [to be clear much of what the Eastern Orthodox Church teaches contradicts Scripture and thus is error. I am not endorsing what The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches nor everything Fr Seraphim has said; just this one thought I find useful to illustrate a point]. This concept made me think of the Apostle Paul’s words, “Run away from sexual immorality [in any form, whether thought or behavior, whether visual or written]. Every  other  sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the one who is sexually immoral sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18). Here the apostle makes a distinction that sexual sin does have a damaging effect on the person beyond the other sins. We are inclined to think sexually transmitted diseases, which he may very well have meant too but I believe its more than that, we have to remember the following is this one, “Do you not know that your bod...

  It is remarkable how easy it is to fall on to the broad path, even as a Christian. We get swept up in our culture and our need for friends. We stifle our conscience, and silence the Spirit to have our own supremacy over our lives. We become drones, walking with undead masses, numbing ourselves with our tonics and addictions.  The problem is this broad path leads to death, and not just in a casket, but The Second Death of Fire and torment for eternity. It is possible that walking with the godless long enough can lead you to be godless hence the Lord’s warning, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14), and “You cannot drink [both] the Lord’s cup and the cup of demons. You cannot share in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons [thereby becoming partners with them], Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? Are we stronger than he?” (...

  Everything that is happening in out world and even within the Church is foretold. Our Lord says, “Now this expression, Yet once more, indicates the final removal  and  transformation of all [that can be] shaken—that is, of that which has been created—in order that what cannot be shaken may remain  and continue.” (Hebrews 12:27). We are seeing everything that can be shaken, shook away and those eternal things that cannot be shaken, Jesus, His Gospel, and The Scriptures remain. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35). The sands of this world as shifting. Everything of this world is in state of transience, with nothing remaining as it was. Each week a new gender emerges, a new sexuality, a new sin, which reminds me of the verse, “They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.” (Romans 1:30). In counter to this is our Lord Jes...

  In The Princess Bride Inigo Montaya says, “you keep using that word, I don’t think it means what you think it means.” Since the Asbury ‘Revival’ there has been a bunch more like the one in Corpus Christi, Texas that happened recently. Each major turn out had become labeled “revival” but I beg to differ. When a real revival hit it took America as whole called The Great Awakenings and spread to the world via missionaries. Then the Jesus Revolution swept all of America and The World that it got a Time Magazine. Revivals are not brazers that happen in one location or across some Southern states at universities with seminaries, its bigger.  Technically revival can be used on a smaller scale, for a group that is being revived in faith in Christ. But the term has not meant that as it has been used in Church History. A revival is a renewal and outreach that makes major number converts. It is movement that draws hearts back to Jesus ans brings new ones to him.    Alas Chris...