Call to Action: Mortification of the Flesh and Christian Charity in Times of Crisis . by Alice B. Clagett

Written and published on 11 May 2019

  • LET THERE BE NO RETURN TO THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR OF OLD
  • WILL PLAGUE COMPEL US TO FLAGELLANT PARADES?
  • ON PERFECTING WORKS OF CORPOREAL MERCY
    • The Heroic Works of Charity of German Pastor Martin Rinkart During the Great Pestilence
    • Exhortation to Acts of Corporeal Mercy
  • HOW MAY WE LIVE AS CHRIST HAS ASKED, THROUGH THE COMING TIME?
    • Matthew 25:31-46
  • CONCLUSION
  • MORE INFORMATION
    • Christian Virtues
    • Plagues and Pandemics

Image: “The Flagellants,” by Pieter van Laer, ca. 1635, from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_van_Laer_-_The_Flagellants_-_WGA12368.jpg … This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less; PD-US

Image: “The Flagellants,” by Pieter van Laer, ca. 1635, from Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_van_Laer_-_The_Flagellants_-_WGA12368.jpg … This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less; PD-US

Dear Ones,

This is a call to action regarding the religious practice of mortification of the flesh, including self-flagellation, that some Christian denominations retain as a historical tradition. In noospheric tenor, these practices tie into the denser energy streams of sadomasochistic sexual practices and snuff sex that have, of late, ransacked the noosphere of Los Angeles, especially on the weekends.

Aside from the link-in with historic practices of fleshly mortification why is it that this relatively rare nuance of sexual behavior is such a standout in the Los Angeles noosphere of late? For more, I turned to this publication …

Link: “The Psychology of Sadomasochism: An Attempt to Explain Sadism and Masochism,” by Neil Burton, M.D., posted 17 August 2014, in Psychology Today … https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201408/the-psychology-sadomasochism ..

From that I learned that many seemingly innocuous forms of behavior, such as tickling, infantilizing, and love-biting … and perhaps, I would add, taunting and bullying, as are oft found online these days … play into the darker, denser energy streams of the relatively recherché world of sadomasochism. Thus we are all, willy-nilly, for the most part unwittingly, involved in the clearing of these dense energy strands from the Los Angeles noosphere at present.

My appeal today is to those who are consciously able to choose whether they will add to these denser noospheric energies of sadomasochism. I make this appeal because, as an intuitive person, I find these energies very difficult to bear, especially on the weekends in Los Angeles, and most particularly so during times of solar storm … even geostorms as mild as that which we experienced last night …

Image: Kp Index 11 May 2019 18:30:02 UTC, by NOAA/SWPC Boulder, CO USA … public domain. One Level 5 bar spike indicates that a mild geostorm (lasting three hours or less) took place.

Image: Kp Index 11 May 2019 18:30:02 UTC, by NOAA/SWPC Boulder, CO USA … public domain. One Level 5 bar spike indicates that  a mild geostorm (lasting three hours or less) took place.

In order to keep our personal Body of Light (aura, or energy field) pure and bright, I feel it is important to avoid injury to the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit itself, in my sense of it, is injured by mortification of the flesh.

LET THERE BE NO RETURN TO THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR OF OLD

It is the work of a Christian to discover the Grace of God within, or so I believe. What can be farther from that goal than the undercurrents that apparently evolved, over the centuries, in organizations such as the historic Knights Templar? Having read this no-holds barred account of that evolution …

Link: “The Dark History of the Knights Templar,” from “Knights Templar’s Saga” at theunjustmedia.com … https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/templars/knights_templars01.htm

… as well as this more tempered account …

Link: “Knights Templar,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_TemplarMore tempered.

… I have some concerns about the renaissance of the Knights Templar tradition by newly formed groups here in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the United States.

How is it that, in ages gone by, sincere members of devout religious orders have fallen prey to emanations of self-hatred and hatred of others through organizations founded for the best of reasons?

The answer, I feel, lies in the slight affinity aroused in the body to hatred of others through the practice of self-mortification …

Link: “Flagellation: Religious Practice,” written by Geoffrey Abbott, in Encyclopaedia Britannica … https://www.britannica.com/topic/flagellation ..

Through this ‘toehold’ of hatred of the body, flows forth into the noosphere hatred in all its forms: Hatred of women, abuse of children, envy at the sexual prowess of other men; hatred of this teaching or that of one’s own church, or of those of other Christian denominations; and finally, hatred even of the Light of God within, and turning to the abomination of Satanic ritual.

WILL PLAGUE COMPEL US TO FLAGELLANT PARADES?

Image: “Processione dei battanti di Guardia Sanframondi,” uploaded by Nicpac at it.wikipedia, 3 September 2007. Transferred from it.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Fale using CommonsHelper; in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battenti_guardia1.jpg … CC-BY-2.0

Image: “Processione dei battanti di Guardia Sanframondi,” uploaded by Nicpac at it.wikipedia, 3 September 2007. Transferred from it.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Fale using CommonsHelper; in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battenti_guardia1.jpg … CC-BY-2.0

In the mid-13th Century, processions of self-flagellants took place in central Italy with intent to mitigate a devastating plague. In current times we face another such plague, the scourge of HIV / AIDS, which leaves those of our children who are so infected unable to produce viable offspring.

In our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., according to Centers for Disease Control statistics published in 2016, the lifetime risk of contracting HIV was 1 in 13 people …

Link: “2016 HIV Lifetime Risk Statistics from Centers for Disease Control,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 30 March 2019 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-c3f ..

Since 2016, no state-by-state statistics have been published. Yet the epidemic, I feel, is cresting in the congested urban areas of the United States, or will soon do so.

Until statistics are caught up, we cannot definitively know where we stand with regard to the HIV / AIDS pandemic. Meanwhile, shall we once more fall to the practice of publicly mistreating our bodies … whether in our streets, or on the silver screen?

ON PERFECTING WORKS OF CORPOREAL MERCY

The answer to the social stresses now testing the tensile strength of our democratic way of life lies not in hatred, not in acts of terrorism whether ultra right or ultra left, not in pogroms, not in vigilante justice, not in wanton waste of life, but in a learned and temperately discerning approach to the problems at hand.

Let us pay utmost respect to our bodies, the abiding temples of God’s loving kindness to us. It is this, the virtue of Christian charity … to ourselves as well as to others … that holds the answer to action in the world during this, the cusp of the HIV / AIDS pandemic.

In the Book of Matthew, Christ says …

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” –Matthew 6:16 (KJV, public domain)

I am put in mind of the biography of pastor Martin Rinkart, whose example I find  inspiring in these times of worldwide hardship …

The Heroic Works of Charity of German Pastor Martin Rinkart During the Great Pestilence

Image: “Martin Rinckart,” 1586, from http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienM/Martin_Rinckart.html … in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Rinckart.jpg …  This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less; PD-US

Image: “Martin Rinckart,” 1586, from http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienM/Martin_Rinckart.html … in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin_Rinckart.jpg …  
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less; PD-US

Martin Rinkart (23 April 1586, Eilenburg – 8 December 1649) was a pastor who ministered to his flock in Eilenburg, a walled German town, during the Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648.

In 1637, when the town was already worn down by war, the Great Pestilence took place. At that time the town of Eilenburg had four ministers. People from the surrounding area who were suffering from epidemic and famine sought refuge in Pastor Rinkart’s town.

As the plague-ridden entered the town, the townspeople became infected. One of the town’s ministers, no doubt overcome by a sense of impending doom, fled to healthier climes. The two other ministers stood by Pastor Rinkart, who saw them buried.

In the end, Pastor Rinkart was the only pastor left in Eilenburg. He conducted services for over 4,000 people, sometimes as many as 40 or 50 a day. In May of 1637 his wife died, which must have been a grievous personal blow to him. By the end of that year, the dead were being buried in trenches, and there were no services for them.

Under the most harrowing of personal circumstances, Martin Rinkart composed this uplifting hymn of gratitude for God’s myriad acts of loving kindness, a hymn that is often sung even today …

Video: “Now Thank We All Our God,” by BestLovedHymns, 15 November 2008 … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6OA6YL-EIs ..

Exhortation to Acts of Corporeal Mercy 

Image: “Die Werke der Barmherzigkeit,“ by Pierre Montallier, ca. 1680, in Wikimedia Commons ... This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less; PD-US.

Image: “Die Werke der Barmherzigkeit,“ by Pierre Montallier, ca. 1680, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre_Montallier_001.jpg … This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less; PD-US

Image: “Die Werke der Barmherzigkeit,“ by Pierre Montallier, ca. 1680, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre_Montallier_001.jpg … This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less; PD-US

The examples of the many great saints of our Christian faith are like a beacon lighting our way in these difficult times. Like them, let us maintain hope in the face of the trials that stand before us. Let the heartbreak of many in our community lift us to faith in God’s sweet intention towards our Souls. Insofar as we may, let us speak to the pure Spirit within, so that we may find the courage to face calamity with equanimity, and the fortitude steadfastly to practice the Christian corporal works of mercy.

Let us feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, ransom those held captive. and bury the dead.

Link: “Works of Mercy,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_of_mercy ..

HOW MAY WE LIVE AS CHRIST HAS ASKED, THROUGH THE COMING TIME?

Image: “Divine Mercy. Painting in Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Vilnius,” by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, 1934, in Wikimedia Commons … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_of_the_Divine_Mercy,_Vilnius#/media/File:Kazimirowski_Eugeniusz,_Divine_Mercy,_1934.jpg … This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or less; PD-US.

Image: “Divine Mercy. Painting in Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Vilnius,” by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, 1934, in Wikimedia Commons … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_of_the_Divine_Mercy,_Vilnius#/media/File:Kazimirowski_Eugeniusz,_Divine_Mercy,_1934.jpg … This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or less; PD-US.

There is a passage in Matthew 25 that speaks most poignantly to this time of Ascension on Earth. This passage brilliantly limns the manner in which we may choose to address the momentous days that lie before us, through works of mercy practiced in loving remembrance of Christ …

Matthew 25:31-46 (KJV, public domain)

31 “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 “And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 “Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 “Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 “When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 “Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41 “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 “I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 “Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 “Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

Surely none has spoken, nor likely ever will speak, more eloquently or to the point, than Christ himself has done. This passage sets us on a sure path through faith in Him, even in the face of  the most devastating hailstorm of temporal sorrow.

CONCLUSION

In these days of woe, shall we stand with Christ and act on his behalf? In truth, what we may do for the disempowered, the disadvantaged, and the disenfranchised people of Los Angeles, is what we may be privileged to do for Christ Himself in this lifetime.

It is the Body of Christ Himself to whom we minister. It is He whom we feed, whom we clothe, for whom we provide potable water, for whom we find lodging, whom we help to find a sure path after release from prison, and whom we seek to ransom from malefic entities … whether human or clothed in mists beyond our ken … who hold them prisoner.

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

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MORE INFORMATION

Christian Virtues

Link: “Seven Virtues,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_virtues ..

Plagues and Pandemics

Link: “Black Death,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death ..

Link: “Spanish Flu,” the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu ..

Link: “Compendium: HIV / AIDS Pandemic,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 2 March 2019; revised on 3 April 2020 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-bPl ..

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HIV pandemic, AIDS pandemic, homelessness, faith, hope, unconditional love, courage, virtues, Christianity, Bible, plague, Great Pestilence, Black Plague, history, Knights Templar, flagellation, self-flagellation, mortification of the flesh, sadomasochism, cellular joy, Martin Rinkart, Matthew 25, Acts of Corporeal Mercy, End Times, Tribulation, community health, health, social issues, call to action, snuff sex, Satanism, obsession, possession, entity attachment, kidnapping, felon rehabilitation, correctional system, restorative justice, virtue, Los Angeles, cities of Earth, body of light,

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