Janet and I are in Nazareth, as I’ve already shared, and right now we are at the pre-wedding party of 1,000 people — family and friends of the bride and grooms family. We are honored to be guests.

The groom’s family puts on this huge party to welcome the family and friends of the bride (including us). Amer and his family had hosted a party for the groom’s family a few days earlier.

Families are very involved in the weddings to a degree unknown in the West. No wonder divorce and premarital sex is virtually unknown here.

I am posting lots of pictures and videos to http://www.facebook.com/jerusalemjones

Enjoy! If you gone with us on pilgrimage you will enjoy seeing Amer and his family. Pass it on!

I will add to this over the next few days.

JerusalemJones Just posted a new Running trip, “2010-09-01 Rosh Pina, Galilee”, to @EveryTrail. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/bKoiip

Picture below: Overlooking Sea of Galilee.

You might want to mark this date on your calendar http://www.familyradio.com/portal-en.htm/ just so you don’t schedule any important events after the end of the world has come :-)

Seriously, it’s always amazing that there are people gullible enough to follow such nut cases in the wake of innumerable false predictions over the last 2,000 years.

I am so grateful for the sanity of the Catholic Church!

Actually the wedding is in Nazareth, but that is only four miles away. Janet and I are going to the wedding of Nagum Shehadeh who is the beautiful daughter of our friend and local Catholic guide Amer.

If you want to keep updated sign up to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Both of them are at JerusalemJones.

www.Facebook.com/JerusalemJones

www.Twitter.com/JerusalemJones

I will also be posting YouTube videos of this authentic Holy Land pilgrimage here on my blog at http://www.CatholicConvert.com/2010.

While there Janet and I will be renting a car, exploring new places, running new trails (like from Nazareth to Cana) and working on our next book for Ignatius Press. Keep us in your prayers.

The world readies for Mother Teresa’s 100th

Americans uncertain about Obama’s faith

Obama admin blocks abstinence study

Priest for Life’s new iPhone app

Home this week catching up on a lot of things. Going to see our friend Liz Lev from Rome who us here speaking at Our Lady of Good Council in Plymouth Michigan. She is the only guide I work with in Rome.

But that is not why I’m a bit weary today. The cause of the weariness is a new personal record. Today I ran 11 miles.

I ran the first two with my wife Janet who is building up her running so we can run together. We are using a new iPhone app “Couch to 5K”.

Then my son Jesse joined me to for next nine miles. We ran around the huge country block and took a few excursions off road through trails and side roads. We even met a couple from our parish out running.

We are now eating a healthy lunch, resting, trying to catch up with e-mail and a lot of other things while waiting for the plumber to fix the leak which caused a flood in our basement.

Next Monday we head to Nazareth for a wedding, four miles from Cana of Galilee. Our friend Amer’s daughter Nagum (means Princess) is getting married and we’re going to the week long wedding.

We will run there too!

Our run today http://bit.ly/ca7dzQ

I couldn’t agree more!  

Home at last! And home for a whole week before heading to Nazareth for a wedding – only four miles from the Wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11).

Our friend Amer’s eldest caught Nagum is getting married on September 5 and we will be at the Church of the Annunciation for the wedding.

At the same time my parents will celebrate their 71st wedding anniversary.

August 22: Feast Day of Mary Queen of Heaven

A while ago a man called in to say my argument for the Assumption of Mary including references from the Old Testament was wrong.

I had quoted 1 Kings 2:19 where Solomon had raised his mother up to a throne to be Queen of the Kingdom. He said that was the ONLY case of a mother being a queen in the Old Testament.

He prefaced his comment by saying that he knew the Old Testament well and it does not support what I had asserted.

Well, if he knew his Old Testament as well as he said, he would realize I was correct.

In the Old Testament, the kings of Judah had queens but the queens were not their wives — but their mothers — with one exception of the queen being a grandmother.

Solomon had 1,000 wives and concubines — but he only had one mother. Click here to read the section on The Great Lady or Queen Mother in Roland de Vaux’s book Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institution.

The Queen Mothers of earthly kings of Judah were not always good examples or godly queens. Many of them were egregious sinners and would intercede for the people with improper requests to the king. But, this takes nothing away from the fact that the mother was the queen and intercessor. It only confirms that many of the Old Testament kings and queens were disobedient to God.

But there is a perfect King and a perfect Queen — Jesus and his mother Mary. They follow the pattern of protocol and  It is the royal protocol and the historical precedent and the office that is important in the analogy.

Jesus is a king sitting on the throne of his fathers David and Solomon (Luke 1:30-33; Daniel 7:13-14; Rev 5:5; 19:16) and all the subsequent kings of Judah. Solomon was called the son of David because that’s what he was. But the phrase “Son of David” became a title of the Messiah. Jesus is referred to as teh Son of David (Matt 1:1; 21:9) and is therefore the ultimate and true king.

The kings of Judah all had queens and the queens were not their wives — they were their mothers. This is the royal protocol of the Old Testament and the kings of Judah. It is ultimately fulfilled in Christianity and the Kingdom of God which, obviously, is based on the Old Testament model.

Follow the logic:
1) Solomon and subsequent kings of Judah raised their mothers to Queenship which became established as an official office;
2) the mothers were referred to as the Queen Mothers or the Great Lady;
3) they sat on a throne near their sons (1 Ki 2:19);
4) Jesus is the quintessential Jewish King with an eternal kingdom;
5) Jesus is the fulfillment of the Israelite offices of Prophet, Priest & King;
6) As the Davidic king, Jesus who obeyed the Law perfectly, would honor his mother more than earthy kings honored their mothers;
7) It is biblical, historical, and reasonable to expect the perfect Jewish king to follow the protocol of the kingdom and his fathers by assuming his mother to a throne at his right hand.
8) It is proper and biblical to consider Mary in a position of intercessor as the Queen of Heaven.
9) Mary is seen as the Queen of Heaven in Revelation 12:1.

Is it impossible or unlikely that God would assume someone into heaven body and soul? All of us will be taken us some day (1 Cor 15:52). In the Bible there are at least two clear examples of humans taken up to heaven body and soul. Both Enoch (Gen 5:24; Heb 11:5) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-11) were taken up into heaven body and soul. Mary was not the first!

Queenship of Mary is a Marian feast day in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church, created by Pope Pius XII. On 11 October 1954, the Pontiff pronounced the new feast in his encyclical Ad caeli reginam. The feast was celebrated on May 31, the last day of the Marian month. In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved the feast day to August 22.

***********************************

One question was asked today about the Queen in Psalm 45. If the queen was the bride marrying the king, then how can we say the queen was always the mother and that it was a pattern by which we could see Jesus, like other Jewish kings, appointing his mother as his queen. I speculate a bit on the matter here.

For a response to the argument that Jeremiah condemns those who worship the Queen of Heaven, click here.

For more on Mary, get my documentary filmed on location. It is entitled Mary, Mother of God. You can learn more about it and order it here.

I recently received an e-mail.  How would you answer this question?

Now if I could get past Jeremiah, chapter 44, I’d really be a happy camper, (LOL).  Stumbled on that passage this morning and wondered about the “Queen of Heaven” that the people of Judah were burning incense to.  God sure was mad! Who was this “Queen” they were venerating (worshiping?)?  I wonder if they were putting her ahead of God? The struggles continue….but the Lord is faithful!!

I had dealt with this argument and confusion before, so I thought I would wrote an explanation comparing the idolatrous worship of the pagan Queen of Heaven and veneration of Mary the legitimate Queen of Heaven.

Be ready to defend your faith, and our Holy Queen. Click here for an explanation of Jeremiah 44 and his condemnation of Jews worshiping the pagan goddess and queen of heaven and why it is right and good to venerate our Queen Mother in Heaven.

If you haven’t heard the argument yet, you will some day. Be ready!

For more on Mary, get my documentary filmed on location. It is entitled Mary, Mother of God. You can learn more about it and order it here.

The new iPhone 4 has the ability to make movies using a new app called iMovie. It is pretty easy to use and I thought I would experiment while sitting for over three hours flying home from Seattle. This is the result. Not perfect but I am learning.I will be more aware of the pictures and videos I take with the iPhone knowing now what I need to make a better movie.

You will see a handsome young man named Isaac in this video. He was an exceptional young man who came right up to me, looked me in the eyes and said, “My name is Isaac and I want to be an apologist like you!” I was very impressed with his manner, his forthrightness and his intelligence. He also, along with his whole family, had a palpable love for Jesus and the Church.

So you will see a brief segment where he states his name and says “and I want to be an apologist.” There were a good number of very impressive young folks at this conference. Watch out world, there is a new generation on the horizon that will rock the world with their love for Jesus and his Church. They will fact tough times I think, but the Lord will bless and prepare them to be lights in the darkness.

Hope you don’t mind my little experiment with technology.

I will add more about the conference when I get home. I had a great time with all these wonderful Catholics in the upper NW of Washington State. I ran in the Washington State Park which you can see here.

You can also see a few pictures and videos of the Faith on Fire Conference where I had the privilege of sharing the microphone with Tim Staples and Sister Miriam (a wonderful and eloquent SOLT nun). You can see more at www.Facebook.com/JerusalemJones. I will try to add more when I get home.

To see the map and pictures of my run thru the wilderness, click here Just posted a new Running trip, “2010-08-22 Washington State Park”, to @EveryTrail. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/9NlBmg

Comment from a participant at the conference:

Thank you for sharing your time, stories, and wisdom with all of us, Steve!  The Holy Spirit was rocking Anacortes this weekend.  We all felt it.  You were central to that – what a blessing.  I hope you’re now enjoying your family back home…let them know that we appreciate their willingness to share you with all of us here.

Oh, and the slugs you photographed are banana slugs (some have irregular black spots)…native to these parts, and wonderful help if you brush up against stinging nettles…the slime works wonders if you can get over the idea that a slug is crawling on you : )  Glad you found the park.

Thanks again for being part of Faith on Fire!

I will post the link to the audio archives on Monday when the link is ready at Catholic Answers.

Link for Real Audio http://www.catholic.com/audio/2010/real/ca100820b.ram. For other listening options: http://www.catholic.com/radio/event.php?calendar=1&category=&event=6358&date=2010-08-20

I am writing this on my iPhone at 34,000 feet above the heartland of America. Below is a real-time map of our location. Very cool!

I am on my way to Anacortes Washington, just north of Seattle. I will be joining Tim Staples to teach there this weekend.

On the way I will be stopping to use a conference room at a Hampton Inn to use my laptop and iPhone as the guest on Catholic Answers Live tonight. The topic is Open Forum for Non-Catholics.

Questions I Answered:

1) Will there still be a Purgatory after judgment day?
2) Who do Catholics believe are God’s chosen people?
3) Why do the Eastern Orthodox churches not believe in the Immaculate Conception like the Catholic Church does?
4) How do Christians explain why people are sometimes born with disabilities?
5) I am divorced and remarried and my husband is offended that the Church doesn’t recognize our marriage. What is your advice?
6) How do we decide which traditions to follow?
7) If Mary was without sin, why does she praise God as her savior?

Ah, excuse me? What do flint knives have to do with the Gospel? A whole lot! Abraham believed God against all odds and as a reward he was given the special sign of the Covenant with God. And what was that wonderful sign between them?

In Genesis 17:10-11 God announces this sign to Abraham: “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.”

Ouch! What kind of sign is that? But Abraham obeyed and at 99 years old, Abraham dropped his . . . well, anyway, he did the surgery and again demonstrated his faith and obedience to God. And so did all the men with him.

Next we read of Joshua’s bloody job after the hundreds of thousands of men with their families crossed the Jordan River to possess the Promised Land.

“At that time the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Make flint knives and circumcise the people of Israel again the second time.’ So Joshua made flint knives, and circumcised the people of Israel” (Joshua 5:2-3).

In the early Church, many of the Jews insisted that all gentiles be circumcised before they were allowed to be Christians. The Apostles, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the first recorded Church Council (Acts 15) said “NO!”  Thanks be to God!

These flint knives were made for me as a generous and remarkable gift by Mike Cook of Portland Michigan. He is a “flintknapper” and primitive skills enthusiast (and also a student of the Bible!). The large one has a handle made from the jawbone of a black bear!

They are beautifully crafted and will always be a gift I treasure and which I will use in my Bible studies and apologetic work. I am overwhelmed with his skill and kindness.

I have also provided his letter about his craft and the biblical wisdom regarding flint knives and circumcision. You can read it here. Enjoy — and thanks so much Mike!

UPDATE: Looks like they took the unedited version off the internet, but here is a sanitized version at CNN. If the original is still available, you can see it here

stoning

This is graphic and sick but is further proof that Islam is at heart an evil religion. Notice the cell phones taking pictures of the stoning!

This is a very graphic and disgusting film, a horror, of the execution by stoning of a young Muslim girl by her own Muslim community. She had refused to marry the old man her father had picked for her husband.

She was taken to court and sentenced to death by stoning under Shari Law. This is a common occurrence in most Muslim countries.

Our press very rarely reports it. Why would that be? Where are the feminists, the human rights people, the U.N.? Why doesn’t anyone in the administration including our president, say or do something? Probably because he is so busy expressing his admiration for the “peace loving” Muslims and promoting a Mosque at Ground Zero.

If you click on this link (STONING) or the image to right, you will see the graphic and painful movie. Don’t click unless you are prepared. This is not a rarity — visit YouTube and search of stoning, execution or similar items to find out how common this really is among Muslims. CNN’s report and video can be seen here.

Oh, you might say, “why the over-reaction? This is in some backwater area of Iraq.” Really? It is an ever increasing occurrence in the USA too, and other Western countries. One happened in London while we were there but the killers got the wrong address and killed a whole family by mistake!

Click here for a news report on the ever increasing number of cases of honor killings in the USA. Why are people afraid to criticize Islam, a religion that fosters such horrors. It is not a aberration, rather, it is the ripe fruit of Islam and Sharia Law.

Chilling Letter from Proctor & Gamble to Obama by Lou Pritchett, Procter & Gamble (Confirmed true by Snopes.com)

A LETTER FROM A PROCTER AND GAMBLE EXECUTIVE TO THE PRESIDENT

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America ’s true living legends – an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world’s highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management.

Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as “partnering.” Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike Any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don’t understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and ‘class’, always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the ‘blame America’ crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer ‘wind mills’ to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use ‘extortion’ tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaugh’s, Hannity’s, O’Reilly’s and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

This letter was sent to the NY Times but they never acknowledged it. Big surprise. Since it hit the Internet, however, it has had over 500,000 hits.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=326971849&mt=8

California’s Proposition 8 forbidding gay marriage was overturned last week by Judge Walker.

Today the Appeals Court rescinded her order until further determination. Homosexual marriages are on hold, no longer allowed in California for now.

But, how long is “for now”?

Obama approves a mosque at Ground Zero in New York. Why doesn’t this idiotic and insensitive decision of his not surprise me?

http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/president-obama-supports-ground-zero-mosque/19593492

Why this and other blunders could make Obama a one-term president, written by Roger Simon in Politico.

On the road again. This time to Tulsa for a full Saturday of talks and Mass and dinner with friends. Thanks to Joe Casey for sponsoring this event. Supposed to be 107 degrees with high humidity! It will be interesting to run there Sunday before flying home!

I’m lucky enough to be giving three of my favorite talks on Saturday:

1) Mary: Real Girl & Woman of Mystery
2) Peter: the Rock, the Keys & the Chair
3) Defending the Eucharist: You Are What You Eat

You can purchase these talks here.

Looking forward to it very much. If you’re in the area — hope to see you. If you’d like me to speak at your event, visit http://www.InviteSteve.com.

Janet and I (crazies) laying out in the driveway at 4 AM watching the Perseid Meteor Shower. This year we only saw one but last year a whole bunch way up north where there was no ambient light. Jupiter was very visible and so was the Milky Way. We didn’t stay out long because of pesky mosquitoes. (Why did God create them, or are they a result of the Fall like thorns and thistles?)

Another name for these showers is St Laurence’s Tears because it occurs on the feast day of this famous Roman deacon who was martyred by being roasted on a griddle.

It is a good exercise to gaze up into the heavens like this once in a while to remember how small we are and how big God us. The ancients took more time for things like gazing at stars than us too-busy Americans with TVs on all the time (we pulled the plug on TV two years ago – great decision for the family).

Read Psalm 19:1-3 and Romans 1:18-22. Below is similar to what we saw tonight.

On my way to speak to the Wichita Kansas chapter of Legatus. It will be 102 degrees (39 celsius). I LOVE sharing and teaching the cosmic truth of Catholicism.

Phill decided it was better to lose everything to follow the truth than to stay comfortable. He explains all the issues wrestled with and the final conclusion. Hope you enjoy Phill’s story.

Excellent article about the thousands of Evangelicals converting to the Catholic Church. Click here.

And, Evangelicals “Crossing the Tiber” to Catholicism, here

The Last Nightmare
A Short and Terrifying Story by Steve Ray

Everything went blank for a moment, but that moment seemed like eternity. He felt a motion, not with wind and breeze, but a motion none the less. He was traveling, moving, floating, transcending-he wasn’t really sure. The sudden blackness gave him time to regain his thoughts, just enough time to recapture the last moments.

Though his first thoughts were garbled and dreamlike, they slowly began taking shape, like a tree seen through a thick fog, slowly it all came back to him out of the swirling, traveling, blank void. Utter confusion was giving way to bits of clarity.

They had rushed him to the hospital. He remembered the sirens and the cold hands of the paramedics. Cold hands all over his body, probing and poking. Yes, there had been screams, he remembered now—and the sound of sobbing.

Then the horrendous sound resurfaced, a sound that could be felt. It was a sound that had subsumed his whole being, wrapping itself around him, ripping through him. Then the sound of crunching metal, broken glass, and twisted carnage. What must have lasted only seconds seemed to him a long and troubling nightmare—then the dark, foggy void.

For the rest of the 12-page story, click here.

I’ve been to many third world countries and have had better mobile service and Internet than the abysmal service I’ve had so far in England. Sorry! I’ll catch up soon.

See my latest runs with map and pictures — through England.

Just posted a new Running trip, “2010-08-04 London Run”, to @EveryTrail. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/bGGiI9

Just posted a new Running trip, “2010-08-05 Norfolk Countryside”, to @EveryTrail. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/9EHDRj

Just posted a new Running trip, “2010-08-06 Another Country Run”, to @EveryTrail. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/a94HN1

Just posted a new Running trip, “2010-08-05 Reading England Countryside”, to @EveryTrail. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/dlJwzS

Pictures below: 1) country road, 2) idyllic cottage, 3) location of execution of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher, 4) inside Bell Tower where Tomas More was imprisoned.

Finished my three talks at New Dawn where 2,000 fired up Catholics gather in tents for a week of family camping outdoor Masses and teaching. Great to be here.

Lots if new contacts to help promote my return next year for a full two day apologetics conference at Westminster Cathedral and to again visit New Dawn.

Today we drive to Reading where I will speak twice at the Evangelium Conference in the school begun by Cardinal John Henry Newman.

The map below shows all the seminaries and Abbeys closed and confiscated by King Henry VIII. What a disaster! Second picture is the Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham.

Salmon, marsh weed, mashed with crawfish for dinner. Gave conversion story in a tent during a rain at the Marian Shrine in Walsingham near Norwich England. Made 100 Brits cry! Glad to be Catholic. Two or three talks tomorrow.

You can read hundreds on my site here

There are many others here – click on the image to the right.