“The Devil pulls the strings which make us dance;
We find delight in the most loathsome things;
Some furtherance of Hell each new day brings,
And yet we feel no horror in that rank advance.”
Charles Baudelaire
(the offerings of a small restaurant / Julie Cook / 2017)
Humanity has entered a new epoch, that of decline and decadence.
And although various movements of social and religious life loudly
proclaim their striving for truth and the universal good,
in actuality none of this is to be seen.
The concerns of people are directed to the earth and to success
in everything earthly.
But the higher truth ordained by God has been almost abandoned.
Archimandrite Dimitri
“This is no time to be ashamed of the Gospel.
It is the time to preach it from the rooftops.
Do not be afraid to break out of comfortable and routine modes of living
in order to take up the challenge of making Christ known in
the modern metropolis.”
John Paul II
cookiecrumbstoliveby 
Amen!
I am definitely stopping by your neighborhood next year when we travel to SC for our oldest grandson’s graduation from college. I love decadent desserts and those look totally awesome.
That’s actually at a small Italian restaurant in the middle of nowhere about an hour south of us— it’s near where Gregory deer hunts— we stop there on occasion when I’m with him in the late afternoons -I asked if they make them in-house and she told me a bakery in Atlanta makes them for them —,their meal portions are so large that I never have room at the end 🎂
We’ll have to share a dessert then.
🙂
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Love this… the desserts look amazing, too! 😉
I know, right.. I’d like a slice of each 😊
Cookie, this month Protestants commemorate the Reformation. In light of this, and as a former Roman Catholic, I am saddened to see you quote John Paul II who could not have understood the Gospel and held the meeting he convened in Assisi, where he prayed with leaders of false religions. Remember Bilney, Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer. Cookie, think!
Maria—I am sorry if you find a quote by John Paul “offensive.”
I have read his writings extensively, and have had a deep respect for as well as connection with him since he was first elected Pope in 1978—
As for Assisi—I have visited lengths at a time this tiny Italina hill town which today tries to represent itself as a “center” of peace and non violence….a place I imagine Martin Luther King Jr would have one day been invited to speak were he still alive and still practicing his non violent approach to unity…and I say that despite knowing he was not always the man he should have been as far as moral fiber is concerned.
Being raised in the Episcopal Church I am most familiar with the likes of Cranmer, etc…Not all men (or women) within the various denominations of our collective faith have been representative of the Gospel as much as they have been of themselves or others—opting to rather represent man’s desires verses God’s.
History is steeped with stories of those misguided and selfish individuals on each side of the aisle.. those given the responsibility of leading and representing Christ who instead chose to lead others basically off the cliff as it were.
And as I stated in my post—there remain those Protestants who detest Catholics and there are Catholics who find nothing but contempt for Martin Luther and the various Protestant denominations….and yet here we all are 500 years on, still looking sideways at one another and accusing one another of heresy or falsehoods.
As that life long Episcopalian who was also an Anglophile, I grew sadly lost as I watched the Church, my particular denomination, move in a direction that I have found counter to God’s word—as she has preferred rather to embrace the progressive norms of a growing liberal culture.
But it was also that Church, rooted in a Catholic liturgy, that first introduced me as a child, to what it was to worship and proclaim Jesus Christ as Savior.
I have written throughout the years about Bishop Wojtyla (John Paul II ) as well as Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (St Francis), Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) and countless others be they Catholic or Eastern Orthodox—many of the Desert Fathers and Mothers…
All men and women of deep faith—who Maria never considered themselves to be of a false faith–but rather were deeply committed to serving God and proclaiming that Jesus Christ was Lord and Savior—and it is from these men and women that I have learned a great deal over the years as I have grown in my own Christian Spirituality—
And I have also had those readers who have commented to the negative when I’ve shared a quote by Martin Luther—
I choose the quotes really based on a deep resonance when reading the particular quote—which I pretty much allow the spirit to lead me to…
So from time to time be they Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish or Protestant—or something perhaps in-between..even secular…. I may use a quote or two…to season and flavor a point….
Cookie, I won’t argue these issues in your own “living room” as a mere guest but must and will defend myself against the charge of hating Catholics. I don’t. My family are mostly Catholics and Greek Orthodox and I have studied the issues. I reject Catholicism and care about Catholics. I invite you to think more about the issues at my blog, and also to take another look at what actually happened at the Assisi meetings. Incidentally, my Grandparents were Italian and I too have visited Italy. Remember the Valdesi. Catholics need to hear the Gospel.
Oh Maria, no argument whatsoever and you are always welcome here in the “living room”…and dare I say you are not who I was referring to with the anti catholic “hate” chatter as that has been others stopping in here as well as what I’ve read on the sites of others…. and vehement they were…I understand that you have found a home as it were…and it is not in Rome….and as still an Episcopalian, I am finding however, my home is not necessarily remaining in Canterbury.
It is a journey I am on—one of a deeper Christian Spirituality…and there are many in all corners of our Faith that need to “hear” the Gospel…
thank you Maria for your input!
Thanks, Cookie!
“the higher truth ordained by God” There is comfort in knowing God has better plans for us than what we are settling for.
Onward and upward Oneta!