Book Comment: Los Hermanos Penitentes

             Los Hermanos de la Fraternidad Piadosa de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno (The Brothers of the Pious Fraternity of Our Father Jesus the Nazarene) is a catholic lay fraternity active in Colorado and New Mexico. The group is insular and secretive and intensely religious. Membership is only by application to an official of the fraternity.

The group began in the early 19th century, after Mexico achieved independence from Spain. Devout men in isolated Mexican communities with few or no priests organized their own independent religious societies based on strictly orthodox doctrinal stances.

Where the penitentes are considered to be extreme is in their practice of penances to atone for their sins. These penances are said to include flagellation, carrying heavy crosses, cross-shaped incisions on their bodies, and crucifixions where a man is tied to a cross. There is a question as to whether the crucifixions are still practiced.

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As with most books such as this, what you get from the book depends on what you bring with you. You may not agree with everything the author says. Luke (see below) advises you to think for yourself. Read your Bible and to listen to what it says. Do not believe anything just because someone else told to believe it; let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth.

A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Information you will need to search for this book: Horka-Follick, Lorayne Ann, Los Hermanos Penitentes: A Vestige of Medievalism in Southwestern United States (New York: Tower Publications, Inc., 1969)

Christians

All of the persons listed in this post lived to be at least 100 years old.

Jose de Jesus Garcia Ayala: (1910, Mexico - 2014) Roman Catholic bishop.

John the Silent: (452, Armenia - 558) Greek Christian saint. John lived as a hermit for 76 years.

Nguyen Khac Ngu: (1906, Vietnam - 2009) Vietnamese Roman Catholic bishop who was ordained as a priest in 1934.

Herbert George Welch: (1862, New York State, USA - 1969) Methodist bishop and university president (Ohio Wesleyan University). Welch served as a Methodist pastor in Korea, China, and Pennsylvania.

Nicholas Kao Se Tseien: (1897, China - 2007) Chinese Roman Catholic priest known especially for his service in Hong Kong. Oldest known person to ever undergo surgery for cataracts. 

Poinsettia: The Christmas Star

Many people think that the large red leaves of the beautiful poinsettia plant are the flowers.  Actually the flowers are quite tiny and are a yellowish-white color.  The leaves are sometimes also colored pink, white, yellow or green.  The plants, which bloom in December, are also known as “the Christmas Star,” “the lobster flower,” “the Mexican flame leaf,” and “las Flores de Noche Buena.” Since the early nineteenth century, poinsettias have had a close association with the Christmas holiday in the United States.

Poinsettias are indigenous to Mexico and Central America so it makes sense that the first known mention of poinsettias is in Aztec sources. The flowers were used as a source of a red dye to color clothing.  The Aztecs saw the intense red color as a symbol of purity.

There are two very similar Mexican legends about the origins of the plant, both involving children.  In both legends, poor children could not afford to buy flowers so they lovingly collected weeds to place on the Christmas nativity crèche at their church.  As the congregants prayed, the offering was blessed as the weeds turned into a blazing red display.

Franciscan priests in Taxco, Mexico in the seventeenth century used poinsettias in their celebration of the Feast of Santa Pesebre.  A pesebre is a nativity scene similar to a crèche.

The earliest name for the plants was the Aztec cuetlaxochitl.  The most common modern name comes from Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851), who brought the plants to the United States in 1825.  Poinsett was the first United States Minister to Mexico.

The Aztec understanding of the meaning of the poinsettia speaks to me: purity, especially since some Christians have come to associate the intense red color of the plants with the Blood of Christ.  It is sometimes forgotten that the most important Christian holiday is not Christmas, but Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The poinsettia image is from Andre Karwath, a contributor to the Wikimedia Commons Project, and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.5 Generic provision.

The Offense of the Cross

Read missionary Josef Urban's statement on The Offense of the Cross.
http://www.puregospeltruth.com/the-offense-of-the-cross---a-rebuke-to-the-modern-gospel-of-watered-down-half-truths.html

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Juan de Zumarraga: (b. 1468, Spain – d. 1548) Spanish Basque Franciscan and the first Bishop of Mexico. Protector of the Indians. In 1531, peasant Juan Diego had a vision of the Virgin Mary at Tepeyec and an image of Mary appeared on his cloak.  Bishop  Zumarraga oversaw the building of the Basilica of Guadalupe, which, because of Juan Diego’s cloak, has become the most visited Roman Catholic shrine in the world.  By 1536, the number of baptized Indians in Mexico was estimated to be five million.

Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun: (b, 1944, Laos) Roman Catholic bishop of the Vicariate Apostolic of Pakse.

Sokhom So: Vice president of the Cambodian Freedom Fighters, a group of anti-Communist militants. He became a convert to Christian Evangelicalism in 1997.  He is now a jewelry executive in the State of Virginia (USA).

Simeon: (aka: Niger) A Christian leader in the church at Antioch (Syria).  Acts 13:1,2.

Stephen Edwin King: (b. 1947, Maine, USA, aka: Richard Bachman; John Swithen) Novelist, short story writer, comic book writer (horror, suspense, science fiction, fantasy).  His forty-nine (as of 2010) novels have sold over 350,000,000 copies and have spawned numerous films. Methodist. 

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today is the Roman Catholic Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, an important celebration in Mexico. It commemorates an event which occurred on 12 December 1531.  On the 9th of December, a peasant named Juan Diego was walking from his village (Tepeyac) to Mexico City, when he saw a young woman who spoke to him in Nahuatl.  She said she was the virgin Mary and asked for a church to be built in her honor at Tepeyac.  When Juan told his bishop, Fray Juan de Zumarraga (1468-1548). about the visitation the bishop insisted on proof.  On the 12th, Juan returned with an image of the Virgin Mary on his cloak.  The cloak is maintained in the Basilica of Guadalupe and the shrine has become the most visited Roman Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.

Hello, Mexico!

Hola, México. Bienvenido al grupo de lectores de cincuenta y dos países otros que también visite este blog. Espero que algunos de los mensajes útiles o significativas.
El "Traducir esta página" gadget directamente sobre el "páginas vistas" total "contra el tiene la capacidad de traducir el texto en Inglés de este blog directamente en español.

Pothead Jesus

On 9 February 2010, in El Paso, Texas, United States Border Patrol agents arrested a Mexican woman for drug smuggling. She was driving across the border from Ciudad Juarez when her sports utility vehicle was stopped and searched. She told the agents that she had nothing to declare except some framed art; three pictures of Jesus Christ. That was true.

What the woman failed to realize was that the pictures of Jesus would be shown to Cesar the drug sniffing dog, who knew what marijuana smelled like. Thirty-one pounds of weed were packed into the backing and frames around the paintings.

Hallelujahs

     Hallelujah (Hebrew = "praise (present imperative mood, indicating a command, a wish, or a permission)  + Ya(weh). "

     Lauren Spears, a veterinary missionary in Cochabama, Bolivia, tells of a Mexican friend who told her that the locals in Mexico call believers "Hallelujahs."  This delighted her so much that she declared, "I want my life to plainly state that I am a Hallelujah, nothing more, nothing less."

     Paul said, "... be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Ephesians 5: 18b, 19.