Tag Archives: Church

Have You Ever Shouted at Jesus. One Woman Did

Posted in Healing, My thoughts by

I heard this reading at church on Sunday. It blessed me so much.

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
A Canaanite woman ( not a Jew ) from that vicinity came to him and started shouting, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly ( grievously vexed with a demon KJV ).”
Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and pleaded with him, “Give her what she wants because she is shouting after us.”
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.( the Jews )”
The woman came and knelt before him and worshipped him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s ( the Jews ) bread and toss it to the dogs.”
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment. (‭Matthew‬ ‭15‬:‭21-28‬ NIV)
This reading greatly impacted me that day.
I have heard this story before, but I never realised the woman was shouting at Jesus.
So loudly in fact that the disciples wanted her to go away.
In Jewish Culture it was not proper for a woman to shout in public.
Women were to be quiet.
In many nations woman is the man’s property.
With the children she cooks, cleans, gets firewood, farms, and keeps quiet.
This woman was a Cananite. This tribe did not mix with Jews. They lived separately from the Jews.
She must have heard about the miracles of deliverance and healing Jesus performed.
She was in distress about her daughter.
She was desperate. She cried out to Jesus for help.
Jesus ignored her.
His friends wanted him to do something to get rid of her.
She bowed before Jesus and asked him again.
She humbled herself. She did not give up even when Jesus likened her to a dog.
She was not hurt or angry but asked again for her daughter’s healing.
Jesus finally helped her.
I laughed to myself.
Would you call out in Church and interrupt the Pastor.
I did.
I interrupted a Baptist Pastor speaking at his Church.
I was distressed about my situation.
I was escorted outside.
It was not culturally acceptable for a woman to speak up in Church.
God sees.
Sometimes one is so desperate that God doesn’t mind if one shouts at him.
Respectability stops us being real.

POPE FRANCIS APPROVES OF BREASTFEEDING IN CHURCH, LIKE MY BIBLICAL STAND THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO.

Posted in My thoughts by

Mothers shouldn’t feel uncomfortable breastfeeding during ceremonies.

Pope Francis baptised 32 babies in the Sistine Chapel on Sunday and told their mothers to have no qualms about feeding them there. 
Feed your babies if you want, Pope Francis tells mothers in Sistine Chapel
 “Today the choir will sing but the most beautiful choir of all is the choir of the infants who will make a noise. Some will cry because they are not comfortable or because they are hungry,” he said in a familiar, relaxed tone to the parents.
Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel are some of the world’s most celebrated works of art. The ceiling depicts the creation of man and the altar wall shows a severe God at the Last Judgement.

But the pope told the mothers not to feel intimidated by the surroundings.

“If they are hungry, mothers, feed them, without thinking twice. Because they are the most important people here,” he said, speaking in the same room where he was elected on March 13 as the first non-European pope in 1,600 years.

Francis said in an interview last month that mothers should not feel uncomfortable breastfeeding during his ceremonies.

Quoted from Pope Francis

Back in September 2013 I wrote a blog, “Unto us a child is born.” You can look it up on wordpress.com angela mc cauley. I told how I breast fed my child in church when my baby was crying.  I quote
“I took all my children to church.  I carried the youngest baby in a sling tucked close to me so if the child cried I could breast feed the baby discreetly, or so I thought.  One day a man complained that “I should not be feeding the baby in church.”  I was discouraged.  Then I read the scripture in Joel  2:16 about calling the nursing mothers and the infants at their breast into the solemn assembly.  God did not disapprove of my breastfeeding in church and I would feed a whole lot more before it was all over.”
This happened thirty five years ago.  Today my son Aaron , whom I wrote about, emailed me the above information.
So I am pleased today that I am vindicated by Pope Francis.

REST

Posted in Holiday, My thoughts by

 

At seven in the morning it is dark here in my home town of Downpatrick, Co Down, Ireland.   As I look out my window I see the main road wind its way out into the distance.  During the week day mornings there is a constant flow of pairs of red lights, cars with people on their way to work in Belfast.  Later there is a flow  of buses and cars into town with school children.  Downpatrick is a hub for education.  We have great primary and grammar schools here, a good place to rear children.

The road is quiet this morning.  I hear the church bells ringing.  A call to prayer.  What a wonderful Christian  heritage we have here in Ireland.  Despite the war,  people still pray.  The bells were silent for a time recently.  I missed them.  I enquired and was reassured the bells would be ringing again.  The  bells ring down through the centuries.   Everyone hears the bells, whether one is Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Muslem, Chinese, male, female, child or pensioner.  It  is a beautiful sound, memories of home,  neighbours and security.

All is at rest in this small town today.