 In a sign of its turbulent past, one of the restored buildings is a tall tower only accessible by a wooden drawbridge, where the monks would take refuge during assaults by hostile Bedouin tribes in the Middle Ages.
"We are living in the same land, drinking the same water — we are Egyptians, all of us. What is going on is something not normal," said Father Maximus about the shooting in Nag Hamadi.
A fearful thing is sin, and the sorest disease of the soul is transgression, secretly cutting its sinews, and becoming also the cause of eternal fire; an evil of a man's own choosing, an offspring of the will.
For that we sin of our own free will the Prophet says plainly in a certain place: "Yet I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true: how are you turned to bitterness, (and become) the strange vine" (Jer. 2:21)? The planting was good, the fruit coming from the will is evil; and therefore the planter is blameless, but the vine shall be burnt with fire since it was planted for good, and bore fruit unto evil of its own will. For God, according to the Preacher, "made man upright, and they have themselves sought out many inventions" (Eccl. 7:29). "For we are His workmanship," says the Apostle, "created unto good works, which God beforehand prepared, that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). So then the Creator, being good, created for good works; but the creature turned of its own free will to wickedness.
Sin then is, as we have said, a fearful evil, but not incurable; fearful for him who clings to it, but easy of cure for him who by repentance puts it from him. For suppose that a man is holding fire in his hand; as long as he holds fast the live coal he is sure to be burned, but should he put away the coal, he would have cast away the flame also with it. If however any one thinks that he is not being burned when sinning, to him the Scripture says, "Shall a man wrap up fire in his bosom, and not burn his clothes" (Prov. 6:27)? For sin burns the sinews of the soul, and breaks the spiritual bones of the mind, and darkens the light of the heart.
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Second Catechetical Lecture
Ouija boards are considered by many to be something not to be dabbled with - should these really be sold in toy stores ?
Some believe ouija boards can be used to contact the dead or to summon demons but toy stores around the world still sell them to children as young as 8. Should stores stop selling them as toys or are they as harmless as they seem ?
Ouija Board a Controversial Toy for Tots
Toys R Us is selling Ouija boards, promoting them as acceptable for children as young as eight years old.
The pink edition of the Ouija board is listed for girls eight-years-old and up while the regular version is designated for all children eight and up. Stephen Phelan, communications manager of Human Life International, checked the website and reports that the findings are disturbing.
"It is just troubling that these things are treated as casually as any other game, like Monopoly or anything else on this Toys R Us site -- and I think it's something Christians should be aware of and really not support," he states.
He further believes that Christians have an obligation to fight against it. "If you go to the comments section on the Toys R Us [web]site, you'll read comments from people who talk about being obsessed with it, talk about missing school for it, talk about the spirits they spoke to on the other side and how creepy it was," Phelan describes.
The communications manager adds that the primary groups that deny the evils of the Ouija board are the ones who deny the spirit world entirely. He goes on to say Christians have a biblical mandate.
"We're supposed to deal with the truth only," he notes. "We're supposed to have nothing to do with dark spirits. We're not supposed to dabble in anything that would compromise our souls, and that's exactly what this does."
The manufacturer of the product is Hasbro.
For an introduction on who Benjamin Creme is, I quote this section from Wikipedia along with links:
Benjamin Creme (b. Dec 5 1922 Scotland) is an art