Bøger af Patrick Seamus O'Hara

The American South of the 1950's was a very different place from the society of today. Magnolias in December is a look back to a time when life was in some ways worse and in many ways better than today, a time which once was but will never be again. Patrick Seamus O'Hara grew up in rural Georgia during a the last years of antebellum quiet. Great changes were about to take place. The short stories and recollections in this book remember racism which should have died, and gentility which needs to return. It is a book written not only for his grandchildren, but for all who wish a little better understanding of what it was like to grow up in the South of the 1950's.

THE DANCE OF ISAIAH: In the Byzantine wedding service, after placing crowns on the heads of the bride and groom to seal their union with the gift of the Holy Spirit, the priest offers them a cup of wine to drink - a symbol of the one life they will now share. Then, the priest leads the couple three times around a table in the center of the church while special hymns are chanted - the same hymns that are sung at the ordination of a priest. This ritual dance is an icon of Christian marriage: led by Christ (represented by the priest), the couple enters ever deeper into the life of the Holy Trinity (signified by the triple procession), dancing with the Lord for all eternity (signified by the circle). The table around which they dance represents the table of their home -- the symbolic altar of their shared daily life. The last hymn during this dance celebrates the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophesy: "Behold, a virgin is with child and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel," a name that means "God is with us" (Isaiah 7:14). It is this Emmanuel, the Lord in our midst, who makes marriage become a sharing in the Kingdom -- in God's own life.It is this dance of joy which begins life together for the married couple in the Eastern Christian Church. In the Bible, marriage is an analogy by which we understand the true nature of a covenant, and how God relates to His people. THE DANCE OF ISAIAH will take you through the covenant of God, verse by verse, describing the family of God here on earth -- the Orthodox Church. Beginning with Ezekial 16:8 as a foundation, the author explains how the biblical covenant is different than the Protestant understanding of a covenant, how marriage beautifully points to the intimate relationship we as believers are called to with our divine Bridegroom, and how the covenant explains all Orthodox doctrines and makes them fit in the biblical framework.

The last great victory of the Infernal Underworld was the shredding of the Body of Christ into thousands of pieces by the Protestant Reformation. Now the great warfare of the underworld is to keep the Body of Christ splintered. Every deceptive means possible is used to be sure that Protestants do not consider conversion to the Catholic Faith. Every demon in hell is expected to master the deceptive arts in order to keep non-Catholic Christians out of the Catholic Church. Through a series of mysteriously intercepted Email messages, these deceptive arts have been revealed. The instructive Emails from Darkness General Three Infernus to the novice, Glimslug, give rare insight into the methods used to thwart the conversion of a potential convert. Not since the Screwtape's instructions to Wormwood were published has such information about the machinations of the underworld and its nefarious schemes been available. The discovery of the Infernus files reveals tactics which have been succesfully used since the Reformation to keep men and women out of the Church which Christ established up St. Peter, and to keep the Body of Christ fragmented and powerless for as long as possible.

A son struggling with his father's death. A man questioning his ability to fulfill the Gospel call to love. A priest who can no longer pretend to be something that he is not. These are the common struggles of mankind, expressed in eleven stories of faith, hope, and charity, including the 2012 Writer's Digest Inspirational Short Story winner: THE SONG OF THE SAW-WHET OWL. Patrick Seamus O'Hara is a gifted story teller, with the ability to touch your heart and make you ponder your own journey through this wonderful and confusing thing we call life!