What Does it Mean to Backslide?
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Dear Family, Bruce sent me a copy of a chat that happened in chat the other night after I left between Bruce, Dad and Father Steve. They were discussing morning stars and how both Satan/Lucifer and Jesus are referred to as morning stars and wondering why? Enclosed find my response to them in case anyone…
Dear Family, Many when joining a monastic community change their name as I myself did. Why do we do this? What is the meaning of it? Is it something the Catholic Church dreamed up or is there a biblical basis for the practice? In my last post I shared how I changed my name and…
Dear family, Find enclosed my latest poem. Hope you all enjoy and comments are always welcomed Brother Lawrence Damien Cos The Power of God By Brother Lawrence Damien Cos I have been broken but not forsaken, Knocked down but not kept down I’ve felt pain but that was gain For the power of God is…
by Brother Lawrence Damien CoS Dear Family, In a week we will celebrate Ash Wednesday and many of us will be going to church to get our foreheads marked with the sign of the cross from ashes made from burning last year’s Palm Branches that were used and blessed on Palm Sunday. So why will…
Dear family As I believe most of you know I am a monk and a member of a monastic community called “The Community of Solitude”. So what is solitude? It is my belief that the whole universal church is called to spend periods of time in solitude seeking God and yet for me and other…
What is Good Friday All About? By Brother Lawrence Damien Dear Family Today is Good Friday so what is it and why do we celebrate it? This is day that Christians throughout the world commemorate the crucifixion of Christ. Church services recall the account of Jesus death given in Christian scriptures especially…
What is Chrism Mass By Brother Lawrence Damien Cos Dear Family, We are approaching Holy Week. At some point during Holy Week the priests, bishops and the faithful will gather for a Chrism Mass. This mass has two purposes. First it is the time for the blessing of the oils which will be used in…
Recently the US under president Trump moved the its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in Israel sparking a lot of concern, consternation and violence by those opposed to the move mainly Arabs. Part of the problem as I see it is something called Zionism and the belief on the part of many that we…
What Can We Learn From An Adulterous Woman? Dear family. For several weeks now I have been stuck meditating and thinking about the woman caught in the act of adultery by religious leaders looking for a way to find fault with Jesus. The story is found in the Gospel of John chapter 8:2-10. Jesus had…
Dear family Today March 25 we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation i.e. when Gabriel appears to Mary to tell she would become pregnant and a son to be called Jesus. So its nine months to Christmas and no, no one actually knows when the annunciation actually happened. Its celebrated now because Jesus birth is…
Dear. family, Why did Jesus die? Many Evangelicals would answer to appease an angry God. God was upset with the fall of our first parents and was going to send everyone to hell. Jesus came then to solve that problem and save all who would believe in him. However, is that the case or is…
Read chapter 1 “A Passion For Compassion” first Chapter 2 “…and none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors-…
What is Lazarus Saturday? By Brother Lawrence Damien Cos Dear family In about a week we will be celebrating Holy Week and for most of us here in the West that will begin on Palm Sunday marking the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. However within the Orthodox Churches Holy Week starts a day earlier…
We have gotten through Holy Week and celebrated Easter and now its Easter night. The disciples are all sitting behind locked doors debating a message they had received earlier in the day. Certain women had gone to the tomb early in the morning to anoint the body of Jesus. When they arrived they found an…
What is Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday? By Brother Lawrence Damien Cos Dear family Palm Sunday has come and gone. Holy Week has begun and we are about to witness and be a part of the last few moments of Christ’s life. The first major event of that week comes on Maundy Thursday or Holy…
INTRODUCTION Recently many of my friends and I have been discussing compassion and the compassionate Christ. What is it, what would it look like are questions we have asked ourselves and discussed with each other. One important issue we need to address and think about is how do we bring the reality of a compassionate…
Dear family and friends We have recently gone through Epiphany/Ordinary Times and been introduced to Jesus in many different settings. Then we came to Shrove Tuesday ate out pancakes, took stock of ourselves, confessed our sins, received absolution and penances to do during Lent, Then we arrived at Ash Wednesday and got faced with our…
In Matthew 2nd chapter we are introduced to a group of men call Magi or wise men. These were men highly skilled in astrology, astronomy, predicting the future, and were sought after by kings and emperors as advisers to them. In the world of their day they would have been unsurpassed yet I believe that…
By Brother Lawrence Damien Cos Muiscas Ceremony for Connectedness “When I consider your heavens the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them] 5 You have made them a little lower…
“To be like Jesus, To be like Jesus, All I ask is to be like Him, Through all life’s journey, From earth to glory, All I ask is to be like Him.” Dear Family Back in my Evangelical days I used to sing the above song a lot. Then would come the trials, tests…
Dear Family, This past May I celebrated my 71st birthday and in October I will celebrate 53 years in ministry which is cool. So what have I learned in all that time? Am I smarter now than I was then? Actually no. I have gotten dumber in one respect. In my teens and early 20’s…
by Brother Lawrence Damien Cos “Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?” Dear CG family Enclosed find my latest article on Baptism for the Dead. It stems from a discussion we had in Sunday school…
Dear family In the last few months during the having to be shut in due to the Coronavirus I have had a lot of time for reflection and contemplation on various aspects of my life and how well I may be doing in seeking to be more like Christ and fulfilling the ministry he has…
Brother Lawrence Damien Cos (Community of Solitude) was born in Maine in 1948, started teaching/preaching in 1966, and was ordained to the ministry in 1970. I was raised in the Congregational faith and later became Church of Christ, then Pentecostal, then Episcopal then Independent Catholic. which I still am today. I was educated at Melodyland…
As we begin this story in I Samuel 3 we find Samuel ministering under Eli. He was given to the Lord by his mother Hannah and has been livingwith Eli learning to be a priest. However, it did not teach one tohear the voice of the Lord and recognize it,…
When it comes to eunuchs many of us have been taught that it refers to a castrated male i.e. one who has had his testicles cut off. However I believe, scripturally speaking, that is only one of the definitions for a eunuch. The scriptures give three different types of eunuchs, as taught by Jesus. “For…
Recently there has been much discussion on whether or not to come out of the closet. Who do we tell if we do? Do we tell everyone and flaunt our beliefs in their face? While I live openly as a gay man I also understand the need because of family, church, friends, job and a…
For Everything There Is a Season and a Reason By Brother Lawrence Damien Cos For everything there is a season and a reason There is a time to be born and a time to die, There is a time to be young and time to grow old, A time to be weak and also a…
Dear Family, As we celebrate Palm Sunday I would like us to consider where we stand concerning Jesus. In today’s readings taken from Mark 14:1-15:47. It starts off with the religious leaders trying to figure out how they can arrest Jesus without starting a riot. They can’t find any legitimate way to take him so…
Some right now might consider me a heretic and want to stone me for even asking such a question. However there are those within the gay community who would insist they were (lovers), and this can be proven from the Bible. So who’s right? There are only five scriptures that speak of any special love…