The Gospel of Mary is probably the most famous non-Nag Hammadi library text out there. Despite it not being complete, an interesting teaching arises from this text. I am going to solely focus on the toll houses presented in this story. If you did not catch my previous blog entry about toll houses (click HERE), …
Author Archives: bP
The Annunciation, through the lens of Islam and non-Canonical Texts
With the feast of the Annunciation coming up on March 25, I wanted to do a quick post regarding the Annunciation, but present it from the Islamic point of view, particularly how it is portrayed in the Quran, as well as non-canonical Christian texts. When I read through the Quran a few years ago, I …
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Toll Houses in the (Coptic) Apocalypse of Paul
Over the past few months, I’ve been gathering sources on Toll Houses. This is an Orthodox concept regarding souls after they leave the body and their ascent into heaven. Now let it be said, this is not a mainstream belief in modern Orthodoxy. There is much debate in it, but the concept does exist, and …
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Way of the Cross
We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You…… ….Because by your holy Cross You have redeemed the world. In the past year, I have picked up on a few Roman Catholic practices, one being the Rosary and the other being the Way of the Cross (aka Stations of the Cross). This post is about …
Symbolism of the Justo Juez
Awhile back I was at a local Hispanic store and while browsing through their devotional candles, I found one that really appealed to me with it’s symbolic art. The candle had the name of “Justo Juez”, which translates to “Just Judge” and has Christ being crucified but surrounding him, it had various symbols relating to …
The Monad Within You
Back in October of this year, I put out a book of original work on LULU titled “The Sunesis Cosmogram”, which features three essays I wrote regarding the Circumpunct Symbol of Freemasonry as well as the three virtues (Hope, Faith and Charity). The main essay of the book is my re-working of the Circumpunct and …
The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple
A few months ago I posted about the Nativity of the Theotokos and references two source materials, the Protoevangelium of James and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. I will do the same for the feast day for the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple, which is on November 21. This feast date commemorates Mary entering …
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The Prayer of Mary at Bartos
If you like the North African magic that appeared in the “Book of Mary’s Repose” and the “Lefāfa Ṣedeḳ“, you’re going to love this. I recently obtained an English translation of the text known as “The Prayer of Mary At Bartos.” The booklet I received is just the text with no commentary or history, thus …
Nativity of the Theotokos
September 8 is the feast day of the Nativity of the Theotokos. I realized I never shared the story of the event before, so I will present it here. This is from the Protoevangelium of James, a second century text. I have referenced this text before for other aspects, but never the first part. Here …
Irenaeus on Simon of Samaria
I haven’t done a Simon Magus post in awhile (check out my other posts via the “tag” at the bottom of this post), so I figured this would be a good one to share. I was browsing through the MASSIVE Ante-Nicene Fathers collection and came upon the Against Heresies section that is attributed to Irenaeus. …
Culmination of Wisdom 