Boo really enjoyed her interview on Klan Kosova this morning.
She sings her new song at the end of the interview,
To watch, please click the link below.
Btw, I’m so sorry for not responding to comments. I’ve recently had to get a new phone and I’ve had some problems signing in to comment on blogger for some reason. I’m trying to sort it out.
I just want to say I appreciate all who take time to comment. Thank you so much.
I’m not ignoring you ❤️
Boo’s track ‘Don’t Give Up’ was chosen as track of the week and featured on Jack Rafferty’s late show.
If you’d like to hear her interview with Jack Rafferty you can copy and paste the link below into your browser.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0brtgmk
Boo was also featured on ‘Good Morning Albania’
To watch, click the link below:
Her Dad is translating.
Boo sings a traditional Albanian song at minute 10:44
Hey guys, just a quick post to say Boo is being interviewed by BBC introducing tonight.
We are really excited as they will be featuring her new song ‘Don’t Give Up’
All proceeds from this song will be donated to Ukraine Red Cross.
Please tune in if you can xxx
I'm sharing, in this post, a fascinating and important talk on the roots and influence of New Age philosophy in all aspects of modern society and why people are turning away from Christianity.
Over the course of my lifetime (43) years I have seen a huge shift. People have overwhelmingly abandoned traditional Christianity and turned to atheism, agnostism, or new age spirituality.
Why has this happened?
I believe that a major sifting is happening. In the past, people ascribed to Christian beliefs because the church was a force in the culture. There were social privileges that came with being a "good church going Christian" and social sanctions for not being one. People didn't necessarily have to really believe to gain access to these privileges, they only had to put on a good show which led to the kind of hypocrisy that scandalised many and that Jesus, more than anyone spent his life on earth decrying. Jesus hated hypocrisy.
These days the opposite is true. Indeed, to be a true Christian these days means being ostracised by polite society. Much of The Bible is considered either irrelevant, offensive to modern sensibilities or both. Religion is thought to be too controlling and outmoded or just a crutch for the weak.
Behaviour that would have been considered shocking in the past is now acceptable. This has led many people to freely indulge in all manner of activities that would have meant social exclusion in the past. This has prevented a lot of hypocrisy while also revealing the truth of people's hearts.
When given the opportunity to live as we want without any negative social implications and indeed, even with social rewards, what will we do? This "free" cultural atmosphere reveals the truth of souls.
What reveals truth? Revelation. I do believe that we are living in a time that the book of Revelation, the final book of The Bible speaks about. This book is also called The Apocalypse. The Bible prophesies a great apostasy or turning away from the truth in the end days.
Yet, human beings haven't ever lived and cannot live without God. So to fill the need for God on their own terms, they invent their own. Spirituality has taken over from Christianity. This Spirituality doesn't depend on any absolute truths but relative ones which means everyone gets to make their own god or gods with their own attributes that fulfil all the particular specifications of the individual. These gods give no absolute commandments to protect and guide or free the soul from the limitations and bondage of self and sin.
In these self made, customised religions, there is no need for mystery because esoteric knowledge will be given to the initiated. There is no need for guidance or doctrine or the protection of the church because there is only love and light in the spiritual realms. There is no need to pray, because power is manifested from within if you are "enlightened." Eventually, the end result is that people become their own gods. But we cannot save ourselves. We cannot free ourselves from ourselves. We need a Saviour. We need God.
This talk is particularly fascinating to me because it reflects some of my own journey from New Age philosophy, heavily influenced by Anthroposophy, to traditional Catholicism.
These new age philosophies influence music, media, films, fashion and much of modern culture. They are so powerful and able to move so freely because, those in positions of power, the elite, are steeped in them themselves through masonry and they infuse the culture with these beliefs as a form of social engineering.
These new age philosophies which stem from masonic networks are infiltrating Christianity too now and getting mixed up in a modern form of Christianity which contains a lot of heresies. People don't understand the danger of heresy anymore. It sounds like such an outdated word. Yet one small heresy is akin to making the smallest engineering part of a ship a millimetre out of shape. It won't necessarily make an enormous difference at first, yet over the course of years and generations it will lead to major error and turn the course of the whole ship.
Freemasonry influenced that period of history known as "The Enlightenment" which attempted to de spiritualise humanity. Lucifer (one of the names of the adversary - Satan) is known as an angel of light. Yet the light or "knowledge" he gives is false, deceives, leads away from true light and leads to destruction of the soul.
The story of Adam and Eve eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil led them out of the garden of Eden where they could walk with God in truth, beauty, goodness and love to the hard world, where "the prince of this world" causes havoc and the mortal body dies.
But the soul is eternal and how we live in this temporal world effect our soul in very real ways. Jesus came to teach us these eternal truths, He came to guide us and to save us. He said:
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." - John 10:27-28
"The Church is that within which is right order. Outside the puerilities and despairs, even in these, our earthly miseries, we always hear the distant something of an eternal music and smell a native air. Within that household, the human spirit has roof and hearth. Outside, it is the night." - Hilaire Belloc
The hardest homeschooling days weren’t when they were little and every day was brimming full to overflowing with laundry, dishes, sweet, early morning snuggles. The days when I was pregnant and heavy and carrying teething toddlers on my hips while working out geometry problems. The days of veggie sticks and cupcakes with sprinkles, dandelion posies in jam jars and wailing car journeys. The days of stolen moments to nap or write a few lines or knit a few rows. The days of giggling under blankets, sofa forts and tea parties on the living room floor. The days of aching loneliness and the sweetest consolation and moments of communion. Times where it felt like Jesus was actually walking beside me when I was afraid.
No, the hardest days came after these.
As life became less brimming and overflowing I began to exhale. I began to forget the things that had given Grace to the grit of struggle.
I prayed less. I think that’s where it began.
Soon I stopped going to mass every week. I would go to the woods instead. I'd say things like, ‘I find my God in nature more than in church.’ I forgot the Grace of sacramental life. I forgot that the sacrifice comes before the blessing.
Although I still find the beauty of the creator in His creation, I don’t idolise it. This world is not our soul’s true home. Ut Migraturus Habita.
I started to read books on buddhism and the new age. They seemed so full of esoteric, knowledge, and secret patterns that connected all the dots in the universe, like how constellations connect stars. There were similes and symbols everywhere. I went down ‘truther’ rabbit holes and got lost. I rediscovered astrology. I went to new age gatherings where women were goddesses. I stopped seeing deception for what it was, the antithesis of truth, the doorway to forgetfulness.
The word religion means to re/connect, to bring the fragmentary, the incomplete and the broken to wholeness, to holiness. To remember who we are. There is a touching and telling moment in the story of the prodigal son. It comes after the son has squandered his Father’s inheritance and is sitting, starving among the pigs and their empty husks. It is a still life portrait of a worldly dream come to it’s natural conclusion. Yet it is in that moment of complete disillusionment with what the world offers that he remembers his Father’s house and ‘comes back to himself’. After ‘coming back to himself’, his true self, and identity as His Father's child, he musters the strength and clarity to return to his true home.
A half truth is a complete lie. We are made for the fullness of truth. And there can only be one truth.
In the faith, the evil one is known by names that denote his character. He is known as lucifer, (the light bearer), devil, (accuser and deceiver), satan, ( adversary).
Here is a comprehensive list of names and their meanings taken directly from Biblical texts.
Satan can come dressed as an Angel of light. He is the deceiver. He is the father of lies.
During this time of wandering away I began to fall for many lies. The truth became tough to swallow. I began to think the laws of The Bible weren't a good fit for me. I began to take on the rules and belief system of the culture which says anything goes, mocks virtue and seeks to justify vice.
It was a tempting paradigm. The temporaral, physical self wants its immediate needs and desires, perspectives and opinions to be satiated, fulfilled and ratified even if they destroy its eternal soul.
Real, authentic compassion always tells the truth because, however hard, the truth is always the highest, purest, most beautiful and most loving path for our eternal souls.
My children were watching my struggle.
They began to act out, they became confused, they began to question absolute truth too.
My physical health deteriorated. I became ill with one thing after another.
I understood something was wrong. Like the prodigal son, I began to think of My Father's house. The days when I could just run into His arms like a child. To be under the authority of The Father is also to be under His protection. I began to pray again. I stopped hiding from the Bible and the condemnation I rightly felt when reading it.
At first it was like walking through a desert. I didn’t feel the consolation and close communion I had before. I felt far away and distant. I felt unworthy. This continued for many months.
I remembered Jacob who wrestled with the angel and wouldn't let Him go till he blessed him.
Then I came across Chelsea's testimony and Jamies and Steven Bancarz.
I prayed for delieverance with Derek Prince sermons. I made a choice. I chose Jesus over everything else. I chose Jesus over fear, resentment, pride and self sufficency.
One night, I felt like I was on fire. I had a terrible pain in my stomach. I knew that if I just got on my phone and watched some random video or scrolled through some pretty pictures I would find some relief, some numbing for the pain. But I just stayed still in the flames and waited. And waited.
I waited on The Lord alone. I only wanted rescue from Him. It was like a complete surrender.
Then I saw a vision of Our Lord on a throne. It was real. The room was dark but I saw this light shining through that dark, piercing it through, His feet were like bronze and His robes shone like precious, white gold, His face was partially hidden in a cloud. I felt his hand reach down and rest on my stomach. Suddenly, all the pain I'd experienced for the last few years vanished. The fire was utterly quenched and I felt perfect peace like I've never felt before in my life.
After this I got into the Bible like I never had before. I knew that even if I didn't understand everything in it's pages, what was nessecary for my soul would be made clear. I became more humble. I realised how, despite all my book reading, I really understood less than I did when I was a simple, illiterate child. I became a child again. I read and prayed. I went to confession. I went to mass. I began praying novenas and rosaries. I attended The Mass of The Ages, The Tridentine Mass.
My children were watching. They were curious, they asked questions, they joined me.
They were upset we didn't do halloween the first year, but by the time the strange noises that had been scratching at the windows and in the attic ceased, they were convinced. They began to see the deception that runs like a string of fake, twinkly lights through the culture. They deceided they wanted The True Light and the peace that it offered.
They too began to pray more. We prayed together. We went to confession together. They read their bibles and learned to love them. They found peace. We, as a family found peace.
My physical health began to improve. But most importantly, my spirtual health returned.
No more panic attacks, no more light headedness, no more strange aches and pains and debilitating tiredness. No more low level depression in Autumn and Winter.
The three years that followed this experience have been some of the most trying in some ways. Covid came, My father passed away, my mother began needing daily care. There were diagnosis and exams. Our best friends moved away. Yet, despite this, I haven't ever felt more peace. Jesus says His peace is a peace that surpasses all understanding, a peace the world cannot give. This, I find to be completly true.
And so, I find myself somewhere near where I started. The place of overflowing sinks and cups. The place of grit and unfathomable Grace. The place of stillness in the surrender and peace is a person not a place.
I share this only becasue I feel led to. I share this only because perhaps someone needs these words.
I am an introvert and it's not easy for me to open myself up but I do it as an act of obedience and love that it might touch some soul on a similar path.
This is just a chapter in a bigger story. I don't have the burden of writing my story, only of faithfully playing my own small role in it and retelling it as truthfully as I can.
If I can do nothing more, at least I can do that.
There is no perfection this side of heaven, so don't imagine every day is easy. God never promised that we wouldn't have trials, only that He would be with us through them all, giving His Grace and strength to our surrender.
And through Him these trials are redemptive and meaningful. A life-bestowing paradox. Gving is receiving, death is life, the end is the begining and the stillness the dancing.
Praying whomever reads this is enjoying a restful and restorative christmas-tide.
With love,
Blessings to you and yours. xxx
I want this advent to be very simple. I want to walk everyday and take time to be alone in nature. I want to be with God alone for a part of every day.
We will read our advent devotions and make our advent wreathe.
We will practice old carols.
We will make florentines for friends and neighbours as we do every year.
Today, Boo made the fluffiest pumpkin muffins sprinkled all over with cinnamon sugar.
I went on a long walk with Nanouk as the sun sunk slowly.
The last of the geraniums have been brought in.
The rabbit had a snuggle and we visited some friends and my mum. Some days she is very sleepy but she loves to hear the girls chattering around her, the sounds of life being lived.
I cherish these simple days especially as the girls are growing up so fast.
Tonight, a fire and a read aloud.
I hope you are all enjoying a gentle Autumn.
Just popping by to share this insightful article
In a perceived ‘middle class’ context, the sight of children creating, building, getting mucky, and congregating in groups to play boisterously is encouraged. Yet how differently perceived are children engaging in the same activities with limited resources in a ‘working class’ context such as a council estate. Something to think about.
‘The stigma attached to poverty and low incomes begins early in childhood. When children make dens in parent-funded woodland sessions, their play is valued, encouraged and understood as a part of their development. The same natural play on a housing estate can be viewed as anti-social behaviour, and children’s dens are dismantled and disposed of.’
