we will come and speak for $600 per hour / plus expenses …
In addition to doing public speaking in the past about spirituality and the True Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist (of which I never took a dime) … I would try to arrange religious speakers to come in and speak at different prayer groups or for a non-profit I had started …
Now this was about 13 years ago maybe a little bit more … a friend of mine reached out to the Bob and Penny Lord of (Mother Angelica fame) … back then Bob and Penny Lord were popular but not as savvy as they are now on social media …their money was in speaking engagements and making DVD's, selling books
My friend called me after she reached out to Bob and Penny Lord and said … “we cannot afford to have them come here in speak” … I asked why, what kind of money are they asking for to come and speak…
The answer was they want $600 (just for their mere presence)….. they wanted air fare to get here and to be flown back home as well, they wanted private transportation provided for them, they wanted a hotel suite provided for them, and 2 meals a day provided for them and a daily stipend (walking around money of sorts), a table set up for them, where they could sell their books and DVD’s, plus the time they would actually be speaking was limited …
WOW freak’n WOW … we did not book Bob and Penny Lord back then nor would I ever book them, or any religious speaker, coming in the name of God, only after you sign a contract with them, for what you will pay them, they will come .. ah the hearts of the charitable doing God's work???!!! … I started to call them the “Prophets for Profits”…
And ugh does it annoy me when people rattling on and on about the “holy people” on the Mother Angelica’s cable TV channel … they would be surprised if they knew how much money these “holy people on cable TV” rake in .. Or maybe they just do not care … so conditioned to pay for “grace to be able to hear the word of God” …
In the past (circa 1992) I had connections to Mother Angelica (Mother Angelica liked to collect visionaries and mystics back then, I was invited to meet her in Ga, I never went. I am not impressed by people, only God) … Mother Angelica had real business sense though and was extremely savvy in making money … she saw an emerging market, and great potential in telecommunications …
and she filled a void that the Catholic Church at the time was not filling … so as a woman, I applaud her entrepreneurship, as person who believes grace is free, I was and am a bit offended by the fact … every speaker there, only comes with a price tag.. The selling of grace … thus reducing said to being “money changers in the inside court of the Temple” and in need of their tables being turned over as Christ did …
Mother Angelica started out independent and raised money pretty much on her own … she was extremely feisty and Goal orientated as to her vision of God and how she wanted to spread her message … as many women who started a religious order are … so I have no problem with that …I am a bit pushy myself so I see that as being a plus …Mother Angelica was extremely conservative in her approach to her faith (well at least publicly she was) yet she had a folksy manner about her (she could tell a story and hold your interest) …
Since the death of Mother Angelica her order has become a lot more commercial in the selling of things and making her site a “tourist attraction” … all so very Catholic to do … but the flavor of the intent of Mother Angelica is changing as well … she was a rebel no doubt (actually charming on some level, she refused to be pushed around, even by the hierarchy of the Church back then, I like that!) …
Now the Mother Angelica cable TV broadcasting system and Media empire is overseen by the hierarchy of the Church, and of course the “Franciscans” who take a vow of poverty ???
… Although Mother Angelica was certainly a capitalist, when it came to founding her media empire, I do not think even Mother Angelica would have approved of what is happening now … Yet I know she had dreams of grandeur of building a fancy temple for the Eucharist, which was done (much like Solomon was called to build a Temple for the ark of the covenant ) only problem is in the Old Testament there was only one ark of the covenant … Now there are tabernacles in every Catholic Church that are indeed “the ark of the covenant ” and so much more for there, is Jesus Christ on His mercy seat… And the temple, Eucharistic Jesus seeks to be in is the temple of your heart … And Jesus Christ is not "more", in the fancy temple built for Him in GA.... ah ... the folly of men and their missing of the point of the True Presence ... and why Jesus Christ remains on earth in the Eucharist ....
I would think that Jesus Christ is more "comfortable" in a tabernacle of a small countryside Church, which mimics the humility of the stable in which he was born....
Yet there is no greater or lesser Jesus Christ ... He simply is "I AM"...
 |
| truth not just for the laity but for the religious and hierarchy as well |
https://thekindledspiritofebooks.blogspot.com/
