RJ Palmer offers new book (Sins of the Father) free for a week

RJ Palmer pens her second book. Get it free for the next week on Smashwords with coupon code VQ43C with this link https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/157017. The book shall be available on Amazon and elsewhere in the next few days to a week.

SPOILER ALERT Bowen is an orphaned child in feudal England whose first appearance in this novel is having been bound hands and feet and whipped mercilessly by the monks in a monastery in an excess of bloodlust. He’s realistically of an indeterminate age but no more than about seven years old and the monks are very sadistic. He’s punished repeatedly for any number of minor and inconsequential infractions. Bowen’s father and mother and sister are dead. His sister was the victim of a brutal rape in which she became pregnant and died shortly after giving birth though she had been returned to her parents’ home in a beaten and catatonic state. His father drowned and his mother burned to death in the family home. Aaron is a minister in present day Midwest America who takes a short sabbatical after he has a fainting episode while experiencing the marks of the stigmata immediately preceding a sermon that he’s supposed to deliver about Faith Unending, a concept with which he’s struggling himself. Aaron is continuously having episodes of a fugue like state or altered consciousness in which he’s catapulted back in time. He sees Bowen whipped by the monks and is compelled to take the whipping on himself which in turn leads Bowen to have to leave the monastery where the sadistic monks are calling for his death, citing devil possession. Lucian is a severely autistic child in the present day who’s found homeless and taken to a mental health center after a fire in an abandoned building in which he’s sleeping. He’s horribly scarred and disfigured and bears a striking resemblance to Bowen and Aaron. He takes a liking of a sort to Aaron, who has eyes of the same amethyst color as his. He also bears a mark on his chest which looks like a brand and is the mark of the Celtic war god Rudianos. Lucian has a horrible aversion to religious symbols, only speaks Welsh and then only in riddles and in a cold, hateful voice not like a child, “The guardian lives. The gate has been opened. The sins of the father borne upon the son. Vengeance thirsts for blood. The sacrifice must be made.” He also tends to say, “Bless the child, save the child.” All this starts to make sense, along with the rash of fires that follows Lucian wherever he goes when Aaron finds out that Bowen and Lucian are the same person. Lucian/Bowen’s father awoke an ancient evil whose service he had the strong desire to use for revenge but he didn’t understand that said evil thirsts for living blood and the dead blood of the sister, whom he dug up and tried to offer as payment on a burning pyre, was simply unacceptable. Since he performed a Druid rite under the light of the full moon, each lunar cycle brings with it a fresh hell for Lucian. Lucian/Bowen is the Guardian of that ancient evil and a perpetual child who has been severely tortured, violated and abused. He’s centuries old though physically still very young and has been left repeatedly to the whims and care of both good families in the past as well as people with sick and obscene appetites, so it was easier to retreat into his own mind where the suffering wasn’t so bad. Aaron realizes that his compulsion to help Lucian comes from the fact that he’s a direct descendant of Lucian’s nephew, the child of the rape. This is why they bear a stunning resemblance to one another, including the black hair and amethyst eyes. Aaron also realizes that this is why he’s the only one who can help Lucian and he offers his own life to take Lucian’s place as the church they’re in burns to the ground. When Aaron’s body is found the next morning, Lucian is curled next to him but he’s talking and able to meet peoples’ eyes. He’s judged fairly healthy all things considered and a most unlikely guardian steps forward in the form of a member of Aaron’s congregation, Philip Moran. It’s under the cooperative care of Philip and his sister that Lucian begins to obtain an education and grow up though he always remembers the sacrifice that Aaron made to help him. Lucian begins to live.

What does Easter mean to you?

A cry uttered by Jesus Christ while dying on the cross, preserved in the original Aramaic: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Father, now the sun is risen, I thank thee for thy silent strength, given me in my hour of despair, when the darkness seemed to smother, and the tears I selfishly shed for my own pain and trivial troubles shut out the light, and I rendered myself
alone.

Father, now thy son is risen, I thank thee for allowing one so much greater than I
thine only begotten, flesh of thy flesh, to complete a task so wonderful and terrible by leaving him necessarily alone.

Father, in the garden green of Olivet, in the still and solitude the Creator of everything offered up all he had, and submitted himself to all the vengeance of Hell; and in his hour of need, the friend of the friendless was forsaken, forgotten,
for what? Although the spirit was willing the flesh indeed was weak; and they slumbered, leaving him, the balm of mortal pain, to suffer, alone.

In the beauty of that desert place, the Savior of mankind faced all the ugliness his charges could offer: the pain, the hate, the sin, the sorrow, the waste, the wickedness, the pride, the poverty, the deceit, the ignorance, the doubt, the fear, the betrayal and even the loneliness alone.

As his immortal, righteous blood was spilled, like sweat from every pore and fell to the thirsty earth below, I cannot hide my honor and my awe at his great love for me; neither can I hide my shame, self-reproach and regret. For how many of those precious drops am I responsible for? As he suffered the bitter cup, alone.

The longest night the world will ever know, the solstice of eternity, fell on Emmanuel and by the light of torches the light of the world, The very god of love,
was betrayed by a kiss, enslaved by strangers, rejected by his own, denied by those who knew him best, and led away in chains alone.

How it must have hurt thee to witness the sufferings of thy beloved inflicted by thine other children, those whom he had come to save; to steadfastly persevere,
and answer not a word, amidst the jeers the blows, the spit and scorn; to see his perfect body torn, his perfect soul rent in anguish, staggering and fainting beneath
the evil and imperfection Of all mortality collectively alone.

And thou, beyond the grasp of human pain did surely mourn at the mocking of his misery by so many witnesses and beneficiaries of his miracles and ministry. Those who knew better; who unworthily and ungratefully bore thy birthright; those with whom thou had cut they covenant now cut the flesh of thy son deliberately. And in the crowded mob he wept alone.

Down the winding passages of the city of Peace, stumbled the Prince of Peace. Plaited thorns adorned his crown; stripped of all but his mantle of duty; how it must have burdened thee to see thine own, who in innocence did glorify thy name, bearing a scapegoat's load, the weight thereof not unfamiliar to thee, which could so mercifully have been loosed by thy omnipotence; yet in the name of mercy didst thou allow this charade of justice to continue. At a crossroads he was lifted up upon the cruel cross. And in his torment, when he needed thee most, thou left him unwillingly alone.

Father, in the vastness of thy creations, was there any place large enough to contain the immensity Of thy sorrow? Was there any place small enough and far enough away to hide from the pleas and cries of thy suffering son? Until the moment he pronounced "It is finished." Triumphing, at last alone.

In olden times, the scriptures say thou wert a jealous God described; I think I know now why, jealous lest man ever slight, forget, or with anything replace the memory of the sacrifice made by thy son alone.

O Father, I thank thee for sacrificing thy fatherhood for thy godhood, by giving us thy son to pay the ransom we could not. And by so doing, thy righteous heart was broken also, for what father could bear to see his helpless child suffer and not rush to his aid? Instead, to leave him intentionally alone.

O Father, I thank thee that through the tears that fell from his eyes and from thine, that my tears may be dried and my eyes opened to the hope of my salvation, and the reassurance of my eternal worth, in spite of myself, that my meager life was worth dying for. And he died for me, and because of me, that I might live for him, in all my days serving him as tool and ambassador of the love he had for us; the love that gave purpose to his life and life to his purpose. Father, I acknowledge my hungering need to bear and be borne by the unconditional love of Christ, who unselfishly serves all those who but come unto him. As counsellor, advocate and friend; that neither I, nor any of us need ever be alone.

Father, let me let him in! Let his light fill the recesses of my soul, that darkness and evil find no place. Let me always make room for him for whom the inn was full. Let your spirit make me wise enough to seek the King of Kings as the Magi did; and as wise men still and always do. Let me ever joy in that same glory that was witnessed to lowly shepherds long ago. Praise be to the Father and the Son! The glory be to him and thee alone.

Please bless me, dear father, that I may live my days in remembrance of him whose hands first sculpted me in clay. Whose hands now rest in thine; those hands thou once suffered to be pierced for my sake. Father, wouldst thou bless me, that as he bore my burdens, I may lift all those around me with whom I share this borrowed existence for thy sacrifice, and his, was not for me alone.

And in his name may I heal the poor in spirit, feed those enhungered of body or soul; build up where others tear down; make peace spread love; share his hope; that as I represent him in my small corner of the world, no one I meet will ever be in need, in doubt, or alone.