Sunday, August 17, 2014

Irish Jewelry

IRISH JEWELRY

Sterling silver Irish jewelry as a genre is divided into two parts. One part celebrates the dashing and iconic Irish symbols like the three-leaf clover, the lucky four-leaf clover and the Irish Claddagh to name a few.
 
The Irish necklace below shows the famous Irish Claddagh necklace. Notice a little Celtic trinity knot in the pendant.
 
 

The other half of the Irish jewelry genre has a Celtic influence. It goes by the name of Celtic jewelry. One of the favorite Celtic knot designs is the Trinity knot or Triquetra symbol. It has three corners on the knot. Look at this Celtic knot necklace as an example:


Celtic jewelry has countless types and styles of Celtic knots. The Trinity knot necklace is very popular in the Celtic jewelry genre but by no means is it the only type of Celtic necklace.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Sermon On The Mount - Christian Virtues

Christian Virtues Taught At The Sermon On The Mount

Jesus taught eight virtues at the Sermon on the Mount and gave counsel on a few more topics. To understand the full Sermon on the mount read Matthew Chapter five.
 
From Matthew 5:2-11 we read the following:
 
And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  (Matthew 5:2-11)
 
In these verses Jesus taught us that blessed are those that have certain virtues like poor in spirit (humility), the merciful or pure in heart.
 
If we want to be blessed by The Lord we need to be humble, meek, seek after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers. Further we are told that if we mourn we will be blessed along with being persecuted or reviled, we will be blessed.
 
The Sermon on the Mount is a passage of peace and hope. While we find peace while reading these verses we need to carefully consider each verse and ask ourselves if we really are merciful or meek etc.  We need to liken the scriptures to ourselves and apply each word and each verse to our lives to have the blessings The Lord is willing to give us based on virtues we need to have within our soul.
 
I'm not saying that Christian and cross necklaces will give us these virtues but they can serve to remind us of the importance of these Christian virtues. The sterling silver Celtic cross necklace is very symbolic and can serve to remind ourselves of what we need to do.