Discover

The greatest insight lies in neither telescope nor microscope, but in the viewer, who is challenged to view reality through the lens of God’s love. Courtesy of the hard work of scientists, along with some amazing technology, the Webb telescope has captured images that give us insights into the very origin of human life itself.  I recently saw another image that urged me to look back, not to a point in time billions of years ago—that would be spectacular enough. Rather, it caused me to catch of glimpse of something much more impressive: eternity.   I speak, of course, of the image of a child in the womb.  For a Christian, it is difficult to see both photos without thinking of Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”   But before th...

“…while, from a very small piece of ground, a large part of the food of a considerable family may be raised, the very act of raising it will be the best possible foundation of education of the children of the laborer.”William Cobbett, Cottage Economy (1824) One of the most remarkable aspects of human life is how what is truly good ends up being good in more ways than we realized. There are many things in which as we go through life we discover a generous plan written-in to reality. The most obvious examples are in the moral realm, as for instance how hard-won qualities such as honesty or fidelity bear many fruits we could not have foreseen. We might think of the little boy whose habitual truth-telling ends up winning for him positions of responsibility and honor. Similarly, acting in accor...

Whether you have an abiding interest in insect biology, or simply enjoy watching events that happen very, very quickly played back very, very slowly (and who doesn’t?), this short video from the Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Research Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and North Carolina State University is a dazzlingly wild ride. Guided by the biologist Adrian Smith, who heads the lab, the film captures a series of 11 different winged insects – including a praying mantis, beetles and weevils – as they propel into flight at a riveting 3,200 frames per second, and are slowed down roughly 200 times for your viewing pleasure. For more of Smith’s nifty camerawork, watch Moths in Slow Motion. Join Our Telegram Group : Salvation & Prosperity  

It’s a little after 7 a.m. on Tuesday in Rome, but I’ve already put in close to two solid hours at the Vatican already. For the uninitiated, the Vatican opens to the public at 9 a.m. during the week, but on this particular morning I’ve been given a peculiar task — I’m to open the Sistine Chapel. Typically, it’s a job that falls exclusively to the key masters — a small group of giant key ring-wielding men who, through years of service at the Vatican, have earned themselves the appellation. But today, the responsibility has been passed on to me (and a handful of others), who have spent the past two hours unlocking every door, gate, closet and window at the Vatican in preparation for the day ahead. And, when the time comes, it’s me holding the oversized (and presumably very old) iron ske...

What’s a Catholic to make of brain death? Is it consistent with the Church’s view of the sanctity of human life? This is a topic the Church has closely followed for decades. In 1967, doctors in Cape Town, South Africa performed the first human-to-human heart transplant. The heart donor, a woman, had suffered a lethal brain injury after being hit by a car, and her death was imminent. Ventilation was removed, blood pressure dropped, death was declared, and her heart was dissected from her chest. This procedure raised concerns. Was the woman killed to retrieve the heart? In 1968, with transplants increasing, an ad hoc committee at Harvard defined a new criterion for death as “irreversible coma.” Patients in a deep coma with permanently nonfunctioning brains could be declared dead, determined ...