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Here’s the latest weather forecast along the solar eclipse’s path of totality…
This article is part of a special report on the total solar eclipse that will be visible from parts of the U.S., Mexico and Canada on April 8, 2024. Millions of people living in the 115-mile-wide path of April 8’s total solar eclipse—and the millions more who will travel to catch the awe-inspiring astronomical event—are crossing their fingers that the weather will cooperate. For those anxiously refreshing the forecast page, the tough news is that cloud cover and precipitation are much trickier to predict than temperature. This is because the former involve so many small-scale processes in the atmosphere, and each of these factors can change quickly, hour-by-hour and even minute-by-minute. These processes “are incredibly difficult to predict even in real time,” says Greg Carbin, chief of fo...
‘Budding Shoots of Christian Revival’ — Catholic Churches Worldwide Reporting Bigger Easter Crowds, Prominent Conversions, More Easter Vigil Baptisms in 2024…
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Your sins are the enemy of your own resurrected joy…
By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio – articles – email ) | Mar 25, 2024 We are all familiar with the saying from the classic Godfather movie. Whacking an enemy is “business, not personal!” There is merit in invoking good business practices in our national—and international—controversies. But neglecting the personal consequences of our choices is a mistake. When Mario Cuomo, the pro-abortion Catholic, was the governor of New York in the early 1990s, then-auxiliary Bishop Austin Vaughan of the Archdiocese of New York warned that he risked the fires of hell for his policies. Governor Cuomo misrepresented the warning and said the bishop “condemned [him] to hell.” In private conversation, a wise theologian recognized a positive aspect of the governor’s clever distortion. “Well, he’s startin...
Easter, Creation, and Holiness…
What came first: Creation, or God’s covenants with the People of Israel and the New Israel, the Church? The question may seem odd, even silly. Chronologically, it’s obvious that the divine act of creation preceded the divine acts of covenant-making: no creation, no “People” with whom God could enter a covenant relationship. But our sense of time is not God’s. For as St. Thomas Aquinas taught, all that we know as “time” is an eternal present to God. In Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI explains that God’s covenant relationship with his chosen people in both the Old and New Testaments is not an add-on, a divine afterthought — or, as it’s more often understood, a fix for something that had gone wrong. Rather, Benedict writes, God’s covenantal bond with his people — the Jewish pe...
As His Wife Joins the Catholic Church, Jordan Peterson Says Easter Is ‘the Core Story of Humanity’…
‘She’s much more who she is,’ her husband told EWTN News, following Tammy’s ‘investigation of Catholicism.’ Psychologist and author Jordan Peterson spoke about Easter as the “core story of humanity” in an interview with EWTN News In Depth hours before his wife, Tammy, joined the Catholic Church this Easter at Holy Rosary Church in Toronto. Tammy Peterson’s faith was formed through praying the Rosary while she struggled against a rare form of cancer. Peterson is known for his biblical lectures on Genesis and Exodus in particular, which often appeal to both Christian and secular listeners. When asked by EWTN News correspondent Colm Flynn about what he thought about the Christian Easter message, Peterson said that it’s “the core story of humanity.” [embedded content] “I’ll speak p...
Scientists seek to understand why animals act strange during a solar eclipse and are asking the public to document their behavior…
We’ve been lucky enough over the past several years to see at least one solar eclipse here in the United States. With another one – this time a total eclipse for people from Texas all the way to Maine – occuring on April 8, 2024, it’s a good time to talk about all of the strange phenomenons that occur along with it. Like, for instance, the way animals immediately change their behavior in the lack of sunlight midday. When the eclipse happened in 2017, scientists were able to make some firsthand and interesting observations. For example, they saw bees taking a break from their daily routines in three states. Namely, they stopped buzzing at the time of totality. Since bees usually fly more slowly at night, this suggests that they rely on environmental cues like light to know when it’s time to...
‘Easter People,’ the News, and the ‘Tion’ Season…
‘Easter people’, the news, and the ‘tion’ season Skip to content Hey everybody, What a gift! “Noli me tangere,” Correggio, 1525. Public domain. For me at least, it was a gift to experience the liturgies of the Triduum, a gift that thousands of people entered the Church at Easter, and a gift to renew my own baptismal promises, as my children and Mrs. Flynn renewed theirs. When the liturgy tells us to renew our baptismal promises, it might not seem like a big deal. But that renewal is a recommitment to our call and obligation to live as Christians, to “work so that the divine message of salvation is made known and accepted by all persons everywhere in the world,” as canon 225 puts it. In our family, the octave of Easter is a good time to actually assess whether ...
Florida Supreme Court Approves 15-Week Pro-Life Law, Allows Abortion Amendment on Ballot…
“After viability, any law that you would pass, like for late-term abortion, can be overridden because it provides a health care provider with veto power over any post-viability law if the health care provider deems it necessary to protect the health of the woman,” he explained. “A health care provider can say, for any reason, health not being defined, includes everything, for any reason: ‘This law cannot prohibit abortion.’” According to Staver, the amendment also allows for a broad definition of health care provider, which he said can include “a tattoo artist, a 911 operator, orthotic fitter, orthotic fitter assistant,” and many more. Julia Friedland, a representative for DeSantis, also blasted the amendment, saying it was misleading. “We agree with the three women on the cour...
Pope Francis: I Was ‘Used’ Against Ratzinger in 2005 Conclave, but He Was ‘My Candidate’…
Francis said that at one point of the conclave, which began on April 18, 2005, he was receiving 40 of the 115 total votes. If cardinals continued to support him, Ratzinger would not have reached the necessary two-thirds threshold to be elected, likely prompting a search for an alternative candidate. Francis said that he realized the “operation” was afoot on the second day of voting and told the Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillón to not “joke with my candidacy” and cease supporting him, “because I’m not going to accept” being elected. Austen Ivereigh, the pope’s English-speaking biographer, has previously written that Bergoglio, “almost in tears,” had begged not to be elected. Ratzinger, who had been the longtime prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith u...
5 Things to Know About the Liturgy for Good Friday…
‘Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.’ (Philippians 2:8-9) The Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion in some respects looks like a traditional Mass with a rite (the veneration of the cross) added. It is not. First of all, it is not a Mass because no consecration of the Holy Eucharist takes place within it. In keeping with ancient tradition, Good Friday is the one day of the year the Church does not celebrate Mass. The Eucharist distributed at Communion on Good Friday has been previously consecrated and reserved last night — Holy Thursday evening — at the altar of repose. In comparing the appearance of the liturgy of Good Friday with the Mass, we can note: there is ...
Mass Mentality: Priest’s Viral Video Spotlights Misunderstanding of the Eucharistic Sacrifice…
When an Indiana priest’s message on the Mass went viral on YouTube recently, the response revealed a hunger among Catholics to know more about the Church’s principal sacramental celebration. Father Jonathan Meyer of All Saints parish in Guilford, Indiana, was astounded when a 33-minute talk he had given at a Jan. 27 men’s conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was picked up by the Servants of God YouTube channel in Australia, drawing more than a half million views and 1,432 comments. “I had no idea it was even happening,” Father Meyer told the Register. “I gave a talk, and the next thing I knew, it was trending like crazy.” Claiming that more than 90% of Catholics do not fully grasp why they go to Mass, Father Meyer set out in the talk to correct misconceptions and expound on the...
The Violent World of Jesus of Nazareth…
Jesus of Nazareth was born into a violent world. Much like ours, only different. At the time Jesus was born, Judea and Samaria and Galilee had been under the control of the Roman empire for about sixty years. King Herod the Great ruled over these regions as a “client king” of Rome—meaning that he answered to Caesar and ruled in Caesar’s name. Rome dominated its empire, usually by threats of violence, and (when necessary) by actual violence. Herod the Great dominated his kingdom in the same way, by threats and by force. Herod was an evil, violent man. He killed his favorite wife, Mariamne, and three of his sons. When forty young religious Jews tore down a golden eagle that Herod had put in the Temple, Herod arrested them and burned them to death in a public execution. When...
