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Tim Tebow says he’d rather be known for saving babies than winning Super Bowls…
Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow said that he would rather be known for saving babies than winning Super Bowls during an anti-abortion event. “It really does mean a lot more than winning the Super Bowl,” he said to a crowd at a football-themed banquet hosted by Kansans for Life earlier this month. “One day, when you look back and people are talking about you and they say, ‘Oh my gosh, what are you going to be known for?’ Are you going to say Super Bowl, or we saved a lot of babies?” At one point in the speech, Tebow turned to people affiliated with the Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs football team who were in the audience and addressed their recent feat. “It’s amazing,” Tebow said. “What an accomplishment! But you know the best part of that accomplishmen...
Dioceses in northern Italy suspend Mass during coronavirus outbreak…
Milan, Italy, Feb 24, 2020 / 06:54 am (CNA).- Several Catholic dioceses in northern Italy have suspended Mass and other activities this week to help contain the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by coronavirus. The northern regions of Italy saw a dramatic uptick in coronavirus cases over the weekend, prompting some regions to suspend all events or gatherings of any form, in public or private. In response to the outbreak, dioceses in the area have taken various measures, including cancelling Masses and asking Catholics to receive the Eucharist only in the hand. Italian officials have also imposed quarantine restrictions on several towns in the Lombardy and Veneto regions, where most of the infections have occurred. The number of coronavirus infections in Italy has reached 2...
Personal conversion needed to confront Satan’s lies, Pope Francis says in Lent message…
Vatican City, Feb 24, 2020 / 03:34 am (CNA).- There is an urgent need for personal conversion, without which the temptations of Satan, and the presence of evil, create a “hell here on earth,” Pope Francis said Monday in his 2020 Lenten message. “Christian joy flows from listening to, and accepting, the Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus,” he said. “Whoever believes this message rejects the lie that our life is ours to do with as we will.” Rather, the pope said, life is born of the love of God our Father. “If we listen instead to the tempting voice of the ‘father of lies,’ we risk sinking into the abyss of absurdity, and experiencing hell here on earth, as all too many tragic events in the personal and collective human experience sadly bear witness,” he stated. Pope Francis’ L...
What do Oprah and Michelle have that Bernie and Bloomberg need?
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Batman, Ash Wednesday and the power of symbols…
2 Minute Read “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy, and I can’t do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I’m flesh and blood; I can be ignored, I can be destroyed. But as a symbol … as a symbol I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.” – Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins In Batman Begins, after spending several years living the life of a criminal and training with the League of Shadows, Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham City. He realizes he can’t fight the criminals who control the city as himself. He must become something else. A symbol. Google says a symbol is “a thing that represents or stands for something else,” especially something abstract. Symbols are all around us. They are stamped on the things we buy, like clothing and automobiles. They fly as flags over government buil...
The confessional seal, the Pope and progressives, and more…
By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Feb 21, 2020 A week after its release, Querida Amazonia—or, to be more accurate, the reaction to the papal document—remains the top news story of this week. But it shouldn’t be. ►The most important story, in my view, is the law that took effect in the Australian state of Victoria, requiring priests to break the confessional seal if they are told about abuse of children. Here is a frontal assault on religious liberty, and a grave challenge for Australian priests—who have already been told by their bishops (although they shouldn’t need to be told) that they must accept jail time rather than violate the seal. How will this story play out? Will other states pass similar laws? Will priests be subject to arrest—and unable to say anything in...
On losing one’s faith without even knowing it…
There is a memorable character in the Graham Greene novel A Burnt Out Case named Rycker who is a former monk who has left to get married. He is living in mortal sin, but he thinks the dryness of his spiritual life is because he is going through “the dark night of the soul.” So deluded by his own spiritual pride he imagines that he is a great saint who is suffering for Jesus. In fact, Greene brilliantly portrays the man as almost a comic figure for his foolishness, false humility and fake bravado. It is a cautionary tale reminding one of the genuine minefield through quicksand that the spiritual life can become. There are all sorts of ways one can lose the faith, and there’s the old story about the sixteen year old schoolgirl who went to the Mother Superior at her convent school and said, “...
Sin is first in the will: a brief lesson in morality from Lady Macbeth…
Of all the authors we should compel our students to read, surely no one is so foolhardy as to demand a reason for reading Shakespeare. I can forgive the one who asks, Why should students read Aeschylus? Or Why do you force them to read Thucydides? But this is only because these authors are ancient Greeks and therefore might appear (at first glance) to be so remote, so out-dated and outmoded that perhaps devouring time has blunted their relevance. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth! Thankfully, Shakespeare still appears to be among the authors with whose works a more than passing familiarity is still deemed a sine qua non for the one who dares to think himself educated. Notice the phrase “passing familiarity.” I chose those words very ...
Pope’s Sunday Angelus: Ask God for the strength to love your enemies…
Bari, Italy, Feb 23, 2020 / 09:00 am (CNA).- Ask God for the grace to love your enemies, Pope Francis said Sunday in a homily in the Italian city of Bari. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This is the Christian innovation. It is the Christian difference,” Pope Francis said Feb. 23. “Ask God for the strength to love. Say to Him: ‘Lord, help me to love, teach me to forgive. I cannot do it alone, I need you.’ … We need to pray more frequently for the grace to live the essence of the Gospel, to be truly Christian,” the pope said. Pope Francis offered Mass in Bari for the conclusion of the “Mediterranean, Frontier of Peace” meeting of bishops from 19 Mediterranean countries, which took place Feb. 19-23. An estimated 40,000 people attended the pope’s Sunday Mass in B...
Is coffee good for you? Yes! But it depends on the kind of coffee and the quantity…..
We’ve come a long way from the cans of Folgers that filled our grandparents’ cupboards, with our oat milk lattes, cold brews and Frappuccinos. Some of us are still very utilitarian about the drink while others perform elaborate rituals. The fourth most popular beverage in the country, coffee is steeped into our culture. Just the right amount can improve our mood; too much may make us feel anxious and jittery. Is coffee good for me? Yes. In moderation, coffee seems to be good for most people — that’s 3 to 5 cups daily, or up to 400 milligrams of caffeine. “The evidence is pretty consistent that coffee is associated with a lower risk of mortality,” said Erikka Loftfield, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute who has studied the beverage. For years, coffee was believed to be a po...
Why are most airplane seats blue?
Atstock Productions/Shutterstock It comes down to science and logistics. Unless you have a seat in first or business class, boarding and deplaning an aircraft can be stressful experiences. Because you’re so busy worrying about finding room in the overhead compartment and trying not to knock other passengers on the head with your personal item, you may not notice things like the plane’s interior color scheme. But if you pay attention the next time you board a plane, you’ll likely notice that its seats are blue. Of course, there are exceptions to this—like Virgin Atlantic’s red seats and the green seats on Aer Lingus—but in general, airline seats tend to be blue. So why is that? We spoke to some experts and looked into the science to find out. Here’s how to pick the best airplane seat for ev...
The cycle of hatred and revenge ends with me…
In today’s Gospel the Lord is teaching us, by His grace, to break the cycle of hatred and retribution. When someone harms me I may well become angry, and in my anger seek to get back at the offender. If I do that, though, then Satan has earned a second victory and brought the anger and retribution to a higher level. Most likely, the one who originally harmed me will then take exception to my retribution and try to inflict more harm on me. And so the cycle continues and escalates. Satan loves this. Break the cycle. The Lord has dispatched us onto the field to turn the game around and break this cycle of retribution and hatred. The “play” He wants us to execute is the “it ends with me” play. Don’t play on Satan’s team. To hate those who hate me, to get back at those who harm me, is to work f...
