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Jumping worms are taking over North American forests…
Link Copied On a sweltering July day, I follow Annise Dobson down an overgrown path into the heart of Seton Falls Park. It’s a splotch of unruly forest, surrounded by the clamoring streets and cramped rowhouses of the Bronx. Broken glass, food wrappers, and condoms litter the ground. But Dobson, bounding ahead in khaki hiking pants with her blond ponytail swinging, appears unfazed. As I quickly learn, neither trash nor oppressive humidity nor ecological catastrophe can dampen her ample enthusiasm. At the bottom of the hill, Dobson veers off the trail and stops in a shady clearing. This seems like a promising spot. She kicks away the dead oak leaves and tosses a square frame made of PVC pipe onto the damp earth. Then she unscrews a milk jug. It holds a pale yellow slurry of mustard powder a...
New report on worldwide Christian persecution sounds alarm in West…
Iraqi Christians attend Christmas Eve Mass at the Syriac Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in the predominantly Iraqi Christian town of Qaraqosh, in Nineveh province some 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from Mosul, on Dec. 24, 2019. The 2020 ‘World Watch List’ report found that 87% of Christians have left Iraq since 2003. (Zaid Al-Obeidi/AFP via Getty Images) The 2020 ‘World Watch List’ on the persecution of Christians highlights an unprecedented level of persecution against Christians. ROME — The 2020 “World Watch List,” published by international religious freedom advocate Open Doors, confirms the unprecedented level of persecution against Christians around the world — a persecution that appears even worse than what the Church experienced in the first few centuries of its existence...
Put your life in order with this prayer by St. Thomas Aquinas…
Establishing order in our lives isn’t always very easy. This can be especially difficult when children are added to the mix. Whatever the case may be, living in a disorganized way can often lead to greater anxiety and fewer feelings of peace in the soul. St. Thomas Aquinas is well known for his amazing work in organizing the beliefs of the Catholic Church into his Summa Theologiae. He also wrote a powerful prayer that he reportedly prayed every day, usually entitled, “For Ordering a Life Wisely.” It is a lengthy prayer, but it is filled with great wisdom and is a cry out to God, asking him to help bring order into your life where you need it most. O merciful God, grant that I may desire ardently, search prudently, recognize truly, andbring to perfect completion whatever is pleasing to...
What happens when they find a World War II bomb down the street?
I found out about the bomb down the street by text message on Tuesday at 4:22 p.m., just as I was locking my bike outside our son’s preschool. It was a screengrab, actually: My wife had passed on a tweet from the Berlin police department with a photo of a huge archaeological excavation and construction site that we can see from our balcony in the center of the city. “A World War II bomb was found today at about 11:30 during construction work on the corner of Grunerstr. and Juedenstr. Our colleagues have blocked off the area, the bomb squad technicians are on the scene.” What, my wife wanted to know, were we going to do? This question is not as unusual as one might think, at least in German cities and others hit hard during the war. Between 1940 and 1945, Allied forces dropped 2.7 million t...
The universe just keeps expanding, and gravity doesn’t slow it down. Now we might know why…..
ALFRED PASIEKA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYGetty Images Gravity wave astronomy could confirm groundbreaking theories on massive gravity. The elusive graviton has been the subject of debate in theoretical physics for almost 100 years. One physicist has followed a groundbreaking 2011 paper with years of additional research and now, a $100,000 award. A theoretical physicist in England has won a prestigious award for her work on the theory of massive gravity, which could explain why gravity hasn’t constrained the rapid expansion of the universe. The $100,000 award honors the work of Claudia de Rham, who has worked for 10 years on a way to turn massive gravity theory into something measurable. Cosmologists have puzzled for decades about how to marry gravity with the speed at which the universe is expa...
After 142 years, fast-fading Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration to end perpetual adoration…
The adoration ministry will begin praying for 16 hours daily next month January 24, 2020 3:44 PM Posted: January 24, 2020 3:44 PM Updated: January 24, 2020 5:59 PM Mary of the Angels Chapel LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT)- Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration (FSPA), beginning next month, will no longer pray 24 hours, seven days a week. After 23 years of including prayer partners in its adoration ministry and following 12 years of careful study of the future of the practice, FSPA will pray daily 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. beginning February 26, 2020. The congregation has prayed 24/7 in their chapel since August 1, 1878. “FSPA remains devoted to the spirit of our long-standing tradition. Our thoughtful study over the years has included a growing understanding of a modern way to live in adoration through...
Kobe Bryant and Gianna went to Mass before chopper crash…
Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, went to church just hours before dying — along with seven others — in a helicopter crash on the way to the teen’s basketball tournament, a report said. The two attended 7 a.m. Catholic Mass and received Communion at the Cathedral of Our Lady Queen of the Angels in Newport Beach, a church spokesman confirmed to the Daily Mail. After leaving the house of God, Bryant and Gianna boarded a Sikorsky S-76B with the other occupants at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana at 9:06 a.m. Less than an hour later, in foggy conditions, the chopper crashed in the hilly terrain of Calabasas. Bishop Timothy Freyer, of Bryant’s diocese, mourned the nine fatalities in a heartfelt Facebook post on Monday. Freyer also called Bryant “a committed Catholic who loved his...
Pope Francis to publish a book with reflections on St. John Paul II…
Vatican City, Jan 28, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has co-authored a book of reflections on the life of St. John Paul II to be published in Italian. The book, entitled “St. John Paul the Great,” is the product of a series of conversations between Pope Francis and Fr. Luigi Maria Epicoco which took place from June 2019 to January 2020, according to its preface. The book is expected to be published sometime ahead of the 100 year anniversary of the birth of Karol Wojtyla on May 18. When Wojtyla became Pope John Paul II in 1978, a 41-year-old Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was serving as the provincial superior of the Jesuits in Argentina. Pope John Paul II appointed Bergoglio to be an auxiliary bishop in 1992, elevating him to become Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998, and crea...
New film ‘Holy Silence’ tries to get into the mind of Pope Pius XII during World War II…
(REVIEW) Popes are in these days. Films about them are, anyway. The last few months have given us the fact-challenged Netflix movie The Two Popes and the sin-filled HBO series The New Pope. A new documentary, out this month, tries to come to terms with the cost of Pope Pius XII’s silence during World War II. The film Holy Silence, which premiered on January 21 at the Miami Jewish Film Festival, comes less than two months before the scheduled release of the Vatican Apostolic Archives regarding the pontificate of Pius XII in an effort to provide historical context for 17 million pages that will be released. Pius XII was pope from 1939 to 1958, years that included World War II. The archive includes some 17 million pages of documents. Before historians and the public can delve into the archive...
The time I met Kobe Bryant at daily Mass: “Like all of us, he came to pray”…
News broke this afternoon that retired NBA player Kobe Bryant and his daughter died in a helicopter crash. Bryant was also a practicing Catholic, and explained in an interview how his faith helped him through some dark times. [See also: How Kobe Bryant’s Catholic Faith Pulled Him Through His Darkest Hour] Instagram user Cristina Ballestero revealed an amazing story about seeing Bryant at a weekday Mass at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, Cali. Here’s her story below: Click here if you cannot see the post above. Here’s the text of her story (edited for easier reading): “I want to tell a story about the time I met Kobe Bryant. “I was sitting in the very back of Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, CA, on a weekday Mass. At the time I was very into wearing veils, and on this particular day, I had...
What happened in the “Dark Ages,” and why do people call them dark?
Editor’s Note: At a recent faculty meeting day, a lunch conversation about how to divide and name different periods of history led to Lucas Lopes, Freshman Core teacher, inviting Lionel Yaceczko to give the following talk to his class as they were studying the period between the Roman Empire and Medieval Christendom. In the second century of the Christian Aera, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved ...
Why study Latin?
Ave Maria, Gloria in excelsis, Agnus Dei, Dominus Vobiscum, Sanctus, Tantum Ergo. These are just some of the Latin phrases that Catholics may recognize. Although it’s common to speak of Latin as a “dead” language, it remains alive within the Church, her sacred language of prayer, study, and unity. Pope Benedict XVI asked Catholics to learn the basic prayers of the Mass and the rosary to be able to pray together throughout the world. This common language roots the Latin rite of the Church in a common identity and heritage. A sacred language also points to the transcendent mystery and reverence of the Mass, moving beyond the ordinary language of one’s daily routine. Not only has Latin served as the language of the Church since the third century, it also has provided the key language of educa...
