For decades the first world has offered hardware to the countries of West Africa for the purpose of encouraging their entry into the digital era but what was born as an intelligent development project has in most cases become an expedient for dispatching electronic garbage and potentially dangerous rubbish for free
In her novel, Final Payments, Mary Gordon articulates an equation that has long influenced Christian spirituality, both for good and for bad. ... That equation between suffering and value has a long-standing history within spirituality and has strongly influenced us both positively and negatively.
“It’s a letter from the French king to his officials at the Vatican mentioning Wallace, but we don't know what his business was with the Pope. What we do know is that the document still fascinates, 700 years after it was written.” The life of Sir William Wallace was famously portrayed by Mel Gibson in his 1995 Oscar-winning film “Braveheart.”
Carol singing that is as much a part of the British Christmas as a trip to the shops is booming, precisely because it is strikingly old-fashioned. The carol concert has enjoyed a remarkable renaissance, in both concert halls and cathedrals, as well as local parish churches.
Behind the headlines, after the disastrous Brussels summit two weeks ago, were fundamental disagreements about economic theory between the British position and the rest. These differences can be traced back to theological disagreements between Catholics and Protestants at the time of the Reformation.
‘Young people are presented not as individuals, but as a menacing plague’ It is not, by common consent, a good time to be young. So it is in our nature to believe the worst of our young people. I find myself doing it far too often, even as a parent of two of them, but a couple of encounters in recent days have forced me to think again.
All people are children when they sleep / there's no war in them then. / They open their hands and breathe / in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them.
One day we will lose our place at this world's tables. Acceptance of this can give us a deeper appreciation for the tables of family, community, and enjoyment that we sit at now in this specific and beautiful world. Life and love are precious, on both sides of eternity. Our fear of losing our place inside of them is a healthy, holy fear.
Faced with the uncertainty of the crisis The financial and economic crisis which has shaken Europe to its core, cannot be resolved only by accounting and fiscal measures to balance the budget. All European democracies are experiencing obvious and hidden social conflicts which decisively influence political consensus.
The recent note from the Vatican on financial markets, along with the outbreak of protests in many cities against what is seen as the failures of capitalism, has once more brought up the question of what it is exactly that the Catholic Church teaches about economic issues
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: / Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. / At the going down of the sun and in the morning / We will remember them.
It's not easy to sustain love, at least not with constant emotional fervor. Misunderstandings, irritations, tiredness, jealousies, hurt, temperamental differences, the familiarity that breeds contempt, and simple boredom invariably chip away at our emotional and affective edges and, soon enough, fervor gives way to routine, the groove becomes the rut, and love seems to disappear.
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
Today we don't attach a lot of symbolism to numbers. A few, mostly superstitious, remnants remain from former ages, such as seeing the number seven as lucky and the number thirteen as unlucky. For the most part, for us, numbers are arbitrary. This hasn't always been the case. In biblical times, they attached a lot of meaning to certain numbers.
Among all the great stories in the world, the most common, best-known, and perennially intriguing, are those that deal with heroes and heroines. These are stories that describe someone, a man or a woman (though most often a man), who has to journey through danger, suffering, opposition, misunderstanding, and humiliation to achieve some noble goal.
The news that the BBC has decided to change the descriptions of the dates BC, Before Christ, and AD, Anno Domini to a generic “CE”, Common Era, in order not to offend believers of other religions, has not elicited much reaction except from the very many non-Christians who let it be known through various spokesmen that they did not in any way feel offended by the traditional dating.
Faith and love are too easily identified with warm feelings, passion, fervor, affectivity, and romantic fire. And those feelings are part of the mystery, a part we are meant to embrace and enjoy. But, wonderful as these feelings can be, they are, as experience shows, fragile and ephemeral. Faith, in the end, is more about fidelity in action than about fervor in feelings.
For me, the most stirring and truly spiritual moment during the whole WYD experience was when the Blessed Sacrament was brought out for adoration during the Vigil. A total silence suddenly fell upon the entire place, mantling the huge airfield. It was a profoundly reverential silence, a kind of silence that deafened because it pierced not just through the ears but also through the soul, making everyone unable not to hear what it wanted to say.
Fr. Rutler, current pastor of Church of our Savior in New York City, was living at St. Agnes Parish near Grand Central Station during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He told CNA that he remembers the details of that day 10 years ago “very well – as though they happened yesterday.”
