Amazing World: The Mysterious Shade Balls

 Interesting ecological solution. Technology at the service of Man.

Deposit of the Faith: The Tranfiguration of Our Lord

 

This is a great feast day in the Catholic and  Orthodox Church. 

Icon of the Feast

In the icon of the Feast of the Transfiguration, Christ is the central figure (1.), appearing in a dominant position within a circular mandorla. He is clearly at the visual and theological center of the icon. His right hand is raised in blessing, and his left hand contains a scroll. The mandorla with its brilliant colors of white, gold, and blue represent the divine glory and light. The halo around the head of Christ is inscribed with the Greek words O on, meaning "The One Who is".

Amazing World: Sir Humphrey Explains Brexit

 A little humor in dreary times.

faith formation: When It's Time for Them to "Get a Life"

 Editor: Sloth has become a common problem in today's culture. The conveniences of life too easily obtained can stunt emotional growth. Here is a great article I found on the problem handled in very practical way. The website linked to at the top of the article has a lot of practical advice.
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loveandlogic.com   or their blog https://www.loveandlogic.com/blogs/our-blog

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By Jim Fay

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"What do I do? I'm at my wits end! My grown son still lives at home.

He won't respect any of our house rules. He doesn't clean up after himself. He just lounges around the house and never lifts a finger to do anything."

"And, worse yet, we can't seem to motivate him to get a job. He isn't even civil to us. When we try to tell him to treat us better and that he needs to get a job, he gets belligerent and tells us to get off his case."

You might be amazed at how often I hear about a situation such as this. Upon being asked about this problem, I usually inquire about who is subsidizing this irresponsible son's easy lifestyle. Whose food is he eating? Whose car is he driving? Whose utilities is he using? The answer is usually, "Well, ours, but..." This is often followed with a list of explanations, excuses, and reasons related to, "Well, he doesn't have the money to take care of himself" or "He has to save his money because he wants to buy a car."

Please tell me, readers, would you put up with this for one minute if it were anyone but your own child sucking off of your personal resources, while at the same time treating you with such disrespect? Of course not! You'd say, "Out! Get a life!" The answer is easy to see when it doesn't involve your own child.

A surefire way to cripple a person is to allow him/her to sponge off you. People who are warm, comfortable, protected, and well fed usually have little motivation to change their lifestyles.

Deposit of the Faith: Did Jesus Allow Divorce?

The Pharisees questioned Jesus when he taught on the permanence of marriage:

Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” (Matt. 19:3–8; cf. Mark 10:2–9; Luke 16:18)

Thus, Jesus re-established the permanence of marriage among his followers. He raised Christian marriage to the level of a sacrament and taught that sacramental marriages cannot be dissolved through divorce. This was part of Jesus’ fulfillment (or perfection) of the Old Law of which he said, “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them”(Matt. 5:17).

An Exception to the Rule?

Some Christians hold that Jesus made an exception to the rule of permanence of marriage when he said that “whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery” (Matt. 19:9; cf. Matt. 5:31–32.) The word translated as “unchastity” here is the Greek word porneia (from which the word pornography is derived) and its literal meaning is debated among Scripture scholars. Full treatment of this topic is beyond the scope of this article, but suffice it to say here the Catholic translation of the so-called "exceptive clauses" of Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 as "unless the marriage is unlawful" (i.e., invalid) is a good translation, although it is not a faithful word-for-word translation.

The word used in Greek is πορνεία (porneia), which means anything related to prostitutes and sexual immorality (wantonness, uncleanliness, impure thoughts, immodesty, bestiality, incest, etc.)  However, in Matthew 5:32 and 19:9, πορνεία takes on a restricted meaning of incest or anything else that impedes the validity of any marriage (so-called diriment impediments).

Jesus’ and Paul’s constant and forceful teaching about the permanence of sacramental marriage as recorded elsewhere in Scripture makes it clear that Jesus was not making an exception in the case of valid, sacramental marriages. The constant teaching of the Catholic Church attests to this as well.

C.S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters Audiobook

Here is an audio reading the famous book "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis, read by John Cleese.

The Screwtape Letters is a Christian apologetic novel by C. S. Lewis and dedicated to J. R. R. Tolkien. It is written in a satirical style and while it is fictional in format, the plot and characters are used to address Christian theological issues, primarily those to do with temptation and resistance to it.

First published in February 1942, the story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a junior tempter. The uncle's mentorship pertains to the nephew's responsibility in securing the damnation of a British man known only as "the Patient."

faith formation: Are We Becoming a Nation of Gollums?

 By Joseph Pearce

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As we watch our culture succumb to the power of Pride, we are witnessing the “gollumizing” of our brothers and sisters, as they shrivel into pathetic wrecks of the people they are meant to be. The only escape from this hell is rooted in heavenly love.

This week, I met a good friend of mine at a local restaurant, the first time we’d got together since before the onset of the pestilence. He is a Presbyterian pastor and a great lover of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. It was, in fact, Tolkien who had introduced us to each other, in the sense that we first met at a local Tolkien conference a few years ago.