I grew up in Orlando, FL and it was a common enough experience to see a space launch from our front yard. I wasn’t the spectacular, earth-shaking experience of being over at the beach, but it was still fascinating. At school we all knew the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, but the especially interested kids knew the lift rockets: Delta, Saturn, Atlas, Titan and others. Eventually it became routine and our interests moved on to other concerns. Continue reading
New York Times’ Michael Roston, a senior staff editor in the science department, reports that 2024 will be the year of the “Lunar Traffic Jam.” He reported that “Three missions attempted to land on the moon in 2023. Only one, Chandrayaan-3 from India, succeeded. Four additional missions — and perhaps even more — will also try to complete a lunar landing in 2024:” Continue reading
This coming Sunday we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord. In yesterday’s post we noted the difference between Eastern and Western Christianity’s celebration of the solemnity. In today’s post we will set a little context for the gospel reading and what seems to be Matthew’s narrative intent in unfolding the story of Jesus. Continue reading
Tish Harrison Warren, an Episcopal priest and opinion writer for the NY Times recently mused on the effects of television, social media and the like and their influence on our times. She noted that “in an Opinion essay exploring this idea in The Times last August, Ezra Klein noted that Neil Postman, the author of the influential 1985 book ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death,’ argued that television turned everything, no matter how serious and important, into entertainment. This development transformed society; it changed how we relate to ourselves and one another.” Continue reading
This coming Sunday western Christianity celebrates the Epiphany of the Lord. The word comes from the Greek epiphaneia meaning “manifestation” or, “striking appearance.” The feast had its origins in Easter Christian Churches and was a general celebration of the manifestation of the Incarnation of Jesus. Originally its scope was more broad. It was a celebration of a number of events in scripture that revealed Jesus to the world. Those events included: the commemoration of his birth; the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem; all of Jesus’ childhood events, up to and including his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist; and even the miracle at the Wedding of Cana in Galilee. Continue reading
In today’s gospel account, it is now forty days after Jesus’ birth. Mary and Joseph are performing their duty as pious Jewish parents by coming to the Temple to fulfill the requirements of Exodus 13. It is a ritual that reminds the parents that this child is now a member of the family that God redeemed from the slavery in Egypt. And so, they come to offer a simple sacrifice as they dedicate their first-born child to the Lord and to the larger, holy covenant family of God. Continue reading
And by later, I mean 5 billion years or so, you just might witness what happens to planet Earth when our sun enters its red giant stage of life. We orbit around a G-type star (yellow dwarf) we call the Sun. When such a star reaches the end of life, it has depleted the hydrogen needed to keep the core nuclear fusion going. The star begins to turn to other internal fuel sources, loses mass, the core gets hotter and the plasma atmosphere expands. Eventually, our sun will grow more than 200 times as wide as its present size. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Family. This is nothing known of Anna apart from these verses. While the language is not exactly clear if she had been widowed 84 years or was 84 years old, either way she was elderly. There had been no prophet in Israel for hundreds of years, so it is noteworthy that God had raised up this prophetess. Perhaps she was recognized as such by Temple authorities given it is possible to understand that “She never left the Temple” to mean she had quarters in the Temple precincts. Continue reading
Today’s gospel from St. Luke is the narration of the Presentation in the Temple. The presentation that was required 40 days after Jesus’ nativity to complete Mary’s ritual purification after childbirth, and to perform the redemption of the firstborn son, in obedience to the Torah (cf. Leviticus 12, Exodus 13:12–15). It is then and there that the Holy Family encountered Simeon who had waited a lifetime. Continue reading
THY WILL BE DONE – Are we completely giving ourselves over to God’s will? And embracing the high adventure of His plan, over our plan, wherever that may lead?
LOVE OUR PEOPLE – Are we loving our people above all else and as if they are Jesus in disguise? Are we detached from things, money, power, honor and comfort, so we are free to love people most fully? Are we helping each person take one step closer to reaching their own dreams in this world and becoming a saint in the next? Continue reading
friarmusings 