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| Take Up Your Cross | |||||
| We hear a dark message from Jesus today... He is not the sweet Jesus, meek and mild. He is brutally honest and straight forward. I am going to Jerusalem to suffer and die and if you come after me, you must take up the cross. If you want to save your life then you must first lose it. That is a tall order. | |||||
| This Jesus led a remarkable life. He spent three decades of his life, about 30 of his 33 years where you and I would never dream of looking for Him ‑ in a small town never mentioned in the Old Testament. A town about which His native disciple Nathanial asked ‑ "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" | |||||
| Of those three decades, we know little save that the child got bigger and wiser and He was loved by God and the people of Nazareth. He then got lost for three days and was found in the temple by His parents. He gave no more than three years publicly to the people He had been born to save and even then He descended on them not with Angels' thunder or power. He began as we would never begin, He had John baptize him. The Devil tempted Him from His mission with bread, pride and with riches. | |||||
| He had friends among the well to do ‑ Lazarus and his sisters and He loved them. He spent most of His time with those that the self‑righteous despised, those they call sinners. He preached a twin message everyone could understand. Love God above all else. Love your sisters and brothers as much as you love yourself. He made enemies of the powerful because He put compassion above tradition. Love above law. People above things. He claimed a relationship with the Father so intimate that the scandalized took up stones to cast at Him for blasphemy. Because you being a man, make yourself God. | |||||
| Those three years were a journey as we read in our Gospel today. A journey to Jerusalem because, you see, Jesus became human not simply to say something but to tell us truths we could never have suspected about God and about ourselves. He became human to do something, every word He spoke, every breath He drew, every curse that mocked Him and every stone that missed Him was a step on His way to Jerusalem. | |||||
| It was there that the impossible would happen, the unthinkable... our salvation from sin and self would be consummated in crucifixion. Not our crucifixion, but God's. One dark day, we humans that He had created took our God and nailed Him to a cross. This tremendous lover did all of this for you and me as if we were the only ones that ever existed. If we are to follow Christ, we too must be ready to bear a cross. Whoever does not take up their cross daily is not worthy of me. | |||||
| As we saw in today's Gospel, He turned savagely on Peter when he rebelled against the cross. Remember, even Jesus had someone help Him carry His cross and He will help us carry ours. What kind of cross will you have to carry, that you carry now, I do not know. I do know that the cross is not just for the elderly, it touches all of us. It could be pain of body or spirit, disappointments or the death of a loved one. It could be the insecurities of youth or the trembling of old age. | |||||
| The cross hangs over all of our lives and with all my years of theology, I still do not know why. What I do know, what I have experienced is that there is no human pain that cannot be touched to the cross of Christ. There is no death that does not bring life. The only thing that can help us carry the crosses that are so much a part of life is our relationship with God. Hopefully it is a loving relationship. You will not love God because you have studied Him, you will love Him because you have touched Him and He has touched you. | |||||
| The questions ‑ why suffering, why pain, why do bad things happen to good people? Those questions will not wear away but you will come to know that your Gethsemane is His garden; your Calvary is also His cross. We all shudder a little when Christ warns us that life can get tough and that we have to face up to it. None of us likes cross carrying, we are somewhat like those disciples on the road to Emmaus. Remember them? They were walking away from Jerusalem, away from the suffering, away from the cross. The resurrected Christ joins them on the road and they do not recognize Him and they tell Him of all their disappointments and their frustrations. They tell Him that they are leaving Jerusalem and going to Emmaus, away from the cross. We all like to do that ‑ walk away from our own Jerusalem and away from suffering and the cross, the danger is that when we do that we always miss the resurrection. | |||||
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Reflections from news and commentary of the day
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Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Fr. Bob Warren's Week Reflection: Take Up Your Cross
Israel’s Geopolitical Gut Check
Israel’s Geopolitical Gut Check
A once favorable balance of power has shifted, clipping Tel Aviv's wings.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/israels-geopolitical-gut-check/
In America’s Wars, Failure Is the New Success
In America’s Wars, Failure Is the New Success
http://lobelog.com/in-americas-wars-failure-is-the-new-success/Tuesday, September 5, 2017
China Plans to Use Artificial Intelligence to Gain Global Economic Dominance by 2030
Intelligent Machines
China Plans to Use Artificial Intelligence to Gain Global Economic Dominance by 2030
The country’s government has announced a scheme to surpass Western nations and shape the future of AI.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608324/china-plans-to-use-artificial-intelligence-to-gain-global-economic-dominance-by-2030/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=ca4afa470f-The_Download&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-ca4afa470f-153856085
'Whoever leads in AI will rule the world’: Putin to Russian children on Knowledge Day
'Whoever leads in AI will rule the world’: Putin to Russian children on Knowledge Day
https://www.rt.com/news/401731-ai-rule-world-putin/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=ca4afa470f-The_Download&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-ca4afa470f-153856085
Monday, September 4, 2017
Turkey's Mass Persecution of Christians and Kurds
Turkey's Mass Persecution of Christians and Kurds
by Uzay Bulut • September 4, 2017 at 4:00 am
- Yazidis, Alevis and women in the region are also being abused by Turkish authorities, and dozens of Kurdish journalists who have publicized this have been imprisoned.
- This hatred of Christians and Kurds in Turkey is not restricted to government officials. It is widespread among the public, as well, and expressed extensively on social media.
- The situation of minorities in Turkey and their persecution by Turkey -- a member of NATO and perpetual candidate for EU membership -- must be told as often and as loudly as possible.
The
Surp Giragos Armenian church in Diyarbakır, Turkey, in 2008, prior to
its restoration. (Image source: Nevit Dilmen/Wikimedia Commons)
Since 2015, the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been attacking Kurdish-majority areas in the country.
A 2017 World Heritage Watch report details the destruction of one such town, Suriçi (Sur), as follows:
"[C]urfews were declared six times for several days each from September 2015. These curfews were 24-hour-a-day blockades and led to clashes between Turkish state forces and Kurdish rebel groups, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people and serious destruction of the affected area. The last ongoing curfew from 11 December 2015, accompanied by the use of heavy military weapons such as tanks, mortar and artillery by the government, was the most devastating one. Numerous historical buildings and monuments – as well as the integrity and authenticity of Suriçi – suffered damage and destruction."
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10932/turkey-persecution-christians-kurds
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10932/turkey-persecution-christians-kurdsEurope's New Lie: Comparing Asylum Shelters to Nazi Concentration Camps
Europe's New Lie: Comparing Asylum Shelters to Nazi Concentration Camps
by Giulio Meotti • September 4, 2017 at 5:00 am
- In the current crisis, governments, NGOs, charities and the media have all embraced migrants in the millions, and welcomed them with open arms. The Jews during the Second World War -- most of whom were turned away, turned in, or betrayed by all European governments -- were not so fortunate.
- All of Europe's efforts have been devoted to rescuing migrants: on borders, at sea and in cities that host asylum centers. Such distinctions, however, are apparently not enough: the immigration question must become a new ideology, like a religion. That seems why there is an orchestrated attempt by large segments of the establishment to turn Europe's rescue operations into a "new Holocaust". Questioning them must become a taboo. Even Pope Francis, who compared a center for migrants to "concentration camps", adopted this nonsense.
- Despite Muslims historically having been the most aggressive colonizers, Europe's élites have come to idealize them due to a mix of demographic decline, misconception of Islam, self-hate for the Western culture and a fatal, romanticized attraction for the decolonized Third World people.
Auschwitz on the Beach?
In the current crisis, governments, NGOs, charities and the media have all embraced migrants in the millions, and welcomed them with open arms. Pictured: The Greek Red Cross helps an Afghan migrant who just arrived from Turkey with an inflatable boat on Lesvos Island, Greece, on December 13, 2015. (Image source: Ggia/Wikimedia Commons)
In the current crisis, governments, NGOs, charities and the media have all embraced migrants in the millions, and welcomed them with open arms. Pictured: The Greek Red Cross helps an Afghan migrant who just arrived from Turkey with an inflatable boat on Lesvos Island, Greece, on December 13, 2015. (Image source: Ggia/Wikimedia Commons)
What is the best way to shut
down the debate on immigration? By heightening the language to levels
impossible to be debated. That is what has been happening in the new --
and false -- trend of comparing the waves of migrants arriving in Europe
to Jews during the Holocaust.
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10930/asylum-shelters-concentration-camps
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10930/asylum-shelters-concentration-campsSunday, September 3, 2017
A Journalist Abroad Grapples With American Power
A Journalist Abroad Grapples With American Power
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/books/review/notes-on-a-foreign-country-suzy-hansen.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbook-review&action=click&contentCollection=review®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
A Grim Portrayal of Syria at War
A Grim Portrayal of Syria at War
by Amir Taheri • September 3, 2017 at 4:00 am
The
Assad terror machine in Syria has been broken and, even with Russian
and Iranian support, cannot be restored to its previous strength.
Pictured: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is greeted in Moscow by
Russian President Vladimir Putin, October 20, 2015.
The blurb of Destroying a Nation: The Civil War in Syria presents the author, Nikolas Van Dam, as an experienced Dutch diplomat with a direct knowledge of the Middle East.
Having
served as Holland's Ambassador to Egypt, Turkey and Iraq, Van Dam also
had a stint (in 2015-16) as his country's Special Envoy for Syria. In
that last assignment Van Dam monitored the situation from a base in
neighboring Turkey.
Van Dam's
diplomatic background is clear throughout his book as he desperately
tries, not always with success, to be fair to "all sides" which means
taking no sides, while weaving arguments around the old cliché of "the
only way out is through dialogue".
Continue Reading Articlehttps://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10922/syria-civil-war
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10922/syria-civil-warEurope: Jihadists Posing as Migrants
Europe: Jihadists Posing as Migrants
"More than 50,000 jihadists are now living in Europe."
by Soeren Kern • September 3, 2017 at 6:00 am
- More than 50,000 jihadists are now living in Europe. — Gilles de Kerchove, EU Counterterrorism Coordinator.
- Europol, the European police office, has identified at least 30,000 active jihadist websites, but EU legislation no longer requires internet service providers to collect and preserve metadata — including data on the location of jihadists — from their customers due to privacy concerns. De Kerchove said this was hindering the ability of police to identify and deter jihadists.
Masked
Spanish policemen in Madrid arrest a man suspected of recruiting
jihadists to fight for the Islamic State, June 16, 2014. (Photo by
Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
German authorities are
hunting for dozens of members of one of the most violent jihadist groups
in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, but who, according to Der Spiegel, entered Germany disguised as refugees.
The
men, all former members of Liwa Owais al-Qorani, a rebel group
destroyed by the Islamic State in 2014, are believed to have massacred
hundreds of Syrians, both soldiers and civilians.
German
police have reportedly identified around 25 of the jihadists and
apprehended some of them, but dozens more are believed to be hiding in
cities and towns across Germany.
In
all, more than 400 migrants who entered Germany as asylum seekers in
2015 and 2016 are now being investigated for being members of Middle
Eastern jihadists groups, according to the Federal Criminal Police (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA).
Exiles on Pennsylvania Avenue: How Jared and Ivanka Were Repelled by Washington’s Elite
Exiles on Pennsylvania Avenue: How Jared and Ivanka Were Repelled by Washington’s Elite
“What
is off-putting about them,” one political veteran told me, “is they do
not grasp their essential irrelevance. They think they are special.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-repelled-by-washington-elite
Steve Bannon Readies His Revenge
Steve Bannon Readies His Revenge
The war on Jared Kushner is about to go nuclear.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/steve-bannon-readies-his-revenge
Saturday, September 2, 2017
New America, a Google-Funded Think Tank, Faces Backlash for Firing a Google Critic
New America, a Google-Funded Think Tank, Faces Backlash for Firing a Google Critic
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/us/politics/anne-marie-slaughter-new-america-google.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness&action=click&contentCollection=business®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront
Friday, September 1, 2017
Teaching White Students Showed Me The Difference Between Power and Privilege
Teaching White Students Showed Me The Difference Between Power and Privilege
Southern black boys like me were more likely to end up
incarcerated than working beside white faculty at so-called elite
liberal arts colleges.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/kieselaymon/teaching-white-students-showed-me-the-difference-between?src=longreads&utm_source=Weekly%2BLongreads%2BEmail&utm_campaign=d83a9471bb-Longreads_Top_5_September_1_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=.eyvBxvv7v&mc_cid=d83a9471bb&mc_eid=9528811089#.vvbPKGG1G
72 Women. 1250 Miles. No GPS.
72 Women. 1250 Miles. No GPS.
Whitney Joiner | Marie Claire | August 23, 2017 | 13 minutes (3,420 words)
Using only topographical maps to navigate, a group of determined
adventurers spent seven days driving the rutted back roads of the desert
West, in the US’s first all-female road rally. It’s a hell of a ride.
The terrain would eat most men alive.
http://www.marieclaire.com/travel/a28175/rebelle-rally-navigational-road-race/?src=socialflowTW?src=longreads&utm_source=Weekly+Longreads+Email&utm_campaign=d83a9471bb-Longreads_Top_5_September_1_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bd2ad42066-d83a9471bb-239031537&mc_cid=d83a9471bb&mc_eid=9528811089
The first social media suicide
The first social media suicide
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/aug/29/the-first-social-media-suicide?src=longreads&utm_source=Weekly+Longreads+Email&utm_campaign=d83a9471bb-Longreads_Top_5_September_1_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bd2ad42066-d83a9471bb-239031537&mc_cid=d83a9471bb&mc_eid=9528811089
The Week With IPS 9/1/2017
| 2017/9/1 |
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UN Rights Chief: Trump’s Attack on Press is “Dangerous”
Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Freedom of the press is under attack in the United States and could
incite further violence against reporters, said a UN official.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein. Credit: UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré During a press
conference, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein
criticised U.S. ...
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Latin America Seeks New Ways to Fight Rural Poverty
Orlando Milesi
Experts in Latin America warned about the serious risk that would be
posed if the fight against hunger, still suffered by 33 million people
in the region, is abandoned, while proposing new alternatives and
insights which include linking social protection with economic growth.
More than 25 ...
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To Be a Nigerian Migrant in Italy
Baher Kamal
Bako* (24), a Nigerian migrant, stairs at new comers at an old, local
Roman bar. Extremely polite, he asks for money. If you offer to him to
buy some food instead, he immediately accepts.
Interviewed for IPS by Laurent Vercken, the young Nigerian migrant tells
his story: originally from Kuje ...
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Women Play Key Role in Solar Energy Projects
Rabiya Jaffery
Since weather affects everyone, the idea that women are more susceptible
to the effects of climate change may strike some as puzzling.
However, according to a United Nations report, State of the World
Population, women—particularly those in poor countries—will be affected
differently than ...
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Floods in South Asia and US: Is Climate Change the Link?
Saleemul Huq
In the past week, there have been devastating floods in Houston, Texas
in the United States of America as well as in Nepal, India and
Bangladesh, not to mention China as well.
Although these events occurred in very different parts of the planet and
each had somewhat unique causes and ...
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Once Decimated by AIDS, Zimbabwe’s Khoisan Tribe Embraces Treatment
Jeffrey Moyo
Sixty-seven-year-old Hloniphani Sidingo gives a broad smile while
popping out through the gate of a clinic in her village, as she heads
home clutching containers of anti-retroviral pills.
The first Bantu people to dwell in present-day Zimbabwe, the Khoisan,
also known as the Bushmen or Basagwa, ...
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"New Normal" for the U.S., All Too Familiar for the Caribbean
Kenton X. Chance
The government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines says it hopes that the
devastating loss and damage that Hurricane Harvey has wrought in Texas
might inspire the government of President Donald Trump to rethink its
position on climate change.
Hurricane Harvey, the strongest storm to hit the United ...
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UN Role in Reforming International Finance for Development
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Growing global interdependence poses greater challenges to policy makers
on a wide range of issues and for countries at all levels of
development. Yet, the new mechanisms and arrangements put in place over
the past four decades have not been adequate to the growing challenges
of coherence and ...
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Protecting Africa’s Drylands Key to the Continent’s Future
Sam Otieno
Africa’s population continues to grow, putting intense pressure on
available land for agricultural purposes and life-supporting ecosystem
services even as the scenario is compounded by the adverse impacts of
climate change.
But the adoption of land degradation neutrality (LDN) measures is ...
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Alliance to the Rescue of 33 Million Latin American Rural Poor
Orlando Milesi
“There are 33 million rural dwellers in Latin America who are still
living in extreme poverty and can’t afford a good diet, clothes or
education, and we are not going to help them move out of poverty if we
use the same strategies that worked 20 years ago,” FAO regional
representative Julio Berdegué ...
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On Climate Finance, "The SIDS Can't Wait"
Desmond Brown
Saint Lucia's Prime Minister Allen Chastanet warns that the clock is
running out for small states such as those in the Caribbean as they
struggle to develop infrastructure capable of withstanding changes in
weather conditions - and that wealthier nations need to step up levels
of aid.
“There is ...
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Global Warming Puts Asia’s Vital Yields at High Risk
IPS World Desk
While mainstream media have been widely reporting on the dramatic
consequences of tropical storm Harvey in the United States, which has
been characterised as the fiercest hurricane to hit this country in over
a decade, global warming is expected to have a significant impact on
“future yields of ...
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Forced Evictions, Rights Abuses of Maasai People in Tanzania
Baher Kamal
Indigenous Maasai people in Loliondo region,Tanzania have been facing
new cases of forced evictions and human rights violations, a major
international organisation supporting indigenous peoples' struggle for
human rights and self-determination warned.
“Forced and illegal evictions of Maasai ...
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St. Lucia’s PM on Climate Change: “Time Is Against Us”
Desmond Brown
A Caribbean Community (CARICOM) prime minister has reiterated the call
for developed countries to assist Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
in their quest to combat the effects of climate change.
The Saint Lucian leader, Allen Chastanet, said time is running out for
small states such as those ...
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Geothermal - a Key Source of Clean Energy in Central America
Edgardo Ayala
Energy from the depths of the earth - geothermal - is destined to fuel
renewable power generation in Central America, a region with great
potential in this field.
“Volcanoes have always been a menace to humanity but now in El Salvador
they are a resource to generate clean, renewable and cheap ...
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Coin offerings create financial risks - China industry body
Coin offerings create financial risks - China industry body
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-cryptocurrency-icos/coin-offerings-create-financial-risks-china-industry-body-idUSKCN1BB0D0?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=b2f87f007c-The_Download&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-b2f87f007c-153856085
Bishop Barron on Charlottesville and America's Original Sin
Bishop Barron on Charlottesville and America's Original Sin
https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/video/bishop-barron-on-charlottesville-and-americas-original-sin/5572/?utm_source=activecampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email-monthly-content&utm_content=article-charlottesville&utm_campaign=monthlycontent
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