“Ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane. The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.”
~ Akira Kurosawa, Something Like an Autobiography (trans. Audie E. Bock) praying and Engineering Towards 2224
~ Akira Kurosawa, Something Like an Autobiography (trans. Audie E. Bock) praying and Engineering Towards 2224
“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there. It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so as long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.”
~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Pope Francis could be well enjoying a cool one right now – a golden Czech lager, that is, straight from the source: Plzeň. In March, as has become the tradition, the Vicar General of that Bohemian city blessed ingredients for a special Easter batch of Pilsner Urquell. The pale lager was then dispatched to the Vatican, to be handed over to the Pontiff by the brewmaster himself.
~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
'I personally hold the current administration directly responsible for the untimely death of my father'
Nathan Lambrecht stressed that his letter has nothing to do with politics. "I won't pick a side. Rather, he said, this is a moral issue.
Pope Francis could be well enjoying a cool one right now – a golden Czech lager, that is, straight from the source: Plzeň. In March, as has become the tradition, the Vicar General of that Bohemian city blessed ingredients for a special Easter batch of Pilsner Urquell. The pale lager was then dispatched to the Vatican, to be handed over to the Pontiff by the brewmaster himself.
One thing’s for certain, many Czechs celebrated Easter holy week in part by drinking … green beer.
Australia: Clever ways to celebrate Easter with your loved ones, even from afar
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry
Pope Francis ventured into a deserted Rome on Sunday to pray at two shrines for the end of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Vatican said his Easter services will be held without the public for the first time.
Pope Francis presides over the Way of the Cross in an empty St. Peter's Square as part of precautions against the spread of coronavirus. (Photo credit: Vatican Media)
HMM: Signs that coronavirus was spreading in Wuhan earlier than thought, study finds
FASTER, PLEASE: Now metal surfaces can be instant bacteria killers.
Australia: Clever ways to celebrate Easter with your loved ones, even from afar
The coronavirus is not some form of divine punishment. but a tragic event that, like all suffering in one's life, is used by God to awaken humanity, said Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, during Good Friday services in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 10.
"The coronavirus pandemic has abruptly roused us from the greatest danger individuals and humanity have always been susceptible to: the delusion of omnipotence," Fr. Cantalamessa said "It took merely the smallest and most formless element of nature, a virus, to remind us that we are mortal, that military power and technology are not sufficient to save us.”
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry
Pope Francis ventured into a deserted Rome on Sunday to pray at two shrines for the end of the coronavirus pandemic, as the Vatican said his Easter services will be held without the public for the first time.
Francis left the Vatican unannounced to pray at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and then walked along one of Rome's main streets to visit St. Marcello church to pray before a crucifix that was used in a procession when the plague hit Rome in 1522.
Pope Francis presides over the Way of the Cross in an empty St. Peter's Square as part of precautions against the spread of coronavirus. (Photo credit: Vatican Media)
“When evening had come” (Mk 4:35). The Gospel passage we have just heard begins like this. For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying “We are perishing” (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this.
It is easy to recognize ourselves in this story. What is harder to understand is Jesus’ attitude. While his disciples are quite naturally alarmed and desperate, he stands in the stern, in the part of the boat that sinks first. And what does he do? In spite of the tempest, he sleeps on soundly, trusting in the Father; this is the only time in the Gospels we see Jesus sleeping. When he wakes up, after calming the wind and the waters, he turns to the disciples in a reproaching voice: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” (v. 40).
A Vatican statement said he prayed for an end to the pandemic and also for the sick, their families and health providers and workers keeping pharmacies and food stories open amid a national lockdown.
CHINA SYNDROME: Pakistan gets Chinese underwear as N95 masks.
Get China out of your supply chain ASAP.
UPDATE: I tested one of those Chinese underwear masks and give it two stars out of five: Neither stylish nor particularly comfortable.
WE DON’T HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS: Scientists struggle to explain how coronavirus moves through the air.
I would encourage anyone interested in understanding the Great Depression or mid-19th century Britain to turn to Steinbeck or Dickens,” says Joseph E. Stiglitz, whose book “People, Power, and Profits” will be out in paperback soon.
What’s the last great book you read?
“The In-Between World of Vikram Lall,” by M. G. Vassanji, in which a corrupt official now in hiding in Canada looks back on his life and the independence movement in Kenya. Particularly unforgettable are his memories of young love and the student movement in Dar es Salaam. The book was especially meaningful to me because of the time I spent working in Kenya between 1969 and 1971.