Last Week In Life: May 17, 2021- May 23, 2021

 FEAST DAYS ,HOLIDAYS AND LAST WEEK IN HISTORY

 Mon  May 17,  2021

• 1536 – Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn‘s marriage is annulled.
• 1902 – Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
• 1954 – The United States Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, outlawing racial segregation in public schools.
• 1973 – Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.
• 2004 – The first legal same-sex marriages in the U.S. are performed in the state of Massachusetts.
• 2007 – Trains from North and South Korea cross the 38th Parallel in a test-run agreed by both governments. This is the first time that trains have crossed the Demilitarized Zone since 1953.

 Tuesday May 18, 2021

 Saint John I, pope and martyr – Optional Memorial

• 1096 – First Crusade: Around 800 Jews are massacred in Worms, Germany
• 1631 – In Dorchester, Massachusetts, John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts.
• 1652 – Slavery in Rhode Island is abolished, although the law is not rigorously enforced.
• 1912 – The first Indian film, Shree Pundalik by Dadasaheb Torne, is released in Mumbai.
• 1920 – St. Pope John Paul II  is born. (d. 2005)
• 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 10 is launched.
• 1980 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.
• 2005 – A second photo from the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.

Wednesday May 19,  2021

• 1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest.
• 1925 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (d. 1965) is born.
• 1946 – André the Giant, French-American wrestler and actor (d. 1993) is born.
• 1962 – A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe‘s rendition of “Happy Birthday“.
• 1963 – The New York Post Sunday Magazine publishes Martin Luther King Jr.‘s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
• 2018 – The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, with an estimated global audience of 1.9 billion.

Thursday May 20,  2021

 Saint Bernardine of Siena, priest – Optional Memorial

• 325 – The First Council of Nicaea is formally opened, starting the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state. Meanwhile, the State of North Carolina secedes from the Union.
• 1862 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, opening 84 million acres of public land to settlers.
• 1902 – Cuba gains independence from the United States. Tomás Estrada Palma becomes the country’s first President.
• 1940 – The Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.
• 1996 – Civil rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.

 Friday  May 21,  2021

 Saint Christopher Magallanes and companions, martyrs – Optional Memorial

• 1881 – The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C.
• 1934 – Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint all of its citizens.
• 1972 – Michelangelo‘s Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is damaged by a vandal, the mentally disturbed Hungarian geologist Laszlo Toth.
• 1979 – White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
• 1916 – Dennis Day, American singer and actor (d. 1988) died.
• 1998 – In Miami, five abortion clinics are attacked by a butyric acid attacker.
• 2011 – Radio broadcaster Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this date.
• 2017 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performed their final show at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

  Saturday May 22   2021

  Saint Rita of Cascia– Optional Memorial

• 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
• 1819 – SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
• 1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
• 1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
• 1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent.
• 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine“.
• 1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century.
• 1930 – Harvey Milk, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1978) is born.

Sunday May 23,  2021

PENTECOST SUNDAY

• 1430 – Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to raise the Siege of Compiègne.
• 1533 – The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
• 1883 – Douglas Fairbanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1939) is born.
• 1911 – The New York Public Library is dedicated.
• 1945 – Nazi Heinrich Himmler, German commander and politician, Reich Minister of the Interior (b. 1900) dies.
• 1998 – The Good Friday Agreement is accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with roughly 75% voting yes.
• 2006 – Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupts.

Bishop Barron’s Homily of the Week

Last Week’s SPECTACULAR STORY OF WEEK

Beauty of Hidden Prayer Sparks Conversion

“I feel that our souls are moved to the ardor of piety by the sacred words more piously and powerfully when these words are sung than when they are not sung, and that all the affections of our soul in their variety have modes of their own in song and chant by which they are stirred up by an indescribable and secret sympathy.” -Saint Augustine, Confessions, Book X, chap. 33, MPL, XXXII, 799ff.

Novelist Sir Walter Scott (August 15, 1771 –September 21, 1832) wrote the classic novels Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and the narrative poem The Lady of the Lake. Late Classical and Early Romantic era Austrian Composer Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 –November 19, 1828) took his LOTL poem (1810) and turned it into “Ellen’s Third Song”, in 1825 as part of his Op. 52, a setting of seven songs loosely translated into German.  In Scott’s poem according to Wikipedia…

the character Ellen Douglas, the Lady of the Lake (Loch Katrine in the Scottish Highlands), has gone with her exiled father to stay in the Goblin’s cave as he has declined to join their previous host, Roderick Dhu, in rebellion against King James. Roderick Dhu, the chieftain of Clan Alpine, sets off up the mountain with his warriors, but lingers and hears the distant sound of the harpist Allan-bane, accompanying Ellen who sings a prayer addressed to the Virgin Mary, calling upon her for help. Roderick Dhu pauses, then goes on to battle.

Ave Maria! maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden’s prayer!
Thou canst hear though from the wild;
Thou canst save amid despair.
Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,
Though banish’d, outcast and reviled –
Maiden! hear a maiden’s prayer;
Mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!

Wikipedia goes on to explain that…

Schubert’s arrangement is said to have first been performed at the castle of Countess Sophie Weissenwolff in the little Austrian town of Steyregg and dedicated to her, which led to her becoming known as “the lady of the lake” herself.

The opening words and refrain of Ellen’s song, namely “Ave Maria” (Latin for “Hail Mary”), may have led to the idea of adapting Schubert’s melody as a setting for the full text of the traditional Roman Catholic prayer “Ave Maria“. The Latin version of the “Ave Maria” is now so frequently used with Schubert’s melody that it has led to the misconception that he originally wrote the melody as a setting for the “Ave Maria”.

Either way the song is sung, it is a prayer to the virgin Mary. When sung with the right voices it can share the beauty of the simple prayer that most Catholics utter with biblical meditation on a regular basis as they say their rosaries. The Hail Mary includes bits of scripture. And when that scripture seeps into one’s soul, it can change lives.

For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

When Emma Larson, heard a performance of the Ave Maria, at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver Canada by the Chor Leoni Men’s Choir performed at a Christmas concert two years ago it pierced her heart. She didn’t even know that Ava Maria meant Hail Mary. And when she learned what it meant, she still didn’t know what it meant as she knew nothing about Catholic faith. But her discovery of this beautiful Latin sung Catholic hymn originally composed as something else was a gateway song to other Marian hymns such as Ave Maris Stella. This song lead to her learning about the Catholic faith and it becoming “Curiouser and curiouser!” The Rosary and then the televised mass continued to lure her by its beauty.  This past April (2021) she followed her curiosity formed by mystic beauty and became Catholic. She looks forward to COVID restrictions being over so she can gather with her baptized brethren and attend Mass LIVE and not just watch it on the computer. She has even begun to spread her faith to her family.

All this from going to a concert and hearing the Ave Maria sung with beauty. Never underestimate the power of great music to stir the soul and bring someone to Christ. God can use anything to win a soul to his awesome Triune presence. Read more about her conversion @ Beauty of concert Ave Maria drew woman to Catholic Church – Catholic World Report

Holy Mary
Mother of God
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our Deaths.
Amen.

 Last Week’s News of the World

EXPLAINER: The Supreme Court takes a major abortion case (apnews.com)

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide a major abortion case that could dramatically alter decades of rulings on abortion rights and eventually lead to dramatic restrictions on abortion access.

India sets global record for daily coronavirus deaths (apnews.com)

India on Wednesday reported more coronavirus deaths in a single day than any other country at any time during the pandemic, while infections continued to spread through vast rural areas with weak health systems.

Down syndrome abortion bans gain traction after court ruling (apnews.com)

It’s a ban that even supporters acknowledge will be hard to enforce. Yet 2021 has been a breakthrough year for legislation in several states seeking to prohibit abortions based solely on a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.

Governors in Arizona and South Dakota recently signed such bills into law, and similar measures are pending in North Carolina and Texas. Most significantly, a federal appellate court said Ohio could begin to implement a 2017 law that has been on hold.

Teacher disarmed school shooter, hugged her until help came (apnews.com)

When a student opened fire at an Idaho middle school, teacher Krista Gneiting directed children to safety, rushed to help a wounded victim and then calmly disarmed the sixth-grade shooter, hugging and consoling the girl until police arrived.

Parents credited the math teacher’s display of compassion with saving lives. While two students and the school custodian were shot May 6, all three survived, and the gunfire was over within minutes. Gneiting’s family says bravery and empathy are just part of who she is.

Goodwill stores have a message: Please stop donating trash (apnews.com)

Broken furniture. Flashlights with leaking batteries. Disfigured Barbie dolls.

Across the country, thrift stores have been flooded by household items, the offerings of people who have been homebound for months and are eager to clear out some of their possessions.

Problem is, too many such items could most accurately be described as trash. Many of the donations are defective or worn-out items — gifts from well-intentioned people who want to reduce waste but who donate items that simply shouldn’t be donated.

‘I was afraid’: Prince Harry, Oprah discuss mental health (apnews.com)

 In “The Me You Can’t See,” which debuted Thursday night on Apple’s streaming service, Harry reveals that he first saw a therapist approximately four years ago at the encouragement of then-girlfriend Meghan. They’d had an argument and she recognized his anger seemed misplaced. The series is another chapter in the unprecedented openness that Harry has brought to his life and his royal family relationships since stepping away from his duties and moving with his wife to California.

EXPLAINER: What was the outcome of the latest Gaza war? (apnews.com)

The cease-fire that took effect Friday appears to have halted 11 days of fighting between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, without resolving any of the underlying issues in the decades-old Middle East conflict. Almost no one on either side expects this war — which was triggered by protests and clashes in Jerusalem — will be the last.

Catholic priest killed, another kidnapped in attack on Nigerian parish – Catholic World Report

Bishops in Nigeria have repeatedly called on the government to do more to improve security in the country.

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja said May 7: “Insecurity is the greatest challenge facing our country. Boko Haram has menacingly ravaged the land, the herdsmen/farmer menace has festered and spread and has today developed into banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, and brutal killings.”

“Nigeria is said to be the third country most impacted by terrorism. We call on the government to do the needful in ensuring that terrorists are checkmated, criminals rounded up, bandits dismantled, and kidnappers put out of business,” the archbishop said.

 POPE FRANCIS’S FAMOUS LAST WEEK’S WORDS 

Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis on the occasion of the online Conference Building Fraternity, Defending Justice. Challenges and Opportunities for Insular Peoples, 21 May 2021 | Francis (vatican.va)

In these months of pandemic, we have become ever more conscious of our fragility and consequently of the need for an integral ecology that can sustain not only physical ecosystems but human ones as well. Since “everything is interconnected… genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others” (Laudato Si’, 70). For this reason, an attitude of solidarity and respect for each person, created in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-27), is all the more necessary in uniting sincere love for our brothers and sisters with an unwavering commitment to resolve the environmental and social problems affecting those living in island and maritime areas. I am grateful for the ongoing efforts being made to build fraternity and defend justice in the societies of these regions (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 271) and I trust that the work accomplished during this meeting will be a sign of the important role that island peoples can play in furthering the growth of a more human and inclusive world.

 BLOG/ARTICLES POSTS OF THE WEEK

These days, I’m awash in teenagers and older and I’m learning a lot about how God courts our souls, because I spend much of my parenting energies courting theirs.   The image of the foot in the door keeps coming back.  Little things like texts to them, “have a great day,” get back “you too Mom,” and that fills my heart more than they can know. I hold onto those slivers of affection, of engagement and am eager to give back dollops.  It’s very obvious. I can’t miss it. This is how God loves me.  He takes my half prayers, my distracted self at the mass, my grudging service and grumbling out and out rebellion, and offers dollops for my sliver. 

The idea of God loving us and us responding as teens reminds me how far I have to go and how amazing patient God must be. –Sherry Antonetti,  One Splinter at a Time (patheos.com)

 

Pondering Podcasts OF THE WEEK

‎What’s Your Limp?: Cherami Leigh (Actor) en Apple Podcasts

Book Em, Dano on your reading list