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The Weekly News In
Review
Newsletter is a
compilation of the news articles that have appeared
on the Understand The Times website during the
previous week.
Understand The Times is happy to announce a new
feature on or website called
UTT-TV. To read more about this new service, please
click
here
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April 9 - Iran 'enters new nuclear phase'
Article: Signs Of The Last Times
Iran can now produce
nuclear fuel on an industrial scale,
President Ahmadinejad has announced,
in a move likely to further strain
tensions with the West.
He gave no details of Iran's capacity,
but some officials said 3,000
uranium gas enrichment centrifuges were
running at the Natanz plant in
central Iran.
Mr Ahmadinejad's speech came as
Iran celebrated nuclear technology day.
Iran maintains its nuclear program is
purely peaceful, but the West fears
it wants to build atomic bombs.
Read More ...
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April 10 - Private grotto draws Catholics seeking to be cured
Article: Signs And Wonders
SAN JOSE DEL MONTE CITY,
Philippines (UCAN) - A private grotto in
northern Philippines draws
crowds seeking healing, even though the local
bishop has directed priests to
stop saying Masses there.
During Holy
Week, more than 1,000 people flocked to Our
Lady of Lourdes Grotto and
Church in Bulacan province's San Jose del
Monte City, 95 kilometers
(about 60 miles) northeast of Manila.
Some prayed
in front of the statue of Our Lady of
Lourdes and others queued at
a pool to collect "holy" water believed to
cure ailments. The water is
piped in from a natural spring.
On April 4, a
group of women in white sang the Latin
hymn "Tantum Ergo," which is
usually sung during
adoration of the
blessed
sacrament.
They
knelt before the Marian statue and prayed,
carrying items they said they
use for healing
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April 11, 2007 - 'Hail Persephone': Pagans Retool the Rosary
Article: Bridges To Rome
Picking up her Catholic rosary, Meg, a
24-year-old from Maine,
begins her prayers like this:
"Hail Persephone, full of
strength and beauty. ... Blessed are you and
blessed is the cycle of your life.
Holy Persephone, queen of life and
death, pray for your children
now, and in the hour of our need. Blessed
be."
Meg
calls herself a Christo-Pagan, a
blender of traditional
Christianity and pagan goddess worship. For her,
adapting the Catholic rosary
brings a peace that adhering only to the
Christianity of her youth did
not.
"It makes me feel very
connected to God," said Meg, who declined to
give
her last name because she --
like many pagans who aren't open to their
families -- still lives in what
some call the "broom closet."
"Going through this cycle
of prayer, it switches your brain into
recognizing that something
holy is happening and God is with you," she
said.
Meg's prayer is one example of how
some neo-pagans (followers
of Wicca, Druidry, Asatru and other forms of
ancient goddess or nature
worship) are retooling the centuries-old
Catholic rosary and other
prayer beads for worshipping Celtic, Norse,
Greek and Roman gods and
goddesses.
"It has
been very common for
contemporary pagans to regard Mary in some of her
manifestations as a
goddess,"
said
Chas Clifton, a professor at
Colorado State University and author of
"Her Hidden Children:
The Rise of Wicca and paganism in America."
"Language and ritual
have been transferred around from goddess to
goddess in the pagan point of
view, and the idea of having beads on a
string is cross-
cultural."
Christopher Penczak, a witch
who teaches how to construct "witches'
ladders" -- a knotted rope
that he likens to a rosary used to count
spells -- said, "It is about
ritual. Pagans in general, when they find
something that works in a
ritual, they are very apt to borrow
it."
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April 11, 2007 - Mysterious bee losses threaten several crops
Article: Signs Of The Last Times
By
Ching Lee
Beekeepers nationwide are
opening their hives and finding them empty, a
baffling phenomenon that has
researchers scratching their heads and
farmers worrying about their
crops.
The bees are mysteriously
vanishing and no one is sure
why. Instead of thriving colonies,
beekeepers say they're
typically finding only a queen and a few
attendants left--but no trace of
the other bees, not even their bodies.
Known as colony collapse disorder, the
problem has affected
beekeepers in 24 states and Canada, with some
losing as much as 25 percent
to more than 75 percent of their hives. The
sudden unexplained losses
have not only been a financial detriment to
many beekeepers but could
threaten billions of dollars worth of crops
that depend on the insects for
pollination.
...The cause of colony
collapse disorder is unknown,
although poor nutrition, mites, diseases
and pesticides have all been
suspect. There is also concern that some
genetically modified crops may
be producing pollen or nectar that is
problematic for the bees, said
Brandi.
"Lesser known is the fact that some
pesticides can also kill or
deform immature bees, adversely affect queen
and drone viability or may
cause bees to lose their memory, which
prevents them from flying back
to their hive," he said.
The nation's supply of bees was already
in danger before the colony
collapse disorder came along. For many
years, beekeepers have been
trying to control the destructive varroa
mite, a parasite that has dealt
catastrophic losses to the bee industry.
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April 11, 2007 - Pope publishes his view on evolution
Article: Creation / Evolution - Misc.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his
first extended reflections on evolution published as
pope, says that Darwin's
theory cannot be finally proven and that science has
unnecessarily narrowed
humanity's view of creation.
In a new book, "Creation and Evolution,"
published Wednesday in German, the pope
praised progress gained by science, but cautioned
that evolution raises
philosophical questions science alone cannot
answer.
"The question is not to either make a decision
for a creationism that
fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary
theory that covers over
its own gaps and does not want to see the questions
that reach beyond the
methodological possibilities of natural science,"
the pope said.
He stopped
short of endorsing intelligent
design, but said scientific and philosophical reason
must work together in a way
that does not exclude faith.
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April 12, 2007 - Adoration Chapel an 'oasis of peace', prayer
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
By
Nancy Kelly
The
newly-added Adoration Chapel at St.
Joseph's Roman Catholic
Church in Kentville is an "oasis of peace"
that
allows people to create
"a heartbeat to God."
Father Craig Christenson, who
helped co-ordinate the community-built
project, explains the new
chapel, situated on the ground floor between
the church and parish centre;
is an extension of the Roman Catholic
belief in the power of prayer.
Such chapels are common in other parts of
the world and can be found
nearby in at least two churches in
Charlottetown and Halifax.
...For Perpetual Eucharistic
Adoration, a consecrated host,
similar to one used in communion and
which represents the true
presence of Jesus, is placed in a monstrance -
a vessel which derives it name
from the Latin "monstrare," meaning to
show or to view. The
monstrance is then placed within a tabernacle, an
ornate box which holds any
consecrated hosts. Within the tabernacle, the
monstrance becomes the
focus of prayer in the chapel.
Father Christenson likens
stepping into the Adoration Chapel to
"stepping into the real
presence of our Lord."
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April 12, 2007 - Vatican threatens to boycott Holocaust memorial
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
By Corinne Heller JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The
Vatican ambassador to Israel
threatened on Thursday to boycott a
Holocaust memorial ceremony
next week over a museum's portrayal of Pope
Pius XII's conduct during the
Nazis' killing of Jews in World War Two.
Archbishop Antonio Franco
said he had written to the director of the
Yad Vashem Holocaust
Museum asking for the revision of a caption
suggesting the wartime Pope
had been apathetic to the Jews' plight.
The caption, quoted in the
Israeli press, says Pope Pius XII
"abstained from signing
the Allied declaration condemning the
extermination of the
Jews" and "maintained his neutral position
throughout the war."
Archbishop Franco said
that in his letter he advised the Holocaust
museum he "would not
feel comfortable going to Yad Vashem" unless
the
wording was amended or the
photo removed.
Defenders of Pope Pius XII
have said he did everything possible to
help Jews, while critics have
portrayed him as an anti-Semite and
Germanophile whose views
were formed while working in Germany before his
election as Pope in 1939.
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NEWS ALERT - April 13, 2007 - Adding discipline to devotion - Christians find new meaning, and a sacred rhythm, in the ritual of set daily prayers
Article: Bridges To Rome
Comment from
Understand The
Times:
For the
past two
years Understand
The Times has been attempting to sound the alarm
where the
Emerging Church is headed - another Road to Rome.
The
following article
from the Chicago Tribune will confirm that the
facts reveal this is
exactly what is happening.
Growing up as a non-denominational
Protestant, Esther
Peters learned to pray in a fairly unstructured
manner, with
personal petitions making up much of her
communication
with God.
Although she
would occasionally recite the Lord's Prayer, her words
of prayer generally
came from what was on her mind -- and at those
times when she
felt inspired to pray.
But as a student at Trinity Christian
College in Palos
Heights, Peters came across new ideas about prayer
that led her to
incorporate more discipline into her devotional
life. She now picks
up a Catholic prayer book at least twice daily
and recites Psalm-
infused liturgies written specifically for morning
and evening
devotions.
"It revitalized my prayer life,"
said
Peters, 22, an
English and political science major from Villa Park,
who learned about
the ancient practice of fixed-hour prayers through
a course she took
on praying the Psalms.
...The practice is not completely
unfamiliar to those
in liturgical denominations -- particularly
Roman Catholic,
Orthodox and Anglican churches -- who refer to it by
such terms as
"the liturgy of the hours" or "keeping
the offices."
With historical
roots dating to the Old Testament, similar rituals
are part of all three
Abrahamic faiths, including Judaism's Shema
(twice-a-day)
prayers and Islam's practice of praying five times
daily toward
Mecca.
...But these days,
fixed-hour prayer is
growing "by leaps and bounds," said Scot
McKnight,
professor in religious studies at North Park University
in
Chicago and
author of "Praying With the
Church."
...Historically, Protestants have had a
"natural
itch ... every time something gets connected to a
routine,"
McKnight said.
"Everything has to be spontaneous and
personal, so
they're nervous
about the traditional and the customary and the
rhythmical."
...This
trend
comes as groups
of evangelical Christians revisit a number of older
church practices in
addition to fixed prayers, such as fasting
during Lent, use of
candles and icons in worship, and more regular
observance of the
Eucharist.
Read More ....
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
In Jesus,
Roger Oakland
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