A Vision For Peace-Worldwide Peace in 2024

 I can only think of peace, in this beautiful season of Christian joy. I think of the coming year 2024 and pray that it can somehow, miraculously, be a year of peace around the globe. It seems improbable, nearly impossible but it can be achieved through prayer and negotiation. And only if leaders would seek peace, seek a path that leads away from war and destruction to a path of reconciliation, deliberations, compromise and seeking the will of God. God wills that all humankind live in peace and instead of wasting money on weapons of war, money is better spent on building up, rebuilding and helping those who have lost so much from war. And of course feeding the hungry.

All the world religions should make an effort in the coming year, to put aside their differences and pray for peace and exhort leaders to find a path to peace. There are solutions, but thoughtful negotiations and compromise is needed.

The Prince of Peace, Jesus, calls us to be peacemakers and calls leaders of all faiths to strive for peace and to stay the course until it is accomplished.

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us, upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and forever peaceful. Upon David's throne and over his kingdom which he confirms and sustains..." (Isaiah 9:5-6)

Merry Christmas! Happy Peaceful New Year!

Nancy

Advent 2023 and Imagining A Peaceful World

 In parts of the world this Advent 2023 there is war, there are missiles and bombs dropping causing pain, destruction and death. This is far from God's will for humankind. And yet here we are still praying for peace, longing for peace, wanting the Prince of Peace to bring peace to a broken world.  The Christian liturgical Season of Advent which began today is a time of waiting, expectation and prayer. The word Advent comes from the Latin word, "Adventus," which means coming. Christ should come into our hearts anew this Advent as we wait for Christ to come at Christmas and at the end of the world in glory. 

But here we are, living with tensions in the world, as the Prince of Peace cannot definitively establish His Kingdom on Earth because people are flawed and conjure up evil deeds and carry it out.  We live in a fallen world where children continue to suffer needlessly.  Yet, so many people are good and want what God wants and strive for goodness, truth and peace and yet it is still so elusive.  And so God weeps......and God's Kingdom cannot be fully realized, in the here and now.  

People of good will, will pray for peace this Advent, as I will, we will pray for negotiation over destruction, compromise and peace-making in parts of the world where suffering continues. 

The children of this world deserve better. 

Let us pray this Advent brings lasting peace and solutions that work and endure, in war torn parts of the world.  

NJA

Bishop Brennan of Brooklyn Dealing With Upset Donors

I met Bishop Robert Brennan a few times when I lived on Long Island and I volunteered at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington.  I thought he was very gracious. So I was sad to hear that he has a few different problems, he's dealing with at the moment. For one, apparently he mentioned to the media and it was repeated by Raymond Arroyo on his EWTN show, that Mass attendance in the Diocese of Brooklyn is down considerably. That's a big enough problem. And then there is this..... My dear friend, has a good friend who is a big donor in the Diocese of Brooklyn. And she has many friends who are big donors too. And they are very upset and apparently they have let the Bishop know.  The cause of their concern is that they don't feel that Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello was treated fairly when he was removed as Vicar for Development on November 3rd. The cause of the sudden and shocking removal was a mistake that Msgr. Jamie made by allowing a controversial music video to be filmed in the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Brooklyn, where he is pastor. (He apologized to parishioners for his lack of judgment and mistake).  

In his defense, he is a very busy pastor of two churches, in addition to the job he held as Vicar and he must have assumed that the video would not have been as controversial or in such bad taste as it was. The music video which was very provocative, very quickly went viral and many Catholics were upset and felt the Church was desecrated by the actions of the singer and crew. Bishop Brennan responded by "cleansing" the Church in a ritual action, after the video was made there. Then Msgr. Jamie lost his important job as Vicar of Development. 

The unfortunate story doesn't end there. According to my friend, who has first hand knowledge, some very influential donors are not happy and are coming to the defense of Msgr. Jamie. He has some very loyal friends. They think he should not have been removed for making an unintentional mistake. They are not happy and when donors are not happy....well you can imagine what is going to happen......So this story continues.......I hope it gets resolved and the good charitable works of the Diocese are not affected.

I hope the story ends well for all involved. 

NJA

Thanksgiving 2023

 So much to be thankful for.....but mostly for believing in God, for trusting in God and having strength and courage from belief and a relationship with God. Without trust and belief my life would lack meaning and depth.

Sharing my faith and belief with my granddaughters. I have a little bottle of holy water, several in fact and my granddaughters and me take turns blessing each other with the water. Simple acts of faith that can be shared and have meaning. 

 My granddaughters lost their other grandmother this Fall. It was the saddest of deaths. A faith-filled woman who loved Jesus and her faith, has been taken from us. A short illness with no hope for a cure.  Now she is with God, a big loss for all of us.

So a reminder this Thanksgiving and each day, to savor each day of life and be grateful for the good we have. To be grateful we live in peace where we are, but thinking and praying for those poor, unfortunate people surrounded by war, pain and death. Praying for peace between Russia and Ukraine, praying for peace in the land called holy, praying for solutions that work, solutions that will have staying power so that the world can live in peace, as God wills.

Happy Thanksgiving 2023

NJA

God Weeps at the Death of Children in War

 God weeps when children die from war. God weeps when innocents are targeted and killed. God weeps when believers cannot live in peace and try to destroy all that is good. God weeps because humankind cannot stay at peace. It's so sad. So many lives lost, lost in fear and violence. So many destructive weapons of war. So much hate and evil. Instead of building peace, understanding and peaceful co-existence, enemies train for war, train to carry out evil deeds and acts. Believers who don't understand God's desire that we all live in peace and build each other up, instead of trying to destroy what is innocent and good. Evil doesn't build up- it tears down, it destroys and it leaves dying children, who did nothing to deserve all this ugliness, pain and suffering. And in the land that is called holy, and believed to be holy ground by Christians, Jewish people and Muslims, there is tension and a lack of peace and so I believe that God weeps.....

NJA

Too Many Senseless Deaths from Suicide

 A young man who my son worked with a few years ago, who he has remained friends with, committed suicide last week. He left behind a wife and two young children. He worked in the financial world and so he was probably under stress but no one saw it coming. How very sad and disturbing. And this isn't an isolated case. Suicide is a leading cause of death for young and middle aged men in the U.S. Why? What's happening? It's hard to comprehend. My son was very disturbed to find out that his friend had hung himself. The young man was Catholic and will have a funeral Mass on Monday in a Catholic Church on Long Island NY. My son will attend and pray for his friend's soul. That he be at peace.

Obviously anyone who commits suicide is having emotional and mental issues that need to be addressed. But so many are not being helped. I asked my son if he would consider starting an online men's support group for people he knows who work in the financial sector. Do something. Try anything. 

Catholic men need support groups, they need prayer, they need to be connected to a faith community. And if they have suicidal thoughts they need to get help. But if they don't ask for it, then what can be done. Another friend had spoken to this distraught young man a few days before and he didn't say he was having these tragic thoughts. He didn't say he was thinking of ending his life. 

Maybe they Church can do more. I asked my son to try to do something to have an effect. 

NJA

Deep Faith and Trust in God is Absolutely Necessary in Life and Most Especially in Modern Times

 Who can live without faith and trust in God? I just can't imagine how people do it. Faith gives people inner strength and courage when life's problems arise and they do arise and come out of nowhere. A close friend was fine, she visited two weeks ago and we had lunch. She was having trouble walking and so she was seeing a Doctor. and getting an MRI...And then the unimaginable happens. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Just like that everything changes and yet because she is a person of deep faith, she is handling the crisis. Jesus walks with her and that makes all the difference in perspective. Walking with Jesus and seeing everything through the eyes of faith is calming her and giving her inner courage. 

Over and over again, I've seen how faith can give people hope, in the most dismal and difficult situations. 

And so with prayer, the power of prayer and the prayers of others surrounding my friend,  she will be OK. 

Faith makes all the difference in the world. 

The Unchurched Keeps Growing-How Can the Church Reverse It?

 After reading a very alarming article online at the New York Times, I wonder what the Church in America can do moving forward. In her article entitled, "The Largest and Fastest Religious Shift in America is Well Underway," Jesssica Grose, quotes a new book which claims that we are "currently in the middle of the of the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country." Why? According to the book, 40 million people have stopped going to church. (See-"The Great Dechurching: Whose Leaving, Why are They Going and What Will it Take to Bring Them Back.") This book should be required reading for every pastor, lay leadership and bishop in the country.

As the authors (Davis, Graham and Burge) of the book put it, "No theological tradition, age group, ethnicity, political affiliation, education level, geographic location, or income bracket escaped the dechurching in America." The three men who wrote the book and did the research are pastors and they are concerned with bringing the unchurched back. But how will that be accomplished?

Thank God the church I attend is still crowded on Sunday mornings but the pastor recently admitted that some parishioners who left during the pandemic have still not returned. And obviously there are are more options today for spiritual growth....apps for meditation and spiritual reading. Some people have replaced going to church with spending time in Nature. There are endless youtube videos, some of which I watch regularly (Word on Fire is a great resource) which can help with religious growth and so some people just don't feel the need to go to Church. 

So it is up to this generation of Catholics and other Christian churches to preserve the Church and Christianity.  Are they up to the task, do they realize what is at stake? If the power of the Holy Spirit moves powerfully then this trend can reverse, but it will take a great outpouring of the Spirit on young people and young adults. And if and when it happens, it should not be shut down.

NJA

Will Artificial Intelligence Help Humankind or Destroy Us?

 If you watch the business cable news network on TV (as my husband does), then you will hear a lot these days about A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). People are making a lot of money if they are invested in companies that are developing A.I. And though as I expressed in the last blog post it has the potential to be very dangerous and get out of control quickly, it can also make great new discoveries in medicine and science and perhaps help productivity in many fields,  even in religious education and evangelization.  So is it a false idol? Perhaps it is, perhaps humans are trying to play God by developing machines and technology that is smarter and quicker than human brains, or maybe we are just using our human intelligence to go further and expand knowledge which will benefit humankind. 

No one knows, which direction this new technology will take. Will it help us or hurt us ultimately? Can A.I. find a cure for cancer or other horrific diseases? Can A.I. come up with solutions to climate change, or poverty or hunger in third world countries? That remains to be seen. 

But whatever happens, the future is now, we are living in the future of humankind and unless wise and prudent minds prevail, anything can happen. I wonder what God is thinking of all this? Is this foolishness, are we creating a false idol of the most dangerous kind or will humankind advance in ways that will help more people and create a more just society. We shall see......

NJA

The Most Dangerous False Idol of Them All-Artificial Intelligence

 I wrote a post about this topic and then deleted it. I have mixed feelings about writing about A.I. because first of all, I hardly understand how it works. But I do know what the experts say and it does scare me. This technology is moving fast and there are not regulations and people who have developed artificial intelligence are warning that it can become dangerous. 

Here is a definition I found online:

"Artificial intelligence is the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages."

The problem is the "Godfather of A.I., Geoffrey Hinton and other developers of A.I. and experts in the field are saying that we do have something to worry about and that "bad actors" can cause havoc using A.I. for nefarious reasons. Did he say, "killer robots?" Yes that is one of the fears if it gets out of control...This is not science fiction and not 30 years from now but potentially much sooner. 

It's really all too much to think about and contemplate. But is this a false idol? Is A.I. like the fallen angel who wanted to be like God. Mr. Hinton who developed A.I. at the beginning of the technology now partly regrets his life work. He just resigned from Google to spend time warning about the dangers of unregulated, uncontrolled A.I.

You can't say God didn't warn us. The warnings have been written into the Bible stories. 

Let's hope and pray that intelligent human minds find ways to control A.I. and regulate it, before it gets out of hand.

 NJA

Asbury University Shuts Down Revival on Kentucky Campus

 I completely understand that the spiritual/religious revival that took place spontaneously at Asbury University (a private Christian university)  in a small town in Kentucky got a little out of hand and started to make people nervous, but shutting it down, was that the only answer? Young people were praying, traveling far distances in some cases and giving glory and praise to God, but as we know from the life of Jesus, the Holy Spirit can cause upheavals and unpredictability but was shutting it down the only answer. And where will the spontaneous outpouring of the  Holy Spirit, among young people, be welcomed next? And it shouldn't just be Protestant Universities welcoming and making room for the Holy Spirit to flourish spontaneously,  it should be happening on Catholic University campuses as well. Why not set up tents if you have too, is my humble opinion, so buildings are not overrun with exuberant, praying young people?  But the question is, do you want the Lord in your midst or not? There's a solution with a little brainstorming, to having religious revivals for young people and maintaining the civic order that's necessary as well. Soon we'll be asking AI (artificial intelligence) to solve all the difficult problems so they will be able to come up with a solution I'm sure. Come, Holy Spirit Come!

NJA

Ave Maria University Should Host A Religious Revival Too, Like Asbury University

 Just recently I visited the town of Ave Maria in Southwest Florida.....I always go there when in Florida and spend some time in prayer in their beautiful Church-the Ave Maria Parish Church and have lunch in their town center, with family and friends.  Last time I was there a couple of weeks ago there was a huge fair going on with music and booths with crafts and other things for sale, around the town center. There is a well stocked religious article gift shop in town as well. But in any event I thought of Ave Maria this morning when I was sent an article about a religious revival that spontaneously started at Asbury University in Kentucky with a chapel service. It is still going go. Since the chapel service began thousands of people (some traveling from far away) have descended on Asbury University's auditorium to take part in the outpouring of prayer and worship that is taking place. You can find links to it on Twitter and on Youtube. 

So I thought....why not have one at Ave Maria in Naples Florida?......There are lots of young Catholics who attend the University in the town and the nearby law school.  There are also lots of young people living in the large community with their families. But that is something that would appeal to all age groups. And of course, if you started a revival and had praise and worship music and prayer, the Holy Spirit would show up....I have no doubt about that!

Keep the revival of faith and worship going......in other places, in other university's...

NJA

"Yes my hand laid the foundations of the Earth, my right hand spread out the Heavens, When I call them, they stand forth at once."  (Isaiah 48:13)

"God is really among you" (1 Cor.14:25)

That Was A Close Call By Asteroid 2023 BU -Always Be Right With God!

A relatively small asteroid came within 2,200 miles of Earth on Thursday night before moving on....what is the most troubling part of the story is that the asteroid was only discovered a few days ago..... It was about the size of a truck. Thank God it didn't hit Earth but it was one of the closest approaches of an asteroid, that we know of.  So it makes you think......What if it was bigger? What if it did hit the Earth and didn't burn up in our atmosphere and it caused damage? What if something worse happened? 

It's always best to be right with God, to be in relationship with Jesus, to have a prayer life, to be ready for anything because you never know... We live in uncertain times and besides that, it's easy to forget that we live on a planet orbiting the sun, in a very large Universe, with a lot going on.  Luckily our solar system is in a relatively calm place in the Milky Way galaxy but there are asteroids and lots of space junk up there.  

So be right with God, say your prayers and be ready for any outcome. 

NJA

Write Your Own Personal Psalm For The New Year

 I want to try to be more positive for the New Year. I recently attended a Bible Study group and someone mentioned an idea that I hadn't thought of before which I thought was great. Someone shared that while on retreat recently it was suggested that each participant write their own personal psalm. You could pick verses from traditional, biblical psalms that struck you and add your own verses or affirmations as well. I loved the idea and wrote one that I am saying each morning and evening. Part inspirational, part affirmation and part prayer,  and like biblical psalms ,a personal psalm can strengthen faith and trust in God. 

Interestingly, I am also attending a bible study with a group of women who are mostly Protestant. (I am Catholic.) They are a very welcoming group of women, who have formed a small but powerful community that studies Scripture and prays together. One of the women is a pastor's wife. There are some fallen away Catholics, in the group,  who have been baptized (again, much to my surprise) in a Protestant Church. I try not to pry but it seems from what I can tell, that one of the reasons they left the Catholic Church is they wanted to be more rooted in the Bible and do more Scripture study. The Catholic Church should learn from that. 

Every Catholic parish, (in my humble opinion) should have a weekly Bible Study group led by a knowledgable and trained catechist. There are excellent biblical commentaries available. Perhaps two studies, one for women and one for men. I'm aware that some parishes do, but not all. 

And so, there is still much to do to evangelize in the modern world and some ideas are rather simple but highly effective.

NJA