Will God Save Us From Ourselves?

I watched a video clip of a corn farmer from Iowa, out in his dry fields, praying for rain. There has been a severe drought there and rain is desperately needed. If it doesn't come soon, the corn crop will be ruined and food prices will go up.

According to a recently released report from the National Climate Data Center, the "12-month period from July 2011-June 2012 was the warmest on record (since record keeping began in 1895), for the contiguous United States, with a nationally averaged temperature of 56.0 degrees, 3.2 degrees higher than the long-term average." Also, in June, "more than 170 all time warm temperature records were broken or tied." I find all that data troubling.

There have been recent droughts, wildfires and extreme weather such as the infamous derecho (straight line severe windstorm) which caused widespread damage and death across 700 miles in the mid-west through the mid-Atlantic United States. My cousin lives in Virginia, she experienced the full force of the derecho. According to her, the deadly storm came out of nowhere, hurricane force winds with little warning.

I believe in the power of prayer. I hope and pray the Iowa farmer gets the rain he's praying for. But it's obvious to me, since I read a lot, that we are damaging the natural environment and perhaps even throwing it into turmoil. The earth is heating up, there are consequences to polluting the environment and acting irresponsibly. We might have to face those consequences sooner than later. Thousands of scientists believe that global warming is a serious threat. I've read that the effects of global warming are extreme weather such as droughts in some places and heavy rain in others.

The Chinese have a saying, "May you live in interesting times." Well, we are certainly living in interesting times, let's just hope we are not living in times when things get out of hand, quickly......

NJA

The Winter That Wasn't

I'm not complaining about the warm weather we've had in the Northeast. I love the nice weather we've been having in New York. Winter for the most part never arrived in New York City and the metropolitan area and that's fine with me. Nothing stresses me out more than icy roads and slick walkways. It makes you wonder, is this the new normal? Is this unseasonably mild winter we've been having in the Northeastern part of the United States, proof of global warming and climate change? Is this the beginning of a trend of warmer winters and earlier Springs? We'll have to see what happens next year. Time will tell. According to Bill Korbel, News 12 Long Island meteorologist, "Temperatures will average more than 10 degrees above normal, for this week."

Early spring flowers are blooming already, some flowering trees have begun to bloom, God's magnificent creation is starting to come alive and it's a feast for the senses!

But there are some serious matters to ponder. Let's hope future generations find the solutions that we might need. An article in today's New York Times, ("Sea Level Rise Seen As Threat to 3.7 Million"), states that "About 3.7 million Americans live within a few feet of high tide and risk being hit by more frequent coastal flooding in coming decades because of the sea level rise caused by global warming.....By far the most vulnerable state is Florida, the new analysis found........but Louisiana, California, New York and New Jersey are also particularly vulnerable...."

We should be concerned for the sake of the next generation.

I recently went on vacation in Florida. It is a beautiful state. I was speaking to someone who lived there, she worked in the hotel. She said something interesting to me. "It's so beautiful here', she said, "but people say it's not going to last." In her circle of friends and family, that is what they say. Strange, I thought.

Let's hope and pray for the best. Let's hope the future geniuses of the world get us out of this mess, if it turns out that global warming is a fact, which seems to be the case.

NJA

Pride and Greed-The Deadliest Sins of All?

Human beings just don't get it. Pride as well as greed are very grave sins-known as two of the Seven Deadly Sins (also referred to as Capital Sins or vices). In case you've forgotten what the Seven Deadly Sins are: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed and Sloth (avoiding work).

When I read (with dismay) that "Sea levels are rising at the fastest rate in 2,100 years" or that "Shocking reports tell of alarming rate of mass extinctions in the oceans"...you have to wonder what kind of news or scientific reports it will take to wake up the human race before pride (we can do anything we want, without consequences), or greed winds up destroying all of creation on this planet, including us. I certainly hope not.......These kinds of news stories (very trending right now on the internet), I find quite disturbing.

Some people don't believe these reports and they choose to ignore them or downplay them. But soon, according to scientists you won't be able to ignore them any longer, as the effects of global warming (starting to show up already), will be in our faces, so to speak. Unless the global community starts to act and act decisively and constructively, I fear the future will hold more bad news for our children and grandchildren.

Where are the geniuses, the innovators, the creative, out-of-the-box thinkers and scientists? Who is listening to them? Who is listening to God and the promptings of the Holy Spirit? There are certainly enough warnings and promptings being communicated to us.

In the Bible the word listen appears 1,000 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and 425 times in the New Testament. When I give talks to adults or children I always mention that. Do you think God wants us to listen? (It's pretty clear in the Bible that God does, for our own good.) Do you think God wants us to be good stewards of the Earth and care for this beautiful and awesome creation and use the resources wisely, for the good of all? I'd say, Yes! Is humankind listening? We can have a good business environment, create jobs, which this country desperately needs, while making good decisions to safeguard the environment. It's time for everyone to work together on this, because not to do so, is going to cost everyone in the future, money as well as security and well being.

The Pope seems to be listening. The Vatican has contracted "Mercedes for the first ever hybrid popemobile. That's some good news.

NJA

The Book of Revelation Revisited

Unfortunately, we live in violent times. It can be argued that every age had times of violence but this first month of the year, the news was particularly violent. I recently read that "Eleven police officers were shot in five states in a 24-hour period, two of them fatally." According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, "For the month, the toll on police officers came to 14 fatalities." Steven Groeninger, a spokesman for the group said, "That's not normal."

The horrific massacre in Tucson, Arizona happened on January 8th. Six innocent people died tragically and twenty were injured.

What I am going to write are some of my thoughts, just ideas, but I thought readers of my blog might find these thoughts interesting.

When at the beginning of January thousands of birds died mysteriously and fell to the ground, in different places in the world and there were fish die-offs as well, I wrote a blog titled, "Are These Warnings?" which stated my concern about ecological degradation that is becoming more and more problematic in our world. In any event, after looking at the images of the dead birds, I was struck by something. One of the types of birds that had a massive die-off was the red- winged blackbird. When I looked at the pictures of the videos of the dead birds, what struck me was the color red on the wings of the birds. That's what caught my eye, it could have just been a coincidence but that drew my attention for some reason. I then looked through a New Collegeville Bible Commentary by Catherine Cory that I have on the Book of Revelation and on page 53 I found the following line, "In Revelation, red is the color of violence and bloodshed." I read that after I saw the images of the birds and I remember thinking, "What does this mean?" In Revelation, the "evil one" is imaged as a red dragon.

I watched an intersting video clip by Fr. James Martin on the America website. I thought it was good. In it he talks about the massive bird deaths and all the talk about Apocalypse. It's worth watching at YouTube. It's titled, "Apocalypse When?" One of the things that he said was that we shouldn't try to look into the Book of Revelation and try to interpret it literally......oh well, too late for that!

Let's pray that the rest of the year will be less violent and more peaceful. Please God!

NJA

The New Year and Slushy New York

A Blessed and Happy New Year to all! I love the beginning of a new year, it's a great opportunity for all of us to make needed changes in our lives, to reassess our priorities, to start dieting again (for those of us who watch our weight) and make all those promises and resolutions to ourselves for self-improvement. At least that's what I do at the start of every new year. I know everything I should be doing to be healthier, more productive, more creative and calmer. Every year I get a little better at doing what I need to do to improve my health and I'm always trying to exercise more. Little changes here and there make a difference. I'm very self-reflective which is important. It's only because of prayer and the positive power of prayer that I am able to reflect, grow and make a little progress...it's an ongoing challenge. I like being a Catholic blogger (though it takes a lot of effort to keep this going). Writing is the creative endeavor that I love to do, so this blog gives me the opportunity to share my deep faith, some ideas and be creative at the same time. I pray it does some good, somewhere.

I enjoyed reading the recent article in the New York Times titled, "And Then, in a Grimy Squish, Came the Slush," by Michael Wilson. I loved the line, "Slush, The great equalizer." That's so true, though I had never thought about it before. "No one gets a slush day from work. Pretty people get just as wet as the rest. The newest iPad on the block does not help its user against slush. The expensive shoe sinks with the same squishy splash as the humble loafer, the grimace of its owner all the more dazzling with its whitened teeth. An ode, then, to slush, with its ugly little name." I love good writing!......Yes, I was in the city today, having brunch and I can tell you I dealt with slushy, muddy street corners and intersections that were a challenge to navigate.

The blizzard that arrived with full force on the day after Christmas, as most people know, caused quite a disruption in New York City and the surrounding areas. The night of the storm I couldn't sleep. I can't remember any blizzard I ever experienced, in my lifetime, that was accompanied by such high winds. It had hurricane force winds. I like to watch storms, they fascinate me, but watching the large trees bending back and forth and listening to the howling winds was unnerving. My cousins called from Marine Park, Brooklyn after the storm to complain that Brooklyn was a mess and there were no snow plows for days on side streets, all the stuff that was reported in the news, that made people irate. Over 400 buses were stuck in the snow and over 100 ambulances in the city, it was a nightmarish scenario. Let's hope this never happens again. I guess the investigations that will take place will help to prevent future failures of this sort, because it seems a lot went wrong.

A few months ago I wrote a blog about severe weather being the new norm, ("Freak Storms the New Norm?"). That wasn't my opinion, it was the prediction of some scientists who believe that because of global warming, we will experience more ferocious and unpredictable weather on planet Earth. Hope it's not the case, but it seems like there might be some truth to it. At least that's how I felt as I watched and experienced firsthand the storm's wrath bearing down. Of course, there are many scientists who don't believe global warming is happening at all. I wonder how many signs they will have to see, before they change their minds. Perhaps they never will. I wonder what they think about the catastrophe unfolding in parts of Australia with epic "biblical flooding" threatening cities and the Australian people. Or what happened in Russia this past summer when record heat caused drought and massive wildfires, with loss of life and homes?

I wanted to start off the new year with an upbeat, positive blog but that did not happen. Oh well, I hope and pray that "all will be well," and it will be a great new year for all. We need prayer and God more than ever. That's my humble opinion.

NJA

In many ways, it is a disaster of biblical proportions. (Andrew Fraser-Queensland, Australian Treasurer)

The St. Francis Pledge

When I visited Assisi, Italy with my son, who was a teenager at the time, I thought it was one of the most beautiful, serene places on earth. At the time, we went on a diocesan pilgrimage led by Bishop Thomas Daily. My son was the youngest pilgrim on the journey. Many other pilgrims were surprised that a teenager would agree to go, because of his age, but my son wanted to see Italy. It was his first trip there and he's been there many times since. He studied in Rome as part of his course work when he attended Scranton University. He happened to be in Rome when Pope John Paul II died and that proved to be an amazing experience for him. He was one of the people on line for hours, waiting to pay his respects when the Pope died. He told me on the phone that he was representing the family. That made me proud! 

The trip to Assisi, which was one stop on the pilgrimage, was wonderful and I fell in love with Assisi and told myself I would return one day, to spend more time there. 

St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology and animals lived, prayed and studied in Assisi Italy and it's easy to understand his love of nature and beauty, after seeing Assisi. St. Francis knew centuries ago what many people today are discovering and that is that we should honor and respect all God's creations and preserve them. Today on October 4th we celebrate his feast day. 

I was happy to read at CatholicCulture.org that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles in a letter to parishes dated Oct. 4th, will announce the formation of an Archdiocesan Creation Sustainability Ministry. He wrote, "We exhort our faith communities and all our brothers and sisters to take the St. Francis Pledge, an initiative that urges Catholics nationwide to pray for, learn about, assess, act and advocate for populations affected by climate change, especially those that are most vulnerable....The St. Francis pledge is a promise and a commitment by Catholic individuals, families, parishes, organizations and institutions to live our faith by protecting God's creation and advocating on behalf of people in poverty who face the harshest impacts from global climate change..."

What a great idea! I applaud Cardinal Mahony for this initiative. It makes perfect sense to me. In my humble opinion, the Dioceses' of Rockville Center, Long Island and the Brooklyn Diocese should consider a similiar initiative. They both have a border on the Atlantic Ocean and so climate change should be an important topic to be addressed and prayed about. 

Protecting the environment is part of Catholic social teaching and Pope Benedict has spoken about caring and protecting the environment many times in homilies and talks he's given.

NJA

Freak Storms the New Norm?

I hope it's not the case that freak storms, such as we experienced on Thursday evening in NYC and the suburbs will happen more frequently in the future. But that's what some scientists have been predicting, from articles I've read in the last few months. 

Earlier in the day, before the storm hit on Thursday, I was speaking with a friend,  outdoors, after a luncheon we attended had finished. I noticed the dark clouds moving in and an ominous wind picking up. I was glad I lived nearby. 

I was eating dinner when the storm began and the wind started to blow fiercely. I'm always concerned about storms, because there are large trees surrounding my house.  Fortunately, my neighborhood was spared, for the most part.  

But as we know, parts of Staten Island, Brooklyn, (Park Slope) and Queens experienced what turned out to be twin tornados and a macroburst (Middle Village, Queens). Sadly, over 1,500 trees were lost because of the storm, power outages, buildings damaged, massive traffic jams, loss of train service on Long Island, and worst of all, the death of a woman, killed by a falling tree. Her distraught husband was quoted as saying, "She was the most beautiful thing that ever happened in my life." How tragic, in an instant his wife was killed. Life is so fragile. It could have been anyone of us that evening. Some people are calling it a miracle that there was only one death, amid so much destruction. 

Tornados in New York City and the suburbs are rare, though there was one recorded in the Bronx in July. "The most recent ones from Thursday evening were the ninth and tenth tornados to hit New York since 1950."

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but according to predictions I read,  freak weather patterns and violent storms might increase in the future. The really scary part is that the future might be upon us. What is the cause? Global warming, the increase of the Earth's temperature.  Some people don't believe in the disastrous effects global warming is having on our planet, but I do believe (with millions of others) that it's taking place and will worsen, if we don't do anything to stop it. The repercussions of destroying our atmosphere through pollution and poor care of the Earth, is already starting to affect our lives. God's beautiful creation, should be well cared for and protected and we need to teach our children that as well.

The people of Russia, who experienced a terrible drought and wildfires this summer now consider global warming a serious threat. The people of Pakistan who experienced apocalyptic flooding are wondering if global warming is the cause of their epic disaster. 

We all can do something to lessen global warming. Even small changes can make a difference. 

A change as simple as changing to energy saving lightbulbs can make an enormous difference, if everyone does it. I hope everyone begins to take global warming seriously before it's too late. According to scientists, there is a point of no return. 

NJA