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CB WIRE March 8 – March 14 2021: Playing For Blind Elephants

CB WIRE March 8 – March 14 2021: Playing For Blind Elephants

Last updated on: November 30, 2022 at 1:08 am by Mark Wilson

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CB WIRE March 8 – March 14 2021: Playing For Blind Elephants 2022-11-30T01:08:21-05:00 Mark Wilson

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CB WIRE March 8 – March 14, 2021

FEAST DAYS ,HOLIDAYS AND THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Mon March 8, 2021
Feast Day of Saint John of God, Religious

Alan Hale Jr. AKA. the Skipper from Gilligan’s Island is born. (1921-1990)

Tuesday March 9, 2021
Feast Day of Saint Frances of Rome, Religious

In 1842 The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco,
six years before the California Gold Rush.

Wednesday March 10, 2021

In 1977 Astronomers discover the rings of Uranus.

Thursday March 11, 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) declares COVID-19 virus a pandemic.
US President Joe Biden signs the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law

Friday March 12, 2021

In 1622 Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus, are canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.

Saturday March 13th, 2021

240th anniversary of the discovery of the solar system’s seventh blue-green ice giant planet Uranus by 42 year old William Herschel.

8th anniversary of Pope Francis’s pontificate.

Sunday March 14th, 2021

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT Bishop Barron’s Weekly Homily

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK

COVID RELIEF

More than 335.3 million vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, equal to 4.4 doses for every 100 people. There is already a stark gap between vaccination programs in different countries, with many yet to report a single dose.

On March 11 President Joe Biden spoke to the the nation in his first primetime address from Washington. He spoke on the 1 year anniversary of the official lockdown due to Covid-19.

“You lost your job, you closed your business, facing eviction, homelessness, hunger, a loss of control. Maybe worst of all a loss of hope. Watching a generation of children who may be set back up to a year or more because they’ve not been in school because of their loss of learning. It’s the details of life that matter the most, and we miss those details, the big details and the small moments, weddings, birthdays, graduations, all of the things that needed to happen but didn’t.

“The first date, the family reunions, the Sunday night rituals. It’s all has exacted a terrible cost on the psyche of so many of us. For we are fundamentally a people who want to be with others, to talk, to laugh, to hug, to hold one another. But this virus has kept us apart. Grandparents haven’t seen their children or grandchildren. Parents haven’t seen their kids. Kids haven’t seen their friends.

As a remedy to this pandemic problem, the Senate passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan of 2021. This bill is going to help those who have suffered economic and emotional hardship due to the pandemic.

Helping out those who suffer from economic hardship due to a global pandemic is helping Christ.

Biden calls for $1,400 checks in $1.9 trillion relief plan - MarketWatch

COURAGEOUS WOMEN

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality. (Taken from Website)

In honor of IWD, here are a few examples of some courageous women.

The Political situation in Myanmar is sad as the militia that took over the government are taking no guff from protestors or anyone else who stands in their way of controlling power over the Asian country. But one brave Catholic nun has stood up kneeling down to the men with guns asking them not to shoot people. Sr. Ann Rose Nu Tawng, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis Xavier can be seen in this video pleading for her people’s lives. Sr. Ann Rose is an example of a brave woman of risking her life so that others might live. She’s an inspiration to us all in how we should act as ambassadors of Christ in the world.

“I begged them not to hurt the protesters, but to treat them kindly, like family members. I begged them not to shoot the children. {But soon after] we heard loud gunshots and saw that a young kid’s head had exploded, and there was a river of blood on the street. Our clinic floor became a sea of blood. We need to value life. It made me feel so sad.”

A lot of kids want to grow up to be a famous rock star or perhaps a doctor or police officer. Not Teresita Castillo de Diego from Spain. She wanted to follow in the footsteps of St. Therese of Lisieux and become a missionary. Fr. Ángel Camino Lamela, an episcopal vicar of the Archdiocese of Madrid for La Paz Hospital made her an official missionary as she lay dying on her hospital bed of a brain tumor.

“We arrived at the ICU properly equipped, I greeted the doctors and nurses, and then they took me to Teresita, whose mother Teresa was at her bedside,” he said. “A white bandage encircled her entire head, but her face was exposed enough to perceive a truly brilliant and exceptional face.”

The young girl told the priest she loved Jesus very much and wanted to be a missionary.

Deeply moved by her words, Camino replied, “Teresita, I am making you a missionary of the Church right now, and this afternoon I will bring you the document certifying it and the missionary cross.”

The priest then gave the young girl the Eucharist and administered the Anointing of the Sick.

“It was a moment of prayer, extremely simple, but deeply supernatural,” he reflected. “Some nurses joined us and spontaneously took some photos of us …which will remain as an indelible memory. We said goodbye while she and her mother prayed and gave thanks.”

Later that morning at the vicariate, Camino produced the official document installing Teresita as a missionary. He then took the missionary cross and returned to the hospital in the evening.

Teresita asked her mother to hang the cross by her hospital bed, where she could easily see it, saying, “Tomorrow I’ll take it to the operating room. I’m a missionary now.”

I actually started to tear up as I read this beautiful description of this very devout, courageous and faithful young woman. I won’t be surprised in a few years if she is declared venerable and on her way to being beautified.

Teresita Castillo de Diego pray for us.

Teresita Castillo de Diego with the document that accredits her as a missionary. / Photo courtesy of the Archdiocese of Madrid.

And speaking of Up and Coming Saints…

Clare Crockett’s goal was to become a Hollywood star. She was a party girl interested in beer and hooking up with boys. That is until God transformed her life at 17. She eventually became Sr. Clare Crockett. She was part of the community of Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother that was headquartered in Valencia, Spain. She served in various places including Jacksonville, Florida and became a missionary sister in Ecuador. On April 16, 2016, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, killing at least 676 people, including Sr. Clare Crockett.

Two years later her order released a film about her remarkable life in both English and Spanish. “All or Nothing: Sr. Clare Crockett” now has more than 3.5 million views on YouTube. Just this month the nun responsible for the movie Sr. Kristen Gardner released a book on September 8, 2020 about her life called “Sr. Clare Crockett: Alone with Christ Alone” .

Already reports of miracles are being reported to her community including fertility miracles attributed to Sr. Clare’s intercession. I hope that reports of miracles continue to pour in, as I and probably many others would like to see her canonized. She is a very inspiring soul who I hope more people learn about.

She is the Patron Heavenly Companion of the Catholic Bard.

Honestly, the vocation to the religious life is such a great gift that it confuses the person chosen. God fixes His gaze on a poor soul so that she can live with Him and in Him, and in that way help Him save the world. That really is crazy… but, blessed craziness! We would be crazy if we did not respond to what God asks of each one of us, because what He asks is the best for us. We have been created for great things, not for comfort.- Sister Clare Crockett.

NUCLEAR DISASTER ANNIVERSARY

Japan’s Catholic bishops mark 10th anniversary of Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Ten years ago on March 11, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake under the ocean off the coast of Japan triggered a disaster at a Fukushima power plant which killed nearly 20,000 people and is considered to be the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Japan’s Catholic bishops have marked the anniversary by praying for the dead and promising that the Church’s rebuilding efforts in the region would continue.

“The Catholic Church in Japan is not limited to material support but will continue to walk in the bonds of solidarity with the people of Tohoku as friends, brothers and sisters, a solidarity that spreads around the world to raise our horizon and our hope,” the bishops said in a March 11 statement.

MUSICAL ENDEAVORS

It turns out brilliant scientists can not only calculate grand equations and unfathomable math problems that made my wife cry when she was a child they can also bust a funky move. There is a dance competition for this profession called “Dance Your Ph.D.” In this unusual dance-off, Scientists get to explain their fantastic research through dance. It’s been going on for 14 years and is run by Science Magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and also sponsored by Primer, an artificial intelligence company where Bohannon works. This year groove to the winner Molecular Clusters by three atmospheric science graduate students at the University of Helsinki.

It’s great when you can combine some of your passions together. Such as sharing your musical talents with others and caring for animals. A musician named Paul Barton dragged his piano into the middle of an elephant sanctuary so that he could play classical music to a blind elephant named Lam Duan. Lam chills to the the soothing sounds of Bach, Chopin, and Schubert.

Blind Elephant Starts To Dance Once She Hears The Pianist Playing To Comfort Her | Bored Panda

DINO DISCOVERY

Scientists have made a major discovery in Ganzhou City in China’s southern Jiangxi Province. They’ve found the remains of a dinosaur sitting on its nest of fossilized eggs.

The dinosaur, an oviraptorosaur (oviraptor), belongs to a group of bird-like theropod dinosaurs which peaked during the distant Cretaceous Period (145 to 66 million years ago). The fossils of the adult oviraptor and the eggs with the embryos have been dated to roughly 70 million years old. This is the first time researchers have found a non-avian dinosaur sitting on a nest of eggs which have been fossilized so they still contain the babies inside!

POPE FRANCIS’S WORDS OF THE WEEK

8 years ago on March 13, 2013 Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis.

This past week he finished up his tour in Iraq. On Monday he talked about his conversation with Iraq’s top Shiite cleric.

On his flight to Rome from Baghdad on Monday, Pope Francis said that Iraq’s top Shiite cleric is a “humble and wise man,” and their March 6 meeting had a “universal message” about the importance of fraternity.

The landmark meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani took place on the second day of Pope Francis’ historic three-day trip to Iraq March 5-8.

During an in-flight press conference on the flight back to Rome March 8, the pope was asked if the meeting with al-Sistani was a message to the religious leaders of Iran.

“I believe it was a universal message,” Pope Francis responded. “I felt the duty of this pilgrimage of faith and penance to go and find a great, a wise man, a man of God.”

On Monday March 8, 2021 Pope Francis returned a historic prayer book that was saved from Islamic State to the Nineveh Plains.

Dating back to sometime between the 14th and 15th century, the book contains liturgical prayers in Aramaic for the season of Easter in the Syriac tradition.

The manuscript was formerly kept in the Great Al-Tahira Immaculate Conception Church (pictured below), in Bakhdida, also known as Qaraqosh. The Syriac Catholic church was plundered and set alight when the Islamic State had control of the town from 2014 to 2016.

Pope Francis Returns Historic Prayer Book Saved from Islamic State to the Nineveh Plains| National Catholic Register

What moved Pope Francis the most in his trip was a testimony by a mother in a place called Qaraqosh. Doha Sabah Abdallah family and friends were killed by ISIS.

She said..

“Our strength undoubtedly comes from our faith in the Resurrection, a source of hope. My faith tells me that my children are in the arms of Jesus Christ our Lord. And we, the survivors, try to forgive the aggressor, because our Master Jesus has forgiven his executioners. By imitating him in our sufferings, we testify that love is stronger than everything.”

The Pope commented…

“She is a woman who lost her son in the first Islamic State bombings, and she said a word: ‘forgiveness.’ I was moved. I forgive. This is a word we have lost. We know how to insult big time. We know how to condemn in a big way … But to forgive, to forgive one’s enemies. This is the pure Gospel. This hit me in Qaraqosh.”

You can read all his messages by clicking on this link… All of Pope Francis’ messages from his trip to Iraq

In Pictures: Pope Francis in Iraq - The New York Times

BLOG POSTS OF THE WEEK

As citizens of the United States, it may be easy for some of us overlook how racist Europe is, since they didn’t have an entire centuries-old economic system and culture based on chattel slavery, nor institutions and laws to keep racism in place after slavery was abolished—at least, not visibly so. We need to remember, though, that it was European nations who first instituted chattel slavery of black Africans, and European colonizers who organized it on this continent. When the white colonizers decided they wanted to be free of monarchy and aristocratic caste structures they did not simultaneously get rid of the racism that had accompanied them. And neither did the monarchs or aristocrats.
Rebecca Bratten Weiss Four Takeaways from Oprah’s Interview with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (March 10, 2021) suspending in her jar @ Patheos Catholic

Sometimes we can’t explain sanctity in the all-out, no-doubt, no-question-about-it-way — one need only think of the diminutive Mother Teresa, of recent and happy memory, and how during her lifetime, she was without question, a saint.

Or recall the crowds — literally millions of people who descended on Rome in April 2005 just to walk past the body of St. John Paul II while outside in St. Peter’s Square shouts of “Santo Subito!” (Sainthood now!) were the constant cheer — and ultimately an answered prayer.

And of course there’s always the saints that are so memorable, so loveable, so … saintlike, it’s impossible not to view them as anything other than, well, saints: St. Francis of Assisi, God’s Fool; the towering presence of St. Thomas Aquinas, who gave our Church much of its post-12th-century doctrine and dogma; the indefatigable St. Teresa of Ávila, both mystic and reformer, a glory of the Carmelite order. And whenever we are in a hopeless or impossible situation: St. Jude for the former and St. Rita of Cascia for the latter. And of course if you lose something, go directly to St. Anthony of Padua.

So why St. Joseph Mary Tomasi, one of the gems of the Theatine Order? Why should he stir ardor in us, or better, help us to live a life of sanctity?

Kevin Di Camillo, The Patron Saint of Nothing Special, Really (March 13, 2021) National Catholic Register

PODCASTS OF THE WEEK

Catholic Stuff You Should Know: Leaving the Zoo (catholicstuffpodcast.com)

NEW BOOKS OF THE WEEK

Laterby Stephen King

Be Bold in the Broken: How I Found My Courage and Purpose in God’s Unconditional by Mary E. Lenaburg ,  Foreword by Leah Darrow

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race Kindle Editiony Walter Isaacson

New Music of the Week

Fruit Bats – The Balcony (Official Music Video)

NF – LOST ft. Hopsin

Imagine Dragons – Follow You (Lyric Video)

YOUTUBE VIDS OF THE WEEK

Priest accidentally uses Blues Brothers filter while giving Zoom church service

One-take drone video of Minnesota bowling alley goes viral

This Week on

Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

MYS145: We regularly give Patrons the opportunity to ask Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli their mysterious questions and make them available exclusively to Patrons first and then later to the whole audience in a special bonus release.

New Movies of the Week

Cherry (2021) Apple TV+

Yes Day (2021) Netflix

Paper Lives (2021) Netflix

Own the Room (2021) Disney+

Kid 90 (2021) Hulu

Slimey Award Season

Saturday, March 13

Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards 2021, 7:30 p.m., Nickelodeon

Sunday, March 14
63rd Annual Grammy Awards, 8 p.m., CBS

Deaths of the Week

Norton Juster (June 02, 1929 – March 08, 2021) (age 91) was an American academic, architect, and writer. He was best known as an author of children’s books, notably for The Phantom Tollbooth and The Dot and the Line.

Quotes of the Week

Turning away from a life of perversion & sin is more a process than a moment. It’s a lifelong struggle. For that radical & dramatic instant of conversion, there are a certain number of people who will cheer you on. Years later, when its dark and lonely–there is just you and God.-Joseph Sciambra on FB

How to obtain a plenary indulgence during Holy Week

A plenary indulgence can be obtained during Holy Week for oneself or for a deceased person if one of the following works established by the Church is performed.

Holy Thursday

1. If during the solemn reservation of the Blessed Sacrament (typically on a side altar), which follows the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, you recite or sing the Eucharistic hymn “Tantum Ergo.”

2. If you adore the solemnly reserved Blessed Sacrament for a half hour.

Good Friday

If you venerate the Cross in the solemn celebration of the Lord’s Passion.

If you piously participate in the Stations of the Cross

Holy Saturday

If two or more people pray the Holy Rosary.

2. If you attend the celebration of the Easter Vigil at night and renew your baptismal promises, which is part of the liturgy of that Mass.

Week in Review

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March 14, 2021

Companions on the Journey Lent Week 5

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March 16, 2021 Zeal For Your Prayer Consumes Me

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