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On arrival in La Paz, Pope Francis was presented by Bolivian President Evo Morales with a wooden crucifix carved in the form of a hammer and sickle, the symbol of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Fidel. Had Pope John Paul II been handed that crucifix, he might have cracked it over Evo’s head. For John Paul II had seen up close what communism did — to his country, his church and his people in 45 years of Bolshevik rule. On his arrival in the Nicaragua of Daniel Ortega in 1983, Pope John Paul castigated a priest-collaborator who dared to serve that...

A recently translated ancient Egyptian tax receipt shows a bill that is (literally) heavier than any American taxpayer will pay this year — more than 220 lbs. (100 kilograms) of coins. Written in Greek on a piece of pottery, the receipt states that a person (the name is unreadable) and his friends paid a land-transfer tax that came to 75 "talents" (a unit of currency), with a 15-talent charge added on. The tax was paid in coins and was delivered to a public bank in a city called Diospolis Magna (also known as Luxor or Thebes). But just how much...

Growing in the Fear of the Lord – A Homily for the 33rd Sunday of the Year By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe past two Sundays have featured feasts (All Souls, and the Feast of St John Lateran) that stepped out of the usual Sunday cycle, and thus, especially last week, we missed the  November theme of the the Last things: Death, judgment, Heaven and Hell. Nevertheless, here on the 33rd Sunday we are back to the last things and reminded that we will one day account for our use of the gifts and resources God has given us.But today’s readings...

The Germans are in a frenzy over the disclosure that the National Security Agency (NSA) tapped Angela Merkel’s private telephone, along with the telephones of three-dozen other world leaders. It’s an embarrassment of the second magnitude, and all Barack Obama knows about it is what he reads in the newspapers. “Senior government officials” tell The Wall Street Journal that the spooks didn’t tell the president about the wiretaps “because it wouldn’t have been practical to brief him on all of them.” (He was working on his hook shot and couldn’t be disturbed.) It’s hard to imagine that the Germans believe...

It is a simple story that our Lord tells here. A man who is preparing to leave on a journey entrusts his possessions to his servants. He distributes his wealth among three servants, apportioned to them on the basis of their abilities. To the first he entrusted five talents, to the second two talents, and to the third one talent. The first two servants quickly272 set to work with their master’s money. The third servant did not invest his master’s money at all; he dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money. When the master returned, the...

Chagrin Falls, Ohio -- The Rev. Hamilton Coe Throckmorton shivered with anticipation as he gazed at the loot - wads of $50 bills piled high beside boxes of crayons in a Sunday school classroom. It was a balmy Friday evening in September. From several floors below faint melodies drifted up - the choir practicing for Sunday service. Throckmorton was oblivious. For hours, perched awkwardly on child-sized wooden stools surrounded by biblical murals and children's drawings, the pastor and a handful of coconspirators concentrated on the count. Forty-thousand dollars. Throckmorton smiled in satisfaction as he stashed the money in a safe....

To those who will accept them God disperses many gifts They are not to honor you They are given to uplift To give joy to others So that you can show them How great is our God And how wonderful to know Him Letting God into your heart Just opens the door To many varied treasures Their usefulness to store To use when God needs you To show to another That God is a friend And Jesus is your brother Love and gifts go together Like friendship, hand in hand Once you know your purpose You will understand. Amen

When I was near your age, I had returned from serving as a missionary in Uruguay, and my wife and I were making plans for marriage. At that time foreign language missions were for a period of two and a half years. I had completed two years of college, but my memory was somewhat dulled by the passage of three years of time. I wanted then to be where you are now, so I came to BYU and spoke with the chair of the Electrical Engineering Department. His first question was to ask me to invert a matrix. Then he...

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2006 – Seeing his artistry on the big screen was a bit of a rush, but former Hollywood sculptor Chuck O'Brien said it's nothing compared to the satisfaction he gets using his art to help transform military amputees. Army Spc. Adam Standfuss, a Minnesota Army National Guardsman wounded in Iraq, looks on as artist Robert Rubino paints a new artificial hand for him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Photo by Michael Dukes  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "You can't go wrong working with heroes," O'Brien said as he sat side by side with two...

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Kirk Milhoan Doctor Donates Time, Talents to Help HIV-Positive Children By Sue Campbell 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas, Feb. 7, 2006 — Lt. Col. (Dr.) Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist with the 859th Medical Operations Squadron, rarely takes a routine vacation. He devotes almost all his leave time to humanitarian service. He and his wife Kim, a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center, just returned from a trip to Zambia where they opened an AIDS orphanage. “This is the second AIDS orphanage we’ve opened...

LIVING DANGEROUSLY Chapter 12. Matthew 25:14-30 by Ray C. Stedman     Parables can be as exciting and challenging as detective stories. Even more so, for in the end they turn out to be dealing with real life, while detective stories can be pretty far-fetched. But parables, like detective stories, are filled with half-hidden truths and secret meanings and yet with clues to these secrets scattered liberally throughout. Parables are God's exciting way of challenging us to a mystery hunt, and the treasure we are after is a new insight into the nature of life which will enrich us in...

I know there are many serious life and death things going on in our lives and this one, is not overtly that. However, it is a point of grace. Please remember Jordan today. He tries out for the high school baseball team. Something he has literally, quite literally, prayed about every day of his little life, since he first picked up a bat. He prays to make the team "if it is Your will". So often what seems small to us as grown ups, looms large in smaller eyes. It will be life changing for him, and as mothers, we...