John Janaro's Blog, page 215
March 22, 2017
More "Amazing" [
Those of you who are not linked to my social media accounts haven't seen some of these most recent fun and/or interesting photos and graphics I have posted there.
It's really a kind of visual therapy for me to take pictures and learn how to use different kinds of software for presentation and graphics. I think it's doing something to reroute those neuropathways in the brain that can lead to obsessions. Or, at least, it employs them and keeps them out of mischief.
That's my opinion or "hunch" that I present with zero scientific evidence. But, hey, now you can say that you "read it on the internet"!
It's really a kind of visual therapy for me to take pictures and learn how to use different kinds of software for presentation and graphics. I think it's doing something to reroute those neuropathways in the brain that can lead to obsessions. Or, at least, it employs them and keeps them out of mischief.
That's my opinion or "hunch" that I present with zero scientific evidence. But, hey, now you can say that you "read it on the internet"!
More "Amazing" [
Those of you who are not linked to my social media accounts haven't seen some of these most recent fun and/or interesting photos and graphics I have posted there.
It's really a kind of visual therapy for me to take pictures and learn how to use different kinds of software for presentation and graphics. I think it's doing something to reroute those neuropathways in the brain that can lead to obsessions. Or, at least, it employs them and keeps them out of mischief.
That's my opinion or "hunch" that I present with zero scientific evidence. But, hey, now you can say that you "read it on the internet"!
It's really a kind of visual therapy for me to take pictures and learn how to use different kinds of software for presentation and graphics. I think it's doing something to reroute those neuropathways in the brain that can lead to obsessions. Or, at least, it employs them and keeps them out of mischief.
That's my opinion or "hunch" that I present with zero scientific evidence. But, hey, now you can say that you "read it on the internet"!
March 20, 2017
Why Do We Care About Saint Joseph?
Happy Feast of Saint Joseph!
Because March 19 fell on the Third Sunday of Lent this year, the liturgical observance of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph–a great holiday in the church year–was transferred to today.
Many people (especially those of Italian heritage) celebrated and observed the traditional customs of St Joseph's day yesterday. In Italy and other countries in Europe, St Joseph's day is also "Father's Day." The good news is that we may continue celebrating, indeed we must celebrate.
Today is one of only two days during the Lenten season when the Gloria is sung in the Roman liturgy. So please, keep celebrating! And as much as Italians (or, rather, we Italian-Americans) would like to "take over" the observance of this day as "our St Patrick's Day" (
Why We Should Celebrate Saint Joseph's Day
Happy Feast of Saint Joseph!
Because March 19 fell on the Third Sunday of Lent this year, the liturgical observance of the Solemnity of Saint Joseph–a great holiday in the church year–was transferred to today.
Many people (especially those of Italian heritage) celebrated and observed the traditional customs of St Joseph's day yesterday. In Italy and other countries in Europe, St Joseph's day is also "Father's Day." The good news is that we may continue celebrating, indeed we must celebrate.
Today is one of only two days during the Lenten season when the Gloria is sung in the Roman liturgy. So please, keep celebrating! And as much as Italians (or, rather, we Italian-Americans) would like to "take over" the observance of this day as "our St Patrick's Day" (
March 18, 2017
The Ides of March 1917
In an era accustomed to shocking news, it was still... shocking.
A hundred years ago the world was globally linked, and -- thanks to the telegraph -- news circulated rapidly as a rule. Nevertheless there were exceptions. A landscape broken up by nearly three years of war had more than its share of downed telegraph wires. And reporters still had to rely on ground transport to file their stories.
Sometimes news was delayed.
Thus it happened that the ominous transformation that occurred suddenly in Russia on March 15, 1917 (Gregorian Calendar) didn't reach English language newspapers until the evening of March 16 and the morning of March 17. Anglo-Americans were aware of the protests in St Petersburg in recent days, so it was not surprising that news was difficult to come by in this week.
When the dispatches finally did come through, however, they were more than anyone expected. What had happened was nothing less than the beginning of the end of a world.
The "Tsar," the Emperor, the Autocrat of "All the Russias" had been overthrown. It was a Revolution. It was the end of Europe's oldest reigning dynasty and the fall of a thousand year old monarchy. It launched a vast nation into a crisis of identity that would have enormous repercussions for the history of the twentieth century.
The abdication of Nicholas II to what was perceived to be a "democratic assembly" seemed like an optimistic development to English parliamentarians and American republicans in 1917. In fact, the assembly was deeply unstable and already in the process of collapsing internally. A huge hole was opening up in Russia's political life, and power would soon be up for grabs for whoever was clever enough, opportunistic enough, and ruthless enough to take hold of it.
None of this was apparent, nor did it seem too important, to English and American readers during the third week of March 1917, however. Russia was England's ally in the war, and Russian spokesmen assured the English that the Duma remained committed to the war effort. That's what mattered to the English (and the Americans, who were weeks away from joining the war themselves).
Not only was the Great War nowhere closer to ending. It was, in a certain sense, just getting under way. The desperate conflict between nations and peoples that would dominate the history of the twentieth century was beginning to take shape.
A hundred years ago the world was globally linked, and -- thanks to the telegraph -- news circulated rapidly as a rule. Nevertheless there were exceptions. A landscape broken up by nearly three years of war had more than its share of downed telegraph wires. And reporters still had to rely on ground transport to file their stories.
Sometimes news was delayed.
Thus it happened that the ominous transformation that occurred suddenly in Russia on March 15, 1917 (Gregorian Calendar) didn't reach English language newspapers until the evening of March 16 and the morning of March 17. Anglo-Americans were aware of the protests in St Petersburg in recent days, so it was not surprising that news was difficult to come by in this week.
When the dispatches finally did come through, however, they were more than anyone expected. What had happened was nothing less than the beginning of the end of a world.
The "Tsar," the Emperor, the Autocrat of "All the Russias" had been overthrown. It was a Revolution. It was the end of Europe's oldest reigning dynasty and the fall of a thousand year old monarchy. It launched a vast nation into a crisis of identity that would have enormous repercussions for the history of the twentieth century.
The abdication of Nicholas II to what was perceived to be a "democratic assembly" seemed like an optimistic development to English parliamentarians and American republicans in 1917. In fact, the assembly was deeply unstable and already in the process of collapsing internally. A huge hole was opening up in Russia's political life, and power would soon be up for grabs for whoever was clever enough, opportunistic enough, and ruthless enough to take hold of it.
None of this was apparent, nor did it seem too important, to English and American readers during the third week of March 1917, however. Russia was England's ally in the war, and Russian spokesmen assured the English that the Duma remained committed to the war effort. That's what mattered to the English (and the Americans, who were weeks away from joining the war themselves).
Not only was the Great War nowhere closer to ending. It was, in a certain sense, just getting under way. The desperate conflict between nations and peoples that would dominate the history of the twentieth century was beginning to take shape.
March 17, 2017
March 16, 2017
Chiara Luce Badano: A Light That Helps Me Trust in God's Love
My On This Day Facebook flashback page has been reminding me all week of my first "encounter," five years ago, with the amazing Blessed Chiara Luce Badano (1971-1990). This beautiful 18 year old girl died from a long and painful struggle with osteosarcoma (bone cancer), all of which she offered in union with Jesus in His cry of abandonment on the cross.Though she was beatified in 2010, I had never heard of her before March 12, 2012 when--while fiddling around on the internet--I happened upon an article or web page or something about her that led me to more resources in English and Italian. It's funny, because there was no particularly discernible "reason" why all this should happen on March 12, 2012 as her feast is in October. It was just a circumstance of a moment in time, but it had a profound impact on my life.
On that day (and the ones that followed) I not only read her inspiring story but also heard her recorded voice and saw this picture and others. I "met" her, in a sense, "through" a multimedia experience on the internet, but of course it was the grace of Jesus living in the Church and in Chiara Luce's witness that touched my heart and initiated something vital and enduring.
The Communion of Saints is a very real dimension of our Christian lives, and five years ago this week was the beginning of a friendship with this tremendous soul who continues to be a real help to me. She intercedes for me and for our family, but she also "listens" to me and (I really think) guides me in discrete ways to remember the love of Jesus and to notice things I might otherwise ignore. She taps me gently on the shoulder and says, "Look. Look there."
She is, indeed, a "chiara luce," a clear light which shows a glimpse of the extraordinary reality of God's love in the ordinary circumstances of life and in "ordinary people."
At the center of herself, however, she burns so bright that it leaves me blinded in the luminous night which is the experience of the reality of our faith. The depths of her suffering and love (such as she expresses in the quotation above) completely blow me away: The love Christ has for us and that He empowers us to offer back to Him and, with Him, to the world is something entirely beyond my understanding, my calculations, my measure. I am just a small man with a small mind--indeed I am a crude, narrow, stingy old sinner--but Jesus still surprises me again and again with His mercy, which is my hope.
Thanks, Chiara Luce! You are a great friend to me.
March 15, 2017
The Big Storm... Was That It?
"Oh, the humanity!" -- well, not so much for us.Yesterday, finally--a week before the first day of Spring--we had THE BIG STORM. Well, it was supposed to be, in any case. All the folks on The Weather Channel were running around with breathless excitement after spending most of the Winter in little towns in Minnesota.
March 14, 2017
Let Us Set Things Right
In his homily today, Pope Francis said:
Here he is commenting on the first reading, passages from which I have set forth below with the help of some experimentation in graphics:
Here he is commenting on the first reading, passages from which I have set forth below with the help of some experimentation in graphics:
