Education - Reducing Stress - Successful Experiment

Tackling Truancy, Suspensions, and Stress

With levels of violence and poverty rising around them, San Francisco middle school students find social and emotional healing -- and a new readiness to learn -- in a bold program of daily meditation.

By Mariko Nobori

With levels of violence and poverty rising around them, San Francisco middle school students find social and emotional healing -- and a new readiness to learn -- in a bold program of daily meditation.

Principal James Dierke (left) took an unconventional, impactful step by implementing the Quiet Time program in his school. Students (right) opt to be trained in meditation and practice it twice each day during Quiet Time.

Credit: Daniel Jarvis

Death of Innocents - Easter Reflection

Death of innocents a call to renewal By Fr. Joseph Brown

A worshipper holds a rosary as she prays during Easter Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2011. (CNS/Reuters/Saad Shalash)

Commentary
"I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief."
As this Lenten season draws to a close, I seem suffocated with the death of innocents, from Afghanistan to Florida. It wounds my spirit, but it can no longer shock me, this pouring out of the blood of the blameless, wherever we find violence valorized and guns made holy.

Catholic Social Teaching

Surprise! Catholic social teaching is the church's best-kept secret

by Tony Magliano

• Making a Difference

The Catholic church has a very big secret. It is so powerful, challenging and relevant that if every bishop, priest, deacon, religious and layperson was committed to communicating and implementing this secret, it would turn society upside-down and literally transform the world.
However, revealing its contents and tirelessly urging the full application of its message would surely cause great controversy. The church would come under fierce attack from both conservatives and liberals for being naïve and acting outside acceptable ecclesial boundaries.

Did Jesus PROHIBIT women - NCR Discussion

Did Jesus PROHIBIT women

Submitted by Petrus Romanus (not verified) on Apr. 18, 2012.

Did Jesus PROHIBIT women priests and bishops by "not choosing" women, or by "not including" women to be apostles? And if so, did Jesus PROHIBIT women priests and bishops for ALL times and in ALL places?
Not everyone so thinks, or believes, including many current members of the Roman church, some of whom are priests and bishops. These brave and intrepid believers know that if they must be considered "disobedient," it should rather be to the pope and his curia rather than to Jesus and God.
The evidence for a prohibition by Jesus is weak and underwhelming, even if it can be said to exist at all. This leaves "tradition," such as it is, and the voice of current Roman church authority, all male and thoroughly clerical, as "the voice of God."
Could all this change with the election of a new pope? And if not the next pope, how about the one after the next one? [By that time, will change by or from the Vatican make any difference?]

Daniel's Prayer - A Style to Imitate

Daniel’s Repentant Heart !!!

Daniel, a righteous man, had such devotion that you would not expect to find him repenting.
Daniel’s heart, however, was sensitive to sin and also he identified with the people’s sins.
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. . . . We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled. . . . Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land” (Daniel 9:8, 5-6).

Student Training - Vision

Training in vision centered life can prevent students from violence and suicide

If schools can help teenagers formulate a vision for their lives, set goals and focus on these goals, they would neither indulge in violence nor commit suicide.

 

By Varghese Alengaden
Indore: Teachers in India seem to be at the receiving end of violence these days. Every other day, media channels report students from around the country attacking teachers, even killing some of them.

The nation was shocked in early February when a ninth grader stabbed to death his teacher in a Salesian school in Chennai, southern India. The 15-year-old was reportedly angry that the teacher had informed his parents about his poor academic performance.

Titanic- Catholic Priest went down hearing Confessions

The Untold Story of the Titanic’s Catholic Priest Who Went Down Hearing Confessions            

Amidst all the tales of chivalry from the Titanic disaster there is one that’s not often told. It is that of Fr. Thomas Byles, the Catholic priest who gave up two spots on a lifeboat in favour of offering spiritual aid to the other victims as they all went down with the “unsinkable” vessel.

A 42-year-old English convert, Fr. Byles was on his way to New York to offer the wedding Mass for his brother William. Reports suggest that he was reciting his breviary on the upper deck when the Titanic struck the iceberg in the twilight hours of Sunday, April 14, 1912.

Easter 3 B

HOMILY FOR EASTER SUNDAY III (APRIL 22, 2012) LUKE 24: 35-48 Readings

First Reading: Acts 3: 13-15, 17-19

Second Reading: 1 John 2: 1-5

Gospel: Luke 24: 35-48

Anecdotes

Easter-3 B

Fr. Tony Kadavil:

 

1) The ghost story! There is a true story in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not about a judge in Yugoslavia who had an unfortunate accident. He was “electrocuted” when he reached up to turn on the light while standing in the bathtub. His wife found his body sprawled on the bathroom floor. She called for help--friends and neighbors, police--everyone showed up. He was pronounced dead and taken to the funeral home. The local radio picked up the story and broadcast it allover the air. In the middle of the night, the judge regained consciousness. When he realized where he was, he rushed over to alert the night watchman, who promptly ran off, terrified. The first thought of the judge was to phone his wife and reassure her. But he got no further than, "Hello darling, it’s me," when she screamed and fainted. He tried calling a couple of the neighbors, but they all thought it was some sort of a sick prank. He even went so far as to go to the homes of several friends, but they were all sure he was a ghost and slammed the door in his face. Finally, he was able to call a friend in the next town who hadn't heard of his death. This friend was able to convince his family and other friends that he really was alive. Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus had to convince the disciples that he wasn’t a ghost. He had to dispel their doubts and their fears. He showed them his hands and his feet. He invited them to touch him and see that he was real. And he even ate apiece of cooked fish with them--all to prove that he was alive and not a ghost or spirit. He stood there before them, as real and alive as he had been over the past three years. (The Auto illustrator)

Toll Free Numbers - India

Toll Free Numbers for Airways

Indian Airlines – 1800 180 1407
Jet Airways – 1800 22 5522
SpiceJet – 1800 180 3333
Air India – 1800 22 7722 (Updated!)