The Catholic Monitor

http://www.unitypublishing.com/Apparitions/ShepherdsKings.htm Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. (New American Bible, 1Cor 1:26-30) How many times have we heard the Christmas story of the angels appearing to the shepherds in the fields announcing that this day a Savior was born to them and that they would find the newborn Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger? How many times have we questioned why were shepherds the first to hear this Good News? To answer that question we must ponder the pattern of God’s behavior throughout the Ol

By Fred Martinez Steve Ditko, the original artist and co-creator of the Spider-Man comic, is the Greta Garbo of comic books. Even after Spider-Man 3 Ditko is still refusing to give interviews after 20 years. He refused interviews for major articles about him by the Los Angeles Times and one of Canada's leading newspapers, the National Post during the cinema run of the original Spider-Man movie. Ditko, however, explained his philosophy of art in a narrative on a 1987 video titled "The Masters of Comic Book Art," hosted by author Harlan Ellison. In his introduction, Ellison dismissed Ditko's plea that heroes in art and literature be measured by the moral courage shown in objective good vs. evil choices. The artist now seems prophetic for saying in the show that if we glorify the anti-hero in art, then anti-life and violence will come into our culture. The anti-heroes of the Columbine-like killings in public schools and the Sept. 11 terrorists seem to justify his claim.

The California appeals court ruled that libraries must not use computer filters to disallow kids from viewing Internet pornography. A San Jose Mercury News editorial inferred that the First Amendment was invoked so the adult’s right to view porn would not be encroached. One can see the Civil Liberties Union-who won the case- standing with hand over heart as the Constitution upheld this new right. If Internet smutt is authorized why not have smutty magazines lying around the newspaper section. Also, we mustn’t forget the kid’s right to check out dirty magazines and videos. It would never get that far because parents don’t allow their children into porn shops. The libraries funding would soon be voted down. Why aren’t parents angered by library Internet obscenity? It is the same reason abortion is legal while infanticide is not. Babies and dirty magazines can be seen, but babies in the womb and Internet porn usually are unseen by parents. Of course, the media could show the American publ

"Yet everything depends on this ability to stand still and to be present with full inner awareness." "The basic meaning of the word 'collected' is to be gathered together, united. A glance at our life will show how much we lack this aptitude. We should have a fixed centre which, like the hub of a wheel, governs our movements and from which all our actions go out and to which they return; a standard, also, or a code by which we distinguish the important from the unimportant, the end from the means and which puts actions and experiences into their proper order; something stable, unaffected by change and | yet capable of development, which makes it clear to us who we are and how matters stand with us. We lack this; we, the men of today, lack it more than did those who lived in earlier ages. "This becomes evident in our attempts to pray. Spiritual teachers speak of 'distraction' as that state in which man lacks poise and unity, that state in which though