WORCESTER, MA (April 4, 2017)—Peter H. Raven, Ph.D., a leading botanist and advocate of conservation and biodiversity, will discuss Pope Francis’s 2014 Encyclical “Laudato si”, a powerful call of attention to the enormous challenge of global climate change, in his lecture, “Laudato si’: Saving Creation, Saving Ourselves.” Dr. Raven will speak on Monday, April 24 at 7 p.m. in the Salon of Assumption’s La Maison building, located at 500 Salisbury Street.

According to Dr. Raven, the world has changed profoundly during the Christian era, with a rapidly increasing 7.4 billion individuals, sharply divided between rich and poor, consuming far more potentially sustainable resources than the world holds.  “With a billion people in 1815 or so, we were already cultivating or grazing about a third of the world’s surface, our numbers growing rapidly to 3.5 billion in 1970 and more than doubling since then,” said Dr. Raven.  “By the 19^th century, the accentuation of social inequality prompted much concern among thinking people with Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 Encyclical Rerum novarum signaling serious concern many on the part of the Church.”

O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord's Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the light of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.
(Collect, Easter Sunday Mass)

Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
(Verse before the Gospel)

David Torkington • March 23, AD2017

Did you know that you can’t really pray without distractions? Don’t take my word for it, take the word of St Teresa of Avila. When she went to confession to St Peter of Alcantara she told him that she couldn’t pray any longer because of the distractions that attacked her every time she tried to pray. He told her that you can’t really pray without them. If that is not enough to convince you, read about Jesus and the distractions and temptations that he had to combat during his forty days in the desert. The first Christians had similar experiences when they tried to follow his example in the forty days before Easter by setting aside extra time for daily prayer.

When Prayer Becomes Difficult

For those who take prayer seriously and journey on beyond the fizz and pop of first fervour, what was once easy and filled with sweetness and light will become dark and difficult and full of distractions and temptations. Prayer does not grow because distractions and temptations gradually disappear it grows because they get stronger and stronger and the ensuing battle is the place where true Christian prayer reaches its height. Beginners always think it is about having nice feelings and emotional highs. Romantics think it is all about having feelings of inner peace, and the latest gurus from the East, seem to think it is all about having high states of transcendental awareness and mastering the techniques that lead to Nirvana. When St Francis came back from his first serious attempts at prayer, he came back so exhausted that even his friends hardly recognized him. He probably overdid it as beginners often do, but the truth is, trying to fend off distractions and temptations in prayer can be rather exacting for those who persevere when they are tempted to throw the towel in too soon and turn on the telly.