Wednesday, February 12, 2025
February 12 Wednesday
Tu Bishvat Lincoln-Darwin
Ezekiel,
Chapter 12, Verse 18-19
18 Son of man, eat your bread trembling and drink your water shaking with FEAR. 19 And say to the people of the land: Thus says the Lord GOD about the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel: they shall eat their bread in fear and drink their water in horror, because the land will be emptied of what fills it—the lawlessness of all its inhabitants.
We become lawless when we lack leaders that had a leader’s heart.
God measures the greatness of a leader’s heart not his intelligence or his wealth. Ezekiel message is that God punishes evil leaders and those who follow them. No nation rises above its leadership.
God desires that leaders first develop the
following characteristics of the heart:
4)
Consistent
personal disciplines
6) Biblical values and priorities
8)
Healthy
community relationships
9)
Principle-centered
decisions
10)
Compassionate
love for people
Also, Ezekiel was warning the Israelites that fear
is a result of being a lawless nation. Israel had become a nation without
respect for God or man and suffered exile.
If we as a nation, follow the same path what could
be the result for our nation?
No nation rises above its
leadership.[1]
Tu Bishvat[2]
Tu Bishvat (Hebrew: ט״ו בשבט,
literally: the 15th of the Lunar Month of Shevat) is the New Year for trees
(similar to Arbor Day). It falls in January or February each year,
typically when almond blossom is seen in Israel. It is one of the four
New Years in the Jewish Calendar. According to the Jewish Law (Halachah), the
'New Year for trees' defines the beginning of the year for separating tithes
for the poor and Levite. Tithes are 10% portions of a product, which are
allocated as charity
to either the Levites or the poor. Torah Law requires, that when the Holy
Temple was standing, these tithes would be removed from the produce, before it
was 'fit for consumption'. There was a seven-year cycle, culminating in the
Shimittah year, when fields lay fallow. After every seven seven-year cycles, a
Jubilee, 50th year was celebrated.
Tu Bishvat Facts & Quotes
·
It is customary on Tu Bishvat to eat fruits of
the Land of Israel, particularly those of the Biblical verse A land of wheat,
and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive,
and honey (Deuteronomy 8:8). The honey in this verse refers to date
honey, according to tradition. Another custom is to plant trees in
Israel.
·
On Tu Bishvat, we remember that Man is a Tree of
the Field (Deuteronomy 20:19). It explains that we may not cut down
trees during the siege of a city. The tree of the field is man's life to
be used in and after the siege.
·
The Code of Jewish Law states that on Tu
B'Shevat fasting and eulogies are forbidden, and all penitential prayers are
omitted. One of the most important authorities, the Magen Avraham, adds
(131:16): It is the custom to eat many different kinds of fruit. The
Arizal suggested the eating of fifteen kinds of fruit (on the fifteenth of the
month).
·
It should be noted that all Jewish holidays
begin at sundown one the eve before the Gregorian date specified for the
holiday.
Tu Bishvat Top Events and Things to Do
·
Make a Tu Bishvat Fruit Plate. Magen
Avraham, a leading Jewish authority suggested the eating of fifteen kinds of
fruit (on the fifteenth of the month).
· Say Blessings for new Fruit. Two blessings are said for new fruits (which have not yet been eaten that year), namely the standard blessing for fruits ..Who created the fruits of the tree and ..Who kept us alive, and sustained us and allowed us to reach this day.
·
Attend a Tu Bishvat tisch which is popular in
Hasidic communities. A Tisch is the Yiddish word for table. It
refers to a festive meal with Holy Land fruits, wine, bread, fish and other
foods.
·
Sing a Tu Bishvat Song. There are many songs on YouTube about Tu
Bishvat in both Hebrew and English.
"We will plant Trillions of Trees now"[3]
Planting Trillions of Trees will Cancel Out Decades of CO2 Emission say Scientists. There is enough room in the world’s existing parks, forests, deserts and abandoned land to plant trillions of additional trees, which would have the CO2 storage capacity to cancel out decades of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new analysis by ecologist Thomas Crowther and colleagues at ETH Zurich, a Swiss university.
Trees are “our most powerful weapon in the fight against climate change,” Crowther told The Independent. Combining forest inventory data from 1.2 million locations around the world and satellite images, the scientists estimate there are 3 trillion trees on Earth — seven times more than previous estimates. and they also found that there is abundant space to restore millions of acres of additional forests, not counting urban and agricultural land.
“There’s 400 gigatons [of CO2 stored] now in the 3 trillion trees,” Crowther said. “If we were to scale that up by Planting trillions of more trees now, because that’s in the order of hundreds of gigatons captured from the atmosphere – and anthropogenic emissions will completely be wiped out.”
Planting Trillions of Trees will Cancel Out a Decades of CO2 Emissions, Scientists Find. How to erase 100 years of carbon emissions? Plant trees—lots of them. and there are more than 2000 species of trees with edible fruits and nuts and berries and olives and trees have medicinal properties.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Day
244 1822-1829
Charity
1822
Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his
own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
1823
Jesus makes charity the new commandment. By
loving his own "to the end," he makes manifest the Father's love
which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of
Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has
loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." and again: "This is
my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
1824
Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of
God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you
will abide in my love."
1825
Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies." The
Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the
neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ
himself.
The
Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: "charity is
patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or
rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all
things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
1826
"If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am
nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . .
have not charity, I gain nothing." Charity is superior to all the
virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope,
charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity."
1827 The
practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which
"binds everything together in perfect harmony"; it is the form
of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the
source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies
our human ability to love and raises it to the supernatural perfection of
divine love.
1828 The
practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the
spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a
slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son
responding to the love of him who "first loved us":
If we
turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of
slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally,
if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands
. . . we are in the position of children.
1829 The
fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and
fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains
disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:
Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.
Lincoln's Birthday (1809) celebrates the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, one of the most popular presidents in United States history. It is a state holiday in some states on or around February 12. It's also known as Abraham Lincoln's Birthday, Abraham Lincoln Day or Lincoln Day.
“Character is Destiny” [5] is a book written by John McCain in it he highlights the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, of the United States as an example of a man who demonstrates for us the characteristic of RESILIENCE. Resilience is the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens.
Abraham Lincoln had known loss and grief all his life yet rather that than succumb to defeat; he somehow, always found a way to rise back up. He was inarguably a man of action. Although he was known to have chronic depression he never yielded and, in some way, resurrected from his melancholic states thinking, “To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better.” Lincoln rose to the highest office in the land after surviving a hard and poor childhood in the Indiana wilderness, a harsh father, little education, and deep loneliness. He survived the death of his brother, a sister, his mother, his first sweetheart, and his own children and his marriage to Mary Todd was troubled. As president he was considered dismal by most.
How did Lincoln persist?
He willed it. He was neither swift nor brilliant at work, but he was exhaustive; he continued. His resilience sprang from his deep conviction that America was, “the last, best hope of earth.” In the end he paid for his devotion with his life; so that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
Darwin Day[6]
Darwin Day commemorates the achievements and the life of the scientist Charles Darwin. Names like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, and Charles Darwin are among the most historic names in science. Darwin’s most famous achievement is the development of the Theory of Natural Selection. The celebration occurs every year on Darwin’s birthday, February 12th.
Character is Destiny[7]
John McCain pointed out in his book entitled,
“Character is Destiny” that an understanding heart must be generous (Oseola
McCarty), forgiving (Nelson Mandela), tolerant (Four Chaplains), full of mercy
(Mother Antonia), faithful (Christian Guard at Hua Lo prison) and compassionate
(Maximilian Kolbe). John now suggests for us that adding to our understanding
heart we must strive to have a creative mind. A creative mind must be built on
a thirst or curiosity in the mysteries of creation. John points out as an example
of curiosity the renowned Charles Darwin.
McCain says of Darwin:
His curiosity and courage helped him to discover the
history of nature and start an argument that has continued for 150 years. A
curious thing about the father of the theory of evolution is that he himself
was an avowed agnostic, keeping
to his scientific methods.
The evolution of all life on earth, including man,
was and still is, in some quarters, considered an affront to the belief that
the progress of the human race over time bears the unmistakable sign of the
divine spark in our nature: but why can we not be content in our faith with the
understanding that God’s divine intelligence, which exists beyond time and
space, and has left us to choose by the exercise of our free will whether to
accept His grace or reject it, could have left nature to work its physical changes
upon us?
We have a second nature, a moral nature, that is not
determined by ecological change but by the workings of our conscience.
Is not our conscience and its effect upon our will
enough confirmation for the believer that God, the Creator, has endowed us with
the divine spark of His love to improve, if we so choose, our second nature in
service to Him?
It is enough, I believe, for anyone who can see in
our struggle to be good a divine purpose, as we may still glimpse in the
wonders of nature the divine intelligence that created it and set it all in
motion.
To believe and follow God is our choice. Not all will follow. Our principal belief is in our salvation not in this life but the next. Man, and nature, even at their cruelest, cannot deny us that, nor the gloriousness of His creation, a gloriousness that human qualities like curiosity have led us to appreciate with humility and awe. Time and the laws of nature do not expose the absence of God, whose proofs are a matter for the heart to contemplate, a matter of faith.
Evolution and the Catholic Church[8]
Early contributions to biology were made by Catholic
scientists such as Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and the
Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel. Since the publication of Charles
Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859,
the attitude of the Catholic
Church on the theory of evolution has slowly been refined.
For nearly a century, the papacy offered
no authoritative pronouncement on Darwin's theories. In the 1950 encyclical Humani
generis, Pope Pius
XII confirmed that there is no intrinsic conflict between Christianity and the
theory of evolution, provided that Christians believe that God created all
things and that the individual soul is a direct creation by God and not the product of purely material forces.
Today, the Church supports theistic evolution(ism), also known as evolutionary
creation, although Catholics are free not to believe in any part of
evolutionary theory.
The Catholic Church holds no official position on
the theory of creation or evolution, leaving the specifics of either theistic
evolution or literal creationism to the individual within certain parameters
established by the Church. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
any believer may accept either literal or special
creation within the period of an actual six-day, twenty-four-hour period, or they
may accept the belief that the earth evolved over time under the guidance of
God. Catholicism holds that God initiated and continued the process
of his evolutionary creation and that all humans, whether specially created or
evolved, have and have always had specially created souls for each individual.
Catholic schools in the United States and other countries teach evolution as part of their science curriculum. They teach the fact that evolution occurs and the modern evolutionary synthesis, which is the scientific theory that explains how evolution proceeds.
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Holy Priests, Consecrated, & Religious
·
National Kraut and
Frankfurter Week
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Make
reparations to the Holy Face
·
Rosary
[1] John Maxwell, The Maxwell
Leadership Bible.
[2]http://www.wincalendar.com/Tu-Bishvat
[3]https://www.christianforums.com/threads/trump-says-we-will-plant-trillions-of-trees-now-because.8147047/
[5] McCain, John and Salter, Mark. (2005) Character is destiny. Random
House, New York
[6] https://www.wincalendar.com/Darwin-Day
[7] http://www.icemanforchrist.org/p/character-is-destiny.html
[8]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_Catholic_Church
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