Monday, December 21, 2020

Monday, December 21, 2020

For those of you who woke up after 5:02 AM, it is now officially winter. The cold last week was only the late fall harbinger of winter. The temperature, that is, the official temperature, is actually above the 32 degree mark of freezing.  So, you should all feel warmer this morning even though it is now winter.

Today’s first day of winter brings an event that has not occurred since 1226:  the planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear as one in what astronomers call ‘the great conjunction.” Picked up by large telescopes, you can watch it live streamed or later.  We understand this event as an astronomical fact; the ancients saw this kind of event as an act of God portending some event.

Science and faith should enhance each other, not stand in opposition to each other. So it is with the virus and the vaccines now available.  God created us as intelligent beings so we could learn how to tackle the problems we face, not to put our head in the sand like the ostrich.

Prayer for the Day

We marvel at the wonders of the universe created by you, O God,

    And are thankful that you created us as sentient beings;

We are grateful for the work of dedicated researchers and scientists

    As we consider the promise of vaccines to combat the virus.

Awaken us, O God, and move us beyond the unscientific

    And help us to work together for the betterment of humanity.

In the name of him who came to point the way,

    Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

Thoughts for the Day

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

                                               -  Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Those of us engaged in the practice of science come to feel a certain reverence for it, engendered by its demonstrable power to clarify, dissect, and explain what previously was unexplainable, and thus to improve the human condition.

                                                - Carolyn Porco, American planetary scientist

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you fixed,

   “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than the gods

   And have crowned them with glory and grandeur?”