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If You Love This Planet: A Plan To Heal The Earth, by Helen Caldicott. Norton Co., 2009.
If the human race doesn’t change its present behavior, the ecosphere may be doomed within the next ten years, she says. Who is to blame? Public apathy, corporate greed, and the cynical manipulation of political leaders leading to ozone depletion, excess energy consumption, and global warming.
What are the remedies to prevent these catastrophes? first of all there must be a change in the way we think and behave. By a closer contact with and reverence for, nature will help to provide simple answers for seemingly complex problems. Education will give answers in learning energy efficiency, political
organizing, and the holding of corporations and governments accountable. The greatest strength in saving the earth will come from love of the earth itself.
Some of the ten chapters deal with ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect; atmosphere
degradation; care of trees; toxic pollution; overpopulation, first World greed and Third World debt; and the part that the media plays in the fate of the earth.
In the Introduction, Caldicott writes: “My vocation is medicine, and as a physician I examine
the dying planet as I do a dying patient. The earth has a natural system of interacting homeostatic mechanisms similar to the human body’s. If one system is diseased, like the ozone layer, then other systems develop abnormalities in function - the crops will die, the plankton will be damaged, and the eyes of all creatures on the planet will become diseased and vision impaired.” She goes on to say that we must not only diagnose the illness, but do something to cure it, or better still prevent
it.
- Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this review - Paperback, Hardback, Kindle
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Assumption of Mary: August 15.
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary to be
a dogma of faith: “We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.” The pope proclaimed this dogma only after a broad consultation of bishops, theologians and laity. There were few dissenting voices. What the pope solemnly declared was already a common belief in the Catholic Church.
We find homilies on the Assumption going back to the sixth century. In following centuries, the Eastern Churches held steadily to the doctrine, but some authors in the West were hesitant. However by the 13th century there was universal agreement. The feast was celebrated under various names–Commemoration, Dormition, Passing, Assumption–from at least the fifth or sixth century. Today it is celebrated as a
solemnity.
Scripture does not give an account of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. Nevertheless, Revelation 12 speaks of a woman who is caught up in the battle between good and evil. Many see this woman as God’s people. Since Mary best embodies the people of both Old and New Testaments, her Assumption can be seen as an exemplification of the woman’s
victory.
Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 15:20, Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Since Mary is closely associated with all the mysteries of Jesus’ life, it is not surprising that the Holy
Spirit has led the Church to believe in Mary’s share in his glorification. So close was she to Jesus on earth, she must be with him body and soul in heaven.
Calendar of Saints
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