Strange gods around us 

Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant futility. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic synonym for vanity, but originally meant boasting in vain, i.e. unjustified boasting although glory is now seen as having an exclusively positive meaning, the Latin term gloria (from which it derives) roughly means boasting, and was often used as a negative criticism.

Some people say that the use of profanity, in conversation, is a sign of a poor education or an unimaginative mind – these people have obviously not encountered some of the profanity that I have.  In my opinion, profanity can be an artform; not least the use of profanity itself.

From the choice of profanity to the timing and delivery, there is a lot of skill to the proper use of profanity.  Waiting to the count of three or four before appending the word “cock” or even “cunt” to a final statement is the verbal equivalent of delivering the killing blow to an argument – or at least teabagging an already defeated opponent.

People established some guidelines to help people figure out if their love of football is just a fun pastime or an unhealthy obsession. The following behaviors may signal that a fan is losing a grip on reality and becoming addicted:

-- Thinking about football while doing other things.

-- Becoming irritated when a game is interrupted.

-- Missing important family or other events to watch a game.

-- Becoming depressed, angry or violent when a certain team loses.

Sport experts concluded that someone who is demonstrating these types of behaviors should seek help for their addiction before it damages their relationships with people they care about. As with any other addiction, people who observe these behaviors in someone, he noted, should not be afraid to speak up about the problem.

"Ultimately this is a habit that needs to change, and moving forward means changing your behavior a little bit at a time,"

Materialism, at its simpler level, involves the focus on material "things" as opposed to that which is spiritual or intellectual in nature. We live in a world surrounded by and composed of matter. It is natural, therefore, that we may become distracted from spiritual or intellectual pursuits by material possessions, but this is frequently where problems occur. We can become obsessed by a desire to obtain them, or simply frustrated by the need to maintain them. 

Light and Color

The name of the three ways light interacts with matter is Transparent, Translucent, and Opaque. Transparent describes matter that allows light to pass through with little interference. Translucent decribes matter that transmit light but that does not transmit and image. Opaque decribes an object that does not transparent or translucent. We tend to think of objects as having fixed colors—an apple, for example, is red. In reality, an object’s appearance results from the way it reflects the particular light that is falling on it. Under white light, the apple appears red because it tends to reflect light in the red portion of the spectrum and absorb light of other wavelengths. If a filter is used to remove red from the light source, the apple reflects very little light and appears black.
 The fact that the color makeup of light can change, means that shifts can occur in the color appearance of objects illuminated by it. Within limits, the brain compensates for these changes in color appearance and we see things as we expect them to appear. But the changes are there nonetheless and can affect the way people respond to objects and environments. There is a great variety in the color makeup of light that appears white. Direct sunlight at noontime is an almost perfectly balanced light source—it contains all colors in nearly equal quantities. But daylight does experience color shifts.
The color appearance of objects changes dramatically in early morning or in the shade. Electric light sources can also exhibit variations in color makeup. Incandescent lamps tend to produce more red and yellow light than green and blue, and appear to be “warm” in color. Because of the way incandescent light is produced, little can be done to manipulate its color characteristics. With fluorescent and high intensity discharge lighting, this latest technology makes it possible to manipulate the color makeup of a given light source.Generally speaking, whiter light (comprised of equal amounts of all colors) makes colors appear more natural and vibrant. However, some portions of the spectrum are more important to a light’s color makeup than others. Red, blue and green—the primary colors of light—can be combined to create almost any other color. This suggests that a light source containing balanced quantities of red, blue and green light can provide excellent color appearance even if this light source is deficient in other colors in the spectrum.

1st and 2nd Commandments

This First Commandment sets the tone for the first four commandments, which can be summarized as, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” There are many pitfalls and temptations that can lead us to disobey the First Commandment. This commandment is not just about pagan gods and false religions. Anything that we put as higher priority than the true God causes us to sin.Pride, that common human failing, breaks this command by putting self above God. As James wrote: “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” We need to seek God’s help to see things from God’s perspective—to get outside our own selfish worldview.

Though this second Commandment is closely related to the first, yet there is a clear distinction between them, which may be expressed in a variety of ways. As the first Commandment concerns the choice of the true God as our God, so the second tells of our actual profession of His worship; as the former fixes the Object so this fixes the mode of religious worship. As in the first commandment Jehovah had proclaimed Himself to be the true God, so here He reveals His nature and how He is to be honored."Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image thou shalt not bow down thyself to them." This commandment strikes against a desire, or should we say a disease, which is deeply rooted in the human heart, namely, to bring in some aids to the worship of God, beyond those which He has appointed—material aids, things which can be perceived by the senses. Nor is the reason for this difficult to find: God is incorporeal, invisible, and can be realized only by a spiritual principle, and since that principle is dead in fallen man, he naturally seeks that which accords with his carnality. But how different is it with those who have been quickened by the Holy Spirit. No one who truly knows God as a living reality needs any images to aid his devotions; none who enjoys daily communion with Christ requires any pictures of Him to help him to pray and adore, for he conceives of Him by faith and not by fancy.

Interaction of  Light waves 

Refraction is the bending of a wave when it enters a medium where its speed is different. The refraction of light when it passes from a fast medium to a slow medium bends the light ray toward the normal to the boundary between the two media.As the speed of light is reduced in the slower medium, the wavelength is shortened proportionately. The frequency is unchanged; it is a characteristic of the source of the light and unaffected by medium changes.

The index of refraction is defined as the speed of light in vacuum divided by the speed of light in the medium.The indices of refraction of some common substances are given below with a more complete description of the indices for optical glasses given elsewhere. The values given are approximate and do not account for the small variation of index with light wavelength which is called dispersion.

Snell's Law relates the indices of refraction n of the two media to the directions of propagation in terms of the angles to the normal. Snell's law can be derived from Fermat's Principle or from the Fresnel Equations.Enter data and then click on the symbol for the quantity you wish to calculate in the active equation above. The numbers will not be forced to be consistent until you click on the quantity to calculate. Indices of refraction must be greater than or equal to 1, so values less than 1 do not represent a physically possible system.If the incident medium has the larger index of refraction, then the angle with the normal is increased by refraction. The larger index medium is commonly called the "internal" medium, since air with n=1 is usually the surrounding or "external" medium. You can calculate the condition for total internal reflection by setting the refracted angle = 90° and calculating the incident angle. Since you can't refract the light by more than 90°, all of it will reflect for angles of incidence greater than the angle which gives refraction at 90°.

 Visible light, also known as white light, consists of a collection of component colors. These colors are often observed as light passes through a triangular prism. Upon passage through the prism, the white light is separated into its component colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. The separation of visible light into its different colors is known as dispersion. It was mentioned in the Light and Color unit that each color is characteristic of a distinct wave frequency; and different frequencies of light waves will bend varying amounts upon passage through a prism. In this unit, we will investigate the dispersion of light in more detail, pondering the reasons why different frequencies of light bend or refract different amounts when passing through the prism.

Earlier in this unit, the concept of optical density was introduced. Different materials are distinguished from each other by their different optical densities. The optical density is simply a measure of the tendency of a material to slow down light as it travels through it. As mentioned earlier, a light wave traveling through a transparent material interacts with the atoms of that material. When a light wave impinges upon an atom of the material, it is absorbed by that atom. The absorbed energy causes the electrons in the atom to vibrate. If the frequency of the light wave does not match the resonance frequency of the vibrating electrons, then the light will be reemitted by the atom at the same frequency at which it impinged upon it. The light wave then travels through the interatomic vacuum towards the next atom of the material. Once it impinges upon the next atom, the process of absorption and re-emission is repeated.The optical density of a material is the result of the tendency of the atoms of a material to maintain the absorbed energy of the light wave in the form of vibrating electrons before reemitting it as a new electromagnetic disturbance. Thus, while a light wave travels through a vacuum at a speed of c (3.00 x 108 m/s), it travels through a transparent material at speeds less than c. The index of refraction value (n) provides a quantitative expression of the optical density of a given medium. Materials with higher index of refraction values have a tendency to hold onto the absorbed light energy for greater lengths of time before reemitting it to the interatomic void. The more closely that the frequency of the light wave matches the resonant frequency of the electrons of the atoms of a material, the greater the optical density and the greater the index of refraction. A light wave would be slowed down to a greater extent when passing through such a material.What was not mentioned earlier in this unit is that the index of refraction values are dependent upon the frequency of light. For visible light, the n value does not show a large variation with frequency, but nonetheless it shows a variation. For instance for some types of glass, the n value for frequencies of violet light is 1.53; and the n value for frequencies of red light is 1.51. The absorption and re-emission process causes the higher frequency (lower wavelength) violet light to travel slower through crown glass than the lower frequency (higher wavelength) red light. It is this difference in n value for the varying frequencies (and wavelengths) that causes the dispersion of light by a triangular prism. Violet light, being slowed down to a greater extent by the absorption and re-emission process, refracts more than red light. Upon entry of white light at the first boundary of a triangular prism, there will be a slight separation of the white light into the component colors of the spectrum. Upon exiting the triangular prism at the second boundary, the separation becomes even greater and ROYGBIV is observed in its splendor.

The Law of Reflection 

Light is known to behave in a very predictable manner. If a ray of light could be observed approaching and reflecting off of a flat mirror, then the behavior of the light as it reflects would follow a predictable law known as the law of reflection. The diagram below illustrates the law of reflection.

When a ray of light strikes a plane mirror, the light ray reflects off the mirror. Reflection involves a change in direction of the light ray. The convention used to express the direction of a light ray is to indicate the angle which the light ray makes with a normal line drawn to the surface of the mirror. The angle of incidence is the angle between this normal line and the incident ray; the angle of reflection is the angle between this normal line and the reflected ray. According to the law of reflection, the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. These concepts are illustrated in the animation below.

The law of reflection tells us that light reflects from objects in a very predictable manner. So the question is, why do we see objects like a table or a chair? These objects do not produce their own light, so in order for us to see any object, light must strike the object and reflect from the object into our eyes. More specifically, in order for us to be able to see objects, the light reflecting off an object must make its way directly to our eyes. So how does the light get from the object to our eyes? It does so through one of the two types of reflection: specular and diffuse reflection.

infrared, microwaves,x-rays &gamma rays

EM radiation is classified into types according to the frequency of the wave: these types include, in order of increasing frequency, radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays.EM radiation in the visible part of the spectrum is scattered off all of the objects around us. This EM radiation provides the information to our eyes that allows us to see. The frequencies of radiation the human eye is sensitive to constitute only a very small part of all possible frequencies of EM radiation. The full set of EM radiation is called the electromagnetic spectrum. To simplify things the EM spectrum divided into sections (such as radio, microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma-rays).Gamma rays and X rays have too much energy to be captured, much of the time, and will pass through. But when they are absorbed, they cause a lot of damage, and so they're best avoided.

Ten Commandments 

God gave the 10 Commandments from Mount Sinai, accompanied by smoke, earthquakes and the blast of a trumpet to emphasize the importance of these laws. Moses recorded God’s words in Exodus 20 and recounted the event again

The Ten Commandments:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

You shall not make idols.

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Honor your father and your mother.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet.

The Ten Commandments (also known as the Decalogue) are ten laws in the Bible that God gave to the nation of Israel shortly after the exodus from Egypt. The Ten Commandments are essentially a summary of the 613 commandments contained in the Old Testament Law. The first four commandments deal with our relationship with God. The last six commandments deal with our relationships with one another

The Ten Commandments are an excellent piece of literature of the Old Testament, which was given by God Himself, through Moses, to the people of Israel, and which was destined to shape the morals of the society of the world.

The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, constitute the ethical code by which the human race is guided, on the one hand, to believe in the true God, and, on the other hand to sustain the godly society in the attainment and application of God's will on earth. The Ten Commandments were kept undefiled and handed down to us as a treasure and monument of Christian civilization. The Christian Church has embodied the Ten Commandments as a basic moral code of, discipline toward God and toward men. "There is probably no human document which has exercised a greater influence upon, religion and morals than the Ten Commandments."

Dogmatic constitution

 Christ is the Light of nations. Because this is so, this Sacred Synod gathered together in the Holy Spirit eagerly desires, by proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, to bring the light of Christ to all men, a light brightly visible on the countenance of the Church. Since the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race, it desires now to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and to the whole world its own inner nature and universal mission. This it intends to do following faithfully the teaching of previous councils. The present-day conditions of the world add greater urgency to this work of the Church so that all men, joined more closely today by various social, technical and cultural ties, might also attain fuller unity in Christ.

 The eternal Father, by a free and hidden plan of His own wisdom and goodness, created the whole world. His plan was to raise men to a participation of the divine life. Fallen in Adam, God the Father did not leave men to themselves, but ceaselessly offered helps to salvation, in view of Christ, the Redeemer "who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature". All the elect, before time began, the Father "foreknew and pre- destined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that he should be the firstborn among many brethren". He planned to assemble in the holy Church all those who would believe in Christ. Already from the beginning of the world the foreshadowing of the Church took place. It was prepared in a remarkable way throughout the history of the people of Israel and by means of the Old Covenant. In the present era of time the Church was constituted and, by the outpouring of the Spirit, was made manifest. At the end of time it will gloriously achieve completion, when, as is read in the Fathers, all the just, from Adam and "from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect," will be gathered together with the Father in the universal Church.

The Son, therefore, came, sent by the Father. It was in Him, before the foundation of the world, that the Father chose us and predestined us to become adopted sons, for in Him it pleased the Father to re-establish all things. To carry out the will of the Father, Christ inaugurated the Kingdom of heaven on earth and revealed to us the mystery of that kingdom. By His obedience He brought about redemption. The Church, or, in other words, the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery, grows visibly through the power of God in the world. This inauguration and this growth are both symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of a crucified Jesus, and are foretold in the words of the Lord referring to His death on the Cross: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself". As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ our Passover was sacrificed, is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried on, and, in the sacrament of the eucharistic bread, the unity of all believers who form one body in Christ  is both expressed and brought about. All men are called to this union with Christ, who is the light of the world, from whom we go forth, through whom we live, and toward whom our whole life strains.

When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth  was accomplished, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that He might continually sanctify the Church, and thus, all those who believe would have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father. He is the Spirit of Life, a fountain of water springing up to life eternal.To men, dead in sin, the Father gives life through Him, until, in Christ, He brings to life their mortal bodies. The Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful, as in a temple. In them He prays on their behalf and bears witness to the fact that they are adopted sons. The Church, which the Spirit guides in way of all truth and which He unified in communion and in works of ministry, He both equips and directs with hierarchical and charismatic gifts and adorns with His fruits. By the power of the Gospel He makes the Church keep the freshness of youth. Uninterruptedly He renews it and leads it to perfect union with its Spouse.  The Spirit and the Bride both say to Jesus, the Lord, "Come!"

How can you carry on the work of Christ?

In our baptism we put off the old man and the old manner of life, and we put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Righteousness is being right with God and man according to God’s righteous way, while holiness is being separated unto God from anything common and being saturated with God’s holy nature. We need to live a life of righteousness and holiness. This is the way that Jesus lived on this earth to set up a pattern of One who lived a life of always doing things in God, with God, and for God, ministering Himself as grace to others. We learn from Him, according to His example, not by our natural life, but by Him as our life. We need to live a life that gives grace to others for the needful building up. This is a life that ministers Christ to others as their enjoyment and supply for the building up of the Body of Christ. We should not let any corrupt word proceed out of our mouth but only the words that give grace to others. In all of our speaking, we should distribute the riches of Christ.

To build up the Body of Christ, we must also learn not to grieve the Holy Spirit so that He can keep sealing us for the day of the redemption of our body. We should always make the Spirit happy. Everything in our behavior should be pleasant to Him. The sealing Spirit is continuously sealing us with the essence and element of the Triune God. When a piece of paper is sealed with a seal, the paper receives the ink essence and also the likeness and the shape of the seal. The sealing Spirit brings the essence of the Triune God into us and causes us to bear the likeness of the Triune God.

A life that builds up the Body of Christ is also a forgiving life. To practice the Body life we need to forgive one another, forgetting one another’s offending, as God in Christ forgets our offenses. To forgive means to forget. Because we are still in our old man much of the time, we make mistakes and offend others. This is why we need to forgive others by the life of God in the Spirit of God.

There is much, much hope, promise, and potential that all the churches in the Lord’s recovery could be built up in this way. May the Lord bring us into the reality of the one Body built up by one ministry with thousands of saints perfected to live a life that is adequate and qualified to do the work of the building up of the Body of Christ.

Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of men. United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the Kingdom of their Father and they have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every man. That is why this community realizes that it is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest of bonds.

Hence this Second Vatican Council, having probed more profoundly into the mystery of the Church, now addresses itself without hesitation, not only to the sons of the Church and to all who invoke the name of Christ, but to the whole of humanity. For the council yearns to explain to everyone how it conceives of the presence and activity of the Church in the world of today.

Therefore, the council focuses its attention on the world of men, the whole human family along with the sum of those realities in the midst of which it lives; that world which is the theater of man's history, and the heir of his energies, his tragedies and his triumphs; that world which the Christian sees as created and sustained by its Maker's love, fallen indeed into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by Christ, Who was crucified and rose again to break the strangle hold of personified evil, so that the world might be fashioned anew according to God's design and reach its fulfillment.

Though mankind is stricken with wonder at its own discoveries and its power, it often raises anxious questions about the current trend of the world, about the place and role of man in the universe, about the meaning of its individual and collective strivings, and about the ultimate destiny of reality and of humanity. Hence, giving witness and voice to the faith of the whole people of God gathered together by Christ, this council can provide no more eloquent proof of its solidarity with, a, well as its respect and love for the entire human family with which it is bound up, than by engaging with it in conversation about these various problems. The council brings to mankind light kindled from the Gospel, and puts at its disposal those saving resources which the Church herself, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, receives from her Founder. For the human person deserves to be preserved; human society deserves to be renewed. Hence the focal point of our total presentation will be man himself, whole and entire, body and soul, heart and conscience, mind and will.

Therefore, this sacred synod, proclaiming the noble destiny of man and championing the Godlike seed which has been sown in him, offers to mankind the honest assistance of the Church in fostering that brotherhood of all men which corresponds to this destiny of theirs. Inspired by no earthly ambition, the Church seeks but a solitary goal: to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending Spirit. And Christ entered this world to give witness to the truth, to rescue and not to sit in judgment, to serve and not to be served.

Vatican II Lumen Gentium

The importance of Chapter Three of Lumen gentium, where this subject is treated, is incontestable. At the time of the Council, everyone was aware of the need to provide a complement to the teaching of Vatican I on papal primacy and infallibility. Cut short by political and military disruptions of the time, that Council’s full agenda was left unfinished. Nevertheless, Vatican II recognized that apostolic authority is a divinely instituted means, not an end in itself. It is totally at the service of the Church’s unity, holiness, and catholicity. Since the value of a means derives from the end to which it is ordered, a fifty-year retrospective on Lumen gentium ought to place the primacy on the Church as end, and particularly on holiness, as the best way to be faithful to the authentic spirit of Vatican II

Christ is the Light of nations. Because this is so, this Sacred Synod gathered together in the Holy Spirit eagerly desires, by proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, to bring the light of Christ to all men, a light brightly visible on the countenance of the Church. Since the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race, it desires now to unfold more fully to the faithful of the Church and to the whole world its own inner nature and universal mission. This it intends to do following faithfully the teaching of previous councils. The present-day conditions of the world add greater urgency to this work of the Church so that all men, joined more closely today by various social, technical and cultural ties, might also attain fuller unity in Christ.

electromagnetic spectrum

The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation.^[4] The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object has a different meaning, and is instead the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation emitted or absorbed by that particular object.

The electromagnetic spectrum extends from below the low frequencies used for modern radio communication togamma radiation at the short-wavelength (high-frequency) end, thereby covering wavelengths from thousands ofkilometers down to a fraction of the size of an atom. The limit for long wavelengths is the size of the universeitself, while it is thought that the short wavelength limit is in the vicinity of the Planck length. Until the middle of last century it was believed by most physicists that this spectrum was infinite and continuous.

Most parts of the electromagnetic spectrum are used in science for spectroscopic and other probing interactions, as ways to study and characterize matter. In addition, radiation from various parts of the spectrum has found many other uses for communications and manufacturing

Vatican II's Dei Verbum

The Catholic faith is based on divine revelation. The Catholic Church knows that she was founded by Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, and that she was commissioned by Him to proclaim the Gospel of Gods love to all mankind. Jesus as the Word of God is the fullness of Gods revelation. He revealed to His disciples the inner nature of God as tri-personal Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He also revealed Gods plan to redeem the human race by His passion, death and resurrection.

In its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum, November 18, 1965) the Second Vatican Council spelled out in some detail what the Church believes and teaches with regard to divine revelation, primarily as it is contained in the Bible. Tradition is also included, but the emphasis in the document is on the written word in the holy Scriptures of the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). Dei Verbum, since it is a dogmatic constitution, is one of the most important documents of the Council. It ranks second only to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) and is printed in the second place in the collection of Vatican II documents.

In what follows I will summarize briefly the prologue and the six chapters of the Constitution and in the process I will make a few observations as a help to understanding the document.

How the church is human and divine

The Church is not God. The Church is the People of God. The Church is not Jesus. The Church is the Mystical Body of Jesus. In other words, the Church is human and divine. It is divine in its founder, Jesus Christ, true God and true man. It is divine in its purpose which is the salvation of souls. It is divine also in the means it uses, particularly the Mass and the Sacraments, all instituted by Jesus. But it is human in its members and in its leaders. It is the Church of great saints and notorious sinners. Jesus illustrated this fact in the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Both will be present until the end and then they will be separated. This is confirmed in Jesus’ description of the last judgment.

The 12 apostles were personally chosen by Jesus, after he had spent the night in prayer. They were a motley crew to say the least. Some were simple fishermen who left all to follow a perfect stranger who passed by and simply said, “Come, follow me.” Another was a tax-collector who was despised by the Jews. Another was a zealot, a fanatical revolutionary who wanted to overthrow the Romans by force. Two of them were called “the sons of thunder,” hot heads who wanted to call down thunder on those who would not welcome them. Another was a traitor who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Of the others we know nothing but their names, which says a lot about them.

All of them were slow to understand. They were baffled by Jesus’ parables. They were selfish and ambitious, always arguing who was the greatest. Two wanted the best seats in the Kingdom. One wanted to walk on water. The leader of the group, after telling Jesus that he would willingly die for him, denied 3 times that he even knew him. When Jesus was arrested they all fled. They were very human. And so are their successors. All of which points up the fact that our faith is not in any human being but in Jesus, true God and true man, “the way, the truth, and the life,” “yesterday, today and the same forever.”

In an ideal world those who celebrate Mass and the Sacraments should be holy, and sinless. But we do not live in an ideal world; we live in a world that is tainted by sin from the very beginning. The Church is a work in progress. “The Bride of Christ without stain or wrinkle” comes only at end, and we still have a long way to go. We are all sinners, actually in the past, potentially in the future and always carrying this treasure in a very fragile vessel. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the “Immaculate Exception,” or in the words of the poet “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.” John tells us, “If we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John1:8) Pope John XXIII said that he called the Second Vatican Council because he said “ecclesia semper reformanda,” the Church is in constant need of reformation. Pope John Paul II in his book, “When a Pope asks Forgiveness,” asks forgiveness for all of the sins committed by the humanity of the Church through the centuries.

The Mass and the Sacraments are actions of Jesus, “I baptize you...” “I absolve you...” “This is my body...” The priest is only an instrument. The validity of the Mass and the sacraments do not depend on the sanctity of the minister. The Sacraments are valid, “ex opere operato,” from the work done, that is from the Sacrament itself. The Church supplies for the deficiency of the minister of the Sacraments.

The efficacy of the Sacraments does not depend on the disposition of the minister but on the disposition of the recipient. “Whatever is received is received according to the disposition of the recipient.” This is well illustrated in the parable of the sower and the seed. The quality and quantity of the produce depend on the quality of the soil.

God could have chosen angels. But he chose men, fickle, fallible, sinful human beings. And it is this very sinful humanity which is the greatest proof of its divinity. If it were only human it would have been out of existence a long time ago. After the Resurrection when the apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin for teaching about the Resurrection, Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, said, “So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5:38-39) That was some 2,000 years ago. Since then the Church has seen empires rise, flourish and fall. It has withstood diabolical attacks from without and corrupting influences from within. This small grain of mustard seed has stretched its branches through the entire world.

God could have chosen angels. If God had chosen angels would the Church be perfect? I don’t think so. How many myriads of them said, “I will not serve” and were cast into the hell prepared for them? If the Church is perfect, how did you get in? How did I get in? How did any human being get in? If you are looking for a perfect Church and you find it, join it. And when you do it will no longer be perfect.

The next time the humanity of the Church rears its ugly head, instead of being shocked and scandalized, instead of trying to twist the facts to deny the truth, let us realize that there is something here greater than all of us and that the humanity of the Church is just another proof of the divinity of the Church that makes us cling more firmly and confidently to Jesus, and to his Mystical Body, the Church.

Electric and magnetic field 

Electromagnetic waves are changing electric and magnetic fields. An electric field surrounds every charged object. The electric field around  a charged object pulls oppositely charged objects toward it and repels like-charged objects. You can see the effect of electric fields whenever you see objects stuck together by static electricity.A magnetic field surrounds every magnet. Because of magnetic fields, paper clips and iron fillings are pulled toward magnets. 
Magnetic fields are different from electric fields. Although both types of fields are interconnected, they do different things. The idea of magnetic field lines and magnetic fields was first examined by Michael Faraday and later by James Clerk Maxwell. Both of these English scientists made great discoveries in the field of electromagnetism. 

Magnetic fields are areas where an object exhibits a magnetic influence. The fields affect neighboring objects along things called magnetic field lines. A magnetic object can attract or push away another magnetic object. You also need to remember that magnetic forces are NOT related to gravity. The amount of gravity is based on an object's mass, while magnetic strength is based on the material that the object is made of. 

If you place an object in a magnetic field, it will be affected, and the effect will happen along field lines. Many classroom experiments watch small pieces of iron (Fe) line up around magnets along the field lines. Magnetic poles are the points where the magnetic field lines begin and end. Field lines converge or come together at the poles. You have probably heard of the poles of the Earth. Those poles are places where our planets field lines come together. We call those poles north and south because that's where they're located on Earth. All magnetic objects have field lines and poles. It can be as small as an atom or as large as a star. 

Magnets are simple examples of natural magnetic fields. But guess what? The Earth has a huge magnetic field. Because the core of our planet is filled with molten iron (Fe), there is a large field that protects the Earth from space radiation and particles such as the solar wind. When you look at tiny magnets, they are working in a similar way. The magnet has a field around it. 

As noted earlier, current in wires produces a magnetic effect. You can increase the strength of that magnetic field by increasing the current through the wire. We can use this principle to make artificial, adjustable magnets called electromagnets, by making coils of wire, and then passing current through the coils. 

what is light

Light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from radio waves to gamma rays. Electromagnetic radiation waves, as their names suggest are fluctuations of electric and magnetic fields, which can transport energy from one location to another. Visible light is not inherently different from the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum with the exception that the human eye can detect visible waves. Electromagnetic radiation can also be described in terms of a stream of photons which are massless particles each travelling with wavelike properties at the speed of light. A photon is the smallest quantity (quantum) of energy which can be transported and it was the realization that light travelled in discrete quanta that was the origins of Quantum Theory.

Matter is composed of atoms, ions or molecules and it is light’s interaction with matter which gives rise to the various phenomena which can help us understand the nature of matter. The atoms, ions or molecules have defined energy levels usually associated with energy levels that electrons in the matter can hold. Light can be generated by the matter or a photon of light can interact with the energy levels in a number of ways.

Properties of sound 

speed of sound :

sound travels quickly throught air, but it travels even faster in liquids and even faster in solids

pitch and frequency:

The pitch of the sound will sound low or high and the frquency of the wave is the number of crest or troughs that are made in a given time. The pitch of a sound is related to the frequency of the sound wave

loudness and amplitude:

Loudness is mesaure of how well a sound can be heard. The amplitude of a wave is the largest distance the particles in a wave vibrates from their rest postion.  

"seeing" amplitusde and frequency:

sound waves are invisable the only way to see sound waves is through a device called an oscilloscope.

Detecting sound

Just as a vibrating object creates sound, thus forming compression waves in air or some other medium, sound is also detected by the waves causing a back-and-forth vibration of some object in its path.

What is happening is that the sound in traveling from the air into the object, just like you can hear sound going through the walls or windows in your house.

Since the vibrations are so small in most situations, you cannot tell that the object is actually vibrating. However, you can feel how sound can cause other things to vibrate by standing in front of some loudspeakers when music is being played very loud. You can actually feel the vibration on your skin and chest.

Loud sounds in a room can cause the windows and even walls to vibrate noticeably at the frequency of the waveform.

The detection of sound waves requires transferring the vibration it causes into some sort of signal that can be processed and used.

Feeling the vibration of a wall when loud music is being played in the other room is detecting the sound, by changing the vibration into signals to your brain from your sense of touch. But that isn't very useful information.

Your ear or a microphone can convert the vibration into a signal, which can then be processed into a form that can duplicate or reproduce that sound.

The type of signal that the vibration creates is usually an electrical signal. Processing can almost duplicate the original sound, except for some distortions.

The inner structure of the ear 

The inner ear contains the sensory organs for hearing and balance. The cochlea is the hearing part of the inner ear. The semicircular canals in the inner ear are part of our balance system.

The cochlea is a bony structure shaped like a snail and filled with two fluids (endolymph and perilymph). The Organ of Corti is the sensory receptor inside the cochlea which holds the hair cells, the nerve receptors for hearing.

The mechanical energy from movement of the middle ear bones pushes in a membrane (the oval window) in the cochlea. This force moves the cochlea's fluids that, in turn, stimulate tiny hair cells. Individual hair cells respond to specific sound frequencies (pitches) so that, depending on the pitch of the sound, only certain hair cells are stimulated.

Signals from these hair cells are changed into nerve impulses. The nerve impulses are sent out to the brain by the cochlear portion of the auditory nerve. The auditory nerve carries impulses from the cochlea to a relay station in the mid-brain, the cochlear nucleus. These nerve impulses are then carried on to other brain pathways that end in the auditory cortex (hearing part) of the brain.

Also housed within the inner ear are the semicircular canals, the utricle, and the saccule. These structures help control one’s sense of steadiness or balance. These balance organs share the temporal bone space with the cochlea. These organs also share the same fluid that is in the cochlea.

life story of Pope John XX111

POPE JOHN XXIII

1958-1963

When on October 20, 1958 the cardinals, assembled in conclave, elected Angelo Roncalli as pope many regarded him, because of his age and ambiguous reputation, as a transitional pope, little realizing that the pontificate of this man of 76 years would mark a turning point in history and initiate a new age for the Church. 

He took the name of John in honor of the precursor and the beloved disciple—but also because it was the name of a long line of popes whose pontificates had been short.

Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the third of thirteen children, was born on November 25, 1881 at Sotto il Monte (Bergamo) of a family of sharecroppers. He attended elementary school in the town, was tutored by a priest of Carvico, and at the age of twelve entered the seminary at Bergamo. 

A scholarship from the Cerasoli Foundation (1901) enabled him to go on to the Apollinaris in Rome where he studied under (among others) Umberto Benigni, the Church historian. He interrupted his studies for service in the Italian Army but returned to the seminary, completed his work for a doctorate in theology, and was ordained in 1904.

 Continuing his studies in canon law he was appointed secretary to the new bishop of Bergamo, Giacomo Radini-Tedeschi. Angelo served this social-minded prelate for nine years, acquiring first-hand experience and a broad understanding of the problems of the working class. He also taught apologetics, church history, and patrology.