Quote:Elizabeth, of the royal race of Aragon, was born in the year of our Lord 1271. As a presage of her future sanctity, her parents, contrary to custom, passing over the mother and grandmother, gave her in Baptism the name of her maternal great-aunt, St. Elizabeth, Duchess of Thuringia. No sooner was she born, than it became evident what a blessed peacemaker she was to be between kings and kingdoms; for the joy of her birth put a happy period to the miserable quarrels of her father and grandfather. As she grew up, her father, admiring the natural abilities of his daughter, was wont to assert that Elizabeth would far outstrip in virtue all the women descended of the royal blood of Aragon; and so great was his veneration for her heavenly manner of life, her contempt of worldly ornaments, her abhorrence of pleasure, her assiduity in fasting, prayer, and works of charity, that he attributed to her merits alone the prosperity of his kingdom and estate. On account of her widespread reputation, her hand was sought by many princes; at length she was, with all the ceremonies of holy Church, united in matrimony with Dionysius, king of Portugal.

In the married state she gave her self up to the exercise of virtue and the education of her children, striving, indeed, to please her husband, but still more to please God. For nearly half the year she lived on bread and water alone; and, on one occasion when, in an illness, she had refused to take the wine prescribed by the physician, her water was miraculously changed into wine. She instantaneously cured a poor woman of a loathsome ulcer by kissing it. In the depth of winter she changed the money she was going to distribute to the poor into roses, in order to conceal it from the king. She gave sight to a virgin born blind, healed many other persons of grievous distempers by the mere sign of the Cross, and performed a great number of other miracles of a like nature. She built and amply endowed monasteries, hospitals, and churches. She was admirable for her zeal in composing the differences of kings, and unwearied in her efforts to alleviate the public and private miseries of mankind.

After the death of King Dionysius, Elizabeth, who had been in her youth a model to virgins, and in her married life to wives, became in her solitude a pattern of all virtues to widows. She immediately put on the religious habit of St. Clare, assisted with the greatest fortitude at the king’s funeral, and then, proceeding to Compostella, offered there for the repose of his soul a quantity of silk, silver, gold, and precious stones. On her return home she consumed in holy and pious works all she had that was dear and precious to her; she completed the building of her truly royal monastery of virgins at Coimbra; and, wholly engaged in feeding the poor, protecting widows, sheltering orphans, and assisting the afflicted in every way, she lived not for herself, but for the glory of God and the well-being of men. On her way to the noble town of Estremoz, whither she was going in order to make peace between the two kings, her son and son-in-law, she was seized with illness; and, in that town, after having been visited by the blessed Virgin, Mother of God, she died a most holy death, on the 4th day of July, in the year 1336. After death she was glorified by many miracles, especially by the sweet fragrance of her body, which has remained incorrupt for nearly three hundred years; and she is always distinguished by the name of the “holy queen.” At length, in the year of jubilee, of our salvation 1625, with the unanimous applause of the assembled Christian world, she was solemnly enrolled among the Saints by Pope Urban VIII.

Quote:“Why did China and the U.S. use to be able to settle all kinds of issues between 1992 and 2016? No matter what kind of crises we encountered, be it the Yinhe incident, the bombing of the embassy, or the crashing of the plane, things were all solved in no time, like [a couple] do with their quarrels starting at the bed head but ending at the bed end. We fixed everything in two months. What is the reason? I’m going to throw out something maybe a little bit explosive here. It’s just because we have people at the top. We have our old friends who are at the top of America’s core inner circle of power & influence.”

Quote:“In plain and simple language, during the last three to four decades we took advantage of America’s core circle,” he says. “Wall Street has had a very profound influence over America’s domestic and foreign affairs since the 1970s.”

The Trump administration was a brief hiccup in this system, Di said, because President Trump was not under the control of Wall Street or the Wall Street-aligned D.C. establishment. But with the election of Joe Biden, he said, business as usual could soon resume:

Quote:“In the U.S.-China trade war they tried to help [us.] My friends in the U.S. told me that: They tried to help, but they couldn’t. Now, with Biden winning the election, the traditional elites, political elites, the establishment, they have a very close relationship with Wall Street.”

Quote:Event 201 was a 3.5-hour pandemic tabletop exercise that simulated a series of dramatic, scenario-based facilitated discussions, confronting difficult, true-to-life dilemmas associated with response to a hypothetical, but scientifically plausible, pandemic. 15 global business, government, and public health leaders were players in the simulation exercise that highlighted unresolved real-world policy and economic issues that could be solved with sufficient political will, financial investment, and attention now and in the future.

The exercise consisted of pre-recorded news broadcasts, live “staff” briefings, and moderated discussions on specific topics. These issues were carefully designed in a compelling narrative that educated the participants and the audience.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, World Economic Forum, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation jointly propose these recommendations.

Quote:Cyril and Methodius were own brothers, born of the same noble parents in Thessalonica, and when old enough were sent to Constantinople that they might, in the great capital of the East, learn the principles of principles of literature and the arts. Both of them made great progress in a short time; but specially Cyril who attained such a reputation for learning, that as a token of distinction, he was called the Philosopher. Methodius, afterwards became a monk; whilst Cyril was judged worthy by the Empress Theodora, at the suggestion of Ignatius the Patriarch, to be entrusted with the labor of instructing in the faith of Christ the Khazares, a people dwelling beyond the Chersonesus; which people, being taught by his precepts and incited by the grace of God, abolishing their numerous superstitions, he added unto the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Having excellently organized the new Christian community, he returned, filled with joy, to Constantinople, and betook himself to the same Monastery of Polychrone, wherein Methodius had already retired. In the meanwhile, the fame of the success gained in the country beyond the Cersonesus having reached the ears of Ratislas, Prince of Moravia, he was earnest with the Emperor Michael the Third, in negotiating the grant of some evangelical laborers. Cyril and Methodius being therefore designated unto this expedition, were received with great joy in Moravia; and with so much energy, care, and ability did they strive to infuse, into the minds of the people, the Christian doctrine, that it was not long ere this nation most cordially subscribed its name to Jesus Christ. This success was in no small measure due to the knowledge of the Sclavonic tongue which Cyril had previously acquired; and of very great avail likewise, was the translation which he made of both Testaments of the Holy Scriptures, into the language proper to this people: indeed Cyril and Methodius were the first to find alphabetical letters whereby this language of the Sclaves is signified and expressed, and on this account, they are not undeservedly held as the originators of this same language.

When favorable rumor brought as far as Rome, the glorious fame of these achievements, the Pope, Saint Nicholas I, ordered these two illustrious Brethren to repair to Rome. They set out on their journey to Rome, bearing with them the relics of Saint Clement I, which Cyril had discovered in the Chersonesus. At which news, Adrian II who had succeeded on the death of Nicholas, went forth with a great concourse of the clergy and people, to meet them, in token of veneration. Then Cyril and Methodius related to the Sovereign Pontiff, in the presence of the clergy, the details regarding their Apostolic ministry in which they had been holily and laboriously engaged; but as they were accused by the envious on the score of having presumed to use the Sclavonic tongue in the performance of the sacred rites,—such weighty and clear reasons did they allege for so doing, that the Pope and his clergy, both praised and approved these holy men. Then both of them having sworn that they would persevere in the faith of Blessed Peter and of the Roman Pontiffs, they were consecrated Bishops by Adrian. But it was the divine decree that Cyril, ripened rather in virtue than in age, should end his mortal course at Rome. He, therefore, being dead, his corpse was borne in a public funeral, to the very grave that Adrian had prepared for himself; later on, the holy body was taken to St. Clement’s that it might lie near the ashes of that Saint. And as he was thus borne through the City amidst the festive chanting of psalms, with pomps rather triumphal than funeral, the Roman people seemed to be paying to the holy man, the first fruits of heavenly honors. Methodius, on his part, being returned into Moravia, there applied himself with his whole soul to be an example in his works, to his flock; and day by day to strive more and more to further Catholic interests. He likewise confirmed in the faith of the Christian name the Pannonians, Bulgarians and Dalmatians; moreover he labored much among the Carinthians to bring them over to the worship of the one true God.

Being once more accused unto John VIII (who had succeeded Pope Adrian), of suspected faith and of the violation of the custom of the ancients, he was summoned to Rome, where in presence of John, several bishops, and likewise the clergy of the City, he easily defended himself as to his having ever constantly maintained and carefully taught unto others the Catholic faith; but as to his having introduced the Sclavonic tongue into the Sacred Liturgy, he exculpated himself by reason of the permission of Pope Adrian, and of certain motives not contrary to the sacred Letters. Wherefore, embracing the cause of Methodius, in the matter at issue, the Pope recognized his archiepiscopal power and his Sclavonian expedition, giving him likewise letters thereunto appertaining. Hence Methodius being returned into Moravia persevered in fulfilling still more vigilantly the duties of his charge, and for this even gladly suffered exile. He brought over the prince of Bohemia and his wife, to the Faith, and spread the Christian name throughout the length and breadth of this land. He carried the light of the Gospel into Poland, and, as some writers assert, founded the episcopal See of Leopole; and having gone as far as Muscovy, properly so called, there raised an episcopal throne at Kieff. Afterwards, returning to his own people in Moravia, feeling now that he was drawing near his mortal term, he designated a successor, and having, by his last precepts, exhorted the clergy and people to virtue, he peacefully passed away from this life which he had made to be his path to heaven. Even as Rome had paid homage to Cyril, so did Moravia lavish honors on Methodius when dead. Their feast which had been long accustomed to be kept among the Sclavonic people, Pope Leo XIII ordered to be celebrated yearly, throughout the universal Church with a proper Mass and Office.

Quote:The World Health Organization said the variant’s mutations could increase its transmissibility or possibly increase its resistance to “neutralizing antibodies.” The health body called Lambda, or C.37, a “variant of interest.”

“So far we have seen no indication that the lambda variant is more aggressive,” Jairo Mendez-Rico, a WHO virologist, told the Deutsche Welle. “It is possible that it may exhibit higher infection rates, but we don’t yet have enough reliable data to compare it to gamma or delta.”

He told the German outlet that as SARS-CoV-2 evolves, it may start to become more transmissible, but not as deadly.

Jeff Barrett, director of the COVID-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK, told the Financial Times that a reason it is challenging to “make sense of the threat from lambda, using computational and lab data, is that it has rather an unusual set of mutations, compared with other variants.”

'It is advised that religious ceremonies such as Baptisms, First Holy Communions and Confirmations should not take place at this time. Further advice will follow on resumption of these ceremonies when it is safe to do so,' new advice published on the Irish government website on June 29 reads.

Quote:It is advised that religious ceremonies such as Baptisms, First Holy Communions and Confirmations should not take place at this time. Further advice will follow on resumption of these ceremonies when it is safe to do so.