Ellicott City - Chicago - Ellicott City

November 30, 2025 Peace and Good, As you can see from the title, I spent a week giving a workshop on the Letters of St. Paul to our postulants in Chicago. There are eight of them, and they have a varied ethnic background. Two are Hispanic, one Phillipino/Canadian, one Vietnamese, one Lebanese, one British and two Anglo. In spite of all the different background, they seem to get along very well with each other. The two friars in charge of formation there, Paul and Ian, are doing a great job. I hope they stay on after the coming Provincial Chapters (this coming summer). My children's book on Carlo Acutis has been published. I have to dedicate myself to some more writing projects. I was able to finish a couple of articles for the Messenger magazine in Padua, but I want to get ahead on those articles so that I do not feel rushed. We had a good, quiet Thanksgiving. The friars at my friary go up the hill to the Shrine friary. I have one more class to give at the shrine on December 8th on Mary in the New Testament. I will also be giving two talks at a local parish on the Gospel of Matthew. Pope Leo is visiting Turkey and Lebanon in these days. The archbishop who welcomed him to Istanbul is one of our friars, fr. Martin Kmetec. He is a Slovenian friar who has worked in Turkey for years, and he is now the archbishop of Izmir, the city that is called Smyrna in the Bible. He is the nicest of men. I finished some reading and listening: Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe by David Meyer This is a Great Courses video presentation. The professor is clear and enthusiastic, especially as he has worked with the Hubble (on the committee that allots research time with the satellite camera). The photography is magnificent. The statistics are astounding. There are at least 200 billion galaxies in the universe, each of which contains around 100 million stars. That is just mind blowing. I highly recommend this course. Ancient Egypt: 500 Interesting Facts about Egyptian History by Ahoy Publications This is an interesting book from a series which contain factoids on a particular topic, in this case ancient Egypt. It is not profound, but it did have information that I did not know before. A Perfect Spy by John le Carre This was a dramatic presentation of one of le Carre’s books, this one about a British agent who inadvertently becomes a source of information for a communist Czech spy. The British spy disappears, and the British are forced to try to find him. Pharoah Hatshepsut by Hourglass History This is the story of one of the few women who ruled ancient Egypt. She was acting as regent for the future Pharaoh, but then she had herself declared Pharaoh herself. The book was terrible, based on nothing more than wishful thinking and suppositions. Anything bad that might be said against her is rejected as Patriarchal judgment, while anything good is praised (even though much more than half of this is pure supposition without any documentary support). Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz This is a convoluted story of a detective who accidentally comes across a kidnap victim in a place he would never have expected, and how he finds out that she has been brainwashed to forget her past background and established with a totally new identity and memory. This is only the beginning of the confusion which grows till the very end. Great Tours: Civil War Battlefields by Caroline Janney and Peter Carmichael This is a Great Courses presentation of some of the major battles of the Civil War by two professors. Although it is presented as a tour of the battlefield sites, it is not really that. It is much more an overview of those battles (what led up to them, how they were fought, what the result of the battle was, etc.). The information is good. Mysteries of the Microscopic World by Bruce Fleury This is the second Great Courses presentation I have seen. This one deals with bacteria, viruses, etc. The professor has a dry sense of humor which I think adds to the presentation. The course is very informative, speaking both as to what the organisms are and what they have done over the history of mankind. The Great Patriotic War by Charles River Editors Up to now, almost all of the presentations of Charles River have been in the range of 50 to 90 pages. This is a mega presentation of over 500 pages. It deals with the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The book has enormous amounts of information and is overall quite well presented (although at a few points it could have used more editorial work). Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart This is a book that is similar to the one on wicked animals that I read a while ago. It is a series of short (mostly 3 to 7 minute) presentations on plants that can be dangerous (for skin irritation, for poison sap, etc.) to humans. Whispers in the Underground by Ben Aaronovitch I really like the works by this author. He presents the story of a detective squad in London which investigates phenomena that are tied to magic and what might be described as magical creatures. The dialog is witty, the action well developed, and the characters becomes one’s friends. This volume deals with a mysterious death in the underground and the discovery of a whole group of people living there. The Gospel of Matthew by Bertrand Buby This is a Learn25 presentation of the Gospel of Matthew. I found this course offered by Buby to be well thought out, informative and very useful. This is an introductory presentation and it could easily be used in a self or group study of the Gospel. The Austro-Prussian War and Franco-Prussian War by Charles River Editors This is a short presentation of two wars which led to the unification of Germany under the Prussian royal family. The wars were the work of Bismark who plotted over decades to bring about unification. He first had to weaken the power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which was presenting itself as the champion of the Germanic peoples, and then he had to unite those people against a foreign enemy, France. Have a good week. Shalom fr. Jude