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The Great Underwater Wall of China
China is noted for the system of walls and fortifications known as the Great Wall that stretches 13,000 miles across its historical northern borders as protection against various nomadic groups invading from the Eurasian Steppe. Modern day China may one day be equally known for the underwater version it has constructed and continues to expand on the seabed of on its eastern border, the South and…
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D-Day Remembered
Today marks the 82nd anniversary of the June 6th “D-Day” landings in Normandy during World War II. It marked a turning Point in World War II as it provided the Allies with a foothold in Western Europe and set the stage for the subsequent liberation of France and the defeat of Nazi Germany. The Normandy landing resulted in significant casualties on both sides, with thousands of soldiers losing…
Words of Life
This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. In Jn 6:60, some of the disciples of Jesus react negatively saying ‘This saying is hard; who can accept it.’ Are they referring just to the immediately preceding passages (vv. 51-59) or are they referring to all of Jesus’ claim in v.42, ‘I have come down from heaven.’? Jesus’ own words give us the context, “Do you take…
Denizens of the Deep
Virginia Class Submarine The role of naval vessels, aircraft, missiles, drones, and ground forces are likely more familiar to the average citizen than the role, use, and operation of submarines. While I enjoyed the Hunt for Red October, I wondered if the screen writers wanted the submarines to perform an Immelmann Loop or some other amazing maneuver from the world of aerobatics. If jet aircraft…
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Memorial of St. Boniface
Today is the Feast of St. Boniface, the Benedictine monk noted for his missionary efforts in the Netherlands (Frisia) and Germania in the 8th century. Born in or near Exeter, England, around 675 AD, and named Winfrid, he was of a respected and prosperous family. Against his father’s wishes he devoted himself at an early age to monastic life. He received further theological training in the…
Eucharistic Life
This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. Where the principal focus of the previous section is the bread of life as the divine revelation given to men by and in Jesus, Jn 6:51 moves the focus to a clearly Eucharistic theme – ‘I am the living bread come down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life…
Flash Points
If the People’s Republic of China did not directly invade Taiwan, there are flash points that could still bring China and the United States to the brink of armed conflict. Such events would probably emerge from a combination of: maritime confrontations, escalation from gray-zone coercion, accidents or miscalculation, alliance obligations, and disputes over freedom of navigation and regional…
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Midway
84 years ago today, the naval forces of Imperial Japan and the United States engaged in the epic confrontation known as the Battle of Midway. In my earlier Asia-Pacific War series I did not cover the Battle of Midway, only mentioning it in passing. Today seems like a good day to offer some insights about the battle and its enduring legacy. Some historians call the Battle of Midway the turning…
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Flesh for the life of the world
This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. With all that in mind (the previous posts) we come to the gospel passage for the feast. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” 52 The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us…
Married in Heaven?
In today’s gospel, the Sadducees are testing Jesus by presenting a reductio ad absurdum argument based on levirate marriage. A woman is successively married to seven brothers. They ask: “At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be” – which is interesting since the Sadducees don’t believe in the Resurrection. Jesus responds with “When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor…
Militarization of the South China Sea
As the posts in this series to this point have indicated, China views the South China Sea (SCS) as well within its territorial waters and not international waters (The 9-Dash Line,). The degree to which they enforce that claim depends on who and what is transiting the waters. During the week of May 24, 2026 the PLAN aggressively denied a Dutch warship entrance into the SCS while commercial…
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St. Charles Lwanga and the Ugandan Martyrs
Today the Church Universal celebrates the feast of St. Charles Lwanga and the Ugandan martyrs. Likely you do not know much about him and the 21 people that were martyred along with him. Today’s celebration of St. Charles Lwanga and Ugandan martyrs is a major feast and holiday in East Africa. And a reminder to us that this truly is a church universal – katholica. Lwanga was born in 1860 in…
Coming to Jesus for Life
This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. In the previous posts in this series we have not yet commented on the verses that comprise the gospel. As noted earlier our verses (Jn 6:51-58) are part of the much larger Bread of Life Discourse (Jn 6:22-69). And so it is good to explore meaning in the verses that precede our gospel passage. Jesus said to them, “I am the bread…
Like a Refiner’s Fire
“The heavens will be dissolved in flames and the elements melted by fire” (2 Peter 3:12). Yikes! That was a hard start to our first reading. To modern ears, the language sounds catastrophic, end of the world kind of stuff. “Frightening” would be a bit of an understatement. If we had not told you it was from 2 Peter you would have probably thought it was from Revelation. Yet for Peter’s original…
The State of United States Shipbuilding
Overview In the year 2024 China built more ships in their own yards – in one year – than the United States built, in total, since the end of World War II. At the end of that war the U.S. had approximately 11,000 logistic and auxiliary vessels – far, far more than we needed for peacetime. Post-war the surplus was sold or given to European allies to “jump start” their economies and shipyards. The…
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Context: bread and Passover
This coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. All the gospel writers describe the miracle of the fishes and loaves (Mk 6:33-46, Mt 14:13-23, Lk 9:10-17, and Jn 6:1-15). Through the dialogue that precedes and follows the miracle, Jesus teaches the disciples to trust in him whenever they meet with difficulties in their future apostolic endeavors. He teaches them that they…
Share in the Divine Nature
In today’s first reading we are given a goal: “that you may come to share in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Wow! This is one of the most profound statements in the entire New Testament. It has played a central role in Christian theology, especially in the Eastern Christian tradition, where it is often called theosis or divinization. But the first thing to note is what Peter does not mean. He…