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Greetings to each and everyone of you.


This section for English-speaking viewers –
and all those enjoying the culture –

has developed over the months and is now offering materials of all kinds:

texts, images, poems, videos, etc.

It will continue to provide you with rich contents week after week.

 

World Leprosy Day – 28 January

28 janvier 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: change attitude, cure, freedom fighter, Hansen's disease, Mahatma Gandhi, prévention, public awareness, Raoul Follereau, stigma, treatment

World Leprosy Day is annually observed around the world on the last Sunday of January. The day was initiated in 1954 by French philanthropist and writer, Raoul Follereau, as a way to raise global awareness of this deadly ancient disease and call attention to the fact that it can be prevented, treated and cured.

About World Leprosy Day
Leprosy is one of the oldest diseases known to humankind. It is also known as Hansen’s disease, named after Norwegian physician, Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen, who debunked the prevailing notion of the time that leprosy was a hereditary disease. He showed that the disease had a bacterial cause instead. For thousands of years, people with leprosy have been stigmatized and considered to be at the extreme margins of the society. The aim of World Leprosy Day is to change this attitude and increase public awareness of the fact that leprosy can now be easily prevented and cured.

The date for World Leprosy Day was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of Indian freedom fighter, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on January 30, 1948. During his lifetime, Mahatma Gandhi worked tirelessly towards the betterment of people afflicted with leprosy.

Source: Text: timeanddate.com  Image: The Nation 60th World Leprosy Day

 

World Holocaust Remembrance Day – 27 January 2024

27 janvier 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: anti-semitism, bravery, butterfly, Children, courage, dehumanize, hatred, history, prejudice, prévention, remembering, tragedy, UN

 2024 Theme: Recognizing the Extraordinary Courage of Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust   

During the Holocaust, the Nazis went to great lengths to dehumanize their victims. Defying the Nazis took extraordinary courage.

In 2024, the United Nations is paying tribute to the bravery of all those who stood up to the Nazis, despite the grave risks. We will honour their legacy with their remarkable stories and history. In the memory of all victims and survivors, we will step up our efforts to counter Holocaust denial, antisemitism and racism.

 

New Educational Product: Poster set “The Butterfly Project: Remembering the Children of the Holocaust”

The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme has partnered with the Houston Holocaust Museum to produce a set of 14 posters based on the Museum’s exhibition The Butterfly Project: Remembering the Children of the Holocaust for display by the global network of United Nations information centres. The exhibition outlines the impact of the Holocaust on children, and showcases an educational initiative called The Butterfly Project developed by Holocaust Museum Houston to teach this history to young people, encourage them to remember the 1.5 million children who perished and to stand up against hatred and prejudice.

 

Source: Text: UN Images: Pixabay Free Images    UN

4th Sunday of Year B

25 janvier 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: authentic, God the really REAL, gospel, impression, Jesus message, Mk.1:21-28, new, original, the Word

The word IMPRESSION is used in different ways and has different connotations.
Someone walking in the wet sand will leave a mark, a footprint, an impression.
Leaves pressed between two surfaces will also remain imprinted, or create an impression.

Political figures and business executives are very keen on making a good impression!
Actors and athletes are equally eager to please crowds of fans and create a favorable impression!

These reflections came to me as I read this Sunday’s gospel text (4th Sunday of Year B – Mk.1:21-28) where we are told:
“His (Jesus) teaching made a deep impression on them…”
 
A ‘deep impression’ – something that goes beyond the surface to reach the depths of a person.
Is that the way Jesus’ message touches us every time it is proclaimed?

Listening to Jesus preaching, the people in the synagogue of Caparnaum were hearing these words for the first time.
The message was new, the sound of it was original – not a repetition of past teaching.
It did not have a familiar ring to it, it was an unheard of speech, something creative.

They said it openly: “Here is a teaching that is new…”
And they added: “And with authority behind it.”
No wonder it made a deep impression on them – it answered their longing to hear God’s message in a way that we would qualify nowadays as ‘authentic’.

Our situation is very different from theirs: we know well the texts of the gospel, perhaps too well?
For years we have been reading them, listening to homilies, following retreats preached on this and that section of the gospel accounts.
Hearing the first words of a given text, we may say to ourselves: ‘Oh, I know this story,’ and our mind is soon carried away to other more pressing concerns!
Will the text leave a deep impression on us?
Can it really do so in the circumstances?… 

One day, I heard someone say that God is ‘the really REAL’ – an unusual theological statement, but how true!
It may be that for Jesus message to make ‘a deep impression’ on us – and a lasting one – Jesus would need to become ‘really REAL’…

Words spoken and written having become THE Word – a person encountered in the flesh of my daily life and experience…

Source: Images: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee    whereisyvette.com    lds.org

Note: Another reflection on a different theme is available at: https://image-i-nations.com/4e-dimanche-de-lannee-b/

 

3rd Sunday of the Year B

18 janvier 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: call, convincing, disturbance, encounter with God, interference, interruption, invitation, libération, Mk.1:14-20

Being interrupted in the midst of an activity can be frustrating.
Being disturbed from a task one is busy with can also be rather unpleasant.
The attention is suddenly taken to something else, the concentration is moved to another area.
And… many of us resent such an interference!

Yet, it happens that such an interference comes from… God!
The gospel text of today (3rd Sunday of Year B – Mk.1:14-20) is a typical example.
Jesus is walking on the lakeshore and, suddenly, calls away some fishermen from their daily activity.
He assures them that will be become ‘fishers of men’.

It is not certain that they understood what this call was about.
And, personally, I imagine that they could not foresee what their new life would be like.
Yet, amazingly, we are told that: “At once, they left their nets…”

It was indeed a major ‘disturbance’ to their way of life up to then.
What made them so eager to follow this stranger with an equally strange invitation?
We can never know for sure, only perhaps think that his whole person had something convincing about it, convincing as only God can be!

Some of us have experienced such a major disturbing encounter with God.
We may still be adjusting to it…
And yet, many, perhaps all those who have known such an intervention will agree that it can be very much of a liberation!
Yes, a liberation from the routine, the worn out motivation that carried them up to the moment when God interfered!

At the beginning of a new year, we may perhaps contemplate such a possibility…

Source: Images: LDS  iStock

NOTE: a reflection in French on another theme is available at: https://image-i-nations.com/3e-dimanche-de-lannee-b/

World Day of Migrants and Refugees – 14 January

13 janvier 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: disasters, good will, integrate, Jesus Christ, Lampedusa, migrants, opportunity, Pope Francis, poverty, promote, protect, refugees, responsibility, straners, welcome

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE  104th WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES 2018
“Welcoming, protecting, promoting and
integrating migrants and refugees”

Dear brothers and sisters!

“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:34).

Throughout the first years of my pontificate, I have repeatedly expressed my particular concern for the lamentable situation of many migrants and refugees fleeing from war, persecution, natural disasters and poverty.  This situation is undoubtedly a “sign of the times” which I have tried to interpret, with the help of the Holy Spirit, ever since my visit to Lampedusa on 8 July 2013…

Every stranger who knocks at our door is an opportunity for an encounter with Jesus Christ, who identifies with the welcomed and rejected strangers of every age (Matthew 25:35-43)…

This solidarity must be concretely expressed at every stage of the migratory experience – from departure through journey to arrival and return.  This is a great responsibility, which the Church intends to share with all believers and men and women of good will, who are called to respond to the many challenges of contemporary migration with generosity, promptness, wisdom and foresight, each according to their own abilities…

In this regard, I wish to reaffirm that “our shared response may be articulated by four verbs: to welcome, to protect, to promote and to integrate.”

Source: Text: Radio Vatican Image: The Independent

NOTE: An article in French on this topic is available at: https://image-i-nations.com/journee-mondiale-migrant-refugie-14-janvier/

and a video presents the same theme in an interview of David Minier with James Marchant at: https://image-i-nations.com/banc-james-marchant/

 

 

 

 

2nd Sunday of Year B

11 janvier 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: 1 Cor.6:19, 1 Sam.3:3-10, answer, Holy Spirit, pray, Rom.8:26-27

Whenever I come across the text of the 1st reading of this Sunday(2nd Sunday of Year B – 1 Sam.3:3-10,19), I am tempted to envy the young Samuel.
He was very fortunate in being told how to speak to God, what to tell him, in other words: How to pray!

I believe that most of us often ask ourselves what is the best way to go about this most important activity.
Our constant reference, Google, in less than a second gave me 9 billions, yes this is what I got: 9 billion possible articles when I simply keyed in: HOW TO…
The first one was entitled: How to do anything !

I am NOT inclined to ask Google the question HOW TO PRAY.
I expect that I would find many texts on the topic – how, and when, and with what words, and for whom, I should address God.

I can say that I have found my own answer… and I am ready to share it with you.
I take it from the apostle Paul in his letter to the early Christians of Rome, as he tells them:

“When we cannot choose words in order to pray properly,
the Spirit himself expresses our plea
in a way that could never be put into words,
and God who knows everything in our heart
knows perfectly well what he means.”   (Rom.8:26-27)

And this same Paul assures us in the 2nd reading today:
“The Holy Spirit is in you since you received him from God.”   (1 Cor.6:19)

So, I need only repeat Samuel’s words:
“Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”,
and the rest will follow… of itself… nay, of Himself

Source: Images: unsplash.com  psychologytoday.com

Note: Another text for reflection is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/2e-dimanche-de-lannee-b/

World Day for War Orphans – 6 January

6 janvier 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: abuse, armed conflicts, child soldiers, diseases, handicaps, hunger, malnutrition, orphanage, poverty, violence, vulnérable

Civilians bear the brunt of the suffering in war. Of the big number of war victims, the most often neglected are children.

Orphans throughout the world face many challenges: Malnutrition, starvation, disease, and decreased social attention. As the most vulnerable population on planet Earth, they have no one to protect them and are most likely to suffer from hunger, disease, and many other problems.

In recent decades, the proportion of civilian casualties in armed conflicts has increased dramatically and is now estimated at more than 90 per cent. About half of the victims are children.
An estimated 20 million children have been forced to flee their homes because of conflict and human rights violations and are living as refugees in neighbouring countries or are internally displaced within their own national borders.

More than 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict over the last decade.
More than three times that number, at least 6 million children, have been permanently disabled or seriously injured.
More than 1 million have been orphaned or separated from their families.
Between 8,000 and 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines every year.

An estimated 300,000 child soldiers – boys and girls under the age of 18 – are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide. Child soldiers are used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks and to provide sexual services. Some are forcibly recruited or abducted, others are driven to join by poverty, abuse and discrimination, or to seek revenge for violence enacted against themselves and their families.

Sadly, however, they rarely receive the time, attention, and love for optimal social and personal development. Research reveals that children growing up in an orphanage experience emotional, social, and physical handicaps. Without a doubt, the best place for a child to grow up is in a stable family with a loving father and mother.

Source: Text: keepincalendar.com  Image: Unsplash (free download)

 

Feast of Epiphany, Year B

4 janvier 2018
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: 'God-with-us', choice, companion, get up, God's home, Is.60:1-6, Mt.2:1-12, on the move, on the way, Prophets, steps, traveling

Have you ever tried to have a person do something that he, or she, does not feel inclined to do?
It is quite a… task, we know it.
One may use petition, supplication, cajoling or threatening, but a stubborn silent refusal may be all that is given as a reply!

I think that this is what the prophets of God’s people have sometimes met with.
No wonder that, at times, they used strong language to wake up their people.
Isaiah was no exception as he addresses the people of Jerusalem.

On this feast of Epiphany, his first word in today’s first reading (Is.60:1-6) is rather mild but insistent in tone: “ARISE, JERUSALEM!”
In today’s language, one may say: ‘GET UP!’

Why? Normally, a person gets up to do something, or to go somewhere.
This is the case for the Magi whom we meet in today’s gospel text (Epiphany, Year B – Mt.2:1-12).
They have risen, left their respective countries and set out on a journey.
They are not yet certain where their traveling will take them but they are on the move.

In this first week of a new year, this is somehow our situation as well.
We are on the move – the days go by, one by one, and take us with them.
We are not at all certain where the 31st of December will find us – neither the where nor the how are clear to us just yet.

But what is indeed clear and assured is: to what and with whom we are traveling.
Whether we are conscious of it or not, whatever our age and condition, our steps are taking us to God’s home – the place he has prepared for us – and our traveling companion is the one who has become, by his own choice, God-with-us.
 
Our steps are taking us there… if we have chosen this direction and this traveling companion.
The choice is ours… and remains so all along the way…

Source: Image: Pinterest

Note: Other texts about this feast are available at:  https://image-i-nations.com/fete-de-lepiphanie-annee-b/

https://image-i-nations.com/mages-dou-viennent/

Feast of Mary, Mother of God, 1st January, Year B

31 décembre 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: discover, event, God's presence, Lk.2:16-21, message, ordinary people, praising God, reaction, recognize, shepherds of the Nativity, way to follow, wisdom

At times, we think that to understand God’s words and ways we need long studies and much wisdom.
Wisdom? Yes, but not necessarily the one coming from intellectual achievement!
The wisdom of ordinary people, of ‘simple folks’, as they are sometimes referred to, is closer to genuine insight.

The gospel text of today’s feast of Mary, Mother of God (Year B, Lk.2:16-21) gives us to meet such simple people: the shepherds.
They have much from which we can learn.
Their attitude shows us to way to follow.

“They hurried away
and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.
They repeated… what they had been told about him…
They went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.”
 
Ordinary people making the experience of an extraordinary event.
Their reaction is the proper one:

  • Hastening to discover what God has in store for them.
  • Recognizing God’s presence.
  • Identifying his intervention.
  • Understanding the message there for them.
  • Sharing this message with those around them.
  • Glorifying and praising God for what has been given them to see and hear.

What else could be expected from us today?…

Source: Images: ecryptographer.com   thelutheranschools.org

Feast of the Holy Family, Year B

28 décembre 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Child Jesus, creativity, distance, expérience, imagination, intergenerational, Lk.2:22-40, Mary and Joseph, message, misunderstanding, praise God, Simeon and Anna, wisdom

‘Intergenerational’ – this is the ‘in-word’ nowadays!
People use it in all kinds of situations:

  • reports about prevailing trends in society speak about it;
  • architects and builders offer us new ‘intergenerational’ houses;
  • even people of our liturgical team invite us to ‘intergenerational celebrations’.

It is interesting to note that today’s gospel text on the Feast of Holy Family (Year B – Lk.2:22-40) shows us an ‘intergenerational scene’.
We meet first a young couple following the Jewish custom of presenting their first-born to the Temple.
And there, in the Temple, we see an old prophetic figure – that of Simeon – followed by an equally old feminine prophetic presence – that of Anna.

The elderly people praise God for the gift of this Child.
They also have a message for the younger man and woman: Mary and Joseph.
These two will listen to the words of this message and keep them.

Their attitude makes us wonder… how great it would be it the same happened in our world today.
Sad to say, when speaking of different generations, what is often stated is: refusal to listen to one another, misunderstanding, distance…

Perhaps today’s celebration could be seen as an invitation to pause and think…
Think of the experience and wisdom older people have to offer.
Think also of the imagination and creativity the younger people can contribute.
And think how all of these: experience, wisdom, imagination and creativity, could make life so much richer and interesting!

Source: Images: lds.org   joeskillen.com   heartlight.org