Part II in a series of three articles on the events leading up to the last days of Jesus on earth.

The Arrest

After the Meal Jesus left the hospitable house, and with eleven of the disciples He set out for the Mount of Olives. He now new what awaited Him. The purely physical instinct of self-preservation awoke and urged Him to avoid the suffering by fleeing. “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”; and at the same moment obedience towards the Father poured forth and disciplined His body and with these words- “nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt” He ends His prayer (Matthew 26, 39). The physical body was mastered and man would not hear a single word of lamentation from the lips of the Son of God.

Part I in a series of three articles on the events leading up to the last days of Jesus on earth

The betrayal by Judas

Judas, called Iscariot, had often witnessed how deeply moved listeners, or those healed through miracles, had offered their wealth to Jesus. To Judas’ great disappointment, however, Jesus had always declined. In the same way he had had ample opportunity to observe what power Jesus exercised through His person and His Word. In his opinion this power should also be manifested in an earthly way. After all, they could not constantly wander about like vagrants, living from hand to mouth.

This month, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, commemorating the life of the patron saint of Ireland. According to legend Patrick was born in Roman Britain, and that at a young age, he was carried off by Irish raiders. In Ireland, he became a servant of a chieftain, and was put in charge of tending his master’s flocks. He did this for six years, and during that time of “solitude in the wilderness,” his love of God grew, as did his mastery of the local Celtic language. At the end of this period, he saw an angel in a vision that urged him to escape away westward, and he successfully arrived again in his native Britain.

When I was a young woman, starting out in life, my only points of reference were my mother and the changing world around me. I was a «child of the sixties» and as we all know these were times of revolution and metamorphism in the many aspects of a woman’s life. My views, my dreams and aspirations were certainly influenced by all of this, yet I often felt that this type of «change» was still lacking something essential. Over the years, through married life, raising children, having a career, travelling to many different parts of the world, reading inspirational works, and belief in God, this is what I have learned.

Trees are living organisms that can help us in many and various ways. They supply us with medicinal compounds and can even speak to us through the echo they send back.

Tree planting was once a family tradition; it is still today associated with a happy event or some sort of remembrance. This practice and its attendant beliefs are common in numerous civilizations. As with any separation, the felling of a tree provokes an indefinable feeling.

The best health recipes are also the simplest. New scientific studies show how valuable movement is for us human beings. Dieter Malchow summarises the research findings. On balance: Health at a small price really does exist!

THE DRAMATIST and philosopher Eugene Ionesco was of the view that theatre has the task to rouse the audience from any spiritual indolence, to make them conscious of the “wonders of the world”, and awaken in them astonishment about their own existence.

What could Ionesco have meant by spiritual indolence? — Unless asking questions such as who am I, where do I come from, whither do I go (when I die)! And, stuck on these questions, looking earnestly for the answers. Then thoroughly examining them, unlike so many people who follow this or that fashion and are led by their nose without exactly knowing why.

Is Father Time marching by too fast? Do you need more hours in the day? Do you ever ask yourself what happened to time as you used to know it? Time management gurus tell us that we all have the same amount of time. From kings to paupers and from presidents to clerks, each one of us has all the time there is! So how can we explain the “time crunch” or severe lack of time that we seem to have to cope with on a daily basis?

The celebration of Valentine's Day dates back several centuries. Today it is often criticized as being superficial, commercial and a lot of Western kitsch.

When individuals seek advice on how to find a «partner» through books they read or on the web, it is not surprising that they have difficulty with their love life. They are not looking at it in the right light. There is a lucrative business deriving high profits from the common slogan “Finding the right partner who will make you happy is one of the most important things in life”. People in search of a partner are told to «make lists» of the qualities they seek in another and to «interview possible candidates» in order to get a better perspective of what they want in a partner before making a choice. It is almost like choosing an item on a restaurant menu or picking out food at the market displays!

The XXI Olympic Winter Games will be held in Vancouver, Canada from February 12th to 28th. Athletes from over 80 countries will gather to compete for the 86 medals that will be awarded for winter sports that include aerial, downhill, cross country skiing, bobsleigh and ice-skating venues.

If we put aside the controversial aspects of the Olympic Games and only look at the positive and exciting side, we would have to admit that the Games are a wonderful show. Yet even in spite of their glory, they can leave us feeling perplexed at times.

As human beings, we attempt to look for the meanings of events occurring around us, and we become perplexed if what we perceive does not make sense to us. Our values are supported by solid points of reference from life experiences. Only in this way do things make sense, or in other words, common sense.

We are currently experiencing a new period of significant disappearances in plant and animal species. This is not a result of geological phenomena but rather exclusively through human activity.

The destruction of forests

The presence of forests contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity. Indeed, the multifarious habitats that they provide allow numerous plant and animal species to develop. Thus the ecosystems of the inter-tropical zone are host to the largest part of the current global biodiversity.