According to the Second Vatican Council, "We ought to try to discover a new reverence for the Eucharistic mystery. Something is happening that is greater than anything we can do. The magnitude of what is happening is not dependent on the way we perform it, but all our efforts to perform it aright can always be at the service of the great act that precedes our own and that we cannot achieve for ourselves... The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows." This profound statement about the Eucharist stands at the center of this book by Cardinal Ratzinger. In these previously unpublished texts, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a scholar of international repute, leads the reader into the heart of the Christian faith and its central mystery. Cardinal Ratzinger compellingly shows us the biblical, historical, and theological dimensions of the Eucharist. The Cardinal draws far-reaching conclusions, focusing on the importance of one's personal devotion to and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, for the personal reception of Communion by the individual Christian, as well as for the life of the Church. For Ratzinger, the drive toward any transformation of the world on the social plane also grows out of the celebration of the Eucharist. He beautifully illustrates how the omnipotent God and Creator comes intimately close to us in the Holy Eucharist, the Heart of Life. Book jacket.

An insider's look at the science of near-Earth comets and asteroids Of all the natural disasters that could befall us, only an Earth impact by a large comet or asteroid has the potential to end civilization in a single blow. Yet these near-Earth objects also offer tantalizing clues to our solar system's origins, and someday could even serve as stepping-stones for space exploration. In this book, Donald Yeomans introduces readers to the science of near-Earth objects—its history, applications, and ongoing quest to find near-Earth objects before they find us. In its course around the sun, the Earth passes through a veritable shooting gallery of millions of nearby comets and asteroids. One such asteroid is thought to have plunged into our planet sixty-five million years ago, triggering a global catastrophe that killed off the dinosaurs. Yeomans provides an up-to-date and accessible guide for understanding the threats posed by near-Earth objects, and also explains how early collisions with them delivered the ingredients that made life on Earth possible. He shows how later impacts spurred evolution, allowing only the most adaptable species to thrive—in fact, we humans may owe our very existence to objects that struck our planet. Yeomans takes readers behind the scenes of today’s efforts to find, track, and study near-Earth objects. He shows how the same comets and asteroids most likely to collide with us could also be mined for precious natural resources like water and oxygen, and used as watering holes and fueling stations for expeditions to Mars and the outermost reaches of our solar system.

The Beautiful Music All Around Us presents the extraordinarily rich backstories of thirteen performances captured on Library of Congress field recordings between 1934 and 1942 in locations reaching from Southern Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta and the Great Plains. Including the children's play song "Shortenin' Bread," the fiddle tune "Bonaparte's Retreat," the blues "Another Man Done Gone," and the spiritual "Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down," these performances were recorded in kitchens and churches, on porches and in prisons, in hotel rooms and school auditoriums. Documented during the golden age of the Library of Congress recordings, they capture not only the words and tunes of traditional songs but also the sounds of life in which the performances were embedded: children laugh, neighbors comment, trucks pass by. Musician and researcher Stephen Wade sought out the performers on these recordings, their families, fellow musicians, and others who remembered them. He reconstructs the sights and sounds of the recording sessions themselves and how the music worked in all their lives. Some of these performers developed musical reputations beyond these field recordings, but for many, these tracks represent their only appearances on record: prisoners at the Arkansas State Penitentiary jumping on "the Library's recording machine" in a rendering of "Rock Island Line"; Ora Dell Graham being called away from the schoolyard to sing the jump-rope rhyme "Pullin' the Skiff"; Luther Strong shaking off a hungover night in jail and borrowing a fiddle to rip into "Glory in the Meetinghouse." Alongside loving and expert profiles of these performers and their locales and communities, Wade also untangles the histories of these iconic songs and tunes, tracing them through slave songs and spirituals, British and homegrown ballads, fiddle contests, gospel quartets, and labor laments. By exploring how these singers and instrumentalists exerted their own creativity on inherited forms, "amplifying tradition's gifts," Wade shows how a single artist can make a difference within a democracy. Reflecting decades of research and detective work, the profiles and abundant photos in The Beautiful Music All Around Us bring to life largely unheralded individuals--domestics, farm laborers, state prisoners, schoolchildren, cowboys, housewives and mothers, loggers and miners--whose music has become part of the wider American musical soundscape. The hardcover edition also includes an accompanying CD that presents these thirteen performances, songs and sounds of America in the 1930s and '40s.

THE ANGELS WITHIN US shows how to pinpoint your own trouble spots, discover which angel waits beyond reach, and ask it for guidance. In a step-by-step process that includes meditations, practical exercises, and examples of angelic conversations experienced by the author and others, you will meet the Angel of Unconditional Love and Freedom, catalyst of all angels. You will then learn about the twenty-one other angels whose energies are attuned to such realms as: Illusion and Reality; Creative Wisdom; Abundance; Power and Authority, and more. THE ANGELS WITHIN US guides you to that exalted and natural existence where you can be as cosmically whole, vibrant, strong, and free as you were created to be.

Soil contamination...public lands...surface and groundwater pollution...coastal erosion...global warming. Have we reached the limits of this planet's ability to provide for us? If so, what can we do about it? These vital questions are addressed by Jill Schneiderman in The Earth Around Us, a unique collection of thirty-one essays by a diverse array of today's foremost scientist-writers. Sharing an ability to communicate science in a clear and engaging fashion, the contributors explore Earth's history and processes--especially in relation to today's environmental issues--and show how we, as members of a global community, can help maintain a livable planet. The narratives in this collection are organized into seven parts that describe: - Earth's time and history and the place of people in it - Views of nature and the ethics behind our conduct on Earth - Resources for the twenty-first century, such as public lands, healthy forests and soils, clean ground and surface waters, and fluctuating coastlines - Ill-informed local manipulations of landscapes across the United States - Innovative solutions to environmental problems that arise from knowledge of the interactions between living things and the Earth's air, water, and soil - Natural and human-induced global scale perturbations to the earth system - Our responsibility to people and all other organisms that live on Earth Never before has such a widely experienced group of prominent earth scientists been brought together to help readers understand how earth systems function to produce our physical and biological environment. Driven by the belief that earth science is, and should be, an integral part of everyday life, The Earth Around Us empowers all of us to play a more educated and active part in the search for a sustainable future for people and other living things on our planet.

So Near Yet So Far provides in-depth look at the multiple dimensions of Canada–US relations, particularly since 9/11. Based on almost 200 interviews with government policy makers, opinion-shapers, and interest group leaders in both countries, this book considers the interaction of domestic and cross-border politics at several levels, including political-strategic, trade-commercial, cultural-psychological, and institutional-procedural. It will appeal to practitioners, scholars, and citizens of both countries who want a better understanding of how the Canada–US relationship works – and can be made to work more effectively. Balanced and fair, it gets to the core issues without distorting perspectives on either side of the border.