The Church Fathers Explain the Mass

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

By Fr. Hugh Barbour, O.Praem.
The Church Fathers explain the biblical basis of this historic Christian teaching.

Some argue against the Catholic teaching that the Mass is a sacrifice. The early Church Fathers tell us that it is. In Genesis 14:18 Melchisedek the High Priest and King of Salem offers a sacrifice of bread and wine. In Hebrews 7 Christ is priest after the order of Melchisedek in fulfillment of the prophecy of Psalm 110:4: "Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedek."

Did Christ then offer up bread and wine like Melchisedek, who prefigured His eternal priesthood?

Answer: At the Last Supper in the Gospels Christ the High Priest commands His Apostles to do as He did with the bread and wine in commemoration of Him.

Were the Apostles then meant to share in that one priesthood of Christ as His instruments offering His Body and Blood under the appearances of a sacrifice of bread and wine?

Answer: Yes. We read that the Apostles offered the Eucharist in Jerusalem and Troas (Acts 2 and 20), and in Corinth the sacrifice of Christians is contrasted with the sacrifices of the Temple and to the sacrifice of the pagans (1 Cor. 10-11). In Malachy 1:11 the last of the Old Testament prophets declares: "From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name is great among the gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation" (Mal. 1:11).

Has this prophecy of Malachy come true? Is there everywhere in the world offered a sacrifice which is, according to the Hebrew word he uses (minhah) an unbloody or grain offering?

Answer: Just go to Holy Mass in any Catholic Church and you'll find the answer is "yes." You'll see the fulfillment of that biblical prophecy: "so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name." What is true of the Mass today has been true since the beginning of Christianity.

Let's see what the early Fathers of the Church taught about the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the offering up under the appearances of bread and wine of the Body and Blood of Christ, which were offered for our salvation on the cross at Calvary. These quotations are drawn from Eastern and Western Church Fathers and span the first six centuries of Christianity. They attest to the universal teaching in the early Church that the Eucharistic Liturgy is a sacrifice.

The Didache

This passage contains a direct reference to the fulfillment of Malachy's prophecy being the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (cf. Malachy 1:11, 14). The Didache is one of the most ancient and authoritative Christian writings, reflecting the teachings and liturgical practices of the first-century Church.

"On the Lord's own day assemble in common to break bread and offer thanks; but first confess your sins, so that your sacrifice may be pure . . . your sacrifice must not be defiled. For here we have a saying of the Lord: 'In every place and time offer Me a pure sacrifice' (Greek: thysia) . . . for I am a mighty king says the Lord and My name spreads terror among the nations'" (A.D. 98).

St. Ignatius of Antioch

Writing just after the end of the first century, only a few years after the death of St. John the Apostle, St. Ignatius gives us a short but powerful indication of the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. He refers to those who absent themselves from the Eucharist celebrated by the bishop and his priests. The Greek word he uses for the "altar" used in Christian worship is thysiasterion, which means "place where sacrifices are offered." "Let no one deceive himself," St. Ignatius warns, "whoever keeps away from the altar (thysiasterion) deprives himself of the divine bread" (Letter to the Ephesians 5:2; A.D. 110).

Epistola Apostolorum

This work, only discovered in 1895, was originally composed in Greek but exists today only in Coptic, Ethiopian, and Latin translations. The Ethiopian version is the most complete and contains a beautiful dialogue between Christ and His Apostles after the Resurrection about the offering of the Christian paschal sacrifice. This passage, translated especially for Envoy magazine, is not found in any English language collections of the Fathers. It's as though the objections of Protestants against the sacrifice of the Mass where already being anticipated and answered back then:

"The Lord said, 'You will celebrate the memorial of My death, that is, the Passover Sacrifice . . . at the cock's crow, at dawn, you will perform My feast of love and My memorial' . . . . The Apostles said, 'Lord, haven't You drunk to the full of the Passover Sacrifice? Is it then necessary that we do it again?' Jesus responded, 'Yes, it is necessary, until I come again from the Father'" (Epistola Apostolorum 13; A.D. 140).

St. Irenaeus of Lyons

This great Church Father was a disciple of St. Polycarp and, as such, was the "spiritual grandson" of St. John the Apostle, since St. Polycarp knew the Apostle. This means that the teachings St. Irenaeus received from his mentor came directly from the Apostles. This fact is important to keep in mind, since it demonstrates that the purity of apostolic teaching was handed on intact to each subsequent generation of Christians. The teaching on the Eucharist and the Mass as a Sacrifice that St. Irenaeus speaks of in this passage he received from the Apostles, through St. Polycarp.

"He took that created thing, bread, and gave thanks and said, 'This is My Body.' And the cup likewise, which is part of that creation to which we belong, He confessed to be His Blood, and taught the new oblation of the new covenant, which the Church, receiving from the Apostles, offers to God throughout the world . . . concerning which Malachy, among the twelve prophets, thus spoke beforehand: 'From the rising of the sun to the going down, My name is glorified among the gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to My name and a pure sacrifice . . . ' indicating in the plainest manner that in every place sacrifice shall be offered to Him, and at that a pure one" (Against Heresies 4,17,5; A.D. 170).

St. Hippolytus of Rome

St. Hippolytus composed a beautiful Eucharistic prayer at the beginning of the third century. The second Eucharistic prayer of the Missal of Pope Paul VI, which we use now, is based on it. In a commentary on Daniel 4:35 St. Hippolytus refers to the outlawing of the Church's sacrifice by the Antichrist at the end of time. Like many other Fathers who teach on the Sacrifice of the Mass, he too uses the language of the prophecy of Malachy.

"For when the gospel is preached in every place, the times being then accomplished . . . the abomination of desolation will be manifested, and when he (the Antichrist) comes, the sacrifice and oblation will be removed, which are now offered up to God in every place by the gentiles" (Commentary on Daniel 22; A.D. 220).

St. Cyprian of Carthage

Later in the same century, this martyr bishop of Carthage, in the midst of the ferocious persecution of Christians by the Romans, clearly explains the Lord's Eucharistic Sacrifice as being "according to the order of Melchisedek."

"In the priest Melchisedek we see prefigured the sacrament of the sacrifice of the Lord, according to what Divine Scripture testifies, and says, 'And Melchisedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine.' Now he was a priest of the most High God, and blessed Abraham. And that Melchisedek was a type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, saying from the person of the Father to the Son: 'Before the morning star I have begotten Thee; Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedek.' This order is assuredly the one coming from that sacrifice: that Melchisedek was a priest of the Most High God; that he offered wine and bread; that he blessed Abraham. For who is more a priest of the most high God than Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and offered the very same thing which Melchisedek had offered, that is, bread and wine, to wit, His Body and Blood? . . . For if Jesus Christ Our Lord and God is Himself the chief priest of God the Father, and has first offered Himself a sacrifice to the Father, and has commanded that this be done in commemoration of Himself, certainly the priest truly discharges the office of Christ, who imitates what Christ did; and he offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to God the Father, when he proceeds to offer it according to what he sees Christ Himself to have offered" (Letter 62: 4,14; A.D. 253).

St. Serapion of Thmuis

This great bishop of Lower Egypt (that means Northern Egypt Ñ the Nile is lower near the sea) was a good friend of St. Athanasius, the defender of the Divinity of Christ against the Arian heretics. He offers us the earliest text we have of a Eucharistic prayer which was actually used in the Divine Liturgy of the Eucharist.

"Heaven is full, and the earth as well is full of your magnificent glory, O Lord of Hosts. Fill too this sacrifice with Your power and communion, for we offer You this living sacrifice and unbloody offering . . . Thus we offer bread, celebrating the likeness of His death and we implore You, O God of Truth, to reconcile us to all and have mercy on us through this sacrifice . . . and we offer wine using the likeness of blood. May Your holy Word come upon this bread, O God of Truth, that it might become the Body of the Word, and upon this chalice that it might become the Blood of the Truth" (The Anaphora of Serapion 4; A.D. 339 [original translation]).

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

The newly baptized converts of the Church in Jerusalem were treated to the classiest instruction on the sacraments ever given, the amazingly beautiful lectures of their bishop, St. Cyril. He describes the Holy Eucharist as an "awe-inspiring" sacrifice. Here he explains the liturgy after the consecration:

"Next, when the spiritual sacrifice, the bloodless worship has been completed, over that sacrifice of propitiation we beseech God for the public peace of the Churches . . . for all, in a word, who need help, we all pray and offer this sacrifice. Then we commemorate also those who have fallen asleep . . . for all those who have gone before us, believing that this [Eucharistic sacrifice] will be the greatest benefit to the souls of those on whose behalf our supplication is offered in the presence of the holy, of the most dread sacrifice" (Catechetical Lectures 5, 8-9; A.D. 350).

St. Ephraem the Syrian

This is my favorite patristic text on the sacrifice of the Mass. You won't find it anywhere published in an English translation Ñ except for here. St. Ephraem so closely identifies the action of Christ in the Eucharist with His sacrifice on the cross that he counts the three days of Christ's death and burial as beginning with His mystical, sacramental 'slaying' at the Last Supper:

"From the moment when He broke His Body for His disciples, and gave it to them, one begins to count the three days during which He was among the dead. Adam practically, after eating of the fruit of the tree, lived a long time, even though he was counted among the dead for having disobeyed the commandment of God. God had spoken to him thus 'The day when you eat of it, you will die.' Thus it was for Our Lord. It was because He had given them His Body to eat in view of the mystery of His death that He entered into their bodies as He entered later on into the earth" (Commentary on the Diatessaron 19, 4 [translated from the Armenian version]; A.D. 363).

The Liturgy of St. Maruthas

This liturgy of Syrian origin is attributed to St. Maruthas, the great Syrian missionary bishop in Persia and ally of St. John Chrysostom. St. Maruthas, known for his corpulence (there have been some fat saints!), was martyred around A.D. 412. He expands on the words of institution and consecration in the Mass to identity the Eucharistic Sacrifice with the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. (This text is not found in any English selections, so I have translated the passage.)

"On that last night on which He was about to save His creatures, observe and fulfill the law, and begin His New Covenant, while teaching those saved by Him the true doctrine, He took the bread into His pure hands, and giving thanks to His Father, He blessed, sanctified, broke, and divided it among His disciples and said: 'Take eat, believe, and be certain, and so teach and preach that This is My Body which is broken for the salvation of the world, and to those who eat it and believe in Me it gives the expiation of sins and eternal life' Truly Lord we have done wickedly, evilly, and foolishly, and we have provoked Your wrath, nor have we kept even one of Your commandments. May you, O Good Lord, excuse us and be merciful for our crimes for the sake of the Sacrifice placed before You this day. Indeed it is You who have told us, 'Whosoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood, and believes in Me, abides in Me and I in him, and I will raise him up on the last day May He (the Holy Spirit) change this simple bread and make it the very Body which was immolated for us on the cross for the remission of sins and the eternal life of those receiving it." (Liturgy of St. Maruthas of Maiferkat; circa A.D. 390).

St. Ambrose of Milan

The Roman Canon, or "First Eucharistic Pray-er" of the Latin Church, is cited by St. Ambrose in his instructions on the sacraments given to the newly baptized during the week of Easter:

"And the priest says, 'Therefore, mindful of His most glorious passion and resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, we offer You this immaculate victim, a reasonable sacrifice, an unbloody victim, this holy bread, and the chalice of eternal life. And we ask You and pray that You accept this offering just as You deigned to accept the sacrifice the high priest Melchisedek offered You.' So as often as you receive, what does the Apostle say to you? As often as we receive, we proclaim the death of the Lord. If death [then], we proclaim the remission of sins. If as often as blood is shed, it is shed for the remission of sins, I ought always to accept Him, that He may always dismiss my sins. I, who always sin, should always have a remedy" (On the Sacraments 4,6; A.D. 392 [original translation]).

In his Commentary on the Psalms, not yet available in English, St. Ambrose speaks clearly of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered on Christian altars:

"We priests follow [Christ's cross] as we are able, so that we might offer sacrifice for the people, since, even though Christ is not seen to offer, nevertheless He is offered on earth when the Body of Christ is offered. Or rather, He is shown to offer in us, by whose word is consecrated the sacrifice which is offered" (Commentary on Psalm 38, 25; circa A.D. 395 [original translation]).

St. Augustine of Hippo

There are so many texts of St. Augustine in which he speaks of the Catholic Sacrifice of the Mass, that it's hard to choose which ones to quote! Here are two representative examples of his teaching on this subject.

"Was not Christ immolated once in Himself, and nevertheless under the sacrament He is immolated for the people not only on every Paschal Feast Day, but even every day, and is it not also the case that he does not err at all who, when asked, responds that He is so immolated?" (Letter 98, 9; A.D. 410 [original tanslation]).

"Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament." (Sermon 3, 2; circa A.D. 410 [original translation]).

(Source: Envoy Magazine)

Pat's Top Ten Least Popular Children's Bedtime Stories

You parents will understand. So will your kids ;)

Patrick Madrid's Top Ten Least Popular Children's Bedtime Stories —

10. Run, Kids, Run! Keith and Becky Discover Uncle Pete's Hornet Farm

9. And Who Will Help Me Fry The Chicken? - The Colonel teaches Henny Penny A Lesson About Whining

8. A Child's Illustrated Treasury of Rodeo Accidents

7. Nippy the Infectious Chihuahua

6. A Critique of Kantian Metaphysics and Ontological Presuppositions-for Kids!

5. The Day Barney Caught on Fire

4. The Adventures of Milo, the Obnoxious Intestinal Parasite

3. Babaar the Elephant Gets Gunned Down on Safari

2. The Big Red Fire Engine Meets the Little Engine That Could In a Fiery Head-on Collision

1. Otis the Hungry Rottweiler Meets Shaun, the Magically Delicious Leprechaun 

(Source: Envoy Magazine)

Pat's Top Ten Orthodox Catholic Pick-Up Lines

Okay, all you single Catholics who are searching for just the right thing to say to make a good first impression on that cute single Catholic you have your eyes on (chastely, of course), here's my classic top ten list of time-tested, sure-fire, often-imitated-but-never-improved-upon Orthodox Catholic Pick-Up Lines (please use them responsibly, and always give proper attribution!) . . .

Patrick Madrid's Orthodox Catholic Pick-Up Lines —

10. May I offer you a light for that votive candle?

9. Hi there. My buddy and I were wondering if you would settle a dispute we're having. Do you think the word should be pronounced HOMEschooling, or homeSCHOOLing?

8. Sorry, but I couldn't help but noticing how cute you look in that ankle-length, shapeless, plaid jumper.

7. What's a nice girl like you doing at a First Saturday Rosary Cenacle like this?

6. You don't like the culture of death either? Wow! We have so much in common!

5. Let's get out of here. I know a much cozier little Catholic bookstore downtown.

4. I bet I can guess your confirmation name.

3. You've got stunning scapular-brown eyes.

2. Did you feel what I felt when we reached into the holy water font at the same time?

1. Confess here often?

NOTE: This is an oldie but goodie from way back in my early days publishing Envoy Magazine. I do a top-ten list (with the help of excellent input from some other very funny Catholic guys) in each issue, but this particular top ten list seems to have been the most popular. You can check out some of the other "Pat's Top Ten" lists here. 

Care to Caption This?

I'll start things off:

“This is kind of how it feels when you study (i.e., drink deeply from) the works of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.”

Fr. Roderick on the Newly Twittering U.S. Bishops

Father Roderick — a Twitter magnate in his own right — reports on how the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference has hooked up with a new and rapidly growing online Catholic community at Twitter. Don't know what Twitter is? Don't worry, you soon will. Though if you've been reading this blog for the past couple of months that it's been in existence, you already know.

More and more individual Catholics and catholic organizations are discovering Twitter as a new medium to communicate with a world wide audience.

You can now even follow the U.S.  bishops via Twitter. USCCB Media Relations represent the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to the media and the media to the bishops.

On twitter.com/usccbmedia, you can read important news updates straight from the bishops, like today’s nomination of Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan as the new archbishop of New York, the most prominent post in U.S. Church. (article)

Oh, and when you get started Twittering, if you haven't already, do look me up. My T-handle is patrickmadrid. 

Some Pics from Timothy & Nina's Wedding

The radiantly beautiful and happy couple, (my son) Timothy and Nina (née Pezzutti) Madrid, were joined in the sacrament of holy matrimony on February 14 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Columbus, Ohio.

Festivities ensued.

They spent a week in Italy — Rome and Naples — for their honeymoon.

This 1981 Movie Eerily Describes What's Happening Today

Hey, everyone! Here's a great way to start your week! (/sarcasm).

Seriously, though, take a look at this montage of scenes from the 1981 movie “Rollover,” which depicts a catastrophic global economic implosion. It could have been made today, in 2009, for its grim scenario is unsettlingly similar to some things we're seeing today.

Also, check out this interview on the economy and dangers we face, especially the last two minutes of the interview. Some very grim predictions here:

Sunday urged to be ‘day of fervent prayer’ for Pope Benedict

The Catholic News Service reports:

Saying Pope Benedict XVI has been “unjustly attacked,” the head of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need has called for this Sunday, the Feast of the Chair of Peter, to be a day of fervent prayer for the Holy Father.

“Pope Benedict XVI has been unjustly attacked. There has been a resurgence of the unsavoury and aggressive attitudes that many thought belonged to the past,” Fr. Joaquín Alliende, International President of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) said on Friday.

Referring to “serious errors” in “certain bodies within the Holy See,”Fr. Alliende’s statement claimed “these acknowledged mistakes have been seized upon to launch an astonishing avalanche of attacks.”

“The dignity of the papacy and the person of Benedict XVI himself have been crudely insulted. Many people have manipulated the facts, while others have frivolously abandoned the important fundamentals of our humanist tradition.

“This unworthy dealing with the truth does grave damage to the dialogue between civil society and the great religions. It is a sign of cultural degeneration.”

Fr. Alliende warned that “old sectarian emotions” are being revived and that there has been an attempt to undermine “an irreprochable moral figure, one of the great beacons of hope for coming generations.”

Despite these “strident attacks,” Fr. Alliende said Pope Benedict’s personality “emerges untouched” as a figure who “incarnates rationality, lucid wisdom and courteous kindness.”

Fr. Alliende invited “all those who believe in a God of truth and love to join us in a day of special prayer.” (read article)

Dr. Alan Keyes Warns America

(courtesy of http://causa-nostrae-laetitiae.blogspot.com)

The Politics of Porn

By Robert R. Reilly

In many major American cities, the tawdry sections of town that once housed pornographic cinemas, bookstores, and strip joints have given way to shiny new office buildings and Starbucks coffee houses. Does this sign of urban renewal also signify moral renewal? Has America finally grown bored with a surfeit of pornography? Unfortunately not. Pornography has simply relocated from inner city slums to a far worse location — the home, which it now infiltrates via the latest technology.

U.S. News and World Report (Feb. 10, 1997) revealed just how deeply mired this country is in explicit depictions of sexual depravity; it is a sign of the times that the cover article on pornography was carried in the "Business and Technology" section. The story states that hardcore pornography is now an $8 billion industry.

A more recent Time magazine article (Sept. 7, 1998), "Porn Goes Mainstream," also in the "Business" section, estimates $10 billion in revenues. In either case, hardcore porn out-grosses all of Hollywood's domestic box office receipts and rakes in more cash than the rock and country music businesses combined. In 1996, 665 million hard core videos were rented -- over two for every man, woman, and child in America.

Explicit sex has become part of the bottom line for video stores, long-distance carriers like AT&T, cable companies like Time Warner and Tele-Communications, Inc., and hotel chains like Marriott, Hyatt, and Holiday Inn. In addition, there are an estimated 100,000 pornographic World Wide Web sites on the Internet, offering millions of hardcore pornographic images, some of them "interactive." Pornography is now mainstream. How did this happen? . . . (read article) courtesy of Spirit Daily.

Time Magazine's Crusade Against the Catholic Church

Time Magazine has hit a new low, even by its standards, with a recent article disingenuously claiming that the so-called “Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA) is a “mythical” bill and, therefore, that the “Catholic crusade” against it is merely ignorant folly.

So watch this video and see what the Pro-Abortion Candidate himself said about his implacable commitment to “transform America” according to the death-dealing machinations of Planned Parenthood and extremist groups like it.

Does it sound to you like he was promising to sign a “mythical,” nonexistent fantasy of a bill? Time wants you to get that impression. The fact is, FOCA is deadly real and our new Líder Maximo has repeatedly promised that he is deadly serious about signing it into law.

Don't let the pro-abortion zealots at Time Magazine fool you and lull you into becoming passive and disinterested about this. Don't let them do it. This is real. And you need to spread the word far and wide so people won't buy into Time's dangerous foolishness.  

Freedom of Choice Act (Introduced in Senate)— Text of Senate bill S 2020 IS (2004)
Freedom of Choice Act (Introduced in House) — Text of House bill HR 3719 IH (2004)
Freedom of Choice Act (Introduced in Senate) — Text of Senate bill S 1173 IS (2007)
Freedom of Choice Act (Introduced in House) — Text of House bill HR 1964 IH (2007)

Gerald Celente Really Scares Me

patrickmadrid | Twitter Grader

patrickmadrid | Twitter Grader

Posted using ShareThis

A Star Is Born

I sure hope these scientists know what they're doing. I have no doubt that some seriously smart people are working on this project aimed at generating a mini "star" within a laboratory in California. It's just that making something — inside a building — that burns at temperatures in excess of 100 million degrees seems kind of chancey to me.

I mean, what kind of material do you use to construct the room/chamber/device that will contain a 100-million degree object? And why can't we build our space shuttles out of that? I'm all in favor of finding new energy sources, and if this is a good and viable option, then let's get it going. But what if it gets out of hand? 

While it has seemed an impossible goal for nearly 100 years, scientists now believe that they are on brink of cracking one of the biggest problems in physics by harnessing the power of nuclear fusion, the reaction that burns at the heart of the sun.

In the spring, a team will begin attempts to ignite a tiny man-made star inside a laboratory and trigger a thermonuclear reaction.

Its goal is to generate temperatures of more than 100 million degrees Celsius and pressures billions of times higher than those found anywhere else on earth, from a speck of fuel little bigger than a pinhead. If successful, the experiment will mark the first step towards building a practical nuclear fusion power station and a source of almost limitless energy.

At a time when fossil fuel supplies are dwindling and fears about global warming are forcing governments to seek clean energy sources, fusion could provide the answer. Hydrogen, the fuel needed for fusion reactions, is among the most abundant in the universe. Building work on the £1.2 billion nuclear fusion experiment is due to be completed in spring.

Scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, nestled among the wine-producing vineyards of central California, will use a laser that concentrates 1,000 times the electric generating power of the United States into a billionth of a second.

The result should be an explosion in the 32ft-wide reaction chamber which will produce at least 10 times the amount of energy used to create it. "We are creating the conditions that exist inside the sun," said Ed Moses, director of the facility. "It is like tapping into the real solar energy as fusion is the source of all energy in the world. It is really exciting physics, but beyond that there are huge social, economic and global problems that it can help to solve."

Inside a structure covering an area the size of three football pitches, a single infrared laser will be sent through almost a mile of lenses, mirrors and amplifiers to create a beam more than 10 billion times more powerful than a household light bulb.

Housed within a hanger-sized room that has to be pumped clear of dust to prevent impurities getting into the beam, the laser will then be split into 192 separate beams, converted into ultraviolet light and focused into a capsule at the centre of an aluminium and concrete-coated target chamber.

When the laser beams hit the inside of the capsule, they should generate high-energy X-rays that, within a few billionths of a second, compress the fuel pellet inside until its outer shell blows off.

This explosion of the fuel pellet shell produces an equal and opposite reaction that compresses the fuel itself together until nuclear fusion begins, releasing vast amounts of energy.

Scientists have been attempting to harness nuclear fusion since Albert Einstein’s equation E=mc², which he derived in 1905, raised the possibility that fusing atoms together could release tremendous amounts of energy.

Under Einstein’s theory, the amount of energy locked up in one gram of matter is enough to power 28,500 100-watt lightbulbs for a year.

Until now, such fusion has only been possible inside nuclear weapons and highly unstable plasmas created in incredibly strong magnetic fields. The work at Livermore could change all this.

The sense of excitement at the facility is clear. In the city itself, people on the street are speaking about the experiment and what it could bring them. Until now Livermore has had only the dubious honour of being home of the US government’s nuclear weapons research laboratories which are on the same site as the NIF.

Inside the facility, the scientists are impatient. After 11 years of development work, they want the last of the lenses and mirrors for the laser to be put in place and the tedious task of adjusting and aiming the laser to be over, a process they fear could take up to a year before they can successfully achieve fusion.

Jeff Wisoff, a former astronaut who is deputy principal associate director of science at the NIF, said: "Everyone is keen to get started, but we have to get the targeting right, otherwise it won’t work. "We will be firing laser pulses that last just a few billionths of a second but we will be creating conditions that are found in the interior of stars or exploding nuclear weapons. (read article)

"You Never Think It's Going to Happen to You"

I cannot imagine how devastating it would be for any family to lose a loved one in a plane crash, the way the Eckert Family lost Beverly in last night's crash of Continental Express's flight 3407 in Buffalo. Even less, though, can I imagine how traumatizing it must be for them given that on 9/11 Beverly's husband, Sean, perished on the 105th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center when it collapsed after the second hijacked plane struck. 

According to one news report, Beverly was “traveling to Buffalo for a weekend celebration of what would have been her husband's 58th birthday. She also had planned to take part in presentation of a scholarship award at Canisius High School that she established in honor of her late husband.”

One woman, a family member of another passenger on Flight 3407, said: "You never think this is going to happen to you . . . It always happens to somebody else, and you see it on TV."

So true. Which is why this is a good time for us all to ponder the words of James 4:13-15:

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain'; whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.'"

The families and friends of those killed in last night's crash are reeling with grief right now. Let's pray today for the repose of the souls of those who died and that the grace of the Lord's consolation would strengthen and comfort those who are grieving.