peace on earth
“Hungary’s Orbán Ousted in Landslide Election Defeat”
It can be done!!! Sunday, the people of Hungary showed that it can be done.
Not only not a food blog, nor a car blog, nor even a religious blog; and certainly in no way a political blog, +Time is where, as long as America is still clinging to free speech, I can say what I want within the bounds of decency, express my views that are as valid as anyone's.
And my view is this: having survived an insufferable, oppressive and dangerous government, the Hungarians have given Orbán the boot, a would be tyrant kicked out of office - - offering other nations an encouraging example, even stirring hope as we descend into darkness in an age of deepening insanity.
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But these days my principal thoughts are on our planet Earth, stunningly alone and vulnerable as seen in photographs from Artemis II, Earth, a distant sphere hanging in the blackness of space; in the Universal scheme of things, an insignificant speck among trillions and quadrillions of specks suspended in the mind of God. And we, Earth's passing trustees, fighting among ourselves, fighting for the death of each other.
Peace on Earth, goodwill among men:
Jesus, Lamb of God, have mercy on us.
Jesus, bearer of our sins, have mercy on us.
Jesus, redeemer, redeemer of the world, grant us your peace. Grant us your peace.
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What is that Peace?
All my life, we've been proclaiming and passing the Peace of God. As a parish priest in the second half of my life, I got up a sermon about the Peace of God from Time to Time, nothing profound, incisive or very helpful, just another ten or eleven minutes in the pulpit then step down and go on with life as usual, nothing ever changing. But/so what is it really, that Peace?
In his poem turned hymn, after noting that John who trimmed the flapping sail homeless on Patmos died, and Peter who hauled the teaming net head-down was crucified, William Alexander Percy takes a stab at it, concluding that "the Peace of God, it is no Peace, but strife closed in the sod" - - a metaphor for his evidence that God's peace is, as someone wrote, a profound, transformative struggle rather than mere tranquility. That God's peace for us is the misery we suffer in Jesus' name, hell on Earth until the last spade of earth is tossed on our grave. I don't know.
Really and truly, I don't know. I don't like to think W A Percy is right, that God's peace is our misery in Jesus' name. A Bible passage gives me hope: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future," Jeremiah 29:11, written as a word of hope to exiled Israelites in Babylon, promising them a future despite the current hardships of their captivity.
That's where I am with images in my mind of the Peace of God, not some transfer to Paradise at death, but hope for the life on earth that the Judean exiles longed to return to - - metaphorically for me, a latter day gentile in a once beloved nation gone mad, peace in Jerusalem. In my own lifetime America has been on the way there. We have tossed that for a way of division, selfishness, greed, and hatred of all who are different from us. Percy concludes his poem, Yet let us pray for but one thing: the marvelous Peace of God. As potus and pope take verbal shots at each other, the people of Hungary give me hope that we can begin to heal and head there again. If not in my lifetime, in the lifetimes of those I know and love.
RSF&PTL
T90
I love to think of them at dawn, beneath the pale, pink sky, casting their nets in Galilee, and fish-hawks circling by.
They cast their nets in Galilee, just off the hills of brown, such happy, peaceful fishermen before the Lord came down.
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An eight-year "civil war" among a community of roughly 200 chimpanzees in Uganda's Kibale National Park, specifically in the Ngogo region, has been documented by scientists, with violent conflict splitting the group into two rival factions. According to studies published in the journal Science (April 2026), this unprecedented infighting has seen former allies become enemies, resulting in 24 known killings, including 17 infants and seven adults, between 2018 and 2024.
Key Aspects of the Ngogo Chimpanzee War:
The Breakdown: Formerly the largest known unified community, the Ngogo chimps split into Western and Central factions around 2015-2018 following population growth, disease outbreaks, and shifting male dominance, notes in.
Violent Tactics: Western chimps have targeted the Central group, using coordinated, brutal tactics reminiscent of human violence to take over territory and resources, reports in.
Key Findings: This is one of the most detailed records of non-human civil conflict and suggests that territoriality and social breakdown can mirror human conflict, say in and.
The conflict is ongoing and has shocked researchers because chimpanzee communities rarely split so violently, with, as noted by, such divisions usually occurring once every 500 years. The study, led by researchers including Aaron Sandel of the University of Texas, highlights how quickly social structures can break down into intense territorial warfare.
The Times of India