An Australian citizen, Brian Schmidt, is one of the winners of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics.

His work is said to show that the universe is expanding faster and faster – not slower and slower, as we were being told to believe until recently.

Why so fast? Because of “dark energy” mate.

Dark energy is something that possibly does not exist. But if it does exist, it comprises 70-odd percent of the universe.

The Nobel Academy spokespersons described his discovery as “astounding”.

It isn’t easy to be astounded by something you can’t really imagine . . . .

And something which we will, almost certainly, be told is wrong after all, within a few months or years.

,* * *

Science is something beyond most of us.

The one thing we know for sure is that science is always wrong.

Isn’t that  what “progress” means?

That what we know today proves that what they believed yesterday was wrong . . . . .

And, presumably, what we believe today will be proved wrong tomorrow.

* * *

Fortunately science doesn’t matter very much.

What matters more is how we use the things scientists make it possible to invent.

Things as diverse as life-saving antibiotics . . . and life-terminating bombs . . . .

Plus chemicals to increase crop yields . . . and chemicals to defoliate the crops of those we hope to starve to death.

Science has nothing to do with right and wrong.

Yet are not right and wrong, ultimately, all that matters?

Science can help a little bit, insofar as it reveals a universe (multiverse or whatever) that has Order.

Which confirms, to the un-blinkered, that God exists.

I have pinched most of the following.

Hope it is some help to somebody out there:

I asked God to spare me pain. God said, “No. Hardship is your chance to detach yourself from worldly things and draw closer to me.”

I asked God to give me patience. God said, “No. Patience is a by-product of suffering. It isn’t something given. It is something to be learned.”        

I asked God to take away my bad habits. God said, “No. It is not for me to take them away, but for you to give them up.”

I asked God to give me happiness. God said, “No. I give you what is my will for you. You must decide to be happy about it.”

* * *

Catholics who pray the Divine Office prayers daily, begin every morning with this act of self-giving to our Creator:

Lord God, all-powerful, you have brought us to the beginning of this day.

By your power, keep us on the road to salvation.

Do not let us fall into any sin today . . . .

But grant that all our words, all our thoughts and actions may tend toward the fulfilment of your law of holiness.

Amen

July 31 is, for Catholics, the feast day of Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556).

A soldier by profession, Ignatius, while convalescing from a leg wound, did some reading including a book entitled “Lives of the Saints”.

This affected him so much that he decided to devote the rest of his life to God.

He became a priest and founded the Society of Jesus (otherwise known as the Jesuits).

He composed a program of “Spiritual Exercises” – 30 days of guided meditations on examining one’s conscience, contemplating the Passion of Christ and making practical resolutions re how to live so as to please God.

* * *

The Exercises have been adapted to a 5-day form suitable for lay people.

They start with what Saint Ignatius calls, “The First Principle and Foundation” of life:

“Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord, and by doing so, to save his soul.

All other things on the face of the earth are created for men in order to help them pursue the end for which they are created.

It follows that one must use other created things, insofar as they help towards that end — and free oneself from them, insofar as they are obstacles to that end.

Therefore, we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things — not wanting health more than illness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short one – desiring and choosing only what helps us more towards that end for which we are created.”

* * *

The Exercises are a crash course in taking life seriously.

We have one life.

In it we decide our attitude to God.

Just one life, then  judgement.

Queenslander, Bob Katter, Independent member of federal parliament, last week formed a new party, “Katter’s Australian Party”.

Mr Katter is often spoken of as a “maverick”. Many like to dismiss him as a lightweight or an eccentric.

Sometimes he is his own worst enemy – doing himself harm by being unnecessarily offensive, e.g. referring to naturalisation ceremonies as “de-wogging” etc.

However, most of the enmity comes from those who hate him for being a Catholic.

When the Courier Mail reported last year Mr Katter’s proposal of placing a Cross on top of Mount Bartle Frere, there were 133 reader comments.

Of these, more than 90 percent were expressions of hatred of Jesus Christ — and of anybody unafraid to state their belief in him.

* * *

With regard to basic economic issues, Mr Katter is, of course, light years ahead of either of our tweedledum/tweedledee major parties.

Bob Katter is a supporter of:

* removing the tax on Australian-produced bio-fuels and mandating 10 percent ethanol content in all petrol.

* breaking Coles’ and Woolworths’ two-chain stranglehold on food sales — permitting only a maximum 22.5 percent market share by any one company.

* prohibiting imports of bananas and other plant products from countries with endemic plant diseases.

* equal government-funded parental assistance for mothers, whether they work in the home or in paid employment.

* establishing a registry of foreign-owned farmland, corporations etc.

* * *

Anything wrong with any of the above policies?

I think not.

Any chance of the big parties actually doing something about them?

Don’t hold your breath.

Jesus my Saviour,

I have tried to use this pre-Easter season to meditate on who you are.

And on how you died.

Your crucifixion was unjust. You did not deserve it. It was a bad thing.

Yet your death is dear to me.

Meditating on your Cross reduces me to tears.

But when I remember how you accepted that death out of love for God . . . .

And for sinners like me . . . .

Suddenly it fills me with joy, and I cry a different kind of tears.

There is no sacrifice and no humiliation I would not accept for love of you.

Help me not just to say all this, but to believe it and to do it.

From the Gospel of Saint Luke:

Jesus went ahead on his journey to Jerusalem.

They brought him a colt and threw their cloaks over it and helped him to mount.

They began to praise God with joy for the great things they had seen, “Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”

Some Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”

He answered, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!”

Drawing near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for your peace — but now it is hidden from your eyes.

“The days are coming when your enemies will rise up and smash you to the ground, and your children with you.

“They will not leave one stone standing upon another, because you did not recognise the time of your visitation.”

Then Jesus entered the Temple, driving out those who traded there, saying, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’”

Every day he preached in the Temple area.

The chief priests, scribes and leaders of the people, meanwhile, were seeking to put him to death.

* * *

The hostilty to Jesus that we see today is nothing new.

The next seven days are known as Holy Week — an opportunity to focus on God and his “visitation”.

And to recover our sense of proportion.

And to thank God for his love as revealed by his Son.