1. Syria: five children killed in missile strike on displacement camp

2. Judge rules that doctors can take baby off life support against mother’s wishes

3. China tightens its grip on religion

4.

Twitter: please slow down. The first rule has to be “do no harm” not “be the first.” Let’s not be used by #Iran as a tool to demoralize their opposition – especially those in #Iraq fighting against the takeover of their country. https://t.co/yl9UylpU83 — Nadine Maenza (@nadinemaenza) January 6, 2020

5. Media Bias Vividly Illustrated In Headlines About Michelle Williams’s Pro-Abortion Golden Globes Speech


What struck me most about the speech was the misery it exposed as you looked at some of the faces in the room, including the man who looked like he might be bored. How can you be bored in the face of such obvious pain?


And what she said about things that happen to women’s bodies they don’t choose — there must be so much pain to the story. And her aching heart can’t grieve!

6. Charlie Camosy: Against physician-assisted suicide: A new law would feed a throwaway culture

7.

NYT doing that thing it does. pic.twitter.com/hy6R0FsBXa — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) January 7, 2020

8. These precious children and these teachers!

"Children who are loved at home, come to school to learn; those that aren't, come to school to be loved." From a headteacher a while back and it stayed with me. For many children, going back to school this week is a return to a stable and loving environment.#backtoschool — Raymond Friel (@friel_raymond) January 5, 2020

9.

The heroism of the saints is so immense, it is hard not to look on our age and see merely small, squalid souls. Saint Elizabeth had the courage not only to leap into the new, unknown but to revive what had been old and lost. pic.twitter.com/unIw9b2V5r — James Matthew Wilson (@JMWSPT) January 7, 2020

1o. 8 Concrete ways parishes can support persecuted Christians

11. From Pope Francis on Epiphany:

Worship means going to Jesus without a list of petitions, but with one request alone: to abide with him. It is about discovering that joy and peace increase with praise and thanksgiving. In worship, we allow Jesus to heal and change us. In worship, we make it possible for the Lord to transform us by his love, to kindle light amid our darkness, to grant us strength in weakness and courage amid trials. Worship means concentrating on what is essential: ridding ourselves of useless things and addictions that anaesthetize the heart and confound the mind. In worship, we learn to reject what should not be worshiped: the god of money, the god of consumerism, the god of pleasure, the god of success, the god of self. Worship means bending low before the Most High and to discover in his presence that life’s greatness does not consist in having, but in loving. Worship means recognizing that we are all brothers and sisters before the mystery of a love that bridges every distance: it is to encounter goodness at the source; it is to find in the God of closeness the courage to draw near to others. Worship means knowing how to be silent in the presence of the divine Word, and learning to use words that do not wound but console.

12. Afghanistan names school after illiterate dad who walked daughters 12 kilometres to school