If you’re reading this on Columbus Day, A Year with the Mystics is 40 percent off from the publisher today. (Other books, too.) Use this link and plug in the title.

1. A beautiful reflection from Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on living

2.

Reasonable response to Turkish aggression: Immediately recognize 1894-1924 Turkish genocide of Christians and give aid to the Republic of Armenia to shelter Assyrians, Syriacs & Chaldeans who want to escape violence in Syria/Iraq. 1/3@realDonaldTrump@SecPompeo @USAIDMarkGreen — Robert Nicholson (@rwnicholson_) October 13, 2019

3.

These are the last two reminders of Jewish presence in Qamishli, Syria. – A synagogue that Hafez al Assad partially demolished and turned into a military structure.

– A shop, named after the original owner, Albert Nahum Ezra, now owned by an Assyrian. 📎 https://t.co/W7AHlMMQL0 pic.twitter.com/5cScL5n8uW — Jenny 🐚 (@JenniBns) October 12, 2019

4. Marlo Safi: Syria’s Christians are Suffering in Silence



5.

Talk of Trump's impeachment and America's withdrawal from Syria buried news of another synagogue shooting in the (post-)Christian West, proving once again how hard it is to recognize history's most important trends when they are happening around you. https://t.co/WcBEcOv97w — Robert Nicholson (@rwnicholson_) October 10, 2019

6. (New York Times): Baby Antonio: 5 Pounds, 12 Ounces and Homeless From Birth


7.

We aren't an #adoption agency, but we are here to help families interested in fostering or adoption – from starting the process to foster or adopt to receiving a placement and accessing support services. And our services are always free. https://t.co/5EOOUOv4sg #fostercare — AdoptUSKids (@AdoptUSKids) October 14, 2019

8. Bill de Blasio is reconsidering the decision to overlook the popularity of Mother Cabrini for a project to put statues of women around NYC – but apparently because of actor Chazz Palminteri. (Listen here about 13 minutes in, if you’re interested.) More about the controversy here.

9. Pope Francis on Sunday:

To cry out. To walk. To give thanks. Today we give thanks to the Lord for our new Saints. They walked by faith and now we invoke their intercession. Three of them were religious women; they show us that the consecrated life is a journey of love at the existential peripheries of the world. Saint Marguerite Bays, on the other hand, was a seamstress; she speaks to us of the power of simple prayer, enduring patience and silent self-giving. That is how the Lord made the splendour of Easter radiate in her life, in her humbleness. Such is the holiness of daily life, which Saint John Henry Newman described in these words: “The Christian has a deep, silent, hidden peace, which the world sees not… The Christian is cheerful, easy, kind, gentle, courteous, candid, unassuming; has no pretence… with so little that is unusual or striking in his bearing, that he may easily be taken at first sight for an ordinary man” (Parochial and Plain Sermons, V, 5). Let us ask to be like that, “kindly lights” amid the encircling gloom. Jesus, “stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as Thou shinest: so to shine as to be a light to others” (Meditations on Christian Doctrine, VII, 3). Amen.

10. Prince Charles on Saint John Henry Newman