The next time someone accuses the Church of discouraging intellectual
exploration that could benefit humanity, one would do well to bring the
following thinkers to bear upon the discussion:
1) Louis Pasteur – Inventor of Pasteurization
Louis Pasteur, inventor of the process pasteurization (one of the
biggest breakthroughs ever for preventing disease), was once praying the
Rosary on a train when a young man criticized his devotion as a
manifestation of scientific ignorance. Pasteur simply had to introduce
himself to dispel this spurious charge of superstition.
Apocryphal or not, the anecdote is confirmed by Pasteur’s many quotes in favor of the life of faith:
“A little science takes you away from God
but a lot of science takes you back to Him… Question your priorities
often, make sure God always comes first… Posterity will one day laugh at
the sublime foolishness of the modern materialistic philosophy. The
more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.
“I pray while I am engaged at my work in
the laboratory… Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an
ideal, and who obeys it: ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of the
gospel virtues, therein lie the springs of great thoughts and great
actions; they all reflect light from the Infinite… Do not let yourself
be tainted with a barren skepticism… Could I but know all, I would have
the faith of a Breton peasant woman.”
2) Gregor Mendel – Father of Genetics
Augustinian monk and pioneer of genetics, Gregor Mendel, calculated
the odds of inheritance in his monastery garden. In a German sermon, he
preached the following homily, seamlessly intertwining scriptural
interpretation with his scientific investigations:
“Jesus appeared to the disciples after
the Resurrection in various forms. He appeared to Mary Magdalene so that
they might take him for a gardener. Very ingeniously these
manifestation of Jesus is to our minds difficult to penetrate. He
appears as a gardener. The gardener plants seedlings in prepared soil.
The soil must exert a physical and chemical influence so that the seed
of the plant can grow. Yet this is not sufficient. The warmth and light
of the sun must be added, together with rain, in order that growth may
result.
“The seed of supernatural life, of
sanctifying grace, cleanses from sin, so preparing the soul of man, and
man must seek to preserve this life by his good works. He still needs
the supernatural food, the body of the Lord, which received continually,
develops and brings to completion of the life. So natural and
supernatural must unite to the realization of the holiness to the
people. Man must contribute his minimum work of toil, and God gives the
growth.
“Truly, the seed, the talent, the grace
of God is there, and man has simply to work, take the seeds to bring
them to the bankers. So that we ‘may have life, and abundantly.’”
3) St. Giuseppe Moscati – Pioneer in Treating Diabetes with Insulin
Doctor Moscati was one of the first physicians to use insulin in the
treatment of diabetes, but his deep intellectual gifts were always at
the service of an even deeper belief in the healing power of the Divine,
as this quote goes to show:
“Only one science is unshakeable and
unshaken, the one revealed by God, the science of the hereafter! In all
your works, look to Heaven, to the eternity of life and of the soul, and
orient yourself then much differently from the way that merely human
considerations might suggest, and your activity will be inspired for the
good.”
4) Louis de Broglie – Nobel Prize winner in Quantum Mechanics
Devout Catholic Henri de Broglie earned the Nobel Prize for his
landmark achievement in the realm of quantum mechanics with the
wave-particle equation that bears his name. Given his piety, he
attributed the voyage of discovery to a desire to know and serve:
“Science itself, no matter whether it is
the search for truth or merely the need to gain control over the
external world, to alleviate suffering, or to prolong life, is
ultimately a matter of feeling, or rather, of desire – the desire to
know, or the desire to realize.”
5) Fr. Georges Lemaître – Father of the Big Bang Theory
Fr. Georges Lemaître, a Roman Catholic priest and professor of
physics at Leuven, generated what has come to be called the Big Bang
Theory. As to the perennial feud between reason and religion, he states:
“Once you realize that the Bible does not
purport to be a textbook of science, the old controversy between
religion and science vanishes…
“The doctrine of the Trinity is much more
abstruse than anything in relativity or quantum mechanics; but, being
necessary for salvation, the doctrine is stated in the Bible. If the
theory of relativity had also been necessary for salvation, it would
have been revealed to Saint Paul or to Moses.”
6) Jerome Lejeune – Discovered Cause of Down Syndrome
Doctor Jerome Lejeune discovered trisomy 21, the genetic defect that
causes Down syndrome. While he labored with the intent to find a cure,
he decried the pervasive usage of his discovery in prenatal testing for
abortion. His pro-life stance may have cost him a Nobel Prize, but
St. John Paul II appointed him as the first president of the Pontifical
Academy of Life instead.
With his cause for canonization open in Rome, Lejeune’s eloquence in
defense of life deserves as much consideration today as ever before:
“Human genetics can be summarized in this
basic creed: In the beginning is the message, and the message is in
life, and the message is life. And if the message is a human message,
then the life is a human life…
“The enemies of life know that to destroy
Christian civilization, they must first destroy the family at its
weakest point—the child. And among the weakest, they must choose the
least protected of all—the child who has never been seen; the child who
is not yet known or loved in the usual meaning of the word; who has not
yet seen the light of day, who cannot even cry out in distress.”
7) Galileo Galilei – Father of Modern Astronomy
Yes, the Renaissance polymath Galileo Galilei was put under house
arrest for stating his solar theories as indisputable fact. But
St. Robert Bellarmine was amenable to the genius’ innovative
discoveries.
And, nevertheless, Galileo remained a practicing Catholic until the
day he died. His own daughter became a nun. His personal testimony would
not conflict with this assessment:
“The Bible shows the way to go to heaven,
not the way the heavens go… I give infinite thanks to God, who has been
pleased to make me the first observer of marvelous things… I do not
feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
* * *
Ergo, from basic genetics to interplanetary physics, the Church
collectively has made more contributions to knowledge about our universe
than any one entity in history. The litany of faithful scholars goes on
and on!
當時，這位今天名震全球的大律師 Tom Demetrio 剛剛展露頭角。
所以現在來看他 (及其他成功律師) 的成功心法，應該是有參考價值。
Catch a Rising Star
Posted Apr 02, 2005 06:21 am CST
By Martha Neil
Today, Tom Demetrio is a well-known plaintiffs lawyer in Chicago who
shares top billing on the firm marquee with his mentor, Phil Corboy.
When he graduated from law school decades ago, however, Demetrio
was an unknown and Corboy was already a successful attorney running his
own law firm.
How did Demetrio get from there to where he is today? The secret, he
says, is an approach that young attorneys can still emulate–with a bit
of luck: hard work and finding the right lawyer, or lawyers, to work
with.
It’s difficult if not impossible for most fledgling legal eagles to
launch a successful career on their own straight out of law school. But
by forming alliances with more experienced attorneys, they can learn
what they need to know to establish themselves in the profession and
prove their value to their employers.
“From a young associate’s standpoint, the challenge is: ‘How do I
identify who those partners are?’ ” says Deborah McMurray, who runs a
Dallas-based legal consulting firm. “A lot of times, the associates
don’t really know who the most political players in the firm are. The
person who gets the most attention isn’t necessarily the biggest
rainmaker.”
To get to know potential mentors, associates should hone their
conversational skills and ask in-depth questions, she says, preferably
in a social setting where there is time to talk. For example, McMurray
says, ask someone, “What was the defining moment that got you where you
are today?” Or, “What was the choice you didn’t make but wished you
would have made?”
Demetrio says he benefited from the guidance offered through a
mentorship he developed while still in law school. A judge with whom
Demetrio had interned talked to Corboy, who then offered Demetrio a job
the day they met.
“I got real lucky,” says Demetrio, who started work at Corboy’s firm
later that same day. He credits Corboy, as well as others at the firm,
with helping him learn the necessary skills. “The first job is the most
critical one because you are going to learn the work habits, ethics and
civility of the people you’re most closely aligned with, and they stick
with you throughout your career.”
Surround Yourself With Success
To find similar mentors, Demetrio suggests becoming active in a bar
association. “You network, and you meet extraordinary people you can
benefit from, if you take the time,” he says. “Plus, it’s cheap. When
you first get out of law school, the dues are nothing.”
Another option for litigators is reading transcripts of trials
handled by lawyers they admire, Demetrio says. “Ask for them–that’s all
you have to do,” he says. “Lawyers are pretty generous with their work
product.”
McMurray recommends guidance by several law firm mentors, rather than
staking a future on a single partner’s success. “Select two or three
different people who may have different strengths,” she says. Besides
offering diversified training, a group of mentors also helps preclude
“aligning yourself too closely with a lawyer who may leave” the firm.
Otherwise, “All of a sudden, you’ve tied your star to someone else’s,
and you’re left in the lurch,” McMurray says. “You might be a senior
associate, and there are a bunch of partners who don’t know who you are
and what you can do.”
She and Demetrio say young lawyers should recognize that they are in
charge of their careers. Orchestrate it, they say, rather than focusing
just on meeting deadlines and billable hours quotas.
“You’re the author of your future and how much you want to dedicate
to it,” Demetrio says. “If you can find that person who will take the
time to guide you–and it’s a person you want to be guided by–jump on it,
even if it’s a lower-paying job opportunity. … To me, that’s more
important than taking $125,000 and slaving away without direction.”
重新開張的轉運站。坦白說，我認為用星條旗在美感上有點打折扣。只是基於我不大明白的原因，現代藝術家跟政客們，不知為啥不大喜歡用 Columbia 像。毎年9月11日早上10點左右 (即第二棟大樓塌下)，建築的軸線方向正好與陽光一致，因此，光能透過天花的玻璃直接灑入大廳。如果說，美國現今採用的新英格蘭史觀之建國想像是【神之國度】(The City Upon a Hill)，那麼也的確只有光能救贖亡者並撫慰受傷的國族靈魂。
穀物片是由主持巴特爾克里療養院(Battle Creek Sanitarium) 家樂醫師 (John Harvey Kellogg,1851-1943) 所研發的。位於密西根州的巴特爾克里療養院原名西部健康改革院 (Western Health Reform Institute)，是由基督復臨安息日會 (The Seventh-day Adventist Church) 所建立的機構，提供生病的教友能夠得到符合他們飲食及心靈需求的醫療服務，是該教會屬靈療癒的一部分。依據該教會領導人懷艾倫所得到的神之訊息，1866年，西部健康改革院(Western Health Reform Institute) 在巴特爾克里成立。
1875年，受完醫學院訓練的家樂醫師返鄉奉獻，有經營頭腦的他便將原本只服務宗教對象的改革院改為巴特爾克里療養院，並開放給一般民眾。雖然療養院的服務對象擴大，但是該院所提供的「生機生活」(Battle Creek Idea)療程，依據的論理基礎仍然立於安息日會神學論以及素食派的營養學觀點上。療程內容包含了新鮮空氣、陽光、運動、鍛鍊、水療、以榖類與素食為基礎的無鹽無糖餐膳、身體姿勢的調整、心靈心態的改善以及必要的手術治療。
其中，穀物片正是家樂醫師提供給療養院患者的膳食之ㄧ，1895年，家樂醫師為他的這項新發明申請專利 (1896年生效)，並與他的兄弟Will Keith Kellogg一起設立工廠，開始生產無糖的穀物脆片。然而，對於「穀物片是否該添加糖」的歧見卻導致家樂醫師兄弟鬩牆。1906年，Will Keith Kellogg自立門戶，創立「家樂氏」，開始生產含糖的早餐穀物脆片，至今已成為世界上歷史最悠久的早餐脆片品牌。
