Lunar Eclipse and Full Moon July 2019

lunar eclipseThe Full Moon of Wednesday 17 July is immediately preceded by an eclipse which ends minutes before the Moon is 100% full; this conjunction we call a Super Full Moon. The eclipse maximum (in the Southern Hemisphere) is at 07:30:00 am; the full Moon is at 07:38:00 am. The Moon sets at 7:33:00 am, somewhat linking this to the experience of the recent solar eclipse in South America, when the Sun set immediately after eclipse totality. Compounding this situation is a preponderance of retrograde, sandhi and debilitated planets. As this is a time when people can be hurt by our thoughts, words and actions, it behooves us to be speaking softly and sweetly to one and all.

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Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, OMI

Tissa Balasuriya OMIFather Tissa Balasuriya is a member of a religious order, like the Benedictines, and the Fransciscans. Numerically, the largest religious order of priests in the country are the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), and this is the congregation to which Father Tissa Balasuriya belongs. Founded in 1816 in France as a missionary and educational order, the Oblates came to Sri Lanka in 1847. Father Tissa was excommunicated from his church in 1997 and fought to have the excommunication lifted the following year.

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William and Catherine Booth: The Salvation Army

William and Catherine BoothWILLIAM BOOTH was the most successful evangelist of the nineteenth century. In an age when travelling preachers counted their conversions – and used their weekly totals to advertise for new work – Booth certainly topped the performance league. And, although he never descended to such commercial practices himself, he took great pride in his unparalleled talent for saving souls. But his importance was the world he took as his parish. The poor were his natural congregation and, at least in his early days, the only people who listened to his sermons were the men and women to whom the Church would not reach out.

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