Today on Kresta - May 18, 2011

Talking about the "things that matter most" on May 18

4:00 – Fatima for Today: The Urgent Marian Message of Hope
Though the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima took place nearly a hundred years ago, Our Lady's call to prayer and penance for the salvation of souls and peace in the world is as relevant now as when first delivered to three Portuguese peasant children in 1917. Much of what Our Lady of Fatima said was revealed soon after her appearances, but the third and final "secret", which was not a message but a prophetic vision seen by the children, was not unveiled by the Vatican until 2000. Pope John Paul II, who read the third secret while recovering from the attempt upon his life in 1981, believed the vision signified the sufferings the Church had endured in the twentieth century. Because of the prophetic nature of her messages, Our Lady of Fatima has been the subject of much controversy and speculation. Father Andrew Apostoli is here to carefully analyze the events that took place in Fatima and clears up lingering questions and doubts about their meaning. He also challenges us to hear anew the call of Our Lady to prayer and sacrifice, for the world is ever in need of generous hearts willing to make reparation for those in danger of losing their way to God.

5:00 – Toward the Gleam: A Novel
Between the two world wars, on a hike in the English countryside, Professor John Hill takes refuge from a violent storm in a cave. There he nearly loses his life, but he also makes an astonishing discovery - an ancient manuscript housed in a cunningly crafted metal box. Though a philologist by profession, Hill cannot identify the language used in the manuscript and the time period in which it is was made, but he knows enough to make an educated guess - that the book and its case are the fruits of a long-lost, but advanced civilization. It’s the plot of the novel Toward the Gleam, and author T.M Doran is here in studio.

5:40 – The Indecipherable Writing of Thomas Aquinas
Fr. Robert Barron was in Rome the past couple of weeks, giving lectures at the North American College, the great seminary for Americans, Canadians, and Australians at the Vatican. There he was invited to view some “autographs” of St. Thomas Aquinas, that is to say, some writings in Thomas’s own hand. He was approaching this appointment with enormous enthusiasm, for Thomas, the church’s greatest theologian, is his hero, patron saint, and the person who, more than any other, had directed him toward the priesthood, and the scholar whose work he has been studying and writing about most of his adult life. He is here to tell us about the experience.