The world will live on after the end, and that world we don’t know belongs to the martyrs: to priestly witnesses trained in obedience and formed by consuming the body and blood of Jesus; to royal martyrs who learn to fight with tongues and fingers; to prophets who have so deeply listened to God’s word that they can speak it to God, the Church, and the world. It will belong to those with the courage of the Benedictines who rebuilt on the ruins of Rome, and to those with the cunning of the Reformers who renewed Christendom after it had become a graveyard.

Apocalypse means “unveiling,” and the Apocalypse is about the unveiling of Jesus. For us, too, the ultimate outcome of our apocalyptic moment will be a fuller, deeper revelation of the Christ. In Revelation, Jesus is already glorified at the beginning of the book. Before the falling stars, before the beasts and the harlot, before the battles, Jesus stands unveiled before John. The Apocalypse climaxes not in the unveiling of Jesus but in the unveiling of his Bride. It is about the revelation of Jesus Christ in his Bride. What will be unveiled in the world after TEOTWAWKI [“the end of the world as we know it”] is the glory of Jesus shining through his witnesses.

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Abu Dhabi: In a testament to the UAE’s multicultural tolerance, the region’s largest Anglican church is currently being built in Abu Dhabi, with the land for the church donated by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Currently under construction in Musaffah, the All Saints Anglican Church will be able to accommodate over 4,000 worshippers when complete. The church is currently looking to raise Dh8 million to reach its target of Dh20 million, which is the total cost of the church, and it expects to receive its final funding by December.

“At a time when walls are being erected between different faith communities in the world, the UAE continues their tradition of welcoming people of different faiths as a genuine and mature expression of their Islamic hospitality,” said Reverend Andy Thompson, senior chaplain in charge of Anglican churches in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

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The U.S. has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world, and 60 percent are preventable. The death of Lauren Bloomstein, a neonatal nurse, in the hospital where she worked illustrates a profound disparity: The health care system focuses on babies but often ignores their mothers.

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In a recent video by America, a national Catholic magazine, McSweeney said his parish, which has 60-plus employees and three other priests, sent representatives to other megachurches around the country to see how they do it.

“The star (of the other churches) is usually the pastor,” McSweeney said the video. “The star here at this megaparish is Jesus Christ.”

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The star (of the othr churches) is usually the pastor.The star here at ths megaparish is Jesus Christ-John McSweeney https://t.co/NAEGHYN5Zt

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 13, 2017

Every Thursday and Friday, Rabbi Moshe Tauber dutifully travels to Manhattan from his home in Monsey, N.Y. The 43-year-old rabbi and father of 12 usually arrives by 5:30 a.m. He drives as far as 25 miles in the city, his eyes focused well above street level. That’s because he sees what nobody else does.

Rabbi Tauber’s job is to keep tabs on the Manhattan eruv, a precisely designated zone that zigzags from 126th Street in Harlem to the bottom of the island and from the Upper East Side to the Lower East Side. Its perimeter is marked by heavy-duty fishing line strung almost invisibly on city light poles 18 feet high, though structural portions of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, the West Side Highway and the Brooklyn Bridge also mark the boundaries.

For many of New York’s observant Jews, their enjoyment of the Sabbath depends on Rabbi Tauber. During Shabbos, which runs from Friday sundown to Saturday night, religious Jews aren’t permitted to carry objects outside the home, as that would constitute work. No bottles of wine and casseroles when visiting friends, not even prayer books and tallit bags. The eruv becomes a lifeline for Orthodox families to be out and about on the holiest day of the week.

Under cover of the eruv, which symbolically extends one’s residence into the public domain, carrying and pushing are kosher.

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Schools may be giving Google more than they are getting: generations of future customers.

Google makes $30 per device by selling management services for the millions of Chromebooks that ship to schools. But by habituating students to its offerings at a young age, Google obtains something much more valuable.

Every year, several million American students graduate from high school. And not only does Google make it easy for those who have school Google accounts to upload their trove of school Gmail, Docs and other files to regular Google consumer accounts — but schools encourage them to do so. This month, for instance, Chatfield Senior High School in Littleton, Colo., sent out a notice urging seniors to “make sure” they convert their school account “to a personal Gmail account.”

That doesn’t sit well with some parents. They warn that Google could profit by using personal details from their children’s school email to build more powerful marketing profiles of them as young adults.

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Really, really funny.

O God, who has given into our hands the ministry to which he has called us, help us this day to fulfill our responsibilities in thy Name with wisdom, cheerfulness and honesty; through Jesus Christ our Lord (slightly edited).

–Robert W. Rodenmayer, ed., The Pastor’s Prayerbook: Selected and arranged for various occasions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960)

But I call upon God; and the LORD will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice. He will deliver my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.

–Psalm 55:16-18