Now Thank We All Our God--again

 I love reading hymns in my morning devotions.  Sometimes I spend all my time on the opening hymn and Psalm. I own two hymnal sources, both Protestant, but often these hymns are also used in Catholic services.  Today it was Now Thank We All Our God.  I wrote about it for Thanksgiving 2022. Collecting My Thoughts: Now thank we all our God, story of a favorite hymn  Such an interesting and tragic background.  Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran pastor, wrote it during the 30 Years War, the most devasting war in Europe's history.  The war is often called a religious war, however, it was primarily political with the various Lutheran and Catholic princes fighting each other, plus disease and starvation. It wiped out about half of the German population.

I noticed today that it was based on a benediction in Sirach (The Wisdom of Sirach or The Book of Ecclesiasticus) 50:22-24. "And now, bless the God of all/ who has done wondrous things on earth;/ Who fosters men's growth from their mother's womb,/ and fashions them according to his will!/ May he grant you joy of heart/ and may peace abide among you;/ May his goodness toward us endure in Israel/ as long as the heavens are above." 

"Martin Rinkart was a minister in the city of Eilenburg during the Thirty Years War. Apart from battles, lives were lost in great number during this time due to illnesses and disease spreading quickly throughout impoverished cities. In the Epidemic of 1637, Rinkart officiated at over four thousand funerals, sometimes fifty per day. In the midst of these horrors, it’s difficult to imagine maintaining faith and praising God, and yet, that’s exactly what Rinkart did. Sometime in the next twenty years, he wrote the hymn, “Now Thank We All Our God,” originally meant to be a prayer said before meals. Rinkart could recognize that our God is faithful, and even when the world looks bleak, He is “bounteous” and is full of blessings, if only we look for them. Blessings as seemingly small as a dinner meal, or as large as the end of a brutal war and unnecessary bloodshed are all reasons to lift up our thanks to God, with our hearts, our hands, and our voices."  https://hymnary.org/text/now_thank_we_all_our_god

African food crises

 Conflict Remains the Dominant Driver of Africa’s Food Crisis (africacenter.org)

Highlights of the report

• An estimated 149 million Africans are facing acute food insecurity—an increase of 12 million people from a year ago. This equates to a risk category of 3 or higher (Crisis, Emergency, and Catastrophe) on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) scale of 1 to 5.
• Some 122 million of those facing acute food insecurity are in countries experiencing conflict—82 percent of the total—accentuating that conflict is the primary driver of acute food insecurity in Africa.
• 8 of the top 10 African countries experiencing acute food insecurity are facing conflict.
• The 149-million-person figure represents a 150-percent increase in the number of Africans facing acute food insecurity since 2019 when 61 million people were in this category.
• This highlights the compounding humanitarian effects of Africa’s unresolved conflicts.
• While 38 African countries are experiencing some level of acute food insecurity, roughly two-thirds of this threat is concentrated in five countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, and South Sudan—all of which are conflict-affected.
• Nearly all of the continental increase in acute food insecurity in the past year was a result of the eruption of conflict in Sudan and a deterioration of security in northern Nigeria.
• Four of the top 10 countries facing the most acute food insecurity are in East Africa—Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Somalia.
• 19 African countries have at least 10 percent of their populations facing acute food insecurity.
• Conflict compounds the impacts of other external shocks like climate change, inflation, and the disruption to global grain supplies caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain deal that enabled 33 million MT of grain to reach global markets and lower food prices, especially in Africa, has further worsened the food outlook.
• Historically, El Niño climate patterns, which have now returned, have historically led to decreased precipitation in Southern Africa, Western Africa, Sudan, and Ethiopia.
• There have already been fatalities due to hunger reported this year in Ethiopia and Somalia. WFP has predicted that before year’s end, 129,000 people are expected to experience Catastrophe levels (IPC 5) of hunger in Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia, and South Sudan. A rapid scale-up of assistance has averted even more people facing starvation.

This is the one where our church has a mission--South Sudan.  Technically, it is a Christian country, but Sudan, which is Muslim, is also having a war and food shortages.

South Sudan

In South Sudan, 7.8 million (71 percent of the population) faced Crisis and above levels of hunger this year. This number included 2.9 million people facing Emergency levels of hunger countrywide and 43,000 facing Catastrophe levels in the state of Jonglei.

The situation is being driven by rising levels of violence and insecurity  as well as “chronic vulnerabilities worsened by frequent climate-related shocks (severe flooding and dry spells), the macro-economic crisis, and low agricultural production.”

Since the outbreak of the Sudan conflict in April this year, almost 293,000 South Sudanese returnees and Sudanese refugees have entered South Sudan. This influx is exacerbating the already severe humanitarian situation in South Sudan, placing additional strain on limited humanitarian resources and escalating food and fuel prices.

Read the rest of the report for the other countries.

Yon and Peterson discuss Pandemic, Famine and War

Sri Lanka used to be a food exporter, had a thriving economy. The government decided they needed to go "green" to save the planet (i.e. grab more power and control) and now people are starving and rioting. Netherlands was the 2nd largest exporter of agricultural products even with a population of only 17 million--that tiny country not only fed itself, but others--now truckers and farmers are rioting because power hungry greenies are going berserk. They are trying to demonize the farmers--killing their golden goose and the impact will be starvation for other countries. Yon and Peterson discuss that war creates war, and famine creates famine, and well, we all know about that pandemic. Yet smart intelligent American Democrats support the climate change lie which is trying to destroy agriculture and transportation, not only in developing countries, but in wealthy, well-fed countries.

https://youtu.be/R7gAEkzIgvw YouTube discussion July 28, 2022

https://aboutthenetherlands.com/why-does-the-netherlands-export-so-much-food/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/21/emotion-and-pain-as-dutch-farmers-fight-back-against-huge-cuts-to-livestock

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/20/what-is-behind-largest-protests-in-panama-in-years-explainer?

https://www.dw.com/en/german-farmers-eye-poor-harvest-urge-freeing-up-fallow-land/a-62650482?

Here's a moving comment on the discussion by a Dutch citizen:

"As a Dutch man I must admit that all the praise and applause for our country brought tears to my eyes. So much I actually paused the video (especially the part at 1:02:19 ). We live in a time where every sense of pride or patriotism is considered a bad thing, so much, in fact, that when other people acknowledge the accomplishments of your nation it (apparently) brings up incredible strong emotions. The cliché mentality of a Dutch person is: stop whining and do your job. Our mothers creed is: "bad weather does not exist only bad clothing". We usually shrug our shoulders and carry on with our lives. This no- nonsense mentality is the strongest within the farmers community. They withstand the horrible Dutch weather with lots of rain and howling winds that blow over the flat lands to feed everybody. Literally. Not just their community, or their country.... no a large part of the world. They are the sort of people that, until a couple of years ago, were characterized as more or less "emotionless". Now their land, their family business, that was so carefully built over generations is taken away from them. It is a bloody shame. They truly are the canary in the coalmine. I stand with them for 100%."

St. Charles Borromeo, served during a plague and famine

"Have your eye continually on the providence of God, thinking that nothing comes about without his will and that good is drawn out of everything. Take care to be grateful to God for his many benefits, recognizing them, thanking him and living well in order to show your gratitude. Do not be concerned about pleasing men, provided you are pleasing to God, and always bi looking out for what will be to his greater glory and service. Await the reward for your every effort from Christ and not from the world. In your affairs and works, have the intention never to will anything illicit, and to perform them all for love of the Lord so that all of them may be meritorious. Know and recall that there is no greater wealth and treasure, nothing more excellent and fruitful, than to love God and serve him, and that everything else passes like smoke and shadow."

Saint Charles Borromeo (d. Nov. 3, 1584) He also battled a plaque and famine, but instead of running from it he stayed and served his people.

https://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Saints-Heroes/st-charles-borromeo-s-courageous-response-to-the-plague.html

"In stark contrast to St. Charles, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo – a baptized Catholic – issued a recent statement, mocking and excluding God from the fight against Covid-19. The pro-abortion Governor congratulated himself during a press conference, saying: “The number [of infections] is down because we brought the numbers down. God did not do that. Fate did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that.”

The crisis of faith is obvious. In this time of great need, most Catholics are spiritual orphans. No Masses. No Confessions. No Last Rights. No St. Charles Borromeos. The bishop of Springfield, Mass., for example, suspended the Last Rites in all instances in his diocese. At their final hour, the dying are deprived of the Church’s spiritual assistance and consolation.

As John Horvat points out in his column, “The Coronavirus Is a Call to Return to God,” our reaction “reflects a society that has turned its back on God. We face the crisis trusting only in ourselves and our devices.” (Domenick Galatolo)