In this Sunday's reading from John 15 Jesus says that the Spirit of truth as well as the disciples will testify to him. If President Barack Obama gets his wish, federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor will hear the testimony of those who argue before the U.S. Supreme Court in coming terms. ...

Filled with the Holy Spirit, the disciples began to speak in different tongues, we hear in the Acts of the Apostles. Though they speak different tongues, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council denounced with one voice North Korea's underground detonation of a nuclear device Monday.

The Acts of the Apostles describes a noise "like a strong driving wind" coming from the sky. Bangladesh and eastern India face daunting rescue and renewal efforts after the strong winds and driving rains of Cyclone Aila ripped through the region this week, killing at least 191 people and leaving millions more marooned by floodwaters or living in shelters.

The psalmist this Sunday asks God to "renew the face of the earth." With climate change threatening the earth's ecosystem, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, last year suggested that ordinary citizens could help by refraining from eating meat. In Belgium an entire town is taking his advice to heart.

"While those who have been victims of injustice for decades continue to suffer, recent failings in those who have held the purse strings of a system which has resulted in such suffering have been rewarded with massive rescue packages."

The nation of India now has 41 cities with populations of more than 1 million.