Sacred

Sister Mary Lucy Yingling, a member of the Sisters of Mercy whose career as an educator spanned nearly 50 years, died March 31 of complications from Parkinson's disease at The Villa, an assisted-living facility in the Woodbrook section of Baltimore County that her order shares with the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart. Sister Mary Lucy was 87. The daughter of a postal worker and a homemaker, she was born Katherine Teresa Yingling, the fifth of nine children, in Washington and raised in Georgetown.

Each semester, Thomas Boudreau, chairman of the Department of Conflict Analysis and Dispute Resolution at Salisbury University, welcomes new graduate students with brief remarks exploring the inspiration and passion that have driven many Americans, including Abraham Lincoln, toward reconciliation and peacemaking. The following, titled "Lincoln's Light," is an excerpt. If we are fortunate, once or twice in our lifetimes we are touched by a sacred fire. By a sacred fire, I mean the living inner flames of illumination and inspiration that reveal the deepest hope of the human heart for a better world, especially a world without war. At its best, a sacred fire forges our connection to the whole of humanity: past, present and those yet unborn.

WASHINGTON — Fifteen years ago, Carol Nietmann and her husband bought a spacious house in Calvert County near the Chesapeake Bay. And thanks to the time-honored tax deduction for mortgage interest, she says, their new place was a little bigger and a little nicer than they otherwise would have been able to afford. Perhaps the most sacred of all the sacred cows in the tax code, the home mortgage deduction has long been seen as critical to a major element in the American dream — owning your own home.

In this week of WikiLeaks, "Slurpee Summits" and lame ducks quacking in the halls of Congress, an underlying and most disturbing reality remains intact and in charge, leading some of us to question whether the recently conducted midterm elections really matter much at all. One must understand that any number of newly minted elected officials, presidents, senators and congressional representatives have promised to change Washington upon taking office....

Three giant steel beams twisted and fused together during the collapse of the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The rubble, which arrived Tuesday, will be reborn as Maryland's 9/11 memorial, to be erected at Baltimore's World Trade Center in time for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Gov. Martin O'Malley called it "a sacred and holy relic," and his voice faltered as he said he would do his part to ensure that the state never forgets the 43 Marylanders who died when airplanes smashed into the towers and the Pentagon in Virginia.

•A sacred music concert with Ray and Ann Gibbs will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at Anchor Baptist Church, 320 W. Pasadena Road in Millersville. Child care for children up to age 3 is available. Information: 410-647-9614 or anchorbaptistonline.org. •Spring concerts will be held at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church, 611 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd., at 7:30 p.m. April 16 and 3 p.m. April 17. Admission is free. There will be a free-will offering, with donations supporting the Arundel House of Hope and Ministry of Hope.

Sacred Heart (7-4, 5-0 Northeast Conference) scored the final three goals, including two in overtime, to win, 9-7, over visiting Mount St. Mary's (4-6, 2-2). Ashley Johnson had two goals for the Mount. Cori Horelik had three, including the tying goal with 10:59 left in regulation. Division III games: Brandy Noel scored five goals to become Hood's top career goal scorer as the visiting Blazers (3-8) won a come-from-behind 16-14 decision over Shepherd (2-8)

Lois Gresdo has long enjoyed hearing the little voices and the peals of laughter just outside her front door. But her street will be a quieter place when Sacred Heart of Mary School shuts its doors after 87 years of providing a Catholic education. "The school is a very positive presence for these children - and for this neighborhood," Gresdo said Wednesday after word of the school's demise reached this middle-class neighborhood in far East Baltimore, a stone's throw from Dundalk.