Sacred

On May 3, 2006, MRS. BROWN. Visitation at 2140 N. Fulton Ave. on Monday, 2 to 8 PM. The family will receive friends at Sacred Zion Baptist Church, 20 W. North Avenue, on Tuesday at 11 AM. Funeral at 11:30 AM.

"Come before his presence with a song," the psalmist wrote. People of Hebrew and Christian faiths have done just that through the centuries. While a lot of sacred music is intended for actual services, there is a vast repertoire that fits just as neatly into concert hall settings. This is particularly true of works by Catholic and Protestant composers, from Bach cantatas and Handel oratorios to Masses by Beethoven, Verdi and Stravinsky. But comparable concert works from the Jewish liturgy are much smaller in number, the opportunity to hear them in performance exceedingly rare.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- After the St. John's women's basketball team's victory over California in the first round of the NCAA tournament yesterday, Red Storm fans began chanting, "We want Maryland!" The Terps gave the St. John's crowd what it was looking for as No. 3 Maryland routed undersized Sacred Heart, 95-54, before 3,990 at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State. Sophomore forward Jade Perry's 20 points spearheaded an attack featuring five players with double-digit point totals. Junior guard Shay Doron scored 17 points, sophomore forward Laura Harper had 16 points and 13 rebounds and sophomores Crystal Langhorne and Ashleigh Newman scored 15 and 12 points, respectively.

With an uncommonly radiant voice and the kind of glamour that glossy magazines love, Renee Fleming has been a certified opera star for more than a decade. But Baltimore didn't get an opportunity to bathe in her glow until Tuesday night, when the soprano made an overdue debut before a large, demonstrative and miraculously cough-free audience at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Presented and backed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, with Houston Grand Opera music director Patrick Summers conducting, Fleming offered a sampling from her newest CD, Sacred Songs, and a generous helping of Christmas favorites.

Yesterday was the sacred Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, during which my people do not eat or drink for 24 hours. "May you have an easy fast," we tell each other. In solemn preparation, some of us make our deep spiritual pilgrimage earlier in the week to Attman's Deli on Lombard Street for a corned beef on rye with maybe a kosher hot dog to help wash it down. This is a heartfelt tradition found absolutely nowhere in the holy texts, but is nonetheless considered vital to those of us who consider ourselves cultural Jews first, and congregational members not exactly.

If we were a nation, we would be the ninth most populous nation in the world," noted eBay CEO Meg Whitman during a CNBC documentary in June. By "we," she meant the 135 million users who had registered on the site by the end of 2004. Add to that figure those who lurk on eBay, talk about eBay, read about eBay, create businesses based on eBay, fantasize about finding treasures or making a fortune on eBay, and the population of this virtual nation would soar astronomically. As it reconfigures consumer culture, the auction site, which officially turns 10 years old this Labor Day weekend, stirs passionate debate over its impact on society.

Katie Mason scored four goals to lead Mount St. Mary's past Sacred Heart, 12-4, in a Northeast Conference women's lacrosse game yesterday. Mason, the 2004 NEC Rookie of the Year, tied a career high for goals and had two assists to help the host Mountaineers (6-4, 3-0) win their fourth straight. Jen Davison paced the defense by causing four turnovers and winning three draws. The Pioneers fell to 6-4 overall and 2-2 in the conference. No. 17 Towson 14, Drexel 7: Shannon Witzel tied her career high with six goals as the host Tigers (7-3, 1-2 Colonial Athletic Association)

EVEN THIS year, when winter stabs deep into March, you know spring is nearby. You know by the swamp maples' red budding even as ice skims the creek; by the white perch fat with roe gorging watermen's coldwater nets; by February's debut of great blue herons in plumed breeding splendor; by the osprey reclaiming last summer's nest around St. Patrick's Day. You know it on an expedition by the winter-weary to one of the bay's sacred groves, a place that...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Shiite Muslims marked their holiest day with emotional displays of faith yesterday, defying a bloody wave of suicide attacks that killed at least 54 people and wounded more than 130 others. In the sacred Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala, religious celebrants scored themselves with chains and swords in memory of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the prophet Muhammad's grandson. Despite the violence, the public celebration of the Ashura holiday added to a sense of hope among some Shiites that has grown since January, when Shiite-backed political parties swept to victory in national elections.

The hajj - the pilgrimage to Islam's holy city of Mecca - is required of all Muslims once in their lifetime, if they are physically and financially capable of making the journey. It is one of the five pillars of Islam, following the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad, reminding Muslims of their commitment to God and of Judgment Day. As this year's hajj approached, with more than 2 million pilgrims heading to Mecca, Saudi authorities prepared to prevent an epidemic of SARS, meningitis or yellow fever and, at the last minute, worried about avian flu. As usual, they made plans for crowd control in Mina, where 180 people were killed in a stampede in 1998.