Reports say she woke up in her coffin and knocked on the lid, when it was open, relatives were stunned to find her alive and gasping for breath.

"I lifted up the coffin, and her heart was pounding, and her left hand was hitting the coffin… We called 911 to bring her here to the hospital," her son Gilberto Barbera said in a video posted on social media.

However, after spending seven days in ICU she died. Read more

The founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is in a stable condition.

Her doctors felt it necessary to put her on a feeding tube to ensure that she is receiving proper nutrition.

Mother Angelica suffered an incapacitating stroke in 2001.

The sisters at her Alabama monastery said that the tube is not a last-ditch effort to keep her alive, and that the 92-year-old nun has regained some strength and weight.

Luke Johansen, a spokesman for the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, Mother Angelica's order, said "The Lord is in charge; she may be taken tomorrow, we don't know".

"But at least the initial intent of the feeding tube was not an end-of-life kind of thing, but to assist her and help her get the nutrients she was lacking."

And that has seemed to work, he said.

She is able to take some foods orally and to receive the host and wine of the sacraments most days.

Mother Angelica remains confined to bed and sleeps a good deal, Mr Johnasen said, and she is unable to communicate except by squeezing a visitor's hand, or with a smile.

"When she's awake, her mind is very lucid," he said.

"She knows who people are."

A recent update from her order stated: "There were some up and down moments, and Mother has suffered a great deal these past months."

Famed for her TV appearances wearing a black-and-white habit and a sweet but steely smile, Mother Angelica would not hesitate to scold Church leaders who she felt were too lax in their teachings or practices.

She promoted traditional devotions and rites and claimed to have experienced mystical visions herself.

Sources

• Religion News Service
• Facebook
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Vicar general Father Rick Loughnan confirmed Jones was taken to hospital from his Christchurch home about midday Sunday after suffering a stroke.

It is Jones' third stroke in recent years. His second happened around October 14 after which he spent a night in hospital.

He had planned to rest for two weeks before returning to work recently, according to the diocese's website.

"He is able to communicate well and the medical staff are confident they will have him on his feet soon," the diocese said in a statement on Monday.

"Please continue to keep him in your prayers."

Jones, who is expected to retire when he turns 75 next year, had asked for no visitors at this time.

Meanwhile, Loughnan will oversee diocesan matters.

Jones is the ninth Catholic Bishop of Christchurch.

He was appointed as coadjutor bishop of Christchurch, on 28 June 2006

When his predecessor, Bishop John Cunneen,retired in May 2007 he became the Bishop.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz

The results published in the Archives of Internal Medicine provide hard data from the first long-term randomised clinical trial of its kind on the topic.

"These findings are the strongest documented effects yet produced by a mind-body intervention on cardiovascular disease," said lead author Robert Schneider, director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.

'The effect is as large or larger than major categories of drug treatment for cardiovascular disease.

The NZ$4.6 million study was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. Scientists tracked 201 African American men and women with an average age of 59, all of whom had narrowing arteries in their hearts. Participants stayed on their current medication and were randomly assigned to either a meditation group or a control group that was given 'conventional health eduction classes.'

Comparing the two groups, researchers found that those who practiced Transcendental Meditation decreased the likelihood of death, nonfatal heart attack and stroke by 47 per cent. People in the meditation group experienced significant drops in blood pressure, stress and anger, which could help explain the results, the researchers said.

Transcendental Meditation was made popular by the Beatles during the flower power era of the 1960's and is also practiced by celebrities such as Richard Branson, Jerry Seinfield, Moby, and author John Gray.

Source

• Straits Times
• Answers.com
• Image: Mail Online