Good Saturday evening everyone. 

 

When I was on holidays in January, I was sure that I packed Karen Armstrong’s new book Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life and found it under my jacket in the carry-on as I was packing to go home.  I just finished it this week and in the latest issue of America there is a fairly comprehensive review.  She builds on ideas from her last few books (especially The Great Transformation) and here explores the call to life of compassion in our personal life and in the world.  It is an easy read and this review is helpful.

  

http://americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12771

 

This is the weekend that we begin the last three weeks of Lent and hear some of the most dramatic stories from the gospels.  The Woman at the Well is a long but powerful encounter and here in this powerful monologue, a young actress captures how the woman might well speak of her experience of meeting Jesus.  Powerful stuff.  It is also a reminder that new media is being used very creatively by individuals and organizations to explore issues of faith.  After hearing the gospel at Mass this evening and watching this monologue again I have a whole new appreciation for this telling of it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49BbfgJbto&feature=player_embedded

 

Have a good week.

 

Con

Good Friday evening everyone.

 

This is a link to John Allen’s Friday letter, All Things Catholic which gives a gentle introduction to the work of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi , president of the Vatican Pontifical Council for Culture and a forum that will meet next week in Paris under the title “The Courtyard of the Gentiles”.   Building on a speech by Pope Benedict to the Roman Curia in 2009, Ravasi, in partnership with UNESCO, Institut de France and the Sorbonne, will begin a serious dialogue with the secular world and are already planning to keep it going for another gathering in Chicago in 2012.  It is an exciting adventure and Allen does a good job placing it in context.   

   

http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/courtyard-gentiles-promises-boost-catholic-pride

 

Speaking of culture:    Of God’s and Men is playing in Toronto at the moment and is well worth seeing.  It was very well received at the Toronto International Film Festival and has broken box office records in France and Quebec.  The film is based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from the fall of 1995 until their kidnapping in the spring of 1996.  Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay… come what may.  There are some exquisite moments but bring Kleenex.  It will open in Waterloo for a limited run on March 25 at the Princess Cinema.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588337/

 

Have a good week

 

Con

 

 

Good Friday Morning everyone.

 

Miranda Global is a great site to look up every now and then for articles relevant to what is happening in our world today from a more global perspective.  This piece by Marianne Cusimano Love (originally published in America this year), draws attention to Pope Benedict’s message for the World Day of Peace in 2011.  One of the key ideas that he presents is that religious freedom is a security issue, and that peace depends on it.   In light of recent events in North Africa and the Middle East it is worth noting again.

 

http://www.miradaglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1629%3Afe-y-libertad&catid=52%3Areligion&Itemid=39&lang=en

 

If you have been following the sickening events in Philadelphia over the last few months, things got even worse on Monday of this week with the removal of twenty one men from ministry and a letter read in all churches in the archdiocese on Ash Wednesday.  How the good priests, who do their work with passion and enthusiasm got out of bed that morning to read that letter and lead the people of God into this “season of joy” is a testament to their faith.  Over at the America blog, Fr. James Martin S.J. tries to make sense of it all.  He asks a lot of questions but (unfortunately) the answers will come way too slow.

 

http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&entry_id=4011

 

 

 If this is March break week for you, have a great week.

 

Con

March 4th. 2011

 

Good Friday morning everyone.

 

In the lead up to the Oscars last weekend it became very obvious that the worst kept secret in Hollywood was the crowning of Colin Firth as best actor for the King’s Speech.  What was lost in all the media attention around him was that he was invited to be the guest editor of the BBC Radio 4 Today program at the end of December in 2010.  For that edition of Today, he explored with a variety of guests the complex relationship between faith and film and asked Frank Cottrell Boyce (The director of Millions, 24 Hour Party People, God on Trial and writer of several films, including Hilary and Jackie and Welcome to Sarajevo) to describe what it is like to be a Catholic in the film industry of today.  This short three and a half minute commentary is a little pearl especially his description of receiving communion on Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival.

 

Frank Cottrell BBC Radio 4 Today

 

I was in Ottawa last week and needed something to read as my flight was delayed.  Covers do make a difference and I bought the issue of Time that was focusing on what is happening in North Africa and the Middle East.   I like Fareed  Zakaria and found this piece helpful.  The average age of the population of these areas and the impact of education and social media is shaping so much of this desire for change and he does a good job to put it all in context.

 

Fareed Zakaria-Time

 

Enjoy the weekend.

 

Con