All that remains
A read while ago I about attempts by Major Oak Entertainment to make a movie about the bombing and rebuilding of Nagasaki. I absolutely love the soundtrack:
"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
A read while ago I about attempts by Major Oak Entertainment to make a movie about the bombing and rebuilding of Nagasaki. I absolutely love the soundtrack:
Earlier this week it was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a member of the Eastern Catholic parish I often visit. I mentioned the fact that I always feel more comfortable with Mary when I’m praying in the Eastern Rite, but I wasn’t sure why…
He then made the observation that in Eastern Christianity, when Mary is mentioned, Christ is almost always mentioned explicitly in the next breath, whereas in the West He is more often implied. I realised he was right! That’s exactly why I found it so much easier when praying in the Eastern liturgy! For example, this is the Eastern form of the Hail Mary:
“Theotokos (God-Bearer) and Virgin, rejoice, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast given birth to the Saviour of our souls“
I have often thought that if we (Western) Catholics allowed our Christology to be seen more clearly in our Mariology, fewer non-Catholics to get upset by the honour we give to Mary. Just a thought.
Honour the art and you honour The Artist
Yesterday I uploaded to Facebook a picture of a can of Boddingtons as my profile picture. This prompted a childhood friend of mine to go on a lovely little rant:
“Hmmm, since when has Boddingtons originated from ‘Britain’? Was it brewed in Scotland, N.Ireland or Wales? I don’t think so! England!!!!!!!! You can bet your life if it was a Scottish product it’d say imported from Scotland on it 😀 Plus… If the collective ‘Britain’ really has to be used they should at least have the decency to use the ‘Great’ at the beginning of it! Phew… Sorry- Rant over! PS I guess I should be grateful that it doesn’t state ‘Imported from Europe’ on it :-D”
I told him that if this sort of thing bothers him, he shouldn’t move to the USA!
I find that Americans are usually rather flummoxed when it comes to knowing the difference between England, Great Britain and the United Kingdom so I thought that today I’d offer a brief explanation…
I wrote this post over a year ago but I never felt quite comfortable in publishing it. I now think it’s time…
I have my friends in Washington DC on speed dial. I am only a few clicks away from video chatting with my family in England. I regularly send emails and texts which could wait until we meet in person, but I choose not to delay because of the ease of communication. We live in a world in which we are increasingly connected to one another…
This idea of a deep connection between people in far-flung locations is nothing new. Catholicism has clearly understood this concept for two thousand years. I mean, think of all the things that Catholics “share”. Regardless of where we are in the world, we are all washed in Baptism. We share in the same Spirit. This connection through the Spirit is indeed profound; we are all bound together, even with those who have already died and are in Heaven. We pray common prayers such as the Our Father and Hail Mary. We share a common Sunday liturgy. We proclaim the same creed. And finally, of course, we share the same Eucharist meal.
“The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life” – Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi
Yesterday I began talking about some of the British comedy shows I enjoyed growing up.
It would be almost impossible to mention all of the shows that I loved; there are simply too many! When I first wrote out a list of my favourite British comedy shows I noticed that a large number of the comedians had careers which spanned several successful shows.
For example Ronnie Barker played both a prison inmate in Porridge and a miserly shop keeper in Open All Hours. Geoffrey Palmer stared in both Butterflies, as well as opposite Judi Dench in the wonderful As Time Goes By. Penelope Keith is another great example, being cast in both The Good Life and To The Manor Born. Lenny Henry has starred in many shows but I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight his role as the perfectionist/evil chief in Chef!, a show that I think fairly few people have seen, even though it was, in my opinion, some of his best work.
A lot of people know Rowan Atkinson from Mr. Bean, but not so many have seen his other shows such as The Thin Blue Line. Probably my favourite series of his was Blackadder. That show was genius. It ran for four seasons, with each season being set in a different historical period: The Middle Ages, Elizabethan England, the Regency and the First World War. For those of you who only know Hugh Laurie as the broody Dr. House, you really need to also see him play the idiot Prince George:
More “suggestions” on Saturday (all suggestions are mandatory)…