The Oleanders ...
are blooming. Just another poisonous plant among the many that for some reason seem to dominate the yard ;) -
posted by crystal | 3:03 PM
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0 comments
Perspective
Thoughts of a Catholic convert
- Links -
- * Sacred Space
- * Pray-As-You-Go
- * Daily Reflections
- The Oleanders ...
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- Steve Chalke: update
- Happy Pentecost
- More music ...
- Museums
- Music saves
- Calla lilies
- James Alison
- Eschatology stuff
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
- April 2010
- May 2010
- June 2010
- July 2010
- August 2010
- September 2010
- October 2010
- November 2010
- December 2010
- January 2011
- February 2011
- March 2011
- April 2011
- May 2011
- June 2011
- July 2011
- August 2011
- September 2011
- October 2011
- November 2011
- December 2011
- January 2012
- February 2012
- March 2012
- April 2012
- May 2012
- June 2012
- July 2012
- August 2012
- September 2012
- October 2012
- November 2012
- December 2012
- January 2013
- February 2013
- March 2013
- April 2013
- May 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Star Trek Into Darkness
No, not the movie, but the book. I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to see the film so I'm reading the the book while I wait - Star Trek Into Darkness by Alan Dean Foster. It's like the earlier book about the earlier Star Trek movie - essentially an elaboration of the script - and that's ok with me :)
I'm only about half way through the book, but I like it so far. It's a re-imagining of an original Star Trek tv episode, Space Seed, and an original Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan. It was a great idea of J. J. Abrams' (I guess?) to give Star Trek a new timeline - it's something that's been used in some of the tv shows he's produced, like Lost and Fringe, and it gives writers a lot of freedom to recombine story elements in new ways. I was kind of surprised, though, to see that Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Khan in the movie .... I don't think even severe timeline permutations can rearrange someone originally of Indian descent as an Anglo-Saxon ;)
Here'sthe preview dor the Star Seed episode (heh) ...
I'm only about half way through the book, but I like it so far. It's a re-imagining of an original Star Trek tv episode, Space Seed, and an original Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan. It was a great idea of J. J. Abrams' (I guess?) to give Star Trek a new timeline - it's something that's been used in some of the tv shows he's produced, like Lost and Fringe, and it gives writers a lot of freedom to recombine story elements in new ways. I was kind of surprised, though, to see that Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Khan in the movie .... I don't think even severe timeline permutations can rearrange someone originally of Indian descent as an Anglo-Saxon ;)
Here'sthe preview dor the Star Seed episode (heh) ...
posted by crystal | 9:26 PM
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3 comments
Steve Chalke: update
In January, UK Evangelical preacher Steve Chalke had an article in Christianity (British version of Christianity Today) about his change of mind on same-sex relationships. Here's a video interview with him answering questions and comments that were made in response to his article. I didn't know who Steve Chalke was before the hubbub over his article, but since then I've listened to a few of his videos and have come to really like him.
posted by crystal | 2:30 AM
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0 comments
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Happy Pentecost
- Appearance Behind Locked Doors, Duccio di Buoninsegna
I like John's version of Pentecost better than Acts ... Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit." ... maybe because Jesus is still there among the disciples.
posted by crystal | 10:51 PM
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2 comments
Friday, May 17, 2013
Museums
UPDATE: my sis just reminded me that we also visited this museum in Hawaii - Honolulu Museum of Art
Thanks to Dina - Sharing the view - I've been reading about International Museum Day and I thought I'd mention some of the museums I've been lucky enough to visit.
- Museums here in California ...
I've visited the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, the Asian Art Museum, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Museum of Modern Art, and of course, the Natural History Museum :). Also The Page Museum (with tar pits!) in LA, and in San Diego, the San Diego Museum of Art plus the other numerous museums in Balboa Park ....
- Museums in Europe. The neatest thing about my one trip to Europe just after college was being able to see in person all the stuff I had learned about in art history courses (you can read about my trip here and here) ....
Somehow I managed to miss visiting *any* museums in our first stiop - the UK - I was too homesick to care, but on our second stop, in Greece, we went to the Parthenon, and Delphi (and museum), and also visited Corinth/museum ... all so amazing! :)
In Italy we visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and in Rome we hit the Vatican Museums (here's a pretty awful photo of me with the bust of Julius Caesar at the Vatican Museums ;). The next chance we had to visit a museum was in Amsterdam - the Rijksmuseum, home of The Night Warch. Finally, the last museum we visited was The Louvre in Paris ...
Sometimes discussions come up about whether the Vatican should sell the artwork in its museums and give the money to the poor. Some Catholics have deemed me anti-art for believing that the Vatican *should* sell the art and donate the cash to charity. Of course I'm not anti-art, I just don't think the church should be in the museum business (and it is a business - Vatican Takes Steps to Control Overcrowding ... Alone (or Almost) With Michelangelo in Vatican City)
Thanks to Dina - Sharing the view - I've been reading about International Museum Day and I thought I'd mention some of the museums I've been lucky enough to visit.
- Museums here in California ...
I've visited the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, the Asian Art Museum, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Museum of Modern Art, and of course, the Natural History Museum :). Also The Page Museum (with tar pits!) in LA, and in San Diego, the San Diego Museum of Art plus the other numerous museums in Balboa Park ....
- Museums in Europe. The neatest thing about my one trip to Europe just after college was being able to see in person all the stuff I had learned about in art history courses (you can read about my trip here and here) ....
Somehow I managed to miss visiting *any* museums in our first stiop - the UK - I was too homesick to care, but on our second stop, in Greece, we went to the Parthenon, and Delphi (and museum), and also visited Corinth/museum ... all so amazing! :)
In Italy we visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and in Rome we hit the Vatican Museums (here's a pretty awful photo of me with the bust of Julius Caesar at the Vatican Museums ;). The next chance we had to visit a museum was in Amsterdam - the Rijksmuseum, home of The Night Warch. Finally, the last museum we visited was The Louvre in Paris ...
Sometimes discussions come up about whether the Vatican should sell the artwork in its museums and give the money to the poor. Some Catholics have deemed me anti-art for believing that the Vatican *should* sell the art and donate the cash to charity. Of course I'm not anti-art, I just don't think the church should be in the museum business (and it is a business - Vatican Takes Steps to Control Overcrowding ... Alone (or Almost) With Michelangelo in Vatican City)
posted by crystal | 3:14 PM
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5 comments
Music saves
Into season 5 of Fringe now and we've skipped about 20 years into the future - the evil Observers have taken over and have made of the Earth a dystopia. The main characters are awakened from stasis in amber, unaged, and have joined the resistance to find a way to get rid of the bad guys. Walter is captured and interrogated in a scene reminiscent of Agent Smith's questioning of Morpheus in The Matrix. The thing that helps Walter make it through the mind-reading interrogation without going crazy is his concentration on music, which is alien to the Observers ...
Observer: You're trying to think of music. You miss music.
Walter: There's not a lot of it here.
Observer: We tolerate it. But it's merely tones, rhythms and harmonic vibrations. I don't understand it.
Walter: Mostly it amazed me. Music helps you shift perspective, to see things differently if you need to.
Observer: See things like hope?
Walter: Yes, very much like that.
Observer: But there is no hope for you. Nothing grows from scorched earth.
Walter is eventually rescued, ravaged by his experience, but the episode ends like this ...
posted by crystal | 12:48 AM
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0 comments
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Calla lilies
My calla lilies are growing. I planted them last year but they didn't grow flowers and now I can't remember what color they're supposed to be ;) I hope they grow flowers this year. They're very popular with artists like Diego Rivera ...
- Vendedora de alcatraces
posted by crystal | 4:58 PM
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2 comments
James Alison
Reading about James Alison's The Forgiving Victim Christian Adult Education program which has been produced by Suzanne Ross and the Raven Foundation. They have a YouTube page. Here's the beginning of a 2010 interview of Alison by Ross about his Forgiving Victim program (the whole interview is here) ....
posted by crystal | 2:14 PM
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0 comments
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Eschatology stuff
Coming - a Pro Ecclesia conference on Heaven, Hell, . . . and Purgatory?. The contributors have a blog with posts on the subject. Some of the posts are on universalism - actually against it, which is disappointing since I'm for universalism, but still, the posts are interesting and mention Hans Urs von Balthasar and Barth. The first blog post - Welcome to the blog - is at the bottom of the blog's page. There's also a link to a series of lectures from Cambridge University, The Stanton Lectures 2012-13, on the "end time".
posted by crystal | 8:46 PM
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0 comments
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Two books ...
A bit from a post by Marci A. Hamilton, a church/state scholar and the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, about a novel and a non-fiction book ....
[...] The Nonfiction Book, Mortal Sins, by Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Investigative Journalist Michael D’Antonio on the Clergy Child Sex Abuse Scandal in the United States
A new non-fiction book is a tremendous addition to the fund of our understanding of this crisis. It is entitled Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal, and it is a searing and deeply engaging account of the contemporary battles that have been waged against the culture of secrecy and cover-up maintained by the Catholic hierarchy. The extraordinary quality of the writing makes this difficult story both readable and impossible to put down.
The crusaders for the victims, so hated by the hierarchy, feature prominently. They include survivors and national leaders Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy of SNAP; former monk and brilliant psychologist Richard Sipe; pioneering and visionary trial lawyer Jeff Anderson; and the heroic Fr. Tom Doyle, who is also a central character in the amazing historical novel In God’s House, which I review below.
[...]
A Great Southern Novel, In God’s House, on the Beginning of the Abuse Scandal in the United States, Written by One Who Was There
While fact-based books document the truth, it is rare that they fully capture it. Ray Mouton’s recently published In God’s House pierces to the beating heart of the scandal in a riveting novel. It is written in the best of the Southern novel tradition, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest.
The irony of this book is that Mr. Mouton was the devoutly Catholic young, Louisiana lawyer who was hired by the Diocese of Lafayette in 1984 to defend the serial pedophile Fr. Gilbert Gauthe, who had made a habit of having the altar boys sleep over the night before altar practice. In Mouton’s words in a 2002 CBS story, Gauthe did “[e]very sexual act you can imagine two males doing” with these boys, night after night.
In God’s House, though, does not focus on the acts of abuse, but rather illuminates the twisted darkness in the hearts of the bishops (and eventually the Pope) as they reacted to the emergence of a scandal for which they lacked the skills, morals, or souls to fix. This is the account of where the scandal began in the United States. Abuse has been going on for centuries, but the public scandal is mere decades ago.
It is to Mouton’s credit that he opted to write a great Southern novel, rather than an autobiography. No one would have blamed him if he had done the latter, given his heroic and early role in this story. But the Southern literature genre is a perfect fit for the clandestine, backward-looking hierarchy, and the deep but often muted suffering of the victims and their families. That means that the story is riveting and truly impossible to put down, despite its 500+ pages! At the same time, it is filled with accurate historical detail, because, of course, he was there.
I do not believe that any other account of the scandal does a better job than Mouton’s novel does of peering into the essential craziness of the men in power in the Church who used theology to justify the persistent endangerment of children by men whom they knew full well were abnormal. Mouton’s character development is masterful, as it brings to life the faces and mannerisms of the evil that is cloaked in clerical garb and installed in the mansions of the bishops. There are echoes here of the South African Dutch Reformists who crafted the foundation of apartheid straight out of their theology, and the American Protestant ministers who enlisted the Bible to justify slavery.
The story starts in Louisiana as it focuses on this one pedophile priest, and I dare not give away too much, but the protagonist is transformed by what he learns, which drives him to eventually find his way to a fictionalized Tom Doyle, a rising star priest who was in the Papal Nunciature in Washington, DC, and, who, to those who know him, leaps from the page as the man we deeply admire. It is worth your while to read both Mortal Sins and In God’s House even if you only do so to become acquainted with this giant in the movement for justice for our children .......
[...] The Nonfiction Book, Mortal Sins, by Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Investigative Journalist Michael D’Antonio on the Clergy Child Sex Abuse Scandal in the United States
A new non-fiction book is a tremendous addition to the fund of our understanding of this crisis. It is entitled Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal, and it is a searing and deeply engaging account of the contemporary battles that have been waged against the culture of secrecy and cover-up maintained by the Catholic hierarchy. The extraordinary quality of the writing makes this difficult story both readable and impossible to put down.
The crusaders for the victims, so hated by the hierarchy, feature prominently. They include survivors and national leaders Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy of SNAP; former monk and brilliant psychologist Richard Sipe; pioneering and visionary trial lawyer Jeff Anderson; and the heroic Fr. Tom Doyle, who is also a central character in the amazing historical novel In God’s House, which I review below.
[...]
A Great Southern Novel, In God’s House, on the Beginning of the Abuse Scandal in the United States, Written by One Who Was There
While fact-based books document the truth, it is rare that they fully capture it. Ray Mouton’s recently published In God’s House pierces to the beating heart of the scandal in a riveting novel. It is written in the best of the Southern novel tradition, and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest.
The irony of this book is that Mr. Mouton was the devoutly Catholic young, Louisiana lawyer who was hired by the Diocese of Lafayette in 1984 to defend the serial pedophile Fr. Gilbert Gauthe, who had made a habit of having the altar boys sleep over the night before altar practice. In Mouton’s words in a 2002 CBS story, Gauthe did “[e]very sexual act you can imagine two males doing” with these boys, night after night.
In God’s House, though, does not focus on the acts of abuse, but rather illuminates the twisted darkness in the hearts of the bishops (and eventually the Pope) as they reacted to the emergence of a scandal for which they lacked the skills, morals, or souls to fix. This is the account of where the scandal began in the United States. Abuse has been going on for centuries, but the public scandal is mere decades ago.
It is to Mouton’s credit that he opted to write a great Southern novel, rather than an autobiography. No one would have blamed him if he had done the latter, given his heroic and early role in this story. But the Southern literature genre is a perfect fit for the clandestine, backward-looking hierarchy, and the deep but often muted suffering of the victims and their families. That means that the story is riveting and truly impossible to put down, despite its 500+ pages! At the same time, it is filled with accurate historical detail, because, of course, he was there.
I do not believe that any other account of the scandal does a better job than Mouton’s novel does of peering into the essential craziness of the men in power in the Church who used theology to justify the persistent endangerment of children by men whom they knew full well were abnormal. Mouton’s character development is masterful, as it brings to life the faces and mannerisms of the evil that is cloaked in clerical garb and installed in the mansions of the bishops. There are echoes here of the South African Dutch Reformists who crafted the foundation of apartheid straight out of their theology, and the American Protestant ministers who enlisted the Bible to justify slavery.
The story starts in Louisiana as it focuses on this one pedophile priest, and I dare not give away too much, but the protagonist is transformed by what he learns, which drives him to eventually find his way to a fictionalized Tom Doyle, a rising star priest who was in the Papal Nunciature in Washington, DC, and, who, to those who know him, leaps from the page as the man we deeply admire. It is worth your while to read both Mortal Sins and In God’s House even if you only do so to become acquainted with this giant in the movement for justice for our children .......
posted by crystal | 6:49 PM
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4 comments
Monday, May 13, 2013
links and videos
- A page of photos of a week's worth of groceries for families in different countries. I looked for marmite in the UK photo but couldn't find it ;)
- Beautiful Iona ...
- With all the talk of Cardinal O'Malley boycotting Boston College's commencement,I came across mention of another link between the Jesuit college and Ireland and Enda Kenny - there's been research at the college, The Belfast Project, on the subject of violence in Northern Ireland and it's led to conflicts. You can read more here - Boston College Researchers Drink with the IRA, and Academics Everywhere Get the Hangover.
- Saw trailer for an interesting documentary, Elemental ...
- Beautiful Iona ...
- With all the talk of Cardinal O'Malley boycotting Boston College's commencement,I came across mention of another link between the Jesuit college and Ireland and Enda Kenny - there's been research at the college, The Belfast Project, on the subject of violence in Northern Ireland and it's led to conflicts. You can read more here - Boston College Researchers Drink with the IRA, and Academics Everywhere Get the Hangover.
- Saw trailer for an interesting documentary, Elemental ...
Elemental Trailer from Go Project Films on Vimeo.
posted by crystal | 8:13 PM
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0 comments
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Remembering ...
... my mother and grandmother on Mother's Day ...
And Grendel the mama cat, too. See Data, Kermit and Spot? :) ...
And Grendel the mama cat, too. See Data, Kermit and Spot? :) ...
posted by crystal | 9:39 PM
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0 comments
What I saw today
- Bryan Cones at US Catholic has a post on his beekeeping - The secret death of bees. I've always been attracted to the idea of beekeeping but have never tried it.
- I came across a 2004 article by Elena Curti (of The Tablet) about her husband becoming obsessed by child pornography. It was disturbing and this bit especially bothered me ... Christianity offers an explanation ... all human beings are, to a greater or lesser extent, drawn towards evil, and once we succumb it is hard to break free. .... Is that what Christianity teaches, that we are all drawn to evil, that given an opportunity we will all do evil? I don't believe that.
- Cardinal Sean O'Malley is refusing to attend Boston College's commencement because Enda Kenny, the taoseaich of Ireland, is speaking. According to O'Malley, "Mr. Kenny is aggressively promoting abortion legislation" and is proposing legislation that "represents a dramatic and morally unacceptable change to Irish law". Both of these assertions are false. Rad more about all this - Irish abortion bill does not change law, says Enda Kenny.
- Getting more and more depressed lately, so I was interested to see this post with neat drawings (and 5000 comments!) about being depressed - Depression Part Two. Worth a read.
- I came across a 2004 article by Elena Curti (of The Tablet) about her husband becoming obsessed by child pornography. It was disturbing and this bit especially bothered me ... Christianity offers an explanation ... all human beings are, to a greater or lesser extent, drawn towards evil, and once we succumb it is hard to break free. .... Is that what Christianity teaches, that we are all drawn to evil, that given an opportunity we will all do evil? I don't believe that.
- Cardinal Sean O'Malley is refusing to attend Boston College's commencement because Enda Kenny, the taoseaich of Ireland, is speaking. According to O'Malley, "Mr. Kenny is aggressively promoting abortion legislation" and is proposing legislation that "represents a dramatic and morally unacceptable change to Irish law". Both of these assertions are false. Rad more about all this - Irish abortion bill does not change law, says Enda Kenny.
- Getting more and more depressed lately, so I was interested to see this post with neat drawings (and 5000 comments!) about being depressed - Depression Part Two. Worth a read.
posted by crystal | 1:40 PM
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2 comments
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Movies
Updating my movie list - it helps me find old movies to order from the library when nothing new seems worth renting. These films aren't all critically commendable - they're just ones I liked enough to watch more than once :) Here we go, in (sort of) alphabetical order ......
The 10th Kingdom - fantasy, 2000
A Hard Day's Night - musical, 1964, The Beatles
Adaptation - drama, 2002, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper
Alien - science fiction, 1979, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt
Aliens - science fiction, 1986, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen
All the President's Men - historical, 1974, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman
Anaconda - horror, 1997, Jennifer Lopez, Eric Stoltz, Ice Cube, Jon Voight
Angel Eyes - drama, 2001, Jennifer Lopez, James Caviezel, Jeremy Sisto
Argo - historical thriller, 2012, Ben Affleck
Attila - historical, 2001, Gerard Butler
Avatar - science fiction, 2009, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, and Giovanni Ribisi
Beetlejuice - comedy, 1988, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis
The Bishop's Wife - romantic comedy, 1947, Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven
Black Hawk Down - historical, 2001, Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore
Blade Runner - science fiction, 1982, Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos
Blast form the Past - comedy, 1999, Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken
Brainstorm - science fiction, 1983, Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood
Breach - historical, 2007, Chris Cooper
Broken Arrow - thriller, 1996, John Travolta, Christian Slater
Brother Sun, Sister Moon - religious, 1972, Graham Faulkner, Alec Guinness
Contact - science fiction, 1997, Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt
Copenhagen - historical, 2002, Daniel Craig
The Day After Tomorrow - science fiction, 2004, Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal
The Dead Zone - horror, 1983, Christopher Walken, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen
Die Hard - thriller, 1988, Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Gudunov
Enemy at the Gates - historical, 2001, Joseph Fiennes, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain - drama, 1995, Hugh Grant
Ever After - fantasy, 1998, Drew Barrymore, Dougray Scott
Extreme Measures - thriller, 1986, Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman
Fallen - religious horror, 1998, Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland
Forbidden Planet - science fiction, 1956
The Fountain - science fiction, 2006, Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz
Frequency - science fiction, 2000, Dennis Quaid, James Caviezel
Galaxy Quest - science fiction comedy, 1999, Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub
Gattaca - science fiction, 1997, Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law
George Harrison: Living in the Material World - documentary by Martin Scorsese, 2011
The Gospel of John - religious, 2003, Henry Ian Cusick
Groundhog Day - fantasy comedy, 1983, Bill Murray
Hamlet - historical, 1990, Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield, Ian Holm, Helena Bonham Carter
Haywire - action thriller, 2011, Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas
Heat - thriller, 1995, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
Hidalgo - historical adventure, 2004, Viggo Mortensen
The Hidden - science fiction, 1987, Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian
Highlander - fantasy, 1986, Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery
In Time - science fiction, 2011, Justin Timberlake
Inception - science fiction, 2008. Russell Crow, Leonardo DiCaprio
Independence Day - science fiction, 1996, Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Brent Spiner
Inkheart - fantasy, 2008, Brendan Fraser
The Insider - drama, 1999, Russell Crowe, Al Pacino
Insomnia - thriller, 2002, Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - science fiction, 1978, Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy
The Island - science fiction, 2005, Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Bean
Jack's Back - thriller, 1988, James Spader
The Jackal - thriller, 1997, Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier
Jaws - horror, 1975, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw
Jesus - religious, 1999, Jeremy Sisto, Debra Messing,, Jacqueline Bisset,, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gary Oldman
Jurassic Park III - science fiction, , 2001, Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni
King Arthur - historical, 2004, Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Mads Mikkelsen, Stellan Skarsgård
Ladyhawke - fantasy, 1985, Rutger Hauer
Legend - fantasy, 1985, Tom Cruise
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear - 2004, Noah Wyle, Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin
Little Women - drama, 1994, Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Christian Bale, Eric Stoltz, Susan Sarandon
The Lord of the Rings trilogy - fantasy, 2001, 2002, 2003, you know who :)
The Lost World - fantasy, 2001, Bob Hoskins, James Fox, Peter Falk
The Lovely Bones - thriller, 2009, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz
Luther - religious, 2003, Joseph Fiennes
Mad Max - science fiction, 1979, Mel Gibson
The Man in the Iron Mask - historical, 1998, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne, Gérard Depardieu, Leonardo DiCaprio
The Matrix - science fiction, 1999, Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving
Men in Black - science fiction comedy, 1997, Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc - religious, 1999, Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich
The Mission - religious, 1986, Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson
The Mummy - fantasy, 1999, Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz
Munich - historical, 2005, Eric Bana, Daniel Craig
National Treasure - thriller, 2004, Nicolas Cage
Navy Seals - thriller, 1990, Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn
The New World - historical, 2005, Colin Farrell, Q'Orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale
The Next Three Days - thriller, 2010, Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks
Night of the Demon - horror, 1957
Notorious - thriller, 1946, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman
Nuremberg - historical, 2000, Alec Baldwin, Brian Cox, Christopher Plummer, Jill Hennessy
Oceans - nature documentary, 2010
Open Range - western, 2003, Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening
The Order - religious horror, 2003, Heath Ledger
The Pentagon Papers - historical, 2003, James Spader
Playing God - thriller, 1997, David Duchovny, Angelina Jolie
Proof of Life - thriller, 2000, Russell Crowe, David Caruso
The Prophecy - religious horror, 1995, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, Viggo Mortensen, Elias Koteas
Raiders of the Lost Ark - adventure, 1981, Harrison Ford
Rashomon - historical, 1950, Toshiro Mifune
Rear Window - thriller, 1954, James Stewart, Grace Kelly
Rebecca - thriller, 1940, Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine
Red Planet - science fiction, 2000, Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss
Return to Me - romantic comedy, 2000, David Duchovny, Minnie Driver
Revelations - religious horror, Bill Pullman, Natascha McElhone
Robin Hood - historical, 2010, Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett
The Rock - thriller, 1996, Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery, Ed Harris, Michael Biehn
Romeo and Juliet - historical, 1968, Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, Michael York
Seabiscuit - historical, 2003, Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, William H. Macy
The Seige - thriller, 1998, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Tony Shalhoub
Sense and Sensibility - historical, 1995, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman
Serpico - historical, 1973, Al Pacino
Shadowlands - biographical about CS Lewis, 1993, Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger
Silverado - western, 1985, Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Dennehy
The Sixth Sense - fantasy, 1999, Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis
Speed - thriller, 1994, Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper
Spiderman - science fiction, 2002, Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe
Star Trek - science fiction, 2009, Leonard Nimoy, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, and Zoe Saldaña
Stargate - science fiction, 1994, Kurt Russell, James Spader
The Terminator - science fiction, 1984, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn
Timeline - science fiction, 2003, Gerard Butler, Paul Walker
Vertigo - thriller, 1958, James Stewart, Kim Novak
While You Were Sleeping - romantic comedy, 1995, Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman
The Year of Living Dangerously - thriller, 1982, Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt
Zodiac - thriller, 2007, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr.
The 10th Kingdom - fantasy, 2000
A Hard Day's Night - musical, 1964, The Beatles
Adaptation - drama, 2002, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper
Alien - science fiction, 1979, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt
Aliens - science fiction, 1986, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen
All the President's Men - historical, 1974, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman
Anaconda - horror, 1997, Jennifer Lopez, Eric Stoltz, Ice Cube, Jon Voight
Angel Eyes - drama, 2001, Jennifer Lopez, James Caviezel, Jeremy Sisto
Argo - historical thriller, 2012, Ben Affleck
Attila - historical, 2001, Gerard Butler
Avatar - science fiction, 2009, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, and Giovanni Ribisi
Beetlejuice - comedy, 1988, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis
The Bishop's Wife - romantic comedy, 1947, Cary Grant, Loretta Young, David Niven
Black Hawk Down - historical, 2001, Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore
Blade Runner - science fiction, 1982, Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos
Blast form the Past - comedy, 1999, Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken
Brainstorm - science fiction, 1983, Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood
Breach - historical, 2007, Chris Cooper
Broken Arrow - thriller, 1996, John Travolta, Christian Slater
Brother Sun, Sister Moon - religious, 1972, Graham Faulkner, Alec Guinness
Contact - science fiction, 1997, Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt
Copenhagen - historical, 2002, Daniel Craig
The Day After Tomorrow - science fiction, 2004, Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal
The Dead Zone - horror, 1983, Christopher Walken, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen
Die Hard - thriller, 1988, Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Gudunov
Enemy at the Gates - historical, 2001, Joseph Fiennes, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz
The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain - drama, 1995, Hugh Grant
Ever After - fantasy, 1998, Drew Barrymore, Dougray Scott
Extreme Measures - thriller, 1986, Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman
Fallen - religious horror, 1998, Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland
Forbidden Planet - science fiction, 1956
The Fountain - science fiction, 2006, Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz
Frequency - science fiction, 2000, Dennis Quaid, James Caviezel
Galaxy Quest - science fiction comedy, 1999, Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub
Gattaca - science fiction, 1997, Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law
George Harrison: Living in the Material World - documentary by Martin Scorsese, 2011
The Gospel of John - religious, 2003, Henry Ian Cusick
Groundhog Day - fantasy comedy, 1983, Bill Murray
Hamlet - historical, 1990, Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield, Ian Holm, Helena Bonham Carter
Haywire - action thriller, 2011, Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Bill Paxton, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas
Heat - thriller, 1995, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
Hidalgo - historical adventure, 2004, Viggo Mortensen
The Hidden - science fiction, 1987, Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Nouri, Claudia Christian
Highlander - fantasy, 1986, Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery
In Time - science fiction, 2011, Justin Timberlake
Inception - science fiction, 2008. Russell Crow, Leonardo DiCaprio
Independence Day - science fiction, 1996, Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Brent Spiner
Inkheart - fantasy, 2008, Brendan Fraser
The Insider - drama, 1999, Russell Crowe, Al Pacino
Insomnia - thriller, 2002, Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank
Invasion of the Body Snatchers - science fiction, 1978, Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy
The Island - science fiction, 2005, Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Bean
Jack's Back - thriller, 1988, James Spader
The Jackal - thriller, 1997, Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier
Jaws - horror, 1975, Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw
Jesus - religious, 1999, Jeremy Sisto, Debra Messing,, Jacqueline Bisset,, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gary Oldman
Jurassic Park III - science fiction, , 2001, Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni
King Arthur - historical, 2004, Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Mads Mikkelsen, Stellan Skarsgård
Ladyhawke - fantasy, 1985, Rutger Hauer
Legend - fantasy, 1985, Tom Cruise
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear - 2004, Noah Wyle, Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin
Little Women - drama, 1994, Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Christian Bale, Eric Stoltz, Susan Sarandon
The Lord of the Rings trilogy - fantasy, 2001, 2002, 2003, you know who :)
The Lost World - fantasy, 2001, Bob Hoskins, James Fox, Peter Falk
The Lovely Bones - thriller, 2009, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz
Luther - religious, 2003, Joseph Fiennes
Mad Max - science fiction, 1979, Mel Gibson
The Man in the Iron Mask - historical, 1998, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne, Gérard Depardieu, Leonardo DiCaprio
The Matrix - science fiction, 1999, Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving
Men in Black - science fiction comedy, 1997, Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc - religious, 1999, Milla Jovovich, John Malkovich
The Mission - religious, 1986, Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson
The Mummy - fantasy, 1999, Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz
Munich - historical, 2005, Eric Bana, Daniel Craig
National Treasure - thriller, 2004, Nicolas Cage
Navy Seals - thriller, 1990, Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn
The New World - historical, 2005, Colin Farrell, Q'Orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale
The Next Three Days - thriller, 2010, Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks
Night of the Demon - horror, 1957
Notorious - thriller, 1946, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman
Nuremberg - historical, 2000, Alec Baldwin, Brian Cox, Christopher Plummer, Jill Hennessy
Oceans - nature documentary, 2010
Open Range - western, 2003, Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening
The Order - religious horror, 2003, Heath Ledger
The Pentagon Papers - historical, 2003, James Spader
Playing God - thriller, 1997, David Duchovny, Angelina Jolie
Proof of Life - thriller, 2000, Russell Crowe, David Caruso
The Prophecy - religious horror, 1995, Christopher Walken, Eric Stoltz, Viggo Mortensen, Elias Koteas
Raiders of the Lost Ark - adventure, 1981, Harrison Ford
Rashomon - historical, 1950, Toshiro Mifune
Rear Window - thriller, 1954, James Stewart, Grace Kelly
Rebecca - thriller, 1940, Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine
Red Planet - science fiction, 2000, Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss
Return to Me - romantic comedy, 2000, David Duchovny, Minnie Driver
Revelations - religious horror, Bill Pullman, Natascha McElhone
Robin Hood - historical, 2010, Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett
The Rock - thriller, 1996, Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery, Ed Harris, Michael Biehn
Romeo and Juliet - historical, 1968, Leonard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, Michael York
Seabiscuit - historical, 2003, Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, William H. Macy
The Seige - thriller, 1998, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Tony Shalhoub
Sense and Sensibility - historical, 1995, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman
Serpico - historical, 1973, Al Pacino
Shadowlands - biographical about CS Lewis, 1993, Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger
Silverado - western, 1985, Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Dennehy
The Sixth Sense - fantasy, 1999, Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis
Speed - thriller, 1994, Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper
Spiderman - science fiction, 2002, Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe
Star Trek - science fiction, 2009, Leonard Nimoy, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, and Zoe Saldaña
Stargate - science fiction, 1994, Kurt Russell, James Spader
The Terminator - science fiction, 1984, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn
Timeline - science fiction, 2003, Gerard Butler, Paul Walker
Vertigo - thriller, 1958, James Stewart, Kim Novak
While You Were Sleeping - romantic comedy, 1995, Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman
The Year of Living Dangerously - thriller, 1982, Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt
Zodiac - thriller, 2007, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr.
posted by crystal | 1:57 PM
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4 comments
How not to care
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
Tonight's episode of Fringe mentions the above quotation from Marcus Aurelius. I first learned about him from my college boyfriend, who was really into Roman history. Aurelius was a sad guy - his wife ran around on him, his son was a psychopath, and he was at war with the northern barbarians, so perhaps it's no great surprise that he was also something of a philosopher and wrote a book, the Meditations, about how to be a Stoic (how to basically not care that your life is in ruins ;). I did like what he had written very much and toted his slim book about with me during college, trying my best to not care about how screwed up my own life was. Yyou can read his book online here.
If you want to learn more about Marcus Aurelius in a semi-painless way, try watching The Fall of the Roman Empire ...
a 1964 epic film starring Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, Mel Ferrer and Omar Sharif .... considered unusually intelligent and thoughtful for a film of the contemporary sword and sandal genre and also enjoys a 100% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
And of course Aurelius had a bit part in Gladiator. Here we see Maximus (Russell Crowe) speaking to Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) ....
And now back to Fringe.
Tonight's episode of Fringe mentions the above quotation from Marcus Aurelius. I first learned about him from my college boyfriend, who was really into Roman history. Aurelius was a sad guy - his wife ran around on him, his son was a psychopath, and he was at war with the northern barbarians, so perhaps it's no great surprise that he was also something of a philosopher and wrote a book, the Meditations, about how to be a Stoic (how to basically not care that your life is in ruins ;). I did like what he had written very much and toted his slim book about with me during college, trying my best to not care about how screwed up my own life was. Yyou can read his book online here.
If you want to learn more about Marcus Aurelius in a semi-painless way, try watching The Fall of the Roman Empire ...
a 1964 epic film starring Sophia Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, Mel Ferrer and Omar Sharif .... considered unusually intelligent and thoughtful for a film of the contemporary sword and sandal genre and also enjoys a 100% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
And of course Aurelius had a bit part in Gladiator. Here we see Maximus (Russell Crowe) speaking to Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) ....
And now back to Fringe.
posted by crystal | 12:00 AM
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1 comments
Friday, May 10, 2013
Philip Endean SJ: video
You can watch the talk given by Jesuit Philip Endean at this Boston College page -
Ignatian Spirituality, Jesuit Identity, and the Research University: In Quest of Realism: LECTURE
Ignatian Spirituality, Jesuit Identity, and the Research University: In Quest of Realism: LECTURE
posted by crystal | 7:28 PM
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0 comments
Confusing harder With better
There was a post recently at the UK Catholic Herald about why it's harder to become a Catholic than a Protestant. I think the person who wrote it was laboring under the misconception that "harder" = "better" but as Howard Gray SJ once said, harder doesn't mean better, it just means harder. I don't know if it is actually harder to become a Catholic than a Protestant - one of the assertions made in the article was that it's difficult to give up one's own opinion in submission to the magisterium, but you could argue it's easier for some people to become Catholics because then they'd no longer have to think for themselves ;)
I'd like to speak to something else, though - the difficulty of *remaining* a Catholic. America magazine had an article a year ago on the subject (Why They Left) and this was a summery of the reasons given for leaving ...
Not surprisingly, the church’s refusal to ordain women, to allow priests to marry, to recognize same-sex marriage and to admit divorced and remarried persons to reception of the Eucharist surfaced, as did contraception and a host of questions associated with the scandal of sexual abuse by members of the clergy.
I'd add another reason personal to me - the inability to find community among other Catholics. Some of the people responding in America's article did mention this reason too ... “I did not experience community in the sense that I knew people just from going to church. The ones I knew, I knew them outside of church. No one misses the fact that we stopped going. No one has called from the parish, even though we were regular attendees and envelope users!”.
This is also true of the online Catholic community - those at places like dotCommonweal, Pray Tell, In All Things, Vox Nova, etc. can be pretty unwelcoming to people who don't fit into their mold.
Catholics shouldn't be proud of the possibility that it's harder to become (or remain) a Catholic, they should be somewhere between concerned and ashamed.
I'd like to speak to something else, though - the difficulty of *remaining* a Catholic. America magazine had an article a year ago on the subject (Why They Left) and this was a summery of the reasons given for leaving ...
Not surprisingly, the church’s refusal to ordain women, to allow priests to marry, to recognize same-sex marriage and to admit divorced and remarried persons to reception of the Eucharist surfaced, as did contraception and a host of questions associated with the scandal of sexual abuse by members of the clergy.
I'd add another reason personal to me - the inability to find community among other Catholics. Some of the people responding in America's article did mention this reason too ... “I did not experience community in the sense that I knew people just from going to church. The ones I knew, I knew them outside of church. No one misses the fact that we stopped going. No one has called from the parish, even though we were regular attendees and envelope users!”.
This is also true of the online Catholic community - those at places like dotCommonweal, Pray Tell, In All Things, Vox Nova, etc. can be pretty unwelcoming to people who don't fit into their mold.
Catholics shouldn't be proud of the possibility that it's harder to become (or remain) a Catholic, they should be somewhere between concerned and ashamed.
posted by crystal | 1:58 PM
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0 comments
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Channeling Obi-Wan
The latest episode of Fringe was fun. It's set about 20 years in the future when the evil Observers have taken over the world. You can tell they're evil because they've paved over Central Park! ...
They have collaborating humans who look a lot like Nazis. Here one demands the papers of the good guys, the Resistance, while they're trying to escape, and Walter (in the middle) tells him, "These aren't the droids you're looking for" :) ...
I was happy to see a new character introduced, played by Henry Ian Cusick (Jesus in The Gospel of John) ...
I'm going to be sad when I'm done with this series.
They have collaborating humans who look a lot like Nazis. Here one demands the papers of the good guys, the Resistance, while they're trying to escape, and Walter (in the middle) tells him, "These aren't the droids you're looking for" :) ...
I was happy to see a new character introduced, played by Henry Ian Cusick (Jesus in The Gospel of John) ...
I'm going to be sad when I'm done with this series.
posted by crystal | 8:16 PM
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3 comments
The Ascension and CrossCurrents
- source
I don't really like the Ascension - if I'd been a disciple, I'd have wished that Jesus had stayed here with us. But anyway, here's some nice art the event has generated.
I spent some time today browsing old articles at CrossCurrents, a journal published by the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life - there was even a poem by Leonard Nimoy :) ....
- Divine Action: An Interview with John Polkinhorne by Lyndon F. Harris
- When the Other Appears on the Scene by Umberto Eco
- This Side of God: A Conversation with David Tracy by Scott Holland
- The Great Work Begins: Theater as Theurgy in Angels in America by Anthony Lioi
- A Legacy of Inclusion: An Interview with Rosemary Radford Ruether by Rosalind Hinton
- Prayer Against the Darkness by Leonard Nimoy
posted by crystal | 7:03 PM
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0 comments
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
From Dyson spheres to cat herding
- Interesting article in The New York Review of Books by Freeman Dyson (Dyson spheres) - What Can You Really Know?. Picard asks, "Mr. Data, could this be a Dyson sphere?" ...
- The Tablet on women deacons ...
The Catholic Women's Association in Germany (Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund, KDFB), which has around 220,000 members nationwide, has questioned a proposal for a special deacon's office for women. Last week Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of the German bishops' conference, floated the idea of an office for women that would not require ordination.
That "is not enough", the KDFB said.
KDFB spokeswoman Ute Hücker told Germany's newspaper in English, The Local: "Catholic women in Germany want to see deacons who are women. We want the full office and the training that goes with it," she emphasised. "Eighty per cent of the active members of the German Church are women," she said. She noted that women were already voluntarily doing the work done by deacons such as visiting the sick.
See, it's not just me.
- I'm reading Seabiscuit: An American Legend for the second time and liking very much again. Seabiscuit, who first made his name on the west coast, had as his biggest rival the east coast favortite, War Admiral. Seabiscuit's owner tried to stage a race between the two for a long time before War Admiral's owner finally agreed. Here's a video of the race - the Biscuit won :) ...
- And finally, this is why I miss having tv - funny commercials like this one ...
- The Tablet on women deacons ...
The Catholic Women's Association in Germany (Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund, KDFB), which has around 220,000 members nationwide, has questioned a proposal for a special deacon's office for women. Last week Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of the German bishops' conference, floated the idea of an office for women that would not require ordination.
That "is not enough", the KDFB said.
KDFB spokeswoman Ute Hücker told Germany's newspaper in English, The Local: "Catholic women in Germany want to see deacons who are women. We want the full office and the training that goes with it," she emphasised. "Eighty per cent of the active members of the German Church are women," she said. She noted that women were already voluntarily doing the work done by deacons such as visiting the sick.
See, it's not just me.
- I'm reading Seabiscuit: An American Legend for the second time and liking very much again. Seabiscuit, who first made his name on the west coast, had as his biggest rival the east coast favortite, War Admiral. Seabiscuit's owner tried to stage a race between the two for a long time before War Admiral's owner finally agreed. Here's a video of the race - the Biscuit won :) ...
- And finally, this is why I miss having tv - funny commercials like this one ...
posted by crystal | 7:31 PM
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0 comments
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Some links
- see Bryan Cones' post Jesus loves me, this I know.... at US Catholic. I remember that song :)
- Enda Kenny (remember him?) won't be browbeaten by Cardinal Sean Brady (remember him?) over legislation to allow abortion in cases where a a woman's life is threatened, given the death of Savita Halappanavar (Irish Jury Finds Poor Care in Death of Woman Denied Abortion).
- Who Is Afraid of Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims, and Who Is Fighting for It? ....
[...] The most fearful are the Catholic bishops, who are spending thousands, if not millions, in every state, in an attempt to stave off reform. What do the bishops fear most? In a word: truth. The nightmares of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are filled, no doubt, with visions of every single state in the Union repeating the California scenario, where a window led to thousands of pages from their files revealing the basic truth that Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles operated with ice-cold logic as he manipulated victims and families in order to protect pedophile priests from the law. In fact, the leading opponent to child sex abuse legislation in most states has been the Catholic Conference, which is the state lobbying arm for the bishops.
- Enda Kenny (remember him?) won't be browbeaten by Cardinal Sean Brady (remember him?) over legislation to allow abortion in cases where a a woman's life is threatened, given the death of Savita Halappanavar (Irish Jury Finds Poor Care in Death of Woman Denied Abortion).
- Who Is Afraid of Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims, and Who Is Fighting for It? ....
[...] The most fearful are the Catholic bishops, who are spending thousands, if not millions, in every state, in an attempt to stave off reform. What do the bishops fear most? In a word: truth. The nightmares of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops are filled, no doubt, with visions of every single state in the Union repeating the California scenario, where a window led to thousands of pages from their files revealing the basic truth that Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles operated with ice-cold logic as he manipulated victims and families in order to protect pedophile priests from the law. In fact, the leading opponent to child sex abuse legislation in most states has been the Catholic Conference, which is the state lobbying arm for the bishops.
posted by crystal | 3:38 PM
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3 comments
Two movies this week
One was a loner from my sister ... Open Range. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3.5 stars.This is the second time I've seen it - I posted about it in 2006, writing ...
The Canadian locations were stunning and the performances were very good. There were two parts of the movie that especially touched me ... the gunfight: it was very, very disturbing, perhaps because the violence seemed so realistic, not romanticized or stylized, but too long, messy and devoid of self-righteous joy .... and the relationships: they were authentic, straightforward, vulnerable and almost painful in their honesty. If you like westerns, or Costner/Duvall/Bening, or just a tale that touches on freedom, redemption, justice and love :-) then you might like Open Range.
Trailer ...
***
The other movie was Big Miracle ...
a 2012 family drama film starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski .... based on the 1989 book Freeing the Whales by Tom Rose, which covers Operation Breakthrough, the 1988 international effort to rescue gray whales trapped in ice near Point Barrow, Alaska.
The Chicago Sun-Times gave the movie 3 stars. It was interesting that it was based on a real situation in which environmentalists, Inupiats, oil companies, the president, and even the Russians ended up working together to try to save three whales trapped under the ice. The New York Times wrote of the actual incident ...
Unlikely Allies Rush to Free 3 Whales
Three young whales, battered and bloodied by jagged ice that has trapped them near Point Barrow, Alaska, have become the focus of a huge rescue effort by uncommon allies. Eskimo whalers, the National Guard, the oil industry, environmentalists and Federal and state officials, with assists from a Senator and the Defense Department, are trying to free the California gray whales from two pools in the Beaufort Sea ice pack that are about to freeze over .....
A trailer ...
posted by crystal | 12:03 AM
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0 comments
Monday, May 06, 2013
Undressing a peanut
The blue jay holds a peanut with his foot and pecks it until he gets to the inner peanut :)
posted by crystal | 2:14 PM
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1 comments
"Do you believe that God is for you?"
Still reading Rob Bell's book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God. This excerpt I post below really touched me because it's so not what I learned about God growing up - my God wasn't "for me", he was at best ignoring me and at worst out to get me, because I wasn't and never would be good enough. Here's the excerpt (pp. 127 - 137) ...
***** ***** *****
Do you believe that God is for you?
Do you believe that God's desire is that you flourish, thrive, shine?
Do you believe God wants you to be everything you could possibly be as you become more and more and more your true self?
I do.
[...]
Gospel is the shocking, provocative, revolutionary, subversive, counterintuitive good news that in your moments of greatest despair, failure, sin, weakness, losing, failing, frustration, inability, helplessness, wandering, and falling short, God meets you there - right there - right exactly there - in that place, and announces, I am on your side.
Gospel insists that God doesn’t wait for us to get ourselves polished, shined, proper, and without blemish. God comes to us and meets us and blesses us while we are still in the middle of the mess we created.
Gospel isn’t us getting it together so that we can have God’s favor; gospel is us finding God exactly in the moment of our greatest not-togetherness.
Gospel is grace, and grace is a gift. You don’t earn a gift; you simply receive it. You don’t make it happen; you wake up to what has already happened.
Gospel isn’t doing enough good to be worthy; it’s your eyes being opened to your unworthiness and to Jesus’s insistence that that was never the way it worked in the first place.
Being a good person, then, naturally flows not from trying to get on God’s good side but from your realization that God has been on your side the whole time.
Gospel calls you to a major change in thinking, a giant shift in understanding, a massive leap in how you see yourself, otherwise, you’re stuck in the same old points program, trying to earn what is already yours.
***** ***** *****
***** ***** *****
Do you believe that God is for you?
Do you believe that God's desire is that you flourish, thrive, shine?
Do you believe God wants you to be everything you could possibly be as you become more and more and more your true self?
I do.
[...]
Gospel is the shocking, provocative, revolutionary, subversive, counterintuitive good news that in your moments of greatest despair, failure, sin, weakness, losing, failing, frustration, inability, helplessness, wandering, and falling short, God meets you there - right there - right exactly there - in that place, and announces, I am on your side.
Gospel insists that God doesn’t wait for us to get ourselves polished, shined, proper, and without blemish. God comes to us and meets us and blesses us while we are still in the middle of the mess we created.
Gospel isn’t us getting it together so that we can have God’s favor; gospel is us finding God exactly in the moment of our greatest not-togetherness.
Gospel is grace, and grace is a gift. You don’t earn a gift; you simply receive it. You don’t make it happen; you wake up to what has already happened.
Gospel isn’t doing enough good to be worthy; it’s your eyes being opened to your unworthiness and to Jesus’s insistence that that was never the way it worked in the first place.
Being a good person, then, naturally flows not from trying to get on God’s good side but from your realization that God has been on your side the whole time.
Gospel calls you to a major change in thinking, a giant shift in understanding, a massive leap in how you see yourself, otherwise, you’re stuck in the same old points program, trying to earn what is already yours.
***** ***** *****
posted by crystal | 1:03 PM
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3 comments