Catholic and Loving it!

We had a really good meeting about Youth Sunday tonight. The Gospel of the day is going to be the main focus with it being read out first and then discussed with other complimentary passages and then they are going to think of how they want to carry live their lives in conjunction with CAFODs live simply theme. Then still contemplating what Christ is saying to each of them individually they are going up group by group to light a candle and say a prayer (which they had prepared in the bible study) and then listening to the passage once again before silent reflection infront of the blessed sacrament whilst Tazie chant is played (Jesus remember me, in theme with the reading). After praying together we are going to party together.

It sounds good so spread the word.

When I went to university I was a half-hearted cradle Catholic with a vague sense that maybe God existed and maybe I should be going to Church maybe. I met a bunch of people called the Christian Union who had a very strong sense that God existed and in that first year at university patiently formed me in the basics of the Christian faith, something you might have thought my Catholic school would have done for me. They were also very definitely of the opinion that I should be going to a different Church to the Catholic one.

A difficult situation. The people who awoke me from my rediculous primary school "if you are good you go to heaven" theology and explained so much about who Jesus Christ is and what He came to do were now suggesting I drop the Catholic Church and become "Free Church". I was sufficiently deficient in my formation in the Catholic faith that they had to explain terms like transubstantiation to me before they could then explain why I should not believe them.

I looked for help in the Catholic Church but sadly found, as I sadly do today, that many priests are more keen on enlisting you in their own personal battle to change the Church than on defending it. Who then, would help? Google was my friend. Actually, in those days, Inference Find was my friend. I found folks like Dave Armstrong and Karl Keating. It wasn't long before I found a chap called Mark Shea. Mark, his sheavings and blog offered something no other Catholic apologist had offered before. Humour. He spoke my language. He had a huge influence on my decision to go with the Catholic option and to take it seriously but he also did something else, in introduced me to GK Chesterton.

He also inspired me to begin my own blog. Without Mark Shea Catholic and Loving it! would be Catholic and not blogging it! Some of you might have preferred things that way. I even got a mention (at my old blog address).

Anyway, when I heard that Mark might be coming to England to make a film (there's stardom for you) I jumped at the chance to have him over to speak in Hull. His film was cancelled (disaster) but he heroically volunteered to come anyway on some air miles he had lying around. On Saturday morning at 2am we awoke to pick him up. We went to bed. His flight had been cancelled. We stayed up on Saturday until 10.30pm cutting and sticking for Fr Massie and got four measly hours of sleep before getting up 2am Sunday morning and heading out towards Stanstead Airport to pick him up from his 7am flight. Stanstead at 7am is cuh-hold. We wrapped Leona up.

Mark is, of course, an American. This is obvious and I have known it all along but after five years of reading his blog with my own accent it was a little startling to hear an American voice. We began by taking him to Cambridge. As we drove to Cambridge he was remarklably chirpy for one so recently jarred 8 hours in to the future and remarked "Do you guy's realise you live in England? It's really really far away". We went to Cambridge and met up with our friend Ryan Day. Ryan took us to look at King's College which is really cool.

We went to mass at Fisher House where it was all in latin with gregorian chant. Really cool. Why do they have it in such an ugly room though? After mass we passed some morris men and then went for breakfast in the only place Ryan could find in Cambridge that does breakfasts. It wasn't the greasy cafe I was hoping for but it fed me up a treat and they provided Leona with a really cool high chair from which she had an interesting conversation with Mark's and his camera.

After breakfast we used Ryan's on suite bathroom (posh git) and then got on our way and drove the length of the country past Lincoln and over the Humber Bridge. The Humber Bridge was stunning with the Humber River looking blue and glistening in the setting sun while the sky was pale blue with pink clouds overhead and the concrete of the bridge gleamed gold. Mark Shea slept right through it. Bloody Americans. We let him fall in to bed when we got home and then got him up at 7ish to take him to Ella's parent's for dinner. "Okay" he said, "as long as we don't stay too late." More than four hours later as we drove home at 1.30am Mark remarked that Ella's has "a fun family". The next morning Ella's mum complained to Ella that Ella's Dad and Mark had consumed an entire bottle of Whiskey. This is not true. Ella had some too.

We went to bed at 2ish and left Mark checking his emails on my laptop. Who knows when he went to bed but his ability to function without sleep is remarkable.

Tomorrow... we go to York (if we get up)

You might expect a day trip to York takes a full day. Not so. Kathleen Lundquist and husband Gary met us at 2pm and we went through till 6pm. Mark Shea decided to try and beat the record by getting there for 2.30pm and leaving at 5pm. Lightening visits to York are becoming our speciality. Being jetlagged and having stayed up until 2am the night before Mark was understandably tired and had a bit of a lie in. At 8am Ella woke me up and told me it was unfair to keep our guest waiting downstairs while we slept and insisted that I get up. I got up and went downstairs to find (as I expected) that Mark was decidedly not up. I went back to Ella who told me "he is probably in his room reading while he waits for us to get up". Nonsense, thouht I. Still, a nagging wife can acheive many things and on this particular occasion she acheived getting me to go downstairs and make her a cup of tea.

When Mark did awake several hours later it turned out he had indeed been reading a book, briefly, at 8am. He had gone back to sleep. If only I had shared that fate... Leona had other ideas. Ella and I played some Zelda four swords and watched Friends (to brush up on our American) and when Mark got up we headed on over to York.

We parked by the River and Mark told us about William Cowper who drowned himself because of Calvinism. Apparently he thought he was damned so he decided to get damned quicker by killing himself... no I don't get it either. Anyway it's supposed to be Ella and I showing him York and there he is telling us about it. We walked around past Clifford's Tower and then on past Fairfax House which somebody told me once has some kind of Catholic link. I haven't time to look in to it now but this page seems to back up the idea.

Next stop, The Shambles. The Shambles are a very old street dating from the time of Maragret Clithrow which is lucky because that is where she lived. You may recall the controvery about the Shambles (where did Margaret Clitherow live?) so as well as going in to the shrine we also went in to the other house and I bravely asked if we could see the alleged priesthole which the nice man in Past Images kindly allowed us to go and look at the hole behind the fireplace which certainly could be a priesthole but to be honest it could also just be a hole. The controversy continues.

After The Shambles we headed towards the Minster. York Minster is not my least Minster/Cathedral (I still think it's bloody good) and today I liked it a little more because the sun was just right in the sky to light the stained glass beautifully.

Working as usual from the west end we spotted the Cathedral in the shrine of St. Cuthbert. You can see how we might have missed it. Font-tastic it is not.

When you think about the font in Durham (photos here and here) this is shocking. Also, in the background you can see another modern incursion...

Apparently named the "Semaphore Saints" these sculptures state that "Christ is here" which he was before the reformation but now you have to go down the road to St. Wilfrid's where he's been relegated to a sidechapel. Oops. Did I say that out loud? We wandered through the Nave and along the North Transept past some more lovely windows to the chapter house which is stunning but, I maintain, pointless. In the entrance to the chapter house is a statue of Mary which I think is really lovely but I can never get a good photo (it's just too dark). After the chapter house we worked our way around to the east end and looked at the choir.

When we arrived the choir were in the choir so we could hear the choir but we couldn't see the choir because the choir were there. After the choir left the choir we could go in and we could see the choir but we couldn't hear the choir.

The Choir was destroyed by fire in the 1800's and what we see today is a Victorian replacement. It lacks the medieval crazyness of the Choir at Exeter Cathedral or Beverley Minster but I really like wooden things so I still like it. Leona made some unhappy baby noises and an involved looking man looked around so Mark Shea said "future chorister" and he said (in a stern unimpressed voice) with just a little practise. On the way out we caught sight of Leona's two favourite animals the Lion and the Giraffe stitched on to kneelers...

We headed out of the Minster and made our way past St. Wilfrid's and Gray's Solicitors (they visited my blog once you know...) and on through York back to the car. We got there at 5pm. On target. York visited in 2.5 hours. We never walked any walls but you see plenty of those from the car which is still good. We had to get back to Hull because Mark wanted to be at the place where he was to give his talk 45 minutes in advance. Hah. We got to Hull with scarcely time for some fish and chips. We introduced Mark to American Chip Spice. Apparently they don't have American Chip Spice in America. Ludicrous. He must just not get out much.

Mark wanted, most sensibly, to arrive at the place where he was to give his talk 45 minutes early. To give him time to lay out his books, limber up and get ready. We got him there about 30 seconds late. Welcome to the world of the Preece family. Fr Massie made the unprecedented move of allowing somebody to sell books in the place where he usually sells Faith Magazine. Nobody tell Fr Hugh.

Mark kicked off with his 101 reasons not to be Catholic which is really entertaining, you can get some of the gist of it here. He then went on to talk about "Who do you say I am?" and the various (limited) options for explaining Jesus Christ of which only one really makes any sense. I didn't hear too much myself because I had Phil Cunnah sat to my left laughing rediculously. Although I've pretty much heard the whole talk before in Mark's Sheavings, Blog and Books (as well as Chesterton and Lewis books) it was still great fun and he does it really well.

After the talk we all headed to the Old Grey Mare pub (as is the tradition) and had beer and guiness while we caught up with Phil. We got home late and went to bed later after a long discussion about the price of flying heavy cases of books to Ireland (Ryanair are swines). Tomorrow we are leaving Mark in Michelle's capable hands while we head off to a funeral. It's been great having him around. I hope it all goes well for hin in Ireland and he has a safe journey there and eventually back home to Seattle.

Not real. That's what it was. When I first got the news from Mark on the phone I remember having the thought "Norris has died huh? I'll have to ask him about that next time I go down to Exeter". It wasn't until I had slept on it that I really felt sad about it and only a full 24 hours later did I believe it enough to cry on Ella's shoulder. Norris can't be dead, he's like... Norris. Sadly, it all turned out to be true. Norris died on 23rd October at the gym. He was 25 years old, younger than Ella but older than me.

I first met Norris in my first year at university, we were on a physics course together and he was one of the many people I saw but never really got to know (there were a lot of people). He came to a couple of house parties in the third year and seemed like a nice guy. At the end of my third year when I should have been graduating I was looking for somewhere to live because I had failed my first year and had repeated it. Mark and I ended up moving in to 5 Cowley Bridge Road, a legendary address that will forever haunt my memories. We moved in with Rob, Norris, Dan and Adam and we had a great year. Norris seemed to live in the front room on his sofa with his blanket and his wierd eating habits. Here's a photo of him tucking in to some broccoli. It wasn't a dare or anything, that's just the kind of thing he ate...

As the years wore on was a bit of an enigma. He was clearly the most mathematically tallented person I had ever met and yet he had, like myself, failed to pass a year at university. When I asked him why he never gave an entirely straight answer but he usually said something along the lines of "unlike you I came to university because I was interested in physics, I'm not bothered about exams". That became very apparent in his final year when he spent weeks learning all the course material for his final exams and then didn't go to them because he just didn't see the point. Again, he said he had come to study physics, not to pass exams. Still, despite his efforts to the contrary he walked away with a first class masters degree in theoretical physics. There are not too many people who can pull that kind of thing off.

Norris had an immense core of good in him. The only bad thing I can remember him doing was telling me that he had wasted enough time playing James Bond computer games with me and was going to spend his time more productively. That's not really very bad now is it. He was generous to his friends, often buying an 8-pack of beer and passing them around. He spent many hours patiently explaining basic physics to me for which I am very grateful. He also worked with some Exeter's most poorest, vulnerable people. By nights he would work on the phones for the Samaritans. I remember him telling me that they said to him "whatever you do, do something lighthearted and happy during the day". During the day, Norris worked for the Big Issue with homeless people. I remember him telling me they said to him "whatever you do, do something lighthearted and happy at night". He was a much loved gentle giant

Getting to Norris' funeral was tricky. We had Mark Shea to take care of, no days holiday left and a car on the edge. We arranged to dump Mark on Michelle and I was able to carry over holidays from next year (some employers give you compassionate for funerals but mine doesn't). Not getting to the funeral wasn't an option, especially as Norris always came all the way to Hull for our big events. He danced at our wedding...

...and he cut the carrots at Leona's Baptism (and put them up her nose?)...

We had great times in Exmouth flying kites...

...and he came with us when we cycled to Dawlish. Ella and I just about got to Dawlish and back on a tandem. He did it on a dubious old BMX. Here he is playing on the swings at Turf Locks...

We heard a lot at Norris' funeral about his really quite scary appearance. The skinhead in ragged shirt and boots. Nobody thought to talk about his feminine side...

One of the more fun times we had with Norris was when we made (started making) a comedy kung-fu movie. Having seen an interview in which Jackie Chan derided the methods used by competing film makers we decided to take his descriptions as a guide of how to make a kung-fu movie without any martial arts skills at all. Mark and Norris star in, a Kung-Foo Movie...

We made the film without sound because we had grand plans to dub it over with the voices of Rob and Dan (it wouldn't be kung-fu movie without bad dubbing) but we never got around to it. Still, I think Norris' performance was excellent.

Norris' funeral consisted of two parts. The first was at the crematorium and was quite formal and churchy (including hymns), the latter part, at the Mint Methodist Church, was more like the speeches at a wedding than a funeral. In a surreal twist, Prof. Roy Sambles was at the front which meant that after two years away from Exeter I was back sitting listening to the same guy. He gave a great testimony to Norris' intellectual prowess as did Prof. John Inkson. We heard from Norris' primary school teacher who told some great stories, Luke who covered the housemate action and described Norris' power meals. Jen gave some very touching words as did many others. We laughed and we cried. Roy Sambles read some quotes from this thread on a BMX website from where I found this awesome picture...

I think I will draw this to a close by quoting Mark quoting Matthew...

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' - Mt 25:31-40

Norris, Rest in Peace. Amen.

The great G.K. Chesterton wrote a book called "What's wrong with the World". I haven't read it. I'm not sure I need to. There's plenty enough wrong with me to last a lifetime, let alone the world. However, humanity is fallen and it is humanity Christ came to save.

The short answer to the question "What's wrong with the World?" is this: "Sin". Short though it is, that answer is about as much use on it's own as saying "What's wrong with my car?", "Broken". We know the car is broken or we wouldn't be asking what is wrong with it. We know there is sin in the world, the question we really wan't to ask is this: "What can we do to fix what is wrong with the world."

Here's the bad news. We can't.

We can't fix what is wrong with the world. We can't design a system of government that will eliminate corruption or a financial market that will make all trade fair. We can't design a school syllabus that will make every child succeed or a system of catechesis that will innoculate people against atheism. Here's the controversial part: Even though Benedict XVI is a better pope than John Paul II (you take that back you fiend!) he cannot stop the decay. He can't put things right.

We can't even fix ourselves on our own. The pelagian heresy reckoned human beings could work their way in to heaven. It's not true.

When I was in primary school I was told (or at least this is what I heard) that the world worked like this. If you do good things you go to heaven. If you do bad things you don't. It's a message I hear again and again in popular culture. We've all heard jokes about people approaching the pearly gates where St. Peter has his lists of sins and decides whether to let you in based on if you have been well behaved. Joke's like that wouldn't work if you had to explain it (before I tell this joke I want you to just pretend for a moment that people can work their way in to heaven by being good). This belief is so thoroughly engrained even in many long-serving Catholic's that if you say "I think you are wrong to do that" the response can often be something like "Are you saying I will go to hell for it?".

You don't need to do anything to "go to hell for it". We've all done enough already. The fact is that, you, me, them, everybody, everybody has sinned. Has rebelled against God. Has said in their heart "God won't like this but it's what I want". Based on how we have lived every one of us is going to go before God and he is going to say "Ha! No chance". Unless... (and this is our only hope) What if God said "I forgive you".

This is the biggest secret in Christianity. Every man and his dog knows that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a baby called Elvis. How many people know that there is no such thing as being "good enough to go to heaven". So what's the biggest secret?

We are all shits.

Now try convincing your parish priest to put that on a poster...

One of the promising indications of a renewal in the Church’s missionary consciousness in recent decades has been the growing desire of many lay men and women, whether single or married, to cooperate generously in the missio ad gentes. As the Council stressed, the work of evangelization is a fundamental duty incumbent upon the whole People of God, and all the baptized are called to "a lively awareness of their personal responsibility for the spreading of the Gospel" ("Ad Gentes," 36).

Fundamental duty?

All the baptized?

A lively awareness?

Personal responsibility?

Peter Kreeft... I reviewed his You can understand the Bible book one time. Anyway, he's put together a series on the existence of God that you can listen to online.

The Existence of God

Westminster Diocese, I bow down in awe at your amazing "virtual diocese" map. It's brilliant.

I wish we had one of these.

The Middlesbrough Diocese Department for Adult formation have put the handbook of short courses online!

There's a sections on Scripture, Church Teaching, Liturgy, Moral Formation, Spiritual Formation, Formation for Community and Evangelisatlon (I don't know what Evangelisatlon is, I wonder if it's like Evangelisation only longer?)

Petty swipes at typing errors aside, this is really good stuff. Ella and Michelle have been going over it looking for courses to do at their Mother's prayer group (I think they are planning to book one of the scripture ones). I'm quite interested in the historical ones, especially "The Origins of Christianity in our Diocese".

I am of course a little dubious about "Lay-led Liturgies" and "Praying with Clay" but then I'm a miserable git. I also wonder what "Introduction to Myers-Briggs (MBTI)" has to do with Catholicism.

You can read the handbook of short courses online.

That was quick...

Our new Bishop is Mgr Terrence Drainey.

I give thanks to Almighty God for all his gifts and blessing, especially the gift of priestly ministry. I personally thank the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, for appointing me to Middlesbrough and for allowing me to serve the Church as a bishop here. All my life as a priest I have only wanted to be a pastor serving the Lord and his people wherever the Church has sent me. So I sincerely rejoice to be given the ministry of pastor of this great diocese rich in lives faithful to the Gospel throughout history and to this present day.

As your bishop elect, I come among you as a brother who, from personal experience, knows the need we all have of God’s gracious mercy and forgiveness. The Gospel that we bring must proclaim God’s infinite love and pardon. Even in darkness we trust that Christ will be our light and as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, we can face all disappointments, broken promises and even overcome despair. It is in this joyful hope that I look forward to serving the people of the Diocese of Middlesbrough as soon as I can. Particularly I would like to meet with the clergy of the diocese at the earliest opportunity for they are my helpers and counsellors.

I realise that I tread on holy ground here where many great and saintly ones have gone before me. How could I not remember that especially today, the feast of St Hilda of Whitby? I am very proud and privileged to follow a good and kindly pastor like Bishop John Crowley. In my present position as President of Ushaw College I worked closely with him and was a frequent recipient of his patient, generous wisdom.

The work in which I am at present engaged in the Seminary at Ushaw College demands that I remain there for a little while longer before being ordained as Bishop of Middlesbrough. I will finish this academic term and then will receive episcopal ordination on 25 January at 12.00 noon.

In the meantime, I ask for prayers: prayers for your former Bishop, John Crowley and those who have undertaken the task of running the diocese since his resignation was accepted; prayers for the good of all the people of this Church, and finally prayers that I might be a good and effective pastor for the diocese of Middlesbrough.

It's really great news that we have a bishop at last! We are headless chickens no more.

So what do we know about our new Bishop?

Firstly, I know that I've already been given three separate dire warnings not to try and write anything funny about him. Maybe he doesn't have a sense of humour or maybe the people warning me would have said that no matter who was made Bishop.

Secondly, Don't mention the Tea! - As president of Ushaw College he presided over a course called How to be a good priest in England which aimed "to dispel unhelpful notions of Britishness, such as maids cycling across village greens, warm beer and drinking tea".

Finally, I know that Benedict XVI says he's the right man for the job. That's good enough for me.

Welcome to Middlesbrough Mgr Drainey (don't forget to come to Hull sometime...)

Apparently my first blog entry about our new bishop was "too negative". Sheesh! If you want negative try Berenike or Fr Ray Blake. I just thought it might be funny to offer him a cup of tea sometime...

I am honestly, genuinely, I promise, without reservation, happy to have a Bishop at last. Also (let my yes be yes and my no be no) I have not decided anything along the lines of "this guy is a bad/good bishop". I'm not in the business of judging who is good and who is bad - Bishops or otherwise. Who do you think I am? Fr. Christmas?

So, what's this Digital Teacher stuff all about then?

I'm glad you asked.

I'm quite excited to read this, while president of Ushaw, Bishop Drainey was involved with a programme of web based study for the permanent diaconate... he said:

"This is an online course, which is as interactive as a classroom full of students. It isn't 'distance learning' which is a one-to-one course, but is extremely interactive,"

Sound's fantastic.

The age old problem when it comes to Adult Formation has always been, too many people, not enought time. The department for Adult Formation are brilliant and yet they have their limits. Fr Lumley and Jane cannot possibly visit every parish even once a month. So you wait a month and get your hour long session most of which is spent drinking tea and being congratulated for turning up.

Imagine interactive online catechesis (chat-echesis?). You log on, you read the materials (at your own pace) you can leave comments and read other's comments (interactive) and you can get to know people hundreds of miles away. People from parishes across the Diocese can get to know each other. You get tea just the way you like it (you make it yourself) and you can do it in your own time (if you work nights, or are housebound, or just can't stand the kind of people you meet in Churches). The opportunities for evangelisation are tremendous. You could run courses for people interested in the Catholic faith who might not feel comfortable entering a Church but might be happy to log on during their lunch break. You don't need a babysitter. It would also be ideal for people like myself who always think of a question the next morning.

Hows that for positive...

If you can't wait for that, the good folks at the Catholic Home Study Service do offer free distance learning. They lack the interactive element that Bishop Drainey spoke about above but they will send you a free textbook and workbook and then you send your answers in online. It's better than nothing. Also, don't forget that, the Department for Adult Formation does have courses available and Jane Cook is already writing online.

Doctor Doctor, I keep seeing the four horsemen of the apocalypse! Don't worry... It's not the end of the world.

"Let us have no fear for the future, even when it appears dark and gloomy," the Holy Father told his Angelus audience. He was commenting on the day's Gospel reading from St. Luke, in which Jesus tells his disciples: "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."

"Let us accept Christ's invitation to face daily events trusting in his provident love," the Pope said.

A Christian, he continued, should have a "biblical vision of history," and should realize that following Christ is more important than any historical events, however dramatic. Jesus, he reminded his audience, is the summit of history, "its transcendent fulfillment, is its alpha and omega, its beginning and end."

Bridge to Terabithia... From the trailer you might expect a fantastic fantasy film. Be prepared though, for "more than you could ever imagine".

Two kids with no friends become friends and then one dies. Oh, and they imagine stuff, the stuff you see in the trailer. Oh, and by the way, when I say "the stuff you see in the trailer" I mean there is nothing else. You have seen all the imagined parts, the rest is just watching kids go to school, as boring as being there yourself.

You have been warned.

Somebody should report Disney to trading standards...

Mahatma Gandhi was, I am sure, an amazing man. When it came to religon though, he was somewhat confused. When asked if he was a Hindu he replied "Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.". At this point we are supposed to fall over ourselves oohing and aahing at how deep and mystical he is. I find that step decidedly difficult. A man cannot be a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew. A Jew for goodness sake! Does he have the family tree to prove it?

This year the people at the Catholic Youth Services (I don't want to know how much they cost us each year) have decided, presumably after careful study of the old and new testaments, to go with a quote from Ghandi as the theme for National Youth Sunday (formerly known as the feast of Christ the King).

Drawing inspiration from Mahatma Ghandi ­ the man internationally esteemed for his doctrine of non-violent protest ­ this year's National Youth Sunday 2007 (25 November) will be inviting young adults to 'Be the change you want to see in the world'.

Did you catch that? Be the change you want to see in the world

That's just stupid.

Be the change you want to see. Oh right, at last, now my life has meaning and purpose. Let's think this through for a moment. Apart from the obvious problem that the change I want in the world might differ from the change you want in the world and I might end up writing on a blog while others seethe in a presbytery, there is the second problem, it doesn't work.

Young people want to see many changes in the world. They want an end to terrorism, domestic violence, conflict, crime, global warming, drug abuse, bullying, poverty and racism.

Terrorism? Let me get this straight. Young people want an end to terrorism and the sage-like advice they get from the Catholic Youth Services is "Be the change you want to see in the world". If young people want an end to terrorism then simply not blowing stuff up is not going to do it.

Also, Why is abortion not on that list? Do young people not want to end abortion?

If this is Christianity then screw it...

The world is broken and we have to make it how we want by changing ourselves. That's the message? That's what you want me to give an hour of my life to every Sunday? What's the point?

The fact is that I can't change myself. I am a bad man. This is a fundamental basic teaching of Christianity. No matter how hard I (or you) try to heave ourselves up to perfection we will fail. We've all seen the way it goes, the idealism of youth turns in to the cynicism of old age as people realise they can't build heaven on earth. You can blame the government if you like, you can turn in to a miserable old git and say "if only they had listened". You will be wrong. If only they had listened the world would still be fallen and mankind would still be enslaved by sin. Pretty hopeless huh.

But that is the best the Catholic Youth Services have to offer, the hopelessness of changing myself to change the world. Abandon hope all ye who enter here. I think I'll keep my sunday mornings for myself thanks. I need to enjoy life while I can.

...Christianity is better than that!

Christianity says "yes James, you are screwed". I say "Oh dear" and Christianity says "By the grace of God you will be okay" and I say "Thank God for that!". That's the whole point of the gospel. God freely gives his forgiveness and changes us. If we will let Him, He makes the changes in us that He wants to see in the world.

You can give young people the hopelessness of changing themselves or you can give them the hope of forgiveness. I know which one I would rather have.

Interview With President of Pontifical Communications Council

Q: What is the main challenge for the Church in our current digital era?

It is something very strange. The means of social communication are a challenge, because we're no longer dealing with having or not having means of communication....

...it is a challenge, because it presents us with a reality we have to understand and serve, that we have to love. And, therefore, we have to be present...

Q: Is this digital culture new mission territory?

...the means of social communication are a great opportunity to find help in spreading the Gospel. There is a statement from Pius XII, in which the Pope refers to the means of communication of his time, defining them as "a gift of God." Imagine if he lived today. It is undeniable that these means place many possibilities at the disposal of one who wants to be a missionary.

Here you are Ella, don't say I never get you anything.

I'm sure everybody has seen this by now but hey-ho here you go..

Here's one for Crazy James (so called, to distinguish him from other, more conventional Jameses). The Holy Cards Blog charts the liturgical year with scans of the authors collection of Holy Cards.

Unless, of course, the author is Crazy James. It wouldn't suprise me...

Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement blog (a fine blog) put together a list of ten unknown truths about Sacred Music.

Are they true? Because if they are then somebody should let people know...

The music of the Mass is not of our choosing; it is not a matter of taste; it is not a glossy layer on top of a liturgy. Liturgical music is embedded within the structure of the liturgy itself: theologically, melodically, and historically.

Hymns are not part of the structure of Mass. Nothing in the Mass says: it is now time to sing a hymn of your choice. Hymns are permitted as replacements for what should be sung but only with reservations.

The sung parts of the Mass can be divided into three parts: the ordinary chants (which are stable from week to week), the proper chants (which change according the day), and the priests parts that include sung dialogues with the people.

The music of for the Mass is found in three books: the Kyriale (for the people), the Graduale (for the schola), and the Missale (for the priest).

To advocate Gregorian chant is not merely to favor Latin hymns over English ones, because chant hymns make up only a small portion of chant repertoire. It is to favor a sung Mass over a spoken one, and to favor the music of the Mass itself against substitutes.

Cognitive pedagogy is not the primary purpose of music, so, no, it is not important that all people gathered always and immediately "understand the words."

The music of Mass does not require an organist, pianist, guitar player, bongos, or microphones. It requires only the human voice, which is the primary liturgical instrument.

The Second Vatican Council was the first ecumenical council to decisively declare that chant has primacy of place: "Ecclesia cantum gregorianum agnoscit ut liturgiae romanae proprium: qui ideo in actionibus liturgicis, ceteris paribus, principem locum obtineat." (And ceteris paribus does not mean: unless you don't like it. It means even if chant cannot be sung because of poor skills or lack of resources, or whatever, it still remains an ideal.)

There is no contradiction between chant and participation. Vatican II hoped to see that vernacular hymnody would decrease and the sung Mass would increase. Full, conscience, active participation in the Mass means: it is up to the people to do their part to sing the parts of the Mass that belong to the people.

The first piece of papal legislation concerning music appeared in 95AD, by Pope St. Clement. It forbid profane music in liturgy and emphasized that Church is the place for holy music. All successive legislation has been a variation on that theme.

Fantastic news (if it is true)...

ROME, Nov 15, 2007 / 09:41 am (CNA).- The Italian newspaper La Repubblica revealed today that Pope Benedict XVI has finalized his second encyclical on the subject of Christian hope, and that it should be published before Christmas, during Advent.

Benedict’s first encyclical, “Deus Caritas est”, was signed on Christmas Day 2005 and by the following month had been published in eight languages. His second encyclical is tentatively titled "Spe Salvi” (Saved by Hope) and takes its inspiration from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, the newspaper reported. The potential title comes from the 24th verse of the eighth chapter of St. Paul's letter, which reads: "Because we have been saved by hope."

According to La Repubblica, the Holy Father wants to "reach the hearts of Christians and invite them to have hope, without being thrashed by pessimism."

The document, according to the same source, is being translated into several languages and could be signed by the Holy Father on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and the anniversary of the close of Vatican II.

This morning Ella and I went unicycling with the husband of Mrs Hall who taught us chemistry and who took the opportunity to make sure we are using tin foil correctly which of course we are. For those of you not blessed with scientific wisdom, you need to put the shiny side on the inside. For those of you now wondering "tin foil has different sides?" you need to get more observant. We unicycled around the Humber Bridge Country Park which is a challenging place to unicycle but we had a great time. It was appropriate, because a couple of years ago we used our unicycles to get to the National Youth Sunday celebrations at St. Vincents. Unicycling and youth events should be connected.

We arrived at the Church hall of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Peter Chanel (known locally as "Marist" which once hillariously lead some Mormons to think I was telling them I was a Maoist). Micky and Nikki were already there organising things, we had a quick musical practice and very soon people started arriving. I had a brief chat with Richard Marsden and Sarah Holmes before Nicky stood on a chair and got everybody's attention.

As ever, we started with icebreaker games. Micky did a really good job at getting the kids organsied around a parachute and playing a game where they had to learn peoples names to win. He let it run just the right amount of time before quieting the kids down, explaining what was going to happen and then reading the gospel from todays mass which was to be the theme of the day. He was a real master of his art and the kids had fun when it was time to have fun and listened when it was time to listen. The reading, in case you missed mass this morning, was this one...

And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

The kids (sorry, young people) split off in to four groups and each of the groups had two tasks to complete. Here's where it gets really interesting. The first task (provided by the live simply campaign) was to write on a "brick" (A4 Sheet) completing the sentence "I/We promise to live simply by...". We had scarcely sat at our table and the youths had filled in their sheets. "Recycling", "Not Wasting Water", "Turning off my TV and not leaving it on standby". Two things were clear, that they had done this before and that they are sick of it. They filled in the sheets, sighed, and asked what was next. The obvious answer was to draw skulls, knives and guns (for the boys) or flowers and fair trade symbols (for the girls).

So we practically began with the second task. To look at the gospel for the day and another reading. We had to read them, think about them and come up with something to share with the other groups. We got one of the kids to read the gospel again...

And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Then I asked a question, first I made sure they understood that the reading takes place during the crucifixtion (it's not obvious from the reading) and then I asked "If Jesus is the King of the Universe, why doesn't he get down off the cross, afterall, if he's the King of the Universe surely he can do that sort of thing".

I'm not going to claim they were enthusiastic. They wern't exactly fighting to answer, but their attitude was completely different. This was a question they hadn't all thought about before and the answer wasn't immediately obvious. One of them said "Because he had to die so our sins can be forgiven" and another said "How does dying forgive sins" The lady leading this group with me answered that the whole "how does him dying cause our sins to be forgiven" is one of the mysteries of the Christian faith (which is true). I suggested we take a look at our other reading and see if it gave us any clues...

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. "For God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "All things are put in subjection under him," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every one.

As it was read aloud we reached the line "The last enemy to be destroyed is death" and one lad said "That's in Harry Potter!". Very observant. We also wrangled our way to the answer to the "why doesn't he get down off the cross" question. He had to die to destroy death by rising again. So then another lad says "If Jesus destroyed death why do we still die?". He might as well have said "Checkmate". How do you even begin to answer that question in a way that satisfies him (and older youth) without totally going over the heads of the younger kids. I said something about us not dying because when we die we live forever. It wasn't a good enough answer and he looked dissapointed.

The discussion hadn't been an amazing success but it had acheived something really straightforward, the kids had heard and understood the basic message that Jesus died so our sins can be forgiven and I think for some of them it was the first time they had really thought about that. They spend so long on ethical discussions about recycling.

Fr Stephen Maughan and Canon Micheal Loughlin entered the room about this time and did something that puts them, in my view, a step above all the other priests present. What they did was really simple, they sat down with the kids and talked to them about what they were doing. One of the boys in our group asked Fr Stephen about the readings. Fr Stephen recognised the reading "I preached on this this morning" so the kid asked him about the link to Live Simply "I didn't preach on live simply", replied Fr Stephen, "I preached on Christ the Universal King". Fr Stephen is spot on of course, the obvious message this Sunday is Christ the Universal King, not "Recycle more and don't waste water".

After the group work was over we moved to the Church. The kids all got to light a candle (because that's what participation is all about, right?) and the "bricks" were stuck on the front of the altar. Then each group read out what they had got from the readings. Each group had a different second reading (only we had Harry Potter) so the results were quite different. Then Canon Loughlin exposed the blessed sacrament, some of the kids knelt of their own volition. Huge massive buckets of respect to Fr. John O'Gara who directed proceedings from behind and really made it what it was, which was beautiful. Big respect also to Canon Micheal for not dumbing down on the blessing and also to all the parents and helpers who ran groups. Every group had something good to say, nobody stood up and said "Let's recycle more". Thanks be to God.

After the mass, the kids got their party (also organised by Micky and Nicky - they are legends). The whole event was a great success.

...Who are you and what have you done with James? Where's the criticism? Oh wait, here it is...

What made today a success was the parents and helpers who came along and put in the effort. It would have been nice to see more priests actually hanging around and talking to the young people but I'm sure they have their excuses. These parents and helpers (myself included) are not professional youth workers, we need help and support from the wider Church. What we need are catechetical materials aimed at young people that explain the basics of Chrisitianity in a language secularised teenagers can understand. What we get are leaflets about "living simply" and the importance of recycling.

The problem I think is that Cafod are too good at what they do. Cafod are amazing at taking the message of social justice and living in solidarity with the poor and so they should be. It is their remit. I have nothing but good things to say about Cafod. The problem comes when people use the materials Cafod provide as catechetical materials. Cafod are not setting out to evangelise. The Catholic Youth Services should be. There needs to be a voice as loud as Cafod saying not "recycle and don't waste water" but "here are some reasons to believe God exists..."

Maybe CASE should get involved in youth work? Maybe the Catholic Youth Services should get involed in youth work? Failing that, it would be great if somebody somewhere with the requisite expertise would put together some decent materials and get them out. We need you guys.

Nitwits. That's what Phillip Pullman calls Catholics who boycott his film.

There's a lot of ascii being spilled across the world debating the question: "Are Pullman's books anti-Catholic?" A lady at Church recently told me she had read the first one and wasn't sure they were (she said it was too dull to read the other two). Personally, I'm really suprised this is even a question.

I read the whole trilogy just over a year ago and the best way to explain it is like this, imagine if somebody wrote a book set in a parallel world where the Prime Minister of Britain Adolf Hitler heroically saved the freedom loving Nazi's from an evil global Jewish conspiracy. Such a book, fiction or not, would be a tad offensive. Nobody would say "It's just a story", especially if a rift were opened between said parallel world and our own.

In the first book, the one being released as a film, the anti-Catholicism is subtle. The bad guys are called "the magisterium" and they have "priests" but it could be a coincidence. Couldn't it?

By the beginning of The Subtle Knife, things are becomming a bit more obvious. When a rift opens between Lyra's world and our own, Ruta Skadi, queen of the witches tell us...

"Sisters," she began, "let me tell you what is happening, and who it is that we must fight. For there is a war coming. I don't know who will join us but I know who we should fight. It is the Magisterium, the church. For all it's history - and that's not long by our lives, but it's many, many of theirs - it's tried to suppress and control every natural impulse. And when it can't control them, it cuts them out. Some of you have seen what they did at Bolvangar. And that was horrible, but it is only one such place, not the only such practice. Sisters, you know only the north: I have travelled in the south lands. There are churches there, believe me, that cut their children too, as the horrible people of Bolvangar did - not in the same way, but just as horribly - they cut their sexual organs, yes, both boys and girls - they cut them with knives so that they shan't feel. That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if a war comes, and the church is on one side of it, we must be on the other, no matter what strange allies we find ourselves bound to.

Thats right, the Church is the enemy of freedom and sexual organs. Lyra befriends a chap called Will from our world who finds an object called the Subtle Knife that can be used to travel from parallel world to parallel world.

Now Pullman goes all Screwtape on us. First he tells us about the fall...

There is a war coming, boy. The greatest war there ever was. Something like it happened before, and this time the right side must win... We've had nothing but lies and propaganda and cruelty and deceit for all the thousands of years of human history. It's time we started again, but properly this time..."
He stopped to take in several rattling breaths.
"The knife," he went on after a minute; "they never knew what they were making, those old philosophers. They invented a device that could split open the smallest particles of matter, and they used it to steal candy. They had no idea that they'd made the one weapon in all the universes that could defeat the tyrant. The Authority. God. The rebel angels fell because they didn't have anything like the knife; but now..."

God was a tyrant you see. Then he tells him about the two sides in the war between good (mankind) and evil (the aforementioned tyrant)...

"There are two great powers," the man said, "and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been faught over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.

Next, Screwtape (I mean Pullman) tells us about how God didn't create us and just deceived us all...

"Tell me, then," said Will. "Tell me about the Metatron, and what the secret is. Why did that angel call him Reagent. And what is the Authority. Is he God?"
He sat down, and the two angels, their forms clearer in the moonlight than he had ever seen them before, sat with him.
Balthamos said quietly, "The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty - those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves - the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. It seeks to know more about itself, and Dust is formed. The first angels condensed out of Dust, and the Authority was the first of all. He told those who came after him that he had created them, but it was a lie. One of those who came later was wiser than he was, and she found out the truth, so he banished her. We serve her still. And the Authority still reigns in his kingdom and the Metatron is his Reagent.

God, by the way, is getting on a bit...

"Well, where is God," said Mrs Coulter, "if he's alive? And why doesn't he speak any more? At the beginning of the world, God walked in the garden and spoke with Adam and Eve. Then he began to withdraw, and Moses only heard his voice. Later, in the time of Daniel, he was aged - he was the Ancient of Days. Where is he now? Is he still alive, at some inconceivable age, decrepit and demented, unable to think or act or speak and unable to die, a rotten hulk? And if that is his condition, wouldn't it be the most merciful thing, the truest proof of our love of God, to seek him out and give him the gift of death?"

Maybe we should euthanise God?

First, we need to profoundly misunderstand what "Spirit" and "Soul" means...

"You know," Mary said, "the church - the Catholic Church that I used to belong to - wouldn't use the word dæmon, but St Paul talks about spirit and soul and body. So the idea of three parts in human nature isn't so strange".
"But the best part is the body," Will said. "That's what Baruch and Balthamos told me. Angels wish they had bodies. They told me that angels can't understand why we don't enjoy the world more. It would be a sort of ecstasy for them to have our flesh and our senses.

Now we can get on with killing God. How do we go about doing that? Well how the fall happen last time? Remember the Garden of Eden? For maximum offense let's have somebody called Mary (you know, the one who says "Yes" to God and tramples the serpent underfoot) play the part of the serpent. Mary tempts Will and Lyra...

"I used to be a nun, you see. I thought physics could be done to the glory of God, till I saw there wasn't any God at all and that physics was more interesting anyway. The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all."
"When did you stop being a nun?" said Lyra
"I remember it exactly," Mary said, "even to the time of day. Because I was good at physics, they let me keep up my university career, you see, and I finished my doctorate and I was going to teach. It wasn't one of those orders where they shut you away from the world. In fact we didn't even wear the habit; we just had to dress soberly and wear a crucifix. So I was going in to university to teach and to do research into particle physics.

...

"Anyway, some of my colleagues were going to a restaurant a little way down the coast, and they asked if I'd like to go. [...] Well, sitting opposite was a man I'd seen once or twice around the conference. I didn't know him to speak to; he was Italian, and he'd done some work that people were talking about and I thought it would be interesting to hear about it [...] He was handsome," she went on "He wasn't a ladies man or a charmer. If he had been, I'd have been shy, I wouldn't have known how to talk to him. But he was nice and clever and funny and it was the easiest thing in the world to sit there in the lantern light under the lemon tree with the scent of the flowers and the grilled food and the wine, and talk and laugh and feel pretty. Sister Mary Malone, flirting! What about my vows? What about dedicating my life to Jesus and all that?
"Well I don't know if it was the wine or my own sillyness or the warm air or the lemon tree, or whatever... But it gradually seemed to me that I'd made myself believe something that wasn't true. I'd made myself believe that I was fine and happy and fulfilled on my own without the love of anyone else. Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I'd spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit.

...

I suddenly realised I had been to China. So to speak. And I'd forgotten it.

...

I was twelve years old. I was at a party at the house of one of my friends, a birthday party, and there was a disco [...] Usually girls dance together because the boys are to shy to ask them. But this boy - I didn't know him - he asked me to dance, and so we had the first dance and then the next and by that time we were talking... And you know what it is when you like someone, you know it all at once; well, I liked him such a lot.

...

As Mary said that, Lyra felt something strange happen to her body. She felt a stirring in the roots of her hair: she found herself breathing faster. She had never been on a roller-coaster, or anything like one, but if she had she would have recognised the sensations in her breast: they were exciting and frightening at the same time, and she had not the slightest idea why. The sensation continued, and deepened, and changed, as more parts of her body found themselves affected too. [...] She sat trembling, hugging her knees, hardly daring to breathe, as Mary went on:
"And I think it was at that party, or it might have been at another one, that we kissed each other for the first time. It was in a garden, and there was the sound of music from inside, and the quiet and the cool among the trees, and I was aching - all my body was aching for him, and I could tell he felt the same - and we were both almost too shy to move. Almost. But one of us did and then without any interval between - it was like a quantum leap, suddenly we were kissing each other and oh, it was more than china, it was paraside.

...

I thought: I want to go to China. It's full of treasures and strangeness and mysteries and job. I thought, will anybody be better off if I go straight back to my hotel and say my prayer and confess to the priest and promise never to fall into temptation again? Will anyone be better for making me miserable?
"And the answer came back - no. No one will. There's no one to fret, no one to condemn, no one to bless me for being a good girl, no one to punish me for being wicked. Heaven was empty. I didn't know whether God had died, or whether there never had been a God at all.

...

I took the crucifix from around my neck and I threw it in the sea. That was it. All over. Gone.
"So that was how I stopped being a nun," she said.

Lyra is 11 years old by the way, and this is a book for children. Lyra decides to act on Mary's wisdom...

Then Lyra took one of those little red fruits. With a fast-beating heart, she turned to him and said, "Will..."
And she lifted the fruit gently to his mouth.
She could see from his eyes that he knew at once what she meant, and he was too joyful to speak. Her fingers were still at his lips, and he felt them tremble, and he put his own hand up to hold hers there, and neither of them could look; they were confused; they were brimming with happiness.
Like two moths clumsily bumping together, with no more weight than that, their lips touched. Then before they knew how it happened, they were clinging together, blindly pressing their faces towards each other.
"Like Mary said -", he whispered - "you know straight away when you like someone - when you were asleep, on the mountain, before she took took you away, I told Pan - "
"I heard," she whispered, "I was awake and I wanted to tell you the same and now I know what I must hav felt all the time: I love you, Will, I love you -"
The word love set his nerves ablaze. All his body thrilled with it, and he answered her in the same words, kissing her hot face over and over again, drinking in with adoration the scent of her body and her warm honey-fragrant hair and her sweet moist mouth that tasted of the little red fruit.

It does the trick. Will and Lyra's love for one another (which wasn't real love until they got physical) saves the world by creating a load of that Dust stuff. God can't stand it and dies.

If all that isn't intentionally written to upset Christians then what do you write when you want to upset Christians?

A year ago I read these books and nobody had heard of them, now I can't move for people telling me aghast that they have seen on the news that the vatican does not approve.

Anyway, John C Wright wins my coveted "best article about Pullman's books" award. Read it here.

You see, the problem with the message method of storytelling is that you have to stop the story to preach the message. The STORY here required that God be an evil Tyrant, as evil (at least) as Sauron the Great, as cunning as Fu Manchu, as mad as Emperor Nero. The story required an all-powerful Goliath to be fought and overthrown by the bravery of a boy with a knife. The MESSAGE required that the Christian God be depicted, not merely as a tyrant, but as a false and shallow and idiotic creature: the Wizard of Oz, nothing more than a puppet-head and a loud voice controlled by a scared little carnival man behind the curtain.

So the story required that the god-killer be at least as impressive as Milton's Lucifer, who, no matter his flaws, certainly has the dramatic stature and the majesty to attempt deicide. Jack the Giant-killer is an impressive character precisely because Giants are big and impressive. But the message requires that God be not merely unimpressive, but despicable: he cannot be an honorable foe, or even a strong one.

Mr. Pullman started with a story, a Paradise Lost version where Lucifer was the good guy facing impossible odds by defying an unconquerable god; but he ended with a message, where there are no odds because there is no god, merely a drooling idiot. So all plot logic flies out the window: the drooling idiot cannot be and could not be responsible for Original Sin or the Flood of Noah, or the Spanish Inquisition, or whatever crimes God should have been accused of, because he cannot do anything, any more than the puppet head of the Wizard of Oz.

We were promised a Milton-level war resulting in a New Heaven and a New Earth, the deaths of gods, the overthrow of universes! That would have been cool.

Instead, we get a girl kissing her boyfriend (and maybe being love-harpooned by him--Mr. Pullman is understandably coy about displaying statutory rape) and then she is sadly parted (because why? You can kill God, but you cannot figure out how to build a Stargate? You overthrow the Cosmic Order, but you cannot get Corwin of Amber to redrew the Pattern for you and rewrite the laws of nature?)

And the end result is that she goes to school.

Stay in school, kids! Hate God! That is my message!

Thanks, Pullman.

Every time I hear a priest say something about wanting to restore a Church but not having the money, thoughts like this enter my mind. Of course, not actually having any restoration skills is a distinct disadvantage but I could learn... no?

Undercover restorers fix Paris landmark's clock

For a year from September 2005, under the nose of the Panthéon's unsuspecting security officials, a group of intrepid "illegal restorers" set up a secret workshop and lounge in a cavity under the building's famous dome. Under the supervision of group member Jean-Baptiste Viot, a professional clockmaker, they pieced apart and repaired the antique clock that had been left to rust in the building since the 1960s. Only when their clandestine revamp of the elaborate timepiece had been completed did they reveal themselves.

"When we had finished the repairs, we had a big debate on whether we should let the Panthéon's officials know or not," said Lazar Klausmann, a spokesperson for the Untergunther. "We decided to tell them in the end so that they would know to wind the clock up so it would still work.

"The Panthéon's administrator thought it was a hoax at first, but when we showed him the clock, and then took him up to our workshop, he had to take a deep breath and sit down."

[link]

This is fantastic! We should definitely have a secret underground organisation for restoring Churches. We could have a secret workshop in the roof of St. Charles and we could go on secret missions to erect altar rails and statues as well as painting scenes of the last judgement on Church walls. If anybody is interested (seriously) drop me an email.

You can see the full extent of UnterGunther's work here. I wonder. If we did have a secret organisation for illicitly working on our Churches. What would you do first?

(not telling the world on a blog would be a good start...)

New Encyclical clears up longstanding question... "Jesus was not Spartacus"

It also says a lot of other stuff. You can read it online here

Disclaimer: The following are some quotes I found and liked while skimming this lunchtime. I haven't read it all yet, and this is not supposed to constitute a summary.

Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a “proof” of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a “not yet”. The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.

Freedom presupposes that in fundamental decisions, every person and every generation is a new beginning. Naturally, new generations can build on the knowledge and experience of those who went before, and they can draw upon the moral treasury of the whole of humanity. But they can also reject it, because it can never be self-evident in the same way as material inventions. The moral treasury of humanity is not readily at hand like tools that we use; it is present as an appeal to freedom and a possibility for it. This, however, means that:

a) The right state of human affairs, the moral well-being of the world can never be guaranteed simply through structures alone, however good they are. Such structures are not only important, but necessary; yet they cannot and must not marginalize human freedom. Even the best structures function only when the community is animated by convictions capable of motivating people to assent freely to the social order. Freedom requires conviction; conviction does not exist on its own, but must always be gained anew by the community.

b) Since man always remains free and since his freedom is always fragile, the kingdom of good will never be definitively established in this world. Anyone who promises the better world that is guaranteed to last for ever is making a false promise; he is overlooking human freedom. Freedom must constantly be won over for the cause of good. Free assent to the good never exists simply by itself. If there were structures which could irrevocably guarantee a determined—good—state of the world, man's freedom would be denied, and hence they would not be good structures at all.

Let us say once again: we need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain. The fact that it comes to us as a gift is actually part of hope. God is the foundation of hope: not any god, but the God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end, each one of us and humanity in its entirety. His Kingdom is not an imaginary hereafter, situated in a future that will never arrive; his Kingdom is present wherever he is loved and wherever his love reaches us. His love alone gives us the possibility of soberly persevering day by day, without ceasing to be spurred on by hope, in a world which by its very nature is imperfect. His love is at the same time our guarantee of the existence of what we only vaguely sense and which nevertheless, in our deepest self, we await: a life that is “truly” life.

I know what you're thinking. Evangelisation. It's really hard. I mean, how do you do it. I've asked priests, lay people, even Bishops. I'm still at a loss. If only there were, oh I don't know, some kind of, um, school of evangelisation...

What? There is?

St. Patrick's School of Evangelisation in London not only exists but they have a blog!

It all sounds a bit hardcore, I mean...

For the students weekly street evangelisation involves spending an hour or two out on the streets of London, sharing their love and zeal for God with those they encounter.

Large-scale Outreaches, which can take weeks of preparation, are done together with various groups, ranging from a local Gospel Choir to professional evangelisation groups and other local groups.

Most importantly, the students learn that the most effective way to Evangelise is to live a life of love centred around Christ.

So.... what happens now. Unfortunately mother and father types like myself can't take a year out to enroll on a residential course. We could send Leona but you have to be at least twenty and she isn't. We'll just have to sponge off their wisdom as best we can.

As it happens, St Patrick's School of Evangelisation are holding an Advent Mission this, um, Advent. We're going to jump in the car and join them on Sunday 16th December to see some real life Street Evangelisation. This is both exciting and the most frightening thing I have ever contemplated. Prayer will be required.

Fortunately, the good folks at St. Patricks's School of Evangelisation have a prayer for this very task...

Almighty God, we ask for Your blessing on the Advent Mission in Soho and on all the preparation by the students and staff of the Schools of Mission. We pray for all the parishioners of St. Patrick's and all those in London who may be helped by this mission. May your Holy Spirit guide the works and message going out to the busy streets of London and bring the true, Christ-centered Christmas spirit to the heart of the city. We make this our prayer through Jesus Christ, the Word sent to save us, and with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Amen.

You can read a blog entry with more information about the mission here.