Always Advent

Nothing to post about today. Huge writing deadline. Must get to it. Hope you understand! Happy Easter!

Just a link today—to one of the front page articles at Catholic Exchange:

The Mystery of Divine Mercy

Am currently embarked on Bridget-Jones’s-Diary-induced Pride & Prejudice kick. Have watched BBC television version of P & P twice in the past two days. Have crush on Colin Firth and therefore cannot bring self to watch new theatrical version of P & P starring some other actor as Mr. Darcy. I beg you to forgive me, but am unable to speak normally due to excessive influence of Bridget Jones diary-speak and 19th century British diction. Are you not exceedingly diverted?

Related articles:
Bridget Jones’s Diary and the Theology of the Body

Juxtaposition Review: Bridget Jones’s Diary and Children of Men

No matter how great your sufferings are, your victory over them is in silence.
— Desert father, name unknown

I wrote recently about Helen Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones’s Diary (”Juxtaposition Review: Bridget Jones’s Diary and Children of Men“) and after reading the book I didn’t think I would enjoy the movie adaptation of Bridget Jones at all, so I put off watching it, with no real plans to do so.

However, I was at the library the other day and it was there, so I checked it out and watched it.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Don’t get me wrong: the movie is definitely not for children or even for teens. Like the book, it’s very very funny (especially if you enjoy British humor) but it’s vulgar, loaded with profanity, contains somewhat explicit sexual references and images and, on its surface, presents a view of human sexuality that is opposed to the Catholic understanding of it. For these reasons I probably wouldn’t recommend it for most adults, frankly.

Except for the fact that it is a pretty good fictional explication of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

“Huh?” you say.

As I was watching it, I kept thinking of Christopher West’s image of the dumpster versus the banquet. JP II says in Theology of the Body that men and women long for communion–true communion with one another and especially and ultimately with God. We are wired to long for that communion–the hope of Heaven. We are starving for love and connectedness.

Christopher West says that the modern world presents to love-starved men and women a vision of human sexuality that is equivalent to leading a food-starved person to a dumpster and telling him that’s as good as it gets. Modern sex–hooking up, shacking up, and so on–is dumpster diving. It is rubbish fed to people so desperate for love that they’ll settle for anything.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, presents love-starved men and women with a banquet of true love and connectedness in the practice of chaste married love and the understanding that all human love is a mere glimpse into the perfect communion of Heaven.

Bridget Jones is a stand-in for all men and women: she doesn’t want to be alone. She longs for connection. Daniel Cleaver is the dumpster. Mark Darcy is the banquet. Early in the movie, Bridget dives head first into the dumpster, gorges herself on garbage, and thinks she’s happy this way. The banquet is always there, in view. At first she can’t see it for what it truly is (the “sin makes you stupid” concept. Hat tip to Mark Shea.) but eventually she comes to see that the banquet is what she was really longing for.

To perceive this TOTB angle in a movie like Bridget Jones, you must be able to forgive quite a lot of vulgarity and crudity, but TOTB is there, and I’m glad for it–this was an extremely popular movie, so apparently a lot of people were exposed to the positive message that the dumpster does not satisfy and they should keep looking for “something extraordinary.”

The performances were excellent. I’ve seen the movie several times now and the principal actors are “something extraordinary,” especially Colin Firth, who plays Mark Darcy–the banquet. A subtle and fascinating performance.

Definitely not saying you should all go rent it and watch it. It might be offensive. The happy ending to the story is that instead of fornicating with the insufferable prat Daniel Cleaver, Bridget will now proceed to fornicate with the good man Mark Darcy. Oh well. That’s the way modern stories portray it. Perhaps the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, upon which Fielding based her novel, would be a better choice because it ends with the heroine marrying the right guy. (Firth plays Darcy in that one, too–LOL!)

Anyone read any of the books by Tom Grace?

National Catholic Register reviewed The Secret Cardinal recently:

The Secret Cardinal is a deft blend of fact and fiction, but the author is careful to separate both at the book’s end. For example, a key character — Cardinal Malachy Donoher — heads something called the Vatican Intelligence Service. Grace makes clear that no such entity exists.

Although Grace is an excellent storyteller, The Secret Cardinal exceeds its entertainment value by raising awareness of China’s persecuted underground Catholic Church, which has been illegal for more than a half century.

The book also scores points for recognizing Church teaching on human life in its account of why Kilkenny and his late wife postponed treatment of her cancer until after their child could be safely born. Grace weighs Kilkenny’s fidelity to his faith against the loss he suffers by letting it play out in a conversation between Cardinal Yin and Kilkenny.

Here, readers are given a compassionate picture of the Church as Yin, no stranger to suffering for doing the right thing, is able to offer manly comfort and counsel to Kilkenny: “You and your wife made a decision based on faith and hope, yet still suffered a great tragedy. I believe God is aware of this tragedy. …” This is refreshing stuff in a novel from a secular publisher.

Grace’s latest work is representative of his previous novels, in which sex and profanity are used sparingly in comparison to other books in this genre. Even so, some of the descriptions of torture are somewhat graphic, and may be too much for sensitive readers. Overall, however, this is a fine read that lends a Catholic presence to popular literature in the secular culture.

full review here:
review of The Secret Cardinal by National Catholic Register (review by Judy Roberts)
http://ncregister.com/site/article/7282

Published by Vanguard Press

Curt Jester was good for a laugh recently:

http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/008657.ph p

Thanks to Margaret at Running the Asylum for the link!

I went to a Byzantine rite Easter Sunday liturgy several years ago, and they spoke Slovak (I think…) I learned this little dialogue they do in the East during Eastertime: you go up to someone and say “Christos voskresy!” And they respond, “Voistinue voskresy!”

In English, this is, “Christ is risen!” and the response, “He is risen indeed!”

I also learned about where the tradition of the Easter basket comes from. In the East, everyone coming to Divine Liturgy on Easter morning would bring a basket containing all the foods and other things they gave up for Lent–meat, dairy products, sweets, wine, etc. After Liturgy, the priest would bless all the baskets and then everyone would go off for their Easter feast.

I tried to explain this once to some super-Protestants (the kind who boycot not only Halloween but all the accoutrements of every Christian holiday: no Christmas tree, no Easter baskets, etc.) Even when I told them the Christian origins of the Easter baskets, they still said they would not take part in that custom. Oh well. My children and I enjoy this tradition even more now that we know it’s not just a secular thing. One year one of my children gave up potato chips, so she got a massive bag of Ruffles in her basket. This year two of my children gave up meat on more than just Fridays (I think they were trying to do it Monday and Wednesday also) so they got bags of beef jerky in their baskets this year.

Happy Easter to all!

Just got back from the Easter Vigil. Is 10:47 pm. Am too tired to post. Probably no one is reading this anyway.

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

I don’t make them every year, but hot cross buns are a nice Good Friday tradition that you can use as a teaching moment with children and as a way to connect with other families.

Make 11 buns according to your favorite recipe. Whether you add a cross of frosting or just cut them into the top can vary from year to year. Some people omit the frosting cross because of the traditional Lenten observance of avoiding sweets during Lent and Holy Week. I usually include it because it is a traditional reminder of the sweetness of the Cross, on which was hung our salvation.

Bring the plate of 11 hot cross buns to someone’s house or invite a family over to your house. Ask any children present to count how many there are, then ask if anyone knows why there are only 11 instead of a nice even dozen. (Answer: there are 11 hot cross buns in honor of the 11 faithful apostles. Remember that Judas was gone by this point in the Passion.)

The recipe I have is from A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz

Ingredients:
1 pkg dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (about 100-100 degrees F)
1 teasp. white or light brown sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sweet butter
1/3 cup brown or raw sugar
1 teasp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
4 to 4 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 teasp. cinnamon
1/2 teasp. ground cloves
1/2 teasp. nutmeg
1/2 teasp. ground ginger (or substitute allspice)
2/3 cup dried currants
Optional:
1/3 cup finely diced or julienned citron

Frosting:
2 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar (more if needed)
grated rind of 1 lemon

Directions:
Sprinkle the yeast into the lukewarm water. Stir in 1 teaspoon sugar. Let sit until frothy.

Scald the milk. Add the butter, sugar, and salt. Stir until blended. Cool to lukewarm. Beat the eggs until light, and combine with the milk mixture. Add the yeast.

Sift 2/3 cups of the flour with the spices into a mixing bowl. Make a well, and pour in the yeast mixture. Beat for 5 minutes.

Toss the currants, and citron, if using it, with the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Mix into the dough.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary. The dough should be fairly firm, otherwise it will not take the cuts for the cross.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover the dough with a towel and put it to rise in a draft-free spot until doubled in volume. This will take about 2 hours.

Punch the dough down. Shape it into 2 dozen buns. (See my note above–I recommend making 22 buns with this recipe, or halve the recipe and make 11)

Place the buns 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart on well-greased cookie sheets or in muffin pans. With a sharp knife cut a cross into the top of each bun. Allow them to rise until doubled in bulk, 30-45 minutes.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

For the frosting, mix the milk with enough sugar so that the icing is not runny. Add the rind. Brush a cross on the top of each bun.

Photo above is a detail from Pieta, by Giovanni Bellini.