Anamchara

VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER--A PICTURE FOR THE HOLIDAYS FROM THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA

 
Okay, it's not coming out for a year, but you have to love the picture of Lucy doing her  Titanic "I'm queen of the world" pose.  This should be a great movie; the Dawn Treader looks like a magnificent ship.  Readers have generally picked this third novel of The Chronicles of Narnia  as perhaps the most enjoyable of the 7 books.  I've been surfing some of the entertainment web sites and you have to marvel at people's ignorance.  Some want the "Jesus stuff" to go away and others don't like the "gaudiness" of the ship.  Problem is, the "Jesus stuff" is central and the ship looks pretty much like it is described in the book.  I truly hope the movie is faithful to the book--the director, Michael Apted, is a fine director with a great eye toward religious imagery (witness his excellent 1990's Val Kilmer Thunderheart  movie).  It's just too bad we have to wait for a while to see VDT.  Nonetheless, pretty wonderful! 

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT--CATHOLICS COME HOME

via www.youtube.com

The Diocese of Rockford, together with the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Diocese of Joliet, are beginning an outreach campaign to invite fallen away and non-practicing Catholics back home to the Church.  It is a media effort running from December 16-January 24.  Three commercials will run on all TV stations in the area.  The first is "Epic" which is pictured above.  There will be follow-up programs in parishes after the media blitz.  All homilies in Advent and the Christmas Seasons will integrate the invitation with the Scripture readings.  Should be a fantastic opportunity.  Check out our diocesean website for even more info:  www.catholicscomehomerockford.org.

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT–11/29/09

READINGS: JEREMIAH 33:14-16; 1 THESSALONIANS 3:12-4:2; LUKE 21:25-28,34-36

  I.   The Media, The End Of The World, And People’s Fears

 A.  Have you ever watched the History Channel (also known as the “I Hate God” channel, or the “I’ve Forgotten All My Commonsense” channel)?  The folks there love to scare people to death.  They’ve dredged up the ancient Mayan Indians, married them off to Nostradamus, and told us the world is ending in 2012.  This is the same channel that tries to debunk everything about Jesus.  This is the same channel that tells you the Masons run the world.  This the channel an awfully lot of people watch and worry about.  It just goes to show that there are always people who want to scare us half to death when it comes to the end of the world.

 B.  Well, surprise!  The world is going to end, but we don’t know when or how.  People knew that back in Luke’s day too when he was writing the most lyrical and compassionate of all the Gospels.  He wrote down Jesus’s prophecy, that the world would indeed end, that we need to watch the signs of the times.  But Luke makes it clear that we watch not so that we worry, we watch so that we can be ready for the glorious coming of Christ the Son of Man.

 C.  The prophet Jeremiah says the same thing: when the Last Days come, God is going to save his chosen people and they will live in joy.  And St. Paul says that the Church should come together now in preparation for those Last Days and live in joy and love.

 D.  Upshot of all of this is: Don’t be afraid, Christ is coming, Draw together as the family of the Church and live in goodness and love and joy.  Nothing ultimately bad is going to happen to those who love Christ.  So there you ancient Mayan Indians–take that Nostradamus–and may your ratings decline on the pessimistic, skeptical History Channel.

THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION: FOR LIFE

 
 
  
  
  
Late last week, a group of Roman Catholic, Evangelical and other Christian leaders put together a ringing endorsement of the values of life, marriage, and conscience.  Check out the text here:  manhattan declaration.  You can sign the declaration here:  sign here.

What a great public witness from some of our Catholic leaders like Cardinal Rigali and Archbishop Timothy Dolan.  Perhaps a new day is dawning in Catholic witness to our faith. 

THE CELTIC VIRTUE OF DETACHMENT--video

   ACTA Publications, the publisher of my book,  The Shadow of the Cross, has a video of a Celtic prayer of Detachment that I updated for use in our culture.  Originally, it was a prayer by a monk about all he needed to be happy in this world.  Though this was posted over a year ago, I never knew about until today when I was surfing the web.  Check it out, I think you will like it.  It is in both audio and video versions.  http://actapublications.com/pow.php?id=39. 

CHRIST THE KING--HOMILY

 
FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING--11/22/09

READINGS: DEUTERONOMY 7:12-14; REVELATION 1:5-8; JOHN 18:33-37

 ARE YOU MY KING?

It was the month of bitter November,
When skies were gray and daylight was somber.
I fell asleep with the Bible upon my knee.
It was open to the place where Pilate, the Roman governor,
Condemned my Lord to Calvary.

And as I dreamed, I stood beside Pilate,
And both of us looked at that young Galilean--
 body whipped and clothing stripped.
Pilate the Roman smiled in contempt.
"Are you a king?" he asked of Jesus.
"Are you a threat to my Emperor?  By whom have you been sent?"

Jesus answered with a voice soft and low--
"A king?  Yes, but not as you think, not as you would know."
Then I spoke, full of bitterness and tears--
"Christ, I don't care about Pilate.  What he stood for and the Caesar
 he served are long dead and gone.
"I want to know--are you my King and if so how come you have not
 taken away my sorrows and banished my fears?  Why have you not kept me from sinning and hurting myself through foolish actions all these years?"

Jesus answered with a voice gentle and kind--
"I do not know my son--am I your King?--what kind of a king did you
 have in mind?
"I remember you wanting pleasures and wealth regardless of the cost
 to yourself or others.
"You sought them and wandered far, and I was not there.
"The lands of lust and wealth without responsibility exist outside my care--you traveled  there alone.  Am I your King, my son, when you have served another one?"

"No," I said. "You are not."  Then silence.  "But could you be, would you be my King?"
 I spoke again,
"Even if I was lost in this world of sin?"
And Jesus answered with a voice full of compassion and forgiveness--
"My kingdom is not of this world nor does it hold the world's false values.
"My kingdom is wherever I am.  If you let me be your King,
 gone will be your bitterness, loneliness and emptiness."

GOLLUM AS THE DEVIL: C.S. LEWIS' CLASSIC "THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS" COMES TO LIFE

via www.youtube.com

Got to love the voice! Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, is the voice of Screwtape.  If you are in a hurry, scan to the last thirty seconds to get a flavor of what he sounds like.  Pretty cool.  If you've never read the classic, give it a try.