One of my favorite things to do each week is attend our "Lunch with Luke" Bible Study: a wonderful bunch of God-seeking friends who pour over the Bible and the Catechism and listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Invariably, we get sidetracked and end up someplace else other than the lesson. Perhaps these divinely-directed detours are exactly where we're supposed to be, but I digress! Yesterday was no exception. We ended up in conversation about the new Broadway Play about Irene Gut Opdyke who, at the time of the play’s World War II’s setting, was a pretty 19-year-old blond Polish Roman Catholic to whom fate (she would say God) gave the opportunity to save 12 Jews in, of all places, the home of the highest-ranking German officer in a Polish city. Ultimately discovered by the Nazi officer, she was offered the choice of becoming the elderly Nazi’s mistress or the Jews all being sent to death camps.
In Dennis Prager's own words:
It is rare to see a play on Broadway that is preoccupied with goodness. It is even more rare to see Broadway play extol the goodness of a religious person. When was the last Broadway show about a Christian hero? In this upside-down age that is hypersensitive to any criticism, no matter how fair, of any aspect of Islam but which regularly depicts many American Christians as buffoons and quasi-fascists, one can only hope that this play has a long run. Likewise, in an age when art increasingly celebrates the ugly and the bad, one can only hope that a million young people see a play that celebrates the goodness that God-based morality can produce.
So if you're headed off to NY in the near future, make sure you go see the play. Wouldn't it be great if someone could turn this into a movie?
Ah, but I digress.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Passion as told by Lego
The Passion in Lego
Posted by Tom McFeely
Monday, March 30, 2009 3:41 PM
All sensible Daily Blog readers should also make a regular habit of visiting our sister site, faithandfamilylive.com.
Why? Because there’s a wealth of interesting and instructive information posted there — such as this video of Christ’s Passion in Lego constructed by a pair of talented Catholic teens. It’s an excellent way to get kids interested during Lent in thinking about the reality of Christ’s crucifixion.
Here’s the direct link to Rebecca Teti’s original post about the Lego Passion. Dan and Peter Bernetsky, the teens who painstakingly put it together, are friends of Rebecca’s.
Posted by Tom McFeely
Monday, March 30, 2009 3:41 PM
All sensible Daily Blog readers should also make a regular habit of visiting our sister site, faithandfamilylive.com.
Why? Because there’s a wealth of interesting and instructive information posted there — such as this video of Christ’s Passion in Lego constructed by a pair of talented Catholic teens. It’s an excellent way to get kids interested during Lent in thinking about the reality of Christ’s crucifixion.
Here’s the direct link to Rebecca Teti’s original post about the Lego Passion. Dan and Peter Bernetsky, the teens who painstakingly put it together, are friends of Rebecca’s.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Knowing
At the behest of our 12-year-old son, we attended a showing of the Nicolas Cage sci-fi movie, Knowing 
on Friday night. The thumbnail sketch of the plot is this: an MIT professor who has recently & tragically lost his wife, is convinced that the universe and all it contains is just a random grouping of unrelated and purposeless events: Life has no meaning. What unfolds is a series of scenes that turn his theory on its ear. The movie is a sci-fi thriller with many allusions to the faith and scriptural reference points. If you can get past the numerological details and some of the global warming nuttiness, you will be pleasantly surprised (I think) about some of the conversations that this movie will undoubtedly spark.
My husband and I have laid a faith foundation in our family that we oftenttimes are fooled into thinking, due to the actions of our sons, that it has been a bridge to nowhere. To be frank, we just don't always see the fruits of our labor. I can become easily discouraged knowing that we have been faithful with our investment of time, energy and resources into Catholic education, Mass every week and an insistance in the values that we embrace, and yet my kids just don't get it. They think it's tripe. Sorry, I don't mean to whine, but this is the hair-raising cross that I've had to bear more recently and more often than ever before. To be frank, I have come to a basic acceptance of the fact that I must entrust to God what he has entrusted to me as a parent. That having been said, I get giddy over little things (God shots) that prove to me that there are some fruits to be noticed in the here and now and God has not abandoned me to my vain frustrations. The example was Friday when we emerged from the theater.
"Mom, did you know that those guys were angels sent from God? And that one part reminded me of Noah's Ark and the flood. And they ended up back in the Garden of Eden just like Adam and Eve with the good tree and not that evil tree....yadda yadda yadda. " It came gushing forth! I learned later on that my son had been discussing this movie at his new school with a classmate who happens to be jewish. Again, and I repeat: they are twelve.
In all my years of knowing my son, he never has initiated conversation with me about the faith. Never. Until Friday. It might be a fair assessment that we humans provide the necessary kindling and raw materials with which to make a foundation of a faith. We engage our memory, our will, our liberty and our intellect to process a reality that is both here and in the eternal. But it needs a spark, a seed, the God particle at precisely the "right" moments in order to become what it is to be: in this case, belief. Could I have witnessed the creation of a new cosmos of understanding in my son? I'm probably reading way too much into this. I'll stop now, content to KNOW that God is in charge, and I am not and I get to surrender over and over and over again.
If you have a 12-year old*, you might want to go see Knowing; you might be pleasantly surprised by some of the interesting conversations that spark after the show!
*It's a PG-13 and there are some scenes that contain a lot of destruction and people burning, fyi.
on Friday night. The thumbnail sketch of the plot is this: an MIT professor who has recently & tragically lost his wife, is convinced that the universe and all it contains is just a random grouping of unrelated and purposeless events: Life has no meaning. What unfolds is a series of scenes that turn his theory on its ear. The movie is a sci-fi thriller with many allusions to the faith and scriptural reference points. If you can get past the numerological details and some of the global warming nuttiness, you will be pleasantly surprised (I think) about some of the conversations that this movie will undoubtedly spark.My husband and I have laid a faith foundation in our family that we oftenttimes are fooled into thinking, due to the actions of our sons, that it has been a bridge to nowhere. To be frank, we just don't always see the fruits of our labor. I can become easily discouraged knowing that we have been faithful with our investment of time, energy and resources into Catholic education, Mass every week and an insistance in the values that we embrace, and yet my kids just don't get it. They think it's tripe. Sorry, I don't mean to whine, but this is the hair-raising cross that I've had to bear more recently and more often than ever before. To be frank, I have come to a basic acceptance of the fact that I must entrust to God what he has entrusted to me as a parent. That having been said, I get giddy over little things (God shots) that prove to me that there are some fruits to be noticed in the here and now and God has not abandoned me to my vain frustrations. The example was Friday when we emerged from the theater.
"Mom, did you know that those guys were angels sent from God? And that one part reminded me of Noah's Ark and the flood. And they ended up back in the Garden of Eden just like Adam and Eve with the good tree and not that evil tree....yadda yadda yadda. " It came gushing forth! I learned later on that my son had been discussing this movie at his new school with a classmate who happens to be jewish. Again, and I repeat: they are twelve.
In all my years of knowing my son, he never has initiated conversation with me about the faith. Never. Until Friday. It might be a fair assessment that we humans provide the necessary kindling and raw materials with which to make a foundation of a faith. We engage our memory, our will, our liberty and our intellect to process a reality that is both here and in the eternal. But it needs a spark, a seed, the God particle at precisely the "right" moments in order to become what it is to be: in this case, belief. Could I have witnessed the creation of a new cosmos of understanding in my son? I'm probably reading way too much into this. I'll stop now, content to KNOW that God is in charge, and I am not and I get to surrender over and over and over again.
If you have a 12-year old*, you might want to go see Knowing; you might be pleasantly surprised by some of the interesting conversations that spark after the show!
*It's a PG-13 and there are some scenes that contain a lot of destruction and people burning, fyi.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Bishop #4 Joins the Hallowed Hall
Houston Cardinal Becomes Highest Ranking Official, 4th Bishop to Condemn Notre Dame Scandal
By Kathleen Gilbert
March 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - American Cardinal Nicholas DiNardo has criticized the decision of the Catholic University of Notre Dame to honor President Barack Obama by inviting him to be this year's commencement speaker and awarding him with an honorary doctorate. The Cardinal said that the "disappointing" invitation "requires charitable but vigorous critique."
The Cardinal's remarks constitute the highest-ranking criticism yet from a member of the Catholic Church hierarchy against the University's decision. So far three other American bishops have criticized the invitation, including the bishop of the diocese where Notre Dame is located, Bishop John D'Arcy.
In his weekly "Shepherd's Message" column, published today in the print edition of the Texas Catholic Herald, and reprinted on the Whispers in the Loggia blog, Cardinal DiNardo says, "I find the invitation very disappointing.
"Though I can understand the desire by a university to have the prestige of a commencement address by the President of the United States, the fundamental moral issue of the inestimable worth of the human person from conception to natural death is a principle that soaks all our lives as Catholics, and all our efforts at formation, especially education at Catholic places of higher learning."
The president, says the cardinal, "has made clear by word and deed that he will promote abortion and will remove even those limited sanctions that control this act of violence against the human person."
Referring to a 2004 directive by U.S. bishops that Catholic schools not honor or give platform to politicians who favor abortion, the cardinal noted, "Even given the dignity of the Office of the President, this offer is still providing a platform and an award to a public figure who has been candid on his pro-abortion views.
"Particularly troubling is the Honorary Law Degree since it recognizes that the person is a 'Teacher,' in this case of the Law. I think that this decision requires charitable but vigorous critique."
By Kathleen Gilbert
March 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - American Cardinal Nicholas DiNardo has criticized the decision of the Catholic University of Notre Dame to honor President Barack Obama by inviting him to be this year's commencement speaker and awarding him with an honorary doctorate. The Cardinal said that the "disappointing" invitation "requires charitable but vigorous critique."
The Cardinal's remarks constitute the highest-ranking criticism yet from a member of the Catholic Church hierarchy against the University's decision. So far three other American bishops have criticized the invitation, including the bishop of the diocese where Notre Dame is located, Bishop John D'Arcy.
In his weekly "Shepherd's Message" column, published today in the print edition of the Texas Catholic Herald, and reprinted on the Whispers in the Loggia blog, Cardinal DiNardo says, "I find the invitation very disappointing.
"Though I can understand the desire by a university to have the prestige of a commencement address by the President of the United States, the fundamental moral issue of the inestimable worth of the human person from conception to natural death is a principle that soaks all our lives as Catholics, and all our efforts at formation, especially education at Catholic places of higher learning."
The president, says the cardinal, "has made clear by word and deed that he will promote abortion and will remove even those limited sanctions that control this act of violence against the human person."
Referring to a 2004 directive by U.S. bishops that Catholic schools not honor or give platform to politicians who favor abortion, the cardinal noted, "Even given the dignity of the Office of the President, this offer is still providing a platform and an award to a public figure who has been candid on his pro-abortion views.
"Particularly troubling is the Honorary Law Degree since it recognizes that the person is a 'Teacher,' in this case of the Law. I think that this decision requires charitable but vigorous critique."
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