Back...

Back from Siena... Had a great time... Too tired/busy to 'blog...

Go get some fresh air!

From 'Matt's Book'

I mentioned below a new English 'translation' of the New Testament. Despite the fact that I should be doing something more constructive, I couldn't refrain from commenting on some extracts from their version of St. Mathhew's Gospel.

Matt 1
Jesus, God's Chosen, has an impressive pedigree. His ancestors include Abraham, (2-16) Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar; Rahab (the Caananite prostitute), Ruth and Boat, King David and Bathsheba (the wife David stole from Uriah), King Solomon, and many other kings, priests and leaders. Jesus came from this line through Joseph, husband of Mary. They were the parents of Jesus, God's Chosen.

Well, it's nice that we don't have to read through that boring geneology when those 15 verses can be reduced to one. I'm not sure that I remember a character called 'Boat' from the Old Testament. Maybe it's a reference to Noah's Ark.
We flick on, and read about the 'star gazers' (Magi) who have decided to visit the Holy Family in their crib.

Matt 2
11) They went inside the house and met him and his mother and expressed their pleasure at the honour they felt. They took out from their luggage the presents they had brought with them including money, medicine and perfume. (12) They had a hunch it would be a mistake to go back to Herod, so they took a different route back home.

Oooh! Money, medicine and perfume! That's such an evocative and symbolic set of gifts. Money, because that's what makes the world go round (a very appropriate gift for the Eternal Logos throgh whom all things were made), medicine (because we know that babies got sick a lot back then) and perfume (because even the Virgin Mother of God likes to hit the discos every now and again). Alternatively, that perfume could be a sign of the welcome and tolerance which should be extended to the transgendered community.

Matt 3
(4) John had a simple lifestyle, wearing only a camel skin with a leather belt and eating carob nuts and tree sap

A simple lifestyle?!? I am seriously underwhelmed here! They make it sound like John the Baptist was the sort of chap who lived frugally, recycled and bicycled everywhere. And what's this carob nuts and tree sap nonsense about? The dude ate locusts and wild honey! John the Baptist was the kind of ass-kicking ascetic prophet who thought nothing of dwelling in the wilderness and taking on a decadent and corrupt king on an issue of sexual morality and public scandal. Why would anyone want to make him sound like a tree-hugging, museli-chewing environmentalist.

Matt 4
Jesus felt he needed to spend some time in the desert to be clear in his mind which direction his life should take.

Where's the Spirit gone? The Spirit is meant to drive Jesus out into the wilderness! I thought liberals liked the gender-neutral and liberating Spirit. It's no surprise that they left the whole 'tempted by the devil' business out, but did they have to replace it with 'to be clear in his mind which direction his life should take'... They're making it sound more like a counselling session than the temptation in the wilderness.
I could go on...

Here comes 'Jack the Dipper'

Thanks to those good folks over at the comment box of Titusonenine (an excellent Anglican 'blog) for drawing my attention to the latest religion-meets-pop-culture shenanigans.
A Benedictine of my acquaintance who taught Greek used to say that to understand the irony of renaming Simon as Peter we should think about how ironic it would be to call someone of his changeable temperament 'Rocky'. He also used to point out that modern translations had changed John the Baptist to John the Baptizer as being a somewhat more accurate, if less solemn, title. He'd then add the quip 'at least they're not calling him Jack the Dipper'.
Well, according to this article (which seems to be genuine!), an Englishman has brought out a new translation of the New Testament with such gems as

“John, nicknamed ‘The Dipper’, was ‘The Voice’. He was in the desert, inviting people to be dipped, to show they were determined to change their ways and wanted to be forgiven.” (Mk 1:4)
As he was climbing up the bank again, the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. At the same time a pigeon flew down and perched on him. Jesus took this as a sign that God’s spirit was with him. A voice from overhead was heard saying, ‘That’s my boy! You’re doing fine!’” (Mk 1:10-11)

Surprisingly, this has got the informal imprimatur (sorry, I mean 'thumbs up') of Rowan Williams. Best of all, for those of you who are sick and tired of repressive Biblical morality

"Instead of condemning fornicators, adulterers and 'abusers of themselves with mankind'," says Ruth Gledhill, the Times Religious Affairs correspondent, "the new version of his first letter to Corinth has St Paul advising Christians not to go without sex for too long in case they get 'frustrated'."

One wonders how well that justification would go down in the confessional!
Edited to add: I can't believe that the first time I read through that Ekklesia article, I missed that they're also including the non-canonical 'Gospel of Thomas'! Also, here's their version of Matt 1-4 on which I comment here

Credibility

Thanks to Mark Shea for drawing my attention to this post on Credibility, a 'blog I hadn't previously come across. Bravo to the author for dealing with abortion so well in his RE class. I see also that the author posted this about World Youth Day 2000. The top picture comes from the Basilica of S.Maria degli Angeli, where Cardinal Bernard Law and (then) Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor gave cathechesis. I know that Cardinal Law is (perhaps deservedly) somewhat of a bete-noir amongst American Catholics, but to his credit, I know for a fact that his powerful cathechesis proved a decisive influence on several young people regarding their vocational journeys.

Interesting quotation...

A correspondant sends me this quote from a book he's reading on Ottoman history:

"A Venetian ambassador, Gianfrancisco Morosini, visited an Ottoman war
camp in 1585. he wrote to the Doge, "I walked through the whole army and
carefully observed every detail about the calibre of their men, their
weapons, and the way they organised and fortified their camp. I think I
can confidently offer this conclusion: they rely more on large numbers and
obedience than they do on organization and courage" He went on to say that
"10,000 Christians could defeat 30,000 Turks, but that it would be harder
to govern 2,000 Christians than 100,000 Turks - much harder again if the
Christians were Italians."

Also, the Corriere della Sera's English section has a brief article on the woes of S.Giovanni Rotundo.

Anti-drug monks on horseback...

This is a great picture. The caption reads: Monks Against Drugs - Thai monks and novices travel by horse on the Thai-Burmese border. They travel hundreds of kilometres passing through villages where they help drug-addicts to rehabilitate themselves in a region which for decades has been the centre of opium and heroin production.

Misc., etc...

Two strange school-related stories from the Daily Telegraph - in the first we learn of a Japanese student who was required to write an essay in his own blood:

The 17-year-old was given a boxcutter and a piece of paper and told by the teacher to write "not in pencil, but in blood" because he was not sufficiently repentant.

Meanwhile, in England, it seems that a primary school teacher commissioned an army of nine-year-old girls to administer corporal punishment.
Arbitrarily, here's a page on how to make a Bishop's Mitre. Unfortunatly, it's a napkin-folding website, rather than a page about vestment manufacture, but interesting nonetheless.
Finally, a picture of my favourite girl, whom I hope to visit in Siena later this week. :)

What on earth is this???

I see that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles had a mass 'in honor' of the late President Reagan! I hope that this is some kind of infelicity of wording on behalf of a careless journalist.
Putting aside the fittingness or otherwise of holding a Requiem Mass for a deceased non-Catholic, I hardly think the service as described sounds very fitting. It almost sounds as though he has been canonized! It's no wonder that so many Catholics are confused as to the 'last things'.
It is a holy and a holy thing to pray for the dead.

Welcome surfer...

I'm always really jealous of other 'blogs that have visits from really bizarre google (or equivalent) searches. Alas, I've had nothing overly exciting so far, though I am mildly curious as to what the Lituanian surfer who found me though a search for oath of allegiance liturgia was after.
Anyway, in unrelated matters, the perennial ducks crossing street photo makes its appearance on the Corriere della Sera website. Also worth a peep is the slideshow of the new-age solstice rites at Stonehenge. (Don't forget to click the '2' button at the top left corner to see the second page of pictures.) Also check out this
Vietnamese chap whose hair is over 6 metres (c.18 feet) long. Not bad for 31 years unrestrained growth.
In keeping with the general theme of 'Zadok has nothing interesting to say, so he'll just keep linking to interesting photos', engrish.com has this piece of garbled English which has a tenuous religious connection.
Finally, those of you interested in LITURGIA should check out these pages which show how the dedication of a church was performed before the simplification of these rites. ('Bring back the Gregorian Water,' says I!)

This is twisted...

Thanks to my near-namesake Zorak for drawing my attention to the latest piece of irony hypocrisy perpetuated by the pro-abortion lobby in the States. They are encouraging folks to send their fathers (for goodness' sakes) 'pro-choice' e-cards for Father's Day. An example is this image

which was accompanied by the slogan When Your Dad Deserves the Very Best. Might I humbly suggest that a more fitting title would be The One that Got Away?

Another Great Cartoon from Giannelli

Here. To explain, 'UE' is the Italian abbreviation for the European Union, and Chriac is saying 'It doesn't do anything but cry!'. The reference is to the new European Constitution which I am not mightily pleased with. To my mind, the European Community would have been of far more good had it remained the 'European Economic Community', a free-trade area capable of offering assistance to the poorer countries of Europe. Instead we seem to be cooking up some kind of dictatorial and overly beaurocratic superstate.

Theological Debate...

There's an interesting Theological Debate going on in the comments box of my post on the Sacred Heart, if that's the kind of thing that interests you. Is it appropriate to worship the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
To my mind it follows from the Council of Chalcedon, but not all seem to hold it apt.

Harry Potter... Now in Ancient Greek.

"It's an ideal job for an old bloke in retirement." Peter Needham, translator of HP into Latin.
Quite! More info here.

À la folie... pas du tout

I recently watched this film and heartily recommend it.
I presume that my readers are familiar with Audrey Tautou from that gem of a film Amélie. (If not, then why not?) Well, in À la folie... pas du tout Tautou subverts the delightful naiveity of Amélie for a much darker character. She plays Angelique who is besotted with Loïc, a married doctor whose wife is 5 months pregnant. We see their affair develop from Angelique's point of view and chart her increasing agitation and despair as he seems to spurn her advances. Then we see the whole story again from his point of view.
This is not a feelgood movie, though it is very pleasant to watch. It is shot beautifully, taking full of Tautou's talent for facial expression. The film also makes a nice change from the usual approach to adultery (It's alright if they love eachother enough), though it's not a simple morality play. The English title for the film is He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. It seems that the French title (which I would translate as 'Madly... Not at All') is a reference to a game played with a flower similar to our 'Loves me, loves me not'. However, when a Frenchgirl is plucking petals, she doesn't alternate between 'loves me', 'loves me not'. Instead she goes:

Il m'aime un peu, beaucoup, à la folie,pas du tout, etc...
i.e. He loves me a little, a lot, madly, not at all...

which probably says a lot about the French.

Tertullian...

I recently stumbled across the very interesting (if you have an interest in Patrology) Tertullian Project, a site run by Roger Pearse, a British software consultant with an interest in Tertullian.
Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus is one of the most interesting and tragic figures of patristic times. Born in Carthage in about 160, attracted by the witness of martyrs, he converted to Christianity in 197. His background as a lawyer made him a particularly clear thinker and writer for the Chrsitian cause; amongst his works are apologitics addressed to pagans and Jews, dogmatic polemics against gnostics and heretics and treatises on ethical and aesetical matters. He was the first Latin ecclesiastical writer (remember, Greek was the lingua franca of most Christians, even in Rome) and he contributed literally hundreds of neologisms to express Christian thought in Latin.
However, his legalistic and rigorist approach (typical of North African Christianity) was to be his downfall. He rejected Christian participation in many aspects of Roman society and was notoriously hostile to philosophical thought, posing the question 'What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?' He was unable to accept what he saw as the laxist approach of the institutional church with regards to forgiveness of sins and penance and by 207 was drawn towards Montanism, an early 'charismatic' movement which rejected the institutional church in favour of new prophesies. The 'real' church consisted, not of the bishops and their flocks, but the 'spiritual men' who were uncompromising in their morality. (Curiously, Montanus himself seemingly claimed to be an incarnation of the Holy Spirit.) By 213, Tertullian had totally broken from the institutional church and this coupled with his unorthodox later teaching means that he must be counted amongst the Ecclesiastical Writers rather than the Church Fathers. It's also easy to see traces of what would become Donatism in the thought of Tertullian. However, he rightly deserves his place as one of the great Christian thinkers and as an influence on the North African Christian environment which brought forth St. Augustine. In Tertullian we find the basis for the orthodox formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity and the incarnation. The great St. Cyprian (c.210-258) read his works daily, referring to him as 'The Master'. Tertullian vanishes quietly from history about 220, presumably dying of natural causes.

Good News...

...over at Papa Familias's 'blog.

Truly sons are a gift from the Lord,
a blessing, the fruit of the womb.
Indeed the sons of youth
are like arrows in the hand of a warrior.

O the happiness of the man
who has filled his quiver with these arrows!
He will have no cause for shame
when he disputes with his foes in the gateways.
Ps.126(127)

Overheard Recently (Patrology Humour)

"Origen was a good man, his heart was in the right place, just like most of his other organs."

No, I'm not going to explain it...

Cor Iesu, patiens et multae misericordiae, miserere nobis...

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The Catholic Encyclopedia has a good article on devotion to the Sacred Heart, though surpsrising fails to mention the importance of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the fight against Jansenism. Fr John Hardon SJ wrote this short article on the doctrinal basis of the devotion, whilst probably the most important magisterial document in this regard is Pius XII's Haurietis Aquas. Amongst the wonderful passages from the later, I'm particularly taken by:

59. Hence His words, actions, commands, miracles, and especially those works which manifest more clearly His love for us—such as the divine institution of the Eucharist, His most bitter sufferings and death, the loving gift of His holy Mother to us, the founding of the Church for us, and finally, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and upon us—all these, We say, ought to be looked upon as proofs of His threefold love.
60. Likewise we ought to meditate most lovingly on the beating of His Sacred Heart by which He seemed, as it were, to measure the time of His sojourn on earth until that final moment when, as the Evangelists testify, "crying out with a loud voice 'It is finished.', and bowing His Head, He yielded up the ghost."[56] Then it was that His heart ceased to beat and His sensible love was interrupted until the time when, triumphing over death, He rose from the tomb.
61. But after His glorified body had been re-united to the soul of the divine Redeemer, conqueror of death, His most Sacred Heart never ceased, and never will cease, to beat with calm and imperturbable pulsations. Likewise, it will never cease to symbolize the threefold love with which He is bound to His heavenly Father and the entire human race, of which He has every claim to be the mystical Head.

Newman's prayer to the Sacred Heart can be found here, whilst the traditional Litany of the Sacred Heart attracts a partial indulgence.

More Motorcycle Funerals...

Reverendissimo Sibley posted details of an English Motorcycle Hearse Service a whilke back.
Well, today's Corriere della Sera has this picture of Tom Maitland (Clio, MI) transporting the casket of his deceased friend Ron Lash. Mr Lash was killed in a motorcycle accident last Saturday.
Also, just for kicks, here's a picture from last November of a giraffe fighting a buffalo.

Redundancy for CoE Bishops?

This Daily Telegraph Article discusses the possibility of the Church of England trimming its hierarchy. I have to say that it really annoys me when I hear terms such as 'top jobs' with reference to Bishops. Can we not even seek to maintain the illusion that it might be about ministry and that a bishop's role is more than just a Senior Executive?
Also, note the following:

The meeting was chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who is anxious to divert hard-pressed resources into boosting churchgoing.
He is keen to promote schemes to attract new worshippers, from cafe churches where services include coffee and croissants to "raves in the nave".

Poor Venerable Newman must be spinning in his grave at the likes of that. Even though he had no illusions about the status of the (Roman) Catholic Church as the One True Church, he did hold that there was much good within the CoE and that it served to preserve Christianity in England until such time as the Catholic Church could assume the CoE's mantle. (Out of justice's sake, I'd better mention that he's probably not too chuffed at lots of stuff going on in the Catholic Church these days too...)