Film Fest !

I haven't been to the cinema in a while, so yesterday I saw two films... mostly because a friend of mine really wanted to see Beowulf and I wanted to see Ratatouille, and rather than either of us being disappointed we decided to see both!

Of the two, I'd say mine was the better choice. The animation was superb (there was a night-time shot of Paris which made me say "wow" out loud!) and someone had really spent a lot of time watching how rats move. They have a sort of lolloping scuttle which is very different from the way mice move (I've done a lot of rodent-watching in my time!) Remy, the hero, has more human movements, but watching his fellow rodents was a real blast from the past.

Beowulf, on the other hand, was far less impressive, even though there were lots of computer-generated special effects and enhancements. I found myself wondering whether they'd gotten a special price for re-using costumes and props from the filmsets of Lord of the Rings and Troy. I was also rather disturbed at the rating: it's a 12A. However, there was a lot of gratuitous nudity: I saw far more of Anthony Hopkins and Ray Winston than I ever wanted to... Deft catching of a blanket and use of camera angles preserved Hopkins' modesty, while Ray Winston strode around manfully with several strategically-placed props preserving his. Angelina Jolie was completely naked, but this was a digitally-produced version of her, and so was more reminiscent of Lara-Croft-meets-Barbie than a real woman. There were several very buxom wenches in evidence (though not particularly involved in the plot)... but this really was not what I would consider suitable for 12-year-olds.

All in all, I'd say that the film, while enjoyable, demonstrates the danger of trying to turn a short poem into a full-length film epic.

St. Cecilia's Feast Day

It's St. Cecilia's feast day today. What we know about her goes back to the fourth century. Cecilia was a Roman noblewoman who had given her heart to Christ. Beneath the rich clothes worn by women of her class, Cecilia wore a rough shirt, because she wanted to be able to offer this sacrifice to Jesus, whose bride she intended to be.

Cecilia's father had other ideas, and gave her in marriage to a young pagan noble. It is said that during the wedding celebration, Cecilia sat apart. She was singing to God in her heart and praying for his help. When she and Valerian, her husband, were alone, she gathered up courage and said to him: "I have a secret to tell you. You must know that I have an angel of God watching over me. If you let me keep my promise to be Christ's bride only, my angel will love you as he loves me."

Valerian was surprised and said kindly, "Show me this angel. If he comes from God, I will do as you wish." Cecilia said, "If you believe in the one true God and receive the waters of Baptism, then you will see my angel." Valerian went to Bishop Urban and was received with joy. After he had professed his belief in the Christian religion, he was baptized and returned to St. Cecilia. There by the saint's side, the young man saw the splendid angel.

Valerian's brother, Tiburtius, learned of the Christian faith from Cecilia. She spoke so beautifully of Jesus that before long, he too was baptized. Together the two brothers performed many works of charity. When they were arrested for being Christians, they went bravely to death rather than give up their new faith in Jesus. St. Cecilia lovingly buried their bodies, before she too was arrested. She converted the very officers who tried to make her sacrifice to false gods. When she was put into a fire, it did not harm her. At last, a man was sent to behead her. He struck her neck three times, but Cecilia did not die right away. She lay on the floor of her own home unable to move. Yet by holding out three fingers of one hand, and one of the other, she still professed her belief in the Blessed Trinity. That is how she is depicted in the sculpture at the top of this post.

St. Cecilia is one of my (many) favourite saints, because she's the patron saint of Church music, and I love to sing. In the bad old days, before my conversion, I used to sneer at the "myths" told about the early saints, convinced that they were inventions of the credulous Middle Ages...

And then I discovered that there were rather a lot of strange "facts" which seemed to back up the more unbelievable "myths"... like the "myth" which said that St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was built over the tomb of St. Peter. Recent excavation under the main altar of St. Peter's resulted in the discovery of first century artifacts... and a tomb containing bones wrapped in gold thread, with the inscription "Here is Peter"...

The Church has kept records for the 2000 years of her existence. We actually know the names of each and every Pope. Records of the martyrs have been lovingly preserved. The stories of the saints may have been embellished a little over the years, but there are writings from many contemporaries which bear testimony to the essential truth of these stories.

The lives of the saints are not myths or fairy tales. They are exemplars for us to follow as we journey towards God. If their lives (and deaths) seem incredible to us, perhaps it is due to our lack of faith. Mustard seeds and moving mountains spring to mind!

Happy Thanksgiving !

Ok, I know we're not actually celebrating this side of the pond (for some strange reason it's the only holiday that hasn't crossed over... yet) but the Blogosphere means that we can enjoy it virtually...

It always seemed strange to me (when I was a kid) that Americans would celebrate Thanksgiving so close to Christmas... bad planning. I mean, wouldn't it be more fun to spread the holidays out a bit? After all, a person can have too much turkey...

Now I know what Thanksgiving is all about, I know better...

...a person can never have too much turkey!

(BTW, I stole the photo from Karen!)

Feeling My Age...

In December 1991 London experienced a unique air pollution episode during which concentrations of nitrogen dioxide rose to record levels, associated with moderate increases in black smoke. I was trying to explain this to one of my Year 10 classes, and started off with the phrase, "Now it's not so long ago, and you would hardly believe that people actually died because of the pollution in this day and age..."

Of course, some bright spark had to pipe up with the telling rejoinder: "But Miss, we weren't even born then..."

X-Rated...

Apparently the early episodes of Sesame Street have been classed as adult-only viewing.

Yes, that's right... Sesame Street. The kids' programme with the big yellow bird and other muppet-like creatures, brought to you by the letter "Zee" and the number "seven"... I laughed so much when I heard it on the radio this morning that I nearly crashed the car.

The reason?

Simple. Cookie Monster is terribly un-PC, as he's seen gobbling cookies (obesity alert) and smoking (uh-oh... don't even go there!) and there's a character called Bert who was suffering from depression...

You really couldn't make this stuff up...

A Little Good News...

It would appear that what the pro-life crowd have been saying over and over again has finally been proved beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Kyoto University have succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells so that they mimic embryonic stem cells. The reprogramming of adult skin cells means that the present sources of stem cells, embryos and aborted foetuses, will no longer be needed.

Professor Ian Wilmut, the scientist who shot to fame after cloning Dolly the sheep has indicated his intention to use the new technique. Given that he has stated quite openly that he has no problems with the ethical dimension of embryonic stem cells, his willingness to switch techniques indicates that the use of adult skin cells must have a lot of other advantages.

Learning Latin...

No, not me (at least, not right now... though I really will have to knuckle down and learn the "Asperges me" for the Sunday morning Latin Mass we have once a month in my parish.)

Skipping through some of my favourite blogs this evening, I happened across this amusing snippet from A Thorn in the Pew... she was reminiscing about the odd phrases one learns in class.

I think my favourite has to be: Cogito ergo doleo - I think therefore I am depressed...

Don't Get Me Started...

Bah! Humbug ! I just joined a new Facebook group - "It'd be nice to enjoy Christmas carols when Christmas ACTUALLY comes."

I was forced to add a comment to the effect that this would only apply if the Christmas carols on offer were the traditional ones I used to know and love, and not the wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed, politically-correct crud which seems to have invaded our parish hymn books.

For the past couple of years I have cringed when glancing at the lyrics of various carols. If I can remember the original words, I sing them as loudly as I can (and I've got quite a good pair of lungs... and have been training hard by dint of yelling at various children!) Unfortunately, sometimes the swine have changed a whole verse, or at last a couple of lines (so as to make the gender-neutral phrase rhyme and scan) and it can catch the unwary singer by surprise.

I occasionally fantasize about running an extra children's literacy hour in a PSHE lesson, handing out the books and getting the kids to stick copies of the original versions over the offending interlopers...

I've posted on this before, and my Parish Priest even linked to it... but the hymn books are still lurking. I suspect drastic action is needed. ...a massive auto da fe using the hymn books as kindling might be in order... after all, it's not just the carols which are mangled beyond belief. I'd need to think carefully about who we could burn in effigy... Marty Haugen and Estelle White would make a good starting point. Any other suggestions to the combox please...

A Restaurant Review To Cherish...

...but the chef will not be the one doing the cherishing...

Seriously, this is one of the wittiest restaurant reviews I have ever read. I'm almost tempted to book a table, just to see if it is really as bad as Jay Rayner makes out...

"A little over a century ago my Jewish forebears fled that part of Eastern Europe then known as the Pale of Settlement. Having eaten at Divo, described as London's first luxury Ukrainian restaurant, I now know why. It was to escape the cooking. There are many words I could use to describe the food served here, but this is a family newspaper and none of them should be available before the watershed..."

Mantilla-twitch to the Closed Cafeteria.

How To Heckle... Lesson 1

This made me smile: rarely has a speaker been heckled so politely, or with such panache...


Twitch of the mantilla in the direction of Ttony at The Muniment Room

Our Lady Of The Rosary School Bazaar

Our Primary School is very badly funded by the Education Authority, probably because it does so well... it doesn't get all the extra financial help which struggling schools seem to qualify for. So they hold regular fund-raising events (like the School Fete) which parishioners are warmly encouraged (read three-line-whip from the pulpit last Sunday!) to attend...

I don't have any children of my own, and I see quite a lot of children (older ones, but still children) during my working week, but the school and parish are closely linked, so I try to go along. Invariably, I end up having a whale of a time chatting to friends.

The Parish UCM were out in force: they had home-made plum jam, marmalade, and various cakes (I succumbed to a delicious-looking cherry cake and a pot of jam) and they were running a raffle for the christmas cake - the Nativity Scene was hand-painted in food colouring!!!

Tea was served by this intrepid team... they were also serving mulled wine, but kept remarkably quiet about its availability, positioning themselves carefully so as to conceal the tipple from view...



There was a stall with children's toys on it. I did my usual trick of walking right past it, thinking "no children, doesn't apply!" when a friend pointed out that I have an eleven-month-old nephew, and it's worth getting into the habit of checking such things out. I ended up buying a bag of wooden track and train-type vehicles (recommended by a friend who has several children - she seemed to know what the stuff was called as well...)

This pair were selling videos... I thought there wouldn't be much call for them these days, but the mother assured me that videos were much more child-friendly than DVDs (which scratch easily.) I later spotted a friend of mine (a primary school teacher) stocking up on various videos. The little girl in the photo had only started at the school a few days before, so it must have seemed like they were throwing a welcome party just for her; it was great to see her mother getting stuck right in...

Of course, a Christmas Bazaar wouldn't feel like a proper Christmas Bazaar without Santa's Grotto. Here, Santa's little helper is keeping order, probably for 'elf and safety purposes. I was allowed to sneak in to Santa's Grotto to take a couple of unofficial photos for the blog...


All in all, a great time was had by everyone. Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a large slice of cherry cake with my name on it...

One In The Eye For The PC Crowd...

Apparently, Pope Benedict XIII took up smoking at the tender age of 75. I couldn't resist putting up the following portrait of him...


Mantilla twitched in Fr. Ray's direction... but I take full responsibility for the slight addition!

Time Out !

After yesterday's rant, I needed a little light relief...

First, over at the Ironic Catholic, an oldie-but-goodie:


Secondly, courtesy of the Gem of the Ocean:



And finally, a friend sent me this by email...

A young lad was visiting a church for the first time, checking all the announcements and posters along the walls.

When he came to a group of pictures of men in uniform, he asked a nearby usher, "Who are all those men in the pictures?"

The usher replied, "Why, those are our boys who died in the service".

Horrified, the youngster asked, "Was that the morning service or the evening service?"

Enjoy your weekend!

Expletives Deleted!

I just cannot believe that it has come to this! Well, actually, I do believe it... it is symptomatic of all that is going horribly wrong in modern, secular Britain. What else can you expect from a country whose Prime Minister declared that it was really great that the UK was at the forefront of embryo research involving monstrosities like hybrids; stuff, incidentally, that the rest of Europe wouldn't touch with a ten-foot barge-pole?

But this really is "extracting the urine"*...

Hilary White has reported on LifeSite News that:

"A British physician may be forced out of a job for helping women decide against abortion. Dr. Tammie Downes is under investigation for professional misconduct after she said in an interview with the Daily Mail that she had been instrumental in helping many women patients decide to continue to carry their children to term.

"In the Daily Mail interview, Dr. Downes said she asked women in crisis pregnancies, “What would have to change to make you see things differently? What would help you to see this baby as good news and not bad news?”

"For defying the abortion-ideology that prevails in the British medical establishment, Dr. Downes is under investigation by the General Medical Council and may lose the right to practice medicine. The Guardian newspaper reported that the investigation was begun after a complaint by “a practising doctor involved in the pro-choice movement” accused Downes of breaching the GMC's Good Medical Practice Guidelines."

Oh, right... it's ok for the pro-abortion lot to advertise their services to the extent of campaigning to have the abortion pill sold over the counter in supermarket pharmacies and peddled to 13-year-old girls by the school nurse, but doctors are not allowed to give the opposite point of view if it's one that they actually happen to believe in it... so all the doctors signing abortion certificates are really pro-life themselves...

...yeah, right. And the moon is made of green cheese.

Mantilla-twitch to Fr. Blake.

* This expression, a favourite of mine, can be translated loosely as "taking the Mick"... the exact translation is much more expressive, but involves a four-letter word!

A Call To Arms...

The Hermeneutic of Continuity has thrown down the gauntlet: someone must know someone who knows Mel Gibson... actually, I thought there were six degrees of separation between every person on the planet, but the Catholic Blogosphere is such a cosy, intimate group...

So, the idea is to persuade Mr. Gibson that he really, really wants to make another stonking good movie, this time on the life of St. Edmund Campion. It would be the perfect answer to the Catholic-bashing tosh which is being promulgated as "history" in the films Elizabeth and The Golden Age.

And Fr. Tim has asked all bloggers in sympathy with this campaign to get the word out - "Unleash the power of the Blog."

Oh, and if anyone out there does happen to know Mel Gibson, I'm available for lunch...

Parents' Evening...

I do like Parents' Evenings. They are very hard work, and, on top of a full teaching day, they can be totally exhausting, but it is really great to be able to meet the parents of some of the children we teach. It also has the advantage of demonstrating to the parents that the "mean ogre who always picks on innocent little me for no reason at all" is actually human and quite approachable.

My opening salvo is nearly always effective here: "So, Johnny, what do you think I'm going to say to your parents?"

Little Johnny has nearly always been brought up by parents to tell the truth. So he very obligingly confesses to whichever misdemeanours you usually reproach him with in class...

...which are henceforth impossible to deny as something done by his friends which he got the blame for, or something which the teacher has imagined, or misunderstood...

...definitely payback time!

Holy Smoke...

I saw this book on Fr. Tim's blog. Thinking I could do with a little light-hearted reading matter, I went and ordered it, and then, because there was a delay in getting it from the printers or some such thing, promptly forgot about it.

I was then distracted by the arrival of Fr. William's Daughter. Having demolished that book in record time, I was just about to bemoan the fact that I was once again bereft of light reading matter, when I remembered Smoke in the Sanctuary...

...It was another unputdownable book, only this time for very different reasons. I was laughing so much: I felt I'd met so many of the characters already. And as for the dancing nuns...

If you need a little light relief, I would recommend this book. But be warned: the descriptions of liturgical dance and ecumenical services are not for the faint-hearted!

A Memorial In Stained Glass

This photo is pretty horrible... until you consider that things don't usually make it into stained glass until they're dead and buried, when suddenly all becomes cheerfulness and light...

Twitch of the mantilla to the Ironic Catholic.

A Gripping Read !

My copy of Father William's Daughter, signed by the author, arrived the other day. I managed to avoid opening the parcel for a whole 24 hours, because I suspected that it would be a good read, and I didn't need the distraction which a fascinating murder mystery would bring...

I was not disappointed. I could barely bring myself to put the book down (I think I had to on two occasions...) and positively devoured it, cover-to-cover.

My only complaint: it finished too soon.

I shall try to find out if there is another novel in the pipeline. Watch this space!

(Oh, and you can order your copy HERE.)

The Appalling Abomination...

"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child..." (Mark 13:12)

The quote and the post title come from the eschatological discourse of Jesus given in the Gospel of St. Mark. It was what came to mind when I considered the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which has been introduced by the UK government.

I was very, very cynical when the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA) held its so-called consultation meeting on the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos. I was proved right.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is due to have its second reading on 19th November in the House of Lords.

Originally, the emphasis was on embryos which were 99% human. As the following quote from CORE (Comment on Reproductive Ethics) makes clear, this is no longer the case...

"The new Bill instead includes full hybridisation in its remit. Animal eggs combined with human sperm, and human eggs fertilised with animal sperm will be permitted if this Bill is approved.

In ethical terms this is possibly the most groundbreaking aspect of the Bill. Most of the other ethical horrors were already in place. The amended Act would simply liberalise everything even further.

One such instance of liberalisation is the extension of the use of embryo diagnosis to create matching embryos for therapeutic purposes, moving way beyond the original focus on cord blood stem cells, now to include any tissue from the designed baby. How long until this includes 'designer' kidneys and other body parts?

Something not to be overlooked is the reference to reproductive cloning. The document states blithely that the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001 is superseded by new provisions in the Bill. This is extremely alarming as it is not at all clear in the relevant sections whether reproductive cloning is indeed prohibited, and not least because of the continual flexibility built into the new text.

Over and over in the Bill one notes prohibitions, but they are a usually qualified with a subsequent exception clause which gives power to amend, either by adding to or repealing, simply through extended regulations."

If you only do one thing for the pro-life cause this year, make it this. Contact members of the House of Lords. SPUC have excellent resources to help - they've produced an information leaflet which you can use, and they suggest who best to approach (and how to address them and other useful stuff like that.) Or you can email your chosen member by going to the WriteToThem website.

And pray. Pray very hard.