De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

I agree wholeheartedly with John Kearney over at Catholic Rights when he talks about the current imbalance of interest on Catholic blogs over the debate about the Latin Mass and Pope Benedict's recent document on the matter. He rightly points out that the document produced by Bishop O'Donoghue on Catholic education deserves a much greater press coverage than it has been given (see Bishop O'Donoghue issues new teaching document for Catholic schools ). Here's the comment I left on John's blog: The debates on the internet seem to be becoming more and more narrowly focused. Admittedly, the issue of the Extraordinary form carries with it far wider issues of Papal authority, obedience to Rome, etc... but it seems to me that that the kind of language used by many of those contributing comments (eg. on Holy Smoke) leaves a great deal to be desired in terms of the example it gives of Catholic action and personal morality. People should by all means speak out, but calling pe...

This is a photo from a French magazine that I cut out and put onto a piece of card during my first year of training to be a Brother (Noviciate) back in 1990. It has either been a bookmark in my breviary or stuck on my wall ever since. I think it is a tremendous picture for many reasons: - the natural, genuine warmth and affection in the gesture of embrace - the playful smile - the thoughts that must have been going through the minds of these 2 children, being embraced by the Pope, their faces buried in his chest - this is how I would imagine Jesus to be with children - and the journalist/sound engineer in the background looking on... what was going through his mind? - and I suppose also the thought (fuelled by jealousy no doubt) that I would have loved to be one of those children, and indeed still would! :-)

Interesting post this from Creative Minority Report 's US blogger Matthew Archibald. I do find just a little frightening the fact that he says his faith helped him make the decision to go to war with Iraq. I wonder what his faith tells him now about the consequences of those actions? 'According to news reports, Tony Blair has sparked controversy by claiming that people who speak about their religious faith can be viewed by society as "nutters". The former prime minister's comments came as he admitted for the first time that his faith was "hugely important" in influencing his decisions during his decade in power at Number 10, including going to war with Iraq in 2003. Blair was reluctant to discuss his faith during his time in office. Mr Blair complained that he had been unable to follow the example of US politicians, such as President George W. Bush, in being open about his faith because people in Britain regarded religion with suspicion. ...

Found this news article on TotalCatholic.com Masses suspended in Mexican cathedral after left-wing attacks Church officials closed and locked Mexico City's Metropolitan Cathedral and suspended all services after about 150 left-wing protesters stormed into a Sunday Mass shouting slogans and kicking over pews. Fr Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Mexico City Archdiocese, said on Monday that the cathedral would not resume Masses until police could guarantee security. It is the first time the cathedral has suspended services since Mexico's Cristero uprisings in the 1920s. "We have to take this action before there is bloodshed," Fr Valdemar said. "We need police to launch a public campaign showing we are being protected." Left-wing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost the 2006 presidential race by a razor-thin margin, was leading a protest in the square next to the cathedral. Lopez Obrador claims the election was rigged and calls himself Mexico's ...

I think this is hilarious... A condensing of the Rocky franchise films into a series of grunts and single words lasting only just over 5 secs. Wonderful. The same treatment now for one of my all-time favourite films, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Any animal lover should take a look at this post over at Carpe Canem which comes from an e-mail that was doing the rounds: http://carpe-canum.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-many-dogs-does-it-take-to-change_16.html :-)

Many-a-time I have felt God guiding me into certain places and situations where I have had significant meetings with people, and through which I (and others) have experienced God's abundant graces. But on Sunday morning, I had one of my clearest examples of such an experience yet. Normally on a Sunday (exceptions being extreme weather or having other commitments), I would join the rest of my community for Morning Prayer (Divine Office) at 7.30am, leaving them to meditate for 30 min. whilst I get ready to set off on my racing bike to meet other members of my club ( Birkenhead North End Cycling Club ) at the Eureka cyclists café at the Two Mills crossroads (south end of the Wirral). I would then do my own meditation on the bike, often using a podcast from the Jesuit-run " pray-as-you-go " web site, followed by podcasts from Radio 4's "In Our Time" (Melvyn Bragg - see 2 posts previous) and Radio 5 Live's film review slot with Mark Kermode. Between them, th...