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

Today I taught the other members of my staff/pupil band, "The Brothers Of Funk Instruction", some top tunes for our next "gig"/school concert: All These Things That I've Done (The Killers), About You Now (Sugerbabes... yes, the Sugarbabes!! Sounds great in a rock format), Sit Down (James), Deeper (Delirious), Run (Snow Patrol) and a personal fave, All Kinds Of Time (Fountains Of Wayne). They picked them all up really quick which is terrific, considering that other than myself, the band members' ages range from 12 to 15. The band is a floating collective of about 8 musicians, swapping in and out members for different songs, eg. drums... those not playing the main parts chip in on tambourine, backing vocals, etc... We learned the songs in an open rehearsal during tonight's Open Evening in the school. Prospective pupils and their parents could wander in and out on their way around the school. Two other pupils also came and performed (both female singer-...

I am really liking "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (saw it last night). At the same time gloriously silly (concept), wildly imaginative (visuals), wonderfully funny (dialogue) and just plain adorable. "Step up your game Scott, time to break out the 'L' word..."

It's been a VERY busy start to the school year (new job...) but I have to write about events yesterday at Hyde Park. I took a group of young adults from Southampton and Liverpool (the latter coming down to meet us in London) aged between 14 and 22 and a family of friends from Liverpool to the event at Hyde Park that culminated in the Papal prayer vigil. All of our group absolutely loved it, and so did all those around us, it seemed. The day just flew by. The music + dance... yes, was at times gloriously cheesy, but also at times quite beautiful and mostly very well performed. Young Liam McNally sung his heart out and the arrangement + performance of "You Raise Me Up" (most definitely NOT a fave song of mine) actually had me (and loads of people near me) choking up. As did the wonderfully moving testimonies of faith from people during the "Heart Speaks To Heart" section at the end of the afternoon, esp. from the parents of the young Catholic murdered a coupl...

At least that's the impression I get from our cat Boomer since I came back to our community after 6 weeks in France. The first evening back she took the earliest opportunity to fall asleep across my wrist, as per usual, whilst I was working at my computer. This can be awkward because it requires me to type one-handed, but I haven't the heart to move her. Bless! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

An interesting article here from the Guardian newspaper's film blog: Sent to you via Google Reader Gotta have faith: what's your relationship with God at the flicks? | Catherine Shoard Faith films are burgeoning in the United States , but would you welcome them here in the UK? Or is religious scepticism the key to cinematic excellence? Feature: Faith films perform a marketing miracle There is, I think, something really curious happening at the moment, which I explored in a recent feature . A drop-off in conventional funding methods, together with a rise in the United States of devout Christianity and an increasing dislike of Hollywood's baser fixations, has paved the way for a new wave of super-profitable faith-based films. And though they've not washed up on these shores yet, the actions of UK distributors, in tapping church audiences for custom with mainstream releases they feel might strike a chord, suggests there's a hunger over here too. But how far is ...

Right now, I can't stop listening to the "Inception" soundtrack. Clever how the composer uses 3 simultaneous musical motives of varying rhythmic speeds to suggest the relative speed of time in the 3 dream layers (normal, slower + slowest - at least that's my theory!). Love the film, by the way. Seen it twice so far, going for a 3rd next week. I realised today what the final track (12 - Time) reminded me of... a favourite moment from the wonderful "The Thin Red Line" (T. Malick), a sequence which I have used for years in Film Studies A-Level lessons as an tremendous example of the use of sound (sound effects, soundtrack music, voice-over...). First up, they are in the same key, secondly t here's the same rate of chord change (with similar-ish chords), thirdly they are roughly the same speed, fourthly they both make use of a 'pulse' motif, fifthly some motivic + orchestration similarities, and sixthly and finally they are both slow burn minimalist...

The title of this post is a quote from a sermon by the Founder of my congregation, Father Jean-Marie De La Mennais (1780-1860). This is the full quote: "My dear children, whom Jesus, our Saviour, has loved so much, whom he bends down to embrace and bless, come to us, stay with us. We will be the guardian angels of your innocence." (Sermon, VII 2271) It is one of a number of quotes that I had been asked to translate for a forthcoming document from French into English whilst here at our study session. I couldn't help but think what Fr. Jean-Marie would have thought of the actions of those priests and religious who over the years have abused the trust that children (+ adults) have placed in them. "We will be the guardian angels of your innocence." I could cry when I read these words, knowing how passionate our Founder was for the well-being of children. It is our job as Brothers today to be such guardian angels.  Here are some other passages from amongst those I ...