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Faith and the Arts:
A Religion Teacher's Reflections, Ideas and Practices

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26/7/10
On Friday last I went to the Phil Murphy weekend in Carrig-on-Bannow, Co. Wexford. L'Angelus were doing a concert of their Sacred Hymns in the local church, and what a treat that was. Beautiful acoustic hymns in the best of settings. They performed most of the material on their Sacred Hymns Collection album, with some pleasant surprises like Amazing Grace, People Get Ready and Lead Kindly Light. The event was entertaining, inspiring and prayerful. My own contribution was to lend the band a double bass! I think it worked well acoustically and visually. With the band's permission I filmed the event and am including one song, Be Thou My Vision, in this post. As time allows I'll upload more - you'll find them on my new YouTube channel - faithartswebsite. I've three done so far. On July 15th I had hosted a more "secular" gig with L'Angélus in Arklow, and that was also excellent. Even then we got treated to at least three spiritual songs. I'll be uploading some of that material soon.

The previous night I got to see Tom Paxton live in the National Concert Hall. He's not particularly a gospel singer though any sixties folk singer couldn't help but be influenced by gospel music. There was talk about heaven and angels in his songs, especially when singing about his family. And the opening song How Beautiful Upon the Mountain was based on Isaiah 52:7. The music and lyrics are catchy - "How beautiful upon the mountains are the steps of those who walk in peace …. God knows the courage you possessed, And Isaiah said it best…". We're familiar with some of those lines in Our God Reigns. Though Paxton is at the latter end of his career, an impressive four decades, he was like a spring lamb on the night, full of enthusiasm and witty repartee. And he stayed on for quite a while after the gig, signing autographs. I bought the DVD Tom Paxton Live at Huntingdon Hall, recorded last September. Song list is pretty much the same as on the night at the Concert Hall - the only difference being the backup musicians. Good job I got this on the night as I can't find a trace of it for sale on the web!

13/7/10
Hadn't realised it was so long since I wrote here. Image, being too busy on teacher's holidays!
Anyway, have been coming across various little spiritual gems on largely secular albums of late so I thought I'd mention a few here over the next few posts. Apart from personal enjoyment and inspiration many of these songs are suitable for school use, e.g. for meditation, school folk groups, religion and arts courses etc.
As I'm hosting a concert this week with this group (see news page) I thought I'd start with the album Ça C'est Bon by L'Angélus. "The Waltz of the Sorrowful Mysteries" is a lovely French version of the Hail Mary - "Je vous salue Marie, pleine de grace...", while "The Waltz of St Cecilia" is a poignant song of separation and hope - "And your name on my lips will be my morning prayer, until again we dance the Waltz of St Cecilia". Both songs can be previewed, or/and downloaded for $0.99 at CDBaby)

There was much to like and much to dislike about Rev. the new comedy series that started recently on BBC 2. Practising Christians will easily relate to the mild mannered vicar who struggles to make ends meet in an inner city parish. His Archdeacon (on the way to the launch of atheist Christopher Hitchens' latest book!), is breathing down his neck and mocking his puny fund raising ideas - he needs the money to repair a vandalised window of artistic merit. In an unlikely plot twist the congregation is swelled by new members who are there only to gain some Christian credentials so that their children can attend the highly rated local Church school. The new attendees don't know whether to stand or kneel, mobile phones go off, brats play with their games consoles, others read the newspaper in church.
There are interesting, if stereotyped, secondary characters - the inevitable foil Nigel, the Rev's assistant who is rather stuffy, revelling in the chance to flush out a few hypocrites, the rather underwritten vicar's wife, and the eccentric parishioner Colin who deeply resents Richard Dawkins for writing a book about God being deluded! Then there's the attractive young headmistress that the Rev fancies, and regularly compliments, though it's not clear how much he's aware of this attraction.
The show goes over the top in showing the Rev to be an ordinary guy - he smokes, swears and sometimes drinks to excess. Unfortunately the programme is unnecessarily crude at times, probably alienating quite a segment of the show's natural audience, which is a pity, as the show is relatively positive towards the Rev, and isn't negative to religion as such, but does skewer hypocrisy, vanity, politicking, and religious pretence.
In one of the best scenes, the Rev has a little prayer to God where he apologises for his vulgarity and reflects on his problems - I hope such a set piece will be a regular feature.

17/6/10
Saw the film Premonition on RTE 1 last night. Sandra Bullock played a married woman who has premonitions of her husband's death. It was quite a rivetting thriller with all sorts of timeshifting twists and turns. It raised some interesting issues about love, relationships and what's important in life. At one stage the Bullock character visits a priest to get some guidance - it's an intersting exchange, about two thirds of the way through. He suggests that faithless people leave a vacuum in their lives that other forces may then occupy, and that it's important to know what's really important in your life and to fight for that.

Further to what I've said below about storytelling in the Bible, I came across this interesting quote when corecting my 2nd year house exams: "God will forgive everything unless you steal one of his apples". And there were some creative metaphors - how about this: "purgatory is where you get filtered for heaven". From the mouths of babes!

13/6/10
Sometimes when I wonder if all this Faitharts stuff is on the right track I remind myself that Jesus himself often used stories to make a point - what a powerful impact the stories of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan have had over two thousand years. In today's gospel there was a very brief story (also from Luke's Gospel, Ch 7), but what an effective illustration of the theme of forgiveness: 'There was once a creditor who had two men in his debt; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty. They were unable to pay, so he let them both off. Which of them will love him more?' Simon answered, 'The one who was let off more, I suppose.' Jesus said, 'You are right.' Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon ... I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.' Simon was a Pharisee that Jesus was dining with, and the woman was she "who had a bad name", she who wept at his feet.
(Illustration by Elizabeth Wang, copyright © Radiant Light 2006, www.radiantlight.org.uk Artist's description: Christ looks with delight at the ex-hostesses who have left behind their old lifestyle and now share with old friends the Good News about the peace and joy to be found in Christ's love and forgiveness)

9/6/10
Last Saturday evening on EWTN, there was a fine programme with an unwieldy name - New, Sacred, Beautiful, and Universal: Colloquium XIX. The programme featured highlights from the 2009 Colloquium of The Church Music Association of America (CMAA), and event which dealt with the importance and distinctive nature of sacred music in the Catholic Church.
The spirit was infectious as we got to see and experience so many Catholics getting enthusiastic about liturgical music. And they weren't just discussing it - several times we got to see the rehearsal sessions, small groups practising outdoors in beautiful gardens or by a lakeshore and the sung masses that were the event's high points. What struck me most was the predominance of young people - all the more interesting as the music was mainly traditional chant and in Latin. As one of the directors pointed out this was no bunch of oldies trying to turn the church clock back - most weren't even around for Vatican II. In fact the philosophy of the event seemed very much rooted in Church documents on the liturgy.
The discussions and interviews were creatively presented as well - more like conversations as various groups of two sat down informally to talk about church music and what it means for the liturgy. The participants were hugely committed to the traditional sacred music in the church, especially in Latin, and that's fine, but I think I detected, from some contributors, something of a subtle distaste for more modern music in the vernacular, especially if it wasn't in some sort of traditional mould. Fair enough, there can be excesses of tacky trendiness in churches today, but I've experienced some very respectful, beautiful and sacred music in more modern idioms. And, it must be said, without the proper guidance and spiritual formation, the traditional music can be become too much of a lofty performance that excludes rather than uplifts the congregation. Whatever the case I'm sure it must have been a wonderful experience to take part in this event - details of the event, and the full programme under review, can be viewed online (http://musicasacra.com/colloquium/ ). Fortunately this summer there's a similar event closer to home - the 41st annual Irish Church Music Association Summer School of Church Music takes place at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, from 5-9 July 2010 (see News Page).

7/6/10
Holidays at last - thought those last two weeks would never end. So, finally, a chance to catch up on a few things. Have just discovered a new (to me) Catholic composer and singer from America - John Angotti. He has an excellent voice and has some impressive material - check out the song I Can Only Imagine, in the video clip on left. I believe a short Irish tour is planned for September - watch this space for details. His own website is here, and his Facebook page here. where you can find more video clips, not just of his music, but of his talks as well.

30/5/10
Today is Trinity Sunday, and if wasn't such a busy time of year in school, and if I was better organised, I'd have compiled loads of resources for the occasion. Oh well. Have a look at that beautiful Trinity picture on the home page, and there's a curious Trinity video on the spoken word videos page (Jesus B.C.). My favourite Trinity song is "Lord of Love" sung by Michael Card and Charlie Peacock - first track on the Coram Deo album - the song can be previewed here.

28/5/10
Had to watch that ending of Lost again! And still very moving. (See clip on left) And what about that beautiful background music - simple but effective.
Interesting that in its final moment the show opted for what's a largely religious approach. The main characters from the show gather at a church, which apparently is some sort of Limbo or Purgatory state, before they move on to the afterlife. One character, a man with the significant name of Christian Shephard (!), opens the door to reveal a heavenly light, as the characters take their seats in the church as if for a service. The light pervades the church in a beautiful optimistic moment. These scenes, and the earlier scenes where the characters re-unite emotionally in this most attractive of afterlife scenarios, are intercut with scenes of Jack dying. It's not that the characters were dead all the time on the island (at least I don't think so) - but that they all died at various stages on or off the island, and find each other in this "church" state where time doesn't matter and they prepare to move on together. It seems like a Christian church - there's a large welcoming statue of Jesus outside and most of the imagery is Christian, even Catholic, but the ante-room where Jack Shephard meets his deceased father features symbols and icons from many religions - in particular there's a stained-glass window with the symbols of the major religions - suggesting perhaps that there's room in heaven for people of good will from all faiths. I could see myself using this scene, as a discussion starter in RE class when dealing with the afterlife, and it has already sparked some discussion in class. There's also a lovely scene just before they go into the church where Ben (one of the show's nasties, who achieves a measure of redemption) asks Locke (one of the show's most enigmatic characters) for forgiveness and gets it very graciously. Definitely a good one for forgiveness and reconciliation themes.
[Added 1/6/10 - video clip of this scene now on videos page]
I mustn't get carried away however. The show doesn't coincide neatly with orthodox Christian thinking. There doesn't seem to a consistent purification process in this purgatory state. Some of the characters have very serious morality deficits that aren't really sorted out (murder, promiscuity and more), more a case of them being ignored. But I do like the way a good character like Hurley can find the residual goodness in Sayid, who is very down about the evil he has done. The most obvious omission in this afterlife scenario is God, unless we are to take "Christian Shephard" as some sort of God figure as well as being Jack's father, or unless we are to take Hurley as some sort of rotund Jesus figure. Maybe one could assume that the next phase in this death experience is to meet God, and I suppose it's not surprising that the programme makers didn't get too explicit about such a meeting.
Looking at reaction on the web it's evident that many fans were disappointed at the ending, but I don't share that. Some complain that all the questions were not answered, but isn't that ambiguity what gives the show its appeal? One of the most puzzling things for me was what to make of the alternate life scenarios we've been getting for the characters throughout this 6th series. It was a clever move for the script writers who haven't been content to sit on their laurels. In early seasons we got to see lots of flashbacks, telling us about the character's backstories. Then, in a startling move, it was flashforwards to how some of the characters got on when they managed to leave the island. Later we had time-shifting. Finally in series 6 we saw the characters having alternative lives - where they all met and interacted, but in different ways (impossible for the casual viewer to follow!). Gradually however this seemed to be a façade, one that in some way the characters created as a way of finding each other again (as Christian Shephard implies) and one that crumbled away as characters remembered their island lives - sometimes remembering how they died, and realising, with remarkable calmness and serenity that they were dead. But even in death there was solidarity, the bonds of friendship surviving death and becoming even stronger. That "church" reunion scene resonates with what we'd all aspire to - meeting those we love as we move into the afterlife.

24/5/10
Well, I'm reeling. Just after watching the final episode ever of US drama series Lost, and what a finish! Just a few initial reactions here. I'll return with a more detailed analysis.
It was one of the most hotly anticipated finales for years - even deserving of a schedule change from Sky and RTE 2 to bring it more in line with the American showing. It even got a mention on today's Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1. Over its six impressive seasons it has had many religious themes. In this final double episode there was plenty of that - a very prominent role for a character called Christian Shephard, a statue of Jesus very prominent, a reference to Moses' burning bush, an answered prayer to escape the island, and a final, emotionally charged gathering in a church, one that seemed Christian and yet had symbols of many faiths, and seemed to border on heaven!
There were moving themes of faith, hope, love, sacrifice, forgiveness and redemption, and most of all some credence to the afterlife speculation that has followed the show from early on. The final episode exemplified what made the show such a hit - sharp scriptwriting, humour, characters we could care about, excellent acting even in minor roles, spiritual themes, adventure, unbearable tension and food for the brain. I think the hard-core fans will be pleased - they/we will dissect it for quite a while to come!

15/5/10
Managed to get to the Don McClean concert in the new Grand Canal Theatre last week. I was always a fan, but my appetite for his music was whetted by the recent "Ar Stáitse" concert on TG4 - see entry below for 1/5/10). In that entry I wrote about the religious themes in American Pie, which of course he performed on the night. It was going around in my head for days. Other songs of his also had spiritual themes. I'd always thought Genesis (In the Beginning) was an arrogant kind of song - "We have grown, we have captured the throne of the kingdom God made". But hearing it live and paying more attention to the words I'm not so sure. You could read it as a criticism of the arrogance of people, or a tribute to our maturing - the kingdom is described as one "God made for our winning". The song starts promisingly - "In the beginning there was nothingness and God but waved his hand/and from the endless void there sprang the beauty of the land", but I'm not so sure how God or humankind comes out of this line: "man was but a molecule that God had left behind". The Adam and Eve story is retold in a traditional fashion, but a warning, that sounds like a reference to original sin, is sounded ("though the father sets the price, the children pay the cost"). That warning is echoed in the chorus ("our children alone/have so little time left for beginning.") That might seem to support the idea that we are being criticised for not developing a kind of world that's helpful to our children. Jerusalem used that city as symbol of unity between faiths, though the ideas were more simplistic than is usual for McLean - "The markets and the alleys, the temples and the tombs. A place for all believers, it has so many rooms."
Apart from his own songs McLean performed a respectful version of an old Rev Gary Davis spiritual Keys to the kingdom, - "I've got the keys to the kingdom,/The world can't do me no harm",. He captured the righteous anger in Bob Dylan's Masters of War : "For threatening my baby/Unborn and unnamed/You ain't worth the blood/That runs in your veins." And includes a Biblical flavour - "Like Judas of old/You lie and deceive". But there's an understandable forgiveness deficit - "even Jesus would never/Forgive what you do". Homeless Brother (see clip above) is one of my favourite McLean songs - full of compassion for the homeless, and Jesus gets a mention here too - "Somewhere the dogs are barking and the children seem to know/That Jesus on the highway was a lost hobo". One could argue with that description but no doubt it is respectful and sincere. I've been listening to the "Homeless Brother" album of late after many years. That features a version of Crying the Chapel (remember the Elvis version?). I used to think that was an irreverent send up of tacky and sentimental religious songs, but now I'm not so sure. Now I find more heart in it.
In general the concert was enjoyable but while the new venue is impressive I thought the sound could have been better. And while it was good to hear such a wide range of songs, I was puzzled that there was nothing from his new album "Addicted to Black". Though it was on sale in the foyer it wasn't even mentioned. Hardly a vote of confidence from the artist! The backing group was musically proficient, but somehow I felt that a certain spark was missing.

2/5/10
Recently I was trying to think of musical resources for the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation and came up with a few ideas. Would love to hear more from anybody. Many of the songs are available on YouTube, iTunes, 7Digital etc. Some could probably be streamed live in class through the likes of Lastfm or Spotify, though I haven't tried these in class yet.
Sometimes having done the Sacrament of Reconciliation I use these songs in a prayer service or just at the end of class. Healing of the soul in general features in the calming song Healer of My Soul by John Michael Talbot. It's on his "Signatures" album and on the album "Brother to Brother" where Talbot duets with Michael Card. Only in God, also on the "Signatures" album implies reconciliation with God - "Only in God is my soul at rest". Where Do I Go, sung by Ashley Cleveland and Gary Chapman on the excellent "Songs From the Loft" album covers similar ground. Tell It All Brother is a little known song recorded by Kenny Rogers when he did music with an edge with the First Edition group (before the awful Lucille!) - mightn't be to everybody's taste but great for the confession theme (listen to the song above).
Under the Rug (video clip on left) by RandyStonehill uses the title metaphor to convey the way we sweep our sins under the rug instead of dealing with them. In Paradise by Sal Solo (saw him giving a great concert in Rathmines church a few years ago) tells the story of the reconciliation of the good thief on the cross. It's on Solo's album "Look at Christ", which is hard to find, but well worth tracking down - it's a light rock version of the Rosary, though it wasn't marketed as such, I presume to appeal more widely than just a Catholic audience.

1/5/10
Last week American singer-songwriter Don McLean featured in TG4's Ar Stáitse - a great new series featuring well-known performers in concerts from the seventies. These are films which have been gathering dust in the RTE archives and have been cleaned up for the series. What a nostalgia trip! The McLean concert showed up the main fault with the series - the episodes are too short! Here we had what was probably a two-hour concert whittled down to less than thirty minutes - we didn't see him play the banjo he brought on stage and the ending of his best known song, American Pie, was cut off by the continuity announcer! Grouching aside the music was great - McLean was at his best when singing beautifully crafted songs of human interaction - we got only two of them in this show, the yearningly optimistic If We Try ("something yearns within to grow beyond infatuation"), and the poignant Empty Chairs ("although you said you'd go/Until you did I never thought you would"). There were some good-time songs like Lovesick Blues and the inevitable American Pie - it would take quite a while to decipher all the imagery in that one, and I'm sure thousands of words have been written trying just that. And there's plenty of religious imagery, not surprising for a guy that got a Catholic education, though it's not easy to detect the faith perspective. "Do you have faith in God above?" sounds like the renewal of Baptismal promises, but almost immediately the songwriter takes a different line and asks "Can music save your mortal soul?" It seems as if music becomes a kind of religion to the dedicated fans - "I went down to the sacred store/Where I'd heard the music years before". Yet there's also the suggestion that even God was sad when early rock singer Buddy Holly died - "the three men I admire most:/The father, son, and the holy ghost,/They caught the last train for the coast/The day the music died." (Three men?).

25/4/10
Recently I've been doing classes on Images of God with 2nd years - see below. To finish this topic we had a prayer service where some of the songs I played (on CD!) reflected this theme - quite a few interesting images of God in music and I got to thinking of some songs I didn't use as well. So here's a few that might help - some suitable for class work, some for prayer services and some for both. I use the music of John Michael Talbot frequently. On the "City of God" album he covers Carey Landry's song Abba Father, and on "Table of Plenty" he sings Michael Joncas' well know Eagles Wings. His "Signatures" album contains many of his best known works. In Only in God (Psalm 62) God is "my stronghold, my saviour" (see clip on left). In Come Worship the Lord there's the traditional image of God as shepherd. (No doubt there'll be no trouble finding recordings of the more traditional The Lord is My Shepherd). The image in I Am the Bread of Life is also suitable for classes on Eucharist. Included is the image of God as "Healer of my Soul" in the lovely song of the same name, also featured in the "Brother to Brother" album - duets with Talbot and Michael Card. Michael Card's solo album "Starkindler" has a combination of images in the song The King of Love My Shepherd Is, which also features on the excellent L'Angelus album "Sacred Hymns Collection". Card joins with Charlie Peacock for Lord of Love (from the album "Coram Deo - In the Presence of God". It's an effective image for God, and a great song for reflecting on the Trinity. For something more quirky try Julie Miller's My Psychiatrist from the "Meet Julie Miller album" - God as the psychiatrist whose "therapy is free of charge"! Or Larry Norman's UFO - God as an "unidentified flying object" who's come to save your soul! It's on his album "In Another Land", and covered by Geoff Moore and the Distance on the tribute album "One Way - The Songs of Larry Norman". Samples of the songs can often be found on the artists' websites, or downloaded from sites like iTunes and 7Digital.

18/4/10
Over the last few days I've been using the German film Sophie Scholl - The Final Days with the 5th Year students and it seems to have them riveted. I find myself deeply moved each time I see it It tells the true story of a young German student who defied the Nazis during World War II - she was part of the White Rose group. She is such a great role model for young people, and the film is superbly done - in particular Julia Jentsch is outstanding in the title role. There's one especially good sequence, about two thirds of the way through - Sophie says a prayer in her cell and this is followed by her final interrogation, which in particular raises issues of conscience and principle. It's also useful for classes on the relationship between morality and the law. Most of this is in the above clip which I've made larger than usual so that the subtitles are legible.

6/4/10
Fr Liam Lawton presented an excellent Good Friday programme on RTE Radio 1. A Love Beyond All Telling was an hour-long reflection on the events of the first Good Friday - simply but effectively capturing the mood of the day. Some of the spoken reflections came from Fr Lawton's recent book The Hope Prayer, and sought to help us understand these events at an emotional level - there were touching meditations on guilt, heartbreak and betrayal. Yet there was hope - e.g. how radical Jesus was even in his death - forgiving those who had crucified him. The words were complemented by appropriate music, including some of Lawton's own compositions, and included also work by John Michael Talbot and Matt Maher. You can listen to the programme by clicking this link.

29/3/10
Last Friday to celebrate the school holidays I got to the cinema to see The Blind Side - the film that won a Best Actress award this year for Sandra Bullock. It tells the true story of a black teenager, uniquely skilled at American football, adopted into a white family. It was moving, uplifting and absorbing, though overlong and certainly sentimental.
There's a faith dimension, but it's not too preachy. Bullock does a great job playing the mother of the adoptive family, a gutsy Christian woman who opens her home to the homeless boy, who is enrolled into a private Christian college. When the authorities there are reluctant, considering the boy's background, one character suggests that the word "Christian" on the school's sign should be painted over or taken seriously. A challenge to all our Christian schools.
Themes of racism and family conflict are touched on subtly, but there are no huge conflicts. This makes the film less intense, but more gentle, and it's certainly imbued with a respect and love for its characters - at the end we get to see footage of the real life characters the film is based on.
This family is certainly well off (huge house!), and while their material wealth isn't questioned there is an empathy for those who are poorer, e.g. in Bullock's visit to the boy's birth mother.
Maybe I'd like it to have been a little rougher around the edges. Is the family too sweet to be wholesome? Perhaps, but it was good for a change not to have the family members having clichéd rows just for dramatic effect. It was certainly believable.

Picture this: an obviously repentant man, on the verge of execution, goes to Confession seeking absolution for his sins. A scruffy priest refuses, telling the man he hasn't time to repent and that the devil awaits him in hell, and then walks off taking the man's Bible with him!
So it was in the latest top-notch episode of Lost, the cult drama series on RTE 2 (Thursdays) and Sky One (Tuesdays). And it gives me another worthy addition to my collection of Confession scenes from TV and movie drama! (this episode is due on Sky One this Tuesday 30/3)
This scene, set in 1867, was part of the backstory of Richard Alpert, the character who never seems to age. After accidentally killing a man he is taken in chains to the new world only to crash land (in a ship!) on the Lost island. Gripping as that was, far more interesting were his encounters with the island's two main protagonists - Jacob and a nameless man in black that I'll call Black Smoke Guy (BSG) - he turns into a black smoke creature to wreak destruction.
I've written here before about Lost being a kind of Purgatory experience (here), but in the flashback Richard believed BSG that the island was Hell and that Jacob was the Devil, who had stolen his humanity and trapped him on the island. Richard believed this for years and assured the modern-day crash survivors that they were all dead and in Hell. But Jacob seemed more likely to be the good guy - he explained how the island was like a cork in a bottle, keeping evil (BSG) imprisoned. He brought people to the island to find "candidates", people worthy to replace him, and to help people learn right from wrong on their own - he says it's meaningless if he has to step in and force them. BSG, he claimed, thinks people are corruptible and likely to sin by their very nature. It's an intriguing stand off with cosmic implications, and the philosophical implications are as complicated as the mind twisting plot developments.
Are these two meant to be God and Devil slugging it out? It's hard to see it in purely Christian terms - e.g. Richard asks Jacob if he can absolve his sins, but Jacob says he can't so he's hardly meant to be God. The show certainly makes more demands on people's brains that the average drama series, yet it doesn't lack a strong emotional content - there was one particularly touching scene last week when Richard's deceased wife from 1867 paid him a visit in the present.

22/3/10
I've been doing the "Images of God" theme with 2nd Year students - always a popular section of the course. Getting them to draw God produces some interesting questions as usual. There were a few blank pages and lots of bearded old men! Doing Images of God on film we looked at the scene in Bruce Almighty where Bruce meets God for the first time. This is mentioned specifically in the book we're using (Know the Way) and despite it's being a few years old now many students recognise it. I also used clips from some of the old "Insight" videos Veritas used to sell - God as a young man in a white suit in The Walls Came Tumbling Down, God as an office clerk in Packy, God as Trinity in Jesus B.C. (see clip on left - some silliness, but the only film I know that makes a stab at showing the Trinity in this way). There's a very stereotyped God in the movie Almost an Angel - in a scene near the start the main character (Paul Hogan) meets a probation officer God played by Charlton Heston - robe, big beard, judgemental but grudgingly forgiving. Not the best image of God, but it raises interesting discussions about stereotypes and pre-conceived notions.

18/3/10
Haven't had time to do much blogging recently - too much schoolwork, corrections etc, and I've been giving a few IT courses to RE teachers. Have managed to listen to plenty of music in the car however, and one CD I've been enjoying is Songs of Inspiration by Father Marino Nguekam. Some of you may have seen him on Joe Duffy's Spirit Level a few weeks ago, or heard him on Liveline before Christmas. I've reviewed the album here. It's available from the Pro-Cathedral. The video clip on left should give a good idea of Father Marino's distinctive style.

28/2/10
On Thursday light I found my way to Colfer's pub in Carrig-on-Bannow, Co. Wexford for a gig by American Cajun band L'Angélus. I first came across the band when they appeared on Today With Pat Kenny last summer and when they played for Catholic Underground during that first Irish visit. I enjoyed their Sacred Hymns Collection (see review here), and wasn't disappointed hearing the live for the first time.
This was vibrant, high-energy stuff from Katie, Paige and Stephen Rees - I've rarely seen a concert where the performers were enjoying themselves so much. It was mostly the "secular" material - Cajun two-steps and waltzes, country songs, Texas Swing, New Orleans Jazz and a touch of soul, but they also gave a beautiful rendition of Be Thou My Vision, from the "Sacred Hymns" album.
The original material, like the poignant Waltz of St Cecilia, was mixed with standards like Jambalaya, Peggy Sue and My Girl, and relatively unfamiliar songs like Wait a Minute (see video clip). I always like to get more at a live gig than just a performance of CD album material, and it was a great delight to see how much fun there was in this performance - Stephen Rees in particular was a howl, moving from sensitive ballads to growling shouting blues. His fiddle and sax playing was superb, while Paige's bass playing and Katie's rhythm guitar dove the music along, completing the excellent vocals. I was great to get to talk to the trio during the break and hopefully they will get back to Ireland this summer.
On the night I bought their album "Ca C'est Bon", and will give it a mention here after a few turns in the CD player.

26/2/10
On Monday last I got to see the Irish Premier of the film Lourdes, shown as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. It tells the story of a young woman, almost paralysed with MS, who visits Lourdes with a pilgrimage group, helped by Order of Malta volunteers.
It's a hard one to review as I have conflicted feelings about it. It certainly held the attention throughout its ninety or so minutes, even though for much of it there was nothing dramatic going on. I found it completely unpredictable, which helped, and I suppose because it was subtitled I had to concentrate all the more. The characters were ordinary, but still interesting. Sylvie Testud as the main character Christine was superb - the whole thing might have collapsed without such an intriguing performance. She managed to capture a whole range of emotions - sadness, anger, enthusiasm, loneliness - and yet there were times she was inscrutable.
The location work at Lourdes captured the atmosphere really well, in fact at times it had a documentary feel to it. But it was difficult to figure out what the viewpoint of the film was. Yes there were possible miracles, lots of prayer and devotion, and the main character, despite her suffering was at least open to faith. But ultimately it seemed like an agnostic's view of the Lourdes experience (and here I'm not making any assumptions about writer-director Jessica Haussner, except that she's highly talented). I felt the film lacked warmth towards faith, and I didn't feel any sense of relationship with Our Lady or Jesus. It's as if Haussner was saying: here's what might happen on an average pilgrimage to Lourdes - what do you make of it?
And yet it wasn't entirely objective or dispassionate. There was a quiet empathy with the invalids, especially as so many little cruelties were shown to them - e.g. when Cécile, the chief nurse announces that there will be an outing next day, but that those in wheelchairs would have to stay behind. The carers do their job, often with a smile, but too often they are more interested in flirting with each other - believable but unsettling. "We are not here to have fun", says the irritating chief nurse, and sure enough there is little enough of it. Everything is just a bit too slow moving and uninspiring.
The pilgrimage chaplain is a very average priest, mostly OK with the pilgrims, but his answers to their deep questions smack too much of platitude. The other pilgrims are a mixed bunch, from devotional to cynical. The chief nurse is all smiles and efficiency, not too likeable, but then she is shown to have her own suffering. The chief Order of Malta man attracts the eyes of all the ladies, including the main character, but he too, ultimately, seems hollow.
Talking to some people after the film confirmed what I suspected, that people will have wildly different assessments of the film. Maybe this lack of a clear stance will charm some and disconcert others, but while I did find it riveting, sometimes funny, and even quite hopeful at times, I thought the final impression it left was on the bleak side.
For that reason I wouldn't be rushing to show it in school, though there was one interesting Confession scene with the main character and the chaplain, where she calmly confesses her anger. I like collecting Confession scenes from film and TV drama, and this will be a worthy addition.

21/2/10
Stephen Greydanus at Decent Films (and movie reviewer with the National Catholic Register) is one of my favourite film reviewers - I find myself agreeing with his assessments more often than not. His website is an excellent resource, not just for the treasure trove of film reviews, but for his many insightful articles on various film and media issues. Currently he has an article suggesting a variety of films that make for appropriate Lenten viewing. Worth a look.

17/2/10
Last night I got a chance to see one of the first Irish screenings of a new feature film about the appearances of Our Lady of Fatima.
The 13th Day was written and directed by Ian and Dominic Higgins. It's great to see Catholic filmmakers turning their talents to spiritual matters in such a creative and imaginative way. Visually the film is a treat - it's not surprising that the Higgins brothers come from an artistic background. Each frame of the film would make for a beautiful still picture - mostly it's black and white, with colour being used when Our Lady appears and Heaven touches the earth. Watching it I was reminded of arty YouTube videos, European cinema, and even The Blair Witch Project (visual effect not content!).
It was almost surreal in its presentation, which made it quite captivating at times. The film seems to tell the Fatima story faithfully, framing it by using the reminiscences of Sr Lucia as she writes her memoirs. For me the telling of the story was somewhat episodic, always a potential problem when filming real life events. I also felt there was too much narration and not enough dialogue given to the actors which made it difficult for them to really inhabit their roles. That being said the girl who played the young Lucia, Filipa Fernandez, had a striking screen presence, crucial when she was the central personality of the film.
One thing the filmmakers have achieved is to present this timeless story to a modern audience in an idiom they can understand and relate to. I didn't find it corny or preachy or sentimental, and these are also traps that a religious film can fall into.
As always I wondered about its use in Religious Education. There would have to be plenty of discussion afterwards, and the teacher would want to be well informed about the background to the Fatima story. The vision of hell and one rather scary angel make it more suitable for secondary students. For teachers who might like to use just an extract, the scene of the miracle of the sun is quite striking and captures the essence of the film. At the time of writing The 13th Day is available only on Region 1 DVD (USA). More info on the film's website.
I saw the film at the Film Society of the Fraternity of St Genesius, which meets on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. I was glad to finally get there and meet people of like mind! Fr John Hogan, Father-Director of the Fraternity gave an interesting opening address, where he made some interesting comparisons with the earlier film version The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952), made at a time when it was popular in Hollywood to make films that were positive towards the Catholic Church. Oh how things have changed!

15/2/10
Lost? How many viewers still watch this US drama series that returned to RTE last week? It started with a total recap episode which might have brought the casual viewers up to date with the deliciously convoluted plot, but I'd say they were re-established in a state of confusion once the season opener got going. It didn't disappoint. Earlier seasons have had flashbacks, flashforwards and people going backwards and forwards through time - this season there's an even more intriguing plot device of having parallel or alternative futures. Not much religion yet, but the Sayid character, as he approached death reckoned he'd be going to a bad place because of all the torturing he had done, and later he has a sort of resurrection experience. A hidden temple was discovered on the island - seemed like a sort of religion, but the devotees there certainly didn't have hospitality as a core value - their first reaction to a bunch of strangers was "Shoot them!".
These are the "Others", a mysterious group that have been on the Lost island since the beginning. Their mystical leader Jacob was mentioned but never seen for the first few series - making his appearance last year all the more dramatic. One could see him as a sort of god-like or prophet figure and perhaps his nemesis (smartly named Esau by some smart ones on the web), the black smoke guy, is a sort of devil figure. But it would be a headbreaker to try and fit the plot into some orthodox version of the Christian story.

Caught an episode of EWTN's youth magazine show Life on the Rock last weekend. It highlighted the work of Epiphany Studio - a Catholic-Christian US theatre group that specialises in spiritual material. In particular we got to see clips from Lolek, a one-man show by Jeremy Stanbary on the young adult days in the life of John Paul II. In the studio interview Stanbary explained how he found the world of secular theatre creating conflicts with his faith, leading himself, along with his wife Sarah into their present work. No sign of an Irish tour yet, but I've emailed to see if this might be a possibility for the future. Some of their performances can be ordered on DVD from their website's store. Clips, previews, and interviews are also available on their YouTube channel.
And on the same show there was an interview with Max Espinosa about the Holywood Acting Studio - a new studio that educates actors in their craft, but also pays attention to their spiritual life, helping them to make better choices in the mainstream. Signs of hope!

9/2/10
Started a module on the virtues with 5th Year students today. Used a worksheet to start with, which helped get the students thinking. To finish I got them to do some artwork on the first virtue I tackled - Justice. I got some interesting specimens. Interestingly no one went for the traditional scales of justice figure. The most striking one was a guillotine on fire! Another had an electric chair being rejected. I have a series of these Virtue Worksheets available on request - use email link above.

8/2/10
Well, I did a bit for Catholic School's Week, but it didn't help that we were in the middle of Mock Exams, with no school assemblies as a result. Still, we did make use of our Prayer Room for some class services and conducted some classes on the theme. Apart from the discussions, I got students doing some artwork - e.g. posters to highlight the event, which got them thinking, I hope. At the prayer services I used the folllowing songs: Where To Now Edmund from the album "Islands of the Heart" by Peter Kearney - it's about the vision of Edmund Rice (it's a CBS); Be Thou My Vision by Cajun Group L'Angelus from their excellent "Sacred Hymns Collection"; and the very appropriate Salt and Light Amy Delaine from the compilation album "Songs From the Loft" (a must for every RE Dept!).

1/2/10
This week is Catholic Schools Week in Ireland. The resource materials have been sent to schools but are also available here. The secondary schools booklet includes a poem St Brigid, A Blessing by Christy Kenneally. I tried it in a few classes today and it went well I think. For the feast of the Presentation tomorrow T.S. Eliot's Song for Simeon might be useful , but probably too complex to use as a prayer. In the resource materials there are also prayers, readings, full services, fun activities and even recipes! Would be interested in hearing from anyone trying some interesting activities this week.

27/1/10
Recently I noted the passing of Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary, (see entry for 27/9/09) and now another great female singer has died. Kate McGarrigle, along with her sister Anna wrote and sang some wonderful songs, with the sweetest harmonies, like Heart Like a Wheel, Heartbeats Accelerating and Love Over and Over. Their best work I think was in their earlier 70's and 80's albums, especially their first, simply titled "Kate and Anna McGarrigle". That has to be one of my favourite albums of all time. I've seen them live a few times, which was such a treat. Little of their output was religious material, but their Catholic French Canadian background shone through at times. There was Travelling on for Jesus from that first album, and the many Christmas songs from their album "The McGarrigle Christmas Hour". The latter includes her song about the Three Wise Men - I've included a video of her singing it on the left. It's not the best recording and she wasn't that well at the time, but it's recent and worth a look. Rest in Peace.

16/1/10
As outlined below I've been using an extract from Jesus of Nazareth to illustrate classes on the moral teaching of Jesus. Part of that extract has come in handy when I've been doing "table-fellowship" with second year students. There's a useful segment where Jesus goes for a meal to Matthew's house (Luke 5:27-39). Matthew being a hated tax collector the apostles try to convince him not to go - danger of scandal and defilement! In the Prodigal Son story Jesus tells towards the end of the extract another meal figures - the feast thrown for the returning son. When I've asked to students to name events in the life of Jesus that centre around meals many suggested the Last Supper, which was reassuring. I showed the Last Supper scene from BBC's Passion, which I've referred to here many times before. You can see it in the clip on left - Last Supper begins about 3 minutes in, but the lead in is interesting too. I also used the Last Supper scene from The Manchester Passion, another BBC production that presented a modern version of the story with contemporary music. This held the students' attention, though I found that it worked better with older classes. I'm enjoying the table-fellowship theme from the Junior Cert course - meals, eating, feasts figure rather prominently in the Bible stories, whether Jesus is eating with people or telling stories about eating - e.g. comparing the Kingdom to a feast.

13/1/10
With 5th Year students I've been doing the moral teachings of Jesus - I usually start by showing what I think is a powerful extract from Jesus of Nazareth - from where Jesus meets Peter on the shores of lake Galilee to where Peter and Matthew reconcile after Jesus tells the Prodigal Son story - about 20 minutes or so. There's so much in this for the moral teaching topic. You have the apostle John wanting scripture to come alive in people's hearts; there's the scene of the miraculous catch of fish (beautifully portrayed) which emphasises the value of generosity; there's trust - Peter has to trust Jesus and head out again even after catching nothing so far; hospitality is highlighted when Peter invites Jesus to his house (along with quite a crowd!), and when Matthew welcomes Jesus into his house; the concepts of invitation and challenge are strong in Jesus' efforts to get Peter and Matthew together; there's a powerful lesson in reconciliation and forgiveness when they do put aside their differences, which they must do if the are to follow the Lord; forgiveness of sins is an issue when Jesus cures the crippled man who is let in through Peter's roof ; the apostles try to argue Jesus out of visiting the despised tax collector Matthew, but Jesus stresses that the heart of the law is mercy, and that he has come to call sinners, not the virtuous. This extract has always held the attention of the senior boys, and did again this time, but one thing I noticed this time was the giggles when Jesus is shown with a heavenly expression or aura - this just happens briefly at the start of the extract, but most the time the portrayal of Robert Powell in the role of Jesus is very moving and naturalistic - Powell holds the viewer as Jesus holds the listeners in the telling of the Prodigal Son story - all the more affecting as we can see the parallel with the reconciliation of Matthew (the prodigal) and Peter (the grouchy older brother). You can watch the start of the extract here, and the telling of the Prodigal Son story here.

5/1/09
With constant repeats on RTE and Channel 4 one can get overdosed on the Simpsons, but to be fair it takes a lot of repeating to drain the humour out of it. Last weekend both channels showed The Simpsons Movie, and like a lot of comedy shows transferring to the big screen it was a questionable exercise - yes, the movie was funny, but it didn't offer much more than a typical bunch of episodes shown back to back. As always there was an amount of religious content - and while you might welcome films that show religion as a common part of life (airbrushed out of most American shows) you'd smart at the sharp barbs thrown at believers. The story began on a Sunday morning with Homer once again grumbling about going to church - why, he says, can't he be allowed worship God in his own way - "like praying like hell on my death bed". He grouches about Rev Lovejoy's congregation, "pious morons" with their "phoney baloney God". Grandpa Simpson starts speaking in tongues about some apocalyptic event, and wouldn't you know, it was to be an environmental disaster. The show often pokes fun at those believers who are big into "the end times". There was one hilarious scene when the end of the world was nigh (yet again) - the believers abandoned the church and headed for the bar, while the drinkers rushed out of the bar and made for the church. The sign on the church said "We Told You So"!
While Ned Flanders was presented, as usual, as a Holy Joe, he is also portrayed as the most human and caring of the Springfield folks - providing such a stable father figure that Bart wants him as father instead, but only for a while of course. Yes, its mildly crude and borderline irreverent, but its definitely funny, and even thought provoking. And suitably for the time that's in it, it gave an outing to the idea of "epiphany" - Homer must get a deep insight into his selfishness or he won't be able to save Springfield and win his family back. And was there every any doubt about the outcome?

30/12/09
Got to have another look at the film Millions on DVD last night. It's a film by Danny Boyle of Slumdog Millionaire fame and features a young boy who's a moral anchor for those close to him who compromise so easily. He tries so hard to be good, and is fascinated by the stories of the saints, many of whom appear to him, complete with halos, in little vignettes through the film. A big bag of money, the proceeds of a train robbery, comes his way - he thinks it's a gift from God and wants to use it responsibly, but finds it so hard just to give it to the poor. It's a sweet film, but not overly sentimental, and it's imbued with a warm attitude to religious faith. The scenes with the saints are particularly clever and amusing. It's not for very young children as there is some menace, complex moral issues and a one-night stand (with possibilities for the future!) between the widowed father and a charity worker.

28/12/09
At last some blogging time during the holidays. A few ideas from before Christmas first: sometimes I get frustrated with the way RE classes tend to get dumped on for matches, visiting speakers etc, but I've tried of late to see it as a blessing. Admittedly it can be a break from tough senior RE classes, but when there's only a few students left in the class it can be turned to advantage. Once recently I was asked by a student if he could use the time to write a song. I agreed if it could be a spiritual song! I keep a guitar in my classroom so he borrowed that and got to work with some other students. The end product was a bit rough, but not bad I suppose for 40 minutes. On other such occasions I let students read from my modest library of religious books and papers. I was pleasantly surprised when one senior student got into a Joan of Arc story and actually borrowed it to finish at home. In these situations the class dynamic changes and there is more opportunity for discussion, with individuals or groups.

23/12/09
I've been catching up on the US drama series Heroes via the box sets -I find it a strange way to watch a series. When it was first broadcast I didn't think I'd be interested as I'm not that much into superhero stories. But this time the characters are not super heroes in costumes, but humans with extraordinary abilities - some can read minds, some can be invisible, some can time travel and some can even fly. Episodes start and end with philosophical reflections on what evolutionary or other processes have lead to this phenomenon, and the series seems quite open to the idea of God. Themes of choice and personal responsibility abound as some characters use their powers for good, some for evil. And there is political resonance for today - in the third series, for example, shadowy government forces start to discard civil liberties and round up the ones with special powers - in one scene, as they are hauled off to some unknown destination chained and hooded in their orange jumpsuits, there's an obvious suggestion of rendition flights and Guantanamo Bay. A few days ago in school I was doing classes on the 10 Commandments and when I came to the 8th and 9th there was the usual difficulty in explaining the meaning of "covet". I was able to refer to one of the villains in Heroes (Sylar) who admits that he covets the special abilities of other gifted/cursed ones - and goes to murderous lengths to get these powers. One of students maintained that this greed for abilities is one of Sylar's powers/abilities/curses which raised the issue of choice - how much control does he have or is this lethal coveting something he can't help? In some episodes he tried to be one of the good guys but it didn't last, and in one of the posssible futures shown Sylar is seen as a reformed family man!

11/12/09
Recently I got to see the Irish premiere of a multi-award winning documentary The Human Experience. Can documentaries be regarded as art? Whatever the case, this film was well put together, and it should prove a great resource for teachers doing classes on the search for meaning. Unfortunately it is not available on DVD yet. It tells the story of two young American brothers, Cliff and Jeff Azize, who are searching for meaning in their lives. They live with the homeless in their native New York, visit a care centre for disabled children in Lima, Peru, and visit a leper colony in Ghana, Africa. I thought the Peru segment was the best - the children were so positive, considering their situation. One of the things I liked about the film was the way they let the people they visited speak for themselves. Also, the fact that it is segmented makes it particularly classroom friendly. There is a parallel story running through the film - one of the brothers reflects on his own upbringing and has many issues to confront - this culminates in an emotional reunion with his father. There are many thought provoking quotes interspersed through the film, which again should help in the classroom context. It's a film I'd like to see again to make a fuller judgement. Some of the film makers were present at the screening which was a treat. I asked about the DVD release but was told it would be a while yet as they were working on distribution arrangements. For the moment check out the film's website, and watch the trailer above.

8/12/09
Blogging has had to take a back seat for the last while, what with Christmas Exams and other pressing deadlines. I've also been having fun giving ICT courses for Religious Education Support - good to meet many Faitharts subscribers at these sessions. Two left to go - Navan Education Centre this Thurs 10 Dec, and Co Wexford Education Centre in Enniscorthy on Tues 15th Dec, both 7 to 9.30 pm. If interested ring Angela at Co Wexford Education Centre.

I love this time of year for the music. I've been using Christmas songs at Advent Prayer Services as usual. My article (here) on Advent and Christmas Resources gives an idea of the material I'm using. This year also some of my third year students are doing the journal title on special times of the year, concentrating on Christmas, so today we had a class on Christmas music, with clips of various songs, including ones they suggested themselves. I had most of them on CD or tape, but the 7Digital music download site is good for finding some clips (free) or whole songs (cheap!). One request was for Mistletoe and Wine - not one of my favourites! But they knew it well and even joined in the singing.

There are some interesting new Christmas albums out this year (see recent additions to the news page). Strangest of all must be Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart - I've been listening to some of preview clips on CD Universe and it's certainly an acquired taste! Christmas with gravel! I've noticed that some performers are not inclined to mention Christmas in their album titles - e.g. Sting's new album If on a Winter's Night, Midwinter Graces by Tori Amos and Song For a Winter's Night by Tommy Fleming all these, especially the latter, feature many Christmas songs and carols, so is this political correctness, a chance to include a wider range of songs or an attempt to reach a broader market?

21/11/09
Have just been watching this morning's live coverage on EWTN of Pope Benedict's meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel. Loads of food for thought there and I suppose, I hope, in a way it's a validation of the work of Faitharts and similar ventures!
The event was flagged as the first of many efforts to rekindle the relationship between religion and artists, surely a worthy and even urgent ambition. Around 300 artists from various disciplines gathered in this most appropriate of venues and when they weren't watching the Pope they were staring at the ceiling - not a bad idea when you're in the Sistine Chapel. It wasn't just the visual art that was on show - the chapel choir sang some of Palestrina's work at the beginning and end of the event, though we didn't see much of them as they were tucked away in the loft! It was the 10th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's Letter to Artists and the event started with a reading of that letter by an Italian film director, followed by an introduction from Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who spoke of the desire to renew the special relationship between religion and the arts. As we travelled a path of beauty and light the arts could open souls to the eternal. Pope Benedict himself was also inspiring in his address. But he was also realistic - accepting that some of those present might be remote from the practice of religion. Yet his language was the language of friendship, dialogue and collaboration. He stressed that the world needs beauty if it's not to fall into despair, and that the artists were the custodians of beauty. He was also conscious that there were problems, that there could sometimes be an escape into mere aestheticism, there could be the guise of indecency, and gratuitous gratification. But the pursuit of authentic beauty wouldn't go down those roads, in fact it could even wound us, which I found a rather striking idea, but makes sense if you think of a pained reaction to the depiction of suffering in a film for example, and indeed you wouldn't have to go much further that the Sistine Chapel art works to find examples of that. Finally, against the amazing backdrop of Michelangelo's Last Judgement he called on the artists to be aware of their responsibilities and grateful for their gifts as their God-given talents glorified the Creator and challenged them to be heralds of hope for humanity. As soon as I find video of the event and the text of the address I'll post the links, but it should be up on YouTube soon at www.youtube.com/vatican
[video added above 22/11/09, full text of address here ]

16/11/09
Today in school we had a retreat with the Net Ministries team, most of whom are young Canadians visiting Ireland. We used the local parish centre and students thought it was helpful to get out of the school for the day. The team was excellent - dedicated, courteous and professional. I was glad to see them using plenty of arts resources - they sang, involved the students in the singing, and used short dramas to illustrate their points. I joined the team and students for a prayer service in the local church, which was a special experience for me too. One of the team sang at the prayer service, while there was some beautiful reflective music during the time for individual prayer (I hope to draw attention to some of this music when I can track it down - it was a compilation from various sources). I have rarely seen my senior students so quiet, reflective and focussed!

3/11/09
I know it's unseasonal, but last week I got to attend the multimedia screening of A Christmas Carol - this is Robert Zemeckis' new film adaptation of the Dickens story for Disney, and what a treat it is! Those who have seen his Polar Express will be familiar with the kind of animation applied here - a technique of motion capture that has the characters looking incredibly like the actors that do their voices. The effect here is immeasurably heightened by the eye-popping 3D effects. And it's not just the occasional gimmicky scare with something being flung at the audience - the 3D effects are seamlessly integrated throughout and you'd wonder how you could ever bear to watch it in 2D cinema or DVD. You seem to fly through the air with the characters, it seems to be snowing in the cinema, and yes, occasionally a few things appear to fly into the audience, the most delightfully disgusting being Jacob Marley's ghostly spittle as he tries to warn Scrooge about the consequences of leading a selfish life. The amount of detail is incredible - we see textured wrinkles and spotty skin, which doesn't sound very appealing but in the context it's brilliant.
The technical wizardry is jaw-droppingly impressive, but without a good story it would ultimately leave an empty feeling. Of course, Dickens provides a timeless and very human story of redemption at Christmas time which is told faithfully in this adaptation. Jim Carrey plays the central role of Scrooge with his usual zest - he savours the role, wallows in it, hams it up at times, and yet, despite many laughs it is a very serious story and we get to feel all of Scrooge's changing emotions. Yet, for some reason it fell that little bit short at the emotional level, perhaps because of the fact that the characters are animated no matter how realistic the detail. I felt this particularly to be the case when Scrooge is given a glimpse of the sweetheart of his youth, estranged by his over concern with money. The emotional resonance should, I thought, have been much stronger here. One of my favourite previous versions was the Muppet Christmas Carol and amidst all the crazy Muppets, the real Michael Caine did a better job at capturing the humanity of Scrooge.
The film doesn't hedge on either the frightening or the religious elements of the story - if anything they are heightened. Smaller children may get a legacy of nightmares from the death coach that chases Scrooge, or the horrors of the graveyard scene where the ghost of Christmas come lets Scrooge see what a miserable future and death he will have if he continues with his self-centred behaviour. After a series of horrors he finds himself dangling over a yawning grave, with his open coffin waiting for him, and under that a hellish red glow. Then there's the horrific appearance (video clip on left) of the ghost of Scrooge's deceased partner Jacob Marley - he seems to have come from hell or more likely purgatory carrying the chains he has made for himself in life (reminded me of the first appearance of the ghost in Hamlet). And as he leaves we get a scary vision, worthy of Dante, of many other troubled souls, tortured by the choices they have made in life.
But it's primarily a story of redemption and salvation and so the other religious elements are more positive, apart from a dig at "men of the cloth" who seem responsible for Sunday closure of a place where the poor can cook their food (reminded me of those who criticised Christ for healing on the Sabbath). There was liberal use of traditional Christmas hymns on the soundtrack. Sometimes it's just a hint, (Ave Maria), sometimes more prominent (Hark the Herald Angels Sing) and sometimes quite central (Adeste Fideles). On the end credits there's a new song, where Adrea Bocelli takes up Tiny Tim's "God Bless us Everyone".
Christmas Carol is due in cinemas on Nov 6th - go see it! For more info and trailers see the official website.

27/10/09
On holidays at last, and I get to catch up on Hamlet. Act I Scene iii features the departure of Laertes for France. He warns his sister Ophelia to mind her honour with Hamlet, but she's a sharp one, reminding him to practice what he preaches, giving Shakespeare a chance to get in a dig at hypocritical clergy who don't follow their own teaching. Ah the timelessness of it!
" ... But, good my brother
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads"
I have found that saying farewell to family members going on long journeys is a special but sometimes painful experience. Laertes recognises how much of a blessing it can be, especially as he gets a chance for a second farewell:
"A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave".

Towards the end of the half-term, the first year student (see entry for 30/9) who promised to sing U2's Yahweh finally came up trumps. He did well considering that the student who was going to sing with him couldn't find the lyrics! I'm really taken aback by how much of an impact this song has made in this particular 1st Year class - they still request it! I must incorporate more music into this class.

18/10/09
Finally I get to Hamlet. As I'm doing this with a 5th Year English I thought I'd reflect on the religious references that abound in the play. When he sees a ghost (Hamlet's father) in Act I Scene i Horatio, Hamlet's friend, on seeing a ghost declares "Before my God, I might not this believe /Without the sensible and true avouch /Of mine own eyes." - this reminded me of the apostle Thomas not believing in Christ's resurrection until he could feel the wounds. The ghost disappears when the cock grows for dawn leading Marcellus to say that there's a legend that approaching Christmas the cock crows all night long so that ghosts can't appear at all, even at night: "Some say that ever, 'gainst that season comes/Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, /The bird of dawning singeth all night long; /And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad". In Scene ii Hamlet is heartbroken that his father is dead and his mother remarried to his uncle Claudius. He won't however commit suicide as it's against God's law: "O … that the Everlasting had not fix'd /His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!" Needless to say Hamlet is shocked to hear that his father's ghost is appearing, and reckons it's a sign that evil has been afoot, but will be revealed: "Foul deeds will rise, /Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes". To be continued ....

13/10/09
At the moment I'm covering the Junior Cert Course material that deals with the events of the last few days in the life of Jesus. Apart from doing the scripture readings and seeing what the text has to say, I use video clips to illustrate the events. For the Last Supper I used the relevant clip from BBC's Passion (written by the late Frank Deasy), with Joseph Mawle as Jesus. I love the way they do the scene, and it ties in with the later Resurrection sequence where the disciples on the road to Emmaus recognise him in the breaking of bread. For the other scenes I use Jesus of Nazareth clips which haven't dated that much and still hold the students' attention quite well. The trial before the Sanhedrin can be viewed in the clip on left.

12/10/09
Have been covering the Sacrament of Reconciliation during the week, and among the resources I've used have been clips from various dramas that feature Confession scenes I've gathered over the years. Best of all is the scene from The Mission (about quarter way in) where the priest played by Jeremy Irons visits the slave trader played by Robert de Niro who is consumed by guilt after killing his brother in a fight over a woman. The priest challenges him to set his own penance - and there follows a painful trip up the mountains carrying a bundle of his armour that scene also is great for symbolism of guilt and forgiveness. I also use a clip from Ken Loach's film Raining Stones - near the end a man confesses an unintentional killing to a priest, played with dignity by Tom Hickey (anyone remember Benjy from The Riordans?). It's very intense and the emotions are raw but genuine. There's one F-Word in the scene, but in the context I think it's acceptable in a senior class, considering how effective the scene is. Argue with me if I'm wrong! There's a scene in Hamlet (click here to read it and hear an audio file) where the murderous King Claudius tries to repent of his sins but can't because he's not prepared to give up what he has stolen. Kenneth Brannagh, in his film version sets this scene in a Confession box, which heightens the whole repentance theme. The scene ends in the vision of a bloody stabbing (not in Shakespeare!) so I usually cut it just before then. A Confession scene from the old US drama series Nothing Sacred features a usually "trendy liberal" priest giving a hard time to a young student who has got his girlfriend pregnant. One student found the priest too heavy handed, but the young man probably needed a tough reality check. While these scenes teach a lot about the sacrament, I also use two clips that are more for focussing attention - one from the X-Files where Scully seeks advice more than reconciliation in the Confession box, and a similar one from Prison Break where Michael Scofield is having moral quandaries about the way he is letting the ends justify the means, and is having difficulty letting go of his guilt, not quite willing to sin no more. There's certainly something about a Confession box that lends itself to intense drama!

4/10/09
It's rather unseasonal I know, but I've being doing Patrick Kavanagh's poem Advent with a 5th year English class. Sometimes I think I teach more religion in English class. I introduce Advent as a sort of mini-Lent, a time of fasting before the feasting of Christmas. Thus we have the "dry black bread" and the "sugarless tea", symbols of the self-denial that can make us spiritually fit for Christmas (hinted at in imagery like "stables where time begins"). And there is a reward - the recovery of innocence and freshness. Kavanagh makes the need for repentance clear: "We have tested and tasted too much". There is a sense that the poet has overindulged, has become satiated with experience, like a person who feels uncomfortably bloated after too much food or fizzy drink, and so needs to cut back. But Kavanagh is concerned more with inner well-being: "penance will charm back the luxury of a child's soul". And then there will be a change of perspective, once again he will be able to see things as he did when he was a child, he will rediscover "the newness that was in a every stale thing", for example "the spirit-shocking/ Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill". Towards the end of the poem Kavanagh opts for an experiential approach to religion, rather than one that is too analytical/intellectual (Artists 1 - Theologians 0). He wants to experience God and His creation with the heart rather than the head: "we shall not ask for reason's payment … Nor analyse God's breath in common statement". Ironically he rejects another kind of experience - that of sin). He might seem to have a thing against knowledge, but he seems to be reacting against his own over indulgence, negative experiences, knowledge of sin: "The knowledge we stole but could not use". It's not too much of a jump to see a link with the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. Now the "wages" of sin are to be "thrown into the dust-bin" so that Kavanagh can move spiritually refreshed into Christmas and the new year: "Christ comes with a January flower".

I got to use clips from Kings (see below) in class at last! I'm doing the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation with 6th year students and two clips were useful - one from The New King 1 where King Silas forces his son Jack into a humiliating apology. "Forgiveness is an act of love, and I don't love you" he says, imperiously, much to the annoyance of his wife, and follows it with a crude remark. It's unsettling stuff but fitted right in with what we had been discussing in class. In this case neither the apology nor the forgiveness were genuine, but in the next clip, from The New King 2 Rev Samuels makes a heartfelt apology to God for his sins - a model of genuine repentance.

1/10/09
Kings Episode 12 - The New King 2: And so it ends. This episode sees the end of the series and it won't be back - it was cancelled in the USA when it didn't get enough audience support. It was obvious from the finale that certain plot threads were opened up for the second series that was originally envisaged. There are some interesting comments from the show's creator Michael Green (also involved as a producer on Heroes) on the Kings website.
On the religious angles here's what he had to say: "The network had no negative reaction at any stage to religious content within the show. In fact, they encouraged it and found it hopeful…. It was only when time came to market the show that a decision was made not to promote the show as a biblically inspired tale. Fear of reprisal from the religious audience was the described cause. Something NBC has had bad experiences with before. As such, any references to 'King David' were actively avoided, in favor of the limited marketing campaign that many of you saw and have commented on with derision … There was no "religious agenda" among the writers. The writing staff was deliberately comprised of a diverse group of geniuses. Including believers and non-believers, lapsed and actives, people who are atheist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim. All had done their homework. All their perspectives were invaluable…. Most religious viewers actually quite liked the show. Understanding that our creative task was not transcription".
And what a finale! (see highlights in video clip above) It was high-tension stuff all the way as the political and personal conflict between King Silas and his son Jack came to a head. Rev Samuels pays the price for being involved in the plot against Silas - but before that he has an excellent scene of repentance - a heartfelt prayer to God. I'll certainly use that in RE class when I'm doing the topic of repentance. Samuel's remorse is certainly genuine, and it's a powerhouse performance by Eamonn Walker in the role. And his character has a really interesting role to play towards the end of the episode. Samuels wouldn't give his blessing or benediction to the crowning of Jack as King and so fell out of favour with the arch conspirator, Silas' brother-in-law. We got the incongruous scene of a civil servant reading out a pre-prepared blessing instead - saying something about church-state relations perhaps, or about how some states and some politicians can use the trappings of religion to suit their own very secular purposes.
The presence of God is felt strongly in this episode - at one stage Silas begs God for a sign, challenging Him to knock over a whiskey glass! God appears to oblige, but Silas wasn't looking. Later in a knockout scene reminiscent of King Lear, we see Silas in a thunderstorm, talking to God, and apparently being told by God that David is the chosen one to take over the kingdom (no spoiler to those who know their Old Testament David!) - this has been pretty obvious all along, but David hasn't seen it - has just doggedly persisted in his duty to be loyal to the King. He now knows of Silas' evildoing but helps him back to the throne because the plotters are worse and planning war when Silas favoured peace. Silas is not pleased at this news from God, and while at first he seems grudgingly resigned, he declares himself an enemy of God and plans to stop David who must escape into exile.
I hope these reviews have been of interest. After going back to school and having less time I sometimes regretted committing myself to reviewing every episode, but at least the work is done now. Maybe when I get more time I'll write a shorter article to bring all the threads together in a more compact way.

30/9/09
Kings Episode 11- The New King 1: It's a pity they didn't do this as a two-part finale for the series - it would have been a heck of a conclusion. However there was plenty in this episode to satisfy. There was one scene I could see myself using in school with senior classes when dealing with issues relating to forgiveness/reconciliation. King Silas makes his son Jack go through a humiliating and grovelling apology for his actions during the dramatic trial scene conclusion in the previous episode. Obviously I'd see this a lesson in how NOT to do forgiveness! It would make an interesting contrast with the prodigal son story. Without giving too much away the romance between David and Michelle is in trouble, and no-one but Michelle and Queen Rose knows about the baby resulting from the affair between David and Michelle. The political machinations become even more twisted, with David threatened with execution and an assassination plot on Silas. The final scenes are high octane as the fates of the main characters hang in the balance as the political intrigues reach a climax. Roll on the final episode!

I've used U2's song Yahweh several times from the CD (How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb), especially when looking at religious themes in music. Then I found a beautiful acoustic version of it (video on left) from a U2 concert in Chicago. As Bono gets a mention in the RE book Know the Way I thought I'd play this for some junior classes. It has been a big hit with 1st Years - after the first playing of the clip I got plenty of requests to play it again the next day. One student said he'd started learning it on guitar and has promised to play it for the class soon! I never get tired of listening to it myself, though I have mixed feelings about U2. See the lyrics of Yahweh here.

27/9/09
Kings Episode 10 - Javelin: As I expected this was a very dramatic episode. The Americans do trial scenes better than anybody and the trial of David for treason was very tense. I was reminded of the trial of St Thomas Moore, at least as portrayed in A Man for All Seasons. David protested his loyalty to the king even as the king was part of the plot to get him condemned on trumped up charges. He remonstrates with Silas saying his only offence was to keep his affair with Michelle, the King's daughter, a secret - no sign of the affair itself being regarded as a sin! The concluding scene was one of the most dramatic scenes in the series so far. Again the scenes between Rev Samuels and the King are intense and really well written - at one stage he cautions Silas that David is becoming only what he is intended to be - presumable king at a later stage. "Don't give God reason to tear from you this kingdom", he also warns, suggesting his spiritual powers by causing a blackout in the store where they meet. But Samuels has been compromised by an incident in the past and Silas resents him taking the high moral ground now.

RIP - Mary Travers, Frank Deasy
Was very sad last week to hear of the death on Sept 16th of Mary Travers (left), of Peter, Paul and Mary, a folk group that sang and recorded together for five decades, producing a consistently high standard of great music. They popularised the works of Bob Dylan, recorded some of the best civil rights songs of the sixties and often included gospel music in their repertoire. PP&M - traditional standards like Sinner Man, All My Trials, Tell It On the Mountain, along with contemporary Christian music (CCM) like Hymn and Christmas Dinner - both written by Paul (Noel Paul Stookey) who had a solo career in CCM - he wrote The Wedding Song - There is Love. PP&M's album A Holiday Celebration is one of my favourite Christmas albums and I've often used tracks from it in school prayer services. See early video of PP&M here. More tributes and info at peterpaulandmary.com
Frank Deasy also died last week, on Sept 17th. He had been interviewed on RTE Radio 1's Liveline early that week about organ transplants, but unfortunately he didn't last the week. Frank was an award winning TV scriptwriter whose work included BBC's life of Christ The Passion from two years ago, which I reviewed in detail on the blog. His other work included Prime Suspect and this year's Father and Son.

24/9/09
Today I started on Patrick Kavanagh's A Christmas Childhood in English class. It's full of spiritual content. The poem will ring a bell with anyone who has happy memories of Christmas childhoods. The religious aspect of Christmas doesn't get short changed here: there are the "Mass-going feet", the "Three Wise Kings" are brought to mind by three "whin bushes" on the horizon, the cow-house reminds the poet of the stable of Bethlehem: "The light of her stable-lamp was a star/And the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle". And in the imagination of the child "The light between the ricks of hay and straw/Was a hole in heaven's gable". Such use of light, common in religious poetry, also figures strongly elsewhere in the poem - the "stars in the morning east", "the winking glitter of a frosty dawn". Music mightn't have figured strongly in the original Christmas story (apart from the angels singing), but it is prominent here - from the actual music of his father who "played the melodeon", to the metaphorical "music of milking" and the sounds from the paling-post: "the music that came out was magical". But it's not just a poem of happy memories - some deeper philosophical issues are touched on. There is a sense of the sin that has taken the poet away from childhood innocence, and there is that link with knowledge and the Garden of Eden: "O you, Eve, were the world that tempted me/To eat the knowledge that grew in clay/And death the germ within it". He can recover innocence, in a way, by memory ("Now and then/I can remember something of the gay/Garden that was childhood's") and the poem ends with a flower image suggesting innocence: "And I had a prayer like a white rose pinned/On the Virgin Mary's blouse".

20/9/09
Back at school a week or so now, and it's tiring! We don't have Transition Year in our school this year so I won't be doing my religion and arts course. However I've written extensively on this in the blogs over the last few years. This year I'll be trying to use arts resources more consistently in my regular religion classes, so I should have plenty to write about. No doubt, also, I'll be coming across several religious themes in my English teaching. Patrick Kavanagh (pictured, left) and Gerard Manley Hopkins are on the Leaving Cert English course for the exam in 2011, as in Hamlet, so I'll have plenty to write about there. We started with Kavanagh's poem Shancoduff, not one of Kavanagh's most spiritual poems by any means, but it does have an odd Biblical reference - he says that if Lot's wife had been as "incurious" as his "Black hills" of Shancoduff, she wouldn't have turned to a pillar of salt! Kavanagh does tend to go for one-off exotic references.

Kings: Episode 9: Chapter One. A very scriptural episode you might say! While there are various interesting plot developments in this episode, the most interesting angle is the writing of the show's equivalent of Scripture. A scribe in the court of King Silas is writing the Book of Silas. David has been sent on a dangerous mission, to recover the charter of Gilboa (similar in appearance I thought to the American Declaration of Independence) and with him out of the way Silas wants to be the hero of his own story. David's plight is not the only example of someone being sent into dangerous territory, perhaps with a view to his convenient demise (what King David story does that remind you of?). However the writing of this particular scripture takes a different turn and we end up with the writing of the Book of David. It's fascinating and subtle. On the plot level the Queen and King are up to their usual machinations, abusing their power in secret, while often appearing magnanimous to the general public. There is an interesting discussion between King Silas and David's mother about David's destiny - a destiny that will not appeal to mother or king ("You and I will wish it never happened", she says to him). Ian McShane continues to chew the scenery as Silas - I'm be disappointed he's not nominated for an Emmy Award. Silas' relationship with God continues to intrigue - in this episode he again feels that he is not in God's favour (not surprising!) - he asks "Why does he reject all my offerings?". The dramatic ending of this episode, the arrest of David, promises some intense scenes to come.

13/9/09
Kings Episode 8, Pilgrimage: David joins King Silas on a "pilgrimage", but to his surprise it's a visit to Silas' lover - it seems he is rekindling that affair after abandoning it in some sort of deal with God (as he imagines it) to save the son he had in this relationship. David is not so forthcoming about his affair with the King's daughter Michelle, leading to major trust issues. Meanwhile the Queen is desperate to keep her son Jack's gay affair out the public eye, increasingly difficult after his lover tries to go public and commits suicide. Quite a potboiler. Of course the Bible stories on which all this is more than loosely based features lots of immoral goings on, but the moral perspective was clear, whereas in Kings the moral perspective is far from Biblical! David's affair with Michelle is, I think, seen in a favourable light (though the deception aspect of it threatens to cause them serious trouble), while a modern gay rights agenda seems more and more strongly to inform the story of Jack's difficulties. The lover who commits suicide is, to an extent, worryingly portrayed as a hero (even by Rev Samuels who presides at the funeral and is seen by many of the kingdom to have the voice of God), while Jack is tempted to come out of the closet - the programme seems to take the point of view that he should embrace his homosexuality.

31/8/09
Kings Episode 7: The Sabbath Queen. I've just started watching the series Heroes and may write about that at a later stage, but I notice that the creator of Kings, Michael Green, was also a producer on that show and wrote some of the episodes (a point made in the interview - clip on left - with Susannah Thompson who plays Queen Rose Benjamin in Kings). Not surprising in a way, as both shows are interested in philosophical issues.
I've started adding the programme titles to these reviews as there is some variation in the episode numbering on various websites - depending on whether the opening double was numbered just as episode 1, or as 1 and 2. The official website doesn't number the episodes, and for some reason leaves out the episode "Judgement Day".
This "Sabbath Queen" episode slowed down the pace. The city of Shiloh is hit by a power blackout and various characters take advantage of the darkness - Jack to resume briefly his gay love affair, David and Michelle to have a one-night stand and an unidentified assassin to make an attempt on the king's life - you'd think these people never got out! I was reminded about various Biblical quotes about sin and darkness - e.g. this one from John 3:19: "Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil", or this from Ephesians 5: 8-13: "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible".
Apart from the assassination attempt, it wasn't clear that the one night stands were seen as sinful - yes, they were furtive, and in the case of David and Michelle, you'd get the impression it was going to come back to haunt them, but you could argue that the programme was portraying these events as good, hardly a Biblical perspective. And again they were portrayed in a way that would make teachers hesitant in using the material in schools.
David still seems to want to do God's will, but wonders which of the voices in his head come from God, and there was an another interesting God-thread in is episode, conveyed mostly through flashbacks - the whole idea of making deals with God. When Michelle was young she was at death's door, in fact what appeared to be a personification of death arrived to take her, but Silas bargained for her life. Ironically, so did Michelle herself, vowing a life of service to humanity rather than to herself, if she survived. She seems to regard this as precluding her from marriage, but curiously not from an affair with David! Not exactly a vow of celibacy. So, which deal, if any, saved her life? Stay tuned.

23/8/09

Gave a plug during the summer to the band L'Angélus who were touring in Ireland and performed at Catholic Underground events. After listening to them on Today With Pat Kenny on RTE Radio 1 I ordered one of their CDs, Sacred Hymns Collection, and it was certainly worth it. There's great music on the CD that is suitable for school use, for meditation, school choirs and folk groups. What I like best is the fresh contemporary arrangements given to familiar hymns, especially the beautiful version of Be Thou My Vision, which I think will help young people discover the value and beauty of songs that have become too familiar in uninspired arrangements. I've often thought that the old hymns needed an uplift. Many contemporary Irish performers have reinvigiorated old Irish folks songs, rescuing them from come-all-ye hell, but I'm still waiting for a similar approach to our heritage of great hymns. This release will help, as did some tracks by Van Morrison (who also recorded Be Thou My Vision) and Beth Nielsen Chaman (on her Hymns and Prism albums), but I'm still waiting for the definitive work! See also my review of the album here.

Kings Episode 6: Brotherhood. Yet another shift of mood in Kings this episode as two new plot lines develop. The city of Gilboa is struck by a plague (very Old Testament!) and King Silas orders a curfew reminiscent of the Passover - he even mentions a passing over and avoiding the "angel of death", as every household is asked to put a candle in the window as a sign of solidarity. Of course the Passover is out of sync chronologically with the Saul/David story in the Bible which provides most of the characters and plotlines, but the writers of Kings are not setting out to provide an exact parallel and there are all sorts of resonances from elsewhere in the Bible and from more modern events. In the plague story for example Michelle annoys her mother the Queen by tending to a young boy who is dying alone from the plague - "she can't be mother to them all", a phrase which brought Mary, the mother of Jesus to my mind at least.
Silas blames God for the plague - He tests me beyond endurance, he complains to Rev Samuels, who suggests the problem is something rotten within his kingdom, a poison that needs to be purged (hints of Macbeth and Hamlet?)
Meanwhile on the political front David and the King's son Jack are on a mission to capture a terrorist - the visual style here, as they fight in the forests, reminded me of stories about partisans in World War II (as in the recent film Defiance).
The relationship between David and Jack (Jonathan in the Bible) develops - Jack resents David, seeing him as a usurper of his father's attentions, yet he says he doesn't regard him as an enemy, in fact he can't understand David. There are hints of the Prodigal Son story here (actor Sebastian Stan as Jacks exudes an intense anguish of jealousy), and it's a plot that figures strongly in films like Gladiator and Road to Perdition - the inadequate son replaced in the affections of the leader by a newcomer, who becomes the son and heir the leader wished his real son had been. The relationship between Jack and David gets more intricate as each saves the other's life during the mission, and both end up in the embrace of King Silas, who has just seen off another challenge to his authority.

11/8/09
Kings Episode 5: Judgement Day: One of the things I like about this programme is the way each new episode (so far) has something distinctive - a change of location, a change of tone, a new character or whatever, so there are always surprises. This episode centres around Judgement Day - a special event in the Kingdom of Gilboa when the King takes on ten cases to deliver his own personal judgement - "divine wisdom my only counsel" he says. Sounds a bit like Solomon, and sure enough his son Jack passes some sarcastic comment about cutting babies in half. Petitioners make their pleas in orange envelopes and the dramatic sight of thousands of these strewn around the palace floors is a powerful image of dashed hopes. David is torn between loyalty to the King and loyalty to his family as his brother Ethan goes on trial for treason. Chris Egan as David (pictured above with Ian McShane as Silas) portrays the pain so convincingly. Struggling with his dilemma he says he doesn't even know if there is a God, but later in an interesting discussion with the king feels he understands the ways of God - he sees God working through King Silas, as he seems to accept Silas' declaration: "I am justice".
The romantic subplot between David and Michelle the King's daughter (Michal, daughter of Saul from the Bible) takes a few interesting twists, while the mysterious Edward (Macaulay Culkin), the Queen's nephew, returns from exile. The best scenes I think are those intense discussions between King Silas and David (as at the end of this episode) and the king and Rev Samuels, usually about faith and God's will. Some of these would be useful for RE teaching. Unfortunately I can't say the same for an unpleasant sex scene, fairly strong by US network TV standards, at the start of this episode.

2/8/09
Kings Episode 4: As expected, a much more political episode this time and quite a political thriller, with lots of tension crammed into the 45 minutes. Lots of Holy Land suggestions with the people of Port Prosperity rebelling against the King's decision to hand back this land to neighbouring Gath as part of the peace process. The locals don't want their God-given "promised land" to be handed over or divided. You couldn't help but see parallels from Bible times to the modern Middle East. And in the portrayal of the shipyard riots there was surely a visual reference to the Solidarity protests in Poland.
Ian McShane continues to excel in the role of King Silas while Chris Egan perfectly captures the pain of the innocent David - trying to be loyal to his King and to his family in Port Prosperity. A political coup is thwarted, the King's son Jack (presumably a parallel for Saul's son Jonathan in the Bible) is even plotting against him. There's even a possible dig at CNN - the TV news in the Kingdom of Gilboa is UNN, and there's interesting talk of the news being "crafted"! Fascinating stuff, and if you weren't aware of the Biblical connections you'd probably find it so and even more intriguing.

30/7/09
On last Sunday's episode of Joe Duffy's Spirit Level on RTE 1 Helen Toner of the recent Knock Youth Festival reckoned that music was very effective at engaging young people, and sure enough there was some quality Christian rock on the show (a genre underexposed in the Irish media) - from the North of Ireland there was a video of the Rend Collective Experiment (the song was more accessible than the name!), and in the studio we got another soulful gospel song from Padraig Rushe (pictured above) - a former Dublin Gospel Choir singer who has a promising solo recording career - check him out on My Space.
It wasn't just the musical arts that figured on the programme. The recent Icons in Transformation exhibition in Christchurch was really unusual, and not just because the Protestant Church, according to Joe Duffy, was traditionally suspicious of religious images. The work of Ludmilla Pawlowska of the Eastern Orthodox Church was a combination of traditional icons and modern works inspired by them. It was striking how much the human eye figured prominently in the modern works, and how the colours were just as vibrant as in the traditional counterparts, but in a very different way.
Last Thursday Cajun group L'Angelus played a superb live set for Today With Pat Kenny on RTE Radio 1, which included a beautiful rendition of Be Thou My Vision. While they play many "secular" gigs their Catholic faith is important to them and to the whole Cajun culture. In their Irish tour they have been playing for the Catholic Underground, an innovative group that combines prayer and the arts, an initiative described enthusiastically on the show by Fr Sylvester of the Friars of the Renewal in Moyross. On the strength of that show I've just bought their album Sacred Hymns Collection and will review it here shortly.

26/7/09
Kings: Episode 3 (Shown on RTE 2 last Thurs). Episode 3 moved at a slower pace than usual and had a very different mood. The King's son Jack took young David on a sleazy night out in the city, but despite Jack's best efforts he kept his virtue (though there are photos that falsely suggest otherwise) - he still seems smitten by the King's daughter. We learn that the King's wife has been the architect of the kingdom and it's royal family ("we are the performance" she says as the great and good of Shiloh come to a ballet), a kingdom that she has moulded from when it was just a place of warring tribes, and she'll be as manipulative as it takes to keep it that way.
Since his alienation from God King Silas complains "My plans are frustrated", and he returns to God and Rev Samuels for help when his love child gets seriously ill leading to some interesting exchanges about what God wants by way of sacrifice - he accidentally knock's over a deer and wonders if that will do! The Biblical flavour is present, and not just in the storyline - King Silas's love child is called Seth, in the Bible one of Adam and Eve's sons; there's talk of David's star "shining bright"; talk of an alternative sacrificial lamb; and when a sponsor wants to pay ten times more for a seat beside David than for a seat beside the king, the Queen feels the sense of threat - "David commands his 100,000, the King commands his 10,000".
The next episode promises to be more political as resentment is brewing over Silas giving away some Gilboan territory to seal a peace treaty with Gath. Rev Samuels disapproves as part of the deal with God (covenant?) seems to be "undivided lands, as promised", perhaps a suggestion of present day issues in the Middle East as well as in Biblical times. You could even see and Irish political reference in that, though somehow I doubt it was intended!

20/7/09

The only thing disappointing about Episode 2 of Kings (the Old Testament modernisation on RTE 2 Thursday nights) was the fact that it was only 40 minutes or so in length - the pilot had obviously been a double episode. Though settling into series mode the quality remained as high.
Plot wise, David continues to serve King Silas in the city of Shiloh, not realising that Silas plans to have him assassinated as he considers him a threat. David's character (sympathetically played by Christopher Egan) is appealing - though he can be naive, he is gentle and idealistic, and in most cases is diplomatic, always finding the right word to say in awkward situations. The Biblical King David's interest in music is reflected in David's interest in playing the piano. In this episode he takes drastic action to save the peace treaty with Gath, without which he reckons his brother's death will have been pointless. In this episode there's a strong emphasis on a sense of destiny for David. His mother Jesse feels this and wants him home because he thinks it will be dangerous. Silas feels it, feels threatened and wants him dead. David himself wants to follow the signs given to him. He gets some very strong "Don't go" messages, including one dramatic scene where he apparently dreams that Silas is calling out "Don't go" to God in the Heavens. His dead brother appears with the same message, but it takes David a while to figure out how he should apply it.
Rev Samuels doesn't figure so much this time, and Silas believes he can manage without his benediction. The political shenanigans continue in the kingdom as the King's brother in law tries to ruin him by withdrawing gold from the treasury, while welcome comic relief is developed through two of the temple guards who have to clear some birds (pigeons or possibly doves) out of the palace. The birds have a symbolic role interfering in the assassination plot on David in the dramatic conclusion. There is excellent background material on Matt Page's Bible Films Blog, while the official website for the series features some useful material, though the clips and full episodes are for US viewers only.

19/7/09
I watched the first episode of Kings again last night (see entry for 12/7) and found it useful to have a second viewing. Since then I've also done some revision on the Old Testament stories on which this modernisation is based. I'm still positive about the show - it's visually appealing and intelligently scripted. The Biblical parallels are fairly clear - King Silas (a great performance from Ian McShane) is Saul, Rev Samuels is the prophet Samuel, the kingdom of Gath (with their Goliath tanks!) is presumably the Philistines (in the Bible Gath was one of the royal cities of the Phillistines). Jesse is David's mother rather than his father as in the Bible. Apart from such clear references there is an "Old Testament flavour" permeating the show - e.g. in the names of other characters and places - Eli (David's brother), Benjamin (the surname of the royal family), Shiloh (King Silas' new city, and in the Bible an important city for the people of Israel), Gilboa (Silas' kingdom in the show, but a mountain where King Saul was killed in battle in the Bible). You could even detect a New Testament element - in one emotional scene when David offers his blood to Gath people in order to make peace, the sense of self sacrifice was reminiscent of Jesus' own sacrifice. And I was further reminded of the American political background with the reference to "the Vineyard" - seemed to be a summer palace for the king, reminiscent of Martha's Vineyard in USA, which had links with US politicians including the Clintons.
Review of episode 2 to follow soon.

14/7/09
The Message Behind the Movie by Douglas M Beaumont is a new book about "how to engage with a film without disengaging your faith". Beaumont, who teaches Bible and philosophy at the Southern Evangelical Seminary in North Carolina USA, has a work that is really three books in one. At times it's a work of Christian apologetics from a Protestant perspective (in fact the Protestant sensibility is evident many times). I particularly liked his outline of how reasonable it is to believe in God and can see myself using some of that material in school. Secondly there's an ongoing piece of fiction running through the book as some young adults talk about faith using various films as starting points. I found this the weakest point in the book as it's not compelling fiction, and more distracts from than illustrates the points the author is making. The treatment of faith and films is the core of the book, and what is said is thought provoking, though I'd like to see a more in-depth in approach. The films used as examples are right up to date, and it's good for a change to find a book considering the moral implications of films, not just their artistic merit. Particularly useful is the point that even if we consider a film harmless because it mightn't have an adult rating, it's important also to consider the values being imparted even if the content seems innocuous enough. The book also has the feel of a manual, aimed perhaps at the education market - the exposition is straightforward and there are "Reflection Questions" at the end of each section. Further, there's a very detailed reference section at the end which contains lots of interesting side comments.

12/7/09
Kings is a new American drama series that started on RTE 2 last Thursday night and it certainly is different. It's a modernisation of the story of the kings in the Old Testament, with David being a central character.
The setting seems vaguely American, present day, but the leader is a king, King Silas. He presides over a powerful kingdom and as the story starts dedicates the new city of Shiloh, an urban landscape not unlike New York. He's at war with the neighbouring kingdom of Gath a conflict that provides a background of political intrigue. Silas is convinced that he has God's approval, symbolised by a mystical experience with butterflies, and has been anointed to his role by the mysterious Rev Samuels. He is quite upfront about declaring this despite the unease of his political advisors ("God isn't popular at the moment"). However he is no paragon of virtue, not averse to bumping off political opponents, and having a mistress on the side despite his loving family and finally Rev Samuels tells him he has lost God's favour and protection because he agreed to a treacherous war at the behest of a ruthless businessman to whom he is beholden. David appears as a David Shepherd (clever!), a country boy who has risen to prominence in the war because he saved the king's son Jack (does every series have to have a Jack?), and in the process knocked out a tank called Goliath!
Earlier Rev Samuels had met him and in wiping a car oil smudge off his face seemed to anoint him for great things in the future. By the end of this episode David is visited by the butterflies while Silas looks on ruefully, while the shadowy businessman is plotting to put the pliable, grumpy and secretly gay Jack on the throne - in a modern nod to political correctness Silas tells him that if he lives his life "as God made him" he won't be fit for the throne. The programmer works on a least three levels - firstly it's a reasonably good political thriller, featuring all the usual conniving, with some of the clichés of the genre balanced by many imaginative touches. Secondly it could be viewed as a political allegory - a way of teasing out the political power issues of modern America - the war scenes for example take place in a desert where the visual imagery is suggestive of Afghanistan or Iraq. And thirdly of course there's the obvious Biblical parallel - I watched it before I revised my Old Testament so I could judge that it stood on its own as a good story, but these Biblical references make it fascinating, adding that extra layer that makes it stand out. So far I find it respectful to religion. Of course you'd squirm at the idea of a modern despot (even if he's benign at times) claiming divine approval, but Rev Samuels provides a moral grounding in his role as prophet or conscience - "don't pretend I don't know" he says to Silas on several occasions.
This show has been running for some time in the USA where it has met with mixed fortunes - it started out in prime time but has since been bumped to a less prominent slot, though not as bad as what RTE has done with it - virtually ensuring obscurity by plonking it after midnight.
As regards using it in school, I'll certainly be adding clips when I do religious themes in drama with Transition Year, but there are many useful clips for other topics, especially those encounters with Rev Samuel - could be useful for classes on conscience, on anointing in the sacraments, on church-state relations, relevance of bible stories for modern times and more.

2/7/09
I'm surprised and delighted to see so many events/initiatives this summer in the faith/arts area. Check out the news page for full details, but there's the Quilty Artists, a new group for those interested in this area, a summer conference, on the Image of God, in Glenstal Abbey, organised by the International Society of Christian Artists, an exhibition of Icons in Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin, a songwriting competition for the Year of Evangelisation in Dublin diocese, and quite a few interesting events in the National Concert Hall Dublin, including the intriguing Rosary for Solo Piano!

Hollywood actor and Oscar winner Karl Malden died yesterday at the age of 97. One of his most famous roles was as the priest Fr Barry in On the Waterfront (1954). The clip on the left shows him speaking out against mob corruption, and makes for a great classroom resource on many topics from justice to the religion in film.

22/6/09
I went to the MAD (Make a Difference) Christian Music Festival in Glenealy Co. Wicklow last Sunday and caught some good performances. I didn't catch every band, but Emmaus was the best of what I did see. Fronted by Ronan Johnston they performed some driving Christian Rock as well as some meditative worship music. Particularly impressive were their new version of St Patrick's breastplate (Patrick's Shield) and the moving You Have Never Let Me Down, both on their new album Mountaintop. Ben Cantelon and Soul Survivor, returning from last year, were similar in style. Also returning was Shel Perris. Her material was very dance orientated, sung to backing tracks, which wasn't my cup of tea, but she impressed in the few slower, ballads-type, songs she performed with her band.
Many T-Shirts proclaimed "God Loves Hip-Hop", but I found that group LZ7 way too loud and took a walk to the Mad Café tent, one of the best new ideas this year, a new stage which featured (apart from the food) some more low key and acoustic groups. The Revival Gospel Choir from Arklow livened the place up big time, while groups Just Mercy and Water's Edge produced good music without being the least bit flashy. Two members of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal sang a few heartfelt spiritual songs and seemed to go down well with the audience, a majority of which was probably non-Catholic Christian.
As a non-denominational Christian event it was quite interesting - evangelical prayer groups in some areas (even to the side of the main stage), the Franciscan Friars having impromptu prayers in another corner of the field, and everybody having a great time in the sunshine. And what a great venue - a huge flat field, plenty of room, more than adequate parking and toilet facilities. Great place to be on the longest day!

15/6/09
The Shack: This novel by William Paul Young has been a big hit in evangelical circles, and while I enjoyed parts of it, I have some issues with it. Without giving too much away, it's about Mack, a man whose daughter Missy is kidnapped. During his trauma Mack meets God and learns a lot about himself, about life and about God.
The earlier part of the book, including the kidnapping, is really well written, as gripping as any thriller, with thoroughly interesting characters. In the long middle section, where he meets God, the pace slows down dramatically, to suit that unusual plot development, but I felt it took from the novel as a novel. In that section it was too much like a theology book, too much like the author rather unsubtly using the characters to drive home his own vision of God. I like theology and I like fiction, but theology thinly veiled as fiction I'm not too keen on.
However I did like the way God is portrayed - the imagery is striking. God is most definitely portrayed as a Trinity. God the Father is Papa, no surprises there, but Papa is a kindly female figure - God needs to approach Mack this way as Mack has had unhappy experiences with his own father. Jesus is Jesus, another kindly figure who loves Mack and accompanies him on parts of his journey of discovery. The Holy Spirit is Sarayu, an ethereal being, hard to pin down, hard to focus on. God is entirely loving, forgiving and understanding, altogether a pleasantly warm presence. I particularly liked the bit where God has hung pictures painted by humans in the Shack - just like any loving parent would hang picture painted by their young children.
There is an issue with a human writer putting words in God's mouth that aren't scriptural, and any Christian writer has to proceed with caution. God has a lot to say in this novel, and at times He's overly dismissive of religion, and even politics, which grated. Also He's not keen on moral rules, which I thought was naïve on the writer's part. Fair enough, some believers can be too legalistic, and also if we are all perfect, we would be moral without any need for rules, but we're far from perfect!
The novel falls into the trap of going for spirituality over religion, which to me suggests of an underlying distaste for the imperfect community of struggling and flawed believers who make up any religion.

7/6/09
Got a chance at the weekend to see a preview of the film Sinner, a new independent film from USA. It looked promising, but was a real disappointment. The storyline features a middle-aged priest (Fr Romano) who had a secret love affair in the past that he feels guilty about. He has to share a parish with a young priest (Fr Stephen) who is conservative but in an unpleasant way (surprise, surprise) e.g. he rails against Vatican II liberals. Eventually Fr Romano sends him away for psychiatric evaluation! Yes, it's a bad time to be conservative! Into this mix comes a prostitute who preys on priests - Fr Stephen hits her - to protect his celibacy, he says. She tries to blackmail him but Fr Romano takes a more compassionate approach, though resists her advances. Meanwhile Fr Stephen takes pictures to build up a case against Fr Romano with the bishop. It's a pretty hackneyed male fantasy pot-boiler as might be obvious by now, but perhaps something good might have been made of it. However it's ruined by poor pacing and plotting, stereotypes and most of all by many objectionable elements - nudity, loads of foul language and many distasteful scenes.

5/6/09
Shock horror! I've just discovered I've written no blog entry for May! A sign of how busy things were in school. I'll make up for it in June. I've barely managed to get some new stuff and the news page and keep the media previews updated. Anyway, time to put things right. I've always regretted not writing down every funny thing I've got in exams or homeworks from students. Correcting TY exams recently a student was discussing art and religion and referred to Michelangelo painting the "16th Chapel"! Mentioned this in the staffroom but a history teacher had also got this in the past.

30/4/09
I've started working on Eucharist with my 6th Year students. It's rather late in the year I know, but I'm trying to lead into the Graduation Mass and make it more meaningful. It's not easy to get attention at this time of year so it's a struggle. A few days ago I used a few useful video clips and these really did hold the attention of the students.
First off I showed the Last Supper scene from BBC's Passion - it's very down to earth and realistic but doesn't hedge on the Eucharist. I take it from the start of the washing of feet scene (around 3mins 15 seconds into the clip on left) and on to where Jesus and the apostles rise from the meal. Then I go to the post resurrection where Jesus meets the disciples on the road to Emmaus - Jesus is played by a different actor, which works really well I think, until they recognise him in the breaking of bread - the Eucharist scene here matches the Last Supper scene and showing the clips together effectively makes a point. For contrast I then showeed the Last Supper scene from BBC's Manchester Passion - (you can se the full video here - the scene is 10 mins 30 secs into this video) - it's a modern setting, with music, where Jesus uses a burger bun and a bottle of wine - sounds "off" but I find it serious and respectful. The song used is Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, which some of the students knew and even sang along with in one class!

27/4/09
Regular readers will know I look forward to the musical items on the show Spirit Level, the monthly religious magazine programme on RTE 1, and once again I wasn't disappointed. There were two soulful performers - Padraig Rushe, formerly of the Dublin Gospel Choir sang the catchy Free Now from his new album Greyworld, while Joseph Fitzgerald's best song was the haunting and unaccompanied "Deep". See it all at the Spirit Level website.

17/4/09
Recently I finished reading an excellent novel - Danny Gospel by American writer David Athey. It came highly recommended and I wasn't disappointed. It's a spiritual novel, but the touch is light, and it's not doing any heavy evangelising. Danny Gospel, the central character, has an interesting family background - part of a family gospel singing group, but a family that has known great tragedy. Yet the tragedy is blended with hope, and while at times the approach seems surreal and mystical there are no pat solutions. At times it's achingly beautiful and at times achingly painful, as Danny searches for meaning after the events of 9/11 leave a profound mark on him. I love books and films where the minor characters are well developed and this is certainly the case here. I came back every night to the book as I would to a good thriller, and have just started re-reading it and am enjoying it all over again, and hoping to make better sense of what mystified me first time around. It has been well received as the reviews on Amazon testify (and on Amazon, with the "look inside" feature you can even read the first 12 pages), and I'd certainly recommend it to Religious Education teachers for their own enjoyment and inspiration. Selected passages might also be useful for senior classes doing "search for meaning".

16/4/09
Oh well, I'm disappointed with the way the 24 series has turned out. I had hoped for more of a redemption theme (see previous entry) but when the new series started one of the first things was Jack Bauer defending his questioning techniques (i.e. torture!) to a legal hearing, and it was the investigator who was trying to combat human rights abuses who came across as the fussy one! In the second episode there was a corny scene where a young policeman driving Bauer said he thought Bauer was getting a raw deal. The only sop to a changing attitude was Bauer saying he wanted it all out in the open, so the public he was so patriotically protecting could judge how far they wanted him to go. The end justifies the means in 24 land! Ironically in another scene Bauer warns against the dangers of compromising on standards. He should take some of his own medicine. OK, it's still riveting drama, heightened by the trademark real-time approach, and the new female president (a Hilary Clinton look-alike) looks like a decent sort, concerned with human rights abuses in a fictional African country. Also, it's early days yet, or should I say early hours, so maybe things will improve.

6/4/09
The US drama series 24 has returned and started on RTE last Monday night with a two hour drama special to lead into the new series. 24: Redemption has been out on DVD for a few months, and the cover tells us that Jack Bauer has been working as a missionary in Africa, so I was intrigued, as Jack has been a rather ruthless anti-terrorist agent up to now, a bit of a fascist actually, torturing prisoners, even the innocent. As always it was a tense and riveting drama, but I felt they could have done more with the redemption theme. If anything, redemption comes for a friend of Jack's who is seems to be a missionary of sorts working with disadvantaged children in a troubled African country. Jack is helping out at the school, though whether to make up for his sins as one character suggests, or just to hide out from the American authorities (sleazy stereotypes as usual!) isn't too clear. The issue of child soldiers is central to the story and Jack certainly shows courage in defending them, but I can't help feeling that for the programme makers this is just an excuse, a plot on which to hang some vicious fighting and blood letting. Maybe I'm too cynical about this. I'll watch the new series for the drama and tension, and hope that the redemption theme is continued, but I wouldn't be hopeful that religion teachers will find much in 24 that they can use in class. Check out a video trailer for 24: Redemption at Amazon's page for the DVD.

Right, I learned a lesson this week - never do a prayer servivce on April Fool's Day! I brought a group of 1st year students to the prayer room for service leading into Holy Week and Easter. I was all set with my music selections and prayers, but it went pear-shaped. The students were unsettled for April 1st, and then started acting up because allegedly there was a spider in the room. It wasn't a pretty sight to see 1st years getting so agitated about a spider. I assumed this was an April Fool's prank and soldiered on with great difficulty. Later I returned on my own to the prayer room and found the remains of a poor spider - so maybe there was something in it. Anyway, lesson learned!

26/3/09
Have enjoyed doing the Resurrection with my 3rd Year students. Apart from reading the gospel accounts and doing the theological content I showed the Resurrection scenes from Jesus of Nazareth and from BBC's Passion. Students did well at figuring out what was left in or left out or added for the video. On the BBC version they had no problem with the different actors playing Jesus after the Resurrection, a novel way to get across the idea of Mary Magdalen and the disciples on the road to Emmaus not recognising him at first, but they weren't too keen on the way Mary Magdalen looses the cool and starts throwing stones around when she finds the empty tomb. Though I've seen both versions several times I still find them very moving.

24/3/09
Last Sunday I tuned into the second episode of RTE's new monthly religious programme Spirit Level, and again I was quite pleased with the content. The formula was the same - a mixture of discussion and musical items. Not exactly an innovative format (it reminds me of BBC's now defunct Heaven and Earth show), but hey, it's "easy like Sunday morning", and in my book it works. I was curious to know what musical items would feature this time - appropriately there was a less familiar than usual Ave Maria by singing group Acabella, and at the end a song by Ronan Keating from a new album of his mother's favourites. I'm not a Keating fan (boy bands yuk) but he sang one of my favourite songs, Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time so I was conflicted. It was well sung, but was a music video, which lost the sense of immediacy and presence of a live performance. The two shows broadcast so far can be viewed here.
Still on the artistic beat there was an item about the new film The Secret of Kells, an animated feature about a young boy working on the famous book. Director Tomm Moore accepted it wasn't a religious story as such, but of course it had religious symbolism. He had set his story at a crossover point between the old pagan ways and the new Christian way and, as he put it, wanted to be respectful to al that was going on then. In reflective mode he felt a bond between the original illuminators of the book and the present day animators. Certainly judging by the clips shown it is a beautifully animated work. Robin Adams of Trinity College Library that is home to the Book of Kells was happy to be associated with this project as he felt the book was treated with respect in Moore's work. The film's website has resources for schools, trailers and lots more. See also News page.

16/3/09
Had my best laugh of the week watching the world premier of a new Simpsons episode In the Name of the Grandfather - it's a special on Sky 1 for St Patrick's Day (7.30 pm), but I got an invite to an advance screening today in the Lighthouse Cinema, Smithfield Dublin.
Best of all was getting to meet Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart), James L. Brooks, (Producer) and Al Jean, (Executive Producer). They were really good humoured people who obviously still enjoyed their work. Getting paid to play! There wasn't a lot of time for detailed discussion but I asked Brooks about the way the show portrayed religion, and he said that they just wanted to show a regular family that watches TV and goes to Church every Sunday! With around 15 writers working on the show I didn't get the impression that there was any party line on religion. I asked Al Jean about the target audience - yes it was originally conceived as an adult show, but it was obvious considering the format that children would be drawn to it. And while they didn't aim the show directly at children, they didn't intend to do anything "R" rated. Cartwright was really enthusiastic about her work and obliged with a few of the funny voices. Interestingly she lamented the lack of positive role models for young people today, but accepted that Bart Simpson wasn't quite what she had in mind.

As for the episode itself - of course you'd expect a rake of Irish stereotypes as the Simpsons came to Ireland - and it would be churlish to complain. They did it quite cleverly - having most of the Oirish clichés in Grandpa Abe Simpson's flashback to when he spent great times on the Emerald Isle, and so there were pints galore, dancin' in bars and cabbage on tap as runny as the beer. So now as he returns years later (on a Derry Air plane) all is changed as the Celtic tiger has transformed the land (this was written last summer!) - Abe's favourite pub is empty, the owner (voiced by Colm Meaney) can't even remember how to pronounce pub or pint, and everywhere you look there's signs of dubious progress - we get glimpses of the Hewlett Fitzpackard and Mick R O'Soft companies, and yupprechauns walk the streets. As they tire of this new bland Ireland they are encouraged to stay by a busker - yes, it was Glen Hansard from the film Once in one of the funniest turns in the episode.
Homer and Abe revive the pub by letting people defy the smoking ban - until they are busted by the gardai - the scriptwriters' research slipped up here with "Police" instead of "Garda" signs. As usual there were a few crude bits, but no religious content. When it does do religion it can range from gentle mockery to support, but whatever the case it amazes me how the show can keep the standard of writing so fresh and funny for twenty years and around 450 episodes.

13/3/09

Today I was covering the theme of search for meaning in modern culture with a 2nd year class - I normally do this kind of thing with senior classes, so I wondered how I'd fare out. We looked at examples from music today and will look at film and TV next week. One resource I found useful in class was the music download site 7Digital - as I was referring to search for meaning, especially spiritual meaning, in the songs of the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan etc. I was able to play clips of these songs using the preview facility on the site. Actually, necessity was the mother of invention as I'd forgotten my CDs! One student suggested Heal the World by Michael Jackson, but unfortunately I couldn't find it. Found it later though by first checking which of his albums it came from (Dangerous). I've found 7Digital a great resource for finding individual songs for class. They only cost around 99 cent, and many come in MP3 format with no digital rights restrictions, so they should be easy to burn to CD or transfer to memory stick for classroom use. I've rarely searched for a track in vain, and the sites includes a huge range of gospel/spiritual/religious music. You can pay per song rather than having to pay a subscription per month as with some download sites.

11/3/09
Have started on my module about religious themes in poetry with Transition Year students. Fortunately the course poems for Leaving Cert 2011 are available so I'm able to include the incentive that these poems relate directly to their Leaving Cert course. Kavanagh and Hopkins are on for that year so I'm spoiled for choice - started with three Kavanagh poems - Advent, Canal Bank Walk and A Christmas Childhood. It was hard to get the students' enthusiasm going, but their discussion of the poems was perceptive. Hopkins next week! That'll be an even greater challenge.

6/3/09

Have just come across a beautiful Stations of the Cross presentation online that could be used in class as part of the preparation for Holy Week. Stained glass artist Richard King produced this work which is available as an online slideshow - the pictures move on rather quickly so you may want to use the pause button. The original work is in Swinford Church. See it here.

Writer Christopher Nolan figured in religion texts in the 80's. Nolan had to write with his mother's help using a "unicorn stick" on a word processor, a witness to human dignity showing great creativity despite his disability. Unfortunately Nolan died recently. I came across a nice tribute to him from fellow blogger Raymond Arroya. Check it out here.

Yesterday I wrote about my Religious Themes in Drama module in Transition Year. I used many of the same resources as last year (check out the drama archive - link on left). One new resource I used when doing the section on animated drama was Give Up Yer Aul Sins - animated versions on Dublin youngsters from the 60's telling gospel stories. It went down really well with my students (15 year old boys). Fortunately this is now readily available on YouTube. The one I used, about the death of Jesus is the video on left.

5/3/09
Yesterday in school we had our annual visit from the Covenant Players, a group of travelling Christian actors. This was part of the Religious Themes in Drama module in Transition Year. Once again it went well - apart from some interesting and entertaining plays the actors involved the students in various drama exercises.

On other fronts I'm doing the last days of Jesus as part of the 3rd Year exam course - we read the different scriptural versions and then after each segment I show the relevant clip from Jesus of Nazareth for the most part. I used the Last Supper scene from the BBC Passion, with Joseph Mawle as Jesus. When I get to the Resurrection I'll use that again as it presents it in an unusual way - with two other actors playing Jesus - to convey how Mary Magdalen and the disciples on the road to Emmaus didn't recognise him. For the arrest, trial and passion of Jesus the Robert Powell portrayal in Jesus of Nazareth is fine.It's interesting to see how the different gospel accounts are blended. The clip on left is of the questioning of Jesus before the Sanhedrin and also Peter's denial.

Have just finished doing the Sacrament of the Sick with 6th years. Among the resources I used were Hopkins' poem Felix Randal which shows in a very personal way the priest administering the last sacrament. I also played the song Now is the Time for Tears by Charlie Peacock from the excellent Coram Deo album - this is based on Job, and imagines a bereaved person asking his friends to grieve with him rather than try to fix him. Had also planned to play John Michael Talbot's beautiful Healer of My Soul but ran out of time.

28/2/09
The 80th anniversary of the Vatican state was celebrated recently. First I heard of this was on Salt and Light TV on the web (well worth a look), on their Zoom programme of news updates. There was a special Vatican concert featuring The Messiah performed by the RTE Concert Orchestra and Our Lady's Choral Society from Dublin. Pope Benedict attended and spoke of the value of music in announcing Christ, because it makes mystery perceptible with an eloquence completely its own. RTE's news coverage of the event can be found here. British Poet Laureate Andrew Motion also made an interesting comment recently: "People cannot expect to understand much of literature - from John Milton to TS Eliot - without learning the Bible first".

25/2/09
Last Sunday morning saw a new religious programme on RTE 1. Spirit Level got off to a promising start. Apart from the discussion (about forgiveness), the show was more innovative and appealing with its musical items - Nóirín Ní Riain sang the beautiful Jesus My All to Heaven Has Gone, with her two sons, and we also saw her rehearsing for her recent Celtic Joy album. In an interview with Anna Nolan she was positively enthusiastic about the monastic life (she shares in the life of the monks in Glenstal Abbey), about our roots in Celtic spirituality and about the Holy Trinity (you don't hear enthusiasm for the Trinity too often in the media!). A more surprising appearance was Luka Bloom (formerly Barry Moore) who sang the catchy Don't Be Afraid of the Light that Shines Within You (see video on left), a spiritual song in the broadest sense. The show finished with Elikya, an African gospel group, from Limerick!

19/2/09
Recently I gave my TY students a homework to review religious themes in a TV drama of their choice. One student did a review of The Simpsons, but as I read his essay it began to sound familiar - it was a piece I'd written for the blog on Faitharts! I reckon he had copied and pasted the article from my website and handed it up to me as homework! I asked where he got got it, and after looking a bit crestfallen admitted he had copied off some website. I asked if he knew who wrote it - "No", he said, "but it wasn't me". Actually it was me, I told him, and explained that if he had looked more closely he would have spotted my name on the page. Finally understanding, he broke into a broad grin and said "isn't that ironic!".

11/2/09
Have been doing Baptism with my 6th Year students and apart from covering the theology of it, have been using some video clips. If anyone else has other arts resources for Baptism in mind I'd love to hear about them, as I find it a tough subject with the seniors. I started with a clip of the Baptism of Jesus. I used the scene from Jesus of Nazareth with Michael York as John and Robert Powell as Jesus - I find this the most effective clip. Other versions were just not as effective. In Matthew, where Jesus is well played by Bruce Marchiano, John the Baptist just looks silly I think, and Jesus comes out of the water with a great splash and flourish which I liked, but I think my students would only laugh. And as this version uses only the Bible text it's a bit stiff, with characters saying nothing when you'd expect the to say something!
The Gospel of John suffers from similar problems, though I like Henry Ian Cusick as Jesus.
The film Jesus, with Brian Deacon, is also a bit stiff for this scene (see over). Haven't seen any of The Greatest Story Ever Told for quite a while, but the Baptism scene features some very tight close-ups which have really gone out of fashion and look dated.
I also used a Baptism scene from the TV series Lost - and though touching, it is problematic, and I felt the need to make some theological clarifications! For example Mr Eko, who pretends to be, or believes himself to be a priest, performs the Baptism on Claire and her son Aaron, and refers to Jesus' sins being washed away! Earlier in the episode Charlie had grabbed the baby and tried to do a secret Baptism, which at least gave me a chance to discuss the inappropriateness of baptising those who don't want it or whose parents don't seek it on a child's behalf.
I used a similar scene from The Simpsons, where Flanders tries to baptise the Simpsons kids without their parents' permission (he has an emergency Baptism kit at home). As the water is about to land on Bart Homer leaps forward and takes the Baptism instead! He growls and grimaces as if he was a demon after being exorcised, spouts some heavenly theology and promptly reverts to normal. I think it's on the borderline of respect (anyone think it's inappropriate?), but is good-humoured and can teach many lessons about the sacrament in a way that gets the attention of teenage boys!
There's another scene like that in the film Nacho Libre, where a wrestling monk tries to baptise a fellow wrestler when he's not looking - yes it's a wacky film! I also recall a Baptism scene in the film Oh Brother Where Art Thou! , accompanied by the singing of Down in the River to Pray. Yet the two who get baptised are dopey characters, while suave George Clooney is cynical about the while thing, so I'm not sure how the students would take this.
And speaking of Baptism music I might use that song even if I don't use the film clip, though the best song I think is Carey Landry's You Have Been Baptised in Christ - a good one to finish with as it captures so many Baptism themes.

5/1/09
With the feast of the Epiphany coming up tomorrow it's useful to turn our attention to the Three Wise Men. I get a few RE classes out of this topic every January when school restarts. What I like about the Three Wise Men topic is that it gives me a chance the deal with themes of journey, searching, finding, idealism, epiphany and gift. And there are so many useful resources out there. I use the relevant clip from BBC's Liverpool Nativity - when the Wise Men, in modern dress, visit the crib singing the Beatles' Lady Madonna! (see the clip here). With the latest version of Real Player or any YouTube downloader software this can be downloaded for use in class. There are more conventional portrayals in Jesus of Nazareth, The Nativity Story and other films on the life of Jesus.
The Nativity Story is available on YouTube - the Wise Men figure intermittently - see clip over for their arrival. T.S. Eliot's Journey of the Magi is the best-known poem about them, though Godfrey Rust (in his collection Breaking the Chains) cheekily continues this poem, imagining the Magi travelling through modern England where people are "slumped on sofas by four o' clock/rendered senseless by too much dead poultry"! The Roches have a rather quirky version of the song We Three Kings on their album of the same name, but if you'd prefer a traditional treatment try John Michael Talbot's haunting version on his Birth of Jesus album.
Jennifer Avalon has a modern reflective version with a variety of accompanying visuals - see over. The Magi have also appealed to artists down through the ages and an internet image search will throw up lots of examples - I've compiled some of these in a Powerpoint presentation which I can send on request (use contact details over).

5/1/09
Happy New Year to all and best wishes to religion teachers for the new school year!

I saw loads of interesting material on TV over Christmas, hard to keep up with it all. Watched a video of the absorbing film The Apostle, starring Robert Duvall in a tour de force portrayal of a fiery preacher in the Deep South of the USA. His character is intriguing if not entirely appealing. Old style preaching is his life, but he is also a womaniser and prone to violence, yet conscious at times of his sinfulness. After beating up his wife's new boyfriend he has to escape and sets up a church in a new location, making a new life for himself, but temporarily. As I watched I wondered if I could use any of this in religion class - there's a brief scene early on where he prays to God in his bedroom, which is restrained enough, and a sequence where he drives around in his bus gathering worshippers for a service. The many extended preaching sequences might be useful as a study in cultural context, though our students might just find it all very weird. I find they often lament the tameness in Irish liturgical events, compared to the American style black gospel approach, but I'd say this might cure them! Still, it's always good to see a meaty religious film that takes its subject seriously.

21/12/08
Was looking through the CD section in Tesco last night and noticed with amusement that The Priests had beaten The Killers to the top of the album charts. There's a message in there somewhere! The Priests are all over the media this Christmas (see TV and Radio previews) and the Chant album (see below) seems to be doing well also.

12/12/08
Have been doing the section on the Junior Cert Course about conflicts in the life of Jesus - the students were able to suggest quite a few without prompting. To follow up I used clips from various films to illustrate these events - the scene where Jesus chases the sellers out of the temple from The Gospel According to St Matthew, the trial of Jesus from Jesus of Nazareth, and Peter having a minor dispute with Jesus over the washing of feet from BBC's The Passion.

During the week I gave the Transition Year students their RE Christmas Exam - As we had been looking at the history of Jesus films I showed a clip from the Gospel of John and asked the students to evaluate it - Jesus is played by Henry Ian Cusick who plays Desmond in the TV series Lost, so there was a useful recognition factor. Actually I've just got this DVD recently and Cusick's performance is excellent. In the clip I showed he's having a right go at the Pharisees. After I've seen more of this version I'll comment some more, but so far so good as far as performances go, though as with other entries in the Visual Bible series it's a word for word enactment of the gospel, including the narration, so some scenes not given much dialogue in scripture seem rather stilted. I also tried to give some of the questions a Christmas theme - e.g. I played Come Darkness Come Light, the title track of Mary Chapin Carpenter's new Christmas CD (see review here), asking students to write about the themes and how they were conveyed. Also I used Christmas at Denny's by Randy Stonehill and asked about the use of traditional Christmas imagery in a contemporary setting.

7/12/08
Last Saturday night's film on RTE 2 was also very violent, sometimes excessively so, and there was plenty of profanity and more than a few clichés, but there was still more than a touch of humanity in Proof of Life, a kidnap drama set in South America. It helped that the leads were played by Russell Crowe as the rescuer/negotiator and Meg Ryan as the wife of the victim. When religion surfaced it was indirect but respectful for the most part There was a positive priest character - a wily Frenchman who was formerly in the foreign legion and was also a kidnap victim - who showed compassion and courage when trying to help the husband. Married love was seen as valuable - though they had conflicts, the Ryan character remained devoted to her husband, despite her growing attraction to Crowe.

A recent episode of The Simpsons on RTE 2 was of particular interest to Catholics. In this episode Bart was expelled and had to find an alternative school, which turned out to be a Catholic school. There was a sort of a compliment to Catholic education ("the most affordable private schools") followed by a huge dose of Catholic (and Irish) stereotypes. For starters the teacher was a ruler-wielding tyrant nun with an Irish accent - at one stage Bart moved back his desk to avoid getting a thump of her yardstick, but due to his poor grasp of measurement moved back only 33 inches and got a whack anyway! However, inspired by a friendly priest (voiced by Liam Neeson) and comic book lives of the saints Bart eventually decided to become a Catholic, and later, inspired by the pancakes at a church event, Homer joined him. Protestant Marge was not pleased ("Catholics are a peculiar bunch"), nor was neighbour Flanders and Rev Lovejoy - ecumenism isn't strong in Springfield. There were sly references to clerical child abuse and mutterings about "no birth control" (Marge said she didn't want another 12 kids).
Protestants were sent up as well - efforts to reconvert Bart included a tacky Christian youth festival (with aging rockers Pious Riot who had turned to God), until he was finally turned by a Christian paintball event! His final message of Christian tolerance ("The little stupid differences are nothing next to the big stupid similarities!") got everybody all friendly again, though Flanders planned to get his hand re-blessed after shaking hands with the priest. A flash-forward of 1,000 years shows the later devotees of Bart's message falling out violently over some sliver of difference.
I thought some of it was mean spirited, and some of it crude, but it certainly was hilarious, mostly sending up the foibles of believers rather than their faith per se, though some distinctively Catholic teachings got a lash, and yet Homer spoke of the Catholic Church's "time-tested values". It was hard to know whether anti-Catholic prejudice was being practised or satirised - probably both, in the show's typically scattershot style.
In religion class I'd use clips from this with caution - e.g. there's a very funny depiction of Heaven - Protestant Heaven is very sedate and refined, while in Catholic Heaven there's great fun, including Riverdance (!) and Jesus having fun on a trampoline.

Still in fiction territory I've been enthusiastic before about Prison Break (see article) due to the interesting characterisations and tight plotting, but mainly because of the distinctive moral concerns of the main character, Michael Scofield (an intense Wentworth Miller). But the fourth season, currently on RTE 2, is very disappointing. There are tell tale signs of deterioration - the plot is breeding red herrings at a fierce rate, a character we thought was dead suddenly reappears (we had seen, or thought we had seen, her head in a box!), the main character develops a potentially fatal illness, but what is most objectionable is the brutality and sadism that has crept in. It was always rough, but now even some of the likeable characters resort to excessive violence - most repulsive of all was when one character viciously tortured another in an extended sequence - OK they're both murderers, but the torturer had shown signs of softening, even redemption. His violence wasn't unmotivated, as the victim had murdered his child, but the programme just wallowed in the scene, going way beyond what was necessary to make the point, and some sympathetic characters, especially the female doctor (she of the head) turned their backs. Nothing yet in this series I could see myself using in RE class.

1/12/08
Trying to get my act together for Advent! Had a prayer service with my 2nd Year class today and this year I hope to have one for each of the Mondays of Advent so we can light the appropriate candles - must dig out some more Advent prayers. There will be no shortage of music though - today I used O Come O Come Emmanuel by Kim Hill from her Real Christmas album - it's a contemporary version that seemed to go down well, and Prepare Ye The Way by John Michael Talbot from his New Earth album. I used prayers from the old Time to Live textbook.

Have uploaded an article I wrote for An Tobar magazine about Arts Resources for Christmas and Advent, so I hope teachers will find some of the material useful.

15/11/08
Have just watched yet another ghost-ish story, that kept reminding me of Ghost Town (see below). Just Like Heaven featured Reese Witherspoon as a workaholic doctor who has a crash and ends up haunting (sort of) the new occupant of her apartment. It's an enjoyable romantic comedy, though not very innovative. As in Ghost Town the religious aspects of the next life don't figure much. At one stage, in desperation, the new tenant (Mark Ruffalo) hires an exorcist, but I thought that scene was a little tasteless - the priest thunders away calling on the spirit to leave the building by the power of Christ, but his ritual makes no impression (we discover the reason later - it's not that Christ doesn't have the power). The psychic owner of a nearby occult bookshop (another endearingly dopey role for Jon Heder of Napoleon Dynamite fame) comes across more appealingly than the priest, and more tuned in to the spirit world. Again there are broad themes of love and redemption (not of a specifically religious kind) but I can't see any major use for it in the classroom (also, it includes some mildly unsavoury sexual elements). The right-to-die issues surfaces, but it's not pushing any particular line. In fact, if anything, it would nudge the audience against being over hasty in switching off life support.

14/11/08
Saw the new film Ghost Town recently and enjoyed it. It's one of those films that deals with the next life without getting very religious about it. The main character, played by Ricky Gervais, had a near death experience and now sees ghosts, and they want him to do their unfinished business, so they can "move on". Unfortunately the Gervais character is a rather selfish type, and doesn't really like his fellow human beings, dead or alive. It won't be everybody's cup of tea and reviews have been mixed, but I laughed out loud at some of the more bizarre scenes and chuckled throughout at the dry and subtle wit. I don't see much potential in it for classroom use, unless perhaps when covering the "last things", though I'm not sure how sound the theology is - all these ghosts hovering around in a sort of purgatory-limbo state, with no sign of God at all. He does get a mention - when "acts of God" are mentioned, Gervais dryly says - "Why does he do those things?". There are broad themes like love and redemption, and certainly belief in an afterlife, and though there are a few rude bits there is a very strong disapproval of adultery - the main ghost (Greg Kinnear) has to come to terms with the harm his adultery has done.

28/10/08
Have been doing my usual module on religious themes in music with my Transition Year students - most of what I've in the past is outlined in previous music blogs, and in my article on using music DVDs in class, so I'll just include just some new resources ad observations here. I used the usual DVDs (many are posted in the videos page) - this year James Taylor (Shed a Little Light) wasn't that popular (sob, sob), but as usual Alison Krauss (Down in the River to Pray) and Jewel (Hands) got a high rating - one student made a reference to "eye candy", but they did engage with the spiritual issues in the songs! Bruce Springsteen's song If I Should Fall Behind didn't fare too well with some, but one student wrote that he hoped to get it onto his MP3 player the next day!
Most interesting comments were raised by the Steve Vai clips - there were prayerful instrumentals For the Love of God and Whispering a Prayer (see clip on left). The boys loved his guitar playing, though some didn't like his facial gestures! They split fairly evenly on whether instrumental music could ever be spiritual, without accompanying lyrics. Eric Clapton (Tears in Heaven) and Bob Dylan (Knocking on Heaven's Door) went down well, with some of the more musical students joining in the singing, which I haven't experienced in these sessions before.
As usual I invited the students to bring in their own music (in advance so that I could have a listen myself and get lyric sheets printed), and just one student obliged (thanks Jordan!), but he produced loads of material, including the Dylan and Clapton tracks that I already had on DVD. Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer featured as well and once again there was great singing along on the chorus. Some of the material was new to me - there were religious references, but in some cases the songs were open to widely varying interpretations. Reverend Wrinkle by Black Stone Cherry may have been about an inspired clergyman - "Moonlit man got it all in his head/He can find the beauty/In the things that are dead … He knows the only way back home". The Runner by Kings of Leon was hard to figure out - "I talked to Jesus/Jesus says I'm okay" - but this being used to cover up dodgy behaviour? Prayer by Disturbed reminded me of metaphysical poet John Donne in Batter My Heart, wanting to be wrenched violently away from sin - "Living just isn't hard enough/Burn me alive inside", but I suppose is also open to more disturbing interpretations.

12/10/08
On RTE Radio 1 this week Dave Fanning did an item on Christian music with his guests Liam Lawton and Ronan Johnston, both of whom are involved in Christian music in Ireland. It was a great idea for a mainstream youth orientated show, and at the end Fanning said they could have gone on for three hours about it. But that just highlighted the main flaw with the item - it was way too short. And so we got just snippets of some American Contemporary music from the likes of Casting Crowns, and often with jokey voiceovers which didn't help. I may be wrong but I felt that Lawton was uncomfortable with this format of fragmented music and fragmented commentary. He did manage to make an interesting distinction between American Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and European sacred music - in general he found the latter to be more reflective, though he did praise Catholic American singer John Michael Talbot for his meditative material. Johnston concurred, and also began to talk about some of his favourites (like the late Mark Heard) who were somewhat off mainstream. He found the typical CCM material to be too safe, not allowed to deal with the doubts. He thought U2 was the greatest Christian band and instanced their song I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, though I'd question how one who has encountered Christ could sing that. Where else could you go looking and still be a Christian? At one stage Fanning wondered if we weren't a bit disdainful over here about this kind of American music. Mind you his own introduction to the segment left something to be desired - Christian music from USA was "not all bible thumping hicks", he said, and assuming a lot about his young listeners urged them: "before you stretch out your cynical atheistic finger to turn to another channel, broaden your horizon". Remember that Examiner survey during the week showing a high rate of belief in God among young people.
This interview is archived here.

8/10/08
Yesterday I gave a workshop to teachers on using poetry in Religious Education, and what a great venue - Glendalough! Where better to go for spiritual inspiration. The event, organised by the Diocesan Advisors for Dublin (thanks Brigid and Mary!) took place in the excellent Brocagh Centre pictured), with a tasty lunch at the nearby Wicklow Heather restaurant. The materials I used are available on request (Word documents) - see contact details above. We looked at some older poems by the likes of Patrick Kavanagh, Hopkins, Donne and Herbert, and how their poems could be used teaching various topics in RE. I was delighted at some of the topic suggestions I hadn't thought of myself. Then we got a flavour of the teachers' acting skills as we got a taste of some modern Christian performance poems. I enjoyed it anyway! Check out the various Blog entries for poetry for accounts of how I use poetry in class. Also on the arts front I enjoyed Sr Bernadette Sweeney's workshop on using religious music with our students - my favourite new piece (new to me) was Standing on the Shoulders by Earth Mamma.

7/10/08
Used some more arts resources doing the Sacrament of Reconciliation - including a few confession scenes I've collected over the years. The confession from Ken Loach's film Raining Stones provoked some heated discussion - in this the sympathetic priest played by Tom Hickey advises a man not to report to the police that he has accidentally killed a loan shark. Further, the priest burns the loan shark's book of debts - one student complained that the priest was breaking the law by destroying evidence. It's a powerful scene, though with one F-word, so I wouldn't use it with juniors! I also used the one confession scene that appeared in Prison Break, when main character Michael Scofield worries that he has let the ends justify the means in his efforts to free his innocent brother from jail. But is it really a confession? At the end he is reluctant to surrender to God in cases he looses all he has fought for, but the priest cautions him about losing his soul. The X-Files is back in the public eye again due to the latest movie I Want to Believe (see review on Film blogs page), so I felt better about using an old confession scene with Scully reflecting on some strange events. She admits she has drifted away from the Church, though she's not sure why, and ends with a concern - that God is speaking but that no one is listening. I might finish off this topic with some songs and poems - I like Under the Rug by Randy Stonehill from his Lazarus Heart album, and Kenny Rogers Tell It All Brother from his days with The First Edition (available on various compilations of that group). Poetry wise there's Hopkin's Felix Randal and John Donne's Oh My Black Soul and George Herbert's Love to name but a few that deal with repentance and forgiveness.

22/9/08
I'm back doing the Sacraments with 6th Year students, and relying at least some of the time on tried and trusted resources. Today I showed the clip from The Mission where the Robert de Niro character chooses his own penance after killing his brother over a woman - he has to haul his armour to the top of a mountain. It's a great scene for dealing with guilt, reconciliation, repentance, redemption. When de Niro is finally relieved, literally, of this burden of guilt, by the indigenous people he had traded as slaves, it's a truly emotional and memorable moment. It was useful to compare this powerful symbol of forgiveness with the students' own symbols which I had them draw in the previous class - suitably hearts and hands figured strongly.

16/9/08
Faith in the Frame is a low-key new series about religious paintings, showing on UTV Sunday nights. Last Sunday prestigious chairman Melvyn Bragg and his panellists locked at the medieval Doom panel paintings in St Peter's Church, Wenhaston, Suffolk. Doom paintings were a gene of their own and depicted rather scary visualisations of Judgement Day. Most of these were destroyed after the reformation by Puritan reformers but this one was whitewashed instead of being destroyed, and much later was rediscovered when a fortuitous downpour washed it clean again. Fr Anthony Sutch wasn't too keen on the sight of Archangel Michael appearing to bargain for souls with the devil, but he wasn't averse to the idea of judgement being prominent - people nowadays had too much of a lovey-dovey Jesus in mind and presumed too much on salvation. He felt to an extent that judgement was within ourselves, and was a consequence of freedom. He reminded us that the cross was originally in the middle of this painting, so that mercy and forgiveness were central, even on a visual level. Church historian Eamonn Duffy thought judgement was about facing up to adult consequences of our actions - in effect the painting, on one level, was a call to grow up! I can't see myself using the programme in RE class - I'd say students would find the discussion boring, and the painting is somewhat graphic, but I found it helped me with my understanding of religious art - not my strong point.

Taizé was the focus of interest on a recent Sunday morning when RTE 1 broadcast a prayer service from the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin, with special guest Bro Alois, the new Prior of the Taizé community in France. I've already used clips of this service in RE class - we were loking at a variety of holy places in preparation for our RE journal, and I though Taizé was worth a mention. Fr Damien McNiece provided an introduction which included a little background information on Taizé, while Archbishop Diarmuid Martin introduced the service. As usual it was wonderfully prayerful, calm and relaxing. The distinctive Taizé chants were hugely evocative, especially for anyone who has previously experienced the music in a prayerful setting. Despite the rise of gospel and contemporary Christian music, the simple music of Taizé, much of it in Latin, is exceptionally popular with young people, who comprised a large proportion of the congregation.

15/9/08
I wasn't expecting to use clips from Amazing Grace (see entry for 14/9/08) so soon in RE class, but we doing a class on morality and the law and predictably the question of slavery came up - I showed the scene where Wilberforce speaks from the deck of a slave ship, and it seemed to hold the students attention and illlustrate the point. The clip on left is a shorter version but contains the relevant speech.

14/9/08
Now that I've survived the shock of getting back to school I'm fit to write again. One new resource I'm going to use soon is a film I saw recently, Amazing Grace. It tells the story on the campaign to abolish slavery in England, focussing on the efforts of William Wilberforce to get an anti-slavery bill through Parliament. It moves slowly, goes back and forward in time quite a bit, but still holds the attention. There are so many clips that could be used in religion class, and not just on slavery and justice issues. For example there's an early sequence where Wilberforce tries to discern his vocation in life - torn between the work of God and his political activities. Eventually he believes he can do both by campaigning against slavery. Other useful clips include a scene where he meets his mentor John Newton, writer of the song Amazing Grace and a former slave ship owner who is now haunted (metaphorically) by the ghosts of the slaves he carried. The representation of slavery is not that graphic, but there are descriptions in another early scene where a group of like minded friends gather at table to discuss the issue with Wilberforce, and later when some well off citizens are given a close quarters experience of a slave ship. The scenes where he addresses parliament should also be useful in holding students' attention and introducing issues.

10/8/08
A few films I saw recently on TV got me thinking again about religion in the movies, and in many cases there were interesting marriage scenes that might be useful ice breakers in class when discussing relationships and marriage.
Intolerable Cruelty is another cracking film from the Coen brothers (their most recent being Oscar winner No Country for Old Men). It was quite raunchy in spots, but was a marvellous send up of American divorce culture. Despite all the marital shenanigans the film did seem to favour real love and lifelong commitment. Dealing as it did with marriage, it wasn't surprising that religious imagery figured - there was one wedding scene in particular worth mentioning. It was a garden wedding, and the priest, strumming his guitar, approached the happy couple while singing Simon and Garfunkel songs! Grist to the mill, I'd suspect, for those who might not be enthusiastic about the liturgical changes of recent years. The "religious" wedding was a more attractive proposition than a later registry office wedding which had a Scottish theme, complete with a bagpipe version of Bridge Over Troubled Water. Yuk! I didn't find the religious wedding imagery in any way offensive, perhaps because there was a good humoured warmth about the film.
The wedding scene in Wedding Daze was more problematic. A third rate made-for-tv movie, it started well I thought, as a warm tale of a father and his three daughters, but it quickly descended into pure and irritating corn. A triple wedding was arranged, the father delighted in the money he was saving in not "renting" the cathedral. This time the priest didn't turn up at all and so, as they weren't too fussy they persuaded a nearby rabbi to do the honours! The religious sensibilities of a groom's Italian parents were quickly overcome.
I really enjoyed The Bachelor, which starred Chris O'Donnell as a young man with commitment issues. His miserable efforts at proposing to his loved one were particularly hilarious. When told he must marry by a certain deadline to inherit the family fortune and save the family company he becomes even more desperate, leading to one of the most bizarre wedding scenes ever (the priest is in a police car, the groom on a nearby fire escape, and the bride sandwiched between hundreds of other brides). And there's an earlier attempted wedding of convenience that might also be a useful clip for R. E. class. The film is ultimately pro-marriage and pro-commitment, but some may find the treatment of the sacrament lacking in respect. The Catholic priest (another fine turn by James Cromwell) seems quite willing to go along with efforts at the inheritance driven marriage with scant regard for Church standards, but there is a touching scene, about two thirds way through, where he has a chat with the groom in a boat - telling how he was married with children and became a priest late in life when his wife died - he has only the best of praise for marriage and this helps the groom to overcome his fear of being tied down.
More troubling was the use of religious imagery in Shanghai Noon, This was one of Jackie Chan's comedy martial arts westerns so we can't get too worked up about it, but for no reason to do with the plot the final shoot out took place in a church. From the statement of the crooked Marshall Van Cleef (a good, bad, or ugly joke?) - "I'm glad to see we're all church goers here", it smacked of disrespect. Statues were shot to bits and we were supposed to laugh. In fact the whole church was pretty much wrecked when the mayhem was over. Overall it was a funny film, but it's hard to find sacrilege and desecration funny.
The religious imagery in Before and After was brief but more positive - we saw a funeral scene with a priest comforting a woman whose daughter had been killed - an image that's more true to life. The young man who was the chief suspect ran away from home, but wrote to his parents, telling them he knew they didn't pray, but asking them to pray now, for him. The father (Liam Neeson) impulsively covered up for the son, but the mother (Meryl Streep) was more pure of heart - she wanted to do what was right and tell the truth, even though she was mocked for her principles and "absolutes" - not too often you find a leading character supporting the idea of objective and absolute truth. Not only that but the film seemed to support that point of view - it was seen as a healthy thing for the family to face up to the truth, even though there was a cost. The film wasn't entirely enthusiastic to religion however - some religious bigot harassed the family by phone when the son was a suspect (yes, I know, there are plenty like that who give religion a bad name), and there was a negative comment from the father about the Abraham and Isaac story, which raised father-son issues that he thought relevant to his own situation. Overall a thoughtful and unpredictable film.

8/8/08
Finally got to see The X-Files: I Want to Believe, recently arrived in Irish cinemas. There are lots of scenes I'd like to look back on, so perhaps I'll revise my initial opinions when it comes out on DVD. First off, it was great to see Mulder and Scully back in action - it's been about 6 years since the TV show ended. The film was certainly true to the spirit of the show, though apart from the principals only one other character reappeared. As with the TV show there were strong religious elements - the title "I Want to Believe" says it all.
I'd say religious believers won't be entirely happy with the way religion is presented - one of the main characters is a paedophile former priest, still referred to as Father Joe, played with deadly earnestness by comedian Billy Connolly, a strange but effective casting choice. Scully can't hide her revulsion when in his presence, but at least he seems repentant. So though, on one level, the character might be reinforcing lazy stereotypes, he is humanised and challenges the judgementalism of Scully and the viewer. But there is negative portrayal of other priests also - in particular a rather cold fish at the Catholic hospital where Scully is treating a young boy for an apparently incurable disease. At best this priest is a fussy administrator, but the young boy says he doesn't like the way this priest is looking at him.
The plot centres around "Father Joe" helping the police find some missing women because he says he has been having visions. Is he in league with the perpetrators or has God answered his prayers of repentance? Mulder in particular wants to believe he is genuinely psychic, but Scully is more doubtful, still conflicted about such matters, though Fr Joe describes her as "a woman of faith". She was often thus in the series, so it seems her character hasn't progressed much in the intervening years, and for that matter Mulder seems driven by the same concerns as always, though the alien theme of the so-called "mythology" episodes doesn't figure this time. There are many discussions about faith during the film, especially a dramatic confrontation between Scully and Fr Joe when she reluctantly goes to seek his help - (in this scene he says of abusers that they hate themselves and hate each other). Other discussions fall into the trap of wordiness that was one of the faults of the TV show. These are the scenes I'd like to see again to form a more rounded judgement.
The plot also features the stem cell research issue, and treats it in an interesting way - Scully dabbles in it to try and save her young patient, but the bad guys are also into it for more gruesome purposes, so it advocates and critics alike may feel somewhat satisfied. The distinction between adult and embryonic stem cell research doesn't figure.
For most of the X-Files series Mulder and Scully were just good friends - this close but platonic relationship was one of the show's attractions, but if I remember correctly there was a hint in the 9th series that the relationship had become physical, and in this film they seem to be living together at least some of the time. And in another sign of the times two of the bad guys are married to each other! Have tried not to give away too much here, but if you do go to see it be sure to stay until the end of the credits!

(for my article on the religious themes in the X-Files TV series click here)

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