The introduction to the 2013 on-line film series - Redeeming the Time. The film series is a follow up to the award winning series - Finding God in the Dark - Taking the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius to the Movies. The series explores spiritual issues of concern to people today....
You are, he said to me in his well-modulated upper middle class London accent, "a near dibbly dobbly if ever". It was hard enough sorting out the mysteries of cricket without being called something or other that was even more perplexing. Clearly Philip Caramen, among the most prominent of English Jesuit historians of his generation, didn't quite know what to make of my thick-head inability to follow his explanations of cricket, a game he passionately loved....
Severus Snape, one of Harry Potter's teachers is neither real hero nor real villain. He's not particular likeable, he's cruel, a bully, riddled with bitterness and insecurity – yet, according to author JK Rowling, he loved, and, ultimately laid down his life because of it. Snape is an example of what we call an anti-hero – a protagonist made popular in movies first in film noir – some one who is neither all good nor all bad – Clint Eastwood's characters in his westerns, or Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean, or even The Dark Knight....
Figure it out. The average life span lasts about 29,000 days. Might sound like a lot, but that's all you get. So why would you spend a single one at a Star Trek Convention? The original Star Trek's Captain Kirk, William Shatner, had a lucid moment a few years back when he wondered the same thing....
Ten years ago, a brain tumour left me severely deaf. Over the years the deafness deteriorated to the point that I was a candidate for a cochlear implant. For an adult whose hearing was perfect until the age of 45, there was no hesitation in my mind about returning to the world of the hearing. I went through with the surgery...
I wish to speak to all: those who know video games, those with only a passing familiarity, and those with no familiarity at all. Video games played an important role in my development: mine was among the first generations to experience electronic games in this way. It is possible for video games to have an incredibly toxic, pacifying effect on the human person, causing one to withdraw from reality. One the other hand, such games can also have an exceptionally beneficial effect, communicating ideas and promoting interaction between people in remarkably novel and nurturing ways. Video games, when part of a balanced life, are fuel for the imagination....
So, what did Oscar winning director Danny Boyle do in his free time while directing the Opening ceremonies of the London 2012 Summer Olympics which had a cast of 10,000 including Queen Elizabeth II as - well – Queen Elizabeth II and was watched by an audience of close to a billion people ?...
I have learned that one can find God in all things: this truism applies well to Japanese anime. In this entry, I would like to explore the use of the Christ-figure in anime. What is anime? Well, after WWII, Japanese culture was highly influenced by American culture. In the 1960s, Japanese artists adapted and simplified the "Disney" style animations they saw at the movies and used them to tell Japanese stories....
Poet Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894) grew up in an Italian family in England. With her brother, painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, she was part of an important Victorian cohort of artists who referred to themselves as the Pre Raphaelites. A devout member of the Anglo Catholic movement within the Church of England, she often wrote about religious themes in her poems...
A friend of mine was asked to lead a discussion on the film Inception and its themes connected to Christianity and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. My friend was having difficulty because the makers of the film were clearly not trying to communicate a Christian message. He didn't want to merely shoehorn the themes into the movie, such readings end up feeling flaky and forced. However, I was happy to volunteer to take on the discussion, confident I wouldn't be shoehorning....
