The blitz at the office continues, though it is slowing down. I've been so busy, I missed my most-recent article at Catholic Exchange. It went up yesterday. Here's an excerpt:
I work in the office with a guy named "Rob." We're the same age and had a lot of the same experiences growing up: listened to the same music, watched the same Detroit Lions teams, saw the same blockbuster movies of the 80s like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
It's the Fast Times part that interests me. We were also both raised Lutherans. He's still Lutheran and pretty serious about leading a Christ-like life. I'm trying to do the same thing with the extra help of the Church's sacraments and saints.
Notwithstanding our efforts at holiness, we still chuckle about that era's racy movies like Porky's and Risky Business. We also joke about other aspects of that era that aren't fit for pew or home, and sometimes the discourse ventures where it shouldn't.
I'm not proud of it. We're slowly (oh, so slowly) maturing, mellowing, meandering in our efforts at holiness. But we're both still sinners and liable to stumble during a ten-minute break filled with hard laughter stemming from a risqué comment or two.
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Two good blogs posts from yesterday in case you missed them:
Harry Forbes really seems to like movies about homosexuals, and whoever has been running the show at the USCCB during Forbes' tenure seems to really like Harry Forbes, because he still has a job reviewing films for the USCCB.
I suspect people look to reviews from the USCCB for a moral perspective on the films they review. If they want to find out whether or not the film is enjoyable, they'd look to Rotten Tomatoes, Ebert & Roeper, or Leonard Maltin.
Of the “Big Ten” carols, those carols that are omitted from the Christmas service only at the choir master's peril–“Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “O Come All Ye Faithful”, “The First Noel,” “Away in a Manger,” “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” “Angels from the Realms of Glory,” and “Angels We Have Heard on High”–only three can be counted as including a reference to Mary.
So why is Mary largely AWOL in our Christmas singing? My guess is that the answer is pretty simple. Our carols are primarily nineteenth and early twentieth-century Protestant inventions (although the tune dates from the Renaissance, the medieval-sounding text “What Child Is This” was written in 1865), not a time that's known for its deep Roman Catholic/Protestant cooperation and mutual affection.
Great observation, but one quibble: "Angels from the Realms of Glory"? That's not on my Dean Martin Christmas CD.
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That's it. The office beckons. I hope to put up a holiday BYCU tomorrow, but, to be honest, I don't have a single story yet. If anyone has any good holiday drink links, please forward them (email link on your left).
