Since I moved my blog to WordPress on October 5, 2008 I never dreamed of 500.000 hits or page views. In this day of YouTube videos getting a million hits in a day or an hour, this half million in three years eight months, an average of 300 hits a day with 2,900 in one day in 2010, does not seem like much in the virtual scheme of things. Yet it provides me with a motive of thanksgiving for the Internet and the gift of communication between God’s people the world over and who knows? Maybe the universe. (We don’t know who might be listening, do we?)
WordPress sent me an analysis of that best day: March 9, 2010
Thank you for your visit, your time, your interest. Be assured of my prayers.
From my blog at National Catholic Reporter last week:
And by this I mean to the movies. From Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s announcement about banning large-sized sodas from New York City last week, it seems he has not seen one since Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary “Super Size Me.” In this film, Spurlock lived for a month on McDonald’s fast food and took the super-size option whenever it was offered. It took him 14 months after the experiment to return to his former weight and cholesterol levels. (McDonald’s later discontinued its “super-size” program.)
Mayor Bloomberg’s idea is to regulate the size of sugary drinks as a way to fight obesity. The Internet is on fire with people outraged about government intrusion into their lives! On June 1, Matt Lauer, host of “The Today Show,” seemed incredulous that the mayor would ban sodas and celebrate National Doughnut Day. The mayor stands for balance in food choices, one doughnut at a time.
But these folks miss the point. If you are worried about government intrusion into your food and drink choices, you are too late. By lack of regulation, the government has chosen what you (and kids in school lunch programs) can eat anywhere in the country and called it all healthy. And sometimes, the government defines and approves what it calls food, but when citizens become aware of what “it” really is, they ask questions and work for — demand — change.
Here’s the deal. If Mayor Bloomberg really wanted to fight the obesity epidemic, he needs to work to ban sugar, cane or high fructose corn syrup under any name from the entire food supply. This would be a good start. As my sister the nurse says, there is no research that proves or even demonstrates that sugar is essential to the human diet. (She says the same for wheat and soy.)
To see a list of movies about food and water click here
Click here to view the presentation I gave last night at St. Monica’s Parish in Santa Monica, CA. The film clips are missing but the list of the films I referenced are in the last slide. (Thanks to Mary Sperry; she’ll know!)
Movies featuring the life of Jesus have been around almost since the beginning of cinema. The first narrative film about his life was a series of shorts edited by Lucien Nonguet. Historian Charles Keil described these early attempts as a “series of tableaux, autonomous units.” It was up to the viewer to knit the narrative together in his or her imagination.
In his book Imaging the Divine: Jesus and Christ Figures in Film (1997), Lloyd Baugh makes a distinction between films that depict the life of Jesus and those that include Jesus as a character. Christ-figures are those characters who do as Jesus did, laying down their lives for others or exhibiting traits that reflect Christ.
Baugh divides Jesus films into categories: classic (King of Kings), musical (Jesus Christ Superstar), scandal (The Last Temptation of Christ) and Pasolini’s masterpiece The Gospel According to St. Matthew.
Lent provides the spiritual environment and opportunity to contemplate images of Jesus in cinema. We may be inspired by the filmmaker’s imagining of Christ or challenged about our knowledge of the Jesus of the Gospels.
Most of the following films are available on DVD and may be appearing on television for Holy Week and Easter.
To continue reading Sr. Rose’s column in the April 2012 issue St. Anthony messenger click here
The nation, indeed the world, is enthralled by Jeremy Lin, the undrafted humble Harvard underdog who has stunned the NBA and the New York Knicks with his performances on the basketball court these last couple of weeks.
But hidden in the deep South, somewhere around the decrepit environs of North Memphis, Tenn., a high school football team struggles to succeed just as it did in 2010 when The Tigers, the school’s football team, for the first time in the school’s 110 year history, made it to the playoffs.
“Undefeated” is an Oscar-nominated feature-length documentary about that team that enthralls from the first two minutes. I admit, I was not enthusiastic about reviewing another sports film, let alone football.
Now I can say that I understand why people see football as a religion — in a good way. Why? Because over the six years that the chubby white volunteer coach Bill Courtney guided this team, they prayed, fought, asked forgiveness, and lived genuine “agape” as a community.
Last Sunday night at the launch for Jeff Dietrich’s book “Broken and Shared” he ended the readings with an Advent reflection he had just written a few days before. It is very moving and gives a whole different view of the “occupy” movement.
COMMENTARY
They came just before dawn; they came with fire trucks and ambulances and sirens blaring; they came in helicopters with rotary blades flapping; they came marching in lock step with helmets and visors and steel batons at “port arms.” They came and came and came. They came to disperse, to clean up, and to clear out Occupy LA. The morning air was cold and I was shivering not from the cold but from fear. Small drops of sweat trickled down my armpits. This was the last place I wanted to be. At age 65 I was in the distinct minority of this ragtag assembly of youthful rabble-rousers, an alien in this collection of seemingly disorganized children.
For the rest of the reflection, click here: http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/advent-readings-inspire-occupy-la-arrest
Have a Little Faith (Sunday, November 27, ABC, 9/8) is Mitch Albom‘s fourth book into a made-for-TV movie and the Hallmark Hall of Fame latest holiday offering.
The movie will seem familiar territory for Albom fans at first, then it moves beyond the interview with a beloved mentor, to living the lessons learned. Based on a series of interviews, like “Tuesdays with Morrie”, Albom (Bradley Whitford) visits Rabbi Lewis (Martin Landau) who asks Mitch to write and deliver his eulogy. Mitch accepts but only if he can interview the rabbi, since it has been a long time since they were in touch.
What Mitch learns from Rabbi Lewis opens his eyes to people and stories of faith around him. He learns about the Reverend Covington (Laurence Fishburn), an ex-con and recovering addict, who runs an inner-city Detroit church, with a badly leaking roof, for those in need of help.
As with Albom’s stories, he takes us on a life-changing journey with him. The acting in “Have a Little Faith” is believable, and Martin Landau especially adds other-worldly humanity and humor to the story. Albom makes us ask: who are the people who have made a difference in our lives, who have helped make us who we are today?
Sister Rose's My Movies Weblog 
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