austraLasia 1472
Zen and the art of Holy Whapping
NOTRE DAME: 2nd March 2006 -- Please, don't put this one aside - read on, if Lent allows a little laughter and if your sense of Salesian communication tells you that underneath it all there's both education and evangelisation!
I was looking for something about Lenten penances when I found a list of the top ten mediaeval penances that intrigued me enough to find out the source. And I was pleasantly surprised. Behind the fun there's some excellent material, information, formation, animation..... that I have no doubt can be useful to a creative Salesian. But first the top ten mediaeval penances:
10.standing barefoot in the snow for hours
9. skunk hair shirts
8. scrubbing castle walls with a toothbrush
7. memorising the Summa theologica
6. chewing tinfoil
5. delivering papal condemnations to Martin Luther
4. hand copying the entire bible
3. wasp licking
2. anything involving anthills
1. the 'thorn paddle'.
But then I found a photo of cardinal-elect Zen and a range of comments on his 'snappy dress sense'! Our Chinese confreres will enjoy the comments, none of which are irreverent, some of which are most informative as they enter a scholarly discussion on his coat of arms and the correct or otherwise influence of elements from St., John Bosco's story.
So where on earth would such a zany collection of material come from? As one correspondent to the site (the URL of which I will reveal in a moment) said: "In der katholischen Weblog-Szene hat sich blitzschnell", or another, in a language rather more will understand, "Youth with brains, there is hope!". Yet another says "should be part of every Christian's daily reading and meditation". I agree, it joins my list of things to put a moment aside for each day. Never smutty (I think) always clever and, yes, intelligently so. It's an academic blog run by the students at Notre Dame University (the Indiana one) and you'll find it at http://holywhapping.blogspot.com I really do have to recommend this one. JBF
PS. Today's quiz on South African capital cities has been won by a correspondent from China Province, with second prize to Cambodia, both of whom probably had rapid access to Wikipedia. The next one will be much more difficult and won't allow for cheatsheets. First prize was 'The Unpublished Don Bosco', second prize - I'm seeing what I've got left!
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
Zen and the art of Holy Whapping
NOTRE DAME: 2nd March 2006 -- Please, don't put this one aside - read on, if Lent allows a little laughter and if your sense of Salesian communication tells you that underneath it all there's both education and evangelisation!
I was looking for something about Lenten penances when I found a list of the top ten mediaeval penances that intrigued me enough to find out the source. And I was pleasantly surprised. Behind the fun there's some excellent material, information, formation, animation..... that I have no doubt can be useful to a creative Salesian. But first the top ten mediaeval penances:
10.standing barefoot in the snow for hours
9. skunk hair shirts
8. scrubbing castle walls with a toothbrush
7. memorising the Summa theologica
6. chewing tinfoil
5. delivering papal condemnations to Martin Luther
4. hand copying the entire bible
3. wasp licking
2. anything involving anthills
1. the 'thorn paddle'.
But then I found a photo of cardinal-elect Zen and a range of comments on his 'snappy dress sense'! Our Chinese confreres will enjoy the comments, none of which are irreverent, some of which are most informative as they enter a scholarly discussion on his coat of arms and the correct or otherwise influence of elements from St., John Bosco's story.
So where on earth would such a zany collection of material come from? As one correspondent to the site (the URL of which I will reveal in a moment) said: "In der katholischen Weblog-Szene hat sich blitzschnell", or another, in a language rather more will understand, "Youth with brains, there is hope!". Yet another says "should be part of every Christian's daily reading and meditation". I agree, it joins my list of things to put a moment aside for each day. Never smutty (I think) always clever and, yes, intelligently so. It's an academic blog run by the students at Notre Dame University (the Indiana one) and you'll find it at http://holywhapping.blogspot.com I really do have to recommend this one. JBF
PS. Today's quiz on South African capital cities has been won by a correspondent from China Province, with second prize to Cambodia, both of whom probably had rapid access to Wikipedia. The next one will be much more difficult and won't allow for cheatsheets. First prize was 'The Unpublished Don Bosco', second prize - I'm seeing what I've got left!
_____________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/rssala.xml
