On Lenten hiatus

For what it's worth. Here is a post I wrote last year at the beginning of Lent.

Cavemen

In the interest of bringing a little levity to this blog, I thought I might post a link to a favorite commercial of mine.

Walden Media to Produce Cinematic Version Of Screwtape

Apparently, Ralph Winter and Walden Media are into C.S.Lewis. Together, they’re producing a movie version of The Screwtape Letters that is expected to be out in 2008. Read more here.

Choral Treasure

If you are at all into church choral music, Gregorian chant, polyphony, etc., the new link to the right, Choral Treasure, is wonderful. It streams choral music 24/7. Give it a listen.

The Presentation of Our Lord

I forgot to post this yesterday...February 2nd is the day that Christians for centuries have remembered Christ's presentation at the temple i.e. The Presentation of Our Lord. At his presentation, sacrifices were made for Mary's purification and for Mary and Joseph's first born son. Thus, Christ, from the very beginning, has come to fulfill the Law. Also, at the presentation, a man waiting for the coming Messiah, Simeon, held the Christ child in his arms. The one through whom all things were made was held by one of his creations. Immanuel, God is with us!

I spoke about The Presentation in chapel on Thursday to my school's lower grades. Afterward, one first grade teacher jokingly reminded me that February 2nd is also Groundhog Day. We both had a lighthearted chuckle at this fact and went about our days. However, as I thought about it later, her observation did once again remind me of the importance of the church calendar. We have many other calendars--fiscal, academic and otherwise--competing for our attention, and most institutions recognize the easily overlooked fact that we live in time. Thus, they restructure their calendars--the time constraints within which they must function--based on what their corporate bodies are centered upon. Thus, financiers have their fiscal calendars, schools their academic ones, and so on.

The Church's calendar is restructured to be centered upon the Word made flesh--the One who is our access to the End of all things. By living with and by the church calendar throughout the year, we are acknowledging that the other calendars we must live by during our day-to-day lives are not the ultimate way we interpret time. Ultimately, our interpretation of time does not have at its center money, academics, etc. The Church's way of living in time--i.e. its calendar--has Christ at its center. The church calendar tells the story of Christ, sin, and redemption beginning every Advent season. As I am more and more convinced that it's the stories we live by that shape the way we reason about things and feel about our experiences, what better way to keep the story of "the way things are" in our imaginations and hearts than by living through it each year. We can have six more weeks of winter as long as the Messiah has come to us.

Read more about the Presentation of Our Lord.

The Making of a Commercial

I forgot to add this to my post from yesterday. Comes from JT's blog again...the making of that Sony commercial mentioned in yesterday's post is here. It's pretty amazing.

Do you know Jose Gonzalez?

I found this link at my friend JT's blog Exit 78 (BTW: Jt's blog is primarily a photo blog with some nice shots on it). This is a commercial for the Sony Bravia TV using Jose Gonzalez's cover of a song entitled "Heartbeats" (by a Swedish group called The Knife?). This is footage of Jose Gonzalez performing "Heartbeats" live. I haven't heard of this guy before, but I like this song. Very nice and melodic.

You can find Jose Gonzalez's MySpace Music page here.