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prize was 'The Unpublished Don Bosco', second prize - I'm seeing what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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