BBC's Nativity: Modern Spin we Don't Need

The beauty of this scene would thrill a film audience and stir their souls.

One of my favourite Catholic bloggers is Linen on the Hedgerow (a great fighter for Catholic orthodoxy), and this (see link below) is one of the articles I've read on the BBC's 'Nativity'.

Now I know many a liberal will bemoan the fact that I won't watch it, whilst I will condemn it -- but I don't need to see a dog in the act of fouling the pavement down my street to understand how wrong it is when the children walk to school.

The obscenity that Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was in some way raped, or a prostitute has been repeated ever since the days of the sadducees and pharisees and those who claimed (be they the Jewish authorities, gnostics, or other evil men) this have repeated the same old lie in the mistaken belief that their repetition of the lie will make it more acceptable.

Should we be shocked at the BBC's role in defaming the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer of the World during Advent, as we approach the Feast of Christmas?

Yes - we should be shocked (but not surprised) and I think that all Catholics (and men of good will) should take this up with the BBC.

This is not an upset. This is not an offence. It is an absolute outrage that strikes at the very heart of our Faith, and at the very root of Christian history, and the central message of Christmas: that Our Lord was born of the Virgin Mary to save mankind.

That men with blackened hearts cannot accept this and so have to invent horrendous stories about the Blessed Virgin Mary reflects badly on them. There is not, has never been, and can never be, a single blemish on the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

We are reminded of this when we read that beautiful verse that is the Magnificat:

My soul doth magnify the Lord.

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid;

for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Because he that is mighty,

hath done great things to me;

and holy is his name.

And his mercy is from generation unto generations,

to them that fear him.

He hath shewed might in his arm:

he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat,

and hath exalted the humble.

He hath filled the hungry with good things;

and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He hath received Israel his servant,

being mindful of his mercy:

As he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his seed for ever.

 

Luke 1:46-55

As Richard at Linen on the Hedgerow says, why must we have these "contemporary" versions and stories, when the Gospel is written so beautifully?


Might we hope, one day, for a faithful, beautiful, moving and stirring Catholic telling of the nativity - perhaps on a par with Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ? That film won over so many souls to Christ; even I knew agnostics and atheists who opened their hearts to Catholicism as a result of that film. Not all converted, but some did and others at least softened their stance re. the Church and Christ.

With all the influence, intelligence and (dare I say?) money that the Church and we millions of Catholics have between us (we could put in £5 each!) we could make a film that could win countless more souls for Christ and His Church...

Apologies for rambling on. But for every evil and smear the BBC can put out, if we Catholics even answered one in ten, it would have a great impact.

Years ago the Church won hearts, minds and souls with the beauty of its liturgy, buildings, altars, statues and the way all was bound seamlessly together (lessons I believe we have forgotten or neglected after Vatican 2 - to the detriment of both Catholics and mankind in general).

Just imagine if we remembered how to win hearts and minds again? A crusade to win souls for Christ using the tools that the enemies of the Church in the BBC and Hollywood have used to besmirch Christ and His Church, and to blacken more souls with the filth and blasphemy they spew forth.

We all saw how, when Pope Benedict visited our shores (I know he didn't visit Wales, but perhaps it would have been too emotional for him ;-) ) Catholics and men of good will rallied to the Papal banner to proclaim the Christian roots of these islands and to make a stand, to show that people of goodwill still exist, that beauty still has a place in a world we all too often think are full of drugs, violence, obscenity and evil.

The BBC (and others) hinted that the visit would be a failure, that people in Britain were living in a 'post-Christian multi-cultural' land in which homosexual rights now counted for more than Catholic artifacts, or where atheists' writings were devoured more readily than the turgid output of a maligned and shamed priesthood.

They were wrong.

And they can be proved wrong again.


That is my sincere hope and prayer today in the face of a moribund and moth-eaten output by the BBC, for these lies that they tell are old lies.

Meanwhile let us all pray to Our Lord and Our Lady that the calumnies of the media-men might be forgiven, in the words of Our Lord crucified: forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Link:
Linen on the Hedgerow

Rejoice! Gaudete Sunday: The Birth of Christ is Near

This coming Sunday is Gaudete Sunday. A genuine time to "rejoice" at the coming birth of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As Catholics we should always rejoice, mindful that our God-made-man lived among us, was born into relative poverty and obscurity, to deliver us from the grip of sin and open the gates of Heaven to us all, if we make our lives worthy of that reward.

I loved this song/carol when I first heard the Steeleye Span version (a great band - get their best-of CD for some wonderful English folk music). The words are particularly moving (see bottom clip for English translation) and encapsulate all that Catholics have held dear about Christmas for 2000 years.

Funnily enough I came across a protestant site all about Carols (sorry I don't recall its name) and it said that Catholics frowned upon Carols, keeping them outside the Church, so that they only became popular in later years.

What rot! As this moving Christmas Carol testifies. It is true that the Mass was virtually unchanged throughout the Medieval period - codified in the Council of Trent to stay absolutely unchanged until the New Mass post Vatican 2; but the idea that Catholics did not celebrate Christmas ignores the fact that the Mass was the central part of spiritual life for Catholics, but there was much else celebrated too, especially on Feast/Holy Days and especially at Easter and Christmas.

Such airbrushing of history to make Catholics seem like cheerless automatons is typical of such sites - ignoring the fact that it was the protestants themselves who ripped apart our beloved Liturgical year, banning Christmas, banning Holy Days, stopping pilgrimage, and so much more to overturn the Catholic Traditions which were the very lifeblood of Europe.

As Belloc said, Europe is the Faith, the Faith is Europe - so in celebrating Advent, Gaudete Sunday and Christmas itself we in Wales, and our fellow Catholics in England, Ireland and Scotland are remaining very much part of a European and Catholic Tradition that centuries of penal laws and enforced protestantism has not been able to destroy.

So this Sunday go to Mass, pray the Rosary and raise a glass! Let us celebrate our Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith and the coming birth of the Saviour of the World, Jesus Christ.





The following has terrible sound quality but is handy for its English translation of the Latin:



Link:
Catholic Encyclopedia on Gaudete Sunday

Advent Approaches: And I Can't Wait!

Probably like you, dear reader, I despise the commercialisation of Christmas which seems to start with gusto as soon as Fireworks Night is out of the way.

And yet, such is my feeling of joy as Christmas approaches, that I can't resist feeling a sense of excitement in the air as we near December.

Personally I don't care much for presents and all that side of it (being officially as tight as a duck's hind-quarters, like my father before me), besides which as I have crossed the Rubicon and am now in my 40s, just how many pairs of socks, underpants, after shave etc. do I need?

No, I am fully caught up in the spiritual side of Christmas and I am nothing if sentimental about the whole thing.

The cold, dark evenings remind me of when, as a child, I would look up at the stars and imagine the infant Jesus in that stable so many miles away, so many years ago also under the star-lit sky. The shepherds, the angels, then the kings from the east and so on.

That to me was and is the essence of Christmas. It is a simple vision of Christmas, one held by a child, yet it has always stayed with me.

I love the simple things about Christmas, the sense of impending happiness and joy, the carols, the liturgy of Advent, the feast of Christmas itself.

I don't want to sound like an ascetic as I love a nice beer and pork pie as much as the next middle aged man (especially when scoffed - with half a carrot - on Christmas Eve with the crumb-laden remnants left as the evidence of Santa and Rudolf's visit), but for me Christmas is all about the joy of the Nativity and that special feeling, that uplifting of the soul, that "magic" of Christmas, well I don't think it will ever leave me.

So, as much as I loathe the commercialism of Christmas to the degree that it is today a spend-fest, I cannot help but begin to be excited at the prospect of Advent and the countdown to Christmas that this heralds.

I think my all time favourite Christmas carol is Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Primarily because it was my favourite as a child and I have vivid memories of trying to reach those high notes in school assembly or standing carol singing on doorsteps in the neighbourhood, but also because it evokes that time when the Hosts of Heaven appeared to those simple workingmen on the hillside of Bethlehem to announce the birth of Our Lord and mankind's Saviour. It also reminds me of the "newborn King" - i.e. that He was and is Christ the King, to Whom all nations and societies should be subject.

So I am sorry (well, not that sorry!) if I offended anyone with my eagerness to embrace Advent and Christmas, but that is who I am.