An Ash Wednesday reflection from Pope Francis.

Photo: Cincinatti Enquirer

In his annual message for Lent, Pope Francis highlights the relationship between the Lenten journey and the synodal journey, which he says are both rooted in tradition and open to newness. Source: Vatican News.

Personal and ecclesial “transfiguration” is the goal of the ascetical journey of Lent, and similarly of the synodal process, Pope Francis writes in the message, titled Lenten Penance and the Synodal Journey.

“Lenten penance is a commitment, sustained by grace, to overcoming our lack of faith and our resistance to following Jesus on the way of the cross.”

This requires effort, sacrifice, and concentration, which are also requirements for the Synodal Journey and therefore, Pope Francis says, the faithful can say “our Lenten journey is ‘synodal’ since we make it together along the same path, as disciples of the one Master”.

Yet, he says, “what awaits us at the end is undoubtedly something wondrous and amazing, which will help us to understand better God’s will and our mission in the world.”

Photo: Vatican News

We can smile today, tomorrow Lent begins - when we smile as we fast and pray

These fit so well they should be in a dictionary. 
 
   ADULT: 
A  person who has stopped growing at both ends and  is now growing in the middle.. 
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BEAUTY  PARLOR:  
A place  where women curl up and dye. 
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CANNIBAL: 
Someone  who is fed up with people. 
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CHICKENS: 
The only  animals you eat before they are born and after  they are dead.
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COMMITTEE: 
A body  that keeps minutes and wastes  hours. 
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DUST: 
Mud with  the juice squeezed out. 
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EGOTIST: 
Someone  who is usually me-deep in  conversation. 
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HANDKERCHIEF: 
Cold  Storage. 
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INFLATION: 
Cutting  money in half without damaging the  paper. 
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MOSQUITO: 
An  insect that makes you like flies  better. 
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RAISIN: 
Grape  with sunburn.
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SECRET: 
Something  you tell to one person at a  time.
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SKELETON: 
A bunch  of bones with the person scraped  off.
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TOOTHACHE: 
The pain  that drives you to  extraction.
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TOMORROW: 
One of  the greatest labour saving devices of  today.
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YAWN: 
An  honest opinion openly  expressed.
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=========================
WRINKLES: 
Something  other people have, similar  to my character lines.

 I have a few jokes about unemployed people

…..but none of them work. 

What's the difference between a hippo and a zippo?

…..One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter.

Hear about the new restaurant called Karma? 

…..There's no menu - you get what you deserve.

I went to buy some camouflage trousers yesterday, 

…..but couldn't find any.

What do you call a bee that can't make up its mind?

…..A maybe.

I tried to sue the airline for losing my luggage.

…..I lost my case.

Is it ignorance or apathy that's destroying the world today? 

…..I don't know and don't really care.

I wasn't originally going to get a brain transplant

…..but then I changed my mind.

I saw an ad for burial plots, and I thought:

…..That's the last thing I need!"

Sleeping comes so naturally to me.

…..I could do it with my eyes closed.

What do you call a super articulate dinosaur?

…..A Thesaurus.

You're not completely useless, 

…..you can always serve as a bad example.

I broke my finger last week.

…..On the other hand, I'm okay.

Don't spell PART backwards.

…..It's a trap.

To the mathematician who thought of the idea of zero. 

…..Thanks for nothing!  

   !!!!!!!!!!!!

Football Boots - and Downlands begins the school year.

We don’t have a picture of boots every week, every month nor every year. Here is the year beginning at Downlands, later in the week Monivae and Daramalan.

To acknowledge that this will be Chris’ last visit as Provincial, Downlands College presented him with a pair of football boots painted by Indigenous Students.

The Heart of Life Centre celebrates 40 years.

February 14^th was the official day of the beginning of the Heart of Life Centre, now known as the Heart of Life Centre for Spiritual and Pastoral Formation. The founder, Brian Gallagher MSC.

Brian had already established the Siloam Spiritual Direction program in Sydney in1979. He brought it with him when he was appointed to Croydon. It became the central program of Heart of Life – and still flourishes with a growing number of international participants and, with the covid lockdown experience, Face to face and Zoom. There is a full- time program and a part-time program.

Other programs include Damascus Spiritual Leaders, Let the Heart Listen, the Emmaus Supervision program. Spiritual Direction is available, retreats, education programs and a variety of one day seminars.

Sue and Paul

Over 20 MSC have completed the Siloam program, a number of OLSH and MSC Sisters and Lay MSC. In 2023, the full-time program has two Indonesian MSC and a PNG OLSH Sister, while the second year part-time has a Filipino MSC. MSC on the staff are Khoi Nguyen, participating in the Emmaus program and tutor for the first year part-time students, and Peter Malone, lecturing in the Religious Experience course and tutor for the full-timers.

A tribute to Directors past and present, Brian, Susan Richardson PBVM (two terms as Director), Cheryl Bourke PBVM, Paul Beirne and, currently, Clare Shearman.  (And in 40 years, a number of venues: Surrey Hills, Canterbury, Wantirna, Box Hill, Malvern and, currently at the Kildara Centre, Malvern.)

Clare

For the Australian province, Heart of Life is a key Spirituality Ministry, at Mary’s Towers Retreat Centre (in abeyance at present) and the Chevalier Insitute.

The main celebration will be held on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, June 16^th 2023.  More news then.

MURDER OF THE HOME FRONT

UK, 2013, 91 MINUTES, Colour.

Patrick Kennedy, Tamzin Merchant, Emerald Fennell, James Fleet, David Sturzaker, Ryan Gage, John Bowe, Richard Bremmer, John Heffernan.

Directed by Geoffrey Sax.

A murder investigation. In fact, four murders. This is the kind of enjoyable murder mystery, paralleling so many of the popular investigation series on television, a night home watching television, as someone remarked, enjoyable but not taxing.

It is surprising to learn that this story is based on fact, on actual characters. The screenplay is based on a book by Molly Lefubre, a memoir of her working as an assistant to pathologist Keith Simpson during World War II. The character of Molly Cooper in the film dramatises the real Molly. And Peter Kennedy, as Dr Lennox Collins, is based on Simpson. They were considered in their time as pioneers in forensic examination, clues, analysing blood, earwax, cuts by left-handed people, by right-handed people…

The murder mystery is a good one, young prostitutes during the blitz, strangled and their tongues deformed, one with a swastika carved in it. There are police investigating but the attention is not on them, some collaboration with the main Inspector and his irritating associate who picks up all kinds of evidence at murder sites without gloves and doesn’t consider that is done anything wrong! There are also chief inspectors, critical of Dr Collins and his methods.

What makes the film very enjoyable is the great attention to detail in recreating the blitz, the London streets, posters, the Aldwych underground shelter, the seedy locations where bodies are found, bombed buildings, the river and the murder of a homosexual actor in his dressing room. (And something for a plea for tolerance because of the criminalising of homosexuality at that period and the consequences and secrecy.) A lot of attention is given to the laboratory and its detail, a genial assistant working there, Charlie (Richard Bremmer), close-ups of some of the autopsy details which might make the audience momentarily shudder, incisions and cuts…

Peter Kennedy as effective as Dr Lennox although an introductory sequence of him in a bar going home with a woman seems completely unlikely given his later reticence and awkwardness with women, finally letting Molly Cooper, his assistant, teaching him to dance. He is efficient, not pushy, eventually very concerned that innocent man might be hanged.

There was also attention to a nightclub, an orchestra and a performer (resembling Cab Callaway at the Cotton Club). There is a sleazy manager of the club where some of the victims plied their trade. He is a suspect. A rather reticent man who, unfortunately, collect postcards of glamorous women, born in England but with a German name, is also a suspect, targeted by the Home Office, intended as a scapegoat. This is also a customer at the club, a Polish refugee who works in a gunpowder factory but also has a talent for codes, relied on by the government to break the codes to help stop the invasion of Britain.

A whole lot of detection going on, Molly, a sprightly Tamzin Merchant, former journalist who wants a story but to write crime stories being taken on by Dr Collins, working hard, bonding with her lab photographer friend (Emerald Fennell, later Oscar-winner for Promising Young Woman), risking danger with the club manager, then finally confronted by the killer in the air raid shelter.

The screenplay also is condemnatory of government and their involvement in protection of the Polish suspect and their willingness to let the innocent man be hanged – and, because of the compromise in Dr Collins’s threats, he is transferred to internment during the war to the Isle of Man.

Geoffrey Sax had directed films like White Noise but, after this film, spent all his time directing television series in the UK.

DADDY’S LITTLE GIRLS

US, 2007, 100 minutes, Colour.

Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba, Tasha Smith, Louis Gossett Jr, Sierra Aylina McClain, China Anne McLain, Lauryn Elisa McClain.

Directed by Tyler Perry.

Daddy’s Little Girls is a film written and directed by Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry is a force in American cinema, especially in black American cinema, with his studios in Atlanta, his writing, direction, performances in his own films, performance in other films, for instance playing James Patterson’s detective, Alex Cross.

At this period he was also into theatrical satire with his character, Madaea, an opportunity for him for outlandish female impersonation. On the other hand, he made a great number of more serious films with social issues.

This means that this is a very straightforward film, like its title. Idris Elba portrays a mechanic who is left by his wife who becomes involved with a drug dealer. There is the issue of the custody of his three little daughters, played by three actual sisters in real life. He has served as a chauffeur for a rather uppity lawyer, played by Gabrielle Union, but asks for help for his case and an attraction develops between them.

We can see where this is going – but the important thing is getting to know the characters, empathise with them and see how they reach their expected destination and happy ending.

1. A satisfying story of marriage, breakup, romance, children’s custody – for the ordinary audience?
2. The work of Tyler Perry, writer, directors, satirist, his Madaea character, exploration of serious social themes, racial themes? This film as a very plain entry?
3. American city, a black neighbourhood, ordinary life, the good and the bad, workers and mechanics, drug dealers and drug Lords? The musical score?
4. Monty, ordinary citizen, mechanic, chauffeur to Julia, relationship with his wife, his three daughters, his wife’s behaviour, issues of custody, his protectiveness, employing Julia’s help, the initial reaction, different sides of the tracks, her attraction to him, the romance?
5. Julia, lawyer, successful, Monty her chauffeur, her attitude towards him, his asking her help, her agreeing, their work together, the attraction?
6. Monty’s wife, involvement with the drug dealer, treatment of Monty, walking out, wanting custody of the girls, her treatment of them? The court case and the proceedings?
7. The three girls, played by three actual sisters, age, devotion to their father, their experiences with their mother, the custody, living with her, need for their father, the proceedings?
8. The background characters, friends of the family, legal support, authentic atmosphere?
9. And happy resolution?

ARAATIKA: RISE UP!

Australia, 2021, 87 minutes, Colour.

Dean Winters, Stephen Page, Stan Grant, Adam Goodes.

Directed by Larissa Behrendt.

A significant documentary on First Nation’s culture. The director, Larissa Behrendt, made a number of documentaries on these issues including After the Apology and You Can Go Now.

The particular focus, dear to Australian audiences, is the National Rugby League, important for Queensland and New South Wales.

The focus is on player, Dean Winters, a significant player during the 2000 is. He focuses on aboriginal culture and rituals, especially dance, and is very much influenced by the Maori pre-game ceremony of the Harker. With the help of a choreographer, the players developed movements which reflected culture, incorporating them into a ritual.

During the documentary, there are a number of talking heads, including Stephen Page, founder and Dir of the anger and Dance Company, television personality, Stan Grant, an star of AFL, Adam Goodes, and a retrospective on the racial treatment, racist treatment, he received over many years despite his many football awards.

A creative film as well is a culturally challenging film.

Araatika! Rise Up follows Dean Widders’ personal journey to share his culture with the world.

In 2012, a group of First Nations NRL players, including Dean Widders, Preston Campbell, Timana Tahu and George Rose, with help from dancer and choreographer Sean Choolburra, came together to develop a pre-game ceremony that would be a response to New Zealand’s much loved, universally recognised and hugely respected Haka.

Rather than simply taking an existing dance, the players came up with a series of movements that reflected cultural symbols – the clan, the warrior, the boomerang, the spear. They concluded their new dance with a moment of reflection – to them, this emphasised that the silences are just as important, or even more important, than the spoken words.

The film also follows Widders' own personal family story and features interviews with his mother and father.

Source: Araatika! Rise Up (The Fight Together) (Film) - Creative Spirits, retrieved from https://www.creativespirits.info/resources/movies/araatika-rise-up-the-fight-together

ANAIS IN LOVE//LES AMOURS DE ANAIS

France, 2021, 93 minutes, Colour.

Anais Demoustier, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Dennis Podalydes, Anne Canovas.

Directed by Charlene Bourgeois-Tacquet.

Tres, tres Francais.  Very French in its depiction of characters, unexpected behaviour, expected behaviour, motivations, relationships, sexuality…

The Anaïs of the title is immediately seen running/rushing to her apartment through the streets and up the stairs. In fact, she continues to hurry, to rush, to run throughout the film. She is impetuous, and focused on herself.  She is played by Anais Demoustier.

A number of commentators have referred to her “charm”. She certainly has a surface charm, a very pretty woman, but even the initial time spent with her can turn off her charm effect, wilful, disregarding people, always in a hurry, setting up a smoke alarm in haste and then bashing it when it doesn’t work.

She has a partner whom we meet, but cannot abide living with him, even after sexual activity cannot lie in the same bed as the partner. And, especially in lifts, she is claustrophobic. She is behind in her rent, behind in finishing her thesis, given tasks to do at the University, accepting them and then blithely ignoring them, going off somewhere else, lying about her mother’s illness and her visiting her to get out of any responsibility.

In her first encounter with her partner, she casually tells him that she is pregnant, does not want children, and will have a procedure, not taking into any account his feelings and participation. The visit for the procedure just a casual part of the day’s life.

At a party, she begins an affair with an elderly man,(Denis Podalydes), upset when he decides that there is no future in it.

One redeeming feature is that she is concerned about her mother who previously had cancer and it has returned. It is one of the times (the only time) when she does not think about herself.

But, the focus of the film is on her elderly lover’s partner, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, a writer, who goes off to seclusion to write, who chances to meet Anaïs in the street. Anaïs then goes to a reading, keeps bumping into her, goes to a special seminar for writers, presumes on board and lodging but then is actually forced to work for it, continually encountering the writer, walks, time together, eventually an emotional connection and a sexual connection.

Anais is very much a contemporary woman, but hedonistic, narcissistic, lacking a moral compass, thinking only of herself, rude and harsh to others, insensitive to their feelings, determined to get her own way – and it is all this that she brings to being in love.

A BEAUTIFUL MIND

US, 2001, 135 minutes, Colour.

Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connolly, Ed Harris, Christopher Plummer, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, Judd Hirsch, Austin Pendleton.

Directed by Ron Howard.

After seeing the film, audiences might like to do some research, a great deal of information found in Wikipedia.

A Beautiful Mind is a portrait of Nobel Prize winning mathematician, John Nash.  It is an adaptation of the Book by Sylvia Nasar. It is also a tribute to Nash who experienced a lifetime of paranoid schizophrenia.

Director, Ron Howard, stated the challenge for him and screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, at the Golden Globe awards ceremony where A Beautiful Mind won Best Film of 2001: how to portray the workings of a beautiful mind on screen for the popular cinema-going public.  Howard is helped immeasurably by Russell Crowe who shows Nash relishing mathematical problems, Crowe projecting an inner satisfaction as he makes the mathematical links, works through the processes and relishes the solutions.  While most of us are bewildered by the mathematical thinking we are bedazzled by Crowe's communicating to us Nash's vigour and intellectual delight.

Without revealing an important aspect of the screenplay, it is worth saying that the film (which has received endorsements from societies dedicated to schizophrenics) enables the audience to experience something of the confusion, paranoia and desperation of the schizophrenic without being condescending to those who have the condition.  Later in the film, we are shown the impact of shock treatment and of medication as well as the effect of dedicated love (which can sometimes make the carer reach the end of their tether).

But, as the film-makers and the movie publicists are anxious to assure and reassure us, this is also a love story.  Early in the movie, Nash remarks that someone had said to him that two brains were not as beautiful as half a heart.  The posters declare that what is better than a beautiful mind is the courage of a beautiful heart.    Nash is drawn into loving Alicia.  When he asks her for some kind of evidence and proof of love, she asks him whether he can prove that the universe is infinite.  He replies that he cannot.  He believes it.   So, she says, the same with love.  In his Nobel Prize award-winning speech, he speaks openly of love transcending logic.

Russell Crowe won many awards as Best Actor of 2001, extending his range of acting after his performances in  Proof, Romper Stomper, LA Confidential, The Insider and Gladiator.  Jennifer Connelly has the role of a lifetime as Alicia.  Ron Howard adds to his substantial body of movies which include Parenthood, Apollo 13, Ransom and EdTV.  The impressive supporting cast includes Ed Harris as a Department of Defence agent, Paul Bettany as Nash's university roommate and Christopher Plummer as a psychiatrist.

A Beautiful Mind has its fascinations.  It is part of a series of mathematical and calculus movies with Stand And Deliver and Good Will Hunting.  John Nash, the movie character at least, is the genius who stands beside the savants, the autistics, the awakened from coma like Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump, Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Robert de Niro as Leonard in Awakenings. 

1. The acclaim for the film? Oscars and many awards? It is reputation over the decades?
2. The period in the US from 1948 to 1994, the postwar period, the style of the late 1940s, universities, campus, students, the transition to the 1950s, the Cold War period, American defence and intelligence? The transition to hospital, treatment, shock treatment? The later decades and campus life, lectures, research? The combination in the Nobel prize? The musical score, the final song sung by Charlotte Church?
3. A true story, John Nash alive when the film was made and released? His career, mathematics, economics theory, the imagination and cryptography, his research, his abilities and insight, his ambitions? Presented is on the spectrum? His attitude towards life, towards others, compulsive, perfectionist?
4. 1948, winning scholarship, his background, the rivalry with Martin, the friendship with Sol and Bender, Charlie as his roommate? Nash not wanting to go to classes, his own research, using the Windows, the library, playing the game with Martin and losing, not understanding how he could lose such a game? The discussions with the lecturer, is missing out on further scholarship? His development of his thesis, equilibrium, presenting it, his winning the competition? Martin conceding? But Sol and Bender continuing to work with Nash?
5. The influence of Charlie, the entry, British, drinking, carefree, beer and pizza, taking Nash out, Nash and is eyeing of the girl, his direct approach about sex, being slapped? The others laughing? Charlie urging Nash to a greater freedom, the papers and desk out the window?
6. 1954, Nash, completing studies, doctorate? His research, positions? Absentmindedness, not wanting to lecture, the encounter with Alicia, the noise and opening the window, acknowledging many solutions to a problem? Her later visiting him, solving the problem, his dismissing it? Her perseverance, suggesting a date, his taking her to the faculty social, the photographs? Happy with her? Wondering whether he should marry her, asking advice of Charlie? The marriage, celebration? Alicia pregnant, the birth of the baby?
7. 1954, the Cold War, hydrogen bombs, nuclear issues? Nash being approached by Walter, the commission, going to the Pentagon, looking at the figures, the dramatisation of the figures and his finding the solution, the location for the bombs? The discussions with Walter? Walter as secret agent, suit and hat? The commission to research, the code implanted in his arm, changing, going to the mansion, getting in, delivering his findings? Yet the pursuit, the anonymous cars? Walter rescuing him, the chase through the city, the shots, the crashes?
8. Nash giving a lecture in Boston, Charlie arriving with his knees, the background story of the crash? Nash’s response to the niece? And growing more reliant on Charlie?
9. At home, his behaviour, erratic, fears? Alicia concerned? Going to the shed, finding all the papers on the wall as she had found in his office at the University?
10. Hospital, calling in the doctor, talking with Alicia, the diagnosis of schizophrenia? Her visit to Nash, his being upset with her, walking out?
11. Audience response to Nash’s schizophrenia, the fantasies in his head for so long, Walter, Charlie as pigment his imagination, his niece? The continued reappearance? Walter, the secret mission, the dangers? Nash becoming paranoid, fearing being pursued, microphones…? The treatment, shock treatment, frequent, medication?
12. His return home, quiet, recovering, the baby, not taking his medication, the consequences, becoming more involved and conspiracies, seeing Walter and the characters?
13. The doctor, his care, analyses, Nash returning, not taking his medication? Nash and the continued challenge to reject the characters, farewell them, ignore them, yet their continually reappearing, shadowing him?
14. The 50s, research, the library, lectures? Going to see Martin, Martin helping him? The University position, yet the paranoid display in public, the consequences?
15. 1978, Nash calmer, continuing research, Alicia, family, students, a more stable life?
16. 1994, his achievement, not taking medication, but ignoring the continuous apparitions, Alicia and support? His son? With the students, the student with the theory? The arrival of the delegate from Sweden, checking whether he was crazy, the tribute is shown in the past of giving pens to the academic acclaimed, everybody bringing their pen to Nash?
17. The achievement of the Nobel Prize, his speech, acknowledgement to Alicia? (And, the year of the film’s release, the couple renewing their marriage commitments).

THE LEDGE

UK, 2023, 86 minutes, Colour.

Brittany Ashworth, Ben Lamb, Louis Boyer, Nathan Welsh, Anais Parello, David Wayman.

Directed by Howard J. Ford.

A British film with an American accent. British writer and director, British cast, all with American accents and American story, American characters.

This is a thriller with a mountain setting, the Italian Dolomites, with some spectacular sequences of the mountains, the surrounding terrain, and, especially of cliff faces and looking down from ledges to the valleys below.

A basic kind of plot. Two young women arrive to climb the mountain face, the first anniversary of the death in an accident of the partner and trainer of one of the women. Then four Americans arrive, friendly, loud. One of them, their leader, Josh (Ben Lamb) dominates the others, is allegedly engaged but has no difficulty in having affairs, is a macho chauvinist, and a pig in his misogynist attitudes and language and behaviour.

One of the girls is eager to have a drink with the men, the girl with the anniversary reluctant. Josh makes advances on the flirtatious girl, she resisting, he attacking, almost raping her, his friends pushing him off – however, in her flight, she falls over a cliff. The four determine what to do, Josh bashing her with a stone and urging the others to do the same.

The audience is surprised, but there is a back story from their childhood, their bullying someone and injuring him, their denial, and Josh’s power over them, rounding them up each year for mountain climbing. They are full of unwarranted entitlement, jobs in business and in politics.

The development of the plot is that the other girl, Kelly, Brittany Ashworth, films all of this activity and they go in pursuit, she beginning to climb the mountain face, they trying to pursue but taking an alternate route although one of them falls, leg injured, and, offscreen, killed by Josh. The main action of the film is Kelly climbing to a small ledge under the big ledge where the men have camped, their taunting her, wanting the camera, one being lowered down to confront her, then his being killed, the other, the weakest of the group, getting the camera but trying to defend her – and Josh setting him alight and lowering him down in front of Kelly.

A lot of the time shows Kelly with survival skills, discovering a hanging tent, then being threatened by the men.

Ultimately, of course, the confrontation between Josh and Kelly, knives, and her vanquishing him.

So, that’s it.