I guess someone at the Wall Street Journal got one: Like many of us, Gary He, 28, struggled to choose just one representative portrait of himself for his holiday card. So he used 14. He, a Brooklyn-based photographer, always puts a lot of thought, effort and money into his holiday card. Last year, he riffed on “Where’s Waldo?” by flying to Seattle and taking tons of photos of himself and a friend dressed as Santa on a mountainside. He has... Read more
The part is played by the great Colm Wilkinson, who originated the role of Jean Valjean in London in 1985. In the film, the bishop is a character around which much of the plot pivots. A sharp-eyed reader writes: I’m not too much up on my pre-V2 vestments (and neither it would seem was the production designer), but I’m pretty sure that Colm as the bishop was wearing a dalmatic in the movie. I worked with Colm in the Toronto... Read more
I’ll be perfectly honest here: I just love this story. Take 12 minutes and watch this beautiful video about a remarkable teacher in Louisville, Kentucky, Jeffrey Wright. Then read more about him in the New York Times. I can’t think of anything more inspiring to encounter during the Feast of the Holy Family. Here is love, pure love. Parental advisory: keep a Kleenex nearby and be prepared to hug your kids like crazy. Then be prepared to watch it... Read more
‘Tis the season for playing with your creche! Back by popular demand: a Christmas favorite of The Bench, and one that never fails to make me smile. Enjoy. Read more
[Click here for readings] I’m struck every year by the timing of this feast, celebrating the Holy Family. It comes on the first Sunday following Christmas, when a lot of us have started to overdose on family. In fact, after the parties and cooking and visiting and obligations and expectations and disappointments, some of us have had about as much “family” as we can take. Parents are wondering when the kids go back to school. A little togetherness goes a... Read more
[Click here for readings] I’m struck every year by the timing of this feast, celebrating the Holy Family. It comes on the first Sunday following Christmas, when a lot of us have started to overdose on family. In fact, after the parties and cooking and visiting and obligations and expectations and disappointments, some of us have had about as much “family” as we can take. Parents are wondering when the kids go back to school. A little togetherness goes a... Read more
Their names are Mahony, Brown, Niederauer and Levada, and they were all in seminary together. Whatever happened to them? Read on, from the Salt Lake Tribune: Whether by accident, serendipity or divine design, four future heavyweights of American Catholicism found themselves in the Class of 1962 at St. John’s Seminary on a lush hillside 60 miles from Los Angeles. Momentous societal changes were surfacing all around the young men, but seminary life for George Niederauer — who served as Utah’s... Read more
God bless ’em: Read all about it. Or maybe…red all about is? Read more
As I mentioned, the movie of “Les Miserables” is teeming with Catholic references. It lead me to wonder about the background of the novel’s author, Victor Hugo. From Wikipedia: Hugo’s religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth, he identified himself as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he became a non-practicing Catholic, and increasingly expressed anti-Catholic and anti-clerical views. He frequented Spiritism during his exile (where he participated also in many séances conducted by... Read more
Yes. It traditionally commemorates today’s feast and has a tragic resonance right now: The “Coventry Carol” is a Christmas carol dating from the 16th century. The carol was performed in Coventry in England as part of a mystery play calledThe Pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors. The play depicts the Christmas story from chapter two in the Gospel of Matthew. The carol refers to the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed. The lyrics of this haunting carol represent a mother’s lament for... Read more
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