Supersizing or Large Helping of Artistic License?

Some pilgrims may have already heard how we've been over-eating our way through ever-larger portions over the past 1,000 years, according to U.S. study of more than 50 paintings of the Biblical Last Supper.

The study, published in Britain's International Journal of Obesity, analyzed 52 paintings depicting the Last Supper which were featured in the 2000 book "Last Supper" by Phaidon Press, and used computer-aided design technology to analyze the size of the main meals, or entrees, bread and the plates relative to the average size of the disciples' heads. Ohhh Pleeeasse!

"The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food," said Brian Wansink, a professor of marketing and applied economics at Cornell University, New York. "We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history's most famous dinner."

Here in The Cloister we think the money could have been better spent feeding the starving of Africa and it will take more than the musings of an under-occupied protestant minister and his over-qualified brother to convince us otherwise!

In the meantime do enjoy this classic Python sketch which we feel illustrates our point...

Flames of Shame - Diocese of Bathurst

A new bishop, a new light, a new Paschal Year but that doesn't stop some offenders in Bathurst. Sunset in Bathurst is at 7pm so it will be dark by 7.20 and with most of the diocese of west of Bathurst no leeway is needed.

Pilgrims heading inland to the Festival of Sporting Cars should watch out for the worst offenders.

Burraga 6:00pm
Blayney 6:00pm
Portland 6:00pm
Black Springs 5:00pm
Kandos 6:00pm
Gulgong 6:00pm
Gooloogong 5:00pm

Pilgrims should consider praying at the Cathedral where the Vigil starts at 7.30pm. Let's hope our recently ordained transitional deacon will be chanting the Exultet.

Disciples

As we continue our pilgrimage towards the Lord with a heightened awareness of His saving Passion and His deep love for his Church this week, here is a story which will probably never see the light of day in the secular media because it is too deeply human, too deeply Christian, too gentle and too difficult:
A community of contemplative Catholic Sisters especially for girls with Down Syndrome. - the Little Sisters Diciples of the Lamb.

"To allow those who have the ‘last place’ in the world, to hold in the Church the exceptional place of spouses of Jesus Christ. To allow those who depend on others for their everyday life to take in charge, in their prayer, the intentions that are entrusted to them. To allow those whose life is held in contempt to the extent of being in danger from a culture of death, to witness by their consecration to the Gospel of Life."

According to the article, some 90 percent of children with Down Syndrome are killed in the womb.


Birretta tip to Fr Finegan of the Hermeneutic of Continuity.

Idol Chatter of aCatholic Opinion

The Holy Father noted in his Palm Sunday homily that Jesus Christ "leads us to the courage to not be intimidated by the chatter of prevailing opinions".

Amen to that eh Brian!!

What to do with a Shepherd who gives Ewe away?

Coo-ee Pilgrims... Mother Mirabilis here.

Bishop Michael Malone, belongs to the Council for Australian Catholic Women (CACW) He is the only episcopal representative and says the Council promotes the role of women in the church, but does not, nor is it permitted to, consider women’s ordination.

He also says “if it wasn’t for women and their involvement, the church would be a far different scene altogether in Australia. It would be far poorer, a lot smaller and it would be deprived of a richness that women are able to give.”

While nobody here would disagree it seems appropriate to consider the poorer and the smaller...

Aurora the newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle distributed monthly and free of charge to parishes, schools and diocesan agencies throughout the Hunter and Manning regions of New South Wales has a rather interesting story entitled A Journey of Faith - One Woman's Story. The story is, as one pilgrim tells us, being promoted by the ACBC's National Office for the Participation of Women in its Women Matter e-newsletter.

Its the story of Loy Thompson who wanted to become a priest when she was four years old. She entered the convent as a Josephite nun, left to become a teacher, a wife and a mother. On 30 November 2009, Loy was ordained a priest finding her vocation in the Anglican Church.

Patricia Banister, Chair of the Council for Australian Catholic Women (CACW) told Aurora “I see my church ministry role as complementary to the priestly role - not better than or less than.” Good solid stuff you might think before she goes on to say that she believes some women, are meant to be priests. “I firmly believe that there are women in our church who feel that they are called to ordained ministry and I feel a tremendous sorrow for their incompleteness."

“I’ve met nuns who are running parishes but they can’t complete that ministry, they can’t say Mass, they can’t preside over the marriage ceremony, but to all intents and purposes they are the parish priest, and I think that’s sad.”

Here in The Cloister we think it's more than sad that Aurora would run the story in the first place and that both +Malone and Mrs Bannister not only harbour but express views inconsistent with the mandate of the CACW and the position of the Magisterium.

It's no secret that +Malone is in bed with the Anglicans but must he shepherd our women away from Mother Church also!

Where are The Warden's countdowns for which I understood this Cloister was renowned?

Flames of Shame - Diocese of Cairns

The Diocese of Cairns is sparse so a single calculation of sunset may not do every parish its justice. That notwithstanding, if we accept that the average sunset falls around 18:15hrs and we allow the charitable 15min buffer to say 18:30hrs then the worst offending parishes in the diocese would seem to be:

North Cairns 5:30pm
Yungaburra 5:30pm

Congratulations however to the parish of Innisfail - 8:00pm!!

Flames of Shame - Archdiocese of Hobart

It is that time in the liturgical calendar when our minds turn to the intricacies and nuances of the Easter Vigil and in particular the Easter Fire or in some cases the Flame of Shame!.

Back even before Vatican II, Pope Pius XII commenced to reform the ceremonies of Holy Week. The Easter Vigil, which had crept forward into Holy Saturday morning, was returned to the night time of Holy Saturday. Accordingly, the Easter Vigil it is assumed would commence in darkness, with the blessing of the new fire and the lighting of the Paschal candle.

This year is an interesting one for the pastors. With daylight savings set to finish during the hour of the 2 Nocturn of the Easter Vigil, it seems that some may have assumed that such a development might not allow time enough for the entire Vigil ritual to be observed. That or the view - what's an early flame between friends hey?

Sunset in the southern-most capital according to Geoscience Australia is at 18:59hrs on 3/4/2010. Conceivably, it would be dark from 7:30pm onwards but let us in charity say 19:15hrs.

Flames of Shame in the Archdiocese of Hobart

New Norfolk 6:00pm

Riverside 6:00pm

St Helen’s 6:00pm

Remember now: No Easter Vigils before dark!

It's certainly news to us!

For the past five weeks The Cloistered have been observing Lent. Acts of self-denial are as we all know, inconvenient but worthy demonstrations of the Lenten spirit.

The decision to close the doors for Lent was not easy. There have been a stream of matters and events in the last five weeks which might ordinarily have attracted comment from us. Our abstinence was not any easier on account of the steady stream of correspondence protesting our silence.

A common thread in these letters was the concern that far from voluntary, The Cloister's closure had been a forced reality on account of our identities having been exposed. It seems that wellspring of knowledge and insight Brian Coyne had a little to say on the topic...

"From the information reaching me the complaints go back some time that have eventually led to their demise not anything that was being written recently. Their achilles heal was that eventually someone would work out who they were and that seems to have been what has happened. Some of them may have been seminarians or recent seminarians but the identity of only one needed to be found out and that seems to be what happened." Brian Coyne (March 04, 2010)

"Interestingly it seems that someone has finally got through to "he who must be obeyed" and Cooees have apparently been told to shut up publicly at the threat to their stipends... This Cooees thing could be interesting — a sign that the big boy is beginning to see things through the lens of the other bishops and not exclusively through the lens of his Roman masters." Brian Coyne (March 03, 2010)

"More seriously I suspect a real problem is that some people have become increasingly intrigued about their identity and some have at long last got close to cracking who they really are. The information I posted earlier about the speculation of at least some bishops was truthful — not in jest. I do know the identity of at least one of them has been unmasked and is being openly exchanged in some circles at the moment. The "retreat" might have more to do with this than anything else." Brian Coyne (March 01, 2010)

I understand from information received over the weekend from another source that some of the bishops in Australia think they're Dominicans. Brian Coyne (March 01, 2010)

Some in The Cloister were reminded of a jingle made popular in the 1980s and its association to a highly respected man who could really be trusted to report the news...

All that Mr Coyne and still... here we are! So take it from us gentle pilgrim, if Brian tells you anything, it's certainly likely it will be news to a lot of people!