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Liturgical calendar cartoon for the Optional Memorial of St. Thomas More, martyr.
Thanks to Jay at Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate for linking to this post.
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1LT Laura Margaret Walker USA Memorial Page - West Point.org
First Lieutenant Walker was killed one year ago this August while working in Afghanistan on a road building project.
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In Progress...
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The cardinals at our front door have a project in progress as well; a second brood of eggs. This is Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal's third nest in the same location. As you can see by the very solid construction in the photograph above, it looks as if this nest might be a success. The nest before this one was hastily built and collapsed on our porch in a flaming disaster. This was my fault, as I removed the first empty nest immediately upon discovering it (the nest is within three feet of our front door, and we have two cats) but the persistent cardinals quickly constructed a second nest which was so weak the eggs kept falling out and smashing on our front porch.
Even though my intentions were good (birds in cats) I felt pretty bad for screwing up the life of birds. I did my best one afternoon to plug up the holes in the nest, but I'm afraid I don't have much experience at constructing nests. Following an overnight thunderstorm a few days later, the entire enterprise was gone.
I discovered this most recent nest after finding a dead Baltimore oriole in our front garden. This particular Baltimore oriole, I suspect, was the same one I had found sitting on the middle of the road in a rainstorm one evening and had brought home for rehabilitation, placing it in a leaf barrel on our front porch, directly under the as-of-yet undiscovered third cardinal's nest. The oriole recovered and flew away the next morning, only to return and die for some reason in our front garden. It's too much of a coincidence to say these are two different Baltimore orioles, although they could be. But I don't think so.
I've decided not to finish the cartoon, but I have one observation to offer which I hadn't come across in my reading of a number of other blogs on the same subject. Mrs. Chung revealed the motivation for her seemingly absurd performance in the very first stanza of her self-penned torchlight tune-
We came to do a show, for very little dough.
By little, I mean I could make more working on skid row.
In a media world where freakish news and entertainment receives the most attention, and where her own value as a professional new anchor had been reduced by changes in the marketplace to near zero, Mrs. Chung made a very calculated move to reinvent herself as a buzz worthy 59 year old media experienced nutcase.
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A cartoon for both Corpus Christi and Father's Day, incorporating the theme of illegal immigration. In progress. Should have this finished late Saturday evening or so.
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Completed Image
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Click to view larger image. Character sketch for a cartoon in progress entitled League Of Indecency.
Chris and I visited the Catholic catalogue store Leaflet Missal yesterday, which happens to be headquartered in St. Paul. Picked up a 2006 llustrated Saints Calendar, Saint Joseph Guide For The Liturgy Of The Hours, and A Catechism Of Church History, 4th Edition, by Father Robert Fox.
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Eucharists in the form of a heart; the arrow an allusion to the spear in Christ's side. Priests hands and robe red because he also shares in the sacrifice of Christ. Came up with this on the way to something else. Would probably make for a nice Valentine's Day image.
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Thought it might be fun to draw a cartoon or two in tune with the Liturgical calendar. Chris and I have had the good fortune to visit the tomb of St. Anthony, which is located inside of the basilica which bears his name in Padua, Italy. The church in the cartoon is a simplified version of that same building (not actually red, but the color looks good aside a big green cat). I'll find and post a few photos from that visit sometime later today.
Thanks to Barb for posting the above image on her SFO Mom , as well as to Carolina Cannonball at The Crescat for doing the same.
Inside of a brochure we picked up at the Basilica. Click for larger.
I didn't take any photographs inside the church itself, but this image from the brochure has a decent photograph of the tomb of St. Anthony. Click to view a much larger image.
Directly behind this family is the Chapel of the Treasury, which displays the tongue, jawbone and vocal chords of the saint.
Photo I took inside one of the Basilica's courtyards. Click for larger.
Photo from a cafe across the street. Click for larger.
Photo of a very young priest who was sitting outside the cafe with his friends. Click for larger.
The Basilica of St. Anthony has an exceptionally informative web site, which includes a virtual tour, images of the church for your desktop (I recommend the sensational Presbiterio) and a live webcam of the outside of the Basilica, the latter situated at a vantage point somewhere above the cafe in the previous photographs. Fellow U.S. Midwesterners should add seven hours to deduce Padua time.
The title of this post might have summarized a satirical faithmouse cartoon a few years ago; now it's a news story. The Motion Picture Association of America has deemed the squeaky clean, evangelistic film Facing The Giants too "heavily laden with messages from one religion" according to Kris Fuhr, vice president for marketing at Provident Films.
The MPAA is advising parents against allowing their children to see Facing The Giants unsupervised, not because of profanity, or nudity, or sexual content...but because a coach talks to a student about Christ, and similar content. That's it. According to this new standard being set by the MPAA, a religious message by itself can no longer be deemed non offensive and safe for the entire family.
Not very long ago, a film devoid of sex and profanity would have been assigned immediately to the G category. If the MPAA knew ahead of time that such a film was being made by an organization such as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, they would have mailed the film its G. The very definition of a G rating used to be that the film was a Disney cartoon, a Warren Miller surfing/skiing movie, or something Christian.
If Quentin Tarantino was revealed as the director of Facing The Giants I suspect it would have easily acheived its G from the folks at the MPAA, who might have wondered why such a talented director was throwing away his career. More than likely it isn't solely the evangelistic message of Facing The Giants which has earned the PG, but the Baptist organization which made it. The irrational PG rating against Giants may be nothing more than a politically inspired ad-hominem against the product of a religious group which is disliked by many in Hollywood for its very forward stance against same-sex marriage.
What these folks at the MPAA are now declaring is that, by association, every person, church service, televised program, sacred destination, book, film, drawing, mural, play, bumpersticker, T shirt, music CD...ad-infinitem, which presents nothing more offensive than the straightforward idea that perhaps there is a God somewhere who loves us and wants us to be happy (whoever the fiilmakers might profess that God to be), is by nature offensive to those who may not agree with that message, and should be slapped with a warning label.
Now that's offensive.
At our recent Stella blogparty, Mitchell Hadley of Our Word And Welcome To It shared with us some particularly egregious liturgical violations he's encountered here in the Twin Cities Catholic community, a subject I thought might make for a good occasional series. Just by coincidence, our correspondent the original Faithmouse was present at Mary, Mother Of The Church in Burnsville last Pentecost Sunday and witnessed the second reading presented simultaneously and in its entirety in both English and Spanish. Voila, our first 'Liturgical Violation' cartoon, in progress.
I'm finishing the Officer Gilchrist and Sevo memorial portrait begun a little over a month ago. Below is a drawing which I plan to incorporate into the final version. Puppy Sevo will be running into these hands, and then I'll have a 'cameo' of Officer Gilchrist and his current dog Buddy in the upper right corner of the drawing.
As you can see, I'm not concerned about using today's 666 date. If anything, the number is a constant reminder to me as to who gets to claim the final victory (good guys win). To mark the date, I've let it stand prominently in the drawing above. Evil has no hands to use but our own.
You know, I've forgotten all about that cake/bread.
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Have a few revisions in mind for today's new Father Augustine the Cat cartoon, which I'll try to get to later this evening. Image revised 1 A.M. Saturday.
Thanks to Dawn Eden for displaying yesterday's Ben Kessler cartoon. A hat tip to Stella Borealis and Barb at SFO Mom for doing the same. Much appreciated. Big Mike Thompson is displaying the older Chill In The Air cartoon, alongside a link to an interesting story about Christianity and the Colorado Rockies baseball francaise. Angel Queen has posted both the Stella banner I designed a few weeks ago and the report Ray wrote on a recent funeral service at St. Joan Of Arc Church here in the Twin Cities area. Hedgehodge Lover at LiveJournal displays the We're Going To The Hunter S. Thompson Suicide Party! cartoon from last year. Nicole B at As My World Turns has added faithmouse to her blogroll. Eisbrecher at the German bLOGgy (adult content) has posted the Da Vinci Commode cartoon. Thanks!
No new cartoon for tomorrow; however, the original faithmouse and I are hosting the second meeting of the Stella Borealis Northland Catholic Roundtable, which I'll report on with perhaps an embarrassing pic or two. I have a few pieces in progress, including the Armel/Garbarino memorial portrait and the most recent Ms. StarMole cartoon, wherein she deletes a previous version of herself using Photoshop. I also have a Pope Benedict/Rainbow/Auschwitz cartoon in mind, although it hasn't progressed any father than the back of my occipital lobe at the moment...
