Of Gods and Men -another look

I returned to this film, which I found very moving at the first viewing, after a friend gave it negative review. I rate this friend's views and thought it important to check my original impressions with another viewing. I was aware that for many viewers the life of a group of Cistercian monks, living monastic life in the wake of the reforms of the SecondVatican Council in the 1960s, may have seemed strange. No grand medieval buildings, ornate liturgy or distance from the world here but an unpretentious priory, simple prayers and engagement with the everyday life of the local people.

There is conflict between the unnamed country's army and politicians and groups of 'terrorists' who roam around the countryside causing mayhem. We see a group of Croatians being separated from some of the local people with whom they are working. The Croatians have their throats cut. It is not clear what the 'terrorists' represent but they are Islamic. The closeness between some of the local people, Muslims, and the monks is strong. The links between the Abrahamic faiths is made explicit. The local people depend upon the free medical clinic and drugs provided by the monks and especially from one monk brother Luc, a doctor, who tends the sick with the few drugs he can source. The inevitable conflict happens when the 'terrorists' arrive to have the monk/doctor treat one of their injured. The prior refuses to speak to them if they are insistent on keeping their arms so they go outside the enclosure to speak. The authorities distrust the monks in the belief they are giving succour to the 'terrorists'.

Once it becomes more or less clear to the community that they are staying put, that they will probably be taken hostage and killed, a strange sense of settledness comes up on them. They are at their last supper. Luc puts on a tape of Sleeping Beauty and they drink wine together. Some viewers have thought this a rather incongruous thing to do. To me it makes sense.

The film ends with most of the community being marched, single file other than the prior assisting the by now very unwell Luc, through the snows of the Atlas mountains. The fate of the monks is not shown in the film. It is, of course, a fiction based on fact.

The real monks had been taken prisoner as hostages in an attempt to get the government of the county to do something. The French foreign office was not willing to help. The monks were found beheaded. A resonance to the fate of John the Baptist, forerunner of Jesus.

The film, for me, was about hope and how it will be attacked when it starts to flower.

New Years Day at the Tigers.

Good match at Welford Road yesterday with Tigers playing Sale Sharks. Antonio De Vecchi took this wonderful evocative pic of the corps de ballet at full tilt.....

For the feast of BVM tomorrow New Year's Day

There is no rose of such virtue....

New Year Greetings from LE2

Domestic scene celebrating 6 years of civil partnership and 30 years of life together:

a happy and peaceful and healthy 2012

Psychoanalysis is ......

Records reveal how Christmas was once cancelled

Documents from The National Archives reveal how the wave of religious reform that swept across England during and after the English Civil War could have changed the way Christmas is celebrated today.

Christmas banned

The Council of State Letters and Papers (catalogue reference SP 25/15) show how Oliver Cromwell and his allies in Parliament objected to the excess and debauchery that followed the traditional celebration of Christmas. In accordance with their Puritan views, strict rules were drawn up banning all familiar festivities relating to Christmas, including feasting and carolling. The restriction also meant that worshiping idols and using the word 'Christmas' became serious offences. Previous to this, in 1642, the government had declared a monthly fast to remember the famine in Ireland. During this fast, the playing of sport and conducting of trade were banned - this was to be observed even when it fell on Christmas day in 1644.

Despite the rules, later entries among the government papers suggest that the ban on Christmas and other holy day festivities were ignored. In December 1657, orders were issued to the authorities in London and Westminster to clamp down on visible traditional celebrations of festival days. An extract from the Council of State Letters and Papers, SP 18/158, f.95, reads:

'The festivals of Easter, Christmas, and other holy days having been taken away, the Lord Mayor and justices of London and Westminster are to see that the Ordinance for taking away festivals is observed, and to prevent the solemnities heretofore used in their celebration.'

Christmas restored

Sean Cunningham, Head of Medieval and Early Modern Records at The National Archives, commented: 'Although this might seem like the ultimate Christmas Scrooge story, it's no surprise that the anti-Christmas legislation was ignored by many people who continued to follow ancient traditions in secret. What is most astonishing, however, is that for almost two decades the festivities of Christmas week were officially forbidden. If the ban hadn't been publicly reversed by Charles II, the joys of Christmas might have been a time consigned to history.'

The restoration of the monarchy in May 1660 reversed the doctrine and encouraged a return to the traditional ways of celebrating. The country was once again officially allowed to mark the 12 days of Christmas.

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