Monday, January 28, 2013

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

The Beatitudes from AOP

Random Notes From The Road: Back Home

Unlike my trip to Mexico a couple of years ago, which was primarily an R and R mission, my trip to Chicago over the weekend was a working holiday.  I thought I might be able to check in every so often, like I did on that previous journey, but things were pretty tightly scheduled once the parish retreat got going.  Sorry for no play by play descriptions of things, but here are a few scattered reflections.

St. John Bosco Parish, in the Belmont-Cragin section of Chicago, was not my first assignment after ordination, but it is the place that I was the longest in my Salesian life so far.  I transferred to New Rochelle in 2007 after five years as parochial vicar there.  I filled in for a few weeks in the summer of '08, but haven't been back again until now.  I'm grateful to Fr. Tim Zak, SDB, the pastor, for inviting me back to give the monthly retreat for the parish volunteers. 

What impressed me the most was that this very active parish has suffered the same personnel down-sizing as many other places (there are simply not enough priests and brothers to fill the various jobs that need to be done) but has still maintained a high level of programing and has deepened it's Salesian identity since I left.  Part of this can be credited to Fr. Tim and the other three Salesians who serve there.  Part of it is the Salesians who came before and laid the foundations (The Salesians first came to the parish in 1998).  But a big part of it is the people of the parish themselves.  They have embraced the Salesian spirit and made themselves a vital part of the Salesian Youth Movement.

At the core of this deepening of the Salesian identity at SJB is the presence of the the Salesian Cooperators.  They are an association of lay Catholics (though diocesan clergy can join too) in the style of a third order dedicated to spreading the Salesian charism of Don Bosco in the Church and the world.  In fact it is one of the three branches of the Salesian family, along with the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, founded by Don Bosco himself.  The Chicago Unit was a small, fledgling group when I left in '07, but are now deeply involved in the parish's mission, as well as that of the Salesian Province (Marshal Gomez, an old friend from my SJB days, is the current Provincial Coordinator of the Cooperator's Council).  To return and see so many people I knew from the old days still involved, and in some cases more involved than before, and many new faces who have come into the parish, all in love with Christ, following Him in the spirit of Don Bosco, was gratifying and encouraging to me.  

It's also proof that in the end it's the Holy Spirit doing it all.  If we are faithful, doing what we are supposed to do, the Lord will bless us with an abundance of His grace, and the work will flourish.

It's good to be back in Elizabeth, and am looking forward to a great 2013.  May the Salesian Spirit continue to grow here and throughout the world.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Random Notes From the Road- Day One

I'm sitting in Newark (Liberty) waiting for breakfast and my flight to Chicago. I'll be checking in periodically as I journey to Chicago to help with a retreat for volunteers at St. John Bosco Parish.

Hobbits Revisited

I took a break from retreat prep to scratch an itch of sorts. I saw the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in the much debated high frame rate format. I had a mixed reaction to it. It was hardly the unmitigated disaster some have made it out to be, but it is still a novelty. I agree with Matt Atchity of Rotten Tomatoes and What the Flick that if Peter Jackson was going to experiment he should have done it on a lesser project.

From a technical stand point, the problems I found with the standard projection really had to do with the fact that The Hobbit was meant to be seen at 48 fps, and transferring it to 24 frames is similar to showing a wide screen movie on an old LD, small screen TV. Much of the detail is lost and images become obscured. To make another comparison, it's kind of like listening to a symphony on a mono transistor radio.

That said, should the movie have been made this way to begin with? Like I wrote, it's a mixed bag. The scenes with Gollum are truly frightening, and the final confrontation was better for the high clarity. But other times the action looked like it was ripped from a video game. Sometimes this shift between hyper real and super fake happened within the same scene.

In the end this use of high frame rate was a bit of a misguided move. This is a sweeping epic that deserves a big screen presentation, but the intended viewing experience makes this too much of an uneven ride. While even the standard format has its problems, I'd stick with it until the movie guys figure out what they're doing in 48 fps.

We're almost ready to board. More when I get to Chi-town.