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Just got our big tree into the living room! Unfortunately, this meant cleaning the living room, which was in dire need of a dusting, and though I was tackling bathrooms while my mother was dusting, I still got a lungful of dust which caused me to be pretty miserable for some time. Gaah... T'will be worth it, though!
And we're waiting with bated breath for the big winter storm that's on the way: the forecasters are predicting thunder-snow squalls, which are a rare but delightful sight: the crystalline beaut of snow and the power of thunder!
Change in plans in the 12 Days of Fanfic: I added a Trinity Blood fic to the list since I had a lovely idea pop into my head while I was taking a bath. I'm planning to start rewatching the series soon, and I'm also twiddling with a review of it from a Catholic perspective. In a few words: there's things that are off-kilter about how the Church is portrayed, but there's nothing to object about. If anything, it makes the Church look really cool and awesome and there's an element of what's been called "muscular Christianity", ie. strength in faith, in character and in defending the faith and the innocent, sometimes with words and sometimes with your fists or your guns... or your awesome Crusnik abilities. Some people might get tetchy about Father Tres Iques, but I think this is a case of the Church bestowing "honorary Holy Orders" on someone (or something with a certain amount of non-biological intelligence). This used to be done a long time ago, in that someone would receive Holy Orders, usually because they'd served the Church in some unusual capacity, but they were dispensed from the regular duties of the priesthood, eg. saying one Mass every day; the one instance that comes to mind was St. Jerome, who translated the entire Bible from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into Latin: he was given Holy Orders but because his health wasn't that great, he was dispensed from the regular duties of the priesthood so that he could continue his work.
The only other thing that raises my eyebrows is the female bishop and the female Cardinal: not likely to happen, though no doubt, there were nuns who stepped in to help serve the Church heroically in the wake of the apocalyptic events before the start of the series. This actually put me in mind of the crypto-Catholics who kept the Faith alive in Japan after the persecutions during the Tokugawa period, when dozens of priests were arrested or driven out of Japan: in the two hundred years between then and the reopening of Japan to the West in the 1800s, there were native priests and nuns who hid in the more remote areas and helped keep a small pilot light of Catholicism lit by teaching the Faith to those who would accept it and encouraging them to pass it on to their children. Of course, in time, the only sacrament that could be offered was baptism, but there was a village where one family kept a set of vestments, Mass books and sacred vessels hidden in their house and passing them on from one generation to the next, in the hope that some day the priests would be allowed to return to Japan. They also helped keep a vaguely defined small parish of sorts together, offering a rudimentary service on Sunday and praying the Rosary. They even repurposed statues of Kwan Yin as images of Our Lady and in some cases carved small crucifixes on the backs of Buddha statues (this actually pops up in one anime series, and from an odd source: there's a scene in Yami no Matsuei where the *main villain* of the series talks about this; I'm still puzzling over that, though I have some goo theories on it...).
Well, that wound up as more than a few words. :: laughs::
And we're waiting with bated breath for the big winter storm that's on the way: the forecasters are predicting thunder-snow squalls, which are a rare but delightful sight: the crystalline beaut of snow and the power of thunder!
Change in plans in the 12 Days of Fanfic: I added a Trinity Blood fic to the list since I had a lovely idea pop into my head while I was taking a bath. I'm planning to start rewatching the series soon, and I'm also twiddling with a review of it from a Catholic perspective. In a few words: there's things that are off-kilter about how the Church is portrayed, but there's nothing to object about. If anything, it makes the Church look really cool and awesome and there's an element of what's been called "muscular Christianity", ie. strength in faith, in character and in defending the faith and the innocent, sometimes with words and sometimes with your fists or your guns... or your awesome Crusnik abilities. Some people might get tetchy about Father Tres Iques, but I think this is a case of the Church bestowing "honorary Holy Orders" on someone (or something with a certain amount of non-biological intelligence). This used to be done a long time ago, in that someone would receive Holy Orders, usually because they'd served the Church in some unusual capacity, but they were dispensed from the regular duties of the priesthood, eg. saying one Mass every day; the one instance that comes to mind was St. Jerome, who translated the entire Bible from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into Latin: he was given Holy Orders but because his health wasn't that great, he was dispensed from the regular duties of the priesthood so that he could continue his work.
The only other thing that raises my eyebrows is the female bishop and the female Cardinal: not likely to happen, though no doubt, there were nuns who stepped in to help serve the Church heroically in the wake of the apocalyptic events before the start of the series. This actually put me in mind of the crypto-Catholics who kept the Faith alive in Japan after the persecutions during the Tokugawa period, when dozens of priests were arrested or driven out of Japan: in the two hundred years between then and the reopening of Japan to the West in the 1800s, there were native priests and nuns who hid in the more remote areas and helped keep a small pilot light of Catholicism lit by teaching the Faith to those who would accept it and encouraging them to pass it on to their children. Of course, in time, the only sacrament that could be offered was baptism, but there was a village where one family kept a set of vestments, Mass books and sacred vessels hidden in their house and passing them on from one generation to the next, in the hope that some day the priests would be allowed to return to Japan. They also helped keep a vaguely defined small parish of sorts together, offering a rudimentary service on Sunday and praying the Rosary. They even repurposed statues of Kwan Yin as images of Our Lady and in some cases carved small crucifixes on the backs of Buddha statues (this actually pops up in one anime series, and from an odd source: there's a scene in Yami no Matsuei where the *main villain* of the series talks about this; I'm still puzzling over that, though I have some goo theories on it...).
Well, that wound up as more than a few words. :: laughs::
