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Welcome 2012

cultureboy — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 02:34:29 +0000

Welcome to January 1st. In the “Land of the Long Weekend” this is the day to recover from the NYE parties and celebrations. It’s a day at the beach or home with a ‘Barby“.

The Church struggles to get a full house on this day although there is a bonus when it falls on a Sunday as has happened this year. In good old Catholic Tradition this day was known as the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord. Yes, it is the only Catholic feast for a medical procedure. As with all great Biblical accounts there is a picture gallery available on Google.

Circumcision gets some pretty good press in the Scriptures as a popular practice and metaphor. By the time you have worked through the Hebrew Scriptures and made your way to some of Paul’s letters you get to the most cutting of his statements: “Beware of the cutters,” (Ph.3:2). So, there you have it, time to stop infant circumcision!! If Paul was around today he would probably join one of the Facebook pages against infant circumcision.

Thanks to this feast we also have a great new word for scrabble: prepuce. The Holy Prepuce or the story of the foreskin relics is another contribution of Catholicism to the religious entertainment industry. It seems that we can also learn a bit from Michelangelo about this practice.

The United Nations Theme for 2012: The International Year of Cooperatives

In Australia we will celebrate The National Year of Reading

And to sing in this New Year I suggest we can do nothing better than join the chorus of We Are the Many

The 12 Days of Christmas

cultureboy — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:23:04 +0000

As we celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas I invite you to visit my Holy Irritant Blog for reflections on each of these days.

Christmas Day

Second Day of Christmas:The Essential Nativity Extra

Third Day of Christmas A Holy Day for Queers

Fourth Day of Christmas : The Holy Innocents

Fifth Day of Christmas: Swords and Brooms

Sixth Day of Christmas Putting the Stamp on Christmas

Gifts That Celebrate Christmas

cultureboy — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:44:38 +0000

New Title from Timor Leste

The children of Delecu in Timor Leste have written and illustrated a lovely book. The story of the book is itself an amazing tale of cross cultural experience. When Katrina Powell read ”From Little things Big Things Grow” to her class in Delecu she had no idea it would unleash a new partnership of language and community as her students took the text and story and made it their own.

The Kev Carmody/Paul Kelly iconic song From Little Things Big Things Grow is now an inspiration for the dreams of a new generation of kids in Timor Leste.

Edita de Jesus one of the young students and teacher Katrina Powell spoke about the inspiration of the Gurindji people, having chalk for school and going shopping in Brisbane, during their book launch tour here in Australia.

You can purchase this book online. Funds raised from sales will assist the Edmund Rice Primary School and distribution in East Timor.

Just Dates December

cultureboy — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:39:25 +0000

1	World AIDS Day
2	International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
3	International Day of Disabled Persons
5	International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development
7	International Civil Aviation Day
9	International Anti-Corruption Day
10	Human Rights Day
11	International Mountain Day
18	International Migrants Day
19	United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation
20	International Human Solidarity Day