Christmas Eve Cricket at the Beach

20111224-184853.jpg

Just a taste of what we’re up to!

About Schütz

I am a PhD candidate & sessional academic at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia. After almost 10 years in ministry as a Lutheran pastor, I was received into the Catholic Church in 2003. I worked for the Archdiocese of Melbourne for 18 years in Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations. I have been editor of Gesher for the Council of Christians & Jews and am guest editor of the historical journal “Footprints”. I have a passion for pilgrimage and pioneered the MacKillop Woods Way.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

8 Responses to Christmas Eve Cricket at the Beach

  1. Stephen K says:

    This was my Christmas eve: I collected a scoop of faeces from my youngest goat, Sophie, and took it to the vet’s at the town nearest to me for testing because she had been suffering from diarrhea and had not been drinking or eating for about five days. I was really worried. Thankfully, later in the day, after syringing about 60 mls of a special electrolyte solution into her mouth – to stop her dehydrating – for two days running, and changing the straw in the barn, I noticed she showed a little interest in the carrots I gave her for breakfast and some grass and rose cuttings thi afternoon. I am satisfied she is on the mend!

    Then my wife and I got the local church ready for Mass. Later we arranged the church for a midnight service – based loosely on the office – complete with candlelight. Ours is a country parish that gets perfunctorily serviced twice a month: I figure my background must be for something, so I invest the liturgies and paraliturgies with suitable monastic flavour. Can’t help myself, I suppose.

    But no cricket. Just animals, making sure they have enough food.

    • Schütz says:

      Well, domestic animals have a place in the Christmas story too, Stephen. I remember one Easter Sunday as a child having to get up at dawn to help my father treat a mob of fly blown sheep before travelling to Adelaide for the baptism of a new born vousin. Oddly, I learned more about you from that single post than I have from anything elae you have written all year! Happy Christmas.

  2. matthias says:

    stephen can i ask in a general way where you are situated? and thank you for that quick grab bag into your life :
    1. rural life in general – my vet is just up the road from me for example so I just walk and
    2.life as a rural Catholic. “ours is a country parish that gets perfunctorily serviced ” twice a month. given your comments ,like Schutz, I have learnt a bit more about you and think your ‘perfunctorily served’parish is lucky to have you and your wife and your background .

    hope you hada merry christmas

    • Stephen K says:

      Thank you, Matthias, same to you. (Of course, Christmas has only just begun!) Last night I watched a wonderful film called “Joyeux Noel”. It always affects me. Everything about the First World War affects me, its pointlessness, its ritual factory-like slaughters, its gradual descent into more and more acts of desperate barbarism, the self-importance of the various leaderships, and of course, the peace terms that went into the mix of what came out of the oven as Nazism.

      Today is quieter and I’m catching up with some reading: an essay by Eberhard Arnold “We Live in Community” with a commentary by Thomas Merton; a couple of chapters from Marx’s Capital, after which I think I’ll grab myself a beer.

  3. matthias says:

    Talking of things Christmas can we please pray for our brethren in Iraq,Nigeria ,Pakistan and Egypt.
    Fraser Nelson in THE SPECATATOR has a very good article about this issue
    here is the link

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7516508/we-cant-ignore-the-persecution-of-christians-in-the-middle-east.thtml

  4. matthias says:

    Talking of WW1 and its consequences:
    -social -the world changed and sexual mores began to change as well
    -religious-people either came back from the Western Front either socialists,atheists or firm believers
    -political-the Royal Houses that once predominated before the War were less in abundance.The French inspired Treaty of Versaillies was the catalyst to the resurgent militarism of the Prussian junkers who thought that Hitler could be easily used and then thrown away at the right time
    -geographical- Mespotamia from the Ottoman Empire broke up into Iraq and Kuwait as did the Balkan states. What are the consequences besides WW2 and the Iron Curtain
    Various Balkan Wars with their horrific atrocities in the last twenty years
    Two gulf Wars fought over Iraq and Kuwait
    Yes WW1 has been played out again and again in our most recent history.
    Bruce Barnesfather was an English cartoonist who was in the trenches in WW1 and who saw and took part on the events portrayed in Joyeux Noel. I have his book BILLETS & BULLETS and he has assorted cartoons regarding the Christmans Truce of 1914 wihtin it. What a pity they all could not turn their backs and walk home. How many siepier photos in Australia would contain an extra person-who would not have to have fought at Gallipoli,Potieres and Fromelles or other charnel houses!!

Leave a Reply to matthias Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *