Frederica: The Life and Work of Frederica Mathewes-Green

Khouria Frederica Mathewes-Green

 
I have known this lady for several years; she and her husband are friends with our priest & his wife, and she has spoken at our parish several times. She writes for Beliefnet, Christianity Today, NPR's All Things Considered, National Review, Books & Culture, Touchstone as well as many newspapers. She has written 9 books, and has been interviewed on all the major news networks. Recently, she sent out this message via email, and I'm sharing it here:

OK, this is going to sound weird, but back around Thanksgiving a young filmmaker in Los Angeles wrote and asked if I would be interested in being the subject of a documentary. He thought my conversion to Christ, and change of heart on the abortion issue, might be inspiring to others. His name is John Gleason, and he's with the film production company Movie to Movement, which produced "Bella" a few years ago--I liked it a lot.So we did some filming in NY and he made a trailer--you can see it here:
Kickstarter:Frederica documentary

and also shot some footage last week at the March for Life and St. Vladimir's Seminary. He plans to film me this weekend at Biola Univ in LA, and at other speaking events over the coming months.

Click on through to see the trailer, and maybe you'll think about making a donation too? 

Frederica Mathewes-Green www.frederica.com

 

St. Emmelia Homeschooling Conference

Announcing the 2014 St. Emmelia Homeschooling Conference

Also speaking at the Conference is Andrew Kern, teacher and author of The Lost Tools of Writing, from the Circe Institute, which supports classical Christian Education. 

More information is available at the Antiochian Village website.

New library activity - the Roaming Librarian

     Today I began participating in a service program at my library – the Roaming Librarian program. [I want to make a joke about being by inclination more Byzantine than Roman (Roamin’) but can’t figure out quite where to shove it in. I suppose here is as good a place as any.] The idea of this project is to get the librarians out away from the service points, and mingling with the students in the study areas where they are actually working. Like most libraries, we have a number of ways for the students to get in touch with us, to ask for assistance. This is a new project here, but it has been talked about for some time and as I understand it, many public libraries, as well as academic libraries are doing this. 

Here's a picture someone snapped of me today, as I was walking around. 

(No, I'm kidding. This is Thomas James, the first Librarian of the Bodlian Library in England, 1602.)

      Twice a week, I will pick up a mobile phone and a tablet computer, and casually stroll through the building, looking for student in need of help with their research. This is a new thing for me, both in the moving around, and in the use of the tablet. I’ve used keyboards & mice since the late 1980’s, but this I admit, is a new beast. It is too early to say whether I like interacting with a computer this way or not. It wants to switch on the video/camera function, which I neither need nor want.

      I volunteered to do this mostly as a way to get in some exercise during my day. Too much sitting is not doing me any good, as I am not as young as I once was. With the Roaming program, I’ll cover all of the floors of the library at least once in an hour, even at a pace slower than I typically walk.

      I’m not only interested in my health; I do expect and look forward to stopping and helping students. I feel the discomfort of some of my colleagues about approaching students ‘cold’ and interjecting ourselves into their conversations and projects. It will feel awkward; especially the first few times I do so. My intention is to look around as I walk and see who makes eye contact. It might help if I had something bigger than my little name tag to identify me as a librarian and not some nosy weirdo. Over time, I expect that I will become a familiar face, but with the thousands of students on our campus, that may take a long time. So, this will be a ground (or if you prefer, ice-) breaking endeavor for me and for the librarians.

      From time to time, I will check in here at the blog with stories of what went right, what went wrong and what went weird as I amble about Deep in the Stacks and out into the study areas. The first tricky part will be getting anyone in the “We Mean QUIET!” areas to even look up and indicate that they would like some help. We’ll probably have to step out into the hallway to have a conversation about what they need. Ah well, all that will be ironed out in time.

Off the Cuff Movie Review - The Hunt for Red October

     This week it was my pick for movie night, and I felt the boys were old enough to enjoy and understand one of my favorites, 1990's The Hunt for Red October. Based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name, The Hunt for Red October is a political/military/technological action movie, set in the early 1980's. The Red October is a Soviet submarine (Typhoon class) captained by Marko Ramius, the Soviet's top submarine commander. (Of course he's the best, he's played by Sean Connery!) The Russians call him "The Vilnius Schoolmaster". His new submarine boasts a new technology that makes them inaudible to sonar, which makes them very dangerous.
     Raimius is Up To Something, and the movie's title comes from both the Russians and Americans trying desperately to find the Red October before Ramius can put his plan into action. But what is his plan?  After reading his official orders, Ramius kills his political officer, burns the orders and substitutes his own, and get the second essential missile launch  key from the dead man. He tells the crew they're sailing to Cuba by way of the American coast. The Russians are afraid he's trying to defect, and the Americans are afraid he's trying to make a sneak attack. So both sides want to find the Ramius and the Red October, and won't hesitate to sink him to stop him.
     American CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) thinks he's guessed the truth, that Ramius is trying to defect, but he has a hard time getting anyone to believe him. Eventually Ryan finds himself aboard the USS Dallas (Los Angeles class) trying to convince captain Bart Mancuso (Scott Glenn) to communicate with the Red October once they find her. The film reaches its climax in a submarine battle above one of the deepest spots in the Atlantic, with the Red October fighting to survive being pursued by both the Russians and the Americans.
     This film has a lot to commend it. It has a good exciting story line, detailed and realistic sets, uniforms and military protocols, great characters and actors [James Earl Jones, Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, Tim Curry, Stellan Skarsgaard, Fred Thompson], lots of dramatic tension, and given its Cold War setting, a lack of stereotypes of either the  Russians or the Americans. There is a 2-second shot of a Russian sailor, a Russian Orthodox Christian (who were persecuted by the Communist government), making the sign of the Cross after witnessing some of his comrades being killed. The underwater chase scenes are packed with drama; at one point the Red October is maneuvering through an undersea canyon to escape a torpedo that was launched at them. They must flee at a speed far above what is safe for the tight quarters, and you can see the fear on the faces of all the crew. An officer protests Ramius' wild maneuvering:  "Captain, if we're out of position by so much as a boat length . . ." he doesn't finish, but you can tell the rest is "we will crash into the canyon wall and die."
     The underwater scenes are dark and it is sometimes hard to see what's happening, and all the subs look a lot alike. So when the scene cuts back to a sub interior, the writers did a good job of explaining the action through the characters. Crewmen aboard both subs ask what happened, and an explanation is given first in Navy jargon, then again in plain English. For example -  Commanding Officer: "Why don't I have a detonation?"  Weapon Officer: "The weapon enabled on the far side of the target. It passed (target ship) before it armed." Ah, so that's what just happened. A few characters, Ryan included at some points, serve as the audience expy to ask the questions, and allow another character to explain.
     I always try to point out a movie's flaws, and this one does have a few. Some consider the film's near total lack of female characters to be a flaw. Most of the characters are sailors, and they talk like sailors, which means there's an amount of cussing going on. I was concerned that we would have to have a talk with the boys after the film about not using rude words, but I was surprised by my younger son. Right in the middle of the movie, he called out Jack Ryan for using irreverent language (taking the Lord's name in vain). Near the beginning, Captain Ramius kills one of his officers, who would have interfered with his plan. It's a gruesome scene, which could easily be nightmare fuel, so I muted the sound and asked the boys to shut their eyes until it was over, then explained simply what had happened. Kids who are not old enough to know some 20th century history probably wouldn't follow what was going on in this film, but my boys do, and I enjoyed watching an old favorite again, and also watching my boys go from disinterest, to mild interest, to being totally absorbed.
     My favorite line, uttered in astonishment by one of the Red October's officers: "Torpedo impact . . .now?"

Wisdom from the Fathers - St Gregory the Great

Concerning the power to work miracles

 
Pope St Gregory the Great, writing in a letter to St Augustine of Canterbury,
as recorded by St Bede the Venerable in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People

   "Finally, dearest brother, in all your outward actions, which by God's help you perform, always strictly examine your inner dispositions. Clearly understand your own character and how much grace is in this nation for whose conversion God has given you the power to work miracles.  And if you remember that you have ever offended our Creator by word or action, let the memory of your sin crush any temptation to pride that may arise in your hear, and bear in mind that whatever powers to perform miracles you have received or shall receive from God are entrusted to you solely for the salvation of your people."

     Gregory reminded Augustine not to boast of his achievements, noting that when the Apostles returned to Christ saying "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us, through thy Name" Jesus chided them "In this rejoice not, but rather rejoice because your names are written in Heaven". Don't lose sight of the eternal even for good things in the temporal.
In our own age, so-called 'celebrity pastors' and those who are devoted to them would do well to heed the words of St Gregory, who signed the letter above quoted, and all of his letters "Gregory, servant of the servants of God." 
 
Bede's Ecclesiastical History can be found here and here.