Spiritual Surf: Vatican gives Half-Blood Prince thumbs up, Mira Sorvino’s miracle baby, and an eye on Oprah
We surf Oprah . . . so you don’t have to
The L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, has given Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince a four star rating.
Not overly concerned that most of the characters are witches and warlocks, the article praises the movie for its values of “friendship, altruism, loyalty and self-giving.” Catholic News Service.
Mira’s miracle?
One wonders if the word “miraculous” is getting too much play. Mira Sorvino’s third child has been called a “miracle baby.”
The actor did suffer with placenta previa; a blot clot; a nine week hospital stay, and finally, a huge baby (8 lbs, 12 oz.) that was NOT delivered via C-section. No surprise: People has the details.
Reason for solstice illumination discovered
For miracles which may have a human origin, we turn to Professor Ruben Mendoza, director of the Institute for Archaeology at Cal State Monterey Bay. Mendoza has observed that during solstice, the altars in numerous old Spanish missions in California are bathed in a swirl of sunlight. His theory is that clever friars and hard working Indian labourers were behind this phenomena. The San Francisco Chronicle tells you where to observe this for yourself.
News from around the world
And in the “pain body” department, an experiment by Richard Stephens of Keele University in the UK suggests that swearing is the best pain reliever. The fact that Mr. Stephens bears an uncanny resemblance to Tom Arnold (pictured at right) only makes the news more credible.
It is not often that you read the words “orgasm” and “children” in the same sentence, but the Times of London has accomplished just that.
For a 10-year-old girl, two hearts were not better than one.
Eye on Oprah: The good, the bad, the ugly
The good:
Five books to read when you need a mood boost
Stop being so hard on yourself!
Marianne Williamson: The Miracle of Aging
The bad
Extreme affects of Child Neglect
The ugly
Three new tricks to lose weight
Kirstie Alley’s Weight Struggle
Does Lip Gloss with Hoodia Help You Diet?
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The Church has been rating movies for years. They used to have the dreaded CONDEMNED rating (they actually had a listing of all movies with its rating in their weekly rag The Catholic Standard and Times).
I believe (years ago) Midnight Cowboy and Monty Pythons’s Life of Brian were slapped with a condemned rating. The only flicks you could see without committing some kind of sin [you see they have different degrees of sin (mortal, venial, etc.] were Disney flicks.