A secular Franciscan & student of René Girard reflecting on how we desire according to the desire of the other.
"Most High, glorious God, cast Your Light into the darkness of my heart, and grant me a right faith, certain hope and perfect charity, sense and understanding, Lord, so that I may know and do Your holy and true command." - St. Francis of Assisi: Prayer before the Crucifix
First Remix: video featuring 'In The Year 2525'- Zager and Evans - Cover - Remix - Pete Stark
"COVID19 has taken over the world in 2020. We are going through a massive lock-down.
How is life after COVID-19? Is mankind still alive in the year 2525?"
Lyrics:
In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find...
In the year 3535
Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you think, do and say
Is in the pill you took today
In the year 4545
Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes
You won't find a thing to chew
Nobody's gonna look at you
In the year 5555
Your arms are hangin` limp at your sides
Your legs got nothing to do
Some machine doing that for you
In the year 6565
Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife
You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too
From the bottom of a long glass tube
In the year 7510
If God is coming he oughta` make it by then
Maybe he'll look around himself and say
``Guess it's time for the Judgement day''
In the year 8510
God is gonna shake his mighty head
He'll either say ``I'm pleased where man has been''
Or tear it down and start again
In the year 9595
I'm kind of wondering if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing...
Now it's been 10,000 years
Man has cried a billion tears
For what he never knew
Now man's reign is through
But throught eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday...
In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
https://www.youtube.com/@filmvizion/videos
Second Remix: video featuring 'In The Year 2525'- Zager and Evans - Cover - Remix - Music House Groove Guild and production company Sarofsky
Master recording by Groove Guild
www.grooveguild.com
Social handles - @GrooveGuild
All visuals by Sarofsky
www.sarofsky.com
Social handles - Instagram - @Sarofsky_design, Facebook & Twitter - @Sarofsky
Smart link to steam audio: https://ffm.to/adqrqk9
Director statement:
The way that the old, folksy sound contrasts the dark, dystopian lyrics and how the mercurial descriptions are so susceptible to visual interpretation, forced us to contemplate the current state of the world. We were specifically drawn to how the verses related to scientific/technological advancements and worked to manifest them into a look that is undeniably retrofuturistic.
Songwriter credits:
Written by Richard Evans
Published by Zerlad Music Enterprises, Ltd. (BMI)
Worldwide rights administered by Grow Your Own Music (BMI), a division of “A” Side Music, LLC d/b/a Modern Works Music Publishing
Production credits:
Director: Erin Sarofsky
Co-Director: Duarte Elvas
Executive Producer: Steven Anderson
Producer: Kelsey Hynes
Lead Artists: Josh Smiertka, Jake Allen, Tanner Wickware, Matt Miltonberger
Additional Design and Animation: Ally Munro, Griffin Thompson, Andrew Hyden, Dan Moore, Tobi Mattner, Nik Braatz
Additional Contributors: Jamie Gray, Andrew Rosenstein, Mark Galazka, Kenny Albanese
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart - Al Green's version (1972)
I can think of younger days when living for my life Was everything a man could want to do I could never see tomorrow, but I was never told about the sorrow
And how can you mend a broken heart? How can you stop the rain from falling down? How can you stop the sun from shining? What makes the world go round? How can you mend a this broken man? How can a loser ever win? Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again
I can still feel the breeze that rustles through the trees And misty memories of days gone by We could never see tomorrow, no one said a word about the sorrow
And how can you mend a broken heart? How can you stop the rain from falling down? How can you stop the sun from shining? What makes the world go round? How can you mend this broken man? How can a loser ever win? Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again
We had no idea what was precious
Solara: "Do you remember what it was like? I mean, in the world before?
Eli: "People had more than they needed. We had no idea what was precious and what wasn't. We threw away things people kill each other for now."
Walk by faith
It's a flower of light in a field of darkness,
and it's given me the strength to carry on.
Solara: "Didn'tthinkanything could make you give up that book."
Eli: "You know, for years I've beencarryingand reading iteveryday. I got socaughtup withkeepingit safe Iforgotto live by what I learnedfrom it."
Solara: "Yeah? What's that?"
Eli: "Just to...Do forothersmore than you do for yourself. It's what I got from it anyway."
From Magnificat - Aug 7, 2022
Putting our faith in God can seem like walking blindly into the dark simply because God has asked us to—with no assurance that we have heard correctly or that God is there to catch us if we fall.
Yet that is what Eli did. Let us pray for the gift of that same unshakable faith.
Ending prayer
Dear Lord, thank you for giving the strength and conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me.
Thanks you for guiding me straight and true through the many obstacles in my path.
And for keeping me resolute when all around me seemed lost.Thank you for your protection and many signs along the way.Thank you for any good I may have done. I am so sorry about the bad.Thank you for the friend I made. Please watch over her as you watched over me.Thank you for finally allowing me to rest. I am so very tired but I go now to my rest and peace.Knowing that I have done right with my time on this earth.I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
"Here it is, therefore; our stairway to heaven: our goal in life, according to Led Zeppelin, must be to discover the power of the community, the need to live together, in harmony with our souls and with nature. Only in this way can we we really improve ourselves and others, escaping the real evil of society, framed in its materialism, selfishness and disinterest towards others (“When all are one and one is all / To be a rock and not to roll”).
Stairway to Heaven, in conclusion, is everything but a perverse ode to evil and darkness. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, a splendid message of solidarity, brotherhood and equality. Together, we can really change the world around us. To be a rock and not to roll. Maybe it’s just an illusion. Perhaps we will never be able to really get together and do something concrete to make our lives better. But the message is there, and that’s what Led Zeppelin wanted from us."
.Stairway to Heaven
There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold And she's buying a stairway to heaven When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed With a word she can get what she came for Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven
There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure 'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven You know
There's a feeling I get when I look to the west And my spirit is crying for leaving In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees And the voices of those who stand looking That's you
And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune Then the piper will lead us to reason And a new day will dawn for those who stand long And the forests will echo with laughter Remember laughter?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah...
And it makes me wonder If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now It's just a spring clean for the May queen Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run There's still time to change the road you're on
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know The piper's calling you to join him Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?
And as we wind on down the road Our shadows taller than our soul There walks a lady we all know Who shines white light and wants to show How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard The tune will come to you at last When all is one and one is all, that's what it is To be a rock and not to roll, oh yeah
"Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?" - "God"
We need the living Christ, whom we can know only through our encounter with him. But encounter presumes actual presence—the Real Presence, which, in turn, requires the Sacrament and the Church that alone is authorized to give us the Sacrament, the Church that Christ himself willed into existence and continues to support. The Eucharist, at each new celebration, must be recognized anew as the core of our Christian life. But we cannot celebrate the Eucharist adequately if we are content to reduce it to a ritual of—more or less—a half-hour’s duration. To receive Christ means to worship him. We welcome him properly and worthily at the solemn moment of receiving him only when we worship him and in worshiping him learn to know him, come to understand his nature, and follow him. We need to learn once more how to rest peacefully in his gentle presence in our churches, where the Eucharist is likewise always present because Christ intercedes for us before the Father, because he always awaits us and speaks to us. We must learn again how to draw inwardly close to him, for it is only thus that we become worthy of the Eucharist. We cannot prepare ourselves to receive the Eucharist simply by thinking about how it should be done. We can prepare for it only when we try to comprehend the depths of its demands on us, of its greatness; when we do not reduce it to our level, but let ourselves be raised to its exalted level; when we become aware of the accumulated sound of the prayers offered during all the centuries in which generations of men have advanced and are still advancing toward Christ. It is petty and undiscerning to criticize such prayers because we do not understand them; it is an expression of a genuinely “critical” sentiment (of which, be it noted, self-criticism is also a form) when we begin to recognize their greatness and, opening ourselves to that greatness, let ourselves be deepened and purified by it.
From: Joseph Ratzinger, Roman homilies, October 12, 1982
Where do we find ourselves now? How do the insights of René Girard concerning desire, violence, and scapegoating help us to make sense of a moment where our illusions are being laid bare and how we are to be is suddenly put into question? Are we stuck in rivalry with easily identifiable “others” whose faults we see, while blind to our own?
All are invited.
James Alison is a Catholic priest, theologian, and author, known for his application of the thought of René Girard to contemporary theological questions.
Duncan Morrow has worked for many years in conflict resolution and peace-making in Northern Ireland and beyond. He is currently the Director of Community Engagement at the University of Ulster.
