The Ill-Made Knight
Literary Response Journal Prompts
Each response should be thoughtful and well-developed. 2-3 pages in your LRJ per response is the proper range.
1. Medieval Presentation Notes
During the group presentations on medieval life you will be taking notes in your LRJ. Record five main points for each presentation. The “points” should be written in full sentences. You’ll be taking notes on the following 11 topics:
Feudalism in the Middle Ages
Knights’ Armor
Knights’ Weapons
Medieval Castles and Defensive Architecture
Medieval Warfare
Training to Be a Knight
Medieval Tournaments, Jousting, etc.
Feasting, Games, and Pastimes
Monastic Life in the Middle Ages
The Holy Grail and Grail Quests
2. Celibacy and the Superhero
Read the following article, Spider-Man’s Vow of Celibacy from Slate magazine. Then, based on what you learned in the article about celibacy and the superhero, use the recommended online resources below to choose a male superhero who has benefitted from abstaining from marriage and all that girlfriend romance.
PART 1 -- Superhero: Based on what you learn about the comic book superhero you choose, do the following for your LRJ entry:
1. Write a brief biography of the character – What special powers do he have? How does he use them? Who are his close friends, if any? Who are his enemies? Did he ever die a fictional death? If so, how?
2. Write a paragraph about how the superhero has exemplified at least three ideals identified in the Codes of Chivalry above or in your own Man of Moeller Code of Conduct.
3. Imagine that your character gets a love interest, becomes romantically involved, and then marries. How will his superherodom change? How might he now act differently?
PART 2 – Supervillain: For the second part of this entry, find a comic book supervillain of your choice and do the following for your LRJ entry:
1. Write a brief biography of the character -- – What special powers do he have? How does he use them? Who are his close friends, if any? Who are his enemies? Did he ever die a fictional death? If so, how?
2. Write a paragraph about how your supervillain has transgressed (broken) at least three ideals identified in the Codes of Chivalry above or in your own Man of Moeller Code of Conduct.
Recommended resources to find a superhero and supervillain character:
· Wikipedia’s List of Male Superheroes
· Wikipedia’s List of Comic Book Supervillains
· Comic Vine’s List of Superheroes & Villains
· Top Comic Book Villains of All Time
These resources will provide you with a good starting point and may provide everything you need to write your LRJ entry. If you need more information after you choose a character, do a google.com search on that character. But first, read the following article:
Spider-Man’s Vow of Celibacy
By Chris Suellentrop
Slate, June 4, 2002
Spoiler alert: This article gives away plot points of Spider-Man and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
"This story, like any story worth telling, is about a girl," Peter Parker intones in the opening line of the summer's blockbuster hit Spider-Man. Except it's not about a girl. At the film's end, Spider-Man wins the girl, as we've come to expect of our movie heroes, but instead of embracing her, he spurns her love. Spider-Man turns out to be a coming-of-age story about a boy who decides that his moral responsibility to the world at large is too great to allow himself the selfish, singular attachment of romance.
Which sounds a lot like what Roman Catholic priests do. Or are supposed to do, anyway. Many critics have pointed out that Spider-Man unfortunately reminds viewers of the World Trade Center disaster. But the movie also speaks, quite eloquently, to the debate over celibacy in the Catholic Church. By the end of the movie, viewers learn that Spider-Man is celibate, and his superherodom is a calling, a voluntary priesthood.
The vow of celibacy in Spider-Man isn't overt. The movie implies that Parker/Spider-Man's decision to rebuff M. J. is made out of a concern for her safety, because Spider-Man's enemies will seek to harm those whom Spider-Man loves. But Parker never considers the alternative: He could abandon being Spider-Man and live a life of normalcy with M.J. No one would be the wiser, and as an added bonus, Parker's roommate, Harry Osborn, wouldn't have to deliver on his vow to avenge his father's death— because Spider-Man would have mysteriously disappeared. (This decision would of course ruin the potential for sequels.) Instead, Parker/Spider-Man tells M.J. that friendship "is all I have to give." Because "with great power comes great responsibility," Spider-Man must be wedded to the world. He can't walk away from the moral obligations his powers impose on him.
And it's not just Spider-Man. Hardly any movie superheroes get laid, for similar reasons. In the summer's other big movie so far, Attack of the Clones, we learn that Jedi (the superheroes for young boys born in the past 30 years or so) are bound by formal vows of celibacy. Anakin Skywalker's decision to break his vow and get busy with Padmé Amidala is one of the acts that leads to the downfall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire and Darth Vader. And in Superman II, Clark Kent/Superman initially makes the same decision that Spidey rejected: He explicitly renounces his superhero powers in order to settle down to an ordinary life with Lois Lane. But by the end of the movie he's realized that the obligations of Superman are too important. He reclaims his powers, defeats General Zod and company, and returns to his lonely, solitary superhero existence.
Who'da thunk it? Hollywood takes celibacy more seriously than most members of the elite Eastern media, whose by-and-large reaction to the church's pedophilia scandal has been to opportunistically attack a celibacy doctrine they see as outdated and nonsensical. It's startling to see putatively liberal moviemakers portray celibacy as a noble, selfless, even rational endeavor.
3. Heroes, Holiness, and Mystical Phenomena
This LRJ entry will be similar to the previous one except now you will be researching real-life “superheroes” with “super-powers.” These men and women are actually called saints instead of superheroes and their superpowers are called mystical phenomena by which they work miracles. Read the following article, “Heroes, Holiness & Mystical Phenomena,” and then research one of the saints mentioned in the article and do the following for your LRJ entry:
1. Write a brief biography of the saint – What mystical phenomena did he/she possess? What miracles did he/she work during his/her lifetime? What “good” did those miracles do for others (the poor, the Church, sinners, etc.)
2. Write a paragraph about how the saint exemplified at least three ideals identified in the Codes of Chivalry above or in your own Man of Moeller Code of Conduct. What is the connection to “holiness” or leading a holy life?
3. Write a response to learning about the life of this miracle-working saint. Did you know that such men and women existed? Do you wonder if there might be some among us who are holy enough to be blessed with mystical phenomena and work miracles? Any other thoughts?
As always, read the article first. Note the many hot-linked items in the article. Some of them may provide excellent resources for you.
Heroes, Holiness & Mystical Phenomena
From 4Marks Magazine, June 1, 2007
Recently, NBC wrapped up its first season of an interesting television series called Heroes . For those who haven’t seen it --and you should see it--the show centers around a group of people who discover they have special abilities beyond the ordinary, including superhuman powers like telepathy, time travel, flight, invisibility, the ability to walk through walls, to heal, and to paint the future, among others. These “superheroes,” one by one, come to realize that they each have a particular role to play in preventing a catastrophe and “saving the world.” It is science fiction, to be sure. But this concept is not without precedence in the real world throughout history. The Catholic Church has had its own “heroes” – like the Curé d’Ars, Padre Pio, Joseph of Cupertino and Mother Teresa of Calcutta--who were, at least through parts of their lives, blessed with “supernatural powers.” The Church calls these powers “mystical phenomena,” and those saints who have wielded these inexplicable powers understood their role in advancing the kingdom of God.
Though the modern world is fascinated by the idea of men and women possessing unique superhuman powers, as evidenced by the huge success of Heroes and movies like Spiderman and Unbreakable , the modern world has little room to accommodate the idea of mystical phenomena, especially in connection with religious concepts like evil and holiness, blessings and curses. Even in a time when belief in UFOs, Elvis sightings, and nighttime gnomes is on the increase, most people remain highly skeptical of any claims of mystical phenomena in the lives of the saints. They believe these claims are in the realm of legend, even though numerous examples of mystical phenomenon have been studied and examined by modern scientific methods.
It is instructive to note that the Catholic Church has always approached claims of mystical phenomena with a healthy dose of skepticism. By design, Church officials throughout history have not accepted at face value any phenomenon which purports to be from God. The Church carefully weighs all the circumstances, evidence and personalities of those connected with the phenomenon to determine whether or not there is any possibility of either a natural explanation or a psychological explanation such as hysteria, schizophrenia, or some other form of insanity. The Church also attempts to determine whether or not there is the possibility of fraud or demonic activity, both of which are not uncommon.
If, after all, the facts and evidence of a particular mystical phenomenon lend themselves to God’s supernatural intervention, then the Church will accept a particular phenomenon as having no other explanation than the supernatural. In many cases, especially with phenomena that are specifically connected with manifestations of holiness, the Church waits until after the person dies to determine that the phenomena associated with them were truly manifestations of their heroic virtue and holiness. Then and only then will the Church confirm that a particular phenomenon, even when witnessed by hundreds of people, was truly from God.
Here are just a few examples of the mystical phenomena exhibited by the saints throughout the ages:
Levitation & Ecstatic Flights
The suspension of the human body in the air without aid of outside physical forces is known as levitation. There are many accounts of the saints being lifted up during prayer or during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This has been witnessed by hundreds of people at a time. One of the most famous cases of a saint levitating is that of St. Joseph of Cupertino (d. 1663), an Italian Franciscan Friar who seemed to fly all over the place. He would rise not rise just a few inches but would actually be suspended in the air 18 to 35 feet and remain suspended in this ecstatic manner for fifteen minutes to as long as six hours at a time. Because of his many flights of ecstatic levitations, St. Joseph is the patron of airplane passengers. St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1228), St Gerard Majella (d. 1755), St. Paul of the Cross (d. 1775), St. Alphonsus Liguori (d. 1787), and St. Gemma Galgani (d. 1903) are some other saints who are recognized as having experienced levitation and ecstatic flights.
Bilocation
All will agree that “being in two places at once” is physically impossible. That’s what makes bilocation another mystical phenomena that has been granted to certain saints. This is one of the many gifts attributed to St. Padre Pio (d. 1968), and is corroborated by witnesses all over the world. Among the most remarkable incidents was Padre Pio’s appearance in the air over the city San Giovanni Rotondo during World War II. As American bombers were preparing unload their munitions on the Nazi-occupied city, Padre Pio appeared before their aircraft, and attempts to drop the bombs failed. Mother Maria of Agreda (d. 1665) also experienced bilocation. In 1630, without leaving her convent in Spain, she miraculous appeared repeatedly in Texas and Mexico where she catechized the Jumanos Indians, so that they had already converted to Christianity when the Spanish explorers arrived. Other bilocating saints include Catherine de' Ricci (d. 1590), Saint John Boasco (d. 1888), and St. Anthony of Padua (d. 1231).
Smelling the stench of sin
One of the more unusual gifts of mystical phenomena is the ability to smell the stench of sin when coming into contact with someone in the state of mortal sin. It can be a very terrible thing which in some cases has caused not only uncontrollable vomiting by the saint but even passing out because the stench is so overwhelming to him. St. Philip Neri (d. 1595) was known for this ability and its side-effects. In his Life of Hilarton , St. Jerome says that St. Hilarion had the gift of knowing what sins or vices anyone was inclined to by simply smelling either the person or his garments.
The odor of sanctity
It has been reported in many cases, especially of those who have been given the stigmata, that an overwhelmingly beautiful and “heavenly” perfume seems to exude from the bodies of some saints, both living and dead. Often described like roses or delicate flowers, it seems to permeate everything around them. This happened quite frequently with St. Theresa of Avila. Her body threw off this scent even after her death in 1582. When her body was exhumed during the canonization process the odor of perfume coming from her incorrupt body was so strong that it permeated the room and everything in it for three days. Other saints whose incorrupt bodies still (long after death) emit the odor of sanctity include St. Rose of Lima (d. 1617), St. Camillus De Lellis (d. 1614), and St. Mary Magdalen De Pazzi (d. 1607).