Scandal has rocked Lent Madness! People have accused the Supreme Executive Committee of being nothing more than hucksters. To prove them wrong, Scott and Tim remind everyone that you can download a FREEfull-color bracket any time. You can also add fancy Lent Madness widgets to your website for NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. With NO PERFORMANCE LICENSING FEES you can gather the whole family around the computer and binge-watch Monday Madness. And of course, more important, participating and voting in Lent Madness can be done by anyone for FREE.*
Isn't the SEC remarkably generous? We thought you'd agree. But generosity is not limited to free stuff. Those of you who procrastinated buying your giant poster-sized Lent Madness brackets are in luck! Forward Movement is running a Procrastinator's Special. By using code PS16 during checkout, you can get as many bracket posters as you want (while supplies last) for just seven bucks.
This week, the Supreme Executive Committee brings its missionary endeavours for the cause of Lent Madness to the shores of Merry Olde England. Watch Scott deftly dodge double-decker buses, whilst Tim works wonders under the withering gaze of oil paintings. Hear about the opening day of Celebrity Blogger Week. And learn why Westminster Abbey will be known to the ages for Lent Madness, not just as the wedding chapel for the royal family. Given more time, the SEC contemplates adding a good deal more purple to London.
Make sure you get your Saintly Scorecards and giant bracket posters before they're out of stock. Supplies are limited for both items! You're going to want them, because both the scorecards and bracket posters are printed in full colour.
In this week's installment of Monday Madness, Scott and Tim discuss the start of Celebrity Blogger Week. They also encourage every website on the entire internet to add a Lent Madness widget, whilst explaining how you can get tattoos directly from your computer screen. Last, but not least, there's a shout out to everyone's favorite shopping destination, the Lentorium.
Since you've already liked Lent Madness on Facebook, make sure you invite your friends to join us on Facebook too. Those of you who are on Twitter will doubtless want to keep a close eye on @LentMadness, as well as @FatherTim and @ScottAGunn.
Following an exciting Celebrity Blogger Week (okay, we use the word "week" loosely -- it was 10 days), today is SEC Day. Think Presidents Day but without the car sales. As everyone knows the self-appointed (anointed?) Supreme Executive Committee of Lent Madness comprises Scott Gunn and Tim Schenck.
What exactly are the SEC's responsibilities? In addition to drinking herculean amounts of coffee throughout Lent (oh, who are we kidding? -- we do that all year), we oversee every detail to insure Lent Madness doesn't go off the rails and plunge into the Lenten wilderness. In addition to our Emmy Award-worthy-if-not-winning Monday Madness videos this includes the recruitment and cajoling of Celebrity Bloggers (the backbone of the whole operation); using a ouija board to determine which saints will be included in the bracket; moderating lots of comments; zapping any evidence of voter fraud; autographing copies of the Saintly Scorecard; managing the social media presence; hawking mugs and brackets; and generally living a Supreme lifestyle.
It's a lot of work but it's all for the love of God and the Lent Madness faithful. For two priests who both consider the other one his archnemesis (think Spy vs. Spy), it only works because they give up their rivalry for forty days and forty nights. Easter season is another matter entirely.
So who exactly are Tim and Scott? Thanks for asking and enjoy their bios.
The Rev. Scott Gunn is an Episcopal priest and self-confessed technophile. He serves as the Executive Director of Forward Movement in Cincinnati, OH, whose historic mission is “to reinvigorate the life of the church.” Scott also serves in the inner sanctum of churchgeekery as a Deputy to General Convention, which will raise or lower his “street cred” depending on your perspective. Though Scott is happily married and the proud owner a dog named George (named after the first winner of the Golden Halo), he will never, ever have ferrets at home. His blog is Seven whole days, where you’ll read church rants and raves, thoughts about technology, and random musings. You can find him on Facebook,Twitter, flickr, or LinkedIn. His dog George is on Twitter at @GeorgeTDog.
We hope you enjoy Lent Madness 2014, learn a lot about some amazing people, and grow closer to Jesus. And if you don't? Scott and Tim each blame the other one.
Unrelated, but important note: make sure you watch the Quinquagesima video update from Archbishops Thomas Cranmer and John Chrysostom. With lens flare!
This week, Scott and Tim welcome the first-ever featured guest to Monday Madness. The Rev. Nancy Frausto joins from Los Angeles, CA to talk about how one parish is using Lent Madness (Locura de Cuaresma) in her bilingual congregation of Trinity Melrose, Los Angeles. Tune in to see which saint this ECF Fellow plans to cheer for in the race to the Golden Halo.
To get the resources she has created, you can email Nancy Frausto directly at the email address shown in the video. She'll be glad to email you her Spanish/English materials. Meanwhile, here's a photo of happy folk studying their Lent Madness materials -- a well-prepared congregation!
You can also visit the Lentorium to stock up on Saintly Scorecards or Lent Madness bracket posters. Don't worry if it says we're sold out of Saintly Scorecards. We've got more on the way, and you'll have yours in time for Lent.
While you're in the mood for Lent Madness television, don't forget to tune into LentMadnessTV on Youtube.
One more thing. Celebrity Blogger Week starts tomorrow! Are you ready to be dazzled by our stellar array of Celebrity Bloggers, video blogger, and Bracket Czar?
Welcome to the fourth and final Play-In match of Lent Madness 2013. In the previous Play-Ins, Gregory the Great defeated Gregory of Nyssa; Thomas Tallis beat John Merbecke; and Samuel Seabury sent George Berkeley to the showers.
Today we have the Great Poetry Slam between John Donne and T.S. Eliot with the winner heading to the official bracket to face Agnes of Rome in the First Round. The loser will, presumably, sit in solitude and write self-loathing verses of poetry.
With the conclusion of today's match-up, the 32-saint 2013 Lent Madness bracket will be complete. On Monday morning, we'll return to Celebrity Blogger Week (which is rapidly turning into Celebrity Blogger Week-and-a-Half).
Don't forget Lent Madness 2013 officially kicks off on "Ash Thursday," February 14th, with a First Round match-up between Jonathan Daniels and Macrina the Younger. If you're looking to organize Lent Madness at your parish, click here for tips on how to do so. If you'd like to know when your favorite saint is set to do battle make sure to check out the Calendar of Match-Ups. And, finally, don't forget to "like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See you in Lent!
John Donne
10. Was the first Anglican hipster. He attended both Oxford and Cambridge and the Lincoln Inn (where lawyers trained in Elizabethan England), and managed not to get any academic degrees. He traveled to Europe, especially Spain, and partied and wrote poetry. He womanized, danced with ladies in courts all over Europe, lived off the wealth of patrons, and wrote poetry. He became spiritual but not religious...and wrote poetry. His poetry was ground-breaking to literature of the day with its twisted and distorted images and ideas that connected seemingly unrelated things together like a flea and sex. Without Donne, T.S. Eliot would have had no foundation to begin writing his poetry.
9. He eventually fell backwards into a real job by landing a gig as the private secretary to one of the highest officials in the queen’s court. His intelligence and charm opened doors, and he even scored a seat in Elizabeth’s last Parliament. Then he ruined it all for love. Yes, ladies, swoon-like-a-Jane-Austen-novel love. He secretly married Ann More, and her father and John’s employer totally opposed the match (I mean, Donne wasn’t exactly Mr. Elizabethan England Bachelor of the Year). Yet they married. Donne got sacked and landed in prison...along with the priest who married them (for LOVE - remember this!). He was eventually released from prison, and he and Ann had twelve children and were by all accounts happily married until her death.
8. He wrote - let’s just say it - sleazy, erotic, classy poetry that we read in English classed to this day. His poems covered topics like trying to have sex with every girl in sight to exploring his lover’s body as an explorer discovers part of America. And don’t forget The Flea, where he tries to convince his girlfriend to have sex with him. He rarely had these poems published, but allowed them to be widely circulated among his friends and patrons of his poetry. And, we assume, some of his lady friends.
7. And he wrote poems that spoke to the complexities of human nature and faith...that we read in English classes and hear in church sermons to this day. He gave English language the phrase, “No man is an island,” Hemingway is eternally grateful for Donne’s, “For whom the bell tolls” line, and “Death be not proud,” with its in-your-face elegance, gives fullness to the lines of the Burial Rite: "And even at the grave, we make our song. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!"
6. He was a satirist, which means he was really snarky, but had huge audiences. In his satirical essays, he called out corrupt government and church practices, absurdities in certain faith beliefs (he was one of the early people to argue suicide was not a mortal sin), bad poets, and pompous courtiers. He blasted those who blindly followed established religious tradition without carefully examining one’s beliefs and questioning. He writes (translated into modern English), “You won’t be saved on the Day of Judgement by saying Harry or Martin told you to believe this. God wants to know what YOU thought and believed.”
5. King James wanted him to become a priest so badly that he declared to all of England that Donne could not be hired except in the church. Seriously. So he was ordained in 1615 and soon became known as a great preacher in an age of great preachers, in an era of the Anglican church when preaching was a form of spiritual devotion, an intellectual exercise, and dramatic entertainment. I bet no one looked at his iPhone to check the time when Donne was throwing down the Gospel at St. Paul’s Cross.
4. He was eventually named Dean of St. Paul’s, the big time of the big time. He preached his own funeral sermon right before he died. Funeral. Preaching. Owned.
3. Just in case anyone had any ideas about how he should be remembered, he arranged a final portrait of himself not in pompous glory, but in his burial shroud. Yes, a bit creepy, but he walked the walk and saw the beauty in death. Because guess what? Donne believed with every bit of his soul that the Resurrection wasn’t just a story, but it was Truth. His statue survived the 1666 fire at St. Paul’s and still watches over the place. Just in case any subsequent Deans think they are all that.
2. He wrote this:
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’s thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
1. And this
The Flea
Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is;
Me it sucked first, and now sucks thee,
And in this fela our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know’st that this cannot be said
A sin, or shame, or loss of maidenhead,
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.
Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, nay more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, we are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me
Let not to that, self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which is sucked from thee?
Yet thou triumph’st, and say’st that thou
Find’st not thy self nor me the weaker now;
‘Tis true; then learn how false fears be:
Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,
Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.
John Donne was the first Rev. Dirty Sexy Ministry, and Dean of St. Paul’s. And he lived it loud and proud.
10. T.S. Eliot (9/26/1888 - 1/4/1965) was a poet, playwright, literary critic, and editor. Like many of his generation, he was profoundly affected by World War I but he also became a convert to Anglicanism, to the surprise of literary friends and colleagues, resulting in his writing poetry and plays featuring distinctly Christian ideas set alongside themes of desolation and disconnection. He sought to explore traditional Christian themes while using modern forms and rhythms, speaking to and for a generation that had seen devastation like no other before it. The traditional meets the modern in Eliot’s works in which he models the maxim that the church must reinterpret scripture and doctrine for every generation.
9. Among his poems are "The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock," "The Waste Land," "The Hollow Men," "Ash Wednesday," "Four Quartets," and "The Journey of the Magi;" most famous among his plays is "Murder in the Cathedral" (the story of the martyrdom of Thomas a Becket at Canterbury written entirely in verse).
8. He won the Nobel Price in Literature in 1948 for his “outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry.” Prior to Eliot’s acceptance speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, Gustaf Hellstrom of the Swedish Academy said of him, “As a poet you have, Mr. Eliot, for decades, exercised a greater influence on your contemporaries and younger fellow writers than perhaps anyone else of our time.”
7. Eliot’s collection of poems about the psychology and social habits of kitties - Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats - was the basis for the long running Broadway musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber featuring Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat, Mr. Mistoffelees, Old Deuteronomy, and (Aspara)Gus the Theater Cat, et al. Sadly, the SEC says there are no cat videos at Lent Madness, or I’d link to one.
6. For all you coffee lovers out there, he included this famous line in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons....” No doubt into his Lent Madness coffee mug, had he owned one.
5. More seriously, Eliot is considered a “supreme interpreter of mediated experience.” He himself said, “A poet must take as his material his own language as it is actually spoken around him.” A fine example comes from The Wasteland (Part I. Burial of the Dead): “I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
4. And who among us does not love the ending of the The Journey of the Magi:
“We returned to our places, these
Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old
dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their
gods.
I should be glad of another death.”
3. Eliot considered The Four Quartets to be his best work, and each of the quartets to be better than the one before. Ponder these lines from Four Quartets 4: Little Gidding
“We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
....
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
2. Read again Eliot’s brilliant, sexy, and oft-quoted ending from The Hollow Men:
“Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
1. And finally, heed Eliot’s words from his play Murder in the Cathedral that explain why Sir Anthony Strallan should not marry Lady Edith - I mean, that explain why you should vote for Eliot to join the 2013 Lent Madness bracket of saints:
This week, Scott and Tim talk about Celebrity Blogger Week, as well as all the Lent Madness stuff you should go out and buy. Hint: start your collection with a poster-sized Lent Madness 2013 Bracket. Poster-sized brackets are at the printer now and will ship in time for Lent, if you order now! Then check back here for news about the ebook everyone's talking about, Calendar of Saints: Lent Madness 2013 Ultra-Revised Edition. Oh, and don't forget about Lent Madness 2013 mugs, which are going to be shipping soon.
More videos are available at the Vimeo Lent Madness Channel. Watch us instead of Downton Abbey and avoid all that overwrought Edwardian melodrama. Or Georgian melodrama. Whatever. We can't be bothered to care.
For one full week, the Supreme Executive Committee will be accepting nominations for Lent Madness 2023. The nominating period will remain open through Monday, May 16, at which point this brief exercise in Lenten democracy will cease and the SEC will return to their regularly scheduled benevolently authoritarian ways.
Nominationtide, the most underrated of liturgical seasons, never begins at the same time other than the vague "sometime after Easter Day." This is partly because Tim and Scott have day jobs and partly because "whim" is one of their ecclesiastical charisms. But it's here! And the world rejoices!
To insure your SUCCESSFUL nomination, please note the Nominationtide Rules & Regulations, which reside in an ancient illuminated manuscript tended to by aged monks who have been set aside by saints and angels for this holy calling.
The nominee must, in fact, be dead.
The nominee must be on the official calendar of saintly commemorations of some church.
We will accept only one nomination per person.
You must tell us WHY you are nominating your saint.
The ONLY way to nominate a saint will be to leave a comment on this post.
That means comments left on Facebook, Twitter, attached to a brick and thrown through the window at Forward Movement headquarters, or placed on giant placards outside the residences of Tim or Scott don’t count.
As you discern saints to nominate, please keep in mind that a number of saints are ineligible for next year’s Saintly Smackdown. Based on longstanding tradition, this includes the entire field of Lent Madness 2022, those saints who made it to the Round of the Elate Eight in 2021 and 2020, and those from the 2019 Faithful Four.
Needless to say Jesus, Mary, Tim, Scott, past or present Celebrity Bloggers, and previous Golden Halo Winners are also ineligible. Below is a comprehensive list of ineligible saints. Please keep this in mind as you submit your nominations. Do not waste your precious nomination on an ineligible saint!
For the sake of "transparency," the rest of the process unfolds thusly: Tim and Scott will gather for the annual Spring SEC Retreat at a secure, undisclosed location/coffee shop to consider the nominations and create a full, fun, faithful, and balanced bracket of 32 saints. Then all will be revealed on All Brackets' Day, November 3rd. Or at least, "that's the ways we've always done it."
Time to nominate your favorite saint! But first, look over this list.
The Saints of Lent Madness 2022 (ineligible)
Stephen
Wenceslaus
Teresa of Avila
Crispin
Perpetua
Cecelia
Juliana of Liege
Blaise
Juana Inés de la Cruz
Gabriel the Archangel
Origen
Hilda of Whitby
Columbanos
Drogo
Mesrop Mashtots
Madeline Sophie Barat
Melania the Elder
Hilary of Poitiers
Aloysius Gonzaga
Thomas of Villanova
Felix of Burgundy
Oscar of Ansgar
Thomas Aquinas
Jerome
Emma of Hawaii
Hugh of Lincoln
José Gregorio Hernández
Constance of Memphis
James Holly
Lydia
Olaf
Kateri Tekakwitha
Past Golden Halo Winners (ineligible)
George Herbert, C.S. Lewis, Mary Magdalene, Frances Perkins, Charles Wesley, Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Florence Nightingale, Anna Alexander, Martha of Bethany, Harriet Tubman, Absalom Jones, José Hernández
From 2019 to 2021 (ineligible)
Gobnait
Zenaida
Pandita Ramabai
Herman of Alaska
Hildegard of Bingen
Elizabeth Fry
Joseph
Camillus de Lellis
Benedict the Moor
Ives of Kermartin
Albert the Great
Theodore the Empress
Catherine Booth
As you contemplate your (single!) nomination, why not aid your reflection and sharpen your focus with a hot mug of your favorite beverage? The most effective way to do this, of course, is by reverently sipping out of a Lent Madness mug from the Lentorium. We assume you’ve already ordered your José Hernández 2022 Golden Halo winner mug, but if not, here’s the link.
The end (of Lent Madness 2022) is near! It's hard to believe we kicked things off over five weeks ago on “Ash Thursday” with 32 saintly souls. With your help, the field has been whittled down to just two: Teresa of Avila and José Hernández. Who will receive the coveted 2022 Golden Halo? That, friends, is up to you.
Regardless of the ultimate outcome, we’ve met some truly remarkable holy people along the way. Perhaps you learned about some folks you’d never heard of before or maybe you renewed acquaintances with saints who have long offered inspiration. Of course the entire notion of placing saints in a bracket is absurd — each “contestant” has already earned a crown of righteousness in addition to a “golden halo.” But at the heart of Lent Madness is the abiding conviction that encountering those who have come before us in the faith enriches and enlivens our own walk with the risen Christ.
In the process of this whimsical Lenten devotion we’ve all made some new online friends, encountered a community of believers who take their faith but not themselves too seriously, learned some things, were inspired by saintly witnesses, and hopefully had some fun along the way.
Of course we literally couldn’t have done this without our amazing Celebrity Bloggers to whom we offer sincere gratitude: Amber Belldene, Laurie Brock, Megan Castellan, Anna Fitch Courie, David Creech, Neva Rae Fox, David Hansen, Miriam McKenney, Emily McFarlan Miller, David Sibley, and Eva Suarez. Thanks to Bracket Czar Adam Thomas for his stellar behind-the-scenes work in keeping the bracket updated daily. You all rock!
Thank you to Richelle Thompson and everyone at Forward Movement for putting up with our shenanigans and producing a terrific Saintly Scorecard this year. Special gratitude goes to Ashley Graham-Wilcox for helping get words and images into the website each day.
Finally, thanks to all of you who participated by voting, commenting, drinking coffee out of Lent Madness mugs, filling in brackets, talking about saints with friends, liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter, and allowing us to play a small role in your Lenten journey. We’ve loved having each one of you along for the “madness” and on behalf of the Supreme Executive Committee we wish you a blessed Holy Week and a joyous Easter.
Before we invite you to cast this final vote, we should note that Neva Rae Fox has ably shepherded Teresa of Avila through the bracket, while Eva Suarez has done the same for José Hernández. We’ve asked them for a single image and one quote either by or about their saint. We’ve already heard a lot about Teresa and José, so now it's time to make your final choice.
The polls will be open for 24 hours and the winner will be announced at 8:00 am Eastern time on Maundy Thursday. Now go cast your vote — the 2022 Lent Madness Golden Halo hangs in the balance!
The frenetic pace of Lent Madness continues with the arrival of the Faithful Four! Which of these four amazing saints will win the Golden Halo? Only time -- and your votes -- will tell. Tim and Scott are here with a look at the Faithful Four and the next few days of Monday Madness. The end is nearly upon us and we're anticipating a high energy saintly crescendo.
Besides learning the real names of the first few days of Holy Week, this episode features gratitude to our illustrious company of Celebrity Bloggers and all the others who work hard to make Lent Madness a huge global phenomenon (for a Lenten devotion).
Scandal has rocked Lent Madness! People have accused the Supreme Executive Committee of being nothing more than hucksters. To prove them wrong, Scott and Tim remind everyone that you can download a FREE full-color bracket any time. You can also add fancy Lent Madness widgets to your website for NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. With NO PERFORMANCE LICENSING FEES you can gather the whole family around the computer and binge-watch Monday Madness. And of course, more important, participating and voting in Lent Madness can be done by anyone for FREE.*
This week, the 
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