The Bethlehem Star
The Bethlehem Star is a 50-page e-magazine of historical fiction for the month of Jesus’ birth, a one-time-only publication of Scripture on Stage of Livonia, Michigan, with fictional 1st century Jewish reporters covering all the various Nativity stories from the Infancy Narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, with a bunch of extra stories, sports, weather, letters to our readers, etc. to enhance the experience of immersion in the events and people of this time. It is written by John Dzwonkowski, M.A. Theology, former 9-year (college & grad school) seminarian with The Maryknoll Fathers of New York, retired Director of Religious Education for his own St. Priscilla Catholic Parish, and current Master Catechist with the Archdiocese of Detroit. John is also a Catholic playwright, having written, produced, and directed 25+ plays, primarily exploring the great variety of emotions, challenges, struggles, conflicts, and joys surrounding the ministry of Jesus, but especially the events of his birth, and then of his passion, death, and resurrection. John is also the co-founder of St. Priscilla's Movie & Drama Ministry; as well as his own theatrical venture of 30 years so far, Scripture on Stage; through which he performs live 60 and 90-minute theatrical productions of An Evening with Simon Peter, An Evening with St. Joseph, and Peter & Magdalen ...on Jesus, all for solely a Free Will Offering to various parishes throughout the Detroit Archdiocese, complete with myriad emotion-charged music, stage lighting, multiple props, and even a 14' tall Roman crucifix that is used by Peter to demonstrate how this was done by the Romans. John has also published through his Scripture on Stage a comparable fictional e-mag of 58 pages, The Jerusalem Star, supposedly published in Jerusalem of the 1st century on the Sunday evening of Jesus' resurrection. Here we again have a variety of fictional 1st century Jewish reporters covering the various events of Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection, but from their close-up point of view.
The Bethlehem Star is a 50-page e-magazine of historical fiction for the month of Jesus’ birth, a one-time-only publication of Scripture on Stage of Livonia, Michigan, with fictional 1st century Jewish reporters covering all the various Nativity stories from the Infancy Narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, with a bunch of extra stories, sports, weather, letters to our readers, etc. to enhance the experience of immersion in the events and people of this time.
It is written by John Dzwonkowski, M.A. Theology, former 9-year (college & grad school) seminarian with The Maryknoll Fathers of New York, retired Director of Religious Education for his own St. Priscilla Catholic Parish, and current Master Catechist with the Archdiocese of Detroit. John is also a Catholic playwright, having written, produced, and directed 25+ plays, primarily exploring the great variety of emotions, challenges, struggles, conflicts, and joys surrounding the ministry of Jesus, but especially the events of his birth, and then of his passion, death, and resurrection.
John is also the co-founder of St. Priscilla's Movie & Drama Ministry; as well as his own theatrical venture of 30 years so far, Scripture on Stage; through which he performs live 60 and 90-minute theatrical productions of An Evening with Simon Peter, An Evening with St. Joseph, and Peter & Magdalen ...on Jesus, all for solely a Free Will Offering to various parishes throughout the Detroit Archdiocese, complete with myriad emotion-charged music, stage lighting, multiple props, and even a 14' tall Roman crucifix that is used by Peter to demonstrate how this was done by the Romans.
John has also published through his Scripture on Stage a comparable fictional e-mag of 58 pages, The Jerusalem Star, supposedly published in Jerusalem of the 1st century on the Sunday evening of Jesus' resurrection. Here we again have a variety of fictional 1st century Jewish reporters covering the various events of Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection, but from their close-up point of view.
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The Bethlehem Star
Pg. XXX
SPORTS
Gladiator Champions
in Jerusalem Showdown Today!
Brutus Magnus Recovered and Ready!
by visiting sportswriter Demetrius Finniculi
We all saw him last
year at the Gladiatus
Maniacus “Festival of
the Hippo” marathon
matches— Brutus
Magnus, or “Big Brute,”
as he’s often called in
foreign circles! And
what a show he gave us!
Thrown into the
arena with only his
walking sword—no
shield—and facing no
less than III half-crazed
hippopotami—“animali
gigundi”—from the Nile
Valley, Brutus fearlessly
jumped astride the first—
backwards no less—and swiftly struck him in the behind
with the force of a mighty blow. As the great beast rolled
to the ground, however, our hero slid helplessly beneath
him, where his left leg was snapped in two and crushed in
an instant under the II-ton behemoth.
How could anyone ever forget our anguish at the
sight?
He didn’t give up, though, did he? Not our hero.
Instead, he jumped up on his right leg alone, cleverly
hopping left
and right, his
half-sword
raised and at
the ready, just as the other two hippos made
their ferocious charge. As the first opened his
enormous mouth to swallow him whole, Brutus
immediately hopped to the side and cleverly
inserted his sword straight up into the beast’s
open mouth, handle on the animal’s tongue, and
tip of blade firm against the roof of the animal’s
mouth, instantly preventing the creature from
closing on anything at all. It stopped dead in its
tracks, mouth agape, but then swung its huge
head hard at Magnus, who was sent flying right
into the waiting jaws of the third hippo, who
immediately bit down hard on Magnus’s other
leg, chomping it off at the hip. Luckily, our hero
rolled free, to the uproarious cheers of the
crowd!
One of the many
gladiatorial fighting
hippos brought out weekly
in the hippodrome
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